Family system

Xel'Kazur hung limply in his divine bindings, his once-mighty presence reduced to a husk of its former self. Standing before him with Kali and Amaterasu at his side, Jack contemplated his next move.

"So, what do we do with him?" Kali mused, cracking her knuckles. "I'd rather not waste the effort killing him if he can be useful."

Amaterasu smirked, her golden eyes glowing faintly. "He's already broken. We could strip his power entirely, make him a mere shadow of what he was. He would be a reminder to others who think themselves untouchable."

Jack studied the broken necromancer, tilting his head slightly. "No. He's going to help us."@@novelbin@@

Xel'Kazur let out a low, bitter laugh. "You think I would serve you? You who mock me?"

Jack grinned, kneeling in front of the bound god. "Oh, you will. But not because I asked. Because I will it."

A surge of divine energy crackled through the air as Jack reached out, fingers brushing against Xel'Kazur's forehead. The necromancer writhed as golden chains formed around his core, binding his will to Jack's. The process was excruciating, his very essence being rewritten, his power shackled to serve his new master.

Xel'Kazur's defiant glow flickered. Then, his voice was weak. "You… damn…"

Jack stood, brushing off his hands. "Done. He's mine now."

Kali smirked. "That was satisfying."

Amaterasu sighed. "So, with that settled, you're leaving?"

Jack nodded, turning to face the group he trusted most. "While I'm gone, I need you to keep everything running smoothly."

He turned to Ela, his brilliant merchant queen. "Ensure the trade routes remain strong. Expand where you can. Our wealth is our foundation."

Ela smirked, her dress hugging her figure as she leaned against the table. "Of course, love. You'll return to more riches than you can count."

To Selene, his iron-willed commander, he said, "Keep the warriors sharp. We don't know what's ahead, but I want to return to an even stronger army."

Selene bowed slightly, hand on the hilt of her sword. "No one will dare test us while you're gone."

Amaterasu and Kali didn't need instructions; they already knew their roles. Keep faith burning; keep destruction ready.

Jack exhaled, surveying his trusted inner circle. Experience new stories with My Virtual Library Empire

Then he smiled. "One last thing before I go."

Kali raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Amaterasu's lips curled. "Of course, you wouldn't leave without saying goodbye properly."

Jack laughed, stepping toward them. "No. I wouldn't."

The grand chamber was filled with soft golden light, illuminating the silk-draped bed where Jack lay, surrounded by the women who had stood beside him through war, conquest, and now the start of something even greater.

Kali was pressed against his side, her tan skin gleaming in the low light, her fingers trailing along his chest lazily as she smirked. "You always know how to exit, don't you?"

Amaterasu was beside him as well, her radiance casting a warm glow, her fingers tracing symbols of devotion over his skin. "Leaving them with something to remember, hmm?"

Ever the seductress, Ela leaned forward, her silken robes slipping, teasing at the edge of modesty. "A man like you deserves a proper sendoff."

Selene, normally composed, was flushed. Her warrior's discipline cracked as she lay beside him, and her breathing was uneven.

Jack grinned. "Then, let's not waste a moment."

The air was thick with heat, hands exploring, lips meeting passionately fervently. Kali was the first to straddle him, her fiery green eyes filled with hunger, her body moving against him, drawing him in with slow, deliberate motions. Their connection was raw, a mixture of power and dominance, neither yielding entirely, yet both lost in the moment.

Amaterasu wasn't far behind, her golden hair cascading down as she pressed against him, her lips searing against his skin. She was gentle and commanding, guiding his hands and letting him explore every inch of her divine form.

Ela, always playful, whispered teasing words into his ear as she ran her hands over his chest, her fingers tracing every scar he had earned. "Every victory has a reward, doesn't it?"

Despite her usual discipline, Selene was nearly breathless. Her body melted into his touch, and her whispers betrayed how much she wanted this moment to last.

Time lost meaning.

Their bodies moved as one, Jack indulging each of them, letting them feel his power, giving them every reason to remember him until his return. He claimed each of them in waves of passion, their moans echoing through the grand chambers, their pleasure intertwining with his.

And as dawn approached, as their bodies lay entwined, Jack looked at them all—his most devoted and trusted.

This was his empire.

And he would return to them stronger than ever.

As the sun began to rise, Kali chuckled, breathless. "Try not to take too long, alright?"

Jack grinned, pulling her close once more. "I wouldn't dream of it."

The dawn of Jack's departure arrived with a sky painted in hues of deep crimson and gold as if the very heavens acknowledged the significance of his journey. The city of Aetheria bustled with movement, yet beneath the surface of its normal daily operations, there was an unspoken tension—whispers of his impending departure spread among the people like wildfire.

Inside the grand halls of his temple, Jack stood in front of a detailed magical projection of the world, the eerie black mark indicating his destination—a place lost to time, buried in the echoes of history.

Xel'Kazur's broken whispers had revealed the truth—the prison was not merely a forgotten tomb or some obscure ruin of an old war. It was a sealed abyss, a scar on reality where the very essence of death and divinity had been intertwined. The Old Ones, existing entities long before mortal gods had ascended, slumbered there. Gods that were never meant to awaken were beings so ancient and powerful that their mere presence could distort the laws of creation.

Jack had studied all the ancient records available, but nothing about the prison was ever written in mortal tongues. The only knowledge came from the dead, from whispers of spirits that still feared what lay dormant in the abyss.

It was hidden for a reason.

If Xel'Kazur had managed to use its energy to return, then it meant the seal had begun to weaken. And if it weakened, then whatever lay beneath would rise again.

Jack exhaled, turning away from the projection. His golden eyes burned with anticipation—this was no mere expansion. This was a chance to claim something beyond power that no other being had ever dared touch.

Kali, Amaterasu, and the rest of his trusted inner circle had gathered in the chamber. Each of them had already accepted their roles in his absence. Aetheria would stand strong.

Ela adjusted her gloves, her expression poised. "I'll ensure the trade routes remain steady. The people will barely know you're gone."

Selene placed a hand on the hilt of her blade, her posture stiff but resolute. "The military will be in top shape when you return. If anyone dares test us, they will regret it."

Jack nodded approvingly before turning to Amaterasu and Kali.

"I'm going alone."

The room fell silent.

Kali's smirk vanished, her expression turning serious. "What? No, you're not."

Amaterasu narrowed her eyes. "This isn't arrogance, is it? Because we both know you're strong, but even you—"

Jack raised a hand, silencing them. "I need to do this alone. If this place is what we think it is, I must first see it. If I bring an army, we risk awakening something too soon. I don't want that. I need to learn its nature before deciding the next step."

Ela sighed, shaking her head. "You always do this. Taking all the risks, making us sit and wait."

Jack chuckled. "And yet, you all love me for it."

Amaterasu crossed her arms, clearly displeased but understanding. "Fine. But if you die, I'm bringing you back just to kill you myself."

Kali rolled her eyes but stepped closer, touching his chest. "Come back in one piece. You still owe me a rematch."

Jack smirked, nodding. "Wouldn't dream of missing it."

By the time the sun had dipped below the horizon, Jack stood alone on the outskirts of Aetheria.

A massive gateway of swirling energy was forged from highly refined magic and divine energy. It would take him near the prison—close enough to travel the rest of the way on foot, ensuring that whatever ancient wards still existed wouldn't detect his arrival immediately.

Jack took a final glance at Aetheria. His empire. His creation. He would return stronger.

He stepped into the portal, vanishing into the unknown—toward a place where gods were never meant to tread.

The world around him was unlike anything he had seen before—a land forgotten by time, shrouded in eternal dusk. The sky was neither day nor night, a swirling mass of black and deep crimson clouds that pulsed unnaturally as if they were alive, breathing in slow, agonizing rhythms. There was no sun or stars—only the endless churning of cosmic darkness overhead, stretching infinitely in all directions.

Beneath his feet, the ground was cold and lifeless, not earth, not stone, but something in between—blackened, cracked, and etched with unfamiliar symbols that seemed to shift when he wasn't looking directly at them. Every step sent faint ripples across the surface as though the terrain rejected his presence.

A bitter wind howled through the abyss though no source of air existed. It carried whispers, not of language, but of something older that scraped at the edge of his mind, filling it with visions of things that should not exist. Faint echoes of tortured wails and guttural murmurs reverberated in the distance, the sounds warped, stretched, and scattered through the emptiness.

Before him lay a vast expanse, a landscape of skeletal ruins rising from the cursed ground, twisted remnants of structures that defied logic. Obsidian spires, half-buried in the cracked soil, jutted out at impossible angles, their surfaces writhing with strange, glowing glyphs. Bridges of bone connected some of these ruins, leading to destinations lost in a dense, unnatural fog that seemed to bleed from the ground.

To his left, a colossal ribcage of some long-dead entity protruded from the ground. Its bones were as large as city walls, their surfaces riddled with deep gouges as if something even larger had feasted upon the creature in the distant past. Strange tendrils of black mist slithered around the remains, moving like sentient things, caressing the bones as if whispering secrets only the dead could understand.

Further ahead, a massive chasm split the land, stretching beyond sight, its depths consumed by an inky void that seemed to pull at the fabric of existence. There was no telling how deep it went—there was no bottom, no echo of sound, only an unending abyss. Jagged bridges, made from unknown materials, twisted and spiraled into the void, their edges pulsing with dim, ghostly light.

And at the center of it all, looming like a monolithic god of forgotten nightmares, stood the Prison.

It was not built—it had grown, a titanic black structure of seamless obsidian, its surface alive with moving, shifting patterns. Its jagged towers scraped against the sky, their peaks curved inward, resembling a great maw on the verge of consuming the heavens. Thick chains, large enough to anchor mountains, extended from the abyss, binding the prison to the very fabric of the world. They pulsed with an eerie, golden glow—the remnants of whatever ancient seal had once been placed upon it.

From within, something stirred.

A low, rumbling pulse resonated from deep inside the structure. It was a sound that did not travel through the air but instead vibrated within his bones, an unsettling call from something incomprehensible. The ground beneath him trembled, not from movement but from presence, as if the very earth feared what lay imprisoned.

Jack stood at the precipice, staring at a place no god dared enter, no mortal dared speak of.

The Abyss of the Old Ones had awakened.