5th Day of the 1st Fire Cycle[1], 2000 g.c.
That emotional outcry? Yeah, I ain't even gon' lie—that shit felt good. It wasn't pretty, wasn't composed, wasn't "King-like"... but it was from the heart. It let some of that pressure bleed out of my chest. Released a valve that had been screaming under too much heat. Still though... I would've felt a whole lot better if Orion's annoying ass head was rolling somewhere in the dirt. Shit would've been poetic. Clean. Final.
But nah, not every party was perfect.
As I stood there regathering myself, the world started creeping back in. First, it was faint, like a sound trying to remember its melody. Then it grew clearer. Birds chirped from somewhere far off, cautious at first, unsure if the sky was done fighting yet. Small animals cried out from the brush—some injured, some just confused. The wind carried it all across the broken land, mixing with the damp scent of morning dew and scorched earth.
It was peaceful… in a fucked-up kinda way. Gaia laid a calm soundtrack over the dead battlefield. The land itself looked like it had lost a war it ain't signed up for.
Trees lay torn from the earth, roots still reaching like they weren't ready to die. The ground itself had been dragged open—trenches splitting through hills like something clawed its way across the world and ain't care what it ruined.
And then there was the skyline.
Where the Sycamore Tree used to stand—that World Wonder—there was nothing but absence. Just a wide, ugly-ass clearing miles out, with the remains of its stump barely visible in the distance. It didn't even look real. Above that, the sky rings still had that massive gap I punched through when I killed Taurus. A clean, violent tear in something that was supposed to be eternally beautiful.
Trappist. That big-ass planet that used to dominate the sky?
Gone.
The horizon looked incomplete. Like Gaia was missing pieces of itself. Who was the cause of all of that shit?
Yeah.
That was me.
But the sky wasn't the only thing that changed overnight. I could feel it .
I had become something truly beyond mortal. Something different. My mana signature jumped in size. Leaped past a threshold like it had been waiting for permission this whole time. With no active buffs, I was already sitting at Orion's level. Naturally. The Nihility flowing through my Bio Mana had thickened, deepened, turned heavier. It wasn't just simple energy anymore—instead, it felt like a concept, like something ancient moving through me with intent. My magickal output? Way beyond what an average M-Cee could even comprehend.
Nihility was a divine particle. So it caused my aura to change, too.
It was no longer just something you could measure—it wasn't even something many could truly feel. A divine pressure. An unholy presence. Something that made the air tighten up around me. Aware, I didn't belong in the same category as everything else anymore.
I had stepped into a different tier. Upper echelon of Godwalkers?
Nah.
I had crossed that.
And achieve another dream I once had.
I was a God M-Cee now. Archon-level mana, housed in a majin's body. That realization sat quietly in my chest. A lil' heavy, but controlled. The reason for it all became clear as I looked inward. My Pure Lord Seed had finally finished blooming. And with my Soul Core fully recovered, my soul had reached its mature stage. That meant one thing...
Growth without effort.
Even just standing there, doing absolutely nothing, I could feel my mana slowly rising. Expanding. Refining. Like I was on cruise control toward something even higher. Fighting still pushed it faster, of course. But now? There was no "rest" state. I was always becoming stronger.
I adjusted my true mana signature, pulling it inward, compressing it into my body so it wouldn't just flood the environment uncontrollably. But even then, that phantom pressure around me? That shit refused to disappear. Anybody with half a brain and a decent mana sense ability would still know: I wasn't normal.
A dark, smoky voice slid into my thoughts like silk wrapped around a blade's edge.
"Congratulations, Your Highness. Now, even the Heavens of Paradiso will know the strength of my glorious Midnight King."
I let out a quiet breath through my nose.
"Thanks, Victorya. Although I would rather have Orion's bleeding head in my hands."
I clicked my tongue, irritation creeping back up.
"I can't believe that eight-legged fuckboy left only missing an eye. I was trying to split his skull open."
Omnia's voice followed—soft, warm… but firm.
"Moonlight, you should be easier on yourself. You just went head-to-head against a Third Sphere Principality and a Second Sphere Dominion, both with the skill [Divine Regeneration]. There aren't many beings on Gaia that can do that."
She paused, like she was studying the moment again.
"Truthfully, it's very impressive that you bested the Fugue Syn of Hubris in battle so soon. Orion doesn't house many losses in a fight. As Destini's first Fated One, he's feared even within the Choir of Heaven."
[Midnight Star: Belial] didn't miss a beat.
"He's a bitch! He ran when his MP started to get too low."
Omnia gave a soft sigh.
"Even most Archons don't have infinite magick reserves. Only a few beings in all of existence can produce limitless mana. Master has the ability because the Noetic Operational Virtual Artifact rewrote his Soul Core, matching it to its frequency."
Victorya's tone turned almost reverent.
"I expect nothing else from our glorious Archon of Night."
"And now that he has a Pure Lord Lotus from his Lord Seed's blossoming," Omnia continued, "he has access to unlimited Ascended Mana without damaging his spirit to use it."
I shrugged internally.
"It wasn't that bad. I was used to that lil' pain to the point I ignored it."
Omnia laughed softly.
"I love your craziness. Not many people would say they can ignore the severe pain of their souls being destroyed and regenerated every second they use ascended magick. You would survive damnation in Infernia with that willpower."
[Moon Sage: Tsukuyomi]'s calm, analytical voice followed.
"It's mainly due to his soul's ability to withstand constant conversion of magitons due to the Nihility already forcing the spirit into regeneration. Now, his soul has Nihility & Ether Nullification. He's found a form of immortality by the guidelines of the Prime Realm System, since Master Xiro can regenerate his full body as long as a piece of his soul still exists."
Omnia's tone dipped—half awe, half something else.
"I would have never dreamed that Master would achieve Xero's level of toughness so soon. He even became strong enough to use [Heaven's Kaleidoscope] in less than 50 years."
Her voice softened, then turned a little dangerous.
"Seeing Master use it with no effort always puts me in such a lewd mood. Those [Kaleidoscope Eyes] are difficult to wield with the stress it places on the soul and mind, but so damn beautiful to look through."
I blinked.
"Stress? What stress?"
Victorya hummed low.
"Is our king a masochist?"
Just when I was about to shut that whole conversation down before it got weirder—
"I fucking hate these stupid ass energy draining wires. I can't even see 'em. And why is this shit so strong?"
Alex's voice snapped me right out of my head. I turned, finally locking back into the world behind me. There they were. Alex and Steez. Still tangled up in Orion's Tachyon Web, suspended a few feet off the ground like somebody forgot to take the decorations down.
Invisible filaments wrapped around their bodies, pulling tight every time they moved. Their weapons were still in their hands, but that didn't mean much when the web was draining their energy with every struggle.
Seeing them like that made me realize something real quick—
They ain't have access to my [Kaleidoscope Eyes] anymore. And with the conversation going on in my head? I had damn near forgotten about them. I crossed my arms slightly, watching. Curious. I wanted to see how they'd figure it out.
Alex twisted, pulling against the web with a frustrated growl, muscles flexing as he tried to brute-force his way out. His face tightened, irritation building fast. Danica was trying to reach him. She was pushing the idea of [Quantum Leap] into his mind. But Alex? My nigga was too deep in his pride and anger to hear her.
And that helpless feeling? That shit was lighting a fuse. A fuse that was always the trigger behind his Sonata Skill, activating [Dominus Irae].
His strength started climbing. Not gradually either—it spiked. Each grunt, each pull, his muscles swelled with increasing force, veins rising, body trembling as his power multiplied with his rage. The web stretched. Strained and warped under the pressure.
Then—
SNAP.
One of his arms broke free.
That was all Steez needed to see. He wasn't even bothering to try to match Alex. Instead, he did the exact opposite. He went still. Completely. His eyes closed, his breathing slowed. Then slowed again until it damn near disappeared. Even his mana stopped. He reduced the entropy in his body, cutting off energy production entirely. His temperature dropped fast, frost forming along his skin as his body dipped into sub-zero levels. No energy. No heat. Nothing for the web to feed on.
The filaments started reacting, twitching, then slowly—
Decaying. They began to eat themselves. Twelve seconds. That's all it took.
Steez twisted his body sharply—
SNAP.
The weakened threads shattered apart like brittle glass, and the sudden release of inertia exploded through him as he dropped clean to the ground. That shit? That shit was genius. Alex wasn't far behind. With one arm free, he grabbed his bo staff, his eyes locked in, jaw tight with pure stubbornness. He didn't overthink it. Didn't strategize.
He just swung that shit as hard as he could.
The force ripped through the remaining filaments—
CRACK.
And just like that, he was free. Honestly? That was very Alex of him.
I let a small grin pull at my face.
"Well done, my niggas. I'm proud of both of you."
Luda wasn't in immediate danger anymore. But he still needed help. I stepped over, placing my hand near him as I summoned a Recovery Sphere. Yang Mana and Angel Mana swirled together, forming a soft pinkish-yellow glow that wrapped around his body like warm sunlight.
The energy sank into him, repairing flesh, rebuilding bone. Even restoring that missing hand as the structure reformed piece by piece.
[Moon Sage: Tsukuyomi]'s voice came through, calm as ever.
"Master, Luda's soul will need a lengthy amount of time before he can regain his consciousness. While his Soul Core is repairing itself from near deletion, he is also experiencing a growth in magickal power that he's acclimating to."
Omnia followed immediately.
"I know what you're thinking, and if you do it, I'm going to study his Soul Core to see what is happening with this sudden leap in his power expectation."
"Don't disturb him when you do. The man just got his body back."
I kept my hand steady then opened a portal to my [Midnight World], gently guiding the sphere through it. I ain't gon' lie though, I was curious too. That kind of power spike... with his soul in that condition? Something was off.
When I finally looked back at the battlefield, it hit different. Miles of terrain twisted and broken like some monstrous catastrophe had walked through and left pawprints of destruction behind. Dead animals scattered across the land, frozen trees shattered into jagged pieces, rocks still burning with lingering hellfire. And the wild part was this wasn't even my country. I had wrecked a World Wonder and acres of land in somebody else's territory. Yeah. That Snow-Bunni was definitely gonna be mad.
"On the real, my nigga, I didn't expect the Trappers to have people at the level of Orion's strength," Steez said, brushing frost from his arms. "I gotta hit the lab and get my battle power up."
"You ain't the only one," Alex added, rolling his shoulders. "I couldn't compete with Taurus. And after experiencing Xi's buff, I gotta get back to that level on my own."
I glanced at both of them.
"Y'all did well, if my opinion matters for anything. Y'all did what many other Godwalkers haven't done: survive multiple harvesting attempts from Angels."
Steez smirked.
"Those are strong praises coming from a God M-Cee. I knew you were strong, but I sometimes forget how strong. Now, I'm more motivated. I'll be just as strong soon."
Alex nodded.
"Hell yeah. I ain't with this always being saved."
"I expect nothing less," I said, rolling my shoulders lightly. "But don't think I'ma make it easy for y'all to pass me. I oddly like being the strongest one in our clan."
"Don't slip up," Steez shot back. "I'ma be on ya heel."
We bumped fists. A simple dap. But it always meant everything. I turned back to the land and lifted my hand. Earth Mana and Water Mana flowed out, seeping into the ground, reshaping broken terrain, pulling soil back together, restoring some of the damage. But it wasn't perfect. I couldn't bring back the animals. Maybe I could've done more. Real nigga shit, I just didn't feel like it. Endora had been getting on my nerves anyway. Letting the Panty Raiders run wild into Velonica villages like it wasn't their problem. And Queen Rivah Hyacinth? I ain't heard a single thing from her since I was born. Not a message bird. Not a courier letter. Nothing.
"That'll do," I muttered. "Hyacinth will have to put the rest of the collateral damage on my tab."
Steez raised a brow.
"The Queen of the Rabbitfolk? What did she do?"
"That's the problem," I said flatly. "It seems like that Snow-Bunni don't do shit about what goes on in her country outside of her capital city."
Alex snorted.
"Grandma said that Queen Hyacinth is scared of Aunt Vee."
"A lot of people are scared of Mom," Steez added.
"Well," I said, cracking my neck slightly, "as the new King of Velonica, I'm going to send her a letter for a summit. She and I need to talk."
Steez nodded.
"Since there will be a reunification of the monarchy, you're going to need an army. Currently, the entire military might of Talasi is the Mikazuki Clan."
"With me on the battlefield," I said, smirking slightly, "I feel bad for any invading force."
Alex shook his head.
"You can't be everywhere, Xi. That's why you need others to help."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I still gotta deal with the Kingdom of Madness from the far east. After yesterday's assault on Talasi, they have declared war."
Alex frowned.
"Those Humans came from the north, not the east. Madness would have to go through East Velonica to attack us with a true army."
"Leading platoons of women to a guaranteed death would be gruesome, even for Queen Serafina," I said coldly. "I would kill them all myself, then blow that country off the face of Arcadia."
Alex gave me a look.
"Yeah, I believe you after seeing what you did to Trappist."
"And the sky rings," Steez added. "I'm still not over you fucking up the sky rings."
I chuckled low.
"You know what they say, Oni are only good for chaos. But enough of this vacation. I need to get home and get to work."
"Let me catch a ride," Alex said. "Your teleportation is shorter than a flight back."
"A'ight. But you know, with Quantum Mana, you can teleport yourself."
"Nigga, not that far! I would burn out way before I got to the border."
"I'm just fuckin' with you, fool. You know I know that already."
Steez stretched his legs.
"I'ma run back. I need to break in these new feet and work off some extra stamina. I'll see y'all at the crib."
"Say less, baby bro."
The next second, the wind brushed past us as Steez took off—already gone before the air even caught up. Baby bro treated distance like a suggestion. The Sonata Syn of Sloth, but time meant nothing to him, since his pace was outside of it. I watched him go, then smiled a little. I remembered him as a toddler—crawling fast as hell, trying to keep up with Artamis and me in the backyard.
Now look at him. Growing into something dangerous. Both of them were.
They never let me get out of their eye sight. Even when I tried. And whether they realized it or not? They had already reached heights most people wouldn't even dream of. Lucky for them, I was keeping track. Taking mental pictures. Saving those moments for when they'd finally look back and realize—
Yeah... we were really like that.
Alex and I reappeared outside Talasi's front gate in a shimmer of warped space, the air folding in on itself with that familiar ripple-crack sound that always made the world look like wet fingers dragging across a painting. One second, I was standing in ruined Endora with scorched dirt under my boots. The next, my feet touched home soil. Unlike when I used [Spatial Mana Arts: Smooth Operator], where I had to lock on to a living signature with somebody's soul, [Spatial Teleportation] let me skip all that. If I had a clear image of a place in my mind—or even a strong enough memory of it—I could return there like I was using one of those old video game fast travel points. Real broken mechanic type shit.
The moment our boots hit the ground, I knew something was off.
A new shadow stretched across the entrance path, cast by structures that definitely had not been there when I left. What used to be dirt and old stone was now dressed in black asphalt roads and clean concrete sidewalks, edged with trimmed planters full of blue roses. The flowers ran in elegant lines along the entryway, their petals still wet with the last breath of dawn. It looked beautiful.
It also looked wrong as hell.
Alex slowed beside me, white brows pulling together as his eyes bounced from one change to the next.
"Yo, you sure we're at the right place?"
I stared ahead, my mouth half open, before the words slipped out.
"What the hell happened here?"
My old-world, country-style hometown had gotten a full damn makeover.
The protective wall around Talasi had been replaced, too. The old wooden-and-stone outer defense I grew up seeing was gone, swapped out for a taller brick wall with reinforced segments and smooth mortar like some modern fortress trying to cosplay as a small-town border. And once my eyes went over the top of it, I saw the real remix. The outside wasn't even the wildest part.
Inside, whole sections of Talasi had been rebuilt in a style that looked way closer to twentieth-century America than anything native to Gaia. Not fully Earth, but inspired enough that it hit my chest like déjà vu. Clean-lined houses. Wider windows. Less exposed timber. More brick, paneled siding, and shaped roofing. Familiar silhouettes cut into a world that had no business knowing them.
Glass storefronts caught the late dawn light and threw it back doubled. Shops were lit up from the inside—not by lanterns or mana-fed sconces, but by actual electric lighting, the kind I'd spent time thinking about importing from Earth to Gaia back before all of this accelerated the way it had. Only here, it wasn't purely electric. Whoever had built this had done something smarter—they'd integrated it. Mana crystals were embedded in the power infrastructure. Runes etched into junction points. Idols served as stabilizers when the draw got too heavy. I stopped and really looked at it.
Magitech.
Not the clunky, ugly shit most monster nations on Gaia bragged about, either. This was smooth. Elegant. This was definitely mine. The type of technology I had once thought about dragging over from Earth and fusing with mana systems, only to put it off because there had always been too much other shit to do. Whoever built this didn't just understand the assignment—they understood my idea. My style. My way of blending convenience, efficiency, and flex into one package.
The new mechanical gates in front of us split open with a heavy sliding hum, gears clicking beneath a rune-lit frame just as I heard wind rushing in behind us. I glanced back and saw Steez appear from the road, slowing from a jog that was probably still faster than most people's combat speed. A gust chased him lazily from behind, as if it was offended he had outpaced it again. He barely looked impressed by any of what Alex and I were seeing.
That was the giveaway. Talasi already looked like this before he left. Which meant...
I turned to him quickly.
"Steez, what the hell happened since I've been gone?"
He blinked at me like I was the one being weird.
"Huh? You don't know? You were the one who did it."
I frowned hard.
"Me, what the hell are you talking—"
Then it clicked.
The Saint Disciples from the Kingdom of Madness. Their attack with the Illuminati of Velonica. Talasi had fifty, maybe sixty percent of the town torn apart in one damn sunset. And me—trying to fix that shit as fast as possible—making twelve clones and scattering them around the town to help with recovery and repairs while I handled everything else. I had made the mistake of forgetting one very important detail. Them niggas were me. Which meant if you gave twelve versions of me a busted town, resources, and time to think, of course, they would get ambitious and start freestyling upgrades like overachieving contractors with god complexes.
I lifted my hand and snapped my fingers.
The shadows cast from the new town wall thickened, then rose up off the ground in a wavering black smoke. One by one, twelve silhouettes stepped out of the shade and solidified into twelve different versions of my face, my build, my swagger. Twelve Xiros stood in front of us like a narcissist convention had just been called to order.
Alex threw both hands up.
"Where did all these Xiros come from?"
Steez jerked a thumb at them.
"These are the niggas that's been building and changing stuff."
Alex's eyes widened, looking from them to me, then back again.
"You mean this whole time Xiro was fighting, he was fueling this many dopplegangers? While also giving mana to us for a buff? Bro, how do you operate so much?"
I watched my own twelve faces looking back at me, none of them offering an apology. "I never think that I can't do something," I said, still staring at them. "That delusion keeps me from fearing or feeling failure."
Then I cut my voice at the clones.
"Speaking of delusion, who told y'all to create new magitech and rebuild Talasi with it?"
One of them—Clone #1, judging by the extra disrespect in his face—folded his arms and answered me like I was the one behind on the group project.
"Negro, we did ask you. Didn't you get the message from Tsukuyomi?"
I stared at him.
"No, what message?"
Inside my head, [Moon Sage: Tsukuyomi] answered in that calm, maddeningly reasonable voice of his.
"Their request was sent to you at the time you put on the Death's Mask. Your synchronization lock with Belial made it difficult to find a moment of priority for it. So I permitted them in your stead, based on the calculation that it would be beneficial for you in the future."
I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed through my hand.
"I can't even be mad, because you're right as usual."
That was the worst part. He was never wrong.
I facepalmed fully, then snapped again.
All twelve clones dissolved at once, their bodies breaking apart into black motes and drifting back into me like smoke getting sucked into a furnace. The moment they reentered my soul, their memories rushed into place behind my eyes. Every blueprint. Every argument. Every choice they made. Power routing systems, mana crystal placements, reinforced sewage layouts, public lighting grids, safer housing shapes, automated gate logic, insulated wiring, emergency barrier placements, and even the aesthetic decisions.
Bastards had been busy.
Steez looked up at the new town with a grin.
"Real nigga shit, I'm glad they brought out some more of that primordial alien technology from big bro's old life."
Alex nodded, though his mind was already elsewhere.
"I kinda am, too. But I'll catch up on it later. I gotta go check on Ameera."
He tossed his hands once in the air and took off into town before either of us could answer. The speed in his step wasn't normal excitement. That was the focus. Sharp focus. The kind that cut through every distraction and honed in on one person. That orange-furred Vulpin Lycanthrope had Alex moving differently. Even with Danica by his side, Ameera lived in his head rent-free. And from the look on his face as he ran, he had no intention of letting another second pass before seeing her.
Watching him go made something else hit me. I still had people waiting on me, too. A whole squad of women stored in my [Midnight World].
I had been so locked into surviving orgies, killing Trappers, and not getting my spine folded like a lawn chair that I damn near forgot I'd been carrying around an entire softcore fantasy cast in my pocket dimension. No telling how they handled the endless night inside my inner universe, but I trusted [Moon Sage: Tsukuyomi] enough to assume he had at least made them comfortable. Or given them beach chairs. A few moons. Something.
I opened a portal on the ground beside me.
Darkness peeled back like a hole cut into reality, and I started pulling them out one by one.
Luvina.
Trixy.
Danni.
Lynnette.
Zawa.
Azumi.
Dream Flower.
Elysia.
Victorya.
Omnia.
All ten of them stepped out into the dawn like a divine lineup designed by a thirsty painter. Different races. Different heights. Different skin tones, ears, horns, tails, wings, and curves. Most of them were still dressed in bikinis from their time inside my world. Tiny strips of cloth, damp sand clinging to thighs, hips, underboob, and stomachs.
Well.
Not all of them.
Luvina, Zawa, and Azumi were completely topless.
Steez looked them over and let out a low whistle.
"Damn, brodie, you spent all night kidnapping hoes or something?"
I snorted.
"Believe it or not, most of them jumped into my arms."
Omnia was the first to smile widely, her dangerous beauty warming as soon as she saw me.
"I will always jump into your arms, papi."
Victorya placed a hand to her chest with sultry composure.
"Agreed, my glorious king."
Danni blinked at the sky, stretching her shoulders and black, leathery wings. Head moving as she took in the asphalt road and the brick wall and the glass storefronts.
"Daylight? Where are we now?"
Elysia inhaled softly, her lashes fluttering as she felt the ambient mana in the wind.
"This air feels like we're in Velonica."
Zawa put both hands on her hips and pouted as her pale shoulders dropped.
"Ahhh, poopy. I was having fun at the Moonlight Beach."
Azumi held up the little bucket she had somehow still kept with her and groaned dramatically.
"Riight! I had just filled this bucket up to start working on my castle."
Luvina leaned over with lazy elegance, brushing flakes of white sand from Azumi's breasts and nipples like a mother humoring a chaotic daughter.
"It seems our fun time is over for now," she said, voice smooth as oil. "The Demon Lord has retrieved us, meaning the fighting must be over."
Dream Flower stepped forward, looking past us toward the town with confusion wrinkling her features.
"This land looks familiar, but the town doesn't. That can't be Talasi."
"The old lumber mill town has gotten an upgrade," I said.
Her eyes shifted quickly.
"I don't see Ameera or Nicole. What happened to them?"
There it was.
I knew that question was coming. It had just taken the calm of arrival for it to finally find me. And what she didn't know—what nobody but a handful of us knew—was that Nicole was standing nearby. Just not as Nicole. Victorya Umbra stood there with her pale beauty, cool confidence, and icy devil curves, completely untouched by the name. No recognition. No flicker. No memory. Nicole's identity no longer lived in her the way Dream Flower remembered it. But the name did spark something in Azumi.
"Nicole?" she said, tilting her head. "I know a Nicole. She was a Dhampir with some big tits."
Dream Flower turned to her fast.
"Yeah, that's the pale skin I'm talking about."
Azumi snapped her fingers with the easy confidence of someone who'd already processed the experience and moved on.
"I remember seeing her around when I was fighting with Omnia."
Omnia immediately cut in, smooth and unbothered.
"A fight that you lost."
Azumi's head snapped toward her, all that previous calm gone in an instant.
"You want a round two, bitch?"
I lifted my hand and sliced the tension in half with my voice.
"You two, silence. Dream, my dear, I have some bad news..."
Dream Flower's face changed before I even finished. Fear hit first. Then denial.
"Noooo. No way, Xiro. Don't tell me that. You said she was in your secret world like we were, but I didn't see her anywhere."
I looked at her carefully. No jokes. No evasive shit.
"Yeah... See, about that. In a sense, she's here right now. But the Nicole you remember is no longer among us."
Her mouth parted. Her eyes shook.
"Whatchu mean?" Her voice had dropped, quieter now, moving toward something she didn't want to reach. "What are you saying right now?"
I forced the words out clean.
"Nicole... isn't here anymore."
"She died."
Her breath caught so hard it looked painful.
"Noooo..."
"In an attempt to save her, I created a reincarnation Skill Art that turned her into my 2nd Guardian Armament." I shifted slightly toward Victorya. "This Ice Succubus here is named Victorya Umbra, and she is the reincarnation of half of Nicole's soul."
Dream Flower looked at me. Then at Victorya. Then back at me again, like maybe if she stared hard enough, one of us would correct the sentence and tell her this was all some ugly misunderstanding. But Victorya just stood there. Beautiful. Calm. Detached. Cold. Dream Flower searched her face for something—anything—that felt like Nicole. Some old smile. Some nervous habit. Some trace of her friend's spirit. She didn't find it. And that made it worse. I could see it wrecking her in real time, like her mind was trying to solve an impossible shape. Her friend was dead… but standing here. Reborn... but missing. Present... but gone. Tears welled fast, then spilled down her cheeks.
She turned her head away, voice fragile.
"Can I... can I please have a moment?"
I nodded and let her go.
Victorya, for her part, didn't react.
Why would she? To her, Nicole was just another dead girl's name. A previous life she didn't know. Old friendships she didn't feel. Old attachments that had no roots in her new self, the White Empress was her title now. Most of Nicole's memory was gone. Only her last thoughts remained in the reincarnation. Victorya Umbra had no reason to mourn somebody she had never been conscious enough to love.
Off to the side, Trixy was turning my words over, her ears catching each syllable and replaying it like a recording with a skip in it. The Nekomimi's eyes narrowed with the particular tension of someone whose understanding of the world had just been challenged at the foundation.
"Created a reincarnation Skill Art? Is he serious?"
Danni stretched her back and wings with a slow pop of joints.
"Chile, ain't no way."
Luvina gave them both a lazy glance.
"Oh, he is very serious. I was there to witness it."
Trixy's lemon-yellow eyes widened, her tail flicking sharply behind her.
"But created? I've never heard of anyone creating a Skill Art. Those are always acquired from the Prime Realm System."
Luvina smiled with a kind of dark admiration.
"Lord Xiro is a unique case. He seems to be operating on a different playing field of rules."
Zawa folded her arms under her chest and grinned.
"You should have seen him fight. It's hard not to get turned on from the magickal command he showcases."
Danni squinted at me.
"I knew something was up with that damn Oni."
Azumi bounced lightly on her toes.
"Omnia said she was using some of his abilities in our fight, and they made her untouchable. Oooh, and he gave me this healing fruit that was good as hell!"
A little farther behind us, Elysia was barely paying attention to any of that. Her gaze was fixed on the horizon, specifically toward where the Janell Forest sat in the distance. She murmured to herself, excitement rising with every thought.
"If that's where the Janell Forest is, then I could grow a Sycamore Tree over here..."
That girl was already landscaping in her head while everybody else was digesting soul death, reincarnation, and the fact I had apparently broken the damn rules of the Realm System again.
Lynnette, meanwhile, stood very still.
Her human eyes moved over the town, over the brick, the glass, the light fixtures, the magitech infrastructure, the roads—taking in every detail with quiet amazement. She had never seen anything like this used for public sociovore infrastructure, not in Arcadia. But even with all that wonder in front of her, there was another thought beating harder in the back of her mind.
"This is where the Crimson Lady lives. I get to finally meet the woman who defeated my mother and turned her into who she is today."
Trixy's ears twisted apart, each one independently tracking a different sound from town. Her senses kept sweeping in expanding arcs, eyes bouncing from rooftop to wall line to the far roads beyond.
Then she looked at me.
"I can't sense or locate any Angels. So Devil of Velonica, you really did defeat Orion."
I smirked.
"Does a spiderbear shit silk in the woods?"
She blinked.
"Huh?"
I laughed.
"Hahaha. I killed Taurus, but Orion escaped at the end."
That answer hit the group like a ripple through water. Every witch there looked at me differently after that. Not just impressed. Measured. Scaled. Assessed. They were all trying to place me somewhere in their understanding of power and coming up short. I could see it in their eyes—the way awe mixed with uncertainty, realizing the thing in front of them didn't fit into known categories. Then the murmurs started. Low. Fast. Overlapping.
Free from the Trappers.
Free from the threat hanging over their lives.
Questions about what came next, where they would go, what it meant that Taurus was dead, and Orion had been driven off. Their voices layered together under the strange, beautiful light of Talasi's rebirth while Dream Flower cried quietly to herself a little farther away. And standing there in front of my changed hometown—with ten women fresh out of my pocket dimension, my brother already gone to chase love, and my own clones having secretly upgraded my city behind my back—I had to admit one simple truth.
Home had changed.
And somehow, so had everybody standing in front of it.
Zawa didn't say nothing at first. She just walked up on me slowly. Real slow. Stalking something she already caught but still wanted to understand. The morning light hit her pale skin just right, warming it into this soft peach glow that made her look less like a majin and more like big-titted trouble wrapped in lace. Then she leaned in close. Too close. Her nose brushed near my neck, her breath warm as she inhaled deep, like she was digging through layers of me that normal senses couldn't touch. Her brows pulled together. Confused. Curious. Fearful. Almost... frustrated.
She inhaled again, deeper this time. Then her expression shifted. No longer confusion. Now, wrongness.
"Why can't I sense the density in your signature anymore?"
Danni tilted her head from behind her, eyes narrowing as she focused on me harder. I felt the shift—her senses pushing, trying to lock onto something that wasn't there anymore.
"Now that you mention it, his aura does feel a lot different than before."
She stepped closer, squinting like she was trying to read fine print on reality itself.
"It's more like an endless void attempting to engulf me."
Luvina didn't move.
Didn't need to.
Her grey eyes already knew.
"His mana signature is one of Outer Realm divinity, now," she said softly, like she was stating the obvious. "It feels basically the same as a deity."
That made Danni click her tongue, annoyed.
"Scanning you won't even give me a letter grade for your Battle Power." She folded her arms, staring at me like a nigga had personally offended her system. "What even are you, Xiro?"
Omnia didn't hesitate.
"He's the Archon of Night."
Victorya's lips curved just slightly.
"The Midnight King."
Steez, standing off to the side, snorted.
"That nigga."
I shrugged, hands in my pockets.
"Yeah, what they said."
Elysia nodded slowly, her expression shifting like pieces finally clicking into place.
"The Archon of Night…" she murmured. "That makes a lot of sense now."
Lynnette's voice came softer—careful, almost cautious.
"The son of the Crimson Lady of Velonica is an Outer God? Is this some kind of joke?"
I exhaled through my nose.
"Yeah... it's a lot to take in," I said, rolling my shoulders a bit. "But that can be talked about later. As for now, I need to get y'all lodging while y'all figure out your next steps. I got way too much other business to handle."
That seemed to flip a switch in everybody. They started deciding quickly. Elysia didn't even hesitate. She turned toward the outskirts, already scanning land like she was about to terraform the whole damn area.
"No need for me. I'll create my own out here. See ya later."
She was gone mentally before she even walked off physically.
Trixy raised two fingers casually.
"I'll only need it for two days. That should be enough for me to plan out my trip."
Danni stretched her wings again, joints cracking lightly as she spoke.
"I'll need about half a month-cycle. I need to set up my arrival in Babylonia."
Azumi bounced on her heels, looking around like she had just found a new playground.
"If this is where Omnia is living now, then I guess I'll be moving in. This place looks fun."
Omnia smiled faintly, but there was authority behind it.
"As long as you listen to Master like a good girl, you're welcome to stay."
Zawa raised her hand like she was reporting for duty.
"Well, I'm officially his sex slave, so I have to stay here to fulfill my duty."
"You still on that?" I murmured in response.
Omnia didn't even blink.
"Devoting your life to my Master? Very well then." Her eyes flicked to Victorya briefly. "But you will rank under Victorya and me."
Zawa's face scrunched up instantly.
"Lower rank? Big poopy!"
Lynnette gave a small, polite bow of her head.
"I'm not sure how long I'll be staying… but I do want to hang around for a while, so I'll try not to be a huge bother."
Luvina smiled, eyes glinting with interest as she looked around at the magitech infrastructure again.
"I think I'll be joining Azumi in living here. I'm excited to see some familiar technology."
While they all spoke, I let their words settle in my head, organizing who was staying, who was leaving, and who needed what. Then my eyes drifted. Back to Dream Flower. She had stepped off to the side earlier, but now she was back. Composed. Or at least trying to be. Her fingers brushed under her eyes one last time, wiping away the final traces of tears. But what caught me wasn't that. It was her eye color. They weren't that warm golden-yellow anymore. They had shifted. Soft, periwinkle blue. Like her emotions had literally repainted her soul. The biology of Changelings lets deep moods do that.
I walked a little closer.
"You chillin' in town for a while, right? Ameera is with Alex at my grandmother's."
She answered, but it took her a second too long. She nodded gently, posture straight but still fragile around the edges.
"Yes, sir." Her voice was calm, but there was weight under it now. "I still need to request a moment of your free time for us to talk."
She paused, her hands folding lightly in front of her.
"I'm hoping you can help me save my Fenrir."
I raised a brow slightly.
"A rescue request?"
Her eyes lifted to mine, steady.
"After seeing your powers last night, I'm convinced there is no better person to ask than you."
There wasn't desperation in her tone.
Not fully.
But there was belief.
And that hit different.
I nodded once.
"We'll talk about it later."
Then I turned slightly, motioning toward the town.
"For now, I need to walk y'all to the Talasi Inn and get y'all set up. I'll also point out some things about my kingdom as we pass by them."
Steez stretched, already half-turned away.
"I'll catch up with you later, Xi."
I gave him a small nod.
And just like that, I started walking. Through the main gate. Into Talasi. With a whole lineup behind me. Different footsteps. Different energies. Different intentions. Some of them curious. Some of them loyal. Some of them dangerous in ways they hadn't even shown yet.
The sound of heels, boots, and bare feet tapped against the new concrete and stone, mixing with the soft hum of magitech systems running quietly beneath the town's surface. Mana flowed through everything. Lights. Walls. Air. Even the ground felt alive.
I walked ahead of them, hands in my pockets, leading without needing to look back. Because I could feel them. All of them. A collection of wild personalities. All following me for their own reasons. All more attractive than the average woman. All more dangerous than the average man. And now? All under my watch.
Walking them through Talasi felt surreal. The streets were alive in a way I hadn't seen before—not even on festival days. Morning had fully settled in now, and the marketplace was already in full swing. The air was thick with the smell of crispy hen frying in open pans, grease popping and snapping as cooks flipped golden pieces with practiced ease. My stomach reacted before my brain did. Sweet citrus from freshly squeezed fruits cut through the heavier scents, while warm bread carried that soft, comforting aroma that made your stomach react before your brain could catch up.
It hit the nose in layers. Savory. Sweet. Warm. Alive.
And we walked straight through it, cause technically I owned the place. The rooftops above us had changed, too. Where thatch used to sit in uneven bundles, now clay and concrete tiles were layered across homes in clean, durable patterns. They looked ready to take on storms that would've folded the old Talasi in half.
I glanced around, taking it all in. The craftsmanship shift was undeniable.
What used to be Creek-style builds—wood-heavy, nature-shaped, organic—had transitioned into something way more structured. Houses now had that late-90s suburban feel. Boxier shapes. Defined edges. Clean lines. The kind of homes I grew up seeing back on Earth.
And yet...
It wasn't Earth. Because woven into all that familiarity was straight-up magick. Mana wiring ran along walls like glowing veins, thin lines of energy pulsing beneath protective casings. It was a fusion. Earth logic. Gaia power. And Talasi? Yeah... it had become something Gaia had never seen before. What made it even crazier was the contrast. Every few buildings, you'd still see a full wooden or clay shop—old Talasi still breathing between the upgrades. It made the whole town look… conflicted. Like two identities trying to coexist in the same space. For a Sociovore town? That was unheard of.
Technology was usually a human thing. They had always been ahead when it came to innovation—less tied to nature, more focused on bending it to their will. Demihumans? We tended to move with nature, not against it. Slower progress. Stronger roots. But even then, Sociovores weren't strangers to magitech entirely. Dark Elves were the ones who originally brought it into existence—blending mana with physical constructs in ways nobody else could at the time. Light Elves? They perfected it.
Fastest transport systems in Arcadia. Mana batteries that powered defensive barriers strong enough to keep entire villages safe from mana beasts. And now? All of that influence was showing up here, remixed in my growing town.
By the time we reached the Talasi Inn, it looked like it had gone through its own glow-up. Bigger. Cleaner. More reinforced. The wooden charm was still there, but now it sat on top of a more refined structure—expanded rooms, stronger support beams, even subtle mana reinforcement along the foundation. Inside? The warmth hit different. Not just from the hearth. From the people.
Brandi Clark stood behind the counter, her posture strong even if her eyes told a different story. The Half-Elf woman had inherited her grandmother's grace, but grief still clung to her like a shadow that hadn't quite let go.
Mr. Clark's death was fresh. Too fresh. Even with all the upgrades, all the improvements, all the new energy flowing through Talasi. That loss still weighed heavily in the air. She smiled when she saw me, though. Soft. Appreciative. And she got straight to work, helping set up rooms for the women without missing a beat. She even thanked me—for the kitchen upgrades, the new furniture, the improvements my clones had made. I gave her a nod, letting her know I saw her effort.
Once everything was settled, I turned toward Luvina. Reached into my space. And tossed her the artifact. She caught it clean. The Eye of Paradis. The moment it hit her hand, her grey eyes lit up like somebody had just handed her a piece of her past.
"Rè! Awesome sauce! You manage to get them."
I tilted my head slightly.
"So you were aware of the Soul Core within it."
She looked at me like I had asked something obvious.
"Well, duh. Rè is my best friend. I hid their Soul Core in this artifact when I was summoned away from my last universe."
Her grip tightened slightly around the orb. Like she remembered something.
Then she smiled.
"But, thank you. You're pretty sweet for an Oni."
I smirked just a little.
"Oh, that favor wasn't for free. You'll be paying it back when I need a pleasure break."
Her smile widened. Her grip tightened even more.
"Don't threaten me with a good time."
Before I could even react, she hopped forward and kissed my cheek—quick, playful—then turned and walked down the hall like she owned the place.
When I stepped back outside, Omnia and Victorya were already there. Waiting. Both of them leaned in their own ways—calm, composed. But I could feel it. That subtle territorial energy. Not jealousy. But ownership. Just two queens watching their king handle business with other women, already knowing where they stood in the hierarchy.
It didn't take long for the town to notice me. Whispers started first. Then murmurs. Then heads were turning. Dark Elves. Celestials. Gathering slowly, eyes flicking between me, Omnia, Victorya... taking it all in. Then it shifted.
Recognition. Excitement. Pride. And suddenly—
"THANK YOU, LORD MIKAZUKI!"
The shout hit like a wave. Then another. And another.
Voices stacked on top of each other until it became a full chant, the crowd rallying around us with raised hands and bright faces. The cheer broke like a wave. More voices caught it, amplified it—townspeople rallying around us in an impromptu press of gratitude and relief, chanting my title with the particular energy of people who had lived through something frightening and were now on the other side of it. My popularity had never run this high. Not in this town, not anywhere. I stood in the middle of it and let it move around me, Omnia and Victorya steady on either side. I can't lie, I enjoyed every minute of it.
While I was walking through all of that, Alex was making his own kind of homecoming a few streets over.
Bro reached Grandma Fann's house.
The outside had changed a little—porch extended, structure reinforced—but the moment he stepped close, that scent hit him. Blue roses. That familiar, calming fragrance that never changed. Home. Before he could even make it up the steps, the door opened. Glynis stepped out. White hair catching the light. And the moment her amber eyes landed on him? Relief. Pure relief.
Alex didn't say a word.
He just moved. Wrapped his arms around her tight like he was afraid she might disappear if he didn't hold on hard enough.
"I'm sorry, Momma. I'm sorry for leaving out like that. I'm sorry for not making it back in time to save Dad. I'm so sorry."
His voice cracked.
The white lines of his face tattoos blurred under the wet of tears that fell before he finished the sentence, soaking into her shoulder while she held him back. She didn't rush it. She didn't try to redirect or reframe it before he'd finished feeling it. Shukaku had been gone for thirty hours by then—killed in yesterday's assault on Talasi—and for thirty hours Alex had been moving, fighting, carrying that grief pressed flat underneath everything else he needed to do. He'd spent the whole night reaching for Melech as a way to keep the weight off himself, to make the grief into purpose, to make it into action instead of loss. But you can only run that play for so long before the quiet catches up to you, and this was the quiet.
Glynis held him just as tight.
"I have such a wonderful son. Do not feel that your father's death was your fault. No one could have predicted his murder."
He shook slightly in her arms.
"I avenged him, Mom. I killed the Imp that killed him. May she rot in Infernia."
She pulled back just enough to look at him.
"I'm proud of you, Alexander. Now may your father's soul rest peacefully knowing justice was served."
"I didn't get to rescue Melech before that same witch killed him," he said, voice low. "But Xi and I did save his brother and daughter. Are they in there?"
"You mean Ameera?" she asked gently. "Yes, she's inside. When she came to, she told us how you and Xiro were fighting the Panty Raiders to help a north Velonican village that was wiped off the map."
She paused.
"Your grandmother recently finished patching up the one-armed Wolven, but Ameera should be up and mobile."
Alex's jaw tightened.
"Ameera asked me to save her father, only for me to cause her to experience the same loss of a parent as I."
Auntie Glynis didn't let that sit.
"No, son. From what she told us, Melech died protecting his child. He was a true artist through and through. Don't sully his sacrifice with self-pity."
He straightened.
"Yes, ma'am."
She studied him for a moment, then added—
"The girl also said that the last thing she remembers seeing was a winged minotaur with a holy shine. Surely she doesn't suggest it was that Trapper Xiro said y'all fought before."
Alex nodded.
"One and the same. Xiro and Luda killed him, then Steez and I helped them almost kill their boss."
Glynis froze.
Her jaw dropped slightly.
"I knew that was Xiro's signature we felt. If I didn't know Xiro already, I wouldn't believe it."
Her eyes softened, pride swelling.
"But to think that y'all have grown to the levels of Garland Braye... Alex, that is amazing!"
"I still got some time before I catch up to Xiro," he said, a small smile forming. "But I'm not holding the team back. Your son is strong now."
She smiled warmly.
"My son has always been strong."
After that, he stepped inside. The scent hit him immediately. Honey. Bacon. That kitchen magic Grandma Fann always worked like it was a spell. The door creaked, and she peeked out—purple fro bouncing slightly, eyes lighting up the moment she saw him.
"Welcome back, Alexander. Are you hungry? I'm making y'all's favorite."
He nodded fast, emotion catching up to him again.
She pulled him into a hug. Warm. Safe. And told him it was okay to grieve however he needed to. Then—
She stepped into the room.
"Lord Alex! Praises to the Creator that you are okay."
Ameera didn't hesitate.
She crossed the space and wrapped her arms around him just as tightly as his mother had. Her tail swayed behind her, moving with a joy her face couldn't fully express. Alex smiled softly, holding her.
"You're looking good, Ameera. Also… thanks for your help back there."
She pulled back slightly, shaking her head.
"It is you who should be thanked. If not for you, I wouldn't have been able to hear the last words of my father. Nor would my uncle have made it out with his life."
Her blue eyes softened.
"You are truly an amazing man."
And just like that, after everything we went through that night—
All the sex. All the chaos. All the death. All the blood. We came back to something simple. Something real. Home.
And sometimes?
That's all you really need.
[End of Chapter]
[1] April on Earth.