by Eric Vall
“Really?” Nulena scoffed. “Am I the only one?”
My mind was already clouding over, so the voices of my immortal women faded away as they began arguing about my mortality. I couldn’t see anything except the dull red glow burning in Nulena’s womb, and as the galaxies spun away from me, I sank down into a black oblivion.
Chapter 13
I regained consciousness much sooner than I was prepared to handle, so I didn’t move a damn muscle when I registered my women’s voices around me. I stayed perfectly still and refused to open my eyes, and I couldn’t help wondering how the hell this week had taken such an abrupt and life-altering turn.
Two days ago, I had a siege to enact against an impenetrable fortress, and a multitude of allied armies to lead into the fray. That was a huge task. Now, I had five babies on the way, one more immortal lover than I’d been aware of, and a soul that was apparently worth hunting through multiple lifetimes.
Still, while I considered the backs of my eyelids, all I could see was the same image of my immortal child burning in Nulena’s womb.
“Aurora?” I muttered, and my voice was stuck in a monotone. “May I speak with you for a moment?”
I could hear my women shuffling around as they abruptly stopped talking, and when I opened my eyes, Aurora was hovering above me as she intently searched my expression. The light of our chandeliers illuminated the chamber while thunder continued to roll over the mansion every few seconds, and once I scanned to be sure the ceiling hadn’t collapsed anywhere, I took a more substantial breath.
“Are you okay?” Aurora checked.
“Immortal baby,” I managed.
“I heard about that.” The half-elf nodded. “I think this is amazing, though. Mason, you’re the most wonderful man in the universe. You should have immortal heirs. It all feels very appropriate to me.”
“But the God of Destruction,” I calmly countered. “That’s who the immortal baby will become.”
“Again, appropriate,” Aurora assured me. “From what Nulena’s told us, you’re an existential badass, and this could clear up your future lives rather nicely. Now, you won’t have to worry about having your soul eaten, since your baby won’t want to eat your soul.”
“What if it does, though?” I asked. “It will be capable of doing that.”
“Then your other super babies will have something to fight for,” the half-elf pointed out. “I know this is huge and unexpected, but I maintain it’s as it should be. An immortal mini Mason ruling the domain of Destruction is the best idea I’ve heard in a long time.”
I nodded while the synapses in my brain started sparking coherently again, and even though I still felt like my insides had been flipped to the outside, Aurora’s perspective always grounded me better than anything.
“Okay,” I decided. “I’ll consider that. I should help Deya.”
“Actually, we’ve been working on that,” the half-elf replied. “Deya, sweetie. Would you come here, please?”
After a moment, Deya crawled over, and I immediately noticed her serpentine eyes were centimeters too wide while her pupils remained fully dilated. She looked slightly hysterical, which was understandable, and when she spoke, her voice was a couple octaves higher than usual.
“Hi, Mason.”
“I love you so much,” I assured her. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about your fate when I found out, but I thought you might appreciate living your life as a normal elf for once. Are you doing okay?”
“Uh-huh.” Deya blinked her huge eyes. “Love you so much.”
“Do you want a burger?” I asked.
“Uh-huh.”
“I’m on it,” Cayla announced, and her heels scurried from the training hall while Deya slipped out of view again.
For her sake, I decided to rejoin reality, and after I slowly sat up, I found my beautiful elf staring at our weapon racks while Aurora eyed both of us with a forced casual look.
Nulena was clearly eaten up with worry, though, as she sat several feet away, and she shrank by a couple inches when I sent her a nod.
“Do you hate me?” the Baroness asked.
“No, I love you,” I replied.
“Really?” the woman squeaked.
I smirked. “Nulena, I loved you when I thought you were a super grim and murdery mortal. Finding out you’re a deviant spectra doesn’t change that. I just need some time to process everything.”
“I love you more than anything,” Nulena whimpered. “Truly, and I did try to ignore the way I felt. I didn’t want to endanger you like this, but I couldn’t resist you.”
“I know, I was there,” I muttered. “I couldn’t resist you, either. If I had the opportunity to go back and do things differently, I wouldn’t.”
“I told you,” Aurora mumbled as she sent Nulena a smile.
The Baroness let out a ragged breath, and she didn’t bother wiping the tears off her cheek while she tentatively came closer.
“Just wondering, though,” I said as the ebony woman sat beside me. “When you said you were drinking the marrow of evil and deceit, were you being sassy, or serious?”
“Serious,” Nulena admitted. “I answer your questions quite honestly, but I love that you think all my answers are cute rather than disturbing.”
“They’re still cute,” I decided.
Nulena blushed as she smiled at me, but then she looked nervous as she eyed the shell-shocked elf next to us. “Deya? You’re not afraid of me, are you?”
“No,” the elf answered in the same odd octave. “I adore you.”
“Me, too,” the Baroness murmured. “I’m sorry I surprised you all at once by bringing Nemris here. I panicked.”
“I’m glad I know now,” Deya assured her. “I can’t feel my face, though. Or my arms. I can’t feel much of anything, and I think I died? But I can’t die. Wait, I can die, right? I’m confused.”
“You can die,” I said as gently as I could. “That’s why Nemris told me about your fate. She feared the elves would destroy you before you could ascend, but I really don’t understand the rules of immortality beyond that.”
“In your one thousandth year, you’ll leave this world,” Nulena explained for me. “Once you are immortal, you’ll have one opportunity to return to the physical plane for one lifetime in order to create an heir to your domain. That is how Nemris’ place has been passed down to you.”
Deya nodded blankly as Cayla reappeared with a platter filled with burgers, and she did her best to help the elf eat while she tugged her chin down to slip in each bite. All of us patiently waited while a few more bolts of lightning jolted through the spires on the mansion, but after half a burger was gone, my elf had a little more color in her face.
“That’s a lot of years to not die,” Deya mumbled. “And then a lot of eternity to never, ever die after that. I’ll be all alone and floaty. That doesn’t sound fun at all.”
“You won’t be alone,” I assured her. “You’ll be part of a pantheon of immortal beings, and apparently, my baby will be a god, so there’s that. Plus, Nulena will most likely be rebelling against everyone for a long, long time, and you two can enjoy all kinds of whatever that leads to.”
“That does sound fun,” Deya admitted.
“And alarming,” I muttered. “Your domain and her non-domain are very different things, but again, I think you’ll enjoy it.”
“And I will be able to make goddess love to you in any life you lead,” Deya said as she slowly came back to her normal tone. “Right?”
“You fucking better,” I chuckled. “I’m counting on your immortality to make my mortality awesome.”
“I’ll make sure of it, I promise,” Deya said with a sweet smile. “When I am a goddess, I will send you to all of the best realms. Perhaps I can help you conquer the entire universe. I’d like to see you achieve extensive domination, and with my powers assisting you, who knows what you could accomplish?”
I nodded slowly. “Well, you have a long time to deci
de how you’d like to behave as a goddess. For now, you’re here with me, and we can conquer something in this life if you want.”
“I’d like that,” Deya replied. “Although, this immortal idea is kind of exciting! Do you think I will get to kill bad people before their time? Or maybe extend the lives of people I love, like all of you?”
I caught the devious grin Nulena couldn’t seem to hide, but the ebony woman abruptly looked down at her lap when she noticed me watching her.
“That would cause massive disruptions in the cosmos,” I informed the elf. “Obeying the laws of your domain would be ideal.”
“I see… ” the elf mused. “Do I get to bring my brother with me?”
I turned a questioning glance toward Nulena, and she nodded.
“Every god and goddess has a spectra for a sibling,” Nulena explained. “Your brother’s life here will determine his ultimate fate, but since he possesses the blood of Nemris, and you are the chosen heir to her domain, Dragir will preside over a complimentary force. How he chooses to do so is up to him, however.”
I didn’t miss the way her expression hardened when she said this, and as her two-toned eyes flicked over to me, I grinned.
“You know I don’t care what you do,” I reminded her. “If you want to rebel against the gods, that’s your thing. Personally, I think it’s sexy. I’ve never known a woman who defied an entire pantheon before.”
The ebony woman shimmered all over as a grin spread across her face, and I had a feeling her fangs would have started glowing right about now if she was in her true form.
Which made me furrow my brow as another thought occurred to me.
“Have you always been the Baroness of Rajeen?” I asked.
“No, I murdered her,” Nulena said with a shrug. “She was an ideal mortal for me to embody since she possessed a status I could use to my advantage, and very few of her residents had ever laid their eyes upon her. The actual Baroness of Rajeen was sickly and highly unimpressive compared to myself. It was no loss.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Okay.”
“Wait,” Aurora cut in. “Are you supposed to glitter like Nemris?”
“No,” Nulena snorted. “I would hate to glitter so much, it’s too ethereal for my taste.”
“Yeah, sparks fit your personality better,” I agreed, and I wasn’t surprised when my women immediately perked up.
“Sparks?” Deya clarified. “All over your body, or only your hair? Are your eyes really two-toned? Do you wear clothes?”
“What color are your immortal nipples?” Cayla added.
Aurora gasped. “Do your nipples shoot sparks?”
Nulena glared at my brazen grin, and after my women listed off ten more elaborate guesses, she groaned and got to her feet.
“Close your eyes,” the Baroness sighed. “And do not peek until I say you can.”
My women grasped each other’s hands as they let out giddy giggles, but when they dutifully shut their eyes, I kept mine on Nulena.
The ebony woman held my gaze as she let her dress fall to the floor, and while I waited, her two-toned eyes slowly shifted into glowing orbs of embers. Then her hair began to burn as the exotic scent of her wafted around the room, and a crackling sound seeped from her ebony skin as it began to split and reveal the flames underneath.
A few sparks sifted from her eyes as she sent me a hesitant smile, and she let me take my time looking her over while I considered every smoldering inch. When I got to her belly, the dull red glow was still burning beneath the surface, and my heart pounded heavier as I tried to comprehend that I was looking at the future God of Destruction I’d created in her womb.
The thought made my spine ripple in a familiar way, though, and I couldn’t help smirking with pride as I met Nulena’s flaming gaze.
A shower of sparks seeped from the glowing cracks in her figure as her smile spread, and even though another deafening blast of thunder broke out above the mansion, I didn’t feel a scrap of remorse. The spectra standing in front of me was both sexy and terrifying to an otherworldly degree, and knowing I was the only being in existence whose child she wanted to carry counted for a hell of a lot.
So, I took a steadying breath while Nulena glanced up at the next jolt of electricity striking my home, and I focused on processing one thing at a time. Right now, all that mattered was coming to terms with my decision to impregnate the only immortal being who presided over Chaos.
Her god of a brother would be considered later.
“You may open your eyes,” Nulena purred as she turned toward the others, and my women shot to their feet with shrieks of delight.
I chuckled when their reaction made the spectra’s legs ignite, and Nulena let the women fawn over her as they prattled on and on about how terrifying she looked. Every time Deya moaned over her beauty, though, more sparks flew from her eyes as her fangs deepened in hue, and Aurora couldn’t stop stroking her fiery hair while she sighed like it was the loveliest thing she’d ever seen.
“Enough, you’re going to make me break apart if you keep doting on me!” the ebony woman finally laughed. “Besides, I cannot remain in this form much longer, so step back!”
“But you look so immoral and vibrant like this,” Cayla countered. “Couldn’t you stay as you are long enough to scare the elves a bit?”
Nulena rolled her eyes as she shooed the women away, and within a matter of minutes, she’d pieced her flesh back together and doused her hair. The last thing to shift was the ember of her eyes, and my women applauded enthusiastically when Nulena was a sultry baroness again.
“Do Mason next!” Deya giggled. “What is his true form?”
“I’m mortal, I don’t have one,” I pointed out.
“Yes, all your souls shift between forms,” Nulena confirmed.
“That’s so boring,” Aurora grumbled. “Can’t you make his hair glitter or something?”
“I could show you one of his previous forms,” Nulena offered, and my women all grinned at once.
“Yes,” Cayla decided. “Do that!”
“Hold on,” I tried. “Is this allowed, or will some realm start to deteriorate if you--”
“How about the first form of his entire existence?” Nulena suggested. “It’s the one my brother never stops talking about. Mason killed millions in that life, and he became the ruler of two planets in the process. His disciples are still forging their way across the ninth sector to conquer the neighboring worlds, and only Mason’s innovations made this possible.”
“I killed how many?” I clarified. “I don’t think this is a good--”
My women’s immediate agreement drowned out my following rebuttals, though, and they swarmed around me while Nulena raised her palms. I was halfway through forbidding her to alter me when my skin began to prickle, and I instinctively shut my eyes as heat overtook my skull.
Then my muscles started to ache as my lungs convulsed, and I stumbled and clutched at my head while I felt like someone was trying to stretch my bones in ten different directions at one time. The sensation was excruciating, but the notion I was morphing into something else made the pain take a back seat to my fear of what I’d be any second now. Then everything settled as my muscles shifted into place, and when I only heard heartbeats racing around me, I swallowed hard.
“Am I alive?” I asked, but then my eyes flew open as the deep timber of my voice echoed around the room. “Woah, is that me? I sound like the devil! This is a conquering voice. Only a guy with this voice can conquer multiple planets.”
My women burst out laughing as I nodded in approval, and I tested out a few conquering phrases while I tried so hard not to laugh, too. Then my women began demanding I try their own phrases out as well, and every word was so bassy, I could feel the reverberations in my own feet. We all agreed my evil-man cackle was probably the best of all my attempts, though, mostly because it made the chandeliers rattle on their mounts.
“The voice is impressive,” Aurora chuckled, “but hon
estly, the body alone would be enough for me to fall at your feet.”
“I like it so much,” Deya whimpered, and her flushed cheeks made me furrow my brow and look down.
That’s when I realized I was about five feet taller, chiseled like a demi-god, and silver all over where my new muscles broke through the fabric of my clothes.
“Hellll yeaaah!” I laughed like a demon, and I held my arms out wide. “Look at this shit! I’m practically a metal god! I’m not surprised I conquered worlds like this, I already feel like decimating someone just because I can. I could lift a house with this body!”
“The horns are perfect,” Aurora murmured with a devilish grin.
“The horns?” I clarified.
Then I felt around to find two stout, metallic horns curving back from my hairline. “Yes! Okay, mortality is awesome if I got to be this guy once. I probably rammed my way through those planets. That’s how you conquer shit in this form. Break it all down with your own skull and do the evil-man laugh. I’d have disciples for miles after a move like that.”
“I love it,” Cayla murmured as she eyed me up and down. “This is why our babies are so unstoppable, even in the womb. This is where they’ve come from.”
“I don’t know about that,” I countered. “This is only one of my lives, and it sounds like I’ve gone through thousands since--”
“Nulena, can we keep Mason like this long enough for him to ravage all of us?” the princess cut in.
“Please?” Deya begged.
“I’m first!” Aurora announced.
“Unfortunately, we can’t have sex with Mason in this form,” Nulena sighed. “It would kill us all to try.”
“Seriously?” I snorted, and when the spectra glanced down at my pants, my eyes widened.
I had to bat all my women away as they promptly tried to wrestle the scraps of my pants off, but since I was twice their size, it was easy to hold them back with one massive, silver arm. They made no attempts to hide how much they liked this, though, and Cayla instantly got distracted sliding her breasts across my muscled forearm as she let out breathy moans. Deya trembled the moment she touched me and began kissing my wrist like I was a king, but why Aurora decided to lick my bicep with abandon, I had no idea.
