Chapter 137 - Update on Azula, Nuwa outside the House

The past year was leisurely for Azula. Gyuki, the octopus-ox beast, had come today, but she was too weak to face it, so she entered the shelter like the rest of the citizenry and low-level ninjas by the time it had made it within 3 km (1.8 miles) of the village. There were metal-reinforced slides that took citizens into the deep underground chambers on the conservative side of the town where she lives in an apartment near Minato's house. On the progressive side of town, they had chakra-powered elevators. She did nothing other than watch the action on the screens that cast the battle to the public from several distant vantage points.

Tsunade had put on some sort of wooden exoskeletal armor that could somehow handle her opening of the Sixth Gate, the Gate of View, and was floating in the air fighting the 10m (33ft) tall tailed beast with towering rage. This was the same beast that had killed her lover, so she had a grudge on this one.

A variety of elite shinobi were surrounding the beast and slapping down seals on its body while Tsunade, Jiraiya, Danzo, Orochimaru, Hizashi, and Fugaku were taking turns drawing aggro, taking its blows occasionally to stop it from landing hits on the weaker shinobi, and dodging its bijuu blasts.

Nevertheless, it was much stronger than any of them and the seals only disrupted chakra flow to slow the beast's tentacles. Even an extremely vicious full body right hook from Tsunade, who had opened her Gate of Wonder for a split second, right on its chin while it was charging up a bijuu blast, causing it to implode in its own mouth, only left several large holes in its face. This is far from enough to take a tailed beast down. They have strong regeneration and their bodies are made entirely of flesh and chakra, so they have no real weak points besides the chakra nodes deep inside them. Soon several elite shinobi that were attacking its sides began to get exhausted and they started to suffer casualties in their ranks.

Danzo whistled loudly and several elderly citizens arrived a few minutes later by car, driven by Minato. They looked emotionally at the shinobi fighting and appeared at peace with themselves to carry out the ultimate sacrifice. Tsunade could not hold back her tears. She carried such extreme hatred for Gyuki, yet she was forced to sacrifice her people to it. Before, when they had Hiruzen on the main tank team, they were able to drive it away successfully with some casualties and no deaths, but he had sacrificed the chakra circuits on his arms in a sealing jutsu to paralyze Kurama long enough to prevent it from killing Minato.

Minato's current job was to make sure the seniors did not die before they made it into the beast's mouth, otherwise they would die without the beast being able to eat their spiritual body, meaning their sacrifice would be in vain. It was a job he clearly hated, but did anyway, only because he had the speed to accomplish it. The fighting entered a short lull for a moment as the seniors approached, a tentacle wrapped up the sacrifices, and brought them to its mouth.

Gyuki bit down on the four bodies with a sickening crunch. Blood leaked out of its mouth. All of the shinobi had now gathered on one side, the side opposite of Konoha. The beasts do not roam in straight lines so it would be pointless to try to point them away from another Nation's capital. Their only prerogative is to point them in the exact opposite direction from their own.

Seconds after it swallowed, the combined assault of fire, earth, wind jutsus from the elites, heavy physical attacks from the main tanks, and sharp swordplay at its weak points from Hizashi and Fugaku land on one side of Gyuki, scaring it into retreat now that it was satisfied with its meal. Gyuki left with its body charred and battered. Almost a full third of its mass was missing, destroyed by the hour-long battle. Piles of beast flesh were strewn across the battlefield.

Of the 25 elites that came, 10 were wounded and 4 were dead. Bringing any more elites would increase the chances of friendly fire, which were already high. Danzo ordered some of the progressives from his faction to collect the fresh, high-value beast flesh for Orochimaru's experiments. The conservatives scrunch their faces with a variety of expressions, from sorrow to disdain, as they pick up the bodies of their fallen comrades.

Both political factions are always hard at work trying to develop cloning and substitution jutsus, since simple elemental jutsus for evasion like earth escape or flight do not cut it when dealing with the beasts. Unfortunately, cloning is far too difficult to do outside of illusion techniques, and the tailed beasts are highly resistant to illusions. Substitution involves the Dao of Space, which is extremely difficult to even begin to learn. The reason they are fixed on these is that legends state that thousands of years ago, shinobi who knew jutsus that could clone or substitute existed, but those techniques have since been lost.

Azula stopped watching now that the fighting had finished. She felt bad for Minato, knowing that he was a principled person of righteous character. She got along well with him and his wife, Kushina. Their kid, Naruto, she tolerated on their behalf, otherwise she would have beat him up for all the times he tried to perv on her. Kushina beats him up and shouts at Jiraiya all the time, but nothing changes. He is still a wanton peeper.

Even finding out she was a futanari did not change his leering. Otherwise, he is a harmless and friendly 16-year-old kid. She figures it is just a phase of puberty. Returning to her apartment and getting in bed, she pulls her dismantled Smartphone out and recalls her achievements in the past year while she busies herself in reconstructing it.

She had improved her Eight Gates technique to the fourth level, the Gate of Pain. Saturating her body with chakra allowed progress to come quickly for her. Her chakra control was serendipitously impressive after all the practice she had dismantling the Smartphone. For weapons, she picked up some brass knuckles and steel-toed boots to supplement her focus on melee combat, except the metal was replaced with chakra metal. This was necessary because ordinary metal cannot conduct chakra well enough to survive impacts at the higher levels of the Eight Gates.

The only things she remained consistently poor at were sealing and illusions. The purpose of sealing, or fuinjutsu, was to capture things, which contradicted her Phoenix Dao of constant destruction and rebuilding. Illusions, or genjutsu, are mental techniques that she was just naturally poor at. She had a feeling that Nuwa would love them though, if she could somehow use chakra in the future.

Other than training with Minato on the training fields or sitting in her room chatting with her kids, nothing exciting happens. All the higher-ups must be leaving her alone for now while they monitor her improvement. Once her Smartphone is reconstructed, she opens the chat. What she sees next takes her breath away!

~ ~ ~

The combination of Zagreus and Nuwa, Zagwa, dash out of the House as the door closes behind them and they collapse on the bridge. Nuwa pulls herself off her big brother's penis and chokes back tears and snot as she wails mournfully. The pain she feels is not as bad as giving birth or having her spiritual body torn to shreds, but the emotional pain of being attacked by her Father, who has never so much as scolded her to this day, is what has her most upset. It is also the first time that she had received anything more than a light spank from any of her parents in all of her lives. There is culture shock involved too, since they are in the Underworld, where pain and death are not taken seriously, unlike her past lives.

Zagreus hugs Nuwa's crumpled form tightly, strokes her back, and feels burning rage at his Father. 'Old man, I'll definitely kill you once for this.'

He can sense the depression and subtle betrayal emanating from Nuwa's psychic link. A few minutes pass while Zagreus puts his penis back in his pants, helps fix Nuwa's top, and comforts her tenderly. The room lights up, indicating that Hades is watching, but their Father says nothing for the first time. Zagreus shouts into the air and points at the skeletal stump of one of Nuwa's snakes, "This is your fault, you senile old man!"

Hades does not respond and his Authority leaves the room. Nuwa senses that Zagreus is going to curse his Father more, so she stops him. "I'm ok now.. Don't fight because of me. I don't want you to get hurt."

Zagreus swallows the rant he was about to utter and looks at his sister with guilt. He says, "I won't let you get hurt by him again and neither will Mother Nyx. Let's just stay here and I'll bring you back inside in a few hours when things calm down."

They are currently in the bridge and moat area just outside the House of Hades. An orb of Ares is waiting for Zagreus if he intends to begin his run. Nuwa finds herself attracted to the bloody, divine glow of the orb of the God of War. It spurns a bloodlust within her, encouraging her to let out all her pent up feelings with violence. This is also something she has been arduously training herself for over the past decade. Even if she would suffer more pain, she wanted to join her big brother. She looks up at his face from within his embrace and declares, "I'm going to fight with you, Zag."

Zagreus groans and struggles internally with some mental gymnastics, but nods after a minute. Getting beaten up and killed by random shades is nowhere near as emotionally impactful as being scolded or attacked by their Father.

Nuwa hugs him cheerfully and says with a cute voice, "Thanks, big bro. I love you so much!"

Zagreus smiles happily too. He finally has found a companion for his dungeon runs. He replies, "I love you too, sis. I'll do my best to protect you! Now, let's see how that side-along dash we were doing works."

Zagreus lets go of Nuwa's body, stands up, and dashes while only holding her hand with her still kneeling down on her butt. They both appear in a running pose 2m (6.5') away. Zagreus pauses in thought.

Nuwa is momentarily disoriented by the sudden change of positions and another dollop of cum oozes out of her pussy. She lets go of his hand, scoops up the semen, and unceremoniously shovels it into her mouth. Nuwa puts her other hand on her hip and chews thoughtfully. 'It tastes.. spicy. Absolutely delicious too!'

She gives a steamy look to her big brother when she catches him staring widely at her and licks her hand clean with her forked tongue. His dick is once again erect, but keeping her safe is the priority at hand. He asks her, "Is it because we have the same Father that I can bring you with me on my dash, but not others?"

Nuwa sets aside her lust and focuses seriously on the topic at hand. She looks into her soul and sees something out of the norm. The Dao Strings that she utilized to have sex with Zagreus are still active in her vaginal walls and wrapped around clouds of LEE that Zagreus had deposited inside her. She says, "I'm not sure, but let's keep testing it out." She wraps one of her snakes around his neck and requests, "Big bro, do some chain-dashing please."

When Zagreus dashes, Nuwa watches her Dao Strings. Sure enough, his LEE and her strings vibrate with each dash, causing some of his LEE to escape. This is not a problem though, since she currently has no use for excess LEE, with her [Shop] being unavailable, other than making more Dao Strings. She does not want to do that though, because if she goes to the next world and the Dao Strings have no reason to behave in a docile manner anymore, then she will be fucked. As someone with a t2 soul dealing with t3 constructs, the Dao Strings she owns are more than enough to scare her into not wanting any more.

"Alright, stop." Nuwa explains her findings, "Zag, it is not because of my Father's blood that I can dash with you. Get comfortable, because I am going to explain my past lives along with my powers."

Zagreus nods, leans on the rampart of the bridge, and says, "Sure sis."

Nuwa monologues, "In my first life, I was a mortal with no special abilities other than a voice in my head called the [System] that taught me most of what I know today. It taught me to seek power no matter the cost and that it would train me to do so through sex."

Zagreus furrows his brows in displeasure. 'This [System] sounds shady.'

Nuwa continues to summarize her first and second lives to Zagreus, specifically focusing on how she was cold and manipulative in her relationship with John, her mistakes and subsequent true love with Azula, and her two kids that she wanted to do right by. Interspersed in her narration, she explains how all her abilities either come from the [System] or are based on sex.

When she finishes after a full hour, Zagreus has a complicated look on his face. He underestimated the complexity and depth of feelings she still holds with the mortals of her past lives. He can sense through their mental link that Azula is someone she loves as much as him. When she talked about how she was trying to figure out love, he felt awkward for not knowing what love is himself.

So far, Zagreus thinks he loves Nuwa, Nyx, Achilles, Megaera, Thanatos, Hypnos, Dusa, and Cerberus, in that order, in various ways. He loves Nuwa as a brother, Nyx as a mother, Achilles as a father, Megaera as an ex-girlfriend, Thanatos as a brother and friend, Hypnos as a brother and friend, Dusa as his trusty maid, and Cerberus as a good doggo. This is a serious simplification though, since he also hates Megaera and absolutely wants to kill her.

What he does know is that his deep love for Nuwa is still in the sisterly realm. He did not realize the clear differences between sisterly and romantic love until he sensed how different true romantic love feels through the psychic link when Nuwa explained her relationship with Azula. In fact, he could tell that Nuwa's love for him is mostly in the brotherly realm as well, with plenty of lust added in.

Their thoughts sync up as they look at each other with a craving desire to experience a proper romance, especially from Zagreus, who has heard about the tales of mortal love and dating, but has never experienced it. Nuwa puts on a naughty smile and wraps some of her snakes around her body and over her clothes like a dress, braids a few snakes together to drape on her shoulder, and her demeanor changes into that of a noble lady.

She cannot use [Acting] in this instance because Zagreus has no expectations for what will happen, but her training from childhood in the Pea family allows her to pull off this act on her own. The new outfit and mood throws Zagreus for a loop. Even though his sister is giving him a nonchalant look and not paying attention to him with her body language like she usually does, he feels his dick become erect again as he watches her walk with elegance while practicing with her bow on the surrounding noncombatant shades, which have been relegated to warm-up target practice.

The Heart-Seeking Bow, Coronacht, does not use physical arrows. Instead, it uses its own magic, which it recharges passively through the resentment of its enemies. This means Nuwa has unlimited shots, so long as she can find some Titan's Blood to feed the weapon eventually.

Since Nuwa is using Coronacht with her Dao Strings active, her arrows gain a slight pink tinge, and she suspects they can deliver a curse. Excited to try out some combat, she tells Zagreus to open the orb of Ares so they can move on. She treats him with an aloof attitude though, since she wants to have fun with their little courtship roleplay. "Zagreus, my knight, lead the way."

Zagreus nods with some confusion, since Snek Nuwa has never roleplayed before. He places his hand on the orb and says, "Olympus, I accept this message!" as usual, but for Nuwa, this is a first. She stares with fascination as the orb explodes in a bloody light and the projection of Ares appears to offer Zagreus a message, "Perhaps you know a god called Thanatos? The two of us are very close associates, you know. Do give him my best wishes should you see him soon."

The projection poofs into a red screen with three choices of blessing. There is a dash that drops blade rifts available, but he suspects that Nuwa will fall victim to those since they are area-of-effect attacks that he himself is immune to only due to the blessing itself. He chooses Curse of Agony, which allows his normal attacks to inflict Doom damage. This could inflict Doom damage on Nuwa, but not if he is careful when swinging his sword.

Meanwhile, Nuwa is experiencing the same thing Zagreus had experienced when he first saw Aphrodite. She's experiencing the 'First Crush' feeling! Ares is the hottest man she has ever seen in her entire life, with Zagreus as a close second. Her childish crush on Zuko when she was a virgin back in her second life comes nowhere close to how aroused looking at Ares' powerful body, thick muscles, and lean build makes her feel.

She stares at where he had floated in the air long after he poofs away. Then, she feels her pussy get wet all over again and notices that she is not thinking straight. 'What the fuck? I have the second love of my life next to me and I'm fantasizing about someone else?'

Looking into her soul, she notices nothing amiss, so she rolls the Dao Strings back into her Dao Core. The moment she does so, her unusual attraction to Ares is gone, replaced by a more reasonable and detached appreciation of his body. 'Damn, I am guessing these Dao Strings must amplify my natural instincts to find powerful mates.'

+45k LEE, Total: 1425k LEE

By retracting the Dao Strings, she also stores Zagreus' LEE in her Dao Core and relinquishes her connection to his miniscule Authority. Nuwa updates her brother, "Zag, I deactivated my Dao Strings and now I believe I cannot side-along dash with you. Let's test it."

Zag holds her hand and dashes, only to be left empty-handed when he appears a few steps away. Nuwa nods and declares, "Umu, it is as I suspected. You will have to cum inside me again to allow us to return to dashing together."

(A/N: Long chapter to make up for yesterday's shorter one! Who wants to see more Zagwa? xD)

(A/N: https://discord.gg/VD3C2BFPAu)