Chapter 1033 – Couch Talks


    Satisfying Nathalia was no easy task. In some ways, it was an entirely impossible task. Whenever she was satiated, she was horny. Whenever she was sexually content, she was hungry. It took a combined effort of the group to get both urges down to ‘acceptable’ levels. Perhaps surprisingly, John only did a little bit of the demanded work. After the previous hours-long engagement, Nathalia desired to get a bit more intimate with the girls primarily. That did contradict her previous focus on ‘tonight’ somewhat, but what the dragoness exactly wanted of the evening was to be seen anyway.


    There were two primary ways Nathalia worked with the harem to relieve her lust. Either she dominated one of the girls, which usually was more to the direct benefit of any one of them than Nathalia’s own, or she had them eat her out. On rare occasions, one of the harem’s more sadistically minded members managed to instead push down Nathalia and use some toys on her.


    Between the sexual engagements, they finished grilling, moved to the apartment, fed her some more, and ultimately managed to appease her fully with a massage. The advantage of this process was that Nathalia, at the very least, left a lasting impression on those who hadn’t known her yet and reminded everyone else that sleeping with her was an experience.


    “Now, tell me what happened, in detail,” the dragoness demanded, sitting on the Harem Couch. Because she had been busy, continuously, in one way or another, she hadn’t yet heard any of the explanations of what happened. “Aclysia, bring me a stool.”


    “There is no need to, Mistress Nathalia,” the weaponized maid stated. “Simply put your feet up and the Harem Couch will react to your wish.”


    The goddess of volcanoes did as recommended and let out a pleased ‘huh’ when a stool did indeed manifest from the segment of the Couch, already in the shape of an armchair, she was on. She crossed her legs and danced her fingers over the armrest. “I considered, Aclysia, and decided you may drop the mistress title. In this social order we now inhabit together, we are supposed to be... equals.”


    ‘Yeah, she’ll do fine,’ John thought. Not only did she ‘lower’ herself to the level of people who were definitely weaker than herself in status in order to fit properly into the wider harem, she did all of this in fluent English. She hadn’t spent the year just wallowing in her own horniness. ‘Does make her a bit uncomfortable, but if it was a sacrifice she would make for anyone, it wouldn’t be worth anything.’


    “I will address you as Nathalia, then,” the weaponized maid bowed.


    “This extends to you as well,” the dragoness added, looking at Beatrice.


    “Affirmative. I respect your consideration.”


    Nathalia sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Consideration... you may call it that. I’d call it a concession to our living conditions...” She pointed at Lee with her other hand. “You, come here.”


    “My name has three letters and sounds vaguely Asian, but it’s not ‘You’,” the young Fateweaver responded.


    “Lee,” Nathalia said and turned the pointing into a wave. Once the little Miss Magus was in reach, the dragoness pulled her into her lap. While Lee yelped at the sudden development, she was frozen in awe once the much taller and stronger woman had her leaning against her bosom. “You are quite entertaining to bully.”


    “I thought that’s what we had Gnome for?” Lee asked.


    “H-hey!”


    Salamander cackled, “Come on, no panties, you know it’s true.”


    “None of us are wearing anything right now!”


    “That ain’t the point and you fucking know it.”


    Nathalia ignored the bickering across the room. “Such a precious woman you are,” she purred, caressing the side of Lee’s face.


    “I guess I’ll at least sell for much when you get tired of me.” Lee smiled in jest.


    “Dragons never sell what they deem as precious.”


    ‘Well...’ John thought of Dramar, but decided not to raise the exception in this discussion. He was too distracted watching Nathalia kiss Lee anyway. “Are you part of my harem or are you trying to steal it from me?” the Gamer asked.


    “I can’t steal what I already own,” the dragoness made a dismissive gesture. “What is yours is mine, what is mine is yours. This reminds me, it would be a good start to tell me the extent of the land we own.”


    “This island,” John told her. “Plus some properties around the world, but particularly in the eastern USA.”


    Nathalia furrowed her eyebrows. “I was under the impression that you conquered vast swathes of territory, my John. What happened to them?”


    “I don’t own them. Fusion’s member states and their citizens own that territory.”


    “And you own Fusion, is that not the case?” Nathalia asked.


    Aclysia and Beatrice sighed in unison, then looked at the reason for the entire discussion being offered to them by the handful. “I suppose I am sorry about the table.” Nathalia did not sound sorry at all, she likely shared ambivalence with 70% of the room. “Since your Material Bonuses are depleted, you will benefit from these.”


    “Thank you, Nathalia,” Aclysia said, after swallowing her remaining annoyance. Beatrice quietly mimicked the motion of receiving the scales. Both swallowed them, only to be presented with a shard of Nathalia’s gem afterwards. They took that as well and, after John had accepted the Material Bonuses, it restored a whole bunch of powerful bonuses to them. Most of all, their Libido spiked tremendously. Their cheeks flushed and they now had other worries than a couple of burn marks on the table.


    The dragoness rubbed the gemstone in her chest carefully, then broke one more shard off and handed it to John, along a couple of her scales. “Me having a similar magical frequency as Tiamat is doubtful, but it is worth the try,” she said and nodded towards Metra.


    “Appreciated,” the First of Wrath lowered her head in honest gratitude, while John stored the items to show to Medelnick later. “If nothing else, you’ll give the creepy old guy the closest thing to an erection he can have.”


    “That tends to be the reaction to any part of my body anyone gets their hands on,” Nathalia chuckled. The Gamer couldn’t help but follow suit, if only because the dragoness making a joke was so rare. “Do not lose it. I’m only willing to part with one more shard. My gem needs a couple of decades to restore itself fully and I am not going to suffer the aching that ensues if I remove too much of it.”


    “I won’t,” John promised. He imagined that must have been a sensation similar to a toothache, progressively worsening the smaller the crystal got.


    “I’ll have to have a stern talk with my useless brother, next he shows himself,” Nathalia switched to a different topic. “I allowed him to help you and he has been... his usual self.”


    “He got less useful afterwards, to be honest,” John told her. His hand retreated from the inventory, now that he had put everything away. “I actually wonder, did you ever encounter Tiamat?”


    “Her and I fought, once,” Nathalia responded.


    “You did?” Metra asked, and John was equally surprised. This felt like the kind of thing that the First of Wrath would know about. “When?”


    “Difficult to say... I never cared much for the way you humans tracked time... especially since it took you so long to agree on any kind of system.” The dragoness made a tossing gesture as she thought back. “It was when the first city states started shaping up in what you call Mesopotamia. Tilgun told me of this fascinating goddess he had found. I decided to investigate, out of boredom. Tiamat behaved like someone whose four-jawed face deserved to be clawed off. So, I tried that.” The goddess of volcanoes made a sour face. “I believe we accidentally raised the Caucasus mountains by a couple of metres during our brawl. In the end, our brawl ended because of Gaia.”


    “...Hard to believe she didn’t just obliterate you,” John said.


    “It was during the mythological age. Gaia was more inclined to brush over such accidents at the time.”


    “Who out of you two would have won, you think?” Metra asked.


    Nathalia’s sour expression deepened. “The goddess of chaos was... probably still is more powerful than me. At the time, she was whole. I hear she cut herself apart later. Maybe I could have squashed her true body at her weakest, but her Faith would always surpass mine.” The goddess of volcanoes looked down at her hand. “There is only so much power that can be wielded at any given moment, which serves to make many of us prominent gods, particularly those of death and destruction, equal in a direct engagement. Because of this, Tiamat always had an advantage. She could cut entirely new beings from her flesh, far beyond simple avatars. Many she kept bound to herself, others were gods in and of themselves. That was what made her one of the most powerful gods of her time. The Reaper and that annoyance Ferikrona are likely more powerful than Tiamat, but I doubt they changed their stance on staying out of all mortal affairs.”


    “As far as I know, Ferikrona isn’t allowed to get involved because Gaia does not want the stream of time meddled with,” John said. “As for the Reaper, I honestly tried to find him but he hasn’t been seen outside of a select few public events in hundreds of years.”


    “I only ever encountered him at Romulus’ court and I had no interest in speaking to him,” Nathalia said.


    “Because skeletons only have bones, not boners,” Salamander joked and got growled at. “Come on, we all know you are a big old slut, Natty.”


    “That was then and now is now,” the goddess declared.


    “What, are you going to claim you are a whole new person now?” the apocalypse elemental mocked.


    “No, I am loyal,” Nathalia declared and moved over to John, sitting down on his lap. “Who cares for my partners in the past? Let them fade, all that matters now is my love for John and... most of you...” She gave Salamander a glare. “You, I will tolerate.”


    “You know you love me, granny.”


    “I will drown out your insolence by indulging in your breasts later.”


    “HAH, try me.”


    Rolling her eyes, Nathalia concentrated on John. “Kiss me, my John, and then you may show me this island in all its details. If it’s all you truly claim to own, then I demand it to be impressive at least.”


    “As you wish, my goddess,” John obliged on both accounts.


    The Horned Rat would be back when he felt like it anyway.