The first days of September welcomed us with a warm sun, as if summer didn't want to end. The days were already getting noticeably shorter and the nights colder. Winter was slowly but surely creeping over the horizon. How many times have I said that this year? I don't know. I was standing on the balcony and staring over a city that was already awake. If it went to sleep at all... Avalon was a city that rarely slept but was far from the hassle and grind typical for the cities I remembered. The cities of Earth... In comparison, Avalon was timid and peaceful. I deliberately enforced policies that would protect the much slower lifestyle of my people. I took a sip of my orange juice and I nodded to myself. Preventing individuals from achieving absurd amounts of wealth protected not only the wider population from overworking themselves but also saved me from inevitable power struggles in the future. I wasn't the absolute ruler for nothing.

Preventing nuisances from becoming troubles was a bothersome skill you couldn't simply learn and level up...

I stretched myself and took a deep breath of fresh air. The gardeners were slowly preparing for the autumn by cleaning the Royal Gardens. It was indeed time to focus on the home front. Freya was sure that the JDF would subjugate all the Dungeons in the NATO sphere of influence before winter. That was crucial so we could focus on tracking down and killing all the winter beasts on our part of the continent. I was certain that wherever they were hidden, their demise should trigger the rapid restoration of the world's ley lines. Or at least a partial restoration in our part of the continent. So far, our efforts to do anything about the ley lines were so pathetic and constantly thwarted by new issues happening on the surface that it was shameful to mention. I had five hundred Shadow Fenrirs constantly looking for ley lines, nodules, and closed gates but, so far we had one gate and two nodules unlocked.

I sighed loudly.

"Something happened, Darling?" Amber heard me as she entered the balcony holding her cup of tea.

"No." I smiled. "I just thought through the things that happened last year and our unresolved problem of the ley lines."

Amber grimaced upon hearing that. "That's true. Our efforts to find more gates and nodules have been fruitless so far..."

She sighed heavily and sat on the sunbed. I leaned on the decorative ramparts of the balcony and looked at her. Judging by what she was wearing, Amber wasn't going anywhere today.

"Theon?!" Aoi's voice came from the inside.

"Here!" I replied with a smile.

"Here you are!" My blonde Dragonkin wife's head popped out of the balcony door. "Girls!"

The rest of my wives joined us on the spacious balcony. They giggled as they surrounded me, and Irene stepped in front of them. I smiled at them, seeing their cheerful expressions. "Ummm? How may I help you, my cute Ladies?"

"We are all taking a day off!" Irene declared with a serious face. "Lately, you have been so busy that we were worrying about you, Theon!"

"Hey! I think that I haven't been overworking myself lately. I'm pretty sure that I was even taking it easy..." I took a sip of my orange juice and looked at Irene.

"Not exactly, but you have indeed made some progress, Darling." My High Elf beauty smiled warmly. "It's a good moment to catch some breath for us all."

"I would gladly spend some time in the gardens before everything goes to sleep before winter." Lavender grabbed my head and smiled at me.

"Hmmm... Sure. Why not?" I smiled at them. "We could go to the open hot springs..."

"Definitely!" Cahrona grabbed my other hand and teleported us with a cheerful laugh.

She teleported us right next to the steaming ponds, hidden in the wonderful birch grove. The rest of my Empresses appeared right behind us. The Japanese-style hot spring was not really working with the birch trees but, on the other hand, I wasn't a particularly staunch attendant to such establishments. Though, I was sure I was at least once in a hot springs resort somewhere in Europe in my previous life. The changing room and showers were in the nearby building but I guess we could skip that part. At least I could. I was nearly straight from my morning shower. I took off my clothes and dipped into the blissfully warm water. All my wives, even Lavender, who usually avoided hot baths, quickly joined me.

"Sooo... I know you didn't want to talk about work today, Irene, but there are things that are bothering me." I said with a faint, lazy smile as I took in their unspeakable beauty. There was no way I was ever going to get used to it. "Well... One thing that bothers me and two or three others I want to discuss."

"As long as it's not going to interrupt our free day..." She pouted cutely.

"I don't think so..." I tilted my head to the side and felt Cahrona take a spot on my left side. "I just want to voice some of the observations I've made, so far, and share a theory."

"Oh! In that case, it's fine." Irene chuckled.

"So? What bothers you?" Amber rested her head on my shoulder.

I took a deeper breath and looked at Cahrona.

"It's nothing particularly groundbreaking but the fact that there are two words so similar- demons and daemons to describe basically something very similar, bothered me. Don't give me that look, girls!" I chuckled. "Just listen to me for a moment. I don't think this was a coincidence. I also think that we have no idea how important Cahrona's race is."

"Okay... Indulge us." Irene sighed as she placed her wet hair on the smooth stone of the artificial bank.

"We can safely assume that The Enemies planned to get rid of Cahrona's people. I deliberately won't be using the name Devilkins from now on. Anyway! The Enemies made a huge effort to paint the largest glowing target marker on your race, my Dear. Your culture was re-engineered to make your people as selfish and as susceptible to Void and Chaos influence as possible. Your people, rather willingly, called themselves Demons, which I already confirmed, functioned in many cultures and religions of Aderon as servants of forces of evil from, basically, the dawn of time. Then, your people were vilified all across the continent but, I can safely assume, it was done across Nilmerthis."

Now all of them looked at me with curiosity and slightly furrowed brows.

"But why would someone do such a thing?" Cahrona's voice was tense.

"Simple." Luna slowly nodded as she began understanding. "The Enemies wanted your race in their grasp. They needed you to do something but, more than that, they wanted your kind dead. Damn it..."

"Yes! That's why I think we assumed too much. I called your race Tieflings but what if your people are not a single race? What if a few races were mashed together and called demons?" I pointed out with a satisfied nod.

"Honestly... It's possible. Imps, Succubuses and Incubuses, Horned Demons... The more I think about it, the more I see how they might be separate races." Cahrona admitted and nibbled the nail tip of her right thumb. The concern was painted all over her face.

"Then, we came to the conspiracy part of this theory- demons and daemons. The latter are clearly closely tied with the gods of the Void and Chaos. The former, I can bet a huge sum of money, are as well. So why bother? Why make a distinction between the two? Then we have to add Devilkins to the mix. In my opinion, this naming convention had just one goal- introducing as much confusion and chaos as possible. Making it even harder for Cahrona's people to clear their name. If they were called in three different ways, then no matter how they call themselves later, it won't help."

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"I... I must agree. I never thought about it but it seems logical now." Amber slowly nodded. "Even if someone like Cahrona tried to flee, the people on the surface would kill her just because they were afraid. The tales and legends about demons were widespread before Arcadia took over... Hmmm. If we look at it like this, the only chance for Cahrona's people was in the appearance of someone like you, Theon."

"I'm always glad to ruin their plans." I hummed thoughtfully and shrugged with a wide grin. "In my opinion, we have to carefully work out the true origins of Cahrona's people, if it's even possible. I suspect that any existing records were destroyed or, at least, hidden, so finding them later, once all Cahrona's people were killed, could bring despair to others."

"I can see it." Luna grimly nodded.

"Thank you, my Vixen." I grinned at her. "If I'm right, one or even all races today known as Devilkins were set for extermination. I wonder what would happen if we managed to remove the taint of Chaos from them? Would they revert to the races they were before? One thing is sure, the fact that, today, Cahrona is clinging to my side as my wife is a massive middle finger to The Enemies. The fact that what remained of her people is now protected by Arcadia will certainly make exterminating them nigh impossible."

Cahrona shifted in my grip and moved to balance herself as she sat on me, pressing her breasts to my chest with a wide smile.

"I think you are right. The Enemies wanted my people dead. Calling us Demons... Ahhh..." She slowly nodded and closed her wonderful, purple eyes for a moment of thoughtful focus. "If I'm not wrong, the cautionary tales about Demons were having a sudden renaissance about six hundred years ago. What an amazing coincidence, don't you think? At the same time, my people started working in the shadows to close the ley lines of the world."

"No, you are not wrong." Mia slowly nodded. "What? I like literature in general! If not for that prick Gilmour I would have brought my library from Asteria with me! That barbarian burned all my books..."

"A shame, indeed..." Amber nodded and patted Mia's head. "But your theory is on to something, Theon."

"What is truly concerning, however, is the fact that I can't recall anything useful about demons, demons, or devilkins..." Hestia ruffled her hair and dipped underwater for a moment. She heavily exhaled and slowly breathed in once she resurfaced. "I must ask others... But whatever The Enemies did, they, somehow, managed to erase the memory about the races currently known as devilkins."

"Hmmm... If anything survived, it should be in the records of the churches." Irene hummed and took a tall glass of juice with ice. The Slime Maids, as usual, set up snacks and drinks, remaining unnoticed. "I could order a search for those documents specifically... But that is going to take years since not even half of the surviving records have been catalogued."

"I don't think we have to rush anything." I shrugged while Cahrona was still hugging me and I was losing this uneven fight to stay calm. Especially since she lifted her calming influence. "Anyway, it's something we can pay a little bit more attention to."

They all nodded and a slightly sombre choir of confirmation reached my ears.

"Anything else, Darling?" Cahrona asked curiously.

"Well... No more conspiracy theories..." I grinned, battling myself as I felt Cahrona closing me in her greedy grip. "But there are a few things to discuss. I don't even know where to start..."

I sighed heavily and Cahrona stopped teasing me for a moment. She smiled and chuckled. "From the beginning?"

"So... After we purged the Balantican golem cores from the bullshit they contained, our engineers managed to finally finish the construction of a second Titan. Doom Herald, that's his name, accepted his pilot and his supporting team, but there issss... a problem."

"What problem?" Tia blinked.

"As you know the Titans are specific. They are nearly self-aware and they have tremendous will, driving them to destroy all the enemies of Arcadia. So Doom Herald chose one of the engineers who worked on him as his pilot. The Elf, called Ra'agier."

"Ok... What's the problem? He was a pilot candidate anyway." Tia tilted her head.

"Well... Ra'agier has a black cat named Loafie. If Loafie isn't inside Doom Herald, the Titan refuses to function." I said, trying not to laugh.

"You are joking? Tell me you are joking!" Amber tried her best not to laugh as well, but the situation was hilarious in its seriousness. "Please..."

"I wish!" I finally laughed. "So now, Loafie is constantly watched by one of the Praetorians until we figure something out."

It took us a moment to calm down and I continued.

"Your trip to Vanushka brought us hundreds of usable golem cores. The problem is that we can't use them to build golems. The newly established department of Balantican research in the Royal University of Avalon is still trying to catalogue the existing data found in Vanushka." I tilted my head to Amber who sighed.

"I don't expect that we will be able to build a functional golem anytime soon. It's not as easy as throwing a golem core into an acceptable statue as we previously thought. We hoped to figure out how to build a golem from how the siege golems are summoned and formed but it's not working for smaller ones." Amber explained with a sour expression. "However, there is some good news. We can now build Titans and other siege engines that can benefit from golem cores. Aoi? Tia?"

"Indeed! The Navy is already upgrading ships to make use of the golem cores' assistance." The Dragonkin smiled. "The aim-assist for high-calibre cannons and autonomous fire control for CIWS are going to make our warships even deadlier. If our calculations are correct, we should be able to reduce the ship's crews by ten, maybe twenty percent."

"Excellent news!" My eyes sparked. Smaller crews on existing ships meant that we could use the people to crew even more ships.

"We are testing a new option for our CIWS." Aoi was increasingly happy. "Now, with the nearly instantaneous target acquisition thanks to linking the golem's core with the ship's radar system, we began testing Dispel. It's still an early test phase, but the results are very promising. The modification to the existing CIWS is going to be minimal. So far, we managed to cancel third-tier magic but I believe that we can achieve dispelling fifth-tier magic with at least a fifty percent chance. That is going to increase the survivability of our ships even further!"

"Excellent! Even now it can be useful. It's always better to have more tools to use..." I nodded eagerly and, as Aoi nodded that it was everything, I looked at Tia. "What about ground forces applications?"

"The Self-Propelled Artillery Crusader is already using a golem augmented targeting system which drastically increased accuracy and rate of fire," Tia reported in excitement.

"How much, exactly?" Aoi asked with curiosity.

"Accuracy is five times better and we doubled the fire rate. Maybe the fire rate is a bit higher than that." Tia proudly grinned.

"Remarkable..." I nodded, pleased. "Good news for everyone, except our enemies."

"We are finishing the trial runs of our main battle tank, Theon." Tia smiled mysteriously and looked at Amber.

"Amber helped you with the tank project?" I glanced, slightly confused, at my first wife. "I thought you weren't interested?"

"Well, I wasn't interested in the tank itself." Amber grinned mischievously. "But its propulsion system is a different story."

I looked at her with surprise since I wasn't exactly paying attention to the reports from research divisions. However, my red-headed beauty, instead of explaining, raised her hand and pointed it at Luna, who giggled. The Kitsune, along with enough water to fill the bathtub, rose into the air. She stayed relaxed as she was positioned on my left side, previously occupied by Cahrona.

"You have mastered Gravity Magic?" I made an educated guess, still impressed, as Luna nested herself comfortably at my side.

"Indeed!" Amber giggled and lifted a few spheres made of water into the air and made them spin in a large circle over our heads before she harmlessly tossed them back into the hot-spring pond. "It was a hassle at moments, but we figured everything out. This is pretty scary magic, to be honest, so I don't think we will use more destructive spells... Like Super Nova or Black Hole."

"Better not... Hmmm. HMMMM!" I rumbled my fingers over my chin. "I take it back! I want to have a few warheads with those spells. Once we find the void portal, I would like to send our Enemies a gift..."

"Hmmm... Perhaps?" Amber hesitated. "I would have to calculate how much magic I would have to pour into the corresponding runic stone, but I can allow you to use it like that."

Now both Cahrona and Luna were teasing me which was incredibly distracting.

"So I can safely assume that the prototype tank is using anti-gravity... Aaaa" I looked at Luna's shameless eyes that sparked with playful joy.

In sweet retaliation, I slid my hand down Luna's back and stroked the base of her incredibly sensitive tails which made her instantly moan.

"I think we can describe it like that." Amber chuckled and stood up. She put her hands on her hips, her gorgeous body dripping hot spring water. "I think you have reached the allowed threshold of questions for today. Now... Now it's time for us, and only us."

"Oh, absolutely..." I grabbed Cahrona's waist, who quickly cried in surprise before erupting into laughter that faded once she kissed me.

I could use days like this more often...

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