Rykard knocked on the doorframe. “Got time to talk?”

  Cryo did not look up as he answered. “Sure.” He sounded distracted and for good reason. He was currently in the process of working on some kind of arcane machinery.

  As a fellow enthusiast of artifice, Rykard chose to inspect the work. From what he could gather by the backpack next to it, the pte in front of Cryo was a part of the power unit that made the rest of his suit function. It was made from some kind of dark crystal. Metal lines ran over it, forming circuits of incredible complexity. White, blue and green crystals were set into sockets, forming power nodes that communicated with each other.

  “Trying to work it out?” Cryo asked, no small amount of pride in his words.

  Rykard, for once, let someone else gloat about their accomplishments. Much like the Leviathan was a marvellous piece of alchemical engineering, so was this a true feat of artifice. Rykard could not wrap his head around all of it by just a spare gnce. He could, however, get a basic understanding.

  “I assume you’re trying to install a tertiary power subroutine?” he asked.

  Finally, Cryo raised his head from his work. Holding onto two arcanely glowing, needle-like tools, he looked at Rykard. The goggles made it difficult to read his expression. Integrated ocur had repced his original eyes. All they communicated was a soft buzz while the lenses turned to get him into perfect focus. “Yes,” he answered. “How did you know?”

  “You were meddling with the secondary system, so I assume you were trying to build in an extra resistor that would flip to a transistor once the mana void in the output system grows too rge.”

  “That… is a much more simple solution than what I had in mind,” Cryo admitted. “I was going to create a Reckman’s Loop. Does that term work in your world?” Rykard shook his head. “It’s a self-contained energy circle that constantly flows power that is tapped into via localized-”

  “-alteration magic that creates a spark portal,” Rykard finished the sentence then grinned. “My world isn’t as advanced in matters of artifice. The Troyk Empire had no term for such a thing.”

  “Then how do you know the theory?” Cryo asked.

  “I was wondering if something like it was possible, but never got a chance to put it into practice,” Rykard answered, then pulled out one of the chairs.

  Cryo was working on the same table they were eating at. The Butler called to meals three times a day, but would bring food to the rooms if guests insisted. So far, no one had. After that fight, they had all shared a quiet dinner. Loran had been rattled. Cryo had stayed quiet. Lord had pyed it off but asked a number of questions that made it obvious he was, if not afraid, at least respectful of Rykard’s powers. Punk had winked at him suggestively.

  Breakfast had been more cordial. Now they were about an hour out from lunch. Rykard had decided to mingle with the crowd and had found only Cryo.

  The artificer turned back to the project and quickly implemented the solution. As he put on the finishing touches, he resumed the conversation. “Did you come here to talk about my potential alliance with Loran?”

  “Not even going to hide that there is one?”

  “You strike me as a man that values directness and respect. Plus, you did just save me eight hours of work,” Cryo answered in a pin tone of voice. “Loran wishes to use me against you.”

  “Think you can take me?” Rykard asked with a bloodthirsty smile.

  “Me? No. My inventions might. It depends on the efficiency of the power source I get my hands on.” Cryo continued to be direct. “I am not a great fighter myself, but I know how to design one.”

  “Interesting.”

  “You’re not going to take me out. Not here.”

  “You’re stating that, you’re not asking?”

  “You also strike me as a man that doesn’t get a challenge as often as he would like.” Cryo put down his instruments and slotted the pte back into his backpack. “If you wanted to take us out, you would have done so after dealing with Iceface. The cards were already on the table. We wouldn’t be able to stop you, I think. Loran is no fighter. I could level this city, but not you. The tiefling is strong, according to my readings, but nowhere near as strong as you. That is before we consider the goddess and the chosen with you. Militarily, you are supreme.”

  “It feels good to be acknowledged.” Rykard rolled his neck. “Believe it or not, however, I’m not here to talk politics.”

  Cryo tilted his head. “You are not?” he asked, hopeful.

  A dismissive wave ter, Rykard continued. “I am going to win, this is my earnestly held belief. You are a man, so the only two offers I have for you are surrender by sword or by pen. I feel no need to insist on the tter. You can come to me whenever you want. Until then, I will do you the courtesy of letting you believe yourself capable of winning as well or, at least, that you want to build as much of this world as you are capable of. With all of that on the table…” the king shrugged. “...what good is negotiating?”

  “What additional offer would I have been a woman?” Cryo asked.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Rykard answered with a grin.

  The artificer ughed. Not loud or long, but he did ugh. “Then, harem king, what do you wish to talk about?”

  “Artifice, of course - unless you have some other interesting stories you wish to share,” Rykard answered.

  “Not today - plus, I have always been wondering what degree of artifice is somewhat shared between worlds. Let’s exchange some terminology and see if we find any shared terms.”

  “Sounds fun enough,” Rykard agreed.

  __________________________________________________________________

  “Honoured guests, another Contestant has arrived!” the Butler announced.

  The words echoed through the room while they were all enjoying lunch. Rykard lost no time in standing up and that still only made him the second fastest to dash up to the staircase. The Hellcat had hurried over, always ready to witness another event unfold.

  Rykard himself took things in measured steps. He turned one corner and saw the rebuilt wall at the end of the corridor. While the Butler had done swift work, either him or the gods had made a point out of keeping the out of pce look of a wall that was all brick and pster and none of the intricate decorations all around. A door to the garden had also been build in. An improvement, in the king’s opinion.

  All those thoughts went out of the window when he turned to corner to the view of a familiar, redheaded chimera stepping gracefully down the steps. Altana had learned from her st appearance and chose her human-adjacent form from the start. Although spikes and scales did cover the softness, the beauty of her yellow-eyed face was on dispy from the start.

  Gazes meeting, they both stopped for a moment. Altana jumped across the distance and suddenly hugged him. She was tall today, tall enough to pull that stunt off without getting on her toes, yet shorter than he was. A choice, no doubt, considering her nature.

  “It is good to see you again,” the ouroboros queen spoke, after letting go of him. The hug had not sted long, certainly not long enough to take it as more than a friendly gesture.

  “Likewise,” Rykard answered with a growing smile. “I heard from an eldritch demigoddess that you were successful?”

  “Yes!” Altana spoke enthusiastically. The tip of her long tail wagged like that of Lyvia did when she was happy. “Your belief in me… I wished to validate it. It took the sacrifice of many biomes, but I managed to recreate the swarm in my image. We will no longer be a blight on this world.” She looked past him at the other Contestants. “Greetings. I am Altana.”

  “You may know the desert territory from the west, she’s the mind of the hive that created it,” Rykard introduced her. “I personally vouch for her good intentions.”

  “No vouching is needed. The expansion of the swarm is halted until we have turned those deserts into what they once were. All the genetic code of the biomes still resides within us.” Altana, despite her calm way of speaking, was excitedly wiggling back and forth. “It is upon me to repair. Once we have accomplished this, I wish to bring greater prosperity to the wider world.”

  “Noble goal… out of interest, is your entire swarm made out of hot babes?” Lord asked.

  “I have not yet given order to create new queens. For that, I wish to first acquire worthy seed.”

  “Well, if you want any tiefling dick, I’m right here, baby!” Lord announced.

  “Only the victor of this competition will be worth it.”

  “Aww, shucks, I ain’t got that sort of patience.”

  “Dad, can you please stop being cringe?” Punk groaned.

  “I told you to never use that word unironically.”

  Rykard watched all of this with a false smile on his face. He was half considering ripping Lord’s tongue out. That would have been the appropriate response if Altana was already his. As, that decision had not been made yet. He was feeling possessive of her because he desired her, but harming another Contestant over what was a half-joke may have been a bit much.

  Maybe.

  Or maybe not.

  Rykard was still weighing that off.

  ‘Priorities,’ he thought and suddenly pced a hand on the side of Altana’s face. “Only I matter,” he whispered as he leaned forwards. He stopped only when they were forehead to forehead, eye to eye. “I am gd you’ve achieved your dream. It didn’t give you any trouble, did it?”

  “It… did not?” Altana sounded confused, likely because of the sudden proximity.

  Rykard was fine with that. Closeness like this was his to assert over her. His hands gently combed through her fine hair. “You really did validate everything I thought about you,” he continued to whisper.

  “Should we be here?” Punk mumbled to her father.

  “Probably not, but let’s stay and see if something fun happens,” Lord answered.

  Continuing to ignore them, Rykard basked in the purple blush on her dark blue cheeks. “No one but you could have done that. You really are the pinnacle of your species.” He let the compliment linger, before adding, with a wide grin. “So far, at least. Our children could surpass you.”

  “Could they now?” Altana purred, between confusion and interest.

  “I have only grown stronger, little chimera, and we both know that I get what I want.” He grabbed one of her horns just strongly enough to let her feel the surface of his strength, without actually moving her head. “I’ll be the victor. Let’s not pretend it can be different. You’re not waiting for anyone, you’re waiting for me.” Confidence was sexy, the eternal axiom held true, and Rykard further leaned in to whisper into her pointy ear, a mixture of elf and animal. “Why dey the inevitable?”

  “Hrrrr…hrrrr…” The throaty sound was interesting. Something between a purr and a moan and all around quite animalistic. “If I agreed to this, what would it entail?”

  “That you’re mine, of course!” Rykard decred loudly, then grabbed the ouroboros queen’s ass. The motion was forceful and could have hurt him quite a bit had her scales and spikes not been receding the entire time he was flirting with her. The only pain caused was to Altana, who let out a feminine cry while the smack echoed through the room. Rykard gave that round ass a nice squeeze. She truly was the product of a species that had initially spread by seducing the best men of many races for their seed.

  “Yes, but what does that mhm…ean?” she pressed out, struggling to retain her calm. Her pupils were heavily dited now.

  “I want you to live out your dream,” Rykard told her, returning to the sensual whisper. “All my women will only live their best life. Return home. Return the Hexagons you had to plunder to lush life. You don’t need to be a Contestant for that. Know that you’ll be mine. Let that thought linger in your heart. Let the longing grow. When the time comes, I’ll take you to live with mine. Your swarm will be part of New Eden, just as you will be mine.”

  Altana breathed heavily. She was not pulling away. Her ass was pushing against his palm. She curved her chest so her breasts did the same for his chest. His left hand caressed the side of her face again. She put hers on top and leaned up.

  The kiss was uncertain. It only took a second for that to change. Her genetically programmed instincts kicked in, awakening every bit of her that was a natural seductress. Rykard did the rest, taking the offering of her parting lips to take control of what transitioned swiftly from a first kiss to a make out session.

  By now, Altana was pinly naked. Rykard ran his hands all over her slender physique, committing her skin to memory. She was smooth and soft in all the right pces. Some of the shoulders had a little bit of bumpiness to them, yet remained without fw. It was like a snake’s belly turned warm skin. When he really focused on it, he could sense the same texture, if fainter, all over her. It was every bit as alien and gorgeous as she was. Her reddish lips were hot. Her red, unkempt and yet unmatted hair made for wonderful grabbing.

  When he broke the kiss, minutes must have passed. Altana was not prepared for it to end yet, which was exactly why Rykard chose to end it on his terms. He knew how women were during their first kisses and he also knew that a submissive like she was, he could practically smell it, appreciated him taking charge. “I take that as a yes,” he commented.

  “It is a yes,” Altana confirmed. “As you suggest, I will do what I must first. I owe it to the nd. Then, when you fetch me… I wish for your seed to be shared with me.” She smiled coyly. “Consider me part of your realm as of this moment, my patriarch.”

  “Patriarch?” Rykard asked. He did not mind the title, he just found it interesting.

  “Matriarch was the title the queens addressed their superior queens with. It is only proper that you gain the male equivalent,” she expined, then turned her gaze to Miyo. “And that you are the matriarch, of course.”

  The vixen gave a little smile. Rykard could see in her eyes that she needed to hear that at that moment. Although she had been quiet, that was only because of their present company. She had a choice set of words for him in private no doubt.

  A moment of silence was Loran’s cue to softly clear his throat. “My congratutions on ‘defeating’ a second faction, king Rykard,” he spoke with a likeable amount of sarcasm. Had Rykard not already known what a slimy creature the man was under that androgynous face, he would have fallen for that being a genuine compliment.

  Since he was in a good mood, he decided not to verbally fold Loran into a pretzel. “Thank you very much, First Minister… where did Lord go?”

  “Dad went upstairs to bang one of his sluts,” Punk answered pinly. “Cryo went to work on something. Not everyone likes watching you make out with a chick for minutes on end, ya know?”

  “But you do?” Rykard asked.

  Maybe it was a mistake to immediately get back to flirting, but he could not help himself. There was an attractive female in front of him, one that was the daughter of another Contestant and powerful enough that she had been taken along to the Divine Game. How could he, as king over the realm of harems, not act on his desires to cim her as well?

  An impossibility.

  What was, however, very possible, was to make his current women less excluded.

  “Oh, I absolutely love watching hot guys making out with hot chicks,” the Hellcat purred.

  ‘A perfect set-up,’ Rykard thought and grabbed his pregnant first woman by the waist. As forceful as he dared to pull her, he pinned her against his chest, effectively pulling her into a hug with Altana. “Then you should watch this,” he told her and moved to kiss both redheads.

  Altana’s genetics made her a born seductress, but evidently that did not include the details of three-way kisses. Granted, they were a bit of an art onto itself. Rykard took the lead and Miyo was ever the submissive capable of showing other submissives what he liked. Soon enough, they had shown her how to handle the awkwardness of where to pce her nose and had her melt from the shared attention she and Miyo received. Love was strongest multiplied by the number of participants. That was not true for regur retionships, but when had Rykard let himself tied down by regurity?

  As they made out, Rykard loosened the magics that held Miyo’s red dress in pce. It fell to the ground soon. “Fuck, I think I am getting a thing for pregnant dies,” Punk muttered, scanning the two redheads.

  Rykard’s hands wandered down the backs of Altana and Miyo, over their shapely bottoms, and found their wet cunts from the back angle. Both women perked up at the invasion of his fingers. “You would love my mansion if you do. As long as I am alive, there won’t be a day there isn’t a pregnant woman in my harem.”

  “Ya know menopause is a thing, yeah?” Punk asked.

  Rykard mockingly blew air out of his nose. His arms wandered back up, coming to half rest on the shoulders of the redheads. He sent Subana and Tess a demanding gnce each. That was all they needed to step close and start licking the pussy juices off his fingers. “As if I would let any of mine experience infertility. The breeding will continue for as long as I desire and I will always desire it. It is that simple.”

  “Oh fuck…” Punk muttered under her breath. Maybe it was starting to dawn on her that she had bitten off a bit more than she could chew. A good realization to have. When it came to Rykard, he liked his women sucking, not nibbling.

  He let her stand there, focusing on pulling Tess and Subana to the centre to make out with them instead. Flirting with her was just a part of the equation of this situation. He had a harem to remind him what mattered: them being happy. “Gorgeous goddess,” he whispered to the shortstack, before tasting her golden lips. “No need to be quiet, my little bckbird,” he whispered to Tess before tasting her bck lips.

  “I’m not little,” Tess drawled and pushed her tits against him. Her naked tits, removed of the clothes she conjured through her contract. Subana disrobed just as simply, always ready to drop her pretence of being more than his sex sve. Miyo managed to find the space to press against his back and allowed Altana to do the same.

  Rykard smiled warmly at each of them, his gaze lingering for as long as it took to get his point across. It did not need a long speech or prose, just honesty to calm the worry that they felt in their hearts that perhaps he was expanding his harem too fast. They would know as they had always known that the harem king would never let any of his women go forgotten.

  “Would you like to be part of this?” the king asked the lust-stunned Hellcat.

  “Oh, yesssssssss,” she hissed, her blue eyes glowing with a deep desire.

  “Then you’ll have to impress my women,” Rykard stated. “Subana, any questions for the hot tiefling?”

  “Are you a virgin?” the goddess of fated submission asked immediately.

  “No, is that an issue?” Punk asked.

  “That depends, are you easy?” Subana tilted her head slightly. “Master desires women of loyalty and value and past looseness would need to be compensated for.”

  “I’ve had like… 4 partners before? One time I was really drunk and don’t know how far that went.”

  “Age?”

  “26.”

  Subana nodded, satisfied. “I have no further questions.”

  Rykard licked his lips, now certain in his wishes to have her. Had she been the kind of slut her father apparently preferred, he would indeed have thought less of her for it. While he preferred virgins, he was happy to live in an imperfect world at times. “You please me,” he stated loudly, to chase away the awkwardness of the goddess’ necessary but technical questions. “And if this pleases you…” He cupped one of Subana’s massive breasts. “...keep talking. Tess?”

  “Why are you still wearing clothes?” the goth asked immediately, her dry voice making it sound like sarcasm.

  Punk did not care if it was or not. She immediately took the chance to undo the cord of the corset. It fell to the ground, revealing her perky, medium-sized breasts and nicely defined midriff. Her thong followed. It had only hidden that dark colouration of her swollen mons at that point. A trail of pussy juice connected the leather triangle to her sex for some time. “These aren’t clothes,” she pre-empted the question and smacked her thigh, where shiny thigh highs were still sticking onto her. “They’re, like… demon manifestations. They change from bck skin to gloves and thigh highs randomly. Kinda like the shape of my tail.” Just as she said that, the thigh highs suddenly disappeared, leaving only her feet and hands bck.

  “Mhm, variety, I like it. Altana?”

  “I… am not prepared to be tied into this,” the ouroboros queen confessed. A patient smile gave her the time to think. After three seconds, she simply asked. “What’s your best part?”

  “Obviously this!” Punk turned around. Her curved back revealed a round ass that was simply fwless. Aclysia had the greatest fat ass as far as Rykard was concerned, second only to Miyo’s everything. While Punk’s behind was not as huge, it had perfection in its size. It was neither too rge nor too small, came in wonderful softness below strong back muscles and above equally soft thighs, and was just all around a picturesque manifestation of what a man thought of when they were told: a woman’s ass. Punk grinned over her shoulder as she presented it.

  “If you become mine, I’ll pound you into the floor,” Rykard promised.

  “If?” Punk purred.

  “One more question decides your fate,” the king stated. “My queen, what do you think?”

  Miyo gave the demon woman one more muster, then presented a simple yet vital question: “What is your retionship to the word ‘Master’?”

  “Never used it unironically before, but I know I’ll change that in the next ten minutes,” Punk purred.