Within the gates of the dwarven city, soldiers were gathering at the ready, lured outside by the thunderous sound of marching from beyond the walls.
All of the women and children had already been evacuated to a bunker beneath the military base, making the city empty aside from those who were capable of fighting.
A secure defensive line had formed in front of the gates to the city, their weapons trained and focused solely on the inevitable confrontation.
Suddenly, a loud and repeated banging was heard as a supposedly large object bashed into the front gate.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
With every strike against the structure, it became more and more unstable until a gust of wind could have blown it down.
BANG!!
The wooden gates were shattered into pieces, and an enormous grey wolf burst through the wreckage.
The creature was truly monstrous, with a body several times larger than a horse and dark horns curling up from behind it’s ears.
It’s three eyes were black and soulless, and staring into them was like looking into the pitch black emptiness of the void.
As frightening as the creature may have been, the men were having a hard time taking their eyes off of the two women seated atop it’s back.
One was a beautiful witch with reptilian golden eyes and wearing a dark black dress with a golden usekh around her frail neck.
Sitting behind her was a woman that none of them could truly identify.
She was something like a dark elf, but she had stag-like antlers curling out of her hair and there was a dark green gem embedded in her forehead. 𝑜𝑣𝐞xt.𝗇t
All had seemingly forgotten the fact that these women were invaders and were only focused on their one-of-a-kind beauty.
“Well, this is quite the treat!”
“I was expecting an army, but this feels like a party!”
“I’ll give you girls twenty gold if you take your tops off!”
The men felt more than comfortable enough to make dirty jokes and jest, as they had more than enough confidence in their defensive measures.
In Apeir at least, women were not typically respected as much as men, whether in the forge or the battlefield.
After seeing that the army of supposed invaders was led by women, any sense of danger was thoroughly erased.
The faces of Lailah and Eris turned ugly as they listened to the insulting words thrown at them by what they considered to be inferior beasts.
“Initially we were going to ask you politely to surrender…”
“But now we see that a simple courtesy would be wasted upon you…”
“”Your deaths will be the cruelest imaginable!!””
Lailah held out her hand, and a thick blob of undiluted venom formed in her palm.
“Take comfort in this, beasts. Know that your miserable lives will finally serve some purpose in your deaths.”
Throwing the blob up into the air, it exploded and became an aerosol-like mist that blanketed the entire city in a matter of moments.
The effect was sickening and instantaneous.
“W-What is this!?”
“M-My skin is melting off!!”
“I-I… bleghhh!!”
Lailah’s poison had the unique effect of rotting the flesh of anyone below stage three evolved.
Anyone with exposed skin had to watch their flesh become diseased and grey.
And those that breathed in the air suffered an even worse fate.
The poison coagulated in their lungs, eating them from the inside out and causing them to vomit out their lungs and organs.
Even those who were above stage three and should not have been affected had a stinging feeling bubble up in their chests.
However, things were only going to get worse for them.
Eris let out a low whistle, and the sky overhead darkened as millions of demons soared into the air.
Magic and weapons rained down on the poisoned dwarves like retribution from heaven itself.
Dive bombing out of the sky, the demons began their assault on the city.
They had no problem breathing in the air contaminated by Lailah’s poison, as Abaddon’s blood that now flowed through their veins was something of a vaccine.
Lailah and Eris slipped down from Bekka’s back and allowed her to freely run on a rampage.
It only took a few moments for her dark grey fur to change into a matted red, but the fluffy creature seemed to be having the time of her life.
However, she had to be careful.
If she got too excited, she would lose her already shaky grip on her psyche and start attacking her soldiers and enemies alike.
‘I’m in control, I’m in control! Have fun, b-but not too much fun!’
It was difficult, but she was somehow able to hold onto her rationale and not go overboard.
And judging by the wagging of her tail, she was both excited by her progress and the feeling of getting to run free after so long on the sidelines.
Lailah and Eris were still standing by the front gate, receiving bows from Absalom and his siblings.
Stheno: “Empresses, please allow us to apologize for the immense disrespect shown by these cretins.”
Absalom: “We will thoroughly erase very trace of them from this planet.”
Hakon: “All will be eradicated to atone for their narrow mindedness.”
Always the kindest of Abaddon’s wives, Eris smiled sweetly and pointed towards the back of the city.
“Thank you, but there is a rather large number of living souls situated underneath the city, and they seem to be mostly children as well. We would appreciate it if you didn’t harm them.”
“””Naturally, empress.”””
The three vanished in the blink of an eye and proceeded to join the battle, leaving Lailah and Eris in each other’s company.
“Don’t you want to partake in the battle, sister?” Lailah asked. “You seemed rather excited when you won in the drawing.”
Eris sighed before pouting and prodding Lailah in the ribs.
“Well I was but someone got a bit too agitated and killed twenty percent of the opposition with one spell. If I joined now there wouldn’t be a lot left for our soldiers to do, and you know how much they’ve been looking forward to this.”
“Ah…. W-Well I couldn’t help it! Did you not see the way that those pigs were looking at us? Y-You should just be thankful that it was me and not Audrina, or there would be no more city left!”
“I know, I know. I didn’t say I didn’t understand, I just wish I had something to do is all.” Eris said sadly.
Lailah prepared to comfort her, but all of a sudden, her body began to feel strangely warm.
She started to have trouble keeping her eyes open, and leaned on Eris for support. “Sister… sleepy…”
Lailah’s body began to glow with a familiar golden light that could be seen for miles, and soon her body was floating on it’s own.
“Congratulations, sister.” Eris said with a sweet smile. “You’re evolving.”
Lailah couldn’t quite hear her through her hibernation, but the gesture was appreciated nonetheless.
BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!
Suddenly, there was a large explosion of blue light, and several members of the demonic army were sent flying through the air.
“It’s General Asar!”
“Victory will be ours!”
“Kill these fucking demons!”
The source of the agitation was a tanned skin dwarf in bronze armor, with a thick black beard and a blue cape billowing in the wind behind him.
He stood at only five feet tall, but somehow he had presence that made him seem much larger.
He carried a shield the length of his body in one arm, and an oversized battle axe in the other.
He himself was only at the fourth stage, but it was easy to tell that all of his weapons and equipment were at the false god grade.
The man was instantaneously deemed a threat, and was besieged by the tag team of Lusamine and Stheno.
“Wait a moment, girls.”
As if time had stopped, the two girls froze when they heard a familiar regal voice.
Like the famous scene of a man parting the Red Sea, Eris and Bekka walked calmly through the bloody battlefield, their eyes solely focused on the new enemy.
‘Can you fight him, sister?’ Eris asked.
‘…No. Even if I lost myself completely, I still would not be able to-‘
‘That’s great! Then you can go and protect Lailah while she finishes evolving!’ Eris did not realize how excited she sounded in her mind, but Bekka did.
‘….’
‘What?’ She asked innocently.
‘Sister… why do I feel that you became excited when I told you that I could not participate in this battle?’ Bekka inquired.
‘…’
In truth, Eris just wanted to show off in front of her family a bit.
Out of all of Abaddon’s wives, she was always the one that everyone was the most sensitive over and they tended to treat her like a dainty flower.
It wasn’t because they believed her to be incapable, but she was just so gentle and lovable!
No kind of harm could be allowed to befall their sweet baby Eris!
They had to protect her from the cruel words of enemies and even small things like stubbed toes!
Even when she had drawn straws a moment ago, there were concerned looks from the other wives about her participation.
She was grateful that everyone loved and cared about her so much, but she was a stage three evolved already!
She was just as capable of fighting as everyone else, and she wanted a chance to prove that!
‘N-No reason! Hurry, our sister needs protecting!’ Eris avoided the subject expertly.
Bekka gave the dark elf a dry gaze before turning back and heading towards the space where Lailah rested. ‘Alright… if you need help then the others can-‘
‘I-I won’t need help, I’m fine!’
‘Okay then, good hunting.’
Eris smiled and tried to suppress her excited heartbeat as she dismissed Lusamine and Stheno.
“I’ve got this. You two help keep our losses down.”
“Yes, Empress.”
“Cool beans.”
The two women disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving only the dark elf and the dwarf behind.
“Want me all to your self, do you lass?” The man teased. “If you surrender now then Asar of the eight mountains will happily take you to the peak!”
Eris’ offense over his cruel words was currently being suppressed by her desire to laugh.
*Snicker* “Eight mountains…. are you sure?”
Asar’s face suddenly became ugly and his flirtatious nature from before was no longer present. “I have half a mind to cut your ears off for such disrespect!”
“I could not agree more.”
Whoosh!
In an impressive display of inhuman speed, Eris appeared directly behind Asar without him even being able to follow her movements.
“You do indeed have half a mind, if you believe that there is any sort of way where you can speak to me like that and continue to live.”
BOOM!
Suddenly, the bright green gem on Eris’ forehead turned a muddled red color, and a beam of dark energy shot out of her forehead.
General Aras was struck squarely in the back, and his little body was sent tumbling into the dirt.
Other than the wind being knocked out of his body, he believed himself to be relatively fine, and he quickly stood up when he suddenly heard a creaking sound from his armor.
False grade god equipment is thought to be indestructible.
As the name implies, it is a mimicry of divinity, and thus nearly as eternal as a god.
But as Asar glanced at his back, he could see that his armor was rotting in the place where Eris’ beam had struck.
Suddenly it was as if his armor was lacking in everything that made it divine.
Asar looked back at Eris, and he no longer found her quite so appealing and harmless as he did before.
This beautiful dark elf with antlers growing out of her head, was no less a monster than the creature she was married to.