Lisa: "You could''ve gone about that a bit differently, sweetheart."

"What? I was very gentle!"

Tatiana: "You animated a pile of her friend''s blood and used it to talk to her."

"It was efficient!"

Lailah: "Was it though?"

"Okay, I just wanted to do it because I thought it''d help give us an air of mystery."

Erica: "You could have just pulled her into a-"

"L-Look, I just got excited, okay? I thought it would be less frightening to her than just showing up in either of my natural forms!"

Thrudd: "I thought you were very adorable, Mama."

"Thank you, Thruddie-pie. Next time I''ll just bring you along instead of these other jerks."

Sevasina wasn''t sure why, but while her eyes were closed, she could hear voices that were more unique than any she had ever known.

They also spoke in a dialect that, despite her having never heard it before, could still be understood perfectly.

Her eyes slowly fluttered open and she was staring up at her planet''s three suns.

...And the absolute largest woman she had her seen in her life cycle.

"Uwaahh!!"

Sevasina flipped across the ground and held out her hands defensively.

Now that she was upright, she could see that the big woman was not alone. To be specific, there were ten more women just as large as her, or only a little bit smaller.

They all had varying skin colors that made it seem their flesh was colored with dye.

And then there was the man among them... Sevasina''s instincts for danger had never yelled at her so clearly before.

"W-Who are you all!? What do you want with me!?!"

Abaddon was sitting cross-legged on the ground during this exchange. Audrina had perched atop his head in the form of a small bat to keep herself warm.

"Interesting..." He leaned forward.

Sevasina reflexively backed away.

On the surface, she didn''t appear to be that remarkable for an alien species. An ashen sheen appeared to cover the light blue skin underneath her clothing.

She had a slimmer build that leaned more toward toned than outwardly muscular. Her head was also bald, but perhaps she had just decided to cut it at some point, because it was closer to a buzzcut.

Her black eyes were less intimidating, and far more intriguing. Right down to the bright red pupils that were currently the size of a safety pin.

She was a bit on the unremarkable side all things considered. However, that was not necessarily the source of Abaddon''s sudden interest.

This ordinary, almost unremarkable woman had a muscular and bone density that went far and above what her species should have possessed.

And now, as Abaddon expanded his senses a bit, he noticed that they were all like that. Roughly ten times stronger than they should have been.

He had never anticipated that this kind of scenario would arise, but he wasn''t exactly overly shocked by it either.

Everything was possible at this point.

*Chomp!*

Abaddon felt a bite unfairly taken out of his head. "Yes, love?"

"Don''t you think you''re staring at her too hard?" Audrina gnawed.

Shin was about halfway to the front door when he stopped and turned around.

... Nobody was following him. All of those dragon bastards walked inside of their own house and not even sparing him a second glance!

Well, he wasn''t just going to follow them inside. He had too much respect for himself to do that.

...

...

...

"Fucking sons of bitches..."

Shin wasn''t going because he had to. He was just doing his part to keep the peace.

He stepped inside of their temporary house and became even more annoyed.

...Because the place was even nicer on the inside than it was on the outside.

There were candles burning, scratching posts for the ''pets'' and a fully stocked fridge.

Lisa pulled out a carton of chocolate milk and scratched off Bekka''s name before handing it back to the little boy.

Bekka dramatically threw her body into her husband''s and whimpered. He rubbed her ears to calm her down and reward her great sacrifice.

Shin tried to find a seat on the sofa, but there were none.

Bagheera and Gandora had shrunken down and taken up the last seat while he was still making up his mind about whether or not to come inside.

They both stared at him smugly as if they were delighted to rub a victory in the face of an enemy- no matter how small.

Shin''s agitation was almost palpable as he leaned against the wall while muttering to himself.

Now that everyone was here, Abaddon pried Bekka off of him and passed her to Erica.

He sat down on the floor beside Sevasina, who was busy watching her son be amazed by the wonders of chocolate milk.

"Are you ready to talk now, Sevasina?"

Her black eyes analyzed Abaddon carefully-the air between them almost unreadable.

"...I suppose with everything that you can do I don''t need to ask how you know my name."

Abaddon smiled wryly.

It was hard to introduce himself as the personification of sex and say that he knew her identity because she had already had intercourse at one point in her life.

"...It was a lucky guess." He waived his hand dismissively.

Sevasina snickered. "So you say... but I don''t think I believe you. You''re one of them, right..? One of the Annointed Lords."

"I am not actually. But I hope you''ll tell me about them." Abaddon rested his chin in his palm.

Sevasina looked surprised to know this. She thought for sure she''d had Abaddon and his brides pegged what with their strange abilities and magics.

But they weren''t the scourges of the world after all..?

"Then... What exactly are you..?"

Abaddon hadn''t been asked that question since Courtney came home to live with them. He found it nostalgic.

"I am a god. A very old one at that."

Abaddon expected some kind of clarity to flash across Sevasina''s vision, but there was none to be found.

Her son wiggled his way out of her grasp and gave Abaddon a nudge.

"Hey, big mister! What''s is a god??"