CHAPTER 350: OCEANMASTER I—GREATER THAN MORNINGSTAR

Lars Eotigan slept for nine straight hours after the moonlight affair. Why wouldn’t he? Last night he’d been served some proper nosh.

In his narrower bed he dreamed of the high steeples of Titans Landing, the edgy skyline of the greatest city in the Continent, and mighty clock towers that chimed in his mind. His dreaming though was occupied by the stare of huge green eyes in the sky. Bejeweled jade—testament to his past love. Eotigan without knowing it was whispering in his sleep the name of his Empress, the woman to which those forest-green eyes belonged.

"Ravenna. R-Ravenna. Raven. . .little raven."

Whilst he lay shivering in his bed, calling the name of an angel, the other bigger mattress in the cabin creaked upon its burnished posts as Kambili roused to the morning. She looked upon the handsome officer cuddled some feet away and studied him, and his words. The she turned to her sleeping partner. Inaia was already awake, her long braids sprawled over fat pillows. Cool citrine eyes twinkled over Kambili when the girl’s stare met hers. Kambili had often wondered if the white woman ever slept. She was already most certain that Inaia was as her Lord [Host] – not human.

Inaia was the freaking picture of some polished white witch this morning—what with her furious red dreadlocks stark on the bed. She was still in her splendid wine-colored dress from the night before. It brought huge blushes to Kambili’s cheeks. The fair warrior hastened her gaze back to the sleeping Adonis—the man both girls couldn’t seem to get enough of.

Kambili said in a low voice, looking at him, "does he always call her name in his sleep?"

Inaia turned her face away and rose easily from the bed. Her movements were silent. She took small steps to the east window and inhaled deeply of the fresh air coasting over the ship. A nice morning it was. The sun traced over the sea was more rose than gold. She listened for the noise of hustling crewmen but only heard the far seagulls. And snoring from other near cabins.

She briefly wondered how the orgy went.

Inaia was aware of Kambili’s eyes on her, devotedly awaiting a reply. Still breathing the sea air she offered back to the shaven redbone in her cultured, smooth voice—that almost superposed the passing breeze in its lushness: "Rarely does he call her name. Sometimes it’s Aya Naamah. Other times, Corazón. When he sleeps angry, it is another bitch entirely whom his subconscious sees." Inaia meant Lilith, the dreadful Dowager. But she held back on telling Kambili this, for the same reason she moved to stop the conversation—this part of it at least.

"This is not my story to tell." she told Kambili, adding, "and don’t you dare ask him when he rises, okay?"

Kambili nodded, noting the silent authority in Inaia’s posture, never mind that she’d seen just how lovely she was under the maroon silk. Kambili knew she was leagues from [waifu] status but clearly some girl in Eotigan’s past had managed to make the Prince of the Damned fall in love. And she was now dead. They, were dead. That’s why he wasn’t talking about it. That’s why he dreamed their names. That was why he changed his name.

The narrow bed suddenly creaked and both girls turned swiftly to it.

Inaia, from staring out at the ocean. Kambili, from staring at her.

Eotigan was sitting in his bed. Shirtless.

"—ahem." Inaia cleared her throat and rushed from the windows to the side of his cot. She put back her satin dress and kneeled to the daper floors.

[ALL HAIL THE BURNING ONE!]

[ALL HAIL THE APOLLYON OF THE ABYSS]

[ALL HAIL THE HARBINGER OF HEL]

All these praises Inaia rained on Eotigan telepathically, but to Kambili’s ears, the only form of greeting the fair-colored damsel saw Inaia offer was her courteous bow, and, "good morning, Lord [Host]."

Eotigan shared a private smile with Inaia. Then received Kambili in his arms when she hopped off her own bed right into his lap. He did not know the reason for her hug but he accepted it.

Inaia knew.

The same way she already had his fresh pants, tunic and boots picked out for the day. Eotigan insisted they use the cabin’s bathroom while he picked a tub of liquid soap, a towel—and like a chieftain straight out of one of the neighboring Corynthian islands, he marched for the ship’s common stalls, whistling as he went.

Inaia did watch him go. She noticed the decks were empty. But still she caught preening eyes behind translucent curtains.

Female eyes. Don’t ask how she knew.

She was still ’birdwatching’ in her bathrobe when Kambili hit her from behind with, "what did you mean when you said I wasn’t ready?"

"Pardon?" Inaia turned around. A swivel.

"You know? Last night?" Kambili went both white and pink in the face, in seconds of each other, "...when you tasted my, oh come on! Don’t make me say it. You know well what I mean."

"Ohh! That." Inaia feigned ignorance, but was still chuckling. "You’re an ass-virgin." She dropped.

"An ass what?"

"ASS. VIRGIN." Inaia enunciated. "You typically have not being fucked in the arse." Kambili was full peach but Inaia just kept going, "and don’t worry, this is a good thing. I will never allow my Lord [Host] to tarnish his flame seed in a whore. But I couldn’t let him drill you last night either." She raised her brows. "You’ve seen his size. You would’ve shit yourself!"

In that second, Kambili suddenly found her voice again. "YOU BITCH!"

She chased her rastafarian friend around the cabin. Inaia tossed pillows back in her face, torn in bubbly laughter, shrieking when Kambili chased her through the bathroom’s screen door. Within a minute they were both wet and panting, laughing hard, out of breath, soaked in warm water. In the back of her mind though, Kambili observed Inaia’s words again:

"...I will never allow my Lord [Host] to tarnish his flame seed in a whore..."

Did this mean they chose her? Before ever she knew it?

Weird. But she kept laughing. Inaia took the tub. She stood under the rain-tap.

Right beneath the hot, bathing girls, in the deck below, Eotigan himself sat in a hot bath. His gold eyes were shut. His thoughts were free. He focused only on breathing. He listened to the sound of trickling water. A small towel was laid over his genitals. His skin was cocooned in droplets of steam and sweat, fizzing over glistening, rawhide muscles.

Many of this mighty vessel’s passengers had not yet stumbled out of the stupor of last night’s debauchery. He was gratefully alone.

Having time to ruminate over absolutely nothing—and not get hard at the sight of his graceful darlings, Eotigan turned his mind to his current [Arcane Rune] and [Prowess] levels.

He was Rank S, yes. But this world had gone to shit. For a bloodthirsty demon like him to be at true peace and protect those he loved, he had to drive himself to last [Intra-volution]. His kind would forever be at his throat for what he did to the Umber dragon. Lilith Firstborn was many things to the underworld. And he’d killed her. Big whoops! It was now imperative that he become the most powerful and feared Hellion.

A Hel King. Deus Infernum. Greater than the GOAT, his uncle. Greater than the Morningstar.

To do this he had to keep leveling up. To be the literal god of devils.

To be at the highest immortal attainment. A Brahman tier.

Super fucking untouchable.

"SYSTEM! Stats please! And current missions!"

In the bathtub right above his Caldarium, Kambili couldn’t see under the showers but Inaia went utterly still as she hastened to the order of her [Host]. She was both in reality and in his head. In her animation to the real, she still had—and loved—to fulfill her duties as first and foremost, his Subservient. She came in with this pinging; the notification visible to Eotigan with his eyes shut.

It was a golden screen this time. A celestial attribute. She, without being told, always made the upgrades necessary with the increase of his Helworth.

[DING!]

[100% psyche-bridge uplink achieved!]

[SYSTEMS BRIEF | NOTARY ONE]

[Helworth: 11.02 Billion. . .minus Bargained Souls, Corrupted Souls, Ascended Souls]

[Assets Spike over the last ten moons: + 246%]

[Arcane Rune: 4TH INFERNAL CIRCLE | THE GREAT DESTROYER]

[3rd Intra-volution]

[Consequence: Second Most Wanted Man in Hel.]

[Consequence II: Most Wanted Man in Titans Landing.]

Eotigan scoffed. His pupils moved under closed eyelids. "Tell me something I didn’t know."

The Capital city of the Continent, wealthiest and most racial, wanted him because the Empyrean, Her Imperial Majesty desired it so. He had run away from a grieving young queen. And Hel...well, Hel wanted him because of a long scroll of unrighteousness—and not their kind of unrighteous. He had murdered the Matriarch of covens, ascended Hel to escape his infernal destiny, waged the wars of mortal men, fucked their wiry women, put half of the royal nobles of the abyss in a prison of no escape; his unending list of sins. This was how the caste of Hel now viewed him. Their son of prophecy, turned to a wanker by a virgin angel.

Eotigan couldn’t give less of a shit.

He knew his uncles and au...mom! They would’ve burned the planet to prove a point.

Reckoning was coming. He could feel it. So he had to do what he did best: evolve.

[Ding!]

[SYSTEMS BRIEF | NOTARY TWO]

[Achieved Missions. . .]

[MISSION I: Make a pirate MILF beg to steer your rudder.]

[MISSION II: Commit ass-play with a Governor’s wife.]

[MISSION III: Silence a siren’s singing with nothing but your meaty, abyssal rod.]

[Begin – Y/N?]

’That’s a Yes, fine wine.’ Eotigan followed telepathically. The gilded screen faded from sight and his vision went dark once more. He longer felt Inaia actively in his thoughts. He uncrossed his legs and crossed them again, adjusting the towel over his crotch; all these done without opening his eyes. As perspiration and salt seeped out of him, he was about to fall into a nap thinking of the worst notorious band of pirates to find a MILF amongst their ranks when he heard a cruelly sexy, soft and echoing voice.

"Hello, husband."

For the first time in six minutes, Eotigan’s eyes rattled open like damn bells.

—and there she was. Not a mirage. Not a conjuring.

Before him, three feet across from the hot stones and he, under the trickling rain of a fount stood the most beautiful ebony woman he’d ever laid eyes upon. Her eyes, blue crescents.

Her hair, a purple waterfall. The goddess of seas. Bringer of storms. His wife! Eotigan stared as she stood, silhouetted under the rain and vapors. She smiled so sensually, "—long time no see."