Read Novel Full Chapter 1663 Ritual Complete
Chapter 1663 Ritual Complete
His women looked like they had been through a war, won it, and were very pleased with themselves.
[Ding!]
[All bonds confirmed.]
[The Bloodfather's family has been established.]
[Bloodfather class capabilities: Unlocking.]
[New Ability: Mark of the Bloodfather.]
[The mark is a physical manifestation of the bond and its primary conduit.]
The notifications sank behind his ribs and he filed the rest away for later, because in the same heartbeat, eighteen bodies on the moss ignited.
Light bloomed along every woman in the courtyard at once, crimson and vivid. The lattice that had been authoring itself beneath their skin for hours surfaced in a single bright pulse, and each woman lit from collarbones to hips in demonic script that burned against the evening air. Gasps rolled across the moss from women who had been bracing for a final wave of agony and received warmth instead.
[Ding!]
[You have endured.]
[The Bloodfather welcomes you to his family.]
[Choose where his mark will rest.]
The warm feminine voice rolled through them in the same gentle register as the first prompt, carrying the quiet smile of something divine. Every word landed soft and final.
But the last line landed differently.
Choose where his mark will rest.
Silence held the courtyard for one beat.
"...What mark?!"
Ayame and Iris yelped it in unison, still tangled on the moss with fistfuls of each other's hair, and the realization that they had spoken in sync hit them at the same moment the question did.
But before they could continue the epic showdown, the light along their bodies pulsed again, waiting.
Ayame released Iris's hair and shoved herself upright. Her blue eyes found Quinlan at the edge of the courtyard, standing in dark armor with the faint glow of his own lattice visible at the collar, and the look she gave him could have curdled milk.
"You..." The Skysplitter's voice dropped low. "You must love this, don't you? Your girls, all carrying your mark..."
Quinlan said nothing.
"My ankle," she huffed, chin lifted.
The energy on her skin began drifting toward her left foot.
Iris grunted from the moss. "Back." Her light shifted toward her spine without further comment.
[Confirm placement?]
The prompt arrived for all of them at once, and Ayame's mouth opened to accept her ankle with the last scraps of her composure intact when two voices detonated across the courtyard in perfect sync.
"ABOVE MY WOMB!!"
"ABOVE BLOSSOM'S WOMB!!"
Every head on the moss turned.
Vex and Blossom were on their knees five meters apart, both blazing from sternum to hip, their expressions so identically euphoric that for one terrible moment they looked like the same woman copied in white and blonde. Vex had both palms pressed flat against her lower belly with the devotional intensity she reserved for peak hubby moments. Blossom's tail was a golden blur behind her and her hands were clasped over her stomach with reverence that belonged in a temple.
The courtyard stared.
"...Classy." Aurora managed from between her parents, one platinum eyebrow raised.
Vex's head snapped toward her.
"It's hubby's mark! On MY body!" The Hexwitch's voice climbed with every word. "What am I, some boring wench who lies around like a dead fish in bed?! A tattoo on my ankle?!"
Her red eyes cut to Ayame. The Skysplitter refused to meet her gaze.
"No, I refuse!" The scoff was violent enough to move her bangs. "Hubby's mark sits right above my womb, where it BELONGS!"
"Master's mark belongs above Blossom's womb because that is where Master's babies will grow!" Blossom added at the same volume and conviction.
A beat of dry silence held the courtyard.
Then a foxkin giggle sliced through the moss.
"Kinky~" Kitsara purred, all three tails curling with delight. "I love it~"
Lucille sighed warmly from Quinlan's side. "I'm game~"
Serika laughed. "Sure, why not?"
"...Let's do it, girls!" Sera cheered energetically from beneath her mother, and Sylvaris, whose glow was still hovering patiently at her collarbones, declined to comment.
Kaelira's pointed ears went very pink. The light on her skin was already drifting south. "O-okay..."
One by one, the glow on each woman shifted downward, settling toward the soft skin below the navel in a cascade of light. The script that had been spread across their torsos drew inward, concentrating above each womb in elegant loops of dark calligraphy, and the confirmations chimed through the courtyard in a staggered wave.
[Confirmed.]
[Confirmed.]
[Confirmed.]
[Confirmed.]
Each chime sealed the mark where the light had been, inked and intricate against bare skin.
Ayame watched her sister wives glow one after another.
Her ankle was still waiting. The energy pooled there dimly, looking increasingly foolish next to the elegant sigils sealing into her sisters' lower bellies.
She looked at Vex's mark, dark and vivid just below the navel. She looked at Blossom's, resting above the waistband of her skirt in elegant script. She looked at Kitsara's, at Lucille's, at Sera's.
Her lip trembled.
"...Really?" The word came out thin and wry. "Why are all of you so hopelessly depraved?!"
Nobody answered. The grins were more than enough.
"Fine!" The Skysplitter's chin snapped upward.
The oriental beauty didn't wish to become the only bore in a harem of overly kinky women. She was the only normal girl, she argued, but it was bad for team cohesion if she didn't get the same treatment.
While the denial was strong in her head, the butterflies in her stomach were going haywire at the mere prospect... 'Quin... What have you done to me...?' she gasped as realization dawned on her. But it was too late now.
Or, rather, she refused to change her decision.
The energy at her ankle reversed course so fast it left a warm trail up the inside of her leg, and when it locked above her womb and sealed, the samurai's face was a shade of red that could have competed with the mark itself.
[Confirmed.]
Iris confirmed her back without fanfare. The mark sealed between her shoulder blades and down her spine in a spread of script, and the Child of Reckoning rolled her shoulders once, felt it settle, and said nothing.
Sylvaris placed her fingertips against her right shoulder, just below the line of her gown, and the energy gathered there into a small elegant sigil.
[Confirmed.]
Feng, who had been watching the womb cascade with her competitive streak in overdrive, selected above her womb.
[The Bloodfather has rejected your decision.]
"You blocked me?!"
The Tidebreaker's shriek turned every head that hadn't already turned. Her light refused to descend past her navel, and the look she aimed across the courtyard at the armored man responsible carried the exact same indignation she had worn over the [Blessed Seed] pill.
[Per the Bloodfather's decree, upon your twentieth year, you may reconsider.]
The full pout deployed and held for three seconds before the warmth underneath it reached her, because the rejection was not about worth. He was not treating her as less than the others. He was treating her as young, and he cared about that, the way he always had, the way a big brother would.
Her pout softened a fraction.
"...Hmph."
She placed the mark on the back of her sword hand and confirmed it with a grumble that carried more fondness than she would ever admit out loud.
Across the moss, the remaining women chose in the quiet that followed. Lyra's mark wrapped the inside of her shield wrist. Raika's sealed heavy across her collarbone. The others found their own spots, and the last confirmations chimed soft against the evening.
When the final glow faded and the ink settled permanent, nine wives wore the Bloodfather's script low on bare stomachs in dark demonic calligraphy, the kind of mark that would be seen by anyone who saw them undressed and understood by anyone who knew what it meant.
One wore it across her back. One wore it on her shoulder. One wore it on her sword hand with a grumble that fooled nobody.
The notifications came.
[New Ability: The Bond Pool.]
[On every kill made by a bonded member, the bond generates +20% of the earned experience from nothing and deposits it into the Bond Pool. The killer's experience is untouched. The surplus is created by the bond, not taken from the kill.]
[The Bond Pool distributes its contents across all bonded, weighted inverse to level.]
[The Bond Pool does not redistribute. It creates.]