Chapter 627: The Coming Crisis
The Empress accepted the help of her guards, getting up to leave the carriage while walking, even if it was with assistance. As she stepped down from the massive and ornately decorated vehicle, she was surrounded by many guards, including her personal guard, even though they looked as badly injured as their empress.
Their armor was damaged in many places with broken chains and links hanging loosely and barely covering the still bleeding wounds underneath. Most of them had ridden back of their own accord, but some had to be carried as injuries or missing limbs prevented them from riding a horse on their own. Seeing their broken and beaten condition, Hera couldn’t help but feel defeated, the result being far worse than what she had expected.
She looked up, her pale face still the picture of beauty to see her children had lined the way to greet her return. While this looked like some sort of heroic return procession, she knew they had just done that as a way to suck up. While some of them were loyal to her, many more were loyal to her husband who had taken her place on the battlefield. Their only reason for being here was to scoff at her failure, even while showing respect on the surface. It was a formality ordered by her husband back in the founding days of the kingdom. showing everyone the unity of the royal family.
Even if they didn’t give a damn about Hera herself, they wouldn’t disrespect their father in such a way.
Limping her way towards the door, her guards falling in line behind her, she could easily read the hidden expressions of her children. Many of their had delight in their eyes, thinking of their powerful mother failing so spectacularly that the Emperor himself had to ride out to battle. The sons laughing at her were doing so while mocking the weakness of a woman. The daughters who were doing so... she had the horrific feeling that they wanted to claim their father as their own and become the next queen, the highest position any of them could aspire to. The thought of it almost made her want to slap their stupid, smug faces.
It wasn’t until she had come upon one of her younger daughters, Artemis, that she felt something was off about her. While Artemis was one of the daughters who was more aligned with her father, she wasn’t against her mother either. The look she saw on her daughter’s face was one of sadness and anger, expressions she wasn’t expecting.
What was even more surprising was the very slight waves of energy coming from her daughter’s body. Only a wisp slipped out when the anger seemed to take control, but she quickly reigned it in, making it seem like nothing had happened.
But a goddess like her mother couldn’t have missed it if she tried.
After that, she noticed several of her other daughters were also controlling their strength, way more than they normally would. During moments of emotions, be it happy, sad or whatever, it was normal to release waves of power. As children who lived within the royal palace, each of the had reached the god seed level of the void emperor realm, needing both life energy and understanding to take the next step. While brining them to this limit wasn’t hard, getting them past it in this pocket dimension was almost impossible. Even if there were resources with which to do it, most of those went to either her husband or one of his loyal retainers.
For so many of her daughters to be displaying this change... even Hera had no idea how to react.
By the end of the procession, she had reached the door and turned to look at her children. The only one she didn’t see who lived within the royal palace was the young trouble maker, Eris. But for her to miss something like this didn’t raise any alarms with the empress.
"While I receive treatment for my injuries, we shall convene the war council of the Empire at once. Have all generals called back from the lines, leaving only the boarder guards in place. All campaigns are on hold as each army is being ordered to begin their marching toward the northern battle front at the fortress of Palamidi. Everyone except the southern armies are to meet there within a fortnight while the southern armies are to rendezvous here first. Any questions can be asked during the council. Until then, I wanted emergency war preparations to take place starting from here at the capital and extending north. Be it food, medical supplies or any sort of supply lines, everything should be readied within the next three days as supplies will need to be on the way by then. Dismissed," Hera said, turning around to make her way inside.
"MOTHER EMPRESS!" Ares called out, his hulking form stepping out of line to directly confront his mother. Despite his massive build and bloodlust that shone in battle, he was also a tactic genius. At least before he went into a rage he was.
"Father has yet to issue any sort of drastic commands after having headed north. Perhaps Mother Empress should wait to see the results of the Emperor’s campaign before going to such drastic measures?" Ares said, indicating that Hera should just leave the situation to the Emperor and not worry about it.
Seeing the nods of agreement, Hera felt her rage boil, but kept it under control as best she could.
Hera reached beneath her armor and retrieved an insignia with a lightning bolt emblazoned on it. She threw it on the ground at Ares’ feet before turning and making her way back inside without saying another word.
Ares’ picked up the insignia and turned a shade of white before echoing the words his mother had just said, this time giving assignments to certain siblings who were active in the running of the country. As everyone had seen the insignia, no one argued.
Aphrodite, who had managed to completely hide her change even from her mother, turned to Artemis and asked, "what does that mean?" before noticing the paleness in Artemis’ face matched that of Aries.
"It means that these are the Emperor’s orders and that the situation is already to a point where he won’t be able to handle it himself..." Artemis’ voice trailed off after explaining.
"Where is Eris?" Persephone asked as she walked up to the two women.
"Finishing her evolution at this point, I hope" Aphrodite said, a bit of a smile on her face. She had been there watching before the announcement of the arrival. As it was her room, she felt like she was responsible for her ’younger’ sister and therefore decided to watch on in case her help was needed. In fact, she had watched every one of her sisters who had used her room as a safe place to undergo the ritual, finding it quite enjoyable to pleasure herself while watching Laz dominate the young goddess who went to him for help.
Eris’ domination was so pleasurable she didn’t want to leave and had seriously considered missing her mother’s arrival. It was only once Artemis had barged in and dragged her away that she decided to follow along, thankful that she was able to hide the viewing mirror in time before it was noticed.
"So what do we do now?" Persephone asked the two, only to have Artemis turn to Aphrodite as though expecting an answer as well.
"Well first we need to have Laz returned to the cages as soon as possible. Considering how scratched up his body is it should look like endured days worth of torture, enough so that people won’t complain or ask questions. After that, we need to meet with mother as soon as possible to get some idea of what is going on," Aphrodite said, turning to look out at the road the carriage had ridden up on.
"Why is that? The Emperor is busy with the war or whatever and even my useless husband is there. Doesn’t that buy us more time?" Persephone asked, wondering what the rush was and wanting to spend more time with Laz... and his member.
"Didn’t you understand what was said earlier? The Emperor is losing the battle and will be retreating back this way. Soon, they will gather at the fortress at Palamidi. When that happens and the Emperor is backed into a corner.... what do you think he will do? Remember the whole reason we did this in the first place and stop thinking with your pussy. He’s been patient so far because he didn’t have a reason or need to rush, deciding instead to take his time and do it ’right.’ But even if he drags all of his armies to fight whatever that thing is up north, it will only slow it down and not stop it since even the Emperor failed to stop it. And when that happens... he will begin his harvest of all of his sons and daughters that he can get his hands on. So no... we now have even less time than we had before. We need to see mother as soon as possible and hope that she can be healed in time to stop father. And even then we will need a way to stop this creature or a place to run to if we can’t," Aphrodite said, explaining it as simply as she could. Persephone wasn’t stupid, but she was getting turned into something of a cock whore ever since she first coupled with Laz. Aphrodite didn’t blame her in the slightest, she just knew there was a time and place for everything and this wasn’t the time or place for that.
"Quiet. We have company," Artemis said as Aris walked up to the three women.
