In the public-facing area of a grand temple to the Anael, located in the heart of the space-faring palace-city of Aura, an enraptured congregation adoringly listened to the heartfelt hymns sung by a group of supernaturally beautiful angels of music, accompanied by the skillful orchestrations of a small number of musicians on harps and a single flutist. 

The songs sung by the Heartmuses of Cosmic Rapture told of the Anael. They sang of his power and majesty, and in the days since they first made their way to his empire, just two weeks after his true ascension and his avatars disappeared, they had been a joyful presence in one of the grandest temples to his divinity. They sang endlessly, tirelessly, perpetually uplifting both Rhaele, the grand high priestess of the faith of the Anael, and those who came to her temple, fueled by a connection to their god who constantly whispered praises to each of them, endlessly energizing each of the singers by speaking telepathically to each of them. 

The temple's congregation was filled with a litany of beings. Creatures of every gender, social class, and career filled the temple's nave. Lesser beings and higher beings alike joined together in joyful worship of the living embodiment of joy, power, and love. They all peacefully listened to the music sung by the Heartmuses and played by the Lymadrial Orchestra. The place's influence was so vast that even some of Raul's own wives were in attendance! 

Zaria, the blessed first wife of Raul, was seated near the back of the temple. She was attended by several servants and guards, including those who worshiped Raul and Melonie as the king and queen of fertility. Zaria herself was a picture of peace at this moment, her own sort of hyper-empathy making her find this place of devotion to her husband to be a calming location where she could go and relax. Her children, all of whom were almost assured to be divinities themselves, also found this place of love to their father, to be soothing, so the pregnant goddess-queen had spent many hours a day there in the time since Raul's avatars vanished. 

Luna, who was otherwise beside herself with concern over the fate of Raul, was here as well. The songs of the Heartmuses calmed her down, as did their devotion to her husband. She enjoyed seeing everyone so joyful, even though under other circumstances she'd be inclined to be solitary. 

Stella, returned from another of her grand conquests in the name of the emperor of the Starmazons was also present. She delighted in attention being paid to her so she was near the front of the temple's nave. She was accompanied by Grace and Artemesia, and the three of them sang along with the Heartmuses, their voices being blessed by Raul himself to be supernaturally, tear-inducingly beautiful, and to match the passion of the Heartmuses, who Raul had made it clear, through omens and dreams, were to be protected and were to be treated as though they were also wives of his. 

The Heartmuses themselves were a small choir of supernaturally beautiful angelic women. They all had the basic features of angels, such as wings and halos, and easily the most beautiful singing voices that anyone in the city of Aura had ever heard. They were, in fact, goddess-like beings of art, creativity, and music, who harkened back to the very beginning of existence, a period so long ago that they predated the multiverse of Raul's birth, and even back then they sang of the Anael. 

Rayne and Nixie sat near each other in the middle of the massive congregation. The two of them, friends from before they knew Raul, were surrounded by assorted hegemonic princesses, all of whom were rescued by Raul throughout the last few weeks, over the course of his campaign against the alliance that took down Etherscape. 

And other parts of the grand empire of Raul were active as well.

In the heart of Hell, a single potent archdemoness knelt in front of a handmade shrine. The archdemoness was none other than the transformed and converted Archduchess herself, and the shrine in front of her was one she made by hand to her lord, husband, and the king of Hell, Raul. 

The shrine was a small thing, as Raul hadn't asked her to make a big one, but it was surprisingly sweet. The Archduchess hadn't been known for her kindness or for being particularly soft-hearted, but in the depths of her home, she was now able to indulge in the love she felt, a love she had never felt or known until the days following Raul's entrance into her home and the actions he took to uplift her. 

The Archduchess closed her eyes and sighed as she felt his power coursing through her. Her very veins, heart, and soul, were filled with his power, and she was something totally unique. She was both one of Raul's dark brides, his bride of culture specifically, someone who had felt the full brunt of his abilities to redeem someone, and a person filled with Raul's transcendent powers. 

As she gazed at the shrine she imagined Raul himself standing next to her. As she did reality was rewritten, overwhelmed by the power of her emotions, and an illusion of the mighty man who had visited her days ago appeared beside her. She paid it no mind, well-aware by now that it was an illusion, an unconscious manifestation of her potent powers. 

The Archduchess was inarguably the strongest archdemoness to join Raul's forces due to her being the only one to be redeemed, her unique status as someone who had permission to use Raul's transcendent abilities, and her sanguinarch-powers owed to her status as one of his brides. She was rightfully considered a being of nearly pure power now. Her forces, many of whom had also been redeemed in the wake of Raul's unconscious emanation of his Anael abilities, were even now redeeming and transforming Hell, remaking it in the image of their lord, the true king of Hell. 

Redeeming and transforming Hell was a challenging task but fortunately, the legions of Hell that had atoned and repented were not alone.

Cities in Hell were not often visited by non-natives but if they had been they'd have been surprised to see what was occurring within the city of Sodom. The place, once a miserable hellscape filled with demons and the sort of activities and sounds that demons were known to enjoy, was now a wholly different place. 

On a physical level, the biggest change to the city was that the wall that had surrounded it was now entirely gone. Instead of relying on a wall to secure its borders, the city relied on a gigantic, pink forcefield that was the result of technology given to it by the city's newest patron; a radiant woman who at the moment was in the heart of the city's government, a gigantic palace in the middle of the city. 

Elaine, the aforementioned patron, was quite busy at the moment. She grabbed a small amount of ambrosia and gently lifted it to the lips of a soul's manifested form, a non-descript spiritual body belonging to one of many of Hell's non-fiendish denizens. The soul-body slowly and carefully began to bite into the ambrosia, which had manifested as a loaf of bread. A split second after biting into the bread-ambrosia the wounds which covered the strange entity began to heal, and the spirit itself quietly sighed in relief.

"That's it..." She whispered, comfortingly. Elaine herself was a modestly dressed woman, one who had purposefully disguised herself to look as unremarkable as possible, while she tended to the countless souls in Hell who would need protection while the Anael and the Archduchess worked to enact reforms that would transform the place into a place of redemption and atonement and not one of horror, conflict, and torture. 

Elaine's current disguise was akin to a nun's habit, but covered in the symbols of the Archduchess herself, thereby ensuring that no one questioned the potent hyperion while she tended to the pained souls inhabiting Hell. Elaine was the mighty Living Hyperion, the former queen, and founder of the civilization led by the Hyperionite Consensus, and as such was an unbelievably powerful being but was also quite humble. 

In the time before Raul's birth and after the death of Il'Noth'Rey, Elaine and Joy were quite possibly the two beings closest in both power and benevolence to Raul in his capacity as the Anael. And at the moment Joy herself was busy preparing one tremendous gift for Raul before she finally made her grand appearance to him and asked to become one of his wives. But Elaine was content following Raul's orders to aid the redeemed inhabitants of Hell in turning the place from a hellscape into a place of atonement, joy, and redemption. 

As Elaine nursed the soul, one of several hundred she had tended to today, she mused on the nature of Raul's kindness. In the time since she had presented herself to him, prostrating herself before one of his clerics in one of his temples, he had asked her to help those who had atoned but needed help due to the rules of their societies, such as redeemed fiends or formerly dark gods and goddesses.

Raul had allowed her to receive a vision of him, to see his astral true-form, and to become one of his so-called "prime agents", mere moments after meeting her, claiming, truthfully, that in gazing at her he could see everything she ever was and had ever wanted to be, and naming her one of his greatest servants. She was one of a handful of newcomers to the Raulian Empire to see Raul's true form, and thus be changed by gazing into the face of love, joy, and goodness, embodied. 

Elaine was now permanently connected to her god, the true, unfettered god of joy, and she heard his voice perpetually. It was a soft whisper in the back of her mind, urging her to be kinder, happier, and to spread the light of life everywhere she went. Even now as she performed a thousand small acts of kindness, she felt his presence. That was something she had in common with many of the newest people to come to Raul, an ability to hear him constantly, a direct line to her god that left her perpetually blissful.

Not every newcomer to Raul's empire had opted to be humble and to engage in small-scale acts like Elaine had. Some of the newcomers were heroes who engaged in wide-scale acts of heroism, such as one particular grand venus named Istoril. 

At the moment Istoril was flying through outer space, towards a large asteroid, accompanied by both other grand venuses and by a number of particularly powerful hegemonic princesses from Etherscape. She was a powerful-looking superheroine in much of the tradition of Earth's takes on superheroes, a radiant woman with dark black hair, a lithe physique, dressed in the radiant robes of a warrior-queen. 

She was accompanied by the warrior princess of the tel'Vald hegemony, one of Raul's more martially oriented bride-to-be's, named Empressa, the princess of the tel'Xing hegemony, a potent Nova who had been touched by Raul himself, named Flare, and by the princess of the tel'Glem hegemony, an angel named Euphoria. Istoril also had an escort consisting of a pair of grand venuses, lesser in power than her, who were named Raven and Sapphire. The six women were able to fly through outer space with ease.

They were focused on a gigantic asteroid that was hurtling towards one of the planets on the outer edge of Raul's empire. They flew towards it, unconcernedly, knowing that they were protected by the power of their emperor, the true Grand Adonis, Raul himself. They felt his power suffuse their every cell, and they felt his protection deep in their veins. They each possessed the physical mighty needed to handle the asteroid individually, but as they inched nearer and nearer the thing all of them except for Istoril began to slow. They all liked to watch Istoril engage in super-heroics. 

The brunette continued to fly towards the gigantic object, unafraid of its imposing size or its considerable weight. Eventually, her companions momentarily lost sight of her since she was so dwarfed by the object she had come to destroy, but then they noticed the asteroid begin to slow as something seemingly quite small impacted it. The object continued to slow for a few minutes until it stopped completely. Istoril, a not particularly tall grand venus, had the physical might needed to stop an asteroid from moving. And then a split second later their sharpened eyes and supernatural ears were able to see and hear a crack emerge on the surface of the massive asteroid. 

The women watching Istoril began to smile. And when the asteroid they had come to destroy suddenly splintered and shattered into a thousand pieces the smiles on the faces of the princesses and the grand venuses grew in size. 

Everyone there knew that Istoril was somehow still weaker than Raul, or even some of the more unique figures in the empire, and as they remembered that fact they felt quite safe in the Raulian Empire, a feeling that for some of them hadn't been felt in a few weeks or even months. As they watched the shattered pebbles of the asteroid floating off in the distance, they felt joyful gratitude that they had been welcomed into the empire of Raul as wholly and as fully as they had.