Chapter 108: The Years Gone By
50 Years Later -
Ayame Garou treaded down the infamously long steps to her daughter's home and silently wished that they would put in a slide.
She hadn't been here in decades due to the embarrassing sound she'd made last time.
She would never be able to live that day down for as long as she lived.
But… she also tried to visit on Keran's birthday randomly about 40 years ago, but she heard moaning coming all the way from the stone bridge and stopped in her tracks and turned around, leaving the present she had for her behind.
Single people don't exactly delight in having their lonesomeness shoved into their face by other couples.
It is only worse when it is your daughter and her family who are making you feel left out.
She normally would have kept avoiding this place, but things in the outside world were beginning to heat up again.
Stepping onto the bridge, she nearly let out a surprise when she crossed it in an instant and was standing on the other side dumbstruck.
She heard the small sound of bare feet tapping against cold stone, and her eye shot towards the top of the steps that led to the abandoned sect.
A woman gradually stepped into full view and Ayame temporarily had her breath taken away.
Just like when she was a child, she had a soft and playful expression that somehow fit perfectly on her mature face.
In the time she hadn't seen her, she had endured a drastic growth spurt in both muscle definition and height.
She now boasted even more powerful looking muscles than even her own, and she stood at a captivating 6'2.
Her skin was a bit paler, likely due to the years spent in this cavern that received only diluted sunlight.
Yet in contrast, her knee length black hair was incomparably darker than before, as if it had been dyed in the very nothingness that made up the night itself.
She wore a sleek black bodysuit that emphasized her butt, breasts, and abs loudly; in addition to a black and yellow kimono that she allowed to hang loosely off her shoulders.
But the most impactful thing about not seeing her daughter after such a long time was that Ayame missed the moment where nine black and silver tails grew out from her lower back.
"Mother!"
Keran immediately flew at her stunned mother while abandoning all sense of maturity.
Apparently, Keran hadn't put much thought into the fact that she was now her mother's size or perhaps even a bit bigger, and nearly knocked her over with her new body.
Of course, Ayame nearly fainted anyway when she realized what realm her daughter was at.
'Reaching the sovereign realm in only 900 years of life… my daughter is a prodigy.'
"I'm glad that you actually came to visit this time instead of just leaving me a birthday present on the doorstep and bolting away! I have missed you very much!"
"I.. have missed you as well, my daughter. It seems I have missed a great many things.." again, Ayame couldn't help but keep her eyes focused on the nine swaying tails behind her daughter's back.
Perhaps if she stared at them long enough they would disappear and her brain could stop overworking itself to put together any possible reason why her daughter was now a supreme fallen.
"Oh… it's a bit strange, right?" Keran said with a wry smile. "I think it has something to do with my ingesting of his blood all of those years ago and the first time we slept together after our reunion I must have-"
"A-Alright, I will draw my own conclusions!" Ayame held up a hand to stop her daughter from volunteering anymore… intimate information.
SPLASH!
The sound of the lake water being disturbed came from underneath the bridge, and another woman leapt into the air.
She landed atop the stone structure alongside Ayame and her daughter.
Keran was tall but.. this woman was even larger than her.
She resembled a powerful ogre variant of around 6'4 with a body full of explosively powerful muscles that had all been condensed to their absolute limit to give her a much leaner look.
Her silvery purple hair was soaked along with the rest of her nude body and it gave off a stunningly provocative image that Keran seemed to be surprisingly used to.
"Oh? We have a guest? We never have guests."
"Well we do today, sister. So can you get dressed so that you aren't exposing yourself to my mother?"
"Eh?! But it's my house and I want to be comfortable in it!"
"You don't need to be naked to be comfortable! Just go steal one of our husband's robes and then you'll feel even more relaxed than you do now."
"That's..! Actually not an unsatisfying idea." She agreed.
Little did both women know that Ayame had no interest in staring at Aveena's bush or any other uncovered parts of her body, as she was more distracted by another more important matter.
"You both are quite amazing… reaching the peak of the venerable realm and the first step of the sovereign realm in such a short time as fifty years is unthinkab… Why are you both looking at me like that when I am trying to compliment you!?"
Aveena and Keran unconsciously puffed their cheeks out and pouted as their moods took a noticeable downturn.
"Thanks I guess…"
"Yea, thanks…"
"…Living down here has made you all strange."
-
Ayame was led up the steps into the home of her daughter and her family and was shown into a very pretty tatami room with a short table and cushions seated in the middle.
While Aveena ran off to go steal something from their husband's closet, Keran and her mother played a brief game of catch up and for a moment Ayame even got to smile as if she was a normal mother.
The minutes ticked by quickly and before they knew it, Aveena was back and being trailed by Enyo and Lucia.
Like Keran and Aveena, they were both in the sovereign realm and the venerable realm, respectively.
Both women had become more mature and beautiful in their time down here, and even Ayame was starting to feel like she paled in comparison to all of them just a bit.
There was a short and sweet exchange of pleasantries and the girls joined Keran and her mother at the table for an impromptu discussion.
"Don't take this personally, Queen Ayame, but… I doubt you've simply come here for some idle chitchat." Enyo pointed out. "Is something the matter?"
Ayame let her chest rise and fall as she tapped her finger along the black table in front of her.
"The war is about to reach a critical boiling point. A lot has transpired but I'll suffice it to say that things are so dire that the four heads are holding a summit."
There are four continents in Tayar.
Though fallen and the various races of light can be found on all of them, the percentage of exact species differs.
On this continent of Noa, beastmen make up 67% of the fallen population, with Ayame of the werewolves as ruler.
The continent closest to this is known as Kiru, and is a whopping 89% Dark Elf, with Ja' Zaki The Unseen ruling from the shadows.
Then there is Zhadd, which is home to a solid 73% of the demon race, and it is ruled with an iron fist by the Heavenly Demon Kyoen Tsuchigumo.
And finally, there is Tethys. This is the new stronghold of 94% undead fallen, led by the bewitching Lich Queen, Aja Druj.
The four rulers haven't been seen in the same room together since the vampires died out and it was decided that Aja was going to take their place.
Now for them to be miraculously getting together again, something had to be horribly wrong in the outside world.
"They are expected to be here within two days. I came here to get you all beforehand since, well… as a supreme fallen your husband is entitled to participate in this meeting of ours."
A thoughtful look passed between all of the girls in an instant before they resumed their neutral looks and did not bother to say anything else.
Ayame suddenly frowned and folded her arms across her generous chest.
"What's with that look?"
"Nothing, we're just leaving the decision up to him." Aveena explained.
"Well might one of you go get him then so I can tell him? Time is ticking and I do have preparations I need to oversee."
"He already heard you."
"He's been sitting in here the whole time."
Ayame spun around like a mad woman looking around for her son in law but she never found him.
Gently, Keran placed her hands on both sides of her mother's face and tilted it all the way upward.
There, she found a man sitting cross legged on the ceiling with a human woman in his lap.
The woman was a vision, with hypnotic white hair that reminded one of a shining moon and a beauty that was just as radiant.
Like the rest of the girls, she wore a bodysuit that was white in color and a deep blue kimono that she let hang off her slender arms.
Her eyes were closed and she appeared to be in a rather deep sleep as if she were deaf to all outside noise.
But the man holding her was very wide awake.
Ayame didn't know if it was just because she hadn't seen her son-in-law in a while or if he had gotten objectively more attractive in the time since she'd last seen him, but she temporarily felt a flurry of sparks go off in her brain.
He and the woman in his lap were both difficult to see through, but through effort she was able to notice their true strength.
And even when she did, she almost felt like she was going to faint and have to be carried back home.
'5th level Sovereign Realm… Both of them..!'
"Sounds interesting… We'll go."
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