Absolute Depravity: Reincarnated with a lustful System-Chapter 303 - The End Of An Arc [Catching Up With Everyone]

Left behind in the dungeons with the queens, Margarette was turned in charge of the army's renewal and their deals with the other species. The humans were the least of her worries as they were easier to control given she'd been one at one point herself, the demi-human tribes and monsters on the other hand were entirely different things.

"How many?" She asked the female goblin guard walking alongside her.

"Three leopard-men tribe, one kobold tribe, and a hive of vampires," her eyes fixed on the clipboard in her hands, the goblin guard kept leading Margarette towards the burrowed newly built prison on the lower levels of the dungeon. "From the goblin party's report mostly the women and children survived from the monster tribes since most of their soldiers consisted only of men."

The phrasing from the report stuck out to Margarette quite a bit, especially the part where she exclusively mentioned the 'goblin party's report' even though the expedition was led by a jumble of Goblins, Arachne, and even Demons.

'Trying to highlight her people's effort, huh? If this kind of stuff becomes commonplace, our tribes will be torn apart by their differences.' Being a lifelong queen, Margarette was aware of all tactics applied to divide and rule over people, thus, minimizing those corrosive practices that needed to be on her list of tasks.

Walking a while longer, Margarette finally arrived at a long stretch of leveled lands inside the dungeon. On each side, the monsters and demi-human tribes were locked inside cages made specifically to trap their kind. For the leopard-men, the iron bars were infused with fire magic with the help of mana-fused stones created by the worker Gremlins. Then there were the Kobolds crammed inside a space so small they could hardly move an inch of their muscles.

Upon waking up to another cell with electric bars, Margarette peered in to find the glowing red eyes of vampires hurdled away in a dark corner. Dare they tried to escape by turning into bats, their bodies would be fried to a crisp and most likely consumed by their own kind.

"The goblin queen's inventions are…" Glancing the electric rods up and down, Margarette was amused by the creativity of the queen. "Quite effective to say the least."

Shifting her gaze to the goblin guard, Margarette noticed her smile at the praise for her queen. The sight made Margarette regret saying what she said, but shaking her head, she decided to quickly give her new orders.

"Send the children to the barracks, they need to be brainwashed into becoming heartless warriors," as Margarette laid out the plan, the goblin guard's eyes widened in shock. "The adult men need to be sent to Medusa, she's taking care of pregnancy potions since your queen is busy with the demi-god."

"But madam Margarette, wouldn't master Haruki get furious when he learns that we're turning children into warriors!" Asked the concerned goblin guard, her hands clutching tight on her clipboard.

"Those are his instructions, not mine, and while we're discussing this, he wants the adult women from these tribes to be forced into labor with the potions so we can have a larger army," Margarette explained further, surprised herself that she wasn't lying about Haruki being the mastermind behind these ideas. 𝙗𝒆𝙙𝙣𝒐𝙫𝙚𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝒎

'It was bound to happen, using children for war.' Margarette thoughts, although ultimately indifferent to their suffering. 'Who could've guessed that the humans will turn out to be the most fortunate of our prisoners?'

With the humans forced into the Marquis kingdom to breed and flourish, they were the ones suffering the least. In return, all they had to do was swear fidelity to their new master, Haruki, and provide him with a portion of their women, men, and constructive capabilities.

"Anyways," putting up a smile, Margarette shrugged out of her train of thought. "It's time to get to work."

Handing the goblin guard species control rings for all the species present in the prison, Margarette made her way back to the surface level of the dungeon. Now that she'd dealt with the prisoner situation, it was time for her to check on Riley at the barracks training the inexperienced soldiers.

***

Away from the chaos inside the working of the dungeon's interior, Fay was tirelessly working on the mechanisms that had successfully created Stella's vessel. However, even after going through thousands of hoops trying to replicate the same effect, nothing she did could stabilize the clones inside the giant glass tubes.

"GURHHH!" Growled one such clone, slamming its fists against the glass vessel.

"Ekkk!" Terrified by the sight, Stella flung her body back with the fluidity of a slime. "Mom it-it's gonna break the glass!"

Huffing a tired sight, Fay assured Stella by fanning her palms to her. Then, turning to the vessel, Fay made quick use of her soul magic and stripped the clone of its conscious thoughts and actions. Going loose in an instant, the screeching husk paused all movement.

"There's nothing for you to be worried about Stella, you should know that," Fay said in a hushed, tired tone.

Moving towards her daughter, Fay wrapped her hands around her body and let her own warmth course into her. Comforted by the motherly love, Stella shut her eyes for a moment and nuzzled into Fay's chest.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, tearing up a little.

Peering up as Fay patted her on the head, she wiped her tears.

"I know I shouldn't get so scared so easily, but I can't help it…" Confessing her heart, Stella let her frustration be known. "I know I should be strong like you and father, and I'll train with Aunt Riley to become stronger once we're done here!"

"Train with Aunt Riley?" Thinking back to Riley's maniacal outbreaks, Fay wasn't too sure if that was a great idea. "Maybe, but…I think we do need a teacher for you to morph into a warrior from the cute little angel you are."

Pulling on Stella's cheeks, Fay's frustrations were completely wiped away. Puffing up her cheeks, Stella quickly escaped the embarrassing scenarios and even phased out of her mother's grip by turning her body into slime.

"I'm not a kid anymore!" She protested, but in Fay's eyes, she was obviously wrong.

"Sure sure, is that why you still sleep with your pet bat Max?" Fay teased, fanning her hands while masking her mouth to muffle her chuckles.

Although the comment made Stella blush a little, it didn't take long for her to join her mother with a laugh.

***

The recouping of the elven village was going about excellently under the watchful eyes of the goblin queen. Every so often she had to leave back for Dominion's holding in his special cell, but that didn't stop her from streamlining the path of progress. In fact, even the demon lords nesting in the village were left aghast by her effective management, however, the desire to leave for their own territory was just as tempting to them as ever.

"Our demon servants, they…" Gathered inside the elven halls overgrown with vines and greenery, Deus was about to deliver grave news to the rest. "They were all killed by Dominion before his army marched into Hestemia."

"Fuck…" Taking her feet off of the table, Merciella muttered in shock.

"How did you-"

"Azalea, she's one of my castle guards, and she managed to lead back a handful of my servants, but it almost cost her life," Deus butted in with the explanation before Reya could finish the question. "She told me what happened back in Scorchen Gaia while we were all passed out from Helga's attack."

Hearing the news, Inferno slammed his fist on the table and jumped off the chair. His teeth gritted shut, the lord of envy was fuming in rage.

"Where is that servant of yours now?! I want to know how Dominion killed my remaining army so I can kill him the same way!" Screaming at the top of his lungs, he was ready to fight this very moment.

But to his misfortune, with his strength severely drained, the rest of the demon lords couldn't allow him to make the stupid mistake of fighting Dominion, especially when he was in Haruki's custody.

"Settle down, Azalea is in no state to answer your question," trying to calm his brother, Deus decided to buy some time for the moment. "The new priestess, Serena; she's trying to heal Azalea, and if she's truly the best healer as her followers claim, then it shouldn't be long before Azalea can tell you everything you want to know."

Still fuming in rage, Inferno wanted to punch down a hole in the realms and force his way into Haruki's dungeon prison for Dominion. Yet, in the state that he was in it would be no short of a suicide given how much weaker he'd gotten from his encounter with the Valkyries.

"So we're just sitting duck with no strength of our own, and no army to command?" Klaus finally spoke, not too amused by the state of things.

"Exactly," Deus replied, wishing it wasn't the truth.

However, even in these grim times, there was something that the demon lords shared without speaking out about it exclusively. Their powers grow with their influence, the more servants they have the stronger they get, and thus to regain their strength, they have a complex choice to make.

'Spread their own sin to gain strength and much like how spreading lust strengthened Asmodia.' But to reach that end, they had to pick wisely.

'Betray Haruki and steal his servants, or help him expand more and gain servants in return from the newborns and captives.' The thought floated in the heads of all present inside the room, but none dared speak out in case someone chose the opposite of them.

"Whatever, happens, we're not going to tear each other's skin?" Said Deus, glancing around everyone.

The demon lords nodded but kept their decisions to themselves.