CHAPTER 136 : | THE SON OF THE DEVIL
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~ ? ~ Western Continent — Under the Lake of Dreadnought — In the Castle of the Crab Expanse ~ ? ~
It’s been more than a decade since I had bore the child of that devil. At first, I did it to impress him of my capabilities as a broodmother that is capable of creating a race that had yet came into existence.
He, the devil like he is, gave me a challenge, the challenge to create a perfect progenitor of him from a droplet of his blood. At first, I was dubious when I heard about that, thinking that he was merely joking. It was when he cut his wrist and condensed a small droplet of his blood that I believed that he was serious about it, since such a task were inherently impossible to accomplish.
That was what I had been thinking until I had consumed his blood, only to find out the complexity of it's flawless genetic structure, that it even restructured my past thinking. Since in the past, if someone asked if there was such a perfect genetic structure, coding sequence and all there is to it, I would had answered him or her that,
"There's no creature on this very vast expanse of waters or land nor in space that possesses such a flawless genetic structure since possessing one means either that you are the omnipotent god of genes or either they are nothing but theories that the wise yet foolish schoolars insisted on just because they could imagine the possibilities of it happening."
That would have been my answers in the past, a mocking comment to the intellect of these so called wise men who is strongly against the idea's of woman taking rule in a household, moreso an empire, since they've concluded that woman were a more emotionap being than men, which I completely disagreed to the past until I meet the devil in flesh.
It was in that day that I had lost my most prized general, my thought to be perfect children, until I created him, my lovely child Theodore, a completely flawless existence whose sole purpose is perfection. He is the embodiment of his father will.
He alone expanded my measly territory that had only the scope of the crab expanse all the way to completely subduing the empire of the battle fanatics, the Thallasians.
Then he had the entire south of the lake of dreadnought under his thumb when he had ascended to 'stage 1' as an emperor of his race in under a year, then he took another to ascend to 'stage 2,' then he was stuck at the peak of 'stage 2' due to the tedious task of creating his own will, that I concluded to be an ominous one, since it basically foretell that he is 'The Child of Nothingness' and that could only mean one thing, it was whether his father is also a child of that 'Nothingness' or perhaps there was something more than what appears in the surface.
Astria stopped his musings, then pushed the documents aside as she stretched to release the tension that her body accumulated for sitting all day in her desk while sorting out these mountains of documents that took more space in the room than the ornaments decorating it.
She let out a soft moan, then lifted her eyeglasses neatly as she stored it into her inventory before she glanced at her two children, Theodore and Celeste, with Celeste being the eldest sister of Theodore by a few decades.
"Can I trust that the information that you're delivering to me is not a fabrication made by the New Thallasian to pull the old Thallasian to the mud, sister Celeste?"
Though Celeste was the older one between the two of them, Celeste couldn't help but slightly flinch at the mere pressence of his younger brother.
Celeste could feel it, the authorative pressure that far surpassed what her mother had. It was only suffocating just to be near to Theodore and she knows it, but her pride as the eldest sister wouldn't allow her to cower in the pressence of her younger brother. So she looked directly at his eyes, then responded confidently,
"You can trust me in these things, Theodore, since it is my job as the leader of the shadow supporting you behind the scenes to provide you with Intel without falsities."
Theodore nodded his head in satisfaction, but his face says otherwise since it still stayed unexpressive to the bare. But one could see him subtly lift the corner of his lips by a millimeter, and Celeste noticing it, smiled with pride as she continued.
"Still, we shouldn't move our forces in a careless manner to purge them, since it would make the already worse political situation in the Thallasian empire more dire, leading it to a more confrontal situation where it benefit not us nor the Thallasians, which we've only subdued at the cost of a hundred stage 3, a thousand stage 2, and ten thousand stage 1 in the long year war that is hailed as the Ascension of the Devil which had centered you, The Devil Emperor."
Theodore nodded at her sister words, since it was true that they've lost a third of their forces in his conquest to subdue the empire of the Thallasians with the sole goal of recruiting the fierce men or women alike of the Thallasians to join him in his cause to prove himself worthy to be the son of his father.
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He knows of the conspiracies brewing in the empire of Thallasians right now, since it was obvious that someone outsite from the table was planning something to sabotage his operations in recruiting the Thallasians to his side. And Theodore knowing it wasn't even the slightest bit angry, since anger would only cloud his judgement in this precarious situation.
He sighed, then looked at her sister expression who was pondering about something else, then into her mother who was inspired by him and went back at her work with more ferocity than last time.
He sighed yet again, then pondered of who was capable enough to sabotage his operations and who would know that what he was doing wasn’t to recruit the Thallasian but extract their full genetic codings via their mother to enhance him and their forces in the pretense of recruiting them. It was weird that someone knows about it since even her sister doesn't know about it.
Theodore bit his lips, then turned his head and looked at his mother yet again as he smiled in the most cruelest way possible, that it even made his sister stop from thinking and look at him with horror while her mother smiled softly, remembering the face of that devil smiling at her as she shook her head and continued her work with more fire.
While Theodore now knowing the plan of these veiled figure, pulled a map in his inventory then spread it on the wide table. The map wasn’t a simple map that detailed the existing nations, but it was something more detailed as it listed all of the establishment of the manors of the nobles and everything there is on the southern part of the lake with the known empires, clans, cities, village and settlements alike in great details that words alone wouldn't be able to speak at the details paid into it, since it looked more like a three dimensional map than a two dimensional map.
Theodore pointed at an empire with the symbol of a crown named as 'Athens', then pointed at an empire with the symbol of a feather like fins that carries elegance which was the 'Thallasian Empire' to hint Celeste of something. That their unknown enemies was concocting something amusing to Theodore expectations, Celeste didn’t dissapoint as her face went from shock then into an evil smile like that of his brother.
"I see then that make sense... if the Athens discreetly leaked the information of an uprising from the Thallasians which is the Tyrant when it comes to territory, then their goal isn't that simple like us engaging in a full-scale war against the Thallasians, but us to be preoccupied in their affairs so that they'll have a shot at assasinating mother which is the greatest producers of our armies!"
Theodore smiled at his eldest sister mind, then pointed at the tower of 'Babel' which he had newly erected in between of the two empires as he then pointed at the empire of Athens as he coldly muttered,
"Then sister, let us play along in this foolery."
Celeste closed her eyes, knowing that they were trapped in this sticky situation where they're only left to observe and not to intervene, since doing so would only escalate the situation. And the both of them didn't want to add more fuel in the raging hellfire when they could just watch and reap the benefits in the background. Theodore too knows it, hence he suggested to play along.
He sighed, since he didn't like this situation at all, and he promised that the mastermind of this operation would suffer hell in the near future. So he waved his hand to store the map, then commanded Celeste,
"We play along in this foolery, but this doesn't mean that we'll be lamb waiting to be slaughtered, so sister prepare all of our forces to invade the Athens when I gave the signal."
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~ ? ~ Western Continent — Under the Lake of Dreadnought — In the Residence of the Departed One ~ ? ~
In the center of the Manor of the Departed Souls, where the Duke of the West, affiliated with the Empire of the Tardigad, held his dominion, the study was steeped in shadow.
Behind a sheer fabric partition, the silhouette of a woman moved. Even as a shadow, her figure was exaggerated, the curve of her bust was overwhelming, a lush outline that trembled as she stretched upward. She stood on a stool, straining to reach a book on the highest shelf, her chest bouncing softly with the effort, yet the volume remained just out of her grasp.
Then, another shadow joined hers behind the curtain.
At first, the newcomer’s gender was ambiguous due to the cascade of long hair, but as he stepped closer, the sheer breadth of his frame revealed the truth. His profile showed a sharp, masculine jawline, and his chest rippled with silent strength.
He closed the distance without a sound. As he moved in behind her, the silhouette revealed a heavy, rigid prominence beneath his clothes, a testament to his virility that could not be fully hidden. He pressed this hardness against the woman’s rear, trapping her between his heat and the bookshelf.
Hera let out a soft, startled moan. She turned her head in panicked surprise, but the sound died in her throat as a smile bloomed on her lips. She watched through the dim light as he reached over her, his hand easily engulfing hers.
She blushed furiously at the contact, the intimacy of his weight pressing against her, but the man ignored her flustered state. He effortlessly plucked the book from the shelf, his voice a low rumble against her ear.
"How weird... Sister, why is your face extremely red right now? have you caught a cold? If so, seek the Healer for medicine."
Hera flushed a deeper crimson. Her gaze darted downward, acutely aware of the beast stirring beneath her brother’s trousers, even as he feigned innocence.
Though this man liked to call her 'Sister,' in reality, blood did not bind them. She was merely the child of a mother who had remarried his father, they were step-siblings who had crossed the line, falling in love and marrying one another. To the nobles seeking entertainment, their union was immoral gossip, but Hera ignored their petty whispers. Her brother, no, her husband, was more influential than the Emperor of the West himself.
How could such rumors touch her? She was the mastermind behind the hostility directed from the Athens toward the pair of siblings, Theodore and Celeste. She viewed them as the only true threat to her plan: unifying the southern part of the Lake as a territory for her brother.
Hera sighed, pushing back against him, and smiled amicably as she turned to embrace him.
"Brother..." she whispered softly, "I feel like those two ants are becoming too troublesome at this intricate juncture. We are slowly consuming the South without the knowledge of the other Domain Lords."
Her brother, Kira himself, softly nodded at her words. He lifted the chin of the surprised Hera and stole a deep, consuming kiss. When he pulled back, he muttered calmly into her ear.
"I know, Sister. But speak no more. I have already prepared countermeasures for those siblings."
