Lakshman soared down into the world and flew through the clouds before landing gently on the ground. He was immediately met with by his allies, Lagron, Dominic, Nara and Valerian, all asking him different questions. However, all of their questions could be summarised into one.
“What happened to him?”
“I’ve thorn him into the sun,” replied Lakshman with a smile, and everyone was delighted to hear it.
“Great!” Nara said, making a gusto pose in triumph.
“Finally, got rid of that bastard!” Dominic said before breathing a sigh in relief.
“Damn. I wanted to do him some more pain,” remarked Lagron regretfully.
“Be happy he’s finally gone, idiot,” responded Lakshman with a laugh.
While they were feeling relief, Valerian did seem slightly worried. His expression caught the attention of Dominic, who walked over and asked him curiously.
“What is it, Val? Are you okay?”
“I’s okay, sir. I’m alright. There’s nothing wrong with me,” replied Valerian, and he put up a feeble smile.
“No, you don’t. Your face is giving it away,” replied Dominic with a chuckle.
This made Valerian sigh and ask, “Is there a chance that… he will return?”
That question caused them to go silent and lose all of the happy mood. It was a deadly question that spoke of an uncertain future of a what if scenario that was too terrible to even imagine. In their present powered up states they had great difficulty handling him, so the very thought of his return caused them to feel mixed emotions.
The Storm Titan noticed their expression and hurried said, “I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have asked that question! Damn! I should’ve known better than to think so negatively!”
There was a moment of silence before Lakshman said, “No, Val. You’re not wrong to think that way. It is, in fact, a very good question.” He took a deep breath and said, “The future is not in our hands to predict, but we can only prepare for it. For now, he is trapped in an endless loop of life and deaths but… if in case he does return in the future… then… we will be ready. All of us! Together!”
He spoke the words bravely with great firmness and determination with a cool smile on his face. His attitude caused Valerian’s nervousness to fade away and made the others smile once again. They all nodded at him in a silent agreement to be prepared just in case the evil were to return sometime in the unforeseen future.
A moment later, they were joined by a few of the Phintex Rajas, asking for their orders from the Phoenix Titan. Lakshman told them to check on the monsters of the nearby area to see if there are any abnormalities, to which they agreed and warped out of there.
“Let’s go and see what Athurus is up to,” said Lakshman, and the other three nodded before they kicked off the ground and flew off to where the King of Mardana Kingdim was at.
They arrived to see several guards surrounding Athurus’s father, who was both handcuffed and tied all around tightly by rope. Upon his arrival, Athurus questioned him about the monster’s fate, to which Lakshman reassured him firmly. Feeling relieved, Athurus began to profusely apologise to him, but the Floria Kingdom’s King quickly stopped him and spoke to him critically.
“Athurus, no matter how many apologies you give me, sit doesn’t change the fact that your kingdom plotted against me and my kingdom. If I hadn’t used Real Fiction to undo all the damage the Ancient Evil had done, your capital would’ve been a complete waste land, almost like what the Rodfox Kingdom had become.”
Athurus shuddered at the mere mention of the only other kingdom that was completely wiped off the face of the world by the destruction. He looked ashamed of himself for the conduct that had happened because of his carelessness and not doubting his father one bit.
“I cannot simply forgive and forget this incident, and I’m sure you understand this as well. So, I expect your full cooperation with me and the Floria Kingdom in the future. Agreed?”
“Yes,” replied Athurus meekly without putting up much of a fight. Then he looked up and said firmly, “I will also punish my father severely for the crimes he has committed against us! I give you my word!”
Lakshman nodded silently in acceptance when two guards walked over to them while supporting the unconscious Monster Girl and asked their king, “Sir, what do we do with this person?”
They all turned to look at her, and Athurus became very angry upon laying eyes on her.
“Take her away! Her punishment must be severe in causing all this chaos!”
Everyone seemed to agree with his decision, however Lakshman was looking at her differently. He was curious about her because something about her made him feel like he had seen her somewhere before or knew people that she seemed to resemble after.
As they were about to take both the girl and the older man away, Lakshman stopped them with, “Hold on.” He walked over to the older man and asked, “You are part of the Workshop Clan?”
The man did not reply, to which his son ordered him, “Answer him!”
To this, the man looked at his father with a silent fury before saying nothing. He ordered the guards to beat the answer out of him, but Lakshman stopped him with a hand gesture and walked closer to him.
“Who is she?”
Oncer again, the man did not reply and simply gave him a look that was both mixed with anger and sorrow. The Phoenix Titan did not know what to make of it, but she did not give up as he suddenly had an idea what to answer him the next time. So, he voiced his question quietly.
“Is she not from this world?”
The suddenness of the strange question caught the man off-guard, causing him to look at him in alarm. He seemed to realise what he had just done because he snorted and breathed a sigh in resignation.
“You are tricky to deal with, Phoenix Titan,” he remarked coldly.
“Where is she from? How did you bring her here?”
“And your clan has always been a troublesome existence,” replied Lakshman with a cold stare. “Back then, I thought your clan were dumb, but now… you’ve hit rock bottom in my view. You disappoint me.” He turned back to Athurus and said, “Take him away, but keep the girl here.”
Nodding in agreement, Athurus ordered his men to take his father away while letting the girl be supported by the two guards that brought her over to them.
“Do you need this girl?” Athurus asked curiously.
“Certainly,” replied Lakshman as he eyed her with curiosity. “We’ll be taking her with us.”
“What’s the matter, Lucky?” Dominic asked curiously.
“I’ll explain later,” replied his friend, to which the Sword Titan did not question any further with a nod of understanding.
He aimed his hand at an empty spot before him and activated the spell, “Phoenix Portal,” causing a small hole to open and expand to allow them entry. Then he took hold of her from the guards and began carrying her in his arms before turning back to address Athurus one final time before leaving.
“Athurus, make sure to get all the people involved with the Workshop Clan and detain them. This must be your top priority right now. Understood?”
“Yes! I’ll do it, Lakshman!” Athurus replied firmly with a look of determination on his face.
Lakshman nodded at him and said, “Alright. I’ll contact you soon.”
With that, he turned his back on the Mardana Kingdom’s King and walked into the portal. He was soon followed by his three allies and the portal closed behind them. Seconds later, they exited out of the portal outside the Chand’s household.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Man, I can’t believe we got out of that!” Nara commented in relief as he finally relaxed.
“That was one tough opponent we wouldn’t be able to do anything against no matter how strong we were,” said Dominic with a sigh of relief and suddenly looking tired.
“Hey. On the bright side, we’re safe and sound unlike a certain someone,” said Lagron with a laugh, to which the others joined in laughing as well.
As they walked towards Lakshman’s home, the front door opened and all of his wives rushed out with anticipation on their faces. The moment they saw their husband, they began to tear up and hurried over to him. Lakshman motioned for Valerian and handed over the carrying duty to him and braced himself for the multiple-embrace he received from all nine of his wives.
A second later, Shalany arrived and hugged Dominic while Amaranda walked over the gave him a warm hug as well. Nara stood in the background and smiled at the warm scene with a serene smile on his face. Valerian looked at this happy scene with a small smile on his face, which was filled with sadness at the thought that he had no family or home to call his own.
After giving their husbands and lovers warm hugs, Lakshman’s wives and Shalany turned their attention Nara and hugged him as well, startling him in the process. He warmed up to them and hugged them back with a big smile on his face as tears began sliding down his face. A few seconds later, they withdrew and moved to give Valerian the same kind of hug they gave Nara, causing Valerian to quickly hand the unconscious girl over to Nara before being given a warm hug.
He was not so easy to respond to them, but he did begin to feel very emotional and touched by their act as tears formed in his eyes. They finally withdrew from him and began escorting the four men into the house. During this, Lagron complained that Lakshman, Nara and Valerian received hugs while he only got hugged by Amaranda, to which all of them gave the same answer.
“At least, you got a lover to give you a hug unlike them!”
This instantly shut him up and made him sigh exasperatedly as all of them entered the house. Once inside, the four men sat down and laid the laid the girl in another chair before going silent while Emilia, Ondine, Sumara and Shalany went off to the kitchen to start cooking food for them. In the meantime, the rest of the women sat down around them and began asking about their battle.
It took them a while to explain every detail of their battle with the Ancient Evil, with Lagron trying his best to boast his effort in dealing with the Ancient Evil. However, his effort was wasted and only earned him a chuckle from Amaranda, who knew what he was trying to do and kissed him on the cheek as a reward for doing his best. He blushed and coughed to distract himself while the others smiled cheekily at them.
“So, who is this person?” Tetra asked curiously by pointing towards the unconscious girl.
“Is she a prisoner?” Marilia asked cautiously.
“No, she isn’t, Marilia,” replied Lakshman with a chuckle, “but she is someone that I am curious about.”
“How come?” Sonia asked curiously.
“Yeah. I’d like to know that too, Lucky,” said Dominic in agreement with his wife’s question.
Lakshman looked around at them before saying, “Dom, remember what that guy said when I asked him if she was not from this world?”
“Uh…” Dominic began and thought back to the scene before replying, “Actually, he didn’t say anything and just gave an irrelevant answer.”
“I think he reacted strangely when asked the question,” said Valerian, to which Lakshman grinned at him.
“Look at that. Valerian was paying attention,” commented Lakshman with a smile.
“Well, sorry for not paying attention but we were tired,” stated Lagron curtly before exclaiming, “Ouch!” when Amaranda pinched his arm for his rudeness.
“It’s understandable,” chuckled Lakshman when he saw her do it, “but that’s all I needed to know. The rest I’m sure I can figure out on my own.”
“By what? Looking into her memories?” Silvera asked curiously. When he nodded, she sighed and asked, “Lucky, don’t you ever feel that you’re intruding into someone’s privacy?”
“I know that,” he agreed with a wry smile, “but I don’t do it often, and when I do it, I only do it to learn about the person’s past and more about themselves as a person. It helped me deal with you.”
“Huh? You never saw my memories… did you?” The Demon Slayer suddenly asked uncertainly.
“Not your memories, but the memories of Spectra,” he replied, to which she made a “ah” with her mouth in understanding. “That’s how I knew slapping you would help drive you out of the thought of suicide.”
“What?” Marilia said suddenly, looking alarmed when she heard him say that. “You… slapped her, Lucky?!”
Lakshman instantly regretted saying that out loud in front of her before trying to explain about the circumstances in which he had to do it. She listened to him silently before breathing a sigh and smiling at him much to his relief.
“I get it. You were forced to raise your hand against her because of the dejection she was feeling. Isn’t that right, Sil?”
At her question posed to his wife, the silver haired woman looked troubled as she stammered, “I… Well…”
Marilia smiled and said, “It’s alright. No need to respond, Sil. It’s okay. You’re not the same person as you were back then.”
To that, Silvera nodded and smiled with appreciation while the others smiled at this warm exchange.
“So, are you going to dive into her memories now?” Sonia asked curiously as she was eager to find out who the unconscious girl was. Then she added brightly, “Also, if you want to court her and maker her your wife, I’m alright with it.”
There was an instantaneous “Huh?!” reaction from everyone in the room at her unbelievable statement.
“Wait! Sonia. what are you saying out of the blue?” Silvera asked, looking shaken.
“Well, think about it,” said Sonia with a business-like tone. “The girl is young, is beautiful and quite cute too and was saved by Lucky just like us. So, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having her become his tenth wife, am I right?”
“Oh,” said Silvera in surprise while Tetra and Cantia looked amazed.
Shalany watched with a look of interest on her face while Marilia seemed a little troubled by the topic. However, they were reigned in when Lakshman spoke severely to them.
“Don’t I get a say in the matter?”
“What do you mean?” Sonia asked.
“Look. I have the nine of you, nine wonderful and beautiful wives at my side and that’s enough for me. Really. I don’t need any more wives other than the nine of you. Okay?”
“Oh,” said Sonia, blinking with surprise and blushing with embarrassment at his praise of them before simply saying, “Sure.”
Lakshman nodded at her and his other wives before turning his attention back to the unconscious girl. He rose to his feet and walked to her before stopping and placing one hand on her forehead. Then he closed his eyes and muttered the magic words while activating his Magic Force.
“Memory Lane.”
In an instant, he felt himself diving down a long an empty space before his fall slowed down until he landed firmly on something solid. He opened his eyes and saw that he was standing in a dark space with a bright spotlight shining down on top of him. Lakshman was not alone though as Asura appeared standing next to him soon after.
“It’s nice to see that I can view memories alongside you,” remarked Asura with a smile. Then he looked towards the flashing screen and said, “Let’s see who this girl is.”
“Yeah,” replied Lakshman quietly with a nod of his head.
A screen appeared before them and memories of the girl began to flash past them. They witnessed her behaving like a wild monster, rampaging around while fighting against Nara and then Dominic, Valerian, and finally, Lagron. The memory then shifted to a facility in some kind of underground room, where she appeared to be stored inside a glass chamber filled with a strange looking water.
Moving further ahead, they saw her receiving his immortality and some of his powers, which she was experimented on by having her attack monsters. This was demonstrated when she was forced to attack, kill and even bite some of the monsters to put them under her control that she later makes them go out of control and enhance their might.
“Enhancement through blood contract,” muttered Asura coldly. “Something that the Vampires are known for.”
“Seems like they injected her with the blood of different races to make her truly unbeatable,” commented Lakshman with concern. “Most likely so that he would obtain all that unstoppable powers later on.”
“Which didn’t exactly work out for him since we managed to use Real Fiction and allow him just enough time to obtain only his immortality and nothing else,” said Asura with a smile.
“Yes, but this also makes it troublesome since she possesses those dangerous powers,” added Lakshman worriedly.
The memories showed further back to when the girl was being experimented on through different means and being recorded by people closely monitoring her. Sometimes, she went out of control and was easily subdued by the Ancient Evil and was shown an unhealthy level of treatment. Lakshman was sickened by the treatment the evil creature showed her, a treatment of a disposable object.
“That bastard…!” Lakshman muttered furiously at the sight of the violent treatment she received.
“This is… terrible…” muttered Asura with disgust.
An additional scene got added to the screen, where they were horrified to witness a surgery being done on her. The memory informed them that this surgery on her was to remove her reproductive system so that she could never given birth. This was obviously a method they deemed of great importance when they realised the trouble she could bring if she were to escape, survive, thrive and have children.
“Those monsters…!” Lakshman said angrily.
“This is just… sad…!” Asura said, looking very upset.
The two of them had witnessed the great struggle she put up at seemingly understanding what the surgery was for. Once it was over, the scene showed of her crying tearfully to herself at being unable to become a mother before being forced back into mind control by her captors.
Feeling less than happy for the girl’s life, they continued to watch as the screen shifted to show memories of a time further back, to when the girl was first summoned into their world through a summoning ritual cast by several hooded figures. Both Phoenix Titans watched as the girl was dragged away against her will and locked up in a chair before being tortured into submission and ultimately trapped by a mind spell.
“She was summoned twelve-years-ago?!” Lakshman exclaimed, looking alarmed when the date of her summoning was revealed. “No way!”
“Looks like a lot of terrible things happened in our absence,” remarked Asura in sadness.
Lakshman began extremely frustrated at himself at, once again, knowing of the helplessness state her was in while bad things were happening around the world, which made him exclaim, “Dammit!”
Despite this negativity he felt and the grief he held towards the girl, the two of them continued to watch. They wanted to know who she really was as none of the previous memories ever disclosed who she was as her captors did not even bother finding out about her background or even her name, only calling her as, “Servant.”
The next batch of memories finally revealed the time before she was summoned, as she spent in a world that seemed very advanced and modern compared to their own world. Both warriors instantly recognised what the world was, but before they could say the name of the world out loud, a shocking revelation occurred when the memory of her and her parents was shown on the screen that made the two exclaim in their own way.
“I-It can’t be!” Asura shouted in alarm.
“T-They are…!” Lakshman exclaimed in shock.