Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 1389  Needy Mothers

Quinlan exhaled and lifted his gaze.

He took all his companions in.

Then he straightened.

"I am ready to depart. Let's go."

Rosie didn't need more prompting. The dryad girl, listening acutely until now, dropped down from her tree and landed squarely on Quinlan's shoulder.

Her weight was light, familiar. She hooked her legs around his collarbone and let them dangle, heels kicking rapidly in open excitement as she settled in. Leaves rustled above where she had jumped from.

"Are we finally leaving?!" she chirped, voice bright and carefully pitched. "Rosie can't wait! This will be the best day ever!"

She leaned forward, hands planted on his head for balance, smiling far too widely.

Quinlan tilted his head just enough to look up at her from the corner of his eye. He knew very well that his daughter was putting on an act of extreme cuteness. Rosie was a prim and proper young lady who could act much older than her age.

But she refused, wanting to be thought of as cute and adorable - the perfect target to pamper.

Around him, the reaction was immediate.

Seraphiel's expression softened in a way that had nothing to do with combat readiness. Kitsara's tail stilled, ears angling forward. Sylvaris watched with a faint curve at the corner of her mouth. Even Kaelira glanced over and smiled.

They were eating it up.

Quinlan let out a short, dry chuckle. "Are you really this excited?"

Rosie gasped as if personally wounded. "Of course! Rosie is going to meet her two grandmas!"

Her eyes brightened, green light flickering through them as she leaned closer to his face. "And Rosie knows what grandmas are known for!"

She lifted both hands, fingers spread, eyes shining. "Pampering their grandkids!"

Quinlan shook his head with his smile lingering despite himself. Being pampered truly did seem to be this child's long-term ambition. Still, she was not wrong. His mothers had many qualities, and restraint around family was not one of them.

He could tell that much.

"All right," he said, adjusting his stance. "Lead the way."

Rosie puffed out her cheeks in satisfaction and straightened. She climbed to stand on his shoulders, then clapped her hands once.

"Hiya!"

Behind them, Rosie's tree answered.

The massive trunk had grown again since last time, its bark thicker, roots pushing farther into the stone beneath. Upon the dryad's call, the surface shifted with a creak, wood folding inward as a small doorway formed where there had been only bark before.

The girls did not hesitate.

One by one, they stepped forward and passed through the opening, swallowed by the warm light beyond. This was no simple passage. It was the doorway that led to Quinlan's soul realm, opened and anchored to Thalorind through his daughter, who acted as both key and bridge.

Rosie remained standing proudly atop his shoulders as the last of them entered, then she followed.

Quinlan didn't walk in, for he was acting as the vessel of transportation.

As such, it was on him to take the gang to their destination.

Which was exactly what he did.

Now that he was at the crossroads, needing to pass his Primordial Rank-Up Mission to progress on his leveling journey, he could enter the primordial dimension.

The world shifted the moment Quinlan reached for the mission.

There was no delay, no buildup. The connection took hold at once.

[Primordial Rank-Up Mission Initiating…]

Sound vanished first. The serene sounds of the forest behind him cut off, as if the air itself had been pulled away. Light followed. The stronghold, the tree, the warmth of familiar presence all dissolved into a uniform white that pressed in from every direction.

It was the same as before, a sensation he remembered well.

Then clarity returned.

The white thinned, peeled back, and his vision locked into place.

He stood upon a vast floating island. Clouds stretched beneath the landmass, dense and slow-moving, carrying no wind. The sky held no sun, yet everything was lit evenly, as if the space itself decided what could be seen.

Quinlan exhaled through his nose.

Then grinned, forming a giant smile on his face that went from ear to ear.

He parted his arms wide and called, "Mothers."

Two gasps sounded.

"I'm back."

The words had barely left his mouth before the air in front of him broke with motion.

"Quinnie!"

Two voices overlapped into one cry, sharp and unrestrained, followed by a blur of familiar color and force. Miri and Lumi slammed into him from either side, arms locking around his torso with zero restraint. "Guh!" The impact drove the breath out of him, and Quinlan's mothers truly seemed to have missed their child, for the three of them were carried off the edge of the floating island.

Stone vanished beneath his boots.

Sky rushed up.

They fell.

Neither woman reacted.

Miri buried her face into his left side. Lumi pressed against his right, arms locked tight around his ribs, cheek shoved into his chest with a possessive huff. Their grip tightened as they descended, bodies clinging to him with the certainty of people who had decided gravity was someone else's problem.

"You two are unbelievable," Quinlan laughed as air tore past them, the sound pulled loose from his chest. He wrapped his arms around them both, holding them close even as the clouds below rushed nearer.

"I missed you so much!" Miri complained into his side, voice thick, words muffled by fabric and skin. Her hands clenched harder, nails biting through layers. "How dare you stay away for so long?"

Lumi pulled her head back just enough to glare up at him, eyes bright and fierce. "Do you have any idea how much time has passed since your last visit?" she demanded. "Do you not care for your mothers?"

Miri made a distressed whimper and tightened her hold further. "Do you not? Your mothers demand an immediate answer, young man! Stop laughing and deliver your justification!"

The primordial dimension was intended to let time pass while it was paused on Thalorind, giving its inhabitants a dimension to train freely. However, after whatever happened to the primordials of Thalorind, something along the lines of exile, the dimension no longer functioned properly for them.

When Quinlan came here, time didn't flow in Thalorind. But when he left, and the others stayed, time resumed flowing properly.

Seeing the extremely adorable reaction of his mothers, Quinlan only laughed harder. The sound pulled loose and unguarded as the wind tore past them.

He tightened his arms around both women, holding them as close as possible while their fall to the depths below continued. He could feel it clearly. The way neither of them spared even a fraction of attention to the fact that they were plunging through open sky said everything. They knew this place far too well, having been forced to spend such a long time in this dimension that Quinlan couldn't even begin to wrap his head around the implications. They knew they would not die.

He, on the other hand, had no interest in personally discovering which rules applied to bodies that hit the bottom of a primordial cloud sea, and in which manner.

The air answered his lacking desire to plunge to the depths.

Wind gathered beneath them. It curved upward like an invisible hand, slowing their descent until the rush softened into a steady lift. The clouds below drifted away as the current carried them back up, stone reforming beneath their feet as the floating island reclaimed them.

They touched down cleanly.

Quinlan remained standing with both mothers still locked to his sides as if release had never been an option.

Only then did they look up at him.

Miri's eyes were wide and glossy, lips pressed together in a way that suggested she had been gravely wronged. Lumi mirrored her perfectly, chin tilted up, brows drawn, and long, elven ears drooping as if her son didn't care for her anymore.

The sight was absurd.

Quinlan shook his head, with a fond sound leaving him as his smile softened. "Aren't you two a little old to behave like this?"

"Quinnie!!"

They stomped in perfect sync, the sound sharp against the stone, both glaring up at him as if he had committed a terrible offense.

He broke out in loud, amused chuckles again. "Fine. Fine. Mothers. Why is there a need for a justification? It wasn't that long since I was last here."