- The Greek Underworld, Hades' Palace
The king of the dead was seated behind a large wooden desk, an empty look on his face.
His mind seemed to be elsewhere, as he had been staring into the empty same space for a while without showing any signs of moving anytime soon.
'That archangel... how could he just take off after we sent him to do a job?'
Ever since it was decided that Azrael would travel to Dola to eliminate the coming threat of the great evil beast, the angel had come up missing.
Hades wasn't sure if he'd completed his mission or even worse, if he'd failed and been punished by the Aeons.
Suddenly, the god of death sensed a presence that he knew all too well, and his headache only worsened.
A man appeared silently behind Hades.
He wore a dark grey robe with a thick hood pulled over his head.
He had skin that was so ashen it seemed like he was already dead, and his long black hair went all the way down to his knees.
His eyes were black and empty, like one who had seen a great many tragedies befall those both young and old.
"What do you want, Thanatos? My mood is already deplorable." Hades asked as he rubbed his temples.
"Well you have my apologies, sire. But I fear the news I bring will only cause your weariness to worsen."
Hades held out his hand, and a chalice filled with nectar appeared in his palm.
'How I wish I hadn't run out of that wine Dionysus gave me...' He thought.
The death god brought the glass to his lips and the entity behind him took that to mean that he was free to speak.
"A soul has been ripped from the Asphodel Meadows. I suspect that it has returned to the mortal world."
This didn't shock Hades nearly as much as he suspected that it would.
It wasn't supposed to happen, and it was fairly rare, but souls did escape from this place sometimes.
But they usually returned not long afterwards.
Souls.. simply weren't made for the mortal world.
Even if they made it there, they couldn't interact with anything or anyone unless it was a person with high spiritual sensitivity.
They could inhabit some objects and live in them for around 10-20 years or so, but eventually the soul would dissipate and return into nothingness.
'Stronger souls could stay for longer, but if the soul originated from the Asphodel Meadows then... Wait a damn minute.'
Hades suddenly realized that he had overlooked an important part of Thanatos' report.
"What do you mean... a soul was ripped... from my domain??" He asked dangerously.
"It is as I've said, sire." Thanatos said, oblivious to Hades' worsening mood. "The soul somehow travelled all the way to the erebos wall, seemingly to welcome another soul."
The erebos wall was the border between the greek underworld and the land of the living.
Often times, souls would wander there to observe those that they had left behind or reflect on the mistakes they had made.
"The soul that arrived was.. odd. Even I could not read it or hope to understand it, and it was still growing even though it should have stopped at death.
It possessed death magic, and an unfathomably strong variety at that. It was somehow able to -"
Hades suddenly held up his hand, and his body started to leak a dark red aura.
Outside, Cereberus whimpered as it felt the rage of it's master, and it contemplated tucking it's tail and running away.
"Thanatos... That soul that came here.... where did it originate from..?"
"The all mother's world. As did the soul that it took with it."
Hades didn't need to hear anything else.
His mind was able to fill in the blanks from these clues alone, and he knew the culprit of this entire ordeal without even hearing the rest.
"Thanatos... I am going to give you an order."
"I am ready to receive it."
"Summon the Tartaruchi."
For the first time in millennia, Thanatos raised a brow at something that his master had said, and he realized that his master was taking this much worse than he had expected.
-
Today was the opening day of Luxuria's festival, and Abaddon and his wives were relaxing in the heated bath before they got ready.
They considered the most sacred part of their marriage not to be the copious amount of sex, or the times they fought side by side, but instead it was moments like this where they were free to relax, appreciate the sight of each other's bodies, and chat freely about whatever was on their minds.
At present, the family was talking about Abaddon's conversation that he'd had last night with another one of his fragments.
"So? What was she like, darling?" Bekka asked.
"She was quite fiery." Abaddon said with a smile. "I could not see her, but her mind felt regal, uncontrollable, and surprisingly a bit lonely... I miss her already."
The wives smiled at their husband's doting parental nature that seemed to be one of the cornerstones of his personality.
"What do you think helped you reach her?" Lisa asked. "Was it only the water affinity or was it something else?"
Abaddon shook his head and lifted his hands out of the water.
"It was an accumulation of things... the water affinity was like the final piece of the puzzle."
A ball of darkness, a cube of ice, and a droplet of water appeared in Abaddon's palm.
"This daughter of ours is like the ocean itself. She is cold, dark, and ever shifting, though that does not make her evil in spirit, more so she is like a force of nature. Only through understanding these things can one come to understand her."
"I cannot wait to meet her." Lillian said gently.
She had quickly taken to becoming a mother, and Gabbrielle, Mira, Thea, and Apophis had all voiced their love and approval as well.
The thought of having another child in this beautiful family filled her heart with glee.
"Neither can I, but who will give birth after you absorb her again?" Audrina asked.
Her question caused the wives who had not already had one of his children to stare at him inquisitively.
Eris, Bekka, Audrina, Valerie, and Lillian all seemed like they were burning for an answer.
They saw all of their children as if they had given birth to them themselves, but they still wanted to actually carry a child that was the fruit of their love for him.
"I don't know." Abaddon said with a smirk. "Whoever earns it I suppose."
He slipped out of the bath not long after, and he could hardly suppress a smile when he felt eight hungry gazes all over his body.
'It's always fun to push their buttons like this. I just hope that they can control themselves until later.'
-
They could hardly control themselves until later.
Since today was a special day, that meant that Abaddon had to get a bit more dressed up than usual. (Much to his dismay.)
And while he would normally have dressed himself, his wives took his clothes and refused to give them back.
After a round of teasing disguised as helping him get dressed, Abaddon had just about reached his wits end as well.
If it wasn't Valerie and Bekka brushing past his junk, it was Audrina and Seras blowing their warm breath on his ear.
Lisa's breasts were pushed into his face as she tied ornaments into his hair, and Eris' hands were continuously grazing his chest long after it had been covered by a black robe.
"...I do not find this funny." he muttered.
Lisa: "What do you mean, honey?"
Bekka: "We're just being helpful!"
Eris: "Do you not like it?"
Valerie: "That can't be it, cause something down here certainly feels like it does~"
While Abaddon was having his mental fortitude tested, Lillian was standing with Lailah a few feet away.
Ever since the bath earlier, she hadn't been able to take her eyes off her husband.
She'd spent most of her life around dragons, so she knew that they tended to have good bodies, but his was completely unlike anything she'd ever seen.
"If you're uncomfortable sister, I'll make them stop." Lailah whispered gently.
"A-Ah, not at all." Lillian said with a smile. "I just feel a bit... envious."
Lailah seemingly understood and wrapped her arms around her shoulders in a hug.
"I cannot imagine what you've been through, but you should know that Abaddon is nothing like that man. He would never dream of hurting you... unless you ask him to."
Lillian giggled lightly and returned her sister's hug in kind. "I know... Can I ask... what is it like to be with him...? I asked the other girls but their answers were not terribly comforting..."
Lailah rolled her eyes as she immediately realized that her sisters must have said sounded like animals in heat again without realizing that such a thing would only scare the traumatized Lillian.
"Think of it like this..." Lailah gently grabbed Lillian by the face and made her stare at their husband.
"No matter how many times that you are embraced by him, it will always feel overwhelming and strange."
She took one hand and gently placed it on Lillian's lower stomach, right below her navel.
"There is a feeling of him opening you up as wide as he can, as if he is trying to insert all of himself inside of you so that you might become one...
Your bodies interlock, and you can feel yourself desperately clinging onto him, in the hope that he never leaves from his place inside of your womb, and you never lose that feeling of euphoria."
"A-And then what...?" Lillian asked shakily.
Lailah smiled as if she found the beautiful chimera to be very cute.
"And then for the brief moment that your mind is capable of focusing, you will look into his eyes and realize that his face is also twisted in a beautiful agony, and he feels every bit as good as you do.
Every move he makes will contain his affection for you, and he will ingrain the overwhelming feeling of his love into every crease of your body, as he consistently finds the spot that makes you feel the best..."
Lillian had begun to shudder and her breathing was now slightly erratic, but Lailah still wasn't done with her explanation.
"You will be able to feel the weight of his love so clearly that it makes your heart feel like it's going to implode, and when he connects all of us together, those feelings are only amplified sevenfold... It is so beautiful that you will be brought to tears."
Lillian's heart was finally shaken, and in more ways than one.
The way that Lailah described everything was so thoughtful and picturesque that she could feel it despite never having been touched by him.
She could only imagine just how good the real thing must have felt, or what it would mean to her.
"Do you think... he will accept me tonight?" She asked.
Lailah smiled and nudged her warmly. "Of course he will. It's fine if you're afraid, you just have to trust him more than you fear him, okay?"
Lillian nodded shyly, and Lailah knew that she had finally made a decision to truly join their family.
"Girls, we don't not have time for this." Abaddon reminded.
His wives had become more aggressive with their petting, and he felt like he was about to be violated at any moment.
...While he usually enjoyed this kind of treatment, they still had somewhere they needed to be.
Seras: "You're the emperor, right?"
Lisa: "That means what you say goes."
Eris: "So if you're twenty-"
Bekka: "Or thirty minutes late to your own festival, who would dare complain?"
Abaddon felt like his resistances were being worn down little by little, because such an inconsiderate argument was actually beginning to work on him.
But at that moment, he sensed an incoming saving grace.
There was a small, unbalanced knock at the door before it was flung open and two little girls walked inside.
One had long silver hair and was carrying a children's toy, and the other had black hair of the same length and two hands filled with cookies.
"Are daddy and mommies ready yet?' Mira asked.
"Everyone is already outside waiting." said Gabbrielle.
Abaddon smirked when he saw the dejected look on his wives faces and made a mental note to make it up to them later.
"Then I suppose we shouldn't keep them waiting. Let's enjoy today the best we can."
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