Rupegia

Chapter 87: Resolution – Part 3

Arreira wrinkles his nose in disgust, his chiseled face morphing into a painting that portrays true anger and loathing as he starts to ramble, "The positions have been inverted. Ironic, isn't it? This 'Elder Council,' the descendants of the traitorous Generals, have loosened their stance, becoming more open to change, while my own descendants have become obsessed with the past, unwilling to accept the reduced importance of the elves while they embrace the same xenophobia that led to my death."

He grips his armrests so strongly that he crushes the branches they're made of, then he effortlessly rips them off and throws them away as if they were just made of paper. Another pair of armrests quickly regrows as he growls, "They're still inside this dungeon, begging for me to give them power at this very moment. They trample upon my legacy, blinded by greed and self-importance.

"When I saw how the High Forest had changed, I was rather content, albeit a little disappointed they still hadn't fully integrated with Avgi, but when I heard about Heretic's Rest…" He bitterly enunciates each word, "I was left disgusted. My sacrifice was all for nothing."

His anger gives us pause. Like a tiger roaring from within a cage, there's no reason to be afraid, but a deep, primal instinct tells us to avoid making any sudden moves.

"You're being a little overly-dramatic," I try to comment with some tact.

"What?!" He shouts, gathering all his anger into his gaze and focusing it all on me. Weirdly enough, I don't feel that affected by it, though the girls get chills just from witnessing it.

"Your descendants disappointed you, but your sacrifice saved the High Forest, don't forget that," I awkwardly continue, feeling a bit uneasy at advising a thousands of years old spirit.

"I have a feeling that you were trying to say something similar during my trial," Ciel adds, a bit smug, but mostly angelically kind.

"Did your family actually destroy your legacy, or am I missing something?" Yunia annoyedly inquires with a bit of sarcasm in her tone.

Arreira goes silent for a moment, then his face twitches and looks away haughtily. "I will not take advice from children. Come back when you're at least a hundred years old!" He waves his hand and instantly disappears with a *snap*, plunging the room into darkness.

The crystal lights on the ceiling slowly light up, and the illumination normalizes after a few seconds.

We bemusedly look at each other, then Lina snorts in her soul space in displeasure.

"He's like a child," she complains in disbelief through [Bind]. We don't want him to hear us, and who knows how many "ears" he has around here since he's technically the dungeon itself.

"That's just nobility in general," Yunia retorts with a shrug through our connection.

Lina pouts, unsatisfied. "He's a God-Ruler, I really expected more from him, even if history told me that I shouldn't."

I pick up a not-mango and start slicing it, unleashing a heavenly sweet scent upon my and Alissa's nostrils. "He's still a man who killed himself to end a war," I comment, and this somewhat appeases Lina, then I take a bite and moan in delight.

Without Arreira to talk to, we quickly finish fattening ourselves up, then we go out and wander around. Gify acts as the interpreter between the girls and the Gatuns, but I feel a bit uncomfortable with getting close to felines, for some reason, so Alissa and I go out exploring together.

Neither of us wants to stay away from each other for even a single moment longer, so we walk hand in… claw… I form some flesh around my fingers to keep them from cutting her, but it makes me look like I have huge, inflated hands. Alissa doesn't mind, but it vexes me because of how ridiculous it looks.

We wander past the throne of leaves and find a small forest blocking the view. We decide to explore it, but we don't get far before it ends in the exit of the room.

We find ourselves in a familiar forest populated by ginormous trees knitted with the usual elven patterns, glowing small plants attached to their bark, and a thick canopy that blocks all light from the sun, if there's even another one here besides Arreira himself.

It feels like we're in the High Forest again, though only if you ignore the random assortment of mansions, paintings, statues, plantations, flower arrangements, human-sized bonsais, and even armor and weapon stands haphazardly strewn about everywhere.

"I feel like this entire forest may be Arreira's 'personal room,'" I comment with a wry smile.

"There's almost a beauty to this chaos," Alissa adds and giggles.

"A child indeed," I whisper, and we share a knowing look.

We walk around as we curiously observe the chaos. For as silly as it may all look at first glance, there's plenty of beauty to be seen. Architecture is something that I'm slightly interested in, and it seems to be Arreira's hobby to build mansions from all the different cultures.

My tail keeps swaying whenever I stop paying attention to it, revealing my mood. Since it's fairly massive, it makes me occasionally lose my balance. All the weird changes are making me feel pretty conflicted about this new "race" I've become. It sounds cool as fuck, but I want my fingers back. Even my pants have become a bit annoying to wear since the tail won't let me pull them all the way up.

So much stuff has happened to us that I need some time to process it all. Maybe this won't be so bad once I get used to it, but the fact that I didn't have a choice in all of this is what really puts me off. Fuck me, I'm actually a bit scared about not being "human" anymore.

I let these thoughts just stew in the back of my mind and instead focus on enjoying the view. I was stuck inside that maze for so long that I'd almost forgotten what "beauty" means. I won't let insecurity ruin my precious calm moment with Alissa.

We approach a large red brick house with a white picket fence, and I sense some mana with a [Conjuring Magic] "flavor" seeping from it. Considering that it's an Earthling design, we think it must have been recently built, or rather, conjured.

When you're a reality-bending demi-god, what's a more fitting hobby than straight-up conjuring mansions as you wish? I find it hard to imagine something that could tax their endless mana organs as heavily as [Conjuring Magic] could.

He didn't have a system, so [Sense Soul] didn't work like it usually would, but I wish I'd taken a look at his mana organ, or at least tried to count the "layers" of his soul to estimate his level.

"What do you think about becoming royalty?" Alissa breaks the silence with a casual question.

I sigh in exhaustion and frown. "I don't know… but I have a feeling that it's best if we just accept it." I admit, then I raise an eyebrow as I ponder, "What would he do if we say 'no'? Kick us out of the dungeon? Kill us all? Say 'pretty please'?" I snort, and my tail sways strongly, almost pulling me with it.

"At this point, it'd be odd to actually say 'no,'" Alissa comments wryly and smirks. Her tail sways happily, and I feel a strong desire to bury my face in its fluffiness.

I file away that desire for now and chuckle. "Will we ever stop getting involved with ridiculous things? I mean, royalty, really?" I ask rhetorically and sigh dramatically.

"Well-…"

"Don't answer that." I interrupt her, and she giggles. "I might as well start believing in jinxes. Arreira admitted to fucking with us, so maybe even the Humanoid Gods could be doing that. Just imagine…" -I flick my hand pompously and act dramatically again- "All the Gods just staring down on us while giggling like imps as they poke our Threads mischievously, causing us to repeatedly stumble upon world-changing events. They start calling us 'janitors' as we end up cleaning away all the shit and evil from the realm on our own initiative."

Alissa giggles again and tightly hugs my arm, pressing it in between her fair breasts. "Your imagination seems to have become a bit more wild than it was before."

I look away and awkwardly comment, "I didn't have that much else to do but to imagine reuniting with everyone when I was stuck in the maze. I guess I 'cultivated' my imagination during that time."

That kills the mood, and her orange eyes look at me with kindness, then she tenderly cups my left cheek. Her fingers touch my thin vertical scar as she probes some of my memories.

"What happened to you in there?" She whispers worriedly.

I grab her hand and close my eyes. "Just loneliness. Terrible loneliness… and sleep deprivation." I smile wryly.

"Your sense of humor hasn't changed, I think," she comments humorously.

I whisper with a sultry tone, "Neither has my love for you."

"Awn…"

She pulls me closer and kisses my lips, igniting a fire within both my heart and my pants.

I tightly hug her waist and invade her mouth. Her juicy breasts squish against my chest, and I reminisce about their softness.

Oh, how I've missed this.

I press my hard cock against her pussy, only four layers of thin fabrics preventing us from fucking like mad.

My hand on her waist fondles her fluffy fox tail while my other hand sneaks up until I reach her fox ears, then I fervently [Massage] her as if I'd forgotten what softness felt like.

Her tail wags so desperately that it nearly escapes my hand, but my thirst for fluffiness leads me to keep a tight grip on it.

A horniness I'd never before thought possible starts to flush through my body, making me feel a little afraid of myself. The visions of dragons fucking wildly rush into my mind on their own, but now I can clearly see myself as the biggest, wildest dragon in the orgy, the only one with a cock, and I use this glorious spiky draconic tool to make all of my females submit to my might.

Alissa's gentleness and yearning force themselves into my mind, appeasing the fire in me and allowing me to enjoy our tender kiss again.

The Gods are fucking with me; I really have a "dragon" inside of me now.

Out of all things, why did I have to choose draconic visions? If I knew that this would happen, I'd have chosen dog or cat visions so that I could become a wereanimal instead.

Alissa pokes my mind, and I stop my grumbling, returning my focus to her.

Our thirst for skinship is gradually quenched, and the passion abates, then our lips part, and we repeatedly peck on each other's lips for a short while.

We turn our heads towards a certain visitor and smile teasingly at her.

"Come on, Ciel, join us. I know you want it," Alissa teases her.

Ciel lands and dispels [Fly], then she grins a bit awkwardly and deflects, "I just came to check on the two of you since I felt some strong and not-so-positive emotions seeping through the [Bind]."

I roll my eyes and sigh. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah." I mockingly mumble, then I order her sternly, "Come here, now! We all want to take a bite out of each other."

She pouts but skips closer, and I release Alissa, then I pull Ciel's waist closer to me and fondle both her ass and her cow tits. I missed this curvy, juicy, insanely sexy, dark piece of angelic chocolate so much that the dragon spreads its wings inside my heart and roars, forcing Alissa to choke it down with a leash until it's tamed again.

The master is being restrained by his slaves. Now that's something that I didn't imagine [Bind] would be useful for.

Ciel hugs me, then I kiss her juicy lips and forcefully penetrate her mouth with my tongue. Her angelic kindness shows itself again as she pacifies me without even needing to wrestle for control, and I almost melt in her embrace.

The eyes of the other sister-wives turn to us, and no small amount of jealousy seeps through our connection.

Our mouths soon separate with us both left gasping for breath, then Ciel giggles softly as I continue fondling her pillows. Even with this fake skin covering my claws, I can still feel her juiciness just as well.

"I'm hungry, and my mouth is itching for some big, round milkers," I tease and kiss Ciel's cleavage.

Ciel rolls her eyes, but I know how much she likes it when I openly display my love for her "assets."

"Let's go back to the others," she suggests, and we agree.

Before we even sit down to talk, the wives demand equal treatment.

Roxanne jumps onto my lap and invades my mouth. Her cheeky little tongue is so dexterous that I'm sure she'd easily learn [Oral Technique] if she weren't so stingy with her skill points. She's such a good kisser that not even Hana comes close to her technique, with only Alissa baring her from sitting on the throne. Something about knowing how to lick clit must be transferable to kissing.

Hana comes next, and she stirs up a storm in my mouth like always. My dick hits her stomach with instant hardness as my memories of cumming repeatedly down her throat flood both of our minds. Alissa works diligently to reign in our desire again, and we separate to prevent us from relighting the flames inside our draconic hearts and genitals.

Lina takes the initiative with our kiss, but then she promptly surrenders herself to me. She gives me the signal that she's needy, then she throws herself into my claws, demanding to be pampered, and there's no argument from me because I love doing exactly that.

It doesn't take me long to leave her breathless, then I move on to the next needy wife.

Aoi changes into her human form, then her naked body is pressed up against mine, and once again, Alissa helps me reign in my desire. Aoi's mouth is surprisingly gentle yet energetic. She's just happy to be kissing me, instead of it being fueled by raw sexual desire. Perhaps like me, she developed an "other side" to her with a different set of behavior and feelings.

Yunia is up last, and she shows a neediness comparable to Lina's. Her own trial left her very distraught, and being held in my strong, albeit small, arms brings her comfort. Things are slowly returning to our own, rather chaotic, version of "normal," and it's the most stable she's felt in a long time.

She didn't even spend much time as a blood slave, and now we're so close to Lordship that she can almost taste it. Her life has been upheaval after upheaval, but I'll make it all stop very soon and give her the comfortable life she deserves.

I give a hug to all three golems and give them a gentle kiss on their foreheads. I still can't believe that I "lent" them to Arreira so easily, but I understand why I did it.

They behaved so well, and they're all so perfectly loyal that I've decided to give them what they want. The moral concerns I had about it in the past don't matter to me anymore. If the Gods just used a magical mishap as their reason to make me into a new race, then what reason do I have to not sire one of my own, too? At least it's something the golems specifically asked for instead of being a "surprise gift."

With my wives satisfied, for now, we sit down on the tickly grass and resume our cuddle puddle. I'm still a bit wary of the Gatuns, for some reason, but I eventually get used to them.

Yunia clears her throat and starts the discussion with a sober tone, "So, we need to talk about Arreira's proposal."

"What's your take on it?" I immediately ask. As the resident expert in politics and nobility, her opinion is obviously the most informed.

"We should accept, but… I can't predict how the Elder Council will react," she plainly states.

"Why do you think we should accept?" I question further.

"Dealing with Heretic's Rest would leave the elves indebted to us, which would secure our new position. Even though I'm a deterrent against outright rebellion, my presence won't be enough to prevent people from plotting against us in order to slowly undermine our rule, that is, unless we gather the support of more people with power, like Confiel."

"What can we even do about Heretic's Rest?" I look around, then my eyes eventually fall on Ciel, and she frowns gently as she recollects what she knows about that land.

Lina props herself forward and interjects, "That place could be considered as 'cursed' by the God of the Sun due to their rebellion against the empire, so I think Sun would be the answer to this problem."

Ciel nods in agreement and comments, "There have been other rebellions before, but none of them had ever prompted a response from the God of the Sun, so this case must have been special."

"Heretics?" I ask tentatively.

"Most likely," she agrees with a nod.

"You may be a priestess, but we aren't exactly missionaries spreading religion wherever we go," Alissa chimes in with a skeptical tone.

"There are two blessed people in our group," Ciel retorts immediately, then she crosses her arms and smiles wryly as she adds, "then there's Wolfy's new race and Aoi's conversion, both of which will cause a… 'commotion' in the temple."

"Right…" I grunt and knit my eyebrows in worry. My tail strongly sways from side to side, amusing Aoi as she stares at it as if she's in a trance.

"Ohohoh… well, he converted Aoi through his dick, but it's still a valid conversion," Roxanne bemusedly comments.

"Holy cock," Hana mutters, and Ciel gives them both a quick glare to make them stop with the blasphemy

"I feel like relying on our 'holy' side is our safest and most effective move," Yunia adds with a serious tone.

"And how would we do that?" I question. I still don't have much confidence in interacting with the religion of this world.

Ciel gives my thigh a loving squeeze as she reassures me, "Get the temple involved. Like Lina said, it's the God of the Sun that turned part of Glorampina into a desert, so it'll be through him that we'll find a solution."

"Ooh… Are we starting a Holy War, then?" Hana excitedly coos with a glint in her eyes.

Ciel nearly chokes in her spit and shifts uncomfortably on the grass, then sternly lectures Hana, "I hope not. There are many innocents living in Heretic's Rest, so we can't just go there and execute everyone without proof that they're actually heretical."

"I mean, it's just a label. I didn't mean to say that we're going to purify the land or something," Hana defends herself with a shrug.

Lina briefly interjects, "Arreira didn't say anything about killing the royals, just that they should come out of hiding and stop defying the empire."

"We'll simply talk to the royals first, before we get to any executions," Ciel pushes the point even further with a very severe tone.

I decide to make it clear by asking outright, "Are we all in agreement with getting the temple involved in this matter?"

I look at the others, looking for any disagreement, but they're more concerned with the difficulties of becoming not just nobility, but straight-up royalty than with the complications of adding religion into the mix. Also, they're all ardent believers of my "heroic destiny," so, although they aren't the most pious, they aren't worried about what the temple would say or do to us.

"The temple isn't that strong in the High Forest, but I think they might be our only true ally here," Lina contemplates.

"Once we're Crown Lords, we'll be able to give them more power, right?" Roxanne questions, and Yunia agrees with both of them.

Aoi stays quiet as she hasn't even had proper lessons about religion yet, but I probe her mind and feel that she's actually a bit excited about joining in on the praying and worshiping aspects. Something about it resonates with the "human" growing inside her.

"Our biggest problem might be the Elder Council," Yunia states, and no one disagrees with her words. "They're the ones who have the power to easily depose us if they feel threatened, so we have to be very careful with how we approach them about our family being made into 'royalty.'"

Alissa probes the practical benefits of this arrangement with, "Where would we even be as 'royalty' in the power hierarchy? Would it just be an honorary title, or what?"

Yunia suddenly straightens her posture and smiles subtly, then she conveys an idea that just came to her in her big beautiful brain, "One of the Council seats is held exclusively by the descendants of the God of Law, the Leigelas family. Just like Confiel, we could justify ourselves by announcing that we plan on acquiring a seat in the Council, and since we're involving the temple, we could also lean on a 'divine mandate' that declares us as the most capable to deal with this matter."

"What's a 'divine mandate'?" I confusedly ask, and Aoi nods along, just as confused as I am.

"The will of the Gods," Ciel eagerly explains, then assumes a teaching tone. "It can be stated explicitly through a Message of the Gods, or it could be inferred implicitly through other means, like the Threads of Fate. Since the Gods can influence our Threads, we could say that our meeting with Arreira was due to divine influence, and so, we can assume that they've chosen us to champion this cause. You did have a vision about this dungeon-… no, wait, it was Gecynd who did, which was odd, but still, our Fate, Arreira's, and that of the royalty are all entwined together."

"Ah, yes, the Tree of Mana. I still don't understand how she fits into all of this," Yunia comments as she plays with one tip of her long, flexible elven ears.

I start to imagine myself sucking on that bouncy cartilage, but Alissa's voice makes me stop drooling as she says, "She's an ancient being that met with possibly the first realm traveler in existence. Whatever Wolfy's destiny is here, it's very likely that it involves her since she's literally a large part of the known realm."

I remember one of our previous talks and contribute, "We talked about this before, but the greatest advantage that Gecynd might get from us is that we're people with legs and connections. If we become part of the Council, wouldn't our sphere of influence grow to span most of the realm?"

"Ooh… I see," Yunia whispers and nods in understanding, then her gaze becomes as sharp as a knife's edge, filled with determination. "Then our path is clear…"

I smirk as our two minds feel like they're in sync for a moment, then I look around as I ask, "Any objections?"

Alissa is calm. She doesn't consider the title of "royalty" to be too daunting for her.

Roxanne is energetic. She's become rather brave and proactive when compared to her usual laziness.

Hana is excited. The proud dragon inside her wants to flap its wings every time it hears "royalty."

Ciel is hopeful. She trusts that the Gods sent us to Arreira because we really should get involved in these matters.

Lina is composed. For once, it seems like there won't be much risk of death if we get involved in this, so she's ready for whatever may come our way.

Aoi is happy. The human and the dragon inside her both agree with Arreira's proposal, and the first converted monster being elevated into a queen seems very fitting to her.

Yunia is determined. She yearns for a great accomplishment that could overshadow the disgrace her family went through, and this feels like the perfect opportunity for that.

Both of my "two sides" agree, feeling somewhat similar to how Aoi does about it, but that isn't the most important part about it in my opinion. Acquiring more power without having to necessarily remove someone else in order to take their place is something that I can't so easily give up on.

As they all nod in agreement, I stand up and look around, trying to locate Arreira's presence, but he doesn't seem to be anywhere near us.

I decide to simply fill my lungs with air and shout, "Arreira! We accept!"

We hear a loud *snap* nearby, and an uncomfortably sexy presence falls upon us, making our heart race for a moment before we get our feelings back under control again.

Arreira appears, standing on the grass, his over two meters of height rivaling human-Aoi's, his posture exuding confidence, and his smile brimming with happiness. "The only right choice," he whispers.

Mana escapes Arreira's body, then an arch of branches quickly grows up from the ground. After just a few seconds, it reaches twice his height, then it gets covered with a familiar white veil as [Eternal Gate] is cast upon it, and the glimmer of many precious items shines through from the other side of the portal.

"Now come, it's time for your rewards," he calmly orders, then his smile becomes bitter. "And also time for me to rest…"