Chapter 404 – A Surprising Present

"I don't fucking know how," Victoria says. "But it fucking worked. Shit, Sextia, I didn't fucking know you were fucking here."

"I've had a lot of time to work on my Skills," Sextia says. "But..."

Sextia falls limp into Victoria's arms; it'll be easier to cut off her arm and heal it with how mangled it is. Phrogni must've given up in her last moments. If that grip had gone around Sextia's neck, well, she'd have gotten her revenge.

Luck, I don't know if you were the real cause of this or not, but thank you. You must've at least helped it along.

"Let me heal her," I say. "I need to get the old Queen as well. Probably heal her first, right?"

"I would appreciate that," Yumanea says. "She is losing a lot of blood. And then don't forget about Estrella behind you as well. Sextia will live as she is for a while."

The old Queen doesn't have the same problem as Nanoka. I just toss the sword away, and my mana is enough to get her stable. Did Nanoka really want to die? Was that the difference? Phollo probably did something to Nanoka that she didn't do to the old Queen. Nanoka would never dare to deny me her tails.

I'll go with that story and just never ask her about it.

Fluvis brings Estrella over to me, laying her down just a bit away from the old Queen. Why is everyone watching me? They know what is about to happen. Estrella is so bloody. Why did I forget about her? Oh, Fluvis, I'm sorry. This must hurt to see. Don't worry, I've got her. I can save her.

The blade missed Estrella's arm, instead passing through the right side of her chest. At least it was the right side instead of the left, so her heart should be fine. My mana reaches out and starts to put her lung back together as Fluvis helps me strip Estrella of her armor. Limit her kids, Alzi. She is kind and has no desire to be bed-bound.

One by one, I give her kids, kissing her before I give her another until the screen shows she's stable. Just five. Not too bad for a session with me.

"Thank you, dear," Fluvis says, yet another woman getting a blanket to cover her. "Remember, we both knew this was what we were signing up for. Thank you."

"Thank you for helping," I say. "You've saved me so much."

"You deserve it," Fluvis says. "Now we need to figure out the true dragon."

'Careful, Alzi. She's about to send you a gift. And then she'll be leaving.' Space says.

How is a mountain going to give me a gift? She's miles away from me, and I still can only really see her feet. What gift could she possibly give me? Let alone one worth all the pain she brought my lovers.

Why didn't I try talking to the damn true dragon?! I'm fucking myself over when I just need to think for a damn second!

"Apparently, she is just going to give me a gift and go away," I say.

"How, my Mistress?" Sarania asks. "I don't think even Kiyomi could give you a gift at this distance."

The true dragon finally darts her head below the clouds and plucks the true phoenix from the sky. She shakes the bird for a few seconds and throws her into the air. With another roar, the sky opens up and swallows the true dragon, the mountain of gold disappearing.

"How the fuck is that a gift?" I ask. "Is the gift the fact that she didn't kill us all?"

'Space, did you send her away?'

'Remember how the dragonkin wanted me to open a portal for her to come here? Well, Yzzorres wanted to use the materials so she could leave. So, I let her leave.'

'You couldn't have forced her to leave faster or go somewhere else or something?'

'Rituals have a certain effect. It was hard enough to force it to let her leave instead of getting here faster. Sorry, I haven't been very useful to you tonight.'

'No, I'm alive and the women I love are still alive. Nature and Justice have lost, finally. Even if it was through luck, I'll have to give her a cookie when she wakes up.'

'That would be a good idea. Take a few steps back.'

It's a strange request, but I follow it. A Goddess wouldn't ask me to do something for no reason. Is someone teleporting here? Tanatsu, maybe? I could see her wanting to check in on me to make sure I'm able to come by again and work on fixing her lover. It's been too long since I was able to help her. I wonder if Sarania's sister knows something. Space said she did more than cause an orgy. Messing with life sounds like something a succubus would do, if she did more than have sex.

And indeed, it was for a reason. The true phoenix lands at my feet with a disgusting splat, a wing missing, her body bent, and blood boiling all around her.

'Fuck her.' A new voice shouts into my mind. 'Make her your bitch, as she planned to make you hers.'

'Oh, but I don't know where to put it.'

'Just do it. Dragonkin really have fallen far. Can't even dominate a chicken.'

This is not a chicken! This is a fucking flaming goddess-damn phoenix. No wonder this true dragon ate everyone; that's the only reason anyone could stay near someone so stupid. But it would be fun to have a true phoenix as my mate.

"You aren't about to fuck her, are you, my Mistress?" Sarania asks.

"That is what Yzzorress told me to do," I say. "At least I think it was Yzzorress that told me to do that."

'Here is some help.' Space says. Shimmer appears before me, with our kid.

'This isn't a place for babies!'

'Quickly, dear.'

"I'll help you," Shimmer says. "Heal her spine, and I'll get her to transform. She won't be happy when she wakes up, but we need to move quickly. The others will be coming shortly. Challenge her. Demand that she prove herself to you. Feel stronger than her. It's a bit cowardly to do it this way, but it's a gift from the last true dragon. We can't waste it."

"You can just mate people while they're sleeping?"

"Normally, no. Yzzorres is just gifting you one of her mates. She won the fight but doesn't want to take the spoils. You just have to finish it."

I pour my mana into the phoenix as Shimmer does something with her head. The phoenix starts to straighten out, and then she starts to lose the flaming feathers. Her wings shrink, and she begins to look somewhat like Shimmer. Her hair is just pure fire, her eyes look like embers, her legs are still bent out of shape, and she's naked.

"Quickly."

"Yes, yes," I say. Women had better not start teasing me for finishing quickly. I'll have to give them a few hour-long sessions with a few kids to remember the night by.

Kou takes my robe off me again, and I get between the misshapen legs. I guess I'm saving Shimmer as well with this. Lucky bitch. That's probably the real reason she's fine with me mating a passed-out woman.

Unsurprisingly, the phoenix is warm and soon to be mine. I have to remember to want to claim her, to prove I'm better than her. I'm going to get my newest mate pregnant, and she's going to thank me for it. Unless she thinks she's stronger than me, or better than me.

I don't give her much of a chance to wake up before my warm seed floods her womb. I need to prove myself a bit to her, so I go with quadruplets. She did want to trick me into being the submissive after all. No, four is too easy; eight would be better.

I'm giving out so many kids tonight. No, these are mine. These women are mine. The kids will be ours. I'm letting them have kids with me, to raise with me. They can't run from me; they don't want to run from me.

"You're mine," I say.

"Well done, my mate," Shimmer says. "You accepted Yzzorres' gift. We need to finish healing her. Can someone please clean the phoenix up? The other true phoenixes have decided to show up, and it would be best if they don't know what happened until the morning."

I've healed the phoenix most of the way already, with the pregnancy finishing it up. Kou lets out a bit of mana to clean us up from the sex. The phoenix can blame Shimmer for this if they figure it out.

I can make it look normal by healing Sextia. I hope. I will have some words to say to the true phoenixes once I'm strong enough not to have them just take me. Only showing up once everything is over? Assholes. Or maybe I should've visited the Goddess of the Phoenixes. That's probably the real reason they didn't show up. Or did they know this was how it would end, and they wanted it that way?

Fuck, this is all confusing.

But it doesn't take me very long to have Sextia's arm back in working order, and we end up waiting a few minutes before they all arrive. Two true phoenixes circle over us while the Phoenix queen comes down to greet us.

"Oh, you managed to kill them both," Queen Flametalon says. "Kiyomi, was this your doing? I didn't know you were this strong. You should've taken the true dragon then."

"I got trapped by Nature's Champion," Kiyomi says. "I got here after most of it was already over. I just helped the maid sneak up on Phrogni. We Queens were useless tonight."

"Useless?" Flametalon says. "I was not useless. I was fighting the true dragon. You were useless, but I was not."

"If that counts as being useful, then I was useful," Kiyomi says. "I helped them kill Phrogni. Don't act like dodging the true dragon was actually useful. You knew you could do nothing. You wanted Alzi to die so you could take Shimmer back to your realm and raise all the kids there."

"No," Flametalon says. "I was helping to fight the true dragon. I can do more than dodge. The deaths would've been tenfold more if I hadn't helped in that fight."

"Sure, sure," Kiyomi says. "I guess we Queens did the bare minimum, while the old and new generations did the heavy lifting."

I wouldn't say the old Queen did much, either. She got run through in less than a second and then just raged about her uselessness. But she did put herself in danger for me, so I can't be too mad about that. But why do they care if they were useful?

Oh, they want kids. Duh. Stupid Alzi.

"Well, I've rewarded the old generation for their hard work," I say. "What now?"

"We surrender," one of the guards says. "I know that is obvious, but it needs to be said. The dragons are retreating now, and I know Nature's Champion is gone. We've lost. Alzi, you are the only dragon that can be the Queen."

"Really? The rest are all dead?" I ask.

"Only a male and a broken woman are left. You are the only one fit and of age," the guard says. "My Queen."

Is it really that easy? Luck, you are going to be given some serious cuddles tonight.