18 Chapter 18 Commissioned by Kriegan. Timeskip

I sighed as I took a hearty chug from my carbonated strawberry soda. Sure Eta was a genius and was able to figure out how to carbonate drinks but we still hadn't managed to get the cola flavor for the better soda down so I was still sadly bereft of the good drinks like Dr. Pepper, and root beers.

Even as I relaxed drinking my soda after my own training session I ruminated on the last year and a half and everything that had happened.

The Cult of Diabalos kept their filthy paws out of the Kageno's fief after hundreds of their members and even higher ranking members all died and had their heads mounted on random trees scattered through the forest so now the people of the region thought that a greater magical beast or a demon was loose in the depths of the forest.

Whereas the girls of Shadow Garden in the next year and a half grew into their beauty and magically enhanced bodies with girls like Alpha, Gamma, Eta, and Beta each having to go into town for new sets of bras every couple months with how fast they grew due to the powerful primal magic running through their bodies.

And of course, Alpha was an overachiever and she was honestly terrifyingly at how accomplished she was at gaslighting orphans. She literally recruited hundreds if not more than a thousand young girls and swiftly indoctrinated them in my faith and the upcoming holy wars that were to be waged on the invading realms.

I honestly felt bad for some of them as they were reduced to 'numbers' until they earned the right to names in grueling terrible training if the orphaned girls didn't get picked up and blessed by one of the gods or goddesses that resided within me.

Most notably due to the hundreds of maidens warriors that came to my service I was blessed by both Artemis and Freya. Thank all the gods that Freya took after her form in God of War rather than Danmachi as she was a great mentor figure for all the orphaned girls if not honestly a mother figure.

But with a solid dozen gods within me, there was enough divine power passively generated for a single god or goddess to physically manifest in the mortal world and stay there without strain to myself or the other gods within myself so typically the gods and goddesses would rotate who got freed from within me and either relaxed teaching the Shadow Garden girls magic and martial arts or if they were in a good mood they would play some theatrics as I gave sermons and recruited to our faith.

Because seeing the God of Strength Herakles, and the God of Light Baldur bring a congregation over to watch them beat that Mist Dragon silly and have Baldur 'tame' it under my control did wonders for the faith.

So now we had a massive dragon acting as the front gate guard with a massive platform for him to lay upon and for anyone to get to the church, due to the massive amount of wards that surrounded the church, the only entrance was a half tunnel that went under the massive platform that had the dragon typically napping upon.

With a soft windy noise, I saw shadowy smoke fly throw my open window as I was lounging on a couch across the room, and from the pool of shadows, Alpha stood up with her long hair falling down to her knees as she let it grow from where it was previously at her backside all the way down to her knees.

"Alpha I hope you aren't bringing me any paperwork." I said jokingly as the beautiful elf chuckled as she elegantly walked over and I took in how she was wearing her 'work' outfit of the tight-fitting Shadow Garden slime suits that would mimic other materials with enough mana put into them.

"No, I didn't come to bring you more paper-based stress Jake." Alpha said softly as she sat down beside me and took another cup out of her shadow to pour herself a drink as she settled down beside me.

I just sighed as I knew Alpha pretty well at this point and the way she said not bringing me 'stress' via means of paper clearly meant she was unfortunately here to cause me stress outside of paperwork.

"Midgar's royal family has sent a request for you and myself to come to become knighted and join their peerage system. With the King wishing to speak with you about our armed forces that have grown beyond what nobles are allowed to field... And finally, the Midgar Academy has sent a request that you give a speech about the runecraft magic we have brought into this world." Alpha said with some annoyance in her own voice as she knew I was training hard for when Nirn invaded this world.

Sure a good portion of Nirn wouldn't give too much of a damn about our lands merging but the Western part of Nirn was the side we were to going to merge with and that was the issue with it being High Rock, The Summerset Island's, Cyrodil, and Skyrim itself. I had no idea how warlike Cyrodil was going to be but I knew that with the events of Skyrim and Oblivion going on at once it was going to be a shit show and I had no doubt those elves in the Aldemeri Dominion wouldn't try to stir up some trouble.

Or hell I could see them just go on some kind of Holy Crusade to conquer these lands in the name of 'freeing' the native elves and bringing them home to be re-educated as I knew the people of Nirn were going to be far stronger than the games made them out to be with how Nirns primal mana was going to fill their bodies and with their already strong foundation in their more elaborate system of magic we were going to get fucked up as Scathach and other magic gods told me even a middle-classed mage from the world would kill the best warriors of this world with their heavily boosted magical spells if they had fast enough reflexs.

To say nothing of how the Deadra would also be insanely stronger due to the far denser magical energies fusing allowing them to reach the earth much easier with more of their power.

"And I should actually bother to go?" I asked wryly and Alpha weakly smiled.

"If we wish to keep recruitment up and keep emptying orphanages of girls and picking up girls off the streets with Demon Possession... Yes Jake you will need to assuage the coward king and lower yourself into his political game until you do the speech and come back." Alpha said pointedly as she reminded me about how much of a limp coward the king was and I was also reminded about how literally every male character in this world was a fucking joke.

The main antagonist in the latter half of the first season of the anime that depicted this world was literally named Perv Asshat... How in the hell was I supposed to take this world seriously and protect it when the water of the world made every single man a damned fool.

"Fine. I am bringing Delta and Zeta with us." I said grinning and Alpha deadpanned at me.

"Jake... They will kill the first person to insult you and then when they inevitably get into a fight with one another they will kill a lot more people and destroy whole sectors of the capital before we can beat some sense into them." Alpha said dryly and I solemnly nodded.

"Exactly..." I said slowly as I covered the bottom of my face with my folded hands and even covered my upper face with a hood of shadows as I spoke deeper. "It will set the perfect example of inviting lions into the chicken's coup. The nobility and the Cult of Diabolos will obviously make a move as we come out of our fortress and our counterattack would be a perfect retort to silence them eternally within the lands of Midgar." I said dramatically.

Loud clapping rang out as a pair of hands appeared in front of the window and both me and Alpha just deadpanned as we saw a pair of black and blond animal ears with one more floofy than the other pop up over the bottom of the window.

"Delta Zeta, come on in, I guess." I said smiling wryly as the two other voluptuous Shadow Garden Seven Shades agilely jumped into the room showing off their beastkin agility.

Zeta and Delta had likewise blossomed into beauties though more of a warrior variety with their forms showing clear muscles though not to the limit of excess as Zeta with her unzipped and partly exposed chest clearly showed a bit of her six pack as she strode closer with her blond cat tail swishing back and forth as a part of her feline instincts were clearly thinking of her chance at pouncing on me for whatever purpose she could have.

Seriously I loved Zeta like the rest of the Seven Shades especially. But with her being a girl as well as part cat no one could figure out her motives and actions if she didn't spell it out. I literally made a spray bottle filled with vinegar to spray her with it, when she decided waking me up at three AM by throwing a headless corpse on me and my bed was a fucking delightful idea.

Delta on the other hand was a lot simpler as a person, a woman, and her status as a wolf beastkin. You knew exactly what you were getting when it came to her. If she was crying out in delight to snuggle with you it was simply due to how her eyes would light up with her tail wagging. Or on the other end if she was screaming in a blood rage as she charged to beat you to death with your own arm with her eyes slit and her teeth grinding against one another you knew exactly what was coming.

"Woohooo I get to go on a mission with Jake!" Delta cried as she did just what I thought as her large black-haired tail wagged back and forth through the air as she leaped through the air and landed on my lap and began her Beastkin ritual of rubbing her face and body against me in sheer excitement at not getting left at home.

"Hmph, of course, he is taking me with him. I am the best agent we have at recon in Shadow Garden. But even Jake needs a good dog to bite people who annoy him." Zeta said haughtily and Delta growled as she whirled at Zeta who primly stood beside me on the end of the couch and only softly let her tail wrap around my arm as she played at being aloof and above Delta's overly strong affections.

"Delta isn't a rabid dog, unlike a certain tomcat who will just wander off! I will only bite who Jake tells me to!" Delta said proudly with Zeta's eye twitching as she hit on the weak point of how Zeta, as the best scout in Shadow Garden was typically gone the most from our fief and area of control. But I made sure to spend more time with Zeta when she did come back.

"Enough!" Alpha snarled with her mana flaring and both beastkin cowered as tentacles with teeth and eyes instantly snagged the girls off me and held them up in the air in front of Alpha whose eyes shone with the eldritch light of the stars. "If you two come you will behave or I will personally punish you both as this is an important trip to the capital. Delta you are already known as one of the strongest people on the surface here in Midgar so the forces in the capital will need to account for you and Zeta, Jake obviously is trusting you to investigate said forces in the capital as our presence will shake them." Alpha said with dire warning in her voice as I mentally whistled as once again Alpha took my words as gospel and found entirely new meanings and plans within the words.

"Also if we are going to be meeting with the King, I say one of the gods or goddesses should come with us or just make an appearance to prove our weight," Alpha spoke and I winced as the dozen gods and goddesses within rioted at the opportunity to have such entertainment.

"Ereshkigal will come." I said forcing down the mental voices screaming to become the primary god of Midgar and at my words, I felt a dozen examples of the sound 'Tsch!" being sent slamming into my soul while I took solace in the delight-filled cries of Ereshkigal who sent a literal emote of herself almost dancing in place as she was so filled with joy at spending a whole few days in reality.