The Next Guest
Copyright© 2025 by Pars001
Chapter 14
Ephus - Demi-god
Quinn Markov - human wife of Ephus, blessed by multiple gods
Egyptian Dieties
Bast - Goddess of cats, protection, joy, dance, music, family, and love
Serket - Goddess of scorpions, medicine, magic, and healing venomous stings and bites
Anhur - God of war and the sky bearer - Full brother of Bast and Sekhmet
Thoth - God of knowledge
Greek deity
Enyo - goddess of war and destruction
Japanese Dietes
Amaterasu - Japanese Goddess of the sun (head goddess)
Wakahiru-me - younger sister of Amaterasu, goddess of the rising sun
Benten - Japanese Goddess of love
Hachiman - Japanese God of war
Shuten-dōji - King of Japanese Demons
Ibaraki-dōji - subordinate and Lieutenant of Shuten-dōji
“So,” the demon king growled. “You’ve been lying around instead of healing. I should destroy you here and now.”
Ibaraki-dōji nodded as the minor demons released him as he staggered, falling to his knees. “I am unworthy of serving you sire,” Ibaraki-dōji said as he sunk to the floor.
Shuten-dōji could see that his Lieutenant was injured more than he had thought. His anger started to grow to higher heights as he thought of the greater demon.
That’s when his lieutenant fell to the floor unconscious, making the demon king angrier. That goody-goody Demi had to die before anything else happened, this was increasing his anger even higher. He also didn’t notice that he was suddenly healed completely.
Yes, the Demi had to die first before anything else!
The few lesser demons that were there picked Ibaraki-dōji and threw him onto a slab of rock. For the moment, neither the demon king nor his injured Lieutenant could heal that much.
Looking at his right-hand demon, there had to be a reason that his first, had left, then returned. He was sure that he was about to speak of it when he lost consciousness.
Yes, unlike ever before, the demon king was almost at a total loss as to why he was losing. He had to get the rest of him resurrected before he could make a move.
That unfortunately meant that there wasn’t much they could do right now. Though they would, that was for sure, especially with the most recent escape route he had.
Hen hadn’t survived as long as he had to be defeated by a piss-pant demi-god. No, he would survive no matter what, but the demi had to die.
He’d heard the tales of what he had done to Ares. There was the other whose name he couldn’t recall, though it really wasn’t important.
He would just have to take a little longer to gather a plan for total victory. He looked at his first again, seeing that it had truly been through a hell of a battle.
Hmmm he thought, it almost looked as if he’d been caught in the blast that had almost decimated him. Perhaps he had gotten word and was trying to save him.
A wicked smile came to the lips of the demon king. He would have to decide what rewarding torture to hand out to his first, he was sure his first would enjoy it.
Now, he had to finish with the healing that he was going through. His lesser demons had been pitiful healing him, it took two hundred to do in a day what his first did in two hours.
Looking down, he saw that he still had no damn legs, but he would. For now, he’d sit and plan as he had been doing, he had a few good ideas but they fell apart too easily.
Ephus had to rest a lot more than he thought he would. Obviously, he’d gotten far angrier than he thought he had, plus, as Bast and Serket had said, he’d used life energy also.
Ephus shook his head, Guess you learn something new almost every day. Now, as she had said, Bast and Serket were keeping a very severe eye on him.
Shit! That was going to make going to other realms, a virtual bitch as things were. They knew that he couldn’t resist helping the other realms as he had the three he had so far.
He was afraid that with the fourth realm asking not long after the third. They were starting to find themselves in true dire straits.
He was afraid that he wasn’t going to get to rest much if things kept on like they were. He knew that he could handle with his power increasing, but he still had his mortal way of thinking.
A sigh escaped his lips as he saw that Bast and Serket were immediately drawn to him. He could see that they were trying to figure out exactly what he was thinking.
He was about to say something to Thoth and Anhur when Hachiman walked in from Amaterasu’s room. He knew that pregnant Wakahiru-me and Berten, were being watched by her.
He had also seen that Amaterasu had been watching him. It was just like all his pregnant and recently birthed mother goddesses had been.
He sighed as he knew that sooner or later she would also want a child from him. It was bad enough that just one time with her sister, Wakahiru-me and Benten had taken.
Damn, he thought that was four realms that now had or would have children of his. From what he’d heard, it was the first time in over six thousand years since there had been any.
At this rate he was going to have children in all the realms, of shit! He forgot about the three minor goddesses that were with child also, shit that was five here.
He shook his head as Hachiman walked to him and whispered to him. A grimace came to his face as he and Hachiman vanished and appeared near the tail end of a mountain range.
Hachiman pointed to a mountain as Ephus nodded and started to lay waste with energy blasts. Not immediately, but a few minutes later, at least a hundred lesser demons appeared, actually knocking Hachiman down.
Ephus tried and kept his anger under control ‘til Bast, Serket and Enyo appeared, and were forced from the sky. Ephus saw this and completely lost his temper, he destroyed all those demons within a few thousand feet of him.
Then his power started to grow, as did the glow of his skin, he pointed at the three females and they vanished. He looked at Hachiman as his eyes were now glowing brighter.
Between clenched teeth, Ephus almost whispered to Hachiman. “Leave now, when you feel it dissipate come back. Not even you can survive this.”
Hachiman started to say something, then was blown back from Ephus. “I’ll gather the village near here,” Hachiman started, but Ephus shook his head as he pointed.
“They are gone the entire village, go I am losing control,” Ephus said and pointed at Hachiman as, with a surprised look, he vanished also.
Within the cave that Shuten-dōji was hiding, he felt the impossible power growing. He then looked at his first with a snarl as he pointed at his first then put up a shield.
I sent all of the lesser demons to deal with all of,” Ibaraki-dōji started, then was interrupted.
“This demi has more power than you realize. Had you been here and not hiding, you would have known,” Shuten-dōji snarled as he pointed at his first then put up a shield.
Ephus was panting as his power continued to grow. “I told you, Shuten-dōji, if you went after my family that I wouldn’t be held responsible!”
Shuten-dōji grimaced as he felt the power grow beyond what it had the last time. He was using every scrap of power he had to shield himself.
No matter how hard he tried, Ephus couldn’t seem to pull the power back. He felt it reach out, seeking, searching, finally finding Shuten-dōji.
With an almost living fury, his power released heading for the mountain. Shuten-dōji started to pour more power into a shield as the power almost brushed it away as if it wasn’t there.
The mountain and everything around him seemed to dissolve into nothing as Shuten-dōji was buffeted. He tried to ride the energy away from where he was, but the power was rapidly eating through the shield.
He tried to scream as again, it got through, and his body was destroyed. Even with all the pain, a very small section was blasted away from the rest.
Shuten-dōji would have laughed if he had any cognizant thoughts. Many miles away, his first felt the total destruction of the hideaway.
Ibaraki-dōji appeared a few moments later feeling hardly anything of the demon king. He found the small one inch of the demon king that was left, he left with it as fast as possible.
Ephus had felt the demon king fade almost completely, then felt the demon’s first appear. Pissed, Ephus sent out what little energy he’d left, hitting the first, taking both legs as he was fading.
Hachiman and three of his wives appeared a moment later as the destructive energy weakened. All three of them yelled as Ephus fell rapidly from the sky.
Hachiman caught him just before he hit the ground though he took the war god down with him. “Damnit, he’s still alive,” Ephus was whispering as he passed out.
Hachiman managed to get Ephus up in his arms as all four of them vanished. A few minutes later, they all arrived in the main room of Takamagahara.
Amaterasu, her sister and Benten could only stare as Hachiman laid Ephus on a sleeping pallet. Serket went to work immediately scanning Ephus as she suddenly smiled.
“Husband will live though, he has exhausted almost all of his power and life energy.” Serket shook her head, “how husband survived this not once but twice, it shows how strong he is.”
She then started to infuse Ephus with energy, all there, seeing his color rapidly improve. The problem was that, Serket stopped a few moments later as she was afraid she’d hurt the baby.