Chapter 1042: Ariel, The Angel.
Chapter 1042: Ariel, The Angel.
'I know I said that, but...' Ariel swallowed hard, doing her best to maintain her cold and unreachable state, while failing splendidly in the process.
'Isn't this too fast?' she wondered as she looked into the eyes of several dragonesses. Never in her life had she imagined she would be in this situation.
A situation that would make any supernatural being cry in fear. One true dragon was frightening enough, now imagine standing in front of more than 30 true female dragons, who seemed to be looking at her as if she were the afternoon snack or something.
Despite the rather precarious situation she found herself in, Ariel couldn't help but take a moment to observe how beautiful these women were in front of her. Each of them were beauties capable of destroying countries, with the most prominent being a pink-haired dragoness who was seated near the 'empress.'
Speaking of the Empress, Ariel couldn't help but notice a subtlety in this situation. 'Even if it doesn't seem like it, there is a hierarchy in this harem.'
The higher-ranked girls in the hierarchy were seated next to the 'empress,' while the lower-ranked girls were seated at the far end of the room.
Despite there being a clear hierarchy here, it was obvious to Ariel that there were no ill feelings among them. Each of them seemed to treat everyone present as sisters. 'Or they could be very good at hiding it.' Ariel was no fool.
She had lived long enough to know how the politics of imperial harems worked, even if her father said otherwise about the politics of the Dragon Emperor's harem, she was still skeptical about the matter.
Thinking about her father, her fear was replaced by anger. 'That useless old man! He really sold me!!' she growled internally, making her wings flicker between black and white for a few seconds.
Something that did not go unnoticed by everyone present. An amused look appeared in Violet's eyes. She could read the woman in front of her quite easily, and she didn't even need to use her powers for that. After all, just being in Anna's presence was enough for everyone to be 'honest' here.
"Tell me, Ariel, leader of the angels and the seven heavenly graces. Do you know why you are here?" Violet asked.
Snapping out of her internal thoughts, Ariel stammered a bit. "Y-Yes..." She swallowed hard and tried to regain her mental fortitude. Taking a deep breath, the angel's graceful eyes met the Dragon Empress's eyes.
"Oh?" Violet raised an eyebrow. "Entertain me, Ariel. Tell me why you are here."
And with just a few words, Ariel's bravado was thrown out the window. The truth was that she didn't know what she was doing here! After the argument with her father about his meeting with the Dragon Emperor, a few days later, she was sucked through a portal and suddenly found herself in the presence of these terrifying women!
"I-I..." She tried to lie, but 'something' was preventing her from speaking false words. "I don't know."
"How awful. An angel trying to lie. Mortals would be disillusioned with you if they saw your state now." Violet shook her head.
Ariel swallowed hard as she looked at the woman sitting next to Violet, the woman who resembled the Emperor quite a bit. With her eyes, she could see the divinity that woman possessed, and she realized that any attempt at deceit or lies would not work on her.
... Not that she thought it would work with the others either, but she didn't expect that even her attempt to save face with a lie would fail so badly.
"It's not bad to admit when you don't know something, you know?" The black-haired woman commented casually. "Not knowing something is not a sin, remaining in ignorance is." The woman smiled 'gently.'
But all Ariel felt was terror as she observed that smile.
"Hmm, she's handling this better than I thought." A blonde woman near the Empress commented. From what Ariel remembered, her name was Sasha.
"It's not easy to have the attention of so many true dragons and maintain composure." The red-haired woman she knew as 'Ruby' spoke.
"Despite being a weak angel, she is still the leader of the angels, so some level of mental resilience is expected." Another red-haired woman said.
The disdain in her tone was so palpable that it was noticeable, but Ariel did not retort or defend herself. After all, the woman who spoke was Scathach Scarlett. Even when she was a noble vampire, this woman could fight against her well-ranked angels. Ariel didn't even want to think about the kind of abilities this woman had now.
"What do you all think of her?" Violet asked around.
"Acceptable." Bruna, Maria, and Eve said simultaneously.
The former Maids looked at each other and laughed at the same time.
"She passed. Her power is weak, but we can easily correct that." Scathach said.
"I see that she has some experience in martial arts, but she limited herself to the style created by the angels, which is quite archaic... We need to change that." Rose said.
"She is balanced. We know how much we need someone like that in the group." Aphrodite said.
This caught the attention of some women like Violet, Natashia, Agnes, and Morgana, who looked at the goddess with raised eyebrows.
"What? Our group needs balance. We have too many 'crazies' in the group. We need the voice of 'reason' when necessary. Even though Violet has been somewhat rehabilitated to perform her duties as Empress, she still has her crazy moments."
"I think she will fit that role very well." Aphrodite finished explaining.
"... Well, considering the attitude of our daughters... I can agree with you." Nyx nodded.
"Ugh... Don't even mention it." Kaguya muttered more to herself than to the others.
She wondered where she went wrong in her past life to have a daughter like hers. Don't be mistaken, she loves her bit of madness dearly, but she can be very crazy sometimes.
Sometimes Kaguya wondered if during that wild orgy they had, her essence mixed with Violet, Natashia, Agnes, and Aphrodite's at the same time. That was the only possible explanation to justify how 'crazy' her daughter was.lightsnovel
Not even the daughters of the aforementioned women were as possessive as her own daughter.
"She is kind; she will be good for some of our daughters, but I fear for her because of our more 'naughty' daughters." Hestia commented.
"Indeed, our more mischievous daughters will take advantage of her like they do with Pepper." Jeanne said.
"Hey! My daughters don't take advantage of me!" Pepper complained.
The women rolled their eyes in sync.
"Sister, all our daughters know that if they want something, they should go to Mother Pepper because she is the 'softest' of the mothers." Lacus said.
"Ugh." Pepper felt an invisible arrow pierce her.
"We've reached the point where we had to forbid the children from taking advantage of her kindness, or our husband would become extremely upset." Siena added.
Victor was soft with his family; that was an absolute fact. But that didn't mean he wouldn't act when necessary. After all, he knew that spoiling too much wasn't the answer. Not to mention that Victor greatly valued a healthy family, and the act of 'exploiting' Pepper's weakness, no matter how minor, was not something a healthy family should do.
Therefore, the more 'strict' wives quickly resolved this issue at its root. They didn't want this kind of problem to spread.
"I disapprove." Gaia said.
These words made the girls look at the mother goddess with curious eyes.
"Oh? Can you explain your reasons?" Violet asked.
"She clearly doesn't want to be here. If we are to add someone to be our sister, she needs to want to be here, or it will only harm our current relationship." Unlike in the past when Gaia didn't care about her descendants and would do anything for revenge, now that she had her 'love' back, she was extremely selective.
She wouldn't let anyone disturb the family dynamic she was part of.
"... But this marriage is essential for our future plans." Pepper gently commented, neither approving nor disapproving of what Gaia said. "Having the angels as allies will be useful."
"Please..." Gaia rolled her eyes. "Darling can create any race he wants. We don't need the angel; we can just eliminate them and create our own angels. Mortals won't even know that the leaders of the religion they worship were replaced."
Ariel felt a cold terror at the casual words of the mother goddess, the implicit consequences of her casually saying she could destroy the angels, and her leader being capable of creating even angels, were something she really didn't want to think about because the simple fact that a being could do that was very frightening.
'Doesn't this mean the Emperor is on a higher level than my Father?' Ariel shivered even more as this treacherous thought crossed her mind.
"Sister, you know very well that our husband's ability to create races depends entirely on souls. He cannot 'create' souls to make new powerful beings so easily, only my brother can create souls." Jeanne explained.
Despite being a god of creation, some aspects of existence are still not possible to create without the permission of the primordials. The creation of souls and life is a perfect example of this; after all, this is a concept under Jeanne's brother's jurisdiction.
However, Victor can 'edit' a soul to transform an ant into a supernatural being if he wants, but how 'powerful' the being is depends on the soul he is editing and how many souls he uses to enhance that being.
For example, Victor can very well kill an archangel, edit the archangel's soul, turning it into a completely new being, and in the process, he can add the souls he has reserved within him as fuel to turn that archangel into a super archangel or something like that.
Most of the time, Victor does this, he 'adds' something that is already present with him or with the individual he is touching. This is what happened with everyone present, this is what happened with his Heralds, and this is what happened with his childhood friend.
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The Progenitor can edit a being's soul into a version similar to his race, which is a bit weaker. This is his role in existence. As a Progenitor and a God of Begin, Victor can do this on a large scale with any type of race; he is truly a monster that breaks the balance.
"I know that, which is why I say to exterminate the angels and use them as materials to make new angels." Gaia said.
Gestures of approval from the bloodthirsty women like the demonic ladies were seen; they were totally in agreement with these plans!
The more 'neutral' ones didn't care much about this proposal, but the more 'gentle' women like Sasha, Jeanne, Hestia, and Bruna disapproved.
"Can we not consider mass genocide as something normal, please?" Sasha sighed to her sisters.
"The angels have done nothing to us. Darling even respects the Heavenly Father a lot. I don't feel comfortable attacking an entire race of innocents based solely on convenience."
"Oh? But you're very comfortable subjugating the other pantheons." Morgana smiled disdainfully.
"Morgana, don't twist my words. What Gaia is suggesting here is genocide, leaving no one alive. What we are doing with the gods is just subjugation and conquest."
Jeanne, Hestia, and Bruna nodded in approval when they heard Sasha's words; they thought the same. They were not naive about how war worked, but they wouldn't leave their comfortable place to attack an innocent. They didn't have that twisted side.
Morgana rolled her eyes, and Lilith huffed. Although Lilith had overcome her hatred for the Heavenly Father, that hatred still existed. The only difference is that she won't be stuck in it like in the past; after all, she has a family now.
"Too bad, I wanted a new pair of clothes made of angel feathers." Lily sighed.