Unrivaled Demon's Odyssey

Nero was lying on the bed, and Leto was lying on top of Nero.

The bedsheet and the blanket looked more messed up than before, as though they had performed the ritual again.

Leto's face was more flushed than before, and she was twirling her finger on Nero's chest.

"Are you okay?" Nero questioned.

"Yes. Sorry for asking you to take a break."

"It's fine. You can take your time."

Leto looked up at Nero and said with a wide grin on her face, "You are a beast in the bed."

Nero scoffed and said, "Trust me, I was being gentle."

"So Asteria will get to experience this every day now, huh?" Leto wondered.

"Umm… maybe not every day," Ziro remarked.

"Hmm? Oh! The two girls. Are they your wives?" Leto asked with a curious look on her face.

"No."

"You kissed that angel, so they have to be someone close to you," Leto commented.

"Yeah, they are my friends."

Leto squinted her eyes and said, "Friends don't do that."

"They are close friends," Nero answered with a grin.

Leto grinned back and said, "You know, when I was raising Asteria and praying to you, I always had this thought: What if the demon turned out to be worse than that man?"

"And? How did he turn out to be?"

" A very kind and good person."

"You know." Nero patted Leto's back and continued, "I hate kind people. You are kind, but I can't tell you not to be kind."

"Why do you hate kind people?"

"Because they always meet a bad end," Nero smiled distantly as he remembered the last time he spoke that line was to Laira.

Leto kissed Nero and said, "My Pa used to say 'No one evil is ever truly evil, and no one kind is ever truly kind'."

"I agree with the kind one, but I will have to disagree with the evil one," Nero remarked.

"Same."

Leto and Nero stayed like that in each other's arms for a while. Leto kissed Nero once in a while, and Nero played with Leto's golden hairs.

"Please take care of Asteria. She hasn't seen the world and suffered so much. Show her the world and give her the happiness that she deserves," Leto pleaded.

"What about you? You deserve happiness too. You have suffered far more than her."

"A mother always puts her child before her, no matter what it costs."

"Yeah..." Nero remembered his mother and her last moments. "Maybe sometimes even more than they should."

"And besides, I am an old woman now. It's too late for me to dream about happiness."

"Says who? You are young, and you look young. When I first laid my eyes on you, both you and Asteria looked like sisters," Nero asserted.

"You are just exaggerating to make me happy."

"I am not. You are beautiful, and no one can ever dare to disagree with that."

Leto moved to the other side of Nero's chest and looked up at him, saying, "I will become a worthy Queen for this continent."

"You already are."

After a brief pause, Leto asked with a hesitant look on her face, "Can you leave your seeds inside me, so I can give you offsprings?"

"You know it's dangerous for a human to conceive a child of other races, right?" Nero remarked.

"But I am a part-demon, so it okay—"

"It's not. Your demon blood is dormant, and you are close to being a human. Although, Asteria is more than a part demon. Probably because she is a product of… you know what I am referring to."

"I understand," Leto said with a sad look on her face.

Nero noticed the disappointment in Leto's voice and said, "Are you afraid that I will never come back to you?"

Leto's body immediately flinched, and she asked with a surprised look on her face, "How do you…"

"You are so easy to read." Nero smirked and said, "I gave you the ring, right?"

Leto nodded in reply and looked at the ring in her ring finger.

"You can talk with me using that ring. And since you can use magic, you can even summon me if you really want to see me."

"But what if I summon you when you are in the middle of something?" Leto questioned.

"Then I will be summoned as soon as I finish the said thing," Nero replied instantly.

Leto was just Like Asteria. She was innocent and lacked some basic common sense. She had suffered a terrible childhood, but she stayed strong and didn't let it traumatize her. She raised Asteria alone when her days were to go out and play, to make friends. Her life was full of pain, suffering, and sacrifices. She never got to do things normal girls would. She never got to enjoy her childhood. She was just like a kid from inside who wanted love and attention.

Nero admired Leto for what she was, and he was genuinely attracted to her. He also felt a little close to her since it reminded Nero of his godmother, who would often act like a child to tease Nero and get his attention.

"Can't you give the ring to Asteria too? So I can summon her if I miss her and talk to her whenever I want?" Leto asked, fidgeting.

"You can talk to her via me, and even if I give her the ring, you can't summon her. Because this ring is a part of me, and only I can be summoned through it," Nero explained.

"Part of you?" Leto pondered with a confused look on her face.

"This ring is a part of my soul, and I can only create five of them in my lifetime."

"Part of your soul?" Leto looked even more confused now.

Nero rubbed his thumb on Leto's lips and explained, "One ring contains 1/10 of my soul. And five rings will consume 5/10 of my soul— that is half of my soul."

"I can manage fine with half of my soul, but if I make the sixth ring, my soul will become unstable, and I honestly don't know what would happen," he shrugged.

"Then why did you give such important—"

Nero inserted his thumb in Leto's mouth to stop her from speaking and said, "Stop right there."

Leto started sucking Nero's thumb and quietly stared at his face, seemingly waiting for Nero to say something.

"It's my choice to give you this, so don't speak anything about it, okay?"

Leto blinked, and Nero pulled his thumb out from her mouth. She licked Nero's thumb and said, "How many rings have you given so far?"

"Three."