As Arad left Merlin’s lab, the maids walked back in to assist her as he walked past them. He still had many things to do, even though they had just finished Mira’s crowning ceremony with the conclusion of the auction. She is now known far and wide as a master craftswoman and a divine being capable of creating powerful and deadly artifacts. Orders are piling up so much that she couldn’t possibly finish them all.

Those were Just Aella and Mira, and the next one Arad has to worry about was none other than Eris. And her ceremony was a big problem. She had asked for more than one ceremony, but multiple ones.

First, she wanted a regular parade across the capital like any queen would get. It was a simple but effective one to capture the people’s hearts. But then, she wanted two more. One was a holy procession to boost the image of her church, and the second one was an unholy procession carried in the dark under the dark veil of murder. Basically, she wanted to boost both aspects of her divinity.

All was good, but there was still more. Eris, out of all Arad’s wives, was probably trying to beat Mira’s greed. She is now a purple drakaina as well, so she wanted a fight with Arad, which was expected. But she also asked for a blood ritual between them, and a death battle.

Do a royal public parade.

Do a holy procession to Sol’s church.

Do a secret, unholy procession to Los’s church.

Fight Eris as a dragon and beat her into submission.

Suck her blood and have her suck his blood until both are full and tired.

Lastly, fight her to the death, and murder her. She is a goddess, so she’ll survive.

That was a long list, and so he has to start working immediately. First, the royal parade, which should be the easiest of them all, and so, Eris and Isdis were already working on it. The streets were being cleaned after Poppy’s mess, and the people would have to mourn the dead first, but it should be done within a week at most. After all, Eris would light a pyre for the dead at the end of the parade since she is the capital’s funeral parlour director after all.

Arad stopped by Eris’s room, knocked on the door and quickly heard a voice. "Come inside." It wasn’t Eris, but Zia.

Arad pushed the door open and walked inside, finding Zia on her desk scribbling something. "Working on something even in your time off?"

She smiled, "Not really. I’ve got a student to teach. That girl Therisa decided to join the vampires. Seems that human life wasn’t fit for her. It rarely is for pure-blood vampires." She leaned back on her chair. "Got anything to add to her training plan?"

Arad read through Zia’s plan, and he got a bit concerned. "Isn’t this just basic training? She isn’t a human, so you should probably give her more." He pointed at the paper. "I would suggest more real fighting. Find monsters at her level and have her fight them on her own. Let her get hurt; that would also help train her regeneration and pain tolerance."

"You sound just like her. She also asked for more, which why I’m trying to edit the plans now." She sighed and stretched her arms. "Well, if she wants to cry, I’ll make her beg for mercy."

Arad nodded, "So, where is Eris? She isn’t in her divine heaven, I can sense that."

"She is at the morgue. She wanted to cut the corpses up and look for traces of Cain’s magic. So, she is currently busy." She flicked her wrist and pulled a paper. "She already found something, take a look."

Arad read Eris’s report and quickly got concerned. "What does she mean by similar to Gojo?"

"Just that... the traces of magic she found are 99% matched. Magic doesn’t get that close by accident." She sighed, "But, since Cain was the former overgod, and Gojo is becoming the next one, that match might be the overgod’s mark."

She then looked at the corner of the room. "Akasha, I’m sure you can hear me. Come here for a minute." A few seconds later, Akasha emerged from the shadows and glared at them with an annoyed face. "What is it? I’m busy."

"Eris found that Cain and Gojo have similar magic. What do you think of that? You know Cain well, don’t you?" As Zia asked, Akasha sighed and sat on the bed.

"He is my father after all, just like he is Sena’s father. He came out of nowhere and flipped the heavens upside down. He even defeated Amaterasu, so he is quite powerful." She looked at the ceiling, "But, he wasn’t perfect. Lola, the chromatic dragon queen, her father was the former dragon king, and he cursed my father with a mad soul; he had two personalities, one sane, and one utterly mad."

"And now he lost control of that mad soul." Arad looked at her with a worried face.

"More like the sane soul slowly got corrupted and overtaken. It was inevitable." She looked at Arad with a smile. "Have you wondered what’s wrong with the gods? Why are all the upper echelons goddesses in love with each other? That was his doing. Father knew that one day he would snap, so he made them love each other so they would stick together in the end and be able to kill him."

She giggled. "Well, except Amaterasu. She was twisted before he even arrived."

"Anything else?" Arad asked, and Akasha seemed to remember. "Yeah, it seems that he had quite the relationship with the Metallic queen Mira, Yog, and Sylph."

"What?" Arad blinked, and she quickly explained.

"He was Sylph’s slave for a while before turning the contract on her and enslaving her back. Yog, who was called Lilia at the time, is the one who taught him magic and helped Sylph bully him for a while. And, Mira the metallic queen was a friend he knew in a previous life." She shrugged. "Well, he did a lot of crazy and stupid nonsense, I can’t count them all."

Arad smiled, "Well, it seems like he had it rough for a while." He looked back at Zia. "If Eris sends another report, inform me immediately."

She agreed and quickly asked about his reason for coming here, even though she had an idea. "You came here looking for Eris. Is it about her ceremony?"

"Not the first two ones, but the last three. A dragon fight would be simple, a blood ritual is doable, but killing her, a goddess, that won’t be easy." He leaned on his chair, and Akasha smiled. "Well, it isn’t about you killing her, but about you both murdering each other to boost her divine magic."

Zia looked at Arad, and her eyes burned bright red. "She is a Blood Lord just like you, and the divine goddess of murder; her hands are bloody, and she should wear it with pride. So put your all into trying to give her what she is made of."

Akasha sighed. "Well, it’s also a pride thing for vampires. There was never a case where a Blood Lord served under another. Usually, there should be only one in each world."

Arad smiled. "Technically, I’m a pricolici, not a vampire."

"It doesn’t matter if you have authority over the collective vampire blood." She pointed at him. "You are their god, well, at least until mother takes them away."

He sighed. "Well, gotta start preparing for her immediately."