CHAPTER 675: DOMAIN OF THE DRAGON EMPRESS

After watching Asmodeus transform, the desire and will for his wives to grow stronger exploded, but no one felt this more than Velvet. She adored and worshipped her husband’s strength, hiding her love and affection behind her cold and sharp nature. She wanted to follow him to match him, or even surpass him.

All because Velvet understood what made Asmodeus happiest.

Battle, Sex, Children and their Love.

From the moment she watched him suffering, Velvet replayed his fight in her mind. She memorised his aura, the pattern and movement of his magic, thanks to her purple eyes that could see mana, aura and magical traces.

’I should have told him sooner.’

It was an ability she developed during the battle in Baltimore, something she hadn’t told Asmodeus about yet.

She wanted to surprise him.

Thanks to her ability to see the movement of his aura, she learned significant information about how a Divine Core and a Divine Shard reacted to each other.

At first, she failed to gather the utmost of her divine power; she desired to make the tiniest Divine Core possible... dozens, hundreds of times she attempted to perform this feat. Draining her Divina aura to the point of sickness.

However... thanks to his love, affection and the amount of sex they had. Velvet grasped how, and to cover the amount she lacked, she used her husband’s divine aura to create a tiny, pea-sized Divine Core.

With that small core, she then gathered and created her own divine aura, saturating and filling her divine shard as a battery for when her core was empty.

After she learned the biggest truth, she began teaching the other wives slowly.

***

Which led to this situation.

Violet flames swirled around her body as she looked at the two women facing her, comrades, sister-wives and rivals, and yet she held no ill feelings towards them. They signed a pact with Serena as the core. To settle all their issues and jealousy in bed with their beloved man and sincerely talk it out with each other during the monthly wife council meetings.

"Do you understand the difference now? If so, lift your weapons. Velvet adored Vinea and recently came to feel the same about Erika because Erika resembled the young Princess Anne before she became a demon.

"Tsk, you’re a monster."

"Well, I won’t give up like this." Erika flicked her blades and quietly stepped forward. Both women loved combat and didn’t doubt Velvet’s methods of training them.

"Good, let’s fight."

Velvet clenched both fists at her waist, the armour that enveloped her covered in a violet flame, and from her back the grey wings expanded, growing larger with a more dragon-like appearance, scales protecting the soft flesh and claws at the end of each wing.

With the snap of her tail, she vanished from Vinea’s sight.

"Erika!"

"On it!"

’Where?!?’

Erika’s eyes scanned the entire field, her blades ready to strike; she just needed one strike. Bang! A fist appeared in her peripheral vision. "Sh...!" Before the fist hit, she forced her aura into her calves and thighs, then detonated it in small bursts of wind, sending her body flying twenty feet back.

Woosh!

With a blade stabbing the dirt, she barely avoided the deathblow, but blood poured from a deep wound on the side of her face, the sheer force of Velvet’s blow able to cut through her demonic skin.

"ERIKA!"

Velvet’s body followed through, stepping on the ground with an explosion of violet flames. The impact tore through the earth, creating cracks that spread through the ground as she burst towards Erika’s new position.

Vinea observed the movements of her commander.

But the speed, strength and sheer destructive force of Velvet surpassed all the other wives. It came close to the awe-striking power Asmodeus showed when he entered his abyssal sovereign form.

"Damn it." She gripped her spear, fluttering her wings, slowly gathering momentum as Erika’s dual blades crossed the air and blocked the first blow of Velvet. The air shook as if someone had let off a magical explosion. "I’m coming!"

Erika slashed horizontally with one blade, creating a wind blade that shot towards Velvet, who held out her palm, the black gauntlets hissing with heat. The moment the wind reached her, Erika rapidly drew her second blade wrapped in darkness and thrust at the Dragon Empress with a stab.

’If I don’t stop her, we’ll be wiped out.’

Velvet swayed her hips like a whip to avoid the wind blades.

She then lowered her centre of gravity, squatting with her huge wings slowly flapping. "Your strikes have gotten stronger, Erika." The tip of Erika’s sword cut through the wind she caught and drove towards her chest.

Clang!

With a simple pivot of her hips, she twisted and kicked Erika in the ribs.

"Kuhaa!?"

From behind, Vinea leapt forward, thrusting as the spear tore through the air, her feet left the ground. She rapidly flapped her wings to boost her speed, once, twice... Fwoosh! She approached Velvet from behind. The tip illuminated by a deadly gleam.

"Fall!"

Velvet’s eyes widened.

The moment she focused too much on Erika, the spear of her cute niece suddenly scraped past her armour and cut her cheek.

Vinea’s body shot past her aunt, sliding through the dirt, forming a huge cloud as she stabbed the ground, using the hard spear to turn her body faster.

Skkkksh!

"Erika can you fight?"

"A little..."

Erika’s right arm dangled to the side, covered in blood and slightly bent in the wrong direction. The kick from Velvet broke her wrist and forearm in several places. Yet she didn’t want to stop, because demons healed quickly.

The two stood close together, one holding a single sword and the other panting because of exhaustion.

This gap was the problem with a Divine Shard. Its regeneration was close to zero, especially in combat, and the storage depended on another component. The Divine Core, so without a core, the shard remained static and inefficient.

"I see you’re both at your limit." Velvet smiled, her teeth sharp and smile like a vicious lioness proud of her hunting prowess. "Then let me show you the difference between our past foolishness and this new power!"

Vinea and Erika gripped their weapons and focused, observing the fine movements of Velvet’s muscles as she once again placed both fists at her waist and squatted low, her body bouncing slightly a she began gathering Aura.

FWOOM!

The ground shook, the aura from her divine core gathering in a swirl of violent, velvet heat inside her mouth, and the purple flames twisted and condensed into a small orb of fire. "More." She mumbled with a mouth wide open.

Erika and Vinea’s bodies shuddered, a strange pressure weighing on their shoulders as if Velvet’s hands gripped their shoulders and held them in place.

’This is the difference?’

"It feels like that day again..." Vinea couldn’t stop gasping; the air became thin because of the immense heat and flames wrapping around them as the dome shrank each time the orb in Velvet’s mouth grew. "We need to attack, Eri!"

Erika’s answer was a grunt.

She tightened her grip on her single remaining sword and pushed forward through the storm of heat. Her dark aura writhed around her like a living creature, each breath a struggle against the air itself.

That’s when her eyes shone and she grit her teeth, casting wind magic to clear the air around her and Vinea’s mouth. "Now we can breathe!"

Vinea didn’t argue. Her wings snapped open, hurling her body upward. The ground beneath her feet liquefied under the rising temperature. She rose into the air, spinning her spear in wide arcs, gathering wind to form a spiralling current. Her eyes glowed with determination as she dove.

"Here I come!"

Velvet’s gaze tracked her, while the violet flames along her armour continued to flow into her mouth.

"Too slow."

The orb in her mouth flared white at the centre. A low hum filled the training ground. Erika burst in from the flank at the same moment Vinea descended, the two converging with perfect timing. For a brief instant, the air trembled with the combined resonance of their auras.

Wind, Earth, and Darkness mixed to clash against Velvet.

’That’s what I wanted!’ Velvet’s lips curved upward before she suddenly exhaled.

Velvet released her attack, the violet flames shooting from her mouth in a huge arcing flame, dragging the pillar across the sky. It met with Erika’s slash and Vinea’s spear at the same moment, creating a huge detonation as four types of magic collided with a reverberating roar.

The impact hurled all three backward, and the shockwave flattened the scorched field and erased the last trace of grass.

Smoke and violet embers danced in the air.

Vinea coughed blood while she forced herself to stand. Her spear’s tip had melted into a curved tip. Erika was half-kneeling, bleeding from the nose but smiling faintly. "We survived... that bitch is so violent."

That’s when Velvet stepped through the smoke, her body without damage, but along her left arm, the black gauntlet from her Empress form cracked. "You girl’s did well." She no longer placed pressure on them, seeing as the two were pale and weakened.

The purple aura that flickered around her body now faded, but her eyes watched them with more excitement than ever and asked with a bright, excited voice.

"Shall we have another round?"

"W-What?"

"No way.... just tell us about this strange domain."

Erika’s eyes shone with curiosity. Despite her wounds, when they clashed, she could feel that the dark element she had honed for a year suddenly slipped away and seemed to become Velvet’s power instead.

’It must have been the domain... her elements are darkness and fire...’

"Hahaha, well you managed to do this, then let me tell you what I learned from our husband."

***

Meanwhile, relaxing above the black dome, Serena and Lumina sat enjoying wine and snacks, with Ryusei and the four cute arachne playing together.

"To think that Velvet would choose a domain like that..."

"Mm... A Dragon is her theme? I assume the Dragon King might be unhappy about this." Serena touched her cheek, but then shook her head. "Then we’ll just have to beat him down to size."

"Rather than theme it seems she chose what meant the most to her and darling, didn’t she awaken as a demon when they fought a black drake?"

"True, I didn’t think you’d remember that Lumi..."

"But a domain ruling over two elements is pretty impressive. I can’t wait for the others to create their own domains."

"Me either..." Serena stroked her son’s hair while enjoying the sight of the three knights training away in the frozen mountains.