Laz sat up from his place of rest, moving aside several body parts belonging to different women who were still laying on him. He quickly stood to greet the Empress who was still dressed in her royal robes.

"Hmm... any other time and I might have had to eat you up myself, but sadly there is work to be done now," Hera said, looking at Laz’s naked body like a wolf eyeing a lone sheep. Laz didn’t doubt her words for a moment about wanting to eat him, until her other words struck him.

"What work? Haven’t I been working?" Laz asked, wondering what it could be she needed now.

"Working?" Hera said, lifting a eyebrow before looking around the room. Her naked daughters were laying all over the place in very revealing positions while the guards were laying around as well. Even Chloe was sleeping in a weird position, hanging off the edge of the chair with her ass in the air as though she was begging to be spanked. Had it not been for the massively bright marks on her ass, Hera would have been tempted to do just that due to the ridiculous nature of her position in the first place.

"Well... you’re the one who told me to do this..." Laz said, his voice going a bit quiet towards the end.

"Right. Well. No rest for the gifted. We have visitors who are requesting to meet with you."

"Meet with me? But... you’re the Empress. What could I possibly do for them that you couldn’t?" Laz question.

"In some cases, it’s not about what one can get, but who one can trust. Follow my maids and get yourself cleaned up quickly. They will then guild you to the grand hall as I have had food prepared for them while they wait for you. And do be quick. I would assume you will leave my poor maids alone since you have already had your exercise for today," Hera said with a slight laugh.

"Do I seem like some kind of beast to you who can’t control himself?" Laz questioned. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Hera looked back at the pile of bodies just in time to see her daughter, who everyone was now calling Slut 5, turn over on the couch she was propped up on and fall to the floor. Not even this was enough to wake her from her sex induced slumber.

Hera then turned back to face Laz.

"Not fair... she... I.... never mind. Let’s just go..." Laz said, turning to follow the maids who’s eyes were still wide open at the scene in front of them. Despite this, they followed orders and led Laz back to the bathing chambers to get cleaned up, leaving behind a laughing Hera.

Once they had left, Hera turned to the sleeping Athena.

"You can quit pretending daughter..." Hera said with a sigh.

Athena sighed in response and sat up, knowing that her act had been clearly seen through.

"Well. I admit. I didn’t think you would go through with it. Anything for strength? Seems as though that’s the case. Perhaps I should be worried for my own future if you ever get stronger than me?" Hera said, laughing.

"Considering it’s a trait I got from you, I doubt we will ever get to that point until you’re on you death bed anyway mother."

"Oh? You don’t doubt my words?"

"Our nation has fallen while father has fallen to his own madness. He also did anything to get stronger, but that was only after his madness claimed him. Before that, he couldn’t have cared less, wasting his days away. Perhaps I only see that now, but it doesn’t make it any less relevant. No mother. It seems I am more like you than I ever thought. After all... even our taste in men is similar..." Athena admitted with a sigh. She couldn’t deny Laz, even if she wanted to. She needed him, lusted after him... obsessed over him. She knew that after having a taste of him, it would be impossible to find another who could scratch that itch.

"He certainly is an interesting person. But a major part of that is also his Asura bloodline. We’ve never been allowed to discuss it before as there were many things your father forbid. But he is either dead now or possessed so it doesn’t matter what he said anymore as I no longer have to be the respectful wife," Hera said with a chuckle.

"Was father always such a weak man?" Athena asked a question she had never asked before. As far as she could remember, her father had always seemed like an unbeatable god in her eyes. But considering his fall and then giving into the shadow dragon, Athena could no longer see him as the same person.

"He was... and he wasn’t. He was never really a warrior, but he was a survivor. He did what it took to keep me and us safe and at the time, that’s what we needed."

"I see. But why do bring up Laz’s bloodline. Our bloodline is ancient and connected to an ages old Patheon withing the universe, is it not? Is his bloodline really so special?" Athena asked.

"There used to be a saying among the women of the omniverse, just like there was a saying among men in the omniverse. Women would say it was better to be a mistress of an Asura than married to a loving husband. If it didn’t make sense to you, then you had never seen an Asura before. As for the men, apparently they used to say it was better to met an Asura on the battlefield than at home, because at least on the battlefield, they’d only take your life. At home, they’d take your wife, mistress, daughter and any other women they’d desire. While Asura were honorable warriors and wouldn’t just take a man’s wife like that, most wives would wish they would."

"That seems far fetched mother," Athena said, doubtful.

"Then what if I arrange a marriage for you after this? You can pick any man you’d like and I will make that happen... Any man except for Laz."

Athena was about to say something back... but she found she couldn’t, even if she wanted to. After all, she knew her mother was right.

"I don’t say this to mock you, only to know that you face a rough road ahead daughter. After all... you aren’t the only one who’s future he has now stolen," Hera said, looking around the room.

Athena could only nod her head in agreement.

...

Within the bath, Laz was quickly cleaned and despite the obvious seduction of the maids, made worse in no small part by Laz’s obvious qualities, he managed to get in and out of there quickly, knowing he had to meet Hera shortly. As his clothes were put on him, only after several sensual rubs of his skin by various parts of the still naked maid’s bodies, Laz understood why the task was previously completed by Hera herself. So when he was finally set, he basically ran from the room in a rush, grabbing a guard along the way to show him to the chamber were he was suppose to meet Hera. When he finally entered, he found that Hera was already sitting there, speaking to several women with horns and red skin and something clicked in Laz’s mind.

Walking up to the massive table, Laz observed that several places had been set and it looked like they were just waiting for him. Besides the older women who sat there, several younger women were also present while the Empress sat alone on her side of the table, at least until Laz arrived.

"You’re here. Come join me," Hera said, pointing to the chair on her right hand side. Not in a position to decline, Laz sat down next to her and was finally able to face the demons who were across from him, including Nesha.

"Heh. So you did survive?" Nesha said, before anyone could say anything else.

"I see you made a wise decision yourself?" Laz shot back, not missing a beat.

"We are hired to fight battles, not die in pointless sieges led by idiots. After seeing the capacity of the leadership, we decided then and there that it was a pointless battle and left, even before the first lines of the main army arrived. A few other groups followed us, as is their right for anyone doing it for coin, sure, you had to return double what was paid. But that was a small price for our lives. Those that stayed did so as they were promised double their own pay. I wonder if they ever received that coin in the afterlife?" Nesha said, a bit of a smirk on her face.

"DAUGHTER. BE SILENT NOW!" One of the older woman hissed at Nesha. She then turned to the Empress to apologize for her daughters rude words that made light of the Empress’s troops downfall.

"It’s alright. And she’s right. There was no way they would have been able to hold that fort when even myself and the Emperor fell. Following orders was fine, but they sacrificed thousands of lives needlessly by sending them outside of the fort instead of holding strong inside, thinking that they could easily subdue the beasts with numbers. The deserved their own demise. I just wished they would have sent troops back to use instead of taking them with them. But there is no medicine for regret in this world so we can only move on. I have brought him as requested. I do hope that we will be able to work out a comprise as your help would be pivotal to our victory," Hera said.

"If this fort falls, so falls all of humankind. After that, what life awaits for those who choose to remain hidden and safe for now? We shall fight. However, we have one request from you, your Empress," the one who was Nesha’s mom said.

"Of course. Name it."

"We wish for this man here to father children of our race. We know it’s a lot to ask of you..."

"Done!"

"but we find that we have no choice and his help would be.... wait. Just like that?"

"Sure. It’s the one thing he seems to be good at after all..." Hera said, nodding her head.

’Excuse me?’