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Absolute Depravity: Reincarnated with a lustful System-Chapter 280 - Leading Up To The Summoning[Catching Up With Everyone]
Hestemia had fallen and been overrun with demons. The territories once held by the emperor had all submitted to the forces of the marching armies from all directions. At the heart of it all, the emperor's domain was soon to be marched on, but before making such a bold move, collecting everyone's thoughts was of paramount importance.
Gathering at the Hestemian castle, Margarette briefed everyone on the progress off the wall, all the while the others relayed their thoughts about what needs to be done moving forward. Some chattered more than the others, but each of them had something of great value to add to the conversation.
"Sir Klaus," called Riley, her feet tapping nervously under the glass roundtable. "Where are the other demon lords? We need help from their armies."
Unaware of the situation with Haruki and the demon lords, Klaus was the only one representing the demon lord who was present in this whole thing. That too, he had felt reluctant to join since his own army back in Gaia was struggling against Nabe's creeping attempt to delude his soldiers into becoming utterly useless vegetables.
"Riley Phoenix, right?" Leaning onto the desk, he glared at Riley with an absolute lack of emotions reflected on his face. "I've answered that question so many times already, hence, if you dare bring that up again I'll make your teeth sprout like saplings."
Despite his calm demeanor, his threat wasn't to be taken lightly. Recognizing that Riley hid her teeth behind a smile and turned to the queen of goblins instead. Stripped off all work, the spy had been forced to resort to helping through paperwork. Thus in the short time she'd worked as her mother's secretary, she'd learned well enough to keep track of all that could be enumerated.
"Queen, how many soldiers do you have left, and how's the Gremlin mines doing?" Riley asked, picking up the quill and paper resting right before her on the table.
Interested in the numbers, everyone including demi-humans with a fickle understanding of arithmetics paid close heed to what the queen would unveil. To their horror, the first thing that left her lips was a deeply defeated sigh.
"Maybe a hundred goblins, a few lamias, about two hundred Arachne, in total we have less than five hundred soldiers left and we started with about ten times that number," taking a deep filling breath, the goblin queen opened her eyes and looked around the roundtable before sighing once again. "The Gremlins are hard to keep alive since they are used to the heat of Scorchen Gaia, but even the ones that are doing okay can't work for long or they quite literally freeze to death."
Moving Slightly forward in her ironclad armor, the queen of Arachne laid her staff on the ground before adding more to the report.
"The equipment the Gremlin makes is of excellent quality, but…" Holding her many arms wide open, the Arachne queen showed off her blue glinted armor. "Making them in large batches is not feasible, especially since the Lamias and Gremlins don't seem to be getting along."
"What?" Surprised by the report, Margarette was a bit confused. "Why wasn't I told this? And what the hell is Medusa doing if not making sure her children stay in line!"
Resting his dragon claw on the table, Klian decided to be the one to answer.
"Lamia emit poison, and Gremlins work with fire and metal, what do you think happens when poison meets the fumes of the forge they smelt their ingots in?" Seemingly bored, Klian scratched his ragged beard while looking right at Margarette. "They die that's what, and how they must be dying too because you idiots are keeping those two species together."
"Klian!" Rose growled, her eyes frowning in rage looking at her brother.
Leaning back into the chair, he threw his boots onto the table. Ignoring his sister's complaint, he put on a mask of pure ice over his eyes and simply went on to continue his slumber.
"Wake me up when you find something challenging," he muttered and swiftly drifted off.
Knowing her brother well, Rose was worried about him going on yet another rampage akin to the one he'd gone on in the times of the ancestral Frost, thus to keep him in check, she was keeping him by her side so the effects of their presence were neutralized by the other.
"Anyways," turning to the meeting, Rose had something to ask as well. "Asuka, how many healers do we have left, and the number of injured soldiers?"
A bit shocked by the sudden address, Asuka clumsily reached into her breast pocket and took out a piece of paper with all the information written inside. Scanning through it for a moment, she was having a hard time understanding it all being a demi-human, but as she finally crunched down the numbers, she didn't wait to answer.
"We have less than a hundred healers, and more than a thousand soldiers are incapable of battle, including those who've been hit with true holy magic and we can't really heal them," putting the paper away, she returned a gaze to Rose.
"So our chances of winning are null," Athena muttered, her eyes gazing through thin air.
"We have human prisoners though, maybe we can turn them into demons and-"
"Turn them into demons and risk having undisciplined rogues in our ranks?" Before Alice could even finish, Margarette shot down her proposal. "They'll fly away at the first sight of danger, leaving the other men and women to die."
Taken aback, Alice clenched her teeth embarrassed, and sank into her chair. Noticing her dissolvent, Athena gave her a weak smile and patted her gently over her lush hair. Feeling assured by her mother, a smile took over Alice's lips as well.
"Wait…" Remembering something far more important, Asuka glanced around the table trying to find someone. "Where Fay? Weren't she, Moriyana, and Deus supposed to create a body for master? Shouldn't at least one of them be reporting here too?"
"Fay's with Stella, and Moriyana did say she'll be in the otherworld trying to figure out a way to create a new body, didn't she?" Having already wondered the same, Margarette gave Asuka the same conclusion she herself had landed on. "We need to let them work on the body for now, bringing them here wouldn't solve much since none of them have been directly involved in the war themselves."
For once, Margarette's imagination was filling more gaps than it should, but that too only because she'd been asked by Fay not to disturb her until the new vessel for Haruki was prepared. And while the rest of the meeting continued over how long they should wait before assaulting the emperor's domain, Fay did what she'd sworn to with Stella, all alone in the place it all began.
Deep in the duchy of Laria, Fay stood before the broken vessel of glass in which Stella's body laid afloat. Looking at the other failed vessels still sealed tight in their chambers around the room, she began to recall the memories of the time when Stella was born through the tube. A clone made from Haruki's ability as well as some manipulation of soul and matter, it all came to be the daughter they so loved and cherished.
"Mommy…T-this place is scary!" Burying her head onto Fay's shoulders, Stella shielded her eyes from the sight of the floating body.
'She grew into a young adult in the time it took us to travel here…' A bit terrified by her rate of growth, Fay braced for when she turns into an immortal. 'Being a demon slime would definitely help her come to understand why we did what we did to stay alive and conquer lands.'
Pushing those thoughts away for the moment, Fay caressed the side of Stella's face before moving her away from her shoulder. Clamping her face between her hands, she looked right into her eyes and let her mana slowly seep into her.
"This is where you were born, and I…I thought it'll help deter me from doing what I'm about to do right now," the more of her mana poured into Stella, the more her body began to bubble with a strange form of excitement she'd never felt before. "But I can't not do it, it's for your father, and since you're a clone of him in more sense than one, you must possess his affinity for creation, but you need this to see it!"
Her eyes glowing a violet, Fay kept on pouring dark magic into her daughter to excite her body until she submitted to her mother as her new master. The only way for a succubus to turn another creation being it to excite them to climax with their bodies touching in any way, Fay was trying to turn her daughter so she too can create clones through dark magic much like her father.
"M-mommy?" To her surprise, however, even as her mana was drained to null, Stella was far from the path of being converted into a demon.
'Benevolent actor's blessing acquired!' Hit with the announcement in her head, Fay let go of Stella and backed away in horror. 'What the fuck?!'
Peering up at Stella, she seemed completely unfazed apart from a light blush on her clear cheeks. Almost as if something was protecting her from any and all evil.
"Rose…" Once again reminded of the blessing, Fay cursed herself for even trying something so horrendous.
'That bitch; She probably knew this day would come.' Right on the mark, Fay had guessed exactly what was happening.𝐛𝐞𝐝𝗻𝐨𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝐜𝐨𝗺