Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

”I WILL CUT YOUR TONGUE OUT AND FEED IT TO THE TIDE-SERPENTS!” Morwenna roared, shooting up from the bed with Tidebringer blazing with phantom water pressure.

”Enough! Both of you, calm down!” Silas commanded firmly, raising his authority to clamp down on the rising elemental storm before the master quarters collapsed into a crater.

Both women stiffened, falling silent under his authoritative gaze, though they continued to glare daggers at each other across his chest.

”There is no sex happening right now,” Silas stated, crossing his arms with a firm, resolved expression. ”We have something far more critical to handle before the night ends.”

Eluned blinked with her pout returning. ”More critical than ensuring your bloodline?”

”Yes,” Silas answered, looking between the Goddess and the Pirate Queen. ”The eastern borders are shifting, new beasts are encroaching on the basin, and we need to expand our frontline command. I am going down to the Archway right now to summon another Her—”

”NO.”

The rejection was instantaneous and spoken in perfect unison.

Silas blinked, genuine surprise flickering across his face.

Eluned aggressively tightened her grip around his left arm, burying his elbow deep into the soft unyielding swell of her chest, her emerald eyes blazing with possessive fury.

”No more women, Silas! You already have a Goddess and a Pirate Queen at your beck and call! We are more than enough to conquer the entire Sovereign Realm for you! What could you possibly need another woman for?!”

Morwenna marched across the floorboards, aggressively seizing Silas’s right arm and locking it securely against her ribs, her stormy gray eyes flashing with fierce jealousy.

”For once, I agree with the weed. You’ve already got an army of more than seventy women running around your barracks, an elven arcanist staring at you like a god, and a dragon-hybrid breathing fire in your kitchen. You don’t need another stray, Captain.”

Silas looked down at the two terrifying powerhouses currently clinging to his arms like territorial toddlers, letting out a long exhausted sigh.

”You two are being ridiculous,” Silas reasoned, an amused smirk tugging at his lips. ”It’s not like whoever comes through that portal is going to magically fall in love with me the second her boots touch the grass. It’s not a romantic courtship... it’s a strategic expansion. We need specialized support to stabilize our divine infrastructure. It’s really not that serious.”

Eluned and Morwenna exchanged a skeptical unified glance, clearly not believing a single word that came out of his mouth.

”Fine,” Morwenna growled softly, her fingers digging firmly into his sleeve as she looked up into his blue eyes with a dangerous warning. ”You can summon your new asset, Captain. But you better promise no funny business... because the second this new Hero tries anything weird with you, I am personally taking Tidebringer and cleaving her arms off at the shoulders.”

...

The heavy timber doors of the Keep creaked softly as Silas stepped out into the night air.

The atmosphere of the Umbral Basin had settled into a quiet reverent stillness.

Above the fortified stone walls of the Blessed Land, the sky stretched out like a colossal vault of polished obsidian, pierced by millions of sharp crystalline stars that glittered with cold, diamond-like brilliance.

The surrounding mountain crags were reduced to jagged silhouettes against the dark heavens, their towering peaks acting as natural ramparts that boxed in the basin.

Silas walked down the wide polished stone steps leading away from the Keep’s main entrance, flanked closely on either side by his two powerhouses.

His dark combat robes swayed against his shins with every measured step.

He rolled his broad shoulders, taking in a deep lung-filling breath of the crisp night air, feeling the spiritual energy of the territory circulate smoothly through his Gold Core.

’What a day...’

Inwardly, he was grateful that the erratic spatial tear that connected their sector to Asgard hadn’t opened another atmospheric cold front into the depths of Asgard.

The heavy layer of snow that had buried the courtyard quite a while ago during the initial storms had finally melted and completely dried up under the radiant warmth of the sun and Silas wanted to keep it like this.

’Thank God,’ Silas thought, glancing up at the peaceful heavens with a sense of genuine relief. ’The last thing we need right now is another blizzard dumping three feet of ice on the barracks while the new recruits from the Unmovable Wall are still trying to find their footing. We need clear weather to run perimeter drills...’

FLUTTER!

A microscopic speck of white descended from the dark sky.

It drifted lazily through the still air, tumbling downward in slow erratic spirals until it landed squarely on the bridge of Silas’s nose.

A tiny, icy prickle touched his warm skin, and the flake instantly melted into a single drop of chilled moisture.

Silas stopped dead in his tracks.

He blinked, slowly wiping the droplet from his nose with the back of his thumb, his eyes staring blankly at the sky.

A second white flake pirouetted past his cheek, followed by a third, and then a fourth, dancing through the twilight like teasing sparks of frost.

Within seconds, a thin gentle veil of descending snow began to dust the dark stonework around them.

”Are you serious right now?” Silas muttered aloud, his voice thick with deep exhaustion as he stared upward into the dark canopy. ”I literally just finished thinking about how nice it was that the snow had dried up. Does the weather in this basin have a direct psychic wire hooked into my brain specifically just to piss me off?”

”The skies of the Sovereign Realm don’t give a damn about your schedule, Captain,” Morwenna drawled lazily from his right side.

The Pirate Queen casually extended a black leather-clad hand, letting several descending snowflakes settle across the palm of her glove.

Her stormy gray eyes narrowed with feral amusement as she turned her head, casting a wicked smirk across Silas’s chest toward the ethereal Goddess walking gracefully on his left.

”Look at it fall,” Morwenna said, her deep voice carrying a cruel throaty chuckle. ”Once enough of this white shit piles up on the stones, I’m going to pack a solid boulder of ice and throw it with enough force to cave in that smug plant-bitch’s pristine forehead.”

Eluned didn’t even turn her head.

The World-Tree Goddess glided across the stone walkway, her emerald silk robes hovering half an inch above the ground on a gentle current of nature mana.

Her newly gifted relic, The Tear of the Slumbering World, rested gracefully against the pale valley of her collarbone, pulsing with a mesmerizing emerald light that cast soft reflections across her porcelain neck.

”You are entirely free to indulge in your childish little fantasies, pirate,” Eluned replied, her melodic bell-like voice practically dripping with condescension. ”I have zero time to waste playing your pathetic virgin games. Go throw mud at the training dummies where you belong...”

SNAP!

The sound of Morwenna’s jaw clamping shut was so violent and abrupt it was practically audible across the empty courtyard.

The Dread Queen’s stormy gray eyes widened in apoplectic fury.

The relaxed slouching posture she carried instantly hardened into coiled steel, her right hand instinctively snapping down to the leather-wrapped hilt of Tidebringer at her hip.

’Where did she even get a hilt for that sword...?’

The runes along the saber’s scabbard flared with an angry volatile blue glow, but beneath the explosive rage burning across her sun-kissed face, her lips pressed into a tight trembling line.

She gritted her sharp canines so hard a muscle twitched violently along her jaw, but she notably didn’t draw her steel, nor did she manage to find a snappy comeback.

She simply glared daggers through the side of Eluned’s head, utterly paralyzed and rendered speechless by the disrespect of the insult.

Silas walked between them in paralyzed silence, his gaze flicking back and forth between the two terrifying women.

’Wait... does that actually work?’ Silas’s internal voice echoed in genuine stunned disbelief. ’Ah, should I try it too?’

The absurd thought lingered in Silas’s mind for half a second before survival instinct violently took over.

’Hell nah. What am I, suicidal? If I say that to Morwenna, she isn’t going to back down and pout. She’ll literally tackle me into the dirt, rip my combat robes in half, and grab my ass like I owe her fifty million credits just to prove she isn’t one... Hard pass. I like keeping my pelvis intact.’

Pushing the terrifying mental image aside, Silas led them across the wide illuminated stone bridge spanning the central aqueduct.

Standing in the absolute center of the primary courtyard was the Summoning Archway.

The structure was an awe-inspiring marvel of cosmic architecture.

Twin pillars of seamless starlight-white celestial stone curved upward toward the sky like the towering horns of a forgotten deity, meeting at the apex where an eternal dormant vortex of liquid golden mana spun in quiet mesmerizing stasis.

’Did it upgrade since the last time I saw it? Damn...’

At the base of the circular marble dais stood a monolithic rectangular pedestal carved from a solid block of starlight quartz, its surface etched with thousands of micro-fine runic circuits that channeled the territory’s raw core power.

Silas stepped up the low marble steps, his boots tapping softly against the polished surface as his eyes swept over the pedestal.

There was not a single smudge of soot, dust, or moisture marred the glowing stone.

”The pedestal is spotless,” Silas noted, nodding in genuine approval.

Eluned stepped up beside him, her chest swelling with proud authority as she smoothed down the emerald silk of her sleeves.

”Of course it is, Hubby,” Eluned purred softly, tilting her chin up with a radiant affectionate smile. ”Under my direct divine command, the maidens and trainees are ordered to cleanse the dais twice daily using distilled spirit-dew and enchanted silk cloths. The gateway that links your glorious soul to the cosmic ether must remain pure and unblemished at all times...”

Silas smiled warmly.

Looking down at the devoted Goddess, he reached out, gently cupping her delicate cheek in his palm, and leaned down to plant a firm affectionate kiss right on the center of her smooth forehead.

”You’re amazing, Elu,” Silas murmured genuinely. ”Thank you for keeping everything so well-organized.”

Eluned’s breath caught in her throat.

An incandescent blush erupted across her porcelain cheeks, spreading all the way to the tips of her delicate pointed ears.

She melted entirely under his touch, her emerald eyes shimmering with breathless dizzying adoration as she pressed her cheek deeper into his warm hand, practically glowing with pure romantic triumph.

Standing three feet away on the marble dais, Morwenna completely froze.

The Pirate Queen’s stormy gray eyes locked onto Silas’s lips, then darted to Eluned’s blushing glowing face.

Her chest seized with a sudden wave of pure uncoordinated jealousy.

She opened her mouth, her hand twitching at her side as she prepared to aggressively demand a forehead kiss of her own, but the realization of how hopelessly needy it would sound made the words die in her throat.

’I didn’t even think to bribe the guards to clean the damn rock...’ Morwenna cursed internally, feeling a ridiculous, burning frustration well up in her chest.

Silas gently lowered his hand from Eluned’s cheek, turning his focus toward the quartz pedestal.

As he stepped forward, Morwenna let out a disappointed sigh, crossing her arms over her chest only to catch sight of Eluned deliberately peering around Silas’s broad back.

The World-Tree Goddess narrowed her vibrant green eyes, raised her chin, and stuck her pink tongue out directly at Morwenna in a childish mocking taunt.

Morwenna’s stormy eyes flashed with murderous intent.

Her canines bared as she silently mouthed.

’I am going to chop you into kindling and light my cigars with your corpse.’

Eluned simply smiled serenely, silently mouthing back: ’Virgin.’

Morwenna’s fists clenched so tightly her leather gloves creaked under the strain, and the two beings immediately devolved into another round of silent venomous death-glares behind their Lord’s back.

Silas ignored the silent war brewing behind him, letting out a steadying breath as he planted his boots before the central quartz pedestal.

It felt like a lifetime had passed since he had last stood before this ancient altar.

The memory of summoning Morwenna was still burned fresh into his mind.

So much had happened since that day... It was almost funny.

His territory had expanded from only him and the girls into a fortified domain holding over one hundred women which were his and his alone.

And now, the time had come to call upon another soul.

Silas closed his eyes, centering his breathing.

Deep within his chest, his Gold Core hummed with boundless power, circulating pure mana through his body in a golden tide.

He raised his right hand over the pedestal.

SHING!

A brilliant spatial fracture parted the air above his palm. With a crisp metallic rustle, an ornate rectangular card materialized between his fingers.

[Hero Summoning Ticket].