Everyone was in the meeting room area of Eli’s home, Bethany had started calling it his lair since calling his large space a hut was no longer practical. The town had finally stopped growing when he returned. His home was still in the middle of town but now there were 50 smaller huts around it with nicely groomed plants and a stone path connecting everything together. The fountain was now a lavish pond surrounded by white marble with a marble statue of Eli in the center in his cloak and mask. No one had told him about it yet and since he hadn’t left his lair since he got back, he hadn’t seen it yet either. All the stone work was extravagantly carved and had bluish purplish runes on it for strength and durability. They also hadn’t told him that since he returned the town had a faint glow to it, there was a lot going on and no one wanted to be the one to tell him.

  “... then, at the end of the dungeon there was a magical accident…” Eli was telling everyone what happened when Bethany coughed into her hand loudly. She was doing that whenever his story started to veer off course from the truth. He wasn’t trying to lie, just soften up some of the harsh realities a bit, which she knew he didn’t want to do, but was nervous about how everyone will react.

  Eli coughed as well and changed that part of the story, “it wasn’t so much of an accident, but more like an attack I did while trying to show off for Bethany. It was something I had been playing with and decided to give it a try. It kind of broke the dungeon and we had to leave.”

  “Wait,” Tara said, butting in, “You broke the dungeon… by accident… while showing off for a girl?” She layered pauses into her speech and they had the desired effect, everyone was looking at Eli with admonishing looks on their faces.

  “First of all,” Bethany jumped in to defend him, “I’m a woman, not a girl, he checked quite thoroughly while recovering,” she pointed a thumb at Eli. “Secondly…” She trailed off, not sure how to defend him for the other parts.

  “I take it there's more to it than just a broken dungeon,” Audrey said. She had been staring at his eyes pretty much since she had first noticed them. She would glance to Bethany’s eyes as well, noticing that hers had changed as well, not as much, but in the same way as Eli’s.

  “Yes there is,” Eli cleared his throat. “My rank has gone up, I’m not a lord anymore.”

  “I saw that coming,” said Beau, “Your presence is different, more intense. Are you a Duke now?

  “Or a king?” Lucy said with hope in her eyes. She really wanted him to be a king so her position would make more sense.

  “He’s a God!” Bethany blurted out, and at the same time everyone looked at her. Then to Eli who was obviously trying his best to look regal with his chin up high and a stern look on his face. Then they looked back at Bethany and all laughed.

  “Right,” Beau said while still laughing, “He’s the god of fuzzy underpants maybe!” This made everyone laugh even harder.

  With a thought, Eli made his title appear in front of him. This was something new that they could do since the last monster horde, they could display parts of this status screen to others. He had tried to get a peak at Bethany’s but even with their connection the system wouldn’t allow it unless she wanted him to see it. She was still refusing to show him until he agreed to do a specific bedroom activity with her. He had turned her down but she knew he would cave eventually.

  “Title: Ash, Demi-God of Ruin”

  The whole room went silent as all of their jaws hit the floor. This wasn’t how Eli had seen this going, but this would be the part where some might decide to leave and inwardly, he was very nervous. He didn’t show it, but Bethany and Tara could feel it. There was a long moment where it was silent and no one moved, as if the first person who moved would be smited by the new god standing in front of them.

  Surprisingly, Arinya was the first to speak, “Does this mean that this group is a religion now?”

  As if someone had said unfreeze, everyone started moving, mostly away from Eli. As a show of support, Bethany came and stood next to him giving him a kiss on the cheek and patting him on the back.

  “This is what it always has been… whatever you want it to be. In its simplest terms there are three possibilities, first, you could leave, go out into the world and live a simple life. Next, you can stay, but not tie yourself to Eli like I have. Even those with current connections can stay where they are, cut the connection or go all the way to my level with it. But no one is going to be asked to leave the town or the group. The third option is to go all the way with it, for example…” Bethany stopped talking and displayed her title status.

  “Title: Bethany, High Acolyte of Ash, Demi-God of Ruin”

  She paused there and let it sink in, but not without a display. Bethany took a deep breath and flexed her will on the space around her. There was a haze around her body that spread out almost two feet off of her skin, as if that space was no longer the same kind of reality that it had been before. She was now in a bubble of reality mixed with her will that was also mixed with Eli’s will. Everyone in the room could feel the power of what she was doing, except Eli, he could see it, but it just felt like everything else to him since his will was used in the ability. She cancelled it after only a few seconds and was breathing heavily.

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  “I can’t do that for long yet, it's a lot of power and I'm still getting used to it. However, don’t get too excited about it, not everyone can reach my rank, or even a higher rank than servants like Tara, Audrey and Lucy have. He is the first Demi-god on this planet so we don’t know much yet, but when I saw his attack, it was like my soul saw it. And when his rank improved, it wasn’t so much that his soul asked me for this connection as my soul willingly opened up to him and he accepted my request.” Bethany was mostly speaking normally by the end of her explanation, it didn’t take her long to collect herself and catch her breath after her display.

  Tara spoke up next, “I think the best solution to this is for everyone to leave and go think about it, and when you're ready, you can come see Eli and ask for a connection or just tell him you're not interested.”

  Everyone hesitated then slowly started to leave, before anyone was out the door though, Bethany said one last thing. “If you have further questions or want to see more, you can ask him then.” As soon as she finished talking she grabbed Eli and Tara's hands and drug them into Eli’s living area.

  “If you guys are gonna get it on, I don’t want to be here for it.” Tara said after some roots and vines filled the doorway.

  “What?” Eli asked, surprised and nervous at what she had said. He was nervous about how his two girlfriends would act, but from the look on both their faces, she had been teasing him.

  “I’ll let you too figure this out,” Bethany said as she headed for the doorway, but Tara grabbed her arm.

  “No, I want to discuss this with both of you. While we were waiting for you to return I spoke at length with Lucy. She filled me in on all the details about your mother and the physical chaos world.” Tara sighed and touched the back of her neck self-consciously. “She also told me about the fake chaos node you made for me and why it's forbidden. It's basically magical cancer.

  “What!?!” Eli yelled and stood up in a manner that shocked both of the women. It wasn’t like he went from sitting then went through the motions to stand, it was more like he went from sitting to standing two feet closer to them as if reality gave way to him wanting to be standing.

  “Sit down and let me explain,” Tara said. Eli slowly sat back down and Bethany stood next to Tara and put an arm on her shoulder. “Technically, the magic I was hit with that gave me these scars is the cancer. Lucy said that the node you made was the standard treatment for those who are in magical accidents until it was banned. I don’t know all the details, but it was something to do with making short lived slave soldiers to fight wars. Anyways, the node is helping, I have three or four decades before it cripples my ability to fight, then another five or so years after that before the magic in my body is corrupted so much that it kills me.”

  “Tell me what to do to fix it, how can I help, what do you need?” Eli pleaded with her for there to be a solution. He wanted the problem to be fixed if he hit something hard enough, but internally he knew that wouldn’t help.

  “Any fighting I do will only make it all happen faster, and since I can’t fight with you or go on adventures, I want something else from you.” Tara said, building herself up to the real ask.

  “Name it, and we will burn the world to get it for you,” He said with a glance at Bethany to see if she was with him on this. She was of course, which made Tara a little sad but she shook her head and continued.

  “I want to have your babies,” Tara said, but quickly continued to cut off his next objection. “I want to be the only one who has your babies. The only mother to your children… Ever!” She had the most intense look on her face that he had ever seen from her so he calmed himself and thought about what she was asking.

  There were a few things he thought were something that she wanted anyways, and a few that she was using to gain some control over the situation since she wouldn’t ever be strong enough to force the issue as time went on and he got stronger. She obviously wanted to be a mother and to be tied to him regardless of whatever craziness he got up to. However, she also wanted to be the only one, she realized quickly that he was going to have women throwing themselves at him, Bethany had been from the start. And with the new world being a place where every convention of the old world was gone, she needed to adapt, so allowing Bethany to be with him was a concession. This request was a way for her to get as much as she wanted, while the guilt of him being the cause of her injuries was strong enough for him to give in.

  Bethany stood silently next to Tara, she was blank faced and using all her focus to lock her emotions down so that Eli couldn’t get a read on what she thought about all this. She didn’t want to influence his choice and have him regret it later and resent her for it. So he thought, taking his time, not only to make sure his choice was what he wanted, or even something he was capable of, but to show her he was taking it seriously. He was going to live for a long time, if the system didn’t kill him first, so long that his kids he had with her would go several generations of grandkids and great-grandkids while he was still alive. All the while he won't ever have more kids, even if he meets someone else to marry hundreds of years after she dies. He thought about the promise he made to himself, to make sure the people around him, that were closest to him, got what they deserved, even if the world didn't want to give it to them.

  Eli stood again and walked up to Tara, hugging her and saying, “I agree, you will always be the only mother of my children.” He took a breath for a dramatic pause, then said, “Now let's get to making some babies!”

  Both women rolled their eyes, but they both had smirks that clearly showed that they were happy with how it turned out. Tara got what she wanted, babies, and Bethany got what she wanted, no babies.

  “This was a hard thing for me to talk about, I need some time, Bethany and I will check out your new bathing area while you calm yourself and get ready for our friends to come in and ask you a thousand questions.” Tara said while taking Bethany’s arm and dragging her towards the new indoor pond bathing section of his home.

  Eli watched them walk away, stripping down and getting in, he did enjoy seeing them naked after all. This was their home, all three of them, and soon to be more, which brought a thought to his mind that he hadn’t considered before. If he was going to have babies and toddlers running around, he needed some home security, but what kind of home security would a god of destruction have?