Chapter 413: Ritual Overtime

Maybe it was because they were overdue for recharging their rituals, maybe the tension of finally being cleared of charges had been released, or maybe they were all just feeling a little more horny than normal. Whatever the cause, Jadis and her lovers continued with their sexual escapades long into the night. So long, in fact, that it was with bleary eyes that Jadis saw the winter sun cresting the city horizon through the window before they were done.

Upon reflection, they might have overdone it.

The night wasn’t just about debauchery, of course. They had completed Sorcha’s Lewd Lover’s Bond, much to the witch’s delight, and a whole slew of other rituals as well. Alex also received her Lover’s Bond, something that Jadis had meant to complete before then but had thoughtlessly overlooked. She also used her Wanton Replication skill, duplicating skills from Alex, Eir, and Sorcha, as well as changing the skill she had already replicated from Kerr. Jadis even used her Debauched Duplication skill to bring her Ida and Dia selves back and used them to recharge both her and Bridget’s Stoke the Ardent Flame ritual, as well as increase Aila’s Nephilim Saturation. Overall, it was an incredibly productive night, even if to an outsider it would have just appeared to have been nothing more than an exuberant, obscene, and magically enhanced marathon of an orgy.

After falling asleep at some point after dawn, Jadis was woken by the sound of someone knocking on the door. Lifting her head off of what turned out to be Bridget’s thigh, Dia wearily looked around the room. Everyone was either passed out or just barely coming around in response to the insistent knocking sound. Their quarters were in a terrible state as well, with clothing, sheets, and suspicious puddles of white fluid drying in inconvenient and sometimes improbable places. Fucking her lovers’ brains out on every surface of the suite had been fun, but the cleanup was going to a bitch.

“Coming,” Dia croaked out before clearing her throat and trying again. “Coming! One second!”

The person knocking at the door was Bertha, Jadis realized. Aila had asked Aurea to send the matronly woman by that morning so she could use her magic to officially confirm Alex’s pregnancy. Smirking as she pulled a mostly clean blanket from the floor, Dia figured the priestess should probably check all of them, just in case. She hadn’t turned her preventative skill back on, after all, and they had done a lot of fornication that night.

Even though her services were needed, Dia stumbled to the door with the blanket wrapped around her naked body with the intention of asking Bertha to come back later in the day. No one was in any condition to receive visitors except maybe Alex, who did not sleep, but even the Demon was resting in a kind of torpor, exhausted from the night’s activities. At the bare minimum, Alex was going to need a bath before seeing anyone. They all needed one, in fact, and at least a few more hours of sleep.

Opening the door with a weary smile on her face, Dia was at first confused to see that no one was there. Her confusion quickly turned to shock as she looked further down and saw a stone statue of a sheep staring up at her.

“Good morning,” the statue said in a low, feminine voice. “My name is Una. I understand that you requested to speak with me. Is now an inconvenient time?”

“Oh!” Dia rocked back on her heels slightly as her brain caught up with what she was seeing and hearing. “Lady Una! I’m sorry, I, uh, I didn’t think you would show up so soon. Thank you for coming!”

“As a Golem, I neither eat nor sleep,” Una stated in an even, unbothered tone. “In consequence, I find that my mornings are usually free compared to the schedules of others. I had thought that I might join you for breakfast in order to discuss whatever concern has caused you to seek me out. However, it seems that I have come at an inconvenient time.”

With some of the sleep knocked out of her brain thanks to the surprise visit, Jadis had the awareness to examine the Golem while she spoke. Una was, just as had been advertised, a sheep. The stone material her body was made looked like a cream-colored marble, with small striations of gray running across the surface. The only part of her that wasn’t made of that creamy marble were her eyes, which looked to be shining black obsidian. She wasn’t particularly large for a Golem, not that Jadis had much experience, and while Jadis wasn’t wholly certain that Una was anatomically accurate for a Lamb, she was small and fluffy looking. If someone else told Jadis that Una was a stylized sculpture of an overly puffed-up lamb, then she would believe them.

“Inconvenient time?” Dia blinked after giving her attention a moment to catch up. “Oh! Uh, yeah, I’m sorry. We, uh, we were performing some necessary rituals last night and they went pretty late. Honestly, I don’t think I’m in a great state of mind to talk with you about what I was going to discuss.”

“I understand,” Una nodded her head. “I have some time available this evening, after the seventh bell. Would that be acceptable?”

“Yes, absolutely,” Dia nodded. “Where can I find you?”

“If you could meet me at the Temple of Metethys, that would be save us both some time, I believe.”

“Sounds great. I’ll see you there,” Dia grinned down at the marble lamb.

“Have a pleasant day, Lady Jadis,” Una bowed her head slightly before taking her leave.

Dia watched the Golem quietly tap her way down the hall, only then noticing that one of the many temple priestesses was unobtrusively lingering a few paces away. The pretty woman smiled up at her when their eyes met.

“Jadis? Priestess Bertha came for you earlier but you were otherwise occupied. She told me to let you know that she would be waiting for you in the convalescence wing of the temple when you are ready. She said that there was no rush.”

“I appreciate the heads up,” Dia thanked the priestess while privately wondering when exactly Bertha had made her visit that morning. “Would you do me the favor of letting her know that we’ll be a while?”

“Of course. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“…Any chance you could send a bunch of towels and fresh bedding our way?”

“As you desire,” the priestess said with a twinkle in her eye before departing on her task.

Jadis wasn’t at all used to the idea of people hanging around waiting to offer their services to her, but she couldn’t deny the convenience.

It took a few hours before everyone was fully recovered enough to greet the day. While most of her lovers continued to sleep off the intense night, Jadis privately performed her Debauched Duplication ritual one more time so that she could shift the spell from her Mirrored Bodies to her Lesser Fractional Spread. Upon review of her tremendous stat increase that had resulted from all of the rituals she had performed with her lovers, she was almost tempted to not bother. With how much her Eldritch Attribute had gone up she didn’t necessarily need to duplicate her fractional spread. Her stats were strong enough without that additional boost. That said, she still changed back since having five bodies instead of three was a definite mental strain. She might have to change her approach should she unlock some kind of upgrade to Refracted Mind, but for the time being, three bodies were her limit.

 Once all of her rituals were back to their normal configuration, Jadis took another look at her stats, marveling at the overall improvement.

Thanks to Alex’s skill, Paladin of Jadis’ Boldness, Jadis’ Eldritch attribute had gone from an impressive two hundred and ninety to a staggering four hundred and thirty-five. The leap was phenomenal, and not just for the sake of seeing her Eldritch number go up. All of her physical stats had benefited from the increase, boosting them by an additional fifty-eight points compared to what they had been the night before thanks to her Lesser Fractional Spread and Debauched Duplication. Of course, her Strength was further enhanced thanks to her Improved Miror Knight’s Might, which meant it had gone up to nearly five hundred points.

Aside from Alex’s skill, Jadis had also snagged Lyssandria’s Substantiation from Eir which had boosted her Focus and Will up by ten points each. It wasn’t anywhere near as impressive, but considering the fact Jadis had only a single point in Focus without the replicated skill, it was a pretty major improvement.

While Jadis had made some good use from Kerr’s Path Less Travelled passive skill when in the wilds of Weigrun, for her current situation she had decided one of the archer’s other skills would be more useful. Focusing on a more mental skill, Jadis replicated Practiced Polyglot. Since she was trying to better understand Demon communication, she figured the skill would aid her in her attempts at learning the visual and scent based language.

The last skill she had replicated wasn’t one that boosted her attributes. While Sorcha did have some passive skills that boosted her Eldritch, which was something Jadis could always use, she instead chose to replicate the witch’s Sharp Perception skill. An extra five points in Eldritch really wasn’t that big of a deal compared to the numbers Jadis was working with and she didn’t have any skills of her own that improved her perception. Considering how effective the smog cloud and translucent wights combination had been, Jadis wanted to improve her chances of spotting stealthy assailants before they got to her. With three bodies, it was already hard to sneak up on her. She hoped that Sharp Perception would essentially be amplified by three and make it impossible for wights or other foes to get the drop on her again.

When Jadis exited the spare bedroom she had used to complete her ritual in, she discovered that everyone else had gotten up and were all getting ready for the day. Besides taking turns bathing and helping to clean up the mess they had made of their guest quarters, they went over the attribute improvements they had all experienced thanks to their bonds to Jadis. For Aila, Eir, Kerr, Thea, Sabina, and Bridget, there were no unexpected changes. All of the skills they had already chosen had gone up by seventy-two points, which had truly beefed up their status sheets.

For Alex and Sorcha, the change was far more pronounced. While not unexpected, going from forty-two points in Eldritch to two hundred and fifty-nine points was an unbelievable change, one that the hard-luck witch was having a hard time coming to grips with.

Alex, on the other hand, didn’t have as much trouble adjusting to the change in her attributes even though her change was even more pronounced. Not only had the Demon received the same two-hundred-and-seventeen-point boost as Sorcha, but she also had a one point five multiplier to her Will stat. Since that was where she put her Lewd Lover’s Bond points, the end result was that Alex’s Will attribute had reached a level of power equal to Jadis’ best stats.

The fact that Alex could passively refill her entire five-hundred-point magic pool in only a little over an hour was downright ridiculous. Since her health regen was linked to her magic regeneration as well, she could go from near dead to full health in less than five hours.

“Okay, everyone ready to go see Bertha?” Jay asked the room at large once all the cleaning had been completed and everyone was dressed.

“Can we stop by the kitchen on our way?” Kerr called out from where she was hanging heavily off of Bridget’s shoulder. “I’m fucking starving.”

“We had some bread and honey,” Aila tutted at the therion. “Isn’t that enough?”

“After last night?” Kerr gave her a look. “Really?”

“The kitchens are between us and the wing where Bertha waits for us,” Eir interjected with a gentle smile.

“Okay, pitstop at the kitchens, then we go see Bertha,” Jay announced with a clap of her hands. “And then, on we go to Una where we can find out what the crap D thinks she can do to educate me on my class choices.”

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