RD 7 STF + Ch 1 (Patreon)

Story Thus Far

Last time began with Bran recruiting William, a blind young boy with the most miracle-like ability to see the world as a giant mini-map. He was the creator of several maps identifying dungeons for Bran in the beginning of this life, as well as, most likely, surviving well in Bran's last life by creating maps for and under his father's mercantile business.

Along with that, Ricky came through, finishing the teleportation gates, even if they had a few rubber-ducky quirks.

The group got ready for the tournament, and Merlin disappeared to take the Trial of Kings. The tournament went much as Bran expected with the factions all at each other's throats, until he revealed the demons among them. Camden went down far too easily, his last act attempting to sow discord between the clans and the sects, only for Vidar to come in, a Borson now harboring a demon within him, seeking revenge. As he slaughtered his way through the sects and nearly turned them against the clans, Bran and his allies fought the demons off, tore the mask off the Wukong Clan, and managed to gain some precarious alliances amongst the sects.

When Ozzy returned to the Ennead clan, he was entombed along with the clan's founders, and his brother, Set, was unleashed upon the world in his place.

Bran and company continued to grow their strength, ready for a broader war to ignite across the world, leveling and gaining strength as he broke an instance and obtained far greater rewards than he could have hoped.

Merlin returned from the Trial of Kings in a form that Bran recognized. The King of Shadows, who had played a significant role in his past life but had always remained a mysterious figure, was mysterious no longer. Bran recognized them immediately, and Bran found himself an ally he knew he could trust, especially for the next phase of his plan, as he and Merlin went alone to dig out the root of the Wukong, using the reward from the broken instance to briefly revive the Wukong clan's ancestor.

The ancient beast had little life left in him, having been drained by the demons for his blood and imprisoned for years, but he had enough in him to cleanse the Wukong clan and set them, hopefully, on a more righteous path going forward.

Through it all, Merlin and Bran found themselves incredibly comfortable with each other. Yet there was still one thing Merlin requested before they solidified the relationship: a room next to Circe, so that the legendary nymph could be the one green with envy, for once.

Chapter 1

"Oh, so I'm getting a new neighbor. Now am I?" Circe teased, with the wrinkle of her nose, towards Merlin. The woman was the nymph of legend, though some of her exploits were blown wildly out of proportion, save for her beauty.

She had soft blue hair, red eyes with an hourglass figure that most women would die for. She wasn’t overly heavy in the chest or hips, but had a fit figure with just a feminine touch of softness. That I felt as she clung to my back, pressing her chest into me.

"None of that," I said, carrying a heavy box laden with Merlin's things.

"I'll be nice," Circe promised, and I squinted at her for a moment before letting it go with a peck on the cheek.

"Please do. If you scare Merlin away, I'm going to throw a fit. Besides, were you aware that Simone had tasked me with romancing her?" None of them challenged Simone’s position at the head of the ladies of the harem.

"Sex?" Circe asked, with a raised eyebrow, towards Merlin.

And I scowled at her. "Why does everyone assume that means sex?"

"Because it means sex," Circe said bluntly. "If you'd like, I can go grab all of the others, and one by one, I'm almost certain they will all confirm it for you."

"No, it's a waste of everyone's time, literally, to summon them to prove I'm wrong." I shook my head with a chuckle.

"So you admit you're wrong." Circe gave me a shit-eating grin and leaned against the wall in a way that just so happened to push her leg through the slit in her dress and give me plenty of eye candy.

"Having fun?" I asked, stopping to appreciate one of my women. I knew she enjoyed capturing my attention. However, I had boxes to move.

"Lots," she said simply, a grin on her face, before she grabbed Merlin's two hands. "Whoever thought it would be a man that would bring the two of us back together again."

Circe said it and I knew she was doing her best to try and make up. Between her and Merlin, there was some rocky history. Mostly, it was due to the fact that Circe seduced a man that she didn't think was good enough for Merlin, to prove a point. The successful seduction had him clinging to her groups of nymphs and breaking Merlin's heart. Circe hadn't touched the man herself. She had some sense of camaraderie with Merlin and wouldn't have gone that far. Which was an odd line to draw, at least from my perspective, but she’d done it to show Merlin that that man wasn’t going to commit to her.

"By the way, what's next?" Circe asked as casually as possible.

It had only been two days since we got back from Wukong, and other than stomping my father's pride into the ground when we compared stats, there hadn't been much eventful. Which was to say, things were good.

"Well, with the Wukong either out of the fight or on our side, whichever you want to consider it, and Shiva running a train on Southeast Asia, I think we need to set our sights on a different battlefield." I summarized.

Having both of them fighting demons, even if they weren’t staunch allies, it protected our eastern front or at the very least reduced how many demons could mass on that side as well as kept the Heavenly Fist Sect in check as they were based in the Himalayas.

"And where exactly is that?" Circe crossed her arms. "Don't tell me you don't know. I can see that smile on your face."

Merlin was ignoring us as she started unpacking a few things. The woman still wore baggy mages robes that hid her figure, yet at the same time, the bagginess made her seem even slimmer for it when she shifted and it pulled tight against her skin.

She glanced over her shoulders, her black bob, shifting to the side as her ice cold blue eyes glimmered with mirth as she caught me staring.

"South America," I said, deciding not to hold Circe’s curiosity captive longer than I had to. "We'll keep some watch on Asia, but I think for now I can consider it tamed."

Circe hummed in understanding. "Yeah, if the Wukong are back to being completely anti-demon, then they're going to be a pretty good buffer. Not to mention Shiva has a new bone to pick. The Heros Clan has even felt the rumblings as he’s even chased demons all the way to the Mediterranean."

I bobbed along. "I'm thinking the same thing. The First Garden Sect, however, is doing worse than I expected." I frowned, thinking back to the most recent reports I had been reading. Eve and her sect weren't pushovers, and in my first life they and experts from the Amazon had dealt with most of the threats in South America quite handedly. So to see them struggling now was concerning enough that it needed my attention.

"Eve’s a the prickly one," Circe said. "I mean, are you sure you want to add her to the harem?"

I deadpanned. "Who said anything about adding her to the harem?"

"Well, I mean, you're going off to save yet another ravishingly beautiful woman. Honestly, Bran." Circe laid herself on me and batted her lashes. "You're going to have to be careful. You're going to make some ladies jealous. Ones who think that their turn is coming up and they just have to be a little more patient."

I squinted at her, wondering what nonsense she and Simone had been up to, before turning to Merlin. Hopefully they hadn’t made promises to any of the Mul Branova, but I’d made myself clear to Simone and she’d never go against something I specifically forbade.

"I'm not touching this," she said, holding her hands up in the air. "I have enough trouble unpacking my suitcase and settling into a new room."

"That'll barely take you the afternoon," I said, only to get faintly narrowed eyes from Merlin in return.

"Not that it needs to take you any amount of time. Anyway," I said, a smile rising on my face. "Oh, look at that. Things to do. Always things to do," I said, performing an about-face as both women behind me chuckled lightly at my antics.

It was good to be back home.

"All right, you two," I said, walking between them and giving the first Merlin a peck on the cheek, and then one for Circe, before slipping out. There was still too much that I needed to do, and while I would love to hang around and banter with them, but as soon as I dropped off Merlin's things, I did need to get moving.

As I stepped out, more of the Mul Branova swept through the halls, spotting me, smiling and waving delicate fingers.

"Lord Bran," they all greeted me with smiles.

"Ladies," I nodded to them and continued my way through the Citadel of Blood. More and more paused to wave at me as I moved through the halls.

The Mul Branova were critical to the function of the Citadel and of everything I was building in this second go-round.

The demons, after several wars and internal conflicts amongst humans stoked by the demons, had finally won and captured Earth over a 500-year extended siege in my past life, but now I knew where the hidden enemies lay. And I was starting to dare to hope that in this life I could resolve the battle in a much more contained war.

Humanity would fight over the scraps of Earth later, but if I could remove the taint of the Demon King and all, if not most, of the demons' influence, pushing them out and creating a culture that would carry forward against them, then I had hope that Syssy's sending me back, at whatever cost she bore from it, wouldn't be in vain.

At least that was the hope.

In some ways I was well ahead of my expectations; in other ways I was woefully behind. Right now, we had achieved the Trial of Kings not only for myself but for a number of my allies. 

Yet at the same time, those who had been party to the Demon King's destruction in my first life were now dead. A taint that lasted past the Demon War and sparked the second, the Wukong clan, had been dealt with. New allies in Princess Almeria's people had been saved.

But I still had issues to deal with, The Heavenly Fist Sect and its deep-rooted demonic corruption would still need to be cleansed. It was the heart of the Demon Lord's strength and not something I could approach casually.

No, I needed to continue to whittle away the Demon Lord's strength, and right now that meant going after his fragments.

One of the most dangerous aspects of the Demon Lord was his ability to split himself. I suspected that's what I destroyed when I attacked Carmen at the tournament, that had been an incredibly small fragment of the Demon Lord's strength, and destroying it would do little to set him back.

No, I needed to find stronger fragments, and given his knowledge of the future, the best way I could find his fragments was to identify where the greatest deviations between my past timeline and this one were occurring. Those would likely be where his fragments were soaking up instances and shifting the balance.

I grinned. Yes, South America was exactly where I needed to be if I wanted to start strangling the Demon Lord's strength.