Chapter 650: Union of Beasts [2]
Asmodeus pulled back, the sweet taste of Yuina’s lips lingering with a hint of citrus. Then he cupped her hand, slipping a golden ring inscribed with a fox on her finger. He gripped tight before kissing her forehead once again.
Yuina’s ears twitched at the touch. For all her wild strength, the moment his lips met her brow, she melted. Nine tails swayed in a slow, dream-like rhythm behind her.
He couldn’t help but stare into her gleaming eyes, entranced. Fox beastkin carried a beauty and charm equal to succubi, and Yuina was their empress.
She gripped his chest, dragging his face lower and kissed him.
Her kiss.
The velvety touch of her lips, like soft clouds, tongue warm, squishy as it coils and curls and her sweet breath.
"My dear husband, please take this ring."
She lifted the ring with both hands. A thick band of pale silver shaped like twin fox tails curled into an everlasting knot with tiny red gems winking where the tips met. Her small fingers trembled for the first time since stepping onto the plaza.
"It’s the only thing I could make with my power," Yuina said softly, ears flicking. "I wove my magic into the metal so it will always carry my flame, no matter what you face."
Asmodeus pushed his finger through the cool, sparkling ring as it latched onto the other ring at the base. Then the entire ring transformed and became the shape of Yuina’s. He leaned closer, cupping her cheeks and placing his forehead against hers.
"You always surprise me at the most unforeseen moments, Yuina."
Her damp eyes widened, shining brightly while filled with tears. With the ring settled in place, she nuzzled his palms.
Asmodeus drew her close again and lifted her, his hands wrapped around her waist. "I am lucky to have such a cute wife. I swear to treasure you... not just as an empress, but the adorable woman you are."
Yuina laughed with a trembling voice before she whispered against his lips, "Then take me, Ryuji. All of me."
They kissed once more, slowly and with a delicate flow. The crowd erupted in a joyous howl that swept across the plaza like a storm, answering the binding with wild celebration.
Yuina broke the kiss.
Her lips dripped with thin threads of saliva, her soft pink lips swollen and slightly red.
"It seems I have to part with you now..."
Yuina lingered for a breath longer, her tails brushing against his chest as if reluctant to let him go. Her golden eyes flickered between love and playful regret.
"...My place is with the other wives now," she mumbled, "but, I won’t lose to them. I will be your number one!"
Asmodeus smiled and pressed one last kiss to the tips of her trembling fingers before letting her slip away. Yuina stepped back slowly, her nine tails spreading in a proud, snowy fan as she joined Velvet, Vinea, Asmodea, and Alice at the side of the altar.
Aurelia and Velmina remained behind while looking up at their father, bowing with an elegance that didn’t match their small bodies.
"Father," Aurelia’s gold eye shone with delight.
Velmina didn’t speak, but looked at him with warm, narrowed eyes, the same glow on her cheeks as her sister. Before the twins hugged his legs and then scurried off, padding after their mother.
The plaza exhaled all at once, a tide of relieved cheers and happy whimpers rolling through the beastkin crowd. Drums began a slow, deep rhythm again as the drinks continued pouring and the meat started sizzling.
Asmodeus planned the celebration with the people in mind; there were thousands of seats and vendors.
All so they could relax between celebrating.
’It’s time.’
He knew the next woman carried a huge piece of his heart.
Someone special that he couldn’t forget.
The music changed into a strangely familiar modern piece, which rumbled with a deep bass and flowing rhythm.
Then, from the far end of the aisle, the sound of a single flute rose along with the chorus, clear, wistful and matching her perfectly.
Every beastkin ear twitched. Every elf turned to the flute. The music carried something different because it was from Ryuji’s home world, not this one.
Asmodeus tried to catch his breath, and his nerves tingled.
He knew that melody.
It was a song by a group called Windsmith. They used the song for an apocalyptic movie where they sent oil drillers into space to drill an asteroid to stop it from hitting Earth.
A song that Yumiko hummed after their first time.
Well, she was considerably older.
"There you are." He muttered under his breath as he stepped towards the edge of the altar.
Then she appeared.
Yumiko stepped into view with an atmosphere that made the entire plaza still.
Her aura swirled like a gentle storm, bringing the sun to its knees as it turned silver, the sky shimmering with a grey hue.
For the time he knew her, she was a cute, seductive woman, but now... his breath stopped. Her loose silver hair and wild, red eyes that almost burned into his soul.
She wore a shiromuku, the bridal kimono of her homeland. Heavy white silk layered in perfect folds, its hem embroidered with pale cranes and curling waves. The robe’s train rippled behind her like moonlit water, and the wide sleeves swayed softly with each perfectly measured step.
Over it rested the tsunokakushi, the long, rounded hood of a traditional bride, but hers was edged in faint silver thread that caught the light, as if dusted with frost. The single splash of colour was the deep crimson obi cinching her waist, a whisper of passion against the sea of white.
’She...’
Her silver hair, usually wild or brushed to the side, had been smothered and tucked beneath the hood, neatly, a few shining strands falling free to brush her cheeks and settle between her cleavage. Her eyes, scarlet and clear. Never wandering to the crowd, fixed only on Ryuji.
Ryuji’s throat became tight, saliva forming rapidly.
’Yumiko... you really...’
Her face, pure white with makeup, with a delicate red brushed on her lips, with an artistic flick of black at the corners of each eye.
He returned to the first night.
When summoned into this world.
Eye to eye with the strange maid in chains... somehow, he felt the desire to free her. A bizarre action that led to them sharing a room, despite knowing nothing about each other. Seeing her now, dressed as a bride from the world he once belonged to, was like seeing a bridge between his past and present.
Ryuji couldn’t hear the crowd. Even his other brides vanished.
A single red aisle and his bride-to-be gracefully gliding across it.
She reached the first step of the altar and paused, lifting her gaze to meet his. For a long time, they just stared at each other, hearts beating in sync.
The foolish boy with an axe.
The poor woman without memories.
Then, softly, she smiled. It wasn’t the sultry grin he remembered, but something tender and bright.
"... I’m home," Yumiko whispered.
Ryuji moved before he realised it, one step, then another, until he was standing halfway down the steps and reaching out to the woman he couldn’t forget.
"Yumiko." His voice rough like a beast.
Her red eyes softened; she reached up, brushed an invisible wrinkle from his collar, and smiled the small smile that had first undone him years ago. "You look just as hopelessly handsome as when we first met."
He laughed under his breath and offered his hand. Yumiko took it and dove into his chest without care, enjoying the warmth.
As he drew her up onto the altar, a small patter of steps followed.
Tsukihana peeked out from behind her mother’s sleeve. The little fox girl’s snowy ears twitched as she padded forward on bare feet, clutching a tiny ring box with both hands. Blue eyes, bright as frozen stars, locked on Ryuji.
"Papa, ring." she said in her lovely tone.
Ryuji crouched and opened his arms. Hana launched herself into him with a happy squeak, tails fluttering beside her mother. He pressed a kiss to her hair before she sneezed at him and wriggled free and presented the box to her mother with both hands, solemn as any priestess.
Yumiko accepted it, then turned back to him, eyes trembling and glassy.
"Ryuji," she began, voice soft but sure, "I don’t have grand words like the other girls, nor can I make a big speech." She looked at Tsukihana, who danced on the spot to the music." "Fufu. You taught me to dream, to enjoy life and the bliss of being a woman. So today, I give you everything I have."
She stepped close, and unlike her sister, tilted her head and bit gently into his shoulder. Her bite lacked the intensity and power of Yuina’s. Her fangs sank slowly, deeper and deeper, with her affectionate kiss.
"Ngh...!"
Though her bite wasn’t showy, it hurt.
Ryuji closed his eyes, the searing pain as her teeth sank deeper than Yuina’s on the opposite side. He exhaled a shuddering breath, then answered with his own bite at the base of her neck in the same style.
Slow, protective and overflowing with affection.
When they drew back, the mark glowed faint silver and deep red.
"Now you’re mine." She whispered.
"You’re also mine."
Their eyes gleamed with a brilliance like the sun.
Together they exchanged rings, hers a pale band of moonlit silver matching Yuina’s, while his was darker, steel inlaid with crimson gemstones. Ryuji slid the black band onto her finger, then let her slip the silver ring over his.
Their foreheads touched as they glanced into each other with breath mingling.
"Welcome home, Yumiko."
Tears slipped down her cheeks as she kissed him once, a long and passionate kiss while clinging to his chest.
Nobody understood the true meaning, as people from another world lost their homeland.
His words carried more meaning to her than their ring. He’d made a home for them, a second home since they couldn’t return.