Varzath awakens surrounded by heat and the noise of soft breathing. Frowning, he opens his eyes to find himself nearly buried in bodies, Biranal’s tail wrapped around his leg as she sleeps against his left shoulder, and Zorzazeth against his right one.

  Salmorol is nowhere to be seen… She must’ve left after putting the girls to sleep.

  A quick gnce at his window reveals the sky as slightly red, reflecting the hellfire pits at the most intense, which means morning for its inhabitants, himself included.

  It should be about time the maids responsible for his morning routine usually arrive, but what awoken him, Varzath realizes, was a knock on his door, which they wouldn’t have bothered with.

  Sighing, Varzath slips away from the girls by casting his movement shadow spell, appearing before the bed as he throws a gnce toward their sleeping figures.

  Since they’ve slept together, even if with his body as their pillow, things must’ve ended well, as Salmorol promised they would.

  Hopefully, this means Biranal will open up somewhat from now on and make some friends among the pace staff, or even the Domain’s demons who live outside, before their inevitable departure…

  A second knock on his door has Varzath frowning again. Should he bother dressing himself…? No, since they’re so impatient, it could mean an emergency requiring his immediate attention, and as such, Varzath heads toward for door with rge steps, before swinging it open without ceremonies.

  Sunnazoth, knuckles ready to strike again, freezes mid-motion. Behind her, his two personal maids, Sirel and Ekor, cringe, quickly averting their eyes from his gaze.

  “I’m sorry, Milord, we tried to get Mistress to wait, but-”

  “It’s fine,” Varzath interrupts Sirel, stepping aside as he signals for them to enter, “Just wait for me in the bathroom, as usual. If the girls awaken, tell them they’re invited for our bath, and that I’ll be there in a minute.”

  Sirel and Ekor curtsy in sync, without dropping the contents of their arms, before all but running inside as Sunnazoth also makes way for their passage.

  Once they’re through, Varzath steps out and carefully closes the door after himself, crossing his arms and leaning against it as he aims Sunnazoth with a look carefully devoid of emotion.

  He doesn’t expect her to apologize for scaring his maids or having awakened him, and she doesn’t. Instead, she simply stares at him for a long moment, then shakes her head.

  “I can’t. No matter how much I rack my brain, I just can’t seem to wrap my head around what you’re thinking.”

  Varzath smiles. “I’ll take it as a compliment.”

  “It wasn’t,” Sunnazoth says pinly, “But I knew you’d see it as one.”

  “See? You do know me at least somewhat,” Varzath points out, still smiling at her, “But after what happened st time, I also realized we still have much we could learn about one another, in spite of all of the years we’ve next to each other.”

  “What happened st time…” Sunnazoth murmurs and shakes her head again, her expression as though haven eaten something rotten. “Fine. I suppose there’s no point in deying the inevitable any longer…”

  Aas he waits for her to continue, Varzath raises an eyebrow. Sunnazoth takes a deep breath, then tightens her jaw, before sighing.

  “…I admit, you’ve won.”

  Varzath ughs softly. “Lords, one would think I’m having you demoted to one of our maids, rather than making you my official heir.”

  Sunnazoth grimaces. “You know damn well I didn’t want this, you bastard.”

  Varzath rolls his eyes. “And yet, I believe you’re the best suited for the position. Don’t act as though I’ve forced you when we both know I still left you a choice in the end.”

  After a moment of staring daggers at him, Sunnazoth finally nods rigidly, as though it pains her to admit as much. “You’ve always had a strange way of doing things, often going out of your way to seduce the girls when you could simply order them to do whatever you want… I won’t pretend I understand why, but I appreciate the fact you still left me a choice, Lord Varzath, however maniputive and disgraceful your actions might’ve been before that point.”

  “I see you still haven’t forgiven me for forcing you to enact your own fantasies. Was it that painful?”

  Sunnazoth’s face grows heated as she gres at him. “I dream of the moment your pn fails and I’m forever rid of the torture that is staring at your arrogant mug, Milord.”

  And with that, she turns and walks away, never looking back.

  Of course, Varzath knows exactly how painful it was, having been in her mind at the time. He doubts she’ll forgive him anytime soon, if ever… But then again, he doesn’t need her to. What matters is that she accepted to rule the Domain in his stead, giving them a better chance of surviving through his absence.

  Speaking of which… He hopes the girls haven’t started without him.

  ...Truly, Varzath would like to say the following weeks of his life were spent throwing threesomes and foursomes, pying sex games with Biranal, receiving massages from Salmorol, or even bickering with Sunnazoth.

  But in reality, with the deadline for their pn encroaching ever so close, his days were mostly spent in preparation or work (meaning his usual administrative duties), including finally sharing with the others the full scope of his pn, establishing Sunnazoth’s new stats as his heir publicly, a trip to Elysium in which Biranal firmly refused to participate (which was meant to st a day, but end up sting three, thanks to a certain dragoness’ endless appetite), and finally having Sonog’s seal tattooed throughout his body, process which had him unable to move for a whole full day after.

  Meanwhile, by feeding, more often than not from Biranal, he gradually recovered his powers, and now, five weeks after his talk with Sunnazoth…

  Varzath meets the approaching ice spikes with his dagger, shattering them as he continues to run toward the distant figure of Sunnazoth, flying through the use of ice wings created by her own magic.

  Noticing she waves her hand in his direction again, Varzath jumps, dodging the ice spikes to sprout from the ground where he’d have stepped had he kept going… Then immediately creates a mana barrier as something crashes against it from behind, sending him flying forward.

  Unsummoning his barrier, Varzath rolls as he hits the ground, never slowing down his chase in spite of Biranal’s enraged roar over having been used as a way of movement.

  With her wearing full armor, and having her maces already unsummed, he’d be in trouble if not for the six shadow puppets keeping her at bay most of the time (fun fact, being able to sustain ten spells at once is a new record for him, even considering his supposed prime as a fighter, before having established the Domain).

  Ice spells rain from the sky toward and around him, but Varzath merely swats them away with his daggers if they’re small enough to, or dodges, sometimes teleporting to do so, if they’re bigger.

  Biranal hasn’t simply given up on protecting her ally, of course, but her attempts at catching him are dwarfed by the fact she has to destroy or disengage his puppets first, giving him plenty of time to ward himself against her…

  Creating a group of shadow tentacles, and using them to grab Biranal’s leg mid-flight, then fling her toward a particurly big piece of ice about to strike him, Varzath ughs.

  It should be about time now…

  Sunnazoth screams, her frustration obvious, and the temperature drops further as the demon raises her arms, materializing hundreds, if not thousands of ice daggers around her; Having found his cue, Varzath immediately teleports several times through the air, instantly crossing the remaining distance in between them as he appears close enough to touch Sunnazoth, whose eyes widen with shock.

  “Dead,” he whispers, grinning and lightly touching the handle of his dagger against her forehead while creating a simir pair of shadow wings to remain in the air.

  Sunnazoth grimaces, and her spell lose the driving force behind, causing her ice daggers to shatter, showering the surroundings in ice particules as she shakes her head. “…You were waiting for an opening; Of course you were.”

  Varzath nods. “You should’ve stayed to fight me head-on, together with Biranal. It was your best chance. Separated, you were hoping for a miracle.”

  Sunnazoth frowns at him. “I could’ve remained outside of your reach if I was careful. Your puppets wouldn’t have kept the dragon away forever.”

  Varzath shrugs. “Even if not now, you’d have gone for a big finisher eventually, since your mana would otherwise deplete much sooner than mine; Once you gave up on pressing me, it was just a matter of time.”

  Sunnazoth clenches her teeth. “Are you saying I am too much of a coward?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  A sudden explosion, accompanied by an enraged roar brings Varzath’s attention away from Sunnazoth, toward the figure of Biranal rapidly soaring in their direction.

  Realizing his puppets are now too far to catch up in time, he simply unsummons them, creates several balls of shadow, then orders them to fly after her.

  Although they both have wings, Varzath’s aren’t nearly as fast or nimble, meaning an air battle, even while counting on being able to teleport away at the st moment, isn’t in his best interests…

  Biranal reaches the first shadow ball as she swings her mace against it, causing an explosion big enough to distort the air and pop Varzath’s ears, who, once having reestablished a hover, shakes his head as he tries to clear his vision from the remaining spots of light across it.

  Damn it, he expected her to dodge them, in which case he’d have had them blow up as she was trying to fly past…

  Hearing something approaching, Varzath immediately teleports away. Unfortunately, having done so too fast, he loses his sense of direction for a precious second upon reappearing, being forced to create a mana shield which is immediately sent flying downwards by a mace swing.

  Crashing against the ground before he can reorient himself, Varzath immediately casts a wide thunder dome which would’ve stopped most opponents from approaching… Apparently, not Biranal, and Varzath curses out loud as she, electricity still traversing through the outside of her bck armor, smashes her mace against his shield unimpeded, causing several cracks to spread throughout it.

  Immediately assaulted by a splitting headache, and nearly having his knees buckle from the backsh of having his shield nearly destroyed, Varzath finds himself staring into Biranal's burning, ruby eyes through the slits of her helmet, as she prepares for a second mace swing…

  Just then, one of his shadow puppets, finally reformed, crashes against her in the nick of time, sending them both tumbling through the ice-covered ground of what has now become their unofficial training spot.

  Soon finding herself below a pile of shadow puppets again, Biranal roars, frustratingly, while Varzath releases a small sigh of relief.

  Close one…

  Unsummoning his cracked mana shield, Varzath stares toward Biranal’s figure as she all but blows one of his puppets to smithereens with her mace. He shudders; It looks as though he wasn’t the only one who benefited from their little spars.

  Still, now that he has managed to lock her down with them again, and Sunnazoth has been already dealt with, it is only a matter of bidding his time for the finishing blow… Unlike Sunnazoth, however, Biranal won’t show any openings, which means he must create one.

  Varzath then creates a shadow dome intended to distort the senses of those inside of it, which covers their immediate surroundings, centered on Biranal and the puppets as he stays near its edges, like a predator circling its prey.

  As the spell’s owner, not only is he immune to its effects, but he’s also able to have it feed him information about what’s happening inside of it, while Biranal shouldn’t be able to see much further than her own nose, at least in theory… Of course, since the dome is stationary, Biranal could choose to simply leave and reposition, but Varzath doubts she’ll do so.

  No, dragon pride and frustration will have so she’ll attempt to beat him head-on, without retrea-

  A sudden explosion of wind, stone, and dust has Varzath covering his eyes as he curses, stepping back.

  A second ter, Varzath realizes no puppet remains intact, and, meeting Biranal’s eyes through the gaps created in the curtain of shadows between them by her mace strike agasint the ground, he curses.

  Biranal takes off, shattering the ground below her as she becomes a blur, and Varzath realizes teleporting away won’t save him when they’re already so close, since she’ll simply close the distance instantly, most likely faster than he can cast a second teleport.

  Bracing himself for impact, Varzath raises his mana shield… Then immediately unsummons it, grinning toward the figure of Biranal, whose mace swing hits nothing.

  Rendered completely out of bance by the miss, she nearly crashes against the ground head first, and Varzath doesn’t miss the opening.

  “…Dead,” he announces, after having step foward and pced a dagger against the opening between her helmet and armor before she could rise again.

  On one knee, eyes wide with shock, and mace still mid-strike, Biranal stares up at him as if having been frozen for a full two seconds, before closing her eyes and sighing.

  Varzath pulls his dagger away from Biranal’s neck as Sunnazoth ds beside them, shaking her head and grimacing as she unsummons her ice wings, shattering them.

  Varzath smiles at her. “Told you so.”

  Both girls exchange a gnce filled with animosity, each clearly bming the other for their loss, while Varzath crosses his arms (having sheathed his daggers), and clears his throat.

  Sunnazoth looks as though she’s about to throw up.

  Realizing neither of them will step up on their own, Varzath rolls his eyes. “Love, remind us of the rules established before our little contest, please.”

  Biranal sighs. “My Lord was to fight the both of us without making use of his Domain powers, other than the abundant mana it provides. If he lost, he’d grovel naked before Sunnazoth for an hour, then spend the night with me, obeying my every order.”

  Varzath nods. “And if I won?”

  “…Sunnazoth and I would be My Lord’s obedient sex toys for the night, instead,” Biranal completes, bitterly.

  Varzath smiles. “Don’t worry, I won’t make you grovel,” he promises.

  Sunnazoth looks positively sick, so much so he might have considered letting her off their bet, if not for the fact he already has pns for the night…

  A whirlwind of fire announces Sonog’s appearance amidst their group, as he smiles toward Varzath. “Impressive, Milord. Not many would dare purposefully lower their shield while faced by an enraged dragon.”

  Varzath shrugs. “How are the preparations?”

  “All preparations should be finished by morning, as pnned,” Sonog says, scratching his beard and averting his eyes thoughtfully, as though attempting to recall something they might’ve missed, before meeting Varzath’s gaze again with a nod, “…Including the soldiers. If Milord wishes to make any st-minute changes to our pn, or back out completely, now would be the moment.”

  Biranal crosses her arms. Her silence speaks volumes; However, they’ve already had this conversation so many times during this past month, that Varzath simply ignores her as he shakes his head toward Sonog.

  “We’ll proceed as pnned.”

  The short demon bows. “Very well. In this case, I’ll leave Milord and the dies to fulfill their bet.”

  And with that, he’s gone.

  Now surrounded by two very grumpy women, Varzath sighs.

  Awkward.

  “…You know, this will be a very long night if you both act as though having sex with me is worse than a death sentence,” Varzath speaks, finally breaking the silence.

  “Since I’m considering suicide at the moment, Milord’s words are indeed quite close from the truth,” Sunnazoth retorts drily.

  Varzath grimaces. “Fine, have it your way then. Just follow me, for now.”

  Varzath spends a minute or so to cast a mass teleport for the three of them, bringing them back to the pace. After telling Biranal and Sunnazoth to go wash and change into something more appropriate for the night, Varzath himself heads into his room to do the same, summoning Bulramal for a brief set of instructions meanwhile.

  Half an hour ter, better dressed and now clean, Varzath approaches the pace’s dungeon as he finds Biranal and Sunnazoth already waiting, though they’re standing so far away from one another in the empty hall, that a casual observer would never guess they’re together.

  Shaking his head in disbelief, Varzath waves for the both of them to approach as he stops near the entrance.

  Biranal wears a simple sleeveless, skin-tight bck top which leaves her abs, shoulders, and back exposed, plus skin-tight bck pants to match, while Sunnazoth dressed herself in fre white pants, having stayed topless as usual, while adding some jewelry, highlighting her almond eyes and contrasting her dark skin...

  Once they’ve approached him, Varzath points from one of them to the other. “You, and you. I’m not asking you to love each other, but you must at least be able to stand together without looking like you might throw up at any second.”

  Sunnazoth snorts. “We’ve talked,” she says, “And reached an understanding. Milord doesn’t need to worry; We’ll work together to protect the Domain, even if we might hate each other.”

  Biranal nods, though she looks far from happy about it.

  Considering their awful teamwork during the fight, Varzath isn’t exactly convinced, but he supposes he’ll just have to hope they’re able to put aside their differences when it really matters.

  “Well, since that is the case, then I suppose you’ll be able to put up with at least this much…” Varzath says, smiling at them as Biranal and Sunnazoth exchange a gnce.

  “Whatever you are thinking, the answer is no,” Sunnazoth says, looking at him again as she grimaces.

  Varzath raises an eyebrow. “Need I remind you of your status for the night?”

  Sunnazoth pursers her lips at him.

  “And whose idea was it again to have a bet for today…?” Varzath continues, once it becomes clear she won’t answer.

  “…Bastard,” Sunnazoth murmurs at st, averting her eyes away.

  “Say it,” Varzath orders, “You must accept it, otherwise I know you’ll fight me at every step of the way, making for a rather unpleasant evening for all three of us.”

  “…Fuck toys,” Sunnazoth whispers bitterly after a moment of silence, eyes still averted and cheeks slightly heated, “We’re fuck toys for the night.”

  Varzath nods. “See, that wasn’t so hard. Now the both of you kiss, so that we can head inside at once.”

  Biranal, who had a rather happy look on her face while watching Sunnazoth’s suffering, suddenly freezes. Then, she looks at him with the expression of someone who really hopes to have heard something wrong.

  “My Lord can’t mean...?” she asks, eyes wide with disbelief.

  Varzath crosses his arms as she stares at them, then grins. “Go on now; We don’t have the whole night.”

  Sunnazoth rolls her eyes, most likely having known him for long enough to see something of the sort coming, while Biranal still looks shocked by the time the demon turns in her direction, absently moving a lock of dark hair away from her eyes.

  “…Well?” Sunnazoth says to her, “Don’t just stand there, step closer. I promise I won’t bite.”

  Reminded of Zorzazeth, Varzath snorts silently. He wonders if she ever managed to build the courage to approach Sunnazoth; After all, doing so won’t become any easier once he’s gone and Sunnazoth has Ascended as the new Lady of their little kingdom…

  In the end, sighing slightly, Sunnazoth is the one who ends up stepping forward, once it becomes clear Biranal won’t do it; Then, grabbing the dragon by the colr of her top, Sunnazoth pulls her until their lips are nearly touching, pressing their bodies together as she whispers, “He won’t let us go without it looking real, so unless you want to do it again, I suggest some dedication…”

  Her body stiff, Biranal throws a sidelong gnce in his direction, and Varzath winks at her.

  “…Fine,” Biranal finally concedes, though she does so through clenched teeth.

  Still, she is the one to give the st small step forward necessary to complete their kiss, wrapping her arms around Sunnazoth’s waist as Varzath catches a brief glimpse of their tongues before their mouths are fully locked against one another.

  The silence of their surroundings is only interrupted by the almost imperceptible noises produced by their kiss, as well as their breathing, as Varzath waits patiently for them to finish…

  To his surprise, it takes a while, and both girls are panting slightly by the time they finally pull their lips apart.

  However, once their eyes lock, bodies still pressed, the animosity contained in their gazes makes it obvious why their kiss took so long… They were competing, so neither wanted to pull away first.

  Varzath almost grimaces; Considering the objective of the exercise was to make them grow at least a bit closer, he nearly tells them to redo it.

  “…Before the night is over, we’ll probably be fucking,” Sunnazoth whispers, eyes still locked against Biranal’s as she licks her lips and smiles mockingly, “So I’d start preparing myself mentally, if I were you.”

  “It’s just sex,” Biranal retorts evenly.

  “Darling, you don’t even sound like you believe yourself, and we both know you’d rather fuck a dog than me,” Sunnazoth says, snorting.

  Biranal shrugs, and steps back, spping Sunnazoth’s hand away from her top. “True enough,” she says, before averting her gaze from the two of them completely as she virtually turns her back to Sunnazoth.

  Varzath sighs. Taking a look toward Sunnazoth’s incensed eyes as she stares at Biranal’s back, he is certain this went about as poorly as it could possibly have, but as, he doesn’t have any remaining time to py matchmaker, and he doubts forcing them to fuck will help things at this point.

  Well, he tried.

  Clearing his throat, Varzath attracts both girls’ attention as he signals toward the rge door in front of which they currently stand.

  “Shall we?” he says, smiling at them as he purposefully pretends their kiss never happened.

  JBDantas

  Additional Info I: Not sure how to describe Mana Shield physics (which is really more like a mana dome unless cast mid-air, in which case it becomes a... mana ball?). I guess the caster is sort of stuck in the middle of it until the spell is broken? Like, the air is frozen inside or something... Weird. Anyway, it is usually pretty hard to just straight up move a Mana Shield's position, let alone have it bouncing around hard enough to harm the mage inside, but a dragon will be able to do it (assuming they won't simply break it, of course). Also, having their Mana Shield forcefully broken will have most mages become unconscious from the backsh, if not worse, and Varzath is no exception.

  Additional Info II: I hope most aspects of the fight were more or less intuitive, if not somewhat expined in the chapter, but if not, then here is a bit of additional info that might help you understand what was going on from my perspective.

  First, we need to talk about casting spells (again), and it is worth mentioning that both Varzath and Sunnazoth have literal thousands of years of experience in doing so (I'll also talk more about the magic of the universe ter). To put things into perspective, an average human mage who is rushed by a dragon of Biranal's strength wouldn't be able to raise any sort of shield in time, let alone teleport away, and even if by some miracle they manage to raise their Mana Shield, it'd probably be no more than a wall of paper before said dragon (remember the guys from chapter one; they were extremely powerful mages from the perspective of a human, and look at how they ended up). And so, the fact Varzath's Mana Shield is able to defend him against several of Biranal's attacks without breaking is very impressive (and at least in part due to his Domain supplying him mana), while the fact he can react to her movements with spells, to begin with, speaks of his mastery as a mage; What I mean is that casting a spell takes time and precision, especially while under pressure, and making a mistake in battle usually means death... Keep it in mind, both Varzath and Biranal are at the top of the food chain in terms of battle power when at full strength, and there aren't many creatures (non-standing other Demon Lords, other dragons, Seraphims, etc...) who would be able to challenge them.

  Second, let's talk about teleporting (again), since it pyed a very important role in the chapter. To begin with, teleport is a broken spell for a mage, but not omnipotent, and short-range teleportation (usually used in battle, or, in the case of the demons of the pace, to show off) is fundamentally different from long-range teleportation (which usually takes a minimum of several seconds to be cast, even by extremely powerful mages). That being said, ignoring long-range teleportation for now (most human mages simply won't have the mana for a single long-range teleport on their own, to put things into perspective), short-range teleport is already hard to master, hard to cast, and will more often than not leave their caster disoriented for a few moments unless they have a lot of practice with it. The spell also has a fixed range, requires clear visualization of where the caster wants to appear (if they can visualize a spot in the heat of battle without actually looking at it is up to them), and will teleport them into a wall or enemy projectile if they mess it up (while long-range teleport will just fizzle if aimed at something solid, but will still put the caster mid-air or underwater in certain occasions). Now, taking all of that into consideration, Sunnazoth underestimated Varzath when she thought he wouldn't be able to reach her fast enough to interrupt her spell, even while considering short-range teleporting, hence why she was trying to keep a certain fixed distance from him.

  Third, I believe it is worth touching on the ability to cast multiple spells at the same time, buffs, and higher-tier spells.

  Starting with high-tier spells, as you may have noticed, Sunnazoth was more or less defenseless after she started to cast her "finisher", and that's because she needed to focus that much in order to get it to work without putting herself in danger of it backshing (and for the record, Varzath would have been in trouble had she completed the cast, considering Biranal was still chasing him)… The lesson here being that high-tier magic may be powerful, but it also tends to carry a high risk with it.

  Now, for maintaining spells active at the same time during a fight, first, we must talk about how it feels to do so… Imagine trying to juggle several knives while also dodging arrows at the same time; Each spell is like an extra dagger, and even a single moment of distraction could cause the all of them fizzle, or worst, backsh. For example, before, in his weakened state, Varzath could maintain five shadow puppets active at the same time while also casting other spells, meaning he was able to hold six spells at the same time while fighting (I don’t believe I need to stretch how impressive this is), and now, at his peak, he was able to maintain ten of them, a new record.

  Fourth, and stly, are buffing spells. Since we didn’t catch the beginning of the fight, I ended up not mentioning them this time (it was just a spar, anyway), but buffing spells will py a very important role in the story going forward, so I’ll be expining a bit about them here.

  To start, buffing spells are meant to strengthen a fighter’s mind and body, but they’re not without risk, and somebody who has never moved at a certain speed will struggle to fight at that speed if they were to suddenly become able to move that fast. Furthermore, buffing spells are divided by grade, like artifacts, going from F to S, and Varzath’s buffs are considered S tier.

  What that means is that albeit still slower and weaker than Biranal (remember, her tattoos are also giving her some buffs), he’s at least able to keep up with her.

  PS: During their first fight at the training grounds, Biranal wasn’t in her right mind, and so she was much weaker, making so Varzath was able to rely only on his puppets to keep her at bay; But this time, he is against a fully conscious Biranal, as well as Sunnazoth, and he was most definitely fighting at full strength.

  Additional Info III: Varzath's shadow puppets are obviously a strong spell. As expined, they require his constant focus in order to continue existing, although they'll reform and fight naturally most of the time, without him having to give them specific inputs. However, they’re not indestructible, it is still possible to destroy them by doing enough damage, which forces Varzath to recast the spell for each poppet destroyed.

  Additional Info IV: Varzath mainly fights by making use of Shadow, Fire, and Electric Magic, in that order, though he still has a lot of knowledge about the others (again, will talk more about the magic of the universe ter, and there will a slower build up once the first arc is done, so you guys will have more time to get used to it, don’t worry).

  [colpse]