After a couple of days travel to the town of Stonescale, I stand in front of the gate to the town where the demons on the wall point bows at us.

"Hold your fire! This is our new Master! He slew Mistress Medusa and has come to claim her property," one of the incuponies I claimed earlier shouts out.

I hate when they refer to themselves as property, but that's just how things have been well before I arrived. I hope to change that though.

I hear the demons mumbling on the wall to each other before looking back. "How do we know he's telling the truth?" a succupony asks.

I hold up the bow Medusa used along with her quiver. "She attacked my town and harmed my demons, so I slaughtered her and her children," I reply.

More mumbling is heard before the gate opens up and a harpy walks out over to us. "Forgive us for doubting you, Master, but Mistress Medusa has never lost in a battle before. To hear she has fallen... is both sad and welcome news. She used to be respectful to her demons, but with the lose of her mate she became cruel and heartless to all but her children," she tells me.

"I see... I understand she has two daughters still here correct?" I ask her.

She looks hesitant but nodded. "Yes, Slitherana and Adderine," she replies.

"I'd like to meet them," I tell her and she nodded in compliance.

"Very well. Please follow me to the castle," she replies and walks back towards the gate.

A boarus and two marksmen follow me into town behind the harpy. The demons in town talk amongst themselves as they watch us pass by, the place looks just like my town and Kigorian's, rusted metal sheets although there are some stone buildings as well.

We reach a tall stone castle in the centre of town with a moat of lava around it. We cross the bridge and the harpy bows to me in front of the large door.

"You'll find them on the second floor most likely in their chambers," she tells me. "Do you require anything else?" she then asks.

I nodded and grip the back of her neck making her tilt her head before I bite her. She hisses in pain until I release her now with my mark. "Gather the town together and get them ready for my mark. This won't take long," I tell her.

"O-Of course, Master," she replies and flies off.

My guards and I enter the castle and look around. "Fancy," the incupony whistles impressed by what's here.

Paintings of naga like people line the lobby walls with a large family portrait of Medusa, an older male naga and her children hanging on the back wall where a set of stairs leading up split off left and right.

I hear noises coming from the left so I head down that way as giggling starts to fill the hallways. I reach a door where it sounds like two girls are playing inside.

I open the door and see two naga women hitting each other with pillows while giggling.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?" I ask them.

They both yelp and the older one glares at me. "What are you doing in my room ssservant!" she demands slithering over to me.

I raise an eyebrow at me and smile. "I'm not your servant. I am your new Master," I tell her and she backs off.

"W-What?" she asks with a frown. "How dare you make sssuch a claim! My mother will have your head on a pike!" she exclaims while the younger sister slithers behind her bed.

"She won't be returning ever. She attacked my town and demons, so I killed her," I reply and hold out Medusa's bow. Unlike their mother these two don't have snake like hair and look more like vipers. "I now own this town and its demons, including you two. Though don't worry, I don't plan on killing you or the demons in town," I tell them.

The older one just stares at the bow and slithers over before taking it, tears begin to fall from her face as she then hugs the bow. "You murdered our mother and sssiblingsss..." she says trying not to cry. "and now you come here to claim usss?" she asks emotionlessly.

"She brought it upon herself when she attacked, she could have stayed here, but she didn't. So I did what I had to to protect my home and demons," I tell her with a frown. "If I'm a murderer, what does that make your mother? I heard she turns demons into stone for fun. I killed her and your siblings to protect my own. She's more of a monster than I am. Now, I'm giving you a choice. One; you join my demons and you'll live well and treated fairly, you can stay here and run this town for me as I wish to keep it instead of stripping it. Or two; you can die and I find someone else to run things here," I offer them.

The younger of the two is staring at me in fear while the older is glaring at me, both with a tear stained face.

"And what do you plan to do with usss after that?" the older one asks.

"Nothing, all demons in my care are treated as equals. All you need to do is follow my rules and laws and you won't have to worry, but betray me and I will end your life painfully before ripping out your souls," I reply with a cold tone at the end.

She continues to glare at me before looking back at her sister. "Fine..." she replies clearly not happy about it. "We'll join you, only becaussse I want my sssissster to ssstay sssafe," she says and hugs the bow tighter.

I walk over to her and tilt her head aside her eyes widen as she realises what I'm about to do and hisses as I bite her. I back away after it's done. "Then as a show of trust, I'll let you keep your mother's bow as well as any of her personal possessions in the castle, minus any demons as now every demon here is equal and free to live how they want within my rules and laws," I tell her and hold out the quiver still holding some arrows. This'll also be a test to see if she'll try to kill me.

She takes the quiver from me and just stares at the weapon in her arms before sobbing and slithers over to her sister, giving each other a hug.

"I'll be here for a couple of days to help get everything in place, I then want you both to return to Felfire with me to see how my demons live. Hopefully that will give you an idea on how I run things," I tell them. "What are your names?" I ask them, I already know but introductions would be nice.

The older looks at me still with a glare. "My name isss Adderine, ssshe's my little sssissster Ssslitherana," she replies.

"Nice to meet you, I am demonlord Damien Jackson," I reply.

"I sssee, no wonder you defeated our mother then... ssshe didn't ssstand a chanccce did ssshe?" Adderine asks me as I walk over and gently bite the younger sister marking her.

"She could have just left, but when she shot my mate, who is still alive fortunately, she lost that chance. Should she have killed my girl, I would not have just stopped with your mother, I would have come here and destroyed everything in my fit of rage," I tell her and head for the door. "I'll let you two grieve for your loss, but I do not regret protecting my people," I say and leave the room. Despite our advantage with our rifles and bombs, we suffered some casualties as well.

I find one of the servants in the castle and after marking them, ask her to guide us to a few guest rooms before I go out and mark my new demons. I also found out this day that I hate claiming ghouls as their blood tastes foul.

---

---

Over the last four days I've helped to reorganise the town and set up my rules and laws. So far the town is running smoothly and I have a secretary named Gilthina, who's a very smart female goblin with a very good memory, set up for Adderine to help manage the town's affairs, I know I'm very grateful to Geneine with helping me to manage everything in Felfire, like she is right now while I'm here.

Slitherana and Adderine have built three gravestones behind the castle next to their father and brother for their mother and siblings, her bow and quiver are in a locked case just in front of her tombstone. They've also started warming up to me as they talked to me over the days, though Adderine is still glaring at me now and then but Slitherana is taking a liking to my kind personality. I treat them both with respect, but when Adderine yells at me I just hold her mouth shut until she calms down, she's got a bit of a temper on her but hopefully we can calm her down over time.

We're now heading back to Felfire to show the sisters what life is like there, they still don't believe me when I say everyone is getting along and helping each other to make the town flourish. They think it’s the lesser demons jobs just to do as they’re told.

It takes us two days to travel back where Desire is back on her feet and greets me with open arms and a kiss with a lot of tongue.

"Welcome back. So who are these two?" she greets and asks me.

"These two are Slitherana and Adderine. They're going to learn what life is like here so they can run Stonescale better," I reply and hug her tightly. I'm glad to see her better and back to her happy self. "Did I miss anything while I was away?" I ask.

"Well... Arachne's first clutch of eggs hatched... and something that's never before happened happened. Four of the arachniponies are male, they look big, a brown and black colour with long thin fur or hair on their legs and abdomens and are more muscular than the females. Though the six females look slightly bigger than they should be for hatchlings and they seem stronger and faster as well," she tells me.

I look at her with wide eyes. "Sounds like the males are like tarantulas," I reply with a surprised tone.

She giggles and licks my cheek. "Other than that nothing much, the research team have more bombs made and a couple of... what were they called? Oh right, pistols made as well," she tells me.

Good, arming the imps and goblins with their own pistols will make my forces even stronger. I can just imagine imps and now goblins on the backs of harpies shooting down at our enemies.

"Well then, I need to show these two where they'll be staying whilst they're here," I tell my girlfriend and she smiles.

"Alright, I need to go see Arachne anyway, I promised to help her look after the hatchlings for a few hours," she tells me. "Oh, and nice meeting you two," she says to the two nagas and then walks off shaking her hips at me.

Damn girl knows just how to press my buttons.

I turn back to the two nagas and see Slitherana blushing while Adderine just looks unamused. "Let me show you to your rooms," I tell them and head off to my manor with them in tow.

---

---

Both naga women have been well behaved while here and we’re getting to know each other better, they've also taken a liking to my manor staff as well, mostly due to the mean blood apple pie Soft Touch can bake. Slitherana has especially liked the kind and friendly attitudes of the demons living here and has even been visiting Arachne often. Adderine has taken a liking to my rifles and I've even let her fire one a few times, she asked for one of her own but I told her maybe after a few months once she proves she's loyal to me and keeps Stonescale running smoothly.

As for the rifles, we've made a few hundred more as they've proven their worth when another smaller demon raiding party attacked us. They didn't last long and were all wiped out, we didn't even get to find out who attacked us. The goblin and imp pistols are ready and while they only have a range of thirty feet, they're faster to reload and are damn deadly in the quick little buggers hands. I'm also now trying to design revolver rifles and pistols next, but I fear this will take me much longer than the muskets did.

Geneine has been sending and receiving letters from Stonescale with updates on how the town is doing. I've visited the town a few times and it's improving greatly. Once we have it running like Felfire, we'll be able to trade between each other... I need to find a way to make cars or maybe even airships! Though I'm probably getting in over my head with those ideas. Still, can't hurt to try.

At the end of the third month it's time for the sisters to head back to Stonescale, but Slitherana has requested to stay a bit longer. After giving Adderine a naga equivalent to puppy dog eyes, she relented and let her stay for two more weeks. After a quick hug, Adderine threatened me to keep her sister safe or she'd kill me in a bloody and brutal way.

Like she could, but I made the promise anyway and she left with an armed escort to see her back safely, I've also sent twenty marksmen to protect Stonescale as well with five-hundred shells and ten bombs. I've also asked Adderine to ship any ore their town mines here so we can get new weapons and armour made for Stonescale as well.

The other clutches of Arachne's eggs have hatched and once again it's the same as the first, more males were born and look like tarantulas while the females are stronger and faster, their webbing is also stronger and more fire resilient but not totally. The first batch are now walking about and it'll be another four months before they'll learn to talk, both Desire and Slitherana have been looking after them for Arachne when she had something she needed to do. I've also been helping her fertilise two more batches of eggs and now she’s going to take a few months off to rest from laying more. She's even set up a clothes store in Stonescale to sell her wares.

---

Desire and I are currently taking a walk through the blood apple grove where Slitherana decided to join us as well, she and Desire have become friends quickly and have been plotting something behind my back the last four days. I've decided to ignore them for now as I'm curious as to what they're up to.

I reach up to the fruit above us and pick an apple before taking a bite from it. Sweet, juicy, and still tastes like chicken. I nodded to a few of the fel ents tending to the trees who nodded back before resuming their work.

"Damien? You want more demons for your army correct?" Desire suddenly asks me.

"Of course, the sooner I get a large army the sooner I can kill Val'Hades and we can get out of Tartarus and to a better place. No offence to this place but it's way too damn hot and there's way too many people here that would want me dead... I can't remember the last time I saw green grass, starry and blue skies, sparkling rivers or lakes..." I reply and toss the core away.

"Well..." she says and then nudges Slitherana.

The naga girl yelps and goes wide eyed from the light elbow to her ribs. "Oh, right... erm, well. I'm willing to bare sssome deamonsss for you if it'll help," she tells me and stares at the floor.

I raise an eyebrow at her and chuckle. "If you're willing then I'm sure an incupony would love to help you with that," I reply, but she then looks nervous.

After a few seconds of silence Desire groans and shakes her head. "She wants you to breed her. She saw how strong Arachne's new children are from your seed, she want's her offspring to be stronger as well and you're the only one here that can do that," Desire tells me bluntly.

I stare at them wide eyed and slack jawed. "But, I only agreed to Arachne so she'd stay..." I reply and sigh as Slitherana seems to deflate. "Are you sure? Both of you?" I ask Desire to see if she's really okay with it and Slitherana if she really is willing to do this for me. I'm not going to force her to bare children if it's just to appease me.

Desire nodded and hugs Slitherana. "She agreed to let me be an auntie to them," she replies.

Slitherana just nodded with a small smile. "My mother alwaysss told my sssissstersss and I to only mate with a ssstrong demon when we found one... well you're the ssstrongessst around here and I've wanted my own offssspring for five yearsss now... Ssso I'm willing if you are," she tells me shyly.

"So just to be clear, this is so you can have children without a relationship correct?" I ask her.

She smiles and nodded. "Yesss, unlesss you'd like me to ssstay with you," she replies and surprises me by slithering over to me and coils herself around my legs and waist. She's left my arms free and is now face to face with me with an expression of longing, for a reptile she has very nice features. She has the head of a viper but a shorter muzzle, unlike a snake she can blink and doesn't need to extend her tongue like one to taste the air, She has no hair but a fin going down her spine to the middle of her back. While having no legs isn't an issue, she has wide hips and a C cup chest half the size of Desire's D cups.

Her face then suddenly blushes as she realises what she just did and quickly uncoils from me. "I'm ssso sssorry, Massster... I mean, Damien... I don't know what came over me," she says and hides her face in her hands.

Desire is giggling and I just stare into space. 'Well, that was an experience,' I think to myself as the feeling of her wrapped around me lingers for a while. "It's okay, but I'm in a relationship with Desire," I tell her.

"I thought demonlordsss took many matesss..." Slitherana says confused.

"They what?" I ask looking at Desire.

"Huh?" she says coming down from her giggle fit. "Oh, didn't I tell you? Demonlords and archdemons take multiple mates to breed their armies, though as I told you before that demonlords only take other demonlords or archdemons as mates," she tells me.

I've said it once I'll say it again, this place will drive me insane. "So you're saying I can have multiple partners?" I ask Desire with disbelief and a frown.

"If you wanted to, you don't have to, but Slitherana has taken a liking to you and I've taken a liking to her," she replies with half lidded eyes. "And I'm curious as to what she can do with that tongue of hers," she then says before licking the naga on the cheek... oh shit, she's serious.

I chuckle with a hint of madness behind it. 'You know what? Fuck it, why not? She's got a better attitude than Arachne that's for damn sure and I've learnt a lot about her over the last three months,' I think to myself. "Alright, I'll give us a shot... though I doubt your sister will be happy about it, I know she still hates me for... you know," I tell them and sigh.

"I know, I missss my mother and sssiblingsss, but you did what you had to, sssuch is the lawsss of the wassstesss..." Slitherana says and snakes her way over to me.

Do I regret what I did to Medusa? No. Could I have spared her brother and sister?.. Maybe, but what's done is done and I can't change that. "Well then, so how about we go on a date tomorrow?" I ask her.

Slitherana tilts her head to the left and frowns. "What'sss a date?" she asks me.

Next Chapter: Chapter 10: Over the years Estimated time remaining: 11 Hours, 7 Minutes