The Gamer Chapter 1626 – Raid and Adventures 21 – Taking a Breather (Patreon)

The Hellboar huffed and puffed and sunk down. His giant legs crossed, the Raid boss sat before the gathered party. The wounds covering his enormous form sizzled, then slowly closed. “You have earned the right to try to see the truth behind this world’s desolation,” he grunted. “Within the dwelling of those that undermined this world’s stability, you will find the perfected member of their species. Offer to it a piece of its slightly flawed kin, to allow it to reach a power dark and terrible, thus you shall unlock the seal of darkness.”

For a moment, the Hellboar paused, turning its snout towards the derelict castle atop of the sheer cliff. Half-burned banners fluttered in the powerful winds that blew over the now black coastline.

“To break the seal of flame, you must make an avatar of the first one to accept the curse of fire. Find the burning wheel and offer it at the herald’s circle, to empower the master of the castle. Break his vessel and the shockwave shall break the seal. Once you have slain both, return to me here and I shall open the gate of fire and darkness.”

“Sounds straightforward enough,” John said casually. The Raid boss did not show the slightest bit of surprise at the Gamer’s tone. It instead entered an idle pose, bobbing its head slowly. It repeated every 12 seconds on the dot.

Rather than watch that all day or go on to the next area, John decided to call it quits there. They were about three minutes over the usual sixteen hours of grinding per day anyhow. Day seven was when they would push into the next area. For now, it was back to the mansion.

“Bullshit,” he said, on the way back.

“Huh?” Ehtra asked. “What’s your problem now?”

“I just… you’ll learn about it in a second. I have to talk about this with Lulu,” John decided. Everyone across the various fields of engagement the harem found itself in was getting pulled together. There had been those in the Raid, those fighting Lulu, those in the house just lounging, and those in the crafting area. John had been in all of those areas except for the house, so he could urge everyone to gather up anyhow. “Explain it to me.”

The Heavenly Jade Empress sat at the centre of attention, smirking and fanning air into her face. Her armchair was isolated at one end of the long table, the rest of the harem on the U-shaped couch. Beyond the cryptic initial statement, she had not said a word about this additional ability she had displayed towards the end of the latest bout. Much of the harem wasn’t even in the know yet about what was being discussed.

“What do I get in exchange for this secret?” she purred.

“You’ll get continued fights, because I’m not having everyone grind our faces into that mess,” the Gamer stated.

“Awww… What if I ask really cutely that you keep fighting me though?” Lulu tilted her head, pouted, and pulled at the strings that kept her hair buns up. Greyish black hair fell to her upper back, now free. “Will you?”

“Stay on topic,” Stirwin growled. The entire harem turned to the long-limbed crocodile that had spawned in right next to Lulu. “Do not let her cuteness distract you.” Lulu reached over and gave the crocodile chin scratches. “Your pleasant administrations shall not bribe me.”

“If I had a single minister with your willpower, I wouldn’t have any issues at all,” Lulu lamented and crossed her wonderful legs – so long for her short frame and yet so nicely thick as well.

‘God, those hips,’ John thought.

“Stay on topic,” Stirwin growled again.

“We will not be bribed by that!” John stated with more conviction than he had.

“What if I do this?” Lulu slipped off the armchair, taking only a moment to grab a pillow and stick it under her knees. Sitting on her lower legs, she opened her mouth wide and let her tongue ‘fall’ out. The pointy, absurdly long muscles dangled past her chin, the tip curving in prehensile fashion. Drool soon dripped from it – and the corner of John’s mouth.

“Oh for…” he heard Momo groan, then the fairy maid bowed over and took his dick into her own mouth. ‘Focus, perv!’ she chastised him, as if her own first response hadn’t just been to deepthroat his cock to eliminate the threat of temptation. He also wasn’t the one that then kept on bobbing or used a second body to kiss his balls at the same time.

It did, however, get the intended result of ignoring the oral invitation. “No deal!” John declared again.

“Awww, but Master…” Lulu cooed and blinked a number of times at him. Then, she suddenly burst out laughing and stood up. The naked imperial tomboy turned her wrist and suddenly there were four cone-shaped pieces of jade between her fingers. She placed them all on the table in front of her, forming a circle. At the centre was a round cut-out. “Alright, gather around, and let me explain to you what it means to be the Chosen of Heaven and Earth.”

“Momo?” John prodded the cocksucking brat.

“Hm?” She looked around for a moment. “I-I can focus on two things!” she declared, then went right back to bouncing her head in his lap. Between the stammer and the blush, John had to wonder if she could… but she also had forty bodies, so she really should have been able.

“Jade is the material of the six rituals. Jade binds the heaven and the earth and all that is in between – such is the power of the Heavenly Jade Empress or Emperor. We bind and wield all forces between the heaven and the earth.” Lu Zhi created a rod, placing it in the cut-out at the centre. “The binding of the heaven and the earth makes up the two fundamental rituals. We are sovereign of more than the above and the below, however, we are sovereign over the four directions as well.”

Things clicked into place in John’s analytical mind. “You’re meaning to tell me that you can copy the magics of anyone who is anywhere around you?”

“Oh no, we’re not that ludicrous.” Lulu waved off, her dismissive smirk turning sharp, playful and confident. “It is merely one person per cardinal direction whose power we may bind within ourselves.” She tapped each of the four sides. “Let that be the showcase of my trust that I confess to you the weakness of this ability of ours. Its angles are dependent on where I face. Its range is limited to ten paces. We may hold onto the power of a direction once its origin leaves our range, but not for long. The powers are bound in the scales of our arms, our tail, and our chest, breaking them thus breaks control.”

The end of the confession caused silence in the room.

“Bullshit,” Nathalia declared.

“Yeah, that’s fucking bullshit!” Eliana echoed.

“We will not be schooled on the matter of reasonability of magic, least of all from the living cataclysm and the woman that regenerates from a drop of blood,” Lulu answered mirthfully. “We are neither capable of levelling cities nor are we that sturdy. Our magic is potent, yes, and we have attained great mastery over it and yet still we have our weaknesses.”

“Can I ask how that breath attack of yours works anyway?” John added.

“Oh, it’s just force.”

“Yeah but what kind of force?”

“Just force,” Lulu repeated with a smile. “I’m not being coy about it, that’s all it is, hubby.”

The smile of the Heavenly Jade Empress froze the instant the word left her mouth. Momo froze in the compromised situation. John turned his head to the right. Everyone else’s gazes also moved towards the woman seated there. There were a lot of synchronized head motions tonight. A fact that John would have found amusing, had there not been universal silence.

“Hubby?” asked the first fiancée.

It was rare to see Rave without a smile on her face and it was even rarer to see her glare at someone with genuine, hostile intent. Arms and legs crossed, the feline Lightbearer stared at the imperial tomboy, who quickly went back to kneeling on that pillow and hanging her head in deference.

One was empress, the other first lady, in both personal and political power, the former exceeded the latter by a notable, albeit not that vast, degree. Neither personal nor political power mattered here, here one was provisional haremette and the other was the first and head of the entire female side of the polygyny.

Rave wielded that power like she was herself the empress of a several millennia old nation. “Explain. Now.”

‘What is happening right now?’ Ehtra asked via mental connection, while Lulu squirmed where she knelt.

‘Jane is asserting her dominance.’

‘It’s just a word, why is she being so protective of this?’

‘Because it’s her right in this harem. We have to keep things in a certain order.’

‘I have noticed that she has power in this harem but… this much?’

‘If you question that, then you haven’t understood half of what we are.’

He felt something like pleasant surprise, before Ehtra cut the connection off from her end. The whole exchange had happened in the two seconds it took the provisional haremette to formulate her response. “I most deeply apologize, I did not wish to appear to undermine your rightful place of first wife, Jane of clan Hollmey, merely to tease our man regarding our hopeful future marital status.”

“Is it your marital status right now?”

“N-no, harem head…”

“Then ya better don’t use that word or I’ll be very disappointed.” Rave pushed herself off the couch and walked around the long table. The feline Lightbearer was as nude as the rest of them, her perfect ass swinging with every strut. “You don’t want to disappoint me, right?” Rave asked and put a hand on the side of Lulu’s head.

“No, Mistress,” the imperial tomboy switched to full submission nearly immediately.

“That’s a good girl,” Rave purred and guided the green lips of the kneeling woman to her quim. The tension in the room was undone by the low moan of the pink-haired harem head. “I’ll forgive you, as long as you keep licking.”

Lulu did, Momo resumed her service, and generally the mood in the room shifted towards the erotic. While his main body stayed tied up with the fairy maid and his secondary body was jumped on by Nathalia, the Gamer’s third self managed to follow Ehtra out of the room. As per usual, the beginning of the orgy signalled the grey angel retreating somewhere private. Today, her expression as she did so prompted him to keep up.

“Your lifestyle is starting to appear interesting to me,” the First of Hatred confessed readily once they were out of the house. “It feels like you… respect your women more than I am used to from arrangements like this.” John sighed, causing one of Ehtra’s eyebrows to shoot up. “That is your reaction to my honesty, perverted creature?”

“I just don’t know what I expected. On one hand, it feels like you should know better. You’re certainly honest and contemplative enough that you should.” John shook his head. “On the other hand, I suppose I can’t fault you for not understanding what this is. Do you really think I ‘respect’ them?”

“Can we skip the part where I pull every word you want to say out of your nostrils?” the First of Hatred asked.

“I’m never sure about that. You can put up quite the wall of denial unless I walk you through the entire thought process.”

Ehtra mouthed the words back to herself, then shot him an annoyed glare. “You just love the sound of your own voice too much and want to explain it.”

“I suppose that’s part of it…” John scratched the back of his head. “I don’t respect my women, Ehtra… well, I also respect them, but that’s not what this…” he gestured at the mansion, “…is about. Respect is part of this fabric, but respect alone is not what fuels this. You have respect for a great warrior or a wise leader. Respect is an emotion for someone that you think is your equal or above you, someone worth emulating. Do you follow me so far?”

“I’m patiently waiting for you to get to the point.”

“I depend on my harem,” John told her. “That’s the point. I need them in my life. I’ve tied myself to them in every emotional sense I can. My fulfilment is contingent on knowing they are safe and happy. They’re the family of my choosing.” He took a moment to pause. “I’m as little an overlord here as I want to be in the realm of politics, Ehtra. I’m not the king of my harem – I’m just the lucky guy all of these women agreed on loving together while loving each other.”

Ehtra tapped a heel on the ground repeatedly as she digested his words. “I’ll come to a decision eventually,” she stated, then flew off.

John, as per usual, was not entirely sure if he actually knew what she meant by that.