Chapter 550: The day the goddess of beauty became irreplaceable for Victor.
"... I want to protect my beloved because only I know how rotten the plots of the gods are, and I don't want you to suffer the same fate as the Greek heroes."
"Because of that…" She gently bit her lip:
"Victor, please…" She touched both of her hands to Victor's face as if it were the most precious thing in the world. It was a gentle touch, a loving and obsessive touch, and her neon pink eyes were brimming with just one emotion.
Love.
"Let me protect you."
"..." Victor's eyes opened wide. Aphrodite right now was so…stunning.
Make no mistake, she was beautiful, she was perfect, this was nothing new, she was the goddess of beauty for a reason.
But... At this moment, it seemed that Aphrodite had become even more beautiful.
'The beauty of a woman in love.' Victor knew what that was, and he understood why he thought she was so beautiful now.
'Let me protect you, huh?' Victor laughed internally. He remembered hearing similar words from Violet, Sasha, and Ruby.
"...." Agnes, Natashia, Violet, and Ruby raised their eyebrows when they felt a nostalgic feeling emanating from Victor and smiled gently as they felt his love pouring towards them like a tsunami.
"Ruby…?" Scathach saw her daughter with a strange smile shared by Natashia, Agnes, and Violet.
She narrowed her eyes when she understood what it was; 'The connection, huh... What is he feeling right now?' It was only at those times that the woman felt frustrated about not having that connection.
'It doesn't matter, the connection we have goes way beyond that.' She huffed and rolled her eyes.
But... Women are complicated, even if you do your best to believe that thought.
"Tsk." She even clicked her tongue in annoyance.
"Yes." A simple word of acceptance that contained all the feelings only Victor, Aphrodite, and the girls in his connection knew.
A dazzling smile appeared on Aphrodite's face, a smile only Natashia and Victor saw.
The older woman opened her eyes in utter shock. 'The goddess of beauty sure is... The goddess of beauty, or should I call her the goddess in love?' She chuckled internally at that random thought.
"Then..."
"Yeah." Victor gently cupped Aphrodite's face:
"Eliminate Gaia and Nyx's influence, and protect me from the other gods."
"...." Aphrodite's smile grew even wider, but her face narrowed a little more.
"What about Albedo…?"
"Is she dangerous?"
"..." Aphrodite used her right to remain silent. This was a free country, she had rights!
"Aphrodite…" Unfortunately, this wasn't a democracy. It was a dictatorship.
Victor pressed the goddess.
"Tsk." Aphrodite clicked her tongue and replied in an annoyed tone.
"She is not dangerous. She is a new goddess who was a witch before and is more of a recluse who prefers to spend her time doing research."
"Probably the reason she blessed you was just as an experiment. She must have been interested in you."
"And unlike the other older goddesses, she doesn't have as much influence to manipulate you or harm you."
"Hmm," Victor nodded, satisfied, "Eliminate only Nyx and Gaia, and leave the rest."
"Tsk, you've fallen into the temptation of magic." She pouted at the end.
"How can I put it... It's a troublesome power, but a convenient one." Victor twirled his finger in the air, and a magic circle appeared.
<Lumos>
A feathered orb of light appeared from the magic circle and flew into the sky, illuminating the entire location even more.
"… Have you learned any spells yet?"
"I've already read all the books, but I only 'understood' three spells."
"Spells like <Silence>, <Lumos>, and <Clean>."
"Some higher level spells I felt I could use, but I don't have 'energy' for it."
"And I can only play with a few starter spells before the mana pool runs dry."
"… Although every time this reserve dries up, it slightly increases in size."
"Hmm, despite being a borrowed power, magic is also like a muscle. The same goes for my blessing, and since you received this power directly from an experienced goddess, your magic is more intuitive than a normal witch. ."
"I'm focusing on the support books. I don't need firepower. I've got too much of that already, so I just want some simple, convenient spells to help with everyday life and maybe some spells to help me with combat, like increasing my strength or something. I see potential in that…" Victor explained.
"... Don't focus on it. We don't know if she will withdraw her power or not, remember, this is borrowed power... Which means-."
"Which means she can withdraw it at any time. I know."
"Because of that, I'm just practicing basic convenient spells. I don't want to focus my training on magic but on my own powers."
"That's good… Now, forget about that bitch, and focus on me."
"..." Victor smiled softly. How many times had he heard those words?
"I want to be your only goddess, the only one! So marry me, a marriage of the soul! Even if I die, we will always meet in the next life."
"..." Violet, Ruby, Scathach, Natashia, and Agnes narrowed their eyes at this.
'Same as Roxanne, huh.'
"Are you sure about that?"
"Absolutely!"
"I want to be yours! Only yours!"
"Haah... Don't regret it later..." Victor's eyes darkened entirely as he looked at the goddess.
The goddess's entire body trembled visibly, and her smile grew.
"Because there will be no going back."
"Never! I will never regret it!"
Seeing that the goddess would not back down, Victor's grip tightened.
"How do we do it?"
"Just state your intent, and leave the rest to me."
"..." Victor nodded and spoke.
"Aphrodite, would you be my wife?"
"Yes!" Aphrodite's pink eyes glowed in a neon color, and a rose gold glow emanated from her body. Her eyes formed the symbol of a heart, and her love divinity was going crazy.
"Will you become my Darling, Victor?" She asked with a slightly red face.
"Yes."
A dark aura with red coloring shot out from Victor's body. The aura didn't seem to lose against the goddess herself, as the two auras seemed to merge into the sky, completing each other.
This scene lasted for a whole minute, and everyone could only watch it with shocked and serious looks.
"My Darling...~" Aphrodite threw herself on Victor's body and kissed his mouth.
The two auras started to merge even faster.
And as if by magic, the entire aura suddenly disappeared, but the result was already done.
Victor could feel connected on a soul level with Aphrodite. It was a very similar feeling to Roxanne.
The goddess Aphrodite married a mortal, a marriage of the soul, a union that cannot be undone... If this news got out, the chaos would be far greater than the demons' war.
The kiss took a few more minutes until the two stopped for breath.
And with mad obsession, she declared:
"Take all my blessings, Sexuality, love, perpetuation of life, pleasure, joy... And war."
"..." Victor opened his eyes a little when he heard the last divinity.
The girls once again fell silent at this development.
Since when did the goddess of beauty have the divinity of war? Huh!? Something was not right.
"Sexuality will allow you to become… hmm, an unstoppable warrior in the bedroom?" She flashed a knowing smile.
And that information made Violet, Ruby, Scathach, and Natashia's eyes glow red.
Even though Agnes wasn't left out, she, who among all the girls had the most inhibitions with Victor, glanced at him furtively with hidden desire in her eyes.
'With this blessing, won't he become unstoppable in bed?' The women thought, and they couldn't help but gulp in anticipation.
'As expected, having Aphrodite as an ally was a good thing... The soul marriage thing was a surprise, but it's still a good result... And... He'll be even more irresistible in the bedroom.' Ruby almost drooled at the end.
Surprisingly, the one who had the biggest visible reaction was Scathach since the woman was competitive by nature. Although Victor won the 'war' tonight, she was slowly gaining territory, and it wouldn't be long before Scathach was able to break even with the man.
But now, he just got stronger, and instead of being irritated by it, she smiled predatorily in anticipation.
"Pleasure is the blessing correlated with sexuality, you will be able to give pleasure more easily, and that includes any kind of pleasure."
"Sadistic pleasure, gentle pleasure, lustful pleasure, etc."
"Normally, I use it for torture, instead of my enemy feeling pain being tortured, he will feel pleasure, and that is a more efficient form of torture than pain."
"..." Scathach and Natashia nodded. Both women were experts in torture, so they knew the goddess was correct on this matter.
"Perpetuation of life will allow you to feel 'life', and if trained, you will be able to manipulate it to a lesser degree. This power is quite dangerous for beings from hell. After all, life is also related to 'light', although my domain is scarce because the perpetuation of life is also related to sexuality since it is through sex that a new life can be created."
"It's up to you to explore these blessings. Although, to be honest, I never explored them much since I needed to progress in my greater divinities, and that takes a lot of time and effort."
"Happiness, you will know what the person likes, and what makes them 'happy'. It is an empathic ability, and you can feel the emotions of other beings more easily."
"War... A divinity that I developed in my travels... I'm not proficient in it like Ares or other gods who were born with the divinity of war, to be honest, I can't even be called a goddess of war at all since my mastery of this concept is only basic."
"But, I reached a high enough level to raise my entire understanding and concept of war."
"Therefore, my blessing will increase your perception and understanding while giving you instinctive knowledge of how to make, prolong, or end a war. Though you need extra knowledge to make it work properly."
??
Shock.
That's what everyone felt now, both from the events that happened before and so much from what they heard now.
The goddess of beauty with proficiency in war? Huh? Just what happened on her travels for her to acquire this? They were curious now.
Even though this news was not very unexpected, after all, Freya herself was a goddess related to war, and she was also the goddess of beauty, but when this news came out of Aphrodite's mouth, they were shocked.
The reason was Aphrodite herself. No one would believe the individual who said that the goddess of beauty had a minor divinity related to war.
Before anyone could react, Aphrodite looked at the girls.
"For you to get married the way I got married, you need to become goddesses."
?? The girls opened their eyes wide.
"Only gods and special beings related to concepts can make a soul marriage."
"Grow up, grow stronger, and achieve godhood in some way so that when the time comes, you can cast off this faulty ritual and wed body and soul to our beloved."
"......" Once again, shock descended on the bathroom.
Ruby and Scathach, who recovered from the shock the fastest, understood something.
'The goddess is cunning.' The obvious purpose of her saying that is for the goddess to get on the good side of girls, and it was obvious that she wanted to get along with her 'sisters'.
Scathach thought of something else:
'Everyone ignored it, but... Why did she react in surprise when she learned of the blessings Victor received? Didn't she watch the broadcast?' But once again, she realized how cunning the goddess was.
'It wasn't a lie when she spoke of her feelings, so she purposely acted surprised to attract Victor?'
Scathach and Aphrodite's eyes met for a few seconds, and in that small amount of time, Scathach narrowed her eyes as if to say; 'I know what you did.'
A tense, childlike smile appeared on the goddess's face, which only confirmed Scathach's suspicions.
'Victor noticed that?' Then, glancing at her disciple, she saw him with a small knowing smile.
'Manipulating bastard! You've really grown up! I'm proud! HAHAHAHA~' Scathach tried very hard not to laugh out loud now.
It wasn't like Victor hated Aphrodite, not after everything she'd done for him and his family, but he also knew the girls weren't going to accept Aphrodite so easily.
Because of that, he entered the goddess game, a manipulative and harmless little game to ensure the group stayed together.
Probably the only ones who noticed were the older women, Scathach, Natashia, and Ruby.
Agnes and Violet could only sense with their terrifying instinct that something was going on but couldn't put their finger on it.
The reason Aphrodite was talking about soul marriage was also to appease the girls and stay on their good side. As an ancient woman, she knew that her beauty could lead to conflicts and misunderstandings, and because of that, she wanted to solve this problem ASAP.
And it's also a small apology for this little scheme she pulled.
Natashia and Ruby didn't say anything, even if they understood that, out of all the girls, they were the most aware of the current state of things and could see the big picture.
A close-knit family was important, and a family with even stronger and more unbreakable bonds was needed. They understood that, and they made sure Violet and Agnes understood it too.
After all, of all the girls, Agnes and Violet are the most likely to burst with jealousy.
Not caring about the girls' reactions, Aphrodite continued:
"Yes, the ritual that Vlad and the witch created helps you not to get lost in the bloodlust, but unfortunately, it has a big weakness."
"By using this with many girls like Victor is doing now…"
"It created a huge weakness."
"..." The girls narrowed their eyes.
"Initially, the ritual was only to be used between 1 to 3 members. Usually, it didn't go beyond that because hardly anyone wanted to spend eternity with one person."
Over time, if love was not nurtured, it just tended to wither, and eventually, couples break up.
"Only Vlad and Victor have used the ritual on such a large number of women." Agnes explained.
"If one of you stays long enough with Victor, he will go mad from lack of blood."
"He's still not an experienced vampire like Vlad, who could go hungry for several hundred years."
"..." Victor narrowed his eyes. Unfortunately, that kind of stamina is something that cannot be trained but acquired over time.
"From today, only Scathach will marry Victor using the ritual, the other girls will have to wait, and if they want in the future, they will do a soul ritual."
??
"Don't put words in my mouth, goddess. You cannot decide that."
"Do you love Victor?" The goddess's heart-shaped eyes stared at Scathach.
"..." Scathach narrowed her eyes, and a small hint of embarrassment appeared on her face. She didn't look away from the goddess, but she couldn't give an answer either.
"The answer to that question is; Yes, you love him."
"So one day you will marry him. What I'm talking about is that you will be the last to marry using the ritual."
"As for Victor's other girls, just let them get their fill of your blood. The reason you guys still suffer from bloodlust is because you guys are too greedy. Look at the Maids. They said they hadn't drunk Victor's blood for a relatively long time, and none of them had had a problem with it yet. Of course, they're not older vampires, but you get the point."
"...." The girls were a little embarrassed. However, they knew what Aphrodite said was correct since the more they drank Victor's blood, the more they wanted it. It's like an addiction. His blood is very delicious!
And Victor will never refuse a request from his wives. He spoiled them a lot.
Victor didn't say anything, but that's because they already had thoughts about it.
The ritual helped to focus the desires and instincts of the partner, and that's a good thing. After all, vampires wouldn't go around causing chaos.
But for someone in Victor's situation, it's just an anchor that, while it has benefits, also has its drawbacks.
Soul Marriage completely nullifies this weakness.
"… What is a soul marriage?" Ruby was the first to speak since she didn't have enough information about it.
"Soul marriage: it is a way for two souls to bond eternally, a ritual that can only be done by gods who touched on a concept. By connecting the two souls, the two individuals became soulmates and will always be together. Even if they part, fate will somehow intervene and bring the two together once more. Even death will not separate the two beings. Because in the next life, these two beings will meet again. As long as the concept of a soul exists in the universe, beings married to this soul ritual will always be destined to be together."
"..." Violet, Ruby, and Natashia's eyes gleamed with obsession when they heard what the goddess said.
"…And when the two souls are together, they will be satisfied with only each other's presence… Which means-."
"The vampire's natural bloodlust can be ignored."
"...Not completely, it will exist, but it won't be as overwhelming, you will feel the bloodlust, but it won't be like a hunger where your stomach has a hole, rather it will be a hunger like that of a human who doesn't eat for a few hours."
"The effects will just be minimized."
....
