Lustful Demon King: Summoned by the Demon Goddesses!

Chapter 289: Dimensional Issues!

The peaceful beauty of the Star Sanctuary suddenly felt far heavier after Willow spoke those words.

"...Very wrong."

The gentle breeze drifting through the elevated gardens continued to move the flowers around them softly, carrying glowing petals through the air beneath the artificial starlight overhead.

Yet despite how beautiful the sanctuary remained, Jax could already sense it now that his attention fully focused.

Something underneath this dimension’s mana flow felt... unstable. It very very subtle, hidden well enough that almost nobody outside of the Witches deeply attuned with spacial magic would be able to notice it.

However, once Jax realized this phenomena, it was impossible for him to ignore it, like a prickling sensation constantly bothering him.

The celestial mana drifting throughout the sanctuary wasn’t flowing naturally. Jax could continuously sense various interruptions in the mana flow, and tiny fractures all around.

He could best describe it like an invisible static disrupting an otherwise perfect ongoing song.

Jax’s eyes narrowed slightly as he turned back to Willow, seeing her just staring at him contemplatively,"...Talk, what’s going on?"

Willow exhaled softly through her nose before turning away from him slightly, her long green hair swaying behind her as her glowing emerald eyes lifted toward the artificial heavens above.

Far overhead, countless stars shimmered unnaturally across the dimensional sky, all looking beautiful

"As you know, the Witch Dimension was created by me with assistance from Lilith," Her voice carried a strange softness now as she thought about the past.

"We created the Dimension using a special kind of magic that draws power directly from the Stars," Willow explained, raising one slender hand to the sky, and the heavens above shimmered in response.

Not metaphorically, but actually responded. Countless faint streams of cosmic mana became visible for brief moments, flowing downward from the sky itself like invisible rivers feeding the entire world around them.

Seraphina would have probably called it pretty and been enchanted by it, but Jax simply analyzed it using his power.

"The stars sustain everything here," Willow continued, "All the various forests throughout the dimension, the rivers, the mana density, climate & life, everything is touched by the power of the stars,"

Willow’s emerald eyes darkened slightly as she thought about what was happening, "And recently... that connection has started failing."

Silence settled between them as Jax’s gaze sharpened immediately, thinking about potential consequences of what is going on.

"How badly is the connection fading?"

Willow hesitated to answer the question, and that alone told Jax enough about the situation. Then finally Willow responded, "It’s fading bad enough that a-lot of the older Witches are panicking,"

The air around the sanctuary grew quieter and Jax crossed his arms lightly, "Explain properly. How could this happen so abruptly?"

Willow nodded once, "For the past several weeks, our celestial channels that are used to draw in the power of the stars have been weakening intermittently."

Several glowing magical formations appeared around her as she spoke. Complex star maps rotated slowly through the air between them, displaying an example of how these star maps are used to draw power.

"At first we believed it was natural instability caused by maybe some degrading of specific formation areas," One section of the projection flickered violently.

"But we quickly checked and realized that wasn’t the case, and before we could even investigate further, entire regions of the dimension began losing mana flow."

Jax’s eyes narrowed as the image Willow was showing him shifted again to a section of beautiful forest.

All Jax could see now was dead flowers, dim and dry rivers, withering trees, and small animals starving or migrating. The magical energy there looked extremely thin and sickly, which was a massive worry.

"...Mana starvation everywhere," Jax muttered as he understood what was going on.

Willow nodded grimly.

"Yes."

Then, another image appeared. This time showing various cracks, not physical ones, but immense dimensional fractures. Tiny tears spreading across the edges of reality itself all across the dimension.

"If the flow weakens too much," Willow said quietly, "this dimension will eventually begin collapsing inward."

Jax’s expression darkened slightly, "How long until that happens?"

"We don’t know." Willow said in a very frustrated tone, "The degradation isn’t consistent. Some places experience it far more severe than others, it makes it very hard to track,"

Jax studied the projections silently, his eyes glowing as he used one of his recent Lottery Rewards <Mana Refract> an ability that allowed him to trace the flow of mana through time to see specific things.

Then his eyes flickered as he used the ability, "...This isn’t natural."

Willow immediately looked at him.

"You feel it too?"

"Yeah, I can confirm it," Jax said, stepping forward slightly. The floating star maps rotated around him slowly as he observed the mana patterns carefully.

"There’s interference." He muttered.

Willow’s expression sharpened immediately, "Exactly."

Jax looked upward again, "The celestial streams are being disrupted before they reach the dimension."

That’s our conclusion as well." Willow’s voice grew colder as she spoke, "And we believe the Church is responsible."

Silence followed after she said that. Not shocked silence, but dangerous silence.

Jax’s golden eyes gleamed faintly, "Why?"

Willow waved her hand again. The projections shifted once more. This time showing strange magical symbols. Holy symbols and Church Symbols.

Jax’s eyes narrowed immediately, "We discovered traces of Divine interference within several damaged celestial pathways."

Willow’s voice lowered, "Not enough to confirm openly, but enough that we can no longer ignore it, and we don’t even know how they’ve located this Dimension. There must be a Divine Being assisting them in targeting us,"

Jax stared at the symbols quietly. Then he laughed once, but it was a laugh that had no humor.

"They’re getting ambitious."

Willow’s emerald eyes darkened, "You already targeted the camps?"

"Yeah, we raided one recently, they even captured a Merfolk Princess," Jax explained.

That got a visible reaction from Willow, "...A royal bloodline?"

"Blessed by the Sea Goddess." Jax said.

Willow went silent briefly after hearing that. Then, "So they’ve started targeting divine lineages directly now."

"Looks like it."

The atmosphere around the sanctuary grew heavier, and the stars overhead dimmed slightly due to Willow’s fluctuating mana.

Jax noticed immediately, "...You’re exhausted."

Willow looked away briefly.

"I’m managing."

"You look terrible."

That earned an annoyed glance from her.

"I missed you too."

Jax smirked faintly.

"There it is."

For the first time since he arrived, some tension broke slightly between them. Willow exhaled slowly before stepping toward the edge of the sanctuary gardens.

Far below, the Witch Dimension stretched endlessly in breathtaking beauty, yet now Jax could see the inconsistencies hidden beneath it.

Tiny fluctuations in the dimensional walls, unstable mana currents and certain stars overhead flickering unnaturally.

The entire world was under strain.

"How many people know?" he asked.

"Only the most experienced and powerful Witches," Willow responded.

"Good." Jax muttered.

Willow looked at him carefully, "You don’t think we should tell the others?"

"Not yet."

Jax’s gaze remained fixed on the skies, "Panic spreads faster than dimensional collapse. There’s no reason to let them worry when we can fix it before it becomes a massive issue,"

Willow actually smiled faintly at that before her expression softened again. Then quietly, "I called you because I didn’t know who else could help."

Jax glanced toward her, noticing the exhaustion behind her composure, dark circles beneath her glowing green eyes and mana instability beneath her skin. She had probably been maintaining this dimension almost nonstop recently.

"You’re all my women, people who I care about greatly, of course I’ll come and help," Jax said, "...You’ve been holding it together yourself."

Willow didn’t answer immediately and Jax sighed softly through his nose, "Idiot."

Her eyebrow twitched as she heard that, "You could sound slightly more sympathetic."

"You could’ve called me earlier," Jax immediately responded.

"Fair." Willow said, "Do you have a plan for how to solve this?"

"First I need to confirm exactly what they’re doing." Jax immediately responded.

Willow nodded once, "Makes sense,"

She raised one hand again and several celestial pathways illuminated across the sky projection.

"These are the damaged regions."

Jax observed them carefully and patterns emerged almost immediately. The disruptions weren’t random, they formed connections when analyzed deeply.

Strategic points, like someone intentionally targeting the dimensional support network itself.

His eyes narrowed, "...Interesting."

Willow noticed immediately, "You found something?"

"There’s a-lot of things we can infer from this, but I’ll need to investigate. Here’s what, take care of yourself here, I’ll go check these regions out by myself to see what the problems are," Jax explained.

"Are you sure you’ll be okay?" Willow asked.

"Trust me," Jax said.

"You seem to have a pretty solid idea of what’s going on," Willow said.

"Yeah, from what these projections show, someone’s attaching something to your dimensional channels." Jax explained, and the sanctuary fell silent again.

Willow stared at the projection. Then slowly, "...That would explain the energy siphoning."

"Exactly."

Jax’s eyes gleamed faintly.

"They’re stealing power, harvesting it, similar to what was going on with the Merfolk Princess I saved recently," Jax said.

A pattern was forming now. The Church wasn’t acting randomly anymore. They were gathering power from every possible source.

Jax exhaled slowly.

"...What the hell are they preparing for?"