Athena stood still for a long mont, as if weighing whether the question was worth asking.
Then she spoke, her voice softer than it had been throughout the entire war.
"I wish to ask about the Blood Mother," she said. "I was inford that you took over her care the mont I left Hell."
The room felt... different.
The orb glowed warmly.
Lenny’s voice answered, and for the first ti, there was unmistakable smile in it.
"My mother... She is well."
Then—
An image unfolded in Athena and Father Black’s mind.
A woman of unearthly beauty rested peacefully, her skin pale as moonlight, her hair flowing like liquid blood—long, red, and radiant. She lay reclined, her head resting on the thighs of a man seated upon a throne of obsidian and living fla.
Lenny.
Older. Broader. Calr.
His hand moved slowly, gently stroking her hair, fingers threading through crimson strands with infinite care. The chaos of Hell bent away from her like a storm refusing to touch its eye. Around them, infernal fires burned low, reverent.
Safe.
Cherished.
Athena exhaled, a tension she hadn’t realized she carried finally leaving her.
"As long as she is alright," Athena said, inclining her head, "then I have no more complaints."
The image faded.
The hell beast’s eye trembled.
A sharp crack split its surface.
Then another.
And another.
Until it shattered completely, collapsing into fine red dust that scattered across the table and vanished as if it had never existed.
Father Black burst into laughter.
Not restrained. Not dignified.
It was loud, raw, joyous.
"HAHAHAHA—!"
"By the stars, by the void, by every cursed angel above—HAHAHA!"
Years of pressure, fear, calculation, and solitude exploded out of him in that mont.
"We’re not fucked," he breathed between laughs. "We’re not fucked at all."
He strode toward the breathing chests, his hands crackling with controlled cosmic energy. At his will, one of the living locks uncoiled.
The chest opened.
Father Black froze.
Then—
He giggled.
Actually giggled.
Like a child who had just found forbidden toys hidden beneath a king’s bed.
"Ohhh... ohhh no," he said delightedly. "This is beautiful. Would you look at that. I get one of the seven forbidden treasures as a Wedding present."
He turned slowly toward Athena, eyes shining with mischief and devotion.
"Let’s build beasts," he said. "Beasts worthy of our king."
Athena smiled.
And for once, it wasn’t the smile of a regent a tactician, or a war maiden.
It was the smile of a woman hoping for a better future.
The room pulsed softly.
War was coming.
But so was sothing far worse—for Heaven, for Hell, for anyone foolish enough to stand in Lenny’s way.
"But before that," he smiled, "there is soone i have to give his present first."
Father Black waved his hand.
Space folded.
A portal tore open before him, thick with layered sigils and rotating runes that humd like a living equation. Without hesitation, he stepped through.
Athena followed.
They erged underground—far beneath the crust of the Eighth Earth.
This chamber dwarfed his office in complexity. The air shimred, packed so densely with runes that reality felt compressed, as if the room existed half a second behind of the universe.
This had been done intensionally. Anthing to ensure longevity.
Symbols crawled along the walls, ceiling, and floor, folding into one another, rewriting themselves endlessly.
This was that place.
The place he had brought Perseus the mont he arrived from dpace thst ti.
The place she was.
Nikky.
The ground trembled.
From the shadows surged the guards.
Massive dogs—no, hounds—each the size of siege towers. They had multiple heads, so with three, others with five or seven, each maw lined with serrated fangs glowing faintly with infernal runes. Their bodies were corded with muscle like sculpted obsidian, veins glowing crimson beneath their hides.
Several had serpent tails instead of hindquarters, scaled coils thick as ancient trees, their tips ending in bladed rattles that hissed with void venom. Others had backs studded with bone-spines that scraped the ceiling when they moved.
The mont they saw Father Black, the terror vanished.
They rushed him.
Athena’s breath caught—
Only to see the beasts shove their massive heads into his chest, nuzzling him, licking his coat with tongues longer than spears. Tails thrashed happily. A seven-headed one tried to sit, nearly collapsing a rune pillar as it wagged.
They were like pups before their owner.
Athena stared.
"...Just one of these," she said slowly, "could fight a Great Demon to a standstill."
Father Black nodded casually, scratching one under the chin.
"I know. I wanted them thst way, and she endured to gift those with the best gene pool for cosmic energy absorbtion."
He said it the way one might say the weather is nice today.
"So of them," he added, walking forward as the hounds parted obediently, "are too large to enter most worlds. There are planets whose gravity cracks beneath their paws. Others would have to hollow out moons just to sleep."
One hound yawned.
Its breath alone seed like it would warped space.
Athena nodded.
He led her onward.
At the heart of the chamber stood a capsule—tall, transparent, wrapped in preservation sigils layered so densely they glowed white-hot. Tubes fed into it like veins, carrying slow, pulsing magic.
Father Black tapped a sequence.
The capsule hissed.
Locks disengaged.
The glass parted.
Inside lay a woman.
Nikky.
Wild beauty tempered by maturity. Long black hair flowed around her like ink suspended in water. Her expression was calm, almost peaceful, yet there was a sharpness to her even in sleep—a latent ferocity waiting just beneath the surface.
She had placed herself into deep stasis, her own being woven perfectly with the machinery, preserving body and soul.
Waiting.
For Lenny.
Athena stepped closer, studying her.
"I did not know of this woman," she said carefully. "Is she... one of Lenny’s won?"
Father Black chuckled softly.
"You could call it that."
He looked at Nikky, his gaze gentle but weighted with history.
"She’s been waiting a very long ti."
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