The two older women looked at Persephone and Laz going at it and couldn’t help but be a bit shocked.

"Well... that’s surprising..." Pooja said.

"I didn’t think that was possible," Hera responded.

"She’s quite flexible. Kind of reminds me of one of those uh... what’s it called? It was like... fluffy and salty. I don’t know where we had it but it was tasty."

"Cotton candy?"

"No. It was salty, not sweet. And it was brownish in color... and it was like baked?"

"Oh. Yeah. Right. I don’t remember either, but yeah. I see what you mean. Her body looks like that thing right now with her legs behind her head."

"And he’s just lifting her straight up like she weighs nothing."

"Remember those days?"

"Shut up. We didn’t gain any weight. And I could do that..."

"Let me see you reach your legs behind your head and we’ll talk."

"Oh.... looks like she likes it in both holes just like her mommy."

"I’m going to slap you."

"Promises, promises."

"Enough talk. He’s not going to ignore us for some young pussy or ass. Let’s go."

"She’s your own daughter."

"Which means she needs to listen to me even if she doesn’t want to," Hera said before stripping her own clothing and getting close to Laz, wrapping her arms around his neck and chest and pulling his head over for a kiss.

"That’s my little slut," Pooja added, removing her clothing and joining them.

Pooja was able to get one leg behind her head before she had to give up until she could practice more, but Laz kept her busy anyway, easily being able to lift her up and pounding her from underneath while Hera tested her daughter’s ’skills’ at pleasuring another woman.

Back and forth it went, Laz having his fun with each women in whatever way they wanted until everyone fell down exhausted. Persephone fell asleep right on Laz’s chest while Hera had one side and Pooja had the other. The sounds of moaning, laughter and loud music still echoed in the distance as the party continued through the night, everyone doing all they could to forget the events of the day as the normal guard watched the gate, slightly envious of the activities taking place just out of sight, but not so envious that they would want to put their lives on the line to join the active troops.

The beasts didn’t attack the gate that night or the following day. Laz spread his senses out to check and found that only a few dozen level six beasts were roaming around outside, no sign of any level seven beasts or the shadow dragon at all. When they convened a meeting to talk about it, Pooja guessed that they were waiting for their troops from the other gate to make their way here, knowing that this was their only path forward.

"I don’t get why they don’t just block the pass, force us to stay put and wait until we die of starvation instead of throwing their lives away by attack," Laz then questioned, getting everyone’s attention. After some slight back and forth with few ideas, no one could answer that question as, from a military aspect, it made the most sense.

"Heya. I know you all been saying that that beast is smart and stuff, right? But... it’s just a beast in end, right? And you mentioned before that it had a master, right? So isn’t it just doing what it’s master ordered it to do? Whatever that is I mean. Can’t go against it’s masters orders, right?" Blake said having overheard the conversation while he was walking back from getting food. They had staged this meeting outside while everyone was getting up for breakfast not really minding if people overheard their conversation. After all, everyone here was involved and deserved to know what was going on so anyone could be a part of it if they wanted.

Two and Seventeen wanted to say something back, but they held their tongues as what the young man had said wasn’t something that could just be ignored.

"Yeah. That makes sense. It was told to do something by it’s master so even if it has a better idea in mind, it can’t go against it’s own orders...." Laz said out loud.

"So it has to attack and eliminate us, even if just waiting it out would be better for it. Probably cause it was ordered to do so. But that begs the question that if there is a master that can control such a beast, will we even be able to fight it?" Nesha questioned. She and her teams had joined the army just the previous day and had joined in the conversation this morning.

"We don’t have to worry about it’s master. In fact, I’m fairly certain that it can’t even talk to it’s master so it’s just going on what orders it received before it arrived here," Laz said and then told the story of how he had come through a gate along with the shadow dragon all those months ago for anyone who didn’t know already.

"So it’s here because it was sent to kill you?" Nesha questioned. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"Yep. Originally I ducked in here to escape it at my master’s orders, but it ended up hurting itself pretty badly following me. After all, it’s strength in the outside world seems a lot stronger than this pocked dimension would allow so it had to strip itself of it’s strength just to come in here. While it’s been getting stronger, it’s still limited by this world’s laws. And before any of you ask, if it had just wanted to kill me, it would have done so back at the last fort when it had the chance. It seems as though it’s guiding order is something else besides just killing me although I’m sure it would still do it if it had the chance," Laz admitted.

"Afraid we would turn you over to the beast to save our own skins?" Nesha’s mom asked with a laugh.

"No. Just afraid you’ll try to lock me up somewhere if you all think I’m the only target," Laz laughed back as he replied.

"That’s fair," Pooja said, shaking her head as though she would do just that.

"So what does the end look like? That’s the question we have to answer," Hera said, her years of leadership experience taking control.

"Either it dies or we die," Laz said, letting everyone know that as far as he was concerned, there was no middle ground. And he knew that there wouldn’t be. There was no living with this beast. Even if they could get back to his world, that would just open up the door to the Nameless God and it’s wraith would be far more serious than that of it’s pet.

Everyone nodded with Laz’s words as they were thinking the same thing. Just as the breakfast meeting was about to conclude, a guard came up to report a column of troops were approaching from the fortress. Hera thanked the man and let him continue on with his duties as the troops began to arrive, dismounting their horses and unpacking their gear. Laz’s troops, relaxed in the early morning downtime just watched it all happen as several figures made their way over to Laz’s group.

"Reporting for duty your highness," came the voice of Athena from underneath her helmet that she hadn’t removed. Seeing the oddness of this, Laz took a closer look and discovered that there was a slight shaking from her armor, almost unnoticeable unless you were looking for it. The two next to her were obviously her sisters, Clio and Erato. One was walking with a limp while the other was fully missing an arm, her sleeve instead tied up into a ball. Despite that, there was a strong fire that still burned within their eyes, but they seemed to be avoiding Laz’s gaze and instead locked focus on their mother instead.

Hera couldn’t help but sigh, knowing that there was much they were ashamed about. She had already spoken to them before she headed out, but it seemed like nothing had changed. Laz had brought them both the most intense pleasure they had ever experienced and also broke open the doors to their godhood. And yet now they stood before him, broken, beaten and maimed. Even with everything he had given them, they had failed and that failure weighed heavily on their hearts. The only thing that consumed them now was to make a good showing before their deaths, to help the people they were protecting live a while longer.

Laz could see it, he could feel it. They didn’t come here to fight. They came her to die.

Laz stood up and walked to the now visibly shaking Athena and lifted his hands. Athena tried to back away quickly, but Laz was faster and removed her helmet, showing the claw like mark that had struck her, slicing downward from her forehead and slashing her now missing eye before ripping out a portion of her cheek. The scar looked like it had barely scabbed over as an eye patch was now covering her eye, hiding the horror underneath it.

She couldn’t stop the tears from flowing from her good eye as the missing one could no longer shed tears.

Laz could only take her in his arms and hold her close, knowing that if he let go, she would collapse into a puddle on the ground. Laz then reached forward and grabbed the other two, pulling them in close as well as the three god sisters broke into silent tears together, for themselves and for their fallen sisters who they could never hug again.