For the past six days, the entire continent of Samael was undergoing a full scale evacuation.
The residents were being placed on ships and sent to either Upyr or Renanin with the goal of gaining refuge.
The mood was rather heavy, as this was the first time that a continent wide evacuation had ever been issued before.
Residents were undoubtedly curious about what could be the cause behind such a dramatic action as this, but because they trusted the royal family completely there wasn't much to debate over.
If there was a group that protested the hardest about being relocated, it was the soldiers.
When Abaddon said that he wanted everyone in his lands safe and away from harm, he meant it.
That included the millions of men and women who fought underneath him, and for the first time there was unrest.
Protests, pleas, and flat out refusals flew through the air like kites as the millions of soldiers under the Tathamet banner voiced their opposition to getting on board a ship.
All eight of the wives listened to all of the complaints with solemn faces.
This was an incredibly bittersweet moment for them.
Insubordination though it may have been, it was born from a good place.
None of them wanted to leave the royal family behind under any circumstances.
How could they when these people had given them so much??
Life, prosperity, tranquility, and even a spirit of frivolity.
They would gladly lay down their lives for any of them, as they believed they lived to serve them.
In the end, Audrina had to resort to a desperate tactic that she hoped never to use on her people.
Using her ability to control minds, she sapped away the resistance in their psyche and reduced them to mindless drones.
In the next moment, millions of demons could be seen boarding three massive warships without a fuss, and setting sail into the night.
They wouldn't realize what was done to them until they were already in the middle of the sea, at which point Audrina's mental message would play in their minds.
'Forgive us, my people. Your safety is paramount to us, and as such we had no other option. Please do not come to resent us for these actions.'
Strangely enough, a small tear fell from Audrina's face.
She felt soft and warm hands wiping off her face and found Lillian in front of her wearing a look of concern.
"I'm fine, Lilli, I'm just being a bit dramatic is all..."
"I know that's not true." She said gently. "Was it harder than you expected?"
"..."Audrina nodded silently as another tear fell from her eyes.
Even though she had done it for their own good, she still felt like she had betrayed the trust of their people.
It left her feeling no small amount of guilt for the actions she'd been forced to take.
As Lillian pulled in Audrina for an embrace, the rest of the wives were a few feet away, giving her sympathetic looks.
Bekka and Lisa also went to console her, leaving the rest of the wives to attend to other matters.
Looking around, the girls could now see a now empty refugee camp.
It had taken six days to fully evacuate, but now that they were done they felt slightly relieved.
"Alright... now that we're done I suppose that we can return home and wait for husband to return." Lailah decided.
"About that... he should have become a spirit dragon by now, right? I'm worried that he still has not returned yet..." Valerie often tried her best not to appear soft and dainty, but when it came to her husband she couldn't help it.
And it appeared as though this feeling of worry did not uniquely belong to her.
The other girls also seemed to show some signs of worry, as all of them had felt some significant changes in their body recently.
The kind of changes that did not occur unless their husband gained power comparable to an evolution.
"I'm sure he'll be home soon, girls." Seras said comfortingly. "In the meantime we should-"
From out of nowhere, the sound of thunder breached through the sky and a creature dropped out of the clouds.
It was an entirely black dragon, with yellow streaks running across its entire body like a lightning pattern.
Only one of the wives remained unfazed by it's approach, although she was still confused about what she was doing there.
"Tiamat...?"
-
In the Tathamet family manor, Sei was sitting politely on the couch as if she was being interrogated.
Sitting opposite her were Apophis, Mira, Gabbrielle, Asmodeus, Yara, Malenia, Lusamine, the triplets and the phoenix sisters.
All eleven of them were staring at the former witch queen like they were waiting on her to make a wrong move, and give them an excuse to beat her head in.
"I'm sorry, but I have to ask..."She began.
"Why are you doing that to them?"
The focus of Sei's question was Yara, who was currently sitting with both Malenia and Kanami's cheeks pressed against her own.
"Is it any concern of yours what I do with my new daughters?" She said pointedly. "I am trying to makeup for missed years and you are disturbing our reunification."
"I see... my mistake then."
"Quite."
The group sat in silence for what felt like an eternity longer, with Sei becoming more and more uncomfortable every second.
She contemplated just getting up and leaving this place with the sound of the front door opening reached everyone's ears and the mood became considerably lighter.
The wives of Abaddon soon entered the room, accompanied by Hajun and Tiamat.
""Grandpa!!""
Mira and Gabrielle immediately ran to embrace the old man, and he felt his weariness melting off his body as long as he remained in their embrace.
"You girls are consistently getting bigger everytime that I see you. You're starting to make me feel old."
"But you are old!"
"This is true, you are in advancing years."
"Ah...I suppose I should enjoy the time with you two while I still have it then."
Yara noticed that her uncle seemed to be rather tired.
"Is everything alright, Uncle? You seem a little bit worn down."
Hajun's eyes softened when they landed on his young niece and he wrestled with his own inner monologue.
He had planned for this moment as he flew on the back of Tiamat, yet now that he was here he had no words.
How was he supposed to tell the niece he loved so much that her father was probably dead by now?
He couldn't.
And when Tiamat realized that the old man wasn't going to be able to speak, she stepped up to break the news.
"Princess... there's something that we have to tell you and it's not going to be very pleasant to hear..."
Yara listened to everything that Tiamat had to say without batting a single eye.
When she heard that her father had his throne usurped by her brother, and that Iori was dead, she lost the strength in her legs and had to be caught by her loving husband.
Yara's whole body was shuddering as images of her father began to flood her brain.
His smile and hugs that she had always taken for granted, the time they spent together after her mother died, and all of the fights that they'd had because they were so much alike.
How was she supposed to go on without those things?
And what about her brother?
They weren't the closest, but she always knew that if she ever really needed him that he would always be there for her.
And now... he was just gone, and she had no chance to get to know him better.
Or did she?
Yara suddenly wiped her face of her tears that had begun to fall against her wishes and her expression became more resolute.
"Yara? Are you.. alright..?" Hajun wasn't expecting for his niece to get over the death of her father and brother so quickly.
"Y-Yes, Uncle... I.. will ask my son to bring them both back to life... They cannot leave me just yet."
It was at this moment Hajun remembered that he'd heard about the exiled prince's ability to raise the dead when he resurrected his eighth wife.
He felt like an idiot for forgetting about it considering the fact that his reaction was quite exaggerated when he initially found out.
""I'm sorry...HE CAN DO WHAT!?""
However, Tiamat and Sei knew nothing about this little ability of his, and their reactions were every bit as nonsensical as one would have thought.
However, they were promptly ignored in favor of more pressing conversation.
"How could Jadaka even kill the old man in the first place?" Asmodeus wondered aloud. "He doesn't have the power for something like that when he can't even defeat me."
The wives looked amongst each other before they came to a silent understanding.
"My son, will you and the triplets see our guests upstairs and ensure that they are comfortable?" Lisa asked.
Apophis nodded and he and Claire stood up before gesturing for Sei, Hajun, and Tiamat to accompany them.
"Are you all treating me like some child that has to leave the room? I did not come here to be insu-"
Apophis suddenly grabbed the irate dragon by the wrist and stared unflinchingly into her yellow eyes.
"You're noisy. Come along without making a fuss, hm?"
"...alright."
Apophis found something funny about the way that this woman was looking at him and released her before leading her upstairs.
Once they were gone, Lailah closed the door as the rest of the wives sat on the couch.
"We believe that he has become the apostle that husband warned us of. Tiamat has already revealed that his first action as ruler will be to wage war with us, and they are expected to set sail within four days."
A bolt of tension ran through the room, with the moment everyone had been anticipating finally occurring.
Speculation about who Jaldabaoth's apostle was and when he would come had been plaguing their minds for the better part of a week, and only now they finally had their answers.
But even then, the revelation left them with new questions.
"If father-in-law does not return in time, then does that mean that you all will have to face him instead..?" Jasmine asked.
The eight wives had indeed thought of that possibility, and it seemed like that would be the likeliest course of action.
After their last war against the dwarves, Lailah, Bekka, and Lisa were all stage two evolved, with Valerie and Eris at stage four and Seras and Audrina at 5 and 6.
And after receiving some sort of 'gift' from their husband, they were also in possession of spiritual energy, and any limits on their mana capacity had been removed, making it infinite.
They were all extremely strong and the number of things that could threaten them in this world wasn't long.
And yet, Audrina couldn't help but feel something unnerving about the whole situation.
She had near perfect instincts as a warrior that had been beaten into her by her father, and something about this approaching battle gave her a chill.
And as she looked at Seras out of the corner of her eye, she could see that her suspicions were not unique to her.
They would always fight proudly to protect and defend their home and people but... she really wished that her husband would return home soon so that she could feel more confident in her victory.
'Darling...what might be taking you so long...?'
-
In the fiery domain of the spirit realm, Thea and Sabine were looking up at a mountain of bodies.
They weren't dead, only rendered unconscious, but the flame spirits of these lands had been subjugated by an outside force.
Sitting on top of these felled enemies was their conqueror, a man who seemed not to fit in with this place.
He was in complete tranquility, with a small but otherworldly smile on his face that could seduce any living or unliving creature.
He stared up into the sky fondly, almost as if he could hear someone dear to him calling him home.
"I'll try not to take too much longer, my loves. When I return, I hope to show you all something grand."
Visit freewe𝑏(n)ovel.co(m) for the b𝘦st novel reading experience