46 Ch. 46 Getting some Rooks

"Come Moka! That can't be all you have! Not if you truly desire to be my rook!" I called out as a haggard silver haired teen girl shakily stood on the opposite side of me.

She was tall for a girl, standing at 5'11 (180cm), long, straight silver hair going down her back, flawless white skin, shinning crimson eyes, a beautiful face with regal features, pride etched into herself, and a blossoming body she certainly inherited from her mother.

Unfortunately she was currently in a rather bad shape as her usual clothes, consisting of her school uniform (fire emblem: three houses, Edelgard), were torn and damaged, with bleeding gashes in many areas not covered by her armored arms and legs.

The teenager had gotten it in her head to become my first Rook after Ciri officially joined as my Pawn a few years back. The girl had taken care of everything she desired in her old world before returning for Good this time. Becoming my pawn due to the Knight positions having already been filled, my remaining Bishop wouldn't suit her well and the Rook just didn't suit her. And so she was now being trained to catch up to my other members as she was still the weakest, but had shown remarkable progress after being freed and gaining access to everything my other girls had.

Moka on the other hand, argued that her abilities as a Cain made her perfectly suited for the role of Rook, and that she was more than ready to join my Peerage saying some of my other girls had joined rather young and her own mother was part of Serafall's, so her joining shouldn't be a problem there. Her mother admitted to having weaker direct combat potential than Moka, while the teen made it rather tempting after she awakened a high-tier sacred gear that they named Darul lui Dracula, or Dracula's gift due to Moka's vampiric side, with the fact that the thing's abilities revolve around blood.

Her sacred gear allowed to manipulate blood at its core. To use it as a weapon, control the bodies of those weaker than her, use the innate life force and Mana within the blood to create powerful attacks, and to even reinforce her own body using her blood. It appeared in the shape of a black chocker with an upside down cross.

It was baffling to think Moka was not only a Cain, who's bloodline ability revolves around strengthening their bodies, but she also had a Sacred Gear she figured out how to stack on top of it, and then learnt Touki. She was arguably the one with the highest potential for a purely physical fighter.

Of course she wasn't nearly as skilled or experienced as my other physical fighters, but she was undoubtedly the most suitable for a 'tank'.

The only reasons why we were having this 'test' were because I wanted to see exactly where she was currently at strength wise and I was a bit hesitant to bring my lovely Satandaughter into my peerage.

But she grew up so fast.

I still remember her in her little white dress running to hug me with her happy smile. When she first came to show me her new pet bat and asking to keep it with her pouty bat eyes. When we played shadow tag to help her learn how to use her powers. Her first time breaking a wall with her bare hands. Helping Evangeline teach her how to dance like a proper noble. Showing her around the human world. And now the house's daughter is growing up, capable of beating up Ultimate classes.

I am so proud.

"*Cough cough cough* Not yet… I am not done yet Uncle!" She replied with great determination.

"Good! Show me your everything!" I said to her with pride in my eyes as I looked at her.

"I'll show you mother's original that she taught me then. It was based on Mana nee-sama and Yasaka Oba-san's embodiments." Moka announced as she gathered a great amount of darkness into her magic spell.

"Magia Erebea is it? To think you've come so far. I am so proud of you Moka." I responded with a soft smile.

Like Moka said, this was Evangeline's answer her admittedly lower close combat abilities compared to her longer ranged ones, inspired by Mana and Yasaka's embodiments of Lightning and Sun. She creates a set of offensive spells and uses a self-created magic to take them into herself to substantially boost her physical abilities while also assisting the casting of spells of the same 'element' taken in. The down sides however, are that taking in offensive magic tends to stimulate the more aggressive or negative emotions of the user and can send someone into a berserk state, but with my style of Touki many of the effects were mitigated substantially.

And now that she's activated it, her skin darkened, her silver hair became black, and even her greaves and gauntlets became a very dark grey. Her aura became sinister and dangerous as its power grew by a lot.

I knew she would have some troubles handling this Wild technique, so I gave her time to adjust. This was a test of her abilities, not a life or death battle. I wanted to see her going all out to know what to work on afterward.

So far she needs better hand-to-hand skills and techniques to maximize her ridiculous strength, her Sacred Gear needs a lot of work as she wastes much of its potential, her Touki is unrefined and now that she brought out Magia Erebea we also have to make sure she masters it completely and have her find the most appropriate element for her future 'style'. As a whole, most of it is due to her young age and somewhat lack of fighting experience outside my lands and our family. She can fix all of it with time and opportunity.

"Raaaah!" Moka yelled out a bit savagely as she burst forward with augmented speed, but that didn't matter. Magia Erebea enhanced attack power much more than speed when using darkness.

I was currently using Touki alongside my martial arts prowess to redirect her flow and continuously threw the poor girl as she rampaged about.

"Do not lose yourself Moka. Sacrificing everything for power is not how to beat an opponent who surpasses you there. This is only a method to kill both yourself and the enemy. Take control and fight like I know you can." I calmly told the heavily breathing teen.

She was already quite tired from going all out before, but Magia Erebea put a strain on her mind as well as her body, explaining why she gave into to it a bit too much and rushed about.

"Haaa haaa haaaaa…" She took many deep breaths to calm and focus herself before her crimson eyes snapped towards me and she burst forward with a proper approach. "Ha!"

Moka sent a powerful roundhouse to my face, only for it to be blocked, changing to Re-Taekwondo Hoe Grab as she used her momentum coupled with a burst of magic to lower my arm and strike with her other leg. Too bad I not only went with her grab but added my own movements to offset her attempt and block her second kick with a half-moon sweeping block, using my motion to twist and send her flying using a spinning back kick.

Her attempt was good, but I am the one who taught her those moves. Still really proud of her usage though.

Moka stood up shakily with her arms limp at her side.

'Looks like she managed to react enough to block at this level.' I briefly thought.

"Haaa…haaa…I'll show you… everything I have!" Moka cried out as she concentrated all her magic, Touki and power into her right leg. Reinforcing it and empowering it as she took a kicking stance.

'Oh ho? Now that's looks like an original.' I thought as I quickly analyzed the energy flow and signature. 'A bit similar to my 'Rending Azure Dragon' kick.'

With a courageous cry, Moka sent out her kick as cleaving wave of dark energy furiously approached, taking shape of an open maw as it neared me. The attack was powerful to say the least, maybe even capable of harming some leaders in the three factions.

'Acceptance.' I thought as my right hand shifted with my partial use of my balance breaker, becoming metallic and forming a hole to 'accept' Moka's attack as if a black hole.

Knowing her last attack failed, the girl had a wry smile as if to say 'I knew it' and then collapsed backwards.

Seeing this I appeared beside her and caught my little satandaughter.

"That was certainly impressive. Even more so for someone your age. Well done Moka. I'm proud of you." I softly told her as she exhaustedly closed her eyes with a small, prideful smile.

"She has many rough edges, but she truly is impressive for her age. As expected of one of my disciples." Scáthach said as she too appeared.

She wasn't the only one to do so either as both mine and Sera's peerages observed the fight.

"I cannot wait for our next spar!" Musashi excitedly said with shinning eyes.

"Neither can I! To have such a sister joining us is always good news!" Diana heartily followed up with her confident smile.

"*Sigh* Did you have to push her so hard? She hasn't fully mastered Magia Erebea yet and it could be dangerous for her." Evangeline asked with worry as she eyed her sleeping daughter carefully.

"Mou~ She's right Lith! How dare you hurt our precious Mo-chan!" My wife scolded as she joined her Queen in looking over Moka.

"It was a test. I couldn't make it easy for her." I replied with a wry smile of my own.

"Well she certainly was impressive. I don't think I was that strong until I was 40 myself." Commented Mana with a calm smile.

"True. I can't believe that little bat lover grew up so quick." Jeanne followed up with some fondness in her eyes.

"It looks like we will have to increase our training if we do not wish to be surpassed so easily." Perseus said to Elsa as the two watched their fretting King and Queen.

"Indeed. We can't let ourselves be the weak links." The ice and snow spirit answered even though she was proud of the girl at the same time.

"Scáthach, Musashi, I'll need some more training to not fall behind either." Ciri said as she was currently around Moka's level without Magia Erebea.

The two nodded as Musashi became excited to fight her too and Scáthach was pleased to have a motivated student.

"So Lith, how did those armaments I gave her hold up?" Da Vinci asked as she was the one who created Moka's arm and leg gear.

"Very well for the Ultimate-class level. They helped channel her abilities into her limbs while containing the extra stuff for themselves, resulting in more powerful blows than she could achieve normally. There is some delay when her sacred gear came into play however, so some adjustment will have to be made. And I'm not sure if the impact dampening effects worked properly by the end." I answered honestly as any progress would help Moka and Da Vinci.

"I see. I'll take them back to my workshop later to analyze them in depth. And when those two are done mothering her, I'll ask have Moka fill out my customer satisfaction form." The polymath replied as she looked at a conjured screen which she used to analyze our battle.

"I'm sure she'll be happy about it." I said with a little chuckle before turning to everyone. "Alright, let's get her cleaned and healed up before getting her to her room. I'm sure you all knew the result of this 'test' before hand, but we will have the announcement once she awakens. And due to this, we will be going to get everyone some familiars this weekend, so I expect everyone to be free for it."

A chorus of agreement followed as everyone went back to doing their thing beside Sera and Evangeline who were taking care of Moka.

Healing her injuries wasn't difficult by any stretch, we just needed to wait for the girl to wake up so she could drink some blood and get her energy back. That took a few hours on its own, followed by her drinking about 4 blood bags of my 'human' blood before she was on her feet. Moka then rushed to my office as quickly as possible, making Sera and Evangeline chase after her out of worry.

Their chase came to an end once Moka slammed open my door, stopping to do so, which resulted in Sera being a bit clumsy and crashing into her, making both tumble in and revealing some panty shots while Evangeline looked at the two in bafflement.

'Sera is quite adventurous today, crotchless black, while Moka is surprisingly innocent for such a naturally seductive girl, cute white. Moka's, for lack of better word, would probably drive her admires crazy due to the contrast between her personality and panty choice. This might have been done by Sera on purpose to tempt me by informing me of her current underwear.' I quickly thought as Sera acted very innocently, faking some pain and Moka hurried to her feet with a blush as she pulled the dress she had been changed into down.

"Hello to you too ladies." I greeted in amusement at the weird anime event which occurred.

I've grown rather fond of seeing such things after over a century. No one seemed to find it odd in this world, but observing the fascinating physics of an ecchi anime world is just fun and usually a pleasant sight.

"Did you see?" Moka asked with a glare.

"Yup. Very cute choice Moka. I'm sure whichever man or woman who sees you in those won't be able to resist the wonderfully contrasting effect." I answered shamelessly.

'I wonder if Sera is rubbing off on me too much or if this is the effect of powerful/old people being eccentric or shameless law in anime? I don't remember saying things like that before. Is it because I accepted having a harem and my thoughts became more unreserved?' I wondered briefly as it seemed my personality was changing a bit as I grew older into my hundred's. 'It's not bad per say, kinda fun even. I'll see how things go. Might explain Sera's sis-con and magical girl thing a bit more too.'

"Tsk. And yet no reaction when it matters." Moka muttered under her breath with a light blush, forgetting that we all had super senses apparently, or maybe she did it on purpose as

"It's ok Mo-chan~! I'll help you take him down!" Serafall declared as she excitedly stood up, causing the poor girl to erupt in a blush this time.

'Not sure about this one. I'll have to talk to her and Evangeline about that.' I thought as my wife once again wanted to do something without my opinion.

I'm not stupid. Everyone knows Moka has a bit of an Uncle/Father Complex due to me being her father figure, age not exactly mattering much in the supernatural, my slowly growing harem, her being raised on my blood and not accepting any other as a result, and the lack of 'better' males she doesn't completely beat up because she refuses to have a weak or stupid partner.

"Aunt Sera!?!" Moka yelled out in horror at being heard.

"*Sigh* Not the time to deal with my daughter's preferences Sera." Evangeline reprimanded.

"Booo~" my wife complained as she let herself be dragged away from Moka by her Queen.

"*Ahem* Anyway, " I said as I brought their attention to me, "I'm guessing you came here for the results of your test Moka."

"Y-yes! I mean, that's right uncle." She replied a bit nervously as she fixed her outfit and hair in a hurry.

"Well…" I started and paused for dramatic effect since she looks cute all tense, "You passed with flying colors. Congratulations dear."

"Truly?" The dhampir asked in disbelief.

"Yes." I answered as I made my rook appear in my hands.

Moka's eyes immediately locked onto the black piece with pulsing celestial veins as I stood up and approached her.

"Ready to become my Rook?" I asked her with a grin.

"Born ready." She confidently answered as she looked into my eyes.

"Brace yourself then. This might feel weird." I told her as I placed the rook piece over her heart and let it merge into her.

My magic circle appeared below her as floods of magic flowed into Moka, strengthening her body even further, changing it into that of a half Devil.

It took a few minutes, but soon Moka opened her crimson eyes and with a dramatic burst of devil mana she all but announced herself a devil.

"Congratulations my dear." Evangeline said as she hugged her daughter warmly.

"Thanks mom." Moka happily replied as the Golden haired beauty hugged the silver one.

"Yay~! Mo-chan became a devil too. Let's tell everyone and have a party!" Sera declared excitedly while raising her fist in the air.

"Haha! There's going to be quite the festival once again!" I heartily added as it became tradition to hold a full festival when either myself or Sera get a new peerage member.

We had one for Ciri too, and it was a blast like always.

"Let's tell everyone in the house first shall we?" Suggested Evangeline as she looked at the two of us with an amused look on her face.

"That's right! Let's go Mo-chan, Eva-chan!" Serafall hastily agreed as she grabbed the both of them and ran off to tell everyone as I chuckled at her antics.

By the end of the day the news of my new Rook had been heard throughout the capital and was rapidly spreading as we had our own in house celebration for Moka.

The girl was all smiles as she also got to enjoy her first taste of supernatural alcohol. Everyone was rather looking forward to her struggles tomorrow.

Turns out Moka was a cute drunk.

She began acting incredibly ditsy and cute as she almost turned into a second Serafall with a penchant for cuddling.

Her mother was shocked since the girl was usually very serious, prideful and confident, but then a second shocker was the fact that Moka apparently had a secret collection of cute stuffed animals Fia, and for some reason Da Vinci, had found. Unfortunately poor drunk Moka could not stop many of her 'secrets' being exposed today. Not even the 'me' plushie which was actually quite popular across my territory alongside some other Lord Azaroth memorabilia.

Turns out myself, my wife, our peerages and a few of our high ranking personnel had products made after us. That led to everyone getting curious and going out to see what they were. So now everyone had a plushie version of themselves, while Serafall got herself a copy of everyone.

Fun evening overall, and the painful groans turned to cries of despair as Moka learnt of her drunken behavior and her secrets being revealed was a nice touch.

Poor girl was rather unsuccessful in trying to beat the amusing memories out of everyone's heads.

The rest of the week was more focused on Moka's training to help her get familiar with the changes the Rook piece brought to her and to enjoy the festival in honor of her joining my peerage.

During said festival we discovered that there was actually an interesting event regarding possible new peerage members for myself and Serafall. This wasn't anything incredibly specific, it was a sort of a dead pool where people could try to guess what species or race would join next due to us having humans, a part youkai, a spirit, two Demi-gods, a vampire and dhampir.

Currently many were betting on part humans, devil and fallen Angel even. Some thought it would be a supernatural race from Japan or Greece. A few somehow thought I was going to recruit an uncorrupted Angel. The option for dragons was there as well. But a surprising amount wanted a Valkyrie for some reason. It was interesting and in good humor, with our house even placing some bets.

I personally picked dragon due to our impending visit to the familiar forest and I wanted to discuss a few things with Tiamat.

The next few days were rather carefree or everyone, until the weekend came and the girls became a bit excited. Well except for Jeanne who had Godzilla, she kept the name to mock God a bit, while Moka and Evangeline already have their bat familiars, and Scáthach who had a familiar in the past, my Queen being a bit nostalgic about everything right now. Sera's peerage was coming along to try their luck for fun due to them already having a familiar.

But there would be one more coming with us today, Ereshkigal.

I had asked the goddess about Tiamat and she admitted that the current Great Dragon King, the Chaos Karma Dragon, had in fact been born from the primordial goddess' remains. Eresh explained that due to some conflicts between the primordial Mesopotamian gods and her father's generation, she was eventually killed and split into several pieces to help the pantheon's territory flourish. Unfortunately for them, Tiamat's remains also gave birth to many monsters while the largest piece gave birth to what could be considered the Chaos Karma Dragon, Tiamat. (Altered from actual myth to fit DxD)

It explained much about her known abilities regarding poison and water, as well as her destructive and slightly corruptive blue flames. The remains of the goddess Tiamat, who was said to be related to water, creation and primordial Chaos, can also give some explanation as to her title, with her myth giving hints as to why she protects the familiar forest.

And after hearing about our impending visit to the familiar forest Tiamat resided in, Eresh basically begged to come along. She wanted to talk to someone who had technically survived from her pantheon and possibly become friends with her. Both had rather unpleasant experiences with the Mesopotamian chief god back in the day, so at least there should be some common ground.

The tsundere goddess did reveal that Kur actually sealed a great deal of the original Tiamat's remains, which in theory had some of the primordial goddess' leftover divinity still preserved within due to being one of the most powerful gods in the past and Kur itself stopping everything from dissipating to not create more monsters. It had been one of her responsibilities, but they never did anything so during the millennia she kind of forgot about it until Tiamat was mentioned.

It was kind of adorable to watch her be so embarrassed about it, so I didn't hold it against her or anything. I was actually intrigued since now I might have a chance at actually obtaining a strong ally and potential goddess again.

Eresh seemed quite happy about being useful and became all silly when I gave her my 'True Headpat' technique, until her embarrassment kicked in and her tsun side emerged as she ran away anyway.

Good time that was.

'I might be enjoying getting reactions out of people a bit too much lately.' I briefly thought before getting back to the matter at hand.

With everyone gathered, I opened a portal to the coordinates I had received for the forest from Serafall, and we all walked through it without a care as we found ourselves in what would be easily described as a haunted forest by many.

"Alright, now that we're here, these are the rules for people visiting this place. We will be following them unless something somehow endangers your lives, which shouldn't happen unless you break too many rules.

First off, if a possible familiar does not wish to come with you or you can't convince it, you are not allowed to take it away forcibly.

Next, we are not to damage the forest itself as best as possible.

Third, we only have until the end of the day to pick, if you do not find any willing familiar then that's bad luck for you.

Fourth, do not try to touch Tiamat's treasure under any circumstances or she will go berserk. She's particularly sensitive to her horde after the Heavenly Dragon of Domination took a lot of it then broke/lost it all.

And finally, Tiamat is the big boss of this place and she technically owns the forest. If she says we leave, then we leave. Devils do not wish to lose such a convenient place to gain familiars and if abiding by her rules are the conditions for access, then we listen." I told them all as I focused on my trouble makers in particular.

"Why do those prideful old bats even listen to her?" Ciri asked as has had a few altercations with some visiting dignitaries before I sent them back, petrified that I was going to ruin them for trying to touch one of my mine.

"Tiamat is a Great Dragon King. One of the five strongest Dragons in existence, and even amongst them she is said to stand at the top. Officially, she is the strongest dragon beside Ophis and Great Red after the deaths of the two heavenly dragons. Her personal power is currently slightly lower than Falbium's level as a Satan-class powerhouse. They don't want to piss her off needlessly." I answered.

"And I take it you are going to speak to this dragon while the rest look for familiars?" Scáthach asked this time out of mild curiosity.

"Yes. I have some things I want to discuss with her. Jeanne and Moka will be coming with me while I want you to oversee the rest." I told her as she nods in acceptance of her role for today.

And on the off chance Scáthach encounters a being she would desire a contract with, that would be a plus.

"No fair~ I want to meet Tiamat too. I haven't met many dragons and she would be the first female one." Serafall complained childishly as she clung to me.

"I am sure you can meet her after you pick a familiar love. My discussion with her really shouldn't turn violent since I've heard from Ajuka that she is cordial to most who don't annoy her." I responded as I coxed her.

"Mmm… ok then. I'll go find a super cute familiar then come back~" my wife declared as she suddenly went ahead of everyone.

"Evangeline, if you please." I said to her with an apologetic smile.

"*Sigh* I swear, this king of mine." She exasperatedly said as she went after the Satan.

"Well then everyone, happy hunting. We will meet back here later." I said as they all quickly dispersed, leaving me with my pawn, rook and goddess of the Underworld.

"Sera is as willful as always." Jeanne commented with a small grin.

"Aunty can be a bit too energetic at times." Moka admitted as she likely remembered some embarrassing instances of Sera showing up to her school.

"Haha! But that makes her the Sera we all love." I said to them, to which they did nod, "Now let's go. Tiamat should be in those mountains over there. It's where I sense the strongest energy signature."

'But what is weird is the mildly similar, if albeit weaker, signature near it. Is there a second dragon residing here or is that her mate?' I thought as we took our time as Jeanne and I walked hand in hand, much to my enjoyment as she still blushed cutely.

That changed a bit when her competitive side reared its head after she noticed the envious looks Moka and Eresh were giving, changing from shy to smug, as I amusedly watch the silent but comedic acts.

Along our way we noticed a few species like pixies, tiny 'demons', some rarer elemental sprits which I am quite sure Elsa will recruit to her people's town, a few young dragons and various near animal-like monsters.

As we neared Tiamat's residence, we could all feel her, but what was weirder was that now she and the second dragon were arguing as their energy fluctuated.

"Why is there another female dragon arguing with Tiamat?" Eresh asked aloud in confusion.

"The other is dragon is female? Not Tiamat's mate?" I asked her as many possibilities were shut down but it narrowed them down considerably as well.

"No, that's not a mate. Too young and weak to beat Tiamat. Female dragons won't mate if the male isn't stronger than them, so I can only assume that with the passing of the Heavenly Dragons Tiamat probably never took a mate. But it makes no sense for another strong female dragon to be here either." She answered as best she could.

I had to admit I wasn't too familiar with the normal dragons of this world. My main focuses were the two peaks and the ones now in Longinus. The rest were too weak to really do anything except for the future Crom Cruach, who I have already surpassed anyway. I do respect that they are indeed the strongest race going by individual ability, but the ones not born from the dimensional gap lack any Top Ten powerhouses since the fall of the Heavenly Dragons.

"You can't even leave wyverns of the same gender around each other for too long or they start getting nippy at each other, trying to form a hierarchy. I can't imagine real dragons being better with their pride." Jeanne commented casually since we aren't exactly worried about the strength of said dragons.

Jeanne could take on Tiamat and Moka the younger one, while Ereshkigal had the raw power to beat Tiamat as well, she did not have proper combat experience nor direct combat abilities so it would be dangerous for her. Meanwhile I could easily take them both alongside my own team.

"Hmph. I kind of want to test myself against such beings." Moka said as her innate vampiric pride wouldn't let her be seen as inferior to many and her minor battle lust drove her forward.

'I blame Scáthach, Musashi and Diana for making her love fighting too much.' I thought as my precious Moka slightly turned into a fighting maniac like those three. 'Evangeline should have turned it down on the pride stuff as well.'

"Let's see where things go then." I said to my group as we finally got near enough to see and hear the situation properly.

"Why can't I go fight them mom? The guests this time are strong so it shouldn't be a problem." A surprisingly whinny, childlike voice said.

"No chance. I can't risk anyone learning of you." The older, more authoritative woman's voice answered.

Before us was the sight of two rather large Western Dragons, arguing as apparently they were mother and child.

The larger one with the no-nonsense tone, was a rather majestic dragon with celestial blue scales across her powerful body, only leaving her underbelly white, a pair of deep blue horns adorning her head, sapphire eyes and Great wings folded against her body.

While the smaller and more childish one was largely pink with a red underbelly, a single horn near her snout, a pair of eyes matching her so-called mother, but her tail seemed to have a spear-like tip her mother didn't.

"But I'm so booooorreed." The pink dragon complained. "I can't even leave the forest. I want to see things, fight strong people, and find father."

"No. If you wish to fight I shall accompany you, but I will not let you risk your life so you can find that bastard." The blue one responded harshly, almost desperately actually.

"Tiamat… has a new child?" Ereshkigal absentmindedly said aloud in disbelief.

It would seem the two dragons heard us as the blue, being Tiamat, and the pink one, both snapped their heads towards. Tiamat glared with hostility while the pink one's eyes screamed excitement.

"Yay! The strong people came, one of you fight me!" The pink dragon happily yelled as she rushed forward.

"Milim no!" Tiamat shouted as her eyes widened in… fear?

Seeing the rushing dragon, the girls looked at me with an obvious question in their eyes: How do we handle this?

"She wants to have a fun fight, Moka can give it to her. No permanent injuries or killing blows. Think of it as your debut fight as my rook." I said to them as Moka let out an excited grin before reinforcing her body and bursting forward to meet the charging dragon head on.

"You sure about letting her fight the offspring of a protective mother dragon?" Jeanne asked me casually as we both knew I was much more protective.

"It'll be fine. They both enjoy a good fight going by the pink one's joy at getting a chance for one. It's rather innocent as well." I replied with a shrug as we kept our eyes on Tiamat who was being very serious in front of us.

"What do you want devil?" She venomously asked as if we were suddenly mortal ennemies.

"Well, it wasn't my intention to do anything. I wanted to talk with you regarding a few things, make a couple of offers, but I really didn't expect the Chaos Karma Dragon to have an offspring." I answered feeling a bit speechless at how the situation evolved.

"You will not have her!" Tiamat roared out as she blew azure flames at us.

I didn't move as Jeanne used Incinerate Anthem's mutated crimson flames to block the attack.

"Why would I want your child? I wanted to discuss some mutually beneficial opportunities." I asked in minor confusion over why exactly she believed I would do anything to a juvenile dragon, even if it has shown great potential for being so strong at a relatively young age.

I was actually tempted to try and have her come under my own wing.

Talented, young for her race, a desire to fight strong individuals which indicates a wish to be stronger as well, and a good bloodline as she is the offspring of the strongest dragon king. It helps that she seems childish, a bit hard-headed, wants to see the world and is likely to not have much life experience.

It was like she was begging for someone to tempt her.

But if it brought such a reaction from Tiamat, it wasn't worth it. A dragon with great potential over the possible return of a primordial goddess wasn't worth it at the moment.

"Wait please! We really only want to talk Tiamat!" Eresh yelled out as she flew in front of the protective dragon.

"A goddess!" Tiamat said as her eyes widened, until a flash of recognition passed through her eyes. "Eresh…kigal?"

"Um, yes. It's been a long time Tiamat." The blonde goddess replied a bit awkwardly, but at least it stopped the immediate desperate attempts at driving us away.

"What are you doing here? Are you here to take away my only remaining child from me again?" The dragon suspiciously asked as she was still prepared to fight.

I mean, it is kind of understandable considering her goddess self was used and discarded, then split apart by the Mesopotamian gods. After they killed her children, both godly and the monster ones she had to have her revenge/fight not die.

"No! Of course not. I actually wanted to talk to you since we're the only ones left from our Pantheon." Ereshkigal hurriedly answered.

"I have not been part of that Pantheon for thousands of years. The other gods made very sure of that." Tiamat replied with narrowed eyes.

"What if you could become part of a new Pantheon?" I asked as I joined Eresh to Tiamat's snout level.

"Explain." Tiamat responded with narrowed eyes.

"You see, I am currently planning to create a sort of new Pantheon in my quest for growth and the general improvement of my lands, and I would much prefer to have it be formed with Gods and Goddesses who share some like minded goals or morals than naturally formed ones." I began to explain.

"You wish to become a god." The dragon stated plainly.

"In a sense, but somewhat different in a way I will not explain unless you truly join me." I replied casually. "Ereshkigal has already agreed, with three more goddesses in my ranks. Now I came to you due to Eresh informing me of what lays sealed below Kur and the possibility of yourself regaining your past incarnation's divinities."

"You cannot form a Pantheon simply by gathering gods." Tiamat said as she pointed out something true.

"Indeed. But I already have a solution and plan for this, which I won't reveal unless you join of course." I replied seriously. "And if the safety of your child is so important, then I'm sure we can come up with something better than forcing her to live her entire life shackled to this forest."

"You would not say this so casually, Devil, if you knew of her so-called father." Tiamat spat out when she spoke of her 'mate'.

"A child should not bear the sins of the parents." I said to her sincerely.

"But that is how the world is." The dragon replied with some sadness.

"Tiamat, you can trust that Lith will keep you and your child safe. He already has dozens of different races he is protecting in his territory and he's strong enough to easily surpass my father and the old Pantheon." Ereshkigal gently said as she looked at dragon before her.

"Heh. Even if she is the child of a Heavenly Dragon?" Tiamat questioned as she seemed to give up hearing Ereshkigal's words.

"Well I'll be damned." Jeanne exclaimed in shock.

"Y-you actually? With him?" Eresh asked in confusion due to the very well known dislike Tiamat had for at least one of those.

"And judging by your tone and her coloring, it wasn't Albion's child." I said as pieces fell into place. "When?"

"*Sigh* When he came to ask for my treasures he also brought some alcohol to appease me. Once I was drunk my instincts took over, my repressed mating instincts to be more specific, and as Ddraig was the strongest male dragon I was close to, we mated.

It was only a few years later that I realized I was pregnant, but by then the bastard not only lost or destroyed my treasures he borrowed, but he got himself killed by the three factions and whatever was left became part of the Boosted Gear. I then started chasing after him, but the coward always felt me coming and ran.

Milim's conception time was long, incredibly so even by my race's standards. Taking almost 50 years before fully forming and another 30 for her to hatch. And going by her innate strength and the time it took to birth her, I knew she would be seen as an even greater threat than her father if she was discovered, so I hid her. I could not let my last chance at a child die because of her damnable father's actions." Tiamat explained as she grew rather vulnerable.

She likely explained everything due to Ereshkigal's words regarding my strength. Sure Tiamat is strong and has a dragon's pride, she would also fight to the death if need be, but she also wasn't a fool. She understood that if I was as strong as Eresh claimed, and with the goddess herself being here and Jeanne's ability to block her flame, Tiamat and her daughter wouldn't stand much of chance at surviving if things became hostile for real. So she chose to temporarily trust in my words while being ready to fight in case I decided to kill her child.

But when she looked at me, she didn't see anything hostile or serious, she saw my excitement.

"You're telling me that pink dragon having fun with my satandaughter, is yours and Ddraig's child?" I asked for clarification as a devilish grin grew on my face.

"Looks like Lith is in recruitment mode again." Jeanne said from the side.

"Y-yes. And recruitment mode?" A now slightly hesitant Tiamat asked Jeanne.

"He just can't help himself when he see's people with potential. He recruited a god-slayer, vampire royalty, a couple of Demi-gods and a quartet of goddesses just this century." Answered the ex-saint with a mildly amused smile as she looked at me.

"So Tiamat, if I can guarantee the safety of your child, help her grow stronger, and have you become a goddess once again, would you join my Pantheon and follow me to a better future?" I asked in my devil's offer voice.

"And how do you propose on keeping her safe? She will not agree to being confined. For the last decade I've had to even make barriers so she wouldn't flee when I wasn't looking." The mother dragon asked in return.

"By either having her join my peerage or forming a familiar contract with the girl." I answered with a confident smile.

"And how would this protect her?" Was the response.

"Because I am Lith Azaroth, Lord of House Azaroth, unofficially the strongest devil in existence and husband to the Satan Leviathan. If anyone dares try to touch my people then they must prepare for my wrath." I proudly answered. "Her becoming either part of my peerage or my familiar means she joins my family. And no one touches my family."

"Unofficially the strongest?" She asked with the equivalent of a raised eyebrow for a dragons

"No one beyond my close ones know of my true strength. Even my wife will soon transcend our race's limits and join the real powerhouses of the world." I answered with a slightly cocky grin. "I would have to kill far too many people if they knew of my strength and that isn't ideal at the moment."

"Prove it. Make me submit and I shall agree to your offer." Tiamat declared as she grew very serious, unleashing her might as a Great Dragon King.

"If you insist." I replied as I took my [True Form], utterly crushing her aura and warping time and space around us.

-Back in time a bit, Moka vs Milim fight. (which had been happening the entire time but was being kept track of by the 'grown ups' subtly to make sure no one got hurt for real)

Off in a desolate part of the mountains where Milim was usually trained by her mother, the pink dragon clashed against the silver haired Dhampir in a contest of might, causing explosive impacts as the two collided over and over again.

"Hahahahaha!!! This is so much fun!" The ecstatic dragon yelled as she swiped at the much smaller figure, only for her claw to be batted away and forced to block Moka's counter with her wing, sending the dhampir backwards in the process.

Milim then took a deep breath and let out a powerful blast of fire.

Seeing this, Moka activated her Sacred Gear and opened her storage ring to let out the great quantity of blood she kept on her person to take full advantage of her resources and not be relient on either her own or her opponents blood to properly use Dracula's Gift.

The silver haired teen then formed a protective blood barrier, effectively protecting herself while focusing on strengthening her body.

"Hooo! You blocked my dragon's breath! What about this!" Milim exclaimed as she sent forward her pointed tail and to Moka's surprise, it easily pierced through her barrier, forcing her to dodge.

To retaliate, Moka gathered blood above herself and sent it down with a thrust of her balm as the blood shaped itself in one as well.

'Purgatorial Palm' Moka inwardly said as she added her mana to strengthen her strike.

The sudden attack from above surprised Milim as wrapped her tail around herself, shielded her body with her wings and minimized her size while imbuing herself with mana and Draconic energy to further strengthen her body, knowing the area of impact was too wide to dodge and the attack too strong to counter without sufficient build up.

So Milim suffered under the great palm strike as it left an identifiable imprint on the ground, with only a deeper part in the middle where a coiled up dragon shakily stood up.

"Whooa~ that was one hell of a strike!" The woozy dragon said as she shook her head.

"And to think you took it on and still remain capable of fighting, truly a dragon cannot be underestimated." Moka replied feeling quite impressed.

"Hehe! Yeah, but now it my turn." Milim responded as Moka's eyes widened at the great amount of energy being pumped into the pink dragon's claws.

It was her turn to not be prepared to face her opponent's attack, but then suddenly an incredibly powerful aura engulfed them, one Moka recognized from when she asked her beloved uncle to show her his real power.

"Mother!!" The pink dragon screamed as it realized the aura was coming from where her mother should be, so she took off in a hurry.

-Back to Lith.

"*Gasp* haaa haaa haa. Some she wasn't lying when she said you surpassed them." Tiamat said as she recovered from the pressure she had been under.

"I told you. Lith is really powerful, but he's also really nice." Eresh proudly said as she puffed out her modest chest.

"As ridiculous as always." Jeanne commented.

"I do what I can to keep my loved ones safe, even if they are already badass warriors." I flirtatiously responded as gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, causing my pawn to blush lightly and turn her head the other way, also resulting in an envious stare by a blonde.

"Mother!!!" A young female voice cried out in worry as the pink dragon landed in front of the celestial blue one. "Are you ok?!"

"Yes, I'm fine Milim." Tiamat fondly replied as she was quite enjoying her child worrying about her.

"Did they try to bully you? I'll show them!" The smaller dragon declared as she turned around to face us.

"Calm yourself." A now amused and touched Tiamat lightly scolded her daughter with a tap of her tail on the snout.

"Ow! Mom, why'd you do that?" Milim complained as she rubbed her snout with her paw.

"Because they aren't enemies. I made a deal with them and asked the man to prove his strength before agreeing and he did." Tiamat calmly explained to her daughter.

"What kind of deal? And is that guy is that strong? Is he stronger than father?" The pink dragon rapidly asked out of sheer curiosity.

"He is indeed very strong, as for being stronger than that bastard, I would say yes." Tiamat answered after a bit of thought.

"Ooooh! Someone stronger than father!" Milim exclaimed as she turned her attention towards me with giant sparkling eyes.

"Nice to meet you Milim. My name is Lith Azaroth." I said to the dragon with a small smile.

"Nice to meet you too~" Milim replied happily before being engulfed in light and quickly shrinking and taking her human form.

Said human form was one of a young teenage girl with glossy pink hair tied into twin-tails which reached near her hips, sparkling sapphire eyes, a cute but mischievous face with little fangs poking out of her mouth, and wearing a rather skimpy outfit of an open black belly jacket with a white wrapping around her almost flat chest, black panties, no pants, and a pair of almost knee high boots.

'Quite the interesting choice of outfit and she is clearly a girl going through a tomboy phase.' I though as the girl approached me with great curiosity.

"I'm Milim Y Goch and I chose you as my mate!" The girl suddenly declared as she pointed her finger at me, causing Jeanne to raise an eyebrow of amusement.

"No way! You can't just cut in line!" Ereshkigal replied protectively as she now clung to my arm while glaring at the young dragon.

"Déjà vue." Jeanne quietly said as we both remembered a particular Amazonian princess I was going to marry soon.

"Milim! What kind of nonsense are you saying!" Tiamat shouted as she prepared to scold her offspring.

"But mom, you said dragons pick the strongest male as their mates and that I shouldn't chose any worthless men like father, so I thought choosing someone even stronger than father would be perfect." Milim explained rather naively, which made Eresh calm down at the realization that the girl likely doesn't really understand what she just said.

But then she also realized what she just did and said, turning her head mechanically to see my teasing grin.

"So there's a line?" I teasingly asked, causing the goddess to blush almost from head to toe before I leaned in and whispered, "When is it your turn Eresh~"

And just like that she was gone, fainting as her face turned redder and steam came out of it through sheer embarrassment.

"And Milim, I'm not into kids. Grow up and then we can talk about maybe becoming mates if my lovers and wife agree." I told the girl as she argued with her mother.

"I'll just beat them up and show them who's boss!" She countered as if that was a brilliant idea.

"Hahaha! Good luck with that, they're all stronger than your mother!" I heartily replied.

"Grrrr! Then I'll challenge them after becoming stronger than mom!" The pink haired girl said as she realized her plan wasn't as easy as it seemed.

"What kind of lovers do you have?" Tiamat asked aloud after hearing about their strength.

"A Satan, God-slayer, Kyuubi and Jeanne here. With a Demi-god Amazonian joining soon." I answered with a prideful grin.

"How… varied." Tiamat responded in a deadpanned voice before she too began shifting into her human form.

Before us now stood a beautiful woman with a body worthy of being a goddess of life, straight and long beautiful pale blue hair, dark blue eyes, and a cold atmosphere that radiates from her beauty. She was wearing a rather simple navy one piece dress which was barely containing the breasts which could compete with Yasaka's and hips which defeated her's.

"Blame my wife. I tried to be faithful. She just kept bringing people." I shrugged.

"Regardless, I, Tiamat, the Chaos Karma Dragon, submit to Lith Azaroth in exchange for our agreed upon terms. Should Milim agree of course." Tiamat said as she moved passed the lovers and focused on the important matter at hand.

"Agree with what?" Milim asked curiously.

"In exchange for his protection and helping me become a goddess again, I agreed to submit, but you must agree to become either a member of his peerage or his familiar first. If you don't then there won't be any deal." Tiamat explained calmly to her child.

"You were a goddess mother?!" A shocked Milim asked.

"A long time ago." Tiamat replied with a bit of a sad smile.

Milim might not act very intelligent, but she was perceptive enough to not dig into the subject as she turned to me.

"What do I get for joining you?" The girl asked seriously.

"As a familiar you will get my protection, a large degree of freedom and a great amount of ressources available to you for training. This has the most freedom and the least responsibility. As a result of our bond, you will gain an affinity towards [Space/Time] magic, and you can train alongside my people.

As my peerage member you will become family. This has less freedom due to the duties and responsibilities being a peerage member to someone like myself brings, but I will do everything in my power to help you grow stronger as the best of everything will be available to you, from ressources, equipment, opponents and trainers. And judging by how you fought against Moka, you would be my second Rook, thus giving you a significant boost to your raw strength and durability." I answered the young dragon as she went deep into thought.

"Mom?" She asked as she wanted a second opinion or support.

"It's up to you dear. Mom will support you no matter what you decide." Tiamat gently replied as she encouraged her daughter.

"Then I want to be a peerage member! Then once I'm strong enough you will be my mate!" The girl declared causing her mother to facepalm as she muttered things regarding educating her daughter.

"Good luck with that little girl. And don't worry about the evil piece, if it comes to it I can safely remove it with ease. I helped create them after all." I said to the mother-daughter pair, which did relieve Tiamat as she knew about the pieces. "Now come here girly."

The pink haired girl approached confidently as I held out my second rook and let it merge into her chest, causing a surge in demonic energy and alerting everyone currently looking for familiars.

The first to appear were Scáthach, Sera and Mana, but the rest soon followed.

"Honey, what are you doing?" Sera asked even if she already knew, it was more to get a proper explanation.

"I found an irresistible candidate for my rook and she agreed. And Tiamat will also be coming back with us." I summarized.

"And who was it that made you turn them on the spot? Usually you take your time?" My wife asked knowing me very well.

"The child of the Chaos Karma Dragon and Red Dragon Emperor." I told her with an excited smile.

"*Sigh* It had to be ridiculous. But I am an awesome wife so I'll make sure no one does something stupid." Serafall energetically said.

"Love you~" I responded as I gave her a deep kiss, which she milked for all it's worth.

"Love you too~ But you owe me more than that hubby~" She said with a heated look.

"Orgy." I simply whispered in her ears.

"Really?!" Was her now very excited reply.

"I'll call Yasa to come by tomorrow." I replied with a nod.

"You're the best!" She screamed as she gave a fierce hug.

Of course everyone actually heard everything even if they were keeping an eye on the new member's transformation, so Jeanne blushed, Scáthach licked her lips seductively, while the rest were a mixture of embarrassment, jealousy and wry acceptance at our behavior.

A few minutes later, the energy ceased to gather to reveal Milim in all her glory.

"Haha! Milim Y Goch, rook of my future mate Lith, nice to meet you all!" The happy girl proclaimed as this got me a few looks until Tiamat dragged her daughter away for some scolding.

Unfortunately for about half of our group, they weren't able to find any good enough familiars due to the ruckus Moka and Milim's fight created, with Milim's transformation and my [True Form] not helping either.

But Mana came back with a Thunder Hawk chick, Medea has a chromatic serpent hatchling, Da Vinci found a little group of Imps, Ciri found a Direwolf cub and Sera was holding some kind of egg.

Most of Sera's peerage already familiars in one way or another so they were just here to try their luck mostly anyway. So none were disappointed. I would schedule another trip for Musashi, Diana and now Milim later.

So with an rather interesting evening, I opened a portal and we all returned home.

_______________________________________

EXTRA AUTHOR NOTES:

Surprise! Haha! Tiamat and Ddraig had a child in this DxDverse! Now she has even more of a reason to try and find him and beat him up. He is not only on of those people who borrows stuff and never brings things back/breaks them, but now he's a deadbeat dad too!

Anyway, Double Rook recruitment today!

Moka was rather hinted at when I created the Cain family and the likes, and I felt like I shouldn't drag things on too long so she was just tested all that she learnt as the favored child of training maniacs, geniuses and Satan-classes.

Her Sacred Gear is basically a mix of a few things, mostly being Cadis Etrama Di Raizel's blood manipulation, although weaker and not life force draining. She can use it to strengthen her body from the inside by empowering the blood throughout her entire body, recover through the consumption of the life force and Mana found in blood and use blood itself as her weapon. Pretty powerful, but not possibly world ending/god killing yet.

Moka herself, with Magia Erebea, could defeat the old Satan from the civil war, but it would be extremely close as she hasn't reached Satan-class and uses her scared gear and the slightly double edged Magia Erebea to close the gap. She will grow stronger and more skilled in time.

And yes, she's a father/uncle-con thanks the afore mentioned reasons in the chapter.

As for Milim, she was one of the characters who I enjoyed putting in here partially because of her new background. I thought her apparence and general personality would fit well as Tiamat's and Ddraig's child. She is currently actually older than Lith, but due to the slowly maturing nature of dragons and the fact that she is severely lacking in life experience, she is currently the equivalent of a 12-13 year tomboy. She is the one from Tensura.

My reasoning behind why she had to be hidden is that the factions couldn't risk a repeat of Ddraig and Albion, so Tiamat would rightly fear them teaming up to kill her. And now that I made Tiamat essentially the reincarnation of the primordial goddess with the same name, there is plenty of trauma regarding losing her children to fuel her fears regarding Milim.

Milim holds quite a lot of raw power and an innate understanding of her Father's [Penetrate] and his fire, while gaining a powerful affinity for water and minor chaotic elements from her mother. She is sort of meatheaded and straightforward, as well as preferring to fight head on with her body, so she was my Rook choice.

I decided to just make her a peerage member on the spot since it was her choice, Lith got see how she fights through his senses as he talked to Tiamat and he can always change her to a familiar if things don't work out as a peerage member anyway.

As for Tiamat, the idea of helping her return to being a goddess so Lith can have another loyal one under his wing actually came from the parts of her actual mythology saying that she was born from the waters below Kur and her pieces were used to create everything, so I adjusted it to be that the after the gods were done using her godly body, the pieces which hadn't formed other things, like the current Tiamat, were sealed under Kur and actually helped sustain it a bit so Eresh didn't have to get rid of them.

My plan for her is to become the goddess of Seas and some other undecided things for the Mars pantheon. So no peerage member for those reasons. Can't mess up her becoming a goddess again by having an evil piece in her.

As of Lith's Harem, her's the new list for the currently introduced characters:

Confirmed:

-Serafall

-Yasaka

-Scáthach

-Jeanne

-Diana

-Ereshkigal (Once she gets over her Tsun)

-Ciri

-World Spirit (Still need a good name for her)

(Now that I'm writing this down, feels like a bit too much.)

Potential:

-Gabriel

-Mana (Still leaning more towards sister)

-Moka (She be thirsty for her daddy)

-Milim (maybe once she grows up)

-Hera (This would be funny)

-Medusa (She wants to comfort her master and learn all aspects of being a maid)

-Tiamat

No:

-Da Vinci (Would at most pop in for some fun from time to time)

-Musashi (Too sword Obsessed, but might come to take care of her urges sometimes)

-Elsa

-Evangeline

-Tamamo

-Stheno and Euryale

(I might have forgotten some for each category, but these aren't set in stone either and are subject to change)

Hope you guys enjoyed.