– Wuhan, China
A man and nine women suddenly appeared outside the Hubei Provincial Museum in the Wuchang district of Wuhan.
As it was currently nighttime, they alone had the entire museum to themselves.
“This will be just like that museum movie we watched the other day!” Bekka said excitedly.
“Has anyone else been slightly concerned by the fact that seince we have been on earth all we have done is eat food and watch television in different countries?” Lailah asked.
“No?” they all said aloud.
“My mistake then.” she said with a laugh.
Lailah’s eyes drifted towards the front of the group, where her husband was still marching silently.
Ever since Asherah sort of shocked him out of his dreamscape, he had been a bit distracted.
Her timing was truly inopportune, as Abaddon felt he was just on the cusp of learning something important when it was cut short.
Needless to say, he had been fairly moody and contemplative ever since.
It led to the decision to come all the way to china and claim one of the weapons that was capable of killing him for themselves.
Perhaps because his wives knew that he needed the time to think, they had been giving him a short but reasonable amount of distance.
Well… Metaphorically speaking, not literally.
Seras was even riding on his back at the moment, giving him the occasional kiss on the cheek and consolatory nuzzle.
And though he wasn’t saying much, the girls knew he appreciated the gesture very much.
Without slowing down or faltering, the group passed through the museum doors separating the treasures inside from the outside world.
The motion sensors inside seemed not to recognize their presence here, as there was no blaring or loud alarms to announce their arrival.
However, they did feel a bit annoyed when they walked in.
There were lots of charms in this place that were designed to ward off evil spirits and the like.
And while Abaddon and his wives were certainly not evil, (depending on who you asked), their powers were rooted in demonic energy, so the charms did have some effect on them.
But then again, it was so small that it was barely noticeable to the wives, and Abaddon did not notice it at all.
“Alright… I will go and find the sword. Would you girls like to look around?” he asked calmly.
The nine wives looked at each other almost like they were having a sort of internal dialogue.
In an instant, they formed up into small groups while Valerie took her sister Seras’ place on her husband’s back.
“Is this safe for the baby?” he asked once he felt the small bump in her stomach pressing into his back.
“Ah…good point.”
Valerie crawled down from his back and held out her arms in front of her to be lifted up, allowing Abaddon to hold her in a princess carry.
“Better?” he asked.
“Yes.” she said warmly.
With his mood already starting to improve, Abaddon bid the rest of his wives farewell before heading deeper into the museum with Valerie in tow.
The pairings for the rest of the girls were as follows.
Eris & Lisa.
Tatiana, Audrina, & Lillian.
Lailah, Bekka, & Seras.
As aways, the groups seemed to be completely randomized as they all broke off to see different parts of the exhibit.
Lailah got quickly got the feeling that she had paired up with Bekka because she knew that she would need a babysitter.
“Oh! What’s thi-”
“Don’t touch that please, love.”
“Where are the bones at? I want to animate them and make them dance and talk!”
“You will absolutely NOT be doing that, but let’s see if they have any remains on display.”
“Do you think they have a snack cart in here or something?”
“You just ate an hour before we came…”
“That doesn’t have anything to do with what I just said though.”
While Lailah was trying to keep her oldest friend from playing with the old bronze weapons in one of the exhibition halls, Seras stopped in front of a statue of a god.
‘Guan Yu…’
“See something interesting?”
Seras smiled when she saw Lailah coming back towards her with their sister’s ear between her fingers.
One would have thought that Bekka would be upset about that, but she was currently chowing down on a cinnamon churro that was nearly as long as her husband’s member.
Normally, the concern of crumbs would have been called into question but this was Bekka… there would barely even be a wrapper left when she was done.
Seras gestured to the statue of the man in front of her and a slight challenging light shone within her red eyes.
“This is Guan Yu. Apparently, he was a human general who ascended to godhood quite a long time ago. I was wondering what kind of enemy he might be, as well as the sum total of his might.”
Bekka : “Mmmph fmm dmhh chmmrfr?”
“Sister, please finish your food first.” Seras said with a wry smile.
*Gulp* “Looking for another challenge?”
“Something like that I suppose.”
Lailah let her eyes drift towards the bronze statue of the somewhat portly Chinese deity holding a polearm.
She couldn’t help but look at her own family war gods, and she compared them without meaning to.
They were all so completely different.
“Do you girls… know what makes you different from other war gods?” Lailah asked with genuine curiosity.
Unsurprisingly, both girls gave her strange looks like they couldn’t understand where the question had come from.
“Just.. humor me for a moment.” The goddess of wisdom asked.
The two girls looked at each other before shrugging, and they could sense that Lailah was trying to work something out.
Once your family member becomes a goddess of wisdom and knowledge, things like this start to go hand in hand.
“I don’t know..? Our understanding of battle I suppose?”
“Our rankings?”
Lailah rolled her eyes somewhat as she brought her hand to her chin.
It wasn’t the girls’ fault that they didn’t know the answer to her question, as aside from Audrina everyone else in their family were incomplete gods.
They did not know the full weight of their power, identity, or divinities just yet.
“Tell us what is on your mind, Lailah.” Bekka said.
“I was just wondering something… Perhaps your deities have different varieties and purposes. Like Ganymede, Eros, and Hymenaeus. O-Or even just Ares and Athena! Perhaps in that same regard, you two are meant to be different reflections of the image that is war.” Lailah said.
Bekka and Seras also looked like they were beginning to think about this rather hard, as they could be seen in a rare mood of seriousness.
“Okay.. then which kind of reflections are we then?” Seras asked.
Lailah smiled at her softly as she pulled her sister into a soft and gentle embrace.
“Now, how am I supposed to know that? You know yourself better than I, sister. Why do the two of you fight?”
“”For our family.”” The girls said instantly and without a moment of hesitation.
Lailah smiled, but she shook her head no all the same.
“You both were fighting before you married our husband, before we had children. What moved you then? Why did you grab your weapon in spite of the fatigue in your muscles or the blood running down your limbs?”
This seemed to be a question that Bekka would find easier to answer than Seras.
While the charming hellhound simply clasped her hands behind her head to think, Seras briefly froze up before returning to her usual stone-like expression.
Perhaps because Lailah was able to sense her discomfort, she immediately pulled her much larger co-wife into her arms for a warm hug.
“All you need is to be a bit introspective for once, and then I am sure that you will find the answer. But you should hurry and get to it, you know? I am anxious to hear about it.”
“Lailah… I don’t know if I can do what you’re asking of me.”
“You can. I know that you have things in your past that you don’t like to talk about and probably don’t want to confront, but remember that those things are still apart of you and therefore are nothing to be scared of. They are just old ghosts, dear.”
“…Who is scared?”
“Oh? Seems no one anymore. Must have been a trick of the light.”
–
With Valerie still in his arms, Valerie easily found the object he was looking for.
Sitting within a glass case was a 22 inch sword with an old bronze blade that seemed to be made of copper.
Even for a weapon that was over 2,000 years old, this sword was still in excellent condition and remarkably sharp.
“…I’ve made better.”
“Yes you have, darling.” Abaddon agreed with a dry laugh.
Using his spatial divinity, he moved the sword from the space within the glass case to the space floating above it.
He placed Valerie down for a single moment so that his hands could be free, and pulled the sword directly into his palm.
As soon as he touched it, a frown formed on his face that made Valerie’s heart clench in pain.
Her husband parted his lips and confirmed what she already suspected.
“It is a fake.”