What was Damien expecting when he saw his women again?
At first, he thought he'd get beat up. The main reason was that he left without telling them anything.
But the situation was different. He didn't just leave, he actually died. It wasn't something he was able to control, and besides, they were adults now. An exaggerated reaction like that just wouldn't happen.
When he met them again and realized they knew he was Alexander, he once again thought he'd get nagged, but he was wrong again.
Their expressions said nothing about admonishments, and their behavior was as if they'd come to an agreement about something he was left in the dark about.
So what brought about Damien's hesitation if there were no visible consequences that would come to him?
Maybe it was himself?
Maybe it had something to do with them after all?
The answer was neither.
It was fear.
Because…
He happened to form a relationship with another woman during the time he was away.
But again, that was beside the point. Introducing them to Iris was a trial he'd undergo once their reunion ended. When they understood the situation, there was no way they'd react negatively.
Then, what really happened when Damien met his wives again?
They were all together as they usually were, sitting in a cottage huddled in the large mountain range that existed on Theavel's main continent.
That was a house made specifically for them, a place for them to spend their time when they wanted to get away from the world and relax.
It was a family home.
Damien appeared outside the door and paced back and forth for a while as he tried to figure out how he wanted to approach them, but he didn't really get the chance to act first.
The door swung open, and he came face to face with the three of them.
And…
He got beat up.
Well, maybe that was the wrong wording.
He got tackled to the ground in an instant as the three women rushed forward and embraced him with all their strength as if to do everything in their power to prevent him from leaving again.
They snuggled themselves into his warmth, and though he was using an Avatar body, that body was currently housing the majority of his soul.
He wanted to do this reunion properly, and for that purpose, he only left the bare minimum amount of his soul in his main body to sustain it in the Void and transferred the rest into the Avatar after it was created.
This kind of soul manipulation was impossible for any other Divinity, but wasn't the soul a piece of existence?
Damien only needed to spend some time understanding its nuances to do something like transferring it between bodies he owned.
Nevertheless, he was here at this remote location that nobody else knew with his whole body and spirit. He wasn't just a piece of himself, but the true Damien Void, even if his body wasn't necessarily human.
So he felt their warmth.
He felt their emotions.
And he felt their tears.
Their emotions had already been clearly displayed when they were fighting the final battle.
They didn't care about pretenses. They didn't care that they were "too old" to be acting like this.
The husband they thought was long gone had returned, and any grievance they were holding in their hearts disappeared when his presence returned.
What was the point of being angry?
In the first place, did Damien choose to leave them?
Even before he died, when he went to the Abyss and challenged Al'Katra on his own, what was the reason he did so?
It was because nobody else could make that journey with him.
He was the only one strong enough to do it.
How could they be mad at him for making a decision to protect them from harm?
It didn't matter how strong they were. He was facing enemies they couldn't even imagine, especially back then.
Rather than anger, what they felt was pure relief that he was safe.
They were just happy that he was back.
And Damien felt the same.
This was what he fought for.
His lonely struggle, this was the motivator that allowed him to endure it without a word of complaint.
They were his everything.
They were his support system, and they were his anchors, but more than anything else, they were the ones who'd accompanied him on his journey from the start.
With them, he could be himself. He didn't have to put up pretenses, and their presence seemed to melt away all his worries and inhibitions.
Whenever he imagined the peak, that place where he would inevitably stand in the future, he could never imagine himself without them.
He was proud to call them his wives, and he was proud that they called him their husband.
He loved them and they loved him.
Even if he lost everything right now, even if he was forced to return to being a mortal, he would be fine living out the rest of his life like that as long as they were beside him.
That was why he fought so hard.
Because if even a mortal lifespan that would come to an end after a mere 80 to 100 years with them seemed so blissful, wouldn't eternity with them be an absolute paradise?
He buried his love for them deep in his soul so he wouldn't be inhibited on the battlefield, because the thought of being separated from them by a barrier of time and space was soul-wrenching.
However, now that he was back, he allowed all those emotions to flow freely.
They flowed out and mixed with the emotions of these three women, who were thinking something almost exactly the same as him.
Just as they were his everything, he was their everything.
After experiencing a decade of what life was like without him, they never wanted to let him go again.
Their motivation to truly stand by his side was greater than ever, but that was a matter for the future.
Right now, they didn't care about anything like power or the future.
Only this moment mattered.
They remained on the ground, the four of them embracing each other, for several minutes without any movement.
They didn't need words. With the connection between them, a connection that surpassed space and time, surpassed words and actions, and surpassed even the barrier of souls that kept them as separate entities, they perfectly understood what each other were thinking and feeling in this moment.
The four of them relished in those feelings. They relished in each other's longing and affection, letting out everything they'd wanted to say to each other in the time they were separated with their feelings alone.
Tears began to form in Damien's eyes.
He was usually quite stoic these days, but he couldn't help it.
He almost wanted to stand up right here, right now, and ask them to be the mothers of his children.
But that could be set aside for another time.
Right now, he could only say two words, his voice cracking as he held back his tears and smiled.
"I'm back."
He was back.
And he didn't plan on leaving again any time soon.
