"Th... This is all because of you, you immoral and corrupting mortal! You are the cause of this humiliation!" Nekrā began, jabbing a long and accusatory finger directly at my chest, his elegant features twisted with embarrassment and barely contained fury.

His voice, usually soft, but so commanding, cracked slightly at the edges. "We... We were mostly normal and well-behaved beings before you walked into this residence and started causing trouble! We had discipline and dignity!"

"That does not seem to explain why you would stoop so low as to pleasure yourself, alongside with your maid, to the sound of my sexual endeavors happening in a private room behind a closed door," I pushed back at him, because I simply could not pass up a chance to bully the Lord of Hell when he was standing right in front of me looking so flustered and ashamed of himself.

The opportunity was too perfect to waste, and honestly, after everything I had been through in Eerkal-la, I deserved a little entertainment. "If you were truly so offended by my actions, you could have simply walked away. You could have gone to another wing of this massive residence. Instead, you chose to stay. You chose to... participate in your own way."

"H-He was not doing anything of the sort! You are seeing things that are not there, Sir Benjamin!" Dearth immediately began to defend her Lord’s honor, her pale face flushed a deeper shade of red than I had ever seen on her before, her voice trembling with the effort of maintaining any semblance of composure.

Her hands were still scrambling behind her back, trying to fix her disheveled clothing, "He only felt it would be tasteless and rude to interrupt the intimate session with your own daughter by knocking on the door, so he waited patiently outside like a gentleman, you incestuous sinner! There was nothing shameful about it!"

"Uh, your sexy panties are stuck on the hem of your gown, by the way. The black lace ones with the red ribbon." I pointed out the obvious, watching as her eyes widened in horror and her hands scrambled even more frantically behind her back to fix the problem.

The simple observation made her lose any semblance of authority or dignity that she had been desperately trying to maintain. Her shoulders slumped.

She looked like she wanted the floor to open up and swallow her whole.

"Look... you guys should just get married to each other already, or something, and stop torturing yourselves with this weird tension and this obvious mutual attraction. Life is too short for this kind of pining... Actually, for beings like you, life is very, very long." I continued my verbal assault, unable to stop myself now that I had started. "I have not lived up to even fifty years in my entire life, but I can tell you from personal experience that masturbating in my own apartment all alone felt like hell to me. It was lonely and sad, and I sometimes felt worse afterwards. You have my genuine sympathies for whatever situation has led you both to this moment, crouched outside a guest room door, but you really should just talk to each other about your—"

BANG!

Nekrā could not handle the embarrassment and the mockery any further.

His composure, already cracked and crumbling, shattered completely. He swatted me away with a wave of his pale hand, a casual swipe of his wrist that carried the force of a collapsing pillar.

I flew across the room like a ragdoll, my body spinning through the air, my arms and legs flailing uselessly.

I landed squarely against the far wall, my back hitting the stone with a sickening crunch, my ribs cracking, my spine screaming in protest.

Blood splattered from my mouth and soaked the wall immediately, a dark red stain spreading across the dark stone like a blooming flower.

I slowly peeled off the surface, my fingers scraping against the wall as I slid down, and then I fell back onto the ruined bed below with a heavy and final thud.

"Fool! We were not touching ourselves... There was something in my garment that I was trying to fix, some loose thread or misplaced button that needed my attention before I could properly receive guests," Nekrā huffed and smoothed out his dark red outfit, arranging his clothes back into their proper place with practiced and deliberate motions, his fingers moving with precise efficiency.

His voice was cold now, all traces of embarrassment gone, replaced by icy formality. "And Dearth was also fixing her undergarments while we waited patiently for you to finish inseminating your own child. That is the truth of the matter, and I will hear no more of your lewd insinuations. Tell me honestly, who between us is truly pitiful here? The beings who waited quietly and minded their own business, or the man who bedded his own daughter and then came out to mock his hosts?"

"Whatever you say, boss... I believe you entirely. Your explanation makes perfect sense and I have no reason to doubt it. She’s not my kid, though." I managed to raise a bloody and weak hand in a gesture of surrender, my fingers trembling with the effort, my vision swimming slightly from the pain.

My body was already beginning to heal and regenerate from the damage, the bones knitting back together, the flesh sealing shut, the blood slowing to a trickle.

But the process took time, and for now, I was a broken mess on a broken bed.

"As long as you understand. Now... follow me," He flipped his long and silky hair over his shoulder with a dismissive flick of his head and spared my broken, regenerating form only a single glance, his dark eyes cold and unimpressed. "I believe Echidna gave you a crucial message to deliver to me, and we have wasted enough time on your foolishness already."

"Yes. Let’s go," I immediately went serious, my playful demeanor and my mocking tone dropping away entirely, replaced by the focused attention of someone who understood the weight of the task ahead.

I pushed myself up from the bed, my body still aching, my clothes still bloody, and I followed Nekrā out of the destroyed room.

Behind me, on the ruined bed, Shelly slept peacefully, her face soft and relaxed, her body finally at rest after so much tension, fear, and pleasure.

She was enjoying her happy, exhausted, freshly disvirgined sleep, completely unaware of the humiliation and violence that had occurred just meters close to her.

I did not wake her, because she deserved the rest.