~ Chapter 85: In the ‘deadly’ embrace of my wives ~

As soon as I returned to my Inner Mind, I quickly moved towards Zoreya. I was on borrowed time, and I had to heal her fast. Well, since she was here now, I could also take the liberty of curing and enhancing her body in any way I pleased. I did the same with everyone else, so why not with her as well? Besides, they all benefited from me fixing their Magic Energy Channels.

“Zoreya...” I said as I looked at her.

This was the second time when I saw her without her armor on. The first time being during back then when I stumbled upon her bathing in the lake. That was certainly a heart throbbing moment, and her young figure was certainly divine. It was a shame she had to keep it hidden underneath that thick armor of hers. Of course, now she looked no different than a 100-years-old wrinkly grandma.

“Let’s do this then!” I said with a smile as I stretched my arms.

Kneading the Magic Energy into her body, I began my work by first scanning her entire body in order to find all the damaged tissue. I discovered third degree burns on her shoulder and side, countless bruises all over her body, and multiple internal organ traumas. Despite the severity and ridiculous amount of blood loss, there was nothing I couldn’t treat and fix with my magic. A modern doctor, on the other hand, would have required an entire team of specialists to treat her, but even then, he would still only be able to offer her low chances of survival.

With the skill I earned from building this body of mine, I carefully healed Zoreya’s injuries and removed any potential pathogen I discovered along the way. Diseases were something the human species was most vulnerable against, and even in this sort of world, this remained an undisputed fact.

As for how long this whole process took me, I had no idea because I was too focused on fixing my new wife’s body. During the operation, I was thankful to the way The Darkness forced me to learn this skill. If it wasn’t for him, I would have most likely ended up with a normal humanoid body far beneath my current one in terms of abilities. Leaving that psychopathic and megalomaniac side of his, he was a rather decent teacher.

When the operation was over, Zoreya didn’t even have a scratch on her, but she still looked like a wrinkled old prune. That naked image of her didn’t excite me in any way at all... So, I began to fix her current looks by turning back the time on her body.

The theory behind reverse aging was simple. The DNA of the human species contained certain genetic sequences which predetermined the maximum age of the organism as well as the moment when rapid cell deterioration began. Basically, the genetic information was encoded in such a way that it described the way the human body was supposed to die naturally. As smart as any species could be, in the end, Mother Nature was the one who determined both the process of evolution and death of all organisms created by her.

Back when I was still living on Earth, I read once that all around the world scientists were struggling to discover a way to extend the limit of cell reproduction rather and there weren’t any trying to find those DNA sequences which described the aging process itself.

Thanks to Magic Energy kneading, I was able to ‘reset’ Zoreya’s genetic age to her twenties. I then allowed her cells to rearrange and regenerate themselves properly. The end result was a reverse aging process that took place right before my eyes. It was Sci-Fi-ish.

Once this was over, I could perversely... ahem... professionally admire her naked form and enticing bosom. She was someone who had plenty to offer in that department, and this without me changing a single thing when it came to her natural beauty.

Of course, when I ‘reset’ her genetic age, I also removed the limit of 108 years. If she had lived without Melkuth’s eternal youth divine protection, she would have naturally died at that age from multiple organ failure. At the same time, I also made it so that she didn’t age again or had a similar limit. This resulted in certain genetic sequences to activate and increase her stem-cell production, basically granting her natural immortality.

Looking at this phenomenon a bit closely, I understood that if those genes didn’t activate properly, it would have resulted into the apparition of cancer. In other words, this disease may have been nature’s way of notifying humans that it was working on a way to grant them longer lives. The fact that it was a living hell for those who suffered of it didn’t seem to bother Mother Nature that much... Trial and error as it was said.

With Zoreya’s health problems fixed, it was time to work on her Magic Energy Channels. Unexpectedly, I found a lot of them to be in a deteriorated state. Judging by this, it was highly likely that she was pushing herself hard in order to cast magic of any kind. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if during her youth the act of circulating Magic Energy through her body would have made her feel a certain level of discomfort or pain. At the same time, it was miraculous how Divine Energy appeared to flow so naturally through her, but this part was just a guess based on the fact tha she was an Apostle because I had no idea how to detect it... yet.

“Let’s fix this up as well...” I said as I stretched my arms again before working on fixing her Magic Energy Channels, granting her the possibility to cast any type of magic far easier than before and at a smaller cost.

There was no way I was going to allow one of my wives to suffer because of something as easy to fix as this.

After I was done with this process, I did a triple check to make sure there were no abnormalities in her system, no curses, no diseases, no unattended injuries, and that everything was working in perfect order.

With a sigh of relief, I finally gave the command to release Zoreya from her stasis.

“Ungh...” she groaned as she opened her eyes slowly.

“Morning, beautiful!” I welcomed her with a smile.

“Illsyore? How? Where?” she asked confused and then looked around only to find herself naked.

Her face turned red. Aaand she fainted...

“Erm...” I blinked surprised.

After another moment passed, I woke her up again.

“Zoreya? Are you feeling alright? Is there anything wrong or out of place?” I asked.

She was still blushing strongly and covering her chest and privates with her hands. Her eyes looked around frantically and then... she fainted again.

“OK... Now I’m worried.” I said and then quickly analyzed and scanned her body again, but I couldn’t tell what was wrong with her.

Everything appeared to be in order. From a biological point of view, her fainting was a result of cardiac and cerebral hyperactivity, but that should be wrong...

“Did I mess up something inside of her? ARGH! I don’t get it!” I screamed and scratched the back of my head.

All of a sudden, I remembered my other wives.

“Yes, maybe they have an idea!” I thought and then quickly flew over to them.

The women were gathered in a circle and playing a game or something. I couldn’t tell.

“Hello!” I announced my presence.

“Oh~ Look who’s back after several days of absence! A ghost... A soon to be dead ghost.” Nanya grumbled while looking down and cracking her knuckles.

I gulped.

“Erm... Sorry? I was sort of in the middle of a surgery?” I showed her a wry smile.

“Indeed, a ghost. I’ll hold him down, and you can rip his limbs off, Shanteya.” Ayuseya suggested with a soft, kind giggle that sent chills down my spine.

“I will do so, then Tamara can bite his leg.” Shanteya giggled in a similar manner.

“Erm...” I backed away slowly as the four were approaching me with sinister smiles on their faces.

How long was I gone, and why do they look like they want to murder me?! I thought while I desperately tried to find a way out of my current predicament.

“Illsy...” Nanya said when she was one step away from me.

The demoness turned her head up, and I saw two rivers of tears flowing down her cheeks.

“Hic! Illsy! Is it really you? Not The Darkness, right? Just Illsy, right? Hic!” she asked while trembling slightly.

“Yes.... Not The Darkness... He’s gone...” I replied softly.

“UWAAA!!!” she cried and jumped in my arms.

“Illsy!” Ayuseya hugged me as well.

“Master!” Tamara hugged my right arm.

“My love...” Shanteya hugged me from behind.

All of them were crying and most definitely covering me in tears and snot, which was gross.

“There. There... I’m back...” I tried to calm them down.

After everything they’ve been through, I couldn’t blame them for being frustrated and happy at the same time. I did sort of turn into a rampaging monster, and I didn’t rush back right away to let them know that I was alright. So, in other words, I had no excuse for leaving them alone.

“I’m sorry, it was my bad.” I told them with an apologetic look on my face.

They didn’t say anything back, they just kept hugging me and crying, so I let them do as they pleased. I had neither the right nor will to push them away. Besides, what sane man would do something like that when he was being hugged by four cuties like them... well, three and a cat?

[Nanya’s point of view]

A long time ago, my mother told me that demon women, especially those of the Demon Queen breed, were highly possessive of their mates and also very attached to them. Because of this, their emotions fluctuated worse than those of a regular pregnant demoness. It was our way of asserting our dominance over our mates as well as show our love to them. It was instinctual, so most of the times, it took even us by surprise.

Fortunately, it wasn’t that out of control for me, who was only a half demoness. My other half was a bit more logical and rigid, being able to keep these emotions of mine under control, but there were times when they took me by surprise, and I could not do anything about them.

Such was the case when I saw Illsy fly by us and didn’t stop to hug us or kiss us. I knew he won the fight, but the long wait for him to return was killing me.

“Where is he? I want him to come back... Where is he?” I kept muttering to myself time and time again as hours simply flew past me.

Shanteya and Ayuseya tried to keep me calm, but I was a lost cause because my desire to see him wasn’t out of pain... it was pure selfishness. I was a demoness who was kept whining and crying after her husband, and I didn’t care how much the others told me that I should have patience.

Then, almost two days later, he appeared before us once more, and like the stupid woman who I was, instead of greeting him with a smile, I cracked my knuckles. The others joined me as well with some rather cold remarks. Maybe all of us felt frustrated because we didn’t get to see him for such a long time, but all of our words were nothing more than jokes. Our true emotions were revealed immediately after.

I burst into tears and hugged him as hard as I could. I missed him, I missed this foolish husband of mine!

Could I have acted a bit more refined than this? Yes, definitely! Did I wish to? Certainly not!

I had all the rights in the world to be seen like this by the man I loved! I had all the rights in the world to worry and be happy to see the mate I had claimed safe and sound! Was I any different from all my other friends who were currently hugging and crying as well? Definitely not... All of us may not have shown it, but our worry and fear of being left alone was real and painful as it could be.

Illsy was a simple fool who would never come to know or understand just how much trouble and emotional turmoil he poured down on our shoulders, but he was worth every single drop of it. This idiotic husband of ours was the man we loved and to whom we had decided to give our all...

“Illsy?” I told him as I looked up at him with teary eyes.

“Yes?” he asked with a soft smile.

“It’s been too long, you idiot...” I smiled.

“This idiot apologizes!” he let out a laugh and then kissed me.

His lips were sweet and gentle, welcoming me back after such a long absence. I simply couldn’t resist him.

“Illsy?” Shanteya asked after our kiss was over.

“Yes?” he looked back at her.

“I want one too...” she then kissed him, but hers was a bit rougher.

This woman managed to annoy me a little.

When it was over, Ayuseya stole his kiss without even batting an eye or saying a word. Illsy’s look as though it was about to break from the force applied to it.

“Idiot husband...” I muttered to myself.

I want more... I thought selfishly.

“Master?” Tamara asked as she looked up at him with those adorable kitten eyes of her.

“Erm... yes?” he replied.

“I’m hungry... I want fish.” she requested.

All four of us sighed in relief.

Here I thought she was going to jump on him and kiss him as well... Nah, Illsy doesn’t see Tamara that way! It would have been silly to think that after all of this, Illsy’s harem would have consisted of more than me, Shanteya, and Ayuseya... Wait, why do I have a bad feeling about this? I thought and then squinted my eyes at this husband of ours.

“Illsy? What did you do?” I asked.

My woman’s intuition was tingling.

“Huh? What do you mean?” he replied confused.

“I have a feeling you are hiding something from me... from us... What is it?” I asked and pinched his cheek.

“Ow! Ow! Ow!” he said.

“It’s true... I also have a feeling that you have been looking at another woman...” Shanteya said as she pinched his other cheek.

“Owie! Ith hurthsh!” he complained.

“Tell us the truth, now!” I ordered and let go of his cheek.

“Ouch... OK! I’ve made Zoreya my wife as well...” he said.

“Hm, I wonder why am I not surprised?” Ayuseya asked and shrugged.

“Because it’s Illsy.” I let out a sigh.

“Yes, because it’s Illsy.” Shanteya nodded.

“I’m sorry for being me!” he apologized.

“No need to...” Ayuseya let out a sigh.

“Can we even count this as him being unfaithful to us?” Shanteya pondered.

“I don’t know, but with this... I guess the number of rivals increased by one.” I scratched the back of my head.

“We’ll need to reschedule our private time with Illsy.” Ayuseya pointed out.

“She’s the newcomer, so we’ll have to show her our ways. How long will she last against Illsy, I wonder?” I thought.

“If she’s not good enough, we’ll train her!” Shanteya proposed.

“Yes, I agree!” Ayuseya said.

“This conversation took a very frightening turn... can we stop now?” Illsy asked.

“No. Stand there and suffer, idiot husband of my mine!” I glared at him.

“With all of you hugging me and pressing your tempting bodies against me like this, it’s hard to suffer.” he retorted.

“Then satisfy us! It’s been a very very long time since you welcomed either of us in your bed. A kiss won’t suffice, we want more.” Shanteya told him.

“Erm...” he looked at her but said nothing.

“Tamara not want kiss. Tamara already kissed Master, not that special... Tamara like fish more.” the nekatar dropped a bomb on us.

“Hm? So you even laid your hands on little Tamara?” Ayuseya showed her cold smile to him.

“What?! No! It was on the spur of the moment, and she was the one who kissed me!” he retorted.

Ah... yes... he even kissed Tamara... This idiotic husband... if I don’t do something soon, I’ll lose my position here. I’ll be just ‘another wife’. I can’t let that happen, I’m a demoness! I have to make Illsy mine! Mine! MINE! I thought as my emotions were quickly spiraling out of control.

“Illsy.” I said and looked into his eyes.

“Yes?” he asked while sweating bullets.

“Take us outside, now. Give Tamara her fish and tell her to eat it away from us. Make a big bed for us and you won’t stop unless I tell you to!” I ordered him.

“What?!” he blinked surprised.

“Nanya?” Shanteya asked something.

“Grrr! Don’t make me repeat myself. You, me, bed, now!” I glared.

He gulped.

“Yes.” he nodded.

“It has been a while, but...” Ayuseya said something, but I just threw her a glare.

“I think she’s not feeling well...” Shanteya remarked.

“I will prove to all of you that I AM his number one wife!” I declared.

“Ah~ She snapped...” Ayuseya remarked.

“Crap...” Illsy said.

“I WANT FISH!” Tamara cried.