Chapter 584: Alternative

Linda opened her eyes slowly, her vision still blurred from sleep. The first thing she could make out was the massive figure of a man sitting nearby in a bathrobe, his wet white hair cascading down the sides of his body as he calmly read a newspaper. It took several moments for her vision to clear completely, allowing her to recognize Damian.

He was sipping coffee with one hand while holding the newspaper with the other, seemingly far too comfortable for someone who had spent the previous day killing a God. Rin, Biron and Abel were perched around him, with Rin and Biron sitting on his shoulders while Abel rested on his head, all three staring at the newspaper with varying degrees of interest.

"I can’t believe Belials right hand man from the Ooni died in the dark continent! Fuck." Rin blurted out in shock.

"Shouldn’t we be happy that they lost their access to their God vein mines?" Biron asked, his expression far less concerned than Rin’s.

"We also have Amon out there. If something out there can kill an Ooni, it can definitely threaten our own side as well." Abel said with a frown.

Damian lowered the newspaper slightly, his eyes becoming colder as he considered the implications. The Dark Continent had already been on his mind, but news that someone powerful enough to command an Ooni had been killed there changed the situation considerably.

"I need to round up my activities here and make a trip to the dark continent myself..." Damian concluded with a cold gleam in his eyes.

Rin’s eyes suddenly brightened as he remembered something. "We got a report while you were gone yesterday from Amon. Yuji delivered it."

A letter appeared in a burst of purple smoke and dropped onto Damian’s lap. He placed the newspaper aside, picked up the letter and broke the wax seal before unfolding it. His eyes moved steadily across the contents, but the longer he read, the uglier his expression became.

The letter detailed the dire situation surrounding Velmora’s colony in the Dark Continent. The past few months had largely been spent securing the colony and establishing a foothold rather than reclaiming the God Vein mines.

Amon was also requesting additional soldiers, artillery and supplies, meaning even more time would be required before Velmora could properly reclaim the mines.

Damian lowered the letter slowly, clearly displeased with what he had read.

"But why are you worried? It’s not like you actually need him currently. We have a good amount of these God vein crystals in our reserves... Though I believe you should act fast before the royal court seizes it in your absence." Biron yawned.

Buzz!

Damian, Rin and Abel all turned toward Biron with genuine shock on their faces.

"You are joking right?" Damian blurted out.

Biron rolled his eyes as though the question itself was beneath him.

"All these poor people think they are in the same league as we nobility. How the hell do you think Lazarus’ wife became a God despite not having the advantages the sin of lust has when it comes to sexual cultivation?" Biron rolled his eyes.

Damian’s expression slowly changed as the implication finally registered.

"Ooh, yeah... Elsa is someone who values quality time extremely well. If you really want to win her over and have her fight tooth and nail for you. You should be by her side right now. You already failed the first test by not returning to her last night."

Bam!

Damian stood up abruptly, the chair scraping against the floor as he immediately started reconsidering his priorities. Rin and Abel both glared at Biron as though he had deliberately withheld vital information.

"Don’t you think you could have told us any of this any sooner?" Rin growled.

Biron rolled his eyes. "Ask and you shall receive. The poor don’t know how to ask for things they deserve. That’s why they rarely receive."

Damian was dumbfounded as he stared at Biron. The spirit beast was just as crazy as Lazarus, and for the first time Damian could genuinely see where Lazarus had gotten his attitude from. Biron’s obsession with wealth and status apparently extended to relationships as well, and his complete lack of shame about it made the situation even more absurd.

Rin, however, wasn’t forgiving.

"Bastard!" Rin pounced forward, but Abel’s tail caught him in midair and tossed him back toward Damian’s left shoulder.

"Let me fuck him up!" Rin growled, struggling against Abel’s tail.

The chaos was finally broken by Linda’s soft chuckle, drawing everyone’s attention. She had awakened fully by then and was sitting beneath the sheets, watching the three spirit beasts argue with an expression of genuine amusement.

"I’m sorry but I really feel bad for you. It must be exhausting dealing with so many characters at once." Linda apologized but couldn’t stop herself from laughing.

Damian let out a tired sigh and nodded. "This is the story of my life. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about it."

"Well, I can babysit them for you while you go meet your wife." Linda offered.

Damian froze for a moment. His eyes tightened as a thought occurred to him. He could not exactly take Linda with him to Gildreach Vault, and he certainly could not trust his other women around her yet, especially once they discovered that Linda, someone they considered a nobody from Earth, was being considered for the position of Queen. It was a position several of them had desired for years, and the revelation would inevitably create unnecessary tension.

Leaving Rin and Biron with Linda would also provide her with powerful protection against anything unexpected while allowing him to travel to Gildreach Vault without worrying about her safety.

"Alright... Let’s go with that." Damian said.

Bam!

The room’s door suddenly swung open, and seven women entered together. They had clearly arrived expecting to speak with Damian, but all of them immediately stopped in their tracks when their eyes fell upon Linda lying beneath the sheets of the bed. The awkward silence that followed was almost tangible, but the sight of Linda was not actually what disturbed them most.

The holy aura radiating from her body made their expressions turn cold.

Only Racheal, Ruby and Hazel remained relatively calm because they already knew Linda from Earth. The others had no such context, and to them, the presence of someone carrying such a strong holy aura inside Damian’s private chambers was immediately suspicious.

"Linda?" Racheal shifted her gaze toward Damian. "You brought her here?"

The question carried more confusion than anger. It simply did not make sense. The person Damian had once been romantically involved with was Clara, so if he intended to bring someone from his past to Velmora, it would have been far more understandable for Clara to be the one standing before them.

"I decided to take her as my second wife after I realized the condition to have a child is not as complicated as you three made it seem." Damian said with a dark gleam in his eyes.

Racheal, Ruby and Hazel all turned pale and immediately avoided his eyes. They clearly remembered their previous explanations and suddenly understood exactly what Damian was implying.

"What is the point of having a child as an immortal?" Rah asked.

Damian turned toward her with bitter amusement on his face. He stared at her for several seconds before answering.

"Do I look immortal to you?"

Everyone’s eyes dilated as they remembered his damaged soul.

The room immediately became quieter.

Until that moment, it had been easy to think of Damian as something beyond ordinary mortality. He had killed Lazarus, a full God, conquered Gildreach Vault and acquired a second Sin inheritance. He possessed powers capable of challenging beings they had once considered untouchable. But his damaged soul had changed everything.

Damian was the exception among them.

The others could continue cultivating for thousands upon thousands of years, while Damian’s remaining lifespan was steadily being consumed by the damage inflicted upon his soul.