The celebration did not persist for much longer before the rabisu found themselves unable to suppress their hunger and dove on top of the fresh corpses surrounding them.
Mira was easily influenced so she also tried to bite into one of the birds, however she was stopped by three of her mothers, insisting that eating corpses wasn’t behavior befitting of a princess.
Bekka was the only one who was adamant that her sweet girl would look cute even if she was eating a dead bird.
Unfortunately, she was ignored.
Mira could only pout as she stared enviously at the rabisu who were feasting as if they were eating the best thing ever.
‘So jealous…’
Luckily, in that moment Audrina flew down in front of them with young Thea in her arms.
“You should let her eat a heart at least. Actually, we all should.” She noted. “Having a second life is too good an opportunity to pass up on you know?”
Mira’s eyes lit up and she fought off the urge to celebrate early.
She’d learned her lesson when her cookie scheme failed earlier and she would only cry out in joy when her prize was in her hands!
The wives all looked at each other and nodded.
Bekka walked towards the nearest phoenix corpse and plunged her claws into it’s chest cavity. After worming her hand around inside for a while, she pulled out a large heart that was still steaming hot.
“Here you go my little bean bun! Be careful it’s hot.”
Mira let out a small squeal of excitement and dove right in to her new treat.
She carefully took a small bite and showed off a beaming smile. “Thank you, mothers!”
The wives all took critical damage.
Even with bloodied teeth, their daughter was simply too adorable.
“You all did splendidly.” Audrina said as she smiled at her battle tested family. “Looks like you didn’t need our help after all.”
Pride filled the chests of the wives.
In their husband’s absence, they had stepped up and filled his shoes splendidly. They did not suffer any major injuries and even the losses sustained by their army were not substantial.
It was rather easy for them to feel eclipsed by their husband with all of his incredible powers and great feats.
But today they proved that not only were they capable of standing alongside him, they also showed that they were able to step up in his absence.
Internally, Valerie was the most moved.
Even though she’d always been a fighter, she never envisioned herself as the warrior type.
And yet today she had defied even her own expectations and put on a stellar performance.
It made her wonder about the favor that she’d asked her husband about, the one that initially led to her accompanying him to the demon continent in the first place.
‘I know what he promised me but… maybe I have the strength to do it on my own?’
Valerie eventually decided it would be best to think about such things later.
For right now she wanted to bask in this glorious victory.
Audrina could not take her eyes off of the newly evolved Bekka.
She would be lying if she said she was not at least a little bit curious about the secret behind the void element and how she was able to learn it.
But something was odd.
The vampire wasn’t exactly being shy about her staring at Bekka, yet it seemed as though she was unwilling to meet her gaze for some reason.
“Bekka?”
“Y-Yes!?”
That reaction only confirmed Audrina’s suspicions and increased her curiosity. “I want to know, how was it that you were finally able to evolve?”
This prompted all of the other girls to stare at Bekka with equally curious expressions.
“That’s right! You’ve become so powerful now, Bekka!”
“Mommy was super fast!”𝗈𝚟𝗅xt.𝒸𝑂𝑚
“And that strange power… that was the void element, wasn’t it?”
“But why do you look like this now?”
With so much of her family’s attention focused on her, Bekka began to feel slightly shy.
“Hehe, take it easy guys!” she slowly backed away from their sudden interrogation. “L-Let’s wait until husband wakes up then I’ll tell you everything!”
The vampire queen suddenly smirked and pointed behind her.
They all followed her finger to the city walls where they could see the man in question sitting next to a handsome demon that some had yet to meet.
Once he saw his entire family looking his way, Abaddon showed off an uncharacteristic smile and waived.
–
“That wasn’t very bright you know?”
“It was just a spar!”
“You made us worry again!”
“Father? Mira doesn’t think you’re an idiot b-but I also don’t think that was very smart…”
The group had gone back to the manor and each of the girls took turns chewing out Abaddon for his reckless behavior.
Standing in the corner watching all of this with humorous eyes was his father, Asmodeus.
‘If only you knew, boy. Your mother used to chew me out ten times worse than this.’
The ancient demon suddenly missed his beautiful wife and slipped silently upstairs to check on her condition.
Abaddon smiled helplessly.
It might seemed strange but he almost lived for moments like this.
In moments like these he could truly feel their love and care being transmitted through their scolding.
Such a thing almost made him want to put his life in even more danger.
If his wives knew he felt like this they would implode from anger. They scolded him in the hopes that he would do less stupid shit not more.
“I understand girls-“
“DO YOU?” They inquired in unison.
The dragon only smirked.
“Does my family truly have so little faith in me?”
“…”
Unsurprisingly he was met with only blank stares and utter silence.
Deciding to change the topic before his wives started to beat him, Abaddon finally offered his own congratulations.
“Ahem, Anyway…I’m quite proud of you all. Even without Audrina or myself, you defended our home with everything you had and emerged victorious.”
His wives smiled, already forgetting about their earlier frustration.
“But you my little wolf..”
“Eh???”
Abaddon suddenly pulled Bekka into his lap and nuzzled her neck affectionately. “You have undoubtedly surprised me the most this night. To say that I am impressed would be an understatement.”
Bekka would have normally been overjoyed with receiving such affection, but in this moment she had far too much weighing on her mind.
Noticing her hesitation, Abaddon placed a small kiss on her cheek. “You have something you want to say? Do not hesitate.”
Bekka opened her mouth to speak, when her gaze fell not the two little girls who were also in the room.
“Thea, Mira… would you mind giving the grown ups a moment to talk?” She asked kindly.
Mira was already in the process of dozing off so she did not put up much of a fight.
Thea obediently picked up her sister and led her to the bath before she’d tuck her into bed.
When the children were gone, Bekka finally faced her husband with a face full of worry.
“My love… what do you know about the abyss?”
Abaddon’s blood suddenly ran cold.
The worry Bekka associated with that name was impossible for him not to notice.
Audrina also felt her body tense up as she heard mention of a name she’d never expected to hear from the mouth of a being that was anything less than a stage five evolved.
“…In truth, I know very little.” he admitted. “I only know that it is a place where mysterious beings dwell who sometimes bless me with power. Though why they do such a thing, I remain unaware.”
Bekka nodded silently, expecting this to some degree.
“What’s going on? What did you learn while you were down there?” He asked anxiously.
He was already aware that one of Bekka’s evolution conditions required her to travel to the abyss but he was not at all sure how she was supposed to get there or what she saw upon arrival.
Bekka took several deep shaky breaths before she started to tell the story of how she fell into Tehom.
She spoke of the deep, ancient voice that compelled her to thrust her body into a near death state so that her soul could be pulled below.
She told them in great detail about the dark hellish landscape and the cries of monsters that were unlike anything she’d ever heard before.
What surprised the group most of all, was how she told them of the incredibly powerful woman who claimed to be her mother and seemingly held a position of high rank.
With every word spoken, Audrina’s eyes became wider and wider.
‘Her mother.. is one of those seven monsters???’
Unfortunately, Audrina’s shock had yet to end when Bekka revealed the biggest bombshell yet.
“She took me to see a man and… Audrina it was your father. The vampire king is in the abyss.”
Out of all of the words Audrina expected to hear, the revelation of her father’s whereabouts were not one of them.