Many of the girls who had been growing increasingly curious as I spoke with Marriage, Lilith, and the other higher goddesses now scattered and hid at the appearance of NTR. She didn’t give them any attention though. Her eyes were locked on me, a small, yet condescending smile on her face.

“Hakaru… still biting at the scraps of Harem’s leftovers?” She raised an eyebrow.

“You…” I held up my hand, stopping Lilith from approaching her.

“He is not a Harem god. You know this more than most. He’s Procreation. The only true Harem God stands before you, NTR. Are you blind?”

“Heh… you even try to steal his name? Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t need it, or rather, he can just take it from you. You’ve gathered all of that power and delivered it right to Procreation to consume. It’s not uncommon for one god to acquire the tasks and power of another god. Once he kills you, he’ll be the Harem god entirely.”

“You seem convinced that he’ll win.” I raised an eyebrow. “I’m not so certain.”

“Hakaru, I know how you were sent into the past. I know everything that she knows, after all. That bitch Netori dared to show her pathetic face, and even break the edicts of heaven sending you back into the past. I’ve been busy cleaning up after her mess. I don’t know how Chronos allowed such a thing to happen, but you’re both lucky that there hasn’t been any fallout.”

“You call her a bitch? She is you?”

“She’s a part of me. A part that is more detestable than I originally predicted. Don’t worry, she won’t be available again. I’ve pushed her down so far into the recesses of my psyche that she’ll never emerge again!”

“Still, she gave me a chance, which is more than you ever did.’

“If she wanted you to have a chance, she should have sent you back a million years. You think because you’ve gone twenty years and seduced a few low-level inexperienced goddesses that you’ve approached his greatness? You’re still far too naïve Hakaru. That’s why I left you. I needed a man, and sadly, you’re still just a little boy.”

The girls all made noises of anger, but they were able to control themselves enough that they didn’t surge forward and allowed me to do things my way. On my side, I didn’t flinch at all even though she was laying on such vicious remarks.

“Hakaru… just leave her.” Marriage tugged on my sleeve. “Let her have what she wants. She can stay with that dickless loser. We can go somewhere else. You’re strong enough now to walk away. You can have me, and all of these girls. We can establish our own base, and carve out a nice piece of the heavenly realm in your honor. At your power, once you announced yourself, he wouldn’t dare try to bring you down. Doing so would bring him the ire of half of the heavenly realm.”

“You should listen to her.” NTR chuckled. “Run off with your little harlot. I’ve gotten what I wanted, just me and Harem again, and you’ll get what you want. If you come, you will die.”

I looked back between the two girls. Marriage seemed to be a goddess of stability. Go home, play it safe, live with what you’ve got. NTR was a goddess of a rougher path. It was a bitter path, and sometimes painful. You might not get what you want, and you risked losing it all. However, if you wanted everything, if you didn’t want to settle for a single thing less, then it was the only path one could travel.

I loved both of these women. I loved all of my women. However, the path I was on was a path I had to carve out all for my own. I reached up and stroked Marriage’s beautiful blonde hair.

“I must do what I must do.” I smiled at her, even as she looked up at me with worried, tear-stained eyes.

“Tsk… why must you be so stubborn!” NTR snapped.

“You want me to leave, huh?”

“Of course! You’re an eyesore. You’re like that dweeb the popular girl dated in high school. You’re an embarrassment from my history.” She snapped back.

“Or maybe, you just don’t want to see me hurt.” I smiled gently.

“R-ridiculous! If I didn’t wish to hurt you, I wouldn’t be saying these words! You’re disgusting! I hate you! Procreation’s dick is way bigger! He can satisfy me in ways you never will!”

“How do you know? I’ve heard he hasn’t put out since you’ve been back?”

Her expression turned into a glower. “I could do it with him whenever! I just respect him and his current goals. I didn’t want to disturb him.”

“Or… you dreaded going into his room. You dreaded taking that last step of betrayal.” I responded, walking toward her.

“Y-you have an active imagination.” She responded defensively, taking a step back. “I am the goddess of NTR, and you accuse me of balking at NTR? You must be the god of delusions!”

“I’m no longer angry with you.”

“Th-then you’re a fool! You’re like Cuckold, you should go hang out with him…” She backed up another step, her cool expression starting to flicker a bit.

  “NTR, I forgive you.”

“Forgive? Who is asking for forgiveness? I made the decisions that I made!”

“But are you happy?”

Her breath froze, her eyes growing unfocused for a second before she turned her head away. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“It has to do with everything,” I responded. “You’re not happy with the person you’ve become. This isn’t the kind of person that you are.”

“You have no idea what kind of person I am!” She shot back angrily.

“I know who you are better than anyone,” I responded. “Certainly better than him.”

She stepped back again, a defiant expression on her face. “Try me.”

“You’re a thief.”

She snorted, turning her head. “Spare me, that was Netori. She may be me, but I am not her.”

I smiled calmly. “You’re wrong. You are her. You are all of them. You are no greater, and you are no less. That was my mistake before. I had been so convinced that you were someone else.”

“I am!”

“Netori thought so too. She was convinced that she was a different person from you, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. She is you, and you are her. However, you’re also Netorase. You’re also Netorare. I know everything about you.”

“You don’t.” Her expression grew panicked, and tears formed in her eyes.

“You are a thief. And you’re lost too. Always taking to keep from losing, but always losing what you take. You’re a kind woman, a woman who wants to share her love with the world, but you’ve become someone who has grown afraid to lose. You are too afraid of losing what you have that you stopped taking what you want. As long as you don’t seize happiness for yourself, you never have to blame yourself for failing, is that it?” I continued to approach her.

“Shut up!” Her back hit a wall.

“I know you, NTR. You’re mine. I claim you as mine. I’m stealing you, every part of you. I want your body. I want your mind. I want your soul. You’re mine from now on, and no god will take you away from me. If they even try, I will show them what a Harem god means!

“I-I can’t…” She was crying, her head turning away.

I stopped in front of her. “Most of all, I know that you are a sum of your parts. Netori, Netorare, Netorase… every single one of those women loved me. You may have lied to your own heart, but you will never be able to lie to me. I know how you feel. I know how you’ve always felt.”

 “Hakaru…” She shook, looking like a frightened deer who may run away.

I reached out and grabbed her hands. She didn’t escape my grasp as I held her there. I pushed my body against her, my arms wrapping around her. Tears streamed down her beautiful face, and her body shook. I leaned up to her ear.

“I caught you,” I whispered.

“Hakaru!” She broke into a wail, throwing her arms around me and holding me tight.

The goddess NTR held me tightly and cried into my shoulder. She had once seemed so powerful and omnipotent, but I understood her now. She was just as scared and worried as I had once been. She had picked me because I exemplified herself, but it wasn’t just a love of the chase. It was also our hopes and fears. Even the goddess of NTR feared losing. She feared it so much that she was willing to throw it all away.

As she cried, all of the goddesses that had gone into hiding began to peek their heads out. They had conflicted expressions on their faces. This had been a woman who had made their lives hell the last few weeks, and in only a few words, she had been reduced to a blubbering mess. On the one hand, they felt a little vindicated seeing her mentally crushed. On the other hand, they felt overjoyed that the man they had handed their hearts out to could even put reigns on Procreation’s top bitch.

The mortal girls also watched this display, but they had more pleased expressions on their faces. They were the ones who had been there when NTR had left. They had seen how broken I was, and knew first hand how much she meant to me. They were happy to see their man get what he wanted, especially after so much struggle.

NTR’s tears finally settled down, and she finally pulled back. Despite her crying, she looked just as beautiful as ever. Even her crying face was alluring enough to steal a man’s heart. She looked up at me, hope started to come back into her eyes again.

“Now what?” She asked.

“I already said. I love all of you.” I grinned. “How could I just settle for one of you?”

“O-one?” NTR raised an eyebrow.

“If Artemis did what I asked then… split!”

NTR burst with light, and then standing in her place were three women. They looked between each other as if they were confused.

“Netorase!” Kira cried out in recognition.

“We… we’re apart?” Netorase frowned.

“Hakaru?” Netori looked up at me.

“Netori…” I leaned toward her for a kiss.

She hit me on the head. “You dummy!”

“Ah! What?”

“Why did you split us up just now? You had finally conquered NTR. Believe me, I am her, we were totally ready to give you our everything!”

“Sh-she’s right!” Netorare nodded. “She was like mmmm… and she was ready to go ‘oooooh’.”

“Exactly!” Netori snapped her finger. “You’re about to face Procreation and you need all of the power you can gather. As sweet as your words were about us being no greater than her, the basic truth is that a single level twelve goddesses can do better than three lower-level goddesses.”

I balked as all three of the goddesses I had painstakingly brought back immediately responded by lecturing me.

“It’s not like that,” I responded defensively.

“Oh? Then what is it like?” Netori demanded.

“This is an enchantment, forged by higher goddesses, and secured in the hall of records!”

“Wh-what is that supposed to mean?”

“Ah… well, I sent my girl Artemis up to the celestial palace and had her enter the hall of records. Her first task was to set up a few laws. I mostly wanted to cover my mortal girls’ butts, making sure their transition to goddesses goes uncontested, but I also made it so that NTR and her three parts were interchangeable.”

“Th-the celestial palace?” Her eyes went wide.

“Y-y-you… you did what to the hall of records!” Netorare’s voice was squeaky.

“I said I put a few edicts in them.”

“Hakaru! The hall of records is heavenly decree! One does not walk into the hall of records and just start changing things!”

“Ah… but I did though. See, I can put you back together. Combine!”

The three sisters disappeared in mid chastisement, turning into a single woman once again.

“Hakaru! Becoming a god has gone to your head!” NTR declared, but her voice didn’t sound like NTR, but more like Netori!”

“Netori?”

“Y-you shouldn’t play with a goddess so much, you’ll definitely break us,” NTR spoke again, but this time she sounded like Netorare.

“Why are there three other voices in my mind?” NTR cried out, sounding like the original NTR.

“No, sisters.” It was still NTR, but now it was using Netorase’s tone. “Do you see what he did? He made us share!”

Actually, that was an accident. I just intended them to be able to split up and form back together. However, when they formed back together, it seemed like NTR had grown a split personality. All four of them had become their own unique personalities all within the same goddesses’ body. At least she didn’t sprout four heads or something like that.

I gave a thumbs up. “This way, if you want anything, you’ll have to learn to share. You’ll give, you’ll take, and you’ll be a stronger goddess than ever before.

“He’s right!” Marriage gasped. “She’s… actually increased in power! She’s a level 13 goddess again, just with that her power has increased greatly.”

“Y-you did this, for us?” NTR looked up at me, her eyes filled with happiness.

“NTR, I will do anything for you.”

It was best to just pretend I did this on purpose. No one said I was the god of honesty.