Digging an inch of his nail into Nabe's skin, the decaying new god of the world stripped her of her power. Every level, even skill, and even the obscure spells of magic were sucked right out by Haruki's newfound strength. No longer did he only copy the abilities of others, now he could even plunder it all for himself from the original owner.
"Rejuvenation…" Once done stripping her power, Haruki began healing her corrupted mind.
Strapped to a metal chair, Nabe's mouth hung lazily open with constant drooling dripping down her mouth. The poison potions had squandered conscious thought in her mind, and her body was just as withered as her brain. However, as Haruki's spell slowly took effect, her bark-like skin was restored to its health.
Then came the restoration of her body, and eventually her mind. At the end of the procedure, she sat there in the chair holding her hand pressed against her aching head. Flicking her head with his finger, Haruki shot yet another concentrated burst of mana that melted into her skin.
'Slave status acquired!' Hearing the sudden announcement in her head, Nabe's eyes widened in horror. Raising her head with a jolt, she looked at Haruki with a mix of shock and fear in her eyes.
"What did you do?!" She asked, yelling.
"I found another way to make slaves, and this time my death won't set you free as you're bound directly to my soul," conjuring a leash in his hand, Haruki pulled onto the translucent pink collar coiled around Nabe's neck. "Now…Why don't you start by telling me what led you to visit my companions in Hestemia?"
Tugging on the leash, Haruki wore a sinister smile. With no visible way of escaping, and her mind urging her to give in to his commands, it didn't take long for Nabe to confess everything that she'd seen in the emperor's castle before she left.
"About Dominion, I know what happened to him so I don't need you to tell me, but then, you mean to tell me, you have no clue about the other two's whereabouts?" After hearing everything she had to say, Haruki was still suspicious about her loyalty, after all, it wouldn't be the first time she'd tried to manipulate him.
"I'm telling you the truth…" Panting because of the pain coursing through her head, Nabe kept her head lowered and her hands pressed against her forehead. "I-I can't lie to you as a slave, can I now?"
Finishing her sentence, she kept wheezing and grunting, fighting the remnant effects of the purged poison. Watching her suffer, Haruki couldn't imagine her lying in the condition she was in, especially when memories of her torture were restored along with her body as well.
"Rest now, you'll need it," with that, Haruki turned around and left the grizzly torture room in the dungeon.
On his way to the same dungeon room where he held Dominion, Haruki was about to meet up with the goblin queen as well as Arachne queen, both of whom had already been turned into demonic beings. Unlike the other demons, however, Haruki had made use of Asmodia's powers to turn them into part succubus without any sexual means.
It wasn't that he didn't find them attractive or wanted not to lay in bed beside them, but the very possibility of lethally poisoning them was too much to risk for something that could easily be dealt with another way.
'The poison will affect Nabe for the rest of her life, I can't risk getting others infected or things would get ugly real quick.' Wandering through his thoughts, he didn't realize where he was walking to and ran into someone that refused to get out of his way.
"Are you done throwing a tantrum?" Her face falling apart with burns, Asmodia stood before him vesseling inside a corroding clone that Haruki had forced her in. "This thing will die off soon, I need to get back into your body!"
"Ughhh, fine, but only if you keep your mouth shut for once!" Sucking her soul back into his body, he made the clone disappear and walked further toward his destination.
'I'll try.' Asmodia replied to his previous question, after fighting the urge to scream at him.
As the day ventured on, the lord of lust attended to the experiment on the delirious Dominion along with all the other responsibilities that he was burdened with. The progress of the colonies has been brisk, with even the humans getting to work to repopulate the Marquis kingdom. However, even though things were going about smoothly, problems were bound to arise.
"We encountered a colony of demi-humans in our expedition on Feral lands, but…" Reported to Haruki moments after he'd teleported to the elven village, Margarette wasn't too proud about what she was about to say.
"Out with it Moriyana," Haruki urged, taking a seat in the village's town hall.
Surrounded by foliage, the room itself smelled of autumn, something that only tested Haruki's patience even more.
"A demi-tiger clan and demi-wolf clan are at war by our edging borders," powering through the shame, Margarette finally looked up at Haruki seated at the other end of the hall. "If we intervene now, and befriend any of the tribes, the other will take us as their enemy. What's worse is with our current numbers after the war with Dominion, there's no way our army can subjugate both clans."
"Where's Rose and Klian in all this?" Haruki asked, leaning his head over his hand.
Taking a deep breath, Margarette replied.
"I have no clue," gulping her fear, she stepped forward and continued with the bad news. "And there's a similar problem with the demon lords, I think they're trying to escape this place, but with Reya's powers gone, they're having a hard time."
It was becoming obvious that with the recent changes in how things ran, a lot of people wanted to keep their interaction with Haruki to a minimum. He'd grown into a threat that needed to be reckoned with, but that came with the price of risking your own safety.
"Rose wouldn't betray me so long as we don't hurt her kids or jeopardize her safety, as for the demon lords, it might be time for them to pass on their titles," hearing those words come out of Haruki's mouth, Margarette squinted her eyes, confused as to what exactly he had in mind.
'They're my family, you know that, right?' Asmodia reminded Haruki through the mind. But as things stood, he didn't care much for what she had to say.
'You'll die once I fulfill the terms of our contract so why do you care? Besides, progress is how the natural order that you so want to preserve is secured, otherwise, it'll grow old, crumble and vanish.' Although his response didn't persuade Asmodia all that much, she couldn't find the fault in his logic.
'At this point, I've lost sight of what the natural order even means.' On that note from Asmodia, Haruki and her were both on the same page.
"Master?" Brought back to his senses by Margarette's call, Haruki blinked a few times and turned his gaze to her. Looking quite concerned, she tilted her head and asked. "Is everything okay? You've been a bit…Lost, I guess?"
"I'm fine," getting out of the seat, Haruki moved towards her with his cloak fluttering through each step. "As for the clans, how about I pay them a friendly visit soon?"
Pressing his gloved hands on both of her cheeks, Haruki steadied her head and gazed deep into Margarette's amber eyes.
"Haruki, it's not safe!" She complained.
"I agree, for them, it would be concerning," nodding his head at her while smiling devilishly, Haruki laid out his plan. "Remember I can still curse their source of water, and spread numerous diseases throughout their land. So let's see what they choose when that happens, their petty war or a generational subjugation that'll bring them security?"
"Uh…" Seeing his eyes shift into pure darkness, Margarette was too intimidated to utter a single more word.
"Alright then, prepare for my departure. We need to finish this up before Michael or Razor crawl out of wherever they are and try to follow in the emperor's steps," giving her the order, Haruki playfully slapped her cheeks a few times before moving past her.
While there was plenty more for him to discuss with her and work on, something else took precedence. The curse of a demon called the carnal curse was high on effect since he hadn't been able to get physical with anyone around him. Thus to disengage the curse, he had to rely on visiting the dreams and nightmares of his companions to make sure not to get romantic with them in the physical form.
Much like his companions who'd so far relied on pleasing themselves with their own hands and tools, Haruki was much more eager to finally get a taste of another person.
"Margarette," stopping by the door, Haruki turned to look at her to give her one last order. "When you're done, I want you to join me and the others in my chambers tonight."
Lightly blushing at the thought, Margarette internally beamed with joy as she nodded.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel