Reincarnated as a step-dad in a fantasy world

"Pleased to finally meet you face to face," someone said, breaking off the silence in the boundless darkness.

The voice that spoke was so melodious, so enchanting, and so seductive that for a moment, Alex's mind went blank. He felt a wave of desire wash over him, momentarily forgetting where he was and what he was doing.

"Tsk, we don't have time for this," the voice said, and suddenly, Alex was pulled out of his trance. "I believe you already know who I am."

Alex blinked a couple of times in confusion before turning his head toward the pinkish cloud hovering on the chair opposite him. "The goddess of lust," he stated, his expression darkening.

"Spot on," the pink cloud moved from up to down as if it was nodding. "I would have appeared in my true form, but unfortunately, your mental and control of your emotions are too poor to witness my beauty. You would just become a dull slave," the goddess said in a teasing tone.

Alex ignored her teasing and went straight to the point. "Where are we, what do you want, and why did you make me appear here?"

"Always so feisty," the goddess chuckled but then, her tone turned surprisingly serious. "However, you are right, we shouldn't waste time. Otherwise, the others are going to sense my interference, and if this happens, heads will be rolling, and believe me, your head will be among those heads."

When he heard her last statement, Alex felt a cold sweat mat his back as the gravity of the situation began to settle in.

After a short pause to let her words sink in, the goddess continued, "I won't answer all your questions. As a matter of fact, I will only reply to questions I deem important enough."

He hadn't interacted many times with her, but it was weird for Alex to hear the usually playful and teasing goddess speak in a formal and serious tone. It made Alex become even more serious. If even a literal deity was getting serious, he would be foolish not to do the same.

"Firstly, the reason why I summoned you here is because you were about to lose control of yourself," the goddess explained. "You must have felt it before you lost consciousness."

Alex slowly nodded his head. In those moments before he was knocked out, probably by the goddess, he was actually going to lose consciousness anyway. His lust was so overwhelming in those moments that he felt himself changing as all sorts of thoughts, each more depraved and harmful than the other flashed in his mind.

"If I hadn't taken action, you would have probably done something you would regret later on," the goddess disclosed.

Alex nodded his head. When he thought back to all the things that he was about to do to not only his sister but all the women he might stumble upon in that lust-filled state, his blood chilled.

"There's a reason people think of lust as a sin, Alex. Never forget that," the goddess said in a strangely ancient and wise tone.

Alex nodded his head before he frowned the following instant. "You are the goddess of lust, right? Aren't you supposed to push me to do lustful things?"

"Yes, that's what I'm supposed to do and am actually doing, but you need to understand that your case is different from other people," the goddess sighed. "While when normal people succumb to their dark desires and do something lustful, I'm satisfied. Things are different for you. You, specifically, are supposed to represent me, something like my champion. If my champion can't even control his emotions, succumb, and become a slave to lust instead of the ruler of lust that he is supposed to be, that would be my greatest shame."

Hearing her explanation, Alex couldn't help but sigh in disappointment. For a moment there, he thought that she was worried about him, but apparently, she was worrying about her face.

"You already explained that thing about controlling my lust once, so why did you bring me here?" he asked.

"As I said, you were about to lose yourself when I summoned you," the goddess explained. "If I had let things happen, you might return to your usual self after a while, but by then, the damage would already be done. That is without mentioning the fact that you will gradually lose your sense of self."

"What the hell?" Alex exclaimed, his eyes widening in shock.

The pinkish cloud nodded, "If you continue to lose yourself, that lust-crazed version of yours will become your new persona."

At that moment, Alex felt dread as he imagined himself becoming someone whose only goal in life was to fuck any holes he came across. Yet, the most dreadful thing was that he wasn't sure that he would only assault women!

He took a deep breath and calmed himself, or at the very least tried to.

"So how do I stop myself from succumbing to lust?" he asked with a hardened expression.

"Before that, you need to understand the reason why all of this is happening," the goddess replied. "I planned on explaining all of this when you solved your problems with your divided soul, but I guess that won't happen."

She sighed and revealed, "To make a complicated matter simple, the reason all of this is happening is because you are tapping into the lust energy without my blessing."

Alex blinked in confusion, question marks popping above his head. "Lust energy? Blessing?"

"Yes," the goddess nodded. "Just like mana and other forms of energies, there is also lust energy. However, contrary to energies like mana that come from the world, lust energy is tied to beings. If there are no beings in a world, there can't be lust energy," she explained.

This news was quite a shock to Alex because he had never thought that energies such as lust existed. Just this revelation alone was enough to disturb him, but when another thought crossed his mind, he practically froze in realization...

"Wait," he raised his hand to stop the goddess. "If there's lust energy, that means that there are other forms of energies depending on the different sins?"

The goddess didn't reply directly, as if wondering if she should answer or not, but ultimately, the pinkish cloud moved up and down, confirming his thoughts. "For some of us, yes."

"For some of you? You mean to say that—"

"I am forbidden to answer questions regarding the other sins," she interjected. "If you want answers regarding them, find out yourself. Besides, we are not here to discuss the other sins."

The goddess of lust sighed and resumed, "As I was saying, there exists lust energy; that energy only comes from living beings, and you, like other species such as the succubus, can tap into this lust energy." the goddess explained. "Life forms that can use lust energy mostly tap into this surrounding lust energy, but you are different."

"You being my champion, you can tap more freely into the lust energy and can even directly feed on other people's lust. Since you are new to this, though, this process is handled by the 'lust artifact,'" she explained.

After she said this, she remained silent to give Alex some time to digest the information.

After a while, Alex's eyes focused on the pinkish cloud, and he said, "So if I understand what you are saying, by indulging in lustful things with my wives, I feed on their lust, and thanks to the artifact, that lust is transformed into the soul points that I can use to increase my stats or copy abilities," he summarized.

"You are true and false at the same time," the goddess replied.

Alex raised a brow in surprise, hearing her. He was pretty certain about his deductions of how the artifact worked so this answer was a surprise to him.

"Well, to be honest, you would have been totally exact if your soul ability didn't interfere in the process of transformation," the goddess disclosed.

As he heard this, Alex released a soft chuckle. It seemed Lilia was right after all; his ability had indeed caused modifications to the lust artifact.