BXBX NOVEL Chapter 291 291 - Farming Gods
\'Forget about a body, for now, I\'m using you.\' Looking right past Asuka who was now slightly hesitant about approaching him, Haruki gazed towards Margarette seated atop the Hestemian throne.
"Is that?!" Sensing the mistress\'s presence emanating through Haruki\'s body, Deus jumped out of his seat. "How did you retain her soul?!"
Not at all familiar with the terms of Haruki\'s contract with the queen of lust, Dues and the others were shell-shocked by the revelation. So far they\'d expected Asmodia to have perished alongside Moriyana, but now that the truth was staring them in their eyes, they were all having a hard time accepting it.
"Your sister? Yeah, she\'s alive, just get over it," ignoring their concern, Haruki made his way toward the throne steps all while keeping his gaze fixed on Margarette. With a smile he greeted her, on the other hand, Margarette didn\'t know how to react to him showing up so suddenly. "You\'ve done well, but I guess it\'s time to stop planning and take some action."
"What action?" She asked, getting off the throne.
Walking down the steps she got closer to Haruki before stepping to the side to offer him the throne. Ideally, she would\'ve preferred for him to prove himself worthy enough to be followed, but with so many people still rallying behind him, Margarette knew better than to test Haruki\'s authority.
"Keep the throne, just ready your men that have at your disposal, we\'re going to capture the last god in Atlas," Haruki ordered as the oozing aura finally settled inside his body.
"What god are you talking about?!" His words didn\'t only shock Margarette, but the rest of the crew was just as baffled.
"So Atlas is alive?!" Asked Reya, her voice a bit squeamish from fear.
"No, he\'s dead, and so is Destinia, they were both killed by a Valkyrie named Helga," confirming their previous theories about Atlas, Haruki climbed up a few steps and turned around to address everyone at once. "There are too many creatures in this world whose strength would put us to shame, and that is why I need to be stronger by draining the strength out of Atlas\'s demi-god brother!"
"Dominion?" Inferno muttered.
"Exactly, we need him crippled but alive," Spreading his arms wide, Haruki turned his gaze to the queen of goblins as if trying to relay something to her through his gaze alone. "I\'m sure you can make use of him, just like you did with the minotaurs that we captured, can\'t you queen?"
For a moment the queen was puzzled by what Haruki meant, but upon realizing what he meant she felt like she\'d struck gold in terms of experimental inspiration.
"To create more gods from him?" She spoke with a smile that stretched further with each passing second. "Oh my…"
Her eyes glowing a mix of red and green, the queen of goblins leaped off her seat and walked down to the red carpet laid in the middle. Never had she expected to be able to experiment on a god, and create proxy children that could rival the dead gods. However, presented with the possibility, she was awestruck by Haruki\'s devious idea.
"Although I can no longer bear children myself, to think my tribe will host gods?! How do I even repay you?!" Getting down on her knees with tears streaming down her cheeks, the queen pressed her head against the floor to show her respect toward her new god.
Joining the goblin, the queen of Arachnes laid down her staff and lowered her head in solidarity with the other queen.
"If you fulfill this promise, we\'d forever be indebted to you our lord," said the Arachne, her head refusing to be raised.
"Don\'t be too happy, your children will owe their strength to me, and any who could not provide will be cast aside and slaughtered," although still reluctant about sitting on the throne, Haruki settled down on it and looked over the queens once more. "As for you two, I\'ve let you be true to your nature so far, however, now that you can\'t bore children either way, you\'re both going to be turned into demons so we don\'t have to worry about your mortality anymore."
The queen simply nodded to their master and accepted their fate. The others, however, were not as accepting of the idea of infinitely expanding the pool of gods, and more importantly, none of them were on board with fighting Dominion and his army without any preparations.
"Haruki," Inferno called Haruki\'s attention towards him. "How on earth are you planning to fight a demi-god who has an army much larger than our own?"
Before answering him, Haruki stretched his arm forward and began casting a spell of dark magic to shoot a ball of electrified darkness. At the sight of the magical sphere taking form over his fingers, Inferno squinted his eyes in doubt, but the moment the spell shot away from him and in the direction of the opened gates, those doubts quickly fled away.
"Fine, you caught me!" Appearing out of nowhere in front of the oncoming dark spell, Nabe smacked it off with the back of her hands.
Upon seeing the war general, it didn\'t take more than a second for everyone to heighten their guard, however, for some reason, Haruki kept seated on the throne without much care for the situation.
"Unless you\'re here to lend me your strength or simply hand it over, I suggest you leave before I take your head," casually crossing his legs, Haruki snapped his fingers and a group of his clones encircled Nabe.
\'Dammit, I thought he wouldn\'t be here.\' Having expected Haruki to be gone with Atlas, Nabe was quite surprised to find him here, instead of just his pack of companions. \'But it\'s not like I can escape now.\'
Looking around the room with everyone ready to unleash their fury on her, Nabe let her shoulders fall and submitted.
"I\'m here to help," after the way she\'d treated Haruki back in the emperor\'s castle, her words alone carried little weight. And thus, to challenge her loyalty Haruki decided to put her to a test.
"Tortemtous dungeon," opening a portal underneath her, Haruki dropped her into a dungeon room and closed it up as swiftly as possible. The last thing they all heard from her was a drawn-out scream as she fell to the ground. "We\'ll deal with her later, one war general is going to be enough trouble for now."
\'Are we done here? We\'re wasting our time trying to explain everything.\' Hearing Asmodia\'s voice inside him, Haruki felt a hint of repulsion but kept it hidden deep within himself.
"Now if we\'re done talking, we have a god to capture,\'\' Getting off the throne without saying much else, Haruki began making his way out of the throne room.
Leaving just as abruptly as he\'d entered, he left the others baffled. Defeating a god after having almost lost to one, how could he expect them to rally behind him without a solid plan? Well, that too wasn\'t something he hadn\'t considered before addressing the group.
\'From what I know, their forces are few and we can only afford to use them as a distraction once.\' Planning to overpower Dominion, and strip his abilities via Asmodia\'s abilities, he wanted to turn him into a marble of soul just like what he\'d done to Serena. \'Her body is still alive so that should mean we can research him with his soul and vessels detached.\'
\'You\'re hoping to create an army of gods?\' Asmodia asked, her voice sounding a bit dubious.
"No, I\'m hoping to create power, power that would be mine once they reach a certain level of strength, and with gods all different affinities and races, there\'s bound to be some interesting abilities for me to plunder," his plan, although plausible in theory, achieving that goal without any opposition from the Valkyries or even the monster queen was bound to be troubling.
\'And how do you plan on getting Dominion in your reigns in the first place to do it all?\' Ignoring her question, Haruki marched back toward the room with Moriyana\'s body.
"Before I answer that, tell me, is there a way to retrieve Moriyana\'s soul as we did yours?" He asked despite already knowing the answer.
\'You heard Atlas yourself, the soul is never to return to this world again, not to mention the blade most likely burned her soul the same way the lanterned reapers,\' hearing her response, Haruki felt his heart squeezing inwards with an assault of emotions.
"Then, I want to rest her body in the soil before doing anything else," left with no way to revive Moriyana, Haruki decided to at least put her body to rest even if her soul couldn\'t enjoy the same luxury.
For a moment, he\'d expected Asmodia to retort with something snarky, however, keeping silent about his decision, she let her thoughts be as apparent as a crystal. Even if she were to deny it, the death of Moriyana had affected her just as it would any mother.
\'Do what you want,\' She spoke one last time before letting her wounded soul rest again.