Underneath the vibrant red leaves of the qlipoth, Eris was currently sitting down and having a conversation with what was quickly becoming her friend.
“I’ve made up my mind… I’m going to marry Abaddon.” Eris clutched her breast and tried to calm her rapidly beating heart that pulsed at his mere memory. “This is my heart’s honest desire…”
“…”
Eris’ ears suddenly twitched and she immediately became flustered when she heard the demonic tree’s taunting words. “W-What do you mean you knew that would happen? T-This was a very hard and difficult decision for me to make!”
“….”
“I-It was not obvious!” Eris argued. “Cheeky thing! You could just congratulate me instead of teasing me you know?”
“….”
“What do you mean that wouldn’t be any fun?!”
*Snicker.*
Eris’ smooth cheeks immediately reddened when she realized her conversation was being spied upon.
Her worst fears were confirmed when she saw Zheng and Lusamine standing a short distance away, giggling silently and holding their stomachs.
“W-What are the two of you doing here?!”
“Pfft… We were just going on a light stroll.” Lusamine replied as she fought to regain some semblance of composure.
Zheng nodded in confirmation, a humorous light still shining in his red eyes.
“I know that you can actually hear her and everything but watching you talk to trees like this really is quite strange.” The succubus wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes and came to sit next to her elven friend.
“That aside, I’m a bit hurt that you told some tree about your decision before you told us.” Lusamine admitted.
“…”
Eris listened to the words of the tree with a faint smirk before acting as a translator. “She says she’s not just some tree and that your bony butt is hurting her roots.”
Lusamine twitched and a vein began to throb in her forehead.
Suddenly she showed a smile that was not a smile and held up her hand to produce a small ball of flame. “Bonfire anyone?”
“You know that she protects this place, right? My love won’t like it if you interfere with the safety of his home.” Eris countered.
That reasoning did give Lusamine pause.
Angry as she might be, she could only imagine the bruising the demon king would administer to her bottom if she actually torched his precious tree.
The succubus slowly closed her palm but not before she shot the tree a hateful glare.
” ‘My love’, huh? Seems like you finally stopped hiding from your feelings.”
At first, Eris did not know what Lusamine was talking about. It was only after taking a moment to reflect that she realized those words were the ones she unconsciously used to refer to Abaddon.
“I-I…”
“It’s alright, I’ve no intentions to tease you about that. If anything I’m just glad that you finally realized what your heart truly desires. ” Normally, the pair spent most of their time squabbling over needless things, but right now Lusamine was genuinely happy for her friend.
Eris prepared to offer her heartfelt thanks, but in the next moment the gates to the city opened and a few of the guards walked through, escorting what appeared to be a group of outsiders.
When the trio saw who was being escorted inside, none could suppress their surprise.
“What the hell…?”
–
Lately, Audrina Sanguine had been having the time of her life.
After leaving her sister in charge of her throne, she had succeeded in wooing the man of her dreams.
Their love was passionate and obsessive, yet she always seemed to want more no matter how much he gave her.
To make matters even better, she had been accepted by the rest of his wives and they treated her like their own sister. Her two daughters were also assuredly the cutest thing she had ever seen.
Audrina had never experienced the warmth of a family, but she’d always known it was something she’d like to have.
After finally obtaining it, she found that that it somehow superseded all of her expectations and everyday felt like the most wonderful dream.
And yet…
“AGHH! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH EVERYONE GONEEE??!” Audrina flailed about angrily on the bed as she resisted the urge to run and track her family down so that she might smother them in her love.
What was she to do with all of them gone for an entire week?!
It was only the second day, yet she already felt like she would go insane from not seeing them!
She wanted to chat and joke with her fellow wives!
She wanted to smother her daughters in cuddles!
She wanted to have sex with her husband and drink his blood until her belly and her womb were full!
Was that too much to ask for!?
Knock! Knock! Knock!
A sudden guest at the door prompted a depressed sigh from Audrina.
With her senses, she already knew who had arrived and unfortunately it was not one of her precious family who had come back early.
The vampire dragged herself out of bed and opened the door to see her family’s three precious maids.
Their cute little faces did serve to improve her mood, if only by a little.
“Lady Audrina, there are guests asking for an audience,”
Almost immediately, Audrina’s improving mood dropped to an all new low.
A chilly atmosphere was now coming off the vampire queen in waves and she did not even bother to ask who was here before making her way downstairs.
With every step, Audrina lost more and more of her kind and motherly personality that she had cultivated in her time here and instead returned to her usual unapproachable and fierce demeanor.
She was not even remotely curious about who had come, her only thoughts were on getting this person out of the city as soon as possible.
Boom!
Audrina threw open the double doors to the waiting room and her mood reached a pitiful new low.
Sitting on a sofa inside the parlor were the witch queen Sei and her two daughters.
Keeping a close eye on them a few feet away were Zheng, Eris, and Lusamine who had taken the liberty of escorting these high profile guests to the family manor.
When Sei saw who had so boldly thrown open the door, her expression immediately became one of shock. “What are you doing here?!”
“Hoh? This bitch calls for me and yet you have the nerve to ask why I’m here?”
“I asked to see Exed- I mean Abaddon!” Sei argued. “Now what are you-“
“Watch your fucking mouth.” Audrina’s eyes had become dark and obsessive and it was taking everything inside of her not to kill this woman outright. “Do you think I want to hear a beast like you use my husband”s name so casually?”𝑜𝚟𝔩xt.𝒞𝐌
As a demigoddess herself Sei was partially unaffected by Audrina’s pressure, her daughters however immediately broke out into a sweat.
A feat that Audrina did not miss and she immediately began to form her own conclusions about what could have happened to them prior to their arrival.
“Did you say… husband?” Sei believed she had gone deaf.
Had this undead harlot actually succeeded in seducing that handsome dragon before she did?
Could this day possibly get any worse?!
“Why are you here?” Audrina demanded.
Sei took a deep breath and tried to maintain the presence of a ruler even though her lands were now reduced to a black, barren wasteland.
“Naturally I wanted to establish friendly relations with a new ruler and seeing as how we are already linked by marriage, I thought it might be fruitful to discuss-“
“You must be joking.” Audrina’s tone was so unfriendly it sent shivers down the backs of everyone present.
Sei’s gaze soon matched Audrina’s unfriendly tone. “I assure you, I am by no means-“
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!” Audrina suddenly threw her head back and began laughing maniacally.
This was absolutely the best joke she’d heard in several centuries!
Even after a full two minutes, Audrina did not stop laughing.
By this point tears were rolling out of her violet eyes and she was clutching her sides in agony.
“What the hell is so funny, vampire?!” Sei’s anger was continuously building.
She’d been openly disrespected twice today, and she was quickly reaching the limits of her patience.
However, Audrina had already reached her breaking point.
The vampire suddenly stopped laughing and gave the witch an ice cold stare.
“Aurora dimension.”
In an instant, the shadows in the room went wild and rushed towards Sei.
“You dare!?” The witch queen’s hands glowed vibrantly as she prepared to defend herself but as soon as a tendril of shadow touched her foot, her entire body sank into the darkness below.
“Mother!”
“No!”
Her twin daughters immediately stood up, but before they could move a single muscle a giant scythe and a golden katana were aimed at their necks.
Audrina’s descent into the shadows was much slower than the witch queens, giving her time to dole out a few orders before leaving.
“If they so much as twitch, take their heads off.”
Her body soon disappeared and the shadows in the room became normal again.
With the room now silent, Lusamine was the first to comment on the spectacle they’d just witnessed.
“She’s been so sweet and mellow lately I completely forgot about all of the stories about her.”
Zheng and Eris did not comment but they nodded in agreement.
Audrina’s reputation as a ruthless and icy individual appeared to have been no mere illusion. The pressure coming off her earlier was almost as frightening as that of the demon kings of pride and wrath.
All eyes suddenly drifted to the spot where the two women had disappeared.
It did not take a genius to realize that the two were going to engage in battle, but in a conflict where both parties were demigods, who would emerge victorious in the end?