They could go on a picnic.
He’d design a new nature themed set and have Jun manifest it, or whatever he does, in one of his rooms. Fields of wildflowers and maybe a lazy brook, a small patch of shade trees, and big cushy bean bags. And a chocolate elephant that sprays white and dark chocolate from each nostril and poops strawberries.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle
They would eat salads and berries and refreshing melons, cold soups and ice creams.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle
They should take the floating island out for a spin. He wondered what it ran on. Could they use it in Earth’s space? Would parking it right at the level of the Veil of Darkness act like a giant squeegee? There shouldn’t be any gravitational issues, right? The only place that might be affected by erratic tides would be the Gate City built around the one Gate sitting out in the middle of fuck all.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle
He should ask Mary to marry him. Maybe that was moving too fast. A lunch date. No. That’s a coward’s mentality. He was above that now. He’d get the biggest, baddest engagement ring and go all cray cray with the setting. It was time to go big or go home. The worst thing that could happen was that she’d say no and shatter what was left of his pathetic life forever.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle
This wasn’t an issue of conviction or will. It was a simple matter of endurance. All he had to do, and the only thing he could do, was endure.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle
Flames licked and devoured his skin and eyes, and charred his flesh and bones, all of which kept mysteriously regrowing, stronger, purer, and raging to lash out in protest to all the harm, but couldn’t. The process could not be stopped until it completed or he died. So he had to endure.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle
If Davie and Lily had babies, they would be stupidly adorable. Hopefully, they leaned more towards their mother’s looks. Boy was big and strong like his papa, but not cute at all. Thankfully, he didn’t get the mean genes from his mom. Maybe he should have a talk with Mary about getting the two married off early. He was really looking forward to it.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle
The pain was as blinding as Juan’s resolution to endure and almost as great as his growing excitement. He could feel the change. He could feel that at some point during his fiery torment, he’d stepped into his third cleansing, and instinctively knew he’d yet to reach his limit.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle
Juan had grown up on the streets of the Outer Circle, abandoned at an age he couldn’t remember, where he learned the rules of survival among the despots. One of the first rules taught to every unfortunate soul entrapped on those streets was to always be weary of outstretched hands offering kindness because the human heart had an infinite potential for darkness and just as many ways to hide it. Everything he had was seized with his own hands.
And he had done well.
From a young street racing thug, a few years as a small time Hunter, and now a family with a respectable career, Juan Guard had come a long way. He’d long processed his wife’s disappointing betrayal and moved on, since such things were common for his background.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle
His eldest son’s disgusting….
Sizzle sizzle sizzle
It made him feel like a failure as a father.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle
Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts.
Racing vroom vrroom. Dancing the no-no cha cha.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle
The Chaos God’s Chaos Mantra sustained Juan’s tortured mind, but the fires to sustain the will to live through inhumane torture with a grin had to be found on his own.
For the tribulations to come, he could endure if it meant gaining the power to protect his family.
He took another fiery breath.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle
He could endure anything for them.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle
----
The ancient monster that inspired the Divine Beast King’s Fist fought with pure ferocity. Every movement of the beast was strange and deadly, yet perfectly in tuned with nature’s way. It was a being that personified the perfect predator molded and refined by nature.
When the foolish god inscribed the Divine Beast King’s Fist upon its own fang, the last spiritual remnant of the vain and selfish creature hidden within the tooth was satisfied with the tribute and thus accepted the offering, including the creator’s own mastery.
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A petite human huntress crouched low on all fours, body tensed and waiting to pounce. Muscles twitched and squirmed with compressed momentum as the huntress stared down her stubborn prey.
Facing the girl was an eerie imitation, unnaturally sapped of any natural colors and wearing a frozen smile that wouldn’t change, no matter the situation.
She hated it.
White light flashed. Two figures collided. Fists formed claws and kicks swung in deadly arcs. Bodies twisted in impossible angles as blows were traded and deflected in a flash.
Two lithe figures retreated in opposite directions in perfect silence.
Nicole’s pretty face was contorted in a ferocious snarl as she glared at her eerie opponent, that was wearing her face like a party mask. She hated her inability to shred that face into ribbons.
The further she delved into the Divine Beast King Fist and her mastery increased, so did the opponent’s. It was like fighting an unpleasant reflection of herself.
Smile.
She needed to hit that really hard.
Pushing off with all her limbs, she dashed low to the ground like a silent predator charging at her prey. With a series of vanishing steps, the predator appeared from the wrong direction and struck out.
The Smile twisted its body to the right to avoid the collision and snapped out its left leg in retaliation.
The predator grinned.
A hand grabbed the offending ankle and pulled the captured prey over her shoulder and slammed the stupid thing, smile first, towards the ground. A split moment before the satisfying crunch, the prone clone gave a sudden and sharp jolt, loosening her grasp and her control, which was all it took for an escape. Poof. Again.
AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!
Nicole’s mighty roar sounded like the enraged scream of a titan, not a frustrated tantrum of a small girl. Even she could tell that her emotions were going wild. But she didn’t care, cause so was she!
Smile.
It was taunting her.
She needed to hit that really, really, really hard.
The spiritual remnant of the primordial beast was nothing but a small crumb of its former glory, but for a first ranked mortal being, it was a presence that could shatter her soul with a yawn, and for those it’d deemed unworthy it had. Many, many, many times.
AAAARRRRRRGGGHHHH!!
It watched with amusement at the cub’s little antics. Each failure to hunt enraged the little thing into growing stronger out of pure spite. Its talent was a treasure even for its long vision. Rather than harbor any malicious thoughts, the creature that once terrorized the Celestial Court was planning out how best to strengthen its weak little cub so that it could survive in the cold, unforgiving multiverse on its own. Having found a suitable heir, it was feeling very protective of this unexpected gift.
Nicole’s kick was like a stomp of a giant beast and carried the same weight. Her fist shot out straight, only to vanish and strike like a viper from a blind spot. She would twist in one direction to land in another with a flap of a hand. She was fast and silent to approach and explosive with her attacks.
Smile would twist like a leaf in the breeze and slide away from the residual pressure of the kicks. Its hands waved erratically to barely nudge the fists and claws enough to slip between the attacks unharmed. It moved like a slippery eel and defended like an impenetrable formation. And it kept its smile.
Rage.
Nicole’s face reddened like fire and her eyes burned with blood red light. Her limbs began to slowly elongate, her hands and feet growing silver metal claws that gleamed like moonlight. Soft and hazy silver light glowed like a spectral beast’s fur from her limbs while her short blonde hair grew out into a wild mane of silver that flowed to her waist. The only feature of the previous girl after the beastly transformation was her modest chest.
Rage.
A true predator had been born, and it was pissed.
----
There was little difference between an ocean and a mountain when either were pressing down on a body. The weak would break while the strong was tempered.
The tremendous pressure of a thousand tons bore down on every fiber of Tiana’s still body as she floated in crystalline waters. With eyes closed she felt the flows brushing her skin and felt the sharpness of the cold as it seeped away her warmth. She should be dead.
Her movements were slow and relaxed and didn’t fight the currents, lessening the strain of the suffocating pressure to bearable limits. She was good at bearing pressure.
“How could the Firestorm Family’s daughter be so stupid? Can’t even practice the family’s Fire Fist to the first level. Shameful really.”
Shut up…
“Look, that’s the Firestorm’s youngest princess. Yeah, that one, the loser. I heard she ran off to play with runes since she sucks so bad at everything else. I know, right? Like she could ever amount to anything.”
Shut up…
“Listen, daughter, just quietly finish your studies and come home. Stop making such a big fuss. We’ll decide on your marriage partner among what’s left. We can’t hope to pair you with any of the first or second sons, but we might find a taker among the main branch families. So don’t be a problem.”
Yes, the pressure was suffocating.
Shut up!
Tiana’s loose hands made fists. Her figure slowly compressed like a spring. A punch erupted from her thin body, unleashing a will to fight against the pressure. Another punch redirected a portion of the water pressure away. A third punch channeled even more. A fourth punch, a fifth, a sixth…
Snapping punches echoed out like cannon booms in the water. Over and over they rang, and louder and stronger the reverberations became, fueled by furious rebellion.
Was it her fault that her personal rune wasn’t a fire one like the rest of her stupid family? Was it her fault that her personal rune was water? Even her tutors knew she wasn’t compatible with the family arts, yet her own family mocked her for being inept.
No matter how hard she worked to find value in her position, her one ‘flaw’ overshadowed any and all other achievements. Her brothers barely knew how to read while she was on the academic fast track, yet she was ‘the stupid one.’
BoOOOooom~
When Tiana regained herself, she had yet to lower the fist that channeled the entire pressure bearing down on her. Even when she stopped her rampage and finished her redirection, the pressure of the water did not suffocate her body like before.
She hadn’t achieved an indestructible body. If her feelings were correct, she was only a few times stronger physically than she was before. The reason for her comfort seemed to be her body and movements naturally imbued a certain principle of redirection.
The water people of the Ivory Seas, a series of ocean worlds connected by a system of unique multidimensional water currents, had developed their natural abilities to survive in their high pressure ocean depths, into a system of martial arts feared by all who’ve tested their might.
Tiana was not a water person born from the ocean but a human that lived and breathed on land. If it weren’t for the special elixirs, she would have simply imploded at those depths.
But since she did stuff her face with magical yummies, her form remained intact so that her talent could develop freely.
And she was talented.
Instead of punching out, Tiana embraced the pressure with her new control and directed it. She moved it from one hand and flowed it to the other with graceful movements till she let it rest in the palm of her outstretched hand, like a performer presenting a strange object.
With a slight increase in concentration, like tightening her mental hold, the pressure became visible on her palm in the form of a swirling water disk. It was strangely satisfying.
Her palm flicked out, and the carefully formed disk flew out like a laser disk.
Very satisfying.