–AN) 2 more chapters to come! Don’t for get to vote /review!–

The morning sun fell through the window as Grace woke up. She looked around to see a young woman standing at her side, holding a glass of water. “Your Grace, wet your throat before you talk.”

“Mmm….” This has been a new routine she had to get used to. For some reason, she now had two servant girls. One would wait inside her room and stand guard while the other sat outside. Each one had an assault rifle on their back. And a pistol on their hips, wearing military duds. They are both ex-marines and were just out of training when everything happened. They had even fought against some of the dragons, so they were not without experience. As for how they survived, it was all because they learned to kill anyone who dared to try anything. Now they were serving Grace loyally without a word of complaint.

“Thanks…. But Becky, you and Jess can sleep at night, you know….” Grace felt bad because these girls never looked like they slept much.

“At night, we both stay awake, and we take turns during the day, so it is fine. I will tell Jess to go to sleep now while I help you with your morning routine. I have already prepared hot water for your bath. And also dug a hole for you to use.” A world without plumbing was a world where humans had to go back to using the ground as a toilet.

Grace sighed and did her morning routine. But today was a little different. Today they were finally going to be making some moves. It has been two years since the world changed. And she could no longer wait for things to pick back up. They needed to find a more secure location and begin a new proper settlement instead of this makeshift camp. She walked out of her hut that was built by the people of the camp and walked to the center of the camp. She gazed at everyone and smiled. “I see that all of you are ready. You are armed and ready to fight. Today we will push into the city and get rid of monsters and whatever races might have settled down. If you are attacked by humans, you can kill them as well. But always remember, everyone here is a brother and sister and comrade. Do not forget who is an ally and who is a foe.”

A loud cheer rang out as men and women alike held their weapons up. They were about to embark on their first raid and take back their first city. Once the city was under their control, they would begin to build up walls to protect it, and it would then become their stronghold.

Currently, Blake was walking outside his base with two little girls, each holding one of his hands. They had big smiles on their faces as they questioned this and that about the things around them, Destiny and Hope, both girls who were very much daddy girls. Luckily because they were his kin, they were unaffected by his charm. “Papa! Hope is getting tired. You should carry her.” Destiny pulled on Blake’s hand. Blake looked down to see that Hope was indeed struggling and quickly picked her up. He once again failed at paying attention to his kids. He carried her in one arm and then reached down and picked Destiny in the other arm. While destiny was indeed bigger, her weight was nothing for Blake. “Sorry, your papa is not the best papa.”

“No! Papa is the best papa in the world! Papa gave Hope and me life and is building a world for us to live in. How can Papa be a bad papa? If you say that one more time Hope and I will stop talking to you!” Blake sighed. He could not win against his little girls. He nodded obediently and asked what they wanted to do. And they, of course, both yelled out that they wanted to soar through the sky, so Blake flapped his wings and flew into the air.

After a long day with his baby girls, Blake went to his bedroom and began preparations to soak in the liquid mana. He had no idea how painful this was going to be, so he could only hope that he could push through it like he always had.

He filled the bath with lukewarm water before dumping almost all the contents of the mana liquid from his bottle, leaving about a cup full left. He stripped and then stepped into the bath, and sat down. Only then did he drink the rest of the mana liquid. He could feel the cool flow of mana disperse to every part of his body, giving a nice warm feeling throughout his body.

But this only lasted a few seconds before an intense pain suddenly attacked him. He gritted his teeth and gripped the sides of the bathtub as he did his best to bear with the pain. He had no choice but to push through. The only thing he had really forgotten was that he had to stay in this bath until all of it disappeared. This meant he would be here for a very long time. The liquid mana had merged with the molecules that make up water and turned the entire bathtub into a diluted mana liquid. Which meant each drop of water in the bathtub was precious, and none of it would ever evaporate now that it was fused with the liquid mana.

The process of taking the mana liquid in through the skin was a slow and painful process. His pours were opening up and slowly absorbing the water. His wives would come in and wipe the sweat on his forehead and wash his hair for him. When they were done, they would let him drink some of their blood before brushing his teeth for him. As for his lust, the pain from the mana liquid was enough to suppress it. This went on for days on end. His daughters would come and say hi to him every day as well. They did not stay long because they knew their papa was working hard to grow stronger.

What they did not know was that they, too, would be undergoing this ritual but on a smaller scale. And they would be doing it for every year they were alive until they were strong enough to endure days of this kind of torture. Lillia and Blake were not doing it to be mean to the girls but to allow them to grow up to be the strongest.