Chapter 648: Vows of the Grigorian Women – [2]
Her dress fluttered and bloomed with each step towards Asmodeus. This dress wasn’t made of cloth but of her flowers and spider silk. She looked at the handsome man, two heads taller than her.
“I…”
She hesitated before closing her eyes, returning to the past. “You tore me from darkness and allowed me to bloom.” Her ring, engraved with red and black roses, slipped onto the tip of his finger.
“When I met you, something shocked me, like lightning… as if I was alive for the first time.” She met eyes with Asmodeus, who blushed. “The moment you spoke, tingles filled my body. When we touched, I felt warmth, and the pain of my curse subsided.”
Asmodea’s cheeks looked bright red as she looked up at him. “You are the light that illuminated my path, the warmth that keeps me from freezing in the winter… accept my confession, this rose is one that bloomed just for you and swears never to wilt… as long as you love it.”
With each word, the black petals turned red, pink and vibrant colours as the entire venue became covered in beautiful petals. That’s when a tree sprouted, large.
But to Asmodeus, it was familiar.
“You once described the tree from your homeland… I couldn’t recreate the colour, but will this show my feelings?”
He stood in silence, mouth open. The giant tree that sprouted was vivid red… with a black trunk. Some might find it ominous or strange, but the petals and shape were as he described.
A sakura tree… with alternating blue and red petals, just like her eyes.
He turned to Asmodea.
“I love you.”
Those words slipped out as he took the ring.
“You accepted my darkness without any requests, or complaints… A princess, the ideal princess that I imagined in my head. I wanted you from the moment we first met.”
“Even though we argued!?”
“Ah, the moment you argued back, I lost myself, wanted to beat you, to make you mine no matter what. You line my path with beautiful flowers and a sweet scent that soothes me when I feel lost. Asmodea, my blooming rose of the night. I sweat to hold your heart gently, even when your thorns draw my blood.”
Red and blue petals spiralled upward as Alan tied the cord.
“Fool… you’ll make me cry. The beautiful flower of the kingdom is madly in love with you. Are you happy?”
Asmodeus answered her cute, tearful words with a kiss.
***
Their kiss lasted a long time. The more they kissed, the more the tree grew and bloomed. Now, the size of the citadel looked mythical and almost divine.
“Ahem…”
Alan coughed as the two fixed their clothes, Asmodea skipping to the side of Velvet and Vinea.
The next child was someone Asmodeus rarely saw, his fourth son, Ardyn. The handsome boy with pitch-black hair with small crimson streaks, charming red eyes like his mother and a subtle black halo.
“Dear Father.”
Little Ardyn strode with perfect decorum, dark eyes proud as he lifted the last ring to his mother. Alice bent, kissed his hair, then faced the man who had changed her life.
He also worshipped Asmodeus like a god.
“Asmodeus. You…” Alice blushed after biting her tongue. “You tore me from a world of boredom, mediocrity and books and taught me how to feel, to enjoy life and gave me an alternative path.”
He remembered when she couldn’t level because of her curse… Until he helped her grow strong enough to suppress the curse herself.
“I vow to be your guide, to keep you from suffering, failing and protect you like a shadow. Never will anyone harm my glimmering sun.”
The confession made no sense to others, but Asmodeus just smiled.
He never realised feelings could be so intense.
“Alice.”
He reached out, taking her delicate fingers.
“Without you, I would probably have failed to reach this far. Alice, my night star please continue to guide me and I swear to honour your wisdom and love the woman you are no matter how you might change.”
Asmodeus didn’t speak flowery words to her. Alice was smarter than him and would see through his wordplay in seconds. So he just spoke earnestly and pushed the ring onto her finger.
“Aha…”
Alan and Avandar together tied the final black-and-crimson cord.
Meanwhile, tears poured from Alice’s eyes as she stepped forward and hugged Asmodeus. Her tiny figure barely at his chest as she struggled to make words, her lips trembling while staring at his face.
“Hnnnng…”
“Foolish little duchess, are you that happy?”
“Nnng!”
Alice buried her face against his chest, shaking once, twice, before she found her breath again. When she finally looked up, the cold, unreadable duchess was nowhere to be seen; only a woman utterly undone by love.
“Happy… doesn’t even begin,” she whispered, voice breaking as she clung to his lapel.
Asmodeus stroked a hand down her back, quiet for a moment, letting her steady. Then he bent low enough for only her to hear.
“I told you, little duchess. You were never meant to be alone.”
Alice’s answering laugh was wet and soft. “And you’re no ordinary man…”
He kissed her temple, slowly kissing down her face, a small, unshowy gesture and guided her to stand with Velvet, Vinea, and Asmodea and their children, the entire Grigorian royal family now in a beautiful line of vibrant colours: shadowy, violent, ember-bronze, blooming rose and midnight black.
A spectacle of everything he fought so hard for.
Alan’s voice then echoed from behind them, much stronger than when he first stepped up to the altar.
“By your vows and these cords, your hearts are bound. In the sight of Lumeria, of its people, and the gods who may yet be watching, we bless this union.”
Avandar lifted his sceptre, the black and golden tip catching sunlight.
“Rise together — Emperor Asmodeus, and your Grigorian queens.”
The plaza erupted at last, the first part of the wedding came to a close, horns honked with drums rolling, and petals lined the streets.
They rained down in red, violet, gold and black.
Children squealed with their mothers as the soldiers beat spear to shield, and from the balconies came the layered voices of elves, beastkin, humans and demons, all welcoming the first four wives of their emperor.
Velvet’s fingers entwined with his, while Vinea slipped her hand atop theirs, and Asmodea followed with damp eyes but smiling. Alice came last, hesitant but unwilling to lose out.
Asmodeus looked at them all, then out to the endless crowd, and that’s when he smiled.
His brides on either side hugged him before taking a step away. All of them nodded before their wings unfurled in synchronisation as they morphed into their demon forms.
“My beloved Demon brides.” Asmodeus hugged each one in turn.
Then they all bowed to him and took off into the sky.
Woosh!
The crowd gasped, and a shockwave washed through the altar with a pop.
Now standing alone, Asmodeus looked down the aisle again, and some of the crowd looked confused when the music stopped.
Asmodeus, in the centre of the altar, lifted his hands.
Alan stepped back, taking Avandar with him as the little children flew with their mothers into the distance, now gone.
Isolated on the stage, he smiled towards the distance.
Mana swirled in the palm of his hands as Asmodeus devoured the entire area rapidly, glowing orbs forming on his hands.
“Now, let me welcome my other brides.”
His words spread through the huge area, echoing before his magic orbs exploded in a brilliant light.
BANG!
Fireworks shot into the air, filling the sky while massive palm trees grew from the ground to create a beautiful picture, the southern sky, southern trees, and colours just like the Beast Empire he remembered.
The light of the fireworks hadn’t yet faded when the drums changed.
A deeper, wilder rhythm rolled across the plaza.
Not the disciplined march of Grigor, but the heartbeat of untamed lands. Low horns joined, followed by the haunting call of wooden flutes and the thunder of great war drums. The crowd stirred as banners of emerald and ivory were raised, each bearing the crest of the southern Beast Empire.
An unfamiliar voice rang out, clear and strong:
“Her Imperial Majesty, Yuina Inukami — Empress of the Southern Beasts, High Matriarch of the White Tower.”
Golden petals filled the avenue, carried on a sudden, sweet wind. From the distant gates came a tall, regal figure draped in layered silks of moon-white and forest green, her long golden-blonde hair cascading like sunlight over a mantle of fur. Eight slender foxtails, which rippled behind her with the grace of a living banner.
She moved with an elegance that belonged to the wild, yet almost felt ethereal, like a fairy from the elven realm. Her steps were quiet, but filled with a commanding aura.
Then their eyes met.
Gold-flecked orbs stared at him, filled with pride as they narrowed into thin slits with a deep smile.
Yuina, the shy shrine maiden he met almost three year ago, became the untouchable empress and the mother of his children. The first person to accept his idea of uniting the continent.
But today she approached not as a ruler, but as his bride.