《Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!》


 Chapter 1: Waking up to life

    <h4>Chapter 1: Waking up to life</h4>

    "Be better."

    Those were the words my mother spoke on her deathbed. Just two words, yet they held a profound meaning.

    Be better than all those who turned this beautiful world into the crazy hell it is today. The hell of betrayal, rat''s-racing and backstabbing. The inferno of hate, jealousy, and wrath.

    Be better than them.

    Ever since I''ve be an orphan, I took those words and turned them into my life''s creed.

    I was better than intruding on the talks I''d chanced upon and causing a scene. It didn''t matter I heard how my girl asked me out due to a dare rather than a real interest.

    Hearing the insults her friends threw my way only to see her stupidly smile and nod along... As much as it broke my heart, I manned up and left, opting for calcted damage control over letting my emotions get the better of me.

    When my adopted family crashed on the little wealth my mom left me, I gritted my teeth and looked away. There was no use fighting over some items at the cost of escting the situation and making my situation even worse.

    In this world, I had no protector. Before bing an adult, I was powerless to change my fate. But now...

    "I''m sorry, but your creditor has refused to cover the entrance fee."

    The voice in the phone struck me like a sharp arrow, skewering my brain all across.

    "Excuse me, but..." I hesitated for a second, too shocked to form a single thought.

    I held back when my greedy step-family essentially stole my physical possessions. I''ve had no power to defend them from the sticky hands of my dear aunt and uncle. I was powerless to stop them from using my inheritance to let my lovely step-sister live the high life she could never otherwise afford.

    The moment I finished my obligatory education, they threw me away to a nearby city, renting a small unit just to keep custody of the house for a few more years.

    I didn''t care about all of that, because, in that specific scenario, my mom was better. She was well aware of her little sister''s spoiled nature and locked the lion''s share of her wealth in my college fund.

    The fund that failed to cover the entry cost to the expensive University of Arts and Crafts in the academy town recently developed on the east coast.

    "Excuse me, but could you please run it through me again?" I requested in an unsteady voice. My arms tensed and rxed in a weird dance of anxiety.

    ''It could be some silly mistake,'' I thought, hoping for this to be any different than all the times when the life screwed me over.

    "We are not sure yet, but this response..." the voice on the other side of the phone hesitated. "This response is what we usually get when there''s no money to cover the invoice."

    There was no satisfaction, smugness, or vile happiness in the speaker''s voice. Maybe a bit of pity?

    ''I guess this isn''t his first time dealing with a situation like that,'' I realized.

    And as I did so, the weight of the situation suddenly bore down on my shoulders.

    "I will try to call the bank and ask them to fix the issue," I bought some time while trying to gather my thoughts. "Would it be all right if I called you back as soon as I get back from them?"

    After a few words of ironing out the details of the next contact, I hung up and took a deep breath. My vision blurred, as my thoughts scattered.

    Then, my unsteady hand brought the phone up and my fingers dialed out one of the few numbers I had saved.

    "I''m sorry, my name is Peter Wozniak, my ID is..."

    The call didn''tst long, soon confirming the worst-case scenario.

    My inheritance was gone.

    All the money myte mom hid away from the greedy hands of my aunt had evaporated from the ounts the moment I was formally epted into the university.

    The bank''s clerk was justifiably confused, promising to look into the matter and report potential fraud...

    But if my aunt was good at anything, it was nning her moves out in the finest detail. And I could be damn sure she had enough paper to keep me from recovering my small fortune until my dear step-sister''s grandkids would die of old age!

    "Shit!"

    The shock-induced adrenaline started to dissolve in my blood.

    My body turned limp and fell down to the ground. Falling powerlessly, I struck the edge of my bed with the middle of my spine, adding physical pain like an insult to an injury.

    "Fucking hell!"

    I mmed my fists down on the floor, a renewed fire of desperation pumping my veins full of the sweet nectar of primal euphoria. Yet, in the contest of strength, the hard, concrete floor of my ''apartment'' proved supreme.

    Feeling the cold touch of blood seeping down my knuckles, I raised and took a deep breath.

    All the money was gone.

    ''Sure, I can sue them...'' I thought, only to fall back and rest against the side of my bed. "Haa... As if."

    I was fully broke, with just some scraps left in the ount. Barely enough to survive on literal bread and water until I would find a part-time job and get my first paycheck.

    With absolutely no money in hand, the costly and likely lengthy procedures of the legal proceedings would bankrupt me many times over.

    ''Maybe that''s how she ns to keep it?'' I thought, feeling my adrenaline-induced strength degrade and vanish.

    I took a deep breath and looked down... Only to see an image of my mom''s figure appear before my eyes.

    Her smiling eyes... Her powerful aura hiding in her petite and feeble frame...

    ''No...''

    I closed my eyes, unable to stand the mirage. But it only grew stronger instead.

    My mom''s delicate, caring smile. Extreme power seeping from her kind eyes.

    ''She loved me too much...''

    Suddenly, the calctive side of my brain took over, muting all the grief and desperation, recing them with cold logic.

    "She was better than this."

    At this moment, this was one sound conclusion. One observation I somehow failed to make up until now.

    I had to be better. But she already was better. She was the very picture of what "being better" meant for me! As such, would forcing such a defeatist mindset be something she would impose upon the son she loved with all her heart?

    A burning sensation suddenly grew at the bottom of my stomach. A rotating sphere of inner warmth that I''ve never felt before.

    "Was I wrong this entire time?" I uttered silently into the empty space of my deste room.

    The heat in my stomach spread into my guts. Before long, it was all over my lungs.

    "Was I really so stuck to an interpretation of her words I made as a small kid?"

    This was one hell of a painful question to ask, one putting the foundation of thest five years of my life under scrutiny.

    But just like I epted all the harm and hurt before to follow my creed, I epted the pains of change this time as well. Without hesitation, I threw my mind at the possibility and forced myself to analyze my situation through this new point of view.

    "Be better... Be better than them..." I muttered.

    The heat spread from my lungs to my throat and then my head, bringing my brain to a boil and cooking out a concrete picture of a different interpretation.

    One that abandoned self-depreciation in favor of self-importance.

    "Be better than all those fuckers that can only lie and steal. Show them where they belong..."

    A weird, unfamiliar yet extreme sensation exploded in the middle of my stomach, right as the heat reached the tip of my tongue. A heat far more intense than the warmth from before.

    "You''ve finally woken up, son."

    A voice filled my thoughts. A familiar voice... yet one Ist heard when I was merely four, whole fifteen years ago.

    My father''s voice.

    The warmth at the tip of my tongue exploded and merged with the scorching heat from my stomach... Only to suddenly vanish, radiating away in a small shockwave.

    The dust kicked up from the concrete as the physical heat dissipated, and some of the smaller items in the room trembled.

    And right before my eyes, there was now a pulsating, oval shape, luring me with hypnotizing, purple light.

    "Here''s my bted parting gift and apology for leaving so suddenly."

    The face of my father, a face I had no right to remember after fifteen years, appeared in perfect detail for me to see.

    "I wish I could tell you just how much I love you and how sorry I am. But I hope one day, you will understand. Or rather..."

    The face twisted in a grimace of deep worry and anxiety.

    "Or maybe it would be better if you never came to learn what made me leave."

    Both the voice and the vision vanished in a single instant. But the strange, purple gate in the middle of my room did not.

    My instincts screamed out in rm.

    I shook my head to the left and then to the right, hurriedly scanning my surroundings.

    ''Watch out for a truck!''

    Years of escaping from the harsh reality into the simpler worlds of the novels paid off with my instant wariness towards the potential appearance of a certain kun from Japanese modern folklore. Thankfully, for how shoddy my rented studio was, it was entirely made out of reinforced concrete, a barrier even a speeding truck would struggle to prate.

    "Is this what I actually think it is?"

    Slowly, the reality of the situation started to dawn on me.

    ''Did I miss some spots while cleaning and allowed some toxic or hallucinogenic shrooms to grow undetected?''

    That was the rational thought.

    ''Is this a damn gate to another world?'' My naive yet hopeful side came to the rescue with a different approach.

    I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Yet, even after opening them back again, the purple, oval frame continued its hypnotizing flux.

    "Haaa..." I raised my right hand towards my face to wipe my eyes.

    And the gate vanished without a trace.

    "Huh?"

    My hand stopped, soon followed by the rest of my body. Guided by instinct, I moved my hand back... and swiped it to the side again.

    And there it was, the purple gate, the allegedst gift from my long-missing father, back to its purple dance of colors as if nothing had happened.

    I gulped my saliva down.

    ''So that''s how it is.''

    The connections appeared in my thoughts, drawing lines between all the dots.

    It likely wasn''t a random stroke of luck for this vision and gate to appear right now. For someone capable of bending thews of the universe and making something impossible to appear in this strictly physic-governed world...

    For someone on this level, setting up a message without a trigger would be a shoddy work!

    And what could that trigger be? The answer couldn''t be more obvious.

    "So I was really stuck on such a childish misconception of my mom''s wishes..." I muttered while breathing out a long sigh.

    And it was the change in my perspective, my renewed will to actively fight for my own fate, that likely triggered this strange vision.

    A part of me wanted to throw everything aside and take a plunge into the gate. If my hopes were right just this once, then all my problems...

    A more rational side wished for a more careful approach, befitting of someone as calctive as I prided myself on being.

    But my calcting side forced my body up and reached out for the phone.

    "Hello, I was talking to you just a few moments ago," I threw into the cheap, hand-on from my little sister.

    Knowing my aunt, it was wire-tapped... Just because I couldn''t afford to get a new one even if I was aware of the fact.

    "I''m going to solve this issue within a week," I spoke with endless confidence fueled by the strange fire of my new, changed belief. "Could you be as kind as to wait until then?"

    "Yes, that''s perfectly doable. I will await your call on the next Friday, then," the clerk on the other side of the phone replied, as happy to help as he was certain this dy would prove ineffective.

    I concluded the call and lowered my hand-wielding phone, only for my eyes to dart toward the purple gate.

    It was drawing my eyes like some kind of charm, promising prospects I would never deep possible otherwise.

    My leg moved on its own, taking a step toward this strange anomaly...

    "No, going in like that would be t out stupid," I voiced out my concerns to the audience of me, myself, and I... But my hand moved on its own, reaching out for the alluring potential hidden in that gate.

    What kind of world would I see on the other side?

    I''ve read enough novels to guess what this gate entailed... But I still had yet to determine what kind of surprise was hidden behind this hypnotizing, pulsating object.

    "Shit, I nearly reached out for it," I forced my arm to freeze, stopping it mere inches away from the anomaly. "For now, let''s prepare," I muttered, using my left hand to pull my right arm back. Doing so, somehow freed me from the strange call of the gate, allowing me to swipe my right hand and close the portal.

    "Let''s prepare so that I will be ready for whatever might await on the other side!"

 Chapter 2: Leveling up system

    <h4>Chapter 2: Leveling up system</h4>

    The purple color of the gate filled the only room of my so-called apartment with a strange, mysterious vibe.

    In theory, it would be for the best for me to close the gate and prepare to dive in without the influence of its strange call... But at the same time, operating in the hue the portal shone with somehow made it easier for me to focus on the task at hand.

    And it was one hell of a task.

    ''Food and water check,'' I thought as I stuffed the biggest backpack I could find with the groceries I just brought home.

    The amount of supplies I bought alone was enough to put a massive dent into my meager savings. Right now, rather than surviving on bread and water, I would have to literally ration rice that I could eat in a day. But that wasn''t enough for me.

    ''Who doesn''t risk it, doesn''t get the damn biscuit!'' I thought while back at the shop, leading me to splurge nearly all the rest of my remaining money on various types of sundries that were cheap on this side of the gate yet could prove quite expensive in whatever world awaited on the other side.

    "Okay, let''s take stock of everything," I muttered to myself once I finally stuffed my backpack to the maximum and marked the stuff inside on a note by the side. "That amount of food should be enough for five days, a week if I ration. When ites to the water, I will be fine as long as I find any source of it."

    This was the blessing of the modern world. Even if all I could expect on the other side turned out to be some dirty water from a puddle, I wasn''t worried. Just a single pack of detoxifying tablets and a purification bag solved this problem in advance.

    Then came the sundries... Or, in other words, objects that I could buy for cheap thanks to the miracle of industrialization of my world. Following the experiences of the colonizers of the past, I stuffed an entire pocket of my backpack with sharp, ss beads and fake corals. Another pocket was brimming with all sorts of fake jewelry, lighters, matches and all kinds of wonders that weremon in my world yet were likely to be one hell of a novelty in a less developed world.

    "And with all that said and done..." I muttered once I ran down the list of the things I packed and raised my eyes towards the purple portal that filled my shoddy room with its magical, purple light. "There isn''t anything left for me to stall for, is there?"

    No matter how excited I was to check just what this gate was all about... I couldn''t help but feel scared of the unknown at the same time. My preparations were nothing more but a silly attempt at calming my worries down, regardless of how impossible it was to prepare for something I knew nothing about.

    "Well, I''ve already spent my time waiting for an opportunity that would reward all my pains and efforts," I muttered to myself, using my own voice to reignite the mes of courage in my soul. "How sad it would be if it all went down the drain because I acted cowardly just this once..."

    The moment I started to condition myself into stepping towards the gate, its call returned with a renewed might, pulling me like some sort of a ck hole.

    My steps grew longer, turning into strides. My hands reached out...

    And just like that, the world suddenly exploded in purple, only for this strange, mysterious color to then vanish, revealing a vast swath of beautiful grasnds stretching from below my feet to as far as I could see!

    "Woah..." With the burden of all the produce I packed into my back now weighing my shoulders down, I took a deep breath of this otherwordly air.

    Yes, I had no doubt that I was now in a different world. After all, even if this portal could bring me to a different ce on Earth... It could hardly produce a moon''s sibling and hang it like a picture on the skydome!

    "Haaaa...." Releasing the deep breath I just took, I couldn''t help but smile.

    Even the air tasted different here. But how could an air have any damned taste?

    ''I guess that''s what truly clean air tastes like,'' I thought, more than aware of all the downsides of living in the industrialized world. And no matter how I looked, there were no signs that this world bore the same quality.

    I shook my head, ridding my mind of all the useless thoughts and considerations. I then took a look around, quickly noticing a wide strand of a river flowing out of a dense forest behind my back and cutting straight through the open grasnds that stretched out seemingly ad infinitum.

    "No matter the world, people need ess to water. So, to find people, I should follow the river," I muttered to myself, making use of all the knowledge I explored whenever reading novels that depicted the scenario I found myself in. Yet, the very moment I raised my foot to take a step, the world itself trembled.

    [Traveler sessfully registered!]

    [Traveler''s system initialization]

    Two lines of text appeared before my eyes... only for my vision to suddenly turn nk, as if visual drivers for my eyes suddenly went through an update. And when my vision returned... I could now see two, semi-transparent windows floating just to the left of the center of my perspective!

    [Traveler''s system > Leveling up system]

    [Peter Wozniak > Peter Von Ziaq]

    [Level: 1]

    [Strenght: 0.25]

    [Agility: 0.25]

    [Wisdom: 1]

    [Inteligence: 1.25]

    [Endurance: 1.5]

    [Aura: 0]

    [Usable points: 1]

    The first window was pretty much self-exnatory, save for its two lines.

    How did the traveler''s system turn into a leveling-up system? And how did my normal surname turn into something befitting of an ancient nobility?

    ''It might be a while before I figure those two things out...'' I thought.

    For now, I didn''t have enough information about this world, this strange system, or literally anything else. And without the necessary information, the best I could do was guess.

    But guessing would lead me to create a random exnation for those things, which in turn would only make it harder for me to figure out the truth even once I gained the information I needed!

    So, as to not make things harder for myself, I simply ignored the first two lines and moved my attention down, to all the statistics the window disyed.

    ''What''s with those fractions?'' My mood soured as soon as I saw the zeros and the numbers disyed after the dot.

    ''Assuming that one is generally an average for a simple human... then how freaking weak am I right now?!''

    It was hard not to freak out, even if I just warned myself of how dangerous it was to allow any assumptions to cloud my judgment.

    Surprisingly though, the hardest nut to crack turned out to be the veryst line disyed in this floating, semi-transparent window. Not because it was hard to understand the purpose of the ''usable points''.

    I yed more than enough RPG-type games to instantly figure out what I could do with that free point. The hard question, though, was where should I assign it?

    ''Usually, putting everything in the one stat that''s already high would be the most risky yet most optimal strat...'' I thought, my enthusiasm to see what would happen thwarted only by my innate fear of going through with a useless build.

    And while it was only my gut speaking, I could somehow tell it wouldn''t be all that easy to change those stats once I assigned the free point.

    ''Let''s put this off forter, then,'' I decided, turning my eyes to my right, where the other floating window tempted my attention.

    [Main mission: Starlight in

    - Easy route - Escape the Starlight ins

    - Advanced route - Survive on the Starlight ins

    - Master route - Uncover the secret behind the Starlight ins

    //Completing any route doesn''t lock the ability toplete the others!//

    //Rewards increase with the difficulty of the route//]

    [Suggested mission: Bounties of the forest

    - Easy route - XXXXXX

    - Master route - XXXXXX

    - "Are you fucking serious?" route - XXXXX

    //You need to raise your wisdom to unlock the information about routes!//

    //Required wisdom: 1.5//]

    I took my time scanning everyst word disyed on the second window. Yet, no matter how hard I stared at the nked-out spaces on the side quest, nothing else appeared.

    ''I guess I need to put the side quest forter?'' I thought, low-key happy that this system of mine not only allowed me to actively track my progress but also offered some suggestions over how I should proceed.

    There was hardly anything that could make me happier than to have a guide in this unknown world! But at the same time, my innate distrust made me wary of it. After all, how could I know for sure that this system actually pointed me toward fruitful encounters?

    ''I lived my life in an easy mode so far. And the results were...'' I thought, gritting my teeth when all the abuse I toughened through throughout the years resurfaced in my memory.

    My eyelids moved down, the darkness that ensued allowing me to calm down a little bit.

    "Well," I muttered as I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. "I lived my life in an easy mode and I didn''t like it. Isn''t this a perfect opportunity to try to challenge myself, then?"

    With renewed confidence, I took a step forward, leaving thefortable shadow of the nearby forest and stepping into the in.

    The in that somehow made surviving on it a challenge, ording to the quest disyed by my system, that is.

    "Ugh..." Nearly instantly, a dull sigh escaped from my lips as my mind filled with images of the past that I despised.

    The moment when I learned the truth about my rtionship resurfaced in my thoughts, filling my soul with all the grief I felt back then. The silent, seething rage of watching my mom''s things get sold off soon joined the fray... And all of that, after taking a single step into the ins!

    ''I guess that''s what surviving this ce is all about,'' I thought as I hurriedly took a step back into the shadow of the forest. Yet, as I nced over at my status... a smile somehow appeared on my lips while my soul calmed down, the negative emotions from before defeated by the sense of exhration.

    And it was all thanks to just one, small change.

    [Usable points: 1] > [Usable points: 1.07]

 Chapter 3: Suppressed soul

    <h4>Chapter 3: Suppressed soul</h4>

    [Usable points: 1] > [Usable points: 1.07]

    It was only a small, meaningless change.

    I raised my hands up and looked at my palms. They didn''t feel any different, meaning, the existence of the system only served to direct its growth, not empower it directly.

    My physical stats were lower than one, reflecting my lesser-than-average physique. An obvious result of the near malnutrition I suffered under the loving care of my aunt''s family.

    On the other hand, theck of means of entertainment that led me to spend most of my free time on books helped me raise my mental stats slightly above what I considered the average.

    ''Here''s the thing, though,'' I thought, a stupid grin slowly creeping up my lips. "I''m more than used to enduring hell!''

    My body twitched in excitement and revolted in terror.

    Just a second out of the shadow and into the starlight in, my growth raised by point zero-seven. Sure, it came at a cost of instant recollection of the worst moments of my life...

    But I could handle it. If it meant such rapid growth, how could I ever afford to lose such an opportunity?

    "Let''s risk it for the biscuit," I spoke out while giving a mentalmand to the system.

    [Endurance: 1.5] > [Endurance: 2.57]

    [Usable points: 1.07] > [Usable points: 0]

    I took a step forward. How could I dare to lose even a second when such an opportunity presented itself before me? And if my guess was correct and the value of one generally reflected the average of a human...

    Then how much would raise my endurance to more than twice that help when stepping out into the in?

    I timed out the change to my stats right after I stepped out. And as a wave of depression struck me, I once again had to endure the same hell as before. Yet, after merely a second...

    The pressure wavered and noticeably weakened.

    So, I took another step, only for my mind to plunge right back into hell.

    [Usable points: 0] > [Usable points: 0.23]

    I moved one step further, fully exposing my entire body to whatever caused this torture-born growth.

    [Usable points: 0.23] > [Usable points: 0.47] > [Usable points: 0.62] > [Usable points: 0.71]

    "We will see you there," the voice of my alleged girlfriend''s gal friends voiced in my head. "I promise we will find you some stud to knock that loser out of your mind!"

    A shiver coursed down my spine. But I could endure reliving this hell.

    I already heard those words, back when I stumbled upon the discussion I wasn''t supposed to witness. Back when I learned how little my rtionship was worth.

    My vision changed, turning to the insides of my apartment when, just recently, I received a certain call.

    "Oh, and before I forget, I will be busy this weekend, so we will have to move our date toter," the sweet, cheerful voice of my alleged girlfriend filled my ear. The pressure I was under the influence of only augmented the feelings Cass'' voice invoked in my guts.

    Even if our rtionship was just a stupid dare, I really liked her, god damn it! That might been one of the major reasons why I decided against confronting the issue for an entire month!

    ''Sue me, for fuck''s sake. I dare you to im you wouldn''t cling to an adorable girlfriend like Cass yourself!''

    I shook my head, calming the inner rant directed at whoever might somehow listen to my thoughts.

    [Usable points: 071] > [Usable points: 0.80] > [Usable points: 0.87] > [Usable points: 0.91]

    My soul trembled. And how could it not? This was the moment when I received the one emotional scar I always feared gaining.

    "Oh, and on that note...

    [Usable points: 0.91] > [Usable points: 0.92] > [Usable points: 0.93] > [Usable points: 0.93]

    The growth of my stats stalled. And so, I dumped it all into my endurance, again.

    [Endurance: 2.57] >[Endurance: 3.5]

    [Usable points: 0.93] > [Usable points: 0]

    The vision wavered just as I cut the call off, unable to hear what else Cass had to say.

    She pushed our date over the party I heard her friends invite her over with the intention of hooking her up with someone. A party that out of our entire ss, I was the only one without the invitation.

    Hurt by the moment, I simply couldn''t handle whatever woulde out of Cass'' mouth. In my eyes, our rtionship was over. And I had no mental strength left to take care of the fallout.

    My stats ceased to grow. With my endurance either over triple that of an average human or, at least, considerably better, I could now stand in the Starlight ins with only a sense of general anxiety.

    The visions ceased, leaving me back in the state of the distraught that I lived thest five years of my life in.

    Looking further, I could see the nearby part when the intensity of the in''s effect grew slightly stronger, potentially allowing some further growth...

    But for now, I stepped out.

    There was absolutely no reason for me to take this challenge all at once. Doing so would only burn me out and sour the taste of this wonderful growth.

    So, I took three steps back, falling into the shadow of the nearby forest.

    "Haaa..."

    It felt as if a physical burden fell down my shoulders, freeing me from the weight that I carried for thest five years. With my endurance now greatly improved, shouldering the burden of my situation suddenly turned easy... as if I didn''t have an influential and powerful aunt who justid her sticky hands on my inheritance.

    "Wonderful..." A whisper escaped my mouth.

    The sense of pressure that I grew too ustomed to and thus unable to even notice... was gone. And with it, the life energy that my situation suppressed, finally undid its chains and burst out like a fresh spring.

    "Haha... ha..." Brokenughter slipped out of my mouth as an immense sense of relief filled every nook and cranny of my soul.

    In the end, it wasn''t my body that was entrapped in the prison my aunt created. It was my soul.

    And now that it was freed...

    "I guess I will level up some more, and then see what else there is to this world!"

 Chapter 4: Pressing the advantage

    <h4>Chapter 4: Pressing the advantage</h4>

    [Usable points: 0] > [Usable points: 2]

    In the end, the starlight ins weren''t as great as I expected them to be.

    At the cost of reliving some of my most painful memories two more times, I managed to gain two more points. This time, however, I decided against dumping them into my endurance.

    Turns out, it was the right choice.

    Traveling to the areas where this strange effect was stronger took me well over two hours. It appeared close when I first noticed it... but on this strange in, my vision was ying some weird tricks on me.

    In the end, though, a depressing memoryter, I was two points richer...

    And now what?

    ''I can''t sense any thicker spots,'' I thought, looking around the in as if my eyes could somehow help my guts.

    And as if the heavens answered my call, I noticed it.

    A spot where the light of some distant star fell in one, narrow column, giving rise to lush vegetation in the perfect, car-sized circle on the ground.

    It was a mind-boggling distance away, making me wonder whether I could actually see something that far, thus putting the validity of this observation into question.

    Regardless, even from what felt like several tens of miles, I could tell that even approaching that spot was a bad idea. If the power of the effect even in this thicker part of the in could bepared to a mild rain, then that column of shiny, silver light?

    That, over there, had the strength of a damn lightning!

    "I guess I''ve explored enough for today," I muttered under my nose as I gave up on the reckless idea of even trying to approach that spot. Knowing what I already learned, just getting there could take me several weeks.

    And I was pretty sure that touching that light would simply fry my brain in hell I couldn''t even imagine.

    Jogging back to the line of the trees, I could feel the changes to my physique. Normally, I would have a hard time strolling a single mile at a hurried pace. But now?

    Now, I ran like some sort of aic character, through the depression-inducing air of the starlight ins. Quite noticeably, the closer I got to the trees, the easier it was to shelve my grief away and focus on the bright side of things.

    I would struggle to run a mile, usually. But now, I was sprinting freely for what seemed like five times the distance.

    My agility didn''t change, making my sprint quite slow... But I wasn''t tired at all, as if this kind of exercise was a daily thing for me!

    "Now that I know how insane those points are... where do I put them?"

    My gamer soul screamed at the very idea of dumping even more of this precious, quantified growth, into something as passive as endurance.

    Sure, there were fun parts to ying a tank or utility character...

    "This is all a gift, so I should enjoy it, shouldn''t I?" I asked out loud, given how there was absolutely no one around. The short grass of the starlight ins ensured a perfect view of my surroundings, allowing me to shed away the worry about a potential attack.

    This was a different world, after all. It would be unwise to apply the same, carefree mindset I had regarding wildlife and natural dangers that I brought from earth.

    Who knew, maybe this has yet to fully fall under human control?

    ''Or maybe there are no humans here to begin with?'' I continued to ponder while keeping up my hurried speed as I ran across the in.

    Soon enough, I reached the warm embrace of the trees'' shadows. Thisck of light-shielded me from the influence of the ins'' effect, freeing my mind to make the final call.

    "Now then," I slowed down and stopped before leaning forward and resting my hands on my knees to catch my breath.

    At this point, I wasn''t even surprised by how it took me much longer to return from where I went than it took me to get there. I saw enough wonders to ept how mymon sense no longer applied. But there was one thing that I was familiar with... and pretty excited to mess out with a bit.

    "Where should I add some points?"

    In theory, I should recall what I''ve learned during the math lesson and just calcte the hell out of it to find the most efficient leveling strategy...

    But I couldn''t do so with no information on how exactly those stats worked.

    Raising my endurance by more than twice its initial level brought much more than just doubling my sustainability. And since I couldn''t exactly measure the realistic change to my endurance, I was left guessing.

    That''s why, once again because I was supposed to just have fun, I simply followed the old and trusted belief of investing not in what Icked, but in the areas I already had an advantage of.

    Sure, it could be fun to be a jack of all trades... But in the real world, it simply pays better to be a master of one.

    "Let''s go with this, then," I chimed happily, willing for both my intelligence and my ability to grow by one point.

    No matter the world, there was a limit to how much I could achieve with just strength. Quite frankly, my life so far hasn''t given me any real experience on how to exploit the advantages of great power or speed. On the other hand, my wit was the one thing that held my dear aunt back from iming all I could offer much sooner.

    [Usable points: 2] > [Usable points: 0]

    [Wisdom: 1] > [Wisdom: 2]

    [Inteligence: 1.25] > [Inteligence: 2.25]

    I took a deep breath... Only to fail to notice any change.

    My senses didn''t sharpen. My thoughts failed to elerate. No unknown knowledge suddenly emerged in my mind, filling it with an understanding of thews of gods and men of this world.

    "Haaa..."

    A long, disappointed sightter, I turned around and walked back, deeper into the trees. Once hidden from the ins, I swiped my hand, as if to reveal the gate between the two trees I was just staring at.

    "I guess that''s enough for the day."

    There was no point overdoing things. As much as I hated to admit it, reliving all those painful memories wasn''t all that easy. And while raising my endurance helped me to stave the mental pressure off... It still wore me down.

    There was no sign that my ability to open the gate would go away any time soon. And so, rather than hurrying up too much and fucking up, I decided to take things easy and approach this gift with the care it deserved.

    "Let''s go home," I muttered, stepping towards the gate...

    Only to m face-first into an invisible wall that barred me entry.

    [Time left until gate unlocks: 41 hours: 33 minutes]

    I blinked my eyes a few times, struggling toe up with something to say.

    Sadly, the timer that appeared on the invisible wall showed no intent of vanishing in a puff of smoke forming letters "prankd".

    When the number of minutes decreased to just thirty-two, I realized that this barrier was real. So, I took a deep breath to calm myself down and looked deeper into the forest.

    For now, I only considered it a safe zone that kept the effect of the ins away. But this ce... It was an area all on its own, with all sorts of possible quirks, dangers, and opportunities.

    My eyes moved up to the ever-present, semi-transparent window of my system.

    Both my low physical and high mental stats came into my view. But most importantly... Even with my stats rising by entire four points, my level remained the same. And if this world was anything like the thousands of worlds I scoured in the worlds of games...

    My hand instinctively moved towards a long, kitchen knife that I took with me for the sole sake of self-defense. In the run-down shack I had for an apartment, there was hardly anything handier to carry.

    "I guess I will have to stay in this world a little bit longer..."

 Chapter 5: Ball of white fur

    <h4>Chapter 5: Ball of white fur</h4>

    The time limit on the gate was something I didn''t expect to encounter. And for the first time since I crossed through the portal to this strange, new world, I felt hints of fear settle in my spirit.

    Up until now, I was sure that in times of any real danger... I could just run back to the safety of the earth, where I would still be filled with danger and enmity - but of a different kind.

    This ce, however, was different. Just my experiences on the starlight in proved there could be dangers that I couldn''t wrap my head around lurking in potentially every shadow.

    "Haaa..." I let out a long sigh before taking some time to stabilize my breath and mute the anxiety.

    Sure, I was stranded in this world for the next forty hours or so. But absolutely nothing good woulde from standing around in despair. Quite frankly, I couldn''t help but feel it would be stupid to just sit around and do nothing, waiting for my ace card of the portal to renew itself.

    "There''s no way I will be able to get anywhere through that in," I muttered to myself, the gears in my mind switching from processing the innate fear of the wild to actually analyzing the situation. "And that leaves me with only one ce to explore..."

    I turned around and took a look into the forest''s depths. It seemed that it would only take a few steps before all the sunlight would vanish, leaving me stranded in the dark shadows cast by the treetops.

    "Nothing good wille from standing around," I muttered, before gulping my saliva down. "And it takes a lot of bravery to be a coward..." I added.

    The meaning of this sentence was simple.

    I had to have one hell of massive balls to risk staying in one ce. Doing so would only invite all sorts of predators from this world toe and snack on my poor, non-athletic body. Theck of serious muscles was likely to make my body perfectly fatty, like those wagyu cows that attained the insane marbling of their meat thanks to the regr massages and rich diet.

    It took a lot of balls to risk bing a gourmet dish for some predators. And as scary as it might be now, while I was still within the range of the light, it was actually a lot easier to just venture into the forest depths.

    ''A little scary now, or really scaryter, that''s the question,'' I smiled to my own thoughts before moving back, to the very edge of the trees, to confirm one more thing.

    There was a river cutting through the starlight ins. Something I noticed even before learning the true dangers of this open field. And while there was no way I would get anywhere near that body of water while on the in... My idea of looking for civilization by following the river still stood.

    "Okay, now that I know the right direction..." I hesitated for a second, before taking a deep breath and turning around, only to march right into the dark shadows of the forest depths.

    Exactly as I anticipated, the first few minutes of my new journey were pretty terrifying. Every tiniest sound, be it the rustling of the leaves or the creaking of a small twig that I stepped on was enough to put me on a full alert. Yet, most likely thanks to my now high intelligence, it took me only a short moment to figure out what sounds were pretty much natural and what others came from the presence of something else.

    ''Maybe that''s what the intelligence is all about?'' I thought, soon growing so used to the darkness of the forest to let my thoughts drift a little. ''To process and absorb information at a faster rate?''

    If I was right, then it was a pretty useless ability while my other stats were pretty low. There was no point in perfectly managing the battlefield if Icked the strength to attack or the agility to avoid getting hit. nning the situation out and then flexibly adapting to the changes on the go would only do so much.

    ''I wonder what wisdom stat affects, then,'' I thought.

    My hopes of randomly growing more knowledgeable betrayed me. But what was even worse, stuck in my initial interpretation of the meaning of wisdom made it all the harder to now abandon this idea and figure out something else!

    I continued to slowly move through the forest, quickly growing more and more used to its atmosphere. Soon, I realized that I could use the timer on the gate as a clock of sorts, allowing me to track how long I was actually walking.

    In a mere two hours after stepping into the forest, I finally reached the edge of the river that I saw back on the in. It cut straight through the forest, but with its thick vegetation, I only noticed it when I was literally a single step away from plunging down two meters and taking a dive in its cold waters.

    ''Knowing what kind of effect those ins had on me, I would rather avoid taking a bath in this river,'' I thought, my improved mind quickly warning me about the potential dangers of the river. Still, it wasn''t something that I could simply ignore.

    After climbing back up to the shore proper, I spent another hour looking for a spot where I could easily climb down to some shallow parts of the river. Thankfully, as the current pushed the water towards the ins rather than away from them, there was a chance the water wasn''t spoiled by whatever effect the ins possibly had on it.

    I squatted before getting down on one knee and carefully lowering my hand towards the water...

    ''Cold!''

    My hand snapped back, tuned to react sharply to even the tiniest stimuli. I didn''t know how just touching this water would affect me, making me worry about an instance where the initial strike on my mind would cause me to stumble and fall into the river, receiving the full brunt of the effect this water would have on me.

    In the end, though, the only thing I felt from the river... was the refreshing coldness of its water.

    "I guess I won''t have to worry about my water supply," I whispered, only for a small smile to creep up on my lips.

    That meant I could safely discard nearly a third of the weight I was carrying! And with just two bottles of water and the purification set I''ve brought with me, I could simply resupply once I decide to move away from the river!

    The smile crept high on my lips... Only to freeze when I realized that I wasn''t actually the only one at the river''s shore.

    "Bark!"

    A strange, giggle-like bark reached my ears, right as my eyes zeroed in on a figure of a small, fluffy ball of white fur.

    Gulp.

    I couldn''t help but swallow my saliva, watching how a fox the size of an average dog pried its mouth open and uttered a low, guttural growl...

    Only for the rumbling of its stomach that followed to kill the vibe of terror and danger and let me finally see the fox for what it truly was in the eyes of an animal lover like me.

    A ball of fluffy fur that I could potentially pet to my heart''s content if I bribed it with just some food!

 Chapter 6: Two cans of tuna for a chance to fluff

    <h4>Chapter 6: Two cans of tuna for a chance to fluff</h4>

    If my thoughts were guided by reason, then this adorable ball of white fur should be considered a danger. It was a wild animal, a predator, that only the endless boredom of humans made into a potential pet.

    In this world, this white and rtively small fox was likely one of the craftier hunters within the woods. And right now, it was baring its fangs on me.

    But that was only an approach a reasonable man would take. As someone who grew up in a friendless world, I always had a soft spot for animals.

    ''You can fool a human, but you can never fool a dog,'' I thought, recalling a saying from back home.

    And what else were foxes if not a weird mix of canine and feline traits?

    ''I know this is stupid but...''

    The animal lover in me took control of my actions, forcing my hands to slowly move up as I gradually retreated three steps. Then, under the constant scrutiny of the fox''s wary yet curious eyes, I moved my backpack to my chest before lowering it down to the ground.

    "Slowly, I just want to pull out some food for you," I chanted in a near-singing tone.

    It was less about the words and more about the tone of my voice.

    ''Wait, I remember there was this one trick...'' I thought, scouring my mind for the details.

    Then, I raised my eyes and met with the fox''s stare. There was no point entering a contest of snares. But by slowly closing my eyes beforezily opening them back up, I hoped to pass on the simple message.

    Bit by bit, my hands moved the zippers on my backpack down, opening up the main pocket filled to the brim with supplies. The problematic part was... that all the stuff I could imagine a fox would like was sealed in the tin containers!

    I moved my eyes down, hoping it was the right move.

    The white cloud of fur didn''t make a move yet, so I took it for a good sign. But was it really that smart? To avert my eyes from a predator that while much smaller than me, triumphed over me in agility by so much, I was nothing more but prey in its eyes?

    My nerves strained to the limit when I put on a calm, rxed face and slowly pulled out a can of tuna. Amidst all of the packaged food I brought along, this one was one of the higher-shelf, more expensive cans.

    A conserved food that I wouldn''t shy away from selling to a noble or something. And now, I closed my eyes and grabbed at the hook at the top of the tin can, before pulling out the lid in one, sharp move.

    Ting!

    The metal of the can creaked, alerting the fox in an instant. It''s fur stood up, it''s eyes widened. The fox raised its lips even further, fully barring its fangs at me and ready to pounce.

    I dared not to look away from the ground... Where I soon ced the opened can down before slowly, carefully pulling my hands away.

    "No more scary noises, it''s all good, you just look," I continued my calming chant, keeping as much of my body still as I could while moving my hands to gather some of the bigger leaves I could reach.

    Soon, a small, makeshift bowl of nature formed within my hands, an easy job for someone who saved up what little I had before a recent shopping spree by painting figurines for some small, hermetic workshop.

    ''It wouldn''t be good if it cut itself on the edges,'' I thought, risking greatly now to stave off a much bigger danger in the future.

    For now, the fox''s curiosity still triumphed over its wariness... Yet, regardless of how much I wanted to hurry up, I dared not to make a single, swift, or sharp move. Thankfully, I already put the worst behind me.

    "Just a little bit more..." I muttered in my singing voice while dumping all the wet tuna onto the leaf bowl.

    "Done..." I breathed out along with a sigh of relief.

    Then, rather than bringing the food to the fox, I slowly raised up and grabbed my backpack before steadily retreating five steps and pointing my hands at the bowl I left on the ground.

    The fox... Was clearly at least as smart as I hoped it would be. Seeing my absolute focus and absoluteck of hostility in my actions, expressions, or voice, it directed its curiosity toward what I left...

    ''Maybe it can...''

    Before I could even form my thoughts, the fox calmed down a little and lowered itself on its legs. And then, it made its first, careful step towards the bowl. And then another...

    ''I guess it can smell it,'' I managed to finalize my thought right as the fox finally neared the bowl and gave it a short whiff. It raised its eyes on me and scanned for any signs of danger... Before moving its mouth down and taking a first, careful bite of the treat.

    Then, the white fox froze over.

    ''Gulp.''

    I could hear my throat move as I swallowed my saliva.

    My improved intelligence gave me hope for potentially a peaceful conclusion... But how could I know if my hopes would confer to the reality? Who was to say this tuna was nothing more but an appetizer before a more meaty and bloody meal?

    Glomp!

    Before I could even sort my thoughts out, the fox freed itself from theg only to open its mouth wide and hastily start feasting on the snack. From the sheer desperation of its rapid moves, I could tell that I''d struck gold.

    A hungry being would always appreciate a free meal more than someone full! And whether or not this cute fox was hungry or not... I didn''t have a single doubt about it!

    The fox powered through half of the meal... Only to suddenly freeze again. This time, however, once it fixed whatever bug it was stuck on, it raised its head and gave me a long, inquisitive look.

    ''Howe I can read so much from its expressions?'' I thought, baffled by my sudden realization.

    It felt as if I could somehow...municate with the fox? Just by guessing the meaning behind its actions and stares?

    The fox didn''t care about my thoughts, though. It turned its head towards the forest depths and then froze again, clearly on the lookout for something. Then, as if nothing happened, it returned to the meal, quickly devouring everyst atom of the tuna it likely never had the chance to taste before.

    ''So damn cute,'' I fought off the desire to clutch at my heart, wary of alerting the fox with any unnecessary movements.

    My desire to pet it was great... But I wasn''t going to do it carelessly! What would I do if the worst were to happen...

    And the fox would escape before I could pet it, scared by me reaching out for its back?

    This time, a shrug of fear nearly made me twitch.

    And the fox noticed it... No, it''s just finished its meal and now looked up, clearly in search of more.

    "Not enough?" I dared to smile a little before reaching out to my backpack in the same, steady manner as before and pulling out another can.

    Adding the one in my hand, I had a total of four of them left.

    "Look," I spoke softly only to tap my fingers against all the sides of the tin can. Then, I turned from tapping to actually patting the can, as if trying to force the insides toe out. Then, I opened up my arms and shook my shoulders in themon gesture of confusion.

    For thest step, I brought my hands back together and hooked my finger against the handy opener of the can before tilting them towards the fox and freezing.

    "Now, it will snap," I continued to speak as if I was teaching a grade school kid.

    Once again, I didn''t expect the fox to understand a word I said, but I hoped the tone of my voice would convey my intentions. And with my soul on my shoulder, I pulled at the tin hook, forcing the thinnest part of the can toe apart.

    The fox''s nose twitched when another portion of tuna revealed itself to the world.

    Strangely enough, it felt as if it understood the concept of packaging? When I looked into its eyes... I saw no confusion. And strangely enough, the atmosphere of the moment somehow forced the implication that theck of confusion... meant understanding!

    I put the tuna can down before gathering some leaves to make another bowl. Before I could finish, though, the fox slowly took a step towards me.

    "Ah, wait!" I lightly called out, straightening my back a bit. I then quickly dropped the leaves and reached out for the opened can, only to slide my fingers across the part where the metal came apart.

    "Ah!" a small cry escaped my lips when a bit of pain marked my finger as I cut it open... Quite a lot deeper than I intended. Surprised by the intensity of the pain, I brought my finger to my lips, sucking out the blood before pulling it out and showing the wound to the fox.

    "Open can, bad," I slowly articted, unreasonably hoping my words would somehow make sense to this wild animal. My hands moved back and finished the bowl... while the fox waited right as it stopped, with one of its front legs raised up for a step.

    I quickly poured the tuna into the second makeshift bowl before leaning towards the fox and cing the new portion as far away from myself as I could. This time, however, I didn''t retreat.

    The fox didn''t seem to mind, allured by the smell of the meal before I could even fully pull myself back. Before long, it happily gobbled up another can of the packaged food, clearly minding not the distinct taste of preservatives mixed in with the fish.

    ''It''s time to make the move,'' I thought, gulping my saliva down.

    The sense of fear somehow had to reflect in my aura or face, alerting the fox and drawing it away from its meal...

    Right as I slowly reached out and presented the upper palm of my left hand a small distance away from the fox.

 Chapter 7: Hidden Quest: Pet the Dog

    <h4>Chapter 7: Hidden Quest: Pet the Dog</h4>

    ''Oh my god...''

    My mind was a mess. I could hardly gather two thoughts together, sinking away in the soft pleasure spreading from my right palm.

    ''She''s so freaking adorable!''

    My heart beat rapidly in its unceasing effort to provide my overly excited brain with enough oxygen to process my amusement.

    It took only a few moments from when I first sessfully patted the white fox for it toe closer and end up climbing up myp.

    At first, stunned by the development, I quickly changed my position and sat with my legs crossed, giving the smart beast more space to lie down. And then...

    And then I realized that all the scenes I''ve dreamed of while watching people y with their domesticated foxes... Turned out to be a mere shadow, a disgusting illusion of how rxing it was in reality!

    A mere video could never convey thefiness of the white fox''s warmth spreading all over myp while I continued my unceasing efforts at rustling every inch of its perfectly fluffy fur!

    "Haaa..."

    Looking down... I saw the fox getfortable and close its eyes. Somewhere along the line, from ack of anything poking me, I guessed the gender. But when it suddenly closed its eyes and started napping...

    ''GOSH!''

    My entire body tensed up, as a sense of extreme blessing, the dignity of being chosen by the wild animal to happily nap on.

    It was the kind of purest, unadulterated form of joy, that I simply failed to think of anything. For the peaceful moment, I simply stroked the fox''s soft fur, while staring deeper into the forest.

    I would be more than happy to justze around for the next day and a half, feeding and ying around with this fox. But nothing that great couldst for long. And before I realized it, the fox suddenly woke up.

    At first, it tensed up, startled by the unexpected bedding. Yet, after the initial period of exploding hostility, she either noticed ack of danger or recalled what happened.

    Either way, the fox''s fangs didn''t reach for my throat, saving me from quite the scare. Regardless of the attack that didn''te, the fox rose up and gracefully jumped from myp.

    She then stood where shended, looking around and observing the spoils of the feast she had before. Her eyes lingered on the empty cans, and her nose twitched when she caught the smell of the leftovers that I failed to scoop out.

    Then, her adorable snout turned towards me as she gave me a pretty long stare.

    ''I wonder what''s going to happen now?'' I thought, genuinely puzzled.

    In theory, after letting her sleep on myp and stroking her soft fur while she purred in her sleep... The memory of this should save me from her hunting instincts. But could I really be so sure of it?

    This wasn''t Earth. And this likely wasn''t a fox at all, just a being of physical features that closely resembled what I knew as a fox.

    The fox turned back towards me and approached me... No, it moved towards my backpack this time. And after taking a moment to inspect it, she turned her head to give me a long stare.

    Gulp.

    Somehow, my earlier guess regarding this beast''s smarts... At this precise moment, I couldn''t shake the feeling that I was more than just right.

    "Do you want to see?" I asked in a voice slightly greater than a whisper.

    The fox simply stepped back to give me some space.

    ''Well, there''s no harm in it,'' I thought, moving up and reaching out for the backpack. Yet, after the initial thought of just pulling everything piecemeal, I stopped. My doubtsted for but a second before I changed my aim and grabbed the entire bag before pulling the zippers all the way down and simply pouring all the content down on the ground.

    As cans, pockets, sets of various sundries, and all the other things I took started to fall down on the ground, it took me only a second to locate the one self-defense item I brought with me.

    A huge kitchen knife, designed to partition huge chunks of meat and stiff dough.

    Letting it fall like that was far better than grabbing it inside the backpack and then suddenly pulling it out on the fox.

    No matter how friendly we could be at the moment, stunts like that could instantly upset the delicate bnce between the two of us that we created.

    "This one you might like even more, even though it''s cheaper," I spoke softly, opting not to ponder whether this fox could understand my words or not. "It''s beef, you know?"

    I reached out to the other side of the pile of stuff, picking my suggestion by how far away it was from the knife. I repeated the few steps before pouring the slightly spiced beef into a fresh leaf bowl.

    This time, the fox reacted a lot stronger than when I offered tuna. In fact, it reacted far stronger than I expected. At first, it stared at the meat, as if locked in a cage of terror. Then, it sharply turned its cute head towards me, staring at my face with her widened eyes. Yet, seeing my confusion, she then looked back at the beef, took a short, careful whiff of it...

    This time, the fox didn''t eat the snack.

    Instead, it moved back to where I dropped my bag and bit lightly at one of the cans... before putting it back inside! Before I could react, she somehow managed to move nearly a fourth of all my stuff, stopping only to give me a long, expecting nce.

    Puzzled, I moved up and quickly packed all of my things, the knife, food, sundries, and basic traveling supplies included. By the time I was about to finish up, the fox left, quickly moving to the bowl before...

    And here, another thing changed.

    Rather than devouring the food like she did before, she ate it all in a peaceful, dignified manner.

    ''It''s as if she had some sort of respect for the beef?'' I thought, baffled by the scene.

    When the fox looked at me again, something shed in her eyes. Right as I hung my backpack on my shoulder, she came up to my other side, leaped lightly to bite at the sleeve of my free hand, and then dragged me forth a few steps.

    Walking on just her hind legs had to be ufortable for the fox, though, given how she quickly let go of the edge of my sleeve and pushed forth, as if to lead me deeper into the forest.

    Right in that direction I caught her looking intensely before.

    "*ome"

    A strange, sense of urgency filled my soul, pushing me to follow the weird, friendly fox. For a moment, I became like a fish on a leash, unable to pull myself off the hook no matter how hard I would fight.

    This feelingsted only for a short moment, just long enough to push my body into making a first step. Then, it all vanished, giving me back the reins over my own flesh and bones.

    ''Strange...'' I instantly thought.

    Normally, I should get on my guard, assume the worst-case scenario and then act ordingly. But for some reason, the fox''s call resonated with something deep in my soul. A sense of adventure, perhaps?

    "Well, whatever," I muttered, picking up the pace and swiping my now free right hand twice.

    ''Forty hours left...'' I thought, suddenly baffled by a small detail. ''I had no idea I spent so long just petting a random fox...'' A small smirk appeared on my lips in response to my thoughts. And then, a notification window covered half of my vision just to convey a simple message.

    [Hidden quest: "Pet the dog"pleted]

    [Rewards:

    - 1 attribute point

    - Unlocking side-attribute: Beast Affinity

    - Granting: Beast Affinity: 1]

    [Level up!]

 Chapter 8: All I want for christmas... is a big bowl of beef!

    <h4>Chapter 8: All I want for christmas... is a big bowl of beef!</h4>

    [Level: 1] > [Level: 2]

    [Usable points: 0] > [Usable points: 1]

    [Usable points: 1] > [Usable points: 3]

    [Aura: 0] > [Aura: 1]

    Following this strange, smart fox gave me just the right amount of time to process everything that happened.

    First off... I leveled up!

    From one side, I could feel the simple joy of achieving quantitative growth. But on the other hand...

    Save for the two attribute points and one bonus in my aura, what were the benefits of leveling up?

    ''I mean, two points are great and all, especially with the third one I''ve got from this side quest...'' I took a second to recall the unexpected notification. ''But I guess level-ups are not that big of a deal all on their own?

    I still didn''t know how hard it was to raise one''s stats in this world. I didn''t even know whether or not the benefits of improving my attributes would stay once I returned back home.

    But for now, I allowed myself to wallow in the momentary satisfaction that came from a sort of proof of my growth.

    ''The question now is, how do I distribute the stats? And why exactly has my aura grown along with my level?''

    I had a lot more questions than this world offered me answers. But Rome was not built in a day, and that would be roughly twice as long as I spent in this unfamiliar ce!

    After sorting my thoughts regarding the recent level-up, I brought my attention back to the situation at hand. Even though I spent quite some time thinking, the fox continued to guide me deeper and deeper into the forest.

    ''It clearly has some sort of destination, purpose in mind,'' I thought after a mere moment of observing the cute beast.

    Still, even though I knew it was something potentially necessary, going deeper and deeper into those shadowy woods...

    I couldn''t say I feltfortable doing so. Thankfully, my journey quickly came to an end when I emerged from between the trees at the entrance to a small, lush clearing.

    Contrary to the shadows that filled every nook and cranny of the woods I''ve just left, this small, open space was basked in the bright sunlight, oh so different from the silvery light I witnessed on the starlight ins.

    And right in the middle of the clearing, a massive, white beast basked in the warm rays of the sun.

    ''Oh my god...''

    My heart clenched while my body froze for a second.

    The beast in front looked just like the fox that guided me here... with the exception of how massive it was. Assuming its lush, white fur doubled its real size, the flesh and bones of this beast could easily rival the size of a school bus!

    Yet, low on the side of this magnificent beast, a long, dark gash marked its lustrous fur.

    ''It''s injured!''

    Something deep in my soul ignited, fueling what happened next.

    The massive fox raised its eyes first to my guide and then to me... Only to see me tear my shirt off as I hurried towards its wound.

    "Just who did this to you?" I wailed, only half aware of what the heck I was doing.

    I got to pet the smaller version of this fox... but approaching the massive one, especially before I could indicate I was here to help rather than harm...

    Sadly, in the moment of holy fury, I couldn''t care less about a reason. Before the massive fox could even get a proper look at me, I covered its wound with the cloth of my shirt before dropping my backpack down and pouring everything down on the ground... again.

    I scattered the useless cans aside, quickly finding and grabbing the small medical kit I was reasonable enough to pack up. But for this venture into the total unknown, it was a must-have, an assumption of mine that proved true way sooner than I wished.

    ''Shit,'' a curse escaped from my mouth when I opened up the small box and realized yet another obvious truth.

    The content of the medical pack was designed for helping humans, not beasts the size of a damn school bus!

    "Shit..." I powerlessly fell down on my ass, mindlessly looking through whatever I could find inside.

    Badnages? They were better than my shirt, but could I even wrap this entire roll around the fox once? Disinfecting water? That could help... but if the wound was still fresh, I could easily see darkened scabs of solidified blood marking the injured area. Maybe some painkillers? But would medication designed for human use even work on a beast like that?

    If yes, then what dose should I administer? Or should I do if those medications turned out to be poisonous for such a different being?!

    Startled by all the doubts and worries, I grabbed the disinfectant and the bandage, the only items I could think of using at the moment... Only to realize the third, obvious truth.

    If I were to spray an open wound with a disinfectant, then it would itch. And causing more pain to a wounded beast was usually the easiest way to experience its retaliation!

    Overwhelmed by all the hasty thoughts going through my mind, I turned my eyes towards the fox''s head which was nearly as massive as my entire body. And as I looked back into its huge, ck eyes with a sense of powerlessness mixed with pity...

    An idea struck me.

    My eyebrows moved up as a happy grin appeared on my face. I dropped the bandages and turned back to the pile of my stuff, only to grab the kitchen knife I brought with me just in case.

    Both the normal and the massive foxes twitched... But they clearly didn''t consider me to be capable of ever reaching them with my newly obtained de. Rather than alerted, they appeared curious about what I nned to do with such a silly and weak de.

    There was no hesitation in my moves. I raised my newly found weapon... and brought it down to my left forearm, sliding down and leaving a long but rtively shallow wound.

    I only needed to give a show and exin what would happen in advance, not martyr myself to gain some pity points.

    Having no further use for it, I dropped the knife down before leaning and grabbing the medicinal supplies I dropped earlier. As I uncorked the bottle and sprayed the disinfecting agent on my wound, I made sure to exaggerate the expression of difort that came when my wound started to itch like crazy.

    The content of the travel medicinal bag was clearly much stronger than whatever my mom kept in our home supply of meds and drugs.

    The foxes continued to stare at me for a moment... Only for the big one to slowly turn its mouth towards its wound and nod at it before looking back at me.

    ''I guess it''s... Allowing me to do it?'' I tried to guess, biting my lips as I approached the fox''s side. Then, I removed my own shirt and clenched my ass while grasping tighter the bottle in my hand.

    ''Here goes nothing,'' I thought, closing my eyes before pouring a healthy dose of the disinfecting agent onto the fox''s bloody fur.

    Contrary to my worried expectation, I didn''t feel its fangs instantly closing on my flesh, bursting my insides and crushing my bones. In fact, I didn''t sense it react at all, allowing me to slowly open my eyes before carefully covering the now slightly cleaner wound with a patch I made with the bandages. Then, I took a step back, gulped down my saliva, and looked at the massive fox''s head.

    "That''s... that''s all I can do."

    AN excuse. This was nothing but a silly excuse for someone who wasn''tpetent enough to properly help. Here I was, proving just how much better I was than an average Joe, god damn it!

    Yet, rather than paying attention to my antics, the small fox approached the pile of cans and grabbed one of the beef-vored meals in its mouth before running up to me and dropping it down at my feet. Then, it sat down and looked up with expectation bursting in its somehow bright, ck eyes.

    "Wait, is this what you wanted?" I muttered, puzzled by the situation... Only to just ignore my own confusion and go with the flow. In three simple moves, I brought the can up, and opened it up with a single pull before pouring it...

    Into a bowl that the smaller fox already prepared with some leaves and sticks, just near enough the bigger fox for to eat without moving an inch.

    ''I guess they prefer beef over medicine,'' I thought, quickly adding up all the other cans of beef I could find, quickly creating a small pile of wet, conserved meat.

    A pile of wet, conserved meat that the bigger fox stared at with the same, shocked expression I saw its smaller counterpart make just some time ago!

 Chapter 9: Bargaining with a truck-sized fox

    <h4>Chapter 9: Bargaining with a truck-sized fox</h4>

    When I saw the fox the size of a truck, I knew that mymon sense didn''t apply to this world in the slightest. Yet, when I saw the very same fox happily snack on the small pile of canned beef that I''d prepared for it, only for its wounds to start closing as if by a touch of some sort of a magic wand...

    I''ve lost it.

    This picture was simply too damn ridiculous for me to believe in it. Because howe, a simple canned beef, something that people of earth would hardly be willing to stomach, turns into a magical treasure capable of healing wounds even in a beast as massive as the fox before my eyes?

    ''Nothing makes sense anymore,'' I thought as I took a deep breath and forcibly removed logic from the equation, opting to just ept things as they are.

    "I should have a few more kinds of meat if you are interested in trying it out," I muttered, instantly attracting the eyes of the smaller of the two foxes...

    Wait, since when has yet another fox appeared on the scene?

    Baffled by the third adorable ball of fur, I gulped my saliva down.

    ''Okay, now there are three of them,'' I thought, suddenly worried about the number of supplies I had left.

    Still, the female fox that I cuddled before appeared to be the only one interested in my words, with her partner? Brother? Cousin? With the other normal-sized fox too fixated on the content of the leaf bowl to care about me in the slightest.

    "You interested?" I asked a bit louder, not really expecting any sort of answer.

    What kind of answer could a mere fox, even as massive as the ones before my eyes, give?

    "Human child..."

    A voice appeared in my head, filling my thoughts despite not reaching my ears at all.

    "Is what you speak off, true?"

    ''Throw yourmon sense away, it''s of no use here,'' I thought to myself before putting on the best salesman face I coulde up with.

    "It is true," I spoke out loud, not exactly sure which of the foxes I was talking to... Assuming it was one of the foxes that somehow spoke directly to my mind. "But to be frank, I nned to sell them off. I don''t mean to be rude, but those cans are thest of what I could afford with all the money I had left..."

    My words appeared to knock some sense into the mind of the fox I was talking with, regardless of which one it was that talked to me.

    I''ve fed the small one out of the kindness of my heart, taking ample payment in the form of prolonged sessions of petting. I offered canned beef to the big one out of curiosity, eager to learn why the first one I''d met was so interested in it.

    But what kind of reason would I have to share even more of my supplies for nothing?

    ''I guess not having them jump and kill me is a kind of profit...'' I thought, once again recalling the reality of the situation I was in. And judging by how there were no other monsters anywhere in the clearing, I was likely stuck in the very nest of those foxes...

    I swallowed the saliva that gathered in my mouth, once again reminded of the possibility that the canned food was a mere appetizer for a stupid prey that was gullible enough to follow the smaller fox into itsir.

    "If it''s the payment you are looking for..."

    The strange voice, so neutral it sounded incredibly fake, sounded in my head again. This time, however, the big fox finally raised its mouth from the leaf bowl. And from the looks of things, it just finished licking all thest remaining droplets of the meat sauce off the makeshift bowl.

    It even went as far as licking its lips clean!

    "Tell me, human child, what payment do you seek for this..." the voice hesitated for the very first time as the massive fox turned its eyes from the cleaned-up bowl to the pile of remaining tin cans. "For this meat?"

    ''So it doesn''t know the concept of packaged food,'' I took notice, grasping at the straws to learn something potentially vital about this world.

    But whether or not a beast like that knew about preservatives or sealed packages didn''t really mean much in therger scheme. After all, how could it know whether or not humans of this world came up with this idea if it resided in the forest and interacted with humans on a rtively rare basis?

    Still, the fox asked a question. And given the type of question it was, I felt it would be pretty stupid to be greedy. But at the same time, I really had to find something that I could recuperate my costs with once I went back to earth, otherwise, I would simply starve!

    So, rather than being greedy or humble, I decided to be honest.

    "To be frank, I have no idea how I should price this food. But there are several things I''m in need of, so how about I list them out and you decide what would be the fitting price?" I requested.

    I wouldn''t be able to ask for too much if I gave the fox the ability to decide the worth of the food I provided.

    "Go on, human child."

    For some reason, being called a ''human child'' like that struck my nerve.

    "I''m Peter, by the way," I muttered.

    And for but the shortest of moments, I could swear I saw the big fox part in its mouth and give me a small, amused grin.

    "Go on, Peter," the fox changed its wording ording to my unvoiced request.

    "First, I''m weak. Weaker than an average human for sure. But for the next day and a half, I''m pretty much stuck in this..." I hesitated for a second when I realized I was about to reveal my true origin. And as much as I hated the trope of hiding one''s identity in the novels'' I''ve read... Haphazardly admitting toing from another world might not be the brightest idea.

    "I''m weak and I cannot leave. So, until I am able to leave, I would love it if I could enjoy the safety of this nest," I spoke while spreading my arms open to indicate I had the clearing we were in on my mind.

    "That''s not a big thing. Peter," the fox replied while yawning. "It can hardly pay what this precious meat had to cost, so do go on."

    ''Oh?''

    Even though I was aware of how shitty my approach to this negotiation was from a proper merchant''s point of view... I just realized that opting to go with the honest route might not be that bad of an idea after all.

    Not when this beast would consider its honor to be stained if it didn''t pay me back what it considered my beef to be worth.

    "Then... This is more of a personal request and if it''s insulting in any way, please, forgive me for I''m ignorant of your ways," I spoke, setting up the proper foundations for one of the very few things I could request that I considered more important than getting my money''s worth back.

    "I..." Before the fox could even encourage me to keep going, I spoke... Only to turn silent as doubts filled my mind. So, bringing all the courage I could gather, I lowered my head and whispered, "I would like to pet you guys for a little longer..."

    My cheeks turned bright red. Strangely enough, I asked a fox if I could cuddle it...

    ''Wait, wouldn''t it be the same as asking a human if I can hug them or something?''

    Suddenly scared, I sharply raised my eyes... Only to see the warmth in the eyes of the big fox and feel the softness of the fur of the smaller one as it snuggled up to my thigh, rubbing its fur on my clothes.

    "I don''t really mind, human chi... Peter," the fox yawned again, its formerly t voice now gaining hints of amusement. "I can''t consider it a payment, still."

    I gulped my saliva down.

    No matter how much I wanted to put it forter, I just ran out of topics that I could divert both the foxes'' and my own attention to. And now that I''ve dealt with all the other priorities...

    I had to bring up the topic of money.

    "Lastly, even a tiny piece of gold or silver would suffice. Four, five grams should suffice."

    In all the books I''ve read in the past, gold was as valued in other worlds as it was back on Earth if not even more. That''s why, before I entered the gate, I made sure to remember the exchange rates.

    Of course, exchanging gold coins from another world would pose another challenge... But it was a problem that the foxes had absolutely nothing to do with.

    "What are the grams that you speak of?" the fox asked, its tail iling a little as if to showcase its curiosity.

    "It''s a unit of weight," I replied, only now realizing my mistake. Then, after throwing a quick look around, my eyes locked on the emptied-out cans. "One of those cans held about four hundred grams of meat," I exined.

    "I see..." the fox''s voice appeared like a whisper even though it was still directly appearing in my thoughts. "Come with me, human Peter," clearly used to calling me ''human child,'' the fox now started to mix both this strange form and my name. "I don''t know those grams that you speak of, so I will let you see what gold I can offer you."

    The massive fox stood up, the wound near its hind leg seemingly vanishing into thin air, leaving only some dried-out blood behind.

    "If I do recall, the group of warriors who foolishly tried to challenge me had something bright and shy attached to their belts," the fox spoke as it rose up before heading towards one of the sides of the clearing. "Come with me, and you shall see if that''s the gold you are looking for."

 Chapter 10: The dark truth of this world

    <h4>Chapter 10: The dark truth of this world</h4>

    ''Oh boy...''

    This world continued to take me by surprise.

    When I heard the fox im it would bring me to where it defeated those who injured it, I expected to see some battlefield or something. A sight that someone born in the information era would be pretty much immune to.

    What I didn''t expect, was how real things would get. Or how some of the people that the fox brought me to practically rob, were still alive.

    "What''s wrong, human Peter?" the big fox asked.

    For some reason, neither of the smaller and most likely younger foxes apanied us to the other clearing where three humans had already breathed theirst while two more still struggled, refusing to die in this god-forsaken ce.

    The worst part of it all, thought, was how one of the dying warriors... had a face that was a perfect copy of my alleged girlfriend from back on earth!

    ''Ugh...'' I held my breath when the girl''s desperation-filled eyestched on me. In her eyes, I likely represented hope. A human that appeared out of nowhere, in a ce where no random stranger was likely toe.

    The poor girl only had the position of her head to thank for not seeing the massive fox that approached from the other side.

    "They all had pouches attached to their belts," the fox spoke directly to my mind again. "You can look for your gold there," it spoke...

    But right now, I was too shocked to care.

    Before I noticed, the fox''s eyes were all over me, clearly looking out to see what kind of reaction I would show at this gruesome sight.

    I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before holding it in my lungs for a short while. Then, I opened my eyes and looked straight into the fox''s gaze.

    "You guys fought and they lost, I get it," I spoke, trying to stop my voice from breaking and my body from shaking. "I don''t hold a grudge over it either. But please, do tell me one thing."

    This was a crucial moment. A moment where my morals, my beliefs would once again put me in a potential harm''s way.

    But how could I keep calling myself human if I were to abandon the most basic courtesy?

    "Did you leave those two survivors here just to let them suffer?"

    This question... was risky, to say the least. Up until now, the foxes treated me well, either concealing their killing intent or simply not considering me to be a threat in the first ce.

    But with two terribly wounded survivors now struggling in needless pain...

    How could I not react? How could I not react when one of the survivors had the face of the girl I once loved?

    "They were unable to harm or follow me anymore, so I left them to their own devices," the fox replied before yawning yet again.

    Was it tired after the beef meal I offered it or something?

    "So you won''t mind if I offer them mercy?" I asked.

    Just a single look at the long cut on the girl''s stomach from which her guts spilled or the two stumps that the other surviving man had for a left leg and arm...

    Those weren''t the injuries that I could heal with just some basic drugs or medical applicancies. Maybe if I could bring them to surgery right away, then maybe... maybe, they could still have a chance.

    But with what I had on hand, there was only one kind of mercy I could offer them.

    "You don''t appear to be a great healer, human Peter," the fox spoke to my mind, clearly intrigued.

    "Since you didn''t leave them just to watch them suffer, you won''t mind if I end their torture, right?" I asked, this time using more direct and less vague wording.

    "So that''s what you mean..."

    ''Human Peter,'' I thought, filling in the gap in the fox''s sentence.

    Was it disappointment? Understanding? Or maybe regret that I heard in its voice?

    Or maybe I was simply trying way too hard to apply human emotions to this beast?

    "Human Peter, do as you desire."

    I closed my eyes and took another deep breath. Then, I turned around and hurried to the girl''s side, watching how she struggled to reach out with her hand, her face filling with hope and immense relief as she saw me approach.

    ''Ugh...''

    Seeing the look on the young woman''s face, her yearning for salvation... My steps turned heavier, as the moral burden of what I was about to do fell on my shoulders.

    As I reached the dying girl''s side, I got down on my knees and epted her hand, cupping it between my own. Then, as her eyes focused on my face, I slightly lowered my chin and slowly shook my head to the sides.

    I didn''t know whatnguage this girl spoke. Right now, she was too weak to speak out anyway. Judging by the dark blood mixing with the vivid red in the pool that formed underneath her, some of her internal organs burst open... or maybe they were cut? Squashed?

    I wasn''t a medic to judge. But I could tell for sure that the simple suture kit I had in my bag would do nothing to stop the bleeding.

    With a heavy heart and an even heavier hand, I pulled out the kitchen knife before putting it down by the girl''s side. Yet, rather than striking right away, I looked her in the eyes again before tightening my grasp on her fingers.

    The look on the woman''s face changed as she realized that my presence spelled doom rather than salvation. She attempted to roll away... Only to realize she grew too weak to do as little as that.

    It had to be this realization that finally struck home, forcing her to realize the true intention behind the sad look on my face as I kept slowly shaking my head.

    I closed my eyes, unable to bear the immense fear and regret that shed in her eyes. I opened then back again only when the woman somehow found the strength to give my hand a squeeze and grace me with a tearful smile.

    Her eyes spoke it all. She was ready.

    With a heavy heart, I brought her body up, bringing her into a half hug as I rested her back against my chest.

    ''Where should I even strike?'' I asked myself, suddenly puzzled by the unexpected problem.

    ''Wrists? Throat? Maybe I should strike her heart directly? A soldier''s death?'' I thought, recalling a scene from the "diator" movie as I realized that severing her spinal cord might be the way for the poor woman to go.

    As if reading my thoughts, the girl reached out and somehow managed to grab the knife, before bringing it up to her chest. She blushed a little when she herself pulled the cloth of her shirt away, revealing the skimpy chest wrap that barely hid any details of her impressive bust.

    Then, after fighting off the little shame she could feel in the moment, she brought the knife''s tip slightly below her bosom, pressing it between her fourth and fifth rib...

    Only for her strength to leave her, rendering her unable to finish things off by herself. Yet, when she slightly moved her chin, raising her eyes to plead for help...

    A tear dropped down my cheek... but I raised my hand nheless.

    "I''m sorry..." a silent cry escaped from my mouth as I struggled to put any pressure on the knife''s handle... Yet, as I looked at the girl''s face again...

    She smiled.

    It was a light, gentle smile, that I''d never witnessed on my girlfriend''s smile. Somehow, I could even sense affection from it.

    ''Shitty world, shitty life, shitty luck...'' I cursed in my thoughts. And when the girl closed her eyes, with a gentle, affectionate smile locked on her lips, I pressed the knife''s handle forth, driving the de directly into her heart.

    I held her close when her body shook and tensed up as thest burst of intense pain coursed through her flesh. I held her close when her body slowly rxed.

    "Ashare..."

    I held back my tears when her voice uttered a word I didn''t know... But in this situation, I could pretty easily figure out its meaning.

    ''What are you thanking me for, you dummy,'' I thought, gritting my teeth to the point they started to crack when I felt the life leave the girl''s mangled flesh.

    By the time I looked up, I realized that the other survivor had already offered his soul to whatever he believed in, breathing hisst while I was busy smoothing thest path for his femalepanion.

    ''I guess that''s the inequality of dying in this world,'' I thought, using the modern topic of debate and applying it to the situation just to distract myself from the unpleasant experience.

    "Is something wrong, Human Peter?" the fox asked,zily lying down just a few steps away... but kindly keeping itself out of the poor girl''s vision as she was dying.

    Whether the fox''s interpretation of death was the same as it was for humans, it had the minimal decency not to intrude on thisst parting.

    "I''m sorry. She looked like someone I used to care for with all my heart," I exined my reaction while I ced the girl''s corpse down on the ground before shaking my head and taking a few steps away from her body. "And don''t worry, I''m alright," I ascertained, before bending in half and throwing up.

 Chapter 11: Celestial Fox (part 1)(slight r18)

    <h4>Chapter 11: Celestial Fox (part 1)(slight r18)</h4>

    I woke up surrounded by warmth like nothing I''d experienced before.

    ''Oh right,'' I slowly gathered my thoughts while fighting off the morning sluggishness. ''I went to sleep in its fur...''

    The events of yesterday were far more traumatizing than I would ever assume. Watching gore in movies was nothingpared to having a girl with my girlfriend''s face die in my hands, finished with a mercy strike by my own hand.

    Unwilling to open my eyes and face the harshness of this strange world, I cuddled myself up even further into the soft fur of the massive fox... But even this warmth couldn''t ward off the memories.

    After assisting the poor girl on herst journey, I did my due diligence and dug out a total of five graves before burying the entire party side by side. Yet, I didn''t move them to their final resting ces as they were.

    From what little I could learn from this massive fox, they came here to hunt it. And as they failed, all of their belongings fell under the fox''s new care. And while it didn''t seem to mind burying away human flesh or clothes...

    The same couldn''t be said about gold and other valuables the warriors had on themselves.

    ''What are the chances the only reason why it wanted me to gather those, was because it wanted to pay me for the food?''

    This thought continued to gue my mind, on the same level as my girlfriend''s face.

    Just like I couldn''t handle the feeling of burying a knife in the soft body of someone looking exactly like my failed love, I couldn''t bear the thought of being responsible for the fox''s sudden desire to scavenge the corpses.

    In the end, though, it is what I did. And by the end of things, the fox proved the worth of its word, offering me to take as much gold as I believed it owed me. Yet, whenever I as much as threw a nce at the scavenged coin...

    I couldn''t help but see the fat drops of blood dripping down the gold pieces'' edges.

    ''That''s the ultimate source of gold, regardless of the world,'' I thought back then before grabbing just one thick, golden coin. ''Gold alwayses from blood, there''s no other way around it.''

    I clenched my teeth, forcing all those unsavory memories out of my mind.

    Rather than letting my thoughts rot in the depressing ce, I focused on the perfect softness and warmth that surrounded me instead.

    ''Wait, softness?''

    I grabbed it with my fingers as if to test the waters. And without even a shred of doubt, what I was grabbing at wasn''t just a bundle of fur! It didn''t feel like the back of the smaller fox either! In fact, as far as a virgin like me could tell, my hands felt like grabbing at...

    Refusing to believe this logical conclusion of my sensory experience, I pried my eyes wide open... Only to stare down the gentle curve of the nape, curving outwards into a fuller shape the further down I looked.

    And just like in some cheap hentai written by a teenager with cum-infested brain... Down there was where I found my hands, grabbing at one of the softest and most desirable parts of a female body.

    But where did a female of human kinde from? And how did it manage to dive into this massive fox''s fur?!

    "WHA...?!"

    Startled, I screamed out.

    As easy as it would be to endure torture or bullying, interacting with women...

    Not only was my heart broken, I still had yet to solve the problem with my fake rtionship. What''s more, the few interactions I had with my alleged girlfriend didn''t prepare me for the time when a naked beauty would somehow end up peacefully nodding off in my arms, her back closely cuddled up to my chest!

    Following the shout, I somehow managed to roll out of the fox''s fur, freeing myself from its warm embrace and the intimate closeness to the naked stranger.

    But this wasn''t the end of my surprise.

    I rolled out of the fox''s fur and then just a little bit more for good measure... Only to close my eyes and reach out for my jacket, the remaining upper part of my clothing that I had left after tearing up my shirt before.

    "I don''t know who you are, but please, stop tempting me and dress up!" I cried out, too stunned by the presence and closeness of a naked beauty to even speak properly.

    My body froze.

    ''If I found myself in the cliche of waking up with a beauty in my arms...''

    I gulped my saliva down.

    ''It will be better not to move around too much, or I will surely end up grabbing that woman somewhere I shouldn''t!''

    "Human Peter," the massive fox''s voice reached my brain regardless of my closed eyes as if that could change something. "What startled you?"

    The surprise mixed with curiosity in the fox''s voice felt so genuine, I couldn''t help but doubt whether what I just saw was reality or just a projection of a forgotten, wet dream.

    ''As if a naked beauty would suddenly appear in my arms...''

    Feeling the shame of how I reacted to a mere illusion, I released a long, disappointed sigh before shaking my head and prying my eyes open.

    "I''m sorry, I had to..."

    I opened my eyes... and froze again.

    It wasn''t just some random woman who stood in her birthday suit before me.

    My torso convulsed, my knees growing weak as I felt a wave of numbness take over my entire body. Then, just like back at the other clearing, I fell down and threw up.

    "Human child!"

    Startled, the fox reverted to how it referred to me.

    The woman that stood before my eyes as naked as when she came to this world was either a twin or near exact replica of the woman I mercifully killed yesterday.

    Or, in other words, it was a near-perfect replica of my girlfriend... Or rather, how I imagined her to look under all the fancy clothes she liked to wear.

    Still, her face...

    Her face had the same, dumbfounded look that I sensed in the fox''s voice. There was no warmth in her eyes, not of the kind I saw when that poor girl epted her face and even encouraged me in my final act of sympathy.

    "My child saw how sad you were when you gave your farewells to that human woman," the fox spoke again, shedding some light on the likely origin of this naked yet forbidden beauty.

    As much as my lower body wanted for me to raise my eyes, I couldn''t force myself to do so.

    Not when even a single nce at the empty expression of this beauty would flood my brain with the images from yesterday.

    I didn''t know what exactly it was, but something in yesterday''s events took root deep in my soul, bing a seed of terror I would have to learn how to live with.

    "Human child. Is this form... wrong?" the fox asked, this time with a voice of concern.

    "That''s right..." I muttered...

    Only to suddenly connect a few dots.

    The smaller fox changed into a human form. That I could easily ept as it didn''t stray all that far enough from the usual plot development of the novels I enjoyed. But she did so... because she saw me all sad while sending that poor girl from yesterday off?

    In other words, this change was her attempt at cheering me up...?

    "No, that''s not right," I quickly spoke while shaking my head sideways. And just for a good measure, I made sure my eyes were shut tight. "I appreciate the effort. But if you are to take human form, please, take one that''s your own. Rather than seeing that woman..."

    I hesitated, not really sure whether by "that woman" I meant the poor victim of the fight with the fox of my alleged girlfriend.

    "Rather than seeing that woman, if you want to take a human form to cheer me up, how about using a real one? One that''s truly your own?"

    It was a risky shot on my end. How could I know if shapeshifting foxes actually had any kind of natural form that they had to alter to look the way they desired?

    That''s right, I couldn''t. But something deep inside me simply felt that way. And I knew better than to ignore the feeling of my gut.

    "I understand..." the fox replied, its voice... It''s a voice filled with some emotion I couldn''t really put my hand on. "Child, turn back, turn to how you first appeared in his form."

    Another piece of the puzzle for me to gather. When speaking to the other fox, the bigger one still used the same method that it employed to talk with me.

    Did it mean that itsmunication method worked the same as sound? Meaning, anyone in range could hear it? Or was it its intention to share what it said to the other fox?

    "Yes, Mother," a new voice filled my brain, a voice far softer, less refined than the one from before. And something in that voice made me open my eyes...

    Only for my entire body and soul to unify in a single desire to praise the day when I was born, for the moment came for me to witness the absolute.

 Chapter 12: Celestial Fox (Part 2)(nudity)

    <h4>Chapter 12: Celestial Fox (Part 2)(nudity)</h4>

    What stood before my eyes couldn''t be called perfection. Nor the absolute.

    Humannguage simplycked the proper terms to describe what I saw, and that wasn''t a cum-infused rambling of a horny young man.

    Objectively speaking, the alleged true, human form of the fox... Was something that went beyond the scope of what was human.

    The gentle shapes before my eyes achieved perfection. There was no single spot or blemish on the young fox... foxtress? Foxgirl? Foxwoman?

    Stunned by the beauty before my eyes, I couldn''t even gather my thoughts.

    My heart tensed up. In an instant, I felt likemitting sacrilege just by staring at the unspeakable beauty before my eyes.

    Everything about it was perfect.

    The long, fluffy, pearl-white hair cascaded down the fox-girl''s back and gave her afortable aura. The corners of her mouth were decorated by small dimples as she gave off a shy, reluctant smile. The full shape of her breasts finished with red cherries at the top, her perfect hourss figure...

    The girl standing before me was simply too perfect to exist. She uncannilycked any sort of even tiny imperfection, appearing like the goddess incarnate, born perfection that a human would be forever inferior to.

    ''Wait!''

    Snapping out of my near-religious daze, I shook my head and rapidly lowered my eyes before turning around.

    "I''m sorry, but could you please dress up?" I requested in a shaky voice while stretching my hand out to offer my jacket again. "I don''t know where to look if I can see you like this," my voice shook.

    Because how in all hells was I supposed to be calm, when this damned fox turned into the very essence of beauty that I was supposed to refine and crystalize through my entire life to figure out my perfect type?!

    "Human Peter..." the softer-spoken fox voice filled with worry.

    Hearing the anxiety in the voice that came from that perfect mouth...

    I reached out and grasped at my heart while squeezing my eyelids with all my might.

    The struggle to keep myself turned away from this absolute was a lot harder than anything I''ve ever suffered through before. Not even my high endurance made it easy to resist the charm.

    "Child, dress up," the slightly colder, more toned voice of the bigger fox filled my brain, followed by the quick rustling as the weight of the jacket lifted from my hand.

    ''Once ordered, she didn''t hesitate even for a second,'' I thought, clenching my chest even harder.

    Overwhelmed by the temptation and before I could even consider dumping all my free points into more endurance, I somehow recalled the softness and weight I got to cuddle up to just a few moments ago.

    My face instantly burned bright red. Heat exploded in my abdomen, only for my blood to rapidly spread all over my body.

    The softness I felt with my hand, the mellowness that I buried my fingers in...

    "Human Peter..." This time, the soft voice of the smaller fox was filled with reluctance. A mere secondter, I felt a gentle, restrained touch on my shoulder.

    As if a high current snapped through me, my body nearly jumped in ce, turning most of the way back...

    ''God fucking damn it,'' I cursed,cking breath to properly utter my amazement.

    The beauty that was fully exposed just a moment ago was now covered in but an oversized jacket, barely covering the girl''s most important parts. And yet...

    The plumpness of her thighs peeking out from below the jacket''s bottom edge, the promise of what was hidden just an inch or two away from peeking out, the well-ented bulge of her chest...

    Or rather, the cleavage showed half of the girl''s prideful assets, as she failed to keep her chest within the cloth, leaving the zipper pulled only halfway up.

    "I guess I can handle that much," I thought, nearly crying blood while forcing my eyes up and locking them on the fox-girl''s face. Which, once I did it, turned out to be surprisingly easy to keep my eyes on her face, as it was an absolute all on its own.

    A picture-perfect image of gentle female beauty that I have only ever seen artificial intelligencee close to creating.

    "Human Peter," the bigger fox finally came around to use the new, easier-to-ept form again. "T''is my beloved child, who you fed and cared for."

    Those few words of the massive fox alone were enough to turn the fox girl''s face from concern and worry to a massive blush.

    ''It appears that while she might struggle to control her expressions, they still doe out naturally,'' I thought, charmed by the sudden disy of pure embarrassment.

    A weird union came to be in my soul, where I couldn''t help but consider her animalistically adorable, just like I would adore a cute pet while admiring her human beauty as I would when gazing at an exceptionally well-kept woman.

    This duality only reinforced the sexual charm that this half-dressed girl had on me.

    Only with the utmost effort and my entire willpower, I managed to keep my hands by my sides and resist the allure.

    "It is my wish, for you to show her the world," the bigger fox continued, ignoring both its daughter''s blush and my awe mixed with shock.

    "Excuse me?" I barely managed to utter.

    What was this wish-fulfillment type of development? I just met this insane beauty and now her parent was entrusting her to me?

    "Are you dissatisfied?" the massive fox asked while the mood of the fox-girl quite obviously dropped. Her shoulders slumped down, her chin moved towards her chest while her eyes peeked up, unable to resist the hope and curiosity brimming in her pupils.

    "You desired to see her true form. And to do so, t''is child of mine used your essence to assume the perfect form your heart and soul desired. And now that you''ve seen her..."

    I suddenly realized just how much anger and fury there was in the fox''s voice, something that for some unknown reason, I missed thus far.

    "You are dissatisfied?!"

    "That''s not it!" I proimed with all my heart, somehow oveing the stunlock of the fox-girl beauty. "That''s not it at all!" I shouted before lowering my gaze, not daring to spoil the fox-girl''s beauty with my filthy eyes.

    And in a bout of strange honesty that came from somewhere within...

    "I''m not of this world, I believe," I admitted against all reason to the tune of my insides screaming out in terror. "Where Ie from, there are no foxes that can turn human. And she''s so beautiful..." I hesitated.

    What I was about to say was quite challenging to squeeze out of my throat. I still had my pride as a man, after all! But still...

    What was this pride worth in the face of the unknown strength of this bus-sized fox that could both speak and likely transform into a human? What else was it capable of doing?

    That, I didn''t even bother guessing. If all I learned from novels and games could be of any use, then this biggass fox wasn''t at the level of a random mob, but most likely a boss of sorts!

    And between my pride and its wrath... I knew which was easier to risk.

    "I won''t be able to protect her from those in my world who would kill to get their hands on something they''ve never seen before."

    The big fox... didn''t reply. And while the fox-girl continued to send me curious nces with mixed feelings appearing all over her face...

    The fox-girl''s parents suddenly stood up. Then, while I was still frozen in ce, it reached out with its mouth, and while parting its lips just a little bit...

    It breathed out.

    [Obtained Blessing of a Celestial Fox]

    A system alert jumped before my eyes, allowing me to understand the magnitude of what just happened.

    [All attributes +1]

    [Core attributes +1]

    [Core capacity attributes +1]

    [Strenght: 0.25] > [Strenght: 1.25]

    [Agility: 0.25] > [Agility: 1.25]

    [Wisdom: 2] > [Wisdom: 4]

    [Inteligence: 2.25] > [Inteligence: 4.25]

    [Endurance: 3.5] > [Endurance: 4.5]

    [Aura: 1] > [Aura: 3]

    [Usable points: 3]

    My thoughts muffled, and my body suddenly grew weak. Unable to support my own weight, I fell forward, only tond in something warm and soft... yet suddenly tooplex for me to figure out.

    "Now, sleep, Human Peter," the big fox''s voice turned somewhat gentle and slightly amused. "You''ve gained my respect and recognition. Once you wake up..."

    And as if to add a pinch of salt to this glorious moment, I didn''t get to hear the rest before falling asleep on the most divine pillow of all.

 Chapter 13: Changes

    <h4>Chapter 13: Changes</h4>

    ''I don''t remember when was thest time I slept so much,'' I thought once my consciousness, yet again, started to return.

    Taught by the mistakes I''d made when I woke up thest time, I started by making sure I wasn''t grabbing at anything potentially inappropriate. And only once I confirmed that I could feel the wind blowing on my entire body, did I allow myself to go with the routine check.

    My body felt... Strange.

    ''No, that''s the wrong way to put it. It feels... I feel better than ever before!''

    Normally, after waking up, it would take a cup of a really strong coffee or an adrenaline kick from my aunting to intrude on me to chase away the drowsiness and exhaustion.

    Yes, for me it was a norm to wake up exhausted, always struggling to get enough sleep between school, part-time jobs, and all sorts of duties my adopted family pushed on me.

    But now, I felt a strange energy in my muscles, something I never experienced before. It felt as if my body... was raring to go?

    Baffled by my findings, I slowly opened up my mind. And then all the thoughts of the curious change got swept by the lovely sight before my eyes.

    Judging from my perspective, I was lying down on thep of the fox-girl from before. The girl herself was staring somewhere off, patiently waiting while she enjoyed the view of the clearing.

    Forced to acknowledge that the torture of this bait didn''t end nor was but a dream I had, I now realized that as she stared off, this strange girl gently moved her hands up and down, caressing my scalp and gently rustling my hair.

    And even though her perfectly round and bouncy pride was just a few inches away from my eyes...

    I didn''t feel horny, not at all.

    The distant look on her face, the gentle massage of her fingers, the refreshing gust of wind that cooled down my face... How could I feel horny when this moment was so rxing, so wholesome?

    My eyelids lingered, growing heavy the more I rxed...

    But my body was raring to go. Filled with this newfound energy, I found it hard to just stay still.

    "You are awake, human Peter," the familiar voice of the massive fox sounded in my brain.

    Unable to pretend any longer, I reluctantly rose up from the softp and wiped my eyes for a moment before looking at the massive beast.

    "I am," I mindlessly voiced out before pulling my hands away and taking a look at the situation.

    We were still in the clearing to which we returned after burying the adventurers that challenged the massive fox before I even came to this ce. The only difference was how the fox-turned-girl was now sitting down on her knees, staring at my back with curiosity brimming in her eyes.

    That...

    And the massive changes that happened to my system.

    To the left, I could see my attributes... That was much higher than before my second nap. Yet, as my eyes drew toward the exnation of the Blessing of a Celestial Fox, things suddenly started to make sense.

    But the change to my wisdom brought about another difference, something that revealed itself even earlier yet I failed to notice it thus far.

    [Suggested mission: Bounties of the forest

    - Easy route - Find out the three precious herbs popting the forest that will help elerate your growth.

    - Master route - Reach level five before leaving the forest to gain a special title

    - "Are you fucking serious?" route - Find a Celestial guardian and gain its blessing. //Completed//

    The alert on how I needed to reach 1.5 in wisdom to unlock the information about paths was now nowhere to be seen. And the highest-difficulty path of that mission... Was now marked asplete.

    ''I guess it wasn''t all just a random luck for me to meet those foxes...'' I thought, raising my eyes to the massive fox... Only to realize that I was rudely silent after barely replying to its words.

    "Shall I assume everything is settled...?" I asked, not really sure how to form the question that gued my thoughts.

    Between all the changes to my system, the sudden growth, and how I was slowly beginning to realize that my body moved far faster and smoother than even before... I failed to organize my thoughts. And it was all because of one reason.

    It was all due to what happened before my nap.

    "Are you dissatisfied?" the massive fox asked again, only to see me squirming to deny with my entire body by shaking my head to the side while crossing my arms to make a huge X sign.

    "Not at all," I finally managed to get the words out of my tightened throat. "It''s just that..."

    A long wrinkle appeared on my forehead when Ibed through everything in my mind to find the right words and ideas that I wanted to express.

    "Please, wait. Let me start again from another angle," I requested before raising my eyes and looking at thezily resting beast the size of a truck.

    In exchange, the massive fox could hardly be bothered to look back.

    ''It seems I denied it strongly enough yesterday,'' I thought, recalling some of the events that transpired before I went to sleep.

    "I might be able to show you something interesting, but before that..." I hesitated for a second. "How long did I sleep?"

    The fox finally turned its eyes and looked back at my face properly. It seemed my question managed to take it by surprise, sparking new mes of curiosity in its soul.

    "Before, you slept for five hours, out of the exhaustion of your flesh," the fox replied with a huge yawn that revealed the two long sets of extremely sharp teeth. "Now, when your body had to adapt to the sudden growth, you slept for nearly thirty more."

    ''That makes it thirty-five in total,'' I thought, gritting my teeth in frustration... Only for my forehead to tense up again. ''Or forty? Did it mean thirty hours or five and then thirty hours for the second nap? Wait, regardless, how the hell did I sleep for so long? And what''s with all that about my body adapting...''

    Now that I''ve learned something, my mind finally switched the gears back to its analytic mode. As I finally started to process all the information I had on hand, I only ended up shaking my head in renewed frustration when I managed to figure out two whole nothings and then some.

    "Well, I don''t know if it will work, but let me try anyway," I muttered as I turned my back to the foxes and focused on a random spot of the clearing, as far away from the three of us as I could. Then, as I swiped my hand, the gate appeared as if it was the most obvious thing to happen in the world.

    "Can you see it?" I asked, turning my head over the shoulder to gauge the reactions to my little stunt.

    The bigger foxes snapped on their feet, showing any signs of focus for the very first time since I first met them. On the other hand, the fox-girl nearby continued to patiently sit down on her knees, as if hoping I would change my mind and return my head to where it belonged...

    ''Wait!'' I shook my head, trying to get the memory of resting on those lovely, soft things from my mind.

    "Human Peter, what is it?" the voice of the massive fox filled my brain, this time with an obvious hint of wariness.

    "To my understanding, your words from before I fell asleep mean that you wish to entrust your child to me," I spoke, turning my whole body towards the massive fox while leaving the gate as it was. "Is this understanding of mine correct?"

 Chapter 14: You are funny and humble, Human Peter

    <h4>Chapter 14: You are funny and humble, Human Peter</h4>

    We were of different species. I had no way of knowing the ways this fox''s mind went. So, rather than assuming my interpretation of its words was perfect, I judged it to be far easier to just ask.

    "That''s..." the fox hesitated for only a short moment, most likely noticing what I did as well.

    When talking about entrusting her to me... the fox-girl visibly twitched, blushed, and then averted her eyes.

    I fought off the desire to clutch at my chest with my hand, forcing my eyes to remain on the massive beast.

    "That''s more or less, correct. As long as you show her more interesting things, make sure she can eat well, and protect her from all harm, I don''t mind entrusting her to you."

    Strangely enough, the caution I''ve noticed before in the fox''s voice gave way to an unfamiliar sense of... warmth?

    "Then, allow me to exin. This thing that I made appear, is a portal, gate... It''s a door that connects to my home. Or, to the best of my knowledge, my world. Another world."

    As I started to exin, I found myself struggling to find the right words to express my ideas. It felt as if I was unconsciously speaking in a differentnguage and thus struggling to trante idioms directly.

    "Another world, you say, human child..." With its eyelids lowering, the massive fox once again reverted its way of referring to me. "And what about it?"

    I took a deep breath.

    There was no timer on the gate. That meant, while I didn''t know exactly how much time had passed, the cooldown of using the gate was now over. But when it came to that gate...

    "I don''t know if I can bring anyone through this gate. I''ve only ever used it once and hardly know anything about where it came from. I don''t even know if I can bring this golden coin through," I added, pulling out the single golden piece I imed for the supplies I happily shared. "But if I can bring her to my world, and you wish for me to show her all it has to offer..."

    Once again, I hesitated. What I was about to speak of didn''t sit well... No, it was directly wounding and then insulting my pride as a man.

    But between keeping up my pride and failing to pay this lovely fox girl back, I had a pretty easy time choosing.

    "The world Ie from perfected its ways of letting those with money have fun and bathe in luxury," I admitted. "But on the other side, I''m the lowest of the low. My inheritance was robbed and I hardly can take care of myself."

    "And you wish for me to help you with that?" the massive fox asked, its voice turning annoyed while the face of the silent fox-girl filled with concern.

    "No, not at all. Those things, I will deal with myself," I quickly opposed the fox''s assumption. "What I want to say if I''m to provide all the best for your child..." I bit down on my lips, struggling to push the following words through my throat. "Then I''m worried a single gold coin won''t be enough."

    I lowered my head, bracing myself for the lightning to strike me down. Or, conversely, for the paw of this massive fox to rip me in half in response to this audacious request.

    Yet, as I remained frozen in ce, seconds continued to tick. And no matter how much I waited, no smite came to turn me to smithereens.

    "You are funny. And humble, human Peter," the fox spoke in the softest tone I heard him use, nearly as soft as the few times I heard its child speak up in her new, human form. "And that proves I made the right choice to entrust this stupid child to you," the fox added.

    Suddenly, a wave of something washed through the in. For some reason, I didn''t seem to be influenced by it at all... But the fox-girl wasn''t.

    Pushed from behind, she found herself forced to stand up only to instantly make a few steps forward, struggling to keep up with the suddenly gained momentum... Only to fall right into my arms, proving that this entire thing was orchestrated by some will.

    Will the owner of which I could guess pretty easily.

    "Go, and take those," the fox added, only for a heavy pouch toe flying and strike me in the side right as my mind went into a panic mode over this insane beauty suddenly pressing herself all over my chest. Then, before I could notice, a new gust of this strange power swept through the area again, forcing me to get closer to the gate.

    "Go," the fox''s voice suddenly turned urgent. Only now did my mind clear enough for me to realize that it was now back up on its slightly bent legs, staring at a fixed point at the wall of trees. "Go, before you will be forced to see things you would rather not, Human Peter."

    The fox''s voice urged me to hurry up. And under its influence, I could only wrap my hands around the fox-girl''s waist, pulling her closer as I grabbed the pouch before sprinting towards the gate. Then, I leaped forward, ready to face resistance if the timer could only appear from up close...

    Only tond on the concrete floor of my so-called apartment... While still holding an otherwordly beauty in my arms!

    ''We somehow made it through,'' I thought, breathing heavily as the stress of living on the other side of this gate for thest fifty hours or so finally started to wash off my shoulders. ''But now...'' I then looked down, at the girl happily cuddling up to my chest, ignoring the fact there was no longer a reason for us to hug like that. ''What am I supposed to do with her?''

 Chapter 15: Fay, for she could rival Fairies with her beauty (Part 1)(nudity/teasing)

    <h4>Chapter 15: Fay, for she could rival Fairies with her beauty (Part 1)(nudity/teasing)</h4>

    Now that I was back on earth, my brain finally dropped all the attention itmitted to my surroundings, freeing the processing power I needed to gather my thoughts.

    But first things first.

    "I need to get you some clothes," I spoke while reaching out and carefully grabbing the girl by her shoulders before gently shoving her away.

    There was no other choice but to ignore the disappointed look she showed in retaliation. It didn''t matter how much my heart hurt to see her like that, there were some rules I had to establish and I had to do it fast.

    While she was obedient thus far, now that we were out of the range of that massive fox, there was no telling how its child would behave. I wouldn''t be surprised if freed from the scrutiny of her parent, this damn beauty wouldn''t act however she wished...

    But no.

    Despite showing me a dejected face, this fox-eared girl silently took a step back, giving me the room I needed to maneuver myself out of her hug and reach the one, pitiful shelf I had made from some plywood and scrap nails. Save for my bed and backpack by its side, this shelf made up all the furniture of my spartan apartment... Or rather, a shed ced on some forgotten courtyard, three back alleys away from anywhere where people would care.

    "First thing first, you cannot go outside, not yet," I spoke as soon as I turned my eyes away from the fox girl''s unbearable beauty hidden by the not-fully zipped jacket I gave her. Only now did I realize that ever since tearing my shirt off and then giving my jacket away, I was practically walking around bare-chested myself!

    ''Damn it...'' I cursed under my breath while scouring the few pieces of clothing I had for something that could fit the girl.

    Unfunnily enough, our builds didn''t differ all that much. And while the girl''s charms made it hard to turn one''s eyes away, her slender waist and hourss figure allowed her to wear most of my stuff.

    "Right, I still have yet to know your name," I spoke out as soon as I realized, hanging out a pair of rtively clean sweatpants and a simple, stretchy shirt while trying my best not to look.

    "Name?" the girl asked in the sweetest and purest voice I could imagine. Even without looking, I could somehow tell she leaned her small head over her shoulder while giving me a puzzled look.

    "I mean..." I hesitated for a second, taking a moment to gulp my saliva down. "My name is Peter. And what''s your name?"

    For a few moments, I only had silence for a partner to talk.

    "I don''t have a name. Fox does not have a name," the girl gave me two replies, the other after a moment for further thought. "What do I do with those?" she asked right as I felt the weight of the clothes lift from my hand.

    "Can you wear those?" I requested while praying to all the gods that a scenario my perverted mind came up with wouldn''te true.

    There was only so much I could handle before that damn beauty''s innocent and unaware teasing would exceed the threshold of what I could hold myself back from!

    "Wear?"

    This single question shattered all my rational hopes... while the image of the girl cutely leaning her head once again surfaced in my head.

    ''Urgh...'' Using my free hand, I clutched my chest and pressed my eyes closed shut, wrestling with the sense of overwhelming adorableness.

    This was this damn fox''s greatest weapon against me. She somehow united the adorable traits of a cuddly pet with the mix of wholesomeness, peak beauty, and elegant sexiness of a bombshell she was. And whenever I managed to steel myself against the temptation of her allure, the other part of her charm woulde out and stab me in the back.

    The back of my ass, to be precise, reached all the way down to the base of the high-rise that was slowly attaining the second half of its name.

    But there was nothing I could do. With my left hand still clutched on my chest, I slowly turned around... And after a moment of further mental battle, I forced my eyes open.

    And there she was, the stunning, white-haired beauty, staring at me with her full, blue eyes while sparks of curiosity danced wildly all over her face. Even though restrained, her smile had more warmth than anything I''ve ever seen in my life. And here, no, my jacket...

    With how little it kept hidden, it only appeared like an intentionally provocative piece.

    "I will help you, so if you will excuse me..."

    With my hands shaking, I reached out and carefully, carefully, grabbed at the jacket''s zipper.

    I couldn''t have this poor girl wear a shirt over a jacket, after all!

    After taking a short breath, I steeled myself and pulled the zipper down, allowing the folds of the cloth to part ways, revealing the girl''s slim, indented waist, her cute belly button, all the way to a bush beyond which I dared not to look. Yet, as I moved my eyes back up to her face and saw all of that again, only to then bask in the glory of the two shapely mounds that pressed the cloth of the jacket up...

    ''I''m about to see those babies in all their glory...'' I thought, panicking at this very thought.

    But then, a sense of ration returned to my might.

    This big fox might not be here at the moment, but it certainly didn''t just entrust its child to me without the slightest care in the world. And that meant, even if it wasn''t here to oversee my actions... I couldn''t allow myself even a moment of leisure while interacting with this damned beauty!

    "Are you okay hu... Peter?" the girl asked softly, somewhat sensing my anxious thoughts. She took half of a step forward, forcing my arms to desperately escape to the sides to avoid pressing them against her chest.

    The fact that she was starting to change her manner of speaking didn''t escape my attention either... But right now, I was offered a blessing too massive for me to ignore.

 Chapter 16: Fay, for she could rival Fairies with her beauty (part 2)(nudity/teasing)

    <h4>Chapter 16: Fay, for she could rival Fairies with her beauty (part 2)(nudity/teasing)</h4>

    The fox-girl stepped closer and reached out her hand only to rest her palm on my chest and look at my face with concern all over her eyes.

    "Actually,e just a bit closer," I requested, skillfully repositioning my arms to keep them in the safe.

    I didn''t want to lose them to that big fox''s mouth the moment I returned to the other world, after all!

    "I''m going to pull the jacket off, now," I spoke when this damned cutie took another step closer without even a hint of hesitation.

    Even though I spoke out to warn the girl in advance... narrating what I was about to do somehow made it all the more exciting.

    Unable to curse out loud now that this bundle of charm was nearly in my face, I muffled the word and looked as far up as I could before pulling my arms to the side and helping the girl pull the jacket off.

    ''She is standing right before me, in all the glory of her naked skin...''

    I clenched my teeth, pushing up my bottom jaw to keep my eyes away from the endlessly desirable beauty just below.

    "Now, bring your arms up," I requested while feeling out which of the two clothes now back in my hand was the shirt. By the time I finished this strangely challenging job and put my focus back to the ceiling... I saw two long, slim hands raising just a bit above where I was looking at.

    And was it only my imagination, or did I feel something rub against the skin of my naked chest?

    I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Then, after opening them back up, I raised the shirt before slowly, carefully, dropping it down on the girl''s raised hands.

    "Try to steer your hands into the two holes on the sides," I gulped my saliva down, watching how the cloth stretched as the girl struggled a bit to follow my instructions. Still, after only a few moments, she finally figured it out before pushing her head and merely a small portion of her lush, perfectly white hair through the bigger, middle hole of the shirt.

    "Oh damn..." Now that she had a shirt on, I made the mistake of taking a step back, believing myself to be safe because now all of her charms would be covered...

    But by retreating this one, misfortunate step, I could now see her adorable side once again, as she raised her hands to yfully pull out her hair outside the shirt. By doing so, she somehow hooked up the back, and bottom edge of the shirt, causing it to roll up just nearly enough to render all my efforts to cover her up futile.

    Thankfully, the shirt fell down before breaking this magical yet forbidden barrier. But that didn''t mean the picture before my eyes turned any less adorable.

    Gulping my saliva for the unkempt time today, I simply stared at this damned girl as she presented herself in nothing but my shirt which was just long enough to cover her up to her thighs. And with both her long arms and perfectly shaped legs now on full disy, she made me feel as if I caught my girlfriend of several yearse out from the bath, all rxed andfy.

    The sense of homeliness filled my soul and took it hostage.

    My hands moved before I could stop them, reaching out and grabbing the girl by her sides. As she now wore a shirt, this caused the cloth to stretch a little, perfectly outlining her stunning shape.

    "Fairy..." I whispered, stunned... no, awed by the absolute in my eyes.

    And then, as if to offer me a mercy strike, the girl blushed slightly before putting up a small, shy smile.

    Startled by how close I came to crossing the line while still struggling to ovee my awed shock, I forced my mind into overdrive.

    "Peter?"

    Finally realizing the purpose of the name, the girl called out in a soft, silent voice.

    "Fay," I replied, even though it made no sense whatsoever. Then, I forced myself to bring my eyes and look right at her face. "You say that you don''t have a name. And looking at you, made me think that you are so beautiful you had to be a fairy..."

    The girl''s eyebrows moved up a bit.

    "Fairies are tasty!" she happily announced, her hair moving and making it seem as if she was wagging her tail.

    Wait, with how long her hair was, would I find a tail if I looked closely enough?!

    I gritted my teeth, culling the new desire before it would grow too strong for me to control.

    "Would you be okay with that name?" I asked, steering the girl back to the topic. "Fay, from how your beauty could rival that of fairies," I asked.

    And as I now used much simpler words, the fox-girl''s face beamed up as her shy smile from before turned into a full-fledged, grin from ear to ear.

    "Yes!" Fay jumped, happily epting her new name. She then reached out and wrapped her hands around my neck before pulling herself into a hug... Only to start rubbing her cheek against my corbone.

    And here I stood, trying to be air and ignore the feeling of her breasts, shielded by but the thin cloth of the light shirt ttened against my naked chest.

    "Human, Peter, fox, Fay!" Fay cheered and giggled, overjoyed by the notion of having a name.

    Then, she suddenly stopped as her eyes locked on the other piece of cloth that I had in hand. Yet, rather thanmenting on it, she turned her face and started to study my face, as if working some sort of aplex problem in her mind.

    I patiently waited for her thoughts to reach some conclusion, more than d to put the horror of what was likely toe next forter, even if only a secondter.

    Now that she put on her shirt... wasn''t it time to help her out with her pants? But how in all hell was I supposed to do without putting my freshly cut head on the tter for that bigass fox to have for dinner?

    Before I could find the answer to that question, Fay seemed to reach some sort of verdict over her thoughts, as a mischievous smile appeared on her lips.

    ''What?'' I thought, alerted by the look on her face... But I was way toote to react.

    Before I could as much as twitch, Fay suddenly moved back and threw herself down on the bed... Only to reach out with both of her long legs towards me with an adorable, yful smile.

    "The other cloth! Peter help Fay!" she happily requested while nearly stuffing her feet in my face.

 Chapter 17: Difference in paradigms (nudity/teasing/wholesome)

    <h4>Chapter 17: Difference in paradigms (nudity/teasing/wholesome)</h4>

    ''Oh god...''

    I was the winning son. Not because a damn beauty in nothing but a slightly oversized shirt brought her knees up before stuffing her feet in my face.

    No.

    I was the winning son because I stopped myself from recoiling and stepping back. And on the other end of the spectrum, I managed to rein my inner pervert and hold back from instantly taking in a deep, dedicated whiff.

    But that was it when it came to my victories. Because everything else was but a total loss for me.

    Wait, no. That''s the wrong way to put it. Everywhere outside of this fetish side of things that I managed to somehow endure consisted of me losing against Fay hard while, at the same time, winning as no one else could.

    "The other cloth! Peter help Fay!" Fay repeated in response to my hesitation, wiggling her feet in the air, right in my face.

    As if she was trying to tempt me into something as simple as helping her put the pants on...

    Gulp.

    My throat made a funny sound as my thick saliva slid down my throat. In a sense, it made me feel as if I just licked my lips in anticipation of...

    Of what, exactly?

    I shook my head while making sure to pull it back a bit, just not to tickle Fay''s feet with my nose.

    "Are you really not aware of what you are doing, or are you that much of a tease?" I asked in exasperation, sighing out a sigh of my defeat.

    If there was no escaping it, then I could very well just do it.

    I retreated half a step to get some distance from Fay''s feet. Then, while doing my utmost to keep my eyes as low on the ground as I could to keep Fay''s feet at the very edge of my peripheral vision and thus render myself unable to nce up her long legs... I took aim and raised my spare sweatpants up.

    Thankfully, the material was soft, and designed to be easy to wear and put on. As such, I had little to no trouble putting the over her feet... Only to realize the drawbacks of keeping my eyes low as soon as I failed to keep my hands high enough and ended up stroking Fay''s knee.

    "Am I doing something wrong?" Fay, most likely startled by my question, appeared to realize that I wasn''t all thatfortable with what was going on. Yet, in response to her own thoughts, she happened to pull her knees higher, as if towards her chest...

    Right as my hands and the pants in them moved beyond the point of her knees.

    Pulled by the sudden move, I swung forth. I was too focused on keeping my eyes low, ignoring the sensation of Fay''s extremely soft skin, and keeping my hands high enough to even consider my stability. And as I fell forward, my hands shot up in my poor attempt at regaining any sort of stability.

    In the end, my hands only found their support all the way down on the edge of the bed, while my body pushed up the pants nearly all the way up Fay''s legs... Mostly because I ended up falling right into herp, mere inches away from pressing my face into her chest.

    My body, as it fell forward, pushed Fay''s legs aside, wrapping my stomach with the extreme plumpiness of her thighs, all the way to the point where my belly button touched the texture of the one thing that was left to protect Fay''s dignity.

    ''Is this what lucky pervert is all about?'' I groaned in my thoughts, too terrified to move.

    Terrified of the consequences of what just happened... And even more terrified of the slightly startled but amused look on Fay''s face.

    "Peter helped Fay!" Without even a hint of hesitation, Fay''s smile beamed as she pushed herself towards me, wrapping her hands around the back of my head as she pulled it into her chest.

    With nothing but the thin, breathable material of my shirt to keep our skin from touching, I now got to enjoy a loving embrace that only those ursed normies would usually be able to experience.

    ''Just hold on,'' strangely enough, my mind turned calm, as if all the spare thoughts washed away. Right on the edge of losing it, I reached the nirvana of holding onto the veryst thread of sanity.

    "Whiff, whiff," leaning over my shoulder, Fay suddenly started to sniff something out, only for her body to slightly tense up.

    For the very first time, I saw her getting ufortable over something that wasn''t born out of her worry.

    "Are you..."

    ''She''s hesitating?'' My mind trembled.

    After seeing how calm she was throughout everything that happened, her sudden tension took me by surprise.

    "Are you in heat?" Fay''s voice nearly broke as she rified what she had in mind. And now that we were tightly pressed against each other with barely any clothing keeping us apart and still on the safer side of things... The question that she jokingly asked before now turned much more serious.

    It came to me like a shock. A shock that helped me to finally notice one of the key differences that made her act so strange in my eyes.

    It wouldn''t be thest paradigm she would have to change, but the very first one that would set Fay on the path of bing someone who could safely walk the streets of the modern world.

    "Forgive me for asking if it''s a sensitive matter, but does your kind have periods when you go into heat?" I whispered my inquiry while allowing myself to gently hold Fay back.

    She was warm, far warmer than I expected. Back when I woke up with her naked body in my arms, I simply assumed it was the wondrous insting effect of the fox''s fur... But no. It was her, it was Fay''s skin and flesh that now burned in my light embrace, filling me with warmth of a kind I hadn''t experienced in years.

    "Fox do, Peter not?" Fay slightly rxed in my arms, flipping up the vibe of our hug. Now, she held me closer, as if the distance that suddenly appeared had suddenly halved.

    The sense of slight awkwardness was still here, just not at the same level as before.

    "Peter doe... No, that''s not it. Fay, listen," I gently snuggled myself out of the girl''s embrace. This moment was too important for me to whiff it over a primitive desire that was born from how close Fay was.

    I couldn''t allow my lust to fuck it all up.

    "Fay, humans do not go in heat. Because, in a sense, we are always in heat. Or rather, once our mating period starts, it only ends when we get old. And showcasing lots of skins, especially of someone as beautiful..."

    Despite all my seriousness, when I saw Fay blush a tiny little bit in reaction to my words... I hesitated.

    It didn''t feel right.

    If my current understanding was correct, Fay felt free and unrestricted around me because she expected me not to be ready to mate. When she noticed the possibility I was in an actual heat, she suddenly realized how risque our closeness was... Or something like that?

    Still, going by this assumption, Fay''s reaction to mypliments was rather... mild.

    As if whatever allowed us tomunicate struggled to trante certain words, or maybe Fay didn''t really understand the meaning of a word not used out in the wild all thatmonly.

    "Fay, when I say you are beautiful, I mean you''ve reached the peak of how desirable you are. You couldn''t be any better fit for who I could ever wish to partner with."

    Not sure what exactly was the problem with this strange, automatic trantion... So I could only try to pass on my meaning by being as direct as possible. Judging from how Fay''s small blush suddenly exploded in intensity...

    My words fell on a fertile ground.

    "More. Your looks, your body, your shape... They are all enough to put most human males in heat on the spot. That''s why when you showcase your... charms? Intimate beauty that should be hidden, no man will be able to hold back."

    Now, Fay''s entire face and even parts of her neck turned red. Her eyes even teared up... Not out of fear, as she didn''t back out or even try to wrestle herself free from the hold I still had on just the tips of her fingers.

    "It''s not Peter''s time... But it always is?" Fay asked in a tiny, shaking voice. "Peter... in heat? For Fay?"

    I closed my eyes.

    For some strange reason, Fay''s broken manner of speaking only made her all the more adorable in my eyes. Unable to stop myself any longer, I simply decided to give up.

    And so, I reached out, only to give Fay a light, gentle and restrained hug. One that wasforting yet not intrusive or overwhelming.

    If things went any further, my desire for her would win. Giving up at the strategic moment of being overwhelmed by her cuteness allowed me to turn away from my desires and opt-out for simply cuddling andforting her instead.

    "I don''t want to hurt you. But please, you need to mind how beau... desirable you are. Because even if I can still somehow hang by a thread, others in this world won''t."

    I took a deep breath and raised my eyes, looking right into Fay''s heavily blushing face as she struggled to keep up with my stare.

    Pushed something, I reached out and gently caressed her cheek.

    "I don''t know Fay for long, but I would really hate for something to happen to you. I don''t want to let any other man ever cast their eyes on you. But..." I closed my eyes before lowering my chin as an ugly grimace of powerless desperation shed in my eyes. "But behind that door," I pointed my hand at the entrance, "I won''t be able to protect you."

    Powered by the momentum I''ve already gained, I raised my face and looked into Fay''s eyes again.

    "I won''t be able to protect you... yet."

 Chapter 18: Tough choice

    <h4>Chapter 18: Tough choice</h4>

    ''Who would''ve thought the situation would develop in this direction?'' I asked myself with a sigh while delving deeper into the dangerous back-alleys of the town.

    Contrary to all those who lived in the better parts of the town, I was rtively safe here. While not a popr kid or an important figure, locals knew that I was living here. And while they didn''t really get the details of my backstory, as no one could be bothered to pay it any mind, they pretty much knew I literally had what was on my back... And then the liability of an adopted family.

    In other words, there was simply no benefit to robbing me... And no one would risk several years-long sentence or risk getting chased by the police just for the sake of randomly killing or even hurting me.

    And, most of all, this was the one benefit of living in that shed of mine. By doing so, I joined the "elite"munity of locals, making me both responsible for protecting the streets myself and also a beneficiary of others doing the same.

    I was now a local to the backstreet, making them much safer than the wide and perfectly lit-up streets of the town''s center.

    Still, I never really saw the point of abusing this questionable privilege, opting to stay as far away from the trouble as it was humanly possible. But now, things changed. And as much as I hated it, I had nothing but gratitude for the time when I learned who was the local top dog.

    Back then, I simply wanted to learn who to avoid and who to always be humble and respectful towards. Right now, though, I was actively looking to establish contact with a certain group.

    And it didn''t even take me all that long to find one of the group''s foot soldiers.

    "Ticket!" the massive man with a slight tattoo behind his right ear stood at the entrance to an adult club, dutifully checking the tickets of the men standing in the queue outside.

    There were only two possible oues for the men waiting in the line. Either the bouncer would lift the pink rope that blocked the way and invite the person in or, if his judgment of the person or their ticket led to any doubt or problems, he would simply throw them to them aside.

    This method also brought the convenience of how he could filter out all those whose clothes were stained with mud and dirt, as those who were already rejected.

    Knowing better than to try to get ahead of myself and cut the queue, I opted to stand at its very back and patiently wait while slowly creeping forward.

    "Huh?" Contrary to how he acted towards the other customers, the bouncer appeared to be quite surprised when I stood before him. "Aren''t you a little..."

    "Too young?" I guessed what he had in mind. "Yeah, but I''m not here to get in. Rather than that, I need help. And who else to ask for help if not your boss?"

    It was pretty daring of me to make contact with someone from a real underworld. With those people, a single wrong word would spell my death.

    But how else I was supposed to sell gold coins inscribed with runes from another world? Where else could I find a buyer for gold who would ask no questions for the gold''s source, even if it came at a cost of a steep fee?

    "Are you..."

    "Yes, I''m sure. I know what I''m doing."

    For a moment, we entered a contest of stares... Only for the bouncer to let out a heavy sigh before grabbing the pink rope and lifting it up.

    "You are still too young for this ce... but you will find one of my older brothers in the manager''s booth. Tell the servers that I''ve sent you."

    The look on the bouncer''s face changed. For but a second, he proved he wasn''t made up out of muscles and muscles alone, as he was capable of showing a look of deep concern underfit with sadness.

    ''I guess he thinks I came here to sell my soul,'' I realized, smiling lightly as I couldn''t help but feel amused.

    To think a random bouncer with several pages worth of criminal record would be more mindful of my future than my adoptive parents...

    Still, daring not to keep the queue from moving up any longer, I moved past the pink doors and stepped inside.

    Normally, I should get frozen in ce and gawk at all the female beauty put on a free disy for everyone to know what they could get their hands on.

    But to be frank, after experiencing an intimate closeness with Fay, no matter how exposed those call-girls were, they failed to ignite even a single spark of interest in me.

    Unbothered by anyone, I managed to make my way all the way over to the small bar hidden to the side of the main hall.

    "Excuse me," I called out, causing one of the smiling girls to turn to me... Only for a frown to appear on her face. "Yeah, I''m too young to be here. But I was told I would find who I''m looking for in the manager''s booth."

    There was no need for me to exin any further. The look of open concern the server girl gave me was no business of mine either.

    After all, what she obviously thought I was here for couldn''t be further from my real goal.

    "I see," the girl thankfully didn''t seem to linger on her feelings. She was trained well. "Just keep to this wall, and get through the second door. Then, knock on the first door to the left and wait for him to invite you in."

    "Thanks," I politely nodded my head before turning around and following the girl''s guidance. And before long, I found myself with my fist raised, ready to strike at the doors to announce myself...

    But for some reason, bringing my knuckles down on the door proved to be a lot harder than I thought.

    The weight of the single, gold coin in my pocket started to burn a hole in my thigh. The weight of my fist started to wear the muscles of my arm out.

    ''Let''s just get this over with,'' I thought, before gritting my teeth and bringing my fist down on the door.

    Knock, knock, knock.

    And before long...

    "Come in."

 Chapter 19: Only an idiot kills a goose laying golden eggs to make a soup

    <h4>Chapter 19: Only an idiot kills a gooseying golden eggs to make a soup</h4>

    "Come in."

    It was such a simple sentence consisting of just two words. Its meaning was equally as simple,

    And yet, in this specific moment, the importance of those two simple worlds was beyond anything I''ve faced on this side of my portal.

    Still, now that I knocked, asking the man inside to wait would be extremely rude. And so, I pushed the doors open and stepped inside while making sure to close the doors as I entered the small office.

    "Who are... Wait, aren''t you a bit too young to be here?"

    A look of surprise appeared on the face of the man sitting behind a simple desk.

    Just by taking a single look, one could never tell that this was the office of one of the lieutenants for the local boss of the underworld. There were no explicit markings that would give away his gang affiliation. There were simply no decorations anywhere in the room, with every inch of free space upied by shelves and special stands for bookkeeping and writing.

    "That depends," I replied, not admitting to being too young to enter the brothel for the very first time since I approached the bouncer. "Am I too young to be in a brothel? Legally yes, practically no," I said before shrugging my shoulders. "But I''m here not for the girls, I''m here to talk with you."

    Strangely enough, even when facing one of the more powerful people in the entire area of the town''s backstreets, I felt no fear or even the tiniest sense of intimidation. For some weird reason, in my eyes, the man before appeared like just another bureaucrat, busy making sure no official could ever find any fault with the documentation of the business he managed.

    Still, my words managed to force the man out of the mundane routine of every day. And as he raised his eyes to look at my face now with proper attention, I could see sparks of interest dancing in his eyes.

    "And what would you like to talk with me about?" the man asked while letting out a small sigh.

    In his eyes, I was likely yet another poor kid who was about to either ask for something unreasonable and be taken straight from some stupid series on gangs and mafias... Or be the more rational type who simply came here to offer his soul to the group.

    "May I reach into my pocket? I can show you the item in question and it will make our discussion all the easier..." I made a short pause to build up some tension. "And I will have to show it anyway or you won''t be willing to believe I''m serious."

    When dealing with this kind of people it was highly unwise to make some sudden movement or reach out for the insides of my pockets. Those men... They wouldn''t be all that surprised if their rivals would recruit someone as worthless as me just to execute one of the executives of the group.

    "Feel free," the group''s lieutenant replied, hanging back on his chair and hiding his hands below his desk to prevent me from seeing what he was doing or holding in them.

    Warned by the open threat, I used my right hand to slowly reach into the pocket in my pants before using just two fingers to grab the coin I''d hidden inside before, just as slowly, pulling it up and then putting it down on the table. Then, with a single flick, I sent the coil sliding on the desk, straight into the hands of the gang-affiliated officer.

    "Is this gold...?" Even though the man''s voice was t, he couldn''t hide the small tones of curiosity that I apparently managed to pique.

    "I don''t know what grade of gold it is, but without a doubt, it''s gold. I nearly managed to mark it with my teeth," I exined before spreading my arms out.

    A world where people dressed in medieval-level clothes couldn''t possiblye up with all sorts of ways the modern world figured out for faking gold. So, just going by the probabilities, the one coin I initially received was more likely than not to be made from real gold.

    The man appeared to think the same, given how long he spent turning the coin around in his fingers and thoroughly inspecting it.

    "It looks like it''s real," he finally admitted before sighing and tossing the coin back to me. "What do you want from me, then?"

    ''So far, so good,'' I took in a shallow breath, knowing better than to openly reveal how relieved I was.

    "It''s fairly simple. I''m pretty sure you''ve never seen a coin like that, did you?" I asked, keeping the piece of gold on the table while looking straight into the man''s eyes.

    "I did not," he easily admitted, most likely prompted by the curiosity the hints of which I could see every now and then. He was a mobster, not a damn actor or a poker yer, after all.

    "Aren''t you curious where it came from?" I asked, only to put a wide grin on my face. "No, it''s better if you don''t ask. Because while it wasn''t obtained illegally, I would rather not exin how I got it."

    The mobster stared at me from beyond the barrier of his simple desk.

    "And you brought it here..." he muttered, only to suddenly pull forward, resting his elbows on the table, and stare directly into my eyes. "Have it ever urred to you I could just take it from you before throwing you out? Or that you might not even be able to leave this building?"

    There was a small, amused smile on the man''s lips... But there was no threat in his eyes. After witnessing the moment of anger and how the eyes of that massive fox changed at that precise moment... I could tell that despite the harshness of his words, this man didn''t really mean anything he said.

    "It urred to me, but I dismissed those worries fairly quickly," I replied while shaking my shoulders. "I don''t know you. It''s my first time talking with you. But I assumed that if someone makes it to your rank in the group, then they can''t be an idiot," I spoke, perfectly aware of how close I was getting to actively insulting the man... even if my words actually praised him instead.

    In tense orplex situations like this, people were more likely to just hear the insulting words, not the context they were said.

    Still, regardless of how dangerous the game I was ying in this meeting, I forced a small smile on my lips.

    "And only an idiot would kill a gooseying golden eggs to get himself a bowl of soup." I shrugged my shoulders again before rxing a little. "To put it in a more direct way, if you take this coin from me, you will be a few grams worth of gold richer. But if you help me out with selling it, I will be likely to keeping back with more and more of them."

    This time, the sparks of curiosity openly burned in the man''s eyes.

    ''Good,'' I thought, breathing a small sigh of relief while stopping myself from wiping my forehead clean of all the sweat it produced.

    As much as I wanted to y it cool, it was all but an act. During every second of this interaction, I was perfectly aware of how close I was to finding a lead nugget stuck firmly where only my brain was supposed to be.

    "So, what I wanted to ask you is simple," I added after giving the man some time to process my words. "How much will I lose by exchanging this gold with you guys, if I''m really against sharing how did I get my hands on it?"

 Chapter 20: Making a deal with a mob

    <h4>Chapter 20: Making a deal with a mob</h4>

    "You ask simple questions that don''t have an easy answer."

    The mobster sighed and leaned back in his chair. His finger started to slowly tap at the wood of the desk while his eyes locked on the coin in my hand.

    "If you are going to bring only one or two coins like that and call it a day, then this isn''t worth my attention," he spoke, the tapping of his finger growing slightly faster and heavier.

    I held myself back from swallowing my saliva.

    Even though I intentionally made the atmosphere tenser, it tragically backfired, putting me on the spot.

    How I was supposed to react, exactly? Was he done speaking? Or was his silence a test of my determination?

    "I know a few things about you," the man finally spoke right as he heaved another sigh. A spark of exhaustion shed in his eyes.

    ''And what exactly is this supposed to mean? What did I do to attract their attention? I thought they were the ones who would leave me the hell alone! Before getting this portal, I could be of absolutely no use to them!

    A myriad of thoughts raced through my mind as I tried to peer into the intent behind those worrying words.

    The mobster raised his eyes and took a look at my tense expression.

    "There''s no need to freak out. We can''t exactly allow someone with circumstances as ridiculous as yours to get a ce in our sphere of influence, could we?" The man revealed a small smile before moving up on his chair and leaning forward on the table while cupping his hands together.

    "Let me put it this way. You can either consider it a lucky day or leave this coin. In exchange, I will give you five big ones, which is more than ten times its worth," the mobster spoke with a perfectly calm expression while digging his eyes into my face.

    ''Is he looking for a reaction?'' I thought, opting to slightly narrow my eyes to satisfy the mobster''s craving.

    With my endurance growing to levels beyond what an average human could ever achieve, this kind of pressure was nothing for me.

    Sure, I did my very best to lower my guard and literally open my heart to the man to circumvent this unexpected obstacle on my path. It could spell trouble if a mob lieutenant took interest in me due to what he would consider perfectly cold blood, wouldn''t it?

    "Once again, consider this a bright moment in your otherwise bleak life," the mobster rolled his eyes before pulling his back straight and lowering his cupped hands. "In exchange, there mighte a time when we will ask for you to return the favor. It won''t be anything drastic or extremely risky. You can consider it as my investment into the future of someone who endured so much and didn''t break."

    The silence returned to the room. And even though the mobster appeared to rx... I could still feel his piercing gaze.

    And to the best of my understanding and ability to read the air that I, as an introvert, perfected over the years of my pitiful life... The real question, the real test, was only about to drop about now.

    "But if you can bring more of those coins, then I will offer you..." the mobster thought for a second, even acting it out as if to make it all seem like a happy-go-lucky decision rather than a serious business offer. "Two-thirds of their worth in weight."

    A third of the price... Was a steep cost. But a cost far smaller than what could happen if I sold those coins off randomly and someone ended up making a mess because of them.

    I could im they were hand-made passion projects of someone who wanted to make his offline RPG sessions more authentic by going as far as minting his own coins to use in the gaming sessions...

    But how far that kind of lie could take me?

    "That sounds reasonable," I lightly nodded my head, as if restrained by the worry of walking into a trap.

    "Oh, and since we are on that topic, if you want to thetter option, I will double my investment... But you will need to keep me informed."

    The mobster lowered his eyelids but raised his eyes, giving me a long, piercing look. And to respond to his expectations... I gulped my saliva yet again.

    ''Well, doubling the investment means dropping ten grand on some random,'' I quickly rephrased the man''s words into a simpler form. ''It''s given he won''t be willing to just let me do whatever I want in this arrangement...''

    For a moment, I hesitated.

    But there was one more reason why the second option was far more alluring.

    "If I were to pick thetter option, I would need you to potentially shield me from my step-family," I announced.

    This was the one point I was the most worried about. Now that I was broke and had no protector in this world, I would be powerless to do anything against my aunt if her gold-greedy nose would smell the money on me.

    And if she were toe storming, there would be practically nothing I could do save for a forceful, physical solution to this problem.

    "Do you want us to... take care of them?" the mobster asked, his eyebrows moving up a bit as an amused smile crept up on his lips.

    "No, that would make me lose all the fun of dealing with them myself," I replied coldly and without hesitation. "All I need is for you to keep them off my ass. Don''t you think it would be better if they didn''t try to cause trouble and disturb our profitable rtionship?"

    There was no way this man would ever offer to "take care" of someone for me. I was too small, too insignificant. The risk of me trying to set the man up was simply too high in this equation.

    But keeping them off my back?

    That was a in and reasonable request, especially if this man really knew what he hinted to know about me and my past.

    "That won''t be a problem," the mobster replied while leaning back in his chair. "I assume you wish to take the second deal, then?"

    "Yeah," I said as I stood up only to bring the coin back to the table and roll it toward the man.

    The mobster caught the coin with a small smile before reaching out to one of the shelves on his side of the desk. He quickly straightened back before cing two thick stacks of cash on the same table while stashing the coin somewhere I couldn''t see. Then, he stood up from his chair and reached out.

    "For the mutually beneficial cooperation, then," he spoke as I reached out and shook his hand.

    "Let''s make each other filthy rich," I replied, finally allowing a smile to appear on my face.

    This was a perfect deal for the man. He belonged to the group that bnced the grey area between legal and underground business. And for them, a source of ie that didn''t seem to bear much risk was always weed!

    "Can I ask you to send one of the bouncers to my ce in let''s say... two days? Then have him nearly break the door before forcing me to pay a protection fee or something?" I requested as I nearly turned, ready to leave.

    The mobster raised his eyebrows a little before hiding a small smile.

    "Didn''t I say we will keep your family off your ass?"

    I returned the smile.

    "But why deal with them if we can make them believe I''m just the same old victim of bullying?" I asked with all the honesty I could muster and spread out my arms, shaking them to show my indifference.

    "I will send someone, then," the mobster replied before turning back to his chair, only to quickly turn his head and give me another prating smile. "And since we will be now working with each other, I will need you toe up with something really good, better than just some stolen gold, to meet with me again."

    The announcement made me stop in my tracks, right as I was about to open the door and leave.

    "Who should I contact for the periodical reports, then?" I asked, puzzled by the sudden introduction of a new rule.

    Despite being a mobster, this man was strangely easy to talk to. Sure, he was setting up traps here and there in our negotiations... But that''s just how the business worked. If I allowed him to take more from me, then he would be obliged to do so, otherwise, I couldn''t even respect him as a partner!

    But now he was telling me it wouldn''t be him that I would be dealing with?

    ''I guess I will need to find something far more profitable if I want to seriously step up in life...''

    Such was the implication of the announcement.

    I could earn nice money by selling off the coins from another world... But how exactly was I supposed to get more of them? It''s not like there are just heaps of loaded corpses in that forest, waiting for me to loot them...

    I took a deep breath.

    "I understand," I spoke before making sure the money I hid in my clothes wasn''t visible or ented in any way or form. "Then, I will be sure to level up and bring you even more profits soon, then."

    There was no need for me to worry. Gold was the easiest way to obtain on the go...

    But how stupid would I have to be able to find anything interesting in a world that allowed celestial fucking foxes that could speak directly to one''s mind and shapeshift into humans?

    Just a strand of grass from that world would likely send the entire scientificmunity of Earth into a frenzy! I would have to be an idiot to be unable to find something that a half-legal mob organization would find extremely interesting!

    I bowed down to the man and left the room. Before I knew it, I passed by the corridor, the red insides of the brothel''s main hall, and then the building''s entrance.

    Now, I had more money than I ever had in the past. Ten whole grand!

    ''That should be enough to bring some good stuff for Fay to enjoy,'' I thought, instantly switching back to my old mindset, centered on pleasing this impossible beauty.

    On the other side of my portal, her massive parent was my lifeline. And in this world...

    In this world, I was more than happy to splurge if it meant putting that adorable smile on Fay''s beautiful face!

 Chapter 21: Through stomach, to the heart!

    <h4>Chapter 21: Through stomach, to the heart!</h4>

    ''Come on man, just knock on this damn door!''

    I made the deal with a damned mobster with rtive ease. I then carried ten grand on me, roaming around the gang-controlled grounds, daring not to carry that much cash where other groups could just take it from me. Still, without stepping out of the area controlled by the people I just made a deal with, I managed to quickly stock up on everything that could be of use to me back home.

    Or namely, food, clothes, and hygiene products, all of which Fay might need. To top it all off, I bought a bunch of both small and oversized plushies, turning myself into a walking bundle of bags, carryable boxes, and packages.

    Yet, instead of feeling relief when I finally reached my shed, ready to drop off all this weight and take a breath to calm my beating heart... I couldn''t bring myself to actually knock on the door to give Fay the signal we discussed before I left.

    Because, right behind the doors... There was Fay.

    And while I managed to keep my cool while dealing with a mobster, I couldn''t be so sure I could do the same when dealing with her! Especially when the sole goal for all the purchases I made was to put a smile on her face.

    ''Nothing good wille from standing around here,'' I thought, trying to use reason to force my hand to move. ''I''m drawing a lot of attention. Even if that mobster promised to keep my family off my back, I won''t be able to do much if they just show up to check how I reacted to them stealing my inheritance...''

    By distracting my thoughts with my vicious aunt, I managed to fade away the image of the trail that awaited me on the other side. And with the burden on my mind now lessened, I finally managed to raise my hand and knock on the door.

    Two knocks, a short pause, three knocks, another pause, and then a single knock.

    A code that should let Fay know that it was me and thus she didn''t need to hurry up and hide.

    In a sense, this amount of caution wasn''t even necessary. After all, if my family really came while I was out, they would simply try to barge in as if they owned the ce, struggle with the doors upon noticing they were locked, and then leave, as they could have no other business in the area but to bully me.

    And if the doors were locked and I didn''t respond to their attempts at entry... Then, with quite a dose of certainty, I believed they would assume I was out. My disobeying them was something they simply couldn''t fathom.

    ''And not so long ago, I wouldn''t fathom opposing them myself,'' I thought, gritting my teeth before unlocking the doors and mindlessly walking inside. There, I dropped off all my bags before closing the door behind me.

    Heaving a deep sigh, I raised my eyes.

    And then I recalled what exactly troubled me so much I couldn''t bear to return back to my shoddy home.

    "Peter!"

    Before I could as much as say a single word, Fay jumped out from behind the bed and rushed forth, worry mixing with excitement on her face.

    "You are back!"

    Seeing how I was all good, the concern vanished from her eyes, reced by pure joy and happiness.

    ''Why is she so happy I came back?'' I asked myself, puzzled by this unexpected dose of attention. ''Is it because I''m the only one who can bring her back to her world? Or maybe she''s just that cheerful on her own?''

    I took a deep breath, ready to have Fay throw herself at me in a friendly hug... Only to see her rapidly decelerate on thest few steps, only to stop a mere few inches away and lower her eyes, her cheeks suddenly turning all red.

    ''Oh, did she remember our previous talk?'' I thought, unable to stop myself from just watching her stumble around.

    It felt like adoring a cute puppy frolicking on the grand adventure around the room.

    A bout of pain exploded in my heart as I struggled to handle just how adorable Fay was, all the more when she suddenly turned all embarrassed and shy.

    ''Maybe she was so clingy before, because for her, intimacy is only possible when one''s in heat?'' I thought, going back to the same ideas that shed in my mind before.

    But then, I shook my head and reached out to pat Fay on her shoulder.

    "I''m home, Fay," I spoke softly, quenching my need for adorableness in my life before stepping to the side and kneeling over the bags. "And on that note, what do you want to start with? Are you hungry? Do you want to taste some food of this world? Or maybe you would be more interested in clothes? I also have plushies and some grooming..."

    "WAH!"

    Fay''s voice suddenly spiked as she uttered a small cry, her eyes locked on something that I happened to reveal while rustling around with the bags. I followed her line of sight, only for the corners of my lips to curve up when I realized what got this kind of reaction out of her.

    "Don''t worry, it''s just a toy," I assured, pulling one of the bags open to reveal a soft plushie bear, half the size of a human. And looking up, I could see Fay''s eyes sparkle while locked on the plushie. Even her cheeks turned reeded as the anticipation appeared all over her face.

    "Here, I hope you will like it," I said, pulling out the ball of soft fur before passing it over to the girl.

    For but a second, I could swear I saw her fox ears twitch. Her long hair moved, making it seem as if she just wiggled her tail.

    "Soft..." Fay whispered when I left the big plushie in her hands. She immediately pulled it into a hug, only for her face to melt down in a satisifed smile when she wrapped herself all over the huggable toy.

    I froze. Seeing Fay snuggle up the big plushie with a simple yet full smile... It was as if this small gift alone was enough to bring her to the peak of happiness.

    ''If that''s how she reacted to a simple toy...'' I thought, gulping my saliva down as my hands involuntarily reached down, to the huge, massive even, bag where I kept all the menu options from the nearby restaurant named after Ronald, the cook so great he was given the noble prefix Mac.

    "I''m d to see you like it..." I spoke, busying myself with unpacking each separate meal and stacking them all on the lone table in the shed.

    "Human Peter..." Hearing Fay''s shaky voice, I turned my head back... Only to see her staring at me with tears in her eyes. "Sniff.... Sniff..." Fay sobbed lightly.

    At first, I thought it was the strong smell of the fast food that I brought that got this reaction out of her... Only for Fay to take a step forward and reach out with one of her hands.

    "Human Peter..." she sniffled, struggling to make her voice loud enough for me to hear. She reached out and grabbed the edge of my shirt, pulling me closer by just half an inch. "Human Peter..." she repeated, as if unable to get some words out of her throat. "...Thank you..."

    My eyebrows shoot up on my forehead.

    I couldn''t recall using this world around her before.

    ''What is she, guessing the sounds of specific words in mynguage?!'' I freaked out a little. What I''ve just witnessed exceeded what my scientific mindset could exin.

    ''Well, it''s not like I can figure out how a portal can randomly take me to another world...'' I thought, rolling my eyes at the idea of trying to exin anything about what was happening in my life right now.

    So, rather than wasting my time and brain power on all this useless thinking, I simply grabbed the first of the meal bags that I brought before opening it up and bringing it closer to the girl.

    "You are most wee," I said with a happy smile.

    Strangely enough, making this girl happy... made me feel fulfilled as if I aplished some kind of goal etched deep into my genome.

    "There''s no need to try, though," I added, not knowing any better when my free hand moved all on its own... And reached out to gently wipe the tears from Fay''s eyes. "So how will it be? Do you want to taste the food that grew to be a staple of my world?" I asked, pulling out the iconic burger of the MacRonald fast-food chain.

    ''If I want to keep being as happy as I am right now, I need to keep her entertained,'' I thought, more than happy to spoil this new pe... new friend of mine. And while I was still ages away from patting her head, ying with her lush hair, and calling her good girl...

    ''Right now, the main goal is to get her addicted to me just as I''m already addicted to her... by making her love the food I can bring!''

 Chapter 22: One burp too far (trigger warning: AWWW, wholesome)

    <h4>Chapter 22: One burp too far (trigger warning: AWWW, wholesome)</h4>

    "Here, try this," I softly encouraged while unwrapping the simple burger from the packing paper and passing it over to the girl.

    Fay sat down on the edge of my bed, still hugging the big teddy bear with all her might. Yet, when her eyesid down on the burger in my hand... Her nose prickled as she sniffed a little... Before reluctantly grabbing the bun and slowly bringing it towards her face.

    For a moment, Fay stared down at the bun with a conflicted expression on her face while stealing short nces upwards to my face. Then, after much mental deliberation, she raised the sandwich and pried her delicate mouth open...

    ''Woah...'' I nearly jumped when I saw some drops of grease slither their way down Fay''s slim fingers. ''This looks...''

    "Mhmm! Human Peter! Delicious!"

    Fay nearly screamed out my own thoughts, although with a much different meaning behind them.

    It didn''t escape my attention that whenever Fay appeared disturbed or excited, she would revert to calling me "Human Peter" instead of just "Peter", proving that her manner of learning thenguage was a lot different from what I was used to.

    Stumped by Fay''s strange ability to somehow speak mynguage, I nearly missed the adorable image of the girl tearing the small burger apart with just small, elegant bites. Yet, rather than restrain, it likely came from how she was not yet used to her new, human form.

    "Mhmm!!!" Fay closed her eyes and wiggled on her spot, struggling to contain her awe at the taste of the meal. Her voice reduced to just a muffled moan of satisfaction as she kept savoring the taste of the appetizer for as long as she could.

    "I started with a in one because I was worried there might be some vegetables you might dislike," I spoke out... only to pull another burger. This time, however, rather than using a in and simple one, I picked my personal favorite.

    Contrary to the most popr choice of the brand, it wasn''t all that much bigger or moreplex than a in burger. Sure, it patty and buns were bigger, there were more slices of pickle and a different sauce...

    But this in, raw taste was exactly what I wanted from a burger. That was the taste I remembered from when myte mom brought me out for a cheat day to eat something as unhealthy as it was tasty.

    On the other hand, back in the current time, Fay stood up from the bed and took a step closer. Yet, rather than taking the burger from my hand, she grabbed my wrist and leaned forward, taking the first bite out while it was still in my hand.

    Fay then froze. Her body shivered when she suddenly rested nearly all of her weight on my extended wrist.

    "Peter!" Fay rapidly raised her face, a wide smile beamed with happiness and anticipation on her lips. "Tasty! More!" she requested energetically only to lean over my hand again and take another bite.

    Feeling as if my hand was taken hostage by some greedy cat, I could only watch how Fay''s head shook as she savored the treat, her vibrant, puffed-out white hair trembling with every bite she took.

    Pressured by the animal-loving side of my soul, I reached out with my hand...

    And despite hoping not tomit the unthinkable before, I brought it down on the top of Fay''s head, brushing my fingers through her rich, soft hair as I gently patted her scalp.

    "Mhmmm...." Fay purred slightly, too absorbed in the burger to even notice my daring act.

    Entranced by the moment, I didn''t even realize when Faypleted her second sandwich, moving from taking small bites to licking all the grease and sauce that ended up spilling all over my fingers.

    "Peter!" Fay jumped up right as I noticed the feeling of her tongue precisely cleaning every nook and cranny of my hand, causing the blood in my body to rush down to my pants. "Peter! More!"

    With Fay''s face right into my eyes, I simply couldn''t resist the excited look in her deep, gray-blue eyes. My hand moved toward the bags with food before I even thought about it, forcing me to sacrifice thest of my reason to at least grab a huge cup of coke instead of yet another bun.

    "Here, drink this first, or you will get yourself stuffed too much," I exined, passing over the cup with the straw already locked in ce.

    Yet, when I brought the fizzy drink to Fay, she instantly jumped back, suddenly leaving my personal space. Her hair stood slightly up as she stared down the cup in my hand.

    If I were to squint my eyes, my imagination alone would suffice to produce a background noise of her hissing.

    ''Ah,'' I quickly realized what was the problem.

    For a being with animal origins like Fay, a carbonated drink appeared like an extremely toxic poison!

    "Look," I raised my left to pull Fay''s attention before bringing the straw up to my lips and taking a long, hefty sip. I then proceeded to gulp it all down, more to make a show than to hydrate myself with this sweet yet legal narcotic.

    "P-peter..." Fay reluctantly reached out with her hand, as if worried about me drinking what she considered to be poison...

    She closed her hand and waited a short moment. And as she saw that I remained standing and smiling rather than keeling over and spouting blood, she pried her fingers open and, with a certain dose of hesitation, she grabbed the cup.

    At first, Fay cradled it in her hand, carefully raising her eyes as if to confirm that I was still okay... And then, she opened up her delicious, red mouth again only to copse them on top of the straw I just used.

    ''Hold yourself back, you fcking hornass,'' I cursed myself in my thoughts, gritting my teeth to focus on the pain instead of the delicious and adorable girl before my eyes.

    Still, seeing her slowly figure out how to suck the drink up the straw made me imagine her lovely, full lips wrapping around and sucking on something equally as long yet quite thicker and harder...

    ''Curses,'' I breathed out.

    The pain was no longer enough for me to distract myself from my lust. Now, I had to hold my breath and feel the tickle of death from suffocation to keep my desires on the leash.

    "Peter!" Fay screamed out once she finally took her first gulp. "Delicious!" she cheered up happily before grasping at the straw with her lips again and, this time properly, drinking some coke.

    Before I could even react, she appeared to have drunk nearly a third of the massive cup... While her face deteriorated quite a bit. Her eyes moved up a little while her expression mellowed down, making her look like a cat who just got a brain freeze from sniffing frozen catnip.

    Fay raised her eyes and noticed my stare, only lowering her head and hiding her face from my eyes as a blush reappeared on her cheeks. Then, while still suckling on the straw, she took a step closer and pressed her forehead against my chest...

    Only to freeze yet again. Her body visibly tensed out as she raised her eyes with panic written all over her face.

    "Human Peter..." she pleaded with a tearful voice, her face showing a mix of fear, sadness, and betrayal.

    ''What?!'' I nearly freaked out... Only to suddenly figure it out again when I saw her body convulsing.

    "Ah, don''t worry about it and just let it rip," I attempted to calm the girl a little. Yet, knowing my words alone wouldn''t do it, I squeezed my stomach, forcing thepressed air to move up my digestive tract and...

    "Burp," I hid my mouth behind my fist, releasing all the air I consumed in my hefty sip from before.

    "H-human P-Peter..." Fay muttered, her face showing she was still scared... but upon seeing my example, she decided to brace herself and...

    "Buuuuuuuurp...." Just like I asked, she held nothing back, her throat producing a surprisingly low noise as all the air escaped from her stomach... And while the feeling caused Fay to get startled, leading to her squeezing her hands into fists... Squashing the still half-full cup of coke into smithereens and sending the thick, sticky liquid all over the both of us.

    "Burp..." A small, secondary rip came out of Fay''s mouth, right as she grew startled by the mess she made by an ident.

    "Ah, don''t worry about it," I quickly muttered as I stepped back to assess the damage.

    And surely enough, both of our shirts were now all wet, covered in the sticky solution of sugar and some minimal additives. Which, to my well-covered terror, could only mean one thing.

    "Seriously, don''t worry about it," I spoke again, this time much louder, while waving my hand. "Still, let''s stop with the food and now and get ourselves cleaned up," I suggested the only reasonable course of action while already bracing myself for the unique set of challenges it could impose.

    "Clean? Fay and Peter?" Fay muttered, only to send a nce all around before bringing her eyes back to my face and then shrugging her shoulders. "River, none!" she spoke, putting up a proud, little smile when she used a new word.

    "This won''t be a problem," I spoke with a small smile, once again taken aback by Fay''s adorableness. "Come with me," I added, reaching out and naturally grabbing Fay''s hand, caring not for how it was covered in sticky coke. "I will show you something fun."

 Chapter 23: Bath Accident

    <h4>Chapter 23: Bath ident</h4>

    ''So that''s how it feels to lead a girl to the bathroom,'' I thought, using every means possible to distract myself from the reality of what was happening.

    Just like mentioned, I was leading Fay to the small bathroom that this shed came equipped with. It only had the cheapest toilet and the cheapest possible shower, which was already more than my adopted family would be normally willing to spend on me, even if all the costs came from my own money.

    But this very minimal level of covering my basic needs was something my vicious aunt never crossed as if worried about potentially giving me the ammunition to use against her in the court case I was bound to one day create against those thieving monsters.

    None of that mattered now, though, as I was now given a tall task of exining not only how the shower worked, but also exining the use of the toilet.

    "Look here, do you see those two knobs?" I pointed Fay towards the hot and cold water knobs attached to the main body of the shower''s battery. "If you turn this one to the right, hot water will start flowing out from this handle," I pointed at the showerhead... Only to reach out and grab it.

    Just like before, a practical example was likely to serve better for exnation purposes than using just words.

    "See? This is the showerhead," I mentioned while pointing it at the insides of the simple shower. I then reached out and turned the knob for the hot water and waited for a second... Only for the water to shoot out from the holes in the showerhead.

    "Woah!" Fay, amazed by this new discovery, peeked out from behind my back, clearly interested... but as happy to get in contact with water as your average cat.

    "On the other hand, if we turn this knob, cold water will enter the flow," I continued to speak, not really sure whether or not Fay could understand me properly.

    She could use a few words... but whenever she used a new one... or even when she spoke using only the words I''d heard her speak before, they were always on the point, directlymenting on the situation or answering my query.

    Fay could understand my words with no problem... which suddenly made the slow rate of her learning the words herself quite... baffling?

    If she could understand my words, then how speaking them out loud could be any more challenging?

    "Peter... Can Fay... Water?" Fay leaned her head over her shoulder in an adorable gesture while hesitantly pointing out her hand at the water.

    "Yeah," I nodded my head while taking a step to the side and keeping my arm extended out so that Fay could easily grab the end of the shower battery. "You can adjust how warm you want the water to be by either turning or adjusting how much hot and cold water enters the system."

    With my attention on how criminally cute Fay was whenever her eyes shed with curiosity and excitement, I didn''t even realize when my words suddenly turned technical, turned into jargon that anyone from Earth would easily understand... But that should be gibberish for anyone whocks the proper foundation to understand them.

    And regardless of that fact, Fay didn''t appear to be confused by those unknown words at all. Or maybe she was too busy ying around with what had to be a magical tool producing water in her eyes?

    "Oh right, we came here to clean ourselves, not to y, so give me just a moment," I requested before rushing out of the bathroom and towards the bags I brought back home.

    In theory, I had some of the open soaps that I''ve used myself... But how could Imit the heresy of applying those rough, chemicalpounds on Fay''s fair skin?

    No.

    Anticipating that the problem of cleaning up woulde sooner orter, I proved my foresight by getting a proper supply of hygiene products from the most luxurious shop I could find within the gang''s territory.

    In the eyes of an average person it was bound to be just an average shop, but for someone like me, who only ever knew the world of the cheapest produce... Back during the check-out, handing out several bills, each worth over two days of my work at my part-time, I could feel my heart bleed.

    The only reason why I didn''t mentally bleed out after leaving that shop was the image I created in my head of Fay enjoying her bath. And now, I could finally make it happen... even if I had no intentions of making use of the opportunity to savor the look of her naked body.

    No.

    This wasn''t even something I decided in fear of Fay''s massive parent. Right now, this was the rule imposed by simple decency. Because even if Fay didn''t mind me watching her wash, I already knew her concepts of intimacy varied greatly from what I was used to.

    But that didn''t give me any right to exploit her ignorance of the rules existing within human society, not even if the reward of doing so would be more beauty than a sane person could handle!

    ''Vile thoughts, begone,'' I prayed silently as I grabbed the stuff I wanted and rushed back to the bathroom. Yet, by the time I rejoined Fay at the shower...

    CLING!

    "Peter! Help!"

    Right as I pushed the doors open, I heard a metallic cling... followed by the noise of rushing water. For a moment, I felt the resistance offered by the doors increase before I managed to slip inside...

    Only to see the showerhead still in Fay''s hand... despite her standing in the far-off corner of the shower. And from the showerhead, I could see the spring-like pipe extending down, all the way to where the broken socket marked the part of the battery that failed its saving throw when pitted against Fay''s strength.

    Turning my head to the side, I quickly noticed the culprit behind Fay''s sudden scream.

    With the showerhead socket broken off, the water was rushing out of the hole with all the force of the pressure it was under, covering the entire room in thick, watery mist while sshing more and more water on literally everything, me and Fay included.

    "Don''t worry, it''s not a big problem," I quickly reassured, rushing up to the broken faucet and turning the knobs off to cut the water supply. And as I took care of the ident and its fallout, I turned around with the intention of calming Fay even further...

    Only to see her standing in her all-wet clothes that lost their shape and now clung tightly to her skin, leaving very little gaps for my imagination to fill.

 Chapter 24: Fay鈥檚 circumstances (Part 1)(light r18)

    <h4>Chapter 24: Fay''s circumstances (Part 1)(light r18)</h4>

    ''I...''

    My brain ceased to work. Somewhere in the deep of my soul, I could even hear the noise of my mind''s gears grinding to a halt as I stared at Fay with my eyes wide open.

    She wore a pair of sweatpants and a simple, light shirt that I liked because of how light and stretchy it was. I believed it to be the right choice from the few clothes I had at hand for a girl whose build...

    Well, in certain areas, it greatly differed from how I was built. And while it turned her into a picture of an impossibly beautiful tease of a girlfriend while it was dry...

    Now that it was all wet, it pretty much became Fay''s second skin. After soaking a lot of water, it grew a lot heavier, stretching to the limits that increased now that it was wet... Which makes Fay practically half-naked.

    When it came to her pants, the situation was a bit better, as their material was thicker and thus managed to protect Fay''s beauty a little bit better. Still, I was always just a single nce away from how Fay''s plump, round ass held it up, despite all the added weight of the water it soaked in.

    Seeing Fay like that, I could only gulp my saliva down. Stimted beyond any reason, I dreamed of getting closer, grabbing the heavy cloth of Fay''s sweatpants before freeing her hips from its weight while caressing the skin that pulling her sweatpants down would reveal...

    ''Do you want to fucking die?!''

    Thest brain cell tasked with reason in my brain somehow made it through the fog of nearly unstoppable lust that exploded in my groins. It flooded my mind with the pictures of a school-bus-sized fox, its sharp fangs, the quick job it made out of an entire group of strong fighters that I buried...

    I somehow managed to close my eyes, focusing on the sense of dread I felt when I first saw that majestically massive celestial fox.

    "P-peter..." Fay muttered, her soft, anxious voice tugging at the strings of my soul.

    I heard the wet sound of her stepping through the puddle of water that formed all over the bathroom floor... before her clothes pressed against my chest.

    Her clothes, fully rinsed, were cold... but I could sense a hint of Fay''s body heat already warming them up.

    "Sniff, sniff..." Sneaking her head into the corner between my shoulder and my neck, Fay sniffed around as if sensed something unusual.

    "You are in heat..." she brought her lips up to my ear and softly whispered.

    A shiver moved down my spine, eroding the foundation of my strong will that still kept the reins of my body.

    It was too much for me to move. All I could do was stay in ce, fighting off the desire with images of death and carnage that I would be the victim of if I dared to betray the trust Fay''s parents imposed on me.

    ''Why does she have to strike everyst bit of what I''m into?!'' I wailed, crying to the skies as my mental armies continued to suffer heavy damage under the powerful assault of Fay''s charms.

    Just an arm''s reach. That''s all it would take to get her into my arms and lock her against the bathroom wall. A single swing of a hand would be enough to remove her clothes, another one to tear my own...

    Imagining the scene that would follow was enough to erase the majority of control that I still had leftover my body. But right as I sensed how quickly Fay unintentionally wiped my self-control, my hands moved up and grabbed Fay by her waist.

    The thing cloth or Fay''s soft skin offered no resistance to my fingers, allowing me to sink them deep into her delicate flesh.

    For some reason, just holding Fay by her waist like that made my mind go crazy, my sense of self-value skyrocketing as I established an illusionary control over this beauty...

    ''No!''

    Thest bit of reason shed up and offered up its own life to turn the tides of my mental battle. And with the image of that massive fox, with the precision of a wild beast, leading the procedure of castration by bitting off...

    "Peter... Fay is not in heat yet," Fay''s voice sounded... apologetic? Guilty?

    Just when did her soul-caressing voice turn so remorseful?

    "Peter''s in heat," Fay unknowingly upgraded hernguage by the indication of possessiveness. A great event in its own right... but meaningless information at the moment. "Fay''s not, so we can''t mate, but..."

    I somehow managed to wrestle the control over my body from my lust, quickly retreating a step to part from the sensation of Fay''s breast ttening on my chest...

    Only for the girl to instantly advance the same distance, refusing to leave me alone. Before I knew it, her hands locked behind my back as she pressed her body against mine, raising her chin only to allow herself an upturned gaze directed at my face.

    "But, can Fay help Peter?"

    My hands left Fay''s waist when I retreated, but somehow found their way right back when she gave chase. And as she pressed her body against mine, they locked down inwards only to rest down just an inch above the promise of the softness of her butt.

    For a second, I could imagine what would happen next. Since she explicitly said she couldn''t mate, I would selfishly use her beauty and willingness to satisfy my own desires, paying no mind to how she felt about it.

    ''For how clingy she is, she didn''t really mean it in this kind of intimate way. That''s obvious from how she reacted when she noticed the difference in how our mating instincts work...''

    What was just a guess a mere day ago, now turned into conviction.

    Stuck in another world, with her fate fully dependent on my decision...

 Chapter 25: Fay鈥檚 circumstances (part 2)(light r18)

    <h4>Chapter 25: Fay''s circumstances (part 2)(light r18)</h4>

    ''What if she''s so nice to me, only because she doesn''t want to lose her chance to go home?''

    A doubt took root in my soul. And between the moral repulsion of just imposing myself on her from before now merging with my suspicion...

    "I don''t want to use you like that," I muttered, forcing my hands to move up her spine, away from the allure of her shapely butt. And as my hands reached roughly the middle of her back, I gave up in one, specific area.

    No, I didn''t throw myself at her. I didn''t cave into my desire to consume my desire right here, right now.

    I simply allowed myself to hug her back, hoping her adorableness and huggability would cleanse my mind of all the filth.

    "You can''t tell how happy I was when you reacted to the things I brought. When you smiled and hugged that bear plushie when you found out how burgers taste... Even when you giggled around ying with that showerhead..."

    My face suddenly tensed up.

    The next piece of what I should say came to me naturally, yet as I opened my mouth to utter the words... I found them to be stuck in my throat.

    ''Wait, this is not her problem,'' I suddenly realized how I was about to drop down some heavy, emotional stuff on the delicate shoulders of a girl I just met, a girl that was stranded in another world and fully at my mercy, quite possibly acting as affectionate as she could to keep herself in my favor.

    "I''m sorry, it''s nothing," I backstepped, suddenly sobered up by the realization of how I was about to open up to the very first being who showed mepassion and kindness.

    Was it because I was starved for attention? Was it because her sexiness and unintentional teasing caused me to rx, or maybe quite the opposite, made my thoughts so preupied with her that I forgot about everything else?

    Or maybe it was because I could tell that just dropping all my emotional weight on Fay''s shoulders and embracing her right on the spot would allow me to somewhat bind her to me, turning her into a mere tool to forget about my worries?

    ''SHIT!'' I cursed under my breath, turning around only to drive a fist down my spleen.

    When the hit connected, I felt all the air escape from my lungs in the bout of sudden pain. Pain that, at least for a moment, freed me from the chains of the lust.

    "Peter...?" Fay asked, taking a step towards me as the worry took over the ce of willingness and slight reluctance that I could see vanishing from her face.

    ''Yeah, that must be it,'' noticing thest bit of the doubt before it vanished, I instantly realized that my suspicions were correct.

    Things were too good to be true. Even though I now ruled over a portal to another world, I was still the same loser whose girlfriend was about to cheat on me... pretty much around right now!

    ''Right, I have a girlfriend too...'' I thought, suddenly realizing how close I was tomitting adultery, an act of getting frisky with someone despite already having a girlfriend.

    And it didn''t matter I never did it with that fake girlfriend of mine. It didn''t matter she went to a ss party that I wasn''t invited to with the intention of cheating on me.

    I failed to break things off with her before, clinging to a stupid hope it would all be but a misunderstanding, that she woulde back to her senses... Or rather, remain somewhat blind to myck of worth.

    It didn''t matter if she fucked up every step of the way of our rtionship.

    I had to be better. Better than those Iined about. And beautiful fox-girl or not, my morals couldn''t change.

    "Thank you for your offer, really," I spoke out as I turned around and retreated another step, finally making it clear I had no wish to be all that physically close to Fay for her to get it and stop chasing after me. "But I would rather see you smile happily as you did before. And if a dayes you will be in heat too..."

    A small, sad smile appeared on my lips as my thoughts scrambled, turning my words into pretty much a random gibberish.

    "Well, if it ever happens, we will have to tackle that issue when it happens," I added, leaning my head over my shoulder to offer Fay a small, slightly fake smile, before forcing my body to take another step and move outside the bath.

    "The white bottle I brought is a soap. It will help you wash all the stickiness and dirt off," I exined before ncing over at where I dropped the two bottles when I rushed to the bathroom. "As for the pink bottle..."

    A myriad of thoughts and considerations washed through my mind.

    ''Should I leave it to her? Am I even allowed to touch it? Wouldn''t that be considered cheating?''

    I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to feed my heart some courage.

    "As for the pink bottle, once you are done bathing, I can help you wash your hair. And if you dislike the idea, I will show you how to do it," I said before hurrying away from the bathroom doors, escaping to the safety of the now-empty walls of the singr room of the shed.

    "... Okay..." Fay replied with a voice just loud enough to cut through the distance and reach my ears. Strangely enough, now it was richer, filled with far more emotions than before.

    Emotions that I never heard in Fay''s voice before and thus was unable to recognize.

    "And if Peter doesn''t mind, Fay''s happy for Peter to wash Fay''s hair."

 Chapter 26: Break-up call

    <h4>Chapter 26: Break-up call</h4>

    "I''m going out, but I will be right by the doors. So, if anything happens, just call and I wille," I spoke through the length of the small corridor that separated the living room from the bathroom. And without waiting for a word of opposition or eptance, I grabbed my cheap-ass phone and walked outside before securing the doors with a lock.

    It was better if Fay wouldn''t be burdened with the heavy call I was about to make.

    ''This is for the better. I clung to this rtionship because it was the only semnce of affection I found. But now that I have this portal...''

    Even before I could dial the number, my eyes moved back to where I came from, to where I could see, with the eyes of my imagination, the middle point of my run-down shed.

    The theoretical origin of the portal that I had under mymand.

    ''I''m not switching to a better woman as soon as I found one. I''m just ending what, in my soul, I always knew to be just a hoax. After hearing what I managed to hear, this rtionship was over anyway.

    All that was left now, was to put it to a quick end so that I could move on and focus on things that I was far more happier participating in.

    Truth be told, if not for Fay or her parent, it would be the mobster I met who showed me the greatestpassion since the day my mother died. I knew he did so only as an investment in a future asset...

    ''Oh how sad my life was, for me to consider this sort of rtionship to be an improvement,'' I allowed myself a moment of self-pity over the state my former mentality brought me to. Then, I raised my phone and dialed one of the very few numbers saved in it. ''Would my life change along with the change of my mindset even if I didn''t get this ability to open the portal?'' I thought while starting the call and raising the phone to my ear.

    A mere two signalster, my dear girlfriend''s voice came through.

    "Peter! I''ve been trying to reach you since forever!" Cassie''s voice was disturbed as if she was in the middle of some sort of a tunnel... or a crowded, indoor area.

    ''Right, I didn''t really check my phone ever since the portal appeared,'' I thought, brought to my senses by the valid point Cassie brought up.

    "Sorry for that, stuff happened," I replied as coldly as I did shortly, taking a short breath and stabilizing my heart to prepare for what I was about to say next.

    "I''m actually about to..."

    "I''m sorry, but can I go first?" I cut into Cassie''s soft speech, not giving her the chance to muddle my conviction with her soothing voice.

    Startled by something that didn''t usually happen between the two of us, Cassie turned silent.

    "Go on," she spoke, her voice mellowing down even further.

    I took another breath and braced myself.

    "Actually, I know about the dare," I revealed while holding nothing back.

    What would be the point of going around in circles? It would only make this momentst longer and thus prolong the potential grief of a break-up... Even if this rtionship wasn''t real, to begin with.

    "To be honest, I don''t really give two shits of what you have to say in response. I''m calling you just to inform you we are no longer a thing, even if we never were, to begin with," I spat out those words as coldly as I could... not to make myself sound cooler or not affected by the situation at all.

    My voice sounding cold was just an effect of me trying my best to hold back all the emotions that I''ve suppressed thus far.

    The anxiety of having Cassie hang out with people who sneakily bullied and made fun of me back at school. The constant doubt and stress of what a great girl like her saw in me to ask me out. The endless nights I went without sleeping, worrying where she was, what and with whom she was doing...

    And all of it, only for the humiliation of learning that I was nothing more but a victim of a slightly more borate bullying scheme. Or to be frank, I wasn''t even the target in this event.

    I was merely someone who would bear the emotional fallout of this unfunny joke of a dared rtionship.

    But as if this wasn''t humiliating enough, I could pretty much tell that Cassie, my alleged girlfriend, was at the party.

    The party I wasn''t invited to, as the only member of our ss. The party where her friends promised to find her a stud to rece the loser me.

    ''To think that hearing those background noises would calm me down so much,'' I thought, baffled by how seemingly small things could change the outlook of the various situations.

    I knew Cassie was going to cheat on me. I knew she was going to take part in the party where making out with everyone around was the main goal. And she still dared to answer my call while already there?

    Out of a sudden, all the love and affection I ever had for that girl for the few fun memories we shared... It all vanished without a trace, reced with just empty numbness.

    "On that note, I hope you won''t have to look long for a stud to rece that loser ex of yours," I offhandedly added, unable to stop this singr bout of poison from escaping my mouth.

    And before Cassie could insert even a single word of protest, question, or anything else...

    "Well, I don''t exactly want to hear your voice anymore, so let''s just end this farce and move on. Don''t call me again."

    I ended the call without letting Cassie speak up even once, proving how petty I was in reality.

    But what was the point of listening to her excuses? Her usations? Or whatever she would figure out to be the best form of damage control at the moment? What good woulde from listening to her?

    ''I have more pressing matters to attend to than a fake girlfriend that yed on my feelings,'' I spelled out those words in my thoughts. Then, I took a deep breath and casually turned around, ready to get back into my shed.

    As I opened the doors, my phone rang. And judging by the slightly different tune of the song that my phone started ying out, it was Cassie calling me back.

    "Aaaannndd... muted," I whispered under my nose while putting my phone into airne mode. The connection between my phone and the globalwork broke, instantly cutting the call without any need for me to drop it manually.

    ''Now then,'' I thought, opening the doors and getting inside... Only to see Fay wrapped in the soft fluff of the brand-new towel I bought for her. Obviously, the towel was too narrow to cover the entire length of her legs and chest, making her expose herself up to the half of her thighs and then from roughly the upper third of her impressive chest up.

    My eyes lingered on her charms for a second, instantly providing fuel to the fire in my groins that the break-up talk just now seemingly extinguished. And as my eyes moved up, scanning every detail of Fay''s slim waist, healthy figure, supple bosom, and then her adorable, slightly puzzled face...

    "Peter... okay?" Fay asked in a low, unsteady voice while making a single, reluctant step toward me.

    A few droplets of water dropped down from her skin and down to the ground. Yet, judging by how few of them they were, Fay actually had to be out of the bath for quite some time by now.

    ''I wonder if she heard the call, and if she did, then how much?'' I thought, realizing that my attempts at keeping Fay away from my private problems were not as effective as I assumed they would be.

    While making the calctions for this n, I failed to include how Fay''s animal qualities could give her senses far keener than that even the most sensitive human could ever hope to achieve!

    "I''m okay," I muttered in response, reaching out to pat Fay''s wet, fluffy hair. And by doing so, I remembered what I''d talked with the girl before leaving to make the call. As the perspective of the potential future appeared before the eyes of my mind, a small smile formed on my lips...

    Only for the worry at the bottom of Fay''s eyes to vanish without a trace.

    "I was supposed to wash your hair, wasn''t I?" I muttered, eager to move on from Fay''s desire to ask me out about the talk I just had. "Do you want me to do it, or..."

    "Yes!" Fay spoke decisively and without even a hint of hesitation. She even reached out and grabbed my other hand, only to bring it up to her head and then ce it down on its top. "Fay wants Peter to groom Fay!"

 Chapter 27: He knows (Cassie鈥檚 pov)

    <h4>Chapter 27: He knows (Cassie''s pov)</h4>

    "What the..." Cassie whispered, staring at the screen of her phone, showing that her call was... lost.

    ''He didn''t reject it. He killed his phone altogether!'' Cassie quickly realized. ''Killed, turned off or put on an airne mode...'' she quickly came back to her senses.

    Even though she hadn''t known Peter for all that long, she already learned he wasn''t the type of person to destroy his phone just to keep others from reaching him.

    ''But so he wouldn''t end things off... like that...''

    Tears squeezed out of the corners of Cassie''s eyes as the reality slowly started to dawn on her.

    Her hand free-fell down her side, the phone nearly slipping out of her fingers.

    ''He broke up with me?'' she thought, swallowing down her tears... only for a fresh batch to report in her eyes right away. ''He?! Broke up with me?!''

    Cassie''s soul trembled. The girl felt as if her insides were pulled in every direction by all sorts of different emotions.

    The anger and humiliation of being broken by a mere phone call. The shock of something like this evering to pass, especially with how calm and collected Peter always was...

    And then, the immense weight of realization of what actually transpired.

    "He knows..." Cassie whispered, her face suddenly turning nk.

    The one secret she hoped to keep hidden forever... was now known by the only person she didn''t want to share it with.

    ''I guess I only deserved this...'' Defeated, Cassie suddenly shrunk down, squatting and wrapping her hands around her knees as she hid her face in her thighs.

    "Cassie?" one of her friends noticed the sudden change, stepping away from the veranda of the mansion their ss rented out for the party. "What''s wrong?"

    ''Wait, what did he tell at the end? About finding a stud to rece him?'' Cassie ignored the call, her thoughts speeding through her mind as she tried to piece the puzzles together.

    "Cassie!" this time, Irene''s voice was far louder and stricter. And just by changing the tone of her voice, Cassie''s friend managed to force her to pull her head up and look back.

    "What?!" Cassie cried out, her tears messing up her make-up while her lips slowly curved into an ugly grimace of anger.

    ''It''s her! Her and that bitch Louise!'' Cassie finally recalled where shest heard the keywords Peter brought up during the call.

    There was only one instance when words like dare, party, and stud floated next to each other. A discussion Cassie didn''t pay much mind, taking it as the usual bit of her friends'' acting like usual. A bunch of silly jokes meant to poke fun at Cassie for herck of courage to go and ask her crush out without the added push of a dare.

    ''But he didn''t know this was just a bunch of jokes... And if he somehow heard that conversation...'' Cassie thought, gulping her saliva down... Or rather, trying to do so, only to realize her throat tightened too much to let even a single drop of her spit flow down.

    Cassie took a deep breath.

    ''If he heard that conversation... Just how awful did it make him feel?'' Cassie thought, her eyes turning watery again.

    "Cassie! Snap out of it!" Irene spoke sharply, even going as far as to grab her friend by her shoulders and shake them while shouting right in her face.

    "Snap out of it?!" Cassie finally spoke out, somehow rxing her throat enough to utter some words. "Out of how I''m at the venue of the party everyone but my boyfriend was invited to? How I''m in a ce where he heard you and Louise im you will find someone to rece him with? How I never got the chance to invite him toe?!"

    With each word, Cassie''s voice grew louder and more desperate... Only for the girl to fall right down to her position from before, once again cutting herself off from the world around her.

    "He knows everything. About the dare, about the party, about how you two imed you would find someone to rece him with here..." Cassie muttered, struggling to produce even the tiniest voice...

    Only to suddenly follow her friend''s advice and stand up.

    Her face was now clear, showcasing that she indeed snapped out of the moment of desperation.

    "I need to go and meet him," Cassie announced, only to look down at the phone in her hand.

    Normally, all she would need to get in contact with Peter was to call. And because she was too shy and scared to push their rtionship any further, they only ever met in the city or at her ce...

    Which didn''t mean Cassie didn''t know where Peter moved in to. She simply has yet to pay him a visit there.

    "Girl, hold your horses!" Irene cried out, funnily prolonging her ent. "He just called to break up with you, didn''t he?" she guessed before shaking her head. "What kind of message would you send if you came running right away?"

    "This is exactly what I need to do if I want him to believe I wasn''t just ying with his feelings!"

    Now that Cassie has made up her mind, she suddenly grew far morebative than normal.

    "You stink of desperation," Irene countered with an ugly grimace forming on her lips. "I''m not joking right now so listen to me well. If you go after him right now, you will not only miss this party but show just how desperate for his attention you are!"

    "And what does it matter to you?!" Cassie exploded a little. "I fucked up every step of the way. I confessed to him because of a dare. And even if those were my real feelings, I didn''t bother to think how he would feel about it once he found out!"

    Tears once again appeared in Cassie''s eyes... Only for her to sniff two times to pull herself together.

    "And then there''s the topic of what he heard us talking about..." Irene''s voice suddenly mellowed down... Only for her to shake her head again. "But he dropped the call and didn''t pick up when you called him back, did he?"

    Somehow, even though she was quite a bit away when it all happened, Irene could guess how things happened without fail.

    "Yeah, and?" Cassie pulled her eyebrows together, too furious at what her friends'' words caused her to pay much mind to them again.

    "Do you really think he wants to see you right now?" Irene pointed out while going as far as to raise her hand and poke at Cassie''s corbone. "No, right now, you are thest person he wants to see. And you are too desperate."

    Irene shook her head again.

    "I''m not saying you should just forget about him," she said before heaving a deep sigh. "I know better than anyone that you won''t. But rather than acting desperate now, you can just have fun at this party and then meet up with him once you both calm down."

    "Hey girls!" one of their ssmates called out from the veranda. "What''s the hold-up?! Come on! We are about to begin!"

    Irene looked over her shoulder... but didn''t bother to respond. She then moved her eyes back before heaving another sigh.

    "You''ve heard him. You can bet it would only cause unnecessary drama if you were to up and leave now, right as everything is about to begin," Irene spoke, her voice softening even further.

    She then walked up to her friend and pulled her into a tight hug.

    "I''m not telling you to forget about him. But for now, rx, have as much fun as you can, and once you are both ready, go pay him a visit so you two can talk in peace and clear the misunderstanding," Irene calmly presented her friend with a n that had some semnce of logic behind it. "And who knows," Irene''s face suddenly turned all smiles as she pulled back and looked directly into Cassie''s eyes.

    "Who knows, maybe you will find someone even better than that loser boyfriend of yours here?"

 Chapter 28: Blowing the worries away (slight r18)

    <h4>Chapter 28: Blowing the worries away (slight r18)</h4>

    With the main faucet of my small shower broken, there was no way for Fay to properly wash her hair. And even if she could somehow conquer the quirks of modern technology and ovee the trouble she herself created...

    I could still im, and with a certain dose of confidence at that, she would want me to wash her hair anyway.

    With how few words Fay would speak, even with her dictionary rapidly and steadily increasing, I learned to attach a lot more value to what words she was using. And just like I could tell the difference between her calling me "Human Peter," and just "Peter,", it was in for me to see that her "grooming" didn''t exactly mean just "washing someone''s hair."

    ''As far as I can recall, grooming is what animals do to build bonds, especially amidst the closest members of their pack,'' I thought, only for a sour smile to appear on my lips a momentter. ''Or is it just my lust-founded wishful thinking?''

    This moment of distraction caused the water in the bucket I was filling to overflow, sending the warm chill up my suddenly wet socks.

    "Shit," I cursed a little, taking a step back and pulling the bucket of water away... And making the mistake of assuming, just like I would yesterday, that the water would now flow down the shower''s drain.

    But the very middle of the battery was now broken off. And while I could still manipte the flow of both cold and hot water to adjust the temperature of a small fountain that burst forth the broken part... It was no longer aimed anywhere near the shower.

    "Shit..." I cursed again as I watched water spill all over the floor before rapidly reaching for what was left of the battery and cutting the inflow of water. As a result, by the time the situation calmed down, my new set of clothes was as wet as the clothes that I just changed from.

    I had no time to dawdle around, though. With the shower''s battery broken, I had no means of keeping the water running and thus at a constant temperature. It was already a blessing that I found a small basin stashed away in the dark corner of the small storage shed outside. And now, for every second that I wasted, the water in the basin would turn slightly colder.

    And for Fay''s first, proper hair wash, subjecting her to the difort of cold water...

    ''Stop it!'' I disciplined my thoughts, refusing to even imagine such a discourtesy, raising the heavy basin and carrying it over to the main room of my spartan apartment.

    "Here!" I uttered a small scream of relief when I dropped the basin down by my bed, just by its edge. "Lay down face up, with your head on the edge of the bed," I instructed the girl while turning to my bags and fishing out several bottles of expensive cosmetics.

    ''First, use softener,'' I recalled the words of the shopkeeper at both the rtively high-end cosmetic shop and then the advice of the vet from the clinic I visited while on the way back.

    For Fay... I couldn''t really tell whether I should follow up the routine of the vet or the cosmetologist. Was her hair... actually hair? Or was it an illusion attached to fur?

    With no other choice, I simply followed my own gut and reason, sshing quite a bit of the thin liquid from the first bottle before raising my eyes up...

    And freezing.

    First, there was a storm of white hair that I just couldn''t wait to get my hands on.

    Then, there was Fay''s head which I wanted to massage every inch off... while in search of whether she had fox ears hidden in her hair or not. Sadly, as Fay allowed her hair to fall off the edge of the bed, I had no hopes of finding out whether or not she sported a fox tail.

    Yet, as I moved my eyes just a little bit further up...

    Two pairs of two, round things came into my view.

    The curious and expecting eyes on Fay''s upturned face... and a huge chunk of her chest freely visible under her shirt at my current angle.

    Gulp.

    My saliva moved down my throat before I could even think about swallowing it. And just like that, in a single instant, my brain froze, my hands moved up, smearing the lotion all over Fay''s slightly stiff hair.

    At first, it felt as if my hands pressed into a mat made from a myriad of short yet durable straws, prickling and poking at the palms of my skin as I started to spread the thin creme all over the fury of Fay''s hair.

    Yet, as the cosmetic sank into the fabric of Fay''s hair, it quickly softened the experience, reiming the same sensation for my hands that I got to experience back when I cuddled Fay up in her fox form.

    ''For the next step, gently rinse the hair to moisturize its exterior,'' I followed the guidance of the helpful clerks, changing to the next bottle in the line.

    A few brushes of my handster, Fay''s hair turned properly wet, now weighing down even more than before. And with Fay closing her eyes to avoid water getting into them, or maybe just rxing that much...

    I could now gaze right into her deep cleavage without any moral repercussions!

    While wary of the risk of Fay suddenly opening her eyes, I continued to sneak nces at the soft, jiggly meat of her chest that moved along as Fay slightly adjusted the position of her body.

    Soon, an expression of bliss spread all over her expression, decreasing the risk of my lecherous gaze being discovered.

    ''Now, conditioner,'' I thought, forcibly tearing my eyes away from Fay''s charms to focus back on my task.

    A mere moment of massaging the soft creme into Fay''s hairter, it suddenly started to gain substance, as if each individual strand of her hair grew in size at the cost of its toughness. And in the grand scheme of things, it already made her hair far fluffier than the fur she sported as a fox!

    ''Lastly, the shampoo...'' I thought, gulping my saliva down as my hands started to sink in the extremelyfortable feeling of Fay''s hair.

    After applying the final cosmetic and then carefully rinsing Fay''s hair, I finally moved on to thest few steps.

    First, I smeared yet another creme into her hair, the name of which I didn''t even know. Then came a strange, white powder that seemed to be so light it could flow in the air. Andstly...

    "Can you stand up and sit on the edge of the bed now?" I asked, already rushing back to the bathroom to find the hand-held hair dryer that I low-key stole from my aunt''s house. It was a cheap recement for what my mom used to have, and something I couldn''t afford to miss if I didn''t want to get sick every time after washing my own hair and having no other choice but to wait for them to dry themselves.

    By the time I returned to the room with the electric device in my hand, Fay already finished my instructions, moving up and sitting down at the edge of the bed. And as if to add the adorableness to the picture, she happily inserted her feet into the wastewater from washing her hair, gently sloshing the water within the basin.

    Fay spoke nothing as she saw me approach, connect the dryer and the seat myself behind her back.

    "I''m going to blow hot air to dry your hair. There will be a strange noise, so I hope it won''t startle you too much," I warned as a small, mischievous smile crept up my lips.

    I was just a single move of a finger away from turning the hair dryer on only to then savor Fay''s reaction to the unknown magic.

    "Did something happen?" the girl asked right as I was about to pull the trigger. "Because you know..."

    I already knew Fay was learning mynguage at a speed that would put even the greatest polyglots of the world to shame. But still, hearing how quickly she advanced, even though I already knew about it... I still couldn''t help but get shocked.

    "When Fay finished her bath, Fay could tell Peter''s aura..."

    Looking from behind her shoulder, I couldn''t catch all the details of Fay''s expression. But even with this poor angle, I could see the hints of the uneasy look on the girl''s face.

    "Peter''s aura... heavier."

    This supposedly joyous, amusing moment suddenly turned just like how Fay felt about my aura.

    Heavier.

    So, I had no other choice but to blow all our worries away with a dose of cuteness.

    I pulled the trigger, turning the hair dryer on and sending a stream of hot, directed air at Fay''s wet hair.

    The dryer alone couldn''t blow the dense air out of the room. But when Fay jumped a little while squeaking "Kyaaa!", the thick atmosphere didn''t have a chance!

 Chapter 29: Grooming session (super slight r18/wholesome teasing)

    <h4>Chapter 29: Grooming session (super slight r18/wholesome teasing)</h4>

    ''This is sofy,'' I thought with my head in the cloud, letting go of a hefty strand of Fay''s hair... Only to separate another one from the storm of her hair and focus the heat from the dryer on it.

    "Haaaa...."

    Encharmed by thefortable feeling, Fay started humming a singr tune while her body swayed lightly the the left and right.

    "I see you are no longer scared of the dryer," I spoke softly while brushing my fingers through her hair to ensure it was properly dried out and the cosmetics didn''t take away any of its fluffiness.

    "Fay''s not scared!" Fay announced with so much confidence, that I nearly lost myself in my desire to hug her from behind and affirm her bravery while patting her head.

    I held myself back... but I didn''t give up on my ns of getting my hands on her head so I could solve the mystery that puzzled me ever since I saw her assume this human form for the very first time.

    It was all a matter of timing. If I reached out and started to massage her head out of nowhere, Fay would most likely get startled. But if I did so naturally, as per the course of the grooming session...

    Everything was about timing. And I was willing to bide my time.

    "By the way, you spoke how my aura grew heavier," I recounted Fay''s words. "Does that mean you can see people''s auras? Can I see it too? And what even is that aura, to begin with?"

    With hands still preupied with drying Fay''s storm of hair, I turned silent and awaited her answer.

    "Aura... It''s the feel... No, the shadow..."

    Sitting behind the girl, I couldn''t see even a hint of her expression. But from how she leaned forward, brought her hand up to her face, and slumped her shoulders down...

    ''Is she sucking on her tongue? Biting her fingernails?'' I attempted to guess, only for my imagination to take me for a wild, dreamy ride.

    "Fay can''t exin..." she spoke a momentter, turning sideways and looking at me with such helplessness on her face...

    But the moment our eyes met, Fay''s expression changed to one of excitement and satisfaction.

    "Fay knows!" she shouted happily, turning her entire body around... Only to walk on all fours towards me before climbing up on myp and casually sitting down on my thighs.

    ''Wha...''

    Before I could as much as utter a single word of protest or surprise, Fay reached out for my head... But instead of grabbing it, she pressed her inner palms against my face, fully blocking my sight.

    "Peter, see... no, Peter, look!" she squirmed on top of myp, making sure I couldn''t see a thing and yet telling me to look...?

    Puzzled as I was, I closed my eyes... while trying with all my mental power to see something anyway.

    "No, not like that..." Fay muttered, moving around on myp a bit and sending my mind to the pit of lecherously when I was subjected to this gentle, unintentional massage of her thighs ttening right on top of my crotch.

    "Peter, keep eyes closed," Fay spoke again, this time her voice lined with hesitation.

    Yet, before I could figure out what she was hesitating about, Fay removed her hands from my face only to wrap them behind my neck and hug herself tightly into my chest.

    In an instant, my entire mind filled with the sensation of her soft flesh, protected by only a thinyer of cloth.

    "Peter, feel," Fay whispered directly to my ear, moving her hips around a tiny bit as if to tease me and distract me from my attempts at learning how to perceive aura. "Feel!" she urged by whispering so close to my ear, her lips brushed against its lobe.

    And felt it, I did, only to have a shiver move down my spine. My entire body trembled when subjected to Fay''s voice at such a point-nk range.

    ''This girl really is dangerous,'' I thought when Fay squeezed me even tighter as if she wanted my entire body to learn every nook and cranny of her own shape.

    And then, somewhere on the border between lust-driven insanity and desire-lined protectiveness, I suddenly saw a sh of light...

    The world changed in an instant.

    No, it was the same as before. It was my perspective, my ability to perceive it that warped. As I opened my eyes, I could now see every biologically alive entity shrouded in an area where the air seemed to be thicker and slightly discolored.

    The world was filled with auras... but with Fay all over myp, it was her aura that I could see the best. And...

    ''Are you for real...?''

    If there was one thing I desperatelycked in my life, it was attention. A mere shadow of the affection I once enjoyed from my mother and the one desire I hoped to fulfill with my failed, fake rtionship with Cass.

    And now that I looked at Fay''s aura, even though I had no knowledge to exin how, I could sense just how much, how deeply she looked at me.

    No.

    Looked out for me.

    ''Is this girl for real?'' I thought, sensing something wet suddenly appearing in the corner of my eyes.

    "P-peter?" Fay whispered, taken aback by the changes on my face and in my aura.

    ''So that''s how it feels to have someone not rted to me by blood actually care for me,'' I thought, too overwhelmed by the sense of gratitude that exploded in my soul to care for how a beauty literally out of this world was straddling myp while focusing her entire attention on my eyes.

    "Thank you," I whispered, ignoring the strange sensation of the wetness spreading from my eyes to my cheeks, only for fat drops of sweat to fall down the edge of my chin.

    I didn''t really know where those two simple words came from. Was it my gratitude? Happiness that someone finally saw me as a person rather than a target for bullying? Or was it my gratitude for the sense offort Fay offered me with every fiber of her being.

    "..."

    This time, Fay didn''t call out my name. Instead, she moved her hands away from my neck... Only to press them against the sides of my head, locking it in ce.

    ''What?''

    Fay leaned over my face and opened her mouth. She pulled out her tongue before gently pressing its tip against the bottom of my face.

    The hot, slimy feeling of her tongue instantly sent another shiver up my spine as she dragged her tongue up, licking clean the path that my tear took down my face.

    ''Oh my...''

    Subjected to this unknown yet extremely pleasant sensation, I could feel my reason wane.

    With Fay''s face so close, I could only look directly into her focused and serious eyes, only managing to catch the slight blush on her cheeks at the very edge of my vision. And before I could as much as voice a single word, Fay leaned in again only to leave another track of her saliva as she dragged her tongue up my face.

    As Fay pulled her head back a bit, I realized just how heavily we were both breathing. Fay''s warm breath would strike my face every second or two, only adding it to how intimate this moment felt.

    ''Wait, isn''t she warming up?'' I suddenly realized when I took notice my hands somehow found their way to Fay''s waist. ''She is! Her body is on fire!''

    Thankfully, I overreacted a bit. Fay was surely warmer than thest time I held her body... but it wasn''t the point I should be seriously concerned about.

    ''Wait, doesn''t that mean she is going in heat?'' I suddenly realized the dangerous meaning potentially hidden in this pleasant moment... And with the image of the massive fox appearing before my eyes, I reached out and grabbed Fay by her shoulders before gently pushing her away.

    "We shouldn''t go any further," I muttered while averting my eyes, unable to look into Fay''s face.

    Was she disappointed? Was she relieved? Or maybe she was simply surprised? But what if she felt nothing about my actions at all, opting to simply move on?

    I was too much of a coward to find out, really.

    Thankfully, rather than pressuring me further, Fay obediently slid down from myp before turning around and sitting in the very same position we were in before. She then reached out and knocked her hair up with her hands, making it fall naturally on her back where I could easily ess it.

    Without a word, I picked up the dryer again and directed it towards Fay''s hair... Only to realize it was pretty much dry by now.

    ''That''s my chance,'' my excitement from earlier awoke as I sensed the opportunity to solve the one mystery that kept puzzling me to no end.

    Did Fay hide her fox-ears under that storm of her hair, or was I simply projecting my understanding of what a fox-girl was onto her?

    Whichever option was the truth, I was determined to find out. And after covering my hands in a special, extremely expensive cosmetic I bought at the grocery... I froze.

    "Now that your hair is dry, there''s just onest thing left for me to do," I spoke, trying to twist the situation to my advantage, where my slightly impure desires would turn into a noble cause of helping Fay out.

    At this point, I wasn''t at all surprised when Fay summed up my efforts with a small, short chuckle... only for her to fall to the back.

    With my hand covered in thick creme, I could only spread my arms out and lean forward, catching Fay''s body with my chest... Only to have her snuggle up to it before she found afortable spot and rested her entire weight on me.

    "Peter, go on," Fay requested with a self-satisfied smile blossoming on her lips. She then closed her eyes and rested the back of her head directly under my chin, as if to make it even easier for me to pet it to the full extent of my desire to do so.

    "Here I go, then," I muttered, my head filling with embarrassment and fear...

    That all vanished when I sank my creme-covered fingers into Fay''s soft, fluffy hair and reached the soft skin of the girl''s scalp.

 Chapter 30: Burgers and cuddles

    <h4>Chapter 30: Burgers and cuddles</h4>

    "Purrr... Purrr..."

    The slight trembling of Fay''s sleeping murmuring served as the perfect white noise to help me sleep. The vibration of her voice was just strong enough to transmit over to my body, making me feel as if it was just a cat happily sleeping in my embrace...

    But it was no cat. It was a fox-girl.

    This distinction was quite obvious to me. But not so much for Fay herself, given how she cuddled herself into a ball covered with her long, lush hair... and then snuggled up to my chest, causing her mouth to utter her purring directly into my chest, right at the height of my heart.

    ''I do recall hearing about cat''s purring being actually therapeutic,'' I thought, struggling to keep my thoughts clear with such an otherworldly beauty snuggled up to my chest.

    I peeled my eyes away from the lovely shape bulging below the thin cover of the sheets we were sharing. And with how risky it would be for me to look anywhere near the bed, I directed my eyes to the soothing uniformness of the concrete roof.

    ''It''s been all nice and fun, but I shouldn''t get too rxed,'' I thought before heaving a deep sigh.

    For now, I could easily entertain Fay with the money I got from the mob. But rather than a gift or simple exchange of goods, this money was actually an investment.

    And with how the local mob was the only barrier that currently shielded me from all those who bullied me in the past and would like to bully me in the future... I couldn''t take this rtionship lightly.

    ''I will have to find something they would be extremely interested in. Something they could make insane money from...''

    Just this thought alone was enough to create a picture of what exactly could fill these simple criteria.

    Something rtively small that could be sold for a lot of money, not because of the singr use of the item but due to what one could do with it by ramping up the scale of sales.

    And as much as I detested the thought, the answer to my question was simple.

    ''Am I going to find some funny herbs on the other side and bring them here?'' I thought, gritting my teeth at the mere thought of doing something like this. ''I guess I could try to sell them some more coins from the bag that Big Fox gave me... But how long would theyst me? And how long will it take before those mobsters start asking questions I can''t really answer?''

    As great of an idea as I initially believed this coin business to be... It was not sustainable in the long run. And once the coins I''ve got on my hand right now were to run out... How many more of them could I find in that forest?

    "Things would be a lot easier if I could find a human settlement in that world," I muttered to myself.

    If only I could trade with humans, the problem of shortage of coins would be solved. And with nearly free ess to the goods only a modern world could produce, I was sure I could easily obtain a small fortune just by selling random sundries.

    ''Still, can I actually find a human settlement? And what''s even more important, will I be able to bring Fay in there?''

    Diving deep into my thoughts, I failed to notice when Fay woke up. And by the time I did, she moved on from just cuddling up to my chest to actually holding her hands behind my throat as she pulled herself into a deep hug.

    "Peter, good morning," she muttered in a lovely, sleepy voice while rubbing her cheek against my own.

    "Good morning, Fay," I replied with a soft smile, already melting under the influence of Fay''s adorableness.

    Normally, that kind of interaction alone would be more than enough to fill me with happiness. But Fay clearly didn''t get her dose of teasing the shit out of me. And so, Fay slipped out from under the sheets, only to then stretch her body, giving me a show of how lovely her curves were. And as she rxed and sat down, I was subjected to the terror of her curious gaze.

    "Peter, worried. What about?" Fay asked while clearly making it her goal to give me a heart attack as she leaned her head over her shoulder and gave me a small, affectionate smile.

    "I''m trying to figure out how to... How to make things more fun for you," I replied after taking some time to figure out the best possible answer. And while I had a whole lot to say about the necessary steps to take to let Fay enjoy this world even more...

    This topic wasn''t something I wanted to tackle unprepared.

    ''She will need to learn how to act around other people without revealing too much about herself, especially with how she''s bound to attract a whole lot of attention the second she shows herself to the world.''

    This was the one thing that I was worried the most about when it came to Fay. That her beauty would attract attention would, in turn, lead to some people learning about some of Fay''s secrets.

    And that meant, if I wanted Fay to truly enjoy the modern world, I either had toe up with some believable story that would exin her antics... Or turn her into a modern person herself!

    "Fay''s ready!" she said with such an utmost doze of honest confidence, that I could onlyment on it with a smile.

    "Are you ready to spend hours upon hours studying how humans act and behave in this world?" I asked, already picturing the mountains of books I could throw at her, only to wait a short while before she would seek mypany to stave off her boredom.

    "Fay''s ready!" she replied in an instant. Her hesitation only cameter when she realized the potential weight of my words. Fay lowered her head and looked up, allowing me to realize just how powerful those upturned eyes of hers were. "Will... Will Peter groom Fay and feed Fay burgers?"

    I closed my eyes and, with a small, coping smile stuck in my mouth, I took a deep breath.

    I made some serious progress, given how I survived Fay''s surprise attack without clutching my hand at my chest.

    "I will feed you all the burgers you want," Iughed a little, unable to handle all the adorableness Fay was showering me with. Then, without giving it a second thought, I reached out and caressed her cheek. "And I will groom you as many times as you desire."

 Chapter 31: How many borgars is that?

    <h4>Chapter 31: How many borgars is that?</h4>

    Ting, ting, ting.

    The sound of the coin striking against the coin filled the ustrophobic insides of my living room.

    Ting, ting, ting.

    Only this metallic noise broke through the otherwise silent insides as I continued to sort the coins into different types and then stack them up in small towers.

    "Seven gold coins, twenty-three silver ones, seventeen bronze," I muttered once Ipleted the task and leaned back in the chair to adore my finished works.

    The coins that used to freely explore the insides of the pouch were now neatly stacked in a single row and one, three, and two columns for gold, silver, and bronze ones.

    "Are they worth a lot of burgers?" Fay asked, her soft voice bing a beacon that guided my thoughts back to reality.

    ''Right, her sense of value might be... warped a little,'' I thought, raising my eyes to the girl for a short moment before moving them down, back to the coins.

    First, I grabbed the stack of the seven gold ones and moved them aside.

    "Those are worth quite a lot," I imed before reaching for the only other item that I allowed to be on the desk during this procedure.

    The weight.

    I first turned it on before using one of the few coins I knew the precise weight off to make sure it was scaled properly. And then, with quite a dose of anxiety, I moved the small tower made from the thick gold ducats over to the weight.

    The numbers shot up, then slowed down but continued to climb...

    "Thirty-seven grams," I whispered while looking at the numbers that finally showed and then shed up on the scale''s screen to signify the weighing was nowpleted. "So, about five grams a piece? With a small margin of error of two grams between all of those... They are slightly heavier than I expected."

    The coins from another world were nothing like the coinage I was used to in the modern world. They were far from uniform, with chipped edges on some and minting mistakes on others. In the world they came from, that likely didn''t affect their value, but in here, where I could only sell them as raw gold...

    "One gram should be around a hundred bucks when sold legally. Taking into ount the fee the mob will take..." I took a moment to calcte the possibilities. "In total, those should us about two and a half grand."

    For someone like me, who used to live off pennies I managed to save here and there, this was one hell of a fortune. A treasure that would allow me to buy enough food tost a few months if not an entire year!

    But I could use this kind of logic no more. Not when I had another soul to feed by my side. And definitely not when I was trying to show her all sorts of pleasures that money could buy in this world.

    "Burgers!" Fay spoke out as if to remind me of the one truly important thing. "How many burgers is that?" she asked once she saw me turn my eyes towards her.

    "Those simple ones are one buck each, so..." Suddenly, I hesitated. And on the part that I never considered to be problematic at that!

    But how exactly was I supposed to exin the meaning of twenty-five hundred to Fay? How could someone who only ever needed to count stuff up to a few piecesprehend the meaning of a number that big?

    ''If I''m right, then she will be able to understand the true meaning of over two thousand as well as I, or any other average human, couldprehend the scale of the distance between stars and gxies out in space...''

    In theory, I could understand the meaning of lightyears and the mind-boggling distance they represented. But when it came to actually imagining that distance that one could fit several sr systems in with loads of space to spare...

    "If you stacked ten rows of ten burgers each... and then made a total of tenyers of it, you would get a bit less than half of what this money''s worth."

    In the end, referring back to what Fay could understand was my only shot at conveying the meaning of this huge number.

    "Ten rows of ten burgers..." Fay muttered before freezing for a second. Then, her eyes darted to the side, where a huge number of leftovers from yesterday awaited their fate in her lovely mouth.

    Fay didn''t ask any further questions. She dashed to where I dropped my bags yesterday, pulling out everyst burger she could find before stacking them into a neat, orderly row.

    Sadly, as much as I wanted to spoil her, I didn''t expect this kind of development, leaving Fay with only about fifteen burgers of all kinds to y with.

    Unable to focus on my task, I turned my eyes and watched how she created a single row of burgers... Only to then step away and lower her eyelids, as if she wasn''t really sure whether she wanted to keep her eyes open or closed.

    Then, as challenging as it was to look for such fine details, I saw her eyes move first to the side and then up.

    ''Don''t tell me she can actually extrapte the size into all three dimensions in just her imagination alone...'' I thought while my eyes turned wide.

    This wasn''t a feat someone without extensive education would be normally able to achieve with such ease. Even with education, this was an ability that only a few had, as proven by the extremeck of passing applicants for the local architecture course.

    "Okay, Fay gets it!" this darn foxy announced, turning round to sh her wide smile, as if to rub the difference between her species and the one I belonged to.

    "Good girl," I replied, putting on a slightly uneasy smile while reaching out to pat her head.

    This happened all perfectly naturally as if that''s how we had been around each other for years, rather than this being our only third day together.

    My fingers brushed through Fay''s soft, fluffy hair while I devoured the sight of a satisfied smile that blossomed on her lips as she closed her eyes and allowed herself to enjoy the caress.

    "That''s how many burgers we could buy with just those few gold coins alone," I repeated the very core of what I was actually doing with those coins. "I believe I will be able to sell the rest of those coins for about as much," I added, already equipped with the n on how to turn this rtively cheap silver and bronze into far more than those coins were worth just by the virtue of the materials they were made off.

    "Trouble?" Fay asked, only to furrow her burrows, as she herself realized the word she used didn''t really fit the situation. "No, not trouble..." Stuck on the problem, Fay retreated a step and lowered her eyes, focusing so much her thumb involuntarily moved up only for her to start biting down at its nail...

    ''Gosh...'' I rolled my eyes before turning them away, too scared of what would be of me if I was allowed to observe this adorable creature any further.

    "Fay could get a lot of burgers," she said, once again using a slightly more advanced form of speech than usual. "But Fay can''t. Fay... Is Fay right?"

    The girl looked up, staring at me with unusual intensity. Judging by the few drops of sweat that now decorated her forehead like drops of flowery rose, she forced me to realize just how big of an improvement using a nearly proper way of talking was for her.

    ''I already grew to ignore it... But she''s literally figuring out a whole damnnguage just by how it sounds...'' I thought, gritting my teeth, undeniably jealous of her talents.

    And out of this jealousy, a simple realization formed.

    Regardless of how attractive and damn adorable she was... how could someone like me ever be worthy of her? And what would happen once I did what I promised to achieve and turn her into a quasi-modern person? With the leverage of my knowledge and experience gone, would Fay have any reasons to stick with me?

    I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

    "You are right, Fay. We can''t spend this money on just burgers. Not only because there is a lot more great food that I want you to taste," I spoke with a small smile that quickly turned sour as my thoughts moved from what I wanted to what I actually had to do. "But we need to prepare for our return to your world. And that''s exactly what I wanted to talk with you about, today."

 Chapter 32: Someone鈥檚 stroking the strings of fate (double chapter)

    <h4>Chapter 32: Someone''s stroking the strings of fate (double chapter)</h4>

    ''Just keep on walking like usual,'' I told myself while casually strolling down the street.

    I was still well within the mob-controlled territory, but it was only a matter of time before I would reach the limits of their influence. But the goals of my outside mission for today all aligned only in the circumstances void of the gang''s protection.

    And it all came to be due to the talk I had with Fay directly before leaving her at the shed and moving out.

    "You already taught me how to read auras," I spoke back then, moving on from the topic of money and how many burgers it could buy to something I was equally as eager to tackle. "Could you then exin one thing? Auras, what exactly are those?"

    Fay''s ability to speak English was currently the only limitation on how much of her knowledge she could share with me. At least, that was the case all the way up until this point.

    First, she could simplyck the knowledge to answer my question. Secondly, she could have reasons not to divulge things that directly rted to the world she came from. Andstly, she might judge me as not worthy to learn the answers I wanted.

    In truth, there were many more possible reasons for Fay to refuse my question, answering it with silence or outright denial. It was a possibility I could only ept, given how I only offered some cheap luxury in exchange for this precious information.

    Contrary to my worries, though, Fay didn''t seem to mind talking about auras in the slightest. Quite the opposite, in fact, judging by how the lower parts of her hair suddenly started to move left and right, as if propelled by some sort of an invisible tail.

    "Auras are... Spirit!" Fay nearly shouted after taking a moment to think and putting on yet another version of her cute expression to show. "Fay''s aura is Fay''s spirit," she struck herself in the chest with her hand. "Peter''s aura is Peter''s spirit," she added, turning her hand around and using it to gently poke me in my chest.

    ''That doesn''t really...''

    "Fay''s aura strong!" Fay then eximed as an adorably smug smile flourished on her lips. "Fay''s aura stronger than Peter''s aura!" she added... while yfully stabbing me with her finger again and again.

    ''Okay, but what does that make aura to be?'' I asked in my question, somehow willing to give up after only those few questions.

    The limitations to Fay''s knowledge about thenguage... or maybe even her ability to describe this kind of thing in terms I could properly understand were stillcking.

    Or rather, her genius has yet to bridge the gap that I couldn''t even dream of fixing myself in less than a few years at the very damn least! It would be conceited to me Fay''s inability to use hermetic, technicalnguage to exin phenomena that didn''t exactly exist in the modern world and thus had no proper technical reflection in thenguage. After all, she only started to learn thenguage a mere three days ago!

    "Peter doesn''t understand..." Fay muttered, her enthusiasm giving way to the same, thoughtful expression I saw just before. "Peter''s weak," the poke of Fay''s finger now stung much less than her words. "Thus Peter''s aura is weak!"

    Fay then pushed her chest out and nearly stood up on her tiptoes, all just to make herself appear bigger while the mischievous smile returned to her lips.

    "Fay''s strong! Fay''s spirit super strong!" she eximed again, pping herself on the chest to put an emphasis on how strong she was. "So, Fay''s aura''s strong too!"

    ''Is one''s aura a generalized reflection of their strength?'' I attempted to forward a guess from the little I understood out of Fay''s exnation.

    Yet, a single nce over to the side and desire to see my system quickly proved this hypothesis wrong. The number simply didn''t add up!

    [Level: 2]

    [Strenght: 1.25]

    [Agility: 1.25]

    [Wisdom: 4]

    [Inteligence: 4.25]

    [Endurance: 4.5]

    [Aura: 3]

    [Usable points: 3]

    Even excluding the effects of the blessing of the celestial fox, I couldn''t figure out a single mathematic form that would bind either all six of the attributes or different groups of them together.

    The sum of my strength and agility was half of a whole point below the level of my aura, and I could still remembercking any aura back when I was still a mere level one.

    ''Maybe it''s something people use to track the growth of one''s level with?'' Another idea came to my mind, this time harder to find any way to deny it. After all, my aura did rise by one point after leveling up...

    But what would happen if I were to use my free points and raise it manually? And if that''s the case, why didn''t it work in reverse, back when I raised my other stats?

    Back at the shed, I could only shake my head before gently pushing the topic further, towards the names of the rest of my attributes. Regretfully, though, while happy to help out while we were on the topic of auras, as soon as I started to ask Fay around about the meaning of strength, agility, and the rest of my attributes... She didn''t seem to understand the very core of the question.

    After all, if I suddenly forgot the physical forms several years in school nailed into my brain, would I have any means to exin what strength is?

    Back at the shed, that was the limit of what I could ask around. And yet, even after I left the shed with a considerable portion of the investment money from the mob, I couldn''t help but keep throwing the mud of ideas at the wall of my analytic ability, hoping that by putting the pieces of this puzzle together at random I could make something stick.

    ''In the end, I know about as much as I knew before heading into this discussion,'' I thought, rolling my thoughts back to my earlier ideas. And ording to my observations, there were a few interesting points to my system.

    First, my attributes could be split into two, a ''physical'' and a ''mental'' category. And while I could somewhat guess the meaning of strength, agility, and endurance... I couldn''t really do the same with that damn wisdom and intelligence!

    ''I thought that by raising them by a fair bit I wouldn''t have to struggle with questions like that,'' I thought, slightly annoyed by how this gift from my long-missing father couldn''t be any clearer.

    Was it intentional that I now had to rack my brains like never before, or was it just an oopsie on the end of my father?

    With those thoughts in my head, I didn''t even realize it when I reached the border of the gang-controlled territory. And looking up... I couldn''t help but gulp my saliva.

    The city just a few steps ahead didn''t look all that different than the part of it I was leaving behind my back. It was different for sure, with roads being properly maintained, sidewalks regrly cleaned and the streets being generally far safer than the mob-infested area I came from.

    Besides that, though, one couldn''t really see any difference between one district at the other. The safety andfort of its residents were the one factor that put those two neighboring areas apart.

    Behind me was the world where the mob rule was absolute even if it didn''t grab everyone by their throats and choked them until they dedicated their entire lives to the mob. And In front of me was a part of the town where crime rarely happened under the scrutinous patrols of the police... and where people happily offered their souls to thepanies they worked just for a chance of getting another title and a few bucks more than their coworkers.

    Still, as I stood on the border, I couldn''t help but look up at all the beautiful houses and apartment buildings decorating the streets with their artistically-sensible fronts. Even though I could only cast a single nce, the stylish ss of those buildings gave birth to a small spark of jealousy... no, a spark of desire.

    The desire to reach the financial level of stability that would allow me to move to some ce like this and usher Fay in all the luxury andfort the real world had to offer!

    ''That''s it, only if I will be lucky enough for her to stick around with me for long enough to make this dreame true,'' I thought, my mood suddenly depreciating.

    But there was still one more aspect that split the part of the town behind me from the one ahead.

    Behind, I was safe, under the strict mob protection, free from the tentacles of my dear aunt''s influence. But after taking a step forward that I just did, I entered the ce where everyone was likely to be my enemy and her ally. Still, for how rich and influential my vicious aunt could be, I wasn''t delusional to believe she could have a whole damn city in her pocket! And with how many people lived in the area, it would take someone from above messing with the strings of fate, for me to meet even one of my active bullies out here!

    And that''s when I felt as if the air itself tensed up for a second, brought to a halt by a deity''s finger stroking said strings of fate and causing them to create an anomaly.

    An anomaly that took the form of my dearest, step-sister who just happened to be walking around the ce while linking arms with her ssic bad boy of a boyfriend. And to make matters worse, the same influence that I couldn''t help but believe was messing up with the probabilities of certain events now made that little bitch raise her eyes... and lock them on my face.

    ''For fuck''s sake...'' I thought when I saw a bright, vicious smile emerge on Natalye''s face as she turned and dove right towards me while pulling her boyfriend along.

    "Hey, look!" she shouted with all her might as if trying to root me in ce with just her voice alone. "It''s my loser of a stepbrother!" she added in a now slightly lower voice...

    But all those who could be bothered to get curious about the sudden shout could easily hear it. And seeing the familiar sparks of vile satisfaction appear in her eyes, even through all the distance that separated us, I could pretty much guess what she was doing all of that for.

    She simply wanted an audience for what was about to happen... Or rather, what would happen if I was still the same man as just a few days ago.

    ''I thought I would have to roam around the city for a few days before I would stumble into any of those guys,'' I thought, using everyst bit of my willpower to hold back a positively surprised smile from rooting itself in my expression. ''I guess I''m not that unlucky after all,'' I thought, just as Natalye'' raised her hand and waved in my direction.

    "Let''s go and say hi!" her shout reached my ears just as I shrugged my shoulders and continued to walk ahead.

    The first act of my mission for today was about to begin. And I had to do everything in my power not to reveal my hand too early!

 Chapter 33: Is he really that weak?

    <h4>Chapter 33: Is he really that weak?</h4>

    "It''s my loser of a step-brother!" Natalye announced with a voice loud enough everyone on the street could easily hear her. "Let''s go and say hi!"

    I slightly squinted my eyes, casually observing how this little devil rushed my way while dragging her boyfriend along.

    She wasn''t her aunt. Rather than intentionally making my life harder in the past, she simply adapted to the niche where she could do everything to me with little if any repercussions. Those years when I could not stand up to her made her into a little, spoiled brat who only had her rtive cuteness to thank for anyone putting up with her young-karen type of attitude.

    ''Interacting with her right now...'' I thought, pressing my lips together into a thin line as a myriad of thoughts shed through my mind.

    There were pros and cons to everything, regardless of whether I would just ignore her, talk with her, ore out of the street storming, lusting to sever her head, nail it on a spike, and decorate the doors of my shed with it. And as annoying as the result of my thinking could be, I had little to no choice but to go with the most optimal strategy.

    After all, I was not yet ready to face the full range of my dear aunt''s wrath.

    Natalye didn''t stop to think about her actions and their potential consequences. In her eyes, I wasn''t someone who could cause her to have trouble but a mere target for bullying.

    Someone she could literally piss at and fear no retaliation.

    As little as I cared about whatever that little devil would say, the boyfriend that she pulled along... For me from four days ago, he would be pretty damn scary. Clearly a frequent visitor to the gym and a frequent user of the bottle and water pipe.

    A mix of raw strength and addictions that wiped his brain clean made him into someone the past me wouldn''t dare to even look at.

    But I was no longer the same man that I was four days ago. And when those two closed in on me, all the sense and reason that made me formerly decide not to reveal my change...

    Now that they got close, all those smart ideas and thoughts vanished, reced by the sheer desire of my heart to bring some fucking justice to my unjust life.

    Natalye opened up her mouth, ready to berate me over something I couldn''t care less about... But for the first time since we got to know each other, I wasn''t going to just let her do whatever the heck she wanted.

    "Now that your mother openly stole what''s mine, I''m no longer inclined to keep ying that pretend game of yours," I spoke in a calm, cold voice while staring Natalye down from under my lowered eyelids.

    Natalye''s face twitched when I cut into what she considered her time to speak. She twitched again when the meaning of my words entered her head through one ear...

    And judging by theck of reaction on her face, it went out the other ear just as fast.

    "Did you hit your head or something, step-bro?" Natalye asked, outright ignoring my words while a vile smile of satisfaction appeared in her mouth.

    Even though she had yet to do anything that could be considered bullying, she was already enjoying the mere anticipation of doing so. "Who stole what?" she asked, her smile only growingrger. "How could anyone steal anything from you, when you owed nothing to begin with?"

    Contrary to my guess, she did hear what I said.

    ''I will have to disagree with that.''

    ''We will see.''

    ''You will see.''

    ''That''s some brave words for a little girl well within my pping range.''

    Those and many more potential responses shed up in my mind... Only to vanish into the depths of my brain, unvoiced.

    ''I know it''s tempting to bash her, but what''s the real point of doing so?'' I asked myself, approaching the moment as coldly and logically as I possibly could. ''What good woulde from showing here where her ce is? What else besides the simple satisfaction of telling her off?''

    I shook my head.

    ''Doing so would only cause me to reveal part of my cards. And until I''m ready to go biblical on them, I really should keep my hand hidden!''

    And so, I simply rolled my eyes... and moved along, paying no further mind to this noisy bitch.

    "Hey, wait!" Natalye quickly shouted, finally noticing that something was off when I simply ignored her and attempted to walk away. "I''m not done with you!" not used to any sort of opposition, she quickly turned angry.

    And like an obedient dog kept on a short leash, her boyfriend sprung into action, reaching out for my shoulder...

    ''Fuck it.''

    Something snapped in my mind.

    While I hoped to find some of my bullies to test out the extent of my newfound power, fucking around with anyone that Natalye was closely rted with would lead my dearest aunt to find out about my change.

    But at this moment, I couldn''t give less crap about my aunt.

    I was supposed to be better, so how could I allow those low-lives to do as little as touch me?

    "Hey buddy, you better listen to your..." the boyfriend spoke out even before his fingers reached my shoulders... And his words ended up cut short when I turned around and casually grabbed his arm right by its wrist.

    ''Welp, I''m going to fuck them up anyway, so I might as well start with this moron.''

    My mind freed itself from the chains of reason, logic, and tactical sense. Duking it out with this insignificant worm would bring me nothing but harm in the middle and long term, offering but empty satisfaction in the short term.

    But after years of letting others do as they wish, I had enough. And if I ever wanted to be better, I had to start treating myself as such.

    Without a word, I started to slowly but steadily turn my hand around, twisting the man''s wrist while holding his hand in an iron-like grasp.

    At first, he only made a funny face, as if baffled that someone as scrawny as me would dare to even touch his muscr arm. Soon, though, the look of mocker vanished from his eyes, reced by the first hints of fear that quickly turned into terror when his wrists started to give out noises no human parts should.

    Then, he screamed, right as I felt something snap in my hands while his hand twisted at an unnatural and clinically impossible angle.

    ''Huh?'' Surprised by the unexpected damage and the shout that followed, I failed to keep my strength properly restrained for but a second... And a single of using all my strength turned out to be enough to snap the man''s forearm into two like a twig.

    "AAAAARGH!" the young man uttered a blood-boiling scream when the snapping sound that came from his own, now shattered, bone made him realize the unexpected truth and forced him to ept what just happened.

    I let go of that poor man''s hand before I could do any further damage. Having him scream out after reaching out for me could still be exined as self-defense. But what would I do if I ended up pulling his entire damned arm out of his shoulder?!

    ''Still, is he really that weak?'' I thought, ignoring the pained cries of the man and the panicked look on my dear, little step-sister''s face. In the end, though, I simply shrugged my shoulder, turned around, and left, escaping from the scene before the pained cries would attract too much of the crowd''s attention. ''Is he really that weak, or am I actually pretty damn strong?''

 Chapter 34: It鈥檚 better this way

    <h4>Chapter 34: It''s better this way</h4>

    I escaped the scene that I''d caused myself without even a single shred of remorse about leaving a man with a broken hand to his own devices.

    There was no point for me in sticking around. Not when the crowd, attracted by my little step-sister boyfriend''s cries, started to grow as more and more onlookers came to check the noise out.

    ''And what did you do that for?'' I asked myself as I hurried towards the nearest corner.

    First, I had to break everyone''s line of sight in the off-chance some white knight would bother trying to follow me.

    ''It felt good, for sure, but beyond that... I aplished nothing....'' I hesitated for a second, even though I was fully aware of the truth.

    No.

    I aplished nothing with this little show of force, a show of change to my character. For the sake of feeling good about myself for a few seconds, I gave out a warning to my dear auntie that things would change.

    "Well, what''s done is done," I muttered before hurrying my steps and randomly turning left and right every few streets before finally reaching the area I could recognize. From there, only a short walk separated me from the main object of my today''s mission.

    The first part of finding out a bit more about the value of my physical attributes waspleted. Now, I had to hurry up and spend close to half of all the money the mob invested in me. About twice as much as I could gain from selling off all the gold coins I currently had.

    ''Still, the question stands,'' I thought once I distanced myself from themotion far enough not to worry about any pursuers. ''Am I really all that strong... or was he just that weak?''

    The answer to this question would pretty much determine the value of my strength. Because, for as far as I knew, actually breaking someone''s hand, especially from just a still hold that I had his wrist in... Wasn''t a feat that an average Joe could aplish!

    ''It feels unreal, but I need to start considering the possibility that I might be actually freaking strong.''

    For a second, I could sense a tinge of regret. If raising my strength by just a single point already made me pretty damn strong, then didn''t all the investment towards my wisdom and intelligence suddenly a silly waste?

    ''Well, there''s nothing I can do about that either,'' I quickly concluded, opting to drop the pointless topic and focus on the task at hand instead.

    And right on time, as my short stroll was about toe to its end, with the final line marking the entrance to a small, local shopping mall. It was a far cry from the magnificent buildings rich in many types of shops that one could see in the city''s center.

    No, this was just a small, local unit, housing just the most critical shops that one could need in the areas further down from the areas where the business was actively thriving.

    ''Still, it''s nice to feel strong,'' I thought as I made my way inside the warehouse-like building, where only the interior truly revealed the purpose of the structure.

    Blight and splendor were reserved for the city centers. In this particr mall, efficiency was the key to staying afloat in the world''s slowly decaying economy.

    "First, the electric shop," I muttered to myself as I grabbed one of the big, bulk-shopping trolleys before setting off on the journey through the various points.

    As mentioned, my travels began at the sovereignty of all that''s electric, where I hustled away nearly half of all the cash I brought for just two small boxes and then one on the slightlyrger side.

    "The sim cards are inside the boxes already?" I asked while raising my eyes from the two phones and aptop I purchased.

    "Yeah. There''s enough data charged up on those for you to fill the form online and activate the card directly from your new phone, sir," the shop''s clerk, a man early into his thirties, smiled as he exined in a voice that revealed just how bored he was.

    I looked over my shoulder... Only to see a mere few customers walk down the main alley of the mall. If not for the rtively modern interior of the ce and theck of rolling tumbleweeds, I could pretty much feel like standing in the middle of some deserted warehouse in a Western type of setting.

    ''No wonder he''s bored.'' Thankfully, I could only imagine how it felt to have boredom for the greatest struggle in your job. In all the part-times I worked so far, there was hardly any time to spit on the ground, making toilet breaks a rare privilege for a selected few!

    There was one simple reason why I decided to buy two, brand new phones that came with prepaid sim cards with them. While I felt pretty safe myself out in the town, I just couldn''t help but worry about Fay. And even if she, as a child of a celestial fox, was strong enough to protect herself from robbers or other threats...

    What if she felt lonely? Or if she got hungry? Or suddenly found herself scared by a passing lighting and...

    No. I couldn''t allow any of the above to happen, even if they solely belonged to the domain of my imagination. And the easiest solution to this issue was to buy two phones. One for Fay and one for me, as I had no wish to keep supplying my dearest aunt with information by using the phone I was pretty sure she tampered with.

    As for theptop, I bought it for two reasons.

    First, this piece of old tech was cheap, costing a mere fifth of the bill''s total that I left in the custody of the shop''s clerk as I ced the boxes on my trolley, and secured them with a simple lock before pushing my cart out, towards my next destination.

    I bought a few pieces of simple man''s wear at a rtively cheap store, changing from the overused rags I had on myself to simple yet fresh clothes straight from the shop. Then, once I looked presentable enough after a visit to a barber to get my hair cut, I moved on to the most effort-consuming part of the task.

    This next part of my quest concluded roughly two hourster, when I pushed out the trolley stacked with all sorts of bulk boxes of food, drinks, tools, and other supplies I found interesting. A kilogram of dried peppers here, a five-kilo bag of salt there...

    With those supplies, I could go camping for an entire month straight, while slowly turning my camp into a seed of a new civilization... Or a great selection of items for trade! And as much as I wanted to find out from Fay before leaving about what could be useful and what would be just a weight for me to carry... I didn''t really learn from her much.

    Done with my heavy lifting and then shopping, I passed over all my purchases to one of the delivery drivers stationed at the mall. And after parting ways with a hundred bucks bill as I stuffed them into the delivery man''s pocket, I could finally turn towards the most challenging and probably quite expensive part of my shopping quest.

    ''I never thought I would step into a ce like this,'' I thought while I carried on and entered a huge shop with all sorts of female clothes. Only when inside I have truly understood the magnitude of the ce.

    Despite appearing quite small from the outside, this shop somehow housed not only all sorts of casual and even formal wear for the women, but it also had a section for off-season clothes and, surprise surprise, a few rows of cosy suits, essories, and DIY sets!

    What I failed to consider as I entered the premises, though, was how every quest was likely to end up with a boss fight. And when two, roughly twenty-year-old clerks set their sights on me, I learned what it felt like to be reduced to nothing but prey.

    ''Praise the lord, for he is merciful,'' I silently prayed roughly four hourster as I left the shop with nearly all of my money gone and my hands stuffed with all sorts of items.

    After leaving the store, I dared to look over my shoulder only once.

    My hands were weighed down by everything. From casual underwear, through shorts, sweatpants, sweaters, shirts on elegant skirts, jackets, and even some cosy outfits was now neatly stuffed into the bags hanging down my hands.

    ''They must be CIA assets,'' I thought, gulping my saliva down when the two clerks waved at me with satisfied smiles on their faces.

    Before I even realized it, they started their interrogation, pulling out more information about Fay that I was ever willing to share with anyone, even my mother if she were to suddenly stand up from the dead and appear before me. And by using what they learned to their greatest advantage... They urately cleaned up my wallet from nearly everyst cent, leaving me with just barely enough to get a taxi home.

    ''Damn freaks,'' I thought, as a tear fell down my cheek. In a sense, I felt vited. Assaulted, used, and then thrown away once my bullies no longer had any fun from tormenting me. All of that happened with neither of the clerks dropping their professional yet excited smiles of two young women who found a young man trying to buy all sorts of clothes for his girlfriend.

    ''Well, that was tiring,'' I thought when I finally sat down in the taxi and closed my eyes, I breathed out a long sigh. The slight shaking of the car as we rode away from the mall and towards the gang-controlled area somehow calmed me down, putting my thoughts on a weird track.

    ''The least I can do right now is to show her the wonders of this world through the inte,'' I thought, moving with my thoughts to the packages that awaited my arrival in the backyard of my shed by now. There, a cheap but newptop awaited its firstunch that would mark the start of its career as a tool for Fey to learn more about Earth in the most convenient fashion I could imagine.

    ''It was a chance, random miracle that allowed the two of us to meet. And I should be really grateful that she tolerates me,'' I thought.

    And how else was I supposed to feel? Now that I distanced myself from Fay and got some time to think, how could I not realize the fact that all I did for Fay so far... was feed her some canned meat and then some burgers. And over something as silly, she was willing to bear all sorts of risque situations we found ourselves in so far?

    I silently shook my head, my thoughts finally falling into order and under the scrutiny of logic and reason.

    ''Let''s not get conceited. She''s not interested in me but in this world. I''m just a mean for her to experience it.''

    "Be better"

    I could swear I just heard my mother''s voice.

    Be better than those who would use this opportunity and Fay''s cluelessness to their advantage, too overtaken by their own desires to be actually considerate.

    I took another breath before opening my eyes. After a quick scan of my surroundings, we were about to reach the destination I set in the app on my new phone.

    "That will be forty-two bucks, young man."

    Too busy with my thoughts to care for little things, I simply stuffed a hundred bill into the fareman''s hand before grabbing my bags and getting out.

    ''It''s better that way. Both for my safety...'' An image of the bus-sized celestial fox shed in my thoughts. "And my sanity for when the time wille for us to part ways."

 Chapter 35: The mob does not control all the crime in its territory

    <h4>Chapter 35: The mob does not control all the crime in its territory</h4>

    I set my destination to some distance away from my shed.

    Contrary to some random delivery guy stuffing a backyard with parcels, if I were to drive a cab all the way to my shed, someone was bound to pay attention to it. Obviously, parading around with a whole lot of bags wasn''t the smartest thing to do either, but there were two saving graces that made it a better choice.

    First, having someone see me with bags from an expensive clothing store in one hand and bags from a well-known restaurant in the other... A report like that would be too ridiculous for my aunt to believe.

    Secondly, by parading around with my bags like that through those not-really-safe streets, I was simply inviting trouble. Before long, this trouble manifested in the form of a group of three young men walking out of a nearby alley and crossing my path.

    ''They have weapons,'' I thought, easily noticing both the bulges in the shape of the guns on the men''s clothes and the small knife one of them hid in his palm.

    "This isn''t going to be your best day, buddy," the knife-bearing goon spoke out as he stepped ahead of the group and revealed the knife in his hand. "Drop all those bags, your wallet, and your phone and you might get away with just a beating!"

    ''Just a beating? Even if I surrender all my valuables?'' I thought, torn between chuckling and actually covering in fear.

    I managed to not show it on my face, but the presence of the guns... Well, this part of the scientific development of this world could be called a great equalizer. Because once shot, I struggled to believe my high endurance could save me from my fate.

    But there was one, very particr reason for why I actually wanted this situation to happen. And it all boiled down to the message that important mobster from before left me with.

    ''Since I need to earn my right to contact him again, I need to find someone else to liaison with.''

    "You guys with the group?" I asked in a calm, collected voice while looking at them with an empty if not slightly mocking expression.

    I couldn''t show even a hint of fear now. They couldn''t see me as a prey.

    And from the looks they gave each other in response to my words, I wasn''t all that unlucky today. There was no way that a single gang controlled everyst criminal in their area, after all.

    In all honesty, I was lucky. Luckily I didn''t need to test just how useful my increased stats would be in a fight against a firearm. What would I do if the heat of the fight the food ended up spilling all over while the clothes got all wrinkled?

    "I''ve had a long, very long day," I muttered in a cold, exhausted voice. "Getting all this stuff and then hauling my ass here with it..." I shook my head while putting an exasperated look on my face. Then, I slowly raised my eyes on the trio of the goons.

    "Don''t make it any worse."

    I uttered one word after the other, as slowly as if I wanted to let every single letter sound out properly.

    The goons looked at each other. And after a moment of hesitation...

    "Hey, one more thing," I called after them right as they were about to turn around and leave.

    "What?" the knife-bearing man looked at me and barked.

    "I''m to contact the captain responsible for this zone," I spoke out, making up orders from above as I went. "Where do I find him?"

    This time, the hesitation on the goons'' face grew even more profound.

    ''It makes them look as if they were about to develop intelligence and advance as a species,'' I thought, having little to no respect for criminals like them.

    "He usually sits around at Makary''s," the goon spoke out, his face rxing as the reality of the situation finally clicked in. His hostility properly vanished as he hid his knife back in his pocket. "Ask for Mark and you will find him."

    With that, the goons finally turned around and left, opening a path for me to make thest few steps and reach my shed''s doorway. I raised my hand... and then hesitated for a second.

    I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, killing all the leftover emotions from the encounter. Even though nothing happened, facing off against people sporting guns... Even with my increased endurance, aura, and other stats, it was a pretty damn unnerving experience!

    ''I guess that''s one thing off my bucket list,'' I thought, before bringing my hand down and knocking in the arranged fashion. Then, as I pushed the doors open...

    "I felt your aura shake," Fay announced in a cold voice.

    She stood right by the doors, her eyes already sweeping the area outside. Spotting no threat, she turned to face me and asked, "What happened?"

    ''That''s a new side of hers I didn''t see before.''

    I gulped my saliva down, my thoughts racing to decide whether I should speak about the event from just before or...

    "Nothing much, really," I waved my hand, opting to just bury the topic and move on.

    There was no point for me to include Fay in the precise details of how I was obtaining money. It was myck of ability to do it any other way that led to this situation. As such, I had no right to burden her with what came out of my decisions.

    Fay didn''t take my words kindly. She cast a cold, focused look all over me while I made sure to hurriedly close the doors before anyone outside could chance a nce at Fay.

    Her beauty, as much as I enjoyed it, would put her at an unnecessary risk if noticed by the residents of this unpleasant district.

    "Trust me, nothing big happened," I nailed down my point while dropping all the bags that I managed to haul on my own to the floor. "Here," I spoke while pulling out one of the two phones that I''d bought and already registered while still back at the mall. "This is a magical device that will allow us to stay in touch, regardless of where we are, as long as it''s in this world."

    How was I supposed to exin the idea of phones to Fay who never really had any contact with proper technology? Was there any point in diving deep into the physical rules that allowed people to mastermunication through thin air?

    No, there was no point. So, rather than trying to cram several years'' worth of knowledge into Fay''s pretty head, I opted to go with an exnation that achieved the same purpose without needlessly confusing my pretty fox-girl.

    As soon as Fay epted the phone and moved her gaze from my face to the strange, small device, I moved on to unpack the only bag I kept on me at all times, even though it was one of the very first things I bought.

    "This here is a device that can tap into nearly all of the knowledge and information this world has to offer," I spoke as I brought out the simpleptop and left it on the bed. "It will take you only a moment to learn how to use it, but let''s leave it for just a bitter."

    Seeing Fay''s eyes move over to the next product and slowly start to regain their usual excitement and anticipation, I couldn''t help but breathe out in relief.

    ''Is this what a man feels returningte at night only to have their wife wait for them in the doorway with a clock in her hand?'' I thought, trying my utmost to give this situation a spin as far removed from seriousness as I could.

    Fay only cast a short, fleeting nce at the portableputer. She appeared to have little to no interest in it, even with how much I promoted it in my short introduction.

    ''Maybe it''s because she doesn''t understand how it works?'' I thought, only to shake my head and put this thought to the back of my mind.

    After all, I still had things that I could tell for sure Fay would be extremely interested in.

    "Andstly, those are..." I smiled as I raised the bags I dropped to the floor just a moment ago. "Tasty treats for your heart," I announced while raising the bags with all sorts of foods and confectionaries, "and to your soul," I added while moving forth the bags with the clothes.

    ''And now,'' I couldn''t help but smile when the usual shine fully returned to Fay''s beautiful eyes. ''Which one will she start with?''

 Chapter 36: Food and cute clothes to regain Fay鈥檚 favor

    <h4>Chapter 36: Food and cute clothes to regain Fay''s favor</h4>

    The gifts that I brought turned from my means of putting a smile on Fay''s lips to a tool for distracting her from what she felt before.

    Her grimace persisted while I presented her with the phone and then theptop. It continued to linger even when I brought forth the food and clothes!

    But as the smell of all sorts of food and confectionaries that I bought started to spread and assault Fay''s nose... It took only a few seconds for the grimace of dissatisfaction to vanish, reced with intense craving and curiosity.

    Sniff, sniff.

    Fay started to prickle her nose as she turned her head towards the bags filled with food.

    "I guess we have the winner," Iughed, dropping the clothes back to the floor and bringing the bags with the food out instead. Soon, rather than being under the scrutiny of Fay''s dissatisfied eyes, I could enjoy the sight of her face changing whenever she would open another bag to get just a few bites of the dish before moving on to the next.

    That''s right.

    Fay learned her lesson and contrary to how she acted when I brought several bags worth of burgers and other fast food items, she only ever gave each of the dishes a small test. And thanks to this change, she managed to go through all twenty different dishes before picking up the few that she liked the most and starting her feast.

    "It''s delicious! Fay''s super happy!" she muttered some off-handedments while stuffing her face, making me instantly regret not recording the few times when she would try a food that wasn''t to her liking which instantly showed up on her suddenly tensing-up face.

    ''She is learning at a rate that would put many university students to shame,'' I thought, taking a step back to get a better look at her happy face as she continued to enjoy her meals. ''I wonder if she were to get herself drunk, then swear never to drink again in the day before... would she actually keep that word?''

    I shook my head, not allowing my rxed thoughts to spread and bring my arm guard down. Doing so with Fay around would be the shortest way for me to do something I really shouldn''t. And as great as it felt to be around her, I couldn''t grow toofortable with this situation.

    ''Knowing her, just one random moment, an idental tease is all that keeps me from pouncing on her,'' I thought, taking in a deep breath before shaking my head and heading for the doors. "I''m going to bring the rest of the stuff, so make sure you won''t be visible from the doorway!"

    Fay was too damn busy eating to give me a proper response, limiting herself to just vigorously shaking her head. And so, I started the most annoying part of my today''s mission which consisted of doing nothing but hauling huge and weighty boxes from the small spot behind the shed to the few spots inside I didn''t mind getting cramped.

    Soon, I brought over thest of the packages, finally free to start sorting them out, in preparation for when we would return to Fay''s world. And after taking stock of everything that I bought and actually taking a look at all that I''ve gathered... I had no other choice but to admit that I''d most likely over-prepared.

    I brought several boxes worth of canned food, five pieces of vacuum-sealed bricks of high-quality meat, tools ranging from sturdy axes and mallets to a pneumatic rifle, and what had to be a lifetime supply of both the gas and the pneumatic munition for it...

    ''I kinda wanted to get a real gun. It''s a pity they were too expensive,'' I thought, giving the rifle a conflicted look before rolling my eyes and moving on.

    There was way too much stuff for me to bring over all at once... Even assuming that all the things I''d prepared as gifts for that massive, celestial fox would be gone right away, there was still roughly twice if not thrice as much preserved food, water, and tools that I could bring over in any realistic scenario.

    "That''s why they always tell me not to go shopping when you are hungry," I muttered under my nose, standing helplessly over the pile of supplies, not exactly sure what I was supposed to do with them now. Yet, just right as I could sense some idea appearing at the edge of my consciousness... a suspicious, rustling sound alerted me and caused me to throw a quick nce over my shoulder.

    And Fay, already done with her meals, was happily moving on to testing out her new clothes.

    Paying no mind to my presence as if she still didn''t understand just how much of an effect her naked skin had on me, she took off all of her clothes before joyfully changing into the new ones I bought.

    ''Shit,'' I cursed, turning my eyes away and pretending I saw nothing, too busy counting supplies to pay her any mind.

    ''She''s not trying to provoke me. She''s simply that innocent. I''m not going to be a freaking pervert that taints her innocence with my lust,'' I thought while gritting my teeth and trying to ignore the tempting sounds of Fay''s new clothes rubbing against her naked skin.

    ''We are going back to her world soon. I only need tost for a little longer!'' I tried to use logic to keep my senses and desires in check... With as little effect as one could expect from a man in his best years like me.

    My desire to take a look over my shoulder and steal a nce at changing Fay was powerful... but my fear of her parent and desire to be a proper man, better than all those damn perverts who would jump on the opportunity... They prevailed, saving me from the disgrace of having Fay notice my lustful if not outright hungry stares.

    Soon, the sounds ceased toe, indicating that for better or worse, Fay was done changing... Or maybe just realized that I kept standing in ce, refusing to move even an inch.

    "Are you done?" I asked, taking my chances and slowly turning around, ready to turn my eyes away on the moment''s notice... Only for Fay to finallye into my sights. And for my entire body, mind, and soul alike to freeze.

    ''Woah.''

    A single thought filled my mind. A simple, straightforward feeling of awe and fulfillment.

    I''ve bought a lot of different clothes for her. From casual andfortable wear to more official and elegant dresses, all the way to bikini swimsuits and underwear. Andstly, there was this one suit that the shop''s clerks practically forced upon me... while in fact, somehow figuring out my deepest desires and fetishes.

    And Fay either simply lucked out, liked the rtively simple design... or could somehow tell in which clothes I wanted to see her the most. So, I turned around, ready topliment her on her looks...

    Only to stand in ce, shocked to my core, when a beauty straight out of a damn anime stood just a small distance away, sporting nothing but a short-sleeved, white, and blue kimono that ended just above her knees.

 Chapter 37: Fay wants to groom Peter too!

    <h4>Chapter 37: Fay wants to groom Peter too!</h4>

    I stood, rooted in ce, unable to take a step, speak a word, or even blink.

    With Fay d in the elegant and decorative material of the kimono, I suddenly found a new love for things that came from Japan.

    ''Now that I think about it, it''s not even a kimono but something closer to... Haori?'' I thought, racking my brains for the proper name of this Japanese clothing type.

    ''Or it''s just a cloth made with the idea of taking something cute from Japan and making it sexy enough to work on a Western market,'' I thought when I realized that it was the most likely scenario.

    Yet, this realization came at a cost of several seconds worth of staring wide-eyed at Fay. And by doing so, I couldn''t help but notice that all the tens if not hundreds of small dings that decorated the cloth... were actually the only elements that kept the outfit together.

    Or, in other words, as long as I grabbed at the set of several small belts and just pulled... Fay''s new costume would simply fall apart, sliding down her arms as if nothing would hold it together anymore.

    ''I guess that''s why those two were so keen to have me buy this...'' I thought, finally realizing the devious genius of those two clerks who interrogated me with some CIA magic tricks back at the shop.

    "How''s Fay..." Fay spoke softly, her voice barely loud enough for me to hear it. "How do I look?" she then asked again, this time in a proper form, forcing me to recall her reaction from when I entered... Also consisted of anguage of a higher level that I''ve heard her use before.

    Even with Fay asking, I still struggled to even regain my breath, too shocked and charmed to utter a single word. And as this poor girl stood in silence, her cheeks grew redder and redder while her eyes were starting to get moist...

    ''Shit!''

    Before I could think about what I was doing, I took three steps forward and reached out, grabbing Fay by her waist and pushing her against the wall, just one step further in the direction of my charge. I didn''t stop walking all the way until my body pressed again Fay''s, pinning her between my chest and the cold, concrete wall.

    My fingers sank into the soft fabric of the outfit and then into the delicate skin of Fay''s waist as I heavily breathed right over her head.

    "You are..." I attempted to get some words out, using my changed position to look above Fay''s head and thus avoid her charm, even if only for a bit.

    I shook my head and took another deep breath.

    "I know of no words in mynguage that could urately describe how adorable, cute, and sexy you are," I finally managed to speak out, allowing my voice to betray my inner thoughts.

    Even though in my position I couldn''t see Fay''s face, I could somehow tell that her blush grew only stronger... While my fingerstched onto her waist even tighter as I fought off an immense desire to just shove her onto the bed, tear the wraps that held her outfit together off, and then savor the taste of her beauty.

    This desire of mine only grew stronger when I suddenly realized I was breathing in Fay''s scent, pressing myself against her and holding her against the wall, with no way for the girl to escape.

    ''Shit, I''m going to lose my mind for real at this rate!'' A desperate call of my reason broke through the sea of lust in my mind, allowing me to momentarily take the reins of my body and take a step back.

    Freed from thefort of intimate closeness to the girl, I could once again think straight... Or rather, I could think straight for the extremely short moment before I once again saw Fay violently blushing and looking down with a strangely happy smile all over her sweet lips.

    "You know..." Still embarrassed all over, Fay spoke out while raising her eyes up while at the same time lowering her head just a bit more... And giving me one hell of an adorable look of her upturned eyes. And with the storm of her perfectly white hair dancing all around her head, she appeared like some sort of a goddess, a divine deity that no human was worthy to gaze upon.

    Fay gulped her saliva down and lowered her eyes, unable to voice her thoughts while looking at my face.

    "You know, Peter groomed Fay, even though Fay did nothing," she spoke with her lovable, soft voice that was like a massage to my soul and an orgasm for my ears. A voice so soothing I could feel all my worries and anxieties evaporating under the power of innocence in it.

    Fay''s expression intensified along with her blush before she braved her own anxiety and embarrassment to raise her eyes to my face again. Yet, even though she wore her heart on a sleeve and I usually could read her expressions with ease... Right now, there were simply too many conflicting emotions in her eyes for me to figure out what was going on through that cute head of hers.

    "Fay can''t do much," she spoke, lowering her head and grasping her hands into fists. "But Fay wants to, at least, groom Peter too!"

    Once again, my breath was taken away from me. Fay managed to put me in a stunned state yet again, and just with a few words at that.

    The desire to pin her down on the bed and ravage her body ignited in my loins again. Only with the utmost effort of my will have I managed to keep still instead of pouncing on her right away.

    I had to get away. Get away as fast as I could, before this damned foxy, born temptress, would erode thest bit of my self-control.

    "I will go fetch the water, then," I spoke, jumping on the opportunity to turn around and leave for the bath.

    Did she want to groom me? After thest time, I could safely assume it meant washing my hair, something I was still considered myself capable of enduring.

    In the end, a grooming session sounded a lot more reasonable than being forced to watch her skedaddle around in this damn revealing outfit, constantly tempting me with the short peeks at her thighs!

    Yet, by the time I got to the bathroom and positioned the basin in the one ce where the water fountain that my ripped shower battery turned to would spit the water out, I realized something pretty damn important.

    ''She looked like she wanted to say something, something that she would struggle to say out loud,'' I thought, recalling the kind of face Fay made when I turned around and left for the bath.

    Thankfully, even after all this tempting, by the time I returned to the room while dragging the water-filled basin along, Fay''s expression turned back to normal while she tapped at the bed, indicating she wanted me to get in the exact same position she was in when I washed her hair.

    "Since you want to pay me back, I have no other choice but to take you up on your offer," I spoke, lying down on my back with my head right by the edge of the bed.

    And just like that, without another word appearing between the two of us, Fay started this reverse grooming session. Soon, her delicate fingers started to rub some sort of shampoo into the scalp of my head with a gentle, rubbing motion. Then, she lightly brushed my hair and she proceeded to wash it with the warm water I brought.

    Bit by bit, my body rxed, powerless against the gentle, affectionate even, caressing. And before I could even realize it, I pretty much started to doze off, too rxed by the grooming to stay awake...

    Only for my mind to scream out in rm when a strangelyfortable, warm weight pinned my hips down to the bed.

    Forced awake, I opened my eyes... Only to see Fay mounting my hips while leaning forward directly over my face.

    "What are you..."

    "Fay only washed Peter''s hair!" she protested with a look of dejection mixing with excitement on her face. And then, with a sh of a mischievous smile, she leaned even further down only to put the tip of her tongue at the bottom of my chin and then drag her mouth up, leaving a slimy trail of her saliva going from my chin, across my lips, up the bridge of my nose and ending with a short, gentle kiss that Fay left right in the middle of my forehead.

    Unable to speak a word, I simply watched in shocked silence as Fay pulled herself back and graced me with a lovely and strangely intense smile.

    "Fay''s grooming begins now!"

 Chapter 38: Fay鈥檚 grooming (r18/READ THE AUTHOR NOTES)

    <h4>Chapter 38: Fay''s grooming (r18/READ THE AUTHOR NOTES)</h4>

    //Author''s warning regarding the doubts/worries I''m starting to see in thements: Go and check out the author''s notes cuz I don''t want to spam it here. It''s a message on the longer side but should dispel most of your worries//

    Iid down on the bed, pinned down to the coarse sheets by the strange hypocrisy of this reality. Because what else if not physical hypocrisy was the fact that I found Fay''s weight to pin me down with an unstoppable and unbreakable force... while at the same time still considering it to be extremely soft, as if a warm cloud sat descended to cover my hips?

    ''Wait, what the hell is...''

    Fay didn''t give me a single chance, a lone opening to gather my thoughts.

    "Fay''s grooming only begins!" she announced with something sparking in her eyes, only to bring her devastating mouth and glib tongue down to my face again.

    ''Right, don''t we call it grooming when animals lick their fur clean?'' I realized just a little bit toote. Or maybe this was my desperate attempt to figure out what the hell was going on and thus give me something for my thoughts to focus on?

    Well, whatever was the case, when Fay puffed her chest up and slightly bent her spine to the back to settle the bulges of her chest right below my chin, only to lean her head down and reach out with her tongue for my lips while her hands cradled the sides of my head...

    I was stuck.

    Stuck between the softness of her chest, forced to feel the difference between where her Haori still kept her skin protected... and where its cloth already moved out of the way, directly exposing her neck to the softness of her bosom. Stuck with her hands that danced all around my ears, tapping, massaging and gently pulling on my ear. Stuck under the soft yet wet strokes of the tip of her tongue that she marked my face with.

    ''Exhale, man, exhale!'' An rmed voice exploded in my mind when I felt a sudden tightness in my chest, only now realizing that I went through all of this on a batted breath.

    "Haaaa...." Unable to hold my breath any further, I quickly exhaled.

    Fay twitched, and pulled her lips off my face as she moved her head back a little...

    "Fuuuu..." and softly blew her own breath directly into my nostrils.

    ''Oh, shit...''

    The world around me wavered. I lost all my strength, causing my neck to fail at supporting my head and thus sending it falling into the pillow while my eyes rolled up.

    But Fay didn''t cease her attacks. Instead, she climbed up my body a little, reaching out with her sweet, full lips for my neck. There, she first rubbed her cheek against the bulge of my vein. And right when I felt the momentum of the situation carrying her to move on... She remained snuggled up to my neck as if finding it extremelyfortable...

    And giving me the time to realize that it wasn''t only my head that was the subject of Fay''s grooming.

    Her bare thighs her Haori was never meant to cover were tightly pressed to the sides of my hips, helping her to keep me rooted in ce. But now that I thought about it... in order to straddle me like that... wasn''t she spreading herself open a fair bit?

    And the moment this realization came, I finally realized what was this weird, hypocritical feeling that I felt slowly spread up my spine from the most sensitive area of my flesh after my eyes.

    It was another anomaly, a different snicker of the world, where whatever my boner was pressing against managed to easily keep it in ce no matter how much it wanted to stand at attention... While at the same time keeping this resistance strangely soft, warm... and inviting?

    ''This can''t be hers...''

    Sobered up by the grave realization, I wrestled control over my body from my instincts and looked up...

    Only to see Fay look down, straight into my face, with sparks of some distant, primal hunger dancing in her eyes.

    Her body was hot, hotter than I remember from when I hugged her to sleep back in the other world. Hotter than in the few moments I got to touch her bare skin before.

    Her face was filled with desperate longing, excitement, and even affection.

    Her body, the way it clung to me, the way she rubbed herself all over me, made it obvious how much she desired me.

    ''Is she in heat now?'' I thought, my heart threatening to stop.

    Because I was better than throwing away my entire future just to make use of this opportunity and get the achievement of wetting my dick the way my biology intended.

    Fay''s entire body indicated just how much she was lusting after me at this precise moment. Even a dunce like me could easily notice it. And what would refusing Fay when she got so desperate to go to all these lengths be if not cowardice?

    Or so that would be the case, if not for her eyes.

    Her eyes filled with distant hunger... and a hint of hesitation.

    ''Peter groomed Fay, so Fay will groom Peter.''

    An unknown voice whispered into my mind as the world around me appeared to stop for just a single instant.

    ''She''s paying me back. She refused me before, but as I showered her with gifts and care...''

    A cold sensation started to spread up my spine at a lightning-fast rate. It quickly reached my hips, freezing over all the lust that threatened to make my balls explode if I didn''t make a move on Fay the next instant. It raced up to my chest, then my throat, then my brain...

    And with this sudden, freezing sensation dissipating all the heat away from my body, I finally managed to put the two and two together.

    ''She''s trying to pay me back, even going as far as to put herself in heat for my sake.''

    Fay wasn''t just beautiful.

    If her beauty was all there was to her, I would never go bonkers while falling for her so hard. No, her facial and body features were just the icing on the cake.

    What attracted me to her was her affection, the casual skin-ship she so readily offered... and her happy smile whenever I catered to her appetite or curiosity.

    ''Did I really fall for the first girl that treated me with actual kindness?'' I thought, the coldness in my body spreading now to my soul. ''Or rather, the first girl that treated me with both the kindness and the respect I''m owed as a damn human being?''

    The chill finally reached my heart, freezing it over as thest part of the realization finally manifested, bursting out with a sense of self-loathing all over my mind.

    ''And in exchange for all of that, I pushed her to do something she clearly didn''t want to, as proved by her reaction before?''

    The strange instant that I was stuck in copsed all at once, forcing me back into the ongoing reality of Fay forcing herself to cling to me, and doing what she clearly wanted no part with just to pay me back.

    ''She even went as far as to put herself in heat for me!''

    My entire body tensed up. My blood boiled in my veins, thawing my body from the coldness that took over.

    "Pete..."

    Fay noticed the change and raised her face to look at me... only for her voice to cut when I used all my strength to move up.

    Now that I actually tried, freeing myself from under the girl proved to be surprisingly easy.

    "Wait, Peter, why?" Fay freaked out, hints of panic instantly appearing all over her face.

    It was a miracle that I could hold back my tears right now. I was literally freeing myself from the loving embrace of the girl of my dreams, all the while she was trying to pin me down to the bed once again!

    The boiling of my blood thawed the freezing coldness in my groin, restarting the assault of my primal lust on my mind and decision-making center in my brain.

    But I wasn''t going to let my desires get the better of me. Not if the cost of doing that woulde at even a single hint of regret for Fayter on.

    "I''m sorry, but I think we wasted enough time. And I still have to go and deal with thest task for today," I spoke while squeezing myself out from underneath Fay and then quickly escaping from the bed. While on the go, I grabbed the gold coins and my new phone from the table before instantly heading for the doors.

    "Peter! Wait, please...!" Fay''s voice now gained some tones of desperation, amidst the shock and disbelief I could already hear before.

    "I will be back shortly," I replied, before pulling the doors open and escaping outside. "And I''m sorry I pushed you into doing something like this," I whispered after closing the doors behind me, finally free to let the tear of emotional terror and self-loathing born from what I nearly made Fay do.

 Chapter 39: Nothing beats politely making the other man happy

    <h4>Chapter 39: Nothing beats politely making the other man happy</h4>

    ''Just what the hell was that...''

    I walked through the rtively empty streets with my mind as busy as never before.

    Did I do the right thing? Or was there a hint of regret and disappointment in the face Fay showed when I left? Was her hesitation due to her feeling forced to pay me back like that, or was it due to her natural shyness?

    Hundreds upon hundreds of questions like that continued to fire up in my brain, only to burn bright enough to cause me a headache before vanishing without a trace, reced by a set of fresh questions on the same topic.

    ''Was it the right thing to do, what I did?''

    This was the main question... that I had little to no hope of finding an answer to.

    And so, unable to fill this query... I decided to move on.

    Sadly, my emotional state couldn''t be changed with just a decision to get over it. Just like my mom telling me to hurry up while I was waiting for the bus wouldn''t make the bus arrive sooner. Some things simply needed time to work.

    And walking by the deste streets of the government-abandoned part of the town, I at least found some winds to help me clear all those desperate thoughts from my head.

    ''We are about to go back to the other world. There, I will be able to finally learn what were the intentions of that damned bus-like fox!''

    Unable to stop thinking about Fay, I gave up on trying to put her to the back of my head. And rather than moving on from the topic of that too beautiful-to-be-real girl, I finally noticed a ring inconsistency.

    On one end, that damned parent-fox entrusted her to me. But on the other... Didn''t it mention how Fay''s form was created ording to my deepest wishes, likes, and desires?

    Was this some sort of test? Or maybe a cruel joke?

    "I guess there''s no point thinking about it that hard," I muttered to myself as I moved through the familiar roads with a single direction in mind.

    The Makary''s pub was one of the ces where the forces of the local gang liked to gather. And the ce the thugs I met just a few hours before directed me to. And soon enough...

    "Are you lost, mate?" A voice reached my ears the very moment I stepped out of the corner. As soon as my eyes caught up, I spotted at least twenty different thugs sitting all over the alley located at the back of the pub that was my destination.

    ''What, are we in Brittain now?'' I thought, holding myself back from uttering a mockingment.

    I was still not well-known enough in the gang for the usual thugs to let this kind of discourtesy, even if well-earned, slide.

    After casting a short nce at the most thug-looking thug I ever saw in my life, I took a moment to look around. Only once I knew the general location of all the local gangsters, did I turn my eyes back to the truest thug in the group that spoke out.

    "I''m here to talk with Mark," I coldly announced, making sure not to reveal any emotion on my face.

    Just talking with the trio from before was unnerving enough with how they all had either a firearm or a knife on them. But right now?

    Right now, I was already surrounded by more than twenty men. And I only had my young face to thank for them not pulling their guns on me on the spot. After all, what kind of a threat a mere kid like me could be to them?

    "Bring me to him," I added with the same, empty expression as before and in a voice that allowed no discussion.

    Sadly, those thugs clearly didn''t get the hint.

    "Who the hell are you to tell us what to do?" the man who was the first to call me out now stood up and hooked his thumb on his belt, to make it easier to pull the gun if he deemed it to be necessary... Or he simply did so to try to intimidate me.

    "I''m someone following the orders from above," I spoke and shrugged my shoulders.

    After dealing with a real officer of the gang, what could those small fries to do me? As long as I got the point of belonging to the group along, I would pretty much be safe.

    "I''m under orders given to me directly by a certain gentleman residing at the heart of Lizzie''s strip bar," I added, to make the task of getting the message easier for those thugs whose faces looked like they were yet to be tainted by an intelligent thought.

    And just like before, when I dealt with those three thugs who jumped me on the street, a moment of consternation followed my words.

    "So you are Makary''s new pet," the thug muttered, before shaking his head and backing off two steps while turning sideways. "Follow me."

    From there on, things went quite quick and without any additional trouble. By following the thug, I got into the dim insides of the pub, only to nearly instantly choke on the thick smoke of used cigarettes that permeated every inch of the room.

    "Keep going," the thug hurried me up as he went to the back of the bar before leading me to one of the few office rooms at the very back of the building. And there, as if someone intentionally copied the design of Lizzy''s strip bar, I found a carbon copy of Makary''s office, with the only difference being the man sitting behind the desk.

    That, and the fact the thud didn''t even bother to knock, opting to just push the doors open, drag me inside before leaving and closing the door behind him.

    "Who the fuck are you?" the man, allegedly Mark, raised his eyes from the desk while lowering the erotic magazine he was browsing on the table.

    "ording to your men, I''m Makary''s new pet," I replied with a shrug of my shoulders. "And as ordered, I brought some gold to sell," I added before reaching into my pocket, grabbing the very edge of the cloth of the coin pouch, and then pulling it out with just two fingers.

    ''It''s better not to make him think I''m trying to sh a gun on him,'' I thought as I carefully held the pouch up before, just as carefully, bringing it down on the table, pulling its cord, and allowing the coins to fall out of their passage.

    "Woah," Mark gave out a small moan of surprise when he saw seven gold coins roll down his desk.

    "It''s a simple trade. Take whatever is a fair tax for the group and just give me the rest," I requested with a shrug of my shoulders.

    Mark raised his eyes from the coins and to my face, taking his time watching my expression for a while.

    "I didn''t believe the news when I heard them, but it looks like you are going to go through with your promises..." he then sighed before opening one of the shelves stacked all over the back of the room and pulling out a thick wad of cash. He then took a moment to weigh the coins before counting out roughly twenty-five hundred-dors bills.

    "Here, your fair pay," he spoke, throwing the money on the table in a leisurely move. Then, he followed up with a sigh. "I believe I know what you think about our group, but we do not do our own people dirty," he added when noticing my reluctant look.

    A reluctant look I had on my face only because the entire thing appeared to be... too easy. And I couldn''t help but hesitate about grabbing the cash he threw on the desk, wary of a potential trap.

    "If that''s the case..." I muttered, only for my eyes to be drawn to one piece of equipment that I severelycked with the perspective of my expedition just ahead. "Could I maybe get a gun too?"

    If Mark hardly paid me any mind before, his expression changed the instant I uttered my question.

    "A gun, huh?" he muttered, the look in his eyes sharpening. "And what would you need one for?" he asked while leaning over the table and drilling holes with his eyes in my face.

    "Walking around this area with gold stuffed all over my pockets..." I muttered in response, only to turn my eyes away and whisper, "What I''m going to do without a gun if the next group of robbers that jumps me on the street won''t belong to the group?"

    With my eyes turned away, I couldn''t really gauge the reaction on Mark''s face. But judging by the silence that followed, I at least gave him some food for thought... Even though his face was as innocent of bearing an intelligent thought as the faces of the thugs outside.

    "That''s a good point," Mark finally admitted after taking some time to consider my words. "But I still don''t know why should I just give you one," he spoke. "Those things do note cheap," he added while spreading his arms out.

    With a sigh, I ced the wad of cash back on the table before moving my hand over to the small tower of gold coins that Mark built while ying around with them.

    "It''s only up to me how many coins I bring to sell to the group," I muttered, picking two of them off the top of the small tower and cing them aside... only to then push them towards the man with only silence for the exnation.

    But judging by the smile that appeared on Mark''s face, he understood my intentions. Without a word, he grabbed the wad of cash I returned, and pulled out roughly a third of the bills inside before cing it back on the table. Then, he leaned back and pulled open one of the drawers of his desk before cing a brand-new-looking pistol and two full spare magazines.

    "Nothing beats politely making each other a happy man," I couldn''t hold back the smallment... Only for a grimace to appear on my face when I what words I used. "Ugh... You can ignore the other meaning, okay?"

 Chapter 40: She鈥檚 the embodiment of your desires, so why...?

    <h4>Chapter 40: She''s the embodiment of your desires, so why...?</h4>

    Cassie woke up to a massive pain threatening to split her head in half.

    ''Shit...''

    She failed to utter even the short curse as she sluggishly dragged herself towards the edge of the bed. The girl gathered her strength for some time before finally attempting to climb down and reach for the ss of water standing by her bed.

    This was, sadly, the only consideration that she gave to her future self while drinking herself unconscious thest night.

    ''My head...'' Cassie thought while a long, whiny moan escaped from her lips.

    Cassie reached out and managed to grab the ss, quickly pouring it down her parched throat. Yet, hydrating herself only reminded the poor girl of how her dder still held all the liquids from thest night.

    Having no other choice, Cassie dragged herself to the bathroom. There, after releasing the pressure from yesterday, she made sure to wash her face in the sink, letting the cold water calm some of her headaches down.

    ''Just why did I drink so fucking much?!''

    Full of self-loathing, Cassie raised her eyes to the mirror above the sink, only to be presented with a really unbing look.

    Her make-up that she meticulously prepared for the partyst night was now all gone, turned into blurred areas that made her look even worse than she felt. Her eyes were hazy, surrounded by the violet bags indicating severe exhaustion. And to top it all off, the excessive drinking of thest night made her already thin body look even more frail, as if she was anemic.

    ''It''s all because of those damn bitches...''

    Cassie gritted her teeth, pulling her eyes away from the mirror before turning around and leaving the bath.

    The girl had no problems recalling the events of thest evening and night. The gaps in her memory only started from when she decided to drown her sorrows back at home, long after returning from the cultured meet-up.

    Ring, ring, ring!

    The noise of a calling through drilled into Cassie''s already sensitive ears, causing another spear of pain to skewer her brain through. Yet, when she braced the pain of the hungover and looked at the phone nearby, Cassie''s face only tensed up even further.

    ''And she even dares to call me now!''

    Irene.

    The name showing on the phone belonged to the same girl who was the loudest when iming she would find Cassie a stud during the party, even going as far as to repeat herself right as they were about to enter the building. And in all honesty, after thinking things through, Cassie ended up growing fonder and fonder of the idea of paying Peter back for how he dared to break up with her!

    At least, that''s how Cassie felt before they actually entered the building. Because upon doing so, she was forced to swallow the obvious reality.

    ''There are several missed calls already,'' Cassie thought, staring down at the phone for a few more moments, patiently waiting for Irene to give up and stop calling.

    Right now, Cassie had no mental power to bicker with that questionable friend of hers.

    That questionable friend of hers fully convinced Cassie she could drown her sorrow of the breakup in the arms of some stud she would find for her during the party.

    The party... was just a reunion of their ss to celebrate the end of their school days and casually discuss their ns and hopes for the future. A casual meet-up without a single person present that Cassie would ssify as a stud. Just her, her friends... and literally every other ssmate of theirs, with the exception of obviously missing Peter.

    "What, did you really think a stud would magically appear out of nowhere in our ss?" Ireneughed back then, rubbing the joke right in Cassie''s face as she stood stunned by how she missed something THAT obvious.

    It felt unreal. Forced and foreign.

    But those were just excuses, something Cassie was fully aware of... and the direct reason for her irresponsibility that started when she returned home from the party andid her eyes on the collection of wines she hobbystically grew in the back of her wardrobe.

    ''That damned bitch...'' Cassie cursed in her thoughts again, before reaching out for the ss again and drinking the rest of what was in the cup. Yet, right as she put the ss down, Irene''s call ended...

    Only to start anew.

    "Fucking bitch..." Cassie muttered, still holding the grudge for yesterday. And that was not because of how Irene made Cassie into aughing stock.

    Upon returning home and before drowning her sorrows in the bottle, Cassie found some time to think. To think about how Peter had to feel about their rtionship, especially after listening in on Irene''s rambling... and then learning Cassie, his alleged girlfriend, was attending a party with a clearly mentioned goal in mind.

    ''If he was under the same misconception as me...'' Cassie thought back then, finally realizing the full scale of the wound she inflicted on her former boyfriend.

    ''Not only he learned I was dating him because of a dare, he even learned I was happily moving our date toter so I could get screwed on a ss party he wasn''t even invited to...''

    This was the one realization that pushed Cassie towards the bottle.

    It didn''t matter that nothing happened during that party. It didn''t matter she initially had no intention of screwing around and even when Irene convinced her... she still wasn''t fully sure whether or not she could actually cross the point of no return.

    The harm was done. And seeing no way to fix it, Cassie, in her already vulnerable state, turned to the bottle. And this morning was when she had no other choice but to pay for it.

    Irene''s call ended, granting Cassie a moment of respite from the annoying sound of the sharply-sounding song of the call. Yet, as soon as she reached for her phone to mute its sounds... The call came through again.

    ''Fuck this damned, relentless bitch!''

    Still holding a grudge for what happened yesterday and how Irene''s words were what started the rift between her and Peter, Cassie picked up the phone.

    She had no wish to talk with her alleged friend. But the thought of suffering the torture of the call sound for even one more second was simply too much.

    "Cassie!" Irene''s voice exploded in the phone and instantly assaulted Cassie''s sensitive ears. "You won''t believe what a lovely couple I just saw!"

    *****

    The preparations were going smoothly, even in spite of the tense, awkward atmosphere in my shed.

    Unwilling to face the issue, I simply threw myself into the chaos of sorting out what would be useful or a good gift for the parent fox and what would be nothing more but useless baggage to carry around.

    Over time, Fay moved on from her silent mode, using off-handed remarks to help me with my selection. And before long, she started to work along my side, greatly hastening the progress of our preparations.

    ''I wonder what will happen once we go through the gate,'' I thought, gulping down at the mere thought of the parent fox exacting revenge on anything that it could potentially deem inappropriate.

    Did I hold my desires back well enough? Or maybe it would be furious that I refused his child''s charms?

    I had no way of knowing what would happen on the other side in advance. And the only way to find out... was to cross the gate and let the situation y out.

    "That should be all," I muttered, taking a step back once we finally settled on what we were going to bring to the other side and what would be left behind. "But I guess one more quick check won''t hu..."

    I cut my words short when I saw Fay suddenly tense up and raise her head, locking her eyes... on the wall.

    Furrowing my brows, I looked in the same direction, thinking I was missing something...

    But no. What Fay was staring at so intently... was just a wall!

    "What''s wrong?" I asked, breaking the unspoken path of silence that started when I escaped Fay''s seduction.

    "There''s something..." Fay hesitated for a second... Only to turn her head and look me straight in the eyes. "There''s something bading. We need to hurry up and leave."

    Fay''s voice... was weird. It was filled with a sense of intense urgency, while at the same timecking any sort of pressure or vibe of the two of us being threatened by something.

    Unable to curb my curiosity, I approached one of the few windows of my shed and looked outside...

    And there she was.

    The damn bitch I had no ns of seeing now, or, in fact, anytime in the future. One of Cassie''s whore friends who I believed to be responsible for how she changed from a lovable girlfriend to a cheating hoe that was only good for the streets.

    "I guess you are right. There''s something bading, and I have no desire to meet it," I muttered in a cold voice, pulling away from the window before waving my hand and opening the gate in the area that wasn''t visible from the window. "Let''s hurry up and leave."

    Under the pressure of this strange threat, we managed to grab all of the supplies and move through the gate in what had to be less than a minute. And while wepleted the task insanely fast... this minute was enough to put a strain on my endurance. Both physically from all the bags I had to carry while moving through the gate and mentally, when the immense pressure of the celestial fox proper dawned on my mind the second I stepped out of the barrier and back into another world.

    ''There it is,'' I thought, looking at the massive fox resting in the very same ce and position I saw it when we left.

    This time, however, this damn massive fox decided to take me off guard... and it stood up.

    Before I could react, it was already standing mere inches away from me and Fay, pushing its massive mouth between us.

    "Sniff, sniff..."

    The fox pulled in some air before raising its mouth and taking a moment to think about something.

    ''This is the moment that will decide everything,'' I thought, gulping saliva down while my body tensed all over.

    The fox took some time to think before lowering its eyes and throwing its powerful gaze right at my face, only to alternate its eyes between my expression... and the intense blush on Fay''s face as she averted her eyes in some sort of shame.

    "I''ve sent you away with the literal embodiment of your desires. And even though she is obviously in heat..." the fox spoke, its voice reaching tones and vibes I couldn''t quite read into due to how many emotions I could detect in it.

    But one feeling stood above all the others. A feeling of just how baffled this huge fox was.

    "So howe you two have yet to mate?"

 Chapter 41: The moment of many truths

    <h4>Chapter 41: The moment of many truths</h4>

    "So, howe you two have yet to mate?"

    The flow of time ceased to move at this particr moment. The very second those words reached my mind, allowing the gears in my brain to process it...

    And be left shocked, unable to utter a single word of response.

    ''Say what, again?'' I thought, gritting my teeth to the point I felt like they were about to start cracking.

    Searching for any semnce of sanity, I looked to the side... Only to see Fay wildly blushing and looking away, as if ashamed of herck of ability to bring her mission to a sess...

    Or such was my understanding of the troubled, ashamed, and... embarrassed expression she gave off, not even aware I was actually looking.

    ''That was her reaction to her parent''s question...'' I gulped my saliva down, ''But what does that mean exactly?''

    I was too scared, too uncertain, too worried about assuming something for my personal convenience to allow, even for a moment, this kind of reasoning.

    Wasn''t I trying to just fit the puzzle for the greater picture to align with my own desires?

    The massive fox didn''t seem to mind my consternation or Fay''s extreme embarrassment. It simply alternated its huge eyes from the girl to me and then back to its child, before finally uttering a long sigh...

    A long sigh that somehow made the time pick up the ck and start flowing again.

    "Okay, I think I get the gist of things," the massive fox imed before uttering another sigh. "Fay, dearest, it seems I need to talk with Peter on my lonesome. So, could you leave the two of us alone for some time?"

    I didn''t get to turn my eyes away in time, ending up staring at Fay''s blushing cheeks when she turned her head to look back at her parent. And from how her eyes darted to the side and looked directly into mine...

    Yeah, there was no denying it.

    She blushed even harder while her eyes turned slightly moist. And she caught my stare at that... Or rather, did she react like that because she saw me look at her?

    "Yes, Mother," Fay whispered softly in response, escaping with her eyes away from my scrutiny before turning on her heel. Yet, before she could actually leave...

    "Hold on for a moment," the big fox... and apparently a mother of Fay requested before turning her huge eyes to me. "Those bags, do they have some clothes that could fit on a human slightlyrger than this child?"

    I gulped my saliva down.

    "I g-guess so?"

    My voice shook. And how could it not?

    Bying to this world, I essentially put my life on the line of what this damned fox meant by entrusting its child to me. I risked my very life with hopes that it wouldn''t mind the few moments where I took my time to gather my senses and free myself from the influence of Fay''s charm. And now... it was suddenly asking about clothes?

    "Good," Fay''s mom summed up the entire situation with a single word. "Would you mind turning around for a while?"

    I breathed out a sigh of relief when the request came through and I, nearly instantly, followed through on it.

    For whatever reasons Fay''s mom wanted me to turn away, this was the opportunity I really needed.

    Not to pull my gun on the fox and threaten it for some unknown reason, but to turn around and use however long I had to gather and then sort my thoughts.

    ''So she wanted me toy with Fay?'' I thought, slowly starting to realize the ugly truth of the matter.

    Was Fay forced to be my mate for some reason that only that big fox understood? Or was she going toy with me from the very moment her mom sent her to my side?

    Or maybe there was still something that I''ve failed to ount for?

    BANG!

    A loud noise of something akin to an explosion appeared behind my back, but I managed to fight the desire to look back off. Since I was asked to turn away, I kind of expected something to happen, something that my eyes were not worthy enough to see...

    Or maybe something that I was still too weak or stupid to understand, maybe?

    "You can turn back now," Fay''s mother spoke. And as I followed through on her next request... I was bestowed with another moment of gasping for air, unable to unsqueeze my chest to take a breath.

    If Fay''s beauty came from her youth, yfulness, and sensibility... Her mother was a beauty of the same level... but one that was refined through time to achieve its very peak.

    Her long, white hair fell straight down her back and sides, her mature smile added her eyes some strange, mysterious charm, while her body was a literal work of art, a shape no legendary sculptor would be ashamed to produce.

    And with all of that beauty, currently covered by some simple sweatpants and a in shirt, I could have no doubts she was Fay''s mother.

    The likeness was simply too great, even if those two were actually nothing alike when it came to details.

    Fay was cheerful, and her mother was dignified. Fay was youthful and full of energy, while her parent was toned and refined.

    Gulp.

    Feeling the saliva trickle down my throat, I took a deep breath and calmed down a little.

    ''She didn''t turn just so I could adore one more beauty...'' I thought, taking yet another moment to collect my thoughts before raising my eyes and looking at that massive fox, now in her human form, standing just a few meters away and appearing to pierce my soul with her deep, intensely blue eyes.

    And now that I thought about it, Fay was no longer to be seen, following through on her mother''s request from before.

    "First off, do you understand what it means for my kind to go into heat?" the now-human fox asked as she crossed her hands on her chest and looked down at me.

    It was a pose I knew too well to misunderstand its meaning. A stance a teacher would take when they were about to scold and lecture an unruly or stupid student of theirs.

    "Doesn''t that mean your breeding instincts are activated? Awoken?" I tried to answer to the best of my ability and by basing my answer on what little I knew about animals back on earth.

    "That''s partially true, but it doesn''t even hint the whole picture..." Fay''s mom shook her head to the sides before allowing her hands to fall freely down her sides as she started to move towards me.

    She didn''t approach me to scold me from a closer distance or to p me for some imaginary sins. She approached me... to rest her hand on my shoulder instead.

    "Listen and listen well, kid. Our kind goes into heat only once we are sure our potential partner is... well, qualified for our attention," the elegant woman in sweatpants exined before removing her hand and showing me had back while she locked her hands behind her back. "In other words, Fay wouldn''t go in heat around you if she didn''t like you. And that should strike down the first of your worries."

    I gulped my saliva down again.

    ''Fay... likes me?''

    Well, I already considered this possibility, many times over at that. But all the small things that I saw and that hinted Fay was still hesitant to go through with the act, especially earlier on...

    "Stop overthinking it. She wouldn''t go into heat if she didn''t like you," Fay''s mother repeated her lessons.

    "But she clearly wasn''t in heat when we happened to..."

    "Then she grew to like you with time," the dignified woman cut my words short before heaving yet another sigh.

    "But..." That was... That was too much for me to ept. It was too good to be true... While also too bad for me to willingly ept it. Because, if Fay actually liked me and was happy to go through with whaty at the end of every real like...

    Then didn''t I shame her greatly when I escaped from her affection, a mere few hours prior?!

    My body tensed up as my eyes darted around, instantly moving on to search for Fay.

    ''I have to apologize,'' a singr desire exploded in my soul.

    Nothing else mattered. I had to apologize. And only once Fay would smile with favor at me again, could I allow myself to think about anything else.

    Still, if Fay actually liked me, if that really was the case... Then I still had one question I needed an answer to.

    "You couldn''t tell what kind of a man I was back when you first met me. And don''t tell me that just feeding a stray animal I found was enough for you to gauge who I am and thus entrust your child to me."

    This was the one inconsistency that threw a wrench into my attempts at understanding Fay''s mother, as proved by how shocking her revtion was for me.

    "You want to know why I was willing to entrust my child to you, right?"

    Fay''s mother smiled.

    "It''s fairly simple, really, but you are not going to like the answer at all."

    For some reason, this elegant and dignified woman... giggled. And that only served as fodder for my worries.

    "And that''s because," Fay''s mom continued, "I knew I could entrust my child to you just because you were happy to feed a stray animal you chanced upon."

    The woman calmed her giggles down and now simply smiled while looking out into the distance.

    "I assume you are aware of the existence of auras by now, aren''t you?" The mother fox finally started to speak about things that I could make some sense of.

    "Yeah. Fay taught me how to perceive them... but that''s pretty much what I understand about them."

    "Fay...?" the woman turned around and cast a quick, sideways nce at me before smirking a little and looking back to the nature she appeared to be adoring. "So you''ve named her too..."

    Fay''s mother shook her head before starting to pace around a small area of just a few feet square, more to just move around rather than to get to some kind of ce in particr.

    "You see, auras are a reflection of one''s soul. That''s why I could tell you guys didn''t mate with a single look, as your auras didn''t mix."

    That was some nice information, a piece of news that could help me figure out what those damned auras were all about! Or so, I could only hope so while I prickled my ears, ready to snatch any snippet of knowledge this woman was willing to spare.

    "That''s also how I can somehow figure out your worries even before asking. I don''t need to stare at your face to read you, I only need to take a look at your aura," as if reading into my desires, Fay''s mom continued to exin.

    "But when I first saw you..." for the first time since starting her lecture... The big fox''s mother hesitated. She paced around some more inplete silence, only to finally stand down in one ce and turn to look directly at my face.

    "Back when I first saw you, your aura was pitch ck. It was so dark and heavy, the only reason I didn''t snap right at you was how... Fay didn''t seem to mind your presence at all."

    The woman looked into my face a little bit more, before heaving a sigh and rxing a little.

    "When I saw the look of concern on your face, how desperate you were to help me out, even though I had to appear pretty scary to you back then..." the woman smiled slightly at her own thoughts.

    "Peter, listen," Fay''s mom turned to face me directly again. "Someone with the kind of aura you had when I first met you could only be the incarnation of the dark god himself... Or someone whose aura was affected by foreign interference. And for someone bound by such a heavy burden..." she shook her head in silent exasperation. "Someone with a burden like that yet still capable and perfectly willing to put himself in harm''s way for the sake of aplete and dangerous-looking stranger... And one of a different kind at that..."

    Fay''s mom stopped again, only to turn straight towards me and pick up her pace. Before I could even guess what could be her reason for closing the distance... she reached out and brought me into a gentle, soothing hug.

    Strangely enough, in spite of being pressed into the most beautiful body I''ve ever seen in my entire life thus far, I didn''t feel a single iota of lust.

    None. Null. Nada.

    It was quite different from how Fay could take over my rationality just by giving me a small hint of a smile.

    "Oh poor you..." Fay''s mom whispered as she gently shook the frozen me in her arms. "I cannot even begin to imagine how hard your life had to be in your world, for your aura to turn so dark..."

    A moment of silent, soothing cuddling followed.

    "That''s how I knew I could entrust my child to you, kid," the answer that I was looking for, the one piece of the puzzle that was missing, finally fell into ce. "How could I not trust someone who, despite that awfully dark and heavy aura, still retained their natural kindness, purity, and affection for the world?"

    Fay''s mom finally let me out of her arms and took two steps to put some distance between the two of us. The gentle, weing smile that she had on her lips didn''t change, though.

    Strangely enough, all the determination, drive, and burning desire for revenge that I used to hold the pieces of broken me together... seemed to melt when basked in the simple, motherly affection hidden in that smile.

    "To be honest, to see you resist Fay''s charms when she''s the literal embodiment of your desires..." Fay''s mom shook her head, as exasperation once again shed in her eyes. "That took me off guard, but in a positive sense. And now I know that I made the right choice, entrusting that naive child in your care."

    The woman''s words sounded out, leaving the area in rtive silence. Silence that prolonged as I took my time to process everything that this woman shared with me.

    "Oh right, before I forget, there is one more thing you need to know about what happens when my kind goes in heat and actually mates," Fay''s mother smiled, this time with some tones of mischief, mischief that I was already pretty familiar with, sparking in her eyes.

    "Yes?" I asked, sensing that what I was about to hear would be thest nail to the coffin of my sanity.

    "When our kind mates with someone that managed to put them in heat, they seal their fate with their mate," Fay''s mother exined, only to cross her arms on her chest and stare right into my face. "In other words, once you do it, she will never wish to do it with anyone else other than you."

    I stood in silence, finally realizing the full depth of what I did back on earth when I escaped from Fay''s attempts at making out that would obviously lead down the path of the least resistance.

    ''If I didn''t escape back then... Fay would be all mine? Forever and ever? Like in those stupid stories for children?!''

    Something strange exploded deep at the bottom of my soul as my eyes instantly darted around in search of the girl.

    ''She couldn''t have moved far!'' was the only thing that came to my mind, with my brain overtaken by the simple idea of iming Fay.

    If fucking her was all it took to make sure she would forever remain by my side... Then I was willing to bite the bullet and suffer the unsufferable pleasure that was bound toe with our first, full union!

    Or, jokes aside, when the perspective of having Fay forever apany me by my side, I was simply too damn charmed by the idea I could feel no lust.

    Only desire to make Fay mine.

    "Where is she...?" I asked, struggling to get the words out of my mouth, now that everyst muscle of my body was tensing up in preparation for the great effort I was going to infuse into the moment I would find that silly girl who spoke no word of all the things I just learned.

    Was she shy? Or maybe she didn''t want to put pressure on me? Could it be, that the very same concerns I had regarding her free will and ability to choose her own path was what she had in mind when she didn''t pursue me any harder than she did?

    "Calm down, she isn''t going to run away from you just because of this small hup," Fay''s momughed before squinting her eyes and lowering them to the ground.

    ''Is she searching for her aura or something...?'' I thought, trying to distract myself from my burning desire by analyzing the situation. And by doing so, the fact that Fay''s mom''s face started to rx... and then turned cold, didn''t escape my attention.

    "She isn''t anywhere around," Fay''s mom rapidly turned on her heel, opening her eyes wide as she stared off into the distance. "I can sense she went that way..." she muttered while looking at the path we took during my previous visit when she led the way for where I could find some coins...

    And to where I ended up offering mercy to the dying adventures and then giving them a proper burial.

    ''Wait, what the hell is going on?'' I thought, suddenly all tense when I saw Fay''s mom''s face suddenly turn white as her body tensed up... Only for the woman to suddenly leap forth, in the direction she was staring at.

    And her face...

    Her face was struck by genuine terror, an emotion I never expected to see on the face of such a mighty and dignified being like her.

    Fay was missing. She went in the direction of where those adventurers breathed theirst. And now her mom was freaking out.

    All the blood flew out of my face.

    Terror gripped my soul, for it would take an idiot not to connect the dots.

    ''Please...'' Suddenly, all of my heart and soul united in a single desire.

    My body sprung into action, making me follow and somehow even keep up with the woman, even though her attributes were bound to be heavens above mine.

    ''Please, I beg of you, whatever is happening to you right now...''

    I gulped my saliva as, by some miracle, I managed to speed up even further, even managing to get ahead of my mother-inw.

    ''Fay, I will do everything, so I beg you, be safe!''

 Chapter 42 As if I would let that happen!

    Chapter 42 As if I would let that happen!

    I ran, with all the strength that I could find in my body. Without a thought, without a doubt, without a single hesitation, I ran as fast as I could, struggling to as much as keep up with Fay''s mom. "They must''ve noticed my transformation!" The woman''s face was struck by grief and self-loathing that mixed with worry and anger. "Shit!" It felt weird to see a cursee out of the mouth of such an elegant, dignified person. But, in all honesty, right now, I couldn''t care less. And I had my own set of thoughts about this entire situation. ''WHAT ARE THE FUCKING CHANCES?!''

    While my body continued to run ahead, my blood boiled in my veins when this realization struck me. It struck me and found an ample amount of fury to feed on filling every nook and cranny of my soul. ''I found out the girl I rejected out of concern for her real feelings, actually has hots for me. And right as I''m getting a green light�� No, a kick in the ass from her parent to make a move already, she''s now gone?!''

    My fingers tensed up as hard as they could, closing into a set of two, bloodthirsty fists. ''There''s no way this kind of cliche development would happen in the real world!'' I thought, only to fall even deeper into the hole of possibilities that this realization opened up before my eyes. But out of all the endless possible exnations, one of them stuck out the most for me. My eyes were focused on the path we took just a few days ago, eager to spot any hint of where Fay could be hiding. My hand already moved under my shirt and firmly held the gun, my thumb already molesting the safety to feel out just how much force exactly I had to use to release the trigger. ''This cliche development��'' My thoughts looped a little as myplexion darkened. ''This has to be a world straight out of some kind of shitty novel, there''s no doubt about it!''

    Right as this realization struck me, my soul filled with a killing intent. Just what kind of author would be so cruel to set up such an unpleasant development?

    ''Going by how this kind of cliches develop, we will be just a second toote,'' I realized, gritting my teeth in mute frustration, before killing my thoughts and redirecting the extremely tiny bit of energy I used to think to my legs, hoping to push them just a little bit further, to make my next step and leap just a fraction of a second quicker. My thoughts scrambled, no longer supported by the active effort of my brain. And thanks to the added boost of energy, as tiny as it was, I managed to reach a speed I''d never even approached before. After several moments of just trying to keep up with Fay''s mother, I finally managed to get ahead of her. In the end, though, I reached the correct ce just a single second before the woman. But that single second was more than enough to confirm my worst fears. My entire body froze�� along with my perception of time. And with my eyes stuck on Fay''s backward leaning figure, I couldn''t help but notice the sharp, dirty de of a spear about to pierce right through her stomach!

    In this single instant, my memory showcased just what kind of gruesome show was about to reveal itself to my eyes. A sight of Fay''s delicate, soft skin being torn under the cold kiss of steel, her flesh cut, her blood pouring out as herplexion turned fainter and fainter��

    ''No.''

    A single word of refusal exploded in my mind and burned like a beacon�� that somehow allowed me to navigate the still waters of the world frozen in this single instant. The time didn''t cease to workpletely. Judging by Fay''s mothernding by my side in an extremely slow motion, something simply slowed its passage instead. My eyes moved up the shaft of the devious spear, through the hands that held it, the arms they were attached to, all the way to the smiling face of the bastard who already celebrated the kill judging by the huge smile on his face. ''As if I would let that happen.''

    Something inside of me broke. A certain, human hesitation that would stop a normal person from ever pulling out a gun on another person. A quality that most of the people in the modern world never even knew they had. And despite that, feeling nothing when I used this opportunity to pull out my gun and point it toward the attacker�� somehow gave me chills. ''Am I turning into a monster?'' I thought, puzzled while my body somehow managed to execute the entire shooting procedure perfectly, without a single hinch. My right hand moved up and out, only for my left hand to catch up and support my right wrist from below. I straightened my right elbow and ensured my footing was solid. Upon coordinating the three points in space and making sure there existed a line that passed through all three of them�� The time appeared to move�� only to remain as it was for just a little bit longer. But it came at the cost of my eyes suddenly exploding in pain as if some kind of parasite suddenly woke up from its slumber and was currently consuming my eyes from the very middle of my irises. The pain exploded like a bomb, only to turn into a prolonged torture that continued as I used all my physical might and willpower to pull the trigger. Millimeter by millimeter, my finger copsed back. Madness after madness, my soul descended even deeper into the chaos of absolute void under the influence of the torture in my eyes. But between the pain in my eyes and the pain of using those filthy eyes to watch, powerlessly, how Fay gets skewered��

    And finally, after nearly exhausting all of my endurance, I prevailed. And my finger pulled the trigger far enough to the back for the mechanism to click and the whole chemical reaction to start��

    Only for my finger to send another bullet flying the moment the iron sights and my target came into a single line again.

 Chapter 43 Double tap

    Chapter 43 Double tap

    It hurt. It hurt like hell. My eyes were in pain I''d never experienced before. Pain, that I had nothing I could draw a validparison too. By the time I fired the first shot and moved to correct with another one, the pain rapidly spread all over my body. In a certain sense, it felt as if somebody was pulling out my fingernails�� but from all over my body rather than just the tips of my actual fingers. But between this pain and the pain I would feel if some fucker managed to pierce Fay''s delicate skin and cause her lovely face to twist in pain��

    A shudder moved up my body, allowing me to bear with the pain for just long enough to align the iron sights of my pistol and the very middle of Fay''s assant''s forehead. And then, by simply ignoring the pain and using all my willpower to continue, I pulled the trigger again. In fact, I sort of hesitated. Right as I was about to do the deed, a single doubt appeared in my mind. After all, I was about to im a human life. Something that I would never be able to get away from. Even if no one in this or my home world would pursue me for this murder�� It still felt wrong to conclude someone''s life. And that''s where I had nothing but praise for my body, which didn''t give in to the doubts and simply executed the procedure of shooting my gun twice as if extracting ersatz of how one was supposed to shoot the gun from all the movies and series I watched. And just like my body paid no mint to the hesitation on the mental side of who I was�� it also didn''t have even the slightest bit of trouble perfectly executing every step of the shooting procedure. And that''s where I had nothing but praise for my body, which didn''t give in to the doubts and simply executed the procedure of shooting my gun twice as if extracting ersatz of how one was supposed to shoot the gun from all the movies and series I watched. And just like my body paid no mint to the hesitation on the mental side of who I was�� it also didn''t have even the slightest bit of trouble perfectly executing every step of the shooting procedure. Double tap. In spite of the pain, I dared not to trust just a single bullet. What if the gun misfired? What if, with apleteck of practical experience, I would whiff the first shot? Or what if something else would happen that would make a single bullet insufficient?

    To quell all those worries, I simply decided to pull the trigger twice, regardless of the price of pain I had to pay in order to do so. BA-BANG!

    The time suddenly resumed its usual flow, only for the extremely loud noise of the gunshots to explode right in my face, filling my ears with unpleasant and nearly painful ringing. But right now, I couldn''t care less. I was too focused on keeping my gun steady, ready to fire another round. Thankfully, while my previous caution proved to be on the point, there was no need for me to worry THAT much. The first bullet struck�� at something seemingly solid yet invisible that surrounded Fay''s assant. Whatever it was, my first bullet shattered it before bouncing off and ricocheting off into the distance. The first bullet failed. But the second one reached its mark without fail. Plop��

    A strangely disgusting sound filled my ringing ears when the smiling bastard''s body suddenly jerked to the back, pulled by the force of the bullet away. ''Thank God,'' I thought, feeling an avnche of relief when the man instinctively grasped at his weapon in hisst moments, pulling it back along with his already dead body. "Haaaa��" I breathed out loud, feeling the time gain enough momentum to carry on at its usual rate. But as much as I wanted to take a break and recover from the strain of whatever I did just now�� there was no time for me to do so. Not when the time worked as usual again. I threw a quick nce to the area further out, quickly noticing a huge number of people rushing out to help theirpanion fight Fay�� Or maybe to finish her off? To stop their friend before he would wound Fay beyond the point where tormenting her would still give them some amusement?

    I didn''t know their reasons. But seeing two of them sport bows, I didn''t care for their reasons either. My hands jerked slightly to the side. I aligned the iron sights with the next target before pulling the trigger again, in the same pattern as before. A shot, a moment to realign the gun and the target, and a second shot. A procedure as simple as it could get, yet one that already proved to be effective. The first archer fell, giving me just a little bit of time to take a nce over to where Fay nearly fell. I killed my desire to rush to her. I would gain no tactical advantage by appearing like a knight on a white horse, save for making myself a bigger and more threatening target for the attackers. And what''s more, there was still another archer within the group of the attackers!

    I realigned my sights yet again, pulling back my finger right as the second archer drew the string of his bow back�� And a fireball the size of a healthy bull suddenly appeared out of nowhere. What''s more, rather than forming while static and only then starting to fly toward me, it formed while already rushing in my direction!

    Sensing the approaching danger�� I simply gritted my teeth, and dumped all my free points into my endurance with a single point, before pulling the trigger twice yet again. "AS IF!"

    Fay''s mom finally managed to step in, taking a measly second to react from when shended. I couldn''t really afford to turn around and look at what she was doing, as interesting as it might be. What I could tell, though, was that the fireball that was about to swallow me whole�� simply fizzled out and vanished, as if it was never there to begin with!

    "GET HER!" I screamed from the bottom of my lungs, having more trust in Fay''s mom''s athletic ability than I had in my own. I couldn''t look at her, though. And it was all because my eyes were drawn to one thing I noticed when I confirmed that once again, the first bullet I shot broke the archer''s barrier before the second one ended his misery. The now-dead archer managed to pull his bow back, though. And when the rapid injection of a lead bead into his brain caused his entire body to go numb, the bowstring slipped out of his fingers�� And sent a deadly allow flying through the air. Thump. I could only watch in silence as the arrow drew an arch in the air�� before striking me squarely in the heart.

 Chapter 44 Paid with blood

    44 Paid with blood

    An arrow struck me right in my heart. Not in the knee as the fandom rules required, but right at the second most lethal point after my head. Strangely enough, though, even though I felt the de cut through my clothes and strike my chest�� I hardly felt any difort. ''I guess I only have my dear system to thank for this,'' I thought, staring at the sparse information I''d received a moment earlier. [Endurance: 4.5] > [Endurance: 7.5]

    [Usable points: 3] > [Usable points: 0]

    I saved those three points, hoping to invest them into my attributes once I learned what was the most important aspect of my power to put them to. Or, in simpler words, once I knew an efficient strategy of investing those. But in moments like the one right now, I hardly had the room to spare any effort. ''My system�� and Szczepanik''s vest!'' This was the only other ace card I brought along to this world besides the gun. A simple set of three, high-quality silk shirts that I wore all at once. A lesser known type of a protective vest. One that wasn''t actually bulletproof, but belonged to the category of kic armor, where the thickly packed and tangled weaves of silk that made up my set of three shirts simply drained all the momentum out of the arrow as it cut through them, turning it into a harmless piece of wood and metal by the time it stopped, still severalyers of silk away from my skin.

    And so, with the arrow sticking out of my chest, I moved the barrel of my gun, to the next target, the young mage girl that I noticed casting the fireball at me before. Yet, when I moved my sighs to the girl, she was already hanging in the air while grabbing herself by her throat, as if someone was squeezing the life out of her. But she was all alone! There was no one near her to not only block her airways but also raise her into the air�� Thankfully, there was no need for Fay''s mom to get close to her target. Ignoring the distance, she cosyed Darth Vader from Star Wars, holding her hand up while choking the life out of that mage girl in spite of the distance that separated them. ''I knew it,'' I thought, turning my gun in search of yet another target. ''Six bullets, no idea how many left,'' I thought, trying my utmost to recall how many bullets I saw when Mark passed me the spare mags�� But sadly, I either couldn''t recall the image now or simply didn''t pay enough attention to it when I received the weapon to remember it. ''Six bullets gone,'' I thought as I looked around the entire area, counting up the enemies. ''In other words, I don''t have enough for all of those fuckers!''

    I counted another eight enemies rushing to join the fight, fearlessly ignoring the strange magic that was picking them up like flies. And there were god-only-knows how many that eluded my quick nce. Already aware I wouldn''t be able to shoot them all before my first mag ran dry, I simply decided to ignore the issue�� while opting out of double-tapping. I simply didn''t have enough ammo in the gun to afford this tactic�� And the second I would need to switch the mags, those bastards would find the opening to strike back! And with Fay still rooted at the very front of our group, she would be the one bearing the brunt of their fury!

    ''Don''t falter!" I screamed out in my mind, turning the gun towards the enemy closest to Fay before steadily pulling the trigger. BANG!

    By now, I was either used to the noise or my ears simply grew too dull to overreact to the sound anymore. Peng!

    The bullet�� shattered the barrier of the advancing enemy, at the cost of bouncing off. ''Tsk,'' I held back a curse and limited myself to just clicking my tongue as I corrected for the movement of the advancing man and pulled the trigger again�� Only for the gun to shake in my hands when the firing pin struck nothing but air. ''Right now?!'' I freaked out�� But my body did not. And with a smoothness and grace only an expert who ate his teeth while training those specific movements, I pressed the release of the empty mag while my left hand already reached the belt where I kept the spares before rapidly raising it back up, urately throwing it into the empty slot within the gun''s handle. The change of the mag took me a mere two seconds�� Two seconds that all the enemies used to advance, reaching near Fay enough to once again put my girl in danger. ''STAY AWAY FROM HER!'' I screamed out in my thoughts�� while my body acted as calmly as usual, aligning the sights and the target before firing the gun once again. This time, the attacker nearest Fay had no barrier to shield him from the bullet. But the time I wasted changing mags allowed another two to catch up. And they were too close. Far enough for me to pick off one�� but doing so would give the other just enough time to strike at Fay''s defenseless body. To the side, another attacker fell, this time seemingly copsing to a singr point that appeared on his body and simply sucked all the matter around towards it, breaking the man''s bones when applying the pressure from such an unusual angle. I paid no attention to the gruesome sight, though. My mind was too full of despair and hate to care for gore now. By the time I finally aligned my sights again, Fay''s mom was already rushing to her daughter�� But she was too far. And I had no time to shoot two men before one of them would reach my woman�� And even if that powerful woman could, by some miracle, pull her rescue off, a sudden attack of two swordsmen from her nk rooted her in ce as she was forced to fend their attacks off. "FUCK!" No longer able to hold back my distress, I uttered the curse born from the very depths of my soul out loud. And then, the strangely familiar sense of pain and darkness, something I was so fucking used to, reemerged right as the flow of time went bonkers yet again. Tic. My skin opened up in at least a hundred ces, cut by some invisible force. Minding not what the hell was going on, I jumped on the opportunity and corrected my aim before pulling the trigger�� Only for my finger to meet a strong resistance as if the air itself turned into some sort of a thick, viscous soup. Every millimeter that my finger pulled came with the price of my own blood that burst out of the hundred injuries that appeared all over my face. But how could I care about something as small as this? I pulled the trigger. Then again. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    Doubletap. Doubletap. The two who nearly got a strike at Fay fell down, smitten by an attack they couldn''t see or fathom. Tap. Following suit, I spat out a mouthful of blood as my body lost all its strength and fell to the ground. And I sensed the time picking up its usual pace again, my consciousness gave up and floated away into nothingness.

 Chapter 45 Scream

    45 Scream n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Peter''s body fell to the ground, covered in blood spouting from the wounds that appeared all over his body. And as he fell to the back, a mouthful of blood burst out of his mouth�� Only for the young man to fall down, his body tumbling a little on the ground only to stop in a ce�� where the back of his head ended up striking directly against a sharp stone. Fay, too shocked by the sudden assault to react with anything other than her poor attempts at backing away, now fully froze all over; her eyes locked on her designated mate''s lifeless, blood-covered body. ''Peter��'' Fay ignored the battle all around and reached out in the direction of this strange man. The man appeared like the demon lord incarnate when she first saw his aura�� but turned out to be a pretty kind and easy-going guy. A man who clearly lusted after her with all the strength of being in a full heat�� And yet, held himself back. The man who showed such a pained look on his face whenever he refused her advances, yet continued to do so, sticking to his morals that forced him to keep his hands away from the body�� that was intended to seduce him right off the bat. Fay''s chin started to tremble as her hand slowly fell down along her side. Sparks appeared in Fay''s eyes as the fury took over her soul and mind alike. "RRAAAAAAAAAA!" Unable to control herself, Fay uttered a pained, primal scream out into the air, giving off the signs of the bloodline she had her mother mentioned afew times in the past. A cry befitting those of a banshee''s bloodline. And as if summoned by her outcry, a bolt of lightning materialized itself out of the clear sky, only to strike right at where the despairing girl stood.

    ''Peter!''

    "REEEEAAAAR!" Fay''s scream continued as the lighting came down, burning everything in its path with the sheer might it was made of. The outburst of electricity persisted for much longer than it normally would as if something anchored it in the material world and refused to let it go. Unable to sustain itself in its current form of the bolt of lighting down from the skies, the lighting rapidly grew smaller and smaller�� All the way to the point where it became nothing more but a half-materialization of Fay''s aura�� Or so would one say, if the girl could still bear that name, given how her eyes turned from the gentle blue they used to be before to the vicious yellow she had in her fox form. What''s more, her eyes turned that of a fox, while the back of her hair lifted up, suddenly intruded by the presence of a lush bundle of hair that made up her tail. The aura of the lightning persisted in the form of sparks that gathered mostly in the area of Fay''s fox-like features as she slowly rose up from the ground. Fay''s Haori, the outfit that Peter picked up for himself, changed too, its colors growing more vibrant in this new illuminationing from the sparks of lighting dancing all over Fay''s aura. "Hisss��" With her eyes losing all semnce of sanity, Fay hissed at the bunched group of thest few enemies that survived the onught thus far.And before any of them could even react��

    "RAAAAAARGH!"

    Another underworldly scream filled the air, stunning all those unlucky enough to hear it. And what was even worse, it was now infused with the power of lighting that only further enhanced the shocking effect the scream had on simple humans. The warriors weren''t amateurs, though. Only a group of proper veterans could make their way that far into the celestial forest. And now they proved their experience, taking only a short moment to regain theirposure�� But it was already way toote. At the same time as Fay uttered her cry, the sparks of lighting around her intensified, only for the girl to disappear from where she was, appearing right next to her attackers in a time shorter than it would take one to blink their eyes. Her eyes were burning with hate. Her aura quasi-materialized under the influence of the power of celestial lightning. And when she wed at the men who were the direct reason behind Peter''s wounds that were as heavy as they were strange�� The power of the lightning silently followed hermand. Fay shed with her hand, wing at the nearest man. And while her nails couldn''t even scratch the armors those men wore, the line of lighting that persisted for just a fraction of a second before suddenly exploding all of its energy outwards was more than capable of achieving this feat. "DIE! DIE! DIE!" Drunk on her madness, Fay shed her nails all around, ripping her enemies to shreds without even a single hint of mercy. In just a few seconds, not a single enemy was left to stand and oppose her. And right as she brought her nails down to brutalize their insolent corpses�� A powerful fist to the girl''s stomach sent her flying a few steps back. "Snap out of it!" Fay''s mother screamed right into her daughter''s face, leaping after her right as she sent her own flesh and blood flying. "He is still alive!" But even those words failed to make it through to Fay''s hate-consumed and power-drunk mind. In exchange for the word of caution from her mother, Fay shed at her, using the very same power of lighting from before to throw the mature celestial fox away. And as it turned out, not even a fully grown kin of Fay could resist her newly-awakened power. But the woman wasn''t anywhere close to giving up. "Would you rather rip those fuckers to even smaller shreds, or maybe try to help your wounded mate?!"

    For the very first time, Fay''s mother actually raised her voice. And not to shout, not to let her voice cut through a greater distance. No. This time, her mouth shouted to scold her. And the absurdity, abnormality of this fact finally brought enough to bear on her mind to let Fay snap back to her senses. Deprived of the madness that drove it, the power of lighting quickly started to dissipate into thin air�� Something Fay couldn''t even notice with how she instantly darted to where Peter fell. She leaped thest bit of the distance only tond on her knees and slide thest few inches, stopping just a hand-width away from Peter''s injured flesh. And seeing the state her supposed mate was in, Fay''s eyes filled with tears, only for a single word spoken in a pained voice toe out of her mouth. "Peter!"

 Chapter 46 Claim (kekeke)

    Chapter 46 im (kekeke)

    Opening my eyes instantly sent a surge of nearly unbearable pain to my brain. But once I opened them, I could not close them back to cut the influx of the torture. Not when Fay''s teary face was merely a few inches away from my pained eyes. "Y-you are shining��" I whispered while my pained eyes yed strange tricks on me, allowing me to see sparks of static electricity frolicking from one strand of Fay''s hair to the other. And as if it wasn''t enough, I could clearly see the sharp tips of her fox-like ears peeking through the storm of her white hair!

    "P-peter��" Fay whispered back, the tears that welled up in her eyes before now deciding it was the right time to start their journey down her slightly blushed cheeks. "Don''t cry," I whispered a small request, ignoring the pain and raising my hand up to wipe the tears off Fay''s cheeks before they could fall down. Only when doing so I realized that Fay''s face�� was in the wrong orientation. ''Wait, what?''

    With the torture thankfully fading away, proving it was merely an echo of what I went through rather than an ongoing problem, my brain slowly but surely started to work again. As it allowed more and more sensory experiences to feed into its circuits, I finally realized that I was actually lying down on the ground, with just the part of my body above my shoulders enjoying thefortable softness of Fay''sp. ''Wait, if it''s this kind of position��'' Before I could rein my thoughts, I moved my eyes up a little bit further, and as surely as the sun rising in the east, Fay''s breasts were there, reaching out for my face due to the girl leaning slightly forward. ''Shit,'' I cursed my own lewdness, instantly escaping with my eyes�� by closing them down. "Peter!" Fay instantly jerked up, only to force her lower body to remain still as if not to cause me any difort. "It''s okay, it''s okay��" I muttered while my hand finally reached Fay''s cheek, allowing my thumb to wipe the moisture trickling down her face. "My eyes still hurt a bit, sorry for that."

    Using my pain as an excuse was a low blow�� Something that once thought upon, I couldn''t actually bear to ept. So, I sighed�� "Actually, I''m sorry. I looked at your chest before I could control myself��" Hearing my heartfelt confession, Fay didn''t react much. Or so I thought before something suddenly pressed on my face, and I found the entirety of my head entering some soft warm, fluffy heaven. "P-peter��" Fay sobbed, only for the ever-present softness to tighten around my head, while I could feel moisture appear on my face. ''This is so nice��'' I thought, closing my eyes for but a second as I wallowed in this extremelyfortable and rxing feeling. For once, I felt safe. Fay''s warmth kept me shielded from the harm and evil of the world, not letting me feel or perceive anything but the softness of her skin. ''As I thought, this doesn''t really sit well with me,'' I thought after a single moment passed, only to move my hand slightly lower, grabbing at Fay''s shoulder before gently forcing her up and away. The girl offered no resistance, passively epting whatever I was doing to her without a single word or action of protest or rejection. Yet, as I reopened my eyes�� I would have to be blind not to see the sea of grief that this little movement of mine caused to erupt in the eyes of my woman.

    ''Wait, she''s not mine�� yet,'' I passively realized as I pulled myself together and used all my momentary strength to force my body up. Yet, rather than removing myself from Fay''s immediate surroundings, I simply left herp and turned around, finally capable of looking her in the face properly. "Having you hug me like that was the best feeling I''ve ever experienced," I spoke honestly, once again reaching out with my hand. This time, however, with my eyes correcting my aim, I managed to properly wipe the tears off Fay''s face, only to slide my fingers across her cheek and end up resting my palm on it. Without even thinking, Fay squinted her eyes a little before leaning her head into my hand and slowly rubbing her cheek against my inner palm. "But how could I enjoy it when the woman I like from the bottom of my heart is crying?" A part of the weight of Fay''s head now rested in my hand while I was trying not to lose my mind over how nice it felt to hold her face like that. "Peter��" Fay finally managed to speak my name without stuttering. But as she did so, a new wave of tears started to form in her eyes. "You are injured. I saw cuts all over your body," she spoke softly, struggling not to start sobbing right in my hands. It looked as if just speaking out loud about the things she saw was enough to upset the barrier that she put her emotions, grief, and worry behind. "Ugh, that I cannot deny," I allowed myself a smallugh, causing Fay''s eyes to twitch in surprise�� And then twitch again when I suddenly used my free, left hand to heavily strike my chest with a fist. "But I''m really tough. So while it might''ve looked bad, it wasn''t anything I couldn''t endure!" I put on a proud expression for a second�� Only for it to melt down into a heartfelt one. "Fay, listen. When I talked with your mom�� No, when I saw you back then, about to be struck down��" This time, it was my turn for my throat to clench, making it a challenge for me to get my words out. A challenge that I overcame with the force of my sheer fucking will, given the importance of this intimate moment between the two of us. "Back then, I was scared. Scared more than I was ever before in my life, including the times when I dealt with people that could kill me at will with little to no consequences, just because they fancied to do so."

    I momentarily recalled the moments when I dealt with Makary andter Mark. And when iming they could kill me at will wasn''t all that much of an exaggeration. In fact, I could say I was quite sure my dear aunt would be happy to cover for them if that were to happen!

    "But back then, when I saw that de about to pierce you��" My body tensed up at the mere memory of that moment. "The fear from back then helped me to sort out the priorities in my life, the priorities that I was made aware of after talking with your mom." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    This was the moment. The single instant in time that required the strongest will make the choice�� that wasn''t necessarily hard, but certainly was challenging to make. And not even because of the consequences as I had no doubt about Fay''s response. It was challenging because of my deeply rooted belief that, even after all I''ve heard and seen, Fay would still end up rejecting me. "Fay, right now, I''m not exactly in a state to im you. Nor do I want our first time to be in some random bushes," I spoke out, spitting out my words faster and faster as I progressed along the list of points I made in preparation for this moment. And as one could expect, upon hearing those words�� Fay''s expression grew conflicted. "So, let me ask you this. Will you be mine, forever mine and only mine?" I finally managed to get those challenging words out of my throat and didn''t stutter while doing so even once!

    Fay''s face twitched, proving she wasn''t prepared for this sort of development. "And if so, could we temporarily seal the deal in a way people do in my world?"

    Now, the time for me to shut the fuck up and wait for the answer hase. And surprisingly, just waiting in silence while hoping for the best proved to be far harder than actually speaking all those words. "Pete��" Fay opened her mouth, only to cut my name short and shyly lower her eyes. "Yes," she whispered, ncing up, having her eyes meet mine, and then instantly escape with them back down. I gulped my saliva, taken aback by just how insanely adorable she was at the moment. Yet, before I could even clutch at my heart as usual, Fay actually brought her chin up and looked me straight in the eyes. "Yes," she repeated, this time with a voice full of conviction and determination. "im me." A fire erupted in Fay''s eyes yet again�� but this time it was warm, cozy, inviting. And with this fire in my eyes, I brought up my other hand to lock Fay''s head in ce, before leaning in and reaching out for her lips with mine, in the gentle, elegant union.

 Chapter 47 Just take me already (r18/folks... its happening!)

    Chapter 47 Just take me already (r18/folks... it''s happening!)

    I pressed my lips against Fay''s, instantly diving into a sea of softness I''d never experienced before. No hug, no idental touch, not even cuddling together while in bed couldpare to how soft her lips were. And as soon as I felt it, I sensed my whole reason take a dive, suffocate, and die, drowned in the pleasant, intimate sensation. Feeling my lips on hers, Fay gave herself up to the moment. We were both amateurs. But she had a body designed to seduce. And not just some man, but me in particr. And from the looks of things, this wasn''t limited to just how she looked, but how she reacted as well. Under the advance of my lips, Fay gently leaned away, as if trying to move back. But with her hands moving up and locking behind my neck, she actually pulled me inside, dangling the prospect of keeping my mouth pressed against her soft, sweet lips in order to lure me further and further�� All the way to the point where I could no longer maintain my stability with how far forward I was leaning. Having no other option, I allowed my body to fall forth, quickly removing my left hand from Fay''s face to gain some foot�� handhold? But even this desperate measure of mine proved insufficient when Fay continued to lean herself lower and lower, more than happy to use the thick undergrowth of the forest we were in for a bed. Having no other choice, I didn''t stop my advance at all. Fay''s lips were too tempting, too tasty, too�� too perfect for me to stop massaging them with my mouth. Her breath was intoxicating, quickly making me forget about the pain of my wounds. They were all shallow anyway, so why should I care?

    "Fay��" I whispered breathlessly when we finally parted lips. It wasn''t out of reason or some particr issue�� besides how we could pretty much suffocate if we didn''t take a little break. A little break that allowed me to gaze upon Fay''s melting expression. Allowed me to observe the slight tremble of her lips, how her head moved in search of an angle that would allow her lips to reach out for and pull my lips back towards hers��

    In every possible meaning of this world, Fay was desiring me. I could see it, sense it, and feel it. And if her feelings were anything like the fires of lust that ignited in my loins and were quickly turning into an inferno of heat I could barely control�� "More��" Fay half-whispered and half-moaned, catching up nothing but air as her head suddenly moved up in her desperate attempt to restart the kiss. "Peter, more! Fay wants more!" With no reason in Fay''s eyes but sheer, unbridled longing, how could I call myself a man if I didn''t oblige?

    Fay''s lips reached out, once again grasping at the air in the attempt to find my lips�� and this time, I moved my right hand from Fay''s face to her waist, sinking my hands into the soft fabric of her haori while leaning down and rejoining in the elegant union of flesh. I grabbed Fay''s bottom lip with my own, only to feel her upper lip copse down on mine. The slight taste of her sweet saliva filled my mouth, the experience of which instantly assaulted my brain�� and caused the fingers of my right hand to dig a bit further, in desperate search of direct contact with the girl''s skin. But it wasn''t enough. No matter how much our mouths wrestled, it wasn''t sufficient to quell my hunger. And as far as I could tell, such was the case for Fay as well, given her greedy attempts at kissing me more and more. ''I guess it''s up to me, the man, to lead,'' I thought, clenching my butt to stack up my determination�� and pull back, just a tiny little bit. "Huh?" Fay protested lightly, her lips instantly attempting totch back on my mouth. "Fay, calm down," I whispered in a sweet voice, forcing my right hand to move from Fay''s waist and back to her face. I then lightly ran my fingers down her cheek in a loving caress. "Open your mouth," I ordered. And albeit surprised, Fay obliged without even a second of hesitation. "Pull out your tongue," I continued, finding a strange amount of satisfaction in telling Fay what to do. And seeing her push her glib, wet tongue out�� I couldn''t hold myself back any longer. Before the girl could do as much as a jolt, I counterattacked, catching Fay''s tongue between my lips before sucking on it as if it was the most delicious treat in the world. Surprised at first, Fay even twitched when I used my own tongue to rub the tip of hers. Yet, rather than retreating in shock, she quickly gave in to the new kind of pleasure as I pushed my face even further. Our tongues joined the dance of our lips, too filled with cravings for each other for our minds to care about anything else. ''Just a little bit longer,'' I thought, struggling to hold myself back. Contrary to all my imaginations of how the moment of my first real, deep, and intense kiss would look like�� Right now, I was in no state to resist my urges. "Fay��" I muttered as I pulled back again. Yet, as I looked down on the thought-free expression on her face, as I gazed into her mesmerizing and unfocused eyes�� She didn''t say a word. Ignoring the desire to keep our first time for a ce and time more suited for such a grand asion�� she brought her knees up and parted her legs, causing the already short cloth of her haori to ride up her plump thighs and reveal the mystery of her womanhood covered by no further cloth. Fay breathed out heavily, her bosom moving to the rhythm of her breaths. And I could swear I could see thin misting out from her mouth whenever she exhaled. I rose up, grabbed the cloth of my damaged clothes, and tore them away�� Or rather, attempted to do so. The silk threads that stopped the arrow from reaching the skin above my heart now proved surprisingly resilient to the wear and tear, forcing me to, after a short struggle, undress my upper clothing in a more civilized fashion. "Your wounds��" Fay whispered, some sense of reason returning to her eyes as she raised her hands and brought them down on my now naked chest. She then moved her fingers across my chest, tracing tens of small scabs that covered the wounds that magically appeared all over my body before. "As much as I love that you care, right now��" Kneeling down right between Fay''s opened-up legs I couldn''t care less about my past injuries. Especially when my high endurance practically eliminated all the pain that those wounds should be causing. "It''s okay, Fay understands," the girl smiled a little, only to pull her knees even further up before reaching out and tearing the straps that held her haori together away. No longer supported by anything, the cloth of her outfit slid down Fay''s fair skin, revealing the two beautiful bulges decorated with a perky cherry on top that I''ve snuck so many nces at before. And now, due to Fay''s own actions, they were fully exposed, all for me to adore. "You really are too beautiful��" I whispered, taken aback by the sight. But Fay clearly had no intention of giving me a single moment to recover. Her hands moved down my naked chest, caressing my stomach and reaching toward my pants before freeing my erect manhood from the confines of my underwear. "Ah," Fay uttered a small moan when my junior sprung out of my pants and stood at attention, its tip already leaking precum in anticipation of what was about toe next. ''She looks interested no more. Now��'' I gulped my saliva down. ''Now, she looks mesmerized��''

    Fay''s face was now all read, burning hot from the excitement and anticipation. And with both of her hands quickly moving to guide my tip towards her moist entrance�� "May I?" I softly asked while leaning in to leave a short peck of Fay''s soft lips while my right hand moved down, grabbing at Fay''s plump thigh, holding one of her legs in ce. Leaving my dick where it was, a single shove away from driving up her insides, Fay brought her hands over my neck before locking them together and gracing me with the most lovely smile of all I''ve seen adore her face thus far. But this still wasn''t enough of a tease for her. And so, with that lustfully lovely smile on her lips, she pushed her upper body and head up, as if to grab and nibble on my ear�� only to end up whispering just a few directly to my brain.

    "Just take me already."n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

 Chapter 48 Full union (r18)

    48 Full union (r18)

    "Just take me already."

    Those words had to be infused with some sort of magic, as they worked at me like an aphrodisiac would. And with Fay all hot and ready below me, it was what broke thest straw of my reason and made me finally take action. Or so it would be, if not for the buttload of insecurities I had in me. Insecurities that made sure I would do everything in my power for this moment not to be for me alone, but for the two of us at the same time. "Fay, listen," I whispered, keeping my hips close enough for the tip of my dick to rub against the moist and hot entrance of her insides, yet far away enough to stop the girl from nailing herself down on me, no matter how hard she would try. "In your world, mating is how we seal the deal. In my world, it''s kissing," I spoke softly, raising my hand from her soft, plump thigh to caress her cheek for onest time. "So��" I lowered my voice to make it as near the whisper as I could, "how about we do them both at the same time?"

    Looking down at Fay''s face, I could tell she already moved beyond the edge, no longer able to even think about my words. She was too into the moment to care about anything I would say, but with just her instincts alone, she licked her lips before opening them up�� Yet, as I reached down for the kiss, I ended up swinging my hips forth instead and pushing my dick as deep into her insides as I could before my balls struck and bounced off her ass. "HAI!" Fay uttered a small cry as her body all tensed up�� And when the pain of having her innocence torn apart, I finally lowered my mouth and pressed it against her lips, muffling her pained moan with a kiss. I pushed my hips as far as I could�� and then stopped. Rather than focusing on screwing her silly right after she gave me her first, I focused on the kiss instead, hoping to mute the pain with intimate pleasure. ''Hold back, you damn bastard!'' I screamed out in my thoughts, scraping everyst bit of my willpower not to let the extreme tightness of Fay''s hot, weing insides overwhelm me. As much as I wanted to just fuck away, I couldn''t bring myself to be THAT rude! Not when there was even a single hint of pain left in Fay''s beautiful, blue eyes. With my dick scraping Fay''s insides as deep as it could reach, I moved my hand off her cheek and down her waist. Employing my tongue to rub and swirl around hers, I gave her fully revealed breast a soft squeeze, enjoying the sensation for just a short moment�� before moving on. My hand ventured down Fay''s waist, discovering the details of her figure that I could never really know with just my eyes alone. It braved its way down towards her hips like some sort of adventure, only escaping the danger of just staying in ce to enjoy the fairness of her skin by a thigh margin. 20:31

    Bit by bit, Fay''s body rxed, losing the tension it gained when I prated her. And even though I didn''t move at all, refusing my dick the pleasure of rubbing against her insides, just the sensation of her inner wraps tightlytching onto my member and holding it in ce was enough to bring me near the edge. Near the edge, but not over it. But I could only stay in this state for a short while, extremely short while. "Fay��" I whispered once I pulled back my mouth away from her sweet lips and alluring tongue. "I can''t hold for much longer," I admitted while gritting my teeth to buy myself even a few seconds more. Pressed as tightly against Fay as was, with my dick neatly wrapped by her insides and sauteed in her juices, I only had my high endurance to thank for holding on for so long!

    "It''s okay," Fay, despitecking any sense of reason in her eyes, looked at me with a lovely smile. She then moved her knees even further up, causing the fingers of my right hand to sink into the soft flesh of her thigh�� Only to lock her legs behind my hips and pull her head to the back while keeping her stare firmly locked on my eyes. She didn''t say another word, opting to just keep looking at me with that lovely, affectionate, and inviting smile on her delicious lips. ''I guess that''s it,'' I thought, feeling how the control over my own body was starting to slip away from my grasp. "Fuck me, Peter," Fay whispered while driving her tongue over her lips to lick the few bits of saliva off them. "I''m ready."

    Just like before, Fay''s words were the trigger. The release caused me to finally pull my hips back, only to then swing them forth with all my might. "Ahhh��" a primal groan escaped from my lips when I injected myself as deep inside of her as possible, foregoing all reason or gentleness and simply giving in to my desires. Fay''s insides curled and coiled all over my dick, offering only some illusory resistance whenever I pushed my dick inside, while desperately grasping at my dick whenever I would try to pull back. "Peter!" Fay moaned, her back arching a little as she tightened her grasp over my neck and my hips.

    My entire focus went to rocking my hips back and forth, so when Fay increased the strength of her hold and pulled me towards her I didn''t even realize what was happening before my face fell right into her chest, coating my head in the soft warmth of her skin while infusing my nostrils with every faint bit of her aroma. "FAY!" I groaned, moving my left hand off the ground. Now that I fully sank into her, there was no longer any reason to keep my body off her skin. Sensing that it was only a matter of a few moves at most, I moved both of my hands to her thighs, only to slide them down to her soft ass. ''Fay, Fay, Fay��''

    My thoughts were filled with nothing but the girl. The faintly sweet scent of her sweat, the pleasant warmth of her flesh, the extreme softness of her skin�� The extreme hotness of her insides, the strength at which it gripped my dick, the powerful suction that threatened to suck the soul out of my balls as I pulled myself back for this one, magicalst time��

    My balls tingled with excitement, sensing their purpose was about to be finally achieved as the biology designed rather than under the lovely stroking of my own hand. My whole body trembled, already sensing theing waves of pleasure from the release that was welling up from the bottom of my spine. And as I grasped at Fay''s ass with all the strength in my hands, as she gasped for the air while nearly lifting the two of us up just with her back arching and her head shooting to the back�� I''ve reached my limit, smashing my hips forward and sending the tip of my dick knocking against the gate of her womb, only for the elite hit-squad of my sperm to rapidly deploy and invade her deepest, most sacred part as our union finally reached its full extent. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

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    MotivatedSloth

 Chapter 49 How to entertain (r18)

    49 How to entertain (r18)

    I fell down, no longer able to muster a single ounce of strength. The orgasm shook my body to the core, bringing me to a state of rxation I''d never felt before. And with Fay in ce, for a pillow to fall on, I dove right into the greatness and softness a man could desire, happily epting Fay''s embrace when she tightened her arms around my back. Still shaking from the aftershocks of my release, I thought I would lose my mind when I could now feel Fay''s body spasming underneath me. The way her insides mped down on me as she continued to relive the peak of pleasure only made it harder for me to focus on the moment, fanning my instincts to just keep going. ''No, not yet,'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I focused all of my attention on the sense offiness and peace that Fay''s tight embrace offered. I escaped with my thoughts to just how insanely nice it felt to have a babe like her cling to me so much as if I was thest thing rooting her in this world, stopping her mind from flying out to the heavens above. ''So this is how a woman�� no, this is how Fay feels to be with,'' I thought, calming down enough for my reason to slowly crawl its way back to my mind. As my thoughts continued to get back in order, my mind used its freedputation resources to now allow me to better feel all the stimuli I was surrounded with. With my head resting right on top of Fay''s supple breast, every breath I took would fill my nose with the faintly sweet scent of her sweat. My body would move up and down, synchronizing my breathing to the patter at which Fay''s chest moved, to the rhythm of her heart that I could hear through her skin. ''And Fay is now��'' I gulped my saliva down as I closed my eyes and dove into the extreme pleasure that came with the thought, ''my woman.''

    I looked up, like some sort of puppy resting up on Fay''s breasts, only to have her smile at me and move one of her hands to lovingly stroke my hair. "Peter�� awesome��" Fay whispered while her fingers moved up and down the back of my head, coating me in this peaceful sense of being taken care of. Fay''s eyes were lightly squinted, all watery and slightly disoriented, proving she, at her core, was still living through the aftershocks of her peaking. And as she looked down to her breasts where I rested my face�� ''This longing, this affection��'' I gritted my teeth, unable to sneak a hand towards my chest to clutch at my heart. The spasm that until recently continued to shake Fay''s body finally started to die out, giving way to the twitching and asional tightening of her insides around my dick. ''Ugh��'' I squinted my eyes when Fay clenched down on me exceptionally strong. ''Does that mean�� she didn''t have enough?'' I thought, lowering my face and then burying my head in her supple breasts. 20:32

    The feeling of having her skin and flesh deform under the touch of my own skin was insane, making me feel that whoever designed humans and their form really had to be a genius of their craft. I moved my hands up, sliding them underneath Fay''s waist before hugging myself into her as strongly as I could, only to feel the movement of her hands stroking my hair elerate while her pulsating insides grew even tighter than before. ''That''s good��'' After weathering through the allure Fay''s entire body exuded, I managed to put a small smile on my lips as I removed my left hand from under Fay''s back and rested it against the dry ground instead. ''Because I didn''t have anywhere near enough either!''

    I pushed myself off the ground, sliding out of Fay''s rxed hold. And while the look of shock, refusal, grief, and longing that instantly exploded on her face stung me right through my heart�� It was up to me, the man, to entertain my woman properly!

    Moving up, I pulled Fay alongside, changing our position from me lying on top of her and pinning her down, to me now kneeling down and raising Fay''s hips a little bit to keep the two of us connected. I looked down�� and cursed my carelessness. Below me, there was a beauty I didn''t deserve. A picture-perfect sexy woman, in all the glory of her naked flesh. Her skin was covered with tiny droplets of sweat, her breasts moved up and down to the rhythm of the beating of her heart, and her eyes were locked on my face with such an unbearable sense of longing burning in them��

    Fay''s haori ended up sliding off her body sometime during our first time, now ending up discarded on the ground, slightly to the side. Yet, even without this spare cloth adding charm and mystery to Fay''s beauty��

    ''Did I really just have my first time with such an ungodly babe?'' I thought as the sense of impossible conquest filled my soul with renewed strength. I''ve conquered this woman. This picture-perfect embodiment of what I considered beauty. Long, white-haired fox-girl. And I did it to the point of her face being all messy and her eyes refusing to look anywhere else but me!

    It felt�� as if something clicked. As if the missing element of the puzzle of my confidence finally fell into ce, realizing what used to be just an iplete shadow of its true form. My throat moved as I gulped my saliva down, unable to stop my eyes from dancing all over Fay''s body and burning the precise shape of her bodylines and charms into my memory. And when I looked further down, to where my sperm was starting to squeeze out from between the walls of Fay''s pussy and the rod of my dick that pried Fay''s lower mouth open��

    Fay squirmed a little, shifting her hips slightly to the side. Yet, while the difference wasn''t all that great, just the fact she moved sent a shiver of pleasure down my spine as her thirsty insides coiled around my dick at a slightly different angle. She was ready for another go. I could tell that much with how violent the convulsions of her insides grew in a mere moment. Without a doubt, she once again grew aware of the presence of my dick inside of her. And looking up to her eyes again, I could pretty much confirm all my guesses with just the simplistic, nearly stupid look she had on her face. "I guess we are both ready for another round," I spoke lightly, leaning back down and resting my hands just as I did before, with my left on the ground and my right sneaking to the very center of the weight of Fay''s back. ''Oopsie Daisy,'' I chimed in my thoughts as I pulled the powerless girl up. The first rule of entertainment assumes involving the entertained party in the fun. And for that sake, I couldn''t allow Fay to justy down, open herself up and enjoy. No, if she were to get amused even further, she had to y an active role too. Fay''s body offered no resistance, obediently raising up only for her to fall down onto my hips as she sat down and instantly leaned forward, trying to fall into another hug. Fay moved quickly�� but not quick enough for me to miss the vivid blush all over her cheeks. ''The look she has when she gets embarrassed�� Just how lovely can she get?!''

    Fearing I would lose my reason again if I allowed myself to be swept by Fay''s charms, I stepped up my game and gently pushed back at Fay''s corbone, trying to prey her out of my arms. At first, Fay didn''t resist, not expecting this kind of change whatsoever. "I want you to look me in the eyes as we do it," I requested in the short window when she looked at my face, all puzzled, before hearing my words, having her blush turn even more intense before desperately pushing her body forth and hiding her face in the corner between my shoulder and my neck. ''How cute,'' I thought, a stupid grin creeping up on my face when Fay desperately wrapped her arms around my back and clung to my chest, silently refusing my request. And so, with all the preparations said and done, I moved both of my hands down to Fay''s hips. I grabbed her by her ass, pulling my hands down to spread her just a little bit further apart�� before easily moving Fay up, all the way to the point where we nearly disconnected. Still, with my dick almost fully pulled out, it could no longer serve as a cork for the sperm I previously filled Fay''s womb with, allowing it to now spurt out from between our genitals and start flowing down my shaft. ''I guess the losers in the race to her eggs will turn into pavement for the next shot,'' I randomly thought, before fully rxing my hands�� and simply allowing gravity to do its job. And as Fay fell right down on my crotch and impaled herself with the full length of my dick��

    "Ahhh��" A surprised moan of ecstasy escaped from Fay''s parting lips while her face filled with unadulterated bliss. Yet, rather than letting her enjoy the sensation, I waited for merely three seconds before groping at her ass with all my might�� and lifting her up again. I decided to hold nothing back in my attempts at making our first time the best kind of memory for her. And for that, I had to ensure Fay''s active participation rather than just having her passively receive my affection!

    Guys, sorry for posting muchter than usual, but fear not, I believe I will be able to finish two more dailies before the reset... and then next set of dailies right after! :3

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    MotivatedSloth

 Chapter 50 One time is way too little! (r18)

    50 One time is way too little! (r18)

    With my hands no longer supporting her, Fay fell down on my crotch, once again stuffing herself full of my dick. "Ah��"

    This time, her moan changed with how she exhaled in pleasure instead of breathing in to bear with its onught. With my aim still the same as before, I removed one of my hands from her supple ass, moving it slowly up her back while using only the other hand to lift her up again�� And then rx, letting the gravity do the work for the both of us. "Ha�� ha�� ha��" Fay tried to sniffle her moans by pressing her lips against my neck,tching on it as if she wanted to suck some sort of nectar out of my skin. ''Damn��'' I thought when the weird pleasure of having her suck on my skin mixed with the slight, sharp pain when she continued to suck hard and harder�� ''Before long, I will have to ask her to suck my dick instead!''

    In spite of further ns for potential fun, I didn''t stop my simple training of grabbing Fay''s buttock, squeezing it with my fingers, and then raising it up, only to pull my hand and her ass as much to the side as I could and then giving up, letting her drop down to my hips. Bit by bit, I could sense Fay starting to jump up and down herself. Now, rather than just relying on the fall to fall down, she would press her own hips downward�� and she even started to voluntarily raise up!

    ''Just a little bit further,'' I thought, enjoying the moment as my right hand moved higher and higher, nearly reaching the back of her neck. But this wasn''t enough. ording to the advice I once stumbled upon while watching some randomedy show, there was a certain trick to pulling a woman''s hair during intimate times. A trick that aimed to remove the pain, leaving only the sensual experience behind. And so, my hand continued to crawl higher and higher. My fingers slid into Fay''s hair, brushing through it on the way toward the scalp of her head. Finally, it arrived right at the skin of the top of Fay''s head, where all her hair grew from. Keeping my movements slow, I did my very best to endure Fay now taking charge of her movements and hopping up and down at her own pace while using my dick to scrape and massage her insides. And then, right as she was about to drop down yet again, I gathered her hair between my fingers, grabbing at it as near the top of her head as I could. Fay dropped down while uttering yet another blissful moan directly to my ear. And in this precise moment, I pulled on her hair, forcing her head away from my shoulder and revealing the messy look on her face in all its glory. ''Damn��'' I clenched my buttocks, feeling as if I could cum just from looking into those moist, watery eyes of hers. And thankfully enough, right now Fay was in too much heat to care about her embarrassment, keeping her face where I could see it while she continued to slide up and down on my dick. "That''s it," I whispered, pulling myself back a little while moving both of my hands to the slight incline between her wide hips and her narrow waist. I didn''t move her up and down anymore, leaving all the work exclusively to her, enjoying the moment for as long as my growing sense of guilt failed to keep my desires in check. "Pe-eter��" Fay struggled to speak out while she continued to hop up and down. And from the looks of things, she had no ns to stop straddling me so that she could speak properly. Unable to contain myself, I moved my hands up again, this time to grab Fay''s face between them. With a single, gentle pull, I brought Fay''s head closer before leaning in myself and covering her sweet lips with my mouth. Already trained, Fay didn''t oppose my affection, instead jumping forth with her tongue to rub it against mine. Feeling no further need to direct her head, I moved my hands back to thefortable spot at the bottom of her waist. And right as I felt her hands wrap against my neck yet again�� Something broke with me. ''She''s fucking mine!''

    This obsessive possessiveness exploded in my heart and instantly spread throughout my body. Using this force and unable to keep myself in check, I jumped up right as Fay dropped down. "Angh!" Fay pulled her lips back and squealed, stretching her neck right for my lips to grab at when her head suddenly shot to the back. This was too much. Too much for any reasonable man to handle, to have a beauty like her jump up and down on their dick with such passion and dedication. Unable to contain myself any further, I leaped up. Carried by the momentum of my jump, I made three quick yet short steps, before pinning Fay''s back against the nearest tree. "You''ve worked hard enough," I whispered before pressing my mouth against Fay''s and greedily devouring her lips. And feeling Fay''s thighs close on my hips and tighten�� My mind went nk and my hips went forth with all the might they could gather. My dick scrubbed Fay''s inner walls before knocking at her deepest ce right as I smashed my entire body forward as if trying to squeeze Fay between my chest and the tree. "Come," Fay whispered in the short pause to our kiss, only to then passionately assault my lips again. "Mate with me��" she whispered the next time we both had to stop to take a breath. And as something tingled at the very bottom of my balls, she took another pause, leaned over my ear, and whispered, N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Fuck me."

    My sanity was long gone. All that existed right now was Fay, her softness, her warmth, her weing voice, and inviting charms. And with my mind full of nothing but her, I pulled all the stops, once again sending all the seed that grew in me forth with the sole intention and desire to fertilize her eggs. "Fay''s mine!" I uttered through my tightened teeth before rocking my hips for thest time and filling Fay''s womb with my seed before my knees gave up and forced me to lean forward and rest on the girl''s tensed shoulder. "You are mine," I whispered as we both slid down to the ground before falling down and back. I fell on my ass, only to be painfully reminded by some stray rock why fucking so intensely in a forest might not be the best idea. Soon, two other rocks repeated the lesson when I fell back on my spine and had them dig deep into my flesh. Yet, when Fay followed suit and powerlessly stumbled down on my chest andid down while her hips continued to shake a little through the aftershocks of her orgasm, I couldn''t care less about the rocks nearly cutting my skin open. As long as I could be the pillow and a mattress for this girl, how could anything else in the world matter?

    Don''t worry guys, I''m not going to stretch this smut ad infinitum, but after all this way I''m surely going to take my time! But yeah, the story''s back starting with the new chapter so look forward to it!

    Also, sorry but there''s no way I will write more right now. The drama from my work took too big of a toll on me. Worry not, though, sooner orter, all the promised chapters will be published!

 Chapter 51 Missing piece

    51 Missing piece

    "Haaa�� Haaa�� Haaa��" Fay''s breath caressed the skin of my chest. I could feel every single movement of her body, everyst twitch of her muscles dancing under her delicate skin. Her heartbeat was slow and steady, shaken only by the asional aftershocks of the pleasure moving up Fay''s spine. Those two outbursts of passion exhausted all of my strength. I couldn''t even sway my upper body to remove the sharp stones that painfully prickled my back. Or maybe it was because I had a damned fox-girl beauty peacefully resting on top of my chest?

    "Bliss��" Fay breathed out, a smile of perfect satisfaction resting on her red, full lips. Breathing out, I released some of the pressure that started to build up in my chest. This was truly a blissful moment. But we were still out in the open of the forest''s edge, with nothing to shield our naked and sweaty bodies from the chill of the colder winds. And as pleasant as just resting with Fay on my chest could be, I couldn''t afford to enjoy it if it came at the risk of a cold!

    "We should get ourselves fixed up," I whispered, moving my hand to gently brush it through Fay''s long, straight hair. The sense of fluffiness was out of the world, making me wonder who was actually caressing who as I carefully threaded my fingers through the white storm of Fay''s long hair. "Mhmmm��" Fay couldn''t be bothered to utter more than just a simple something between exhausted moan and tired groan. "Staying like that is like asking for a cold!" I tried to reason with the girl�� even though I could damn well feel theck of any intent whatsoever in Fay''s rxed body. She was hugging me like a pillow as she dozed off, melting in thesting aftershocks of peaking. With no other choice, I gathered all my strength�� and moved to the side. But rather than removing the stones from below me, I pulled the two of us a bit before my fingers hooked at Fay''s discarded haori. ''There it is,'' I thought to myself, pulling the cloth and quickly moving it to cover Fay''s sweaty back with it. Despite how rtively skimpy the outfit was when worn properly, now that it was all disheveled and unkempt, it could pretty well serve the role of a nket. ''There''s no way she will be able to move for some time,'' I had no other option but to ept this realization. How could I forcefully move Fay now that she was still reliving thest echoes of the pleasure we shared?

    Unable to move if I didn''t want to disturb Fay''s rest, I decided to take this moment to look inward. Yes, to ignore the beauty peacefully nodding away in my arms and directing my thoughts away.

    As idiotic as it sounded, that''s exactly what I did. Because I just noticed two things. First, there were some alerts in my system that I''ve somehow missed up until now. Sure, my mind was busy with Fay and all�� but since when did those alerts pop out? Was it rted to events of the past or��

    Well, it wouldn''t take a genius to figure it out. The most likely culprit of the change was located just nearby, where the battle recently took ce. But that was merely an added curiosity, something to check outter. Because what I discovered about myself was far more important than some changes to my system, regardless of what they were. In the end, as great as it was, my system was nothing more than a tool. A tool that allowed me to exploit my advantages far further than I would normally be supposed to�� but a mere tool nevertheless. It was up to me to use this tool in a proper way. As such, all things that affected me directly were of even greater importance than my system. Looking back, it wasn''t the appearance of the portal and system that led to the change in how I understood my mom''sst words. It was the change to how I perceived my mom''sst advice that unlocked my ess to the gifts allegedly left behind by my father for me to use. And right now, with Fay''s peacefully breathing in and out from the top of my chest, something changed deep at the bottom of my soul. I felt as if I finally found thest missing piece of the puzzle of my courage and confidence. As cringe as it might sound, just by having sex�� I managed to ovee a considerable portion of the self-worth trauma that my life with my dearest aunt brought to bear on me. And now that my self-importance started to resurface, I can finally look at a huge number of things�� from a different standpoint. ''To think that I was such a loser,'' I thought, looking back to my rtionship with Cassie. She wanted to have little to nothing to do with me, something I should''ve seen through her reluctance to go on dates or spend quality time with me. Or rather, it was something I''ve seen�� but decided not to act upon. After all, what was the worth of my pride if it would only serve to deprive me of the rtionship that brought some light back to my life?

    Only now, with Fay granting me the confidence I alwayscked, I saw that broken rtionship for the toxic cesspool it really was. We might not argue or sh all that much�� but the disproportion in how each party cared about the rtionship was the one element that forever barred it from working. ''I guess I was too stupid, clingy�� No,'' I shook my head to my own thoughts. ''I was too damn desperate!''

    In a sense, right now I was far more desperate than ever before, desperate to provide all the good in the world for Fay, make sure she was safe, and bring her as much happiness as I could. And I could focus on all of that because from the bottom of my heart, I knew, she nned to fill my life with happiness too. It was a different, healthier type of desperation�� or rather, mutual and reciprocated obsession. A feeling that put me and Fay on the same footing when it came to our rtionship. ''Me and Cassie, I guess we were never meant to work out,'' I thought, finally finding the mental strength and leeway to fully and properly move on, leaving all the regrets where they belonged: in the past. ''I guess that''s how it feels to be a man,'' I thought, continuing my self-inspection from before while slowly running my hand up and down Fay''s spine. Having her on top of me turned the instinct to pet her irresistible. But bing a man�� came with a whole set of consequences on its own. The most important one of them was how it was now up to me to take responsibility. And that meant��

    "Hey, I think we both would like nothing more but toy down and rx," I spoke softly while gently shaking Fay''s body to bring her back from the world of herzy dreams. "But I believe we should start getting back."

    It was stupid to remain out in the open while covered with a lot of sweat and just a single piece of cloth, barely protected from the colder winds that liked to course from between the trees. As we happened toy down right at the edge of the forest, our bodies also served as the windbreaker for all the currents that came storming from the clearing and crashed with all their might into the wall of trees. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    But in all honesty, this wasn''t even my greatest consideration, the worry of getting Fay sick. No. The fight from just before proved that I still underestimated just how dangerous this world was. And just by recalling the time when I saw Fay nearly get impaled by some bastard''s de��

    My body tensed up, determination fanning the mes of my inner engines, allowing me to break free from the shackles offort, grab Fay by her waist secure her on my chest, and then raise up with the girl in my arms. ''I still don''t know anywhere near enough about this world,'' I thought, hugging Fay close while continuing to lightly shake her, hoping to slowly pull her out of her rxed daze. ''And for me to learn more about it��'' I thought, my eyes drawn to where I expected Fay''s mom to be.

 Chapter 52 Some girls are worth simping for

    52 Some girls are worth simping for

    Cleaning ourselves up took far less time than I initially expected it would. Ultimately, we simply had to wipe our sweat and with the help of a single bottle of water, rinse our genitals. With those two little bits done, we simply put our clothes back before hugging side-by-side and walking in the direction Fay led us. She could easily sense where exactly her mother was, proving to be more capable in that regard than I was. ''And honestly, it would be weird if she wasn''t,'' I thought when I gave this realization some thought upon noticing the low-key ease and speed at which she brought her arm up when I asked where to find her mom. ''If I could still be better at sensing aura despite dumping most of my points into endurance, it would put the very sense of my system into question.''

    Sure, it allowed me to grow at a rapid pace. In terms of what kind of damage I could endure, I''ve already moved well past human limits. But my aura, wisdom, and knowledgegged behind, making it unlikely I couldpete with what appeared to be Fay''s expertise. In the end, we found Fay''s mom after only a short walk back to the battlefield, where she sat down in pace, watching over all the corpses while awaiting our return. ''Thinking about it, wouldn''t she do more in that fight back in her fox''s form?'' I couldn''t help but ask myself. I didn''t mean to im she didn''t do much. Without her, I would be done by that massive fire projectile cast by one of the invaders. But when I thought about tally��

    Sure, I used firearms, but I brought down three, or four attackers. And as elegant as her human form was, didn''t she end up only duking it out with that lone mage?

    I squinted my eyes a little. Trying to recall the details of that fight only brought physical pain exerting the weakened parts of my memories. Looking back up, I suddenly noticed the stare of Fay''s mom. It wasn''t directed at me, though. Sensing her mother''s inquisitive look, Fay blushed and took a step to the side, hiding herself behind my shoulder. Her mom''s gaze continued for a moment, followed by a satisfied and slightly amused smile. "You''ve got a great mate, it seems," she spoke, clearly intent on teasing her offspring. ''Ugh��''My chest clenched a little. I wasn''t all thatfortable with anything that pressured Fay�� even if her own mother was at fault. And before I could notice, my body shifted right, nearly cutting off the line of sight between the two. Either overwhelmed by the embarrassment or faltering under the scrutiny of her mom''s eyes, Fay buried her burning forehead into the side of my back. And sensing her body tremble��

    "Well, it''s good you are back," the elegant woman onlyughed at my expression, seemingly satisfied with her teasing so far. She then stood up and turned her eyes from the side of my chest to my face. "You''ve fought well," she announced before spreading her arms open and turning around, as if to point at the entire battlefield we were now standing on. Her eyes then shifted to one of the nearby bodies. "I think it''s only fair for you to get a fair share of the spoils," she spoke, her gaze intensifying, her expression turning as inquisitive as when she grilled Fay. Rather than responding right away, I took a long nce at the nearby corpses, counting those with wounds I could attribute to my shots. I raised my eyebrow a little when I saw the strangled mage, a young and timid-looking woman, likely around the middle of her twenties. My face twitched when I saw a group of three corpses brutalized to the point I couldn''t even tell their exact number for sure. Despite how my perception was focused on the everpresent green of the forest, this ce was actually bloody like hell. The crimson of the life juice was simply masked by the nature that readily jumped on the opportunity to suck it dry. ''Judging from the state of decay, it''s only a matter of two, three days before the corpses vanish,'' I thought�� and noticed theck of a certain drive. Contrary to how I felt when I saw the other battlefield�� Right now, I felt no urge to bury them. ''Is it because they actually tried to harm Fay?'' I thought, puzzled by the small notion of my character changing under the circumstances. ''Quite peculiar, isn''t it?''

    What''s more, as I looked at those mangled corpses, the frozen looks of fear, focus, and disbelief on their still faces�� I felt no remorse or guilt whatsoever. Regardless, as I kept looking at this scene of carnage, my hand moved back on its own, seeking Fay''s warmth. Fay shifted behind my back, slightly startled by my hand at first, only to readily reach out for my fingers and give my palm a tight, reassuring squeeze. ''How does she even know how I feel?'' I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, feeding off the warmth of Fay''s hand to rebuild my mental momentum. "You''ve really found a good mate, kiddo," Fay''s mom spoke again, this time in a softer voice. The pressure on my girl seemed to weaken as well, allowing her to carefully peek out from behind my back while giving my hand another squeeze. "I did��" Fay whispered, blushing hard while she lowered her face and looked away�� but this time she didn''t avert her eyes under the weight of her mother''s look. This time, she couldn''t handle my stare. Her hand never stopped squeezing mine, though. I shook my head and forced my thoughts back on track. And the answer that came up was likely not what Fay''s mother expected to hear. "To be honest, I''m not in that much of a hurry to gather the spoils," I shrugged my shoulders, averting my eyes from the corpses and looking at the elegant fox-woman instead. "I don''t see a point going around while they can still be breathing. Why risk giving them a lucky shoot?" I shrugged my shoulders again. "Let''s just leave them to die in a few hours tops. In the meantime, I would like you to finally take a look at the gifts that we''ve brought!"

    Contrary to the flesh and possibly even bone, I didn''t have to worry about the lively flora of the ce to consume the gold or silver. I saw those two metals remain on the former battlefield, even when some of the corpses already reached an advanced state of decay. "I''ve thought you craved gold��?" Fay''s mom raised her eyebrows, appearing to be genuinely surprised. And in all honesty, her look hurt a bit. "Only to provide Fay with all the luxury and fun my world can offer." I shook my shoulders for the third time. Moving my head, I gave Fay a loving look. And upon realizing how my statement just now sounded like�� ''Some girls are really worth simping for,'' I thought, painfully aware of who I turned into. Then, the battlefield drew my attention yet again. "Even if I can get those coins, it''s only a stop-gap measure. Not something I can stably sustain us on," I shook my head before turning it back towards the woman and looking her straight in the eye. "My world appears to be pretty expensive. And I''m not going to hold anything back when letting Fay experience all the best parts of it."

    For today: 2/6

    MotivatedSloth n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

 Chapter 53 I sought answers and now I have even more questions

    53 I sought answers and now I have even more questions

    In the end, Fay''s mother decided to go through with my suggestion to leave the gold forter and take care of the gifts that we brought first. Some time has already passed, after all, and not all the foods that we brought over could survive for long outside of a fridge. Yet, as soon as we gathered ourselves and moved out for the main clearing, Fay pressed herself even tighter to my side. And once her mom got some distance from us, she tightened her hold over my hand as she snuggled up to my shoulder. "Are you sure you are okay?" Fay asked in a silent whisper, the slight worry painted all over her anxious face. ''What does she��'' It took me a moment to figure out what Fay was even talking about. And if my guess was correct, she still had some doubts regarding my reaction to the corpses of my own making. ''The weird thing, I''m actually okay,'' I thought, sensing no negative effect on my mental state from all the gore I saw and bore quite a bit of responsibility for. And while the brutalized corpses I noticed were quite a sight�� It simply didn''t feel like something that was traumatic enough to trouble me in my sleepter. "Yeah, I''m okay," I spoke back while responding to Fay''s squeeze by grasping her hand a bit tighter on my own. "Also, I believe I owe you congrattions," I then added, removing the thoughtful look from my face in favor of a small, genuinely happy smile. "Your English is impable now. If you can speak in this fashion, you should be able to slowly start going outside," I pointed out while reaching out and gently tapping the girl''s shoulder. I exaggerated nothing. The rate at which Fay learned thenguage would put all the linguists of the earth to shame. But quite honestly, by now, I held no expectations whatsoever when it came to Fay''s ability to learn. It wasn''t that I didn''t expect her to achieve anything worth nothing. I simply opted not to hold any expectations not to have Fay constantly break past the most ambitious hopes I would have, proving over and over just how narrow my thinking would be. Rather than constantly living through surprise, I decided to ept whatever genius Fay would exhibit at face value. And as I looked down on her face covered with a pride-brimming smile�� ''Yeah, that''s how it should be,'' I thought, releasing Fay''s hand only to wrap my arm around her shoulder and pull her to my side as we followed the footsteps of her mother. The slightly intimate moment didn''tst long, though, as our journey took us merely a minute or two. And when I was about to let go of Fay to present all the goods we brought to her mom�� It was actually Fay that escaped from my hold, rushing ahead with the prideful smile on her face growing even stronger. ''But I thought��'' I reached out after the girl, only to lower my hand right away while allowing a helpless smile on my lips. I then shook my head, trying to ignore the look of excitement as Fay rushed to showcase all the modern goodies. "Try this first!" Fay happily pulled out the bag that I recognized on sight thanks to the big, yellow logo of a certain letter written all over its sides. And when she pulled out a paper-wrapped sandwich, it finally struck me. ''She wants to give her the same ride-through tastes that I gave her,'' I realized, hesitating for a second before opting to back off and sit down in the shade of a nearby tree. By the time I finally managed to find a nice spot, Fay was already passing the unwrapped burger to her mom. ''She''s so genuine,'' I thought, unable and quite frankly, unwilling to hold back my smile. "And that was the inest of them all!" Fay announced, all excited, when her mom''s face froze as she tasted the guilty pleasure of the modern world in the form of unhealthy food. Seeing Fay all merrily y the role of the host and showcasing the goods of the modern world, I felt a strange sense of warmth spread throughout my soul. A warmth that I hadn''t felt in years, ever since I said my goodbyes to my own mother. Warmth of a family. Yet, as I continued watching two beauties, one youthful and energetic and the other mature and elegant, I couldn''t help but realize. ''Isn''t this the right time to finally get to my system?''

    I was peacefullyzing away under a tree while watching how the attitude of Fay''s mother changed under the influence of the tasty treats. Soon, her elegance gave way to curiosity as she started to sink into the pleasure of eating good food and adoring nice clothes that Fay had just now started to pull out. ''I guess I will let them have their fun. And in the meantime��'' This time, my attention fully moved over to my system. The fact that I didn''t really have the moment to see the changes to my system through was one of the main reasons why I haven''t made any moves or decisions yet. After all, what was the point of doing so if the changes to the system could easily upset the situation I was in?

    [Battle log:

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 7.3 Participation: 69%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 6.2 Participation: 68%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 6.7 Participation: 68%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 8 Participation: 70%

    15:18

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 5.9 Participation: 70%

    - Participation kill bonus: Average attribute of the kill: 6.5 Participation 10%

    - Participation kill bonus: Average attribute of the kill: 5.8 Participation 10%

    - Participation kill bonus: Average attribute of the kill: 4.9 Participation 10%

    - Participation kill bonus: Average attribute of the kill: 6.2 Participation 15%

    - Participation kill bonus: Average attribute of the kill: 7.7 Participation 15%

    - Total level growth: 2.74]

    [Gained Tribute: Consecutive Kill

    - Increases Darkness affinity

    - +1 virtual point in physical attributes]

    [Gained Tribute: Fighter

    - No effect of affinities

    - +1 virtual strength point]

    [Unlocked: Eye of time

    - Darkness Affinity skill

    - Temporary raises intelligence by 3 virtual attribute points

    - Cooldown: 1 day]

    [Unlocked: Blood Tribute

    - Darkness and Blood affinity skill

    - By offering the source of one''s life, the wielder of this skill can put the flow of time to a temporary stop. - Efficiency raises with Aura and intelligence n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    - Effect grows proportional to the sacrifice

    - Cooldown: N/A]

    [Leveling up system]

    [Peter Von Ziaq]

    [Level: 2] > [Level 4] (/74)

    [Strenght: 1.25] > [Strenght: 3.25]

    [Agility: 1.25] > [Agility: 2.25]

    [Wisdom: 4] > [Wisdom: 4]

    [Inteligence: 4.25] > [Inteligence: 4.25]

    [Endurance: 7.5] > [Endurance: 7.5]

    [Aura: 3] > [Aura: 5]

    [Usable points: 0] > [Usable points: 4]

    Just reading through all the changes was enough to make my head spin. What was the system that calcted the growth of my level? That, I could pretty much guess. And after fiddling with the numbers, the math turned out to be pretty simple. The participation, whatever it was, indicated the percentage of the average attribute points of the killed enemy that would be taken into ount. Judging from how the participation level didn''t go above point seven, there was something siphoning off a part of my growth. Yet, after the initial annoyance that this realization brought, I focused on the next part of my battle log. ''This has to be the bonus I got from the Fay''s and her mom''s kills,'' I soon realized before figuring out the simple math behind the growth. After adding up all the values of the average attribute points of the enemies we killed and having them match the participation value, they would all be added up. A tenth of the final sum would be the final result of my level of growth. Simple math�� but one that brought forth a certain issue. Because from the looks of things wasn''t genocide the easiest way for one to grow in this world?

    As worrying of a thought as it was, I quickly moved on to the further mysteries hidden in the pop-up messages that covered my entire field of view when I focused on my system. What were affinities? How could I check them? Was there any other way to gain skills? And just how in all hell did I gain the ability to control time? What''s more, was the pain in the eyes an after-effect of using my newly obtained "eye of time" skill? And if so�� then just how did it work, to begin with?

    I shook my head, overwhelmed by how my wish to get some answers resulted in even more questions. But there was also one, vile regret left in me. ''Usually, milestone levels bring bonus rewards, don''t they?'' I thought to myself, squinting my eyes as I weighed the options I had now. ''I wonder what will happen once I reach the fifth level?''

    Today''s chapters: 3/6

    MotivatedSloth

 Chapter 54 Trade over bloodied coin

    54 Trade over bloodied coin

    The changes to my system were quite massive. From the discovery that something like affinities existed, through learning how to level up in this world, all the way to the existence of tributes�� For now, it was slightly more than I could handle all on my own. But there was something that I was free and pretty damn interested to try. Following the outburst of excitement, I stood up�� And already noticed the change. Even though my agility rose by only a single point, I could tell how much easier it was for me to stand up and move around. While I would attribute the lightness of my moves to the growth of my strength by two points, the ease at which I could now lean different parts of my body at extreme angles��

    Something like this could nevere from strength alone. For a short while, I simply ran around the ce, jumping, rolling and generally testing every move that a gamer would perform whenunching a new game to test the controls. The difference was, though, this wasn''t a game, but a real life. Yet, this simple series of tests allowed me to confirm what I already was quite sure about. ''As far as I can tell, attributes below one are dogshit, far below average. Assuming one point means a perfect average, two points for someone well-trained, then three points would mean a freaking elite.''

    That much I could tell just from how easy it was for me to move around, how quickly I could now run�� but also how faster my dynamic perception came to be. When it came to attributes that went above and beyond three points�� I couldn''t really tell the exact details for sure. But without a single shred of doubt, both my intelligence and wisdom now exceeded a human level. ''If only I knew what''s their use, besides empowering my skills,'' I thought, unable to hold an ugly grimace from festering on my face for a short while. Yet, as I turned around�� All the anxiety vanished from my mind. How could I ever worry about some questions when I had Fay and her mother trying all sorts of different clothes?

    After a short nce, I turned around, not wishing to intrude upon their privacy. And while I would be more than happy to watch Fay change�� Sneaking peaks at her mother felt wrong, especially after what I''ve learned about their kind. ''If she has a child, she had to have a partner too. And judging by how it''s nowhere to be seen��'' I could only guess what happened to Fay''s father. But her very existence implied the presence of her father, her mom''s mate. Or, in simpler terms, while I, by some miracle, became Fay''s mate, her mother already had a mate on her own. And ording to what she said, it was her mate for life. ''What am I even thinking about?'' I scolded myself when I noticed the source of this line of thought. ''This is not some stupid novel written by a horny author to let his virgin readers indulge in an illusion of rtionships. I''m not a hentai harem protagonist either,'' I thought, rolling my eyes, annoyed by the mere notion of such a possibility appearing in my mind. Still, I had no ns of letting Fay''s mother go. But while Fay''s position in my heart was already solidified, it was also different from the ce I predicted her mother would soon take. The ce that my own mother vacated when she lost her fight with cancer all those years ago. Fay for a partner, her mom for a mother�� I shook my head. ''No matter how I look at this, I''ve created a new family,'' I thought before gulping down a sip of saliva when the weight of this notion suddenly pulled down on my shoulders. ''And that means, I need to be the man of the family.''

    I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, preparing myself to voluntarily ept this burden. And as I pushed my eyelids up again�� n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "As I''m sure you''ve realized by now, things that are mere sundries back in my world could fetch luxury premiums here," I spoke once I confirmed both Fay and her mom were currently dressed. I stepped forth, closing the distance that I left between us to give them some space before. "On the other hand, things that aremon here might be valuable artifacts back in my home world," I added, looking around as if to indicate the whole forest around was pretty much a treasure trove. ording to the cliches, in a world with magic, there had to be some sort of herbs that a mob-ring back on earth would be interested in, right? And if I got my hands on a single sample, then I could pretty much move on from selling the gold that I didn''t really have a stable source of. Fay''s mom turned her eyes away from the pile of clothes Fay already showcased and turned her sights to my face. At the very least, now I''ve got her attention. "This is how I want to make money. Not by looting corpses of those who somehow intrude on us here, but by letting both worlds benefit with a simple trade."

    For now, the idea of finding some funny herbs ended up shelved in the back of my mind. It was thest-ditch strategy, not the main course of action I wanted to take. After all, wouldn''t it be better to sell potions that could cure all illnesses than introduce a new, potentially harmful drug to my already drug-infested world?

    I stood up from where I sat at the end of my exercise. Then, after a short walk, I moved directly in front of the elegant woman�� before bowing nearly in half. "That''s why, I wish to learn more about this world. I wish to learn where I can go to trade, what ces I should avoid, what rules createmon sense here��" I spat out a long string of different trivia I was interested in. Since I''ve decided to adopt Fay''s mother as a mother on my own, I dared not to hold anything back. How else could I build a trusting rtionship with her if I wasn''t honest, after all?

    So, I raised up�� only to bow once again, even deeper this time. "That''s why, if possible, would you mind teaching me more about this world?"

    Today''s chapters: 4/6

 Chapter 55 Do you wish to deal with those who mean us harm?

    55 Do you wish to deal with those who mean us harm?

    "That''s why, if possible, would you mind teaching me more about this world?"

    My question sounded out in the air�� but to no avail. Fay''s mother didn''t respond right away. And that means, this wasn''t something she was going to decide lightly, on the spot. And from how her face tensed up��

    ''No, there''s no point drawing any conclusions. Just sit tight and wait,'' I told myself, pursing my lips before they tried to start backtracking on my request to solve the potentially awkward moment before it appeared. "If it''s trade that you wish for, then I can''t give you good news," the woman spoke after a long while, shaking her head in what looked like regret�� and a distant echo of anxiety?

    "The men that attacked us today�� They were likelypanions of the ones you''ve buried. You are aware of that, I presume," she then added, proving my earlier guess wrong. It wasn''t that she didn''t want to speak with me about the world. More likely, her reluctance came from what she already said - how she didn''t have any good news to share. "I''ve noticed," I replied and slowly nodded my head, prickling my ears as I was unwilling to let even a single word of the celestial fox go to waste over me just mishearing it. On the other hand, Fay appeared to be all confused, not sure what to feel about the sudden change to both the topic and the atmosphere. "They all came from the same ce," Fay''s mother paid little to no mind to her daughter''s confusion, opting to just continue the story instead. She reached out and grabbed some stray twigs before using them like a pen to draw in the soft soil of the forest''s clearing. "This here is the celestial forest, where all sorts of divine beasts reside," she narrated as she drew an irregr blob. "To the north opens up the starlight in while to the south extends the misty valley."

    With just a few more strokes of her hand, she drew the generaly of the nearbynds. My face twitched a little when I heard the familiar name. And while there was no significance in just hearing it�� it also proved that my system wasn''t just made up of random bullshit. At the very least, when it came to attributes and names for things, it seemed to be pretty much on point. Quite noticeably, Fay''s mother raised her eyes on me as she brought up the names of thosends. And without a doubt, she noticed the twitch on my face when she spoke of the starlight in. Whatever she understood from it, I had no idea. But now I could tell there was a lot more to that open grasnd than I already knew about. "Neither of those areas are ces a human like you, or even a divine beast like me or Fay could easily cross."

    ''Which means, we can''t go north and south. And that leaves east and west, right?'' I quickly tranted the woman''s words into concrete information I could use. Yet, as I looked down on the drawing again, ready to learn about the areas to the west and east, my eyes couldn''t help the allure and draw towards the starlight ins. ''Now that I''ve raised my endurance��'' I thought, before gulping my saliva. ''I wonder if I couldst in some of those areas I dared not to even approach before.''

    With only a tiny bit left for me before I would advance to the fifth level, I was desperate to find a way to do so.Worst case scenario, I could wait for my gate to refresh, go back to earth, and grab someone strong but living under thew so I could execute him in this world where the system worked properly��

    ''Ugh, I''m already starting to consider morally dubious options,'' I scolded myself, curbing the invasive thought before it could settle itself in my mind. "To the west, there are forbiddennds. There, not even gods can step lightly," the mom fox continued her story�� and continued to eliminate the directions I could venture out to. What''s more, though, she now brought up the topic of gods�� and having them potentially walk the face of this world! ''I guess this is a world where mythos�� is not that mythical after all!

    I shook my head, opting to focus on the story itself rather than the details that while interesting, would only leave me with even more questions without answers. "Then, to the east��" the mom fox hesitated for the very first time since starting her story. "There lies the kingdom that all the humans who invade the celestial foreste from," she said before shaking her head. "Theye here to hunt the likes of me and Fay, eager to turn our corpses into materials to sell."

    Fay''s mom dropped the bomb�� that, to a degree, I already expected. With three directions already eliminated, only one was left for those humans we fought with toe from. And from the looks of things, they all came from a nation that encroached on the natural habitat of celestial beasts - which apparently there were many kinds of - in their bid to gain riches and fame. Quite honestly, I could see myself being just like one of those humans, venturing into the wilderness to y beasts and make merry with my fellow adventurers upon my safe return. I could perfectly imagine this kind of scenario�� which made it all the more believable for me. "So, unless you want to trade with those who wish death upon the two of us and all that we hold dear, there''s no one for you to trade with," Fay''s mom summed up her entire story, proving that she, indeed, didn''t have good news for me. ''Does that mean, I''m back to the n of grabbing some funky herbs?'' I thought, gritting my teeth at the mere mention of the idea. But if this was what I had to do to avoid dealing with people who were out for Fay''s blood, then was it really all that bad?

    And I really had to find a way to make money off this portal of mine. Now that I could picture who those people who attacked Fay were, I also figured out the answer to something that had been bugging me since myst visit. ''That''s why they only had a few coins between all of them,'' I thought, taking a deep breath to calm down. ''It''s because they know the danger of this forest so they don''t bring much money while adventuring to begin with.''

    Unsure how to deal with all that I''ve learned, I took a step back and sat down on the ground, taking a moment to carefully run down all my options. ''With the money from thest fight, we should be able tost how long, a month? Maybe two. But what then?''

    I shook my head, nearly cursing at the cards fate dealt me with. And then, it dawned on me. ''How can I call myself a man if I''m allowing bad luck to affect me?'' I asked myself, freezing in ce as I did so. ''If I''m to be better, then I can''t allow the circumstances to affect me!''

    With renewed determination, I rose back up to my feet and took a deep breath, this time to liberate my soul. ''My options might be limited right now. But that only means I need to get creative!'' Today''s final progress: 5/6:

    1 backlog

    3 daily (with wpc bonus)

    1 bonus. That brings the general tally to:

    Daily 3/3 n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Backlog 1/1

    PS 2/3

    Reviews 1/2

    1k collections bonus: 0/2

    In other words, we are left with 4 bonus chapters to be posted soon!

    MotivatedSloth

 Chapter 56 Not really

    56 Not really

    "Mom! Come and look at this!" Fay shouted in excitement when she managed to find one of the nicer dresses that she picked out when we were deciding what to bring and what to leave forter. She was currently dressed in the Chinese Qipao, giving me a great view of the sides of her thigh with how the cloth of her outfit cut open and only covered the front and back. On the other hand, her mother donned an elegant,te-night dress that she coupled with an expensive, fur scarf that she loosely wrapped around her shoulders. ''Just give her sses and she could cosy Marlyn Monroe,'' I thought, rolling my eyes before turning them back to the less pleasant but much more necessary part of the day. While the girls busied themselves with the clothes and all the lovely poses they could strike in those, I had my hands elbow-deep in blood and guts from extracting any potential valuables from the corpses in the field. I was looking for anything, any item that could possibly fetch a nice price back on earth. Anything�� outside of armor and swords, as those two types of items were too distinct and too regted back home for me to bear the risk of carrying them around. Sure thing, they could be worth a huge amount of money if sold to some collectors�� but they were too real. Theycked the ir and craftsmanship of the replicas people would buy for quite considerable sums. Even though they were all made with durability and efficiency in mind�� whenpared to machine-produced goods, they were clearlycking!

    ''In a sense, I could make bank by selling earth-produced weapons here, but��'' My eyes wandered away from the corpse I was dealing with and back towards the girls. I took a deep breath before turning my head back and returning to my job. ''Yeah, right. And who I would be selling those weapons to?'' I rolled my eyes at the stupidity of this idea. In theory, I didn''t really have to worry about this topic yet. With how the valuables I was looting right now could easilyst us another two or three months, there was absolutely no need for me to try to forcefully figure everything out right this very moment. But with nothing to think about, I scoured the items left behind by the attackers and the areas around in case they dropped something�� I couldn''t help but keep thinking. ''Also, what''s with her iming we cannot cross that starlight in?'' I thought, my attention turned back to the most interesting point in Fay''s mom''s story besides the nearby kingdom of adventurers. ''I know there are some more intense spots, I know it messes up with one''s perception a bit��'' I shook my head, trying to wrap my mind around the dangers that could deter even someone as powerful as Fay''s mom. Maybe there was something I couldn''t see that lurked in the depths of this in. Or maybe it was the opposite, my ability to see where the light of the stars would shine with its full intensity, which allowed me to cross the in without frying my brain the second I would step into one. Or maybe it had something to do with how moving through that space appeared to mess with one''s perception of time?

    ''Well, that still leaves me with the idea of finding a good herb��'' I thought, only for my mood to sour on the spot. I couldn''t really expect some legendary nt to grow all over the ce, allowing me to brew high-ss potions that could as much as restore a missing arm in a mere instant. That sort of ridiculous coincidence would be too much for me to ept. But I had no doubt there were some types of smaller, more popr herbs that bore much slighter effect�� but one that could still be valued on earth. Still, whether the nts using the power of magic would triumph over years of precise, selective breeding of the nts back home�� That was a whole different question. ''And thinking about that starlight in��'' My thoughts once again bounced back to the topic that intrigued me. ''I wonder if I could level up by exping in one of those brighter spots. If needed, I could even dump those current points of mine into endurance and try testing it out then!''

    But all of that was something forter. Whether or not I would visit the ins, whether I would try to temper myself just a little bit further in the light of the stairs in my bid to reach the fifth level�� All of those ifs and buts could wait until tomorrow because for today I had my schedule pretty much filled. Before long, I cleared out thest of the corpses before hauling all the loot to a single ce and spreading it down on the ground to make it easier to assess the whole picture at once. Yet, before I could even call for Fay and her mom��

    ''Should I focus on looking for those herbs? Or maybe try going for the training?'' Instead of looking at the valuables, my eyes wandered off, and looked into the darkness hidden in the deeper parts of the forest. ''Maybe I could try my luck at getting my level up in the�� moremon way?'' The battle from before proved I could gain experience by killing fellow humans. And well�� n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    All the three intrusive thoughts that kepting back to my mind were strictly rted to each other. After all, all the founding ideas behind them�� came from the list of my missions that I''ve known about ever since my system properly woke up!

    Escape the starlight ins. Survive on the starlight ins. Uncover the secret behind the Starlight ins. I''ve yet toplete a single one of those three. And quite damn noticeably, while varying in difficulty�� Those missions still bore the title of "Main mission." And that only made it harder for me to believe those ins to be uncrossable, not with the main mission of my system directing me right in that area!

    Then, came the set for the suggested mission. To find three precious herbs in the forest that would elerate my growth. To reach level five before leaving the forest so that I could gain a special title. Andstly, with a "Are you fucking serious" level of difficulty, the one and only mission I''vepleted thus far. "Find a Celestial guardian and gain its blessing."

    I muttered, raising my eyes to the sky before finally bringing them back to the valuables. And in what felt like a single instant, I could pretty much tell what worth those items would stand at. ''About four months,'' I tranted the amount of money I could get for all the things I''ve lotted into how long I could keep entertaining Fay without paying any mind to the fiscal cost of doing so. And while it was only a rough estimate, it still gave me a general idea of what situation I was in. "Well, I guess I can just go with the easiest of them all," I muttered to myself as I raised my eyes and waved at the women to summon them closer. "And that leaves escaping the starlight in or finding out three precious herbs��"

    And with the girl''s arriving��

    "I''m done. We can head back now," I informed the girls, giving them a short moment to nce at what I''ve gathered before throwing it all haphazardly into a lonesome bag and throwing it over my shoulder, ready to go. "Don''t you want to bury them?" Fay''s mom asked as soon as we made our first step, her eyes brimming with cold curiosity. I took a deep breath and twisted my hips, taking a quick look at the decaying corpses of those who dared to raise their weapons at Fay. Out of nowhere, the small bag filled with valuables appeared to turn lighter. "No," I replied while shaking my head a little and focusing on what was ahead. "Not really."

    Those weren''t the bodies of people I''d just randomly seen dying. Those were the decaying bodies of those who dared to raise their hands and weapons at my woman, putting her in serious danger as a result. To some unknown strangers, I was willing to offer both mercy strikes to put an end to their intense pain and even somefort. Then, I would work my ass hard to give them a proper resting ce!

    But those people? Who threatened to take the one good thing in my life away from me? And for something as silly as revenge, at that? No, I had no intent of burying them. And if it was up to me, they could rot as they were until all eternity woulde to pass. n for today: 3 daily (wpc bonus included) and 3 bonus chaps

    1/6

 Chapter 57 Lazy morning?

    57 Lazy morning?

    Waking up, I could feel nothing but softness. No, Fay''s mother didn''t turn back into her fox form to let us enjoy the fluffiness of her fur. What''s more, I don''t think I would feel right snuggling up to her, even if she were to take her animal form. Now that I saw her as a human�� I pretty much wouldn''t be able to just keep my blissful ignorance from earlier. So no, it wasn''t the soft fur of the massive fox that gave me all that pristinefort. It wasn''t the nice sheets and covers that we brought over from the earth. Those could only protect us from heat and soften up the spot where wey down. The only reason behind the endlessfort I could feel myself sinking in was the beautiful woman currently snuggling up to my chest while her soft, steady breath caressed my skin as if to indicate she was still long asleep. ''Even though it''s not my first time holding her like that, and our embrace isn''t even all that tight��'' I thought, struggling to keep my mind and body sane now that I grew aware of just what was this mostfortable pillow I was hugging. And strangely enough, even though we simply huddled close together rather than actively holding each other, my sense offort was shooting through the roof. ''Maybe that''s the charm of sleeping together?'' I thought before failing to resist the allure and lowering my forehead to Fay''s shoulder. Resting the side of my head against her neck, I took a deep breath, relishing in the delicate, flowery scent of her skin that filled my nostrils. ''Ha��'' Hugging myself into Fay''s soft skin, I released a long sigh. And as the air left my lungs, all the tension and pressure in my body followed. My eyes closed, struggling to resist the rxation that filled my entire being. For a moment, I allowed myself to drown in thefort of Fay''s soft and sweet embrace. ''With this, we have two more days before the portal opens up again,'' I thought, going back with my sleepy thoughts to the quick test I did yesterday. And then, I breathed out again. ''And I need to make them count.''

    I closed my eyes and took a deep, long breath, fully focusing on the pleasure of just holding Fay in my arms and breathing in her scent. Her softness was overwhelming, nearly forcing me to ignore all the responsibility I felt and just use her as a pillow, dive into her rejuvenating embrace, and simply relish in the sweetest sleep that would follow. But I had things to do. And I wasn''t going to let myziness now put a stop to my active ns for the future. After all, rather than feeling satisfied with enjoying azy morning with Fay right now, I wanted to build a future where I could enjoy her soft warmth forever!

    "Peter��?" Fay muttered through her sleep. Yet, her body started to move slightly around as she snuggled up closer to my chest indicating she would soon start her day. And as her body moved during her snuggles, I couldn''t ignore the sensation of her skin rubbing all over mine��

    "Peter��" With my thoughts muffled by the insane sensation, I momentarily allowed my thoughts to directly transmit to my tongue. "Why don''t you call me hone��"

    I cut my words at the veryst moment, freaked out awake when I realized what words I nearly uttered when charmed by Fay rubbing herself on me. Fay, still in her sleepy mode, thankfully failed to notice when I nearly jumped, startled by my own desires. "Hon��" Fay hesitated a little as she proved that I was, indeed,te with cutting my voice. "Hon, are you up?" she asked while starting to rapidly blink her eyes to clean them off her drowsiness. ''Oh god��'' I screamed out in my soul, my chest tightening while my heart skipped a beat. ''What good have I done?'' n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    It didn''t take a genius to imagine how Fay would now refuse to change her way of addressing me, as soon as she would see my reaction to her doing so. And that means�� I''ve just identally fired a shot that woulde ricochetting right back into my face! Because of how great it felt to be called like that�� I wasn''t quite mentally ready for it yet. My body froze in shock and terror�� only to rx when Fay wrapped her hands around my neck as she hid her face in my chest. Despite early signs of waking up, she still resisted the call of the day, giving in to thefortable allure of azy morning. "Fay, we should wake up," I spoke lightly while giving her a gentle shake, more to probe for her reaction than to actually shake her awake. "N-no��" Fay protested, only to tense up her arms and climb a bit up on me�� once again rubbing herself all over my skin. She then hid her face in the corner between my neck and shoulder while her limbs copsed all around me, locking me in this tight, loving embrace. "Just a little bit more��" Fay sleepily requested, rubbing her face against my shoulder before finally settling down. "Fay, the harder we work now, the more we will be able to yter," I tried to convince the girl out of her sleep, seeing how just shaking her half-awake wouldn''t suffice. "Hon�� y with Fay?" My lips trembled a little. ''Why do I get the feeling she thinks of something else?'' I thought, only to nod my head and lightly pat the back of Fay''s head. "That''s right. But for that, we need to wake up and work hard!" I cheered Fay on as if she was some kind of kid. And to my surprise, she actually rose up, pushing the sheets off our makeshift bedding before raising her hands to wipe the drowsiness of her eyes. And she apparently cared not for how throwing the sheets away exposed her naked upper body, making her sh her boobs right in my face without a care in the world. ''Just resist it,'' I thought, feeling the powerful urge to reach out and grab at those two meaty peaks�� But like I imed, there was a lot to do for both today and tomorrow. And as long as we did our best now, we should still have more than enough time to have some funter!

    I shook my head and looked away, trying to forcibly change the line of my thoughts��

    ''I guess that''s why she felt so soft and warm,'' I thought, failing to think of anything else but Fay''s lovely shapes. Still, with Fay now waking up, I quickly followed suit and stood up�� Only to realize I was covered in the same number of clothes as Fay. Still, rather than hurrying to cover myself, I simply embraced the sense of liberation and walked out a few steps away from our bedding before turning my eyes to the nearby line of trees. Staring into the woods, I took a deep breath and stretched out my back and arms, fully embracing the potential exhibitionist''s kink while looking out for a ce thaty beyond the trees I was looking for. Feeling the tug on my hand, I turned my eyes to Fay, only to see her passing my clothes to me while already holding her own close to her chest. Sensing my gaze, Fay turned her eyes away, suddenly embarrassed by appearing naked. Yet, before I could even grab those clothes and turn my eyes away, Fay moved her eyes back for a quick peek�� before pulling her arm away and giving me a peek at her breasts.

    ''Damn��'' I gulped my saliva down, hurriedly turning my eyes away and starting to put on some clothes. ''Now I will have to get back at her for itter,'' I thought, sensing some pressure appear in my pants as soon as I wore them. Still, my eyes ended up drawn towards the forest again�� or rather, the starlight ins hidden behind it. ''Starlight ins or the herbs,'' I weighed the two potential paths to some development in my mind. Then, I turned my head over my shoulder and looked in the other direction, oppposite to where I expected to find the grasnds I visited during myst trip to this world. ''Or maybe I should go and take a look at that misty valley or something?''

    For today: 2/3 daily, 0/3 bounus

    2/2 daily :)

    0/1 wpc daily bonus from top rank :D

    2/3 PS bonus ^^

    1/2 review bonus :3

    0/2 collections milestone bonus @.@

    0/0 Supergifts :c

    MotivatedSloth

 Chapter 58 Well, this turned out to be one big failure

    58 Well, this turned out to be one big failure

    Our small group of three reached the edge of the woods after just a short walk along the riverbed and then through a pretty thick undergrowth. For some reason, nature appeared to thrive the closer one got to the starlight ins�� even though once the shade of the trees no longer protected it from the light of stairs, nothing but grass dared to make its appearance. And when I finallyid my eyes down on the in again, I could tell that this wasn''t just your ordinary grass. ''I wonder what would happen upon consuming it,'' I thought, suddenly curious. There was no doubt in my mind that consuming that grass wouldn''t have any pleasant effects. How could it bring benefit to one, if it grew under the influence of light that put anyone exposed to it in a depressed state?

    I shook my head, ridding it of the stupid thoughts and hopes. After all, the point that nailed my idea of using this grass for the purpose of buying myself a luxurious life through the gang was supremely simple. There was simply no way I would be that lucky to have an entire, seemingly endless field filled with something that could rival weed or another special kind of nt for how much it could be worth!

    I shook my head again, removing all the idea of ever using this potentially dangerous flora in my ns. And to distract myself, I simply looked away�� Which quickly proved to be a bad idea. Both the women had worried looks on their faces. And while I could see all the worry that Fay''s eyes were brimming with, her reluctance to let me enter the in and outright fear that something would happen to me�� Her mother''s expression wasn''t as kind. Fay''s mom was still concerned about me, there was no doubt about that in my mind, but if I was right, she simply didn''t want her daughter to lose her mate right after getting one. In other words, she was only worried about me in general and out of her love for her daughter. And while it stung a little�� I would have to be stupid or naive to expect a stranger to suddenly ept me as their son and fall in filial love with me!

    I took a deep breath, clearing my head for thest time. They were worried about me. And there''s very little that I could do about it. That didn''t mean I waspletely out of moves, though!

    ''Let''s see,'' I thought, giving a simple disposition to my system with nothing more but a strand of my intent. [Endurance: 7.5] > [Endurance: 10]

    [Usable points: 4] > [Usable points: 1.5]

    ''Huh?''

    While increasing my endurance was certainly my point, I actually intended to dump all of my free points in this single attribute!

    ''Weird,'' I thought, intending to raise my endurance again�� Only for the two lines to sh up for but a second before returning to their normal state. [Endurance: 10]

    [Usable points: 1.5]

    ''Oh,'' I thought, stumped by the sudden and pretty much-unexpected finding. ''That''s a huge discovery!'' My eyebrows shoot up�� only for my gaze to return to the starlight ins, lit up by the light of the stairs as close as the shadow of the nearest tree died out. Even though I failed to raise my endurance above ten points, I could still feel the insane difference this change brought. Right now, I felt like no power existed in the world that could do me harm. What''s more, I could pretty much jump and run around for as long as I desired, never to run out of strength to continue. To say I felt like a young god wouldn''t be that much of an exaggeration!

    ''Don''t get conceited,'' I quickly put myself down, knowing better than to let myself get drunk on the feeling of power bursting in my veins. ''Acting all arrogant is just the easiest and shortest way to fucking something up!''

    I shook my head for the fourth time already before looking out towards the starlit ins with renewed, reason-based respect. "Well then," I shook my body to warm it up a little before tapping my hips with my hands. "Wish me luck!"

    Not waiting for Fay to attempt to stop me, I ventured forth, leaving the safety of the tree''s shadow and subjecting myself to the torture brought by the light of the stairs. The torture�� that I''ve barely sensed, even after moving a considerable distance into the in. I walked through areas where the light of the stairs was both thin and thick, sensing, at most, slight shifts in my mood. By the time I reached out the very first pir of pure starlight, I could tell for sure. The light that used to put me into a state of depressing illusions before could only now cause a distant, nostalgic feeling. What was far more important, though, was that I could now stand by the side of the pir of pure starlight without the sense of a very existential threat. I could stand beside the pir of pure light�� but that didn''t mean I was anywhere near capable enough to withstand its actual power. ''If I step into this, I will die,'' I thought without even a single shred of doubt. Whether it was me reading the aura of the ce or my high wisdom sh intelligence giving me the answer, I knew better than to just give up on my life and daringly step into this strange light. ''I guess I won''t be able to level up here,'' I thought, gritting my teeth in mute frustration. Still, powerless to change the situation, I simply breathed out a long sigh before turning around�� Only to realize that I''ve somehow walked far further into the ins than I thought I did!

    ''Calm down, there''s nothing to be surprised about!'' I clenched my teeth and forced myself to stay calm. ''You already knew this ce messes up with one''s senses. And even if you moved further, you just need to spend a bit more time going back!''

    The reasonable part of my mind spoke out�� But in a strange fit of following my instincts, I turned back towards the pir of light�� And bowed down. "I''m sorry for intruding. I now know I''m not qualified to cross this ce yet," I whispered in a voice full of respect only to start backing out with my back still lowered. Bit by bit, I got further and further away from the light, all the way to the point where it no longer felt disrespectful to just turn around. And so, I raised up and finally moved to face the direction of the forest��

    Only to realize that I was now much closer than when I took a look thest time. Rather than seeing Fay and her mom as merely slightly bigger points in the distance, I could now perfectly make out all their features, the immense worry on Fay''s face included. Unwilling to let go of this opportunity, I hurried back while making sure to maintain a hurried but calm pace. Soon enough, I stepped back into the shadow of the trees, sensing the slight sense of anxiety wash away from my soul. "I''m back," I then spoke, only to take a few steps further up and open my arms. A secondter, I brought Fay into a bear-like embrace, hugging her with all my might to dispel the lingering worries she could still have. ''I wonder what does that even mean,'' I thought while hugging Fay. The fact that I walked much further�� and that the distance decreased just because I remained polite to whatever was in charge of this in�� It somehow shortened the distance for me to return?

    What did all of that even mean?

    I sighed for the uncountable time today, opting to shelve yet another question I didn''t expect to get an answer to anytime soon. "Well, this turned out to be one big failure," I spoke as I let Fay out of my arms, sensing she had now properly calmed down. "And that means, we should try something else."

    Without skipping a beat, I moved away from Fay and towards her mother, only to lower my head before her just like yesterday. "Do you maybe know if this forest has any interesting herbs growing around?" I asked while doing my best to maintain a leisurely smile on my lips, stopping the woman from peering into the anxieties that asking this question gave me. "It doesn''t need to be anything special. Just something that could bring any sort of benefit or change when consumed." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Today''s chapters: 3/3 daily 0/3 bonus (I don''t think I will nail as much today, trying for 2 more tbh)

 Chapter 59 Just some weeds

    59 Just some weeds

    "Just a little bit further," Fay''s mom announced while leading our small group through the thinner parts of the forest, thus making it more of a simple walk rather than braving through the thick branches and rich vegetation. Now that we moved away from the starlight ins a bit, the flora of the forest grew a little bit thinner in general, as if deprived of some sort of power that allowed it to grow, bigger, stronger, and lusher. And yet, despite having quite a lot to think about, I couldn''t help but be stuck on one, awkward realization. ''How exactly am I supposed to refer to Fay''s mom?'' While it wasn''t a problem now and while I could wing it by not referring to her directly for a while�� There was a limit to how long I could keep this small ruse up. But looking at it from another point of view�� it''s been already a few days since I''ve met that woman, even if it was still in the human fox. As such, now that some time has already passed, and now that Fay''s mom was in her human form�� It simply grew increasingly awkward to ask the simple question�� A question that needed to be asked. "I''m sorry to ask this out of nowhere��" I hesitated a little, only to end up sticking through. Right now, with every passing moment, asking this would grow only increasingly awkward. As such, it was best to get this over with as soon as possible. "But howexactly am I supposed to refer to you, Ma''am?" I asked, instinctively using the polite form just in case. Fay''s mom looked over her shoulder without stopping, not even when her face showed just how baffled she was by my question. Yet, after a single second that seemed like an eternity, I saw her face changing, indicating I wasn''t down for one hell of a lecture or mocking session. Still, just looking back at that woman''s baffled face was a little bit too much for me to handle. And so, in search of respite, I reached out and grabbed Fay''s hand before giving it a tight squeeze. When it came to Fay herself�� she seemed to be half-amused and half-curious about the answer. "Well��" Fay''s mom finally spoke out, her baffled look giving way to a slightly more serious one. " Thinking about it, I would impose on you quite a bit by having you call me mother," she spoke, her expression softening even further and even giving rise to a small, pitying smile. Seeing that smile, though��

    Fay''s mom ended up taking a liking to the samete-night dress I saw her wear yesterday. And from the looks of things, she had no ns of changing away from it. For now, though, that made her into one hell of a sexy, mature beauty that now smiled back at me, right as I was at my weakest. Unable to handle the pressure, I tightened my hand over Fay''s fingers yet again. Satisfied with my reaction to her face, Fay''s mom turned her eyes back to the road. "I''m sorry, but I can''t give you the honors of actually giving me a name. I''m not going to force you to call me mother either," the woman spoke, not bothering to grace me with her look again. "So, just not to make thingsplicated, you can keep calling me Ma''am or Madam."

    That was indeed the best solution to this slight problem, even if it cemented our rtionship to be quite distant. But I couldn''t expect aplete stranger to suddenly ept me for a son and instantly fall in filial love with me?

    "Yes, thank you," I replied respectfully while bowing my head, even though Madam couldn''t see it. "Sorry for asking sote," I then added, just to be safe. Now that Fay was my woman, I dreaded the very idea of getting on bad terms with her mother. Madam, on the other hand, simply shook her head and rolled her eyes. And before she could express her amusement any further, her body froze for but an instant. Then, a smile grew up on her lips, one so wide I could see it even while walking behind. "We are almost there," Madam imed before hurrying her steps, now walking with renewed confidence as if she just confirmed something important. Yet, by the time I took a single step and averted my eyes from Madam''s presentable bottom, my eyes were drawn to a seemingly ordinary nt growing to the side. "Excuse me, but what are those?" I asked, pointing my hand at the herb that I noticed. And I noticed it not because of some kind of instinct or my wisdom finally acting up and proving not to be just an attribute to dump my spare points on. It was all because I suddenly saw a system window pop out right above that nt, indicating it was likely rted to my quest, somehow! n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "Ah, those?" Madam turned her head, curiosity brimming in her eyes�� Only to die out when she saw what I was pointing my hand at. "Just some wild weeds," she spoke in a disappointed voice while shrugging her shoulders. "Just ignore them," she spoke while rolling her eyes and picking up the pace. ''Well, I can alwayse back hereter,'' I thought, opting to follow the guide of the local. And in a mere moment, we finally left the forest undergrowth and walked out into a sizeable clearing�� Clearing that was fully covered in beautiful flowers. In the middle of the clearing, there was a small mud hut, its earthen walls covered in grass. Surrounding it, there was an array of particrly beautiful and impressive flowers. "Like I said before, I know some of the herbs around," Madam spoke, referring to her answer to my question about herbs from before. "But if you want to learn more about herbs, there is no better ce to learn from but at the source," she added, only to turn towards the hut and gently wave her hand�� At the person who stood right outside of the hut, somehow perfectly blending into the backdrop. "Meet Leinei, the divine dryad of the celestial forest."

    Today''s chapters: 4/6 (3/3 daily 1/3 bonus)

    Total tally:

    Wpc daily bonus: 1/1

    PS bonus 3/4

    Review bonus 1/2

    Collection milestone bonus 0/2

    Supergift bonus 0/0 MotivatedSloth

 Chapter 60 Conflict as old as time itself

    60 Conflict as old as time itself

    "Meet Leinei, the divine dryad of the celestial forest."

    Hearing the introduction, I wasn''t really sure how I was supposed to react. Dryad? And a divine one at that? Was she one of those gods that Madam mentioned daring not to step into forbiddennds lightly? And what was even the difference between divine and celestial?

    "This is Fay, my child, and this is Peter, her mate," Madam turned towards the two of us and introduced us, pointing her hand at the girl first and only then at me. "Fay, Peter, meet Leinei."

    Now that I could see the dryad�� I could hardly pull my eyes away. She was, just like Fay and Madam, a perfect example of what a beauty is. Her body had perfect shapes, although slightly leaner than Madam. She wore no clothes, using only some flowers and twigs to hide her private parts from everyone''s view. Yet, as I looked a bit closer�� I realized that it was all but a simple illusion. Or rather, while the shape of her body was real�� she didn''t have a single ounce of flesh on her frame. As a dryad, the kin of the forest should, her body fully consisted of wood and other nt matter. In that sense, she still was beautiful�� just not in the sense of what a sane human could ever crave. I breathed out, gave Fay''s hand a gentle squeeze, and then bowed down. "Hello, I''m Peter," I spoke out while lowering my head. "It''s an honor to meet you."

    Even though I knew close to nothing about this woman, Madam wouldn''t be all that formal and low-key respectful if this was someone I could afford to offend. And again, what was with that divine title Madam oh-so-lightly served?

    "I know you might be confused, but she''s�� pretty much like me and Fay," Madam muttered, her confidence suddenly shaken as she averted her eyes�� in shame?

    I already knew there were other celestial beasts in this forest. Given how little Madam moved around from her spot, it would be stupid to expect this entire, massive forest to be her territory and hers alone. But still�� if this dryad was just another celestial beast, why not introduce her as such?

    "You didn''t tell him?" Noticing my reaction and Madam''s awkwardness, Leinei pointed her finger at the mature fox and spoke in an usatory tone.

    "I wanted to!" Madam quickly replied�� only to avert her eyes again under the scrutinous gaze of her fellow being. "I�� There just never was the right time��" she added, clearly not sure how exactly she was supposed to speak to absolve herself of the apparent wrongdoing. ''She didn''t tell me about what exactly?'' I thought, growing suspicious not on the basis of Leinei''s words but Madam''s reaction to them. "Boy, listen," Leinei paid little to no mind to Madam, turning to address me directly. "We��" she started, only to hesitate and then shake her pretty head, causing the long weeds that served as her hair to shake in the air. "The celestial beasts control only about half of the celestial forest. The other half is the domain of the divine beasts."

    Leinei sighed deeply before locking her arms on her chest and sending another angry gaze at Madam. "And as you might guess, where there are two different groups, conflict arises."

    The dryad spoke those words with her eyes glued to Madam''s embarrassed face. Only when she finally had enough of giving her colleague a silent lecture did Leinei turn her eyes back to me. "Our conflict tuned down ever since humans started to invide our forest. A foreign enemy uniting old rivals, as a human, you should be aware of this concept," she spoke��

    While listening to her words, I would have to be deaf not to notice the hint of disgust that filled the dryad''s voice when she mentioned my race. "We had�� No, even though it''s stalled now, we have a war on our own. A war that the mother of your mate told you nothing about."

    ''Oh, so that''s the axis of her anger,'' I finally figured out the one thing that puzzled me. ''So she considers it unfair to drag me into this without letting me know the full picture? Or maybe she''s angry that Madam got the jump on currying favor with me?''

    Then, a much more devastating theory appeared in my heart. ''For whatever reason they might need the help of a human, was Fay the price Madam was willing to pay to employ my support?'' n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Faced with such a possibility, I couldn''t stop my face from turning still and my expression from growing cold. I was used to being used by others to the point I could hardly even mind it. But if Madam dared to sell off Fay just for that stupid reason��!

    "I''m all ears, then," I spoke out, having enough of Leinei just saying whatever she wanted. I wasn''t going to obstinately stand on Madam''s side just because either. The only side I was fully and permanently on, was Fay''s. And from how she now hid behind my back and gripped the hand that I held her fingers with�� She might''ve known less about what was going on than me!

    The dryad didn''t seem to mind my question. And soon, this guess of mine proved correct when she ignored Madam''s angry look and started to speak. "This forest is divided between divine and celestial protectors. And while divine beasts are great animals granted will and powers directly by the divine, the celestial beast��."

    "How about you stop rubbing your alleged superiority in my face?" Madam red up, having enough of the dryad''s sense of superiority oozing out of every word she spoke. Noticing the anger of her mother, Fay moved even further behind my back, filling my heart with a strange sense of warmth. ''Just why does it feel so damn great to have her rely on me to protect her?'' I thought, smiling at my thoughts while prickling my ears not to let a single word of Madam or Leinei go to waste. Raising my eyes, I saw that Madam now turned to me. "ording to their legends, they are direct servants of the divine, created by its thought and wish. On the other hand, we, celestial beasts, are merely a faulty product, an imperfect creation that came before the perfected one."

    I raised my eyes, instantly putting Leinei''s words under the question of this new perspective. After all, how could anyone ever consider Fay a faulty product? And what was the point of listening to the madman who started their theory with such a ridiculous assumption?

    "Wee directly from the divine. Meanwhile, you guys, are a genius hybrid of great beasts and great darkness," the dryad spoke before opening her arms to the side and shaking her shoulders. "It''s not up to me to decide which is better and which is worse, assuming there is even a point inparing ourselves like that."

    The dryad shook her shoulders again before turning her eyes away from Madam and back to my face. "We are different, but that doesn''t mean we need to be enemies. It''s only because most of our breathrens do have aggression in their blood that the situation turned as ugly as it is."

    That�� I could also believe it. There were more than enough examples of a situation like this arising in the history of earth for me not to consider it as an extremely probable result of the situation Leinei painted before my eyes. ''But doesn''t that also mean, they are essentially the same as me? Just like all the other humans from earth, and possibly, from this world?''

    "Yeah, I''ve heard your pacifist story a thousand times over," Madam gave me no time to think, responding to Leinei''s words with a shrug of her shoulders. "This belief of yours is the only reason why I even allow you to reside in my domain!" ''And so, the plot thickens,'' I thought, somewhat amused by the back-and-forth between the two. "Anyway," Leinei rolled her eyes, ignoring Madam''s remark and focusing on my face again.

    This time, though, I could sense the same disgust that I''d noticed before now take root in the dryad''s eyes. "It''s not the conflict as old as time itself that brought you here," she stated the obvious. And how could it, given how I learned about it only now? "So speak, human," the disgust in the dryad''s voice now grew even stronger. "What brings you here?" Daily 3/3 Bonus 2/3

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 Chapter 61 Your world has alcohol and you didnt treat me to any?!

    61 Your world has alcohol and you didn''t treat me to any?!

    I wasn''t deaf enough to hear the hostility in the dryad''s voice. And if she was speaking with a certain dose of superiority while talking to Madam, then she now talked as if she was somewhat forced to talk to a mere bug crawling at her feet. And given how she was a dryad, not just some random and possibly nature-beneficial bug, but a damn parasite that spoiled the nts whenever it appeared. ''Ugh, assuming humans of this world are anything like humans of earth, then I can hardly fault her for this,'' I thought, recalling how the problem of mass cutting the green lungs of the earth continued for years, only growing more profound when the new cold war put a huge dent in the volume of global trade. But as little as I cared for the Dryad''s attitude and as much as I could excuse it�� If I were to admit to being just a parasite that she took me for, how could I ever ask her a single damn question?

    "Am I such a lesser being if my brethren defeated all that''s holy and divine and took our whole world under their rule?" I asked, no longer showing the unnecessary humility and politeness. I might be far too weak to face this dryad if the situation escted�� but when it came to trash-talking, then I had the power of the whole modern earth and the cancerous games it developed behind my back!

    Yet, the very moment I uttered those words, I realized that I''ve, in fact, fallen into a trap. "So you are not from this world," Leinei smiled with an even greater sense of superiority as if to rub her clever y into my face. And faced with that smile of hers I actually struggled to keep a straight face. ''Is she really that damn smart if she bragged like that instead of just taking a silent note and moving on?'' I thought, calmed down by the exhibit of arrogance to the point I actually had to hold back a smile from appearing on my own lips. Right now, though, was not the time to be smiling. Right now, I could only show my tough face. "We are here because I''m in search of some simple herbs that humans would find beneficial," I spoke, answering the question that the Dryad posed. "And, ording to Madam''s advice," I looked at Fay''s mom just to indicate who I meant by Madam, "I came here to beseech your help."

    Yet, hearing my words, the dryad only squinted her eyes as the hostility in her eyes exploded, taking over the disgust that she showcased whenever looking down on me. "So you desire high-grade ingredients for healing potions. Then��"

    Before the dryad could exin to me what kind of path I should take to go fuck around and find out, or alternatively, to get the hell out of here, I raised my hands and shook my head to the sides. 20:02

    Before the dryad could exin to me what kind of path I should take to go fuck around and find out, or alternatively, to get the hell out of here, I raised my hands and shook my head to the sides. "That''s not it, not at all," I aggressively denied, putting the dryad on the spot. And I could almost hear her asking herself, ''What kind of human wouldn''t want those? Isn''t this one of the reasons why you keep invading thisnd?''

    "Those, ekhem, high-grade ingredients as you called them, are bound to be valuable, especially for someone as close to nature as you, right?" Judging from how the dryad bit down on her vine-based lip, I hit the nail straight on its head. So, I shook my shoulders to showcase for thest time how little I cared about that kind of precious herb. "All I want are herbs that do not exist in the world Ie from," I revealed, admitting to hailing from a world different than the one we were in. "And to be more precise��" I took a short pause, raising my hand to rub my chin while pretending to be deep in thought. Even though I only knew we were going to visit a friend of Madam who knew her way around herbs, I came prepared. ''At this rate, method acting is going to be my forte,'' I thought, rolling my eyes while keeping my head lowered to hide this motion from everyone''s eyes. "Do you maybe have some herbs that could restore one''s body to its original state?" I asked, only to bite myself on the tongue a second toote, forced to watch how Leinei narrowed her eyes. "Ah," I gasped and rapidly shook my head again. "I worded that pretty badly," I mentioned before lowering my head for another bout of fake thinking.

    "Rather than a herb that could restore one''s missing limbs��" I muttered to myself to indicate the line of thought that I was forming in my mind, giving the dryad some time to prepare herself for my ideas. "Wait," my eyes suddenly widened, making it seem as if I just figured something out, rather than simply checking off the boxes on the list of things I nned to mention. "Do you maybe know of alcohol?"

    Boom. "Ah, sorry," I instantly apologized, noticing my mistake and willing to rectify it as soon as possible. "I didn''t think you would be interested in drinking it, so I didn''t bring any. I formally apologize and promise, as soon as we get back, I will bring you some of the good stuff!"

    20:03

    Ignoring the dryad, I glued my eyes to Fay''s face. Thankfully, she couldn''t bear to be angry with me for long, soon dropping her pout and simply avoiding my eyes. It felt as if lighting struck squarely in the middle of the clearing�� Or rather, that''s how I felt when Madam''s and Fay''s eyes suddenly zeroed in on my back. As I looked up, I could see Leinei''s eyes fill with reluctant curiosity too. "So you have alcohol back in your world," Fay muttered, encouraged by her disappointment enough to walk out from behind my back�� all to put on a pouty face and look away. "Ah, sorry," I instantly apologized, noticing my mistake and willing to rectify it as soon as possible. "I didn''t think you would be interested in drinking it, so I didn''t bring any. I formally apologize and promise, as soon as we get back, I will bring you some of the good stuff!"

    Ignoring the dryad, I glued my eyes to Fay''s face. Thankfully, she couldn''t bear to be angry with me for long, soon dropping her pout and simply avoiding my eyes. "I will take you up on your promise, then," Fay said, before turning around with a "humph" sound on her lips. "I don''t think I even need to mention it��" the madam spoke while giving me an eye. "Yeah, I get it. When we return again, I will be sure to pack some bottles with me," I agreed to the unvoiced request with a sigh. Then, I finally turned my eyes back to the dryad. "You know how if we were to drink ourselves silly today, we would have to pay the price tomorrow?"

    This time, it was the dryad''s turn to squint her eyes as she looked at me with an inquisitive stare. "Only humans experience problems like this. Don''t you dare insult my ability to craft simple rejuvenation teas!" Leinei spat in response, obviously insulted by my question. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    But rather than feeling bad or wronged by her reaction, I couldn''t help but feel excited instead. ''Rejuvenation teas? So I was fucking right!''

    Still, I held my excitement back with a surprising ease. "Those teas�� No, the herbs to make those is what I''m interested in," I spoke out, finally driving the discussion to its main point. "Nothing more, nothing less. And seeing how you reacted to my mention of alcohol, in a few days, I will be sure to pay you back with drinks that no one ever had in this world before!"

    And that''s it for today, folks! Been a great run! I fought, I''ve won. Now, I rest.

    Today''s chapters: 6/6

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    MotivatedSloth

    Suy ngh? c?a ng??i t?o

 Chapter 62 Simple barter

    62 Simple barter

    When I first saw this dryad, I wasn''t really sure what I was supposed to expect. A benevolent existence that supported all life? A vengeful spirit eager to avenge her brothers and sisters who went up in mes started by humans all over the world? Or maybe a great being with wisdom far exceeding my own, operation on a whole other level of existence��?

    Maybe. But what I didn''t expect this dryad to be was a damn drunkard for whom a mere mention of alcohol was sufficient to bend her will!

    Yet, as much as I didn''t expect it, I couldn''t im I wasn''t happy when she willingly epted the role of the guide, currently leading us away from her lush garden and towards the very edge of the huge clearing she settled. She led us through the narrow paths that were pretty much invisible to the naked eye. Only by precisely following Leinei''s steps, I managed to avoid squashing tens if not hundreds of different nts and flowers. Judging by the annoyed look on the dryad''s face whenever she looked back, either one of the girls behind me or both of themcked the mindfulness I tried to show.

    ''Welp, no use scolding them if I don''t really know what sort of rtions they have,'' I thought, lingering on the question for a short while. This was supposed to be Madam''s territory, so why was Leinei living here? Was this some sort of show of force? Or maybe a show ofpassion? ording to Madam''s words, only Leinei''s motivation was behind their weird agreement that went against the interspecies conflict they apparently had. "There," Leinei stopped my train of thought by pointing her hand out towards an unassuming bunch of weeds growing in the shade of one of the bigger trees in the area. At first confused, I quickly figured out the dryad''s intention and moved forth, gently pulling the weeds away in search of the herb she was pointing at. And while it would be much easier to just throw those weeds out of the way��

    How could I do it while a damn dryad was watching everyst of my moves?

    "Excuse me��" I muttered a long whileter, after unsessfully looking for any nt other than those simple weeds. "That''s it," Leinei shook her shoulders with a slight hint of amusement in her eyes. "The herb you asked for is the same weed you are lovingly ying with," she spoke, only for her face to show a sudden hint of fear. "Wait, don''t tell me, are you into trees or something?!" Freaking out, the dryad rushed her hands to cover her pretty much see-through outfit made with just some flowers and vines. Yet, as see-through as her outfit was�� There was actually nothing to be seen below it, just some young tree buds in ce of nipples�� And what Leinei had for the crotch, I couldn''t even be bothered to look, not even to sate my curiosity. "So that''s the thing," I muttered, turning my eyes away from the dryad and towards the nts. I''ve been gently pushing them out of the way all this time�� while the true treasure was right before my eyes all along!

    I fought off the desire to grab and pluck several stalks of the weed on the spot. Leinei''s eyes were still locked on my back as if she was waiting to pounce the moment I did a single thing she disliked. "Can I harvest one of them?" I asked, turning towards the dryad again. "And how do I even go around harvesting it to begin with?"

    The two questions I asked were connected in a clever way. Just by answering the second, Leinei would imply agreeing to the first and the main one. "Just pull the entire damn thing," she didn''t seem to mind my desires. "You can either burn the stalk for incense or just throw the thing away. It''s the leaves that you want for the rejuvenating tea. As long as they are fresh, that is."

    In theory, Leinei just helped me quite a lot. And if the effects of the tea made from those herbs were anywhere close to how she advertised them to be��

    ''Is this really that easy?'' I thought, somewhat relieved. While this weed didn''t bring me any closer to finishing my quest of finding three useful herbs, it pretty much potentially settled my issue with buying myself into the gang''s favor!

    In theory, Leinei helped me a lot. Yet, after uttering all those off-hand exnations, she suddenly started to drill her eyes into my back. And as I reached out to grab one of the nts��

    "You are really interested in those weeds?" she asked, her voice indicating just how hard it was for her to believe my request was genuine. "Yes, I am," I replied with a shrug of my shoulders. I then grabbed at the nt before easily pulling it out of the ground, stalk, roots, and the entire package. The n came out so easily, I could simply dump it into fresh earth and carry over a living sample�� Which would be an extremely dumb idea. ''The moment I give up a living nt, they won''t have any use for me anymore,'' I realized, gritting my teeth a little before proceeding to luck some of the leaves. Yet, as my fingers copsed on the first one, I suddenly ceased my movements. A n was starting to form in my mind, a n that would put me in a much better negotiating spot for when it would be the time to confront the gang. But before that��

    "You see, they might have little to no worth to you, but they are of great value to me," I exined the very basis of what it meant to trade stuff. I then took a deep breath to sort the thoughts in my head. "And I don''t mean to be distrustful��" I acted as if I hesitated, while in fact following the steps of the n, I''ve formed in my head. "But I would like to test its effects," I stated while standing up and passing the weed over to the dryad. "Do you, by any chance, have some alcohol?" After seeing everyone''s reaction to me bringing this topic up, I was quite sure the Dryad, indeed, had some liquor stashed away. Right now, it was the question of whether or not she would be willing to share some of it. "I know you just met me, so I would like you to take Madam''s word for it," I started with some preconditions. And I tantly ignored how Madam never gave me the right to throw her name and word around. ''She brought me here to get help, so she can''tin if I move to get what I wanted!''

    "In a week''s time tops, I will make you square with the alcohol I will bring from my world. And for every drop that we will drink today, I will pay you back two or three times over!"

    If alcohol was really a raremodity in this forest�� Then it was pretty much dirt-cheap back on Earth! And while better brands could get pricey��

    The cost of even a whole case of well-branded drinks would be nothing whenpared to the bank I could make selling this stupid weed if it was anywhere as good as Leinei advertised! 1/3 daily 0/3 bonus

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    The bonus chapters already attained will remain. MotivatedSloth

    n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

 Chapter 63 Weeds

    63 Weeds

    Before I could even notice, the day in the forest started to near the end of its cycle. The sun rose up and away, done with the daily dose of feeding its intense light to the earth. And with only itsst few rays illuminating the forest, Leinei spoke out a few muted words and cast a spark onto a small pile of wood, starting a fire in a mere fraction of how long it would take me to do the same. ''Damn magic,'' I cursed in my thoughts, the sense of jealousy taking over. ''I wonder what I need to do to cast spells myself.''

    Being able to wield magic was the wet dream of every nerd in existence. To wield the power that exceeded human understanding�� And for how rational I strove to be, I couldn''t ignore the allure of this mystical power. Yet, when the fire started to settle in the small logs, I couldn''t help but raise my eyes and look at the dried. For how nice it was to feel the warmth from the fire to help in the fight against thete-night chill�� Wasn''t Leinei burning her brethren just to warm us up?

    "Why are you looking at me like that?" Leinei asked when she raised her eyes from the fire and noticed my stare. Despite how I started to doubt her intelligence at times, she was quick enough to connect the dots and figure out what was puzzling me so much. "I do get cold too," she imed while rolling her eyes. "In nature, everything gets used by everything. Today, I use this wood to warm myself. Tomorrow, the wood of my bones will serve as fodder for the new generation of the forest''s undergrowth."

    Leinei summed up her philosophical im with a shrug of her shoulders, already done with the topic. ''I wonder how many years and burned trees will it take for you to die and close this cycle,'' I thought, feeling a sense of irony well up in me. Wisely enough, though, I kept my tongue locked behind my teeth. Even though I noticed the hypocrisy of this beast that pretty much appeared to be eternal, I wasn''t stupid enough to happily call it out. Because, what exactly could I get by bragging right now, outside of a momentary satisfaction?

    "Anyway, cheers!" Warmed up by the fire, I raised my cup in the first toast of the night. And from what Leinei told us about this herbal wine, only had of its effects was born out of the alcohol inside. The other half came from various herbs that Leinei cultivated herself and thus decided to add to her brew. I raised the cup and angled it towards my mouth, taking a hearty sip of the drink. And even though, while it wasn''t my first time drinking, I didn''t really know about alcohol much�� I could tell without a shred of doubt that this was the lightest, most pleasant sip of a beverage I had taken in my entire life!

    The impable taste of this berry-infused drink came at the cost of its strength, making me even doubt whether it had any alcohol to begin with. "It''s delicious," Fay hummed happily while carefully portioning her drink out into small tips. Rather than chugging it down like some of my former alleged friends would, she properly enjoyed the taste rather than trying to get herself wasted as soon as humanly possible. Despite initial reluctance, as more and more cups were filled and emptied out, Leinei started to warm up to me a bit. And while there wasn''t even an ounce of sympathy in her, she, at the very least, managed to shelve her inborn hostility. I was a human, for sure, but I didn''t belong to this world. In other words, whatever grudges she had towards humans didn''t apply to me. After all, she couldn''t even me my ancestors for anything she experienced, as I was the very first one in my line to get to this��

    My thoughts froze a little when they reached this unnecessary and unwanted road. ''Wait, if this system and portal are gifts from my father�� doesn''t that mean he originally came from here? From this world?'' The more I thought about it, the less funny the situation became for me. And in spite of the delicious drinks circting between all four of us at a quicker and quicker rate�� I couldn''t rx at all. My only respite was Fay snuggling up to my side as she enjoyed the small party. Before I could even notice, the light of the sun vanishedpletely, leaving only our small fire to light up the entire area. And yet, even when the darkness of the night began, the girls continued to make merry. "So," sensing that everyone was properly toasted, I finally moved on to the second step of my n. "Let''s assume for a moment that you will like the gifts I will bring back in a week. That you will find some value in them," I started with some preconditions. "Yeah?" A short description�� but one that brought a lot of information. What I was looking for was a herb that even locals would consider precious yet one that wouldn''t amount to much in Madam''s or Leinei''s eyes. 20:05

    Even though Leinei''s face was made from wood, I could still tell she ended up flushed a little, clearly under the influence. "If such were the case, would you mind helping me with another small thing?"

    If I got Leinei to promise me something while drunk, I would have a much easier time enforcing itter on. But at the same, using this kind of lowly trick would drastically decrease the points I had in Leinei''s eyes. But I wasn''t worried at all. And from the long yet not-hostile look, the dryad gave me, I was perfectly on the spot with my prediction�� again. "I need to find three specific herbs. Something that an extremely weak human could use to the benefit of their growth," I exined, trying to derive as much information from the mission status in my system as I could. ''Find the three precious herbs popting the forest that will help elerate your growth." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    A short description�� but one that brought a lot of information. What I was looking for was a herb that even locals would consider precious yet one that wouldn''t amount to much in Madam''s or Leinei''s eyes. "It should be something rather easy to find or obtain. And again, its effects should be somewhat limited," I exined all I could when directed by nothing but the fact that the mission of finding herbs was actually supposed to be an easy one. "Sure," Leinei simply shrugged her shoulders again before taking a long sip from her cup. "I can list out tens of herbs that fit your description," she bragged again, only to raise her chin and look at me along the edge of her nose. "And I know where they all grow!"

    ''She really isn''t all that smart,'' I thought, baffled by how easily this dryad would reveal what she knew and what she didn''t, making my job all the easier in the process. "Let''s save it for tonight, though." My request came right as Leinei''s eyes filled with strangely serious anticipation. "I will ask if you want to help again, tomorrow," I revealed my ns, finally free to stop acting and actually say what I meant. "So, once you sober up and stop anyone from iming I forced you to help out." I retreated a few steps only to grab my own cup and raise it high into the air while enjoying the warmth of Fay''s sleepy head nodding off on my shoulders. "For today, though, let''s have some fun!" I shouted out loud, shaking my cup as high above my head as I could before lowering my arm. "Cheers!" 2/3 daily 0/3 bonus

 Chapter 64: TsundeTree

    Waking up, I sort of expected for my head to feel like it was on fire�� Only to wake up with nothing more but a mild headache and a sense of weakness slightly affecting my mind.

    ''Wait, how could I even have any expectations? That means I didn''t get drunk enough!''

    The entire night of drinking Leinei''s wine and talking turned out to be less than sufficient. Without a proper, murderous hangover, how I was supposed to test the effects of that herbal tea Leinei spoke so highly about?

    With my eyes still closed, I raised my hands and gently massaged my ears to get rid of the most annoying prize of yesterday night''s drinking. A mere momentter, I opened them up�� Only to confirm that Fay was, indeed, sleeping by my side.

    Even though we were basically newlyweds at this point, we ended up not enjoying each other over the night as any other couple in our situation would.

    There simply wasn''t the right opportunity for us to escape from everyone''s eyes so that we could fully focus on each other. And while I could still remember Fay greedily clinging up to me when weid down to get some rest, in the end, save for some cuddling, nothing really happened.

    Looking down, I finally noticed why I felt so weirdly refreshed.

    We were not in the hut. In spite of all the hospitality the dryad offered, she didn''t invite us inside her small hut at any point of the night. And when we couldn''t hold ourselves up any further, we simplyid down as we were, hoping for our clothes to keep us warm.

    And now, I realized just why Leinei didn''t even bother inviting us in.

    ''She really does have some skills,'' I thought, gently raising the thin sheet made with flowers that somehow perfectly insted us from the cold of the morning winds.

    "Woah��" With my mind slightly impaired, I cared not for appearances and uttered a moan of awe out loud. "This is magnificent," I muttered, carefully inspecting the sheet of flowers and vines that somehow felt as soft as the most expensive cushions one could find on earth.

    "Thank you for your praise," Leinei spoke, suddenly forcing me to realize she was standing right behind me.

    Turning my eyes, I looked at the dryad before lowering my head in a bow of respect.

    "How did you make this so soft? I didn''t feel any thorns from the flowers or stalks from the vines prickling my skin at all!" I asked, amazed by the creation to the limit.

    But rather than actually taking an interest in how Leinei created this sheet out of nowhere, I simply wanted to let my amazement show. Sshing the dryad with rich lube of praises wouldn''t hurt but could potentially earn me some brownie points with her.

    After all, who would dislike others praising what they crafted?

    "Are you actually interested in learning how I did it?" Leinei asked, crossing her arms on her chest as she raised her right eyebrow and gave me an inquisitive look.

    "Well��" I turned my eyes away, down the sheet of flowers�� and the lovely, plump lines of Fay''s sleeping body hidden underneath. "Maybe sometime in the future," I replied off-handedly, reaching out to pat Fay''s head.

    Watching her sleep so soundly�� gave rise to the strange warmth in my soul that threatened to cause global warming whenever I would go. It felt like it didn''t matter where I was, as long as Fay would be by my side, then everywhere would be my home.

    After brushing my fingers through Fay''s rich hair, I took a deep breath and looked back to the Dryad.

    "That brew of yours�� It was far better and tastier than I''ve ever expected," I admitted, once again putting the words of praise out for Leinei to hear. "I''m not going to lie, I''m honestly not sure if I can find something equally as tasty and light on the stomach back in my world."

    At this point, trying to hide I came from another world would only put the dryad on guard, making her curious why I was trying to hide it. On the other hand, by approaching the topic directly, I hoped to make this detail seem like something no sane person would ever bother with.

    "You really know how to sing praises��" Leinei rolled her eyes, seemingly disliking my honest words ofmendation. "But you should also learn where you can shove all this praise instead."

    Leinei snapped at me a little�� But without a doubt, her voice no longer carried the mark of the deep hatred and contempt she held humans in.

    "It''s not the taste that I''m struggling with, but getting the nts to produce alcohol itself," she then added in a silent voice, as if not really aware she was voicing her thoughts out.

    I allowed the moment to pass in silence, not sure if Leinei actually wanted me to hear those words.

    "In that case, would you rather have me bring some bottles of pure alcohol instead?" I asked only once I was sure she actually meant for me to hear herint.

    ''Even though I can bring both proper brews and also pure spirit, I need to start rationing out what gifts I''m promising,'' I thought, quickly growing aware of the limitation that seemingly didn''t exist.

    The portal didn''t seem to limit the amount of stuff that I could carry through it. It didn''t exhibit any problems when I moved through the gate with someone else. But that didn''t change the fact�� there was only so much that I and Fay could carry on our back! And while bringing more people could theoretically solve the issue��

    I have yet to give Fay the green light to step food outside of my shed, so how could I bring even more beings? And beings so much older, they would find absorbing new knowledge of how the modern world worked a lot more challenging than Fay with her fresh and young mind!

    "That��" Leinei hesitated for a second upon hearing my words. She even went as far as to turn her head away and avert her eyes when I raised my face to look at her directly. "That would be pretty helpful," she admitted, as reluctant to do so as she was.

    "Then, may I trouble you and ask again if you could help me look for some simple herbs?" I then brought out the very same question I mentioned back during our drinking night. "And now that we are sober, you won''t be able to im I used your drunken state to my advantage!"

    I pointed out with a satisfied smile like some sort ofwyer suddenlying out with a plot that blocked the intended course of actions of the persecution.

    "Humans��" Leinei rolled her eyes again. Yet, for as much as I could tell from her flesh-free face, her mood improved by a tiny bit. "Rather than speaking crap, shouldn''t you try your tea first?" she asked, only to pull out a cup she was hiding all this time behind her back.

    ''You couldn''t give it to me earlier?'' I whined in my mind, suddenly realizing that I only had my talkativeness to me for enduring the unpleasant feeling in my head.

    "With pleasure," I muttered grumpily, reaching out for the cup and taking a sip of the fresh-tasting brew. ''Let''s see how much worth this tea has.''

 Chapter 65: Courtesy of making plans for the day

    "This is�� amazing��"

    Rather than screaming my excitement out, I whispered it through my trembling lips.

    I could feel my slight hangover vanishing into the thin air with just a single sip. And as I took another, this time a much greater one��

    It was hard to describe how exactly I felt. As if all the bad effects of azy lifestyle and unhealthy food I''ve consumed in the past were now lifting from my body, cleansed of my flesh by just a single wash of this tea?

    ''This drink��'' I thought, pulling my lips away from the cup and staring at it as if I suddenly held a holy grail in my hands instead.

    "Hon, are you up yet?" Fay asked with a muffled voice, once again struggling to get herself awake. Looking down, I could see her slowly moving up while reaching out for the sheet of flowers to keep her breasts covered.

    ''Good, she''s learning,'' I thought, more and more certain that at the current rate, it was only a matter of days before she would be ready to set out of the shed and experience the modern world for what it really was.

    Before long, Fay managed to shake herself awake and raise her eyes, only to instantly lock them on the cup in my hand.

    "It''s the herbal tea that I wanted to test out," I exined only to pass the cup to the girl.

    "But I feel great, though?" Fay protested, puzzled by my intent, but grabbed the cup anyway. She then brought it up to her nose, took a short whiff�� and despite clearly disliking the smell, she angled the cup and took a careful sip. "Ugh, bitter," shemented right away�� but obediently swallowed the brew.

    "I guess this tea really works," I muttered, epting the cup back and staring at its leftover content before pouring it all down my throat.

    "For you to be actually happy with its effects��" Leinei muttered, her eyes widening as she realized I was honest about my desires all along. In the end, though, she pursed her lips and shook her head before turning back towards the hut.

    "I will go and wake the big fox up, so just sit tight and wait," she informed before turning around and heading off.

    "Are you really feeling well?" I asked, instantly turning my attention back to my most precious. I even knelt down where we slept and brought my eyes close to her face.

    It felt that unless I saw her doing well with my own two eyes I wouldn''t be able to ept her excuses.

    "What?" Fay asked, taken aback by my intense look. Then, her lips quivered a little as they turned into a mischievous smile. "I know we didn''t do it for two nights straight�� so, do you want to mate?"

    Hearing Fay ask her question in such a tant manner and even lean her hips to pat herself on her ass��

    I gulped my saliva down and took a deep breath.

    ''Just when did she learn how to seduce me like that?'' I prayed to the heavens, not really sure how to respond to Fay''s flirtatious invitation.

    "You should know how happy I am to do you anytime," I took a second to figure out a proper answer while leaning just a bit closer over Fay''s face.

    Only a single inch separated our lips, a distance that both of us could cover just by leaning our heads in��

    "Save that for the nighttime, kids," Madam spoke as she walked out of the hut, her dress in such a perfect state I couldn''t help but wonder if she slept in it at all. Still, thete-night gown she wore made her simply look weird when surrounded by the brightly lit nts and flowers of the clearing.

    "Now then, what''s your n for the day?" Madam then asked as she approached and leaned her back against one of the few trees that Leinei cultivated amidst her nts.

    I opened my mouth to reply�� Only to put them back together before I could utter a single sound.

    ''Now that I think about it, I was doing whatever the heck I wanted whenever in this world,'' I thought, finally noticing the rudeness of doing so.

    "I''m sorry I''m only asking this now, but don''t you guys have your own ns for the day?" I asked, my lips forming an awkward grimace that perfectly reflected the conflicted feeling I had in my soul.

    Yet, contrary to my worries, Madam onlyughed out.

    "Don''t mind us. Life in this forest, as boring as it might be, is pretty peaceful. Laid-back, you could even say," she exined. "In fact, it can get so boring here that we decided not to stop humans from invading. In a sense, fighting them off is the only amusement you can find in this ce."

    I raised my eyes a little, taken aback by Madam''s point of view.

    ''I guess the values in this world are just that much different from what I''m used to,'' I thought, opting not to judge Madam''s way of living. Who I was even to say that a perfectly peaceful life most of the people led on earth was better than what she had going here?

    "In that case, I would like to pay a visit to the misty valley you mentioned before," I revealed, to a simple nod of acknowledgment from Madam�� and a sudden, piercing re from Leinei. "Just like the starlight ins, I hope I will be able to grow a little bit stronger just by challenging that ce."

    While I could gain attribute points by raising my level�� I still couldn''t really agree with the idea of going out to hunt for some fellow humans. And as long as I had any alternative or unless the humans themselves woulde knocking, I was determined to look for other ways of reaching this fifth level I so desired.

    "And before you ask, I have no idea why I grew stronger while on the starlight ins. So, even if I indeed grow stronger in that misty valley, I still won''t know how it happened, besides that it happened."

 Chapter 66: One small step for a man, great leap for foxkind

    Reaching the southern edge of the forest took us quite a while longer than I expected. But with how I only had Madam''s hand-drawn map to get a sense of the size and directions in the forest, I only had myself to me for expecting a shorter journey.

    ''At this rate, the portal will reopen by thete afternoon,'' I thought, recalling the moment when I summoned the portal for a short moment to check the time. ''In other words, I only have a short window of time to check this ce out!''

    Jumping down Madam''s fox-form''s back, I dropped to the ground and took a deep breath, raising my eyes at the misty wondend stretching out from the edge of the forest.

    Just like the light of the stairs at the in to the north, the mist kept away from the shadow cast by the trees. And as I looked up��

    Well, the mist blocked my line of sight, making it impossible to see beyond a fewteen meters at best. Despite that, though, I could somehow tell that just like on the starlight in, the deeper I would go, the greater burden would befall me.

    Still, even when traveling on Madam''s back, a wonder all in its own right, it took us nearly two hours to reach the southern edge of the forest. Adding up another two hours to return to Leinei''s hut and then some more to reach Madam''sir��

    ''I better hurry up,'' I thought, picking up the pace and fearlessly approaching the edge of the trees'' shadow.

    "Are you really sure you want to go out?" Leinei asked when she saw me approach the edge of the safe zone. Her tone was visibly shaken, just like when she realized it was the simple weeds I was after.

    ''Is she still struggling to believe I actually mean what I say?'' I thought, not sure whether I should be baffled at the level of her distrust or amused by it.

    "I need to grow just a tiny bit stronger," I answered the question in my own way. "And as easy as it might be, I have no ns to actively set out on a hunt for fellow humans," I added, an ugly grimace taking over my lips.

    Slightly shaken by the difort of just thinking and considering such a selfish genocide, I raised my hand and rubbed the itch behind my ear.

    "The humans I''ve killed only have themselves to me for attacking us first. But still�� Even if I don''t actually have anything to do with humans of this world, it still feels wrong to just go out and actively search to kill them on sight, just for my own, personal benefit."

    ''And there''s is no telling whether I could even kill them,'' I thought, not allowing that one victory in the past to cloud my thinking.

    Sure, guns proved surprisingly effective when facing locals�� but how far could guns take me? Sure, they offered firepower like no spell I saw in this world�� But I didn''t really have much experience watching mages fight either, did I?

    What''s more, if the shields that repelled the first shoot I aimed at those attackers were even a tiny bit stronger, would the oue of the fight remain the same?

    As confident as I wanted to be about my chances of winning fights in this world, sensing just how insanely tough I became by maxing out my endurance�� I would have to be freaking stupid to underestimate those who achieved simr results in other attributes!

    ''Thinking about this, would I even be able to properly aim at someone with high agility?'' I thought, pressing my lips into a thin line as I imagined the brutal oue of a fight with someone too quick for me to shoot.

    ''Any fight I have with humans raises the odds of at least one survivor escaping. And the moment the world learns about the guns, they will either try to replicate them or at the very least, find countermeasures against them.''

    The firearms were my absolute ace card. As such, the longer I kept them hidden, the greater use I could get out of them!

    "Isn''t that exactly what the humans who invade this forest do?" the Dryad countered my words, forcing me to shake my head and get my attention back to the conversation we were having. "They enter this forest and kill anything they encounter, all for the sake of their personal benefit," Leinei shrugged her shoulder. "That''s just how this world works."

    I took a deep breath and stared at the dryad for a bit.

    ''Maybe that''s true. But that''s not how a modern world works,'' I thought, rolling my eyes before turning away and facing the mist just ahead. ''And you can''t expect a modern person to suddenly turn into a genocidal maniac, just because it suits their goals!''

    Taking a deep breath again, I prepared myself to push forth�� Only to have Fay reach out from behind me and grab my hand.

    "Hon��" she muttered, her eyes lowered. Yet, rather than avoiding my sight as I turned, Fay actually moved her chin up and looked directly into my eyes. "I won''t tell you not to go�� But please, be careful and return safely."

    The look in Fay''s eyes was truly intense. And despite being a social newborn, I could read just how worried she was about me from those huge eyes of hers.

    "Don''t worry, dear," I smiled while reaching out and patting Fay''s head. "I''m only going out for a tiny little bit, nothing like back at the ins," my smile grew even wider, "so I will be back in just a jiffy."

    I winked at the girl before letting go of her hand and turning towards the mist again. Then, without any further hesitation, I took a step forward.

    Now that my woman was watching me, how could I ever hesitate? With this thought in mind, I stepped into the mist, allowing the moist air to coat my entire body��

    Only to freeze the moment I properly stepped out from the shadow of the forest.

    My eyes moved to the extreme side before turning right back to the middle of my vision, tracking just a few lines of text of the notification that appeared. And as I read it, my eyebrows moved up my forehead.

    ''Interesting��''

 Chapter 67: Its all one and the same?

    The thing that caught my eye was nothing major.

    It was just a gentle shing of certain words within my system, indicating that I was now on the correct path to achieve something.

    Or, in more precise words, as I looked at my system, a single section of it kept shing up.

    [Main mission: Starlight in]

    Just like when I tried to level up my endurance beyond the apparent limit, the name of the mission continued to re up and down, as if to, once again, indicate I was on the right track toplete it.

    ''Doesn''t that means, I''m still on the starlight in?'' I thought as I took a look through the three possible paths to fulfilling this mission.

    The easy path was all about escaping the starlight in. And all on its own, if it was the only path shing up, I would assume that the misty valley was the way for me to go��

    But no.

    Both the advanced route of surviving on this in and the master route of uncovering the secrets of this ce�� They were both shing up and down too!

    ''Damn��'' I thought, taking a step back under the shock of my unexpected discovery�� But the mist around me didn''t thin out, fading away under the influence of the shadow. As I turned my eyes, I realized that the single step I took inside the mist somehow brought me well over a hundred paces into the misty area!

    ''What the hell!'' Initially startled, I quickly turned around, eager to leave�� Only to fail a step and fall forth with all the momentum of my leap, burying my face�� into the soft grass hidden within the mist.

    ''What''s going on?'' I thought, puzzled. And as Fay''s warning and pleas resounded in my ears, I felt first seeds of panic settle in my soul.

    ''No, wait, I''m not moving away from them,'' I thought, raising my eyes to look back toward the shadows as I gathered myself up and stood back up.

    Sure, the first step moved me nearly a hundred paces away. But while I suddenly struggled to control my strength, there weren''t really any other adverse effects to being in the mist!

    And what was even more peculiar, was how I couldn''t feel a single hint of anxiety. I could feel pretty much nothing beyond the fading fear that came when I lost my cool for a moment.

    Standing up, I carefully ced my next step.

    ''So that''s it!'' A smile appeared on my face when, as expected, my step grew slightly heavier.

    It was no wonder this small difference threw me out of bnce! And as I anticipated, the effects of this misty valley�� Was actually the same as the effect of the starlight in. After all, this misty valley was actually an extension of that very in!

    The only difference between the two�� was how the starlight in affected my soul, while the misty valley affected my physical strength!

    ''So there are two different barriers barring entry for two different species that live together in this forest, unable to leave��''

    I could sense I was onto something. But it was still too early for me to get the full picture. I knew way too little for any of my assumptions to make sense long-term.

    "As long as I confirm a few bits first, then��''

    I pressed my mouth together, feeling the weight of responsibility now that I''ve learned something unexpected bearing down on my shoulders. And throughout all of this, I didn''t forget about my main goal for entering the mist either.

    [Usable points: 1] > [Usable points: 1.62]

    "Another failure, huh?" I muttered to myself, only slightly disappointed.

    I already knew that the tempering of those two areas would increase the points I could use to raise my attributes rather than boosting the experience and letting me reach the next level. And while I wasn''t going toin about the free attribute points, as annoyingly slow as they grew, this mission was still a failure.

    A failure that came with one hell of the news, but a failure nheless.

    Done with this misty area, I turned away from the forest. Yet, rather than stepping away, I bowed deeply in the direction I could sense the thickest misting from, walked a few steps back while still bowed before finally raising up, turning around, and beelining for the forest''s shadow.

    Thankfully, after throwing me far deeper than I intended to get, this misty valley didn''t y any further tricks on my perception of space, allowing me to peacefully get back to where the three women awaited my return.

    I threw a quick nce at my system, just before leaving the misty zone.

    [Usable points: 1.62] > [Usable points: 1.73]

    In theory, I could just stay on the edge and gain free points�� But right now, I was on the clock. And since both the starlight in and the misty valley existed since ancient times, the chances were, they would still be there once I returned with more time on my hands!

    "Another big fail?" Madam asked once I finally stepped into the shadows, mocking irony all over her voice.

    Looking up, I simply gave her a big smile before turning my attention to Fay and grasping her in a tight hug. Still, I could only buy so much time for my dramatic revtion by mingling with my girl. And once I saw both the fox and the dryad turn impatient��

    ''It''s quite the contrary," I said with a wildly satisfied smile.

    After all her remarks, I was more than happy to get one over that damned fox!

    "But while I''m more than happy to share what I found out��" I stated�� Only to suddenly hesitate.

    ''I don''t know much about this ce. And while there is a chance they already know all about it��''

    Gritting my teeth, I looked at the dryad and the fox, both looking at me with visible tension on their faces.

    ''Yeah, I don''t think they have a clue.''

    I breathed out and shook my head.

    "It might not be the wisest idea to talk about it here, out in the open��" I looked around, just to add more feeling to my act. "When we have no idea who listens."

 Chapter 68: Reaching the milestone

    "So, both the northern and southern bordends are actually one and the same?" Leinei muttered with a look of disbelief on her face. She then shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, as if."

    To say that my discovery was upsetting would be like calling a Second World War a small, local scuffle.

    But while the dryad simply discarded the news, opting not to believe in them�� Madam actually took a moment to think about what I said.

    Out of the three of the women, only Fay didn''t seem to pay much mind to the news, fully focused on squirming around me, as if she wanted to check every inch of my body to ensure I had no injuries whatsoever.

    ''I wonder if that''s all there is to it,'' I thought to myself right when Madam started to discuss something with Leinei in a hushed voice while throwing asional nces my way. ''Well,'' my eyes turned over to the semi-transparent windows of my system. ''The master route isn''tplete, so it can''t be all.''

    The master route forpleting the "starlight in" mission was all about uncovering the secret of this area. And while I now learned something new regarding that issue, it was merely a piece of the puzzle, not the entire picture.

    "Yeah, on that we can agree," Madam spoke out loud as she pulled a step back from her friend and turned her eyes to me. "We are sorry, but we can''t believe such an oundish im without proof. And I do believe you��" she hesitated, throwing a quick nce at Fay before rposing herself.

    "You don''t have any proof, do you?"

    The answer to this question couldn''t be any simpler.

    No. I didn''t have a shred, a hint of proof that I could use to back my words. But that didn''t mean it was impossible to convince those two to my theory. But for that, I needed us to be somewhere safer than just under the shade of some random tree, where those two decided they would be safe from any potential eavesdroppers.

    Still��

    ''I don''t think sharing the news about my system would be a good idea,'' I thought, considering this option for but a second.

    If they knew how exactly I came to know what I did about the rtion between the starlight in and the misty valley, I wouldn''t have to produce any proof or theory to back it out. But��

    I have yet to tell Fay about my system, so how could it be right to let everyone know about it?

    ''If I''m ever going to share that I have a system, Fay should be the one to decide whether it''s safe to share it with others.''

    This decision didn''te just from my feelings or my lust alone. It was nothing as silly as an offering to cement my position in the fox-girl''s heart. It was simply the most logical path I could take, given how I knew little to nothing about this world while Fay was�� well�� a local.

    "Believe me or not, it won''t change the fact that those two areas are, in fact, one." I turned back and refused Madam''s demand for proof. "What''s more, I''m already working on a certain theory��" I offhandedly mentioned, only to cut my sentence in its middle and turn silent.

    Before long, though, Leinei failed to hold herself against the anticipation my trap built in her.

    "So?" she asked with an annoyed look on her face. "What''s the theory?" she demanded as if it was only right for me to share it straight away.

    "I said I''m working on it," I pointed out, happily cutting Leinei''s expectations down. Shrugging my shoulders I looked around again only to put the same, ugly grimace on my lips that I did back when they wanted to question me straight at the edge of the forest.

    "And again, I don''t think this is the right ce for me to share it," I repeated myself only to walk a few steps out before turning around and returning to where I came.

    "So, how about this," I picked up where I left after a short momentter, once I made sure everyone saw just how hard I thought about the issue. "We shall go back to Leinei''s hut. I will use the time it will take us to go back to iron out all the details," I suggested, spreading my arms out while gracing everyone with a lovely smile.

    "This way, we can talk about this sensitive issue in a ce where we don''t have to constantly look around, worried about someone or something sneaking up on us!"

    Even if those women feltfortable around here, I didn''t. And, even with all my endurance, made it pretty damn hard to focus on what I promised I would put my attention to - ironing out the details of my theory.

    In all my speeches, this was the only part that was fully free of eloquence tricks and traps. There were some questions and issues bottled up in my soul that I had to solve for my theorem to attain its full form, its true potential to shake both of the forest guardians.

    Andstly�� I was still on the clock. And what would be the point of hurrying it up back in the mist valley, if I were to waste time dawdling around now?

    "Fine," Madam stepped in and joined the conversation before Leinei could speak another word. Already expecting to serve as a mount for everyone, she didn''t even change back to her human form, despite how much she loved to parade around in that silver, shining,te-night dress. "We go back to Leinei''s ce, then you tell us what you figured out."

    Even though she clearly still had her doubts and didn''t believe in my words�� I could see that she now treated me with enough respect and consideration to, at the very least, listen to what I had to say.

    And, in this particr case, I opened my mouth by following my requests.

    "I lived without thinking about this issue for ages, so waiting a few more hours won''t hurt," Leinei finally admitted while breathing out a sigh of relief. Her face then tensed up as she scrambled with her hands, patting herself down only to pull out a multi-colored bouquet of flowers from behind her belt.

    "Here," she spoke while passing the strange set of flowers to me. "While you were out in the mist, I gathered a few of the herbs that you were interested in��" she exined, right as I reached out and copsed my fingers over the stalks��

    [Bounties of the forest: Easy routepleted!]

    [Level up!]

    A bolt of energy rushed down my spine, making my entire body tense up and freeze for a single instant.

    [First milestone achieved!]

    [Unlocking T1 rewards]

    [Bounties of the forest: Master routepleted!]

    [Unlocking "Friend of the Forest" subroutine]

    [Bounties of the forest:pleted!]

    An entire array of different notification and selection windows swarmed my vision, forcing me to escape with my eyes to the side, still frozen in ce by the physical shock I''d just gone through.

    Free of the wordy clutter, I could now see that Leinei jumped back, as startled by my sudden change as she was curious about what happened.

    "Peter!" Fay was already all over me, pressing her hands to my chest and to my back as if refusing to let me go off somewhere.

    "Haaa��" I released a long sigh, sensing a certain weight dropping off my shoulders. ''I did it!''

    I closed my eyes, enjoying the moment.

    Without killing another human being I did it! I reached that damn milestone level! And as expected, the rewards for doing so were far better than anything I''ve received so far, save only for when I got my hands on this magical portal.

    "What happened?!" Once assured I wasn''t going anywhere and sensing I started to rx, Fay asked.

    "Something did happen," I admitted, only to lower and then shake my head. "But I need some time to sort my thoughts out," I then dodged the topic.

    There was no point talking about it, not yet. I had to slowly go through the entire swarm of notifications and carefully study each and everyst one of them. And what could be a better time for doing so, if not the two hours we were about to spend traveling on Madam''s back anyway?

    "I need to sort my own thoughts first, so how about we talk about itter?" I suggested in a pleading voice, actually struggling to process all the changes still happening to my body under the influence of the jolt of energy I felt before. "For example, in the rtive safety of Leinei''s hut?"

 Chapter 69: Peters observations

    As great and liberating as traveling on the Madam''s back felt, it also filled my soul with awkwardness and apprehension. Because how could I ept the fact that I was currently riding on top of my lover''s mother, while desperately clutching at her fur not to fall off?

    This was the other aspect of traveling on this massive fox''s back. It was nothing like the car ride, with all the shaking, shifting and muscle activity I could sense below my ass and legs. And while entertaining at first, now that it came to sitting tight while clutching Madam''s fur for two hours in one go��

    To sum it all up, it would be best to say that when my feet finally touched the solid ground back at Leinei''s garden, I breathed out what had to be the biggest sigh of relief in my whole damn life!

    I powerlessly fell down to my knees, fighting off the desire to bow down and kiss the ground. Doing so would be outright disrespectful to the one that carried all three of us back here.

    "Nothing beats being home," Leinei muttered, stretching her arms out as soon as she dropped down and inhaled one heck of a big breath.

    "That I can easily agree on," I muttered, turning around to catch Fay as she jumped down, helping her tond safely. A meaningless gesture at its core, given how I expected Fay to be several leagues more agile than I could ever hope to be.

    And something at the very depth of my soul told me, that even maxing out my agility attribute wouldn''t be enough to catch up with her.

    "Now that we are back, isn''t it about time you start talking?" Madam was the only one who didn''t show any hints of stiffness, as if carrying us all here on her own back was lesser of an issue than it was for us to hold on to her.

    But, quite noticeably, she didn''t change back into her human form, once again resorting to some sort of telepathy tomunicate.

    "Sure thing," I smiled at my future mother-inw, before grabbing Fay at her waist and sitting down, pulling her on top of myp.

    This was going to be a long talk. And given how we didn''t really have the time to mingle all that much, I was reaching dangerously low levels of Fay cuddle levels. Just a bit more without her touch and I could potentially start balding!

    "First, let me talk about what I think about this entire thing," I started, wiggling around to make sure Fay had afortable seat before letting her rest her side on my chest.

    Given how I was supposed to focus on the topic, I couldn''t really go all in with my cuddles. Limiting myself to just keeping her close was the ultimate yet necessary prize I had to pay to keep my thoughts clear for as long as this talk could take.

    I closed my eyes and calmed down my breathing, using this time to sort thest few of my thoughts and ideas out. Then, I took a short nce at my audience, the bus-sized fox currently lying down just a few steps away and the wood-based dryad in the form of a mature beauty leisurely resting her back against the fox''s side, using it as for both its seat and a back cushion.

    "To my understanding, the part of the forest facing the starlight ins is dominated by celestial beasts, while the other part, the one facing the misty valley, belongs generally to the divine protectors. Am I right?"

    This was one of the guesses I extended to establish the foundation for my theory. And as long as even just one of them would turn out wrong, it would save me the time of exining now ridiculous ideas.

    "Use either beasts or protectors, but refer to both celestials and divines with the same term," Madam pointed out with a glint of displeasure shing in her big, pitch-ck eyes. "Small differences like this were the root cause behind the unrest that led to our conflict."

    Taking a look at the massive fox''s head and looking into her eyes, I''ve got an impression as if she�� As if rather than just talking about history, she was actually reminiscing the things that she saw with her very own eyes, the ones I was looking into right now.

    "But yeah, otherwise you are right," Madam added, prying her mouth open in a casual yawn before resting her long chin on the front paws that she crossed in front of her.

    I allowed a small smile to grow and decorate my face.

    "Back when you told me that it was not possible to cross the starlight ins or the misty valley, you appeared extremely sure about it. But tell me, have you ever tried to cross the misty in?" I asked, leaning my head slightly to the side. Then, I turned my eyes to the dryad.

    "On the other hand, while I''m sure you tried to prate the misty valley, you failed and simply assumed you would achieve the same results by trying to cross the starlight ins."

    Even though I spoke in an usatory tone, it wasn''t my aim to call them out on the mistake in their way of thinking.

    No, I wanted to draw their attention to it instead, because it wasn''t such rocket science that only an outsider like me could notice it. The fact that they didn''t observe it on their own was what actually puzzled and alerted me!

    Leinei looked back at me with her eyes wide open�� indicating nothing but confusion. Rather than staring at me in shock, she was trying her best to read the answer to this puzzle from my face.

    Contrary to her dryad-friend, Madam lowered her eyes and looked on the ground, as she slowly processed all that I''d said. Still, from her expression, as much as I could read Fox''s expressions, she was starting to get it.

    And out of the three women on the scene, it was Fay''s reaction that surprisingly exceeded my expectations.

    Already on myp, she seemingly couldn''t get any closer to me��

    Foolish, naive thought!

    This damned foxy proved to me how little I knew about the world, resting her hands on my shoulders as she leaned slightly towards my face, her eyes firmly locked on my lips while her face fully tensed in perfect focus and attention.

    It felt as if she was readying herself to pounce at the next word that woulde out of my mouth! And to top it all off, by shifting her body forward like that, her hips slid down on my leg''s bone, now pressing down slightly closer towards the middle of myp��

    ''Just calm down and rx,'' I told myself while taking a shallow breath. ''Just consider it a distant version of grooming!''

    Gathering my thoughts again, I raised my eyes and decided I gave the three of them enough time to think over my words on their own.

    "Wait��" Fay spoke out just as I was about to pick up the talking. "Do you intend to say mom can enter the misty valley while Leinei can traverse the starlight in?"

    Hearing Fay''s all-serious tone�� I simply couldn''t help but smile.

    This serious, focused, and observant side of her was new to me�� but equally as adorable as all the sides of her I''ve already experienced and imed for myself.

    "That''s my girl," I openly smiled and reached out to rustle the soft hair on the top of her head. And from how her all-serious look quickly melted into one of satisfaction and pure, innocent pleasure��

    ''My heart��'' I clenched my teeth and my butt, struggling to hold back the desire to pounce on this lovely girl right this very moment.

    "Why didn''t you bring it up while we were back at the valley, then?" Leinei asked out loud, giving me a way out from the lovely torture of Fay''s attention. As my eyes turned towards the dryad, my smile vanished, reced by a much more serious, grim, and calcted look.

    This discussion just moved from theory to its practical application. And from the things I could speak lightly off, to stuff that could bring the sword of ruin down this forest Fay, Madam, and Leinei called home.

 Chapter 70: Me, an outsider

    "Why didn''t you bring it up while we were back at the valley, then?"

    Leinei''s question was pretty important�� because it forced me to reveal the calctive reason behind my decision to hold this discussion back.

    "Once again, that''s because I was still trying to figure it all out myself," I spoke with a sigh, preparing myself to drop the stinky bomb. "And well��"

    In the end, Leinei proved not to be as stupid as I was starting to believe she was.

    "Is it because if you spoke of it back then, it would be more convenient for Madam to test this theory out? Is that why you''ve waited until we came all this way back, just to make sure I would be the one risking my life by testing it out?"

    While Leinei squinted her eyes and looked at me with a clearck of sympathy�� There was also a hint of acknowledgment and even�� respect?

    ''She''s not as angry as I thought she would be,'' I thought, genuinely taken aback by how mild the dryad''s reaction was.

    "If I revealed this thought back there, Fay, as the youngest, would likely be chosen to try it out," I revealed the real intention I had for so obstinately refusing to bring this topic out before. Not the only reason, just the most important one.

    And this confession earned me a nod of hesitant acknowledgment from Leinei and approval from Madam.

    "Anyway," I brushed the topic off, moving back to the main course. "ording to your own worlds, Celestial protectors came to be as a hybrid between mighty beasts and some kind of great darkness," I turned to Madam, paraphrasing what I''d learned from her before. "In other words, celestial protectors possess the might of two beings, at the cost of their soul somehow handling double the burden."

    Now, I turned my eyes to Leinei.

    "On the other hand, the divine protectors," I made sure to follow Madam''s request and keep to just a single form of referring to them, "the divine protectors were blessed with divine, sourcing their power from their blessed souls. But again," I took a short break before spreading my arms out wide and shaking them. "Ites at a cost."

    "And what does that have to do with the ins and the valley?" Leinei shrugged, somehow only growing more confused as I continued my exnations. And from the small movements on her face, she was extremely annoyed by that very fact.

    ''She really isn''t all that smart,'' I thought, pressing my lips into a thin line while looking slightly away, as if ashamed to look into the dryad''s eyes.

    For some reason, she managed to be both extremely intelligent but also so blind to the obvious that she could have a brain as smooth as the skin of Fay''s ass.

    I sighed.

    ''Then, again, not one of them noticed it either, so it goes all the possible ways,'' I thought, shaking my head.

    But this discussion was way too absorbing and important for me to allow myself to be distracted by useless thoughts for a long.

    "The ins tempered my soul by subjecting them to powerful, mental attacks. And since I grew a lot tougher since my first encounter with the light of the stairs, I can now enter the in while hardly paying any prize for doing so," I revealed something that I wasn''t quite sure how the others would take.

    Fay didn''t seem to care at all, simply enjoying the fact that I now brought my arms back, once again enclosing her waist within my embrace. Thankfully, neither Madam nor Leinei appeared to be particrly interested in how I grew that much tougher so quickly.

    "Do you know, though, what I felt when stepping into the mists, besides learning that it was still a part of the same, starlight in that extended just due north from here?" I asked, leaning my head to the side and gently resting it on Fay''s shoulder.

    This time, both Madam and Dryad remained silent, reading how it was only a rhetorical question. A clue that would finally give them the same picture that I had.

    "I felt no mental pressure whatsoever. But walking around suddenly became tricky. As if something made my body heavier, throwing me off my bnce."

    Once again, Leinei didn''t react to the revtion. But Madam did, with how her eyes started to narrow down.

    She could hear the bells, but she couldn''t tell which direction the sound wasing from yet.

    And out of all of them, Fay tightened her hands on my shoulders.

    I looked slightly down, once again surprised by how Fay, by all intents and purposes, managed to figure it out.

    ''Is she really that smart, or am I just thinking way too much because of how much I''ve fallen for her?'' I had to question my own judgment for a moment��

    Only to see Fay roll her eyes as she looked at the dryad.

    "He means to say, that the misty valley is designed to stop the divine whock physical power but have strong souls. The starlight in, on the other hand, tests the strength of one''s core, which is the main weakness of the celestials."

    Fay took a breath before shifting slightly on myp so that she could rest her back against my chest while looking in the same direction that I did, towards our audience.

    "Both the celestial in and the misty valleys are perfect to hold back those who live near them," Fay finally gave it out straight, the observation that I made pretty much all the way back at the forest''s southern border.

    "But what does that even mean?!" Leinei cried out, clearly bothered by how she still couldn''t catch on to the stuff that even Madam was now showing signs of understanding. But as I looked into her face��

    There was a deep dread seeded at the very bottom of her soul, dread born out of the realizations drawn by my theory. And refusing to ept those realizations made the dryad refuse the entire theory altogether.

    But I had no other choice but to shatter this fragile defense mechanism of the poor dryad.

    "It could mean a lot of things," I admitted, once again spreading my arms out to shrug them. "Were the barriers designed to keep you all in this forest forever?" I asked, pausing for a moment to let the tension build-up.

    "Is it a test of the creator of those two areas, aimed to keep you in the forest for as long as you won''t find themon ground and unite, leaving through the barriers you were never designed to reach on your own?"

    I threw out a few possible meanings behind my discovery, all of them as likely to be on the point as likely they were to be total bullshit.

    Who I was to say that whoever was behind this entire arrangement even had any ns rted to it? Maybe it was all just a coincidence? A natural evolution of circumstances that ended up trapping both the celestial and divine protectors in this forest, without a higher n for it all?

    I shook my head again, finally ready to deliver the most lethal of the bombs to those who hoped to get some answers from me.

    "It''s up to you to decide the right interpretation of what I''ve just made you aware of," I pointed out before spreading my arms out again�� Only to bring them right back and wrap them around Fay''s waist, as if worried she would suddenly run off.

    "Not me," I added, raising my eyes and looking at the Madam while holding Fay tightly to my chest. "An outsider."

 Chapter 71: An unwelcomed bastard

    Our way back to Madam and Fay''sir was rtively peaceful and mostly silent.

    Finally, back in her human form, Fay''s mother led us back to her ce, once again proving to be an incredible guide that allowed us to avoid the harder-to-move-through, thicker parts of the forest.

    And quite frankly, I pretty much enjoyed another chance to sort out my thoughts. In my drive to fully figure out the ins and outs of the idea that I just shared at Leinei''s ce, I had no other choice but to put other things requiring observation and analysis on hold.

    That''s why, rather than struggling with the awkward silence, I simply grabbed Fay''s hand to keep my levels of Fay cuddle meter high while sinking down into my own thoughts and the lecture of all the news provided by the system.

    With this arrangement, I didn''t even realize when we arrived back to the familiar clearing, still willed with all sorts of trash left from the girls haphazardly and carelessly tearing up the packages for the different gifts that I''d brought over with Fay.

    Back there, I quickly found a quiet spot in the shade of a random tree where I sat down and curled up, still busy trying to sort out all my thoughts.

    "Now then," Fay spoke out once she let go of my hand and remained standing rather than taking a seat by my side.

    Surprised by this sudden change, I raised my eyes, worried I did something wrong��

    "I believe it''s the right time for you to leave the two of us alone," Fay spoke, not looking at me at all.

    No, her eyes were zeroed in on her mother''s face. And even though I only ever saw her cover behind my back when faced with her mother''s emotions�� Right now, my girl was standing her ground, not moving her eyes away even for an inch, even for a second.

    Madam raised her head up and looked at her daughter�� Only to put on a sad, nostalgic smile and shake her head.

    "How could you take on human habits so quickly?" She asked, with the regret only a mother could exhibit when watching her daughter being taken away. "It''s way too fast! Way too fast for my liking, child!" she cried out, now enriching her voice with a note of disapproval.

    Fay didn''t seem to be moved by her mother''s fake tears, though. And so she stood in ce, steadfast in the face of her Mom''s emotional assault.

    "Are you interested in watching me screw with Peter?" she asked with a serious, scolding look on her face. My girl even went as far as to cross her arms on her chest and raise her left eyebrow!

    All that she was nowcking, was to push her left foot forth and start tapping it against the ground!

    Still, even without thisst piece of the puzzle, the pressure Fay emanated�� Was truly a sight to behold.

    And as the truth of the situation started to finallye to me, I couldn''t help but gulp my saliva down.

    ''My lover is standing up to her monster of a mother so that she can get rid of her, allowing us to fuck like rabbits in peace?''

    I gulped my saliva down yet again, not exactly sure how should I feel right now.

    Happy that Fay desired me so much she was willing to go to such extreme lengths to sleep with me again?

    Awkward that I was now stepping between a mom and her daughter, irreversibly changing their rtionship?

    Or maybe as confused as I was right now, as it was not my time or ce to speak out or react in any other way?

    Confused and unwilling to make a mistake by jumping the gun, I elected to remain silent and observe how things would develop.

    Yet, as I gathered my scattered thoughts, Fay didn''t lessen her pressure any bit, even going as far as to rx her hands�� and rest them down on her shapely hips!

    "I thought you could only go into heat in father''s presence, is that not true?" Fay attacked again, choosing to keep up the sex-oriented axis of how she decided to chase her mother away.

    Madam jumped on the spot, her eyes widening as she looked at her daughter with pure, unadulterated anger�� Yet, as she stared into Fay''s eyes and noticed what I could see from the very moment Fay spoke out��

    When faced with the sea of determination in Fay''s eyes, she gave up and backed off.

    "Fine, I will leave," she muttered unhappily. "You know how to call me if something happens�� or when you guys are done," she added with an extremely displeased look on her face.

    Still, as unhappy as Madam was following up her words with actions�� she still turned around and left, giving all the space in the clearing for the two of us to explore in our own, special way.

    Fay stood in ce, watching her mother leave for a short time, before keeping her eyes on the line of the trees for a few moments. And only once she could no longer sense her parent did she turn her eyes back to me.

    All the determination in Fay''s eyes�� didn''t diminish even one bit, despite how she supposedly just achieved her purpose.

    Or maybe I''ve got it all wrong? Maybe her purpose was to fuck me from the very begi��

    "Now, I''ve noticed you didn''t speak about what happened when you got those here from Leinei," Fay spoke out while all sorts of emotions shed in her determination-filled eyes.

    Shame. Fear. Desire. Anxiety. Regret. Longing��

    All those and many more of them came and went through Fay''s eyes, making me realize that the topic of the two of us screwing�� was just a convenient tool Fay used to get rid of her mother from the scene.

    Fay now turned to face me�� only to lower her eyes, as the hints of fear started to erode the determination in her eyes.

    "I��" she swallowed her saliva. "I will understand if you don''t want to speak about it," she imed, her voice shaking a little and much lower than usual. "But I want you to know something very, very important!"

    Fay added an emphasis to thetter part of her sentence, squeezing her entire body as she cried out about how "very" the "important" was.

    Then, she suddenly threw herself at me, shooting with her hands right past my ears only to lock them behind my neck and pull herself towards the side of my head.

    "I am and forever will be your ally and mate," her lips slightly rubbed the lobe of my ear as she spoke softly. "My first and foremost," she whispered into my ear with such dedication, that I ended up at a loss for words.

    "And fear not," she added, her voice turning slightly�� darker than before.

    Her body, as light as it was, trembled while hanging down from my neck. And while I wasn''t fully sure, I could swear I felt her entire body tense up just now!

    "An unwee bastard like me has no ce in either of the sides in this ancient conflict."

 Chapter 72: Fays confessions

    An unexinable feeling spread out like a wave through my body, mind, and soul alike.

    Holding Fay''s trembling figure in my hands, how I was to respond to her brutal words? What should I say to make her feel calmer, make her feel better?

    Should I just cheer her on? Or maybe I should dig deeper, to understand the core of the issue and then help her work it through?

    And why did she call herself all those unpleasant words? Why was she suddenly bringing up that conflict between celestials and divines?

    "Fay��" I whispered�� Only to shut my damn mouth and wrap my arms around Fay''s back a little bit tighter.

    For now, there was no need for words. And so, I allowed the girl to copse in my embrace as a sob, and then another, shook her chest.

    ''What should I do?''

    This question ran in my head, seemingly another one I would never find the right answer to. But an answer I had to give.

    "Fay, I don''t want to hurt you by asking, but I want to understand you," I softly spoke while leaning my head forward, and hiding my face in the storm of Fay''s long, white hair. "Unwanted bastard?" My voice trembled, turning weaker with every word. "What are you even talking about?"

    In the end, my voice was no better than a mere whine.

    But how could I help Fay if I didn''t understand a word she said? And while the direct meaning of her confession was clear�� I simply failed to fit into the greater context of the situation.

    "You cannot see Papa anywhere because just by appearing here, he would reignite the war," Fay revealed. And this time, she didn''t allow herself even a hint of doubt, spouting an answer as soon as I finished myst, small outcry.

    ''She stood up to Madam to have this talk with me�� So I guess she came prepared for it.''

    I closed my eyes, focusing on just my sense of smell and touch, diving into the wondend of Fay''s sweet scent and the softness of her hair.

    "Because Papa is the leader of the divine protectors, while Mom used to lead the celestial beasts."

    I pressed my eyelids even tighter, struggling to maintain myposure when faced with the news.

    While I could pretty much tell that there was more to Madam that I already saw or knew about�� She didn''t really strike me as someone who could rule half of this wondrous forest.

    ''Wait, do I even know what makes a ruler? And how could I recognize one if I don''t know?''

    Just like I could never stop wondering how some of the faces in the political news ever appeared there, I had no right to im I knew what to expect from a leader of this world. Leinei''s muted reaction when I revealed the small scheme hidden in my n proved that themon sense of this world was different. And that only made it harder to predict anything!

    But now, faced with Fay''s news�� what exactly was the thing I was supposed to do or say?

    For the first time in my life, stronger than ever before, I felt regret for not interacting with people more. Were I to have real friends and family, would I know? Would I unlock the dialogue option that leads to the best oue?

    With how shocked I was, I only managed to realize two things.

    First, Fay didn''t use a single form, referring to celestials and divines per beast and protectors alternatively. A random thought that somehow urred, helped me to clear my mind and restart my thinking process.

    The second thought was slightly more puzzling.

    ''How am I able to think so much in what''s merely a single instant of time?''

    "Why are you telling me all of this?"

    My hand started to move up and down Fay''s spine, gently patting the girl as I went. I raised my other hand to the back of Fay''s head, burying my fingers into the storm of her hair to reach and pet her head directly.

    Holding her up in a different embrace, my entire body plummeted down, making me fall on my ass while cushioning Fay''s descent with my thighs.

    Copsing down like that, Fay instantly wrapped herself into my chest, hiding her face in the corner of my neck and shoulder.

    "I''m not my father''s servant nor the underling of whoever reced Mom," Fay whispered.

    Somehow, she managed to calm down. Her body shook no more, and her breathing stabilized. "I am just�� me."

    I could tell that this confession was of great importance�� but for the love of all that''s holy, I couldn''t tell what it was supposed to mean!

    Fay suddenly pressed her hands on my shoulders and pulled herself up a bit, facing me for the first time since this unexpected event started.

    "That''s why, when you appeared in the middle of the forest,pletely out of nowhere��" Fay suddenly bit her tongue, quickly paying the price of revealing her face to me.

    ''Wait��'' A strange suspicion froze my soul over. ''She saw me back then? Right when I came out from the portal!?''

    I freaked out�� but just like Fay, I quickly brought myself back to my senses. ''Wait, whether she saw me or not, changes nothing. But there has to be a reason for her to tell me all of this!''

    Rather than interrupting Fay or calling her out on the slip on the tongue, I opted to just pat her lightly on the shoulder. Instead of pressure, I hoped to give her the confidence to go on.

    "When I first saw you, I thought you were a treat. With an aura so insanely dark��"

    It couldn''t escape my attention that the mere memory of that moment made Fay all tense up.

    "But then, you were so eager andter happy to feed me, to rub my back��" Fay lightly shook her head, as if in disbelief. Then, she suddenly grew aware of what she was talking about, causing intense red to cover her cheeks. "When I saw you appear out of nowhere, I just wanted to use you to escape this damned forest."

    Fay''s confession�� didn''t hurt anywhere nearly as it would if I heard it from my ex, back in the day. Because now I had some shred of confidence when it came to Fay''s feelings. And with this confidence at the back of my head, I could easily ept that she didn''t fall in love with me on sight.

    I had confidence in Fay''s feelings, so how could something that small ever shake my trust in her? Getting angry or disappointed over what she admitted to would only prove how small of a man I would be.

    "Only when I saw how different you are from the impression I had from your aura, I started to get curious about you. Only then, did I��" Fay''s blush grew even more intense as she lowered her chin and buried her eyes down.

    In the end, I took all that news calmly. I was confident in Fay''s feelings. As confident as I was regarding my own. And this means, my only goal in this situation was to understand the problem and help Fay solve it.

    And all of her confessions, as scared as this foxy could be to make them, helped me to achieve this purpose.

    ''It''s not like she lied or cheated. She didn''t reveal what attracted her to me, but that''s all. And appearing out of nowhere before the eyes of someone who, I''ve got a feeling, wants to leave this cage of the forest��''

    I gulped my saliva down.

    Now, everything was starting to make sense.

    ''There''s nothing wrong with it, just like there''s nothing wrong with me being attracted by her looks first!''

    "I will ask again," I spoke softly, right on the edge between speech and a whisper. Both of my hands now moved towards Fay''s chest�� only to grab her just below her armpits, holding her in ce. "Why are you telling me all this?"

    Unable to hold the eye contact, Fay lowered her face again. Then, she ignored my hold and pressed her forehead against my chest, rubbing it to the sides a bit while giving out a small, whiny moan.

    "I''m your ally!" Fay raised her hands and struck me gently in the chest with both of them as if throwing a dejected fit. "From the moment when I first went in heat around you, from when I saw you all happy just watching me enjoy your gifts��"

    Fay''s forehead stopped, indicating she bit herself in the tongue for the second time. And once again, just a tad toote.

    ''I guess I wasn''t supposed to hear that,'' I thought, giving up on my attempts at looking Fay in the eye and opting to just go back to giving her reassuring back pats.

    Momentster, Fay gathered herself again before pulling back herself and looking up with teary eyes right on my face.

    "And that''s why, I want you to trust me and tell me what happened!" Fay finally revealed the main core of what she struggled with.

    The conflict between the guilt she felt about her initial ns of using me and the seemingly selfish desire to know more about me, more than anyone else, that she felt now that we were together.

    Being pretty much an introvert, I could very well understand this poor girl''s struggle.

    Yet, before I could even reply, Fay reached out with her hand to my cheek. She didn''t move in for the kiss, though, opting to just stay still in my arms while gazing up, teary-eyed, into my pupils.

    "Because I can''t bear the troubled look you had when we left Leinei''s hut. And because just like you, even though I was born and raised here��" Fay made a short pause, only for a small, sad smile to appear on her face as she raised her other hand and covered my other cheek with it. "I''m an outsider too."

 Chapter 73: Open those damn doors before I will kick them open!

    "I''m an outsider too."

    Those words�� There was hardly any way for me to respond to them. So, just like before, rather than trying to be smarter than I was, I simply fixed my hold on Fay''s shoulder, holding her in a tight embrace.

    "So we are both outsiders, huh?" I muttered silently after a while, finally able to understand what Fay was talking about.

    She was born a bastard to the two leaders of the opposing factions. And given how quite a lot of the protectors came from aggressive lineages, she was, in a sense, a child of peace.

    Or, in other words, an existence that had to be kept under wraps, or those more aggressive elements of both factions would be sure toe and relieve her of the duty of living.

    I was an outsider because I came to this world from the outside. And I had literally nothing to do with the local conflicts. On the other hand, Fay was born and raised here�� but she was still an outsider, although not because of her own choices.

    And so, I held Fay as tightly as I could, without going far enough for my body to start acting up. And yet, after a mere moment of silence when I had nothing but the slight weight of Fay to think about, this precaution of mine proved to be quite�� well, pointless, as it led to a certain part of me growing quite pointy.

    Even though we simply sat down and hugged, Fay still managed to sense my slowly growing excitement, be it by reading my aura or simply feeling the early stage of my boner poke her in her thighs.

    "You don''t need to hold back," she whispered softly, directly into my ear. And even though, for the moment, I couldn''t see her face, I could swear she had a slightly amused and maybe even happy smile on her lips.

    "More than that," her voice grew better as she climbed up my shoulder and brought her sweet lips even closer to my ear. "I''m happy that you still desire me."

    Hearing those words, I couldn''t help butugh while lightly patting the girl on her back�� or rather, on the cushion of her long, soft hair that shielded her back from my hand.

    And how could I notugh? Fay''s assumption that there existed a scenario where I could stop desiring her was simply too damn amusing!

    "Still," Fay pulled back a bit, leaving my shoulder and sitting deeper into myp so that she could cuddle up to my chest instead. "I think it would be better if we waited until we got back to your ce," she suggested while tapping her fingers against the free side of my chest.

    "I mean," she removed her hand and scratched herself behind her ear, "your bed is far better of a bedding than a bunch of sticky sticks and cold ground��"

    ''My ce is just a run-down shack, with only the most necessary furniture in ce,'' I corrected Fay''s statement in my mind, only to realize that I''ve failed to take care of this one aspect of our cohabitation.

    I looked down at the small pouch now resting along the rest of the luggage. This one bag was different from the rest, though, as rather than holding my gifts from the earth, it contained all the herbs that I''ve gathered in this world instead.

    ''With that bag, money should no longer be an issue. And that means, I can finally start looking out for some nice apartment to rent!''

    If there was one thing better than waking up with Fay by my side in my rundown shack and the tiny bed, it would be waking up in a ssy apartment, somewhere on a high floor, with a massive window overlooking the entire town.

    That rundown shack of mine�� Fay was too damn beautiful to fit in that shoddy background! And it was my duty as her mate to put her in a ce that befits her beauty!

    I shook my head and gathered my thoughts.

    "Then, let me oblige with your earlier request," I spoke, going back to the very topic that pushed Fay to all her confessions from before. "You see, I''m not exactly sure how to exin it�� But I have a system."

    My words, as expected, only confused Fay. While she obviously could understand what system meant�� that didn''t mean she magically learned the meaning of this world that came from the geek culture.

    Yet, rather than pushing me to exin it further, she simply wiggled in my arms to get slightly morefortable on myp before looking up at my face, patiently awaiting my exnation.

    "In other words, bypleting various missions and doing all sorts of other stuff, I can��" I hesitated for a second, not sure what words would do the job of portraying the meaning I had in mind. "I can artificially grow stronger?"

    My statement turned into a question, a guess, as I wasn''t sure whether my words were correct.

    Still, while I could sense the massive difference between how I was now and how I was when I first entered this world, my body didn''t seem to change at all to facilitate those changes. Raising my strength, agility, and endurance didn''t lead to the fat burning away from under my skin, only to be reced by the muscles.

    Yes, I was now stronger, faster, and could endure a heck of a lot more than before�� but neither of those changes was reflected in the physical alternation of my bodily features. At least, not in the areas that I could notice.

    "Don''t tell me you didn''t notice how I changed from when you first saw me to how I am right now," I asked, refusing to believe that such a huge change could somehow escape Fay''s attention.

    Unless��

    ''Unless both back then and right now, I''m way too weak for her to even consider my strength! And frankly speaking, I''ve only ever used my gun when fighting, so I didn''t really give her any chance to witness my abilities before.''

    Fay squinted her eyes as she looked at me for a prolonged moment.

    "Your aura�� it changed. That dark, oppressive aura I first sensed around you�� It''s now gone, reced by your own," she noticed, her eyes turning wide as she stared into my soul and finally noticed the changes.

    Fay then seemingly pulled back, lowering her eyes and rubbing her chin as she thought hard about something.

    "Then��" she muttered after a short while, raising her lovely eyes to my face. "Back then, when you grabbed those herbs, you finished one of those missions that you just spoke off?" she asked, proving that not only she was actively listening to my exnations, but she even went the extra mile of analyzing the meaning behind it.

    "That''s my girl," I spoke with satisfaction, patting Fay on her back again.

    For some reason, having her figure stuff out all on her own felt pretty damn fulfilling.

    ''Is this what feeling pride in one''s partner feels like?'' I thought, amazed by this wonderful feeling.

    "And yes, back then��"

    "Wait," Fay stopped me before I could exin the details of what happened back then. "She''sing," she added, jumping up from myp and turning her eyes in the direction west saw Madam leave.

    And quite noticeably, her face turned angry. Her anger grew more and more intense with each passing second, reaching its ultimate, wrath form right as Madam stepped out from between the trees with a look of wild satisfaction on her lips.

    The happy smile Fay''s mom held only led to Fay''s frown growing even stronger. And before I could even say a word, Fay grabbed my hand and pulled me up.

    "Hon, let''s go," she requested, paying no mind to her mother as she pulled me away. "We won''t find any peace here, so let''s just return and spend some quality time back at your ce!"

    I internally sighed.

    ''Does she even have an idea of the connotation of those words?'' I asked myself while rolling my eyes.

    At times, Fay felt a bit too forward to my liking. And not because I didn''t enjoy those moments when she went ahead�� but because I was simply worried I couldn''t keep up.

    Keep up I could right now, though, using my free hand to swipe at the air, summoning the portal just nearby. Thankfully, it''s been already a while since its cooldown refreshed, with our talk from before being the only reason why we didn''t return any sooner.

    We stepped forward, passing through the vividly violet portal while holding each other''s hand. Yet, on the other side, rather than peace and quiet��

    "OPEN THOSE DAMN DOORS BEFORE I WILL KICK THEM OPEN!"

 Chapter 74: What the hell do you want?

    "OPEN THOSE DAMN DOORS BEFORE I WILL KICK THEM OPEN!"

    Rather than weing the peace and quiet that my shack was supposed to offer, we were weed by shouting and loud banging on the doors.

    Frankly speaking, I could easily recognize the voice that came from the other side of the closed doors. I grew up hating it to the bone, after all! And my reaction to this voice was pretty much instinctive too.

    With a huge frown appearing on my lips, I gently pushed Fay away, out of the field of vision of whoever would stand at the entrance once the doors would give in.

    "I''m sorry, but give me just a minute to solve it," I spoke in a pleading tone to the confused girl, while simultaneously pulling out the phone from my pocket and dialing one of the very few numbers that I''ve saved on it.

    My dearest aunt''s voice was enough to throw me right back to the mindset that kind of fucked up my life so far. Yet, strangely enough�� I felt no fear, intimidation, or pressure that usually apanied it.

    Contrary to that, I felt like opening those doors with glee before proceeding to murder the thieving ass of that so-called aunt of mine!

    "It will only take a second," I pleaded again, only to see Fay confused. But from how she looked at me, she didn''t seem to be confused by the situation but by how I still kept asking for such a small thing!

    "I''ve had enough!" the voice on the other side of the doors changed, now boiling with fury. "Break those damn doors open!"

    That sentence mildly irritated me.

    Not only did this bitch send me to this ce, all so she could steal all that my mom left for me, but now she had the guts toe here unannounced and act as if she owned the ce?!

    "Yes, ma''am," the new, male voice that followed, though, the respectful manner of speech and all��

    ''Don''t you fucking tell me!''

    Struggling to hold back my fury, I approached the doors.

    "Touch those doors if you want it to be thest thing you do in your miserable life," I called out from behind the doors, throwing Fay onest look to ensure she would be out of sight. Then, hearing that the calling sound from my phone changed to silence, I raised it to my ear while using my other hand to reach for the doorknob.

    "You were supposed to keep that bitch away from me," I spoke in a silent, usatory tone into the phone.

    I didn''t waste my time waiting for a response, though, opting to open the doors myself before whoever was on the other side would decide to make use of this window of opportunity.

    I opened the doors�� And just as I already guessed, my aunt was standing right outside with a furious look on her face�� and thepany of a police patrol. Both my aunt''s car and the police''s cruiser were parked nearby, proving that she either called them here or brought them along.

    And for how ridiculous the second option sounded to a sane person�� Knowing my aunt''s influence in the local circles of power, I couldn''t deny such a possibility.

    "So you were here, after all!" Seeing my face, my aunt''s fury decreased a bit�� but only to make room for a gleeful smile on her face. And as she gave me a triumphant look��

    I actually struggled not tough out in her face.

    Quite noticeably, though, while my aunt sported a triumphant look�� the two policemen who stood by the side were clearly ufortable with the part they would have to y in this situation.

    Still, rather than smiling, I decided to bide my time and put an ugly grimace of repulsion on my own face as I stared down at my aunt. Yet, the very moment I took a single breath, my grimace turned real under the influence of some awful stench I just noticed.

    "Men!" my aunt called, raising her arm and pointing her finger straight at my face. "Arrest this��"

    "Are you here to arrest my aunt for the crime of forging documents, identity theft, and government-level fraud?" I asked, turning directly to the nearest police officer and outright ignoring whatever my aunt wanted to rant about.

    I then leaned my head over my shoulder, giving the officers a puzzled look. "But why threaten to kick my doors open if you just want me to be a witness and give the testimony of those crimes shemitted?"

    Now that my dearest aunt brought the police into the picture, there was no further point in me holding back. And while the time to get my physical revenge would stille, it was also the time for me to start making moves against her.

    "Oh, forgive me for but a second," I then requested before the officers could reply to my question, raising the phone back to my ear.

    "You were supposed to keep the trash out of mywn, but here they are, messing up with me as we speak," I spoke in an usatory tone, sparing no nce at how my actions confused my aunt to no end.

    She was so shocked by the change in my attitude that she appeared to even forget about her fury for a second!

    "Anyway," I shook my head, "Call Makary and tell him to call me back ASAP," I requested.

    "Are you fucking kidding me?" the man''s voice screeched out from the speaker of my phone. "I will deal with this mess, so do you really have to bring the leutenant into the picture?" despite obviously freaking out, the man on the phone still ended up pledging with me.

    "It''s mostly an unrted topic, so just tell him to call me," I requested again before cutting the call and lowering my head, fully focusing on the police again.

    Yet, with just a single look, I could pretty much tell that things wouldn''t be as easy as I would like them to be. Not with that guilty and ashamed looks they were giving me.

    "I can pretty much tell you guys are not here to serve justice or enforce thew upon this criminal," I nodded my chin toward my aunt, as if just looking at her would spoil my eyes. "So, how about you stop acting all embarrassed and guilty and tell me what the hell do you want?"

 Chapter 75: Fays snap

    "We are here to evict you, sir," the officer responded to my question with a mix of awkwardness and determination in his eyes.

    Then, as if it was some sort of theater, another man walked from where my aunt left her car, stepping into the scene like some dramatic hero of the third act, the climax of the story.

    "This man here is the owner of this��" the policeman raised his eyes and took a look at the shed, "this apartment." The officer sighed. "And heined that not only did his rent money never arrive, but he was unable to contact you for thest two weeks."

    ''Two weeks?'' I raised my eyes a little bit. ''But I''m living here for only thirteen days?'' I thought, baffled by how poorly this scheme was prepared.

    "Oh, the rent?" I asked, echoing the officer''s words. "You mean, the two hundred thousand bucks that were stolen from my ount by my dear aunt posing as me, and sent over to that man in lieu of the monthly rent for this rundown shack?" I asked while putting a big smile on my face to cover the internal turmoil happening in my soul.

    ''How the heck do I know this?'' I asked myself, doing my absolute best not to let my inner feelings show on my face. ''I mean, it''s kind of obvious�� but how did I just figure it out? And practically on the spot to boot!''

    I took a deep breath and threw a short nce towards the disys of my systems.

    ''Maybe that knowledge and intelligence points were not wasted, after all,'' I ventured a guess.

    Maybe this strange ability to think a lot in what turns out to be a second or to easily see through my aunt''s scheme�� was rted to how my intelligence was now much higher? Or maybe it was all thanks to my higher wisdom?

    Sadly, as interesting as this question was, right now I didn''t really have the time to think things through.

    And as I raised my eyes and refocused on the officer, I found another proof to my guess. Because his face was now only changing to look how baffled he was.

    "Excuse me?" the officer ended up asking, clearly failing to absorb all that I''ve just said.

    "I''m talking about forgery, identity theft, and financial fraud," I exined while shrugging my shoulders. "Two hundred thousand. This amount of money vanished from my college ount. And ording to the bank, the only transactions that went through said ount is the automatic deduction of varying amounts to cover my college apartment''s rent fee," I revealed what I''ve managed to learn so far.

    It was a high-ss scheme for my aunt to somehow mess up with the banking system. But again, my college ount wasn''t with one of the major yers of the financial market but with some local, smallpany.

    Apany that could easily be influenced by my aunt''s social circle to cover up something like this.

    "What''s more, ording to all the information I''ve gathered��"

    "What the hell are you waiting for?!" my aunt finally exploded, unable to hold back from how everyone ignored her.

    Just like I could expect of her. From the few years I spent living under her shoes, I learned that she believed herself and herself alone to be worthy enough to be at the center of attention.

    "That''s right! What the hell are you waiting for?!" the man introduced as the owner of my shack chimed in. "Kick this damn fraudster out of my ce!"

    "Officers," my aunt suddenly calmed down, putting back her usual, smug-karen smile. "If this continues any longer, I will have to lodge a formalint at your station!" she threatened the police with a triumphant smile returning to her ugly mug.

    "Honey, what''s with this awful stench?" Fay suddenly spoke out, ignoring my earlier attempt at hiding her and walking out right towards the doors.

    In an instant, everyone shut the fuck up, stunned by her beauty even when she wore nothing but��

    ''When did she have the time to change?'' I asked myself staring at Fay dressed in sweatpants and an oversized hoodie. And the very second she reached the open doors, her eyes moved to my aunt''s face.

    Fay squinted her eyes, staring at the woman as if she saw trash suddenly grow aware and stand in her way.

    "Disgusting," she muttered, raising her hand as if to p the woman''s face��

    But no, all she did, was snap her fingers with the same look of disgust still all over her face.

    And as if she was some sort of goddess, the awful stench that continued to prickle my nose, vanished without a trace.

    ''Hmm?'' I squinted my eyes when I saw both the officer stumble on their feet as if suddenly taken aback by some sort of force.

    Worried, I looked over at Fay. But she kept her eyes on my aunt�� with the growth of disgust in her eyes being the only difference from her look from before she snapped her fingers.

    ''Wait, that stench��'' I thought, watching how the officers gathered themselves up, shaking their heads as if to get rid of whatever clouded their thoughts before. ''Was that aura?!''

    This realization�� was big. How could someone in this world produce an aura? And while it felt freaking awesome to have Faye in and remove it with just a literal snap of her fingers�� the question still stood.

    How in all hell did my aunt, a mere shadow of a proper human, had a freaking aura?!

    "Do you want me to rip them all to shreds?" Fay asked in the most casual of tones, finally removing her eyes from my aunt''s face and looking at me with an expression�� An expression she could wear while asking me which of the two shirts she just tried I liked to see her in more.

    Not a single feeling of hesitation, worry, or doubt in her voice.

    And it had to be this absoluteck of fear or hesitation that made both the officers suddenly step back and bring their hands to their belts. Fay asked her question in a rtively silent voice�� but one that all on the scene could easily hear.

    "Nah," I shook my head before taking a step to the side and leaning over Fay''s ear. "Killing this bitch now would end things way too fast. For what she did to me and my mother''s stuff��" My face darkened and so did my voice. "She needs to fucking suffer. And I''m only now starting to make my moves to see that happen."

    Pulling back, I took a look at Fay''s face.

    And contrary to all the expectations I could have in regards to her reaction to my words�� She looked at me with a stupidly happy smile.

    "I''ve just learned something new about you!" - her face seemed to shout out loud as she melted down in mental satisfaction.

    "Officers, I believe you are being used toplete thest step of a fraudulent process," I turned my attention back to the police.

    After they heard Fay''s threat�� I had to do a little bit better when showing them my courtesy and politeness.

    "Once I leave this ce, I will hardly have any right left to challenge all that happened in rtion to me renting it," I pointed out while looking at the officer�� who stood further away.

    ''ording to all the stupid series about police I''ve watched, he''s bound to be the higher-ranking officer.''

    "What were we even doing here��" the officer that stood closer only shook his head, still unable toe to terms with what was actually going on. As if the spell of confusion had just lifted from his mind, he still struggled to make sense of the current situation.

    "You are here to evict this man!" my aunt, sensing that the situation was quickly slipping out of her control, made thest ditch attempt at using her fury and social standing to pressure the police.

    But quite honestly, among all those on the scene�� she appeared to be the most confused of them all.

    As if the thought that her schemes could fail never urred in her ugly, Karen-cut hair-covered head.

    The officer in the back, though, didn''t seem to take to my aunt''s reaction kindly. He stepped forward, passing by his lower-rankingpanion�� only to fully ignore my aunt and stand right in front of me.

    "Sir, I''m sorry, but the eviction itself is legitimate," he announced, to the return of a triumphant look on my aunt''s face. Yet, those few days of interacting with Fay, Madam, and Leinei while constantly struggling to read their faces gave me a certain insight�� An insight that allowed me to keep my calm.

    "As for the crimes you''ve just reported, sir, I will be sure to��" the officer gave my aunt a long look. "I will be sure to go over them myself. But that still leaves the issue of eviction," he added, his face taking a turn for a helpless one��

    Only to then shift right back to a happy, slightly amused smile.

    "Thankfully, since you appear not to have a ce to go if we kick you out of here, it is within my power to withhold the proceedings for up to two weeks," he announced, only to reach out and actually pat me on my shoulder!

    ''What is this strange feeling?'' Sensing my soul suddenly filling up with a strange emotion, I had to put all my attention to holding back tears. ''Is this how it feels to be treated as human by strangers?''

    A feeling I''ve lost my recollection of ever since the death of my mother. A sensation I couldn''t experience when going to the school my aunt picked for me and surrounded only by the people she controlled or had ties with.

    I opened up my mouth, eager to thank the man for even this tiny bit of mental support that meant the world to me��

    Only to put my lips back together when I saw a lovely sight over the officer''s shoulder.

    A sight that screamed: "The cavalry is here!"

    Before a few seconds could pass, the officers either noticed the changes on my face or heard something, turning around only to witness an entire column of ck cars with shaded windows casually stroll into the area.

    The ck cars blocked both the police cruiser and my aunt''s car, removing their option to just drive away as they wanted. And once all the cars came to a halt, a familiar person walked out from the one parked in the very middle of the column.

    "What the hell is going on here?" Makary, the very first gang officer I''vee into contact with, stepped out of his car.

    And under his furious nce, even the two officers, people whose job it was to deal with men like Makary, started to shake.

 Chapter 76: Confronting Makary

    "What the hell is going on here?" Makary asked his question in a perfectly modted voice that cut through all the chatter without sounding like a shout at all. And when he mmed the doors to his car shut, sending a snappy, metallic thud through the air, everyone twitched.

    Despite only speaking out a few words, this man simplymanded respect just by showing up in person.

    Maybe it was the power of his charisma? Maybe the influence of his fame and power in this ce? Or maybe it was the fact, that as soon as he came out from the car, a whole, small army of armed yet casually dressed men came out of their respective cars and followed him, quickly establishing a perfect, tactical control over the entire area.

    ''Did those guys used to serve in the military?'' I thought, baffled when I saw how they left no spot, not a single angle, free of their observation and potential line of fire. What''s more, when I focused on their positioning��

    An undisturbed line of sight to all the nooks and crannies was one thing. But those madds actually made sure that they had all those present on the scene firmly within the cross of their fire...

    Me and Fay included!

    "I thought you were just going to give me a call," I casually mentioned, sending another shock to all those who were gathered on the scene in advance.

    To everyone�� but Fay, who couldn''t care less as she observed the proceedings from just a step behind my back while keeping her arms crossed on her chest and her eyes darting all over the ce.

    From the extremely small wrinkle that appeared on her forehead, she also noticed the wonders of the positioning of Makary''s soldiers.

    Makary only spared me a single look before uttering an exhausted sigh.

    "I didn''t expect this woman to be THAT stupid," he spoke, fully ignoring my dearest of the aunts, speaking of her as if she wasn''t present on the scene, just a few steps away from him. "It was my end of the bargain to keep her filthy mug away. I''m here now to rectify this mistake."

    As simple and as straightforward as only a soldier could put it. But quite frankly, I preferred this way of talking. We wasted less time on empty pleasantries this way.

    "Then, before we deal with the issue at hand, there are three things," I announced and raised my hand up with three of my fingers erected. "First, I''ve got a new shipment," I announced, intentionally using words that would invite even more confusion to the moment.

    In the policemen''s ears, shipment could only mean pretty much illegal stuff, from illegal immigrants, through weapons to drugs ending. For my dearest of aunts�� Well, now that I''ve slowly begun to realize that she was actually nowhere as big of a deal as she made me believe she was, I didn''t really expect her to even notice me using those specific words.

    As for the Makary and his men themselves�� Well, they knew the truth, so there was no room for misconceptions here.

    "Second, I''ve got something that will put us way beyond any talks involving money," I kept speaking in the same, enigmatic manner as before. This time, however, not even Makary could possibly guess the exact meaning hidden behind my words.

    After all, it still wasn''t the right time for him to learn. Especially not with the police officers still hanging around!

    "Andstly," I smiled at the man with a perverse confidence. "I would like you to find me a nice apartment, a top-level penthouse if possible. It cannot be, for me to keep my woman in such a run-down shack�� can it?" I asked, leaning my head over my shoulder.

    I saw what Fay did to the men who attacked. I initially believed those shredded corpses to be her mother''s making�� Only to learn the truth while bored out of my mind, traveling down south to the edge of the forest.

    And if the worst came to be, I was quite confident that she alone would be enough to deal with this entire crowd, especially with how she had all the time in the world to prepare.

    That, or I could just grab her and retreat to the other side, simply waiting for the other side out.

    "That girl��" Makary focused on the veryst part of my words, turning his eyes to Fay.

    The girl herself didn''t move at all. She didn''t seem to mind Makary''s look either, casually turning her eyes to contend his stare. Yet, when she squinted her eyes��

    ''Shit��'' I cursed under my breath, panicking out a little as I rushed to dump all the free points I had left between my strength and agility.

    ''Shit!'' I cursed again while I watched the numbers on my system disy change. ''I should''ve gone through all the changes to my system before going back!''

    Save for the two points I''ve got for the level-up, I didn''t touch a single other rewards that came with finishing two routes of the side-mission and thuspleting it whole.

    [Strength: 3.25] > [Strength 4.98]

    [Agility: 2.25] > [Agility: 4.25]

    [Usable points: 3.73] > [Usable points: 0]

    With both my strength and agility growing so rapidly, my entire body tensed up, only to rx a mere momentter, once I suddenly grew used to my newfound power.

    In the end though, Fay chose not to attack, opting to just roll her eyes and then turn them back to all the men swarming the ce instead.

    "It''s better for you to forget you''ve ever seen her," I admitted while the picture of those shredded corpses shed before my eyes. "For if a single strand falls off her head��"

    Recalling the sight of the mangled, brutalized corpses from back at the clearing was just enough to shake me a little. But imagine a scenario where Fay would actually get hurt��

    I didn''t feel hate, anger, or desperation.

    No, I went straight past those points, opting for cold, seething, and calctive hatred and killing intent instead.

    "Let''s say I will no longer use your gang for a cover, for your gang will be no more," I informed coldly, looking Makary straight in the eyes while seemingly unable to see all his men around.

    The man looked back into my eyes, seemingly unbothered by my threat all that much. This contest of staressted for a short while, before Makary, quite surprisingly, averted his own eyes, conceding in this small and ultimately meaningless contest.

    "You think way too low of me. I''m above hurting someone''s woman just to get to them," he imed only to shrug his shoulders. "I much prefer a simpler, direct approach," he added only to send me a furious nce.

    That was his real response to my threat. And only now I understood that when he looked at Fay, he wasn''t imagining all sorts of stuff under the influence of her beauty.

    It wasn''t lust that I noticed at the bottom of his eyes when he looked at her. It was the pity he felt when he imagined the scenario where we would end up shing.

    "That''s not what I meant at all," I sighed and shook my head. "I didn''t assume that you woulde for her if something went wrong," I proimed, only to cross my hands on my chest, look the man straight in the eye, and smile. The smile quickly grew dark when I noticed the stares Makary''s men were giving my woman.

    "It''s your men I''m worried about. Or rather, how our rtionship will sour if theye to fuck around and end up finding out whether I speak the truth or not."

 Chapter 77: I didnt hear a single word of what he said

    I never really intended for the situation to devolve into this dick-measuring contest between me and the high-ranking officer that I was supposed to be working with.

    But I''ve never intended for him to appear on the scene, much like I didn''t expect my dear aunt toe and mess with me either.

    ''Tough look,'' I summed things up in my mind before forgetting about it with a single sigh.

    A sight that marked the moment I cast away my unnecessary thoughts. The moment Makary''s face rxed a little as he, just like me, judged we fought over who had the longer one for long enough.

    But it was also a precise moment when my aunt finally had enough of everyone ignoring her.

    "Who the hell are you?!" she suddenly screamed out, causing all the people on the scene but Makary, Fay, the higher-ranking policeman, and me to twitch.

    Suddenly screaming out while everybody was just a single move away from pulling out and starting to st everything into smitherness��

    Well, it only served as yet another example of how mistaken I was when I actually considered this idiot to be a legitimate threat to anything, be it my peace, my inheritance, or my safety.

    "Who gave you the fucking right to even talk with my son?!" Shaking her bowl-cut and red-painted hair, my aunt finally appeared to me for what she was.

    Just a disgusting Karen who believed her standing allowed her to throw her weight around. And just like all the other Karens who continued to be as popr as theughing target of the Inte as ever, she failed to realize just how much of a fish out of her pond she was right now.

    "I''m no son of yours, you damn bitch," I finally managed to get over my disgust and address this joke of an aunt of mine directly. Yet, for how much I wanted to bash her skull in�� I actually couldn''t help but use most of my willpower to hold back a wild bout ofughter.

    Looking at her overconfident face, clearly oblivious to how little she meant here��

    It was just too damn hrious!

    ''Be better��''

    Out of nowhere, my real mother''s words came right back to me, once again threatening to subvert what I believed to be the right choice of action here.

    And as much as it pained me to take even the slightest risk�� How could I go against those words?

    "You see, my actual mom told me to be better. So I will be better than you and offer you mercy you''ve never shown me before," I proimed before taking a step towards this Karen of an aunt. And once I''ve gotten close enough, I started to whisper right in that smug mug of hers.

    "Listen, you little bitch," I started in a rtively mild and collected manner. "I''m really going to climb the peak of my mercy here," I uttered right in her face while staring right into her dumb eyes with all the intensity my own eyes could offer. All the while��

    ''There''s no way she will do it,'' I thought, perfectly sure of my reasoning. ''She''s too full of herself to ever consider conceding. Everything went too smoothly for her for way too far.''

    I took a step back, giving that insult of a woman some space to let her consider my proposition.

    "You will return all the money and items you''ve stolen from my mother''s wealth. Everyst trinket, everyst damn cent. And of course," I smiled, somehow managing to actually make my expression look legit. "I''m including that college fund of mine you stole in the list."

    And then, as if anyone still had any doubts about whether or not she was an exceptional idiot or not, my aunt followed my request with��

    "Or what?"

    The look of confusion mixed with the expression of holy wrath.

    I could almost read her thoughts.

    ''How dare he speak to me like that!'' or ''How does he know all about it?''

    I slowly shook my head.

    "You will return all of those back to my ount and, when ites to the items, to the frontwn of this shed," I spoke of my terms. "For money, I give you three days. For all the items, keepsakes, mementos, and other stuff you stole, I will be merciful and give you a week."

    Ignoring the holier-than-thou rage written all over her face in response to my simple demands, I leaned over her face before uttering a tiny whisper, one that only this disgusting woman could hear.

    "If you do so, without even the slightest dy, then your death will be swift and merciful. You will be spared several days if not weeks worth of begging for the bullet."

    I''ve had no ns of letting this whore go. Even though she, ultimately, turned out powerless, that didn''t stop her from acting as she desired for thest few years. That didn''t stop her from disrespecting myte mother in my presence, from bullying me, from destroying any hope and dream I dared to still keep from the happy years of my life��

    She held nothing back when she ground my life to dust. And I was the better man just by offering her a quick way out if shemitted the worst sin against her self-important personality and admitted to all her wrongdoings and returned what she stole.

    But just like I thought, doing something like that went far beyond the ability of a person who knew not how to take a loss, for she was sly enough and bused that weird aura never to take any, to begin with.

    And just like I both hoped and expected��

    "ARREST THIS MAN RIGHT THIS MOMENT!" she screamed out, a mere second after my words sank into her ears. She retreated a step and raised her arm, more shaken than I''d ever seen her before. "HE JUST THREATENED ME! ARREST HIM! ARREST THEM ALL!"

    Soon, the target moved from just my head to everyone present on the scene. And hearing those freaked-out screams of hers, I wasn''t the only one stunned.

    The policemen didn''t know whether to cry crocodile tears or outrightugh. Makary''s men outright snickered, genuinely amused by the notion of some self-important civilian ordering police officers to arrest nearly twenty armed men, all on their lonesome and while deep within the gang''s territory.

    In this moment, something, someone had to give in first. And to my surprise, it wasn''t Makary putting my aunt back in her ce, too tired of her ridiculous shit to keep his promise of not getting himself directly involved.

    The first one to act was actually the higher-ranking officer that I''d spoken to before.

    "Did he really?" he asked while stepping forth and then putting himself between me and my aunt. Then, he cast a quick look at his surroundings, his troubled smile growing even more troubled with every armed man he could see standing around.

    Then, the officer slowly turned his face back to the aunt, no longer even pretending to give two shits about her crap.

    "Did he really threaten you?" he asked, ostentatily taking a step back and crossing his arms on his chest. "Because I couldn''t hear a single word."

 Chapter 78: Lost cause

    "Because I couldn''t hear a single word."

    The policeman spoke out with a happy look on his face, as if just making the decision not to involve himself in this scuffle was really hard, but brought him the peace and quiet he desired.

    But what other choice did he have really? Surrounded by the Makary''s goons and practically forced by my aunt to do stuff he wasn''t obliged to do at all��

    At this point, I couldn''t help but wonder, what was the actual leverage this damn bitch held over police, to force this man to go that far before he finally decided to stop?

    But the officer was nowhere near his closing statement.

    "You told me to arrest this young man, and all those around us. But do you care to enlighten me�� why? For what crimes?" the policeman asked while taking a step towards my aunt.

    Maybe it was the power of his badge and uniform, or maybe the fact that someone holding an official, public function actually stood up to her�� but my aunt instinctively backed out a step.

    ''She might be freaking stupid, but I guess she''s not THAT stupid.''

    At the very least, she still had some survival instinct. And judging by just how fed up the officer was with her crap by now, he couldn''t be that far from just turning his eyes away and giving all the men Makary gathered a green light to solve the issue.

    "Those respectable gentlemenmitted no crimes that I know of. And I mean, if I''m supposed to arrest them just because you im they did��" the officer shook his head.

    And by now, I couldn''t really tell whether he was just exhausted or outright exasperated by my aunt''s actions and words.

    "If I''m supposed to arrest those people just because you used them of some crimes, then you would be the first one to take a seat at the back of my shop because this young man here was the first to use you of pretty damn serious crimes!"

    My aunt backed off another step.

    She wasn''t even angry, or at the very least her anger didn''t show on her face. Instead, she was just baffled. Stunned. Unable to understand and process what was going on.

    Because how could things end up like that, not going the way she wanted?

    "Gentlemen, I don''t think it''s right for us to hold you here any further," Makary spoke as he stepped forward. He was clearly too busy to keep dealing with this kind of stupid shit. "I bet you could be of use to our fellow citizens by patrolling the streets, not following the whims of some self-important�� persona."

    I couldn''t hold back and actually smiled when I heard just how much Makary struggled not to insult my dear aunt.

    Seeing people recognize this monster for what she was�� Was a really beautiful, fulfilling feeling.

    Makary sighed, shaking his head.

    "How can a real person be so dumb��" he whispered, more to himself than to anyone else. I only had my proximity and pretty powerful senses to thank for actually making out what he spoke.

    And this proved extremely useful when he turned his head and looked me straight in the eye.

    "The fact that she actually managed to cause you trouble��" he muttered in a voice just loud enough for me to hear if I were a normal person.

    ''Well, yeah,'' I silently admitted, as baffled as the man. ''Looking at her now, just how did she manage to suppress me so much over the years?'' I asked myself�� even though Fay had already given me the answer with literally a single snap of her fingers.

    But the presence of that stinky aura wasn''t something I could bring up with Makary. Not now, when he was just a contact of convenience, ready to turn his back on me the second it proved more beneficial to work against me than with me.

    Still, when it came to my aunt, now that she no longer could make use of the aura finally allowed myself to see her for who she truly was. Just a miserable cunt who took pleasure from bullying others, even as a god damned adult!

    But once again, I only knew this now. And I couldn''t bring up the topic of the aura. So how exactly I was supposed to excuse myself right now?

    "I couldn''t do much while underage." In the end, I used the simplest possible answer that still retained some sense. As that woman''s ward, how could I do anything when she was set on limiting my ability to do anything?

    "Anyway. If she won''t reimburse all that she stole from me, I''m just going to keep suing her ass until all the people that as much as heard of her, will know just what kind of a person she is, stealing from what her sister left for her orphaned son!"

    I didn''t even realize when I raised my voice.

    ''I guess I''m still angry at all that she did,'' I thought, taking half a step closer towards the calming aura of Fay''s presence.

    Yet, because I spoke slightly louder than I initially intended�� Well, now all of the men on the scene could hear some details about my beef with her.

    And if those goons took her for just a typical, idiot-karen like many on the, now their looks started to grow pretty hostile.

    In the end, even gangsters like them didn''t like people who stole from orphans.

    Put in this situation with hardly any way out, my aunt clenched her teeth. She shook her head to the sides, looking for someone, anyone, who could help her out of the mess she put herself in.

    Yet, as she looked around, she slowly started to realize what I could see for a while already.

    The police looked at her as if she was just a stinking junkie who they were forced to deal with. Makary''s men and the lieutenant himself stared at her with outright hostility, while the shed''s owner that she brought along��

    Has long since escaped from the scene, too smart to keep up the ruse when a small army of local gangsters came to back me up. If he was smart enough, in fact, he was likely trying to cash out as much as he could from his bank ounts before leaving as far away from this city as he could!

    ''Is she going to have a mental breakdown?'' I thought, only slightly curious as to how this bitch would react to the tragic situation she was in. And in the end, she gave me a hateful stare�� Before her eyes shed and a filthy, smug smile appeared on her lips.

    "To think I''ve kept several keepsakes of my sisters, intending to gift them to you once you grow up��" she eximed before shaking her head with embarrassingly fake disappointment. "I guess now I know, though, what I will watch go up in mes tonight!"

 Chapter 79: Not the drug-lord I thought him to be

    "I guess now I know, though, what I will watch go up in mes tonight!"

    Hearing those words, I couldn''t help but heave an exasperated sigh.

    ''What is she, an actual, clinically affirmed retard?''

    As careful as I used to be around this word�� Right now, I actually meant in. For what else but a retard this woman had to be to openly fan the mes of my hatred when surrounded by people who would be more than happy to fuck her up?

    ''Or maybe she''s somehow blind to all those armed gangsters around?'' I tried my very best toe up with a logical exnation for my aunt''s behavior.

    Still, as stupid of my dear aunt as it was to taunt me like that, I still had to find a proper way to respond to her threat. And as proved by her words, there was no point even trying to reason with her.

    "I''ve already epted for a fact that you destroyed or otherwise removed everyst memorabilia of my mom and your sister," I spoke out before shrugging my shoulders.

    This was the sad reality. Knowing I couldn''t do shit about her as an underage person under her legal guardianship, I''ve long since epted for a fact that I didn''t have the power to protect my mother''s mementos.

    And as upsetting as it felt to know there are still some left, assuming this bitch wasn''t just lying out of desperation�� It didn''t really change much.

    Sure, it made me feel bad�� But not anywhere as bad as I felt when I learned the truth of my former, fake rtionship. Because contrary to my failed rtionship with Cassie, I''ve had the time to grow used to the idea of not having any physical item to remember my mother through.

    In the end, though, I simply shook my head.

    "I believe it''s time for you to get the fuck out of here," I spoke out, not minding mynguage at all anymore. "Leave, before I change my mind on how I''m going to deal with you and ask all those kind friends of mine," I spread my arms out as if to point at all the people around, "to deal with you in my stead."

    My aunt''s face took on a really funny color as she seethed with rage�� but even in her tiny brain, the idea of acting up any further proved to be quite challenging.

    No matter how much she wanted to deny it, to hide it, I could still see the fear sh in her eyes whenever she nced over at all those mean-looking men.

    So, just like any other Karen when confronted with reality and the consequences of her actions�� My aunt simply turned around with a loud "hmph" before rushing to her car��

    Only to end up locked inside and unable to leave, with all the gang''s cars blocking her way out. And as stupid as I now knew her to be, she wasn''t THAT stupid to risk scratching those by driving through the small gaps between the vehicles.

    And to my knowledge, she wasn''t a miracle-level driver to do that, given how those gaps were maybe an inch or two wider than her car!

    "Finally." Seeing my aunt leave, Makary rolled his eyes before turning them towards me. He then crossed his arms on his chest as he gave me a long, thoughtful look. "Now, this was my apology for fucking up," he said, swinging his arm to point at all his men and cars in ce. "But I''ve been told you wanted me to call you."

    Makary took a deep breath, pausing his words as if to give me some time to prepare and focus on what he was about to say next.

    "Speak then, and speak now. Do you have something good enough to warrant talking with me? Or would you rather not waste my precious time ande back when you actually do?"

    I didn''t avert my eyes away from Makary''s stare, looking right back at his face as I took a few moments to think�� Or rather, I acted as if I had to think this issue through.

    If anything, this was one extreme way of discerning idiots from people who actually used their brains. And it was by asking two types of questions.

    The first question had to be simple. When asked what weather we have right now, only an idiot would have to take his time to figure out the answer. But when it came to harder questions, like, what''s the meaning of life, what''s the meaning of love or��

    Or if I was ready to speak with Makary and deal with him directly as opposed to going through his officers, only an idiot would give an answer right away. A smart person would have to give the proper question a thought befitting its weight.

    And as far as I could tell, right now Makary used this opportunity to judge whether I was actually worthy of working with him directly or not, regardless of what I could possibly have in store.

    This was a test I couldn''t really pass, not without knowing how long he expected me to think. Just a little so that I wouldn''t waste his time by making him wait? Or quite some time, risking his anger in exchange for giving out a proper answer?

    So, not sure how to proceed to satisfy the man, I simply decided not to act in the way he expected me to. And rather than replying to Makary, I turned my eyes away and looked over at the police officers before turning my eyes over to my aunt''s car.

    Getting the message, the higher-ranking officer sighed.

    "She might be a bitch, but she still has her rights," he spoke in a way that pretty much spoiled how much he regretted that fact himself. "And while we are giving people like Makary some leeway��" the officer shook his head. "But we still need to make sure he won''t step out of the line."

    Now, this was quite an interesting fact, one that I was formerly unaware of.

    ''So, rather than just leaving Makary be, they actually have some sort of silent agreement with him?'' I summarised what I''d just learned, only to turn my eyes back to the gang officer��

    And catch him right as he gave the officer an extremely annoyed look.

    ''It seems he isn''t really happy with them admitting it out loud,'' I thought, somehow pressured to gulp my saliva down by the intensity of Makary''s angry stare, even if it wasn''t directed at me.

    "Leeway?" I asked, biting myself on the tongue just a second toote.

    Wrongly assuming this question was aimed at him, the officer sighed.

    "Ever since the economic downturn of twenty-twenty-eight��" he shook his head.

    "The rich folks at the city centers don''t want to see their taxes wasted on the less fortunate," Makary cut into the officer''s words, giving his own view on the situation. "So, as there isn''t enough funding, the police kind of leaves those less prosperous parts of the town to people like me."

    ''To the people who actually care about the folks in here,'' I thought, almost able to hear the unspokenint and pride in the part Makary decided to omit.

    And hearing those words, the police officer only shrugged.

    "It''s better to turn our eyes away from your smuggling ring if it means you will take care of the people here," the officer spoke directly to Makary, openly adding to what I could swear was the intent behind Makary''s words.

    ''So he is a smuggler,'' I also thought, taking note of the fact. A note that I dedicated to my memory just by the side of how Makary might actually have some sense of responsibility for the people living in this doggy part of the city.

    And as little as it should mean, it actually changed how I looked at the man.

    ''It''s a good thing I didn''t look for some herbal narcotics after all,'' I thought, heaving an inner sigh of relief.

    If Makary really cared about the people, then drugs would be one kind of business he wouldn''t participate in. And that meant the herb I brought suddenly gained much more value, given the uses I had in mind for it.

    Still��

    ''If there''s anything toment my aunt for, is how well she kept me out of the loop of things, given how it''s the first time I''m hearing all of this,'' I thought, my soul filling with a sense of irony.

    "That''s actually good news for me," I spoke, out loud, sensing how both Makary and the police officers expected some sort of reaction from me. "If you were to be some sort of drug lord of the area, our next conversation would be��"

    Even though I could sense the look in Makary''s eyes sharpening, I continued after just a short pause.

    "Our next conversation would be that much harder."

 Chapter 80: You arent joking, are you?

    "Our next conversation would be that much harder."

    Hearing my words and seeing me shrug my shoulders, Makary gave me a�� weird look, to speak inly.

    A look that I couldn''t really see through. And assuming my feeling about it was correct, it was because Makary himself wasn''t sure what to think about what I''d just said.

    "I don''t have the time to waste here," he moved his arms back and, once again, crossed them on his chest. "Speak now, or gain the right to talk with meter," hemanded, going through the line of the least resistance.

    Assuming he really was pressed for time, this was actually the right choice. After all, he still couldn''t have a single clue what made me confident enough to demand him to call me!

    "Then, I will talk to you on the morrow," I replied, once again picking an option that Makary didn''t even consider. "I need to prepare some things, while I need you to prepare certain things for me," I added, pulling out my phone, opening up the notes, and starting to type away.

    "First, I need a nice penthouse, withforts befitting the beauty of my woman," I repeated my request for a house. "For that and other ends, I will also need some fake job to keep the treasury officers out of my ass," I added another demand while ignoring the stunned looks the other, lesser gangsters gave me.

    ''In their eyes, giving demands to Makary must be a showcase of insanity, idiocy, or some great, fucking, courage,'' I thought, smiling at my own thoughts.

    Yet, rather than waiting for the man to respond, I finished writing on my phone and lowered it down.

    "Before I show you thest thing I need you to prepare, I just need to say one thing," I announced, taking a deep breath while raising my eyes to Makary''s face.

    Then, after giving the man some time to prepare, I brought my phone back up and passed it over.

    The Makary first gave me a weirded-out but curious look, before squinting his eyes and grabbing the phone. And as he raised it to his eyes��

    His expression didn''t change. No, more than that. His expression froze as he clearly ensured I couldn''t read his reaction to myst request of mine.

    "This doesn''t really fit well with what you said before," Makary pointed out as he finished reading the short note and passed the phone back to me with a sigh.

    Despite his attempts at keeping a straight face, I could see some sort of emotion boiling at the very bottom of his eyes. What kind of emotion was it, though?

    And how could a damn asocial introvert like me know? I only had Fay to thank for learning how to interact with people, even if she wasn''t exactly a human herself. And I''ve only known her for a measly few days!

    "You have no idea what I have in store. It''s simply impossible for you or anyone else to predict or anticipate it," I imed, responding to the question I could see in the man''s eyes.

    After all, just like he said, the request I''d written on the phone was pretty fucking far removed from one of the sentences I spoke just before.

    "So, just take this for a gamble and organize everything," I suggested as I spread my arms out to the sides and shrugged them. "I will drop by tomorrow and prove to you that I''m not acting stupid. Oh, and preferably," I made a short pause, "I would like you to send someone over to fetch us. After all," I smiled lightly, "I can''t make my dear girlfriend walk that far on her two, precious legs, can I?"

    Makary looked over at Fay''s unbothered face. For but a short moment, their eyes meet�� Only for the man to actually look away, surrendering to the silent strength of the girl''s stare.

    "Well, I don''t think you are just a stupid kid who would make those ridiculous demands without a proper reason," Makary spoke before heaving a long, deep sigh.

    "You can''t be stupid, seeing how you decided against dealing with that stupid bitch right here and now, using my presence as an opportunity," he added, justifying his decision before his men�� and while giving the police officers a long, scolding stare.

    The officers, on the other hand, clearly felt the nudge directed at them, but save for putting on ugly faces, they spoke nothing.

    "I will trust that you understand the weight of what you ask for," Makary then turned back to me, only to nce over at Fay. "Because if you do not��"

    Now it was my turn to squint my eyes and do something anyone would consider stupid. And so, I cut right into Makary''s words.

    "I would suggest you not finish those words," I smiled at the man. "Because I, if made to, could at most kill you all," I spoke without a shred of arrogance, full of confidence instead.

    And this one time, I wasn''t acting. Now that the excitement of growing calmed down and allowed me to objectively judge the extent of my current abilities�� this small army of armed men posed little to no threat to me.

    "But you see," my smile faded, "I''ve already seen what my dearest is capable of." A shiver moved down my spine, causing my body to twitch a little.

    Strangely enough, the memory of all those mangled, brutalized corpses had a much stronger effect on me now that I recalled it than it had when I saw it with my own two eyes.

    "And well��" my voice followed the example of my smile and faded away. "No, there''s no point talking about it. You wouldn''t believe it anyway," I ended up shrugging my shoulders. "Just remember, I can only hold her back for as long as you or your guys won''t cross certain lines. Beyond that point��"

    I didn''t even bother finishing up my sentence. Yet, the unvoiced threat that was hidden in this sentence I''ve cut short��

    "Are you joking?!" Makaryughed out loud, either unable or unwilling to take my words seriously. And judging by the intensity of his giggle, he was genuinely amused by my balls to act towards him like that. "If so, you really should have��"

    Raising his eyes from when he nearly bent in half fromughter, Makary gave Fay a quick look�� Only to end up staring at her empty, emotionless face. And as his body gradually rose back to a proper position, the smile gradually vanished from his lips, reced by first a surprise and then astonishment.

    Looking to the side, I confirmed that Fay didn''t do anything special. She simply had her arms crossed over her chest, with the fingers of her right hand slowly tapping at the elbow of her left arm.

    In the end, the rapid changes to Makary''s face ended with him slightly squinting his eyes.

    "You are not joking, are you?" he muttered, turning his eyes over to me.

    I slowly breathed out.

    "I''m equally as surprised as I''m happy to see you actually get it," I remarked off-handedly while averting my eyes.

    "Well, I''ve seen some freaks of nature back in��" Makary''s face suddenly tensed up.

    Just like me a moment ago, he had to recall some unsavory images of his past.

    "Well, nevermind," the man shook his head before turning sideways and looking towards the line of his men''s cars. "I will send someone to fetch you at midday tomorrow," he announced before stepping aside and walking away.

    Yet, unable to hold himself back�� Or rather, unwilling to do so, as he passed by my aunt''s car and looked inside to see her still seething in anger while she furiously called one number after another��

    Makary sighed and pulled out the keys to his car. Yet, rather than lifting the lock on the doors with the press of a button, he brought those keys of his to the side of my aunt''s car��

    The air suddenly filled with an extremely unpleasant, metallic voice as the man drew a long, ugly line on the otherwise immacte paint job of my aunt''s car.

    "I will see you tomorrow," he threw over his shoulder before raising his keys-wielding hand and drawing a small circle in the eyes. "Roll out, boys!"

 Chapter 81: Is it finally over?

    "Well, that was intense," I muttered, watching how Makary''spany all boarded their respective rides before driving away.

    "We will excuse ourselves too, then," the higher-ranking officer spoke, nodding his head before turning around and leaving for his shop. And by the time they reached it, my aunt finally had enough room to maneuver out of the ce where she parked.

    Only seeing both my aunt and the police leave, I managed to breathe a proper sigh of relief. Only now I allow myself to properly look towards Fay, rather than casting fleeting nces to gauge her reactions as I did before.

    Just like throughout this event, Fay stood in ce with her arms crossed over her chest, watching the cars as they left through her squinted eyes.

    "Thanks for holding yourself back," I spoke, finally able to focus on my woman rather than those other people. "Thanks for removing that awful aura," I added, taking a step closer to the girl. "And I''m sorry," I concluded my short serenade by reaching out and lowering my hands on Fay''s shoulders. "Sorry for making you put up with all this mess."

    Finally, my words brought some reaction from the girl, pulling her eyes away from thest few cars to leave and making her look at me with a dumbfounded look on her face.

    "Isn''t this my role as your mate to support you?" Fay asked, her eyelids moving slightly up as her brows invaded her forehead. "Would it be wrong to expect your support if I never needed your help, or merely just your presence at my side?" she then asked, squinting her eyes back as she put the expression she would make whenever trying hard to figure out a foreign aspect of the modern world.

    "Wait, what?" I opened my eyes wide. "Of course, it wouldn''t be wrong!" I shouted, baffled by Fay''s sudden question. "I would be more than happy to��"

    And then it struck me.

    If I would be happy, ted even, to be of help to her, why did I assume that it would be any different for her? Was it the problem with my own sense of value and how I didn''t expect my kindness to be ever returned? Or maybe it was something else, something deeper��

    "Oh��" when the realization struck, I only managed to utter a small moan. And hearing it, Fay took a step forward, causing my hands to fall down on her back as she wrapped her hands around my waist and hugged herself to my chest.

    "So you would be happy to help me out, but you are surprised I''m equally as happy to do the same for you?" Fay seemed to figure out where the odd part of the equation was with my moan. Yet, rather than just letting the topic go, she suddenly pulled her head to the back and looked at me with confusion. "Wait, is this how women treat their mates in this world?"

    Fay''s face turned still, but the look in her eyes�� It was pretty much the same look as what I saw whenever her eyes turned toward the corpses of those who attacked us back in the other world.

    "Are the women of this world taking everything and offering nothing in return?"

    Hearing those words, I felt my face turn sour.

    "To be honest, I don''t think you want me to borate on this topic," I whined a little before heaving a short sigh. "But in general, yeah. Somehow, as bad as it sounds�� It''s kind of true. And don''t even get me started on the topic of faithfulness��" I added, only to see the face of Cassie, my ex - assuming it was right to even call her that, - before my eyes.

    And as one could expect, my mood darkened even further.

    Yet, rather than waiting for me to exin what I meant, Fay simply moved her head back towards my chin as she tightened her hands, pressing herself deeper into my chest. Soon, I could indulge in the softness of her hair brushing against the bottom of my face.

    "I will never cheat on you," she muttered in a low voice while rubbing her forehead against my corbone. Then, she suddenly climbed up, grabbing at my waist for support, only to reach with her lips and catch the lobe of my ear with them.

    Feeling her start munching on it, I couldn''t her but close my eyes, overwhelmed by the strange sense of intimacy and affection I felt from this gesture.

    ''It''s like one of those less hinged ASMRs I''ve used to listen to, but now, in the flesh��''

    "I will never cheat on you," Fay let go of the lobe of my ear only to whisper directly to my brain.

    Her breath struck the side of my head, sending a pleasurable shiver down my spine. And only now, as I held her insane body close to mine while having her mouth returned to the task of nibbling at my ear��

    "I can only ever go in the heat for you, after all," she added another whisper to my already overwhelmed mind, sending a next surge of exciting tingling to resonate throughout my body. And as she pulled back to look at me with a slightly mischievous glint in her eyes��

    "And speaking of which��"

    ''Eh, fine,'' I cleared my mind of all the unnecessary thoughts, forgetting all about the situation that just concluded.

    Using the fact that Fay now pulled back a bit, I left only one of my hands on her back, moving the other one down, even lower than her hips, all the way to the back of her knees.

    ''Up we go!'' I thought merrily as I suddenly picked the girl up from the ground, bringing her up to my chest in what the cultured men could easily recognize as a princess-carry.

    "Yeah," I muttered after enjoying the small squeal of surprise mixed with amusement that Fay uttered when I suddenly raised her up. "I think it''s high time for the two of us to get some private time alone," Iughed, waiting just a second for Fay to wrap her arms around my neck before turning around and carrying her back to the shed.

    ''Just how is she so light?'' I thought as I moved towards the bed. And this thought was followed by another. ''Is she going to be okay? I mean, from what I remember, we went at it quite hard back then��''

    Still, when I heard Fay''s lovely giggle and saw her pull her arms out the very moment sheid down on the bed, inviting me to join her��

    "Well then, without any further ado��" I muttered with a wide smile on my face as I stepped forward and fell into the girl''s affectionate embrace.

 Chapter 82: [Bonus chapter] Cockblocking phone (slight r18)

    Waking up, the first thing I noticed, was the pleasant weight resting on my arm and partially on my chest.

    This weight didn''t simply upy the spot on my chest rent-free, offering warmth and softness many times greater than any pillow of cover could in return.

    This weight was obviously Fay, who peacefully hummed through her sleep. She was snuggled up to my chest so closely, I could feel every breath of hers trickle down my hair and caress my skin.

    Thanks to the covers, I didn''t have to endure the sight of Fay''s naked beauty, limited to just the general outline of her body hidden underneath the nket.

    I was extremelyfortable. Both in physical and mental terms, given how fulfilling it felt to have my woman sleep over me when I woke up. And yet��

    And yet, when I breathed out, my sigh was as heavy as a mountain.

    ''My balls fucking hurt,'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I moved my eyes up and locked them on the featureless ceiling of the shed. Looking at Fay''s nket-covered figure was already troublesome. And raising the cover to sneak a peak of the charms that I could currently feel pressing against my skin��

    ''Shit��''

    Just the thought of what I could do was enough to excite me a little. Which, in my current situation, only led to an even greater difort at my crouch.

    In the end, yesterday, we didn''t do it.

    Back when I fell into Fay''s invitingly open arms, I expected to be balls deep in her before long. The fires in the girl''s eyes proved she was of the same opinion. And yet��

    When we started to snuggle, talk, and exchange affectionatements�� It took us only a few moments to snuggle ourselves to sleep. And as perfectly fine as it was��

    As perfectly fine as it was for the atmosphere back then to turn intofy and cuddly as opposed to juicy and sexy, we had our first time just a few days ago. And ever since we first exhausted her, it felt as if fate itself stood in the way of us enjoying ourselves once again.

    Gritting my teeth as I tried to ignore my morning arousal, I turned my eyes away from the ceiling and threw them searching around the room for something that would help me distract my thoughts.

    And the first thing I noticed was the number on the small, tabletop clock that I''d bought at someone''s garage sale for literally a single buck. And looking at it now��

    ''Dang, we''ve slept inte,'' I''ve thought�� Only now realized the other potential cause behind our failed funst night.

    We were simply extremely tired.

    Sure, we slept through thest night as usual�� But the time appeared to flow in a slightly different order than here, on Earth. When we left Fay''s world, the sun was already about to hide behind the horizon. And yet, here on earth, we appeared only a few moments after the midday!

    Coupling this time difference with how exhausting our time at Fay''s World was and how ourst night was still influenced by all that we''d drank the evening before��

    Yeah, it was no wonder we picked the sweet relief of sleep over the energy-consuming affection.

    Still, we''ve slept inte. And that meant there was one thing I absolutely had to check.

    ''My phone,'' I thought, looking around the room once again before locating the phone and instinctively reaching out for it.

    Sadly, what I failed to foresee, was how even this tiny move of my arm was enough to shake Fay awake, pulling her out of her peaceful slumber.

    ''Shit,'' I cursed under my breath before snapping a quick nce at my phone''s screen. ''At least I didn''t miss his call,'' I thought, not sure whether to sigh in relief or continue brooding over how my carelessness caused Fay to wake up.

    Still, Fay was a heavy sleeper. And her rustling around as she cuddled herself into my shoulder was just the first phase of her waking up.

    "Good morning," I whispered lightly, my heart melting over just how insanely adorable Fay was when she was all sleepy.

    Hearing my words, Fay struggled to raise her head up. Yet, once her chin finally brushed against my chest she looked up and smiled��

    I fought off the desire to close my eyes as the process of my heart melting turned into my very same heart suddenly standing aze.

    "Good morning," Fay muttered with an adorable, sleepy look on her face, smiling at me even while half awake.

    ''It''s as seeing my face was her greatest pleasure,'' I gritted my teeth, struggling to hold just how precious Fay could be while still half-awake.

    Yet, as fulfilling as it felt to have our waking moments be fully focused on the other�� There was a price to pay for everything. The price that made my pants start to bulge out as my manhood begins to manifest its full potential��

    And the price of the both of us instinctively reaching out and connecting our lips in a soft, light yet long kiss.

    ''Oh damn,'' I closed my eyes as my mind sank into the soft pleasure, my mouth filling with the taste of Fay''s lips.

    Before I could even think, my hands already started to move on their own, brushing up and down Fay''s waist.

    I''ve held myself back for long enough, especially with how I''ve learned the taste of a woman just a few days ago. And as my desire filled my hands, making my fingers aggressively grope Fay''s soft skin��

    Her body responded in kind, squirming around whenever my hands moved as if to give them better ess to anywhere I desired to touch.

    Fay''s breathing hastened. The sleepiness washed out from her eyes, reced by pure lust��

    Only for the ringing of my tone to cockblock the two of us.

    There was only one person who would call me at this hour, after all. And I knew better than to ignore the call from the number I could see shing on my screen.

    Still, between settling my future and just focusing on Fay�� I managed to nearly instantly decide what had to take the priority. Or to be more precise, the scene that appeared in my mind suddenly made holding myself back right now pretty fucking worth it.

    I took another, deep breath�� before pulling myself out and away from Fay''s lips.

    "I''m sorry, but it seems we will have to wait for just a little longer," I apologized while raising my hand to caress Fay''s cheek. "But I guess it''s time for us to go and make some tea, don''t you think?"

 Chapter 83: Like in spy movies

    ''Did he somehow renovate this ce overnight for today''s test or did he always have this sort of a room in his club?'' I thought, looking over the room I found myself in with Fay, Makary, and just one of his close aides.

    After getting the call and deciding on the simple stuff, we took a ride in the car Makary sent for us, only to find ourselves sitting at the very back of the nightclub where he liked to reside most of the time.

    This wasn''t the office where I had my first meeting with him, but a small room with just two sets of doors, one leading back to the main corridor while the other��

    The other led to the adjacent room, connected by the mentioned door and a long but narrow Vian mirror. The one I''ve only ever seen in spy movies before, where we could see everything on the other side while, in the other room, this particr piece of ss filled the role of a simple mirror.

    "As requested," Makary spoke once we finally got into the room while nodding his chin over at the mirror. "A junkie fresh after taking a dose," he spoke in a slightly darker voice than usual, befitting the tense and displeased look on his face.

    ''Assuming he really is as against drugs as I believe he is, finding someone like this had to be quite a headache for him,'' I thought, worried for a second that maybe, just maybe, I went a bit too far.

    But as much as Makary could hate the drugs and people who distributed them, he couldn''t fully prevent his part of the town from being infested with them. He only had control over a single district, meaning, nothing stopped people living on his turf from simply walking over to the territory of other gangs in the area to get their illegal supplies.

    And as I looked through the Vian window, I confirmed Makary''s words with my very own two eyes.

    There was indeed a shady-looking person inside. They were sitting by a simple desk on an equally simple chair, both of which were bolted to the ground.

    ''This really looks like an interrogation window from some spy movie,'' I thought. And while normally I would hardly be able to hold my excitement back�� The sight of the poor, drugged man in the other room easily quelled all of my enthusiasm.

    Still, I was the one who requested the presence of this kind of person, so the best I could do was at least not to act childish and waste no time with the little show I''d prepared. As such, after just a quick look, I hastily stepped away from the mirror while allowing the unsavory feeling I felt in my soul to reflect on my face.

    Seeing the changes in my expression, Fay stepped forward, keen to check the other room out. And while, at first, I rushed forth to stop her�� I ended up stopping myself instead.

    ''Am I going to keep this moment a secret from her?'' I asked myself, watching without a single move how the girl leaned over toward the ss. The only movement I allowed myself was clenching my teeth. ''She has the right to know what I''m doing here, even if it will make her disillusioned with me.''

    I gritted my teeth to the point my gums started to hurt. But this physical pain was nothing whenpared to my worry over how Fay''s perception of me would change once she figured out what was about to go down.

    ''No secrets. I''m not going to keep in the dark about the darker parts of who I am and what I do,'' I decided, taking a deep breath when Fay finally leaned over and took a nce through the Vian mirror.

    Fay squinted her eyes as she followed the erratic movements of the drugged man, stared at his hands and eyes twitching literally every second, and observed the look ofplete bliss and detachment visible on his face.

    Then, Fay turned her head around and looked at me, baffled by something.

    Quite noticeably, I wasn''t the only one following the changes on Fay''s face. And although Makary noticed her expression, he didn''t bother toment.

    ''I guess it''s time. The sooner we get this over with the better,'' I thought, reaching out to the small bag I brought along before pulling out a simple, seble food container. Inside, a bunch of fresh leaves floated in a bit of the tap water.

    For the herb to work, it had to be fresh. I kept Leinei''s advice close to my heart, making sure to slow down the decay of the herb by putting it into a container with nothing but cold water. Whether or not it would work, though�� I was going to find out soon.

    "Pull out the leaves from the water and have someone boil a tea from them. Then, as soon as it cools to a manageable temperature, have that man drink it."

    My instructions were as clear and as simple as they could get.

    I wasn''t going to make the junkie in the other room smoke the leaves or make them into some sort of injection. No. I was going to follow the exact same, simple steps that Leinei did while brewing the tea with this herb while hoping it would still work the same in this world.

    Grabbing the container, I reached out and passed it to Makary.

    "Just a third of the leaves I''ve brought should suffice," I added, only to watch him take the container, and heave a long sigh before passing it over to his aide.

    "Go," Makary spoke softly before averting his eyes and turning silent as if he lost all interest in the topic the moment his aide grabbed the box and rushed outside the room.

    ''I guess they don''t have a kettle here,'' I thought, growing more and more ufortable as the silence prolonged.

    "You don''t have any ns to tell me what to expect, do you?" Makary finally spoke while giving me a long stare.

    A question I could answer only with a sigh.

    "It will be far easier to exin it once you see what happens," I revealed as little as I could while hoping to buy just a little bit of the man''s patience. "Also, it might take a moment for the effects of this herb to kick in, so how about we get some chairs?"

    Makary''s eyes twitched only for his face to darken even further.

    "We can wait while standing," he replied, opting not to push me any further and allowing the silence to creep back into the room.

    Soon, before the silence could turn the atmosphere tense and awkward atmosphere to an unbearable level, Makary''s aide returned. This time, however, a simple, clear ss reced the box that he carried when going out.

    "I''m quite curious to see the degree of this herb''s effect on a man under the influence of hard drugs," I muttered under my nose, only to feel Makary''s eyes piercing my back. Turning around, I looked right back at him.

    Now that I was so close, I couldn''t back out.

    "What? I''ve tested it on myself before, but I could only get my hands on alcohol at the time. And, to be frank," I shook my head, "I don''t think I would be willing to drug myself just to test it."

    I took a deep sigh while keeping my eyes on the gang''s officer.

    Now, the time came for me to go for the one,st push.

    "Do you have the other thing I asked for?"

 Chapter 84: A kilo, maybe two

    "Do you have the other thing I asked for?"

    This question was nowhere as simple as it sounded like.

    Not when I asked for a fresh dose of whatever that junkie was drugged with, all neatly and cleanly prepared and ready for use. And especially not when I asked this from a man who I believed to be heavily against drugs.

    Makary�� didn''t act out, though. With a sigh, he reached into the inner pocket of his tuxedo and brought out a rtively huge syringe with a stic-covered needle. And surely enough, some sort of thick liquid was rocking up and down within the syringe''s container.

    "I do," the gang officer admitted�� Only to reach out his hand with another heavy sigh, passing the needle over.

    "Why are you giving it to me?" I asked, seemingly dumbfounded. Only a moment toote I realized that without letting the man know anything about what I''ve nned, I couldn''t expect him to understand my intentions.

    "Give it to one of your men, and have them walk inside that room. Once I give the signal, have them leave the syringe on the table so that you can see what will happen."

    Once again, my instructions were as clear as they were simple. That''s why, when Makary squinted his eyes, now openly showing hostility all over his face, I could tell it wasn''t because he misunderstood my request.

    ''Giving a fresh dose of a drug to someone who just got himself high with it�� I think he believes I want to kill that pitiful man,'' I thought, gulping my saliva down when I realized just how close I went to crossing the line Makary wouldn''t allow me to cross.

    Yet, contrary to my expectations, the man didn''t burst out in anger. And once I gathered my wits and looked up�� I realized his face was no longer hostile. And his eyes, in fact, weren''t even directed at me but Fay.

    Prompted by Makary''s look, I turned my own eyes over�� Only to see a look of casual understanding blossom on Fay''s face as she retreated from the Vian mirror with a small, knowing smirk on her face.

    "Basra!" Makary called out before I could even turn my eyes back to him.

    "Yes, boss?" the aide from before walked over from the shadowy corner of the room where he hid himself after carrying the ss of tea over.

    "Get the syringe and the tea. Make that pitiful man drink the tea and wait. Once you hear the knock��" Makary suddenly stopped and looked over at me.

    "Just ce the syringe on the table, well within that sad man''s reach. But if he reaches for it��" I pressed my lips together, knowing full well that what I would say next coulde to bite me in the ass in the most painful way possible.

    Because if my prediction proved to be wrong, I would effectively turn out to be someone who caused Makary to do something he really disliked. And for apparently no reason at that!

    "If he tries reaching for it, don''t let him. Grab the syringe and go. I''m not going to risk him overdose just for the sake of this test, regardless of how curious I am about its results."

    This time, I didn''t exaggerate, lie or speak in half-truths.

    Even if it meant risking the proper showcase of what my herb could do, I wasn''t going to force my way if it meant risking a man''s life! Not even if he was what most would consider to be a mere scum, blemish on the name of a society as a whole.

    "Go," Makary ordered, only to watch his aide pick the tea while carefully hiding the syringe somewhere inside his clothes.

    And then, we simply waited.

    We waited when Basra pushed the connecting doors open and waltzed into the room as if he owned the ce. No one spoke a word when he ced the murky tea on the table, only for the druggie to instantly grab it and down it whole as if it was the first thing he drank in hours.

    And then, once again, we waited.

    We waited while the druggie gradually stopped shaking. We waited until the look in his eyes slowly cleared, his pupils once again focusing properly on the objects around that he looked at. And before long��

    "It''s time," I spoke, beckoning at Makary while keeping my eyes glued to the ss.

    Thankfully, this herb appeared to work against hard drugs, given how quickly this poor druggie was getting back on his feet. And by the time Makary sighed and knocked at the window�� the poor druggie was in the perfect state his physical condition allowed him to be.

    His hair didn''t suddenly rid itself of all the dirt embedded into it. His teeth didn''t regrow while his body still kept the distinctive marks of substance abuse��

    But when it came to his posture, how he held his head, or even the look in his eyes�� Those didn''t belong to a man whose consciousness floated somewhere in the drug-induced wondend. And to speak frankly, if not for his unkempt appearance, one would never consider that man to be a drug user at all!

    "This was delicious��" the formerly drugged man spoke out in proper English.

    Sure, he struggled a bit to avoid some small mistakes�� but how long was it for him since hest properly formed even such a simple sentence as the one he just uttered?

    I looked up right as Makary raised his eyes and knocked on the ss.

    The hostility and even the anger that I could see all over his face were now gone, reced by a look nearly as intense as the one Fay gave me when I asked her to put our intimate fun forter. And when his aide inside pulled out the syringe and��

    Basra didn''t even get to ce the needle on the ground when the poor man on the other side of the desk jumped out with such force the bolted-down chair nearly fell over.

    "T-take��. T-t-ta-take it AWAY!" he suddenly screamed out, his eyes filled with panic�� Only for him to suddenly turn to the side, bend over, and throw out with all the might left in his feeble body.

    This wasn''t just a random act of vomiting. The man was actively trying to throw out all of his insides, just at the mere sight of the drug that just a few minutes ago, he would be more than willing to suck dick to get his hands on!

    I turned my eyes away from the insides of the room and back to Makary''s now astounded face. The intense look from before vanished without a trace, reced with utter and unadulterated shock. Then, his eyes suddenly twitched and his hand shot to his belt, right where he held his gun��

    "All I know is that while the effects are pretty good right now, they are temporary. It takes some time for the body to get used to this herb, so one could mix it into whatever they like to take while avoiding most of the negative effects on their body and mind," I spoke out the exact meaning Leinei taught me about, simply tranting them into terms Makary would understand and easily ept.

    "As for curing addiction��"

    I turned my eyes back to the Vian mirror, giving a short look at the still throwing-out junkie and the shocked Basra inside.

    "It would be too great to be true if this simple herb could cure addiction in one go," I admitted, much to Makary''s disappointment. Still, while he was sad to learn that he overestimated the potential effect of the herb, he was still more than content with what I ended up showing him.

    "Curing addition would probably take a month or two of consuming this kind of tea daily," I then offhandedly added, much to Makary''s repeated shock which, in turn, tranted into Fay''s amusement.

    Makary''s chin suddenly grew more pronounced as he slowly turned his head over and looked at me with an expression I hadn''t seen him make before.

    ''He must be clenching his teeth really hard,'' I thought, ridding my lips of the mocking smirk and looking the man in the eye properly.

    "This herb has to be fresh to have any use. That''s its main limitation. And for now, I can only provide an extremely limited supply whenever I return from my��" I intentionally hesitated before squinting my eyes and turning them away.

    "Whenever I return from my assignments," Ipleted my sentence while making it seem as just an excuse, a cover-up story for what I was actually doing or where I was going to get my hands on this miraculous herb.

    "Thinking about it, I believe I could get you about a kilo every week or two? Maybe two kilos?" I muttered, rubbing my chin to appear as if I was deep in thought.

    Then, I shook my head and finally put the small, slightly mocking smile back on my lips.

    "Now then, where do we stand on the topic of that penthouse I asked for?"

 Chapter 85: Finally, the top

    "So this is your new ce��" Fay whispered, failing to shake her amazement.

    Today was a day full of surprises for her.

    From her first ride in a nice car, or rather any car at all, through visiting ces far nicer-looking than the rundown shed we lived up until now, all the way to step through the reception of the massive housing unit project�� And to the moment right now, when we stepped inside the house that Makary organized.

    Fay was already amazed by the architecture of the buildings located near the edge of the territory controlled by Makary, already outside of the bounds of the officially unrecognized parts of the town. And yet, when we left the elevator and stepped directly into the main hall of the penthouse��

    The meter of her shock shot through the roof.

    "It is not my ce," I spoke out, reaching out and grabbing Fay''s waist before pulling her slightly to my side. "It''s our ce," I corrected her.

    Fay looked to the side, giving me an intense look�� Only to pull me inside the ce, too eager to check it all out to waste time on pleasantries.

    And quite honestly, I didn''t really mind. After living in that damned shed, stepping into a penthouse located at the very top two floors of the housing unit�� It felt extremely rewarding.

    As if all the pain and sadness I went through up until this point were finally about to end. A concrete proof that I''ve sessfully managed to change my life.

    Sure, it would take several more deliveries of the miraculous herb as Makary hailed it before I could pay this ce off�� But with just the first batch of what I''ve left for the man to use as he wished I''ve received one of his personal cards��

    Cards that had absolutely no spending limit on them, as long as I wasn''t trying to invest millions, buy massive yachts, or invest in real estate all on my own.

    ording to Makary''s words, those kinds of transactions could potentially draw the eyes of the state treasury, making it absolutely necessary to inform him about them in advance.

    ''Well, I''ve made it to the top, now what?'' I''ve asked myself, suddenly all confused about what should be my next logical step.

    ''Should I go around and flex on those who used to bully me?'' I asked myself, easily picturing out quite a lot of different scenarios in my mind. Rather than struggling toe up with the details from scratch, I only needed to bring out any of the dreams I used to have back in my sorry days.

    In the end, though, Fay didn''t give me the time and peace of mind necessary to wallow in the low parts of my soul. Quite honestly, now that ying those scenarios out turned into something well within my newfound financial prowess��

    I couldn''t really see the point of doing so. Even imagining how I would p the face of those who mocked my poverty with a fat stack of cash or unt the beauty of my woman to those who imed I would never find a girl��

    All of those felt like something only a mere child would do. And, in the case of speaking about adults, a manchild who would be too set on their personal feelings of ill-conceived justice to care about serious matters.

    And with all of my heart, I refused to act like such a simple-minded person.

    ''If they try to fuck with me ever again, I won''t hold back. But trying to flex on them just for the sake of my own self-satisfaction�� What''s the real worth of doing so? Because the cost of doing it��''

    I''ve still had my aunt to deal with, currently calling all the favors she could and roping in as many influential people as she could to deal with me. And by unting my newfound money and status around I would simply invite trouble by exposing a potential w for that bitch to exploit.

    And ultimately��

    My eyes turned to the side, feasting on the look of amazement on Fay''s face as she rushed all over the ce, enjoying everyst moment of her adventure to discover the uses of all the furniture this penthouse came equipped with.

    In essence, it was a two-story pce for those who wanted to move in without any unnecessary hassle. A unit in the housing project was overpriced in the way that kept such a luxurious ce only for those whom the owner of the unit felt worthy enough to rent it out for.

    The penthouse consisted of the lower, living floor, with rooms ranging from a small, private cinema, through an inbuilt pool and gym, all the way to a massive open space with kitchen and lounge.

    And that was all just the first floor!

    To reach the second, we couldn''t use the lift that carried us to the penthouse. Instead, we had to climb the elegant stairs, only to see the entrances to five different bedrooms all facing west�� And a massive gate to an open-air patio, where its high, reinforced-ss walls ended with nothing but air for the roof.

    ''There''s even a massive balcony that we can use to circle around the entire second floor, save for the part where the bedroom windows are,'' I noticed, while Fay already rushed out to inspect everyst part of the lush garden that we found at the very top of the entire building.

    ''To think a day woulde I could step foot in a ce that nice, not to speak living here on a permanent basis��''

    I shook my head, no longer bothering to hide the satisfied smile from my lips.

    This was the peak of what I''ve ever wanted. A beautiful ce to live, an intoxicating and faithful woman to enjoy it together with, all the way to the absoluteck of financial worries.

    Three things that I''vecked the most in my life were now all fulfilled in one go.

    But there was still one missing element toplete the picture of pure perfection and bliss.

    "Fay, would you like toe down?" I suggested, already smiling at my thoughts. "There''s something I would like you to see."

    In all of her excitement, Fay ended up missing what I''ve considered the absolute best perk of this ce.

    And Fay quickly obliged my request, I started to count out in my head.

    ''It''s not the open kitchen or the massive bar beside it. It''s not even the gym or pool,'' I thought, grabbing Fay''s hand and leading her to a very specific point of the penthouse.

    "Woah��" Fay only managed to utter a small moan of surprise as her eyes went wide when graced with the perfect view of the entire city that we had our massive window facing east to thank for.

    It was the same look we could enjoy in any of the five bedrooms upstairs�� But the look that was designed to apany all those who enjoyed their leisure time on the simple set of luxurious sofas located at the very center of the entire lower floor and facing, quite obviously, the wall of ss that some madman called a window.

    "Quite the view, isn''t it?" I whispered, taken aback by the sight myself.

    Never before in my life have I felt so directly just how massive the Academy City was. A project of the vanity of the times before the economic downturn that properly drove a knife into the beating heart of the global economy.

    And now, a sight that would apany me and Fay in ourzy life we could finally enjoy. A sight��

    Or rather, as I took several steps to the back, a backdrop that finally befitted the mind-numbing figure of my girl. An environment finally befitting her beauty.

    And also the ce where I hoped to rectify the mistake of my hastiness from back in Fay''s world, where all sorts of sticks, stones, and other diforts disturbed us from fully focusing on each other.

    So, with Fay gently cing her hands on the ss of the window as she kept looking outside, I slowly approached her from the back before wrapping my hands around her waist and pulling her towards me.

    "This moment is exactly why I managed to hold myself back in the morning," I whispered right into Fay''s ear, only to have it turn stark red a mere momentter. "But now, there''s nothing more holding us back."

    The delivery of all the stuff that I''ve deemed necessary would only arrive tomorrow. For today, we had to make do with what the thoughtful people behind managing this penthouse left behind for us to enjoy.

    And quite frankly, whatever nice stuff was awaiting our attention, I''ve already held in a close embrace the only thing in the entire penthouse that could harness my full and undivided attention.

 Chapter 86: After the long wait (slight r18)

    Fay''s body twitched slightly when my hands moved down the indent of her waist and towards where it widened out into her hips. Her breath hastened and grew deeper when my fingers continued to move down, reaching the bottom edge of her hoodie��

    Only to turn back up, sneaking underneath the cloth and reaching for her waist again. Yet, as soon as I felt my fingers touch her bare skin rather than the cloth of her sweatpants, I changed the direction of my hands again, sliding them underneath the oneyer of cloth that protected her legs and hips from the eyes of others.

    Before long, Fay bent slightly forward, when my hands finally reached their goal�� Only to carefully avoid it and reach even further, caressing the inner sides of Fay''s thighs instead.

    "I was too hasty a few days ago. So, today, I want to make it up to you," I whispered right into Fay''s burning-red ear while enjoying the sensation of the skin of her thigh springing up against the pressure of my fingers. "I want to make love to you in all thefort this world truly has to offer."

    Between my whispers, my yful hands, and how close I was pressing myself against her back, Fay quickly grew weak in her knees, soon relying on just my hands to keep her standing up. Her breath hastened even further and her entire body started to squirm around.

    Her face was burning. Her mouth pried and then remained open, allowing her pants to caress my ears as she struggled to get a proper breath in.

    And right this very moment, once I judged that she was now prepared enough, I moved my fingers slightly up, finally reaching for the forbidden treasure that only I was allowed to consider mine.

    "Ah!" Fay''s body tensed all over when I lightly brushed my fingers past her clit, hooking two of them up as I reached for her lower mouth. And the very moment I pried her lower lips apart and reached with my fingers for her depths��

    Fay''s body all tensed out. Her hips started to move side to side, her ass rubbing against my crotch.

    By now, I was fully ready for the action itself, with my dick already doing its absolute best to tear through the material of my pants and reach for its sweet and tight sheath just a little further��

    ''Wait,'' I suddenly froze, only with the utmost effort of my will managing to keep my fingers moving and scouting every nook and cranny of Fay''s hot and slimy insides. I then resisted the allure of pulling my hand out and inspecting the unexpectedly quick result with my own two eyes or using it to tease the girl even further.

    ''Howe she''s so damn wet already?''

    There was practically no resistance barring the path my fingers took. Quite the opposite, given how the squirming of Fay''s inner folds seemed to suck my fingers deeper and deeper into her sweet garden while coating it with a new upon newyer of her juices.

    Finally, judging that this was enough for just some simple teasing, I started to pull my hand up and out of Fay''s pants�� Only to stop when my fingertips moved up to Fay''s swollen and mushy clit.

    "And what do we have here?" I asked as I gave it a quick, gentle stroke.

    "AGHH!" Fay uttered a loud squeal, her body losing all its cohesiveness as she suddenly limped out and simply gave up all her weight for me to hold on my own. And when she suddenly started falling, I only had one hand in position to grab at anything in ce.

    So, panicking when I pictured the sight of her falling down and hurting herself, I hooked my fingers again, desperate to catch her before she fell, even if it would mean grabbing her by her crotch while holding nothing back.

    Thankfully, my hand proved to be fast enough and my thoughts sufficiently decisive, allowing me to hold the girl up right at thest moment. Yet, as Fay nearly fell forward, I ended up resting my inner palm against her lower abdomen, suddenly putting even more pressure on her clit��

    ''I guess that means she had enough,'' I thought, carefully grabbing Fay with my other hand before removing my sticky fingers from her pants and then using both of my arms to grab and then hug her tightly.

    "How do you want us to do it?" I waited only for a moment before whispering my question directly into Fay''s ear, only to then reach out with my lips and catch her ear with it.

    Now that I''ve removed my hands from her sweet spot, Fay was left right on the edge but with no further stimuli. And deprived of my caressing, she couldn''t stop her hips from shaking up and down, to the left and to the right, all in instinctive, animalistic attempts at rousing my own lust to the point I would cut all the bullshit and just screw her silly.

    ''I guess she''s so wet because she''s getting in heat,'' I thought, drawing the only logical conclusion from the moment. After all, I was more than aware that my knowledge about how intercourse should look like�� consisted mostly of bullshift I''ve learned from porn and the wealth of my own imagination.

    ''Yeah, the fact that she can enjoy it proves she''s now in heat,'' I thought.

    In the end, though, Fay didn''t bother to answer my question. Instead, she suddenly took half of a step forward only to turn around on her heel, quickly scan her surroundings, and��

    And send me stumbling back for my dear life with just a single push. After making a mere few paces, the bottom edge of the massive sofa cut the back of my knees off, forcing me to fall back directly on its soft cushions.

    Despite stumbling like that, I couldn''t tear my eyes off Fay.

    Not when she discarded her sweatpants with just a single move�� but allowed her hoodie to fall down right away, covering just enough to make it sexy rather than tant.

    And as she stepped forward, allowing me to gaze at her delicious-looking thighs that practically screamed for someone, anyone to go and lick and kiss them all over��

    Fay didn''t stop even for a second, resting her knee on the edge of the sofa to my left, only to climb up with her right foot, instantly moving up on top of me and then setting herself downfortably in myp.

    Thankfully, besides how great of a view the window offered us, we were so high up that I didn''t really have to worry about some sort of bastard catching a look at Fay''s charms.

    Her beauty was only for my eyes to adore, after all!

    Still, after this quick notion, Fay finally settled down, ignoring how her hoodie rode up her hips, now no longer protecting her crotch from my eyes�� Or from the bulge in my pants that she used as a guideline for how to seat herself down on myp.

    Her hands mmed down against the cushion to both sides of my head, only for her tense, blushed face to finally appear a mere inch away from my eyes.

    Fay''s heavy pants now resulted in her hot breaths hitting me directly in the face.

    ''At this rate��'' I grew slightly worried when surrounded by so freaking much of stimting feelings, sights, and experiences��

    But Fay worried about nothing. After calming down for but a second and allowing some distant hint of rationality to return to her eyes, she simply leaned her head forth and pressed her soft, plump lips against mine, finally marking the beginning of the thing we were lusting to do several days ago.

 Chapter 87: Creative way of using aura-reading ability (r18)

    This wasn''t our first time kissing or getting frisky. And yet, as if all the former times when we linked our lips didn''t exist, I instantly fell into the hole that Fay''s lips pushed my mind to.

    They were too soft, too tasty, too�� active for me not to fall in love with them. Fay was too eager for the kiss to grow further and more intense every time we rubbed our lips for me not to respond in kind, getting more and more aggressive with each passing second instead.

    Soon, our tongues joined the action. A change was initiated, to my surprise, by Fay herself.

    ''It appears she didn''t forget a single thing we did back then,'' I thought, allowing myself to enjoy the sensation of Fay''s slimy tongue invading my mouth before doing my utmost to make it most wee.

    "Aaaah!"

    Our kisssted for so long and was so deep, that when Fay suddenly pulled back, she desperately gasped for air, regaining the breath she couldn''t take because of our passion for each other.

    At this point, I was simply overwhelmed.

    The weight of her body bearing down on myp, the way the soft flesh of her naked thighs ttened against myp, only alluring my hands to reach out and grab them, the way she locked her hands behind my back��

    This time, however, richer by my experiences from our first time, I made sure not to just be the subject of Fay''s caressing and affection. And soon, while one of my hands refused to leave Fay''s thigh, my other one moved up her other leg and to her ass, with my fingers always just a single inch away from the source of the juice that I could sense already trickling down her legs.

    Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Fay suddenly pulled out, parting from my lips as she rose up on myp and stared down at my face.

    At first, she simply breathed in and out, panting like a hungry animal staring at a fresh piece of juicy meat with the look in her eyes that matched the intensity of her breathing and the warmth of her body.

    "You know��" she spoke in a fleeting whisper as a small smile grew up on her lips. "I don''t think I''ve ever exined how exactly I can perceive auras. Or how I could learn yournguage so quickly," she spoke, making me hope that maybe, just maybe, some of the mysteries that I stashed in the back of my head could find their answers.

    Yet, despite dropping such a massive foreshadow, Fay simply smiled even brighter before removing her hands from my neck and shoulders and bringing them towards her chest.

    The corner of her mouth twitched as she leaned forward for yet another kiss�� This time, however, her lipscked the energy and intensity I witnessed before, limiting our union to just a simple peck.

    Still with something clearly on her mind, Fay pulled herself away from me�� Only to actually climb down from my crotch, putting me in a state of shock.

    I felt it with my own fingers just how wet she was. I could feel how tightly her body pressed against mine, how her hips moved as if with a will on their own�� And despite all of that, she still stood up in front of the sofa, not even bothering to bring the edge of her hoodie down and thus giving me quite the show of her nakedness.

    The nakedness that I''ve only ever witnessed either early in the morning orte in the afternoon, always in the meager presence of light.

    Now, though, in the main room of the penthouse where the lights fell under the jurisdiction of all sorts of sensors, I could finally adore the full extent of her beauty as much as I wanted.

    Or so I thought only for Fay to smile as she reached out and hung her hand right in front of my chest.

    "Hold my hands, please," she requested with a strange glint dancing at the bottom of her deep, faintly blue eyes.

    Puzzled by her behavior, I quickly reached out and grabbed her hands, only for Fay to push her fingers between mine and grasp tightly at the core of my hands. She then closed her eyes and moved her chin up a little, as if she was actively trying to sense something��

    While ignoring how my eyes danced all over her body, adoring every inch of her beauty that reached beyond the humane levels.

    "I see," Fay then muttered, right as I adored how she looked against the backdrop of the huge window behind her and imagined her suddenly dropping down to her knees and��

    Fay gently lowered herself to a squat before pushing her knees forth. She used the hold over my hands to stabilize herself for a second before crossing the single pace of space that separated us on her knees and making her way right between my own two knees.

    The girl opened up her eyes only to look me in the eye�� and grace me with a yful smile.

    "While this is not how I would usually use this ability of mine, it sure doese in handy at times like this," she exined only to bring even more questions into my head�� Right as she leaned forward and pushed her face towards my crotch.

    ''Wait, wha��''

    Not sure if I should be shocked or amazed, I simply watched how she used just the tip of her tongue to lift the small metal piece of my zipper so that she could catch it with her lips before pulling her entire head down and sliding the lock of my pants open.

    "Wait, Fay, what are you trying to��"

    I realized that I still held on to Fay''s hands. In fact, she tensed up her fingers so much, I couldn''t even free my hands from her hold even if I wanted to. And so, I was reduced to just the powerless observer as Fay brought her face up, only to lower it over the edge of my underwear, grab it with her lips and pull it down, finally freeing my long-erected dick from the confines of my pants.

    "Do you get it now?" Fay asked with a huge smile written all over her lips. Her fingers moved around, as if to get an even better grasp on my hands, right as she pushed her head forth, turning her own face into just a stand for my dick to rest on.

    ''Why does it feel so wrong�� but so great at the same time?'' I asked myself as the sense of conquest hidden in the picture right before my eyes filled every nook and cranny of my soul.

    Fay closed her eyes again�� while my mind caved into the pressure of all the teasing, already imagining all sorts of scenarios that could develop from the current situation.

    Fay''s hold over my hands tightened again as she opened up her lovely eyes and squinted them in a loving expression�� Only to pull her head back and lock her eyes on the very tip of my dick.

    "So that''s what you messed me up so much with," she spoke with a hint of amazement in her voice�� Only to lean in and crown the very top of my pride with a gentle, affectionate kiss.

 Chapter 88: Being serviced... is not enough! (r18)

    My eyes went up, nearly rolling all the way up to the back of my head.

    Sure, I might''ve lost my V card already, but that didn''t make the sensation of Fay''s hot lips wrapping around the head of my dick any less pleasurable!

    ''Shit!" I clenched my butt and gritted my teeth. Yet, even when I held my breath and closed my eyes�� Just having Fay kiss me where I could feel it the most was still more than enough to break past all of my restraints, once again reminding me of the pain that I felt the previous morning just yesterday.

    And to top everything up, I kept holding Fay''s hands as per her requests�� Which made it insanely easy to feel how she herself was willing to do all that she was doing right now, as I couldn''t feel her even attempting to pull back!

    Which she did the very moment I thought about it and how I was pretty much reaching my limit just from this simple caress.

    ''I guess this is what a pure bliss is��''

    Yet, rather than giving me some time to rest, Fay only smirked before leaning in again. This time, however, her soft and warm lips started to kiss all over my shaft, as if she opted to intentionally avoid the most sensitive part of my dick. And as great as it felt to have her kiss my dick all over...

    It also left me desiring more than I could ever expect to be possible.

    The intense feeling of desire nearly made my hips rock up and down. Only my wish to see through Fay''s intentions for the moment allowed me to keep a hold over my own physique�� while, without a doubt, greatly benefiting from my inhuman level of endurance attribute.

    Then�� As if trying to leave a hickey on my dick to im it as hers, she sucked at the side of my shaft with all her mind, making me see the stairs before my eyes when the pain of moving beyond the safe zone mixed with the pleasure that her mouth provided.

    Thankfully, this bit of pain helped me to sober up a little and thus regain control over my hips��

    Only for Fay to finally add her tongue to the mix as she started to drag it all over my manhood.

    ''Shit, at this rate��''

    In the spur of the moment and raising tension in my groin, I opened my eyes�� Only to see Fay happily licking away at my dick with her long, white hair dancing around to the rhythm of her moving her head�� And all of this, while her ass was perfectly in my view and against the backdrop of the beautiful skyline of the city��

    As if sensing I was reaching my limits, Fay slowed down and released her left hand from my hold. She then used her now freed hand to grab at the very base of my dick, wrapping her thumb and pointing finger in a loop around the circumference of my base before giving it a tight squeeze.

    ''Ugh��''

    Once again, I was met with a feeling I never experienced when using the services of Mister Thumb and his harem of four girls. And faced with the sudden pressure that decreased the flow of blood between my body and the sponge cells of my dick, I somehow found myself able to once again take the reins over my lust.

    Sure, it wasn''t easy. However, the physical limitation Fay introduced was of great help. What I couldn''t guess, however, was just how in all hell she learned about this trick that even I, an experienced consumer of cultured content, was unaware of?

    Bit by bit, her hand started to slowly move up and down, masking the pain of the forceful restriction with the pleasant and rxing feeling of her elegant, delicate fingers gently massaging my shaft as she stroked it.

    "Can you even imagine how great it will feel once you get inside me?" Fay raised up on her knees, letting the tip of my dick brush against the soft material of her hoodie as she leaned over my ear and whispered.

    The movement of her hand sped up a little, once again causing my hips to start jerking up and down, more or less raising the rtive speed of her hand.

    In the end, though, even with the help of Fay''s hand, I could hold myself back for so long. And once again, Fay seemed to somehow read my state as if I was an open book.

    "So you can''t hold it back anymore?" Fay asked while squinting her eyes, an adorable, mischievous smile twisting the corners of her lips up.

    Her hands sped up even further. The girl also turned creative, now moving my dick around to make its head rub against her hoodie as if she could somehow sense that the difference in feeling between the thick cloth and her warm grip made it actually pretty confusing and thus dyed the moment I would lose control for just a little bit longer.

    I took a deep breath, pooling everyst bit of mental and physical endurance I had left�� Only to refocus my eyes and see Fay look at me with such greed, such lust, and desire to do even more��

    ''Shit��'' I gritted my teeth to the point I could feel them start moving in the ways they shouldn''t.

    Fay''s soft giggle reached my ears as she moved back down to her knees�� and without any warning, suddenly wrapped her soft, sweet lips around the top of my dick. Yet, rather than giving my shroom another kiss, she actually pushed her mouth down my shaft, slowly swallowing more and more of it instead!

    ''FUCK!'' My vision went away when my already extremely sensitive lower head suddenly found itself in the extremely hot and wet insides of her mouth, with her tongue rubbing all over it�� ''FUCK NO!''

    I forcefully freed my right hand from Fay''s grasp, bending my body in half and reaching down with my hands.

    Right now, I wanted nothing more but to just jerk my hips forth, and ignoring the difort doing so was bound to cause Fay, simply splurt out all the cum boiling in my balls down her slim, delicate throat while staring down her teary eyes.

    And yet, rather than grabbing Fay by her long hair or even locking her head in ce, I reached a bit to the side and slightly further down, going for her armpits instead.

    With nearly half the length of my dick already blocking Fay''s mouth, she couldn''t even utter a moan of surprise when I caught her under her arms and pulled her up. She desperately mped her mouth down on my shaft, as if hoping not to let go of it��

    But between the grip of her lips and the strength of my arms, there was no way Fay''s mouth could triumph in a contest of pure, raw strength.

    ''I''m not going to just let her pleasure me while I do nothing!''

    A determination burst out from my soul right as the air of the room, quite a bit colder than the insides of Fay''s mouth, struck the extremely sensitive tip of my dick, bringing some relief to the raging fires of my lust.

    Then, once I brought Fay back up on her feet, I pressed forward myself andtched on to her lips with my mouth, ignoring how she was just sucking me off seconds ago. Then, once I managed to quell her unvoiced protests by just kissing her until she gave up and started to melt in my arms, I finally pulled back and looked deep into Fay''s dimly blue eyes.

    "Just having you pleasure me�� As great as it is, it''s not enough. It will never be enough if only I''m the one having fun and getting serviced!"

 Chapter 89: It takes two to tango (r18)

    "It will never be ough if only I''m the one having fun and getting serviced!" I spoke with all the conviction and determination I could find in my soul. "So, how about we pleasure each other at the same time instead?"

    It was one thing to have Fay suck me off. In fact, I was looking forward to the day I would befortable with just letting her have her fun with my dick to my personal pleasure and satisfaction.

    But today wasn''t the right time for this yet. And as little as Fay appeared to mind this kind of y, I had no intt of ever marginalizing her own desires and needs for the sake of putting myself on a pedestal�� ev if such a thing was only happing in my own head.

    "I don''t really mind doing this for you, though?" Fay, after taking some time to shake off the lust that clouded her mind a little, finally spoke out. "It''s really fun seeing and ssing how good you feel wh I''m doing something as simple as this for you," she added with her cheeks suddly blushing a little.

    ''I really don''t get what makes her embarrassed and what does not,'' I noticed, seemingly out of nowhere.

    "Oh, and I''m quite sure you won''t be done with just one shot, so I was actually curious to see how it feels to take your seed in my mouth��" she th added, raising one of her hands to her mouth and gtly pressing two of her fingers against her bottom lip while her eyes moved down, to where my dick stood at atttion, throbbing with anticipation to get back into action.

    "I''m happy to hear all of this," I leaned forward with just the upper part of my body and gave the girl a light hug. "I really am," I added in a whisper wh I reached just an inch away from her ear. "But just like you pointed out, in momts like those, half of the pleasurees from satisfying the partner rather than oneself."

    I patted Fay on her back before grabbing her shoulders and straighting my spine.

    "I want to have you squirm under my caressing too. To learn what makes you feel good, see how you react to things, have you all embarrassed, excited, unleashed��"

    Shaking my head, I lowered my eyes to the g, which was the only ce where I could escape with my sight away from the allure of Fay''s charms.

    "Well, fine, th," Fay, most likely, ded up misinterpreting my attempts at keeping myself in check as we both stood half naked with just the minimal distance betwe us that kept us from actually hugging.

    "Damn��" I raised my face back up and looked at Fay''s face, only to raise my right hand to her cheek and caress it lightly. "Just how can you be so damn lovely?" I asked while leaning my head over my shoulder, acting all puzzled. "I''m starting to wonder if I''m not simply dreaming of meeting you instead��"

    The corners of Fay''s pre-existing smile moved ev further up on her cheeks, causing small indts to appear right above them.

    "Don''t be silly," Fay chuckled out, gracing me with a smile that revealed the perfect ss of her teeth. "You see," she dropped her hands on my chest, "I won''t be able to hold myself back for much longer, so��" she lowered her face and looked up, giving me the look that would drive any man insane, "what do you want me to do?"

    Hearing Fay''s words, I couldn''t help but smile�� while my dick couldn''t help but throb.

    Just the mere perspective of doing the position so glorious the globalwork coined an extremely simple name consisting of just two numbers for it�� A position where I could have Fay continue to suck me off while I would have all the ability to repay her in kind��

    Could I still call myself a man if that alone didn''t bring me near the edge of my excitemt?

    ''Just a little bit more of this mutual teasing, and I will be a freaking edgerunner!''

    I swallowed my saliva down as this silly referce shed up in my head. Th, I simply sat back down on the spacious sofa�� but rather than resting my back against its cushions, I turned sideways instead beforeying t on it with my dick acting like the mast for the ship of my body.

    "Come and try to sit on my face," I instructed Fay while doing my best not to cringe at the sound of those wordsing out of my mouth. And as I looked up to gauge Fay''s reaction��

    I was blessed with witnessing a sight that rather than now, belonged more to wh we first got the deed done. For it was a sight of Fay''s tire face covered in an intse hue of red.

    "B-but�� If I do that��" she suddly started to stumble for words. "

    "Your pussy will be all before my eyes to adore, my mouth to kiss and my tongue to lick?" I couldn''t help but tease the girl a little bit further. Yet, seeing her avert her eyes in the sudd bout of intse embarrassmt, my desire to pick on her suddly mellowed down. "How is it any differt from how you were so passionately gulping down my cock just now?"

    Fay, as unbelievable and seemingly impossible as it was, blushed ev harder. Still, the logic of my words had to reach her, giv how she took a deep breath before taking a step forward. She th rested her left knee on the edge of the sofa, already putting her crotch all for me to see.

    Th, she nervously threw her leg over my face, climbing right on top of me while having her face in the direction of my trembling dick. And as she slowly, anxiously lowered her hips closer and closer to my face. ..

    I simply reached out and wrapped my arms over her hips, pulling her ass down, all the way to where her abdom struck just below my neck. Th, unable to resist the temptation of her sweet and dripping wet pussy, I leaned forth and gave her swoll clit a quick, unexpected lick.

    "AH!"

    A shiver moved up Fay''s tire body, causing her to suddly lose her strgth and copse down on me, with her knees sliding to the side as she could no longer keep them in a restrained position.

    "So lovely," I whispered as I allowed my head to fall back on the cushions�� Right as Fay''s heated breath caressed the side of my shaft.

    "Are you ready?" I asked out loud, already eager to shove my face into the spot of her body that I was quickly starting to believe I was and would forever be the only witness in both of the worlds.

    "Y-yes��" Still trembling from pleasure caused by just a single stroke of my tongue, Fay reached out and unsteadily grasped at the base of my dick, before leaning it towards herself and paying me back by giving it the same kind of lick I treated her to just a momt earlier.

    A jolt of electricity shot up my spine, quickly reminding me of all that I had to dure just a momt earlier. This time, however, I had the perfect target to distract myself with.

    "Th," I spoke as I leaned up, allowing the breath of my next words to caress Fay''s lower mouth, "let''s begin."

 Chapter 90: Just do me already! (Yes, r18, you guessed it right)

    "Are you really okay?"

    Ev after we fully dived into the task of pleasuring the other for a while, Fay still ded up turning her head over her shoulder and casting her nce along the lines of her own body. Yet, with her thighs and ass nicely blocking her view of my face, she could only look in my geral direction as she asked with worry in her voice.

    "Am I not too heavy? Are you actually okay?"

    Hearing those words, I simply sank my fingers into the soft flesh of Fay''s ass, spreading her buttocks apart before attacking her pussy with all the passion I could sse in my tire body.

    What was the point of answering with words if I could treat myself to the sound of her squealing wh my tongue licked her swoll clit while my nose buried into her soaking wet pussy?

    "Don''t worry about me," I uttered in the short pause I could somehow force myself to make. Strangely ough, as pottially disgusting as eating a woman out appeared to be before, right now, I could finally understand its charm.

    Just like licking, kissing, and sucking my dick with all the precum I was already producing couldn''t be all that tasty for Fay, I could, wh pressed, find some slightly savory tones in what I was doing��

    But how could this small detail matter wh I was granted all sorts of moans and squeals in return for nearly every movemt of my tongue? How could I mind kissing Fay''s pussy or sucking on her lower lips and clit if it made her tire body tse up under the assault of pleasure it brought her?

    And before Fay could utter another dumb question, I simply immersed myself back in the deep, frch kiss with her lower mouth, simply incapable of getting ough of her taste.

    In the d, though, ev with how much I focused on pleasuring Fay and Fay alone�� I couldn''t fully ignore the pleasure she was offering me in return.

    The slight awkwardness of her movemts from before was now all gone, reced by the confidt strokes of her hand, licks of her tongue, and kisses of her lips. And as soon as she ssed I was quickly reaching my limits, she once again vtured to wrap her soft lips a the shroom of my dick only to th start impaling her throat with it.

    Fay''s lips climbed lower and lower down my shaft while both my tongue and a finger that I added continued to scrape deeper and deeper parts of her insides.

    Still, there was a limit to how far we could go. And for how pleasurable it would be to just finish off the first  with oral sex alone�� Fay''s words from before continued to ring in my head the louder the closer to the fulfillmt I was.

    Fay''s lips reached the very base of my dick. And as she was not used to this kind of intse y, she obviously struggled wh the head of my pride scrapped her throat��

    And in all honesty, just imagining what kind of face she would be doing as it happed was the final nudge I needed to finally put a stop to our forey.

    "Fay, that''s ough," I groaned as my head shot to the back, striking the cushions of the sofa with quite some strgth.

    But by now, it was toote to reason with this damned girl.

    Ignoring her own sse offort, shetched to the base of my dick, refusing to buckle no matter how much I tried to nudge her back awake.

    ''Is this another effect of her being in heat?'' I thought, clching my teeth as I changed my grip over her hips and suddly pulled her back and over my head with all the might of my hands.

    And once again, I was subjected to the ssation of Fay''s lips desperately clching over my cock as she refused to let it go without a fight. In the d, however, my arms once again proved to be superior to Fay''s lips in terms of raw strgth alone, allowing me to pull her hips over my head, freeing my dick from the sweet and damn tight embrace of her lips.

    "Why��?" Fay nearly cried out her question in a tone full of dejection.

    "Didn''t you tell me to just imagine how insane it would feel to put it inside of you?" I asked in return, turning over on the sofa before reaching out and digging my fingers into the soft flesh of Fay''s thighs.

    This time, however, contrary to how I wt about it during our first time, I didn''t spread her legs apart. Instead, I gtly pushed her down before bringing her legs together and raising them as high up as I could.

    "I know it would feel great to just finish the way we were going, but I''m pretty damn sure it will fill ev better if the first load I''ve gathered over all the time since we did it back th�� If it ds up in your womb rather than just your throat," I uttered as I brought myself as close to Fay''s crotch, letting her thighs press against my chest while her shins fell down on my shoulders.

    "So you want to finish inside of me?" Fay asked, her eyes turning teary for some reason.

    "Now that our future here is secured, I would be more than happy to make you the mother of my child," I admitted with all the honesty I could find in my soul.

    And as a perspective of creating a family with this girl shed before my eyes�� A new fire exploded in my groin.

    "Th��" Fay''s cheeks which managed to calm down by now have once again exploded with an intse blush as she averted her eyes and rested her hands on the sides of her head. "Th stop talking and just fuck me already!"

    Hearing those words... I simply smiled before reaching down and helping myself to guide the tip of my dick towards the gaping hole hidd betwe the greedy lower mouth of hers.

    "Damn, girl, you don''t need to ask twice!"

 Chapter 91: More! (r18)

    Pushing my hips forth, I finallypleted the objective of a mission of my life system. After several days of unannounced break, we finally and fully reunited.

    And as great of a feeling as it was physically, it wasn''t actually this side of the momt that made me the happiest.

    Sure, after all this teasing, edging, and keeping each other on the edge, wh the tip of my dick pried op Fay''s insides wh it rubbed against her steaming hot and mushy inner folds��

    It felt as if a jolt of electricity moved up my spine, suddly bringing up all my nerves to the peak of their ssitivity. And as I pressed my stomach against the bottom of Fay''s thighs, as my dick squeezed inside of her, scrapping Fay''s ssitive spots while her hot insides coiled and tightly wrapped a my shaft��

    ''Oh god��'' My eyes moved up, nearly snapping free from the muscles holding them in ce.

    My tire body suddly wt numb, overwhelmed by the pleasure and the sse of the release.

    For a short momt, everything simply felt right. As if my dick always belonged deep inside of Fay, pressing against the gate of her womb.

    Sharing the stimt, Fay raised her hips by bding the bottom of her spine, changing the angle of her legs as she brought them higher as if inviting me to lean over her.

    "Haaaa��." I breathed out a long sigh, feeling as if all the stress, nerves, and pressure of the tire day washed away from me, leaving me in the slimy heav of Fay''s warm, affectionate body.

    And as great as it all felt, it was a mere shadow of how this momt tickled my soul.

    Just like my dick felt right poking against Fay''s womb wh I leaned over her and looked down at her lustful expression�� Wh I gazed into her desire-consumed eyes that she locked on my face��

    My soul felt simplyplete.

    "Fay��" I moaned in a low voice, only now realizing that in my deep desire to make our first time up for Fay, I''d pushed ahead with all my might to the point my own thighs were now killing me, at the edge of starting to cramp.

    I used all my weight and most of my strgth to press ahead, digging with my dick as deep as I only could. And wh the look of sse and reason left Fay''s face, reced by the pure and unadulterated bliss, I felt my heart jump in joy.

    My body jerked, suddly forcing my hips back. The instinct to pump Fay full took over. Or maybe it was the strained part of my hips crying out in rm and forcefully rxing to avoid any damage, swinging my body back?

    Well, it didn''t matter.

    For but a second, I nearly lost my own sse, wh Fay''s pussy, just like her lips before, refused to let my dick go, desperately clinging onto its shaft. Her inner folds wrapped tightly against the base of my shroom, using this slight unevness of every man''s form to cling on.

    At the same time, Fay''s insides sucked on my dick with all their might, threating to simply vacuum out all the leftover precum that was stuck inside of my dick.

    And wh my muscles returned to the fold allowing me to once again rush ahead to meet Fay''s inviting and outright thirsty gaze, wh I pressed ahead again to meet the expectations in those heat-consumed blue eyes, everything started to make sse once again.

    All the breaks in my body gave up. I swung my hips forth with all my mind, mming my sack against Fay''s soft ass wh I could simply go no further. And as if carried by my momtum, no longer held back by the desperate squeezing of my ass, my sperm gushed out, rapidly filling out all the free space.

    And with nowhere else to go, the loyal sergeants of my future army of kids I nned to have with this lovely girl in this fleeting momt all rushed ahead.

    Right through the dropping gate of Fay''s womb, squeezing through its trance with only one mission in mind.

    At this slight momt, I couldn''t ev bother thinking whether or not it was ev possible for me to impregnate Fay. She only turned into a human form, after all. And how would magic that allowed her to transform affect the child that she could pottially bear?

    Quite frankly, I couldn''t care less. Because as Fay, in the momt of her sseless and absolute release, could no longer keep her legs up and allowed them to slide off my shoulders, I fell forth, heavily dropping on the overwhelming softness of her hot, sweaty body.

    "Fay!" I screamed out wh my mind finally regained its function, instantly flooded by the overwhelming pleasure and fulfillmt.

    "Hon!" Fay''s face twisted, and her eyes lost all her focus. She shot her hands out, grabbing at my back in desperation and pulling me into a tight embrace, caring not for the weight of my body dropping down and pinning her to the soft cushions of the sofa.

    And as we squeezed ourselves to the other, as tightly as we could and with constant small struggle to bring ourselves ev closer, make our union ev fuller�� As our bodies fulfilled their deep, reproductive desire that was ingrained in our very biological constitution, everything came to a rapid d.

    All my strgth left my flesh on a single whim. And hugged tightly into this softest and most weing pillow in existce, I allowed the momt to carry me into a state of a momtary, half-slumber.

    ''Haaa��''

    I could feel, and sse my mouth oping as I breathed out a long sigh into Fay''s neck while her nails dug deep into the skin and flesh of my back, leaving behind gashes that would be a pride for any man.

    Proof of a job well done, the girl reaching the point where she could no longer control the actions of her body, brought to the absolute peak.

    For a momt, the peace came to us, peace-filled with just the sound of our heavy panting, and the movemts of our chests as our heartbeats synchronized.

    And as the pressure of the momt, of all that teasing from before finally started to lift, as the mist of lust started to rise from my mind��

    "More��" Fay whispered weekly right as she started to regain control over her own flesh and bones. "More��" her voice grew a little stronger as she brought her knees up, only to throw her legs a my hips and lock me in her tight embrace.

    Wh I fell down, my face found rest on the pillow of Fay''s impressive chest that reached the very limit of how big it could be without starting to look unnatural. And those very breasts that I''ve failed to grope to my heart''s contt up to this point now served as the cushion for my left cheek and face.

    "Here�� Here��" Fay''s mood had to be in a rapid swing, giv how quickly she wt from crying for more to a cuddly attitude as she cradled my head on her bosom while brushing my hair with her thin, elegant fingers.

    For but a short momt, I allowed myself to rest within her loving, affectionate hold. To joy herfortable, soothing warmth. The�� rightness of this momt.

    And th, I raised my head.

    "You wanted more, didn''t you?" I asked as I struggled to raise my face from her chest. And wh I did so, I quickly imed my reward of doing so by dropping my face right back down, oping my mouth wide, and catching as much of Fay''s closer breast as I could fit betwe my lips.

    Fay''s body twitched wh my tongue gave her harded nipple a single stroke, and tsed all over wh I brought my lips closer and closer together, dragging them across the delicate skin of her tit. And wh I closed my lips over the aure of her nipple and sucked on it with all my might��

    "Ah! Yes!"

    Fay''s body tsed all up. Her back arched to the point it actually lifted me up a bit and held my body up in the air for the few more seconds that I continued to devour her breast with all my might and focus.

    "More!" Fay squealed out, her voice growing less and less cohert as it wt back to the same vibe it had before. "I want more! Fuck me more! Mate with me more!"

    Her thighs tighted over my hips while her hands coiled behind my head and pressed down on its back as if Fay herself wanted me to im her breasts ev further.

    And as my hips shook, I realized that despite sttering my cum all over Fay''s insides a mere momt ago, the little me was now standing at atttion, ready to resume its duties.

    So, I ignored the physical pain letting go of Fay''s nipple caused me, raising my face only to lower it right down, recing Fay''s tit for her delicious, over-salivated lips. And once I got just ough of their taste, I raised my face once again and looked down at Fay''s clouded eyes.

    "Since you asked so nicely, how could I refuse?"

 Chapter 92: Intermission: At the gate

    The queue leading up to the capital''s gate extded all the way into the vast farnds that sured the walled city. That queue though was for those who came with carriages and, in any way or form, more luggage than they could carry on their backs.

    Thankfully, a group of three huge, burly mercaries that escorted a limping old man could make use of themon gate. The queue over there was still quite sizeable, promising at least an hour or two of just waiting for their turn�� But it was a far better option than waiting for an tire day in the other, main queue!

    "Name and purpose?" the guard at the smaller,mon gate asked out the question for the unkempt time in the day.

    "Hasan," a rtively young farmer with a huge bag of some sort of grain thrown over his shoulder pulled out a seemingly simple stick before showing it to the guard.

    The man on duty merely nced over at the try tok before waving his hand, letting the man through. Th, the next person appeared and stated their name before showcasing their tok.

    And so, the process continued for nearly two hours before the handicapped old man with a simple piece of wood in ce for the bottom half of his left leg finally reached the d of the queue.

    "Name and purpose?"

    Hearing the question addressed at someone just three s ahead of him, the old man squinted his deep, gre eyes.

    "Shit," one of the mercaries cursed wh he realized that things wer''t going to be as easy as they hoped they would. "They still keep up with that anti-espionage measures?" he muttered in a baffled voice. "It''s no wonder we can''t win any of the battles if that''s where the nobles waste our taxes instead of putting it towards the army��"

    "Shut it," another mercary scolded hispanion. "Cursing the nobles like that will only get you noticed. It''s already a tough challge to make them give us a slip," he added, reaching out to the heavy pouch by his belt and weighing it in his hand.

    "And that''s all there is to your worth, guys," the old man chuckled, before slowly getting to the very front of their small group. With a peg recing all that should be below his left knee, it was a disy of umon prowess for him to just waltz past those burly, healthy m as if it were nothing.

    And as annoyed as the mercaries appeared to be�� they knew better than to disagree.

    "Name and purpose?" the gate''s guard greeted them in the exactly same way he did all the others who wanted to ter the rich and still rtively peaceful streets of the capital.

    The old stepped forward while lowering his head, using the shadow that his sizeable hood threw on his face to hide it away from everyone''s eyes.

    "The name is Salzar, dancing with the birds," the old man spoke out, curious whether this special code would actually work.

    "The hell are you talking about? You a bard or something?"

    The only thing the old man managed to achieve with his words was throwing the guard off and forcing him out of the numbed state of repeating this monotone task for hours upon d. Yet, while the guard was happy that someone finally appeared to save him from his boredom�� it only meant that he would be far more atttive.

    ''I knew trusting in this password was stupid,'' the old man thought, taking a step forward and casually reaching out to rest his hand on the guard''s shoulder.

    From the looks of things, this old man only had the absoluteck of killing or ev the most remotely negative intt in his actions to thank for not losing the hand before it could reach the guard''s shoulder.

    Still, if the old man''s question from before shook the guard awake, his actions just now made him fully vignt, alerted to their presce.

    In this specific scario, three burly m watch how things progress with tse looks on their faces.

    "Look at me, son," the old man requested, raising his chin to move his face up, removing it from the shadow of his hood, and staring directly into the guard''s eyes.

    At first, surprised, the young guard''s eyes quickly wt wide, his lips started to tremble.

    "Wait, ar''t you the one and only, Sali��"

    "Shush, son," the old man, or rather, Salicius the defder of the realm, the great geral of the country who retired after losing half of his leg during the veryst battle of thest war, tighted his hold over the soldier''s arm.

    "If I wanted everyone in the city to know I''m back, I wouldn''t wear this smelly, coarse cloak," he pointed out.

    The guard closed his op mouth and gulped down his saliva. Th, his eyes moved above the old man''s shoulder and locked on the three m behind him.

    "And could those three be��"

    "No, they are not," Salicious cut the advture the young guard''s imagination wt on with a bucket of cold water of his words. "They are just some people I hired to get me here safely. I''m old and crippled, so I need to take good care of myself," he added with a slight hint of amusemt appearing on his face.

    "Y-yeah��" Star-struck, the guard struggled to get the words out of his throat.

    "So, can we pass?" Salicious asked while giving the kind a simple wink.

    "Y-yeah, it is my pleasure to wee you home," the young guard spoke, only to lower his voice and lean over Salicious ear. "Wee home, geral."

    ''Wh was thest time someone called me like that, I wonder��'' Salicious thought only to pat the young guard''s shoulder before heading inside, quickly followed by his bodyguards.

    In the times of the fragile, temporary peace that their state managed to settle with the empire as a result of Salicious sacrifices was far from the perfect state their country could be. But as the small group of four passed through the long and narrow tunnel on the gate and emerged on the other side, instantly stepping into the warm noise of the bustling city��

    ''Yeah, this is what I fought for,'' Salicious thought, stopping right as he left the gate''s tunnel and taking a look at the lively streets of the capital.

    This wasn''t the frontier where every inch of arablend was a constant point of conflict betwe four differt sides iming it as theirs. The signs of the brewing war have yet to reach that far into the hills, to where the patriarch-king settled his residce.

    In fact, from just a few nces here and there, Salicious could tell that just like all the times in the past, ev wh the country was reaching the brink of its copse under the weight of the empire''s pressure�� The city still continued to grow richer and richer, fatting itself on the tariffs imposed on nearly every foreign produce that passed through its gates.

    "Magnifict, isn''t it?" a rtively strong voice of a man in the middle of his thirties appeared to Salicious side.

    A voice he recognized ev though it was his first time hearing it in years. And as the old man looked to the side��

    "You came earlier than I expected. My m won''t start their shifts at the gates before another hour or so," he mtioned�� Only for both of the m tough out and feel in each other''s embrace.

    "It''s be a while, Banjay," Salicious patted the young man''s back.

    "I''m d to have you back here, geral," the young man whispered, as eager to reveal Salicious idtity to everyone a as much as he desired to strip naked, cover himself in oil and gooses feathers before strolling through the city''s streets to be made fun of.

    "What''s the gist of the situation?" Salicious asked.

    His summons to the capital came mirrored to his residce out in the woods he retired to. An official letter of invitation from the Patriarch that he had no right to refuse, and the less formal but much more urgt invitation from the man that he left in charge of all his affairs wh he retired.

    And while Salicious was willing to ignore the first message, for what could a mere patriarch of the country do to a national hero like him, the simple thirte words that Banjay st him proved there was no time for him to waste on doing some silly, retiremt stuff.

    And those thirte words couldn''t be any simpler.

    ''The empire will attack for Bas first, in two to three weeks'' time.''

 Chapter 93: All the way at the top... but what now? (slight r18)

    Waking up in my new apartment that actually deserved such a name was a strange feeling.

    The mattress of the bed I woke up on was several sses softer than whatever it was that I slept on back in the shed. In fact, this seemingly simple although huge bed was softer than anything I''ve ever slept on in the past, my aunt''s house included.

    And as I''ve already started to expect it, Fay was sleeping at my side, with her headfortably snuggled to the side of my chest and rested on my shoulder.

    Her slow, steady breaths tickled the hair on my chest while her happy, satisfied smile tickled the very core of my soul.

    Contrary to how we slept back in the shed, we didn''t bother using the sheets, duvet, or even a nket. With the thermostat maintaining afortable temperature throughout the entire apartment, we simply felt no need for any further covers.

    And with the bedroom located pretty much at the level of the city''s skyline, we didn''t have to worry about anyone looking through the massive windows of the penthouse.

    I stared at Fay''s peaceful and happy expression for some time before peeling my eyes off her face and moving them up to the ceiling of the room.

    As one could expect from the apartment on this level, the ceiling was an entire piece of art on its own, with various types of wooden and concrete beams joining and splitting to create thisplex geometrical structure that seemed to have some sort of logic to it�� But logic that I couldn''t grasp, regardless of how hard I looked.

    ''I''ve made it,'' I thought, feeling how just tracking the straight lines on the ceiling somehow managed to lull me back to a sleepy state of mind.

    Unable to bear looking at this ceiling without falling asleep, I turned my attention back to Fay gluing herself to my side. This time, however, rather than adoring the peaceful look on her face, I allowed myself to look down.

    Without a cover, duvet, or anything else to cover ourselves with, her body was out and all for me to see and adore if not worship. The line of her waist, the plump melon of her breast squeezing against my side, the gentle curves of her ass ented by Fay throwing her knee over my stomach as if she wanted to increase the surface of her skin she could rub against me��

    ''To think that such a small thing could bear such a beautiful fruit,'' I thought, giving my praises to what the presence of the thermostat in the house allowed me to experience in the morning. Then, prompted by the allure, I reached out with my hand and gently patted Fay''s head before starting to brush her hair with my fingers.

    ''I wonder how long it will take me to get used to her beauty?'' I asked myself as my hand moved down, tracking the line of Fay''s side as I gently tapped my fingers against her delicate, youthful skin.

    Fay squirmed a little, her face filling with the look of dejection caused by my tiny mischief. Soon enough, though, as she moved a little and sensed me well within her grasp, the smile returned to her face as she tightened her grasp over my shoulder and neck, cuddling herself even closer to me.

    ''I''ve made it, all the way to the top,'' I thought, throwing away the reins that controlled my body, allowing my hands to work on an auto-pilot as they gently carresed Fay''s body while I fell deep into my thought. ''I''ve reached the impossible I''ve always desired. I don''t have to worry about money.

    I have a literal otherworldly beauty sleeping right to my side after proving just how much she cares and lusts for mest night.''

    I took in a deep breath, shifting my other arm a little, the same one that Fay continued to use in lieu of a pillow, to bring her head closer. Then, I twisted my upper body and leaned over her head, only to bring my mouth down and mark her forehead with a delicate kiss.

    ''But what now?'' I asked myself while sensing Fay''s movements slowly grow stronger and more refined.

    Knowing her as I did, it was pretty easy to tell that she was finally about to wake up properly.

    Yet, the very moment Fay pulled her eyelids up and locked her eyes on my face, she suddenly moved up, only to pull herself upward and reach with her plump lips for my mouth, greeting the new day with nothing else but a passionate yet light kiss.

    "Good morning," I spoke once Fay pulled back, only to grace me with a lovely, caring smile in return.

    She then pulled herself fully up and back, sitting down on the bed while allowing me to adore the new, more natural shape her breasts took once deprived of the support of my chest.

    And as any sane man could expect, between the vitality I regained overnight and the teasing intent oozing out of every inch of Fay''s skin and every millimeter of her smile�� My nakedness started to grow in size.

    Fay didn''t even open her mouth toment on that. Judging from the slight blush that appeared on her cheeks, she took my reaction to her beauty as apliment rather than an insult or an act of excessive horniness.

    The girl turned sideways and walked up a bit on all fours, only to lean in for another kiss. As our lips connected and my eyes shut to let me focus on just the taste of her saliva, I felt her climbing up on the bed, only to take aim with her hips for a second before slowly dropping herself down on myp.

    Last night, we fucked with all our might, letting go of all the restrictions and inhibitors. But now, even though she just mounted me and nailed my dick down her pussy all the way to my base�� I felt a different kind of excitement.

    ''In all honesty, this feels more like a natural extension to our cuddles rather than actual sex,'' I thought when Fay started to slowly rock her hips up and down while wrapping her hands around my back and pressing herself into my chest again.

    Before long, whatever was left of my excitement after the long and exhausting battle we participated inst night, now came to a boil, only to release right inside of the girl, adding yet anotheryer of the cum-pain that I covered her insides with.

    "Haaaa��." I breathed out a long, rxed sigh when Fay''s body slumped down and powerlessly fell down on my chest. Yet, as much as I would love to just spend the entire day in bed to discover all the possible ways of pleasuring my woman��

    Just like back in Fay''s world, there were things that we had to do today. And even if I had no ambition to move anywhere beyond the point I was at right now��

    "Hon?" Fay whispered, leaning her head to the side as she drilled holes in my face with her curious eyes.

    "Ah, I''m just starting to figure out what was that awful stench yesterday. And while I believe it had something to do with aura��"

    I might be free of the ambition to reach anywhere higher than I''ve just done. But that didn''t mean I was going to ignore the things that I couldn''t make any sense of. I wasn''t going to suddenlye and forget about all the harm I went through due to my aunt''s hateful actions.

    And as little as I cared about growing richer, stronger, and more influential, if it came to fight for me to preserve the current level offort I could shower Fay with, I wasn''t going to hold back in the slightest!

 Chapter 94: There are still some things I need to take care off, but for now, lets think alcohol

    Fay spend the greater portion of yesterday''s night doing her utmost to suck everyst drop and droplet of the cum from my balls. Filled and fueled with our passion and thirst for the other, we continued to go at it before I could tell I was pretty much shooting nks.

    And by feeding her lower mouth a fresh batch of cum that my balls managed to regenerate over the course of our short night rest, I''ve once again regained the rity of my mind, fully drained from all the seeds and desire to spread them around.

    ''Was it her n all along?'' I thought, yet a single nce at Fay''s blissful expression as she sank into the pleasure of being cummed in quickly disproved this theory.

    In the end, though, whether Fay wanted to help me clear my mind by simply fulfilling all the desires I had in my groins didn''t matter. As in, whether it was her n or not, she did it anyway.

    Freed from the constraints of my adolescent lust, my thoughts cleared out a little, once again reminding me of the weird things I continued to observe in this world.

    Things that I had to travel to another world to recognize as something foreign on earth.

    "Honey?" Fay muttered once she finally lived through thest of her orgasm. She didn''t remove herself from myp, though, opting to use my softening dick as a plug for her insides that stopped my cum from flowing out.

    And in all honesty, even without a single shred of lust or desire left in my brain, just cuddling her up close while we were both naked made for a whole different sense of pleasure.

    Yet, rather than enjoying myself for the moment, I simply hugged myself into the girl, resting my forehead against the corner of her neck and shoulder. Rather than getting excited, I grew more and more rxed and thus more capable of swiftly connecting the dots hidden in my thoughts.

    "Now then, what are we going to do now?" Fay asked offhandedly while her hands caressed my back. "Take revenge on that aunt of yours? Try to sell more herbs? Or maybe��"

    "In this world, we can pretty much get anything we want now," I announced something that I wanted to ensure Fay understood.

    Back in the shed, I could only afford whatever would be within my financial means boosted by the sale of all the gold I brought over. But now, with Makary''s card in my wallet and the permission to use it as I wished to some reasonable limit��

    "Save for that aunt of mine and something that I can''t make any sense of, we are free to do whatever we want. And as long as I bring a bit more of that cheap herb over, our newly-gained status shouldn''t change for worse."

    I knew I was repeating myself here, but I really wanted to drive this point home for Fay.

    Herfort and ability to enjoy all sorts of things in this world was the only reason why I cared about getting more money than the absolute minimum I needed to survive.

    "As long as we keep our sponsor Makary happy, we can be as happy as we want," I assured the girl while slowly moving my hands up and down her soft back.

    "Is that herb really that big of a deal?" Fay asked, even though she witnessed Makary''s reaction to its effect herself.

    "You are used to its presence. I think I can safely bet it''s the case for most of the beings from your world. I wouldn''t be surprised if all of your alcohol was enriched with that herb right a the brewing stage, so that every bottlees with its effects."

    Most of what I''ve said was nothing more but a logical guess of mine�� But a potentially wrong answer was still better than no answer at all.

    "What you saw that man be influenced by is something far, far stronger and more dangerous than alcohol. And yeah, it''s both lethal and addictive like nothing else in the world."

    "Why would people take those�� drugs, then?" Fay spoke, hesitating only when it came to repeating the world that generalized all the psychotropic substances into a single group. "Are they tricked into using those��" she hesitated once again, "�� drugs?"

    ''I believe it''s on a case-to-case basis," I replied silently. Then, just to give myself some mental assurance, I hugged Fay slightly tighter than before, using the softness and weing warmth of her body to dispel my doubts and worries. "But the problem with those drugs is centered around how insanely addictive they are.

    And up until I introduced this herb to Makary, we didn''t really have any medicine that could actually help one to cure their addiction."

    Sure, there were the detoxification centers where people would be cut away from the ability to purchase more doses and thus forced to deal with the addiction in the most challenging way possible - by simply suffering through the effects of withdrawal and holding fast until those effects would subsidize, signaling their body was slowly starting to heal itself.

    "We can help with the negative effects of taking the drugs. Proper diet, strictly selected and maintained course of various medicines��" I shook my head. "But addiction? That one part we still can''t handle."

    Fay took a moment to absorb and think through my words.

    "So, that herb is pretty much useful only because it helps people get over that addiction in the faster and less troublesome way?" she asked, only to instantly lower her eyes as she fell right back into a state of deep thought.

    Once Fay raised her eyes again, I could see sparks of genius fire up in her eyes.

    "If those drugs are actually just a different, specific type of nts�� Then maybe you could try bringing them over to Leinei to have her see if she could improve them?"

    Stunned by the suggestion, I closed my eyes and imagined such a scenario. Yet, as great of an idea it was��

    ''What if she tests it herself? Or share it with someone else? Or if, due to some ident, it ends up spilling out and contaminating the area?''

    The more I thought about Fay''s suggestion, the more worrisome it grew to be.

    "This is not a bad idea, but I think we can safely take care of itter," I announced, only to push Fay away and then down on the bed�� Only to retreat myself beforeying down my head right on top of herp.

    Even though we were still both naked, I did so with no impure intent whatsoever, simply hoping to rx while resting the back of my head against the softness of Fay''s thighs.

    And the girl more than just understood the assignment, quickly reaching out and starting to massage my scalp with her delicate fingers.

    "Well, since we are on this particr topic��" The movement of Fay''s fingers hastened a little as she averted her eyes as if thinking I was capable of looking up at her face without locking my eyes on the two perky breasts of hers that dangled right above my eyes as if asking to be milked.

    "Worry not," Iughed out while chasing away the first impure thought that appeared in my mind. "I don''t forget about my promises," I imed, only to reach up, and grab one of Fay''s hands by its wrist before bringing it down to my cheek.

    "So, how about we go and grab ourselves something nice to eat before going to stock on all sorts of alcoholic gifts we could bring back to our friends in your world?"

 Chapter 95: Irenes heartfelt apology

    Cassie sat down in a family restaurant while sipping on her fancy coffee.

    With each drink of the sweet, mellow liquid that had little to do with actual coffee, she could feel her anger subsiding a little�� Only to go right back to how it was in the time it took her to take another sip.

    As great of a mental medicine as the sugar was for her, today, it didn''t work.

    ''This damned bitch,'' Cassie cursed under her breath before touching her phone to make the clock appear. ''It''s been twenty minutes already!'' Her hand tightened into a fist. ''Is she intentionally trying to make me even angrier?!''

    The only reason why Cassie went to this family restaurant was Irene''s unending attempts at calling her to arrange the meeting. Ever since the day she decided to cut her contact with the two friends of hers whose advice cost her her rtionship, Irene''s character suddenly took a massive shift.

    And yet, when it came to the actual meeting�� Irene still decided not to show up.

    ''If she won''t appear for ten more minutes, I''m just going to leave,'' Cassie thought, picking an arbitrary amount of time she was willing to keep waiting for her former friend.

    Roughly five minutester, the doors to the restaurant opened up, only for Irene to burst inside with panic written all over her face.

    Irene was a girl who always minded her appearance. Be it school, exercise, or an outing with her friends, she always made sure to look her best, make-up, clothes, and essories included.

    But now, when she burst into the restaurant, her usual ir was nowhere to be seen. Her face was covered in sweat that messed up her already limited makeup. Rather than the usual set of fancy, gyaru-like clothes, she wore simple sweatpants and a thick hoodie, an outfit Cassie saw her in for the very first time in her entire life.

    Yet, even those huge changes to Irene''s appearance weren''t enough to quell Cassie''s fury.

    "Cassie!" Irene shouted, minding not all the attention that both her sudden intrusion and her shout brought on her. "I''m sorry! I really am! Both for before and for beingte now, but I really need you toe with me to take a look at something!"

    A mere week ago, Cassie would purse her lips and follow her friend without a word of protest or a single question.

    But not today. Not after she finally took some time to think everything through.

    "I finally agreed to meet with you again, and you are making me wait? Nearly half an hour to boot!"

    Despite the anger boiling from the very bottom of her soul, Cassie somehow managed to rein it in, only ever hinting at the true state of her mind with the tone of her voice. "How does that rte to your imed wish to make amends?!"

    Cassie raised her voice a little, struggling to maintain herposure. Yet, when faced with the annoyed stares of not only the other customers but also the staff of the restaurant, she once again regained control over her emotions.

    Irene, though, only lowered her eyes and looked down�� and then actually bowed her head!

    "Cassie, I''m sorry. I really am. But you really need to��"

    "Tell me, Irene," Cassie cut into her former friend''s words while putting on a fake smile. "What are you even apologizing for?"

    ''I wonder if she even knows, or if she apologizes for the sake of apologizing.''

    This question was something Cassie wasn''t willing to give up on. How could she believe Irene''s apology if she didn''t even give the issue any thought?

    Irene bit down on her bottom lip, before approaching Cassie''s table and sitting down, not caring for her former friend not even inviting her to sit together.

    "You see��" Even though she sat down at the same table, Irene couldn''t match Cassie''s hateful stare. "When apologizing for before, I really mean it. I��" Irene paused again.

    This time, though, she took a deep breath and then another, before slowly raising her face and looking directly into Cassie''s eyes.

    ''As much as I hate to admit, her face looks really genuine now,'' Cassie thought with spite filling her soul.

    "I thought that you guys weren''t progressing at all. And I could tell you actually liked Peter, but��" Irene hesitated for a second. "But because we were the ones who made you ask him out because of a dare, I thought you were shackled by it, unable to make a single move."

    Cassie''s eyes twitched.

    ''Well, that''s pretty much on the point,'' she thought as a sour taste filled her mouth.

    She had many chances and even more hopes for things to advance between her and Peter in the two months they were together�� Yet, whenever an opportunity to take things to the next level appeared, she would shy away from it, feeling too guilty about how she asked Peter out due to a dare.

    ''I guess that at least on this point, she''s right,'' Cassie forced herself to admit, knowing better than to let her emotions control her judgment.

    She has learned her lessons from when she allowed herself for her heart to control her body once, and paid the prize of Peter officially breaking up with her for it.

    "I tried my best, but I couldn''t imagine a scenario where you would actually do something about how things were. So, feeling guilty about my involvement, I hoped that if I tickle Peter''s jealousy, maybe he would man up and��"

    Irene averted her eyes.

    "And well, make a move himself." Irene took another, deep breath. "I hoped he would grow desperate and do something, do anything to keep you by his side"

    Cassie squinted her eyes.

    ''So, despite ying with his feelings with that dare, you still ignored him, a man who you im to know I actually liked, all to fix what you fucked up?''

    Cassie''s interpretation of Irene''s story greatly varied from how Irene was trying to present it to her.

    "And for that, for edging the two of you on�� I''m sorry. Really, really, really sorry!" Irene lowered her head to the point her forehead nearly struck against the table they were sitting at. Then, after judging she bowed for long enough, she raised her head and looked Cassie directly in the eyes.

    "But you are my friend. One of the very few people I actually ever considered a truepanion. And with how I put you into this damned mess��" Irene clenched her jaws as tears started to well up in her eyes. "Cassie, I''m sorry, I will say it however many times it will take for you to believe me. But I was desperate to salvage the situation. And it was this desperation of mine that pushed me for��"

    Irene could no longer hold fast against the judging look in Cassie''s eyes, opting to turn her face away rather than suffer it any further.

    "It was my desperation, my determination to fix things that pushed me for the drastic choice of words and actions that brought all this mess down on you."

    Cassie took a deep breath.

    She looked hard, as hard as she could�� But save for guilt and genuine desire to right things, she couldn''t see anything else on her former friend''s face.

    ''It seems she, for once, is really honest,'' she thought, gulping down her saliva as she struggled to make her choice.

    Was she supposed to forgive her now that Irene apologized? Or should she hold on to the grudge, given how Irene was responsible for the grief and broken heart Cassie was struggling to cope with?

    In the end, though, while she couldn''t make her decision on the spot, Cassie''s anger somewhat lessened.

    ''This is the first time I saw her look so honest,'' she thought, really struggling with making the right choice.

    "But Cassie��" Irene spoke out, forcing Cassie to put her thoughts aside and focus on what else Irene had to say. "It''s the next part that I''m even more sorry for," she announced to Cassie''s surprise.

    ''Wait, next part?'' she thought, only for her eyes to widen. ''SO THERE IS MORE?!''

    "You don''t understand what I mean right now, that''s why I will ask again. Can you hurry up and follow me?" Irene requested with a tense look all over her face. "Because as painful as it will be, it''s something you really need to see!"

 Chapter 96: Holding hands?!

    Cassie''s anger didn''t just evaporate, nothing of the like. She was still as furious as her friend as she was before she came in with all those apologies��

    But now that she calmed down a little and actually listened to what Irene had to say, she could no longer just avert her eyes, assume bad intentions, and move on.

    And even more importantly, given Irene''s insistence on bringing her out to see something, Cassie couldn''t help but feel curious.

    "Just a little bit further," Irene urged her friend as she rushed down the street, looking around at every intersection, as if she was a hunting dog trying to catch the smell of her prey.

    ''She really looks like she''s smelling something out,'' Cassie thought, even more puzzled than she was before. ''Wait, what if she''s trying to bring me somewhere where her other friends would��''

    Cassie''s lips pressed together as she turned her mouth into a single, slim line.

    ''Nah. She might be a bitch�� Or she might be simply misguided and mistaken in her ways. But up until now, she never gave me any reasons to believe she''s that much of a trash human being!''

    Controlling her anger was something that Cassie could do to a surprisingly huge degree. As an introvert at heart and someone struggling to get the words out of her mouth with those that she didn''t really know, she learned how to read the atmosphere and control her feelings, not to say the wrong things or act in the wrong way while out with others.

    And yet��

    ''What was she apologizing to me about? And why am I even following her?'' Didn''t I decide to cut the contact?'' Mere few minutes after leaving the restaurant, Cassie''s mind bogged down on those questions as she lost the grip over herself.

    The reality took a turn too quickly and too drastically for the heartbroken girl to easily process all the changes and adapt to them.

    ''It''s all Peter''s fault!''

    A stray thought appeared in her mind, startling the girl to the ends of her mind.

    ''What the hell was that?'' she asked herself, suddenly scared of her own brain and the weird ways it was operating today. Yet, before she could properly give the issue some thought, Irene suddenly stopped.

    Nearly crashing into her ''friend,'' Cassie shook her head and cleared her thoughts. She then took a step back and looked at her friend, only to see her raise her arm up and point at something with a guilty and unsure look on her face.

    ''What is she even��''

    "They are over there," Irene finally raised her hand up and locked it in ce, settling on what she was pointing at.

    Puzzled, Cassie followed Irene''s arm and then turned over to where she was pointing at��

    Only to see Peter walk side by side with a girl that could easily put all the school idols of the entire city if not a whole damn country to shame.

    That girl had a feeble frame, giving off the vibe of someone who had to be protected and cherished at all costs�� While boasting a bust even bigger than Irene''s -not to speak about how much bigger her breasts were than Cassie''s - wide hips and long, extremely long, and beautiful white hair.

    "Are they�� holding hands?" Cassie asked, shocked by the sight.

    Her heart ached. Seeing Peter, someone who she still wasn''t ready to give up on��

    ''I need to apologize,'' a distant part of her soul somehow pushed the thought to the top of her head, through all the conflicted and painful feelings that otherwise flooded her heart. ''I need to apologize, exin everything, ask for forgiveness��''

    In thest few days that Cassie spent enclosed in her room and thinking about what happened, she gave some thought to how everything had to look from Peter''s perspective.

    And it wasn''t a pretty sight whatsoever. In fact, after putting herself in his shoes, the only way in which she could sum up her own behavior was greatly disjointed with how Cassie actually looked at herself, who she considered herself to be.

    Yet, as quickly and surprisingly as this thought appeared, it vanished from her mind, pushed away by the mix of shock, despair, regret, anger, fury, betrayal��

    "That''s why I''m sorry," Irene spoke with a face full of guilt�� Or was it really guilt? Wasn''t it anger by any chance? And what were those small sparks of an entirely different emotion dancing at the bottom of her eyes? "It looks like my meddling, rather than helping you out, made things even worse!"

    With her mind already struggling to process her own emotions, Cassie simply ignored her observation, focusing on her own emotions rather than paying attention to the emotions of someone else.

    Somewhere in the process, Cassie''s sense of guilt for the pain she inflicted on Peter vanished. There simply wasn''t enough room in Cassie''s heart for her to feel guilty while going through all those different emotions!

    And before she could even think about what she was supposed to do, or when she rushed forward, what she was supposed to say�� Cassie already rushed ahead, stopping not on the crossing over the street, only having some miracle and fate to thank for how no car turned her into a bloody pancake stered all over the driveway.

    Cassie rushed forth, and in a mere moment, she reached the pair of her disgusting ex who somehow managed to get over the supposedly painful breakup and find himself such an otherworldy beauty!

    As Cassie got closer, her worst fears proved to be true when she could no longer deny the fact that the two were holding each other hands, something she fervently med the distance and her bad eyesight for.

    And when she finally caught up with the pair and rushed past them only to rapidly turn around and stand in their path, only a single thought was left in her mind.

    A single sentence that fully epassed all the feelings bustling in her soul.

    "Who the hell is she?!"

 Chapter 97: Cassies regrets

    "Who the hell is she?!" Cassie screamed out from the bottom of her lungs, ignoring how she was smack dab in the middle of the city''s street.

    She cared not for the looks the passersby gave her. She cared not for how she did something she always hated, causing a drama out in the open of a public space.

    She cared not for any of those points, focused on the simple and straightforward task of somehow cramming all the emotions bursting in her soul into this single shout.

    Hearing her scream and startled by her sudden appearance, Peter shot his left hand to the side, as if in a bid to push hispanion to the back from the possible threat.

    That alone was enough to create a whole, new hole in Cassie''s heart. And when he shook his head and rid his mind and face of the surprise��

    He simply raised his eyebrows.

    When it was for that unknown beauty, he instantly rushed to put her out of the potential harm''s way while stepping forward, ready to take the brunt of the danger himself.

    Yet, when it came to Cassie, he only bothered to raise his eyebrows.

    Cassie froze.

    And then, Peter allowed one more change to his face, revealing an amused look as he looked right back into her face with a mix of equal amount of bewilderment and repulsion.

    ''Ugh��'' Cassie felt her heart painfully twitch.

    She already knew he wasn''t going to treat her with the same kindness he always showered her with. She knew there was no point hoping for this kind of reaction, not after theirst phone call.

    But at the same time, this was the first time Cassie faced Peter since their thing fell apart. And to see his formerly kind eyes look down on her as if she was some sort of filthy worm slithering around to the disgust of everyone around��

    Cassie simply lost her breath, her heart in too much pain for even a single further word to form in her mind or to escape her mouth.

    "She is my girlfriend," Peter calmly replied while squinting his eyes a tiny little bit. He then removed his hand from this beautiful girl''s stomach, reaching out�� Only to have that damned, thieving whore instantly catch up on his intent and sneak her fingers between his, holding his hand back as soon as he realized there was no real threat around.

    "A real and a faithful one," Peter added as his face filled with��

    With what, exactly?

    ''Why are you looking at me like that?'' Cassie internally cried out, unable to bear the hostile look in the eyes of someone whom she only ever saw smiling when interacting with her or serious whenever he tried his best to achieve something.

    But now, not even a hint of those two expressions was left on his face, reced with just the emotions Cassie already figured out he would feel towards her.

    ''So this is how much I''ve hurt him��'' Shocked by her on-the-spot realization, Cassie took a step back. Her pupils widened, tears already starting to gather in the corners of her eyes. Her hands trembled, forcing her to clench them into fists.

    "Hon, who is she��?" paying little to no mind to Cassie, Peter''spanion turned her beautiful face towards him, looking at him without even a single hint of reservation or suspicion. ��?@��!??-&?+�ɧԡҧ�*-*?-?-

    ''I wouldn''t react like that in a situation like this,'' Cassie instantly realized. She didn''t even need to imagine herself being in the fancy, elegant shoes of this white-haired beauty to know her reaction would be far more hostile, far closer�� to how she was acting right now anyway.

    "Don''t mind her too much. She''s that cheating��"

    Peter''s face suddenly froze and turned serious�� far more serious than Cassie ever had the chance to see.

    In a single instant, she felt vanishing from his line of sight, as if she suddenly turned into just another obstacle for his eyes as he looked around with a tense look in his deep, brown eyes.

    Peter''s nose twitched as he carefully sniffed the air, only for the look in his eyes to intensify even further as he now threw his head in all directions.

    Startled, Cassie looked around as well, puzzled and somewhat pressured to look for what her former boyfriend was in such a desperate search of.

    "Is it just me, or��" Peter muttered, no longer even capable of seeing Cassie. And his question was directed at the equally as serious-looking girl.

    The ephemeral beauty that this white-haired girl was oozing out of every inch of her body was now gone, reced by a sharp sense of wilderness, one Cassie only ever felt when faced with an excited guard dog when it chased away some vandal who attempted to cover her aunt''s house wall with some graffiti.

    "It''s not just you," the girl spoke in the same, charming, soothing voice that Cassie already heard her use�� Only this time, it carried a whole, different vibe. "It''s the same smell as back at your former ce," she added, already swinging her head around, equally as pressed to find whatever caught the attention of the two as Cassie saw Peter be.

    ''Wait,'' Cassie''s mind suddenly went nk when all her thoughts about what actually was going on vanished, reced by the simple and extremely painful realization.

    ''His former ce? So he moved? Where to?''

    And when Cassie''s initial reaction to the sudden information went through, her thoughts filtered through her emotions, turning darker.

    ''Doesn''t that mean she actually was at his former ce? EVEN THOUGH HE NEVER INVITED ME OVER?!''

    The guilt, the regret, the sadness that clouded Cassie''s mind all merged together, into the one, ultimate form. And with the sea of her soul now calming down as it filled with just one type of feeling, Cassie finally managed to pinpoint and name it.

    ''Am I�� simply being jealous?''

    Cassie''s hands trembled again. Her heart ached. And as he raised her eyes to Peter and his new girlfriend, she could sadly confirm this to be the case.

    Just seeing them two together was enough to make her feel like ripping her heart out.

    Regardless of how jealous she was, though, how much she wished to change her foolish mistakes of the past, how much she desired to have Peter forgive her��

    By now, as hurtful as it was, one thing was obvious.

    Peter no longer had Cassie in his eyes.

 Chapter 98: I simply dont care

    "It''s the same smell as the one back at your old ce," Fay spoke in a tense voice while her eyes darted all around in search of the source of this faint yet still awful stench.

    Not knowing what else I could do to help, I rushed to look around myself, scanning my surroundings in search of something, for anything that I would find even remotely unusual.

    But how exactly I was supposed to find the source of the smell I could barely even notice? How? Just how?!

    The sense of my powerlessness struck my soul like a burning spear, searing the emotional and mental wound in the pain of how useless I felt. And out of this desire to do something, to raise our odds, to stand against whoever or whatever was pushing this aura, something that was extremely out of ce on earth, on the people of this world.

    Yet, no matter how hard I looked, there was hardly anything out of the ordinary around us. Save for Cassie who, for some reason, found this moment to be a good time to confront us, everyone else on the street was pretty damn normal.

    Sure, they were staring at the three of us, following their natural curiosity to see how this cheap drama would y out. And as annoying if not embarrassing as it would normally be, right now I was actually happy with how things were.

    After all, what would someone who actively tried to affect me or Fay do right as his scheme would start bearing fruit? Because unless they''ve read the same novels that I did or learned it in any other way, they would be doing their absolute best not to stare at us!

    And right now, practically everyone on the street turned their eyes towards the drama, eager to learn more about its background and even more interested in how it would y out.

    ''Is this stench barely noticeable because whoever created it wanted to hide it?'' I thought, still carefully looking all over the area. ''Or maybe we just happened to stumble upon it?''

    I didn''t really have much hope for such a coincidence. Not when just two days ago my aunt came storming to my old ce, fully covered in that awful stench!

    ''Maybe it''s actually something natural to this world? Maybe people who only follow their emotions to the letter can produce it? Or maybe it has something to do with whether they are extremely evil or extremely kind?''

    I gritted my teeth as I threw yet another sweeping look around the ce. And yet, save for Cassie and apparently Irene, one of her bitch friends who stood some distance away and observed the situation with aplex mix of emotions mixing in her eyes, I couldn''t see anything ordinary.

    ''Worst case scenario, I will just summon the portal and shove Fay out of harm''s way,'' I decided, already preparing myself for the worst as seconds trickled by, stretching in my perception to entire centuries each.

    Only a few seconds had passed, yet for me, they felt like an eternity. Only when Fay tugged on my sleeve did I free myself from this strange state of extreme focus.

    "You found something?" I asked, rapidly turning my eyes to Fay�� Only to see her slowly and lightly shake her head.

    "It''s gone," she pointed out, finally making me realize that I couldn''t even feel that awful yet faint stench.

    As if it came to us on a gust of wind, only to leave, carried away by the same blow of air that brought it towards us.

    That stench was gone. But the question of whose aura brought it remained.

    Feeling deep into my thoughts again, I looked around and ended up locking my eyes on Irene''s face out some distance away.

    Those emotions I could see in her eyes�� They were far moreplex than anything I ever expected a bitchy gyaru like her to exhibit. And faced with this puzzle, I turned my eyes to Cassie��

    Only to squint my eyes where from just a few clues, I managed to piece the whole picture together.

    I was always weirded out by how a rtively calm and silent girl like her ended up with two outgoing and free-spirited girls like Irene and the other one for best friends. But judging from Cassie''s pained and jealous expression as she alternated her eyes between me and Fay and the distant sense of guilt and regret I saw on Irene''s face��

    ''It seems like those two had some sort of talk, and that bitch over there ended up taking some sort of a fall,'' I thought, forgetting about the two girls the very moment I solved the puzzle of what the hell they were doing here.

    Still, before I could turn my eyes away, when Irene noticed my stare, she suddenly turned her face to the side and blushed, as if ashamed of having me notice her. ���%�ѧ�?��?-!??�ҧ�$-&��%��???!-+

    ''She acts as if she was just caught red-handed,'' I thought, squinting my eyes a little. ''Is it��'' For but a second, suspicion filled my mind. It entered my mind only to scatter when I nearlyughed it off out loud. ''Yeah, as if. She''s too damn obvious to be the one behind that aura.''

    And as much as I was inclined to believe that the mess with Cassie was partially if not mostly Irene''s fault�� the mental stretch necessary to somehow connect that girl to my aunt was simply too unlikely for me to even ount for it.

    "Why was it so much weaker than back then?" I voiced out one of my doubts in a slight whisper, sharing my thoughts with my girl.

    "I think��" Fay hesitated for a second, running some thoughts or analysis in her mind. "Maybe this time, it wasn''t directed at you? Or even the two of us in particr?"

    Fay leaned over my side and whispered to my ear, cleverly figuring out there was no reason to utter those words out loud.

    Unable to pinpoint the culprit behind that awful stench, we had to assume they could be close. And there was absolutely no point in letting them know just how confused we were by this attack�� assuming it was an attack in the first ce.

    I took another sweeping look through the area before taking a deep breath and then slowly breathing it out to calm myself down.

    "We should leave," free of the sudden emotions, I finally made the rational choice. "We are like sitting ducks here. Let''s get what we came here for and ditch."

    The smartest course of action right now would be to instantly retreat, analyze what happened, figure out how it affected us, form a new, improved n of action, and then return.

    But how could I ask Fay to leave, now that we came so close to buying all sorts of alcohols that the inhabitants of her world already proved to hold extremely dear to their hearts?

    And so, after making up my mind, I reaffirmed my hold over Fay''s hand before gently pulling her forward as I stepped ahead.

    "Hey! Stop!" Cassie shouted, forcibly reentering my perception as if she suddenly appeared out of thin air.

    Somehow, somewhere along the line, Ipletely erased her presence from my mind, recing her body with just some empty space.

    But from the looks of things, she wasn''t going to just let the two of us go like that.

    She had no intention of ending the scene that she caused and just letting us go. Thankfully, I was well past the point where I cared for what she wanted.

    "You''ve lost the right to tell me or to even ask me to do or not do things back when I called you," I replied with a voice fully deprived of any sort of emotions.

    I would achieve nothing by getting angry at her right now. Quite contrary, in fact.

    The moment I spared a single emotion over this cheating bitch, I would be the loser.

    "No," I added as a small, vicious smile appeared on my lips. "That was the case for me. You lost that right when you first considered the idea of going to that party," I announced, tightening my grasp over Fay''s hand before decisively pulling her ahead.

    "But I��" Cassie attempted to say something else, but at this point, I couldn''t care less.

    "I don''t give a single shred of fuck of what "you"," I spoke, already annoyed by her persistence to keep us bothered. "I''m not interested in knowing what happened at that party. Now, stop bothering us," I ordered calmly before turning my eyes away and moving even further away.

    If anything, right now, Cassie was rooted in her spot, unsure how to act.

    And this was the perfect opportunity for the two of us to leave!

 Chapter 99: Can we say for sure we were the target?

    By raising my physical attributes, my overall strength, speed, and endurance grew by leaps and bounds. Yet, either by raising my mental stats, having my aura grow or simply as a side-effect of raising my physical stats, my senses appeared to improve as well, giving me the spatial awareness humans were not designed to have.

    As such, even after making a few steps ahead, I could still pretty much tell when Cassie''s face covered in tears that she could no longer hold back. -original

    ''Don''t know, don''t care,'' I sternly told myself, ignoring the natural reaction of my heart to turn back andfort her.

    Was it the result of considering her my partner for quite some time? Or was it just my innate drive to help those in need?

    Whether the above was the case or if it was something entirely else�� I didn''t really care. For turning around now, as kind as it could be, posed as treason against Fay in my understanding of the matter.

    And I wasn''t going to putforting my ex over the feelings of my actual, real, and faithful girlfriend who walked right by my side!

    "Nothing happened at all!" Cassie shouted, still rooted in her spot yet unable to just give up and shut her crap. "I don''t even know how either of us could ever think otherwise!"

    The looks of the people around us started to grow slightly hostile. For the random mob on the street, a man walking away from a crying girl had to be the worst! Circumstances and the reality of the situation be damned, if the girl cried, it had to be the other party that was wrong!

    ''Just like back in the days of my mom''s parents, when a certain actress was proven to falsely use her ex of various, heinous actions, yet still retained her contracts while that poor man lost most of his connections and jobs!''

    Spiting in my soul at all those who threw angry looks at me, I took another step, acting as if I didn''t care about Cassie or the looks the crowd gave me.

    "It was just a ss meeting! How could there be any studs at it?!" Cassie continued to scream�� but her voice, rather than making me think things through only served as fuel to elerate my steps.

    ''Even if she''s right�� It''s not about what happened at that party. It''s about what she considered a possibility when she decided to go!''

    Thankfully, Cassie''s voice quickly grew silent when I took the nearest corner, gritting my teeth when in a bid to escape from her annoying cries I increased the distance we would have to walk with Fay to reach our destination. And as much as I loved to walk hand-by-hand with her�� I couldn''t say I wasfortable being out in the open with her when there was an unknown threat looming over our heads!

    "Does that mean there was some sort of stupid misunderstanding between the two of you?" Fay asked in a silent voice once we walked a considerable distance away from where Cassie caused her scene. "A misunderstanding that makes no sense at all?"

    Hearing Fay add on to her question, turning it pretty damn specific�� I nearly stopped in my tracks. Only the pressure of the threat potentially looming over our heads allowed me to keep walking rather than just standing in ce to consider my answer.

    "Now that I think about it��" I hesitated for a second, forcing myself to consider Cassie''sst few shouts.

    And as unhappy as it made me to admit her to be right, her words actually made sense.

    ''This was indeed supposed to be just thete meeting of our ss. So, unless someone was going to crash it, there would be no studs for Irene and that other bitch to set Cassie up with.''

    "Yeah. It seems that there were quite a lot of things that we somehow believed with all of our souls while they made no rational sense whatsoever."

    After hearing my answer, Fay turned silent. She kept her mouth closed for quite some more time, only speaking out once she thoroughly considered whatever idea she had in mind.

    "Hey, hon, what if��" Fay hesitated a little before averting her eyes away from my stare. "What if it was that girl who was the true target of the aura we smelled?"

    Faced with Fay''s suggestion, I couldn''t help but admit there was some likeness in that statement.

    I''ve already seen how the intense aura could affect not only those to whom it was attached but even those around them. Just like that formerndlord of mine didn''t dare to speak a single word against my aunt, falling perfectly in line with her desires and plots regardless of the obvious risk he had to take.

    "You know," I stopped my hurried walk, "I would never expect you to put her in your eyes," I muttered, slightly weirded out by how my current girlfriend was willing to look at some potential saving graces of my ex. "And for her to be attacked by someone''s aura��" I added in a whisper, raising my eyes to the bright, blue sky as various thoughts raced through my mind.

    Then, I shook my head upon the realization of something so obvious, I was already pretty much aware of.

    "To be attacked by an aura and have your thoughts messed up because of it��" I barely voiced out those words before turning to look at Fay with all the seriousness in my eyes. "Can something like this even happen?"

    Between the two of us, it was Fay who had some real knowledge about the aura. When it came to me, all I knew was what she already told me and how my aura would grow by a single point whenever I leveled up.

    "I''m not really sure," Fay put an ugly, self-dissatisfied expression on her face. "Maybe my mom would know��" she muttered, only to hesitate for a few more seconds before raising her eyes to my face and asking in a grave tone.

    "In all this time that you''ve lived in this world, have you ever��" Fay gulped down her saliva, indicating she herself felt at least slightly scared by what she was about to suggest. "Have you ever felt like there was some sort of an outside influence messing up with you and your life?"

 Chapter 100: Urban legend in the flesh

    "Have you ever felt like there was some sort of an outside influence messing up with you and your life?"

    Fay''s question, despite the girl posing it in her usual, soothing voice�� shook me.

    Shook me to the core, because of how much it struck home, without actually raising any particr memories or observations in my mind.

    It felt as if her realization was the most obvious in the world, something I should''ve long since noticed myself�� But in spite of this inner feeling, I couldn''t bring out a single memory that would back up such a im.

    "I don''t think I''m qualified to answer this," I admitted after giving the topic some thought. "Even if there indeed is some sort of outside influence��" I took some time to rify my thoughts and my own stance on the matter. "Even if someone or something is influencing my life, it wouldn''t make the rookie mistake of allowing me to notice it."

    If Fay''s guess ever proved to be correct, then such an borate scheme wouldn''t do with methods halfassed enough to let me see through them. Not when the other party was capable of either using or granting aura to others!

    But just like Fay mentioned before�� was I even the target? Or maybe I was simply an unfortunate bystander who just happened to chance upon the people involved in some sort of scheme?

    ''I don''t want to fall for the main character syndrome�� But with how I have a system and portal to another world, or just recalling that weird message my alleged father left with hisst and only gift��''

    In all honesty, Fay''s question was so on the point, for the first time since I gained the ability to think for hours upon time within just a single moment proved insufficient.

    The noise of the city''s life was too distracting. The potential danger lurking behind every corner absorbed too much of my attention for me to fully focus on cracking this puzzle.

    "Even if there indeed is some sort of outside influence, as the one subjected to it, I don''t think I would be able to notice it," I gave my full answer.

    "That''s a good point," Fay spoke before lowering her eyes and rubbing her chin with her free hand, still thinking something through. In the end though, when I suddenly came to a stop, Fay raised her eyes��

    And all the worries, all of her doubts and hesitations vanished without a trace, when challenged by the importance of the sign hanging above the entrance to a small, rtively elegant shop.

    "Drunken Sailor''s Warehouse," I read the name of the shop out loud. The corners of my lips raised a little, as I couldn''t help but feel amused by the fitting name for a specialist, alcohol store.

    "Shall we go inside?" Seeing the obvious signs of vivid interest burning in Fay''s eyes, I asked while already pulling her through the doors.

    And there, Fay stopped, rooted in her spot the moment she cast her eyes at the rich selection of various bottles disyed on fancy shelves all over the dimly lit interior of the shop.

    Sniffing a bit, I could sense a delicate note of a mild, vani-vored tobo filling the room, proof that someone inside cared not for the strict fire-safety standards.

    "Which of those bottles contain alcohol?" Fay asked in a faint voice, overwhelmed by the huge selection and simply in disbelief that one could gather that much booze in a single ce.

    I opened my mouth, ready to reply�� only to freeze for a second when I noticed a strange, unpleasant feeling. And as I tracked the source of this feeling down with my eyes�� There he was.

    My eyes went wide.

    ''I thought he only existed in urban legends,'' I thought, gulping my saliva down, overwhelmed by a certain aspect of the presentation, of the vibe of a man sitting behind the counter with his greedy eyes locked on Fay''s figure.

    ''This little shit!'' I fought off the desire tosh out at the man so tantly eyeing out my woman. And while I knew something like this was bound to happen given Fay''s insane looks��

    Just howe the first contender for Fay''s heart turned out to be someone who gave off the disgusting vibe of a massive fuckboy?

    "All of them," I replied coldly, my voice mimicking the tone of the stare I threw at the rudely staring clerk.

    The clerk didn''t even bother to turn his eyes to spare me a single look, too busy tracking every hint of Fay''s bodyline that her rtively simple clothes asionally revealed.

    The girl herself didn''t seem to give two shits about the man''s stare, too focused on the charming sight of all the bottles containing the precious liquid��

    "I would like for you to call your manager," I took a step towards the counter, making sure to position myself right in the man''s line of sight on Fay. "With all due respect, I don''t think a simple clerk is enough to help us out with the requests we came here with."

    There was no point ying the pretend game.

    From a single look that he finally spared me, the clerk could tell I was simply acting protective over my girl. And as I looked directly into his sleazy eyes, I could tell he didn''t really put me in his mind.

    Still�� As justified as I could be in my wariness of the man, I still couldn''t help but cringe when a certain realization struck me.

    ''Did I just turn into another urban myth, the legendary Karen?'' I thought, gulping my saliva down. ''Or rather, it''s the male counterpart, a Ken?''

    "I''m sorry, but I''m the only one at the store right now," the clerk put on the usual, fake smile one had to master while working on the frontlines of customer service. A smile that I myself, back in my part-time days, perfected.

    Yet, this damn man didn''t stop there.

    "And I''m more than happy to serve such a beautiful��"

    "The next time you give me that look, I will feed you your own balls, you filth," Fay casually mentioned, paying no real mind to the man as her attention ended up absorbed by thebels of some of the nearby bottles.

    Still, she somehow noticed my distress and judged it severe enough to act out!

    ''Just what did I do to deserve her?'' I asked myself, feeling how my tension started to air out. ''Yeah, what am I even doing, acting all jealous and hurt? It''s not like I would expect Fay to fall for whatever trick this kind of scum uses to get the girls��''

    I shook my head, devastated by my own immatureness. Yet, the very moment I turned my eyes away, more interested in searching for what I came to this shop for rather than further diving into the pool of my jealousy and keeping my guard up towards that clerk��

    Right the moment I turned my attention away from the man, Fay happened toe closer, a particr set of fancier bottles closer to the counter grabbing her attention. And with my eyes turned away, Fay right on the edge of his reach and only a short window of time to make use of the opportunity��

    "Oh, don''t be such a prude!" the clerk wailed while keeping a huge, amused, and easy-going smile on his face. "I will show you the things your loser of a boyfriend��" the clerk stood up and hung himself over the counter, reaching out for Fay''s hand.

    ''That''s enough,'' I clenched my jaws.

    I knew what I was going to do next was the epitome of stupidity�� but what would be the use of all my physical and social power that I worked hard to obtain if I couldn''t even keep my Fay away from the filth of that man''s hands?

    Stumbling forward, I ''identally,'' threw the nearest bottle of expensive vodka off the shelf. And in my ''botched attempt'' at rushing forth to grab it before it fell�� I just happened to have my foot lose the grip on the floor, sending my dominant foot flying forth��

    If this was a volleyball ball rather than a fragile, ss bottle, the spectators of the match would hail me kicking the ball as some sort of a brave yet desperate attempt at keeping the ball in the game.

    But the bottle of vodka was no intable ball. When I struck it with my food, it drew a nice arc through the air before smashing into the only camera directed right at where all three of us stood.

    BANG!

    The loud, cracking sound of the ss breaking followed by the noise of liquid dropping down on all sorts of surfaces, filled the room when the shattered ss struck the camera and rendered it, for all intents and purposes, unusable.

    "If he dares to touch you, tear his arms off," stabilizing myself in the instant my leg fell down to the ground, I turned to Fay and ordered.

    "Sure," only sparing a single nce at my stunt, Fay shrugged her shoulders before looking slightly to the side, carefully tracking the path of the man''s hand as she continued to reach out for her hand.

    Before he could domit the greatest mistake of his life, though, I stepped forth and stared him down.

    "Now, are you sure the manager isn''t��"

    "What''s with all the ruckus?!" A new, unfamiliar voice filled the shop''s slightly stinky insides, quickly followed by serious coughing. "Tom, you wretched bastard! How many times have I told you not to smoke inside?!"

    A mere momentter, a middle-aged yet extremely well-keptdy rushed out from the back of the shop. She threw a quick nce at the scene, her eyes instantly drawing towards where the ss remains of an expensive bottle fell to the ground, bathing in the precious liquid they once kept stored away.

    MVLeMpYr-the-story-tform

    The woman''s eyes lingered on the bottle for but a second, only to move up, to where the bottle shattered against the round ss protecting the camera lens.

    ''She didn''t even twitch,'' I noticed, watching how the woman''s eyes moved away from the camera, hastily swept over the two of us before locking on "Tom''s" face. And the moment she looked at the clerk��

    The woman only managed to heave a long, deep sigh.

    "What happened?" The woman asked sternly, crossing her arms over her chest as her face reflected just how mentally exhausted she became on the spot.

    Sensing something with�� well, would it be correct to im that I sensed it with my aura? At this point, I still couldn''t be sure about it. But still, somehow sensing that Tom was about to say something, I decided not to give him the opportunity to do so.

    "I will assume you are the manager of this ce," I spoke out, just to stop others from taking the initiative. "Your employee disrespected and attempted to harass my woman," I then threw the usation that in another age and ce would be enough for me to im that fucking fuckboy''s head.

    "And seeing how he was about to touch her, I simply made sure no record would be left of his punishment for him daring to do so."

 Chapter 101: Restoring Karma

    The woman locked her eyes on her employee, squinting them as she rested her fists on her hips. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before slowly sliding them open.

    And strangely enough, even though I''ve only thrown an usation�� Judging from the look on her face, she had no ns of siding with her underling.

    ''No, it''s like she''s not even surprised,'' I thought before shaking my shoulders a little in a silent chuckle.

    "Is that what really happened?" The alleged manager asked while staring her employee down.

    Yet, rather than lowering his head in even a fake attempt at apology, the young man red right back into the woman''s eyes with something between a pained and insulted look.

    "I have no idea what this man is talking about! Rubbish! That''s all he spoke!" he raised one of his hands while resting the other over his heart. "I swear!"

    "What do you swear on?" I asked, actually minding the possibility of this man getting away scot-free. "Because I''m ready to take away whatever you are dishonestly swearing on," I added, more than happy to inform.

    The manager only shook her head and sighed.

    "It''s a word against word��" she then admitted in a sort of defeated voice, instantly giving rise to a me in my soul.

    Yet, right as I was about to start kicking up a fuss, the woman sharply raised her chin and threw a furious�� no, hateful stare at the young man.

    "The good thing is our cameras record both video and voice. And for legal reasons, all those recordings are backed up to the server!"

    The woman''s voice grew louder and angrier as her calm expression gradually peeled off, revealing the true scale of the fury brimming in her soul.

    And hearing the woman''s words, the young man stole a quick nce at the broken camera�� Only to have his blood flow down from his face. He opened his eyes, trying toe up with a clever excuse�� But what could he do against a solid proof?

    ''That''s one weird dynamic between those two,'' I thought. There was no question how the event right now was just the trigger, the drop of this guy''s mischief that spilled over from the chalice of his manager''s patience.

    What we were witnessing was not the woman giving Fay justice, but her using this opportunity to unleash her demons.

    "I believe this is enough of an answer to who speaks the truth," I pointed out, suddenly losing interest.

    If it was about upholding Fay''s honor and grace, I didn''t mind spilling blood if the encounter escted to that level. What was the use of all my physical strength and social power I worked hard to obtain if I couldn''t use it when it mattered?

    But again, this was no longer the case. And I had no ns of letting some woman use my grievances to settle her own ounts.

    ''Do whatever you want, I''m just not going to participate in it,'' I thought, grabbing Fay''s hand a tiny bit tighter, only to feel her press into my side in return.

    "Yeah," the woman nodded her head in response to my words. "I think so too," she added before turning to her employee. "Get the hell out of my shop. And I dare you toin to that bastard of a father of yours!"

    I slightly raised my eyebrows, suddenly craving some popcorn to snack while I observed the drama develop.

    Yet, for all the bravado this damned fuckboy showed when trying to obnoxiously court my girl when it came to confronting the store manager�� or rather, its owner, he��

    His face twitched as some varying thoughts shed through his mind. He even opened his mouth again, only to do the same as before and hold his words back.

    "You just wait till he hears all about this!" the fuckboy suddenly eximed, pointing one of his hands at the woman while tearing off the shop''s outerwear tunic off his normal clothes. The next moment, he was already at the doors, shouting some profanities as he escaped.

    "I''m sorry for allowing him to escape with all his limbs," I whispered over to Fay''s ear, only to have her slightly shake her head in response.

    "I don''t really care about him," she said while rolling her eyes�� only to instantly bring her attention back to the true priority of the moment.

    Noticing Fay''s stare turn towards her merchandise, the shop''s owner sighed and lowered her head.

    "I''m really sorry for what happened," she apologized with a genuinely troubled expression all over her lowered face. "I''ve tried all the methods to get rid of this parasite, but up until this moment, I could do nothing about him," she offered some exnation for what actually had just happened before raising her head and offering a small, still-troubled smile.

    "I know this won''t be enough, but may I offer you a free bottle of one of our high-grade products in exchange for your trouble?"

    By now, all my anger has mostly dissipated.

    Now that this fuckboy was gone, what would be the point of redirecting my annoyance over at this innocent woman?

    ''Everyone has their own circumstances,'' I smiled at my thoughts before waving my hand, rejecting the woman''s offer.

    "That won''t be necessary," spoke, only to bite myself in my tongue when I noticed the inherent message hidden in this precise form. Hurried to mend my unintentional mistake, I quickly added, "How about we forget about what happened and pretend I didn''t just break one of your cameras instead?"

    Calmed down, I managed to somewhat sympathize with the woman. How could I judge and punish her for her inability to get rid of such a rude clerk from her shop, when I spent most of my life doing only the little that others allowed?

    And when I put myself in the woman''s shoes�� the weight of me fucking up the camera and smashing one of the bottles, as cheap as they could be in my eyes, changed.

    "Oh," the woman jumped a little, taken aback by my approach. "It''s just a cheap fake, bought it for five bucks on some garage sale," she then added, showing no sign of a desire to haggle.

    ''She could''ve easily demanded a few hundred for it,'' I thought, ncing over at what turned out to be a mere maquette. ''Is it her way of showing sincerity?''

    Rather than once again refusing the woman, I simply nodded my head.

    "Well, I''m not going to me you for the actions of others," I smiled, "consider this me restoring my karma after acting like a Karen a few times in the past," I added, averting my eyes and scratching myself behind my ear as certain, quite recent cringe memories reappeared in my mind.

    For a moment, the shop turned silent, fully restoring the smokey basement vibe it carried��

    Only for all three of us to burst outughing at the same moment.

    "Well then, since the only clerk I could see is gone now, may we employ your help for a bit?" I requested once we calmed down, "Right now, valid advice on our choices would be of great use."

 Chapter 102: Rip me off, would ya?

    "If it''s the advice you are looking for, you''vee to the right ce and the right person!" the shop owner pumped out her chest only to strike it with her fist. Hearing my request she suddenly brightened up and turned all smiles.

    ''Isn''t it lovely to work with people passionate about their job?'' I thought, amused by this disy of confidentpetence.

    "What kind of drinks are you looking for? Something for any particr kind of event? Or just stocking up your bar?" she asked, already dropping her pose as she rushed out towards the now vacant space behind the counter and pulled out quite a sizeable album.

    "We are just stocking up," I replied, dismissing the woman''s initial idea.

    Pretending that we needed drinks for some sort of event would only lead her to suggest one, maybe two types of them but in all sorts of varieties. And unsure about Fay''s tastes, I saw no point in choosing the kind of drinks she would like at random.

    ''I have enough money to buy whatever the heck I want, so why hold back?''

    "If that''s the case, then are you interested in any genre in particr?" the woman opened up her album and moved some pages before raising her eyes and giving me a curious look.

    ''Casually using lingo rather than trying to flex it,'' I fought off the desire to roll my eyes. ''Just like I thought, this was the right ce to go!''

    Given how my only prior knowledge about this rtively upper-ss store came from the online reviews, I was d to find out they weren''t bought by the business as it often was the case.

    "Vodka or maybe some other strong spirits? Whiskey? Brandy?" Hearing no response, the owner listed out a few types to guide my thoughts a little. And as she looked at Fay, she smiled a little and added, "Maybe some high-ss wine?"

    ''This isn''t a smile straight out of the customer service course,'' I noticed, easily recognizing the genuine desire to show off perfectly obvious from the eagerness of the woman''s gestures and attentiveness.

    "If you had close to unlimited funds and wanted to give someone from the wild a crash course of all the tastes our civilization has to offer, what would you suggest?"

    My question was, in a sense, riding the line. But in the current particr scenario, I could easily im it''s just a story I fabricated on the go to better exin what I desired.

    To even further reinforce that point, I raised my hand and gently patted Fay on the top of her head.

    "She came out from the boonies and only knows the taste of some questionable moonshine," I imed, grinning when I saw Fay squandering to figure out what sort of expression she should make for her looks to fit the story. "Now that I''ve saved her from that abusive uncle of ours, I don''t want her to ever drink that kind of cheap and likely toxic booze ever again," I added, shaking my head.

    In this short moment, what started as a justification for using a story that was dangerously close to home, did not turn into something deeper.

    An attempt at leaving an impression with just enough details for the woman to remember us. And once the time woulde for me to work out the issue of Fay''sck of credentials, having someone easily backing up our story for how she never had one��

    ''I guess we are going to frequent this shop quite a bit,'' I thought.

    "And you want to check what kind of drinks she would actually fancy, I see," the woman quickly proved to be the fateful pick for the job, given how quickly she swallowed the bait, the hook and the line of my story, even going as far as to build up on it all on her own.

    "But still��" the shop owner shook her head. "iming that you have unlimited funds��" she shook her head in obvious disapproval before even going as far as to click her tongue. "Are you that keen for me to rip you off or something?"

    I sighed in my mind.

    ''Now I get how she managed to keep such a high review score,'' I thought.

    This woman was likely the owner of this small, ssy shop. As such, every bit of profit the shop made, every sale, big or small, would directly contribute to her own financial situation. And given how rtively expensive the goods here were and the ongoing drought that followed the economic meltdown from the copse of the global market��

    Even though there weren''t many signs of this, I could pretty easily see that this shop wasn''t in its best financial condition.

    ''The dim lighting isn''t an attempt to introduce afy vibe, but just an effect of using cheap lights and not being able to afford to rece the used ones.''

    I took a deep breath and slowly blinked my eyes.

    ''Now that I have money, I don''t think there''s an issue supporting a local business.''

    "I appreciate your warning, but I really mean it," I added only to stop patting Fay''s head and move on to rustle her hair a little. "What kind of a patron would I be if I held back?" I asked while nearlyughing out when noticing Fay''s slightly bewildered expression. "So yeah, give me your worst, and remember," I raised my other hand with my forefinger erected.

    "Close to unlimited funds, as long as we remain within the realm of a reason."

    The look in the shop owner''s eyes changed. From being happy to serve in her field of expertise�� to taking my words for a challenge.

    "So you indeed want me to rip you off," the womanughed out, trying to cover the seriousness that shed in her eyes. "How about a premium version of the starter, then?" she suggested, dropping the album back to the counter and pointing her hand at a row of huge packages stocked at the very top of the shelves at the back of the room.

    "It contains a rich selection of shots of all kinds, ranging from wines and premade drinks, through heavier spirits��"

    "I appreciate the gesture, but I don''t think I''m getting my point across," I sighed while shaking my head. Then, I moved my chin up and looked right into the woman''s eyes, as if trying to drill holes in her face. "I''m asking you to rip me off, but make sure I will have a literal truckload of drinks I won''t be ashamed to serve."

    Leaning back a little bit, I moved my hand down from Fay''s head and to her shoulder, finding it extremelyfortable for a hand''s stand.

    "So don''t hold anything back, and rip me off," I repeated my request. "Oh, and add one�� no, two cases of pure spirit on top of everything," I added with a grin, recalling Leinei''s requests.

    ''Why do I have the feeling her drinks when mixed with raw spirit might end up being tastier than whatever I can buy here?''

    "In that case, I''m going to rip you off indeed!" Finally encouraged enough, the woman eximed while only pretending to hold back the brightness that shed in her eyes. "I will rip you off, but I won''t let you leave my premises dissatisfied!"

 Chapter 103: A sip for the courage

    Given the quantity of alcohol I ended up buying, there was no physical possibility for just the two, or even the three of us to carry it back home, assuming I would pay the shop owner to help us with the task.

    That''s why, rather than getting troubled by this topic to no end, I simply asked her to charge me a little bit more, so that she could order someone to deliver all of the alcohol directly to our home, while we left carrying a single bag each, each stuffed with measly three bottles.

    "Are you sure this is going to be enough?" Fay asked, raising the decorative bag made from a thickened and chalked paper, taking a glimpse inside.

    And with how we ended up drinking about twenty bottles of Leinei''s wine back during the party�� her worries were pretty much backed by her ability to drink.

    To drink only a slightly alcoholic wine, though, not the forty-proof booze that aged for years in the wooden barrels to gain its color, taste, and strength. And that''s where I sourced my confidence that those six bottles we brought would be enough.

    After all, they only needed tost us a single evening, as the clerk promised to organize the delivery early in the morning tomorrow!

    "Hmm��" I muttered, thinking how I should reply so as not to spoil the fun of watching her react to the drinks stronger than anything she likely had ever chance to taste.

    Then, a small smile appeared on my lips as I leaned my head and looked slightly down and to the side, at Fay''s face.

    "What, do you have some ns to get me drunk and then devour me in the bed while I can''t defend myself?" I asked jokingly while making the face of a scared young schoolboy currently sitting on the sofa in the office of his dominatrix teacher.

    Fay raised her eyes and gave me a long look, before slightly raising the corners of her lips in a thoughtful smile.

    "Perhaps��" she admitted lightly, lowering her eyelids while she stared at me judgingly, probing for my reaction.

    "You don''t need to get me drunk for that, though!" Iughed out, fully defeated by her small, flirtatious smile. I then let go of her hand and reached out, bringing her into a small, side hug. "I'' ''m happy to embrace you anytime," I added, just to drive that point home while my shoulders continued to shake under the influence of my chuckling.

    Yet, as fun as it was to just walk through the city streets hand by-hand with Fay and while carrying the drinks we were going to get wasted on once we woulde back�� The moment my chuckling stopped, my soul filled with anxiety.

    The nicely lit streets vanished from my perspective, reced by the multitude of dark and shadowy corners where some sort of danger could potentially lurk.

    The wide, open space of the street changed from nice and peaceful, to dangerous.

    Bit by bit, I recalled all my worries regarding the source of the aura that we encountered. After that, I started to worry about what sort of crazy, desperate move my aunt could conceive in her stupid head��

    In the end, by the time we finally reached the bottom of the huge skyscraper where we now lived, I was fully on edge, tracking every tiniest movement with my eyes and ready to intervene at a moment''s notice.

    ''I think it''s quite likely Makary sent someone to look out for me. Maybe that''s where I get this sense of unease from?'' I thought, pushing the huge, ss-doors of the building open and making my way inside while nodding hello to the massive, muscr man serving as a guard today.

    "Wee back, mister and miss Wozniak," the guard lowered his head in a polite greeting. "I''ve unlocked the lift for you, so please enjoy your stay."

    Just like the man said, we couldn''t just enter the lift and reach the floor where my penthouse was. As the apartment upied the veryst two floors of the entire building, the lift required the approval of the man on the guard''s duty to unlock its ability to reach the topmost floor.

    "Thanks," I nodded my head back. "I hope you will have a calm shift."

    Soon enough, we boarded the lift and as we waited for its doors to close, I felt Fay grab me by my arm and tightly grip her fingers on it.

    Whoosh!

    With a small, rtively small noise, the doors of the lift closed before the vehicle started to move up at a growing but only mildly ufortable speed.

    "I don''t think I will ever get used to this feeling," Fay muttered, her fingers digging even deeper into my flesh when the lift reached its top speed and climbed one floor after the other.

    "Don''t worry," I turned to the slightly whimpering girl, charmed by yet another side of hers I could rarely experience. "I''m here," I added while bringing her into a deep embrace.

    At first, I intended to simply hold her close all the way up, but as my eyes moved down to the bag I still held in my hand��

    "Actually, I might have a better idea," I spoke, only to look inside my bag.

    ''Johny Daniels and Jack Walker,'' I thought, taking but a second to decide, before settling on the fancier of the two bottles.

    "Do you want a sip to feel better?" I suggested, tearing the cork off the bottle before passing it over to the girl.

    "Are you sure?" Fay asked, reluctantly pulling her face away from my chest. "You were so set on waiting until we get back home��" the-ce-MVLeMpYr

    "Just a sip for now, to lift your worries," I encouraged the girl and watched with amusement as she grabbed the bottle with a sigh of hesitation. "I didn''t want you to drink it before because there is a simple way to make it even more delicious. But if it''s just a sip��"

    Not holding back any longer, Fay fixed her grip on the bottle and took a short swing. Yet, rather than swallowing the thick liquid, she washed the insides of her mouth with it first, set on fully appreciating the taste rather than just throwing it down her throat.

    Fay''s eyebrows raised. She lowered the bottle in her hand and looked at it, taken aback.

    "I''ve never had anything even remotely as�� strange as this," she muttered, making it really hard for me to read from her face whether she liked the drink or not. Yet, when the small ''ding'' of the lift filled the cabin before the doors started to open, it was my turn to smile.

    "See?" I pointed out while taking the bottle out of Fay''s hand and grabbing it instead before leading the girl through the private corridor toward the main entrance of our penthouse. "You stopped thinking about the lift," I pointed out, opening the doors, and letting Fay through before closing the back.

    "And now," I added, instantly directing my steps towards the open bar of the main living area, "let me show you how it should be served, for sipping it directly from the bottle is practically a sin!"

 Chapter 104: A sip for posterity

    ''So this is my life now,'' I thought, catching myself staring at the city''s skyline glittering with thousands of different lights of the city''s nightlife.

    With a crystal of iced scotch in my hand, perfectly soft pillows below my bum, and the air conditioning of the penthouse working hard to keep the air fresh and just the right temperature��. -exclusive-content

    I took a slow, deliberate sip while fighting off the desire to twist my face.

    Still young, I never really had the chance or the opportunity to get used to drinking alcohol. And while I was aware that people rarely drank it for its taste��

    "Hon! Look at all those!" Fay called out from over the counter of the bar fitted to the side of the main living area of the penthouse.

    It took her only a quick show of mine to catch up on the idea of bartending. And with the use of all the tools and supplies the thoughtful management of this unit provided, she has long surpassed whatever I''ve taught her.

    ''I showed her how you should only add ice to the scotch to drink it with respect or mix it with coke if you couldn''t care less and just want a fun drink,'' I thought beforezily resting the back of my head against the cushions behind me and looking over at the girl.

    By now, Fay already mastered the skill of arranging various elements of the drinks. She shuffled the ice out of a specially drawn freezer into the mixing cup and added just a few drops of thick juice from the freshly squeezed lime before sting it all with some sort of fizzy drink I didn''t even recognize.

    She gave the mixing cup a solid shake for a few moments. And as if she was a pro-league theatrical muse rather than just a simple girl making a drink, her body didn''t move a single inch, leaving all the hard work of shaking the cup to just her thin arms alone.

    "Hon! Watch now!"

    As calm and professional as Fay''s movements were, her face was absolutely silly. Her eyes brimmed with amusement when she swung the cup open and added a few spoonfuls of some sort of starch before giving it a second round of shaking. Then, she poured the suddenly viscous liquid down a long, beautiful ss.

    "The water turned into a slime!" she announced, all happy, throwing the used-up cup to the top of the growing pile of dirty ssware.

    As much as she grew to like mixing drinks, the cleaning part clearly wasn''t her forte.

    "It''s called Jello here," I corrected the girl, only to squint my eyes a little. "Or pudding?" I muttered, not even sure myself.

    I''ve never been to a ce with a bartender, so how could I know the intricate lingo of their job? Just adding ice cubes to my drink was nearing the limits of my drink-mixing knowledge! And while I could somehow make do with a solid and rtively simple recipe��

    Fay used nothing but her nose and guts to pick the ingredients, somehow knowing how two things she had never tasted before would make for a great drink base!

    "Now, we poke!" I nearly jumped when Fay suddenly raised a massive knife that had no right being anywhere near the bar�� Only to peek over at me and burst outughing. "Silly! I''m not that careless!" she continued tough, putting the knife down and grabbing a long, wooden stick instead that she then proceeded to rape the jello in the cup with.

    Then and only then, she brought up two different bottles of what was already in the penthouse''s bar, quickly pouring them into yet another fresh mixing cup before giving it a gentle, toned shake. And when she poured it into the misty jello she made before��

    "Woah��" I didn''t hold back my awed voice when the alcohol flew down into the holes Fay made in the jello, quickly turning the entire thing into a mesmerizing green. What''s more, there were thousands upon thousands of tiny, white spots, making the entire drink appear like a reflection of a night''s sky on the surface of a shallowke.

    I was genuinely shocked. But as I looked back to the bar''s counter where Fay already stacked the fruits of her previous attempts��

    ''She is one hell of a hard-working girl, isn''t she?'' I thought, dragging my eyes across a long line of the drinks she made before.

    Fay wasn''t touched by a random stroke of genius. Her genius allowed her to learn a lot from every attempt she made, allowing her to quickly move from simply adding slices of lime and ice to mixing various brands and even types of alcohol to bring out the hidden qualities of its taste.

    First, she started with the basics. Then, for four more drinks, she figured out how to decorate and present the drinks. By the ninth ss, she already started to get creative, using ingredients that I didn''t even know existed or considered as a potential drink material.

    And with her tenth cup just finished, I expected her to line it up with the rest��

    But no.

    "Phew!" Fay wiped her forehead with the back of her hand with a clear look of satisfaction beaming out of her smile. She then grabbed the ss just by its very top and supported it from below its thick bottom.

    "It''s finally good enough," she whispered lightly, yet thanks to how silent it was in the house, I could perfectly hear her confident words. And with my head still in the weird, twisted position, I could also see how she nced towards me��. No, somewhere slightly off, just a bit to the side.

    Following Fay''s eyes, I turned my sights to the still half-full ss in my hand. And without even a second of hesitation, minding not the culture of drinking, I raised the cup to my mouth and gulped all that was left, booze and ice at the same time.

    "Fay, dearest, would you be as kind as to treat me to one of those drinks of yours?" This time, rather than pulling my head to the back, I properly shifted around to face the girl with an innocent smile.

    "You d-dummy��" Fay, taken aback by my show, failed to act as if she saw nothing. Still, with her cheeks burning, she brought the beautiful ss over, stuffing it with a long, silvery spoon right before passing me the drink.

    "Try not to hold it with your hands. Just a little bit of heat is enough to make it start dissolving," she warned before standing aside.

    "Let''s try��" I muttered, already tensing up and rxing my face to warm its muscles up in preparation for the great show of amazement I was going to give regardless of how the drink would taste.

    Ready for the show, I grabbed the spoon and scooped out a considerable bit of the fluffy jello. Yet, as I brought it to my mouth��

    I failed to act the way I envisioned I would. Instead, my face froze and my jaws stopped moving in fear of stopping the marvelous show that begun in my mouth.

    The fluffy jello felt like a literal cloud, slowly melting away into a soft, mellow taste of some citruses. I could feel the slight burn of the alcohol as its first drops formed and trickled down my throat�� But contrary to all my prior experiences, I didn''t feel even the tiniest bit of the usual difort!

    I dared not move my jaws or my tongue, too scared of disturbing the intricate effects of Fay''s creation.

    "I''m lost for words��" I admitted honestly once the cloud of jello in my mouth dissolvedpletely. I then sharply raised my eyes and looked at the girl. "Fay, dear, I have no idea what you did, but I''ve never known you could even prepare a drink like that!"

    Rather than acting out my amazement, I was now honestly admitting to my awe, staring at the girl as if she was some sort of a god of a barrel incarnate.

    "I��" dumbfounded by the level of my amazed, Fay suddenly turned shy and humble. "I-I did my best��" she added in a tiny voice while lowering her eyes to escape my intense gaze.

    "I can tell," I spoke out, leaving the drink on the nearby table and standing up to reach for the only thing more delicious than what Fay concocted. After getting my fill of the treat of Fay''s lips, I pulled back a bit and took a look at her beautiful face.

    ''No, stop it,'' my sense of reason finally came back, knocking my mind back on the right track. Because as much as I wanted to just spend the rest of today and then a few more days doing nothing but spoiling Fay to see her smile, see her bashful, see her excited��

    After what happened today, there were a few topics we had to discuss.

    My eyes darted over to the small package left near the main doors. It was an item that would allow me to fulfill a major prerequisite of having any serious talk on this side of the portal.

    "Fay, we should talk about what happened today," I spoke in a low voice, full of remorse.

    I wanted nothing more but to grab Fay''s arm, throw her on the bed, and then let her embrace and cuddle me down to sleep. The perspective of falling asleep while surrounded by her warmth, her smell, softness, presence��

    It was something that I had to absolutely preserve! Even if it came at the cost of pushing this peaceful, soul-warming pleasure forter.

    "But we will talk in the bedroom," I announced, rising up from the sofa and moving over to where I left the small package, a brand-new device that I bought myself during our recent trip to the town. "After all, I don''t want to talk when I need to think whether the walls have ears or not."

 Chapter 105: Peters Paranoia

    Fay learned thenguage at a rate that would put any and all the linguists of the earth to shame. And my best guess was that she somehow figured out the melody of thenguage, figuring out the meanings and words rather than properly learning them.

    But as quickly as this method allowed her to learn how to speak properly, that didn''t mean she could understand what I implied. Yet, already aware of that fact, I made sure not to use anything overlyplicated.

    ''I''m not sure if the walls have ears or not.'' This sentence was simple to understand, even if someone didn''t know how walls could have ears.

    I wasn''t sure about something. And there might be someone''s ears here, ones that we couldn''t see. Even without knowing the exact meaning of what this sentence entailed, Fay could pretty much guess it.

    And just like I expected, after giving me just a short nce, she pursed her lips and silently followed me to the bedroom.

    Once there, I closed the doors before rolling down the window covers, just in case. Knowing how little I knew of the technology that rich people had ess to, I dared not to assume Makary didn''t send men to some high building half the city away with optical equipment potent enough to peek into my penthouse.

    And as long as he could see my lips moving, it would take a simple request to a specialized AI to turn the video into a text that the artificial intelligence could easily deduct from the movement of my lips.

    ''Am I growing paranoic?'' I asked myself while unpacking the simple yet insanely expensive device I bought in a specialized store back at the city''s center.

    It was only capable of a single task, described by the very name it bore.

    "Jammer Master five thousand," I read out the name while rolling my eyes. "Whoever came up with this name shouldn''t be given any raises..."

    For how expensive this item was to get, its control panel was perfectly intuitive. But for something designed for amateurs to use, this was a given.

    "What is it?" Fay asked, approaching from the side... but rather than just walking around to get a proper look, she rested herself on my back and looked from over my shoulder at the few buttons I was messing up with.

    "It will cast a protective barrier. As long as it works, we should be safe to talk here," I exined shortly as I finished setting the device up and smashed the power button.

    At first, nothing really happened. It took me a while to suddenly notice a distant noise that grew in strength with every passing second. A weird buzzing of sorts that sat right on the edge of the frequency I was able to perceive.

    It was pretty damn unpleasant to constantly hear it right at the verge of my perception. Judging from Fay''s lips twisting in difort, she could hear it as well.

    "BEEP!"

    With a simple sound and the change of the color of its main diode from yellow to green, the device announced it was now operating in full swing. Yet, giving in to my paranoia, I pulled out my phone and tried giving Makary a call...

    "The number you''ve called cannot be reached. Please, try..."

    I ended the call before the automatic secretary could even finish its usual advice. And as I looked down at the screen, the lines describing the quality of the connection between the phone and the globalwork were now all gone.

    "I guess it works," I muttered, only for an ugly grimace to follow up on my lips. "Well, that''s assuming we are only talking about wireless devices. If they installed some prewar, analog tech..."

    I took a deep breath and rolled my eyes.

    ''As if!''

    Makary simply didn''t have enough time to organize such an borate plot.

    First thing first, prewar equipment, thanks to its insane resiliency, went for extreme premiums on a ck market. And with the addition of how desperate every military across the entire world was to recover as much of it as they could with some new wars in their blood-stained minds...

    ''I don''t think he could get his hands on a military-grade wire that quickly. Not when he took just a single day to rent this ce out!''

    The military grade was the main problem that I was worried about. The civilian stuff, even of the highest grade, my jammer would make a quick work off.

    "Now then, let''s talk business," I finally opened my mouth, moving the buzzing device to the corner of the room. Yet, rather than turning to Fay, I grabbed her hand and brought her to the bed.

    "Is this what you wanted to..."

    "No, we are just going to pretend," I cut into Fay''s words. My face twisted in a displeased grimace. ''Isn''t my paranoia progressing too quickly?''

    Once again, Fay didn''t require an understanding of the matter to just obediently follow my requests. And when we got into the bed, cuddled close together while hiding our bodies under the sheets...

    I was finally willing to risk it.

    "First thing first, that disgusting aura. Do you have any thoughts on it?" I whispered my question.

    Fay shifted around a little, all for the sake of pulling her head far enough to let me see her slightly bewildered expression.

    "I assume all the weird stuff you just did was to stop others from listening in on us," she whispered back, only for her eyes to twitch a little as a small, slightly troubled smile appeared on her lips. "Right, I kinda let the heat get to my head and I failed to properly exin how I see aura back then..."

    Fay''s cheeks covered up in a slight blush when she recalled the intimate escapades of the day before.

    "Let me guess," I muttered, killing the excitement I felt when I recalled those events myself. And after giving it some thought... It became pretty obvious. "You are able to read someone''s intentions by reading their aura? Or maybe their desires?"

    Instead of answering, Fay closed her eyes and cuddled back into my chest.

    "I''m not an expert," she whispered a momentter. "And mom told me my way of feeling auras is special, not how Celestials nor Divines feel it. For me, one''s aura is just as real as their body," she revealed. "And right now, I can tell just how terrified you are for my sake."

    For a moment, Fay simply rubbed her forehead against my chest. story-by-MvLeMpYr

    "But when I sensed that awful aura on your aunt and its much weaker version that appeared along with that former mate of yours..."

    "She was never my mate," regardless of how important of a topic it was, I wasn''t going to let this misunderstanding slide. "I''ve never done it with her. Or with anyone else for the sake of precision. You were the first woman I''ve everid with."

    I had no idea whether, in Fay''s words, they attached the same importance to one''s first time as people still did on earth. But I wasn''t going to take the risk of letting her keep this misunderstanding.

    "It''s okay," even though I couldn''t see Fay''s face, I could tell she smiled.

    ''Is this what she meant by feeling one''s aura?'' I thought for a second.

    "I wouldn''t mind either way, but..." she hesitated for a second... only to pull herself even closer into my embrace. "But for some reason, it still makes me feel happy."

    For a moment, we continued to cuddle. And then, right as I started to feel drowsy, my dearest decided to drop the bomb.

    "You know, now that I think about it, that awful aura we saw on your aunt..." Fay hesitated for another moment. "It was pretty much the same as the aura I saw on you when you first came to my world."

 Chapter 106: Source of happiness

    Hearing the news, I hardly reacted. My body didn''t shift, my eyes didn''t widen. Because as much as I wanted to avoid falling into the trap of considering myself to be at the center of it all�� I had this damned feeling that I indeed was in the very middle of this strange conspiracy.

    Yet, hearing Fay''s revtion, I didn''t physically react to it. That didn''t mean I wasn''t shocked or surprised.

    I simply needed some time to process this information and all the things that it now connected.

    "Are you okay?" Fay asked in a low voice, pulling back once again to take a look at my face. And as she did, her own expression mellowed down. She then brought her hand up and lowered it over my cheek, caressing it while she awaited my response.

    Feeling her fingers gently rub against my cheek, I moved my own hand and covered Fay''s fingers with it, pressing her palm tightly to my cheek while closing my eyes. I allowed the heat of her skin to warm my face and ward off any and all doubts or anxieties that the revtion brought.

    Because as simple of news as it was, it was like a line that connected all the scattered dots that we''ve noticed so far.

    ''I might be trying to forcefully connect unrted things, but��'' I took in a deep breath, only to release it in a long sigh. ''Ockham''s razor would state otherwise, though.''

    Ockham''s razor was as simple of a concept as it was. This theory boiled down to cutting anything excessive, stating that most of the time, the simplest exnation of the topic was usually right on the money.

    ''As worrying as this all sounds, it''s actually not a bad thing,'' I sighed again before letting go of Fay''s hand. ''But it finally gives us a clue. And forces me to ept the fact that I''m likely to be involved in something big.''

    -read-first

    Finally done with internalizing the information, I opened my eyes and smiled at Fay, hoping to dispel the worry written all over her face.

    "Yeah," I spoke softly, moving my hand forth and taking my turn to caress Fay''s delicate cheek. "I''m okay," I affirmed before lowering my hand to Fay''s shoulder and bringing her closer into my embrace.

    I was okay, that I didn''t lie about. But I still couldn''t help but shake my thoughts off the topic.

    "So, to sum it up," I spoke out only once I felt Fay had somewhat calmed down. "We have a varied number of people, ranging from myself, through people that are in one way or another, rted to me. And all of us were influenced by a varying degree of this aura��" I muttered to myself, gathering all that we knew on the topic into a single statement.

    Then, I moved my focus from my own thoughts to the girl I''ve wrapped with my arms and held close to my heart.

    "Do you have any idea what kind of effect this aura would have on us?"

    And just like all the times when I asked Fay about aura, I could sense her hesitation.

    "I''m not an expert, my mom would give you a much better answer, but��"

    "It''s okay," I reached out to the back of Fay''s head and gently brushed my fingers through her soft hair. "Even if it will be a mere hint of the actual truth, I want to know your thoughts on it."

    Right now, we were scrambling in the darkness, looking for a light switch. Deprived of the proper vision to guide us through all those clues, we could only il our libs in the total darkness, hoping we would stumble upon something.

    And as faint of light as Fay''s feeling might be, it was still something that could guide us toward our goal.

    Fay, though, turned silent. And even though she had her face pressed tightly against my chest, I could somehow feel the changes happening to her expression.

    At first, she simply closed her eyes, trying her best to figure out the proper words to describe her feelings. But then, her eyes suddenly went wide, quickly followed by her face freezing in a look of terror.

    I shifted slightly, tightening my embrace over her suddenly feeble body.

    ''I wonder if my ability to sense the changes to her mood is one of the potential uses of aura.''

    There was no point trying to pressure Fay into revealing what thought or an idea made her grow so anxious on the spot. So, rather than pushing her to speak, I allowed my thoughts to wander instead.

    Who knew, maybe a stray thought would somehow prove to be an enlightening discovery? It wasn''t the apple falling down on Newton''s head but a random thought that followed that set that ancient scientist on the path of bing the father of modern science, after all!

    "I��" Fay attempted to speak out, only for her voice to cut after uttering just the very first sound. Her body tensed up even further, to the point I could feel some of her muscles start to shake.

    Sadly, the only thing I could do was to keep her in a tight hug, hoping my loving embrace would be enough to cast whatever shadows she was battling in her pretty head.

    And after a few more moments, Fay proved to be a formidable mental warrior, oveing whatever troubled her as she opened her mouth again.

    "Honey��" her voice, although steady, was filled with the same anxiety I could feel emanating from her body. "Did you notice your life change, take a turn for the better from the moment you stepped into my world?"

    Hearing the question, I couldn''t help but squint my eyes in confusion.

    ''How is that question making her so troubled?'' I asked myself, baffled by how I couldn''t make any reasonable connection between her words and her anxiety.

    Yet, as I bid my time and slowly thought things through, my eyes twitched.

    Bit by bit, by putting myself in Fay''s shoes and applying a healthy dose of insecurity and self-depreciation that I was so used to, a harrowing image of how this poor girl could feel right now finally emerged in my mind.

    Still, she asked a question. And given what could be at stake in this entire aura-rted plot, I couldn''t hide my answer.

    "I did," I admitted to the obvious truth that Fay was more than aware of. She heard more than once just how happy I was whenever I held her tightly in my arms, after all. "My life changed more than I ever considered possible."

    By now, Fay''s worry turned obvious.

    ''What if it''s not her that brings me happiness, but the freedom from that vile aura? What if I''m just back to living a normal life, capable of finding happiness of my own, rather than sourcing it from her?''

    "I��" Fay hesitated again. But just like me a mere second before, she opted to speak out the potentially ugly truth. "I believe it''s because when you moved to my world, you lost contact with the source of that awful aura. And with that, the happiness you feel right now��"

    Knowing what her next words were likely to be, I shut my mouth and simply pulled her even closer into my embrace, cuddling her as close to my chest as I could.

    "This happiness of yours is not because of me. It''s not me bringing you happiness. This happiness is what you were supposed to feel without the interference of that vile aura."

 Chapter 107: On the call (part 1)

    Iid down on the sofa, staring at the beautiful skyline of the city while sipping�� not on a ss of some ordinary whiskey christened with ice, but on a freshly made drink of Fay''s creation.

    Sipping down on the delicacy, I impassively stared out of the window, as if the darkness of the night could somehow fuel and direct my thoughts.

    The jammer was off. Our cuddly time in the bedroom now came to an end, even though we didn''t talk through most of the topics that I had nned to discuss.

    Right now, we were in a time-out, giving ourselves some time to process and internalize all that we talked about and potentially figured out.

    And as I rxed and allowed my thoughts to freely wander, the phone in my pocket finally started to ring.

    Pulling it out, I took a quick nce at the screen and heaved a sigh.

    ''Took him a while,'' I thought with an ugly grimace on my lips before shaking my head and epting my call.

    "Peter?" exclusive-content-MvLeMpYr

    By now, I could easily recognize Makary''s voice on the other end of the call.

    "Yeah, what''s up?"

    My question was pretty much void. For this man to call me a mere quarter of an hour after I''d turned the signal jammer off was pretty much proof that this house was indeed rigged with bugs and wires.

    "I couldn''t reach you before, and I have a pretty big news. But give me just one minute��" Makary''s voice cut on the spot, followed by the noise of someone furiously typing something. "Okay, we should be able to talk safely now."

    My eyebrows moved up a bit.

    ''What kind of news would require him to secure the call?'' I asked myself while taking another sip of Fay''s drink.

    The fruity, slightly sour taste filled my mouth before setting my throat on a pleasant fire when I gulped it down.

    "First thing first, when can you get another batch?" Makary didn''t bother with any small talk, cutting straight to the business instead.

    And quite frankly, I couldn''t me him for it. For how trashy this herb was in Fay''s word, on earth�� On earth, it was a discovery on the level of discovering a damn penicillin!

    And as long as Makary managed to figure out what exact chemicalpound was responsible for the effects of this herb, its value would either skyrocket or drop, depending on whether it was possible or even profitable to artificially replicate it.

    Yet, when it came to his question, I replied with nothing but silence. His question wasn''t that easy to answer, after all.

    ''I think two more days here should be enough to settle all the urgent matters. Then, we should be able to go back to Fay''s words, where we will have to wait a bit more than three more days��''

    "I don''t care what outrageous demands you have, I will fulfill them all. With this herb��"

    Now it was Makary''s turn to suddenly cut his sentence short and let the silence take over the call.

    And once again, I couldn''t really me him. His silence spoke more of how he thought about this cheap herb than any words could.

    "I never thought you would take me for an unreasonable man," I muttered, allowing a slight tone of dissatisfaction to hint through my voice.

    ''And that means this herb, at least for now, is at least as valuable as I expected it to be,'' I thought while heaving a deep, long sigh. ''But the moment I proved a living sample, its worth will plummet. That is, assuming it''s even possible to cultivate it in this world''s soil.''

    I shook my head.

    ''That means I was right by starting with just the cheapest herb of all. In this way, even if Makary manages to synthesize whatever is responsible for that herb''s effects, I will still have things to sell.''

    "I should be able to get some more in a week''s time or so, give or take two days," I finally gave out the most concrete answer I could afford.

    ''It would be foolish to assume we will be able to go back the moment the portal reopens,'' I thought. ''I hope nothing will go disastrously wrong�� but one can never know!''

    "I don''t have any ridiculous demands either. There are two things, though, both of which might be slightly problematic."

    "Speak," Makary didn''t bother to waste his or my time again.

    "I''m going to need tactical gear. And I''m talking full package, vests, nades, long guns��" I spoke out a bit too quickly, so, just for safety''s sake, I added, "I''m talking ASG of course. What else I could be talking about, after all?"

    The change to my voice should be enough of a message to let Makary know how thetter part of my request was just a load of crap designed to mask the real request.

    And quite frankly, after going through the battle back in Fay''s world�� I didn''t want to participate in one again with nothing more but a side-arm. It was powerful and easily capable of piercing the defense of the local adventurer''s sh mercenaries�� But I''ve experienced myself the distraught of running out of bullets in the mag.

    And I wasn''t John Wisk or any other action hero to be able to conjure the bullets in the mag as I shot them, reloading only to add dramatic tension to the action sequence.

    "That can be done," Makary didn''t mount any problems. He didn''t bother asking why I needed guns either. Or rather�� "Is this how you want to deal with your aunt?"

    Going against my expectations, he actually asked. But given how he was already seen by the police interacting with that bitch of a woman, I couldn''t me him.

    Having a murder on his hands that could be easily tracked back to a gun he provided had to be a legitimate worry for a man bncing on the edge of what the police would be willing to turn their eyes away from.

    "No, it''s not. But that''s all I can say in regard to those airsoft guns. When ites to my aunt, though��"

 Chapter 108: On the call (part 2)

    "No, it''s not. But that''s all I can say in regard to those airsoft guns. When ites to my aunt, though��" I hesitated for a second.

    In fact, with all the wealth that Makary showered me with in exchange for help and hope for further cooperation, I couldn''t really care about the pennies that my dearest aunt stole from me. NovelBin-the-story-tform

    But I wasn''t going to give up on taking my revenge. Not after she disrespected myte mom on many, many asions and dared to put her filthy hands on what my mom left me!

    And while I intended to deal with her all on my own�� What was the point in making things harder for myself here? My time would be much better spent catering to Fay''s every wish and desire!

    "When ites to that damned whore, I''m going to ask for your help after all. And to be more precise, do you maybe have a contact to a good, really goodwyer?"

    There was no point in dealing with my aunt through underhanded means.

    No.

    I wanted her to be brought to justice through legitimate means. Only in this way I could stop her from assuming a victim''s narrative and crush her social standing with the full might of the harshw!

    "I guess she didn''t return what she stole," Makary muttered to the phone before likely pulling it away from his face with how I suddenly couldn''t hear a thing.

    "I have no knowledge of her doing so," I replied, not even sure if the man could hear my response.

    "I see," contrary to my worries, Makary replied right away. "This might take a little longer, but you can leave it to me," he assured, only for his voice to turn strangely tired the next moment. "Is that the other thing you wanted to ask?"

    "No, it is not," I quickly denied before looking back to where Fay was trying to distract herself from her thoughts by reaching even higher peaks of her creativity and showcasing her drink-making skills.

    My eyes then moved beyond the girl, to the elegant door that separated a sizeable part of the penthouse from the rest.

    "I know there is no use asking if there are wires in my house. But let me ask this anyway," I spoke before breathing a long sigh. "I''m extremely jealous and possessive man when ites to my girl. And I''m about to go and have some fun at the bath with her."

    For a moment, I allowed the silence to take over the call. This time, however, I was pretty quick to cut it short though.

    "Do I need to stress out what will happen if I find any time of wire, camera, or listening device in the bath?" I asked, waiting only two seconds and when I heard the first sound that indicated Makary was about to answer, I spoke again. "No, let me put it in a different way. Are there any kind of wires in the bath?"

    This time, the silence grew longer and longer��

    "There are two. A camera embedded into the pir and pointing at the doors and a write hidden at the bottom of the toilet bowl," Makary admitted in a sour voice.

    "You''ve made the right choice," I replied coldly while rolling my eyes. "I will pay you a visit tomorrow, sometime in the morning. Have everything ready by then," I requested and immediately cut the call.

    It was one thing for Makary to give away where I could find the wires. But having them mounted in the house in the first ce was already a huge transgression.

    A mistake I couldn''t fault Makary for, but one I could use to act like I did with the call just now.

    Hopefully, he was smart enough to get the message.

    Done with the call, I threw the phone back on the sofa before taking another sip�� which turned into a massive gulp as I wasted the precious drink and allowed it to freely flow down my throat.

    Feeling the slight buzz of the booze, I took a breath before putting the ss away. And with that��

    "Fay,e here," I called out while locking my eyes on the window ahead rather than turning to take a look at the girl. "We need to talk."

    Once again, I didn''t even need to look back to tell Fay nearly jumped, the ss in her hand nearly slipping out from her grasp.

    Sensing her reaction like this, I felt my heart squeeze, assaulted by the sudden bout of mental pain.

    I wished for nothing more but to rush to hear, bring her to my arms, and cuddle her up for as long as it would take to calm her worries down.

    But I wasn''t going to, not right away at the very least.

    The very reason why we turned the jammer off and left the bedroom was to give ourselves some time to think things properly through. And as important as it turned out to be, Makary''s call was just an unforeseen distraction.

    Still, for how tense and worried Fay got on the spot, instantly jumping back to the anxious mood she was in ever since our talk ended�� She still put all the things in her hands back on the bar''s counter before obediently walking towards the sofa.

    This time, however, she didn''t aim for myp or a spot directly to my side, opting to sit right in front of me, on the small coffee desk instead.

    Taking a look at her worried face�� I felt as if my heart was about to stop. Even though there were no tears in her eyes, I could tell Fay was mere words away from tearing up.

    "First thing first," I leaned forward and reached out for Fay''s hands, bringing them together before cupping them within mine. "I need you to stop worrying," I requested while looking straight into her eyes.

    And after taking a deep breath��

    "To hell with that aura, the plot behind it, and how it might''ve affected my life," I proimed with no single hint of hesitation in my voice, expression, or eyes. "You are my happiness. And that, I don''t want you to ever have a single doubt about."

 Chapter 109: Eloquency issue

    "You are my happiness. And that, I don''t want you to ever have a single doubt about."

    I gave this statement without even a shred of doubt in my voice, soul, or heart.

    Just like I figured it out quite sometime before, there were some women worth simping for. And Fay, at least in my eyes, was exactly that type of woman.

    She was beautiful beyond any belief, keeping the adorableness she inherited from her innate form of a fox pup and the extreme allure of a mate with a body designed to suit my tastes.

    But all of that was just her outside, something that would make random idiots on the inte salivate themselves over her. And while I wasn''t going to utter a single word ofint about those physical traits of hers�� They were not even remotely close to the real reason why I was so crazy for her.

    It was her warmth of a homemaker, yfulness of apanion, loyalty of a mate, and affection of a lover that made her who she was. And while I was pretty damn sure I only ever saw the few out of all the faces she had to offer�� Those few I''ve experienced were enough to fill the void in my life that this awful aura left me with.

    My feeling towards her might''ve started as a mere physical attraction, but the more we interacted, the deeper I got to know her, the more certain I grew that her presence had to be the result of the scales of fate tipping back into my favor topensate for whatever made my life into hell in the past.

    And when I finally managed to put thisplex array of feelings and emotions that her mere presence invoked in me�� I was blessed with the sight of her worry somewhat subsiding, reced by the first ray of happiness and relief.

    Still, there were some hints of worry, doubt, and anxiety shing at the bottom of her eyes, hints I was set on eradicating. For if I ever were to be truly worthy of her, I had to do my best to fulfill my end of the bargain in our rtionship.

    Bargain that disallowed me from allowing her to ever be sad or anxious about my own feelings.

    "Dear, listen," sensing that just the few words I uttered before wouldn''t be enough, I shook my head to buy myself some time.

    It was a tall task to ask me toe up with the proper words with how little social experience I had. But since when would ack of proficiency in something stop me from doing it?

    I didn''t know how to shoot a gun properly, but I still killed several people with it when I had to. Interacting with Makary was my first for dealing with gangs, but as it was for Fay''s sake, I managed to seed there too. -official

    Now, though, it wasn''t about courage. It wasn''t even about my smarts or quick wits.

    Faced with a problem based solely on my eloquence, I found myself to be lost. And while I never even thought about giving up�� It took me some time to finally forge the words that had a chance to convey how I felt.

    "You are the kind of woman that only exists in legends of this world," I spoke out, giving Fay''s hands a tight squeeze while looking her deeply in the eyes.

    Judging by how she apparently could somehow sense my intent through her aura, my chances of properly conveying my feelings only grew.

    "You are loyal, supportive, fierce when necessary, submissive when requested��" I shook my head, only further realizing just what kind of a precious and rare gem of a woman Fay was when I started to put it into words. "You are the kind of woman that all the kids desire while growing up. And as men grow older, we learn to lower our expectations, as no real girl could ever match them."

    ''Shit, I''m getting off the topic,'' I thought, shaking my head before taking two quick breaths to refocus my attention.

    "If anything, there is only one doubt that lingers in my head when ites to our rtionship," I admitted, sliding off the sofa while still keeping a hold over Fay''s hands, only to fall down to my knees and look up, keeping my eyes locked on hers. "And that is, whether I''m worthy of your devotion."

    Holding my hands and as close as we were, Fay had to be able to sense the dedication that my soul was brimming full of. And at the very least, I could see the sparks of hesitation and anxiety finally melting away, reced with tears that bore no hint of sadness.

    "Hon��" Fay muttered, overwhelmed by the passion behind my words, and sniffled while struggling to hold her tears back.

    "I''m your mate and you are mine. And no strange aura shenanigans will change it," I added, leaning a bit closer to the girl''s face, to give her a better look at my devotion-filled eyes.

    I couldn''t care less if it made me look like a simp, white knight, or whatever word teenagers used to describe people who cared for their women. Because while I was willing to go to great lengths for Fay''s happiness...

    She was just as likely to do the same for me.

    "With that said, though��" Already leaning forward, I simply shifted my weight around a bit, letting go of Fay''s hands only to reach for the back of her waist, low above her ass with one of my hands, while sneaking my other arm underneath her knees.

    "Ah!" Fay uttered a small, startled scream when standing up, I brought her up to my arms.

    Rushing to regain her stability, Fay instinctively wrapped her hands around my neck, ending up like all those legendary princesses carried by their knights in the stories for the kids.

    And quite frankly, if having such a beautiful and devoted girl cling to me like that, I really couldn''t care less about being called a white knight or whatnot.

    "Back at my shed, we could only use the most rudimentary bath there is," I spoke, only to avert my eyes as a small, troubled smile took over my lips, ''all the more since you�� since the faucet broke��'' I added in my thoughts.

    I shook my head, ridding my mouth of the grin that followed the smirk as I looked down at the girl hanging up in my arms.

    "Now, though, I want you to enjoy a proper bath," I added, hurriedly making my way over to one of the very few doors fitted into this otherwise open design of our penthouse.

    Soon, we stepped inside the only area within the unit that was fully deprived of windows, save for a massive panel of a Vian mirror that gave us a great overview of the city below withoutpromising our privacy at all.

    The bathroom itself befitted the luxurious yet somewhat restrained design of the whole penthouse. It consisted of a small corridor that led to a separate toilet and shower to its sides...

    And the proper bath beyond the next set of doors, where I finally lowered Fay''s legs back to the floor, allowing her to stand up while she stared at all sorts of devices with curiosity.

    "Those are��?" Fay muttered, throwing curious nces all around the ce.

    To be honest, when I looked at what the bath proper was outfitted with�� I couldn''t quite name some of the pieces of equipment and devices that it came decorated with. But my main goal for today, an open showering area and a huge, small-pool-sized bath that upied the entire side of the bath, were pretty much self-exnatory.

    "Hold on here for just a moment," I requested, ignoring Fay''s question as I rushed back to the doors. "Oh, and keep your clothes before I tell you otherwise."

    Not saying another word, I rushed back to the bedroom where we had the first part of our talk and retrieved the jammer before running back to the bath. There, rather than going right at it, I first activated the device�� Before approaching the lonesome pir of white-painted concrete that stood in the very middle of the spacious, open area of the bath.

    There, I studied the structure of the column for a moment before bringing my hand back and, without even a shred of hesitation, smashing my fist into the ce that simply felt weird.

    "Hon!" Fay twitched�� but true to my request from before, she remained in ce.

    "Don''t worry," I called back to her, digging into the smashed concrete before pulling out a small, mangled device and snapping a long cord that disappeared into the very middle of the column, into a narrow hole that appeared to run all the way down to the floor.

    "Just a little longer," I asked while lowering my head in apology as I ran past the puzzled girl, before repeating the same process with the bottom of the back of the toilet that stood in the back corner of the room.

    Then, with even more broken electric pieces locked in my fist, I simply cast them all aside outside of the bath, before moving over to the jammer and ramping its settings all the way to the max possible output.

    Soon, the unpleasant buzzing filled the room, instantly bringing my mood down a little bit.

    But there was hardly anything I could do about it at this point. Even though Makary revealed where two of the wires were hidden�� I couldn''t be sure he didn''tmit others. And given how Fay was about to get naked here and the weight of the topics I wanted to tackle��

    "Okay, we should be fine now," I announced once I finally moved back to the bath, done with all the preparation. Then, as I pped my hands to free them of the cement dust, I looked over towards the baffled girl. "You can undress now," I informed, only for a small grin to appear on my lips right as I reached for the bottom of my own shirt and pulled it up. "Unless you want me to help you with that."

    With my thoughts already focused on organizing all I wanted to talk about while in the rtive safety and privacy of the bath�� I failed to notice the mischievous glint that shed in Fay''s eyes in response to my words.

    My aura continued to tune in to perceive Fay''s emotions better and better, though, making sure that while I visually skipped this detail, I surely felt it. And when I involuntarily looked over at the girl��

    I saw Fay remove her fingers from the bottom of her shirt, allowing it to stay on top of her skin while she spread her arms open and allowed me to bathe in the affection filling the mischievous expression on her lips.

    "I will be in your care, then."

 Chapter 110: Missing memories

    "Aaaaaah��" a long, rxed groan escaped from my mouth when I slid down the edge of the massive bath, allowing the warm, bubbly waters inside to coat my skin. "That hits the spot��"

    With the water just below the ufortable degree, I took a moment to get used to the hot stinging, before allowing it to forcefully bring my muscles to a state of perfect rxation.

    And before long, Fay followed in my steps, carefully stepping into the waters.

    At first, she probed the temperature with just the tip of her feet''s fingers.

    "Ah!" she squealed a bit when she realized just how hot the water was, only to throw a wary nce at my blissful expression before gritting her teeth and pushing her foot down. Soon, she managed to walk into the bath�� Only to steel herself, close her eyes, and take a full dive by simply squatting down.

    Fay''s white hair appeared to merge with the bubbles of the shampoo as she kept still for a short while, getting herself used to the warmth. And as she moved up and threw her head to the back��

    ''Damn,''zily opening my eyes, I couldn''t help but adore the sight.

    By now, Fay''s body had no secrets for me. In thest few times we did it, I was sure to explore every nook and cranny of it. But with water trickling down her curves, her breasts perking up while glistering with the reflected light of the bathroom gentle neons and her hair falling perfectly t down her back��

    "Come here," I called the girl out, only to have her turn her head, and smile a little, before casually walking towards me and lowering herself down, settling her soft bum down on my thigh.

    As we didn''t really have any ns to screw and contaminate the bath''s water with our own juices, she opted to sit sideways on my leg rather than nesting down on myp and grinding her ass on my crotch.

    Nevertheless, when Fay leaned down to the side and rested on my chest, I couldn''t stop myself from reaching out around her back only to have one of my hands fall down on her breast and grope away.

    "Mhmmm," Fay mused a little, her lips curving up in a small smile. And as she slightly parted her eyelids and threw a sideways look at my face, she asked, "Do you want to?"

    With my fingers sinking into the flesh of her boob, I shook my head. "Nah, I just wanted to feel you up a bit," I replied with all the honesty I could muster, trying to ignore how Fay twisted her body only to press her front against my chest when she asked.

    "A pity," Fay grinned�� but after the short yet intense time we spent together, I could tell she didn''t really mean it. Without the sparks of excitement shing in her eyes, she was obviously more interested in just snuggling in this hot, rxing bath over simply screwing around.

    We already did it, after all, and this bath was still a first for her.

    "Now then, where should I begin?" I muttered while stretching my spine to the back and resting it on the angled wall of the bath. Basking in hot water, surrounded by nothing but the slightly citrusy smell of the scented soap and with Fay''s body pressing down on me while I yed around with her breast��

    It was a damn heavy task to think. All I wanted to do at this moment was to rx and abandon all thought�� But wasn''t willing to let the momentary desire go against the very reason why we were in this bath, to begin with.

    And sure, watching how Fay skipped around in amusement when she discovered all sorts of functions of the shower, from controlling the temperature and the volume of the water at the standing hydromassage ending, it was still just a prelude to the main goal.

    In the end, cleaning ourselves up, teaching Fay how to use all sorts of devices in the bath and now finally rxing in the pool-like water basin�� Those were all just the preparations to make our talk a bit less tense than it was going to be.

    While I didn''t have to worry about any of the topics I had in mind making Fay anxious about our rtionship, it didn''t mean those topics were all that simple to talk about.

    "First things first, let''s gather all that we know," I muttered, not even sure if for the sake of guiding Fay along my thoughts or simply voicing out instructions to be then forced to follow them. "There''s someone or something capable of manipting auras or infusing them upon others."

    I pried my eyes open and stole a nce at Fay''s suddenly focused face.

    "And manipting auras is obviously not something that I would expect anyone in this world to know anything about. That goes without saying!"

    Now, came the first problematic moment. A revtion that forced me to stop acting humble and reasonable and ept the fact that after all that happened��

    After all that happened, assuming I wasn''t in the very middle of everything was just an attempt at shedding responsibility rather than a wariness over contracting a main character syndrome.

    And with that decision made, I finally opened up my mouth again.

    "And for all that we know, all the victims of the aura maniption were, in one way or form, rted to my misery."

    I felt my face twitch when I uttered those disastrous, self-centered words. For who the hell I was to assume everything was all about me?

    But so far, we''ve only discovered my aunt, my former and allegedly cheating ex to be the carrier of this awful stench of an aura. Them�� and me myself.

    And it went without saying that both of those women were a major source of grief in my life.

    The intensity of that awful stench also matched the amount of pain they brought me, with my aunt nearly causing me to choke with how intense her aura was after years of bullying me, and my ex only having its faint scent after breaking my heart just recently.

    ''Another connection to keep in mind,'' I thought, rolling my eyes at the mere memory of the two.

    But for Fay to understand all that I was slowly starting to ept�� I had to start from the very beginning.

    "Do you have any idea how��" Fay stopped her question in the very middle of it, only to shake her head. "No, any idea when your life started to take a turn for worse?"

    The look in her eyes was intense, but not invasive. She was focused on my words and keen to offer any kind of insight instead of trying to gather whatever bits of information I was willing to spare.

    "My life started taking a turn for worse with the death of myte mom," I admitted the obvious.

    Before that depressing event, my life was rtively carefree, as much as it could be with the sickness of my mom constantly looming over my mind. But with everything said and done, even while sick, she still managed to shield me from the wrath and ugliness of the world. story-source-NovelBin

    Only when she died, I was forced to face it all�� And all because of how I misunderstood herst words.

    "On the other hand, things started to change a mere moment before I stepped into your world, back when I��" Suddenly, for how simple of a thing I was about to say, I stopped.

    Because now that I wanted to talk about the event that brought the change to my sorry life, talk about the vision of my father�� I realized that I hardly could remember a single detail of what happened!

    "Things changed when I realized certain�� discrepancy."

    Stuck on the sudden question of how could I forget about the details of such an important moment, I decided to start a bit ahead of it.

    "You see, the mindset, moral code of sorts that I decided to follow when guided by my mother''sst words was the major factor before how bad my life turned out to be. And when I reached the absolute limit of what I could handle��"

    This time, I turned silent for a different reason. I simply couldn''t really tell what made me realize my mistake.

    Was it how I pretty much couldn''t handle it anymore? Or maybe it was a random stroke of enlightenment, fueled by my refusal to let things keep going as they were?

    Puzzled, I shook my head a little before focusing on the lovely stress ball of Fay''s breast in my hand. And after giving it a few squeezes, I finally regained the rity of mind necessary to keep talking.

    "And what mindset are we talking about?" Fay asked, forcing me to open my eyes and once again experience just how intensely focused her eyes were on me.

    It was as if she didn''t dare to miss a single word of mine in her desperate attempt to figure something out and thus be of practical use.

    "My mom left me with just two words, be better," I confessed before following my words with a heavy sigh. "And I initially assumed she meant for me to climb above the stupid struggles and conflicts, be better than getting myself involved with them."

    I shook my head, slightly ashamed by how stupid I had to be to end up with that kind of understanding of those two precious words. Because now that I thought back on it, how could I be better, if the very foundation of my attitude was pretty much an arrogant refusal to put others in my eyes?

    "In the moment of weakness, desperation, or maybe just thanks to a stroke of luck sh enlightenment, I realized that this mindset was behind most of my troubles," I exined, only to feel Fay shift on my thigh.

    "Yeah, yeah, I now know it was rted to that dark aura, but back then��" I shook my head again. "Back then, I couldn''t know. Still, as soon as I realized that this mindset had to be wrong for my mom would never wish my life to devolve into what it was at that moment��"

    I cut my sentence short, not really sure what words to follow it with. And so, rather than taking a long pause to figure it out, I heaved another sigh before moving on.

    "It was when I realized that my former mindset was wrong and decided to change it, that something happened."

    Fay quite obviously tensed up, sensing that I was now approaching the very climax of my story. She even pushed herself off my chest, all for the sake of getting an even better look at my expression.

    "And the moment this realization struck and I made the decision to follow it by changing my ways, a vision of my father came," I spoke out, only to gulp my saliva down when I realized just how little I could remember of that moment. "And that vision came with the gifts. Namely��"

    I took a short pause to calm myself down, squeezing Fay''s breast just a little tighter.

    "Namely, my ability to open the portal to another world and the system that I''ve already brought up."

 Chapter 111: An unlikely idea

    "So is it your father that''s behind all that happened?" Fay asked, leaning her head slightly to the side as a look of confusion appeared on her face. But as she continued to stare right into my eyes, her expression sharpened. "No, I can tell you don''t feel like it''s his doing��"

    Just like she exined before, Fay was capable of using aura to read my desires. And right now, she proved it could be used for more than just figuring out how I wanted to pleasure her or have her pleasure me.

    -chapter

    "We cannot discount this possibility," I admitted while squinting my eyes, taken aback by the possibility that simply hadn''t urred to me before.

    ''And that''s exactly the reason why I''m happy to have her opinion as an outsider of sorts. She can see things I cannot.''

    I took a deep breath and spared Fay''s suggestion some thought. Yet, as tempting as it was to ept everything that happened as some trap of sorts, orchestrated by my father, or whoever that vision actually was, to invite evil from Fay''s world to earth��

    The timing of everything didn''t make much sense.

    "Actually, I don''t think that''s correct. If we assume that this aura has anything to do with what I went through in my life, then my aunt had to get infused with it years before I received those gifts."

    Fay, this time, didn''t even look at my face. Instead, she raised her thumb to her mouth and lowered her eyes to some unspecified bubble floating on the surface of the water.

    "Yeah," she slightly nodded her head, too deep in her thoughts to make any big movements. "Your aunt''s aura�� It was too easy for me to break for how potent it was."

    Fay raised her eyes and looked at my face. "Once again, I''m not an expert, and it''s better to ask my mom, but��"

    I patiently waited for the girl to gather her thoughts.

    "I don''t think it would be that easy if the source of the aura was as powerful. And that makes me believe the source of that aura small, but given enough time and fuel to grow to the power we experienced."

    ''Oh how lovely it is to have someone who actually has some clues on the topic,'' I thought, my soul filling with gratitude.

    Because of how smart I wanted to believe I was, there was no way I would be able to notice this detail myself. Not when my expertise on the aura was limited to how it would grow a point for every level I''ve gained!

    "There is also the possibility��" Fay muttered, sucking on her thumb with an even greater dedication than before. "I mean, it''s just a guess, but��"

    Given how she struggled to even get the sentence out, she didn''t even need to mention she wasn''t sure about its validity.

    "What if that powerful, dark aura I felt around you was some sort of the price you had to pay to gain all those gifts? What if those were not gifts, but someone�� or something bncing the scales?"

    Fay started with one idea, of my system and ability to open portalsing at a cost of infusing me with that dark aura she saw, only to morph it into another idea, where the intense saturation of that dark aura in my soul was what allowed those gifts to manifest.

    And if her second idea were to be correct��

    "I��" I opened up my mouth, only to close them down. "This, I believe, we should consult with your mom," I suggested. "Personally, I think it would be too much of a coincidence if someone was infusing that dark aura on others, only for this dark aura to be the prize of gaining new abilities��"

    ''Unless, someone was trying to push the cost of gaining some strange powers on others, and I just ended up as an unfortunate victim of other victims. Just like kindness births kindness, maybe the vile acts of those infused with this aura led to the very same aura setting root in my misery and then leading to what Fay suggested?''

    Despite how easily I usually could dissect and process all sorts of information, right now, my head was already starting to hurt.

    It felt as if just trying to tackle this topic somehow ced a greater burden on my brain than discussing any other topic, just like studying deep, fundamental paradigms of math would turn my mind into mush while studying the mechanics of some random online game wouldn''t tire me in the slightest.

    "You finally agreed with me on it," Fay spoke, forcing my attention out of my own thoughts, only for the girl to beam a small grin at me.

    "Fay, I''m sorry if I''m annoying, with how I''m doubting everything you say. But that''s the very purpose of this talk, to sh our ideas and hopefully figure out what kind of mess we are in the middle of."

    "Don''t mention it," Fay dismissed my worries as she snuggled up to my chest with a wide smile. "And I don''t find it annoying at all. Rather than that," she raised her chin and looked up to my face while keeping her lovely smile. "I''m happy you decided to confide with me on all of this."

    This time, I didn''t clutch at my heart. My hand was too busy groping Fay''s breast in ce for an anti-stress ball, after all. It was the greatest proof of my growth, of how I managed to handle her adorableness�� No, her lovingness by just taking a deep breath and holding it in.

    "Allow me to confine with you a little more, then," I said as I smiled in response. "Still, given how much more I have to bring up tonight, how about you ask me instead?" I suggested while raising my eyes up to the ceiling as I leaned even further on the edge of the bath.

    Keeping my eyes on Fay''s naked, wet skin covered by nothing but the see-through bubbles for too long was dangerous. We still had quite a few topics to talk through, and if I allowed my gaze to linger on her skin for much further, my mind would be soon filled with nothing but the desire to take her right here and now.

    And to top it all off, I had absolutely no desire to clean the bath from our internal juices. For how fun it appeared to screw while at bath, the aftermath of doing so��

    "I do have some questions if you don''t mind me asking," Fay smiled in response, encouraged by my words. She then shifted her position on my thigh as she sat a bit higher only to then drop back down andy on my chest.

    "That call with Makary��" Fay''s voice grew fainter, more distant while her eyes stubbornly locked on the Vian mirror making up an entire side of the bath, refusing to move even an inch. "I didn''t mean to listen in on this, but you weren''t exactly careful to keep it to yourself��" she quickly added, as if to excuse herself for hearing the words not aimed at her.

    "I thought you would ask why I suddenly came and smashed that pir and the toilet," Iughed a little, quick to pick up on the hints of anxiety in Fay''s disposition.

    If she saw nothing wrong with the question she asked, she wouldn''t keep her eyes so still, after all.

    "That I can�� to a point, guess." This time, Fay didn''t need even a second to reply.

    ''So she doesn''t know the details but figured out the general idea,'' I thought, amazed by how someone from the absolute bottom of civilization could so quickly see through ways and dangers on a modern, extremely technical one.

    "The call with Makary it is, then," I spoke and followed my words with a small sigh. "And as it so happens," I lowered my gaze and braved the beauty of Fay''s exposed skin to look at her face. "It was one of the topics I wanted to bring up anyway."

    Fay''s eyebrows, for some reason, shot up. She even broke the stubbornness of her eyes, raising her chin to look at my face with a stunned�� and strangely agitated expression.

    "I didn''t feel it, though��" she spoke, only to cut her words short as her mouth closed and revealed a small, delighted grin.

    What this grin was all about, Fay didn''t seem ready to reveal yet. So, as the true gentleman I wanted to be for her, I decided not to pursue it.

    There were enough topics for us to talk about, after all. And what would be the point of adding yet another one, as short as it might be, to that list?

 Chapter 112: Bringing a knife to a swordfight

    "So, Makary," I spoke while closing my eyes and immersing myself in the feeling of groping Fay''s breast. Whether I was touching her to feel her up or to just keep my hands busy, her body was simply perfect. And right now, it was the most divine anti-stress ball that I kept molesting, even though I wasn''t all that stressed to begin with.

    "First thing first, to make things clear. What I smashed when I entered the bath were the devices that Makary confessed to installing during our talk. And they were capable of recording the sounds�� and most likely the images within their range."

    Even though Fay pretty much figured it out on her own, I decided it was better to just give it to her straight.

    "Is this rted to this strange box that keeps producing this irritating noise?" Fay asked, proving that she figured out even more from the scraps of information than I already expected.

    "That''s right. It''s supposed to block any kind of device within its range from sending information out," I exined. "But on devices that work through wires rather than sending their recordings through the thin air, it might not work. Hence the reason why I''m using it even though I already destroyed the devices."

    ''And because I can''t really tell whether those two wires that Makary mentioned are the only ones he installed,'' my thoughts turned sour at the mere idea of some device still sneaking peaks on Fay''s glorious body on the voice she would make if we ended up getting frisky.

    But for now, there was hardly anything I could do about it. In the end, I wasn''t arrogant enough to believe I could guess all the espionage tricks Makary men could use when mounting the wires around the house. And while they would be limited by the extremely short time they had to do it, I wasn''t going to outright underestimate their capability.

    "As for the other thing I discussed with him��" I spoke out, only to turn silent as I noticed a certain issue.

    ''How am I supposed to exin to her what long guns are when she doesn''t know the meaning of a gun in general?''

    As much as I admired Fay''s intelligence and ability to figure out things from just a few shreds of info�� The only instance when she could see me using the handgun was back, during the fight in the forest. Back then, I could clearly see she wasn''t in a state to keep a calm look at what was going on around her, not when she was about to be skewered by that bastard''s spear!

    "The topic we discussed was guns and my need for more of them."

    In the end, I followed my decision from before and gave my answer in a straightforward manner, rather than trying to move in circles around it. Whether or not Fay understood the meaning of guns I wasn''t really sure. And if she, in fact, didn''t��

    Well, she could simply ask, then, rather than sitting through a lecture over something she could, in some way or form, already understand.

    "Guns?" As if reading my intentions, Fay raised her eyebrows a little as she once again raised her chin and looked up at my face. "Are those�� those guns the weapons you used back at the forest?"

    ''Am I some kind of prophet? Or do I know her that well already?''

    And so, I slightly nodded my head.

    "The one I used back then is, pretty much, a backup piece, not a proper gun," I spoke, only for my expression to twist a little when I ended up speaking something that would get me bullied by proper experts on the topic.

    For if a pistol wasn''t a proper gun, then what was?

    "I mean, it is, but��"

    "It''s okay," Fay, noticing my struggle, chuckled a little. "Just exin it with your own words. It doesn''t take a genius to figure out it''s not really your field of expertise," she encouraged me, only to turn to my chest, climb up on it a little, and reach out with her mouth�� Only to ster a small, short kiss in the middle of my forehead.

    Then, she lowered herself a tiny bit, bringing our eyes to the same level as she stared right into my soul.

    "Which makes it all the more admirable to know that you are going to such great lengths when ites to those guns. It proves how much you want to be able to protect me."

    Fay spoke her words in a in, steady voice. Yet, the affection exploding in her eyes��

    As if to prove my observation, she chuckled again, only to twist herself around, rest her back against my chest, and then slide down, nestling herself right on top of myp. And as she ground her ass around a little to properly fit herself into my embrace, she reached out with her hands to the sides, grabbed my hands��

    And brought both of them up to her breasts before pressing them down.

    "Now, continue," she whispered once my fingers dug into her flesh, a sense of extreme satisfaction brimming from her entire self.

    And as startled I was by her sudden action and then aroused by having her hips drop down on myp�� I managed to use this unexpected pause to gather my thoughts properly.

    "Let me draw an analogy. You can imagine the handgun you saw me used to be akin to a knife or a dagger. And what I meant by real guns, the ones I tasked Makary with getting for me, is akin to a sword."

    Feeling the warmth of Fay''s flesh I continued to grope away at her heavy breasts, feeling the lightness and softness of her skin as she rested herself on my chest�� At this precise moment, I felt as if I was in the spot that the divine, whatever it actually was, had in mind when creating me.

    I was simply in the most correct ce possible, with Fay''s affection brimming from how she snuggled up to me, how she talked with me, how she threw asional nces at me or again and again proved that it was impossible for me to overestimate her intelligence��

    "Both a dagger and a sword are perfectly fine to be called des," I continued with my exnation. "But both ultimately serve a different purpose. And assuming I knew how to use both, I would much rather bring a sword to a knife fight rather than a dagger to a sword fight."

    I nearly allowed my thoughts to get the better of me, ending my exnation with a silly joke Fay would most likely miss. read first at m,v,l,e,m p _y,r

    "Just like a sword will always reign supreme over a dagger in a proper fight, the same can be said about the proper gun in rtion to a handgun." I sighed. "And again, not to get into specifics that I''m not an expert to speak off, but a proper gun, an automatic rifle for examplees with a much greater range, uracy, and magazine size."

    The points I brought up were exactly the points I was held back by, back during that fight. If I had thirty bullets in the magazine, back then, I might''ve been able to clear out all the enemies all by myself, rather than relying on Fay and Madam to finish off those I failed to kill before losing myself for a moment.

    And maybe, just maybe, with the much greater kick that a rifle offered over a simple pistol, there might not even be a need for me to double-tap every enemy, with how just a single bullet might be able to shatter their shields and then score the kill in one go��

    "You know��" Fay muttered, forcing me to refocus my thoughts from my exnation�� to how her mood visibly worsened. "Back during that call, when you talked with Makary�� You sounded strangely desperate," she mentioned, only to raise her chin and angle her head to get a proper look on my face.

    And strangely enough, only now that she pointed it out, I''ve noticed this myself.

    But this was just the prelude to the actual question that she wanted to ask.

    "Honey, were you desperate during that call because you really feel that unsafe in my world and in the celestial forest?" Fay asked, steeling her face as she locked her eyes on my slightly startled expression. "Do you not trust my mom to protect you?"

 Chapter 113: Does gun triump magic?

    "Do you not trust my mom to protect you?"

    Stay with m _v _l _e _mp _y _r.

    At first, I felt hurt by the question. Not hurt because of how urate it was, but quite the opposite.

    Because this question proved Faypletely missed the point of my worry that pushed me to ask Makary for more potent guns.

    "Back then, I nearly saw you skewered by a spear," I pointed out in a faint voice, feeling agitated and fearful at the mere memory of that moment. "It''s not that I don''t feel safe over there. Honestly speaking, I believe walking around the streets of my shed was more dangerous than anything I''ve encountered back in that forest."

    I sighed before taking some time to grope away at Fay''s tits that somehow were pleasantly heavy to hold yet as soft as a cloud to molest. Yet, rather than doing so for the sake of pleasure, for the first time, I actually hoped to have my hands help me get rid of my uneasiness.

    "I do not fear for myself when I''m back in that forest. But after seeing what I saw��" I shook my head before pushing it forward and hiding my face in the corner between Fay''s shoulder and her neck. "I''m restless because I nearly failed to protect you."

    Back then, were I a second or twote to arrive, were I to waste a second or two hesitating when it came to pulling out my gun or squeezing the trigger��

    And just as my soul rilled up, Fay''s body tensed up, indicating she realized something. Thankfully, from what I could feel, through her aura most likely, rather than getting anxious herself, she somehow found my words�� to her satisfaction.

    "What that fight proved, though, was that as long as the people of your world don''t expect guns and as long as they don''t have some sort of special countermeasures in ce for them, the weapons of this world will remain effective."

    Hiding my face in Fay''s neck, I took a deep breath, getting myself high on the faintly sweet scent of the citrus shampoo covering her skin.

    "I''m not sure how long the guns will remain effective, especially their weaker versions. And rather than hoping for the best��"

    I saw no need to finish my sentence. Contrary to Fay, who was only starting to understand the intricacies of my worries�� I didn''t actually put that much faith in the guns.

    They were my crutch, my ace in the sleeve that had to help me survive and protect Fay for as long as it would take me to master the abilities offered by my system.

    For now, I''ve proved that an unexpected barrage was enough to deal with whatever defenses mercenaries sh adventurers of Fay''s world would put up. But would that still be the case once the world would get out and those potential enemies of mine would figure out new ways to protect themselves?

    A simple handgun already proved not to be as effective as I expected. And the sight of the heads of those attackers exploding under the onught of my bullets was exactly the reason why I didn''t dare to get too arrogant in the presence of Makary''s mean.

    For if those warriors failed to defend themselves against the bullets, how conceited I would have to be to assume I, aplete amateur, would do any better?

    ''In the end, guns growing irrelevant in a fantasy world filled with magic and armor made of some powerful beasts�� might be exclusive to works of fiction,'' I thought, struggling to gripe with the difference between my expectations born from the novel I''ve read and the actual, harsh reality.

    Sadly, the topic of guns had one, extreme simrity to the topic of aura. It was how little we knew about the issue, that made us unable to form any valid opinion on it.

    ''I guess once we get back to Fay''s world, we will have to ask Madam to help us verify some things.''

    If Madam ended up unable to stop a series from a proper rifle, I would feel much more at ease in their world, while inevitably acting with a lot more care on earth. On the other hand, if Madam could simply shrug off the bullets��

    ''Well, there''s no point thinking about it right now. There will be time for it once we learn the truth.''

    I shook my head. Strangely enough, after all that we''ve talked about, it turned somewhat challenging to clear my thoughts and reorient them to the next topic on the agenda.

    "To sum it all up, you want better guns so that you will be able to kill more enemies?" Fay miraculously managed to turn this extremely wide,plex issue with countless caveats and assumptions�� into a single, simplistic statement.

    And what was pretty damn scary, was how urate her sentence was.

    "More of them, faster than before, without the added dy of changing the magazine after only a few shots and at a much greater range than before, if necessary," I replied with hardly any thought.

    And how could I, when her question was so urate? The only thing I could achieve by thinking my answer over and over again�� would be putting it in slightly more pleasant words, for I didn''t even think about lying.

    Not now, not tomorrow, and to the best of my ability, not ever.

    "You don''t strike me as the murderous type, though," Fay pointed out, this time without any attempt at looking up at my face. And from what I could sense, there wasn''t even a single shred of doubt about it in her soul.

    "So��" she let go of my hands that she formerly kept pressed to her chest and brought them up, catching both sides of my head between them before pulling her head as far back as she could to actually take a look at my expression��

    Or rather, to look me deep in the eyes.

    "So, why do you want to be that much more lethal? Do you n to go and murder scores of people?" she asked, a hint of worry shing in her eyes. "You don''t n to massacre the entire kingdom just because some of its people encroach on the forest, do you?"

    Hearing the question, I breathed a sigh of relief.

    "Not at all. That''s not it," I shook my head, eager to calm the anxiety I saw in Fay''s eyes. "But�� I saw it."

    Contrary to how I wanted to talk with Fay, rather than borating on the point I turned silent instead.

    And Fay, most likely sensing the slightly shaken state of my soul, didn''t press me for an exnation. She simply continued to caress my cheeks with her hands while trying to hide the blush from her won cheeks, most likely caused by how long I''d continued to grope away at her chest.

    "I saw the look in yours, in your mom''s and Leinei''s eyes when I mentioned how it might be possible for all of you to escape the forest." After some time, I finally revealed the reason why I was so desperate to grow stronger, even if by external means.

    If Fay wanted to leave the forest, then that''s what I was going to make possible. And while I already learned what was the greatest threat of both of the areas one had to cross to leave the forest�� I couldn''t dismiss the possibility that some dangerous predators lurked in the depths of the starlight in or the misty valley.

    "If we want to cross the misty valley, we need to be prepared for whatever we might end up facing there."

    Hearing my words, Fay turned silent. She then let go of my face and lowered her hands while pushing her head back to a more natural, less straining position.

    "What about the supplies? What about the strange ways space works within the realms of the starlight and the mist illuminated by it?" she asked, clearly trying to quell my desire to cross those areas rather than pointing out the issues we needed to solve to do so.

    Yet, what she most likely expected to be a good killing strike for my ns, only ended up putting a small, smug smile on my face.

    Reinvigorated, I squeezed both of my hands and pushed my chest forth a bit, as if trying to fully envelop Fay''s body with my own flesh.

    "And that brings us to another point, likely, the most important one of them all," I announced before allowing my lips to form the smile that would reflect the amused state of my mind. "It''s time to talk about the changes to my system that I''ve kept on hold ever since I''ve finished my missions."

 Chapter 114: Revealing the system

    "The thing with all the rewards I''ve got from those missions��" the very moment the topic moved on to the most important one, I hesitated.

    Not for any of the reasons why my voice faltered before, though. This time, the issue was far more�� simplistic?

    "What is it?" Fay asked, her curiosity sparked by the mere mention of the system.

    "I mean��" struggling to find the right words to put it, I nced over at the mass of messages that still cluttered the corner of my vision ever since Ipleted those missions.

    And it was all because I couldn''t close even a single one of them, before making a choice described by just a single pop-up window. And up until this moment, I held back on doing so.

    "Honestly, it''s a mess," I finally found the right way to bite this topic. "Like, there''s so much to talk about, I''m not exactly sure where to start."

    read on mvl,em,pyr

    Fay''s body, all tensed up in anticipation of what I was about to reveal�� suddenly all rxed, almost copsing down on myp as the curiosity in the girl''s eyes only increased a the expense of her anxiety.

    "Haaa��" she sighed out loud, momentarily at a loss for what to say. "Then, how about you just do it one by one?" Fay then suggested in a suddenly tired voice. "Starting from the very beginning, please."

    I gave Fay''s boobs onest squeeze before removing my hands from her chest and resting them on the edge of the massive bath.

    ''The water is starting to cool down,'' I noticed, only to shake my head and focus my vision on the system windows. And the very moment an intent to do so appeared in my mind, my perception wavered, only to end up cluttered with the mess that I kept stowed away to the side up until now.

    "Let''s start with the current state of my system, then," I muttered, narrating the exnation to make understanding it easier. "Right now, I''m on a level five. I have maxed out my endurance with ten points in it, I have my aura at six points, my strength at around five, agility and intelligence at a bit above four points, and wisdom at just four points t."

    I took a deep breath�� and revealed the biggest gripe I had with this damned system.

    "What exactly those numbers trante to, I''m not really sure. But I can tell without a shred of doubt that whenever those attributes grew, my performance improved. And by quite a lot, too."

    "Is this how you can keep going for so long while in bed?" Fay asked with a mischievous smile, only to squint her eyes as an intrusive thought invaded her mind. "Ugh, is this question even applicable with how we hardly did it while in bed in the first ce?"

    For a moment, I felt like giving Fay''s side a nudge�� But ultimately, I gave up on doing so.

    We still had a lot to talk so it was better not to risk any excessive physical contact, given how it was already a challenge to keep my thoughts focused due to Fay grinding down with her but directly above my crotch!

    "Beyond the attributes, I have beast and darkness affinity with one point. Then, there''s your mother''s blessing that mostly increased my attributes. Andstly, I have the "Eye of Time" and "Blood tribute" skills."

    "And those are?"

    Besides the usual curiosity, I didn''t see Fay''s body shift suspiciously or feel her aura change in any way. Most likely, she didn''t have any idea what any of the things I brought up were or had any information that would help me figure them out.

    "The first skill, for how fancy its name is, allows me to temporarily raise my intelligence. On the other hand, Blood tribute allows me to use up some of my blood to momentarily free myself from the shackles of time��" I exined in a slightly convoluted matter, allowing the poetic part of my soul to take over.

    "Or, as I saw it, I can pretty much get wounded all over but put the time to a momentary stop and move far faster than I should be able to."

    I breathed out.

    "And that basically wraps up everything about my system�� but from before I''ve finished my missions." My face suddenly tensed up as my eyesnded on the set of missions�� that I was nowhere close topleting. "At least, some of them."

    "Wait, is that why you were injured all over and lost so much blood back then?!" Fay suddenly jumped up and turned on the spot only to drop her hands down on my shoulders and stare right into my face, ignoring how the water and the leftover bubbles no longer hid her nakedness from my eye.

    "Fay��" I raised my hands and grabbed Fay''s, removing them from my shoulders and pulling her forward, forcing the girl to fall right into my embrace. "It was just a bit of blood and pain. But it allowed me to keep those bastards from putting a single scratch on you."

    Freeing one of my hands, I reached out and caressed Fay''s cheek�� Only to see that the visible shock and anger in her eyes didn''t vanish�� but grew stronger instead. And along with them, tears started to well up in the corners of her eyes.

    "Peter��" Fay''s voice grew fainter and colder��

    "Honey," I corrected the girl, quick to figure out the reason behind her anger.

    If I was willing to go through hell and back to keep her from getting even a single scratch, then, given how much affection she showered me with��

    ''She must be feeling the same as I felt back then,'' I realized, quickly lowering my head in apology.

    "Fay, I''m sorry. I never intended to make you worry. I didn''t exactly know what I was doing back then, with how desperate I was to stop them from doing you any harm." I raised my eyes and stared right into Fay''s soul through her pristine, blue pupils. "And I promise not to use those abilities unless necessary, okay?"

    Only with this the rage and pain in Fay''s eyes started to go away, with the girl herself lowering herself back into the water only to straddle me and press herself into my chest. The warmth of her body instantly made my head spin, while the storm of her wet, white hair appeared to cover us like some sort of nket.

    "Well, I guess that was the easy part," I muttered, my attention once again drawn towards all the windows that continued to stubbornly refuse to disappear�� And from the looks of things, the effects described on them wouldn''t activate before I would properly dismiss those windows.

    This was exactly the reason why I didn''t do it so far, given the importance of the one window I had to deal with first.

    "Now then, are you ready for the long, messy,plicated but also pretty promising part?" I asked, reaching out to move the wet hair out of Fay''s forehead.

    "Only if you are ready for the punishment I have in store for you," Fay grumpily replied, squeezing her feet behind my back and locking them, only to ride down on myp and press her crotch as close to my long erect dick as she could.

    "I''ve sinned, so it''s a given," I replied, a small grin forming on my lips in response to just how fucking lovely she was. "But first��"

 Chapter 115: The doubt that holds the rewards back

    "The first of the rewardses frompleting the "Bounties of the Forest" mission. Or, to be more specific, the easiest out of three subquests it consisted of."

    I took a moment to sort out the pop-up windows in my vision, taking the clutter they introduced as a blessing.

    Any sane man in my situation would curse them to hell and back, for those windows now fully covered my vision, blocking my sight of Fay''s beautiful charms��

    But given how it was already a challenge to maintain my focus with Fay straddling me, removing her beauty from before my eyes was actually a blessing. Without them, I would never be able to focus on the topic.

    This was one of the two main reasons why I decided to just ignore the horrendous clutter, simply moving aside the windows that I''d talked about rather than doing the one thing that would allow me to close them.

    And so, I focused on the very first window that I wanted to talk about, given how it was pretty much straightforward.

    [Bounties of the forest: Easy routepleted!]

    [Unlocked: Herbal Scavenger

    - Passive ability

    - Requires focus

    - Allows to identify lower grade of herbs on sight]

    "Let''s start with how I''ve now gained the ability to discern the low-grade herbs from just random weeds. It''s an ability that only requires me to focus andes at rtively no cost."

    With this reward, there was hardly anything worth using my time and attention to exin. It was pretty much as self-exnatory as it was useless given Leinei''s help back in the celestial forest.

    If anything, it was simply a convenience boon, due to how I could simply ask Leinei to teach me a bit about the basic herbs, learning how to notice them even without the help of the system.

    "ording to the order in which the notification appeared, fulfilling that mission brought me over the threshold of experience necessary to level up, resulting in a total of three notifications."

    [Level up!]

    [First milestone achieved!]

    [Unlocking T1 rewards]

    - Can now gain and grow elemental affinities

    - Blessing ofnguage

    - Blessing of growth

    - Blessing of basic knowledge]

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    "First, I''ve leveled up, achieving the fifth level in the process. Secondly, reaching the fifth level apparently is some sort of a milestone for the system, which resulted in the system unlocking the first tier of rewards��"

    Fay shifted on myp, sensing that we were now stepping into the actually interesting part of the topic.

    "Those rewards allow me to grow elemental affinities and include three blessings,nguage, growth, and basic knowledge," I listed out all the information within the pop-up window.

    ''But what is the blessing of growth? Does that mean it will be easier for me to level up? Or maybe I will get more points per level-up? And this blessing of knowledge, how is it any different from wisdom attribute? Perhaps it just adds those virtual points to this attribute? But why can''t I see any further pop-up windows that would exin what those blessings are, exactly?''

    As self-exnatory as the first two bonuses were, the other two were as cryptic as the rest of my system. In other words, it appeared I would have to somehow figure out their uses on the go.

    "Do you know what those blessings mean?" Fay asked, her body slightly tensing up.

    "Honestly, for thetter two, I have no idea," I admitted while shrugging my shoulders�� Only to sense Fay rx her muscles beyond how rxed she was before she tensed up.

    "Those blessings should be something simple," she announced, only for her aura to grow slightly warmer as I sensed she now put a smile on her face. "Given how I spoke to you in thenguage of my world right now."

    This time it was my turn to tense up a bit.

    ''This little��''

    Taken aback by Fay''s small ploy, I ended up shaking my head.

    "That was a good one," I admitted, reaching out to pat her on her back. "I guess there''s a chance I will be able to learn more about those once I let all those benefitse to life," I added, only to move the notification window aside and focus on the next part of the benefits I received.

    [Bounties of the forest: Master routepleted!

    [Unlocking "Friend of the Forest" subroutine

    - Gained skill: Bond of the Forest]

    "The next part is pretty cryptic. It''s a reward forpleting the master route of the "Bounties of the Forest" mission. And to boil it all down, it grants me the skill named "bond of the forest". What this skill does, though, I will only know once I allow all those benefits to take effect."

    Once again, the information I could share was limited by how all those notifications, and thus the benefits they described, were still on hold.

    And that brought me all the way to thest notification, one that allowed me to keep all of the former ones on hold.

    [Bounties of the forest:pleted!

    - Dynamic reward: Allows the creation of an additional, stable portal/Halves the Cooldown of the portal

    - Doubles the benefits of the Celestial blessing

    - Evolves "Herbal Scavenger" into "Herb Seeker"]

    "Before I exin thest of my rewards, I should mention that I''ve alreadypleted the��" I hesitated for a second when I recalled how the system named the route for the "bounties of the forest" which was supposed to be even harder than the master route. "I''ve alreadypleted the hardest route from the mission set. And thisst reward is forpleting the whole mission set."

    Yeah. There was no way I was going to bring up how gaining the blessing of a celestial protector was a "Are you fucking serious?" difficulty.

    "First, this reward doubles the benefits I''ve received from your mother giving me her blessing. It also evolves the very first reward to a higher level�� But for what benefits, I''m not really sure."

    "Honey��" Fay suddenly spoke up, tightening her hold over my shoulder. "Thest part, what is it?"

    I had no intention of hiding the truth from Fay. Just like I decided never to lie to her�� she now proved I wouldn''t be able to do so even if I actually wanted to.

    "Thest part of this final reward gives me a choice between shortening the time we have to wait for the portal to reopen after use�� Or allowing me to create an additional, stable portal."

    This was the reason why all the other notifications I''ve received have yet to activate. But this choice wasn''t as simple nor as easy as it might''ve appeared on a first look.

    It was a reward forpleting a whole set of missions, thus making it pretty valuable. And while I could certainly see the value of cutting the cooldown of the portal in half when it came to the ability to create an additional, stable portal��

    "You are�� full of hesitation," Fay mentioned in a fainter voice, moving her hands down from my shoulders and resting them on my chest instead. "Why?"

    I took a deep breath, ncing at the two possible options before slowly sighing my breath out.

    "I''m hesitating because of how great of a boon it could be to have a portal we could always return to, I''m not really sure how it''s going to work with my ability to open the portals right now."

 Chapter 116: Step-portal, Im stuck! - case

    "So," Fay pressed her hands against y chest, pushing herself away a little. And given the clutter of notification windows still covering my face, I could only feel that she looked right into my eyes rather than actually seeing it. "Isn''t either of those options a good thing?"

    A long sigh escaped from my mouth.

    "In theory, it is. But��" I pressed my lips together, not sure how exactly to bring this point across. "What if something goes wrong?"

    This time, I took a slightly longer pause, trying to organize my thoughts before actually speaking out.

    "I''m not exactly sure how my portals work. Do they allow me to open a portal to the ce where Ist did so? Is a new portal going to establish a connection to yet another world? And if it''s the first case��"

    I shook my head and bit down on my bottom lip.

    "No, let me put it this way. Assuming we are in your world and set the stable portal there. Then, we use the normal portal to go back to where we set the stable one. What would we do if my normal portal would lead us back to where we came from? If it did, how would we ever go back to this world?"

    This question was actually centered on my greatest worry. The worry of losing the only thing that gave me an edge over all the other humans that existed in Fay''s world.

    Even if I would bring over all sorts of guns, ammunition, technology, and supplies�� they were bound to run out sometime in the future. Run out, decay, get lost�� And once that was to happen, how would I be any different from just slightly more powerful people of that world?

    I shook my head, my soul filling with worry.

    "Don''t get me wrong. We would still be able to live happily even while stuck in either of the worlds. But being able to move between them gives us the advantage that I''m not willing to so readily discard. Not yet, at least."

    After revealing at least a portion of how I truly felt, I expect Fay to, as usual,fort me��

    But this time, her reaction was nowhere like what I expected.

    "If you are all that worried about getting a stable portal, why won''t you just pick the shorter recharge time?" she asked, too busy being baffled by what she clearly considered to be a small issue. "What''s the point of worrying that much, if you can just go with the other option that is not as risky?"

    ''Oh, right�� I guess I didn''t stress out my idea from before hard enough,'' I thought, realizing what was the missing element that made Fay''s perspective so much different from mine.

    "Fay, dearest, I will repeat what I said before. I know what I saw when I brought up the topic of leaving the forest. And getting a new portal��"

    I took a deep breath, taking a moment to get myself ready to reveal my grand n.

    "If it works in the way I wish it would, I might be able to bring you, your mom, and even Leinei away from that forest without putting any of you at risk of testing my theory about the starlight ins."

    As sure as I could be I was right about the starlight in serving as a barrier for celestials and the misty valley stopping the divines from leaving�� I wasn''t ready to put Fay''s or even Madam''s health and sanity at risk just to prove it.

    But what if I had a portal that I could freely use to go back to a predetermined spot in the celestial forest?

    "If using that stable portal won''t mess up the usage of the normal portals I can open, I would be able to traverse through the starlight in without a care in the world about its spatial shenanigans.

    Or, in fact, I would actually be able to just create a stable portal in the forest, move through the kingdom of those mercenaries that you guys hate on my own, and then bring you through once I leave it through its other side."

    When it came to the starlight in and how it messed up with space, there was one thing that I was pretty sure about.

    It could stretch out the distance one had to travel to cross it by a lot�� but it couldn''t block one''s pathpletely. After all, if it could actually lock someone in, how could I just waltz out of it as many times as I did?

    "So you are still stuck on this topic��" Fay bit down on her lips. And even with all the clutter of the notification windows blocking my vision, I could tell her expression right now turned tooplex for me to read.

    Fay then shook her head, sending the long streaks of her wet hair into a frenzy.

    "Just do it, then," she encouraged, without even a hint of hesitation in her voice. "The reasons for why you covet the ability to open that stable portal be damned, I can tell that''s the pick you want to make."

    Fay''s voice calmed down, returning to its usual, sweet tone. She even leaned herself forth, resting down on my chest as she wrapped her hands around my neck and gave me a tight hug.

    "Even if it will work in a different way than you expect, we will somehow work it out. And if it''s about me, even if I will end up stuck in this world forever��"

    Rather than finishing up her sentence, Fay simply tightened her hold over my neck, almost pulling my back off the bath''s edge to bring me into a tighter embrace.

    "If you say so��" as hesitant as I was to make this decision�� I actually agreed with Fay on one point.

    The stable portal is the choice I''ve long made, just one my rational side continued to denounce as one that was too risky. But the potential benefits of having a stable anchor in either of the worlds to return to��

    They were far greater than just an ability to move between the worlds more frequently!

    "Here goes nothing, then," I muttered, allowing the immature, gamer-side of my soul to take the reins of my consciousness.

    The side of me that believed that if I could get one stable portal just by reaching the fifth level, then there should be a way to somehow get this or a simr reward again. So, even if I ended up stranded in Fay''s world, all it would take would be a small genocide to return home!

    And with that in mind, I gave my system the mentalmand.

 Chapter 117: Explosive growth

    With a single entalmand, I made my choice and prompted my system to implement all the changes that I kept on hold ever since Ipleted the "Bounties of the Forest" mission set.

    And merely a second toote, I admitted to my own idiocy, as the surge of power in my muscles reminded me of what epting all of those generous benefits means.

    ''Shit!''

    In the moment of desperation, I reached out for the lesser of the two evils and invoked my "Eye of Time", hoping it would be enough.

    Between the rapid growth of my attributes and the activation of the skill, the time appeared to slow down��

    Or rather, my perception of it grew faster, leading to the illusion of time dtion. And in the fraction of a second that it bought me, I did the only thing that I could to save the day.

    Even though artificially raising my intelligence by a whopping three points changed my perception of time a bit, the time I had was the same as before. And my lips would move too slowly to capitalize on this extremely short window of opportunity.

    So, as much as it pained me to do so, I filled my soul with as much fear, repulsion, and desperation as I could in the short time I bought for myself. Then, I forcibly rxed my entire body, daring not to move a single muscle of mine in fear of harm it could potentially bring to the girl who happily and ignorantly straddled me.

    Just like I didn''t have the time to calmly voice my concerns, Fay was too slow to consciously react. Yet, with how she kept reading my aura to make it a bit easier for her to understand my words and general vibe when all my negative emotions struck her, Fay''s body shrugged.

    It was just an extremely tiny motion, one that distanced her upper body by half an inch. But that was the limit of what we could achieve in this fleeting moment that my skill and sound reaction brought us.

    [Blessing of a Celestial Fox] > [Evolved Blessing of a Celestial Fox]

    All attributes +1 > All attributes +2

    Core attributes +1 > Core attributes +2

    Core capacity attributes +1 > Core capacity attributes +2

    Beast Affinity: 1 > Beast Affinity: 2

    [Strenght: 4.98] > [Strenght: 5.98]

    [Agility: 4.25] > [Agility: 5.25]

    [Wisdom: 4] > [Wisdom: 6]

    [Inteligence: 4.25 (7.25)] > [Inteligence: 6.25 (9.25)]

    [Endurance: 10] > [Endurance: 10]+1 Latest updates from m _vlempyr.

    [Aura: 6] > [Aura: 8]

    My attributes exploded under the evolution of the Madam''s blessing.

    In the moment of rity, I noticed how the system actually perceived my core attributes to be mental focused rather than physical ones, despite the former being generally higher than thetter��

    ''Is it because of that boon from the skill?'' I thought, somehow aware that it was the highest non-capacity attribute that decided what was the core of my build.

    And just like I suddenly became aware of that fact, the meaning hidden behind the names of those attributes suddenly shed its disguise and revealed itself to me.

    The strength means the maximum output my body could bring to bear. The agility meant my top speed. The Endurance, the capacity attribute connected to the two, described not only how resilient I was but also how long I could maintain my top strength or top speed.

    The mental attributes were pretty much the same, with the only difference in just how much more versatile aura was whenpared to endurance. And to my delight, those mental attributes�� were just like physical ones - extremely technical.

    My wisdom described the capacity of my brain to store information and the speed at which I could recall it or absorb new knowledge. And if wisdom was akin to the storage of my brain, then intelligence was nothing else but a processor, with this attribute measuring just how quickly I could process the information.

    Lastly, there was aura. And while I was nowhere near understanding its deep intricacies�� To what I suddenly grew to understand, it was the outwards projection of my mental state, given form and purpose by�� By something that the blessing of knowledge wasn''t generous enough to make me aware of.

    ''So this is the blessing of knowledge,'' I thought, still maintaining my "eye of time" skill in hopes of slowing my perception of time down and thus making it slightly easier to keep my body as still as possible.

    I already knew what it meant to go through a process of such explosive, rapid growth. And right now, for at least a few more moments, I wouldn''t be able to control my newfound strength.

    A mere momentter, my skill copsed, whatever fueled it finally running dry. And with my perception thrown right back to its more natural state, I could see the added number to the side of my intelligence vanish without a trace.

    "Haaaa��."

    "WHA��?!

    I heaved a deep, long sigh right as Fay jerked back, shocked by the sudden wave of my fake, negative feelings.

    "Move��" I uttered just a single word, my fake emotions dying out momentarily, reced with just the honest fear and anxiety.

    "Hon��?" shocked by what she felt through our bond, Fay sought an answer from my face��

    But with my attributes settling down, my system continued to implement the remaining changes to its structure.

    [Implementing Skill Tracker]

    [Adding "Bond of the Forest" skill

    - Allows the creation of a bond with [1] creature born of Celestial/Divine bloodline.

    - Host and the bonded creature can share their attributes (lent/borrowed attributes apply as virtual attributes

    - Host can summon the bonded creature to their side once every [24h]

    - Host and summoned creature are now aware of each other attributes]

    [Adding "Herb Seeker" title

    - Passive ability:

    - - Requires focus

    - - Allows the automatic identification of lower and middle-grade herbs on sight

    - - Raises the potency of the herbs harvested/grown by the user

    - Active ability: "Greater than the sum of its parts"

    - - Earth and Water Affinity skill

    - - When invoked, improves the effects of the concoctions made with herbs

    - - Cooldown: 2/day

    - - Limit: 5/day]

    "Haaa��. Haaa�� haaa��" I breathed out, only for my sighs to turn into a silent, stifled chuckle.

    "Honey?" Fay called out to me, perfectly aware that something was wrong and thus refusing to move a single inch. But while she managed to pull her body away a bit�� she was still sitting down on myp, mere inches away.

    Thankfully, the surge of power from my growing attributessted only a short moment, with my body quickly catching up with its newly found strength and speed.

    "Sorry for that," I spoke once I felt I could somewhat control myself.

    Still, daring not to just assume the best-case scenario, I slowly swung my hand away from the girl, testing whether my intended speed matched my perception of it and its actual, objective momentum.

    ''Uff,'' I finally allowed myself to breathe a sigh of relief once I confirmed I was now back in control over my flesh.

    "Honey, what''s happening?" Still startled by the sudden wave of emotions I mmed her with and my strange behavior, Fay looked down on me with worry overflowing from her faintly-blue eyes.

    "Dear, I''m sorry," I apologized again. Only now I''ve allowed myself to lower my head in an apology while reaching out to gently, gently bring Fay''s upper body back into my embrace. "I''ve forgotten about the surge of power that happens whenever I raise my attributes. And now that I''ve finally epted the rewards, I grew quite a bit stronger."

    Fay squinted her eyes. Not with hostility or anger, but as she took a second to piece everything together. Then, she looked up and once again gazed straight into my eyes.

    "So this twist of your aura I felt��?"

    With the growth of my own aura, I could now much better discern how the girl felt. Rather than a mere feeling of what could be going through her head, I was now vaguely aware of it instead.

    And so, there was absolutely no need for her to even finish this sentence.

    "It was my desperate attempt at forcing you to get away, so I wouldn''t identally hurt you," I exined, before bowing my head again. "Still, that had to be an awful experience, I''m sorry."

    I lowered my head for the third time�� Only to have Fay sneak her slim hand up and prompt my lowered chin up with her delicate fingers.

    "You did it because you were worried about me, so stop apologizing," she ordered, internalizing and processing my exnation in a single instant. "More importantly, though," she swiftly changed the topic, eager to dismiss my sense of guilt, "what about that portal you were worried about?"

    Reminded by her words, I looked at my system again. And as Fay suggested, there it was; a single, shing window that reced all the clutter from before.

    [Stable portals avaible: 1]

    [Please, pick the entry and the exit points]

    The system didn''t exin how to do it. And quite frankly, it didn''t have to. Just like with the understanding of what my attributes entailed, the blessing of knowledge infused my brain with the step-by-step walk-through of the process.

    "It''s okay," I muttered, slightly overwhelmed by both the information etched by the system into my mind and the information I could derive from the shing notification window. "Actually, things ended up quite a lot better than I expected."

    An entry and an exit point. Points that I would set by simply walking through the portal as usual. And points that would be essible only to those whom I desired to share the ability to move between the world with.

    Or, in other words��

    A jackpot.

 Chapter 118: Race: Ascended

    "And by better, you mean��?"

    It took me a moment to realize that contrary to me, Fay couldn''t really see the content of the notification window. A moment�� and her gentle reminder of the fact.

    "It turns out the portals we use normally and that stable one I can now open are indeed rted," I intentionally started with words that albeit correct, painted an extremely wrong picture. After waiting for but a second, I allowed a small, mischievous smirk to appear on my lips.

    "As in, when we use the portal as usual the next time, it will mark the spot for where the stable one will be established."

    Fay''s face rxed, her expression softened.

    "So, no risk of getting stuck in either of them?" she asked, just to be sure, in a slightly fainter voice than before.

    "That''s right," I nodded my head. "From my understanding, when we go to your world, the ce we use the portal from will mark the entry point in my world. And when we go back, the reverse will happen for the exit point. And what''s even more important, we won''t have to worry about anyone discovering them, as I need to wish for someone to be able to use the portal in order for them to even see it."

    Fay''s shoulders dropped down a little before the girl rested down on my chest and fully rxed.

    "So, all the worries are out of the bag and we can just rx and enjoy ourselves?" she asked, hiding her face by pressing it against my chest.

    Finally free from thepulsion of holding myself back, I wrapped my hands around the girl''s waist. Then, by pushing my back against the edge of the bath I was resting again, I moved both of us forth.

    For a second, we bnced on just my two legs in quite the awkward squatted position in the water. This moment didn''tst long, though, as my feet soon found the right grip, allowing me to raise up, pulling Fay out of the water��

    Only to turn around and bring her towards the less inclined side of the bath, where I rested her down on its edge.

    I unlocked my hands from behind Fay''s back, sliding them across Fay''s delicate skin all the way to a point where I grasped her at her waist. And before I could say even a single word, Fay already pushed her knees outwards, opening her legs to the sides and inviting me closer to her.

    At this point, there was absolutely no need for words between us. And as I pressed forward, we could finally take our sweet, sweet time to dpress.

    *****

    "I thought you didn''t want me to keep youpany while visiting Makary," Fay pointed out as wezily gathered ourselves to leave for the bar. "Did something change?"

    There was no suspicion or usation in her voice, just curiosity. She kept her focus on putting her clothes on, hardly even sparring me a nce as she asked.

    "Yeah," I nodded my head while pulling on my own pants. "Before they didn''t know about you, so I didn''t want to change that. But now that they do��"

    In nothing but my pants, I turned around and took a close, intense look at the half-dressed girl.

    After spending some time on earth already, she has moved from just the simplest sweatpants and hoodie to a bit nicer clothes, but ones that still effectively hid most of the charms that I put a im on. And most importantly, as I could see right before my eyes, she finally epted the idea of using underwear!

    ''Calm down, there will be time for thatter,'' I told myself while forcing my eyes away from Fay''s curves, perfectly ented by the expensive lingerie I bought for her.

    Strangely enough, now that I saw and mapped every tiniest detail of her beauty in my mind, having her charms just barely covered only served to make her even sexier than before.

    "But right now, I''m not going to leave you alone. Not only because it makes me feel lonely, not only because I don''t want you to feel lonely yourself��"

    I took a step closer and opened my arms, only to sneak them around Fay''s waist before sliding my hands down her back and on her ass.

    "But most of all, I fully acknowledge how your beauty overshadows even the prettiest girls I saw in this world. And with the nationalwork still working, that meansparing you not to just the few girls I could witness personally, but the very top-notch beauties of the entire world."

    My fingers dug into the soft flesh of Fay''s ass as if I wanted to grab her and then steal her away.

    "And I''m not going to risk anyone trying to kidnap or hurt you while I''m away," I whispered while leaning over Fay''s ear.

    "Oh, you��" Fay whispered back, wrapping her own hands around my back before climbing on her tiptoes to reach with her lips for my ear. "But you know, I''m not all that weak myself!"

    Hearing Fay''s words, I somehow managed to pull away and give her a doubting look. And I wasn''t just trying to gaslight her out of my personal worry.

    As anyone with even a shred of brain would expect, by the time we were done with the first few rounds yesterday, I introduced the meaning of the "Bond of the Forest" skill to her. And it went without a question that Fay was the first and essentially the only candidate that could ever fill that spot.

    And that''s why, while I gave Fay a slightly doubtful look, I also stole a quick nce at her attributes.

    [Fay Von Ziaq]

    [Level: 23]

    [Race: Celestial bastard]

    [Strenght: 4.2]

    [Agility: 6.5]

    [Wisdom: 5]

    [Inteligence: 7.8]

    [Endurance: 3.6]

    [Aura: 16]

    Strangely enough, her level didn''t match the sum of her attributes in the slightest. Furthermore, it mismatched my understanding of how people grew in the opposite way to what I could rationalize.

    your m,vle mpyr source

    I could understand it if her stats were higher than her level would suggest. Judging from my own stats from back when I''ve just received my system, one could be even weaker than their level suggested!

    But contrary to what I expected to see when I first saw and got shocked by her high level, Fay''s attributes appeared to be��cking?

    "Oh?" Fay''s voice suddenly gained some tones of mischief, the hint of yfulness I''d heard so much just a few hours prior while we continued to go at itte into the night. "Do you want to see my true form?" she asked with a lovely, slightly smuggish smile lingering in the corner of her lips.

    "Your true form?" as cringeworthy as it felt to repeat someone''s words right after they spoke them, I was too taken aback by the sudden question to reply in a more refined, smarter way.

    In fact, it wasn''t even Fay''s question, but the meaning it indicated that got me so shocked.

    "I mean, sure?"

    Fay''s smile only grew. Before I could utter another word, bright, white sparks started to jump all over her nearly naked body, threatening to set her expensive lingerie on fire while gently caressing my own skin.

    Poof!

    In a strange series of events, an invisible lighting appeared to strike down through the upper floor of the penthouse right where Fay''s stood. For but a second, my vision faltered��

    Only for my breath to get stuck in my throat when not only did Fay''s attributes change, but so did her appearance.

    Fay''s main, distinguishing features were still there. Her long, white hair continued to dance with every move, every twitch of her body. Her curves appeared to grow somewhat even fuller, denying the limits of beauty my silly brain believed to exist. But the most noticeable change��

    Was how she now had an additional pair of white, furry, fox-like ears growing out from the top of her head while the back of her hips swung along with the happy sways of her sizeable tail.

    ''A freaking fox-girl,'' I thought, strapped for breath and words while sensing my exhaustion from our nightly activities wash away with the addition of just those two, adorable details.

    But as I looked at Fay''s attributes again, I suddenly grew still.

    [Fay Von Ziaq]

    [Level: 23]

    [Race: Ascended]

    [Strenght: 18]

    [Agility: 22]

    [Wisdom: 9]

    [Inteligence: 26]

    [Endurance: 17]

    [Aura: ???]

    ///Check the author''s notes!!!///

 Chapter 119: Questions and doubts

    At this point, I felt as if it was a curse.

    A curse that made it so whenever I learned something new, it would only serve even more unanswerable questions on my te.

    This time, it was my bond with Fay that provided me with a whole load of new information at the expense of proving that even the things I took for granted were not as set in stone as I expected them to be.

    ''So it''s actually possible for one''s attributes to reach beyond ten,'' I thought while trying not to pay much mind to Fay skipping around with an extremely satisfied and amused expression. ''But before her transformation, only Fay''s aura breaks past ten points. And I already know it slightly different than all the other stats��''

    I shook my head. Read today on m-vle-mp _yr.

    ''Maybe the upper limit one''s attributes can reach is rted to one''s race? And it''s change to Fay''s race that allows her to ovee her current limits?''

    So many questions, so little answers.

    This swarm of unknowns suddenly felt ironic, given how I''d just received a blessing of knowledge!

    "Hon!" Fay called out only to jump at me from behind, wrap her hands across my chest, and hang down on me.

    "Yes, dear?" I asked, realizing I could no longer ignore the great mood that she was in ever since she learned how much stronger she was than me.

    "Fay will keep you safe, so you don''t need to worry all that much!" she whispered straight to my ear, only for the intensity of her proud, nearly smug smile to explode.

    "��" Honestly speaking, I wasn''t sure how I was supposed to reply to this.

    Thank her for her dedication? Roll my eyes and move on?

    In the end, I simply raised my hand and covered Fay''s fingers with it, pressing them tighter to my chest.

    "Thank you. But you know, I always wanted to be the one protecting you."

    If I didn''t know what to say, then my best bet was to just be honest.

    "I don''t mean to dismiss you, I''m extremely happy to know how happy you are willing to use your strength to help me out�� But I just can''t help but feel conflicted about it."

    Maybe it was the naive understanding of masculinity, something that I had to ovee on my path to bing a properly socialized person. Or maybe�� Or maybe I felt conflicted because I just lost one of the only two advantages I had that made me feel at least remotely worthy of keeping Fay by my side.

    As we were right now, I could no longer im I was keeping her safe, be it from the threats back in her world or the dangers of modern civilization. And with how we only had that miraculous herb from Fay''s world to thank for our current, financial situation�� What else was there that I could im I did for her?

    "Hon is worrying about something stupid again��" Fayined in a faint voice, most likely growing mindful of the onlookers who grew increasingly annoyed by our public disy of happiness and affection.

    We were out in the open, casually making our way back to Makary-controllednd where he was supposed to provide me with some guns. But with how we moved to a slightly nicer part of the town, this trek now turned from a mere few minutes of walk into a serious, half-an-hour-long journey.

    "It''s just the usual," I admitted with a sigh while pressing Fay''s hands even tighter to my chest. "I''m worrying more and more over how little I''m doing to earn this devotion of yours."

    I shook my head before letting go of Fay''s hands, allowing her to unlock them and slide out of my back. Before I could even say another word, though, she already run up to my side only to wrap her arm around my hand and press herself to my side.

    "I''m worrying over how little I bring to the table. And maybe��"

    I cut my sentence before I could voice out the risky thought that appeared in my mind.

    ''Maybe that''s why I''m so driven to cross the starlight in. For if it would allow me to let them leave that celestial forest, I could regain some self-worth��''

    "You are worrying about stupid things again, hon," Fay repeated her words from just before, reaching down my arm with her hand only to interlock her slim fingers with mine. "I didn''t be your mate because of the benefits you could offer me," her tone changed to a serious one. "I''m with you for who you are, not for what I can get out of our rtionship."

    I took a deep breath and held myself back from sighing heavily.

    ''Oh how easy it is to say this,'' I thought, suddenly realizing the trouble of being with someone out of one''s league.

    The problem with Fay was�� that she was too ideal. Too beautiful, cheerful, energetic, submissive, intelligent, devoted��

    She was the picture-perfect woman that all the men in the world could only dream about. And by some chance, she ended up bing my mate for life.

    Just how conceited I would have to be not to worry about whether I was worthy of her or not? It was this kind of worry that served as my fuel to grow and��

    Suddenly, even my thoughts stopped.

    ''This desire to be worthy of her is what drives me to grow and be better,'' I thought, pressing my lips into a thin line when I noticed how myte mom''sst words came back to me in this unexpected way.

    "This world really is wrong��" Fay suddenly whispered, lowering her voice so as to not attract even more jealous and outright hostile looks from the onlookers.

    We were about to step into thends under Makary''s rule, and people were growing more and more open with their feelings towards a happy and clearly well-off couple.

    "What do you mean?" I asked, puzzled by Fay''s sudden statement.

    In response, she tightened her hold over my hand and shook her head.

    "This world has to be wrong, for it to poison you into thinking just being a kind, honest, and earnest person isn''t enough," Fay muttered as she lowered her eyes. "Tell me," she raised her chin back up and threw a sideways nce at my face. "Back when you fed me for the first time, were you hoping for me to do something for you in return?"

    Still in the flow of my negative thoughts, I quickly found the answer.

    "I''m not going to lie here, I had some designs of getting to pet you��"

    Fay missed a step, momentarily pulling on my hand to regain her pace.

    "So you were kind to a random animal in hopes of ying with it for a bit," she muttered only to then roll her eyes. "You were kind just so you could be even kinder��"

    Fay shook her head again, only to let go of my hand, rush forth a few paces, and then turn around. And right on the border between the government-controlled part of the town and the zone of Makary''s influence, she reached out and caught my face between her hands.

    Normally, this kind of hold would only be an invitation for a kiss�� But not this time. This time, Fay indeed leaned forward but opted to rest her forehead against mine instead. And with only an inch separating our faces��

    "You are enough," she whispered, her warm breath hitting my face and filling my nose. "You are my mate. Not because I hoped to gain something from you, but simply because I grew to like you."

    With our faces already that close, Fay simply leaned the bottom of her face forth and graced my lips with a gentle peck.

    "So, don''t be a dummy and never doubt yourself again. For if when you start thinking if you are worthy of me, it inevitably makes me question whether I''m even worthy of you."

 Chapter 120: Trouble at the bar

    .

    ''This is rather�� unexpected,'' I thought when we finally reached the general surroundings of Makary''s headquarters.

    To the best of my knowledge, it was still the same adult bar that I''d meet him at for the very first time. Yet, even though it was rtively early in the morning, the worst time for this kind of business��

    The bar was actually swarmed by people.

    ''Danger?'' I thought, tensing up a little and squeezing Fay''s hand.

    Given all the unknown factors of my situation, I dared not to assume Makary would always act rationally. We still didn''t know the effects of that awful aura on people, so if whoever was behind it were to affect Makary with it��

    "Here he is!" one of the men I vaguely recognized as one of the thugs that apanied Makary to his visit at my shed pointed out his hand towards me.

    ''Danger!'' my instincts screamed out. By my side, Fay gritted her teeth while sensing the change in my emotions, ready to transform��

    "Thank God you are alright!" the same man who pointed me out was now rushing towards me with a look of immense relief on his face. "Why didn''t you pick up the call?! Makary nearly lost his mind! He was about to send us knocking all over the city to find you!"

    ''Wait, what?''

    Baffled by the sudden usation and story behind it, I took a step back.

    ''A trap?'' I thought, preparing myself for the enemy assault�� or rather, to jump back and run the moment it would begin.

    I''ve already seen what a simple hand-gun could do to people with an average of attributes actually higher than my own. And I dared not to test whether my maxed-out endurance would triumph against a bullet shot from a high-powered rifle!

    The rushing man came to a stop merely two meters away, most likely noticing the look of extreme wariness on my face.

    "Why didn''t you answer your damn phone?!" he screamed out, as agitated as a man could be.

    "Because I didn''t get any calls?" I replied in a slightly shaken voice, reaching out to my pocket and pulling out the phone to prove my words��

    Yet, when I lowered my eyes to its screen�� there was a list of seven calls, five from Makary''s number I knew about and two more from the number I didn''t recognize.

    "Ugh�� I guess I put it on silent and forgot to check it?" I attempted to exin myself somehow�� While finally starting to believe that the current mess wasn''t a set-up but a result of Makary''s legitimate worry.

    And knowing the value my herbs had in this world, I couldn''t really me him. Not when he was likely to slowly start sharing the news with his colleagues that could help him get the most out of what this herb was worth.

    For a moment, I could stare at what had to be the look of perfect disbelief. Then, Makary''s soldier heaved a deep sigh before turning around and waving his hand to the crowd gathered outside of the pub.

    "It''s a good thing nothing happened to you, but please, next time, make sure to pick up the phone," the soldier requested before sighing again and leading me and Fay toward the pub.

    "Will do. I''m sorry, it''s been a while since Ist used a new model of a phone so I''m not really used to its default settings yet," I gave out a poor excuse, before directing my thoughts and attention to the topic that actually interested me. "As for what I requested, is everything prepared?"

    The soldier looked over his shoulder and then shook his head.

    "Not here. But that request of yours is one of the reasons why the boss freaked out so much."

    I didn''t get a single word of further exnation, forcing me to try to piece the puzzle together.

    Yesterday, I requested Makary to organize a few proper guns for me while making a huge point of not wanting to be seen or heard while in the privacy of my phone. And the very morning next day, he suddenly couldn''t reach me.

    Why did he call me, didn''t really matter. Maybe he wanted to ask when to expect me, or maybe he wanted to know what exact guns he should put on disy. But once he couldn''t reach me��

    ''He started to ask himself, why would I need those guns for.''

    I took a deep breath before slowly, slowly breathing it out. Thankfully, no one else came to bother us, proving that having one of them as a guide was the right choice. And with no further obstacles, we made our way inside the bar and then through the familiar corridor, all the way to Makary''s personal office.

    "So you are safe��" Makary muttered once we stepped inside as he gave me a short but intense look.

    ''He really was stressed out��''

    Makary''s face was exactly as stoic as usual. There was no hint of anxiety or anger in it�� And yet, I could somehow tell that it was merely a front, a facade he was showing to the outside world.

    ''So this use of the aura isn''t limited to Fay and Fay alone,'' I took note of the fact before letting go of Fay''s hand and taking a step forward.

    "Yeah, I''m safe. I had my phone on silent and simply didn''t notice your calls," I spoke the truth only to lean my head to the side and squint my eyes a little. "The question is, what was so important for you to call me so many times?"

    For the first time, I saw Makary''s face change. It was only a small movement of his eyebrow moving up�� but it was something nheless.

    "At first, I called you to inform you that everything''s ready," Makary spoke after a short moment. "I then tried again some timeter and again. And by the time you didn''t answer a total of seven calls, I called up my men to mount up a rescue."

    So, just like I thought, this man was fully aware of the value behind this herb of mine. What I didn''t know before, though, was the extent of that herb''s value. And given how he was willing to mobilize his men and potentially get some bad blood with the cops of the area I was now living in��

    A small smile crept up on my lips.

    "It was a small mistake, a silly misunderstanding born fromck ofmunication," I summed the situation up before shaking my head and resting my hands on my hips. "So how about we just let the past stay in the past and move on to the actual topic?" I asked, keeping my hands on my hips as I took a look around the room. "Where are my weapons?"

 Chapter 121: Underground treasure trove

    "Where are my weapons?"

    I looked around the room as if trying to find where Makary hid the guns I requested over the phone a mere fewteen hours ago.

    "Weapons, right��" the man muttered, his eyes dancing around for a second before regaining their usual, cold focus. "Not here. Even I''m not that influential to keep proper guns out in the open. "

    Makary stood up from his usual spot behind the mahogany desk and got closer. Yet, rather than offering a handshake, he simply passed by and left the room while waving at us to follow him.

    Having no better option but to silently follow the man, I grabbed Fay''s hand and threw a sweeping nce as if to warn all the men nearby to stop looking at her before letting Makary guide my steps.

    Soon, we dived deep into the underbelly of the club. And when we started to go down the stairs, move all the way down the corridor only to then move down again��

    I started to suspect that whatever sat below the club was nothing like anyone could expect just by looking at it from the outside. And when the massive, bunker gates took ce of the doors, my budging suspicions found their confirmation.

    "Do I need to stress out how the truth of this ce is not to leave this room?" Makary asked in a low, guttural voice once we reached the bottommost floor of the club, or rather, the uppermost floor of the massive, underground nuclear shelter.

    One of the kind that the existence of wasn''t announced to the public, given the quality of the finishing touches inside. If not for some of the pre-war marks made with already decaying paint, the actual purpose of this underground area could have eluded me for a little bit longer.

    And it was because��

    ''It doesn''t look like a bunker at all. More like one of those secret bases that those so-called freaky preppers loved to splurge on,'' I thought, answering Makary''s rhetorical question with a simple nod.

    Still, there was no real reason to bring us all the way down to the bunker if it was only about giving me the weapons I asked for. I had no doubt that he was ever found out to possess the proper ones, even his current, lofty position wouldn''t keep him from serious trouble��

    But what was the difference between keeping those weapons on one of the underground floors and all the way down in the bunker? Either way, the police were extremely unlikely to get there!

    No.

    ''He didn''t bring me here because he was worried about moving those weapons. I will need a way to move them to my house anyway and he won''t let me just happily and naively carry them and take a stroll through the city''s streets.''

    I took a deep breath.

    ''He brought me here as a show of trust.''

    It was hard to tell whether this reasoning was so obvious even someone like me,cking the social experience to see through this kind of ploy, could notice it�� Or if it was my now-raised intelligence allowing me to quickly process much more information.

    Just like inputers, even if a personal one was designed for gaming, with a processor powerful enough, it could very well serve as a workstation for other purposes. Simrly, even though Icked quite a lot when it came to interacting with others, now that my intelligence had grown beyond a certain level, I could still process certain hints and clues to figure out the meaning behind them.

    "Here they are," Makary forced me out of my line of thought when he finally stopped in front of a massive, armored cab and grabbed its handle before pulling its thick, fully metal doors open.

    ''Oh��''

    For a moment, my brain ceased to operate.

    When I asked for guns, that''s exactly what I meant. A rifle for some medium-distance shots, maybe an assault rifle if the fight were to start at a closer distance. Worst case scenario, a shotgun or an automatic pistol to spray and pray the enemies at a range I hoped never to let them into.

    Or, in other, simpler words, the guns from the era before most of the world went to shit.

    But that wasn''t the content of the cabin whatsoever.

    "Are those��?" I slowly raised my eyes and looked at Makary''s still, calm face. At the same time, my hand tightened over Fay''s fingers, right as she, sensing my shock, pulled closer to my side and squinted her eyes.

    "The void war equipment, yes," Makary confirmed my guess in a faint voice. "The upper-tier weapons developed for the war to end all wars that lost their purpose when such war never came to be."

    Even though I wasn''t really into the recent history stuff, I wasn''t that far removed from the general flow of information not to know about this disastrous void war�� Or a war that happened only in the heads of those tasked with preparing weapons for it.

    It was pretty much a Cold War two-point-zero�� but one that spanned a much shorter time and became a concept during the rise of the rtively small-scale conflicts.

    From the undered war in eastern Europe, through the double genocide of the Near East, all the way through the boiling pot of Balkans and settling the score in the far-east. All those conflicts gave rise to the worry that they were but the prelude, the opening act of the third world war.

    And with the perspective of another conflict that would shake and then shape the whole world, technology, especially the military one, went on the rise. Yet, when the copse of the global market resulted in the biggest economic meltdown in human history, everyone suddenly found themselves too poor to endorse the idea of any external conflict.

    Then, the wave of pretty much worldwide internal conflicts sealed the deal, pushing everyone''s wallets even further down the path of oblivion, turning all the wonder weapons created in preparation for the Third World War into a bunch of obsolete and unnecessary junk. Garbage is too expensive for anyone to upkeep.

    And also wonder weapons, the pinnacle of personal armament operating just below the principle of going nuclear on everyone and everything around.

    "Just how much are those worth today?" I muttered under my nose, shocked beyond belief.

    Because as unlikely as it was, I had a full cab choke-full of those right before my eyes, and all ripe for taking.

    So, I shook my head and chased away my shocked amazement.

    m|vle mp _yr novel source

    "Are they even usable?"

    Raising my eyes on Makary, I saw what had to be the first, open hint of a smile.

    "Still fabrically sealed. We''ve discovered quite a few��" he hung his voice in the air to dry for a moment. "Quite a few other artifacts of the past��"

    Just like showing me this bunker was a gesture of trust, this right now, was a bid in the new round of negotiations that started when he opened up this locker.

    "What about ammo?" I asked, trying my best not to reveal just how impressed I was by this power move.

    "I have enough," Makary replied shortly, only to grab the edge of the cab doors and turn to directly face me.

    He didn''t close it�� but once again, for how small a hint it was, its meaning was obvious.

    No matter how valuable my miracle herb was�� It paled inparison to the worth of those weapons. And the implications of finding them in this particr bunker, which brought along the promise of what other wonders could be inconspicuously hidden at the outskirts of the town.

    "The first time we negotiated, I suggested for you to invest in my case," I spoke out, a wide smile growing on my face. "And I believe this investment paid out nicely thus far, didn''t it?"

 Chapter 122: Makary, Ive come to bargain!

    "Payout nicely it did," Makary agreed with just a short few words and a nod of his head.

    Yet, quite noticeably, he didn''t do anything to keep the topic going, clearly expecting to hear something else.

    This is exactly why I crossed my arms on my chest and simply looked back at him with a leisurely smile.

    Because of how great it would be to gain ess to the top-tier military technology of the modern world�� For all intents and purposes, wielding them would be nothing short of an overkill.

    m|vl|e|mp|y|r article

    ''If two shots from a handgun are enough to kill people at seven points average in their attributes, two shots from a high-powered rifle should do the job if I ever came to deal with people even stronger than those invaders.''

    I wanted those weapons. There was no hint of doubt in my heart about it. But no matter how much I spun the situation, this desire of mine was merely an interest in weaponry that hardly had any literature to read about. An interest that a kid would exhibit when spotting a toy it fancied, not a dire strategical need that I had to do everything to obtain.

    And for this very reason, I could stand down and smile, waiting for Makary to make the move. For the moment he implied the prize for those guns, I would gain the advantage in our deal.

    "Each of those guns is equal in worth to the ownership of that penthouse I''m renting for you," Makary pointed out, ying one of the few cards he had in this game of exchanging worth.

    One card less for him to y once either of us would actually name our prizes.

    "I was under the impression that house was pretty much mine to do whatever I wanted to do with it," I countered.

    After all, neither of us ever specified whether that penthouse andck of limits on my spending card within reason�� were something I''d received permanently or only for the duration of our cooperation.

    Normally, Makary would have a pretty easy time arguing his way out of this deal, iming he never stated the penthouse was strictly mine�� But doing so right now would be proof of bad faith. By simply relenting on that point, I would gain leverage in our new deal which already had its bar set far, far higher.

    "Fifty kilos within a month," the man finally relented, naming his price. "And that''s for one gun. The basic kit goes for ten kilos each."

    The corner of my mouth trembled a little.

    ''So, the real price is about a hundred kilos per gun, huh?''

    Even if I only had rough numbers and guesses to work with�� It wasn''t hard at all to calcte the mary worth of what Makary proposed.

    A hundred kilos for a gun with a set of maintenance kits, recement parts, and ammunition that wouldn''t run dry after a single skirmish. And with how a single tea took about three grams worth of fresh leaves of the herb��

    ''Thirty-three thousand, three-hundred doses, roughly,'' I quickly did the math. ''Assuming two hundred bucks per tea��''

    I shook my head.

    The numbers that I came up with, while extremely conservative, were already mind-boggling, nearing seven million bucks.

    Which equaled roughly twice what I expected my penthouse to be worth in cash. And that was for a single gun with all the additional stuff necessary to make proper use of it. And tripling that for three guns, maybe quadrupling if I wanted to get one for Fay too��

    I shook my head, taking a moment to internalize the magnitude of the money that was on the table.

    And with that perspective in mind, the allure of those toys suddenly turned strangely bleak.

    "Do you think I''m bad with numbers or something?" I asked, unwilling to let Makary take such a massive advantage of me. Because as easy as it sounded to go and gather a few hundred kilos worth of a worthless herb that grew in every corner of the celestial forest��

    If I actually tried to do so, I was bound to attract the attention of other celestial and divine protectors! There was simply no way I could gather that much of this simple weed from the areas that Madam and Leinei controlled. And if I dared to venture further into the forest in search of this weed, then regardless of how worthless it would be to the divine and celestial protectors of the forest��

    Well, I would be bound to attract their attention. And after what I''ve learned about Fay''s lineage, this didn''t strike me as the best of ideas.

    "A hundred kilos of that herb for each of those guns with five kits of maintenance and ammunition," Makary repeated his offer from just before. "Or, I can exchange ten kilos for a living sample of that herb," he then added after taking a short pause, finally revealing what he really wanted.

    ''That would be far easier. Bringing over thirty living samples of the herb was manageable�� but as easy as it would be, it also meant putting a definitive end to any kind of business done through that herb. Maybe in just a week, maybe as far into the future as a year or five��

    But with living samples, Makary was bound to either figure out what made this herb so special, how to replicate it, or at the very least, how to grow the small samples into bushes. And once any of those things would happen, his need for my help would instantly disappear��

    "That''s a lot more reasonable offer," I finally spoke out, finally ready to bring down the wrath of my own cards that I meticulously kept close to my chest all this time.

    "Three hundred kilos total, with each living sample of the herb exchangeable for fifteen kilos," I cut my sentence in its very middle. My eyes moved up, drilling deep into Makary''s skull as if I wanted to lobotomize him with my re.

    "And fifty kilos of that herb''s worth for one kilo of one that''s actually a herb rather than a weed growing out in the extreme, but still wilderness."

 Chapter 123: Soldiers robbed of war

    Theoretically speaking, revealing the true nature of the "miraculous herb" to Makary the way I just did was an extremely poor idea. It meant that I could no longer im it to be something extremely precious. Revealing the truth also kind of forced the man to re-evaluate our cooperation so far��

    Or so I was worried he would. But contrary to my expectations, upon hearing my words��

    Makary only smiled.

    "It doesn''t matter what an item is worth," he spoke in a much lighter, even fainter voice than usual, as if echoing some sort of a profound thought. "It only matters what people are willing to pay for it."

    Did he mean it in regards to the herb? In rtion to how he paid a lot for it, given how he provided me with his own card and rented an expensive penthouse all for me?

    Or maybe he was talking about the weapons he was trying to sell to me right now?

    "Things are worth what people are willing to pay for them, indeed," I agreed out loud before throwing another nce at the locker with the weapons.

    And while doing so, I couldn''t help but recall the numbers disyed on Fay''s status when she transformed into her true form.

    ''Who it is to tell I won''t meet opponents on that level?''

    If warriors with seven attributes on average could withstand a single bullet from a pistol while not prepared, what would they be able to defend against when anticipating this kind of attack? And what if I were to encounter someone even stronger than them?

    I gulped my saliva down as a sudden thought intruded upon my head.

    ''What if I will have to face one of the celestials or divines? Will normal guns be enough for them?''

    My eyes moved to the side, allowing me to take a look at the unbothered, nearly bored look on Fay''s face.

    She initially showed some interest in the weapons, prompted by my own reaction to them. But by now, given how our talks devolved strictly to the negotiation, she didn''t seem to hold any of that interest anymore.

    ''Well, they do not look presentable. They weren''t designed with fashion but deadly effectiveness in mind.''

    I took a deep breath, trying to sort out my thoughts.

    Was it worth it? Would it be beneficial long-term to agree to those harsh terms? Andstly��

    Where else would I find the source of this level of technology, given how all the newfound powers that sprouted in the power vacuum after the economic and social meltdown were dead-set on reiming everyst one of them?

    "Things are worth exactly what people are willing to pay for them," I repeated the words that already echoed Makary''s im. Then, my eyes moved up and locked on Makary''s face while my lips curved up a little. "But just like it applies to me, the potential buyer, so does it apply to you, the current owner of those weapons."

    Makary''s eyebrows moved up a bit. It was a barely noticeable change, but with how little he allowed his emotions to reflect on his face�� If I were to trante it to the reactions of any other person, Makary would be making a shocked face right now.

    "Are you trying to build a small army��?" I asked in a faint voice, more throwing the idea out of my head than actually being curious about the answer.

    "How do you think I''ve built my group?" Makary actually replied to my question, taking me in by surprise. The look on his face softened up a little, only to turn colder as he opened his mouth. "We are soldiers who were robbed of the war we were promised. And now we just�� linger."

    I squinted my eyes, struggling to absorb the revtion just now.

    Did Makary�� desire war?

    But wasn''t warlike, the worst thing that could happen?

    In all the textbooks that I''ve used while still at school, the economic downturn and the gue of inner strife that wrecked the already fragile world were but a small price to pay to avoid a full-scale conflict.

    The fact that most of the world''s countries ended up splitting into city-states just like the academy city we were in while most of the people grew considerably poorer�� I was always taught that it was a small price to avoid the void war growing into an actual conflict. A tiny sacrifice whenpared to what everyone would lose if that war actually started.

    As such, when faced with someone who actually despised the oue�� I didn''t really know how to react to it.

    "Anyway, I''m not trying to outright sell those to you," Makary shook his head and changed the topic, pushing it back to what we were talking about before this small tangent. "Their prize is steep, so just like you suggested before, I''m willing to consider them an investment."

    The man turned silent, the look on his face growing more and moreplex as he threw a long nce at the cab''s insides.

    "An investment that I expect great returns from," he added, taking a step towards the cab and reaching out to grab one of the weapons.

    "This here is a neugarand. A rail-powered, bolt-action rifle. It dryunches a small projectile containing a cumtive charge," he exined as he brought out a long and extremely rudimentary-looking weapon.

    In its base form, it looked only slightly different from the weapons I could see while watching the movies about the second and thankfully thest world war that actually happened.

    "Unless we are talking about behemoths, there is no armor that this rifle cannot pierce. And when it does, the bullet splits into seventy tungsten shards, eachunching at just a slightly different angle from the point of impact."

    Makary brought the weapon out and passed it over.

    With my fingers wrapping around the thick steel of the weapon, I couldn''t help but swallow a gulp of saliva.

    I''ve heard of this piece. The bread-and-butter of all the neumodern soldiers, the very core of their equipment that turned every infantryman into a walking artillery and anti-tank unit.

    A simple weapon that singlehandedly turned most of the armored vehicles obsolete, as only the aforementioned ''behemoth'' ss armor could withstand its shots.

    And just like it was the case with the weapons themselves, maintaining that armor to keep it in good shape was one hell of a costly endeavor.

    "Standard kit includes spare rail, two battery units, and a package of a hundred shots. But from what I''ve heard, it would be best if you changed the rail after thirty shots at most, for every shot beyond that exponentially raises the risk of the rail malfunctioning."

    It was still a personal weapon, not a massive artillery piece where redundancy could solve the issue of wear and tear. Without a sliver of doubt, it was a great weapon�� but it came with its own limitations.

    "You don''t need to advertise this one to me," I spoke out, shaking my head as my eyes moved back toward the insides of the cab. "On the other hand, though, I will need something for up closer and personal."

 Chapter 124: Mist of Steel

    "You asked if I''m trying to field a small army," Makary spoke softly, his eyebrows moving down a little bit. "But aren''t you the one asking for quite a lot of firepower?"

    For a moment, I simply scanned the man''s face, weighing the options in my head.

    Should I admit that I was indeed in dire need of some serious heavy hitters? Or should I y it dumb�� and try to pretend I was simply trying to get my hands on some new, fancy toys?

    ''Yeah, as if. The cost of those is way too high for him to believe I want them just to have some fun,'' I thought, rolling my eyes over my own, momentary naivete.

    "Right now, I cannot answer this question." I''ve revealed enough for the day. Nothing good woulde from stupidly hinting at what ns I was fostering in my mind, regardless if they involved Makary and his men or not. "A time mighte�� No, I think a time wille when I will give you the answer. And by then, I might��"

    ''I might give you the war you wanted,'' I thought, barely stopping my tongue from growing a bit too loose.

    Makary''s face tensed up a tiny little bit, eradicating all the hints of the smile I saw on it before. He clearly heard the restraint in my voice, and saw I said less than I was about to. Yet, he got the hint and didn''t try to pry any further.

    "Let''s put the talks of the future to where it belongs, a better timeter on," Makary spoke, kindly offering me a way out from the slight impasse my words put me in. "So, a heavy-hitter for when things get close and personal," he then muttered, raising his hand to caress his chin as he slowly scanned the items within the locker.

    "How about Neupour?" Makary suggested, squinting his eyes as he looked down to inspect the small, hand-gun-like, blocky weapon.

    It was a shape I was generally familiar with, for it was a modernized version of the legendary p90 model which was often referenced in the games I used to y.

    "How is it any different from its prototype?" I asked, failing to see any marks that would clue me in on the weapon''s secret.

    After all, the neuarmament of the new age always used an already existing gun for the base. Yet, whatever time and effort the past engineers saved on the initial design, I was more than sure they put to good use when turning the old model into its neu, redesigned version.

    "First off, it shoots needles, not bullets," Makary started to exin, near instantly showing a worrying sense of familiarity with the weapon, turning its back towards my eyes before removing the cover that protected the magazine hidden within the weapon''s bulky handle. "But instead of a mere fifty shots, it stores two thousand."

    For a second, I imagined what shooting out from this weapon would feel like. Or rather, what would be its effects, for the recoil shouldn''t be that different from the original model.

    In the end, fifty bullets or two thousand needles�� the shot count didn''t matter, as long as the weight of the projectiles and their eleration were roughly the same. The main advantage of the needlessy in their overwhelming number, but came at a cost of much smaller kic power of the single shot.

    "You shouldn''t aim with this. And its effective range reaches nearly two hundred meters, so you need to make sure there are no friendlies anywhere near where you are firing at," Makary added quite the important caveat.

    Then, he suddenly pulled the weapon back, turned roughly a quarter of a circle, and stood down in a firing position. He pushed the upper part of his body forward, over his extended, leading leg while raising his other foot just an inch above the ground.

    "It kicks quite a bit, so make sure to properly brace yourself," the man continued to instruct while setting his back foot heavily on the ground and then grinding his entire posture down at his hips. Finally, his face leaned towards the top side of the weapon as he aimed down the iron sights.

    "Now, imagine a cone-shaped mist starting from the end of the barrel and extending roughly to cover roughly half of the wall above."

    I turned my eyes toward where Makary was aiming, only to trante his instructions to the scenario I was most likely to encounter if I were to use this weapon.

    A massive celestial beast rushing at me, its eyes filled with bloodthirst, its mouth watering at the thought of tasty human meat��

    And then, a thickyer of steel mist appeared in its path, prying at every tiniest vulnerability the luck would allow me to hit.

    A true, wall of steel�� but one that wouldst for but a moment.

    ''Maybe I should ask for something with a heavier punch?'' I thought when in my mind-scenario, the celestial beast simply broke past the mist this gun could produce.

    The end result of the scenario I yed in my heat wasn''t nice. And while it was all based on mere imagination, feel of the power I felt from Madam''s fox form��

    "Is it not to your satisfaction?" Makary asked the smile once again appearing to linger in the corner of his mouth.

    "I''m not sure it has enough stopping power," I admitted, spreading my arms and shrugging them a little. "Sure, it can shred a human, but��" I shrugged my shoulders again.

    In a moment of doubt, I looked over at Fay. Yet, rather than quickly averting my eyes and thus proving that whatever she made me think about was important enough for me to try to cover such a tant hint�� I continued to look at her face for a short while. "But now that I think of it��"

    Makary obviously caught my nce. Yet, just like before, when I held back my tongue, he either opted not toment or simply didn''t bother to.

    "Let''s put it aside, then." In the end, Makary clearly read into my initial thought, not the one that followed. After putting the rtively small but deadly gun away, he pulled a much longer, simpler one out. "What do you think of this slug-slinging sucker?"

 Chapter 125: A face Makary didnt show yet

    "I will have all of them delivered to your ce," Makary offered once we finally worked out all the details of the deal. "But I hope I won''t hear in the news of some psycho going around killing innocent people with the regted weaponry��" he added while giving me a long look.

    Makary had no right to know what use I had for those weapons. A portal allowing one to step into another world wasn''t something that existed even as a scientific concept, so even if he allowed himself to consider the idea, he would never spare it much thought.

    For him, I needed those toys either for self-defense, some sort of distant conflict, or, preferably, an attempt at reverse-engineering all the wonders of human ingenuity hidden in the tech.

    The worry that caused this warning was pretty well founded, given the extent of information Makary had.

    "Don''t worry, you will hear of no such event," I assured the man, only for my eyes to light up a bit. "Right, do you have a bigger car that I could plug a mobile freezer into?" I suddenly asked. "I kinda want to stock up on everything," I added, giving some sort of exnation. "This way, you could lend me some guys to help with those groceries and carrying the freezer.

    And it would be a great way to bring the guns up to my penthouse."

    To be perfectly honest, while my words implied all the groceries were just a cover for bringing in the highly coveted guns to my private apartment, it was actually the other way around.

    It didn''t matter whether I would get the guns tomorrow morning or right now. I had no ns to go to Fay''s world today, after all, not when the beds at the penthouse were sofortable and within thefort of there being just me and Fay!

    But when it came to the topic of a freezer�� a fuel generator, several cans of gasoline, preferably some sr panels, and other pieces of equipment that would allow me to establish a rudimentary zone of the modern world on the other side of the portal��

    When it came to those big purchases, not only did I feel safer having some men around while moving those around, but I also didn''t want to employ Fay to help me carry those.

    Sure, I could raise even a massive piece of equipment all on my own with my current level of strength�� But what would any random passersby do when spotting a scrawny man like me easily lifting up to two, maybe even three hundred kilos of welded steel?

    "That won''t be a problem. It actually makes things easier for me," Makary readily agreed to my small request.

    After all, in a certain sense, I just made him one hell of a rich man. He was the only one with the supply of both the extremely weak healing herb and the prospects of getting ess to much better nts. As such, it was up to him to set the margins above the already extremely conservative price I came up with for the sake of my own calctions.

    ''I guess it''s a pity we no longer have global-range celebrities,'' I thought, allowing those idle ideas in the moment of respite. ''They would pay with their blood for the ability to moderate their drug usage��''

    With the copse of the global market and the period of extreme instability and rapid changes that followed, all the main venues for a single person to grow popr pretty much fell apart.

    Thest nail to the coffin of the influencers'' career path came when the global fragmented, turning into a myriad of privateworks each controlled by the local autocrat or seat of power that controlled the immediate area.

    Yet, while that meant there were no high-profile people who had to be extremely mindful of their reputation, there were bound to be some people willing to pay the weight of that herb in gold if it meant saving them from the negative effects of drug overuse.

    And with that in mind, paying for even the most expensive groceries wouldn''t even amount to the statistical error of the money Makary could make if he had the most basic business sense.

    ''Even better, by doing so, he will pull all of the attention to himself, leaving me out of most of the trouble thates with that level of profit margins.''

    "Oh, just one more thing, even smaller this time," I spoke out as a certain idea sparked in my head. "Would you mind opening up the bar for a little?"

    I''ve managed to see Makary smile. I''ve got to see him suspicious, worried, and even wary.

    But the surprise that shed in his eyes when he heard my unexpected request which was in no way connected to anything that we have discussed today, was a new first.

    "I mean, you don''t really need to ask by now��?" he struggled to properly voice out his surprise.

    What was the cost of opening some bottles, even if I wanted to taste the most expensive alcohol that he had in the store in the club at the ground level whenpared to the value of the business we just concluded?

    "Oh, and do you have any of the bar staff somewhere near?" I built up on my request, already struggling to hold back a smile.

    "I could call someone, but why do you even ask?" Makary questioned, the look of shock giving way to simple surprise and curiosity borne out of it.

    By now, I could no longer hold back my smile. Not when I could see how jittery Fay became when I brought up the topic of the drinks and the bar. And if this was the one detail about her that I needed to reveal to make her presence more natural within the group, how could I not take this opportunity?

    Having Makary''s men know her as a natural mixologist was far better than having them give in to their curiosity and look for ways to find out more about her on their own.

    "It seems that my girl took a liking to mixing drinks. And while I stocked on those already��" I leaned my head to the side, giving Fay a happy smile. "I would love it if she could ask an actual pro for some pointers."

 Chapter 126: They werent here for revenge. They were scouts

    A massive pile of all sorts of packages, boxes, and parcels filled nearly half of all the floor space of the main, living room of the penthouse. Each parcel contained a different type of items, resources, supplies, toys, and other stuff, making for quite a plethora of messy shopping.

    ''I wonder what face Makary will make when he sees the bill,'' I thought, grinning at my own thoughts while inspecting the end result of my hard work.

    After Makary provided me with a nice hauler and a group of three of his men to help me out�� I pulled all the stops and went on the first and excessive shopping spree.

    And I held back nothing.

    Fuel-based power generator, a year-worth supply of chocte bars from three differentpanies, three bikes, a set of three parachutes��

    The things I bought with Makary''s card ranged from the tiniest nuts and bolts, through huge logistical boxes of foods, all the way to huge machinery like sr panels, a huge box containing a portable transformer station, and the shop-style freezer ending.

    Turning around, I took a quick nce at the doors that the trio of Makary''s men used to escape as soon as they brought thest of the packages up.

    What they clearly expected to be a light assignment turned into a two-days-long endeavor, with how just one day turned out not to be enough.

    ''Buy everything you see and leave it to Makary to try to figure out what I actually wanted from this massive mess,'' I thought, shaking my head lightly before, after two days, actually moving in to do some work myself.

    Save for the weapons hidden in the unplugged freezer, there were quite a lot of items that I hoped to bring over to Fay''s world as soon as possible.

    My idea started with the desire to install a freezer so that the food I would bring over wouldn''t spoil in a matter of few days at most. And since I had no desire to research the ancient ways of preserving foods�� I decided to simply install a freezer.

    But to install this huge and powerful fridge, I had to supply it with electricity. And that''s where the sr panel, a set of five, human-sized wind turbines, and a fuel generator came for. But as I delved deeper into the insides of the massive shop I brought Makary''s men to, I found other necessary items like wind and rain protectors, a transformer station, a portable set of batteries��

    "There''s no way we will be able to bring all of those anytime soon," I muttered as I came to this somber realization.

    Powering up just a simple freezer was a much harder task than I anticipated. And while I didn''t need to bother with the cost of all the necessary equipment to introduce electricity, even if within an extremely limited range�� Just how many trips would it take for me to bring all of the necessary machines over to Fay''s world?

    "I guess we will have to give up on the idea of a freezer for now," I muttered to myself as I continued to sort through the smaller packages, loading them inside of the freezer whenever I found one of the things I actually wanted to bring over.

    "What are the things that we absolutely need to bring?" Fay asked as she walked out from the bath, refreshed from her morning look and with a few hints of make-up here and there.

    It was another thing that I decided to pay fat stacks for during our shopping spree. And while Fay was already one hell of an unbearable beauty just by the way she was and I had no desire to see her ent her charms even further��

    How could I deny her, when I saw her eyes lit up as I exined what all those small bottles were? An interest that sparked by the faint smell of alcohol she detected�� And weirdly enough, even once we got backst night while saving thest part of the shipping trip for this morning, rather than enjoying ourselves in a carnal way��

    It would suffice to say that after some hours spent cuddling in the bed and watching make-up tutorials, we then ended up spending several hours locked in the bath, ying with all sorts of tonics and cremes I couldn''t even properly name as Fay slowly learned the intricacies of self-painting.

    Applying makeup was a skill that Fay learned pretty quickly. Yet, whenpared to the raw genius on disy when she first meddled with drinks or when sheter enjoyed a few hours of learning at Makary''s bar, the rate of her growth was much slower�� more realistic.

    Nheless, when she walked out of the bathroom�� I felt the airlock up in my throat, stopping me from uttering a single sound�� or breathing, for that matter.

    Fay didn''t look any different. She easily resisted the urge to paint an entirely different face on top of her natural beauty and opted to use various specifics sparingly, putting a slight ent to her eyes, fixing the slight imperfections in the lines of her eyebrows��

    ''Breathtaking,'' I thought, an image of the certain beloved actor from the times before the void war appearing in my head. Even though I never really got what made him the face of the popr meme, after long hours spent on the web, his face has long been associated with the funny picture in my brain.

    "Are you okay?" Fay asked, leaning her now perfected face to the side and giving me a curious look that only served to put further emphasis on her beautiful, greyish-blue eyes.

    "Breathtaking��" Too shocked to regain my senses on the spot, I''ve now voiced the only word that could exist within my brain currently overtaken by Fay''s new, refreshed looks.

    Fay''s lips lightly curved up�� Only for Fay''s makeup to nearlye alive as her facial muscles shifted, revealing now ented dimples.

    This alone made her faint smile that much brighter and cheerful, filling my soul with a raw sense of rxation as I basked in the glory of this small, restrained smirk.

    "Ah��"

    Suddenly strapped for air, I felt my knees turn weak and give way to my weight, causing me to stumble forward.

    "Hon!" Fay cried out in surprise, rushing forth to grab and support me before I could fall down on the sharp edges of the nearby machine.

    ''Wait, when did I buy a table saw?'' I thought as my weight rested on Fay''s arm for a second. I then shook my head, forcefully bringing myself back to my senses before standing up straight with my own strength.

    "I''m sorry, your new look��" I whispered, struggling to properly breathe and even starting to strike my fist against my chest as if to kickstart my heart.

    It really should do a better job in moments like that!

    "Oh, stop it!" Fay''s cheeks were covered in a slight blush, a testament to how delicate and thin was theyer of her make-up.

    "Yeah, I should stop��" I muttered, still struggling to fully ovee my momentary weakness. "Because if I don''t, it won''t be the portal we will end up at," I added, infusing a hint of a yful threat in my voice.

    The blush on Fay''s cheeks deepened. Yet, rather than following the usual trope of an embarrassed girl from any anime or manga, one could find�� Fay grinned uneasily while attempting to reforge the shyness caused by the memory of how our make-up adventure in the bath ended in mischief.

    "Oh, damn you," unable to resist Fay''s expression, I reached out and brought her face to my chest. Then, I gave her shoulders a tight squeeze, holding her close for the time I needed to numb my brain to her adorableness.

    "Anyway," letting go of the girl, I averted my eyes and focused on all the baggage I''ve now stored in the freezer. "I think it''s high time for us to get going. The longer we linger, the less time Madam will have to enjoy all of the treats!"

    Giving up on setting up a small, electric station meant that the freezer I used as a temporary storage�� was just that, a mundane box with the added weight of its internal mechanisms weighing it down even further.

    But for a pair of two, with nearly six points for me and above four points in Fay''s case of strength, lifting it up would be a breeze.

    "Yeah, as weird as it feels, I kind of miss my mom a bit," Fay spoke as she pushed herself out of my chest, her expression speaking the world about how baffled the girl was with her own feelings.

    ''I guess dreaming of independence hardly includes the sense of separation one would feel after spending their entire life at someone else''s side,'' I thought, going back with my thoughts to the day when I ended up all alone in this world.

    And with this memory in mind, I found a new resolve blossoming at the very core of my soul. A resolve to never let Fay long after me, by forever staying by her side.

    Knowing the pain of separation, and even seeing its hints right now was not something I was willing to subject Fay to.

    "I guess we should get this over with, then," I spoke, grabbing the freezer by its huge, tempered-steel handle from one side before waiting for Fay to do the same on the other end. Then, without straining myself in the least, we picked the freezer up a bit before heading to where I waved my portal into existence.

    Just a few more steps and we stepped through the violet border between the worlds.

    [Entry point A for the stable portal [1] registered]

    In the momentary state of disorientation, while crossing from one ce to another with but a single step, I saw the system message sh before my eyes. And as I shook my head and saw the familiar forest appear before my eyes��

    "Huh?"

    A small moan of surprise escaped from my lips when I saw Madam, in her human form, sitting cross-legged just a few steps away from where we appeared.

    "You arete, guys," the mature fox gave us a long look before greeting us in a strangely unweing manner. "Toote, in fact," Madam added with a long sigh before standing up and looking straight into my eyes.

    "The humans have invaded the forest. So it''s best for you to stay here and wait for your portal to open again. Then, you need to leave as soon as possible."

    Madam spoke what she wanted and turned on her heel, already heading in what had to be east.

    "Mom! Wait! Isn''t not the first time they attacked, so��"

    "Those two parties we killed recently weren''t friends with each other. The second party wasn''t here to take revenge on their fallen friends as I believed," Madam finally spoke some words that I could actually understand. "They were scouts. And now, a massive army of humans is heading this way, dead-set on putting our forest to the torch."

    I gulped my saliva down, struggling to digest all the news that mmed me right in the face as soon as we crossed over.

    The freezer I held up suddenly started to weigh a lot harder on my grip.

    "We won''t lose, but we can''t stop them from overrunning the forest. So, for the foreseeable future, it would be for the best if you could leave and hide in the safety of Peter''s world."

 Chapter 127: The details Madam did not reveal

    It took me a hefty moment to shake off my surprise and actually get to thinking. But once I did, I ended up noticing an annoyingly important detail of what Madam just dropped on us.

    "We?"

    A single word that appeared strangely often in just the few words she said. A word full of implication�� And one that gave me the convenience of asking about it.

    Because I needed time, to process everything I''d just heard.

    ''A war? Forest getting overran? Return back?''

    A hundred thoughts shed through the busy nodes of my brain, clogging my entire thinking process.

    ''Wait, what if I��''

    Prompted by the memory of a rtively recent event, I took a deep breath and chanted in my thoughts.

    ''Eye of time.''

    Maybe it was stupid, to activate this skill long before any fight was about to start��

    But there was no doubt in my mind using it right now. The sooner and better I understand the situation, I can position myself ordingly. The boost to my brain''s processing power was what I needed toe up with a valid n. For now, though��

    "It''s all hands on deck," Madam sighed. "In moments like this, we put our useless conflicts aside and stand together to take on this invasion."

    The look in my eyes visibly sharpened.

    With the skill activating, the chaotic mess of news and problems suddenly grew orderly, now that I could properly process it. And the image of the situation that my brain slowlypiled�� It wasn''t good at all.

    "You are better at holding any massed attack in the forest, in your natural element," I pointed out while already moving to the next realization with my thoughts. "So, whatever resistance you will mount at the forest''s edge, will only be for show."

    I shook my head and stared ahead, right into Madam''s shocked expression. My chin then carried along, allowing me to catch a glimpse at Fay''s reaction to all of this.

    And once again, there was a surprise awaiting on her face.

    ''Why she doesn''t look in the least�� bothered?''

    Madam was coldly determined to face whatever wasing. I was freaking out, trying to make the most of what little information I had to make the right judgment, as there was no doubt Madam already made up her mind not to let us on the battlefield.

    "I only have praise for your deduction," Madam spoke with a defeated sigh, her eyes lingering on Fay''s face, something I missed up until this point. "And that means you should get as far away from here. Preferably, hide away in Leinei''s shack. If worstes to be, you might need to take Fay and test your theory at the Misty Valley."

    I took a deep breath.

    The more Madam spoke, as little details as she was willing to offer, the better was my outlook on the circumstances.

    First, this wasn''t a new event in Madam''s life. Her cold, calcted reaction meant she had gone through this kind of mess at least once before.

    And judging by the degree of her peace of mind, many times more.

    Secondly, something was not right. An element that struck Madam as weird, different than in all the other times.

    ''Andstly, she doesn''t consider it to be a doomsday scenario.''

    I took a deep breath, sensing the influence of my skill fading away.

    ''It served me well,'' I thought, feeling a sense of nostalgia as my brain returned to its natural state.

    Then, I rolled my eyes.

    ''Natural state? I''m only for points away from maxing it out,'' I thought, only to release a sigh��

    I took a deep breath, rolled my eyes, and heaved a long, depressed sigh.

    And throughout all this, I could sense Fay''s piercing gaze on my back.

    "This is not our war," Fay spoke, suddenly creating a massive presence at the moment.

    "I know," Madam replied in a slightly fainter voice while moving her eyes down to the ground.

    "But we have to stop it either way."

    My voice, appearing for the first time since I asked my question managed to cut into the strange air between Fay and her mom. And as both of them turned their eyes to me, I openly sighed.

    "Fay, dearest, we need to pay for our toys, don''t we?"

    We didn''te to this world just to have fun. We came here to cash in some random herbs for weapons of final and mass destruction.

    "I wonder if this is a coincidence��" I suddenly spoke a random, intrusive thought. As for how it managed to slip through my lips, I couldn''t tell.

    The look on Fay''s face changed, tensed up.

    "Do you want to use those weapons on humans?" Fay''s eyes, covered with just the slightest hint of make-up, turned tense, tenser than ever. "Are you willing to partake in the ughter of your kin?"

    Fay pressed her lips together, giving me a nk and yet, passionately worried stare. Her delicate fingers tightened into small fists.

    "Didn''t I kill humans before?" I asked, genuinely puzzled by how sudden Fay''s problem was.

    I finished a pitiful girl from the first group and then partook in fighting off all those who raised their weapons on Fay. How would be today any different?

    "It''s one thing to fight with humans who directly attacked you," Fay replied without a second of thought, indicating it was a line of thinking she hade up with long ago.

    ''Most likely, it''s a reflection of her own regret or fear she has regarding something in the future.''

    "But what you are about to do, is join a war against your race."

    Fay concluded her lecture while giving me an intense, nearly pleading gaze.

    "Oh, my��" I shook my head, a polite smile trembling as my real chuckle threatened to reveal itself. "Dearest, if only my fellow humans ever had the same concern back in the days��" I shook my head again. "The life you saw is the upper-end of society that created overabundance. But the foundation of this wealthys in oceans of blood everyone spilled to steal, enve, and murder."

    I shook my head for the third andst time. Then, my eyes moved over to the freezer we carried over. For now, it was closed, but inside��

    Inside, there were state-of-the-art weapons that could be med for the war that never happened. After all, just like with nukes, the damage of using them in actualbat would be too great.

    "As far as I can tell, this invasion is nothing new. But there''s an opponent that makes things problematic," I revealed my assumptions as I walked over to the freezer and pushed its lid open. Then, as I rummaged through all the boxes and supplies neatly stacked inside, I finally managed to bring out three, huge cases.

    "Fay, this one''s for you, just in case something happens," I spoke, opening the first of the special boxes and pulling out the spray-and-pray weapon for my girl.

    "Wait, you don''t mean to��"

    "For now, I will take the other two," I continued, not giving Fay any time to respond. "First one for the inevitable sh when we encounter another protector, second for the actual job."

    Waiting for no one, I moved ahead and stopped only a foot away from Madam.

    "Where do you guys gather?"

 Chapter 128: The war Fay cares very little about

    I didn''t move all that fast, but it still took both Fay and Madam a moment to catch up with me.

    "Do you even know what you are doing?!" Madam shouted out after me, rushing forward to stop me before it would be toote.

    "There''s no need for you to get all this blood on your hands!" Fay protested from the other side, catching up just a moment sooner than her mother and reaching out to grab my arm.

    I didn''t escape with my hand but opted not to stop either. In fact, I hardly even bothered with Fay for the moment, busy throwing the neugarand over my back while nestling the much simpler weapon in my hold.

    This was the one piece of equipment even Makary was reluctant to sell. Only after promising him with all my secrets on the line that I would use it anywhere in the city and raising the price for this particr piece did I get him to loan it to me.

    Because even whenpared with the long-range assault rifle and the smaller, rapid-fire p90-based weapon��

    It was the shotgun that was both the most crude and, at the same time, the most sophisticated device out of all three I bought.

    In theory, itsunching mechanism was simple, consisting of a short rail for maic drive and then aplicated mechanism covering the front half of the barrel. The muzzle of the shotgun was nearly thrice as wide as its main body, finished with aplex set of sh-breakers and recoil-dampeners.

    It wasn''t the gun itself, though, that was the absolute peak of the engineering.

    This spot belonged to the bullets, consisting of three different elements and turning this rtively simple weapon whenpared to the others of its kind into a devious machine of technological destruction.

    ''Even though I''ve only got a few words of exnation on how it works, it is he brutal��''

    I shook my head before finally allowing Fay''s hands to put my march to a stop.

    "Dear, listen. Whether it''s our war or not, holding the invasion back is the safest option. Stepping into the misty valleyes with an obvious risk, while there will be no safe ce to hide if the humans overrun this entire forest."

    That much I could tell from the spare few words of exnation that Madam offered.

    At the very least, judging by her silent reaction to my guesses from earlier, my weapons might actuallye in handy. After all, what could do a better job of eliminating a few powerful humans if not a rifle capable of carrying its armor-piercing, cumtive projectiles?

    ''Even if their barrier can hold back a single shot, it will only serve to contain the force of the burst charge,'' I thought, absentmindedly caressing the long barrel of the neugarand that poked out from behind my back.

    "I don''t want you to fight my wars!" Fay finally revealed with a pained look on her face. "I don''t want you to see the ghosts of the people you would kill for the sake of those who shunned me." Fay brought her hands to my shoulders and then dug deep down into my flesh with her fingers.

    "Fay, dearest��" I heaved a deep sigh, lowering the barrel of my shottie and freeing my left hand to pull her into a light embrace. "For some reason, I don''t really care about those people. They are here to harm your ce, so it''s obvious I will step out to defend it," I exined my reasoning. "Aren''t you the same? Back at the shack, weren''t you ready to intervene were things took an ugly turn?"

    My words had to strike a vital cord in Fay''s brain, given how her face tensed up.

    She couldn''t refute my words�� but that didn''t mean epting the dangers any easier.

    Just like I didn''t enjoy the idea of putting Fay in danger when my aunt came out to confront me, she now had to hate the idea of putting me on the frontlines of a war�� The war she clearly cared very little about.

    "If we don''t deter those invaders for at least a few days, we won''t find a safe haven in this forest," I pointed out my main concern again. "And with those weapons, we might be able to push the humans back without putting��"

    I suddenly ceased my words and my entire body trembled under the pressure.

    A pressure that somehow crept unnoticed to my spot, only to nearly squash me like a bug when I noticed it.

    ''Shit!''

    I expected this development. I''ve even called it out back when talking with Madam! And yet, when the moment came��

    ''No fucking way!''

    Feeling the pressure only intensify as the ground started to shake under my feet, I gritted my teeth�� And broke past the aura that assaulted me, turning the gun and pointing it toward the source of the tremors.

    "Buy me just a few seconds��" I muttered through my gritted teeth, keeping my finger far from the trigger. Keeping it on the trigger would be no different from asking for a disaster, given how this potential enemy could make my body move against my will.

    "Kan, stand down~!"

    Madam''s voice echoed through the entire forest�� slightly�� vibrant.

    As if someone recorded her line, copied it, slightly adjusted the tone of the copies, and then mixed all the different voices together.

    And for but a moment, the tremors stopped and the pressure lifted.

    "Before we fight, I only want to ask one question," I called out loud in the general direction of the threat.

    Then, I pulled my shottie forward�� only to turn along with my entire body and point it sideways, away from the threat while grinding my feet down into the soft ground to reinforce my position.

    "Do you want me to use those weapons on you," I squinted my eyes, "or the humans that areing to attack?"

    Right as my words voiced out, I braced myself�� and pulled the trigger, causing the weapon in my hands to explode and spit vicious fire in a wide cone starting at the end of its barrel.

 Chapter 129: Threats showcase

    In a wide, popr perception, shotguns were only to be used at close range. Packing a massive punch within a close distance, they grew increasingly useless the greater the range.

    But that perception came from the games who had to simply bnce the power of the shotguns in order to keep the game fun. As Makary exined while presenting the neuspas, the reality couldn''t be any further from this popr misconception.

    The performance of shotguns was mostly centered around the type of ammunition used with them. With birdshot, one sacrifices the power of each individual pellet by shooting a whole bunch of them within a single discharge. On the other end of the spectrum, there are slugs, where a single, heavy projectile is shot at a great distance with great speed.

    And then, there was the buckshot, standing firmly in the middle between the two extremes, limiting the number of pellets within the shot to just a fraction of what''s within a birdshot but shooting them out with much greater force and speed.

    The ammunition for neuspas, though, was a mix of all three of those at the same time reinforced with a maic rail drive that was the onemon element in all the neu-weapons.

    I pulled the trigger, sending just a single integrated round of the neushot flying through the barrel.

    The very second pulling the trigger closed the circuit and allowed power into the rail, the powerful maic currents slung the entire round forth, elerating it to mind-boggling speeds in a mere instant. Then, as the wider back end of the round struck the narrow, inner-edge within the barrel, a side pin struck down at the main load of the shot, igniting the jellied gunpowder inside.

    The muzzle of the neuspas shed, turning white when the explosion within rapidly expelled all the air and heated up the metal. And then, three things happened.

    The back-aimed tubes within the muzzle spewed out small tongues of mes, discharging a huge portion of the gas topensate for the weapon''s kick. The front-and-side aimed tubes within the muzzle channeled the small balls of already deteriorating bird shots, spraying them forth in a small cone.

    A set of seven openings at the very front of the muzzle that surrounded the barrel''s exit spewed out the seven balls of the buckshot, sending them barreling down the mist of explosive jelly that the birdshot was made from��

    And right as a five-meter long cone starting from the barrel''s end suddenly exploded, the heavy slug, elerated first by the maic rail and then kicked even faster by the explosion slung forth.

    BOOM!

    The weapon shook in my head. Even with the recoilpensators, I struggled to remain standing while my gun spewed fire sending a small cannonball barreling forth and simply cutting through anything that stood in its path.

    "Haaa��" I breathed out a long sigh, my eyes opening up further as adrenaline started to fill my bloodstream.

    There was this strange, divine feeling that came with handling such a magnificent and devastating weapon. But any and all thoughts that I could form on the topic suddenly evaporated from my head when a long line of trees that were unlucky enough to be in the path of my slug started to copse under their own weight and fall down, causing quite the ruckus.

    "What?" Madam squeezed a single word of shock out of her mouth as she watched a roughly fifty-meter-long gap that appeared in the rtively uniform wall of the forest, marking the path of destruction of my slug.

    And with the rest of the birdshot pellets deteriorating to a sufficient degree, a series of secondary explosions shook the air when all the pellets revealed their explosive cores to the already raging mes of the dragon''s breath effect of the buckshot part of the round.

    ''This is even better than what I imagined when Makary described it,'' I thought, gulping down my saliva in a moment of shocked satisfaction.

    The high-powered slug simply cut through roughly fifty meters of trees, smashing their solid cores into pieces and sending them tumbling down. The dragon''s breath effect dried out all the nearby vegetation with the secondary explosions of jellied napalmid ayer of chemical fires on the devastated nature, covering the entire scene of devastation in the ze.

    And all of that�� was just a single shot. A single shot left me with twenty-nine more of them hidden within two special tubes running along the armrest of the gun and feeding directly into the loading mechanism.

    "Woah��"

    Contrary to her Mother''s outright shock and terror, Fay''s face brightened up, proving she gained a modern infatuation with explosions and mass destruction.

    The only one whose reaction I couldn''t read�� was the massive bear that finally came out from beyond theyer of the trees, currently mesmerized by the devastation of my singr shot.

    ''Right, I need to capitalize on the effect of this show ASAP!''

    I took a deep breath and organized my thoughts, searching for the right way of making use of this opportunity.

    "I can fire this weapon twenty-nine more times in quick session," I spoke, opting to push the impression of the neuspas even further. And so, I fixed my grip on its lever, swung the leaver of the pump down to kick the leftover metal te and iron driver welded to its back out of the gun''s system, and then loaded another shot.

    All with a single, smooth move that I''ve repeated in my thoughts thousands upon thousands of times ever since I was a mere child. Now, however, I coupled it with turning towards the massive bear and dragging the barrel away from it, to make my intent clear.

    I had no desire to point my miraculous weapon at the celestial or divine protector that this bear was. But if it pushed me to do so, I would have no qualms against unleashing the hell I just showcased in self-defense.

    "I''ve asked a simple question," I spoke out loud while tensing my entire body in preparation for a potential fight. "Would you rather see me use this weapon against you and your kind, or those damned humans who threaten to invade the forest that my mate calls home?"

 Chapter 130: Ive hurt him! (Fays PoV)

    ''It''s Kan,'' Fay thought, rxing a tiny little bit.

    The massive frame of the bear, thrice as big as her mom''s animal form, was somewhat familiar.

    Fay wouldn''t go as far as to call the bear an uncle, but she did have some fond memories of him in the past. They were all from early on in her life, but this aged senior seemed to be rtively�� reasonable.

    ''Which isn''t something I can lightly say about the rest of them,'' Fay thought, a long wrinkle splitting her forehead in two.

    Her eyes moved to the side, at the confident figure of Peter standing just in front of her.

    And Fay�� pressed her lips together, in a bout of silent frustration.

    Ever since establishing the bond through Peter''s strange system, her ability to feel him skyrocketed. It was as if a material link reced the fussy, unstable feeling that she had with him before.

    And thanks to this new, reinforced link, Fay could tell the truth.

    ''He simply refuses to consider anything going wrong,'' Fay pressed her lips so tight, they started to hurt.

    But Peter''s show just came to an end, at the cost of a massive scar to the forest, one that only promised to grow muchrger as the demonically intense fires started to consume the broken nts.

    Only for the man to casually throw a few nces around, and produce an extremely satisfied and outright amused smile before standing down and looking at Kan''s massive frame. Then, without a single hint of fear in his voice, he asked his question.

    ''Will he be okay?'' Fay tightened her fists in addition to her lips. ''If this invasion is anything like what mom told me��''

    "Just listen to this boy," Madam spoke out,ing from the back of the group.

    She appeared not to be used to her human form, at least not to the degree Fay was after merely a few weeks of assuming it.

    "He is not our enemy."

    Fay looked at her mom with a certain dose of gratitude.

    ''My word means nothing, only hers matters��'' Fay thought, gritting her teeth in frustration. ''But��!''

    Taking a quick breath, Fay raised her face and moved forward, quickly closing the gap between herself and Peter andunching herself at back.

    Her hands moved forward, sliding underneath Peter''s arms as she wrapped them gently over his belly and pressed herself to his back. Then and only then, Fay invoked all the fire from her soul and raised her eyes, throwing a possessively hostile look over Peter''s shoulder and towards the reasonable elder.

    "It''s unbing of me to make a youngdy put on a such brave act," a deep voice suddenly filled the area from every possible direction.

    Kan didn''t speak with his mouth but with the power of nature itself.

    ''He invoked his domain!''

    The world around Fay suddenly stopped. And for but a second, it refused to buckle, suspended in the strange sea of powerlessness that surrounded her.

    Just moving a muscle was akin to the struggle of trying to lift a mountain.

    But while her body was powerless, Fay''s ability to invoke her powers remained all the same, as if not affected by the samews of this strange fissure in time.

    And so, without a second of thought, Fay invoked her bond with Peter, and with it, the link that brought all of her lineages together.

    A singr point, low above her abdomen. And as the familiar surge of strange powers coiling and interweaving filled the spot, for the first time��

    It materialized.

    ''Before he attacks��!''

    Not paying the strange evolution any mind, Fay called forth all she ascended might, something she hurriedly named after learning of its name from Peter��

    Only to see invisible des of nothingness cut deep into Peter''s flesh, just in front of her eyes. As Fay''s powers surged in her hopes of stopping whatever Kan would do now that he raised his domain, those invisible des continued to cut deeper and deeper, marking Peter''s skin with long yet thin but extremely bloody incisions.

    ''Oh no,'' Fay''s thoughts scrambled when she, in the spur of the moment connected the dots.

    The strange wounds Peter incurred during thest fight. His exnation of his abilities and their costs. And the recent addition of the bond that allowed them to partake in each other''s powers, something even further reinforced by the evolution of Fay''s ability to feel him.

    As horrific realization exploded in Fay''s eyes, she dropped her powers, rxing the fabric of the world around her to let this evil effect dispel.

    The weird fissure of time copsed in a single instant�� But Peter''s wounds didn''t explode with blood as they should ording to Fay''s predictions.

    His cuts appeared far shallower and shorter than in her vision too.

    And in the very next moment, they dissipatedpletely, like a weird illusion that never took root in reality.

    And right as Fay forced herself to lower her guard, Kan''s words finally rang in her eyes.

    Fay breathed out, frozen by the sense of guilt exploding in her soul.

    ''I''ve brought him harm,'' she thought, her jaw starting to shake.

    Fay''s hands tensed up, pulling her deeper into Peter''s wide back.

    "What is your deal��" Kan''s nature-sourced voice appeared again, only to pause for a moment as the massive bear lowered its gaze and took a closer look, "�� human?"

    "I''m Fay''s mate," Peter''s body shook slightly as he confessed without even a single heartbeat of hesitation.

    Hearing those words and with the memory of what she just did to him mixing in Fay''s brain��

    Her thoughts locked, her emotions mixed in such an impossible knot that she couldn''t form a single thought.

    The happiness that the instant confession mixed with the guilt of hurting her man who paid it no mind only to confess a momentter��!

    "Oh��"

    All of a sudden, the lingering sense of Kan''s aura vanished without a trace. Even his massive form appeared to stumble, genuinely impressed by the bold response.

    "I''m here to help in any way I can," Peter then continued speaking, caring not for what he had to feel when his body split open all over the ce. Instead, he lowered his right hand�� and pressed it down on Fay''s fingers, as if to symbolically hug her back. "Even if that includes shooting some��"

    Peter''s aura cooled down from its usual fiery and energetic feel. Yet, the very moment Fay tried to hug Peter even tighter to bring back some warmth to his soul, her eyes shot up to the sky hidden behind the lush canopies of the nearby trees.

    Alerted, Fay moved her eyes around, quickly using the huge incision on the line of the trees to look past their crowns and towards��

    The quickly and threateningly darkening sky.

    "Curses!" Madam spat out in anger, equally as quick to notice the anomaly. "They are starting already?!"

    Peter twitched in Fay''s tight hug.

    "Was my guess right?" he asked, his body smoothly moving to turn and look at Madam. "A few powerful guys that are out of the norm?"

    Fay quickly connected her man''s question with what he guessed before. But before she or her mom could reply, Peter shook his head before reaching out and rustling Fay''s hair.

    Feeling his gentle head weigh down on her head, Fay squinted her eyes, struggling not to let out tears.

    Too much was happening at the same time.

    ''I hurt him!''

    ''How can allow himself to ignore the pain and danger so much!''

    ''I don''t want him to get hurt! I don''t want to hurt him again!''

    ''Does he really have to go��?!''

    ''What''s with those dark, sparkling clouds?!''

    Tormented by a multitude of emotions, Fay struggled to keep her tears at bay. No matter how she tried to reason with herself, going towards this quickly forming storm would only put Peter in danger!

    "Can you lead me to where I can see whoever''s behind this thing?" Peter asked without a single doubt in his voice, as if it was the most logical thing to do.

    "Are you sure?" Fay''s mom asked, clearly noticing Fay''s looks.

    "I only need to buy us one cycle," Peter replied as casually as if he was trying to brag about something irrelevant. Then, despite Fay''s tight hug, his aura grew considerably colder, just like his expression sank down a little. "If my guns won''t be enough to rout them, that is."

 Chapter 131: A moment of respite (Lorazs PoV)

    "We''ve gathered half the expected numbers," A regal-looking crane stood in the shadow of a tree. Its eyes directed past the woods and towards the massive camp set up by the humans. Its voice traveled not by air but by aura itself.

    "Half, you say��" Loraz muttered, observing the area through his old friend''s senses.

    "They are moving faster than usual," Syie spoke directly to the divine patriarch''s mind.

    This invasion was different than the others. For as long as the spies continued to observe the humans and their preparations for the invasion, everything was the same. But the situation changed when the humans actually set out from their cities. And from the looks of things��

    A long bruise appeared on the slightly glowing forehead of the man. His whole, solid build emanated a strange, golden aura, giving the man divine looks. Loraz''s rugged face and neatly trimmed beard went great with his muscr, refined silhouette, covered in a simple, white tunic.

    "It''s her," Syie turned her long beak, redirecting her attention and Loraz''s vision to the side of the forest. "No��"

    "It''s both of them," Loraz sighed, his mood turning foul. The sour look on his face contrasted with the divine aura around him. "And Kan? What is he doing��"

    Syie turned her eyes back to the humans to keep tabs on their movements, pulling Loraz''s vision along.

    "Well, I''m d to see them��" Loraz spoke, the sour look on his face growing more and more profound.

    "You don''t think she''s ready?" Syie spoke, giving Loraz a nce and thus forcing him to confront his own sorry state.

    "Tch," Loraz clicked his tongue before shaking his head and raising his eyes. "Either way, do you think we have a shot?" he asked, disconnecting one of his eyes from the link and ncing over to where he spotted his ex and their child.

    ''And what was Kan doing with them? He couldn''t be trying to��''

    Loraz''s face soured even further, requiring two more shakes and a solid p to the cheeks for the man to gather his wits back together.

    ''It doesn''t matter. It''s good to see her here. Her firepower could prove extremely valuable,'' Loraz focused his attention back on the problem.

    In theory, the humans didn''t attack yet. Instead, they were slowly setting up their camps and funny tents. They didn''t even appear to prepare for the battle.

    If only not for this damn witch calling forth a storm��

    But was this an attack already? Or were they trying to soften the soil for some of the stupid reasons humans were known toe up with?

    Today being Loraz''s debut as the leader the divines in the staged battle with humans didn''t help.

    ''To think a day woulde for me to miss you, old man,'' Loraz thought, calming down the moment he invoked his father''s face.

    "We wait," he spoke, his decision effectively holding back both divines of his n and the celestials of Syie''s lineage from starting anything. "We are better off fighting in the forest, in case they really want to attack."

    Loraz sighed heavily before taking a step back, deeper into the forest.

    As dangerous as those dark clouds looked, they weren''t a deration of war yet. And if there was even the smallest chance of avoiding the battle, now that the enemy obviously brought out their strongest��

    ''What are we even supposed to do about that witch?'' Loraz nced over a specific part of the human camp, brightly lit with some unquenchable torches that continued to fill their task despite the heavy drops of rain generously watering the fields in front of the camp. ''Maybe I could stop her if given the chance, but how do I get through so many of them?''

    A sense of relief filled Loraz''s mind as he breathed out.

    For at least a moment, he could rest and get some time to think. He barely arrived at the edge of the forest a few moments earlier, only to be faced by the rapidly advancing army of humans.

    And ording to the reports, there were several more armiesing to join the fray.

    ''This might actually be it for the forest,'' Loraz seemed to vanish, his aura fading away as the dark thoughts took over.

    Only half of all the celestials and divines have gathered. But given theck of proper count, Loraz couldn''t tell how many would trickle by one by one soon, while how many may have rested for the final time since thest time they gathered.

    Loraz didn''t know. This burden of his ability to strategize was what brought his mood down, cutting down the natural flow of his aura and severely weakening the leader of the divine protectors.

    "I wish she could be still here," Loraz muttered. He disconnected from Syie''s senses and nced over to where hest saw that sly fox. "And just what the hell is she doing, bringing Fay here?" A hint of usation appeared in Loraz''s voice as he whined silently.

    "If only I didn''t push her away in the heat of a moment, back then��"

    Ignoring how rude of ament it was with Syie right by his side, Loraz sighed with resignation.

    It''s been quite some time since hest saw his wife or their daughter. What''s more, whenever he recalled the profile of Fay that he nced upon, Loraz couldn''t help but squint his eyes, puzzled by some elusive detail.

    Was it something about her position? Or was there something behind her that unsettled him so much?

    But at least for a single moment, he regained his peace. And in this momentary respite of thinking about his daughter, Loraz''s thoughts cleared enough for him to figure out, what was so unsettling about what he nced at.

    ''A man?''

    Loraz indulged in his respite for exactly one second.

    Only for a heavenly thunderbolt to strike right across the open field, bringing down divine mes right in the center of the human camp.

 Chapter 132: Moment of tranquility

    "It seems like he didn''t notice you," Madam whispered, not daring to raise her voice even the tiniest bit.

    Stepping right into the middle of the camp her ex gathered to fight the humans off, I couldn''t afford to be discovered.

    So, just like many other celestials and divines that assumed much less cumbersome, human forms while they awaited orders, I appeared like just one of those who aligned themselves with Madam.

    In the eyes of the beings crowding the edge of the forest, I was but one of them, silently walking to my fate along with the rest of Madam''s and Kan''s group.

    "Over there," I spoke out, raising my hand and pointing at a small rise nearby. This small hill reached as high as the upperyer of the canopies of the trees ahead and was currently upied by a group of five protectors of the forest. "Clear that spot for me, and I should get a shot."

    Kan lowered its massive mouth and gave me a long look. He then raised his mouth and stole a quick nce at Madam before rolling its eyes and climbing up the hill with a single leap.

    The trees shoot, and the leaves whisper in the air.

    Kan spoke.

    Fay tightened her hold over my arm.

    I could tell how anxious and distressed she was. She didn''t want me to participate in whatever was about to happen here.

    But, as stupid and insecure as it was from me, after seeing her awakened stats through our bond��

    I just couldn''t resist this opportunity to farm some nice amount of experience to power-level through my system!

    So far, bringing my attributes up has been an easy but tedious task. It either involved solving puzzles of my quests or suffering in the starlight in and misty valley�� But after the recent fight, I found out that killing people was not only easy but also extremely beneficial to my growth!

    And as weird as it felt�� I felt no hint of regard for the lives of those who dared to invade Fay''s home.

    Fay''s home�� and the source of the herbs that gave me the edge and negotiating rights with Makary back home. This brings us to one of the three main reasons why I couldn''t resist this opportunity.

    ''I can get stronger, build favors with locals of the forest, and secure the area.''

    As cold-blooded as it might be, right now I wasn''t ready to share the bounties of this forest with whoever dared to greed for them. I needed those herbs to keep dealing with Makary, so I could keep Fay entertained in perpetuity.

    Building favor with locals by helping them defend their forest was of equally utmost importance, as it would announce my existence and force a favorability, something I desperately needed to shield Fay from any sort of inner strife.

    Andstly��

    The leaves rustled in the air. And the group of celestials that upied the small hill turned and left, courtly following the request of the elder.

    ''If someone of his powers wants to take the hill, he most likely has a very specific reason for it,'' I thought, forcing my thoughts back to reality. For now that Kan cleaned the hill, Madam moved ahead, pulling me and Fay along.

    "You can still go back if you stop it now," Fay''s mom warned me once we reached the top of the hill.

    Ignoring her, I pulled Fay just a single step ahead, taking a long look over the treetops of the forest''s edge, staring down at the massive camp in the distance.

    The storm was already raging. The fat drops of rain poured down on the grass, turning the in around the camp into wend.

    ''That''s one hell of a nice idea to fortify the camp and stop any potential charge in its tracks,'' I thought, slowly raising my eyes back to the camp.

    And seeing what surrounded it, I had to fight off the desire to spit down on the ground in frustration.

    ''Stormy night on an open in, and a camp surrounded by wagons,'' I thought, pulling Fay down as I knelt on the ground.

    While I doubted the humans in the camp could do anything at the considerable distance that separated us, there was no reason to leave it to a chance.

    "Can you see it?" Most likely sensing she wouldn''t be able to change my mind, Fay seemingly gave up and asked as she reoriented her focus on the situation ahead.

    "The camp?" I asked, not exactly sure what Fay could mean.

    "That aura��" Fay whispered, quickly cutting her words and pausing to give her mom a quick, intense look.

    "Kan," Madam called out without a second of hesitation, pointing with her eyes at a specific spot on the hill.

    "��"

    Kan didn''t use his voice of nature. Instead, he obediently rose up on its legs and walked up a bit beforeying back down on the ground.

    The moment he did so, sparks shed all over Fay''s skin before the air around her grew much tenser as a tail and a new set of fox''s ears formed up from her long, fluffy hair.

    "Allow me," Fay spoke softly as she let go of my arm and moved behind me, only to set her hands on my sides and rest her forehead against my back.

    My vision�� changed. But so did my perception of myself, now�� now extending towards Fay, making me more aware of every detail of her body and soul than ever before. And yet, as I blinked my eyes, I couldn''t help but focus on a huge pir of dark yet strangely elegant current of causality rising high up to the skies, where it formed the very center of the storm.

    "I see��" I muttered, shocked by the magnificent and at the same time terrifying sight�� Only to instantly pull my attention back to what truly mattered.

    The shaken state of Fay''s soul, the grief that she forced deep inside her heart, the fear and worry that permeated every inch of her mind��

    "Fay��" I swung around, causing Fay''s forehead to drop off my back and sever the link. And as lonely as it felt not to feel Fay as intimately anymore, I already knew everything I should.

    And so, I ced my hands on her small shoulders before giving her some time to raise her chin and look up all on her own.

    "Just trust me this one time. If this won''t work, I won''t risk it any further," I spoke as softly as I could, moving one of my hands to wipe the tear forming in the corner of Fay''s beautiful, vividly blue�� eyes?

    ''I didn''t even notice her eyes would change as she transforms,'' I thought, moving my hand down to caress the slope of the girl''s cheek, mesmerized by the enamored, defenseless look in her teary eyes.

    Fay sniffed up a bit. Then, the look in her eyes steeled a bit, giving her the vibe of a puppy that just decided to try hard, eager to be up to the task.

    My face followed my heart and melted as I resisted the desire to screw the war and screw Fay instead.

    "Thank you," pulling on the reins of my self-control as hard as I could, I pressed my forehead against Fay''s and took two breaths, getting myself high on the faint, familiar aroma I would sniff like a maniac during our intimate moments.

    And so, with the memory of where that rising pir of morphed causality rose up to the sky in my mind, I pulled the neugarand from my shoulder andid down on the ground, taking a short moment to nest myselffortably on the spot.

    Then, Ipleted the extensive long of procedures that had to bepleted to properly set up the gun for the task. After those few minutes passed, I invoked the memory of the camp again and ovepped it with what I could see through my long-range scope.

    ''That''s gotta be it,'' I thought, calming down my breath as I confirmed all the settings on the gun and the proper scaling for the scope for thest time. My finger moved down the firing guard of the trigger, gently caressing the protruding piece of metal as if it was Fay''s nipple or clit.

    "That should do it," I muttered once I zeroed myself in on the target. Yet, rather than pressing the trigger, I moved my finger up on the trigger guard. "Fay, could you do it again?" I then asked, making sure topensate for all the tiny movements my speech brought to the gun.

    "Huh?"

    Fay, just like the rest of our small group turned out to be visibly tense, not sure how to act in the prolonged moment of curiosity, doubt, and uncertainty. No one saw my new weapon shoot yet, not even myself.

    And now, after what had to feel like hours for them, I suddenly broke the stalemate and called Fay out.

    "Ah, sure," Fay shook her adorable face and ran a bit closer. Then, she seated herself right up on my ass before lowering her upper body forward and resting her whole self against my back.

    The familiar sparks cracked in the air as she assumed her ascended form. Strangely enough, rather than hurting me, those sparks caressed my flesh, filling it with weird, warm feelings.

    As Fay snuggled her hands to lock herself in ce, she pressed her cheek to my back, re-establishing our link.

    For but a moment, everything made sense.

    I could feel Fay''s warmth shielding me from the cold winds that mercilessly struck the hill. Her soft breath tickled the skin of my neck, while my peripheral vision ended up blocked by the elegant curtain of her beautiful hair.

    For a moment, all my senses sharpened, and my perception of time slowed down. All that was meaningless removed itself from my mind.

    And at the very peak of this tunnel vision, when I felt like calcting the precise path of every drop of rain and how it would affect the trajectory of the bullet just for the thrill of the mental challenge, with one smooth movement, my finger moved down and steadily pulled the trigger.

    //Check the Author''s notes!//

 Chapter 133: Ive hurt her!

    *Swish!*

    There was no usual booming sound of a gun discharging that I expected.

    ''Right, it''s fully rail operated. The explosion onlyes from��''

    That''s how much my intelligence improved by bonding with Fay and allowing me to figure out, where the round reached its target.

    Human flesh was no barrier to the power of this kind of round. But at this speed, it was solid enough to trigger the condensation charge, releasing a cone of fiery hell filled with mangled shrapnels.

    BOOM!

    A bit more than just an instant after the sh of the explosion, its roaring sound reached my ears as the distant echo of the shockwave washed over the forest.

    "Haaa��" I breathed out, closing my mind as I forcibly rxed, fighting off the pleasant stimuli of my system bloating up as it spewed out system notification after system notification.

    [Battle Log:

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 26 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 3 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 5.2 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 7.3 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 4.1 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 1.9 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 12.7 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 6.9 Participation: 70%

    - Total level growth: 46.97

    - 1st tier level growth: 5 (5)

    - 2nd tier level growth: 10(20)

    - 3rd tier level growth: 5.49(21.97)]

    ***

    [Level: 5] > [Level: 10]

    [Aura: 6] > [Aura: 11]

    [Usable points: 0] > [Usable points: 10]

    [Unlocks tier 2 features]

    ***

    [Level: 10] > [Level: 20]

    [Aura: 11] > [Aura: 21]

    [Usable points: 10] > [Usable points: 15]

    [Unlocks tier 3 features]

    ***

    [Level: 20] > [Level: 25.49]

    [Aura: 21] > [Aura: 26]

    [Usable points: 15] > [Usable points: 17]

    ***

    [Gained Firearms proficiency!]

    [Firearms proficiency: 1]

    ***

    [Achievement!

    - Two birds with one bullet!

    - Kill at least two enemies with a single shot.

    - Firearms proficiency +2]

    ***

    [Achievement!

    - Kaboom!

    - Have your shot cause an explosion that ims at least five lives

    - Firearms proficiency +6]

    ***

    [Achievement!

    - One bullet to kill''em all!

    - Kill at least seven enemies with a single shot

    - Firearms proficiency +12]

    [Firearms Proficiency: 1] > [Firearms Proficiency: 21]

    [Perfect Evolution Possible: Do you wish to undergo a rebirth?]

    "Haaaaa��."

    A long sigh escaped from my mouth.

    I only had the link with Fay to thank for not losing my consciousness on the spot. The influx of power that suddenly filled my veins and coursed through my blood was something far too great for me to handle, were it not for Fay instantly and willinglying in clutch and taking some of this burden to lessen the pressure on me.

    But her help only meant that instead of losing my mind and suffering for a while in silence, we were now both struggling to catch a breath, tortured by the onught of energy that reached beyond anything I''d ever faced before.

    It was power much greater than whatever I saw on the starlight in�� save maybe for those pirs of pure starlight. And now, all of this power surged into my flesh, burning it down only to then revive it and repeat the process at least a thousand times in a single second.

    The world turned ck before my eyes as my brain started to cut the non-essentials as it switched to a full-on survival mode. Then went my hearing, smell, and taste, with only the sense of touch holding the fort of my mind.

    And with nothing but Fay''s closeness filling my world, I continued to cope with the unbearable torture.

    Bit by bit, the energy finally started to settle down, once my flesh burned and revived enough times to slowly adapt and house it. And as I opened up my eyes and took a breath��

    I saw absolutely nothing.

    Even with my body growing now more used, and ustomed to this newfound power, it was still far too weak to properly house it.

    ''This has to be what this evolution is all about�� But rebirth��? Won''t this bring down my stats back to zero?'' I thought, worryingly making the connection of what the word rebirth often means in the games I used to y.

    And judging by how things went so far, there definitely was some sort of logic behind this system of mine, the logic that was deviously alike the games I used to y while remaining somewhat erratic, and unpredictable.

    ''What is it going to be?'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I struggled to make the decision.

    The gift of wisdom I''ve received sadly didn''t extend to include what the rebirth meant. But, somehow, I could tell that unless I allowed the evolution to go through�� then this overwhelming power coursing through my veins, rather than a boon, would be just a set of shackles.

    "Fay��" I groaned, not even able to tell whether I produced any voice at all. But with the link still connecting us, I could tell Fay heard me.

    Luckily enough, as much as she wanted to partake in this torture to lift even a bit of my burden, Fay went through the ordeal rtively easily, avoiding most of the negative side effects that currently gued me.

    ''I''ve hurt her��'' This was an undeniable fact.

    In her attempts to lift even the part of my burden, Fay, through our link, had to go through a part of the pain that nearly rendered me unconscious. And while it allowed me to keep at least one sense to myself��

    ''I''VE HURT HER!''

    A sense of massive self-loathing exploded in my soul, overshadowing the fear of the unknown situation I was in. Prompted by this fear, I held little to nothing back.

    ''You want me to evolve? With how easy I can regain my levels, why not?!'' Refusing to let Fay worry even a single second further, I gritted my teeth. ''Bring it on! Worst case scenario, I will ughter a whole bunch more of those fuckers to get my strength back!''

    A strange sense of determination filled me from inside.

    ''For I refuse to ever allow Fay to get hurt again!''

 Chapter 134: Expanded limits

    The process of evolution�� felt weird.

    It was borderline torture�� but mixed in with the extreme feeling of release as the raw energy in my flesh finally started to settle down.

    A miracle of flesh adapting to its new limits by constant destruction and revival.

    This process, fittingly named rebirth and evolution, brought the first innate changes to my body, even when ounting for all the benefits of the raised attributes I''ve enjoyed so far.

    And with those changes, more and more of this weird energy continued to pour into my flesh.

    [Consuming free points topensate for missing attributes]

    A system message shed before my eyes, before a massive chunk of the energy coursing in my flesh�� exploded.

    For a brief second, I felt as if every fiber of my being was on fire, once again set upon the process of the constant death and rebirth.

    [Insufficient free power. Consuming double the aura of the remaining cost]

    [Aura: 26] > [Aura: 21]

    [Level: 25] > [Level: 25][2]

    [Strenght: 5.98] > [Strenght: 5]

    [Agility: 5.25] > [Agility: 4]

    [Wisdom: 6] > [Wisdom: 5]

    [Inteligence: 6.25] > [Inteligence: 5]

    [Endurance: 1o+1] > [Endurance: 3]

    [Usable points: 17] > [Usable points: 0]

    "Haaaa��."

    The torture ended.

    For the first time in what felt like ages, no weird power assaulted every nerve within my flesh. A whole, damn eternityter, I emerged victorious from my rebirth.

    Along with this advancement, I could feel other parts of my being reinforcing. The most useful of them is the gift of knowledge. With it, I could finally understand what the hell was actually going on, at least, to a degree.

    By leveling up a whole fucking lot with a single devastating strike at the enemy camp, I''ve reached the point where I could pretty much max my attributes.

    The thing about consuming aura was a pity, but it was born out of myck of prior knowledge.

    As it turns out, the system had a weird way of counting my attributes. While checking whether evolution would be possible, it counted all my virtual attribute points. Hence, when my free points proved insufficient to raise all my attributes to their former maximum, I had to source the remaining need for power from somewhere.

    And my aura, which just like my level could resist the trial of a literal rebirth, proved to be just the right source.

    Most of the energy that overwhelmed me ended up being used to expand my limits, far beyond anything that would be humanly possible. And with the small change to my level, it brought along a certain promise.

    This step wasn''t one of its kind, but the first one I would make on my path to growing stronger.

    ''Judging from the battle log, that mage I''ve killed had average attributes at twenty-six points,'' I thought, recalling and then piecing together different details that the system provided me with. ''Going by Ockham''s razor, my new limit should be twenty or something,'' I guessed before taking a deep breath.

    ''That means, she was quite likely a human that evolved even further.''

    I pressed my eyelids tighter together, taking a moment to ponder over everything.

    The question of my new attributes was pretty straightforward, again, thanks to the evolved gift of knowledge.

    After my rebirth, all my attributes fell down to the level of my rebirth, bringing all of my stats, save for aura and level, to a mere two points each. Then, all my bonus statuses and virtual points applied, with the exception of my endurance which I somehow grew beyond its natural limit.

    All of those changes left me considerably weaker than before�� and also with a more intelligence-focused build.

    Lastly, there was this epassing sense of void within my soul. It had nothing to do with romance or loneliness and everything with�� power.

    Just like my body couldn''t handle the raw power that came with my growth, right now, with its limits greatly increased�� It felt empty without some sort of medium to feel it.

    I felt the hunger rece every bit of torture from before, luring me to go and devour until I found something that would befit my soul.

    ''It appears I will have to go and find some skills, rather than having them appear out of thin air,'' I thought, my consciousness already yielding to the powerful thirst for something to channel my newfound limits through.

    I opened my eyes, only to find out that whatever my brain did to cut my senses off had now reverted. And as I raised my eyes towards the enemy camp ahead��

    "Hon! Peter!" Fay''s desperate voice forced me out of my shaken state. And now that I''ve finally paid attention, I felt her hands violently shake me by my clothes.

    "I''m back��" I managed to mutter weakly, finally breathing out a proper sigh. And as I took in some fresh air, I could feel the life return to my limbs.

    With the burden of the rebirth now gone, I relished the sense offort that came along. Only for a short while, though. I still had a girl to calm down and apologize to.

    "Fay, I''m sorry, I had no idea something like this would happen," I turned around and said,menting that with my decreased wisdom and intelligence, sensing our bond grew considerably harder.

    "You are okay, right?" Her eyes all in tears, Fay asked in a faint, uncertain voice while she raised her hands to my cheeks. Her fingers gently fell down on my skin, tracing it up and down and to the sides, as if for the girl to prove to herself that I was still in one piece.

    "It seems that I''m better than ever, honestly," I admitted, only to shake my head and take a look to the side, where my peripheral vision caught some disturbance.

    And after oveing this insane trial, my face grew white.

    "Guys, does this look like a trouble?" I asked, guiding everyone''s eyes to where I was looking�� Or rather, at a huge man in the strength of his years with a strikingly golden light beaming from every inch of his skin as he hurriedly made his way across the forest''s edge. "He looks like he is heading straight here, doesn''t he?"

 Chapter 135: Too easy

    "He looks like he is heading straight here, doesn''t he?"

    While what I said was pretty much a fact, the trouble wasn''t as immediate as it appeared to be when I saw the signs of it brewing.

    For whatever reason, the golden figure opted against making a huge mess and just cutting through the lines of gathered celestials and divines. Instead, it moved swiftly�� but within reason, jumping from one opening to another to get through the huge crowd of humans.

    ''I''m running out of time,'' I calmly made a mental note. Then, I looked around the hill.

    Kan, Madam, Leinei, Fay and me.

    As little as I knew about their backgrounds, they appeared like a force just right to stop the local ruler in his tracks, giving me just a little bit more time.

    ''With how things are, I''m too weak to even look at him, given how I barely could resist Kan''s pressure,'' I thought, only for my eyes to twitch as I looked back towards the human camp out in the distance.

    The storm has copsed. The strange force of causality that fed into its core now vanished, cutting the flow of aura and causing the entire storm to contract on the now open and empty spot where its core used to be.

    And as the dark clouds converged closer and closer, the nket of rain that turned the ground around the camp into a damn swamp, now focused its full might on the camp itself.

    ''Whatever fires my shot might cause, they will be quelled by the hail. And once it grows even stronger��'' I raised my eyes to the sky, studying the clouds for a short while. ''The rain might start affecting my shoots!''

    I shook my head and turned my head back to the small crowd on the hill.

    "Leinei, I need you to go with Fay and bring the big box that we''ve arrived with," I started giving orders, knowing full well the pressure of time. "Kan, Madam, I will need you to hold back that guy for as long as you can," I added, turning my eyes to Fay''s mother only to look back at the girl right away.

    "Fay, dearest, what I''ve gone through looked and felt scary, but it allowed me to grow stronger. So, while I might go through it again pretty soon, it''s not a bad thing!"

    The n formed in my head. A desperate action to cement my position and the situation we were in.

    With just a single shot, I''ve proved very little, while potentially messing up the local leader''s ns for the attack. I didn''t weaken the enemy to the point where their real strength would be affected either.

    "Oh right, Fay, can you maybe discern the strongest people in that camp?" I asked while everyone was still frozen by how suddenly I assumedmand over all of them.

    "I�� I don''t think so?" Fay muttered, too busy trying to figure out what I was trying to do to fully focus on my question.

    "Well, then we will have to leave part of it to the luck," I spoke to myself in response, grabbing the neugarand as I raised up from the small nest I made for myself.

    Now that I had no target in particr, shooting in the general direction of the camp would be easier from a standing position. And most importantly��

    "Guys, I''m sorry, but I need you to hurry up. Oh, and be careful with that freezer!" I added, raising my hand to the bolt-action lock of the gun and reloading it with the simple four moves that every gamer and ancient soldier knew by heart.

    I brought my cheek to the body of the gun and took a quick nce through the scope.

    Without the connection with Fay, I couldn''t see the auras of the people within.

    ''And ording to how she felt about it, I couldn''t really ask for an aura as visible as that rising pir of causality��''

    Ignoring how I came to understand the concept behind what I saw for the nth time, I took a deep breath.And right at the point when my lungs were about to do the switch and push for an exhale, I pulled my trigger.

    Swish!

    There was no gunpowder discharge to make a booming sound. The shot itself was as silent as the slight buzzing of the capacitors powering the maic rail within the gun.

    The sound of the explosion and the distant noise of the rising mayhem were a different matter though.

    [Battle Log:

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 7.5 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 2.2 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 1.9 Participation: 70%

    ��

    ��

    ��

    The log of the battle shed in the corner of my vision, but I paid it little to no mind.

    Instead, I raised my hand near my cheek and reloaded the gun, watching how the empty cartridge that housed only the driving, maic weight of the round fell from the gun on the grass of the hill.

    "Guys! We don''t have the time, go!" I hurried everyone while taking aim for another shot.

    Swish!

    Boom!

    A cone of fire lit yet another part of the distant camp, adding more and more lines to the active log of the battle.

    ''This is too easy,'' I thought, grinning my teeth as I felt power gradually surge towards me, filling the now seemingly unending holes of my talent.

    And with every shot, I could tell my senses continued to sharpen, making me feel more like one with the weapon in my arms.

    Right as Fay gritted her teeth and turned around to rush down the hill while pulling Leinei along, I could see the golden figure already crossing the halfway point of the distance that initially separated us.

    ''I''ve lost too much time!'' Forcing my attention back on the moment and all the opportunities that it held, I reloaded and pulled the trigger, sending another anti-tank, armor-piercing condensation round into the soft target of human bodies gathered in the camp.

    As my senses tuned in better and better with the act of shooting, I started to slowly recognize the most lethal pattern of crowds that could appear at this precise moment.

    With a hell-fire raining down on their heads, they didn''t scatter�� but bunched into groups, hoping to ward off the danger with the strength of numbers.

    What it meant for a sharpshooter like me with explosive rounds, though, was that the enemy willingly made themselves all a bigger and easier target.

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 2.9 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 2.4 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 3.3 Participation: 70%

    The kill logs now doubled and tripled in number, scattering to every corner of my vision as my hands repeated the same routine.

    Pull the leaver back, bring it down, feel the click, pull it back up, and then push it forward, away from you. Lower your cheek, take aim, and gradually pull the trigger, as if the shot was supposed toe as a surprise.

    Swish!

    Boom!

    The golden figure was just ahead, a mere second away.

    Pull the trigger, bring it down, and feel the click. Load the new round, take a deep breath, and allow the shake of the recoil to disperse throughout your upper body.

    Reload, fire.

    With every repetition, my movements grew smoother and more refined.

    Reload, fire.

    And stop.

    The rapid expansion of my kill log suddenly stopped right as I lowered the muzzle of my gun and took a look at the barrel.

    Even without the thermal expansion of a gas, the rapid movement of the rounds and the inevitable heat of air resistance produced when firing already caused the barrel to get slightly discolored.

    ''Shooting again means putting everyone at risk,'' I thought, gritting my teeth over the stupidity of leaving the recement parts back in the freezer.

    Having nothing better to do, I pushed two leavers and disconnected the glowing-hot barrel from the electric system of the gun, pushing it off its socket with a pull on another lever.

    With a simple ''pop'' sound, the barrel split from the main body of the neugarand, dropping down to the ground and instantly frying the grass it fell on.

    "Now, it''s up to Fay to get back soon enough," I muttered, breathing out properly for the first time in a while before raising my barrel-less gun over my back and resting it on my shoulders, right as I noticed the golden figure finally make its way to the top of the hill only to be intercepted by Madam''s and Kan''s silent front.

    ''Now, let''s see how things go.''

 Chapter 136: The power of Madams voice

    "Wha��?!" the golden man stumbled when he climbed high up the hill enough toe face to face with Madam. "It''s you? But�� Why? How?"

    Despite seeing the man for the very first time, my opinion of him instantly took a massive dive.

    ''Is this how a leader of the army on the brink of a battle should act?''

    I squinted my eyes and turned around, hooking my hands on the gun that I held on my back. And with this disrespectful, rxed pose, I stared at the man as his eyes moved from Madam to Kan�� and then, to me.

    "You? Who are you?" the golden being squinted its eyes, only for them to expand under the exploding wrath. "HUMAN?!"

    "Calm down," Madam spoke out and even reached out with her hand�� But she underestimated her ex''s outcry. The man shrouded in a golden aura simply stepped past her hand and then past Madam herself.

    "STAY!"

    Before the man could make another step and force me to lower my hands to the neu-shottie hanging on a belt down my neck, Madam turned around and reached out, this time putting her back behind her grab. And to my actual surprise, she managed to hold the man down, stopping him in his tracks.

    "You��" the man turned his face to look at Madam, the fury at spotting a human amid his camp reced by the holy fury of his ex opposing him��

    ''Even though Fay imed her Madam gave up her spot as the leader of celestials, she is standing up to the leader of divines��'' I shook my head and took a step forward.

    The worst thing I could do right now was to show any fear. Did I do anything to incur it? Or did I just ughter scores of people who were obviously aiming to attack the forest?

    "I didn''t give amand to attack! How do you know if they didn''t want to just create a camp here?! You''ve provoked a damn war!" the golden man shouted out right in Madam''s face. "And you even brought human here?! Have you openly sided with them?! Or are you that set on taking revenge on me you are willing to let this forest burn down��"

    "Shut it."

    Madam''s voice was silent. And yet, just like everything around her, I froze in ce.

    The man shrouded in the golden aura was no different, unable to utter another word, not to speak about moving around.

    Under the weight of Madam''smand, he couldn''t even twitch.

    "Don''t forget your ce, boy!"

    Madam''s figure appeared to grow, regardless of how she continued to look human at all times. Her aura permeated the entire hill and everything and everyone on it, disallowing any action that she didn''t openly approve of.

    "Burn down our forest?Isn''t this what you did by allowing them to set up and reinforce the camp?" Madamshed out, heavily pulling the hand she held the golden man with and throwing him on the ground in a fit of rage.

    "The only reason why you have any power now is because I didn''t want Fay to witness what a joke of a man you are!"

    From what was supposed to be a simple stalling action, Madam turned into an intense episode of a family drama.

    And if not for my inability to move, I would kill to get a Coke and popcorn to watch those developments.

    ''So she gave up her power willingly, rather than being forced to do so,'' I thought, carefully processing every sword that Madam or the golden man would say. ''Wait, doesn''t that make Fay�� a princess?''

    For but a second, I imagined Fay dressed in one of those period costumes, all too happy to jump in my arms as I would carry her across our royal pce, to the royal bed, where on top of royal pillows we would��

    "Don''t you dare bring her up in this!" the golden man groaned, struggling to resist Madam''s word of charm. He even managed to move, something I couldn''t even conceive doing when locked by Madam''s seemingly infinite lock.

    The man''s arm twitched. And then moved. And then, he slowly rose up from his knees.

    The veins bulked under the thinyer of cloth of his tunic, showcasing just how heavy Madam''s word was.

    And yet, he resisted it and stood up.

    "You''ve betrayed your kin and sided with a filthy human��" the golden man uttered, standing up but still struggling to precisely control his muscles.

    "A human who killed the mage responsible for this storm and then scores of others while you were sitting back and doing nothing," Madam coldly countered. Then, her eyes shed as the air around her face tensed. "KNEEL!"

    Overpowered in an instant, the golden man fell back down to his knees.

    "It''s been so many years since Ist saw you, yet you still managed to even further disappoint me."

    ''Ugh��''

    Even though I wasn''t the recipient of those words, I could tell how much they had to sting.

    Especially when spoke to a man who obtained his current standing not by the merit of hits wits or power, but thanks to Madam willingly giving up on her authority for Fay''s sake.

    "Madam��" I managed to utter a single word, weakly calling for Fay''s mom.

    Turning her eyes, the elegant woman waved her head and instantaneously lifted the pressure of her words, freeing me from the aura binds.

    "I think you''ve lectured him enough," I spoke, baffled by how the situation evolved.

    When I first spotted the golden man, I thought his appearance meant great trouble. After all�� I was a human who infiltrated his warcamp and even pushed certain developments in the conflict with the army in the camp outside of the forest!

    And yet, here I was, feeling sympathetic to the man''s cause as Madam coldly scolded him.

    "I''m sorry it has to be this way, but let me take just a moment to set some things straight," I spoke, turning directly to the golden man and stopping just a few steps away from his face. "I have nothing to do with the humans outside of the forest. I''m not here as an invader but a, hopefully," I stole a quick nce at Madam''s face, "hopefully a well-weed guest. And��"

    Despite apparently listening to my words, both the golden man and Madam, turned their heads to the side, away from me.

    "We are back!" Fay called out as she dropped one end of the huge freezer on the soft soil of the forest, not sparing a single look at the hill while she rushed to open it before pulling out two bags marked with the same sign that I had engraved on my neugarand.

    Fay, paying absolutely no mind to the tense air all over the hill ran up before passing me the bags.

    "How are you holding up?" she asked, before finally taking a nce to the side, to where her father kneeled under the pressure of her mom''s words.

    Her eyes widened before her face twisted in an annoyed grimace.

    Sparing no word for her father, Fay turned around and reached out for my arms while I was too stunned by the development to even react, only to wrap herself around my shoulder and pull me ahead, back to the topmost point of the hill.

    "Can you show me again," Fay asked, her face a mix of strange, almost vile satisfaction and�� some sort of uncertainty? "Can you show me again how you ughter those who are out for my blood?" she asked with a smile as conflicted as her expression.

    And strangely enough, even though it was a first for me to see her like that�� I could somewhat guess the reasons behind her troubled expression.

    The annoyed look she gave her father, ostentatious show of affection towards me, request for me to show my power and ability��

    ''Isn''t she trying to brag about me to poke her father''s side?''

    Not exactly sure of how far I was willing to take this guess, I simply heaved a short sigh before raising my free hand and using it to gently pat the top of Fay''s head.

    "Of course," I assured before smiling at Fay with the brightest smile my face could produce. "For you, my dear, everything."

    With a few steps, we reached the top of the hill while I continued to race with my thoughts to figure out what would best serve Fay''s goals for the moment.

    And arriving at a certain conclusion, I swiftly reced the barrel in my gun before making sure that the electric sockets were properly aligned and connected. Then, I sat down cross-legged on the ground, positioned sideways to the camp.

    Raising my eyes, I patted my thigh and smiled at Fay, secretly worried beyond any reason about whether or not I nailed what she might desire from me at the moment.

    "Come here...?"

 Chapter 137: Fays bragging rights

    What was it that Fay expected of me in this moment?

    Was it a fit of a rebellious teenager hoping to go against her family and brag about how close she is to a man they don''t know? Was it really something as simple as trying to prickle her father''s side, to show how independent and free of his influence she was?

    Or maybe Fay secretly wanted to show how much she matured, how close she got with a mate she got, all for the sake of bragging before her father and making him proud of how much she had grown?

    In the heat of the moment, I couldn''t really decide. And so, rather than trying to uncover the very core of this secret, I decided to just go with the flow.

    ''If she wants us to get frisky, then could I call myself a man if I refused?'' I thought, bringing my hand down and patting myself on my thigh to invite the girl on myp. ''And consequences��'' For a moment, I imagined the rage of the golden man watching how his precious little daughter, whom he abandoned of sorts, got even remotely intimate with a man, - a human at that! - he didn''t know.

    ''Consequences be dammed!'' I thought when Fay''s eyes sparked, brightening her entireplexion.

    Without any need for a second invitation, she stepped closer before lowering herself down and sitting directly over my crotch.

    Instead of simply upying myp, Fay pushed her legs far apart, bringing her crotch all the way to the slight, natural bulge on my pants, pressing down on it as she wrapped her soft legs around my waist before doing the same with her hands as she pressed her chest against my upper body.

    "I''m sorry we won''t go any further," Fay whispered just loud enough for everyone to hear her words, while a wicked smile flourished on her lips. "But I don''t want this old creep to watch as we do it. So for now," Fay ignited our bond, pressing the softest spot of her panties-covered crotch against the bulge of my pants while leaning over my neck and pressing her lips tightly to my skin.

    "For now, this will have to suffice."

    An assault of the sensory experiences that my body ushered in was still just a tad too weak for me to ignore the explosion of wrath that I felt to my other side, away from the human camp�� and where Fay''s father was forced to kneel down and watch the show.

    But now that we got closer, Fay''s vicious satisfaction vanished from her face. Reassured only when she established our bond and felt I was actually feeling great, she snuggled up to me as usual before closing her eyes and slowly reinforcing our bond further and further.

    Soon, I could sense all of my attributes growing, as if rather than borrowing Fay''s strength I fully ushered in her potential while sharing mine with her. Instead of taking away from her, we mixed our powers, allowing us to channel them at the same time.

    Which, in turn, only made me grow more conscious of how Fay''s felt. That, in turn, allowed my efforts to help out with Fay''s act to be appropriately rewarded when her sense of gratitude, relief, and affection flooded my mind receptors.

    Strangely enough, though, as I ushered in Fay''s attributes�� I felt different than when it happened before. As if��

    ''As if I could now make proper use of the powers that exceeded my former limit,'' I thought, taking a deep breath�� And somehow escaping from the honey-trap of Fay''s intimate closeness and how weing she was with her entire soul, ready and willing to bind our beings on every level possible.

    "Haaa��" A small moan of pleasure escaped from my mouth when Fay copsed her lips on my neck, suckling on it hard as if she were a defanged vampire, desperate for a sip of blood but having nothing to pierce the skin and veins with.

    "You wanted to see how it works," I uttered, desperately grabbing at this small strand of consciousness that awoke from Fay''s increasingly sweet and intense embrace.

    Having a somewhat easier time handling this sensory overload, Fay raised her eyes and smiled brightly.

    And so, I freed one of my hands and brought the armrest of the gun to the upper part of my arm, coiling the other behind Fay''s neck and reaching for the trigger on its other side.

    "Look through this," I pointed the girl at the scope, only for her to instantly lean forth, pressing her sizeable tits even harder against my chest. "There''s a cross and several lines slightly below, right?"

    Fay didn''t reply out loud, letting me know she understood with a gentle twitch of her flesh.

    "At the distance we are right now, the shot will reach roughly where the second line from the top points," I instructed, only to move my hand down, grab Fay''s wrist, and slowly, gently bring her fingers to the lock of the gun.

    "Once you are ready to shoot, pull your face away a bit and let me know. I will try to hold the gun still for you to shoot."

    Communicating directly through our bond, I sensed Fay move slightly around as she directed the muzzle of the gun towards the greatest concentration of aura she could somewhat sense from about the mile that separated our hill from the human camp. And once she finalized her choice, Fay pulled her face away and nced up into my eyes.

    "Let''s see," I muttered, gritting my teeth to ignore how my precum and Fay''s juices started to water the fabric of our clothes, slowly degrading the barrier that limited how well we could feel each other down there.

    Still, I focused on locking my arm and securing the gun in a proper position while minding not to change its angle or direction in the slightest.

    And without a word, I simply looked at Fay, to let her know I was ready.

    And so, full of curiosity, Fay tugged the trigger to the back.

    Swish.

    Boom.

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 2.8 Participation: 30%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 2.4 Participation: 30%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 6.8 Participation: 30%

    The usual set of sounds and system notifications cluttered my senses for a moment.

    And then I felt it. The soft spot that continued to grind at my bulge more and more the more my tent grew�� Right as the avnche of battle log updating started, Fay''s soft spot twitched.

 Chapter 138: Kiss of death

    "Haaa��"

    Something between a sigh and a moan escaped from Fay''s lips. And connected as deeply as my current intelligence and our bond allowed, the reason was pretty damn obvious.

    The influx of power that overwhelmed me in an instant before, now only made Fay tense up a little.

    ''Right, with her stats, her limits should be far greater while the growth slower��?''

    I wasn''t exactly sure if I should expect Fay to disy the same, linear level of growth as mine. She didn''t have a system, after all, even if she partially benefited from it anyway.

    Still, contrary to what happened to me when I shot for the first time, Fay merely twitched and moaned slightly,

    "Easy, right?" I whispered, patting Fay''s back. Then, I heaved a sigh.

    I''ve got some exining to do. But with so many ears around eager to hear everyst word that woulde, I couldn''t exactlymunicate with words.

    So, I closed my eyes before tightening my hold over her soft body.

    With all my mind, I focused on a set of different feelings.

    The opportunity to thin out the numbers of attackers at a low if any cost.

    The chance to gain a lot of strength.

    The desire to keep Fay safe cuddled up in a set of pillows.

    The regret of making her worry.

    One by one, I focused my entire self on those emotions that annoyingly tugged on my soul.

    And once I was done, I slowly pulled my eyelids open.

    Fay calmed down in my arms, hugging me so tight that the heavy neugarand ended up suspended in air, squished between our bodies.

    "Do you want to go again?"

    This question, I asked out loud.

    "Mhmm��" Fay sensibly murmured under her nose while gently swaying on her hips. She pulled her face off my neck, carrying a strangely warm yet upset look. One that hid the emotions that I could feel with all of myself through our bond.

    And with it, came a realization. While for me, absorbing the power from the enemies I killed felt like�� filling a jar. Now that my body was reborn through the mes of evolution, I was simply feeling the gaps.

    For Fay, though, this sudden influx of energy��

    Looking down, I stared into Fay''s vividly blue eyes only to have her boldly look back, refusing to look away while her slight anger melted away from those beautiful eyes of hers.

    Fay''s bottom lip curled up, only for her teeth to gently bite into her soft lip as she lowered her gaze to my mouth.

    "I see��" I whispered, patting Fay on her small, seemingly feeble back.

    Then, I pulled out, even going as far as to unlock Fay''s hold over my shoulders and push her away��

    Only to remove the gun from between us before inviting her right back in.

    "Meanie��" Fay protested silently while stealing a nce at my face while keeping her face low, going for the innocence of an upturned look.

    "Come here already," with a smile, I overcame Fay''s yful resistance and pulled her back to my chest. Feeling her soft, meaty breasts tten against my chest, I raised the gun behind her back before leaning as much forward as I could.

    By doing so, I inevitably pushed Fay down, locking her hips between my thighs and lower stomach.

    With my bulge tightly pressed against the wetness of Fay''s crotch, I took aim and pulled the trigger.

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 8.2 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 4 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 4.3 Participation: 70%

    The battle log swarmed with new entries again.

    Judging from an extremely slight twitch of Fay''s hips, the buckle of her soul�� I could pretty much tell where the remaining thirty percent of the participation went.

    "Can you handle it?" I asked, quickly reloading the lock before taking aim again.

    With the pull of a trigger, new data registered in my battle log.

    Four quick swings of my wristter, again.

    And again.

    "Haaa��"

    I took a short breath to let the barrel cool down. Using this moment as an opportunity, I also rushed to change the clip.

    There were twenty bullets in the massive clip that went inside, and quite honestly, I''ve long lost track of how many shots I had left. So, while I couldn''t really shoot without risking a rapid loss of extremely limited barrels, I took my time to remove the current mag, reload to clear the gun''s lock, and then push in a new, freshly unsealed mag.

    "Just a little longer," I muttered, giving the barrel a quick nce.

    After so many kills, my affinity with a firearm grew quite a bit. And while I had nothing topare it to, to judge the scale of my growth�� I could tell the state of this extremelyplicated piece of engineering at a single nce.

    I wasn''t smart enough to understand it. I felt the gun instead, sensing how the barrel was quickly reaching the optimal temperature.

    "Fay?" I looked down as I asked, only to see her heavily pant while her body twitched, desperately clinging up to my chest. And through our bond, I could tell what was wrong with her.

    "Do you want to stop?" I asked, looking down into her eyes glistering with tears.

    Fay''s hold over my neck tightened as she pulled herself up and closed my mouth with a kiss for a response.

    Not expecting this disy with how we were in full view of everyone on and around the hill, I twitched�� and pulled the trigger.

    And even though I only held the gun in the general direction of the camp, the flood of battle log entries appeared as usual.

    The force of Fay''s kiss intensified, and her tongue pressed heavily on mine. An intensity that adorably contrasted with how small her mouth was, how glib, sweet, and delicate her tongue felt when pressed against mine��

    And in that very moment, amidst the usual clutter of just log entries, I saw a different type of message.

    Desperate to hold myself back against this extremely bold and forward attack, I nced away, eager to find out some raw data that could calm my excited brain.

    Both of my potential step-parents were watching, after all! And I wasn''t so sure Fay would be happy with the extent of the show we offered to everyone watching.

    Desperate to calm down, I looked away�� Only to freeze all over.

    [Level 45 reward: Multikill

    - The level growth brought by iming multiple lives with a single attack will now provide an additional attribute point every two levels gained.]

    [New Skill: Kiss of death

    - Even on the battlefield, the lovers could barely hold back their desire. And as the absolute units they were, they imed lives even when engrossed in their affection.

    - Evolutionary Skill

    - Dark and Supreme attribute

    - Bond Inherence developed: Blood and Love

    - Those connected by this inherence bnce their lust for flesh with their lust for blood. For every act of violence, they will pay with love, exchanging every embrace for blood.

    - The cravings of those connected by this bond will always grow to an extreme

    - Brings full assimtion of aura]

 Chapter 139: Going any further would be just a waste of bullets (double chapter)

    The influx of energy from leveling up felt like the container of my body slowly filling up, reinforcing the inner structure of my body and thus stabilizing it.

    The appearance of the spell, on the other hand, felt like a new pressure valve appearing in my soul, an outlet for my newfound energy to release.

    It wasn''t just a boon to my powers, something I would happily use without knowing what it had to do with anything. No.

    This skill was just like the qualitative change it brought to my bond with Fay, a new inherent element of my being. Receiving it almost felt like regaining control of a limb I didn''t know of my entire life.

    In that single instant, the roaring desire for more blood, more levels, and more attribute points greatly decreased. Split between three potential outlets instead of just two, the energy inside of my flesh calmed down, ridding my mind of this unbearable thirst.

    It was still there. The call for blood, the desire to ughter until yet another skill would form�� But it was nothing more but a tiny, annoying itch.

    For Fay, though, the situation looked entirely different.

    For her, each bit of energy that she gained directly tranted into her growing desire. And now that my newly gained skill evolved our bond and enriched it with an inherence, the call of the blood that we just split together only served to reinforce her lust.

    "Ha�� ha�� haaa��" Fay chuckled heavily, fully resting her weight on my chest and shoulders while her hot, moist breath tickled the side of my neck.

    "Are you okay?" I asked again, even though Fay had already given me the answer a mere moment ago.

    "Mhmm��" Fay''s hips moved a little as she took a deep breath before closing her mouth and blocking her nose. Starving her heart for fresh air for a few moments, she managed to calm herself down a bit. "It''s not even half as bad as it gets when we go at it��"

    Rather than speaking a lot, Fay hid her face in the corner between my neck and shoulder.

    "Keep going," she whispered, tightening her grasp over my upper body as she tensed up in preparation for even more of the stimuli.

    And as much as it pained me to edge her even further, I took a deep breath before turning my eyes back to the camp.

    There were several reasons why I didn''t want to stop, not yet.

    Firstly, I didn''t know how long it would take those humans to develop means to defend against my attacks. So, I should keep going while I still could.

    Secondly, this was a chance to easily and rtively safely cut down their number and even more importantly, instill fear in those who would survive.

    Thirdly, with each shot, I could feel more and more energy fill the pores of my flesh. But in the heat of the moment, I simply didn''t want to distract myself by checking how much I''d grown.

    Raising my physical attributes would bring no better aim than raising my wisdom or intelligence�� With how our reinforced link already started to push my buttons, I dared not to raise the processing power of my brain.

    "Let''s keep going for just a little bit longer," I muttered, patting Fay''s back while already locking my eyes on the next point where the bunched-up auras of humans appeared to be slightly denser.

    With Fay in my arms, I lowered my cheek to the body of the gun, taking a quick look through the scope.

    Swish!

    Bang!

    By now, I''ve perfected the way I had to let the kickback of the neugarand disperse through my flesh, bouncing back and forth whenever the recoil of the maic drive would send the back of the gun digging into my shoulder.

    Swish.

    BANG!

    Judging by a much greater explosion that followed my shot, I had to hit something burnable if not outright explosive.

    Swish.

    Bang!

    The battle log of my system continued to grow longer and longer.

    I took a moment to let the barrel of the gun cool off a bit.

    "How are you holding up?" I asked, looking down at sensing Fay''s body squished into mine.

    "Y-you can keep going��" Fay started to struggle to speak out properly, her saliva dripping from the corner of her mouth.

    I took a deep breath, ignoring the rush of even more power converging in my body.

    Swish.

    Bang!

    Everything happened as usual. But quite noticeably, the battle log appeared much shorter this time.

    ''Did they start to disperse rather than bunching up?'' I thought, sending a more inquisitive look towards the distant camp.

    By now, the entire thing was up in mes. The survivors�� or rather, the lucky bulk of the army that didn''t have the misfortune of bing my target controlled the fires for now, most likely thanks to the still raging storm above their heads.

    But against burning napalm�� mere drops of water weren''t a challenge. And so, while the storm prevented the fires from spreading, wherever my shotnded, the fires would continue in spite of the water all around.

    ''Was this a miss? Or did something change?''

    Puzzled, I quickly reloaded and took aim, sending another shot in.

    Bang!

    This time, the explosion happened pretty high in the sky, as if the bullet hit some sort of impregnable barrier. Then, as it was designed, the barrier cracked at the point of impact, sending the raging mes and shrapnels of the cumtive charge through the opening the kic impact created.

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 1.4 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 2.1 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 2.0 Participation: 70%

    My attack still struck home, but in an extremely limited range, for as the fires and shrapnels rushed to wreak havoc underneath the barrier�� most of them fell into the embrace of yet anotheryer of invisible protection.

    The one thing that I was worried about hade to be.

    The humans, after a great deal of losses and panic, started to develop effective countermeasures for my barrage.

    With the decreased yield of each bullet, the effects the kills had on me and Fay also drastically fell off. After all, from iming scores of people from all over the range of strength, I could now only catch those too weak to keep their guard up properly.

    "Just onest time," I muttered, this time taking my sweet time to aim, trying to discern the positions of all the barriers through the aura sight I''ve gained through my bond with faith.

    Yet, against all aesthetic sense, there was no one huge barrier that protected the camp. As hard as it was to tell, the whole camp was covered in tens and then hundreds of smallyers of force, each barrier stacking on top of the ones below.

    ''There,'' I thought, pulling the trigger and sending a round in a ce where theyers of the barriers appeared to be much thinner.

    The battle log updated. And while the list was much longer this time, it only consisted of people too weak for me to happily waste bullets on them.

    ''Any more and it would be just bullying the weak,'' I thought, lowering my gun and resting it on the ground before taking some time to gently embrace Fay.

    "Are you done?" Madam asked once she noticed I showed no desire to keep up my carnage.

    "Pretty much, yeah," I replied in a low, solemn voice, leaning to the back to let Fay rest on top of me while continuously patting her back. "Going any further would only be a waste of the bullets. Those barriers, as makeshift as they are, do a great job of countering the kind of ammunition that I''ve brought.

    There were all sorts of rounds that I could feed to my neugarand. From the condensation rounds that I packed right now, through deployable sniper rounds, scatter rounds, and even simple, old-style slugs.

    Yet, in my naivety, I picked up the condensation rounds only given the enormous cost every piece of this ammunition came with. So, opting to minimize my losses, I only grabbed what I thought to be the best type of ammo to carry around.

    "Is this your limit, then?" Madam asked, turning her eyes away from me and looking over at the camp.

    Rather than peering into my innate thoughts, she opted to focus on the invasion at hand.

    "Yes and no," I shook my head. "I don''t think they can keep those barriers up forever. And I can send over a bullet whenever I feel like doing so," I shrugged my arms before tensing up my muscles and raising up, keeping Fay closely pressed against my chest to bring her up as well. "For now though, I need somewhere private to let Fay calm down."

    I stole a nce at the golden figure still kneeling just by the side. And even though he clearly couldn''t move his eyes��

    His eyes followed after my every move, full of such an enormous bloodthirst I instantly started to re-evaluate my ns.

    "For the night, they shouldn''t be able to attack. Once I''m done with Fay, we can try a quick sortie to buy us a few more days."

    I fixed my hold over Fay''s waist while feeling her thighs lock around my waist and behind my back.

    Clearly, this girl had no desire to hide her affection from any of those who could see us.

    "And what then?!" Fay''s father finally managed to partially break through Madam''spulsion, freeing his mouth and uttering a low growl. "A few days and what? Let me tell you! After those few days, when more of the armies arrive, they will squash and overwhelm every single one of us!"

    I stopped in my tracks, sending the man a short, analytic nce.

    "Coming up to some sort of agreement with them was our only shot at keeping this forest safe! And you''ve buried this chance now!" The golden man shouted, caring not for the presence of other divines and celestials around. "You''ve doomed us all!"

    The desperation in the golden man''s voice was real. And the grief in his eyes��

    For once, I put my haughty side aside and looked at the situation through this man''s eyes.

    ''He spoke of more armiesing. And with how many there are in just that camp alone��'' I thought, turning my eyes back to the chaotic mess that used to be an orderly camp just a few short moments ago.

    And then, my expression darkened as a vile, greedy smile appeared on my lips.

    ''I guess, with how our bond works right now, that means I will have to fuck Fay''s brains out in preparation for what''s toe,'' I thought, openly grinning at the prospect once it appeared in my mind.

    "Good," I said out loud, causing the golden man''s eyes to turn wide. "The more of them arrive here the better. And it only shows how important tonight''s sortie will be," I added before taking a step forward while fixing my grasp over Fay''s feeble, meek body.

    "For now, though, allow me to excuse myself," I then courtly requested only to bow to the man before closing my eyes and rubbing my cheek against the side of Fay''s head.

    "For now, I have my mate to satisfy."

 Chapter 140: Silent regards

    Watching how Fay''s father''s eyes widened in powerless fury and how Fay herself happily twitched in my arms, knowing full well I antagonized her father just to do her a solid��

    It felt pretty fucking great!

    "Don''t you feel too good about yourself now," Madam sighed, finally sparing some of her focus to the situation at hand over the threat looming in the distance of the field beyond the forest. "I still think it will be best for you two to go back."

    I took a deep breath before ncing over at the nearby freezer Leinei and Fay brought to the bottom of the hill.

    "It will still take roughly two days before we can," I replied with the solid and unforgiving number. "So it is in our best interest to keep those invaders at bay until then."

    In roughly two days, I would be able to take Fay and step through the portal back to Earth. But at the same time, it would conclude the process of establishing a stable gate.

    It was the one ace in the sleeve that I kept generally silent about, because��

    Because of the various drawbacks of going through with the desperation-level contingency, I had in case I had to put the stable gate to actual use.

    "Still, that weapon of yours helped," Madam continued as I struggled to keep Fay hanging on my chest while using my other hand to look for a very specific bag within the freezer.

    I knew I wouldn''t be able to bring all theforts of the modern world to this ce with just one or two trips. As the case with actually connecting the freezer, it would take at least several trips to bring over everything necessary to get a stable source of electricity.

    But when it came to rtivefort and privacy, there were some things I could do�� or rather, buy.

    Other things, like privacy, I had no other choice but to ask my friends and allies for.

    "Okay then," I muttered, finally feeling the straps of a huge back that I grabbed and pulled out while turning to Fay''s mom. "Can you ensure our privacy within a small area?" I asked, pulling the bag open before revealing aplicated mess of metal sticks, springs, and strings that made up the bulky insides of the bag.

    Then, I simply threw the entire thing on the ground, keeping the end of the strap in my hand while kicking the entire thing forward.

    With its inner springs released, the entire thing came alive for a second. The sticks straightened, their smaller segments connecting into longer pieces that made up theplicated structure on which the material of the tent stretched out.

    The now deployed portable home bnced on the edge for a second before falling down on the ground, all ready to use after securing it with just eight bolts to the ground.

    "Fay, could you wait for me inside?" I asked, bringing the girl down to the ground as I unzipped the entrance to the sizeable tent.

    "Just don''t make me wait for long��" Fay whispered, climbing down before quickly getting down on her knees and sliding through the narrow entrance.

    With the burden of her body now gone, I quickly pulled out the huge, automatic air mattress, only to shove it in its bundled form inside. Then came a set of nkets, pillows, and a set of two thick duvets, one of which could serve as a softener of the bed while the other could serve as a cover during the cold night.

    A small noise followed by Fay''s small squeal came from within the tent when she activated the pumping mechanism, causing the thinyer of the mattress to rapidly expand as it filled with the air.

    In general, everything was now ready. All that was left for me was to get inside the privacy of the tent and indulge in what I could sense through my bond with Fay that awaited me on the inside.

    But as much as I wanted to just drop everything and immerse myself in Fay''s affection, there were still some things I had to do.

    "First, Leinei," I muttered, moving back to the freezer before pulling out a case of extremely pure, manufacturing-grade spirits. "This is as pure of an alcohol as my people can create," I announced before passing over the heavy case filled with dangling ss bottles to the wooden hands of the dryad.

    "With this done��" I mumbled to myself while taking a look back into the freezer. After a short deliberation, I grabbed a huge package of raw meat covered in gentle spices and a case of good wines.

    "Those drinks I''ve brought for you, Madam," I announced, offering the case at Fay''s mom''s feet before cing the sealed chunk of meat to the side. "Of course, a small smack on the sidees with it," I exined before stealing a nce at the golden figure by the side.

    Then, with a heavy sigh, I ced my finger on my mouth before moving back to the freezer and shuffling through the contents inside for a while.

    In the end, I pulled out two bottles of the finest scotch that I''d bought before silently bringing them over to the golden figure of Fay''s dad.

    Standing before the man, I ended up with aplicated expression on my face. Yet, regardless of my hesitation, I simply sighed again before cing the two fancy bottles down in front of the man.

    "So, how will it be, Mada�� Mom?"

    Stealing onest nce, I changed how I referred to the mature fox, which only got me a furious stare�� That quickly mellowed down into a look of amusement when Madam''s ex rapidly turned his face and threw me a furious look.

    "I can keep you out of everyone''s view," Madam offered while ignoring her former husband only to turn to me and offer me a slightly troubled smile. "The thing is�� Setting that kind of barrier is only possible from the inside��"

    ''Meaning, it won''t work on her��'' I thought.

    For a moment, I hesitated. But sensing Fay''s reaction to my own doubt that she felt through our bond��I was pretty much left with my hands bound.

    "It doesn''t look like Fay will mind that much," I sighed heavily before turning around and heading back towards the tent. "Also, if we end up falling asleep, make sure to wake me up at least twice before the darkest hour of the night. It''s better if those invaders won''t get any real rest before the time for our sortie wille."

 Chapter 141: An unorthodox way of getting Fay wet (light r18)

    "Haaa��."

    I fell down on the softyer of cushions that Fay fancied the air mattress with before I even got inside.

    A small, meaningless detail for when we got to the long-awaited moment, yet a massive blessing for now, when I fell down, struggling to catch a breath.

    I didn''t know how much time had passed since I entered the tent and fell into Fay''s greedy embrace. For how long have we kissed each other while rubbing our bodies together? How many hours did we waste, indulging our genitals with the gentle caressing of our hands?

    How many days havee by ever since I plunged myself into Fay, only to remain within her through the several rounds that we went through, all the way to now, when I plunged down on the bed,pletely spent?

    And even now, rather than just letting me rest, Fay refused to part her hips from my crotch, opting to justy down on me, using my chest as a cushion for her face decorated with the brightest, happiest smile I''ve ever seen on her face.

    "We should take a break to get one or two shots out," I weakly suggested while caressing Fay''s sweaty back with my hand.

    I could feel small itching all over my body, from all the scratched Fay''s nail left in our lustful wake.

    Under the influence of all the power that edged her and then further reinforced by the effects of our evolved bond, Fay seemingly reverted to her animalistic side, turning into one hell of a demon in the bed.

    And for the first time in my life, I understood what the experienced men often liked to brag about out in the open, on how a man''s lust was nothing in the face of a fully unleashed, female desire.

    Yet, for how tired and spent I was, I couldn''t be any happier.

    ''I guess getting a fair maiden is a simple cure to most of the struggles men face in this day and age��''

    Thinking bullshit to myself, I continued to caress Fay''s small, adorable frame.

    Holding her up in my arms as wey exhausted on the bed, I couldn''t stop getting amazed at just how much energy and lust could be hidden in this tiny, delicate body.

    "Hon�� More?" Struggling to properly voice her words out, Fay slid her cheek on my chest as she pulled her chin up and looked at my face.

    There was no further desire in her eyes. No, as impossible of a task as it appeared to be, I''ve managed to fully sate her lust. And the only reason why Fay asked was to sound out whether I had my fill as well��

    With just a small bit of hope hidden at the depth of Fay''s soul, her question would do exactly what it did, invoking some sort of hiddenyers of physical might from the very core of my body.

    This influx of inner strength�� was a mere whisper of the power I could gain by shooting my rifle at the nearby camp once. But it was enough to stimte the flow of my blood, quickly causing my exhausted junior to stand at attention once more.

    It stood up�� but I couldn''t bring myself to seek Fay''s warmth if she was no longer truly in the mood for it. After the wild experience of just before, simply having sex would pale inparison, leaving us with the sour feeling of wanting more.

    "Madam, would it be possible for me to shoot from within the barrier?"

    Fully aware that Fay''s mother likely couldn''t fall asleep given how rowdy and loud Fay became for however long we spent indulging in each other, I called out.

    "It will take a moment, but I think I can handle two or three shots?" Madam called back in response after a few short moments.

    Ignorant of how big of a smile her words brought to my face, she called out again after just a little bit longer.

    "Okay, I should be able to keep the barrier up. But please, if you want to shoot, then hurry it up��"

    Hearing a hint of annoyance in Madam''s voice, I gathered all my strength and sped my hands around Fay''s waist, locking her against my chest. Then, summoning all the strength I had left, I rose up from the bed before quickly grabbing one of the nkets and covering our naked bodies with it.

    Sensing that I had some sort of a profound purpose in mind, Fay simply clung to my chest while wrapping her sweaty, soft legs around my hips, using her hands to help me out to wrap the nket tightly around the two of us.

    "I won''t be as rude as to ask for you without making sure to get you prepared in advance," I spoke softly over Fay''s ear right as I grabbed the neugarand from the entrance of the tent and walked out.

    With nothing but a thin nket covering our bodies, there was no hiding from the chilling cold of the night winds. Not even the fewyers of trees that split our area away from the nearby in were enough to soften the cold blows of the air, leaving only the heat of our bodies for us to escape the cold of the night with.

    "You guys��"

    Staring at the two of us with her eyes turning wide, Madam powerlessly shook her head, lost for words.

    After enduring the moans and squeals of her daughter voicing her carnal pleasure, she now had to watch us in such a tight and loving embrace��

    "Don''t worry, it will just take a moment," I announced, seating myself down on the utmost part of the hill that Madam''s barrier still covered before getting into the same position as before and aiming my gun.

    "Are you ready?" I asked once I''d locked my sight on a promising target after confirming that while the barriers still lingered all over the camp�� they were now nowhere as many and as dense as when the humans first raised them.

    "Bring it on��" with a small smile of encouragement and anticipation, Fay rubbed her hands on my back as she pulled herself even closer to my skin.

    And with the usual swishing sound of the round leaving the barrel followed by the dulled noise of the condensation charge going off, the familiar sight of my battle log registering new entries appeared all over my eyes.

    But even more importantly, Fay''s body twitched. And at least in my perception, it grew slightly hotter.

    "Not yet?" Sensing Fay''s state through our bond, I lightly asked.

    "Mhmm��" With her face tightly pressed against my chest, Fay made a small noise in response.

    "Then, let''s continue," I chuckled, reloaded the gun, and pulled the trigger again, only to watch the currently silent camp quickly get ovee by chaos and the air above it glisten as the humans desperately raised all the barriers they could once again.

    I managed to sneak in just one more shot before Madam gestured that she was reaching her limit.

    Once again, shooting again into the mess of barriers would be a waste of the bullets. And even more importantly, the fat drops of something wet once again appearing to lube up Fay''s insides proved that my job was done here.

    "That''s it for now, I guess," I muttered, leisurely putting the gun down on the ground, grabbing Fay''s ass, and then holding her up as I raised back to my feet. "Oh, and I will ask once again," I turned my face to Madam right as I started to bring Fay back to our small love-nest.

    "Don''t forget to wake us up a bit before the darkest hour of the night," I requested right as I was about to plunge through the tent''s entrance to release thest of the energy that I''d regained.

    "The sess or failure of our sortie will decide the fate of this forest, after all."

 Chapter 142: Its sortie, not sorthing something out

    "It''s time," Madam''s soft voice woke me up from the nap I''d managed to catch after throwing thest out of life my balls produced deep inside of Fay. Following her words with a gentle shove of my arm, the woman ensured I wouldn''t go right back to sleep after momentarily waking up.

    "Goodness gracious," I muttered, blinking my eyes a few times before fully opening them up.

    As one could expect from the dead of the night, it was all dark outside. So dark, in fact, even with my improved senses I struggled to see anything besides the general shapes of the stuff around me.

    "Is it�� the ti�� time yet?" Fay muttered through her sleep, starting toe awake but not fully there yet.

    ''Should I let her go back to sleep?'' I entertained the idea for a short moment.

    Doing so would save me from worrying about her, ensuring I could fully focus on theing fight��

    ''Yeah, there''s no way I would do that,'' I thought a mere momentter, once I imagined how I would feel if it was Fay who allowed me to peacefully slumber while she put herself at risk.

    "Sweetie," I called out while reaching with my hand and caressing Fay''s cheek. "As much as I would love to let you sleep, we''ve got a job to do."

    Feeling the warmth of my hand on her cheek, Fay pressed her own hands to lock my fingers in ce. Then, after taking two deep breaths and using the heat of my hand to wake herself up, Fay pried her eyes open only to brighten the darkness of the night with a vibrant, loving smile.

    "Hello," Fay greeted softly, pressing my hand to her cheek a bit harder. Then, as obviously reluctant as she was to let go, she lowered her hand before raising up.

    With the duvet sliding off her skin, I could see the general outline of her figure appear before my eyes. As she pulled her hands and stretched her arms up and back, the full shape of her breasts nearly assaulted my eyes, bringing me right towards the edge of just lunging forth face-first to catch her perky nipples with my mouth.

    Just like I was told all this time ago, her body really was the perfect embodiment of what I found desirable, tempting me to go for it whenever I as little asid my eyes down on her.

    Most likely noticing my feelings through our bond, Fay raised her eyelids a bit, keeping her hands up in the air as she smiled at me with satisfaction.

    ''I guess flexing is a greater part of her personality than I thought.'' I gulped my saliva down, struggling to resist the charm of Fay''s breasts that she so readily presented for me to look at.

    Noticing how I held myself back, Fay''s smile faded a little only for her hands to go back down before she scrambled around to get her clothes.

    "You really are of my blood��" Madam sighed with resignation, reminding both of us that she was still in the tent. "Anyway, you wanted to sort something out in the darkest hour of the night, so I woke you up as requested," she announced only to nce at her daughter as she rushed to get herself dressed before turning her eyes towards me.

    "Now, are you going to exin what''s so important for you to sort out?"

    For a moment, I simply stared at the mature woman with confusion.

    What was I supposed to sort out?

    It took me a solid moment to connect the dots and figure out where was the source of the misunderstanding.

    "It''s not sorting something out. It''s sortie," I sighed, following Fay''s example and starting to get myself dressed. "It''s an act of besieged defenders raiding out of their base to deal a swift and fatal strike to those who besiege them," I exined, pulling on my pants and reaching out for my shirt�� Only to find to fail it anywhere within the tent.

    ''Well, whatever,'' I thought, skipping on the shirt and crawling out of the tent.

    "And when you look at our current situation, aren''t we besieged in this forest?" I asked before shaking my head.

    "But we have an advantage when fighting within the woods!" Madam protested, instantly refusing this stupid-sounding idea. "Why would we abandon this advantage?"

    I waited for a second for Fay to get out of the tent before moving over to the freezer and sorting out what items would be of use.

    Even though I''ve only used neu-weapons so far, that didn''t mean normal firearms were of no use.

    "First thing first, have someone gather those who can move quick and silent," I requested, only to take a quick look at the surroundings as I noticed something else. "Also, you can take the barrier down already."

    With a neugarand in my hand, I turned around and looked at Fay.

    "I know you will dislike it, but I need you to cover us," I stated while passing the heavy gun over to Fay''s delicate hands. "When we attack one side of the camp, I want you toy waste everywhere else. Not to kill someone specific, but to sow a seed of confusion. Make those invaders unable to tell where is the attacking from."

    For a moment Fay simply epted the gun and looked down on it. But as she raised her eyes��

    I could tell that she wasn''t happy with my n.

    "You want me to stay back and shoot from a distance while you step right where there is the most danger?" she asked, her face twisting into something between angry and disappointed pout.

    "You are the only one who can shoot it," I replied, only to bring my hand down and pat down on the neushottie and the neup90 that I hung down from my neck. "And you can''t say I''m going there without means to keep myself safe."

    I reached out and caressed Fay''s cheek.

    "But just for you to worry less��"

    I closed my eyes and focused on the result of all the lives I''ve imed yet ignored thus far. And as it turned out, not only have I reached level forty-eight�� But I''ve also stacked a whopping thirty-three points!

    ''Twenty for the first ten levels, ten for the next ten, and just two for going from forty-fifth level to forty-eight�� No, three, given the bonus from the multikill,'' I quickly counted up just where did all those levels came from.

    It also proved that by evolving, I brought myself back to the equation where every level gained would reward me with two attribute points, crossed straight to the second tier realm where one level meant one attribute point, and then inched into the second tier, when I would only get four attribute points by the time I''d reach level fifty-fourth.

    Without much hesitation, I spent ten points on my endurance and gave points each for all of my other stats with the exception of aura. Then, left with only three points, I decided to just go with the flow and dump them into my intelligence.

    [Level: 25] > [Level: 48]

    [Strength: 5] > [Strength: 10]

    [Agility: 4] > [Agility: 9]

    [Wisdom: 5] > [Wisdom: 10]

    [Intelligence: 5] > [Intelligence: 13]

    [Endurance: 4] > [Endurance: 14]

    [Aura: 21] > [Aura: 44]

    [Usable points: 0] > [Usable points: 33] > [Usable points: 0]

    "Haaa��" I released a long, heavy breath once I felt the power hidden inside of my body properly fill up my limits, assimte into my flesh, and turn into might I could actually wield.

    Then, I shook my head before patting Fay lightly on her shoulder.

    "Here, now I''m stronger than I was before," I smiled. "And seriously, don''t worry," I added, turning my eyes towards the camp in the distance right as Madam broke her spell and allowed her barrier that gave us some privacy to fall apart all around. "The sortie isn''t about killing people. It''s about putting their supplies to the torch."

    "Why do you need all those guns, then?" Fay protested, clearly not convinced by my line of thinking.

    "An insurance," I smiled in response only to turn my head and look at Fay''s father, whose golden light has long since greatly diminished.

    ''It looks like kneeling on top of a hill under thepulsion of his ex...''

    I shook my head and gave up thinking how Fay''s father had to feel right now, humiliated by his ex, refused by his daughter, and forced to kneel down while I fucked her brains out, right nearby but just outside of his perception.

    "I need you to gather the swiftest and the most silent of your men, a group of twenty will do," I spoke to the man, kneeling right in front of him to look him straight in the eyes. "It''s time to bring some pain to those who dare to invade the home of my mate."

 Chapter 143: Three rules of the deployment

    For some reason, Loraz, as Fay''s father was apparently called, didn''t deny my request outright.

    Maybe it was some sort of aura, a leadership vibe that surrounded me when I posed my request? Maybe it was my manly face?

    Or maybe Madampelled him to shut up and listen to me? But if that really was the case, for Madam to so freelypel the alleged leader of the forest defenders to follow her directions��

    In the end, I decided against thinking about this too much, opting to just focus on the situation at hand as it was, rather than wasting my time and brainpower on situations that could be.

    "Wee, everyone," I spoke out loud in front of a nearly arranged row of ten humanized protectors.

    Some kept the features that allowed them to recognize their proper form at a nce like the mister celestial smander keeping the texture of his skin and the shape of his eyes in their lizard forms. On the other hand, it was impossible to ignore or even miss the three divines present in the group of ten that Loraz gathered, given how each of them nearly shined with all sorts of different colors.

    "Before we begin, a question," I spoke out before turning my face towards the three of Loraz''s kin. "Can you do something about that shine of yours? We won''t have any chance at approaching the camp silently if you announce our arrival an hour in advance."

    The three divines looked at each other before turning their eyes to Loraz.

    ''Apleteck of operative initiative,'' I took a note in my mind, suddenly feeling like acting like a sergeant like in the movies I watched.

    I abandoned the idea as quickly as it appeared, though. The moment I started to follow movie tropes and implement them into actual strategy, I would be unfit toe up with any kind of n!

    In the meantime, Loraz lightly nodded his head, causing the middle, silver-shined divine to raise his head.

    "We can. Either with effort," he lowered his eyelids and after a short moment, his shine greatly decreased, turning him into just a brighter shadow among many. An equally short momentter, though, his silver vibrance returned.

    "Alternatively, we can use special clothes or simply cover our skin with something," the divine exined before shrugging off his shoulders as if annoyed that he had to exin such basics.

    ''Well, it''s not my fault today is my first�� no, second time meeting a divine being,'' I thought, almost forgetting how Leinei was supposed to be a divine herself.

    ''But she doesn''t have the shine, though?'' I thought, baffled by the realization. And even further shocked when the two possible meanings appeared in my head. ''Either she can control it much easier than the others�� or her shine is outside of the range of a visible light��''

    I shook my head.

    ''Or maybe it''s within, but for some reason, I can''t see it?'' My lips pressed together, turning into a thin line that perfectly showcased my momentary frustration.

    "Well, it''s great that covering it up is enough, for we will all be taking a deep, rxing bath in mud quite soon," I muttered off-handedly before shaking my head and getting my thoughts back to where the sudden problem of divine''s shine derailed my presentation.

    "Before anything else, I need you all to understand three things," I spoke out once I regained my momentum. "First, we are not going to bathe ourselves in glory by ying countless opponents while fighting an overwhelming force of their numbers," I crossed my arms on my chest and shook my head. "Secondly, we will need to stay on the move.

    Andstly," I made a short pause, both to let my listeners absorb what I''ve said and to let them prepare for the most important part.

    "And as we are going to be constantly on the move, I forbid you all from killing anyone unless absolutely necessary."

    Expecting some sort of rowdy reaction, I took a step back to put some distance between myself and the potential threat��

    But none of the celestials or the divines bothered to move a muscle. And while the divines took a nce over at Loraz, the celestials ignored their current leader who arrived when I wasn''t looking, and turned their eyes to Madam.

    "You''ve been killing scores of them yourself just now. What''s with this sudden bout of mercy?" Loraz asked, ignoring the stares of his men.. Or maybe making use of them?

    Either way, it was fun to see his face light up when he managed to deal with what he likely considered to be a major blow to my rhetoric.

    "Could it be, when ites to facing those who you wish to kill, you are not nearly as courageous as when picking them off from the distance?"

    Loraz''s face brightened�� at the exact same, hurried rate as Fay''s face darkened. But with the attention of his triumphant eyes fully focused on me and my reaction, the poor man couldn''t be any wiser over how he only antagonized his daughter by trying to go against me.

    "I wouldn''t be leading this deployment if I was scared of other humans," I shrugged my shoulders, trying to just ignore Loraz''s attempts at poking holes in my n. "It''s actually an extension of the second rule. If we waste time-fighting with everyone who will stand in our way, we will never retain the mobility that''s an absolute key for this n.

    And to be frank, killing people would be actually counterproductive," I spoke before heaving a deep sigh.

    "Just like I said before, we are not going to kill people. We are going to burn as much of their supplies as we can and bring as much chaos to their camp as possible, without losing a single man�� protector," I corrected my way of referring to the celestials and the divines at the veryst moment.

    Who knew whether they wouldn''t consider calling them men for an insult!

    "If someone stands or charges your way, feel free to deal with them. But if someone''s running around, running away, simply standing by the side, then you cannot waste time trying to chase or even cut them down," I repeated thest point of the three I made, now in greater detail. "A swing of your arm to cut them down means one less step that you will make!

    And unless we stay sufficiently fast, they won''t take long to gather enough people to force us into a losing battle."

    The very idea of the sortie was simple. Strike at the attackers where they were the weakest. And since I couldn''t really see any outright weak points of the camp from the vantage point on the top of my hill, I could only hope Fay''s shooting would be enough of a diversion to stop them from reacting to our raid in time to affect its progress.

    "And what good will that do?" Loraz asked. And despite the clear hostility that brimmed in his eyes�� he appeared to be actually curious.

    As if he was happy to learn more about conducting warfare, even if it meant learning from someone he abhorred with all his soul.

    "Have you ever thought how much food that number of humans needs every single day? How much water? How many tools to keep their equipment working?" I pointed out at the camp while slightly raising my voice.

    I also gave up on the idea of addressing Loraz''s men, opting to skip the proxy and direct my words straight at the man.

    "Do you know how much fodder the horses they used to bring all those carriages need? How many different tools there are necessary to keep all those carriages operating?"

    I shook my head.

    If there was anything that I''ve learned from studying history, it was the value, importance, and critically, the weight of the war logistics. And just from my memory alone, I could name at least three different countries with modern infrastructure�� constructed on the footprint of the roads and paths the country''s ancestors built to allow a swift movement of cargo and supplies.

    "I will repeat this again. We are not going to their camp to kill some men, bathe ourselves in the glory of the fight, and then die when crushed by the overwhelming weight of their numbers," I spoke, softening my voice and turning my face to the camp before allowing a small smile to emerge on my lips.

    "We are going there to kick them in the balls as they sleep, burn their food, set fire to their tents, and leave before they even figure out what''s happening."

 Chapter 144: Not even mercenaries take discipline lightly

    The night was as cold as it was dark. Normally, Namidia would have no other choice but to endure the cold touch of the metal tes of her armor, but tonight��

    Tonight was as scary as it was warm.

    When the first strikes fell upon the camp, Namidia thought it was divine retribution for the arrogance of humans daring to step so near the divine forest.

    She saw with her own eyes how a monstrous force mmed into Cessayah, the highest-ranking mage in the whole mercenary guild, instantly reducing her beautiful body into a bunch of scrapped meat�� Only to then consume it all when a cone of heavenly fire blossomed from where the mage was struck.

    With her own eyes, Namidia witnessed that very fire consume the guild officers who stood guard to keep all the fans away from the high mage as she invoked her immense abilities.

    And ever since the first attack came, she had no other choice but to quickly adapt to how it was only a beginning instead of a single, furious strike against the strongest of them.

    In the end, though, the danger was pretty mild.

    As devastating as each of those attacks was, they only ever imed a limited amount of lives. Soon after Cessayah''s death, when the headquarters issued the order for everyone to restrain their auras��

    The attacks somewhat lost uracy, first falling upon the greatest gatherings of the crowd, then through the gaps in the haphazard defenses that all the remaining mages in the camp raised.

    In the end, all those mighty attacks only brought less than two hundred deaths, with only a few injured who lived to tell the tale of facing this kind of ungodly attack with their own flesh.

    And in the camp where four thousand adventurers and a further two thousand servants and logistic officers gathered, two hundred simply paled inparison to the full scale of their force.

    ''To top it all off, we are but the advance guard for the rest of the armies promised by the alliance. Once our number swells even further, it will be even harder to even notice those causalities��''

    Namidia''s thoughts flowed freely, unrestrained by anything. Such was the blessing and the curse of the guard duty, a duty that Namidia took strangely seriously.

    ''There''s something wrong with the forest. It''s different than what I''ve read in the books,'' Namidia summed up all of her observations only to take a look at a small candle enclosed in a small box that hung down her belt.

    Its tiny, dim light was already flickering, announcing the swift end of her guard duty time.

    ''I wonder how many more shots wille tonight,'' Namidia thought, eager to use the rest of this peaceful time to its limits. After all, once back at her tent, peace would be thest thing she could get.

    ''Maybe whoever invokes this powerful spell needs to rest too?'' Namidia tried to see through the barrier of the unknown that shielded whoever or whatever was attacking them.

    But that idea didn''t sit well with how those attacks rained down on the camp one after another, just a few hours ago!

    In the end, the light of Namidia''s candle flickered for thest time before going off, signaling the end of her duty. And contrary to how most adventurers concluded thismonly hated job, Namidia walked back to her sleeping spot with heavy steps.

    "Pour me another one!"

    Namidia heard Sulean''s voice long before she even approached her tent, its low tone cutting through all the chatter that filled every nook and cranny of the camp.

    It was this exact voice that charmed her two years ago�� and the same voice that alone was enough to set Namidia''s soul on fire right now.

    "Sul!" Namidia shouted as she neared her tent, causing one of the figures sitting by the nearby campfire to shiver.

    "It''s Sul''s wife, everyone, run!" another figure by the fire jumped up before ying out a small skit of pretending to run.

    Namidia wasn''t Sulean''s wife. But in the eyes of their fellow squad mates, she pretty much filled those shoes anyway.

    "Are you drinking before your guard duty?!" Namidia freaked out a little when she saw a familiar cup in her partner''s hand.

    "Oh,e on!" Suleanughed out, dropping his own skit and merrily taking a sip of the booze. "There isn''t a single recorded incident of those mindless beasts attacking our camps in the past," the middle-aged man with a light axe attached to his belt moved up and turned around, revealing his rtively handsome face.

    ''Is it me or did his beard grow even bigger in the short few hours I was out on guard duty?'' Namidia thought, gritting her teeth in silent frustration.

    As much as she hated the sight of the hair covering her partner''s handsomeness�� contrary to how it was in the city, in the camp she had little to no persuasive power when it came to the topic of shaving.

    How she could expect Sulean''s delicate face to risk injury in such a makeshift and temporary environment?

    "And do we have any records of divine strikes falling all over our camps?" Namidia countered, ignoring the annoyance of Sulean''s overgrown beard to the best of her ability. "Anyway, I just want you to be careful, okay?" she requested, allowing her voice to grow softer as she put a concerned look on her face.

    "And that''s my Nam," Sulean cheered, moving closer and patting Namidia on her shoulder. "Don''t worry, I know better than to ck while on duty."

    Even though mercenaries generally were regarded as a less disciplined but more vicious counterpart to a normal soldier�� They too knew the importance of proper discipline.

    And with how their lives often depended on it as contrary to soldiers who spent half their service time in the warmforts of their garrisons, mercenaries that survived long enough learned the importance of said discipline by experiencing the effects of itcking.

    "Good luck and have fun," Namidia called out as Sulean started to walk off in the direction of a nearby supply point, where he was to start his patrol route from. "I will try to catch some sleep in the meantime. Hopefully, there will be no more attacks to rudely wake this princess up from her well-deserved nap!"

    Theatrically stumping her foot on the ground in empty frustration, Namidia quickly escaped to her tent. And even though there was just enough space to house her, Sulean, and their things inside, she had no problems nestling herself in a rtively warm and somewhat soft spot.

    Soon, despite all the noise around, Namidia''s consciousness started to disperse, lulled to sleep by all the mental and physical exhaustion the girl collected over thest twenty-or-so hours.

    The voices of the people at nearby campfires started to dull, all of the different tones merging into a single line of a constant, background noise. Yet, just as Namidia was about to step through the gates of reality and escape the torture of life into the momentary relief of sleep�� the uniform background noise changed.

    This small, barely noticeable difference was something no normal human could ever notice.

    But Namidia was a veteran of several years, two wars, and thest conquest of the divine forest to the far east. For her, it was the tiniest changes in her surroundings that alerted her the quickest.

    Raising up from her nicely nestled spot, Namidia walked on her knees to the entrance of her tent, putting her face out to the cold of the night to look for what could''ve forced her awake.

    And yet, as she looked around, she couldn''t see a single suspicious thing.

    Some mercenaries continued to talk, eat, and y cards by the fires, too terrified by the randomly urring attacks of divine wrath to fall asleep. Others walked around the camp, patroling it ording to their duty routines, moving from one checkpoint to another.

    A bit further out in the distance, near the edge of the camp, Namidia could see Sulean already giving up to the power of the booze, abandoning his duty in favor of stealing a quick nap.

    ''This little��'' Moving her sight even further, Namidia muffled a curse while catching sight of a group of mercenaries walking by. One of them even had to bother to wave at Sulean, clearly making fun of Namidia''szy friend!

    ''Shit! If this gets reported��'' Forced awake and finally learning the reason behind her sudden awakening, Namidia gathered herself from the tent before taking a few, sleepy and dazed steps. Then, after clearing the sleepiness of her eyes, she sped up and quickly caught up to sleeping��

    ''Huh?''

    Upon touching the man''s shoulder, Namidia realized the man wasn''t sleeping at all, staring intently somewhere to the side with a weird look on his face.

    ''Did he notice something weird?'' Namidia thought, feeling thest bits of her inner peace falling apart as the quirkiness of her partner she once found amusing now proved to be nothing less but a hellish pain in the ass.

    Still, she looked the same way her partner had glued his eyes to, but save for the group she noticed before, she saw nothing.

    "Th�� They��" Finally oveing whatever caused him to shut up for a moment, Sulean slowly raised his hand to point at the very group Namidia noticed. The look on his face rified, settling in on a raw, unadulterated terror.

    And right as mes suddenly burst out from the nearby supply depot, right as yet another thundering attack fell on the opposite end of the camp, Sulean finally managed to swallow his saliva and utter, "THEY ARE HERE!"

 Chapter 145: Chaos in the camp

    "THEY ARE HERE!"

    Sulean''s scream was the final push all the mercenaries around who, just like Namidia were aware of their surroundings enough to act.

    But by now, it was far toote.

    The group that Namidia saw has long since vanished from her vision, either by using some sophisticated spell�� or by simply walking behind something and cutting her direct line of sight.

    But now, it didn''t matter. What did, though, were the supplies of her entire unit evaporating to the sky in a pir of dark smoke!

    The fire was big, far bigger than it had any right to be. And yet, thanks to all the dark and heavy smoke it produced, one could barely see its shine from just a few meters away, making it practically invisible to anyone further away.

    ''Shit!'' Namidia cursed, torn between rushing to the depot in hopes of stopping the fires and actually giving chase after the sneaky invaders.

    "WATER!" Sulean, who had more time to ovee whatever caused him to be so struck by terror, now came in clutch, finally rallying even those who failed to notice the thickening of the air. "FIRE! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!"

    Bit by bit, the nearby part of the camp was waking up, with peopleing out of their tents and then taking a moment to properly wake up, some more time to assess the situation before finally starting to move.

    ''Slow!'' Namidia cursed under her breath, following Sulean''s order even though she actually outranked him and rushed to the nearby, freshly dug-out well.

    Thankfully, by now there was already someone operating it, pulling out a bucket full of water, and swiftly pouring it into whatever containers the first few people brought with them before throwing the bucket right back to the well and repeating the process.

    Soon, Namidia was rushing back with her helmet full of fresh, cold water. Reaching the edge of the fire, she took a swing and sent the water into the fire�� Only to almost jump back when it nearly instantly turned into steam, expanding into the space she threw it from.

    If not for the girl''s quick wits, her entire front would be heavily burned.

    But Namidia''s luck and swiftness were exceptional. And all around, the crying and wailing figures of burned men proved just how close of a shave it was.

    ''Everyone is too slow!''

    Screaming in her mind, Namidia simply ignored what just happened and rushed back to get another helmet worth of water. Only once she reached the end of the queue at the well and waited some time for her turn, the absurdity of her actions struck her.

    ''The water evaporated long before even touching the fire. It''s too hot��''

    With the feeling of powerlessness spreading through her body, Namidia left the queue and�� just walked off.

    A small set of fires in the distance indicated that the group of invaders felt perfectly at home in their camp, turning their precious stocks of supplies into campfires whenever they went.

    ''Just where did I see stuff like that��'' Namidia asked herself, suddenly finding herself back at her supply depot which, by now, was pretty much gone.

    The small, makeshift shed that housed all the precious meat was now nowhere to be seen, reduced, to its content, to a pile of charred dust on the ground. The two tents that housed barrels with grains and oats didn''t even leave that kind of trace.

    And that was just the first row of the makeshift storage her unit built with their own hands to safe-keep the food that was supposed tost them the first half of the campaign.

    "We are fucked, aren''t we?" Staring absentmindedly at the charred remains of her unit''s supplies, Namidia breathed a heavy, exhausted sigh.

    Just the godly retribution falling down on their camp every now and then wasn''t enough. Those supposedly stupid monsters were now proving to know the craft of the war, using all the advantages the headquarters came up with for the sake of the camp to efficiently burn it down, piece by piece.

    "Fuck��" As much as Namidia hated empty swears, right now, she felt justified in throwing some meat around. With nothing better to do and the noise of chaosing from the far end of the camp by now, she walked all the way to where she saw the group of attackers the one time she actually managed toy her hands on them.

    After scanning the path for a bit, Namidia raised her eyes forward and looked at the area beyond the limit of the camp.

    ''All that food��'' Namidia thought, feeling her throat tense up as tears welled up in her tears. Then, she threw a hateful stare to where the fires jumped over one of the burning supply depots to the surrounding tents, instantly exploding in scale and intensity.

    In a mere moment, thest semnce of organization left the camp, with everyone panicking and rushing around, only to be obstacles for those who actually had any idea of what to do.

    "Bring more water!" someone shouted from where Namidia left her tent.

    "No! Remove the tens! Clean everything that can burn, so we can thwart and block the fire!"

    "The god''s wrath is upon us! Fall down on your knees and offer your prayers to ye mighty if you wish to survive!"

    "WATER! BRING MORE WATER!"

    With the level of chaos that took over the camp, shouting pretty much lost its use. No one could be bothered to listen to what others wanted. And from the looks of thighs, it would be a long while before the officers would introduce some discipline and order back in all of the units.

    BOOM!

    A distant yet still powerful explosion shook the air, causing Namidia to look up from the obvious marks of someone crawling through the muddy field brought by Cessayah''s failed stormshield. And as she looked back towards the camp, to where yet another strike of the divine retribution fell down on the camp�� she saw Sulean.

    In the moment, it felt surreal, to see a familiar face in the midst of all the chaos. Further out, deeper into the camp, the familiar whistles finally brought some order among the people as the headquarters of the camp finally made a move and pushed the officers out to do their damn job.

    Right now, though, Namidia couldn''t care less for the orders from the headquarters. What she cared about, though, was the look of absolute terror on Sulean''s face as he looked right at��

    No, not right at her.

    He was looking at something right behind her!

    ''Shit! Fuck!'' Realizing what was going on a tad toote, Namidia bent down, and brought her hand to the handle of her saber before turning around and swinging at the perceived outline of the enemy behind��

    Only to watch how her de shatter when met with the hand of a man so beautiful his skin appeared to ooze silvery shine from the gaps where the dried-out mud failed to cover his flesh.

    "Good thinking, Varus!" a voice uttering familiar sounds appeared next, only for the silvery hand to reach out and grab the broken sword in Namidia''s hand, wrestling it out of the girl''s grasp in a single, leisurely move.

    Namidia froze in ce, petrified by the sight before her eyes and what she could understand through it.

    ''Those are not people��'' she thought, struggling to even gulp her saliva down. ''THOSE ARE THE MONSTERS FROM THE FOREST!''

    And among them�� a human.

    Or rather, one of the lucky few who managed to ovee their limits and be something greater than just a human. That much Namidia could feel from the young man''s aura; so overwhelming it actually made her feel light-headed a bit.

    And as it turned out, it was this young man who was the owner of the voice.

    "I nearly forgot about this part of our task," he casually spoke, clearly not minding the fact that Namidia could both hear and understand him.

    The girl gulped her saliva again.

    The fact that this young man allowed her to hear something as big as this�� didn''t bode well for her.

    "NAM!" Sulean shouted, stupidly announcing his advance as he rushed to help the girl.

    "A second volunteer?" the young man''s face visibly brightened, he even went as far as to sp his hands in amusement. "Great! Now we will be able to cross-check their words!"

    The young man showed absolutely no hint of hesitation or doubt at the sight of Namidia''s charging partner. Soon enough, one of the young man''s soldiers simply revealed their aura, releasing it out to the wild�� and instantly stopping Sulean in his tracks, forcing him to aplete halt.

    Yet, rather than celebrating a sessful capture, the young man looked deeper into the camp only to have his amused expression sour a fair bit.

    "It seems like we are out of time," he muttered. Then, he shook his head and turned around before waving his hand in the direction of the couple. "Grab them and let''s ditch," the young man ordered. "This mission will lose its purpose if we allow them to bait us into a fight."

 Chapter 146: Tyranny of cold

    ***Two hours earlier***

    "This blessing will onlyst two and a half, maybe three hours," Leinei advised as she removed her hand from my shoulder. "As it starts to run out, you need to drop everything and run. For about five to ten minutes it will stop any tracking on you, but then��"

    Leinei shook her head before moving on to the next person in line, casting her blessing of disguise while repeating the very same advice.

    Soon, all twelve of uspleted this one, final step, before moving towards thest line of the trees that marked the end of the forest and opened up to the in.

    Thanks to the magic storm, the grasnd has now turned into a marsh, a swamp that started as close as just a few meters away from the forest, where the roots of the trees no longer reached.

    And this mud�� was exactly what would be my best friend for quite some time from now on.

    "Everyone, I know it''s going to be a pain, but this is our best shot at holding those humans back," I announced before falling down to my knees and then all fours, feeling the ground up with my hands. And once I found a softer spot where my hand pressed into the ground, squeezing cold water out of it��

    I pressed myself down against the spot before starting to painfully slow crawl forward.

    This, all on its own, was the worst part of my n.

    It wasn''t the danger that we would be in with just a small group of twelve entering a human camp with a headcount easily crossing five thousand. It wasn''t even the prospect of running away from the camp once our job was done, given how the very same mud that offered us protection right now would stall our attempts at escape.

    And as I fell down onto the wet mud and crawled forth, my worst fears quickly came true.

    It was cold, torturously cold. After just a few swings of my arms, as I pulled myself into the in and outside of the protection of the trees, the water assaulted me from every possible angle, soon turning all my clothes pretty much obsolete.

    ''Keep going,'' I told myself while slowing my crawl as much as I could and gritting my teeth to endure the unpleasant cold. And the worst part of crawling through this mud was�� that I couldn''t even move quick to use my burning muscles to warm myself up.

    "Stay low, move slow," I spoke out as I allowed myself to raise my face from the mud, sending a short whisper through the area before nting my face back into the cold, wet ground.

    We moved just a single inch at a time. Slow enough to appear static for anyone looking out to the field.

    Inch by inch, we crawled forth. Inch by inch, the water prated deeper into whatever clothes we had, bringing with it the prating cold of the night.

    ''We are all going to get sick because of it, aren''t we?'' I thought, quickly losing my sense of time while constantly battling with myself not to speed up the process.

    The only way for my n to work was to enter the camp unnoticed. Only in this way we could take down some of the guards, take their clothes, and then waltz through the entire thing without catching anyone''s attention.

    And so, we continued to crawl, ignoring the cold, ignoring the exhaustion inherent to operating in the darkest time of the night. And as slow as it was, bit by bit, inch by inch, we got closer and closer to the camp��

    Only to slow down our crawl proportionally to how close we got to the camp.

    In the end, with only about a hundred meters left, I slightly raised my hand, a signal we agreed on in advance, and waited before I felt a tap on my right and then my left foot.

    Crawling at the very front of the formation, I had no way of turning around to check on the others. Bringing my head up would be akin to giving all the guards that just happened to look our way a perfect target against the backdrop of the distant forest.

    A shadow that any veteran would instantly recognize as a not natural one, even with the augmentation of Leinei''s blessing.

    Feeling the tap on my feet, I learned that the twopanions of mine closest to me noticed the signal and stopped, ready to slowly crawl in ce to take a turn. And when the second tap came, first from the left and then from the right, I started to turn myself, careful not to move any quicker than before.

    In the end, just the task of turning from facing toward the camp to facing along its side took me well over three minutes. But with just a hundred meters separating us from the human guards, this was the fastest speed at which I was willing to move.

    With the cold permeating through every fiber of my skin and slowly growing to be as familiar to me as my very soul, I finished my turn and raised my left arm, cing it just a bit ahead before slowly, slowly pulling my body along.

    In the end, crawling up to the side of the human camp took us over ny minutes. A hell of a long time for crossing less than half of a kilometer that separated the camp from the line of trees that marked where the in ended and the forest began.

    By now, cold shivers had be a norm, something I even used to save some of my strength whenever I pulled myself up. Instead, I would simply move my arm ahead and then wait for another sign of my body desperately trying to produce some heat. With my muscles rapidly tensing, my body would slide through the cold mud, igniting a single spark of heat��

    That was instantly quelled by all the heat that surrounded me from every possible side. And with all the moisture around, all the hint of warmth of my flesh would get drained right away.

    Coldness. Everpresent, recing all the thoughts in my head.

    Cold was all that existed in my state. Cold air struck my back like some sort of vicious executioner with a whip. The cold waters that turned this once nice in into a swap entrapped me with the icy embrace, akin to what people had to feel upon theirst breath.

    Cold, cold, and cold. There was nothing else in this world but that cold.

    And when a distant hint of a torchlight fell on my face, I suddenly found myself returning to my senses.

    In my dazed state, I crawled all the way to the area designed as where we would move out from the mud. And as I slowly looked around while making sure not to move my head at all�� I found out I''d actually passed the designated point, nearly crawling into the open and perfectly lit area just ahead!

    "You are finally back to your senses," a slight, almost non-existent whisper reached my ear, along with someone giving my arm a tug.

    The hand that grabbed me was shivering, proving that the celestials and divines weren''t that much more resistant to the cold than I was.

    "Anyone missing?" I whispered back, quickly crawling to some sort of box and pressing my back against it, singing praises for my idea when, for the first time in a long while, I''ve experienced something different than just the everpresent, icy coldness.

    "All ounted for," a returning whisper calmed me down a little. "Ulma is ready to cast the charm."

    We were literally meters away from the nearest human guards. And while the noise raised by all the people in the camp gave us some sort of leeway, we still all used extremely hushed and careful voices while limiting ourselves to as few words as we could.

    "This patrol is too small," I instructed once I took a careful nce over the side of the box and spotted the two men leisurely walking around the camp''s edge. But as I looked to the other side, I saw something that I could only attribute to the first appearance of good luck.

    There was another patrol, one person stronger at that,ing from the other side!

    "Get ready," I moved my hand just a little bit,mitting the speed of both the duo and the trio to my memory before hiding back behind the box and picturing the scene in my mind.

    I was still extremely cold, with my mind struggling to construct a simple simtion�� But there was no way for me to just stand aside and warm myself at the nearest fire. Even as a human, my way of being or even clothing was simply too different from what I could see inside of the camp with the few nces I threw.

    And so, I continued to count the seconds down, imagining how both of the patrols got closer and closer��

    When they both reached the optimal distance, I waved my hand. And after a momentary surge of aura��

    The footsteps of the patrols got closer, only for all five of the men to walk out of the camp and into the darkness where my small unit awaited.

    "Stay silent," I ordered as I snuck towards the back of the nearest of the unsuspecting men, all weirdly charmed and nearlypelled to go and check out some random rock.

    Not even seeing it happen but feeling mypanions do the same, I pulled out the small, stone knife and made another step��

    Before reaching out, rapidly covering the unfortunate guard''s mouth and slicing his throat open only to force his chin up, so that the fountain of blood that followed wouldn''t mark his clothes.

    "First four, change," I ordered silently, pulling the body away to the same boxes where I hid before only to hurriedly start undoing the poor man''s clothes and putting them on myself. "The rest of you, remember, you need to stay on our right!"

 Chapter 147: Its all about speed

    Not every celestial or divine could partake in this mission. And either for the sake of keeping a hold of what''s happening or by deciding to restrict any excessive actions, Loraz entrusted me with three pretty damn great candidates.

    And no matter how I looked at it, there was some strange power bnce between Loraz, Madam, and the current leader of the celestials, Syie.

    Anyone could see the clear vibe between Loraz and the elegant, long-haired beauty who transformed from a long-legged, dignified crane.

    On the other hand, Syie couldn''t fangirl any further over Madam, appearing like a young kid over the responsible leader of an entire n.

    And the rtionship between Madam and Loraz��

    To be honest, all that I cared about right now, was how Madam easily pushed Syie to bless me with some of her strongest. And with the three elite divines and nine celestials, we entered the camp.

    Luring any more than just five guards would put a strain on the illusion put down by one of the divines. And now that we stepped out into the open, with the two divines, two celestials, and myself draped in new, rtively fresh clothes��

    No one paid us any mind.

    "Look busy and hurried."

    Through my interest in novels of all kinds, I''ve read about military adventures quite a bit. And if there was onemon theme that struck me profoundly��

    It was to appear busy at all times.

    No one is going to bother a group of soldiers marching across the camp at a hurried pace.

    Someone ordered them to, and they most likely have no clue why they are actually doing it. And if one likely wouldn''t learn anything, then why bother them in the first ce, risking the anger of whoever sent them to do something?

    And so, with this sole belief in mind, I moved all those dressed in the guards'' clothes to the inner side of the road, leaving all those still covered in mud to step within our shadow.

    ''Move!''

    This was the other thing the novels taught me.

    It''s better to do anything, even some stupid shit, as long as one was doing something. Only in this way would one hold the reins of their fate, instead of passing them to whoever made more effort to show initiative.

    And so, we strolled through the camp, taking a mere hundred steps to get a general idea of itsyout.

    ''It''s simpler than I expected��'' I thought, ncing at the streets that cut the camp in a checkerboard pattern, with what appeared to be some sort of logistical hub dotted in between.

    This simplicity was what allowed the entire camp to remain easily integrated, allowing for quick movement of troops and supplies��

    And diversion groups like the one I am leading right now.

    Save for picking elites, there was one more requirement for whom I picked for the mission. I only allowed those who could restrain their aura. This was the one aspect I had to worry about that didn''t exist back on Earth��

    But once again, I had the brainpower of a thousand authors trying toe up with every possible twist in every possible setting. And armed with this knowledge, now all at the tip of my fingers thanks to my increases in intelligence and wisdom�� How could I ignore such an obvious aspect?

    ''With this foresight, we won''t have to worry about getting discovered,'' I thought, slightly altering our path so that we would just brush by the nearest supply area on our path.

    I raised my hand and yawned.

    One of the very few signals that we''ve agreed on before the mission.

    To my side, one of the celestials moved behind me. And after walking in my shadow for a few more steps, they emerged on my left, just a step closer to the first of our targets.

    My eyes darted to the side, right as someone nearby waved their hand at us.

    I raised my hand and bowed my head a bit, acting as if I was too tired to care.

    A few more steps��

    The celestial in the guards'' clothes moved back into my shadow and tapped himself on his right hip.

    Five minutes.

    ''Hurry!''

    Fewteen secondster, our group moved past another camp. And my dear, celestial friend coughed, stepped to the side, and brushed past the supply tent before moving back behind me.

    A short walk towards the next camp, and one of the divines shook his head a bit as we passed the specific part of the camp.

    ''Faster! We need to move faster!''

    I spared no time pondering over all the various skills and abilities mypanions utilized to set up the charged explosions on the logistical parts of the camp.

    Right now, all that mattered was our speed.

    A tap on the center of my back, right in the middle of my spine.

    I raised my eyes only to see a patrol of two guards walking right towards us.

    ''Even faster!''

    The clock was ticking.

    The patrol approached�� and didn''t even spare us a single nce. Three secondster, yet another supply camp was primed for the big reveal.

    Seconds passed by.

    Another depot, bringing us nearly all the way to the back of the camp. Walking down a cleared path with a determined step brought us quite the distance�� And to an extremely unfavorable spot.

    ''Just one more moment��'' I thought, counting down the time left before the first charge would go off.

    We still had time.

    "Shit," I cursed out loud only to pat myself all over. "I forgot this damn report!"

    I turned around, pulling the rest of the group along before stepping back with a furious expression on my face.

    If there was one ce to be to hide in the crowd once all the chaos would ensue�� Was right in the middle of it.

    The nature of the attack would make it clear that the attacks were set all in advance�� And what kind of stupid partisan would step right into the mes of his own trap?

    ''Faster!''

    There was only one prerogative in my mind. To move. To squeeze the most out of every second that we could afford.

    On our way back, I noticed a strangely ced supply camp that we''ve somehow missed before.

    I tapped myself on the hip, sending one of the mud-covered men to set up the charge��

    Only for the patrol that seemingly missed us before to appear right before my eyes.

    One of the men appeared annoyed, grimacing unhappily at his partner. The other one, though��

    He was looking at some sort of decal on the arm of my privateered clothing.

    "That''s��" he muttered, slowly raising his hand towards the decal��

    ''Move,'' I thought, coldly moving past the man and rushing ahead, even faster than before.

    Now, another clock started ticking.

    And to make matters worse, yet another supply camp appeared nearby, formerly hidden by some boxes that blocked my view.

    It was a little deeper than the other camps, making it slightly more risky.

    But I still had one advantage, even as our disguise started to crumble.

    The reason why I picked those who could restrain their aura was simple, it allowed me to avoid the detection of those capable of sensing powerful individuals. And even once our cover would fall apart, I would still be with a unit of absolute elites, surrounded by nothing butmon cannon fodder!

    I tapped my hip. One of the celestials rushed to n a spell. A few, quick swings of his fingerster, his face suddenly twisted.

    "Shit," the celestial cursed. "I botched the timer."

    His voice was as silent as a whisper. But it rang like heavenly bells in my ears.

    ''Time''s up,'' Turning round, I scanned our current position.

    In our rush to go back, we managed to cover quite the distance�� but we were still about a hundred meters further away from the forest than where we entered the camp.

    Not that big of a distance, but one we would have to cover while escaping through the muddy, wet swamp!

    And to make things even worse��

    BOOM!

    The first explosion tore through the air�� with barely anyone noticing. For it wasn''t a discharge like an explosive I expected, but more a slight noise of the air getting sucked on.

    Still, I''ve heard it. And I''ve heard the shoutsing from where I ignored that guard.

    "Time''s up, boys," I spoke out, taking off the ufortable fur coat and bringing out my neu-shottie from below. "All that''s left, is to cut a way back!"

 Chapter 148: Enter silently, go out with the boom

    Not every part of the camp was suitable to use for an exit.

    Obviously, first things first, it had to be on the edge of the camp. But beyond that�� It had to be as far away from the huge mes as possible. The more obstacles there were in the way of those leaving the camp, the better.

    Those and all sorts of other considerations led me to guide the entire group right back to the spot where one of the patrolmen tried to stop us.

    By now, only the suspicious man remained, staring off at the nearby fires consuming the supply depot.

    ''They are pretty well organized, I will give them that,'' I thought, noticing how there was already a line forming of people carrying water to try to quell the fires. At the same time, Fay finally began her bombardment, drawing as much attention away from our group as she could by showering the other side of the camp with her fires.

    Conditioned by the earlier attacks, whoever heard the massive noise of the familiar attacks, rushed to either raise a barrier or find one to hide beneath.

    Right at this moment, a girl walked forth, standing right between my group and the guard who, despite looking our way, appeared to be extremely dazed.

    BOOM!

    The botched explosion went off behind our backs, this time much louder. The fires it caused weren''t as well-hidden as the one in the ze nearby, alerting more and more people around.

    We moved a bit closer, just a few steps away from where we could make our exit and disappear into the darkness of the muddy in, hidden in its cold embrace from the enemy pursuit.

    Faster.

    Now that our disguise was down, the time pressure grew only stronger. And despite Fay''s best efforts, someone was bound to realize that her hammering down on the barriers despite little to no results�� maybe weren''t aimed at causing as much damage as possible.

    And once people would arrive at this simple conclusion, this entire camp would be after my neck!

    We moved closer and closer. All the way to just a few steps away from the girl who stood in our path.

    Taking a few hurried steps, one of the divines rushed forth and reached out for the girl''s arm��

    ''Good thinking,'' I thought, praising the man in my mind as, under the pressure of leading the group through the enemy camp, Ipletely forgot about an important part of the mission!

    The young guard finally noticed us. And most likely by catching the change in the man''s expression, the girl suddenly spun around, pulling out and shing with her saber in one, swift move��

    Only to watch her weapon meet the divine''s hand and shatter into pieces.

    Before the girl could gather and process her thoughts, the divine man pushed his hand forth, easily wrestling the broken iron from the young woman''s hands.

    "Good thinking, Varus!" I praised the man, only to finally notice the distant whistlesing from the deeper parts of the camp. And quite notably, they all appeared to converge on our position.

    At this point, there was no further point in trying to hide ourselves. And so, I''ve released the hold of my aura, watching with satisfaction as the woman''s face froze in terror.

    ''Maybe I''m not as weak as I was worried I was?'' I thought, allowing just a small smirk to appear on my face.

    "I nearly forgot about this part of our task," I muttered, right as Varus the divine added another spell on top of my intimidation, turning the girl into a mere doll following every mentalmand he made.

    "NAM!"

    The young guard shouted, kindly announcing his charge as he rushed forth to free hispanion? Friend?

    ''Well, whatever.''

    The guard charged�� Only for a Celestial behind my back to roll its eyes and unleash his aura, instantly showering a huge chunk of the camp with the shadow of his spiritual power.

    The man''s charge came to a near-instantaneous stop, only for that unfortunate young man to end up as another doll within the control of our group.

    "A second volunteer?" Imented with a small smile before happily sping my hands together. "Great! Now we will be able to cross-check their words!"

    This was actually one of the major points that allowed me to push the idea of this raid through. For regardless of what Loraz thought about me�� even he could see the value of intel in war.

    And so, as the logic went, it was better to have two tongues to pull for info than one!

    Yet, as much as I wanted to celebrate, there were intensely pressing reasons for why I could not.

    "It seems like we are out of time," I muttered, looking into one of the camp''s main paths which was already filling with people rushing in our direction.

    Once they would reach us, my neu-shottie and the celestial and divine elites would buy us some time�� Only for more and more of the humans toe and bury us under their weight.

    It didn''t matter what weapons or skills we had. Sooner orter, we would be buried until a mound of shattered corpses, faced with all the camp elites once the meat for the grinder would stall us for long enough.

    And so, I could either enjoy the rapid advancement of my level while hoping to somehow find a way out once we would be in a much worse situation��

    Or I could simply leave right now, right as all the rest of the bombs were about to go off, and distract at least a small part of all those people, slowing their general advance down.

    "Grab them and let''s ditch!" I ordered, no longer bothering to keep up any appearances. "This mission will lose its purpose if we allow them to bait us into a fight."

    Staying behind to farm some experience�� would be a simply bad idea. So, rather than going full young adult story protagonist, I decided to do the actual smart thing and retreated, jumping over the small barrier of stacked boxes with some supplies.

    Soon, my entire unit followed suit, dropping into the wet swamp outside of the camp.

    Boom! Boom! Boom!

    One by one, the explosive spells that my unit set up started to go off. And Fay''s aim now moved to the ce we just left, showering our pursuers with explosive shots.

    As for us�� We dove with our feet into the soft ground, sinking further and further with each step as we tried to hurry through the wends. And in the time that took humans to finally push some people through the open area under Fay''s bombardment, we barely managed to move by about fifty, eighty meters.

    A bit more than a tenth of the distance that separated us from the safety of the treeline.

    "Faster! Don''t hold back!"

    Swish!

    A first arrow went right by my ear, threatening to end my otherworldly adventure right here and now. Then another.

    Then, a fireball exploded a mere two steps from Varus, showering him in intense yet seemingly harmless mes. The divine man simply brushed the fires off with his arms before silently continuing deeper into the swamp.

    Ten more meters,twenty.

    By the time the humans finally braved past the wall of fire set up by Fay''s bombardment, we rushed one hundred and fifty steps into the field, finally reaching the ce where the light of camp''s torches and the massive lights burning every few hundred steps could no longer reach.

    In an instant, the uracy of the humans decreased�� But not enough to stop a total of three arrows from finding their target. And while one of them bounced off after drawing a deep arc in the sky�� Two others shot much tter, dug into the flesh of an unlucky celestial.

    Step by step, we treaded through the thick mud of the swamp, soon crossing the maximal effective distance of the ranger fighters from the camp.

    "Keep going! We can''t slow down now!"

    With little to no doubt, no human at the camp''s edge could match our speed through this mood. And even if they did, stepping out of the camp and into the darkness of the night was akin to asking Fay in the distance to greet one with her weing, explosive rounds.

    And before long, we crawled out from the mud at the edge of the forest. Tired, cold�� but satisfied.

    "We''ve brought two tongues," I called out, before gesturing at the divine controlling our prisoners to send them forward. "So how about we learn why are they even attacking this ce?"

 Chapter 149: This one wont be easy to break

    "Are you sure you are okay?" Fay whimpered, her hands moving all over my body in search of even the tiniest wound or a single speck of dust or mud I have failed to clean so far.

    With the raid done and resulting in an astounding sess, there was no further reason for anyone to hurry.

    With their supplies standing in mes reaching for the sky, the humans couldn''t possiblyunch any offensive. Not through the same mud that my small unit struggled to traverse, not with neugarand showering them with explosive shots and both the celestials and divines unleashing their spells on them.

    No.

    The wend created by humans most likely to make any charge against their camp impossible, now served as a muddy moat for the forest, stopping anyone from reaching the forest unnoticed.

    And at least in regard to threat detection, I was pretty sure locals were a ss better than humans.

    For this reason, I didn''t hurry to ask my questions the moment I could. No, instead, I took my time to first calm Fay down, then wash myself off with some spring water, removing most of the mud. Then, I calmed Fay down again, changed my clothes, and cheered anxious Fay on before drying myself with some rugs.

    And after the final round of hugging Fay and assuring her I was alright, I was finally ready to go and learn what this conflict was all about, to begin with.

    "In the end, this was quite the sight, to watch you waltz right into the camp��" Fay whispered, ending up in the familiar position of having her forehead pressed against my chest as she hugged herself into me. "I don''t think anyone ever did something like that in all the battles for the forest before."

    I reached out and patted Fay''s head, enjoying the soft feeling of her hair bending under my touch.

    "So now, it happened for the first time," I replied, struggling toe up with anything sensible.

    With Fay hugging herself tight to my chest, I struggled to keep my thoughts off the epassing softness of her body. Endlessly falling into her soothing embrace, I could hardly think of proper words to respond.

    But now wasn''t the time to indulge myself in this kind of luxurious, affectionate rest.

    As much as I believed there was no reason to hurry�� to find out if I was right, I still had to go through the interrogation. And ording to my wishes that I hoped Madam would uphold, those wouldn''t start without me.

    "Let''s get going," I awkwardly suggested, pulling my arms back and escaping from Fay''s embrace.

    If I were to stay cuddled to her any longer�� I would most likely forget about my duties and just keep hugging this extremely huggable piece of a fox.

    And at times like this, I couldn''t help but wonder�� When Madam mentioned Fay assumed a form I would most desire�� Was that about what I would consider sexy, or what I would be happy just to hug and whisper sweet nothings to?

    Either way, with my desires shoved to the back of my head, I pulled Fay down the hill, to where Madam, Loraz, and other high-ranking locals of the forest gathered. As soon as I saw both of our prisoners stuck in the middle of a circle the divines and celestials made, I felt like heaving a long, heavy sigh.

    "Why are they still together?" I asked out loud, forcing everyone''s attention to move to me. "Are you that eager to let them figure out a shared story?"

    The main advantage of having two people to interrogate was the ability to cross-check whether their stories matched. And for some reason, I didn''t really expect those guys to keep the two soldiers silent at all times.

    "Do you think I''m stupid?" Loraz asked while throwing me an annoyed nce. "I''ve blocked their ability to hear or speak," he announced while raising his chin and looking down at me along the bridge of his nose.

    I, on the other hand, only rolled my eyes.

    "And what about signs? They don''t have their hands bound from what I can see. Nothing is stopping them from talking with signs as we speak."

    In all honesty, I didn''t expect our prisoners of war to know anything about signnguage or whatever substitute of it existed in this world. And while they were bound to have some gestures of obvious meaning�� They were more likely to bebat and hunting signs rather than something they could use to have a proper discussion.

    We grabbed random guards, after all, not the absolute elite and potential leaders of the human army.

    "You say they can''t hear anything. Still, just for a moment, bring the guy away," I ordered before moving in front of the still-shocked girl and squatting down just two steps away from her face.

    "Now then," I spoke. And the girl raising her head in response to my world proved that whatever spell held her mute has now dispersed�� Or maybe it never worked, to begin with?

    With a sigh, I cast all those doubts to the back of my head as I focused on the girl''s surprisingly fresh face and the shine of intelligence in the back of her eyes.

    Right as the celestials rushed to grab the man by his shoulders and drag him away, I turned my eyes back to the girl''s face before smiling lightly.

    For but a second, I remained silent, simply staring down her eyes, as if trying to find some answers by peering through her flesh into her soul. And then, seeing thebative sparks shing on her determination-filled expression��

    I simply sighed before rising up on my knees.

    "This one won''t be that easy to break," I announced with a tired hint in my voice�� to the equal surprise of the celestials, divines�� and the girl herself. "Keep her here. I will deal with that guy first," I added, patting my thighs to dust my pants off.

    "Wait!" Before I could as much as take a single step, the girl called out.

    Whoever was responsible for putting the spell of silence on her did a sloppy�� or actually, looking at the extremely weirded-out look on the girl''s face, a perfect job.

    "Why would I wait?" I asked, turning my head over my shoulder as I cast a curious nce at the girl.

    "I will talk!" she shouted, her voice trembling under the barrage ofplex and contrasting emotions that rocked her soul. "I will talk! Just�� Just don''t hurt him!"

 Chapter 150: Is this the flower you have in mind?

    "I will talk! Just�� Just don''t hurt him!"

    Those words were like honey to my ears.

    "It''s nice to be dealing with someone sensible," I replied as I turned back around and took a step closer to the girl.

    I then reached out and brought one of my fingers to her chin, gently raising it up, as it forced the girl to look straight in my face.

    "So you are going to tell me everything I want to know? Even if that might mean bringing doom to all your friends back at the camp?"

    In theory, probing this poor girl like that was counterproductive. For what reason I could be trying to exin the consequences of fessing up to someone I was about to interrogate?

    For one reason and one reason only.

    Because I needed to figure out whether what she would tell me had anything to do with the truth. And judging her reaction to my probing was my only, rtively easy way of figuring it out.

    After all, if both this girl and the man who tried to help her just came up withplete bullshit�� No, even if one of them spoke the actual truth, that would still be less than sufficient.

    ''We should''ve grabbed more people,'' I thought, looking back at the raid with a small sense of dissatisfaction.

    The more people we grabbed, the easier it would be to figure out the actual truth. But at the same time, with every captured person, the risk of being slow enough for humans to catch up to us grew��

    In the end, unless I managed to figure this girl out all on my own��

    ''Wait, why am I trying so hard to figure a clever way out?'' I asked myself, baffled by the massive oversight on my end.

    And so, I ignored the girl and raised back up before turning my eyes to Madam.

    "Is it possible to ensure she won''t lie to us?"

    Madam threw me a silent, judging look. And after a few moments, she simply shook her head before raising her hand and snapping her fingers.

    "Call Velve," Madam ordered before turning silent again.

    ''I guess that''s all the help I will get,'' I thought, heaving a small sigh before turning my attention back to the girl��

    Only to feel Fay approach me from the side and grab my hand.

    ''What, is she jealous?'' I thought, taken aback by Fay''s adorable disy of possessiveness. And prompted by her actions, I took a deep look inside of myself, in search for any potential vile thought that had even the tiniest chance of making Fay unhappy.

    And quite tragically, I didn''t have to search for long. As it turned out when I looked down on this poor girl and felt the sense of power that came from the disparity of our positions, when I saw the worries in her eyes that I could enhance or dispel with just a few words��

    This sense of power, of controlling someone else was quite pleasing.

    Yet, regardless of how nice it felt to feel in control, I isted this feeling and eradicated it from within my soul, recing it with yet another unit responsible for nothing more but nothing less than adoring Fay.

    "First off, do you know why your people are trying to conquer this forest?" I shook my head and turned to the girl, intentionally starting with a question that she could give quite an ambiguous answer.

    After all, I still had to prime her to be as honest as she could!

    "I��" the girl hesitated for a second, most likely hoping to use the window of opportunity once Velve woulde. "I''m not really sure. I''m just amon mercenary. My job is to swing my saber��" The girl looked at her nostalgically empty sheathe. Then, she raised her eyes back to my face, "Not to think of ways to put orders into action."

    Holding back a small smirk, I heaved a long sigh before raising up again.

    "I guess I was right," I muttered under my nose while rolling my eyes.

    This time, however, I didn''t even get to make a step. The girl spoke out when I only started to turn on the spot.

    "Wait!" she called out, hints of perplexed desperation appearing in her voice as she nced in the direction the celestials dragged her colleague. "It''s not something I should know but I think��" The girl bit her lips�� before blushing and averting her eyes, as if unable to bear anyone looking at her. "I think it''s the imperial order to find Herald Weaver flower."

    To the side, Leinei uttered a long, exasperated sigh.

    She then stepped forward and swung her wrist in a circle, only to produce a rtively small yet extremely vibrant, yellow flower.

    "Is this the flower you have in mind?" Leinei asked, ignoring the angry looks of all the celestials and divines around.

    ''I guess she doesn''t really have the right to speak between all those guys,'' I thought, taking a quick nce around.

    As little as I cared for it now, the dynamics between celestials and divines�� or even between each specific celestial and divine was something that I had to understand soon�� But thankfully, not just yet.

    For as long as the problem of human invasion remained on the agenda, I could limit myself to just gathering information about the political situation of the forest. And hopefully, I wouldn''t have to use what I''ve learned anytime soon, for it would inevitably mean stepping into the realm of politics.

    And quite honestly, I didn''t feel ready to be a member of the mostmonly hated ss of people.

    "T-this��" the girl opened her eyes wide, staring at the golden-colored flower growing out directly from Leinei''s finger. Then, the girl moved her eyes up, at Leinei''s beautiful face. Only after a closer stare, did she finally start to realize what I had known for quite a while already.

    Leinei''s face only appeared beautiful. How could a human consider a face to be beautiful, if it was fully made out of wood, wine, and nts?

    "A-are y-you a d-dryad?" the poor girl''s voice started to tremble as if this realization was even graver than the sight of the flower entire armies would be sent to fetch.

    "Yes, I am," Leinei sighed, ignoring the hostile stares of the divines and celestials. "And I can tell you already, this flower won''t help. If my guess is correct, what you need is a Crowned Herald Weaver," she announced and shook her head. "And that flower went extinct seven hundred years ago, with the death of thest god."

 Chapter 151: Towering desire (Namidias PoV)

    "And that flower went extinct seven hundred years ago, with the death of thest god."

    Namidia froze.

    The sight of the flower everyone in the camp was told to look out for was�� stunning to say the least. The fact that it grew out of the hand of a beautiful woman proving that she was indeed a legendary dryad�� was stunning.

    But the dryad''s words managed to top even that.

    On the other hand, quite surprisingly, the human who took the reins so far�� appeared to be as baffled as Namidia herself.

    He was stunned in a different way than the girl but stunned nheless.

    And that gave birth to an itching suspicion, a guess that Namidia couldn''t help but consider.

    She never really chose her path in life. Poverty back home and Namidia''s selfish desire to help her siblings left no other option but to be a mercenary. And thest three years she spent in the unit proved to be tough but rewarding.

    The girl saw a fair share of the ugly side of the world and life, growing increasingly numb to all the shit she had to face.

    But her choosing this path didn''t mean shecked the smarts to do something else. She simply never had the window of opportunity to do so.

    As such, when faced with the rapidly growing feeling of certain unease, Namidia got to thinking.

    ''He doesn''t look like he��'' Namida gulped down. ''Like he knows them all that well.''

    The man before the girl was too different. His manners, the annoyingly confident manner of speech and act��

    Just by turning her eyes to any of the forest monsters Nam could tell how different they were. Certainly dignified, confident as only an old master could be, looking at her with a hint of disregard��

    "Well, shit."

    As if to confirm her doubts, the young man cursed out loud and dropped his head down low.

    ''Why is he concerned with something that is strictly rted to our objective��'' Namidia asked herself, her eyes opening a bit wider.

    ''He clearly heard the name of the flower for the first time right now!'' She argued in her thoughts while doing her absolute best to keep a shocked look on her face. ''So why��''

    "That means they either won''t give up easily," the young man sighed and�� seemingly dropped on his shoulder.

    As if unable to hold the weight of the situation on his back alone.

    And right this moment, the immensely beautiful woman that stood just a step behind, made her move.

    Her arms wrapped around the man''s chest, allowing her to bring him back up and then make the young man''s chest lean slightly to the back. Resting his head on her bosom, she moved her hands up and locked the man in her hug�� only to send Nam an extremely hostile and wary look.

    ''Wait, are you for real?'' Nam asked herself, struggling to swallow her breath.

    "That, or this entire story is just a casus beli," the young man sighed heavily.

    ''Yeah, there''s no hiding the fact,'' Nam gulped her saliva down. Her eyes twitched before her expression froze in the girl''s desperate attempt to hide her feelings from the outside world.

    ''They act like all the other sickeningly sweet newlyweds!''

    Nam gritted her jaws.

    This�� human nature of the man before her, the affectionate way in which he epted his girl''s care, the slight, barely noticeable gestures he used to let the girl know of his gratitude��

    Nam saw it all, more times than she could count. One of the perks�� or rather, curses of living in a world where one could lose their life randomly, during every moment of their service. And the cold feeling of the death''s knife on one''s throat brought quite the aphrodisiac-like effects.

    ''But damn,'' Nam gritted her teeth even further. ''They don''t fit here!''

    This was the one thing that upset Namidia''s mind so much, she couldn''t focus on anything else.

    Just what was this monstrous human doing in the forest that half of the continent haphazardly decided to go all out and conquer?

    And why did this man act as if he just gained some enormous insight from what little she spoke?

    "Well, that cuts some options," the young man spoke after taking a long while to actually respond. But quite visibly, after just a few moments in his woman''s arms, he appeared to be considerably revitalized.

    ''I guess that also exins this harsh look,'' Namidia thought, bringing her eyes down while feeling her cheeks starting to burn.

    All out of nowhere, she felt the other aspect of her situation.

    Not the fear of ending up as a prisoner of monsters about to be harshly interrogated. Not even the constant curiosity and shocks the situation presented her with.

    But the sudden desire to��

    "It''s up," a new voice appeared on the scene, right in the corner of Namidia''s vision.

    Desperately looking to the side, she saw a small, green-haired beauty. And ording to the borate golden markings all over her long, slender hands��

    ''A nymph��'' Nam thought, no longer capable of even gulping down her saliva. ''They have a nymph�� and we basically drowned this entire ce��''

    Once again, the fear filled the girl''s soul. Her shoulders started to shake as the stories she heard as a kid started to materialize before her eyes.

    And if those stories ended up with any kind of profound lesson to ingrain in the kids since young�� Then serving as a mercenary in the siege of the forest where those mythical creatures resided meant going against all that the old stories and legends taught every kid on the continent.

    And yet��

    "Now then," the young man blinked his eyes a few times, snapping from some sort of a line of thought. He then leaned forward, pulling the beautiful, silver-haired woman along, causing her long, white streaks to coat his face.

    For a moment, the beauty''s hair appeared to merge with the man, bing his own.

    Then, the illusion broke, as if it was never meant to exist in the first ce.

    "What are your numbers? When will the next army arrive? How many armies in total are scheduled to arrive and when?" the young man suddenly started to speak fast, and with a weirdly unsettling, foreign ent. "What do you estimate your total number to be once everyone gathers? What''s the leading force of this war?"

    Bit by bit, the question changes from general to much more specific.

    "How long can you keep those barriers up? What''s the main type of soldiers you have? What''s your most used battle formation? How do you set up guards for your camps?"

    So many questions, that Nam couldn''t recall the first after listening to the fourth, hardly catching up on a total of thest four questions.

    And as her desire suddenly grew stronger, more��pulsory, her body started to shake a little.

    Sweat trickled down the girl''s forehead as the thin air started to tower over her, pressing her down with its suddenly massive weight and pressure.

    Struggling to resist, Nam opened her mouth to take a breath. And as soon as she did, words started to flow out of her mouth, all on their own.

 Chapter 152: Conventions? More like suggestions!

    "I guess that will be enough for the day," I sighed after hearing all sorts of things that this girl was surprisingly willing to share.

    But just like the guards who went to their deaths without even knowing they were charmed, this poor girl clearly couldn''t resist whatever spell the practically naked nymph, Velve, hexed her with.

    ''This is not as bad as I was worried they were,'' I thought, sighing to myself while raising my eyes to the nearby celestials. ''They are far fucking worse.''

    I took a deep breath before turning my eyes back to the girl and contemting her face for a second.

    "Take her away and keep her safe," I ordered, ignoring the fact that I wasn''t really in the position to do so. "Those two might be necessary forter, so don''t bully her too much," I added some uses to my request and took a moment to give the three celestials that moved ahead a long, stern look. "And by not bullying her too much, I mean, don''t bully her at all."

    One could expect that someone from Earth, like me, would follow the rules of conventional warfare�� But that wasn''t actually the case. After all, whether the Geneva Conventions were just suggestions or not, they didn''t apply to other worlds.

    None of the countries here have signed them, so they were the ones at fault for giving me the right tomit all the war crimes I would fancy...

    If I wanted topletely close the narrow window of opportunity for putting a stop to this war. And to that end, I had to keep both of the prisoners safe.

    "We will lock her up away from the forest edge," the celestial that was the first to move announced. "So that if the humans attack, she won''t get swept in the fighting."

    I gave the man a short look before silently nodding my head, allowing him to pull the girl up before rtively gently dragging her away. Once she moved far enough for me not to worry about sharing the news not designed for her ears, I heaved a deep sigh and looked over at Loraz.

    "Does her words check out with what you know?" I asked.

    The look of satisfaction has long vanished from the man''s face, now reced with somber determination.

    "Pretty much, yeah."

    Once again, I sighed. Then, I leaned my head back and rested it on Fay''s shoulder while ignoring Loraz''s furious stare that followed. Closing my eyes, I held my breath and took a moment to sort everything that I''d learned.

    First thing first, the army that stood outside of the forest consisted of only mercenaries, all sources from the nearby city, and was tasked with merely preparing the way and supplies for the armies that would follow. That''s why the camp they made was so massive despite clearlycking the numbers to warrant its size.

    And that''s also why, after happily burning several of their supply areas�� we barely put a dent in the supplies they have prepared.

    Namidia, Sulean, and all the others at the camp were just the front guard of the total force that was currently converging on this area. And the true bulk of the human army was set to arrive in pieces, as all the forces from different countries, factions, and nations were scheduled to arrive one by one, in the span of the next two months.

    ''If I were to trust her estimates, we are going to face no less than fifty thousand people,'' I thought, taking a moment to absorb this information.

    Fifty thousand. A number that I hardly came by, even when it came to spending money.

    In fact, I don''t think I''ve ever done anything that many times in my life, save for the number of breaths I took.

    ''And it''s possible that her estimate is nowhere near the true number,'' I thought, taking in a deep breath and silencing my thoughts.

    "Okay then," I muttered, pushing my head forth and looking at the group of celestials and divines weirded out by my way of rxing and gathering my thoughts.

    Their stares didn''t matter, thought. Only the fact that Fay was more than happy to offer her chest for my head to rest on was within the limits of my consideration on that matter.

    "Don''t tell me you''vee up with another n," Loraz sighed, somehow already getting to know me well enough to recognize the tells of a disaster from my face.

    "That''s exactly what I was going to say, though," I replied, leaning my head over my right shoulder while giving the golden man a puzzled look.

    "Let me guess, you will try to kill them all? Or better, you are going to kill them all�� all on your lonesome?!"

    ''And here I thought he was getting to know me,'' I thought, inherently releasing yet another sigh.

    "Not at all. This option is too damn costly and I''m not even sure I have the means to get the weapon necessary for that," I replied offhandedly while several pictures shed before my eyes.

    The easiest way to fix the problem of a massive, several tens of thousand men strong army�� was to just drop a nuke on them, erasing them from their existence.

    But doing so, at such close proximity to the forest, would likely deal severe damage to the trees, and that was while assuming the firestorm following the nuke wouldn''t consume the entire forest in one go.

    No. As fancy and on the point as nuke would be�� I simply had no means of obtaining it. Not even with Makary''s full dedication and desire to help.

    Given how the entire world basically crumbled under the weight and costs of its arms race�� and how this arms race happened in the first ce before humanity gained the self-preserving instinct of not using the nukes��

    Obtaining a nuke for personal use might''ve been possible back in the twenty-first or second century, not right now when even neuweapons were strictly controlled by every government that existed!

    No. The nuclear option wasn''t valid, simply because I couldn''t get my hands on a nuke. And even if I could, using it came with way too many risks.

    But I would be ashamed to call myself a human if I, even for the shortest of moments, assumed there were no other weapons capable of streamlined, mass destruction.

    ''Maybe I should try to get somebat gases?'' I thought, raising my eyes and looking at the nearby camp. ''But what if the windes and pushes them all off to the forest? Would the celestials and divine even be affected by them?''

    The First World War weapons, as effective as they could be for clearing trenches and the masses of people stuck in the open field�� They didn''t seem like a good choice against people who could use magic. Especially not when I saw a single human summon a powerful storm all on her own!

    "Anyway. Killing them all is the most drastic of options, one that I will save for thest. For now, though, there is one way to deal with this invasion, regardless of the number of humans."

    Up until this point, Fay didn''t care all that much about my rambling. But, sensing that I''ve now reached the climax of my thoughts, she prickled her ears and even leaned a bit closer, not to lose a single word.

    On the other hand, Loraz was first bbergasted by the very idea of me considering the option of killing the entirety of human force in a single strike. His face grew a mocking smile when I analyzed what weapons I could possibly get my hands on and turned into an annoyed grin once I spoke out.

    "Oh, and just what sort of magnificent deed will you perform to save us from this certain defeat?" Loraz asked, still set on provoking me for some reason.

    Was it because I was low-key usurping his right to lead? Maybe he simply didn''t like me? Or maybe it has something to do with how Fay, his daughter, clung tightly to me while sparing the man absolutely no mind?

    "There''s no magnificent deed for me to do," I straightened Loraz''s misunderstanding. "I just need you to split your forces between those who can hide their aura and those who cannot. Then, while thetter will attack openly from one side once the ground settles a bit, the former will attack the camp from the other side."

 Chapter 153: We cant win, but...

    The situation appeared, in all itsplexity, to be fairly simple.

    For now and at least the next two days, the camp would remain as it was, with only the surviving mercenaries manning it up. After all the causalities brought by the courtesy of NeuArms Inc. and my raid, there were still four to five thousand humans left in the camp.

    In two days, though, the main force of the entire campaign would arrive. The Golden Imperial Legion. A unit that my female prisoner of war uttered with utmost respect.

    Or, in other words, a proper army of five thousand frontline veterans, all assembled from the elites grown in the other legions of the empire.

    Five thousand men whose one and sole purpose in life was war. And a day or two after them, two more legions would arrive, bringing the total number above what I had any hopes of handling.

    Over the rest of the next two weeks, more and more forces from the imperial tributary states would arrive, bumping the total number to several times as much as I could handle with my tricks, tactics, and strategies.

    "The moment the golden legion arrives, we are fucked," I took a step forward, freeing myself from Fay''s possessive hold, and standing in the middle of the high-ranking celestials. "If there''s any truth to the rumors our prisoner spoke about, they should be able to conquer this forest all on their own."

    Despite the resounding sess of my raid�� I dared not to underestimate the enemy.

    If only that powerful mage from before managed to finish her spell and set that massive, powerful storm upon the forest��

    I didn''t even want to think about the consequences of it.

    "Then what are you suggesting?!" Loraz finally lost control over his emotions, mming his fist into the ground in a fit of powerless fury. "For us to just charge to our deaths? To at least make ourst stand full of bravery?!"

    Despite the man clearly using me as a scapegoat to throw all his worries at�� I simply couldn''t bring myself to hate him.

    Not only because, regardless of their rtionship, he was Fay''s father�� but because, to a degree, I could understand how he felt.

    His homnd was threatened by a force he couldn''t stop. In the next few weeks, his entire race was about to get eradicated, leading to the failure of the mission of protecting the forest from the human bestowed upon them by their creator.

    And the worst part of it all, there was extremely little of what he could do about it.

    ''Oh how little he understands about humans,'' I thought, waiting for the man''s fit of rage to pass before clearing my throat and raising my eyes on Loraz''s face, unbothered by his bout of anger.

    "Do you even have a clue on how expensive it is to rally such a massive army?" I asked in a voice as calm as I could produce.

    And while it would be stupid to expect Loraz to answer when he was so heated, from the twitch of his eyes, I could tell.

    He took my point to the heart.

    "It costs money to rally that kind of army. And humans, as stupid as we can be at times, are either desperate for something or expect the war to bring them something that would offset those costs."

    In the end, humans�� and rulers, in particr, had to be pragmatic. Only a crazed ruler would throw countless armies into the meatgrinder for no reason at all.

    ''And a crazed ruler would never be able to assemble an entire legion of elites. That''s only possible for a beloved or otherwise a great ruler.''

    "But let''s ignore the topic of money and keep going. Do you know how much effort it takes to n such an overwhelming undertaking? How troublesome it is to stop any and all internal conflicts? Or to calm the unrest back at the country if the nobles don''t approve the campaign?"

    I shook my head.

    "For this war to happen, everything has to work exactly as the human leaders expect it to happen. Sure, details may vary. A sh of their forces might result in more casualties than they expected�� but it doesn''t affect the full picture."

    Lost for breath, I cut my voice and took a moment to gather the air in my lungs and to calm my thoughts down.

    ''There''s no reason to get all agitated. Calm down,'' I told myself, keeping my lungs empty to calm my heart down a bit before slowly filling them back up with air.

    "For this war to happen, everything has to happen, more or less, as expected," I stated my point again, only to finally reveal a hint of a smile.

    I''ve kept everyone tense for long enough. Now, the time was ripe to finally reveal what made me think I could face such an overwhelming number of invaders.

    "The reason for our attack won''t be to kill as many humans as we can before their reinforcements arrive. Doing so would only start a war of attrition, a war we don''t have the numbers for."

    I shook my head with a solemn expression taking over my face.

    Sure, every single celestial and divine appeared to be a small army on their own, more than capable of singlehandedly dismantling entire units of humans.

    But what about the elite humans? People who fought in wars and learned how to behave to keep themselves safe? People who wouldn''t walk into obvious traps that a bunch of newbies would happily stroll into?

    And what if there were five fucking thousands of them, all used and trained in cooperating with theirpanions?

    "When we attack the camp, you guys are free to burn it to the ground. But it''s not going to be our priority" I announced only for a vile smile to finally take root and blossom on my lips.

    "Our target, this time, is to kidnap as many humans as we can so that when the first set of exchanges and handshakeses to an end, we will have more cards to y on the negotiating table."

 Chapter 154: The calm before

    Whatever ns I had for this war, they had to wait for the right time.

    There was no way for us to attack during the day. The visibility would turn into our greatest enemy, killing any and all chances at a surprise attack and turning the favorable battle into a tough, prolonged one.

    If we were unlucky enough, a battle long enough for the imperial reinforcements to arrive and join it while we would be too busy fighting to do anything about them.

    That''s why, as painful as it was given the insane pressure of time to deal with this fatal strike before the golden legion would arrive�� We ended up stuck on the hill, forced to do nothing but wait while the scorching sun rose up as usual and started to dry the unnatural moisture of the in out.

    ''At this point, we can only hope it won''t drypletely,'' I thought, clenching my teeth at the mere memory of the coldness we had to fare through.

    "Come here," Fay muttered in a low voice while stretching her arms out, inviting me to leave the small, sitting table and join her in the fluffy warmth of the bed.

    ''I guess she felt it too,'' I thought, reluctantly raising from the set of several papers on which I scrambled all sorts of tactics, strategies, and general ideas on how to better the situation of the forest defenders.

    Yet, for how hard it was for me to pull out from the table, the moment I stood up and took a step towards the bed, some sort of mysterious force took control over my body, infinitely raising my eleration, all the way to the point where I practically threw myself into Fay''s open arms.

    "Haaa��" breathing out as my headnded on the soft cushion of Fay''s breasts, I then took in a solid breath, as if trying to nourish my soul with her delicate, fruity fragrance.

    "New shampoo?" I asked, raising my face from Fay''s tits and looking at her face.

    "New shampoo," she repeated after me while nodding her head, only to wrap one of her arms around my back and use the other to fix the covers that I''d messed up with my dive into her embrace.

    A few moments of rustling aroundter, Fay brought the two of us into the very middle of a thick cocoon made out of bedsheets, nkets, and duvet. With so manyyers shielding us from the little cold air that managed to get inside the modern tent, not a single iota of warmth appeared to leave our spot.

    And with the two of us tightly pressed against each other, soon, I grew so warm I couldn''t even recall the feeling of permafrost that apanied me on my crawl towards the human camp.

    "Better?" Fay chimed in a light voice, happily cuddling my head between her breasts while letting her fingers go wild while brushing through my hair and massaging my scalp.

    "Physically, yeah," I muttered, too cozy andfortable in our cocoon to even speak. Regardless of how much titanic power of will it required though, I brought my face up a bit, looking at Fay''s beauty with a hint of usation at the bottom of my eyes.

    "What is it?" Fay asked with a small smile, perfectly aware of what I had a problem with thanks to our bond. And from the looks of things�� rather than for a request, she took it as apliment?

    "Just how can you be so good for me?" I asked in a begrudged voice. "The better you are for me, the harder it is for me to ever dream of being equally as good for you��"

    Speaking those words, I brought myself deeper into Fay''s embrace, hiding my face back in her soft and warm chest.

    And quite honestly, keeping my face pressed into her tits felt like putting a sword back into a sheathe�� As if my face was designed to rest on the pillow of Fay''s breast, while her breasts were designed to perfectly amodate my head.

    And as impossible as it appeared to be, as soon as I would move my lips down a bit, Fay''s breasts would transform while remaining the same, to turn into the most suckable and amusing object to y with in the whole, wide world.

    "I''m doing my best," Fay leaned down with her head and whispered right above my ear, sending a pleasant shiver down my spine. Then, allowing the fact that we were pressed so sightly within our love nest that we could both hardly move to pass by her, Fay snuck her hand up to the side of my head only to start slowly, gently massaging my ear.

    "I didn''t know you like stuff like that," she giggled a little, right into my ear obviously, while sending another wave of pleasure down my spine.

    This was better than any ASMR I''ve ever listened to in my life. And as if just the fact that I was getting a live performance wasn''t enough to bring me to the edge of a reason, with how Fay could actively judge the results of her efforts through our bond and improve on the go��

    "Tic, tac, tic, tac," she whispered, sping her lips considerably higher than speaking those shorts would usually require while the movements of her fingers grew a little bit more daring, and aggressive.

    And exactly how anyone would expect this newlywed-like moment to develop, before a quarter of an hour could pass, Fay already busied herself with eating one of my ears out, brushing one of her hands through my scalp while actively massaging my other ear to prime it for when it would be its turn to experience her lips.

    "Ahh��" Suffering from more pleasure and sensitivity than I could possibly handle,I could only wrap my hands tighter around Fay''s waist and simply endure this unspeakable torture of affection.

    There simply wasn''t enough room for me to do anything! And what was even worse, I wasn''t exactly sure how I was supposed to spoil Fay back! After all, I''ve never held back from spoiling her to begin with, so, as it turned out, I ran out of new ideas for having fun quite quickly.

    "It''s okay," Fay''s whisper entered my tongue in the short break between her kissing the middle of my ear only to move her face a bit and suck on my earlobe. "Making you happy makes me happy," she whispered in a sweet, sweet voice. "And this is the least I can do to ease your worries, isn''t it?"

    Finally, after what felt like hours of heaven, Fay moved her head away before burrowing further down into our cocoon, taking her turn on pressing her face against my chest and allowing me to cradle her back.

    "After all, if you wanted, you could just bring me, Madam, Leinei, and few others back to your ce. You never had to join this war to begin with," Fay''s whispers turned softer and softer as her mood started to quickly sour. Yet, rather than letting it fully deteriorate, Fay attempted to shake her head only to end up rubbing her forehead against my chest.

    Then, the girl properly raised her face and looked at me with upturned eyes filled with mes of determination.

    "So, this is the least I can do to show just how much I appreciate it."

 Chapter 155: Charge as silent as it it loud

    ''This is the least I can do, huh?'' I thought, recalling Fay''s soft voice when her soft and warm embrace was reced by the cold and rugged hold of the wet ground at the edge of the forest.

    Once again, although from a different point, I was preparing to set off into the human camp. Yet, contrary to thest time, I wasn''t going to do it with just a few helpers.

    This time, I was standing in front of nearly half a thousand of the strongest celestials and divines, all of whom mastered the skill of holding back their aura.

    And while all the remaining hints of bodily heat continued to seep into the cold, wet ground, the show deeper in the forest continued.

    Explosions went off in the very middle of the forest, a considerable distance away from its edge. Someone continued to weave a myriad of small spells on the other edge of the forest''s front, dangerously close to where the starlight in took over as the barrier that kept the forbiddennds from human greed.

    The ce where my force gathered wasn''t any different.

    After Leinei with the support of a huge group of divines cast a massive and powerful blessing of disguise over my entire unit, we had to sit through the next part of the absolute andplete bullshit that I forced everyone toe up with.

    War was a conflict of not only forces but also information. And the more the humans tried to guess what we were preparing for from all those meaningless tricks the weakest of the celestials and divines ended up performing, the less they would be worried about thest night''s raid repeating.

    ''Draw their attention to where we will start our crawl and make it so obvious they will take it for a distraction,'' I thought. And when a series of sessive explosions started to go off behind my back, I took a deep breath and pushed my arm forth before pulling the rest of my body after it.

    Soon, my immediate surroundings first turned silent when all the noise of the show from the forest died down. Then, once my hearing tuned in to lesser notes, it filled with the noise of hundreds of human bodies making their way through the cold and thick mud.

    Everyone''s breathing, the sounds of their bare bodies brushing against the ground, the asional noise of some wig snapping or a slight curse flowing out when someone stabbed themselves on a rock during their crawl��

    All of those noises were way too tiny to ever reach anywhere near the camp�� especially with how most of the camp defenders were rallying up and running all over the ce, not sure where exactly they were supposed to mount a defense.

    Once again, bit by bit, I crawled forth, keeping a cherished memory of Fay''s warmth in my heart as the sole reminder of heat in my flesh.

    Even now, after an entire day of baking under the scorching sun, the in remained wet. It was no longer a total andplete swamp�� but any attempts at charging through it were bound to end up in a disaster.

    And that''s why, a short charge from the forest and against the camp was exactly what those who couldn''t hold their aura back were tasked with doing.

    Pushing the thought of all those who wouldy their heads on the altar of my n out of my head, I continued to crawl, once again immersing myself in the slow phase of the n.

    After what had to be an hour, we finally reached the point agreed upon before I put my ns into motion. A point still far away from the camp not to risk detection, but a point from where a charge would take us a few moments over an extended while.

    A mere moment after our unit ground to a halt,the noises from the forest started to pick up by a lot. In fact, it grew so loud, that I had to fight off the desire to look back!

    ''So it''s starting,'' I thought, keeping my face kissing the ground while my hips drilled as close to the soft mud as I could. And while ignoring the everpresent cold�� I waited.

    Behind me, the entire front of the forest suddenly swarmed with activity.

    After performing all the tricks and shows that they had in store, the remaining force of weaker celestials and divines stepped out. They seemingly appeared from behind everyst tree.

    And to top it all off�� they were actually holding torches, minding not their light and how it revealed both the position and the intent to attack.

    ''Wait��'' I thought to myself.

    My breath grew slower.

    "Gone are the days when we allowed humans to do as they please!" Loraz''s powerful voice swept through the entire area as if the forest itself decided to raise its voice and speak up. "Today, we end their brutal tyranny so that no one shall ever dare to desecrate our woods!"

    ''Wait��''

    The show had to go on. The human defenders of the camp had to see what they expected to see. They had to believe they figured out the trick to fall for it.

    The ground trembled when all sorts of celestial beasts walked out from behind the protection of the trees, followed by the shiny figures of divines. The lines of the forest forces continued to swell as more and more protectors joined the ranks.

    "LET''S CLEANSE THOSE DIRTY HUMANS FROM OUR HOLY LAND!" Loraz''s call for the charge filled the entire in, right as the ground trembled when all sorts of celestials and divines leaped forth and jumped into a charge.

    A desperate charge across a huge stretch of wet and softnd that no being heavier than a crane could hope to run on.

    And yet, the entire army of celestials and divines left the rtive safety of the woods, set to erase the presence of humans in the vincity of their sacrednd.

    I closed my eyes and prickled my ears, trying my very best to hear something, anything from the camp.

    "Their left wing is only three men deep," an owl celestial to my side reported in a hushed voice before shing me a smile.

    I only shook my head in response.

    "Wait. It''s not our turn yet."

    The charge entered its full swing. The ground now visibly continued to shake as thousands of feet struck against it in their mad dash.

    And honestly, it didn''t take long for the humans to respond.

    The air filled with arrows, balls of fire, arcs of electricity, and all sorts of other projectiles the defenders could produce. After a moment of suspense, the human attacks found their target, falling all over the front of the charge.

    "Stay still!" I hissed as loud as I could without worrying I would alert the people roughly a hundred and fifty meters away.

    Even without looking, from the fluctuations of the aura in the air�� I could tell.

    The celestials and divines were supposed to be much stronger than humans. Resistant to something as silly as just the first volley.

    But while a set of few arrows could do them little to no harm within the forest, here, out in the open, with terrain that was extremely hard to traverse�� Only an amateur archer or mage could miss their attack. Without a doubt, at least several tens of corpses fell into the mud to litter and mark the path Loraz led the bulk of his forces to a charge through.

    "The left wing is a fake attack. Concentrate on the right wing and center," the owl celestial spoke, his expression no longer as triumphant as the screams and cries of the fallen and wounded brethren of his forced him to realize the weight of the situation.

    ''Just a little bit more,'' I thought, gritting my teeth in silent frustration.

    A few seconds ticked by. And after a moment to recover, the humans prepared tounch the second volley.

    "Raise," I whispered, moving up from the crawl�� only to start walking forth on all fours.

    The defenders released the second volley.

    The fake attack against the left wing of the camp has long since copsed, performed by literal elders and the children of the forest that offered close to nobat value to begin with.

    But they were a perfect fit for making a fake crowd. And so, as soon as the first volleyunched, they were to all hurriedly turn away and skip back to the safety of the trees.

    And what could a human leader of the defense think when on the right wing the charge continued regardless of the losses while his own area of defense ended up free of any danger?

    ''Brace for the charge,'' the owl celestial whispered, slightly too loud for my own liking, while struggling to keep up with my pace on all fours.

    "Raise," I now spoke in a normal tone, moving from all fours to position low on my hips, as if I was trying to sneak into the camp all on my own.

    And if not for roughly five hundred other hunched figures all around me, I might even have the chance to do so.

    "BRACE!" We snuck close enough to the camp for me to hear the shouted orders myself. And so, I took a deep breath.

    Now, there was no need to stay silent. We were close enough. All that was left, was for me to give themand, even though I wasn''t even the one officially leading this unit.

    But this n was all my doing. And just like I would have to take moral responsibility for all those who died under the falling barrage of spells and projectiles, I had the privilege to give everyone the one call to action their rage-fueled bloodlust required.

    "ARISE!"

 Chapter 156: From the hill-view (Fays PoV)

    ''This is the least I can do, huh?'' Fay thought to herself while caressing the lock of the neugarand with just the tips of her fingers.

    Once again, Peter convinced her to stay back while he went in to lead the charge.

    And as much as he imed he was simply going to be at the front rather than leading it�� Fay wasn''t gullible enough to believe this half-truth.

    Sure, officially, Uler, an old and wise celestial was in charge of the sneak attack from the right. Peter was simply responsible for making use of his terrible weapons to break through any resistance humans would mount in the spur of a moment, letting the elites of the forest do the rest��

    But again, Fay wasn''t stupid enough to believe this.

    She saw the call for blood in Peter''s eyes. Back during the ambush at the clearing, it was only a distant echo. Then, during his barrage, it was as clear as the trees around her.

    And what it would be once his terrible weapons would im scores upon scores of lives�� Fay didn''t even dare to think about it.

    Yet, in war, people rarely get to have their way. What was necessary took precedence over what people desired. And just like before, Fay was the only one who could provide support from an extremely-long range, eliminating either the greatest warriors from the enemy camp or shattering the main centers of resistance with just a few, well-aimed shots.

    She was the only one who could do it, just like Peter was the only one capable of effortlessly creating a gap in the enemy line necessary for the forest elites to steamroll through the human camp.

    And as much as she hated it, Fay remained on the hill, nestled on severalyers of cushions and nkets and with the muzzle of Peter''s rifle pointed right at the center of the camp.

    ''It should be starting about�� now,'' she judged the progress of the series of bullshit shows, nailing the timing up to the second.

    To her right, the darkness of the night appeared to suddenly move, slighter around right at the edge of her eyesight. And yet, whenever she tried to spot any clue, any detail that would hint at Peter''s position�� she couldn''t.

    The disguise spell didn''t differentiate between an ally and an enemy. And there was no way Fay would''ve asked Peter to give up on this important piece of protection just so she could track where he was!

    Breathe in, and breathe out. Breathe in and breathe out.

    Breathe in�� Hold the air in the lungs�� and slowly, steadily breathe out.

    Afterpleting this routine, Fay brought her cheek to the side of the gun. She then flipped the covers on the scope up before pressing her eye to its back end and then pulling her face just half an inch away.

    Fay has learned. And the slight redness that already marked the outline of the scope on her face was the proof of said lesson.

    ''Keep calm,'' Fay reminded herself, observing the fluctuation of the darkness through her scope. Yet, unable to peer through the spell, she angled her gun away, focusing her eye on the movements of the humans within the camp.

    Soon, Loraz started to do his part, stupidly moving all of his forces out to the edge of the forest before acting like a retard and throwing them all at the human camp, through the difficult-to-cross and open in.

    It was the very scenario that the humans desired. The situation their camp was best prepared for. And when the charge began and the screams of the wounded and the vanishing auras of the fallen started to litter the path of the charging army of forest protectors�� All Fay could do, was grit her teeth and turn her eyes back to where she was supposed to aim.

    This time, the strange darkness moved quicker, far quicker than before. And right as her father''s charge nearly reached the reinforced edge of the camp, the disguise spell on Peter and his men vanished, revealing them to be just a fewteen steps away from the camp.

    Swish!

    Fay pulled the trigger without even a hint of hesitation. By the time the hyper-elerated round reached its target, her fingers were already wrapped in the gun''s leaver. When the condensation charge activated and spewed mes and pieces of tiny metal all over the target, her fingers already moved the leaver back.

    And by the time the dust of the attack fell down, Fay altered her aim a bit and shot again.

    Just two shots.

    One shot if something went gravely wrong. Three shots if everyone was to turn tail and run as fast as they could. Two shots if things were going well enough.

    A critical judgment that Fay had to make�� and one she made with hardly any thought.

    The corpses of her kin didn''t bother the girl. She was detached from theirmunity, shunned by them for long enough not to really care about anyone in particr. And without the emotional attachment, Fay could tell that the losses, although painful, were insignificant in the greater frame of things.

    And so, after shooting twice in quick session, Fay glued her eye to the scope, taking a moment to simply watch over Peter.

    Just like the girl expected, she found him at the very front of the elite unit, unleashing fires as he shot and reloaded his weapon again and again and again, showering the little resistance that humans managed to mount with power greater than even the one Fay wielded.

    As the dark figures of the forest elites spilled into the forest and instantly scattered all over the area, Peter gathered only about a fifth of his force before rushing them�� to the very center of the forest.

    ''I knew this would happen,'' Fay thought, gritting her teeth as she hurriedly reloaded her weapon and aimed it to provide support�� Only to watch how her beloved took a turn, giving up on attacking the center of the camp''s defenses, opting to move in a great hurry right behind their back.

    In mere moments, half of the forest elites hunted down anyone who failed to appear on the defense line yet dared to carry a weapon. The other half that remained, quickly circled through the very center of the camp, setting the few impressive tents in the middle on fire.

    And by the time the defenders of the camp, all gathered to push back the desperate charge of the forest monsters, realized what was going on, they were stuck between Loraz forces from the front, nearly half of the elites from the back-left, and Peter''s detachment from the back-right.

    A perfect andplete encirclement. One that came at a bloody cost of mostly Loraz''s forces.

    ''What now, Peter?'' Fay asked herself, squinting her eyes and steeling herself for the ugly sigh that was about toe. ''How are you going to turn this advantage into an actual victory?''

    Fay pressed her lips into a thin line.

    She had no idea what would happen next. Her point of view was too far removed from the chaos of the battle for the girl to give any judgments to how humans, stuck between three forces, would react.

    Fay had no idea what would happen next. She never needed to know this kind of details so Peter simply never brought them up. And now, all she could do��

    Was trust that Peter would somehow manage.

 Chapter 157: The fleeting moment

    "Arise!"

    There were only a few meters left for us to cross.

    If I were to be with just a small unit, I would try to cross them undetected, getting the most out of the surprise attack.

    But not now. Now with close to five hundred souls with me. Right now, coordination was of much greater value than just those few seconds of advantage.

    Following my word, everyone dropped their simple, mud-covered cloaks and straightened up.

    Step.

    The feet drowning in the muddy ground surrounding the camp.

    ''Were they trying to addwater to it?'' I momentarily thought. ''Is that why Loraz stopped so hard?''

    Another step. Just a few more.

    With the time seemingly slowing down, I struggled to pull my foot out of the mud. Oveing its pull proved to be far harder on thest stretch. Maybe because contrary to my crawl before, right now I actually wanted to move as quickly as possible?

    Finally, the third step. Eyeballing it, only five more.

    A few celestials and divines passed by, leaving me behind.

    ''Shit!''

    My thoughts exploded as I made another, fourth step.

    ''If they mounted any resistance��''

    Two more steps.

    Only two more left and my foot would find the solid ground.

    More and more forest protectors rushed past me, ignoring the core order of the attack. And it was for them to let me lead the sneak attack so I could dismantle any possible resistance with just one or two discharges from my neu-shottie.

    ''Maybe showing off this gun was the right move, after all?''

    Showcasing the power of my weapon was something I considered�� But worried about alerting the enemy with the noise, I decided not to.

    And right now, I have to pay the price.

    "FIRE!"

    Someone within the camp shouted, proving the defenders weren''t as gullible as I hoped they would be.

    Was that owl celestial feeding me fake intel? Or maybe it was all a set-up, a trap for my surprise attack that the humans have seen through? Who knows, maybe it was just the wit of a local leader with umon foresight.

    What mattered, was that in a single volley, four of my men fell down to the ground.

    All the shields they''ve raised since dropping the disguise shattered, leaving their bodies free from the hostile acupuncture. And between all the arrows, bolts, and spells unleashed right in their face, even the celestial and divine bodies had to give.

    ''Just onest step��!''

    Finally, I reached the solid ground and climbed just a little bit higher, getting a proper look above the faltering first line of my men for the very first time.

    Desperate to prevent further losses right on impact, I shoved two celestials out of the way and reached out with the dark muzzle of my gun��

    Only to be met with a small group of maybe twenty, or thirty people.

    People were too busy standing in ce, their faces tense as more and more celestials reached the camp''s border.

    For but a second, I caught the look of the enemy leader. A man of chin-long, brown hair, perfectly blue eyes, and an ill-kept beard. He donned a simple, leather armor with only some asional specks of proper, metal protection.

    For one, fleeting second, we stared each other in the eye, both already aware of what was going to happen next.

    And yet��

    Even though this man knew he had nothing to stop a horde of powerful monsters from the forest with just the bunch he managed to gather�� I saw no fear in that man''s eyes.

    And until the veryst moment, he didn''t falter.

    Oveing his shock, the man stood his ground, even going as far as to sh a few times with the divines at the front before falling prey to a strike from outside his field of vision.

    The resistance broke in a single second as if it never appeared in the first ce.

    Even though I didn''t shoot, the gun suddenly started to burn my hand.

    More and more celestials passed by the frozen me, soon making it impossible for me to even see the mangled and soon trampled corpse of the brave human and an equally as brave squad of soldiers he managed to rally.

    I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, experiencing the moral drawback of iming lives for the very first time in this world�� Or rather, in general.

    ''Pity,'' I thought, shaking my head and allowing the flow of the crowd to carry me onwards, all the way to the agreed-on spot where the horde of celestials and divines swiftly split into two major groups.

    "Onwards! To Loraz!" the nominal leader of the sneak attack brought a plundered sword high above his head before leading pretty much half of the troops away, to where the humans actually gathered. As for the rest��

    "Let''s hunt!" someone shouted high in the air, pouring thest drop that spilled over the chalice and causing the cohesion within the second half of the unit to break.

    All at once, everyone rushed away, all of them in different directions.

    Some jumped to set the camp''s outeryer on fire. Others sprinted away to destroy any and all supplies they could find. Another group hurried towards the camp''s center, eager to kill everything there.

    And all of them, shared only two goals.

    First, to sweep through the entire camp and annihte all the stragglers, and second, to gather on the other half of the original unit once they wouldplete the first task.

    A simple set of just two, logical orders.

    Remove all the threats to our rear and join in with the rest.

    Not expecting any sort of discipline or cooperation from the celestials and divines, in fact happy just with them putting their conflict on hold, that was the furthest I could hope to direct them around.

    Anything moreplicated, and there would be a huge chance things would get messy.

    Boom! Boom!

    Two nearby explosions of the condensation charges calmed down thest of my doubts, prompting me to push through with the second and rtively easiest part of the n.

    "Round them all up!"

 Chapter 158: Moral responsibility

    Rushing through the human camp, I kept a guard of whooping seven celestials and four divines. And with this small party to keep me safe from any and all dangers lurking in the generally empty areas of the camp, I continued to make my way across.

    My one and only task for the moment was to remain somewhat in the middle of all my men, turning myself into an anchor that kept all the small units together and, at least on paper, connected with the main unit further in the camp.

    And once again, only one prerogative filled my mind. The one quality of the job I had to ensure.

    The speed.

    ''We are on the clock, but we should still manage,'' I thought, looking around the ce while reduced to nothing but a mere observer of the battle. And as much as it was aimed at capturing people rather than killing them�� The whole area was already littered with corpses.

    Some of the wounded in my raidst night clearly decided to go the easy way, most likely expecting we were going to rip them apart if we got our hands on them.

    And ncing at one of the examples of it happening, an area fitted with an open tent filled with bedrolls on the inside��

    I gulped my saliva down while clenching my hands a little.

    ''What a waste��''

    Just like the modern ners of warfare cleverly figured out, a wounded enemy was much better than a dead one.

    When a soldier died, theirmanders would just add him to the list, maybe send a note of his fake bravery back home if said soldier fought for some advanced civilization that cared enough. But a wounded one?

    Killing him was out of the question, for it would kill the morale of all the healthy troops alone.

    So, one had to care for the wounded,e up with supplies to both keep them fed but also help them with the wounds they incurred during the service��

    A dead soldier was just a number. A wounded one, however, was a huge burden to the enemy supply chain.

    And so, when I looked at all the corpses that only bore small yet extremely lethal wounds on their wrists, throats, and hearts��

    ''What a waste��'' I thought, dissatisfied that I''ve now lost one of the cards to y once this warm-up round would conclude and the real, big yers would appear.

    Shaking my head, I moved my eyes away from the gut-wrenching and extremely stinky sight, focusing back on the task at hand, which was��

    "Hurry it up!" I shouted at my personal guard, the group of celestials I was willing to ept tagging along only out of my concern for Fay and her state of mind.

    Knowing full well how I would feel if she rushed head-on into a battle I had no right to participate in, I decided to personally ask for the guard. And while those few celestials and divines, as strong as they could be, wouldn''t be a match for any major threat that could upset the bnce of the battle, I could at least ignore pretty much everything below that level.

    And just like I anticipated, every once in a while, my guard would either find a few hiding cowards ore under the attack of a small group of self-rallied troops. While the first type simply bound up with spells�� the corpses of the people that belonged to the other type soon marked the path we took across the burning camp.

    The air grew heavy from all the smoke, filling everyone''s nose with an unpleasant aroma.

    Somewhere, some corpses had fallen prey to the ze, spreading the sickening sweat aroma throughout the bloody battlefield.

    "FASTER!" I shouted, trying to manage all the sabotage groups to my one side while maintaining contact with the other half of my unit already starting to sh with the rear guards of the human concentration point on the other side.

    ''Faster!''

    I thought to myself, not even sparing my voice to shout it, as I left the main unit behind and rushed ahead. And soon, the first diversion and cleaning groups started to rejoin my guard, instantly swelling our numbers.

    From merely twelve to twenty-one, from twenty-one to forty-seven, and so on.

    Sometimes, a group of two perfectly fine protectors would appear. At other times, two out of three that appeared would be fine, while thest onegged behind due to a varying degree of injuries.

    There were even times when the wait for the next group of stragglers was prolonged, making me worried about a potentially grave threat hiding somewhere to our backs after clearing one or two of the small, hunting groups��

    Only for three more pairs to appear the very next moment before I could seriously start to consider the idea of taking my time to search the camp again.

    In the end, though, my worry changed nothing. Because even if I wanted, I didn''t have the time to waste on searching through the camp for some imaginary threat. And even if one existed, then as long as I was fast enough��

    "Move!" I shouted, pushing my own speed to the limit, barely managing to keep up with the celestials at the front.

    At this point, I didn''t really need to be anywhere near the front ranks�� But just like my hands burned on my gun before, they were now itchy to finally use it.

    After all, with the knowledge of how easily I could grow stronger through he means of battle�� How could I give up on the opportunity to do so?

    Most of this attack was my doing anyway, so I''ve already had to take responsibility for all the deaths incurred in its wake. And with that in mind, what would a few humans that I would kill personally change? With how much death I''ve seen on the burning streets of the camp, what would a few more corpses do?

    And that was only ounting for what I saw, ignoring the vastness of violence that was hidden from my eyes further down in the camp.

    ''And all of this death pales to what''s likely happening around Loraz,'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I sped up.

    "Move faster, damn it!" I shouted, gripping the handle of my shottie a bit harder as I sped up even more. "The longer we take, the more of our people will die!"

 Chapter 159: Third...?

    ''That''s two steps out of the way,'' I thought when I finally ran out to what had to be some sort of a rallying spot and now has turned into the no man''snd to the side of everyone''s forces.

    Just a little bit further away, the main body of my unit was shing with the rear guards of the human concentration point, while further up ahead the humans continued to furiously repel the desperate charge of Loraz''s forces.

    ''As long as they keep up split, they have a chance!''

    This reasoning was obvious.

    Further ahead, the humans used all the advantages of the reinforced positions that they could. From the height advantage of the nearby towards to shower the attacking protectors of the forest with projectiles and spells, through the embankments that put the defenders above the charging hordes, all the way to the stocked-up supplies of burnable oil, arrows, and spare weapons.

    At this point, humans still kept a semnce of organization. Even when pressed from two sides, their troops stood organized, dutifully filling the tasks assigned to them by their headquarters.

    Judging from the movements of troops within the protective ring of the guards, the human leaders weren''t cking.

    ''I guess the raid at the center of the camp wasn''t all that sessful,'' I thought, taking a quick nce over my shoulder.

    The massive tents we spotted all the way from the hill were currently standing in mes, burning away for posterity''s sake.

    And yet, the humans were clearlymanded. And quite well, given the situation and circumstances, this mass of mercenaries found themselves in.

    ''They are weakened but not defeated,'' I concluded my quick observation while giving my troops a bit more time to assemble now that there was more room for us to gather.

    Before long, the pattern of movement within the human-held chunk of the camp changed, indicating someone not only noticed me and my troops but hurried to make the report and then arrived back with fresh orders.

    Still, it would take time to move the masses of men necessary to properly defend against the threat I presented.

    And I had no ns of giving the humans all that time just for funsies sake.

    "SWARM THE FUCKERS!"

    After a short moment of tranquility, a fraction of a time when everyone knew what was about to transpire when those who found themselves in the wrong ce at the wrong time grew aware of what fate awaited them��

    And then, everyone moved.

    With the other half of my unit finally charging in from a much different angle than the other half, I''ve managed to open a third front for the battle, pinning the humans from three sides.

    Sure, they still had an overwhelming numerical advantage. For every celestial or divine there were at least five if not more soldiers still fighting��

    But a single celestial or a divine often amounted to much more than just a few humans.

    My troops rushed ahead and shed with the hastily assembled defenses, shattering them in one fell swoop and charging the human''s perimeter.

    Swords went into action. Shields and daggers knocked fangs and ws away, only for the beaks, hands, and all sorts of plundered weapons to sing their song in response.

    With a sense of disappointment, I stood my ground, opting not to take part in the charge.

    At such a close distance, in the middle of all this mess, I couldn''t really risk firing my weapon out.

    After all, the powerful bullet didn''t know the friend from the foe! And if there was anything that could bury our advantageous tactical position, it was a devastating friendly fire!

    Boom!

    Fay''s rifle spoke out again, carving a deep and bloody wound in the ranks of the humans stopping the other half of my unit.

    Making our way forward, the celestials and divines soon joined the fight, limiting themselves to just the target that directly threatened my position.

    All around, death.

    To my right, a well-coordinated group of humans knocked off both hands of some celestial, exposing its torso for the spear thrust of the third. Twisting its body at some unbelievable angle, the celestial managed to brush the attack off with just a shallow cut�� Only to end up hacked down when a fourth soldier snuck from the side and brought his one-handed axe down its back.

    To my left, a brown-shining divine leaped into the very middle of a group of five.

    Instantly stuck in the triangle of three, huge shields, he didn''t appear to be bothered. With three short swords, a spear, and yet another axe falling down on a counter, he simply fell down on one knee before gently cing his hands on the ground.

    The iron swung down and forth, aiming at the defenseless and exposed neck of the divine��

    Only for the entire group of five to suddenly rise in the air before tumbling to the back with enough force to knock off a further ten soldiers off their legs.

    A group of three celestials instantly made use of the opportunity, jumping in the gap in the constantly assembling line of the enemy and preventing the humans from bridging it.

    "There! Cut deeper!" I screamed out, sending off half of my guards to do the job.

    And they were elites, alright? And watching them drop their limits and go all in in the midst of flesh and blood�� Was truly a sigh to behold.

    Two of them partially transformed, assuming some traits of their bestial forms before they dropped down on the humans and showered them with a flurry of blows and strikes.

    With the gap stabilizing, the remaining four celestials rushed in, des in their hands, quickly cutting the gap wider before finally prating the line and emerging on the back of the human formation.

    "FILL IT!" I screamed from the bottom of my lungs, desperate not to let this small opportunity go away.

    BOOM!

    Fay''s shot shook the earth, exploding into a cone of mes and red-hot fragments of metal that scattered a small unit of humans rushing to reinforce the line.

    ''Two shots, good so far,'' I thought, taking a deep breath before distancing myself from the area where we prated human formation and taking a quick stock of the situation.

    To my left, the other unit opened two more gaps and already started to pour behind the enemy line. Up ahead, the humans struggled to ward off the furious assault of Loraz''s troops.

    Everything was going rtively well, as much as I could tell through the darkness of the night.

    And then, the third shoot came.

 Chapter 160: Breaking the stalemate

    ''The third?!''

    In a single moment, my mood went from rtively satisfied one to an extremely bad one.

    Was this just a normal shot? But it was close enough to consider it a signal!

    And were all three shotsbined in one, sessive series? Or were thest two separate from the third one?

    In the safety and height of her position on the hill, Fay had much better outlook at the situation than anyone anywhere near the camp did. And that''s what made our ability to somewhatmunicate so valuable��

    Or so it would, if I wasn''t desperate to figure out whether Fay was trying to tell me something or if she was simply helping with the fight.

    ''Was this a warning about a new threat? Or the order for a general retreat? Or maybe it was nothing at all?''

    Unable to decide, I had to do something.

    My troops continued to press their advantage, reinforcing and then widening the gap in the middle of the human formations. And as more and more of celestials got to the other side, the desperate defense of their backs that the humans mounted quickly copsed.

    Right now, all that was left was to divide and conquer the enemy tropps, focusing on each smaller unit at once while simply holding back the others. And with each repeat of this cycle, the our ability to crush an individual unit would grow as more and more troops would join the effort instead of just stalling their respective human formation.

    But that''s how things would go if not for Fay''s shooting.

    ''What is it, Fay?'' retreating a few steps and pulling my guards along, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on the soul thread that connected me with my girl. ''What are you trying to tell me?''

    BOOM!

    A new shoot exploded right above the heads of the biggest unit out of all the individual ones we managed to separate.

    A shot far closer to me than any of the ones before. And after a mere moment of pause.

    Boom��

    A distant echo of explosion above the far end of the camp brought me to a full alert. Because with the added bonus of Fay''s faint emotions I sensed through our bond, her shoots suddenly gained a new meaning.

    ''Shit!''

    The first shot served both to alert me of Fay''s intentions�� and to serve as a message. The second one, however, Fay released with a sense of distant yet rxed importance. A far-away shot, aimed at the part of the camp furthest away from the forest. One that was likely to be now fully cleared out from all the stragglers and possible threats.

    I forced my eyes open and took a quick look around to gather as much as I could of the current situation.

    The celestials sessfully broke through the desperate resistance at the back of the human unit. And while part of them went off to fight off the reinforcements the human headquarters sent what seemed like ages ago, the rest��

    To say it shortly, the sight of them unleashing their bloodlust at the back of the thin line of humans was one that was bound to cause me nightmares. In the next few moments, the first of the separated human units would fully copse, falling prey to the vengeful protectors of the forest, eager to exact punishement for stepping into the proximity of the holy forest.

    To my left, the other half of my unit made simr progress�� only to stall when what looked like a group of human elites joined the fray and stalled the progress of the dissolution of their army. Up ahead, first few of Loraz''s celestials broke past the defenses, rushing to pay the debt of blood they incurred during the charge.

    All in all, humans held just by the strands of the courage of the selected individuals. Their ranks held just by the sheer force of necessity. If not for the encirclement, some if not most of them would long since started to break. But with nowhere to run��

    ''And let''s not forget the threat to our backs��'' I took a quick look over my shoulder, already sensing the heavy breath of whatever danger awaited in the dark expanses of the burned-down parts of the camp�� or maybe even in the darkness beyond it.

    I turned my head back to the ongoing battle, throwing onest look at the whole picture. And upon seeing that human forces dwindled to an eptable level for the next phase of my n, I raised my shottie, aiming the gun at the sky.

    Then, after waiting just three more beats of my heart, I pulled the trigger, cutting all the noise and tter of the battle with the explosion of the gunpowder that spewed out mes from theplicated muzzle at the end of the gun, covering the entire camp with the sound akin to a thunder.

    Thest of the limited few signs and signals I''ve managed toe up with.

    A loud noise with mes momentairly raising from where the noise came from. And now, all that was left�� was to see whether Fay''s kin would stupidly lose itself in their bloodlust and the heat of the battle and sign their termination agreement by doing so, or��

    Or to prove they were not as stupid as I was worried they were, noticing and then following the order hidden behind the signal I unleashed.

    And this order was the simplest of all the ones the celestials and divines had to remember.

    Retreat but keep the humans locked.

    And like one man, the elites I came with started to retreat, ignoring the perfect tactical position they were in to cut scores upon scores of humans.

    First, the celestials that made it to the other side of the human formation made their hastily retreat, clogging the gaps theirpanions held for a moment.

    Then, one after one, celestials and divines at the gaps started to retreat, gradually allowing the humans to mend their lines and present an united, although much thinner than before, front.

    And in a matter of three minutes at the very most, all of the fighting ceased, with my alleys retreating to roughly fifty steps away from the human lines all across the battlefield.

    The humans�� didn''t try to pursue or to capitalize on the retreat. They no longer had the forces to do anything but to dig their feet and defend their positions with all their might.

    ''If you throw everyone in one direction, you will expose yourself on two sides. If you stay and do nothing, there''s a chance, albeit small, the reinforcements will arive,'' I thought, guessing what could be going through the head of the human leader.

    And then, with a sigh, I gestured at my guards before moving ahead.

    It was time to let thest phase of this battle, and my strategy, to y out. Itsted long enough for mere warm-up, after all. And ultimately, it was nothing more but the apetiser before the main course that could arrive at every moment.

    ''Let''s just hope that''s not the case,'' I thought as I made my way through the scattered crowd of the celestials and divines, quickly reaching the front of the line�� and actually stepping out.

    The humans aimed their weapons at me�� but seeing how I approached with just a few celestial, all the while strolling peacefully and with no sharp piece of metal on me, they didn''t fire any arrows.

    Throw everyone to one side in hopes that at least some of them will make it out. Dig their feet into the ground and leave it in my hands to decide what to do with them.

    Those were the only two realistic options the enemy leader had.

    And it was now my turn to offer him another way.

 Chapter 161: Terms

    "Whoever is in the right to talk terms, step out!" I shouted into the nearby crowd of the humans. And once I did�� I courtly stepped back to roughly the point in the middle between the two armies.

    Then, with a wave of a hand, I sent most of my guards back, to the point between our current position and the rest of our troops, keeping only three of them as a precaution against any sneak shots or attacks.

    Terms.

    The one option the leader of the humans likely never considered to be possible. Or at least, not an option he or she could learn from the treaties on the past conflicts against the protectors of holy forests.

    As such, I didn''t really mind waiting�� No, that''s not it. Every second counted right now as Fay''s warning shots rang in my ears. But there was nothing I could do to speed this process up.

    If the enemy leader didn''t expect this kind of situation, he wouldn''t be prepared for it. Thus, it would take some time before humans could produce anyone with a background strong enough to actually talk terms.

    Using this time, I took a look back, at what was left of my unit.

    Its nominal leader was now nowhere to be found, quite possibly dead after the prolonged battle against the human elites. And while our numbers shrank�� the losses were somewhat within the range I could ept.

    Of course, every celestial and divine lost during this battle would mean one less warrior in the battles toe. Contrary to the humans of this world, I didn''t have an easy way to bring over thousands upon thousands of people with all the logistics and supply chain shenanigans that came with those numbers.

    But as long as my current gambit worked out in the near future, then all those deaths would be�� worth?

    No, that wasn''t it either. After going through a fair dose of shit in my life I knew better than to believe in empty slogans that both humans and the forest protectors were likely using to rally themselves up. There was no glory inying one''s life on the battlefield.

    And yet, I didn''t make the effort to educate others about my take on the situation. After all, as little as I was willing to sacrifice myself for the sake of the forest, I was really happy with all the fools more than happy to do that for my sake.

    Still, eyeballing it, about fifty of my elites died in the assault. A tenth of the initial headcount. Loraz''s forces consisted of generally weaker protectors, making their losses likely to be much higher, just like their initial number.

    Seeing the first signs ofmotion growing deep in the human camp, I started to get impatient to find out whether their sacrifice would pay out.

    This was all a gamble at saving as many lives as I could, after all. The fact that my preferred scenario ended up with the supplies of the forest in my full control and all the sides of this war forced me to follow my whims was just a cherry on top of my n.

    Soon, themotion in the human part of the camp grew bigger and bigger, before a group of horsemen rode towards the line that blocked my path ahead.

    After some messy maneuvers, the footmen gave way for the riders, allowing a group of twenty to pass. Out of this group, only four riders continued ahead on their horses, only to stop a mere few steps away from my position.

    "We don''t know each other and we are definitely not friends," I started off in a seemingly weird way, ignoring the fact that the human emissaries didn''t bother to dismount, opting to give me a set of heavy stares instead. "So I suggest we don''t bother with pleasantries and get to the gist of things."

    Raising my face, I looked at the human emissaries�� Only to have them squinting their eyes as the only reaction to my words.

    "My terms are simple. Surrender to avoid total annihtion," I spoke out as frankly as I possibly could. "Whether you try to oppose us right now, whether the imperial legions will arrive just in time to save what''s left of your troops��" I shook my head. "No matter the scenario, you guys are going to end up dead."

    After my statement, I pulled my lips together and turned silent, scanning each of the four members of the group of humans sent ahead to talk. Yet, with the continuedck of any reaction, I decided on the one,st push.

    "Our goal is not to annihte you all, but to prevent the total destruction of the forest," I announced, silently usurping the right to decide on the goal of the alliance of celestials and divines. "And from what I''ve gathered so far, you guys don''t even know what you are fighting for."

    This was a huge aspect. One that influenced mercenaries in the camp considerably less than any other troop�� but even for them, it still held meaning.

    Peasant levies could generally only be used for defense or some simple, short warfare. Kept armed for too long, and they would start to scatter to loot, or even worse; desert and return to their farms to take care of the fields.

    Professional armies could fight in both defensive and aggressive wars, offering their loyalty to thepetentmanders for a fair price and pride of serving their country, god or king, whichever one struck their fancy the most.

    And mercenaries, simply fought wherever their employer sent them, assuming it wasn''t an obvious suicide mission or a death trap.

    All of those types, though, still needed a reason to fight.

    It could be something as simple as enriching the members of the army at the cost of the neighbors. Something as grand as the defense of thest bastion of the faith, or something as nd yet natural as border conflict with a local rival.

    But there had to be something that those armies strove to achieve.

    And I just happened to know what exactly it was, and why the reason for this war was nothing more but a bunch of horse''s shit, bundled and packaged together before being served on a silver tter and forced down everyone''s throat.

    "You''ve betrayed your race," one of the emissaries finally regained their voice�� only to utter such an empty usation and spit down on the ground from the height of his saddle. "And you want us to surrender? Only to have those monstrous allies of yours ughter us the moment we lower our weapons?!"

    Looking up into the widened eyes of the man, I shook my head and sighed before reaching out for my belt. Then, with one of my hands, I fixed my shottie in a position that made it easier to use it on the spot. And with my other hand, I threw the small box that I''d carried all this way here before lightly tossing it toward him.

    "This box contains the flower that you guys were all supposed to look for once in the forest," I announced out loud, eager to start the rumors about the mysterious box. And right as the man caught the box, fought off the desire to just throw it away and took a peek inside��

    "This is the flower you guys are looking for. The alleged reason behind this entire campaign," I kept my voice as loud yet as calm and collected as I could. "And I already know it is not going to work as your leaders hoped it would."

 Chapter 162: Just a small trick

    The time moved extremely slowly. Or rather, it was my perception that elerated, slowing down my experience of reality.

    Maybe that''s why the time it took the emissaries to react to the flower and my words stretched out so painfully long.

    "This is��"

    One of the other riders, a rtively young man with streaks of silk-like, golden hair peeking out of his rudimentary, worn-off helmet muttered as he peeked inside the box.

    Leinei''s flowers were all fresh, magically grown by the dryad and the help she enlisted amidst her kind. Picked just before we all went off to the battle, and thus still fresh and fragrant in spite of all the stench that battlefield was full of.

    The odor of excrement, vomit, and drying blood mixed with sharper hues of smoke and the sickening aroma of burning flesh. And in this mist of this revolting mist of smells, those delicate-looking flowers created an oasis of a delicate, slightly citrusy fragrance.

    A lovely scent that stretched all the way from the four emissaries to where I stood my ground.

    "��"

    Still, regardless of the impact the sight and smell of this flower had on them, they were taking their damn time to respond!

    ''Are they trying to stall?'' I thought, a single muscle twitching on my face, on the left slope of my nose.

    Up until now, everything was going more or less how I desired or outright designed to happen. And only now, for the very first time since my life took an abrupt turn��

    I was enlightened to how little I could do if the emissaries opted to escte the situation, regardless of all my efforts and desires.

    To a degree, I kept my position flexible. I was willing to go to great lengths to turn today into the bloodiest day of the entire conflict�� But with the hopes that everyone spilled enough blood to stop the rest of the war from happening.

    ''If things go as I want, this might really happen��''

    My fists tightened as my eyelids halfway down my eyes.

    The wait was the response was growing from a mere annoyance to a message all on its own.

    "What say you," I asked coldly.

    As long as everyone followed with the most logical, optimal option, my ns could work. But��

    ''Humans aren''t exactly known for holding back their emotions and acting rationally, aren''t we?''

    And now that I''ve realized this mistake within my calctions��

    Finally, something happened.

    The man who spoke for all four of them turned his head towards the young man I noticed before. For a second, they exchanged a stare before the older rider turned his eyes back to me.

    "We are willing to consider a cease-fire if that''s what you are offering."

    I took a deep breath.

    ''Nothing''s decided yet, we are simply haggling.''

    Kept back the thoughts of all the things that could happen if the humans acted differently from how I expected and hoped it to turn out to be quite the struggle. Yet, no matter how tough of a mental battle it was, I wasn''t allowed to let a single hint of it appear on my face.

    The stakes of this moment disallowed such folly. Still��

    The gun weighed down in my hands as I silently rallied myself up and reassessed my position.

    Four men in front, enemy line roughly forty steps away. Three celestials with me, ready to deploy shields at any moment and pull me back within our ranks.

    ''Not great, not terrible.''

    "I''m afraid that''s not an option," I shook my head before squinting my eyes a bit further as I stared into the main emissary''s face. "My allies spilled too much blood, and lost too many friends and kin to just let you walk away."

    I kept my head still and turned my eyes to the young man with golden hair whom I noticed before.

    "And I''ve said it already, this war isn''t about this flower at all," I shrugged my shoulders, "so if I let you go now, you will simplye back once your allies arrive."

    As I spoke, my face turned so that by the time I finished, I was looking right into the golden-haired man''s face�� Or rather, his eyes, given how most of his looks were covered behind his worn-out helmet.

    "Who do you think you are��!"

    Finally, some reaction.

    Seeing me address the actual leader of the emissaries, the man who assumed that role riled me up.

    ''A bodyguard��? No�� Perhaps�� a butler?''

    I rushed to find a rtionship pattern that would fit this habitual reaction.

    ''In their eyes, I''m someone lesser, not equal to their leader to speak to him directly. That means a ss society, likely,'' I threw my eyes to the side for but a moment, giving the human outfits a quick nce. ''Likely, something along the feudal lines?''

    This army was supposed to consist mostly of mercenaries. And yet, I could see some semnce of peasant levies with just a single, short look.

    "That''s enough," the young man spoke for the second time. His voice was calm and collected as if he was discussing philosophy in some sort of university rather than standing amidst blood and crap, discussing terms for ending the battle. "You did enough, Dennis," the young man spoke again before throwing his leg over the back of his horse and, to the horror of his retainers, jumping down.

    The young man''s feet dove into the bloodied mud of the area, dirt and filth instantly assaulting the gaps in his light te armor, dirtying whatever expensive trousers he had underneath. The man didn''t spare even a nce at the state of his feet, keeping his head straight and eyes locked on my face as he took a few steps ahead.

    Then, to the shock of his troops and equal surprise of the forest protectors, he lowered his head.

    "Allow me to apologize for this small trick," the young man spoke with his head down, only to reach up and pull his helmet off as he straightened his back, revealing the one hell of an idol-like face. "I''m udy Moretto, the acting leader of the mercenary guild," the young man lowered his eyes as he introduced himself before raising them back up and drilling them into my face.

    "And I had no other choice but to check if I am to deal with the civilized person before talking any terms."

 Chapter 163: Talking Terms

    Locked in a contest of stares with his beautifully handsome man�� I lowkey felt extreme relief and satisfaction that Fay was away.

    It''s not like I had any doubt regarding her faithfulness. That man''s looks, shining even on the gruesome backdrop of the battlefield, were simply too much!

    Standing before him and being stared down like that felt as if a picture-perfect character jumped out of the screen of myputer and tried topare his magical feats with whatever I had aplished in my just until recently boring life.

    But as small and insignificant as udy''s face made me feel, I still had a job to do. And now that this prince-like guy introduced himself, I was obliged to follow suit.

    "My name is Peter�� Peter Von Ziaq," I revealed after a momentary hesitation.

    And no, I wasn''t going for the effects of saying it like, "I''m Bond, James Bond". I simply forgot about how the system changed my surname when I first stepped through the portal. And in the heat of the moment, this small bit of information somehow happened to be at the forefront of my mind.

    ''Well, my intelligence and wisdom are practically double as high as they were before my evolution,'' I thought. ''So it only makes sense it''s a lot easier for me to think that fast.''

    Intelligence outlined the processing speed of my brain while wisdom showcased the amount of information I could store in it and the speed at which I could ess it all. And with both of them that much higher than ever before, it only made sense I wasn''t all that ustomed to the full extent of my abilities.

    "And I speak on behalf of all the protectors of the forest gathered here," I added after gathering my thoughts and finally growing somewhat immune or, at the very least, resistant against udy''s noble charm. "So, now that we''ve established I''m a civilized person, I ask again. To my request of your full and total surrender, what say you?"

    As interesting and potentially important as udy appeared to be�� I still had to mind the threat that I believed Fay tried to warn me about. And so, regardless of how happy I would be to take my time conversing with this man in any other circumstances�� Right now, I couldn''t afford to allow those humans to stall for time.

    And that''s what I was more and more certain their goal was.

    ''Which suggests, they are awaiting some sort of rescue. And with that in mind, Fay''s warning��''

    I took a shallow yet long breath, staring udy down as I pressured him with my eyes for a response.

    "You appear to be a civilized person indeed," the gold-haired man spoke, still with the same calm, collected voice. "So I will be forward and assume you know it''s impossible for me to agree to those terms," he replied. "I''m just an acting leader of the guild. Even if I gave the orders, my men would simply rece me. And so, I would rather not give those orders, to begin with"

    This man''s words�� made sense.

    But they sounded more like a barter, not an actual concern for me.

    For what use would be a leader that has no prerogatives to actually lead and make decisions? A folly like that could appear in non-professional armies, where personal connections and status took precedence over ability and discipline.

    But in a patchwork army of various different mercenary units, all railed under the standard of their guild? With the people who learned firsthand the value and importance of order and hierarchy?

    "Your words ring true," I smiled at udy before opening up my arms and shrugging them away to the sides as if to point at all the celestials and divines patiently waiting for my orders. "But I''m in an even more precarious situation. They listen to me because, as we can all see," I swung my hands, pointing them at the whole of the camp-turned-battlefield.

    "My orders and ns work and get the job done. And I could never justify all of our losses if I allowed you to just walk away. And again," I leaned my head to the side and smiled lightly, "What will stop you froming back once you join with reinforcements?"

    If we left the question of the credibility of our statements aside, we found ourselves in a stalemate. Just like udy couldn''t give the orders his men wouldn''t follow, I couldn''t push for an oue the celestials and divines wouldn''t be willing to ept.

    And with this line of reasoning leading to nothing but a bitter battle to thest man�� It was for the best to simply try another angle.

    "Listen man," I softened my tone and dropped all pretense of formality and noble elegance. "Just like you wanted to know if I''m a civilized person, I want to know if you are a pragmatic one."

    Staring right into the gold-haired prince''s eyes, I squinted my own.

    "I know there''s a force heading our way as we speak. And while I''m capable of ending your army here and then defeating all of those who wille after, the cost of doing so��"

    I allowed a hint of annoyance to appear in my eyes, making myself look as if I just saw the mountains of gold and used favors that achieving what I''ve talked about would cost.

    "My goal is to end this war. Because pragmatic people like me figured out, just making a fair deal is a hell of a lot cheaper and easier than throwing armies around." I took a breath before heaving it out in a long sigh. I allowed my face to rx a little and softened up my voice. "So, allow me to present you the caveats of our situation that I''m trying to reconcile."

    I raised my fist to my mouth and cleared my throat with a cough.

    "As we speak, your reinforcements are nearing our position. Yet, for them to arrive too quickly, they can only be front guard or a unit traveling light, extremely light."

    I brought my arms together and crossed them on my chest, staring right into udy''s face.

    "Either way, we can ughter them all. Sure, they will buy you some more time, but we simply cannot allow the imperials to find such a nice, reinforced base here. So, no matter the cost, we will have to remove you all and burn this camp down."

    There was no emotion in my voice, even with the ironic smile stered all over my face.

    "In this scenario, you die. But what if I let you go?" I leaned my head over my other shoulder, shaking it a little as it moved. "Then you will be back once the imperials arrive and all of the sacrifice of my dear allies will be for naught."

    "That''s�� correct," udy reluctantly agreed with my words.

    After all, my entire idea was built on the most predictable and thus most likely oues. Results that, while smaller than what everyone wanted, reconciled everyone''s interests and met it all in the middle.

    "Again, my goal is to end this war by removing the reason for it. And if the Imperials simply want to conquer the forest, I have my ways of forcing them to take responsibility when I offer them what they im they want. But for that, I need leverage over them," I exined my entire line of reasoning that gave birth to the very foundations of my n.

    No matter the country, moving huge armies around required a reason. A desire those armies were meant to secure. And with that much mass behind this entire campaign, this desire, even if ultimately fake, could still be a rope for me to bind their hands with.

    "And that leverage is��?" udy asked, only to squint his eyes and throw a quick look over his shoulder at the troops awaiting the results of the talks.

    There was a visible sense of pressure at the very back of the young man''s golden eyes. The air appeared to tense up around him as he gave his soldiers a long, look.

    Then, udy raised his eyes higher, to the line of trees looming in the near distance.

    "To have you all be our hostages in a bid to force the empire toe and talk rather than having them send their troops to kill everything that moves and burn everything that does not."

 Chapter 164: If you want to live, you have to cooperate (Namidias PoV)

    The crude rope weaved from strands of some strange, extremely durable twig held Namidia''s hands together, stuck on the top of herp. And with another set of the same kind of rope binding her to the trunk of a huge tree, she waspletely immobilized.

    And even with the rtively nice range of movement the bounds didn''t stop her from performing, there was absolutely zero sense in trying to leave.

    First, there was nothing for Nam to cut those ropes with. And after just a few tests, she grew pretty damn sure she would first tear her hands apart before she would manage to actually forcefully break free from those rtively loose bonds.

    ''And even if I did get to free myself somehow��'' Namidia thought, taking a quick nce at the darkness that surrounded her from every possible angle.

    She wasn''t all that deep into the forest, the locals never brought her away all that far. And yet, while she was sure they were different kinds of devices and spells to illuminate their surroundings near the edge of the forest, there were no such tools here.

    And even with all of her experience as a mercenary, Nam couldn''t peer through the thick darkness of the night with her human eyes alone.

    ''If they are able to move freely through this darkness, then��''

    The girl thought, picturing a scenario in her head for what would happen if everything happened as it was supposed to.

    They would set up the camp by the edge of the forest and await reinforcements without a single bother from the monsters of the forest. Once the bulk of their forces would gather, the imperial legion would lead them into the forest, cutting and burning everything that stood in their path while the legion scouts urately pinpointed every trap and ambush that could obstruct their progress.

    ''That''s how we were told it would look,'' Nam thought, recalling the few times when her superior officer came to deliberate over the tactics her unit needed to follow. ''And, for how it would actually y out��''

    There were some within humankind who could break free from the limits imposed by theck of light. And for how big the expeditionary force was, their sheer number denied any chance of having enough of people with such talent to guide all the troops.

    In other words, after stepping into the forest, this endless and somewhat ancient darkness, not disturbed by the artificial source of light since it came to be�� It would swallow the entire army, held back by the mere, flickering light of some punny torches.

    And in this ancient and lethal darkness, countless monsters would swarm, ready to pounce on anyone who lowered their guard even a little.

    Or, even more likely, they would use different baits and provocations to strike the cohesion of each separate unit of the army, silently dealing with them under the cover of the darkness only to move on and keep repeating the process until the entire expeditionary force would find what it came to serve - death.

    In the end, the tense wait that started when most of the celestials vacated the area only for some sort of a show to start�� didn''tst all that long. And as unnerving as it was for the girl to listen to all the rallying clearly foretelling the battle that was about to happen��

    Namidia was out of the picture of said battle. And as weird as it might be, bing the captive of this strange human that aligned with the monsters of the forest�� ended up with Nam ending up in one of the safest ces to be in the entire area.

    Away from the battle at the camp the noises of which the girl soon started to hear�� And a bit too deep into the forest for any raid of humans to ever reach.

    Yet, as it turned out mere minutes after the first noises of the battle filled the air, one of the forest monsters actually appeared before the girl.

    ''Is it the time?'' she thought, watching how a dagger appeared in the humanized monster''s hand, gulping her saliva down as she rushed to make peace with what was going to happen next.

    Yet, instead of tearing her flesh and artery open, the dagger bit into the rope that bound the girl to the tree. And a solid pull on the rope binding her wristter, Namidia found herself standing up and then silently following the monster��

    ''Wait, back to the edge?'' Nam thought, gulping her saliva down again as a thousand possible scenarios yed out in her head, all of them ending with her corpse on disy for all to see what happened to those stupid enough to approach the forest.

    In the end, though, rather than her execution, the humanized monster simply brought the girl all the way up to a small hill, still some distance away where the forest gave way to the in.

    Brought all the way up to the top of the hill, Nam looked down only to see another monster, the one she had earlier seen heavily clinging to that strange human.

    She was lying down on some sort of nest at the top of the hill, with an borate and extremely detailed stick��?

    Unable to tell whatever it was that this strange, female monster held in such a loving caress, Nam''s eyes moved over to the girl''s face��

    Only to realize that she either didn''t notice or outright ignored their steps, her eyes too focused on the sight of Namidia''s camp in the distance.

    "Lady Fay," the monster that brought Nam up to the hill spoke up. "I''ve brought her."

    "Good," the female monster''s melodic voice filled the air, her face and body in general hardly moving at all as she spoke.

    But then, Fay suddenly twitched, only to bring one of her eyes closer to a strange tube mounted at the top of her distinctive stick.

    Swish!

    Boom!

    Once again, Namidia heard the two noises she had grown to fear so much in recent days. This time, however�� the sounds appeared in the wrong order.

    The difference was extremely small�� But the swishing sound came just a fraction of a second before a red cone of fires appeared all the way in the camp, carrying the familiar sound of discharge with it.

    ''Wait, is this how they produced those attacks?!'' Namida freaked out, feeling the cold touch of the grim reaper''s dagger on the back of her neck.

    ''If they are willing to let me see it��''

    In a single instant, the girl understood the simple fact.

    She was going to get out of this forest alive. Not after seeing the human that aligned with the monsters of the forest�� and definitely not after stumbling upon such a massive secret!

    A weapon capable of easily ying the strongest of humans�� And from the looks of things, after just a few, short swings of her wrist as she operated the leaver at the side of her strange weapon�� this female monster was now ready to shoot again!

    "First thing first," Fay muttered, moving her eye away from her stick of wonders for the very first time�� and all to throw Namidia a tense stare. "We do not wish to kill you. But if you want to live, you have to cooperate with us."

    Fay''s eyes locked on Namidia''s face, right as the girl struggled to figure out what Fay''s words could possibly mean.

    ''Not killing me? Yeah, as if��'' Nam rolled her eyes at the motion.

    She saw too much. And she was fully aware of that fact herself. There was no saving her at this point, not unless everyst of those monsters were to fall prey to the approaching imperial legions��

    "I think it''s starting," Fay suddenly announced, turning her eyes back to Namidia''s camp while the corners of her lips twitched slightly and formed a small smirk.

    ''What''s starting?'' Too terrified to use her voice, Nam opted to remain silent regardless of how curious she was. Yet, as soon as she followed the female monster''s eyes and looked over at the camp��

    ''Of gods��'' Nam sighed, an overwhelming sense of powerlessness filling her entire body. For now when she took a closer look�� the camp was nowhere like she remembered it. A huge chunk of it was burned down, while the majority of what was left appeared to be fully deserted.

    Only in one part of the camp could she see any movement, indicating a great number of warriors gathered there. And as Nam strained her eyes even further��

    She saw the first unit of mercenariesy their weapons down before leaving their stronghold at the edge of the camp with the assist of just a few forest monsters, unbothered by the rest.

    "Just what did he tell them, I wonder," Fay muttered, lightly shaking her head in silent amazement.

    ''Wait, tell them what? What''s happening? I don''t believe they��''

    "As you can see, what''s left of your army is surrendering," Fay rose up from her lying, rxed position and moved up to sit down on her heels. Her eyes were still trained on the forest, proving that regardless of what was happening, there was still some sort of danger lurking far in the darkness of the night.

    Then, the female monster finally stood up, allowing Nam to once again appreciate just how insane beauty she could boast about. And as she turned to look at the girl with those full, sparkling blue eyes��

    "We might end up holding your friends andpanions hostage for a few days, so I need your help to prepare a ce for them to stay."

 Chapter 165: He couldnt be...! (Fay/Peter PoV)

    "So, what will it be?" Fay asked, tearing her eyes away from the camp for but the moment to cast a judging nce at the captive woman.

    ''I don''t like her��'' she thought on the inside.

    But there was some value to what this girl could do right now. As such, Fay''s personal animosity mattered not. Not when Peter was out there, risking his own skin for the case he was only affiliated with through Fay, who sat back down in safety herself.

    Fay''s animosity was purely personal. After all, the girl in front of her was the first one to talk with Peter since the two of them got together!

    And as silly as it could be, Fay simply felt�� jealous.

    She felt possessive in front of the first actual human that had the body parts necessary to potentially steal Peter away.

    As unlikely as it was to happen, though, Fay had no other choice but to put those thoughts aside, aligning with the most pragmatic approach to the question of the captives.

    "What could I even do��?" the woman asked, pushing her bound hands against her stomach as she lowered her face and looked away.

    "I need you to��" Fay turned her eyes towards the forest, to the one area Peter judged to be more or less suitable for his designs. Yet, by moving her eyes towards the spot determined to be the future camp for the hostages, she noticed something else with the very corners of her eyes.

    Fay snapped her head, locking on the small sh she saw and gritting her teeth.

    ''So fast,'' she thought, a curse unveiling silently on her lips as her knees caved in.

    Controlling her drop with slight movements of her hips, Fay fell right back into her nest, gracefully embracing the gun as she looked through the powerful scope.

    Between her abnormally keen senses and the benefit of the ocr tool, she could see the tiny sh of light for what it really was.

    The shine of a torch reflected off a polished te.

    And given both the ce and the circumstances, Fay could now tell for sure.

    "Tsk," clicking her tongue, Fay changed the angle of the gun a bit, pointing it back towards the camp. After assessing the situation for a short moment, she steadily breathed in and pulled the trigger, as if not to know when the weapon would actually fire.

    One shot, followed byplete silence from the hill. Alternatively, if the first shot found no target, then followed by a barrage on any threat close enough for Peter to see it.

    ''He still has some time,'' Fay thought, straining her eyes to recognize Peter''s figure amidst the dense crowd busy fulfilling whatever deal Peter made.

    The distance from that sh to the camp was still rtively great, giving Peter more or less twenty��

    ''No,'' Fay gulped her saliva as she looked back towards the sh. ''ounting for how quickly they arrived, fifteen minutes tops.''

    The girl bit her lips, watching with frustration how seemingly no change appeared within the camp. However, before long��

    A small part of the forest defenders detached from the main congregation of the units, heading off, through the camp, to its other end at the point furthest away from the forest.

    ''He couldn''t be��'' Fay bit down on her lips, as the reality of what was happening before her eyes started to dawn on her.

    Because Peter�� With a force of maybe a hundred or two, was setting out to challenge the enemy reinforcements! And while the entire army couldn''t arrive anywhere as fast��

    ''Should I fire three shots?'' Fay asked herself, biting her lips hard in frustration.

    Yet, a single look back to the camp only caused the girl''s expression to sour.

    ''Yeah, there''s no way they will all retreat that quickly.''

    One person could easily traverse from the camp to the forest in half that time, even when ounting for all the muddy dirt and corpses littering the path. But two entire armies? While maintaining some sort of agreed-upon bnce?

    ''Is that why?'' Fay asked herself, instantly torn by the choice of what she was supposed to do.

    Go to Peter? And deprive him of the only urate support he could count on? Or stay on the hill, and risk being unable to do anything if the shiny cavalry bearing the g of the empire would prove to be too much for him?

    ''Curse it all!''

    Gritting her teeth to the point they started to painfully move in her gums, Fay sharply pulled the gun to the side before taking aim and raising it a bit.

    "Come on now, I know you can reach them," Fay whispered to the lock of her weapon, taking her sweet time to aim the shot.

    Contrary to her bombardment of the human camp, she could barely see the target. Even through the scope, she could only see the general movement rather than individual riders.

    The light of the torches reflecting off their shiny armor was the one thing that allowed Fay to notice them from so far away. And as they traveled on a rtively straight road that led up to the in��

    Fay raised her gun more and more, all the way to the point where she actually climbed up on her knees and raised the whole thing from the ground.

    From the settled-down position, she could raise the gun as far up as she felt she had to. And once everything just felt right�� Fay pressed the trigger.

    ******

    *Whoosh!*

    This was the one sound I wasn''t yet familiar with.

    I could tell its source right away, for it was too critical, too mechanical to be of anything sourced in this world. And the number of people in possession of my tools was extremely limited.

    Furthermore, no sound of explosion followed nor was the sky lit by the momentary explosion of light.

    ''A far shot?'' I thought, tracing my eyes the imaginary path of the bullet I constructed from just the noise the round made, a great courtesy of my improved wisdom and intelligence that just proved yet again how little I understood its limits.

    Still, Fay shot the gun, well after giving me the warning shot back at the camp when we were ironing out the details of the deal udy��

    And speaking off��

    I turned my eyes to the side, where surrounded by twenty of his elites the mercenary acting leader silently followed me into battle.

    ''I know this is a bad idea�� but frankly, I don''t have any other way to prove it,'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I held back a curse. ''And if I showcase its might on them,'' I patted the shottie hanging from the strap on my neck, ''they will never agree to surrender.''

    I gathered the saliva in my mouth before swallowing it down��

    Only for the noise of another bullet to swish through the air. And then another. And another��

    ''Wait, what is she doing?'' I thought, startled, turning my head towards the line of the trees out across the camp and in the distance.

    Obviously, from so far away, I couldn''t even see the hill where she was nested. And thanks to the rail-powered drive, the neugarand was free of a muzzle sh.

    There was no explosion involved when it came to ejecting the bullet, after all.

    And before I could for a single thought, another round came flying by. This time, however, it erupted close enough for me to hear the distant, weak echo of the explosion.

    ''She''s going all in,'' I thought, turning my eyes to the direction she was shooting at.

    And still far away�� but I could now see not the explosions themselves, but the slight, bright hue they cast on the clouds far off in the distance.

    ''And that means it''s not going to be an easy fight,'' I thought, gulping my saliva down only to raise my hand, ordering my small unit to a halt.

    The battle with the mercenaries was put on hold. Mindful of the threat to my back andcking just this onest push to force the mercs to surrender, I decided to catch two birds with one stone. After all, what could be a better reason to surrender than witnessing the might of my shottie?

    But again, firing it at the mercenaries would kill any chances of any sort of deal. That''s why, the threat that I''ve already believed to be some sort of reinforcements, turned out to be the best target for me to practice on.

    ''As long as we ughter them all, the high charges of the mercenaries will know the terror of the neu-firearms,'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I decided to hold my ground barely a few steps away from the camp.

    Given the ongoing barrage, there was no point in shortening the distance the reinforcements had to go through under the constant fire. Every step they had to make was one more second Fay could use to shower them with the condensation rounds.

    "We will take them on here," I announced out loud before casting a sour look at udy and his escorts. "And for the sake of your safety, please, stand aside," I requested out loud while raising my shootie and resting it on my arm. "I don''t want our terms to go away because of some stray arrow or something."

    udy was here to witness the power of my gun. And with other high-ranking officers of his army present, I could give them all this onest push to follow through with the n I''ve revealed to them.

    And that''s why, as hated as it would make me among Fay''s kin, I had no other choice but to make sure they would survive the ordeal safely, no matter the cost.

    After all, udy''s cooperation was my ticket to quite possibly ending this war with hardly any further bloodshed! Hardly any bloodshed��

    I heaved a heavy sigh before bringing the gun down to my hands and getting ready.

    ''Beyond the one I''m about to partake in just a moment, that is.''

 Chapter 166: Calm before

    *Swish*

    *Boom��*

    *Swish*

    *Boom*

    In the short few minutes since I heard Fay''s first shot, her barrage drastically changed.

    From steady, well-aimed strikes separated by the few seconds she needed to adjust her aim and correct for the enemy''s movement, Fay now moved on firing as quickly as she could.

    ''Silence,'' I thought once the echo of the distant yet closing explosions ceased, fading into obscurity amidst the darkness of the night.

    And as the moment without the sound of Fay''s bullet stretched into several seconds, a realization struck me.

    ''She''s changing the barrel.''

    It didn''t take a genius to figure it out. After covering the area ahead of us with such an intense barrage, why else would Fay suddenly stop?

    "Is it over yet?" udy asked in a voice less steady than usual.

    ''Right, he was on the receiving end of this kind of fire,'' I thought, nearly instantly mending the impression his quick question left on me.

    "I doubt it," I replied rtively silently, somehow ashamed of looking back at the man.

    It was one thing to indiscriminately rain hellfire upon the high charges of the enemy army�� And another one to await a battle while apanied by the constant background sound of those shots firing at the target just right up ahead.

    *Swish*

    *BOOM!*

    This time, the explosion was even closer. So close, in fact, I could already see the air brightening up instead of looking for the clues reflecting off the bottoms of the clouds. And it grew quite loud too.

    I took a deep breath, taking a look at our situation.

    It''s been a mere seven minutes since Fay fired her first shot. And ever since then, she continued to bring down the god''s wrath on whatever was approaching. The elerating rate of Fay''s shots along with how quickly they grew loud and near proved something pretty damn worrying.

    Whatever was rushing to meet us and in doing so, emerge from behind the nearby hill''s ridge was capable of withstanding a fire much more intense than what easily scattered humans in the camp a few times by now.

    And it was getting closer.

    I shook my head and turned my eyes to my side and slightly to the back.

    "I think it''s time for you to get away, at least a bit," I informed the acting leader of the mercenaries while fully ignoring his escorts.

    They might be high-ranking officers of the mercenary army�� But they weren''t leading it.

    *Swiboom*

    By now, the sounds of the bullet cutting through the air mixed with the sound of the round discharging.

    This threat, whatever it was, was just ahead, just over the hill.

    "No way��"

    Alerted by the change on udy''s face, I turned my face back only to see the enemy that just crested the hill.

    It was once a glorious knight, no doubt. But by now,his battered, bloodied, and heavily damaged armor was anything but shiny and impressive. The heavy breathing of the man''s massive horse only indicated just how tough of a trip he had to get all the way here.

    And before I could even mutter a word��

    *BOOM!*

    This time, the explosion was so close, that the noise of the discharge drowned all the swishing sound of the round actually flying through the air. And for the very first time, I got to witness the disturbingly effective might of those anti-tank bullets.

    The round didn''t explode in the rider''s face. No, it discharged roughly a meter away from him, at a sharp angle from above. Faced with some sort of invisible obstacle, the charge hidden within the round went off and umted just on its tip, cutting through whatever this defense was like a sculpting razor would cut through human flesh.

    With ease.

    Once freed, the tiny pellets melting in the overwhelming inferno of napalm-like substance spewing out from the tiny hole in the rider''s barrier covered the man and his horse up.

    Some pellets cut straight through the man''s armor. The explosion itselfpressed the rider''s helmet-covered face and upper chest, squeezing them well beyond lethal levels before the rain of red-hot pellets.

    In a single instance, the proud figure of a battered yet determined fighter who, as I''ve just noticed, carried a golden-sown banner in his hand, turned into a still corpse sitting atop a still mass of finely cut flesh that used to be its horse.

    Quite notably, though, even with the upper third of his body gone and the rest cut like vegetables for a sd�� The rider didn''t let go of the banner.

    Not until hispanions braved over the crest of the hill. And without skipping a single beat, one of them just rode past the proud corpse, snatching the wood of the beautiful, golden-red banner from the corpse''s still yet warm fingers.

    "CHARGE!"

    Whoever was in charge, screamed so loudly his voice cut through the distance that separated the crest of the hill from the camp.

    "Golden Cavalry��" udy muttered, his eyes opening up wide.

    BOOM!

    Fay''s shot fell two riders this time.

    As it turned out, while the cumtion charges proved to be a great tool to prate whatever defensive barriers those people raised and then contained all of the mayhem released by the round mostly within the spherical shape of said barrier�� it also meant that those rounds, designed to kill people en masse, could hardly harm more than two, three at once.

    And from the feeling I got when I saw Fay''s shot cut down two more of the gant knights�� Even a double-kill required some insane level of aim and sense for a distant movement.

    "Leave, now!" I screamed out, using the fact that I still had some time and distance to work with. And with how those riders instantly rushed down the hill and towards the camp at a break-neck speed, the noise their mounts made had to shield my voice quite perfectly. "I can''t have you dying on me now!"

    The safety of udy was imperative. And as long as he survived, there would be still some room for us to work out a proper deal instead of this makeshift, gentleman agreement we had right now.

    "But leave some of your men behind," I ordered right as udy gave me a pitying look.

    Turning my eyes away from Fay''s ongoing carnage, I smirked at the mercenary leader.

    "I still need them to see how easily I can ughter them all," I announced with a smile before finally removing the shottie from my neck and harnessing it in my arms. "Even if it some of them will end up dying in the process," I added only to turn away and walk up towards the loose, makeshift barricade the humans raised around their entire camp.

    It was a far cry from any proper defense, consisting not of solid wooden stakes and proper walls, but made up with carriages, stacks of boxes, and all sorts of stuff only aimed to slow the enemy down, not to bring him to aplete stop.

    But for my intents and purposes, this barrier was more than enough.

    "Everyone!" I called out.

    BOOM!

    The shockwave of the nearby condensation bullet going off slightly shook my hair. And in the single moment I couldn''t use to speak, I cast a quick nce at my unit.

    They were all hidden behind all sorts of obstacles, removed from the view of the approaching unit of cavalry. And with a single look, I could tell.

    There were likely more than two times the raiders than I had celestials and divines in my group. And judging from udy''s look�� This wasn''t going to be an easy fight.

    ''Well, whatever,'' I thought, hiding behind a random barrel while readying the shottie in my hands. Orienting myself with nothing but the intensity of the sound of the explosion, I awaited an opportune moment.

    And once Fay''s shoot appeared to nearly give me a haircut, I felt everything in the world suddenly align.

    This wasn''t my ability acting up. It was merely a mental shock when my body jerked up, rising in this strange slow-motion-moment over the cover and taking aim towards the raiders.

    They were almost here. Just a few seconds away from crashing with their massive horses against the joke of a barricade the mercenaries set up.

    Chased across arge distance by Fay''s barrage, they clearly pushed themselves to the limit. All to reach the perceived safety of the camp, where Fay''s aim couldn''t find them as easily. And right as they were at the doorstep of the alleged safety��

    I rose up from behind the barrel, carefully took aim��

    And pulled the trigger.

 Chapter 167: Bloody clash

    The front of my gun exploded, spewing out long tongues of mes while scattering overheated pellets from itsplicated muzzle.

    The rail and explosive-powered bullet pulled the burning air into its tail, artificially lengthening the fiery discharge to several meters�� While cutting straight through the nearest rider, the one behind him, and then burying itself into the chest of the horse of the one further back.

    And for just a moment, the tranquility of this moment became everything.

    The cavalry that was about to crash into the barriers looked into the eyes of the celestials and divines who rose from behind their barriers.

    Some readied their weapons, others pushed the parts of the barriers at the horsemen while a huge chunk of my force hurried to cast some sort of spell.

    For this one, fleeting second, everything was right in its ce. They were about to off us, we were about to off them. Everyone on the field came prepared, ready to pick a lot in the bowl of this messy fate of ours.

    And as the voice of the system sang in my consciousnesses, this tranquil moment came to a crushing end.

    [Battle Log:

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 17.2 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 15 Participation: 70%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 15.6 Participation: 70%

    ��

    I didn''t even have the time to realize I''d actually killed the third horseman�� and most likely, either their mounts were counted as ughtered beings or the bullet actually cut through the entire length of the horse, struck the ground, and imed at least one more life as it ricocheted.

    Such was the power of the weapon designed to burst bunkers open. And while anti-personal use was possible�� its creators clearly didn''t put much focus on it.

    Which, strangely enough, in this crazed world of sword and magic, proved to work in my favor.

    A bullet capable of prating several inches of the military-grade reinforced concrete turned out to be a great tool to crack open not only the armor but most importantly the barriers of the enemy soldiers.

    "Haaa��" I heaved a long sigh as I felt the power surge toward me, instantly filling in a huge part of what my current body could contain.

    But there was no time to waste. And two cavalrymen bursting through the clouds of dust and debris while shing down at the celestials hiding behind them proved my point.

    BOOM!

    Fay''s shot went through one of the riders, exploding only at the back of the man''s barrier and showering the man behind with a sea of me and boiling-hot metal shards.

    "KILL EM ALL!" I shouted from the bottom of my lungs, recharging my weapon with a quick swing of the leaver.

    Feeling the new round click in its ce within the lock of the gun, I raised it towards the next, nearest threat.

    It was a young cavalryman. Deprived of his horse during his charge at the barricade, he somehow managed tond properly in a full set of te armor, showcasing a mind-boggling level of control and agility. He rolled on the ground and jumped up, ready to pounce at me��

    Only to be met with a barrage of pellets from the side of my shot, given how I aimed at a man slightly to the side and behind him.

    As optional as the anti-personnel use of this gun was, it didn''t mean it wasn''t capable of clearing the trenches if necessary. The construction of both the bullet and the muzzle of the gun made sure of it, spitting clouds of tiny, tiny pellets in a rtively wide cone with every shot.

    My finger pressed the trigger. The gun shook in my hands, the recoilpensation plumes of fire forcing the gun forward, against the kick of its recoil.

    The young, handsome cavalryman suddenly became not as handsome when his body was covered in hundreds of small wounds, each of them exploding with blood when those pellets easily cut through the man''s pristine, te armor and wrought havoc in his insides, only to carve out huge chunks of flesh as they burst out of the man''s back.

    In a mere instant, the young, brave legionary left this world, the shock of the myriad of tiny yet devastating wounds lulling his mind away before he could even feel any pain.

    The man that I aimed for, thought, wasn''t as lucky.

    The main slug cut through the invisible barrier with ease, before stealing a fist-sized chunk of the man''s stomach and dismantling it as it powered through the back of the barrier and dug into yet another cavalryman behind.

    ''Judging by all the additions to the log, those travel far further than I expected,'' I thought.

    Then, I gritted my teeth.

    ''That needs I need to be even more careful with where I am.''

    My only test of this gun was performed on the massive, old trees of the celestial forest. And a single slug was more than capable of carving a long line through the forest, felling more than just a few of the massive trees.

    And whenpared to the trunk that no human could hope to embrace on their own�� just how strong could the barriers those humans raised be?

    ''Next!''

    Activating my Eye on time, I turned my attention towards my next target.

    Now with my mind gaining a lot more processing power to spare, my awareness expanded from just the small bubble directly around me to nearly the entire battlefield.

    Jump from thirteen points in intelligence to sixteen proved to be much more than jump from my old, eight points to the thirteen I had right now!

    And all along the line of contact, I could see the imperial cavalry crashing through the barricades, all ready and eager to face off with the enemy that dared to attempt an ambush on them.

    I raised my eyes just a tiny bit, only to see Fay''s fire sweep anyone who dared to crest over the top of the hill, slowing down the influx of the new enemies��

    But there were already too many.

    ''Shit!''

    I cursed when my body jerked, jumping back in a desperate attempt at dodging.

    Not a second toote.

    A long, barbed de of a two-meter-longnce struck the ce I was in just before.

    ''DIE!'' With the adrenaline cursing in my veins, I raised my shottie��

    And held back my shot.

    That man''s charge pushed me deeper into the line, while the man ended up slightly to my side. And if I were to shoot him at this angle��

    The backs of the celestials would be the targets for all the side pellets!

    ''If that''s the case,'' swallowing down my fear, I regained my bnce right as the attacker pulled on his horse''s reins, making it turn to face me.

    But by the time the rider readied himself to ept my attack and properly find out who here had bigger cohones and greater skill in a battle�� I angled my shottie to the side, aiming right back to the ce where I just escaped from.

    And then��

    "FALL OFF!" I screamed out like a madman while already pressing the trigger down.

    The cavalryman only looked at me with confusion, not expecting me to scream out when it was time for the two of us to culturally decide who would be the ughtered one and who would be doing the ughtering.

    Behind the rider, though, all the divines and celestials in my immediate surroundings fall back, breaking contact with the enemy forces and running for their dear lives to the sides��

    Away from the cone of the fire my gun was about to unleash.

    "Whatever��" The rider rolled his eyes and struck the sides of his mount with his heels, raising hisnce to simply skewer me with it and put this farce to an end��

    But thest of the celestials just escaped from my range of fire. And with the rider''s horse stepping up for a jump charge, I pulled the trigger all the way back, instantly removing all the thoughts from the rider''s determined and now all-bloody face.

    As it turned out, neither his barrier not extremely nice decorated helmet helped him to stop the barrage of hundreds if not thousands of small needless pellets so hot, they turned half-liquid during the discharge.

 Chapter 168: The ways of the old (part 1)

    **Half an hour earlier**

    "Come on, boys, keep it up! The princess is watching!"

    Luan rolled his eyes when he heard the major''s encouraging words.

    "He could stop reminding us," Luan muttered while fixing his hold over the reins. "It doesn''t make it any easier to ride while maintaining a formal position."

    With their backs straightened and legs only loosely sitting in the stirrups, a rider could hardlypensate for the movement of the horse''s back. And with how their legion''s cavalry used the evolved horses for the mounts��

    The effects of not cooperating as well with their horses only grew harder and harder to endure.

    And with the shifting body of their mounts below their asses wasn''t enough of a bother, keeping a perfectly straight back and looking ahead with their chin raised at all times��

    It was a recipe for a dental disaster!

    "Shush, you moron," Carl, riding to Luan''s left, scolded his friend. "Do you want him to hear you?"

    The noise made by the hooves of their mounts could easily drown even the most whiny of Luan''s remarks.

    But just like their horses, the legionaries themselves prided themselves on being the best of the best of what humanity had to offer. One could only gain the entry and then the ranks within the legion by the way of merit, not money or social status.

    What it boiled down in the moment, though, was that their major, one of the highest charges amon man could achieve anywhere in the army�� Had to be one hell of a monster of a man.

    And expecting him to miss Luan''s remarks over something as insignificant as the general noise of five hundred massive beasts running down the old, decrepit road��

    "He won''t care," Luan muttered in response�� but with a much shallower voice. If not for the formal requirements of his position, all in the bid to impress the golden princess, he would likely lower his chin and hide his face.

    With his haughty words contrasting with his meek physical reaction, Luan pursed his lips.

    He had enough of letting hispany pass time at the expense of watching him get punished for his loose lips. And after serving as thepany''s entertainment for some months by now, he finally started to grow a little bit restrained when it came to his words.

    "As long as I keep the formal posture, ma��" Luan gulped down his saliva. "Sir Major shouldn''tin."

    "And that''s why you started to refer to him per sir?" Carlughed out, his shoulders shaking a little as he carefully maintained his straightened back.

    In the empire, the general idea of nobility and their ranks was in an all-out retreat. Most of the potentates shifted from their formerly ducalnds to profitable businesses all over the empire, simply changing the type of yoke they held the general poption in.

    The smaller nobles were losing their privileges left and right, suppressed by the strong-armedws of the golden throne.

    Some transitioned to different forms of power to maintain their influence while others simply faded into obscurity along with the times that passed. And at the end of it all, in the current reality, only the royal loyalists and the high-ranking legion officers retained their right to be called sirs and madams.

    ''Not like Major cares,'' Luan thought, ncing towards the center of their travel formation.

    Riding slightly to the back and at the center line of the group, the major wore no spare decorations save for the mark of his rank engraved on a small te sown to the shoulder of his uniform.

    Surrounded by men in full, te armor, he looked like some sort of a retainer, a mere connecting officer not responsible for the brawl whatsoever.

    ''In reality, any sort of armor would only serve to slow him down,'' Luan thought, a hint of jealousy bursting out in his heart.

    Sir Major reached the absolute pinnacle of how far could a simplemoner grow. Due to the nature of the elite unit hemanded, his career growth perfectly reflected his personal strength.

    Him shedding off his iconic te armor of the unit wasn''t a sign of recklessness but an overwhelming confidence in his ability to keep his skin safe.

    No ordinary man would ever gain enough merit to reach that high of a rank in the unit, after all.

    "Do you think we will ever grow anywhere as strong as him?" Luan asked, forgetting about his whines as he pondered over the possibility of a bright future.

    After all, with most of its enemies now gone and integrated into the empire, there was hardly any war left for the empire to fight. And without wars, sooner orter, the legion would have to change.

    Without wars, there would be no battles. Without battles, no one could gain great merits in the old and trusted way. And that means��

    ''Sooner orter, it will be our turn to wear his mark of rank,'' Luan thought with a small smile forming on his head. And like in a vicious cycle, the smile on his face only served to invite more positive thoughts, turning his smile even brighter and so on.

    ''Hardly any battles left to fight with, respectable position, good pay,'' Luan shook his head. ''I need to take care not to grow wicked over how good I have it in life.''

    "We might reach his rank one day," Carl spoke out a long time after Luan posed his question.

    ''Did he take an entire minute to answer that?'' Luan thought, his friend''s words distracting him from the dreamy future that awaited as soon as his current deployment was over.

    And with just a bit of luck, he might even be able to w his way to the rank of lieutenant! For that to happen, though��

    Luan looked to his left, giving his friend a long, thoughtful stare.

    ''I guess he will be the one I will bepeting for the promotion with,'' he thought.

    They were both sergeants,manding a small unit of nine each. And as long as they could bring glory to the empire on the battlefield, they just might be able to jump a rank higher by the end of the campaign!

    "His strength, though?" Carl continued to speak, more to himself than to his friend.

    His eyes were absent, locked on something far, far beyond anywhere Luan could see.

    "The great war is over, all that''s left for us is to rot some��"

    *BOOM!*

    A huge explosion shook the air right as a cone of fire suddenly filled the leftmost quarter of Luan''s vision.

    Thrown off the saddle by the discharge, he shifted his body mid-fall, ensuring that his armor would take the brunt of the damage, as opposed to his joins or vital parts.

    ''Wha��''

    Luan''s reaction was fully automatic, based on nothing but muscle memory alone. His mind, though...

    His mind stopped.

    It wasn''t the first time for Luan to get thrown off his mount during an attack.

    But thest time it happened was at Lunagar fortress, not in the��

    Thud.

    Falling down to the ground, all thoughts escaped Luan''s mind along with the breath that squeezed out of his chest and escaped through his lips in a dull sigh.

    And thest thing he saw before his vision started to go dark, was the lower body of Carl, his friend, casually sitting down on his horse''s saddle��

    With everything above the man''s belt cleanly severed off, the blood spewed by the attack seemingly exploding in mes and leaving a burning trail along his mount''s path.

 Chapter 169: The ways of the old (part 2)

    ''Fuck!''

    Luan cursed right as the dull pain of falling down on his back squeezed all the air out of his lungs, turning his curse into a fleeting whisper that rode the escaping air.

    The young legionnaire''s vision darkened, the pain and shock threatening to fully cut his consciousness.

    And the moment Luan managed to fight off the pain��

    He realized that it had more than just one source.

    His eyes moved down, scanning his iconic te armor that only the cavalry of the elite, golden legion could wear. And against any reason��

    It was broken.

    In three points, his pristine tes were broken, opened up in three, tiny spots. Two of them marked his stomach while thest one cut straight through his armbrace. The blood trickling out of the gaps in the metal indicated that whatever struck him had reached his body.

    ''I''m in a shock,'' Luan quickly realized, gritting his teeth as he reached out to his belt and grabbed the soldier''s crutch.

    Then, squeezing his hand and crushing the small bag in it, he ignored the new pain of his pierced flesh and struck his tightened fist against his chest te.

    Tick.

    The crystalline structure within the bag shattered, releasing the healing spell hidden within.

    "Haaa��" Luan released a long, pained sigh as the magical power rushed into his body to fix and regrow the tissue cut open by whatever struck him.

    The moment Luan sighed was also when the shock factor finally dried out, turning their entire unit into a chaotic mess.

    ''I can''t give in to the darkness��'' Luan told himself, gritting his teeth as he struggled with the pain that only grew stronger when the healing spell started to work.

    It was healing his body, alright, but did nothing to reduce the pain. And the pain��

    The pain of using a healing spell was insane. It felt as if Luan could feel every tiniest part of his body being born anew, paying for this miracle with the pain those lost parts of his flesh went through when they died.

    ''Don''t scream, hold it in!''

    Following the procedure all the legionaries had to know by heart, Luan gritted his teeth and held back his screams of pain.

    He couldn''t afford to let this life-saving magic escape through his scream, not while it still hurt. For since it hurt, the crutch was still working its magic.

    "Bring him up!" someone''s, strangely familiar voice reached Luan''s ears. And before he could even realize what was going on, someone grabbed him before bringing him up from the ground.

    ''Wait, why are we stationary?'' Bncing the line between staying awake and giving in to the overwhelming exhaustion that started to rece the pain by now, Luan struggled to process even the simplest things.

    "Soldier!"

    This time, Luan recognized the voice. It was the very same voice that heined about bothering them to Carl, just a few moments before.

    ''Why are we stationary��''

    "I know it hurts, but I need a report."

    ''Why are we standing still��''

    "What happened here?"

    Sir Major asked, going as far as to put his hand out and rest it on Luan''s shoulder.

    "Move��"

    Luan managed to squeeze a single word out of his tightened throat.

    The major''s escorts stepped up, openly grasping at the handles of their swords.

    ''Just who is he to shoo Major away?''

    Despite his state, Luan couldn''t hold himself back from an inner remark.

    "Artillery spell," Luan then spoke again after taking a deep breath and gathering as much strength as he could.

    In just a few more moments, the crutch would finish the job and restore him back to the original state, along with all the vitality and energy he had before the attack.

    But Luan already went through a situation like this. All the way back in thest campaign, when his legionid siege to the Lunagar forces, the mighty keep that held an important trading route in check.

    It was back then when Luan experienced the might of the legendary artillery spells. And while the attack he saw just now was obviously different��

    "We are under fire!" Luan finally managed to squeeze out the most important part of the report.

    "But by whom?" Major asked, turning his face away from his recovering soldier and looking over in the direction they were heading.

    "Maybe the mercs rebelled?" one of the higher-ranking officers surrounding the major came up with a suggestion. "They have Cessayah and Ramirez, not to speak about that Moretto guy," the officer mentioned, looking in the same direction as the major before turning his eyes to look at hismander instead.

    "And what would they do that for?" the major asked, only to shake his head. "What''s important, is that we are sitting ducks here, we need to��"

    *BOOM*

    Another explosion shook the air, right as a cone of fresh fire swallowed two raiders while the shockwave sent three more flying off their saddles.

    ''Wait, that''s not it��'' Luan thought, his keen senses starting to return to their usual state.

    And it was with his own eyes that he saw thin lines of blood drawn along the route hispanions made on their path to falling down to the ground.

    Luan then looked down, at his already near perfectly recovered body.

    There was still this tingling, sharp pain deep in his abdomen... But right now, he had no time to care for it.

    "BARRIERS!" Major screamed out, ignoring the procedure of passing the order to his acting officer who would then pass it over to the sergeants. "RAISE YOUR BARRIERS!"

    Shaking with excitement only a soldier would know, Sir Major turned towards where the spells appeared toe from and sped his hands together while making a small "han!" noise.

    In a single second, the air around the officer flickered, distorting the image of the man and all those around him. A mere secondter, the air cleared out as the barrier of its magically solidified form enveloped the officer before copsing inwards to tightly cover the man''s flesh and clothes.

    ''Barriers, right,'' still shaken by the recovery, Luan followed the order and sped his hands, sending the mana from his body through the memory circuits ingrained into the palms of his hands.

    His barrier was an entire ss or two worse than what the major could construct, retaining its original, spherical shape.

    And not a second toote, yet another artillery spell came, instantly shattering the half-formed barrier of a soldier ahead, showering the surroundings with mes and shocking waves�� and small, tiny pieces of something red.

    "Huh?"

    While all the soldiers around scrambled to raise their barriers and get back into formation, Luan kneeled down and looked closer to the ground.

    There, a small piece of metal was quickly losing its temperature, cooling down in the winds and turning from the red that Luan noticed to the simple, ordinary shard of some sort of metal that it actually was.

    ''How devious,'' Luan thought, before shaking his head and jumping back to his feet.

    Everyone around him was almost ready to rush away from the strike zone of the artillery spell. And Luan had no designs on staying back in the kill zone all on his own.

    "This is nothing like Lunagar!" Sir Major shouted, already mounted atop his massive horse. "We have all this open space ahead, so what are you still doing here?!"

    As unreal as it sounded, Luan could swear he could hear notes of unrest in the major''s voice. Something he could notice only thanks to how his thoughts were still muddled, still recovering from the brutal kick of the crutch he used.

    And so, when the major pulled out his saber and shed it forward, giving the silent order to charge ahead�� Luan could see it.

    The fear shed in the powerful veteran''s eyes.

    But when the mass of just shy of five hundred cavalrymen began to move, there was nothing else Luan could do but to fall in line and follow.

    Artillery spells were near the pinnacle of all human magic, just a grade below supreme magic and two grades below divine. And for how powerful it was, it also came with important drawbacks.

    "Without rest! Jump ahead!" Sir Major shouted, digging his heels into the sides of his mount.

    An artillery spell was as powerful as hard it was to cast. And for how hard it was to aim it the further away one wanted to send the attack, the best bet against it was to simply move outside of the designed strike zone.

    A tactic impossible to perform on the narrow slope that led up to the Lunagar''s fortress main gate. But one that was as easy as spitting down on the open in they were at right now!

 Chapter 170: Soldiers fate (Part 1)

    **Five minutes ago**

    ''Wha��?!''

    Ophar''s head shot to the side, following a tiny yet extremely fast glint.

    In fact, it was the impossible speed of this momentary sh of light that attracted the man''s attention in the first ce.

    His nervous system sent the proper instructions to his muscles and joints, sending his head to the side, following the path of that glint��

    But his flesh was too slow to react. By the time the attack struck, all Ophar could see was a cone of mes that consumed the upper body of one of his sergeants.

    ''Artillery spell?!'' Ophar stopped his head and reverted it back to where the mercenary army was supposed to set up their camp. ''Here? But who would��? Why?!''

    In an instant, thousands of thoughts streaked across the man''s mind, filtering through all sorts of patterns and functions, only for theplicated mess of feelings and thoughts to trante into what actually mattered.

    ''I need to confirm it. We need to keep moving. Danger.''

    Oprah jumped down his horse without hesitation, rushing to where the powerful attack fell. In just a few steps, after passing some of the soldiers who were too shocked to move, the full scale of the spell''s light revealed itself to his eyes.

    And save for the gruesome episode at the Lunagar fortress, Ophar has never seen this kind of devastation before.

    The upper part of the soldier''s body was now gone, eradicated from existence. His horsey dead, a mere few steps away from when it got hit judging by the short mess it left in its dying wake. And by the point where the small fires started and consumed the short grass of the field at a rapid, unseen pace.

    This was a lot to digest in the heat of the moment. And so, Ophar put all his thoughts aside, shoving them to the back of his head as he focused on the things he could only do now.

    "Soldier!" he called out to the man hit by the edge of the attack.

    After a quick look, Ophar noticed with satisfaction that the small satchel with the crutch was disfigured, meaning that this sergeant of his was likely to survive��

    And give him the very information he needed to confirm whether what he nearly saw actually happened.

    "I know it hurts," he spoke in a much calmer voice than usual, offering the very few shreds of sympathy for his retainer. "What happened here?"

    The sergeant�� ''Luan,'' Ophar''s memory offered the man''s name. Ophar''s eyes turned wide in reaction to the major''s words. And after a moment of clear struggle��

    "Move��" Luan whispered as if too shocked by how they were all still to say anything else.

    Then, a momentter the sergeant used topose himself and chase away the torturous demons of the crutch, he added, "Artillery spell."

    And a momentter��

    "We are under fire!"

    This time, Sergeant Luan''s voice grew stronger, a good indication that he was fighting off the aftereffects of the crutch rtively well.

    "But by whom?"

    It took Ophar a moment to realize his inner thoughts escaped through his lips.

    The amount of information he had to process on the go while he remained a stationary target for whoever was firing on them�� Even a veteran of many wars and years like Ophar struggled to absorb it all in those circumstances!

    "Maybe the mercs'' rebelled?" Kanto, one of Ophar''s three captains, suggested. "They have Cessayah and Ramirez, not to speak about that Moretto guy," he quickly continued when sensing his leader''s gaze.

    "And what would they do that for?" Ophar asked, shaking his head. ''Exining myself to lower charges��'' he cursed in his thoughts, ''that''s what I get for lowering my guard even for a moment!''

    Still, Ophar''s thoughts were the only thing about him that belonged to his lonesome. His actions and words that he spoke out loud, though, all had to serve the battalion hemanded.

    "What''s important, is that we are sitting ducks here, we need to��"

    BOOM!

    A new cone of fires blossomed, taking down two more soldiers in its wake.

    And even more importantly, it proved that, to a degree, Luan''s and Ophar''s personal guesses were correct.

    ''We are in the killzone of the artillery spell,'' Ophar thought in a single instant before taking a deep breath and��

    "BARRIERS!" the middle-aged soldier shouted from the bottom of his lungs, foregoing all procedures of passing the orders.

    In the heat of the battle or onught of hostile mages running mad, there was no time to follow the usual chain ofmand. Thankfully, within the Golden Legion that Ophar''s forward cavalry battalion was a part of�� personalpetence took precedence over the stiff military manuals that all legionaries were supposed to follow.

    It was a privilege Ophar hesitated not to abuse.

    "RAISE YOUR BARRIERS!"

    Just this short shout was enough for the middle-aged man to hurt his throat.

    After years of warfare, he has long since left the ranks that required him to shout to pass his orders. And just like swordsmanship or the ability to ride atop the bestial horses, when not practiced, Ophar''s ability to invoke the so-called "sergeant''s sermon" diminished over time.

    BOOM!

    Another strike proved that Ophar''s doubt regarding Cessayah, Ramirez, and udy was well found.

    The three of them were powerful. So powerful, that even Ophar himself would hesitate before challenging them for anything else but a friendly spar. Allegedly, not even the golden princes could tread lightly around those three!

    But there was no human capable of unleashing artillery spell capable of easily piercing imperial te armors�� Not at the rate they were getting showered with spells!

    They were out in the open, in the dead center of the artillery''s spell killzone.

    But Ophar just finished gathering all the information he could. And while there were still some massive gaps in his knowledge, he learned enough.

    "This is nothing like Lunagar!" Ophar screamed out while ignoring the pain in his throat as soon as he jumped back to the saddle sitting atop his bestial horse. "We have all this open space ahead, so what are you still doing here?!"

    Ophar threw a single nce to his back.

    ''Golden princess rides behind us��''

    He couldn''t see the legendary potent aura of the young imperial. Yet, even while under the enemy attack, he could still feel her piercing gaze on his back. A gaze that prated the distance that Ophar''s eyes could not.

    And so, Ophar gritted his teeth, and pulled out his saber before simultaneously cutting the air in front of him while digging the heels of his shoes into the sides of his trusty mount.

    "Without rest! Jump ahead!"

 Chapter 171: Soldiers fate (part 2)

    "Without rest, jump ahead!"

    After tearing his throat for the third andst time, Ophar tickled the sides of his mount with his heels.

    For a moment, Ophar wanted nothing more but to kick with his legs instead, to indicate the greatest level of hurry. His mount was trained well enough to understand the message. And after years spent on the road and in battle, it was aware that following the orders of the human it carried was often, against its instincts, the best way to see the day through.

    As much as Ophar wanted to just charge ahead as fast as he could to escape the kill zone�� He couldn''t. For he wasn''t just a simple soldier but amander, one of the major elements that made up the battalion''s morale.

    ''If I show any sign of panic, they will rout us on just a few steps!''

    Despite being in charge of one of the most elite units in the entire empire, Ophar knew better than to trust in the heroics of his people.

    They were all veteran who went through hell and back before even getting their nomination to the Golden Legion. And by now, with the great war ending just two years ago, most of hispanions were actual survivors of the Lunagar''s hell.

    All in all, Ophar''s people were masters of survival, soldiers who braved through the absolutely worst fighting of the recently concluded war and survived to see the day and tell the tale.

    Which, counter-intuitively, meant they weren''t as reliable as the legionaries in the normal legions, who knew drill better than their name and feared their sergeants more than the enemy.

    ''If I show them a single sign of weakness, they will scatter to save themselves,'' Ophar thought, gritting his teeth as he adjusted the speed of his mount to match the soldiers both ahead and behind him. ''Ultimately, they are all human. And pride and glory be damned when you are about to lose your life without even knowing!''

    In the end, though, the only thing they could do, right now, was to ride as fast as they could to get out of the kill zone of the enemy mage�� No, archmage. Or, a bit more realistically, some advanced magical troop who somehow managed to achieve the impossible and conquer the forest without the empire noticing, and now engaged them at a distance to keep their conquered territory safe.

    ''Whatever it is, we need to��''

    BOOM!

    A new explosion missed the mark, shattering someone''s shield up at the front of their formation. And while the discharged mes went below the rider and ughtered his mount instead��

    Ophar''s face tensed up as his heart nearly stopped.

    ''They were ahead quite a while by now!'' His mind screamed out. ''And they were still in the killzone?!''

    Ophar never saw anything like what was going on like now. In fact, even the hell of Lunagar couldn''tpare to the intensity of the fire they were on the receiving end of.

    ''It has to be some sort of magical troop,'' gritting his teeth, Ophar tickled his horse''s sides again. His calmness continued to deteriorate.

    BOOM!

    Another spell crashed into the back of their formation.

    Then, merely a few hundred stepster�� Another soldier fell.

    And then another.

    And another.

    ''What the hell is going on?!''

    Despite all of his personal strength, Ophar was shaking.

    The fear filled every inch of his being. Terror paralyzed him, making him unable to control his body anymore.

    Faced with an attack from gods-know-where and an attack that ignored all the established rules of what should be possible, probable, and likely��

    Ophar felt lost.

    His entire body was filled with nothing but fear-induced adrenaline, making him grasp at his reins harder. Terror paralyzed him, stopping the man from doing what he wanted and limiting his actions to just what his muscles memorized.

    And so, in spite of all the turmoil in his soul, Ophar managed to keep a steady face as he continued to charge the enemy that stubbornly refused to show up��

    While raining hell down on their heads.

    ''This isn''t an artillery spell. Not of the kind that I''ve ever heard of!''

    Even after several minutes of riding, the killing didn''t stop. And while raising their barriers limited the casualty rate of Ophar''s troops�� It didn''t make the terror of watching his men get consumed by mes one by one any easier.

    And what was even worse, the closer they got�� The faster and even more urate the shots became!

    Soon, every shot found its mark.

    DUD!

    Ophar''s face tensed up when a powerful strike nearly broke the hex that altered the rules for the air around him.

    Pushed by the strike to his left shoulder, Ophar nearly fell off his horse.

    ''FUCK!''

    The middle-aged man screamed out internally, feeling how at least three different bones, two of which were within his ribcage, gave up under the pressure.

    ''Shit! Shit! Shit!''

    With nothing but curses flying through his mind, Opharid himself down on his mount''s back before reaching out and grabbing his own crutch.

    ''FUCK IT ALL!''

    Focusing all of his mind on the curse, he copsed his fingers on the small satchel before mming it down on his dislocated shoulder.

    For the next while, the world around the major lost its value. Filled with nothing but the agony of having his body forcefully restored back to its prime state, he couldn''t care less about the ongoing onught all around.

    The seconds ticked by. Their horses covered the vast distance of the open field at a faster and faster rate.

    ''We are going too fast��''

    With his mind dulled by the pain, Ophar noticed the irregrity.

    ''Wait, was this some sort of improved artillery spell after all?''

    The middle-aged veteran suddenly rose up from his mount''s neck. The pain of the crutch was already receding, allowing him to properly gather his thoughts. And once he did��

    ''Did it stop?''

    Even in a state of shock, Ophar wouldn''t miss this kind of realization.

    For a moment, the attacks stopped. And with how effective those attacks were�� There were no pained screams of the wounded to fill the void of silence that suddenly ensued.

    For this fleeting moment, only the noise of the hooves striking the decrepit road shook the air. And just like a ray of hope shone upon the major''s soul��

    BOOM!

 Chapter 172: Soldiers fate (part 3)

    Boom!

    A moment of respite and endless anxiety about who would be the next to be consumed by the mes.

    BOOM!

    Mere secondster, another of Ophar''s riders went up in mes, his body cut into thousand pieces by the small, metal fragments that came shooting at them with each attack of the spell. His already mangled body then got pushed away by the shockwave of the attack only to end up evaporating in the intense heat of the mes that were nearly impossible to block or endure.

    ''This doesn''t make any sense.''

    Gritting his teeth, Ophar continued to ride forth. And with every attack, his heels would tickle the sides of his horse, pushing it to move just a tiny bit faster.

    BOOM!

    Another soldier vanished into a thin air, consumed by the mes.

    ''Uster,'' Ophar gritted his teeth, powerless to stop the culling of his men.

    One by one, nearly second after second, one of his men would fall. If whoever was attacking them got lucky, a single attack could take out even more raiders, with the scattering metal and mes breaking through the rear of the target''s barrier and showering the horsemen behind him with fires and metal shards more than just capable of breaking the cavalry barriers all on their own.

    Due to their mobile nature, they could not carry all sorts of artifacts or special designation officers that would make their barriers stronger. Topensate for it, each horseman actually could count for three, maybe even four men, given the boon of having one hell of a brutal beast for a mount��

    But right now, it didn''t matter at all. Both the humans and the bestial horses were culled down equally as if whatever continued to attack them didn''t differentiate between the two.

    ''Our entire unit is a target�� but why? And who is even attacking us?!''

    Despite all the fear that filled his brain, Ophar forced himself to keep thinking, to keep analyzing what little he knew in hopes of changing the odds in his unit''s favor.

    ''And as if to make all of this worse�� The golden princess is watching!''

    The eldest princess of the imperial line, a legend even among the members of the most elite, golden legion of the empire.

    And right now, rather than watching them march down the decrepit road with their backs straight and chins raised high, she was forced to witness a disgraceful rush, desperate dash, an attempt to catch whoever dared to unleash such devious magic on them.

    BOOM!

    The casualties continued to mount. In the few short minutes, it took Ophar''s unit to cross most of the open in and approach the edge of the hignds that, ording to Ophar''s maps, marked the entrance to the forest foreground�� Nearly a fourth of his men fell.

    ''As impossible as it appears to be, that''s the truth,'' Ophar thought when, once again, the attacks ceased, giving them a short moment of respite.

    "TO THE HILLS!" Ophar ignored the sharp pain in his throat or how shouting orders out loud made him a perfect target for the enemy. "SWARM THE FUCKERS!"

    This time, Ophar held nothing back. Instead of just tickling the sides of his mount, he properly dug his heels into the poor beast''s skin.

    The mount, however, instead ofshing out at the abuse, sped up to the absolute limits of its eleration, reaching the foothold of the hills as it started to bravely, furiously even, climb up the light slope.

    ''Just a little bit longer and we will reach the camp of those mercs! If it''s really them, we will roll them over! But if the enemy is somewhere else��''

    Ophar didn''t have the time to even gather his thoughts. The first of his men was just about to climb over the hill, reaching the highest point of the hignd while proudly carrying the banner of their battalion in his hand.

    Vultar, the herald of the battalion, braved the slope of the hill, reaching all the way to its highest point before freezing for a moment as its bestial horse reared.

    Thud.

    Even amidst all the noise of hundreds of bestial horses rushing ahead, Ophar could somehow hear the dull noise of Vultar mount''s hooves striking down the ground at the top of the hill.

    BOOM!

    And then, just like that, only half of the proud, veteran herald remained, with the upper left side of his body gone, reduced to mere fuel for the fire that broke through his barrier and exploded within, instantly filling the narrow space of the barrier with those devious shards and inextinguishable mes.

    ''Fuck!''

    Ophar cursed under his thought, still fighting the losing battle of keeping hisposure�� or at least, the illusion of it.

    But just like him freaking out would deprive the morale of his outfit of the necessary foundation�� So did the sudden, abrupt death of their well-liked herald.

    "CHARGE!"

    Desperate to pull the unit up for onest effort, Ophar screamed from the very bottom of his lungs, daring not to hold back his voice at all.

    And just like that, he made it all the way up to the crest of the hill, finally able to look down at the area of the massive, open space before the forest. And even though it was still a few hours before the rising of the sun�� Major didn''t really need to strain his eyes to see whaty down below.

    The mercenary camp, the potential source of the attacks, was burning, burned out, and abandoned. Parts of it were still smoldering, parts have long since fully burned down�� While some other parts appeared to get stripped of everything of any value before being fully abandoned.

    Ophar scanned the area for but a moment. And while normally a certain detail could escape his attention�� Right now, asking for that to happen would be akin to disrespecting the man''s experience.

    ''That air��'' Ophar thought, stumped for a moment as he looked at the edge of the camp closest to the ridge of the hill.

    Ophar couldn''t sense a single, individual aura anywhere within the camp. But the air right at its edge was tense, too tense for it to be a natural phenomenon. And as a survivor of the hell of Lunagar''s fortress siege�� Ophar was more than familiar with this kind of sight.

    "THEY ARE WAITING IN AMBUSH!" He screamed out, caring not for how he was physically tearing his throat in two to achieve the "sergeant''s sermon", a voice capable of cutting through all the noise and chatter with ease.

    On the inside, though, Ophar suddenly grew calm.

    From the invisible enemy that massacred over a hundred of his men without even showing themselves, they finally went to a unit of enemies waiting behind the cover of the camp''s loose perimeter, awaiting to ambush Ophar''s unit.

    And while the direct sh with entrenched enemy would be equally if not even more bloody than what they went through to get to the top of the hill�� Ophar had no doubt.

    ''Between this strange spell and the usual bloody mess, I have no doubt which one I prefer!''

    And while swinging his saber forth, towards the camp of mercenaries, Ophar shouted for thest time, effectively depriving himself of his voice.

    "CHARGE THEM DOWN!"

 Chapter 173: Soldiers fate (part 4)

    ''Finally, it''s all as it should be,'' Luan thought when his horse crested the hill and, following Major''s expressedmand, charged down the hill.

    BOOM!

    Another poor fellow ended up unseated from his saddle with a few remaining parts of his body scattering amidst the mes the explosion left in the wake of the man''s charge.

    The shot fell close, far too close to Luan''sfort. The mes it left behind stalled Luan''s toon, forcing them to slow their mounts down and maneuver around to avoid the mes.

    Outside of this distraction, though, things went back to how they should always be.

    Luan crested the hill and charged down, using the slope to push his mount even further beyond what should be its limits.

    The camp was just a tiny bit away. Nearly within the reach of his hand.

    BOOM!

    BOOM!

    BOOM!

    As if desperate to stop them from charging down, the hidden attacker unleashed their spells even faster than before�� Only for their attacks to suddenly cease once only about a hundred steps separated the front of the golden cavalry from the loose barricades scattered all over the camp''s perimeter.

    A hundred steps.

    Fifty steps.

    Twenty steps��

    Luan leaned forward and fixed his grasp on the reins while raising his saber up, bracing himself for the impact.

    Yet, just as his horse was about to crash through a pile of wooden crates�� The enemy finally revealed themselves. And all along the camp''s line, people started to rise up, all either braced for the charge or on thest leg of preparing some quick spells.

    For a single instant, everything calmed down. All the voices and noises disappeared without a trace while the time appeared to cease to exist.

    Stuck in the moment, Luan only managed to gulp his saliva down.

    And then, all hell broke loose.

    Luan''s horse crashed into the barrels, while Luan himself, only by some miracle, managed to avoid ance of fire that suddenly appeared in front of him.

    Luan jerked his body to the side, as far as he could without risking to fall out of his saddle.

    And he did so without a second to spare, with how thence of fire shed past his face, leaving a long, burning wound on his cheek.

    "DIE!" Luan screamed out, swinging his saber down�� Only to have it knocked away by someone''s arm while two more enemies reached out for the wraps of his saddle, eager to force-dismount him.

    But here, in the tight space between himself and the next cavalryman, Luan could finally exploit the greatest advantage that members of his unit had.

    Their horse.

    "KILL!" Screaming out, Luan didn''t try to lift his own morale or encourage the people around him.

    His shout had a much simpler purpose of alerting his mount and finally letting it act as it desired. And before any wait, this bestial horse, bred with the sole purpose of warfare in mind, started to act.

    "DIE!" Luan shouted, his voice once again aiming at nothing but to cheer him up and add strength to the next strike he executed.

    This time, though, distracted by his mount, the enemies had no time to push the strike away.

    Luan''s saber fell down and slid right through an enemy''s arm, nearly reaching the bone. But the resistance offered by the enemy''s flesh��

    It was this resistance that finally allowed Luan to discover who the real enemy was.

    ''They are not human,'' he thought, kicking his mount''s sides to make it stand up on its hind legs. And as it fell down, it added all the momentum that Luan''s armcked.

    Swish!

    Luan''s de fell down. Reinforced by the momentum of the falling horse, it now had just enough strength to cut through his target''s skull and reach his brain, marking the first kill for the night for the legionary.

    ''That''s how things should be,'' he thought, right as a stray spell struck the te over his lower stomach.

    Thankfully, the attack bounced off and the armor held�� but the blunt trauma to Luan''s soft tissue still remained, instantly cutting down his performance to roughly two-thirds of his usual output.

    ''Fucking hell!'' Luan inwardly screamed out, unlodging his saber from the enemy''s head while already looking for another target.

    Soon enough, though, even though only a few people fell on their side, the dynamics of the battle started to appear. Far to the right, Major''s force started to give ground, unable to hold back the counterattack of the enemy that tried to ambush them.

    On the other hand, more to Luan''s left, hispanions stalled the enemy ahead before pinning them down, and forcing the fight deeper and deeper into the camp.

    The lines of both sides started to stretch as the initial unit discement started to inevitably shift as casualties started to mount.

    Yet, contrary to their enemies, it was Major''s force that had a numerical advantage. And regardless of the hell they went through to get to this battle proper, even while keeping the ongoing barrage in mind�� They were the ones that had enough men to reinforce whichever nk was faltering!

    "Push forward!" Luan screamed out, eager to reach the very front of the center of the battle line so that he could get a shot at gaining some more merits.

    Every enemy he fell brought him closer to his dreamed-out rank, after all! And as if fate finally smiled at the young man, the situation at the center turned out�� extremely weird.

    On the right nk, the enemy gained the advantage. On the left nk, the humans held the upper hand, gaining more and more ground while starting to push the enemy towards their center.

    Now, all that was left for them to do was to keep up the pressure, shift some of the troops to the left, and push them past the extreme of the enemy nk before unleashing the riders on their unprotected backs��

    For that to happen, though, the center had to hold. Engage the enemy hard enough to prevent them from maneuvering or retreating, but not hard enough to push them back for it would only make it easier for them to reform their formation.

    And seeing no other officer anywhere near, Luan took it upon himself to hold the line.

    A few momentster, Luan dropped down from his saddle,nding on the ground right as the corpse of his trusty mount copsed on the corpse of another enemy he managed to cut down.

    ''Wait, it''s not like there are no officers here, at the very center,'' Luan suddenly realized his mistake as he looked around in search of another target. ''It''s more like, there is no one else left alive here!''

    Pushing his head all around to locate the nearest troop, Luan noticed with relief that a fresh batch of reinforcements was already heading his way. And what was equally as calming, was that the enemy didn''t seem to care about the gap in their line��

    Or maybe the fighting at the center was so intense that both sides managed to annihte each other at the cost of losing all the strength to exploit this opportunity?

    ''As long as I hold this ce, we can win easily!'' Luan thought, grinning at his thoughts as he readied himself to engage a long enemy, strangely appearing to be a normal human just like Luan and hispanions themselves, strolling at a peaceful pace across the bloody battlefield.

    There was no speck of dirt or dust on him that would indicate he was some sort of a fearsome warrior who ended up as thest one standing in the center.

    ''I need to cut him down before he rallies the others!'' Luan realized, eager to score some more merit points.

    As long as he held his spot for just a few more moments, the units he saw closing in from the sides would help him reinforce the ce. And ying such a crucial role in the battle��

    Luan''s face twitched when he imagined all the honors and glory he would receive back home. His eyes then squinted when he saw this strange, enemy human raise a weird, thick, and ck stick more or less in Luan''s direction.

    ''Quick!'' Luan hurried himself up, ''before he rallies others to his side...''

    Then, a sh��

    And Luan was no more.

 Chapter 174: Soldiers fate (part 5)

    ''THIS IS WAR!''

    Ophar felt strangely overjoyed.

    In spite of what all of his soldiers likely discussed about him, he never enjoyed the war. It was nothing more but adder for him to climb to greater heights. A dire necessity he made his own and used to the best of his ability.

    Ophar never really liked to fight, to kill. But after being subjected to the paralyzing fear of the strange spell that culled his men left and right while giving them no chance at retaliation��

    After going through that hellish experience, just like after the imperial legions managed to breach Lunagar''s gate�� all hell broke loose.

    The victims of the spell finally found a way to strike back at those who kept killing them. And for once, the world returned to how it should be.

    ''We are killing them, they are killing us.'' Ophar thought, jumping down from his force and using the momentum of his drop to drive his expensive yet extremely simplistic saber down the body of a well-built and strangely shiny enemy.

    And between his strength, the momentum of his drop, and the perfect aim of his strike, even the strangely powerful body of the enemy couldn''t hold, allowing Major to split his opponent cleanly in half.

    "KEEP GOING!" Ophar no longer cared about his throat.

    As long as he kept shouting orders, he could keep the battle under his control.

    "MAJOR!" Someone shouted from Ophar''s left.

    Turning to the voice, Ophar raised his saber and blocked a strike of a sword before jumping to the side, dodging a strike of a massive, oversized mallet.

    ''Who are those guys?!'' he thought, baffled yet perfectly fine,fortable even in this uneven fight.

    Their enemies were stronger. Stronger than the elites of the elites of the imperial army. But that was only on an individual level. When it came to the numbers, organization, or even small-scale tactics, Ophar''s unit reigned supreme.

    And soon enough, the situation on the battlefield started to reflect this favorable state of things.

    To Ophar''s near right, the weaker wing of his battalion managed to hold the line, engaging the enemies on the line of the barricade and hardly ever attempting to cross it and advance.

    To Ophar''s far left, the more numerous and experienced soldiers on the battalion''s left-wing engaged the enemy and even pushed them in, while more and more soldiers rushing nk the enemy wing forced them to spread their line thinner and thinner in a bid topensate for Ophar''s men doing the same.

    The difference between the two was that while Ophar concentrated the bulk of his forces on the left wing, the enemy appeared to keep their line generally uniform.

    The center of their ranks was the most problematic one, given how whoever culled them from the distance has now rampaged around in that area.

    ''At the very least, they don''t appear to be holding out there either,'' Ophar thought as he took a nce to his left before focusing back on the task at hand.

    After all, how could hemand his units if he allowed a random enemy to strike him down? And as useful as his personal strength would be amidst the battling soldiers��

    Ophar still decided to stand back, focusing more onmanding his troops than actually fighting.

    Boom.

    The devil''s spell returned�� but after looking all along his line, Ophar failed to notice any unusual gap in the rank.

    ''It''s as if��''

    Led by nothing more but a gut feeling, Ophar looked to the back, to where two soldiers had just crested the hill and fallen down from their horses, no longer able to hold their own with the multitude of small yet extremely grave injuries they were covered with.

    BOOM!

    ''Wait, again? That quick?''

    The thunderous voice of the spell spoke way sooner than ever before. And that led to only two questions appearing in Ophar''s mind.

    ''Were they holding back before?'' he thought, gritting his teeth at the mere idea. ''Or is there more than just one mage?''

    Major didn''t get the time he needed to process his information and seek the answer, not when three enemies out of which only two looked like humans suddenly rushed to his side.

    "Major!"

    A spear flew through the air, prating deep into the hind thigh of a massive bull-like beast.

    "RAAAAAWR!" Charging ahead and carving the path for others with its massive body, the bull ignored the attack and continued ahead, clearly aiming for where Ophar stood.

    BOOM!

    The voice of thunder spoke again. And for but a second��

    For but a second, Ophar could swear he felt a warm�� no, hot current of air caress his face.

    But right now, he had other things to worry about.

    "PROTECT THE MAJOR!"

    One of Ophar''s captains screamed out before desperatelyunching himself at the charging bull. In the heat of the battle and amidst all the noise of people screaming and wailing and the metal colliding with metal�� Ophar couldn''t even tell which one of his captains proved his great loyalty and dedication to the cause.

    And when the massive bull simply trampled the man before, while still running towards Ophar, stopping down and crushing the poor officer''s head with its hooves, Ophar lost hisst chance to identify the brave man.

    ''Shit!''

    Cursing under his breath, Ophar waited for just one more second�� Only to dive to the side while simultaneously shing away at where he expected the bull to pass.

    But attacking mid-air came with the drawback ofcking footing. And without proper support of a stable posture, there was only so much strength Ophar could infuse in his sh.

    Thump.

    The officer''s body fell down, rolled, and then jumped back up�� Only to instantly ward off two quick attacks executed by the two that followed the bull.

    ''They are good,'' Ophar gritted his teeth, changing the hold over his saber and taking a step back, assuming a more stable, defense-oriented stance.

    The two shiny men that attacked him�� were clearly and without a doubt, stronger than him.

    ''That is if we are only talking about strength or speed!''

    Calmed down by his discovery, Ophar didn''t seem to mind shing against two, even when either of them turned out to be far beyond his level.

    Because he discovered one more thing in the short sh that just concluded.

    BOOM!

    ''They have no experience fighting at all!''

 Chapter 175: Soldiers fate (part 6)

    BOOM!

    The gun in my hands spat out fire, sending an overelerated slug right into one of the concentration points of the enemy cavalry. To the side, the side pellets showered down a brave man who attempted to charge me up.

    The look of momentary shock that froze on his face when the pellets broke both of his eyes and generously peppered his entire body��

    I tensed my lips by pressing them together.

    The battle was never a nice thing to see. Not when it happened anywhere else but on a TV screen. But seeing the expression of shock, fear, surprise, and disappointment all freeze on a young, handsome face��

    Unwilling to fight the battle with a sense of guilt atop the physical battle raging all around, I averted my eyes and focused on the situation in general instead.

    To my left, the celestials held their line strong. In fact, they held back the enemy with such ease that only my orders were stopping them from rushing out to fully pin the enemy wing down and, quite possibly, scatter them.

    They most likely couldn''t understand this expressedmand of mine�� But for as little as I knew the celestials and divines, they were unlikely to look across the entire battlefield, where the reason for my careful calctionsid bare for all to see.

    ''Things are not good,'' I thought, allowing myself to entertain the idea that we were actually in one hell of trouble for the very first time.

    The enemy massed its forces on our right nk. And even though I spread my forces more or less equally�� The guys to my left clearly struggled.

    To make matters worse, the enemy on that wing received more and more reinforcements, using whatever spare units they had to stretch their line out, constantly threatening to nk my left wing and thus forcing them to stretch their already thin line out to match the human formation.

    ''Over there, I can''t do anything,'' I thought, gritting my teeth as my mind raced to find a solution. The solution allowed me to ignore the massive limitations I had when using my gun in such a narrow, cramped, and crowded space.

    ''The best ce to shoot them all down from�� is over there,'' I thought, ignoring the already cooling corpse of the brave soldier I''ve just killed.

    In the heat of the battle, there was no time for human sentiments like that. Especially not when I finally found a way that could allow me to shift the scales of this battle back in my favor!

    "HOLD THEM DOWN!" I shouted while pumping the leaver of my shootie and charging ahead all on my own.

    For whatever reason, the enemy didn''t appear to be bothered by the gaping hole in the very middle of their ranks. Was this some sort of tactic? Or maybe theirmanding officer simply failed to notice this problem? Maybe he was too busy fighting somewhere else to even be able to notice it?

    Regardless of the reason, I charged right inside of this gap�� and then continued to rush ahead, ignoring the soldiers that soon surrounded me.

    And given how stupid my reckless charge was, not a single one of them bothered to raise their weapons at me.

    ''That''s the advantage of being a human, I guess,'' I thought with a small smirk emerging on my face only to dig my feet into the soft soil, breaking my rush right as I reached several meters deep into the enemy line.

    It was only a matter of time before someone would connect the dots. Before someone who saw me shoot my newshottie would appear and unravel my momentary disguise.

    But right now, I was in a perfect position to finally use my other gun, the only one that I hadn''t revealed the use of to the public yet.

    And as I pulled the neu-p90 and took a look around, it took me only a second to decide where should I start shooting first.

    To my left, things were more or less bnced. There were some high-profile fights between celestials and some elites of the human unit that could determine the ultimate victory on that side of the battle��

    But it was my right that I was worried about. They simply had too many men to throw at my right wing. And what could be better in cutting the numbers down than a gun capable of expelling thousands upon thousands of deadly needles in a single burst?

    I brought the gun up to my arm and took a breath.

    By doing this, I finally attracted enough attention for someone to point me out and start shouting: "ENEMY! KILL HIM!"

    But right now, there was little they could do, especially with how the whistle-blower just happened to be perfectly aligned with the muzzle of my gun.

    "I take no pleasure in it," I muttered, resting my finger on the trigger while pushing the safety of the gun off with my thumb.

    The first few soldiers of the enemy army finally realized that they had an enemy right in their midst. And as they started to pull their weapons out and charge while alerting soldiers closer and closer to me��

    I pulled the trigger.

    TRRRRRRRRRR

    I couldn''t hear any individual shot with how they all merged into a single, continuous sound.

    Even though no gunpowder took part in elerating the projectiles hidden within the frame of the gun, a steady supply of it moved towards the gun''s muzzle, using explosions topensate for the recoil of ejecting thousands of tiny pieces of metal in a super short amount of time.

    TRRRRRRR.

    Like a series from a high-caliber machine gun, the series from my fresh gun simply cut a huge, gaping wound in the enemy formation, outright cutting people into pieces while caring not for their barriers or armor.

    As an obvious result of inviting such carnage with my own actions, the ensuing flow of energy nearly made me go bonkers, dulling my senses and tunnel-visioning me on the battle and battle alone.

    "KILL HIM!" Someone shouted from behind, kindly alerting me to an iing danger.

    Swinging round on my heel, I lowered myself to a kneel before taking aim again and sending another short series towards the few soldiers who attempted to cut me down, long before they could even reach me.

    Suddenly, I found myself standing in the middle of a bloody hole that split enemy forces in half. There was no single soul nearby that could threaten me and after the carnage I created in just a few short seconds, those who survived it showed surprising restraint when it came to charging my position again.

    Those people, although so powerful were capable of going toe to toe with divines and celestials�� they were not suicidal. After watching what kind of destruction I could bring with a pull of my finger�� they simply decided they would much rather put their fate fighting a battle they understood.

    And so, despite standing alone right in the middle of the two parts of the divided enemy army, I couldn''t see a single man attempting to approach me and close the gap.

    At least, not until someone suddenly came flying through the air, only tond in a pile of corpses that were alive just a few moments ago. And contrary to all the others��

    This person wasn''t wearing any armor!

 Chapter 176: Soldiers fate (part 7)

    ''Too slow!''

    In the end, even an elite soldier like Ophar struggled when fighting against two opponents who were individually stronger than him. But with the addition of that massive, house-sized bull that continued to charge him over and over again, it was only a matter of time before Ophar would slip.

    And right now, he dodged the bull''s charge again, thanking the high heavens for the monster slowing considerably down��

    Only to realize that it slowed for a reason.

    ''Shit!''

    Thump!

    Right on thest step of its charge, the monster bull dug its hooves into the ground and swung its back to the side, striking Ophar out into the air with the full brunt of the kic force of its dash.

    ''Ugh��''

    Blood filled Ophar''s mouth.

    No matter how much experience he had or how physically powerful he was, a strike like that��

    A blunt attack of this sort was the perfect counter for his skin-tight barrier. And while the bull never actually touched the man, the flexible shield perfectly transmitted the force of the attack, sending Ophar soaring.

    ''Wait, this is good!''

    Forcing himself to look for positives, Ophar twisted in the air and took a look around, making use of the elevated point of view to gauge the situation.

    And it was quickly getting worse.

    Some kind of human charged right into the gap that appeared in the center of both lines. And with some sort of magic, he cleared out entire swats of Ophar''s soldiers, now standing with a stupid grin in the very middle of the bloody carnage on a scale much greater than anywhere else on the battlefield.

    Ophar''s face tensed up, his eyes squinted and his fists tightened.

    Then, his body rolled in the air. Falling towards the ground face-first, Ophar dropped his saber and reached out with his hands, epting the full brunt of the fall with them�� Only to roll forward, redirecting his momentum instead of trying to absorb it throughout his body.

    After rolling, Ophar jumped up to his knees, grabbing a stray axe dropped by one of his soldiers. And as he raised his eyes��

    He looked straight at the crazed-looking man. And by doing so, he inevitably attracted the man''s gaze.

    ''It''s him!''

    Ophar''s blood boiled but his face remained still.

    ''It''s one of those damn mages!''

    At first, Ophar desired nothing else but to follow his instincts and rush ahead. After all, for a mage capable of raining hellfire from some ungodly distance, close-quartersbat should be their obvious weakness!

    And yet, with Major''s eyes scanning all the numerous corpses left in the man''s wake when he looked again into the crazed eyes of the young and strangely average man in front of him��

    ''This has to be a trap!''

    There was no other way. For how could that young man with a physique below the Golden Legion standards and with hardly any significant aura be responsible for all this death and destruction?

    ''So this is either an illusion��'' Ophar squinted his eyes even further. ''Or he is trying to hide his��''

    Ophar didn''t get the chance to finish his thought. The young man raised his arm and the weird object looked like a crossbow without arms. Resting the butt of whatever he was holding, he stood in a position of a shooter with the dark circle at the end of his weird tool aiming straight for Ophar''s head��

    ''Shit!''

    Following the revolting feeling in his gut, Ophar mobilized all the aura he could into his hands and then sped them together. The memory of the barrier''s structure engraved upon his palms activated, creating a new bubble of shielding air on top of the skin-tight barrier he already wore.

    PRRRRRRRRR

    A rain of hell''s drops swept across the arc the young man painted with his strange weapon.

    Feeling his rapidly exhausting aura, Ophar spat a mouthful of blood. And as he cleared his mouth and raised his eyes��

    He saw hundreds upon hundreds of minuscule, iron spikes powerlessly falling down just a few inches in front of his feet.

    ''What the hell was��''

    "AAARGH!"

    Somewhere behind, a seemingly hundred voices cried out in unison.

    Ophar''s eyes widened even further.

    His barriers were of a much better grade than those of the ordinary soldiers. Even Golden Legion and its cavalry couldn''t afford to equip regr soldiers with these state-of-the-art memories.

    Doing so would upset the delicate bnce of power the imperial family did its best to establish. A bnce of power that kept the massive empire more or less cohesive.

    And from the looks of things, while Ophar''s barriers held�� The same couldn''t be said about the barriers of the men who stood behind him.

    ''That''s a fucking weapon?!''

    Gritting his teeth to ovee the exhaustion caused by his aura depleting at a worrying rate, Ophar waited without even the tiniest twitch for the man to move, to avert his eyes, even if only for a second.

    And blinded by the confidence given to him by the powerful weapon in his hands, the young man looked away. Then, the rest of his body followed, along with the front of the gun that he now started to aim elsewhere.

    ''You are��'' Ophar''s eyes widened even further, adrenaline bursting in his veins.

    For a moment, Major forgot about all the small injuries and wounds he sustained. He forgot about all the exhaustion, both the physical one of getting into battle right after a day and a half of a night of forced march and the mental one of riding for thest few minutes under a constant barrage of deadly spells.

    In this one moment, none of that mattered. Yet, the very moment he rose up from his knees and leaned forth, ready to leap over the distance that separated him from this evil of evils��

    BOOM!

    Ophar''s outer barrier scattered on the spot, his flow of mana unable to suffuse it with enough energy to keep it from shattering. And even before it could do that, whatever struck him exploded, filling the insides of his outer barrier with a hail of raging mes and sharp shards of red-hot metal.

 Chapter 177: Soldiers fate (part 8)

    Pulling the trigger down, I sent a wave of scattered shots across my left, covering both the man who fell from the skies and all those behind him with carefully aimed series.

    Even though I was now deep within the enemy ranks�� the formations have long since shifted from the long lines of people just trying to kill each other.

    This battle was never supposed to happen. No one really nned for it�� And yet, some sorts of tactics still came into y, forcing me to re-evaluate my opinion of the humans of this world.

    As such, while the enemy to my left was pretty well exposed to my line of fire�� The same couldn''t be said about my right nk. And as if to make matters worse, it was the right wing of my formation that was quickly starting to crumble under the constant pressure of the endlessly expanding line of the enemy.

    ''Just a little bit longer and they will start to break!''

    There was nothing the celestials and divines on my right nk could do.

    They could still fight in a formation for as long as everyone remained within arm''s length of the other�� But with the local number advantage of the enemy reaching into four and five times, the cavalry could simply outstretch their line to the point where my allies, by matching it, would turn into a bunch of scattered warriors as opposed to an organized line of defense.

    ''I need to move some people over to the right!'' I thought, turning my eyes back towards my own lines while already twisting myself on my heels to aim my weapon back to my right and lift some of the pressure on my copsing wing.

    BOOM!

    This time, the shock of the explosion was much greater than any before. The noise was too great.

    The shoot was way too close for myfort, even with the neu-grand in the eyes of someone as perfect for it as Fay!

    Unable to ignore this threat, I turned my eyes��

    Only to see mes engulf a kneeling man as the charge of the condensation round went off within his barrier.

    ''Didn''t I shoot him already?'' I thought, struggling to keep my thoughts straight and focused, as if something continued to ring in my head, trying to force my attention away from the battle.

    I was sure about that. Half of the series I haphazardly released to my left went to that man, just due to my gut feeling. And for Fay to risk such a close shot��

    As the fires and smoke cleared, the air around the threat flickered a little before returning to normal and allowing the dust to dissipate properly.

    [

    And, against all odds, the man survived.

    He was all battered down and covered in blood, currently busy vomiting out even more of it to pay me any attention.

    ''He survived that shot?'' Coldly analyzing the situation, I turned my gun to the man, eager to finish him off, just in case.

    I pulled the trigger and��

    Click!

    The conveyor mechanism within the gun found no further projectile to feed into the tiny mass elerator.

    ''Shit.''

    Cursing under my breath, I reached back to my backpack, quickly pulling out a fresh cartridge with the firing needles while pressing a special pin on the handle that ejected the empty one.

    Over a few meters away, the powerful man continued to cough blood while desperately trying to m himself in the chest.

    ''Is he suffocating?'' I thought, a sense of guilt filling my soul.

    It was one thing to kill one''s enemies. But I''ve got no personal beef with them. As such, causing them pain and suffering��

    I pressed my lips together, quickly exchanging the cartridge before smashing it in ce. Ready to cut the man''s suffering, I raised my gun and aimed��

    ''FUCK!''

    The time slowed down, allowing me to watch with horror how the man, despite all his bleeding wounds, was just a few inches away, his arm outstretched, the de of his axe quickly cutting through the air that kept it from my throat��

    The axe moved slower and slower, cutting through thest few remaining inches�� Only to stop when the time came to aplete stall.

    A hand''s with away from my skin.

    My skin started to rupture all over, my blood breaking the restriction of the stopped-flow of time and quickly pouring out of my wounds. And to be perfectly honest, my pain receptors didn''t seem to be influenced by the time stop, exploding with a fiery power all over my body.

    The prize for using this crutch was great. But right now, only my blood tribute kept me from literally losing my head.

    ''Move!'' I cursed myself, ignoring the pain to the best of my ability while pushing my extremely heavy body through the thick, viscous fluid the air had turned into.

    My skin continued to break open in more and more ces. More and more of my blood evaporated on the altar of my skill. But, bit by bit, I managed to lean back, pulling my throat out of the swinging path of the axe.

    ''Just a little bit longer!'' I gritted my teeth while swimming through the inferno of pain and the thick slurry of the air.

    Then, everything copsed.

    Unable to offer any more of my blood, I had no other choice but to drop the spell.

    The axe swung by, scrabbing just the tiny hair on my throat��

    I finally managed to press the finger on my gun''s trigger, pulling it all the way back and holding it even when my body followed the momentum and fell to the back.

    When my back struck the ground, I instantly rolled away, dropping the smaller gun to let it dangle on the strap of my neck while I reached out for my shottie.

    Against a man who could survive a shot from neu-garand, those tiny needles of the neu-p90 would hardly do any harm.

    My only choice right now, my best bet at survival�� it was all the overwhelming force of the slugs!

 Chapter 178: Soldiers fate (part 9)

    Ophar only had one chance.

    And yet, before he could use it, a devastating shot befell him, bringing an end to a long streak of not being the target.

    ''FUUUCK!''

    Feeling his body burn and boil while sharp scraps of metal cut his skin all over the ce, Ophar felt as if his body was starting to breathe in those mes.

    And then, as abruptly as it all began, the torture came to an end.

    His outer barrier shattered, letting the condensed mes out, giving them somewhere else to expand then right on top of Ophar''s inner barrier.

    His inner barrier was devastated, pierced in thousand if not more spots�� But it held. And while here and there the powerful mes of the explosion would seep into those gaps and burn his flesh directly, given the qualities of the air-barrier, the rest of his flesh simply cooked when the fires heated up the stabilized air.

    Ophar''s aura reached its exhaustion. His body reached its final step. And although he survived, he had nothing else left.

    For the major, the battle was now over.

    ''As if!''

    The hateful figure of the young man turned to watch as he burned alive��

    For some, unexinable reason, it synchronized with Ophar''s aura. Just looking at him invoked some unknown reserves of energy in the man as he associated this hateful look with the sense of wrath and powerlessness he felt when his soldiers dropped dead one after the other, unable to defend themselves or retaliate in any way.

    ''Not yet! Not just yet!''

    Refusing to give up while that close to taking down this one dreadful enemy, Ophar reached out to his belt and grabbed his second, private crutch.

    Contrary to the military-issued one, his private crutch was ordered from one of the best craftsmen in the empire. And without a shred of a doubt, just like Ophar''s barriers were several grades above what his soldiers had, this private crutch of his was just below the level of what the imperial family always carried on them.

    Thankfully, the young man took Ophar''s attempts at crushing the crutch to some wiggling and pain-induced tremors. Then, with the crazed look momentarily easing on the young man''s face, he raised his gun back to his shoulder, ready to fire��

    ''NOW!''

    Pressing the crutch against his chest and feeling first tingles of the refreshing energy bursting into his mangled flesh�� Ophar gathered all of his strength and leaped forward.

    Pushing his body to the absolute limit, he actively converted the healing factor within the crutch''s stored aura into raw strength. Faster, quicker, swifter.

    In this one moment, that was all that mattered.

    Mid-leap, Ophar swung his axe, aiming for a simple, brutal decapitation strike.

    The young man failed to react in time. By the time he even noticed the attack, Ophar got close enough to ensure the strike would be sessful. All that was left, was for the de to cut through this few more inches of air. Three more. Two more��

    And by some miracle�� the young man pushed his body back and stretched out his head in just the one possible angle that allowed him to avoid anything more than just a tiny, shallow scrape on the skin of his throat.

    ''Shit!''

    The energy within Ophar''s crutch was perfectly designed to heal his body and keep the aftereffects as shallow as possible. Yet, when the man used this energy to power his body beyond its limits instead��

    Carried by the force of his swing, Ophar could no longer control the moment of his body. And with the axe still in his hand, his body simply followed its momentum and then fell to the ground.

    ''Now, I''m done.''

    Ophar''s soul didn''t scream in frustration. It didn''t feel like grief, anger, or sadness. At most, he only felt a hint of disappointment.

    ''I did all I could, held nothing back, went above and beyond��'' he thought, his mind quickly giving in to the new wave of the overwhelming pain.

    And with no further crutches on hand, it was likely to be a final one too.

    ''Even if I scavenged, by chance, someone else''s crutch, it wouldn''t work��'' Ophar thought, his mind automatically trying to search for a way out.

    But after using a normal and then an extremely powerful crutch�� Ophar knew the effects of any other would be greatly diminished. The effects would be too weak for him to recover, not to speak about getting into the shape suitable for fighting this monster of a young man.

    "It''s a shame, it really is," the young man spoke as he calmly approached Ophar''s bleeding and utterly exhausted body.

    The weapon he held changed to a much more robust one.

    ''At least it looks like I managed to force his hand a bit too,'' he thought when, after the greatest effort of turning his eyes, he saw the sorry state the young man was in.

    There was no sign of the perfectly clean andposed guy from before. The man who stood above him was covered in tiny, long wounds that continued to seep blood. Wounds the kind of Ophar has never seen before.

    But by now, it didn''t matter.

    "It''s a shame, but such is a soldier''s fate," the young man spoke with the same, calm expression that he had throughout the entire encounter while raising the front of his robust gun straight to Ophar''s face.

    ''I did all I could. Now, I can finally rest,'' Ophar rxed his body, trying to cheat his mind out of sensing the pain, even if only for a single moment.

    And in doing so, his head fell back down to the ground. His eyes moved along, from the young man''s face, through his body, the dark pipe of his gun, the royal guards charging at him from behind, the corpses all over the ground, blood seeping into the earth��

    ''Wait��''

    Knowing it was likely thest thing he would do, Ophar once again ignored the overwhelming pain and raised his eyes��

    Only to see lightning strike the ground before everything turned white.

 Chapter 179: Whats a soldiers fate?

    **Ten minutes earlier**

    ''Everything is going more or less as nned��''

    Sitting down in her nest, Fay pulled her eye out of the gun''s scope and looked down the hill''s slope.

    Down there, Peter''s captive was busy organizing the relief camp for all the wounded who came to seek aid.

    This, apparently, was all part of the deal Peter made. And as ridiculous as it was to invite all of the survivors to the forest with just the condition of only half of them bearing arms��

    Fay had to admit.

    ''It''s pretty freaking genius��''

    Half of the surviving mercenaries were allowed to bear their arms while the other half stood without a weapon. And now, safely retreated behind the first line of the trees, they were in the home of Celestials and Divines.

    In fact, neither side had any interest in fighting. But it still took this careful consideration to ensure neither side would actually try to make this into an opportunity.

    For Fay''s side, things didn''t really change. Instead of having the humans encircled on theirst leg, they now had them surrounded within their forest. What''s more, half of them had no weapons!

    For celestials, this was all but a win-win situation.

    On the other hand, for the mercenaries�� nothing really changed either.

    They were already at the mercy of the forest dwellers. But even with half of their weapons gone, they were too numerous to be taken down in one, swift attack.

    In the end, they only sacrificed a few hundred meters of distance they would have to retreat in a more or less organized matter for a chance to save their skin and potentially help bring an end to the war.

    ''And right now, everything rides on Peter''s fight,'' Fay thought as shepleted the procedure of changing the barrel.

    ''Last one,'' she thought, sparing thest of the now empty casings a single nce before setting the gun down and turning back to her task.

    For now, things were more or less in order.

    After the initial sh, the entire line of battle turned into a sea of individual skirmishes.

    Fay fixed all the straps on the gun and ensured the barrel sat firmly on the small pile of earth Fay had her prisoner construct before sending her off to deal with all the mercenaries.

    By the time she brought her eye to the ocr of the scope, though, Fay saw the first seeds of potential disaster appear all over the line.

    ''They are moving,'' she thought, tracing the movement of Peter''s right wing.

    To the left, the situation appeared stable. For now, even the right-wing held up well. And at the center, Peter didn''t hold himself back, scattering entire swaths of enemy soldiers with those wondrous weapons of his.

    For now, everything appeared to go more or less alright. But behind the backs of those shing with Peter''s right-wing, Fay saw more and more fresh cavalry rapidly advancing to the nk of their formation, exploiting their mounts to quickly gain ground.

    ''Damn,'' Fay cursed lightly before taking aim and calmly readying herself for the shot.

    She was on herst barrel. And Fay had no wish to tell Peter she broke all the avable parts for his favorite toy!

    Swish!

    By now, Fay strangely enjoyed the whisper of the gun.

    She could feel changes in its tone, depending on how hot the gun''s barrel was, depending on the winds, and all sorts of other factors.

    And by now, she hardly bothered to observe the effects of her shots beyond the point of cold confirmation of the hit.

    One of the riders leading the expansion of the human wing fell down, the central part of his massive horse suddenly gone in mes, his own body peppered by the red-hot shrapnels. His sudden fall slowed down the human advance for a little�� Only for someone the chaos to quickly quell under the sheer level of discipline of those soldiers.

    Swish!

    Fay calmly reloaded the gun with a strangely familiar movement of her wrist.

    Even though she only started to use this gun very recently, she now felt as if it was an extension of herself.

    ''Stay,'' Fay wished, pulling the trigger and calmly moving her hand up to the lock of the gun.

    This was the gun''sst avable barrel, so Fay had to pace her shots.

    And just like before, one by one, she brought down the enemy soldiers, stalling their advance for two entire minutes�� Before the situation changed.

    Peter now stood alone in the middle, just done clearing out arge area of enemies, singlehandedly wreaking havoc at both wings of the enemy formation at once.

    To his left, he easily shredded nearly half of the enemy troops, freeing most of his rtively well-off forces.

    To his right, he didn''t really have the angle to do so. And as he was about to bring some more relief to the right wing, to stop the ongoing copse��

    ''Shit!''

    Startled by the sudden movement, Fay moved her gun and traced the unlikely intrusion in her field of view.

    At first, she glued her aim to where the object was. Then, she corrected to where it would be once the shot would arrive, even with how insanely rapid it was. And by the time the object fell down to the ground, Fay already started to devise ns to force whatever it was into the path of her shots.

    But as it turned out, there was no need for her to do anything.

    ''It''s him,'' she only thought when an armor-less figure all the way at the distant edge of the camp struggled to gather from the ground after a rtively agilending.

    Yet, before the man could do anything, a flurry of lethal shots came his way, courtesy of Peter''s timely reaction. Yet, as Peter turned to help the right-wing again��

    ''No!''

    She couldn''t see the man moving. His body was still, save for him manipting something around his chest.

    By her gut alone, she felt he would move. And so, before he could, she pressed her finger instead.

    ''Again!''

    Fay''s thoughts tunneled on Peter and his immediate surroundings, quick four swings of her wrist inserted the next bullet in the chamber.

    Reading her intent and worry, Peter raised his gun, and Fay opened her mouth to breathe out a sigh of relief.

    ''Even if he survived my shot, he wouldn''t handle a series from so close.

    Fay''s breath nearly started to leave her mouth, when reality snapped.

    The likely leader of the enemy no longerid down, suppressed by the overwhelming might of artillery-worthy rounds. He was now swinging his axe right at Peter''s neck with speed greater than anything she had ever seen.

    He moved from his spot all the way up to Peter in a time shorter than it would take her to press her finger. And for him to justplete the swing��

    Fay''s vision suddenly darkened as time rapidly slowed down, turning perfectly still in less time than it took the enemy leader toplete his swing.

    A distant echo of pain exploded at Fay''s core as the darkness around her continued to intensify.

    Something cold, and ancient seemed to lurk in it, bristling to free itself from whatever held it within the darkness.

    And Peter''s head, by some miracle, leaned back just enough for him to avoid the fatal strike.

 Chapter 180: A soldier?

    The time freeze copsed, making everything go back to normal.

    The air blew on Fay''s face again. Once more, she could feel the coldness of the ground seeping from below theyer of nkets sheid herself down on.

    The human leader''s swing continued past Peter''s neck, just an inch short of iming his life.

    Fay''s heart stopped.

    She could no longer process what was happening.

    Even with the hex on the time falling apart, the darkness that grew from within its effect didn''t vanish. It settled itself firmly within the shadows of the night, waiting for an opportunity to pounce and break free from its chains.

    But things weren''t over yet.

    The axe missed, carrying the leader along its path as it continued past Peter''s throat. Her man, though, didn''t waste his costly spell on just a dodge.

    Before the human leader could escape, carried away by the momentum of his missed attack, Peter finished manipting his gun before filling the air between the two of them with small projectiles.

    Fay was too far to see anything beyond a reflective mist that for but a fraction of a second appeared between the men.

    Still, she could see the aura of the man copse. And that alone was enough of a proof that he was spent.

    ''It''s ove��''

    Fay fixed her grip on the gun the moment her body attempted to rx.

    ''It''s moments like that, that are the most dangerous,'' she thought, fixing his aim on the powerless body of the human leader�� Only to nce at something just above, that somehow eluded her up until now.

    Apletely fresh unit was approaching fast. Too fast, in fact.

    Without a thought, Fay unleashed a hail of bullets, no longer minding the state of the gun''s barrel.

    For the next few seconds, she desperately covered the approaching cavalry with explosive rounds�� but to no avail. For, the first time since Peter brought this gun out, someone appeared that was capable of defending against this attack.

    ''Shit!'' Fay nced slightly down, only to see Peter calmly approach the dying leader of the enemies.

    Mere hundred meters ahead, a group of fifty or so cavalrymen in uniforms visibly more decorative than the armors of the main unit of the horsemen. All around Peter, darkness surged forth, as if drawing towards an event that was only about to happen.

    And Peter made another step, ignoring the treat that was just a few seconds away from barreling through him. A threat that even Fay''s barrage didn''t stop.

    ''Shit!''

    Swish!

    ''Why isn''t��''

    Swish!

    Four swings of the wrist.

    Swish!

    Four swings of the writs.

    ''�� he move?!''

    Swish!

    Four swings of the wrist.

    Fay''s bullet struck down a bubble of strange air that surrounded her target. And just like usual, the round exploded, spewing out mes and red-hot shrapnels at the man within the barrier�� Only for a ball of fire to rece the man atop a slender, elegant horse. Yet, by the time the fires died down and the shrapnels lost all their momentum, the rider''s outer barrier finally shattered.

    And once the smoke cleared out��

    The soldier appeared not to be even bothered by the attack.

    There wasn''t a single scratch on his body, a single twist in his aura.

    Just a looming determination.

    ''FUCK!''

    Not used to swearing yet, Fay felt something boil in her head, in her heart, and in her stomach.

    And so, she lowered her aim and changed her target.

    Swish!

    Four swings of the wrist.

    Swish!

    Bloody pieces of meat and shattered bones flew through the air, covering the approaching riders in quite a gruesome sight. Some of them, when their horses turned into a bloody mess, fell down, falling out of the charge.

    But it was too little and way toote. The slight interruption to the charge only bought Peter a few seconds to escape, at most�� And yet, he remained as he was, slowly raising his reloaded gun to finish off the human leader that nearly took his life.

    Tentacles of darkness surged even further, almost reaching Peter''s feet, greedily and impatiently waiting for the time they awaited toe true.

    Peter''s body froze, ignoring the approaching cavalry, ignoring the rapid barrage Fay brought for,pletely removed from the situation he was in.

    Fay''s body, on the other hand, is filled with energy.

    The sensation she usually tried to hold back welled up low at her abdomen�� Only to explode throughout her nervous system.

    Sparks of divine aura wrestled within her bloodstream, desperately trying to get out, to once again grace the world with the presence of the creator��

    Fay''s vision narrowed, limited by the constantly spreading darkness.

    By now, she retained hardly half of her usual vision, while the edges she could still see continued to deteriorate, all tunneling towards the motionless figure of Peter.

    SwiBOOM!

    The barrel of the gun exploded in Fay''s hands, hardly leaving a single scratch on the girl''s divine skin.

    As if pulling herself out of the water, Fay rose up, not bothered with mundane things like gravity and the support of her hands necessary to move up from lying on her stomach.

    She simply�� moved up. Then, her body leaned forth while her left knee bent slightly...

    The darkness filled now two-thirds of Fay''s vision. The world beyond the barrier to her sight no longer appeared to exist�� Or maybe she was finally witnessing its true form?

    Yet, as darkness continued to spread further and further, filling even more of Fay''s vision as she made her first step towards Peter��

    She also saw something else.

    For the darkness was nowhere as empty as it was supposed to it.

    Deprived of all the images, all the colors, all the sights�� Fay could finally see the paths in the space ahead. The darkness, instead of hiding the reality, revealed it in its truest form to the girl as her body made a second step.

    Fay brought her hand up, her vision now limited to just the figure of Peter quite the distance ahead.

    All around him, darkness. And in that darkness, a myriad of strange, weird, coiling paths appeared�� Or rather, revealed themselves. Paths so thin that with normal sight one could never conceive their existence. Paths too thin, narrow, and short to exist�� And yet paths that clearly connected various points in space.

    Fay took another step and reached out, her mind in a strange daze. And then, when she somehow realized the fresh unit of cavalry was about to stomp Peter to the ground when she felt he had yet to move or even pull the trigger and finish the human leader off��

    "STOP IT!" Fay''s mother shouted, rushing up the hill with terror twisting her usually calm and elegant face.

    And so, Fay reached out and grasped the path that led to Peter''s side, before stepping through.

 Chapter 181: In her hands, his fate

    There was something wrong with me.

    I could easily tell this, with how my thoughts fully focused on just the man down my iron sights.

    But how did Ie from an intelligence that gave me a much greater ability to process everything than an average human could ask for to someone incapable of turning his eyes away from his next kill?

    Was it the influence of my evolved bond with Fay? The negative effect of killing too much without bncing up the scales of my intimacy with her? Was I now going into a bloody frenzy?

    ***-Ning-***

    Or maybe a near-death experience, a first real one where I could feel the cold touch of the scythe-bearer on my shoulder was behind this strange change to my psyche?

    Whatever it was, it wasn''t a reason for me to keep this man suffering.

    In the strangest of ways, even though he nearly killed me, I actually had mad respect for him. Not because he nearly bested me. Without my weapons, I was just slightly stronger than an average human, not an opponent that someone on this man''s level would ever bother with.

    I respected the man because, in the strangest of ways, he became a teacher for me. An important teacher who forced me to understand the weight of death, something I served with extreme ease thus far.

    The fragility of my life.

    The weight of losing it is expressed in sadness and tears on Fay''s face.

    The end of all my ns, hopes, wishes, dreams, desires, regrets��

    This man taught me all of this, with a simple and nearly sessful strike. And now, standing above his powerless body, with my shottie ready to discharge and fry the man''s flesh into the soft earth below��

    I actually struggled to pull the trigger.

    ''A man who taught me the weight of death, brought to its doors by yours truly,'' I thought, heaving a sigh as I reaffirmed the strength in my arm and chased away all the doubts.

    Now that I''ve learned death, I''vee to respect the danger that surrounded me. And letting this man stay alive any further would be akin to asking him to pull out a new trick out of his ass.

    ***-War-***

    "It''s a shame," I sighed as I made sure my muzzle pointed straight at the man''s head.

    No matter how strong he was, pushing a thick slug through his brain would do the job.

    "It really is," I added, looking down at the man with proper sympathy.

    The ringing in my head continued to grow louder and louder as if an annoying neighbour was determined to keep knocking on my doors to make me turn the music down. An annoying noise I couldn''t get rid of, no matter what.

    "It''s a shame, but such is a soldier''s fate," I spoke after taking a breath and raising the gun just a little bit higher topensate for its mass weighing me down.

    Strangely enough, I could no longer ever see the man.

    Must be the tears of genuine sadness that the time has nowe for me to part ways with my teacher, forever.

    But no matter what, such was my duty as the student who learned death from the man toe and serve it to him to return his kindness, right?

    Everything was just lovely. All the annoying lights and noises have vanished, putting me in a pleasant, tranquil state.

    The gun in my hand terribly weighed it down, making me inclined to lower my hand or even throw this useless weight away.

    Everything was so damn lovely. But as lovely as it was, I really had to go and do right by my teacher, right? As annoying as it was to raise my hand again, that''s what I owed to this��

    ***- - - !!!WARNING!!! - - -***

    My vision exploded with light. The light vanished in the very next instant, leaving me in a world of nothing but darkness.

    Just what was going on? And what were those strange numbers and letters appearing before my eyes?

    [Hijack procedure blocked]

    [Seed awakening: 93.9%]

    [Hijack procedure blocked]

    [Seed awakening: 95.2%]

    [Hijack procedure blocked]

    [Seed awakening: 96.8]

    [!!!Critical Warning!!!]

    [Core''s Seed nears awakening]

    I shook my head.

    All those words, and for what? To give me a jumpscare?

    ''Oh, you little�� Aren''t you too young for a system to start pranking me like that? Are you sure you didn''t pick the wrong novel genre?'' I thought, shaking my head over the stupidity of the concept that there could be an actual meaning behind those words.

    Ridiculous, wasn''t it?

    So, I shook my head again before bringing my arm back up.

    I still had to repay my dear teacher for all the kind lessons he offered me!

    ''Such is a soldier''s fate.''

    Those words now sounded��forting.

    And now that I understood their meaning, I was all giddy to do thisst and greatest favor to my dearest friend and teacher, sending him off like the warrior he was!

    ''Right, I should pull the trigger to shoot,'' my memories were strangely hazy, slow to respond. Just figuring out what a gun was to begin with took me a moment.

    [Hijack procedure blocked]

    [Seed awakening: 97��]

    BOOM!

    Like a snapping balloon, a sh streaked across the dome of darkness I was in, only for the entire thing to copse in a single instant. And the moment it did, I saw a bright sh falling down from the sky, striking all the way into the ground a mere meter ahead.

    [CRITICAL WARNING!]

    A huge text shed before my eyes in red, refusing to go away no matter how hard I tried to chase away or ignore it.

    Because right behind it, just fifty meters away, a rushing mass of fresh cavalry was charging right to where I stood.

    But by now, I wasn''t alone. And I could tell even without looking around.

    To my side, Fay lowered herself down to absorb the shock of hernding. Yet, the very moment her feet touched the ground�� the time appeared toe to aplete halt��

    No, not aplete stop. It continued to move�� just at a pace that made it no different from stopping itpletely.

    Thanks to this strange stop of time, I could see a shockwave rise in a circle and move away from Fay''snding point, bulging the earth as it traveled through it�� Only to suddenly snap back and copse right back at the girl''s spot, only for Fay to raise herself up, her hair dancing in the air as if gravity suddenly stopped working on it.

    Fay leaned forward, her mouth opening up, her hair turning into a white storm behind her��

    "��"

    Fay''s lips produced no voice.

    Instead, all the aura suffusing the air suddenly ceased�� only to follow the order of Fay''s soundless voice, stirring up all over the ce.

    Sparks exploded all over the girl''s white figure as she leaned further and further up, her hair seemingly elongating and morphing all over the girl, creating a new, fluid, fox-like shape above her.

    And as the sparks of Fay''s aura scattered around. The tranquil status quo broke. All the mana in the air fell in line with the chaotic authority hidden within Fay''s sparks. Then, two sparks of lighting shed across Fay''s face, giving rise to an electric storm that instantly covered a massive sphere with the girl at its center.

    **End of the prologue**

 Chapter 182: Fate of the battle (double chapter)

    BOOM!

    The sparks that Fay cast all over the ce suddenly activated, upsetting the aura all over the ce. And as she opened her mouth, no sound came from it.

    For in the very next moment, when the time finally picked up its usual pace, Fay spoke through a thunder.

    "��" With her jaws pried open, Fay continued to infuse the air with her will, turning into a sea of dancing sparks and points of concentrated electric potential�� That soon broke free from whatever held it back and covered the entire area in a storm of lightning.

    Normally, a human could only hear the very instant of the thunder snapping and unleashing its might down to the ground.

    And right here and now, with her mouth still opened up and her body leaned forward, Fay continued to hold up the electric storm, suffusing the air with enough static to make my hair start to stand up��

    And to be fair, I wasn''t the one who had it the worst.

    Either because I stood too close to the girl or maybe simply because of our bond and how she would never do something that could hurt me, the constantly revolving, moving chains of lighting only caressed my skin, like a peaceful, calming breeze in the morning.

    And just a few steps ahead��

    The charge of the cavalry that I somehow missed was now gone, and the unit of fancily dressed soldiers was now in disarray.

    Whenever one of them would stand up in an attempt to charge, one of the thousands of lighting bolts that orbited the girl at a both great and short distance would deviate from its path and snap at the target, instantly frying whatever body part he dared to raise first.

    And the noise��

    The noise was so great that I felt like my eyes were actually going to bleed. It was so loud, that I could still hear this damned noise even when I contracted temporary deafness, a desperate measure of my body to stop the degradation of my hearing.

    Instead of the instant noise of the thunder snapping, this sound now continued,ing from all over the ce.

    Fay gathered herself up before uttering onest muted scream. And as soon as she pulled her mouth back together, the storm of endless lightning annihting anything and everything that came in its path finally came to an end.

    But the girl didn''t return to her normal, human form. She didn''t even revert to her ascended form either.

    Fay''s hair continued to float freely in the air, far longer, fluffier�� with a lot more volume to it. And now that Fay leaned forward so much she nearly got on all fours, it projected a massive and strangely sturdy-looking body of a fully mature, celestial fox all over her true flesh.

    I knew this was just an illusion. It had to be. No living being should be able to have two forms�� simultaneously!

    Regardless of what was possible or not, though, I could tell Fay was bristling, her body trembling in anticipation as her instincts went into overdrive.

    And yet, rather than rushing forth to massacre anyone who managed to escape the storm she invoked, Fay suddenly started to pull herself back up.

    ''Wait, this has to be another evolution, just like when she turned ascended,'' I thought, shaking my head to use a physical impulse to shake my mind awake before turning my attention to my system, eager to find and contemte Fay''s new stats.

    Yet, the moment I finally paid attention to my system, I had no other choice but to acknowledge the insane mess it had be.

    ''What''s with all those warnings,'' I thought, pushing away all those that didn''t seem to be critically important. And soon, those that were appeared before my eyes, no longer cluttered with all the smaller, less meaningful messages.

    [Influx of energy hijacked]

    [Foreign core seed discovered]

    [Main Aura Stream Hijack procedure Blocked]

    [Seed Awakening: 0%]

    [Hijack procedure blocked]

    [Seed Awakening: 1.3%]

    Those were only the very beginning of the mess that appeared to be bigger the more I looked into the warnings.

    Before long, I dug all the way to when the warnings became important and then critical warnings. To a point where everything, formerly ck and white, within my system suddenly turned bloody red and started to sh.

    As I continued to read through all those notifications as my heart filled with more and more unrest, I finally arrived at thest one.

    [Hijack procedure blocked]

    [Seed Awakening: 97.7%]

    After reading through a huge chunk of my notifications, I could finally start making some sense of what was happening. And instantly, the gun in my hand suddenly started to weigh me down.

    Scared, I slowly removed my finger from the trigger.

    ''I was so close��''

    There was only one thing that progressed the awakening of the seed, regardless of what it was. After my system appeared to block the seed''s ess to the flow of my own mana, the seed had totch on a different source of nutrients.

    And what was a better option for it to pick than the fresh and easily digestible energy that rushed to reinforce my flesh and soul whenever I imed a life?

    I slowly gulped my saliva down.

    ''If I finished this guy off��''

    This armor-less man was far stronger than any of his soldiers, maybe with the exception of the cavalry that Fay''s sudden outburst stopped.

    And judging how even a single kill was enough to push the awakening of this seed, whatever it actually was, for a solid bit��

    ''Is there any way to remove this foreign core thingy?'' I asked myself, searching my memory through any and all clues I could find.

    [Foreign Core nears the awakening: Assimting and tranting it through the system wille at a cost of current free points equal to the energy it fed on]

    Answering my inner call, the system actually responded.

    Maybe it considered the current situation weird and unnatural enough to give me some leeway? Or maybe it was all a part of some sort of quest I have yet to figure out?

    One way or another, I couldn''t help but breathe a sigh of relief, something extremely misced in the middle of a freaking battlefield and with my waifu bristling to go and tear our enemies apart.

    I sighed a breath of relief because for once, my habit of keeping my advances for when I have the time to actually think them over, paid off. Or rather, it allowed me to dodge a massive bullet.

    For right now, my most reliable way of gaining more free points was to kill other living beings and absorb part of their aura�� or whatever this energy was that continued to appear out of nowhere to let me grow stronger.

    In other words, if I used up even a single point from the ones I''ve gained in the process of this battle�� I wouldn''t be able to remove this core. And the moment I would try to gain more of those free points, the core would awaken as it already hijacked whatever pathways this strange energy used to assimte into me.

    ''It''s better not to risk it. But still, a foreign core seed?'' I thought, gritting my teeth even though I''ve already made up my mind. ''If it''s not rted to my system, then how did it��''

    Puff.

    I hastily took a step to the back, pushed by a powerful, soft force that crashed into me. Only when Fay stood up on her toes and reached with her lips for my face did I realize it was actually her.

    Not offering a single word of exnation, she imed my lips before invading my mouth with her tongue, her hands already moving to keep my flesh in ce, refusing me the right to escape.

    Seconds trickled by. The human cavalry continued to gather themselves up. The force that I''ve nearly defeated used up this moment of opportunity to retreat and concentrate their forces around this strange, decorated cavalry that appeared out of nowhere��

    And Fay did nothing but continued to make out with me, in a much wilder, desperate manner than ever before.

    And bit by bit, the darkness that I''ve grown so used to I could no longer notice�� finally started to disperse. The world grew detailed once more��

    [Using up free points to assimte and recode the foreign core seed]

    The brightness of the affection burning in Fay''s soul dispelled the darkness from my world. And as all sorts of different energies surged through my flesh in aplicated dance I had no business even trying to understand��

    The darkness made its full retreat. Yet, it didn''t vanish. It simply hid in theyer of my vision I couldn''t see before.

    It was still there, all over the ce, hiding out in in sight yet outside of the scope of what a normal person could ever see.

    [Foreign Core Seed sessfully assimted]

    [Free points: 0] > [Free points: 37] > [Free points: 0]

    [Level: 48] > [Level: 87]

    All the changes to my stats could be summed up with just those three lines. Yet, right as Fay''s hands started to sneak under my clothes to the shock of all the celestials, divines, and humans around, I saw just one more line emerge before my eyes.

    [Assimted: Darkness Core]

    [You can now channel aura through elemental darkness]

    Fay''s hand grabbed at my flesh�� only to freeze when she felt me tensing up.

    The girl pushed her chin up as she pulled her face just a little bit with a fiesty�� yet weirdly restrained smile.

    "What?" she asked, blush appearing all over her face.

    Back a few tens of meters, the enemy finally managed to rally enough of the forces to mount a new charge.

    "Nothing at all, sweetie," I whispered back to the girl while reaching out to caress her face. "You surprised me, that''s all."

    Sensing no repulsion or rejection in my soul nor hearing any hint of it in my voice, Fay visibly calmed down. And with the look of reluctance gone, her face gave off an animalistic, primal-like vibe.

    And I could feel it. Whether it was because of her transformation, because of our bond, or because of some other reasons I couldn''t figure out on the spot, I didn''t know.

    But right now, well within the range of my hands, Fay was bristling for some blood, her hunter''s instincts awoken and now in full swing.

    Her body was literally itching for a fight and with a single nce at her stats�� I couldn''t help but feel pity for all those poor humans.

    But they were all supposed to die. That was my deal with udy, after all. And so��

    "I know you want to hunt," I spoke only to reach out and pull Fay back into my embrace while raising my eyes and giving the charging humans a pitying look.

    "Together, then," I whispered, lowering my eyelids as I immersed myself in the feeling that came along with myst system''s notification. "Let''s hunt them all down," I suggested, right as my consciousness fully invoked the hiddenyer of darkness.

    "Un!" Fay happily made a strange noise only to swing around in my arms, turning to face the charging enemies.

    They were just a few meters away by now, relentlessly cutting the distance as they did their absolute best to reach the two of us.

    Sparks reappeared in Fay''s eyes... shining with a strangely addicting to look at, golden hue within the realm of darkness thatyered itself atop my normal vision. And it was under the guidance of those sparks that I figured out what was this onest missing piece that kept me from fullyprehending this new ability of mine.

    And so, as Fay''s power surged forth, coursing through the space and igniting all the aura in its path, turning it into discharges of electricity... I channeled my own aura through the darkness I could see all over the ce, reinforcing Fay''s sparks with whatever this elemental darkness was supposed to be.

 Chapter 183: Storm of Darkness

    What was the Darkness core? What exactly was the meaning of being now able to channel aura through elemental darkness? And where did this core''s seed evene from?

    ''So many questions��'' I sighed a little while wrapping my hands firmly over Fay''s stomach.

    Having her so close to me, having her scent once again fill my nose, feeling on my skin how her muscles slightly shifted�� And all of that, while the storm of her hair enveloped me, seemingly turning me into a part of her morphed, animalistic form.

    Even with clothes in the way, thanks to our bond I could feel every fiber of Fay''s muscle, her skin, her nerves��

    And the sea of primal, predatory instincts now red up to its full swing.

    The strange, profound aura continued to snap all over the girl. And as I soon found out, within the morphed form of a massive fox made up with her hair�� Fay''s aura was in a state of constant flux.

    On the outside, a single bit of it would instantly snap, decaying into the moremon form of aura while releasing all the energy held up in its much moreplex form. Inside the storm of Fay''s soft hair, the average energy of the aura was the same. And with nowhere to release its energy to, it remained in the constant state of electric tension, ready to unleash the moment Fay willed it.

    Still, the half-sphere of the electric storm continued to feed on Fay''s divine aura, slowly but surely draining her strength. And even with her improved stats��

    ''I wonder if I could use our bond for it��'' I thought��

    Whether it was my instincts or the gift of knowledge that made me aware of all those details and their meaning�� it blessed me with the understanding of what it meant to channel aura through my core.

    And the moment I mentally reached out for the weird darkness that blossomed in my eyes��

    I''ve found out the answer to the second of my three initial questions.

    Where did this core''s seede from? What was this darkness core? Additionally, what was it supposed to do? Those questions would have to wait their turn. For now, I finally felt what it meant to channel my aura.

    ''Go.''

    The energy that nearly overfilled my limits from all the killing I did today was now gone, used up by the system to contain and assimte the foreign core. But the echo of all the strength I gained prior to that��

    I could feel it cursing through my veins. The physical power I didn''t have before. The mental capacity of my mind. The sense of all the energy I had to bathe in to obtain those powers. And then all the experiences that led me to grow as strong as I was right now��

    All of thoseponents of my growth contributed to this distant echo, a memory of my power. And now, I''ve gained the ability to not only feel it much better than before�� but also freely channel it through the darkness my eyes more or less evolved to perceive.

    With less than a thought, with a bare desire, I urged this echo of my strength to go forth.

    Tisss��

    With a sound�� no, with a feeling of air escaping through a narrow hole, something left my system, streaking through the elemental darkness of my vision. It took sharp turns wherever the darkness grew too thin to carry the amount of aura I channeled. And then��

    A massive, sharp shard suddenly solidified from a darker spot beneath one of the fallen horses, shooting forth and piercing straight through the invisible barriers of those strange, well-decorated cavalrymen.

    BOOM!

    Fay''s storm exploded with new intensity as she released a mute growl, one that I only felt through the vibrations that spread throughout her flesh. And with the flux of the sparks of her divine aura rushing out from her bloated hair, everything and everyone that found themselves within her range, froze, their body tensing up under the constant assault of powerful electricity.

    Just like with my solidified darkness, Fay''s electric attack easily pierced whatever barriers the cavalry had��

    PUFF

    A small cloud of smoke suddenly appeared more or less in front of the now paralyzed men, showering them in colorful, extremely fine sparks.

    Tack.

    Fay''s storm suddenly died within the small circle around the cloud of dust, the power of her divine aura repelled by the intense yet unstable explosion of equally as intense aura.

    Still, while both our attacks were effective�� The humans had some sort of countermeasure for Fay''s powers! And it was most likely due to the difference��

    PUFF!

    Several more smoke bombs went off all over the ce, recing the diminishing protection of the first one.

    "Charge! Cut them down!"

    A brave soldier at the front ignored an ugly injury to the left arm. It must''ve been crushed by the weight of his elegant force when their previous charge came to a crushing stop.

    "Now!"

    Even more bombs went off in the air when triggered by the snapping bursts of Fay''s concentrated aura, carving out a narrow path where the electric power of her lighting couldn''t reach.

    ''It''s because she can''t channel it!'' I thought, summoning two more shards of darkness from no more than a thin shadow. The sparkly dust bombs humans threw at us lit up the surroundings a bit, considerably thinning out the elemental darkness all around.

    ''So it''s not directly, linearly rted to the brightness,'' I thought, taking notice of how just a little light severely thinned the elemental darkness down, greatly limiting the intensity of aura I could channel through it.

    One of my shards pierced the brave soldier who continued to rally hispanions even when the long de of darkness pierced straight through his elegant armor and came out from his back. The other shard, however, struck something a mere inch away from its target before crumbling apart.

    A fresh explosion of sparkling dust thinned out the darkness even further, depriving my attack of its foundation and leading it to shatter when faced with a barrier.

    ''Shit!'' In this moment, with the cavalrymen once again resisting the pressure and charging the two of us down, I realized the downside of my core.

    Sure, I could now easily channel my aura through the darkness�� But for how easy it was, solidifying objects out of it required quite a thick chunk of my aura to work out, even more so when used as weapons and confronted with other usages of aura or even obstacles as simple as te armor.

    On the other hand, without a core, Fay was limited to just scattering her divine aura around, creating a powerful area of a storm�� And with no apparent ability to limit and concentrate its power.

    ''That''s why��''

    Right as the idea solidified in my mind, the drawback of having my aura broken reached my flesh, instantly leaving a painful, bleeding mark all over my chest.

    Looking down�� I was surprised to find no blood whatsoever�� Only for my stomach and lungs to revolt. My mouth filled with a disgusting, sticky liquid, instantly making me keel over and rest on Fay''s back while my face swung over her shoulder.

    "Bleurgh��"

    Struggling to get the viscous liquid blocking my airways out of my mouth, I vomited it all out�� Only to see Fay''s perfectly white and clean clothes die red when marked by my blood.

    For a second, I struggled to even maintain my vision of darkness. My breath turned heavy as ice-cold sweat covered all of my head and most of my upper body.

    Cursing at myself in my thoughts for resting down on Fay''s delicate back, I reached out, desperate to grab at something and lift myself up to lift my weight off her spine��

    Only for my body to freeze when I just happened to grab high on her waist enough to feel the bottom of her breasts press against the upper rim of my hand.

    "Peter!" Fay cried out. Distracted by what she surely felt through our bond and the unpleasant smell of the rotten blood I''d vomited out, she lost her focus, causing her storm to quickly weaken, and lose its density.

    With a huge part of the burden raised, the humans charged even further, only three, two steps away from bringing us into the range of their weapons.

    On their faces, I could see triumph, relief�� and cold determination not to let this moment of near-victory turn into a grief of sudden defeat.

    My other hand already grabbed the handle of my gun, slowly raising it up��

    Too slow.

    With my mind going into overdrive, I could tell as much. By the time I would be ready to shoot, at least two des would reach us, potentially doing the unthinkable and marking Fay''s wless skin with eternal proof of my failure to protect her!

    In the heat of the moment, I gripped the girl slightly tighter, changing my objective from pushing myself back up to an attempt at pulling her away, to the side, to the back, anywhere where the human des couldn''t reach her��

    Only to feel Fay''s surprise fill the entire bandwidth of our bond.

    As if only one question existed in her mind.

    "Right now? But we are busy fighting, are we not? If you hold back for just a little longer, I won''t mind at all, just let me clean all of them up. Oh, I can feel you rub against me. Just a little longer, m''kay?"

    Fay never voiced her concerns out. And yet, I could perfectly decipher them from the momentary shock I gave her.

    And she was right.

    My entire body was rubbing against her while hidden in the raging storm of her long, silky-white hair. And with how close we were, our bond��

    In the fraction of a second I had left to react, I gave up on my attempt to remove Fay from the path of the sword and a spear already swinging at us. I wouldn''t be able to make it, anyway. So, I''ve brought my hand up a bit, copsing my fingers on the soft mount of Fay''s breast.

    With this slightly more intimate touch, the width of our bond grew even winder��

    Finally, it allowed me to guide Fay''s aura through me, using my own strength for nothing but reinforcing the elemental darkness all around, turning it into a pathway for Fay''s strength.

    ''Just a single second!'' I thought as our auras mixed and mingled and then mixed again before rushing through a single point on my abdomen and then, like a spark, exploding along the pathways I''did down.

    In the fraction of a second I had before human weapons would reach us, the night suddenly grew a lot darker than before, as if certain spots on the ground consumed all the light around.

    Tss��

    Like a slithering snake, the lighting coursed along those darkened spots. And upon reaching their end�� It produced extremely thin yetically long needles that pierced into the attacking humans before unleashing the might of Fay''s lighting from the inside.

    And by the time a second passed and I managed to raise my gun up, aiming it at the charging men��

    There was no one left for the two of us to fight.

 Chapter 184: Isnt this a warriors fate? (r18)

    A lot of things had to happen more or less at the same time for what happened to�� well, happen.

    First, my mental state was on itsst leg, exhausted by the obvious period of having my thoughts altered. Coupled with the pain of the bacsh of having my darkness broken, exhaustion from all the adrenaline that dissolved in my blood by now��

    All of those factors made up just one element of the greater picture.

    Then, came our physical closeness.

    The strange domain hidden within the storm of Fay''s long, silver-white hair, infused with more sparks of her aura than there were stars in the night''s sky.

    Our bond and how it expanded the more death and lust there was, with the fitting name of blood and love describing our bond''s inherence��

    And then, the fact that things were clearly not as they should be with my system, for I could feel this bond change and grow even when no alert appeared, no system notification revealed the change in numbers.

    Or, how there apparently was a seed of darkness hidden within me, a seed that was so ufortably close to blossoming into whatever it was supposed to be��

    All of those things lead to the very specific situation I found myself in. For when Fay instinctively caught on to my idea and unleashed her power through the pathways she couldn''t possibly see��

    One of the elements I brought up came into y.

    All over the battlefield, darkness would suddenly surge, forming aplex yet strangely straightforward shape that efficiently surged to prick at the humans.

    Compared to the first darkness I solidified, those new constructs were so thin, and narrow, that they looked like they would break on touch!

    Yet, just because of how instantly they formed, for a fraction of a second, they prickled the charging soldiers. Their bubble barriers simply failed to react, while upon meeting the skin-tight barrier that their elites equipped��

    The shard of darkness would simply shatter�� And continue to grow. Then shatter again�� and again and again and��

    Ultimately, for one instant in time, those solidified shards of darkness would find a way through before cutting through the tes of the cavalry''s armor with ease.

    On its own, the mark could hardly be called a wound. A mere prickle, less than nothing in the eyes of those sturdy veterans.

    For the shard''s purpose was never to hurt, not really. It only served to create a disposable path of elemental darkness.

    A channel through which Fay pushed her sparkly aura. And then�� a strange thing happened.

    The humans simply�� copsed.

    There was no explosion, no fireworks�� Some screams could be heard but only at the very edge of our range, where our aura would greatly diminish.

    All those straight ahead simply fell down and died.

    And as a result��

    "Ugh��" a dull moan of pain escaped from my lips when I once againid down on Fay''s back, struggling to keep control over my own flesh when assaulted by the whirlpool of energy that surged through the air and infused itself into my system.

    And following that, a different strand of energy cut through the air, infusing itself into my bond with Fay.

    It was at this moment when for one single instant the time stopped, I knew I fucked up.

    The warmth of Fay''s back was only easier to feel with how our clothes were drenched with sweat. The soft and hot embrace of her ass rubbing against my erection. The sense of unity through our bond mixed with physical intimacy�� and then exploded when this new surge of energy turned out to have one and only one purpose.

    All of this energy, easilyparable to what I was fighting to assimte on my own, surged to tickle our bloodlust and arousal.

    "Ah��" Fay made a small sound, falling down on all fours under the sudden, blunt shock of our intensified feelings.

    The struggle to keep my newfound energy in check turned into excitement and a desire to add even more of it. Inherently, my eyes moved up. Even though I couldn''t even stand up straight on my own and had to rest down on Fay''s back, I looked up in search of more prey.

    And as I leaned just a little bit further up, I ended up rubbing my erection right against Fay''s ass, as if I was wiggling myself to afortable position for mating with her.

    The fact that I was still enclosed within the storm of her fluffy hair, separated from the world and surrounded by nothing but the echo of Fay''s very soul, having my face and body caressed by the gentle touch of the sparks of her divine aura��

    ''Shit��'' I cursed in my thoughts, torn between all the things I should do�� And the one thing that was quickly gaining more and more votes within the parliament of my consciousness.

    How could I care for killing and growth when Fay''s body was so hot? When I could feel just how bothered she was right now? How do her hips move up and down, no longer satisfied with just the presence of my junior and now expressing a craving for more?

    And with all of Fay''s hair cleanly separating us from the rest of the world and all the prying eyes��

    "Hon��" Fay whispered, even her voice somehow feeling moist and raspy.

    I pressed my eyelids down and clenched my but.

    No, I wasn''t dumb and arrogant enough to believe it was possible to ovee Fay''s invitation. Not when she was raising and pressing her hips against me while pushing her upper body down, arching her back to make it easier for me to grab and hold her��

    But under the strange, addictive desire to make things even better, I shook my head�� And summoned thest of my strength to look around.

    The finest of the humans were now all lying dead, some just a few inches away, others as far as several tens of meters down the bloody battlefield.

    The most important thing was that no one appeared to have any further desire to face us. Not after their elites got decimated in their attempt.

    But that didn''t mean the battle was over. Even with all that we did, our left wing continued to win as before while the right one was just a few moments away from a copse.

    Right now, however, that wasn''t my greatest concern.

    No.

    Already brought to the very edge of anticipation and excitement, I struggled to raise up my shootie.

    The forest folk fighting to my distant right desperately needed help�� Or, in other words, still fought with a great number of opponents.

    I took an aim and steadied myself for a second, while trying not to get distracted by how Fay''s heavy breathing made her entire body pulse, only causing her crotch to rub even harder against my erection.

    ''Let''s get just a little bit higher,'' I thought, eager to experience what it had to feel for Fay to go into heat.

    Without a second thought of how I was rushing to kill people to get a better fuck, I pressed the trigger and nearly keeled over when the rush of two different energies made my head spin.

    Below me, Fay lost thest of her strength, fully arching down and no longer offering any resistance. At this point, she even stopped moving, too full of desire to control her muscles.

    And as the surge of the fresh energy pushed out sensitivity even further beyond the limit�� I pulled my pants down and tore Fay''s simple sweats down her sweet, soft ass before pressing my head right against her moist, inviting pussy.

    Down below, hidden in the crazily expanding storm of hair, Fay turned her head to the side, giving me a side look with explosively, divinely blue eyes of hers, moist with tears and screaming her desire out.

    Fay took a short breath, bracing herself while I felt as if my soul suddenly surged forth, crashing right into Fay''s innermost being as she fluttered her eyshes and gave me a long, upward side-eye.

    I didn''t even move, just like Earth wasn''t actively trying to roam the sun''s orbit. I fell into Fay instead, allowing our bond to bring us together and unite us in this most ordinary, physical realm.

    And as the rush of having my dick scrape Fay''s moist, hot insides mixed with her sense of utmost fulfillment and pleasure, I felt my consciousness starts to waver.

    ''Blood and love, huh,'' I thought, once again reminded of the inherence of our bond.

    "Blood and love, huh," Fay spoke at the same time as I thought, arching her back even further as if to raise her chest up a bit and unt her perky breasts. "Isn''t that a warrior''s fate, hon?" she asked, a delectable smile blossoming on her face as her eyes squinted, overwhelmed by the rush of pure bliss.

 Chapter 185: Promotion? (Madams PoV)

    "I''ve gotta admit, this guy is pulling no stops," Loraz sighed, sitting down on a tree stump while Syie rushed about to cover his wounds with makeshift bandages.

    ''Should I tell him about the supplies that kid brought?'' Madam thought, squinting her eyes a little. She then looked away, past the massive crowd of humans at the front of the forest and all the way to where Peter, as usual, was doing something weird.

    Without a doubt, though, whatever he was doing�� worked.

    ''This much, he can''t deny,'' she thought, giving her husband a long stare before shaking her head and looking to her right, to the hill where the actual crux of her argument with Lorazid down on the ground and rained hellfire on the human reinforcements.

    "��" Loraz put on a grumpy face before looking away. Yet, the sense of momentary grief of a parent was soon reced by the calm,posed front of a leader.

    "It feels weird to even think about it," Loraz spoke, turning his eyes down to the ground as he sighed. He then pressed his lips together and snuck a quick nce over at the hill. "Thest time I saw her, she was but a little cub��"

    The divine leader''s face sank, and the look in his eyes softened. Yet, as he turned his eyes over to the human camp where the battle still raged on��

    Loraz''s face sunk even further, the sense of deep nostalgia reced by disgust and contempt.

    ''He isn''t��''

    Madam''s face tensed up.

    "Don''t forget your end of the deal," she suddenly barked in a hushed voice. "You were a small man when you proposed it, so don''t pose as a big man now."

    Syie froze, her delicate hands clutching at the thin strand of the bandage that she was halfway through wrapping around Loraz''s wounded arm.

    Even with all his power, he didn''t leave the battle scott-free.

    ''From what I saw, he went through quite the hell,'' Madam''s thoughts filled with a weird, long-forgotten emotion.

    But even this mere hint of memory was enough to start the fire up in her throat.

    The revolting sense of disgust that came with the day it all went down.

    The usual calm,posed aura of the mature fox suddenly turned still, covering an entire area with a deep, bone-freezing chill.

    "You have no right to judge her, just like you don''t have the right to judge that kid," Madam spat out, holding her breath to stifle the rising well of emotions in her heart.

    "I��"

    The aura in the air suddenly�� pinged.

    It was an extremely weird feeling, even for the celestial and divine beings for whom aura was a second nature. A sense as indispensable and natural as their hearing, smell, or sight.

    And for but a fraction of a second, everyone around the hill felt it. The stifling feeling of weight suddenly dropping down on their shoulders, crushing everything and everyone into no more but dust��

    Only to vanish the very moment it appeared. An illusion that left no mark on reality or causality. At most, it could be a simple distraction��

    If not for what this sensation meant.

    ''Fay!''

    Madam jumped, rushing up the hill''s slope before she could even form a single thought. Loraz reacted as quickly in spite of his wounds�� but hegged just two steps behind. That''s why, when Madam reached the top of the hill, for one, extremely tense second��

    She stood on the hill alone, with just her daughter shining with the constant tickling of her aura. Aura so dense, it rapidly expanded outwards to the world, pushing away at the natural background aura and surrounding the girl with a sparkly sense of inherent dignity.

    "STOP IT!" Screaming her lungs out, Madam leaped forth. Three steps, two steps��

    Due to the end of the deal she had with Loraz, Madam swore to forever forget her true power.

    But in this single instant, holding nothing back, she unleashed all of her swiftness and attunement with both the world''s and divine aura��

    All.. Just a fraction of a second toote.

    Right as Loraz''s eyes reached the point where he could see what was going on�� Fay''s eyes were covered with a strange darkness. And then, her fingertips found what she was reaching out for.

    ''Fay!'' Madam''s soul screamed, too panicked to utilize aura in a more active way�� Or maybe she already knew it; knew that she would be toote.

    The moment the corners of Fay''s mouth twitched, her figure turned all blurry before condensing into a streak of light. Then, she dashed across the distance that kept the far end of the human camp where the battle raged from the hill where she just stood at.

    "GO!" Madam screamed out, instantly bolting forward.

    But there was no hiding it anymore.

    Her one and only mission, the reason why she so willingly gave up on everything she had�� Was now over.

    ''With that one ping, everyone''s eyes will turn on her,'' Madam gritted her teeth while rushing over to the human camp with all her ungodly speed. She reached the line of the trees in a single leap, covered the open space with two more leaps��

    Still, Madam ended up toote yet again.

    Right as the mature fox stepped foot on what had to be some sort of a street in the camp, she saw the dance of lighting and shadow consume the innumerable lives right before her eyes.

    And in the middle of it all, right in the middle of a solidifying soul image��

    ''Still�� what the hell?!''

    Now, everyone''s eyes would be on Fay. Someone born to the two young heirs to the two warring ns. The fruit of the great diplomatic adventure of their forefathers who finally brought some semnce of peace to the forest.

    And now, what made Madam feel even worse��

    Fay was in the middle of something impossible.

    "What?" Loraz uttered a small, breathless moan as he dropped by Madam''s side. His eyes, zeroed in on the raging storm of divine aura that pressured the natural aura of the world so much, it established a zone where nothing but Fay''s authority persisted.

    "How could she��" Loraz uttered three short words before losing his voice over the shock. Then, his eyes shoot towards Madam. "Did she��"

    "No," Madam replied while simrly frozen in ce, unable to do anything but look down at an event that had no right to ur. And anomaly that went against everything the upper echelons of the forest folk knew and believed in.

    Right now, Fay is undergoing a process of promotion.

    An even in the life of the strong that they all equally feared and desired.

    But if there was anything certain on this frolick of their creator''s nature, a strangely ceremonial process that outright went against the establishedws of the world��

    If there was anything certain about the ceremony of promotion, it was that only ascended could ever go through it.

    Those who reached the rank of supreme without the promotion would be forever barred frompleting it. But there has never been a single instance of a regr celestial or divine going through a promotion!

    ''Wait a second��'' Madam suddenly tensed up even further. She then went with her thoughts back to when they were silently climbing up the hill to set up the first stage of Peter''s strange yet effective n.

    Then, her face twisted in an ugly grimace.

    "She didn''t show any signs of ascending," she then corrected her statement. "But maybe��" Madam raised her eyes at the storm of the divine energy converging all at the center of Fay''s soul image, where the storm of her beautiful and long, tinum hair��

    ''Wait, thinking about it, where is the kid?'' Madam suddenly thought, puzzled��

    Before she noticed the one, extremely fine detail of the divine aura ahead.

    There was the usual chill of the fox lineage. The echo of lightning inherited from the banshee blood. But Fay''s divine aura�� was richer, far more colorful than that.

    It was as if�� as if the darkness that rapidly mixed in with the usual colors of Fay''s aura made them so much deeper, more vibrant��

    And that coupled with a semi-regr way a portion of Fay''s soul image warped as if something was moving underneath��

    ''So that''s it��'' Madam suddenly breathed out a deep sigh. And with the sudden realization mixing with her long-forgotten emotions��

    She saw Loraz taking a step toward Fay''s ceremonial zone.

 Chapter 186: This wretched bastard! (Loraz PoV)

    "And where do you think you are going?"

    Madam''s voice rooted Loraz on the spot.

    ''This damn��''

    He tightened his feasts, holding his breath in while his expression froze.

    "There are still humans left for us to kill," Loraz spoke as he raised his hand and pointed at the messier and messier situation to their right.

    By now, theirpanions were all scattered, giving ground without a fight in a desperate attempt to retreat and close their ranks.

    Even though they have never trained to fight one by one their varying abilities suited this kind ofbat�� In the heat of the moment, everyone instinctively looked for the others.

    In that kind of brutal brawl, there was no room for mercy or second thoughts. And no matter how strong one could be, the sheer advantage of human numbers��

    Thankfully, the human left was now gone, shattered under the intensified advance of the celestial and divines on their side. And by now, the first groups of two or three were moving in to support the copsing right wing.

    "Then who will protect Fay?" Madam asked in a sharp tone, not paying any mind to Loraz''s considerations. Indifferent to the ongoing massacre of their kin to her immediate right, she looked down with hateful scorn and disgust at a man she once lovingly called mate.

    "How about you?" Loraz spat down on the ground. "Don''t you think I didn''t notice," an ugly sneer grew out on his lips. "You dared to lecture me about keeping my end of the deal, and look at yourself!"

    All the withheld anger, annoyance, fury, regret, and embarrassment finally started to boil under the cover of Loraz''s will. And bit by bit, it started to reveal itself in his voice and in his eyes.

    "Are you fucking insane?!" Madam hissed, her hair starting to slowly lift up, carried up by the intense flow of aura around her.

    "You are not even trying to hide it," Loraz sighed, theplex whirlpool of emotions in his eyes now clearing out into just a single feeling.

    A pure sense of contempt.

    "You bring up the deal to justify your care for Fay, and you do so by refusing to protect her?" Madam hissed again, her voice growing noticeably colder and fainter.

    "What? You can''t be the one protecting her?" Loraz squinted his eyes. "You were so against my involvement, and now you try to enforce it?"

    Loraz gritted his teeth.

    ''As much as I dislike that human, there''s no denying his merits. But to ask me to watch over while he screws my daughter?!''

    The desperate attempts of Loraz''s will to keep his emotions in check started to fail.

    His feelings continued to boil under the facade of his calm.

    "If I''m protecting Fay, who will ensure the human supreme won''t hit us or the forest?" Madam''s voice suddenly turned calm, light�� coy, even.

    Loraz''s face twitched. He squinted his eyes as he gave his wife a long stare.

    "What the hell are you��"

    Loraz didn''t finish his words. Instead, his gaze intensified even further as he analyzed the possible exnations for Madam''s words.

    ''I can''t sense any supreme at all�� But as mere promoted ascended, that''s given,'' Loraz thought, squinting his eyes to the point only narrow slits remained for him to see out of. ''But doesn''t that mean��''

    "That also answers your former inquiry," Madam looked down at Loraz with a smile of vile, perfectly matured vengefulness. "I do not break our deal, for just two years after I left, I''ve advanced to the rank of a supreme."

    Loraz''s face tensed up. And quite visibly, his aura started to rapidly diminish.

    The requirement for his promotion was to be the leader of the forest. And to do so, he had to be the strongest.

    Up to the point of his marriage with Madam, things went great. As the strongest in his n, Loraz could enjoy the extreme benefits of his promotion. Yet, when madam appeared��

    His aura weakened, all the way to the point of reverting to its unpromoted state.

    For how great of a boon his promotion was, he had to constantly remain worthy of it.

    And although it costs him his wife and child, he ended up making a deal when this topic soured his rtionship beyond repair.

    Thanks to the deal he made with Madam, Loraz regained his position as the strongest in both ns, soon recovering his promoted aura and bringing peace and prosperity to the forest with the strength it offered.

    But now that he learned it''s been actually years since Madam advanced beyond the level of a promoted ascended��

    Once again, his aura started to falter, for he wasn''t the strongest anymore.

    And with a single look at the scale of Fay''s promotion ceremony�� she could soon be another contender.

    ''She knew about my situation and yet she still revealed it��?!'' Loraz''s soul stifled. The sense of his strength rapidly draining, right as he was tasked with protecting his estranged daughter while shey with some disgusting human��

    "Now, sit tight, keep an eye on them, and let me do the heavy lifting as usual," Madam dropped her silly-dilly attitude, once again spitting her words out like insults straight in Loraz''s face.

    Then, she turned around�� and simply walked away, passing by the perimeter around Fay''s ceremonial grounds only to stand still some distance away, right at the edge of the disaster their daughter brought.

    ''She is a freaking supreme��'' Loraz gritted his teeth�� ''But she''s no longer a part of the n!''

    The sudden realization halted the weakening process, reverting it and causing the world''s aura to steadily fill the gap created by Loraz''s momentary doubt.

    ''And neither is Fay��'' Loraz looked over to the storm of silvery-white hair just up ahead. ''She might be my bastard, but she''s of an exiled mother. As such, she isn''t a part of either n either!''

    A dark thought started to well within Loraz''s heart.

    ''After promotion, they are going to be weakened��'' his look sharpened, his aura stabilized, ''which will make it the best time to get rid of this bastard who took my daughter away!''

    The look in Loraz''s eyes darkened as his aura started to surge in response to the storm of emotions finally reaching the boiling-over point inside of the highest of the divines.

    ''It''s because of that bastard that I''m now in a position like this,'' Loraz took a deep breath, pouring down the cold water into the pot of his emotions and somewhat calming the state of his soul. ''Without him, they would continue to live in some hole. And I bet he''s behind this attack to begin with!''

    Loraz wasn''t that arrogant and self-centered to ignore the merits of this strange human.But just like he acknowledged the effectiveness of his tactics�� He couldn''t chase away the doubt of them being a bit too perfect.

    As if everything was actually designed to happen along that kid''s will and ns from the very beginning.

    ''Yes, it''s all his fault,'' Loraz''s face tensed up as he yet again had to restrain his emotions, keeping them for fuel for when this wretched bastard would emerge from the domain of Fay''s hair. ''So, once I remove him, everything will go back to how it should be!''

 Chapter 187: Fluxst (r18)

    "Haaa��"

    A long sigh left my mouth when my entire body tensed up.

    My fingers dug deep into the flesh of Fay''s soft waist while our bond allowed me to perfectly guide my junior down the paths she most desired.

    And with just onest trust, one aimed right at her weak spot, I surged forth, pressing Fay''s hips down, keeping them still while I leaned over and rested on her sweaty back.

    Our clothes were too wet from our sweat to serve any purpose. Our breaths simultaneously elerated as we lived through the shared experience of each other''s orgasm. And after stretching the highlight for as long as we could��

    I fell down on Fay''s soft, delicate back, tickling the nape of her neck when breathing out while getting myself high on the slight, sweet smell of her sweat.

    Fay shook and twitched underneath me, the aftershocks of our fulfillment still washing over her.

    ''Breathe��'' I instructed myself, slowly breathing out before refiling my lungs with fresh air. ''Breathe��''

    It was such a simple instruction, yet at this precise moment, I found it increasinglyplicated.

    After the explosion of lust caused by the narcotic-like effects of our bond, now came the time for the low that followed every high.

    Even though we didn''t even go at it for long, I felt drained, as if all the essence�� no, as if all my aura vanished down the bottomless well of our bond. And resting on the extremely soft, delicate, caresable, huggable back of my girl, feeling her heavy, exhausted breath align with my own��

    "Damn��"

    My breath was slowly returning to normal. My heart rate calmed down. And freed from all the lust in just a few moments of extreme wildness�� My brain was finally starting to work again.

    ''I guess no level of intelligence or wisdom can help when ites to the mental drain of having at it with Fay��'' I thought�� Only to finally realize that I was resting down on Fay''s back and by doing so�� I was weighing down on her, pinning her down to the ground!

    ''That can''t befortable!''

    Shaken awake by the blunder, I snuck my hands around Fay''s waist before rolling over, first to my side and then to my back. In the process of doing so, my dick slipped out of Fay''s moist insides, unplugging the flow of the leftover cum mixed with Fay''s own juices.

    Sensing my intent, Fay twisted around as well, ending upfortablyying down atop my upper body, while snuggling up her cheek to my chest.

    Hidden within the strange domain of her hair and aura, I was fully enveloped in her being. And yet, when we simplyid down with each other, silently calming our breathing down��

    "I wish we could just stay like this for longer��" I whispered while carefully tracing my fingers down the indent on Fay''s spine.

    "Mhmm��" rather than properly replying, Fay moaned slightly while rubbing her cheek against my breast.

    Tempted by the sight of her adorable face, I brought my hand from her back to her exposed cheek, stroking it with my fingers as I would pet a cat or a dog��

    The inviting softness of Fay''s skin, the slight indentation in the corners of her gentle, slightly cheeky smile, the curious, anticipating look in her strikingly blue eyes in an upturned gaze�� The way her skin caved in under the gentlest touch of my fingertips, how just rubbing her cheek made her breath elerate��

    Just by looking down, I risked falling down the abyss of a level of adorableness that shouldn''t be legally allowed.

    As I continued to stroke Fay''s cheek, too charmed by her passionate yet taciturn gaze, my thumb identally hooked on Fay''s cheekbone, lightly springing a bit further down her face, towards her full, red lips.

    Fay herself didn''t waste the opportunity, quickly taking my finger between her lips before ying with it as she would with hard candy. Her tongue pressed and rubbed against my thumb, allowing me to usher in a yet unexplored sensation.

    The insides of Fay''s mouth quickly grew hotter, her saliva thicker. Fay''s tongue turned greedier and greedier, coating the entire length of my thumb with her spit when she pushed her face up a little to take my entire finger into her mouth.

    With the high of our bond now exhausted, only our natural affection remained. Our shared desire to make the other feel as great as simply possible.

    And in this moment of ration, with our minds cleared of the unnatural, aura-based lust�� we both froze.

    Up until this moment, everything happened as pretty much expected from what I found out in my system. The blood we shed led to an explosive lust�� But now that we fulfilled this end of the bargain and this unnatural lust was gone��

    Before either of us could even say a word, a new surge of energy coursed through our bodies. And while for Fay it was a mere tickle��

    For me, it felt like a jagged, red-hot de suddenly starting to drill my bones out from the inside!

    My vision darkened, and my breath instantly grew much heavier than before. Soon, I felt a heavy pressure on my chest, pressure tightly bound to the sudden call I''d heard. A desire that pulled me somewhere to my right��

    I wrapped my hands tighter around Fay''s waist, refusing to lose myself in the feeling.

    Soon, the pain of this unknown energy drilling through me mixed with my fading resistance to this strange call�� Then, I drew the connection between my current situation�� and the presence of my core.

    ''Something foreign nearly blossomed within my soul and now I''m failing to control a foreign energy?''

    Despite how much I''ve seemed to learn about my system, I still had far more questions than I had answers. And my resulting inability to prepare myself for, among other things, what was happening right now��

    ''Shit!''

    A curse nearly reached out my lips�� when the intense storm of extremely unpleasant feelings suddenly quelled, when Fay''s hands copsed on my cheeks.

    Looking up, I saw her naked upper body looming over me, her wild, free grin�� Fay''s chest moved up and down to the rhythm of her heavy, hot breaths. Her eyes glistered with a different type of lust than the one we went through before.

    She didn''t p me. She simply brought her hands down on my face to lock it in a firm yet affectionate hold.

    "Let''s stop holding back," Fay spoke in a strangely calm�� no, mischievous voice. And as she looked down on my face, her smile grew only wider.

    She then leaned forth��

    And as her lips pressed against mine, I felt this bloody call�� both grow weaker while also turning much more profound than before.

    The pressure to go out and kill was now far weaker�� but also much more alluring.

    Resisting it now became physically much easier at the expense of much greater strain on my will to even resist it to begin with.

    Fay pulled her face away. Then, with a single whisk of her will, shemanded me to raise up while holding her up, wrapped all over my upper body.

    I didn''t resist her will at all. There wasn''t even a speck of a desire in my soul to do so. And Fay was as aware of it as she was equally willing to do anything she would sense through our bond I desired her to.

    As such, even though physicallypelling, it wasn''t really amand. And the only difference that the nature of her powerful wish made, was how quickly I brought myself back up to my feet while getting a good hold over Fay''s soft ass that allowed me to keep her glued to my chest.

    Fully leaving her entire weight to me, Fay moved her hands up and wrapped her arms around my neck, pushing her chest up as she embraced my head with her whole upper body.

    Our juices from before turned into a lube that made it slightly harder for us to stick to the other. Yet, despite how closely we rubbed our bodies together�� There was no more physical lust left in either of us. With my cum continuously dripping out of Fay''s pussy, I couldn''t care less about how erotic it felt to have Fay press her boobs against my chest.

    It was simplyfortable.

    I couldn''t care less how, by locking her legs behind my waist, Fay''s sticky crotch rubbed against my abdomen.

    The happiness I got from hugging her was much more important! The task of keeping her safely propped up perfectly distracted me from my earthly desires. The affection-born sense of safety of having my entire head tightly enclosed in a deep, tight hug��

    ''Is this what censored handholding was all about?'' I thought, getting sofortable I could hardly control my thoughts at that point.

    The notion of having to go and help the still-fighting celestials turned into a merely faint afterthought.

    Right now, I was too busy analyzing just how extremely perverted this sweet, wholesome affection felt.

    I paid no mind when my feet moved, pushing Fay and the domain of her hair to the side of the battlefield in the real world. Feeling how Fay''s chest shook with every beat of her heart was much more amusing.

    When my darkness solidified into pathways for her divine aura to streak through, I busied myselfposing a serenade to the rhythm of Fay''s breath, inspired by nothing else but the sweet scent of her sweat.

    My legs continued to push the two of us forth while the aura within the domain of Fay''s hair started to grow dim. But as I kept moving��

    The sparks of Fay''s aura that unleashed through the paths of my darkness started to gather back; attracted to a ce where they could exist in their current state as opposed to being surrounded by the much thinner aura of the world.

    As I kept moving, Fay''s fingers gently massaged the back of my head, rubbing my scalp in movements guided by my response she read through our bond. She even started to hum lightly, charming my brain through my ears into a more rxed, calm state.

    And by the time my feet finally came to an end, I''d finally realized the most profound lesson of all.

    ''I don''t care about anything else, but I''ve gotta marry this girl.''

 Chapter 188: It doesnt matter

    I couldn''t exactly tell how long the next part of my life was.

    It all felt like just a series of blurry, disjointed memories. For what exactly I was supposed to remember from it?

    Enclosed within the domain of Fay''s hair, all I could think of was her body wrapped around mine. Her hot, sweaty skin rubbed on me. Fay''s muscles shifted a bit as she made sure topensate for all the sways on my end��

    Sure.

    Every now and then, my aura would surge into the elemental darkness, fueling and giving it shape. Then, using my darkness as a pathway, Fay''s divine aura would streak across what should be open air, striking down any humans within our range with precise, surgical strikes.

    For when her divine aura would appear within a human body only to instantly start to decay into a much thinner aura�� Whatever aura humans had, would scatter away.

    And from the looks of it, not even their strongest could ward against this kind of attack.

    Still, for how much what followed looked like a war crime if not an outright genocide, I couldn''t really care all that much.

    I was hugging Fay, while she was desperately holding herself close to me in response. With my face fully enclosed within her hug, I couldn''t even see the opponents we were killing��

    And maybe that''s why I didn''t really feel bad about what we were doing? Because I couldn''t see the visuals? What eyes do not see does not linger in the mind, someone smart pointed out in the past.

    In the end, though, just like I didn''t really care about the ughter I happilymitted, I didn''t care about why I didn''t care either.

    All that mattered, was Fay''s warmth, the spasm of her body as she would tighten her hold over me whenever a battle log would expand a bit faster or showcase some higher numbers��

    By the time our roam came to an end, I only had my battle log to thank for keeping any sort of organized registry of what actually happened. Yet, as happy as I was there was some record of what went through, I was even happier to discard all the details, focusing only on the conclusion.

    [Total level growth: 182,225]

    [Level: 87] > [Level: 100]

    [Total level growth: 182,225] > [Total level growth: 169,225]

    [Adjusting growth for second grade]

    [Total level growth: 169,225] > [Total level growth: 42,306]

    [Level 100] > [Level: 142]

    [Free points: 0] > [Free points: 33]

    ''Okay, what the hell?''

    Ever since my system first appeared, I made sure to watch all of its numbers as closely as I could.

    It was my denomination of strength, after all, so how could I not give it all my focus?

    And yet, as the number of my skills, abilities, titles, and the scale of my stats grew�� Things were getting messier and messier.

    For now, I could more or less figure out where all the numbers came from. Starting before I reached my former level, I was only ever getting a single attribute point per ten whole levels, making it one hell of an inefficient way of getting stronger.

    And even with my bonus that brought one more free attribute point every two levels I gained�� It was still one hell of a bloody way to grow stronger.

    In the end, though, after just an initial sh and then sessively ying a huge number of humans��

    ''If not for that damned core, I might have reached all the way to the point of my next rebirth��'' I thought, taking a moment to grieve the loss of all the points I sacrificed to take care of this foreign seed problem.

    And while it grew out into a pretty useful ability in the end�� The points that I''ve lost won''t return. And with how hard it was getting to grow my attributes through just leveling, between how I only got effectively six attribute points per ten levels and, as I just found out, leveling up now became four times as hard��

    ''I need to undergo the rebirth so that I will get better rewards per level,'' I thought, only for all my serious, math-based thoughts to vanish when I sensed Fay''s intention tomunicate with me.

    "Hon, I''m tired��" Fay whispered.

    After what might be five minutes or maybe two hours of going around the battle and ughtering all those who still resisted, Fay''s aura grew visibly thinner. The domain filled with star-like sparks of her aura now turned pretty dark, with only Fay''s white hair keeping its insides bathed in a silvery light, as opposed to total darkness.

    The way she held on to me changed as well.

    ''Must be the wear of tethering on the edge between lust and bloodlust,'' I thought, fully aware of how hard it was to keep that bnce.

    Outright sex would only push us beyond the edge of the reason. But ughtering more and more humans would, in turn, nearly force us back into physical intimacy!

    The keyword here is "nearly".

    By simply walking around and cuddling as lovingly as we did, we managed to somewhat ovee the waves of lust by crashing them into an ocean of wholesome affection underlining every single thought and moment of this bloody love.

    And so, whenever my darkness would form tiny des that would then prate human shields, Fay would tighten her embrace, bracing herself with all the love and affection she could muster to face the retaliatory wave of crude lust sent to us once Fay''s divine aura rearranged the insides of our shared targets.

    Keeping this delicate bnce proved to be far more exhausting than either one of us could fathom. And so, when I finally could no longer sense any further humans anywhere in my proximity, I let out a long sigh before plummeting down to my ass.

    Only a single thought persisted in my mind at that point. To keep Fay from scratching herself as I fell down on my bottom.

    ''For now, it should be over,'' I thought, happily softening Fay''s drop before pulling her back into a tight hug once she settled down on myp. ''We need to send some captives to take care of all the dead to make a good impression, ensure someone from our side will be here when the proper imperial army arrives, see to have all the forest folk withdraw from the camp��''

    The moment I allowed myself to rest even the tiniest bit, my mind instantly swarmed with the thoughts of what still had to be done.

    And quite frankly, if there was one thing that changed inside of me after all the ughter of the night�� It was how little I now cared about the consequences of what I formerly considered to be a n saved for only the most desperate situation.

    For, regardless of all the fancy numbers on my level count rising, the events of this night taught me well. The close shave with death was enough of stimuli to shake me up.

    ''And if all of that was just their front guard��'' I thought, digging my fingers into the soft skin of Fay''s sides.

    Just a front guard. A mere sliver of the true force that was bearing on this ce from all angles possible.

    ''There''s no way I can hold that many humans on my own,'' I thought, ensuring Fay''s clothes properly covered her body when I sensed she was growing too worn out to maintain the domain of her hair.

    And as the white subspace around me started to copse, I took a deep breath and sorted out my thoughts.

    ''First, withdraw. Then, talk with udy. Then, have him send people to take care of the dead. And then, we are going to go back ho��''

    Fay''s domain copsed, once again allowing the visuals of the world to reach my eyes.

    And it wasn''t pretty, to say the least.

    Contrary to how brutal it looked through my aura sense, those who died to my and Fay''s joint attack avoided having their corpses brutalized. They simply fell down with a look of shock and intense pain on their now cold faces.

    On the other hand, the innumerable limbs, guts, and heads scattered between those still corpses were the responsibility of the celestials and divines, all eagerly celebrating the victory and taking a well-deserved breather.

    ''Let''s hurry up and get everything over with,'' I thought, sparking thest few bits of energy I had in me to turn around and head back to the rtive safety behind the ranks of my men��

    Only to turn around ande face to face with Fay''s father.

    There was something in his eyes. An echo of an emotion that didn''t sit well with me.

    And that instinct alone was enough for me to hurriedly give the system a simplemand.

    The notification windows shed, describing the change to my stats. With the corner of my eyes, I could also enjoy just how much my aura grew along with my level�� But only with the corners of my eyes.

    Right in front of me, Loraz took a step forward. And the unspeakable emotion in his eyes now solidified into a pure and now fully directed hate.

 Chapter 189: Meeting at the lonesome hill (Madams PoV)

    ''She really picked up one hell of a fancy spot for herself,'' Madam thought as she more or less mindlessly strolled through the open in, far ahead of where the humans set up their camp. Far ahead of the battle Fay and her mate just started killing again.

    A long sigh escaped from Madam''s full lips when she reached the foot of a small, lone hill that marked the otherwise t terrain all around.

    ''What''s with everyone and their fondness for the elevated position?'' she thought, recalling the sigh of another hill where her daughter nestled herself for thest few days.

    Shaking her head, Madam casually climbed up the hill''s light slope only to appear in front of a small, extremely weird camp.

    On the back end of the hill''s top, the humans settled up around twenty times. A bit closer, the group of roughly fifty horses calmly grazed the area they were bound to, and then��

    And then, a long, decorative table stood at the very top of the hill, with a young, beautiful human sitting on a fancy chair behind it.

    Madam squinted her eyes as she stared at the golden-haired woman.

    The supreme fox sensed her match as soon as she appeared in the general vicinity of the forest. A being on their level, after all, affected how the world''s mana around them behaved, even if only to a degree.

    Only now, though, the two women came face to face. One-on-one, someone could even say, if not for a small contingent of battle-ready soldiers standing at attention between the human supreme and Madam.

    "It seems that we will resolve the war as usual," the princess spoke in a bright, confident voice. She then raised her eyes to stare right back at the supreme fox. "Supreme to Supreme."

    The princess calmly stood up from behind her desk. She then moved around its side, grabbing an elegant mace and a bulgy sack with some sort of drink.

    The human supreme was quite the beauty, easily rivaling the most graceful of the celestials and divines. To a degree, her extremely refined form brought her close to the level of Fay��

    Her shoulder-long, straight, and perfectly golden hair waved while she moved. Her full, bright lips opened up as she caught the cork of her sack with her teeth, tearing the container open and taking a sizeable sip.

    The princess stopped a few steps in front of her personal guards, eagerly taking another big gulp of whatever it was she was drinking.

    In no hurry to finish her task, the golden-haired woman took her time to finally lower it down. She wiped her greasy mouth with her sleeve before throwing it forth.

    "Straight from the finest imperial vineyard," she spoke when Madam easily caught the half-filled sack.

    The forest''s supreme took a nce at the container before looking back towards the princess.

    ''She takes too much pride in her status to degrade herself with a sneak attack��''

    There were many mysteries regarding the nature of supremes. It was believed that no one really knew the full extent and limitations of their powers or the exact means and principles they used to operate.

    Maybe it was the elite status of those of the supreme rank? Or maybe something carved out into their souls the moment they reached this stage?

    Either way, Madam feared no retaliation nor poison when she raised the sack and took a sip rivaling the princess'' own performance.

    The rich, fruity vor exploded in her mouth. The slight numbness of the alcohol and minuscule amounts of some other dulling agents allowed Madam to explore apletely new side to the taste, once its richest tones mellowed down with her now altered sense of taste.

    "Fine wine," Madam spoke�� Only to lower the container before carefully cing it on the ground. "But it''s nothing on what I have."

    A smug smile blossomed on Madam''s face as she opened up her arms.

    The princess twitched�� but her hand remained stationary, gripping two small axes while resting her knuckles on her hip.

    ''I''ve gotta tell Fay,'' Madam thought, a sudden snicker nearly emerging on her lips. ''This pose and those clothes�� make for quite thebo!''

    The princess obviously knew how to make the most of her beauty. Her simple, white uniform consisting of a light tunic, thin coat, and short skirt perfectly outlined her elegant, dignified beauty.

    In a sense, she exposed quite a lot of body for someone of the imperial household, even more, when taking into ount the climate around these parts.

    Yet, for a supreme, cold breeze was no longer of a noticeable significance. And the effect of resting her hand on her hip, leaning slightly to a side while calmly watching Madam''s response to her courtesy��

    "It''s a fine wine," Madam repeated herself before calmly pulling out two bottles from within her robes. "How about you try some of the booze I brought?"

    They were both supreme.

    If they were to fight, none of the princess'' soldiers could survive. And from the looks of things, she invested in their equipment quite a fair sum.

    Their presence wasn''t a provocation, not yet. It was merely an assurance that no annoying disturbance to the princess''s ns like a random, high-stakes fight would happen.

    They were here to sniff each other out at most, not fight to the death.

    In a sense, their individual lives were worlds more valuable than whatever they could be fighting for and neither had any pressing desire or reason to push for a devastating oue of their fight.

    In other words, the princess guards were here just to deter Madam, for while they would surely die�� They could easily turn the tides in their princess'' favor.

    "Those bottles are ss, though," Madam called out, respectfully keeping to the distance established when they encountered each other. "How about I approach? It would be quite the waste for them to break."

    The princess''s face appeared intrigued. She squinted her eyes, lowering her eyelids over her golden eyes. Still, the cheeky and outright condescending smile remained.

    "Come on in."

    When Madam moved forward, she nearly chuckled at how thick the air grew to be at the top of this lonesome hill. Still, the distance she had to cover wasn''t all that great, so she stood directly before the princess in just a short moment.

    "I have a refined one and an herbal one," Madam spoke softly while presenting the two, starkly different bottles.

    The bottle on her right came straight from Peter''s world. Apparently, it was one of the very best of what their booze-makers had to offer. The bottle in her other hand, though, came from Leinei''s quick, makeshift mix of her fruits and herbs of choice and Peter''s heavy spirit.

    The princess looked at both bottles for a moment before raising her eyes back to Madam. A certain sense of hesitation appeared on the golden princess'' face.

    "You know you won''t be able to make me drunk��" she spoke, as if ashamed, forced into an awkward position of schooling someone too naive to be angry at.

    "Actually, those two can," Madam grinned, no longer holding back the smuggish sense of superiority she harbored the seed of in her soul for quite some time. ''It looks like Leinei was right! Human�� They cannot brew anything that will make their supremes drunk!''

 Chapter 190: He is my son in law, after all (Madams PoV)

    Just like the princess had no desire to turn this meeting into a fight to the death, Madam had her own goals regarding it.

    And after seeing how much Peter did to stop this war from happening, she decided he deserved a little, helping hand.

    "Those two bottles contain drink that can get you drunk," Madam smiled as she borated on her former statement, no longer holding her smirk back.

    This was a small but still a victory.

    ''Judging by the variety of narcotics I felt in her wine�� She''s gonna love this!''

    Seeing how the princess was actually reluctant to take either of the bottles, Madam sighed before bringing her arms together.

    "This one is the original blend of the forest mixed with the purified spirit," she exined before undoing the simple, y cork with a tap against the rim of her other hand before taking a sizeable gulp.

    Contrary to the human wine, Leinei''s produce came without the same, overwhelming hit. And yet, despite not altering Madam''s sense of taste whatsoever, it still filled her mouth with a plethora of fresh, sweet taste with a slight, refreshingly sour tone.

    After taking the gulp, Madam reached out and passed the opened bottle to the princess. To open the other bottle, she had to have at least one of her hands-free, after all.

    The princess epted the bottle without even thinking, growing wary of how she didn''t resist the item or even think about doing so.

    In the meantime, though, Madam released the outer, paper seal, revealing the metal lock hooked against the rims at the bottom of the bottle''s neck and a red wax seal that covered its top.

    Turning to the side, Madam pushed the metal wires aside before tapping lightly at the wax to crush it.

    "That''s quite the cork you have��" the princess muttered, entranced in watching the process.

    Somewhere along the line, she casually took a sip of Leinei''s specific�� and was now happily smiling, most likely sensing the first rush of the state she couldn''t get herself into ever since reaching the supreme rank.

    And now, with a slight blush on her cheeks, she watched Madam manipte thest part, the simple cork, with utmost interest.

    Poof!

    Before long, the cork seal popped out, releasing an intense scent of the liquor hidden inside.

    It was one of the most expensive bottles Peter sourced. ording to what she learned when he distributed the goods around before the main battle with the mercenaries, it was something he procured from under the table, as a personal thanks and apology from the shopkeeper.

    A bottle that wasn''t exactly allowed in the legal cirction of goods in his world.

    "To be honest, this is my first time trying this one," Madam admitted before bringing the now-opened bottle up�� And taking a careful, measured sip.

    The taste�� Was okay. Awful whenpared to Leinei''s masterpiece, pretty average whenpared to the precious drink from the imperial vineyards.

    But it wasn''t the taste that made it so precious to supremes like Madam or the princess.

    "Haaa��."

    Madam breathed out, feeling the airing out of her throat turn much hotter than usual. And as the concentrated alcohol dissolved in her body along with its reinforcements of some pharmacy-level drugs of that kid''s world��

    "Haha�� ha��" Madamughed out before carefully passing the bottle over. "Be careful with that one," she warned the princess while chasing away the moment of weakness that assaulted her mind. "It kicks a lot harder than I thought."

    The princess epted the second bottle�� But didn''t take a sip.

    Instead, she stared back at Madam, a sense of jealousy exploding in the princess'' golden eyes as she looked at the bright blush on the supreme fox''s cheeks.

    "You wouldn''t get even remotely drunk if you had an intention to fight," the princess spoke, her voice betraying how she simply sought an excuse to allow herself a taste.

    ''A woman of duty,'' Madam observed with a smile. ''That will make things easier.''

    "Fight?" Madam asked out loud while putting on a slight, mocking smile. "Why would Ie here to fight?" She shook her head. "No, that''s not how supremes deal with things, child."

    Now, after spending some time in close proximity to the princess, Madam could say one thing for sure.

    She was stronger than this human supreme. And the unit of promoted ascended that apanied her wouldn''t change the oue of a fight, were it to erupt. Not even getting herself drunk a bit would lower Madam''s guard to the point a rookie like this princess could pose any real danger to her.

    Their mastery over the world''s aura, the most important ability of a supreme, was on an entirely different level.

    Still, Madam wasn''t here to fight. And her ability to end the human campaign right here and now by killing off their supreme didn''t change that.

    "I''m not here to negotiate either, though," Madam smiled again before taking a step back.

    After taking some more time to think, the golden princess gritted her jaws before bringing the decorative bottle of Peter''s drink and taking a sip.

    "Haaa��"

    Heeding Madam''s advice, the princess went for just a slight sip. Yet, the exploding blush on her cheeks... it was enough to bring the human supreme to a slightly brighter, happier state.

    "This thing really works��" the princess admitted, looking down at the bottle in amazement. Yet, as she raised her eyes to look at Madam, the glint of curiosity and desire faded into obscurity, reced by the steeled look of determination.

    "If you are not here to fight or negotiate, what are you here for?"

    Madam smiled lightly.

    "Just to make some arrangements," Madam replied with no hesitation. "Tomorrow, when your army arrives, there will be a human eager to negotiate with you. I just want to ensure your men won''t attack him on sight."

    "A human?" the princess twitched a little, taken slightly aback by the revtion.

    "Yes, a human," Madam sighed. "And he worked really hard to prepare the stage for your talks tomorrow. I would hate to see it�� fail."

    For the first time, Madam''s voice grew tense, steady. Underlined with the enormous might of the aura she could wield at will and the aura of the world she could more or lessmand.

    "That''s quite an interesting request," the princess stated while taking a step back and removing all emotions from her slightly agitated expression. "But unless he can sell us a huge number of Herald Weaver��"

    "We already know that it''s not what you are looking for, so if you have any real demands, you may state them now," Madam countered the princess''s words before she could even finish them. "If hees prepared, it will be easier for him to meet your real requests."

    "Not what we are��" Princess muttered, only to cut her voice short. Then, she gave Madam a long, judging look. "You seem to value that human�� quite a bit," she muttered while squinting his eyes.

    "I value him enough to personally intervene if any harm were to befall him," Madam coldly responded.

    ''He is going to be my son-inw, after all,'' the supreme fox added in her thoughts.

    "Well, I can guarantee he won''t be attacked on sight when my army arrives," the princess said as her eyes escaped from Madam''s face and moved towards the bottle in her hand. Still, she forced herself to look back at Madam��

    ''No, she isn''t looking at me. She is looking somewhere behind me��''

    Even though Madam noticed the princess''s look, turning around to check what she was staring at��

    That was something Madam''s pride disallowed her to do.

    "Then you better hurry," the princess spoke before heaving a long sigh and poking her chin forward, in the direction she was just looking at. "Because from what I can see, that human of yours," the princess shook her head and smiled with a distant spark of triumph shing in her eyes.

    "He is about to get hurt real bad."

 Chapter 191: Overbearing fist

    With Fay''s domain copsing, I was now free to witness thest moments of the night.

    Ever since the battle with the imperial reinforcements began, quite a lot of things have happened. And now, it was only a few more moments before the light of the day would grace the world around.

    It was also right at this very moment when Loraz''s aura exploded.

    The divine''s aura twitched and then suddenly expanded. Formerly, standing close to the man simply gave me a weird feeling of his presence. Right now though, his looks expanded into tens, hundreds of times his original size.

    The world around nked out, consumed by the dark sensation that came with an intense, physical pressure.

    In an instant, my body nearly caved in, sumbing to the terrifying force. It wasn''t a domain like Fay''s�� but sheer, unadulterated might of the echo of her father''s soul.

    The world jumped from one that neared the sunrise to a dark abyss with the overbearing presence of the man as his fist shot for the side of my head.

    And his strike fell right as the first ray of the sun fell on the face of the in, forest, and the camp.

    My soul twitched.

    For the first time, I got this sensation. Was it because I usually slept through this moment? Or maybe, I wasn''t attuned enough before?

    Either way, I had no need for a guide to figure out this sensation. It felt like�� forcing out a cough to clear the annoying itch in one''s throat.

    And with no better idea for how to salvage the situation, I trusted my instincts and sent forth two short, mentalmands.

    The world around me slowed down. The effects of two of my skillsbined. And right as my brain reached new heights of its processing speed with the use of my Eye of time, the time itself slowed down, even further expanding my window to escape.

    Yet, with both skills activating at the same time, I could afford just a few moments to improve my chances.

    And as it turned out, as long as I didn''t try to move�� the pain of my wounds opening up for the blood tribute was so slow, it amounted to a mere, annoying itch.

    ''First, I doubt he will target Fay�� but I can''t rule this possibility out.''

    Instead of rushing head-on to action, I decided to take my time to n things out.

    Loraz''s fist froze in ce. As swift as it was, it couldn''t break past the barrier of a stopped time. By now, only two small nicks appeared on my skin with hardly a drop of blood seeping out.

    ''I need to get Fay to safety. And somehow, fight this guy off��''

    Two more nicks appeared. Even though all I did was think,I could feel the process of the tribute elerating. I still had some time, but it was quickly running out.

    ''Well, either way, this build should do.''

    Before my mentalmand reached my system, I already braved through the thick slurry of air to shove Fay away. And in the process of doing so��

    [Agility: 9] > [Agility: 19]

    [Wisdom: 10] > [Wisdom: 20]

    [Intelligence: 13] > [Intelligence: 20]

    [Endurance: 14] > [Endurance: 20]

    [Usable points: 33] > [Usable points: 0]

    There was no doubt in my heart when I picked this specific order of distributing my points. And while it was a pity Icked just eleven more points to reach the threshold of my next evolution��

    It was still better than oveing the ordeal of evolution while under the assault of the strongest divine protector around!

    Still, feeling the free power of the world surge and assimte into me to now directly reflect the might of my new attributes��

    I couldn''t help but grin.

    As much as I didn''t want to put myself in danger��

    ''I saw too much not to get interested in all this aura��''

    Aura.

    The one point that everything and everyone in both worlds appeared to be connected by. The dark aura on people on earth. The skills that converged my aura to bring forth an effect. Even this foreign core that allowed me to manipte aura into half-solid shapes of elemental darkness��

    In a situation where I understood pretty little about the truews of the world around me, this aura continued to persistently remain at the center of everything.

    And if I could be perfectly sure of anything in this new, strange life of mine�� then it was my gamer''s instinct screaming to exploit this extremely important aspect of the world.

    ''I saw how insane it is,'' I thought, taking a breath to gain just a little bit more strength to endure the strain of my skills. Yet, with the reinforcement of my endurance reaching its current limit��

    The pain grew considerably more bearable, even when Ipressed my chest to breathe out.

    Still, as my newfound power properly settled both in my bones and in my mental perception of its reach, I moved my body harder, changing its entire position to get out of the path of Loraz''s strike.

    Yet, before I could do so, the exponentially growing burden of Blood Tribute finally started to get to me.

    ''Come on, just a little longer!'' I screamed out from the very bottom of my soul.

    Loraz''s fist would snuff out whatever endurance I had. There was no doubt about this point.

    As strong as I became, this man''s power clearly outssed me by several leagues.

    And with the cost of upholding my spell quickly growing unbearable if not lethal�� I had yet to escape from the path of Fay''s father''s fist.

    ''Shit!''

    Unable to hold the spell any longer, especially not when I was still tightly connected to Fay through our bond��

    I released the blood tribute while rushing all my aura to just a single task.

    My aura.

    The only attribute that continued to grow on its own, along with my level. And now, it greatly exceeded all my other stats, growing to a number around thrice as big as all my other attributesbined.

    [Aura: 138]

    The one attribute that is so closely rted to the core of all the mysteries of this world. And the mastery of which gave Loraz an immense advantage over me.

    Still, daring not to grow arrogant, I focused all of my newfound strength on a single task.

    Of infusing as much of my aura into the surging pir of darkness that grew out of nowhere, blocking the path of Fay''s father''s first.

    The spell copsed.

    Loraz''s fist struck through my darkness��

    No, it only went through three-fourths of the barrier''s depth�� But the blunt force of the strike still echoed right down the edge of my chin.

    I continued to lean back, already restoring the solidified darkness while moving on with my strategy for the moment. The attack�� was shockingly strong. It was hard for me to gather my thoughts, not to speak about wresting control of the situation from the divine''s hands.

    "You fought well," Loraz suddenly spoke, taken slightly aback by my swift reaction.

    "WHA��?!" Fay''s tired face tensed up mid-drop, only for the sparks to sh in her eyes again.

    ''Shit, she''s too tired!''

    I saw with my own eyes just how much aura she expended. And even though she restored some of it��

    ''STOP!''

    Infusing my wish with all of my focus and attention, I lowered my guard for but a fraction of a second.

    And that was enough for Loraz to jump forth, bringing another strike. His fist bearing down on my face was too quick for me to react.

    So, having no other choice, I gritted my teeth��

    And willingly opened up a fresh batch of ugly wounds all over my skin.

 Chapter 192: Meltdown

    I thought�� No, I hoped that with the help of my blood tribute, I could once again clutch the moment and dodge Loraz''s strike.

    But my body was too weakened to withstand the pressure of the skill for long enough for me to dodge. In fact, the very moment I tried to push my body against the thick slurry of air to remove my head from the path of Loraz''s fist, the spell copsed.

    My desperate attempt to raise a barrier of darkness fell through when Loraz''s attack proved to be faster than my defense.

    My darkness surged forth�� but it was far too little and long toote. Still, tiny tentacles of the elemental darkness reached Loraz''s forearm before he could strike my face. Theytched onto the man''s skin, desperately biting down to stop the man''s fist��

    Only to snap and break, allowing Fay''s father''s strike tond squarely on my chin.

    The world went nk for a moment.

    All the burdens that I''ve carried up until now lifted off my shoulders as from standing, I went to floating in the endless darkness.

    Free from all the burdens, I could my soul rxing, embracing what has��

    ''FUCK NO!''

    It wasn''t the weight of my burdens lifting. Just the gravity no longer weighing down on them instead.

    Thump��

    My whole mind was nk,fortably and peacefully coated in the darkness�� But that didn''t mean my bond with Fay vanished. And when the pain of her catching my flying body with her feeble arms exploded in my mind��

    My mind did a hard reboot, bringing me back up to speed right as Fay fell back, unable�� or unwilling to brace against the weight of my body thrown back by Loraz''s fist.

    "Haaa��." A long, pained groan escaped my mouth when Fay''s burden as she tumbled back brought my senses up to a full alert�� Only for my face to explode in a burning pain.

    Still, I was alive.

    Heavily breathing, pained to even take a breath while desperately trying yet failing to focus my sight. Nevertheless, I was alive. And now that Loraz''s initial assault failed��

    My hand moved down to where my shottie hung down on the strap from my neck.

    Even with all my injuries, as long as I aimed in Loraz''s general direction and used my blood tribute for just one more moment�� I was confident I could bring him down. Even if one shot wouldn''t suffice, it would considerably weaken the leader of the divines, giving me the opportunity to correct with another.

    But right as my fingers were about to reach the handle of my shottie�� A doubt exploded in my mind.

    ''Am I ready to bear the consequences of killing Fay''s dad?''

    From one side, there was the topic of how the divines would react to it. And while I could leave celestials for Madam to handle�� I didn''t really know how she herself would react.

    Even though she appeared to be stronger than the man, she made no move to remove him herself. And no matter how I spun the situation�� Loraz was Madam''s mate.

    Knowing just how strongly I felt about Fay, I couldn''t be sure that even after years of living apart and in some sort of conflict Madam was ready to see Loraz die from my hand.

    ''Shit��''

    A curse was all I could think of at the moment. Because without using my gun��

    I could hardly do a thing.

    No matter how much I''ve raised my stats, Loraz''s attributes were bound to be higher. As proven by Fay''s ascended stats and the attributes she boasted while in her temporarily promoted state before, divines and celestials had a much greater cap on their abilities.

    And shackled by my current limits, I was bound to fall short in terms of every attribute that Loraz actually focused on.

    ''A difference of just a few points is already massive, near insurmountable,'' I thought, gritting my teeth. Yet, as my eyes started to dry, forcing me to blink, I suddenly realized that Fay''s side of our bond��

    Was weirdly muted.

    Tick.

    The clock of the universe moved, announcing the passing of a second with a loud, overbearing noise�� Or maybe I''d just imagined it. Or maybe��

    "What the hell do you think you are doing?"

    Fay''s voice was strangely calm.

    She spoke as soon as we finally stopped moving, tumbling for over twenty meters before we finally lost our momentum.

    With my vision still blurry, I entrusted a further part of my brain to the bond, opting to connect even deeper with my girl and piggyback on her own vision.

    And as weird as it felt to suddenly do something we''ve never tried before, how unexpected it was to reach a level of unity we never had before�� Doing so allowed me to notice the true state of Fay''s muted feelings.

    Right now, they were all boiling, confined into an extremely tiny part at the very bottom of Fay''s bright soul.

    Despite how her wrath, fear, worry, hate, and fury continued to explode in her heart all at once, the pull of this bundled, boiling point was simply too great, sucking all of those emotions in as soon as they appeared.

    As such, Fay''s calm facade��wasn''t fake at all. It simply reflected the outeryer of her soul, hiding what boiled at its very bottom.

    "If he''s your mate, you won''t be able to notice it," Loraz spoke, showing no hurry toe and finish his job. "But he''s the one who brought all the problems to our forest!"

    Paying little to no mind to the ongoing exchange, I finally focused on the only crutch that could hopefully allow me to salvage the situation.

    Given the distilled intent to kill behind Loraz''s fists, he already made up his mind. And however much Fay would protest, he wasn''t going to change his goals.

    ''I maxed out both my wisdom and intelligence, so it''s time for them to put in some work!'' I thought, gritting my teeth��

    Only to ignore everything around me as I delved as deep into my subconsciousness as I could. In the void of my mind that ensued, I surrounded myself with all the hints, clues, and threads of aura, skills, and attributes I''ve gathered so far.

    "If I don''t get rid of him, he will bring an end to our forest and our lifestyle! Fay! Listen! This is the only chance��!"

    Loraz''s words continued to fuel the rapid esction of Fay''s feelings, only serving to bring her boiling core closer and closer to its critical mass.

    But right now, I have no time to pay attention to any of it. And as painful as it was to watch Fay grow more and more distressed�� I had a job to do.

    A job that, unless I would make up my mind to reach for my shottie and unleash its might on Fay''s father, I had toplete.

    "Can''t you see it?!" Loraz''s voice grew more and more intense, proving the time Fay bought was quickly running out. "THE MOMENT HE APPEARED, HUMANS INVADED!" Loraz screamed out, quickly reaching the end of his wits. "HE BROUGHT THEM HERE!"

    "I''m not going to kill you��" Fay spoke, the boiling core of her emotions�� suddenlying to a stop.

    The mixing of Fay''s emotions stopped, and her soul suddenly calmed down.

    And as the clock of the universe announced the passing of another second��

    The core of Fay''s emotions copsed down on itself, only for its content to rebound from the implosion and explode all over Fay''s soul.

    And in this extremely short, near-instantaneous moment when the twitch of Fay''s soul leads to her mana surging��

    I saw it.

    The one missing element of the puzzle that put physics, logic, and reason back into the equation of aura''s definition.

    Only for the surge of Fay''s emotion to fully fill her soul and then spill outwards.

    "I''m going to..." Fay''s voice turned cold and hoarse, "SLAUGHTER YOU!"

 Chapter 193: Enlightement at the brink of collapse

    Fay''s emotions exploded, spilling out of her soul�� and attracting the world''s mana to fall in line and then infuse itself into her flesh, providing her with ample fuel to support the newly established domain.

    *u�� ghter��*

    Fay''s voice echoed for a moment before disappearing into the silence of the morning.

    "I see��" Loraz sighed heavily before shaking his shoulders and then his head. And by the time he raised his eyes and looked at Fay again��

    All the hints of familiar love, respect, and desire to protect were gone without a trace, reced by nothing but the look of a perfect resolve.

    Whatever this man settled on in his mind before, he has now reaffirmed his goals, after facing the opposition from an angle he hoped to avoid.

    ''What a father he is,'' I thought when the man made his first step.

    Yet, rather than focusing on his advance or getting amazed over how finely Fay controlled the mana that surged towards her��

    I put all the processing power of my brain towards this one problem, one equation that I was so desperate to figure out.

    There was no skill I could use to fight Loraz off. And even if I managed to replicate the same state we were in with Fay just before��

    I still wasn''t sold on the idea of actively and seriously harming Fay''s father. And unless Fay''s life would be on the line, I couldn''t really see myself changing my mind on that point.

    Still, there had to be something I could do.

    And as my mind rushed to figure out some sort of a new deal, a new approach that would change the odds in our favor��

    Three things happened at the same time.

    Done with his doubts and hesitations, Loraz leaped forth, ready to finish the entire conflict with just one more strike of his fist. As he did so, the aura swirled around him, infusing itself into a fist to the point the man''s hand started to glow, as if taking on its bestial form with just the condensed projection of the man''s aura.

    A feat even greater than Fay creating her domain with her hair, for Loraz, provided no physical anchor to the illusion of his growing fist.

    At the same time, Fay''s aura exploded outwards, expanding into a half-sphere of roughly three meters in every direction. And quite noticeably, her once again sparking, divine aura�� didn''t diffuse into its thinner, more natural form.

    Andstly, as both Loraz and Fay were dead-set on solving their conflict in the most brutal way possible, my fingers fell on the handle of a random knife dropped by one of the many fallen human soldiers. And out of all the things in the world, it was the gritty texture of some sort of leather wrapped around its handle that finally provided me with onest clue to connect all the dots.

    For but a single instant, I saw all my skills for what they truly were. An established path that swirled my aura in extremelyplex,pounded ways to bring forth a certain effect.

    Those skills thought��

    Even though I could see their forms shing in forms of three-dimensional blueprints�� or rather, their illusion that suddenly appeared all over the void my mind was still in�� There was no freaking way for me to decipher their meaning or the uses of various parts of their structures!

    The pathways of my skills were far beyond a human ability toprehend. And even with the processing power of my brain reaching beyond the limits of a human ascender thanks to my skill��

    When I thought three things happened at the same time, I lied.

    Or rather, when I thought it, I was yet to be made aware of the fourth element of this single instant, one that came into y only once the void of my half-awake soul filled with the blueprints, allowing me to crudely figure out the general sense of logic behind them.

    And the very moment I did so, I noticed a strange discrepancy in two things.

    First, my blood tribute felt�� weird, out of the usual whenpared to my other skills. One of its parts was overlyplex, borate far beyond any practical use�� A part that I could easily rece with a part of another skill of mine that simply felt correct.

    And so, in the void of my imagination, I made a perfect copy, a perfect replica of my blood tribute skill''s blueprint�� only to decisively cut away its oveplicated part.

    The very moment I did so, the entire blueprint suddenly�� faded.

    Not physically, though. I could still see and perceive it as fine as before�� but its intensity greatly decreased, making it seem as if it was about to copse and fall apart, turning into nothing more but strands of my imagination.

    Before that could happen, though, I stuffed the gaping hole in the skill''s structure with the element of my Darkness core that just felt right for the spot.

    [Created Skill: Aura Tribute]

    [Morphing Skill: Elemental Aura Tribute]

    [New tribute: Dark Aura Tribute

    +4 Darkness affinity]

    [New skill!

    -Elemental Aura tribute

    - By sacrificing one''s elemental aura, the wielder of this skill can morph temporal forms]

    - Can morph time and space at an increasing cost to the wielder''s aura

    - The cost of the skill gradually restores upon the copse of the morph]

    In a sense, this was one hell of a discovery. For me to be able to change the nature of my skills to alter them and gain new abilities�� Was one hell of an important information and promise of rapid growth.

    But from a calmer perspective�� this discovery was actually much greater.

    My current understanding of aura was extremely low, based on feelings and instincts and only a few logical assumptions. But what obtaining this new skill brought for me, save for the skill itself, was a slightly better understanding of the underlyingws that controlled how aura behaved.

    And with this, my vision appeared to change.

    The glow of Loraz''s fists turned from just a condensed aura to an entire ocean of swirling flows that one had to look extremely closely to notice. The movement of his aura around his body also gained a new meaning, now allowing me to understand how it actively reinforced the man''s physical ability.

    But most importantly of all, I''ve just gained a new skill. And with Fay and Loraz about to strike each other down��

    There was no time for me to figure things out. Right now, was myst opportunity to intervene in this fight!

 Chapter 194: Family dispute (part 1)

    Loraz''s fist physically surged forth. The aura around it swelled and bloated, all the way to the point where a shadow of a massive, wed hand seemed to beyered on top of Loraz''s real hand.

    And with those aura-made ws of his, this damned bastard actually dared to direct an attack at Fay!

    Loraz''s daughter didn''t seem to mind their blood rtion at all, though, not allowing it to put any limit to her power. Instead, not moving an inch from the spot just ahead of me, Fay simply waved her hand, scattering a huge number of sparkling stars of her aura in the air before her.

    And then, with a gentle tap��

    The snapping stars of Fay''s divine aura surged forth, forcing Loraz to change the route of his fist, raising it up to block the retaliatory attack as opposed to using it to reach for Fay''s precious yet extremely delicate flesh.

    The bright sparks of Fay''s aura collided with the illusion of a massive dragon arm thatyered over Loraz''s hand��

    But no explosion ensued.

    Rather than invoking the one thing that people of my world found to be so much in love with, the sh of aura brought forth no mes or shockwaves. Instead, as Fay''s aura dissolved into more natural thickness, it also increased in volume by quite a lot, revealing just how thick it was before.

    And when flooded with a huge amount of foreign aura he couldn''t control, Loraz suddenly found himself struggling to maintain whatever spell allowed him to turn just his arm into the form of the spiritual beast thatid at the very foundation of his soul.

    In the end, the sh turned out to be extremely anticlimactic. For a few moments, the two of them simply stood in front of the other, their faces as tense as they could get, both trying their damnest to prove it would be their aura that held out, dispersing the other.

    But with how much time Fay bought me, what kind of a man would I be if I gave a single fuck about battle courtesy and continued to just stand around doing nothing while my girl was trying her best?

    I took a deep breath and brought my eyes up to the slowly brightening sky�� only to close them as I exhaled. And as I allowed my entire system to get retranted through the new height of my darkness attribute��

    Everything suddenly started to make sense.

    The aura swirling around Loraz''s fists and forming into the image of a dragon''s arm, the seemingly chaotic movements of the sparks of Fay''s divine aura��

    For a moment, even all the endlesslyplicated pathways my aura had to take to invoke a skill suddenly grew�� obvious?

    It was a feeling that any man would struggle to describe, as it went beyond what a human was designed to experience.

    The overwhelming sense of familiarity allowed me to understand my skills properly for the first time. The effect of my affinity for darkness was also reflected in my Eye of Time skill.

    And its current state was likely the reason why everything suddenly became so simple.

    [Skill: Eye of time

    - Darkness Affinity Skill

    - Temporarily raises intelligence by 3(+4)

    - Cooldown: 6h]

    After maxing out my natural intelligence, using this now improved skill�� Brought me all the way to what I believed to be the halfway mark of the limits of the rank I would achieve after my next rebirth. For with the twenty points in intelligence, I already had, the bonus seven from the skill��

    The change didn''t even amount to half of my current attribute''s value. But the worth of attributes grew exponentially rather than linearly. And because of this, the endlesslyplicated and chaotic tapestry of all sorts of auras permeating the air�� Suddenly turned into aplex, but straightforward picture.

    The endless flow of myriad directions, the scattering of the world''s aura that led to its general level across the world staying the same�� It turned from a chaotic, unpredictable movement, to a set of simple patterns that I could vector and calcte.

    In a sense, the world around me felt as if it lost an entireyer ofplexity. If the world before my skill improving was akin to a pendulum made out of two smaller ones. Its movements were chaotic, and erratic, holding a distant sense of logic and reason but one that the human brain was too limited to grasp.

    On the other hand, now that my intelligence nearly reached thirty points�� the entire world could be summed up as a straightforward, simple pendulum. One that would move in an extremely simple and repetitive pattern, as opposed to the chaotic movements of its moreplex version.

    And in terms of what it meant for me in the moment��

    Loraz''s fist twitched.

    In the extremely tense fight between his aura and one of his daughters, the divine leader finally leveraged his experience and finer control over the echo of his soul, slowly starting to push Fay''s sparks aside and press ahead.

    Once the process started, once Loraz''s fist started to gain ground, things only elerated. His hand, under lesser and lesser resistance, moved faster and faster, scattering the weakening power of my woman with rapidly increasing ease.

    Through my bond, I could tell Fay refused to surrender�� and even went as far as to bite down on her sweet lips in frustration when she started to sense what I could see right before my eyes by now.

    Loraz''s fists started to move again. And with it, the illusory ws of its projected dragon''s hand.

    But all of it�� all of it was pretty much for nothing.

    ''Elemental aura tribute,'' I thought, only for the familiar sense of the time freezing to nearly instantly envelop the whole world. And for the first time since I first used the original time-stopping skill�� I hardly felt any burden of doing so.

    No fresh wounds opened up on my body, no blood squeezed out of those wounds to offer itself on the altar of my skill. And while I could feel an increasing tug on my aura, slowly but surely sapping my reserves dry��

    Now I had more than just enough room to affect the oue of this fight!

 Chapter 195: Family dispute (part 2)

    Loraz''s fists elerated, pushing thest of Fay''s sparks away. By now, Fay didn''t even have the time to send a new wave of her aura to try to contend with her father again.

    And right as I started to sense first hints of panic and unrest in Fay''s soul, I reached out and put my hand on her shoulder��

    Only to jerk her to the back, removing her from the path of her father''s aura-coated fist.

    "It''s okay," I spoke silently, more through our bond than through my lips, "let me deal with him."

    Just a few moments ago, I couldn''t do anything about this man. The difference in raw strength between the two of us was simply too great. Too overwhelming. And just a single strike of his was enough to send me out ofmission for a good while.

    But that was all before my affinity with darkness skyrocketed, unlocking a whole new potential hidden within the skills of the same affinity. Back when my eye of time only raised my intelligence by three points. Back, when my natural intelligence was still merely halfway through my current limit.

    And now?

    Loraz''s fists surged through the air, gaining more and more speed with every inch it moved, no longer restricted by the pressure of Fay''s divine aura. The divine''s leader aura continued to solidify at a rapid pace, soon turning his simple fist into a fearsome hand, full of dragon''s ws and covered in sturdy scales for added defensiveness.

    But in my eyes��

    Fay''s mind scrambled as she desperately searched for anything she could use to counter the attack. Yet, with her mind failing to provide any satisfactory result, she ended up bracing herself for the strike, raising her hands to intercept and block it.

    And she was just a single second toote.

    ''Is this really that simple?'' I thought, pulling Fay to the back while taking a step forward myself. And with nothing but my bare hand, I reached out straight for Loraz''s dragon''s arm��

    And I solved it.

    I solved the equation of the aura that made up the illusion of this bestial form for the man''s arm. And now that I had the solution for this equation��

    My hand moved right through the illusion of the dragon''s arm, removing its physical enchantments aimed to turn it into a solid, physical object.

    With Loraz''s dragon''s arm turning into nothing more but a scary illusion, I pushed my hand even further, putting it right in the path of Loraz''s fists.

    I didn''t try to redirect the strike. I had no ns to dodge or block it.

    No.

    As soon as Loraz''s knucklesnded squarely in the middle of my hand''s palm, I pulled my arm and shoulder to the back. At the same time, I pulled on the aura of Loraz''s arm, using his own power to temporarily reinforce my own muscles and bones.

    And finally, when I could bring my shoulder or arm back no more, I locked my joints, putting the burden of holding Loraz''s strike back from the joins to the full and now reinforced structure of my bones.

    "Ugh��"

    My body fell back two steps when I failed to fully disperse the energy behind Loraz''s strike. As it turned out, despite trying to solidify his aura projection into a proper arm, it was never the core of his attack.

    The dragon''s ws were there just for the added effect of terror, domination, and�� distraction. In other cases, the aura I stole from the projection should suffice in reinforcing my brace to fully match the momentum of the man''s fist!

    Which, quite frankly, didn''t happen. Maybe because Loraz prioritized his physical strength over the power of the echo of his soul?

    "Hon!" Fay screamed out, looking right at my face with her eyes wide open.

    Her chest was moving up and down at a rapid pace while her hands trembled under the stress of holding more aura than she had the endurance for.

    "I''m alright," I replied, hoping to calm Fay as much as I could with just those few words I could afford.

    And I really had to do my best to do so, given how she failed to just check my state after shouldering Fay''s father''s attack by simply taking a peek through our bond.

    ''I really need to get this over as soon as possible,'' I thought, gritting my teeth.

    I''ve solved the equation of Loraz''s projected arm. I could tell�� no, I could feel how his aura moved inplicated patterns that somehow ended up producing a dragon''s armsyered over his fist as a result.

    But I''ve now fully understood the equation. And that means, just by pushing tiny bits of my own aura, introducing some small changes here and there�� I managed to turn Loraz''s skill from a physical enchantment into a sort of buff to the aura of anyone who came into contact with it!

    Doing so required me to reuse every single piece of aura ''structural code'' that gave my skill its properties and that I managed to figure out so far. Yet, in the end, nearly the entirety of the burden brought upon by Loraz''s attack ended up sapped by the power of his own aura!

    "That was yourst chance to attack," I spoke out loud, ignoring the pain in my soul born when I moved my eyes away from my beautiful woman and turned them to give Loraz a furious re. "Now, how about I pay you back?" I asked, only to take a step forward.

    I could feel Fay''s worry exploding as she nearly rushed to grab at my shirt and hold me back.

    I could also see Loraz''s surprise and then amusement when he saw me approaching him with the obvious goal of confrontation.

    But this wasn''t the only thing that I saw. Not by a long shot.

    "You really struggle a lot for a filthy human," Loraz muttered, his cheeky smile souring when he saw no hint of hesitation or fear in my eyes. And as he raised his eyes and shook his head to get rid of the broken mirage of a dragon''s arm only to summon it again��

    ''So sloppy��''

    There was no other way for me toment on it.

    The act of deciphering the equation of his skill was, quite honestly, just a fluke. A sleeptalk moment of my brain getting used to its new processing power. And now that I''ve chased away the drowsiness of my own weakness from just a few moments before, from back when I still had yet to raise most of my stats to their limits��

    It wasn''t Loraz''s skill that I could decipher.

    Right now, his whole flow of aura appeared like a slightly moreplex equation. Yet, for no reason other than my gut, I decided against trying to decipher it.

    Not because I couldn''t. Not because it would be of no use.

    I gave up on it because I could tell that the process of doing so would leave me vulnerable for too long. What''s more, abusing my intelligence right now would only bring a sooner end to my eye of time skill!

    And most of all�� there was absolutely no reason for me to fully decipher Loraz''s aura. Just seeing it as an equation, I gained insight into his intentions that far preceded any hints that he would have to reveal with his physical form.

    When Loraz raised his resummoned dragon arm, I already took a calm step to the side, removing myself from the range of angles he could attack from. His body shifted to the side in an attempt to bring me back within the range of his dragon''s arm��

    Only for me toplete a slight leap back to the other side, putting me squarely behind the man''s turned back.

    ''Elemental Aura tribute!''

    Before Loraz could turn back, I summoned the altered version of my costly yet overpowered skill. And with how I started to move as quickly as I could through the slurry of the thick air, the drain on my aura quickly grew from tiny to nearly overwhelming.

    And when I pushed my fist out�� The strain on my soul only grew stronger�� along with the space itself that separated my fist from Loraz''s face condensing, thus decreasing the distance my fist had to cross.

    A mere momentter, I sapped myself out of the major chunk of energy hidden within the flow of my aura. No matter, aura or blood, the active Tribute skill came at a great cost!

    But it was a cost I was willing to pay, for my fist, between the speed of my nearly maxed-out agility, the eleration of moving through a stopped time, and then even further boost to its speed through the condensing of space��

    With all of those boons, my fist grew swift and strong enough to reach Loraz''s right cheek, sending him tumbling when the strike connected.

 Chapter 196: Family dispute (part 3)

    When my fist connected with Loraz''s cheekbone, my body froze for a single instant before rxing for just as little.

    Before adding the strength of my aura of muscles, I simply allowed the momentum to carry my fist. Only when it started to seriously slow down, did I finally tense up my muscles and drive my aura into my flesh, not only reinforcing the structural integrity of my fist but also elerating it even further beyond.

    And when itnded��

    Smack!

    The energy released all from my fist, transfering directly to Loraz''s cheekbone. With the added eleration of forcing my movement through time and then condensing the space that my first had yet to cover�� I released it all, sending this damned father-inw of mine flying.

    "Hon!"

    Fay''s words finally reached my ears, followed by a soft thud when she dropped down on my back.

    Judging from the state of her soul, she still had the inclination to desperately throw me out of harm''s way when she crashed into my back�� Only to freeze on the spot when she saw her father thrown away by the force of my strike, stumbling to regain footing only to fail and trip, tumbling across the open field where the battle took ce just before.

    "Woah��" I uttered a small moan of release, standing down and taking a quick look at my tightened fist. "That was��" I gulped my saliva down. "That felt pretty nice," I finally revealed the state of my soul out loud, even though Fay could read it through our bond anyway.

    "What was that?"

    Her worries gone, Fay now forcibly turned me around so that she could rest her hands on my chest and stare up at my face with sparks of pride and curiosity brimming in her eyes.

    Rather than worrying about her dad and what happened to him when catching such a fat fist to his face, she was simply overjoyed to watch me serve it to him instead. And to a degree��

    She was getting wet?

    ''I bet it''s just my imagination.'' I discarded the thought�� only to fail at controlling myself as my hands surged forth, greedily urged to reach the peak of lewdness.

    Fay couldn''t even resist. And before the look on her face could even change, one of my handsnded down on the top of her head while I grabbed her fingers with my other hand.

    "Just abination of everything I managed to figure out so far," I exined by exining nothing but giving a general clue instead. There was no time to properly discuss what happened, not yet. Not while there was still work to be done.

    For the moment, though, as reckless as it was, I simply focused on patting Fay''s soft hair and grasping her fingers within the hold of my hand, all the while lovingly staring down her brimming, strikingly blue eyes.

    And the more I looked down at Fay''s soul, the more her expression appeared to melt.

    Yet, as if all my discoveries so far weren''t enough, Fay''s eyes started to lose their vibrancy, turning back to the usual, grayed hue of the blue��

    Only to spark right back to the color they were whenever she turned into her ascended or promoted ascended form.

    After staring at each other for a while, Fay was the first one to break the eye-contact. She lowered her head and rested her forehead on my chest before rubbing it as she moved her face left and right.

    Letting go of her delicate fingers, I moved my other hand down before using them both to grasp Fay in a light, gentle embrace.

    I dared not squeeze her tightly, not when I might need to push her out of harm''s way at a moment''s notice!

    "I''m horny," Fay whispered after settling up in my embrace. And as she moved her chin up and revealed her face to me again��

    To say that the glint in her eyes was enough to get me excited would be a gross underestimation!

    "But we still need to go and deal with��"

    I was so cocky when it came to paying my full attention to Fay�� because with my current level of aura perception, improved not only by the growth of my aura but also by all the discoveries about the aura I made, I was pretty damn sure I could sense Loraz approaching well before I could actually see it.

    And yet, right as I was fully focused on spoiling my girl��

    I felt that something was wrong.

    ''My strike was strong for sure, but wasn''t it already quite a while since he got��''

    I sensed no peculiarity in the aura. I saw no danger approach nor smelled the scent of death.

    All I did, was hear a sudden whistle of a wind, one that didn''t fit in the open area of the in we were in.

    ''Shit!''

    Daring not to risk it all just for the sake of my pride, I tensed up my hold over Fay''s waist only to throw both of us forth in a desperate bid to dodge whatever wasing.

    And I wasn''t a single second toote, not when an invisible de cut through the air�� and gave me one hell of an ugly haircut!

    ''Rise!''

    Verbalizing my wishes, I pushed my aura to the decaying elemental darkness around me. With the rays of the sun growing stronger by the second, it was only a matter of time, a very short time, before summoning darkness would hardly be an option.

    ''I need to end this now!''

    Summoning my darkness, I built a simple dome of uniform darkness, starting from the direction opposite to where the attack came from.

    After all, since the de passed over my head, it had now traveled the distance it covered back!

    "Hon!" Fay called out only to use her hands to push against my chest, freeing herself from my hold. "Sense him! I will bring him down!"

    Fay rolled over to the side. Her already intense blue eyes only grew more vivid while the number of sparks surrounding her body continued to steadily grow.

    ''Sense him�� but fucking how?!''

    As much as I wanted to cry when I heard Fay''s request I had no means of fulfilling it�� I simply got over this whiny side of myself and focused on the task.

    For how I was supposed to give Fay everything she could ever want if I was unable to fulfill such a simple, rudimentary even, request?

    CLING!

    The invisible de struck again. This time, though, it found something to cut through.

    The tip of the de prated through my solidified darkness with ease, just like a hot knife would go through a block of butter. Yet, as the invisible de dug deeper and deeper, its momentum slowed down. And when Loraz attempted to swing it to the side to cut the dome of my darkness open��

    His invisible de only managed to move by one, maybe two inches.

    ''There you are!''

    In a moment where I couldn''t really find a way to use my current abilities to pinpoint the enemy''s location, using this dome of darkness�� Was exactly what it was in reality. Merely a desperate attempt to buy me and Fay some time.

    A defense born out of desperation rather than practicality. But for whatever case, Loraz came and gave me such a great opportunity! For when he attempted to cut the barrier with his invisible de��

    He allowed me to focus all my efforts on solidifying my aura into darkness on just the small area around his de.

    As a result, the barrier that Loraz''s de prated with extreme ease has now turned to thick and sticky, the main divine of the forest struggled to actually get it out!

    "You shouldn''t put it inside if you are not going to take responsibility for it," I sneered, pushing more and more of my aura towards the one ce where Loraz''s exposed a weakness of sorts.

    And in the process of doing so, I failed to even realize that he ended up letting go of the de. Still, locked within the dome of darkness, how could I be able to tell it? And with all my attention focused on reinforcing the barrier and keeping him in ce��

    I failed to realize that Loraz wasn''t just an amateur. And while I was busy feeling good over how I managed to trap him, he circled to the back of my dome before shattering it with a single, leisurely strike of his fist!

    In an instant, the situation went from manageable to an absolute disaster.

    With my back turned to the man, I was full of openings that he could exploit at will. And turning around to at least brace myself for an attack��

    "It''s over," Loraz announced in a cold voice, staring down at me with one of his eyes, given how the other was already bloated to the point his swelled skin forced his other eye to remain closed.

    Yet, this wasn''t the time for me to enjoy the effects of my fists on my father-inw''s face.

    "HON!"

    Fay screamed out, already showering my surroundings with her sparking aura, keeping it in its stable form just with the utmost strain of her will.

    But it was toote.

    I no longer had the vitality or spare aura to use my Blood or Aura tribute. And even with all my newly gained understanding of aura, it wouldn''t help me to turn around faster. And heck, even if it did�� At such a close distance, what were my chances of blocking an attack from someone several times more powerful than me�� with my bare hands?

    Still, I tried to turn around. To the very best of my ability, I did my absolute best to ovee the odds and surpass the speed of Loraz''s fist.

    "STOP!"

    Only for the entire world around me, as opposed to just the flow of time, toe to a stop when Madam''s voice exploded all over the ce.

 Chapter 197: Watashi Ga kita!

    It wasn''t my first time experiencing the influence of Madam''s voice.

    Thest time it happened, though, was when she was just a few steps away from her target, easily able to control the flow of her mana to only affect Loraz instead of all those within the range of the voice.

    This time, however, things were different.

    First, Madam was nowhere to be seen, only further proved by how distant her voice was. Second, her voice affected everyone at the same rate, suddenly turning the air around me into the same, thick slurry that I was already used to traverse.

    Andstly��

    The power of her voice just now was only a fraction of the power I felt surging when she used her voice directly rather than shouting over some sort of a great distance.

    ''Move!''

    Loraz''s fist slowed down considerably�� but it still continued to move. It carried enough momentum to keep pushing ahead, even when his will and ability to move any further were robbed by Madam''s words.

    And so, Loraz''s fists continued to move, at a considerably slower rate�� but I had no doubt that the moment it connected, the restriction of Madam''s words wouldn''t apply to the force it carried.

    On the other hand, I struggled to move even an inch. My body simply repelled the idea of pushing through the thick slurry of condensed air, remembering the cost that came with doing so while within the framework of my skill.

    The only one who didn''t seem to be affected by Madam''s words at all�� was Fay.

    Whether it was because she was Madam''s daughter or maybe it was all thanks to the insane density of her own aura in her direct surrounding? Or maybe there were some other forces andws at y that I had no idea about?

    Still, my task for now remained the same. And as wrong and lethally dangerous as it felt to move through this condensed slurry of air in my greatly weakened state�� I managed to push my head an inch�� and then another��

    Yet, it still wasn''t enough. And with the prospect of Loraz''s strike reaching my face once again, I tensed up, trying to brace myself for the attack��

    "RIAGH!"

    Fay uttered a weird scream right as her aura surged. The patterns of the flow of Fay''s aura changed. And as hard as it was to describe this otherwordly sight that I couldn''t even see with anything but my intuition�� Fay''s power started to expand.

    It didn''t grow stronger or denser�� just changed the three-dimensional shape that her aura''s paths made. Bit by bit, the area suffused with Fay''s divine sparks continued to bloat up, creating a considerable bulge of space within her control.

    The bigger the bulge grew, the faster its growth became. And by the time I nearly closed my eyes with Loraz''s fists mere millimeters away from my chin�� The bulge of Fay''s aura exploded.

    And two things happened at the same time.

    To my side, roughly twenty meters away, a nimble, elegant body dropped down to the ground. And as if doing the basics like trying to soften the drop with a roll, the neer simply squatted down and rested their hand in front of them in what any modern person would recognize as a typical superheronding.

    But as glorious of sight as it was, I could hardly pay it any attention when Fay''s aura surged forth, passed through my body while easily mixing with my aura�� and then surged even further forth with much greater ease than before, as if her power anchored itself on me and thus extended its effective reach.

    Still, this was merely the first step. And as soon as the surge of Fay''s power reached her dad''s fist, her body turned into a sh of light only for the girl to suddenly reappear right in front of me, her fist aimed right down at her father''s hand.

    BOOM!

    The noise of the two divines striking fist-to-fist was pretty much on the level of the discharges of the neugarand rounds. The shockwave of the powerful energies shing shook the slurry of air surrounding all of us.

    And for the third time today, Loraz ended up thrown back, overpowered by the fury behind Fay''s strike.

    ''Shit!''

    As d as I was to be saved from one hell of an axe to my face, I instantly overcame my innate fear of challenging the slurry of the condensed air, throwing myself forward.

    For a moment, it felt as if air offered no resistance to me whatsoever, making me question whether or not I actually managed to free myself from Madam''s spell��

    Yet, right as my hands fell down on Fay''s slightly shaking shoulders, the pressure from before has returned, proving this theory wrong. As my hands rushed down Fay''s shoulders, arms, elbows, and wrists, all the way to where they reached her hands, I couldn''t help but figure out yet another detail.

    It wasn''t Madam''s spell that failed to keep me in check. It was the plume of Fay''s divine aura that she used to push her mother''s hex aside, carving out a path for herself to move through.

    Fay''s leftover aura quickly either dissipated into the air or pulled back towards the zone where she could keep it in its condensed form, once again unleashing the force of Madam''s hex on me��

    But by now, I achieved my objective. With my hands on Fay''s wrist, I pulled her hands up while taking a look over the girl''s shoulder, inspecting her knuckles and fingers in general for even the tiniest hint of a wound or bruise.

    "Does it hurt?" I asked, raising my eyes from Fay''s delicate hands to her slightly startled face.

    ''I know she most likely is, but still��''

    For how feeble Fay appeared�� she was actually quite a bit stronger than me. In her normal state, she already boasted the ability that would put any and all of Earth''s athletes to shame. In her awakened state, her attributes were more than twice as high as my old ones while being prettyparable to my current limits.

    But in her promoted ascended state that I saw her achieve when her divine aura first started to spark up��

    "Huff��. Huff��" Instead of replying, Fay breathed heavily while letting out mouthfuls of steam for every breath that she released. Her eyes refused to as little as twitch, zeroed in at the body of her father in the distance where Fay''s counterstrike sent him flying.

    "You kids okay?!" Madam called out, finally crossing over the distance from where she appeared and sliding on the ground toe to a stop just a few steps away from us. "Oh, right," her face twitched when she saw uspletely frozen.

    And without a single word of caution or advice, the pressure of her hex suddenly diminished before vanishing altogether. As soon as the air appeared to thin out to its natural form, it instantly started to thicken up when a new, much more overwhelming sense of aura filled my mind.

    Fay''s divine aura was extremely condensed, much more potent than the aura one could naturally pull from the world and then cultivate within oneself through various experiences.

    On the contrary, Madam''s aura�� didn''t really exist. Or rather, I couldn''t really tell where her own aura and the world''s aura turned from one to the other.

    As if��

    I gulped my saliva down.

    ''As if she assimted all the aura of the world around.''

    My ability to sense the movement of the aura flows proved that either this statement was absolute�� Or the limits of the aura Madam controlled simply reached beyond the range of my perception.

    Either way, while Fay''s aura was heavy and authoritative��

    Madam''s aura had hardly any feel to it.

    There was no pressure, no sense of tightness in my chest. Not even my instincts screamed out in rm, even though I was quite sure the apex predator was pretty much standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me now.

    Bothered by this inconsistency, I attempted to take a deeper look into the aura, not willing to let an opportunity to learn more pass��

    Only for my mind nearly to fry when I opened myself up for the aura of the world to flow through me in order to better sense it�� Only for it to suddenly all converge��

    No.

    That wasn''t it.

    The aura didn''t move.

    But right at the moment Madam''s expression turned ugly, it felt as if the world itself suddenly came to a stop.

    "You dare to raise your hand against my daughter��" Madam''s words were silent, no better than a snake''s hiss��

    Yet, every single one of them felt like a drum of the apocalypse shaking the very foundation of the world''sws and matter.

    Or maybe that''s how I felt because I suddenly found myself entrapped within the perfectly controlled flow of the world''s��

    ''No, at this point, this aura has nothing to do with the world,'' I thought, gulping my saliva for onest time before this weird feeling of being held hostage by the world'' aura vanished when Fay turned around, looked at me for a second before pulling me into a deep hug and showering my surroundings with her own, divine aura.

    Ting!

    There was no noise�� but I clearly felt something snap when all the aura of the world ended up repelled by the much thicker, sparky aura of my girl.

    "Thanks��" I uttered, heavily falling into Fay''s embrace, only now realizing just how quickly connecting up to this world aura ended up draining my own reserves.

    "No biggie," Fay chirped, leaning her head to the back to allow me a quick look at the happy, rxed look on her face. "Mom is here, so we can take it easy now."

 Chapter 198: One step for Madam, last journey for Lorazs balls

    "Mom is here, so we can take it easy now."

    The degree to which Fay''s rxed in a single instant was uncanny. Through our bond, I could tell there wasn''t a single shred of hesitation or doubt in her mind.

    Now that Madam had arrived, Fay considered the entire altercation to be over.

    Sadly, as much as I wanted, I couldn''t share the same mindset.

    ''Loraz isn''t that weak,'' I thought, gritting my teeth in frustration at having to choose between trusting in Fay''s instincts�� and doing what I believed to be my due diligence to keep her safe. ''Andpared to Madam, he actually might be��''

    I didn''t really get to finish my thought. And as soon as Madam made a single step towards her ex, I figured out��

    No, I saw the reason why Fay acted so carefree now that her mother returned.

    There was no further fight. And without a doubt, it wasn''t because my strike managed to pummel all the aggressive ideas out of Loraz''s head.

    No.

    When Madam stepped forth, the entire world appeared to move with her. It was only when her feet touched the ground that I realized it was only an illusion�� Or rather, a phantom experience.

    It wasn''t the world that moved along with Madam''s step. It was all the world''s mana around, save for the narrow bubble of safety that Fay prompted up with the thick array of the sparks of her divine aura.

    And when Madam made her step, despite moving only about half a meter�� She suddenly appeared right by her ex''s side.

    When she moved, she didn''t bother to thread the way an ordinary mortal would. Instead, she bent the very space around her, moving not by pushing herself off the ground but by doing exactly the same that I managed to achieve with my evolved, Aura Tribute.

    The difference though, was the scale.

    Partially due to a lucky fluke, I managed to bend a narrow stretch of space to use it as a speed boost for the fist that I used to deliver myst strike to Loraz''s face. I only managed to keep the bend of space for a short moment. Still, even doing as little was enough to sap nearly three-quarters of my mana, leaving my reserves dangerously low.

    Madam, on the other hand, bent the space as freely as she would bend a piece of paper. The nonchnt look on her elegant face made it seem it was merely a convenience trick rather than an actual movement technique for her.

    And witnessing all of that, I couldn''t help but ponder.

    ''What the hell are her limits?'' I thought at first while watching Madam casually grab Loraz up, whisper something right into the divine''s face only to then turn, and using the momentum of said turn, throw Loraz right back to where we stood.

    "Careful," I shouted lightly while shooting my right hand to the side and backing off, using my elbow to push Fay out of harm''s way while moving into the potential line of fire myself.

    "Didn''t I tell you?" Fay suddenly asked, only to take a step to the left to appear right behind me before pushing her hands forth and wrapping them around my stomach. "Mom is here, so everything will be fine."

    I could tell just how eager Fay was to leave the scene and find some privacy somewhere around, where we could sing the mating song of our kind consisting of moans, screams, and autistic screeches of people drowning in pleasure.

    But with Madam busy pummeling Loraz�� It felt kind of awkward to just grab Fay and go disappear in some sort of bush that we would then make intensively shake for quite some time��

    ''It would be like rubbing herck of mate in her face,'' I thought, gulping my saliva down�� Only to feel Fay hold back her giggle behind my back once she sensed where my thoughts traveled.

    Whoosh!

    By taking a simple step back, Madam moved from where she threw Loraz all the way to where he fell. And once again, she did so with no more but a single step.

    "You''ve had one job," Madam spoke in an extremely cold, low voice. And for the first time since I''ve met her, I saw some really intense sparks going off in her eyes.

    The look on her face was intense enough to kill, which all on its own made me shiver a bit.

    I knew her fury wasn''t directed at me, but between what I knew and how I felt in the presence of the absolute apex of the forest��

    "It''s okay," Fay whispered right to my left ear before resting her chin on my shoulder and giving me a light hug from behind.

    "You only had to keep those two safes, so how did we go from there to you trying to kill them?" Madam asked, her voice turning slightly warmer�� No, more neutral. As if all the emotions that made it cold before were now receding.

    And for a moment, I was willing to believe Madam actually managed to rein her feelings in. The still, tense yet calm look on her face fooled me. Thenguage of her body as a whole fooled me. Even the air she had around her got the better of me.

    But the erratic flow of the aura all around the scene was enough of a shake-up to let me see the truth behind Madam''s cold andposed facade.

    "Speak!" Madam shouted, once again infusing her voice into the aura in the air and thus turning it into apelling power.

    "He''s the one who set the two of you against me!" Loraz didn''t wait to make use of this opportunity.

    Using his movements as the extension of his expressiveness, he rose up from the ground�� only to remain on all fours before mming his forehead into the ground in a sign of submission.

    The difference between Loraz and Madam''s ranks was simply too great. And while I just might somehow luck out and clutch a victory against Loraz�� Loraz had no hopes of ever doing the same when facing Madam.

    "Can''t you see this? Right as he appeared, humans came to invade! Right as he appeared, you decided to break your vow and unleash your strength, effectively halving our��"

    "Halving our strength?" Madam cut into Loraz''s words with a smirk growing on her otherwise expressionless face. "Do you really think two ascended, not even promoted ones could face against a single supreme?"

    The look on Madam''s face changed��

    While Fay sneaking her hand into my pants made it pretty damn hard to focus on the developing situation.

    "Dear, can it wait just a little?" I asked, perfectly and painfully aware of the extent of Fay''s battle-born lust.

    As great as it felt to connect to the woman I loved at such a deep, intimate level�� It also made it extremely hard to stop our feelings from amping up just by reflecting on each other.When Fay felt lust, I would be aware of the fact through our bond, leading to my instinctive response. And once my own affection and lust would reflect back into Fay''s soul, the process would repeat.

    Or, in short words, even a single hint of affection, excitement,ziness, boredom, or literally any other emotion or state was enough, after just some time, to give birth to a powerful craving.

    If one of us would be hungry, the other would realize how long it''s been since we ate. That would spark hunger in the other, only further amplifying the hunger that started it all and throwing the two of us into yet another example of a positive feedback loop.

    "You know I can''t��" Fay''s whisper tingled in my ears, sending a wave of pleasure down my spine while also muddling my thoughts a little. And with her fingers carefully, gently grasping at my shaft while she obviously used our bond to guide her hand through the insides of my pants��

    "The only reason why I left that day is that I didn''t want Fay to know how much of a loser her father is," Madam spoke harshly, her cold tone serving as a cold shower to wake both me and Fay up from our lust-driven momentary state of mind.

    ''Huh?''

    A shiver ran down my spine.

    There was something��

    I gulped my saliva down.

    There was something extremely unsettling in Madam''s voice.

    "The only reason why I didn''t outright kill you was because I thought there was no one better to leave managing the ns to," Madam continued while slowly walking to where Loraz prostrated himself and remained bowed down ever since his desperate plea.

    This time, Madam didn''t shift through space like before, taking her time to approach her ex instead. And once she finally stood above him��

    "And the only reason I didn''t kill you ever since then, is because I still harbored some naive hopes you would grow and man up," Madam spat out on the ground�� Only to bring her foot to Loraz''s shoulders and kick forward, sending him tumbling onto his back.

    "But I''m not as naive now," Madam spoke, the intensity in her voice raising which perfectly reflected in the erratic flow of the aura all over the ce. "I can''t be that naive when you raised your hand against Fay''s mate I approved," Madam spoke while giving me a short, weird nce before turning her eyes back to her estranged husband.

    "And definitely not after you dared to wish harm upon Fay," Madam concluded her calm tirade, right as her voice reached the temperature of an absolute zero.

    And so, without any further hesitation, she took another step forward��

    Only for her foot tond down on Loraz''s crotch with a thunderous boom as his most precious parts dissolved under the heel of Madam''s shoe.

    "So you will have to forgive me if I can no longer hold back from taking appropriate measures."

 Chapter 199: Consequences (double chapter)

    "AAAARGHHH!"

    A powerful, pained scream shook the air when Loraz''s pridehood burst under the heel of Madam''s shoe.

    I closed my eyes while having no better option but to hope and pray I could somehow close my ears as well.

    Even if this man just tried to kill me�� Watching him have his balls turned into smithereens while the fate of the part every man took pride in was left to be determined��

    Even if he was trying to kill me just now, I was still a man. And by merely witnessing this sight, I felt a dull, numbing pain appear in my own sack as well, effectively cutting all the arousal Fay''s slow cuddling managed to build up over time.

    "Hon��" Fay moaned lightly, pressing her chest up to my face while her hand finally came to a stop.

    She was worried for she could also perceive this sort of mental, coteral damage of Madam''s furious punishment.

    And feeling my nearly physical pain of watching it happen, Fay''s hold over my erection rxed. Her hand then slid even further down my pants. And with the tips of her fingers gently reaching out to grasp my sack��

    ''Shit��''

    Between the dull, virtual pain in my balls and the gentle massage Fay offered them��

    If only those two things fought for supremacy over my mind, I could somehow manage. But for some reason, having Fay gently, carefully squeeze such a vulnerable and delicate part of me��

    As restraining as it was by the very nature of the act, I just couldn''t get enough of it!

    "Is it good��?" Fay asked in a shy, restrained voice, no louder than the purring of a rxed cat. Even though she could simply open herself up to our connection to feel it herself�� she still decided to ask me instead.

    ''Does she want to just talk dirty with me?'' I thought, struggling to keep my attention on anything beyond Fay''s immediate surroundings.

    With her fingers massaging my balls, how could I pay attention to anything else, after all? Right now, just turning my eyes away in shame or embarrassment could warrant a reaction that��

    A tingle moved up my spine as I imagined Fay suddenly turning more dominant, decisive�� Maybe even slightly sadistic?

    "Urgh��" I released a short groan, only for Fay''s fingers to freeze as she rapidly raised her eyes and glued them to my face.

    "Are you okay?" she asked, worry brimming in her eyes�� And her presence in our bond grew stronger.

    Contrary to when she asked how it felt when worried whether she hurt me or not, Fay didn''t hesitate to immerse her soul into our bond, raising her sensitivity to the feelings and sensations we shared.

    "I am, but it''s getting harder and harder to restrain myself." I leaned forward and rested my head on Fay''s shoulder. I then turned my face before burying it into the side of Fay''s neck, instantly taking a big whiff of her delicate scent.

    ''I could get high on just smelling her,'' I thought, only for my innate bashfulness to awaken, turning my cheeks red.

    "Is it bad��?" Fay asked, her voice coated with uncertainty and hesitation�� nevertheless, her fingers started to move once again. And feeling them caress, rub, and massage my balls once again��

    "Can we wait, just for a few more moments?" I finally managed to squeeze this important request out of my lips. Against my own desire to either just stand still and let Fay bring me to the world of pleasure or turn proactive, pushing her down right as we stood. "We really need to wrap up some things. But once we are done, I will be all yours��"

    Fay''s fingers squeezed harder.

    My mind turned nk when the pleasure mixed with the dull bit of pain.

    And then, as if nothing ever happened, she pulled her hand out of the pants, freeing my mind to once again start working on the actually important issues.

    "Are you satisfied?" Madam asked as soon as my mind returned to reality.

    She was looking at the two of us with an extremelyplicated expression of grief, sadness, anger, fury, and satisfaction mixing in her eyes with�� jealousy?

    ''Oh right!''

    Now that Fay released her hold over my mind (and balls), an insanely important point suddenly surfaced right at the top of my mind.

    For Madam, crushing Loraz''s balls wasn''t just a simple matter of punishment. It was one hell of a massive statement all in its own right. A proof of allegiance, one could say.

    ''After all, she''s a celestial fox like Fay,'' I thought once the magnitude of this message started to dawn on me. ''Meaning, now that Loraz will never be able to perform again�� she won''t get any either.''

    I saw just how much celestial fox''s breading instincts affected Fay. Even her current cuddly approach where she refused to leave my side even after letting go of my balls was the most obvious example of it.

    After all, I could hardly imagine a run-of-the-mill human female sticking so close to her partner at all times, even if she really, really loved him!

    "Are you really sure about this?" I asked, giving the elegant woman a look of pity.

    With Fay all over me, I knew better than anyone the joys ofying down with a celestial fox in heat. And now, thanks to the courtesy of our bond, I could tell just how much Fay felt everything in return.

    And with that in mind, I could tell that Loraz''s punishment wasn''t actually aimed only at the man who tried to kill me.

    It was also Madam''s way of saying sorry and proving that she was not only on my side, but was also willing to take responsibility for the mishap that happened on her watch.

    ''It was her who left Loraz to keep us safe while she went off to do something, after all,'' I thought as my brain continued to piece together the small bits of info Irgely ignored while hidden within the domain of Fay''s hair.

    "Do I look sure?" Madam snapped back as soon as I asked my question. "But he attacked Fay. And he tried to kill you," she pointed out before taking a step back, resting her hands on her hips, and looking down at the results of her work.

    The results were in the form of her ex-husband wriggling in pain with both of his hands pressing tightly against the mess left behind by Madam''s heel.

    "This is the least I can do."

    Madam''s words only confirmed my guess.

    This was as much a punishment to Loraz for attacking me and Fay as it was a punishment for Madam for leaving us in his care.

    But, at the same time, I couldn''t help but notice that the air around Madam�� No, the nature of her aura changed.

    It was only a minor detail, something I noticed only by mere chance. A sliver of clue that was too tiny to be of any use to me right now, but one that could be potentially interesting down the line.

    As such, as it was neither something I had to deal urgently with nor something of great importance to begin with, I simply stashed it in the back of my head.

    "Either way, I think you guys went through enough for one night," Madam spoke as she tore her eyes away from the growling, pained mess of her former lover and brought them up to the rising sky.

    By now, the darkness of the night was so far gone, that I couldn''t sense a single bit of elemental darkness anywhere out in the open, save for some spots where shadows lurked, preserving the darkness from the decay of the sunlight.

    And no matter how I looked at it��

    Madam''s suggestion was correct.

    What was supposed to be just a simple skirmish that evolved into a simple, rapid battle�� Turned into an extended and multi-pronged conflict. Our initial enemies turned into the spectators of our fight with their own reinforcements and now a fight with someone who was supposed to be our ally has just concluded.

    It was one hell of a messy night. And as eager as I was to give in to the call of Fay''s soul from our bond and pull her away to some privacy in the bushes�� There were still things that I needed to take care of before that.

    "Since we are done here, I think it''s high time to go and have a talk with udy," I pointed out before shaking my head and looking away from the forest, down the path currently marked with holes left behind by the discharges of Fay''s barrage. "But before that, just one more thing I wanted to ask."

    I turned my eyes back to Madam and took a moment to gather my own wits.

    What I was going to ask could, after all, put me on a crash course with Fay''s mother as well, even if pitting myself against her was never my intention!

    But I knew too little about this world. And after Loraz''s sudden attack�� I wasn''t going to let my fear of finding out the truth prevent me from peering into the topics that were not as easy to bring up.

    "Can you tell me what were you doing out in the ins?" I asked while simultaneously gulping down my saliva and squeezing Fay into a slightly tighter hug. "I don''t mean to say I suspect you of something, but I doubt you went there without a goal in mind. And I do have a feeling whatever that goal was, I should ount for it in my ns."

    Madam squinted her eyes and looked down at my face�� Only for a small smile to appear on her lips as she breathed out, seemingly allowing a huge weight to fall off her mental shoulders.

    "I guess there''s no point trying to hide it now," Madam sighed before shaking her head a little. "As I bet you noticed, my way of handling aura is different than yours, Fay''s or Loraz''s. And that''s because while you guys are all awakened of varying degrees of mastery, I''m a major step ahead for I am a supreme."

    Hearing the seemingly new term, I couldn''t help but gulp my saliva again.

    For it wasn''t the first time I''ve encountered this particr term. It was only my first time hearing it spoken out loud by the inhabitants of this world and forest.

    And judging by the grandeur behind Madam''s voice�� Being a supreme appeared to be one hell of a deal.

    "I went to the ins to talk with the supreme humans brought," Madam revealed yet another massive piece of information without the slightest care in the world. "So, once you get some rest, you should prepare for negotiations, kid," Madam advised before putting a wide, mocking smile on her face and crossing her hands over her chest.

    "That''s what I did over there," Madam said as her smile only grewrger. "I''ve hooked you up for a meeting with the imperial golden princess."

    Madam''s slightly wicked smile quickly gave way to a tense look in her eyes as she looked over away from the forest, to the ins that I''ve brought to the agenda.

    "Before you even ask, we didn''t fight," Madam announced, reading into the question I''ve never voiced out.

    And while I was sure I would feel the disturbance in aura if two supremes were to sh�� Hearing it directly from Madam bore a much greater significance than figuring that fact out myself.

    "We have an ancient saying. Where two supremes sh, Lo''Atkar lurks," Madam said with a heavy sigh before shaking her head away and ultimately turning her eyes away.

    "And that''s why you didn''t fight?" I asked, trying to y it as low-key as I could while intensivelymitting this new saying, a new piece of potentially crucial information into my memory. "Because of some saying?"

    This time, Madam didn''t reply. Instead, she threw me a long, judging look before sighing for the third time and dropping her hands from her chest, allowing them to hang freely by her sides.

    "It doesn''t matter. What matters, though, is that you will have your shoot at ending this war once shees to negotiate with you," Madam exined, only for the look in her eyes to intensify, and sh up for a mere instant. "Just like you desired, isn''t it?"

 Chapter 200: Sliver of inspiration

    Four, maybe five hours have passed since we first set from the forest. By now, the sun has fully risen, showering the bloody battlefield with enough light to bring any sane man to the end of his wits.

    The sun''s light washed away all the shadows, all the falsehood, all the pathos of how a naive person would see war. With no more darkness to hide the gruesome, bloody marks of the massacre, I had no other choice but toe face-to-face with the grim reality.

    As easy as it was to forget when I focused mostly on my numbers growing, every time I added a new record to my battle log�� I would effectively reap someone''s life.

    Most shockingly, I was shaken by the gore and awful stench left after the battle rather than the moral consequences of taking a major part in it.

    Sure, I felt bad for all those who died, be they humans, celestials, or divines. It was a pity they had to die here, just toy the foundation of a proper negotiation��

    But I hardly felt anything beyond the natural sympathy towards the pitiful�� lessers? Just like I would feel sorry for a bird or other small animal getting run over.

    ''I can feel something��cking��''

    The tense air that I could still remember from my stand-off with my dearest of aunts. Even though there was no blood spilled there, just the mere presence of humans from the earth ready to fight made the atmosphere grow thicker.

    And here, in the middle of the battlefield, I was merely inconvenienced by all the gruesomeness and the overwhelming, awful stench.

    I felt no exhration over the victory nor grief or sense of guilt over those who died for it.

    ''Strange,'' I summed up my thoughts before shaking my head to refocus my attention.

    The only reason why I could allow myself that much stray thinking, was because the effects of my Eye of Time were quickly running out. Right now, I still had a bit of distance to cover before reaching the first of the checkpoints that continued to re up in my mental task list.

    "Haaa��" I exhaled a lungful of air before slowly taking in the cold, wet air of the morning.

    As awful as it was in taste, it still served well to clear my thoughts.

    And I needed my thoughts clear for the meeting that was about to ensue.

    "That was�� a glorious battle," udymented pretty much as soon as he came into my view.

    Despite standing out in the rtively open, he somehow made himself appear as insignificant as a random tree or bush, making my awareness simply slip over him.

    Only when the man spoke out to me did the illusion fall apart, revealing his presence to my eyes.

    "It was anything but glorious," I threw the ball back while moving my arm as if trying to make the joint snap and relieve the pressure. "There was a bit more of them than I expected and there were some��" I turned my eyes to the back, where I''dst seen Madam before she parted ways to drag unconscious Lazar away from everyone''s prying eyes.

    "Disturbances," I finished while dragging my eyes back over to the young noble''s face.

    "I see��" udy murmured with a small smirk on his face.

    He appeared to be perfectly rxed, almost cheerful, making it seem as if neither the sh with the reinforcement nor the bloody battle before took any tool on him. Despite not sleeping at all through the night, he didn''t show any signs of exhaustion or mental wear.

    And, as deeply unsettling as udy''s peace of mind was, I just couldn''t help but respect it.

    "Anyway, it seems like you''ve proved your point." udy''s smile grew as he turned to give his subordinates a nce. "While there were certainly some�� hups," the mercenary leader turned back only to grace me with an even wider yet emptier smile. "I do believe you might have some means to stand your ground."

    For a moment, udy''s eyes escaped away from my face and over my shoulder, staring somewhere in the distance.

    Unsure whether it was just a psychological trick, something vital happening right behind my back, or maybe a nostalgic gaze out into nowhere�� I gritted my teeth and endured the pull of my curiosity to look over.

    Whatever it was that attracted udy''s eyes ended up not being important enough to get any further reaction out of the young noble. And as his eyes returned back to my face, throwing my mind into a frenzy ofing up with any tricks he might want to y now��

    "I''m hereby epting the cease-fire terms between the defenders of the forest and the mercenary army," Caludy announced�� in a tone as t asposed as usual. As if he wasmenting on the side about how he liked roasted meat with some good booze. "And I do believe you mentioned you have another task for us. Didn''t you?"

    udy gave me not time to swallow the news, instantly advancing from a direction Ipletely failed to predict.

    I made countermeasures for all sorts of ways, means, and tricks udy could use to wiggle himself out of the deal now that I''ve fulfilled my end of it. What I didn''t expect, though, was him happily reaching out to shake my hand while asking for errands!

    And while, in fact, did mention a job I had for some of udy''s men in mind��

    I shook my head before pping my hands against my cheek.

    Slightly to the side and hiding behind my back, Fay twitched at this disy of self-violence only for her fingers to grasp tighter at the loose cloth of my simple, casual even, outfit.

    "I will need you and some of your men toe to the camp and properly bury the dead," I revealed my grand n�� Or at the very least, the part of it that involved udy and his soldiers.

    "And?" udy asked, leaning his head over to the side with a look of slight loss.

    "That''s it." I smiled in response before looking away and then up, to the already bright sky.

    Then, as the wind blew past my ears, as the warmth of Fay''s body coated my arm and shoulder, as the disgusting smell of feces and death filled my nostrils��

    A strange thought appeared in my head. Seemingly out of nowhere, born foreign to the grounds of my experience�� yet still extremely familiar, like a distant echo of a lost memory.

    "Some might believe I''m a catalyst, but I''m merely a herald of massive change this world will undergo."

    Prompted by this strange sensation, I allowed it to overflow from my soul and spill out through my mouth, etching its mark into the very fabric of the world around me.

    "By human nature and simple convenience, my name shall ring through major events toe," the words continued to flow, but the essence of the inspiration that filled me quickly started to dry out.

    By the time I closed my mouth, the essence, the echo of a lost memorypletely vanished, as if it never existed to begin with. Yet, carried by the momentum it already gained, my mouth opened up once more.

    This time, though, it wasn''t this strange sliver of inspiration guiding my words, but a crude, imperfect imitation, reflection of it.

    "So I really don''t want to start my story as a harbinger of the gue who cursed and decimated the grand imperial army, do I?"

 Chapter 201: Ball-caused couples first argument

    In theory, after dealing with udy, we were supposed to return to the forest��

    But the rtively long period of Fay''s silence was starting to be an itch I could no longer handle.

    After showing all of the hints of being in heat before, she turned tame and restrained during the shockingly easy and straightforward negotiations. And now that we were walking down one of the empty alleys of the mercenary camp��

    I gulped my saliva down, unexpectedly scared of peering into the state of Fay''s soul through our bond.

    "Now that I''m thinking about it, we will need to go back to the camp for the second round of negotiations, won''t we?"

    Since I couldn''t bring myself to sneak a nce at Fay''s soul, I decided to try to soothe her mood in any way I could. And the prospect of bringing her all the way back to the forest, to where most of the mercenaries were currently held captive and where all of the wounded would be trying to get��

    Bringing her over to the forest sounded like anything but a good idea.

    ''Her mood spoiled the moment she set her affectionate side aside.''

    I took a short, shallow breath while carefully picking my steps to slowly yet steadily turn our direction away from the forest and towards the northern part of the human camp. It was the only ce that was totally deserted even before the battle, due to all the casualties and mercenaries concentrating their forces to defend the camp where Loraz attacked.

    And now, it turned into a sea of simple, rtively uniform tents with a slightly bigger, finer one spaced every twenty tents or so.

    I''ve led Fay towards one of the bigger tents with the desperate wish to somehow lift her mood, be it by lending her my ear, hugging her, or apologizing. Yet, the very moment we reached the entrance of the tent��

    Fay suddenly reached out for my chest. Not like she normally would to bring herself for a cuddle.

    This time, she grasped at the cloth of my shirt before flinging me forward, right through the opening of the tent''s entrance.

    Stumbling forward, I allowed Fay to throw me with no resistance.

    A mere fall like that would do me hardly any harm. On the other hand, though, I was eager to figure out what Fay was thinking�� Quite frankly, more than positively kinked out by her sudden outburst.

    Turning around mid-fall, I ended up striking down on a set of simple cushions with my ass. Luckily, whoever lived in this tent before left behind all the beddings they used, giving me something rtively soft tond on.

    Still, down on my ass and shocked out of my wits, I only managed to slightly raise my eyes to look up at Fay''s suddenly domineering presence.

    She looked�� different, while still the same.

    It was still the same, lovely, cuddly, and devoted Fay that I knew. But as I looked up from the floor, her legs suddenly appeared to be slightly longer. The round shape of her ass hidden behind the cloth of simple, baggy sweatpants appeared more pronounced.

    Even higher up, Fay''s shirt outlined the indent between her hips and chest, leading to yet another set of lovable curves that bordered the realm of biological imusibility. And as my eyes rode even higher on the arousing trip of Fay''s new, domineering look�� I finally reached her face.

    Surrounded by the storm of her silvery-white hair, Fay''s eyes looked down on me with a mix of several emotions. And, as I found out just now, staring back into them without the crutch of our bond�� Made for one hell of a challenge to decipher what I saw.

    ''I took this ability to sense her for granted, huh?'' I thought, feeling as if I was finally onto something.

    Fay''s chest shook up as she took a deep, long breath and lowered her eyelids for a second before raising them only a tiny bit up and looking down at my face. Her lips froze in a thin line, before��

    "Do you know why I''m angry?" Fay asked in a cold, lecturing tone while raising her arms and crossing them over her chest.

    ''Because I left you hanging for so long? Because I didn''t cave into your approaches right away��? Or maybe��''

    "Is it because I held back on our bond��?" I asked, firing my shot under the pressure of the moment.

    "Huh?" Fay''s eyes twitched as a look of genuine surprise shed on her face.

    And being able to tell as much made me strangely�� happy? Proud?

    ''Rtionship goals, I guess,'' I thought, before rushing my mind to figure out the sense of this confusing encounter.

    "I''m not sure we are on the same page here��" I muttered�� yet, when faced with Fay''s instant re, I nearly jumped up from the bedding, only tond back on my knees and straighten out my back.

    For some reason, under the scrutiny of Fay''s angry stare, I could only get on my knees and await the verdict of my judgment.

    "No, I mean��" Suddenly growing ufortable, Fay looked away and scratched her cheek. "I could tell we weren''t as closely connected, but I thought you wanted to slow down our affection," she added, her cheeks covered with a slight blush. "But that''s not it."

    Fay raised her eyes and once again red down at me.

    "In a sense, you felt what my mom did to��" Fay hesitated for a second, her face twitched, "that man."

    My eyes widened a little, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn''t really figure out where Fay might be leading with it.

    "I mean�� Watching something like this happen��" This time it was my turn to avert my eyes. "Any man would twitch and feel ufortable��"

    Without turning my eyes and with our connection rtivelyx, I couldn''t really tell Fay''s reaction.

    "Haaa��" Hearing her exhale with clear hints of exhaustion, I overcame my fear and confusion and took a look, only to see Fay step forward.

    And with the look on her face melting as she reached out and grabbed my head only to bring it to her stomach��

    Plop.

    My face buried into Fay''s shirt while the warmth of her waist made my brain boil.

    "I hate seeing you hurt," Fay whispered, leaning down and covering the top of my head with her bust before leaning her head to the side to bring her lips as close to my ear without opening up her embrace. "So, when your balls hurt, you should hurry up and let me make them feel better, m''kay?"

 Chapter 202: So it was all about balls? (r18 I guess?)

    "So, when your balls hurt, you should hurry up and let me make them feel better, m''kay?"

    Fay''s embrace over my head only tightened. And with her stomach pressing tightly against my lips, I couldn''t utter even a single word�� Putting the validity of Fay''s question in doubt.

    After all, why would she ask me anything if the first thing she did after was preventing me from speaking up?

    Still, while my thoughts raced to figure out the situation and how I was supposed to behave, Fay''s embrace grew only tighter�� Only for the girl to slowly start moving forward.

    Bit by bit, my face slid down her waist, through her upper and then lower abdomen, all the way to the point where her shirt ended.

    But Fay continued to slowly move forward while maintaining perfect control of her grasp over my head, keeping it loose enough to allow my face to move but tight enough to stop me from escaping.

    Not that I had any intention of doing so. While I was pretty confused by Fay''s intention right now and couldn''t decipher the meaning behind her action�� That didn''t mean I had no trust in her.

    ''And after all those times when I made her go along with my own wishes, I''m more than happy to just stick through this. Even if it was only for her sake�� Even if��''

    The slight, sweet scent of Fay''s clothes continued to put me on a slight high. The feeling of having first my chin and then my noose hook against the edge of her pants as she kept moving forth while bringing my head lower and lower��.

    Suddenly, Fay fully rxed the grasp over my head�� Only to grab me by my shoulders and slowly, carefully lower my upper body down to the bedding. And after teasing her smell, her softness, her warmth��

    "Stay as you are," Fay ordered, raising back up herself only to move back the few steps she took while in the process of pushing me down on someone stranger''s sheets.

    "Uhmm�� Fay?" I finally allowed myself to produce a small voice.

    This was too confusing. And as willing as I was to go through with anything for Fay, I couldn''t handle the idea of just sitting down and doing nothing.

    ''I need to be proactive��!'' I decided, gritting my teeth and reaching out for our bond��

    "Stop."

    Fay''s sudden and urgent order forced me to hold back on my reach for our bond. And quite honestly, her reaction was even more confusing than all she did so far!

    "Ah!" Noticing the confused�� and slightly rejected look in my eyes, Fay allowed a small smile to warm up her otherwise stern, lecturing expression. "You see when we lowered our bond before�� Didn''t you struggle a bit to figure out what I was thinking?"

    Suddenly lowering herself as she squatted over my hips, Fay reached down and grabbed both of my hands only to bring them up to her chest.

    Experience new worlds on M-VL-e

    "I��" I hesitated for a second. Yet, feeling the warmth of blush appear on my cheeks, I averted my eyes and allowed my voice to turn meek. "I did."

    There was no denying that fact. When faced with Fay''s anger�� I failed to decipher what was its source. And what was even worse, I failed to stop whatever caused Fay''s anger from�� well, making her get angry!

    "I knew it," Fay whispered with a cheeky smile blossoming on her lips while her eyes�� Her eyes remained the same as usual. Or rather, the new usual of a constant flux between the seductive, gray-blue and the vivid azure of her awakened form.

    Pac.

    Either for some sort of reason or maybe for no reason at all, Fay plopped her ass down right on the top of my hips.

    Maybe she was tired of squatting? But again, we were talking about Fay here. Someone with her attributes should be able to run ten marathons before catching the first sweat! How could��

    "You see when you surprised me and my expression changed�� I could see your eyes brighten up," Fay whispered, leaning forward and down over my face while she reached out with her hand to caress my cheek. "And it made me so, so happy��!"

    No longer holding herself back, Fay dropped down on my chest while sneaking her hands behind my neck and hugging herself down on me.

    "So, I''ve been thinking��"

    This time it was Fay''s turn to avert her eyes, even if due to the position she was in it brought her little to no benefit.

    "Wouldn''t it be fun if we learned how to read each other better, even without our bond?" Fay asked while her left hand slowly moved up and her fingers started to slightly tickle my side. "I want to know you better�� And I want you to know me better," Fay whispered, only to raise up a bit only to end up pinning me down to the ground while on all fours, with her eyes just above my face.

    "Stay as you are and don''t move, m''kay?" Fay requested in a voice even softer than before. And then��

    And then, after locking her hands only shoulders, Fay pushed herself down, sliding her knees against the bedsheets.

    ''What now?'' I thought, as anxious about the situation�� as much as I anticipated its resolution.

    Before long, Fay grabbed the edge of my pants only to start pulling them down, creating the final link that I needed to start connecting the dots.

    She was angry at me for not letting her take care of my phantom pain. Then, I had no doubt she was at least aware of my attempts at bringing her aside�� if she wasn''t actively supporting them to begin with. And now that she started to pull my pants down with a look of determination on her face��

    ''So it was all about balls?''

    My lips twisted in a small grimace when the thought entered my head. And yet, when Fay grabbed my semi-hardened manhood�� and moved it out of the way, only to gently bury her face in my sack��

    By then, my guess was pretty much fully confirmed.

 Chapter 203: Fays ballsy moment (r18)

    "Ugh��"

    The sensation of having Fay press her adorable face against my sack�� was weird.

    From one end, it was insanely embarrassing, much more than anything we did in bed (or outside the bed) until now. And yet, when her breath tickled down the underside of my balls when her small, cute nose poked into my sack��

    And when her eyes shimmered when she suddenly took in a deep, long whiff��

    "Fay��" my voice nearly broke from the massive amount of embarrassment I felt. It was also the reason why my balls were tingli��

    "Hap!"

    Fay rapidly opened up her mouth�� only to push it against the skin of my sack and copse her full lips down one of my balls.

    Done catching it with her mouth, Fay looked up as if to catch my gaze�� only for her cheeks to copse inward when she started to suck down on my ball.

    "Ah��"

    A small moan escaped from my lips while my head arched to the back. And paying little to no mind to my reactions��

    Fay let go of my ball, only to brush her delicious lips against my sack again as she hunted the other one out before repeating the process.

    "Your smell��" Fay muttered, fixing her grasp over my already raging boner�� Only to pull it away, over my stomach, and bury her face into my sack again. And with only her eyes peeking out from below my crotch��

    "It''s really strong here," Fay finished her review, only to pry her mouth open. Yet, as soon as she let go of my other ball, she pulled her tongue up and dragged it all across my sack.

    ''Shit��''

    My mind was turning nk.

    Even though it was something biologically obvious, it turns out that having my balls caressed with such attention and dedication�� was pretty fucking exciting. The raging boner in Fay''s hand was proof of it. But what was even weirder��

    Was how, despite being obviously sexual in nature, Fay''s actions brought a different kind of pleasure.

    ''Is it because it''s literally a man''s most vulnerable point?''

    From what I could remember, the entire reason behind the existence of ball sacks was due to how balls required an extremely specific environment to work, one that was impossible to find within the heat of one''s body.

    And so, animals developed sacks for their balls, so that they could keep producing seeds of their lineage even if their body, theoretically, disallowed it.

    What it meant for me, though, was that while my balls were nowhere near as sensitive to Fay''s caresses as my dick or even nipples would�� The sensation of having someone toy with my balls around was still one hell of an addicting drug.

    ''Is it because this kind of y requires a massive amount of trust?'' I thought, struggling to keep my thoughts in line when Fay once again started to exploit her near-endless creativity to find new ways to bring me to an edge.

    By now, as if to stimte the production of sperm in my balls, Fay started to stroke my dick and she initially only wanted to move out of the way. As her fingers rubbed up and down my precum-covered shaft, her mouth and tongue only grew more and more active in their attempts at soothing the phantom pain in my balls.

    "It smells just like you," Fay whispered as she gave my balls onest lick before finally moving her face up and locking her eyes on the dick in her hand.

    Feeling Fay''s intense stare right on my erection, I could sense yet another side of my lewdness awakening.

    Just like having my balls caressed took a lot of trust in the partner for it to be exciting rather than anxiety and fear-inducing�� Having Fay stare my dick down came with its own sets of preliminary requirements and arousal-based rewards.

    "And this is where all your sperm goes," Fay whispered, her face moving ever closer and closer to my dick, all the way to the point where she let go of it�� Only to use her own face as a pedestal for my erection.

    ''Damn��'' Prompting myself up on my elbows to get a better view, I ended up entranced by the sight before my eyes.

    Fay''s adorable, innocent face contrasted with the crudeness of my dick. Having something as beautiful as her face stained with the filthiness of my manhood�� Was arousing in all sorts of ways.

    "Now that I think about it��" Fay muttered, her eyes locked at the glistering tip of my dick while her breath caressed the bottom of its shaft. "I don''t think I''ve ever sucked on it for real��"

    My entire body tensed up.

    "I mean, we used to make out a lot��"

    Unable to handle the look of excitement in Fay''s eyes as her re grew more and more passionate�� I averted my eyes. As much of a loss as it was�� it was better than unloading on Fay''s unsuspecting face just over how good it felt to have her look at me with such passion!

    Lick.

    ''Woah!''

    The back of my head struck the bedding so hard, I felt my bones bounce off the hard ground underneath.

    But how else was I supposed to react when��

    "Looks like someone''s horny," Fay giggled, only to grab my penis at its very bottom�� and start slinging it back at forth and pping her own face with it as if she wanted to leave my scent all over herself.

    "And how could I not?" I groaned, struggling to handle all of those new yet extremely satisfying sensations.

    ''What is with today? Have Fay decided to make me lose my mind over her?''

    "Your balls seem to be working hard��"

    Largely ignoring my response, Fay used her hand to caress my balls�� while pulling out her tongue and pressing it at my dick''s base, only to slowly drag it all the way up to its top. The sensation of her hot, slimy tongue rubbing against the vein at the bottom of my shaft was insane. But when its tip reached my shroom, an area that was one hell more sensitive��

    When it happened, prompted by the jolt of pleasure that shot up my spine, I raised my upper body and reached out. Desperately grabbing at Fay''s head, I managed to pull it away not a second too early.

    "Haaa��"

    Stuck with Fay''s head in my hand and her baffled look she alternated her eyes between my face and my twitching dick with confusion written all over her expression��.

    "Just a little more and I would cum," I hurriedly exined to the best of my ability.

    Yet, rather than scaring Fay away with the prospect of covering her mouth or face with my ejacte��

    "Why did you stop me, then?" Fay, using the fact that my hold over her head was extremely delicate, leaned her head over to the side. And then, as sparks of mischief appeared in her eyes, she suddenly pulled back�� Only to sit down on her heels and look me straight in the face.

    "Stand up," Fay ordered.

    Before I could even think about what I was doing, my body already moved up, gathering from the ground as if I were a mere, rank-and-file soldier receiving an expressmand from the army general.

    "Good." Fay smiled happily when she saw just how eager I was to follow her requests. "And now, I want you to enjoy yourself" Her smile grew even wider�� only to vanish when she brought her lips apart and opened up her mouth wide while pulling out her tongue while putting her face a mere inch away from the tip of my dick.

 Chapter 204: From balls up (r18) (double chapter)

    ''The greatest challengese unannounced.''

    It was a saying that I once heard somewhere yet dismissed, as there was hardly any logic or reason to back it up.

    For something to be a challenge, one had to decide to tackle it in the first ce. And by deciding to tackle a problem, one pretty much assumed a challenge would, sooner orter,e.

    How could onee unannounced, then?

    That''s how I thought back then. But right now?

    With Fay sitting down on her heels and keeping her knees apart just enough to show the skin of her inner thighs, all the while she kept her head raised up, eyes closed and mouth pried open with her tongue sticking out and slightly shaking in anticipation��

    To look down at her sexy pose without shooting it out all over her was one heck of a challenge.

    Deciding what to do, despite how obvious it seemed to be, was another one.

    And the greatest challenge of them all��

    I gulped my saliva down. Yet, rather than just pushing my hips forward and stuffing my long-erect dick into Fay''s steamy-hot mouth�� I moved down on my knees, bringing my head just above Fay''s level.

    And then, as if we weren''t pretty much about to screw, I wrapped my hands around her and pulled her into a hug.

    "Before we do anything, I want you to know just how grateful I am for everything you do and say," I whispered while cradling the girl in my arms, refusing to give her the room to act all surprised.

    "Thanks," Fay, after taking a moment to gather her thoughts, replied in a sweet, sweet voice. "But whatever I do for you��" her head moved a little, making her forehead brush against my shirt. "I do it because I want to do it."

    Fay''s skittish movements calmed down as she slowly breathed in and out while within the safety of my embrace. Then, after sneaking her hands up and bringing them all the way up to my chest, Fay used them to push her upper body away a bit�� all the look up with a pleading expression all over her eyes.

    ''Can I?'' Her face appeared to scream.

    "I guess you were right," I spoke out, reaching out with my hand to the top of Fay''s head to give her some pats while smiling down as I looked into her eyes. "Figuring out what we think and feel without that bond really is fun."

    With my hand patting Fay''s head while I stared down her deep, blue eyes��

    I closed my own eyes and took a deep breath before letting go of Fay''s feeble frame and raising back up to my feet. As I made no attempts to hide my boner, it appeared back right in Fay''s face.

    Yet, as I looked down at my dick resting down on Fay''s cheek and her eyes instantly locking on its head only to trace every tiniest movement it made��

    "C-can I ask you to caress me?" I asked, trying my absolute best not to let my nervousness get the better of me.

    Even though we''ve done far more impressive things than just caressing each other with our mouths, this was still going to be the very first time our moment would be focused on Fay helping me out orally.

    And maybe because of the novelty of doing something like this in such a special manner, I couldn''t help but feel and act as if I was right back to being the virgin with confidence problems I was before meeting Fay.

    "With pleasure," Fay whispered. Yet, rather than getting to action right away, she brought her hands back to my balls. She also shifted her face to the side so that my dick would rest up right by her nose, nearly poking her in the eye.

    And with that done, Fay simply continued to massage my balls the same way she did before while doing nothing but staring at my dick as its twitching made it rub against the skin of her face.

    After all the caressing I went through, I was mere inches away from fulfillment. And now with Fay''s hands getting busy once again, I approached the borderline of my endurance once again.

    Yet, no matter how close I got to cumming�� I simply couldn''t do so by just having my balls stroked alone.

    "Dear��" not sure whether I should rush her or not, I identally allowed a slightly pained moan to slip.

    For this was the greatest challenge of the ones I had toe to face today.

    Regardless of how long it would take Fay to get into proper action, she was still going to end up with my dick in her mouth. And in my current state��

    ''I''m going to cum the moment she licks or sucks on it,'' I thought, gritting my teeth in a futile attempt to use the pain of my teeth to sober myself up from the massive buildup of lust.

    Was it because Fay kept stroking my balls? Was it the novelty? Or maybe I was just that eager to experience the legendary blowjob?

    Either way, with as little as a kiss on the top of my dick being more than enough to bring me over the edge, I desperately sought ways to calm myself down.

    The sight of the battlefield we just left with all its gore appeared before my eyes. Then, a series of pictures of the saints of the religion my people traditionally followed. Then, in myst-ditch attempt, the face of my dearest aunt appeared�� finally killing a part of my lust and giving me some room to breathe.

    My body rxed a little, ridding itself of the tension I used to keep myself from cumming.

    And as if sensing it, Fay moved her face down only to press the tip of her tongue right at the border between my shaft and my sack, only to then slowly, steadily drive it up, licking the entire length of the thick vein situated on the underside of my dick.

    Bit by bit, Fay''s tongue conquered more and more of my length, all the way to the point where it hooked against the rim of my shroom.

    Yet, rather than getting discouraged by it, Fay angled her face forward, opting to press much more of her tongue''s surface against my shroom�� Only to then double down on it as her sweet lips wrapped around my tip.

    And then, the whole process reversed. Instead of moving her face up as she drove her tongue along my shaft, this time Fay moved her entire head down, steadily stuffing more and more of my dick down her mouth and soon enough, her throat.

    "Wait, isn''t that��" Worried about having Fay go beyond herfortable limits I attempted to pull away�� Only for Fay to shoot her hands forth and grab me right by my ass. And even though I hardly even attempted to resist her hold, when she pulled me closer instead��

    ''Shit��''

    Fay''s tongue ran around inside of her mouth, busy greedily licking my dick as if it was the sweetest candy in the world. And as if it wasn''t enough, she continued to gobble up more and more of it, all the way to the point where her lips touched the base of my dick while her tongue poked out below my dick only to give my balls a shy, strained lick.

    "Fay��!"

    Unable to resist my urges anymore, I reached out and grabbed Fay''s head between my hands�� Only to forcefully pull her away, freeing my dick from the weing and nearly yandere-like hold her mouth had over my erection.

    Yet, as it turned out, just the sensation of pulling myself out of Fay''s mouth was enough to bring me right back to the tipping point�� and then, beyond it.

    "AH!" A guttural moan escaped from my lips when my hips shook. My mind turned mushy, muddled by the intense pleasure of the moment. And not a second too early, my dick twitched before releasing a small jet of thick, white liquid all over Fay''s adorable face.

    "Haaa��." Feeling as if someone lifted a massive weight from my balls, I breathed out in an exhausted manner before looking down, at the messy face of my girl.

    "So this is what you keep stuffing me with��" Fay whispered, not bothered by the cum on her face at all. And before I could even react, she brought her hand up and scooped out a small bit of my sperm with her delicate fingers only to bring it back to her mouth��

    ''Wait, what?''

    Struggling to remain sane while Fay gave my sperm a try, I could do nothing but get myself hooked on her changing expression.

    And Fay''s face was really a thing to observe.

    At first, her curiosity changed into a slight grimace when the reality of the sperm''s taste finally hit her taste buds. Yet, this unpleasant expressionsted only for a second�� Only for the girl to start scooping out more and more of her most-sexy make-up before licking her hand and fingers clean, greedily gobbling up everyst bit of cum she could gather.

    And then, right as she was in the process of licking the edge of her hand�� Fay opened up her eyes and took an upward peek as if to judge my reaction to her great dedication��

    ''Okay, I lost,'' I admitted to myself when my dick twitched, instantly reverting the process of going soft. Prompted by the smile quickly growing on Fay''s lips, it took only a moment to return to all its glory.

    "I love how gentle you want to be with me," Fay, done with her unorthodox meal, smiled. Then, ignoring my raging erection, she leaned forth and hugged me by my waist.

    This sensation was eerily familiar, even though it was the first time for her to hug me from such a low angle.

    "I really love that gentle side of yours," Fay smiled again as she raised her eyes and looked up my chest, all the way to my face.

    She clearly wasn''t finished with what she wanted to say. Yet, rather than concluding her message, Fay pulled herself back only to put herself in the exact same position I saw her in just a moment ago. Down on her knees, with her legs just far apart for me to nce at the soft secrets hidden there.

    "I want you to��" Fay hesitated for a second. A small blush appeared on her cheeks as she averted her eyes. "I want you to take my mouth as hard as you could ever want." Fay looked up, showing no signs of doubt or hesitation. "I''m strong. I can handle it. But I can''t handle seeing you holding back.

    So at least, for this one time��"

    This time, rather than simply taking her time to finish her words, Fay simply shook her head before straightening her back, closing her eyes, and prying her mouth open only to push her tongue out and line towards her chin.

    And just like that, Fay remained frozen, letting her inviting position convey the message.

    Between her caressing, her affection, and her pose�� Well, it would suffice to say that I was long erect again as if I didn''t just cum all over her face. And looking down on her hot, steamy mouth��

    ''Might as well try it out for once.''

 Chapter 205: Balls deep (r18)(double chapter)

    There was a limit to how much a man like me could endure.

    Sure, I''ve built up my endurance from all the times I''ve slept with Fay up until this day�� But honestly speaking, our story didn''t go all that far back in time.

    Looking objectively, while not a virgin, I was still a young man who had only recently graduated into proper adulthood. And as frisky as we would get with Fay at times��

    We still didn''t really get to do it all that many times. And for that reason, standing with my dick bare and mere inches away from Fay''s open and steamy mouth��

    ''Yeah, I''m done waiting.''

    We''ve only ever done it a few times. A few intense and prolonged times, but still only a few. And that greatly limited the number of ways in which we made love to each other thus far.

    That''s why, even with Fay openly giving me the green light to go bonkers, I wasn''t going to waste this opportunity like that.

    ''If she wants to suck me off so bad, it''s my duty to make sure we will both enjoy it!''

    I reached down and grabbed my erection at its very base. Yet, after just a few jerks to loosen up the skin a bit, I kept my hand still, using my wrist to manually move my dick around.

    "I''m sure it would feel insane if I jammed it all in," I whispered before whipping my dick up a bit and then pulling it down so that its head wouldnd on Fay''s exposed tongue.

    With a small *sk*, my shroom pressed against the moist surface of Fay''s tongue while apanied by her keen re.

    And once again, regardless of how enticing it felt to just shake my hips and go all in�� I started by simply rubbing my head up and down, teasing Fay with what was only about toe.

    "But honestly, I would rather take my time."

    This wasn''t just a moment of us getting intimate. It wasn''t even just an attempt to explore our bodies and find out more about each other.

    This moment was merely an extension to the challenge that came up before, of having us learn how to read the other even without our bond.

    First, because actively using our bond would more or less enve us to our cycle of blood and sperm. And secondly��

    During our intimate moment, our bond became our crutch. An easy way to find out how we made each other feel and what were our mutual desires. While screwing Fay, using our bond would allow me to make her feel even better by synchronizing our sensory experience and lust, making up for theck of ability on my part. It also allowed me to find out how exactly should I go about things to improve��

    But it all came at a massive cost of our ability to feel the other taking a massive hit. And right now, while I was in the constant state of desire to drop all limits and just screw Fay''s mouth silly��

    This was the best chance for both of us to hone the one type of sensibility that, in our greed for an even more intense experience of our mutual affection, we''ve lost.

    Still��

    After a merely few moments of rubbing the underside of my shroom up and down Fay''s tongue, I could hardly hold myself back. And as if to prove my point in this entire exercise, Fay squinted her eyes a little before pushing ahead with her head and slipping the tip of my dick inside her mouth.

    In an instant, the current of Fay''s breath turned into an onught of intense, moist heat. Her saliva started to drip out of the corner of her mouth and down my shaft while her lips copsed down on my shaft, locking against the rim of my shroom.

    Fay''s eyes twitched. Then, as she moved them up and gave me a cheeky look��

    Fay''s cheeks copsed inwards when, with all of her might, she sucked on the tip of my dick, as if trying to forcefully extract all the sperm still left in my balls. She sucked so strongly that her cheeks copsed far enough to press against the sides of my shroom.

    And then, just as quickly as she decided to spike up the intensity of the moment, Fay gave up and opened up her mouth. Pulling her head back, she took a deep, slightly desperate breath. Yet, after flinging to the back, she quickly rebounded and moved right back in.

    This time, however, Fay decided to step things down a notch.

    ''Did she read that what she did just now�� was a little bit too much?''

    Sure, it felt nice to have Fay suck on me that hard�� but at the same time, this feeling was somewhatcking. Was it because I''ve experienced the wonders of her pussy that copsed and coiled all over my dick as opposed to just its tip? Maybe it was the exhaustion of matter from when I came just a moment ago?

    Either way, after raising my sensitivity quite a bit, Fay opted to restrain herself a bit. Instead of wrapping her lips around me again, she slightly pried her mouth open and pushed her tongue out. This time, she pressed it against the vein at the underside of my dick before dragging it all the way up to the very tip.

    Yet, rather than flinging her tongue and changing an angle, she used its very tip to y with my frenulum, coating the edges of my dick-hole with the gentle strokes of her slippery flesh.

    Somewhere along the line, Fay''s hands moved both up and down, one sneaking down to her crotch while the other moved up and started to mess up with her breasts. And with the look in her eyes starting to turn cloudy, Fay pulled herself back once again, took a deep breath�� And went back right in.

    This time, she pushed her tongue all the way out and rested its tip against my dick-hole. Then, as if dragging her mouth along, she brought her lips closer and closer�� all the way to the point where they wrapped roughly around half of my shroom.

    ''Shit��''

    My hips twitched before tensing up. The sensation of having her lips press directly against my shroom as opposed to going for shaft right away�� Was something else. And when she added in a little suck��

    ''Shit��''

    Once again, my body trembled. And in a desperate bit to re-establish control over the situation, my hands shot out andnded on Fay''s head�� Only for my hands to freeze, turning me powerless to stop Fay''s frolics.

    Down by my hips, Fay changed her approach to the teasing. This time, she would wrap her lips around just the very tip of my shroom only to suck on it with all her mind as she pulled her head back.

    When it first happened, I was simply confused by the new sensation. But as I looked down right as Fay opened her mouth and let go of my penis only to move back right in and, before the sensation of relief could die off, wrap her lips on my shroom again and stretch it out again��

    ''How is sheing up with this stuff?!''

    Struggling to keep my sense of self awake, I attempted to tighten my grasp over Fay''s head in a desperate attempt to stop or, at least, slow her down�� Only to fail without making any progress. And as I was busy trying to resist, Fay brought her lips to my shroom again��

    Only this time, rather than trying to pull it out, she pressed her mouth lower and lower. Soon, I could feel her head shaking under the gag reflex. Yet, even though it had to be ufortable for her, Fay continued to persist as she gobbled up more and more of my dick, all the way to the point where her lipsfortably rested at the base of my erection.

    Fay looked up, tears in her eyes as if seeking affirmation. And with whatever held my hands from moving now gone, Iwas free to follow the moment''s vibe.

    "There, there��" I whispered while brushing Fay''s hair with one of my hands and caressing her cheek with the other. "You did great."

    The movements of Fay''s hands elerated. Even though my dick has long since sank down her throat, she still somehow managed to suck on it, keeping her lips on my crotch even when I felt her body start to shake in a desperate attempt to take a breath.

    ''No, that''s way too much.''

    The sight of Fay struggling to keep all of my dick inside this anatomically wrong hole, I was torn by the sense of absolute dominance and�� grief.

    In the end, no matter how pleasurable it was, I simply couldn''t handle seeing Fay struggle, especially not when I was the one responsible for her difort.

    "That''s enough," I finally snapped out of it. Immediately tightening my hold over Fay''s head, I pulled it away, freeing her airways from the obstructing presence of my dick.

    "Haaa��. Haaa�� haa��." Fay heavily breathed, her eyes all moist and her hands messing up her crotch and breast at a full swing.

    And yet, even though my dislike of putting her through this kind of experience had to be visible all over my face�� Fay quickly fixed her breathing before getting back into her former pose and opening up her mouth again. Her eyes locked on my face with a sense of urgency��

    *Thud*

    A strange noise distracted me for a moment, causing my head to shake as I looked around for its source. Yet, no matter how hard I looked, I couldn''t find anything suspicious.

    ''Maybe I overheard something,'' I decided��

    Only to feel Fay''s hand p me on the thigh.

    "Do me hard and fast. While you still can."

    This time, the sense of urgency wasn''t only in Fay''s eyes, but also in her voice. And as much as I disliked the idea of putting her through this clearly unpleasant experience��

    How could I resist the whims of my princess?

    Gritting my teeth, I took aim again and rested my dick down Fay''s tongue, ready to use it as a slide for my dick to move up.

    *Thud*

    The noise repeated, only to instill an even further sense of urgency in my soul.

    And so, without any further doubt��

    *Thud*

    I shook my hips forth and drove my dick all the way down Fay''s throat.

    *Thud*

    The suction was insane. In her faked attempts at taking in a fresh breath, Fay sucked on my dick with all her mind. And even with her eyes turning all teary, she refused to close them or move them away from my face.

    ''Shit��''

    *Thud*

    ''This is too much��'' I thought, pushing Fay''s face away, only to then rapidly pull it back and forth, impaling Fay''s mouth and throat upon my dick.

    *THUD*

    This time, the noise was loud enough for me to confirm it was real. And quite interestingly, it was followed by nothing but silence�� and the sloppy sounds Fay''s mouth made as I continued to screw it.

    "Haaaa��" the very moment I pulled out, Fay released all the air from her lungs before taking in a breath of fresh air�� And before she could even finish doing it, I nailed my dick down her lips again.

    Maybe it was the momentum of the air within Fay''s airways. Maybe it was the sense of urgency mixed with the insane hotness of Fay''s mouth and the tightness of her throat.

    Either way, regardless of what was the ultimate reason, I couldn''t hold myself any longer.

    And as the presence of the strange noise continued to fade into obscurity, I released all of what was left in my balls down Fay''s throat. And if not for her arms tightly wrapping themselves around my waist to keep her face stuck on my dick, I might''ve felt some regret about releasing it all in her throat.

    For a moment, we both basked in the afterglow. The rapid shaking of Fay''s hips and twitching of her mouth proved that, just by sucking me off, Fay managed to reach a conclusion as well. And after a merely few moments since we climaxed��

    "Miss Fay! Mister Peter!" an unfamiliar voice came from somewhere outside the tent we were in. "Urgent message! Pleasee out!"

 Chapter 206: Ballsy statement (r18)

    "Urgent message, pleasee out!"

    As I heard those words, my eyelids lowered. A long breath escaped from my lips.

    My hand caressed the contour of Fay''s face as she greedily gobbled up all the sperm I shot into her throat.

    Her face was messy from all the tears, precum, spit, and snot mixing on it. Yet her eyes�� Her vividly blue and graceful eyes continued to lock on my stare. No matter how cloudy they became, Fay continued to stare up with such intensity, that my balls jerked once more.

    My hips twitched when thest of my cum shot out. Impaled on my dick, Fay''s head shook as well, and her throat moved for thest time.

    Pulling out turned out much harder than I expected.

    Despite the urgency of the message, the risk of being caught in the act, and even her need to breathe, Fay''s continued to suck on my dick with all of her might while staring my eyes down. Yet, bit by bit and against great resistance, I finally managed to pull out.

    "Haaa��."

    I keep my hands on Fay''s head, buried deep into the storm of her silvery-white hair. The tip of my dick finally dragged from the back of Fay''s tongue all the way to where her lips gave it onest try to keep my sword sheathed in Fay''s mouth.

    Looking down, though��

    With only the tip of my dick still within the embrace of her lips, Fay''s face was no longer as deformed as when she wholeheartedly sucked me off. And because of that, I could now see one hell of a wide grin on her full, moist lips.

    "Pwhaaaa��"

    Rather than pulling my dick out of Fay''s mouth, it would be more fitting to say I jerked it out whilebining the backward swing of my hips and outwards push on Fay''s head.

    I pulled out, only to see Fay''s yful, cheeky smirk explode�� Or rather, see Fay suddenly jump up from her knees with an extremely mellow, affectionate, and satisfied grin on her face.

    Still ignoring the call from the outside, Fay jumped up to my chest and started to rub her forehead against it, all jittery and happy for some reason.

    The shaking of her head caused Fay''s hair to fly all over the ce, soon covering my entire upper body in a nket of elegant tinum. And as she raised her eyes to look at me with this stupidly overjoyed grin all over her face��

    "Did I do good?"

    ''For the love of God!''

    My arms shot out and wrapped around the girl''s shoulders in an instant.

    Fay''s smile melted even further as my embrace squeezed her into my chest. My heart elerated to some ungodly rate, failing to deal with the amount of sharine Fay showered me with just this mischievous smirk.

    And to top it all off, with the mix of naughtiness and satisfaction on her face presented on the tinum-like tter of her hair, the gap between the yful and elegant, mischievous and graceful��

    My mind suddenly froze. The time appeared to stop.

    An idea appeared in my mind, shing so brightly as if it came to scorch my mind and then, through it, the entire world. An idea that brought a simple, ordinary even item and made it into a weapon of mass destruction.

    A fluffy onesie. Animal-styled overall pajama�� Or maybe a fluffy top with loose shorts?

    Either way, with Fay in an outfit like that, the gap between her dignified elegance and her mischievous yet cuddly side would easily be a world-ss weapon!

    "What are you doing, buried deep in your thoughts?" Fay asked, using her voice to pull my mind back from the gutter. Her hands climbed all the way over to my shoulders yet her face remained buried in my chest with her chin just high enough to allow her a nce of my face.

    "I was lost in just how damn��" my sentence abruptly stopped.

    Not because of some outside event, a danger appearing at the edge of my senses, or some major realization that would help push the situation forward.

    My words stopped because I simply had no idea how to describe how I felt about Fay.

    Sure, she was adorable, but she was much more than that. Loyal, devoted, attentive. The entire situation we were in proved that she had her own agenda, even if she mostly limited herself to just following the path I trod.

    "Just how damn waifu you are?" I spoke with a huge dose of uncertainty, literally making up a new world just to epass all that I felt towards her.

    I couldn''t let this poor girl worry why I suddenly turned silent, so it was better to say something and then exin it rather than keep her worried.

    "Waifu?" As expected, understanding made-up words was something beyond Fay''s insane ability to learn. Yet, looking down at how she angled her head to the side a bit while giving me a look full of trust, a look that showed me just how sure she was I would know and provide her with the answer.

    "Sorry, I just made that word up," I admitted while rxing my hug a bit to get a better look on her face. "To call someone a waifu means that this person holds the qualities that make one want to make them their wife, a partner for life."

    I chuckled a little.

    "In a sense, it is the highestmendation one can give to a woman," I trod the line between joke and honest truth. "And when I look or think about you��"

    I rxed the hug even further, all to free one of my hands and use it to gently brush my fingers against Fay''s soft, blushed cheek. Looking down at her face, I simply couldn''t stop myself from the treat of caressing her cuteness.

    "I simply cannot find words that fully epass all that I love about you."

    It might be crass, bold, and way too straightforward. A confession only a manly man could give. But it was also my best bet to convey how I really felt.

    "If you can''t find words to say it, then how about we�� just for a moment��" Fay muttered, her voice growing fainter and fainter as she spoke, all the way to the point where she bit her bottom lip and looked up in silence and anticipation.

    And from the looks of it, our training paid off, for I knew exactly when she had on her mind.

    Rather than replying out loud, I simply smiled a little before pulling Fay back into a tight embrace.

    "Miss Fay! Mister Peter!" the messenger shouted again, this time from much closer. "Urgent message, pleasee out!"

    And as I brought Fay''s cheek to my chest as if trying to let her listen to my heartbeat��

    We both dived into our connection, supplying it with an ample amount of aura to bring our bond to its fullest potential.

    Hidden deep in my hug, Fay''s body twitched. My own flesh tensed up as well when a river of feelings, emotions, and desires flooded my mind.

    The leftover pleasure from our recent orgasms, the satisfaction that came with it, all that Fay was worried about, all that pushed her to take action, all her anger, worry, desire, ambition��

    All of them flooded my mind and soul, instantly giving me the answers to all the questions I had before.

    When she looked up to my face as I came deep down her throat when I saw her wide smile once I finally freed my dick from her mouth�� It was because she couldn''t get enough of the look of pleasure on my face.

    Back when I was worried whether she could handle taking all that cum of mine right into her throat, Fay was too busy to mind hercking breath by lusting after my look of arousal.

    When her mood started to sour, it wasn''t only because I felt phantom pain in my balls, but mostly because I didn''t immediately seek her counsel and help. And right now��

    And right now, radiating straight from Fay''s core, I could feel an overwhelming and all-epassing warmth. An endless desire to keep me close, as close as possible, always within arms reach.

    At this moment, even Fay''s sense of self-preservation seemed to exist for the sake of letting her stay by my side for as long as possible!

    To add to all of the emotions that I finally united with, the trembling of Fay''s feeble frame told me she was in pretty much the same state, mentally orgasming over the immense sense of union our bond brought.

    And as much of a rtionship cheat as it was�� It was too much of a great drug for either of us to ever give up on using it!

    "Haaaaaaahahaha��" Fay''s deep, long sigh transformed into an exhausted giggle when we both rxed the connection to its former, delicate state. Her head heavily pressed on my chest as she struggled to catch her breath after the intense experience.

    "I could get addicted to this," Fay whispered, already acting as if my slight swaying and warm embrace were lulling her to sleep. Yet, as much as it broke my heart��

    "Miss Fay! Mister Peter!"

    "The world waits for no one, huh?" Taking a quick breath to gather my wits, I raised my hand and gave Fay''s cheek a poke.

    "It does not," Fay smiled in response to my slight caress. Then, her cheeky grin returned. "So, let''s make it wait for us instead!"

 Chapter 207: Ballsy reply

    "Miss Fay! Mister Peter!"

    The calling of the messenger filled my ears once again�� And thankfully, for thest time.

    "Stop with all this shouting!" walking out of the tent, I called back.

    I knew this was the man''s job to find the two of us�� But couldn''t he take a hint after the first time his shouting failed?

    "Mister Peter!" Turning around, the messenger jumped around and rushed to our side right as Fay started to walk out of the tent. "Miss Fay!"

    Seeing my girl, the celestial messenger grew even happier, to my own dissatisfaction.

    Strangely enough, I only ever wanted Fay''s presence to make me happy, not some random human-shaped beast from the forest she grew up in.

    ''Her kin had all the time in the world to show her sympathy before and they didn''t. Now, Fay''s smile, her adorableness, her cuteness, her sexiness�� They are all MINE!''

    Looking at the rushing messenger with a sense of infantile superiority, I allowed the man to reach our side and even take some time to stabilize his breath.

    "Miss Fay, Mister Peter��" the celestial coughed out, still struggling to catch his breath.

    "What was so important that you kept bothering the two of us at the worst time possible to do so?"

    I put on a scary face and looked down at the man while crossing my hands over my chest. Behind me, Fay pulled on my shirt a little before raising the intensity of our bond for a single pulse.

    ''Don''t be too hard on him. It''s just his job.''

    As irking as it was to have Fay speak up for another man�� Deep down, I knew she was right. And I was the one in the wrong, chewing out the poor messenger just because he happened to bring news at an unfavorable time.

    ''Still, that''s one interesting way to use our bond.'' My thoughts shifted, appreciating the instantaneous and perfectly private conversations we could have with just our feelings alone when our bond was maxed out.

    And when the sh of intimate unity with Faysted for a single instant, single pulse, the side effects of our bond''s inherence had no time to act up.

    Still��

    "Mister Peter��" the messenger looked slightly down to stare right into my eyes.

    He didn''t appear to be angry�� just confused. His confusion quickly morphed into surprise, then shock, and finally�� disbelief.

    And rather than speaking up, the man simply turned round on his heel and stretched his arm out.

    "The Imperial Golden Legion," the man spoke, pointing at one hell of a mass of men gathered at the top of a nearby incline, roughly two hundred steps away from the furthermost part of the mercenary camp. "They have arrived."

    My eyes locked on the neat rows of men, split into ranks twenty long and five deep. When it came to their battle formations�� I couldn''t really tell. Due to my lower elevation, all I could see was just the uniform row of men all standing atop the incline and looking down at the bloody battlefield at the outermost edge of the human camp.

    The front of the human legion was all uniform, consisting of men donning heavy yet extremely weird armor. It seemed like a mix of all the types of personal protection that historically appeared on Earth.

    The major vitals were protected by huge, only slightly rounded tes of shiny steel. Areas of lesser importance were covered withmer-like pieces while joints and other flexible parts necessary for movement were covered in ayer of chains.

    ''They are fronting heavy infantry right off the bat, huh?'' I thought, adoring the impressive sight of the human army.

    This was the peak of what my imagination and dreams from my teenage years coulde up with. A grand army of the likes that only history and a selected few movies throughout the ages managed to depict.

    ''It''s a pity they are all out for our blood, huh?'' My face twitched a little. ''Feels like I''m on the wrong''s side of a Rohirrim''s charge here.''

    The line of men all gathered and standing perfectly still��

    It was impressive, alright? And it more than tickled all the buttons of a fantasy freak like me, I admit. But it was all less than enough to pull my attention away from one, very specific part of the human army that arrived.

    "Mister Peter," the messenger spoke again once he saw sense return to my eyes and disce all the awe. "They''ve sent a man to ask if we want to fight or talk," the celestial reported before turning to me and looking directly into my eyes. "How should we respond?"

    I cleaned out the insides of my mouth before gulping all the saliva I could gather to wet my parched throat.

    Still, the messenger''s question wasn''t just dumb. It was outright retarded.

    Right now, we were at the outskirts of the human camp, with a bit less than two hundred mercenaries in our captivity working hard to gather and bury those who died so far. Save for them, there were maybe a total of fifteen celestials and divines left in the camp.

    And just a few hundred steps away, on an elevated position to boot, stood an army of numbers�� Well, unknown. Just their front stretched for as long as ten individual units, making their line two hundred men wide and still, five men deep.

    ''As for how many there are beyond the crest, we don''t know,'' I thought, scanning the line of the men with my eyes for yet another time.

    Either way, even if the entire army was now on full disy, they still had an ungodly advantage in numbers. Judging by the ss of their armor and how all of them were armed with the same, rectangr shields and either a short sword, short spear, or a one-handed axe��

    ''This is a proper army, huh,'' I thought struggling to peel my eyes away from the sight.

    "We are not here to fight with them. Not now, at least," I finally produced a response to the messenger''s question. "Go and grab one of the mercenaries then go and pass my message as follows."

    I cleared my throat before closing my eyes and gathering my thoughts for a second.

    What were the major points I had to cover to turn this tense situation into one I could benefit from? How could I stop the imperials from ughtering their former allies and then force them to sit down to negotiate a cessation of hostilities?

    "The men gathered at the camp are here just to bury the dead. They will neither fight either side and, uponpletion of their task, shall return to the forest where their allies are held. As for the talks, we are happy to partake as soon as you send out someone with the necessary prerogatives to make binding decisions."

    I crafted what had to be the peak of the polite, diplomatic talk that I could muster.

    "Prerogatives��?" the messenger asked, a look of confusion taking over his face and thus wiping all the other emotions he had in regards to the message.

    "Authority," I exined to the world, once again reminded that while I could somehow speak in anguage locals would understand, it wasn''t perfect. Or rather, the difference of depth betweennguages, where onenguage simplycked the necessary terms to describe something could be the reason for the messenger''s reaction��

    Or maybe he was simply too stupid to understand whatever word came out of my mouth when I tried to say ''prerogatives''.

    "Will do. And with that, I will take my leave," the celestial spoke as he lightly nodded his head. "Mister Peter," he gave me a quick nod. "Miss Fay," he lowered his head before Fay.

    And without speaking another word, he turned around and left, finally leaving the two of us alone.

    "That message of yours��" Fay spoke out, strangely restraining her voice whenever in the presence of others, especially those she didn''t know in advance.

    "What about it?" I asked, encouraging her with a gentle voice and a slight, restrained touch of her shoulder.

    "Do you think this is the right way to speak with humans?" Fay asked while turning her eyes towards the long line of men that stood at the top of the ground''s incline. "I don''t mean to draw parallels between worlds at all. I''m not trying to say all humans are like that either��"

    I took in a deep breath, quick to figure out what was Fay''s current problem.

    "Just speak your heart. There''s nothing wrong with generalizing, and I would much rather listen to what you really have to say rather than its moderated, censored version."

    Fay gritted her teeth and escaped with her eyes to the side. Yet, after a short but careful consideration, she shook her head and looked back up to my face.

    "Humans of this world are arrogant. It''s supposed to be all the more of a case for those with actual power. And those who boast both personal strengths and have standing to back it up��"

    The displeased grimace on Fay''s face told me all I had to know about her opinion of the humans of her own world.

    And I could also understand that she was so hesitant to share said opinion because�� well, I was a human myself. She didn''t want me to take her general opinion of humans as her view of me personally.

    "Humans are arrogant, that''s correct," I sighed. "But we are also ves to appearances," I added, the momentary, grim expression on my face quickly giving way to a vile, nearly sadistic smile. "Just look at all those soldiers on the incline. Don''t they look glorious?"

    I turned my eyes towards the human army yet again. And so, my smile only widened.

    "They look glorious, so everyone will assume they are strong and thus fearsome," I stated before releasing a single chuckle and turning my face back to the girl right as the messenger from before, in thepany of one of the captive mercenaries, walked out of the camp and headed for the gathering of the human army.

    "That''s why I''m low-key arrogant in my message. By showing a different attitude to what they expect when their advantage is so tant, I hope to spark some curiosity," I exined my n while fully aware of the chances of it working��

    Were maybe not abysmal, but extremely low.

    After all, for my n to work out, everything had to go precisely as I hoped it would. And just like an ancient saying taught, if something can go wrong��

    "Wait, it''s actually working?" I released a shocked sigh when the massive front of the human army suddenly parted only for a small party of horsemen to ride forth, stopping only by the messengers. After exchanging a few words, they all turned towards the camp before making their way over to where thest battle took ce.

    "Miss Fay! Mister Peter!" the celestial shouted again. "Her Majesty Golden Princess is here to talk terms!"

 Chapter 208: Im here to discuss the terms of your surrender

    The moment I reached the edge of the camp, I already knew it wasn''t going to be a good day.

    An interesting one, full of twists and surprises for sure, but not a good one.

    Not when just walking up to the edge of the camp was enough to force me to swallow an extremely sour pill.

    Our group of emissaries consisted of only three people, yours truly, Fay, and��

    And surprisingly, udy.

    In the few moments, it took me and Fay to move from the edge of the mercenary camp to where we wanted to intercept the imperial emissaries, udy somehow proved to not only be in the camp�� but also to insist on joining us.

    ''He might want to exin his situation to the princess in person,'' I thought before ultimately just nodding my head and moving on from the topic before it could stall us for too long.

    And my hurry soon proved to be well ced, when the rank and file of the human legion parted, giving way for a small group of twenty, maybe thirty men to pass through.

    It was one hell of a peculiar group.

    At its head, two knights in gold-adorned, full-te armors walked forth at a steady pace, massive banners raising up from their hands and to the sky, causing what had to be either the imperial banner or the princess''s personal emblem to dance on the light winds of thete morning.

    Behind them, an entourage of eight more knights donning the same kind of armor followed. Those eight, however, walked with their hands busy with their bare, two-handed swords with their des pointed up and perfectly aligned with their spines.

    And as they walked, their swords remained perfectly still, as if allowing them to sway was a crime worthy of the death penalty and eternal damnation.

    The first ten men in the princess''s entourage presented themselves with silent and imposing dignity. The gold adorning their armor wasn''t there to show off wealth, but the dignity of the position they had as personal servants and warriors of the princess.

    It was the group of unarmed musicians that followed behind the well-armed knights. Contrary to the banners and swords, those carried simple flutes and belt-strapped, handy drums.

    The most peculiar thing of all, however, was that while it was a princess'' entourage�� The princess herself was nowhere to be seen.

    And when the musicians at the back of the group struck their drums and blew air into their flutes��

    ''Shit��'' I cursed under my breath while nervously gulping down my saliva.

    The rhythm struck off the drums perfectly matched the pace of the knights'' steps. The high-pitched, reverberating cries of the flutes introduced a new vibe of tension, and anticipation into the already thick air around.

    And when the music started to pick up and neared its climax only for a whole bunch of golden sparks to appear right at the very front of the emissary formation��

    I sighed.

    ''I''m starting to wonder, who the real main character of this story is.''

    Golden sparks burst out of nothing, roughly a meter above the ground and two to three steps ahead of the two bannermen of the princess''s entourage.

    Every spark rushed in a different direction, shooting a small distance through the air, leaving a golden trail, and then disappearing into nothingness, only for ten more to take its ce.

    *Thud*

    The drums spoke right as the knights took a step forward. And the invisible source of all those golden sparks pushed a step ahead as well, growing bigger and richer with every passing instant.

    *Thud*

    The number of sparks grew so high, that it started to coalesce into a cloud of constantly changing, constantly growing, and evolving golden light. Straight from the golden light, the golden princess stepped out, taking her rightful ce right at the very head of the emissary group.

    ''What a show-off,'' I thought, gritting my teeth at this disy of sheer showmanship.

    If it took ce on a stage somewhere, I would be greatly impressed. But right now, impressed I was not.

    "So that''s the girl," Imented under my nose, locking my eyes on the woman basking in the afterglow of the explosion of golden sparks that she came out of.

    The golden princess�� was far younger than one would assume from the magnitude of what even people of the forest knew about her. And when one took the longevity of divines and celestials into ount along with how hard it was for news to spread to them��

    The princess''s seemingly young age became even more impressive.

    The princess herself appeared to be somewhere between twenty-five and thirty years of age, putting her at the very end of the "young" bracket within human understanding. Yet, judging by the standards of this world��

    ''As if I could do that without knowing them,'' I corrected myself before I even formed this extremely stupid thought.

    Everything I saw within the mercenary camp or during the battle indicated this world was, more or less, on thete-medieval level of technological development. And that made it easy for me to assume other aspects ofte-medieval life would apply here.

    But was that really true?

    How could I expect the underdeveloped world to have the same mortality world as Earth, when one had the magic of aura and herbs that put even the greatest earth''s scientists into frenzy, while the Earth�� only had a few, basic herbs and hopeful prayers for its sick to offer.

    ''I wonder if she''s young or middle-aged by this world''s standards,'' I thought before my attention inevitably shifted to a much more important aspect of the princess. And without even a shred of doubt��

    She was a bombshell.

    She wasn''t adorable like Fay, elegant like Madam, or even dignified as Loraz from before his balls deprivation. In fact, it was extremely challenging to figure out a single word that could describe her.

    The princess had long, straight, golden hair that covered her back all the way to her ass. Her eyes were calm, focused on the single point ahead of her. And just like her name and all the decorum around her suggested, her eyes were of the same color as her hair. Contrary to her hair, though, the princess'' eyes appeared to shine with their own light, rather than simply reflecting the light of the sun.

    All in all, it was only the princess outfit that broke the immersion of authority, dignity, and outright presence. Rather than donning some impressive clothes, she walked around in nothing more but simple shorts that exposed her long, alluring legs.

    That, coupled with a simple, white shirt and a strange type of long dress cut in half all the way from its bottom to just above her belt, allowed for rapid and unrestrained movement while keeping most of the princess'' exposed skin hidden.

    As a result, whenever the princess took a step, for but a second, the folds of the cloth of her white skirt would part, momentarily disying her legs, only to cover them again and repeat the process for another step she took.

    ''There''s no way I can match this kind of showmanship,'' I thought, patiently waiting for the princess group to approach just a little bit closer. ''So, I need to take a different approach.''

    Maybe, just maybe, if I gathered all the defenders of the forest and pooled all the resources I could gather both in this world and back from Earth�� Then maybe, just maybe, I would have a shot at matching the level of the vibes the princess introduced with her entrance.

    And quite frankly, it was way too much effort for way too little reward.

    "Let''s go," I spoke softly once I judged the princess was just the right distance away. And, without further word, I started to slowly walk forward while making sure to look as rxed as possible.

    Now that the princess showed up in the way she did, there was no room for a discussion between equals. But that didn''t mean I was left without a role to y.

    "That was one interesting entrance," I spoke once my group of three reached the edge of the battlefield marked by the spot where the blood marks on the ground grew thin and sparse, as opposed to the ground just a few feet to our backs. "I''m not going to lie, I was mildly impressed," I added, resting my hands on my hips and giving the princess a cheeky, outright disrespectful smile.

    ''Perception is everything. With all those soldiers standing on the ridge, she''s sending a message. By appearing in such a showy way, she''s sending a message.''

    I took a deep breath and blinked my eyes before focusing on the princess''s golden eyes.

    "I''m Peter Von Ziaq and I''m a representative of the forestfolk," I introduced myself just as the princess'' mouth twitched, indicating she was about to speak up. "And out of moral obligation, I''m here to discuss the terms of your surrender."

 Chapter 209: I can鈥檛 say I鈥檓 surprised, but still, I鈥檓 quite disappointed

    "I''m here to discuss the terms of your surrender."

    An independent observer wouldn''t need any of the background information about what was happening to understand just how ridiculous my weing line was. Just a single look at the difference between my group and the princess''s entourage was enough to paint an urate picture of just how ludicrous I was.

    But, at the very least, my seemingly idiotic suggestion caused the princess'' beautiful, golden eyes to twitch a little.

    "I''m Etaria, daughter of the golden lineage, lord of two Emperor''s banners," the princess spoke with just the slightest look of amusement mixing with an overwhelming sense of confidence in her eyes.

    ''I guess that exins those dandy banners,'' I thought, stealing a nce at the two massive gs flying in the air just behind the golden princess'' back.

    "I''m here with the minister of war, minister of battle, and a minister of emperor''s will," the princess continued the introductions, summoning three of the goldced knights with her words.

    "And we are here not to offer our surrender, but to demand yours."

    All the amusement and curiosity vanished from Etaria''s eyes, reced with the cold shine of her golden irises.

    "Well, I guess that''s it, then," I casually summed up with a shake of my shoulders before turning on my heel. "Fay, udy, we are done here."

    Caring not for what was going on, Fay happily turned around and wrapped her hands around my arm, ready to escort me back to the rtive safety of the camp.

    Thankfully, though, I didn''t have to rely on the princess to react to my abrupt decision to leave.

    After all that happened so far, I was more than just confident doing something like this would be the drop that would spill over the chalice of udy''s patience.

    "Wait, what?"

    For the first time, the polite and calm mask dropped from the androgynously handsome noble''s face, revealing�� slight surprise.

    "What, what?" I asked, turning my head back to the mercenary leader. Then, after staring at udy''s surprised face for a moment, I sighed and properly turned around. "Look. They hired your entire guild. Now, their famed legion is here along with a princess of the emperor''s blood��"

    I shook my head, seemingly with disappointment.

    "Listen, there''s a certain level of administration above which, pragmatism no longer matters. And with her here," I nodded my head towards the princess, "math of risk, profit, and cost no longer matters."

    Technically, I was speaking the truth.

    The empire invested a mind-boggling number of resources and amount of effort to make this entire campaign happen. And that meant, at a nning stage, they had to have some sort of goal that warranted that level of expenditure.

    But now that every piece was on the move and the very princess of the empire was here to see the war go as nned��

    "You are quite crass, for an emissary," Etaria spoke out before udy could even respond. She then raised her hand to stop her men before moving forward a few steps by her lonesome, physically intruding on my discussion with the noble. "Also, it''s quite a surprise to see you here," the princess''s polite smile widened into a predatory one, "dear brother..."

    I gritted my teeth while making sure to keep my expression still.

    ''A point for her.''

    So, udy turned out to be of imperial blood. And a rtive of a princess herself.

    But rather thanplicating things, this surprise was actually quite a boon, especially when the one thing I desperatelycked was the affirmation of my capability.

    The only reason why I went about things in such a weird, arrogant way, was because my means went far and above themon sense of the locals. And even if this princess along with her ministers were extremely open to new ideas��

    I didn''t really have any means to make them take my words at face value.

    And in this kind of setting, having someone of udy''s surprising standing vouch for what I was bringing to the table, actually made things quite better than I expected them to be.

    "Such is the fate of the defeated, golden sister."

    udy''s voice turned back to its usual, tempered form. And yet, even I, despite not knowing the man all that well, could hear the spite in his words when he referred back to the princess.

    Still��

    Even if they were both hot as hell, there was little to no resemnce between the two, making it hard to believe they were actually rted as closely as their words implied.

    ''Maybe they are actually more distant rtives, and their way of referring to each other is just a thing of formal manners?''

    "I didn''t quite expect you wouldy down your arms so��" the princess took a look over udy''s shoulder, at the bloody battlefield hidden behind my group''s back, "quickly and easily."

    This time, I didn''t even need to try to search for the hints of enmity in Etaria''s voice. They were out for everyone to hear.

    "Still," udy''s polite smile once again took over his face. This time, however, deep in the very corner of his eyes, I could sense some hints of satisfaction.

    Of a hunter who watched his prey walk into the carefully prepared trap.

    "Still, the losses we took are a mere fraction of how many you lost during the first sh at the Lunagar Fortress."

    The princess''s face tensed up. Bit by bit, the profound air of nobility was giving way to the outright hostility the parties exhibited towards each other.

    ''Great, now I have a court faction war to deal with on top of everything,'' I whined in my soul while rolling my eyes. Ultimately, though, this situation was far from being resolved�� And far from being anywhere on the agenda.

    "You call me crass, yet here you are, ready to tear each other into pieces," I muttered while shaking my head. "Eh, I can''t say I''m surprised, but after that mildly impressive entrance��" I took a short pause just to keep shaking my head.

    "I can''t say I''m surprised, but still, I''m quite disappointed."

 Chapter 210: Worst but simplest path

    "I''m quite disappointed," I announced, while fully aware of how little either party cared about my opinion here.

    Right now, I was just a third party. A worthless nobody stepping right between two hostile parties. There was hardly any meaning to my existence when ced between Etaria and udy.

    But still, I was a human. And I was capable of voicing out my thoughts, at the very least.

    "What is even a human doing on the side of the forest monsters in the first ce?" Etaria spoke, keeping her voice on the edge between a polite tone and an outright hiss.

    It seems that udy''s jab from just before was pretty damn urate, otherwise, I couldn''t really tell what shook Princessposure enough to make her lift her polite mask a bit.

    "I don''t see how is that of any importance," I calmly replied before gently freeing my arm from Fay''s hold and taking a step forward, now putting myself in the direct line of fire of Etaria''s eyes. "What''s important, is how this entire war will y out. And as I already said, I saw enough to be pretty confident I already know that."

    After an honest dose of truths, now came the time for some bullshit, for I had no idea how things would y out. I didn''t know anywhere near enough about the princess, the empire behind them, their motives for the war and all.

    I only knew what was right before my eyes and what I learned from the few humans we had the chance to interrogate a bit.

    Way too little to create any long-term ns or even establish some goals. And what was even more important, I wasn''t in a position to y towards any kind of goal.

    No.

    ''All I can do right now is to stay flexible and try to get as much as I can, regardless of what it will be.''

    "Well, that''s true, it was just my curiosity speaking, sir Peter," Etaria spoke, her tone turning perfectly calm, t, and slightly polite.

    "I''m sorry, but it is exactly as you said, Your Majesty," I replied with a slight bow. "I''m a crass person. My upbringing is humble and I hold no noble title."

    I lowered my head again and kept it lowered for quite some time.

    "Still, as a selected emissary of the forest, I would like if we could drop the diplomatic approach and talk directly," I suggested while raising my head and looking Etaria directly in her golden eyes. "Right now, all the pleasantries and formalities will serve no purpose other than wasting time.

    And to be frank," I shook my shoulders, "I don''t know the first thing about imperial etiquette, so I can''t follow it even if I wanted or cared enough to do so."

    As strange as it might appear, this was one of the crucial points of the entire meeting. Unless we could speak freely, I wouldn''t be able to pass on my own understanding of the situation. It also served my effort to build up the vibe of pragmatism and straightforwardness, be it through my manner of speech, general behavior, or even the selection of words I used.

    "Works for me."

    Strangely enough and against all of my expectations, Etaria didn''t even bother to contest that point. And with a shake of her shoulders�� she suddenly appeared a lot more rxed than before, as if the air of dignity and status that surrounded her had finally dissipated, allowing everyone to look at the girl for who she was rather than for what ungodly power she represented.

    "Then, let''s sum our current situation up," sensing the opportunity, I spoke out. "First, the most obvious scenario. Assuming we don''t agree or anything of importance here, your armies will continue to gather while I will busy myself preparing what I need. And on the day you issue an order to attack��"

    I made a short pause to keep everyone in anticipation of what I had to say.

    "On the day you issue an order to attack, I will kill everyone and everything."

    I spoke those words while staring right into the golden eyes of the princess and picturing a nuke going out right in the middle of the mercenary camp.

    To the best of my knowledge, even the tiniest nuke ever produced was far more than enough to create a fiery stwave that would set a huge chunk of the nearby forest on fire. Coupled with all the other physical phenomena urring during and after such a powerful discharge, this already dangerous fire could easily turn into a proper firestorm.

    Still, just in case Etaria could read my thoughts, I continued to ce the three, converging zones of death on the simplified map of the area.

    Zone ck, where nothing was left alive. Zone red where there might be some luckers who survived. And then, zone grey, spreading in a much wider circle than the former two zones, stretching way out into the forest and, on the camp''s other side, way past the crest of the nearby incline and into the massive ins beyond.

    "Kill us all��" the princess echoed my words while shaking her head. "Do you really think I will believe something like this is possible?"

    Etaria held back a giggle while looking at me with amusement all over her face. Yet, as her eyes moved to the side, ignoring Fay''s furious re and locking on udy''s eyes, the princess asked again while introducing only the most minute change to her question.

    "Do you believe he can do it?"

    This time, udy took his time to ponder over his answer.

    "When I brought Lunagar fortress up, I did so for a reason," he said with a long sigh after a considerable amount of time. "When things first started, it felt like we were back at that bloody approach��"

    The young noble gritted his teeth. The luster in his eyes dimmed out, suppressed by the weight of the memories that this mere mention forced to resurface.

    "Let me answer you this way. Yes, he brought out weapons and spells that are as effective as they are spectacr," udy announced once he finally made up his mind. "As for whether he has the means to kill your entire army in one, fell swoop��"

    udy first shook his head before shaking his shoulders as well.

    "Can he kill all of them?" udy repeated the short version of Etaria''s question. "I didn''t see him using anything on a scale necessary to aplish what he imed he could do with ease. But after what I saw��"

    udy shook his head again, for just one more time.

    "Whether he can do it, I don''t know," he repeated himself this time. "Whether or not I believe he is capable of doing so, though?"

    udy''s lips jerked when a small smile surfaced on his lips.

    "After witnessing the carnage from as close as I did��" udy gritted his teeth and looked away. "Yeah," he nodded his head while keeping his eyes averted, "I believe he can."

    Etaria''s face visibly tensed. Contrary to my words, she was willing to take udy''s opinion at face value. And now that he offered an unsettlingly certain answer��

    "You said that''s one of the possible paths, not the only one, didn''t you?" Etaria asked, turning her golden eyes to me. "If so, what other options do you have to offer?"

 Chapter 211: Three possible reasons why

    "If so, what other options do you have to offer?"

    Etaria''s question was as desirable as it was inconvenient. For this was not yet the time for me to reveal my hand.

    "Your majesty, allow me a quick tangent before I answer your inquiry," I spoke while bowing my head a little.

    Now that I was within the princess'' sight, I had to put an emphasis on my presence. This direct approach was my only or most likely shot at forcing my way into the discussion of two people who were far beyond being my equals.

    ''For the time being, that is,'' I thought, allowing a small hint of a smirk to pull the corners of my mouth up.

    "You see, princess, I''m more of a man of a business rather than a man of a sword. And it pains me to no end to see how this situation is on the bring from turning away from logic in favor to political fervor."

    I locked eyes with Etaria, trying to ignore the immense pressure emanating from her golden irises.

    "If we look at the situation we are in from an army general''s point of view, then we will be both certain we can win. But while I mentioned that I would kill all of you, it should be pretty obvious it woulde at a great cost to me too. A cost I would rather not bear."

    I took a deep breath to calm my emotions down.

    There was no use getting fired up over my own ideas. Even if I did my best toe up with scenarios that were both fair and usible, ns had the tendency to grow obsolete upon the first contact with the other side.

    "I''m a simple man of a coin. And killing you all simply brings me no benefit andes at a great cost," my lips quivered as I imagined the sort of stuff I would have to dabble if a time came for me to put money where my mouth was. "And don''t get me wrong, if I judge that the cost of killing you all will be lesser than the cost of other options, I will be sure to go through with it."

    Over and over again, I put as much of an emphasis on "killing them all" as I could. Because whenever I mentioned it, I always brought my thoughts back to the image of nuclear discharge.

    And more importantly, the endless confidence I had in its ability to ovee whatever the magic of this world could throw to try to counter it.

    "And so, you would rather if�� what happened?" the princess asked. Her eyes were squinted as she focused�� But I could see the hints of her face rxing.

    It seemed that my attempts to reinforce my confidence in my ability to kill them all either didn''t sit well with Etaria or�� maybe repeating it over and over again made her disregard my threat?

    "Best case scenario, you give me a list of the demands," I nonchntly replied with a shake of my shoulders. "If I know the true reasons behind the invasion of the forest, I might be able to amodate at least some of the requests."

    I could imagine a scenario where two forces would sh because they were too prideful and too stuck on their archaic values to simplye to a mutually beneficial agreement. Earth''s history was full of such instances.

    But right now, I was in a rtivelyfortable position of having the very strongest of the forest folk on my side! A former leader of one of the two conflicted ns who already showcased how meager the powers of the likes of Loraz were whenpared to her own might.

    And that gave enough leverage to enforce even the most strict of peace terms�� As long as I judged them to be reasonable.

    "Spoken like a true merchant," the princess jeered. "Do you expect me to name a price now?" she asked before turning sideways and pointing her hand at the human troops gathered atop the incline nearby. "Do you even have the slightest idea how much it costs to move golden legion?

    And if you do, then multiply it by twenty to amodate for all the other costs the empire had to bear to make this campaign happen!"

    Etaria lectured me in an annoyed if not exasperated voice.

    She then lowered her hand back to her hip and turned back to face me again.

    In the course of our talk, we somehow left udy behind, putting him in the shadow of the rtively calm phase of the negotiations�� Assuming that one could im my exchange with the princess to be peace talks, to begin with.

    "I''m aware," I spoke softly while nodding my head. "Which means, there are only three potential reasons that I cane up with that justify such an overbearing expenditure."

    I took a step forward to the displeasure and burst of anxiety of the knights standing in silence behind their princess''s back.

    "This kind of cost means that there''s something in the forest that the Emperor himself is set on getting his hands on. Alternatively, there''s money to be made by conquering the forest, money much greater than what you had to spend to amass all those troops."

    I took a short breath, happy to include this pause in the flow of the discussion.

    After all, the third possibility was distinctively different from the other two.

    The first option appealed to the Emperor''s greed. The second one appealed to the Empire''s greed. And the third one��

    "Finally, there might be some reason that forces the empire to bear all those costs, all the effort necessary to raise all those armies��"

    I took another pause before closing my eyes and keeping them shut for a few more moments. Then, as I opened them up, I looked Etaria straight in the eyes before allowing the corner of my mouth to twitch and then move up a little bit.

    "A reason that''s as existential for the empire''s well-being as massive is the cost of pursuing it," I finally revealed thest of my thoughts�� And then I allowed my smile to grow as I turned my head and threw a sideways nce at udy.

    "Tell me, does this kind of scenario strike a cord in your soul?" I asked while prying that my deduction was, at least, more or less on the point. "Because I''ve heard an awful lot of some sort of a great battle at Lunagar fortress. A battle that was supposed to bring an end to the era of the imperial conflicts��"

    I turned my eyes back to the princess and batted my eyshes at her while putting on the cutest yet, at the same time, most shrewd smile my mouth was capable of producing.

    "Only for the empire to double its military efforts and send the greatest army ever assembled out�� To subjugate a meaningless ce. To conquer those who still stood defiant��"

    Once again and for thest time, I took a short pause. And from the slight movements of Etaria''s muscles, I could guess I was somewhat nearing the point she was awfully familiar with.

    "Or to simply keep up the ruse of still having some enemies left to conquer."

 Chapter 212: The weight of an empire

    "Or to simply keep up the ruse of still having some enemies left to conquer."

    What started as some sort, of unspecified existential need for the empire, I quickly came to rify and even suggest the most likely answer.

    "I''m sorry, but what was your name again?" Etaria asked as she squinted her golden eyes a little bit further while locking them on my face.

    "I''m Peter Von Ziaq, Your Majesty," I courtly replied with a slight bow.

    "You are not your everyday person, Peter," Etaria imed as she took a step forward.

    This time, it was Fay''s turn to get at the tip of her toes and turn her hands into fists as she stared daggers down the princess''s face.

    "You are not just a simple merchant either," the princess added, stopping just shy of five steps away. "So, what is a person like you doing in this forest to begin with?"

    ''That''s��''

    For a second, I hesitated.

    Not because I didn''t expect this kind of a question. I stopped because I assumed it woulde muchter in the talks.

    "Keeping certain things a mystery does give a man a charm, doesn''t it?"

    Throwing the ball back to Etaria''s court, I smiled lightly while crossing my hands over my chest. Yet, seeing the disgruntled face and then feeling Fay''s stare digging into my back��

    "My reason for being here is nothing that you expect, though, your majesty," giving up, I spoke out while turning sideways to reach out with my hand to Fay.

    She stood way too far away for my hand to reach her. Still, seeing my motion, Fay moved lightly forward, grabbing onto my hand only to wrap herself around it as she closed in and pushed herself against my side while locking her arm on her chest.

    For a second, I looked down at Fay. From her long legs, through her slim waist, robust chest, and adorable face coated in the storm of silvery white. And while my mind rxed upon feeding on its favorite stimnt, I sorted out my thoughts and the order of what I was going to say next.

    "I''m here simply because I can be here," I started out. "I''m here because I brought some nice drinks to share with my mother-inw. I''m here because this is where my dearest is from. I''m here because the herbs here are simply too good to ignore. I''m here because��"

    I shook my head right as the first hints of understanding started to blossom in Etaria''s eyes.

    This short rant was merely an introduction to the main point I was about to bring�� But I didn''t throw all of those words out for nothing.

    Instead, it was my way of sharing the information that I could otherwise use as bargaining chips. Yet, with my current standing, rather than negotiating better terms by bringing out more intriguing news about the forest, I was better off revealing those things for free.

    At the cost of losing whatever advantage this disproportion of information could offer, I could sneakily raise the worth of the forest in Etaria''s eyes. And with where I was going with my strategy for those talks, this point was more important than anything else.

    "I could list out many more reasons for me to be here, but they all boil down to my wife-to-be being here," I summed up my entire point from before in a single sentence.

    I''ve already conveyed the hints I hoped the princess to pick up on, so now it was the time to move the discussion ahead.

    "But I believe you are asking the wrong question, Your Majesty." I smiled lightly. "Rather than asking why am I here, wouldn''t it be better for you to know why I''m willing to stand at the forefront of those who wish to preserve this forest?"

    As soon as I finished my piece, I slightly elerated and deepened my breathing pattern.

    For what I was about to do next, I needed a lot of air in my lungs and just as much energy to change my expression around.

    "Don''t act as if you are going to reveal something so important for f��"

    "I''m going to defend this forest, no matter the cost, because this is where my dearest was born and grew up to be the most precious person in my life," I spoke out, slowly starting to nibble at the energy and air I gathered in advance.

    "And you guys kind of fucked up my honeymoon ns," I added, turning my eyes still and putting the slightest smile on my face while leaning my whole head slightly to the side.

    And amidst all the emptiness that filled my eyes, I allowed just a hint of a boiling rage at those who dared tomit the sin of cock-blocking me.

    "Excuse me?" Etaria muttered, taken aback by my statement that was as sudden as it was unfit for this particr conversation.

    "Because you guys came knocking, I had no other choice but to put my sweet, lovely ns aside," I spoke before jerking my arm a little, pulling Fay forward half a step.

    "I know you are a woman, but even you should be able to tell just how massive of a sacrifice it is to stop when I''m with such a cutie!" I screamed out, finally releasing the valve and filling my voice with a mixture of rage, frustration, and hostility.

    Etaria''s eyes moved up to her forehead.

    "That''s��" she muttered, so confused and lost for words, that she actually retreated a step.

    THE golden princess of the empire, someone famed to the point that even the divines and celestials heard rumors of her exploits. And I, with just words alone, managed to make her give up some ground.

    ''Feels pretty nice, huh?''

    Yet, as soon as my soul filled with a sense of satisfaction, a different feeling hatched in my heart, making me pull my arm, and thus Fay, back to my side.

    Strangely enough, as great as it felt to brag about her to the world, putting her on disy for all to see only made me feel jealous and possessive of her.

    "That''s why, as fucking angry as I am, I want to wrap this up as soon as possible and go from a protector back to just a devoted lover."

    For some unknown reason, speaking those lines didn''t even make me flinch or blush. On the other hand, even with our bond running at a passive gear, I could tell just how embarrassed Fay was to hear such bold derations out in the open.

    "So, how about we stop ying and have you reveal what''s the real intent of the empire here?" I suggested, quelling my partially fake rage and putting the pressure of making a decision on the princess.

    Etaria squinted her eyes a little before licking her lips clean and reconquering the step she lost while baffled by my bold derations of love.

    "I''m afraid things won''t be as easy for you, then," the princess announced while shaking her head to the sides a tiny bit. "Because earlier, you were right. This war has to y its course for an empire not to copse under it''s own weight, it has to project it elsewhere."

 Chapter 213: Carrot and a spiked, red-hot, iron stick

    ''I wish I could say it was all as I expected�� But it''s more like how I feared things would be.''

    If I took Etaria''s words at face value, then most of my more or less pacifist ns were pretty much done for. When a prideful country set off to achieve something, stupid things like reason, rationale, or cost calction were no longer of importance.

    And, without even a shred of doubt, the empire was a country full of pride, for no empire could exist without it to begin with.

    Still, this was all based on an assumption that I understood Etaria''s words correctly and took them at face value. And hopefully, there was still some room for me to work around with.

    "So you need war," I summed up Etaria''s words in a much simpler, straightforward manner. "I''m not going to ask why�� because I can pretty much guess it. Just like with the topic of what I''m doing in the forest, this information is of hardly any significance here."

    ''So, I''m not going to pry for answers,'' I added in my thoughts, just to find a drive for my expression to alter a little, hinting at what I just thought through the small hints in my expression.

    Etaria''s face twitched a little. Yet, besides that, there were no changes on her face.

    "Are we done here, then?" the princess asked while locking her arms on her chest and staring me down with those golden, shiny eyes of hers.

    I gave the princess a long look before shaking my shoulders and sighing out a little.

    "That depends on you, Your Majesty," I replied while performing yet another light bow. "For now, all I know is that the empire is set on conquering the forest. And from how I see things, it''s something I don''t want to happen," I spoke as I rested my hands on my hips and leaned my head slightly to the side. "And that means, I have no other choice but to go and kill you all."

    I turned around to the side and walked a few paces.

    For the first time, I paced around to calm my thoughts rather than pass some cryptic message or set up some sort of borate, psychological ploy.

    I simply had to move a little to promote a better flow of blood in my veins that would, in turn, help me clear my head a bit.

    "Unless��"

    I stopped pacing around and turned my head to steal a quick, meaningful nce at the princess''s face. Yet, by the time I looked over, she was already watching, only waiting for my attention to lock down on it.

    "Unless what?" the princess asked in a cold yet extremely polite voice.

    "Unless you will give me some room to move around," I replied almost instantly. After all, Etaria''s question was pretty simple. "If you continue to insist there''s no room for negotiation, I might really need to kill you all. So, I''m here to find out whether the empire has any legitimate interest over here, or is a meat grinder all you really want."

    I could understand the idea of the empire seeking an enemy to funnel all the poption''sins and hate on it instead of those responsible for whatever misery the locals suffer from. A state of constant conflict also meant there was someone out there who could shoulder all the me for whatever misfortune befell the empire''s citizens.

    Still, this scenario didn''t sit well with me for it was simply a waste of resources and manpower on a scale even a massive empire would find hard to handle. I could talk all I wanted, but the truth remained the same.

    For whatever reason, the empire was willing to invest an ungodly amount of money and effort to establish dominance over the forest. And with how there could hardly be any mary incentive for actually conquering the forest, there had to be some other benefit the imperials expected from doing so.

    Otherwise, the cost of this entire campaign would be simply too great.

    "If you are looking for other reasons why the empire desires this forest, then you should''ve heard about the��"

    "The herald weaver nt?" I finished the princess'' words before she could evenplete her own sentence. Then, I shook my head while not even trying to hide my disappointment. "We both know that it''s nothing more but an official reason for the masses, not an actual goal of yours."

    The fact that Etaria tried to make me believe they were actually looking for that nt one of the mercenaries imed to be a likely goal of the empire��

    "What are you even talking about?" Etaria asked, squinting her eyes in an expression a bit more intense than any of the ones she showed me so far.

    "Herald Weaver Flower is what your people believe you guys are searching for," I mentioned what I found out from that female mercenary we took captive and then interrogated a little. "And I''m more than happy to offer you an entire box worth of those, as long as it means you guys would fuck off."

    For a second, I delighted myself with the conflicted look that shed on the princess''s face. Yet, the opportunity for me to enjoy myself like that turned out to be extremely short.

    "Listen, son," the princess changed how she referred to me,ing up with a title that had a fair dose of condescending air around it. "No matter how big of a bribe you will try toe up with, it will never amount to more than mere scraps whenpared to the benefits we seek to obtain once this war concludes."

    Etaria''s response�� provided me with much more information than I could''ve asked for.

    ''So they are indeed looking for something beyond the forest rather than the forest itself, huh? And that something would bring them some ungodly amount of gold, making all the massive cost of this campaign nothing more but a small, initial investment.''

    I took a deep breath, trying to calm my thoughts down and slowly digest what I''d just found out.

    There were only three things that I could think of that would possibly bring anywhere near as much as financing this military campaign on this scale would cost.

    First came the looting, an absolute transfer of wealth from the conquered to the victors�� And given the alternative it was both the simplest and the fastest way for the invading Imperials to make up for all their losses so far.

    The other option was an imperial need for a trading partner.

    ording to what I''ve heard so far, the empire has concluded its mission of unifying the entire continent, a process that came to an end with the fall of the famed Lunagar fortress.

    What was Lunagar fortress? Why was it one topic I kept hearing different humans talk about or bring up? What was the significance of that ce?

    I didn''t know the answer to any of those questions�� And quite frankly, I couldn''t care less about it.

    What the fall of that fortress meant for me, was that the Golden Empire now had neither an enemy to push the me on nor a trading partner to earn quick and easy money to pacify the unrest within the empire.

    An enemy or a trading partner�� or, in much simpler terms, what empirecked and most likely hoped to find by pushing the greatest army ever gathered on the continent�� was just that. Someone to make money off, be it by fighting for spoils or by carving open a path through the forest for the trade to flow.

    But there was still the third option. A scenario where I simply failed to predict or understand the core of what the empire hoped to aplish here with all those forces it gathered. But if such were the case��

    I was pretty damn unlikely to find those reasons out within the time frame that would allow me to exploit this opportunity and push my advantage through its angle.

    ''I don''t know which scenario is the correct one�� But is the fear from the third possibility a valid reason not to try to act on the other two?''

    "If you wish to find a trading partner, I might be of help. If you desire for someone to ughter a huge number of your soldiers, I''m more than happy to help with that too. Even if you are looking for some specific herbs��" for a second, my voice wavered.

    "Even if you are looking for some specific herbs, then, as long as they actually exist and are not stuff from legends, I would be happy to scour the forest to provide you with them."

    I really hoped it would be possible to avoid an all-out war with the empire. And I was more than interested in letting Etaria on this mindset of mine.

    "If you are willing to cooperate, I will make sure the deal we make will be the best in the history of all the deals the empire ever made," I announced with confidence in the statement brimming in my voice. "And if you are not��"

    I shook my head.

    "If you are not, then I will have no other choice but to showcase why I don''t consider all the military might the empire is gathering here to be any real danger. Sadly, once that happens��"

    I pressed my lips together and averted my eyes.

    "Once that happens, there will no longer be any path for reconciliation."

    I raised my chin and looked directly into the princess''s golden eyes.

    "Once the fighting starts, it won''t cease until you guys are all dead."

 Chapter 214: A signal just between the two... just between the ten of us

    *Nudge* *Nudge*

    When I went all out with my voice and unleashed a series of arrogant, confident statements, I was aware of the risk doing so brought with it.

    What if the princess snapped? What if she decided she no longer wished to talk with me and was now more interested in taking me down?

    What if Etaria judged that I was too dangerous to be left alive, and opted to remove the problematic me from the picture?

    The one thing I didn''t expect to happen after my haughty statement was Fay nudging at the edge of my sleeve, casually trying to pull my attention away from the princess and towards herself instead.

    Her nudgingcked the strength and urgency to be a form of warning or a hint.

    ''Is she jealous of me talking with the princess for too long?'' I attempted to figure it out, eager to see through Fay''s actions even without relying on our bond.

    For some reason, using this crutch in the presence of this golden princess��

    It simply felt wrong and careless, irking my guts and thus stopping me from doing so.

    I decided against using our bond to figure out what Fay wanted. And as I physically moved my eyes away from the princess and down to the girl glued to my arm�� I failed to notice anything on her face that would hint at her intentions.

    "Are you sure we can kill them all?" Fay asked after just one more moment of watching me helplessly struggle to figure out her intentions.

    "Well, duh," I rolled my eyes in response. "It''s not about whether we can kill them all or not," I replied in a soft voice as if trying to keep my words just for Fay to hear.

    Yet, for some reason, I didn''t have a shred of hope that Etaria would prove ipetent enough to miss my voice.

    "The only question that I don''t know the answer to is just how insanely expensive doing so will be," I admitted with a sigh. Then, I turned my eyes back to the golden princess''s face before revealing thest piece of the puzzle of how I nned to deal with this entire conflict.

    "You remember Makary, do you?" I asked, still keeping my voice as faint and restrained as possible in an attempt to keep the princess out of the loop�� An attempt that was bound topletely fail.

    Even though I didn''t know why I felt like it, I was pretty damn sure no amount of effort to keep my voice faint would suffice to keep it outside of the perception range of this strange, dignified woman.

    "Yeah," Fay nodded her head, "what about him?"

    With her eyes raised and locked on my face, Fay appeared even more adorable than ever.

    There was something otherworldly in her curiosity-filled eyes. Something that endlessly attracted my eyes to her face andpelled my soul to act in the best interest of satisfying the curiosity in Fay''s huge, blue eyes.

    "I think I will invite him to the party."

    Fay''s face turned still. And, quite surprisingly at that, so did the face of the princess.

    ''The question is�� why?''

    Startled by the sudden, small change on the princess''s face, I had to do my absolute best not to show my peaking interest on my face.

    ''This princess that hardly showed any expression thus far is now�� curious? Worried? Or what exactly is this emotion lurking deep at the bottom of her eyes? Why is her re�� so sharp?''

    Did I, by some unfortunate ident, reveal more than I was supposed to? But I only spoke about potentially inviting Makary out to have some fun with us too. And I couldn''t see a way in which this could mean anything beyond me considering to call on some sort of an ally��

    ''Maybe she now thinks we have yet to pull out our strongest card? Some sort of helper that goes beyond anything that we put on the field thus far?''

    Inspired by this new line of thinking, I attempted to trante our situation through this new perspective��

    Only to have the corners of my lips twitch a little.

    ''Right, isn''t she on the same level as Madam?'' I thought, bringing up the memory of Fay''s mother revealing the rank of her personal power. ''That means, she already knows we have a supreme on our side. And if my assumption is correct, the two of them are mutually keeping the other in check.''

    I took in a deep breath while a pleasant feeling of satisfaction spread throughout my body.

    ''I might not know everything yet, but things are starting to clear up.''

    Neither Madam nor the Princess would be able to contribute to the war in any way or form, not without breaking the taboo of having two supremes sh. And even if that taboo was broken, there was no telling what sort of heavenly punishment this world would impose upon those who dared to break its rules��

    Alternatively, if breaking the taboo wasn''t a big deal whatsoever, there was still no telling what level of devastation a fight between Madam and Etaria, the two supremes of the opposing sides, would bring to the world.

    Still, up until this point, things were simple and straightforward to the human side. Their advantage of having a supreme on their side was now gone with Madam countering Etaria. But��

    But with the supremes out of the picture, humans still had an overwhelming strength of numbers, even when counting only the golden legion that was already on the scene. And once their reinforcements start to arrive��

    "I don''t think we will be able to get anywhere else with our talks today," I spoke out loud, putting Fay''s nudging from before aside and focusing both my eyes, my attention, and my words on the human princess. "So, how about we make a small, simple deal."

    With a small smile on my face, I took a deep breath while stepping a single pace back.

    "I suggest we start with three��" I hesitated for a second, "No, four days-long ceasefire. In this way, the mercenaries will have enough time to give all the fallen in this camp a proper burial. Oh, and once they are done��"

    Once again, I hesitated. This time, however, it wasn''t just an act.

    Still, as dangerous as it could be for my political standing within the ranks of the forest dwellers, I really needed to buy some time. The time that I needed to go back to earth, figure out how this new permanent gate of mine worked, have Makary gather all the men and equipment he could, somehow convince him it''s not only necessary but also find a way to make him square��

    "Ahh��" I released a long sigh as if I wasn''t just having important peace talks with one of the highest figures of power within the entirety of the empire. "I can already feel how much of a pain it will be�� But if you will give me those four days I''m asking for, then I will be willing to release all of the mercenaries we took hostage without doing them any harm."

    Seeing how Etaria''s face twitched and how her eyes jumped over my shoulder to steal a nce at udy, I recalled that the leader of the mercenaries was right here with us.

    Even after the huge hints he dropped in the few words he exchanged with the princess, I somehow found it hard to keep his presence in mind. There was nothing actively obstructing me from thinking about and noticing the man�� It felt more as if the world found his presence to be simply insignificant, thus making it far harder to keep tabs on the man.

    "Heck!" I moaned a little. "After those four days, I''m willing to offer you one or two more days if you fancied to take over this camp. If such were to be your desire, I can guarantee no one would even attempt to disturb you while you do so."

    "And why are you willing to go that far with concessions?" the princess asked while locking her arms on her chest and giving me an intense stare with those golden and now slightly squinted eyes of hers.

    For a moment, I felt like a porn performer stuck in front of a high-quality camera and inspected from every angle by thirsty viewers. There was simply no escape from the princess''s intense re.

    And it felt that no matter how hard I tried, those eyes of hers could prate through every guise and disguise, always letting Etaria stare at the bare truth rather than all of the facade I, or anyone else for that matter, would put up.

    "I''m a simple man," I repeated the words I brought up way back, sometime when our meeting only started. "I''m a simple man so I can only use simple methods to achieve my simple goals," I exined with a small, rxed smile on my face.

    "I''m a simple man," I repeated my own words from just before while my smile continued to grow wider. "So, being nice and easy-going now is my best bet at keeping you from freaking out when I put money where my mouth is and bring death upon your army."

    I took a deep breath while trying to pretend not to notice how ugly Etaria''s face was bing in response to my insistence on the notion of ''killing them all''.

    "My only hope is that with all those concessions I''m giving you right now, once the bloodshed starts, you will swallow your pride and order your men to retreat to where they are right now."

    "And what good would such a shallow retreat do you?" Etaria attempted to counter, too baffled by the strange ways of conversing I employed to be able to follow the conversation''s flow. "I''m not sure if you are aware, but for my men to move from this small incline all the way to where the forest begins��"

    "I bet it would only take them a moment," I admitted with a shrug of my shoulders. "But after our talks today, I hope the notion of pulling your men back to this small hill will be our signal, something just between the two��" I pursed my lips before giving my surroundings a short scan. After counting all those present on the scene, I cleared my throat and picked up where I left off.

    "Something just between the ten of us," I continued. "And I will take it for a sign that you''ve acknowledged the disparity of our ability to ughter the other and are more than happy to resume the peace talks again, even if from a much worse position than you are in right now."

 Chapter 215: Madam wants to go

    "Are you sure it is okay to leave things as they are?" Fay asked, allowing her face to reflect her feelings for the first time since we set out for the negotiations.

    Fay not only asked with her voice but also tugged on the edge of my shirt while averting her eyes away, as if ashamed of her need to ask in the first ce.

    "We were never going to make any real deal during our first meeting," I spoke back, personally pretty happy with the results of the meeting. And while it obviously could''ve gone better��

    But all in all, things were rtively well. An oddity in a world where fate decided that I had no right to peace, only to end up burdened by all sorts of pressing matters to tend to.

    From the first two groups of human scouts, through the skirmish with the mercenaries, and now negotiating with the leader of a massive force��

    They were all nothing more but a cockblockers, a blue-balling agent that stopped me from fully enjoying the early stages of my rtionship with Fay. Still, they were cockblockers annoying and persistent enough to constantly force me into a bigger and bigger mess.

    ''It''s as if I''m a protagonist of some silly story where the author covers his inability by pushing more and more troubles at the main character to mask the shorings in other areas of their craft.

    And as weird as it felt to consider myself the main hero of the story of my own life, - It was my first time doing so, after all - I still couldn''t help but acknowledge just how well this strange conjecture would exin my current quandary.

    While the first part of the negotiations was done, it was nothing more but an exchange of greetings and some early hints as to how each side pictured the possible cooperation.

    ''That princess is going to be a tough nut to crack,'' I thought, my thoughts pulling away from my conversation with Fay and over to the topic of the golden princess.

    "Didn''t you want to avoid as much bloodshed as you could?" Fay asked, taking a step ahead only to lean her upper body forward and then look back and to the side only to give me a smile as adorable as it was yful.

    "And it went quite well, didn''t it?" I asked, raising my hand and giving her thumbs-up�� only to raise it all the way over my shoulder and use said thumb to discretely point at udy walking a few paces behind us.

    As when it came to the strange, noble leader of the mercenary guild��

    ''No matter how you look at it, he''s directly rted to the royalty of the one country that conquered most of the continent,'' I thought, gulping my saliva down as the scale of what actually happened only now started to dawn on me.

    "Is it true?" udy suddenly spoke out, breaking the vows of silence he made after exchanging a few, hrash words with Etaria.

    "What is?" I asked, genuinely confused as to what the man could exactly mean.

    "Are you going to let my people go?" The noble leader asked, staring at me with such intensity I couldn''t help but start to low-key question my sexuality.

    The man was simply too handsome! And as jealous as I felt about his refined appearance��

    Just a single look at his tired and yet hopeful face��

    "Eh��" Unable to resist, I gave in to my drive to bully the noble a little.

    "You really should learn how stupid it is to believe a single word thates out of a politician''s mouth," I jeered�� And after shaking my head, I got enough of the sh of desperation and hostility in udy''s eyes.

    ''Ugh, how scary,'' I thought, instinctively grabbing Fay closer to my chest and taking a step back.

    "The problem is, I can''t exactly tell when we will do it�� But yeah, we are going to free all of yourpanions, as long as you promise they won''t take part in this fight any longer."

    In fact, I had no hopes for udy to acknowledge and ept my request. It was one thing to request udy to remain as a political hostage, but something else to expect him to rein all of his underlings and stop them from joining the imperial war effort.

    They were all mercenaries, after all. Not soldiers united under a single and stablemand but a bunch of different groups, brought together by a perspective of earning money through their craft.

    "You know that it won''t happen," udy muttered under his nose before averting his eyes to the extreme side. "The most I can do is ask them to leave you alone. Whether or not others will listen to my words��"

    "Don''t worry," I sighed. "I''m not going to ask you for more than you can do. And yes, as soon as I''m done with certain preparations, we will let you all go. Unharmed and without any added ploy to use your retreat as a cover for an attack or something," I spoke before sighing again and shrugging my shoulders.

    "Your people will be free to do whatever they want, even join the empire''s forces if they decide to ignore your request."

    udy squinted his eyes.

    "Why are you letting us off so easily after making a great effort to im us as hostages?"

    udy''s question�� was valid. Or rather, it was perfectly correct to ask. And that made it somewhat challenging to answer.

    "The only reason why I needed you to be my hostages, was to establish first contact with themander of all of the approaching armies," I revealed with a sigh. "And now that''s done, keeping you any longer will only put a strain on the number of supplies the forest has to offer."

    As stupid as it was to reveal my true intentions to someone who could very well be my enemy the moment he returned some�� I still felt good about doing so. For some unknown reason that I couldn''t really exin, it simply felt natural for me to share it.

    "I��" udy opened up his mouth in a clear attempt to say something�� Only to end up dropping the idea and pursing his lips in a slightly ufortable grimace. "No, that''s wrong," udy shook his head before raising it back up and looking first over my shoulder and then directly into my eyes. "For letting us off so easily�� I will consider this a huge debt of gratitude!

    "Don''t worry about it," I replied with a small smirk on my lips. "We are all simply doing our part."

    "And speaking of doing one''s part��" A new, although familiar voice appeared from behind my back, forcing me to jump on the spot as I turned to face the potential threat.

    And a threat it turned out to be, for it was Madam who approached as soon as udy turned on his heel and moved away.

    "Isn''t it time for you guys to go back?" Madam asked in a strangely t tone, one that didn''t fit her at all.

    "You mean��" I hesitated for a second, too scared to even bring the name of the other world up while out in the open. And so, rather than spelling it out loud��

    "Yeah, you are right on the money," Madam spoke before adding a lovely smile to her already happy grin. "And this time, I want to go with you guys."

    This was��

    One hell of an unexpected and unwee development.

    But one that I could allow to happen.

    "Aren''t you necessary here to keep the princess in check?" I suggested, more than just eager to ditch the mother-inw and just elope to earth with Fay.

    Even the thought of enlisting Makary''s help to deal with the human invasion made me feel anxious. For Makary''s men to help, they had toe to this world, after all! And once even a single person would fess up and start some rumors��

    I shook my head and took a breath.

    "If it''s just for a few hours��"

    "Don''t you remember?" I cut Madam off before she could start to push her agenda out. "It''s not that easy to move between�� ces," I turned to a slightly cryptguage, not to give any hints to anyone who could potentially listen to this exchange.

    And while the odds of that happening were low, I dared not topletely dismiss them.

    "Oh�� Right��" Madam muttered, clearly downtrodden by my rejection.

    ''Where did the graceful and dignified woman that never showed any interest in other world go?'' I rolled my eyes and decided to ignore the whining of my mother-inw.

    "We don''t exactly know how soon we will be back. And with how my portals are the only tomunicate between worlds, what would happen if that princess suddenly realized your presence was no longer here, turning the moment into the greatest chance she could ever ask for? " I asked while imagining that very scenario.

    "Then, be back as soon as you can," Madam muttered, turning her head away as she pouted.

    ''Oho,'' I couldn''t help but smile. ''It seems Fay''s new manners are rubbing off on her mom!''

    "Will do," I replied. "Don''t worry, Madam. I will do my absolute best to keep Fay safe and entertained," I proimed while ignoring the pain and lowering my upper body in an elegant but extremely ufortable bow.

    "Ekhem��" Madam averted her eyes, a small blush and a distant sense of longing emerging on her face.

    "Well, we will be going, then," I announced before silently following Madam back into the forest.

    For now, in this world, I did everything I could. But now��

    Now was the time to move on and expand my operation to Earth!

 Chapter 216 : Importing violence

    ''Don''t get conceited,'' I thought, standing a bit deeper into the forest than where I would usually open up the portal.

    There were several reasons for this seemingly random change.

    First, there were over two thousand mercenary hostages, all gathered near the edge of the forest. That, in turn, forced the active warriors of the forest to squeeze together with them, both to keep the mercenaries in check and also to be on alert in case another human army attacked.

    That, in turn, led the nonbat members of the forest ns to move deeper into the forest, turning the usually calm and desertednds of Madam''s personal habitat a lot more busy than before.

    In other, simpler words, there were too many eyes for me to just open up a portal smack-dab in the middle of the familiar clearing, even if only those whom I allowed would ever be able to see it. After all, while the portal itself could be hidden, the fact of people disappearing into nothing or, quite the reverse, appearing out of nowhere couldn''t be concealed.

    And then came thest major issue of there being enough space for free movement around where I would open up myst portal, for it would also mark the ce where my first permanent gate was set toe into existence.

    ''Once it''s up and as long as it''s not too pricey to use it, there''s bound to be a lot of traffic in the area,'' I thought, trying not to let my impatience get the better of me.

    Sure, I wanted to see how this permanent gate would work as soon as possible�� But I wasn''t going to do so at the cost of its future utility!

    "I think this ce should be good enough," I muttered once we finally moved deep enough into the forest to find one of the random clearings that, in my naive, earthy opinion, had no right to be here.

    For how could a dense forest where nts fought for every tiniest sliver of sunlight, be a whole lot of empty spots with nothing but some grass, herbs, and flowers growing around?

    Yet, as I asked Madam during one of our rest times before all the fighting finally went down, there was a rule behind this anomaly. And quite a valuable rule to boot.

    As it turned out, medicinal herbs, just like any other nt, required as much sunlight as they could get. And with nothing but the thin, world''s aura to feed on, on top of its natural nutrients from the soil, those precious herbs had to take energy to create their valuable qualities from somewhere.

    And just like any other living being, those herbs would often dry out all the nutrients from different spots around the forest, killing all the nts within and then proliferating a special type of grass that connected to their root system.

    ''Such aplex exnation behind such a small detail,'' I thought as I stepped into one of the clearings like that. ''It makes me wonder just how much depth there is in topics that I wouldn''t normally take a closer look at.''

    I sighed before shaking my head for a second so I could clear out all of the deep yet ultimately useless thoughts.

    "Are you sure it''s okay to move as deep into the forest as we did?" Fay, my onlypanion on our journey back to earth, asked. "While I get the need for an open space so that whateveres through the gate will have ample room to maneuver�� they will still have to cross the thick woods we moved through on our way here."

    The task that Fay brought up to my attention would be rtively��

    Well, for a carriage of the type I saw the mercenaries operate back at the camp, it would be a tall order. Yet, with enough men to clear the path and then maintain it, it would certainly be a doable task.

    But for the earthly vehicles? Especially military equipment?

    I pursed my lips together and reached out to grab Fay''s hand.

    "So you saw through my ns, huh?" I asked without looking at the girl.

    For some reason, I couldn''t bring myself to look her in the eyes.

    And Fay�� simply smiled.

    "Wasn''t it the goal, for us to learn how to see through the other even without relying on our bond?" she asked, pulling on my hand a bit to bring it away from my side�� all for the sake of wrapping her arm around it.

    "It sure was," I replied, unable and, quite frankly, unwilling to hold back my smile when the warmth of her body pressed against me.

    After all, the moment we would step through the gate came with the promise of all the things we couldn''t indulge ourselves in here. And with how all the things that I had to take care of on the other side would take some time to take ce, there would be more than enough time for the two of us to finally enjoy each otherpany in the privacy of our apartment!

    "Let''s go home," I muttered before taking a long breath and swiping my hand. And as usual, without any added ir, the two-meter high and one-meter wide blob of purple weaved itself into existence, quickly turning into its refined, slightly circr shape.

    With Fay glued to my arm, we quickly cut through the few steps that separated us from the portal before pushing ourselves into the swirly purple that blocked our sight of what was on the other side��

    Only for the visuals all around us to reverse, with the part of our vision ahead now revealing the insides of the apartment while the back half of our vision cut away, blocked by the exit of the portal.

    ''Huh?''

    As eager as I was to just grab Fay''s hand and pull her to the bedroom so that we could test out how learning about each other would affect the synchronization level of our bond�� There was still something that I had to check.

    Or rather, something that made me pretty damn anxious. For even after we emerged from the exit portal and even took a few steps further into the apartment''s bath�� I still saw no sign on the stable gate that was supposed to appear right where I opened up the portal!

    ''Wait, maybe, just maybe��'' Struggling to keep myself calm, I took a deep breath and waved my hand, closing the normal portal��

    [Exit point for the stable gate registered]

    [Exit point invalid]

    [Searching for a valid exit point in the area]

    [Highlighting the suggested exit point in the area]

    [Open a temporary portal at a valid location to establish the exit point for the stable gate]

    Given how strained my nerves were, I noticed the influx of the system messages right the moment they appeared. And as I looked around, I quickly noticed how the frame of the bathroom''s door was now enhanced with a slight, purple effect.

    ''I guess a stable gate can only exist within a frame of a physical gate?'' I thought, trying to figure out what exactly was the meaning of the exit point being invalid.

    Was it because of some sort of mana flow and how the original cement made it impossible for the gate to siphon enough energy to keep itself up and running?

    As much as I wanted to believe in that option, the fact that my system pointed out the doorway as a suitable spot��

    ''Unless we are talking about some sort of feng shui, I believe my first idea is the most likely one��''

    Still, if there was one way to call this slight inconvenience�� Then it would be a blessing in disguise. For only now that I''ve gone through a few rounds of battling it out with humans and encountered truly powerful ones��

    Only now do I know that solving the problem of my forcescking wouldn''t be as easy as just throwing men with firearms into the fold.

    Sure, doing that much would help the forest defenders to stave the invasion off�� But it wasn''t the type of force that could bring me a decisive victory. For that, I needed a modern military at its strongest. And that meant, a proper force saturated with armor and mobile elements.

    Something that would be extremely hard to push through this gate, assuming it would be possible to begin with if it was in my fucking toilet!

    "Any problems?" Fay asked, most likely noticing the ongoing tragiedy of the changes happening on my face. And given how things went from anxiety-inducing, through outright scary and worrying and somehow still ended on a positive, hopeful note with a hint of hidden relief��

    I couldn''t really me her for enjoying the show to its fullest, could I?

    "I was worried we were fucked, but things worked out better than I expected," I sighed, having no reason whatsoever to keep what happened from Fay.

    "But we will need to find a better ce to set that permanent gate up," I muttered before taking a look at the pile of things we ended up leaving behind�� and a single item that I intentionally left in the bathroom for it would be of no use in Fay''s world.

    "We will need to find a better ce for that permanent gate. And right now, I need to call Makary."

    "So you decided to go through with this?" Fay asked in a light tone as if she was simply keeping up the small talk rather than mentioning quite the controversial topic.

    After all, I was about to coer�� invite a military force from my world over to hers!

    "I believe it''s our best shot to stop the invasion," I quickly replied�� Only to stop myself before I could get any deeper into this narrative.

    The real reason behind how lightly I made this choice was slightly different.

    "Actually, that''s not it," I admitted with a sigh. "You know, it struck me when we were going back from the meeting with that princess. I wasn''t gifted with any sort of powerful skill, physique, or magic," I pointed out something that put me in the awkward spot of always trying to get stronger, not to bully others but just to reach the level of those around me.

    Fay, rather than pressing me to keep talking, only pressed herself to the side of my chest.

    By now, she was perfectly aware that the moment I started to talk, I would keep going. And all that she needed to do, was to stick close and hug me, muddling my thoughts to the point I would no longer pay much attention to what I was even talking about.

    "My gift is the ability to open portals between our worlds. And my best bet to make the most out of it is by trading things between worlds."

    I took a deep breath before walking over to my phone and picking it up.

    "And what I need to import to your world, right now, is violence."

 Chapter 217 : Dramatic oversight (r18)

    "The number you''ve called is not avable, please leave a message or try againter."

    I closed my eyes as the voice of the automatic secretary whispered into my ear.

    ''Figures,'' I thought, ending the call and lowering my hand with the phone to my hips, trying to stuff it into my thigh pocket. Yet, when my hand found no fabric, I sighed and threw the phone on the bed.

    It was all dark outside. The exact same time as when I led my first raid over in Fay''s world.

    We stepped out from the portal right at the darkest hour of the night, when one''s sleep was deepest. And as burning of an issue I had to settle with Makary, there was hardly anything I could do to force him to pick the call up.

    ''And with the weight of what I''m about to ask of him��'' I pressed my lips into a thin line, cutting off my sense of sight to focus more on the pleasureing from below.

    There were only a few things that we did after emerging from the portal. Moving from the bathroom now that it was cramped due to all the stuff we stored inside, to the bedroom happened before I could even register it. Fay simply grabbed my hand and decisively led me astray.

    The blush on her cheek gave away her intentions quite easily, only for the change in her step to further confirm it when she visibly started to clench her butt. Still, with her eyes locked on the path ahead, she didn''t stop even for a moment, giving me barely enough time to reach out and grab the phone.

    As one could expect, the very moment the doors to our main bedroom closed behind us, my pants went flying, torn away by a single swing of Fay''s delicate yet powerful hand.

    Paying no mind whatsoever to me, Fay rushed down to her knees, strangely eager to get going.

    And even though I knew I was doing myself a disservice, I still went ahead and reached out for my phone.

    With free, uncontested rein over my hips, Fay quickly put everything that she learned about my weak points into practice, getting a rise out of my bottom self before I could even select and call Makary''s number.

    And now that the call failed to go through��

    "Why are you��"

    The words left my mouth before the desperate jerk of my alerted mind could stop them.

    ''Thinking about it, how could it be a surprise?'' I thought, taken over by the desire to smack my own, stupid face.

    After getting busy with my balls and giving it her all to serve me enough pleasure to make her point clear, we were interrupted, forced by the circumstances to move our attention elsewhere.

    ''As easy as it might be for me to hold on after unloading once, she had to be on edge since��''

    It took me only a second to wrap my mind about just how long Fay had to endure her excitement while putting on a brave, calm face.

    From when we had no other choice but to hear the message, throughout the entire, long encounter with the golden princess��

    ''Ah��''

    All of a sudden, I felt all the worse about how unintentionally cruel I was.

    Not only did I keep Fay on edge for a long time despite reaching fulfillment myself�� I forced her to sit tight and endure her heat while keeping a straight face as she watched me act all courtly towards a human beauty��

    I looked down, both scared but also eager to find out some clues as to whether my assumptions were correct.

    Down at my hips, Fay continued to deform her face by stuffing my erection inside and frantically licking it all over.

    And as great as it felt to have her so desperate to please me��

    I could see the distant hint of distress and uncertainty on her face as clear as if it was written all over her forehead.

    "Fay��" I reached down and brushed the inner side of my palm against Fay''s cheek, gently pulling her away from my crotch.

    The moment I somewhat forcefully removed my dick from her mouth and stopped her attempts at lunging forth to swallow it back�� The sense of distress in Fay''s eyes deepened, causing my heart to painfully twitch.

    Even if it was only for a moment, I really hated to put my beloved through a negative experience like that.

    "I''m sorry, I''m really, really sorry," I apologized while tears started to well up in the corners of my eyes. "I''m sorry that you had to endure it for so long.I''m sorry that I put talking with that golden bitch over taking care of you, even though it was your entire point that we should prioritize each other needs over anything else��"

    Water trickled down my cheeks as I lowered myself down to my knees and reached out with my hands for Fay''s body, all so I could cradle her into my chest in a loving embrace.

    "Honey��?"

    Startled by my sudden, explosive affection, Fay tensed up. And as my hands moved all over her back in a futile attempt to pat it all over at the same time, as my arms pressed her tightly to my chest while my cheek rubbed against the side of her head, Fay remained motionless, lost.

    "I''m sorry for how thoughtless I was," I apologized again, genuinely remorseful over my ownck of emotional intelligence.

    ''Isn''t this kind of neglect how all theorare stories are founded?'' I asked myself, a terrifying sense of dread waking up from its slumber at the core of my soul.

    "Tell me, can I somehow make it up for you?" I pleaded, desperate to repent for this ring mistake��

    "Honey��"

    "I will do anything, just say the��"

    "Peter."

    Fay didn''t shout. In fact, she hardly raised her voice at all.

    Still, she used her hands to push herself off my chest. Yet, before a fear of rejection could settle itself into my soul, she raised her hands and copsed them on both of my cheeks.

    "Peter," Fay repeated herself in a much softer voice while steering my head to force my eyes onto her face.

    "You are doing everything you can to secure the best future possible for us," Fay spoke in a calm, slightly monotone voice, just a step away from the hum a mother would use to chant a luby. "And I can see it. When you are holding back make sure everything works out. When you are making hard choices or taking great risks, you are doing it all for my sake, just in your own, unique way."

    Fay, who somehow ended up on myp, raised up a bit so that her forehead rested right on mine. And with our faces so extremely close��

    "So," Fay curved her lips up in a gentle smile. Quite notably, though, the sense of distress was now fully gone from her eyes, reced by the reawakening excitement. "Stop apologizing for you did nothing wrong. And since I held back for a while now��"

    [

    Fay''s face was covered in blush�� Yet, I couldn''t understand how she found anything embarrassing right now.

    After all, I was so infatuated with the sensation of her breath hitting my face as she spoke to me that my brain was already halfway turned into a mush.

    Still, I got the message. And I had no ns of making the discourtesy of making Fay wait any longer! So, without further ado, I leaned forward, stretching my left arm out to secure Fay''s body while I gently lowered her down to the floor. And as soon as I moved into the position to finally relieve her stress��

    *Ding Ding*

    The screen of my phone lit up with the name ''Makary'' shing up in the middle.

 Chapter 218: On hold (r18)

    *Ding ding!*

    My phone''s simplistic ringtone filled our bedroom once again.

    ''Fuck! What''s with this timing?!''

    Knowing my capability with Fay, one or two nudges of our bond and she would be all bristling and ready to receive my embrace. A few moments earlier and he would catch my call while Fay was still happy busying herself around my dick.

    But now��?

    "Haaa��" Fay breathed out a long sigh, her eyes rolling while her lips twitched into a slightly troubled smile.

    The inner battle of reason and affection had to show on my face, for she reached out before said battle''s conclusion, grabbing the phone herself, epting the call, and putting it on the speaker before cing the phone down by her side.

    "Is this something urgent?" Makary''s sleepy and annoyed voice was full of emotions, for a change.

    And as if she didn''t just pick up the call, Fay gave me a mischievous smile before stretching her arms out towards my shoulders and pulling her knees as far apart as she could, opening up her legs to give me perfect ess to her moist crotch.

    "Pretty much, yeah," I spoke out, the ideas on how I should y this situation out shing in my head.

    And, being the greedy bastard that I was, I reached down towards the base of my dick while taking a quick breath to sort my thoughts out.

    "But this isn''t something to discuss while you are half asleep," I spoke out while silently praising the choices that gave me a pretty damn high processing power for this exact moment.

    In fact, I teetered on the edge of activating my eye of time!

    "I will mute myself for a while, so get yourself up and going," I added before Makary could even protest before both putting the call on silent and turning my microphone off.

    The moment my attention moved away from the phone, I realized that somewhere along the line, Fay used her own hands to help me guide myself toward her.

    And without any further ado, I pressed my hips forth, pushing my tip into Fay''s pussy, forcing its folds apart with my sensitive erection.

    By now, I should be used to the pleasure of lying down with my mate. And yet, when Fay''s insidestched onto my dick, resisting its venture towards her womb.

    Yet, with how wet and hot Fay was, I hardly even noticed the pushback of her flesh, conquering her vagina inch by inch with ease.

    "Haaaa��." Once thest of my dick vanished into Fay''s lower mouth, a long sigh escaped from my lips.

    At the same time, below me, the tension finally vanished from Fay''s flesh, cured by the miraculous stroke of my dick.

    "Kiss��" Fay whispered, struggling to speak properly with how full of air her lungs were.

    I leaned down over her face, eager to satisfy her request, only to realize I fell into her trap when her arms wrapped around the back of my head, pulling me all the way down.

    Instead of kissing her, I ended up being made out with, assaulted by the relentless shes and wiggles of Fay''s glib tongue.

    As our mouths joined, our hands held the other close and our hips shook wildly, Fay''s knees rode up, bringing her thighs to my sides before allowing her feet to lock behind my back.

    For a moment, it was extremely hard to tell where I ended and where Fay began. Somewhere along the line, we both willed for our bond to awaken back to its full potential. And as our auras both flew to fill our bond and then mix together once the connection grew robust enough to handle this kind of exchange��

    The world seemingly evaporated from our connected minds.

    For this single instant, nothing else was of any importance but the heat of our tangled bodies, the pleasure we were both feeling and equally ushering in��

    But it wasn''t only carnal satisfaction that drove us near the edge of madness.

    With our bond reaching levels we never tested before, the true depth of our connection continued to develop.

    And for the first time in my life, this unattainable desire to cuddle something adorable beyond any rational limits�� got satisfied.

    The sense of never being able to pet one''s pet enough was pretty much how I felt towards Fay. I would never get enough of pleasuring her, making herugh, smile, cry out in joy, moan out in satisfaction��

    But right this moment, as our mutual affection and care wasid bare, with no further barrier that defined what was me and what was Fay�� This itch which should be impossible to scratch, somehow reached its goal.

    Deep into the high of our bond, I didn''t even realize when I unleashed my load all over Fay''s insides.

    The orgasm was now just a cheery on the top, an insignificant detail in the sea of tender love I had for Fay. And with my mind overwhelmed by just how much this silly girl reciprocated those feelings of mine, I could hardly even register the fact that I came!

    On the other hand, though, the sensation of having Fay''s womb painted white by my seed�� Was a bit more profound, moreplex than what I''ve felt before when cumming inside of her with our bond at its peak.

    As if there was a bit more to this single, particr moment than meets the eye.

    Was it because the depth of our bond spiked? Maybe it was because Fay reached some level of climaxing that she never got before? Or maybe��

    "Haaa��"

    This time, we both sighed out at the same time.

    Even though our intercourse was short, it made up for how wild and intense it was. And with Fay''s cravings now at least partially satisfied, I took a deep breath and reached out for the phone to unlock both my microphone and the speakers.

    "Okay, are you ready for something big?" I asked out loud while dropping down andfortably resting my head on the soft pillows of Fay''s breast. Her sweat dripping down the curves of her body only made for a slicker experience while her hands frantically reached out for my hair to mess with it��

    "Speak," Makary replied in a stern voice, showing no signs of reading too much into how my own words sounded.

    "How quickly and how many soldiers you could gather?" I asked, using the words that I''ve long since prepared. "I need an army. And if you help me out, I will bring you to the source."

 Chapter 219: Unexpected visit

    "I need an army. And if you help me out, I will bring you to the source."

    Only silence followed my words.

    Below me, Fay was too immersed in the aftershocks of the pleasure to care. And in all honesty, were it not for my ns regarding her world and maybe the safety of her mother, she couldn''t care less about the fate of her forest nor whether I would bring a foreign army to aid her brethren or not.

    I myself couldn''t really speak up, not unless I wanted to decrease the effects of dropping the bomb that I threw at Makary.

    As for Makary��

    I knew him as someone who wasn''t stupid enough to instantly agree or reject my request.

    No.

    He had to think it properly through first.

    "An army, huh?" Makary spoke after a little bit more time passed. Yet, rather than giving any form of proper response, he simply muttered part of what I said back.

    Still, the fact that he spoke allowed me to add some more details myself.

    "I know this isn''t something we should discuss via phone, but I''m really in a hurry here," I spoke to the phone while rxing down on Fay''s breasts by listening to the fast yet steady pace of her heart and enjoying the breeze of her breath hitting the top of my head.

    "How long do I have?" Makary asked.

    "Two, or three days is all I can offer," I replied.

    As much as I wanted to just call the man ande back to the forest with an army within a few hours�� Something like that wasn''t possible.

    It would take time to gather people. Especially with how only a small part of Makary''s soldiers ended up as a part of his gang, with a reasonable chunk of their numbers sinking into the general poption.

    After all, with the country that sponsored their existence gone and everyone desperate to preserve whatever pieces of the economy there were left, no one had the kind of money necessary to pay for a huge, standing army or to maintain all the equipment they needed to operate.

    Two to three days.

    An extremely long time from the perspective of forest defenders the humans decided to attack right as I left the ce. And an extremely short moment for Makary to gather his people, prepare equipment and supplies, cover his tracks, ensure thatck of his presence wouldn''t affect his business��

    "I know that what I''m asking is one hell of a huge request," I admitted over the phone while struggling to resist the spell of sleepiness that came when Fay''s hand continued to brush through my hair and massage my scalp. "But so is going to be the reward."

    My request was more than just massive. Assuming I gauged Makary''s personal power more or less correctly, going along with my task would force him tomit most if not all of the forces he could ess.

    And with no exact timeline for when all those soldiers could return, the whole topic became all the more difficult. Stay connected to the story on m-vl-em-py-r

    After all, once people saw another world with their own eyes, letting them go back�� Letting them go back was something that ultimately would have to happen, but would do so at an extreme risk of the news of my ability spreading.

    In other words, whoever Makary would hopefully send to another world, would have to��

    "Oh, another thing," I spoke out before Makary could ask any questions. "Those who wille�� Well, let''s just say that it will be��" I paused for a second to build up the tension, "it will be extremely difficult for them to return anytime soon."

    Once again, Makary replied with nothing but silence, properly taking his time to process what I told him.

    "I cane up with fifty well-trained and equipped soldiers," he spoke after some more time passed. "All equipped in thetest tech, all��"

    "That won''t do," I cut Makary off before he could go any further with his idea.

    ''Fifty men?'' I thought, shaking my head and thus rubbing it into Fay''s chest. ''I guess he doesn''t understand the scale of things��''

    "Unless those fifty mene with an atomic bomb each, they won''t be enough."

    Once again and for the third time, Makary turned silent. This time, however, his silencested for much longer than in both of the cases before.

    "Was my offer anywhere near your expectations?"

    I turned my head away from the phone, burying my face deep into Fay''s bosom, inhaling her natural aroma to calm myself down and thus have an easier time gathering my thoughts.

    In the end, though, I couldn''t find the right words to exin myself.

    I mean, I could just tell him all the details outright�� But I had no ns on doing that over the phone. Given who he was in the city and how I suddenly became an important member of his group, the chances of our call being traced and spied on were pretty damn high.

    ''Perks of having something that would throw an entire world into frenzy, I guess.''

    "I can''t answer that over the phone," I said after quite some time, raising my face from Fay''s breasts just so my voice could reach the microphone. "I believe you made sure no one else could have any wires at my ce. Can I expect your visit soon?"

    For the fourth time, Makary employed silence to answer my question��

    "I''m getting into the lift, we will talk face to face."

    With those words, Makary cut the call, leaving me and Fay equally dumbfounded.

    ''Wait, the lift?''

    There were only a handful of buildings in the entire city that still used technology as old and convenient as mechanical lifts. Ever since the copse of the global market, sourcing the recement parts to keep those operating turned into one hell of a challenge, quickly turning them into a luxury item only the richest of the rich could afford.

    And just one look at my penthouse was enough to prove the building I was in certainly fit the category.

    "He''sing," I spoke out loud, pushing my hands against the ground as I raised from the soft pillow of Fay''s body, getting up to my feet before helping Fay to do the same. And before I could even finish pulling my pants up my ass, the ringing of the doorbell announced Makary''s arrival.

    ''Shit, I forgot how quick the lifts here are,'' I thought, cursing myself for how easily Makary managed to catch me, quite literally, with my pants off.

    "Take your time to get dressed, I will go greet him for now," I threw at Fay before turning around and moving towards the doors of our bedroom. "Oh, I believe you know what''s normal and what''s not in this world by now," I spoke as I turned my head to look back into the room. "So, if he proves to deny the legitimacy of my story��"

    If I wanted to prove the existence of another world, I could do so by simply showcasing something that had no right to exist in this world. And while my skills were quite powerful when used correctly�� They hardly brought forth an observable effect. And quite frankly, manifesting true darkness before Makary was something I would rather avoid. And so��

    "Then you want me to step in and show him some magic," Fay summed my ns up with a lovely smile, only to follow her own words up with a giggle. "And here I thought you were never going to ask!"

 Chapter 220: There isnt enough idiots in this world to pull it off

    There was hardly any point in a doorbell in my current penthouse. With how one needed not only a private ess card but also the approval of the security to get the lift to reach the upper floors, there was hardly any point in entrance doors, to begin with.

    The doorbell was just an added redundancy. And yet, right now, I was d this traditional way of building persisted, even in a penthouse so luxurious it was supposed to break all the covenants.

    "For now, dress up while I go and greet him," I instructed Fay before moving outside of the bedroom and carefully closing the doors.

    No matter how tall my request for Makary was, I wasn''t going to give him even the remotest chance at ncing upon Fay''s nakedness.

    That privilege was for me and me alone and I couldn''t care less whether this made me a greedy or a jealous man.

    *Ding Ding!*

    Right as I reached for the entrance doors, the doorbell rang again. And even though I have yet to see Makary, it allowed me some insight into how impatient he was at the moment.

    ''Well, I pulled him out of the bed in the dead middle of the night,'' I thought, ncing through at the disy of the security system mounted by the entrance before pressing the button and pulling the doors open.

    "Do you even know what time it is?" Makary started ranting the very moment he could see my face.

    "I know," I cut the man short. And even though openly berating my rude behavior was bound to, at least partially, fix the man''s mood, I hardly had the time to waste on this type of small talk. "I wouldn''t have called if it wasn''t urgent."

    I pulled the doors open as wide as I could before stepping to the side and inviting the man in. Once he came inside, I made sure to close the door myself rather than relying on its automated closing system.

    The topic we were going to discuss was simply too important for me to ignore the minuscule chance that the closing mechanism of the doors would fail, leaving them slightly open and thus allowing someone to listen in on what we were going to talk about.

    It was a minuscule chance�� but one that was greater than zero. And given the nearpleteck of effort necessary to take care of the issue, I would have to be stupid not to do so.

    Turning back towards the insides of the penthouse, I saw Makary walk towards the main lounge area and drop down on the sofa.

    "I understand that you are in a hurry, but I need coffee to think," Makary called out as he got himselffortable to the point of stretching his legs out and resting them down on the coffee table adjacent to the main sofa in the lounge.

    "I will take care of it," Fay spoke as she came out from our bedroom.

    She didn''t have the time or reason to dress up nicely, opting to pick her favorite sweatpants and a slightly oversized hoodie over anything more proper or elegant.

    "Thanks," I nodded my head to the girl, passing by her as I moved to join Makary in the lounge area. "Can you get me one too?" I asked before Fay could escape to the kitchen.

    "Three coffees it is, then."

    Contrary to my expectations, Fay didn''t head for the kitchen but opted to make way for the open bar instead.

    ''I guess she''s going to concoct something that health and safety officials would happily ssify as a drug, isn''t she?''

    After my experiences in Fay''s world, I grew to appreciate just how massive of a difference the skill of a drink-maker could bring. And between all the various herbs I saw her collect in her free time and the ingredients she had on hand in the bar��

    "On a side note," I spoke as I reached the lounge and seated myself on the other end of the table before swatting Makary''s hand aside without a second thought, "you can really look forward to the coffee."

    Makary squinted his eyes, either at me swatting his legs away or at my slight teasing. Either way, though, he didn''t bother toment. He brought his legs down before leaning over the coffee table himself, mirroring my position.

    "You want an army," Makary spoke once only the sounds of Fay concocting some sort of potion intruded upon the silence of the night. "What for?"

    I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a second.

    ''How exactly should I bite it?'' I asked myself.

    Should I go all in and start with requesting a nuke or battle gases and then negotiate my demands down to just a standard army? Or maybe keep everything hushed, only revealing enough for Makary to properly prepare?

    I opened my eyes and stared into the man''s face, searching for something that would help me decide the right approach.

    "First off, most of what I will say will sound like a fantastical story, a nove only a manchild with a drug-abused brain coulde up with," I started.

    "Cease the preambles," Makary cut my opening statements short. "I need details. Aren''t you in a hurry?"

    I squinted my eyes a little, staring even deeper into the man''s eyes.

    ''Should I keep things hidden? But he''s going to learn about everything anyway�� assuming he agrees to help��''

    A deep breathter, I finally made my decision.

    "The ce where I source all my goods from is under siege. Right now, the enemies are waiting for all their reinforcements to arrive. Once they all gather, I will be up against nearly eighty-thousand troops with less than fifteen hundred on my side."

    As weird as this might sound�� I actually made sure to start with things that would be easier to swallow. After all, while my enemies boasted one hell of a massive number of soldiers��

    This kind of thing still fell within the framework of what Makary could ept as a possibility.

    "If you ssified an average human with one, an athlete with a number up to three, and an absolute master of one''s craft as six through nine��"

    I took a short pause to estimate the general structure of both the forest and the human forces.

    "Then, most of the guys on my side are around fifteen to twenty, while our enemies can be ssified between five to ten, maybe five to fifteen," I exined before raising my eyes and looking right into Makary''s pupils with only a few inches separating our faces.

    "With me and Fay counted, there should be about twenty powerhouses within my forces and I estimate about the same to fight for the other side. In fact, I''ve already killed a master on this level, and let me tell you this��"

    Recalling the memory of the tough fight towards the end of the battle with the imperial reinforcements, I shook my head and breathed out a long sigh.

    "The guy I fought ate one�� No, two rounds from neugarand. I even showered him with a cloud from neu-p90�� And it was still a tough fight."

    I gulped down my saliva.

    For some reason, going through a near-death experience didn''t affect me all that much back then. And yet, as soon as I recalled it for the very first time��

    My face turned cold as all the colors drew away from my cheeks.

    "Thankfully, when ites to people beyond the level I can gauge or understand, it''s one for each side, so we can count them off from the fight."

    Concluding the list of the threats, I took a moment to gather my thoughts before moving my eyes and hands to the table and tapping my fingers against it.

    "Ah, and before I forget." My face twitched when I realized I had yet to reveal what might be the most important detail out of them all. "Those soldiers I mentioned," I raised my eyes back to Makary''s face and smiled, right as Fay appeared in the corner of my vision while carrying three cups of steaming-hot coffee. "They are armed with spears, swords, bows�� I bet they have some crossbows too."

    With my eyes locked on Makary''s face�� I couldn''t see a single emotion appear in his eyes.

    ''Welp, I more or less expected him not to believe me,'' I thought, forcefully stopping my face from revealing an ugly grimace.

    "Assuming you are not pulling my leg, why would you need an army to fight this��" Makary hesitated, not exactly sure how to phrase the next part of what he wanted to say. "Why would you need an army to fight this��"

    In the end, the man simply cut his words short and turned silent, taking some more time to think through what he actually wanted to say.

    And a mere momentter, something about his face changed. Did it grow more�� serious?

    "No, sorry, but I''m not going to y along with this skit," Makary sighed, grabbing the cup of coffee as soon as Fay ced it down on the table.

    He then pulled himself to the back of the sofa before taking a sizeable sip of the drink.

    Once again, his face twitched and his expression slightly changed. This time, however, with his eyes shooting down towards the drink in his cup, it was obviously the achievement of Fay''s fancy drink rather than my words or his thoughts.

    Still, Makary took a sip before lowering his cup and raising his eyes back to my face.

    "I refuse to believe you could find that many idiots, gather them all up, keep them fed�� and all for what? To conquer some sort of forest?" Makary shook his head. "If someone was worried about setting in on fire or destroying too much vegetation, there are hundreds of better, more efficient ways to wage warfare than using ancient weapons."

    "You are right," I admitted and nodded my head. "There aren''t enough idiots that would gather up for such an idiotic endeavor in this world."

    I breathed out and prepared myself to drop the biggest bombs of all that I''d prepared for this conversation.

    "But I never imed we are talking about this world to begin with."

 Chapter 221: What say you?

    Makary was a man of a few words. Someone who weighed nearly every word he spoke, thus making them bear a lot more weight than useless drivel the majority of people would partake in.

    And yet, when he had nothing but silence to react to my reveal, it didn''t take long for me to start worrying.

    ''Do I really need to pull out Fay to make him believe us?''

    This question was far deeper than it appeared. Because if I ended up proving, in any way or form, that what I''ve spoken about wasn''t just a figment of my imagination, I would be the loser of the exchange.

    For Makary would keep his ability to decide for or against my request, while my hand would already be out in the open.

    "I hope you understand how hard it is to believe�� frankly, any of this," Makary finally spoke in a perfectly weighed, controlled manner.

    "I''m aware," I said while nodding my head.

    "And you don''t happen to��" Makary raised his eyes a bit, "have proof to back what you said?"

    I took a deep breath and lowered my eyes.

    "Indeed, I do. In fact, I gave it to you�� how long ago was it?" I pretended to think about the topic for a moment. "Two weeks ago? Three?" I kept acting as if I couldn''t recall the exact date. "All the killing I''ve been up to made it pretty hard for me to keep count."

    At this point, as much as I hated myself for it, Makary''s mere presence was causing me to start rambling uselessly.

    No matter how high my intelligence or wisdom was, they only allowed me to process more information and to process it faster. When it came to emotional intelligence, however, the ability to read and interact with people, those two attributes were of no use whatsoever.

    Still, faced with my point regarding the herb I sold to him, Makary either couldn''t or didn''t want to counter it. And seeing how the silence between the two of us prolonged, I couldn''t help growing restless.

    "Did you seriously think that such a miraculous herb was just growing somewhere in the shade of a tree, side by side with a weed bush nted by some junkie?" I shook my head. "Two hundred years ago, something like this would be believable. A hundred years ago one could, after turning a blind eye to a lot of things, ept it as something within the realm of possibility. But today?"

    I shook my head again. And quite frankly, I didn''t really need to repeat my point.

    In times of trouble, when things started to get really tough and bad, people always turned to miracles.

    Back during the Second World War, germans believed that their war effort could be saved with the help of the mythical wunderwaffe. And in the years when the world started to spiral into the greatest economic copse in written history, nearly every country that existed back then threw itself into searching for exactly that - a miracle.

    A miraculous drug capable of healing all ailments that governments could use to pacify the general poption. A new resource that could provide a shitload of energy, nutrients, or whatever else. A new political movement, religion, ideology��

    With how driven the entire world was to find a miracle that would put the downfall of the entire civilization to a stop, there was no way an actual miracle herb could escape everyone''s attention only to find its way to my hands.

    ''And even if it did, I''m not exactly someone capable of discerning the value of something that important either.''

    "I will admit that the matter with this herb is�� peculiar," Makary spoke with extreme caution, literally weighing every single word he used before he actually voiced it out. "But to believe in another world? Or rather, you have the ability to enter another world?"

    Makary shook his head.

    "I can''t give you any proof before youmit to my request."

    Rather than ying cat and mouse and running in circles around each other, I decided to be frank and put my reasons straight on the table.

    "So how about it. You go call who you need to get things moving. And if all I''ve told turns out to be mere bullshit, you will get all the rights to my herbs for free."

    I cupped my hands together while resting my elbows on my knees. Leaning over the coffee table, I looked Makary straight in the eyes, trying my absolute best to read into what was going through his head.

    And as far as I could see beyond the man''s mask, he was currently battling his own thoughts.

    "Assuming I agree��" Makary spoke out, only to, once again, cut his words short. At the same time, his face twisted in disapproval of what he was about to say.

    "To be frank, I''m not even sure if it will be possible to move a huge number of people or equipment over to the other world all that easily," I admitted even though this point wasn''t on the agenda. "So, here''s my suggestion that consists of three points."

    I stood up from the chair and walked away from the main lounge area, moving over to the massive ss panel that made up one of the walls of the penthouse.

    "First thing first, you need to start calling people. This point, I won''t concede on. Secondly, I need you to fix a ce with�� literal frame for a gate?"

    This point I wasn''t exactly sure about. After all, it was merely my own guess that it was a physical anchor that I needed to fix this stable gate of mine in ce.

    Still, whether or not it was true, hardly mattered. After all, in the worst case scenario, who would stop me from exploiting the normal portal by having everyone form a line and grab each other hands as they walk into Fay''s world?

    "Andstly, once the first two demands are satisfied, I will give you your proof. And one that no one in their right mind will be able to deny," I announced as I turned around and looked at Makary with the backdrop of a night sky behind my back. "What say you?"

 Chapter 222 : Greater than supreme?

    "I need you to bring out the heavy stock to the old hangar," Makary spoke to the phone he held between his left ear and left shoulder. With his left hand, he controlled the steering wheel while actively shifting gears with his right.

    "Yes, I need it done for yesterday."

    "I will be waiting."

    Since the call wasn''t on a loudspeaker, I couldn''t really tell what the conversation was about. All I managed to figure out was that the phrase Makary opened the call with had to be some sort of code��

    Because after ending the call and starting another, he used the exact same words.

    "I need you to bring out the heavy stock to the old hangar."

    In the end, Makary made a total of seven calls, four of which started with the sentence mentioned while thest three started with "I''m really hungry, what would you say about getting a proper barbecue?"

    After thest call, Makary let go of the car''s wheel for a second only to grab the phone and throw it down on hisp.

    "It''s done," he then announced while putting his focus back on the road.

    "Good," I replied from the backseat of the car, not even bothering to look away from the window. "How long will it take?''

    Makary tapped the wheel with his fingers for a few moments.

    "Equipment should arrive within a few hours. Safely breaking the seals on our warehouses will take a while and moving that many arms and supplies��"

    Makary didn''t finish his sentence. And quite frankly, he didn''t need to.

    Right now, Makary wasn''t a general or even amanding officer of a military unit. He was just a leader of a quasi-gang who controlled parts of the academy town that its government hardly cared about.

    ''The moment he starts moving his real pawns around, everyone on his level is bound to get nervous.''

    Makary wasn''t the only one with special standing in the area. He just happened to be the one in control of the area where my dearest of aunts rented a shack for me to live in.

    All in all, the entire city was divided between the government of old in control of the city center and the richest districts while every other part of the town belonged to a different gang, warlord, or other form of organization that had both will and means to control it.

    The only reason why this fragile bnce of power remained within the status quo was the fact that it was in no one''s interest to break it. With how things were below the surface level, any sort of squabble or territorial war would only elerate the decay of not only the areas involved but for everyone else in the city and its suburbs.

    That''s why, for Makary to move the bulk of his power around��

    "Don''t worry, I understand," I muttered silently, too busy staring through the window to even look to the front at the back of Makary''s head.

    "To be honest, I''m not even sure what I''m supposed to hope for," Makary muttered once the silence started to grow a bit too long for anyone''sfort. "If you are wrong, I will have a hell to pay for this stunt. But if you are right��"

    "If I''m right, then it means the world is about to drastically change," I tuned in to Makary''s words, finishing his point for him. "Infinitely cheap resources that are all up for grabs. Endless manpower so cheap it can be borderline very. New technology, herbs, physics�� Or scratch all that and rece it with magic��"

    After listing out all sorts of things that came to my mind, I heaved a long, exhausted sigh.

    "To be honest, I''m scared of how my ability will change the world. That''s why I asked only for people that can disappear. For it will take only three days before everyone will be able to go back�� But it might take years before we will be able to afford to let anyone back to earth."

    Makary didn''tment on my point.

    And in all honesty, there wasn''t all that much that he could say.

    Just like I mentioned, the ability to open a gate to another world, especially with much worse technology than Earth��

    As history taught, there are only three ways to stop a massive, economic crisis.

    Going colonial to gain ess to cheap goods and expand one''s market was the easiest option but one that was no longer possible since the sixteenth century. Massive government projects were another option, one that worked surprisingly well if one were to ignore all the drawbacks of this solution.

    Ultimately, though, only war and arms race provided the economy with enough flow of money and the poption with enough determination to put an end to an economic crisis.

    And my ability to open a portal to another world�� pretty much satisfied all three of those options.

    It gave ess to a fresh, new world with its untapped resources up for grabs. Any attempt at establishing power within that world would require one hell of an investment, between all the technology that had to be built from scratch, armies that had to be brought over and maintained, and the investments in the infrastructure necessary to properly mine and then process the local resources.

    Ultimately, anyone who wanted to im the riches of this new world would have to do so by standing at the front of a massive army necessary to grind all the local resistance to dust.

    ''I don''t have the men to go colonial. Even with Makary''s help, I don''t think we have the money or even the means to go through with any real investment either��''

    Thinking to myself, I continued to stare through the window at the streets sparsely illuminated by the few street lights that were still in a working state.

    ''And in the end, saving the forest from the invasion is the most I can do without any ability to upkeep any serious supply lines. Modern army turns useless without a steady flow of ammunition for the guns and food for the hungry mouths, after all.''

    I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes, trying to figure out what would be my next step once the whole mess with the invasion came to an end.

    Sadly, no matter how hard I tried, the answer to my troubles continued to elude me.

    "We are almost��"

    "Stop the car!"

    Before Makary could finish his heads-up, Fay suddenly screamed out while reaching out and tugging at my shirt. And as I looked over, I saw maybe not the impossible, but definitely the improbable.

    For outside of the car, past the window on Fay''s side��

    Her clone was walking the street in thepany of Cassie''s friend whom I knew about.

    ''Wait, that''s not right,'' I thought, taking a moment to realize that it wasn''t Fay''s clone�� But it''s an inferior version, the imperfect original that Fay''s dreamy form improved upon and perfected.

    Or, in other words, it wasn''t Fay''s clone but Cassie herself!

    "Can you see it?" Fay asked, ignoring Makary''s startled look and the shaking of the rapidly decelerating car.

    And as I looked at the two women walking the street��

    I couldn''t help but gulp my saliva down.

    Even with all the distance that separated us, I could tell one thing for sure.

    The thickness of the dark aura that permeated the air around the two wasparable��

    No.

    The aura around them was of a level beyond what I saw Madam or Etaria control!

 Chapter 223 : Over one hundred!

    "Stop the car!"

    Upon Fay''s shout, Makary''s vehicle swerved on the road a bit.

    I was toote to stop Fay''s shout, sensing her distress a mere instant before she actually called out.

    Still, Makary wasn''t the kind of a driver who would panic when put on the spot like that. After a moment of desperate breaking, he quickly countered with the gas, throwing the steering wheel to the side to make up for the car sliding on the somewhat wet road.

    "Can you see it?!" Fay quickly corrected with another shout while tugging on my shirt to attract my attention.

    And yet, rather than just staring at the terrifying sight outside, I gritted my teeth and took a shallow breath.

    "Drive slightly drunk!"

    The worst thing we could do was attract their attention. And while the courtesy of the tinted windows kept our faces away from Cassie and her bitchy friend''s eyes��

    Would someone capable of casually wielding an aura many times greater than Madam could harness really be obstructed by something as simple as that?

    Still, those tinted windows gave us a tiny bit of leeway. The obvious high ss of Makary''s personal car only added to the premise of a drunk nouveau-riche crashing through the city streets at night.

    "Okay��?" Makary, having no clue what we just saw, sensed that it wasn''t an act. And following my request, he swung the car to the other side, nearly crashing into the nearby sign pole.

    "Haaa�� haaa�� haaa��" The sound of Fay''s heavy breathing filled the otherwise silent car.

    Right, as the child of the forest and someone who lived with the aura her entire life, she had to be much more sensitive to it than me. And with how I felt like throwing out right this very moment after just a single nce at this repulsive, thick, and oily aura of darkness��

    I could only imagine how shitty Fay felt.

    "It''s okay," I whispered, leaning over the girl and wrapping my arm around her shoulders, steadying her in her ce.

    "Do you have any bags here?" I turned my head and called out before the nauseating feeling got to me too.

    "Storage in the arm''s rest, there should be something there," Makary replied, still holding himself back from asking any questions.

    From the asional nces he threw to the rear-view mirror, he actively monitored the situation and ultimately knew better than to try to push us for answers right now.

    Prompted by his words, I reached out to pull the armrest out from its socket in the middle of the backseat of Makary''s car. And after scouring through the storage hidden within, I triumphantly pulled out a simple, stic bag, before prying it open and preparing it for Fay to use.

    "It''s okay, throw it out if you feel like it," I encouraged the poor girl while using my hand to gently massage the upper part of her back.

    "I�� I''m fine��" Fay uttered after a few moments, the colors slowly returning to her face. "Let''s just get away from them, as soon as possible and as quick as possible��"

    The car shot to the side as Makary took the right turn with a wide, much wider than necessary arc.

    "Let''s just get us out of here," I seconded Fay''s request, finally bringing Makary''s drunken driving to a stop.

    Thest thing I wanted, right now, was for the police to stop us so close to where we spotted the two girls.

    "Are you sure you don''t want to check it out any further��?" Makary asked with a sizeable hint of genuine worry in his eyes.

    And as amusing as it was to hear him talk like that, like a human rather than the stern leader he was, the perspective of turning back��

    "Don''t you fucking dare," I coughed out, finally starting to rid my mind of the revolting sensation induced by just a single fucking nce at the thicket of dark aura. "Do you remember the numbers I used to describe strength?"

    My sudden question caused Makary to pull his eyebrows together and squint his eyes a little bit, something I saw only thanks to the courtesy of the same rear-view window he was using to keep an eye on us.

    "Yeah, I do." Makary nodded his head as he slowed down and entered a really narrow street, only to emerge on a massive za, one that I had no clue existed smack-dab in the middle of the district.

    "A normal human goes up to an average of three points. A professional can reach six while a master, an absolute elite, can reach up to nine. Levels ten and above are pretty much beyond the human realm."

    Hearing my recap of what I said just a fewteen minutes ago, Makary simply nodded his head.

    "This time I won''t be speaking with averages�� Or at least, not in the sense I did when raising this topic thest time," I started with yet another preamble, something I was growing strangely fond of doing.

    "My number should be within the upper teens, just shy of twenty. Fay''s number��" This time I hesitated for a bit since I wasn''t sure which of her average attributes should I provide. The one she boasted while in her human form? The stats she enjoyed while in her ascended, kitsune form?

    Or maybe the stats I saw appear on her status when we joined in this strange union, locked within the domain of her hair and aura?

    "Fay''s number would be around the middle twenties," I spoke, settling on describing Fay''s ascended but not promoted form.

    "The powerhouses I talked about��" I took a short pause to try to give it an educated guess. "Around sixty, I believe?" I muttered to myself. "Somewhere within of forty through eighty points, I guess. But in their case, those points hardly even matter anymore."

    "And?" Makary asked after I turned silent for a short while. "Why are you telling me all of this?"

    I took a deep breath to sort my own thoughts.

    What was just an after-through, an issue to investigate along the leisure of free time�� Now turned into something quite possibly much more important and dire than whatever was going back in Fay''s world.

    "One of the two girls, either my ex or her bitchy friend��"

    I pressed my lips into a thin line, struggling to even get the next piece out of my mouth.

    And right as Makary drove towards the massive, metal gate to an ancient-style ne''s hangar and stopped the car, I finally gathered my guts and spoke.

    "To my understanding, one of those two boasts a number well past hundred."

 Chapter 224: Proof by lightning

    "Do you want me to set up surveince over them?"

    After a few moments of sitting in the car in silence, Makary finally came up with a suggestion.

    "I don''t know what means those girls have that got you two so scared�� But regardless of how powerful they are, they won''t necessarily know all the intricate wonders of technology, would they?"

    As against as I was of the idea the moment I heard it�� Now that Makary expanded on it a little, I couldn''t help but get a little interested.

    Because, to a degree, he was right.

    No matter how powerful one could be, it wouldn''t help them when faced with technology they either didn''t expect or outright don''t know about.

    Just like that powerful mage from the mercenary camp that I shot dead with a single round, even though when fighting a man on pretty much the same levelter on not even several rounds proved to be enough.

    And the difference was quite obvious. Save for how one was clearly a mage and the other a more mundane fighter, they were separated by how the mage never saw my long-range attacks while the swordsman I fought lived through several days'' worth of neugarand bombardment.

    Between the two, only the swordsman knew what kind of power I brought to the table, allowing him to make some sort of preparations that rendered him capable of somewhat fending the bombardment off.

    "I guess it''s fine, as long as you are really careful about it. And I will be able to provide you with quite a lot of info on my ex, but you will have to find out more about her bitchy friend yourself."

    Makary''s face rxed a little. He then grabbed the handle of the doors before smiling a little and nodding his head as he opened the doors and got out of the car.

    "This is a small matter, so you don''t need to mention it," he said, waving his hand as if to discard the topic while already outside.

    "Keep in mind, one of the two of them can squash this entire city with a single fart," I added a warning while taking some liberty to guess the scale of the owner of that darkness'' strength.

    If Madam, the only supreme I more or less knew, could influence the aura of a huge area around her�� Then one of those girls directly controlled pretty much the same amount of aura herself.

    And the difference was obvious.

    Madam merely influenced the world''s aura within her range. On the other hand, one of those girls had more personal aura than all of the world''s aura that fell within Madam''s influence!

    "I will make sure tomit that to my memory," Makary assured when the two of us got out of the car, greedily breathing in the fresh air to chase away thest of the unpleasant sensation caused by this extremely close encounter with the obvious source of the darkness that we were puzzled by.

    Through a few, extremely simple assumptions and logical conclusions, I could pretty much prove that whichever of the two girls was the source of that hell of a dark aura was pretty much set to be the culprit behind the dark aura in me or in some of the people I''ve met.

    After all, if supremes were already rare in a world brimming with aura, then how many more there could be people who went to a level beyond supreme? And how many of them could somehow find their way to Earth?

    The calction of probabilities was simple.

    Just one being that strong was pretty much impossible. But so was my existence, of someone gifted with the ability to open portals to another world, an ability that I still didn''t fully understand or trust the origins of.

    "Either way, let''s not dilly-dally out in the open, especially when you are that worried those two will notice you. We are not that far from where you two saw them, after all."

    Following Makary''s advice not to waste any time, we made our way to the massive doors leading to the airne hangar�� Only to find out that rather than opening the massive gate, we could simply use a small door embedded right into it.

    The insides of the hangar turned out to be as magnificent as the za outside�� and equally as empty. Save for some metal beams indicating that there used to be some sort of heavy machinery inside, the ce waspletely empty, with no tools, machines, or people other than us three in sight.

    "Will this suffice?" Makary asked, pointing his hand to the back gate to the hangar�� Or rather, a bunch of steel and wooden beams bound together with zip-ties, some sort of industrial glue, and prayers of whoever created this abomination.

    Still, all around this pile of scrap, there was a perfectly fine gateframe, a seemingly perfect fit for my purposes.

    "Okay then," Makary spoke out the very moment I took a step closer toward the messy area to verify whether or not I could open a gate in it. "I''ve made my calls and set everything in motion. I''ve also brought you to a ce that best fits your criteria," the man listed out while crossing his hands over his chest and heavily standing his ground whiletching his eyes on my head.

    "I believe I deserve to see a proof now, do I not?"

    I stopped in my tracks with my eyes still glued to the mess at the back of the hangar.

    After taking a few moments to calcte everything, I heaved a short sigh before ncing over to Fay and nodding my head.

    That was the most I was willing to do for Makary''s sake.

    Not because I wanted to disrespect him or didn''t care whether or not he would trust us.

    I simply had another problem at hand to deal with, for as it turned out, even when summoning the context windows rted to establishing my gate�� The frame of the hangar''s back entrance still refused to attain an otherwordly shine that only I could see.

    My eyes were focused on the back of the hangar, opposite where Fay and Makary stood. And yet, just by slightly raising the intensity of my bond with the girl, I could pretty much experience everything that happened next, as it happened.

    Seeing my nod of approval, Fay grinned��

    And the very next moment, she vanished from her spot, turning into a single dot of explosive light that streaked across the distance that separated her from Makary in a single instant.

    For a second, I worried Fay was going to brutalize the man as a show of power�� Only to feel here out from her lighting form and strike out with her right hand.

    Makary couldn''t even hope to escape the strike�� Or rather a grab as Fay''s attack turned out to be when she unveiled her fingers only to wrap them around the man''s throat as shended right behind his back.

    And as if her speed wasn''t enough proof of her inhumane abilities, upon reassuming her normal form�� Fay no longer presented herself as a human but assumed her ascended, kitsune form instead.

    "Is that a proof enough?" I asked when Fay casually let go of the man''s throat only to then bear his shocked and amazed look.

    And to be honest, his eyes lingered on Fay''s fluffy ears for a bit longer than I was willing to take without sacrificing my mentalfort.

    "It�� It is��"

    Makary clearly didn''t want to admit it. His face twisted in an extremely doubtful and dissatisfied expression. Yet, no matter how hard he squinted his eyes and brought his eyebrows together��

    No physics or logic could exin what happened nor what he saw right before his eyes.

    "Good," Imented, only to roll my eyes and turn sideways with my hand stretched out towards the messy gate. "Because we have a problem. This frame��"

    My hand steadily pointed at what Makary intended to be the anchor for my stable gate. My eyes, however, escaped to the side.

    After all, my next piece was the type of guess I hated the most. A guess based on nothing more but my gut feeling rather than a legitimate reasoning.

    "I believe this frame is about four times too big to work. Can you do something about it?"

 Chapter 225: Issue of lookalikes

    The work moved a lot quicker than I ever expected.

    It all started with me taking a few minutes to convince Makary I wasn''t joking. Then, with a few more calls, he called in quite a colorful bunch.

    Save for the small incident when the recipient of his call misunderstood the meaning of the ''tools'' Makary wanted him to bring, the entire process took merely forty-five minutes.

    And in this short time that I''ve passed filling in Makary on various details either I myself considered important or he asked about, the hangar went from empty and peaceful to crowded and busy.

    In the end, Makary called in only twelve of his men, all more picturesque than the other.

    Out in the far corner of the hangar, a heavily inked bodybuilder was starting a set of power tools to drill a hole into the concrete floor of the hangar. A thin, feminine man already turned his me torch and lowered the protective mask over his face as he started to weld two different pieces of metal.

    Punk from the bygone era. An unkempt man in sses and a checkered shirt. A typical bloke one could find in any shadowy gate in the worst parts of the city.

    ''One hell of an array, are they not?'' I thought, watching in silent amazement how this colorful bunch somehow proved to be perfect for the job.

    The task of transforming a massive frame into one-fourth of its size was rtively simple. All they needed to do was to add two new sides to cut off a quarter of the original frame��

    But to do so, they had to bring over heavy, metal beams, cut them into pieces of the right sizes, weld them at the right angles��

    And that was all before even tackling the task of clearing all the rubles that served as the permanently closed backside of the massive hangar!

    "We should be done in ten to fifteen more minutes," Makary called out as soon as he lowered the phone from over his ear. "Building up a screen will take two to three more hours, though."

    I nodded my head to acknowledge the information before breathing a deep sigh and turning my eyes away from the potential anchor for my permanent gate.

    ''It''s great that things are going rather quick,'' I thought, taking in a deep breath to refill my lungs with fresh oxygen.

    Quite justifiably, this breath tasted quite bad, given all the dust and dirt kicked up by all the activity within the closed space of the hangar.

    ''But still��''

    Taking a few steps to the back, I reached out and grabbed Fay by her waist before pulling her into a light embrace. I silently rested my forehead on her shoulder, breathing in her faint yet rich fragrance to kill the awful taste of the hangar''s dusty air.

    "At least now we know what we are up against," I muttered, just loud enough for Fay to hear.

    The noises of the power tools, grinders, and me torches created enough buzz to stop anyone from eavesdropping on our small exchange.

    "Aren''t you��"

    Fay''s body trembled within my embrace.

    ''It''s okay��'' I thought, pulling the girl a bit closer before slowly patting her back.

    But then, my face tensed up for a second. My eyebrows pulled together and my head moved back an inch as if to get a better, wider look at what Fay just said.

    "Aren''t I�� what?" I asked, genuinely lost.

    As easy as it was for me to catch Fay''s drift, there were still times like this when I simply had no clue what she was going on about.

    Assuming we somehow avoided discovery, we managed to pinpoint the culprit of the entire mess with dark aura to just two people. And while I could imagine both Cassie and her bitchy culprit as the viin and or innocent victim��

    Heck!

    Two over an entire poption of the city, that''s some nice progress!

    ''I could understand if she was bothered by the level of our potential opponent, potential schemesying in wait to explode in our face�� But why is Fay''s main concern somehow focused on me?''

    "Aren''t you disgusted?" Fay asked, opting to keep her head slightly lowered, her forehead resting on my chest.

    "Fay, I''m sorry but I really can''t follow," I hurriedly raised my voice and even took a step back while grabbing Fay''s arms and pushing her away, all so I could get a good look at her face, hoping to find the answer to this quandary in her expression.

    And yet��

    The moment I tried to look Fay in the eye, she raised her hands as if to defend herself, using them to cover her face from my sight.

    "That was your ex, wasn''t it?" Fay cried out, her palms pressing hard into her delicate face. And the hints of moisture squeezing from underneath her fingers only caused my heart to tear itself in a sudden jerk of pain.

    "And she''s very likely to be the one behind all of your misery, isn''t she?!"

    By now, our voices grew loud enough to attract some stares from across the hangar. Yet, while Makary''s men and Makary himself spared us an asional nce, they were ultimately too busy focusing on their tasks to pay much care to my personal affairs.

    "Wait, are you worried about how the two of you��"

    For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.

    This was so fucking obvious, yet so impossibly hard for me to notice in advance!

    With how I could hardly spare Cassie a nce, how her general looks and aura declined by a lot since thest I saw her, with how she was merely an ugly parody of the perfection that Fay represented��

    In theory, they looked exactly the same, a result of how Fay''s human form came to be and how I was still infatuated by that bitch at the time. And yet, in my eyes, they couldn''t be any less different.

    But this personal distinction of mine was something that Fay, maybe due to our restraint in abusing our bond, could have missed.

    With this one piece of puzzle finally fitting in the one, ringly empty spot of my picture of the situation, I reached out and quickly brought Fay back into my embrace.

    And this time, I didn''t hold my strength back at all, keeping it at the absolute top of what Fay''s human form could withstand.

    "Sweetie, I''m sorry, the thing you are worried about," I pulled my upper body back and reached out for Fay''s chin, all so I could prompt it up and look right down at her beautiful eyes. "It never even urred to me, to begin with, that''s why I struggled so much to understand your worry."

    Fay''s body rxed in my embrace. As she took the initiative and pulled my upper body back close to her face, I could hear her mumbling, "Maybe I should go and look for ways of changing how I look, after all��"

    I gulped my saliva down.

    For a moment, I imagined Fay suddenly learning how to assume all sorts of different forms��

    And amidst all the nostalgia that shed all over my soul�� I could clearly perceive a hint of excitement.

    Still, with the issue settled, my thoughts moved back to the crux of the issue.

    We now limited the number of suspects of who was behind all of this dark aura in my life. But that didn''t change the fact that the culprit�� Was simply beyond powerful, beyond any reasonable means to deal with.

    And with their level of strength, their acts might not even be born out of hostility. I might''ve simply fallen victim to some sort of casual n that my mundane self could never hope to even fathom!

    "Hey guys, I hope to break your moment, but it''s ready."

    Makary''s voice pulled me out of the limbo of Fay''s softness and my dark thoughts.

    Letting Fay go and turning my head to the side, I noted with amazement that the job was indeed done.

    Much sooner than even Makary expected and announced.

    And more importantly, this time��

    I could clearly see the freshly finished frame lit up with the ghostly purple shine of my system.

    My guess proved to be correct. And now, all I needed to finally get this gate set and done with...

    I took a deep breath and waved my hand as if I was trying to convince a certain trooper that this wasn''t the droid he was looking for.

    And just like usual, the purple portal weaved itself into existence right where I wished for it to appear. But more importantly...

    [The stable gate can be now ced.]

    [Please, cross the portal to confirm the cement.]

 Chapter 226: First step on a certain path

    The portal opened as usual.

    It didn''t grow to fit the frame I opened it with. It didn''t expand to cover the shine I could see on it either.

    It simply continued to exist just the same way it always did, swirling towards its purple center and using this visual to hide what was on the other side.

    And just like in all the other times, only those who I''ve allowed to see it could see that something happened. Which, in this particr situation, only included me and Fay.

    "Are you ready for the real proof?" I called out to Makary with a simple question asked in an extremely serious tone.

    The man turned his head to give me a long look. Then, he looked around, as if to direct my attention to all the people around.

    "You wouldn''t have brought them here if you had any doubt in their loyalty, would you?" I asked while the left corner of my mouth rose up in a slightly cheeky smile.

    "That''s��" Makary averted his eyes for a second, only to turn them right back in. "Yeah, I wouldn''t."

    The gang''s boss took a deep breath and held it in for a while before slowly, slowly breathing it out.

    "Okay, hit me," he requested as he nced over to my side. "I think I''m ready."

    For a second, I simply stared at the man, judging in my heart whether the next step was really the best option��

    But those were all but useless doubts and hesitations, not solid concerns.

    After all, Fay already showcased her ascended form to the man. What showing my portal would do, however, was cut all the doubt regarding the validity of my proof.

    A slightly inhumane form and ungodly speed? Those could, with extreme effort and preparation, be faked.

    But a portal that actually leads to another world?

    "Forgive me the��" I raised my hand�� and snapped my fingers, "theatrics."

    Just like that, I mentally allowed Makary to perceive and interact with my portal. And it took the man two more seconds to realize that something within his vision had changed.

    "Wait, since when��"

    "Roughly five minutes ago," I answered Makary''s question before he could even finish voicing it all out.

    "But it doesn''t fit the frame, does it?" the man instantly looked for a hole in the entire thing,tching on any inconsistency he could find in his bid to prove it was all but a fake, an illusion.

    A mirage he couldn''t see through yet, but a mirage nheless.

    "That''s because it''s my personal portal, not the stable gate I wanted to set here," I exined with a slight shake of my head. "As it turns out, I can only set it up by crossing through my personal portal."

    "What are you waiting for, then?" Makary asked, looking at me with a dumbfounded look on his face.

    "Listen, once I or we step inside, it might take just shy of three days for us to return," I warned while raising my eyebrows a little and raising my finger at the man. "Setting up this gate was supposed to be much easier but look at how much trouble we had to go through for it to work."

    This time, I shook my head to express my dissatisfaction with how imprecise my system liked to be at times.

    "I don''t really see how those two things are connected," Makary pointed out while crossing his arms on his chest.

    He clearly wanted to find something that wouldn''t stick to the greater whole.

    And in all honesty, I couldn''t me him. This kind of reaction was already less than what I expected from the man''s natural, mental defense mechanism of refusing anything that went too far beyond hismon sense.

    "If it turns out that we can''t open the gate''s entrance on the other side, we will only be able to return using the same, personal portal of mine," I exined what was obvious to me but an unknown fact for the man. "And I can only open this portal back home once roughly three days go by."

    This time, my words appeared to have some sort of an effect.

    "Is that why there were times when we couldn''t contact you at all?" Makary suddenly asked.

    It irked me a little for him to start figuring various things out on his own so quickly�� But on the other hand, it was a pretty good sign.

    Makary drawing connections between what he already epted and the things that were still new to him meant that he was slowly, slowly inching ever closer to epting the idea that all I''ve spoken about wasn''t just an honest serving of bullshit.

    And not so long after that��

    "Okay, fine," Makary finally gave up, his entire body slumping down as if to signify that fact.

    And it was also at this point that I could no longer ignore the curious stares of all the men he brought to fix the frame for my gate.

    "We might need materials and tools to build up another frame on the other side," I said out loud.

    Those were men Makary trusted enough to invite here, to a ce that, if my words were true, would soon be the most important location in the entire, wide world.

    And there was no way I would be able to fix up a frame without tools, materials, and manpower, just with me, Fay, and potentially Makary alone.

    "Try to limit how much you will bring over. What''s more, don''t expect any electricity on the other side. And it won''t be that bad of an idea to arm yourself with as much as you guys will still be able to carry."

    In a few moments, I went from doubting whether I should even show Makary the portal to actively incorporating the men he invited over into my ns.

    But if I really wanted to follow the ideology regarding portals and their use that was slowly forming in my head ever since a certain idea struck me just moments before we returned to earth��

    Then going that far was the absolute minimum�� and just the first step on the long road filled with the challenging tasks of letting more and more people in on the secret of the portal and another world.

    "We can whip out a half-ready frame in five to ten minutes," the punk-looking guy spoke out as he stepped closer to where I, Fay, and Makary stood. "It''s gonna be one hell of a pain to carry it, so I hope we won''t have to drag it far."

    The man''s words caused Makary''s eyebrows to pull together.

    Then, with a slow move, he raised his hand and pointed at the portal.

    "Can you tell me what you see over there?" Makary asked with a tense look on his face.

    "Huh?" the punk-looking guy shrugged. "Isn''t that the gate frame you asked us to make?" he answered in a weirded-out voice�� Something no random soldier off the gang''s street could do right in Makary''s face.

    Makary''s eyes turned over to my side again. And this time��

    "Huh?" the punk-looking guy jumped, his eyes now locked on the swirling purple of the portal. "What the hell is this thing?!"

    Makary twisted his head, alternating his eyes between his startled subordinate and my calm facade. Then, as he finally locked his sights on me��

    "But you didn''t even��"

    "Snap my fingers?" Once again, I finished Makary''s question with my own voice. "Yeah," I shrugged my shoulders. "That''s why I apologized for theatrics, didn''t I?" I asked, before clearing my throat��

    And willing for all the present within the hangar to be able to perceive my portal. Continue reading on m|v-l''e-NovelBin

    This was a risky and worrying step. One small step for Peter Wozniak.

    And a great leap for humanity, with how it set me on the path I was growing more and morefortable with picking.

 Chapter 227: Thats certainly a first

    In the end, logic, reason, and pragmatism prevailed. And after the initial excitement of the group seeing my portal for the first time finally died down, they were pretty damn quick to move past their shock and start to prepare.

    Some rushed to prepare parts that would be easy to connect and thus form the gate''s frame on the other side. Others moved to prepare weapons, ammunition, and supplies for everyone. In the end, Makary, Fay, and I were left behind with nothing else to do.

    "So you are going to step through with us?" I asked once I myself calmed down from the agitation of letting other people, practically strangers, know about my most important secret.

    "That''s right," Makary replied without even a second of hesitation. "I can''t confirm all the things I need to if I won''t see that�� another world with my very own eyes."

    It was hard for me to argue this point. Given what I was asking of him, it was pretty natural for Makary to wish to confirm the situation with his own two eyes.

    Starting from the validity of my im that this strange, purple artifact actually led to another world, through all sorts of things and goods he could gain by working with me and at the tactical and strategical situation of the ongoing invasion ending.

    There were a lot of things that I knew Makary needed to check for himself and more than likely far more things that I wasn''t even aware he considered crucial to know about.

    That''s why, as risky as it might be to have Makary be within the first group of people I would bring over�� I could also see quite a few benefits to this arrangement.

    "Are you sure you have all of your affairs in order?" Just for cautiousness'' sake, I asked. "As in, nothing will happen to your group if you go missing for three or four days?"

    Makary opened up his mouth, ready to answer straight away. Yet, rather than speaking up, he ended up closing his mouth and taking a shallow breath, buying himself some more time to think my question through.

    "Why do I get the feeling that you are really, really unsure about how all of this will work?" Makary asked in a slightly hushed tone as if trying not to share his worries with the men he basically recruited for the task of scouting the other world.

    In the end, this was the onlymon denominator all of those picturesque people shared. The only quality that they all represented in spite of how differently they appeared.

    And it was the fact that they were all veteran soldiers of Makary''s outfit. And judging by how rxed they were around the man�� They might not be that far below him in terms of their ranks from before the global copse of greater civilization.

    Thinking about Makary''s question and waiting for his men to finish all of their preparations, I couldn''t help but let my thoughts wander for a bit, losing focus of what I was actually trying to figure out.

    "You see, it was precisely at the times when I thought I knew what to expect, where things were turning in ways I could hardly fathom."

    From how the very second existence I met upon entering Fay''s world turned out to be also the forest''s strongest protector. How I was so damn lucky to stumble upon Fay in her fox form, to begin with when I was pretty much lost and powerless in a foreign world.

    ''Thinking back, was I to encounter literally any other celestial or divine��'' I thought, only to heavily gulp my saliva when I yed such a simted scenario in my head.

    And to say the least, the end result wasn''t something I would be satisfied or happy with.

    In the end, just like before, Makary''s men proved to be pretty humble with the estimates of how long they would take to finish the job. Before I could even get myself mentally prepared for what was about toe, they split up their roles and moved to carry out thest task.

    The job of hauling all the resources, materials, tools, supplies, and weapons they needed through the portal while still somehow holding hands to form a rtively short, human centi�� human line.

    "Everyone ready?" Standing at the very front of the formation, I held both Makary''s and Fay''s hands. That, in theory, put me at the second spot in the line, but I had no ns of letting Fay step through the portal and into potential danger first.

    I asked the question out loud, but my answer came in the form of a simple squeeze Makary gave my hand, something he likely received himself from the man he was holding hands with.

    "Okay then," I took a deep breath, "let''s go!"

    This wasn''t the first, the second, or the third time for me to cross the portal. Not even crossing it in a group was a new experience. But doing so with fourteen people in tow was definitely a first for me.

    Still, things worked pretty much as usual. Upon stepping into the purple swirl of the gate, I momentarily lost orientation��

    *Ding!*

    A noise rang in my head as a new notification window appeared in the left, upper left corner of my vision.

    And just like that, with my shoe falling down and hitting solid ground on the other end of the portal, I''vepleted yet another crossing.

    This time, however, I couldn''t afford to stand around and do nothing but enjoy the fresh, unpolluted air and adore the beautiful sights of nature all over the ce. This time, I had to hurry up and keep going forward, pulling all those behind me into the bloody world Fay hailed from.

    Find more adventures on m-v|-NovelBin

    "Wee to�� a world I have yet toe up with a name for," I said as soon as all fifteen of us crossed over. As soon as I confirmed that everyone arrived without any trouble, I rushed to inspect the new system message that popped up in my log.

    [cement of the stable gate sessful.]

    [cement for the exit of the stable gate failed: no suitable anchor]

    [Assesing the location]

    [Mending the location]

    [Found a suitable anchor for the stable gate]

    [Please, cross over through the portal to confirm the location of the exit of the stable gate.]

    This short list contained a world''s worth of information. Yet, it''s the veryst part��

    "Shit��" I cursed under my breath while turning away my eyes from the ominous-soundingst part of the log and directing them towards the ce where my portal opened up.

    And it was different.

    Back when I first raised it, right before heading back to earth, it simply stood in between two trees and at the edge of a rtively small clearing in the forest.

    But now?

    Now, the two trees somehow bent over, their branches mixing roughly a meter above my head, as if in an attempt to merge those two huge trees into a single organism.

    And just like the metal frame before, this live-wood structure was shing up in purple that matched the color of my portal.

    "What''s wrong?" hearing my curse, Makary was quick to move over and ask.

    "It''s just like I thought," I muttered, holding my voice back as if to not alert the rest of the group so quickly. "We will have to take about three days toe back."

    "It''s a lot worse than you thought," Fay spoke out, slightly cutting into my own words. And as I turned my eyes over to her, I saw the girl point at her ear with the forefinger of her right hand. "Listen."

 Chapter 228: Eighty hours

    "Listen."

    Fay''s soft, silent voice couldn''t sound any more terrifying. And yet, just this single word was enough to put everyone to aplete halt, forcing them to do nothing but prick their ears to hear whatever she wanted them to.

    I tuned in my senses, eager to figure out just what managed to catch Fay''s attention��

    Makary''s face twitched. And then, I''ve heard it.

    A distant outcry of a sheet of metal getting torn apart. And quite notably, no scream came to apany the unpleasant noise.

    ''A fight?'' My first thought instantly went for the worst-case scenario.

    But that didn''t make any sense.

    With Madam and Etaria holding each other in the stalemate, there was no way either of them wouldmit enough troops to bring the fight past the camp, past the open space, all the way to the interior of the forest.

    ''Maybe they are trying to remodel some of the armor they got from the corpses? Or maybe they even traded in some herbs for some metal?''

    Stunned by the sudden challenge falling right upon my shoulders the very moment I returned to Fay''s world, I struggled to process anything at all, even with all the high attributes that should make my mind resistant to this kind of issue.

    And yet, unable to find any proper reasoning that could bring the situation from three days ago to how it is right now��

    ''Wait, why do I even bother trying to hear something? Especially when I have a damn kitsune for a waifu?''

    Fox''s ears were bound to be much greater than human ears. And that would hold true all the more with both of us bing ascended and, in Fay''s temporary case, promoted ascended.

    "So all you''ve said�� is actually real?" to the side, Makary was kneeling down on the soft grass, inspecting its des with endless curiosity and fascination.

    If not for the weird sounds keeping all of us alert, I could picture him whipping out a camera and taking photos of everything that moved�� or didn''t move at all.

    "Will that do for a concrete proof?" I asked, putting a needle up the man''s side.

    "Well, yeah��" Makary muttered, his thoughts once again ready to vanish, reced by his fascination with everything otherworldly that he was surrounded with.

    Sadly, as much as I wanted, I couldn''t partake in Makary''s joy of discovering what no one else on earth, save for me and Fay, had seen or touched before.

    After all, even if my hearing wasn''t good enough to let me find out what Fay was alerting me about�� the same didn''t apply to my aura. And while my control of the full scope of my aura was still beyond my ability�� Trying to find the source of this annoying noise was a piece of a damn cake.

    "Wait, they are actually��"

    In an instant, all of the amusement, enjoyment, and braggish curiosity vanished from my soul.

    What I took for the noise of a metal being torn apart�� Turned out to be just that. A celestial in his animal form was gnawing at the tes of the human soldier''s armor. Judging by the marks left in their part of the forest, the two had to go through one hell of a battle��

    A battle, where the human didn''t turn out to be a hero like the ones from the old, fairy tales. A battle where the weaker human sumbed to the wild assault of the celestial, turning into a mere casualty of the war.

    Still, the point of my shook stood.

    ''Just how did thingse to this?!''

    "Peter�� They are fighting," Makary suddenly muttered. And by the time I''ve realized, his men have all dropped their tools, materials, and supplies, opting to leave only their weapons in their arms instead.

    "They are fighting indeed," I admitted with a sigh.

    Save for how I could somehow visually peer through a great distance with the help of my aura, there was one more reason why I believed the forest'' interior actually turned into a battlefield.

    And it was all within the erratic, extremely chaotic, and unpredictable flow of the aura within the forest, nothing like to how it was just a few days ago. Continue reading on m|v-l''e-NovelBin

    "Are you sure we cannot go back?" Makary asked, his voice growing somewhat dull, devoid of any emotions.

    "Eighty hours," I replied as shortly as I could. "That''s how long before I can bring us back with the portal. And only once I do so, the stable gate will properly open."

    ''Plus, it''s not like I have any idea if it will work. Even under the bold assumption that everything would work out and the gate would properly open�� Wasn''t it in my system''s blood to find more and more creative ways to impose limitations on my abilities and thus screw me over?

    And if that was the case so far, how stupid and naive I would have to be to expect something to change?

    "Well then," Makary sighed before raising his left hand.

    Without uttering a single word, he made all twelve of his men line up, all of them holding their weapons in a simr position.

    In fact, despite their bodily differences, they all stood in more or less the same position, as if years of training and discipline never went away, even when their military outfit transformed into a mere, backwater gang.

    "Shall I assume all the potential enemies will be moving as quickly as Lady Fay did?" Makary asked, turning his eyes towards my girl�� Only to be left without a single nce in response.

    "No, you are not," I shook my head. "First thing first, we are not against the locals, we are against humans. And the thing is��" I hesitated for a second.

    I was about to drop one hell of a stinky bomb on Makary, after all.

    "The thing is, some of the locals look pretty much human anyway."

    This was the lone reason why I didn''t feelfortable at all, even when surrounded by a bunch of actual veterans, armed with the best weapons earth could offer them.

    So, I took a deep breath and a short pause. Then, as an idea struck my mind, the corners of my lips moved up.

    "Since that''s the case, you can shoot anyone who wears more or less uniform armor and arms!"

 Chapter 229: The cloud

    "Peter, a minute."

    It took pretty much just two minutes for Makary to acknowledge the reality surrounding him and move on from his doubts.

    To an extent, it was likely the noises of various skirmishes taking ce throughout the forest that made him realign his focus. After all, the fact he was in another world now was a matter of importance�� but not urgent.

    And the battle going on all over the ce was both of great importance and considerable urgency.

    "What''s up?"

    Happy to switch my thoughts away from the grimdark reality of how quickly things went south while from when I left, I turned to the man�� And then took a few steps closer, as I realized he didn''t exactly mean to speak to the wider public of our group.

    "What''s up?" I asked again, this time in a much fainter voice.

    "Can you buy us a minute or two?" Makary whispered while his eyes darted all over the clearing and the face of the forest that surrounded it.

    "I don''t think anything is going to happen that quickly," I muttered before turning my head and giving Fay a quick nce. "But yeah, I should be able to do that. What for, though?"

    Makary smiled before raising his hand and beckoning at one of his picturesque friends. Then, as the man moved to one of the massive bags they brought with them, Makary raised his hand to his mouth to hide a small chuckle.

    "I hope you didn''t think I woulde here unprepared."

    Following this somewhat ambiguous statement, Makary turned away from me and watched in silence how the feminine-looking subbordinate of his pulled down the zipper of the bag and started to pull out strange, ss bulbs filled with some sort of perfectly ck dust sealed inside.

    Once he gathered all ten of them, the man continued to pull out several different devices, each stranger and more futuristic than the one before.

    And then, as if to disregard the effort someone put forth to seal this strange dust, the feminine man grabbed the nearest of the ss bulbs�� Only to smash it against a nearby rock, shattering the ss into a thousand pieces and scattering the ck dust all over the ce.

    ck dust��

    That rose in the air and quickly created a thin cloud of mist before fully dispersing on the winds.

    For the next few moments, the feminine man continued to shatter one ss bulb after another, leaving none of the ones he pulled out safe from its shattered fate.

    "The cloud will disperse evenly in the next three minutes," the man spoke and raised his head from the devices he was doing some magic on, reporting to Makary a mere minute after the entire process started.

    "Do I even want to know what did he do?" I muttered under my nose, not exactly sure how to feel about the magic of technology.

    Strangely enough, the magic of aura�� felt closer to my soul than the magic-like wonders that the scientists of my own world came up with.

    "That thing?" Makary''s smile grew even wider.

    Ever since things started to pick up pace, his face grew to fill with all sorts of emotions he didn''t really want to share with the world before.

    ''Maybe he''s one of those?'' I thought, equally taken aback as I suddenly got interested in the man. ''One of those born toote to explore the world and too early to explore the universe?''

    The spirit of pioneers was something quite natural to the man. It was what pushed humanity to advance as a civilization, discover and conquer new frontiers, spread out��

    But ever since the colonial age came to a definitive end, there were hardly any ces left for humans to settle. Over the course of the next few hundred years, even those few ces got taken care of, leaving absolutely no frontier for the humans to explore and brave through.

    There was no frontier left�� Unless one took my ability to open a portal to another world into ount, giving humanity as a whole a brand new world, all for them to explore. And Makary, as the first recipient of this blessing was clearly living through every moment of it, now that he grew to ept it as a reality rather than a bunch of drivel spouted by a half-sane youth.

    "You don''t need to worry about it," Makary sighed as he attempted to brush the topic off. "This is pretty much what he called it," he pointed with his chin towards the feminine man. "A cloud.

    Or a device that will upload the nearbyyout of the space and locations of every living being into the local cloud," he added enough context for his words to make sense while pointing his hand at one of the devices his feminine subordinate continued to fiddle with.

    And before long��

    "Direct perimeter just uploaded," the feminine man reported. "Diffusion rate, roughly five meters per tick."

    "Good," Makary smiled once more and nodded his head to the man before turning his eyes back to me. "Now we are ready," he announced. "After you."

    In the end, it was me and Fay who were the only ones knowing our way around this ce. And with the ongoing battle all around, we were also the only ones capable of properly discerning a friend from foe.

    "Target at two hundred meters," the feminine man reported while sporting one of the devices on a special strap that allowed him to carry it around on his stomach, freeing his hands while keeping the disy always just a nce away. "Not moving, seems to be breathing��"

    "Keep me informed," Makary ordered before turning his face back towards me. "Shall we?"

    For a second, I hesitated.

    ''Should we leave this gate behind? Just like that? Unprotected?'' I battled with my thoughts.

    Knowing my system, if something were to happen to the structure it created from the living trees��

    "Well, we need to risk it if we want a biscuit," I muttered to myself.

    With a decision made, I moved over to where Fay waited in silence for me to decide on the course of action.

    "For now, we will have to rely on you to keep us safe," I spoke. Enjoy exclusive adventures from m-v l''-NovelBin

    And even though I was leaving the safety of the entire group in the hands of my beloved�� I didn''t feel bad about doing it at all. Sure, the thought of Fay putting herself in line of danger for my sake was revolting enough to physically affect me��

    But with Madam''s presence still well-etched into the air of the forest, there was hardly anything I had to fear.

    "Sure thing, hon," Fay smiled, turning into her kitsune form the very moment her lips widened into a slight, cheeky grin. She then proceeded to ignore the startled noises made by Makary''s subordinates as she continued to beam the light of her smile down my greedy eyes. "Leave it to me!"

    "Great," I smiled and nodded my head before turning my eyes over to the feminine operator of the ck, dust-like cloud. "Where''s that target you mentioned?"

    "Three hours past the standard axis..." the man reported right away, only to then raise his eyes to me, bite down on his full, clearly painted lips, and raise his hand up to point the direction instead. "That way."

 Chapter 230: As they should be

    Leaving the clearing at the system-made gate behind filled my heart with a slight dose of anxiety. Yet, as I continued to send nces over my shoulder, I quickly noticed that everyone else was equally as anxious.

    Although, our reasons for worry could be any less different.

    While I worried about the core elements of my ns for the future, both near and one that was far-off into the future�� The vignt nces Makary''s men sent all over the forest revealed the source of their worry.

    Unlike me, they were actually worried about their safety.

    With modern guns in their hands and this strange, ck cloud alerting them of any and all presences around, they continued to fear every shadow and gust of wind, ready to pounce on anything that woulde out from this otherwordly forest.

    I, on the other hand, couldn''t feel any safer.

    With Fay in her ascended form right by my side there was no way anyone or anything would approach us without her noticing. In fact, with how much my aura grew ahead of my other attributes, there was a chance I would be the first one to tell someone was approaching instead!

    Still, with Fay at the helm of the group, I simply couldn''t fathom a scenario that was both anywhere within the realm of reasonable probability and one where we would be in any danger.

    ''Especially when all it takes for us to re-enter that strange promoted state is to ramp our bond to its limits.''

    Simply unable to worry about the things that made mypanions so anxious, I continued to make my way through the forest.

    And it was this movement, this traversing of the thick bushes and undergrowth that turned out to be our greatest enemy��

    At least in the very first part of our journey.

    "Target dead ahead, just beyond that hill," the feminine man pointed out the direction with the tip of his LMG.

    "I will go," I said with a small sigh. "You guys are like ants here. If it''s a real enemy, you will get cut down the second they see you," I warned the others before they could even oppose to my suggestion. Enjoy new tales from m-v l''-NovelBin

    In theory, exposing myself to danger was absolutely thest thing I should be doing. With how I was the only one capable of operating the portal between worlds, my life was of utmost, utmost importance��

    But right now, if I wanted to build a better future by exploiting the benefits of this portal, taking this small risk was simply the most rational option.

    "Go on, then," Makary, to my surprise, encouraged me to go ahead. "No one was going to stop you, you know it?"

    Giving the man a side-ways nce, I rolled my eyes before pushing ahead. With nothing but my fists and a simple, ordinary handgun firmly sitting in my right hand, I quickly ran up to the top of the hill and looked down.

    ''Oh my,'' my body froze for a moment.

    In an instant, a plethora of different emotions coursed through my soul, from surprise, residual anger, and pity all the way to shock, realization, and curiosity.

    "You��"

    The cloud device of Makary turned out to be correct. There indeed was a living being hidden beyond the crest of the small hill. A living being that continued to heavily breathe as it coped with a plethora of rtively shallow wounds marking its golden skin.

    "You are thest divine I expected to encounter upon my return, I won''t lie," I spoke, staring down at the face of the man who tried to kill me just a few days ago.

    The face of the man who had his eggs turned into a scrambled pulp below Madam''s heel as a punishment for what he attempted to do.

    And while the fact he was saved from execution obviously meant he would still be around�� I didn''t exactly expect to find Loraz out in the forest, greatly exhausted from what looked like a series of pretty challenging encounters.

    Encounters that, as proved by several corpses scattered at the foot of the hill, still ended in Fay''s father''s victory.

    "What�� What are you doing here?" Loraz asked, struggling a bit to get the words out of his mouth.

    "Isn''t that a silly question," I muttered as I rolled my eyes before turning around and looking over the crest of the hill I just descended from. "Come on guys, and Fay��"

    The girl stopped in her tracks, not expecting to be called out directly like that.

    "Yeah?"

    "Don''t go overboard, please."

    Fay gave me a slightly weirded-out look�� But rather than using our bond to figure out what I meant, she simply ran up the hill and looked down. Her face tensed up, her eyes filled with wrath�� But in the end, she held her enmity back.

    "One of yours?" Makary asked after following Fay and climbing up the small hill.

    "More or less," I replied while feeling my face twitch.

    But this wasn''t the time to exin the deep details of myplicated rtionship with my father-inw. In fact, it was better just to ignore this topic and our pretty unfriendly history.

    "Let''s not waste time," I requested as I turned my attention back to the man below. "What happened? Have the imperials overran the forest?"

    This was my greatest worry. And something that still came to be, even after all that I did to stop this war from escting.

    "Yes and no," Loraz replied right away, most likelying up with the same line of thought as I did.

    For all I had against this man, he still tried his best to keep the forest, his home, safe from the human invasion. And while he ended up bogged down by his doubts born from the extreme numbers disadvantage of this conflict��

    He was still the leader of divines who ignored the hermetic nature of his n and went out of his way to establish awork of spies and informants outside of the forest that brought him the news of the invasion before it actually started.

    To a degree, even his hostile act against me and Fay was, in a pretty warped way, his attempt at making things right, regaining his strength so that he could keep protecting the forest to the best of his ability.

    "A day after you''ve left, a second army arrived, led by a powerful imperial duke," Loraz''s report started with big, important details right away. "The Golden Princess stood her forces down. I believe the duke wanted to get one over her, so he decided to push for the forest to gain the initiative over the princess."

    Loraz lifted himself up and, with the help of two of Makary''s men who rushed over to help him, stood up.

    "Without you on hand, Madam decided against any borate ns, saying we don''t know human tactics and ways of thinking to arrange any fancy strategy. So, to buy some time, she decided to let them through, opting to receive their attack within the forest," Loraz nced over at the humans in weird outfits and with weird weapons surrounding him.

    Then, he turned his eyes back to my face and lowered his voice, as if not sure if he was supposed to share this within a talking distance of other humans.

    "The forest gives us an advantage. And while Madam cannot make the move without inviting the princess to counter it right away, while in the forest, we still fight within her domain."

    "So," this time, my high intelligence and wisdom allowed me to process everything Loraz said in a single instant. "Things should be more or less�� stable, right?"

    Loraz''s expression soured.

    "Tell that to all those who died since yesterday," he spat out before staring at my face for a second and ultimately averting his eyes. "But yeah, things are all as they would normally be."

 Chapter 231: Field test

    "Two more targets, north axis, two hours!"

    The feminine man''s report rang within the group, instantly causing Fay to shift the direction she was leading the group in.

    "Three hundred meters!"

    The reports continued toe in.

    "Two fifty!"

    "Two hundred�� Wait, isn''t he�� One fifty!"

    "They are closing in fast," a punk-like Makary''s soldier muttered while readying the heavy machine gun that he held in his hand and supported with two straps wrapped around his shoulders.

    "One hundred!"

    "Should I take them out?" Fay asked, turning her head sideways to sneak a quick nce even though the likely enemy was just about to m into us.

    "Leave them to Makary''s men," I countered Fay''s suggestion. "But stay on your toes in case things go bad," I added. "They need to get used to thebat of this world."

    This was all but a test, in a sense.

    A test for Makary to see what worked and what did not. To let him understand the intricacies of a battlefield in a world with aura, where people could reach heights much greater than back on earth.

    Most importantly, it was a field test of standard, modern guns and how they would fare against the shields local humans could raise.

    "Fifty," the feminine man announced in a much softer voice, already kneeling down on one knee while hiding most of his body behind one of the trees.

    Following Fay, I retreated to a slightly thicker part of the forest. As we hid within the bushes, we only had to wait for two more moments before two humans, both covered in bloodied armor, came out from between the trees a bit deeper into the forest.

    "Chris, fire."

    The feminine man adjusted the barrel of his light machine gun and, without even a hint of hesitation, opened fire.

    *Trrr*

    For the first time since I stopped using a normal pistol, I''ve heard the proper sound of a gun. And for the first time in forever, I got to hear the noise made by an actual machine gun, a weapon that took more lives throughout modern wars than any sane man would like to imagine.

    Chris didn''t spray and pray, though. After the first controlled series and the first of the bloodied human soldiers falling to the ground like a mannequin cut free from the wires that held it up, the feminine man simply moved the rifle a tiny bit to the side before pulling the trigger again.

    This time, however, things didn''t go as easily.

    Eager not to waste ammo, Chris shortened his series to just three, or four shoots. Given the rapid pace of the firing, I couldn''t really tell.

    After witnessing what happened to theirpanion just a second ago, the other humans managed to raise their barrier.

    A barrier that I could sense appearing through the sways of the world''s aura. And a barrier that shattered�� but only after doing its job of stopping the four rounds Chris fired.

    "DIE!!!" The human soldier shouted�� Not even knowing that I and Fay was the only one who could understand hisnguage.

    And as that made me puzzled over when I actually learned it�� I was too interested to watch how things would proceed to care.

    Seeing how his bullets failed to find their mark, Chris froze for a split second. Still, he stood still for just long enough for everyone else in the group to start fixing their aims topensate for the target''s rapid advance.

    Still, Makary didn''t invite just some random men who would falter at the first sign of blood. Back on earth, their easy-going andid-back attitude towards the man was the proof of it.

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    But right here and now, in Fay''s world and smack-dab in the middle of an ongoing perfect example of arge-scale, guerri warfare�� In this extremely different set of circumstances, Chris adjusted his aim before anyone else could take the shot��

    And finished the event, by feeding the attacking human with several injections of heavy metals applied from the short distance the human soldier still had to run through.

    "And that does it," Chris sighed, first ensuring the enemy was really done before quickly taking a nce down at the disy hanging just below the bottom of his ribs, strapped on two pieces of leather he wrapped behind his neck. "Five�� Another group, dead ahead, three hundred meters!"

    "The cloud can''t really give any precise information once there''s more than just one target," Makary leaned over my ear to inform me, more than happy to stay hidden in the bushes, well within Fay''s ability to protect him.

    Just like me, he wasn''t here to act all heroic or soldier-like. Even though I had no doubt he knew his way around weapons or maybe even close-quartersbat, he was simply too important within his group to ever risk his skin in a random encounter.

    "Is this all those people can offer?" Loraz asked, emerging from one of the shadows near the bushes we were hiding in. "I can see the value of those weapons and tools��" he hesitated for a second.

    All in all, Loraz''s attitude changed ever since our fateful encounter. He grew meek and less confident�� but at the same time, didn''t lose even a shred of the ferocious determination he had for protecting his home. And while it is no longer showcased through his aggressive, domineering vibe��

    I couldn''t really tell I wasfortable with the new, sly version of him. In the end, however, I couldn''t me the man.

    After Madam robbed him of his balls, he had no other choice but to admit that he was weaker than her. Doing that, in turn, led to the bulk of his personal power vanishing, leaving him in an even worse state than Madam''s punishment was supposed to put him in.

    Still, he learned. He learned that hecked the power to achieve his goals through raw power alone�� So could I really me him for trying his hand at different methods?

    "It might look silly because they are still testing things out," I countered, strangely insulted by theck of respect in Loraz''s voice towards both the arms and the very men from my world.

    "Two hundred!"

    Chris reported once again.

    This time, however, the formation of Makary''s men changed, bringing them into three lines of five men each, all set at just the slightest angle to give everyone a free line of fire dead-ahead.

    "Hundred and fifty!"

    Makary''s men started to rise up, stood still in ce lowered themselves down on one knee. The three men at the very front went all the way andid down on the ground, quickly finding some points to support the long barrels of their guns.

    "Hundred!"

    The entire group�� No, the entire area of the forest around us turned silent.

    Chris didn''t utter the nextmand, opting to just raise his fist and shake it.

    ''Fifty,'' I thought, right as a group of a bit more than ten human soldiers emerged from beyond the trees.

    Just like in the encounter before. This time, however, all of Makary''s men opened fire at the same time, covering the entire group with a hail of bullets so dense, that even some of the best armors of the modern world would struggle to withstand.

    And before a single man could raise their barrier, the entire group fell to the ground, riddled with bloody holes, some ripped to shreds through a short series of the HMG held by the punk-like man.

    Seeing the results of the slightly more intense test, I turned my head and looked at Loraz.

    "Do you have anything else to say about those men and their arms?"

    I just couldn''t help but jeer right in Loraz''s face.

    Yet, my smile didn''tst long.

    "Two big groups, smaller one dead ahead, bigger one on the north axis, three hours!"

 Chapter 232: Heavy Machine Gun

    Makary''s men moved swiftly. So swiftly, I couldn''t help but suspect that they all came from some sort of spec-ops group, intentionally trained forbat within heavily wooded areas untouched by the destructiveness of human presence.

    And contrary to the imperial forces that opposed them, they followed war rationale rather than blind discipline.

    "Target contact, along the movement axis, two hundred!"

    Chris''s report continued to fuel the group with necessary intel, something that no army of this world could hope to have at the same level.

    "One hundred!"

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    Chris''s shouts grew fainter the closer the potential enemies got.

    A hundred meters also proved to be some sort of margin distance at which Makary''s unit stopped and rushed to find cover somewhere nearby.

    Some hid behind trees, others sheltered behind bigger rocks, and some simply dug out parts of the undergrowth with a kick of two beforeying down directly on the ground.

    Chris kneeled down and raised his hand to the level of his shoulders. Then, as he stared down at the screen mounted on his stomach, he brought his hand up, creating a right angle at his joint.

    And a few secondster, he squeezed his hand into a fist before hurriedly lowering his hand back to the trigger of his simple yet deadly machine gun.

    "Shall we?" Makary turned his head to look at me and gave me a short yet intense nce.

    "Why ask me?" I rebutted.

    "We don''t exactly know how to tell friend from foe, do we?"

    I pressed my lips into a thin line, annoyed by the problem I''d never really encountered in my life before.

    But he was right. There was no friendly-fire-mode-off setting in real life. And knowing how all the locals had to feel about humans in general ever since the invasion began��

    I couldn''t really say for certain that they would recognize the first batch of reinforcements I brought as friendlies to begin with, even if such a ridiculous, straight-out-of-a-game world setting actually existed.

    Still, with the targets detected by Makary''s ck cloud about to emerge from beyond the trees and step into the zone of visual identification, I really had toe up with some sort of answer or idea�� And I had to do it pretty damn quick!

    "Feel free to kill them all."

    Before I coulde up with any idea in particr, Loraz stepped out and spoke out.

    "If there were any divines or celestials ahead, I could sense��"

    His words stopped as abruptly as they started.

    Loraz squinted his eyes and looked far ahead as if his eyes could peer through the barrier of all the trees blocking everyone''s view. Quite notably, he wasn''t looking in the exact same direction Makary''s men were pointing their guns.

    "Those approaching are all human," Loraz reported before stretching his hand out and pointing slightly off the main axis the attack was supposed toe from. "But there are two celestials and one divine in that direction, roughly��"

    Before Loraz could finish and right as he suddenly found himself lost for words, the front of the approaching group finally stepped into the range of Makary''s visual confirmation.

    Or rather, they revealed themselves to my eyes.

    "Four hundred paces that way?" Loraz concluded his report, revealing that it was the units of measurement that he struggled to trante from whatever people used in the forest to the units I was familiar with.

    As for how he knew them�� I could pretty much ask how both Madam and Loraz knew about Fay''s name even before anyone had any chance to reveal it to them. But right now, just like all the times before, it wasn''t the right time to consider such details.

    "Fire," Makary whispered under his nose but made no notion to gesticte the order or to raise his voice sufficiently enough to make his people hear him.

    And as it turned out, there was absolutely no need for that.

    "Kill them," someone, I couldn''t exactly tell who within Makary''s group, gave the order right as Makary spoke. And the next moment, all hell descended upon the face of this world as an onught of bullets simply cut through everything that stood in their path, shattering trees, bushes, humans, and rocks alike.

    "CHARGE!" A distant voice from much deeper into the forest reached my ears, a mere moment before a huge number of uniformly dressed soldiers rushed out ahead�� Only to trip and stumble on the corpses of those who went ahead before them.

    "Mow them down, would you, Carl?" Chris asked, ceasing his short series and ncing over to the massive punk-like man currently dug into the ground and resting his heavy gun directly on the ground with nothing but two small legs keeping its barrel off the wet undergrowth.

    The onught of bullets ceased all at once.

    The attacking humans took it for a good note, minding not the terrible losses they sustained in the mere few moments since their charge started.

    "Should we step in?" Fay asked, looking at how the humans managed to cross the fifty meters mark and started to get pretty damn near Makary''s unit.

    And as great of weapons as firearms were, in close-quarterbat�� It would suffice to say they were vastly inferior to all sorts of arms the enemy forces were armed to the teeth with.

    "KILL THEM ALL!"

    One of the attacking soldiers shouted, swinging a handy axe high above his head as if he had no other choice but to put on a fake, brave act just to ovee his terror��.

    Or maybe he hoped that his weapon would get stuck, saving him from the fate of charging at the very front of what was left of his group?

    "Hon, should I?" Fay asked again, this time with a clear hint of anxiety in her voice.

    "It''s fine,dy Fay," Makary replied in my stead, leisurely closing his arms on his chest and leaning to the side, resting his shoulder against a nearby tree. "If that kind of fight was one we could lose��"

    We never got to know what would happen if this was the kind of fight modern forces could be defeated in.

    Because the very moment Carl was done teasing everyone around, he simply pressed the trigger and created a wall of bullets that nearly instantly shredded all the twenty-or-so charging men within a single instant.

    Modern weapons required several bullets to shatter the barriers locals were so readily deploying during fights. But that only applied to small and personal arms.

    And when faced with rapid fire from a high-caliber, heavy machine gun��

    No barrier could stand, nor would any men hoping to stay safe behind it.

 Chapter 233: Mending

    "Those fights are easy, but they consume a lot of ammo."

    Makary''s report was as concise and straightforward as a report only a soldier could make.

    "We should be fine for a day, maybe two if we try to limit the usage��" Makary added before raising his eyes from the note one of his men sent to his phone.

    In spite of apleteck of anymunication infrastructure, their cells continued to operate as usual. To the best of my knowledge, thismunication exploited the same principles found in walkie-talkies.

    Makary''s intense stare brought me back to reality.

    "We can go back in just shy of three days. And to the best of my knowledge, that''s when��"

    Before I could finish my sentence, I felt something tug at my soul.

    My eyes moved over to the side, where Loraz clearly paid great interest in every word that I exchanged with someone whom I somehow brought to this forest from god knows where in a mere few days.

    I lowered my head and took a deep breath.

    ''How should I deal with this?''

    The very thing that I suddenly grew reluctant to mention was also the thing that continued to worry me.

    ''Was it really safe to leave the gate to begin with?''

    While there was no risk of getting stuck in this world thanks to my usual portal�� The importance of the stable gate couldn''t be overestimated. Regardless of how limiting the restrictions of using it would be, the benefits of doing so simply went beyond the scale of any unit used to measure them.

    And right now, I left it behind, unguarded, simply hoping for the best.

    ''Still, it''s not only about now. If we don''t pay it any attention, I doubt anyone will,'' I thought before heaving a deep sigh.

    Sure, people would pay a nce at an unusual tree structure�� but that was about all. But if said structure was protected by arms never seen before in this world and humans who happily went against their own race��

    Then even the dumbest leader of the invading forces would realize the importance of that ce.

    I had to make a decision. One that was extremely hard to take�� But one I couldn''t avoid unless I wanted a much bigger problem on my hands down the line.

    "You okay?" Makary inquired, leaning over a bit as he looked at me with concern.

    Looking up at theplete opposite of the man''s formerly stoic face, I took a long, exasperated breath.

    "Yeah, but I will need a minute," I said before turning to the side, grabbing Fay''s hand and pulling her along as I approached Loraz.

    "First thing first, I''m not a man of this world."

    Fay''s hand tensed up.

    In a single instant, she infused all of her aura into maxing our bond, leading to such a flood of her presence that I inadvertently matched the intensity of our bond.

    For but a single instant, our minds mixed, rushing, reaching, searching to connect and mingle.

    The feeling of overwhelming unity nearly took my sanity away, lulling me into the endlessfort of the affection that this entire connection was built upon.

    And then, as Fay saw through all my ns and thoughts, our connection faded, once again restored to a state where it hardly affected our thoughts.

    ''Is it me, or is the rush of this connection getting bigger and bigger?'' I thought, gulping my saliva down and trying to distract my thoughts away from the obvious aftereffect of using the full potential of our bond.

    ''Blood and boner, huh?'' I thought, gritting my teeth to a painful degree, muting down the two kinds of thirsts that appeared in my soul and fed upon each other.

    "In other words, while we look the same, I''m not even sure we belong to the same race," I pointed out while staring right into Loraz''s face and ignoring the shocked looks of Makary''s men.

    ''Did they think it was already a well-known fact or are they surprised I''m willing to reveal it?''

    I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

    All things considered, my wish to keep my identity a secret�� was nothing more but a fantasy of an immature child born from the stories unbridled by things like the reality of the pragmatic side of life.

    The forest was surrounded by the forbiddennds to the west, allegedly impassable starlight in to the north and south, and opened up only to the east, from where the human armies attacked. With that said�� just where could I bring this group of humans with technology never seen in this world before��

    In three damn days for a round-trip?

    Sooner orter, locals were bound to start asking questions, especially once I would finally open this damn, stable gate and let the logistics of the modern world simply squash any resistance this world could offer.

    And with the importance of the gate''s safety in such a scenario, how could I leave Loraz, former leader of the divine n, and, even after his weakening and punishment, one of the stronger ascended of his divine n, out of the picture?

    "You attacked me because you deemed this to be the best course of action for the forest, didn''t you?"

    My question visibly shocked Loraz, who was already unsettled by my sudden revtions. Still, he squinted his eyes but opted to remain silent.

    "Even now, after what happened to you, you are fighting for the forest��" I rested my hands on my hips and shook my head. "Listen. In the longest term, I can imagine, there''s only one thing I need from this forest. And it''s a staging ground for my expansion into the area where we fought with udy''s mercs."

    Loraz''s face remained still, deprived of any emotions that would betray his thoughts.

    "If my n works, you will have a powerful, buffer-state, tied to the forest through marriage," I grabbed Fay''s hand a little bit tighter. Yet, before I could pull her forth, she stepped ahead herself, proudly taking her ce by my side rather than by my back. "I don''t know and don''t care what the humans of this world are looking for in your forest.

    I''m much more interested in thends they alle from."

    I took a deep breath, pausing the series of revtions.

    Loraz clearly needed some time to process all I said. And Makary, as much as he prickled his ears to register everyst word I said andmit it to his memory, couldn''t really understand anything without the necessary context.

    In fact, I used a lot more keywords than I needed to just to confuse the man a little bit more.

    I couldn''t have Makary taking it upon himself to decide on the general course of action, after all. Not yet, at least.

    "But for all of that to happen, for my friends to rain fire and death upon those who dare to invade this forest, I need you to work with us now, and keep one ce safe for the foreseeable future."

    That''s right.

    With how insanely valuable my stable gate would be, regardless of its limitations, it was equally as vulnerable to someone as strong as Loraz. Even now that he lost the bulk of his power due to Madam''s presence, there were still only a few within the forest who could challenge him.

    And I couldn''t really afford to ask Fay, Madam, or maybe some of their trusted friends to stay watch over the gate, day in and day out, just because I didn''t take my time and risk of talking things through with my father-inw!

 Chapter 234: Those are MY men

    "So, you want me to go to that ce and keep it safe?" Loraz asked in a low, guttural voice quite sometime after I exined my station on the matter.

    And judging by his squinted eyes, I could pretty much guess his answer.

    ''Right, it''s not that easy to forget about the past and cooperate with someone you''ve tried to kill, someone responsible for the loss of your balls��''

    "Yes and no," I replied shortly, doing my best to cut Loraz off before he could make any statements that would only serve to have his pride stop him from revoking them. "For now, it''s better to just leave it alone, and attract less attention to the area. Right now, I need you to guide us to where Madam is."

    Going around the forest and killing whoever we encountered was a valid tactic�� when it came to testing out the strength of Makary''s guns and men within the standards of this world. But this kind of half-random strolling and looking for a fight served little to no purpose in winding down the enemy numbers.

    And no matter how great Makary''s scouting tech could be, it only revealed our direct proximity, not the entire, massive area of the forest.

    "What do you ask of me, then?" Loraz questioned, closing his hands on his chest.

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    Another sign that signified how hard it would be to convince the man.

    Thankfully, I only needed him not to actively sabotage my ns, and not to wholeheartedly support them. And the best way to convince him to this small degree�� Was to force him to acknowledge what I could bring to the table. And that could only be done once I got more men��

    Or found better ways to make use of what I had on hand at the moment. After all, with the cooldown on my portal only an hour shorter than it was when we entered this world, we were pretty much stuck here, with no way to replenish our numbers or supplies.

    "First, led us to Madam so we can decide on a n on how to stop��" I nearly bit myself in the tongue, just a second toote to fix my wording. "�� to quell the human incursion into the forest. And we need to hurry, or the threats I used against the golden princess will appear as bluffs."

    Once again, I could hear the sound of Makary''s ears prickling as he listened to everything I said with great interest. Soon enough, just by listening in, he would gather enough info to start piecing together enough context to figure it all out.

    "And once we are there, I hope you will cooperate with us to make whatever Madam''s ns are, happen."

    It was as simple as that.

    As long as I got to bring Loraz all over the ce and showcase how much I could achieve with so few men�� Then maybe he would grow a little fonder of the ideas I was proposing, regardless if it would be out of a sense of gratitude or fear.

    "You know, I would really appreciate it if you would fill me in on your ns," Makary, clearly unable to handle being left in the dark any longer, approached with a huge smile on his face. "Aren''t we talking about how you are going to use�� MY men, after all?"

    I turned my eyes and gave the man a long look. Yet, rather than answering, I simply sighed and moved my eyes over to the feminine subordinate of his.

    "Any presences nearby?"

    Chris took a moment to scan the readings on his device.

    "Save for those two your friend mentioned, there are three more groups. One big one, heading��" he looked down at the screen and studied it for a little bit longer. "On the eastern axis, one hour, a click away. The other two are small, between five to ten people each, heading in our direction, one half a click away, the other two hundred meters behind.

    Their heading, North axis minus an hour, and North axis plus two hours."

    With my level of understanding of their military lingo, I should be left dumbfounded, hardly knowing anything but their estimated numbers and the distance they were away. Yet, this was yet another asion when my high intelligence and wisdom came in clutch, tranting the lingo into vectors I could ce on my mental map of the forest.

    "Allow me to answer your question in a second," I spoke to Makary before giving Fay a short nce. "Or, in however long it will take us to reach those two groups heading for us."

    Makary looked back at me, this time with a look of disapproval�� But still ended up just nodding his head away.

    "Do you want to go wild?" I whispered as I pulled her head in the direction where I expected one of the groups mentioned by Christ to be.

    "How wild are you asking?" Even though our bond was back to its usual, passive state, Fay instantly read through my intentions and asked with a widening smile.

    "Enough to show that those weapons are only good against the weak folk," I casually replied, leaving the interpretation of those words for Fay.

    "Sure thing!" Fay''s smile turned from cheeky to a smug one as she let go of my hand and moved forward, leading the group ahead at a slightly different angle than the one I initially took.

    ''I guess she can already smell the others,'' I thought, stealing a nce to the side at Chris.

    Makary''s feminine subordinate continued to alternate his nce between Fay''s back and his device with an increasing frown on his face.

    "Is everything alright?" Makary moved over and asked while stealing a nce at Chris'' device.

    "Yeah, I mean��" Chris raised his eyes again. "It''s not exactly a problem, but she''s leading us right between those two smaller groups."

    They both used hushed voices, a precaution sufficient given the distance if I was a normal human�� But with my enhanced senses, I could make out pretty much every single word they whispered.

    "Fear not," Fay turned her head over her shoulder while stretching her arms out and wiggling her shoulders to warm them up a bit. She then turned around and reached out, grabbing my shirt and pulling me towards her as she once again spiked our bond.

    Everyst receptor in my mind and soul screamed out when filled with an endless sense of unity and mutual affection. And in the midst of all of this, Fay pulled me close enough to lean herself and press her lips against my mouth.

    For a second, only the softness of her lips, the warmth of her breath, and the wetness of her tongue mattered. The world around us disappeared as our minds erased anything beyond our bond.

    And as the intensity of our bond spiked, as our souls united... The inherence of our bond pried its eyes open and flooded the two of us with the extremely familiar craving.

    Fay''s lips moved, kneading my mouth into submission while her tongue aggressively rubbed and tangled with mine. And then, as suddenly as it all started, Fay pulled out, both in terms of her lips and in terms of our bond.

    Once again able to see her face, I fell into the trap of her enchanting smile, filled with wild if not dark undertones.

    "Now, let''s go kill."

 Chapter 235: Some things are better left unspoken

    "Let''s go kill."

    At first, I didn''t recognize the red g in Fay''s short sentence or the slight glint in her eyes.

    I knew her for a while, so I should''ve known better. And yet, I carelessly allowed her to skip ahead.

    When I felt the aura around her swirl, I merely thought she was about to ascend.

    And after taking merely five more steps, the curtains to Fay''s act finally rose.

    BOOM!

    Clearly understanding the assignment, Fay didn''t bother to add any special effects to her charge. Just the sudden eleration of her own volume was enough to send the air into a frenzy, resulting in a small shockwave that sted our entire group right in our faces.

    With the processing power of my improved brain, I could more or less make out what happened by connecting the dots between the various instances I managed to notice.

    Fay rushed ahead, using her aura to shove the air in her path aside, copsing the spell right on the axis of her sides, so that the rushing of the air eager to restore the bnce of pressure would converge just behind her, pushing her forward for just a little bit more of added momentum.

    The trees and bushes in Fay''s path only served as her footholds, allowing the girl to move like a wild monkey, rapidly covering more and more ground, all the way to when she was just about to disappear from everyone''s eyes.

    But she didn''t, for thest time she reached out, but rather than searching for a foothold, she shed with her curled fingers instead, tearing into the fabric of space and leaving marks of dense, sparkly aura within those small rifts.

    ''No, that''s not it,'' I thought, right as the rifts copsed under the powerful force desperate to mend the natural order. And once they did, the condensed, divine aura of the girl exploded in a sh of lighting.

    Fay''s hand left the spot a mere half a second before the face of a human soldier upied it instead.

    Crack!

    The sound of Fay''s attack was dulled, merely a fraction of the shock sent by falling lighting.

    But as Fay''s aura dissolved into the air and released all the energy stored in its thicker form, the poor soldier''s face simply melted through, as if Fay''s energy turned into an omni-cuttingser.

    The noise created by Fay''s attack was dull, insufficient,cking.

    The screams that followed were not.

    "Hai!" Fay yelled,nding down on her hands only to swing her legs to get back to her feet, throwing the stone she grabbed on the way against her next target.

    Decorated with a few sparks of Fay''s divine aura, the stone shot through the air, and passed through the man''s barrier as if it didn''t exist before smashing the poor soldier''s head into pieces. Yet, before his brains could stter around, Fay already reached her next objective, this time casually passing her fingers through the man''s throat�� Read exclusive content at m_v-l''-NovelBin

    And using the diffusion of her divine aura on those very fingers to disinfect them from the filthy flesh and blood she easily tore through.

    Fay drilled her feet into the ground to kill her momentum and turned towards thest member of the first of the two groups approaching us. She bent her knees and pushed her left leg forth, jumping ahead only to crush thest soldier underneath her feet as shended right on the man''s shoulders.

    ''Ugh��''

    Watching how the man''s shoulders first bent, then deformed before finally cracking and no longer supporting the flesh of the arms in the task of keeping them attached to the man''s torso��

    Even after all I saw, this disy of brutality was enough to shake me.

    After all, who could enjoy the sight of the casual clothes Fay looked so adorable in, getting stained with all this dirty blood, flesh, and pieces of shattered bone?

    As little as I cared about the humans of this world, strangely detaching them from my inner definition of what humans were, to begin with�� the sight of their blood soiling Fay''s clothes amidst all the gore she brought forth was still enough to shake me a little.

    It all happened so quickly. Fay''s savage moves threaten to elude me if I were to blink or lose focus for a single instant. Still, I held. With the speed at which I could process information and the cache of my wisdom allowing me to buffer said information at some insane rates, my eyes managed to keep up with Fay''s moves.

    Nine seconds.

    That''s how long it took for Fay to start from my side, massacre the first group as it appeared, jump deeper into the forest, and then return back to where I could see her.

    Only the greater volume of blood covering her clothes gave testimony to what happened deeper within the trees, as the other group of enemies didn''t get to make a single sound.

    "I killed," Fay skipped back to right in front of me, standing down within my hand''s reach and, due to her slightly lesser height, looked up at me.

    ''She''s just like a puppy asking for a reward,'' I thought, melting down inside.

    She was covered with blood, I know. But the contrast, the gap between her adorable, proud little look and the wildness, the savagery of the state of her clothes��

    "There, there," I muttered in a rxed voice as I reached out and patted Fay''s head.

    This move believed to be condescending by some freaks of inhuman nature, perfectly disyed both my satisfaction with the job well done and also an overwhelming affection that only continued to blossom in my soul.

    And to top it all off, with that adorable smile of hers now growing silly as it melted down my hand brushed her perfectly clean, white hair and rubbed the scalp of her head.

    "You did great," I muttered, trying to resist the desire to just grab the girl and find afortable bush nearby��

    Maybe it was the influence of Fay''s killing, maybe the developed reaction to seeing thebat logs appear in the corner of my eye, or a sliver of the world''s aura converging on my soul. Or maybe it was just Fay''s beauty mixed with��.

    No, now that I thought about it and looked closer, for some reason, the hold of our bond rxed. And with all of the above coupling with its influence, it was no wonder I felt like boning the girl while forgetting about all the other matters of this or that world.

    "Blood and boner, truly it is," I muttered, pulling Fay for a slight hug, caring not for how doing so would get my own clothes dirty as well.

    "Well then," with Fay to my chest, I turned around and looked at Makary, "do you get it now?"

    Makary called out like that after such a shocking show and jumped a little as he hastily moved his eyes to look at me.

    "Do I get what?"

    I couldn''t tell whether I startled him that much or if he was simply ying for time. Maybe I was still underestimating the man and he was already trying to get a better negotiating position in the talk that I was initiating?

    "Our weapons are surely powerful, there''s no doubt about this. And judging by what our enemies are armed with, we can pretty much expand here as much as we want, with hardly any opposition."

    That much was obvious.

    And while less than two squads worth of soldiers could hardly change or influence a thing, the perspectives drastically changed once we spoke about, as little as a singlepany.

    The moment Makary would help me bring over a battalion or a damn brigade, the fate of this world would be sealed. And the moment army-grade military units of division and above appeared, the conquest would turn from careful and slow to recklessly quick.

    In the end, the only limit in how quickly I could take over pretty much the entirety of this world�� Was choked by how quickly I could organize people under my banner on earth and bring them over to this world.

    But it all started from less than two squads worth of soldiers, Makary''s scouting group, consisting of a total of ny souls out of which Loraz was affiliated with the forest, Makary and his men were affiliated with earth while yours truly and Fay could hardly be included in such equation in the first ce.

    It all started with Makary''s small group. So it was of utmost importance to establish certain ground rules before the inevitable would happen and Makary''s strength grew unchecked.

    "As we are right now, this man, an extremely weakened ascended of a divine n, could handle your group. For me or Fay��" I shook my head.

    Makary squinted his eyes.

    By now, he could already tell where I was going with what I spoke.

    "There''s no end to money, fame, or whatever it is that you desire to find in this world. And I''m more than happy to share its bounties with you, your men, and whoever we will end up inviting to support our cause here."

    I took two steps forward, getting close enough to Makary to reach out and ce my hand on his shoulder, a gesture that made even me shudder internally in fear.

    Looking from the side, I could guess this scene had to lookical, given how rtively small I was whenpared to this lean, tall man.

    "I really need your help and I''m willing to give you half the world for it. But don''t forget that with the powers I found here, with the allies I made��"

    I shook my head.

    And instead of finishing my warning out loud, I simply looked Makary in the eyes.

 Chapter 236: The prize for going wild

    "Hon��"

    If Fay happily walked by my side before, then now she hung down my arm, struggling to walk on her own by now.

    She wasn''t tired, wounded, or overwhelmed. But in regards to thest of those three, she wasn''t all that close to losing the internal battle she waged against her body.

    For after all the killing she did, the rebound from our bond proved to be quite�� severe. And while I could still think somewhat straight in spite of the raging boner in my pants, Fay''s case was a lot worse.

    "Just a little bit longer, sweetie."

    I tried to encourage the girl, knowing full well that there was pretty much nothing I could do for her right now.

    With how engrossed we would be in our intimate act, it would be insane to go at it with groups of human soldiers running around, trying to hunt down all the defenders and overwhelm them with their sheer numbers.

    That''s why, the first primo and the primo ultimo were to reach wherever Madam controlled the situation from. Only by her side, we could indulge in the inherence of our bonds, bringing our state of mind back to an operable one.

    After all, no matter how strong we were, if a sufficient number of enemies managed to sneak up on us while our pants would be, quite literally, down��

    As the saying went, even a Hercules is an ass when the enemies are aplenty like grass!

    ''It would be a nice idea to have Fay change from those clothes,'' the rational side of my soul pointed out.

    ''But on the other hand, taking her while we are all bloodied like that�� It feels as gross as it is damn exciting!''

    My thoughts steadily grew more and more risque�� While Fay was starting to struggle to even move her legs.

    And there was nothing I could help. Not without aggrieving the situation even further. And yet�� Enjoy new adventures from m-v l''e|-NovelBin

    "Fuck it, I can''t look at you like that anymore," I apologized, leaning down a little and sneaking my arm underneath Fay''s knees before raising up and lifting her in my arms.

    "Ah��" Fay uttered a small, shy moan before burying her burning face into my shoulder.

    As I mentioned, I could do nothing to help without aggravating the situation. And bringing Fay into a princess carry definitely didn''t help her to tide the constant onught of her burning affection.

    ''It works me up too�� But I don''t have a celestial or divine blood in me, so I''m not going to go in heat like that��''

    Clenching my teeth as I had to endure Fay''s state worsening at an even quicker rate now, I speed up my steps, caring little if the rest of thepany could properly follow.

    What would be the use of conquering the entire world if it had toe at the cost of Fay''sfort, after all?

    The entire idea of taking over this world was nothing more but the logical conclusion to what would happen when an advanced civilization of Earth would stumble into a less advanced world with all sorts of treasures and resources ripe for the taking.

    In a sense, for a world so starved for a cause that would bring everyone out of the stagnation offortable decay, this world was the easiest and most sought-after answer.

    And the moment the word about this world''s existence got out��

    ''Once that happens, things will continue to escte at a rapid pace, huh?''

    I could low-key already imagine it. The greatest and most bloody gold rush in the history of the humanity of my world. A race to im all the best spots to settle or exploit in this new world before others would get the chance to do the same.

    It was a process I could never slow down or moderate, not unless I would shut all the gates off before either side would find ways to replicate them. And that, in the long term, meant��

    ''I wonder if things could''ve gone any other way? Was there a choice I made somewhere that put me on this bloody path?''

    I took a deep breath and gritted my teeth, failing to keep my thoughts on some random topic to stop thinking about Fay squirming in my arms.

    By now, she either found an opening in my clothes or simply ripped them open,tching onto the skin of my shoulder and sucking on it with all her might while her hand found its way down between her legs. And her eyes��

    Fay''s vividly blue eyes locked on my face, refusing to move even an inch. And as the shaking of Fay''s wrists hastened, the intensity of her stare grew ordingly.

    "We are getting close," Loraz announced from all the way to the back of the group where he acted as the rear guard in case some human managed to somehow sneak up on us. "I believe she should be just a few minutes out ahead."

    Slightly tightening my hold over Fay, I turned my head and looked at my father-inw before turning my nce toward Chris.

    "Huge number of targets half a click up ahead. They are stationary��" Chris hesitated for a second. "No, a small group just detached and is rushing our way!"

    I squinted my eyes.

    "Loraz, to the front, everyone else, group together and lower your weapons!" I quickly ordered everyone around before gritting my teeth and summoning my tangible darkness to scatter Fay''s hair around, hiding as much of her as I could in the storm of tinum-white.

    "Just a little longer," I whispered again, right as I moved over to the side of the group, just in case.

    The forest folk took only a few moments to cross the distance, emerging from between the trees in all shapes and forms��

    Only to stall and stop when they saw a small group of humans casually walking behind Loraz, with me holding Fay in my arms while standing by the human''s side.

    "We are here to talk with Madam!" Loraz shouted over to the stunned divines who came to check on the unknown group. "Lead the way!"

 Chapter 237: One hell of a hypocrite

    "Haaaa��."

    Fay''s long, exhausted but most importantly, satisfied sigh left her mouth and tickled the hair on my chest.

    "That was�� amazing��"

    Her words, just like her breath, only served to further irritate my skin, bringing more fuel to the fires of my barely sated lust.

    But the weight of her sweaty, warm body was sofortable, so soothing��

    Hidden from the outside world within a small tent located at the very edge of the camp from where Madam conducted her guerri warfare, I finally managed to soothe Fay''s cravings.

    And ording to her own words, I did a job well done.

    Still, even though there were some embers of excitement left in my loins, I simply couldn''t get enough of thefy feeling of just snuggling up with Fay, with my post-nut rity only making me more sensitive for this kind of after-care.

    Fay''s breathing stabilized a bit. And as thest waves of pleasure from our fulfillment subsided, she inched her chin up, raising her head on my chest to look up to my face.

    She didn''t say a word, simply raising her eyes and, as her sight fell on my expression, having her eyelids move halfway down her eyes.

    Neither of us spoke a word.

    Fay moved her hands to support her chin as she continued to stare at my face with unending interest. My hands moved on their own, one to rub the top of Fay''s head while the other slowly caressed her back.

    Her springy skin seemingly resisted my touch, pressing back up whenever I happened to tense my fingers up a bit. Her soft fleshpressed under my thoughts, weing me with a warmth that transcended merely physical heat. Her hair grew softer, more pleasant to touch than anything else in the world.

    And her eyes��

    With our stares locking, we simply continued to gaze into each other, desperate to reach the same heights of union that we could relish in just by unlocking the full potential of our bond��

    And yet, even though I was quite sure from the look in Fay''s eyes that we shared the same craving�� Neither of us made any move to release our bond.

    For me, it felt like cheating. Like taking the easy way and getting high of our mutual affection at the cost of its intensity down the line. And as great as this bond was, it made the entire connection�� cheaper, more intense yet less precious. Find your next read on m_v l|e-NovelBin

    As for Fay''s reason for holding back�� Maybe it was because she wanted to respect my wish to limit our bond? Or maybe she was engrossed in the idea from quite some time ago, of having the two of us learn so much about the other we wouldn''t need that bond in the first ce?

    Regardless of what Fay''s reasons were, I didn''t even need to think before deciding to respect them, only to even further reinforce my general withdrawal from our bond.

    And so, we continued to do nothing, simply cuddle within our small tent, content with just staring into each other eyes.

    "Aren''t you worried?"

    Quite some timeter, Fay asked.

    By now, we rxed to the point that we forgot about all the lust, about all the savagery of our today''s encounter. As much as I hated to admit it before myself in fear of a harsh, self-imposed judgment, riding Fay with the residual blood still marking her fair skin��

    ''I think that was the most intense one up until now,'' I thought before myzy brain finally moved over to work on Fay''s question.

    "Worried about what?" I asked, suddenly concerned whether I didn''t go�� TOO wild.

    "You know��" Fay hesitated, her lovingly rxed face tensing up a bit as she averted her eyes and looked to the side, towards the cloth wall of our tent.

    But it wasn''t the side of the tent that she was looking at, but the gathering far beyond it.

    "Aren''t you worried about my mom speaking to Makary without us present?" Fay properly formed her question this time. "She knows not of your world, so she might let some things slip that you would rather keep from that guy."

    Fay''s hand moved up, only for her fingers to slowly trace down my cheeks.

    "I don''t mind, really," I replied, my lips curving up in a small smile as I rxed once again. "She''s the true powerhouse here. So, I believe she sees far beyond anything I can perceive. And ultimately," I leaned my head to the side a bit and put on a cheeky grin, "she''s the ruler of this forest, isn''t she?"

    With Loraz gone from his leading position at the helm of his own n and with the celestial n in tow thanks to Syie''s cooperation, Madam naturally assumed her position as the strongest of the entire forest-folk.

    And right now, just like Fay mentioned, she was busy herself discussing things with Makary. As for his men, thest thing I saw before Fay pulled me aside was Madam inviting some of her younger kin to wee those who came seeking to help protect the forest, even if their track record up until now has yet to grow to any impressive degree.

    ''I guess humans from the earth will only receive a warm wee once we go all in and show what we''ve learned throughout our bloody history,'' I thought with an honest dose of irony.

    The thought that after all the politicians of the old constantly pushing their own agenda on others in their bid to prove their culture and beliefs to be supreme�� the first thing I''ve actively exported over to another world was violence.

    Not a culture, not a philosophical thought, not even a governance or social system.

    Violence.

    The one achievement of modern humanity that toppled all others.

    And it was all for the sake of using that violence to carve out a small piece of this world for myself, where we could live with Fay without any hint of it.

    ''One hell of a hypocrite, aren''t I?'' I smirked, amused by the thought.

    "Heeey!"

    A distant shout easily cut through all the air and then the tent''s cloth walls reached our ears.

    "You guys done?"

    This voice felt both familiar and unnatural at the same time. And it took me a considerable while to figure out it was Loraz shouting�� But because it was the very first time for me to hear him shout so loud, I simply didn''t recognize his suddenly much raspier voice.

    "Yes and no," I called back, reluctant to even think about doing anything that would force me to stop cuddling with Fay.

    "Are you ready toe out?"

    Most likely worried about disturbing us, Loraz continued to shout from a considerable distance.

    "We are done screwing," Fay rose up from my chest and shouted over while dangling her full breasts right in front of my face. "But we are not ready to leave yet. What do you want?!"

    Even after I''ve decided to somewhat mend our rtionship with Loraz�� Fay wasn''t sold on the idea at all. And in all honesty, I couldn''t me her nor had I any desire to pressure her into changing her mind. So, when I heard the obvious hints of annoyance in Fay''s voice, I wasn''t surprised in the slightest.

    She couldn''t be happy having her hated father disturb our quality time!

    "Madam needs to talk to you two," Loraz shouted over, and after a short pause, he added, "and she told she needs you two to hurry it up!"

 Chapter 238: Not pressing at all?

    If there was one thing in this world that I had to be extremely careful around, it was supremes. And even if it just so happened that my mother-inw was one of the only two of them around, I still dared not to keep her waiting when called for.

    "They could''ve left us alone for a little bit longer," Fay grumpily muttered, pinning her dissatisfied eyes on the ground while heavily hanging off my arm.

    "It''s hard to ask for privacy with thousands of men running around killing people."

    We didn''t really have the time for any longer exchange. From the moment we got out of the tent, walked up a few paces, and then rushed after Loraz back towards the camp, we arrived at our destination in less than half a minute.

    ''That alone should be the proof of my inhuman abilities,'' I thought, calcting the distance over time only toe up with a speed a fair bit greater than the longsting record of a hundred-meter dash.

    "Peter, Fay," Madam raised her head, looking up from a small circle gathered around a small fire. "Took you a while."

    "I apologize for the dy," I said while slightly squinting my eyes and lowering my head in a restrained bow. "But since the matter is urgent, how about we skip the small talk and move to the main topic instead?"

    The corners of my mouth twitched. It was one hell of a task keeping them still and stopping a cheeky smile from forming on my face.

    Madam followed my example and squinted her own eyes, giving me a slightly antsy, dissatisfied look.

    ''Is that how will Fay look at me once we are older and I return homete from an outing with friends?''

    This intrusive thought only made it harder to resist the urge to smile, although for a much different reason this time.

    "I know that you are young, but to think you would have the guts to screw my daughter for hours while we have some really pressing problem at hand," Madam hissed through her lips as she tightened in a forced smile.

    "Excuse me?" I leaned my head to the side, acting surprised, baffled, and�� just tiny little bit amused. "What are those pressing problems that you speak of, if I may ask?"

    ying dumb, I locked my hands on my hips while giving Madam an innocent look.

    "Isn''t an army of humans overrunning my forest a cause of a pressing concern?" Madam raised her eyebrow. And if I were to use the same criteria for reading her face as I did with Fay��

    Then, her mild annoyance just evolved into outright irritation.

    And thinking about how it was about to evolve even further��

    I finally allowed the cheeky smile from before to surface on my lips, leaning my head over my other shoulder.

    "Is it?"

    The expression froze on Madam''s face. Even Fay was starting to get closer and closer to the line between slightly ufortable and straight-out concerned.

    "Is it not?"

    Madam overcame her surprise and countered with a short strike on her own.

    "I don''t see how it is."

    None of the men and women gathered at Madam''s fire dared to utter a word. Fay reached out and tugged on my sleeve, trying to physically hold me back from provoking her mother any further. Explore more at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    And slightly to the side of Madam''s spot, Makary observed the situation with silent yet undying attention.

    "Haaa��" Sensing that the moment beyond which my act would turn from tease to direct disrespect, I sighed and sped my hands against my thighs.

    "Right now, you have an entire army running around the forest, trying to do��" I once again leaned my head to the other side, "what exactly?"

    Behind Madam''s back, Makary lowered his eyelids as he focused his stare on me.

    "They are doing what humans always did and will continue to do."

    It was only by some miracle that Madam didn''t snap by now.

    Madam was the spitting image of�� No, Fay was the spitting image of Madam. And in bed, with this degree of teasing, she would''ve long snapped and jumped me, putting an end to the cheeky behavior.

    I didn''t share the same bond with Madam that I did with her daughter, though. And I couldn''t tell for sure just how much their physical simrity reflected their personal likeness.

    Still, with that said, I''ve clearly toed the line even Fay knew I shouldn''t.

    But unless I left all the locals bbergasted, Madam included, I had little to no hopes of convincing them with my extremely pragmatic rationale.

    "You are right," I agreed with Madam''s spiteful words while giving her a respectful nod. "Humans will do as humans do. And that''s why, this battle couldn''t be any easier for us."

    Summing up my statement with a shrug of my shoulder, I nced over at Makary, just to let him know I''d noticed his attention.

    "What do you mean by that?" Between my irritating attitude and how I didn''t seem to care about the obvious threat lurking all around�� Madam still refused to let her emotions get the better of her. And even when a vein on her right temple pulsed aggressively, she held both her tone and her words out.

    But the situation was tense enough to fit my purposes.

    A single look at the nearby group proved that everyone pretty much forgot about the human army running around in the forest, now only desiring to know how this encounter would y out.

    ''It''s a perfect moment to scam them a little bit,'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I imagined the repercussions my n was bound to bring in the near future.

    "Humans will do as they always did," I repeated my earlier statement with another shrug of my shoulder. "Sent to the ancient forest where terrifying monsters lurk�� First, they will gather together, hoping to ovee those terrors with their numbers, like they always do."

    I smiled at my own thoughts.

    "And secondly, tell me," I took a step forward before beaming a bright smile at Fay''s mom. "How much food do you think they can drag around the forest, while dressed up in armor and with weapons weighing them down?"

 Chapter 239: Moral weight

    How many provisions could a simple soldier of the medieval-like age carry around while deployed?

    This answer was both simple andplicated at the same time, for there was no single, all-epassing answer to the question I asked.

    From the corpses of the enemies we killed on our way to Madam''s camp, I could tell that some could operate on their own for maybe a week�� But most would have to really scrape by just to survive two days.

    Just like in was back in all the wars that happened on earth, while officers could get by, foot soldiers were screwed to the point of eating the bark off the trees just to get by. And while there was no other ce as abundant in treebark as�� well, a forest, how long would a soldier remain battle-ready with such a diet?

    "If they run out of food, they can hunt or scavenge," Madam shook her shoulders. "And before they starve, more humans will invade."

    Hearing those words, I couldn''t stop myself from shaking my head.

    "Humans will do what they always do," I repeated the verse that was quickly bing the theme of the exchange. "And once they run out of food, they will look for ways to go back to the camp and resupply."

    I took a deep breath.

    "And sure, a handful of them have a lot of supplies. Some might be proficient at surviving off the bounties that are aplenty in the forest. But not all. And not on this scale."

    This time, it was the intensity of Makary''s stare that made me look over Madam''s shoulder and back at him.

    "So I''m telling you, once they run out of supplies, they will all try to head back home to get more. They are not going to run around the forest hunting your kin for long with an empty stomach, after all!"

    My smile grew.

    And Makary picked this very moment to join in.

    "I think I can see where you are going," he spoke out as he approached. "You know we don''t have enough ammo to kill them all, so you are trying to be more efficient with how we use it by funneling all the enemies into one ce."

    Makary shook his head�� But I had no doubt.

    The one emotion I saw shing in his eyes was for sure a hint of pride!

    "That''s�� a nice, humane thought," I admitted, replying in a way I could bet Makary didn''t expect.

    Because sure, the n he suggested was sound. I came up with it even before I brought Fay away and escaped to indulge in the activities that were to remain a secret known only to the two of us and the tent where we partook in each other.

    And I''ve long since improved on this primitive design so that my n wouldn''t just fit the purpose of cutting down as many invaders as we could��

    To one that would bring us a lot more benefit from every kill.

    "All in all, that''s a nice n," I smiled, raising my chin as I alternated my eyes between Makary and Madam''s faces. "We could split our forces to protect the weak and old, hunt the humans roaming the forest, and then leave the majority of our warriors at the edge of the forest, to stop anyone from leaving."

    I nodded my head as I started pacing around the area.

    Whenever I would step closer to the fire, the air would grow warmer. Whenever I would stop away, it would get colder.

    The world was simple. It was a politician''s domain to make it soplex, that ordinary folk would lose sight of what is what. And that''s exactly what I needed to do right now.

    "If our goal was to simply kill all the invaders, we could retreat deep into the forest, wait two days, and then let Makary''s army do the job. Am I wrong?"

    I stopped my stroll and locked my eyes on my sponsor, patron, and supporter.

    "I had some doubts before, but those shields you mentioned are not as annoying as you made them to be," Makary went on a short tangent before shaking his head and returning my gaze. "So yeah, even if only a quarter will answer the summons, it will take us two, three days at most to kill all the invaders."

    As he spoke, Makary couldn''t stop his mouth from twitching a little.

    After all, it had to be a funny feeling to call local humans invaders while actively seeking to bring some modern democracy to the local oil fields.

    "But it''s not our goal, isn''t it?" Madam muttered, closing her hands over her chest and rolling her eyes around.

    Just like I was learning, mostly through my interactions with Fay, how to read and deal with Madam, she was all in her right to do the same when it came to me.

    ''And from the looks of things, she already learned to recognize when I actually have an idea of what I''m doing,'' I thought�� Only to feel a strange yet familiar sense of warmth spread in my stomach.

    A feeling Ist got so long ago, that I nearly forgot it. But now that it returned��

    "As Makary said, it would be the most efficient to funnel those invaders right under their barrels. But save for putting a dent in their number, doing so would achieve nothing."

    I shook my head and pressed my lips together.

    "Right now, our one and only concern is to survive the next two and a half days first, and then��" my lips twitched, "either convince the princess she can''t win this war. Or��"

    Pausing my words, I stretched my arms out, unable to spare everyone yet another dramatic moment. And as I lowered my hands, I smiled.

    Continue your journey with m|v-l''-NovelBin

    "Or to convince her soldiers that they want no part in this war."

    Madam''s face twisted in a slight confusion. For all the processing power of her brain given her rank and thus attributes, shecked the necessary understanding of human bloody nature to figure out what I meant.

    And judging by how Makary''s face, for the very first time, turned nk��

    He already guessed what I wanted to do.

    "You can''t be��" he muttered, his lips trembling as he imagined the scenario and then felt the sudden burden of its moral weight.

    Still, he shook his head and pressed his lips together before giving me a deadly stare.

    "You spoke of dividing our forces into three groups and leaving one to lock the forest out," Makary muttered, taking his time to pick the right words that carried the exact meaning he had in mind. "Tell me, your real n��"

    Contrary to my acted pause, Makary stopped speaking to take a deep, deep breath, as if to prepare himself for what he was about to say. As he raised his eyes, I could no longer see all those different emotions that started to show on his face ever since he stepped foot in this world.

    The old Makary returned�� Or maybe it was his face from long before he turned into a gang boss, from back when��

    "Only two details will change," I replied, this time speaking out right away instead of bidding my time to build up the atmosphere and tension. "First, your firing spots will be hidden, so that the enemy will pass by your positions unnoticed."

    And this time, for the very first time, my own smile trembled a little under the moral weight of thest detail that changed everything.

    "And you will point your guns away from the forest, shooting them as they run away, but not before they think they might''ve been spared."

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    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 240: Try not to die, for it would be really troubling if you did

    "You are really cruel, you know that?" Makary asked, watching how I took my time to change to a fresh set of clothes.

    Given where I was going and what I was going to do soon, this seemed like a redundant, unnecessary action. After all, why change my bloodied clothes if I was going to get blood on them again anyway?

    "I''m pragmatic," I replied, minding not the man''s intense stare. "I don''t want to im too much merit, but I believe one of the major reasons why the princess didn''t join the attack are my threats. And with the small oopsie of bringing a small group instead of an army��"

    For a moment, only silence hung in the air between the two of us.

    "Your n is cruel, but I can see why you are going through with it," Makary spoke, opting to change his approach rather than foolhardly pressing with his former, usatory stance.

    And seeing no reaction from me, he sighed.

    "I don''t mean to me or insult you. In fact, I''m quite�� impressed."

    The strange feeling in my soul woke up again. A strange sense of�� warmth?

    "I never thought you had it in you to suggest something like that." Makary shook his head. "Scare them to force them to gather up. Use elites to terrorize them as they gather and drive them out of the forest. Give them the illusion that they have somehow escaped��"

    Makary''s head stopped shaking. And hearing no further words from him, I turned around to take a look.

    In the short moment when I was preupied with pulling on a fresh shirt, Makary cut the distance between us in half.

    "Your goal isn''t to kill those who reach the edge and escape the ughter there, isn''t it?"

    Reaching out, Makary rested his hand on my shoulder as he stared right into my eyes from up close.

    "It''s to make theirpanions beyond the forest watch as you ughter all those who escape."

    For quite a moment, Makary continued to look into my soul through the windows of my eyes, searching far and deep for something.

    I only raised my eyebrow in response to his words and actions. Then, I raised my hands and pushed the man away.

    "Only Fay is allowed to get that close to me, you old pervert," I jokingly scolded the man, struggling to have him in my face while this strange, warm feeling continued to sear my insides. "And yes, that''s my goal," I admitted before looking away. "I had to speak some big words to make the princess bide her time. But with how the gate is not yet open��"

    I pressed my lips into a thin line and walked away to where one of the celestials dropped off a small, short, wooden sword.

    Although the unusual material used for the weapon didn''t fill me with confidence�� It was only going to be my backup, to be used if both my summoned darkness, guns, and Fay''s help proved to becking all at once.

    "I now need to deliver upon my words. Prove that I mean business when I call for blood," I spoke right as I grasped the handle of the wooden sword. And in spite of all my strength�� I actually felt its weight oppose the pull of my hand for a slight instant before my muscles overcame the obstacle and brought the weapon up.

    It was heavy.

    Not heavy enough to put a burden on me when using it�� But heavy nheless.

    "How many men do you reckon she will gather?" Makary asked, taking my example and moving on to inspect his own weapons.

    With how few men and guns we had on hand, he decided to take part in the battle personally. And while he would have thepany of both elite ascended from the forest and two of his men��

    I still couldn''t help but worry about the man.

    ''Wait, no! I''m worried that if he will die, I won''t be able to manage all his men!''

    Sensing a shudder move up from my toes, along my spine, and reaching for the back of my head, I gritted my teeth and fought the sensation, refusing to show anything on my face.

    ''Just imagining the scene of going back without him��''

    "There was supposed to be a total of seven armies. I''ve defeated the first army, cutting their numbers down by roughly five thousand. But as for the other armies��"

    The intel I got was pretty precise on this point, as it came from both the mercenaries in our former custody and Loraz''s own sources that alerted him of theing conflict long before it started.

    And assuming udy would honor his word and hold his troops back from the war��

    "I think they should have around sixty, sixty-five thousand left," I answered after a while, "excluding those who entered the forest, that is."

    "So, fifty thousand, more or less," Makary summed up with a sigh.

    "And that''s just the first wave," I whined in response.

    If there was anything that I''ve learned from the mercenaries it was that the empire was relentless. This quality of the imperial rule shone through all the stories about some sort of fortress that recently fell to the empire, even though it was deemed unconquerable.

    And judging by the dread people who survived that conflict and spoke about it while in our captivity��

    That dread simply couldn''t be fake, making me believe that this Lunasomething fortress really lived up to its name.

    And all of that could mean only one thing.

    Stay tuned to m-v l|e''-NovelBin

    "Even if we defeat all of them now, we will only give the empire a reason toe back and seek vengeance," I pointed out with a sigh. "The only way to stop it is to make a deal with them. But for that to happen��"

    There was no need for me to spell it out.

    Only a sufficient amount of blood, once it would seep into the princess''s consciousness, would soften her up to the point where she would be willing to talk terms.

    "Anyway, it''s time for me to go," I added after a few moments, instantly turning on my heel and taking a few steps ahead.

    Our roles in theing operation were different. And while Makary would join the blockade at the edge of the forest, I would find my usefulness roaming the forest with the elites instead.

    "Try not to die," I stopped for just a moment, sending a quick nce over my shoulder. "It would be a pain in the ass to deal with the consequences, so save me the trouble and stay alive," I requested, my voice somehow nearly failing.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "What, are you worried about me?" Makary jeered�� But quickly turned serious when he noticed my intense look.

    "Haaa��" the man sighed and lowered his head only to shake it around. "I will do my best, so try not to die either," he replied before raising his eyes and paying me back for my stare with a look a troubled look.

    "And if you think you would be troubled if I die, imagine how annoying it would be to find out you died, leaving me with no way back home!"

 Chapter 241: Setting off

    After taking the rest of the evening and the entirety of the night to gather up everyone she could, Madam, ording to my advice, split them up into three groups.

    First, the strongest one would continue to do as it did before, roaming the forest to hunt down small groups of humans.

    This group consisted of the elites, tasked with oveing any powerhouses that apanied the fodder of the human army. This was also where I and Fay decided to im a spot so that the process of bringing the bulk of the enemies to a state of terror could smoothly progress under our watchful eyes.

    The other group, consisting of the bulk of the forest folk''s forces and Makary''s group headed for the edge of the forest, with the simple task of reinforcing the area andying down traps.

    All for the sake of manipting the movement of the humans that would try to retreat, so that they would funnel into narrow passages, spitting out of the forest in a nice line for Makary''s gunners to�� Well, gun down.

    The, most controversial thing about this split came with how the third group, one tasked with defending the children, the injured, and the old, was�� tiny.

    Sure, with just how much stronger locals were than the attacking humans, the numbers Madam assigned to this task were actually overkill, an overindulgence in a force that was supposed never to take part in any fighting at the cost of those who would actively contribute in battle.

    Still, the controversial thing about this split was how the defense force��

    Was way too little to have any shot at holding any kind of ground.

    Their task was to lead all the nonbatants away from danger rather than confronting the threats head-on. And that meant, leaving all their homes and most of their possessions behind.

    Any deserted vige humans would find would obviously end up ransacked and likely burned down to the ground.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    It was this cost of my operation that made me put up this cheeky act back when I talked with Madam. The cost was potentially so great that I had no other choice but to do my best to distract everyone, averting their thoughts away from this obvious reality.

    "All ready?" Fay asked as she came out from behind a nearby tree, dressed up in a suit��

    A suit that was both out of this world but also fit her perfectly, as if whoever designed it crafted the piece with Fay''s body in mind.

    ''Well, judging by theck of manufactories, that''s likely the case for everything they own,'' I thought, blinking my eyes a few times to clear them off any dust that could distort the beautiful image ahead.

    Fay''s outfit didn''t have a single strand of cloth in it. It consisted of a sturdy, wooden frame that Fay''s curves filled up just right. The frame was held in ce by aplex array of interweaving vines that held various pieces of the frame together.

    The vines themselves were the framework on which thousands upon thousands of flowers blossomed, turning Fay''s suit into something between ate-night, fancy dress and a suit with the effect of an active camouge.

    "Yeah, but damn��" Eating Fay''s new look with my eyes, I scanned her from her naked feet, her long legs sheltered by a knee-long skirt of flowers, her thighs where the first pieces of the wooden frame appeared��

    The dress, despite its floral foundation, somehow perfectly fit into Fay''s elegant yet wild nature, putting an emphasis on her grace as much as it did on making it hard to make out her shape.

    "This looks insane on you," I admitted breathlessly, unable to turn my eyes away.

    "It even has some��" Fay''s smile grew brighter with mypliment, and then continued to brighten up as she grinned, "features that I will tell youter about."

    Fay hid her blush by rushing forth and grabbing my hand as she passed by.

    "It took me long enough to change into this suit, so let''s get going already!"

    Seeing Fay''s cheerful attitude as she skipped forward and dragged me along while all smiles��

    Seeing her like that, I couldn''t really tell whether we were going out to ughter some people or to snack on some sweets while taking a break from the sun in the shade of an old tree.

    "Here," Fay threw as she reached the very front of the group of the elites. And by how she only stopped here and now, she clearly had no intentions of letting anyone outdo the two of us while on the task.

    "Everyone ready?" I casually asked, ignoring all the looks locals gave me when watching Fay drag me around.

    A series of murmurs and muted moans came as my response from the small crowd of roughly two hundred celestials and divines gathered around.

    Most of them, I fought with before, back when we first challenged the mercenary camp. And now we were about to fight together once more.

    "Let''s get going, then!"

    I saw with my own two eyes how much of a pain in the ass it was to gather all of the local forces together, especially with all the interference of the humans roaming around. And now, we are splitting apart again.

    In a sense, I felt slightly bad.

    ''This is how maneuvers work,'' I thought, trying to convince myself I wasn''t overestimating my ability tomand the field and the people on it. ''Trying to organize any sort of move while everyone was away�� It would be hard to pull off with a modern army. Doing it with a bunch of warriors who never heard of technology or organization?''

    I shook my head before taking the very first step ahead.

    And while on its own, it wasn''t much, it was the move that finally pushed everyone to stop just standing around and get going.

    "I will lead the way."

    To my surprise, Syie appeared slightly to my left before making her way just a few steps ahead of the entire group. Yet, before she could fully dive into the forest, Syie turned her head and gave me a small smile.

    "I can feel the general flow of aura throughout the forest. Let me guide you, and I shall bring you to where the humans are."

 Chapter 242: Path of slaughter

    "Group around fifty, two hundred steps that way," Syie proved to be true to her words, not overestimating her ability even by the slightest.

    From the very second she got to the front of the group, she confidently led the entire unit between the trees. Not even for a second did the determined and focused look in her eyes wavered.

    And in less than an hour, we found ourselves pretty deep into the forest, with a track of seventeen separate human groups left to rot throughout our path.

    "I wonder how many died so far," Fay muttered when she kicked aside the corpse of a man belonging to thest, eighteenth group we ughtered while on our way towards the nearest of the ces where humans already started to concentrate.

    "With those guys, it makes about three hundred?" I muttered, throwing out a rough guess of how many have died since we set out of Madam''s camp.

    A total of eighteen groups, ranging from five to six people to small units numbering as many as forty.

    I didn''t even bother employing my brainpower to scour my memories ande up with an urate number. I couldn''t be bothered to do a run through my battle log to count the entries either�� Because between me and Fay, we only killed what, every tenth soldier out of the total count?

    "Unless you are asking about their army as a whole, then about��" I took some time toe up with several guesses, and pped pretty much random numbers in some ces of the equation I quickly developed�� "I would say, around two thousand of them."

    There was something called an educated guess�� And what I did, couldn''t be any further away from what an educated guess was.

    "That leaves only eight thousand more, right?" Fay grinned, as if happy that her prey wasn''t about to run dry anytime yet.

    Watching her jump out of the small depression she was in so that she wouldn''t dirty her naked feet with all the blood and guts scattered around the ce where thest skirmish took ce��

    I gulped my saliva down.

    "Fay, I''m sorry to remind you again, but we really need to make sure to hold our bond in a choke," I muttered, torn between the endless desire to keep gawking at the girl and the rational urge to look away.

    Her suit�� Was a type of miracle cloth.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    The rich tapestry of flowers in all the colors one could spot in the forest made it impossible to nce upon even a single inch of skin that Fay didn''t intend to show.

    And yet, whenever she moved, twirled around in a spin, leaped forth to attack, jumped back to retreat��

    Whenever Fay moved, the petals all over her dress would flutter on the wind. And in those very moments, I could swear that Fay transformed into something even greater than herself, a fairy of sorts.

    The fact that in those moments she appeared to wear nothing but a very BDSM-styled wooden frame that only pretended to hide her curves didn''t help at all.

    And with how much blood we were spilling every few minutes or so��

    "Don''t worry," Fay crossed her arms on her chest and turned her head to the side, pouting. "I''m not going to get in heat THAT easily��" she protested silently��

    But the twitching on the corner of her mouth that I''ve observed betrayed her true, amused mood.

    I took a step forward wiping the blood off my inner palm before reaching out and lightly grabbing Fay by her shoulder.

    "Sweetie, it''s not you that I''m worried about," I whispered before looking away, seemingly in shame. "The moment our bond slips out, if you sense just how much I want to take you away right now��"

    Fay instinctively moved a bit closer, as if already eager to seek the warmth of my skin.

    "Guys! No flirting!" one of the elite celestials, a cat wraith currently in an ascended human form, called the two of us out.

    "She''s right," Syie was quick to join in. "We only have two more minutes. And even if that would be enough for you, admitting to it so brazenly��"

    Syie looked away�� But once again, the twitching of her mouth betrayed her intentions.

    "You know, I can''t help but feel sympathetic if those are the standards you know," I called back in response, rolling my eyes over all the teasing this group was strangely happy to indulge in.

    And judging by the sharp stare Syie gave me that quickly mellowed down when she no longer hid her amusement��

    ''Right, in a forest like this, they would have hardly any other ways to kill time but to talk with others,'' I thought, suddenly embarrassed of the sense of supremacy I felt for a mere instant over the locals.

    "Anyway," Syie''s face changed. All the amusement vanished, reced by an unadulterated focus. "Huge group, about five hundred strong, half a mile away," she reported in a calm, collected voice while pointing her long, slender arm to the left of our path so far.

    "I guess that means we should begin phase two of our job," I thought out loud, only to feel Fay tug at the sleeve of my shirt.

    "We are going all in?" Fay asked, her eyes glittering with sparks of excitement.

    "That''s right, we are going to ughter roughly half of them," I nodded my head while reaching out to pat Fay''s hair. "I think this is the right time to start sweeping them around. Right, Syie?"

    Raising my eyes back to Loraz''spanion, I waited until she nodded her head.

    "We are now further into the forest than most of the humans," she reported back.

    "Good," I replied before pushing Fay away only to grab her hand and pull her to the very front of the group yet again. "We are going to split up into two groups and sweep them all towards the edge!"

    Shouting out loud with all my might definitely felt weird when, up until this moment, we tried to maintain a rtively silent, stealthy approach.

    "May we celebrate victory and the glorious ughter of the escaping cowards a few hours from now!"

 Chapter 243: An enemy who I cannot see

    Just like I was worried about raising my voice with only half a mile of distance separating our unit from the enemy, the noise made by those humans quickly proved to be the best disguise for any sound that we made while approaching.

    Everything went pretty well, all the way up until the point when we encroached on the huge group of humans, reaching merely a hundred steps away from their rear guard.

    "They know," Syie suddenly whispered as she froze a few steps ahead of me and Fay. She turned her head and looked me straight in the eyes. "They know we areing. Someone strong is��"

    ''Dodge.''

    It wasn''t a conscious thought. It was a scream of my soul, uttered when my brain calcted stimuli faster than I could consciously perceive it.

    ''Shit!''

    Jerking my body up, I leaped away in Fay''s direction, crashing into her on the go and causing the both of us to stumble away. The very moment I wrapped my around her, I gritted my teeth and channeled my aura into nearby shadows, using them as moving bumpers to push the two of us away even faster.

    BOOM!

    A hole suddenly appeared where the two of us were just a split second earlier, with the ground formerly within that hole now shooting in every direction as an invisible attack nearly found its target.

    ''Wha��?!''

    This only made sense. If my own abilities were the dead giveaway and everything I learned about aura so far served as further hints�� Then I still failed to understand the most important quality of how the existence of aura affected fights in this world.

    It was something I missed thus far because of my overreliance on the guns�� But how exactly do others utilize aura? How could a mage control the weather to the point of summoning a powerful storm all on her own? Or how could yours truly somehow materialize elemental darkness just by infusing it with aura?

    I knew not the answer to those questions. But the very importance of this answer finally dawned on me, when an invisible attack nearly imed my life or, more importantly, hurt Fay.

    ''There''s no telling just what kind of abilities people will have in this world!''

    Heck! Save for a vague feeling I''ve gained through the use of our bond, I had no clue how Fay''s own abilities worked! For example, I learned that she could turn herself into a semi-temporal form to traverse the distance at great speeds by slipping through the fabric of the world''s aura��

    I only learned about this ability of hers when she first disyed it to my eyes, back when I asked her to show off before Makary. And while I''ve gained some basic, rudimentary understanding of how it felt for Fay to use it thanks to our bond, the actual theory about the principles of this skill of hers was nothing more but my conjecture.

    Thud.

    The boost from the piston-like footholds could onlyst us so far. Ejecting the two of us any harder would only make it impossible for me to control our descent while likely sending the two of us off to crash into some random tree.

    Tethering the line between pushing the two of us too weak to escape the attack and too heavily to have a safending, I somehow managed to use just the right amount of power to escape. And sure,nding on my back while bearing the additional burden of Fay''s weight as I used my own flesh to keep her from scratching herself squeezed all the air out of my lungs��

    ''Move!''

    The fall squeezed all the air from my lungs, sure, but something as simple and slight as a fall like this was far from sufficient to cause any real injury. The same couldn''t be said about the next attack that I''ve already sensed disturb the world''s aura right up ahead.

    "Hon!"

    Right as my muscles tensed up, ready to leap out of the attack''s way, Fay grabbed my shoulders and brought me in.

    Caring not for the attack bearing on us, she pressed her lips against mine only to press them into a thin line and then open her mouth, parting my own lips open as she did so.

    The next attack came closer. It was just a tiny bit away when our tongues joined in an entrancing dance.

    "RAWR!" Fay''s sudden outcry filled my soul with a primal type of fear. And while my body followed its prime instincts and froze in fear, Fay''s hair danced in the air when she swung her hand, wing away at the mass of concentrated aura, shattering it and then swatting it away like a fly.

    BoobooBOOM!

    A series of smaller explosions shoot the ground behind the two of us.

    "Hon!" Fay called out. "Give me a path!"

    Yeah, as if it was that easy. A path to what? An enemy I cannot see?

    My jaw tightened.

    ''Why do I evenin? No one said going into a battle''s going to be easy!''

    Having no idea what to do�� I simply did everything at once.

    Swish!

    A thousand tiny cuts appeared all over my skin. Yet, as I didn''t even try to move a single muscle, each of the wounds remained too small for anyone to even notice.

    Blood tribute. A hex to slow time.

    Eye of time. A skill that raised my already high intelligence, allowing the gears of my mind to spin even faster, processing information at some ungodly rate.

    Darkness core. Something that I''ve assimted and that now allowed me to channel aura through elemental darkness. And right now, it has be the very foundation of the makeshift n I developed on the spot.

    And ultimately, the kiss of death that developed "Blood and Love" inherence within my bond with Fay.

    In what had to seem like an instant for others, unaffected by the effects of my skills, a sea of tiny, extremely narrow, and fragile strands of elemental darkness grew out from the shadows within the undergrowth.

    Within the single frame of time that I operated within, the world suddenly turned checkered, with every square inch of space marked by its four corners with a tiny strand of vertically rising darkness.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    ''Now, let''s duke it out, you fucker,'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I lifted my blood tribute and closed my eyes.

    "Hon?!"

    Fay freaked out, instantly realizing what I''d done. When sheshed out and pped the enemy spell away, she inevitably lost the focus necessary to maintain our bond within a choke-hold. And so, as the lust from our deep kiss tranted into a wild lust for blood, her ability to keep our bond in check only degraded.

    And now, regardless of how small the prize of using my blood tribute for a little bit was, Fay still felt it.

    "It''s okay," I muttered, keeping my eyes closed as I focused all of my attention on the sea of strands of darkness within the endless ocean of the world''s aura all around.

    A second passed. Then another one. And then��

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    ''There you are!''

    The outermostyer of my strands of darkness crumbled when another attack flew our way.

    My tiny strands of darkness had no shot at stopping the attack. But that was never their purpose.

    ''Now!''

    Releasing my hold over the darkness, I filled it with aura and just a single intention.

    To follow the path of the least aura resistance.

 Chapter 246: The parts we both kept hidden

    As she walked over to where the battle was happening, Fay was unusually calm��

    No, that''s not the right word.

    She was unusually silent, sneaky, and low-key.

    Everything about her right now made it increasingly hard to keep my eyes on her, as if her very presence in the world was actively erased by some sort of force.

    And then, as we reached the area where the first corpses were scattered on the ground with all sorts of ugly marks on the nearby trees�� Fay''s presence returned.

    And it did so in a big way.

    BOOM!

    Turning herself into a sh of lightning, Fay surged ahead. And only when shended down roughly a hundred paces away did I realize that she left several, fresh corpses in her way.

    ''What?''

    Raising my eyes along the path Fay took, I saw one, two, three�� eleven, twelve, thirteen humans fall down to the ground with fountains of blood squirting out from where various parts of their bodies were ripped away.

    There was no ss, no dignity or grace in those wounds. Just pure and unadulterated desire to harm, wound, and kill.

    And once my eyes reached sufficiently far enough, I finally got to bear witness to Fay''s new look. And with our control over our bond slipping at the moment, I could also feel the strange mix of emotions swirling in Fay''s soul.

    Fay''s graceful purity and innocence are signified by the whiteness of her hair and the floral theme of her suit��

    They were now nowhere to be found.

    With red marks of human blood sttered all over her suit, Fay lost her mellow, gentle look, revealing the more wild, animalistic side she had. And as she threw her head to the side, her eyes frantically searching for her next opponent, I got to catch a glimpse of her current face.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    ''Dang,'' I gulped my saliva down when I got a visual confirmation of what I could already feel through our bond.

    The innocent, pure, and adorable Fay was now nowhere to be found, reced by the vile, vicious, and bloodthirsty monster. Her mouth was pried open, revealing her sharp fangs as she deeply breathed in the air.

    Her chest moved up�� And as if she sensed her prey through her smell, Fay''s head shot to the side before the girl disappeared from her spot, only to reemerge several paces ahead, leaving several more human corpses in her wake.

    The battle log continued to register the kills in the corner of my eyes while slight slivers of the world''s aura continued to rush to my soul, filling the gaps within its growing volume.

    Fay''s new self was the peak of what I could expect from her from all the hints of wildness she showed before. Right now, Fay unleashed her animalistic, predatory form, holding nothing back as she ran across the battlefield, quickly bringing the number of casualties far higher than the n intended.

    ''Shit, at this rate��''

    Upon realizing what was happening, my body tensed up for a split second before I jumped forth.

    Pushing my muscles to their limits, I ran across the active battlefield, paying only enough attention to the ongoing fighting not to catch a stray strike to the back of my head.

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    And yet, even after pushing myself to the absolute limit and rushing with all my might, by the time I arrived where Ist seen Fay, she was already long gone, busy ughtering more and more humans another hundred paces or so away.

    ''Fay, that''s enough!''

    Knowing full well I had no chance at ever catching up with her with how things were going, I stopped�� And called out with my soul instead.

    With my eyes locked on Fay, I caught the moment when her body twitched and froze for but a second��

    As it turned out, it was just long enough for one of the human cannon fodder tond a lucky strike, shing diagonally across her torso.

    "RAGRH!"

    Paying no further mind to my soul call, Fay turned around on her hell, using the momentum of her spin to w at the daring enemy, literally tearing the face off the head of the poor man.

    Fay''s fangs somehow appeared to grow slightly longer. The blue of her eyes grew darker and darker, as the darkness I noticed in her irises now grew at an unprecedented rate. And with her bloodshot eyes, saliva dripping down her mouth and her fingers curled up to serve as ws��

    With all of the above, Fay still remained standing, following my soul''s call and standing rtively still.

    ''Just a little bit more��'' not daring to waste this chance, I ignored all the fighting, all the battle l0gs, all the world''s aura rushing to my side, and ran with all of myself, holding nothing back in my dash towards Fay.

    With only a few paces left, I kicked myself off the ground, leaping forth and pushing my arms ahead��

    Only tond my hands on Fay''s shoulder, dig my feet into the ground to kill my momentum, and then pull Fay into a deep, possessive hug.

    At first, out of instinct, Fay attempted to shake me off. Yet, as the hint of sanity returned to her bloodshot eyes, she ceased her attempts and simply allowed herself to be pulled into my embrace.

    "H-hon?" Fay called out in a slightly shaky voice, her body trembling a little as if she was instinctively trying to shake my hold off.

    "It''s okay," I whispered before learning my lesson and stealing her own move, reaching out with my hand for Fay''s chin to hold her face in ce as I leaned in and pressed my mouth against her bloodied lips.

    Not stopping at just a shallow kiss, I instantly invaded Fay''s mouth with my tongue, now confirming that her fangs had, indeed, grown. Before, I couldn''t really tell if it was an actual change to her physique or just an impression I''ve got due to her vibe changing. But now that I''ve Frenc- kissed her?

    Even though we have yet to truly get ourselves used to the intimacy of the other, I''ve kissed Fay enough to be able to instantly tell the difference.

    As our kiss continued along with the ongoing battle all around, Fay''s hold over her bond rxed even further.

    ''Haaa��.''

    With my lips preupied at the moment, I couldn''t sigh when her feelings flooded my soul, leading to my own grasp over our bond slipping and flooding Fay''s soul with my own thoughts and feelings in return.

    And as I went through the endless, boundless, and limitless ocean of Fay''s predatory sense shaken awake by the blood part of our bond''s inherence, I discovered how my darkness had somehow rooted itself within her soul allowing for an easier merging of our powers��

    As I grew more and more aware of all of the aspects of Fay''s soul I didn''t notice before, Fay had to absorb all of my worries, uncertainties, and fears.

    The fear of bing too bloody and warmongering for her liking. The fear of Fay misunderstanding the ultimate goal I had in bringing over a modern army. And most of all, the self-directed me born from watching her get hit because of my distracting soul call.

    For but a moment, we both witnessed the depth of our conflicting feelings�� All centered around the fear we shared of having others think ill of parts of ourselves we were reluctant to show or admit to.

    And as if the battle happening all around us didn''t matter anymore, as we looked into each other eyes��

    Fay''s hair started to rise in the air.

    "��"

    Neither of us spoke a word. We simply continued to stare into the eyes of the other while our souls, our worries, and our fears filled the other.

    As Fay''s hair moved through the air, epassed me, consumed me, and pulled me into the void of a separate dimension, I saw a new yet familiar notification re up in the corner of my eyes.

    The world around me disappeared, reced by theforting presence of Fay and Fay alone. Her worries soothed my soul while mineforted hers.

    And as our auras merged, as my darkness fed upon Fay''s affection and her divine aura preyed upon my stone-like loyalty, as our bond''s inherence messed up our minds and promoted both the lust for blood and our lust for the other, I saw the words of the system notification.

    [Perfect Evolution Possible: Do you wish to undergo a rebirth?]

 Chapter 247: Last chance before inherence takes over

    I was stuck.

    First, on the physical level, I was stuck within the domain of Fay''s hair and aura, surrounded by nothing but the tinum white of her hair and the sparkles of her divine aura.

    I could still feel her body within my embrace. The way her hands locked behind my back, how her breath stuck my chest, how the top of her head brushed against the bottom of my chin��

    I could feel all of that, and yet, I could not see her, only able to perceive the colors of her domain.

    Then, I was stuck on a mental level.

    ''Should I proceed? Another rebirth is what I wanted anyway, so why not? And we are not in any particr danger right now, so it''s as good of a time as any��''

    The possibility of the rebirth this time didn''te with the pressure to do it. With my free points barely going beyond what I could consume with just my attributes alone, the pressure of having more aura than my body could handle wasn''t all that great.

    In fact, it was barely noticeable for now, something that was sure to change once my power grew even further.

    But still��

    ''Thest time I went through the rebirth, it was pretty painful, wasn''t it?''

    Just the memory of what had happened back then�� Just the memory of it was enough to shake me all the way up to my core. It was the kind of pain that I could never forget. And theoretically speaking, with how everyst cell of my body literally went through a total reconstruction��

    Was it actually possible to experience an even greater pain?

    Still, as scary�� no, as terrifying the prospect of going through this damned process again could be, it wasn''t something I would allow to stop my progress. If pain was the prize I had to pay to grow strong enough to keep Fay safe from whatever dangers lurked in either of the worlds, then so be it!

    But right now, between sinking into Fay''s domain, our bond opening up to its full potential and its inherence putting the two of us in quite a sensitive mood��

    How could I subject Fay to experiencing the same pain I would have to go through?

    ''I guess I will have to put it forter, when��''

    My thought formed before I could realize that with our connection�� Fay would sense it the very moment it appeared.

    ''I guess I''m still not all that used to operating while under our bond,'' I thought, averting my eyes to the side even though I couldn''t even see Fay''s face within the tinum-white world she created.

    "That''s right."

    I couldn''t really tell whether it was Fay''s thought�� or if she spoke out.

    Within the domain of her aura, blocked from the outside world by the barrier of her hair floating on air, I could feel my senses freaking out. Without enough stimulus, they nearly instantly grew dull and induced quite a disorienting feeling.

    "We can hear each other thoughts, right?"

    Once again, I either heard Fay speak or heard her voice in my head. Yet, in all honesty, whether of the two it was, didn''t really matter.

    "And that means, you now know about my doubts and the reasons behind them," I summed up, ignoring all my doubts from before and ushering in this new form ofmunication.

    "It''s fine."

    As Fay''s voice caressed my ears, I felt her hands tighten around my waist as she pulled herself closer to my chest, as if she wanted to squeeze all hesitation out of my flesh.

    "You want to grow stronger to protect me, I really appreciate that. But how you wanted to try to hide the pain this growth woulde with��"

    I couldn''t see Fay. Yet, when her hands suddenly rxed and lifted from my waist, I could somehow tell what she was about to do before it even happened.

    Thump.

    Fay''s fists struck my chest, raising a small, dull sound.

    "Pain, pleasure, happiness, sadness," Fay raised her head and looked straight at my face�� even though I was quite unsure if she could even see me to begin with. "I want to share all of them. Just like you want to usher in all of me."

    This sentence could appear quite pretentious when spoken out loud between humans, but right now, it was a perfect fit.

    With our consciousness pretty much merging, unifying at a level inconceivable by mere mortals, there was no need for fake fronts and using nice words to cover the, often embarrassing, truth.

    Fay could sense the level of my devotion to her just like I could feel her reciprocating all those feelings. And while the experience of our affection wasn''t a perfect match, given how we experienced our love in different ways, one thing we could both say for sure.

    And it was the extent of our desire for the other, be it their flesh, their thoughts, their presence��

    "If anyone were to catch what we are thinking right now, they would die from cringe, you know that, do you?"

    Unable to remain tense when every, tiniest strain on my soul soothed in Fay''s presence while her affection filled all the holes left in my heart by any negative emotion I ever experienced.

    "And why would I care what others think about us?"

    Fay''s hands returned to my waist, and her forehead rested right between my chest and my throat.

    "Good point."

    For a moment, we simply enjoyed each other presence, indulging in the narcotic-like effects of our bond. And while theck of vision certainly helped me to keep the reins of my lust in check, the very moment I ever sensed the softness of Fay''s body pressing against mine��

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    Given the synchronization of our souls, a tiny bit of excitement instantly sparked in Fay''s soul. As this spark transmitted back to my own heart, it ignited a small fire of lust in it, which then transmitted to Fay''s consciousness, only serving to blow more air into the growing ze of her intimate affection��

    In short, it was a positive reinforcement feedback loop that took even the tiniest amount of our mutual lust and multiplied it to no end, quickly making it one hell of a challenge for me to think of anything else but how fun it would be to y with Fay while in this strange domain of hers.

    "Hon, I will be okay," Fay''s inner voice sounded in my soul, clearly strained by the feelings she was trying her best to hold back. "So, before we lose this chance��"

    I couldn''t see Fay''s face, but I could sense the determination burning in her soul. I had no idea what kind of face she made, what kind of expression appeared on this lovely head of hers��

    But she was just like me. We both realized that it was only a matter of time, extremely short time in fact before we would sumb to the inherence of our bond.

    From our experience, putting my rebirth forter would only result in a much more painful experience given the overabundance of aura trying to fit within my limited soul.

    "You sure?"

    My hold over the girl tightened.

    "Mhmm."

    I was scared of the pain of the rebirth. I was terrified beyond any measure of forcing Fay to go through this kind of awful experience.

    But I could also feel the softness of her flesh ttening against mine, the warmth of her breath, the affection underlying every tiniest piece of her soul��

    And I wasn''t going to disrespect the determination that burned bright like a signal re in her heart.

    ''Since I can, then let''s not put it off forter,'' I thought, somehow reverting back from the mind speech we used with Fay just now to simply thinking my thoughts out as we did before. ''System-kun, do you worst!''

    Just like with summoning my portal where a mere hand gesture was enough to put it in motion, interacting with my system only ever required a single thought of me.

    [The rebirth will nowmence]

    My hold over Fay''s feeble body tightened at the very same moment as her hold over mine grew tighter as well.

    We could both sense that whatever my system was going to do to me wasing.

    But this feeling came... and went.

    And without even the tiniest bit of pain, the entire world suddenly turned into an even more intense shade of white... Before the bright white disappeared, reced by the endless, unfathomable, ancient darkness.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

 Chapter 248: Darkness (1)

    Darkness.

    ording to physics, it was a state where no object reflected or created light. A ce of theoretical zero energy, with how in this absolute darkness I could see no proof of any matter existing.

    The darkness I found myself in seemed to have no end, no substance, no energy, and nothing else.

    Just like physicists of earth said, darkness wasn''t a thing in itself, but ack of light.

    ''But if such is the case, why can I feel resonating with this darkness?''

    This thought suddenly shook me awake.

    After a moment, or what seemed like a moment, of letting the darknessfort and lull me into a rxed state, I finally regained the drive, the one thing that pushed people forward even when all their basic needs were fulfilled.

    The drive to understand what''s going on. The drive to return to Fay''s inviting embrace. The drive to�� do stuff.

    But how I was supposed to do anything when I was surrounded by nothing?

    I was no god to create something out of nowhere. I couldn''t create light that could disperse the darkness and allow me to take a look either.

    Stuck in this endless, unending, and bottomless pit of darkness, I could somehow tell that hoping for anything to disturb this darkness would be a fool''s errand.

    "What the actual fuck is going on," I asked myself out loud, sensing how my entire self would start to deteriorate unless I provided some sort of stimulus to my brain. And with no light or matter�� My voice was the only thing left that I could produce and then consume.

    Stuck, I tried to delve into my memories, quickly reconstructing what had happened before I found myself in this pit of eternal darkness.

    ''We had a slight disagreement, then moved on to take part in the battle, then I found out that my own powers were starting to merge with the nature of Fay''s aura, then we reconciled, and right as we were about to lose our battle against our inherence induced lust��''

    I took a deep breath�� Or at least, went through the motions I would normally do when breathing in.

    Still, my lungs filled with air�� Or maybe my brain replicated the sensation it expected to go through even in the absence of stimulus that was responsible for causing it?n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    ''Let''s put that aside. There''s no point trying to figure out everything about this ce at once. Let''s start with just one tiny detail I didn''t notice before.''

    This was the task I set for myself. The first step I had to make if I wanted to figure out the essence of this strange, dark space I found myself in.

    Yet, knowing that I wanted to discover something about this world of darkness didn''t make it any easier to actually do so.

    ''And how exactly am I supposed to figure out something that I cannot touch, smell, see, hear, or even feel?''

    There was no physical sense that could allow me to actually register darkness, for darkness was only the default state ofcking stimulus.

    And with all of my physical senses out of question�� I reverted to the only force that went beyond the scientific understanding of the world that a college-less kid like me had.

    ''Let''s use aura!'' I decided��

    Only to discover that now that the world''s aura wasn''t there to constantly remind me of the presence of aura�� I actually had no idea how to use it. Still, there was no denying that I used aura. I pushed my own aura to construct tangible objects from elemental darkness!

    Still, even after recalling the sensation I felt whenever I exploited my darkness core to manipte elemental darkness proved to be useless.

    No matter how much I willed for my aura to infuse itself into the everpresent darkness all around me, said darkness refused to buckle. It simply refused to grow tangible, no matter how hard I tried to infuse my aura into it��

    Or rather, no matter how hard I tried to replicate the sensation of pushing aura into darkness that I found in my memories.

    "Haaa��"

    With my patience slowly reaching its limit, I breathed out and rxed back.

    In this world of nothingness, there was no chair for me to sit�� but also no ground for me to stand on. As such, when I decided it was time to rx and let my mind rest a little, I simply left my body to hang in space, devoid of any pressures or pulls.

    And it was in this strange state of suspension in whatever filled this strange, dark space�� I finally got to thinking.

    What it meant was that I couldn''t feel anything. What was a possible reason for my inability to infuse aura into darkness�� Or rather, to feel my own aura in the first ce.

    A myriad of questions that I had no real answer for save for some random guessing based on nothing more�� but even more guesses and random assumptions.

    And yet, amidst all those confusing elements that refused to stick together to make up a greater picture, one question continued to rock around in my mind.

    ''If I can''t even ess my own aura�� then where the hell does all this darknesse from?''

    This couldn''t be normal darkness. I refused to believe it.

    Whatever was going on, however, what my rebirth was supposed to look like, I was sure it wouldn''t randomly drop me in one of the great dark zones of the universe.

    ''If it did, I would''ve long frozen over, had the air in my lungs expand and pop my body like a balloon, and went through all the other horrors of finding oneself in outer space."

    I''ve watched enough videos about what would happen if someone were to appear in outer space without a space suit to realize that�� this simply couldn''t be my current situation.

    And since I wasn''t in outer space�� then where exactly I was? And why was darkness the only thing present?

    ''And most importantly�� how is me being here tied to my rebirth?''

 Chapter 249: At the end of the politics (1)(double chapter)

    "This fucking duke��" Sylfan cursed under his nose, using his voice just loud enough to carry his emotions out of the system while silent enough for his unitmissioner not to hear it.

    "How the hell are we supposed to fight if we cannot even find a single enemy to battle?!" Arty, Sylfan''s direct subordinate didn''t really care to hold his words back.

    Compared to Sylfan, Arty was merely amoner, nothing more than a tool in the duke''s eyes. And no sanemissioner would care about what somemoner was rambling about.

    But if this kind of words denouncing the duke''s infinite wisdom were toe out from Sylfan''s noble mouth��

    "Trust me, I wish I knew Duke''s magnificent n," Sylfan replied, making sure to color his words with enough ir to make them passable for themissioner''s ears. "But as mere pawns on the board of his grandiose ns, we can merely lower our heads and toil away in hopes our efforts will bring fruition to the duke''s genius."

    Sylfan lowered his head whenever mentioning Duke or his ns, just to showcase how much respect he had for the hated despot who just happened toe out from between the legs of the right woman and at the right time.

    "It''s hard topile a general report, but things��" Arty ignored Sylfan''s poems praising the dukepletely as if it was nothing more but a noise that he long since grown used to. So used to, in fact, he could no longer ever perceive it. "If my extraption is correct, then we are in deep shit."n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    Arty raised his eyes and looked at hismanding officer.

    As a man losing in rank only to the fieldmander, general, and the duke himself, Sylfan really needed to get a good picture of what was going on. Fated to suffer under Duke''s idiotic orders, he needed all the information he could get to salvage as many lives out of their army as he could.

    ''If only this fucker wasn''t here��'' Arty thought, turning his eyes over and giving the nearbymissioner a hateful stare.

    That man was just like Sylfan. Born to a noble household, forced to look into making his own ce in the world when their eldest sibling enforced their im to their household''s fortune. But while Sylfan refused any connection to his great house and started from the very bottom, rising through the ranks with the help of his dedication, skills, and hard work��

    Askha, the duke''smissioner to Sylfan unit, took an easy path. A shortcut that existed only because the duke was stupid enough to be a tyrant�� but not stupid enough to fail to realize the fact.

    And, in the fat head of that overweight piece of shit, the easiest way to control the loyalty of his army wasn''t to raise their morale, give them good pay, or be a generally decent person andmander.

    No.

    In the duke''s mind twisted by the luxurious upbringing that equaled only his household''s disregard for themoners, the only way to keep themoners in his army in line�� was to ce nobles in charge of them and then make them responsible for any and all mistakes, problems, rumors or nders that would be born in their respective units.

    In its stupidity, this n turned out to be extremely efficient.

    Themon soldiers either loved or hated their superiors. And with all of the officers being noble, it took only a few years before the dukedom''s armyyered out.

    Themoners kept to themselves, scared of doing anything that their noblemander would wrong them for. Feeling excluded, even the decent nobles in charge of the army ended up colluding with other officers, turning into a tight caste that quickly adopted the duke''s disregard for themoners.

    And then, there weremissioners. Nobles hired directly by the duke not tomand his armies, but to make sure the nobles in charge ofmanding those armies never showed any sign of dissent.

    ''It''s one thing to have this idiot constantly watch what I''m doing or speaking, but to have him interfere with how we battle this out?!'' Sylfan gritted his teeth while his fingers grabbed at the edge of the small, portable table he was using to the point his knuckles turned white.

    "Is there any problem?" Askha inquired upon noticing the hateful stares from Sylfan''s subordinate. As he approached the two, he instantly peaked over Sylfan''s shoulder, taking a look at the papers that depicted nothing more but Duke''s fantasy.

    Duke''s fantasy about how the troops were supposed to act while in the forest�� Fantasy that assumed they would all stay in their formation, would cut any tree in their paths, conjured all their supplies from the arse of their nearestpanion, and never encountered a single enemy that could throw a wrench into any of the delicate parts of the duke''s strategy.

    Looking down at the stratagem written directly into the surface of the portable table, another one of Duke''s great ideas aimed at forcing his officer to never forget his genius n, Sylfan had to hold himself back from heaving a long sigh.

    With Askha right by his side, even an exhausted sigh could be taken as a sign of disloyalty or dissatisfaction.

    "Commissioner Askha, ording to the reports I''ve gathered, our army proved too ipetent to fulfill His Majesty''s great strategies and tactics," Sylfan reported, once again using colorful words to describe what could be exined with just three words.

    "In other words, we are fucked." Artymented under his nose, not even bothering to lower his voice. And to top it off, he raised his eyes right at themissioner as he spoke, openly challenging him to react.

    "It seems you cked at taming your livestock," Askha coldly replied, raising his chin and looking down at the veteran soldier along the bridge of his potato-like nose.

    "Forgive him,missioner," Sylfan spoke while struggling to keep a straight face. "He''s a mere orphan, someone not blessed with parents who could teach him the manners," he exined.

    Sylfan didn''t worry about Arty''s reaction to his words or a potential grudge they could bring. After all, due to being born amoner, Arty already reached the very highest rank he would ever be allowed to attain. And in spite of his much smaller and fewer achievements, Sylfan was actually the man''s junior in terms of battle experience or time in the duke''s army.

    Or, in much simpler terms, while Sylfan had to adapt to the ridiculous rules of the duke''s military, Arty was there when things went from the order imposed by the duke''s grandfather, to the disregard for the military of the duke''s father��

    And then the tyrannical and borderlineical reforms implemented by the currently ruling duke.

    In fact, it was no one else but Arty who taught Sylfan how to navigate the treacherous waters of the constantmissioner''s oversight. He taught him the lines he should never cross and what were the rules thatmissioners liked toe up with, having no backing in thew or Duke''s authority behind them.

    "It''s up to the owner to maintain his livestock in good shape," Askhamented, ignoring Arty''sments and only ever talking to Sylfan.

    For the fat, second son of a ruined noble household, Askha considered himself to be someone too important formoners to even speak to.

    What themissioner ended up missing due to his disregard, though, was that Arty initially focused on the next batch of hastily written reports before suddenly turning his head over to the east.

    "There should be an elite strike unit east of us, right?" Arty asked, right as Sylfan was about to rebuke Askha, chase him away, and go back to looking for some miraculous way out of the mess they were in that wouldn''t end with him standing on an execution tform as a filthy deserter.

    "Yeah, Ugo led them away to secure our nk and create a perimeter for this space," Sylfanmented, quickly pulling out the necessary information from the back of his head as he stared back at a simple, ugly drawing depicting what they knew about the current situation in the field�� Or rather, the dense, forbidden forest.

    "I guess you should cross Ugo''s unit out, then," Arty sighed before stuffing up all the papers in his hand into a small bag by his belt and pulling out his sword instead.

    "What?" Sylfan asked, raising his eyes from the table and then moving them along the direction Arty was starting. And as the first soldiers of Ugo''s elite unit emerged from behind the trees, running as if the devil himself was chasing after them��

    "I think it''s time," Arty muttered, forcing already distracted Sylfan to look away from the running soldiers and back to his direct subordinate�� Only to watch as he circled around the small table.

    "Wait, what is he do��"

    Swish!

    With a single, leisurely even, push of his sword, Arty pierced straight through several inches of fat before the tip of his de reached Askha''s heart, piercing right through it only for now bloodied tip toe out from themissioner''s back.

    "I don''t know if it''s true that they eat man''s sh, but I figured it wouldn''t hurt to try," Arty muttered, not showing even a single hint of hesitation, doubt, or fear when he pulled out his simple sword from Aksha''s frozen body. His face didn''t change when themissioner gave him first a surprised, then shocked, and finally a hateful look.

    "I guess that marks the end of our ruse," Sylfan whispered, more to himself than to anyone else. He then looked back to where more and more men came out of the woods, everyst one of them more scared by what was chasing them than the ones that came before them.

    "That''s right," Arty muttered while shaking his head. He then raised his hand, allowing the sword in his hand to slide within his palm all the way to the point where it pointed directly at the ground. Then, after reaffirming his grasp over the weapon''s handle, Arty struck his right, de-bearing fist into his chest.

    "Warriors of Etna!" Arty''s voice suddenly echoed throughout the entirety of the small, open space where Sylfan decided to set up their temporary, field headquarters.

    And contrary to any of the calls Sylfan could make, all of the soldiers in the area turned their eyes away from the survivors of whatever disaster happened further east, focusing on their fieldmander instead.

    "Themissioner is dead! And so is Ugo''s unit!" Arty shouted out loud while already making his head towards the survivors with the sword in his hand. "All in all, we are fucked. There''s no winning this battle! So, don''t bring shame to our dearmander��" a wave of chuckles moved past the soldiers as Arty pointed at noble superior, "and at least keep order while retreating!"

    There was no need for Arty to repeat his words. His power over the other soldiers didn''te from his family name, status, or any of the other things depraved by the tyrannical rule of the current duke.

    His authority came, just like in the old times, from his experience.

    And from the fact that while he ordered everyone to pretty much run with their tail between their legs, he actively moved in the other direction, ready to put himself against whatever was chasing the leftovers of Ugo''s unit.

    Arty''s timing turned out to be impable. By the time he crossed barely half the distance that kept him away from the trees, a massive and seemingly shapeless monster came out, looming well over ten meters above the open field of the clearing. Discover more stories at m,v l''e-NovelBin

    And before Arty could swing his sword, stand down, turn around, or do literally anything, several tens of tentaclesposed of nothing but bright darkness shot out from the shapeless blob of the monster, piercing through close to half of the survivors of Ugo''s unit that made it this far.

 Chapter 252: Darkness (2)

    Darkness.

    This was both the fabric, the content, and the highest goal of the world I was stuck in.

    For how long?

    I had no idea.

    With absolutely no stimulus for me to experience, keeping track of how much time has passed was simply impossible.

    What was this darkness? I didn''t know. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn''t really figure it out. But such was the fate of someone locked with absolutely no means of learning more about the world I was locked in.

    Maybe I was supposed to study this darkness? But how do I even go about doing so? How do I study something that I cannot feel, touch, sense, or��

    ''No, that''s not the way.''

    The logical side of my soul continued to fill my heart with the obvious truths.

    Locked in this world of deprivation, I had no means of figuring anything out. Any sort of logical conclusion had to be based on some discovery, on something that I was sure was rooted in reality.

    But how I was supposed to find this founding thought in a world where nothing sparked even the tiniest inspiration?

    For only God knows how long, I continued to squeeze all the juice out of my brain in my desperate attempts to crack the mystery of this ce, to crack the barrier that locked me in this eternal locket of darkness.

    But the only thing that awaited me down this road was ever-growing desperation�� And a sense of loss.

    At first, I didn''t even notice it, too driven by my desire to figure out what was going on and move on. But as I continued to stack losses in the battle of my brain against the world of total deprivation, as my motivation died off and thoughts calmed down��

    As my consciousness started to wallow in the misery of being locked away from the world like that, I finally sensed it, noticed it.

    The thing that I grew extremely used to, yet forgot over the course of the past few weeks.

    "It''s lonely in here."

    By the time those words escaped from my mouth, I was already stuck in what I arbitrarily named the furthest corner of this endless space. With my hands wrapped around my knees and my body curled up, I closed my eyes and tried to summon my bond with Fay��

    But it was no use.

    Whatever blocked all the sensations and even aura away, appeared to work on my bond with my beloved as well.

    ''I really wish to see her.''

    It took me a long time, but only now was I starting to finally realize just how idiotic everything that I was doing was in reality.

    Who needed to conquer Fay''s world? Sure, doing so would make us into the most powerful couple in both of the worlds��

    But was it really something I actually wanted? Or was this just my stupid manner of trying to do my best?

    ''I''m not worthy of her.''

    Bit by bit, I continued to uncover the deep thoughts and feelings that I never had the time��.

    No, not time.

    I started to uncover the deep and ufortable thoughts and feelings that I never had the guts to confront.

    I''m not worthy of her. Thus, the only logical thing to do was not to wallow in misery but look for ways of making myself worthy of Fay. After much thought, this turned out to be the deepest truth behind my actions that I was willing to admit to.

    It was my desire to make myself worthy of Fay, and my desperation to cover up my insecurities with bloated achievements that led me down this perilous path.

    A path that by all means and purposes, brought me to the prison I might never be able to escape from.

    ''I guess I was just an insecure piece of shit,'' I summarized all my inner discoveries as I sank deeper and deeper into this overwhelming feeling of loneliness.

    This was my one and only escape, to turn myself as numb to being alone as I was for most of my life. To forget about all the great memories I made with Fay, her affection, her love, her energy, her smiles, the way she happily experienced more and more fun things that the modern world offered��

    ''God, I really wish I could see her��''

    I continued to sink deeper and deeper�� Yet, as if to fuck me all over, no matter how much I tried to turn myself hollow, to forget about myself and stop the pain of being all alone in this dark world�� There was something stopping me from doing so.

    A distant echo of warmth�� Like a memory of being cradled at thep of my mom, with her soft hum caressing my ears and calming all the worries I could have as an infant��

    A warmth that continued to resist my attempts at losing myself to cope with the torture of endless imprisonment in this sensation-deprived world.

    And then��

    And then the sense of aura struck me like a hammer.

    The dark world I was locked in suddenly rocked about, as if it was a tightly-shut box that someone just threw down the stairs.

    And amidst all the chaos that suddenly reced the nothingness of this word�� This warm, cozy sensation grew stronger.

    It wasn''t just warmth. It was the deepest form of affection I could imagine. An endless desire to reunite that matched my longing for Fay and my desperation to free myself from this prison.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    And it was through this strange gap that someone created in the void of my prison, that I finally managed to sense the richest form of aura I''ve ever experienced.

    Shaken awake, I rushed to lock my entire consciousness of both the sense of the rich aura flowing through the darkness and the warmth that soothed my strained soul.

    After only god knows how long I spent deprived of any and all sensation, my sensitivity to it went through the roof. And with that in mind, it took me only a second to realize that the aura I felt�� Wasn''t any richer than the auras I felt before.

    It was my own perception of it that improved. What used to be just a single strand of aura, now grew into an endless ocean. And it was with this stimulus, this experience, that I finally managed to sense something within the void I was locked in.

    An extremely deep, muted, and hidden form of aura I''ve never noticed before.

    Experience more tales on m v|l e''-NovelBin

    Aura that was too simple, too straightforward for me to notice, just like how one couldn''t feel the taste of water after burning their taste receptors with liters upon liters of chemical soft drinks.

    It was with this newfound taste, newfound ability to perceive this deep aura, that I realized the world I was in wasn''t empty at all. It was choke-full of this endlesslyplex ocean of aura that I simply couldn''t notice before.

    Right as this realization appeared in my mind leading to thousands of realizations more, the darkness around me copsed, freeing me from my imprisonment and ejecting my consciousness right back to where it always belonged.

    Right into the tight and focused embrace of Fay''s desperate affection and her crystalized wish of reunion that perfectly matched my longing to see, to feel��

    To experience her once more.

 Chapter 253: Taking responsibility for what I started

    "Fay��"

    ''Fay, Fay, Fay, FAY!''

    Freed from the prison of aura so deep, thin, and hard to notice, I only had one thought in mind.

    In this one moment, only one thing mattered. And before I could even regain control of my senses properly, I squeezed with my arms at Fay''s body, paying no mind to the state we were in.

    "FAY!"n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    The warmth of her body, the slight movement of her chest as she breathed peacefully, her presence I could sense through our bond��

    All of those things formed a refuge for me to hide from the overwhelming experience of Fay''s aura seemingly trying to fry my brain.

    Whatever it was that cracked the shell of that dark world open, I couldn''t care less. But by creating this crack of whatever held me in the prison of that minute aura, it also allowed me��

    No.

    It didn''t allow me to do anything. But the moment when I strained my perception to its very limits only to be mmed like a hammer when the normal, world''s aura intruded upon the prison I was holed up in��

    Back in that moment, I managed to perceive the aura that this prison of mine was choke-full off. And by mereparison, the world''s aura�� It grew so intense, that just perceiving it felt like pouring burning oil upon my flesh, mind, and soul alike.

    "FAY!"

    Squeezing myself even closer to my girl, I paid absolutely no mind to the painful experience of getting myself used to the normal aura.

    "You are back��" Fay''s soft whisper filled my ears, turning into the sweetest melody I could ask for.

    I took in a deep breath, nearly instantly getting myself high on Fay''s delicate fragrance.

    "I''m sorry for worrying you."

    Just like back in that prison of darkness, I lost myself in the void where time might exist but certainly mattered not. And only when another round of extremely condensed aura suddenly surged towards us��

    ''It would be bad if it got any closer when I''m that sensitive,'' I thought, casually filling my own, dark aura with intent and sending it off to block the path of the iing aura projectile.

    The very moment I returned to my senses, my bond with Fay opened up and reached its maximum capacity as our feelings, worries, and desires rushed to fill the other.

    With our bond in its current state, any kind of pain I would go through would instantly transmit over to Fay''s mind. And it was something I was determined not to allow to happen.

    "Right, we are still in the middle of a battle, aren''t we?" I muttered with all the reluctance my mind could produce.

    Going back to the menial tasks of concluding the battle and bringing my strategy to fruition all seemed so insignificant at this moment. After all the realizations I had back in that prison of darkness��

    "I really wish I could just put everything aside and enjoy my time with you, I really do," I muttered before pressing my teeth together to the point my jaws started to hurt. "But��"

    "Shush," Fay quickly cut all of my chatter and excuses. Yet, instead of lecturing me over what should be my priority, scolding me for taking the risk of rebirth right in the middle of the battle or anything like that��

    She simply pressed her forehead against my chest and turnedpletely silent.

    I felt everyst bit of emotion coursing through her soul, just like she could feel all the things going on in my own mind.

    I could feel her near-endless worry that even my return couldn''t really soothe. She could feel the insane degree of loneliness that once was an integral part of my life and persona and that I was reminded of back in that prison of this extremely hard to notice, dark aura.

    I could feel this, and she could feel that.

    There was no need for either of us to utter even a single word.

    Fay''s hand snuck around my back and started to gently pat it as if to reassure me she wasn''t going anywhere.

    My hands tightened around Fay''s waist, keeping her in ce while giving her the chance to confirm I was all good and healthy.

    "Dear, it''s time."

    After only god knows how long, Fay finally pried her mouth open and whispered.

    She then rxed her hold over my body and took a step back, only to climb up on her toes and reach with her lips for my mouth.

    And a quick peck on my lipster, she took another step back, slowly, reluctantly, letting go of my body.

    The sensation that followed�� was extremely peculiar. It felt as if our very existence suddenly separated, on a level different than our bond. As if��

    Fay''s domain copsed the moment our bodies were no longer in contact. And as her hair started to once again acknowledge the authority of gravity of this world and fall down�� I managed to steal a glimpse at what should be, in every physical way, impossible.

    The aura that surrounded us, the aura that allowed Fay to dance in the air as if gravity didn''t exist and give her shapes much greater than her flesh and bones�� It was as dark as the aura within my prison while remaining as bright as only Fay''s divine aura could be.

    At the same time, the aura that came as a result of my union with Fay retained both the dark qualities of my own aura and the brightness of Fay''s divine powers.

    ''Just looking at it makes it nauseating��'' I thought, averting my eyes and letting the phenomena phase out before it could seriously mess up my perception.

    The sight of something dark yet shiny went beyond what my brain could process.

    "I''m a little bit tired, so can you go and deal with it yourself?" Fay requested, somehow still maintaining the thick presence of her own aura in spite of her domain copsing.

    "No worries." I reached out and caressed Fay''s face while giving her an encouraging smile. "I will go take care of everything, so just wait and rest for now."

    To bring my fingers away from the softness of Fay''s cheek felt like tearing my soul out of my body.

    But the mess that came to be as a result of my ns and actions had to be resolved. And the responsibility of seeing things through fell squarely on my own shoulders.

    "Come back soon and don''t loiter," Fay gave me a cheeky smile as she muttered before slowly, gracefully bending down to her knees only to sit down on her heels. "As great as it feels to once again be connected with you, the side effects of our bond��"

    An intense hue of red covered Fay''s cheek right as she averted her eyes, too embarrassed to look me in the eye.

    ''For how wild she is during intimate times, she really gets shy when talking about sex, isn''t she?'' I thought, feeling as if my soul was about to melt inside of me.

    "Hey!" Fay sharply raised her eyes and gave me a scolding look.

    Right. Every thought that passed through my head would be made loud and clear for her too!

    "I''m sorry, I''m sorry," Iughed out a little, "you are just too damn adorable!"

    With those parting words on my lips, I forced myself to turn around and walk a few steps, emerging from the blob of Fay''s aura so thick, that it shielded her from anyone''s prying eyes. And after a quick nce at the battlefield in front, I locked my eyes on the duo that rather than turning tail, actually went ahead and decided to resist our advance.

    Looking down at their shocked and terrified yet determined faces, I couldn''t help but sigh out.

    "I guess you have no idea what happened," I spoke out loud while trying my best to keep my voice, at the very least, neutral. "Nevertheless, thanks," I added, hoping to shift their attention to the topic I had in mind.

    "If it wasn''t for your help, it would take me much longer to find my way out of this damned hole!" Iughed, recognizing the area brimming within one of the two men as not only the one that cracked my prison of darkness open but also the one that shot out in our direction before.

    "Even if it wasn''t your purpose, you helped me out a bit," I admitted while locking my eyes on the man whose aura I''ve recognized.

    Quite noticeably, out of the two of them, he was clearly stronger�� And yet, his clothes were nowhere near the level of the only one man who stood back and remained at that powerful man''s side.

    "Intentional or not, you helped me out. So, as long as you surrender and behave, I will guarantee your safety," I proimed while pretending not to notice the shocked and angry looks of the celestials and divines of the unit I was a part of.

    Then, noticing the look of confusion on those two men''s faces, I smiled at my own thoughts.

    "Or would you rather go back to the piece of shit who sent you all to this forest to die?"

    "He wouldn''t��" the better-dressed and weaker of the two took a step forth, elerated by my direct confirmation of what he had to be vaguely aware of.

    "He wouldn''t send you off to die for no reason?" I tried to guess what the man wanted to say before he bit his tongue. "Oh, but he had a reason, alright?" I pointed out before allowing a wicked smile to appear on my lips.

    "If my understanding is correct, the only reason why your leader rushed your entire army to the forest," I turned silent for a second just to build up the tension, "was to spite Etaria, the golden princess, who I believe to be the suprememander of all the human armies."

 Chapter 255: Salvador

    "If it isn''t Duke Salvador," Etaria muttered in a voice as happy as it was fake. She squinted her eyes and even went as far as to rise from the simple stool she was sitting at.

    "My princess!" A man as wide as he was tall, stepped under the cloth of the open tent that protected the princess from the intense rays of the sun. "It''s a pleasure to meet you!"

    If the princess was the epitome of beauty, the absolute that other humans could only ever hope to achieve, the duke would be on the exactly other end of the spectrum, presenting himself as the prime example of who parents would never want their child to turn into.

    Stepping into the shade cast by the princess'' tent, the duke pulled out an embroidered piece of cloth so finely made, that it likely cost as much as the equipment of one or two hundred of his soldiers.

    Wiping his wide forehead from the sweat, the duke took some time to rest after the strenuous journey from several meters away where Etaria''s guards disallowed his carriage to move any further.

    "The pleasure is all mine," Etaria replied, quickly seating herself down on her stool.

    There was a limit to how much courtesy an imperial princess and a damn supreme would show to a mere duke from the empire''s outskirts.

    ''And here I thought the day couldn''t get any worse��''

    Contrary to how things had to look to the strange kid thate to meet her before, Etaria''s massive force was nowhere as united as that kid likely assumed. And the fact that the leader of the three biggest armies scheduled to join couldmand his troops to go into the forest, just like that��

    ''Poor men,'' Etaria thought, ignoring the huffing and puffing duke and turning her eyes back to the line of the trees nearby.

    In her eyes, there still was some hope that soon, soon, the duke''s troops would starting out. There was a limit to how long they could keep running around the forest with the limited supplies they had on hand��

    ''Assuming they had any, given how they went for the forest straight from the road��''

    "My princess, I keep wondering," the duke finally managed to clear his massive forehead from the fat drops of sweat only to discard the precious piece of embroidered cloth and pull out another one from his pocket. "When can I expect you to send your men to support my troops?"

    Etaria didn''t even bother to spare the man a single nce.

    "I''m afraid I''m not going to do it at all," Etaria spoke softly before going against her own convictions and giving the man a short sideways nce.

    "But my princess!"

    The duke jumped up from the massive chair his servants brought. His massive, round arm shot in the direction of the treeline.

    "Aren''t we here to��"

    "Shut it."

    Etaria stood up from her stool, this time properly. Ignoring the duke and his protests, she moved a few steps ahead, all the way to the edge of the shadow her tent blessed everyone with.

    ''Is it just me, or��''n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    The distant fluctuation of aura alerted the princess to take a closer look at the forest. And soon enough, her feeling proved to be correct.

    "People!" someone, far further into the golden legion''s formation shouted. "People areing out from the forest!"

    Etaria squinted her eyes, quickly confirming the report with her own two eyes.

    ''They are returning��''

    Heaving a sigh of relief, Etaria blinked her eyes a few times, only for the number of people getting out of the forest to rapidly grow from just a few to entire groups rushing ahead. Soon, it appeared as if the forest itself was moving when a sea of people ran outside and continued to make their way toward the nearby camp.

    ''Wait, they are not returning��'' Etaria thought, her momentary relief taken over by suspicion.

    Sure, Salvador''s troops never achieved the level of discipline that imperial legions represented. In fact, even the smaller units of the local lords within the imperial faction could boast much greater coordination and organization than what Salvador''s army showcased when he sent his troops off to the forest.

    But now��

    ''They are not returning. They are running!''

    More and more people emerged from beyond the trees, soon filling most of the open in between the trees and the camp.

    "Those damn cowards��"

    The duke didn''t even bother to raise his massive blob of fat he called his body from the equally as massive chair he sat on.

    Still, with every inch expressing his dissatisfaction and outright anger�� The duke couldn''t really keep his angered attitude for long.

    "I should''ve known better than to expect them to amount��"

    *KREEEEEEEEEE*

    An extremely loud, ear-piercing cry of some sort of beast filled the air.

    ''What now?!''

    Etaria erased the duke from her mind, turning her attention back to the forest and the total chaos right in front of it.

    ''Is it their supreme? But she already spoke on how she won''t directly engage unless I do��''

    Torn by theck of information and having only her own guesses to make up for it, Etaria gritted her teeth while doing her utmost to maintain a calm,posed look on her face. It was her duty as the leader of the entire campaign and the golden Legion especially to keep a stoic, unbothered look.

    ''Just run, you fools,'' she thought when looking down at the masses of Salvador''s unfortunate victims all frozen by the powerful screaming from behind them. ''RUN!''

    For a moment, everything appeared toe to a perfect standstill.

    The forest remained as peaceful as it could be for someone looking at it from the outside. The crowd of Salvador''s troops stood in ce, acting as if even the tiniest movement would wake up the beast that uttered this bestial, terrifying cry. Find your next read at m_v l|e-NovelBin

    And Etaria stood in ce while tightening her hands into fists, powerless to stop whatever wasing. And she could tell for sure, that something was indeed about to happen.

    ''Still, as pitiful as they are,'' Etaria gave the stuck rtively nearby one more, pitying look. ''They might show me what sort of means that kid��''

    The first of Salvador''s men managed to reach more solid ground, climbing up from the shallow wend at the edge of the forest. And he was now close enough for the princess to make out the shape of his lips.

    "HELP!" he appeared to scream out in terror.

    Pac.

    A red rose appeared right in the middle of the man''s chest. Looking down, the poor soldier noticed the bloody wound�� before losing stability and falling down to the ground, dead upon impact.

    And then all hell broke loose.

 Chapter 256: What could be their problem?

    "Mister Peter, a word please."

    All things considered, it took the members of my unit a lot longer than I expected toe to protest mytest decision. After all, here I was going around sparing random people while they were busying themselves killing as many of them as they could!

    So, some sort of protest was given�� But I expected it to appear as soon as the two humans I decided to spare were brought away, not after we had already moved on, finished all the wounded in the area before moving on to keep up the chase.

    "What seems to be the problem?" I asked, turning my face to a slightly oversized dear with a crown of horns so big, that he had to actively use his aura just to keep himself stable.

    What was the point of assuming his animalistic form in the middle of a thick forest where every tree would be an obstacle hard to move past with horns of that size, I couldn''t fathom.

    But thankfully, figuring out the answer to that wasn''t an issue at hand.

    "I would like to know why you decided to spare those two humans," the celestial spoke, only to weird me out with how the movements of its snout tranted to actual words that had no physical right toe out of a deer''s throat.

    Still, instead of answering, I simply gave the celestial a long, exasperated look.

    "Do you want the short or long answer?" I asked, making sure to keep up the pace of a slightly hurried walk.

    Contrary to what one could expect, this rtively peaceful stroll was more than just enough to keep up with the rate at which the humans were retreating from the forest. As long as we kept this pace steady and ignored all the obstacles on the way, the stumbling and chaos-stricken units of the invaders could never outmatch�� or even match our speed.

    "I would like both," the celestial spoke again, only to throw its massive, horny head to the side when the far, right nk of our loose line encountered a small number of humans.

    Not stopping even for a second, I continued to lead the group ahead.

    Given the disproportionate strength of humans, celestials, and divines, as long as the number ofbatants was more or less the same, there was no need for me to worry about even the slightest losses.

    "The short answer is, just because," I gave the response locals were sure to hate. "I''m the one leading this unit and I''m the one behind the general n for the defense of this forest. And in no army in the whole world domanders have any need to exin their actions and decisions to mere foot soldiers."

    Antagonizing my own allies wasn''t the best of my ideas. But it was something I had to do to establish one, very simple fact.

    I wasn''t just their ve, helper, or convenient ally. I was someone with my own agenda that I was securing while helping them on the side. As such, there was absolutely no reason for me to care what the locals would think in the short term, for in the long term, I had no ns to stay in this damned forest for any longer than necessary.

    "And the long answer?" the celestial inquired, so obviously dissatisfied with my answer I could see it even through on its deer''s face.

    "Sooner orter, this war wille to an end and I will establish a buffer state between the forest and the rest of the empire," I revealed what wasn''t a secret ever since I freely babbled about it to the two humans I spared. "And with the interest of said state focused mostly within the rest of the continent over your forest, we will need a proper source of information."

    If the first part of my answer aimed to antagonize locals a bit and showcase how I wasn''t just some convenient helper, then the second part was proof what I did wasn''t just an action of a kid stumbling in the dark and iming his erratic doings were all part of some grandiose n.

    "Andstly, they appeared to be pretty practical, so I might have some use for them, again, once this war is over."

    For me, that was the end of the topic. But with the look of dissatisfaction lingering in the deer''s deep, green eyes��

    "Still, they are our enemies!" the deer protested, although its voice grew weaker than when it first spoke up. "They came here to kill us�� I''m sorry, but I can''t just let them go like that!"

    "Then it''s a good thing you will die if you try to harm them," Fay barked from my side, giving her fellow celestial a furious stare. "Peter decided they get to live. That means such is Madam''s will. And if you dare to lift your fucking hove against them��"

    "Fay, there''s no need for that," I whispered, reaching out with my left to caress the fingers she wrapped around my right arm. Only once I could feel Fay''s breathing slow and calm down, I turned my eyes back to the celestial deer. "And you seem to miss what is pretty damn obvious to me."

    Rather than exining myself right away, I sped up the pace of my steps, slowing them down only a momentter, after forcing the celestial to hurry to match my pace again.

    "I can tell that pretty much none of the soldiers that attacked the forest had any desire to be here," I revealed the obvious that only someone who never had any contact with how humans operated on arger scale could miss.

    "So tell me, if I kidnapped your kids and mate and imed I would take their lives if you didn''t go and attack a nearby settlement of innocent humans," I leaned my head to the side and even stopped in my tracks to give the celestial deer an inquisitive nce.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Would you dare not to attack those innocent humans then? Would you value the lives of some strangers over the lives of your family?"

    I stared at the celestial for a second. Yet, the very moment I pushed my legs to start walking again, a devastating cry shook the air within the forest�� And judging by its intensity, it likely affected quite the area outside of it as well.

    ''So it begins,'' both me and Fay thought at the same time, only for our bond to make this realization resonate between the two of us.

    But we weren''t alone in this feeling. For one, single moment, our entire unit came to an abrupt stop, all charmed by the intensity of the cry�� and the meaning hidden behind it.

    "It started," a random divine who just happened to be walking by our sidemented under his nose.

    As a distant echo of machine gun fire reached my ears, I simply took a breath before pulling Fay one step ahead. And then another.

    Then, following my example, our allies picked up the ck and started their march yet again, heading straight for the source of the cry and ever louder noise of gunfire.

    Yet, the closer we got to the edge of the forest, the slower our march became. Bit by bit, more and more of my troops had to engage with stragglers and deserters of the human army, quickly grinding our advance to a nearlyplete halt.

    ''Well, it''s not like there''s any need for me to be there,'' I thought, stifling the annoyance that continued to grow in my soul the slower our unit marched ahead. ''Makary should be more than capable of dealing with it by his��''

    "Mister Peter!" Once again, a celestial rushed to my side. This time, however, rather than a deer, it was one hell of a massive crane.

    ''Just how in all hells did it get through all the trees? Or, assuming it flew above, how did it spot where we are?''

    I shook my head, leaving this puzzling topic aside as I watched the massive, white crane turn into a cloud of mist, only for a handsome, young man dressed in just a simple, knee-long tunic to walk out of it.

    "Your friends at the forest''s edge," the young celestial lowered himself down and rested his hands on his knees, taking a second to regain his breath. "They urge you toe and see them. There''s some sort of problem they underestimated and they seek your advice."

    This was weird.

    ''What sort of problem a modern army could have when they sit in well-entrenched positions with damn firearms with nothing but a crowd of defenseless soldiers running away from them?''

    I took a deep breath, using the time this lone breath bought me to analyze the situation.

    "And how were things looking when you left to pass the message?" I asked, raising my eyes and squinting them a bit as I looked at the celestial.

    "Okayish, I guess?" the young celestial''s eyebrows moved to the center of his head, meeting right above the two wrinkles that emerged. "They were running, your friends were killing them en masse," he exined with a shake of his shoulders.

    "I will have to go and see what problem they have myself, I guess," I muttered before shaking my head. "Thanks for the message. If you have the strength toe back, could you go and tell them I''ming?"

    The celestial simply nodded his head before turning around, exploding into a cloud of dense aura, and then emerging from it back in his crane''s form.

    "What problem could they have, I wonder," I muttered to myself before taking a breath and picking up the pace once again. "I guess we will have to go there and find out!"

 Chapter 257: Its a matter of leverage

    ''Isn''t the intensity of the fire�� decreasing?''

    When I received Makary''s urgent summons, I wasn''t exactly sure what could be the problem.

    While on my way to the dugout where he positioned himself, I tried to analyze every possible scenario.

    From Princess Etaria deciding to go against the taboo and engage in the battle while ignoring the consequences of doing so, her trying to influence events without any direct involvement, all the way to the humans of this world proving a lot more resilient to the firearms than expected, their ability to raise shields ending up sufficient to block the shoots��

    But as I got closer to the area where the ughter was actually taking ce, I had no other choice but to realize that things were actually far simpler.

    ''They are running out of ammo�� already?''

    I knew we didn''t bring much in terms of supplies to this world. Basically, we only had as much technology, supplies, and ammunition as Makary''s men managed to carry on their backs and in their hands while crossing the portal.

    In other words, we didn''t have much.

    "I guess I underestimated just how much ammo modern warfare requires," I muttered to myself, already convinced in regards to my suspicion, several minutes before we reached Makary''s ce.

    Makary''s ce, though, was nothing like what I expected it. Raised on more war cinematography than I could count, I expected some sort of massive trench, maybe some makeshift bunkers��

    But the truth turned out to be pretty disappointing, for Makary''s dugout�� was just this. A little more than a foxhole, a lot less than a proper, entrenched firing nest.

    Makary''s dugout was surrounded by a circle of piled-up earth, covered with undergrowth someone cut from the forest and used to cover the excavated area to make it blend with the surroundings. Find adventures at m_v l|e-NovelBin

    And it was from this dugout that Makary''s face appeared when he took a nce to the outside.

    "You are finally here," Makary called out, quickly ducking back behind the cover.

    ''What are you hiding for? It''s not like they have snipers or machine guns ready to st anyone stupid enough to peek out of cover,'' I thought, mildly amused by the man''s habits.

    Nevertheless, rather than pointing that out loud, I put on a brave face before lowering myself down to my knees while tugging on Fay''s arm to follow my example.

    Crawling thest few meters that separated me from the dugout, I quickly reached the top of its elevated border before pushing myself over the edge and sliding down to the rtive safety of Makary''s hideout.

    "We are��"

    "Ammo," I cut Makary off, saving us from the few seconds of time it would take him to exin the problem. "I didn''t expect we would run dry so quickly��"

    Makary raised his eyebrows and gave me a baffled look in response to my words.

    "Quickly?" He shook his head. "Do you have even the remotest idea how much ammo��" he hesitated, only to cut his words short, shake his head, and then turn towards the forest''s edge and point his hand outside of the dugout. "Just take a look yourself."

    I raised my eyebrows, surprised that this wasn''t the end of the topic. Yet, curious about what Makary could see as a problem, I obediently followed his instructions and fell against the slope of the ditch before slowly, carefully climbing up.

    Even as I peeked outside, I still couldn''t figure out just what could be the problem.

    We had guns, for fuck''s sake! How could there be any problem when all we faced were pretty much defenseless masses?

    Yet, as I peeked out��

    "Oh��"

    For a moment, I froze. For a moment, all I could do was stare at the sea of people desperately trying to escape the killing zone of Makary''s guns, too panicked to realize that whatever happened before�� was no longer the case.

    The panic induced by the rapid onught of guns from before has settled into the crowd and kept its grip on those people, even when the constant stream of bullets turned into a single shot every now and then.

    ''If not for the corpses at the back of the crowd, I couldn''t really tell Makary''s men killed anyone��''

    The crowd ahead only had one obstacle to cross if they wanted to escape the range of Makary''s guns. The wends hidden within the shadow of the forest for the better part of the day, thus taking a long time to properly dry out after the massive, magically created storm from just a few days ago.

    "I see��" I muttered, more to myself than to anyone else, before sliding back down into the ditch, turning around, and resting my back against the slope of the dugout as I took a moment to process all I saw.

    It was impossible to estimate the number of humans stuck in the zone just ahead. Or rather, even if it was actually possible, it was a task that went beyond my ability to solve.

    Still, it didn''t take a genius to realize that a few backpacks worth of ammo would never be enough to eradicate all those people, even under the assumption of a single bullet taking several lives, and every bullet finding its mark.

    There were simply too many people.

    My earlier question on how modern guns could struggle to cut down a panicked and defenseless mass turned silly when I realized the scale of the mass said question included.

    "That''s indeed a problem," I muttered, once again, to myself.

    "There no way in hell we can kill all of them," Makary pointed out now that we were on the same page.

    "So?" I raised my eyes and looked at the man''s face. "What do you suggest?"

    Makary took a moment to stare at me with a mix of surprise and exasperation on his face.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Why do you ask me?" he blurted out with the same, shocked look on his face. He then raised his right arm before striking his left hand against the nicely-shaped muscle of his arm. "I''m just your muscle. You are the brain who decides how to use it. So rather than you asking me what to do, it should be me asking what''s the n!"

    The air within the ditch instantly tensed up. To my side, Fay tensed up as well, yet after her body twitched as she nearly jumped at the man to counter his words�� she calmed herself down and rxed, for there were no words she could use to rebuke Makary.

    After all, he was correct. And this situation was the fruit of my own schemes, ns and damn ignorance when it came to details.

    Ignorance that now came to bite me in the ass.

    "So I just need to figure out how to leverage our ability to kill��" I stopped for a second and cast a quick nce at Makary''s face. "How much ammo, exactly, do we have left? Between your spot and all the others?"

    Makary took only a second to think.

    "We are down to about two hundred rounds left," he implied nearly instantly. "As for the other spots, I believe they are between twice that number and a half of it."

    I swept my eyes across the ditch, counting a total of three fellow earth-born humans apanied by just two elite celestials.

    "That makes up six ditches in total, with an average of two hundred rounds per ditch," I quickly did the math, "so, conservatively speaking, around a thousand rounds left."

    "That''s right," Makary nodded his head. He then took a step towards the edge of the ditch and climbed up the slope, peeking just a few centimeters above its edge to take a look at the crowd outside. "In other words, even if every bullet strikes true, even if every round takes two of them out��"

    Makary lowered his head before climbing down the slope abit and then resting the back of his head against the very top of its edge.

    "In other words, even in the best possible scenario, there will be still between two to three thousand of them left by the time we runpletely dry."

    I took a deep breath, taking my time to process this rtively simple information.

    From one side, it wasn''t all that bad. If we reduced the number of the human army to just those few thousand, our forest-based allies could easily wipe the rest of them up��

    But that option only existed within the limited framework that didn''t include all the other armies that have, by now, all gathered just beyond the crest behind the abandoned mercenary camp.

    "Let''s just say it''s a matter of leverage��" I muttered the quote from ages old ssic movie that randomly popped out in my head.

    And to my surprise, Makary''s lips twitched as he produced a small, slightly amused smile.

    "Leverage, says you," he whispered in response, catching my drift and then following up on it. "I think I feel a change in the wind, says I."

    I took a deep breath.

    ''In that movie�� The leverage was someone they could use. The question is��'' I closed my eyes, unable to withstand the satisfied look of Makary who, from our exchange, had to assume I already figured something out. ''

    ''What can I use as leverage and against whom?'' I asked myself, opening my eyes and climbing up the slope of the dugout once again, taking a peek at the crowd outside in hopes I would find some inspiration in the chaos-infused scene beyond the forest.

    Yet, as I peeked outside, my eyes moved past the chaotic crowd, past the abandoned mercenary camp, and to where Etaria''s set up her tent right at the edge of the small hill beyond which she hid all of her troops but the golden legion that stood their ground directly in front of her.

    As my eyes fell on her face, which I could somehow see despite all the distance that separated us, the corners of my mouth moved up a bit.

    "I think I just found our leverage."

 Chapter 258: Not worth answering (Etarias PoV)

    The cry of a celestial beast gave the signal for the barrage of bullets to begin. Yet, when the cry filled the air again, bullets weren''t the only thing that stopped.

    ''What now?'' Etaria thought, tightening her hands to the point her nails started to cut through the skin of her palms, digging directly into her flesh.

    But rather than a new round of madness descending�� only silence was daring enough to rece the stalled chaos from before.

    The crowd of survivors of Salvador''s army froze, terrified by the repeated scream to the point they could no longer muster the strength to push themselves through the sticky mud of the wends. Yet, as more and more of them realized that no further attacks hade from the forest, the momentary freeze of the situation quickly came to an end.

    Or so it would, if not for a small group of merely four people walking out from between the trees.

    "What the��"

    Unable to hold her voice back, Etaria broke her facade and heavily hinted at the true scale of the inner turmoil the apocalyptic sights from before created.

    The princess was shocked when she saw entire swaths of people cut, shattered into pieces by a hail of invisible projectiles. She bit her teeth down on her lips to the point of drawing blood when the invisible scythe carved bloody holes in the rank and file of Salvador''s army.

    But when a total of four people walked out from behind the trees, two of which Etaria instantly recognized, her face turned still.

    ''For real? Is she��? But wouldn''t that��? If so, then why is she��? But if��?''

    A thousand questions appeared in Etaria''s mind, a new one forming before thest one could even fully formte in her brain.

    What she saw made no logical sense. It went against everything she took for granted in this already fucked up situation. But no matter her assumptions from before, Etaria wasn''t of the kind to refuse reality when it was right before her eyes.

    A total of four people walked out from behind the trees. The two of them that she recognized were the supreme of the forest that she talked with before and the very young man that her fellow supreme requested Etaria to meet with.

    "My princess, is everything alright?" Salvador asked, clearly just following the court rules of fake courtesy rather than actually feeling concerned over the situation.

    The fact that he didn''t even bat an eye when hundreds of his men were falling prey to an invisible source of death proved as much.

    For a moment, Etaria entertained the thought ofshing out at the man�� Only to ultimately roll her eyes.

    ''He''s not worth my anger.''

    "Anyone who wasn''t at Lunagar siege, leave."

    Rather than addressing the joke of a lord directly or even sparring him a single nce, the princess simply included him within the group of people she no longer weed in her tent.

    A group of people that consisted of just a single individual plus possibly some of his retainers.

    "My princess��" Salvador''s eyes opened up a tiny bit wider; his smile widened. "It''s is my right as a duke of the realm��"n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "It is your duty as the subject of the imperial crown to follow a direct order," Etaria spoke as she finally turned her head and gave the man an icy-cold stare. "Are you going to disobey an express order of your leader, superior, and princess, Duke Salvador?"

    For a short while, Etaria shed stares with the man, refusing to avert her stare.

    "The imperial parliament��" Duke Salvador attempted to argue, even going as far as to raise his massive booty from his equally as massive chair.

    "Zanba!"

    Rather than wasting even a single word more on the man, Etaria turned to one of her officers standing guard by the side of her open tent.

    "My princess!" Hearing his name, the officer turned around on his heel.

    Normally, he would be supposed to fall on his knees, execute aplicated bow, and then respond with the full "To hear means to execute, my princess!".

    Yet, as a man serving the golden princess for years, as someone who went through the hell of Lunagar siege by her side, shedding both the blood of her enemies and, in the process of doing so, his own, he didn''t need to bother.

    "Duke Salvador is tired. Escort him out of my sight. And if he continues to disobey an expressedmand��"

    Both the princess and the officer gave the duke a long, cold look. Yet, while the princess quickly averted her eyes and turned them back to the events down the hill and near the forest, the officer already raised his head and moved towards the duke.

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    "Duke Salvador��" he muttered in a perfectly empty voice while his hand already hovered near the handle of the short sword attached to his side.

    ''Just what the hell is going over there?'' Etaria thought, gritting her teeth as she erased thest thought about the duke from her mind, fully focusing on the ridiculous sight ahead.

    For the massive, just recently chaotic crowd of Salvador''s men�� Has parted in half, opening a corridor several meters wide through which the group of four from the forest casually strolled ahead.

    ''I mean, they are smart enough not to attack a damn supreme�� But still!''

    Etaria took a deep breath, trying to calm her thoughts and approach the topic rationally.

    ''Even if they don''t know that bitch is a supreme, they saw what the forest folk is capable of. It''s pretty normal for them to be scared��''

    From this point of view, the weird actions of Salvador''s soldiers made sense, but��

    But war was hardly a logical, sensible thing. For every iota of reason, there was a sea of emotion. For every strategist who relied on reason to make up ns, there were forty tacticians who mostly relied on their guts and experience to make the calls in the field. And for every tactician�� There were nearly a hundred legionaries whose only task was to swing their weapons and follow orders.

    This equation, though, only applied to formations like imperial legions. And while the ratios were slightly more favorable in elite units like Etaria''s golden legion, just a single look down the slope and towards the forest was enough to confirm Salvador''s troops were on the opposite end of the spectrum.

    ''Still, to so easily control that kind of mass of panicked people��'' Etaria thought, taking a second to internalize all her thoughts and properly process them.

    ''No, what''s important right now, is to find out what they want. What they want so much they are so brazen to go past several thousand men just to�� to what, exactly?''

    The invisible death from before has ceased. The survivors of Salvador''s army parted into two groups, opening a huge corridor for the forest group to walk through uninterrupted. Said group was currently heading straight in the direction of Etaria''s tent.

    Those were the facts. Everything beyond was nothing more but Etaria''s spections.

    "They really seem desperate to meet me," the princess muttered to herself.

    Bit by bit, she removed all the guesses, assumptions, and other useless thoughts, focusing only on what she could tell for sure.

    ''Why is their supremeing with them? Who are those two I didn''t see before? And why��''

    As if today didn''t bother the princess with enough shocks for a single day, a new realization struck her as the group passed by the greater part of the crowd, got past the wends, and quickly made its way ahead.

    ''Why does that guy appear to be a mere mortal?'' Etaria thought as her eyes focused on the male out of the two strangers. ''Does he not fear death? Or are they that confident nothing is going to happen?''

    The more questions arose in Etaria''s mind, the harder it became for her to make a proper call.

    Still, the group continued to get closer and closer at a slow yet steady pace.

    "Luma, Otto, Zhen, with me," Etaria finally came to terms with how she wasn''t going to understand what the hell was going on unless she actually asked the people in question. "We are going to��"

    "Get your filthy hands off me, you damn pleb!" Salvador''s cry shook Etaria out of her focus, brutally pulling her back to the convoluted reality of what this war was behind the scenes.

    "Sir Duke, I''m not going to ask again," Zanba warned, not showing any signs of annoyance with the duke''s refusal to as little as to stand up from his chair.

    "You have no authority to tell me what to do, you damn scum!" Duke Salvador continued to argue.

    A foolish move, unfitting of a politician well enough to cause Etaria so many headaches in the past.

    But then again, with fat drops of sweat falling down the man''s forehead, the trembling of his hands, raspy voice, jiggling stomach��

    Salvador wasn''t exactly the best version of himself. And contrary to the debates in the imperial parliament, he didn''t have the backing of all of his powerful supporters.

    "That''s enough," Etaria spoke coldly, no longer willing to put up with the duke''s attitude. "You''ve repeatedly disobeyed an expressmand from your princess, superior, andmander."

    Zanba''s face tensed up a little, even though the princess didn''t spare him even a single nce. The officer thus took a short breath and closed his eyes for a second��

    Only to open them and reveal a look of cold, collected determination.

    "For treason, death," he muttered, openly grasping at his short sword''s handle.

    "Wait, what trea��"

    *Swish*

    Zanba didn''t answer the question. After all, by the time Duke''s mouth turned still, his head had just stopped rolling down on the ground. And since Salvador never managed to finish his sentence...

    The experienced officer found it redundant to bother with spelling out the answer.

 Chapter 259: The moment when everything came to a stop

    *REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE* Find your next read at m_v l|e-NovelBin

    The soul-chilling scream of a celestial howler monkey marked the end of the barrage of Makary''s firearms. It also served to warn all the humans just outside the forest of the change.

    Standing right beyond the line of thest trees, I had the best seat to observe how humans reacted to this scream.

    "It''s working," Makary muttered, watching how the chaotic mess just ahead came to a sudden spot, as all the humans cowered in fear of what this scream could mean. "You know, seeing how well you predicted their reaction��"

    The middle-aged man shook his head before giving me a long, thoughtful nce.

    "It''s worrying, you know?"

    The corners of my mouth curved up a bit in reaction to Makary''s words.

    After all, what else could I do but smile when I couldn''t exactly understand what the hell was he talking about?

    "Humans are crowd creatures. And with how panicked they all were��" I shook my head. "Giving them another push was all it took to achieve�� that," I said, pointing out my hand at the unnatural peace just a fewteen meters ahead of our small group of three.

    "I will always give credit where credit is due," Makary muttered, his eyes fully centered on the events up ahead. "But I still don''t think it''s a good idea for you toe out personally."

    Makary crossed his arms on his chest and shook his head before finally turning around and taking a proper look at my face.

    "I still believe it''s too risky for you to be the emissary," he stated.

    For a second, I was inclined to agree with him. Even though I have yet to find the time to properly measure the depth of changes that my recent rebirth brought forth in terms of my power and its limits.

    Still, there was one thing I couldn''t deny. The difference of power between an ascended, even a promoted one, and a supreme�� Was something I wouldn''t be able to bridge with just modern tech and great wits, assuming I had them.

    "It really is risky, but for reasons different than you think," I admitted out loud, only to prick my ears and turn my head towards the forest''s depths when I sensed a certain, qualitative change to the air around us.

    "That''s why I''m going there with the strongest possible bodyguard," I added as a small smile grew all over my face.

    "Hmm?"

    Rather than denouncing my words, Makary simply turned his head to follow my movements as I moved to the back of the group and fell down on one knee.

    "It''s great to see you, Madam," I spoke out loud, all for the sake of the locals that crowded the area. "And I''m sorry for putting forward such a daring request."

    There was only one person in the forest who could serve as my ultimate bodyguard during my trip to the princess and hopefully a second meeting with her. And it was the one and only supreme of the forest�� Or rather, my mother-inw-to-be!

    "Drop the ceremony," Madam wasted no time on pointless pleasantries. "This is not the time nor the ce for them," she added before passing by me and approaching the very same tree behind which I hid up until now. "Even though I''m not exactly sure what you are nning, I believe now it''s the perfect time to put your n into motion, isn''t it?"

    Standing back up, I turned around and approached Madam''s side before casting a long look at the situation outside of the forest. And just like Madam mentioned, the time was ripe.

    The initial calm�� or rather, the terror that made all of the panicked humans freeze on their spot was quickly thawing away. As more and more people realized the hail of bullets came to an end and as they started to connect it to the seconding of that terrifying cry��

    For now, only a few individuals managed to ovee their shock and make use of this opportunity to run away. But any moment now, this realization was bound to spread throughout the crowd, leading to the seconding of the chaos.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "You are right," I muttered, more to myself than to Madam, Fay, Makary�� or Chris who just ran up to our small group with a heavy backpack strapped to his shoulders and a standard issue repetitive rifle in his hands.

    "I''m here!" Chris uttered before taking a second to stabilize his breath. "Sorry for beingte," he added as he quickly fixed his equipment to its right ce and assumed a more or less rxed stance.

    "I guess that''s all for the wait," I muttered before taking a deep breath and closing my eyes, taking just a few more seconds to calm down and prepare myself for one hell of a show that was about to begin. Then, as I opened my eyes��

    "Now that we are all here, I believe there''s no more time for us to waste," I stated before giving Fay''s hand a squeeze and taking my first step outside of the forest. "Let''s go!"

    The four of us walked out from behind the trees with hardly any of the humans just ahead noticing.

    In their eyes, we were nothing more than just a few more survivors who somehow managed to make it outside, despite taking much longer than the others.

    It wasn''t before we approached the part where a lot more humans crowded the wends that they finally started to take notice of the few peculiarities that set us apart from everyone else.

    First, in our group of four, there were two women! Secondly, not a single one of us wore any kind of protective equipment or bore arms that they would be familiar with. And with apleteck of any form of crest or insignia implying our association with their own forces��

    "Chris, could you��?" I asked while turning my head to give the feminine man a quick nce.

    I wasn''t exactly sure what I expected to see. Maybe fear? Determination? Devotion to the case?

    Regardless of what I expected to see on Chris''s face, all he allowed his expression to show was just how rxed he was, despite stepping right into the midst of an entire army of people who were our for our blood.

    ''I guess his looks are not something that he should be judged with,'' I thought, watching how the man detached a simple, crude even, loudspeaker from the strap of his backpack before fiddling around with it for a while.

    "Here," Chris spoke softly, turning my way and passing over the speaker while making sure not to tangle the cable that connected the device to the weighty backpack strapped to the man''s shoulders. "It''s online already. All you need to do is press the trigger and speak out."

    Taking the device into my hand, I turned my eyes towards the crowd just a few steps ahead.

    By now, quite a few of them were already taking notice of our arrival and the umon if not outright weird clothing we wore. And as I saw the panic settling in their eyes yet again, I sighed and raised the loudspeaker to my mouth.

    "Make way!"

 Chapter 260: Making the way

    "Make way!"

    This simple order, a mere two words, never had any right to work. But within the extremely specific circumstances, I''ve found myself in, an impossible happened.

    My voice, greatly amplified by the electric tube speaker, shook the air no less than the powerful cry from before.

    And the people in front, a mere few meters away, just recently willing to trample each other in their panicked desire to escape��

    They all started to move to the sides.

    At first, only a few men moved, likely too mentally broken to even think about resisting such a simple and loud order. Whatever discipline the bullying back home instilled in them, now pushed their legs forward, forcing them to squeeze into the already intense crowd within the wends.

    Following the first few, more and more imperial soldiers started to move, slowly opening a five-meter wide path across the entire wend, all the way to where the crowd already spilled to the solid ground outside the forest''s near-permanent shadow.

    Find more to read at mvl

    But things weren''t going to be as easy.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    ''Still, there''s few enough of them,'' I thought once the situation more or less rified.

    Most of the survivors of the human army followed my voice and opened up the path. But there was a total of about twenty to thirty of them who remained rooted at their spots.

    Some were too terrified, too shocked to move. Others, quite the opposite. Their stares were full of passion and determination as they stood defiantly in our way.

    I sighed and raised the loudspeaker to my mouth for the second time.

    "Make way for us to pass," I ordered in a calm, emotionless voice amplified to some great volume by the magic of the electric device in my hand. "Or we shall cut it open ourselves."

    I lowered my hand and took a deep breath before blinking my eyes and casting a long look at the state of the path.

    Out of the initial thirty or so, only about five to ten came to their senses and hurried to leave to one of the walls of the path.

    The rest of them, though��

    "So that''s how it is," I muttered, no longer squeezing down at the trigger of the device.

    I shook my head and looked to my side.

    "Chris."

    "Sir, yes sir," the feminine manzily replied, not even bothering to take on a proper, shooting stance.

    "Leave those with barriers to me," I spoke, before squeezing the trigger of the loudspeaker but keeping it down by my hip, so that only the echo of my next words would reach its microphone. "Be careful not to cut down those who moved."

    Only an echo of my voice reached the speaker. But its microphone was just sensitive enough to pick it up and slightly amplify it.

    And the unnatural, mechanical voice could be heard extremely well, even for how little the speaker raised its true volume.

    "Sir, yes sir."

    Equally aszily as before, Chris called out.

    Then, he let go of the machine gun in his hands, allowing the weapon to drop down and hang on the strap that rested on the back of his neck.

    While Chris''s main gun was still falling down his chest, his hand already moved to the holster on his hip, removing its cover and pulling out an ordinary, run-of-the-mill handgun.

    "Do it," I spoke, once again releasing the trigger of the speaker before using its back end to scratch the side of my head.

    Chris didn''t show any fear when marching towards the crowded enemies nor did he show any hesitation when his left leg moved forth, turning his entire body sideways towards the enemies blocking the path.

    Makary''s veteran calmly used his free left hand to support the bottom of the gun before casually taking aim and squeezing the trigger.

    Bang!

    Within the extreme silence of the crowd, the roar of the explosives elerating the bullet cut all the deeper into the ears of the terrified soldiers. As they turned their heads, taking their sweet time to process what was going on, the first body struck the ground, with Chris already moving his sights onto the next target.

    Bang! Bang! Bang!

    One by one, the shots opened up small yet ugly and extremely bloody wounds in the bodies of the stupid few who stood in our way.

    A few more shots and a change came. Rather than pressing the advantage, Chris ejected the empty magazine, using the momentum of it falling out to move his left hand, swing it down to his belt, grab a fresh mag, and then spring the hand right back the way it moved, loading a new set of rounds into the gun.

    All of that in a single, well-trained motion that the man clearly perfected over the years.

    It was a skill that any martial artist would recognize as something that came as a necessary development that came with enough experience in the field.

    Just like a warrior could parry the standard attacks without even thinking about it, by the sheer force of reflex in his body, Chris could reload his side gun so smoothly, that just blinking would suffice for one to miss the entire thing.

    And as soon as the new magazine clicked with the gun, the execution, for it couldn''t be called any other way, continued.

    Still, as expected, a few of those who defied my order turned out to be rtively stronger than the rest�� Or at the very least, capable of raising a proper barrier.

    ording to my instruction, Chris didn''t waste his ammunition on them, sparing only a single round for each of the targets. And with that, mere two magazine swaps after it all started, only a total of four enemies remained.

    ''Now, it''s time to test out how things changed,'' I thought, allowing a small grin to apany the look of disappointment and exasperation on my face.

    And with a single thought, in the exact same way as I did many times before, I infused my aura into the darkness hidden below the defiant soldiers.

    ''This is going to be ugly,'' I thought, conjuring a spike-like shape from the darkness before shooting it up, aiming to pierce the resisting soldiers from the crotch up, using a method d the Impaler would happily approve.

    Yet, rather than thin, slick spikes the size of a human fist at their thickest point, the darkness below those few soldiers exploded, ripping their bodies into pieces as spikes as long as the school''s bus shot out from the ground, only to vanish the very moment their task was fulfilled.

 Chapter 262: Leverage

    "Remember, when ites to talking, less is more."

    The closer we got to the camp when just a few days ago I''d waged a battle against the mercenaries, the harder it was for me to speak up.

    Sure, the princess'' group was still too far away to hear anything I said with a voice low enough�� But judging how great Madam''s eyesight was to spot the details of what happened at Etaria''s tent, it would be foolish for me to assume the princess''s eyes were any worse.

    And so, while she likely wouldn''t be able to hear what I whispered, I had to turn my head and shield my mouth from her line of sight to speak.

    An action that by no means would look good in Etaria''s eyes, for what kind of proper negotiation was it supposed to be if I had to pass instructions to my people until the veryst moment?

    Thisck of professionalism only betrayed myck of proper trust in mypanions.

    ''I wonder if it''s because of my bond with Fay?'' Using thest moments before the meeting woulde to be, I forced my thoughts to a different topic.

    There was no use burdening myself with thinking about the meeting just before it was about to happen.

    "Sir, yes sir," Chris responded, as usual, content with just those three simple words. In fact, ever since we left Makary behind for the exact same reasons why he didn''t want to let me go myself, Chris didn''t utter a single word that went beyond those three!

    "We meet again."

    That was it, for our time to prepare.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    We met with Etaria''s group near the edge of the camp, in one of the two corners of it that didn''t really see much fighting, leaving it mostly unscathed and thus a proper ce to meet.

    "I wish I could say it''s my please, Your Highness, but given the circumstances��" I leaned over my shoulder, throwing a long look at the field where the imperial soldiers were now stuck between the forest and my small delegation.

    And from the looks of it, all the theatrics we used to pass right through them safely proved sufficient to force all of them to stay, too scared of just the four of us to dare to take one step away from where they were.

    But when looking back, I actually turned my eyes just beyond the crowd, where I could see piles of bodies slowly stacking higher and higher as the crowd opted to pull their dead aside.

    "I''m not in my best mood, so cut the small talk and just tell me what the hell are you doing here?"

    Away from all the prying eyes of the huge number of her subordinates, Etaria showed a slightly different face to how she acted thest time we met.

    "Since that''s your request, let me cut to the chase," I shrugged my shoulders, more than happy to just deal with the situation instead of throwing pleasantries and titles at the other.

    Sucking up to others'' asses simply wasn''t in my nature.

    "I''vee to make a deal," I revealed the first stage of my grand scheme. "I don''t know about you, but my people are really wary of the gues caused by the rot of the corpses. So, I''vee to trade the lives of the surviving half of your army for you to order them to clean up their mess first."

    As I spoke, I kept my eyes glued to the face of the princess. Thankfully, my bond with Fay would protect me from suspicion I was, in any way or form, interested in the beautiful princess.

    No. I simply wanted to see her reaction to my proposal.

    Etaria squinted her eyes. Then she furrowed her brows, causing two small, vertical wrinkles to appear right above the bridge of her nose and adding an extremely cute detail to her already dignified face.

    It took the princess well over just a few seconds to slowly rx her face, take a deep breath, and then cast one hell of an intense stare right at my face.

    "I feel like I''m repeating myself, but��" Etaria''s stare only intensified even further, "are you for real?"

    ''Good.''

    "Yes, I am," I replied as calmly as I could. "Once you go through what my ancestors did, your civilization is sure to learn this lesson too."

    The princess''s stare didn''t lose any of its intensity for a while as she continued to drill her eyes into my soul. Ultimately, though, she was the one to look away first before breathing a long, exasperated sigh.

    "Is that really all that you want?" she asked, taking a look over my shoulder, to where the survivors of one of her armies awaited their fate, unsure of what to expect from themselves.

    "No, there''s one more thing," I didn''t bother ying any games and stalling. "And I''m not exactly sure whether it will make you happy or not. But sometime tomorrow, I will have my friends prepare a stake with an altar on it," I announced before looking up while raising my hand to rub my chin.

    "After all of this aggression once again directed at my friends and family��" I kept my chin raised for a second before removing my hand and looking down, giving the princess a fierce stare. "Call me vicious, call me silly, but after all the killing we had to do, it would really raise my spirits if you gave me a head on a silver tter."

    "Huh?"

    Faced with such an abrupt turn, the princess jumped a little. And quite notably, her eyes skirted over to the side, looking for confirmation in Madam''s eyes.

    "I will leave it to you to give the orders to those poor folks," I casually waved my hand in the direction of the nearby crowd as I turned around. "And in two days'' time, I expect to see a head for me to put on the stake and burn away."

    As disrespectful as it could be, I didn''t even bother to wait for the princess''s response. Instead, I simply started to walk away, as if everything was already settled.

    Which, of course, wasn''t true.

    Not for a human supreme. Not when all I shook by taking a step was a small dagger by my hip when her single step would shake half the overwhelming military power of the empire.

    This couldn''t be over for someone as used to be the one to decide the course of events as the Golden Princess.

    "And what if I don''t?" Falling right into how I both expected but also hoped her to react, Etaria called out.

    Judging from Fay''s twitch and Madam''s steps slowing down a bit, she also took a step forward, making the two girls raise their guards a bit.

    Quelling the terror of standing so defiantly in the face of a supreme, I turned my head over my shoulder and gave the princess the most amicable, sympathetic, and�� pitying smile.

    "Then, I will help you learn what happens and why I''m so eager to give proper respect to the corpses. But that lesson..." my simile widened before I shook my head and looked back at the forest, already taking a step to leave.

    "Are you ready to pay its price?"

 Chapter 263: A trick only a smart person can fall for

    Our return to the forest was even less eventful than our way to the unscheduled meeting with the princess.

    Despite the rude way in which I left, Etaria opted not to pursue it. And while I couldn''t tell what she thought about my threat, I knew better than to remain anywhere near her for the time being.

    As we walked past the crowd of the defeated imperial soldiers, we didn''t even need to tell them to open the path again, for they dared not to close it ever since I left.

    Maybe it was because the entire meeting only took a few moments in total? Or maybe, stuck between the forest where all the death came from and my small group that already showcased our ability to serve the same kind of death, they tried not to do anything to make me forget they even existed?

    Either way, our return back to the forest was as uneventful as it could get. And it was only once we dove deep between the trees that both Madam and Chris started to talk.

    "Did you forget the forest will consume all the corpses anyway?" Madam asked while giving me a side-eye with a poorly concealed amusement on her face.

    "We don''t have any chemical or biological weapons. And getting them would be about as hard as buying neu weapons off the free market, meaning, impossible."

    As they both spoke at the same time, Chris and Madam raised their eyes and looked at each other, both equally as surprised as the other.

    "The forest consumes bodies?" Chris asked, his eyebrows moving up his forehead as he stared at Madam in mild shock.

    "You guys use poisons in warfare?" Madam asked back, once again speaking out right as Chris did.

    "Okay guys, calm down," I spoke out, stopping them before this pstickedy routine could continue any further. "Yes, the forest will, or already did consume most of the corpses left from all the fighting. I saw it happen myself," I answered Chris''s question before moving my eyes over to Madam. "And no, I did not forget about that.

    But yes, our ancestors used all sorts of toxicpounds and things far worse than just that during times of war. But as the best of�� let''s call them poisons, reached the point where a single leak could spell the end of all life on our, we went with the sane route and locked or destroyed them all away."

    This time, I didn''t bother delving into the way in which chemical and biological warfare ended up simplified to just poisons somewhere within the trantion. And I definitely had no desire to spend the next few days teaching biology to Madam just so she could understand the concept of super viruses and race-ending, manufactured bacteria.

    "Judging by your questions, though, I can''t help but notice one thing," I reached near the conclusion of my response to all the topics that arose the moment we could talk more or less freely. And while sensing a small smirk appearing on Fay''s lips, I raised my eyes and looked first at Chris and then Madam.

    "Do you guys even have a single clue what this short exchange with that golden princess was all about?"

    On one side of things, I wanted to flex the scheme I came up with. But on the other hand, a thought dawned on me when I heard what the two of them were confused about�� They really didn''t seem to have a clue.

    "So it wasn''t about removing the hazard of the corpses rotting around?" Chris asked his shock from before now thawing to merely a mild surprise.

    "Right, you weren''t here when I talked with Makary�� But yeah, it was never about those. I don''t think anyone in the forest would ever worry about the corpses outside of it, while those inside��"

    I rolled my eyes and spread out my arms before shrugging my shoulders.

    "Those insides the forest will consume all on its own, yeah," Chris muttered, proving he was actively listening to me rather than just letting my words enter through one of his ears only to leave through the other.

    "It was all about buying time, wasn''t it?" Madam asked, even though just like Chris, she wasn''t here when the topic of stalling came up between me and Makary.

    "That''s right. I needed to achieve two things," I admitted before finding the nearest tree and resting my back against it. Heaving a sigh, I closed my eyes and took a moment to gather my thoughts.

    "First, we need about two more days before we will be able to bring out the big guns and enough manpower to get a real fighting chance. Or rather��" I cut my words short and looked over at Chris.

    "It won''t be as much as a fighting chance. More of instant victory with genocide in the making," Chris grumpily barked back, his forehead suddenly wrinkling up as an unpleasant expression appeared on his face.

    One way or the other, this topic apparently struck a note that resonated really well with the man''s past. Or maybe he simply dreaded the moment when he would be a tool for mass ughter?

    "Either way, our one and only goal is to stall for two more days," I summed the main point up. "But the one and only thing that we need to ensure, is for the princess not to learn about the fact. For if she does��"

    The rest of the exnation I didn''t need to voice out.

    Regardless of what Makary''s men thought about the powers of this world, they already knew we simply didn''t have enough bullets to kill all of the imperial soldiers�� Or, to be more precise, to put any serious dent in their numbers were Etaria sound a general charge.

    On the other hand, while I had no doubt Madam could win against Etaria if such a fight were toe, or at least drag their private battle to a tie�� We would once again be left with an overwhelming disadvantage of manpower, weapons, and supplies.

    "Back before we saw themotion at the princess tent, I wanted toplicate the process of turning the soldiers stuck in the mud over the next few days�� But when I saw a head roll, I realized that focusing the entire debate on corpses would be a better idea."

    "Why, exactly?" Fay asked, climbing up on my arm to rest the side of her head on my shoulder as shezily looked up my face. "What is so important about the corpses for you to bring it up so much, back then?"

    Right.

    While we could already feel the hints of each other emotions even with our bond in a suppressed state, directly listening to each other thoughts was still something we had to master.

    And with only my emotion to base her understanding of the situation on, Fay had no right to know the viciously simple trick I used.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    A trick that could only work on people who were too smart for me to fool in any other, more straightforward way.

    "That''s the fun part," I smiled, squeezing Fay''s hand with my right only to reach out with my left and pat her head. "There was no meaning behind me bringing up the corpses so much whatsoever."

    Seeing the three shocked faces appear all around me, I no longer held back and released a chuckle.

    "All I wanted is for the princess to ask the same question and spend the next two days trying to figure it out."

 Chapter 264: Night counsel

    "Tsk��"

    Hidden within her private tent, Etaria bit down on the nail of her thumb.

    "Don''t tell me you are still thinking about that kid," Zanba asked before dropping the empty bucket to the ground and wiping the sweat off his forehead.

    Filling up the bath for the princess was no easy task. Yet, as close to the only luxury she ever demanded during the campaigns, he was more than happy to keep heating the water behind the tent before hauling it inside. A task that took him an hour and that could bepleted by a mere hand-servant��

    And yet, here he was, an officer of a ranking higher than anymoner should ever be allowed to gain, toiling for close to an hour every day just so the princess could rx in her beloved bath.

    "I just can''t get this out of my head," Etariained, leaning forth on the simple stool she sat on and pressing her hands against her temples. "It''smon knowledge that leaving corpses behind might cause gue�� But why was he so insanely concerned about it?"

    The princess shook her head before releasing a groan only a few other officers of her golden legion ever heard with their own ears.

    "The bath is ready," Zanba announced, cleverly timing the news for when Etaria started showing signs of getting stuck on the problem.

    "Right, the bath��"

    Shaking her head, Etaria stood up from her stool and stretched out her arms to the side.

    "Come help me," the princess requested, keeping her arms stretched out while turning her back to the man.

    "It''s been a while since Ist saw you so demanding," Zanba jeered a little, positioning himself behind the princess''s back before undoing several zips, knots, and buttons that held her outwardly simple yet elegant outfit together.

    A moment of the princess'' uniform rustling as it slid down her beautiful bodyter, and Etaria stood bare before him.

    Neither of the two blushed.

    Zanba was merely an officer ofmon roots. The fact that he was offered a noble title in exchange for all of his merits thus far didn''t change the fact, especially when he ended up refusing the nobilitation.

    For all sakes and purposes, their current rtionship never had any right to exist.

    But what grew from the seed of long years spent fighting together and went through the bloody baptism at the siege of Lunagar Fortress��

    "I can''t put my finger on it, but something really ticks me off about that kid," Etaria whined as she marched across the insides of the tent before climbing up a small step and then dropping into the bath.

    Caring not for all the precious, warm water that sshed all over the barrel she used for a bath, Etaria closed her eyes and uttered a long purr as the warmth instantly helped her body rx and her thoughts scatter.

    For but a brief moment, thefort of the embrace of the warm water lulled Etaria''s strained mind, offering it the sce she so desperately sought.

    "Are you going to listen to his requests, then?" Zanba asked, grabbing the stool Etaria used just now and cing it down by the bath before sitting down and resting his back against the barrel.

    "Yeah," Etaria groaned again before stretching her arms out and then throwing them out of the barrel and resting them down on its edge. "Regardless of how I feel about him, things are moving as nned�� No, even better than nned."

    Etaria heaved a long sigh before pulling herself up on her shoulders and resting her chest against the front edge of the barrel, leaning with her head above it and over Zanba''s shoulder.

    "Better than initially nned," Zanba corrected the princess, caring not for just this little would get him a death sentence back in the imperial court.

    But with how the best painmakers of the empire would gather just to discuss the most creative ways of torture if the news of his rtionship with the princess were to ever get out�� A mere threat of death wasn''t something that could move the man.

    "But not better than they should after we included the parameters of the battle he had with the mercs into the equation."

    Etaria bit down on her lips and cast an annoyed look at the man below. Then, as her mood shifted a little, she gathered some of the warm water in the palm of her hand��

    Before dripping it right at the top of her officer''s head.

    "Do you always have to be in such a bad mood?" Etaria whined, only for the corners of her mouth to twitch a little when Zanba nearly jumped on his seat when the water dripped down on his head.

    "Consider this my payback for how much you love to bully me," Zanba snapped back, jumping out from his stool and escaping outside the range of the princess'' yful hands.

    His brightenedplexion quickly turned back to its cloudy state.

    "I think he is trying to y us, somehow," he noted.

    "Is that a bad thing?" Etaria asked back, only to roll over in the barrel and rest her back against the edge she was pressing her boobs against just a moment earlier. "It''s not like we are here to do him any good. In fact, his audacity to stand against the empire��"

    Etaria shook her head.

    "What, am I not enough now?" Zanba appeared right before the supreme, easily moving faster than she could perceive.

    This was the one and only reason why he could allow himself the attitude that would otherwise put him on the shortest trail for the high treason in the history of the empire. For a while, he wasn''t a supreme like the princess��

    Not one person knowing of his true aplishment would dare to consider him to be any less than a supreme. In some circles, in fact, his status was that of the emperor''s equal��

    If not the old man''s superior.

    "I''m interested in him, but not like that," Etariaughed out, only to reach out with her hand slightly behind her head, pressing her fingers against the cheek of her childhood friend.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Amoner who refused the imperial nobility he could receive directly from the emperor''s hand. A mere officer in the golden legion of an upbringing as humble as one could imagine.

    And a sessor to one of the few surviving schools of ancient art of the sword.

    One of the remaining seven swordmasters who, with their bodies alone, reached a realm beyond what the world deemed possible.

    A realm that remained a mystery even to supremes.

    "So there''s no need for you to be jealous, ''key?"

    Etaria grinned lightly when she felt Zanba lower his head down under as little as the slight caress of her fingers.

    "I''m not jealous. I''m worried," Zanba said, his face once again taking on a darker hue. He then shook his head and bit down on his lips. "He is just too different. Too unpredictable to rest easy with him around," the officer pressed his lips together before lowering his eyes down and gracing his brain with the sights he formerly tried to avoid.

    "He is too confident for��"

    "My princess!" A voice from outside the tent stopped Zanba from finishing his opinion. "The imperial majesty is calling!"

 Chapter 265: High masters

    "For my father to call at this time��" Etaria muttered as she hurried past the small alleys of her legion''s camp.

    "What are the chances he is calling just to check up on the progress?" Zanba asked, pretending to struggle to follow up after the princess in their mad dash across the legion''s camp to a very, very specific ce.

    Contrary to what one might think, it wasn''t the princess'' t that made up the very center of the legion''s camp. She might''ve been the most important person in the field��

    But just like anything and everything else in the empire, the emperor himself always kept the role of the single most important role in everything.

    That''s why, at the very center of the Golden Legion''s camp, it wasn''t the princess tent that was located.

    It was all a massive tent designed with no one else but the masters of the high tower in mind.

    "Make way for the princess!"

    The two men standing guard at the tent''s entrance stood at attention and shouted the very moment they saw the golden princess appear.

    The two of them raised up their chests and shook the ceremonial spears they held before taking a step to the side each, opening up a path just wide enough for the princess to squeeze through and get inside the tent.

    "I hope it will all go smoothly," Zanba muttered before giving Etaria a slight, gentle pat on the back. "All the best!"

    Even if the two of them didn''t need to hide with their special rtionship within the camp fully taken over by the golden legion�� The tent of the high tower was the one special ce where not even Zanba dared to act too much out of the line.

    "Thanks," Etaria gave Zanba a quick smile before moving past the two guards and making her way inside the massive tent. "I greet the high masters of the tower!"

    Out of the total of seven men inside of the tent, only three bothered to turn their heads and nod them to acknowledge the princess'' presence.

    ''Those fuckers��''

    In spite of how much Etaria hated to be anywhere near this tent, she had no other choice but to grit her teeth and let this disy of arrogance pass.

    No matter how important Etaria was as the heir apparent and an aplished military leader�� She still had to act all polite and courtly around the high masters.

    They represented the only force within the empire that eluded the imperial authority to a great degree. And as much as Etaria hated it�� she had no other choice but to ignore their attitude, all to receive the blessing of convenience that came from all sorts of artifacts their presence allowed the princess to use.

    And right now, picking up her father''s call was far more important than something such as her pride or personal likes and dislikes.

    "I''m here to receive the summoning call from his imperial majesty," Etaria announced, finally finding an angle that brought some sort of reaction from the overly prideful high masters.

    "The artifact is all ready," one of the masters approached the princess before coldly informing her.

    He offered no word of courtesy nor showed the princess any respect.

    ''You just wait,'' Etaria gritted her teeth while pressing her fingers into fists. ''Sooner orter, you will turn into a feed for worms to enrich this ground''s fertility!''

    As much as the all-self-important masters hated to be out in the field, separated from their lovely and overly important experiments, so did Etaria hated every second she was forced to interact with this arrogant bunch.

    But when the emperor called, even the golden princess herself would drop everything and rush to answer the call, regardless of what she was doing when she received the summons.

    And if one were to trust the rumors spread by the anti-imperial faction, such rule included activities like leading the battle or even fighting for her life!

    "Lead the way, respectable master," Etaria muttered the official form out, only for the man to turn on his heel and guide the young woman deeper into the tent, to where a massive, silver tter filled with nothing but an extremely thinyer of some sort of liquid stood on a small, pretty ordinary pedestal. Enjoy new adventures from mvl

    The high master reached his hand out and hovered it over the see-through liquid''s surface.

    For but a second, the mana of the world swirled around not only the tter but the entire pedestal it was ced upon. The swirl of energy grew stronger and stronger, only to suddenly copse onto the silver tter, sucked in by the infused silver it was made from.

    And as the spell settled, the surface of the liquid started to change, forming the insides of the Imperial Chambers of the holy capital of the empire�� And forming the glorious profile of the emperor himself, currently busy studying some sort of papers as he awaited the call to activate.

    "Respectable Father," Etaria called out, already bowing her head in a sign of honest respect and obedience.

    The man on the other end of the artifact was not only her father�� but also the emperor of the entire, known world.

    "Etaria," the emperor''s profile shifted as he turned his eyes towards the surface of the liquid on the exact copy of the artifact that the princess was currently using. "What are the news?"

    Hearing those words, the princess couldn''t help but smile a bit.

    ''It seems my time here won''t be as bad as I thought it would be!''

    "Just a moment, father," Etaria requested before raising her face from the artifact''s surface and ncing over at the total of seven high masters paying their utmost attention to the events at the artifact.

    They might pretend they couldn''t care less about the empire and its politics or the emperor''s thoughts�� But they couldn''t mask the curiosity and vivid interest that shed in their eyes, only to vanish when Etaria threw her inquisitive look around.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "I''m sorry, high masters, but I will have to have you vacate this ce."

    The news only served to further the rift between the imperial family and the high masters of the high tower. Still, the procedures for this situation were perfectly clear.

    If the princess so desired, then with all the respect but they were to fuck off right this instant.

    After some more hateful stares, the high masters obliged, leaving the princess alone with the artifact in the entirety of the massive tent.

    "Okay, it should be safe to talk now," Etaria announced right as she coated her surroundings with such a degree of the world''s mana that none of the words spoken inside would ever make it beyond this makeshift barrier of pure energy.

    "Good," the emperor nodded his head right as his face took on a more serious look. "How are things going?"

    Etaria took a second to catch a breath.

    "A bit differently than we initially assumed, but things are on the right track. The mercenaries lost half their men, and Duke Salvador opted tomit assisted suicide by refusing to follow expressedmands while his army was routed and lost close to half of its numbers."

    Etaria finally allowed a small hint of a smile to appear on her face.

    "All things considered, things are only starting to gain traction, but I should be able toplete my task within a fortnight."

 Chapter 268: Shocking revelation (end of mass release)

    "That''s�� quite an�� admirable and confident statement to make," Etaria stated after taking a moment to digest all the meanings hidden in my words. She hesitated and stumbled with her words twice, but still managed to pass the meaning on.

    "Admirable?" I raised my eyebrow while tightening my grasp over Fay''s delicate hand. "Hardly. Devoted? I would agree. But I don''t think there''s anything admirable in that."

    I took a deep breath before turning my head and raising my free hand, all for the sake of both caressing Fay''s cheek as bit and watching her reaction as I did so. Experience new tales on mvl

    "To a degree, you could say it''s all just my selfishness," I added, hardly paying any attention to the princess by this point.

    Still, she came here to have a talk�� and we didn''t even get to talk in a rtively private setting yet. So, I turned my eyes towards the princess right as my fingers finally yed with Fay''s soft skin for long enough.

    "It is my selfish desire to create the world where my beloved can live the best of her life. And the only thing that''s admirable in all of this, is my dearest herself!"

    Raising my own hand and pulling Fay''s arm along, I brought our joined hands high above our heads, as if to unt to the whole, wide world just what kind of lovely beauty I''ve got for a mate.

    "Men really are simple, aren''t you?" the princess muttered in an exasperated voice. Then, she turned to the man who carried the box with the duke''s head all the way to here. "I will be fine. Take your leave."

    Before the man could even react, Etaria turned her head back to me before giving her other retainer a quick nce.

    "Judging by how your�� dearest isn''t going to leave, I assume it''s fine for one of my men to stay by my side too," she stated.

    "Only as long as you can talk freely around him," I pointed out the one necessary element that would make any sort of discussion that would follow worth my time.

    For now, was the time for both of us to drop all the pretense and discuss the realm terms. And having anyone eager to write a report of what would be said between the two of us��

    "I have no secrets before him," Etaria stated without even a second of hesitation.

    "Fine," I agreed and nodded my head before turning my eyes north. "There are way too many people here, so how about we move over�� there?" I asked, pointing my hand at the hill just a bit to the north of where we stood, rising from the ground just beyond the barrier of the trees.

    A spot where both the princess army and my own allies could keep a close eye on the four of us while it would be impossible for anyone to approach us undetected.

    And with no protest from the princess''s side, we arrived at the top of the said hill mere momentster.

    "Now then, forgive me the arrogance, but can we drop all of the small talk, pleasantries, and other useless elements of nothing more than decorum?"

    Even though it was pretty much the same thing that the princess requested herself during ourst encounter, for me to be the one to put this request forth felt extremely rude.

    After all, the princess far outranked me on any sort of socialdder any sane person coulde up with. In that kind of scenario, for me to suggest dropping the official courtesy�� was simply preposterous.

    "Fine with me," the princess replied, her voice already changing to amodate my request.

    "Then how about you tell me what''s your actual reason to be here?" I asked, following my own request and wasting no time on useless small talk.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    The princess'' face didn''t even twitch. Yet, judging by how she didn''t reply right away��

    "You see, in my culture, after all the ughter, genocide, and war crimes, we finally figured out that it''s often simpler and outright cheaper to just talk things through and make a deal," I exined. "But I can''t offer you a good deal if I don''t know what you are really after."

    I turned my whole body so that I could face the princess with every fiber of my being.

    "What is it that you yourself desire, then?" the princess came out with a pretty standard and thus weak counter to my words.

    "I''ve already said it, to make her life as bright and interesting as possible," I stated while raising Fay''s hand once again. "In more down-to-the-ground terms, though," I allowed the corners of my mouth to rise a bit��

    "I don''t really want much. Just your silent approval to establish a trading city right where your army stands as we speak. And then, the right to buynds you likely consider worthless so that I can bring you more wealth than your entire economy provides with a fair share of value I can extract from saidnds."

    From the look on the princess''s face, I''ve managed to take her by surprise. And her next words only served to confirm this guess of mine.

    "I wasn''t sure whether to take your threats from before seriously��" the princess mumbled under her nose before squinting her eyes and raising them to my face. "But you really believe you can defeat my army."

    This wasn''t a question, but more of a statement of a fact.

    "Now then, I''ve revealed what I''m after. And I''m more than happy to give the empire a fair share of the spoils. But I''ve yet to learn what is it that you are after with this war."

    For a moment, the princess turned silent. This time, she didn''t bother trying to wittilye up with a response on the spot.

    "What would you do if I were to say that I want most of my army to die here?"

 Chapter 269: The last warning

    "It''s about time," Madam spoke in a soft voice.

    "It is indeed," I muttered in response,zily opening up my eyes and raising my head from Fay''sp.

    It''s been a grand total of seventy-nine hours since Ist used my portal. In other words, in just a single hour, I will be able to use it again, finally establishing the permanent gate I needed so much.

    But as if fate didn''t want me to have it easy, this single hour left might be the hardest one to buy out of all the time I stalled so far.

    "Thanks for letting me rest a bit," I said as I turned around and offered Fay my hand, helping her get up in one, graceful motion.

    "No biggie," Fay grinned before rushing a step forward and, as usual, wrapping herself around my right arm.

    From the outside, we likely looked like a couple right in the middle of their honeymoon.

    ''Here we are, acting all cuddly, despite what''s about to happen,'' I thought, enjoying Fay''s warmth and affection equally as much as I was conflicted about it.

    We weren''t going out to have fun, but to wrestle this single hour of wait more from the prying hands of fate! And the way of doing it was the reason why I was torn over Fay''s usual attitude.

    I moved forth just a few steps. By the time I reached the edge of the forest just a few meters away, all sorts of divines, celestials, and earth-born humans crowded my surroundings.

    "It''s time," I spat out in a low voice before taking one more step and moving beyond the protective barrier of the trees, right into an open in where two massive piles grew from the ground high into the sky.

    One of the piles consisted of nothing but all sorts of scrap wood. From the fallen branches gathered in the forest, through broken furniture from the mercenary camp at some personal, wooden artifacts ending, the pile of wood grew as high as three, four times my height.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    The only unusual part of this pile consisted of a simple table and a closed chest sitting atop it.

    A few meters to the side of the wooden piley its more grotesque cousin.

    Even with all of the corpses left within the forest falling prey to its unnatural hunger, the survivors of the imperial army still managed to gather quite a bit of the corpses from just the wend alone.

    And only now that their fallenpanions stacked up roughly twice as high as myself, they could witness the true scale of devastation brought forth by a mere few guns.

    "It''s high time to burn them off," Chris muttered as he appeared by my side. And for the very first time, I saw him make a face. He kept his hand by his nose, warding off the stench of death and shit from the nearby pile of mangled flesh. "If we wait any longer, this would turn into an actual problem."

    I turned my eyes to the side and gave the man a short look. Then, without uttering a word, I simply nodded my head.

    ording to Madam''s n for the moment, some of the celestials more attuned to the fire element were to take the task of setting fires to the two piles on themselves.

    Ultimately, I ended up agreeing to the idea�� But not before a small modification to it of my own.

    "Rasta! Kasper! Soak''em!"

    I couldn''t even tell who gave the order, but quite frankly, it didn''t matter. What did, however, matter, were two men who jumped up to each of the piles with nothing but two, heavy canisters each.

    For the next few moments, all of those who either came with me to participate in the event or had been close-by since before it started could do nothing but watch those two humans pour some sort of stinky liquid over both piles.

    Once the two humans left and dove deep into the crowd of celestials and divines, a bunch of the forest elites stepped out, forming a new front that cut out the rest of the crowd from the two massive pyres.

    I took a deep breath, ignoring the awful stench in the air as I turned my eyes over to the rest of the in, beyond all of the survivors of the imperial army��

    And to the neat rows of the rest of Etaria''s forces that gathered up on the in.

    Ever since our weird talk at those pyres yesterday, the princess didn''t seek to contact me at all. As such, I never really had the opportunity to ask what exactly did she meant with those unexpected if not outright treacherous words.

    I never got to hear her exnation of what she meant with what she said. And now, she was here to either bring an end to this conflict once and for all�� or maybe just to let her entire army witness what I was going to do with the corpses of their fellow soldiers?

    "I never thought a single hour could be that precious," I muttered, before shaking my head and removing my eyes from the overwhelmingly massive army standing just a few hundred meters away.

    They were way too close to myfort. Mere fewteen seconds away if they decided to charge at any point in near time.

    "And that''s why we need to give them a proper show," Fay whispered, wrapping herself tighter over my arm before raising her right hand and using just her forefinger alone to gently steer my chin away, towards the celestials and divines awaiting theirmand.

    "Whether we are enemies or not, all deserve a proper burial," I spoke out loud, even going as far as to experiment a little with infusing my aura into my voice. "We might be at war, but only we ourselves can deprive ourselves of decency. That''s why, men!" I called out and stepped forth, moving just ahead of the rest of the crowd while still behind the line of the fire-wielding celestials.

    "Send them off."

    My voicecked any kind of pressure, anger, or other inherence that would naturally make it louder.

    ''Even if I don''t care how many of them died, the least I can do is maintain the dignity of this moment,'' I thought, closing my eyes and nodding my head. Enjoy more content from mvl

    With my eyes closed, I couldn''t see what happened next. Still��

    The world''s aura shook a little, and then again, a little stronger than before a mere moment before a wave of heat struck me squarely in the face.

    The darkness before my eyes brightened up as the light of the first of the pyres standing in mes was strong enough to go through the thinyer of skin of my eyelids.

    For but a moment, all stood in silence, watching how the mes rose higher and higher, before covering the entire pile of corpses and mangled body parts.

    Along with the heat, the air filled with the awful stench of burnt meat.

    I reached out and used my sleeve to cover Fay''s nose, hoping to shield her from as much of this disgustingly sweet aroma as I could.

    Still, as soon as the fire reached the greatest size I could expect it to grow to, I moved up and then to the very edge of the crowd of the forest folk.

    The imperial survivors were the audience of the speech I prepared, not my own allies.

    "On the first pyre, we are burying those who lived out their lives as soldiers and met an unfortunate end. On the other pyre, though��"

    I steeled up the look in my eyes before allowing a hint of anger to sh on my face.

    "In the coffer on the altar within the wooden pile, there''s the rotting head of your duke!"

    The princess never revealed or openly admitted whose head was in the chest she brought as per the terms of our agreement.

    The crowd of the imperials moved a little. Themotion, although of a much lesser scale, appeared within Etaria''s army too.

    "He''s the man responsible for the deaths of all those brave souls that the fires are liberating as we speak!" I shouted out, even going as far as to point my hand at the still-not-burning wooden pile.

    Then, I slowly closed my eyes and lowered my hand, simply looking at the crowd ahead. And as the silence grew longer and longer�� I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

    "Where I''m from, people who throw the lives of their soldiers away are punished, not glorified. And I believe people like that don''t deserve to join the fallen soldiers in the burial rite."

    After ying around with it for a bit, I finally figured out how to use the aura to make my voice as loud as if I were using the loudspeaker. Noticeably, though, using aura came without the cost of making my voice sound mechanical and outright unnatural, a w of the loudspeaker even modern technology couldn''t get rid of.

    "We are at war. And it''s only natural for us to kill each other," I continued, although slowly decreasing the amount of aura I infused my voice with, turning it fainter and fainter, all the way to the point I used no aura at all. "So let me give you onest warning."

    I raised my eyes and prepared to infuse my voice with all the aura I could cram in it.

    "If you want to live, leave and let the head of this abhorrent duke rot away. For if his head goes up in mes��"

    Once again, I turned silent. But after throwing a sweeping look at the survivors nearby and the imperial army standing in all its glory just a few hundred meters behind them��

    "If his head goes up in mes, I will kill you all."

 Chapter 271: Turning point (2)

    "She ims to be the spy who made a deal directly with his imperial majesty himself!"

    Etaria''s face tensed up.

    A series of thoughts shed through her mind, as if a single strain of her consciousness streaked across the synapses in her brain, connecting the dots and following the logical causality of all that this report implied.

    ''She?''

    Etaria''s only took as much time as it took her to blink her eyes.

    "Bring her in."

    ''Is this a trap? But who would be insane enough to go for a supreme and a swordmaster?''

    ''So it''s not that kid after all.''

    ''But what would make that elusive spye out in the open? Is she trying to escape from the battle?''

    The officer bearing the colors of one of the two loyalists within the imperial faction bowed his head and turned around, rushing to fulfill themand.

    Left to her own thoughts, Etaria looked over, all the way across the field.

    There, thest of the vengeful survivors of Salvador''s army has just now entered the domain of the trees.

    ''And that means, the guys at the front should be approaching the enemy��''

    Contrary to themon footsoldier, Etaria could sense the lingering influence of the powerful congregation of mana within the shallow woods. But that much would be possible for every other promoted ascended.

    As a Supreme, Etaria could actually not only feel the mana within the forest but also how it affected the natural flow of the world''s mana around her.

    She couldn''t understand the principle behind all the erratic movements or even what exactly this mana was. Still, rather than brutally forcing her own logic upon the mystery that not even the masters of the high tower could exin, Etaria could still feel the flow of mana.

    And just like a fish feeling the strange movement through the water, just like a seasoned fighter noticing killing intent�� She could feel the flow of mana, along with how its massive blob a few hundred meters ahead affected the currents of the invisible.

    "Eta," Zanba called out shortly, already back on the ground, his hand loosely hovering over the handle of his sword.

    Pulling herself out of her deep thoughts, Etaria raised her eyes towards the smallmotion rising nearby.

    "��go already! There''s no�� me��!"

    The distant shouting quickly grew not so distant. And a mere momentter, the officer from before appeared just a few steps shy of the princess��

    Pulled by the strangest ascended Etaria ever encountered.

    The human form of the spy was simply�� outrageous. The elegance of the spy''s face could rival the greatest beauties of the imperial court. And while Etaria could still confidently im to be the faintest diamond of her gender��

    For the first time in forever, she realized there could actually be a contender for one of her titles.

    "I''m sorry for my abrupt arrival," the spy spoke in a soft, soothing voice as if she just didn''t barge right into the middle of the headquarters of the whole imperial army.

    And quite notably, she didn''t seem to mind Zanba''s de hovering just a hair''s width away from the skin of her throat.

    "You better be," strangely irritated, Etaria barked back, earning herself Zanba''s weirded-out nce.

    "Princess, there''s no��"

    "You shall address Her Highness with proper respect!" Zanba spoke coldly, pressing his de directly against the skin of the woman''s long, fair throat.

    "There''s no time."

    Ignoring the first drops of blood sliding down the man''s de, the alleged spy turned her eyes to Etaria and refused to look away as she spoke.

    Putting her irrational irritation aside, Etaria took a shallow breath and made sure to keep a straight face.

    ''Her worth and trustworthiness is yet to be determined.''

    Set in her desire not to divulge even the tiniest sliver of information with her expression, Etaria looked down right into the alleged spy''s calm eyes.

    "If you wish to speak, do so clearly."

    A long wrinkle appeared on the spy''s perfectly smooth forehead.

    "All that man did, was y for time. Buying more time was all he ever wanted! But now, he only needs a single hour if not less!"

    Word by word, the woman spat out the words, staring daggers at the princess.

    No matter how hard she tried to act, she couldn''t showcase her annoyance over the dy in a more obvious way.

    "Time for what?" Etaria, ticked off by the tant hurry expressed with every part of the spy''s body and soul, inquired. "What did he need time for? To bring some weapons? Complete a spell?"

    Read exclusive content at ��??

    Equally as annoyed with the spy''s unclear words as the spy was with how long everything was taking, Etaria tried to offer some help, to guide the discussion towards specifics.

    "He only needs about one hour more to bring over a whole, bloody army!"

    The woman spat her words out, her anger boiling out and turning into outright rage.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    The spy''s hand shot to the side, pointing at the line where thest men of the first line just entered the forest, soon to be followed by the second wave.

    Meaning, the troops at the front should have long since reached the area where Etaria could feel the thick, foreign mana. In other words, at any moment, the first noises of engagement should reach her ears.

    The princess never doubted her assessment of the situation for a single second. For while this mass of foreign mana could be sensed by every other promoted ascender�� As a Supreme, she could confirm its existence on a much deeper, unalterable level.

    Still, no sound came from the trees, no tree''s crown moved under the stray impacts of the battle below.

    And the spy''s face finally snapped, as a sh of bright light seemingly appeared in her eyes.

    "The fight from two days ago, the massacre of your people right at the forest perimeter," the woman spoke out, pointing her hand in the direction that continued to refuse to provide any sound that would match Etaria''s natural assumptions.

    "It was done by nothing more than a scouting party."

    A tingle moved down Etaria''s spine.

    She saw the massacre. A bloody hell that gave her the vibes of the siege of the Lunagar Fortress at its worst.

    And what was even worse, now that the spy''s testimony grew more and more detailed and thus usible��

    It started to form an unnervingly urate key allowing Etaria to finally decipher and piece together the weird, umon, and often outright erratic behavior of the young man siding with the forest forces.

    "How is buying time going to help him? Where will his armye from?" Zanba joined in on the interrogation, sprinkling some cold and hard reality down on the revtions. "There''s forbiddennd, misty valley, and starlight in all around this forest," he casually mentioned names, two of which even Etaria didn''t know about. "Not one of those ces is passable.

    So," Zanba lowered his sword away from the woman''s throat�� but his killing aura only exploded.

    As weird and different from all the other ascenders as the spy was, Etaria could still tell her general strength. While it would be new and challenging to fight someone with such unusual mana to her, it was something Etaria was confident in achieving.

    This would be all the more true for Zanba, who at this distance could overwhelm even the princess herself.

    "So, where is his armying from?" Etaria''s retainer asked right as his killing intent reached its peak.

    "I have no idea," the spy admitted to something unbelievable.

    An army that came from nowhere? Given the quality of the intel she provided, this woman should be more than well-versed in all the paths an army could possibly take throughout the forest she lived in!

    "My working idea is, he mastered some sort of a translocation spell."

    Etaria continued to stare right at the woman, gritting her teeth in silent frustration.

    ''Is she for real or is this all just another trick?''

    Etaria''s jaws started to hurt, forcing her to rx her jaws a bit.

    "Then��"

    "That magic has been lost to the world. No human alive can wield it again," Zanba spoke out with confidence that Etaria rarely seen in his eyes.

    This only served as a reminder to save for his long list of impossible feats�� She didn''t really know all that much about her dear officer''s background. And every now and then, just like right now, he would reveal that he knew a bit more than even the imperial princess and a confidante of the emperor himself!

    "Then you tell me how he brought drinks several times stronger than the strongest imperial booze? Where did he get the weapons that allowed just a handful of men to massacre all of the people who died at the perimeter?"

    With every word, the woman''s voice grew louder and more animated.

    "How is he��"

    "Shut it!" Etaria shouted, cutting the argument before it could grow too loud.

    For now, the front row of the second wave was stepping between the trees. And even if the first line took a really long time to advance��

    They should''ve long since reached the spot where all the foreign mana gathered.

    Both Zanba and the female spy turned silent, throwing startled stares at the princess while she simply closed her eyes and listened.

    Etaria ignored the noises of the ttering armors of thousands upon thousands of men. She removed all the other background sounds from her perception��

    And only silence remained.

    Not a single shout. A single pained cry for help or a cheer of victory.

    Just�� silence.

 Chapter 272: Turning point (3)

    "It��s okay to slow down!"

    Gripping tight at the fur of Fay��s fox form, I held on for my dear life.

    The speed at which she crossed the densebyrinth of thick trees made me question everything I thought about how strong I��d grown.

    With both the processing speed of my brain and the enormous cache of information it could ess at the same time, my perception of the world should be as sharp as a perfectly optimized game.

    And yet, riding on Fay��s back, I often couldn��t tell individual trees from each other.

    "Aren��t we in a hurry?"

    In thest five minutes, Fay not only carried me halfway through the forest, but she also managed to learn the very trick I��d just figured out of using aura to reinforce our voice.

    "I mean, we are��"

    Dizzy from the mind-boggling speed at which Fay ran, I struggled to gather my thoughts for a second.

    "But I doubt anything will happen right away."

    Hearing my words and sensing my meaning through our bond, Fay slowed down to a speed that no longer made me feel like keeling over.

    "I mean, I don��t think they will be able to find Madam anytime soon. And even if they see through this trick, that princess isn��t likely to do anything about it. Not when there were other times when acting up would yield greater benefits."

    With less than a single hour left for my portal toe online, buying time meant everything. For as much as I wanted to trust in Makary��s men back on earth��

    Would they really be able to prepare everything in a perfect way and be on standby the moment we return? And even unrealistically assuming they would go above and beyond��

    Moving an entire army along with its heavy equipment and endless supply train wasn��t something that could happen instantly. Modern warfare didn��t like to hurry, after all.

    "We need three hours in best case scenario, five in a more realistic one. If there will be even the tiniest semnce of unexpected trouble, we might need to double if not quadruple that number."

    That was already a conservative estimate, too. For if something really bad happened on earth while we were away; if the preparations Makary set in motion were to be dyed��

    Then it was an open discussion over how long it would take to fix the issue and then go back to the still unbearably long timeline.

    ��Is this going to be a blitz or will it be a prolonged battle where both sides scramble for time?��

    By the time I shook my head free of the question, Fay already arrived at the ce where the entirety of the forest forces gathered.

    With the exception of the few elites tasked with the role of a fake crowd during the ceremony and now just a few minutes behind me and Fay, all the able-bodied fighters grouped in a circle surrounding the gate-to-be.

    Between exploiting the hard terrain and their still impressive numbers, Fay��s kin created a protective barrier around the clearing, leaving it all open for those who were about toe.

    "A bit over half an hour left," I muttered, swinging my hand and summoning my portal just to check the time.

    "How long do you think they will take?" Fay asked, already building up on the trick I discovered and manipting her aura to direct and limit her voice just to my ears. Then, as she approached the lineup of her kin, she gathered her strength before leaping over the entire line and continuing all the way to the clearing.

    "If they just walk ahead, between an hour or two if they rush, five or six if they take their time and keep any semnce of cohesion."

    It was only a rough estimate, but it was better than nothing.

    "But it��s only a matter of time before the princess realizes something is wrong," I added with a sigh. "She might be indecisive, but she isn��t stupid."

    Even though I couldn��t name myself as the greatest reader of souls, the way Etaria acted, the way she carried herself and reacted to my quirky behavior�� All of it was extremely restrained yet annoyingly familiar.

    Back in my teenage years, I just happened to y myself for the exact persona the princess adopted as her own. The only difference was, that my power came from my delusions while Etaria��s fame, ability, and wealth were all real.

    Still, this sense of familiarity helped me realize this one, extremely important factor of Etaria��s soul. In a bid to get the perfect solution, unless pressed by an outside force, she would often take her time to think things through.

    "It all rides on how long she will take to realize the trick, decide how to deal with it, and then figure out the reasons behind it," I exined with a sigh.

    "And how can you be sure she will believe there��s an actual meaning behind your y?" Fay asked, turning back to her human form the very second I jumped off her back andnded on the soft grass.

    The parasitic organism blemished the face of the forest to siphon more energy and resources into growing an herb hiding somewhere out of sight. But in this particr scenario, the side-effect of that parasite draining the entire area out of nutrients was what I actually desired.

    A huge, open space with enough room for heavy machinery to operate.

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    Or for an army to deploy its front units.

    n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Half an hour left," I muttered, taking a quick nce at the portal before turning around and facing the direction I believed most likely to be where the first attack woulde.

    "And yes, even if she won��t realize there��s a deeper y in leaving Madam behind to fake our presence, she will have to respond somehow anyway. After all, we are actively using our Supreme to affect the battle," I pointed out with a smile. "We are, quite literally, pulling the queen out before any of the pawns gets to move."

    I took a deep breath before turning to the side, smiling at Fay, and reaching out to rustle the silk-like hair on her head.

    "Even if just to save face, she will have to respond in kind. And then, whether or not she discovers the trick or not, she is bound to follow Madam here anyway."

    "You really don��t seem to be worried about this situation, even the tiniest bit," Fay muttered while putting on a pouty face�� and pressing her fingers against the palm of my outreached hand, bringing my hand down to her cheek.

    An action that thoroughly reinforced the lethal potential of yet another of Fay��s rare faces.

    "You might��ve learned about the modern world, but you don��t seem to feel it yet," I spoke some cryptic words before moving my hand to caress Fay��s delicate cheek.

    With a sigh, I lowered my hand�� only to pounce ahead and grab Fay within an embrace. And as I bent my head down, bearing with my mouth on the side of Fay��s neck, I pressed my lips against her fair skin and left a red mark of my victory.

    "For now though, it��s all a race of time," I added, rxing my hold over Fay��s waist yet still holding her close. "Will they reach this ce first, or will we get enough time to bring some democracy over?"

 Chapter 273: Turning point (4!)

    "Six minutes left," I muttered after taking yet another nce at the frame of the gate where soon enough, a solution to the war would appear.

    And if I were to give Makary and his men any credit, it was likely to be a final solution. A solution so great, not even powers of Madam or Etaria��s level could question.

    But what exactly would happen after those six minutes?

    The only way to find out was to simply wait.

    "I��m leaving my men to watch over this ce, just in case," Makary announced, approaching the gate after giving some final orders to his unit. "And hopefully, we will get this over with quick."

    I turned my eyes away from the portal and looked up at the man��s serious face.

    Now that the time we��d been waiting for was just a few minutes away, the tension continued to grow not only in the air but also in everyone��s eyes.

    For better or for worse, the bet that I forced the survival of the forest folk on was about to be unveiled.

    Just a few minutes longer.

    "Five minutes!" I called out, announcing the time out loud for the very first time.

    There was no need for themon celestials or divines to know what was going on, nor to understand the importance of the timing. All they needed to know was that if they held the perimeter long enough, the war would be won.

    And so, with only a selected few having the knowledge necessary to understand my warning, everyone else busied themselves with doing absolutely nothing but observing their surroundings.

    With Madam ying my small trick out by the edge of the forest, it would still take at least half an hour if not more for the humans to reach this ce.

    ��Even if they dropped everything and rushed over here�� It would still take them a considerable amount of time.��

    As the tension in the air grew, so did the pace of my thoughts.

    "Peter," Fay called me out�� from merely a single step away.

    ��Not hon?�� I thought�� only for the corners of my mouth to twitch into a small smile. ��Are we at the point where Fay referring to me by my name is a bad sign?��

    "Yes, dear?" Taking it for a point to refer to Fay in the sweetest way possible, I turned my eyes away from Makary��s face and looked back to where my eyes should be focusing.

    "Stop worrying."

    Just that.

    Now that she wrestled my attention away from my dark thoughts and low expectations, Fay didn��t really need to say anything.

    Just the onught of all sorts of feelings, from her own anxiety through the anticipation of the change and at her worry over me worrying�� All of them brushed past my soul, giving me a much greater, deeper understanding of what Fay could only try to put into words.

    "Thinking about it, now that our perception of our bond grew, we can��t really hold it back, can we?" I pointed out, more than happy to kill thosest, unbearable minutes with small talk.

    "I don��t think we can," Fay shrugged her shoulders, "but as long as the inherence won��t act up, it shouldn��t be a problem, don��t you think?"

    Taking a step and crossing the distance that separated us, I wrapped my hands around Fay, sinking into the warm softness of her embrace.

    And as I closed my eyes��

    Four minutes remained. And at the same time, I noticed an extremely tiny disturbance.

    n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    No, it wasn��t that.

    The flow of the world��s aura all around us was already strangely affected by the influence of Madam actually pushing her own aura around. But now, at some level, I couldn��t even understand or put my finger on�� There was something wrong.

    The flow of the world��s aura around�� was just so ever slightly altered.

    "Can you sense it too?"

    As much as I wanted to just enjoy my hug to regain mental strength for facing whatever issues might arise next��

    This feeling of wrongness, as small and tiny as it was, continued to rub my mind the wrong way.

    "Actually��" Fay blinked her eyes a few times, her face showing a few wrinkles as she squinted her eyes and focused.

    A momentter, she raised her now widened eyes, giving me a slightly startled look.

    "I can��t feel anything strange, hon��" she muttered, biting down on her lower lip. "I can feel that you feel something�� But I can��t��"

    As if on the clock, the moment only three minutes remained on the clock of my portal, the world��s aura all around explo��

    No?

    It suddenly grew chaotic. The flows of the world��s aura mixed together and scattered in every way, just like small drops of rain forming a stream on a ss would be swept away if someone poured a bucket of water on the same ss.

    *Thud*

    A dull, strangely muted sound of something falling reached my ears a mere momentter. And as I turned my eyes��

    ��Ma����

    "BRACE!"

    Screaming from the bottom of her lungs, Madam fell down on her knees and then heavily leaned forward, striking the ground with her fists so hard, that her hands dug a few inches into the ground.

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    The world flipped��

    No, it was just an endless ocean of aura that suddenly started to radiate from Madam as she hurriedly gathered more and more of it around her body.

    ��Fay!��

    With one thought in my mind, I tightened my embrace over the girl before throwing both of us down on the ground, pinning Fay below my own body.

    We fell down, instantly scrambling to find even the slightest unevenness in the terrain to hide from what wasing.

    And with the fresh look of distraught written all over Madam��s face��

    It couldn��t be anything good.

    "It��s the imperials. They had to figure something out, for that damned princess is��"

    A murmur rose up from several meters away, only for Makary��s men to all fall down to the ground and take aim.

    "One click and closing! Eight hundred! Six hundred��" Chris ignored whatever Madam wanted to tell me, fully focused on the disy before his eyes��

    "Sending vector!" Chris gave amand I heard not before.

    And before anything that he tracked could reach the line of celestials and divines ahead, Makary��s men opened fire.

    The fire that, through the few tracer rounds some of their guns included, all concentrated on a single point in space. Judging by how the lines of fire continued to converge closer and closer, even the hail of bullets wasn��t enough to stop whoever or whatever wasing.

    "Two hundred!" Chris screamed out.

    Following that, the fire�� changed.

    Some of the guns raised their fire rate. Others, quite the opposite, stopped the spray-and-pray and opted for more precise, slower shots.

    Pac!

    A bloodied body wearing scraps of what had to be a uniform just a few moments before mmed into an invisible barrier just a few steps ahead of the front of the celestial line.

    The body was covered with bullet wounds all over. The poor target of Makary��s men missed the lower half of his left arm and a huge chunk of muscle low on his right shoulder. One of the man��s ears was blown away, its ugly remains giving testimony to the force that struck it off the man��s head.

    And yet, with more than just a few bullet holes in his chest�� the man raised his remaining hand and struck down his fist at Madam��s barrier in an expression of silent, exhausted, spent fury.

    "BRACE!"

    Madam shouted again as if she couldn��t see the state this man was in.

    ��Two minutes,�� I gritted my teeth, angry�� no, furious at how my ns appeared to all copse right at the veryst moment.

    Still.

    ��This guy is as good as dead, so why����

    A single thought passed through my head.

    "Makary!" Suddenly under much greater pressure of time than I anticipated, I only managed to turn my head halfway to look at the man. "Smoke the shit out of this��"

    BOOM!

    This time, it wasn��t a body falling down on Madam��s barrier. This time, it was the sun itself that struck the supreme��s defense before shattering and exploding, covering the entire world with a glorious, golden shine.

    For a second, Madam��s barrier held. Then, it cracked, especially right at the point where the sun suddenly appeared uninvited.

    Next, a single part of Madam��s barrier shattered, allowing the figure as golden as the light surrounding it to pass through,nd down on the ground, and��

    A cloud of dense smoke suddenly exploded right in my face, covering both me and Fay but also our immediate surroundings in a screen of imprable smoke that even this magical, golden shine couldn��t pierce through.

    This was a disaster. My worst fearsing true.

    A situation deteriorated to the point that at the back of my head, the thought of just giving up and escaping through the portal just with Fay�� The thought of leaving this world behind appeared.

    And as vexing as it was, my lips ignored the circumstances and twitched up into a smile.

    Because as far as I was concerned, this was one to zero in favor of a modern world.

    ��A single smoke grenade and it can block this overwhelming, magical light, huh?��

    With the smoke surrounding me and only continuing to expand with the sizzling sound as its source was far from exhausting its load, I couldn��t really tell what happened next. It was thanks to this smoke that I could see the shockwaves of the exchange between Etaria and Madam shake the air around.

    ��We need to go!�� Thinking with all my might, I pulled Fay over to where the frame of the gate was bristling to finally serve its purpose.

    Just a minute away.

    And then, as suddenly as it all started, the suffocating presence of the supremes vanished, as their violent sh brought them away, somewhere else.

    Was it a random urrence? Was it Madam buying me time? Or simply a shared wish of the supremes not to involve mere mortals with their overwhelming power?

    Regardless of what it was, though, I had my job to do.

    By the time I��ve crawled up to the gate-to-be with Fay, only less than a minute remained before my portal would reactivate. Ten seconds prior to that happening, Makary came out from the smoke and stood by my side.

    A few more seconds passed. And the portal that I��ve continued to call forth since three days ago finally responded to my voice�� Turning from a point to an orb and then its usual shape�� only to continue to expand, all the way to the point when it settled itself into the weave of the trees themselves.

    [Stable Portal ready to deploy]

    [Please use your portal to confirm the location of the stable gate��s exit]

 Chapter 274: Turning point (5!!)

    [Stable Portal ready to deploy]

    [Please use your portal to confirm the location of the stable gate''s exit]

    The purple hue of the portal shone over the frame made from the unnaturally weaved branches of the trees at the very edge of the clearing. And spreading out from those shiny edges towards the center, an endless swarm of vectors bent the space within, creating a visual glitch that my human eyes perceived as a nket of slightly less intense purple.

    But now, after all the advances and after learning how to notice the extremely fine, dark aura��

    I simply stood in ce, wasting precious seconds of time, something I should pay dearly for.

    I had no excuse�� but I did.

    All of my growth only made it possible for me to learn just how iprehensibly advanced this portal was. All of my newfound power was lowkey satisfied with�� to realize the endless chasm that separated me from the true masters of manipting aura.

    For if I were topare my skills to merely repeated sounds made by some monkey, the portal that I''ve used so thoughtlessly��

    It was a state-of-the-art, quantumputation of a triple encoded universalnguage, all performed from beyond the edge of the observable universe via quantum entanglement.

    ''The tiniest building block of it�� is on par with my mostplex spell��''

    Stunned beyond any reason, I had no mental capacity to process the events around me.

    "Grab him!" Makary hissed, moving erratically as the smoke of his grenades quickly grew so dense, that it covered even the shine of the bristling portal.

    "Move!" Recognizing the urgency of the moment, Fay restrained our bond as hard as she could before shouting as she lunged forth, through the purple portal.

    Fay jumped, easily lifting the two of us with a single kick of her legs.

    I came back to my senses only when we scored a pretty toughnding on the concrete of Makary''s hangar, axing the knees of several soldiers busying themselves with moving cargo around.

    A momentter, Makary appeared along with the smoke spewing out from the can he held in his hand.

    For a single instant, the world came to a standstill.

    The soldiers nearby turned their eyes towards a group of three appearing right at the foothold of a freshly constructed, tightly sealed wall. Those further into the hangar were only starting to turn their eyes towards themotion.

    And just like when I witnessed the true insanity of my father''s gift, I found myself unable to move air through my throat.

    ''I''ve gotta do something! Every moment counts!''

    I''ve already wasted enough time idling around before the portal. Those precious seconds couldn''t be regained�� And now more of them were bound to vanish in themotion that was sure to follow.

    I tried, I pushed myself to my absolute limits��

    But my throat failed to produce a single sound.

    "All hands!" Makary dropped the dying can of smoke to the ground and waved the residual smoke away. "Go green."

    The time picked up its pace when Makary spoke, only to freeze again after his words sounded out.

    And then, all hell broke loose.

    "All hands!" some ex-officer picked up the call and passed it along. "Go green!"

    The insides of the hangar stirred up.

    People dropped whatever they were doing as they stood, rushing about to gather and form up.

    ''Shit!''

    Finally, the gears of my mind and my body synchronized again.

    "Stop it!" I rudely shouted, struggling for a second to get myself off the floor. "Keep it silent!"

    By the time I hissed, Makary already moved past where Faynded, approaching one of the men we stumbled into when we fell down.

    Paying little to no mind to my warning, Makary lowered his hand and helped the man to stand up.

    "What''s the situation outside?"

    Looking up at the very leader of the entire division in the past�� the soldier rxed.

    "There are some pests bothering us at the gate, but nothing too hard to handle. About a fifth of the original headcount gathered, seventy percentbat ready."

    There was no war that particr soldier could participate in. The dissolution of the old order went surprisingly peacefully, leaving no real wars for someone his age to take part in.

    And yet, years after hisst day in service, the rtively young soldier snapped into his trained mindset in a mere instant.

    It didn''t matter where Makary came from, why was he holding a smoke and who were the two that tripped him.

    The colonel asked for a report, so a report was what he would get.

    "Keep the go green silent," Makary ordered while sparring me a nce as I finished gathering myself up. "Any ideas about what should we push first?"

    Despite the rather poor first impression I made on the soldiers gathered in the hangar, Makary still turned to me for advice.

    "Against those��" I squinted my eyes, putting aside all my doubts, all my worries and questions, and focusing all of the resources of my brain to process this one, crucial question.

    And so, I raised my eyes and gave Makary a calm look.

    "Do you have a Maglev, by any chance?"

    An idiotic thing to ask from a mere gang leader. A tall order even for seasoned mercenaries.

    But Makary��

    He was the full-blown colonel, the highest authority of the local garrison before the fall!

    Makary squinted his eyes only to turn his head and look at the soldier from before.

    "We have three ready to go." Not asking any questions back, the soldier dutifully replied.

    "We need to send them in. Raise them up," Makary ordered, wasting no time on idle chatter. "Everyone, vacate the hangar! And��"

    For the first time since his strong entrance, Makary hesitated and looked over.

    "Any ideas for some good bullshit to throw the prying eyes off?"

    I squinted my eyes as I fullymitted my brain to the single task of solving this particr puzzle.

    What we needed was a perfect brew of half-truths and outright lies, so that our excuse would make sense in both the short but also long term. And while all secrets were bound to see the light of the day, regardless of how well we would try to keep them��

    There was nothing wrong with trying to push this particr issue aste as possible.

    "We caught news of the esction of a conflict that can turn nuclear. Just in case, we are moving our assets to an underground safehouse so as not to lose everything in the chaos if the conflict actually starts."

    We were about to bring out quite the hammer of the modern military down on the other world. But that also meant tons upon tons of equipment and supplies constantly moving through Makary''snds and vanishing without a trace, along with an equally huge number of mening in but nevering out.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    It wasn''t something that the city government could let slide without a proper exnation�� In fact, it would be stupid not for the neighbors to investigate this kind of obvious build-up of military force right across theirwn!

    And thus, a proper excuse for why tons upon tons of resources vanish and where all those people are needed.

    Maintaining a bunker of a scale capable of holding a division worth of vehicles, guns, and supplies obviously required a fitting number of hands to move things around.

    "Good idea," Makary nodded his head with gratitude before turning his head back to his men.

    By now, every single soul within the hangar had their attention fully focused on the man while the half-open gate invited more and more former soldiers toe and check themotion out.

    "I need three Maglevs in the air right now. Everyone else, stand by for deployment!"

    Makary''s orders were short, and his men were equally as quick to follow them. In merely a minute, the crowded hangar with all sorts of cargo, weapons, and supplies scattered all over it turned into a perfectly organized, empty space with several rows of armed soldiers standing by along the hangar''s sides.

    "I''ve sent people to put smoke in the governor''s eyes, everyone else should be ready in five to ten minutes," another officer grew up from out of nowhere, right by Makary''s side�� And obviously, he was already filling the former colonel in on the details of the situation.

    "And the Maglevs?" Following through with my suggestion, Makary pressed his subordinate.

    "They areing in right now," the officer replied while passing themander a bare headset ripped away from some sort of helmet.

    Right as the man spoke, the gate of the hangar swung fully to the side, creating enough room for a magnificent vehicle to reveal itself in its terrifying glory.

    An elongated flying saucer, using some esoteric principles of electromaism to freely move through the air, with the one limitation of rapidly losing power the further away from the ground it would get.

    Yet, up to about a hundred meters into the sky, it was the ultimate war machine, easily capable of executing maneuvers that seemed to defy basicws of physics and momentum�� All the while carrying an arsenal matching several aerial gunships of the old at once.

    With the low, unnerving hum of its powerful electromas, the wondrous vehicle flew through the open space and stopped right by the sealed back wall��

    And the purple haze of my portal, perfectly fitting the frame Makary ordered built before we went to Fay''s world.

    "Help the white, ward off the golden, kill anyone else who seeks to harm the white," Makary spoke in some esoterguage that even I took a second to make a sense of. He then lowered the headset down to his hips as he turned towards the rest of his men.

    "There''s a ring of allies surrounding thending zone. Our enemies are more or less uniformly dressed and can exhibit powers beyond our understanding!"

    It was at this point when I felt the first hint of confusion grow within the crowd.

    Whatnding zone? What enemies?

    A quick nce was all it took to confirm they were now starting to question just where their leader actually came from.

    Makary''s men sure were obedient and followed the orders with an enviable hurry�� But it was impossible to stop them from thinking. In fact, the warrant officers and above were expected to actively process and react to the situation they faced!

    Sensing the exact same thing that I did, Makary turned his head and looked over at the two of us.

    "I can see it, so why they can''t?" he asked calmly, yet failed to hide the hint of tension in his voice.

    What if the gate wouldn''t open? What if we couldn''t pass through it? What if there was some sort of limitations I didn''t predict? What if��

    I turned around and faced the purple haze locked within the frame at the hangar''s wall. And for the first time since we fell through, I took a look at the system notifications.

    [Stable Gate Established]

    [Charge it up to establish a temporary connection]

    [Current charge: 0%]

    I resisted the desire to sigh.

    At this point, my mind was too dulled to have the energy to feel shocked, disappointed, or defeated.

    ''It was never going to be that easy, huh?'' I thought, giving up on whining as I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, summoning all the mental strength and aura I could muster.

    ''Let''s see how hard this is going to be!''

 Chapter 275: Turning point (6)

    To say that the situation was tense would be an understatement so gross, that it no longer had anything to do with the truth.

    Sitting cross-legged right in front of what others perceived as a simple, freshly finished wall with a weird, metal frame sticking out of it, I continued to stare right into said wall with passion and intent one could see on a man''s face only in the bedroom.

    ''Just what secrets do you hold?'' I thought, gazing as deep into the fabric of the portal.

    I was supposed to find a way to power it up�� and here I was, unable to resist the desire to adore and analyze the infinitelyplex logic weaved into the spell right before my eyes.

    ''Still, it''s just a spell so it''s aura it should need.''

    This realization was pretty obvious. To a degree, the system said so itself with how it didn''t introduce any new statistic I could use to measure how much I could charge the gate in one go.

    "Let''s start small," I whispered to myself, reaching out with my hand and gently pressing my fingers against the surface of the stable yet inactive portal.

    My eyelids moved down, leaving only a narrow slit for me to see through as I focused�� By calling upon the very same feeling I experienced whenever invoking my spells, I reached out for the copious amount of aura already ingrained into my soul.

    At first, I just grasped its presence, growing more familiar and focusing on the slight feeling of omnipotence born out of holding the aura in its ephemeral state between being used and left alone.

    As if having the battle on the other side or the shockingplexity of the portal''s spell wasn''t enough for me to think about, now that I reached out for this very thin, faint, dark aura I''ve grown to notice during my breakthrough�� I was forced to realize a whole new world of the unknown that made me feel like dropping everything just to study its intricacy.

    ''Man, focus!''

    Gritting my teeth and then using the pain caused by doing so to shake myself awake and refocus my attention, I took a shallow breath before pushing my aura from the core of my soul towards my palm, then the fingers, and then towards the gate.

    Contrary to how my spells acted by taking each sliver of aura, turning it into a thread, and then weaving all sorts of causality out of it, I''ve fed the portal the purest form of my aura, leaving in the exact same form it existed within my soul.

    For a second, I allowed the aura to just pass through my body. Just like a broken container with some liquid, the very moment I made an opening in it, my aura continued to pour all on its own, as if pulled by the flowing out of the aura from before.

    ''Now, let''s see��''

    [Charge it up to establish a temporary connection]

    [Current charge: 0%] > [Current charge: 0.3%]

    The corners of my eyes twitched while I resisted the desire to curse out loud.

    Sure, I didn''t pour all that much of my aura into the portal�� but wasn''t it a bit too�� demanding?

    ''Well, nothing I can do about it,'' I thought, before dropping all the facade of carefully prying the limits. This time, I ced the entire palm of my hand onto the purple surface of currents bending through the space twisted by the overlyplex spell.

    ''Go!''

    I simply willed for my aura to go forth and it surged ahead, following my simple desire.

    A strange feeling coursed through my flesh as if something was draining�� but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn''t put my finger on it.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    A strange, mildly unpleasant experience that I felt for the very first time in my life. If possible, I really would rather avoid going through it again, but��

    [Current charge: 0.3%] > [Current charge: 7.8%]''

    "Shit��" I muttered after an entire minute''s worth of dumping all the aura I could leave with such unsatisfactory results.

    "Something wrong?" Makary asked, nearly breaking my concentration with just those two words of his.

    "It''s going to be a little bit harder than I expected," I muttered in response before gritting my teeth, invoking the image of Madam fighting with another supreme while thousands upon thousands of humans descended upon Fay''s kin��

    "So just give me some time," I added before taking a deep breath and restarting the process.

    This time I didn''t limit myself to just allowing my aura to flow freely into the gate. This time, I actively pushed it faster and faster, fully aware that every second that passed in this world was another second Madam would have to hold the fort all on her own.

    ''Shit��'' I held back a curse when all the energy appeared to vanish out of my body��

    Only for the gate''s charge to reach a measly thirty-three point nine percent.

    ''This is��''

    In a rush, I took all of my aura and pped it down on the gate, only to reach a measly third of its total charge necessary to open it up. And from the look of things, all of the easily essible aura I was so used to dealing with�� was now gone.

    ''Is that all there is to my aura?'' I thought�� Shocked by the notion.

    I could tell just how much power I obtained by raising my physical attributes. By now it was obvious how my brain grew several realms beyond what any other human was capable of with the rise of rted attributes.

    But aura?

    Aura was the only part of my strength that wasn''t bound by the limits of my inferior birth that the extremely painful process of rebirth gradually fixed with each instance it happened. And what was even more important�� It was the only attribute of mine that grew along my level, regardless if I put any of my free points in it or not.

    ''Is that really it?'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I continued to reach out into my soul�� only to find no aura left for me to use.

    ''Wait, no aura? Nothing?''

    Taken aback by a certain realization, I squinted my eyes before focusing myself even deeper.

    And just like when I first tried to grasp my aura, I reached as deep into my soul as I could. Yet, rather than looking for the obvious hints of the presence of the usual mana I was used to��

    I reached out for the near-infinite ocean of the dark, thin, and fine aura that was so problematic for me to even notice before.

    In the bid to find more energy I could spare, I reached out for the very thing I discovered about myself through myst rebirth.

    "Let''s see if it will work," I didn''t even realize that my voice leaked out with how focused I was on the task�� The task that turned out much harder than I ever could have anticipated.

    The dark aura, as abundant as it was within my soul, was still as thin and fleeting as it was when I was enclosed in the prison of my rebirth. And while I could handle it with practicaly the same amount of effort as normal aura�� Its effects were just like the aura itself.

    Too thin to my liking.

    ''Come on!'' I urged myself, ignoring the strain of manipting much more aura than I ever did before, gritting my teeth as I pushed more and more of it toward the portal.

    ''Fuck, this is hard!''

    By now, I couldn''t care less about the pain. In fact, I couldn''t care less about the battle on the other side of the portal or just how something so insanelyplex fell into my hands.

    In all honesty, I couldn''t even care about the task of charging the gate anymore. With nothing but unbreakablemitment in my mind, I continued to pour more and more of this thin, dark aura into the portal, trying not to pay much mind to how little progress it brought.

    [Current charge: 33.9%] > [Current charge: 46.2%]

    For an effort several times greater than how I exerted myself when using the thicker aura, the results of using its dark cousin were less than dissatisfactory.

    They were outright uneptable. And not even because of the strain of pushing such insane quantities of it into the portal�� But because it was taking too long. And at the current rate, I would long spend myself dry before getting anywhere to the full charge!

    "This is fucking harder than I thought," I muttered angrily, only now realizing that thick drops of sweat continued to trickle down my face, while the hand I reached out and kept just an inch away from the wall was shaking as if I had a terminal stage of Parkinson''s disease.

    "Let me help."

    In the world of nothing but the stress of the task, Fay''s voice was as soothing as was her embrace when she wrapped her hands around my shoulders and pressed her head against the side of my neck.

    A spark shot up between us�� only for the sparks of Fay''s aura to fill my vision as I sensed our union expands to a state we''ve experienced only twice before.

    "Haaaa��.."

    Breathing out a sigh of great relief, I felt as if an entire mountain dropped from my shoulders.

    All out of nowhere, the task of handling this thin, dark mana, grew to be even easier than handling its thicker version I long since used up. And looking at my system context''s window, it wasn''t just my personal feeling.

    [Current charge: 46.2%] > [Current charge: 66.9%] > [Current Charge: 82.6%]

    At no point in the process, did the task of charging up the gate be easy. But with Fay''s support and the way in which our active bond somehow enhanced my ability to control and perceive aura, the insurmountable task from before reverted back to one that was hard but manageable.

    "Get everyone ready," I spat out through my tightened lips as the charge started to near the full, one hundred percent.

    "You''ve heard him, boys," Makary spoke out to the officers by his side, only for them to waste no time rushing to pass the order along.

    [Current charge: 82.6%] > [Current charge: 93.1%] > [Current Charge: 99.9%]

    Just a little bit more of this suddenly easily manageable, dark aura��

    And something clicked. The surface of the portal changed as if the flows of purple within finally gained enough momentum to twist the fabric of space even further�� all the way to the point of cutting through whatever barrier separated different worlds and finally opening a stable path.

    [Stable Gate is now Active]

    [Stable Gate charge: 3 days left]

 Chapter 276: Turning point (7!!!)

    [Stable Gate is now Active]

    [Stable Gate charge: 3 days left]

    The purple swirls of the portal that formerly upied the entirety of the new, massive gate have pulled to the frame''s edges, bending the fabric of the space itself to reveal the familiar world on the other side.

    For a fraction of a second, a sense of great aplishment filled my soul.

    I did this monumental task. It drained all of the aura I''d gathered before going through the rebirth and forced me to tap into the mysterious, faint aura hidden somewhere inside of me��

    But I did it!

    Sure, only with Fay''s help in reining that mysterious aura in�� But I simply couldn''t care less. Or rather, thinking about it, I felt overjoyed over how our bond could help us ovee even such great odds.

    ''Power of friendship, huh?'' I couldn''t help but note, the corners of my mouth twitching as I raised my eyes.

    The first thing I saw was the empty look on Makary''s face, followed by worry quickly appearing in his officer''s eyes.

    And as I looked back into the familiar world��

    All the rush for celebration, all of my sense of aplishment�� They all drowned in the extremely bad situation on the other side.

    The circle of Fay''s kin was broken in a total of seven spots. Celestials and Divines continued to hold their ground only thanks to the greatest effort and sacrifices of their strongest.

    Still.

    Imperial soldiers who somehow made it that far into the forest within the few minutes we took on Earth were pouring through the gaps and canvasing all over the open space. For now, though, they didn''t attribute much attention to the gate itself, but��

    ''Madam is nowhere to be seen,'' I thought, activating all of my skills in session the very moment my body physically realized the scale of the threat, long before my mind could actively process it.

    A sh.

    Right as my Aura Tribute rebounded off my severely exhausted soul, my blood tribute kicked in, feeding off my blood rather than the aura Icked. And it was thanks to this tiny dy, that I happened to catch what looked like a more intense ray of sun descending down the tattered lines of the celestials.

    ''How is he��?!''

    Eye of time kicked in.

    Thest time I used it, it brought me below my current level of intelligence. And yet, strangely enough, the effect of the skill proved much stronger than a mere three points in a single attribute could be. Yet, as much as I wanted to delve into this topic to potentially find something interesting��

    Right in the middle of this sh of intense light descending upon the lines of my allies, I saw the very same man who walked all the way to Madam''s barrier under the barrage of several firearms concentrating all their fire solely on him.

    ''He should be dead��''

    My entire body started to tense up. Because the worst part about it all was how this man��

    Was dropping down through space, even when the time should havee to aplete stop.

    *Cough*

    My chest revolted, pressed out by a sudden pressure. Unable to hold back the shaking of my body, I threw my head up and then forward, my blood tribute breaking right as I spewed a mouthful of dark blood down on the concrete.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "Pete!"

    With how everything happened in a single instant, Fay continued to lightly hold me from behind, only to jump startled when I threw up blood.

    "Oh shit��" Makary cursed in a low, startled voice�� Only causing his officers to grow even more confused and worried than they already were.

    "I''m okay," I raised my hand, only for the wave of despair to flood my mind, causing my head to shoot back, into Fay''s chest�� And allowing me to see the bloodied spots where my freshly opened wounds dirtied her clothes.

    "He�� wait, what?!" Makary finally noticed my state as well, along with the officers by his side�� and practically everyone else in the hangar.

    "I will be fine," I coughed up a bit more blood before wiping my filth-covered lips with my forearm. "More importantly��"

    "Ah, yeah," Makary jumped a little only to finally take notice of the stares his officers gave him and now turned towards me. "I''m sorry to ask when you are in that kind of state, but��" he nced over through the portal at how thest semnce of order amidst our allies continued to degrade.

    Any moment now, and the human numbers would simply overwhelm the defenders. Or, even worse, some of their stray soldiers could wander to the gate''s frame and hack away at it!

    "Yeah, my bad," I muttered before moving my hand up, only for Fay to already move her shoulder in a position she could support me from.

    Just like she continued to hug me when the portal opened, our bond was in full throttle too.

    "I will start with those guys, then ships, then the rest," I spoke up, allowing Fay to physically support my body up.

    A bit steadier on my feet and with Fay firmly holding me up without a word while suppressing her worry with all her might not to burden my mind any further��

    "I''m going to show you what your leader sees," I spoke to the officers who couldn''t really decide what face to make when looking at me. And from how all of them made a different one, they weren''t in agreement over the solution either. "Don''t be startled, the guys on the other side won''t be able to see through," I added before willing for my portal to appear before the small group of five men.

    Five men who dressed as civilians yet oozed a soldier''s vibe with everyst inch and iota of their flesh.

    "Woah��" One of the men took a half step back and tightened his fist. Two others nervously reached out for their weapons. The remaining two simply squinted their eyes.

    "This is what the battle we need to win and secure the passage," I announced, "now, the ships," I looked over at where the maglevs hovered in the air by abusing some sort of electromaic principle too esoteric for me to ever understand.

    But not a single ship moved.

    ''Did the pilots let go of the stick or did it fail?'' I thought, a new worry emerging in my head.

    "Did it��"

    Right as I turned my head and before I could even ask, Makary already raised the microphone of his headset to his mouth.

    "Pilots, can you see it?" he asked calmly, trying to follow my example and ignoring the danse macabre happening behind our backs.

    Any moment now��

    "I''m sorry�� but see what, sir?" The voice screeched out of the small speaker.

    Makary turned his head and silently looked over.

    "You will know when you do," he replied as he gave me an intense stare.

    ''Another limitation?'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I shot my eyes toward the nearest group of simple soldiers.

    "You guys, don''t get startled," I called out, easily gaining their attention��

    And then making an entire unit of roughly fifty battle-ready men nervously twitch when the empty wall of the hangar revealed itself to be a portal leading straight into an otherwordly battle.

    The sh where humans in more or less uniform outfits vicious battled the copsing rights of humans��

    Humans, shiny humans, golden and silvery humans, and oversized animals.

    A battle where spells and magical projectiles flew all over the ce while amon soldier achieved feats unheard of on Earth.

    And a battle where�� A battle that wasn''t even nearly as bloody as an average encounter of an average military since the conception of mass conscription within the first superpowers of Earth.

    "It seems I need to see them personally, can they drop the shades so I can see?" I turned my head over to Makary, only for the man to already keep the mouthpiece up.

    "Pilots, show yourself to our guy," Makary wasted no time on the trivial, effectively tackling the potential source of the issue. And in the next moment, a thin line of dark panels around the front three-fourths of the craft faded away, revealing the clever mix of battle simplicity and technologicalplexity of the craft''s cockpit.

    And behind the ss��

    "Oh damn!" the voice of one of the pilots screeched from the speaker in Makary''s hand while one of the maglevs shook a little.

    "Everyone, it''s your turn. Don''t get startled, and prepare. You will see a portal to another world and a vicious battle on the other side!" I shouted from the bottom of my lungs only to fall back and hang down from Fay''s shoulder.

    "Just a little bit more," holding me as tightly as she could, Fay whispered in a voice as sweet as it was full of concern and restrained worry.

    She hated every second of watching me weakened or wounded�� But she could also see how determined I was to pull this thing through.

    And somewhere deep at the bottom of her soul, I could sense a fair share of Fay''s own worries, mostly centered around the only other being she really cared about.

    Using Fay''s sweet voice as an encouragement, I took a deep breath and rose up once again, taking a long look at everyone within the hangar.

    Contrary to charging up the gate, revealing it to the masses brought no further burden upon me.

    "Everyone! They will only see you once you cross the gate. Help the defenders despite how scary or different they may look, they are our allies!" I shouted from the bottom of my lungs once more. "Kill the imperial soldiers! Support the white, hold back the golden, and kill anything that tries to kill you!"

    Right at thest note of my call, I willed everyst man I could see within the hangar to gain the ability to perceive the gate.

    All of those who managed to gather thus far collectively shook. Only those already primed managed to keep theirposure, already getting used to the idea of what was going on on the other side.

    Ultimately, they were soldiers and battle was exactly what they signed up for. And even if some of them joined the military just for the sake of their careers back in the day�� those who answered Makary''s call were fully aware of what was expected of them.

    The crowd within the hangar shook as a wave of realization moved through them.

    "It''s go green, guys," Makarymented in the voice of an uncle pointing out something a nephew should be long aware of with a small smirk. "Maglevs first, establish a perimeter and support high priority white. Once there''s some space," Makary looked over to the infantry and the drivers of the less impressive yet still deadly vehicles stacked at the back of the hangar, "we are going in."

 Chapter 277: Turning point (8?)

    ***Back to when the perspective changed away from Etaria***

    ''It pains me to admit, but thatss��''

    Etaria gritted her teeth as she rushed deeper and deeper into the forest.

    ''She was most likely right.''

    Even though there should be a whole unit of elites from her golden legion with her, Etaria only needed the take a few steps into the forest to find herselfpletely isted, all alone.

    Just a few steps, and not only her private guards vanished between the trees�� but so did the spy and Zanba, tasked with escorting her. Even though the entire front of the army should have long since passed by the ce, the princess couldn''t feel the presence of even a single soldier.

    All of those along with the fact that she should be right now right in the middle of a group of powerful ascended all lead to one conclusion.

    "And where do you think you are going?"

    Right as Etaria raised her face, ready to call the only person capable of causing all of this out, Zanba emerged from the shadows of the forest.

    He wasn''t alone either, forcibly pulling the panicking spy.

    "Can''t you tell?! We are right in her domain!"

    This strange woman lost most of her ingrained elegance when she allowed the sense of urgency to take over her priorities during the negotiation. And now, panicked to the point of letting out tears and struggling with all her might to wrestle her wrist free from Zanba''s iron-like hold��

    All the grace and elegance seemingly weaved into the very core of her human form has now vanished, tarnished by the vivid emotions drawn all over her face.

    "I nearly lost my sight of you," Zanba ignored the woman and addressed the princess instead. "The air here�� feels really heavy," he then added after taking a quick look around.

    "So it is," Etaria muttered in response, turning her eyes back to the seemingly deeper part of the forest.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    By now, she only had her memory to rely on to judge the directions, as even the trees behind started to somehowe closer together, obscuring the view and leaving the small group with an extremely narrow view.

    "I like it less and less in here," Etaria gathered her saliva and spat it out in quite the un-princessly fashion. "Especially after everything you said," she added, looking over at the unexpected spy.

    Etaria took a deep breath before turning her eyes slightly to the side.

    "Just in case, are you ready?" she asked, staring right into Zanba''s eyes.

    "I mean�� sure?" the man hesitated a little, taken aback by Etaria''s question far more than he was by the extremely weird situation they found themselves in. "But are you really sure about it? If I do, you won''t really have much choice but to��"

    "But to marry you, I know," the princess rolled her golden eyes before turning them back to where she remembered the forest went. "I wouldn''t have asked otherwise."

    Zanba squinted his eyes a little.

    The shock of the news was so great, that the spy shook her wrist and finally freed it from the man''s grasp. Yet, contrary to what she clearly wanted to do with every fiber of her being��

    The woman didn''t dare to move an inch from her spot.

    ''Right,'' Etaria rolled her eyes again. ''We are right in the middle of her domain, so she''s as good as dead the moment she leaves our side.''

    The princess took a deep, long breath and rested her hands on her hips.

    ''Okay. Let''s do it!''

    Etaria exhaled�� And released the strangling hold she kept over her mana, pushing away at the impably hidden influence of the forest''s supreme domain.

    *Whoosh!*

    Like an explosion, Etaria''s golden aura spread in every direction, creating a dome of gold that cleared the foreign aura from its surroundings.

    All of a sudden, a whole lot of confused soldiers appeared all around them, ranging from Salvador''s survivors, the first wave, and even Etaria''s own, personal guard.

    And just a few meters to the side, casually drinking from an exquisite, ss bottle, stood the very same woman Etaria had the questionable pleasure of meeting before.

    "Are you going to try to tell me this doesn''t qualify as a direct involvement?" Etaria asked, cutting right to the chase.

    The unwritten and unspoken agreement was for the supremes to rein themselves back from any conflict of the mortals below them. It was counterproductive, costly, and extremely risky to boot.

    The taboos hardly came by for no reason, after all.

    "I''m merely out here to enjoy a drink in peace now that the show''s over," Madam offered the princess an amused smile before taking a sip and then raising the bottle towards her. "You can''t me a beautiful woman like me for taking precautions not to let those��"

    The celestial fox in her human fox threw a scanning look around as if to point at all the soldiers blessing the princess''s intervention that freed them from the entrapment of Madam''s domain.

    "Not to let those brutes approach while I''m enjoying my drink."

    Etaria lowered her eyelids and took a long yet shallow breath.

    "Cut the bullshit, would you?" Etaria tightened her fists. "You really fear not Lo''Atkar''s wrath, do you?"

    The sly, white fox only smiled in response.

    "It''s you, child, who knows not how to hold back from rousing his ire." Madam lowered her bottle-bearing hand to her hips before stepping away from the trunk she was resting her back against and throwing her head to the side as she graced Etaria with a smile choke-full of confidence.

    "You really��"

    "That bottle," Zanba interrupted the princess right as she was about to start cussing. He matched Madam''s movement and stepped forth, even raising his hand to point at the bottle in the woman''s hand. "It''s my first time seeing one like that. Would you mind me getting a sip?"

    Etaria''s face tensed up.

    In a single instant, several lines of thoughts started, executed, and concluded within her mind.

    ''Is he for fucking real?''

    Already at the end of her wits, only the fear of sparking the battle and thus breaking the taboo held her back from actually voicing her thoughts.

    The situation was as tense as it was already. A single, ill-ced curse was all it would take for the fragile bnce the fate of everyone around was connected to. For if the Supremes were to really sh��

    Contrary to the princess, neither the white fox nor her own partner appeared to be bothered by the situation.

    "Sure thing," as if recognizing a fellow drinker, Madam approached the princess�� Only to pass right by her and pass the bottle over to the man.

    ''This fucking��''

    "Thanks!" Paying no mind to his liege, Zanba brought the bottle up and took a serious yet politely restrained sip.

    Before he could even bring the ss container down, his face already melted down in a look of bliss.

    A strange light lit up in his eyes while the corners of his mouth twitched and pulled his lips into a small, satisfied smile.

    "Damn!" Lowering his head down from the eighth heaven he found it at, Zanba stared wide-eyed at the bottle before raising them to Madam''s face.

    His eyes alternated between the two a few more times before he finally found his voice again.

    "This is awesome! Where did you get��" Zanba pressed his lips together and made an ugly face before shaking his head. "Right, you wouldn''t tell me anyway," he grumpily muttered, reaching out his hand to return the bottle��

    Only for his hand to stop mid-way.

    "Oh right," he looked over at the princess. "This is kind of her first time in a situation like that, so would you mind letting her get a sip too?"

    Etaria''s eyes sharpened andunched the most lethal stare she could produce right down at the back of her partner''s head.

    If looks could kill, not even Zanba''s miraculous physique could save him from a sorry fate.

    "Sure, I don''t mind," Madam shook her shoulders, as casually standing right in the midst of their group as she did walk right into it. "Also," as if only now taking notice, she turned her eyes towards the spy, "it''s really a shame to see you with them.

    What happened, Syie?" she asked, the casual and amused look in her eyes showing first hints of extreme and utter coldness that emerged when she looked down at the traitor. "Managing a whole damn n wasn''t enough for you?"

    Madam shook her head.

    "I should''ve known better when I allowed you to approach Loraz."

    The imperial spy, or Syie as Madam called her, squinted her eyes.

    The fear, the respect for Madam''s strength�� they were free for all to see in her eyes. And yet, she didn''t falter.

    "You should''ve known better when you gave up on our fate," she argued back, refusing to lose the moral ground despite her standing as a spy and a traitor. "In a sense," Syieughed out, "I''m the one not stopping at anything to uphold it!"

    "Then you surely know by now that the valley is just an extension of the ins," Madam replied without missing a single beat, "and that it''s actually extremely easy for us to cross both."

    The fear, the respect and determination�� They all froze when Madam''s words struck Syie like a hammer.

    "What?"

    "It took him merely a day to figure it out. And looking back, the trick was so obvious we were the ones at fault not realizing it before," Madam added, shaking her head with an exasperated look on her face.

    As much as Etaria wanted to observe the interaction longer, to learn more from the snippets of their discussion��

    She couldn''t do so when Zanba practically shoved the exquisite bottle right into her face.

    "Just give it a try, would you?"he whined in the voice of a teacher annoyed by how he needs to scold his students over even the simplest stuff.

    Etaria gave her partner another stare of death�� before reluctantly epting the bottle.

    ''He never acts that persistently��'' she thought, following this strange instinct as she raised the bottle and took a swing herself.

    And the drink��

    To call it marvelous would be a grave, treacherous insult to the absolute masters who brew this drink.

    It was stronger than the imperial wine�� yet the taste of alcohol barely dulled all the other vors. In fact, rather than numbing Etaria''s throat, it only served as another spice that brought forth so many different aromas.

    But that wasn''t all!

    Truly proving the divine mastery of the ones who produced the bottle of this godly liquor was the fact that the way alcohol numbed and irritated Etaria''s throat and tongue�� Actually allowed her to experience a whole new, hidden pte of the drink!

    "Haaaa��."

    Breathing out the hot air that gathered in her lungs under the influence of just a single sip, Etaria blinked her eyes a few times as she stared at the bottle.

    And funnily enough, despite being the figure behind a total and absolute ban on drinking while on the job�� The habits from her early adventures kicked in. With the alcohol lubricating the gears of her mind, things suddenly grew easier, simpler, and more straightforward.

    Just like how the bottle in her hand�� Couldn''t be made with any of the techniques Etaria was aware of. Or the fact that the letters ingrained directly into the ss were nothing like any of the alphabets she ever encountered before.

    The world''s ss art serving as mere decoration stered over the bulk of the bottle was the next detail that the princess observed.

    A plethora of things that she never encountered before. All a product from different fields of craft and knowledge, ranging from ssworking through artistically masterful brewing at a state-of-the-art piece of art used as a merebel for the bottle.

    All of those things, when on their own, could be exined as some sort of exotic luxury, a product from a distantnd where people managed to master one skill beyond the limit of their peers.

    But when all taken into ount together, the picture just this bottle painted was awfully in line with Syie''s report.

    "That''s one hell of a drink, isn''t it?" Zanba praised out loud while reaching out for the bottle, most likely intending to pass it back to its rightful owner. The light in his eyes intensified a bit when his fingers brushed against the ss. "I invoke Lo''��"

    "No, you don''t!"

 Chapter 279: Turning point (10?!!)

    "Law of Authority!"

    Etaria could both see and hear Zanba slowly utter those words. And that means��

    This damned fox supreme could do so as well.

    ''The question is, why did she allow that to happen?''

    This was the first thought that shed in the golden princess''s mind. And then, a second one followed.

    ''Did anything actually happen?''

    The words that the Madam clearly wanted to prevent from being spoken, have now filled the air. And as weak as Zanba''s voice was��

    ''This sentence doesn''t seem like something that needs to be said out loud��''

    The spell Etaria threw at the enemy supreme scattered, falling prey to whatever defenses Madam raised.

    Then, the air shook�� and Madam''s domain suddenly retreated��

    ''No, it vanishedpletely��?''

    The domain that so greatly suppressed Etaria''s powers vanished. But the power thaty at its foundation did not.

    "So you were capable of invoking Lo''Atkar''sw," Madam muttered, half-astonished and half-defeated? "Are you ready for the consequences of doing so, though, I wonder?"

    The supreme fox turned her eyes over to the man, giving him a long stare whilepletely ignoring the princess ahead.

    ''Wait, if her domain''s gone, why isn''t my domain affected at all?''

    Etaria gritted her teeth.

    This entire encounter�� was just a whole bunch of different messes brought together and piled into an enormous stack of stinky shit.

    Where was Zanba getting all of his information from, information that even the golden princess of the empire wasn''t privy to? Why was he able to converse with the leader of the forest about things that Etaria, at most, only heard some rumors about?

    ''This is really annoying,'' the princess thought, hating nothing more but the extremely fresh feeling of being excluded from the discussion.

    "I''ve never learned how to develop my own domain," Zanba muttered as he struggled to lift himself up from the ground.

    By now, the wounds caused by Madam''s fingers have long since healed, bringing not only his jaw back to its rightful ce but also healing all the holes where Madam''s nails dug deep into his flesh.

    "So depriving you of yours��"

    Zanba raised his eyes�� and cut his sentence short when he saw the strange look on Madam''s face.

    She wasn''t scared, angered, or even worried. All she showed on her face�� was pity, resignation, and�� a feeling that Zanba couldn''t quite put his fingers to.

    "Is this all you think Lo''Atkar''s authority is all about?" Madam asked, in a voice much calmer than she should have in a situation like the one they were all in. It was rare for two supremes to appear in the same ce at the same time. Three of them meeting like right now was already an extremely rare event.

    And with how the situation was likely to develop in a less-than-savory direction, Etaria could tell they were about to make something unprecedented happen.

    "What else there is to it, then?" Refusing to fall into the trap of following Madam''s line of thought, Zanba countered, as if provoking Madam to share her insights.

    "And why would I?"

    Bit by bit, the sympathy hidden behind the emotions Madam showed started to retreat, taken over by emotions instantly forcing Etaria to raise her guard up.

    "After all, two can y this game."

    ''WHA��?!''

    Stumbling to the back, Etaria suddenly found herself stuck in the air, unable to move even an inch.

    ''Wasn''t her domain supposed to��''

    With only her eyes retaining the minimum of freedom to move within their usual range of motions, Etaria looked to the side�� Only to confirm that with the sudden surge of mana steaming out of Madam, even Zanba, with all his incredible and secretive means, found himself unable to move.

    "I invoke Lo''Atkar''sw of equality!" Madam invoked in a respectful voice, even going as far as to raise her eyes to the sky, ignoring how it was obstructed by the thick crowns of the nearby trees.

    Following Madam''s words�� Nothing much happened.

    No attack came from the heavens to strike the impudent Supremes who dared to even think about breaking the taboo. Nothing happened to the mana Etaria held in her hands, ready to use to counter whatever spell or attack Madam could throw at her.

    Nothing happened�� Because nothing was going to happen. And when Etaria tried to use her domain to help herself shake whatever chains held her in ce�� nothing happened as well.

    Because just like she observed it happening to the Madam before, her own domain�� has vanished without a trace.

    She didn''t notice it right away because her own mana was exactly the same as it always was. In fact, now that Etaria''s mind was free of the burden of constantly controlling her domain, wielding her actual mana�� suddenly became a lot easier!

    "What did you��"

    "I just made you bear the consequences of what that stupid mate of yours did," Madam replied with a rxed smile.

    She then waved her hand, lifting the restraining spell that held both Etaria and Zanba back.

    ''She freed us��?''

    Struggling to understand the strange woman''s motives�� Etaria held herself back fromshing out at her.

    Out of the three of them gathered on the spot, she was the one who obviously knew the absolute least of them. She was in the middle of the game she didn''t even realize was ying out around her.

    And if there was one thing that Etaria just realized she hated more than being excluded from a situation�� it was ying along like a mere marite in a bit to fulfill the goals of someone else!

    ''Whether it''s that damned fox�� or Zanba!''

    "All I did was level the ying field. When your mate invoked thew of authority, he sealed the domains of all the supremes of a celestial bloodline," Madam exined, for some reason sharing this kind of crucial information with people she was obviously at odds with. "But since you are not of celestial descent, I just made sure Lo''Atkar''s authority stretches over to you too."

    Madam took a deep breath before slowly sighing it out as she rested her hands on her hips and graced her two opponents with a cheerful smile.

    "If you thought that Lo''Atkar''s taboo was put in ce to stop supremes from fighting each other��" Madam shook her head, "then, you would be correct. But from what I see, not in a way you expected."

    Etaria squinted her eyes.

    ''Since she''s so willing to talk�� how about trying to squeeze some more from her?''

    Knowledge and information were the greatest weapon one could wield. And since this supreme was more than willing to share it��

    "I can clearly see breaking this taboo doesn''t make us any weaker," Etaria spoke, rejoining the conversation rather than just letting Madam ramble on her own. "Quite the contrary, in fact."

    Madam turned her eyes and looked at Etaria for a while.

    And then, she nodded her head, her eyes shining as if she was d she found someone capable enough to figure that kind of small details herself.

    "That''s correct."

    "Sure, we might lose our ability to wield our domains�� But without the burden of keeping it stable, we are free to use our actual power as we like," Etaria continued to speak, hoping to give the enemy supreme the push she needed to keep talking.

    "That''s also correct," Madam spoke again, this time also nodding her head.

    "What''s the drawback, then?" Etaria reached the end of the point and posed the question she was building up. "If we are only getting stronger by breaking the taboo, why is it a taboo to begin with?"

    ording to everything that happened thus far, Madam should freely answer this question��

    But instead, she simply crossed her arms on her chest and smiled back at the princess.

    ''Is she�� encouraging me to figure it out myself?'' Etaria gulped her saliva, struggling to even ept the fact the reasons and thoughts of this damn fox went above and beyond what she was capable of figuring out.

    Yet, as Madam continued to stay silent, Etaria had little to no other choice but to��

    "And what does it matter?" Zanba pointed out, taking a step forward and looking over at Etaria. "Did you forget why we rushed here in such haste?" he pointed out before taking a quick nce at the spy behind them.

    Syie was the only one who avoided death from the golden rays of Etaria''s exploding light. Yet, while she managed to survive the onught�� she has long since fallen down to her legs, unable to even stand in the presence of three different supremes.

    And now�� And now, her face was torn with fear so great, she couldn''t move her body even if she wanted to.

    ''Wait, he is right! We are not here to duke it out with her. We are here to confirm whether or not she''s stalling for time! And that means��'' Etaria raised her eyes to Madam''s smile�� only to quickly avert them and look over at the spy, acting as if she finally figured something out.

    "You are all kible now," she muttered once noticing both Etaria and Zanba turn their eyes toward her. "Without a domain, a stray arrow is all it will take to end you."

    Etaria''s face�� twitched.

    ''So we were immortal before?'' she guessed, instantly baffled by her thought.

    Even if she was practically immortal with her domain raised�� she never considered herself to be so. The call of death always followed wherever she went so the princess has long since epted the reality that one day she would bite more than she could chew and end up in some random ditch as a corpse no more interesting than the next one in the same ditch��

    So for her, realizing that she was suddenly no longer impervious to death meant absolutely nothing.

    And between the reality that she could now be killed, something she always took for granted, and the realization that this entire encounter, this entire topic of the taboo, invocations and sharing the information that should be kept secret��

    It was all just a tactic to buy time!

    "I think you are right," Etaria spoke out, turning her eyes away from the spy and lowering them to look at her own palms.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Etaria gathered her mana, acting as if she suddenly found her mortality to be so scary, she just couldn''t help but raise her guard as hard and as fast as she could��

    "I now remember why we are here in the first ce," Etaria exined, raising her eyes to Zanba�� Only to throw all of the mana she gathered into the frame of one of the simplest, most ordinary spells she knew.

    A spell with noplex weave that could be its breaking point. A spell with no fancy techniques and tricks weaved into its structure to multiply its power.

    A simple spell only capable of tranting the amount of mana infused into its structure into the raw might of unleashed power.

    And with the anchor of the forming spell forming in her hand, Etaria finally looked at Madam.

    "We are here to stop you from��"

    Right in the middle of her sentence, Etaria turned the palm of her hand around, allowing the spell''s anchor to drop down and fall to the ground.

    The very instant it touched the ground, the anchor shattered, depriving the spell of the only bit that reinforced its activator, the weak point intentionally weaved into its structure to make unleashing the spell possible.

    ''We are here to stop you from stalling for time,'' Etaria thought, right as her simplistic spell shattered, exploding into a dome of bright, golden light.

    The golden light nearly instantly degraded, rushing to reach a state of equilibrium with the world''s mana and unleashing all the energy stored in it in the process.

    BOOM!

    A thunder-like noise shook the entire forest right as the overwhelmingly powerful explosion devastated the space the three supremes were in, sending them flying in different directions.

    The madam flew somewhere deeper into the forest, followed by Zanba who was ejected only a small angle away from her. Contrary to the two, by standing on the other side of the explosion, Etaria braced herself for the disaster, allowing her to ride the force of the explosion and fly out of the forest, only tond just a few tens of meters behind the back of her golden legion''s line.

    "Wha��?!"

    Some of the officers jumped, and some soldiers rushed to turn around and face the new threat�� Only to freeze when they saw Etaria struggle a bit toe out from the hole she created with her fall.

    "There''s no time," the princess spoke, her body sucking in the world''s mana around her to replenish the reserves she touched to create the explosion just now. "Change of ns. I need everyone to advance," she ordered, gathering herself up and passing by the stunned soldier as she already started to make her way back to the forest.

    "My princess!" one of the officers jumped up to the princess''s side, struggling to even match the pace of her hurried step. "Advance�� but where?"

    Stopping for a second, Etaria turned her head and looked at the officer with a small smirk on her lips.

    "Trust me, you will be able to tell."

    And with this enigmatic answer, Etariapressed her mana before infusing it into a set of simple spell frames infused into various, tiny magic stones sown into her elegant clothes. As she made her next step, rather than covering roughly a single pace of ground, the princessunched herself off the ground, rushing at a break-neck speed in the only direction that made sense.

    The direction from where she could sense the aftershocks of supremes shing.

 Chapter 280: Turning point (11)

    ''Now then�� what goes next?''

    Etaria took a deep breath and closed her eyes, making use of the tranquil silence that came after her powerful attack.

    It was never her intention to buy herself this space and time to think things through�� But now that she found herself alone and without a single sound to bother her, Etaria willingly indulged herself in the moment, taking some time to sort her thoughts out.

    ''There''s Madam stalling for time, Zanba knowing far more than he ever allowed me to know, their strange connection��''

    The princess squinted her golden eyes.

    ''No, not their connection. Our connection to this forest,'' Etaria corrected herself, slowly but surely piecing together all the scattered pieces of information she received in this impossible and incredible encounter.

    The princess closed her eyes and raised her chin, taking in a deep breath and keeping it in her lungs for a long while, before slowly, slowly breathing it out.

    "Okay then," Etaria muttered before gathering just a single sliver of her mana and infusing it in one of the spell frames she was most familiar with.

    For how simplistic it was, the spell she prepared was one of the few that only the golden lineage got ess to. A convenience-ss spell that was as simple as it was specific, exclusively aimed to work on those conditioned to notice it.

    ''Here we go,'' Etaria thought, pulling out a small dagger from the belt at her waist before cutting the inner palm of her hand open. A mere second after she wounded herself, Etaria took a look at the blood seeping out from the wound.

    ''It''s still not golden,'' she thought, gritting her teeth in silent frustration for a short moment before raising her injured palm as high as she could, anchoring her lineage-exclusive spell right in the small puddle of blood forming right above the injury.

    ''Go!''

    The mana surged forth into the frame of the spell, turning it from a mere concept into a phenomena factor.

    The blood on Etaria''s hand bubbled up as if it was boiling�� before suddenly growing lighter and lighter in color, all the way to the point where the over-infusion of mana caused it to turn golden.

    But the moment Etaria''s blood took on the color of her lineage, it also reached the limits of how much energy it could contain. But the flow of the princess''s mana didn''t stop.

    Quite contrary, Etaria continued to infuse more and more of it into the anchor within her blood, quickly turning her golden blood thicker and thicker�� before it had no other choice but to start to take the shape of the spellframe she prepared in advance.

    WHOOSH!

    Upon reaching its maximum saturation point, the thickened, golden blood suddenly shot up, forming a simple, extremely light spear of roughly three meters in length. But this wasn''t the end.

    As soon as the de formed at the very end of the spear, its upper part started to bloat. It grew fuller and fuller, all the way to the point where it looked like even a single gust of wind would suffice to break the structural bnce and cause the top part of Etaria''s golden spear to shatter��

    Yet, the bloated part continued to grow as Etaria pushed more and more of her mana into the spell''s frame.

    And then, instead of shattering all over and spilling whatever made it bloat like that all over the ce, the spear''s top split open in a single, perfectly straight rift of a perfectly third of the spear''s total length.

    "Here we go," gritting her teeth to use the slight hint of pain to maintain her focus, Etaria continued to feed her golden spear more and more of her mana�� All the way to the point where her golden blood spewed out from the rift within the spear, turning into golden threads that woven themselves into a golden griffin, the heraldic mark of the golden lineage.

    "The imperial banner calls you forth!" Etaria spoke out the traditional form before swinging the weird spear in a small circle and then lowering it ahead, in the direction she could sense both Zanba and Madam''s power echo from. "Men of the Empire!" Etaria raised her voice, allowing the pathos of the ritual to get the better of her, "FOLLOW THE BANNER TO COMBAT!"

    Etaria''s voice lingered in the air for a second, the banner spear in her hand vibrated as if resonating with her voice��

    Only for the golden banner to crumble into dust, starting from the de at its top, through the imperial banner, and all the way to the two-meter worth of its long handle.

    ''So it''s done,'' Etaria thought, ring at the dust that fell down and then scattered on the air, diffusing back into its true form of dried-out and used blood.

    The princess then turned her eyes towards her palm, using just a whisker of her mana to close the wound. And as she looked up��

    "My princess!"

    One of the Golden Legion''s officers ran past the trees and arrived in the area opened up by the explosion from before.

    "The legion heard the call of the banner! We are at your service!"

    By the time the officer fell down to one knee and lowered his head, more and more of the legionaries rushed out from between the trees only to follow suit and fall down on one knee.

    ''What is the most important thing right now?'' Taking a look at her loyal retainers, Etaria took just one more moment to consider all her options and circumstances.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    She then closed her eyes once again, keeping them shut for merely a second.

    "I''ve got news of a great danger looming deeper into the forest," Etaria spoke out loud, opening her eyes only to reveal a renewed determination burning up from the very core of her soul. "We are hereby scrapping the initial goal of this campaign.

    For now, though, I need some of you to go and rush the rest of our army," Etaria ordered while turning her eyes to one of the officers she remembered to be quick on his legs.

    "On it, my princess!" the officer in simple, golden armor lowered his head as he shouted, only to jump right back up and rush back the way he came.

    "As for the rest of you��" Etaria turned her eyes over to the rest of the legionaries gathered nearby. "I believe you should be able to sense the mess up ahead."

    The officers looked at each other, before closing their eyes and turning silent for a short moment.

    "Indeed, we do," the man bearing the highest rank among those gathered took on the burden of speaking up for all. "What are your orders, your highness?"

    Etaria took a deep breath.

    "Go and ughter them all. But be careful, for there might be a force in waiting that you might not be able to challenge."

    The officer''s eyebrows moved up so high, Etaria noticed it even with the man''s helmet obstructing most of his face.

    The princess could almost hear the question that he and his colleagues wanted to ask.

    And yet, they didn''t.

    "To hear means to obey," the officer spoke as he lowered his head for a second, only to rise up and turn to the rest of the legionaries gathered on the spot. "You''ve heard ourdy! Pick up the damn ck and get a move on!"

    The officer turned around while unsheathing his sword and quickly fixing the position of his helmet. He then moved forth without any spare words, only lowering his head and throwing a short, "my princess" as he passed by Etaria while already moving in the direction the banner called him forth.

    "May your fight be glorious and honorable," Etaria silently muttered the usual form before turning her eyes in the same direction and taking a short moment to nce out into the distance.

    With the trees blocking her view, she couldn''t really see much�� But by reading into the flow of mana of the world, she quickly managed to pinpoint the location where Zanba shed with Madam.

    ''It''s time for me to go too,'' she thought, gathering the mana into the spell''s forms embedded into the mana stones sown into her pants before releasing her hold over her mana and rushing ahead, supported by a series of tiny spells that made her step longer, lighter and nearly free of gravity.

    A single step allowed her to cross the distance her men would have to run for a while to cross. And this same step gave her twice as much momentum as an average legionnaire would have while sprinting at his full speed.

    Step by step, Etaria cut through the forest like an arrow. Thanks to the anti-weight augmentation spell, she didn''t need to bother with any of the trees obstructing her path, as she simply walked up and ended up rushing above those.

    Step after step�� and just like that, Etaria arrived on the scene, where Madam just fell down to the ground, shaken by some sort of a powerful attack.

    ''Zanba! Where is he��?!''

    Still some distance away but close enough to see everything that happened, Etaria quickly noticed her mate rushing towards the ce where it seemed all the forest folk had gathered for theirst stand��

    ''But what are those��?''

    A group of strange-looking men held some weird, ck sticks that continued to sh red as if lighting up several times a second��

    Only for Zanba to walk out of the forest, all battered, clearly struggling to walk ahead when faced with�� what exactly?

    ''Shit, no time to think too hard about it!''

    Aware of just how much time she''s already lost, Etaria gritted her teeth and gathered up her mana, ready to finish this fight in one, decisive strike. Yet, as soon as her mana filled the form of the powerful piercing spell she prepared, the area of the enemy army��

    Suddenly vanished from her mana sense, carved out of the world''s natural flow of mana by some sort of sophisticated barrier.

    Opening her eyes, Etaria saw the whole area within the barrier suddenly covered with thick smoke that even her golden eyes couldn''t prate. Yet, just before this smoke could cover all of those inside, her eyesnded on one, extremely specific person.

    ''So you are here,'' Etaria thought, her eyes squinting as she rushed forth to add physical momentum to the power of her spell.

    For a second, their eyes meet. But just like Madam did before when she had to pick whether to stop Zanba from invoking the taboo or defend from Etaria''s attack, the princess pulled her attention away from the man, allowing him to escape into this unnatural smoke.

    ''I need to deal with that damned fox first!'' she thought, gritting her teeth as she finally reached the most convenient spot, just to the side of the clearing where the locals made theirst stand.

    "I''m going to end it now," Etaria whispered to herself, gathering all of the energy she could muster�� and dropping with all the power she gathered right into a random spot of the barrier.

 Chapter 281: Breaking point (1)

    The barrier cracked.

    No matter how much more mana this damned fox supreme could hold, she could never construct a wide-area barrier strong enough to hold against a pinpoint strike from another supreme. Her power�� was simply spread too thin topare with a concentrated attack, even if it was far weaker than the barrier in its entirety.

    The barrier cracked. The whiskers of the opening spread out from the point where Etaria mmed her fist down, only to expand further and further all the way to the point where the structural integrity of this part of the barrier reached its limits, caving in under the mana-filled fists of the princess.

    ''It went through!''

    Not having any practical experience of fighting with a fellow supreme, Etaria easily found joy in her aplishment.

    After all, save for when she forced both Madam and Zanba to fuck off into the distance with her explosion, this was her first time actively trying her strength against the power of a fellow supreme!

    The barrier cracked�� and shattered in an area wide enough to let Etaria pass through, carrying on the power of her strike through the shattered barrier and all the way to the ground, where shest remembered seeing Madam stand.

    Etaria''s fist flew ahead of the rest of her body�� and connected.

    But contrary to how things went with the barrier, the moment her fist connected to her target, it came to aplete stop, unable to advance even as Etaria continued to pour more and more of her mana into it.

    "Just��" she uttered through her tightened lips, somehow suspended in the air as she continued to wrestle with all her might to push her fist through, "die already!"

    The smoke rapidly expanded all over the ce. The shockwave of Etaria''s fist meeting its match blew it away for but a second, only for the smoke to return right away, making it hard for the princess to see even her own fist.

    ''What the hell is this smoke?!''

    The very moment Etaria lost her focus for the tiniest of moments, everything changed.

    Rather than blocking her fist, Madam turned her guard and her entire body to the side, allowing Etaria''s fist to slide down her guard and move past her, only to turn along with the strike and send a painful p directly at Etaria''s back.

    "Auch!"

    Feeling pain for the very first time in a long while, Etaria gritted her teeth, momentarily overwhelmed by the long-forgotten sensation.

    For a supreme, there were only a very things in the world capable of causing them pain.

    And as it turned out, a fellow supreme was one of those things.

    "Silly kid," Madam muttered while Etaria walked a few paces forth, carried along by the momentum of her strike. "Just what the hell do you think you are doing here?"

    Etaria turned around, trying to face the direction the voice wasing from��

    Only for the next strike to find the side of her waistpletely unguarded, sending her stumbling a few paces ahead.

    "Show yourself!" Etaria called out angrily, killing her momentum and turning around, trying to peer through the smoke to find out where her enemy was.

    Yet, even though Madam''s mana should paint her as the most obvious target�� Right in the middle of all the ascended and promoted ascended, her mana simply dissolved in the sea of chaotic flows.

    Deprived of the sense she grew so used to exploiting over the years, Etaria could only grit her teeth and desperately look around, not knowing where the next attack woulde from.

    ''Shit, this is bad,'' the princess cursed in her thoughts, throwing her head all over the ce, always sensing an enemy presence right behind her back, regardless of which direction her back would point at. ''I need to get out of this damned smoke!''

    Pac!

    A strong p found its way directly to the princess''s buttocks, causing a new�� mental kind of pain.

    ''THIS LITTLE BITCH��''

    With how even the emperor himself wouldn''t bother to p his daughter''s ass for the sake of discipline, the pain Etaria felt was as new as it was humiliating.

    Smack!

    Another strike found its target, this time striking the back of the princess''s head.

    And once again, rather than causing any real damage, it only filled Etaria''s soul with wrath and embarrassment.

    ''I need to get her out of here!''

    Refusing to let anything like that happen ever again, Etaria quickly gathered her mana in her core, and ignored the second p to her ass that followed��

    And she mmed her fist down into the ground, releasing the hold over her mana and allowing its energy to disperse in a powerful shockwave that, at least for a moment, blew most of the smoke away.

    ''There you are!''

    Turning to the target deprived of the cover of the smoke, Etaria rushed forth, not willing to let this opportunity go to waste.

    She didn''t try to cause Madam any harm, though. As proved by how actually hard it was for her to break through Madam''s barrier, Etaria wasn''t delusional enough to believe she could end the fight with just a single, hurried strike.

    But she was more than capable of striking that damned fox hard enough to send her flying out of the forest clearing, the smoke and the midsts of the forest defenders whose aura allowed this damned supreme to somehow hide away from Etaria''s eyes.

    "FUCK YOU!" Gathering all the energy she could while on the go, Etaria abandoned all the techniques and reason, condensing all of her fury and sense of humiliation into a single strike��

    That, in the moment of confusion, connected.

    Madam obviously raised her guard and blocked the strike�� but due to its upward angle, her feet left the ground, while the power of the strike carried her up and away from where she stood.

    ''Again!''

    Daring not to waste her time, Etaria quickly fixed her footing before running up a few paces to gain fresh momentum and jumping up, straight to where Madam flew off. And once mid-air, she turned around and, while constructing footholds out of solidified mana, she struck that damned fox again, sending her flying out of the opening in the forest, the smoke and all the auras she could hide in.

    "No more hiding!"

    ***

    ''This isn''t looking all too well,'' Madam thought when the golden princess'' fist carried her up to the sky, where the cloud of smoke grew much thinner. And when the princes rushed forth and jumped only to deliver another strike, Madam could do nothing but brace herself for the attack.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    SLAM!

    As much as Madam refused to show any signs of pain or exhaustion, she was quickly reaching her limits.

    Keeping up the blessing on her kin, maintaining the barrier in the ces where the human troops managed to break the line of celestials or divines, maintaining a powerful barrier directly around Peter''s gate��

    All of those side tasks she kept up with continued to drain Madam''s aura at an increasing rate. And while she could easily keep it up with the help of her domain by simply absorbing the world''s aura that fell under her control��

    With Lo''Atkar''s invocation spoken out loud, none of the three supremes present on the scene could ess this ss ability of theirs. And from the looks of things��

    Madam was the only one keeping up all sorts of secondary spells going, while both of her opponents dedicated their whole attention just to bringing her down.

    ''This might get dicey��'' Madam thought, gritting her teeth as she pushed her aura into a simple weave, turning it into a quasi-physical rope she used to pull herself down to the ground, to where she could actually support her defenses with proper footing.

    ''I was never a fan of mid-airbat,'' she thought, infusing her aura into her body and allowing it to half-transform back to its fox form. And right as her nails turned into proper ws, Etaria came down with yet another of her gold-infused attacks.

    ''This really feels like fighting that damned bastard,'' Madam thought, gritting her teeth in mute frustration. ''Much more than I would like to admit!''

    Etaria''s fist fell down, showering the entire area with the golden light of her aura, aura she likely didn''t even know the origins of.

    And as small of a threat as she would be to Madam normally, with all the secondary spells she continued to keep up��

    ''Fuck!''

    Unable to gather enough aura to properly defend herself, Madam raised her guard�� Only to be thrown back several meters when Etaria''s fist connected.

    The few trees that were in Madam''s paths shared her pitiful fate, not even slowing down her movements, as if they were nothing more than paper rather than thick pieces of solid and living wood.

    ''If this continues��''

    Unable to find enough time to gather her thoughts, Madam already had to raise her guard again, once again gathering her aura to reinforce her block right in time for Etaria''s strike to fall down.

    "Just die already!" the golden princess shouted again, proving howcking her dictionary was while in battle mode.

    "You really are an annoying one!" Madam screamed out, once again trying what worked before. Instead of blocking and taking the full brunt of the strike right to her core, she twisted her block to the side, hoping to let the strike pass by, dispersing most of its energy to the side��

    But Etaria, as young and inexperienced as she was in Madam''s eyes�� Wasn''t inexperienced at all. And from how she instantly recognized the move Madam used before and rushed to counteract it by twisting her body to the other side and following up with another attack��

    ''As if!''

    Rather than turning her block around and risking not making it in time, Madam jumped a little and braced herself for the strike, only for it to feel straight into her bottom ribs��

    But as she didn''t resist the attack and instead allowed it to just push her away, it failed to do any real damage.

    Landing down a few meters away, Madam raised her face and straightened her back, giving the panting princess a look of fake superiority.

    "Tired already?" Madam asked, forcing herself to put on a small smirk.

    ''To think I would resort to faking my situation like that��'' Madam thought, suddenly distracted. ''Is this how this kid influenced me already?''

    To fake it until they make it had to be the main calling in Peter''s life, at least when judging how he acted thus far. And so far��

    The aura of the world suddenly shook. The flows of the world''s aura twisted in ways Madam never experienced�� And from how Etaria froze on her spot as well, she was able to sense it too.

    "What just happened?" As if they weren''t trying to kill each other just now, the princess raised her golden eyes and stared daggers at her opponent.

    "I''m not exactly sure��" Equally as confused, Madam looked over to where the main battle was taking ce��

    Only to see thick smoke rising well above the line of the trees, much higher than it did before.

    And out of this smoke�� a strange flying monster emerged.

 Chapter 282: Breaking point (2!!!)

    "What the hell is this?"

    This one question appeared in the mouth of everyone who got to take a look at its strangely aerodynamic shape.

    A long, ball of glistering skin, with one long yet narrow, ck eye filling the front third of its shape.

    ''So her warnings were on the point!'' Etaria thought, recalling all the urging of the spy to go and stop whatever that strange, young man was doing.

    For a moment, though, everyone appeared to freeze.

    And then��

    The strange, ball-like monster suddenly raised its�� ps? Hands? Wings?

    Etaria couldn''t even tell what were those strangely square pieces of the monster that it brought up, revealing dark insides filled with�� even more shapes that had no right to exist in anything created by nature.

    ''Wait, not a monster but�� a golem?'' Etaria''s thoughts rushed to figure out the secret behind this strange, air-floating monster�� Right as it started to poop out some small, ck shapes out of the holes it opened up in its body.

    ''Is it pooping?''

    A single thought shed in the princess''s thought�� Only for what she took to be merely poop, to explode with a dull noise, refiling the cloud of smoke that was already starting to dissipate with far more of said smoke than there was in the area before.

    "BEEEEEEEEEP"

    A high-pitched, brain-drilling sound filled the entire area as the monster uttered its cry, nearly forcing the princess and the madam down on their knees.

    Their keen senses which usually gave them a great edge over all those below their rank, now proved to be nothing but a hindrance and a source of pain.

    Dropping her head down and covering her ears with her hands, Etaria uttered a muted, pained scream, struggling to endure the prolonged noise made by this foreign monster sh golem.

    ''FUCK! LET IT END ALREADY!''

    Irked to a degree she never expected herself to be capable of reaching, Etaria couldn''t even tell whether she was only screaming out in her mind alone, or if her voice actually came out from her mouth.

    The noise finally ended��. Only to then reappear again, as the monster swung in the air, turning the very middle of its long, singr eye to where the two supremes covered on the ground, struggling to stand upright under the onught of this mind-piercing noise.

    ''Now, what?''

    Right as the princess posed the question in her battered mind, the monster started to raise more of its strange, square ps�� This time clearly about to pee after pooping, given how it pushed out a series of strange, metallic penises out of the holes it revealed.

    ''Are they trying to disgrace me?!'' Etaria''s cheeks burned with livid fire when all the dicks of the monster�� suddenly turned and aimed right at her!

    ***

    ''What the hell is this thing?!''

    Freaking out no less than her opponent, Madam slowly managed to raise up from the ground where she tried to hide her head under the ground to save herself from this pain-inducing noise.

    But after seeing how this strange entity simply continued to hang in the air after dropping an insane amount of smoke over the position of her kin�� Madam didn''t need to stretch her analytic ability to figure out the answer.

    ''Oh Peter, you are full of surprises, aren''t you?'' she thought, suddenly rxing, despite how tense the situation was.

    After all, there was only one usible exnation of this strange entity''s origin. The only ce it coulde from was Peter''s world. And as his loyal ally and a mother-inw, she surely had nothing to worry about when it came to whatever Peter produced, right?

    Madam rxed and even managed to breathe a small sigh of relief�� When a single detail disturbed her peace.

    For past the darkness of the entity''s eyes��. She noticed a strangely disfigured head�� No, a peculiarly looking helmet worn by what could only be a humanoid being!

    ''It''s not a monster�� It''s a weapon!''

    As this realization struck the Madam, another one was quick to follow.

    ''If it''s a weapon, it likely has to be operated by someone. And that someone��''

    The sides of the strange, round entity opened up, revealing several long, ck rods that appeared from its insides. And all of them to thest one, turned towards where Madam and Etaria were too stunned by the being''s appearance to make even a single move.

    ''And that someone has no idea which side I''m on!''

    As the realization settled in, Madam strangely�� calmed down. Now that she had a problem to solve, she could actually start working towards its solution.

    ''He had to tell them something to let them recognize friend from foe. And he would tell something he saw himself happening��''

    Bit by bit, Madam''s thoughts moved from the problem and arrived closer and closer to the solution�� As risky as it was.

    ''I guess I don''t have much choice,'' Madam thought, rising from where she stood, ignoring the monster to her side and turning her eyes towards the princess.

    "Let''s end this," she spoke out loud, finally forcing the princess to turn her eyes away from Peter''s entity and back to her adversary.

    And as Madam took a step forward�� Rather than channeling the near-endless sea of her aura, she simply dropped the intent that allowed her to keep her human form.

    Madam''s aura condensed in front of her, allowing her to talk in and allow it to wash away her human form, revealing her actual looks of a massive, perfectly white fox.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    ''I''m weaker like that�� So I need to hope this thing is as anywhere as powerful as it looks��''

    The entity�� continued to open more and more strange covers over his sides, revealing more and more metal rods of all sorts emerging from within and peeking out, only to turn in a way no metal should be allowed to only to end up pointing right at the two supremes.

    And then��

    The entity suddenly wobbled first to the right and then to the left, ending in the exact same ce and position it was in before.

    ''A signal?'' Madam thought, tensing all of her muscles and lowering her center of weight as she prepared to leap forth��

    Only to dpress all of her muscles in a single, powerful leap�� to the back.

    ***

    "Support the white one, he said," the main pilot of the maglev muttered under his nose, leaving it to the microphone integrated into his headset to pick his words out, clean them from the noise, and then repeat them clearly to the secondary pilot on the seat to his side.

    "And suppress the golden one," the secondary pilot filled in the part his colleague missed. "I think that girl to the right�� doesn''t she have a golden aura around her of sorts?"

    The main pilot raised his hand and flicked a whole row of switches, arming the main batteries of their battle vehicle.

    "They are not moving for now, so there''s no need for us to fire the first shoot," he pointed out, moving his head down to the row of the switches grouped for the self-defense mechanisms of the vehicle.

    The point-defense guns of the maglev were nothing more but a scaled-down version of the ship''s main cannons, where the rapid-fire feature reced the braking power of the higher caliber. And while the active defense systems were much weaker than their main-line cousins��

    When it came to destroying any sort of projectile heading for the ship, they had no equal.

    "First, let''s start with the simplest signal," the main pilot suggested, moving his hand back from the arming switches to the maglev''s steering rod. He gently jerked it to the left and right, replicating the ages-old gesture of waving the wings of one''s ne.

    The maglev was a round vehicle using the power of overmaism to stay afloat in the air. As such, it was free of the simplistic technology of wings�� And yet, its pilots keep some of the old Air Force traditions true.

    After all, there were no major wars when the militaries around the world moved on from using something as unreliable as nes, preventing the development of a culture based on the ne''s modern and improved version.

    The pilot jerked the steering rod, causing the ship to veer slightly to the left and then to the right, returning right back to the spot it continued to hover over. And this finally forced the parties they observed to react.

    The more mature-looking woman to the left stood up, finally shaking off the shock of the air horn the ship used to attract everyone''s attention. She then did something to the air around her, making it thicker and harder to see through.

    "Is she heating up the air or something?" the secondary pilot muttered, baffled by the sight on the other side of the protective ss of the cockpit. Yet, as he took a look at one of the screens disying the magnified image of the area he observed, his eyebrows twitched.

    "Are you seeing this?" the man asked, tearing his eyes out of the video feed and turning them over to his colleague.

    "Yeah, I do," the main pilot muttered. "And I think that means we finally know who''s who," he added, turning the magnified video into an ovey on their disy with just a few clicks of a few buttons.

    As a school-bus-sized white fox appeared where the elegantdy stood, the pilots finally understood their assignment properly.

    "Support the white, he said," the main pilot muttered, before gritting his teeth pressing another series of buttons, and flicking several more switches. "Your stick!" hemanded, removing his hands from the steering device and moving them up and slightly to the side, taking over the twin-stick of the aiming systems.

    "My stick!" the co-pilot replied, instantly reaching out for the steering stick and focusing his eyes on the various data disyed directly on the cockpit''s bulletproof windshield. "I suggest a third pattern," he muttered, leaving the job of picking up and clearing his voice to the microphone embedded into his headset.

    "Will do," themander of the airship sighed in response before fixing his grip on the aiming device, quickly bringing the cross-hair from dancing all over the windshield''s disy and fixing it on the golden girl.

    Even though the pilots were shocked by the woman''s transformation into the white fox�� their main target appeared to care about it even more than them. And all on its own, that woman''s transformation forced the golden girl to turn her attention away from the maglev.

    "Third pattern, starting in three, two, one��"

    The secondary pilot muttered, taking a deep breath as he counted while moving his left hand to the secondary steering stick, giving him much greater control over the ship''s movement than what he could do with just the main stick alone.

    For if the main steering only allowed a discement within the space itself, it was the job of the secondary stick to control pitch, yaw, and roll.

    The pilot took a deep breath�� before pulling hard on both of the sticks, turning the front of the maglev down�� only to steer it back, making it retreat higher up into the air.

    "You ready?" the man asked, sparing a short nce at the ship''smander.

    "As ready as I will ever be," the man replied, focused on his task of keeping the crosshair on the golden girl for long enough for the onboardputers to process the information and register her as a target. "It''s done."

    The crosshair on the windshield disy turned from its usual gray color to a green one.

    "Let''s begin. Third pattern��"

    The secondary pilled raised the ship''s nose a bit before reverting the main stick and sending the maglev into a slow advance forward.

    In the current position, all of the maglev''s main cannons could freely rain hell at the ground below, well within the limits of the angles they could take.

    "The third pattern starts now!" Chapter Experience:

 Chapter 283: Breaking point (3!!)

    The Maglevs went through the gate without any major issues, while maintaining a regtory twenty meters of distance between each other.

    Apparently, getting any closer would inhibit their esoteric way of abusing maism to move around in the air, quickly raising the risks of either if not both of them failing on the spot.

    And with the stable gate now up and kicking, there was nothing stopping all those blessed with the ability to see it to watch the performance that ensued.

    The first of the three maic gunships was quick to rise high off the ground, several meters above the level it was in while within the hangar. As it raised, the pilots opened up the side shuts of their vessel, dropping artillery-grade smoke shells all over the messy battleground.

    "Smoke is up, go!" Makary shouted, beckoning with his hand at the second Maglev in line.

    Whatever effect the pilots had to be wary of when it came to getting near another ship of the same kind, didn''t seem to ur with a dimensional gate separating them. Still, the pilot more or less ignored Makary''s order, waiting a few more seconds for the first gunship to ascend to its desired attitude before moving away from the gate''s entrance.

    "We are going in," the voice came out from the headset in Makary''s hand right as the second ship produced a slightly more intense hum before leaning its nose down a tiny little bit and�� sliding through the air right into the gate.

    ''I wonder how it looks to those who have yet to receive my approval to see the gate,'' I thought, turning my head over my shoulder to take a look at the distant entrance to the hangar, currently crowded with all the soldiers trying to squeeze into the space vacated by the two ships that went over by now.

    The second ship followed through the gate right as the smoke on the other side grew so thick, that not even the people directly by the gate could see it. The gunship crossed the boundary between the two worlds and then sank deep into the thick smoke, quickly vanishing from my eyes while bringing no noticeable change to the battlefield on the other side.

    "Can we go boss?" the pilots of thest of the ships asked while moving as close to the earth''s side of the gate as they could, opening up a lot of space for the infantry to cram into.

    "Wait half a minute and go. I would rather avoid you crashing into the guys ahead," Makary replied before turning his head and giving me an alert look. "Get yourself ready. We will be going over in just a moment."

    The half of a minute passed�� well, as quickly as one could expect. The time didn''t bother to slow down to artificially build tension. The infantry within the hangar didn''t seem to be bothered by the perspective of an intense, life-and-death battle waiting ahead either.

    For me, what was about to ensue in a mere moment and what had been happening on the other side for quite a while now, was a devastating battle where death was asmon as a heart attack as a cause of death among the body-positivity movement of the not-so-distant past. For the soldiers around me, though, it was just a Thursday.

    "Go!" Makary gave the pilots a green light while also waving at the infantry and the vehicles hidden at the back of the hangar. "Men, get ready!" he shouted right as the second gunship made its way past the gate and dove into the cloud of thick smoke on the other side.

    Seconds trickled by while Makary''s soldiers organized themselves into neat groups while opening up a path for both heavy and light IFVs to pass through.

    "We are stepping right into the battlefield with hardly any friend-or-foe recognition method. So��" Makary took a short pause before lowering his voice a tiny little bit, mere theatrics given how he spoke to the headset directly connected to the speakers within the hangar. "So tread carefully."

    Makary turned around and faced the gate while pushing his thumbs between his belt and the pants said belt held up.

    The soldiers moved up to the very gate, only to stand right before it in a very specific formation.

    A team of shooters at the nks, apanied by a predator, an all-terrain personal vehicle�� Or in simpler words, a light buggy with a heavy machine gun mounted at the support frame on its back. Further to the middle, there was anotherpany of shooters and right at the center - a heavily armored forwardmand center.

    "From the center, forward!" Makary gave the order through his microphone.

    Seeing the massive and obviously weighty truck in the middle shake a little as its driver started the engine, I leaned forward to start walking and join the rank and file��

    Only to be stopped by Makary''s arm that he shot to the side the very moment I attempted to make my first step.

    "Where do you think you are going?" Makary asked, turning his eyes to my face, tantly ignoring the sight of the first ground units making their way through the gate.

    "To join the first wave and guide them around?" I suggested the obvious answer.

    Right now, the only but also the main problem was how Makary''s men had no sure way of determining who would be their enemy and who would be their ally on the other side of the gate. And as someone who could easily make that distinction, I was the most important addition to the first wave.

    "It''s not the leader''s job to lead the frontal attack," Makary said as if he was stating the obvious.

    "But��"

    "Listen, kid," Makary sighed as he fully turned his back to the gate, missing how the entire front row of the units and vehicles made their way to the other side. "Did you know that there used to be a set of cards as an obligatory piece of equipment within all themanding units back while we were still in the military?"

    Hearing Makary''s strange tangent, I squinted my eyes, struggling to figure out how it connected to the greater picture at hand.

    Chapter Find:

    "I had no idea. Why?"

    "Those cards were for themanders to y poker or solitaire."

    Expecting a further exnation, I pretended not to see more and more of Makary''s men walk through the gate to join the battle they were clueless about.

    "Doubts, hesitations, worries��" Makary shook his head. "It''s one thing to send men over to battle. But there''s nothing worse than amander who gives in to those feelings and tries to change things around once they are in motion. So, to stop the leaders from messing everything up, they were all supposed to y damned cards while their men were dying out in the field."

    Makary took a short pause, closing his eyes as he took a few deep breaths.

    "Why were the cards an obligatory piece of equipment for themanders, Peter?" he asked the very same question he already answered just now.

    "To stop them from giving new orders conflicting with the old ones and thus throwing all semnce of battle order away," I answered, drawing my own conclusions from Makary''s words before reformatting them into a fitting answer.

    "All ns survive only until the contact with the enemy," Makary stated the obvious, "but our goals, precautions, and tricks remain the same."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Makary took a look over his shoulder and watched in silence while the second wave of his soldiers started to advance through the gate. The heavily armored core of their formation first, followed by the two biggest units of infantry, the two predators, and then thest two units initially positioned at the wave''s nks.

    Once half of the second wave went through, Makary finally brought his arm down and actually turned towards the gate before starting to walk ahead.

    "Once we get there, I want you to stay back with me. Not only do I need someone to help me move our people around��" Makary hesitated, turning silent for a second before looking over his shoulder right as we were about to cross the gate back to Fay''s world.

    "You are the only one who can open this gate," Makary mentioned right as we crossed the stable portal and found ourselves surrounded by a thick cloud of smoke.

    "You are too important. If you die, none of those guys will be able to go back home. None of what we do in this world will matter."

    "I won''t let any harme his way," Fay, silently hanging off my arm up until this point, raised her head and stated with utmost confidence.

    Out in the distance, Makary''s men started to open fire once they emerged from the smoke and identified the likely enemy.

    "You are too important for us to let you die either," Makary countered with a small smile. "Just like you would go crazy if anything happened to Peter, I doubt there''s a man alive who could stop him from going insane if anything were to happen to you."

    Makary''s words�� were somewhat romantic.

    If only he spoke them without the backdrop of the smoke starting to dissolve, only to reveal the bloody carnage created by just a few trigger-happy soldiers within the first wave of Makary''s army. And as the barrels of the heavy machine guns mounted atop the predators started to turn, thest semnce of the battle''s order was all but ready to go to hell.

 Chapter 285: Breaking point (5!!)

    "Open fire."

    The very moment the order rang in Willy''s ears, he followed the standard procedure. His left hand moved up, securing the weapon''s barrel in a firm, steady position. Then, his forefinger slipped over the safety, ensuring the gun was ready. Finally, following the slip, Willy''s finger moved down the guard of the trigger before slipping inside��

    And pulling the trigger down.

    Bang.

    The automatic rifle shook in Willy''s gun as the low-caliber projectile hit the first target.

    The victim didn''t go flying. He didn''t even lose his footing, only as little as stumbling a bit when a series of several bullets shot from all sorts of different angles suddenly found their way to his body.

    Willy''s target took a step forward, then another�� And then suddenly spat out blood and fell down to his knees, dying before his face could even strike the ground.

    ''Next,'' Willy thought, turning his whole body along with his gun.

    Take aim, breathe out, and squeeze the trigger so that you won''t know where the shot actually gets fired.

    nce if the gun reloaded itself properly, take aim, and squeeze the trigger.

    Take a breath, fix a new target, take aim��

    The automatic rifle continued to shake in Willy''s hands as more and more of the uniformly dressed soldiers of this world fell to the ground, pierced by a huge number of bullets.

    All over the battlefield, the same scenario continued to happen. Wherever the local allies of the employer appeared to struggle, Makary''s men woulde to the rescue in an extremely simple procedure.

    Breathe in, take aim, breathe out, shoot, reload, repeat.

    Kill all those who went inside the protective circle, kill those who keep the breach open, suppress those who try to reinforce the breaches, fill in the gap, and establish firing positions all over the protective circle of allied forces.

    Whileplex in its entirety, the procedure to which Makary''s soldiers adhered was as simple as it could get when it came to its practical execution. In a sense, simplistic pragmatism was the very essence of the modern military, in spite of all the technological advances made since the times when such simplicity was warranted by one''s extremely limited means.

    Yet, out in the field where things could change in a matter of seconds, those pragmatic considerationsid the foundation for why turning the tides of the battle turned out to be so freaking simple if not outright easy. And pragmatic tactics inbination with dreadfully lethal guns��

    "Front Squads, advance ten steps beyond the circle and secure the perimeter! I want a reinforced nest beyond the circle of our allies, spaced no more than twenty meters apart!"

    This time, it wasn''t the squad or even the toon leader''s voice that rang in Willy''s ear. This time, it was Makary himself speaking in the familiar, low tone, as he passed the orders directly to the sum total of the troops that already crossed this magical gate to another world.

    ***

    "Things are going quite well," Makary muttered, more to himself than to me as he stared down at the sky-view of the ongoing battle disyed on the holographic projector table mounted on the inside of one of themanding trucks.

    On it, dots of various colors moved around, with the internal processing unit adding all sorts of secondary data to the disy, to mark off the things that were impractical to showcase on the scaled-down model like the lines of fire, dotted lines marking the current target of each of the toons��

    With the help of the integrated AI, there were even all sorts of markings signifying the ces of special interest or strategic value��

    But all of those were only urate to the battlefield the AI was trained for, with the enemy also using modern firearms and with the threat of an artillery barrage constantly looming over everyone.

    "All are those firing nests necessary?" I asked as I turned my eyes to the several tens of grayed-out points marked on the map from the very moment Makary spoke his orders to the microphone. "I understand that this is a standard tactic for establishing a perimeter, but��"

    Feeling Makary''s gaze fall on my face, I hesitated a little and averted my eyes.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "But?" Makary inquired after making sure to switch the channel of hisms from general ess to the hierarchical one.

    The chain ofmand existed for a reason, after all, and it was generally better for the man to give his orders to the primary officers who would then distribute them towards the officers directly in the field.

    In this way, while the general order remained, it was up to those acting on the scene to decide what was the best way to go about fulfilling the goals designated by the suprememander of the battle.

    "They are going to scatter long before your people get all those nests up."

    My reasoning was simple.

    I saw what modern weapons could do to a dense crowd of people, especially when their tactics were pretty much limited to running it down. A tactic that would work well given their numerical superiority over the army of locals��

    But a tactic that grew obsolete from the moment machine guns and high explosives made their way to the battlefields.

    ''Thinking about it, if this was an RTS, I would report the enemymander for trolling and throwing the game out of spite,'' I thought, turning my eyes down to the tactical situation disyed on the holographic table.

    Makary''s troops were advancing all over the ce. By now, they''ve plugged all of the breaches within the protective line around the gateway and were actively pushing through those very gaps to establish the first few firing nests.

    "You might actually be right," Makary muttered as he glued his eyes to the tactical situation on the screen.

    Before long, Makary''s hands rushed all over the holographs, removing most of the grayed-out pieces and re-arranging the few that he left.

    "I''m sending the new battle data over, apply right away," Makary pressed one of the buttons at the side of the holotable, using its interface to manipte the channel he was speaking on. Then, he raised his eyes and looked at my face. "Any further insights?"

    There was no irony or sarcasm in his voice or his eyes. Even though between the two of us, ny-nine percent of battle knowledge and experience was on Makary''s side�� I was still the one more used to how things went in this world.

    "To be frank, I never really worried much about the rank and file topic," I replied after taking a few seconds to gather my thoughts and process them. "Some of the enemies might have barriers, and others might find some tricky way to attack back. So, some casualties are inevitable, but I believe we could pretty much do whatever we want and we would still win the battle."

    I took in a deep breath while Makary pierced my face with an intense and long stare.

    "But?" he then muttered, easily figuring out that what I said was merely an introduction to the one problem lingering in my thoughts.

    "But I''m worried about how things will go with the princess and that other, nearly unkible fucker," I replied right away.

    This wasn''t some sort of young adult drama for me to build up the tension by holding the information back.

    Just like the entire military lingo was constructed to cut on the time it took to report, just like how the entire hierarchy served the same purpose, just like every tiniest aspect of how the modern military operated was aimed at increasing the flexibility and decreasing the time necessary to implement orders��

    Just like all of those things, I decided to make my point as clear as possible, as quickly as possible.

    "I have yet to hear a singleint from the pilots of the Maglev we sent to suppress the princess," Makary''s voice grew slightly fainter as a look of concern appeared on his face.

    With the lingering smoke from when Makary''s army made its entrance making it hard to see far into the air, it should still be possible for the two of us to look up and check on the Maglev in question�� If not for the fact that we were currently locked inside the armored core of themanding truck!

    Still, if a Maglev were to go down, not even the thick armor of themanding truck we were in would suffice to keep the effects of powerful electromaic discharge from affecting us.

    "How are things on your end, guys?" Makary asked after pressing a series of buttons at the side of the holographic table.

    "Executing the third pattern of movement, sir," the pilot''s voice didn''t have even the tiniest hint of distress or anxiety. "For now, we are guiding the target away from the battle, but��" the pilot hesitated for a second.

    "Speak up," Makary, sensing that something was wrong, urged the man to continue.

    "Sir, if I may��" This time, the pilot hesitated for real. "I have a feeling that she could bring us down if given enough time and room to work with. I''ve put the cannons on auto-tracking, but even with the AI optimization, we just cannotnd a single damn shot!"

    In the end, it wasn''t the distress or anxiety that was the first emotion I''d heard in the pilot''s voice.

    It was merely a frustration of their hunt turning a lot more tricky than they anticipated.

    "To think she could avoid a Maglev''s barrage��" Makary muttered, keeping his thoughts collected enough to mute his mic before actually uttering even a single word. He then raised his eyes from the holograms and to my face. "Just who is she to do that?"

    Responding in kind to Makary''s intense stare, I considered all my options for a moment��

    "She''s a supreme, just like Fay''s mom," I revealed while stealing a nce at the girl silently hanging on my arm. "And if not for Madam��" I recalled the sense of slight existential dread I got when I first met the woman.

    And in an instant, a sense of overwhelming weakness assaulted my mind, nearly making me bend in half.

    "If not for Madam, she would''ve likely killed us all by now," I revealed, only to feel Fay''s hands tighten over my arm a bit. "And I believe she''s the key to ending this war once we chase all of her troops out of the forest."

    Throwing my opinion out, I then turned my eyes towards the holotable, unable to shake off the feeling of uneasiness that the mere thought of supremes gave me.

    And looking down at the holotable... I couldn''t help but think of just how many free experience points I was missing out on just because my system didn''t consider me a part of the ongoing battle.

    ''Wait, if that''s the case...''

    "If you say so," Makarymented on my exnation in an empty way, more to buy himself some time to process it than to actively reveal his thoughts on the matter.

    "Actually, I have one request for right now," I spoke out, forcing the man to raise his head from the holotable again.

    "What is it?" Makary asked, slightly raising his eyebrows in response to my sudden request.

    "I want to give everyone some sort of order they will all follow but one that won''t affect their actions."

 Chapter 286: Breaking point (6!!!)

    ''That''s how war should look like!'' Willy thought, pulling the trigger to the rhythm of extreme self-satisfaction flowing through his veins.

    Yet, for the first time since he and his colleagues joined the battle, squeezing the trigger didn''t bring the expected result.

    "Ha!"

    A soldier that Willy aimed at uttered a small shout�� Only for the bullet to stop in its track, rapidly losing its momentum at the veryst few steps it had to cover only to turn to aplete spot, hanging up in the air a mere meter away from Willy''s target''s face.

    ''What?''

    Staring wide-eyed at the levitating bullet, Willy swallowed a gulp of saliva�� Before lifting the muzzle of the gun a tiny bit and squeezing the trigger again.

    With the safety lock on the single-fire mode, only a single bullet would leave Willy''s gun with the squeeze of his finger. As a result, right when Willy started to consider switching over to the full-auto mode and feeding more bullets into the enemy soldier''s magical barrier than it could handle, he fired his fifth shoot��

    And a shoot that finally found its target, breaking through whatever kind of field was slowing all its predecessors down and digging deep into the target''s flesh. And as soon as a red flower of a wound blossomed on the soldier''s tunic, Willy added one more bullet to the list, lodging it deep inside the man''s skull, finally bringing the struggle to an end.

    "What the hell was that?" Willy muttered to himself, turning his gun over as he scanned the surrounding area. Yet, with the situation calming down in his direct proximity, he quickly confirmed there simply were no more targets left for him or his closest brothers-in-arms to target.

    "Leave it forter. We need to push forward right now!" Willy''s squad leader called out through thems before leading by example and making his way forward.

    The leader of the squad ignored the uncertain looks given by all sorts of weird, shiny, and misshaped humans. His attention was on the men hidden behind the lines of their supposed allies to whom he paid absolutely no mind.

    "Sir, shouldn''t we��" Willy''s colleague bearing the nick of Lambda, attempted to say something.

    "We can''t cooperate with them, not yet," their leader refused Lambda''s suggestion even before the man had the chance to fully voice it out. "Trying to integrate with them would introduce too much chaos. For now, we need to move!"

    The calm step of their leader quickly gained some hurried traits, all the way to the moment when he pushed past the line of their supposed lines and lowered his gun, readying himself to fight off a whole crowd of soldiers rushing to reopen the gap in their allies'' formation.

    "Push them away!"

    With the leader''s simple order ringing in his ears, Willy ignored Lambda''s grimace and rushed forth instead, changing the magazine to his gun as he moved, only to arrive at the new position right as he reloaded the gun with a quick pull on its leaver.

    "Kill''em all!"

    ***

    ''This isn''t how war should look like!''

    Life was never easy for Willy.

    He didn''t have the blessing of being born into a noble family. He wasn''t even lucky enough toe from the line of some rich merchants.

    No.

    He was of a birth asmon as it could get. Yet, despite being born into a rtively normal family with both of his parents always working hard to provide for him and his two brothers and sister��

    Even with all the sacrifices of his parents andter on his older siblings, Willy''s life was average at best and pretty damn tragic during some of its worst moments.

    Like when the son of a rich merchant stole away the girl that he loved. Like when a noble bastard stole his chances of promotion, abusing his blood to cut all of thepetitors for the rank out.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Willy was more used to losing in life than he would be willing to admit. Still, the rare moments where life was good were more than enough to keep him going, constantly pushing the man to struggle to be better.

    Especially now, just a single step away from a rank that would allow him to lift not only himself but also his entire family out of poverty, Willy was as motivated to see this battle through as he could get.

    Yet, when the strange, invisible projectiles started to fly right by his face, all of Willy''s motivation vanished, reced with the other sects of skills and instincts he developed long before finding employment within the unit of the duke''s warriors.

    ''Run!''

    Willy''s entire soulpressed and turned into this single, simplistic desire.

    His animal instincts continued to scream as loudly as they could in his mind, constantly pushing him to drop the act and do the smart thing before it was toote.

    ''There''s no use dying a dog''s death here.''

    Soon, even Willy''s rational side joined in on the effort of his instincts, working to erase Willy''s sense of honor or morals.

    "Barriers!" Someone shouted from far deeper into their formation, from within the rtive safety of the troops that, due to the overcrowding issue, couldn''t approach the front line of the ongoing battle. "Raise your barriers, you damn idiots!"

    Following the expressed order, Willy followed themand, focusing for merely a moment before weaving the flow of his own mana into the air around him, turning it so thick and dense, that no rapidly moving projectile could hope to prate it.

    ''If this won''t work��''

    Willy didn''t even need to close his eyes to imagine the bloody scenes that he saw happening before his own eyes just a moment earlier. In fact, were it not for his quick instincts and the great trust he ced in them, he would likely be now nothing more but a reminder to all hispanions of what would happen if they stayed anywhere near where the fighting was happening.

    The sights of bodies shattering under the onught of invisible projectiles, often several of them in a row, cut down by a single series of shots.

    The air around Willy condensed, quickly forming the basic imperial barrier, a spell that all the ascended within the imperial forces were obliged to learn.

    And now, with more ascenders gathered in a single spot than Willy would ever thought possible, their barriers, rather than interfering with each other, seemingly merged.

    Willy''s barrier reinforced the barriers of the three ascenders directly by his side. His own barrier was reinforced by the same amount of other barriers, turning it into a protection Willy could never have hoped for before.

    As soon as the appearance of the barriers brought a single moment of a breather for Willy and hispanions, as soon as the morale started to grow back up and themanders deeper into the forest started to shout at their soldiers to advance with renewed fervor��

    "Agh��"

    One of the ascenders by Willy''s side released a dull, pained groan. They looked down and stared with surprise all over their face at the red blossom of blood appearing right in the middle of their chest�� Only for the back of their head to explode, scattering the poor ascender''s brain matter at all the soldiers behind him.

    ''Wha��?!''

    Turning his eyes back towards the enemy�� Willy saw it.

    A small group of strangely dressed men, all carrying strange, ck sticks in their hands.

    ''Those gotta be heavy,'' Willy quickly judged, watching just how slow those men were to raise their weapons.

    The ck sticks exploded��.

    No.

    For the tiniest of moments, they shed up, spitting extremely tiny fires out of their front��

    Then, an entire row of men fell tumbling down, their bodies shredded by the onught of the same, tiny projectiles that Willy already noticed before.

    But with the shattering of the barrier of a fellow ascended just to his side, Willy''s will to fight vanishedpletely.

    ''Nothing will matter if you die,'' he thought, finally arriving at the conclusion others would find to be quite obvious.

    Still.

    To leave the battlefield while the fight was only ramping up would put a definitive end to Willy''s career in the duke''s forces. Once again, he would have to start from the very scratch, putting his dream of lifting his family out of poverty off for a few more years.

    But��

    ''I won''t help them if I''m dead!''

    Finallying to terms with the decision he was so hesitant to make, Willy gritted his teeth��

    ''If this is what happens here, then it''s likely to be happening all over the ce,'' he thought, taking a quick look above the heads of the enemies he noticed�� Only for the smoke to block his view.

    It has started to disperse by now but still continues to linger low in the air to stop anyone''s attempts at peering deeper into the battlefield. Still, the smoke has now grown thin enough for Willy to make out some pretty dangerous-looking shapes lingering at the back of the circle they were supposed to conquer��

    "RUN!" Willy shouted from the bottom of his lungs while dropping down on one knee as he focused all of his attention on nothing else but circting his mana through the air. "SAVE YOURSELVES AND RUN!"

    By now, the morale of the imperial troops has struck rock bottom. Only the momentum of the ranks to the back managed to keep those at the front still within the engagement distance of their overwhelmingly powerful opponents.

    And now, with just a single yet powerful shout from an ascender, a simple call for a retreat�� All the semnce of order has finally broken. The authority of the officers faded away as panic settled in the minds of their subordinates.

    And before long, the entire crowd of imperials stopped�� Only to turn its direction around, overpower those at the back who still hoped to reach the front of the battle, and start the gradual retreat of the imperial armies.

    It was a long, chaotic, and extremely dangerous process, especially with those strange, genocidal enemies pressing their advantage and quickly developing their counter-attack to make the most out of the opportunity Willy presented them with.

    As for Willy himself�� He dared not to move a muscle. He was already down on one knee, only to fall down on all fours when someone crashed into him from the back. As the overwhelmingly thick crowd around started to thin out as more and more soldiers either escaped or fell dead or heavily wounded to the ground, Willy only had one left card to y in his bid to survive.

    "I surrender!" he screamed out as loud as he could, daring not to turn around and face whatever could being for him. "Mercy! I surrender!"

 Chapter 288: No more blood

    Things developed at an extremely quick rate.

    From the moment the front row of Makary men engaged the imperials, the fate of the battle was pretty much decided.

    With a single Maglev effectively holding back the princess, the other two could take their time and abuse the hell out of their sensors, quickly building up aplex and detailed picture of the ongoing events.

    An advantage that Makary, and a few of his direct subordinates, exploited to its limits.

    The first advance of the mercenaries cleared out most of the enemies within the circle of Fay''s kin. And upon further push into the very gaps the imperials were pouring from, the whole situation changed.

    ording to Makary''s orders, his men were to establish several reinforced firing nests, from where they could rain an even heavier fire upon the horde of the enemies. Yet, as soon as a series of few quick bursts dug massive holes in the enemy line before Makary''s men could advance into the freed space and even start digging in��

    The imperial advance copsed.

    The overcrowding of the battle right at the edge of the woods and a small clearing made it hard for most of either force to have any idea of what was happening elsewhere, beyond just their direct scope of view.

    And yet, mere minutes after the first wave joined the battle, the imperials started to run.

    Between the massive headcount and rapidly rising number of losses, the cohesion of the imperial front began to break. elerated by one of the soldiers suddenly screaming out, then by bloodied and clearly tired Etaria appearing only to call for a retreat herself��

    In the end, before Makary''s men could start to entrench their position for a prolonged fight, the battle seemingly came to an end.

    ***

    "We should press them right now," Makary argued, mming his hands into the table.

    He was just a human. Solidly built and properly nurtured, but still a human.

    Not an ascended being like me, boasting the strength massively boosted by my system.

    And yet, when he mmed his hands into the holodesk, the entiremanding truck shook.

    Still��n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Fuck, just give us a moment!" I whined out, reeling on my knees, holding my head upright only by the grace of resting against the edge of the same holotable.

    Right now, I really needed a moment. And if it was just me, I could somehow grit my teeth and maybe just let things pass��

    But for my own personal benefit, I simply couldn''t allow the things to continue as they were.

    [Battle Log:

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 1.9 Participation: 10%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 3.7 Participation: 10%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 6.2 Participation: 10%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 5Participation: 10%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 2.4 Participation: 10%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 2.2 Participation: 10%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 3 Participation: 10%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 11.2 Participation: 10%

    - Average attribute level of the kill: 3.9 Participation: 10%

    ��

    ��

    ��

    ]

    This wasn''t the first time for me to see this screen today. But right now, the surge of energy that continued to feed into my soul''s core was simply too massive to calmly take it all in.

    Breathing heavily, I continued to ignore Makary''s aggressive pleas.

    ''I need to calm down!''

    Because the worst part of it all was that with our bond at all time highest and the sudden surge of power��

    I wasn''t the only one suffering from the effects of the rapid growth.

    No longer able to stand, Fay rested her head on my shoulder, desperately clinging to my neck to keep herself up. Her heavy, strained breaths hit me squarely in the chest. Thebored way in which Fay''s body moved with each of her breaths was like the beats of a curse''s heart, constantly reminding me of my failure to keep her safe and protected.

    In my bid to grow stronger in the face of supremes starting to appear on the scene, I asked Makary for one, simple favor.

    To speak on the open channel and give everyone a simplemand to attack.

    An order that changed absolutely nothing, for it didn''t involve the designated time or target. A mere rabble that clotted the channel that should be used for other, much more urgentmunication.

    It was the very middle of a heated battle with massive numbers of actors, after all!

    And now, even though my participation from each kill grew to the bare minimum, the flood of energy that rushed to reinforce my core as I grew��

    It was simply too strong, and too diverse to fit in my system. And just like many times before, especially whenbined with my level-up spoils from all the battling that happened thus far��

    I''ve reached the limit of how much free world energy I could store at the periphery of my soul, keeping it for when I could make a better educated guess on which stats to maximize.

    On its own, it was nothing new for me. An ordeal I was willing to face for my warped desire to protect Fay from everything in existence, no matter how far that would force me to go.

    But, when Fay ended up ushering in the torturous cost of my growth, the equation of priorities flipped over.

    Sadly, it was toote. And my best bet was to rein in the overwhelming sense of drowning in the suffocating field of aura and fucking do something about it!

    ''Come on!''

    I internally screamed as I called my system forth. Losing the grip on the table''s edge, I fell down on all fours, only reaching out to keep Fay from falling down to the ground at the veryst moment.

    "Wait, man, what''s wrong?!"

    Only now oveing hismander''s fervor, Makary rushed around the desk to our side.

    [Level 142] > [Level 154]

    [Total Experience: 192]

    [Level: 154] > [Level 250]

    [Usable points: 0] > [Usable points: 56]

    [Aura: 136] > [Aura: 246]

    The first twelve levels came from all the blood I''ve spilled myself ever since thest time I took a serious look at my system. Thetter came from all the experience I''ve gained from giving out just a singlemand before a bloody carnage followed.

    And with how I would only gain a single attribute point every two levels, solely thanks to multikill achievement, that should be the end of it.

    But as things turned out, my system ended up being a bit moreplex than I gave it credit for.

    [Achievement!

    - To battle!

    - Have those whom you''ve ordered bring down at least a hundred foes in the next five minutes

    - Commanding Proficiency Unlocked]

    [Achievement!

    - To war!

    - Have those whom you''ve ordered bring down at least four hundred foes in the next five minutes

    - Commanding Proficiency: Advanced]

    [Commanding Proficiency: 0] > [Commanding proficiency: 523]

    [Advancing Commanding Proficiency]

    [Abbreviating the skill]

    [Advanced Commanding Proficiency: 523] > [ACP: 52.3]

    [Granting bonus attribute points: 52]

    [Usable points: 56] > [Usable points 112]

    It took me a moment to grasp the meaning of all the changes.

    There existed a logic behind all of those numbers, even if I could only try to guess or feel it. But I really wasn''t in a state to think all of that through. What was important right now, was to distribute all this free world''s aura before it would drown the two of us!

    ''No time for caution, huh?'' I thought, before taking a deep breath��

    And willing to a simple set of changes.

    [Level: 250]

    [Strength: 20] > [Strength: 40]

    [Agility: 20] > [Agility: 40]

    [Wisdom: 20] > [Wisdom: 40]

    [Intelligence: 20] > [Intelligence: 40]

    [Endurance: 20] > [Endurance: 40]

    [Aura: 246] > [Aura 258]

    [Usable points: 112] > [Usable points: 0]

    All at once, the world''s energy swarming every nook and cranny of the space around me�� vanished.

    As if it instantly seeped out through the gaps in the fabric of space, the overwhelming pressure simply vanished.

    From keeling over and feeling as if I was about to vomit my lungs and heart out, I suddenly felt an entirely new world of vitality explode in every fiber of my being.

    Fay''s body all tensed up, making her climb up on my chest a tiny bit. She pushed her hips forward, sliding them up my thigh, before arching her back and shooting her head to the back.

    Fay''s fingers dug into the flesh of my back, tearing the cloth of my shirt as if it were a soap bubble.

    But her breathing�� rxed.

    It grew warmer, softer, and longer�� As Fay breathed out, all the tension from before vanished without a trace as she powerlessly left herself in the hold of my arms.

    "Haaa��."

    Blinking my eyes, I chased away the darkness that covered my vision, finally able to steady my breathing and calm down a bit.

    "Man, are you okay?!" Makary cried out, reaching out for my shoulders�� only to hold his arms just an inch away with a look of extreme concern on his face.

    Suddenly fished out of my dreamy, rxed state, I plunged out of thezy world of calming down the extreme side-effect of rapid leveling up�� and right back into the extremely bad timing for when it happened.

    "Cease all fighting, right now," I spoke out on a half breath, overwhelmed by yet another wave, this time of an existential dread.

    I''ve just ovee a damn stressful and draining experience. And from what I could tell, Fay somehow had it even worse. Maybe it was due to this tribtion being her first? Or maybe she was more delicate than me in general?

    Whatever the case and reason, I couldn''t care less.

    But what I knew for sure, was that I had no intention of subjecting her to the horror of yet another rebirth. And now that my attributes pretty much filled up the new limits I''ve gained since myst rebirth��

    Its next, third instance loomed like a sword of Damocles over my head.

    But as much as I hated the idea of going through it with Fay�� Given my current state and the risk of growing any stronger, could I ever make Makary follow my orders if he decided not to?

    "Who do you think will build up all the wealth and power we will gain in this world?!"

    Desperate to stop any further killing from happening, I somehow managed to iron out an idea in the single instant of the heated moment.

    ''The influence of my increased wisdom?'' I thought with an honest dose of irony while staring back into Makary''s eyes.

    "What?" Taken aback by the sudden switch of the topic, Makary physically backed out, giving me some more room to cradle Fay up my chest and stand up.

    "The moment we start bringing more and more people over, everything will go belly up. We need locals to build our power in this world. And where else do you want to get the manpower to build anything here if not by making them surrender rather than killing them all?"

    I gritted my teeth while using the holotable''s edge to raise up properly while making sure Fay stayed securely within the hold of my arm.

    "Every imperial we kill here is one less free pair of war captive hands for us to make use of!"

 Chapter 289: I know just the right person

    "Every imperial we kill here is one less free pair of war captive hands for us to make use of!"

    Every man who crossed the gate was one more point of contact for the people back home to notice something was up. And while a certain level of interaction between those who knew and those who didn''t was necessary��

    "If we want to keep this entire thing away from the prying eyes, we should limit the number of people involved as much as we can," I stated pretty much the obvious. "Oh, and if this continues, there''s a serious chance I will fucking die."

    This was no exaggeration.

    Myst rebirth was different from the former ones. It came with no real, physical pain of every cell of my body tearing itself apart. The prison of the darkness I found myself in, strangely enough, brought nearly no strain upon my flesh.

    It was as if the change brought upon by the rebirth moved beyond the mere level of flesh.

    But it still left me shaken, silently terrified of the depths of the prison I found myself in. And if not for the help from the outside��

    ''Let''s not think about this now,'' I thought as I took a deep breath.

    "It''s nice of you to mention it now," Makary sighed and reached out to press a single button on the holodesk. Its interface was integrated with all of the other electronics of the truck, allowing for much easiermunication than how it worked back in the hangar on Earth.

    "Cease fire and hold your ground. Report if approached."

    In spite of all the series of thoughts shing through my mind, I squinted my eyes and gave Makary an inquisitive look.

    He dedicated two out of three Maglevs at his disposal just to mapping the area. And yet, he still wanted verbal reports of what was happening?

    I turned my eyes over at the holodesk, where Maglev''s sensor-collected data was tranted by the truck''s battle processors and disyed in a clear, convenient hologram of a map. On it, I could clearly see the imperial forces retreating with no sign of rallying themselves back in.

    "It''s never a good idea to rely on a single source of intel," Makary answered my unvoiced doubts after following my eyes and casting a nce at the map. His sight lingered there for a bit as he studied the progress, before moving over towards me��

    No, towards nodding off Fay in my arms and only then up to my own eyes.

    "Mind telling me what the hell did you mean by you dying?" Makary asked silently�� but his face regained the same, cold qualities I saw in it when we met for the first time. "You do fucking realize it''s not only your life on the line here?"

    I closed my eyes, suddenly growing weary from the intensity of the man''s stare.

    "I didn''t expect this to happen�� But in general, I''m just a step away from bing as strong as the two who even Maglev struggled to follow."

    As unbelievable as my statement was, I still decided to put it out.

    I owed as much to the man who not only brought me up from the disaster of my old life but also assisted me all the way to the current point in time and the ongoing circumstances of a just concluding battle.

    "It sounds as great as it sounds impossible, I know," I added before Makary could interject. "But thisst step is what I don''t think I''m ready for. And if I fail��"

    I lowered my eyes and shook my head, ying it off as if a mere thought of the possible consequences was enough to drive me into a depressed mood.

    "Fay, you awake?" I suddenly asked, looking down at the top of the head of the girl in my arms.

    "Mhmm?" Keeping her face on my chest, Fay purred in a low, growl.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Do you know? I mean, what happens when someone fails to be reborn into a supreme?"

    The truth was�� I didn''t know myself. I had no idea whether the concept of failing the rebirth even existed for Fay''s tribe�� or all living beings in general. In fact, it was the very princess that I was trying to stop Makary from chasing down and killing that was the most likely to have an actual answer.

    And yet�� Just by following my gut, I could tell those rebirths were no easy or straightforward matter. But surrounded by so many different secrets that continued to hint just how unfathomably greater the full picture was than anything I was even capable of imagining��

    I simply couldn''t pay all that much attention to everything, all at once!

    The appearance of my father who I''ve never really got to know properly. His gift, the portal to another world. Fay''s existence and the revtion of her race and qualities. Ongoing conflict between the forest dwellers and the imperial coalition.

    Hidden between those, a bad feeling about rebirths wasn''t high enough in the queue of my priorities for me to pay it all that much attention.

    And yet, I could tell without a shred of a doubt, that if I faced my next rebirth in my current, shaken state��

    The consequences would be disastrous.

    "It can go two ways," Fay spoke as she pressed her forehead against my chest, angling her chin away from my sr plexus as she gave her lips some room to move. "Roughly half of the failures die on the spot," Fay reported in a disinterested voice before inching her head up a little and giving me one hell of a lovely, upward nce.

    "Others go crazy and won''t go down until they exhaust all of their auras," Fay finished her exnation and shook her shoulders.

    "Oh��" Makary muttered in response, suddenly weighed down by the dire consequences of the fighting were to resume.

    ''At least now I know, huh?'' I shook my head, allowing those idle thoughts for but a second.

    "Now, back to the main topic. First, we don''t want to kill the people that will ve away to build our power here," I announced before putting a huge, wide grin on my lips. "And I don''t want just the right person to have this arranged to die a dog''s death while running away from our boys."

 Chapter 291: Who else?

    "There''s trouble back at the garrison!"

    This single report was enough to turn the rtively silent insides of themanding truck to a perfect silence, undisturbed by even the tiniest and most fleeting noise.

    "What trouble?"

    After the initial shock, Makary was the first one to react.

    "There are some activists swarming our gates," the soldier swiftly reported, raising up from the one knee he fell on once he realized there was no deep shit of a punishment waiting for him for breaking the chain ofmand.

    He couldn''t be med, though.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Given our current situation, we have yet to iron out a method tomunicate across my gate. And before we would figure out how to automate the process, relying on human messengers was likely to be the only way to keep up thems.

    The soldier raised his head�� and directed his eyes straight to my face.

    "Apparently, they are looking for Mister Peter here. There are some that im he was kidnapped by our group and demanding his release."

    Madam raised her eyebrow while Makary simply stared at the man, struggling to decide whether to believe those ridiculous ims or not.

    "Since when there were enough people on the other side that would care for me enough to organize something like this?" I asked, perfectly aware of my standing back on earth with the few people who even knew who I was. So, I shook my head. "It''s an obvious bait, a disturbance. The question is, what''s the goal of whoever is behind this mess?"

    Makary''s face tensed up before twisting in an ugly grimace.

    "This is problematic indeed," Makary admitted before heaving a deep sigh and resting his back against the wall of themanding cabin within the truck. "Can''t we just bring you out, show you around, and then ignore them?"

    I squinted my eyes.

    "Certainly, that would be one way to stop whatever is happening over there, but��" I hesitated for a long while, turning silent even though I could tell how much everyone wanted to know what else I had to say. "I don''t know why, but it just feels wrong."

    That was the gist of it.

    My gut was screaming out over how this sudden trouble exploding under our ass right as we needed some time to manage and stabilize our affairs and position on the other side of my gate��

    It couldn''t be just a coincidence. And there just so happened to be one existence that I pushed to the back of my head recently�� But the existence of the importance and influence of which I couldn''t underestimate.

    "What if it''s that dark aura piece of shit?" I muttered under my nose, too deep in my thoughts to care for Makary and Madam hearing me ramble.

    "Doesn''t it make sense, hon?" Fay spoke out, pushing aside all of her own doubts and hesitations, focusing on the burning problem at hand instead. "Whatever they were aiming for, I don''t think your actions were in line with what they expected. So, before all will be lost, they decided to make a move, regardless of how desperate it might be."

    I shook my head to wake myself up from the state of deep thought before directing my eyes to Fay''s delicate and slightly concerned face.

    "That�� certainly makes sense," I admitted�� even though I couldn''t fully agree.

    For how were we supposed to judge the actions of the being we knew nothing about if they likely transcended all of our imagination?

    We knew nothing of that being''s goal, reasons, methods, and level ofmitment. In a sense, we didn''t even know if they were on our side, neutral, or dead-set on bringing us down!

    And in such a scenario, how were we to even begin guessing their motives and next moves?

    ''Still, we have to start somewhere,'' I thought, gritting my teeth as the pain of knowing pretty much nothing and still trying to make things work out once again filled my soul.

    ''It''s freaking annoying how this issue is quickly turning from an episodic pain in the ass into a chronic hurt of my butt.''

    "So there''s some sort of a deeper plot going on?" Makary asked out loud, forcing me to once again get my head out of my own thoughts. "Care to share some deets on it?"

    I raised my eyes and gave the man a long look�� before heaving a deep, exhausted sigh.

    "I would do so already if we knew anything more than that there''s someone messing up with me back on earth," I imed. "Like, didn''t you find the shit my aunt threw me in to be a bit�� overexaggerated?"

    Makary squinted his eyes a little while Madam alternated her eyes between the two of us, not exactly sure whether it was her ce to speak or not.

    "Oh right, we meant to ask you about this too," I spoke, only for a sudden inspiration to sh up in my soul along with a burst of daringness exploding in my soul, "Mom."

    Madam''s expression sharpened up a bit�� Only to mellow down into a slight smile as she looked back at me.

    "Ask away."

    Feeling Fay shift ufortably by my side, I gulped down my saliva before recalling and then organizing all I knew about the problem of the dark aura affecting my life even before I first knowingly came into contact with any sort of aura.

    "First, do you remember that dark aura you must''ve noticed in and around me when you first saw me?" I asked.

    Madam squinted her eyes a little, but only ended up nodding her head a bit.

    "It''s hard to forget. It was so suffocating to be around it, I made sure to clear it all out once I dropped the idea of killing you on the spot," Madam revealed, her slight smile growing into a tiny smirk.

    And as bad as it sounded�� I could hardly me her for that.

    In fact, learning that she actually did something to clear my aura was a new and quite important piece of information for me.

    "The problem is, where that dark aurae from? Why was I so full of it? Was it the reason behind my life since the day my mom died turning irrationally bad? And howe there''s someone capable of casting all this dark aura on me even before I received my ability and opened the gate to this world for the very first time?"

    Not holding anything back, I revealed all the information and doubts I had regarding the topic.

    "And you believe this might be rted to�� the trouble back at the garrison?" Makary asked while giving me quite an intense look.

    "What else could be the reason?" I asked while spreading out my arms to the sides and shrugging them. "It''s not like there''s anyone else who could care for me enough, back on earth, to create a small riot just for my sake."

 Chapter 292: Bully to the rescue?

    "Let Peter go! Let Peter go!"

    A small crowd chanted from below the garrison''s gate.

    The wide street of the town''s absolute outskirts would usually be perfectly empty, devoid of any marks of human activity. Even the fence that separated the garrison proper from the mostly abandoned ruins around thepound was there just for the show, more to mark the garrison''s boundary than to prevent anyone from trespassing.

    And yet, when the time of its test came to be, the fence held, keeping the small crowd from intruding past the garrison''s gate and confining them just to the wide street leading to said gate.

    "Let Peter go! Let Peter go!"

    The crowd continued to chant. Some of its members carried huge signs with an image of fifteen years old boy and signed with the very same words that the rest of the crowd continued to chant.

    "Let Peter go! We say no to thewless kidnapping!"

    Following the example of the crowd''s leader with a microphone, the crowd changed their chant.

    "Let Peter go!" They called out as usual. "We say no to thewless kidnapping!"

    Beyond the gate, which was the only somewhat solid part of the fence, stood a small number of guards. And between the run-down fence and their guns�� it was pretty damn clear what was the actual wall that stopped the crowd from pouring into thepound.

    And it wasn''t some flimsy piece of cheap, metal mesh suspended between iron stakes driven into the ground.

    "Let Peter go!"

    The crowd continued to chant with passion. And from the fire in some of its members�� They appeared to truly believe in the agenda, finding a sense of mission and duty when it came to standing up for one of their own.

    "This isn''t working," Cassie muttered while standing at the very back of the crowd.

    Even now, after pretty much organizing most of the happening, she couldn''t bring herself to move up to the front.

    Because it was one thing to follow up on the news of Peter''s kidnapping by the mercenaries of Makary, the town''s infamous gangster. But potentially facing Peter if all of this proved to be just a misunderstanding? Or even facing him if he actually was kidnapped?

    The mere thought of actually looking Peter in the eyes was enough to make Cassie shiver and have cold sweat cover her back.

    "Do you have any other idea for what else we could do?" Standing right by Cassie''s side, Irenemented.

    She was the one missing link that allowed Cassie to exploit all of her means, favors, and contacts and turn them from an unorganized mob into a cohesive group of people with one, shared goal shining at the end of the path they stepped on.

    Irene gave Cassie a short nce before turning her eyes over to the clearly ufortable guards on the other side of the fence.

    They were ufortable standing still while the crowd ahead belittled them as a part of their protests. And while the looks some of the guards gave made it clear they were itching to start sting�� The rest of Makary''s men clearly hoped they wouldn''t need to use their tools of work to pacify the situation.

    "Ever since police gave up on this district, it''s impossible to make theme over. Not without something big enough to catch the interest of the city''s elites," Irene muttered, putting a displeased look on her lips as she averted her eyes from the guards.

    Then, prompted by the sound of a car''s exhaust, she looked over to the back, to the supposedly empty street.

    "Are wete?"

    Jumping out of the car as soon as it came to a stop, Cassie''s and Irene''s ssmate walked out with a sense of urgency painted all over his worried face.

    And just like back in ss, where he would lead a group of hisckeys to bully people, he came with the backing of his retainers.

    Yet, rather than the small packages of paint, cups full of bugs, or sharp ins, the man''sckeys came equipped with banners like the ones already proliferating within the crowd.

    "To think he woulde too," Cassie muttered under her nose, her face darkening a little. "It''s hard to bete when nothing happened yet," she then replied to the man out loud before turning back to look at thepound nearby.

    "So it really happened," Lorren muttered, his face darkening even further as he scanned the crowd ahead, the gate beyond all the people and then a small group of armed guards making sure no idiot would dare to actually touch said gate or the fence around it.

    "We still can''t be sure," Irene pointed out before resting her hands on her hips and heaving a deep, long sigh. "But I think if they did nothing wrong, someone woulde out to deal with this event."

    "Let Peter go! We say no to thewless kidnapping!"

    The crowd''s chanting continued. And even though the entire thing started quite a while ago�� Rather than slowly losing people over the passing time, the crowd only appeared to grow.

    Sure, the process was slow and gradual, with only one, two, or maybe three people joining at a time�� But it felt that all one needed was to close their eyes down for a few moments for the crowd to double in size.

    Thepound''s guards took an urate measure of that fact, quickly moving more and more people to the fence.

    And from the looks of it, those reinforcements came bearing some heavier weapons, just in case the worst possible scenario came to be.

    "Still, to think he would end up like that��" Lorren pressed his lips together as he looked over at thepound.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    For a moment, his face distorted as an ugly grimace took over the fleeting sense of pity present in his expression before.

    "I''m not even sure what the hell you think you are doing here," Cassie muttered�� but just loud enough for her ssmate to hear. "You bullied him all you could back in the ss, and now you are trying to act as a hero who came to save the day?"

    Cassie stared daggers at the man, not faltering and looking away when Lorren raised his eyes and returned her intense stare.

    "That little shi��"

    Lorren closed his eyes and took a deep breath before finishing up the insult he was already cooking in his mouth. And as he opened his eyes back up, the hint of vileness formerly present was now nowhere to be seen.

    "Sure, I bullied him. I bullied him to the point where even I started to think I was going too far. And I never shied away from inviting others to join in the fun," Lorren revealed all of that without even a hint of shame or remorse in his voice. "But to kidnap him and hold him against his will?"

    Cassie''s ssmate shook his head.

    "Even I, as little as I have of a right to speak on the issue, believe this is too fucked up. Too much. Even bullying needs to have its limits."

    Looking at the man, Cassie hardly managed to hold back the curse that was itching to leave the confines of her mouth and help Lorren grow aware of the extent of just how despicable he was.

    In the end though, just like back when she bore witness to all the bullying Peter went through�� Cassie decided to speak nothing and do nothing.

    ''Right now, he''s here to help. This idea will never work out if��''

    "That''s riching from someone who nearly pushed him to take his own life!"

    Contrary to her friend, Irene wasn''t the type to hold back her words, all the more when she was in an emotional state.

    "Don''t get me wrong, I''m d you are here, especially when you brought your mates," Irene stole a quick nce at the three men Lorren came with, all looking no more interesting than an average non-yer-character in any game who served purpose no other than making up a fake crowd and making the fictional world look a little bit more alive.

    "Being here today doesn''t absolve you of all you did in the past."

    For a moment, Irene and Lorren seized each other up with their eyes, neither willing to step it down a notch and give up. Yet, as the chanting of the crowd suddenly stopped, they had no other choice but to shelve their conflict and look over to the gate.

    "Well, whether it can absolve me of my past or not, I''m here. And I''m not going to leave until those fuckers let Peter go," Lorren''s face tensed up as sparks of determination fired up in his eyes.

    "Is there anyone here who actually knows Peter?!"

    The voice filled all the air around in a mere instant, courtesy of a loudspeaker used by one of the guards.

    And the very first of said guards to actually approach the gate with an open intention of dealing with the protest now that it grew to quite a considerable size.

    And with that single question�� Thepound''s guard managed to silence all those who were still trying to chant.

    The core of the crowd consisted of people Cassie and Irene managed to call up and share the news of the situation with. Those who cameter did so due to the invitation of those whom Cassie and Irene roped in. All those who arrivedter, either couldn''t afford to drop everything and join the moment the news reached them��

    Or simply joined the protest for the sake of protesting rather than actively rooting for Peter''s case.

    "You are not going toe up?" Lorren asked when the guard''s call failed to produce a single volunteer. He turned his eyes and looked at Cassie, only causing her to bring her eyes down and her face to cover in a bright blush. "Well, in that case��"

    In spite of all that happened in the past, all the near-endless grievances that Peter stacked against him�� Lorren still was the first to take a step forward.

    Within the crowd of people all aggressively demanding Peter to be freed, only his actual bully had the guts to move beyond the level of just chanting and try to reach the spot where he could orchestrate Peter''s release.

    Or so he would, if not for Irene pping Cassie''s back strong enough to send her stumbling forward and leaving a pping noise that made the people near turn their heads around to check out what was going on.

    "This is no time to hesitate, sister," Irene spoke out while forcing a small smile on her mouth. "This is your chance to make amends, so you better go and im it!"

 Chapter 293: Upset

    Walking up to the gate proved much more troublesome than Cassie would think�� If she spared the task of doing so a single thought beforehand, that is.

    Yet, thinking about it or not, she had no other choice but to squeeze through the very same crowd that she organized to reach anywhere near the gate.

    "Excuse me," "Yeah, sorry," "I''m sorry," "Passing through��"

    Bit by bit, Cassie squeezed between people. At first, this task nearly proved to be too much for a feeble-framed girl like her, making her question whether or not she could really do it.

    Yet, maybe out of his desire to get to the gate first, or maybe after noticing Cassie''s struggles, Lorren moved a bit more decisively, squeezing past the girl and taking upon himself the brunt of creating the path ahead.

    ''Now we are getting somewhere,'' Cassie thought when instead of carving a path through the crowd, she could move by simply exploiting the gaps created by Lorren squeezing through ahead of her.

    Still, the guard''s shouting wasn''t getting any louder. In fact, by the time Cassie managed to reach more or less the middle of the crowd, those very guards were already looking as if they were about to give up on whatever they needed Peter''s real-life friends for.

    "I''m here!" Cassie shouted after crossing a few more steps, shooting her hand out in hopes that by waving it above the heads of the crowd she could stop the guards from leaving.

    "We are here!" Once again making use of big bigger frame and, in this particr scenario, the greater volume of his lungs, Lorren shouted.

    Contrary to Cassie''s pitiful attempts at making herself heard, Lorren''s voice managed to cut through all the noise and reach the guards. What''s more, even the people around them finally started to notice the pair, making them move to the sides and open up a path for them to cross through.

    "We are here��" Cassia muttered upon reaching the very front of the crowd where only the gate was left to stand in her path. She leaned forward while resting her hands on her knees, taking her time to calm her breath after the rtively strenuous exercise.

    "And you guys are��?"

    Before Cassie could even regain her breath, the very same guard who called out for Peter''s friends approached the gate from its other side only to give the two an intense look.

    "I''m Peter''s former ssmate, and she is his girl��"

    "I''m his ex-girlfriend," Cassie spoke out for herself before Lorren incorrectly introduced her.

    Judging by the sharp look he gave her upon first hearing of the update was quite the something.

    "Good," not giving the two any time to think andmunicate, the guard spoke out�� before pulling out his phone. "It would be one hell of a pain to bring Peter all the way here, so we are going to call him instead," the guard spoke while already selecting the number on his cell and switching on the loudspeaker function. "And of course, it will be out for everyone��"

    The guard looked over the two and at the crowd gathered behind their backs. The crowd was far bigger than the area a simple phone''s loudspeaker could cover alone.

    The man dialed the number and started the call only to turn his head around and look over his colleagues.

    "Patric, pass me the speaker," the guard requested, only to receive the loudspeaker from his fellow guard, flip its switch on, and bring the mouthpiece towards the phone''s speaker.

    Tick.

    The sound of the call connecting, amplified through the loudspeaker filled the entire area.

    "What the fuck do you want?!"

    ***

    "What the fuck do you want?!"

    With my phone held right to my mouth by Fay, I cursed out the caller.

    Even though I knew this call was going toe, even though I could somewhat estimate its timing��

    It was still annoying to be so focused on a simple yet extremely precise task, only for the phone''s call to disturb me.

    And it was of no importance that all I was busy with was knitting a simple scarf.

    Still, for a mere beginner who took up the knitting tools for the first time merely a few minutes ago, just keeping the scarf''s prototype from falling apart right in my hands was taking a huge chunk of my focus.

    "Don''t you know��"

    I got ready to berate the people on the other end of the call, only to cut my curses short.

    "Fay, dear, hold this thread for me, could you?" I requested while looking up and directing Fay''s attention to the one, pesky thread that felt like it gained consciousness just for the sake of fucking with me.

    "This one?" Fay asked, reaching out and pointing her finger at the annoying, loose thread before casting a quick nce to confirm the answer off my face.

    "Yeah, if you would��"

    With Fay grabbing the end of the annoying thread and pulling it to tense it up, I finally managed to weave the thread I was focusing on into the tapestry that made up the scarf''s prototype.

    "There��" I muttered, satisfied with the result. Then and only then I turned my eyes and attention back to the call, but not before ensuring I held all the necessary threads of my project properly tensed up, keeping the prototype from unveiling itself and turning back into just a bunch of fluffy threads.

    "So, let me ask again," I spoke out in the direction of my phone in a calm voice, only to turn it up the moment I opened my mouth again. "Don''t you know I''m fucking busy? What the hell do you want?!"

    ***

    "Don''t you know I''m fucking busy? What the hell do you want?!" n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    The voice came out of the guard''s phone only to get amplified by the loudspeaker he held close by, thus turning a simple, rtively silent curse into a massive announcement the entire crowd of protesters could easily hear.

    "We tried not to bother you with it, but there''s a whole slew of people who came, acting as if we kidnap��"

    "Oh for fucks sake!"

    Despite the curses and clearly unsavory mood of the man on the other end of the phone, the guard''s hand holding the loudspeaker didn''t even twitch, keeping it firmly pressed against the cell''s speaker.

    "Those damn threads are too damn small to handle! Fuck!"

    A series of new, fresh curses followed, stopping the guard from finalizing the exnation.

    "You were saying��?"

    Finally, Peter, or whoever acted like him, turned his attention away from whatever he was busying himself with back to the ongoing call.

    "People think we kidnapped you. They even came up with a protest trying to make us release you��"

    The guard with the phone managed to keep up an empty expression so far�� only to start failing as he brought up the topic of the protest.

    "Wait, what? Who in their right mind�� No, who?" Peter posed several questions in quick session. The surprise was all over his voice and manner of speech, only further reinforcing the point that he wasn''t, indeed, a kidnapped person.

    "You guys are��?" The guard raised his eyes and lowered his voice as he looked at the pair, pretending not to notice the first signs of unrest rippling through the crowd.

    Those people came to genuinely support the initiative of putting pressure on an unruly gang to force them to release a kidnapped citizen before the city itself would take notice. And now that the situation was turning out not to be as simple as they were told��

    It was only a matter of time before some of them would start to leave, assuming they wouldn''t stick around to see how things would end up ying out.

    Either way, once the first few would drop the protest, be it to leave or to just watch from the sideline, more of them would follow.

    And now that the first seeds of doubt were sown in their heads, it was only a matter of time before the cohesiveness that kept the protest together would dry out, turning them from an organized and thus potentially dangerous force into just a scattered mob of onlookers and troublemakers.

    "I''m Lorren, I''m Peter''s ssmate."

    "I''m��" Cassie hesitated when inevitably faced with the issue of confronting Peter.

    ''We didn''t exchange a single word since the day he called me��'' she thought, only to remember the one instance when they chanced upon each other out in the street, only for Peter to fully ignore her.

    "You are��?" The guard drilled his eyes into Cassie''s face.

    "I''m Cassie��" Cassie averted her eyes right as deep blush covered her cheeks, "Peter''s ex."

    This time, no curse came from the phone. Only�� silence.

    "Osman��" Peter''s voice, when it came again, turned extremely weary. "Just to be sure. Tell me, are you seriously distracting me while I''m on the job with those two?"

    The silence returned as Osman''s expression grew ugly.

    "But they are��"

    "Chase them away, shoot them, sell them, I don''t care. Anything else?"

    Osman clenched his jaws before forcing a fake smile on his lips.

    "No, that will be all, sorry for taking your time man."

    Osman cut the call and brought the loudspeaker away before passing both items over to the hands of his colleague to the side. He then turned his eyes back to the duo at the gate only to drill his eyes into them while they struggled to figure out what kind of face to make.

    By now, there was hardly anyone within the crowd who believed in the kidnapping ims. But to im this matter was settled would mean getting ahead of oneself.

    "Now that we''ve established we did not, in fact, kidnap Peter," Osman spoke out after taking his sweet time torturing the two young adults with his stare. "How about you share what made you believe we did?"

    Faced with the reality that Peter was actually safe and sound, Cassie felt as if a massive weight had dropped off her shoulders.

    Even with how they parted ways, even with all of the misunderstandings that happened before and since then, even with how she nearly gave up on their rtionship��

    A wave of relief washed down Cassie''s soul.

    Peter was safe.

    But now was the time for her to face the reality and the consequence of organizing a pretty intense protest.

    "It was Irene��" Cassie muttered before turning her head all around as she tried to peer through the crowd to locate her friend. "I mean, my friend Irene showed me the photos and imed she tracked the car that took him all the way here��" Cassie replied, only for her voice to grow less and less confident as the ugly reality started to settle in.

    The reality�� in which Irene was actually nowhere to be seen!

 Chapter 294: Culprit revealed

    "Is it over now?" I asked, raising my eyes from the half-finished scarf in my hands.

    In the end, the task that I took on just to make my voice over the phone more believable proved to be quite interesting. And from the very moment, I imagined Fay wearing a scarf I made with my own, two eyes��

    "I certainly hope so," Makary replied, casting a quick nce at the distant entrance to the hangar.

    In theory, it was possible to make a call from Fay''s world over to Earth.

    But for it to happen, quite a lot of equipment had to be put in ce, from the local ry tower to even pick up the call in the first ce, through transfer stations on both sides of the gate along with a cable thick enough to convey the electric signal through while shielding the encoded information from the gate''s interference��

    Bridging the gap between the two worlds was certainly possible. It would offer some unique challenges and might take some time and effort to do so�� But it certainly was going to happen.

    Just�� not yet.

    As much as I wanted to pry deeper into the topic, there was hardly any point in doing so. With our trio located at the very end of the hangar, merely a few steps away from the gate, we were equally unable to see the situation outside. And while all it would take was a single drone to film the events and stream them to one of theputers within the hangar��

    By now, all of the vital equipment that could help with the war effort on the other side was either already on the other side or in the process of being moved over there.

    Thankfully, before our wait could stretch beyond the point we could handle, Madam appeared before our eyes, calmly walking back from where she stood guard by the hangar''s gate.

    "It''s over," she announced, instantly bringing forth a wave of relief that washed through me and Makary while hardly affecting Fay at all.

    Even though she made great advances on her path of bing more and more like a modern person�� Hermon sense was still of her own world rather than of earth. And for her, this entire problem with protesters was too stupid to even worry about it.

    After all, if they seriously could cause actual problems, didn''t Makary have more than enough guns and men more than willing to pick them up to chase all those troublemakers away?

    Still, Makary decided against the forceful methods, for reasons as in as a day for a properly modern person like me. In Fay''s eyes and perception, though, Makary holding back on how decisively he dealt with the protesters could only mean that they were never worthy of much of his attention, to begin with.

    "Also," contrary to everyone else, Madam didn''t show any signs of being happy or relieved. On the other hand, she appeared�� worried?

    "I saw that girl," Madam made another announcement before summing it up with a long, exhausted sigh followed by a quick nce up my face. "And it''s not her."

    There were many reasons why we had to take care of the issue of the protesters. And the protesters themselves were merely one of the troublesome issues we had to deal with, and quite frankly, one of the minor ones.

    A thing to deal with for the sake of further convenience, not a proper reason to abandon the battlefield the very moment the battle concluded, giving our enemies more than ample amount of time to regroup and prepare.

    But just like a massive army of people wielding cold weapons could hardly be a concern for a much smaller army wielding modern, hot weapons�� A massive army armed with technology of thete medieval period was merely an afterthought whenpared to the threat posed by the one existence that continued to slip out of my grasp.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    The son of a whore who infused both my very own self and nearly all of my surroundings with this suffocating, dark aura. The bastard behind nting the seed of darkness in my soul, a seed that I only had my system to thank for reversing the order of who ended up eating who.

    Without my system, rather than turning this seed of darkness into a useful if not slightly overpowered ability, that seed was likely to use my own power if not life to properly awaken.

    "That means, the true culprit is still atrge," I muttered with an ugly grimace forming on my lips. "Or so I would say if not��"

    My face tensed up.

    I saw nothing strange. There was no weird noise nor did the nearby equipment behave strangely.

    I just�� Didn''t feel like finishing up my sentence would be the best of the ideas.

    Taking a deep breath, I shook my head in resignation.

    "If not for the fact that I don''t have a damn fucking clue who else could it be!"

    It was just a mere feeling. But after all the time I spent in Fay''s world, I grew to put a lot more importance on my instincts. For what they were, if not the unconscious part of my body making some sort of observation or calction that eluded my conscious side?

    ''And with my attributes as high as they are now, it''s pretty much given that I have yet to fully master their use.''

    Hearing my words, Fay gave me a short, strange look, before sensing the caution out in my soul and quickly peering through our bond to find its source. On the other hand, Makary didn''t bother to pry any further, as his entire picture of the situation was crafted out of the limited information on the topic I shared with him.

    In other words, contrary to Fay, he had no other choice but to believe the bullshit I came up with on the spot.

    For by now, the identity of the culprit�� was pretty much revealed.

    ''But knowing who it is, doesn''t make it any easier to deal with them!'' I groaned in my thoughts at the mere idea of facing someone capable of messing up with me to such a degree while hardly revealing their hand.

    "Well, that was a dud, then," I summed the situation up.

    The main reason why we removed ourselves from Fay''s world was to deal with the protests on the surface, and hopefully flush out the culprit behind all of the dark aura that infested me and those directly around me. Yet, with the second and actually the primary goal of our mission seemingly failing, our reasons for staying back on earth pretty much dried out.

    "That was kind of�� anticlimactic?" Fay spoke out, only hesitating for a second when she came to picking up the right word to pass the meaning she had in her head.

    "Yeah," I quickly and happily nodded my head before putting the nearly finished scarf aside and standing up. "Shall we go back, then?" I suggested before turning my eyes over to the stable gate. "We are not exactly in a situation where we can dawdle around��"

    Letting mystment make its way past his ears, Makary only rolled his eyes before waving his hand at the nearby soldiers as he started to walk towards and then through the gate.

    "He doesn''t feel like ordering us around, I guess?" I muttered, trying to find the reason behind Makary''s silent attitude while grabbing Fay''s hand and pulling her along toward the gate.

    The experience of passing through the border between the worlds was quite different from what I could expect after all my experiences with my main portal.

    Before the stable gate, every transfer woulde at a price of a sense of falling into the endless void for a moment, before being spat out on the other side of the portal. On the other hand, when crossing through the stable gate�� I could hardly feel a thing.

    It was as if this bigger and more practical gate was several times moreplex than its primitive cousin, allowing for features that my initial spell could never offer.

    Still, as I approached the gate�� I just couldn''t help myself. And in spite of my former decision not to waste too much time thinking about the things that could wait, as I made thest step and pushed my foot through the gate��

    I forced myself into a focus as deep as I was capable of, pretty much nearing the state I was in when I finally felt the extremely feeble, microscopic dark aura back in my confinement.

    For a mere instant, my perception shot through the roof, exploiting all there was to my recently improved attributes.

    And it was in this moment of crossing through the gate in a state ofplete focus, all aimed to study the inner workings of the portal�� When I saw her.

    The likely culprit behind my darkness affliction. The main reason behind all the mystery I experienced before my alleged father''s gift brought a change to my mindset and offered me the opportunity to change both myself and my fate.

    And right now, she somehow managed to cross through the entire hangar choke-full filled with soldiers and scanning equipment without anyone or anything noticing her only to step through the gate right as all four of the faction''s VIPs moved over to the other side.

    For a second, the world around me copsed, reced with the strange dimension that connected the two points in two different spaces.

    At first, the familiar mana of the portal surged forth to stabilize the passage. Yet, as I peered deeper and deeper into the fabric of the spell�� I saw the one element that simply had no right to be there.

    A near-endless source, a moving vein of darkness.

    Darkness far finer than even the tiny presence I learned how to notice back during the imprisonment of my rebirth. And with darkness so overwhelming, all I could do was just sit down and observe in awe.

    The passage copsed. The single instant for which both words vanished from my eyes ended up being reced by the picture of the opening in the forest that was as sunny as it was filled with corpses.

    "Now then," I sped my hands, causing Makary to turn round just like Madam and a few soldiers around. And with Fay being the only one who could tell the turmoil in my soul, all I could do��

    All I could do was to gulp down my saliva, take a deep breath, and put a wide smile on my face.

    "How about we get back to work?" I suggested while cheekily leaning my head over my left shoulder. "We still have a prideful princess and half of her army left to deal with!"

 Chapter 297: Three simple steps

    The entire concept, the stratagem thatid at the foundation of my n was fairly simple and consisted of three, equally as simple lines of thought.

    ''First, stop her from realizing that I know, while letting others know.''

    I saw no limits to the endless void of darkness that Irene was tapping into. Just seeing her through that intricately fine aura of darkness forced me to acknowledge the straightforward truth about the matter.

    The darkness, the element that I was now only starting to get familiar with, was Irene''s very own realm. What still felt like an elusive and external power behaved as the flow of Irene''s own aura.

    ''Just like the flow within Madam''s domain.''

    It was something I''ve noticed second-hand only. Before my first meeting with Etaria, I noticed the lingering momentum of Madam''s influence hanging in the air. During the recent battle, both Fay''s mom and the golden princess, for some reason, refused to deploy their domains altogether.

    Still, from the few hints and clues, I recognized the very same way in which the darkness behaved around��

    ''No, that''s not the right word.''

    It wasn''t that the darkness surrounded Irene''s being.

    This intricately fine, nearly too minuscule for me to ever notice an aura of darkness felt like the very fabric Irene''s being was knitted from.

    My greatest ace in the sleeve was the very thing that defined Irene''s powers. Powers that I was incapable of perceiving the limits of.

    And so, in the face of such an overwhelming might, I had no other choice but to do everything to avoid confrontation. And stopping Irene from realizing I was aware of her, was the first step on this particr path.

    "Swarm deployed, starting the scan," Makary''s soldier reported in an energetic voice.

    ''Now, for the second step��''

    Taking a deep breath, I tightened my hold over Fay''s frame.

    "I will be fine."

    Sensing the hint of worry resurfacing in my soul, Fay cuddled up to my side.

    This personal moment of ourssted only for a single instant before our attention drew back to the vital stuff.

    "Here we go," Makary muttered, dropping down on one knee and leaning towards the simplified projection of the map of our area.

    The ck smoke rose from the bulky backside of one of the armored trucks. With a slight buzz, it then dispersed in the air, before allowing its currents to carry it all around.

    The copy of the map from themanding truck shed once, then twice��

    And then, a fresh set of much more detailed data started to appear all over the projection.

    "It''s going to take some time for the AI to properly process everything," Makary cautioned, letting everyone know the counterintuitive reality of the artificial battle nner.

    "Isn''t it supposed to be that far better than us, humans?" I asked, more than eager to engage in any kind of nonsense talk that would serve to draw any suspicions Irene might have away from the truth.

    "It''s designed to be used during active engagements," Makary replied quickly enough to prove it wasn''t the first time he considered the problem. "You wouldn''t want it to start sting your own people just because its data was iplete."

    Contrary to the civilian programming of thest years that effectively supplemented if not outright removed the need for humanbor in many of the professional fields, the battlefield continued toe with stiptions that limited its actual use.

    And given the magnitude of the weapons that everyone was ready to bring to bear once the conflict would erupt, no one dared to risk a single software malfunction wiping out entire cities off the map.

    Waiting for the swarm to gather all the necessary info for the battlefield nner to feed on, I took a quick look around. And what I''ve only needed a single look to find out, only proved Makary''s worries to be well-founded in reality.

    Sure, we didn''t have the caliber capable of wiping out cities�� But between the guns mounted on themanding trucks, the cannons on Maglev, scythe-ss machine guns mounted atop the predators'' cages��n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    With most if not all of those heavy guns integrated into the battlefield nner''s programming, a single AI''s miscalction would be enough to wipe out half of Makary''s forces within a single instant.

    "It''s about to��"

    Makary didn''t even finish his words before the projected map shed three times in quick session�� Only for a sea of dots to appear all over the ce.

    I took a deep breath�� And took a closer look at the area directly where we stood.

    "It feels weird to look at yourself from a bird''s-eye view," I muttered, leaning it over the projection.

    Makary gave me a quick look before turning his eyes back to the projection, or rather, its specific part depicting our direct surroundings.

    "It is indeed, but��" Makary held his voice for a second before giving me a sneaky, cheeky look. "Would you believe if I told you it''s the first time I''ve noticed it?"

    I gave the man a long nce�� while internally having a solid breath of relief.

    I looked as closely as I could, but the AI didn''t disy any presence I wouldn''t recognize. And while it only applied to my most-direct surroundings given how just a few meters further the crowd of soldiers and Fay''s kin alike made such observation impossible��

    This simple realization, as pointless as it was in the grand scheme of things, irrationally allowed me to rx a considerable bit.

    Makary gave me another look�� only to turn his eyes back to the map, again.

    "Just a little bit more and we will see that bitch," he pointed out before waving at the projection and causing it to scale out, rapidly increasing the size of the area it disyed.

    In a second, the map grew big enough to cover the distance all the way to the edge of the forest. Within three seconds, it reached out the edge of the camp of Etaria''s imperial army.

    By the time the process slowed down and ground to a stop, we could see first hints of what was going on in the frontier city nearest to the forest.

    "This damn wench��"

    Makary took the news disyed on the map in silence. I took a second to figure out what to even say.

    Only Fay disyed no inhibitions and openly uttered what we all wanted to scream out.

    Busy dealing with the issue of Irene, we''ve allowed Etaria to bring out the bulk of her forces outside of the forest. And while I anticipated the possibility she would quickly invoke a general retreat that would make any decisive victory pretty damn hard to im��

    I surely couldn''t help but gasp a bit when I saw that that damned princess not only managed to bring her battered forces out of the woods and rally them at the old, mercenary camp�� But also reorganize them into a brand new army and even start the process of putting them all in a formation!

    "It seems we are running out of time if we want any hope of dealing with this matter before it turns ugly��" Makary muttered, his attention instantly snapping away from my slightly cryptic behavior and moving on to the issue at hand. "If they reach the woods again��"

    "Yeah, I get it," I spat down on the ground before raising up and pping my own cheeks to let the slight sting of doing so help sober up my thoughts. "We need to get on the move."

    "Good thing is, my men weren''t cking off!"

    By now, Makary appeared to havepletely forgotten my weird behavior and cryptic messages from before, fully focusing himself on the actual task at hand and even going as far as to give me another cheeky smile.

    As if onmand, all the vehicles that already moved through the gate started to rev their engines up. And in a moment shorter than it would take me to say "What the actual fuck," all of the battle vehicles started to move and form an orderly line.

    A line aimed straight at where Etaria was about to finish forming her army in a bid to try her luck in the forest again.

    Caring not for all the trees in the way of any serious armored column to drive through, Makary simply waved his hand to give the order to advance��

    Thete-modern inventions of humanity quickly proved the superiority of metal over wood.

    The armored truck at the front served as the waymaker, crushing all the trees in its way under the immense weight of the armor designed to withstand low-yield nuclear discharge. The tracks on the truck''s back squashed all the broken bits and pieces of the trees, turning them into a solid mix of soil, wooden chips, and scattered scones.

    Following the main truck, one of the Maglevs hovered low above the newly established truck, making use of yet another quality of its mysterious operating force to furtherpress the mold of earth and wood, turning it into a suitable track for all the other vehicles in line.

    "Let''s go," Makary called out, going as far as to grab my arm and pull me forth, effectively abandoning the mobile map projector to his subordinates as he rushed the four of our group back to the insides of the mainmanding truck before it too would move to join the column.

    ''Third step,'' I thought, gulping my saliva down as my thoughts inevitably turned back to the unknown threat that Irene''s mere presence represented.

    The first step was all about stopping Irene from realizing I knew about her presence.

    The second step was all about distracting her and making her believe we were going out to massacre the living shit out of anyone who stood in our path.

    And the third step has just now begun!

 Chapter 302: The other end of the call

    "Then, would you care to borate on why you''ve been trying to ughter your own army?"

    I asked his question even though I, pretty much, could figure out the answer. Taking the step from "Why does she need this war" to "She needs to remove those soldiers from the picture" was the hard part. Figuring out the reasons why she needed her own soldiers gone turned out to be extremely easy.

    Still, I could name at least three different possibilities. And rather than basing my further assumptions on guessing, I decided to go with the easiest route�� and just ask.

    "And what makes you��" Etaria''s voice came out from the walkie-talkie I kept on myp.

    Because I made sure to only provide her with the absolutely the worst and oldest tech I could have Makary source, there was no video feature within themunication kit, forcing me to guess all the stuff I would normally figure out from the face of my conversation partner.

    Thankfully, despite onlying into contact with the princes a few times, I''ve managed to, more or less, create her profile in my head. And with it, just from how she hesitated, paused, and stopped for a short moment, I could guess what kind of face the princess was making.

    "Is cutting all the needless bullshit one of the reasons why you contacted me this way?"

    When the princess'' voice came back, shepletely shifted the topic away from my question.

    "I mean��" I hesitated for a second, quickly running through all the possible scenarios born from confirming or denying Etaria''s guess. "You can take anything I say however you like. We can evene to terms and make a deal��"

    This time, I didn''t hesitate. The pause I made wasn''t something I needed to think my words through either.

    It was merely a courtesy of giving the princess some time to stomach what I just said.

    "In the end, though, whatever deal we make through this device will onlye into y once we announce it together and do so publicly." I took a deep breath only to then smile at my own thoughts. "And worry not, whatever deal we might make, I will craft the deal in a way that will make it nigh impossible for your side to break it."

    I released the trigger of the walkie-talkie, cutting the connection and taking a deep breath.

    Even though we had hardly touched any actual topics, my heart was already beating fast, giving in to the vibe of the excitement.

    Casting doubt, weaving schemes, crafting stories, and making deals behind everyone''s back��

    Wasn''t this just the best?

    I rolled my eyes over my own thoughts before breathing out a long sigh. Then, I reached out and pressed the tool''s trigger again.

    "Anyway, let''s go back to the first question. Would you like to tell me why you want your own soldiers to die?" I asked, pausing for just a second while making sure to keep the trigger of the walkie-talkie pressed thus stopping Etaria from speaking even if she wanted to.

    I still had something left to say, after all.

    "Or would you rather have me reveal my guess so that we can see whether we are already on the same page?"

    Figuring out that Etaria actively sabotaged the efforts of her own army was the hard part. Guessing why, not so much.

    "And by asking for your guess, I would admit that your suspicions are right. Is this really the level of vocal traps you want to use on me?"

    To my surprise, Etaria found the trap in my words. Trap that I never really set up, but one that came to be either way.

    And a few moments'' worth of my silenceter, that damned princess just couldn''t help herself but throw some salt upon my wounded pride.

    "Judging by your silence, I''ve hit the jackpot, didn''t I?" Etaria gloated, making it pretty damn easy to imagine the satisfied look she had on her pretty face.

    ''In all honesty�� good for her, I guess?'' I thought, keeping my hand just a few inches shy from the walkie-talkie, not to press the speak button by some ident.

    This was the one and only moment she would have the chance to feel victorious. The talk I was about to have with her wasn''t a negotiation between the equal parties, but more of the terms offered by the victor to the defeated.

    And the fact that the victor has yet to be revealed through the means of an actual and decisive battle�� mattered not.

    "To be honest, I''m already aware of the fact. And in all of my genuine honesty, I''m merely curious whether my guess for your reasons is correct or not. The vital part, though, remains," I borated once judging the princess got enough time to enjoy her small victory in our discussion.

    "And that vital part, is?" Etaria quickly inquired.

    "The fact that you need those soldiers out of the picture," I revealed the one area where our current-most interests aligned. "You need to get rid of the troops that might prove to be a danger to your cause while I need people to work for cheap. Quite the beneficial coincidence, isn''t it?"

    For whatever reason, Etaria was actively trying to reduce the number of soldiers within the army she wasmanding. Quite noticeably, the troops she was directly affiliated with always found themselves right where they could be easily seen by everyone�� while staying as far from the danger as they could without actively deserting the battle.

    In short, she had to remove her own men.

    And I just so happened to be in dire need of war captives, not to call them ves, who would be more than happy to work in exchange for the bare necessities. In a sense, those soldiers of today would make for the best kind of workers of tomorrow, as they knew not the luxuries any worker from back on earth would demand in exchange for theirbor.

    "Our interests do align there, that''s true," Etaria admitted after taking some time to consider my words. "But do you really think I will actively aid you in the conquest of the empire I''m an heir to?"

    Even without a video feed, I could tell Etaria shook her head with a baffled look on her pretty face.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Yes, I do," I calmly replied while making sure not to allow a smirk to appear on my face.

    Even though we were only using our voices to talk�� one''s expression, naturally hidden, would still influence the tone of our voices.

    And even if allowing Etaria to peer into the hint of cheekiness in my voice wouldn''t cause any harm�� It would be of no benefit either.

    "And why is that?" The princess pressed the topic, already reaching the point where she could use the unfamiliar device with ease.

    "First, because it sets us on the path of cooperation rather than forcing us down the bloody path of brutal and absolute conflict." This time, I allowed a small, mocking smile to appear on my face. "And believe it or not, we might be different in many ways, but there''s one thing that, I believe, my people and your people have inmon."

    I made yet another pause, something that I grew quite fond of using whenever trying to have a productive discussion. Yet, even when met with my silence, Etaria didn''t jump on the opportunity to speak, opting to wait for me to continue instead.

    "We like money. And cooperating is pretty much always more profitable than war."

    I turned silent once more, this time, however, I refused to speak up again.

    This wasn''t supposed to be my lecture but a negotiation. A negotiation where I had a massive advantage and was speaking from the position of a victor�� but a negotiation nheless.

    "Cooperation versus war�� Well, there''s truth in what you say. But that was merely the first point, wasn''t it?"

    Hearing the confirmation that Etaria was attentively listening to every single word I spoke, I couldn''t help but openly smile. Not smirk, not grin nor leer, but simply smile.

    "Secondly, I believe neither of us has any desire to stand atop a bloodied battlefield. We might be young and naive, but we are not THAT naive to believe bloodshed and carnage to be something enjoyable. Andstly��"

    I took a deep breath, preparing myself mentally to drop the biggest truth bomb I could on the poor princess.

    "Whether you agree to my terms or not, doesn''t matter. But if my men will kill yours instead of making them work their asses off��"

    The pause that followed after half of my sentence was the first natural moment of hesitation for me. And all because I actually ventured to imagine what would happen if the negotiations fell through and forced both sides to the bloody path of war.

    "If it won''t be the men you want to get rid of anyway, then my men will simply pay a visit to the city due east from here and take the men they need from there."

    I released the trigger of the walkie-talkie and waited for Etaria''s response. Yet, as minute, two minutes passed without her speaking up, a strange feeling started to well up in my soul.

    "Allow me this one bit of honesty, Your Majesty," I spoke out in a t, empty voice once I squeezed the trigger of the speaking device. "We pride ourselves in how civilized we are. We are more than happy to just negotiate whatever we need and we won''t shy away from paying a fair price for what we want. But the moment those methods no longer bring the results we need��"

    "Civilized? Negotiate? Paying a fair price?" Etaria finally responded this time in a much sharper voice. "And the thousands of corpses you left in your wake in the forest are what? A mere hindrance to your business?"

    I squeezed the trigger and heaved a long and loud sigh.

    "Oh my, half of your army got ughtered, how sad. Your spies betrayed their kin and homnd, how vile. Loraz''s spies are all over the empire, how crafty! An entire lineage banished from the forest came back to mess with those who banished them, how revolting!"

    Listing out all the instances of one sort of conflict or the other that happened thus far, I couldn''t help but feel likeughing.

    "For now, we are all on a dance floor, all in perfectly clean, white gloves."

    "My side sent out a reinforced, heavily armored battalion to scout out this ce. Your empire sent out an entire army to secure whatever interests it may have here. So far, it''s all civilized, all just another part of the daily life of the high ss."

    I rxed my grip over the device''s trigger as I took a deep breath, only to squeeze down on it again and even lean forward a bit.

    "But now that the perspectives of what this ce has to offer revealed themselves to everyone''s eyes, the time for political dance, diplomatic step forward and two steps back��"

    I shook my head, even though I knew the princess couldn''t see it.

    "Now, that time is over. And with this level of riches in y, all of this civilized, cultured, and politepany is about to grab a knife in their teeth and go down the path of ughter. And my one and only goal is to stop this from happening."

    With all that I''ve had to say now out in the open, I put the walkie-talkie aside so that I could free my hands for the task of covering up my face.

    This little gesture virtually separated me from the world, giving me some time and peace to gather my thoughts, unbothered by the intense stares of Makary and his highest officers gathered around me and listening to every word that was said in the course of the entire conversation.

    "Which is why I will ask this once and only once. Are you willing to cooperate, or shall we all abandon our humanity and just see how quickly can we fuck each other up?"

 Chapter 303: Dreadful realization

    "Do you think she will agree?"

    Madam asked while looking across the small table that the cream of the top of our group gathered at.

    "After he threatened her so much?" Makary''s lips twisted in quite the irritated, ironic smile. "I bet she''s ready to storm our positions herself if that''s what it takes to slow us down."

    Between the battle and the forest and the great showdown necessary for me to im the right to be the one negotiating with the princess, I couldn''t really tell which was the harder one.

    "Either way, it works for us, right?" I rolled my eyes. "On that note, how''s the progress on what the thing I asked for?"

    The mere mention of the matter discussed just before I went ahead and made the call was enough to put everyone at the table in a sour mood.

    Sure, it was fine to help the underdog in a battle against the conqueror. But to go out of our way and brutally ughter nearly the entirety of the imperial army��

    ''I guess I''m the only one so strangely detached from the humans of this world,'' I thought, catching myself disregarding the value of their lives again.

    Strangely enough, just the idea of someone dying back on earth was revolting to me. Sure, I knew life went in many ways, and death or murder couldn''t always be avoided��

    But still, as a general rule, I considered death to be an abnormal state, something one was unlikely to face out of nowhere.

    And never once have I exhibited this kind of mindset when in this world, towards the humans of not-earth.

    ''Maybe it has something to do with the aura?'' A sudden thought appeared in my head. ''Or am I just looking for excuses over my�� actual racism? What else should hate or disregard of other races mean if not people from a literally different world?

    Because if it wasn''t something caused by the aura�� Why was my reaction to the prospect of gassing thousands upon thousands of people to their deaths so much different than everyone else, with the exception of Fay, around the table?

    "I''ve already sent men to get their hands on it. But that kind of weapon��" Makary sighed deeply and pressed down at the backrest of his chair. "Even for me, it''s not something all that easy to obtain."

    "Trying to stock on the neu-weapons is more of an investment in a solid currency in the eyes of the world. Gas weapons, on the other hand, ring quite a lot of bells," one of Makary''s officers spoke. "We will need them either way, just in case��"

    The man hesitated and looked over at his leader.

    "The more we need to stock up on those, the more exposed we will be to everyone''s eyes."

    Makary closed his eyes and clenched the fist he held on the table. After a breath, he opened his eyes back up and gave me a cold, calcted look.

    "How do you n to deal with it, once the city hall learns of what''s going on?"

    Makary finally mentioned the elephant in the room.

    The one potential obstacle to our actions that hung above our heads from the very moment Makary made big moves when relocating his assets.

    The risk of the city''s magistrate taking notice, investigating, and realizing all sorts of things that would make our entire operation gged. Because once that would happen, every tiniest move anyone affiliated with me or Makary would make, would be put under scrutiny.

    Without a shadow of a doubt, once all the investigated findings were fed to the processing AI system, the details of everything that was going on would be revealed to the only group of people capable of interfering with what was going on.

    "I both hope and strongly believe we still have some time," I stated, treading as carefully as I could. "Nevertheless, once that timees, we only have two choices. One is to cut them in on the profits while the other is to try to defeat the magistrate and take their ce."n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    The magistrate was just the official name of the theoretically meritocratic city council. In reality, though, it was made up of the cream of the top of the city''s elites, oligarchs born from the age of political fracture and the copse of the concept of globalization.

    Or, in simpler terms, a bunch of old goons who were rich enough to make the entire city move ording to their whims. The lords locked themselves up in the ivory towers of the town''s center, where their sheer wealth allowed them to upkeep the shadow of how the world once was.

    All at the cost of all the people I''ve been a neighbor to back when living in my shack.

    "Honestly, I wouldn''t mind either way, but either choice will lead to the esction that''s actually worrying," I announced my guess before taking a deep breath and gathering all my wits.

    In this single instant, I was only a thought away from activating my eye of time.

    "Because once we give everyone something to fight for, I bet everyone will jump on the opportunity. And whether we take the magistrate by force or cooperate with them, the process of colonizing this world will only escte on both ends of the portal."

    I took a deep breath, sparking up thest of my mental strength to pull this small speech through.

    "In the end, we can''t really avoid the things from growing out of our weight ss. But going for cooperation with the magistrate would allow us to better control the growth of global interest in what we are doing here."

    I breathed out, only now realizing that in the process of giving my response, I ended up standing up and leaning over the table.

    I took a deep breath and held it in my lungs before breathing out again and slowly falling back down on my chair.

    "So you thought that far��" Makary muttered under his nose.

    "So the things are thatplicated on the other side," Madammented on my left before putting a slightly curious look on her face. "I think I''m starting to warm up to the idea of paying it a visit."

    Makary gave Madam a short look before half-raising from his chair to give her a respectful bow.

    "It would be our pleasure to host you during your trip. And, as happy as we would be to guide you around, I don''t want to deny the factor of your presence��" Makary showed a troubled look on his face for the very first time since I''d met the man. "Miss Madam, your beauty and grace make you stand out. So it would be in our rational interest to have you follow our advice on how to avoid the notice."

    The corner of my lips twitched.

    ''Oh how quickly we moved from the topic of gassing thousands to death to Makary trying to be as diplomatic when saying they need Madam on her leash.''

    Before my smile could form and thus betray my thoughts, I decided to throw my sponsor a line.

    "I think I would be the most fitted to give Madam a tour and ensure she won''t stand out too much," I pledged��

    Only for my very soul to twitch.

    For but a second, I recalled some facts. Then connected them together with what I''ve just said.

    And without a second thought, I activated my eye of time and focused myself as much as I could��

    "Right, would you be able to use aura to hide your presence from others?" I then asked, so centered over the faint sensation of the minuscule grains of the dark aura that I turned blind to the actual world around me.

    I could sense Fay twitching to my side, showing one of her rare reactions for when we were out in public.

    ''For how expressive she is when we are alone, she sure doesn''t like to act out when around others,'' I randomly noticed, losing the grip over my focus for but a single instant.

    "Now that I think about it��"

    My focus returned, the courtesy of my intelligence growing beyond the limits of my current reborn form.

    "I think I do."

    The world around me vanished, reced by the endless infinity of the realm of the dark aura.

    The width of a grain of sand turned into many hundreds of miles in this reality, with just the tiny dots of the dark aura scattered across this thin, unreal space.

    And right in the middle of it, rxing on a hammock weaved from the dark element, Irene smirked at her own thoughts, snacking on chunks of some kind of fruit while amusing herself with our ongoing discussion.

    In this single instance, I could see her attention moving to the Madam, with a mild hint of interest sparking in her eyes.

    And then��

    The dark world copsed�� Or rather, the influence of my eye of time concluded, making the task of visually perceiving the dark reality too much for my brain to handle.

    Forced back into reality, I couldn''t utter a single word over the experience of seeing the real world�� while recalling how it all felt and looking back within that dark realm.

    The details made no sense.

    If the sense of distance was warped in the realm of the dark element, then howe Irene''s body was just the right size for it to make sense both in reality and in her own element?

    And how could she perceive the real world while hanging out within that dark realm, when it was a space I could hardly begin to have my brain process properly?

    If it took my intelligence reaching beyond the absolute limits of ascenders and creeping into the realm of supreme for me to even perceive the dark reflection of reality, then just how strong does Irene have to be to physically exist in that dimension?

    "Then we can consider this issue to be solved," I suggested, scrambling to say something, anything, that would wipe the shocked expression from my own face.

    Thankfully, no one seemed to notice.

    Not Madam, who was the only supreme in the room was likely the only one who could ever help me understand what was going on, not Makary who hardly knew anything about magic, nor any of the officers of Makary''s army or leaders of Fay''s kin.

    Only Fay appeared to have any clue what just happened, what I just discovered.

    Guided by the very same feeling of caution irked by the overwhelming threat of literally hanging out with us in the very same tent, she made sure not to act up.

    In the end, all Fay did was reach out and grasp my hand, giving it a little squeezebined with a short, encouraging peek of her beautiful, blue eyes.

    Steeling my resolve under the influence of her warm, supportive nce, I raised my own eyes and fixed the look on my face.

    "And with that said, don''t you think we''ve all waited enough?" I suggested, putting a wide smile on my face to wipe out any remaining hints of my state of mind caused by realizing Irene was here, watching every move we made, and listening in to every word we said. "How about we call the princess and ask her to give us her answer?"

 Chapter 304: It was never going to be that easy

    "I knew you were going to call shortly but I thought you would give me some more time!"

    The annoyed voice of Etaria was the very first thing we all heard when the ringing of the walkie-talkie came to an end, signifying she picked up the call.

    I raised my eyes and looked over at the considerable number of onlookers before breathing a long sigh.

    "First thing first, shut up and listen. One very important thing has changed," I pressed the button and announced.

    "What, you are changing the terms now?!" Etaria replied right away, quickly turning from annoyed to outraged.

    "That''s not it," I shook my head to the sides, only to recall that the princess, with nothing but another walkie-talkie, couldn''t really see my gestures. "I just wanted you to know that contrary to ourst talk, right now you are not talking with me alone. Right now, every person of importance to our group is nearby, so we can get this over with."

    "Oh��"

    The tone of Etaria''s voice changed, making it easy to imagine the changes happening on her face.

    ''Realizing that she went quite far with her assumptions must''ve stung her quite a bit,'' I thought, fighting my own facial muscles not to let a smirk appear on my face.

    Just like I could somewhat read into Etaria''s voice, I had no doubt she, a damned supreme, was more than capable of doing the same. Even if the difference would be tiny, I believed that speaking out while smiling, grinning, crying, or fuming with anger would all cause one''s voice to change.

    And someone with the attributes high enough to im the rank of a supreme should have no problem reading into those small hints.

    "Allow me to introduce you to everyone here who has any say on the matter. First, the leader of the forest kin, the supreme celestial fox, Madam. And I believe you''ve already had the chance to meet her, back during�� our skirmish back in the woods."

    Even though the negotiations had yet to properly start, I already had to mind my words as much as I could, not to needlessly antagonize the princess.

    Sure, Makary''s forces were more than capable of annihting Etaria''s troops, all the more so once his men would bring the gas bombs over. But this was the path I really didn''t want to go down, even if I strangely had no sense of remorse or guilt when it came to the humans of this world.

    Still, guilty conscience or not, bearing the burden of many thousands of lives imed over something that could be solved with just words wasn''t something I wanted. Then, I still didn''t consider myself ready to go through another rebirth, something that was bound to happen if the battle were to actually take ce.

    Finally, there was the topic of the cheapbor that we desperately needed, given how every single human brought over from Earth continued to raise the odds of someone catching up on what was going on.

    Even with the copse of globalization, if a long list of humans were to suddenly disappear into thin air while Makary''s men would be thest people they were seen contacting��

    ''If that were to happen and get investigated, the magistrate would likely im we''ve either kidnapped or outright killed them all.''

    I took a deep breath, sinking down into my thoughts�� Only for Fay to pull on my sleeve, forcing my attention to focus on her and upon noticing her reprimanding looks, back on the topic at hand.

    "Yeah, I recall her. And since she''s over there��" the princess hesitated for a bit�� while receiving my silent thanks for speaking up and thus burying my blunder of letting my thoughts get the better of me at such a crucial timing. "Would you mind telling me when will that thing be over?"

    ''That thing?''

    With my curiosity peaking, I took a quick nce over to my mother-inw-to-be, only to see her put on a small smirk.

    "The invocationes at a price. And until the said prize is paid in blood, the cost will continue to burden all those involved," Madam replied out loud while relying on me to hold the trigger of the walkie-talkie pressed. "Or, in simpler words, until a supreme dies and washes the invocation with their blood, its effects will continue to persist."

    As many clues as Madam threw regarding the topic�� it still wasn''t enough for me to figure out what the hell she was talking about.

    ''Judging how the princess raised this topic at such timing, though, it has to be something important,'' I took notice and made a mental note�� before disregarding the topic in its entirety.

    There was only a limited list of things I could keep on my mind at any given moment. Trying to figure out what the hell was Madam talking about with the princess was far from the list of things I was willing to prioritize.

    Especially when I could learn about it by simply asking Madam once this discussion would be over.

    "So one of us has to die?" Etaria asked, her voice growing tenser�� but not to the point to give me an impression of her getting nervous.

    "For the invocation to be lifted, a supreme involved in it has to die," Madam replied by repeating and rephrasing her earlier words a little. "And since it was the two of us and that friend of yours when the invocation happened, one of the three of us has to pay its prize."

    The air around the table tensed up a little.

    No one wanted to hear something like that. To learn that there was a feud that simply wouldn''t end before someone''s untimely death�� was a tough nut to crack on the spot. Especially

    "Moving on," I interjected before the talk between the two supremes could take over what was supposed to be the actual negotiations over the armistice. "Next we have Makary, who is the militarymander of our group and is here with the assistance of his two highest-ranking officers. Andstly, there''s me and my dearest fiancee, Madam''s daughter, here to supervise the entire thing."

    Even though this was only supposed to be an introduction, I just couldn''t stop myself from making a small use of it to further reinforce my position within our group.

    ''Is this my insecurities acting up, I wonder?'' I thought, only to have Fay raise up from her chair a bit, push it closer to my side, and then sit back while reaching out underneath the table and grabbing my free hand.

    Feeling Fay''s fingers squeeze down on my hand, I took a deep breath and pushed my focus back to the ongoing discussion.

    "I believe the circumstances disallow me from iming it''s a great fortune to meet you all," Etaria replied. Then, following some rustling noise, she continued, "I''m Etaria, the first daughter of the golden emperor, the heiress of the golden lineage, and the leader of thebined expeditionary force."

    The rustling that came before Etaria''s self-introduction was likely her standing up and performing a small curtsy.

    ''Is she doing the same thing as me, I wonder?'' I thought, realizing that I likely wasn''t the only one actively controlling my own behavior and mimics to influence the very sound and mannerisms of my voice.

    "I''m here with two of my highest-ranking officers��" Etaria continued, only to make a short pause and follow with: "And I''m well within my rights to make binding statements regarding the issue at hand."

    Tap, tap.

    I raised my eyes and followed them to where Makary tried to catch my attention by heavily tapping his finger against the desk.

    Upon noticing my eyesnding on his face, he stared back for a second�� before nodding his head.

    "That''s great because we too are in a position to settle the terms with the people we''ve gathered," I replied, reading into Makary''s suggestion.

    "Great," Etaria''s voice came as soon as I finished my reply. "Then, I''m willing to agree to the terms we''ve discussed before, but��"

    I took a deep breath, steeling myself for what was likely about to turn into a battle as vicious as the bloody skirmish back in the forest.

    "First, I need strict details. If you want to take my men captive, for how long will they have to work to earn back their freedom? Or do you wish to outright turn them all into ves? What are your guarantees that they won''t be met with any premeditated harm?"

    The more Etaria spoke, the more my eyebrows moved up on my face.

    And to be frank, it wasn''t just me.

    While Madam and Fay listened in to Etaria''s words with a calm, pretty much stoic attitude, both Makary and the two of his men could hardly contain how ridiculous Etaria''s demands sounded.

    "Don''t worry, very is a concept that''s scorned in the society wee from," I replied, only to notice Makary give me a quick, sharp look�� before rolling his eyes and sitting back in his chair as if to signify he wasn''t nning to get involved with this particr issue. "And I was thinking something like��"n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    I paused my words and looked up at Makary. In response, though, all the man did was raise his hand and point two fingers out�� only to then change his mind and quickly raise a third one.

    "I believe three years of forcedbor will suffice. Once that termes to an end, though, I will have them all freely decide whether to go back to their homes or quite the opposite, bring their families over and stay in thend they themselves built up from scratch."

    Judging from the long period of silence that followed my statement, my generous offer had to be as shocking to the princess as her outrageous expectations of our desired terms were shocking to us.

    Still, this short pause in the discussion allowed me to raise my eyes and look at Makary again, all to confirm from the expression on his face whether or not I''d read his intentions and gestures correctly.

    "That''s��" even when Etaria finally spoke, she still hesitated and left her words hanging for a second. "That''s a generous offer that I both greatly appreciate and happily ept, as long it only involves the rank and file. As long as all from the officer and above go home free, we can shake on this point."

    ''So they do have something like shaking one''s hand in their culture too?'' I took a small notice before raising my eyes to Makary�� again.

    "I''m afraid that won''t be possible," the man decided it was his cue to speak up. "Not for free, that is," he then added, before Etaria could misunderstand his intention. "Before we can all properly meet to shake on the terms, we will have a list prepared ording to which all of your officers may buy their freedom in exchange for goods, services, and the like."

    For a moment, there was no response.

    "I can ept that, as long as the prize of their freedom will be reasonable, adjusted to their personal and military value."

    "That we can agree on," Makary concluded before sliding deeper into his chair to imply he was done talking for the moment.

    Yet, right as I opened my mouth to continue�� Etaria actually beat me to it.

    "It''s great that we can already agree on something, it really is. But there is one thing that absolutely has to happen for those negotiations to have any value."

    The air in the tent tensed up.

    My feeling from before was right. Things were too damn easy, too predictable, too perfectly aligned with our own desires.

    And in the real world, a jackpot like that hardly happened, all the more if it was other humans one was dealing with.

    "What is it?" I asked, gritting my teeth as I, once again, steeled my resolve.

    "My authority within the empire is massive, but my father needs but a single word to overturn whatever decision I make. That''s why, the goal of this entire campaign is something I cannot give up. Something that you cannot refuse if you don''t want the golden emperor gathering the whole might of the empire just to prove the point of being an absolute ruler."

    Strangely enough, this time I couldn''t really see through Etaria''s voice.

    There was an emotion hidden in her words and in for me to notice�� But when it came to actually discerning it, I just simply didn''t have enough clues to figure it out!

    Still, the mere presence of this unknown emotion alone was somehow enough to convince me that Etaria''s words rang true to what she believed in.

    "And that goal is��?"

    This time, Madam was the one to take on the initiative and ask.

    "A safe passage through the forest for our merchants to exploit," the princess revealed without even a single hint of prior hesitation. "For this is a quest that is vital both to the imperial treasury, but also pertains to our patriots'' pride."

 Chapter 305: Riches or ditches?

    //Author''s note: While the product''s name, Chai, is intentionally alike tea in somenguages, and while the situation might have some parallels to the trade imbnce between the British Empire and the Qing Empire, it is by no means a direct analogy (the details of the situation are entirely different and directly opposite in some parts).

    So no, the following part of the story is by no means a reflection of the IRL history, period. That''s it for the rant//

    "First, our treasury. I believe you might not be aware, but a third of the empire''s total budget goes towards securing a critical amount of chai. And it''s connected to the matter of our national pride, for Chai is sold in abundance only in Nerelian market.

    And ever since their invasion of the continent fifty years ago, they extended every effort possible to make our ess to Chai as scarce as possible."

    In just a few sentences, Etaria sessfully threw everyone for a loop.

    Chai? Did she mean tea? Or maybe it was some other herb�� or maybe something entirely else?

    Nerelian Market? So there was a Nerelian country? But wasn''t the empire supposed to be the sole ruler of all the humans here? And if there are other continents, the empire is already aware of their existence?

    And, first of all, there was some sort of great, blood feud between the empire and Nerelia that grew to the level of historical rivalry?!

    "Haaaa��."

    I breathed out a long sigh, letting go of the walkie-talkie''s trigger way in advance.

    "Isn''t this like the conflict of the old Britain with China over their tea trade?" Makary muttered. He then squinted his eyes a little as hebed through his memory. "The one thatid the foundation of theter opium wars?"

    "Seems like it," I nodded my head. "But I don''t think we should stick with that assumption. It will only make it harder for us to see the truth if our guess proves to be wrong."

    Whatever happened in Earth''s history was a result of a set of extremely random and chaotic circumstances thatpounded into the events that engraved themselves in themon memory.

    In this world, the set of circumstances regarding this conflict was entirely different. Different personal dramas, different ambitions, different reasons and goals.

    "What is that Chai to begin with?"

    Sensing that our side stood silent for quite a while, I spoke out and asked for some more details.

    While there were wars waged over a bucket or over something as simple as tea�� I struggled to believe we just happened to chance upon one just like that.

    For the sake of my own sanity, I decided to believe this chai wasn''t just some tea people liked to drink but something of a much greater, strategic value.

    "Wait, you don''t know?!" Etaria freaked out quite a lot, given how easily I could tell it from her voice.

    ''Is it really that big of an issue?'' I thought, turning a curious nce over to Madam, hoping she could shed some light on the issue.

    Regretfully, the confused look she returned signified she didn''t have a clue either.

    "Chia, the herb to brew a rxing tea��" The manner of Etaria''s speech changed, growing hurried. "Just how would you ascend without it?!"

    The confusion at the table only grew bigger.

    "So you use that�� herb�� To help people ascend?" I carefully phrased my question, building it from the clues we''ve got from Etaria thus far.

    "So you really don''t know��" Etaria''s voice deted. "Yeah, it''s one of its uses. But quite a lot of nobles and rich merchants fancy that drink, so it puts a really heavy strain on our treasure to try to source any amount of it through backward channels."

    I took a deep breath.

    ''What was it about trying not to let assumptions get the better of us?'' I ironically reflected on the decision I made myself mere moments ago.

    "I guess that means all that talking about that strange, extinct flower you needed from the forest was just a bunch of horseshit, right?"

    This time it was Etaria''s turn to be silent for a little bit longer than it could befortable.

    "That''s how the real world works, kid," Etaria retorted�� but due to how long it took her toe up with this response, not even her harsh, reprimanding voice could sell it.

    "Yeah, yeah, so," I cut the needless chatter. "We will get your rank and file to work to the bone for three years, along with the responsibility to take care of them in the meantime.

    What''s more, your empire will neither interfere with what we do on thend all the way up to the frontier city, won''t obstruct our actions within that city as long as they are within reason, and will not actively try to iste us. What''s more, your officers will be able to buy their freedom in exchange for resources and favors ording to the list we will work outter."

    I took a deep breath.

    "In exchange, we will not pursue any further reparations for your invasion of the forest and will look into possible ways of either crossing the forest or, at the very least, providing you with a cheaper and more abundant alternative to that Chai of yours."

    A moment of silence followed my words.

    "Didn''t the list of the demands grow considerably longer from when west brought it up as a whole?" Etaria pointed out, her voice cracking from how hard she was trying to hold back her anger.

    Well, I couldn''t me her. After all, I went from the talks of surrender and her desperate need to get more chai, whatever that thing could be�� To me suddenly demanding a territorial cession of thend the Empire considers its own! What''s more, I openly admitted I was going to meddle in at least one imperial city and barred the emperor from stopping me?

    As the princess'' silence prolonged, I finally allowed a small smile to take over my lips.

    "Now, to phrase it in a less hostile way," I threw half-jokingly before clearing my throat and rxing back in my chair while pulling the walkie-talkie closer, over my chest.

    It was connected to the nearby truck''s operating system, so Etaria''s voice woulde out from the truck''s speakers anyway. But as the only microphone was contained in the device in my hand, I decided to bring it closer to my lips.

    "We will take a huge number of men who are a threat to you and who do not contribute any productivity, and we will turn them into efficient workers that every city in your empire will desire. We will settle thends that are currently not used, turning them into massive outposts for trade.

    Throughout thework of your own merchants, we will acquire the assets we desire, always paying the fair price and not only boosting the imperial tax with our projects but also stimting the economy even further."

    I took a deep breath to calm myself down a bit.

    ''It''s not good to get so heated over it,'' I told myself, holding the breath in my lungs for a while to artificially bring my emotional state down.

    "In ten years, if someone looks back at the world you have now andpare it with what we can make happen, they won''t believe people used to be so dirt-poor and conflicted."

    This time, I took a breath in order to let the princess absorb my words for some time.

    "Princess Etaria, back during ourst talk, I told you that I don''t wish to go down the bloody path. I imed it wouldn''t sit with me well to kill all those people if it could be avoided. But the truth is, I couldn''t care less about their deaths."

    The sudden switch of my tone took even my ownpatriots by surprise. To a degree, even Fay, despite her free ess to my soul, twitched a little.

    All because this change of the theme came to me as suddenly as it came to everyone who heard it.

    "Back then, I also mentioned the path of cooperation, a path that I didn''t bother to borate on," I continued to bring back the small details and hints I threw at the princess during our former debacle.

    "You just did," Etaria snarly replied. Yet, while that proved her wits, it also revealed her slightly shaken state of mind.

    For why else would she indulge in such a childish remark? What did it bring to the table? What was its purpose?

    There was none. Or at least, they didn''t lie within what Etaria said, but in why she spoke out at all.

    And in my own opinion, she simply tried to buy herself some more time to process everything I was dropping on her.

    "Listen, princess, and listen well. The bloody path ends with your entire army dead, the frontier city falling to our hands, and your empire starting a war it can''t win. The cooperation path is all about getting everyone so filthy rich, your greatest problem will be where to stack the money you will be simply incapable of spending."

    I took a deep breath, toning down the excitement that grew in my voice.

    But how could I not get excited?n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    This was a fresh world, full of resources that no one even thought about tapping into! And that''s just raw resources speaking, without a single mention of whatever other treasures hid on this side of my portal!

    And right now, I was so close! So close to creating an entity that would ensure a life ofvish luxury for me and Fay, regardless of which world we would settle on living in!

    ''Am I growing a bit too conceited and greedy, or is it just me?'' I thought to myself, but looked over at Fay''s face in search of the answer.

    Fay''s lips trembled�� and formed a small, cheeky grin.

    Then, she gave me a single wink.

    ''This damn, little��''

    I resisted the urge to groan from the welling storm of diabetes assaulting every cell of my body.

    ''Just how cute can you get with a single wink?!''

    Distracted, I shook my head to regain my focus for the one,st push.

    "Princess, if you decide to cooperate with us, we will use every means at our disposal to open the path for your empire to pay your invaders back. We will also do everything in our power to secure a stable source of Chia for you. And as a mere side-effect of our actions, we will bring the empire to an age of prosperity on a scale never recorded previously in your history."

    I took a short breath, only to realize that before I could notice, the atmosphere around the table grew quite thick.

    ''Are they angry about the promises I''m making, or��''

    I swallowed a gulp of saliva that gathered in my mouth. And so, I decided to bring my point to an end.

    "That, or we can just kill you all and do all of that from the top of your graves."

 Chapter 307: Between authority and competence

    "And with that, let''s end this discussion. We will send someone over by the morning with the list but until then, we''ve talked enough."

    In the end, Makary managed to end the call somewhat gracefully, retaining the ambiance of initiative on our side.

    "We will await your delegation then. We will also try to locate udy. You wouldn''t believe how crafty he can get when he doesn''t want to work."

    The walkie-talkie in my hand vibrated, announcing the end of the call.

    And all at once, everyone at the table breathed out a long sigh.

    "That kind of talk is surprisingly heavy on one''s soul, isn''t it?" the officer on Makary''s left muttered while falling deeper into his chair.

    "I''m freaking exhausted��" the other officer followed with a statement in a simr fashion. The difference was, rather than falling into his chair, he leaned over the desk and rested his forehead against his cupped hands.

    "We are nowhere near done, though?" Makary came inst, with a viciously sweet voice.

    Even without my augmented senses, I could see both of the officers freezing on the spot.

    For a second, the distantly familiar cold glint in Makary''s eye appeared in its spot once more.

    "If you want to take a break, now it''s the time," Makary raised his eyes and looked directly at my face, catching me observing his interaction with his men with quite an interest. "Once you are back, we need to discuss all the�� statements that you made, don''t we?"

    A cold chill moved down my spine.

    "So you need to discuss stuff that you do not wish me to hear?"

    Suddenly annoyed by Makary''s way of dismissing me, I decided to make a small stand against him.

    Nothing too major, nothing that could threaten our beneficial cooperation�� But something that would remind him that neither one of us was really in charge.

    ''Why am I even so set on keeping this point up?'' I questioned myself while Makary gave me a long,zy look.

    "I was about to discuss the provisioning of our troops, the means we need to use to gather supplies, what should we prioritize to maintain that many men, and how to supervise them properly," the man listed out. He then stood up from his chair and reached out, pointing his hand at one of the many empty seats ced all around the table where we gathered.

    "If you wish, you are more than wee to stay, but I hoped you could get all your thoughts in order before we move on to discuss actually important manners."

    I squinted my eyes.

    "Is this what we are supposed to do now? Sit around the table and discuss?" I expressed my displeasure with the direction in which things were starting to develop. "Isn''t this time to take action instead? Don''t we have a lot to do?"

    I''ve long since grown used to taking quick peeks at Makary''s face whenever talking with him, searching for the tiniest clues that could hint me in of what he thought. A habit I developed likely out of merely a sense of challenge, given how hard it was to see anything on that man''s expression, even with all my raised senses.

    But when Makary gave me a look of outright disappointment��

    It stung, stung a lot more than I could ever expect a single look could.

    "This is how we go around doing our job," Makary spoke while sitting up straight in his chair and leaning over the table for a bit. "To go around and do stuff is the task for the rank and file. We are here to tell them what they are to do, not to do it with them."

    Pressured by the stern look on the man''s face, I gritted my teeth�� And steeled my resolve not to give ground that easily.

    "Sounds awfully convenient. Why does it strike me as something that someone who doesn''t recognize a difference between a boss and a leader would say?"

    "Careful, boy," the officer on Makary''s left rose up in his chair a bit.

    "It''s fine," Makary quickly raised his hand and sat his officer back down. "He is still young," he stated, turning his eyes over and giving me a piercing look. "Isn''t it the job of an adult to help the young ones learn?"

    Makary leaned back in his chair, rxing a bit as he took a long breath.

    "In life, and especially in the military, the range of your duties is strictly determined by your rank. A soldier is to follow the orders. A tactician is to interpret the orders while a strategist is to give the orders. The general, though, doesn''t even give orders. He sets up the entire doctrine that the strategies follow, tacticians interpret and soldiers interpret."

    Makary''s voice was steady, as monotone as if he was giving a lecture from the elevation of a university cathedral, not speaking out his opinion while sitting at a round table, out in the open of one of the many clearings within the forest.

    "The names for those roles have changed many times. From warriors topanions, knights, men-at-arms, and all the way to soldiers. From noble leaders to tacticians, centurions, and the field officers of today. From the princes through strategists and all the way to the staff officers��"

    Makary shook his head.

    "The names have changed throughout the ages, but the roles and meaning hidden behind them did not. And since the conception of the military, there were those who acted, those who supervised those who acted, those who supervised the work, and those who decided on what job the unit as a whole will take on today."

    Makary raised up from his chair and grabbed the edge of the desk, making it seem as if he was about to flip it over.

    But no, rather than that, he simply leaned over it and gave me an intense stare.

    "Where do you think you stand in this simplified structure?"n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    Makary didn''t raise his voice. He didn''t give me any dangerous or threatening looks either.

    He simply posed the question with all the intensity of his character�� Oh, and brought up the issue that I was jumping around out in the open.

    I squinted my eyes and took a slight breath.

    Confronting Makary like that�� was taking a great toll on my mental state. It felt like��

    ''Like going against a father?''

    My entire body tensed up.

    The atmosphere at the table quickly deteriorated with Fay tensing up which, in turn, made Madamrisee up. Following that, both of Makary''s officers lowered their hands, hiding them under the table while making sure not to make any rapid movements.

    And for a second, the dissonance between what caused me to stumble for a breath and what made everyone else tense up��

    "I''m curious to hear what''s your own answer to that question," I spoke out, using all of my willpower to stop my cheeks from blushing at the mere thought ofparing Makary to a fatherly figure Icked in my life.

    ''Is this why I''m always seeking his approval? Is this why I take his words so seriously and struggle to go against him, even in the smallest of things?''

    Whether or not Makary noticed my inner struggle�� I couldn''t tell. But there was no question Fay did, given the mixed look of worry, concern, and amusement she offered.

    ''Right, she didn''t have a father either,'' I thought, looking over to my girl, only to see her roll her eyes before sneaking her hand under the table to grasp mine and give it a light squeeze.

    "And who was it that brought us to this world?"

    Forcing my attention back to the tense issue at hand, Makary strong-armed me to bring my focus back to him.

    "We are all here because of your request. In other words, you are the one who decides on the job. But I''m here toplete it. And to make that happen, I cannot waste my time doing stuff myself. That," Makary shook his head, "is simply not my job."

    For a second, the tension persisted. But as everyone started to realize there was actually no point of conflict. Makary willingly conceded the role of supreme authority, after all, only iming an actual, executive power.

    "I��" For a slight moment, I hesitated.

    Something deep inside of me pushed me to keep going, to refuse to conform to Makary''s words.

    But no matter how hard I tried�� I simply couldn''t find the right words to refute him. To keep my rebellious attitude going. And all those things that I could say�� I somehow felt as if Makary could obliterate any of the points I would make anyway.

    "And now that I''ve admitted you are the boss, are you done with your whining?" Makary switched the tone as quickly as a loving girlfriend would upon learning her rich boyfriend lost his great job. "You know, we actually have a lot to work on, so unless you are interested in the boring parts of making your desires and nse true��"

    I gritted my teeth and held my breath, tensing my entire body up.

    ''Keep it together, man!'' I scolded myself as I struggled to keep my emotions reined in. ''If he is provoking me like that, then there''s all the less reason to let his baits work!''

    Struggling to keep a straight face, I simply looked up and stared down at Makary''s face�� Only to then turn my eyes towards Madam.

    "Well, you''ve got a point here," I admitted, looking away from the man and towards Fay''s mother instead. "In that case, why don''t we use this time to have a talk?" I suggested while leaning my head over my shoulder. "There''s a whole lot of things I wish for you to exin."

 Chapter 314 So much progress in so little time

    We returned to the camp merely an hour or so after leaving it to give Makary some room.

    And from the very moment we stepped back into the perimeter controlled by his men, the changes to the situation all around were pretty much obvious.

    By now, the gate lost its mystical vibe, turning into what it was in reality - the most crucial and important choke-point for the transfer of tools, men, and resources between the worlds. And even now, merely a few hours into our expedition, the gate already gained an artificial division going through its middle, splitting it into the ingoing and outgoingnes.

    ''To think they would be so quick to exploit this ce��'' I thought while looking at the soldiers currently busying themselves with setting a fuel-powered generator up so that they could power up the two conveyor belts already present at the gate.

    Judging by an ever-growing pile of various items stacked near one of them and an orderly pile of boxes stacked on the other side of the gate��

    Using conveyor belts to pass the items through the gate was, by no means, an overkill.

    "Just what do they want to take from here?" I muttered to myself, straining my eyes to get a better look at the items within the pile�� Only to realize that it contained absolutely rudimentary stuff.

    From small bits of earth secured in simple boxes, through broken pieces of wood, stones, various freshly picked nts and herbs��

    Upon closer inspection, it became apparent that rather than importing a huge number of something in particr, Makary''s men were simply gathering samples of everything they could find.

    After all, what I stepped on just now wasn''t just a rock but a rock from another world! And when taking that detail into ount, the simple rock that I''ve already left behind was equally as valuable if not much more than the few moon rocks that NASA failed to clear off the markets, legal and illegal ones, before the entire world went to shit.

    "Are they really that interesting in our earth?" Fay asked, snuggling up to my shoulder with a perfectly satisfied expression on her face.

    After going wild for nearly an hour back in the deeper part of the forest, she turned even more cuddly and affectionate than before. And while I could tell there was no intimate undertone behind her closeness and skinship, even after bursting out my load a few times��

    "They are interested in everything in this world," I corrected Fay''s assumption. "While I doubt any of them, in particr, is capable of doing so, there are some smart guys back on earth who can learn impossible things just by studying those," I mentioned, running down the list of my memories to recall the small tidbits of information I learned about the process from some documentaries.

    "Learn impossible things? Like what?" With our bond working mostly on the basis of our feelings rather than direct thoughts, Fay opted to ask rather than trying to scan my soul in search of the answer.

    A task that would only grow all the harder with my own struggle to recall those details in the first ce.

    "Stuff like history reaching millions of years back? Whether or not this world is simr on a very deep level to mine?" I suggested the first two things that came to my mind before shaking my head. "I only know they can figure out quite a lot from things any sane person would just ignore. As for what exactly they can figure out?" I shook my head again.

    "It''s better to ask someone better qualified to answer."

    With this small talk upying our minds, we moved past the changing camp of Makary''s forces. As it turned out, it wasn''t just the gate that changed with the presence of the conveyor belts and an entire engineering unit working hard to modernize the location.

    Just a few steps away from the gate, we encountered a line of reinforced positions with heavier guns mounted and small squads keeping a keen eye on their surroundings, both with their own two eyes and with the help of the swarm technology that has long since saturated the air of the forest.

    Directly beyond the thick perimeter line that protected the gate from anyone wishing to do it harm, most of the human activity ceased.

    And there were various reasons for that, ranging from how hard it was to do anything smack-dab in the middle of a thick, ancient forest to how any mass-sized construction or operation within the area would only serve to strain the rtionship between Makary''s forces, or humans in general, and all of the celestials and divines of the forest.

    This was their home in which we were nothing more but a bunch of rowdy and noisy guests. The fact that we helped them survive the battle with the empire and were now in the process of further securing them from any follow-up of the attack didn''t change the situation or the unvoiced agreement we had with them.

    Only upon reaching the area where the trees started to thin out did we encounter the activity of Makary''s men again. That is, only if we were to ignore the hustle and bustle of Makary''s second team of engineers already hard at work to create afortable passage from the gate to where the man deployed most of his forces.

    ''And from the looks of things, they n to extend this road all the way out to the in, maybe even to that devastated camp��'' I thought, taking a look at the direction the builders of the road cut the vegetation in.

    This only made sense.

    We didn''t want to interfere with the forest, but it was pretty damn hard to say when I would be able to open another gate, this time in a much better location. Thus, in order to minimize how our operation would affect those in the forest, a path from the gate that led outside of the forest was a damn must.

    But it was only upon reaching the very edge of the forest that I fully realized the scale of work Makary''s men did in the short time we were away from where they were concentrated.

    "Damn��" I muttered as I gazed upon two massive piles of resources and supplies that were being converted into nearby lines of smaller stacks that a different group of soldiers busied themselves packaging into crates.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Looking at this, I''m lowkey impressed," I admitted, as my eyes turned over to where yet another engineering unit was busy clearing up the still-swampy ground at the forest''s edge, marking areas suitable for construction and those that were not, while yet another unit already moved on to cover the possible areas with simple housing units.

    "What are those?" Fay asked as she pointed her hand towards a pile of strange pieces of wood, thin metal rods, and a huge stack of tarp.

    "Houses to be, I believe," I replied, easily imagining how the wooden poles would be used as the main pir of the tent, the thin metal rods turning into the ribs of the simple shelter while the tarp would cover it all and make the shelter both wind and rainproof.

    "As long as they add a simple heater or manage to iste the insides with something, each of those houses-to-be should be able to house twenty-to-thirty men in manageable conditions," I muttered before taking a much closer look at the

    With one tent like that sufficient for that many people, it would take four to five of them to house a hundred men. Forty to fifty to house a thousand. And in order to house a total of around forty thousand that we were about to ept as war captives��

    "I don''t think we should cover this entire in in tents," I muttered, more to myself than to Fay.

    To house everyone, we would need a total of about two thousand tents. Adding up the storage for resources, logistic units, offices�� And that number would easily grow to three thousand.

    And given how much space each of those tents needed and how there had to be some room between each tent to prevent a random spark from turning into an unstoppable firestorm�� And the majority of the rtively huge in would end up upied with nothing but housing.

    "Is that a problem?" Fay asked, leaning forth all so she could tilt her head to the left and give me a curious look.

    "We are not here to take care of those people," I muttered in response. "And if we use all thend we can just to house them�� Where will we build a proper city? Where will we ce all the facilities we will need to start turning this empty ce into a vibrant town?"

    I shook my head for a while before taking a long yet shallow breath. And as I breathed out, I finally took a long look around to locate just where the hell Makary had moved.

    "Let''s deal with this matter right away," I suggested, turning round as soon as I noticed what appeared to be Makary''smanding truck. "And then talk a bit about the things that princess asked of us."

    With those words on my mouth, I freed my arm from Fay''s hold and took a step aside... Only to stretch the very arm out as I offered my hand to the girl.

    "Shall we?" I asked, putting a small, cheeky smile on my face in my attempt to hide a fresh wave of adoration born from just a simple, short nce at her adorable face.

    "We shall," Fay replied while brimming with a smile. "Seeing how hard everyone else is working, it would be unbing of us to just ck off!"

 Chapter 315 The moment of truth (1)

    "There''s no fucking way."

    In the short time that I spent on leisurely activities with Fay, Makary managed to not only figure out the n of things but also make his people actively implement it all.

    Just by seeing the massive difference between the camp from before we left and when we arrived back, I started to get some hopes that maybe, just maybe, we could keep up with the unrealistic schedule.

    In other words, Makary proved his value, reinforcing the strength of his voice in any sort of discussion that could follow.

    And it just so happened, that the next point was too crucial for me to agree to any changes on.

    "I''m the only one who can survive such a journey," I stressed out the reality of any attempts at crossing the starlight ins.

    My hands tightened into fists as I could do nothing but hold back my curses.

    ''As if this topic wasn''t already one hell of a mine for me to step on, given how��''

    I turned my eyes towards Fay for a second, only to quickly turn them away, worried about spooking her out.

    ''Even if I''m going to bring it up soon�� it''s okay to just let this topic rest for now,'' I thought, before turning my attention right back to the former mafia boss and currently an executive of the colonization effort of the modern humans in this strange, new world.

    "You are too crucial. No matter what you say, without your ability to open the gate once it closes, we will be stranded here. And as much as some of my men would enjoy such possibility��"

    Makary hesitated for a second before stealing a quick nce at some of the documents thaty scattered on the table in front of him.

    Stealing a nce of my own, I could only breathe out a long sigh.

    ''So it''s all about ammo and supplies, huh?''

    By now, any attempts at taking control of this area and dealing with the empire from the position of strength relied on considerable shippings from the hangar of the other side of the gate.

    There was also a whole other topic of how Makary''s men back home struggled to keep up with the purchases of all the stuff we needed here. A challenging task all on its own, only furtherplicated by how they had to tread really carefully not to attract any unwanted attention.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    After the showdown at the gates to Makary''spound, there were bound to be eyes everywhere, monitoring everyst move of his men. And while it was only a matter of time before someone would figure out what was happening��

    Neither I nor Makary nor anyone else involved on our side had any desire for that time toe sooner than absolutely necessary.

    It was all about ammo.

    Without ammunition, Makary''s power would turn into a mere illusion, something that would work only until the second someone decided toe out and shout, "Check!"

    It was all about foodstuffs.

    Without proper supplies, Makary''s own men would be hard-pressed to find something to sustain them, not to even bring up the many thousands of war captives that were about to fall upon Makary''s shoulders.

    He could only uphold his responsibility of taking care of them as long as the gate continued to operate at the rate predicted by the engineering corps setting up the conveyors all around it.

    It was all about�� everything.

    In a year, this ce would likely be self-sufficient. With a mix of dealings with the locals, improvised and early industry, and all sorts of other means and options, Makary''s force could remain in this world long time, perfectly fine without the connection back home. Explore more stories at empire

    But for now?

    A single hour without the goods flowing through my gate would mean losses that would be hard topensate for!

    "Listen, it''s not like I will be gone for several weeks or anything like that," I finally gathered enough mental strength, wits, and air in my lungs to bring up the main point.

    The one thing that I kept at the bottom of my mind since the first mention of the stable gate in my system.

    "If everything works out as I expect it, I will be able to return every few days to resupply and give the report of progress or anything."

    I spread my arms wide open before shaking them once.

    "Listen, right now I have one gate that allows one to pass freely between the worlds. But don''t forget the gate I can open to return back to where Ist used it!"

    Before, my main worry with portals was about what would happen if I ended up erasing the return portal thatid back home. If I overwrote it by somehow setting up a new, local gate�� I would end up in the very same situation that Makary was worried about. And while if it were to happen to me, my type of problems would be much different, less pressing��

    The fact would still remain that instead of having the wonders of the modern world to back up any and all ideas I had, I would have nothing more but my own memory of those things to use by slowly implementing modern solutions and profiting off them.

    "Isn''t it possible to only use it every few days?" Makary pointed out what he already learned from when we could do nothing but wait for my ability''s cooldown.

    "Eighty hours to be precise," I brought up the concrete number. "Eight hours short of four days. Meaning, if we time everything perfectly, the gate will be down only for sixteen hours every four days."

    The stable gate was on a time limit. Precisely speaking, three days since I opened it. In other words, in a bit more than two days, I would have to open it up again. That would give me three days to venture into the starlight ins before I would be forced to port back home, reach Makary''spound, and walk through the gate to reactivate the gate as it goes down. But from then��

    From then, I would still have to hurry and return back as soon as I got all my supplies ready. Then, by walking back into Earth through the stable gate and then right into my personal portal, I would end up back where I left Fay''s world, with eighty hours cooldown for my portal�� and only seventy-two hours left for my stable gate operating time.

    Taking into ount all the possible dys, it would be safe to say that for every eighty hours, the stable gate would be down for ten.

    "Once the gate will reset, I will try my very best to make itst longer. If it''s possible, we could eliminate any kind of downtime for it, leaving just the dangers of the road to solve."

    I didn''t bother sitting down at the table, opting to be the one pacing around and expressing my thoughts not only with words but actions as well.

    And, to no small degree of satisfaction, I could observe Makary''s eyes following my movements as his face retained the same, tense look that indicated he wasn''t really going to give up on his position either.

    "Don''t you go putting those dangers as something small," Makary spoke right as the frown on his face deepened. "I''m not trying to say that you are weak�� Listen, I could agree to eight or even ten whole hours of the gate''s downtime. I could even agree for you venturing out with a suitable set of guards��"

    The middle-aged man shook his head before putting his hands together as if to pray before nodding them a few times toward me.

    "But there''s is no way I will let you go through this already dangerousnd with just a few people! And I cannot allow you to go any further than the distance my men could cover within an hour, maybe two."

    At this point, my frustration started to amass.

    It wasn''t the first time we bounced off each other like that.

    But between the two of us, I was the only one who understood the horrors that awaited anyone who stepped into the starlight in. The horrors of mental torture only I had enough endurance within our entire faction to survive.

    As such, I was absolutely the only one who could challenge those starlight ins, just like my main questline requested me to do.

    "You don''t need to worry about any danger falling upon him," Fay suddenly turned on her talkative mode as she stepped out�� while still grasping at my hand with her own. "I''m already nearing the pinnacle of strength. In fact, we are both just a step from reaching it," Fay pointed out something that I, due to my unwillingness to take thatst step,rgely ignored.

    "I''m sorry, but that doesn''t really help, dear," I spoke out before Makary could react to Fay''s words.

    As much as I dreaded it, the moment of truth finally came.

    ''And the truth shall set you free, huh?''

    I thought, before blinking my eyes a few times and then turning to face Fay while pulling on her hand to make her turn back towards me.

    "Fay, dearest, I''m sorry, but I cannot allow you to step into the starlight in. Not when it was designed to keep your kind away."

 Chapter 316 The moment of truth (2)

    "Fay, dearest, I''m sorry, but I cannot allow you to step into the starlight in. Not when it was designed to keep your kind away."

    This was the one topic that I feared tackling ever since I realized a time woulde when it would surface.

    But there was absolutely no way for me to let Fay step anywhere close to the starlight in. Not after I myself deduced that it was designed to keep her kind away, striking at the very core weakness of it.

    Looking at Fay''s face, I could see how it went from shock, turned into a milder surprise only to then explode in anger as she came to the exact same conclusion as I did.

    Yet, while I knew there was no way for me to let Faye with me�� Fay couldn''t even imagine a scenario where she would allow me to go there without her.

    "No."

    Rather thaning up with long, logical, or even purely emotional arguments, Fay simply took a step back and crossed her hands over her chest, looking at me while openly denying my decision.

    "Fay��"

    "No," Fay repeated herself while shaking her head. "There''s no way I''m going to let you go to that in alone. And while it might be true I cannot cross the in�� But doesn''t it also mean I''m more than suitable to cross the misty valley instead?"

    By now, Makary was already pricking his ears to ensure he wouldmit every single name and location he heard to his memory so that he couldter find out its meaning or coordinates.

    His officers didn''t seem to mind the exchange all that much, taking it for what it really was - a god-sent break for their minds exhausted from all the thinking and working they did in thest few hours.

    But when it came to me and Fay��

    "First, I''ve already asked around. Thends that the princess wants us to open a trading route toy to the north rather than the south. All on its own, it wouldn''t be enough for me to pick the path, though. Fay, listen��"

    I took a deep breath, calcting what and exactly how I was supposed to say to her, not to reveal too much to the others in the area.

    "Do you remember how I''ve got my ability to open the first stable gate?"

    "Yeah," Fay nodded her head while already squinting her eyes. "You��" she opened up her mouth again, only to cut her words short as she nced to the side before turning her eyes back to me and nodding her head again, "Yeah."

    I took a deep breath to artificially slow down the train of my thoughts.

    "It''s pretty much the same right now.

    And while I already figured out that both the misty valley and the starlight in are pretty much the same with the sole difference of the mist acting as the conductor for whatever force reins all the invaders in�� It''s the starlight in that I need to explore if I want to get any further benefits the likes of that stable gate," I breathed out, "not the misty valley."

    In theory, whether it was the in or the valley, my system both recognized them as just parts of the greater whole. To a degree, I even started to believe that if someone were to cut this entire forest down, then the two parts of the starlight in would reunite, with the forest area turning into yet another part ofnd infested by this torturous light.

    "I don''t care," Fay simply shook her shoulders. "On this point, I''m with Makary," she then stated, sparing the man just a quick nce. "I won''t let you go to such a dangerous ce without someone to keep you safe."

    Fay breathed in�� and then breathed out, with her entire body slumping down as if whatever force she used to hold it up had just vanished.

    "Dear, please�� Even your actual safety aside, are you really going to make me spend so much time�� all alone?"

    Fay''s voice inbination with the state of her soul both made me realize that it wasn''t a threat�� but a desperate plead.

    She wasn''t telling me that "I will see what happens if she gets lonely without me by her side". She was pleading with me to realize "how she''s going to feel when deprived of my presence."

    This realization was one of extreme contrast. Because from one side, that only made me realize just how hard it would be to push this point through�� But at the same time, it served to once again reinforce my own perception of just how much Fay valued me.

    ''Damn, it''s hard to deny her when she''s making me feel needed like that.''

    I gathered all the mental strength and resolve that I could muster, getting myself ready for yet another push with tiny hopes of changing Fay''s mind.

    "I��"

    "If you can''t go, we can send Loraz with him," Madam spoke as suddenly as she appeared on the scene, simply walking out from between the trees only to then casually sit down at one of the free seats surrounding the huge, nner''s table. Read exclusive chapters at empire

    "Wasn''t he crippled?" I asked without even thinking about it, perfectly aware that I was arguing against a potential solution with some actual hopes of pacifying Fay''s doubts. "I mean, I know how it sounds for me to bring it up, but��"

    I turned my eyes over to Fay.

    If we were looking for some solutions to the current problem, I wasn''t going to vote for it unless I actually agreed with it. Doing otherwise would only serve to betray the faith Fay had in me, as it would be no different from me cheating to get my way.

    "He''s crippled, that''s for sure," Madam nodded her head before putting on a small smirk on her mouth. "This also connects to the topic that I failed to bring up during our earlier talk," she mentioned with her smile only growing wider and wider. "And it''s how the forest folk advance through the ranks. And from what I can tell, it''s a different process to how humans advance."

    All of a sudden, my conflict of opinions with Fay moved to the second n, with Madam''s revtion instantly taking over everyone''s attention. Even Makary who had no direct rtion to aura and matters rted to it appeared to be quite interested in the topic Madam brought up.

    "You see, every celestial and every divine is born with a set of seemingly random conditions. And the reason why I had a falling out with Loraz�� Was exactly because of his promoted ascender condition. In short, he had to both be recognized and recognize himself as the strongest in the n for his true power to activate.

    And while he advanced to the promoted ascender level when he first fulfilled it, ever since I revealed my full strength��"

    Madam didn''t really need to exin any further. Just a quick trip down memoryne was enough for quite a lot of things that the two of them said during their bloody encounter to finally click.

    ''So he banished her to remain the most powerful when she reached a level close to threatening his position. And judging by how pressed he was to defend this forest, there''s a chance he did it out of a sense of duty rather than a greedy desire for more strength and higher position��'' I thought, trying to take all the possibilities into ount.

    "Okay, I get it," I spoke out before Madam could get even further into the details of the situation, details I wasn''t sure I wanted Makary to know yet. "But doesn''t that mean that he''s not only physically crippled but also lost ess to his greatest source of power?" I asked, inferring my deduction from what Madam said thus far.

    "Sir, a second," right as Madam was about to answer, one of Makary''s men snuck through the back of the area and approached the man while already showing a sealed letter into the man''s hand.

    "That''s true. His balls are as crushed as they were when I stomped down on them," Madam lowered her head in a nod, paying only a single nce of attention to the smallmotion to the side of the table. "But you appear to miss the one, extremely important detail in this specific situation."

    Madam smiled before leaning back in her chair and crossing her hands over her chest with a confident look in her eyes.

    "He has to be the strongest in the whole area. And unless you reveal your true strength, something I''m led to believe you would rather avoid, then he should regain a lion''s share of his greatest power the very moment you guys step into the starlight in."

    I squinted my eyes, taking a moment to process what Madam said.

    ''Wasn''t his requirement about being the strongest in the n? If so, what does location��''

    My face froze when the realization struck me.

    ''The strongest of his n�� in the entire region. And this forest is so damn different from the starlight in, even my system recognizes it as a separate area!''

    Now, everything clicked.

    The potential reasons why Madam could want to have her ex-husband take part in our harsh expedition ranged from how he was perfectly suited for traversing the starlight in all the way to how she could want him to score up some aplishment.

    With enough merits, his name could be cleared of the sin of his betrayal, opening up a way for him to reunite with Madam, someone who was bound by fate never to have a different lover.

    Then came the aspect of Loraz''s power which, after experiencing it with my own two eyes, I could easily vouch for. Ultimately, as a figure Fay was aware of, he would be much easier for her to ept as my protector than any random divine we could find in the forest!

    "I''m sorry, but I will have to stop you all right here," Makary suddenly joined the discussion, forcing his way into it while raising his eyes from the letter that he already opened and scanned the content of. "Whatever we will do with the princess''s request will have to wait.

    For now, though, I need you to take a look at this," he stated, only to push the opened letter across the table, throwing it so perfectly it lost all its momentum and stopped a mere inch away from my hands.

    Looking down, I nced at the letter''s content, quickly realizing it was a rtively usual report of how the affairs were going back on the other side of the gate. And from the looks of things��N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "The city hall decided to open an investigation into the group. The magistrate''s decisiones into effect starting tomorrow."

    From the looks of things, the matter of Etaria''s request was merely half of our problems, with the other half already putting a huge wrench into our ns back on earth!

 Chapter 317 Makarys daring suggestion

    The silence covered the entire area where Makary set up his makeshift and barebonesmanding center.

    "Shit��" I allowed a slight curse to leave my words as the weight of the message nearly struck me down.

    "So while we were all nning and discussing the future, someone else made sure all that we discussed became irrelevant?" I asked, raising my eyes and looking helplessly at the former soldier.

    Contrary to how I expected Makary to react to the news, though, the man himself didn''t show any signs of anxiety or nervousness. It was as if he wasn''t bothered by the news at all��?!

    "For now, it''s fine. Don''t forget, the magistrate still operates within the inefficient system of civic management," Makary finally spoke out, only for his voice to drop down with every word, turning into a mere sigh at the end of his sentence.

    And from the looks of things, he also anticipated just what kind of question I would throw at him the very next moment.

    "With that said, even if their investigation starts tomorrow, it could take weeks if not months before they uncover anything of importance," Makary stated before putting a small smirk on his lips. "And it''s not my first rodeo. Now that I can put this ce as an absolute priority, the list of things I can throw at them��"

    For a moment, the atmosphere in the area nearly rxed as Makary''s face melted due to all the thoughts he had over how to screw the magistrate over.

    This moment of respite didn''tst long, though, as Makary quickly regained his usual seriousness and raised his eyes back to my face.

    "But I dislike the idea of just letting them go through with this investigation. Cause the investigation aside, if we let them go through with it��"

    This time, Makary refused to give it out to me straight.

    I took a quick look at the two officers apanying the man by his sides, only to see them putting on quite the expressions.

    ''They are�� troubled? Amused?'' Even though I stared hard at them, I couldn''t really figure it out.

    Still, just like dealing with the magistrate wasn''t a first for Makary, dealing with Makary wasn''t a first for me.

    "If we let them go through with it, it will be the same as giving up on the initiative," I took my shot at guessing what Makary was hinting at. My eyes then moved up to scan the man''s face in search of confirmation��

    ''Not yet, huh?''

    Makary smiled a little�� but his smile was still a ways off from a satisfied one.

    "We are not only going to lose the initiative but��"

    I didn''t really have the second part of the answer that Makary wanted from me. Still, speaking out loud allowed me to better immerse my thoughts into the scenario as I ran it through my head.

    ''Once the investigation starts��.'' I voiced out in my thoughts, only to then silence all the other thoughts of mine, putting my mind in a perfectly nk state.

    And in this state of nothingness, my hyperactive brain improved by both my intelligence and wisdom stat, quickly came up with the entire plotline of how the events were likely to y out.

    The investigation would start. Then, Makary would respond by throwing some usual methods at them. Once their use would exhaust, he would ramp up the stakes by giving up on some parts of his half-legal empire on earth, purging himself just to buy us more time.

    Things would continue to escte more and more, all the way to the absolute limit of what Makary could give up for the sake of the investment he was willing to fully prioritize��

    But at the end of it all, the situation would be vastly different from how it was right now.

    Rather than having suspicion�� or merely a magistrate with a viable reason to investigate Makary''s group, we would turn into bitter enemies with quite a lot of blood and lost resources marking the evolution and progress of our conflict.

    "If we just try to slow down the investigation, things will only keep escting. And by the end of it, rather than a suspicious magistrate greedy to get a share in whatever we are doing, we will turn them into our bitter enemies. And judging by all the sacrifices we would make in the process of stalling them��"

    I turned silent when the reality of the situation dawned on me.

    To a degree, the magistrate didn''t even need to find out the truth. Just by counting up all the sacrifices we made, they could evaluate the worth of the secret we would be trying to keep them away from. And that��

    "And we don''t have resources to seriously face them. Not yet, not now," Makary exined the thing that I just figured out. "And in that case, what do you think is the right thing to do?"

    The smile on Makary''s face changed.

    Earlier, he was obviously testing me, to see whether or not I knew the founding rule of never giving up on the initiative. Then, he was simply curious whether I could predict the potential consequences of going along the route of the least resistance.

    But now?

    Now, his smile told me he wasn''t testing me anymore. Right now, his question aimed to help me grow.

    "Are we going to attack once again, mister officer?" I whispered as a single line from a novel I''d once read and loved appeared in my mind.

    A line spoken by a dying soldier on a field of freshly concluded, bloody battle.

    Do we attack again, mister officer?

    I closed my eyes.

    Experience more tales on empire

    "Rather than waiting for their investigation to start, I believe we should start dealing with them instead," I proposed. "Try to buy their silence, pretending we are running some sort of illegal business. By cutting them in, we will lull their suspicions and give them an easily eptable source of the resources and money we will soon start making off thisnd.

    To a degree, it would also exin the insane degree of our purchasing spree��"

    All along my talk, Makary continued to nod his head. Yet, once I took a short pause to get a breath fresh of air, he was quick to cut in.

    "Always keep the initiative, this lesson you''ve learned. But there''s another founding rule that you need to engrave into your soul," Makary pointed out, even going as far as to stand up from his chair and lean forward over the desk while mming his hands down on its surface to support his weight.

    "Do not underestimate your enemy."

    I fought off the desire to roll my eyes.

    "Are you implying that I underestimate the magistrate?" I asked, not exactly sure why Makary brought up something that even five-year-old children ying in a sandbox knew.

    "Yes, you do," Makary nodded his head before leaning back and then lowering himself back on the chair. "What you proposed would only serve to buy us some time. Maybe more time than dying the investigation, maybe a lot less. Ultimately though, the magistrate would figure out we were lying to them and put us back in the precarious position we need to avoid by any means."

    Makary took a deep breath before leaning back in his chair so far the front two legs of it rose up above the ground.

    "A position where it''s my group against the entire city. And by stretching it out to a point where other cities catch the news, my group against the entire world."

    ''This��''

    I gulped my saliva down.

    It didn''t take a genius to figure out that what Makary said was correct. And it didn''t take a genius either to figure out the progression of the events in the scenario I suggested�� that led exactly to this kind of oue.

    Yet, as more and more of my ideas got shot down by the inevitable consequences I either didn''t notice or thought too little of to care about�� A creeping suspicion arose in my mind.

    "Wait, are you trying to imply we should��" I took a moment to recalcte everything again�� but the math of my logical thinking checked out. So, I did it again, and then again.

    Yet, no matter how many times I tried, everything Makary said and did ever since this topic came up led to one solution.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    A solution that was as unappealing at first sight as all my other ns were appealing before one looked too much into them.

    "You want to actively deal with the magistrate?"

    The group of people that sucked most of the wealth from the city, was the founding reason behind the establishment of slums. The group of people that clung to power even after the system that granted it to them had fully copsed.

    A group of people that everyone that was as hated by the popce as they were powerful in all possible regards.

    And we were to make an honest deal with them?

    "Kid, I know this sounds wrong, but that''s how history is made," Makary sighed, leaning so far back in his chair that I couldn''t help but start worrying about the structural integrity of its two rear legs. "Whether we like it or not, we can''t topple the magistrate.

    And to topple them, we would need more time than they are apparently," Makary grabbed the envelope the report came in before waving it in the air, "apparently are willing to give us."

    Following those words, Makary moved back to a more natural position, allowing all four legs of his chair to support his weight again as he leaned over the table.

    "That''s why I believe right now, we have no other choice but to go to those fuckers, tell them a bit of what''s really going on and buy their cooperation in exchange for a promise of sharing the profits this world can offer," Makary finally revealed what n he came out with in response to the magistrate''s opening move.

    "Back on earth, we are on their home turf where they can find all sorts of means and ways to obstruct us. But here?" Makary spread his arms out as if to point not only at the forest around but the whole, wide world beyond it.

    "Here, we are in the power. We are to decide who goes in and who goes out. We are to decide what thews are, what''s priority, and what can be put off forter."

    Those words got Makary so heated, that a tiny blush appeared on his cheeks.

    "So, rather than dealing with the magistrate where it is the strongest, I suggest we make use of them while we have to and cut them off as soon as we grow strong enough here to project this power back on earth."

 Chapter 321 Threats all around

    "He''ste, again," Makary muttered under his nose while taking a second to check the time on his phone for the umpteenth time. Yet, just like thest twenty or so times, the time has hardly moved.

    "Is this the usual?" I asked, raising my eyes to the man from thefortable seat where I ended up while enjoying thefortable weight of Fay''s soft body pressing down on myp.

    "He''s a fucking drug addict," Makary rolled his eyes as he pped his hand down on the table and heavily exhaled. "I thought with that herb of yours he would get slightly better at it, but��"

    ''My herb?''

    It took me a second to figure out what Makary was talking about. The herb that I used to initially coax him into sponsoring myvish lifestyle on earth. Or, to buy my way into his favor, given how money didn''t appear to be an issue Makary would even bother considering.

    "I wonder how it works on the long-time users," I muttered, more to myself than to prolong the conversation.

    "Do you really have the time to worry about that, now?" Fay asked with a small smile as she tapped just the tip of her forefinger against the very middle of my chest.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Yet, as flirty as it might be�� we were still within the top floor of the magistrate''s high-rise, awaiting the arrival of the ''big dog'' as Makary called him��

    Or, as Makary also put it, while the group of officials we just met would shake nothing but their belts while walking around, Leon, with every step he took, would shake the entire governance of the city as a whole.

    And from the looks of it, this very man cared not for just how pressed for time we were.

    Bang!

    Exhibiting the same disregard for the maintenance of the conference room door as he did for our time, the person in question walked into the room�� Only to instantly make both me and the girls frown.

    ''Is that him?!'' I thought, struggling not to let my surprise show on my face.

    After Makary admitted the man was a heavy drug user, I dared not to offer even the tiniest thing that he could potentially consider to be an insult.

    After all, only God knew how the brains of the drug addicts worked, even with the crutch of that anti-addictive herb.

    "Makary, wee!" the man in question didn''t seem to mind our faces as he walked in with the biggest of smiles, already opening his arms out as in for a hug while he addressed Makary. "Still, this has to be the earliest hour that you''ve paid me a visit. What is it this time, you brought something even better than that ursed tea?"

    Leon turned out to be nothing more�� but likely an heir to the fortune that gave him the position he enjoyed. For, no matter how hard someone would try to convince me, I struggled to believe that this barely legal kid could''ve reached his current position with just his own abilities.

    ''So rather than a top dog, he''s a top puppy of the town?'' I thought, the corner of my lips raising just a tiny little bit at the thought.

    "Leon, it''s been a while," Makary spoke in a somber tone. From the looks of his face, there was a great disparity between how Leon and Makary approached this meeting. For the former, it was a joyous asion on the level of getting a new toy as a kid. For Makary, however��

    ''This is going to be one hell of a chore, isn''t it?'' I thought, nearly instantly realizing and then sympathizing with what had to be going through Makary''s mind.

    "So?" Leon asked while throwing himself at one of the empty chairs, not paying me, Fay, or Madam even a single nce worth of attention. "What brings you here so early in the morning?"

    Hearing those words, I couldn''t help but squeeze one of my hands into fists.

    ''Early? We were waiting for you for three fucking hours!''

    In addition to the time we spent moving through the magistrate''s tower, the time we wasted dealing with the unsavory weing party on the ground floor, and the time we spent traveling from Makary''spound to the town''s center, the total came up to a bit shy of five hours.

    And that meant, we only had about three more hours before we would have no other choice but to drop everything in here and rush back to be on time for the big event back in Fay''s world.

    After all, there was no point in making Etaria feel as furious about us beingte as we were right now about Leon disregarding our own time pressure!

    "Do you want the long or the short story?" Makary asked while making sure to put a great emphasis on thetter of the two options.

    "You know I can''t handle long speeches," Leon rolled his eyes and stretched back in his chair. "Hit me with the short, simplified one."

    Makary took a deep breath and spared a nce my way before standing up and moving over to where Leon sat down. He then stood over the young man''s chair for a while, giving him a long and annoyed stare.

    "We need money and means of using it," Makary revealed in the shortest way possible. "And if you won''t be the one to give it to us, then in thirty minutes this city will have a new Magister."

    While the city council was the unofficial but practical ruling body of the town, the official yet only titr power belonged to no one else but the Magister himself. Due to his less-than-hard-working habits, most of the power that his predecessors worked hard to rob from others has now found its way back to the hands of the rich families that used to hold it in the past.

    Still, Makary''s harsh words finally managed to force this drug junkie to wake up to reality. He went ahead and fixed his position on the chair before leaning forth and looking up, right into Makary''s eyes.

    Only at that point, I realized that all of his attitude, all of his annoying behavior�� they were all just for show.

    ''I refuse to believe a mere puppet in the hands of the council would dare to look Makary straight in the eye��''

    Over myp, Fay tensed up a bit as well, most likely oversensing my own unsettled state.

    "Those are some�� big words you throw right in my face," Leon spoke calmly, even going as far as to put a small, mocking smile on my face. "And here I thought you came here to beg like the dog you are for the investigation to be lifted��"

    Makary squinted his eyes.

    "Try to insult me again, and you will learn the joys of flying through the air at high speed for�� about��" Makary ceased his words and took a break to walk all the way to one of the massive windows that were in the ce of the building''s outer walls. He then took a long look all the way down before taking a step back and rubbing his chin for a few moments.

    "I''m not that good with math�� But I believe your flight is going tost a fewteen seconds tops."

    With those words out in the air, Makary finally turned back and looked into Leon''s face.

    "You see, the only reason why this city is still yours is because I consider it too much of a hassle to take it from you. But if you are going to keep acting like a spoiled brat, then I will find someone else to negotiate with."

    Now, this wasn''t a threat. It was an open deration of what would happen if the man refused to bend to Leon''s will.

    Leon squinted his eyes and stared right into Makary''s face.

    "You talk a lot of shit for someone smack-dab in the middle of my seat of power."

    This time, despite the harshness of his words, the tone of his voice turned perfectly clear andposed. And for the very first time since he appeared, his position stabilized as, surprisingly, Makary''s equal.

    Discover stories with empire

    Less than equal, as I soon came to realize when Leon broke his persona and allowed his eyes to skirt around the ce, lingering for but a second on Madam''s and my faces. Yet, the very moment his eyes moved towards Fay��

    "I would advise you against even looking her way," Makary spoke as he stepped to the side, putting himself in the line of sight between the arrogant Magister and my dearest. "At worst, I will fuck your empire up. But he''s going to outright kill you if you as much as look at his woman in a way he would dislike."

    The air in the room grew tenser�� yet my lips formed a small smile.

    ''What a lovely feeling,'' I thought, squeezing Fay''s waist a bit in my unending desire to bring her closer and closer to me. ''To see Makary finally understands that when ites to her, I mean every fucking word I said.''

    "I see��" The behavior of Leon changed once again, as he hastily averted his eyes, allowing Makary to return to the spot he was in just before. "So, let''s stop throwing empty threats around and get to the business. I can tell you are in a hurry. Money, was it?" Leon asked before rxing back in the chair. "How much do you need? And what was the second part?"

    "All the money you have and then more," Makary shrugged his shoulders. "We can keep going with just my funds for two, maybe three more weeks. But after that��" he shook his head. "What we need both in the future but also now, though, is your mandate for us to spend it."

 Chapter 323 Top dog but not the only dog

    "Was that really necessary?" Makary asked once we got back into the car and gave the driver a signal to rush back to thepound as if the devil himself was chasing us.

    I could already see the first rays of the sun rising above the city''s artificial horizon made up of all the low-rise residential buildings crowding around the city''s center. And that meant if we didn''t hurry up more than thew allowed, we would bete for our important meeting with Etaria!

    And if it was just a meeting�� But in reality, it was supposed to be the ceremony of the imperial forces lowering their banners and surrendering for what I''ve heard to be the first high-profile case in the country''s entire history!

    Apparently, not even during the invasion of the other empire, the imperial troops have left their fate to their opponents. In the few engagements that Etaria''s empire lost, its soldiers would bravely hold for much longer than anymander could ask them to, only to break and scatter if they were lucky or get routed if thedy fortune looked away that day.

    In the end, though, the imperial forces never gave up en masse just for the sake of avoiding needlessbat.

    And today was supposed to be the first time it would happen.

    ''I guess we could spin the situation around to turn this from defeat to a great deal the princess managed to make, despite the situation stacked all against her?'' I thought, paying little mind to Makary''s rambling.

    "Hello? I''ve asked a question!" Makary reached out and waved his hand before my face in an overexaggerated gesture. "Earth to Peter! Wake up!"

    "No, it wasn''t necessary," I rolled my eyes and replied, "but it was convenient. You know how to make people what you want, I will give you that. But you suck at making them desire to do what you want them to do themselves."

    With Makary''s words of caution, banking on their history and then hinting at some potential benefits, Leon would cooperate. Heck, I believed he would be happy to throw money at us and sign under every reasonable purchase we would make.

    But he would do all of that to put Makary deeper and deeper into his favor, slowly but surely shifting the weights on the scales of power bnce between the two.

    Still, all of that would only happen if we kept him in the dark right off the bat, only revealing tips and bits of information here and there, as things progressed.

    On the other hand, just my act of inviting him to see our project was a seed that I intentionally nted in the man for three reasons.

    First came the initiative push. And while I showed initiative by inviting him, I actually made Leon responsible for taking the next step, leaving it to him for when it would happen.

    In other words, he would have no one to me if he came to learn the details of our projectter than necessary, as it all rode on just his ability to move hiszy ass and check things out with his own two eyes.

    Secondly, I really wanted to cut on the chatter and pointless haggling. While Makary could disagree with this point�� I simply saw no reason to haggle for scraps when the riches, power, and all sorts of other benefits of the other world were simply too immense for us to ever properly make use of.

    In other words, any effort spent trying to divide what we have yet to possess would be an effort that didn''t go towards increasing the cake for everyone to share. And I much preferred to have a smaller slice of a much bigger cake over a bigger portion of a tiny one.

    Lastly�� I was low-key sick and tired of Makary taking the absolutely leading role in this event, reducing me to the role of merelyedic relief whenever something happened to displease me, just like when that son of a woman hired in the oldest job in the world dared to look at my Fay.

    Sure, he was better fit for negotiating with the magistrate than I was just on behalf of his former contacts with them alone��

    But that didn''t mean I was willing to fully concede my position in this rtionship!

    "I see," Makary muttered, leaning back in his chair��

    Only for the man to throw his hands to the sides and grab at whatever he could when the driver suddenly executed an extremely rapid and unexpected turn.

    "Sorry!" a shout came from the front of the limousine. "Some fucker nearly cut me off. Wait, what the��"

    The car shook again, sending Makary stumbling around his seat again�� While neither Madam nor the due of me and Fay even shifted in our own seats.

    Turbulence like that was way too weak for our bodies to lose bnce. We sat too heavily in our chairs and too easily manipted our bodies to extend unknown to the humanity of earth.

    Still��

    "What''s going on?" I asked shortly, sending a quick nce to Makary.

    The chances of someone randomly causing our driver to ride so crazily were�� low. And that made the possible root of the situation quite obvious.

    "Someone put a hit on us," Makary coldly exined, locking himself in ce by grabbing two different elements of the car directly welded into its inner chassis and straining his muscles to stay in ce. "Unless they really are serious about it, the car should hold but��"

    Makary twisted his face in an unpleasant expression.

    "Even small arms will work if we give them enough time to wear the armor down."

    ''Oh?'' I twitched a little. ''That''s different to what I learned about firefights,'' I thought, instinctively denying Makary''s exnation��

    "And the problem is?" I kept asking. "Can''t we outrun them? Or just get the police involved? Isn''t that what they are for?"

    Makary breathed a long sigh.

    "And who do you think is capable of attacking us if not the police?" he asked, rolling his eyes before moving up to the wall separating the driver from the passengers.

    "How are things looking?"

    "I won''t be able to shake them off," the driver reported in a strangely calm voice. "There''s too many of them."

    I pushed Fay off from myp and moved towards the ckened windows, taking a quick peek outside.

    A short series that tapped into the reinforced ss quickly dissuaded me from keeping my face anywhere near the ss, though.

    "Those are not police cars," I pointed out, causing Makary to turn his head and give me an annoyed look. "Yeah, even the magistrate is powerful enough to go away with openly using police for their private fights."

    "Magistrate?" I squinted my eyes. "Didn''t we just make a deal with Leon?"n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Leon is the top dog of the magistrate," Makary sighed, "not the only powerful member of it."

    I opened my eyes�� only to shut them down a momentter.

    "Fay, stay down, as far away from the windows as you can," I requested before moving closer to the man at the front. "So, let me ask again. What''s the problem?"

    Makary sighed and gave me an annoyed look. He then looked down at patted himself on the hips.

    "The problem is, we didn''t bring any weapons. We were supposed to get this meeting over with quickly and then return without making any big wa��."

    The car swung in a turn, the driver no longer paying any mind to thefort of the passengers and outright doing his best and pushing the car to its limits to throw the chase off and gain some ground over our pursuers.

    "And Leon won''t help," I added to Makary''s exnation something that I figured out all on my own. "What kind of business partners would we be if we couldn''t deal with a trouble of this level on our own?"

    Makary gave me yet another look but opted not toment this time.

    "Shit!" the driver cursed, only for the back of the car to suddenly swing to the side so rapidly, even I failed to keep myself stable and bnced in an upright position. "Fuck, left back is dead."

    There wasn''t even a hint of anxiety in the man''s voice. To a degree, I could even hear some tones of�� excitement?

    "You have a weapon?" Makary asked the driver.

    "Just a handgun, boss," the soldier replied while letting go of the wheel with one hand to pull the gun from the holster at his hip. "You want it?"

    "No, I won''t do any good while we are still moving," Makary muttered, before allowing a hint of troubled expression on his face. "Shit, what do we do��"

    The man''s voice was faint�� Yet, I could still hear the hint of distress in it.

    "Either way, it''s going to be fine if we deal with them?" I suddenly asked as I realized just how ridiculous the current situation was.

    "What?" Makary asked, taken aback by my sudden question.

    "Oh right, you never saw us in action," I smirked a little before outright ignoring the man and turning over to Madam.

    Throughout the entire event, Madam continued to sitfortably in her chair, not buckling even a single inch, not even when the tapping sound of the bullets came from merely half an inch of reinforced ss away from her head.

    "Madam, if I may ask for your blessing, so no harm shalle my way once I''m outside," I requested while lowering myself down to one knee before Fay''s mother.

    "You don''t need it," Madam shrugged her shoulders and gave me a small smile. "And wouldn''t it be risky if you did�� too much?"

    I raised my eyes and looked straight into Madam''s eyes�� Only to then lower my head in another bow.

    "You are certainly right," I stated as I rose up from my knee. "Fay, would you be as kind as to wait here for a second?"

    Up to this moment, Fay obediently followed my request and kept close to the car''s floor, a safe distance away from the windows. But now, she sprung up right in my face, and with merely an inch of air between our lips,

    "No way. If you are going out, so am I."

    I stared down the depth of Fay''s vividly blue eyes.

    Even without actually trying, I could sense her aura rising up and then falling down, like waves on the sea that were about to witness a great storm.

    "Once we are done, we might be pretty much out of it, so when we settle everything down, bring us somewhere safe," I requested, recalling just how close I was to my next rebirth.

    With that in mind, it would be safer for Madam to be the one to solve the issue...

    But with opponents on Irene''s level, how could I miss a single opportunity to grow stronger? And what ce would be safer for doing so than Earth?

    "Wait, you can''t be serious..." Makary attempted to protest, refusing to believe I actually meant what I was saying.

    "You ready, Fay?" I asked, not trying even a single time to stop Fay from following me outside.

    There were some battles that could be fought... and there were battles that were predetermined to end up in a defeat.

    And in this rapidly changing life of mine, I made a point of not participating in battles I could never win.

    "Ready as you are," Fay stated as a huge grin emerged on her lips and the color of her eyes deepened even further.

    "Good," I nodded my head before pulling Makary away from the wall separating the car''spartments only to then move up and take his ce.

    "How close can you get us to them?" I asked while taking a quick look through the untinted windows at the front of the car.

    "Pretty close... but I can''t guarantee we will be able to stick to them for long."

    I took a short yet deep breath.

    "That''s fine. A single opportune moment is all I need," I announced, "ready as you bear," I then added before pulling back, deeper into the car, and positioning myself by the car''s door.

    "Get ready," I shouted, gathering all the physical strength and aura that I could wield as I prepared myself for what was about to happen.

    Our car sped up, struggling to keep straight due to the faulty wheel at the back. Still, for a few seconds, the driver managed to somehow force it to drive straight... only for the vehicle of our pursuers to m right into our side, causing our own vehicle to terribly shake.

    "Now!"

 Chapter 325 Reflection

    The ss of the car''s back window stood no chance against my fist, even when I threw it while having nothing but a few holes I dug with my fingers to hold on to. And just like all the other windows I smashed thus far today, it was made with tempered ss, opening a rtively clean path for me to slide into the car once the very first structural disintegrity came to be.

    "Henlo," I casually threw, lowkey regretting myck of ability to include smiling emoticon within spoken word.

    And wasting no further time, I swung myself forth, going for the very same tactic as in the first car that I''ve taken over, only for everything to y out in, more or less, the same fashion.

    The gunner in the passenger''s car started to turn right as my foot kicked into the backrest of his seat, pushing it with more than enough force for it to swing and crush the man underneath.

    This time, though, I overdid it a little. As it turned out, by mis-adjusting my strength for just the tiniest bit, the seat didn''t simply squash the man, making him break a few rips and maybe twist his spine.

    Suffice it to say, a stter of blood that exploded and then covered the driver from head to toe served as a grim reminder.

    By now, I''ve somehow became strong enough to casually implode a human being with an off-handed kick.

    ''Welp, you gotta do what you gotta do.''

    Quite notably, the blood of the gunner was�� redder than the blood of the tens if not hundreds that I''ve ughtered on the other side of my portal. Its crimson was far deeper. And for a tiny, fleeting moment, a sense of wrongness overtook my mind.

    ''I''ve just killed a man, huh?'' I thought, only to lower my upper eyelids in an act of embarrassed self-reflection. ''Wait, I''ve killed everyone back in that van too, didn''t I?''

    In the end, was I just a cold-hearted bastard who thought nothing of murder, or was there really a difference between killing a human being here, in my home world, and in the vast unknown beyond the gate my father left me?

    I shook my head and forced my thoughts to clear.

    There was still the driver to take care off. And while I could afford to leisurely reflect on my morals in the middle of a fight just like I could easily squash someone with a single kick, it was better to finish things quick.

    After all, while I couldn''t worry less about Madam�� Makary was still a simple human. And so was our driver, whom I came to genuinely respect and feel sympathy to.

    "Well, whatever," I muttered to myself, twisting my lower body right in the middle of the car only to knock the driver off with a gentle tap on the forehead performed with all the grace of my shoe.

    Two streams of blood flushed out of the man''s nose, his entire body went limp. Thankfully though, I could still vaguely sense his breath, indicating I managed to hold back properly!

    ''Now then��''

    Deprived of any sort of control, the car quickly knocked to the side now that the wheels no longerpensated for the drag.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    I reached out for the head-rest of the one seat remaining and pulled myself up, across the entire length of the car.

    A quick nce to the side proved Fay finished the first half of her assignment just a tiny bit sooner than I did.

    Maybe she didn''t get lost in thought as I did? Or maybe she was just faster? Or more used to battle, regardless of the movement involved?

    ''Whatever,'' I shrugged my shoulders before tensing up the muscles of my arms and then slingshotting myself forward.

    For once, I simply knocked the windshield off its frame as opposed to shattering it to pieces. Even with this feat, my jump still remained enough force to push me across the car''s front mask and then through the air, all the way to the side of thest car left for me to take care of.

    ''Whoops!''

    Only uponnding on the side of the next target did I realize the tiny mistake I''d made.

    By now, thest pair of driver and a gunner have long been prepared for my inhumane assault. And with both of their barrels pointing straight at me, I had no other choice but to resort to a little bit more serious means.

    ''Tribute.''

    A tiny hint of my aura whisked away right as the flow of time slowed down to a crawl.

    A much bigger chunk of my aura''s reserve vanished when I started to forcefully swing myself over the corner between the car''s door and its roof. Simultanousely kicking my legs forth, I swung forward at a steep angle, as if trying tond on either the windshield or the car''s mask.

    My intention was the former. But with just a bit of alternation.

    ''Sht, it''s draining a lot faster than I thought it would.''

    Keeping up my aura'' tribute through the maneuver, I burned through nearly two-thirds of my aura.

    The power that I deemed near inexaustible at this point, continued to thin out for every inch I moved through space while holding the time from taking its due course.

    Thankfully, my counterattack was about toe to be.

    Cutting the supply of my aura to the tribute before it would fully whisk away, I dropped down with all my weight and force while curling my legs and aiming down with just one knee of mine. Continue reading stories on empire

    And in this fleeting moment when pretty much the entirety of my aura exhausted on the altar of my tribute, I''ve noticed it.

    The�� shadow of the reality. The fabric from which Irene weaved the subspace I once managed to notice her in.

    It permeated through every tiniest thing of the physical world, the same yet, at the same time�� different.

    Like a shadow cast on a lower ne that could only reflect, never to affect.

    But as thest of my aura seeped into this shadow of the reality�� This rule suddenly reversed.

    All out of nowhere, the reality became the lower ne of existance�� Or maybe a ne of existence the reality of which had less energy etched in it, making it a wannabe reflection of the shadowy realm of dark aura?

    Even with all of my mind instantly focusing on the issue, I simply couldn''t make the ins and outs of this. But understanding of the issue wasn''t necessairly a prerequesite to tap into it.

    My aura soon fully exhausted, cutting this strange state of awarness I''ve found myself in.

    My knee dropped down�� And dug itself deep into the car''s engine, pressing the entire thing into the concrete of the road with surprising ease.

    The instant it happened, I felt as if a massive, condensed weight suddenly pressed down on the car�� making it act like in the videos where people simted various scenarios while tweaking the strength of the gravity within.

    ''What?''

    Puzzled to the end of my wits by what happened, I simply stared down at the dented mask of the car while the entire thing went through.

    Makary''s car and thest of Fay''s targeted cars instantly distanced themselves from where I crushed the car into the road.

    The sense of Fay''s presence starting to fade was the wake up call that brought my mind out of my ass.

    Twisting my body, Iunched myself into a jump, paying no mind to whatever became of thest two of our assants.

    Catching up with Fay was simply too important for me to care.

    ''It''s a good thing exhausting aura doesn''t really affect my body,'' I thought, rushing to match the speed of the escaping convoy before speeding up my sprint even further so that I could catch up.

    Thankfully, the car at the front soon swerved to the right, opening up a path for Makary''s devatated limousine to press all ahead��

    Only for the driver I was starting to like to step on the breaks, bringing Makary and Madam to a rtively safe stop a few hundred yards further away.

    "All done," I announced joyfully as I caught up with the stopped car, digging my feet into the asphalt of the road to kill my momentum. Then, after a quick look inside that allowed me to confirm Makary''s safety, I raised my head and looked down the street instead. "Shouldn''t we get the heck out of here?" I suggested, slightly taken aback by the sudden stop.

    "And we still have a meeting to catch��" I added, focusing my eyes at the distant end of the road as if trying to peer through the air and to where Makary''s privatepound was located.

    "The car''s dead, we need to switch," the driver announced as he rushed from hispartment to the back and offered a helping hand to the two passengers.

    "Thank you," Madam smiled as she gracefullyid her hand down on the man''s palm before standing up from her seat like some sort of a courtdy when asked by a noble knight for a dance.

    On the other hand, Makary reached out and grabbed the driver''s hand by its wrist while allowing the man to double secure the hold with his own fingers around Makary''s wrist.

    "How''s the car from the front?" Wasting no time, Makary inquired as he followed Madam out of the devastated limousine.

    "I��" Fay appeared out of nowhere right by my side, only to show me one of her rare, slightly troubled looks. "I don''t think it''s any good��" she revealed while averting her eyes to the side to avoid everyone''s looks.

    "I think the first one I''ve taken care off should be okay-ish," I interjected, happily taking the attention out of my troubled dearie. Yet, as I looked down the way we came from, I realized that the driver I''d terrorized��

    Somehow grew the guts or got the smarts and opted not to follow the rest of us when I jumped off his car.

    "Well, that''s��" our own driver anxiously looked away, only to then direct a sharp look down at the watch on his wrist.

    His face changed from anxious to troubled and then exasperated. And then, as he raised his eyes while breathing out an exhausted sigh, he turned and looked up the street.

    "Right on time," the driver muttered precisely when a group of seven, ck jeeps jumped out from behind the corner, sharply took the turn while pushing the tracts of their wheels to their limits, and then sped up towards us.

    "The cavalry has arrived."

    I turned on my heel and took a step before wrapping my hands around Fay''s arms and then resting my head down on her shoulder.

    "Haaa..." I breathed out a long sigh before heavily raising my own arm and taking a look at my watch. "Couldn''t they pick a better time for an ambush?" I whined while squeezing down on my favorite anti-stress being.

    A support animal-girl that was here to ease all my worries.

    "At this rate, we are going to bete!"

 Chapter 327 Is it trully the realm of the supreme?

    "But you pretty much tapped into the realm of supreme."

    Madam''s words didn''t have the great effect they should ording to my own understanding of their meaning. Within our group of me, Fay, Madam, Makary, Selene, and the driver, only the first half understood the meaning of supreme properly.

    And with Madam being the one to deliver the news, it left only me and Fay to turn silent and allow our expressions to change as we both slowly came to realize what we missed during the action.

    ''Realm of the supreme, huh?'' I allowed my thoughts to wander as I took a moment to lean over the issue. ''Is this what reversing the reflection and affection,'' I thought, only for my lips to twist in a grimace as I faced yet another issue.

    ''Affection�� is this even the right world?'' I rolled my eyes over how quickly my mind swarmed with pointless thoughts. ''Either way, so that was it, huh?''

    That shadow of a dark realm that I''ve noticed and its intrinsic connection to reality along with how just infusing it with around was enough to switch which dimension reflected the other��N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Was that what the realm of the supreme was all about? But wasn''t it supposed to be something about the ability to manipte the world''s aura over one''s own?

    ''If that were to be the case, does that mean once I properly go through my next rebirth, I should be able to control that realm at will?''

    A mere thought like that was enough for something to twitch deep at the bottom of my soul. For with only a mere hint of what this power could be, I could already see just how far I would be able to take it.

    For if I were to take aura as an enigmatic force that allowed one to affect change in the world, then changing the reality around me was akin to sculpting in stone. With an aura for the power of muscles and the spell frames acting as the sculpting tools, changing how things naturally should be in the world was quite the process.

    But save for what little aura one needed to infuse the dark reflection of reality and just how much easier it was to shape��

    Within the same sculpting analogy, if using aura in the real world was like sculpting in stone, then using the same amount of aura to influence the dark realm was as hard as cutting shapes out of cardboard.

    ''Assuming all of my guesses thus far are correct, how does this connect to the supposed ability of the supremes to harness the power of the world''s mana?'' I asked myself, falling into the trap of trying to solve the issue all on my own when I had one of the greatest possiblependiums of magic knowledge right within my arm''s reach.

    "What exactly do you mean by that?" I asked, putting my own thoughts on the matter aside as I raised my eyes and silently asked Madam.

    By now, both Makary and his wife appeared to have noticed that something of importance was going on, both turning silent not to disturb things as they moved.

    "How about we have that talk while on the go?" Madam smiled upon seeing the eagerness to learn on my face only to turn around and move towards the nearest of the rescue cars. "Aren''t we on the clock, guys?"

    As if by a touch of a magic wand, Madam''s reminder alerted all those who knew�� And then going into the heat of shouting orders and moving around forced all those who didn''t know to follow along and match their pace.

    In the end, the cars that came to our rescue were nowhere asfortable as the totaled limousine that we left behind with some of Makary''s men to haul back to thepound. And when we all packed in just one of the cars, the insides soon grew quite cramped.

    "I will ride," seeing how we were already at the limit of how many could fit into the car, Selene shook her hand before announcing.

    With this concession of removing the driver from the equation, we finally managed to fit into the ck car, with Selen and Makary at the front and the girls upying the back seats.

    "Where to?" Selene asked, ncing over to the side as she started the engine with a press of a single button, a design solution often used in military cars but hardly in any civilian ones.

    "Back to the mainpound," Makary groaned a little before stretching himself back in his seat. "We are alreadyte for a meeting that we really shouldn''t bete for."

    Hearing this exchange, I couldn''t help but smile a little.

    From the looks of things, Selene has yet to learn the truth about my business with Makary. As such, when bringing up meetings, whatever Makary''s wife imagined we werete for was likely in stark and great contrast to the meeting we were actually rushing to join.

    "Anyway," I pped my hands a little before turning my head to Fay and looking past the girl, at the edge seat where Madam was seated. "What was that about reaching the realm of the supreme? Because from what I saw and felt back then��"

    I raised my hands and gave them a solemn stare, ying out the act of the main character in some stupid, system novel who had to make himself mysterious with empty gestures just to keep some of that interesting vibe about himself.

    "What, did you discover a power sleeping deep at the bottom of your right eye? Or maybe a mysterious sigil-like tattoo appeared on your right wrist?" Selene joked around a bit, proving that while she didn''t actively participate in the conversation, she was more than keen to listen to all of its details.

    "Madam, what I experienced back then," I ignored Makary''s wife and continued my leisurely chat with Madam instead. "It was nothing like what I was told the realm of the supreme was all about. Not even for a second I felt any sort of connection to the world''s aura that you mentioned before."

    This was my biggest gripe with the situation. And while I was happy to figure out a new power�� There was a limit to how long I could keep going while blindly trusting in things that made no rational sense to me!

    "That''s why I''ve said you''ve merely tapped into the supreme realm, not reached it properly," Madam shook her head before leaning forth and turning her head so that she could take a better look at me.

    "You know, most have long forgotten this, but the supreme''s ability to manipte the world''s aura is just an additional boon, a prerequisite ability for them to create and affect their own domains, something that should be impossible with just one''s own aura alone."

    Both seeing and feeling Madam''s intense stare on me, I gulped down my saliva and instinctively reached out and grasped at Fay''s thigh. The feeling of her warm, soft flesh offered some sce��

    But it offered no escape from Madam''s revtion.

    "Meaning, if you really managed to tap into your domain before learning how to manipte the world''s aura��"

    Madam raised her eyes and stared nkly into my face.

    "Then��"

 Chapter 328 Starting cooperation... by humiliation?

    "Meaning, if you really managed to tap into your domain before learning how to manipte the world''s aura��"N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Madam raised her eyes and stared nkly into my face.

    "Then��"

    Madam hesitated and ultimately turned silent, opting not to divulge the thought that made her face turn slightly still.

    "No, this isn''t the time or ce for this talk," Madam shook her head as she openly reflected on herself��

    And the very reflection she voicedcked exactly the same two elements that Madam just brought up.

    Right now, in the car, with only Makary and his wife beyond me, Madam and Fay�� This was the definition of the wrong time and wrong ce to mention how it wasn''t the time or ce to discuss something!

    A quick nce at the front, central mirror of the car confirmed that Makary noticed this point too. Thankfully, though, he opted not toment on it.

    "That much is a fact," I tuned in to Madam''s words, hoping with all my soul to steer the conversation towards the safer waters. "Right now, we should focus on the meeting ahead�� And on that point," I raised my eyes and looked directly into the car''s front mirror, "how hard would it be to organize a bunch of shovels and simple uniforms?"

    "Huh?" Makary jumped a little, not ready to be called out right as he pretended not to notice the inherent rudeness of Madam''s remark. "Stuff like that�� I can have it done with a single call."

    "Good," I nodded my head, "then make the call."

    Makary looked up and caught my stare in the mirror.

    He clearly had no idea what I had in mind, and yet, he obediently pulled out the phone and made the call.

    The call itselfsted only a few moments. My request wasn''t something hard to make happen, given how I myself could manage it given some time and money. And even though, just like Makary himself, the man he called showed some signs of curiosity and interest in my need for those shovels and uniforms�� again, just like Makary, he opted not to ask too many questions.

    "So, are you going to tell me what sort of n are you hatching in that head of yours?" This time, rather than just staring in the car''s mirror, Makary turned over the backseat of his spot and looked at me directly.

    "We are alreadyte to the meeting, are we not?" I mentioned with a smile contrasting with our unpleasant situation.

    This was our first time dealing with a powerful noble and handling several tens of thousands of war prisoners. So, once we dropped the lingo we adopted to talk about the matters of the other world more or less freely�� What we werete was actually much, much more important than just some meeting.

    ''Well, we can only hope that the men Makary left behind will somehow smooth things over. Or at the very least,'' I took a deep breath, ''have everything prepared by the time we arrive.''

    "Yeah," Makary only nodded his head before stealing a quick nce at the watch on his wrist. "We are fifteen minuteste for the time we were supposed to make the contact."

    Just like one would expect, the simple radios that we brought over couldn''t prate the barrier between the world. And even with the gate still standing, if we wanted to talk with Etaria, we had no other choice but to be in the same words as her. And while there were ns to engineer a cable connection between two ry stations on both ends of the gate��

    For now, we don''t have such convenience yet.

    "Fifteen minutes��" I shook my head and heaved a long sigh. "And how long until��"

    "Five minutes before we get to thepound," Selene reported, either guessing or somehow figuring out the general meaning behind this short exchange.

    "So we will be about half an hourte," I summarized the makeshift calctions by rounding them up. "Given the stakes of this contact and everything else, we are going to need some reason for that, don''t we?"

    I smiled and sat back while I allowed mostly Makary to try to figure out what I was nning.

    "I could understand if you ordered as many shovels and uniforms as possible to equip them all�� but just a handful?" Makary shook his head. "This sort of thing would be merely a symbol��"

    Makary''s face turned stiff when the realization struck him.

    He lowered his eyes, processing his thoughts for the next few, silent moments, only to ultimately bring them up and look at my face again.

    "You see, I''ve been thinking," seeing how the man pretty much arrived at the same conclusions that I did, I couldn''t help but smile. "If we want to have a cooperative rtionship with the empire, can we really start it by serving them a humiliating defeat?"

    This was something I''ve wondered in some of the off-moments I''ve had ever since the recent rush began. Even if it was going to be just lip service, wasn''t this the very best moment for us to do the princess a favor, especially if it came at nearly no cost?

    "How do you n to frame it?" Makary asked, figuring out most of the details of my idea just from logically building up on it.

    "How about, you are not prisoners. We just gave you a chance to build instead of destroying? Or how in three years, people will sell their daughters just to live in a ce you are going to build?"

    I rubbed my chin while pretending not to see the weirded-out gaze of Selene reflected in the car''s front mirror.

    "What the hell are you talking about, guys?" she then asked, proving that contrary to Makary or me, she would much rather ask about things she was curious about rather than keep the bottled up in hopes one day, the answers would just fall into her hands.

    Makary gave me the look�� and I looked right back at him. Still, the silent plea in his eyes�� I just couldn''t ignore it! And so, in a rare moment of the solidarity of the balls, I''ve decided to help out.

    "It will be much easier to show than to tell you. And since we are pretty much here," I spoke, slowing down my words when I saw the scenery turn familiar. "How about you wait for just a few more minutes? Trust me, you will understand more from a single second of seeing what we talk about than what you would get from me spending hours trying to exin it."

 Chapter 331 Hear me, hear me, everyone, for today the history changes!

    "Are you sure this is going to be enough?" Makary asked as we leisurely moved down the path through the forest.

    It used to be a mere trail that celestials and divines would use when hunting or gathering. But now, in a mere few days and with the help of a few hundred hands of both Makary''s men and locals, this formerly narrow trail turned into a proper road.

    A road that allowed to continuously move high but limited volume of cargo.

    And in spite of the great potential that widening it by just onene on each side would give to the logistic side of the enterprise, there was ultimately no point in doing so.

    After all, the entire show ahead of them was all aimed at creating a city out in the in, not inside of the forest.

    ''The longer we rely on Madam''s hospitality, the easier it would be to overstay our wee. And as interpersonal grudges were bound to arise, moving out from the forest was the best and realistically the only strategic move in the current situation.''

    I took a shallow breath and looked up, not bothering to answer Makary at all.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Actually, what he is really curious about," Selene spoke out in her husband''s steed. As she walked by his side, she had to lean forward to peek beyond Makary and give me and Fay an inquisitive look. "Is why your lovely wife so silent? Doesn''t she have anything to say on the matter?"

    I raised my eyes and looked at Selene, instantly fighting off a great desire to just heavily sigh away.

    This woman was the very reason why, even though I could finally breathe the fresh air of this clean world again, I was severely exhausted.

    Selene''s face when she crossed the barrier and stepped into a different world was a hell of a sigh to behold.

    Even Makary couldn''t resist a touched smirk when he saw his wife overwhelmed by an amazing discovery like that.

    And yet, mere minutes into her trip into a different world, she was already trying every angle to pry more information about local politics and the current situation. But whenever she would bring the topic up herself or try to make Makary ask in her steed��

    Everyone''s opinion on this problem was safe, and so was everyone''s answer to Selene''s pleas.

    ''Just wait and see.''

    Thanks to the benefit of the road, we reached the reinforced line at the forest''s edge in less than twenty minutes.

    Only when we walked all the way up to the front of the trees, from where Selene could see the entire front of the remaining half of the Imperial army, I decided it was the right time to make a short stop.

    "I''m sorry, but this is as far as you go," I turned to Selene and said. "Honestly, I''m against you going too," I looked over at Makary. "Over there, if something were to happen��"

    I took a deep breath before looking up and staring straight into the man''s eyes.

    "If something were to happen, I wouldn''t be able to guarantee your safety."

    This was the one difference that set me and Makary apart. The one gap that, as things stood for now, we had no means of bridging.

    For all the power Makary held with his word, all the brutal force he could mobilize with a single order, as a singr human�� he was weak.

    And just like he would be reluctant to let me throw myself into the dangers of the earth, I couldn''t bring myself to have him expose himself to harm for no practical reason in this world.

    "I know."

    To my surprise, Makary didn''t protest.

    "As much as I want to take part in what''s about to happen, it''s not my ce to be," Makary said before letting go of his wife''s hand and turning to face me directly. The man reached out and dropped his hand on my shoulder while giving me a long and silent stare.

    "Don''t fuck this up," Makary said shortly, tapping me once on my shoulder before removing his hand and looking away.

    ''He said that�� but why does it feel like he meant, do your best?''

    Hiding my grin, I gave Fay''s hand a squeeze while stealing a quick nce at her usual, elegant adorableness. Reassured by a small smile I caught, I then turned my head back and nodded to Madam.

    "Let''s get this over with."

    Stepping out of the forest, I could feel the air around me change. The rtivefort of the many hiding spots within the forest was reced with the full and total openness of the in.

    Behind me, about a third of the celestials and divines gathered behind the defensive lines set up by half of the Makary men.

    Another third of the locals busied themselves behind the scenes, following the management of the other half of the earthly forces to prepare for all the logistical challenges that would soon follow.

    In front of me, the remaining half of the imperial expeditionary force stood on full disy, in neatly arranged rows.

    Their sheer number was overwhelming, and oppressing, even when I saw how easily they fell to modern weapons.

    Just the sight of a line of men after a line of men after a line of men�� The sight of the ranks stretching out as far I could see and as deep as I could peer was something truly to behold.

    And then, there was me, Fay, and Madam, with a measly group of ten workers tagging around on the five horse-drawn carriages we brought along.

    We decided to pick horse-drawn carriages over a simple hauling vessel or a simple truck for the simple reason of not scaring the other party. But still, for my gift for the princess to work, I had to have all five of those carriages on hand��

    Just like she had to follow my request and bring along a total of a hundred soldiers, preferably from every formation within her army.

    Limited by the speed of the carriages, we moved across the in, keenly observed by our allies from behind and stared down by thousands upon thousands of the men in front. And just like thest time I got the pleasure of meeting the imperial princess in the flesh, we met at the most random part of the in, situated more or less an equal distance from the forest and the imperial camp.

    "Wee, princess," I spoke out loud as soon as I approached the imperial supreme''s direct proximity. "I apologize for the dy," I then nodded my head, paying no mind to how this small action could blow out of proportion when analyzed by some court specialist. "And I hope my small request wasn''t too much."

    The princess�� was fuming.

    Sure, not a hint of it showed on her perfectly still and dignified expression�� But I couldn''t be mistaken about the fire burning in her eyes.

    ''Seeing her like that, it kind of makes me feel as if my promise of the gift is the only thing that stops her from beating me down as she stands��''

    I gulped my saliva down and squeezed Fay''s hand, the second greatest anti-stress toy after her breasts and cheeks who both imed supremacy in that aspect.

    "As you can see, I''ve worked hard, even if it was for the sake of someone who requires steep timelines yet fails to follow them himself," Etaria spoke with an obviously fake, forced smile.

    "I assure you, princess," I lowered my head in a sign of respect before bending at my hips and turning to the side with my whole upper body as I pointed my hand at the five carriages tagging behind.

    "If I understand your situation correctly, soon you will admit that this short dy," I ignored the sparks of fury appearing in the princess''s eyes, "shall prove to be beneficial to not only us two but also everyone else."

    I lowered my head again before raising up and beckoning at one of Makary''s men with a wave.

    The soldier nodded his head back before squatting down inside one of the carriages. A momentter, the man grabbed something from the bottom of the cart, threw a roll of cable at his shoulder, and easily somersaulted over the cart''s wooden wall.

    A few stepster, the soldier brought the device over while unfolding the cable off his shoulder as he covered more and more ground.

    "Here you go, sir," the soldier reported, passing over a walkie-talkie-like speared connected to quite the expensive set of machinery stacked inside the heaviest of the carts.

    "Thanks." I grabbed the electric speaker with my left only to reach out and pull a small, stic bag off one of the pockets in my pants. "Now then," I turned my eyes back towards the princess. "Shall we begin?"

    Up until this point, Etaria managed to hold back her emotions, keeping her anger over us beingte at bay while maintaining a perfectly diplomatic expression.

    But now that we were finally about to get to the crux of the matter��

    Her face darkened.

    "And how do you perceive this happening?" Etaria uttered through her teeth, finally showing open hostility in her eyes while she squeezed her hands down into fists. "Maybe you want me to bow down to you and kiss your feet?"

    ''Perfect, just perfect!''

    It was one hell of a battle to keep myself calm. A battle within my soul that was so fierce, it even made Fay twitch and then give me a slightly weirded-out look.

    "Oh, stop with the jokes," I casually waved my hand while shaking my head. "If that''s how you deal with problems like that in the empire��" I shook my head again, this time in an exasperated shocked fashion. "Then we have a lot more work to do than I assumed."

    I shook my head again before raising my eyes and stretching out my hand with the small stic back towards the princess.

    "Here, noise blockers," I exined as I passed the simple item over. "Tear the see-through bag and stuff those small puffs into your ears. It will help with the noise, for it''s about to get really loud here," I lectured while pulling out a few more packets of the same kind and distributing them among my group.

    Etaria, at first, stared at how everyone within my group casually followed my suggestion, tearing the packets open and then stuffing their eyes with the squishy foam of the blockers. A hint of suspicion remained in her eyes�� in the end, though, she gritted her teeth and followed suit, quickly preparing herself for my gift for not only her but the empire as a whole.

    "How do we stand?" I asked in a voice much louder than usual while looking over to the soldier responsible for the engineering of the fifth carriage. Stay updated with empire

    The man in question looked down at something within his realm before turning towards me and stretching out a hand with its thumb''s up.

    "Okay then, let''s get this over with," I whispered to myself, taking a few short breaths before raising the speaker to my mouth.

    "Hear me, hear me, everyone, for today the history changes!"

 Chapter 332 Subverting Etarias expectations

    "Hear me, hear me, everyone, for today the history changes!"

    My voice, recorded by the microphone in my hand, turned into a myriad of zeros and ones that then proceeded down the long cord, through the reverse decoding, and then exploded from the massive speakers hidden on the fifth carriage.

    It took an entire carriage''s worth of fuel, fuel-based generators, and then,stly, speaker equipment to turn my serious but silent voice into a wave of sound that nearly shook the world itself.

    My voice turned into a wave of sound strong enough to push against my back, making both me, Fay, and pretty much everyone within Etaria''s party stumble a bit.

    It was also at this point when the noise-blockers proved to be a godsend, turning the powerful sound into an annoyance over an actual threat to our hearing.

    ''All okay?'' I thought, lowering the cube of a microphone and raising my eyes to check on everyone.

    Fay was perfectly alright, at most slightly startled by the sudden noise even though she already knew it was going to happen. Behind me, Madam didn''t even twitch, somehow manipting her aura to stop the noise from rupturing her eardrums.

    Out of everyone, only Etaria struggled a little, both unprepared for the explosion of the sound and, once she shook the initial shock away, by the possible meanings of me using it at this precise moment.

    "Merely days ago, our two civilizations stumbled upon each other. And in a true, human fashion, before we could even talk about things, we ended up engaging in a needless ughter."

    My words once again filled the air to the brim, forcing everyone on the in and within the forest to listen to my words.

    I kept the device close to my mouth, but opted to remain silent for a moment, allowing everyone to take their time figuring out the meaning behind the mere two sentences I uttered so far.

    And while it was nigh impossible to predict what the rank and file would think about them, assuming they bothered to listen in the first ce, Etaria was different.

    By now, even though I''d only spoken a few words, she was already in a state of perfect focus, dissecting every word I said in every possible way, desperately searching for any possible traps I wasying down with my rhetoric.

    ''If she finds it that hard to trust us, the payoff��''

    I couldn''t help but smile at my own thoughts, something Etaria instantly noticed, causing her mood and suspicions to spike.

    "But I believe we are better than this. We are better than some mindless beasts who can only reach for ughter when faced with a potential threat. And thanks to the few conversations our side made with Her Majesty, the imperial golden princess��"

    I took a little pause, stealing a quick nce at the princess to gauge from her reaction whether the title I used was correct.

    Noticing my stare, Etaria gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes, prompting me to continue.

    "We''ve found out that the things we want and the things you guys want�� Couldn''t be further apart!"

    Etaria''s face twitched.

    I cast my nce over to the unit of a thousand men from all sorts of imperial formations, only to confirm that only a few of the soldiers over there managed to catch my drift.

    ''I guess I need to make it more obvious��''

    Every war was nothing more but an extension of a diplomatic conflict. A means of taking what was impossible or simply too costly to gain in any other way.

    With this perspective in mind, though, what did the empire stand to lose by interacting with us?

    A part of its authority within the border regions that people in the imperial core couldn''t care less about? A huge chunk of its tax revenue? Or maybe prestige?

    The authority wasn''t a problem, not for an empire this size. By interacting with us, their ie and standard of living could only shoot through the roof as a natural effect of bringing the miracle of science and industrialization to this world.

    And if it was a matter of imperial prestige then I was alreadyying foundations for a n that would allow me to spare them the humiliation of a defeat, something they wouldn''t be able to silently suffer through if it were toe at the hands of an unknown, foreign enemy.

    Not after Etaria revealed how the return of the invaders from another continent was the prime worry of the emperor himself!

    "Before today, both Her Majesty, imperial princess, and all of you were sure to expect us to demand your surrender," I spoke to the microphone again before taking a step forward.

    Hearing those words and seeing my approach, Etaria steeled her face and tightened her hands into fists.

    "But that''s not what we want at all," I added a mere momentter while putting a wide smile on my face as I looked into the princess''s frozen face.

    "You know, beforeing here I requested for every unit of this great imperial army to contribute a few men to represent them. And I need them all for one reason and one reason only," I spoke, seemingly changing the topic. Still, I looked over at the princess and smiled. "Order them to approach, stand at attention several paces away, and then drop their weapons."

    Etaria''s expression turned ugly.

    "Is this your kind of a gift?" Etaria uttered through her teeth, her cheeks turning red from all the rage she held back. "To humiliate me, my men, and the empire as a whole out in public like that?"

    I could almost see Etaria''s emotions boiling over the lid of her self-control.

    "First off, how is this event public?" I asked, putting a confused look on my face. "Only those involved in it are present on the scene, so I wouldn''t say it''s public. As for your other question��" I made a tactical pause, only to end up revealing an even wider smile. "No, not at all. But you are right on one point," I added before turning sideways and waving at the four other carriages.

    Before Etaria could make even a single noise, the two divine coachmen hurried their horses, bringing the four carriages a bit closer, only to then take a turn and move them towards the representative unit. There, roughly twenty meters away from the VIP group, they stopped, only for all the other workers to jump off the carriages and position themselves all around them.

    "You see," I spoke in a normal, rxed tone while lowering the microphone to turn this conversation into something only those directly nearby would participate in. "I kind of realized that if we are to cooperate, then forcing you to surrender to plead for mercy for your men would go quite against the idea of cooperation, wouldn''t it?"

    I finally looked back at the princess, only to witness a trueplexity of emotions only a human could experience.

    From one side, the princess was still hostile, interpreting all the events thus far in the most negative way she could think of.

    But at the same time, my actions and words were slowly forcing her to realize that the dark scenario she crafted in her mind�� might actually be pretty far removed from what I was actually nning.

    "Tsk," Etaria clicked her tongue and averted her eyes�� Only to wave her hand at her men, making an entire unit stand at attention and then proceed forward.

    Step by step, a thousand men marched towards the carriages, stopping merely a few feet away from them. And right as they started to drop their weapons��

    "I''ve put my faith in you," Etaria muttered with a perfectly dark expression all over her face. "Now it''s your turn to prove I wasn''t mistaken in doing so."

    If a stare could kill, my entire group would be falling powerlessly to the ground to begin our final rest right this moment.

    ''Did I tease her too much?'' I thought before taking a deep breath and raising the microphone back to my mouth.

    "To all the brave soldiers who were ready toy down their lives for the cause and now areying their weapons down for your princess," I addressed the men ahead, forcing them to stop whatever they were doing.

    And so, some of them ended up keeping a hold over their weapons, others simply stood bare-handed, not sure what they were supposed to do, while all the others yed around with a simple, white uniform and a simple, steel shovel that they received one of each from the carriages.

    "When we first encountered each other, our initial response was to kill the other," I spoke into the device, recounting the entire thing right from the beginning. "But then we talked and realized that there''s no actual reason for us to be hostile with each other!" Continue your adventure at empiren/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    I lowered the microphone and took a deep breath while moving a few steps forward, stopping only two paces away from the princess. And as I looked right into her eyes, I brought the device back to my mouth.

    "That''s why, today, I''m not asking for your surrender. And the only reason why I asked your representatives to drop their weapons, is so that they can pick up their new uniforms and tools instead."

    Still staring into Etaria''s face, I gave her a cheeky smile before turning away and facing the distant line of her army instead.

    With Fay silently wrapping herself around my left arm, I moved a bit further away from the forest, putting myself in the direct view of Etaria''s entire army.

    "Today, we change history. For rather than destruction, we shall all work together to build a better future for everyone!"

 Chapter 334 Pioneering and its true weight in paper

    Whenever I imagined myself to be one of the pioneers who trod the paths through the newly discovered continents, I pictured finding mountains of gold, romancing with naive yet naturally beautiful local girls, braving through the dangers of the thick jungle, or fighting off vicious tribes.

    But now that I pretty much became a viceroy on the patch ofnd we received from the empire�� I ended up smacked by reality to aplete and utter oblivion.

    "First wood delivery enters the camp! Are the saw teams ready? We need them ready as soon as they start unloading the trees!"

    "Not even three brigades at the housing project can keep up with the diggers! We need at least two more brigades, all the more if we are to start the construction already!"

    "I can give you one brigade as soon as they are done digging thetrines."

    "I can share two, but only in about an hour, they still need to reinforce the road. If that path copses, the material dys will be enormous."

    Looking at the gathering from the outside, no sane person would ever imagine it to be the beating heart of the entire, massive operation.

    Seated behind simple desks pped right on the in and with nothing to shield them from the wind and rain, Makary''s men furiously fought against the ancient technology strapped together by an electrician''s nightmare of messy cables.

    A fair distance away, an improvised power nt of several fuel generators continued to consume precious fuel at a worrying rate, all to power themunication center of the camp.

    Just like in the army, be it within the garrison or out in the field, constantmunication was the one thing that held everything together.

    It was thismunication center that allowed the nners to juggle their resources around, pushing the hordes of imperials to whatever task was most urgent.

    Right in the middle of this nerdy summer camp, I sat at the edge of a massive desk, with Fay, Makary, and Selene apanying me in the task of sorting through and analyzing all sorts of reports and updates.

    "We only have twenty table saws," Selene raised a piece of paper in her hand and announced in a half-hushed voice.

    With all the noises of construction andndscaping all over the ce, we already had our fair share of loud sounds, leading to a silent agreement of not adding up to the noise unless necessary.

    "For now it will be enough, but at the rate of two mistakes per hour and when taking the spare parts we have on hand into ount��" Selene took a moment to ponder over some details. "In two days, we won''t have any."

    "Is it that bad?" Makary raised his eyes from the paper he was currently studying. "I never knew they were that prone to failure."

    There wasn''t even a hint of doubt in Makary''s voice, only pure surprise at the news.

    "If we had skilled users, then they could work for months before breaking down. But with the imperials up for the task��" Selene shook her head, unaware that Etaria silently approached our center of themanding center from behind her back. "The safety mechanism is the problem. Once it fires up, practically the entire thing goes to waste and needs recement."

    Selene dropped the paper down on the table and raised her eyes, giving everyone a heavy re.

    "So, unless we decide to let a huge number of those guys lose their fingers due to some stupid mistake, we are going to be out of the table-saws in two days tops."

    Selene shook her shoulders.

    "I don''t think letting them cut their own fingers off is a good way to promote dedication to the work," I shook my head as I spoke, trying to pretend not to see Etaria''s intense re. "How do we stand on setting up a sawmill?"

    If the table saws that we set up to process raw wood into nks to be used in constructing the barracks had such a rapid burn-through rate, then constructing a sawmill was the obvious solution.

    With this kind of factory in ce, we could use an extremely limited number of people, give them proper training, and then let them process more wood than a thousand men with a table saw each could produce.

    But��

    "If we rushed everything and paid no heed to the safety code, we could have it up and running in a week," Fay gave out the answer after spending merely half a minute studying some papers that she somehow managed to perfectly fish out from the huge, paper tower ahead.

    "Either way, wood is the best material to use in a hurry. That means we need to have a brigade or two dedicated to its construction as soon as possible while having another brigade train on how to operate��" I squinted my eyes and jogged through my memory for a second before raising my eyes to Makary. "Any chance we could get some parts prefabricated on Earth?

    Or would that put too much of a burden on our logistics?"

    Right now, there were three problems that we had to somehow solve all at the same time.

    The issue of housing for all the men we already took responsibility for. The problem of making an efficient use of the manpower we had on hand�� Andstly, the problem of logistics.

    Thest of those problems was a bit moreplicated than the other two, though, as it started with the limited volume of cargo we could push through my gate and then move across the forest to the in. So, in a bid to shift some logistical weight away from our already maxed-out channel, we decided to start sourcing some basic resources locally right on the very first day.

    And sure, the caravan of deforesting machines apanied by loaders and trucks already produced the first three loads of timber from the woods due east from the celestial forest�� Those raw logs still had to be processed into nks, cut into shape, and somewhat dried out. Then and only then could the workers use them for construction, assuming it was tost more than just a few weeks or months.

    "I''m d that you think so highly of our city, but do you really think there''s a market for prefabricated sawmill parts?" Makary asked with his voice oozing irony. "They could be made to order, butpleting that order would take longer than we would take to build it from scratch."

    I looked at Makary before heaving a long sigh and leaning back in my chair to the point I bnced on just its two rear legs.

    "What do you suggest, then?" At this point, I already gave out all the suggestions I coulde up with. And seeing how they were all shot down, I could only hope someone else coulde in clutch.

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    "I guess we won''t be able to buy them from that city nearby," Makary muttered only to twist his head and look over at where Etaria stood in silence, waiting for a window of opportunity to talk to someone.

    Noticing the stare, Etaria shook her head.

    "I saw the prototype of the tent-shed you are building. And no, while it''s possible to get some wood from the city, it will be a drop in the ocean of what you need."

    ''Figures,'' I thought.

    It was hard to even imagine that a random city on the empire''s very outskirts could somehow have a thriving wood-cutting and processing industry capable of fulfilling the hunger for resources of our mega-project.

    "I''ve already had two brigades preparing a massive heating chamber," Makary reported after waiting some more time to bring the solution up. "It won''t dry the wood perfectly, but if we add a bath in preservatives, produced nks should be good enough to work as floors for our housing projects."

    With that said, Makary looked over the table, meeting everyone''s gaze and registering their nods. And with no voice of concern raised, Selene simply jotted a few notes on the side of the paper she raised when addressing the issue before moving to the next piece.

    "Do you have a moment?"

    In the short instance of our group moving from one issue to the next, the princess approached the side of my chair and tugged on the edge of my sleeve to get my attention.

    "What''s up?" Happy to distract myself from the mountain of papers I had yet to solve, I eagerly looked towards the princess, only for the echo of Fay''s sharp attention to quell my excitement right as it was about to rise.

    "That chocte thingy you feed to the soldiers," Etaria mentioned before averting her eyes a bit, "I want to give it a try."

    For a second, I locked my eyes on the princess''s expression, trying to read into it as much as I could. Ultimately though, I turned my eyes to Fay.

    "Would you mind taking over for a few moments?" I requested while instinctively reaching down to grab the girl''s hand. "As per the terms of peace, she has the right to inspect every aspect of our hospitality. In turn, that means she has all the right to learn more about our food scheme for thismunity."

    Fay raised her eyes and looked into my face for a second only to then cheer me up with a small smile and then agree to my request with a simple nod of her head.

    "Don''t take too long, those papers are super boring," Fay requested in turn, only to put a small grin on her lovely lips as she raised from the chair and leaned over my ear. "And don''t forget to bring me my share of sweets!"

 Chapter 335 Honey-trapping the princess

    "I cannot overstate the importance of food in the current, early stage."

    Leading the princess towards a smaller, secondary storage field, I eagerly started with the exnations.

    As per the terms of peace, she was to oversee the takeover of the war captives and ensure they were treated fairly. And the food scheme was just the right way for me to convey to her the very spirit of our thinking.

    "This is the food that we will feed everyone in the first few days," I soon introduced after bringing the princess over to one of the crates and prying its cover open with a crowbar I found lying around.

    The crate''s insides were filled to the brim with neatly stacked rows upon rows of columns of small cans. Each of the metal containers was roughly the size of a man''s fist and contained a portion of a meal.

    Bybining various types of cans, one could easily construct all sorts of breakfasts, lunches, or dinners, with the number of cans determining the size and variety of the meal.

    Or, in other words, the absolute bottom of the tier when it came to what soldiers would like to survive on.

    "Those have a nd taste and can be weird to get used to at first. Their saving grace is how we can keep them stored for several years with no worry about spoiling. This is the very bottom tier of food that we want to feed everyone at first. But surprisingly," I allowed myself a small smile befitting a cunning bard telling apelling story to amuse the crowd of the inn.

    "Those are actually quite expensive, because of how extremely convenient they are. But those," I pointed my hand towards the next crate, "are what we will feed those who work hard."

    Picking up a selection of cans from the first crate, I threw my haul into a simple, stic bag and moved to open the next crate. From there, I pulled out a variety of proper military rations, each set wrapped in a tactical band-aid.

    "Each of those packets can feed a hard-working man for a day. All you need is to add water and smash the heater pack to let it boil to have a warm meal along with an assortment of snacks, drinks, and useful trinkets."

    In order to aid my presentation, I used the sharp edge of the crowbar to cut through the tightly wrapped of the tactical band-air, opening the packet and separating a huge number of small packages before spreading them all over the crate''s wooden lid.

    "Lastly, once we get some time to organize it, we n to set up awork of mobile kitchens. While we will use those two types of supply for quite some time, I can''t wait to see their faces when they will all be served a proper, warm meal a day."

    Staring off into the distance, an imaginary picture of how the camp would look like in the future oveyed with my actual vision.

    The long rows of grave-like ditches and actually quite a few of already constructed tent sheds turned intofortable barracks�� or rather, a worker''s dormitory split between private quarters,mon living areas, backyards for garden-farming and then ess to the rest of the city.

    The several piles of crates in the designated stockpile areas became massive warehouses, housing far more cargo than what one could store directly on the ground even in their wildest dreams.

    The beaten paths became solid, wide roads. The empty parts of the ins turned into massive factories, profiteering off the transit through my gates��

    For a second, I saw a city nner''s greatest dream crawling all over the virginnds of this world, consuming nature like some sort of shadowy monster and churning out unimaginable amounts of wealth into the pockets of everyone even most remotely involved in the trade��

    And then, all of this vision suddenly reverted, condensed into a single point, a single square-to-be where exhausted and hungry imperials would gather up to get their well-earned, warm meal and then some sort of leisure to let them regain the strength for the rest of the day.

    ''It all starts with building up people''s motivation,'' I thought, fully aware that I was looking at the future from beneath precariously pink sses.

    However, the colonization of new, richnds was the one type of instant get-rich scheme for entire countries and nations that allowed the creation of the level of wealth necessary to bring forth utopia.

    ''With that in mind, would it be wrong to carve out a small heaven for me and Fay, right at where the two worlds converge?'' I thought, staring off into the distance, strangely enraptured by this beautiful vision.

    "Hello? Are you awake?"

    Only now Etaria''s voice reached my brain, leading me to stumble a bit and lean heavier over the edge of the wooden crate.

    "Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts," I excused myself while shaking my head to clear my focus. "Oh right, what''s the point of me showing all of them if I won''t let you get a taste?"

    Putting up a huge smile on my face, I pinched at the edge of one of the preserved cans before tearing the thin, metal lid off.

    "Look," I cautiously guided Etaria''s attention as I used the tip of my knife to get a chunk of the meat paste and stuffed it into my mouth.

    ''Urgh��''

    My face slightly twitched when faced with the extremely nd taste. It hardly felt like meat, and more like a paste infused with chemicals that were supposed to make it taste like real meat.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Still, the hint of a taste was there. And with just this tiny chunk, I could feel my body regaining a bit of energy.

    What this foodcked in taste, it surely got back when it came to its nutritional value.

    It was a super-food designed for the hardened veterans fighting in ces where supplies were an actual issue!

    "Here, wanna try it?" I passed over the opened can to the princess, genuinely curious whether she would take it or not.

    "Your face��" Etaria muttered, giving the can a look of hesitation before ncing up into my eyes. "It wasn''t exactly�� inviting."

    ''Oh right,'' only now it struck me.

    I couldn''t help but feel repulsed by this canned food before I had some hints of what it might be made from. And this thought instantly made my body reject its taste. But for Etaria��

    ''Wait, I wonder if theyck spices,'' I thought, suddenly recalling one of the minor aspects of life that had an influence one could overestimate over the course of history.

    Still not sure, Etaria hesitatingly pulled out her knife, alerting several of the soldiers that passed by while doing so.

    Thankfully, no one bothered to try to make an arrest when she dug her de into the meat paste and then brought it to her mouth to carefully snack on it.

    "This is��" a small whisper escaped Etaria''s lips as they trembled a bit, right as the princess pulled back from the knife and looked at the remaining piece of the minced and then boiled meat.

    The princess''s golden eyes moved up as she threw me a slightly startled look.

    "This is surprisingly good��"

    ''Oh my!''

    It wasn''t Etaria''s words that made me twitch.

    It was the spark in her eyes, the first genuine spark of a positive emotion that I saw actually manifest in this otherwise either perfectly cold and stoic or extremely emotional princess.

    "How about some��" Actually amused by the reaction, I looked over to the rest of the cans that I brought over from the other crate. "Fruits? Dark�� I mean, sour chocte? Condensed milk�� No, scratch that, I don''t think those will be any good."

    There was absolutely no sense or reason for me to discard the condensed milk tins. In fact, they were the only ones that caught my attention when I picked up a few of them before.

    The only reason why I yapped like that, was to intrigue the princess.

    And from the look on her face, Ipleted that task with full marks!

    "What''s condensed milk? Why do you think it''s not good?"

    Maybe it was curiosity, or maybe it was a woman''s natural sense of craving for sweets?

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    "Actually, this is kind of a child''s snack back where I''m from��" I suggested in a reluctant voice while averting my eyes and smiling at my thoughts.

    ''If so, what kind ofpany would ever pack it for soldier''s rations? Oh,'' I suddenly reflected on myself, ''maybe this world still didn''t do away with child soldiers��''

    With my thoughts suddenly darkening, I waved my hand as if to imply I was giving up and opened up the can with the sweet, condensed milk. A thick and perfectly white paste so viscus, one could easily pick it up with a t part of a knife''s de.

    I low-key knew what to expect, but when Etaria brought the treat to her mouth and gave it a whiff��

    Her eyes opened up.

    The sense of stillness that marked her expression ever since I first met her has melted down, as her full attention moved down, along her eyes, to the white, thick liquid on her knife.

    With a focus on a general deciding where to set up the great battle to end the whole war, the princess opened her full, red lips before slowly, slowly pushing the knife''s tip into her mouth��

    ''Whoops,'' I courtly looked away, giving the princess some time to get herself familiar with the sweet taste of the treat��

    "Hiyup!"

    A strange, high-pitched sound followed, forcing my eyes back to Etaria''s face.

    Her cheeks were fully blushed, her eyes opened as wide as her eye-sockets allowed. And her jaw, perfectly still, mesmerized by the thick, sweet taste spreading in her mouth.

    ''I can''t wait until she tries it boiled and caramelized,'' I thought, no longer able to stop a small grin from taking over my face.

    "You just wait until you try the normal rations," I added with a cheeky smile as I moved on to unpack the tastier food option while searching for the small packets with sweet treats contained within the set.

    Still�� a sense of distant guilt echoed in my soul, as a reflection over me amusing myself with expressions made me a girl other than Fay. And while I was sure this reflection alone was enough of a self-restraint I needed��

    In the end, this wasn''t me flirting with the golden princess.

    It was me entertaining a royal of an empire I was trying to cooperate with, charming her with cheap treats while proving just how well I was going to take care of the men she was leaving in my care.

    "You really should try this one," I passed the princess over a small bar of chocte while already working to prepare the warm part of the ration. "And this is the warm meal we will feed those who will work hard," I shook the heating-up, stic package while Etaria sank her perfectly white teeth into the brown chunk of a rtively high-quality chocte.

    ''Note for myself,'' I thought, unwrapping the perfectly warm meal for the princess right as she hurriedly and ungracefully devoured the candy bar. ''Apologize properly to Fayter.''

 Chapter 339 Food scheme

    I would have to lie if I were to im that by the time I left my temporary house, the camp was fully up.

    Sure, there was movement everywhere, from the few shed tents that housed a fifth of imperial workers, through the extensive field on which the rest set up a camp all on their own. Yet, when it came to actively working, only a few of the imperials and an early shift of Makary''s soldiers were fully on their feet.

    Still, the imperial early birds could do nothing but wait for the rest of their respective brigades to gather. On the other hand, Makary''s mercs busied around the camp, delivering the daily supply for each of the brigades.

    ''I wonder how the camp will look tomorrow morning,'' I thought, grinning to myself at the thought of a lesson all the imperials were about to learn.

    "Morning��"

    Out to the side, Etaria emerged from a nearby building.

    In her due diligence, she opted to remain right in the middle of things. Most likely, she was motivated by what was merely an official excuse for me that I''ve used to get some private time with my dearest.

    "You are about to see something fun," I grinned at the sight of the princess, quite happy to entertain myself with her reactions.

    Yet, seeing my innocent smile�� This damned princess actually frowned!

    Etaria judged my face for a while before rolling her eyes and closing her arms over her chest.

    By now, most of the imperials already started to leave their temporary lodgings, more than just tempted by the sight of heavy crates delivered to their doorsteps.

    "It''s about to begin."

    This innocent narration earned me another tense stare, only for Etaria to get all jumpy when the mercenaries made their move.

    "Time for breakfast, everyone!"

    By now, Madam''s blessing, the biggest saving grace that she bestowed upon the entire camp, allowed the soldiers from earth tomunicate with the divines and celestials�� but also the imperials.

    And today was the time to implement the food scheme I hatched for quite a while.

    "What is going on?"

    To my dejected surprise, Etaria didn''t freak out all that much.

    Tap.

    A warm weight materialized over my right shoulder.

    ''Ah.''

    Somehow, I failed to notice Fay''s approach.

    ''Maybe that''s why��?''N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Fay raised her eyes and looked up at my slightly startled face.

    She wasn''t angry. She simply looked right at my face with those beautiful,rge eyes of hers.

    They were of their natural, grayish hue, further proving she wasn''t agitated at all.

    And as I looked down with a sense of passing confusion�� It finally clicked.

    "Oh," I jumped a little, startled by what I judged to be Fay''s source of anxiety.

    "Come on guys, aren''t you hungry?!"

    A powerful shout from nearby forced my eyes up, freeing them from the mesmerizing hold of Fay''s stare.

    ''Oh right.''

    My lips curved back up as I turned my head back and looked down.

    I lost control of my hands, failing to stop them as they rose up and gentlyid down on Fay''s soft cheeks.

    Fay''s gray-blue eyes twitched when I squeezed down on her cheeks with a small, silly grin. She then squinted her eyes when I brought my forehead down and lightly pressed it against the top of her head.

    ''Just wait.''

    Abusing the power of our bond, I wished just for this simple thought to pass.

    ''Just wait and you will see.''

    I saw it, back when we first started to bring people over to Fay''s world.

    I saw the interested and then amused expression on her face�� and the burning entertainment within her soul.

    Maybe she was rubbing off me somewhat, but I was sure Fay came to enjoy the faces all those people would make!

    "Didn''t you say something was about to happen?" Etaria sighed as she cast a heavy nce at the two of us. "Were you warning me how you are about to make out with your girl?"

    The corner of my eye twitched.

    Somehow, Etaria''s words rubbed me the very wrong way.

    "First off, she''s not my girl," I imed in mild anger while reaching out and bringing Fay to my chest. Right before her face nted against my skin, I saw her surprised look as she tried to look up to my face. "She''s my woman."

    As silly as it might be, I couldn''t bear anyone looking down on Fay. And by extension, the same applied to those who looked down on our rtionship.

    And for one reason or another, having Etaria call Fay per girl��

    ''Or maybe I''m just freaking out for no reason?'' I suddenly self-reflected, only to nearly jump in ce when I cleared my thoughts and suddenly had to face Fay''s emotions burning over through our bond.

    "And secondly, just take��"

    "OH GODS!"

    A nearby, shocked shout turned the air tense within a single instant.

    Etaria instantly looked over, ready to reach out for her weapon��

    Only to see one of formerly her soldiers standing still with a stic spoon in his mouth and a stic bag full of steaming-hot food.

    Everyone froze�� Except for all of Makary''s mercs who continued to portion and prepare the food as usual.

    The people around the man were the most freaked out, now sending doubtful looks toward the rations they themselves received��

    Then, the man looked down�� and spat out the stic spoon, forcing it down the bag before greedily chomping down on a huge chunk of juicy meat.

    People''s eyes followed when the drops of fatty sauce dropped off the man''s spoon, then cheeks and chin��

    Crack.

    The stic spoon broke.

    After a moment of stunned silence, the man carefully pulled the two pieces out, keeping his eyes on the stic for a short moment before looking down, back to the sizeable bag.

    And before the broken spoon could even fall to the ground, the man already dug his fingers directly into the food, ravishing the meal as if it was the ass of an inn''s popr waitress.

    The looks of doubt the imperials gave to their rations now changed as they all collectively stood still and gulped their saliva down.

    But right as everyone dug into their rations��

    They also discovered the truth.

    "Here it goes," I muttered under my nose, tightening my hold over Fay''s arms�� but also tapping her lightly on the shoulder before swaying just far enough to give her an angle to look at the princess.

    "Wait, what is this��?"

    The first person finally found out the trick.

    The trick was announced loud and clear right from the beginning.

    Those who worked hard yesterday and those who woke up right with the bell this morning would receive the standard, full ration.

    And while the fate of all the rest was still better than what they could normally count on, they would only receive a standard amount of the canned rations.

    "Shit, if only I knew!" someone wailed in despair only to dig their spork into the dried fruit paste from their can and chomp on it, their cheeks full of tears of delight.

    "Gods damn it all!" someone elseined from an angle that I couldn''t be bothered to turn to.

    And quite notably, those speaking out loud were only those with the canned rations, for all those with proper food were too damn busy devouring it to speak at all.

    "And?" Etaria asked in a stern, tense voice while turning to me with a grave expression. "What''s next?"

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    Her eyes appeared to peer deep into my soul, prate through my mental defenses, all in her bid to find out the truth and protect her people.

    Unable to resist putting up an act for onest time, I kept a straight face and raised my eyebrows a bit.

    "What do you mean?" I asked, leaning my head over my shoulder while feeling under my hand how Fay''s entire body was starting to warm up in anticipation of the show.

    ''It seems I guessed what would be the right move correctly,'' I thought, nearly breathing out a huge sigh of relief.

    "That''s it," I gave it to the princess straight while making a puzzled face as if baffled by her reaction.

    "Huh?!"

    Fay twitched in my arms when Etaria uttered a wild, primal growl that was as pained as the human soul could be.

    A guttural growl of someone who had no other choice but to give up in the face of an overwhelming stupidity.

    The growl of utter defeat, powerlessness, and despair.

    I tightened my hold on Fay''s shoulders when they started to rock up and down a bit, despite all Fay did in her bid to stop her giggle.

    ''Shit, we''ve turned into a duet of bullies,'' I struggled to hold back my ownugh.

    "Okay, fine," after teasing the princess for just a little bit longer, I finally couldn''t hold myself back any longer.

    Exhaling a long, amused sigh, I shook my head before raising my eyes and looked out to where the imperials in various moods sat down for their morning meal.

    "You see, you expect us to y dirty, trick you, or abuse your people," I started, only to look over to the side when a group of four mercs approached with a huge table and two outdoor trays. "But our intentions are far, far simpler," I tried to exin while watching how Makary''s men rushed to set the table with an borate breakfast.

    Mere momentster, the mercenaries nodded their heads and left, leaving a steaming hot breakfast for the three of us to enjoy.

    "Now they know the worth of working hard," I smiled as I invited the princess to the table while leading Fay to her own seat. "And we are going to continue to give them more and more reasons to keep doing so.

    Because at the end of things, the costs of investing in those people," I grabbed a cup of a hot tea and raised it up as if to cheer on the princess, "will be negligible whenpared to the profits they will bring us in return."

 Chapter 340 The monetary scale of the New World Enterprise

    "Well then," I brought up a napkin and wiped my mouth, "I will be off to deal with my tasks for the day," I announced before turning my head to the side. "Can I count on you to deal with the paperwork?"

    Fay swallowed a sizeable gulp of a mix of herbal teas from Earth and some fragrant herbs Leinei provided.

    "Back in the old headquarters?" she asked as she brought down the cup.

    "Unless we finish the new ones sometime soon, then yeah, sorry for that."

    As necessary as it was, the paperwork job was never an entertaining one.

    ''Truly, the best way to stop people from fighting for power is to make it as undesirable as possible��''

    One could wish for power if they imagined it as staying seated on the throne, having maids pleasure you while others stuff your mouth with all sorts of delicacies, all the while a single wave of your hand can dictate someone''s fate.

    But that was the level of some figurehead acting out, not how the real power looked like, especially not in a modern world or, as it was the case with the camp, modern enterprise.

    Here, there was a proper hierarchy and departmentalization of authority that left everyone with tasks just below their ability and authority just above their ambition.

    In the end, by sitting at the desk and toiling away to sort, scan, and then either sign or discard all sorts of papers, Fay would receive more power over the camp than an average king of the pre-absolutism era would have over their own kingdom!

    "But it''s boring��" Fay whined, as happy to get bogged down under tons of papers as I was to act like a clown at a children''s birthday party.

    Fay gritted her teeth and took a deep breath before lowering her head and then shaking it.

    "But since you are the one asking, I will do it."

    I allowed a gentle smile on my lips before reaching out and patting Fay on the soft globe of hair that protected her head.

    "Thank you," I said with a loving smile. "I really appreciate it and I wille to help you as soon as I''m free."

    Fay smiled back at me before grabbing her cup of herbal tea and finishing it off with just two more gulps.

    "Well then, I better get going," Fay announced as she stood up before looking over the sizeable area nearby where all sorts of furniture and electrical equipment sat underneath a massive cover of a hung tarp.

    It was an extremely primitive and imperfect protection from the elements. With a side-winds and rain strong enough, there would be a great chance the rain would shortcircuit parts if not the entire area, leading to some costly and hard-to-rece failures.

    And that''s why, setting up the new headquarters was almost at the very top of the list of our priorities for the day. For while the day appeared to be quite sunny, no one could predict when the weather would turn fickle.

    "Oh right, if you don''t mind, can I follow you around for a while?" Etaria asked right as Fay was about to leave. And judging from the hurried expression that appeared on her face as she spoke, she didn''t really want to ask this without Fay present.

    "What for?" confused by Etaria''s sudden willingness to follow me on my boring tasks, I asked.

    "I just want to see a little bit more about how you guys handle things."

    I raised one of my eyebrows a tiny bit.

    ''Did the food scheme leave that big of an impression on her?'' I thought, only to shake my head and look over to the side.

    "Fay, dearest, do you mind?"

    Acting as a guide for the princess was the highest level of task I could perform. As someone only serving as a bureaucratic support and an investment overseer of sorts, entertaining high-profile guests was the next most important task after my job of maintaining and possibly moving the gate that connected the worlds.

    And just like I would entertain Etaria now, I was likely to do so once Leon would pay the visit that Selene announced to happenter today.

    Still, if Fay were to be anxious over me being with Etaria alone, there was no way I would dare to humor the princess.

    After all, everything that was happening around me was just a side quest I took on in order to give Fay a better, morefortable, and more interesting life. As such, doing things that wouldn''t sit well with her for her sake�� defeated the very founding purpose of all I did here, wouldn''t it?

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    "Seeing how you both asked, I don''t really mind," Fay replied with a small smile, only for her lips to widen as her smile turned into a cunning smirk. "But you will both owe me a can of condensed milk. And you will both bring me once as soon as you can!"

    My eyebrows moved up on my forehead�� only for my face to then melt as Iughed out a little.

    "Sure thing," I smiled before grinning myself. "And you just wait till I show you what happens to it once you boil the hell out of it."

    To this day, the taste of the milky caramel my mom used to make with the condensed milk was something I couldn''t forget. The sweetness incarnate and the treat of extremely high fat and sugar content. A dream of a gym coach and the greatest curse of all those who were on a diet��

    But also a treat I was dead set on feeding to Fay, especially given how its sticky, thick form made it quite perfect for all sorts of more than just creative and far less than innocent y.

    "It''s a deal then! And no backing out on itter!" Fay threw as she turned around and left for the nearby, open-air office.

    "I guess that means we need to get going too," I announced, reluctantly rising from the table after opting not to take just one more piece of this perfectly seasoned chicken.

    ''Thinking about food, isn''t it supposed to have some wondrous effects on those who consume it in this world? Just like it happened back when I first met Fay?'' I thought, surprised by theck of notions of this topic.

    Sure, the herbs of this world worked their magic back on earth but it seemed like�� the food somehow lost its perks?

    ''Well, I guess that''s another topic for me to investigateter on,'' I thought, shelving the entire thing in the backseat of my memory.

    "Right, while we walk, can you tell me one thing?" Etaria asked in a strangely polite, restrained manner.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "What is it?" I asked, cleaning my mouth again and finally leaving the table with food behind as I directed my steps towards where the future center of the whole camp was supposed to be.

    "You mention money a lot. And from what I can see," Etaria looked around as if to point out with her eyes all sorts of crates full of equipment and supplies or the heavy machinery that was already making its rounds around the camp. "You don''t reallyck anything, do you?"

    I squinted my eyes a bit and looked over.

    "Where are you going with it?" I asked.

    For some reason, I could tell this wasn''t the question the princess had in mind but a mere lead-up to it.

    "IF you guys have everything and are, from what I can see, richer beyond any standards known in the empire�� Then how do you expect to make money out of the simplebor of my men? And why does it seem as if you were to be about to get a visit from someone even richer than you?"

    I turned my head to the side, giving Etaria a serious look.

    The degree of information she managed to not only gather but then also logically connect�� was respectable. The level of detail set in advance of her question rendered me unable to just throw her off with some bullshit answer.

    "I will simplify it to the point it will be no different from an outright lie, but it will serve to highlight the concept," I spoke in the same manner as the princess, setting up the foundation of my position before actually speaking my mind about the topic.

    "Let''s say it costs one coin a day to feed those rations to just one of your men. And for the sake of simplicity, we will assume that all the medicines, tools, or advisory services will be included within that coin."

    I took a deep breath and walked a few paces ahead.

    "Then, my cost of supplying one of your workers would amount to one coin. With thatparison, do you want to know how much each of our soldiers earns in a day? While keeping in mind they get food, lodging, and all sorts of help beyond just their wage."

    Rather than answering immediately, Etaria lowered her eyes and rubbed her chin as she tried to mentally work the answer.

    "Five coins?" The princess produced an answer after a short while. "Five coins plus all the other benefits you mentioned?"

    I smiled, charmed by such an adorable answer that betrayed just how much the princesscked an understanding of how the finances worked on Earth.

    "Five coins would be just the base pay. Add thebat-readiness bonus, danger bonus, separation bonus��" I shook my head. "You see, if someone asked me two days ago, I would have no idea what the answer is.

    But yesterday, while chatting to kill the boredom of paperwork, I actually asked Makary about it," I smiled at my own thoughts while trying not to cringe at how I just revealed the division of authority within my own camp.

    "And between all the stipends, bonuses, and exceptional pay, each of our soldiers earns between twenty to thirty coins a day."

    Etaria froze on her spot, shocked by the answer.

    "But let''s get even further with this. With this analogy, our initial budget for this operation, a budget that we are about to fully burn through any moment now, is around two million coins of the same value," I continued.

    Despite revealing a rough value to the princess, I didn''t have to worry about her using this information against me.

    After all, I was still using those vague coins that didn''t exist anywhere in the world�� And Etaria had no way of knowing anything about the market prices back on earth, to estimate the actual worth of those coins.

    No.

    All my exnation did, was give her the projection of what the situation looked like.

    "And that important person that''s about to visit today?" Still not satisfied with my answers, Etaria continued to push for more. "How much do you want to have him�� invest?"

    The corner of my mouth trembled a little, for it was a question even I wasn''t sure about.

    And while I was sure that Leon wouldn''t hold back a single cent of his overwhelming wealth over this project��

    Just how was I supposed to estimate his worth?

    "This will be pretty much a random number, a mere guess��" I started, only to have Etaria shake her head and heave an exhausted sigh.

    "I know, I know, it''s just an estimate, a guess so random it''s no different from a lie," she threw my own words back at me before locking her eyes on my face again. "But if you were to guess, seriously, just guess," she asked again before taking a step closer and looking up at my face from up close.

    "If you were to guess, how many coins can that man bring?"

    Seeing how much the princess insisted on the topic, I couldn''t help but start to wonder what did she want to learn from my answer.

    And so, just like she wanted, I decided to give her a totally random number straight out of my ass that I was still sure to at least encroach upon the realm of an actual, correct answer.

    "A hundred billion? Two hundred? Five hundred?" I spread my arms out and shook them. "To be honest, I have no clue. But I wouldn''t be surprised if even those estimates were a mere fraction of what he might invest in this ce."

 Chapter 341 On with the tasks for the day

    Between Fay demanding a few more minutes of sleep, Selene taking her time silently judging and making fun of us, and then Etaria whose question never seemed to end, by the time I finally managed to get going with my tasks for the day, I was more than an hourte.

    Thankfully, contrary to the mercenary supervisors on the site, nners at the headquarters, or even the quart''s leaders who were thest link within the chain ofmunication, my presence wasn''t necessary for the work to progress.

    Contrary to the quart''s leaders, I wasn''t there to give direct orders to the men. Contrary to the brigade officer, I didn''t need to manage a whole group of hundred men while on the task. Unlike the mercenary supervisors, I didn''t need to act as the link that connected the management at the headquarters with the brigade officers, passing over the tasks each brigade was toplete.

    No.

    When I arrived over an hourter than I was supposed to, the work had progressed quite a lot from what I saw by the work''s end the day before.

    True to its nickname of a man dump, the housing site was bustling with an extremely high concentration of men.

    Judging between what I could see and what I could only guess, there had to be at least over three thousand people on the site, making up over half of the total manpower we could use at the camp.

    A dump for manpower where the headquarters would throw every brigade that wasn''t immediately needed somewhere else.

    And with that many men at hand, the work continued at more than just a satisfactory pace.

    ''They finished only about forty tents by yesterday, but there''s like what, a hundred by now?''

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    With each tent fitting a total of twenty-five men, we only managed to provide housing for a fifth of the men under our rule. But with how things were going, it was only a matter of time before a whole two hundred of those makeshift shed tents would bepleted. And then��

    ''I wonder how everyone will act when they will find out just how much better the next level of their housing will be,'' I thought, smiling at my thoughts before continuing down the road, trying to get closer to where people actually worked.

    Soon, I stepped into the crowd, joining the flow of people moving from one ce to another, all busy with their respective tasks.

    Some dug the free earth from the piles left by the excavators and then shoveled it over to some simple carriages only for a merc on a huge quad to appear a momentter, bind the cart over to the back of his vehicle before hauling it off, god knows where.

    On the other side of the path, a whole brigade was busy unpacking thest few piles of wooden nks provided by the early woodcutting initiative that I was to check onter.

    I went deeper and deeper into the crowd, looking around in search of any major problems or faults�� But while there were a whole ton of minor defects that the health and safety department on the other side of the gate would never allow��

    This was the advantage of being in a new world and working with people who weren''t protected by the inhumanlyplex andpoundedws ofbor.

    And so, tens if not hundreds of small, minor defects of the housing went unnoticed. I could see some of the mercenary engineers making faces whenever they noticed an imperfection�� In the end, though, the temporary status of this ce was a point strong enough to stop those perfectionist engineers from nagging everyone around them.

    By the time I''ve reached the busiest area of the whole section�� I finally realized just how wrong I was about the progress of the project.

    The temporary housing has long since beenpleted. With forty tents finished after the whole of the first day, I expected maybe ten or twenty more to be nearpletion after just a bit over an hour of work��

    But either by the favor of excessive manpower or maybe due to the simple fact that some of the imperials were now used to their job and knew what to do�� Or maybe because of some other reason that I failed to notice on the spot, the workers have already moved on from the shoddy shed tents of the first level and already moved on to the first phase of constructing the lodging of the higher grade.

    Contrary to the first and simplest type of tents, the upgraded version consumed a whole lot more of much more diversified resources. While the basic tent only needed some steel frames, a bit of wood for the floors, adder to move around between the floors, and finally some tarp to cover it all, the next generation of housing was actually a lot more advanced.

    First, its walls were out of much denser steel frame to which workers would bolt down the rainproof coating and the freshly dried and chemically treated nks. The empty gaps within the steel frame would then be filled with modern isting blocks.

    The inner structure of the shed would then be covered by a thin, decorative piece of plywood, making up for a thicker, more stable, and much more secure lodging.

    All of those expensive improvements made it much easier to keep the shed''s insides warm and cozy, even allowing the instation of two windows on each of the shed''s longer sides.

    The housing of the second level was designed to ultimately have a stove for both heating the ce and cooking, a sanitary room installed as soon as the camp would develop proper plumbing, and then actually some basic sort of furniture like beds, stools, and tables.

    All of those changes over the initial design turned the shed tent into an actual, small but cozy home that couldfortably fit a quarter of a brigade each. But the construction of this improved version of the lodging��

    ''Just a single look at the resource pile prepared for each set is enough to picture the difference.''

    The basic tents required a bit of steel framing, some tarp, and a little bit of wood. And when all of those materials were gathered on the spot one could barely spot them amidst the sea of grass.

    But when I looked over to the massive piles of materials of all kinds resting by the holes prepared, each of the piles was pretty much the size of a small, family car��

    "Great work, guys," throwing the bad thoughts to the back of my head, I approached the small gathering of the mercenary supervisors. "I never would''ve expected you to finish the temporary housing so quickly," I praised while looking over my shoulder to the long line of those shoddy shed tents.

    "It''s actually a pity we didn''t get to finish it yesterday," the oldest of the supervisors stepped out and nodded his head. "As for the new ones��" the man looked over to the side and hesitated for a little. "We can finish, give or take, forty of them. And we should be done with that by the dinner, but��"

    The look of anxiety grew on the man''s face.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "What do you need?" I pulled out a simple notebook and a pen, clicking on it right as I raised my eyes and looked at the man.

    "Istion blocks," the soldier answered without even a hint of hesitation. "Without them, we can only build empty frames. And due to the nature and weight of the build, if we leave such empty husks for more than a day or two��"

    This time, the man failed to finish his line of thought.

    "If we leave them unfinished, they will all start copsing by day three," another mercenary stepped up and filled the gaps in the story. "Honestly, in two days it will be one hell of a risk to enter inside. This might be counterintuitive a bit, but the istion and the plywood on the inside serve to stabilize the entire thing and better support its weight."

    I lowered my eyes to the notebook and jotted down a few notes.

    "So, istion blocks on priority," I summed up the request. "Anything else?"

    The mercenaries looked over at themselves.

    "Actually, we have more hands-on board than we can handle or find the work for. Do you think you could get the folks at the headquarters to stop dumping all of their free manpower on us?"

 Chapter 342 Happy worker looks not at the time

    The solution to the problem of the supervisors at the housing project was fairly simple. And it became apparent even before I had the chance to swing by to pay Fay a visit and forward the mercenary request directly to the headquarters.

    The path that I took around the camp, led me straight from the housing development project to the most important part of the entire camp.

    A ce that would be the king on the board if this camp was a huge match of chess. A location the vitality of which couldn''t be overestimated�� even though right now it looked like merely a dump for all sorts of construction materials.

    The two facts that stood out about this ce over most of the other areas in the camp were how all the materials around bore the marks of manufactured origin, and how there wasn''t even a single brigade in sight to push the project ahead.

    ''What the hell,'' I thought while squinting my eyes and reaching for my radio.

    "High Peter to HQ, High Peter to HQ," I called out, using the call sign Makary assigned to me in some sort of a childish prank.

    Apparently high was a military lingo for someone of great importance while using my name allowed me to narrow the precision of the callsign down to just me amidst the sea of people in the camp.

    "Headquarters to High Peter, we copy," a voice filled with static reached back from the radio after a short moment.

    ''Right, everything here that works is taped together with hopes and prayers. It would be stupid to expect good qualitymunication��''

    Holding back a slightly annoyed sigh, I raised the radio back to my mouth.

    "I''m currently at the gateway project. And while there''s a whole lot of materials around, I can''t see a single brigade working on it! Is there some sort of mimunication? And regardless of why no one is here, we need to put some brigades here right now."

    "Headquarter copy, please hold."

    Annoyed by the situation before me, I lowered the radio and waited for the response.

    The gateway project. The one project that the whole camp was built around. The project that we absolutely had to finish in merely a few hours if we wanted to boost the throughput rate of our logistics.

    For the pile of resources scattered over an empty in was to turn into the house for my stationary gate.

    "Headquarters to High Peter, do you copy?"

    The voice rang on my radio again.

    "Yeah, go on."

    "There was some confusion with the orders for the seventh supervisor''s group. We are sending over all four of his brigades right now, over."

    "Thanks, great job out there," I called back before putting the radio down and hanging it back on my belt.

    "I guess I''m done here?"

    With new and priority-level work found, the headquarters could pull four brigades out of the housing project, making the manpower over there slightly more manageable for the project supervisor.

    And as important as the gateway project was, there was no need for me to stick around and wait for the workers to appear.

    I wasn''t an architect to tell them what to build nor an engineer to tell them how to build.

    I was here just to see how things were going and help solve any problems that arose since yesterday.

    "Well then, I guess it''s time for me to head back," I muttered to myself, mentally patting myself on the shoulder as I turned around and followed down the path beaten into the ground by the overwhelming weight of various trucks, quads, excavators, and other vehicles.

    Knowing better than to risk my skin, I made sure to swing by the open-air stockpile with all of the food supplies before pretty much ckmailing the mercenary there with my authority to give me some supplies�� Only to have him look at me as if I was some sort of idiotic prankster when I revealed what I actually needed.

    ''As it turns out, the condensed milk isn''t all that popr with the soldiers, who could''ve known?''

    A treat that I considered a great delicacy was apparently too sweet for the ptes of the majority of the soldiers, making the canned condensed milk one of the few foods that the mercenaries actively hated. Experience new stories with empire

    But between my designs at caramelizing it and my responsibility to bring some over while I was out to visit Fay at the headquarters, I had little to no choice but to get my hands on at least a few of those cans.

    With this small distraction out of the way, I hurried all the way back to the temporary headquarters. There, the work was going exactly the same way it happened yesterday, with a sizeable crowd of people working with tons of paper and trying to keep the whole camp going with the help of simplemunication devices.

    And more or less in the middle of the entire group, there was a huge and mostly empty desk, where Fay and one of Makary''s officers continued to throw paper around.

    ''Are they sorting it or actually solving the issues?'' I thought, approaching the table in silence as I watched how the two worked at an extremely respectable if not outright enviable pace.

    Looking down, I watched how Fay would pick up a paper, quickly scan it with her eyes, and then throw it to one of seven different piles. And even though I''ve read many, many times more than Fay ever had the chance to, she moved those papers at a rate that made it actually challenging for me to read it through as she went!

    Unable to properly make my own judgment on the papers I couldn''t fully read, I failed to figure out the scheme Fay used to judge which paper went to which pile.

    Still, her methods appeared not to be perfect, with how Makary''s officer sitting on the other side of the table would asionally throw a paper from the pile he was responsible for over to another pile, proving that in the case of this particr report, Fay''s assessment was wrong.

    In the end, though, even if Fay made some small mistakes, one couldn''t me her for it given the turnover of the reports. The task that only appeared to keep on growing yesterday, when we had a total of six people working on it, was, at the very least, not growing with only Fay and the officer working super hard to manage it.

    ''Is it them getting used to the task?'' I asked myself before opting not to distract either of them when they were so focused.

    Making sure not to make even the tiniest noise, I moved a bit down the table to not enter Fay''s peripheral vision when I left the cans down on the table.

    I promised to deliver her some canned milk, and I''ve justpleted this task. And with my refusal to force Fay out of her state of focus, there was little more I could do around, especially with the rest of my to-do waiting for itspletion and Leon''s visit looming over my head.

    Yet, the very moment I swung around, the high-pitched noise of the bell rang in the air again, announcing it was finally time for dinner.

    ''Wait, so soon?'' Startled by the timing, I pulled out my phone and checked the time�� Only to realize that it''s been five hours since the waking call!

    ''Did I really spend that long on just those two projects alone?''

    Between talking to the workers on the site and then dealing with theck of workers on the gateway project site, I would expect that in the worst-case scenario,pleting those two tasks would take me two hours, three hours tops. And even all the other distractions that I busied myself with��

    ''Did I really waste two hours trying to get the canned, condensed milk for Fay?'' I thought, gulping down my saliva when I suddenly felt an intense stare piercing my back.

    "Don''t worry, dear," Fay spoke the very moment I turned around. She had a wide although slightly troubled smile on her lips. "We''ve decided to push today''s dinner an hour earlier, not to mess anything up during Leon''s visit."

    How did Fay recognize the source of my surprise and then worry at a mere nce? That question, I couldn''t even guess the answer that I could properly acknowledge as something possible.

    Was it our bond? But I didn''t feel her peering into my soul deep enough to actually feel my thoughts over just my raw emotions.

    Did she notice me taking a look at my phone''s clock? Or maybe she just managed to hit a bulls-eye with her guess?

    "Thanks for telling," I responded before stretching my hand out and pointing at the cans, "condensed milk, as promised."

    Fay threw her eyes to the side, only for her smile to turn mellow and her eyes to fill with affection when she looked back.

    "Then�� how about we go and get the dinner together?" Fay suggested while standing up and leaving her workstation.

    "Not only we can give all the workers an example of following the timeline��" Fay continued to speak as she got closer and closer, all the way to the point where she pressed her face against my chest, only to wrap her hands around my neck and pull herself up, standing on her tiptoes when she reached with her mouth to my ear.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "And if you want, I might share some of my milk with you."

 Chapter 343 Corporate exploitation methods

    Makary''s mercenaries imposed strict time discipline over the entire camp.

    But while it meant that everyone worked long hours, the same applied to the breaks.

    The schedule was extremely tight but allowed for a fair amount of good rest. Starting with a dinner and then extending for quite a bit into the evening, the mid-day break allowed everyone to hide away from the sun when it shone the brightest.

    And right as I was about to leave the temporary headquarters to look into the matters of the proper headquarters, the time for the dinner came�� And a whole load of shocked faces for me to snack with my eyes on.

    And with no surprise, this was when the imperials motivated by the early disy of food discrepancy came to learn a harsh lesson.

    "The food allowance is decided in the morning, so you will have to stick with the cans. I''m sorry, but there''s nothing we can do about it, orders straight from the headquarters."

    The same message rang throughout the camp, where the quart leaders repeated it after the brigade officers who followed Makary''s orders. And following the same pattern as with the breakfast, everyone got their fair share of food.

    A share that differed only in taste, with everyone getting quite a lot more calories than they could ever get on the standard rations of the imperial army.

    Some surely were dissatisfied. And I could imagine them thinking that they''ve worked hard the entire morning only to learn the reward isn''t as easy toe by.

    In truth, spreading the better rations more evenly would allow us to cut the costs, given how the modern ones were far easier to obtain than the canned goods. In the fractured world, there was simply no business producing the canned food in the city. And any sort of trade with the neighboring towns woulde at a steep cost of traversing the abandoned wilds.

    It would be much cheaper for us to just feed the tastier, modern rations to everyone��

    But even with the both short and long-term increase of the standard of living to the point those imperials never witnessed, there was one crucial aspect, a mindset that we had to nt in them. Stay tuned to empire

    Those benefits, asmon as they were soon to be, were something they had to earn with hard work. Otherwise, they could nevere to respect what they came to have with little to no effort.

    In the long term, then, the series of protests that followed the announcement was the first part of that lesson. And it was likely to repeat for the third time when thest meal time woulde.

    In the end, though, even the canned rations�� were far above any sort of food those imperials could get back within the ranks of the imperial army. And after some initial whining andints, people generally got back to eating.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    For me, the dinner turned out to be pretty uneventful. Between the meal itself, some small talk with Fay as we discussed our daily tasks, and then a short review of what we still have to do, the break pretty much ended for me.

    On my way back to thest point on my to-do list for before Leon''s visit, with still more than an hour of the mid-day break left, I took a momentary dy at the type of infrastructure that continued to pop out all over the camp, in just the most convenient spots.

    The reloading and fueling stations, where one or two machines would haul around crates of goods from the modern world and maintain the improvised fueling equipment.

    In a sense, it was a miracle of a field engineering�� But one that held together on ducktape and zip ties. It was of no importance that the massive fuel tank stood out in the field, shielded by the sun by some improvised tarp-based tent.

    As long as the trucks could leave their load in those convenient spots and leave with their tanks full, those stations filled an important niche within the local chain of logistics.

    "Interesting," I muttered, tapping the end of my pen against my lips before bringing it down and jotting a few points to rememberter. Then, around the time the camp-wide break wasing to an end, I moved down the road, to the new headquarters project.

    "Woah," I uttered a small shout when I turned the corner of an overfilled field stockpile and looked down a small depression, at a two-story construction of a level that greatly exceeded any other structure in anywhere in the camp.

    The entire thing looked like three sizeable squares connected in a line by short wings only a bit narrower than the sides of the squares themselves. And by now, a single brigade in yellow shirts sat all over the second story''s frame, bolting the bottoms of the prefabricated walls to the special slots within the frame.

    "Oh, Peter, hi," A young woman with her military jacket wrapped around her waist and nothing more but her green, sleeveless shirt to cover her top, approached from the side before I could draw my eyes away from the project.

    ''I thought nothing would surprise me after the progress at the housing in the morning,'' I thought, blinking my eyes twice before nodding my head back.

    "Hi. And you are?" I raised my face, somehow finding it strangely easy to act�� just the same way I always did.

    Strange.

    Surely, ever since my life turned on its head, I hardly had any chance to interact with just a random woman�� But even back when I was with my ex, I still couldn''t really handle interacting with a random woman.

    But now?

    I couldn''t even be bothered to look at her fairly visible charms.

    "Kash," the girl smiled and saluted. "The head of the high-priority development, chief architect of the force!"

    The energy beamed out from the girl''s introduction and washed all over my face, nearly making me stumble back a step.

    "Is that why��" I looked over to the side, to where a whole hundred imperials wore distinctive, yellow suits that put them out of the rest of the crowd.

    In fact, those were the very first imperials that I saw sporting anything but white! And what was even more interesting, I didn''t hear anything about something like this.

    Rather than being mad about Makary and his goons keeping me out of the loop, I kept my curious eyes on the yellow-dressed workers before looking back to the girl.

    "Ah, those." The whites of Kash''s teeth showed through her smile. "It was my idea and I got the uniforms from my private stock. And this brigade had the had not only one of the highest reward achievers in their rank but also received a shower of praises from their supervisor."

    Just this short exnation made it pretty clear why this girl went as far as to use her own, private resources to invest in something as simple as their uniforms.

    This seemingly small change made them a rarity among the crowd. And by extension, made them all the more likely to be the prime candidates for all the novel conveniences and luxuries we would gradually introduce.

    In this way, something as simple as the color of a uniform would turn into an object of great desire�� and healthypetition that men who served in war often needed to exhaust their natural energy.

    With clear rewards behind the goal of getting a special shirt, there was no doubt all those war captives would rush head-first into the rat''s race, focusing all of their attention on shiny garbage and ignoring the level of benefit their work would actually bring.

    "That''s quite the genius idea," Imended the girl while allowing a small smirk on my lips. "It seems Makary has quite the extraordinary officers," I added, more than happy to praise this random soldier.

    This kind of lip service cost me nothing but spit and could actually go a long way in improving this girl''s morale. And as talented for corporate exploitation of the imperials as she was, Kash surely was a good person to keep happy.

    "Thank you for the good word," Kash grinned before calming her cheeky expression a little and looking over to the project.

    During our short exchange, the most recently added part of the wall ended up fully nailed to its sibling below and to one of its sides through special slots in the frame. And by now, there was a huge group of imperials operating a hand lift to bring a huge pot with what looked like liquid concrete to where the two walls of the same level met.

    "Looking at how things go, we should be done with the wholeyout in a few hours. We have," Kash turned her head over to a huge pile of resources sitting nearby, "more than enough materials to finish it. And if you don''t mind bare walls and holes for windows, you might actually start moving in today."

 Chapter 344 Late night visitor

    ''It''s getting cold a lot faster than back on Earth,'' I thought while rubbing my own shoulders, trying to chase the unpleasant sensation away.

    Sure, with all my stats maxed out to the limit of my current rebirth, I had no need to fear the cold. In a few words, I simply wouldn''t get sick even if I marched around with wet hair while trying to conquer the strongest and coldest winds.

    Still, the sensation of the stinging cold, right on the verge of my consciousness, remained.

    And with nothing to throw on my shoulders and stave the cold away, I continued to sit down near the forest gateway, waiting for our guest of the night to arrive.

    With that in mind, all it would take was a single step over the portal to reach the warmth of modern interior��

    But with no clue on when Leon would appear, that would put me at risk of getting spotted. And that, in turn, would make my small test impossible.

    Thankfully, after how long it took me to finalize all of my tasks for the day, I didn''t have to wait in the cold for long.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    ''There he is,'' I thought, noticing a smallmotion on the other side of the gate.

    Even from beyond the gate, it took me a mere moment to recognize the mboyant presence Leon carried with him.

    He came dressed in some sort of expensive fur coat with a whole set of some sort of weird, designed clothes that seemed to be glued to the skin. He also wore shaded sses, as if believing they would serve to further enhance the persona he was going for.

    Quite notable, though, was the absoluteck of guards or security with him, something I expected a man of his profile never to move an inch without.

    And yet, there he was, in his all, dubious glory, surrounded by nothing but Makary''s men who continued their hustle and bustle of the dreaded logistic work.

    ''More importantly,'' I squinted my eyes, observing the phenomena from this side of the gate for the very first time. ''How does he fail to notice everything that goes through the gate?''

    The fact that I had a direct line of sight on the man meant that he should be able to spot me through the hangar too��

    And yet, as if to defy mymon sense, his eyes would always dance around my face, as if there was something that artificially removed the part of vision he needed to spot me from his perception.

    ''Well, that''s strange,'' I summed the phenomena in my mind as I stood up from my makeshift seat and made my way over to the gate.

    There, rather than just waltzing through, I had to showcase the ID Makary made for me in advance, then wait in the priority queue for a moment before finally squeezing through the narrow part of the gate designated for personal crossing.

    Finally, back on the home side of the gate, I moved closer and closer, crossing through only about half of the distance that separated me from the guests of the night before he finally spotted me.

    "Peter! So you are here too!"

    Paying no mind to how his rxed behavior didn''t fit the busy air within the hangar, Leo stepped forward and opened his arms up as if for a hug.

    "Yes, I''m here too," I replied, carefully observing the man''s face.

    Now that he stepped closer, all the machinery that connected the logistics between the two worlds was now in his full view. Just by looking up, he could see a conveyor belt feeding crate upon crate of goods that then moved up the belt�� and dropped down on the second conveyor positioned just a little bit lower and on the other side of the portal.

    Given how he could not see the gate, I was infinitely curious about how it looked to him.

    Were the crates just merging into the wall like in some of the unfinished games of the ancient modern era that somehow found their way to the market? Or maybe he couldn''t see the conveyors at all?

    Still, just like I did before, there were people crossing over to this side and over to the other side, all in Leon''s full view�� And yet, he continued to act as if nothing extraordinary was happening.

    "Weird," I summed up, realizing that I actually uttered those words out loud just a second toote to keep my damn tongue behind my teeth.

    "What''s weird?" Leon instantly picked up, taking a few steps closer only to lean forward and look up, as if trying to peek into the face that I''ve instinctively averted.

    Pressured by the man''s incursion into myfort zone, I took a step back and raised my chin, giving the annoying man a repulsed re.

    "Your face is," I replied in a childish way�� And equally as childishly, I mentally allowed the man to perceive the gate.

    My words quickly proved to be both true and on the point, when Leon made a step back while opening his eyes as wide as his skull allowed.

    For a moment, the young man simply stared at the sight that most definitely couldn''t hide behind the back wall of Makary''s hangar.

    He then reached out, slowing his hand while pushing it through the air all the way to the point when he made some sort of a weird, longing pose.

    "Oh, is this really it?" Leon whispered, the look on his face indicating he was now all in a world of his own thoughts. "Did we finally get it right?"

    There was a mystical aura to Leon''s whispers. And just like the words he muttered, it hinted at the presence of something�� I wasn''t aware of it in the slightest.

    ''What does he think this is?'' I thought, curious whether it was something that I could connect to the bits and scraps of info I had, or if it would turn out to be some sort of silly story, a mere legend that his household continued to search for since the dawn of their lineage.

    ''Or maybe he just spotted a nicer flower than any flower he had seen before in his life?'' I thought, rolling my eyes over how far I managed to fall into the well of my own thoughts.

    In fact, by the time I raised my eyes and looked at Leon again, he was already out of his daze, looking back at me with a mix of anticipation and impatience.

    "This is a teleporting device, is it?" Leon asked in a casual voice before throwing a meaningful look at all the machinery connected to the gate. Before I could answer, though, he squinted his eyes and shook his head before raising his hand to rub his chin. "No, that''s not it. That wouldn''t exin that strange herb��"

    Leon''s voice turned fainter and fainter as he pondered over something under his nose.

    The young man then raised his hand and struck down with his left fist against the open palm of his right hand.

    "That''s it!" he eximed before turning towards me with a merry look all over his face. "This is a portal to another world, isn''t it?!"

 Chapter 345 Dont act up

    "This is a portal to another world, isn''t it?!" Leon eximed with a wild grade of excitement shing in his eyes as he looked over to my face.

    And judging by the look of satisfaction that followed, my face had to be showing quite a sour expression.

    "I knew it! I''m right! This is a portal to another world!" Leon pretty much repeated himself, looking all triumphant as if he was the one to discover it in the first ce. And it was this mboyant and outright arrogant attitude that made me beg Fay to give up on this event and just stay hidden.

    Leon was too important for me to freely insult at every possible opportunity. And judging by the one interaction he had with Fay thus far, that''s how things would likely end up if she were to be anywhere near Leon''s lecherous eyes.

    ''It''s better to be safe than sorry, I guess,'' I thought, heaving a small sigh before pointing with my hand at the gate that Leon was so excited about.

    "Because of howte you are, we are pretty much on the clock. And if we don''t hurry, then we will get locked out of the other world for god knows how long."

    I didn''t see it, but I could feel Leon''s stare dig into the flesh of my back as he tried to dissect every possible meaning of the words I said.

    "You are right, we still need to relocate the other end of the gate," Makary agreed, walking out from the other side of the hangar.

    I didn''t know whether he got held up by some matters or if he actually arrivedter than Leon himself. And quite honestly, I couldn''t care less. All that was important was that now he was here, I could leave the majority of the burden named Leon in his care instead of trying to humor the rowdy guest all on my own.

    "Let''s hurry up, then!" Leon eximed, appearing to be all the more happy about our hurry than he was annoyed by it.

    ''Is it his age?'' I thought, struggling to reconnect my image of the city''s chief magistrate with the extremely energetic persona in front of me. Yet, no matter how damn hard I tried�� It just didn''t feel possible for someone acting like that to be literally the most important person in the entire city and while receable, wielded quite a lot of power within the city''s bounds.

    ''I wonder, between the two of them,'' I looked at Makary and Leon at the same time. ''Between the two of them, which one holds more power, I wonder?''

    My perception of their respective might was bound to be skewed. I was surrounded by all sorts of disys that Makary created when he invested what apparently was nearly the majority of his private wealth and the free funds of the group he managed. On the other hand, Leon was pretty much the one running the city and dictating the rate of taxation.

    And while, thankfully, I was never wealthy enough before my life changed to pay taxes��

    The taxes continued to be one of the biggest sources of revenue one could imagine. And with how few public services there were offered in the city, Leon was pretty much free to pocket a great chunk of the tax money, either by using aplex of shellpanies and virtual ounts or by outright taking the money out of the city''s treasury.

    He was a chief magistrate, after all, and the quasi-autocrat of the city needed some ability to throw money at any given dumpster fire that threatened to spread out and engulf the whole town.

    Busy with my own thoughts, I crossed the barrier between the world without much fanfare, not even bothering to uphold any sort of conversation with Leon.

    Given the level of matters we represented, Makary advised me not to put up a fake front. Apparently, Leon took great delight in dismantling people''s fake, business masks, turning the attempted courtesy into a disadvantage in any kind of negotiations that followed.

    And in all honesty, not bearing the burden of pretending not to be annoyed by Leon''s presence was a boon the worth of which I dared not to undervalue.

    Still, my freedom to act around Leon the way I actually felt was the boon that also came at a cost.

    A cost of having to endure his antics even after we crossed to Fay''s world, where I hoped for him to be too amazed by the wonders of this ce to bother me. Hopes that I soon found to be unfounded.

    "Oh my gosh! This forest is so�� beautiful! And fresh! And��"

    Before Leon couldplete his eulogy over how beautiful the simple trees around him were, his eyes just happened to lock on a random divine of a silver lineage simply passing through.

    "Who was that?!" Like a kid who just found a new, interesting toy, Leon jumped up to Makary and demanded answers.

    "Those are one of the two types of locals that live in this forest. They could call them��" Makary hesitated before putting a small smirk on his lips, "reluctant allies? Allies out of necessity?" Makary''s words were more of a suggestive question rather than a straight-out answer.

    And from what I could see and tell, those words worked wonders whenpared to the annoyed looks I kept throwing at the man.

    "Oh��" with Leon''s excitement fading within a single instant, I just couldn''t help butmend Makary in my thoughts. ''But how�� why��?''

    "As you might have guessed, it could turn into a massive issue if you were to disrespect the wrong people, so for all that you hold dear, keep your damn tongue trapped within your closed mouth."

    Makary''s face made it clear that this time, he wasn''t joking or just y-fighting with his acquaintance.

    And for as well I came to know the man in the few weeks since I''ve first met him�� Right now, he was extremely serious.

    ''Well, I can see how the whole situation could go to shit if he were to sh with Etaria��'' Just the thought of how such an event could go nearly made me bend in half and retch my lungs out.

    It would be a simple meeting that would either devastate any sort of good impression we managed to imprint on the princess over the past two days�� Or things could actually turn bad, bringing ruin to the work we did at the camp in thest two days and all the prep we had to go through before that.

    "Who do you take me for, some kind of idiot?" Leon protested loudly, instantly attracting the surprised res from the few divines and celestials that passed by the clearing.

    In the times since I''ve established the gate in here, Makary''s men seemed toe to a silent understanding with the locals that while their presence was disturbing, both the divines and the celestials were willing to keep up with it, both for the sake of repaying them for their help in warding off the imperial invasion but also in hopes of keeping good rtions from when we would all move out to the in outside of the forest.

    With that silent, mutual understanding in ce, it was only a matter of two days before mercenaries learned that not making much noise was just another form of respecting the peace of the forest that the locals fought so hard to protect.

    "Ah," Leon jumped a little when he noticed both the nces the forest folk were stealing of him, and also the furious stares of the mercenaries in the vicinity. Still��

    "I''m sorry for shouting. If there''s any further behavior of mine that needs correcting, please feel free to speak your heart out."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    As much as I didn''t want to, I had no other choice but to give it to Leon that heposed himself from his overly excited state far sooner than any normal person could. And if his ability to quickly turn serious when needed wasn''t enough, Leon appeared to be intelligent enough to catch on the local customs with nothing but his damn intuition alone!

    "It''s okay. For now, though, it''s best if you stay silent and try not to stand out any more than you already are," Makarymented while rolling his eyes after giving Leon''s fur coat a short yetsting nce.

    "If you have some clothes I could change to, I would be both willing and happy to do so," Leon countered immediately, proving that at the very least, his wits were as quick as his control over his own emotions. "I never liked those bags, but given my position, I can''t just walk out of the magistrate in sweatpants and a hoodie, can I?"

 Chapter 346 Trip and offer

    The task of hosting Leon on his trip across the new world fell on Makary''s shoulder, just like the task of keeping our guest entertained and answering the questions the answers to which Makary could share.

    When it came to me, I was only needed around just to lift the importance of the trip as the other VIP and the creator of this whole opportunity.

    And so, while Makary guided our guest around the camp, I was present only with my flesh while my spirit actively repeated my entire supervisory routine from earlier in the day.

    For Leon, the temporary housing project was extremely interesting, given the low cost and effort necessary to create it and the immense benefits of having a ce to hold all the new workers before we would build them some proper housing.

    He was also positively surprised by the quality of the improved housing, although the idea of twenty-five people living within the same building made it hard for Leon to swallow calling it "improved housing".

    Still, while Leon wandered around the project with Makary making sure he would not bother the workers too much, I went to do my own check, only to confirm that ever since my visit in the morning, the number of the proper houses reached around forty.

    Quite notably, though, the massive crowd of workers from the morning was now nowhere to be seen, with only about four brigades present on the scene. A change from over three thousand men to just shy of half of a thousand couldn''t be random�� And wasn''t all that hard to figure out.

    ''I guess it is as they told me in the morning,'' I thought, looking at an empty field with nothing but a bunch of long, narrow ditches that would serve as the basements for the houses that have yet to be built. The only reason why the workers present on the project simply moved stuff around rather than focusing on construction was the exact same reason why Leon''s presence was so important.

    The work stalled because we didn''t have any more materials to keep it going. And as cheap as those materials were to someone on Makary''s level�� There was only so much that could be bought off the city''s markets before the local supply would dry out. And, in fact, just by clearing all the shelves of the avable products, we would draw a lot more attention to our project than we could handle.

    And even if we dared to do so�� This would be a mere drop of resources within the ocean of things that wecked and desperately needed for yesterday.

    "So many tents�� But I can''t see any new ones being set up," at some point, Leon pointed out only to prompt Makary to roll his eyes and pretty much repeat my entire line of thinking out loud.

    "Oh," Leon twitched a little before taking another look at the camp as a whole�� and then slowly turning his head to give Makary a long, intense, and strangely empty look.

    "What?" Unnerved by the unnatural nce, Makary barked at the man.

    "Ah, it''s nothing," Leon shook his head. "I was just amazed by how much you could do with just what money and resources you had on hand," Leon revealed in a voice that somehow made it hard to doubt its genuineness.

    "Thest time I checked, most of your fortune was located in all sorts of city investments, was it not?" Leon pointed out only to lean his head over his shoulder and give Makary a curious look.

    "I don''t recall any jumps on the stock market, so I can''t imagine you dumping all of your shares without anyone noticing," Leon borated on the topic a little only to take a step closer to the man and look straight at his face. "How did you get all of this stuff, then? Where did you get the money for it?"

    The air between the two men tensed up. Judging by the annoyed look on Makary''s face, he had no ns of revealing whatever the truth was to the man.

    "Well, it''s fine if you don''t want to tell," Leon gave up after a few moments of silence, pulling back and fleeing Makary''sfort zone. "It''s not like it matters now, doesn''t it?" he threw with a small smile before turning away and pressing ahead.

    "This little��" Once Leon walked quite some distance, Makary finally released an angered mutter before rolling his eyes again and following after the man.

    Those two clearly didn''t like each other. But they also knew each other well enough to know how to not tease the other too much. Or, in other words, how to tread the line of their delicate rtionship while maintaining both their cooperation but also ensuring the benefits for each, respective side.

    That''s why, from the looks of things, annoying Makary like that with well-aimed questions appeared to be nothing more but Leon''s tease, aimed at nothing more but conditioning the man for Leon to have an easier time once the actual negotiations would start.

    In this sense, this small beef that happened was simply a means for Leon to upset Makary and make it all the harder for thetter to keep his wits when we woulde to discuss terms of Leon''s patronage over the entire project.

    "Oh right," merely a minute after leaving the housing project, right as we walked down some unattended road, Leon turned back and looked at Makary first before turning her eyes over to my face. "Where did all of those workerse from?" he asked, proving that he did spare the whole thing some thought, as opposed to dedicating all of his mental resources to just teasing Makary.

    "It''s the first batch of five thousand war captives turned workers," I replied, seeing no point in hiding the truth from the man.

    If he was to properly support our activity here, we really needed him to have the full picture of the situation.

    "We will get ten thousand every week for three weeks and finish off with five thousand more a month from now," I continued my exnation. "And as you can see, we don''t have enough materials to finish all of their houses to begin with. And while we are making do with what we have and what we can easily obtain or buy nearby��"

    There was no need for me to finish the sentence. In fact, cutting it off like that only helped to better pass the message behind my words, as I didn''t restrict our needs to anything in particr.

    "Okay then, let''s drop the bullshit," Leon suddenly announced, speeding up to catch up with me only to get ahead, turn around, and stop, waiting for Makary to join up with us. "I saw enough to understand both what you might need, what this ce has to offer in the short term, and just how much potential there is in here," Leon stated, his usual, energetic mboyance now nowhere to be seen. Explore more adventures at empire

    And for one, fleeting moment, Leon appeared just as I imagined the chief magistrate of the city to be.

    Only for a moment, though, reverting back to his usual self the very moment our small group gathered up.

    "I could offer you the city''s full support�� But I don''t think doing so would be wise. The moment we cooperate openly, all sorts of people are going to start to dig into how former enemies turned bestest of friends," Leon smiled, proving that even in a tense moment like this his humor refused to leave his mind. "So, let me ask you this first," Leon requested and turned to Makary.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "Do you still have your stocks, or did you liquefy them in some way that stopped the markets from fluctuating?"

    "Most of them are gone," Makary replied while making a sour face. "And for a far worse price than I would get if I sold them through traditional means," he added while forming a small grin that he then shed at Leon.

    And in turn, that made the young man''s expression sink a little, clearly proving that they were talking about some sort of financial machinations that I didn''t get any real clue about.

    "Still, you have some left, right?" Leon pointed out the small detail of Makary''s words.

    "Yeah, you want to buy them off me?" Makary smiled at his own thoughts, most likely imagining how he could now make up for the loss he sustained when selling his other assets below their market value to prevent the news from spreading.

    "More or less, yeah," Leon replied, raising his hand to rub his chin as he thought hard about something. "If you can sell them to me��" Leon hesitated for a moment as he judged his options, "that should give me some means to help you with the resupply."

 Chapter 348 Love-nest in the making

    "Oh my��"

    Fay''s steps slowed down before grinding to aplete hall when we passed by the massive frame of a half-finished warehouse and finally got to look at the headquarters project.

    It was as busy as it was when I visited it a few hours prior�� But by now, rather than pouring concrete into the holes created by the specially formed edges of the prefabricated parts of the build, the imperial workers were all inside the already finishedyout, moving around to clean the entire thing from the dust and rubble.

    "Did they really build it in less than a day?" Fay whispered, far more amazed than I expected her to be.

    And upon a momentary reflection, I couldn''t really fault her for it.

    The new headquarters was a sizeable, five-story building consisting of three main towers and connected by two bulky yet narrow wings. It was as long as fifteen to twenty of the barrack-tents constructed within the housing project and as wide as three of those tents would be long.

    This building was far, far bigger than what the camp needed at the moment. It could house more offices and quarters for the high-ranking personnel than there would be any demand for in the next year or two��

    But this was also the very first building that was constructed not with just the immediate future in mind, but the actual, long-term development at its core.

    "Now that I see it in its entirety, it kinda looks like a fortress," I muttered to myself, before shaking my head and reaching out to grab Fay''s hand, forcing her out of her daze as I pulled her ahead.

    With my duty of relocating the stable gate once the old one would live up to its use, I didn''t really have all that much time to waste ying around with Fay, so I was determined to make every minute count.

    "Where do you want our quarters to be?" I asked as we followed the path created by hundreds of feet stomping all the grass tightly into the ground.

    "Which parts of the building do we get to choose from?"

    I squinted my eyes for a moment, trying to recall the usage n of the building for when it would be fully finished.

    "The left core is going to be an administrative department, the middle one is going to be themunications and the right core is going to serve as general quarters. To top it all off, the topmost level is fully designated for the VIP lodgings," I listed out the general n for using the building. "So, unless you want to live close to everyone else, I would suggest the left core."

    Fay followed my example and squinted her eyes before turning her face to look me in the eyes.

    "Aren''t the administrative workers going to work far into the night?" Fay asked. "And if so, wouldn''t that force us to keep quiet even after we are done with the work for the day?"

    It didn''t take a genius to picture out the situation Fay was worried about. Late in the evening, long after thest of day workers would conclude their shifts, we would likely try to get busy with each other��

    Only to be constantly reminded of the presence of the people on the level below. And as we were likely to end up managing parts of the administrative departmentter on if we were to be too loud when it came to our nightly activities��

    ''Our own subordinates woulde to hate us for forcing them to listen to it while they toil away into the night��''

    It didn''t take a genius to figure it out�� And yet, without Fay pointing this problem out, I would likely never notice it.

    "The situation would be far worse at themunication core," I muttered, looking over to the very part of the massive building we were heading for right now. "While I can imagine the administrative workers actually finishing up for the day, it''s never going to happen within themunication department. Andstly, living along with everyone in the right-most core��"

    If it was the sound that we would make that we were worried about, then living close to the living quarters of the others was going to be pretty much the worst choice of all.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "Well, no one says this is going to be the only house we are going to have," Fay spoke with a huge grin, ignoring the curious stares of the few workers who came out from the building to haul some of the resources from the nearby pile.

    "Administrative core, then?" I asked, just to make sure I got Fay''s intentions right.

    "Yeah," the girl nodded her head, "this way, we won''t have to move far to get to work," she added with a shrug of her shoulders.

    ''To have her consider the home-workmute already��'' I raised my eyebrows a bit as I gave Fay a long, slightly worried stare. ''Isn''t she bing a modern person a bit�� too quickly?''

    With this concern in mind, we finally entered the bare insides of the project. Experience new stories on empire

    The frame of the building, consisting of walls, floors, roof and even stairs, has already been finished. Right now, the four hundred men from the four brigades assigned to the project were moving around to prepare the entire thing for the next phase of construction that would turn this skeleton of a building into an actual, modern piece of architecture.

    "Oh, mister Peter!" Kash emerged from behind one of the many corners of the building.

    By now, her loose, military attire has long since turned into a concrete-powder-cowered mess. There was no sign of her earlier clean elegance, now that it was replied by an overall look that no construction worker would be ashamed to bear.

    Despite being the architect of the whole project, its highest charge with the exception of people like Makary and me who managed the entire camp, she didn''t seem to mind getting herself down and dirty when it came to the job.

    And from the looks the imperial workers gave her, they were more than happy to have a boss who didn''t just tell everyone what to do, but went down and actively participated in the job herself as well.

    "Kash," I nodded my head a bit. "Meet Fay, my fiancee," I turned to the side to introduce my girl, only to see Fay give out an elegant bow�� before nearly jumping at the girl with her eyes filled with curiosity and awe.

    "You are the one behind this building? How did you get it done so fast? What did you do to get yourself so dirty?! Gosh, your hair is going to get messy if you don''t clean it! But wait that part," Fay pointed her hand towards a totally random part of the building insides, a chiseled rift that ran roughly half a meter above the floor across the entire length of the wall, "what is it for? Electricity?

    Or maybe the piping?"

    Overwhelmed by the flurry of questions, Kash retreated a step, pushed back by the sheer pressure of Fay''s enthusiasm.

    "Calm down, miss, please��" Thrown off her mental footing, Kash raised her hands as if to defend herself from the assault of the seemingly delicate girl. "That rift is indeed for all the cables that we will set up in the future. And you don''t need to worry about my hair. Worst case, I will just cut them off and let them regrowter. As for your other questions��"

    Troubled, likely unable to even recall what more Fay asked her about, Kash directed a desperate look toward me, silently pleading for my help.

    "Fay, dearest, give her some space to think," I smiled while reaching out and grabbing Fay''s waist before raising her up like some sort of cat and then hugging her into my chest while using my arms to lock her in ce. "You will have all the chances you want to talk with her once she''s free. Right now, though, she''s working!"

    The excitement on Fay''s face turned into a sense of betrayal when I pulled her back, then into realization when she noticed how she acted, and then further into a look of enlightenment when she finally realized people here were still busy working despite thete hour.

    "Oh, I''m sorry," Fay spoke, lowering her head in a slight apology. "I allowed my excitement to get the better of me. Again, I''m sorry," she apologized properly with her head lowered�� Only to then raise her eyes right back up and look directly at Kash''s face. "Still, could you answer just one more question?"

    Kash silently breathed a sigh of relief while doing her absolute best to try to hide it from both my and Fay''s eyes.

    "Sure, go on."

    "Would it be possible for us to take one of the rooms at the top level of the administrative core?" Fay asked, already making use of the scraps of information I''d happily fed her just moments earlier. "I think it would be lovely to have a ce to sleep so close to where I''m going to be workingter on."

    Hearing the question, Kash no longer bothered to hide the relief and allowed it to paint itself all over her face.

    "There shouldn''t be any problems with it," Kash suddenly cut her voice short only to cast a short nce towards me, "that is, assuming you are going to live with mister Peter, for we only have one spare room in there."

    Fay''s lips curved up and turned into a bright smile right as she somehow freed herself from my grasp, rushed a few steps ahead, and then grabbed Kash''s dust-covered and gloved hands before bringing them up to her chest and squeezing them between her own palms.

    "Of course I will be living with him!" Fay announced with a bright smile and in a loud voice as if to let not only all the workers around but, more importantly, Kash herself know the state of her rtionship with me. "And with that in mind," the smile on Fay''s lips only intensified, "could I maybe count on you to help me design our love nest?"

 Chapter 349 Kinkcave?

    "I suggest you put a dividing wall here, turning this one, huge room into two separate ones. In this way, you could have both a semnce of a living room and also a slightly greater privacy in the other part that you could turn into a bedroom."

    Kash didn''t waste any time when exining her ideas for how to best use the space we had avable. And while at it, she proved that she could both design the entirety of the building, but also make the best possible use of its insides.

    "Wouldn''t that make the bedroom too small?" Fay protested, squinting her eyes as she tried toyer her imagination of how the ce would look like in the future over theyer of what she could actually see.

    "I mean��" Kash hesitated for a second before turning to the side to give first Fay and then me a peculiar look. "If you need a bedroom mostly to sleep in it, it should be more than withinfortable bounds. But if you want to turn your bedroom into a kinkcave��"

    Turning her eyes to the side, Kash refused to look at us as she left her suggestion to hang in the air.

    "Kinkcave?" Fay asked, giving me a confused look.

    "Haaa��." I let out a long sigh before giving Kash a disciplinary nce.

    "Dear?" Fay pressed, even going as far as to take a step closer, wrap her hands around my arm, and pull it down as if to force my head to lean along and reveal my face before her eyes.

    "What she means is��" I hesitated for a second, trying to buy myself some time to figure out the best way to approach this topic.

    After all, if I were to step carelessly here, who knew what kind of kinds Fay might assume I have?

    "You see, there are people who are content with just sleeping together. Then there are those who want to make love to each other. And then there are those who either got bored of simple love-making and look for all sorts of different ways and tools to make their intimate time�� more exciting?"

    "For example��?"

    Seeing and feeling my hesitation and reluctance to continue with the topic, Fay put a huge grin on her face as she continued to dig deeper.

    "There are those who enjoy binding the other and those who like to be restrained...? I heard there are some who like to caress the feet of their partner, some who are into having sex while dressed up in all sorts of costumes��"

    The more I said, the worse I felt. And to make matters worse, just a step to the side, Kash was clearly enjoying the show of me making a fool of myself.

    "Huh-oh?" Fay gave me a knowing smile, sparks of mischief nearly jumping out of her eyes. "And what sorts of�� kinks do you have?"

    Getting even closer, Fay climbed up on her toes as if to get even closer to my face and get a better look into my eyes.

    All a meaningless gesture, given how she could read far further into my thoughts and my soul in general through our bond.

    "Guys, I know I kind of started it, but how about you leave this topic forter?"

    Unable to stand our flirting any longer, Kash raised both of her hands in defeat as she pleaded.

    Seeing this, Fay''s sensual smile gradually turned into a satisfied smirk, all the while her soul filled with a sense of a job well done.

    "Moving on, both the kitchen and the toilet will have to be along this wall," she pointed at the opposite end of what would turn into our work apartment in the near future.

    "Because of piping?" Fay asked, once again proving that her level of knowledge about the modern world was quickly approaching the level of someone pretty much born in the modern world.

    "Exactly." Kash smiled as she nodded her head. "Because it''s going to be quite a while before we get the hot water running all over the camp, for now, you will have to do with a localized boiler for that. That''s what this third hole by the wall is going to be for. And don''t worry, we are going to seal it when wee to fit the kitchen equipment here.

    As for the size of both the kitchen and the bath, we can make it as big as you want it to be. Just keep in mind, the bigger it is, the less room you will have for a private office or the corridors."

    Following Kash''s words, Fay got rid of her smile as she lowered her eyelids a bit, once again mixing the world of her imagination with the world presented to her through her eyes.

    ''Do we really need a private office to begin with? And if so, should we make it one office, double office, or maybe two singr ones?''

    There were things that we had to take care of in the field. Then there were tasks we had toplete while working with others in the shared office for the highest ranks. Then there were meetings that would happen in themunication core�� But what about the tasks that we could and maybe even shouldplete in thefort of our own lodging?

    Paperwork that''s too annoying to deal with in the shared spaces?

    "What do you think?"

    Done with her own imaginative thinking, Fay turned over to me, eager to learn my perspective on things.

    "To be frank, I believe you have a better sense of how to make this into afortable love nest for us," I encouraged Fay with a few, selected words. "But I won''t lie, this ce will only be a work-rted one. It won''t be long before we will get a proper house�� But until then, we will have to make do with just this ce."

    Rather than answering, I ended up yapping out loud, as if pushing my thought process out of my hand and to an audible ne.

    "Dear?" Fay leaned her head over her shoulder, giving me one of her adorable, slightly perplexed looks.

    "I really want a bath big enough to include a hybrid of shower and a proper tub. On that note, I believe we could limit ourselves to just a kitchte over a proper kitchen since it won''t be long before this ce will be swarmed with food stalls and inns of all sorts.

    But on the note of a private office��" I took just a little bit longer to think, "I think a shared, double one would work best between our need to have a space like this and the sake of making the best use of what little space we have."

    To say that we had little space�� would be a sin. In rtive terms, this barebone apartment we received was roughly four times the size of the shack that I used to live in just a few weeks prior. And yet, given the experience of living in a luxurious suite at the very top of the apartment tower back on the modern side of my portal��

    "Double office for us to share��" Fay muttered, lowering her chin over her hand as her eyes escaped to the realm of imagination only she could see.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "That''s certainly doable, miss, mister," Kash cheered on the idea. "It would save quite a lot of space whenpared to a��"

    Ring, ring, ring! Find more to read at empire

    The noise of the radio cut Kash off and forced everyone''s eye onto its source - my belt.

    Looking down, I grabbed the radio and raised it up to my face only to then heave a long sigh.

    "It looks like it''s time for me to go," I announced, killing the rm and bringing the radio back to its rightful spot on my belt. "Can I leave this matter to the two of you?" I asked, raising my eyes back to the girls.

    "Sure thing, boss!" Kash replied and followed with an enthusiastic salute.

    "Not a problem," Fay smiled lightly before approaching my arm again and leaning on it just heavily enough to pull my shoulder down, making it easier for her to climb up toward my ear. "And don''t forget," she whispered, her lips so close I could feel how their movement disturbed the air around my ear. "Once you are ready to go back, I''ming with you. After all��"

    Even without looking at her face, I could tell just how big of a smirk appeared on her lips.

    "We still have to discuss all sorts of kinks you might have!"

 Chapter 351 The overwhelming promise of whats in plain sight

    The feeling of aura flowing out of my body, separating from my soul and filling the seemingly bottomless hole of the stable gate''s construct��N?v(el)B\\jnn

    It was overwhelming.

    As much as I tried my best to tame and control this process, it happened along its natural path, regardless of my attempts to change it.

    My soul literally thinned out as more and more of my energy fell down the abyss of the endlessly hungry gate.

    All the faint aura of unimed energy gravitating around my actual aura vanished and fed into the core of the construct. And before I could even properly notice, nearly half of what I foolishly believed to be a sizeable reserve evaporated without a single trace.

    ''Stop!''

    Gritting my teeth to the point they started to move within my jaws, I cut the supply of aura. The rebound of separating from the flow made me stumble back two steps before finally regaining stability.

    [Stable Gate remaining time: 40h]

    Pretty much in line with the simple math, using up half of my aura reserve allowed the gate to persist for half as long as when I used close to all of it. And while the timer was still much longer than I would prefer�� It became a perfect middle point between my desire to find out more about those gates and the need for the logistics to flow uninterrupted.

    As thest whiskers of my aura left my soul and fell into the gate''s frame, the reality itself started to warp, stretch out, and then pull towards the geometrical center of the steel frame mounted within the gateway project''s cube. Enjoy new adventures from empire

    The reality twisted further and further, leading to a total distortion of space at its center that then rapidly expanded, pushing away the bottomless pit of the purple backdrop, recing it with the sights of the insides of Makary''s hangar.

    "It''s done," I muttered, lowering my hands to my knees as I leaned forward and took a deep breath. Then, I looked up and right at Makary''s face. "It''s going tost forty hours."

    Sparing not a singlement, Makary turned towards the gate and swung his arm towards the men on the other side.

    Thankfully, changing the gate''s location didn''t seem to affect people''s ability to perceive it.

    ''Is it because the earth''s side didn''t change?'' I thought, only to abolish this stupid and wrong idea when I looked at Makary again.

    Since he was on this side with me, if moving the gate around could affect the list of those I''ve permitted to notice it, he wouldn''t be able to see it to begin with.

    "Good," Makary whispered under his nose. He brought his arm down and put his hand into the sleeve at the bottom of his simple, military jacket. "They are starting to move."

    The gateway project, in general, was the name for the whole area around the cube, where all sorts of services would pop out in the near future. For now, though, it reflected just the cube, the only building on the otherwise empty stretch of the in.

    But moving the gate from its old location to a new one was also a task that came with other changes, and improvements implemented by the engineers once they were allowed to study the practical ins and outs of the stable gate.

    This time, instead of using separate conveyors to move items up to the gate, push them over, and then let them drop on another automated cargo rail, they went a step further.

    ''Did they develop this on their own, or does something like this exist already?''

    It was truly a bizarre structure. A shelf-like construct consisting of fouryers of conveyors stacked on top of each other, each with a strange mouth at its end.

    Yet, as if this wasn''t enough, as soon as Makary gave out the signal, his mercs rushed to move a carbon copy of this warehouse shelf-like construction. As thest step, they brought over and mounted connectors between the front-facing mouth of the earth-side construct and the back-facing mouth of its causing on the gate''s other side.

    Thanks to this, in mere minutes after the gate''s opening, a set of three massive cargo lines connected Makary''s hangar with the world we were in, allowing for smooth and rtively seamless movement of small-to-medium-sized packages.

    The vertical use of the conveyors also allowed the engineers to dedicate greater width for the road, allowing them to stretch the motorized passage just wide enough for two trucks to pass by each other with the necessary margin of distance between them.

    In the end, though, there simply wasn''t enough space to create a dedicated passage for people, forcing human traffic to happen asionally, when there weren''t any trucks hauling containers full of goods in and out of this brand-new world.

    A marvel of improvised engineering, sticking together on good word, the engineer''s faith, and copious amounts of ducktape. But also a massive mark of how both the gateway project on this side of the gate and Makary''s hangar on the other were bound to evolve in the near future.

    In the end, the conveyors took over merely a third of the gate''s width, while the entire upper half of the space dedicated to the road simply went unused.

    ''If we could set conveyor belts for full-scale cargo containers, we could move them much faster than any truck could. And that means��''

    I shook my head and looked over at Makary, only to catch him staring at how his men quickly turned the bare gate into a fully industrialized passage.

    And before either of the two of us could have a chance to shake our thoughts off, a huge number of imperials started to approach�� Along with a familiar face I should but ultimately didn''t expect to see.

    "Kash," I muttered long before the tomboyish woman could get close enough to hear me.

    "Oh, right," Makary shook his head as he woke up from his daze as well. "I''ve assigned her to connect the cargo rails to the storage sh warehouse," Makary looked over at a nearby t field.

    I knew the designs.

    This open space was supposed to be the biggest transit hub within the camp, dedicated solely to moving the goods in and out of the gate.

    A project that we had to somehow replicate on the other end of the portal for my gate to reach its full logistic potential.

    ''Well, that''s all but a song for the future,'' I thought, shaking the thoughts of the future grandeur out of my mind as I forced myself back upon reality.

    "Well, if it''s her, I believe we shouldn''t have any problems here," I replied just for the sake of speaking back. Then, I shook my head again before casting yet another stare at the man nearby. "With that said, aren''t we supposed to go with Leon?"

    I couldn''t see the man anywhere within the hangar.

    ''Obviously,'' I thought.

    There was no way Makary would allow that young nouveau riche to experience something as crucial as moving the gate''s location.

    Even if he was bound to learn about it in theing days, there was absolutely no purpose to reveal this card right now, when our cooperation was still merely in its infancy.

    "Weren''t you to go with Fay?" Makary threw me an eye, causing my own eyes to widen.

    "Damn it, I nearly forgot," I admitted, startled by the prospect of disappointing my girl. "Thanks for reminding me," I thanked only to turn on my heel and direct my steps to where Fay was likely busy using whatever scraps of materials she found to turn our raw love-nest into a somewhat livable space.

    Ist saw her when Kash left us to our own devices back at the headquarters project. And I was there to witness Fay enter her home-keeper phase as she threw herself and happily toiled away covering the raw, prefabricated floor with some soft herbs, enchanting the empty door frame with spells that did the job of a door much better than an actual door or��

    To be frank, I had no idea what else Fay was doing back at our ce to be. The fact that she could put a barrier that no sound or light could prate and that could easily stop anyone unauthorized from crossing it��

    This was my first time learning she could do something like that, even after all the time we spent with our souls literally mixing together!

    And given the passion that sparked in her eyes as she happily went ahead and continued to prove just how best of a best girl she was. With all of that in mind��

    A cold shudder went down my spine, causing my entire body to stiffen a little.

    ''With how eager she was to make that empty shell of an apartment into an actual home, she''s likely really looking forward to it,'' I thought before sighing an internal sigh.

    ''And with that in mind, how could I rob her of her chance to stuff that new house of ours with all the designer furniture she could find back on earth?''

 Chapter 352 Love nest like a Fairys lair

    "This is starting to really weird me out��" I muttered, standing at the foot of the new headquarters project.

    A building that neared its generalpletion just a little bit before the sun hid behind the horizon. And yet, when I approached it roughly half an hour into the night��

    The work was still bustling all around.

    ''Back when we first came to visit this ce together, the work was already dying out��'' I thought, staring absentmindedly at all the hustle around and within the building itself.

    Even with Kash going away to work on the more important gateway project, her hand-picked brigades returned to put in just a little bit more time and effort before the end of the day.

    Satisfied with their tasty and warm meals, well-rested after the break, the imperials continued to pour their sweat to add some important, finishing touches to the whole project.

    To the side, one brigade was constructing what appeared like a utility shed.

    Looking past the building, at the pile of resources already gathered nearby, I could spot quite a number of long, steel pipes. And even from a distance��

    I could they those ck tubes of steel were way too thick to serve as piping.

    ''A water tower?'' I thought, raising my eyes when I spotted four, curved pieces that could fit together into quite the massive water container. ''It would need to be higher than any tap it would feed into��''

    I turned my head and took a look at the massive frame of the actual headquarters.

    There, what looked like two more brigades moved in and around, carrying all sorts of critical pieces of equipment. And with a narrow and shallow stretch of a halfpleted corridor going half its height into the ditch in the ground, the entire thing finally made sense.

    It would be a long time before the whole camp would get ess to what modern civilization considered to be the two most basic utilities.

    Water and power.

    The aspect of water expanded into sewage and ess to fresh and clean water. The power could provide both heat, but also electrical energy to operate all sorts of convenient tools. Even the kitchens fell into this category with portable electric stoves filling the gap.

    From what I could see with just a quick nce, the shed on the off-side of the headquarters had the makings to house both a powerful generator and also a series of pumps necessary to move the water around in the system. And while there still would be a need to resupply the tower with fresh water, once it would stand up��

    ''I never expected we could get toilet and tap water so soon,'' I thought, mildly impressed by the efficient and consequential manner in which Makary''s engineers and nners pushed all the projects ahead.

    ''And if everything works out, we might get a fresh source of all the resources we could ask for in the world.''

    Taking a deep breath, I cast yet another look at the nearby imperials before shaking my head and picking up my pace.

    Crossing the distance to the main entrance of the administrative cube within seconds, I soon climbed the stairs and rushed to the top of the building.

    All around me, there were imperials busy with all sorts of construction tasks.

    Some moved the tools, others moved various materials. There were those spraying some sort of strange, foam-like paint over the walls, covering the building''s insides with a fluffyyer of modern, reactive thermoistion. Othersid down pipes on the floors, securing them into the wall with special strainers.

    The work was moving all around�� And the effects of all this work really showed.

    What used to be a raw skeleton of a building just some time ago, was now turning into a project in the middling stage of its fullpletion!

    Still, the moment I climbed all the way to the top and��

    I didn''t even get to open the doors. Because, in fact, there were no doors to block off the exit of our apartment. Instead, a ck, vertical ne filled up all four corners of the door''s frame, blocking both the view and sound.

    Unsure, I slowly raised my hand and conquered thest few steps leading up to my new house��

    Only for my hand to pass through the ck barrier with no resistance as if the entire thing was a mere illusion.

    Still, the moment I crossed over and stepped into my apartment I was to share with Fay��

    I blinked my eyes twice, struggling to reconnect the sight before my eyes and what I considered to be real and possible.

    The entireyout of the apartment changed.

    Stepping inside, I was met with a short but generally spacious hall, leading up to an open kitchen in the corner, a walled-off and sizeable bath, and a single room taking over more than half of the entire space.

    ''What the��''

    The dividing walls were made with marble, something Makary definitely wouldn''t splurge on. The doors consisted of several, massive leaves arranged in some sort of an array. And without a single moment to think about it, I somehow knew just how to press those leaves to make all of them slide aside.

    The floor was covered in a strangely magical, moist moss. Just the fairly-like look of the rose glistering like pearls amidst the soft, soothing greenery made me feel like I wasmitting a sacrilege by stepping on it with my military-issue shoes.

    "Oh, honey, you are back!"

    Like a fairy queen appearing amidst the flowers of her kingdom, Fay, whose very name referred to her fairy-like beauty, opened up one of her strange, leafy doors and stepped out.

    There was nothing in her looks that made her look like some dignified, mystical being. She wore a simple, white shirt that reached the bottom of her hips. She covered her legs with simple sweatpants, currently covered in all sorts of mud, vines, and stray sticks.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Her long, white hair fell heavily behind her head, thick from all the pleasant and somehow fragrant moisture permeating through the air.

    "I��"

    Speechless.

    This world truly described how I felt and how I was at this precise moment.

    The profane of Fay''s ordinary look and vibe mixed with the sacrum of the surroundings she created�� Only to create a perfect mix of justified dignity and well-earned profoundness.

    In this one, particr moment, Fay simply peaked before my eyes.

    My earlier imagination of how hard she was going to work on the room shattered when faced with results that could never be achieved with my mere expectations.

    No.

    To transform the bare walls and floors of our apartment into what I could easily interpret as a masterful improved recreation of modernforts��

    My face softened, quickly followed by nearly my entire body. Before my knees would give up as my entire existence melted down, I reached out and grabbed Fay by her shoulders before slowly, gently pulling her into a casual, light hug.

    Still, rather than keeping my hands on Fay''s back or greedily reaching out down for her ass, I moved my right hand up and to the top of Fay''s head. I then pressed it down on her slightly moist yet still perfectly soft hair.

    "You''ve worked hard, didn''t you?" I hummed while gently patting Fay''s hair down before I finally managed to squeeze it tightly enough to caress Fay''s head.

    My entire body gave up, kept upright with only a desperate construct I somehow improvised and fed just enough aura to keep myself up.

    I felt as if my entire existence waspromised by some potent drug, causing everything to simply�� meltdown.

    "Hehehe��"

    As startled as Fay initially was, she quickly let out a satisfied giggle. She then brought her hands up to my chest before pressing the side of her head right above my heart. For a moment, she just rested while enjoying the head pats, only to then swing her chin up as she raised her eyes to my face and smiled gently.

    "You did too, didn''t you?"

    Fay reached out with her left and pressed it against my cheek.

    "We both worked hard, so��"

    As Fay''s smile turned from gentle through warm and weing all the way to full of emotional longing and bodily desire��

    Ring, ring, ring!

    The radio on my hip forced us right back to reality.

 Chapter 354 How to deal with an overwhelming force

    "Took you long enough," Makary angrilymented when we finally managed to reach the gateway after all the dy caused by the moment we had back at our apartment.

    "You can''t always be perfectly on the clock," I countered, already more focused on guiding Fay around and enjoying the faces she made when discovering new buildings created all over the camp.

    "I still hope you will do your best to abide by the timelines and calls, though," not willing to let me off with just that, Makary threw anotherment before rolling his eyes and turning toward the gate.

    Momentster, Madam joined us with, strangely, a tired expression all over her face.

    She had huge bags under her eyes and lost the usual luster of elegance that normally surrounded her. Madam''s presence itself also weakened�� As if she just expanded one hell of a chunk of her aura.

    And with how she couldn''t replenish it because Etaria invoked that taboo of supremes, she now had to pay a much greater price for using her strength than she would normally have to do.

    Still, the question remained, what was it that tired Madam, the strongest being that I personally knew, so much?

    "All ready?" Makary asked as soon as Madam approached close enough for him not to raise his voice.

    "You will have to excuse me, but I don''t think I will be able to achieve much by going out right now," Madam spoke as soon as she approached. "Helping my dear daughter out with remodeling her new nest sapped too much of my strength."

    ''Oh��''

    The two questions that I decided not to even bother trying to find the answers to, suddenly turned clear with just a single sentence from Madam''s mouth.

    ''So that''s how Fay managed to progress so much, and why Madam is so tired,'' I thought.

    ording to the original n, Madam''s aura was supposed to be directed towards maintaining the gate, in hopes of possibly prolonging for how long I could make the stable gate active. And, if all the tests worked out as nned, we could potentially find out if Madam would be capable of preserving the gate herself, without me acting as a proxy for the system.

    And all of this energy that Madam saved when I decided to alter the ns surrounding the gate for a bit has found a new, less practical but much more appreciated use.

    Because as much as I adored and fancied Fay, I could tell without a shadow of a doubt that physically altering the world as much as she did within our apartmenty way beyond the scope of hers or my own aura reserve.

    ''Even though I can''t do it myself, I can more or less just how much aura one needs to turn the concept of a construct into a physical object��.''

    Before obtaining the shadow core skill, it was impossible for me to materialize a concept into a physical entity. And even now, with the help of this unknown part that my system assimted, I could merely manipte darkness, manifesting it at a steep cost of my aura.

    But when it came to the interior Fay bent to her will with the help of her mom''s aura��

    There was a huge chance she didn''t make all of the moss, marble walls, and herbs of her aura alone, opting to affect the growth speed of the herb seeds or scattering a few strands of moss over the ground before forcing it to rapidly grow in one way or another.

    Either way, the two things that I found to be highly unnatural finally started to make sense�� Right as we left Madam behind to rest, crossing over back to earth with just Fay, Makary, and me.

    By now, no one paid even remote attention to our group as we stepped through the portal. The few men present on the scene were either too busy operating all sorts of machinery or loading more and more cargo from a nearby pile onto the conveyors.

    With the scale of development on the other side, there were only a few of Makary''s men left on the scene, with the great majority of their number dedicated to turning the massive, open space around the hangar into a makeshift warehouse.

    Upon reaching the exit I nearly stumbled.

    While on the other side of the gate, a single day was enough to erect several different buildings�� The construction process here was a lot closer to the realm of localmon sense.

    With Leon''s help, we managed to cut on quite a lot of the bureaucratic hassle�� But still. What imperials could build with just a little bit of engineering help back in their world was a task that could easily take days if not weeks back on Earth toplete.

    Still, Makary''s men gathered quite a lot of construction materials in thest few days, now putting them to great use by setting up the generalyout of the warehouse''s structure.

    Thankfully, as a formerly mining town, the city didn''tck any sort of hardware of the lowest level, with the total market value of the industry easily capping over the sum total of Makary''s liquid wealth.

    "At the current rate, we should cover this entire te within a week," Makary muttered upon noticing my curious looks. "And don''t give me this look," he added a momentter, "we don''t have the same kind of manpower here as we do back on the other side," he threw before moving even further out, to a spot where I noticed Leon waiting with a few men that appeared to be his bodyguards.

    "You sure took your time getting back here," Leonined once we approached, only to then step aside from where he was resting his back against the wall and move towards the nearby line of cars. "Shall we?"

    From there on, things moved quite quickly.

    Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire

    Between boarding a massive limousine with Makary, Fay, and Leon and then leaving in the escort of a total of eight cars, each manning a driver and two shooters, our small caravan embarked from Makary''snd at the edge of the town towards the city''s very center.

    "We are sure to attract a lot of attention like that," I remarked, looking out of the window while gently squeezing down at Fay''s hand.

    "I don''t know of any force capable of attacking the kind of escort that we have," Makary replied, more than happy to quell my worries. "And even without them, would it pose any real problem for you to dispose of any attackers?"

    I turned my eyes away from the window and gave Makary a long, heavy look.

    Still, the man was right.

    During thest ambush, I used a mere fraction of my abilities given how I wasn''t keen on revealing all the cards in such a small, random skirmish. And yet��n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    From the looks of things, that show from back then was enough to leave quite the impression on the mercenary leader.

    "If the pushes to shove, I will do my best," Imented while rolling my eyes and then moving them back to the window�� And freezing.

    ''Wait, isn''t that��''

    As my eyes widened, I only managed to gulp my saliva down.

    My heart rate elerated as if someone stuffed a syringe full of pure adrenaline directly into my chest.

    "Slow down, get into an alley and park for a second��"

    I barely managed to squeeze my voice through my tightened lips.

    And thankfully, Makary appeared to notice the weird change in my disposition.

    "Sir��?"

    Leon''s driver turned his head over the backrest of his chair, giving the young man an uncertain look.

    "Do as he says!" Makary harshly remarked while giving the driver a hateful stare.

    With that said the entire group of cars took a sudden turn to the right, leaving the town''s main artery and taking a stop at a small, parking lot nearby.

    With the vehicles of our escorts deploying in a circr formation all around the limousine, all the eyes within the reinforced car turned toward me.

    And judging from how white Fay''s face became, she was the only one who truly understood the scale of my terror.

    "Just one question," I forced myself to raise my face as I looked at Leon and then Makary. "If there''s was an overwhelming force that you can do nothing against and that meddles a lot with you, but you somehow managed to thwart whatever ns they had for you," I exined before locking my eyes on Makary''s face.

    "If you had to deal with a force like that, what would you do?" I asked, with my eyes tracking two familiar female silhouettes reflected in the driver''s mirror.

 Chapter 357 Consequences (part 2)

    "Cassie, please, wait!"

    The voice was unnervingly familiar. And Cassie knew it much better than she wished she did.

    ''Irene��''

    Gritting her teeth, Cassie shook her shoulder, forcing Irene''s hand off right as she hurried her steps.

    "Cassie, please, wait!" Irene called out again, speeding up just enough to move her hand to Cassie''s shoulder again��

    Only to have Cassie repeat her actions from before, shrugging Irene''s hand off and speeding up.

    "Leave me alone," Cassie barked, refusing to even look back at her former friend.

    "Stop it!" Irene cried out. She then reached out again and grabbed Cassie''s shoulder for the third time.

    This time, however, she copsed her fingers over Cassie''s flesh and held on tight enough to prevent the girl from shrugging her off. And then, as if not satisfied with just holding Cassie in ce, Irene tugged on her former friend''s arm, forcing her to turn around and face her.

    "Aren''t you a little unfair?!" Irene cried out with her face twisted in aplex mixture of all sorts of negative emotions. "How was I to know��"

    "You are right, there''s nothing fair about what I''m doing right now," Cassie admitted, refusing to let her former friend hold her down in ce when she pressed her lips together and pulled her shoulder off to the side, jerking it free of Irene''s hand. "But life isn''t fair. And whether or not you are as innocent as you im, I no longer have any desire to associate myself with you."

    There was no hesitation in Cassie''s voice nor there was any doubt in her cold eyes.

    "But��!"

    Now that she couldn''t hold Cassie without escting the encounter into an altercation, Irene threw both of her arms down along her waist, squeezing her hands down into fists in a fit of powerless anger.

    "Maybe you really only had my best regards in mind when you coaxed me to go to that party. Maybe you thought Peter wasn''t the one for me and saw it as an opportunity to split us apart. Maybe you really only ever had the best of wishes for me, maybe you really thought Peter needed our help just recently��"

    Cassie''s voice grew more and more tense as she spoke, as if her emotions were gaining more and more momentum with every bit of them she unloaded upon her former friend.

    "But whether you wanted to help or harm me, doesn''t matter. I care not if this was all but a sequence of extremely unfortunate coincidences that led us to where we are now."

    Not even once, Cassie denied Irene''s ims of innocence.

    After their earlier argument that exploded after the failed attempt at rescuing Peter from the people that didn''t hold him captivate at all, Cassie knew all that Irene might want to say or im.

    And she knew better than to try to deny her or to even join any sort of conversation led by her former friend.

    "Regardless, whether you really are as innocent as you im or not, there''s one thing that neither you nor I can deny," Cassie continued with her offense, even starting to slowly move towards Irene as if to better pass on the strength of her resolve that she fully infused into her voice.

    "When I''m with you or around you, regardless of your true intentions, I somehow always end up taking the easier but ultimately wrong paths. Maybe your presence weakens my resolve to do things properly? Maybe your words and actions influence my own decisions? Or maybe you are just a convenient straw man for me to put all the me for what happened on?"

    Cassie shook her head before staring right into Irene''s deep, dark eyes in silence.

    "I don''t care what''s the real reason. But with you around, I keep fucking my own life over and over again. And now that I''ve finally managed to pull myself by the bootstraps, I no longer have any wish to allow you to do as you did before."

    Irene''s face darkened.

    "So it''s all my fault after all, isn''t it?" she asked with an irony-soaked voice. And with Cassie holding nothing back, even Irene started to slowly show signs of getting tired of the cold treatment.

    ''What an ugly grimace,'' Cassie thought as she noticed Irene slightly baring her teeth as the anger started to erode her calm.

    "I don''t care if it''s your fault or just me projecting my own shorings on you. Maybe, in the end, it was all on me and you just happened to be in the wrong ces at the wrong times giving ill-fated yet good-willed bits of advice?"

    Cassie shook her head and retreated a single step before putting on a small, strangely relieved smile.

    "Whatever is the truth, I don''t care. But with you nowhere around, I''ve finally started to put my life back on track. And even if you are fully innocent, finding out whether it''s true or notes at a cost I''m no longer willing to bear."

    With that said, Cassie rolled her eyes and turned around on her heel, ready to leave.

    ''Good, now, as long as I can leave before she can stop me again��''n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Cassie honestly didn''t care whether Irene was the real reason for how her life went to shit or if she just was unlucky enough to always be by her side when she would make the decisions that only pushed her life down the drain.

    Whether it was all nned or just a sheer coincidence, there was no denying the bad influence Irene had over Cassie''s life. And now that she finally took the plunge and decided to work hard to slowly fix the shithole she found herself in, keeping Irene around was thest thing Cassie wanted.

    "Isn''t this he fucking convenient?!"

    Refusing to acknowledge her former friend''s decision to distance herself, Irene started to struggle to keep her emotions in check. And seeing how Cassie started to leave, she hurriedly rushed up and grabbed her shoulder for the fourth time.

    "Let go!" Cassie instantly demanded, refusing to let Irene affect her life any further.

    Yet, right as the two were about to start throwing hands and right as the onlookers started to give them weirded-out looks while some even started to approach them to break the fight before it would really happen��

    Cassie suddenly froze, when a distant echo of a familiar scent reached her nose.

    "You," following the scent, now it was a familiar voice that nearly instantly plunged Cassie into a state of emotional limbo where she couldn''t even figure out whether she should be freaking out, scared, anxious, or impatient.

    ''It''s him��''

    Freezing all over, Cassie gulped her saliva down when she turned her head and noticed a strangely unfamiliar figure.

    Over the merest few weeks, Peter has changed.

    ''Is it because he broke up with me?'' a hopeful thought struck Cassie''s mind�� She couldn''t find any other reason for how her ex could bulk up and refine his body so much in just a few, short weeks.

    "You," Peter spoke out with an empty and strangely�� tense look in his eyes.

    Seeing her former boyfriend''s uneasy expression, Cassie took a shallow breath, not sure what to think.

    ''Could it be��'' a spark of hope lit up in her soul as she weighed the potential reasons for Peter''s nervous state.

    "We need to talk," he said��

    Only for Cassie to realize he wasn''t looking at her when he said those words.

    He wasn''t looking at her��

    But at Irene instead.

 Chapter 358 Consequences (3)

    "We need to talk."

    Two drops of sweat trickled down my forehead when both girls dropped their argument and looked over.

    And as childish as it might be, I outright refused to even look at my ex.

    Cassie being here was just an irrelevant coincidence. And I wasn''t going to treat it as anything more than just that.

    Turning my eyes over to Irene instead, I looked as deeply into her face as I could without actually staring. I searched for even the tiniest hint that my long-standing worry, theory, and belief could be wrong.

    A single clue that I was actually wrong.

    But, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn''t see a thing.

    ''So I was right.''

    I closed my eyes and sighed only to take a long breathter.

    "Wait, we?" Irene jumped a little, her anger, annoyance, and whatever else she was acting out subsided by a genuine surprise. "Not with��"

    There wasn''t a single clue or whisk of proof to confirm Irene was indeed the source of the darkness that permeated thest few years of my life. In fact, I couldn''t sense a single drop of the familiar, darkness aura.

    And that in itself was the greatest proof that regretfully, I was indeed correct.

    "Could you please drop the act?" I asked in a tired voice.

    I was here, trying to somehow deal with an unfathomably powerful devil. With that in mind, ying mind games or keeping up an act��

    Useless, waste of a time, unnecessary.

    ''What''s going to happen is going to happen anyway.''

    Why waste time on ying pretend if I would rather be anywhere else in the world right now? And unless I toppled this act, dealing with this matter would take even longer��

    Or rather, what was my actual concern, any dy here would mean a dy in my return to my rightful ce within Fay''s sweet, fairy-like embrace.

    "Hey�� P-Pet��"

    "I know."

    Before Cassie could even duke out an extremely nervous greeting, right as she was in the middle of spelling my name out, I cut her off.

    And without a single nce wasted on her, I kept my tired eyes locked on Irene''s startled expression.

    "Hey, is everything okay?"

    One of the passersby approached with a look of concern.

    ''Not the best time to y the good guy card,'' I looked over Irene''s shoulder and at the stranger with an empty look cold enough to root him in ce.

    "I�� I think it will be better if we move somewhere a bit more�� private," Irene strangely calmed down, as if putting her entire being back in a lower gear.

    Everything about her diminished, decreased. She now appeared shorter, her entire presence nearly halving as she pretended to calm down.

    I slowly and ostentatiously raised my eyes at some of the strangers who were either stopping nearby or outright following the example of the first guy to approach. We were mere seconds away from turning this encounter into a public event.

    And given my intentions, I would rather there be fewer innocent bystanders around in case I would have to activate my triumph card of desperation.

    Getting the message from how openly I''ve ignored her, Cassie lowered her face and tightened her fists. She pressed her lips together so hard they turned white, in the end though, she opted not to try again.

    "Good thinking, I fully agree."

    I turned to the side and cast a quick nce, pretending as if I didn''t n out every possible detail of this encounter that I could predict way before I even stepped out of Leon''s car.

    "How about there?" I reached out and pointed at a massive ss panel revealing the inviting insides of a random cafe.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Irene raised her eyes and looked over before turning her attention to her friend.

    "That ce will do," she remarked silently, reaching out for Cassie''s hand and pulling her ahead as she stepped towards the craft coffee bar I''d mentioned.

    I had every intention of getting seated right by the window, in a perfect and unobstructed view of all the gunmen hidden in the cars within a nearby side alley.

    Still, after making a mere step, Irene suddenly stopped and looked back at Cassie''s startled expression.

    And for a moment, a strange, weirdly genuine look sparked up in her eyes.

    "It looks like this is a talk between him and me, after all," Irene remarked, letting go of Cassie''s hand and turning her face to the front as if to hide a look of slightly regretful rejection.

    ''Is this still an act?'' I asked myself, moving my eyes over Cassie as if she were just a streetmp or postal box. And without further ado, I followed Irene to the very location I suggested.

    ''I wonder if she will stay?'' I thought as we crossed the street in silence, perfectly aware of how Cassie raised her hand after her friend and even opened up her mouth�� Only to end up lowering both her hand and her face as she closed her mouth back up.

    To see what kind of face she made, I would actually have to look over�� But in all honesty, I didn''t care in the slightest.

    Soon, we went inside and after a short dy of acting all normal and ordering a coffee each like your run-of-the-mill couple, we sat down.

    As if to show that she''d read my intentions, Irene didn''t protest my choice of location.

    ''Or maybe she somehow has no clue what I''m nning?'' I thought�� Only to throw such a stupid idea away.

    From how she acted and from how long I knew about her�� Or to put it bluntly, from how far into the past the influence of her darkness appeared to affect my fate, she had to feel asfortable in this reality as me, a damn native.

    I didn''t try to hide my intentions to deal with her at all, so she had to be aware something was brewing. In fact, being a woman, she was naturally bound to notice the stiffness of my face and notice that there was something amiss about this situation.

    Sure, she might''ve been one of the reasons why I broke up with Cassie, she might have a troubled rtionship and history with both me and my ex, her close friend��

    But none of those would warrant the way I''ve approached her and demanded to talk.

    "So, then?" Sitting down, Irene stretched her hands up before lowering her elbows on the table and cupping her hands together. She then leaned her chin over her interweaved fingers and put on a huge, chillingly cold smile. "What did you want to talk about?"

 Chapter 360 Consequences (5!!!)

    "What did you wish to talk with me about?"

    Everything about Irene changed�� even though for a normal human she was bound to still be the same.

    Her eyes turned into a mixture of unnaturally intense crimson decorated with pure ck of the pupils. The air around her grew tenser as if stressed by the weight of the aura she unleashed. Even her face somehow grew more detailed and vivid, begging the question if this was just my perception or the way in which the world itself wanted to trante her overwhelming power.

    Only one thing remained the same and it was her cold, wicked smile.

    "Who are you and what did you do to me?" I didn''t need to think to find out the right words or figure out what I actually wanted to ask about.

    Or rather, I did all the thinking over this issue already, and right now all that was left for me was to express it.

    "I''m Irene," this overlord of dark aura imed only for her smile to grow a bit. "And I''ve been Irene for longer than you or Cassie knew me."

    "I doubt the real Irene would hold such an overwhelming power," I countered while slightly squinting my eyes.

    Irene, or whatever this being even was, only widened her smile and lowered her eyelids to the middle of her eyes.

    "How could I be responsible for whatever misunderstanding you have about me? It''s not my fault you guys were unable to notice it before, so why should I answer you for it?"N?v(el)B\\jnn

    The girl''s smile turned from wicked to one of open mockery and amusement.

    "I''m not here for you to answer to me. Even with all my might, I doubt I could put a single scratch on you. And without the advantage of violence, how would I impose any sort of sanctions or punishment on you?" I asked, allowing myself this little deviation from the main topic.

    There was no denying that in terms of power, then the being sitting right across the table dwarfed Madam and Etaria�� And was likely far more powerful than I was even capable of perceiving.

    But that was just her power. And while judging by my own circumstances, the limits of Irene''s power also affected her ability to perceive, remember, recall, and process things at a much greater rate than a normal human��

    Being in this modern world for as long as she imed, she wouldn''t be able to stop it from rubbing itself on her. And that��

    That was the one and only vulnerability I had any hopes of exploiting if things really took a turn for the worst.

    "It''s nice that you are aware of your own limits, but it also begs the question," Irene''s smile only grew as she lowered her eyelids even further down her eyeballs. "If you know you are no match for me, why did you confront me?"

    I took a deep breath, readying myself to answer��

    "You are here because you could no longer bear the burden of knowing about me and doing nothing about it," Irene imed while stretching her finger to point right at my heart again.

    And, in all honesty, she was right.

    Sure, if I tried my best, I might''ve found some way to twist the words and reality and keep the discussion from advancing any further��

    But what would be the point of doing that?

    Irene sighed and closed her eyes again.

    "You are clueless as to who I am. You don''t know my goals. You don''t even know why I''m here or why I humored your desire to talk."

    Irene''s smile grew smaller, proving she was now more interested in our conversation than she was in putting me down.

    ''It seems I''ve advanced from merely an amusing bug to an interesting one��'' I thought with a sigh��

    "You don''t even know there is a��"

    All of a sudden, the pressure of Irene''s aura decreased, all the way to the point where I could hardly feel its presence at all.

    It was still here, all over the ce�� but it no longer had this oppressive, overwhelming weight to it. The flows of her aura gave up on their semi-conscious attempts at solidifying, manifesting themselves as something more than just the ephemeral energy I knew it as.

    This change instantly put my mind on an even greater alert�� Allowing me to catch Irene pulling her hand back only to interweave her fingers and rest her chin on top of them.

    Then, she opened up one of her crimson-dark eyes, looking at me with yet another kind of expression.

    "So you''ve dealt with the core, huh?" Irenemented with a slight smile, proving I''ve once again advanced in her mind from an interesting bug�� to a crafty one this time.

    A bug that indeed had some sort of ability.

    "So it was your doing?" I asked as if I didn''t know the answer already.

    "My doing or not�� how did you remove�� No, absorb it?"

    ''I need to keep going. As long as she is interested in me enough to ask questions, she shouldn''t bother erasing me.''

    "So it was you, after all," I sighed, ignoring Irene''s question. Then, I pulled my eyelids up along with my chin and stared right into the one eye she kept open. "Why? Why did you take all this effort to make my life into a damn nightmare?!"

    At this point, I failed to control my emotions, I feat that I''ve managed to achieve thus far.

    And how could I not?

    Assuming she was willing to answer�� I was finally about to learn the reason why the greater part of my life thus far was so miserable.

    ''Why? Just why?!''

    "Aren''t you an adorable one," Irene''s smile of amused superiority returned, thankfully without the heavy presence of her aura from before.

    Her smile then evolved right as she opened up her other eye and leaned her head slightly to the side.

    "Why, why, just why��" she muttered while rolling her eyes. "You tell me, why do your kind spend the greater part of their youth locked away in prison-like institutions, giving up on their youthful energy to study thews of the world? Why is your kind so eager to spend an exobiriant amount of wealth, the lone indicator of effort in this world, to be educated?"

    This sudden change of topic caught me off guard.

    ''What the hell is she on about?'' I asked myself, but Irene had no ns of letting me figure out the answer by myself.

    "The gift I''ve granted you is exactly the same. At the cost of your youthful energy, you would gain power, wealth, and standing at the end of the transaction. The difference is," Irene''s smile grew even deeper�� but lost its wicked nature.

    Now, it was outright�� evil?

    "Instead of paying with your time, energy, and effort, you paid with your suffering. And mere months if not weeks before you were to gain your reprieve, just moments before I would," Irene''s smile twitched, "get the return on my investment, you went and vanished only to return now, with my precious core all perfectly absorbed into your own soul."

    All of a sudden, Irene''s aura returned with all its might and weight��

    But for some reason, it didn''t burden me.

    No.

    All it did�� was reveal the truth of who Irene was.

    The living embodiment of darkness, a manifestation that came to solidify itself against the overwhelming restriction of whatever I saw it stop from happening before.

    Her blonde hair turned dark. Her crimson irises turned white.

    And her smile grew both wider but also emptier.

    "The question for now, though, is, what am I to do with you now?"

 Chapter 361 Consequences (6!!)

    "The question for now, though, is, what am I to do with you now?"

    A cold shiver moved down my spine. Irene''s question sounded�� a bit too final to my liking.

    ''I guess it''s time,'' I thought, gritting my teeth as I readied myself to summon my personal portal at any second.

    ''What are the chances it will work?'' I wondered.

    Both Etaria and Madam already proved that a supreme could pretty much ignore or, at the very least, avoid any sort of danger brought upon by modern weapons.

    But�� In both of their cases, they knew what they were getting themselves into in advance. Madam saw how the guns worked and thus grew to know how to deal with them. On the other hand, Etaria knew she was going into a battle and she likely had some prior knowledge of weapons she never knew about situated within the forest.

    They were both warned and thus gained the ability to survive even on a modern battlefield.

    When it came to Irene, though�� She couldn''t know there was a whole group of gunmen ready to sacrifice all the innocent people within the cafe if it meant taking her by surprise. The most she could know was a deduction that I wouldn''t have confronted her without some sort of prior arrangement ensuring or at least, increasing my odds.

    Would that be enough to ovee the massive gap of power between us?

    ''Is something as simple as a gun barrage enough to kill someone on pretty much a level of a damn god?''

    I gritted my teeth, steeling my resolve for whatever was going to happen next��N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Which turned out to be Irene heaving a long, bothered sigh.

    "Stop whatever you are thinking about doing," Irene ordered while giving me the look of an adult politely smiling in response to some infantile bullshit spoken by a kid. "I understand if my words scared you, but for thest three years, I''vee to consider you a wasted investment anyway."

    My eyes widened.

    "What?"

    "Haaaah��." Irene uttered a long sigh, finally dropping her mask of superiority as she leaned her head forward and rested her forehead against her cupped hands. "I don''t know what the hell is wrong with you, but after two years of watching you refuse to give in to your damn desires even once��" Irene shook her head while refusing to lift it up from her hands.

    "What the hell are you talking about?"

    At this point, I forgot all about the primal fear Irene''s power induced in my soul. I forgot all about just how much more powerful she was than me, making me a mere ant dancing in her palm.

    Because just now, she revealed I wasn''t moving as she desired at all!

    ''Is it a lie?'' I gulped my saliva down. ''Her attempt at making me lower my guard and��''

    I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, burying those idiotic thoughts.

    With the difference of power between us, there was absolutely no need for Irene to y any sort of tricks. It was merely me projecting my own circumstances, methods, and views on her�� whilepletely ignoring her own look on the matter.

    ''Just like Leon wouldn''t bother scamming people over the phone to earn a thousand or two, she wouldn''t bother ying tricks like that on me. It''s arrogant to think she would have any need for tricks��''

    Irene raised her head from her cupped hands and looked directly into my eyes.

    "From now on, I will adopt the preposition you often like to include yourself," she said with a small smile lingering at the corner of her mouth. "Whatever I say from now on is likely to be a simplification so major, it will make my words no different from lies."

    "Wait, you are actually going to answer my questions?!" I nearly jumped up in my seat.

    This conversation wasn''t going anywhere near the flow I predicted it would take.

    ''Is this the instance of a godughing at the ns of a man?'' I thought.

    Instead of answering myst question, though, Irene simply continued to stare right into my eyes for just a bit longer.

    "I see," she then noted, finally breaking eye contact and pulling away from the table as she rested deeply into the cafe''sfortable chair. "At the very least, you don''t consider darkness to be the embodiment of evil or something like that," she pointed out before shaking her head a little. "That will make this conversation a bit easier."

    Irene suddenly shut herself up and simply continued to stare at me with�� an extremely tired expression.

    Soon, the reason for her silence materialized herself in the form of a server that approached our table.

    "Would you like to order anything else?" the serviceman asked while taking a meaningful look at our empty cups.

    Somewhere along this extremely weird conversation, we have both emptied out our sses, now just sitting in the cafe and taking up a spot that some other customer might want to take.

    And so, given how little of concern money was to me at this point, I raised my head and ordered a new round of coffee, this time apanied by two pieces of some of the fancier cakes the cafe had to offer to go with the drink.

    "Back to it," Irene muttered once the server left the two of us alone, allowing us to pick up the conversation right where we left it. "There''s just one more thing I need to ask before I will give you some hints as a reparation for the pain my core brought upon you, irregardless of how it''s your own fault things went the way they did."

    ''My fault?''

    I raised one of my eyebrows�� but opted not to dive deeper into this part that I couldn''t agree with.

    ''How was anything back then my damn fault?!'' I thought while forcing an empty smile on my face as I looked at Irene.

    "And that question would be?" I asked, trying my very best to appear as uninterested as I could.

    Seeing my act, Irene only smiled.

    "When you open up those portals of yours, what color do you see?"

 Chapter 362 The origin (1)

    ''This conversation is really taking the wildest turns,'' I thought, not sure how exactly I was supposed to respond to Irene''s question.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    ''Should I lie? Or should I tell the truth?''

    For some reason, Irene wanted to know this detail that I''ve never considered to be something more than a curiosity. And knowing not of her motivations, how could I decide whether it was better to be honest or not?

    ''Well, when ites to lying, the question is��'' I sighed internally. ''Am I even able to lie to her?''

    "It''s purple," I revealed and followed with a sigh of resignation.

    "Wait, purple?" Irene''s eyes opened up wide. She nearly jumped from her seat, only holding herself back right at the veryst moment. "So that''s how it is��" she muttered, slowly seating herself back as she dug her eyes into the table and refused to borate at all.

    ''And now what��?''

    Hearing no worde from her mouth nor any further change appear on her face, I took a deep breath.

    "What about it?" I finally gathered enough courage to ask.

    ''Is it bad? Or is it good?'' I wanted to ask�� But judging by the flow of the conversation thus far, it would be pointless to voice this concern.

    After all, given her reaction, Irene likely would see no benefit in sharing the news, right?

    "Nothing much," Irene finally responded, raising her eyes and giving my face a curious nce. "At most, it exins a few things I couldn''t understand before."

    Irene raised her head properly before grabbing the cup and taking a sip of the coffee before putting the cup down and leaning back in her chair.

    "Now, for the answers that you seek and with the assumptions that what I will tell shall be merely a shadow, an illusion of the truth," she announced before putting a small smile on her face.

    "The darkness core that I''ve bestowed upon you actually has little to do with you. In reality, it only continued to feed the people around you the darkness�� Or, to put it in terms you can actually understand, with the burning desire to follow their own wishes."

    Irene made a short pause, raising her eyes to the ceiling as she took a moment to consider the right words to use next.

    "You see darkness��" she hesitated for a second, "what you see as darkness is just one of the few primeval forces that permeate every world in existence. Seeing how you could perceive me within the realm of darkness, you must consider me to be a darkness avatar of sorts or something, but that too, is merely a shadow of a hint of what I really am."

    ''What is she even on about?'' I thought, to myself, struggling to connect the dots Irene was raising.

    Why did she start talking about the core of darkness only to then switch over to what darkness is in reality without even properly exining the core part?

    "Induced by the darkness born from the core I bestowed upon you, those around you��" Irene squinted her eyes�� Only to then shake her head. "No, that''s not the best way to exin it," she corrected herself before looking up to my face again.

    "When surrounded by people who follow nothing but their own wishes, most men would learn from them to be the same. And once you grew to be true to your own desires, the darkness core would mature and be ripe for me to cash in on my investment."

    Somewhere in the distant corner of my consciousness, a red light lit up.

    What Irene just said struck a cord in my soul, ringing the bells�� but in a way that somehow prevented me from figuring the connection out.

    "But for some reason, for five damn years, you refused to bend your will to the call of your surrounding, starving the core and forcing it to be dormant. That, in turn, led to those who already relied on the darkness to gain a sort of a withdrawal syndrome."

    Irene suddenly averted her eyes.

    "While the core was still active, people around you simply grew more likely to follow their desires and wishes, ignoring all the concerns that normally would stop them. And to a degree, by itself, it should be bearable. But once they could no longer feed off the darkness produced by the core within you��"

    Irene didn''t even finish her words, opting to turn her face away, avoiding my own eyes.

    "So, once they could no longer find this darkness around me��" I spoke out as if to lead Irene back to the topic she clearly wasn''t all that happy to discuss.

    "Did you never catch the people around you suddenly start to act all cranky?" Irene asked, still avoiding my eyes.

    I took a moment to think�� And as vaguely as it was, I could indeed recall some instances of my aunt suddenly growing restless and easy to annoy.

    But still, that didn''t make any sense. Not when considering the timeline of things�� Or rather��

    "If that''s all true, then how will you exin Cassie''s behavior?" I asked, eager to get to the bottom of it. "By the time I''ve met her, I''ve already starved the core dormant, didn''t I? Isn''t that what you said?"

    Finally, Irene looked back at my face.

    "And do you still remember how are you supposed to feed the core?" She asked, yet seeing the nk look on my face, she only rolled her eyes. "The core feeds of you acting upon your desires. And while I''m aware you never bedded Cass��"

    This time, Irene''s face took on a slightly amused tone.

    "As innocent as you might be, kissing and cuddling�� or even just leering at her was something you really wanted to do, wasn''t it?"

    Hearing those news, I suddenly forgot what I was about to say. Because, no matter how much I wanted to do so, I couldn''t refute Irene''s words.

    "So, it was my fault that she suddenly started to feed on the darkness and then it''s also my fault she grew to be annoyed with me once I learned how to rein my desires in again?"

    This time, Irene simply refused to reply, be it with words or by nodding her head. Instead, her averting her eyes was enough of an answer for me.

    "Okay, let''s forget all about Cassie for now," I suggested upon realizing that my ex wasn''t part of the equation nor an important piece of it. "What was it about the color I see before my portal fully forms?"

    Irene''s face suddenly turned all serious.

    "It revealed your true origins. And at the same time, to what primeval tribe you belong," she revealed with a small, slightly tense smile.

    "And that is��?" I continued to dig further and further, feeling as if I was about to touch some sort of a massive secret�� Or just find out more about myself and my origins.

    "In this world, purple is associated with creativity and royalty," Irene revealed, only to react with a small smirk upon seeing how my face suddenly lit up. "But that''s just the interpretation of your species. In reality��"

    Irene took a deep breath before looking me deep in the eyes.

    "In truth, the purple tone of your own aura means you belong to the tribe of will," she revealed something that clearly made all the sense to her while meant pretty much nothing to me. "In other words, your power stems from conciousness," she then revealed in a bit simpler terms, only to avert her eyes again and add, "which exins why you did such a good job refusing the call of the core."

 Chapter 363 The origin (2)

    A long period of silence followed Irene''s statement.

    A silence long enough for the server toe back with both of our coffees and a piece of cake for each of us. A silence long enough for Irene to start snacking on the sweet treat for quite some time before I finally managed to process all that she said.

    "Yeah, no matter how hard I think about it, it makes absolutely no fucking sense," I spoke out while heaving a long, resigned sigh. "Any chance for you to exin it again but in a way an idiot would understand?"

    No matter how much my intelligence and wisdom stats grew, for all I knew, those stats only referred to the potential performance of my brain. My wisdom allowed me to better store a greater amount of information and guaranteed easier and faster ess to all of it. My intelligence attribute allowed me to process all of that information faster and more efficiently.

    But neither of those two stats made me smart enough to figure out the meaning of Irene''s cryptic exnation.

    "Eh?" Irene moaned like a teacher who had no other choice but to deal with the intellectually challenged kid taking part in their sses.

    In fact, this request of mine was enough to make her put the small fork she was eating the cake with away and hide her face in her hands as she tried to figure out a proper answer.

    "It''s really hard for me to do so when I don''t even know what made you unlock your potential," she revealed with a heavy sigh. "Can you pinpoint an important moment that brought upon the change?" she asked, bringing her hands off her face while moving her elbows back to the table and cupping her hands together before resting her chin on top of them.

    "A single moment that led to you being able to manipte aura? Or maybe the moment that unlocked your ability to cross over to Suopari?"

    Hearing the unfamiliar name, I raised my left eyebrow a bit.

    This time, I had enough context to figure out this new name most likely referred to Fay''s world.

    "What?" Irene barked when she saw my expression. "Yes, it''s the world Ie from," she admitted before shrugging her shoulders, "I never had any desire to pretend otherwise."

    I looked right at Irene''s face for a while, only to sigh and lower my eyes back to the table as I pretended to struggle to catch a single moment in my life that would fit Irene''s question.

    "I guess it all started when I realized that being better, as my mom requested of me on her deathbed, wasn''t all about letting others bully and abuse me," I spoke as I raised my eyes and gave Irene a cold stare.

    Even now, after all the time that passed, my feelings about that moment were�� quiteplicated.

    "But," I interjected before Irene could start exining the situation again, "given how knowledgable you are about all the things I have little to no clue about, howe you didn''t know this yet?"

    This time, it was Irene''s turn to give me a cold, annoyed, and outright tired stare.

    "There''s about seven billion humans in this world. And I''m not arrogant enough to believe I can understand the heart of each and everyst one of them."

    Irene rolled her eyes before resting her chin a bit deeper in her hands, to the point even her mouth hid behind them.

    A momentter, though, she raised her head back up and leaned back in her seat.

    "But now everything makes at least a bit of sense," she then admitted before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes.

    "Being better��" she muttered, keeping some sort of thought in her mind for a moment before finally opening up her eyes again and directing them straight at my face.

    "Ever since you''ve heard those words, you looked inwards in search of things you need to ovee. Be better than giving in to your desires. Be better than acting how you wish you did. Be better�� than your own desires," Irene borated a bit. And for the first time, I could actually fully associate with what she spoke about.

    That''s how I''ve lived ever since my mom''s passing, after all.

    "Judging from what you''ve just told me, your life changed when you finally grew to the point of taking what your mother could potentially mean with those words into ount, over just living your life as the victim of her words."

    My eyebrows shot up on my face.

    Even though I never borated on what exactly happened back on the day everything changed, never exined what was the thought process that led to my refusal to keep acting the way I did thus far.

    And yet, Irene somehow managed to fucking nail it on her damn first try!

    "How��" stunned by her ability to somehow figure it all out, my entire attention focused on just one, simple question.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    ''How the hell did she know?''

    "It all goes back to what I''ve said before," Irene smiled when she saw how my face all tensed up. "You, most likely, belong to the tribe of will. The tribe of consciousness. So, while you were stuck on the very basic level of it, you couldn''t wield any of your innate powers. And your life changed when you learned to ount for what others think in your own perception of the world."

    Irene suddenly turned silent as she directed her eyes down to the table.

    "Or maybe you were already on the second level and managed to climb to the third?" she muttered under her nose, her voice indicating she was no longer perfectly sure of her judgment here.

    Still, she raised her eyes and looked me right in the face again.

    "Either way, the moment your life turned on its head all came because you advanced the perception of your consciousness," she exined before shrugging her shoulders.

    "And those levels are?" Sensing that I was finally nearing some sort of answer that would allow me to finally start making sense of all sorts of things, I pushed for more.

    "The first level is all about your own needs and desires. I need to eat, so I will look for food. I need to sleep, so I will look for a safe ce to do so. It''s a level that all humans have been on since birth. On the second level of consciousness, though, you start to acknowledge how all the other humans around have their own desires��"

    Once again, Irene turned silent, this time, right in the middle of her exnation.

    "Yeah, I believe you were on the second level. You knew others were directing their actions by following their own desires. But the very moment you learned to take ount of other people''s agenda."

    Hearing all of those words, I couldn''t help but smirk.

    "Isn''t it kind of obvious that everyone has their own agenda? And that you need to figure it out if you want to understand how to act around them?" I asked.

    After all, how could I deal with Etaria�� No, how could I ever get in cahoots with Makary if I didn''t have the ability to figure out what he wanted from me?

    "You see, a man''s consciousness develops silently," Irene smiled. "And even though your life changed when you jumped from the second to the third level, I never meant to imply you are still on it now."

 Chapter 367 One delay after the other

    When I first heard Leon''s suggestion for testing how both I would fare against his power armors and how his power armors would fare against someone on my level, I expected the entire thing to have some hups, but generally go quite smoothly and finish early.

    In the first part, I was right on the money.

    The small troubles started when Leon suddenly realized that those car-sized steel boxes were a bit too heavy for even all of his henchmen to move off the shelf. Still, with just the slight dy necessary for his men to rush around the warehouse to find a heavy-duty forklift, things continued quite smoothly.

    Still, it was the second part of the entire event finishing quickly I couldn''t be any further from the truth.

    "Shit, this system is so ancient I can hardly make any sense of it!"

    A man, halfway buried within the lower half of the suit continued to tap away on a small pad while making all sorts of faces.

    If I didn''t know what he was actually doing, I would be quite easy to convince it was either some sort of weird ritual or a kinky fetish only IT guys couldprehend.

    "This is really taking a lot longer than I thought," Makary muttered with a dissatisfied grimace on his face.

    "Would you rather have us fight for real?" Leon countered, equally as dissatisfied as Makary.

    Makary opened up his mouth but never got to say anything to Leon''s riposte.

    After all, it was our shared decision not to make this into a real fight but merely a set of tests that would allow us to gauge just how good one would fare about the other.

    And so, rather than just going at it as our ancestors would in our current situation, we had two of Leon''s henchmen code away while they did their best to dissect and castrate the battle modules of the power suits code.

    "I''ve got it!"

    Only about an hour into the process, a man climbed up from the upper part of the suit suspended on the forklift''s raised for and the edge of the steel box the suit originally came from.

    "And that means��?" Hurrying to the man, I asked as soon as I reached close enough to see the details of his face.

    "I''ve blocked the ammo feeds into the shoulder and waist guns. They will work as always, but with no ammo��" the middle-aged man grinned as he looked at me, "they won''t shoot."

    "That means we are ready?" I asked, eager to get this shit over with.

    Before going through the gate, I was already annoyed at how Fay''s extremely hard work at creating a love nest for us to enjoy each other had to be put on the backburner. But with how things were going, by the time we would return, there would be hardly any time for us to do so before the new day would start and with it, a whole load of new duties and responsibilities.

    "It won''t shoot�� but it can still crush stones with its grip," the man warned. "So, as long as you only fight at a distance, things should be alright."

    Hearing those news, I turned over and looked at Leon and Makary.

    Being the VIPs for life, they couldn''t be bothered to run ahead as I did and only got the message once I waved at them.

    "Peter," Fay''s whisper reached my ear a mere moment before she appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, by my side.

    "What''s up?" I asked, turning to the girl and instinctively reaching out with my hand for her waist and pulling her closer.

    "��" Fay snuggled up to my side for a bit, pressing her forehead against my shoulder.

    "Just be careful, m''kay?" she pleaded in a whisper so faint I couldn''t even be sure if I didn''t just imagine her saying that.

    "Having you worry about me feels great," I admitted while leaning my head down and to the side in an attempt to take a peek at her face. "But I will try to avoid doing anything that could actually make you worried."

    For a moment, we simply enjoyed the closeness of each other.

    "Everything ready?" Leon appeared by our side a mere momentter, with two more forklifts carrying the bottom part of the power suit behind him.

    "Pretty much, yeah," I replied, dissatisfied with his unfortunate timing.

    I knew our cooperation with Leon was necessary. But whenever his demands came at a cost of time, the one resource we so severelycked, I couldn''t help but keep recalcting whether his help was actually worth its cost.

    "Good. Let''s do this, then!"

    Leon couldn''t be bothered to run around the ce. His standing in the city simply disallowed him from doing something so�� peasant-like. And yet, when it came to him climbing into the bottom of his power suit, he appeared like an overly excited kid.

    A momentter, all three forklifts that his men found within the warehouse worked together to bring the upper half of the suit up into the air before slowly, carefully lowering it onto Leon.

    Thetches clicked when the two parts connected. Yet, rather than moving right away, Leon obediently followed the procedure and gave his suit enough time for all the systems to properly connect.

    The hydraulic flows of both halves of the suit soon united, spreading the power of the powerful engines mounted on the suit''s back throughout the entire armor.

    In the end, it took nearly ten minutes for the power-suit to fully power up.

    ''So it''s not something we could use in an emergency,'' I thought, already drafting ns for how this piece of equipment could be used on the other side of the gate.

    Thankfully, with all the technology we were rushing to pump into the other world, there was little to no possibility for anyone taking our camp by surprise. And if we ever ventured outside of it�� the fuel-hungry engines of the suit would make it into nothing more but extremely heavy and unhandy baggage.

    A weapon to be used once and only once before we would be likely forced to discard it and ept the overwhelming loss of just how insanely expensive this piece of technology was.

    ''It was designed for modern wars, not for some squabbles with sword-wielding knights,'' I thought, twitching slightly when Leon''s suit finallypleted the entire booting-up protocol.

    The engines on the suit''s back revved up, pumping the hydraulic fluid faster and faster throughout its movement systems. And when Leon took a first step��n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    It felt as if the entire underground warehouse shook in its foundations.

    "Are you ready?" Leon''s voice came out from a tiny speaker hidden somewhere within his bulky armor.

    "What test do we start with?" I asked in a loud voice, worried this damn suit would make it hard for Leon to hear me.

    "Let''s see if I can track your movements," Leon suggested, raising the suit''s arm the size of a tank''s barrel.

    There was a neu-machine gun mounted below each of the suit''s arms. And the very moment Leon started to raise his hand towards me, the total of its eight barrels started to spin faster and faster.

    ''If this thing shoots, I might be in real danger,'' I thought while gulping my saliva down and pushing Fay out of the way of a potential danger.

    Sure, the ammo feeds might be jammed in the suit''s OS�� but who knew what kind of contingency the suit''s designers made against someone meddling with its systems?

    "Just in case, try not to shoot," I suggested out loud while stretching my hands out to the side and jumping in ce to get my legs warmed up and ready for the rush. "It''s better to be safe than sorry."

    "Worry not," Leon''s voice came out from the suit''s speaker again. "I''ve already plugged my pad into it, so I will be able to track whether or not I can even align the sights with you."

    I took a deep breath and looked around, scanning everyst detail of my surroundings andmitting it to my memory. With theyout firmly saved within my mind, I took several steps to distance myself from the suit before turning around and looking straight into the shaded vision of Leon''s suit.

    "A second of advantage should be enough," I shouted over, spinning my arms onest time before getting in position.

    The barrels of both of Leon''s mini-guns reached their optimal spin speed. The engines on his suit''s back reached their maximum output.

    For but a moment, we were both bristling, ready to shred the other into pieces.

    It was only a test to see if Leon''s suit could even keep up with my inhumane speed. Or rather, a test of whether I could replicate the movements Etaria implemented to avoid the barrage of the gunship back during the forest battle.

    "Both ready?" Standing safely hidden behind the suit''s steel box, Makary peeked out and shouted the question.

    I nodded my head. Leon swung his right glove to the sides.

    "On three!" Makary shouted, hiding back behind his cover.

    "One!"

    Even though Fay hid right by Makary''s side, I could feel her anxiety rising.

    "Two!"

    I rushed forth, jumping as far as I could and watching with satisfaction how Leon''s arms rose up to keep me within the electric scopes of his guns.

    Before Makary could even give Leon the green light, I used the many shadows hidden from the warehouse''s artificial lights to invoke my elemental darkness, turning it into tentacles that pulled me back down to the ground.

    And before Leon could even bring his guns back to the former angle, I''ve already leaned down, nearly pressing myself against the ground, more sliding on the ground than actually running towards him.

    "GO!"

 Chapter 368 Practical test

    Leon''s arm angled up quite a lot faster than I expected from such a heavy machine yet still slow enough for me to escape its changing range.

    Before the city''s magister could aim anywhere near the floor on which I slid, I''d already kicked against the bottom of one of the massive, warehouse shelves and pushed myself off to the other side of the wide corridor.

    But then, Leon kicked it up a notch, activating the swivel at his arm-guns mounts and causing their massive couplings of spinning barrels to quickly twist in my direction.

    Thankfully, up until this point, no bullet came from any of Leon''s barrels, keeping this test somewhat safe and reasonable.

    Still, even with the added eleration of the guns themselves, I simply jumped up, once again changing my angle of approach, shooting right past the edge of Leon''s sights.

    Before the heavyponents of the power suit could calibrate and catch up to my speed, I''d already arrived at Leon''s side and gently tapped at the suit''s waist.

    "It''s my loss," Leon readily admitted from within his cockpit, his entire armor reverting back to a default stance. "Wanna go again?"

    I breathed out before taking in a mouthful of fresh air to refill my lungs.

    This quick dash hardly cost me a single breath. But��

    ''If I don''t tap into my abilities,'' I thought, raising my eyes up to Leon''s shaded visor, ''this might not end well.''

    The suit moved far faster than I expected it to. Thebined eleration of Leon''s arms and the guns swinging around on their sockets covered pretty much the entirety of the field of view ahead of the young lord of the city.

    I could still avoid it with just my physique alone�� but it really wasn''t something I wished to do in a real scenario.

    There was something deeply terrifying when facing the coldly efficient operating way of the supermodern tech. It was an armor designed to counter the neu-weapons, after all!

    "Sure," I threw back at Leon before turning and strolling back to the starting point. "I don''t think there''s any point increasing the distance," I pointed as I turned my head over my shoulder to look back. "Any further than this will cover all the possible approaches for me."

    "That check''s out with what my pad says too," Leon''s distorted voice once again shook the air within the warehouse.

    "Ready?" Tuning in on the moment, Makary shouted from behind his cover. "Three, two��"

    This time, I idled for half a second longer, cutting in half the advantage I was supposed to have.

    I rushed forth.

    "GO!"

    This time, Leon''s arms and guns moved at the same time, drastically decreasing the window that cheeky VIP needed to catch up with my movements.

    ''I can do it,'' I thought for but a split second before a loud, sharp, and high-pitched ''beep'' came from Leo''s position.

    "It is my loss," I mirrored his words from just a moment ago while putting a humble smile on my face.

    I''ve already shown him quite a lot, so there was no need for me to go any further than I already did, was there?

    "This encounter would fully depend on the circumstance," Makary exined, looking at his own pad as he stood up from behind the cover of the massive, steal container. "Out in the open, Leon would smash you. But with enough obstacles in the way of his guns," Makary raised his eyes and looked up to the two of us, "you could easily outrun his aim."

    "Now then," Leon''s helmet rose up with the hissing of the hydraulics, allowing his real voice to pass. "Should we test that�� summoned matter of yours?"

    ''I knew it��''

    I could''ve easily avoided Leon''s aim if I tried hard enough. There was simply no reason for me to reveal any more of my powers than necessary. And from the looks of it, just a momentary use of my darkness was enough to pin Leon''s attention to it.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "As in?" I asked while stretching my arms out to the back, in preparation for what wasing in the form of Fay''s hurried steps.

    When she silently pressed against my side, reigniting my senses as usual.

    "Whether it could withstand my guns."

    I looked up to Leon''s face with a look of pity.

    "You could blow those with a breath. There''s no way in hell it could withstand even a single bullet."

    In truth, that was a lie.

    My flesh alone felt like it could shrug even a bunch of low-to-medium caliber shoots.

    And my aura, for some reason, was just a bit shy of the total sum of all my other stats.

    The manifestation of elemental darkness was a spell that fully relied on how much aura I''ve fed into it. And now that I''ve gained a slightly better understanding of this force''s true nature, I have no doubts.

    If so was my desire, I could reach out from a distance, bathe Leon''s entire suit within my darkness, and squash it into a bloody mess. Not even the thickyers of his defenses could withstand the overwhelming power flowing from the depths of the darkness that I gazed upon during my encounter with Irene.

    And that brought my thoughts back to the question she left me with.

    ''What are the higher levels of consciousness��?''

    "Well, that will suffice for now," Leon muttered as he nced down at Fay tightly hugged to my side and throwing him some nasty looks. "Sorry for holding you back for so long."

    "Oh, on the note of those suits, would you be able to repurpose some of them for construction?" I asked with a shrewd smile growing on my lips and my arms weaving itself around Fay''s soft, warm waist. "Having them move heavy objects around could speed up a lot of things."

    Leon raised his eyebrows.

    "Those suits are kind of�� cheap? It''s their weapons that cost the hell of it," Leon leaned forth and down onto the frame of his open cockpit. "But save for the few I have here, they might be quite��" he squinted his eyes a bit, "difficult to obtain."

    "I see," I sighed before tightening my hold of Fay''s waist. "Just some food for thought, then."

    Turning around, I took a step back towards the elevator.

    "I''m going back to the camp," I threw, hastily retreating from the scene and even leaving Makary behind for the short moment he needed to reflect and rush up to join with us. "We still have a long day tomorrow."

    "I will see you soon," Leon threw back at us.

    I didn''t even need to turn back around to feel his cheeky smile.

    Truly, I had my fill dealing with this man.

    Sure, his help was likely toe in handy in expanding our operation on the other side�� But that didn''t make constantly staying on guard in his presence any more appealing.

    "Oh right," Makary threw a short moment after joining us near the lift. "If everything goes right, we should be able to organize the first mobile kitchens for tomorrow''s dinner."

    Hearing the news, I couldn''t stop a small smile from forming on my lips.

    All ording to the food scheme, if Makary''s words were right, would mark a great celebration all across the camp. All the soldiers-turned-workers would be fed their first, truly fresh and hot meal straight out of the cooker.

    And no matter how ptable the modern rations could be, nothing could beat actual, piping-hot cooking.

    Or rather, nothing would soon stop those imperials from getting their hands on that kind of meal in the future!

 Chapter 369 Ive figured it out

    "Guys, I would like to ask you something."

    Despite my great desire to ask around about other people''s opinions on the question Irene left me with, I opted to hold this desire back for as long as there was a realistic risk of Leon listening in on it.

    I couldn''t tell how much this question was rted to my growth and my growth alone and how much Leon could learn from just hearing it. And so, to avoid any doubts, I simply waited the entire, prolonged meeting out, only opening my mouth once we got back to Makary''s car and then drove off for a while.

    "Before I ask it, though, I want you to wipe out all the preconceptions, expectations, and other thoughts that could influence your thoughts. What I want, is your first, instinctive response."

    I took a moment to look both Makary and Fay in the eyes for a short moment.

    Seeing the two of them focus, I took a deep breath and calmed my heart a bit.

    "The first level of awareness is all about understanding one''s own needs. The second level of awareness focuses on realizing that others have their own needs too. The third level of awareness is all about considering the needs of others while the fourth focuses on one''s role within the group of people the needs of which they can understand."

    I started with the short version of the knowledge Irene passed to me.

    "In that setting, what would be the next level of awareness?"

    The silent driving mode of the car made the atmosphere within the limousine''s passengerpartment all the more profound.

    "The perspective grows bigger," Fay suggested while cutely leaning her head to the side and casting the storm of her long, white hair to cascade down her shoulder.

    "With every level, you addplexity that goes beyond the prior level," Makary came up with a slightly different approach, "so if the fourth level is all about recognizing the group as a whole then the fifth would be��"

    Makary turned silent for a little longer, rubbing his chin as he fell into a doubt thought.

    "Looking beyond the needs of your group?" Makaryid down his own interpretation of my question. "Or maybe acknowledging, growing aware of how the needs of other groups might be different?"

    Listening to those suggestions, I had to resist the desire to sigh.

    Those suggestions were nearly perfectly aligned with my own thoughts on the matter.

    "Hmm?" I moaned a little while pulling back into my seat and raising my eyes, making it seem as if I was staring into the depths of space with my vision somewhat passing through the car''s ceiling.

    "Do you happen to have a nket here?" Fay turned towards Makary and asked.

    "I�� think so?" Makary guessed, taken aback by the sudden turn from a deep, philosophical ask.

    "Can I borrow it for a moment?"

    As much as I wanted to focus on my thoughts, I couldn''t help but feel curious about what Fay was cooking.

    Yet, mere momentster, she slid closer on the car''s back couch before throwing her legs over myp and resting herself atop my shoulder while pulling Makary''s nket all over the two of us.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "He really needs to think right now," Fay announced with utmost confidence while her hands moved forth and cradled all over my head. "Wake us up when we get back to the gate."

    Paying no attention to the face Makary made when she dropped her shoes onto the expensive leather of the car''s seats, Fay cuddled up to my side, cloaking me in the soothing sense of her warm, soft weight.

    Pressed down into my seat, I felt as if my consciousness lifted from my body, released from the mortal shackles by thefort Fay brought me with just a simple hug.

    And with Makary respecting Fay''s unvoiced request for peace and silence, I fell right back into a deep thought.

    Soon, Fay''sforting presence allowed me to grease the gears of my mind and arrive at what was still far from conclusion but offered a better perspective on Irene''s question.

    ''Those levels of consciousness and whatnot, how do they rte to aura?''

    Up until now, I''ve only considered Irene''s hints at their face value. But upon deeper thought, those levels of consciousness were allegedly strictly rted to my personal growth.

    And save for a level, there was only one statistic within my system that, more or less urately, tracked my growth.

    There was one thing that permeated through every aspect of personal growth in Fay''s world.

    And it was all aura.

    Aura based on light, aura based on beastly inheritance, aura based on origin, aura based on darkness��

    The source of it didn''t matter. It was merely a vor of the aura, its innermost nature, a quality of aura that didn''t affect the phenomana''s right to be considered an aura whatsoever.

    It didn''t matter whether I sourced my aura to the darkness element Irene mastered or the source that Madam or Etaria or any other supreme followed.

    Just like the interpretations to my question, everyone had their own.

    But the true answer remained the same, regardless of the interpretation.

    ''How does this all connect, though?'' I thought, heaving a deep sigh as I allowed Fay''s delicate weight to press me down into my seat, her warmth, and softness cutting away all the unnecessary filler of the real world.

    And then�� I''ve realized just how simple it could possibly be.

    The first level of consciousness was all about one''s own desires, while the first level of magic awareness was all about one''s own aura needs.

    The second level of consciousness was all about perceiving the needs of others, and the second level of aura perception was all about noticing the auras of others.

    The third level was all about thinking about what others are thinking, or in terms of aura, noticing how the aura of others affected or influenced the flow of one''s own aura.

    The fourth level was all about belonging to a group; adhering to the rules created on the basis of the needs of everyone within the group. And when tranting this level of awareness to aura, it was all about seeing the whole picture, of how one''s own aura and the auras of othersbined to create a local flow.

    Someone tugging it at the natural, world''s aura from one ce would affect how fast someone else could pull it from the other side. And Madam trying to absorb the world''s aura to restore the aura she used would change how the aura in the air would react if I was the one trying to feed on it.

    And with all of that said, the fifth level of using aura, when tranting both my own thoughts and Fay and Makary''s suggestions�� With those thoughts in mind, being aware of aura on the fifth level would be akin to realizing the limits of the influence of one''s local group, acknowledging the presence of other groups, and recognizing the status quo created between them all.

    It was so simple. So simple, that it was hard for me to believe this could be an actual exnation to the issue. After all, if that''s what was really the case, then what would stop me from drawing even further guesses over what tier sixth and seventh of consciousness and then mana control was?

    If level four of consciousness was all about group, then level fifth, just as Fay and Makary mentioned, would be about oveing the shackles of perceiving the world through just the values active within one''s own group. And with that in mind, level six of consciousness would be all about��

    Transcending the limits imposed by any given group one was inside of, and understanding the true individuality that hid underneath all of the posing and grandstanding.

    Or, in terms of aura, the fifth level would be all about understanding theplex symmetry between all kinds of groups, where thebined effect on the aura flow of each of the groups would vary��

    And then, on level sixth, the understanding of aura would transcend the level of one''s own group and the groups around them, reverting one''s perception back to their individual self��

    But hidden in the tapestry of endless and varying flows.

    ''I think I''ve got it,'' I thought, my eyebrows moving up so far and fast on my forehead, I ended up opening my eyes right in time to see our car arrive at Makary''spound and park right beyond the massive construction zone stretching from the edge of the hangar all the way to the other buildings beyond the t, concrete perimeter and towards the other buildings in the distance.

    And open my eyes I did, for with my new understanding of how I should even go around perceiving mana, it seemingly tore off the filter off my eyes, allowing me to finally experience the world as it was, instead of the simplified view my mortal eyes provided me with thus far.

    "I think I''ve got it," I muttered while squeezing down on Fay''s waist and looking up at Makary. "It feels weird�� But I think I''ve figured it out."

 Chapter 370 Upset (1)

    "Do I even ask what is it that you discovered?"

    If Makary''s eyes could kill, the two of us would instantly fall prey to it and die.

    "Honestly, I''m not exactly sure," I offered Makary no word of exnation. "How about I get you back tomorrow on the issue?" I suggested before putting on a huge act as I looked out of the window. "It''s already dark in here, so I don''t even want to know howte it is on the other side," I announced, snuggling sleeping Fay into my arms and raising her up as I prepared to leave the car.

    Those fewteen minutes it took us to get back were more than just fruitful. For on earth, with only a few hidden experts capable of wielding aura, its flow was extremely simple and straightforward.

    This was the one thing I discovered when I finally looked back at Irene''s hints.

    Instead of sensing my own aura and then the silent, steady mass of the unused world''s mana, I''ve grown aware of the countless tiny strings, streams, and entire flows, all connected with simple nodes.

    Looking at Makary would yield the same image as before for he knew not of aura��

    But Fay, for example, shone with a bright cascade of colors that somehow all merged together in just the right way to form a perfectly pure, pristine white glow.

    I could see myriads of tiny aura nodes peppered throughout her biology, her soul, and the depths of her own power.

    Between those nodes, the small strings weavedplex structures otherwise appearing as flows.

    Just like mass would gravitate to mass, the strings of Fay''s aura gravitated to each other, all trying to flow downstream between the two, closest nodes.

    Even if there were some specific rules to how those strings weaved together, the picture before my eyes and right within my arms was simply tooplex for me to make out any patterns or tendencies.

    Still, the streams of aura formed by the weave of aura strings all converged into four concentrated points within Fay''s existence, turning into the major flows.

    And all of that was merely the second level of perception that I''ve unlocked.

    The third level was even wilder.

    By keeping in mind not only my flow and Fay''s flow but also trying to sense the purpose behind theplex weave forming all over Fay''s soul.

    There were three burning cores at the very center of Fay''s aura system.

    Three suns��

    But with every breath, Fay brought in more and more fuel to a new, iplete fourth sun.

    And with every breath, she came closer topleting it.

    ''Is she about to advance?'' I thought, instantly falling into a state of panic.

    ''Shit!''

    "I''m sorry," grabbing Fay tighter into my grasp, I jumped out of the car and rushed down the short path leading to the hangar.

    In a mere sh, I arrived at the guarded entrance and went past the gates, long before they even realized I''d approached.

    Seeing how Fay was merely a few breaths away from her advancement and thus the inevitable rebirth, I had to get her somewhere properly isted and safe!

    Having no time to even take a single look at my own state with my newly improved perception, I rushed down the hangar and then through the gate, ignoring all the guards as I went.

    By the time I was running down the main road, the rms from both sides of the gate started. And by the time I''ve reached the lovenest Fay worked so hard to create, those rms died off, likely taken down by Makary''s order.

    "Just a little bit more," I whispered over Fay''s hot, bothered face.

    Reinforcing the door barrier behind us and then spreading my own aura to reinforce the room and building itself, Iid Fay down on the mossy, wet floor of her own creation, right by the tiny, freshwater spring.

    "I''m sorry for making you hold it back for so long," I continued to coax Fay in her sleep.

    Even with all my rush, I wasn''t anywhere fast enough.

    By now, Fay''s fourth aura core imploded only to then ignite and with the furious might of its explosion, push back against the implosion of aura concentrated into the core.

    Just like a sun, the burning hotspot of aura consisted of two forces bncing the process, forces that an ascender or supreme could upset to unleash their mystical might.

    Yet, looking at Fay''s weave, even though I couldn''t make out a single rule, a single pattern of how it formed�� I could tell that all of it made sense.

    The first three suns fit just right into the general flow of Fay''s aura.

    But now that the fourth sun appeared, the bnce of Fay''s entire system went into disarray.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Unrooted in Fay''s aura system, the fourth sun started to tear the tapestry of Fay''s aura, shattering the nearest of her flows and taking over more than half of the streams it consisted of.

    I took a deep breath�� and looked away.

    As much as it pained me not to dive with my aura sense head-first to support Fay in any way I could��

    I took a moment to look down at my own weave of aura.

    ''Oh shit.''

    I�� fell.

    That was the only way in which I could describe the feeling.

    If Fay''s aura mixed into this beautiful, incandescent me��

    Then my weave of aura served as a well, an endless pit of morphed space that dragged me down the instant I dared to gaze upon it.

    Even though there was no air around, I could feel the wind whistling in my ears and storming through my hair.

    But as I fell, I forcibly focused again��

    And there it was.

    A fractal-like, infinitely repeating pattern. A weave that created an optical illusion of endlessly downward morphing of space. And a weave that used this illusion to create an illusory darkness from which I could draw from.

    My entire aura array flowed in an organized manner toward one, central node.

    ''The darkness core.''

    The ''gift'' from Irene.

    A nearly lethal parasite that she somehow nted on me and that my system��

    My eyes suddenly turned wide.

    That was the one element that I was missing all along!

    For all the wonders of aura that I''ve discovered just now, there was this one thing that kept bugging me.

    This world, I had no right to make any sense of. Nows of physics ormon sense operated in the world of aura. And yet, I could somehow figure out the parts that I had no first idea about.

    But now that I looked at my own weave, all spiraling downwards into the endlessly hungry dark core but then brimmed with energy it fed back into my flows, streams, and strings��

    The one element that allowed me to somehow anchor myself in this world couldn''t be any more obvious.

    There was no physical way for me to be born with such a perfectly organized structure for the flow of my aura. It had too much thought put into itsplex weaves and simple founding ideas.

    Just like there were hardly any right angles urring in nature, theyout of my aura array was too schematic not to be a construct of a logical vessel.

    And what else was there with traits like that if not my dearest system, who announced loud and clear when it incorporated the core into my own flesh through one hell of a painful experience?

    ''Still.''

    I shook my head and lowered my eyes, cutting off the endlessly interesting feed of my own inner state to turn my attention back to where it should be.

    By now, Fay''s fourth sun brought a total andplete ruin to Fay''s own tapestry.

    If not for the mist of her aura still somehow holding the pieces together, her entire weave threatened to copse.

    She was still holding on��

    But as I looked deeper, and deeper into her soul, smashed the gates of our bond to its limits and immersed all of myself into her being��

    I came to be above some sort of stadium, where a tiny, cute fox stood in opposition to a massive, end-game boss-looking figure. A deviation sporting thick tes of truck-sized tes of organic armor, seventeen different heads, and thirty legs.

    There were mes, poison, smoke, and ice oozing out of four of the mouths, but all of the beasts'' eyes zeroed in on the tiny, trembling white fox.

    A pup that I only wished to put in my palm and cuddle to death.

    But as I forcibly rushed all of my system-gifted intelligence to reached into even deeper levels of perception, everything finally started to make sense.

    And while there was a silver lining to this new perspective��

    The things were, generally, infinitely worse.

 Chapter 371 Upset (2)

    Somehow, Fay managed to avoid pulling me into her own rebirth.

    Even though she super willingly shared the pain of my undergoing the process, she deeply desired to keep me out of her own struggle.

    It wasn''t a conscious decision, just her painfully adorable nature of trying not to burden me.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    And right now, with all of her aura pathways shattered, Fay literally found herself at the doorstep of death.

    Still, asplex as this process was from an outsider''s perspective, now that I had pretty much merged into her being, I was forced into Fay''s own point of view.

    Or rather, a silent observer''s point of view, given how I looked down at her trail from above, perfectly aware even with all my might, I wasn''t precise enough to safely interfere with her own trial.

    Whatever was behind its creation had to be on the same level as my system�� or maybe even better, the level of whoever created my system.

    Still, for how obvious an overseeing influence was obvious from Fay''s trial, it didn''t make it any easier.

    But again, this entire thing looked like a trial�� but only while I was still confined to just the first three levels of perception.

    And once I forced myself to take a more distanced look at it all, the whole picture turned out to be merely an optical illusion.

    ''Her terror, pain, loneliness�� they are all real,'' I thought while feeling as if my heart was about to tear into pieces.

    Still perfectly aware of how this little fox had to start running now that the massive hydra charged to attack, I looked at the whole thing from yet another point of view.

    ''But this trial is not.''

    Looking down on this weird creation that birthed Fay''s trail, I immersed myself in it, simply phasing through all the securities and defenses set in ce to stop that from happening.

    And for a single instant, I managed to properly connect with the Fay down at the bottom of the arena, frantically trying to escape from the heretical beast''s seventeen jaws.

    "I''m here."

    Rather than appearing in person, I simply coated my consciousness around Fay''s, shielding her from all of the outside.

    "This is your trial. I know it seems impossible now, but there is a way for you to fight this beast. I don''t know the method, but I''m sure there is one. And remember,"

    I invoked the feeling that filled my heart whenever Fay happily snuggled up to my side, chasing away all the loneliness and grimness that I''d grown so used to in the earlier part of my life.

    While painting Fay''s terrified mind with this sense of warmfort, I chased all of her terrors away.

    "I believe in you. I won''t let any harme to you. And whatever you achieve here, will reflect in your growth past this silly trial."

    That was the truth of this entire scene.

    A truth that came with quite a saddening realization.

    For a long while, already, Fay struggled to keep herself from advancing to the rank of the supreme.

    Between the earthly food, all the fighting, all sorts of experiences, and then the influence of my system��

    Thanks to our bond and my system, our growth was more or less the same. And while Fay''s powers grew in ways I had only a few clues on, I could tell we were likely to reach each of the possible ranks at the same time.

    What I failed to notice, though, was that ever since I''d reached the barrier of rebirth into the supreme, she was already on the edge.

    And in contrast to my infinitely hungry core, her own weave could only hold so much energy. And so, now that Fay''s grip on reality slipped during our cuddle and even further growth on my part��

    She had to ovee her rebirth into a supreme.

    A process that was bound to be entirely different from what I''ve gone through thus far.

    But now that I looked at this process from the outside, I could tell its qualities.

    And with that in mind, there was no possible harm that Fay would face in it.

    Now that all of her flow shattered, her biology and soul had to answer the question.

    What they were to be?

    How would her flows connect?

    And the trial of the extreme duress was for the sole reason of determining that.

    ''What a crafty way to test people,'' I thought in silent awe of the genius of whoever constructed the trail that Fay now faced.

    "Fay," I whispered into Fay''s physical ear while filling her soul with the very same sense of happiness that she brought into my own life.

    "I believe in you. And I know you will show me what you''ve got."

    Even if I could interfere in this trial�� even with my best efforts, its results would turn inferior to what Fay''s power was designed to bring forth.

    And most of all, I believed in Fay.

    I believed she could ovee those odds, even if I had no first idea how she could do that.

    And so, all I did was chase Fay''s worries away.

    I was here for her. I was watching. I believed in her. And I wouldn''t allow her any harm.

    Coupled with the warmth of my affection, I could feel my support getting to Fay''s heart. From there, it spread throughout her soul, calming her mind even in the suppressed state it was during the trial.

    This test wasn''t designed to test her intelligence or capability, but her instincts. A test befitting a beast, not a conscious being. And so, I simply freed her from those unreasonable shackles, giving her the push she needed to actively face the illusionary personification of her greatest fears.

    The small fox stopped in its tracks, burying its cute, little paws into the sands of the arena.

    The massive, heretic best continued to give chase, quickly catching up and charging straight into the tiny, white pup��

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    But as the pup turned on its feet and faced the monster�� Its eyes shone with familiar, incandescent white.

    The monster continued��

    TEAR!

    The very fabric of the space within the illusory realm tore open as white mes simply came to be in a five-meter-tall, thin arc.

    And as the best charged straight into it��

    It simply sliced itself open when two halves of it suddenly grew several inches apart.

    But this wasn''t the end.

    With a thick concentration of mana gushing all over the tiny, white pup, a white mist arose�� and from within the mist, the pup started to grow.

    From a pup to a normal-sized fox.

    From a fox to a fantasy fox the size of a human��

    But then, rather than evolving into her mother''s supreme form, the figure within the white mist coalesced into a clearly human figure.

    As the two halves of the beast slid with its remaining momentum towards the mist-covered pup, Fay'' full, human form walked out.

    ''She''s just like back then,'' going back with my thoughts to when Fay greeted me in the love nest she crafted for us�� I felt a shrug move down my spine.

    For this time, Fay''s fairy-like appearancecked the warm, weing, and benevolent vibe.

    Right now, Fairy-like Fay''s eyes burned with the white mes greedy to pay this beast back for how much it scared her before!

 Chapter 372 Upset (3)

    The things that followed were truly a sight to behold.

    Holding nothing back, Fay, cloaked in nothing but her aura, shed away with her mes at the already dying beast, corrupting the space whenever she wanted to cut.

    In a sense, her mes never came into contact with the beast itself, only ever corroding reality and splitting it in the path her targets would take.

    This thought��

    I couldn''t tell for sure whether this observation of mine influenced Fay inside of her trail or if we simply got the same idea at the same time, Fay red up her dignifying aura, making it seem as if white, see-through mes became loose, upturned coat, cloaking her from her ankles to her neck.

    And with the very next moment, the intensity of Fay''s burning aura diminished, with all of the raging power condensing at the tip of her elegant finger with which she touched the leftovers of the heretic beast''s main body.

    WHOOSH!

    What followed ended up burdening my mind quite a lot.

    The instant Fay''s incandescent mes descended upon the fragments of the illusory beast, the entire thing simply whisked away like a blown me, leaving no physical trace behind�� For it turned all of the illusory beast''s body into energy.

    Into an aura already etched with Fay''s intent and thus perfectly fine for my dearest to absorb.

    The space of Fay''s trail started to twist and turn��

    Only for a new, even bigger monster toe out. This time, it was a three-headed hydra, with each of its long, dragon-like necks as long as the entire first beast was big.

    This time, the beast didn''t bother sizing its opponent up. Instead, two of its heads reeled back to gather breath, while its middle head shot right for Fay''s me-adorned body.

    But Fay was no longer the small pup, cowering in fear at the sight of a massive, abnormal predator.

    Now, Fay''s eyes burned with greed and hunger.

    ''Her appetite grows the more she eats, I guess?'' I noticed, only to watch Fay invoke her mes once again��

    Only to jump forth onto the tear of space she created, riding its edge to appear above the enormous hydra in a single move. There, rather than condensing her mes into thin forms capable of tearing through space��

    Fay created a massive yet thin dome of her mes and then simply cast it down.

    The hydra was massive, with each of its necks as long as three, or four school buses stacked one after the other. And that was its necks alone, with one of its heads still trying to rush for Fay to swallow her, while the other two heads just came back to blow fire and poisonous, green cloud at the ce Fay was at just before.

    And with the mes striking the poison mid-air, the two breathsbined, turning Fay''s former location into an inferno of corrosive mes.

    If her half-naked form were to still be there, there would be nothing left of her.

    But by now, Fay dropped down at the opposite end of the arena, watching how her of mes fell upon the hydra��

    Only to nearly instantly stretch towards the ground, pin the monster down, and then like a cheese grater, cut the whole thing into long candles of dead beastly matter that then turned away into even more aura.

    The process then repeated with the third, fourth, and fifth beasts, each a whole order of magnitude more massive and dangerous than thest.

    And upon Fay''s fifth easy victory in a row, the intent of her actions finally tranted into the instructions for the force that rearranged her inner flow.

    Realizing I kind of stopped paying attention to the process, I distanced my perspective��

    ''Oh damn��''

    If my aura weave was the epitome of using math and schematic design to bend the limits of physics, then Fay''s new inner form was the perfection only the fractal foundations of nature itself could produce.

    Just like bees built their hives with hexagons at a base, just like various particles always arranged their molecules in the very same way��

    All of Fay''s strings, streams, and flows arranged into an example of a shape with perfect, geometrical qualities.

    And just like it was in my case, all of her flows gathered in a single point, turning her former system of four burning suns into one, bright spot brimming with untapped potential.

    ''She did it,'' I thought, a sense of superior pride filling my soul and mixing with relief I felt when I saw Fay''splexity improve.

    Wiping the sweat off her forehead, I confirmed that her increased temperature started to drop, just when her heartbeat started to normalize too. Find exclusive stories on empire

    The entire subspace of the trail started to copse. And with it, both my presence and Fay''s avatar��

    Yet, before everything coulde to an end, Fay turned her head�� and despite how there was no definite spot where my being concentrated, she somehow managed to look straight into the seat of my point of view.

    Now that her trail was over, the mes of Fay''s aura started to die down as she once again could control them�� But in the process of doing so, the naked skin of her avatar came into view, reminding me of the endless depth of grace and elegance Fay''s fairy-like form embodied.

    Fay looked right into me�� and then, her sharp expression melted down into a simple, straightforwardly happy smile.

    The subspace of Fay''s trail copsed, allowing her to finally wake up from her prolonged dream.

    Yet, the moment she did so, the barrier that kept her from our bond shattered too, opening me up to the influence of Fay''s rebirth.

    ''Well then, it''s my turn I guess,'' I thought, prepared to face whatever it was that wasing��

    Jumping up from the mossy floor, Fay reached out and grabbed my shoulders, most likelying to the same realization that I just did��

    But after a few moments of staring each other in the eyes�� nothing really happened.

    ''Wait, could it be��''

    Thinking about it, I only had a single core already. This single focus point for all of one''s aura was what changed in Fay''s aura weave when she was reborn as a supreme.

    "I think I''ve somehow reached it while you were oveing your trial," I admitted��

    Only to see Fay''s face break down as an immense wave of relief washed over her.

    "So you will be alright?" Fay asked, tearfully raising her hand to my cheek and giving it a gentle caress.

    "It looks like I will," I smiled back at her�� only to push her right back down onto the moist moss of our floor.

    Thinking about it now, the fairy-like elegance she had back during the trial�� it was just a reflection of the form she presented me with when she first revealed this love nest to my eyes.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    And right now, Fay sessfully reached the rank of the supreme, taking a step towards a perfected version of herself.

    Looking down, I caught Fay''s curious nce.

    She could feel the turmoil in my soul as I rose up on all fours above her and took a long look down.

    ''She''s�� just like back then��''

    Fay''s hot body awaited right below me, cradled on afortable, rxing backdrop of the aura-born nature.

    Our whole apartment turned into a nest for two beasts that we were at our cores.

    And right there, within the reach of my hands, Fay''s heavy breaths struck me in the chest while she looked up at me with those huge eyes of hers that were so intensely blue, they were starting to turn white to match the color of her hair and her incandescent mes.

    And just like those mes of hers�� I could tell just how hot she was right now.

    A heat she would most definitely be happy to share.

 Chapter 373 Link (1)

    "So we are both supremes, huh?"

    I looked down, at Fay''s silly smile.

    Laid down on the moist moss, she appeared even more precious than usual. And her looks��

    Fay''s curves were the embodiment of what I considered perfection. And now, with the shine of the incandescent mes of her aura lighting Fay''s delicate skin from within��

    She somehow managed to steep her presentation up a notch, reaching beyond the realm of my imagination.

    "It seems like it," I responded, raising up only to move on my knees and sit back down behind the girl. Reaching down, I grabbed her lush me. Trying not to see how it continued to phase from normal hair to Fay''s white mes and then back to the hair, I gently moved it aside.

    Then, gently grabbing by the sides of Fay''s head, I lifted it up before sneaking my knees below.

    "Still, you did extremely well," I praised, reaching out with both of my hands before gently covering Fay''s eyes. "And that makes it my turn to spoil you," I whispered while leaning over Fay''s ear, only to sense her spine tremble.

    Sure, there was this thick, heavy aura all around Fay. An aura making her�� breedable? Fertile? Mature?

    Or maybe she was just spilling buckets of pheromones?

    Whatever it was, Fay''s fairy-like features made her only all the more precious to hold��

    And yet, rather than going for the more direct approach, I opted to start with just some gentle cuddling.

    In a sense, it felt as if me right now�� has ascended the physical pleasure, climbing to the level where just being near Fay was enough to put my soul in a constant state of euphory.

    In another sense, it felt as if the state of full connection of our bond became the new default, just as a benefit of reaching our next, logical, evolutionary step. And when coupled with our improved bond��

    With this sort of intimate connection binding our souls, I could hardly care for the matters of flesh. And by caressing Fay in all sorts of ways that I''ve never tried before was merely my reaction to Fay''s inherent cuteness.

    "And we are not your usual supremes," Fay sighed, happily epting the cover of my palms, shielding her eyes from even the slight shine of a line of special moss nted around the roof''s edge.

    "What do you mean?"

    Even though we had no need for words to talk, I happily enjoyed some more of Fay''s voice.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Especially since now that she became supreme, it appeared to tickle my very soul.

    "I saw it."

    Fay moved slightly on myp.

    Eager to cuddle her up some more, I moved my hands down, gently wiping sweat off her cheeks with my thumbs.

    "I saw our cores."

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    I took a deep breath, calming down my silent obsession with this damned girl.

    "And I know what happened with my trial too," Fay added offhandedly, right as I moved on from holding her chin to massaging her ears. "That''s but a feeling��" Fay pushed her chin up and looked up to my lowered face, "but I think I''ve done better than it was supposed to be possible."

    My left cheek tensed up, driving the corner of my mouth up in a small smile.

    "You surely did," I smiled as I lowered my face down just a bit more. "No. Let me say it properly," one of my hands drove down to Fay''s chin while my left found a precious spot on her ear.

    Squeezing down a specific point of Fay''s earlobe, I made her suddenly all tense up and squeeze out a sweet moan that pushed her jaw down, right into my other hand.

    Fay lowered her eyelids over the two oceans of vivid, burning blue of her eyes.

    I gulped my saliva down.

    We kept using our words rather thanmunicating through our bond simply because we both enjoyed the process.

    And just like that, while simply desiring to help Fay rx after the stressful moment��

    I somehow reminded us both of just how deeply our desire for each other was rooted in our flesh.

    ''Okay, I take it all back,'' I thought when Fay fell down into myp, her clothes all moist from the moss.

    Fay suddenly pushed her head up, as far as her neck could bend back��

    All for the sake of looking up to my face with a silently passionate re.

    ''I take it all back again.''

    I thought we would happily keep up the conversation.

    But with Fay all hot and melting in my arms while giving me such hungry, sensual eyes��

    Feeling the tingle in my pants, I looked down in defeat.

    ''Yeah, there''s no way.''

    Bending down, I reaffirmed my grasp on Fay''s chin before bringing my lips down with great care.

    I went for just the slightest, faintest of kisses, a mere brush of our lips.

    But that alone was enough to send surges of strange, animalistic desire up both our spines and souls alike.

    Moving my head up, I looked down at Fay''s moist lips, trembling in anticipation and desire.

    There was this�� damned sense of eliteness, greatness, and fairyness that seemed to elevate everyst bit of the girl I knew, turning her into a literal goddess. Andbined with the shine of her aura reflecting upon her skin and giving her a visible, white aura��

    Looking down, I moved my sight from Fay''s lips to her eyes, where the usual blue grew so intense it started to match the incandescent white of her aura''s mes.

    I felt like drowning in those eyes.

    And with an otherwise empty look on her face, Fay suddenly moved up from my knees and turned around, not breaking eye contact even for a single instant. She then seated herselffortably within myp, pushing her knees past my hips and wrapping her hands around my neck.

    Not for a single instant did she break the eye contact, keeping me drowning in the white��

    No.

    Now that I took a dive into her eyes, I could see it.

    And once the thickyer of Fay''s white aura purified my own eyes, I could finally find back the familiar, soothing blue.

    ''More.''

    Fay couldn''t count on her trembling lips to speak. The call of her soul was loud and clear, though.

    "Haaa��" I breathed out right in Fay''s face, our eyes mere inch apart.

    And as we started to lose all of our inhibitions, right as our lips united for real, I realized what happened as I drowned in Fay''s eyes.

    A link formed between our cores, using our bond to connect the two infinities or our deeper, perfected point of aura.

 Chapter 374 Link (2)

    The core of my aura made use of schematically constructed optical distortion of its weave to create an artificial darkness down at the bottom of the warp, giving me ess to near infinite source of my element, regardless of where I went.

    Obviously, there were some sort of limitations to this state stopping me from instantly bing the absolute god of this world. Maybe there was a limit to how much aura I could source from this darkness at once? Or maybe the restrictions of this core went so far beyond my level ofprehension they would remain an illogical mystery forever?

    For now, there was no way for me to tell.

    Then, there was Fay''s core, which ording to her own words, we both got to look at.

    And, as different as our circumstances might be, Fay''s core was pretty much the same.

    Sure, it didn''t fake bending the space but simply burned Fay''s aura to make it into a burning sun that opened a gate for her to infinitely ess those white, incandescent mes of hers.

    It was a well of power the depths of which I couldn''t see.

    ''Or maybe we need to grow our flows to match the core''s power before we can fully understand it?'' I took a moment to consider all the options��

    Only to ultimately discard all of those useless thoughts.

    ''Why waste time thinking about it if we can just ask Madam?''

    There was no reason for us to try to figure out what it meant to be a supreme all on our own. No point reinventing the wheel.

    And so, with this consideration dropped on the back-burner of my memory, I focused on what was really important again.

    "Hmph?!"

    Fay jumped up on myp when I brought my hands down onto her waist and leaned forward, greeding out for her delicious lips.

    Shedding all the unnecessary troubles, considerations, and ns, I left myself bare of all distractions and true to my desires.

    And right now, with every fiber of her being, Fay was inviting me.

    Even though clothed, just by sitting down on my hips she quickly moved to rub her crotch against my hard-on. We''ve only kissed�� but I could already feel just how moist her clothes became, only serving as a promise of just how ready she was underneath.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    And to top it all off, Fay''s heavy, intoxicating aura only grew in strength with time and intensity the further down I fell into its charm.

    Greedy for Fay''s direct warmth, I started to pull on her clothes, quickly growing frustrated to the point of trying to tear them off��

    Only for a wave of the familiar, white mes to wash over the two of us, eradicating everyst trace of every single piece of cloth that we had on.

    Fay''s soft skin pressed down on my flesh, weighting me down only for the girl to rapidly jump up when we met at our hips.

    Uttering a small shriek as she wrapped her arms tightly over my shoulders, Fay only pressed herself further into my lips.

    Making use of the opportunity, I twisted my head to the side, going for a deeper, more intimate kiss right as I lowered my hands down and onto Fay''s tender ass.

    With all of the fairly-like sense Fay had around herself right now, touching her bottom felt nearly like a sacrilege�� Which only made it more exciting.

    With the sense of iming what''s holy, I sank my tips into the soft mounds I was grabbing at, using the fact Fay jumped up to bring her hips into the correct position.

    "Ah��" Fay moaned a little�� Only for everything to slow when I, once again, fell into the trap of her bottomless eyes.

    And right as I drowned in the purifying white of her aura and the soothing blue of her actual eyes, Fay gradually lowered her hips down, pushing my dick up her guts.

    "Haaaa��"

    Our moans echoed with each other once Fay''s full weight pressed down against myp, our union growing even richer than with just a kiss.

    And all throughout this, the link that continued to grow between our cores and throughout our bond grew stronger and thicker. Yet, the moment Fay scored a touch-down��

    It was as if a bolt of lightning zapped through my soul, moving down from my head to my crotch, only for the same feeling toe storming straight from Fay''s lips.

    The moment we joined in a lover''s embrace, the link somehow broke free from its earlier restraint, finding the shortest path to close the circuit.

    In an instant, the depths of my darkness exploded with white mes that surged up the infinite curve of my weave.

    On the other hand, Fay''s bright, white sun suddenly covered in a dark film, turning perfectly dark in a single instant.

    The abyss at the bottom of my core retained its darkness, with Fay''s incandescent mes consuming all the light around it. And from what I could feel my darkness�� somehow gained some properties of Fay''s burning mes.

    At the same time, Fay''s sun continued to shine just as brightly as before. It shone with perfectly dark mes, though.

    Save for the visual change, though, there was hardly any difference.

    Oh, save for how this circr link continued to feed Fay''s mes into the abyss of my darkness and my darkness into Fay''s eternal inferno of white, stabilizing the two forces just like��

    Just like in Fay''s cores before her rebirth led to them merging and evolving.

    My darkness and Fay''s mes mixed up, somehow retaining the qualities of both of the elements�� While, at the same time, somehow neutralizing each other.

    And right in the middle of the storm of powers, we would only start learning about from today on, this perfect equilibrium removed all of the mind-numbing burnt of all that power.

    As if someone took a blindfold off my eyes, I found myself with a naked, white-haired beauty with ungodly curves sitting down on my dick with an ted expression on her face.

    Her skin was all sweaty, only making it easier for me to feel her heat. Her hands desperately grasped against my back, as if if the thought of me leaving now was her greatest nightmare.

    And with no aura to keep my sanity in check�� I leaned forward before somewhat roughly dropping Fay down, back onto the moist moss of our apartment''s floor before pinning her down with my own flesh.

    With no aura to blur my emotion, with the influence of my stats greatly suppressed�� There was nothing to stop me from losing myself in Fay.

    And judging from the look she gave me when I looked down, right to watch her open her beautiful, blue eyes��

    She would really hold it against me if I dared to stop myself from losing it on her.

    "Fay!"

    Wrapping my arms tightly around Fay''s waist, I squeezed her down while driving my hips up. Pinning Fay down against the floor, I pushed myself into her with no restraint, determined to let her experience everyst bit of my dick.

    Somehow, this moment felt�� strange. As if there was a whole otheryer to it that I couldn''t even perceive.

    But right now, I was simply too busy to care.

    "Fay!" I moaned again, driving my dick as deep into the adorable mess of a girl below me as I could.

    "More!" Allowing our lips to part just to utter this short cry and then press her mouth right back against mine, Fay started to tense all over.

    Everything was happening�� a bit too quick for my liking.

    Yet, when Fay''s insides started to squeeze down on my dick as if refusing to let it go only to open up whenever I would push back inside, I simply couldn''t hold it any longer.

    I wanted to please Fay a whole lot more. Give her more pleasure, make her moan more, make her body exhausted to its limits with all the happiness and pleasure she could ever hope for��

    ''Then, I will keep going!''

    Restoring my own spirits before I could even fully unleash my load upon Fay''s thirsty womb, I started to pound her again.

    Not wasting a single moment to change position, I simply continued to pound Fay''s insides.

    This wasn''t sex. This wasn''t lovers'' intimacy or even a pleasure trip.

    Right now, with my mind gone to ces, we were simply breeding, desperate to fall down the rabbit hole of pleasure with each other.

    And throughout all of this, our link continued to grow ever and ever more profound��

    Plus, a single system message appeared in the corner of my view.

    [Skill evolution!]

    [Skill: Kiss of death] > [Skill: Link of life]

 Chapter 375 Sudden realization

    I couldn''t tell for how long the two of us stuck to each other.

    I didn''t even know how many times I''d climaxed inside of Fay. After all, every single time I reached the peak, then in the moments that followed, Fay would give me a look.

    It would be just a simple look, a curious nce down to check my state out, then a curious nce up to my face, to gauge whether I was still raring to go or not��

    And with that alone, the entire process would start again from the very scratch.

    There was no grace or dignity to the way we moved. There was no room for technique or thought, with our entire beings focused just on the simple task of mating.

    Fay''s skin was hot and sticky, making it the perfect pillow, nket, and cushion at the same time. Her thighs desperately wrapping around my hips made me feel wanted, desired. Her hands clutching at my back and leaving bloody marks in the path of her nails only served to heighten my sensitivity, further opening the gateway of pleasure.

    Grasping desperately at Fay''s ass, I continued to pound her away without a single thought in my mind.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    I couldn''t tell how many times we came, nor how far into the night we continued to join with each other over and over again. In the end, we simply fell asleep while screwing like mad, when thest of our physical strength has left us.

    Clutching at each other, we desperately hugged together, as if to prevent the world from tearing us apart, now that we''ve joined in this perfect union.

    Fay''s breathing lulled me to my sleep, while the sound of my heart beating lulled Fay.

    In the end, we woke up at the usual time, with just enough room to get ourselves ready before we would have to move on with the daily tasks.

    ''How long did we sleep?'' I thought,zily pulling my eyes open while tightening my hug over the delicate frame of Fay''s soft nakedness. Cuddling her up close to my heart, I felt an otherworldly sense of�� achievement?

    Not an achievement like something to score and then brag about, but a proper achievement in life.

    To wake up holding a girl in my arms, a girl that I fucked away senseless into sleep in the night before.

    It wasn''t my first time holding Fay like that. In fact, I grew so used to doing so that it could hardly be called a novelty at this point, and yet��

    And yet, I once again rediscovered just how impossibly soft and warm she was.

    Looking down, I could see nothing but the storm of Fay''s long, slightly curly white hair. Only upon letting go of her waist and raising my free hand up to push her hair aside, I was allowed to witness what was hidden beneath this thick storm of white, tangible me.

    A face so perfectly cute and innocent, it filled my heart with a sense of sacrilege from just daring to look at it. And now, as to put an even greater emphasis on just how adorable she was, Fay''s breathing made her cheek sway a tiny little bit.

    Looking further down, roughly from the middle of her face down, Fay''s skin was marked with numerous red spots, a proof of my nightly performance.

    I didn''t try to look even further down, even though it wouldn''t be that hard for me to re down at Fay''s chest. I didn''t do so, because any attempt would force me to rx my hold over the girl even further.

    Instead, I moved my hand back over Fay''s waist before resting my palm low on her back and driving it back.

    The very moment my hand started to caress her spine, Fay uttered a small moan as her head suddenly angled up.

    Even in her sleep, just a slight of my touch was enough to make her react and position herself for more love and cuddles.

    Both unable and unwilling to hold back in the face of such a lovely, sleepy indication, I brought my head down and pressed my lips against Fays'' dry mouth.

    Bit by bit, Fay''s lips sucked on the moisture of my saliva, regaining their natural, healthy, and full texture, making the kiss all the more pleasant.

    Still half-asleep, Fay wiggled up within my hold a bit, bringing her hands up and locking them on my cheeks. Now, with my head locked in ce, Fay turned her head to the side before going for a deep kiss.

    Our knees pushed up, causing our legs to rub together. Fay''s stomach arched a little, making her stomach rub against mine while she pushed her shoulders off, casually disying her tits in their full glory while engaging my mouth with a passionate kiss.

    We were still dirty and oily from our adventures during the night. We only had a little time before we would have to go to do our daily tasks. And ultimately, two, maybe three hours of sleep.

    Yet, as our kiss continued, I had no other choice but to admit.

    No matter how short our sleep was, I felt perfectly well-rested and full of strength. And even though Fay''s sleepy,zy movements continued to spark up my desire, I couldn''t sense a hint of exhaustion from her either.

    "Pete��" Fay whispered through our kiss only to then press her lips against mine again and dive down into my mouth with her tongue, seeking greater connection.

    With no clothes in the way of our lust, we soon ended up back in the same position as we were in for most of the night. Yet, despite how eagerly Fay pushed her knees aside and opened up her legs in invitation��

    I could tell that there was something else that she wanted me to do.

    "Could you��?" Fay whispered while her face was covered in blush and her hands rushed to cover it.

    Looking down at Fay in all of her naked glory looking at me with such an embarrassed look while her body bore many red marks of my passion from just some hours before��

    I reached down and grabbed Fay by her hips, only to roll her over to the side and then onto her stomach. Not stopping there, I pulled her hips towards me, raising her onto her knees while using my other hand to push down at the upper part of her back.

    "Haaa��. Haaa�� ha��"

    Fay uttered a mix of excited moans, panting, and huffing. And with her ass right to my face, I could see her pussy twitch to the rhythm of her breaths.

    She was all ready and bristling, eager to ept me inside of her.

    And just like during the night before, the atmosphere grew heavy from the weighty sense of lust and longing.

    "Fay��" I only managed to utter a single word as I grabbed at Fay''s round ass and pulled it even closer, making herher regions rub against my erection. "I think I''ve figured out what''s this feeling."

    Without inserting myself, I leaned down and pressed myself against Fay''s back, pinning her down to the ground while leaning over her ear.

    "We are about to make a child, aren''t we?"

 Chapter 376 Unprecedented in either of the worlds (end of the arc)

    The hour at which we were supposed to leave for breakfast came�� and went, along with all the opportunities to catch up with others before our working day started.

    Paying it no mind, we continued to indulge in each other, losing all sense of what we were supposed to do in favor of what we were doing.

    And between all of the changed nature of the air around Fay, her actions, her responses��

    Well, it would suffice to say that it was impossible to say which one of us was to me when we blew past the breakfast time and went deep into the actual working hours before we finally managed to get over our lust and get ourselves ready to go.

    "Today is a big day," I brought up as we cleaned ourselves and moved on to dressing up. "If I got the news right, today everyone shall partake in a hot meal."

    Just like it was over thest two days, today the food scheme would evolve again, reaching its ultimate, main form.

    This ultimate main form was actually the bare minimum the nners of Makary would agree to when it came to the nutrition needs of our workers, even if they were to be kept at war captive status.

    And so, while we were ying around with Leon in his underground bunker to test out his power suits, both the imperial workers and some of the specialized craftsmen from Makary''s side were hard at work, turning whatever they could find and make use of to construct a set of mobile kitchens.

    ording to the ns, each of those mobile kitchens was supposed to be capable of feeding at least four hundred people. That was the theoretical minimum they were to fill�� even though no one expected them to service more than two brigades at once.

    "You guys are really bringing a new quality to this world," Fay muttered as she put on a fresh set of clothes before stretching her hands up and then bringing them down onto her stomach.

    For a moment, her thoughts clearly went astray to all the sticky matter I unloaded deep inside of her. Yet, after putting on a satisfied smile, Fay raised her eyes up, back to both our conversation and the topic at hand.

    "If you guys were taken prisoner by the imperials��" Fay shook her head. "I''m not an expert. All I knowes from the few books I''ve studied in the past. But still," she shook her head again before putting on an uneasy smile.

    "It doesn''t matter how the imperials would treat us," I countered while passing over a thin blouse, worried the treacherously pleasant weather could bring her down with a fever.

    Sure, her body was so powerful something as simple as sickness should no longer have anything to do with her�� But after pampering and spoiling her so hard during the night and then again in the morning, I couldn''t stand the idea of letting Fay feel cold while we were away.

    "Thanks," Fay threw with a small smile that instantly rewarded all the effort it took for me to raise my hand, grab the blouse, and then pass it over.

    "We treat them as good as we do because of the cost of doing so��" I shook my head before picking my own jumper and leading Fay out.

    Thankfully, now that we literally lived in the new administrative building, our road to the office was pretty damn short. As we went down three floors, we could bear witness to all the work the imperial workers of the Kash brigade put in while we were fooling around.

    By now, all the piping was done. And from the looks of things, they''ve managed to cover the greater part of the entireplex with cables, connecting everyst room into the central management system, where Makary engineers were trying to make this mess of cables work.

    ''Where are they even going to get the electricity from?'' I thought, taking a look over the window once we passed by one.

    And without a shadow of a doubt, the small shed with the water tower on its roof�� It was way too small to house a proper set of generators. And since I couldn''t see any sr tes or wind turbines, the chances were��

    ''Don''t tell me they are already building a damn power nt,'' I thought, baffled by the thought��n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    But those were the facts.

    The workers were preparing all the cabling for the building. Engineers busied themselves away trying to write and route all of those cables through a set of switches, batteries, and general hardware settings.

    But no matter how hard I looked around, I couldn''t find a ce where all the power necessary to power those cables up woulde from. And since it wasn''t going toe from anywhere near this particr plot ofnd�� There were only two other options.

    The first possibility was to charge batteries back on earth where the cost of doing so was pretty much minimal�� Or build an entire power nt in here, on this side of the gate, to remove this dependency of one world over the other.

    Surprisingly enough, though, after taking just a moment to think about it, the first option was actually a lot more expensive. After all, one couldn''t just plug an industrial-grade battery into the power socket and hope for it to work.

    No, to make batteries work, we would need a proper transformator nt. And that, albeit smaller than a power nt of any kind, woulde at a cost much greater than just two rows of crude, bio-oil generators.

    The saving grace of using those generators was how we could already produce the fuel locally from all the trash and leftovers produced all over the camp!

    "Things are moving along nicely," I muttered as we finally got down to the bottom floor of the building�� Only to finally see the scale of the mess we''ve got ourselves into, but a mess that managed to elude our eyes until now.

    "Forty-three," one of Makary''s mercenaries with a singr earphone hanging to the side of his face loomed over a simple board. Instead of sitting down at themunication station, he was standing above it, monitoring the work of�� an imperial?

    Following the man''s words, the stressed-out imperial brought his finger towards the figure representing forty-three in the localnguage before moving his finger to the side and flipping a small switch next to the number from leaning to the left to an upright position.

    "Forty-three, status change, confirm," the mercenary whispered, surprisingly, in the local tongue over the English that I knew.

    "Forty-three, status change, confirm," the imperial spoke out before raising his eyes and looking at the seat next to him.

    "Forty-three, status change confirmed, idle-rest. Putting on the timer," the imperial fiddled with some tools stacked all over his station.

    A momentter��

    "Forty-three, requested at project gazebo, confirm?"

    The nearest of the imperials constructed another order after following various pictures his instructor pointed his finger at.

    "Forty-three, request already fulfilled, rejecting."

    "This really does move fast," watching the very same scene, Fay muttered while wrapping her hands around my arm.

    There were only about half of a thousand of Makary''s men in total. A number already grown by all those Makary could possibly recall.

    In other words, we suffered an overwhelming shortage of capable manpower, forcing us to push even the most crucial tasks likemunications over at imperials, all for the sake of freeing up the trained men that we could use elsewhere.

    And if that, if not anything else, wasn''t the greatest proof that this ce was going to develop at a rate unprecedented in either of the words, then I don''t know what would be!

    Still, there was a limit to all the good news. A limit that soon materialized itself in from of the furious princess storming through the main hall of themunication department.

    "Why weren''t you at the breakfast?!" the princess red up before I even had the chance to say a single word.

    "We were��" I looked over to the side, at where Fay stood defiantly with her chin raised as she taxed the princess with her eyes. "We were busy."

    Etaria opened up her mouth, ready to scold us even harder��

    Only for something on her face to change, forcing the princess to keep staring at us in shocked awe.

    "You guys reached��" Etaria muttered, only to then shake her head and reignite the sparks of anger in her eyes. "Nevermind. But when are we going to discuss the expedition?!"

    Hearing the question, I took a deep breath, preparing myself for what was toe.

    "Right, the expedition," I sighed, knowing full well that I could no longer put this topic aside for a better time. "Actually, I was just going to find you to talk it through."

 Chapter 377 Interlude (part 1)

    "How did it alle to be?"

    Salicious asked himself in his thoughts, despairing over the scene he could see from behind his cover.

    The old man hid with his men on the two sides of an ancient passage of two rows of columns aligned across a narrow pass. Hiding in the shadows of those columns, the old man had to watch how his disciple and sessor now marched at the head of a massive, noble uprising.

    "Stay down or we will shoot!"

    The royal guards lined up above the mouth of the narrow passage, holding just the perfect spot to stop any further advance.

    But Banjay continued to smile.

    Standing defiantly at the very front of the riot, he brought his hand up, stopping the march�� Only to step ahead all on his lonesome, unnervingly confident no one would dare to shoot.

    He was a royal cousin, after all. And not even the guards with the highest noble ranks wouldn''t dare to raise their weapons against the royal blood.

    "Who here can talk with me?!" Stepping a few steps ahead of the passage, right into the half-circle of the patriarch-king''s men, Banjay pushed out his chest as if trying to provoke someone to react ande out.

    And quite unsurprisingly, the leader of the king''s guards stepped out.

    ''He knows just what to do to make everyone act as he desires,'' Salicious sighed, feeling conflicted over how his disciple made him proud.

    But as the two of them, Banjay and the guard''s officer, met in the middle of the kill zone, something silently changed.

    Rather than screaming at each other, the two�� started to have apletely casual conversation. As if the heightened emotions of the capital nobles rioting due to the looming threat of Bas''s fall.

    If the fortress gives in, the imperials would have a nice, open road all the way to the capital. And this was a distress that those nobles couldn''t allow.

    The assaults of the mighty mountain hold continued for thest week already, with the empire pushing down south at a much greater pace than anyone assumed to be possible.

    Still, despite all the rioting�� Banjay continued to have a graceful conversation with a fellow noble, right between the king''s elite guards and the flower of the capital''s nobility. And as much as Salicious hoped to, he failed to hear what their conversation was all about.

    ***

    "How long do the rear units need to close in on the riot?"

    Banjay asked as soon as he exchanged polite greetings with the noble guard.

    "Excuse me?" The panicked face the guard showed only proved Banjay''s suspicion.

    ''So they''ve put a newbie to the holding unit, meaning those two are leading in the rear.''

    Being the rat of the pce''s corridors, Banjay more than just knew his way with all the figures within the capital. And the tactics used by the guards�� were written by the man himself, all recently modified, practiced, and tested in anticipation of this very day.

    "I will ask again, how long do Hyvar and Assa need to close the riot''s path to retreat?"

    The newbie officer gulped down his saliva.

    "Sir, I''m not sure I understand��"

    "Kid, listen," Banjay sighed, "I have Salicious and his disciples hiding nearby. But we need to stop any of those traitors from escaping, so I need to know," Banjay casually exined before taking a step forward, perfectly aware of how it would push the royal guards behind even more toward the edge.

    "How long do we need to stall here for Hyvar and Assa to get in position?"

    Maybe it was Banjay''s tired stare only a government worker could attain. Or maybe the guard was so naive that he just went and trusted his words. A great proof that he was the right man for the job, knowing nothing and perfectly expendable.

    ''Well, today is his good day because it''s actually the truth,'' Banjay rolled his eyes.

    "About ten minutes, sir," the guard finally revealed, lowering his eyes a bit.

    "Hey, look up!" Banjay nearly shouted, startled by the kid''s stupidity. "For now, listen casually. Once I give you the signal, make an annoyed and then insulted face before stepping back. Oh, rather than nodding, blink if you are ready."

    With so many eyes locked on them, Banjay had to keep up the act. But he also needed to pass the news andplete the project he worked on for thest two years on.

    A great upset that this sorry excuse of a kingdom needed to shake the shackles and potentially even resist the imperial great push south.

    "Wait, Jay?" A familiar voice rang in Banjay''s ears, only for the elegant figure of the young princess to step out from behind the royal knights.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    ''Shit, she''s here.''

    Banjay panicked a bit.

    But as much as it was bad for the princess to see what was about to happen, as much as Banjay didn''t want his cute, young cousin to witness his bloody act��

    In no way or form, would she find herself in any danger or could affect the process that was about to begin.

    "What are you doing here?" Nelea asked, raising her white-gloved hands to her chest with a heartbroken look on her face.

    "Haaa��" Banjay sighed and leaned his head down, exhausted from just thinking about this surprise. "Actually, I''m trying to stall for time, so that Hyvar and Assa can close the encirclement," Salicious revealed a bit too loud, allowing the rioters behind him to possibly hear his words.

    And for a while, he could feel the crowd growing upset with how everything seemingly stalled to death.

    "Are you ready?" Banjay casually asked, turning his attention back to the guard.

    "I am," the amateur guard spoke with a serious, focused look on his face.

    "Then imagine me speaking trash about your face and your mom," Banjay sighed.

    ''I''m too damn tired for this shit��''

    Regretting the fact his cute ward had to witness what was about to happen, Banjay shook his head right as the guard followed his instructions and made a disgusted, repulsed face of someone witnessing a great insult if not outright a filthy heresy.

    "STAND!" Banjay screamed out with conviction unmatched by anything and perfectly contrasting with his dead-pan, tired face.

    The guard took a step back, pressured by Banjay''s mere shout��

    But acting alone, he readied his weapons while giving a signal to his men behind not to interfere.

    "Jay! Please! Stop!" Nelea pleaded with tears in her eyes.

    Pulling out his sword, Banjay saluted to his noble opponent before raising his de in a simple guard�� and rushing forth.

    "Pass the news," speaking out right as he brought his sword squarely into the strongest point of the young noble''s guard, Banjay took half a step back to give him some breathing room before repeating the exact same strike. "We broke the siege of Bas."

    The young guard''s face tensed up... Only for Banjay to follow up with a quick kick that safely sent the young guard flying back.

    And hearing the cheers from behind, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

    The young noblended safely a few feet to the back, taking but a moment to regain his footing.

    Banjay directed his foot straight for thergest of the tes of his armor, after all, allowing the force of his strike to disperse over asrge of an area as possible.

    But that in itself posed a problem.

    How was he supposed to pass on the news and hopefully stop Nelea from doing anything stupid, if he flew back only a few steps to the back?

    "I''m sorry man," Banjay threw at the young guard, watching with guilt as his face started to change. "I''ve gotta make it a bit more real."

    The young noble''s face turned still, changing from pride in helping out to terror of realization of what Banjay meant... and then to a shaky smile as he prepared himself for the worst.

    ''Haaa... youth...'' Banjay barely held back a tired sigh.

    He then dropped his sword, simply allowing it to slip out of his fingers.

    Yet, by the time its handle fell down to the ground, he rushed up the distance, and with all the might of his rapid advance, he struck the young noble right in the same spot as before.

    This time, the young guard fell to the back quite the distance, stumbling past the line of his men and effectively stopping Nelea in her attempt to get to the front.

    ''That gives us a little bit more time.''

    The young noble was going to be fine. Banjay perfectly controlled his strength, even though he rarely got to use it outside of practice. And on the whole theatrics of him picking himself up by the bootstraps to stand defiantly against a superior opponent...

    ''Yeah, give minutes at least,'' Banjay smiled to his own thoughts as he walked back towards the rioters, stepping down the incline of the path and towards the narrow pass inplete silence.

    Halfway back to the crowd, Banjay stood down... and raised his hand.

    And after one more moment of stressful silence, the massive crowd of the rioters erupted in cheers!

    "URAAA!"

    "LONG LIVE BANJAY!"

    "NEW SUN OF THE KINGDOM!"

    The capital nobles screamed their guts out, quickly moving far, far past the official agenda of the entire riot.

    ''Those idiots.'' Banjay resisted the desire to roll his eyes. Still, sensing amotion behind his back, he turned around, ready to face the defiant noble once again...

    Only for his ns to go awry quite a bit.

    Because instead of the young noble, it was Nelea that stood at the front of the king''s guards. And with a sword in her trembling hand, with the suit as elegant as it was impractical, she challenged her uncle.

 Chapter 378 Interlude (2)

    "What do you think you are doing, Nelea?"

    Banjay''s shoulders dropped as he struggled to figure out how exactly he was supposed to react in this situation.

    Thanks to all the acting thus far, the rioting group of traitors and dissidents stood in a perfect spot for Salicious to spring the trap, and the three units of royal guards to close it from all sides, leaving no traitor behind.

    But Nelea didn''t know how all of Banjay''s words and actions were merely an act, a y designed to keep the rioting traitors in ce, giving the royal forces enough time to close the trap.

    And now that she stood at the front with a sword in her hand�� Banjay had to do something about her. For if the fight were to erupt this very moment, the young princess would actually be in danger!

    "That''s why I always said brats shouldn''t meddle with adults'' business," Banjay sighed, dropping his sword again and moving up to the young girl��

    Or rather, the girl that despite encroaching upon adulthood, still remained just a silly, little fart in Banjay''s eyes.

    "Wha�� What are you doing?!" Nelea shouted through her trembling lips, not even sure where to point the tip of her ssy de.

    As the youngest princess of the royal line, she was only ever allowed to carry a ceremonial sword around, used to seal deals rather than cutting open flesh.

    Having no clue how to fight or duel, all Nelea could do was turn her sword towards her uncle�� Only for Banjay to casually swat it to the side as he approached only to reach out, grab Nelea''s waist, and then jerk the de out of her hand.

    "This is no ce for brats," Banjay scolded the girl�� Only to cut his words short when a dark thought appeared in his mind. "Or maybe I''m too soft��?"

    "Kill her!" Someone from within the crowd behind dared to shout.

    "Banjay for the king! All hail the new patriarch!"

    "KILL ALL THE FAKE ROYALS!"

    With every passing moment, the voices of the crowd grew more and more agitated.

    With those shouts in the background, Nelea raised her teary eyes up to Banjay''s face, defiantly refusing to move from the spot even after her uncle disarmed her.

    "If you want to kill us, then why don''t you start with me?!" Nelea shouted out, opening up her arms and taking a step to the side as if to imply Banjay would have to go through her if he wanted to continue.

    Nelea twitched when Banjay reached out with his hand��

    Only to end up patting the girl''s head.

    "And where did you get the idea that I want to kill you or your family?" Banjay asked while rustling the girl''s hair and savoring every tiniest bit of her shocked and baffled expression. "But seriously now," Banjay moved his hand down to Nelea''s shoulder before pushing her slightly to the back�� Right into the arms of the naive young guard, he dueled with before.

    "It''s about to get dangerous here, so go hide behind the guards."

    By now, all the shouts from behind have dwindled, with those at the front of the crowd unable to rejoin the ideas of the riot and the sight of their leader casually rubbing the head of the youngest princess.

    For them, this young woman was the weakest link of the royal family, the group of people all those traitors considered as nothing more but an obstacle to their desire to sell themselves off to the empire.

    Given how many of the people in the crowd behind were spies and informants of the empire for thest two years Banjay helped nurture, cutting them down to thest of them was thest and absolutely necessary step of Banjay''s strategy for the war with the empire.

    An unprecedented culling of the nobles and important figures of the capital. An event two years in the making, necessary to cleanse the patriarchate from all the elements festering it from the inside.

    But still��

    ''She''s bing an adult now,'' Banjay thought, gritting his teeth when his sense of protectiveness over his cute cousin shed with the mature awareness of the true, bloody nature of the world.

    Banjay struggled to decide whether to order the guards to drag the princess away before it would be toote, or let her stay and witness the true horrors hiding behind the concept of power.

    Yet, when the song of distant whistles reached Banjay''s ears, he realized that he was now toote to make a decision, for fate did it in his stead.

    "The royals areing from the back!"

    If the front of the rioting crowd was shocked by Banjay''s disy of affection for the princess, then the back of the crowd could only guess what made those at the front so silent.

    Yet, when the news of the further units of royal guards closing at the riot from the back started to spread, the whole dynamic reversed, with those at the back being the only ones aware of what was going on while those closer to Banjay could only try to guess what was actually happening.

    "I guess it''s time," Banjay muttered to himself, only to have Nelea turn her head right as the noble royal guard dragged her back behind the line of the patriarchate''s elites.

    "What''s the meaning of this?!" Yrven, the most important contact between Banjay''s private intelligence and the royal cousin''s former masters back within the imperial fifth division, stepped to the front of the crowd.

    To his side, there were all sorts of lesser spies that Banjay personally helped get inside of the kingdom in a bid to build trust with the very people he was double-crossing from the very beginning.

    Depending on his words and actions right now, two years'' worth of puffing smoke in the fifth imperial division would go up said smoke, revealing Banjay for who he always was, a royal cousin assigned to the patriarchate''s counterintelligence.

    The lone sessor of Salicious''s brainchild allowed the patriarchate to oppose the imperial push for so long.

    "Oh Yvern, you''ve known me for so long, and yet you still need to ask this question?" Banjay turned back towards the crowd, descending down the road''s inclination and picking up the sword he dropped on his way to deal with Nelea.

    "It''s treason, then," Yvern squinted his eyes as he lowered down to his knees, making it seem like some sort of wild predator ready to pounce on its prey. To his side, the thugs that Banjay introduced to the kingdom himself assumed simr stances, ready to protect their assets with their lives.

    "Treason?" Banjay opened his eyes wide, pretending to be surprised. "But it''s you guys who were screaming treason all over, weren''t you?" Banjay asked, resting his sword on his shoulder as he casually approached the crowd.

    By now, quite a few of the rioters started to pick up on the clues.

    With royal guards up at the exit of the narrow point and two more units encroaching on them from behind��

    As people started to realize the truth of what was going on, more and more swords left their sheaths.

    With just their mass, the rioting nobles could easily carry on with their insurrection all the way to the pce. And with most of the royal guards currently deployed all around them��

    What was left to defend the patriarch?

    "TREASON!" Yvern screamed out from the bottom of his lungs while pulling out two daggers to arm himself. "Kill Banjay the traitor! Kill all the royals!" he screamed out, hoping to rally the crowd as much as he could.

    But Banjay onlyughed.

    "I think this is your cue, old man," he called out, lowering his sword from his shoulder to a stance that made him ready to engage.

    Behind the crowd, the whistles sounded again, announcing the impending arrival of Hyvern and Assa''s forces.

    "I dere all of those men to be traitors to the crown and hereby order their execution!" Banjay screamed out before raising his sword and pointing its very tip at Yvern''s face. "Kill them all, but save this midget," he called out while putting a devilish smile on his face in response to the shadows of Salicious disciples emerging from between the columns, their approach unnoticed by anyone else.

    "His life is mine!"n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

 Chapter 379 Interlude (3) (End of the arc)

    The whole event came to an end much faster than anyone could expect.

    Even Banjay, the mastermind behind this masterpiece of a counterintelligence operation, couldn''t stop his awe from spilling over.

    The disciples of his master entered the crowd of rioters like their fellows, only to start turning rioting nobles into rotting corpses with every step.

    They went about it so casually and with a matter-of-fact attitude, that it took the crowd several moments to even realize they were actively under attack.

    And by the time Salicious stepped out from behind the column with his legendary sword brandished and the highest of his disciples on his sides, even the most stubborn nobles had to realize just where their arrogance and focus on self-interest brought them to.

    By the time Hyvar and Assa charged up from behind, the whole crowd of rioters already started to break apart. A force that when applied in a single direction could easily power through twice as many royal guards as there were ahead of them turned into a bunch ofmbs, free for the wolves from the royal guard to ughter.

    As eager as Banjay was to join in the fray and release some of his pent-up stress and exhaustion upon those filthy former colleagues of his, rationality won his mind over.

    In the end, Banjay didn''t face Yvern in a fairbat. But considering how Yvern''s first move was to surround himself with his bodyguards, this was never going to be a fair duel to begin with.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    And mere minutester, when Assa troopers started arriving near the front of the crowd, leaving nothing but corpses in their wake, Banjay simply smiled at his former colleague.

    Suppressed by the hail of arrows from the guards on the upper part of the street, neither the man himself nor any of his soldiers could make a single step ahead.

    Not without putting themselves at a risk of getting shot from every possible angle.

    Understanding the range of the royal troops, Banjay kept himself just beyond the reach of Yvern, watching with glee how the man struggled toe up with a way to escape the ughter.

    ''Show me what kind of man strategy you wille up with!''

    Staring at the man�� Banjay never got the satisfaction of having him struggle and refuse to give up.

    From the instant first of Assa''s troopers reached the front of the riot, only a mere minute passed before the entire ce swarmed with Hyvar''s men.

    While the Assa won the race to the front, it was Hyvar''s unit that came in with enough punch to shatter thest, makeshift defense of the nobles.

    ''To think their quirks will show even here, on a damn battlefield,'' Banjay heaved a long, exhausted sigh, watching in silence as the royal soldiers somehow noticed the different air around Yvern and opted not to approach him directly.

    Matters of supremes should be left to supremes, after all.

    "Are you going to cover in the back in fear, or are you going to face me?!"

    Seeing the opportunity present itself to his hands, Yvern was damn quick to try to grasp it.

    He shook his bodyguards off with an angered wave before grasping the handle of a nearby sword and raising it up, training its point right on Banjay''s head.

    "That''s funny," Banjay suddenlyughed, catching not only Yvern but all of the royal troops by surprise.

    Even though he turned out not to be the traitor with aims for putting the patriarch''s crown upon his own head��

    He still pretty much admitted to orchestrating a staged uprising in order to cull nobles that people were sure to soon call his political enemies.

    And regardless of how those people effectively either worked for a foreign power or outright wished for it to conquer their own kingdom, he still not only approved but also orchestrated a fake uprising all with the aim of killing them all.

    Or, in much simpler words that themon folk would have a much easier time to understand and remember, for some unknown reason, Banjay just went ahead and ughtered the flower of the capital''s nobility, effectively raising against pretty much half of the kingdom''s noble houses.

    All those who lost their children, siblings, parents, and other family members in this vicious bloodshed were likely to rise up in an uprising once the news proliferated��

    And yet, against all the usations that would surely soon be levied upon him, Banjayughed out upon hearing the call to a duel. A call that upon his victory, would mean the other side taking responsibility for the event and paying its price with their own life.

    But again, when hearing the challenge, Banjay onlyughed out!

    "What''s so funny?!" Yvern barked, gritting his teeth while trying not to let his emotions get the better of him.

    Even without his bodyguards, he was still supreme while his arrogant and treacherous underling never advanced beyond the rank of a promoted ascender.

    In other words, the implied promise of taking responsibility for all that happened was mere bait, a lure to have Banjay agree to the fight.

    A way to, at the very least, take revenge on the treacherous bastard masked as a convenient way out for him to get out of the current trouble he so willingly put himself in.

    So what was Banjay waiting for?

    "Back at Bas, your men asked to have a duel first and then we crushed them. But here, we crushed your forces first only to have you beg for the duel now?"

    Banjay shook his head as heughed out right in Yvern''s face.

    "Yes, we''ve crushed them. The army besieging Bas is no more," he added as if he didn''t make the message in enough for everyone to understand already. "And with your death here, there will be no one left to pass the news to the empire."

    Banjay locked his hands behind his back and stepped a single pace forward, still leaving too much ground between him and his former colleague for Yvern to risk crossing it without getting skewered by arrows from all sides.

    "We''ve blocked the path through the northern crossing and then locked them out of their supplies. Three dayster, we simply went in and finished the job. And that means��"

    Banjay''s smile only grew while murmurs started to move from soldier to soldier as they discussed the news.

    The Bas fortress was the one andst reason why the patriarchate could hold back the imperial push. Sitting at the entrance of the one passage through theplex system of Ha mountains. And while it served as a gateway to the patriarchatends, it sat at a vital crossing that one could use to circumvent a massive swamp to the north.

    In simpler terms, whoever controlled Bas''s fortress was in full charge of all the various paths that led through the Ha mountains. One of those paths was the main artery connecting the imperial hearnds with the imperial industrial colony, located at a hignd teau just a day''s worth of match north from Bas.

    And now, with the imperial greatest effort to date to conquer the fortress ending up in a disastrous loss, their industrial colony would find itself cut off from the empire and at the mercy of Banjay''s forces that regained full control over the passage.

    But the worst part about it all�� was how Banjay managed to fully cut the imperials off, stopping the news from spreading which bought him more than enough time to first ransack the entire colony and then, if he only so desired, raze it to the ground.

    "The Empire will never stand such an insult," Yvern protested when the royal soldiers finally got the message and rushed in, pressing down on his shoulders to pin the man to the ground. "It might take a year or two, but once they learn of this defeat, two, no, three more legions wille!"

    Yvern grew so agitated, that he started to actively resist the guards who were trying to restrain him, as if he wasn''t going to give in before saying all that he wanted out loud.

    "You struggled with just one legion enough to make defeating it into such a grand victory, so think about what will happen when three, no four more legions wille!"

    By the end, Yvern was yelling from the bottom of his lungs. And as his aura bloated, the soldiers had no other choice but to back up, unable to withstand the power of a supreme now that he grew desperate enough to actually use it.

    "But that''s a problem for two years into the future," Banjay imed, refusing to let go of his wide smile as he stood unbothered by Yvern''s disy of his mighty power. "Also, those idiots," he then pointed at the corpses behind the man, "those weren''t the only weeds that we''ve pulled out today."

    As if he couldn''t be having more fun than he was having at the moment, Banjay pulled a small sack off his belt, loosening the cord that kept the small sack closed. Then, right as he started to pour high-ss chai out of the bag, he called forth a small me in his right hand, turning the small cloud of ground herb into mere fuel for his me.

    Quite noticeably, the me''s color changed, taking on a whitish hue as it started to consume the extremely small grains of the powdered chai.

    "That''s not��" Yvern muttered only to then bite down on his teeth.

    "That''s not the me that chai would make," Banjay smiled as he confirmed the man''s suspicion. "And I''m showing you this because today marks exactly two years since we started to groom new supremes who never tainted their cores with this drug."

    Pouring down the rest of the fake chai into the me of his hand, Banjay closed his fist and then shook it away, as if the mere thought of fake, burned-out chai touching his skin was repulsive.

    "You''ve lost your spies, you''ve lost your muscles, you''ve lost the chai''s influence, you''ve lost Basal fortress��" Banjay shook his head before finally bringing his sword down and giving his formerpatriot a gaze that finally revealed the unfathomable depths of hate he had for him.

    "Now you are going to lose your life, your beloved empire will lose its treasured colony and ess to all of Ha''s passes. Even further into the future, without ess to the colony, your beloved empire will lose its war with the Ancients, and then��"

    Banjay shook his head and took a moment to calm himself down before stepping forth and standing at attention before Yvern.

    By now the royal soldiers have properly retreated, ready to bear witness to what was about to go down.

    "What will happen after all of that�� Who am I even to guess?" Banjay continued to reel at the moment, gleefully smiling as he moved even closer to his formerpanion. "Maybe we will conquer the southernmost provinces, with how hard it will be for your empire to free any legions with the ancients up north?"

    Banjay made another step before finallying to a stop, a mere three paces away from the supreme, well within the sphere of the man''s influence.

    "Or maybe we will continue our own efforts down south and find a way to cross the imprable?"

    Banjay smiled at the man for onest time before presenting his sword up to salute his opponent.

    "Once again, who am I to tell?" Banjay asked before getting into a proper, fighting stance. "Stand!"

 Chapter 380 Outnumbered but overgeared

    "And that should cover everything," Makary raised his eyes from the long checklist he held in his hand and took a long look at the team assembled in front of him.

    The team consisted of me, the guide capable of leading the entire group through the starlight ins, udy Moretto, a strange supreme of the empire that acted as Etaria''s and imperial''s envoy for the mission, andstly�� Fay.

    As opposed as I was to the idea of bringing her through a massive area designed to keep her confined, the few days'' worth of talks with Madam and analyzing our new situation born from our advancement to the supreme rank��

    Well, while they did little to nothing to ease my worries, they still ended up with a conclusion that upon crushing her supreme trail, Fay achieved a form no other Celestial or Divine reached.

    Was it because she defeated the test designed to see how long one could face their worst fears? Or was it because she was the fruit of a union between the two species, true proof of the two rival ns getting together?

    Or maybe Fay reached that point because she was simply special in every possible way?

    None of this was for me to judge. Yet, the few tests we conducted in the days prior confirmed that although Fay was unable to see the spots of the starlight falling upon the face of the in, she was more than perfectly capable of withstanding the basic degradation etched into the in''s very atmosphere.

    With all of that in mind, it was surprisingly udy, the one and only supreme of the team who attained his rank before actually getting selected for the mission. And while initially designed to be the bulk on which all the dangers that woulde to the group would shatter, with me and Fay advancing, he pretty much got degraded to the position of the imperial observer.

    A role that Etaria insisted on and for an easily understandable reason.

    For even if we were able to open a trading path through the in, if we kept the truth about the local prices or the prize of chai that Etaria so desperately needed, we could tax them hefty premiums on the exchange.

    And that, even with udy to report on the events as they happened, was still going to happen. Neither Makary, Leon nor I myself were willing to tread such a dangerous path and possibly open what could easily be the most vital trading route not only for our camp but also for the empire as a whole�� All just for the sake of giving it away to the princess.

    No.

    We were going to impose heavy tariffs and fees on everyst item of value we hoped to bring over once my team would sessfullyplete the mission. And we were going to do so with full transparency, of every free, tax, gratuity, or any other fancily named way of increasing the end-quota.

    We were going to milk the empire dry on the items we would bring over once we opened up the path�� And the empire was going to be more than happy to pay for our premiums.

    After all, what theycked wasn''t the money to purchase those objects, but the ability to actually source them.

    Still, this was just the end goal of our mission. And all things considered, even when looking at all of the equipment we were bringing over, was still but a minor investment whenpared to the scale of things back at the new camp.

    It''s been exactly a day over two weeks since the establishment of the new camp. And just earlier today, the officers promoted mostly from Kash and one other division easily split up the third batch of imperial prisoners of war and settled them in throughout the oldest of the housing projects.

    With fifteen thousand men working hard to earn their right to the proper meal besides the one hot dinner that the camp guaranteed for everyone, the process of moving the workers to their designed camps was nearlyplete. Even the freshly joining ten thousand workers ended up at the old camp just to make it easier to move them to their respective lodgings throughout the day!

    In those two weeks, Makary''s architects moved on from the barebone projects turning the camp from just an open space to a proto-city, and now started to focus more on setting up some basic industry.

    And it was all to cut costs. For even with Leon''s support, the bottomless abyss for resources that this world soon became pretty much sapped all of his material ability from back on earth.

    The magistrate never had any ns of covering the material needs to build an entire, new city. And while both the city itself but also various powerful figures within the magistrate hoarded some limited supplies just in case, after clearing all of the easily essible resources from the market�� Only the option of importing from other cities was left.

    An option that would singlehandedly add another digit if not two to the cost of anything we would want to procure. And that''s all without even mentioning the risks of making other cities aware of our changing situation!

    That''s why, before Makary would even think about letting me go on this adventure, he ensured I was here, always ready to maintain the gate right the moment it was about to vanish. And it was thanks to sacrificing several long hours to convince Etaria to wait just those two weeks more, that by now, the new camp��

    Pretty much grew to be self-sufficient.

    Self-sufficient in terms of importing stuff from back on earth, that is.

    All in all, with more manpower that we could make effective use of, projects that would take years toplete back on earth would be finished within days over here.

    And thanks to the nearpleteck of safety rules catered to the extremely stupid minority, by now there were a total of five factories working day and night, three quite some distance away and two smack dab in the middle of the proto-town.

    A concrete factory, a sawmill, and a chemical nt sh chemicalboratory were located on the outskirts, quite some distance away from the housing projects. Yet, the implementation of a rudimentary tram system that operated right during the shift changes for those factories made the distance between the city and its factories not as annoying as it would otherwise be.

    Then, there was the craftsmanship station where imperials, as they started to get some more free time during the day, could polish and test out their skills with the supervised use of modern tools.

    It was hard to call this ce a factory to begin with, given theck of streamlined and repetitive processes. It was more of a warehouse where, on four different levels of the perfectly open and uncluttered areas, one could find a huge number of small, personal workshops outfitted with all the tools we could find back in Earth''s home depot.

    Thest factory, which just like the previous one could hardly be called one, was a repair shop.

    Located right in the middle of the entire new camp, it was a building split into four parts, each of them sittingfortably at one of the corners of the most important crossing of the camp.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    It was also the only factory devoid of any and all imperials, with only Makary''s men and Leon''s recruits being granted ess to try to maintain heavily worn-down machines, vehicles, and tools from all over the camp.

    With those five factories and the outside connections we were starting to cultivate, the camp finally reached the stage where it would grow all on its own, just due to the benefit of the momentum we built up for thest two weeks.

    And that, in turn, made today to be a perfect moment for our small group of three to depart.

    A small group of three�� outfitted with one heavy but extremely agile rower and two self-steering, unmanned carriages, one and a half of which were stocked with nothing but fuel, with the remaining cargo space filled with supplies and stuff that should be generally easy to sell in any civilization we would hopefully find on the other end of the starlight in.

    "I guess we can get going, then?" I suggested, taking a long look at Makary before turning my eyes over to our small caravan.

    The two autonomous vehicles powered by sr sails that we''ve already confirmed worked against the light of the stairs on the in. Yet, those two were just for support and carrying over our supplies that we would have a hard time restocking, given the limited volume I could carry through my personal gate.

    The main vehicle was a makeshift project frantically developed over thest two weeks by Leon''s engineers back on Earth. It was a simple buggy�� but created in two one scale, with added, enclosedpartments that could serve as secure sleeping pods along with enough room in its main area for the three of us tofortably spend our travel time in.

    ''To be fully honest, calling it a buggy is a stretch. This is pretty much a damned house on wheels and stuck on an off-road frame��''

    Yet, knowing just how long this mission could be�� I wasn''t going toin about all the addedforts we could allow inside of this buggy thanks to its massive size.

    "Just be careful, really careful," Makary sighed after giving me a prolonged stare. "This is going too great for us here for you to fuck it all over, so again," the man reached out and lowered his hand upon my shoulder.

    By now, I''ve been in an entirely different league in terms of strength whenpared to this middle-aged man. If so I desired, I could literally snap him in half��

    And yet, his hand felt strangely heavy when it sat on my arm.

    "Be careful. More careful than you were ever before in your life," Makary requested while looking me directly in the eyes.

    And as someone who understood his worry perfectly well, I simply nodded my head in response.

    "I won''t say not to worry, because it will only make you worry more," I said before putting a small, rxed smile on my face, only allowing my eyes to reflect the inner turmoil rising up whenever I thought about what I had ahead of me.

    "I just want you to take into consideration that I''m taking Fay with me," I pointed out, looking over to the massive buggy where my beloved was rxing down on the seats with her face covered by the rim of her straw hat.

    "And that alone is the greatest proof I will be on edge for the entirety of this journey."

    For a moment, we simply stared at each other, only for Makary to take the initiative and lower his hand off my arm�� only to then offer it to me.

    "Safe travels, kid," Makary muttered grumpily when I epted the shake and grasped his hand back. Yet, before I could say anything in response, the man raised his face and looked me straight in the eyes.

    "Seriously, may no harme to you or your beloved and the path be safe and easy for your wheels," Makary spoke in a strangely celebrative tone, as if it was some sort of holistic celebration rather than a simple farewell.

    "And for that, I shall pray until your safe return."

 Chapter 381 Into the shallows of the starlight plain

    "Is it really okay for you to drive?" Fay asked, leaning over the control panel of the massive buggy with a slightly worried expression. "Wouldn''t it be better for me to drive while you are on the lookout for those dangerous spots?"

    The starlight in stood exactly as it was when Ist visited it.

    Despite how much the world changed just a fewteen hundred meters away with an entire city sprouting up within mere weeks from seemingly nothingness��

    The starlight in was as empty, as silent, and as tranquil as it was before.

    No change came to this ce. No animal dared to enter either.

    And yet, here we were, speeding down the rtively ttest part of the in, while I did my best to avoid the diagonal shots of the intense, star''s light falling upon some rare points of the in.

    For even now, after going from mere mortal to the peak rank that I knew off if I were to exclude Irene''s existence�� Those spots of concentrated, unadulterated light of the stairs still appeared as threatening as they were to me as a weak, useless mortal.

    Thankfully, as instantly as any of our trio would die if we stepped even an inch into this intense light, they were so rare, that it would be actually quite a challenge for me not to notice them in time to make the few turns and avoid going anywhere near those.

    "Fay��" I took a deep breath before stealing onest nce at the path ahead before turning my head and looking at the girl with a conflicted look in my eyes. "Do you actually know how to drive it?"

    This question wasn''t exactly fair on my end.

    For what kind of knowledge or experience I had that Fay didn''t?

    Well, there was the cultural difference, something that Fay couldn''t ovee so quickly, even with all the intellect and ability to remember that she had.

    After all, not even if she could understand twice as much about the earth''s culture from binge-watching all sorts of entertainment movies or documentaries�� then still, even if she binged movies from the moment we met to right now, she would still be outssed by my knowledge I''ve gained by the mere benefit of living on earth my entire life.

    How did it rte to driving the car, though, one might ask.

    And it was all about references.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    I knew that if I took too sharp of a turn, the wheels of the buggy might lose traction, and sway and could even lead to the vehicle flipping, something that the three supremes like us would struggle a bit to get back up.

    I knew that if I decelerated too rapidly, Fay and udy could end up thrown out through the windshield, I knew this and that�� And all sorts of other things that I''ve observed sometime in the past, be it in real life, in games, or in videos.

    Those references, Fay, for the most part, simplycked. And while she was both skilled enough to drive how she could and smart enough to learn the parts she didn''t know about in a jiffy. But all sorts of the small details that coulde in crutch in a moment of need��

    ''Am I overreacting or is this a legitimate point?'' I suddenly thought, taken aback by this self-realization.

    And the more I thought about it, the more on-the-point Fay''s suggestion became.

    ''The only reason why I don''t want her to drive is because of how worried about her I am,'' I thought, gritting my teeth for a bit before putting down the brakes and bringing our massive vehicle to a stop.

    A massive waste of momentum and thus fuel, as any engineer or mechanic would scream if they were to see it. Such a sudden stop was definitely not advised during a trip that could easily oust our fuel reserves.

    And yet, it was still a better idea than to switch the driver while the buggy was still moving!

    "Here, sit down," I patted myself down on my knee, inviting Fay over to myp.

    "You are not going to miss a single opportunity to cuddle, are you?" Fay pointed out with a small smile, moving forward before she even stopped yfully scolding me.

    And as I felt Fay''s warm and soft ass press down upon myp and her back rest against my chest, I suddenly felt reinvigorated - a great feat given what I went through the night before, during myst sh with Fay over hering on the trip or not, and thenter in the morning, where I refilled the gate with all the aura I could summon as a supreme.

    Ten days.

    A disappointing result given how Madam exhausted nearly all of the aura and with me bringing myself just a step away from total exhaustion.

    For ten days, the stable gate would operate as designed, needing not my influence or presence to keep going. Or, in other words, for the next ten days, I could forget about the new camp, about Makary, about Etaria�� And just focus on having a pleasant trip with Fay.

    "Do you seriously need to flirt out in the open so damn early into the morning?" A loud groan came from one of the sleeping pods welded to the back of the buggy''s massive frame.

    A small, hatch-type lid opened up on the long side of the capsule, allowing udy''s head to peek through, revealing just how bloodshot his eyes were.

    "Still suffering the yesterday''s farewell party?" I asked with a small smile lingering on my lips, sparing the man only a momentary nce before turning my eyes back to their post of looking out for the dangerous rays of starlight.

    "Piss off, brat."

    udy dropped all of the pretense of culture and courtesy the very moment he was left alone with just the two of us.

    ording to his own words, ''now that there were no secretaries around him, he no longer needs to care for his image or what others will think about the mercenary guild just by looking at him, the guild''s leader and thus the personification of the entire organization.''

    And as free as udy''s smile was back when he stated that�� The brightness of that free smile of his from yesterday evening pretty much matched the torture written all over his face right now.

    ''Maybe bringing over earthly drinks was a bad idea,'' I thought, throwing a genuinely worried look at the man''s messy head.

    "Correct slightly to the left, there''s a pir of lighting up around two�� no, three clicks ahead," I cut the ''morning'' conversation with udy, focusing back on the road when I noticed the first signs of potential disaster.

    As we got closer, the total area covered by the intense ray of starlight was no bigger than merely half of our buggy�� Yet, just to be sure, when passing by, we made sure to keep at least half of a click of distance.

    This was still a wild and mostly unexplorednd. Here, there was no such thing as being overly cautious.

    "I knew I''d heard about it before, but this thing really moves fast," udymented once he managed to chase his hangover away and regain at least a shadow of his usual presence.

    He sat down before strapping himself into his designated seat, giving him a wide view of the pretty much empty grasnd of the in.

    "How are you feeling?" I asked, trying not to tighten my grasp over Fay''s waist so as to not reveal it was her state that I was actually worried about.

    "I will live," udy muttered begrudgingly before throwing me a nasty stare. "It''s not the first time I drank too hard, brat."

    I rolled my eyes, ignoring the slight provocation.

    "That''s not what I''m asking about. It''s more about your�� hmm��" I hesitated for a second, "thoughts? Mood?" I struggled to find the right words to pin the point I had in my mind. "I can help us avoid the pirs of starlight that would fry our minds upon contact�� but the in itself does have an effect of wearing down one''s mind.

    And that''s what I''m worried about," I revealed, only to straighten out the forefinger of my right hand and poke it into Fay''s soft abdomen.

    "Which is all the more true when ites to you, you know?"

    "I don''t have any suicidal thoughts nor do I feel the life bing bleak. I have yet to spot a single sh of embarrassing or unpleasant memories surfacing before my eyes if that''s what you are asking about," udy muttered while rolling his eyes.

    "I, on the other hand, I''m super excited!" Fay eximed, rustling around within myp as she wiggled her ass to find a morefortable spot right above my crotch. And not even for a single instant, she looked away from the path ahead, well advised over how dangerous flipping this buggy could be.

    "That''s good," I muttered, more to myself than to anyone else. Then, I raised my eyes onto the in again. "And let''s hope it will stay this way."

 Chapter 382 Is this boredom, or...?

    When setting out for this journey, I myself grew quite excited. And yet��

    The only exciting part about it was the beginning.

    Throughout the first day of carefully traversing the ins and avoiding any spots that I judged to be even slightly more intense than the rest, we didn''t really feel the boredom.

    There was simply so much novelty all around, from the great sense of adventure as we were likely the first ones to step that far into this open yet deadly in. Then there was the excitement of living pretty much a van''s life for a while, even if we only had our open buggy and the sleeping capsules welded to it in ce of a van.

    Still, with all the amenities present within the buggy''s frame, as long as we didn''t make our massive vehicle roll over, we could continue to use not only the kitchen and some basic toilet but also a damn refrigerator and a shower! Albeit they relied on some clever tricks and were a far cry from the real thing��

    The ability to take a slightly ufortable shower, even if only with cold water, was still a luxury no other traveler could enjoy, especially not on a path that dangerous, where one wrong step could easily spell one''s doom.

    But again, as much fun as we had spending time in the open frame of the buggy, enjoying the whistling of the air as it passed over our faces�� This novelty quickly turned into the same, boring, everyday aspect of our changed life.

    There was still some enthusiasm in the three of us when we made breakfast, but by the time of the dinner, the boredom took its toll, turning all silent and pretty lethargic.

    "Did we skip sleep too much?" I asked myself, struggling to push my mouth to move just to utter this pointlessint.

    As tired as I was in the middle of the second day�� I still had a job to do. And given how all our lives relied on me doing my job well, I couldn''t wee any random ideas that would make me fall down in a state of deep thought.

    And so, our journey continued.

    ''Thank God for Fay,'' I thought, snuggling myself up to Fay''s back, hiding my face in the storm of her white hair for but a moment. Regaining some mental energy from this short cuddle, I brought my head over her shoulder before resting my chin on it as I swept our surroundings with my eyes again.

    ''It''s been a while since Ist saw one of the spots,'' I thought a bitter, upon noticing the thin yet perfectly straight strand of silvery light falling into the ground at a steep angle some miles ahead.

    Yet, the distance that would take us hours to cover on foot, we managed to cross in mere minutes, and all of that while keeping the buggy at the most fuel-efficient speed, which was a far cry from how fast it could really go.

    There was no need for us to waste fuel just to move faster. There was nothing chasing us and I had no ns of decreasing the reach of our expedition just for the mentalfort of moving faster.

    Still, mere minutes after spotting the light out in the distance, I''ve already pressed my hand a bit tighter on the right side of Fay''s waist.

    Myp wasn''t the most stable ce she could seat herself in. Yet, just like her presence kept me both awake and focused, I could tell my proximity was working pretty much the same way on her.

    And so, wasting no words, I asked Fay to turn slightly to the right, changing our direction just in time to avoid crossing the boundary of the massive, circr spot of silvery air.

    If those spots back near the forest were just big enough for a man to reach both of its ends with the tips of his fingers if he chose to and survived not only standing in the middle but then spreading his arms out as far as his joints allowed.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Yet, as we gradually went deeper and deeper into the starlight in, those spots grew both much more rare�� and also much bigger.

    Strangely enough, no matter how closely I looked and how much I wanted to remember the intensity of the light of the spots I saw topare them to the spots I would see in the future�� The magnitude of the light''s power remained constant throughout all the spots of starlight we encountered.

    Big or small, it was all equally lethal.

    It wasn''t until the spots grew sorge we had to spend an entire hour just to drive around them that I realized that focusing on those spots made me blind so an effect much more sinister.

    ''It was just yesterday when he imed to feel all good,'' I thought, taking a look to the side, where udy sat in silence and stared off into a distance with an empty look on his face.

    He didn''t seem sad, depressed, or�� agitated?

    The man looked as if he was so tired, all he could think of was going back to sleep.

    But how could a supreme of a kind I''ve never seen before grow so tired so quickly when all we did was drive around the in, doing nothing but sitting, chatting, and eating?

    ''This no longer feels like just boredom,'' I thought grimly to myself while throwing a long, focused look all over our surroundings��

    All to afford me a moment of respite by hugging myself against Fay''s back as hard as I could without actively hampering her ability to drive the buggy.

    "Is it starting to affect you too?" Fay asked in a rare, monotone voice, devoid of its usual liveness and luster.

    But she was still warm, soft, and just perfect to cuddle. Just like she was able to figure out what I suddenly became worried about.

    "This ce is really damn terrifying," I admitted before pulling myself into Fay''s back just a bit tighter. "Are you really sure you are okay, though?"

    After an entire day''s worth of travel and then the whole night, my worries regarding Fay''s constitution and how the starlight ins would affect it have started to die down. But��

    That was all while I still operated under the assumption that the passive pressure of those ins wouldn''t grow so quickly.

    I knew it grew from my very first trip into this strange, empty field. Even back then, when I used this pressure to refine my own flesh and bones I actively moved around, seeing greater challenge when my growth rate started to slow down.

    I knew that traveling by buggy, we would cover much more ground than anyone could ever hope to do so on foot.

    I knew this in liked to mess with the sense of space if not outright bend its nature and shape.

    I knew it all, and it never urred to me that with all of those things appearing simultaneously within a single equation, the passive pressure of the starlight within the in would grow many, many levels faster than how I experienced its growth during my first trip.

    And now that I finally took all of those things into ount, I had to physically reach down and hold my knee down from reaching out and mming in on the brakes.

    ''Fay was fine right at the edge, but none of us are fine now. And with how susceptible she is to the damage the starlight brings��''

    Gritting my teeth, I once again found myself ming my own greed for adventure, power, and money for putting Fay in an ufortable if not outright dangerous ce.

    And yet��

    "Dear, I''ve told you already," Fay sighed, only to press on the brakes herself and waste the fuel by grinding the buggy down to aplete halt.

    To the side, udy raised his face and spared us a nce, likely startled by the sudden stop, only to then lower his head back, fix the position of his simple cap, and rx back in his chair.

    "When I reached beyond the limits specified by my trial, I''ve fixed the issue you mentioned all that time in the past," Fay repeated the very same thing that she kept telling me over and over again, even when knowing I could, pretty much, see that for myself just by ncing upon her aura. "And now this strange force doesn''t affect me any more than it does you.

    Or, should I say, I believe it affects you much more than me or udy."

    Ensuring the car was safely sitting atop the short grass of the in, Fay swiveled over on myp, brushing her left knee against my stomach as she threw it to the other side of my hips. With her knees then pushing far beyond my belt as she slid up myp, Fay wrapped her hands behind my back before pulling me into a tight, affectionate hug.

    "I don''t know why it is, dear," Fay whispered into my ear, only to then pull her head to the back just far enough to take a proper look into my eyes. "But I can tell the pressure of this ce affects you much more than it does the two of us."

    Fay sighed, letting her warm breath wash over my face, sending yet another, pleasant wave down my spine.

    "Maybe it''s because you are the only one that can see it? As in, the effects of the starlight might grow the easier it is for one to see it? Just like staring into the sun would blind anyone capable of seeing its light?" Fay suggested a random exnation, only to rx her arms and bring them back�� only to then shrug them before reaching out and grabbing my face between her gentle hands.

    "I don''t know why this light that we cannot even see affects you to such a degree. But I know it does affect you. And if you want us to proceed even a single step further," Fay pulled back, letting go of my face only to drop the forefinger of her right hand right atop my sr plexus. "You will have to figure out a way how to deal with this issue first."

 Chapter 383 Why is Fay having a great time while I struggle?

    The difference between me on the day my life changed and I right now was simply too massive for me to fully evenprehend its scale, its magnitude.

    In a sense, it was hard to say if I was still, in any part, human.

    What kind of human could literally smash the rock with their bare first? What kind of human could pretty much ignore normal caliber, assuming they weren''t unlucky enough to get shot in the eye or right in the middle of their ass?

    Or, preceding all of the questions already asked, what kind of human could manipte elemental darkness to invoke effects that were no different from magic in ordinary human eyes?

    If not for my mindset, knowledge, and character, there would be nothing left for me to use as a basis for a im I was still a human. And while I couldn''t quantify it, my strength as a mortal and my strength right now were hard topare��

    No, that was a gross understatement.

    Those two levels of power simply couldn''t bepared. The greatest proof of it was how the system simply stopped showing me my stats as if to imply they no longer applied to my case.

    Those two levels of strength were iparable. They were in different leagues, different realms. One simply had no longer anything to do with the other.

    And yet, despite how near infinitely stronger I was now than I was when I first stepped into thisnd�� The pressure of the starlight weaved into the very air of the in itself somehow grew strong enough to actively affect me.

    "How is it going?"

    Surprisingly enough, it wasn''t Fay that approached me in the corner where I hid to cultivate but udy Moreto, the supposed leader of the mercenary guild and the first supreme that I''ve met that didn''t brag to high heaven about their level.

    "It''s really damn hard to figure it out," I admitted, gritting my teeth as I dispersed my focus and blinked my eyes a few times.

    Given how deep down my own aura arrangement I was looking, I actually needed some time to get my eyes used to normal vision again.

    Such were the downsides of trying to adjust my vision to the extremely tiny particles of the elemental darkness hiding at the very bottom of the infinitely deep well of darkness created with the weave of my mana.

    This was actually my third dive into that miniature world. A dive that finally brought me closer to finding out the right answer, given how I finally noticed the influence of the starlight��

    But no.

    Its influence was the absolute limit of what I could perceive. Just like scientists could reason the existence of massive objects that were simply too far or too dim for their light to reach the scopes of the moon telescopes, so they had to rely on calcting how the gravity of those unseen, celestial objects affected the very light from even more distant stars that they could actually register.

    "Any idea why you might be having that much of a harder time dealing with it?" udy asked with a look of a poorly hidden concern on his face.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    My rtionship with this man was�� strange.

    It all started when I went ahead and ughtered many of hispanions before orchestrating attacks that brought a definitive end to even more of them. Yet, once the round of violence was over, I was also the one to extend a charitable hand by offering insanely good terms in our negotiations, terms they were unlikely to get from anyone else in this world.

    Ever since then, I''ve hardly met the man even though how much I ended up dealing with the empire or its golden princess. And yet, when it came to picking out members for the expedition into the starlight in, Etaria herself brought the man''s name up, revealing that he was actually a supreme in his own right.

    ''Wasn''t he just an officer when I first encountered him, though?'' I asked myself, taking a moment to scan the man''s stoic, perfectly calm face. ''Did he advance somewhat recently, or is his personal strength unrted to his position within the mercenary guild?''

    With the inclusion of udy into the realm of things I somewhat cared about, the number of unanswered questions I had only continued to grow.

    "Maybe it''s because you have more training? Or maybe my aura weave is superior but ites at a cost of being more susceptible to whatever this starlight is?" I shook my head to indicate I was doing nothing more but throwing random guesses unsupported by anything beyond my gut feeling.

    "That doesn''t really make sense," udy pointed out before turning his head and looking over to where Fay rxed on a simple sofa while keeping the rim of her straw lowered over her face.

    This was another reason why just being on this in made it so easy for anyone to lose their nerves.

    In this ursed ce, both day and night lost their meaning.

    During the hours that would indicate the day, the world was illuminated with just slightly more intensity than during the hours of the night. Just by looking up to the sky, I could see the local sun of the system�� but somehow, it appeared that its light simply couldn''t prate theyer of starlight covering the in.

    ''Just thinking about how the hell this happens is enough to make me feel like throwing up,'' I thought, turning my eyes away and looking over at Fay.

    "Actually, I think I can understand why she can rx here like that," I revealed with a sigh. "In short words, this in was designed to stop her n from leaving the forest through it. On the other hand, the misty valley to the south of the forest is perfectly capable of stopping any of the celestials from crossing it."

    udy gave me a long nce, but ultimately opted not toment, waiting for me to borate on the point instead.

    "If it was before our advancement to the rank of a supreme, I would never allow her to step anywhere near this damned in. But now��"

    I hesitated a little as I shook my head.

    In all honesty, I still couldn''t really agree with Fay risking her health, both mental and physical, by being here with me. Yet, it was merely an emotion, a sense of worry for the one thing I treasured the most in my life.

    But if I looked at the topic objectively��

    Then I''ve got everything wrong, or rather, in reverse.

    It was nothing more but a guess for now, but I was starting to believe that the starlight in was never designed to be a barrier stopping the divines from crossing it, just like the misty valley to the bottom wasn''t a barrier no celestial could cross.

    They were merely trails set up by whoever was behind the birth of those two races. A trail that only those who reached the rank of a supreme could even hope to ovee, and only if they broke past their limits in their supreme trail, just like Fay did.

    And right now, even though I could only sense the influence of the light of the stairs instead of sensing it directly, I could tell that the very same force that kept putting my mood down, forcing me down the mncholy and lethargic way��

    Was actually a blessing for Fay, actively refining the weave of her aura, reinforcing it, and purifying it from all the leftover imperfections left behind by the trail.

    ''It''s like she''s actively advancing to a new level just by breathing the local air,'' I thought, perfectly aware of how the very same thing, the silvery light of the stars, had an entirely different effect on supreme like Fay and a supreme like me.

    ''Maybe it has something to do with how both this trail and the form of Fay''s aura weave were designed by the same creator while this very same light of the stars shes with the intent behind my system and thus the entirety of my aura weave?''

    One by one, I continued toe up with various possible exnations�� But no matter how many of them I produced in my mind, usually, the very next thought that would follow would point out the inconsistencies, the fatal errors in the logic that pretty much disproved all the ideas that I''ve got so far.

    All of the ideas that I''ve got so far�� save for the few that were too general, too unspecified for there to exist a definitive proof of them being right or wrong.

    And also the ideas that would make the trip over this in much more than what any of the three of us signed up for.

 Chapter 384 The true self

    I was lost.

    The trip that I hoped to take less than a week was slowly approaching that timeline�� with all three of us stuck in the very same ce where Fay decided to hit the breaks.

    For thest five days, I failed to figure it out. I failed to make a breakthrough.

    No matter how long and hard I thought, researched, and focused on my inner state, I just failed to make any sense of what was going on.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    After all sorts of tests and extremely detailed observation of both Fay''s and udy''s aura weave and how the starlight reacted with it�� I''vee to the simplest possible realization.

    There was absolutely no difference in how those two absorbed the starlight permeating the air to how I did it! Or rather, to how it happened all on its own, just over the course of us breathing that air and being around it, to begin with.

    The process of this light of stars infusing itself into us was exactly the same for the three of us�� udy only grew nerdier than before, even going as far as to reveal he had a pocket dimension all so he could geek out on some scrolls. Fay became even brighter than ever, even making me believe, at times, that she outright fed herself off this strange and ungraspable aura.

    And then, there was I, the surprisingly weak link of the group, incapable of tackling the issue in this very same light, making me feel as miserable as I only ever was back before turning my life around.

    Even with Fay actively cuddling and pampering me up to keep my morale somewhat above the ground, I was pretty much reaching my limit.

    ''Between the pressure to figure it out, the exhaustion from thinking about the same thing for nearly a week, and then the physical exhaustion of sitting here for just as long��''

    I thought only to shake my head, close my eyes, take a deep breath��

    And start again.

    Having nothing better but resiliency to offer, I just kept trying, over and over again, perfectly willing to go crazy over the issue, as long as it helped me to break through this strange, invisible barrier.

    The barrier of inability that I couldn''t even perceive, but which held me back from keeping up with the other two.,

    After the third day spent waiting, the effects of the silvery light of stars started to show, greatly reinforcing both Fay''s and udy''s aura weave, even if udy needed a whole new day to achieve it.

    Then, again, there was me, still stuck on the level of learning how to deal with this damned light, to begin with, holding the two of them back from rushing to regions where this light was more intense and thus more intense would be its benefits.

    "Haaa��"

    After several more attempts at digging out the truth from my insides, I sighed and momentarily gave up.

    And as I took another, deep breath and hung my head to the back��

    Irene''s words rang in my ears again.

    ''What if�� What if it''s not about reaching greater thresholds of stats or controlled aura��?''

    udy was a special case, making it all the more unlikely I would ever get any details about his power and its origins. But assuming he had some sort of innate talent that allowed him to be a different kind of supreme than Etaria or Madam��

    ''Wouldn''t that mean he had to achieve a breakthrough in his innate talent in order to reach greater heights?''

    A single thread of thought weaved itself into existence, connecting my current issue�� with the mental task I struggled to solve just recently.

    ''I know the likely method for up to the fifth level,'' I thought, recalling all the steps of the methodology I''ve discovered by creating a mental image of my very own self�� and then panning the camera out.

    At first, I was the only one that existed in the world. Then, on the second level, the camera panned out and included others. During the third step, I could somehow observe tiny strands of thought and understanding that connected all the people in the imagined world with each other.

    That was the most basic level of perception an average adult would exhibit, capable of considering their own needs first, the needs of others second, and then how everyone looked at their rtionship with everyone else.

    Then, right as I took a deep breath in reality, my mental camera panned out again, the world evolved once again, this time turning all the strangers in it into various groups.

    The mental image of myself just happened to end up in one of those groups�� Within that group, all the rtions strengthened, reinforced by the shared values ironed out amongst all the individuals to create an identity of the group.

    Amon sense that all of those within the grouprgely agreed upon.

    Next, the camera didn''t pan out any further, as the following, fifth step was already in ce. All that changed, was that the mental picture of myself suddenly appeared in all of the groups within the imaginary world.

    And in each of those groups, conforming to a different set of shared beliefs and values, my own perception appeared to�� align with those varying values.

    It was only upon connecting all of those different parts of my own self that I managed to reach the fifth stage, upon realizing just how being involved in any of those groups would effectively alter my entire perception.

    And it was upon thebined ruins of all of those imaginary, different views, that the fifth level of my perception was born,bining the awareness of all the different circumstances, cultural preconditions, and social rules to observe the world in apletely new light.

    This advancement came to me quite naturally, like a dry branch catching fire when thrown into it. It was a simple evolution of what I''ve figured out so far.

    But it wasn''t enough.

    It wasn''t enough to break the barrier that kept me stuck at the moment, with others advancing at a jealousy-inducing pace while I was not only stuck but also holding them back.

    I could feel something in myself change, as if the world suddenly grew all the wider�� while my vision, by expanding its scale, narrowed, and focused down.

    And as my sense of self continued to crystalize, the same chant from before reurred in my head.

    ''Pan the camera out.''

    And so, I did,pletely breaking the link that connected me to all of those different, mental groups. Doing so came at the cost of losing my foundation in the logically sorted mix of all of those different views and ideas�� but it also allowed me to ascend above it, rediscovering my real self amidst the endless ocean of mixing opinions.

    From the stable construct of what''s logically best, I freed myself from the shackles imposed on me by the lower levels of perception, stepping upon the realm where it was this rudimentary approach to perceiving the world that became the new foundation from which my new, real self came.

    And as I tranted this change to my perception into my current issue�� I''ve finally realized it.

    ''They are advancing because they embraced what this silver light does for them,'' I thought, casting a quick nce over to where Fay was napping on the couch.

    For a second, my heart nearly rushed out of my chest, seeking thefort of her warmth and closeness, the respite of hiding in her arms and sinking my face into her chest.

    It was a desire strong enough to st through our link��

    ''Oh right, there was the topic of that stupid ability of ours evolving,'' I recalled, right as Fay twitched in her sleep, upset by the sudden sense of my existential dread.

    I pulled my eyes away before they could turn into the source of doubt and hesitation.

    To the side, Fay continued to rustle on the sofa, growing more and more ufortable with each passing second.

    Daring not to distract myself any further, I took a deep breath and calmed my thoughts.

    And then, as if finally reaching the toilet and sitting down, I rxed my mental resistance, allowing the sense of endless, cold, and empty mncholy and lethargy to wash over me and fill up my soul, pushing aside all that existed outside of those two.

    A wave of lethargy rushed over from one side, while the wave of sleepy mncholy hurried from the other side.

    I heard rushed steps from somewhere nearby right as the control over my own body slipped out of my grasp. And with my consciousness lulled down to sleep by those two feelings that I''ve suppressed for so long, everything else simply ceased to matter.

 Chapter 385 Fays greed

    ''This ce again��''

    I woke up only to find out I was floating in the darkness.

    ''It might be wrong to im I woke up to begin with,'' I thought shortly after that, taking my sweet time to recollect my thoughts and try to figure out what was going on.

    ''I was trying to figure out the next level of perception. And I think it was something�� about dropping all the limitations imposed by wide perception, allowing oneself to be reborn free of those shackles�� I guess.''

    With nothing around to distract me and all of my emotions dulled and hidden aside, I suddenly found myself in a perfect environment to study my own inner state, ideas, and thoughts.

    Whatever those powerful waves of mncholy and lethargy did to me, I could no longer feel their pressure.

    Or rather�� It felt as if those two aspects of my soul grew more profound.

    Like a nd of self-harming poison awakening right in the middle of one''s stomach��

    ''So now I will have to deal with this kind of pressure forever, no matter what I do or where I go?'' I thought, heavily limited in what sorts of tests I could run given myck of control over my own body.

    ''It feels like my consciousness found refugee at the illusory bottom of my aura weave,'' it thought upon observing this strange world''s structure around me.

    A ce that existed only in theory, a bottom to an infinite well.

    And looking up, I finally found out where those waves of mncholy and lethargy went to.

    They were still there, infinitely close, just a reach of my illusory hand away�� And at the same, no matter how much I struggled, I would never be able to reach them.

    Such was the nature of this illusory space that had no right to exist as nothing more but an optical illusion.

    And yet, here I was at its bottom�� surrounded by the endless presence of elemental darkness, the element I was supposed to draw my aura from.

    But in all honesty, now that Ipared the two waves of profound sadness bound to one''s existence itself and then the state of absoluteck of motivation and will to act��

    I realized they were not that different from the soothing sensation the sea of darkness gave me.

    For what else was darkness if not just an absence of light?

    And what else was the light of one''s life if not the happiness and the will to act?

    ''I guess those emotions are already starting to affect my thoughts,'' I realized, gritting my illusory teeth when the meaning I''ve just discovered finally dawned upon me.

    If the origin of my power was the absence of life, then didn''t that make me into one scary dude?

    And being a high school graduate, the idea of being a personification of death and void didn''t really strike my fancy. It might sound cool but obviously wasn''t the path that I wished to follow.

    But no matter how much I wanted to resist��

    What was I supposed to do, when I myself was the one who called the influence of those dark emotions directly into my soul while willingly lifting all my resistance?

    And yet, just as both Fay and udy proved, the influence of the silvery light appeared to take the form that most suited those it tested.

    ''Maybe that''s the unavoidable truth of what I am?'' I thought, feeling as if yet anotheryer of defense around my soul fell, allowing the two oppressive waves to somehow get a little closer through the infinite stretch of infinitely repeating pattern of the illusion.

    It got closer even if the distance didn''t change at all. And quite notably, I could now feel the pressure of those two feelings again, pulling me down and lulling my entire self into inaction.

    But I''ve already fallen asleep once, back in the real world.

    ''What''s going to happen if I fall asleep in here as well?''

    Taken over by the potential threat of the current situation, I gritted my teeth and focused on the topic again, desperately rushing to find a solution��

    Which only caused the two waves of emotions to grow even stronger.

    No matter how much or in what way I attempted to resist those two waves from the bottom of my aura weave, my resistance would only allow the pressure to grow bigger and bigger.

    ''What am I to do?''

    Feeling more puzzled than ever before, I genuinely found myself standing before the chasm.

    In my desperate wish to catch up to Fay and udy�� or rather, not to be left behind by them, I might''ve chewed a bit more than I could swallow.

    And with this thought, the waves of paralyzing emotion grew even stronger, bearing down directly onto my shoulders and slowly killing any and all desire left in me to take action, to fight against this pressure.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    ''I''m not the one to give up, am I?'' I tried to fire myself up, raising my illusory head�� Only to fall right back down and rx.

    ''Nothing matters, really,'' a thought invaded my head.

    My mind was growing sluggish, too tired to resist the allure of simply wallowing in self-pity, the solution offered by the two waves of negative feelings.

    ''It grows stronger if I resist, huh?'' Feeling how my consciousness was starting to fall prey to the allure of just giving up on the resistance��

    I did just that and gave up, once again allowing those two waves to wash over me.

    Even though I had no body, I fell down, directly into the ocean of elemental darkness, strangely happier with it being the entity to swallow me over the product of this treacherous, silvery light of the stars.

    This realityy at the bottom of an optical illusion. And despite that, the waves of mncholy and lethargy reached its bottom and struck against the surface of the core of my darkness.

    Rather than affecting me directly, though, those two emotions mixed with the elemental darkness�� painting it a slightly different hue. And once again, the pressure started to grow as more and more of the silver light''s influence pushed into my core of darkness��

    But it was at the bottom of all of that elemental darkness where I found the spark of Fay''s aura.

    And suddenly, all the puzzles fell into their ce.

    Right now, my perception moved to my core of darkness, where the pure element of my aura existed. Yet, the two waves that invaded me upon my willing invitation�� were the product of my own soul.

    My own soul, once the creator of this silver light stripped it bare from all the pretense, all the bravado, and all the things I forced myself to be to cover for who I was in reality.

    The lethargy of living as a ward of my shitty aunt. A feeling born out of the reality I found myself in.

    The mncholy of when my life turned out to be the worst because I dutifully followed the credo passed to me with myte mom''sst words.

    Those two feelings��

    ''I''ve finally got it,'' I thought when everything clicked.

    Those waves of emotions�� they weren''t made of the silver light of the stars.

    Those were the emotions that dwelled down at the very depth of my soul, emotions that the light of stars merely awoke and powered up.

    And it was only this realization that allowed me to sense what was actually happening at my core.

    It was finally, truly bing my own by bathing in the emotions that made me who I am today.

    And as if toe with a timely rescue, the spark of incandescent fire that I held on to with all my mental might suddenly burst out with mes, casting away the shadows formed by the elemental darkness.

    With this, I''ve found my answer.

    Just like I''ve helped Fay to fare through her trail by calming her down, Fay now came in with a clutch, using herself as a beacon for me to anchor all my hopes on.

    And it was her burning, white aura that continued to grow, striking right at the feelings that made the past me�� burning them out of the darkness of my core.

    I could feel the control and sensation of my body starting to return, right as this hidden world I was currently in started to fade away from my awareness.

    And it was in the middle of this process, with all sorts of different forces trying to exert influence over my soul and core, that I finally realized what was the feeling that I sensed from Fay''s aura.

    ''She''s so simple,'' I thought, smiling at my own thoughts as I blindly reached out only to grab Fay''s waist and pull her into a hug long before I could even see her again.

    ''Not only my now and my future,'' I thought, squeezing myself into Fay''s body, once again using her as an anchor that I followed to return to reality. ''Even my past, she wants to make her own.''

 Chapter 386 The core born from the darkness, now explodes with incandescent light!

    "Pete! Pete! Pete!"

    There was no sense or reason to Fay''s voice as she desperately hugged me all over, her hands dancing all over my back and arms as if she was trying to ensure I wasn''t physically hurt.

    "��" I opened my mouth, only to realize with terror that I was simply too weak to speak right now.

    But strangely enough, I had just enough energy to move my hand around a bit.

    Gritting my teeth, I used all of my willpower to raise an arm�� Only to then drop it on Fay''s shoulder and give her a short few pats.

    Sadly, that was the limit of what I could do. The limit imposed upon my physical state by the severe mental exhaustion.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "Peter!"

    Sensing the movement and then the touch, Fay grabbed my shoulders and rapidly pulled out, only to give me a long, prating stare�� And then fall forward right into my chest again.

    "Peter!"

    Rubbing her forehead against my chest, Fay failed to produce a single word beyond my name.

    "I''m sorry for worrying you."

    The regenerative ability of my supreme body was nothing to scoff at, especially when my exhaustion was merely an illusion of my mental exhaustion projecting upon my flesh.

    "I''m sorry for worrying you, but I think I will be alright now," I added, raising the precision of my words to make sure Fay understood what I meant.

    And sure, I could use our bond to pass all of those meanings through�� But in her current state of great distress, I had little to no doubt Fay would simply miss it.

    As much as our bond connected our souls and allowed them to mix during the act, on an everyday basis we tended to limit it to just its most basic and restricted form so that we wouldn''t lose touch with the physical side of our rtionship.

    After all, how was I to enjoy Fay''s voice if she would only ever use our bond to talk with me? How was I to amuse myself with all the small changesing up on her face as she spoke, as she smiled, as she pouted�� if we moved beyond that level ofmunication?

    And so, with this precaution for the health of our rtionship in ce, I had no other choice but to wait for my body to regenerate a bit of its ire before I could finally speak out and calm Fay down.

    Still, even with my assurances, Fay continued to just silently sob away within my embrace, her soul filled with the terror of a world where I wasn''t there for her.

    And that, once again, reminded me of just how much this cute puppy adored me.

    ''Her feelings for me are intense enough to rival the feelings I have for her,'' I thought while my hand fell on Fay''s back as I started to gently caress her spine.

    By now, I had no real idea what was it that made Fay interested in me. I had no idea what kind of weird stuff I did without even realizing that made her actually fall for me. And I was far beyond the point of worrying about that.

    ''There''s no need for some grand moment for two to fall for each other,'' I thought, refusing to let the negative emotions stem from the bottom of my soul and all the unresolved traumas I had to bear the weight of.

    Still, I wasn''t going to refuse those feelings.

    The sorrow, the mncholy, the desire to go back to the simpler past when my mom was still by my side, the lethargy of living under the control of people who were dead-set on bullying me and removing any avenues for me to grow as a person��

    All of those feelings were true. All of those experiences were true. But, as bad as it felt for me to acknowledge it��

    It was those feelings, those grievances, and those memories that made me into who I am today, even if the reason for many of thosey in the core of darkness that Irene forced on me and my system allowed me to make great use of.

    I stopped denying those feelings, I stopped trying to climb over them. Upon unlocking the next, sixth, level of consciousness I finally managed to realize that as much as all of those were a part of me��

    They weren''t what defined who I was. That role belonged to the fire of Fay''s aura burning at the very center of my darkness core and mixing the perfect darkness of my element with the qualities of her enthusiastic, cleansing fire.

    ''To be a man worthy of her,'' I thought, unable to resist the urge to push Fay off my chest�� all for the sake of looking up at her lovely, teary face. ''That''s what I am today. And it is as true as are all the negative feelings, emotions, and experiences that shaped me thus far.''

    Fay looked up through her tears, unable to understand for what reason I pushed her out of the hug�� Only for her face to twist in an even deeper confusion when I quickly pulled her right back, more than just eager to humor andfort her.

    "udy," I called out in the weak voice which was sadly the peak of what kind of sound I could produce.

    "What''s up?" Silently appearing slightly off to the side and several paces behind, udy invaded the very corner of my vision while making sure to move over to the side that Fay''s head and storm of her hair didn''t block.

    "Could you leave us alone for a while?" I requested in the same, weak voice as before. "I''ve made her worried, so now I need to make sure to soothe her mood. I only saw her happy and enthusiastic thus far, so I would rather not test how she will be if I wrong her and refuse to mend my ways."

    There was no denying this revolting truth.

    By growing so desperate I took the risk of opening myself up to the light of the stairs�� I wronged Fay by doing so.

    I failed to control my own impulses, regrets, and desires and went through an easily lethal process just in a bid not to hold the two of them back.

    Or, in simpler words thatcked the cover I instinctively infused my former exnation with, in my bid to catch up with the others, I was desperate not to be left behind. Not to be a burden that would prompt Fay to recalcte whether or not I was worthy of her or not.

    I allowed my own insecurities to triumph over the trust I had in Fay, leading to a situation where she was losing her senses out of fear I actually did something to myself.

    ''Sure, it worked out in the end��'' I thought, caressing Fay''s back while I could feel her slowly calming down within my embrace. ''But that doesn''t excuse me.''

    I took a deep breath and raised my eyes�� Only to realize that udy, being the good brother that he was, already left the scene.

    The clicking sound followed by the small, hissing noise of the air escaping from the seal confirmed that he went back to his sleeping capsule before hermetically sealing it, leaving the fate of his breathing to the automated venttion installed within the capsule.

    "Fay, I really need to apologize for acting recklessly like that," I whispered while moving my hands to the back of Fay''s head and pressing it into my chest, as if worried she would use this moment of my vulnerability to escape. "I was so scared that my inability, myck of talent, or whatever it was that was stopping me from oveing this trial��''

    My voice cracked beforeing to aplete stop when I had to redirect my attention to stop tears of shame and sorrow from oozing out of my eyes.

    "Pete��?" Startled by my sudden revtion, Fay pulled herself back all on her own, it being her turn to make a move to take a look at my face.

    "I just couldn''t help but worry how whatever miracle made you fall for me would exhaust. I was worried that if I grew to be too big of a burden, you would grow tired of me and��"

    Thest part of all those negative feelings I endured for the past week I didn''t even dare to utter. And so, instead, I simply shook my head before reaching out and resting my hands on Fay''s shoulders.

    "That''s why, as stupid, childish, and indirect as it might be, I want to show you how I''ve changed," I said only to raise up to my knees while moving my hands from the upper part of Fay''s shoulders to locking my hands on her armpits��

    And then lifting Fay''s light body up, only to turn her around and lower her back to the ground.

    But that was merely the beginning.

    The moment Fay''s knees touched the ground, I moved my hands off her arms and onto her back, pushing them down and towards the floor of the buggy''s main area.

    Still startled and confused by my actions, Fay rxed her hold on her end of our bond while still letting me move her body however I wanted.

    The moment she did, a small chuckle escaped from her mouth before she pressed her chest down against the buggy''s floor while twisting her hips up as if she wanted to aim her hidden garden right at my face.

    "I cannot deny the darkness that took root into the very core of what I am," I spoke out even though I knew Fay had already grown aware of all the turmoilous feelings within my soul. "But just like it is the darkness that my self was mostly shaped by, it is you that''s the current whole of my being right now."

    Leaning down over Fay''s back and pressing my front against her spine, I wrapped my hands around her waist and locked them over her tummy, giving her a weird hug that was pretty close to the position most bi-sexed animal races would enter to procreate.

    "That''s why, it''s time for me to show courage and not only im you to be mine but also prove I really believe it," I whispered into Fay''s ear while my hands danced over her stomach, one sneaking underneath her shirt and moving up to where Fay''s clothes hid her impressive bust while my other hand snuck into her panties instead.

    Still, rather than going in for some forey, I simply hooked my fingers against Fay''s panties and pants at the same time, before pulling them down and exposing her shapely ass right in front of my face.

    "It might be silly, stupid, childish, and make no sense at all," I announced, raising up from over Fay''s back only to pull down my own pants and grab at my own handle before pointing the tip of my flesh de right into the scabbard it was designed to sheathe itself in.

    "But today, I''m going to make you mine and do so with all the determination and courage I can showcase!"

 Chapter 387 One news to rule them all (r18ish?)

    If not for the clocks built into the Buggy, we would have no way of knowing the day from the night.

    And so, with the raising of the now invisible sun, I woke up Fay''s arms, on a small, makeshift bed we whipped out sometime during the night from whatever we could get our hands on.

    To my surprise, the bedding was made from just some random clothes covered with a simple nket and another nk filling in for the covers��

    Not even the greatest mattress on earth could rival it when Fay''s chest filled in for my pillow.

    After a whole night of seeking each other''s presence, Fay ended up with her long legs locked behind my back and her hands tightly wrapped around the back of my head, pulling it into the soft pillow of her chest.

    Surrounded by nothing but Fay''s softness, warmth, and fragrance, I opted to just close my eyes and cuddle up for just a little longer.

    I managed to conquer the oppressive feeling of the starlight in. Learn how to ept the power of this silvery light and make it my own.

    Sure, the pressure didn''t vanish into nothingness. The fact that I learned how to deal with it didn''t mean it no longer applied to me. I simply grew to ept it and its influence in invoking the deepest foundations of my soul right to its surface.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    In a sense, the light of the stairs intensified who I was, by invoking the powers that made me to be the way I am. But now that I''vee to realize it, I could also slightly manipte what part of my core consciousness the light of the stairs reinforced. And with the fire of Fay''s aura at the very center of the core of my soul, I could feel my dependence on this girl growing even further.

    I still felt lethargic, hoping to do nothing more but just slip into thefort of Fay''s warm embrace,y down on her chest, and let her cuddle me up into nothingness.

    I still felt mncholic, wanting nothing more but to preserve the current happiness I sourced from every tiniest way our bodies rubbed against each other.

    But I''ve also felt Fay''s desire to keep me in her hold, something that she could not get rid of even in her sleep. I could feel how her hands wrapped against me over and over again,pensating for the hold she would lose whenever her muscles would rx.

    Just like a puppy instinctively sucking on one''s fingers in its sleep, she caressed the back of my head while cradling it between her breasts, her arms, and her face.

    I still felt all of it, the lethargy, the mncholy, and the incandescent me of my desire for Fay, lusting both for her presence and her body.

    ''I guess I simply learned how to live with it.''

    Taking a deep breath, I hugged myself into Fay''s chest a bit more, pushing my face down into her soft breasts. With my face surrounded by nothing but the warmth and softness of her flesh and the sweet fragrance of her sweat, I allowed my consciousness to go for but a split second.

    "Hmmhmm��"

    Moaning through her sleep, Fay started to move around a bit, waking me up from the second phase of my slumber.

    The spots where her moving body rubbed against my skin grew a bit hotter than before, only to then explode with chilling cold when Fay rose as she woke up, stretching her arms out to the sides while giving me a perfect show of her perky, full breasts.

    ''I think I can already tell just how jealous I will be of our own kids once we get them,'' my thoughts got the better of me, pushing me to follow Fay''s example and rise up, albeit for an entirely different reason.

    "Hap!"

    I wrapped my lips around Fay''s teat while locking my hands behind her back, attacking right when she was defenseless and distracted by her own yawn.

    "Hmm?"

    With her hands moving faster than herzy, morning thoughts, Fay already embraced my head and started to rub her fingers through my hair, even going as far as to gently massage my scalp.

    Looking up, I saw Fay''s chin descend, only for her drowsy face to reveal itself before my eyes along with her surprised, mellow eyes.

    Looking down right into my face, Fay remained silent for a few seconds before putting on a small, weing smile.

    "Good morning," Fay whispered as if fearing that speaking out loud would break the magic of the moment. "But to see you all over my breast so early in the day��"

    The look on Fay''s face changed as her smile grew both wider and also, somehow, even more mellow than before.

    For a moment, I struggled to figure out what exactly changed about her. What was this profound change behind her smile that gave me a run for my money when it came to deciphering it.

    What was this sense of warmth andfort that radiated from her eyes as she happily cradled my face up her breast, only to reach out with her left hand and using her delicate fingers, shove a stray strand of hair off my forehead only to lean down and��

    ''Did she grow to be more�� motherly?'' I thought, stunned by the discovery and the ridiculouslyfortable sensation of her lips bruising against my now-exposed forehead.

    "It''s not good to be greedy," Fay''s smile grew even wider, reaching the stage of smiles I only rarely had the privilege to experience. "You don''t want to turn into a bad boy, do you?"

    Looking up into the two oceans of warmth that were Fay''s happy eyes, I could only gulp my saliva down as one question emerged from many in my mind.

    ''Does that mean she wants a kid and is ready to conceive one, or��''

    Pressed by my own, glorified curiosity, I pulled my mouth and tongue away from Fay''s tit and rose up a bit higher.

    Turning her head as she followed my movements, Fay locked her eyes on mine.

    Reaching out, I grabbed just the tip of her chin, raising it just a tiny little bit, more in an expression of dominance over actively changing the angle.

    Still, before I could even fully lean in, Fay already opened up her mouth in an inviting manner, luring me into yet another dose of intimacy before I could even have a chance to resist.

    We pressed our lips against each other, creating a funnel through which our tongues surged forth, seeking the presence of the others.

    Our breaths united, our hearths synchronized.

    But before the situation could evolve any further, I grabbed Fay by her shoulder and pushed myself away, leaving nothing but a thin strand of saliva connecting our mouths.

    "I want to try something," I whispered, reaching out with my hand for Fay''s crotch as if to follow the usual way situations like this would evolve and escte.

    Fay''s knees started to part even before my fingers reached their destination while her hips started to jerk every once in a while, as if responding to how my hand merely brushed against the skin of her abdomen as it moved down.

    Sensing no resistance, I slowlyid Fay''s back down on the makeshift bedding... Only to move down with my whole self.

    From Fay''s lips that I left after one more kiss, through her neck I just couldn''t help but decorate with several hickeys. From her breast, down her slim stomach all the way to where her indented waist started to widen at her hips.

    There,ying a long, fat, and salivated kiss over where I judged her womb to be��

    I turned my head and pressed my ear to it as if trying to trace the inner workings of Fay''s gut just with my hearing alone.

    Rather than pushing my fingers inside of her, I moved my right hand up, right to where I rested my face atop Fay''s lower abdomen, gently massaging it with just the tips of my fingers.

    Strangely enough, even something like this was enough to get Fay going, judging by how restless her body grew to be in a matter of a single moment worth of this unusual massage.

    But there was something far more important, something so overwhelming that I struggled to get a single word out of my mouth.

    "P-peter��" Drowning in the mix of drowsiness and awakened lust, Fay uttered abored call. Still, she could sense how all the turmoil in my soul suddenly subsided, calmed down by the appearance of one, singr realization that I just made with this small test of mine.

    "Fay, dearest," moving up from her stomach and then rising up to a proper sitting position, I then grabbed Fay''s waist that I just let go off�� only to pull her on top of myp, all the way to the point her moist crotch pressed down against an erection unlike any I had before.

    "What''s wrong?" Fay inquired through her drowsiness, her hands already moving to cradle all over my head as if she wanted to hug andfort me to chase all my worries away.

    "There''s absolutely nothing wrong," I assured, hiding my face in the corner between Fay''s head and shoulder while reaching down to grab her by her hips.

    With my fingers sinking deep into the soft mounds of her ass, Fay brought her hips up all on her own, simply following the tested pattern we developed between the two of us.

    Following the same procedure, I tightened up my ass and put my erection at attention, only to move Fay''s hips just a little bit, quickly taking aim and then nailing her pussy down on my dick.

    "Haaaa��"

    With the grasp of Fay''s hand over my back and head tightening, I kept pushing her hips down all the way to the point where the entirety of my junior found itself inside of her burning hot insides.

    The insides kept coiling all over my length as if trying to massage my dick in a way that would make it easier for sperm to shoot out of it.

    ''Futile effort,'' I thought, right as I pulled my face away from Fay''s side, all for the sake of looking her right in the eyes as I reached out and grasped her face between my hands.

    My thumbs wiped the corners of Fay''s eyes, slightly helping the girl toe back to her senses.

    As the light of consciousness reached its full burn within her eyes, I smiled before brushing my hand against her cheek in a loving gesture.

    "Fay��" I opened my mouth up, only to realize just how tall of an order it was for me to share the news.

    "If it''s not something wrong, then��" Seeing my struggle, Fay instantly rushed to jog her memory, trying her damnest to figure out what was troubling me all on her own. And from the looks of things, she was perfectly content simply sitting down on myp, fully prated and with my shroom poking against the gate of her womb while trying to figure out the solution.

    "Fay," I called her out again, this time taking a deep breath to prepare myself for what I wanted and had to say.

    "Fay," I called her for the third time, using my hold over her head to bring it a bit closer, only to lean forward myself and rest my forehead against Fay''s. "I think you are carrying my child."

 Chapter 388 A new aura core in Fays womb (r18ish)

    Fay''s face turned still, allowing me to gaze upon her drowsy adorableness for just a little bit longer, before her slight morning smile receded, giving way to a more serious expression.

    Fay first looked down, taking her time to process my words while doing nothing but just breathing on the spot.

    She then raised her face and looked right into my eyes with a sense of confusion resonating throughout her soul.

    Fay then looked to the sides, as if expecting people to jump out while screaming ''Surprise, you just got prankd!''.

    When she saw no oneing out to her left or right, Fay looked up, past the Buggy''s top cage and the tarp covering it to shield us from cold winds and rain. Then, her chin stumbled down as she once again hid her face by resting her forehead against my chest.

    It was only when Fay brought her chin up and locked her sights on my eyes that the sense of understanding finally started to sh in her lovely, blue pupils.

    "I am��" Fay whispered, her hand moving over to where I kept my ear just a moment ago, her fingers caressing the skin of her stomach as if a slightly stronger touch would be enough to break the bubble of happiness growing from the depths of Fay''s gut.

    Fay looked down and then brought her head back up, the look in her eyes intensifying further and further as the truth continued to dawn upon her.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    Yet, the moment she inspected her own aura wave, she noticed the very same thing that confirmed my suspicions sparked by the slight shift in her behavioral patterns.

    For how lovely, adorable, and cuddly Fay always was, she didn''t really have this caring, motherly element in her.

    Sure, she would happily cradle me in her embrace, sleep on my chest, or lend me her breasts for me to use as pillows. She would happily rock her hips to suck everyst bit of sperm out of my dick and she wouldn''t stop her kisses until her breath has fully run out.

    But still, as adorable, alluring, and outright seductive as Fay was, it was on the level of just a great, lively girl.

    It was her sudden shift to a much more deeply caring persona that prompted me to check her aura.

    And there it was.

    Beyond yet still, within Fay''s aura weave, I could see the first shy sparks of a new sun of concentrated aura forming.

    It was tiny, no bigger than the head of a needle while Fay''s reformed core would be the size of a fist. And with how it was the volume of the core that mattered rather than its surface or radius, the difference between the two was actually massive.

    But��

    When it came to my core, it was still the same core of darkness that I extracted from myself and used for my own purpose. Fay mes, while they became an integral part of it, were still an addition, a bonus that came with the upgrade if I were to put it into most strictly gaming terms.

    Fay''s situation was quite the opposite while being still the same, with her bright sun of aura having its light turn dimmer yet also, in some strange way, more intense.

    But the tiny core forming right within Fay''s womb��

    It was the same as mine, the same as Fay''s the same as both of our cores�� While still being distinctly different.

    The new core was a sun yet it only radiated darkness. But it was also an abyss that filled the world with blinding light.

    It was weird to even look at it, all the more if I actively tried to figure out what it was.

    But even if Fay couldn''t conceive anywhere further in the past than thest few days, weeks at most��

    I could somehow tell the very moment I nced upon this new concentration point of aura weave that it was the product of my aura and Fay''s aurabined.

    A product that could only be rooted in the act of creation mortals like us were allowed to pull out by nature.

    "I''m�� pregnant��" Fay whispered, her hands ceasing the caress of her stomach.

    Her insides suddenly tensed up all over my dick as Fay fell deeper into my embrace, seeking thefort of my arms in this groundbreaking moment.

    And despite just how much my love for Fay was overflowing at the moment, I patiently wrapped my arms around her frail back, enclosing her in a hug that I wished I could never open back up.

    Honestly speaking, the perspective of spending the rest of my days doing nothing but hugging Fay and enjoying each other''s presence would be enough to make me a happy man��

    Or so I was thinking right at the highest moment of happiness a man could attain.

    ''I really wish I could just stay like this with her,'' I thought to myself, gritting my teeth in mute frustration when the time finally came for us to start parting our bodies.

    "Not yet!" Fay protested the very moment I attempted to open my hug,pensating for my actions by tightening her own arms locked behind my back.

    In the current situation, I really didn''t need much.

    Just the thought that I''ve actually put a kid in Fay''s stomach��

    A pleasant thrill went down my spine.

    ''There''s this sense of full, total, and ultimate conquest,'' I observed, keenly keeping an eye on my own state of affairs.

    And with the satisfaction of iming Fay''s most important and barebone basic biological feature, I didn''t even need her to move her hips any further.

    "Fay!" Shrieking out, I grabbed at Fay''s hips before pulling her down over myp and pushing my dick all the way up to where our child-to-be continued to form aplicatedting of aura weave.

    ''Lucky bastard,'' I thought, grinning stupidly as a random thought reached my mind. ''If things are going to go as I think they will, not only you will be handsome and beautiful enough to break the hearts of half the girls in the world��

    Looking down, I couldn''t help but marvel at just how insane this tiny, mixed core was.

    I needed quite a lot of studying, questioning, and thinking toe up with the mana weave. But just by looking down, I could feel by sensing my own aura how this underdeveloped aura core was activelyying down a foundation for quite an impressivework of aura weaves.

    This lucky bastard was set for life with talent like that and parents as glorious, beautiful, and important as me and Fay!

    ''All that''s left is for us to figure out a proper way to parenting, huh?

    Even though I noticed it before Fay, that didn''t mean I was any less stunned by the revtion than she was. And quite frankly, I was still too shocked to do or even think anything of value.

    And so, unable to form a proper, cohesive line of thought, I simply focused on the pleasure, needing no more than three more swings of Fay''s hips before the caressing of her insides brought me over the edge, unleashing a wave of potential brothers and sisters down Fay''s womb.

 Chapter 389 Am I right or am I right?

    "This changes everything," udy summed up the situation once we brought him up to speed. "But at the same time, it changes nothing, doesn''t it?"

    Raising his eyes, udy looked first at Fay before moving his eyes over to my face.

    "Or does it?"

    I pressed my lips together, not exactly sure how to proceed.

    I thought over the issue ever since we finally reached our satisfaction, throughout the time we took to clean up the main area of the buggy and then finally dress ourselves up, only to then approach udy''s pod and tap on it, to indicate it was now safe for him to leave its confines.

    In other words, this wasn''t a problem I was mentally cking on. Instead, it was a problem with exactly the same weight of points for pushing through a little bit longer and deeper into the ins and for executing the second phase of this trip that was originally scheduled for in two days.

    On one side, there was the potential risk of having Fay, whilst pregnant, within the starlight ins. While it was one thing for her to be not only able to hold her own against the local pressure of the starlight, but a whole different topic when it came to how the very same starlight affected the nascent soul of our kid.

    ''It serves to perfect one''s personality, making them more true to the paradigms thaty at its foundation. But what would happen to a being that has yet to attain any sort of personality?''

    I wasn''t going to waste my time over the issue that kept the earth''s society in its grip for over a hundred years.

    And while for some it was a real issue to determine when a fetus would be a kid, for others it was just a convenient tool to throw sand into the populous eyes, giving them something to focus on while the real powers focused on screwing everyone over while their eyes were turned away.

    In other words, as this was a topic I near-religiously avoided, I had absolutely no idea when a child-to-be would grow a brain big enough for it to start developing its personality and character traits, a process that wouldn''t stop until our kid would be a proper and mature adult.

    And so, since any attempt at tackling the issue was bound to end up with me speaking about things I was severely underqualified to make any statements on, I decided to just move on to the next issue.

    If there was one thing we didn''tck at the moment, it was the various issues and angles that we had to consider our next move from.

    "Speaking for pushing through, we have the benefit of well, reaching closer and closer to our objective. Then there''s the reinforcement of the starlight that positively affects all three of us. There''s also the benefit of just following the schedule we agreed on, thus avoiding any sort of misunderstandings or problems down the line."

    Hearing my words, Fay squinted her eyes a little while gently caressing her now-clothed stomach.

    "But while all of those points still stand, there are just as many reasons for us to take a break and return back to the new camp."

    A move that was scheduled for two days, so that we could return with as little margin before the closing of the stable gate as it was safe and possible. Our return through the use of my personal portal to earth, from where we would simply ride the car back to Makary''spound, where we would use the very stable gate that I was to reinforce again to cross back to Fay''s world.

    Then, once we dealt with all of the issues at hand, we could simply go right back to where we left off, pushing through for a few more days before repeating the process over and over again, as many times as it would take us to cross the barrier of the starlight in.

    ''Thinking about that in, it''s a wonder why I''m still not qualified to fulfill even a single subpart of the main quest,'' I thought, jogging my memory for a bit before the system, which was unusually silent for thest few days, came in a clutch, revealing the familiar pop-up window of the main quest right before my eyes.

    [Main mission: Starlight in

    - Easy route - Escape the Starlight insn/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    - Advanced route - Survive on the Starlight ins

    - Master route - Uncover the secret behind the Starlight ins

    //Completing any route doesn''t lock the ability toplete the others!//

    //Rewards increase with the difficulty of the route//]

    Two days'' worth of travel by a Buggy were somehow not enough toplete either the first or second part of the quest. And worrying as it was with the prospect of what we would still have to go through in this hostilend��

    The wording of this mission also offered quite a lot of insight.

    ''So we have yet to escape the starlight ins. Adopting the light of the starlight isn''t equivalent to surviving on the in, somehow. And ultimately, learning what this pressure is all about wasn''t enough to im I''ve figured this in out.''

    I took a deep breath, taking a few more moments to consider the main quest�� Only to then push it to the back of my head, focusing on the topic I was talking about instead.

    "If we return, though, I don''t think I will be able to bring myself to risk our kid''s health by allowing you to travel with us again," I mentioned, looking back at Fay and the troubled expression that emerged on her face right afterward.

    "There''s also the issue of going against the schedule and all the questioning and nagging that will follow because of it. But��!"

    I took a deep breath, taking a moment to calm myself down and gather the courage necessary to push the words that were to follow.

    "But, given how I''ve already observed those bright spots move at times, we can''t afford to leave you behind to wait for us to return," I announced, turning my eyes over to udy. "In other words, you will get to take the trip back to the camp with us. And with it, you will get to see the might of the ce my people actuallye from."

    udy''s eyelids moved up.

    This was the first time I ever mentioned such a development. But it was also only a day''s worth of travel by buggy deep into the in when I observed those spots illuminated directly by the starlight�� moving. Find your next adventure on empire

    And while the risk of any of the nearby spots moving to cover udy while I was away was minimal�� I dared not to risk the death of the supreme serving as Etaria''s eyes and liaison.

    "Wait, are you for real?" Fay''s eyes widened as he muttered the words of shocked surprise.

    Looking over, I could see the anxiety brewing in her eyes.

    The time back on earth was supposed to be dedicated for us to rest back at our apartment and now, with the news of Fay''s pregnancy out, on having her go through a full, medicinal check-up, just in case.

    "Don''t worry," noticing the source of Fay''s anxiety, I simply grinned before throwing udy a small smirk. "We will just stuff him into a closet while we go about our business," I announced, leaning behind and prompting myself up on my hands. "It worked here, so it should work back home, am I right or am I right?"

 Chapter 390 The cost of rapid growth

    "All of those considerations rely on a single assumption, dear," Fay spoke out after patiently waiting for me to finish my deduction.

    "And that is?" Turning my head over, I asked with a fair dose of curiosity. ''Did I miss something?''

    Fay sighed lightly before moving closer and grabbing my hand, only to move it over to her perfectly t stomach.

    Rising my eyes up to her face, then back to where she pressed my hand, and then right back to her face, I looked into her eyes, failing to catch her drift.

    "Look," Fay ordered in a stern voice.

    ''But look at what?'' I wanted to ask, only to bite down on my teeth, keeping my questions to myself as I pushed my mind to figure out Fay''s intention without asking.

    And a short moment dedicated to thinking proved to be enough to solve this rtively simple mystery.

    ''How could it grow so fast?!''

    Even though the presence I''d noticed the day before was purely based on the aura core currently residing in Fay''s womb, the presence of this weird mix of my own and Fay''s cores now lost some of its vibrant essence.

    It didn''t grow weaker. In fact, within a single damn day, this core actually grew to twice its power from yesterday while gaining only a tiny little bit when it came to size.

    But if it grew stronger, how could its presence vane, one could ask.

    It was the answer to this question that made me so shocked.

    The reason why the core of what I believed to be my and Fay''s child has lost some of its luster�� Was because now there was a flesh for it to anchor itself on.

    A physical root that allowed the core to better lodge itself into the real world, using the defenses established by biology to keep the anomaly of a core safe from the direct influence of the chaotic world around that grew uniform only when talking about some insanely massive scales.

    ''Just like Earth is supposed to be closer to a perfect sphere than a damn bowling ball, if I were to distance myself far enough, the world''s aura would appear pretty much uniform and stable. It is only when putting my perspective close enough that its inner chaoses into view.''

    I released a heavy sigh, feeling the burden of yet another, potentially false or outright stupid, realization that struck me.

    ''Either way, looking from up close or from afar, our cores�� No, aura weave of any form is an anomaly. A morph of the naturally existing power that couldn''te to be and then survive to exist through time all on its own. That is unless there''s something I have yet to learn about.''

    Taking a deep breath, I allowed the fresh batch of air in my lungs, focusing on extracting as much oxygen from it while trying to stall the production of the carbon dioxide, holding my breath for as long as I could.

    This exercise allowed me to focus my thoughts, pulling them away from another topic they so eagerly moved on to and dragging them back to what I was really supposed to focus on.

    ''It grew. It grew faster than it should be possible. But even with aura, it''s still a biological process. So, all of the nutrients necessary for the cells to grow and divine and so on��''

    With my hand still atop Fay''s stomach, I raised my eyes to look at her face.

    It was only upon taking a closer look that I''ve realized Fay''s skin lost its usual luster, the light of her eyes dimmed a bit and there even were small bags under her eyes!

    All in all, she went from looking a hundred times better than the world-ss beauty of the earth to looking merely ny times better.

    ''It''s just like I thought��'' Letting go of Fay''s stomach, I brought my hand up to her cheek, resting my inner palm against her face before driving it up a bit, lifting her head so that I could stare right into her intensely blue eyes.

    "Fay, just like you asked me to look, I now want you to do the same and take a proper look at yourself," I requested while still caressing Fay''s cheek with a growing sense of concern in my soul that soon started to reflect all over my expression and eyes.

    Driving her eyes up to my face, Fay gave me a confused look�� Only to twitch and squint her eyes when she noticed the changes on my face.

    Following through with my request, Fay intentionally fell forward, perfectly confident I would be there to catch her.

    And in all honesty, she wasn''t wrong to think that.

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    By the time Fay''s lifeless body fell into my arms, her eyes were already shut close, with her mind fully focusing on the self-inspection of her internal state.

    "How��"

    To the back, udy stared at the scene with a weirded-out look on his face.

    Without the instinctive understanding that allowed my conversation with Fay to consist of merely snappy buzzwords, he was now forced to try to figure out what the hell was going on while knowing pretty much nothing beyond the fact Fay was pregnant and we were worried how the influence of the light of stars could affect our child.

    He didn''t know about the abnormal rate of growth of our child, be it the biological growth of its body or the insane growth rate of its aura-weave that would easily put him into the top ranks of ascended if not into the low ranks of supreme by the time of its birth.

    But what if the starlight infusing itself into our kid''s soul wouldn''t just exhaust its use over time, infinitely elerating its growth instead? What would that mean for us if we were to stay in this ce for another day, week, or month?

    "I think I know why you didn''t notice," I muttered while wrapping my arms around Fay''s frame and holding her in a tight hug.

    Now that she''s realized just how exhausted her body was, the safety of my embrace was what Fay both needed�� And as I could tell thanks to our bond, craved at the moment.

    Up until now, Fay forced herself to put on a brave front, focusing on the glorious side of finally reaching the stage where our love would take a physical form. But what I was only starting to notice right now, was how below the level of confidence and self-assurance that Fay disyed to the world around her��

    She still had all the worries and doubts any woman would have upon learning of her first pregnancy.

    Sure, those were joyous news. And no matter what anyone would try to im, I was sure she was happy with that news.

    But that didn''t mean she wasn''t gued by worries, stress, uncertainty and doubts. And it was those very emotions that I targeted while cradling her into my embrace in a pointless attempt at replicating the subdimension Fay once created with her hair.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Powerless to manage my aura on that level, I could only keep my hands wrapped around her frame, hoping for my body warmth to soothe Fay''s strained nerves and offer her sce.

    "I don''t want our kid toe at the cost of your well-being," I announced in a hushed voice, not so eager to let udy into our private world for just the two of us. "And as happy as I am to learn of your blessed state, I''m always and forever going to prioritize you above anything and everything else."

    Patting one of my hands against Fay''s back while using the other to brush my fingers through her lush, white hair, I suddenly decided that right now was just the right moment to push through the agenda that formed in my mind the second I''d realized just what kind of prize Fay had to pay for our child to grow inside of her so damn quickly.

    And so, I first rxed my hold over Fay''s frame to indicate to her about theing change. Then, as soon as she threw me a curious stare, I grabbed the girl by her shoulders and pushed her away as far as I could without letting go of her shoulders or straining my joints.

    "For our child to grow so fast, it''s been literally cannibalizing you. Draining your biological life force for the sake of its own growth.

    While I do believe it''s the influence of starlight that led to this conclusion, it''s also the very same starlight that gave you the sense of growing stronger, thus masking the side effects of having to sacrifice your own health for the sake of rapid growth of our child."

 Chapter 391 Final decision (Thats the chapter title, not some breaking news)

    "That''s��"

    Hearing how I understood the peculiar situation we found ourselves in, Fay hesitated.

    Her eyes turned a bit wider only for her to then turn them down as if to avoid the scrutiny of my sight.

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    Her hand moved up to rest upon her stomach again, slightly caressing it up and down in spite of her clothes getting in the way.

    "You know, even after I checked myself up�� I might be tired, but I''m in a really bad state yet," Fay muttered, refusing to look me in the eye as she did so, even going as far as to put a chokehold on our connection.

    Yet, rather than trying to hide something from me�� I could tell she was so on the edge when it came to making her decision, she simply didn''t want my worry for her to factor in on that.

    "So you want to stay?" I asked, even though I pretty much already knew the answer.

    "If it means our child will grow stronger?" Fay replied with a question on her own, only to then raise her face and nod it. "Yes. That''s why, rather than leaving right away, I would like to keep observing it for a little bit longer."

    Squinting my eyes, I simply stared at the girl for a long while, battling my own thoughts in the privacy of my mind.

    Turning my eyes to the side, I checked the buggy''s onboard clock, confirming we still had about thirty hours left before our scheduled return to Earth via my personal portal which would leave us with an hour window to reach Makary''spound, go through the stable gate and prepare everything I needed to reinforce it again.

    ''But if that''s how much she weakened in just the few hours since I''ve noticed it, how much worse will she get if we stay for yet another day?''

    Not knowing when the conception happened, we couldn''t really judge how much of an effect the light of the stars brought forth. And from what I saw so far, Fay''s condition wasn''t permanent.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    What''s more, there was a chance that just feeding her several times her usual rations would be enough to make up for the biological exhaustion caused by the fetus desperately feeding on whatever it could to match the growth rate of its aura weave��

    "One day, twenty-four hours from now," I announced. "Inner and outer check every hour, both by yourself and by me. And while driving, I will keep feeding you high-nutrient and calorie food."

    There were quite a lot of things that I had to bnce out.

    From how high the priority list the mission of crossing the starlight in was, now that it was the only and main request put forth by Etaria and, by extension, the empire.

    Through the ability to spread the influence of our project onto newnds with different political structures from the ce, we found ourselves in, allowing for much greater flexibility in how we would conduct our politics.

    Then there was the matter of just how quickly the seemingly slow build-up of starlight in our bodies continued to umte within us. And that, in turn, affected not only our personalities as we grew closer to our true selves based on the paradigms that our characters grew from�� But also how that starlight both put a strain on our aura weave yet also actively nourished it.

    To put it in easier, more earthly terms, it was like a body-builder somehow working his brains out while, at the same time, letting his muscles rest. A perfect cycle of damage and repair that led to the reinforcement of the affected tissue.

    And sure, aura weave had nothing to do with biology, muscles, or tissues for as far as I knew�� but from what I saw thus far, it still obeyed the same principles.

    ''When in Rome, you speak Roman I guess,'' I thought, pulling back a step to gauge Fay''s reaction to my offer.

    "I mean��" Fay looked down as she immersed herself in her thoughts, taking her time to analyze all the ins and outs of the suggestion. And by the time she brought her head back up and finally dared to look me in the eyes, there were no more doubts or hesitations visible anywhere on her face.

    "That works," she replied, only for her expression to soften right when she reached out with her hand for my face.

    "And you don''t have to worry as much as you do right now," Fay breathed softly while lowering her head over my cheek and caressing it with her gentle, delicate fingers. "The moment my state starts rapidly deteriorating, the moment I feel bad or even have a feeling something might go wrong, I won''t hesitate to raise an rm."

    I stared right into Fay''s face. As she stared right back into my eyes, I couldn''t help but simply gulp my saliva before heavily breathing out as I lowered my head and retreated a step.

    "That''s settled, then," I announced, only to turn my head over to where udy was silently observing our quick and hard-to-understand exchange. "Do you have any input over this n?"

    udy first raised his left eyebrow before leaning his head over his left shoulder while keeping his eyes, or rather - his expression, locked on me.

    "So I do get a say in this?" the stoic man asked while giving me an ironically overreacted surprise.

    "Just tell us what you think and whether you agree with it or not," I requested, allowing the hint of my internal exhaustion to reveal itself through my voice.

    udy''s right eyebrow joined its twin in its movement up the man''s face. Still, even though I could tell he was slightly irritated by something, ultimately, he decided not to act upon his feelings.

    "Every second I spend in this ce is greatly beneficial to my control over the aura," udy admitted before shrugging his shoulders. "So I''m all for staying here as long as possible. But that doesn''t mean I''m not curious about the ce you guyse from that you''ve mentioned.

    So, if it''s a choice between leaving now and seeing your home or leavingter and not seeing it, I would definitely choose the former," udy reveals, only to finally reveal a small smile on his lips that quickly evolved into a proper smirk.

    "Beggars can''t be choosers, and being as much at your mercy as I''m here, I''m pretty much just a beggar. A hoodlum hired to keep petty thieves and stupid youths away," udy stated, his words quickly turning dark as if to oppose the bright smirk on his lips.

    "But from what I see, we are not in a situation where we actually need to choose. So, I say," udy''s smile grew slightly wicked, "why decide between staying and visiting your ce, if we can safely do both?"

    I squinted my eyes, staring at the man as I reconsidered for the unkempt time whether it was the right call to bring him over to earth, even if it was only for the sake of keeping him safe from the scenario when the nearest spot of direct starlight would move and scorch the man''s brain with its near endless intensity.

    Still, he was right.

    Save for the added burden of Fay''s physique, something that we could try to offset by just making her rest and eat more, there was no real benefit to leaving our mission on hold any sooner than originally nned.

    In all honesty, the more I thought about it�� the clearer it became that if not for my Fay-oriented worry, there would be no question of whether to stay or leave to begin with. And with Fay herself telling me not to worry all that much��

    "I guess it''s decided," I sighed, before allowing the corner of my lips to curve up in a small, slightly devious smile.

    "We are not going to stay here, though," I announced, grabbing Fay''s hand as I already started to pull her towards the Buggy''s driver''s seat, a ce that was left abandoned ever since we stopped the vehicle all those days ago. "Since the pressure of the light grows the deeper into the in we go, then how about we make the most of the time we have left in here?"

 Chapter 392 Nowhere to be seen

    "How are you doing?" I asked softly while gently poking Fay''s side with just the tip of my finger.

    That much was absolutely necessary, given how much she liked to focus on driving when we were�� well, driving.

    Putting her foot on the brakes, Fay slowed the buggy down to a mere crawl before raising her eyes and taking a moment to think.

    "I think I''m good?" she replied, struggling to give a concrete,prehensive, and assured answer after a mere moment of self-check-up. "What about you?"

    ''Is it a good sign that even such a simple question is enough to fill me with happiness?'' I asked myself when I sensed my skin prickle up as a wave of distant, slight pleasure moved up my spine.

    "I''m perfectly fine," I replied, only to turn my smile into a slight grimace. "Or so I would be if things were making any damn sense!"N?v(el)B\\jnn

    Hearing myint, Fay only rolled her eyes with a small smile before moving her foot from the brakes to the gas and pressing down on it.

    Fueled by the richer fuel mix exploding within the pistons of its engine, the buggy sped up in a sh, quickly climbing back to the same velocity it had just before Fay slowed it down.

    Forty kilometers an hour. A crawl for a car on a proper road. A speed that even those still applying for the license would consider quite slow.

    Sure, thanks to the off-road nature of the buggy, we could easily push to twice that speed�� But our logistic vessels that independently followed after our buggy could never reach speeds that high, not without tripping on a slight unevenness of the terrain and falling over.

    In the end, though, forty kilometers per hour was a speed that all those who tried to cross the starlight in could only dream of achieving. And that led to quite the sharp rise of the intensity of the light of stairs infused within the air, steadily raising the pressure�� and the benefits this pressure brought forth for our strength.

    I could feel the pressure growing with how easily my mood would swing back to the nostalgia and lethargy�� but as this pressure reinforced the core aspects of one''s soul, it also became the fuel for the fire of Fay''s aura within my darkness core.

    The mncholy made me sad. Lethargy made mezy and sapped my motivation to do anything. A perfectbo for trapping someone within this in, turning them into the pitiful nourishment for the local nts.

    But at the same time, Fay''s closeness was more than enough to dispel my sadness, recing it with pure joy andfort. And when it came to lethargy, having Fay sit down right upon myp as we crammed ourselves into the singr driver''s seat��

    Feeling the weight of her ass bearing down upon my crotch was the one and only source of excitement I needed to ward off the pressure of my lethargy. But with the very force that put this pressure on me actively stoking the me of Fay''s aura within my soul, all the aspects rted to her only grew stronger.

    Her presence turned fromforting to soothing. Her adorableness turned into sexiness.

    And mere ten minutes after we picked up our trip right where we left it, I could hardly think of anything else but my desire to just bend Fay over the buggy''s steering wheel before iming her hips, for the unkempt time, all for myself.

    And that''s where my hourly check-ups came from, giving me something to focus on beyond just being on the lookout for the spots of direct starlight falling right into the path ahead.

    As strange as it might sound, having a task to focus on made it a lot easier to weather the terms of one''s presence on the in.

    In the end, though, we didn''t get to travel far. After merely two hours of driving deeper and deeper into the in while constantly checking whether we all could still hold against the pressure, we reached a point where we had no other choice but to make a new stop.

    "This one''s massive," I revealed, staring right into a stadium-sized spot of starlight so direct, rather than nourishing the grass of the in it actively burned it out, leaving a dark spot of empty and dead earth right in the middle of the lush in.

    "I can tell," Fay threw, leaning over the steering wheel in an instinctive yet futile attempt at spotting out where the whole ce ended.

    "Do we drive around it?" udy suggested as he popped up from the back of the oversized buggy''s main floor. His eyes twitched a little when he noticed the massive sigil of death engraved into the very flesh of the giant in. As it turned out, it wasn''t enough to make the man exhibit any sort of excessive reaction, though.

    "I mean, we could��" I muttered, looking over to the side to spot where the circr spot of instant death ended, the force of the stairs cutting off within a single inch, with no more but a secondary shine born from the starlight reflecting off the ground to turn the edge of the death-zone into a slight, narrow blur.

    "But?" udy asked, turning his head to the side to give me an intense look.

    "Excuse me?"

    udy hesitated for a second.

    "You sounded like you were going to add, ''but,'' and then say something that would make it obvious we should NOT go around it."

    Patting Fay on her hand to give her a signal to carefully slow down, I turned my head over the shoulder and looked at the man''s face.

    "It''s nothing concrete, just a feeling," I revealed the truth, before casting another gaze towards what seemed like an edge of the nearly perfectly circr shape. Yet, no matter how I looked, its blurry nature made it pretty much impossible to actually determine the location where the influence of direct starlight ended.

    Sensing the focus and attention of both of mypanions, I simply sighed a few times, using this moment to gather and sort my thoughts.

    "It''s just a feeling, but I don''t think we should even attempt crossing over to that side," I pointed out to the right, to where I could more or less still make out the general shape of the edge between the patch of the mind-frying light and the otherwise pretty normal in. "And where ites to the left��"

    Most of the spots of direct light on the stairs were reaching a perfectly circr shape. Yet, as unnatural as it was for something created by nature, right now, we are quite a lot closer to the right edge of the illuminated zone. And while passing by the right of the starlight circle came with a mind-numbing sense of terror growing from deep inside of me��

    If we wanted to pass it over its left edge, we would not only have to backtrack roughly an hour of progress, then drive for one, or two hours more to the left, before finally turning the buggy into the orientation it was in right now, making it rush towards the left side of the deadly zone.

    Both solutions sucked balls. But the option of going left came with yet another, major downside.

    Because just far enough for my eyes to still catch the sight of them, the hills started to converge into a single line, turning into increasingly high mountainous structures.

    In other words, even if we went for the left edge of the starlit zone, we were likely to end up facing insurmountable mountains.

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    And as if all of that wasn''t enough, there was still the topic that gued me ever since I figured out what this refining pressure was.

    The problem�� of the changes within my soul and aura weave, changes that my system should be the first to register�� Were changed that were nowhere to be seen on my status screen!

 Chapter 393 Is this all an illusion?

    ''First the quests, now the stats��'' I thought to myself in the short moment of break I allowed myself from the task of spotting the starlit zones. ''Just what the hell is going on with my system?!''

    [Level: 250]

    [Strength: 40]

    [Agility: 40]

    [Wisdom: 40]

    [Intelligence: 40]n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    [Endurance: 40]

    [Aura 258]

    [Usable points: 0]

    All the stats were exactly the same as when I brought them all the way up to the former maximum.

    In other words, assuming the limit of my power grew exponentially with each rank as it happened so far, I boasted merely half of the strength that a supreme of my kind should be able to.

    All my stats were capped at ten while I was a mere mortal. They went up to twenty when I became an ascender and then to forty upon bing a promoted ascender.

    ''Assuming there''s no step that everyone skips and the rate at which my limits grow remains the same, all my stats should be capped at eighty points each.''

    I did the calction for the unkempt time, making sure I didn''t make some silly mistake somewhere along the line.

    But the math was simple and straightforward.

    Every realm that I''ve crossed would double my limits. And if such was the case for a supreme as well��

    Then why did my stats refuse to grow? Or what was even worse, the usable points that I could assign to my stats refused to grow too, as if their growth back when I first stepped into this mysterious ce was but a memory imnted in my brain rather than what actually had happened.

    ''Hell, this really doesn''t make any damn sense.''

    I could feel the influence of the in''s pressure growing and affecting my aura weave. I could tell that I had grown stronger since the day I stepped into this ursednd, and yet��

    ''Maybe it''s all but an illusion?'' I instantaneously red up so much Fay twitched, noticing it even while hyper-focused on driving us safely across the wilderness of the open in.

    After all, while it was pretty much t�� On a scale that applied to driveability, it wasn''t all that t whatsoever.

    A huge boulder sitting atop the in would mean nothing for the in''s general level of evenness but would be an obstacle Fay would have to actively avoid unless she wanted to roll the buggy over.

    And as annoying as it could be, this rule applied to every unevenness of the ground, every hole, small hill, thicker bush, or literally any other potential obstacle.

    With all of that in mind, it was no wonder Fay didn''t dare to rx even for a second even when she was driving so rtively slow. And so, for her to notice my sudden upset��

    "Don''t worry, just a random thought," I spoke out before Fay could fully lose her focus, forcing her to bring the buggy to a stop.

    Thankfully, thanks to my quick wit and noticing the change, I managed to calm Fay before she would slow down.

    We had a lot of distance to cover in order to get to the left side of this overly massive spot of direct rays of starlight.

    Yet, just like when I tried to leave the ins back during my first venture into it, the distance between us and the mountains in the distance didn''t seem to shrink at all.

    ''Is it just an optical illusion of distant objects appearing to be much closer than they are in reality?'' I considered the possibility, only for a long wrinkle to appear all over my forehead. ''Honestly, I wish that would be the case.''

    If there was an opening between the massive mountains in the distance and the edge of the starlit zone, we could safely pass through. But if it was the ins confusing our perception of space or outright bending it��

    ''Yeah, there''s no benefit to assuming either scenario,'' I thought, giving Fay''s stomach a quick rub before blinking my eyes a few times and giving our surroundings a quick, sweeping look.

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    For now, no additional starlit zone blocked our path ahead. There were no other zones to our left, making the trip along the massive zone''s edge pretty safe thus far.

    And pretty safe it remained, all the way to the point where I finally realized that my earlier hopes were quite unfounded.

    By the time we''ve reached the spot where the hills started to actually converge and turn into a singr row of ever-growing mountains, we have still yet to get past the starlit zone.

    "Should we turn back?" udy suggested once Fay brought the buggy to a stop, all so I could share the news with everyone and receive their input on the situation without one hell of a danger of flipping the car we were in on some random, small obstacle Fay could miss when distracted.

    "By now, there''s no point. We are nearing the scheduled time for our return, so we would have to put it off for the next part of the trip," I quickly countered while shaking my head. Then, I took a quick nce at the clock on the buggy''s dashboard before looking in the same direction we''ve traveled in for thest four hours.

    ''The space bending, the distances mismatching, the system not recognizing the influence of the light of stars upon my aura weave and core��''

    I counted up just the most prominent of the inconsistencies that riddled this strangend. In reality, there were many more small points and issues that only arose when we entered into the in but they didn''t appear significant enough for me to even think about them.

    "We still have two hours left, so how about we just keep going?" I suggested before looking out in the very direction I wanted us to go. "Who knows, maybe there will be a lucky pass through the mountains somewhere due west?"

    As little as I trusted it, the onboardpass continued to im that we were going west, even though it pretty much broke all the physics and math that I knew. For how else, if not by breaking the most basic rules of how maths worked, one could travel in a straight line while remaining parallel to the curvature of a massive circle?

    In the end, given how little to no better choice we had, no voice of opposition arose to challenge my suggestion. And before we could even properly stretch our limbs out, we got ourselves back to our usual spots before resuming the travel��

    Travel that onlysted for an additional hour, where one, extremely significant change forced us to tread a lot more carefully than before.

    "Peter, can you see it?" Fay asked in what I could only consider as just another, extremely ordinary moment.

    We weren''t any closer to the actually massive mountains than we were before. And what was even worse, the edge of the starlit zone didn''t seem to curve at all, turning into a straight line that barred us from using the easiest possible route for passing through this massive chain of oversized mountains.

    "See what?" Weirded by how Fay would be the one to initiate a talk while driving, I looked out and stretched my vision as far as I could��

    Only to fail to notice anything out of the ordinary.

    "Don''t look on the ground, look up," Fay suggested, even going as far as to lift one of her hands from the steering wheel and point out into the sky, pretty much in a line perfectly aligned with the direction we were going.

    Following Fay''s instructions, I looked up�� Only to end up with the exact same result as before.

    "What do your fox-like eyes see, Fay?" I asked, mimicking the legendary quote from a movie series that has long since earned the de of being the greatest movie ever filmed before the era of social unrest that brought an end to creativity and proved the author of the story behind the movie right in his quote of how evil cannot create anything, but only parody and destroy what good created.

    "You seriously can''t see it?" Fay, for the very first time since she first sat on myp behind the wheel, turned her eyes away from the path without stopping the car.

    "See what, dear?" More annoyed with myself than at Fay for her insistence, I tried again only to fail just as I did before.

    There was nothing in this damn sky that was out of the ordinary!

    "Look closer," Fay requested, fixing the position of her hand to point me out to what she was talking about again. "Just below the clouds."

    Finally, with all the hints dropping and time passing, I managed to catch on to what Fay saw quite a while ago already. And it was also Fay to finally name her finding.

    "It''s smoke!"

 Chapter 394 First Imperial to step on Earth

    Stay tuned to empire

    "It''s smoke!"

    Those two simple words came bearing a heavy meaning.

    Out in this empty in devoid of anything but the most bare geological features, there were only a few ways for a fire to appear.

    And every single one of them spelled trouble.

    "udy," I stretched out my neck to look over.

    "Yeah, I can see it too," udy replied while stretching his arms out.

    Standing up from one of the chairs bolted to the back of the buggy''s tform, he moved over to the front of the vehicle and looked out past the reinforced windshield.

    "It''s too small for a big fire," Fay noticed under her nose.

    Pulling my head back to its ce over Fay''s shoulder I examined the smoke again.

    "I guess we could slow down a bit?" I suggested, only to bite my lips as I hesitated. ''With the bending of the space, whether it is an illusion or not, it might be still quite far. And we don''t really have the time to start an entirely new adventure��''

    Taking a deep breath, I gritted my teeth before moving my hands from Fay''sp to her shoulders.

    "No, we should stop right here and now."

    A single look at the clock confirmed the necessity of this decision.

    With barely thirty minutes till our scheduled return, we really didn''t have the spare room to cram yet another activity in.

    ''It''s not a big deal to return early. But with nomunications and how vital the gate is to the logistics��''

    "Sure."

    Fay didn''t protest, letting go of the gas and gently pressing down on the brakes.

    The buggy soon rolled down to a crawl beforeing to a full stop.

    With the smoke in the distance exactly as far as it was when Fay first noticed it, who knew how long it would take us to reach the source of that smoke. And reach it we had to, for ity directly on our path to the edge of the starlit zone.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "I will take care of the hydraulics," I called out, moving my hands down onto Fay''s waist, only to lift her up and then stand up myself. "Can you lock the cargo bots?" I turned over to udy.

    "Yeah, leave it to me."

    The imperial supreme ran up to the left of the two massive openings in the Buggy''s cage before somersaulting over the safety barrier and dropping down some distance to the ground.

    "Wait, now that I think about it," I was ready to get down to lower the Buggy''s elongated suspension systems when I cast another look towards the massive, burnoutnd under the scorching pressure of the direct ray of the light of the silvery light of the stars. "I think we should move the buggy just a little bit further away from it."

    I couldn''t see any fluctuations in the edge of this particr zone. Unlike the smaller ones, this barrier-like entity was simply way too massive to shift around. And yet��

    "It will do us no good if we don''t ount for the movement of the light, or the bending of the space that sometimes urs in this ce."

    Fay looked over before sitting back down and restarting the Buggy while I moved over to the cage to call udy back.

    Right then and there, my worries about bending the space finally came true, for even after several minutes of driving away from the barrier�� We simply couldn''t gain any distance over it!

    ''Maybe that''s how it works?'' I thought, finally recognizing a pattern.

    We could traverse as far down every direction as we wanted as long as it brought us closer to the barrier. And that had to be why, no matter how long we went in a straight line along the edge of what should be a curve, the reading on the Buggy''spass remained the same.

    We kept driving east yet we somehow found ourselves nearing the point of pretty much traveling north, despite never turning away from the east.

    "I guess there''s no point trying if it''s impossible," I summed up the ultimately futile endeavor before hurrying back to all the tasks we would''ve otherwisepleted already.

    Yet, while I was down by the Buggy''s bottom, switching the buttons to lower its oversized suspension, I noticed something quite strange.

    Controlled by a remote in udy''s hand, the two cargo bots with our supplies drove forth and back freely. And in udy''s attempt to properly park them by the buggy sides, those bots somehow went against the restraint that trapped us within the in.

    "Curious, isn''t it?" Fay asked right as she dropped down and moments before the air started to hiss away from the buggy''s system, lowering the pressure and thus allowing the weight of the vehicle''s cabin to press the flexible suspension down.

    In the end, this simple process reduced the frame of the vehicle against the backdrop to roughly a fourth of its original size, allowing it to somewhat blend into the surroundings thanks to the dimmer nature of the star-illuminated in.

    "I''m done!" udy called over, already walking back, carrying a small backpack in his hand with the few souvenirs he refused to part ways with.

    "We are all good too," I called back before looking over at Fay.

    "It truly is," I answered her question from before with a small smile. And with udy joining us, there was only one thing left for me to do.

    ''Time to go back home,'' I thought, swinging my hand and summoning my personal portal like usual.

    Internally already knowing that udy was going to pass through, I could now watch how the usually stoic man stumbled to the back when a flower of purple suddenly appeared right before us, blossoming into a sizeable hole in space.

    "Let''s go back," I called before grabbing Fay''s hand and braving ahead, easily freeing us from the confines of the looped space of the starlight in by just�� going to another world.

    Emerging from the portal, we stepped into a special room within Makary''spound where I''dst used my personal portal. A momentter, udy followed through, bing the very first imperial of Fay''s world to step upon Earth.

 Chapter 395 Changes in the Patriarchate

    The massacre at the steps.

    That was the name the capital''s popce came up with the name for the brutal culling of the nobles that never happened before in the long history of the kingdom.

    It was an unprecedented event that cast a shadow of fear and terror upon all the freefolk of the capital. For if Banjay dared to raise his hand against the powerful nobles, why wouldn''t he raise his hand against merchants? And what would stop him from massacring mere peasants?

    Taken aback by such a bloody act, people in the capital''s taverns, where they would meet after work in order not to linger on the streets, came up with various ideas for how the Patriarch King would punish the unruly minister��

    And so, when the Pce broke the news and announced that rather than being sentenced to execution, Banjay would receive a promotion to the minister of interior, the capital visibly grew silent and steady.

    People literally stoppeding out of their houses or refused to go to work, scared that just by appearing in public, they would insult the new, great lord and bring his wrath upon their innocent heads.

    But the standstill of an entire town could onlyst for long. Soon, the food people ran out of supplies, forcing them to make first, daring trips to the food markets.

    The merchants who dared to act in that time, ended up rolling in money due to how theirpetition pretty much removed themselves from the equation. And as people started to earn more and more, bankrolled by the fear of theirpetition and the normal needs of the capital''s citizens��

    As this process developed, two things became apparent.

    First, those who ignored the rumors about the bloodthirsty minister and kept up with their daily lives ended up settling for the best in this new reality. And as they kept going with their lives as they did before��

    The effects of the culling started to show themselves to the public.

    Two criminal guilds fell to the capital guards within a week. And merely three dayster, thanks to the great bravery of countless guards who rushed toplete the task, four smaller but equally harmful groups became nothing more but corpses dangling down the walls of the Capital''s Keep.

    The definitive end to all the major crime groups within the capital, something that could never happen before due to the nobles interfering with the guards and often financing those very groups themselves, allowed the citizens to breathe a sigh of relief.

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    Still, as everything started to move in the right direction and people started to ovee their fear of the new minister and tried to return to their daily lives�� A new problem arose.

    With only a part of the merchants, farmers, and craftsmen from all over the city returning to normalcy, the supply of all sorts of manufactured items or services quickly grew to be insufficient when facing nearly the entire poption of the capital.

    Contrary to the rich craftsmen, self-sufficient farmers, and merchants who knew better than anyone how to manage their finances, amon person couldn''t allow themselves to just idle away for weeks at a time.

    The problem of prizes rising for literally everything brought more money to those who dared to go against the flow but also put a heavy burden on all those who weren''t as fortunate in life.

    Some city officials started to openly protest Banjay policies upon seeing the signs of the city''s decay as hints of the imminent disaster if not a total copse. Those who refused to go back to their normal life gathered and petitioned the king to remove the newly appointed minister for his influence would only bring ruin to the capital, saving their enemies the effort of conquering it.

    Then, rallied by some unknown sponsors, even some of themoners started to protest out in the streets, criticizing the minister for the rising cost of living unwarranted by anything beyond the bloody act hemitted.

    Then, exactly two weeks after Banjay''s promotion, the Pce brought forth two announcements to be spread by the royal heralds throughout the capital.

    First, ever since his promotion, Banjay has left the city to finish up some work up north, at the Basal fortress. ording to the sparse information the heralds shared with the crowd, he was there nning yet another devious trick against the empire, set on exploiting the gap in their defenses created by the victory he was the architect of.

    Secondly, a massive caravan with all the things the capitalcked was merely an hour away from the gates!

    As it turned out, while he was out in the north, Banjay assigned his former senior and mentor, the hero Salicious, to ransack the holdings of all the nobles whose members of the family took part in the uprising.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    Leaving behind just enough supplies for the locals to properly survive until the royal officials would arrive to reorganize thends taken over from the religious nobles, Salicious then brought most of the enormous wealth those nobles managed to gather back to the capital.

    In a market where there were barely enough traders to provide the goods and less than enough farmers and craftsmen to actually provide the goods in question, the massive onught of carriages that Saliciousmanded became the crutch that stopped the rampant rise of the prizes for everything.

    ording to some, on the very day, the wheat taken from the traitorous nobles allowed the prize of grain at the food market to fall down by a third within the very first day. Two dayster, the prize returned to how it was before all the chaos ensued�� Only to then drop just a little further, reaching levels below the average prize from during the unchallenged reign of the nobles.

    It was also on the day of Salicious return that Banjay himself made his way back to the capital, before doing what the entire city feared and throwing himself at the work that had stacked up since he left for the north.

    First, Banjay dealt with the officials by raising their wages by a huge margin but also imposing a total rity act, that made their finances, in great part, essible to anyone interested.

    And with the patriarch-king endorsing new, anti-corruptionws, the act of checking the finances of random officials became the pasttime for all sorts of merchants and even officials themselves, all enticed by the rewards for reporting an actual case of corruption that greatly exceeded any amount one could gain from the corruption itself.

    This and the next project would normally be way too much of a burden on the royal treasury to even happen�� But as it so happened, Banjay suddenly found himself sitting atop a literal mountain of wealth robbed from the estates of the rebellious nobles and was now preparing a second mountain of gold just in case having just one wasn''t enough.

    It was on the third day after his return that Banjay announced yet anotherw, introducing the reorganization of all thends seized from the rebellious nobles and the following auction on which not only nobles but also merchants and craftsmen would bid for parcels the seizednd was split into.

    That move pacified any and all protests by the middle ss, for all those who either made it big in the recent two weeks of crisis or those who saved their wealth as it happened, all rushed to buy out as much of thend as they could, only introducing more money and more money into Banjay''s stockpile.

    "By now, it is believed that you are building a third pyramid using nothing but the gold coins. And that concludes my report," Oxxy, Banjay''s secretary, read out from the scroll he held in his hand.

    "Third pyramid, huh?" Banjay sighed as he weakly replied, struggling to even raise his eyes to the much younger man. "Earlier it was piles, then it was mountains and now it''s pyramids. But where did the number threee from?" he asked while uttering a long whine that instantly bounced all over the naked walls of the room he was in.

    Akin to prison, the ce only had a single window and single, extremely solid door, with three sets of desks stacked with papers inside.

    Beyond himself, Banjay only had two ountants to each of his sides and then Oxxy to help him deal with the entire thing as a whole.

    "That''s right, sir," Oxxy smiled lightly before ncing over at the room at sighing. "Little do they know, no locks, gates, or rules can stop you from spending everyst gold coin you can get your hands on," Oxxy smiled even further only to thenugh out, "Isn''t that right, boss?"

 Chapter 396 The truth behind the miracle at the Basal fortress

    "Isn''t that right, boss?" Oxxy looked over at Banjay with a small smirk on his lips and a look of anticipation in his eyes.

    "A gold coin saved in treasury��" Banjay raised his face and spoke out��

    "�� is a gold coin that doesn''t do its job," everyone else in the room chanted, Oxxy included, finishing up Banjay''s favorite, money-rted quote. Yet, save for Banjay''s direct assistant, everyone else remained seated, not even lifting their heads from the piles of papers stacked before them.

    Chanting the golden rule for gold coins was one thing and cking on the job, even if only for a moment, was a whole new can of worms.

    ''It seems that hiring exclusively from the military has its perks,'' Banjay thought, scanning the room for a second before putting on a small smile and turning back to his own work.

    And he had a lot of it.

    Taking over the Basal fortress was merely the first step of the n.

    Which, given how the victory and breaking the siege wasuded as abination of military genius and a miracle if not outright a divine intervention, didn''t really bode well for a n that started with an impossibility like that.

    For all intents and purposes, the imperial siege of the Basal fortress was the end of the Imperial, several-year-long scheme that started with weakening the kingdom, went through buying out the less important nobles and sponsoring their rise to the top, and was supposed to conclude with the Imperial legions breaking past the choke-point and spilling over into the hilly fields before the capital.

    Banjay knew about this n for nearly as long as it was in the y. He was one of the first nobles to sell out to the empire, after all, so he managed to gain quite a high rank within the conspiracy.

    It was by using the money, contacts, and influence of the empire that Banjay managed to form a special troop that, for thest two years, continued to set up the pieces necessary for the miracle at Basal to happen.

    From raiding the imperial supply lines, through hiking the prices of the stuff the legions needed to buy from local merchants, even going as far as assassinating variousmanders, influential figures�� Or the opposite, those who most vehemently shouted for changes, for ridding of the corruption within the legion''s cadre, for improving the situation of a regr soldier��

    The Imperial legions that were the pride and joy of the emperor herself, turned from an elite, highly-determined, and well-maintained scourge for the imperial enemies into nothing more but a ragtag bunch of criminals.

    It simply wasn''t worth the effort to try to change the legions to what they used to be, thus pushing all those who had a higher standard of service to either relocate, change legions, or outright conclude their service.

    This was the true secret of how the tiny Narr state managed to defeat the great legion thatid siege to the most crucial point of the kingdom''s defense.

    It was no miracle nor a divine intervention, but two years'' worth of Banjay ying both sides of the conflict while feeding the necessary intelligence to the cartographic unit, which was the codename for the group of saboteurs, spies, and all the other kinds of lowest of the low that Banjay so happily made use of.

    But now that the Nn crown secured the victory while its citizens struggled to decide whether to celebrate or to keep fearing the bloody minister��

    The minister himself was bogged down with work, desperately trying to keep the miraclesing, for nothing less would suffice if he wanted the rest of his long-term strategy to work.

    "They are moving a lot faster than I expected they would," Banjay muttered under his nose as he held a simple, short, and to-the-point report directly from one of the cartographers.

    "Where are the sightings from?" Oxxy asked, already moving to the far end of the treasury room, where a massive drawing served as a simplified map.

    "The report is from a week ago and it came from��" Banjay looked down at the rustic paper, searching for the hidden code that would rte to the location where the report came from. "Fuck, the port city of Huban."

    Oxxy''s hand froze as he brought it up to add a marker to the map. Discover exclusive tales on empire

    "Wait, in a week?" Banjay''s assistant asked while his eyes turned wide.

    The news was so unexpected, that even two of Banjay''s ountants stopped their work and raised their eyes to the map.

    "How likely it is the empress sent the reinforcement in advance?" Banjay asked out into the air, despite knowing the answer already.

    The chances the empress wouldmit yet another legion of hers to this specific part of the southern front was�� unlikely. There were way too many barbarians harassing the empire to the far southeast for her to do so.

    ''In other words, it''s not something that was nned in advance but something that they organized and pushed through within the few days they had since receiving the news��''

    Banjay squinted his eyes.

    ''Wait, we blocked the pass and there none escaped from the battle. We ughtered the bulk of the traitors at the steps and I''ve finished up the rest of the spies in the next two days,'' the middle-aged man thought, staring at the map with all the might of his eyes as if hoping it would somehow, magically produce an answer.

    But a map, despite being the symbol behind the military arm of an espionage group Banjay created, had no magical powers to show the minister what wasn''t painted on it.

    "Well, it doesn''t matter how they knew nor how they managed to send a whole fresh legion so quickly," Banjay announced, decisively cutting off anything and everything that wasn''t of the utmost importance. "What we need to figure out, is how to hold back a whole new fucking legion��"n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    The room went silent, even more silent than it already was before. Right now, it felt as if no one inside dared to even take a breath, scared of interrupting the silence and thus implying they had something smart to say.

    It took two years of sabotage and espionage to bring an old legion, already weathered by the twenty years of constant skirmishes, to weaken it to the point Nn''s forces could actually deal with it. And even then, it still took a mighty fortress on one side and then a crushing charge executed through a hidden path leading to the back of the enemy lines.

    The arrival of apletely new legion, though, was definitely more than Banjay wanted to bite or, well over what he could swallow.

    "We are done," someone in the room said, instantly gaining the attention of everyone else but Banjay himself.

    Despite Banjay''s fame as a bloodthirsty minister, no one feared for the life of theirpatriot, not even the man who spoke out.

    They were all military veterans that Banjay handpicked from the defenders of the Basal fortress. And they all knew they were way too important for Banjay to kill them over an urate opinion�� Or rather, giving out those opinions, as painful, annoying, or undesired as they might be, was their main task on the job, after all!

    "I''m sorry guys, but it really seems like this might be the end of the line," Banjay silently admitted, even though he knew the walls and the massive door of the treasury room were more than enough to keep anything he said in a normal voice locked within the room.

    "What if we block the pass?" Oxxy suggested while standing right in front of the map and studying the details painted with great care on it. He then turned his head over his shoulder and looked at his boss, "I mean, it doesn''t matter how good of an army they are if they have no way to cross the pass."

    Banjay only sighed.

    "And how do you wanna go about doing that?"

    Banjay shook his head.

    "The sides of the pass are made from solid stone. It would take a whole unit of men working day and night just to chip away at it. Why else would the empire bother with Basal over just digging a tunnel around it?"

    The suggestion of digging a tunnel was ridiculous, even without the factor of how tough the stone of the mountains to the north was. But once one applied the perspective of time, of how long the empire struggled to get past this mighty leftover from the ancient times�� Spending four to five years to dig a small tunnel no longer seemed like something only a crazy person could suggest.

    In fact, if Banjay joined the imperial service as a high-level spy a mere two monthster than he did, that''s exactly what the empire might end up doing!

    ''Back to the topic, man. Don''t let the situation distract you. There''s always a way,'' Banjay thought to himself, trying to squeeze even the tiniest spark of motivation in the face of the disastrous news.

    "Anyway," Oxxy muttered as he turned back to the map, "if they were at Huban a week ago, then by now��" tracing his fingers along the small, double-line highlighting the imperial highways and then the dotted line of the beaten paths, Oxxy grew still.

    And as he slowly turned to look back at the minister of the interior, his face was all pale.

    "If they are as swift as we already know they are��"

    "They should be entering thebyrinth around now," Banjay finished Oxxy''s sentence before the younger man could even have the chance to do so. "And that leaves us with exactly two weeks before a fresh batch of fifty thousand men descends upon us��" Banjay muttered, gritting his teeth tobat the sense of powerlessness welling up in his soul.

    "So," rather than giving in to the depressing feelings, Banjay looked up and then scanned the room again. "Do you have any ideas of how to deal with a whole new legion within a month''s time?"

 Chapter 397 An impossible problem (double chapter)

    ''How the hell do I deal with it?''

    Banjay sank deep into his thoughts as he walked up the pce''s wide corridor, heading straight past the minister-reserved area and towards the main royal quarters.

    As opposed to the throne hall where the ruler would disy his majesty in all of its grandeur, the main royal quarters were a ce where one could arrange for an audience in more private, often more cordial terms.

    Still, living without all of the luxury and riches of the official appearance, to ess it, one still had to go through a sizeable group of veteran soldiers guarding the doorstep of the royal quarters.

    "Whoes?!" the leader of the guards stepped forth and shouted upon taking notice of Banjay down the long corridor leading up to the main crown quarters.

    Being the veteran that he was, his eyesight had to be far better than just enough to spot who Banjay was from all the way across the corridor. Still, just like most of the things that had a "royal" prefix to them, this was all but a part of the silly ceremony that Banjay, regardless of what he thought about it, had no other choice but to participate.

    "Minister of the interior heeds royal summons!"

    Banjay cupped his hands together before pushing them ahead and bending his spine forth, creating a gentle arc with his entire body from feet all the way up to his cupped hands.

    He didn''t introduce himself by his name, not because he arrogantly assumed the guards would know who he was but to signify that in the presence of the royal, he no longer was a man but merely a tool for the crown to rule over its subject.

    "You shall be granted entry," the royal guard replied, surprising absolutely no one in the corridor, be it his subordinates or Banjay himself.

    How could a mere guard bar the way for someone hurrying to show up as summoned by the king himself?

    And even if in today''s royal quarters the situation was a bit moreplicated than amon folk would ever be allowed to know�� Banjay still followed the king''s call, so after the ceremonial verification, the authority of the guards met its end.

    "May those who serve the crown forever be blessed with the insight," Banjay worded out the boring, ceremonial response before finally making it past the guards and into the royal quarters.

    There, despite all the pretense of the rxed atmosphere, the entirety of the room was sneakily projected after the throne hall, with the king''s designated seat at the head of the entire room, sofas for important quests directly to his left, sofas for the royal advisors to the man''s left and then room for those answering the king''s call to his private chambers, right in front of the royal seat.

    That''s how things were supposed to be ording to the royal protocol, at the very least. But the reality was quite different.

    Sitting atop the royal seat wasn''t the young kind, but rather his mother still asionally making use of her old powers as a regent for when the king wasn''t of age yet to support the young, recently crowned monarch.

    When it came to the king himself, he was rxing on the sofa designed for the guests, quite willingly taking the spot reserved for those who weren''t as lowly as to summon them in front of the king''s seat. The only one following the royal codex was Elea, the king''s younger sister, and Banjay''s adorable ward. Seated upon the sofa for the crown advisers, she was also the first to notice his arrival.

    "Uncle!" Nelea called out, a slightly forced but still bright smile appearing on her face as she rose up from her seat.

    ''So she still holds it against me,'' Banjay thought, forcing his eyes to stay still as opposed to his instinctive desire to roll them around.

    The stakes in the game Banjay yed were simply too great for him to share the truth willy-nilly. And especially if the person in question was a kid maybete in her teens�� but still a damn teenager!

    Nelea knew why Banjay never told her anything. The freshly appointed minister made sure to give her a proper exnation once the massacre at the steps came to an end and he got some time to clean all the blood and guts off his clothes. And yet��

    While she clearly tried not to show it, Nelea still couldn''t get over the recent events, something that showed through her much colder attitude than usual.

    ''When was thest time she called me an uncle?''

    As the heir to a lesser royal line, Banjay was always close to the pce yet never had his sights on the ultimate seat within. Still, as the royal servant to the court he grew up on, when looking upon this naive princess�� He couldn''t help but feel the spur of fresh determination to find a way to deal with the new legion heading their way.

    "Your majesty," slightly troubled by how to follow the protocol when the king himself didn''t, Banjay opted to fall down on one knee before the monarch-upied sofa only to then raise and look over at the queen regent. "Your Highness," he gave the former queen a quick nod of his head before turning to Nelea and giving her an awkward smile, "my princess��"

    For a moment, the insides of the royal chambers turned silent.

    Nelea, who usually served as the one to break the ice for moments like this has retreated to her inner shell, looking away and even crossing her arms over her chest, showcasing her pout to the world as if to send a message.

    The king couldn''t be bothered to pay Banjay even the remotest attention�� While the queen regent observed how he would deal with the issue with undying interest.

    ''This stupid dance is what I hate about the court the most,'' Banjayined in his thoughts before fully raising up�� Only to then fall down on one knee again and perform a full, knight''s bow even though his morals and methods couldn''t be any further removed from the ideal knight thatmon folk depicted in their heads when hearing the word.

    "I''m here to answer your summons, patriarch," Banjay called out, using the king''s alternate title, all ording to the pce protocol.

    This finally seeded at pulling the young king''s attention from a scroll of ancient poetry he had been studying all this time.

    The young patriarch was a picture-perfect, younger version of thete king. Yet, save for his handsome, rugged looks that gave off the vibes of a reliable leader, hecked all the other qualities that led to his father receiving the title of ''great'' even before his death.

    What the patriarch didn''tck, however, was the one redeeming quality that proved he still had the chance to, at least in history books, match the achievements of his legendary father.

    He was aware of his own shorings.

    And right now, after taking a moment to scan Banjay''s face, the patriarch simply rolled his eyes.

    "Do you seriously want me to meddle in whatever you are here for?"

    The king''s piercing ncested for a little longer, only for the man to roll his eyes and move them back to the decorative scroll in his hands.

    "If not, then stop bothering me and go do whatever job you have scheduled for now."

    Caring not for the royal protocol, the requested manner of speech, or even any sort of most minor appearances, the king simply waved at Banjay with his hand, as if chasing him away.

    "I think I''ve bullied you enough," the queen regent sighed, finally revealing herself as the one actually in charge not only of the royal quarters but also the kingdom as a whole.

    ''To the best of my knowledge, all of her attempts to ditch her work and push it on patriarch have failed,'' Banjay thought, recalling the recent reports from the pce and following with a quick nce at the king''s face. ''If there''s anything this simpleton is good at, it''s steering clear from anything even remotely important or tiring. And for once, I canmend him for that.''

    Pushing his thoughts about the patriarch aside, Banjay raised his face to look up at the former queen.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "I''ve heard there''s apletely fresh imperial legion heading our way," the queen announced, dropping a bomb heavy enough to not only get Nelea''s attention but also a quick nce up from the king himself. "That makes your great victory at the fortress quite��" the look in queen''s eyes sharpened, "pointless, wouldn''t you say?"

    Already expecting this kind of light scolding, Banjay didn''t allow his face to as much as twitch.

    "Without that victory, the capital''s perimeter would be long overrun, and we would be nning for the escape of the royal family rather than possible ways of stopping their advance as usual," Banjay countered, thankful that while high, the queen regent wasn''t high enough to bar him from speaking out in a straightforward, direct manner.

    His words struck true, and the former queen knew it. The miracle at the Basal fortress, even if useless in hindsight, still served to buy the crown for some time. And while with a fresh legion putting up a siege, the fall of the fortress would be pretty much guaranteed��

    Thest two weeks and the days that the imperial legion still needed to reach the fortress at the end of thebyrinth of the Ha mountains gave Salicious and other generals ample time to restore the embankments, reset the traps, and reinforce the garrison.

    Even if the fall of the fortress was nigh certain, it would be a fool''s errand to try to guess for how many years would the fortress hold now that all the siege progress made by the recently defeated legion ended up lost.

    "That''s certainly true," the queen ultimately agreed, even going as far as to nod her weathered head, the imperfections in her make-up momentarily showcasing just how tired she was.

    Discover stories with empire

    "Still, I hoped you would appear bearing great news of some new miracle that you''ve pulled off when I wasn''t looking," the queen added, squinting her eyes while putting on a mask of an emotionless face that Banjay, even with all of his expertise, couldn''t pierce.

    ''I hate to be the bearer of the bad news��'' the middle-aged man thought, before taking in a deep breath and raising his eyes to Nelea for a short moment before turning them over to the queen regent.

    "I''m afraid that I''m here for the very same reason," Banjay replied, raising up from his knee and standing up straight only to look down into the queen''s face with a look of clear anger, "do you have any news, even just one report, from nearly the entirety of the cadre of supremes of the crown that youmitted to your maddening cause?"

    The air in the room grew just a little bit colder.

    Still, while it was a conflict�� it was something that the two argued over quite a lot in the recent past, making it a near-constant element of any of their meetings.

    And just like all the times when Banjay tried before, the queen''s answer remained the same.

    Or rather, there was no answer at all, as the queen merely lowered her head before lightly shaking it to the sides.

    "It seems that I''m not the only onecking good news to share," Banjay summed up only to turn around, done wasting time with this farce.

    ''If she wanted me to have an easier time protecting this rotten kingdom, she should''ve spared nearly all of our supremes from a one-way trip down south, damn it!''

    "Wait!" the queen called in a slightly panicked voice, even going as far as to move up from the king''s seat a bit.

    "What?!" Turning his head around, Banjay barked, no longer hiding his hostility towards the queen.

    "Is there��" the queen bit down on his lips before falling back into her seat and sighing out. "Is there any chance Basal will hold?" she asked in a much feebler voice, revealing just a tiny little bit of her true face of a simply tired woman, worn down by all the duties and responsibility she held for thest three decades.

    "That''s what I''m busy trying to make happen," Banjay threw, before turning around and falling down to one knee, as per pce rules.

    "My Patriarch, Your Highness, my Princess��" he called out to the royal family before turning around and leaving for the doors. ''Now, how do I stop an army twice as well-equipped, thrice as motivated, and quadruple the number of the forces I have at my disposal?''

 Chapter 398 Basal steps

    "Make way for the caravan! Make way for the caravan!"

    Banjay heard the shout enough times to start getting sick of it. But as one of the architects of the current logistic structure at Basal fortress, he was thest person who could be allowed toin about it.

    "I see things are moving fast," Banjaymented under his nose, watching how yet another long line of carriages passed through the fortress''s main gate, carrying in the supplies necessary to prepare the ce for another siege.

    To the side, due east on the hilly area facing the Ha mountains and thebyrinths pass, a long line of fresh recruits and veteran reinforcements continued to slowly trickle through the smaller gate.

    A unit of newbies would enter, only to be followed by a unit of retired veterans. Then, a unit of active veterans would follow, taking a different turn than the other two upon crossing the gate, heading straight for their positions instead of turning towards the training grounds.

    "Things are moving fast, but two weeks?" Salicious shook his head. "That''s barely enough to teach the fresh recruits how to throw stones or stab with spears. Unless there are some naturally talented archers inside, we won''t be able to construct even a single group out of them."

    Salicious raised his chin and looked up to the fortress from the hill the two of them were standing at.

    "Two weeks is already quite the optimistic guess," Banjaymented.N?v(el)B\\jnn

    It''s been three days since he received the report about the sighting of a new legion down at the Huban port city. And going with the assumption they would all be force-marched down thebyrinth and given some rest just before reaching the fortress line of sight��

    In that scenario, ten days was the most Banjay would give his country to prepare.

    ''The more I think about it, the better of an idea it seems to just permanently block the pass��''

    As impossible of a task as it would be�� the ancestors of the patriarchate cared not for it, constructing the biggest fortress Banjay had seen in his entire life.

    They cared not for the cost, the struggle of bringing the materials over, or the manpower necessary to build something so massive.

    Still, the ancients constructed only the main wall of the fortress, raising as high as the cliffs of the pass themselves, fully andpletely shutting down the ess between thebyrinth and the capital hills, leaving only five massive gates, roughly around the half of the massive wall''s size, for people and carriages to pass through.

    That was the main wall of the fortress, constructed with materials that no modern human could replicate. But the rest of the stronghold came from muchter.

    ''ording to the history books, the entirety of the deep fort was constructed around the time the patriarchate came to be, by the survivors of some sort of cataclysm,'' Banjay thought, looking up to a construction that, while much smaller in size, still reached the level of architectural impossibility.

    From the hillside, the fortress mimicked the curved nature of the main wall. It consisted of three tforms, each roughly twice the height of the former, with the highest of the tforms reaching all the way to the level of the gates within the main wall.

    Looking up at the so-called "fortress steps", Banjay could see near endless lines of carriages moving supplies up the ramps, built along the curvature of each step and allowing easy ess between different levels of elevation.

    ''Worst case scenario, we could try to copse the tforms?'' Banjay thought, looking to the bottom of the ramps, where between the erosion, wear-and-tear, and, in general, the corrosive hand of time forced the patriarchate to heavily invest in reinforcing the ramp foundation.

    And now, the very pirs ced to keep the ramps steady and safe could be targeted in an attempt to copse the entire thing and thus stop anyone from descending down to the hill level.

    On the other side of the main wall, the design was pretty much mimicked, with a new set of three steps gradually lowering the fortress all the way to the level of thebyrinth pass.

    The difference between the two sides, though,y in how the outer steps were constructed in a way that made movement and ess as easy as possible, the inner steps were actually the three main lines of defense of the fortress, with massive gates decorating both the start and end of each ramp, and an additional set of stone walls reinforcing the edge of each of the step.

    Thisyout was what allowed the patriarchate to keep a hold over the pass for thest three hundred years, stopping imperial ambition to expand south over and over again.

    In fact, a hundred years ago the nearest crossing to what the imperials called their new colony was still an inner road of the patriarchate, protected by the massive gateway ahead and leading to the vassal state of Uruk.

    Ny-nine years ago, though, the imperials breached the first line of thebyrinth defenses, taking over said pass and pretty much-eradicating everything and everyone within the Uruk dukedom, taking its people as ves that were then forced to turn their formed, prospering duchy into merely a farming colony for the empire.

    And now, ny-nine yearster, the imperials appeared to be super determined to one-up their ancestors, right on the hundredth anniversary of the fall of the gates.

    ''Knowing how they think, they will keep any invasion into the hintend until the hundredth anniversary of the fall of Uruk,'' Banjay thought, struggling to keep the dark thoughts away.

    The eradication of the imperial legion besieging the Basal fortress was the greatest masterpiece he could pull off in his entire life. It took two years of constant preparations, scheming, diverting the resources away from the royal treasury, and sneakily pushing them down to the military��

    In any other situation, what Banjay did over thest two years would be enough to have him executed many times over, with all the executions ordered for different crimes.

    But the current day was anything but a normal time. And abnormal times called for abnormal means and methods.

    "We will defend this ce to thest man, but against an entirety of a fresh legion?" Salicious muttered before shaking his head. "This level of determination, we can''t really hold out against. And if they are sending another legion as soon as thest one ended up trampled to the ground�� What is there to make you believe they won''t send another legion even if this one fails?"

    Banjay looked over at his former teacher and shook his head.

    "The empire has nigh-infinite resources and manpower when considering it from our perspective. But that doesn''t mean the empress is free to move all her armies at will," he pointed out, going back with his thoughts to the time he actually spent on the imperial court, far up to the north.

    "For instance, do you know why their pressure lessened over seventy years ago, only to pick up two decades in the past?"

    Salicious was old enough to remember the period when the unofficial cease-fire came to a tragic end, with imperial troops returning to the fortress''s steps, no longer content with just securing the passage from the new colony to the main, northern exit of the Habyrinth.

    Banjay himself was too young to remember the details, but he could still recall how the patriarchate started to change back during his childhood.

    ''I was but a kid back then, but here I am now, trying to figure out how to stop them frompleting their grand n.''

    "Wasn''t it because they were now done bringing the colony to its full potential?" Salicious suggested the official answer, the very same answer that the entire patriarchate knew by their hearts.

    This answer meant that thest nation the patriarch could call friends has now fully sumbed to the imperial boot, reduced from brave and proud warriors into mere ves to the endless, imperial greed.

    The nation known for how easily they could bring their warriors all the way up to the supreme rank now became a bunch of ves cultivating the very herb that the empire used to stifle the growth of the new supremes in any of the areas they had ns to attack.

    Your journey continues with empire

    A ploy so deeply hidden within the official documents of the empire that even Banjay, even while having nearly free ess to all the documents of the empire, failed to discover.

    It was only by chance, during one of the meetings of the conspirators back while he was still ying both sides, that he learned of the devious nature behind the Chai herb and the devilish way in which the empire exploited its questionable qualities.

    In the end, though, save for how the empire tried its true and tested tactic on the patriarchate for years before Banjay managed to put a stop to it, this topic had nothing to do with why the empire lessened its pressure in the past.

    "It connects back to what I said," Banjay sighed, revealing the knowledge that was too far removed from the interest of the patriarchate for him to share with anyone ever before. "Seventy years ago, thete emperor constructed a mighty fleet and sent two entire legions down south, trying to circumvent the great barrier and reach the southernnds by the sea."

    "Impossible," Salicious smirked whileughing out loud. "Only a madman would��" he continued, only for his eyes to lock on Banjay''s serious expression. "Wait, do you mean to say it''s actually true?"

    Banjayzily nodded his head.

    "It is true. And it grew to be the kind of disaster you would expect such a stupid idea to be. Between the soldiers, logistic workers, and all the other people necessary to conduct wars, over two hundred thousand people went south by the sea. And from what I''ve found out, a total of forty-three thousand returned."

    Banjay took a deep breath and started to descend down the hill they were observing the fortress from.

    "Out of those who came back, only about twenty thousand were the actual legionaries, with all the others being the support staff and ves they caught back south."

    "So it wasn''t a total disaster, after all," Salicious pointed out. "Sure, a lot of people died, but what''s a hundred thousand deaths for the empire with tens of millions of subjects it has?" Salicious waved his hand as if to dismiss the issue.

    "It was a total disaster," Banjay sighed, slowing down so that his crippled teacher could keep up. "A disaster that took the empire fifty years to recover from. Or, if you look at it from our perspective, it was a massive blessing that gave us fifty more years without asking for the bloody prize it would otherwise require."

 Chapter 399 Unable to cross, unable to return

    //An author''s note to avoid confusion: Until the two plotlines converge, they might not follow the same timeline. In other words, a week passing for Peter doesn''t mean a week has passed for Banjay. And worry not, this message doesn''t affect the chapter''s price!//

    "Smoke, you say?" Makary raised his eyes and looked right across the table and at my face. "And not big enough to be from natural causes?"

    I nodded my head as I stretched back in the chair.

    In the week that I was away, the work on the new camp progressed smoothly.

    With the injection of ten thousand fresh imperial workers, the work all around the camp sped up as if the project managers all stepped on the gas all over the camp.

    Funnily enough, even though there were still two days before the next batch of workers would be given for us to manage, the temporary housing was already all nice and cleaned, ready to receive its next residents.

    That didn''t mean Makary''s nners crammed all fifteen thousand men into a single housing project, though. Instead, they''ve already moved on to the second phase of the construction n and started to split the camp into a total of nine districts.

    For each of the districts, there was a housing project in the very middle, where all the services and roads connected. A project capable of housing five thousand people each with the addition of phase three houses constructed for those who would gain recognition of the supervisors by disying exemry skill, ability to learn fast or simply working harder than the others.

    Out of the nine districts that would make up theyout of the entire camp in the future, only four were active, though, given how only with the next batch of workersing in five days we would cross the halfway point of filling our ranks up.

    But it was also at this point, with just fifteen thousand workers serving under Makary''s engineers and architects, that the effect of scale finally started to kick in.

    The task of setting up a whole new housing project, something that would take a massive amount of resources and up to even ten divisions of workers doing their best for several days in a row, now turned into a standard task that two divisions should be able to finish within three days.

    But it wasn''t just the housing projects that started to speed up. This truth applied to every single project around, from housing, through smelting arrays at various types of factories ending. Your journey continues with empire

    On my way to the administrative building, I could swear I even caught a glimpse of what could be either a massive cathedral�� or a damn school!

    All in all, the new camp that I saw upon my return was nothing like the camp I had seen before leaving. This only made sense, given how there were now three times as many workers as during myst visit, or how it was the first time for me to see the new camp after several days, as opposed to monitoring its growth at all times.

    By now, just by leaving the camp for a week, I''ve pretty much lost track and thus control over things happening in here, making it pretty damn challenging to get myself back into the flow of things.

    A task that only grew harder when I ended up sitting with Makary in an otherwise perfectly empty and sound-isted room, tasked with nothing more but giving a report of my progress.

    "Don''t take what I''m going to say too seriously, but I think I might''ve figured out both the secret of that damned ce and also how to crack it," I revealed with a cautious smile.

    "I''m all ears," Makary countered, interweaving his fingers before leaning forth over the table and resting his chin at the top of his cupped hands.

    "First off, the bending of space. Or maybe it''s the illusion that stops people from moving in the direction they think they do?" I lost track almost as soon as I opened my mouth. "No, let''s just say that once you get deep into the in enough, there''s a force actively stopping you from going back."

    Makary squinted his eyes before leaning his head to the side and giving me a look that substituted the need for him to ask about the obvious.

    "Yes, it seems that using my portals allows me to circumvent this issue. But that''s not the interesting part," I added before putting on a huge smile on my face. "And in all honesty, it''s thanks to you and Leon for organizing those automatic haulers that I''ve managed to realize the truth."

    "And that truth is��?" Makary''s face changed to one filled with quite a fair dose of annoyance.

    Even though he went along with it in the past, by now, Makary was growing quite tired of my tendency to spice things up with a little bit of dramaturgy.

    "This force that stops people from going back," I mentioned before putting on a wide smile on my face. "It seems to only work on the level of one''s consciousness. Or, to make it as direct as possible," I leaned my head to the side�� only to then turn silent, giving Makary the chance to figure it out himself.

    I gave him enough of a lead to do so. And with how I''ve figured it out without anyone pointing the peculiarity to me, I had high hopes for the mercenary leader to catch on.

    "Autonomous driving?" Makary raised one of his eyebrows as he asked.

    "Yeah," I replied and nodded my head. "I first noticed it when udy was parking the haulers in line with the buggy. While doing so, he could freely make them roll back the way we came from with no issue. I''m not quite sure if he realized the importance of that, though."

    Just like I was now enclosed within a perfectly silenced room with Makary, udy was likely giving a report of his own to Etaria in some other part of the camp.

    "What does that have to do with the smoke that you mentioned, though?" Makary asked, pulling his hands apart and then leaning back in his chair. "Wait, if that smoke was manmade, then doesn''t that mean��"

    I sighed before nodding my head.

    "It''s just my guess, but I believe not all those who tried to traverse this ursednd ended up losing their lives to it," I revealed my assumption before leaning over the table and mming down my left hand on it.

    "This is the barrier of the light so intense, it would fry the brain of anyone daring to as much as touch it," I exined, pointing at my left hand with a finger.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "We also know there''s a force that disallows people from gaining distance to this barrier," I added, cing my right hand on its rim and then sliding it across the table towards my left, imitating a force that pushed everything towards the impassable barrier.

    "So what you are trying to say is," Makary interrupted, most likely already seeing the point I was trying to make.

    "That''s right," I nodded my head before pulling both of my hands back and standing up, only to rest both of my hands on the table as I leaned over it. "I believe the people who managed to cross the in and reach the barrier," I gulped down my saliva, "I believe they are all stuck, unable to cross the barrier and unable to return."

 Chapter 400 Hermits of the Gods Domain

    "Do you have any idea what it was?" Isera asked, looking over the fake horizon with a stifled sense of nostalgia lodged deep into her eyes.

    If anything, this was the one quality that unified all the exiles in this ursednd.

    "Does it matter?" Juno''s eyescked the same spark of his distantpanion.

    Despite being locked away in this ce for several long years more than the girl, he was still further away from the gates of invisible death. And while a huge part of it could be attributed to stupid luck��

    Even when taken out of the equation, it was still a showcase of his superior will.

    "It''s not like we will be ever able to find out."

    The secret to keeping to the sacred rule of this prison was simple.

    It was to kill oneself.

    Topletely remove everything and anything that went beyond the daily routine or could vite the taboo.

    And themotion that likely all of the prisoners of this ce noticed, was just a type of distraction that Juno learned to fully avoid.

    Contrary to what one could think of this ursed in when looking at it from the outside or by giving it only a few hours to showcase its wonders, this ce was full of life.

    Life that was so far removed from human definition of what life was, it took years for the newbie additions to the prison of those forever locked in this timeless cage to learn how to spot those lives.

    It was a skill Juno learned quite recently, a mere ten years ago. Isera, however, with less than two years of experience in the in, had yet to reach this level.

    ''Maybe that''s why she''s overreacting like that?''

    Juno didn''t even bother trying to answer the question he himself posed in the depths of his soul.

    Allowing oneself to wallow in the delusion of potential change was how people lost their minds, became lost, broke the taboo, and gave their lives in sacrifice to the forever-hungry domain of god that trapped them all in this ursed ce.

    A barrier one could only ever get closer to once it erected its influence over its target, but also a barrier that would kill anyone who dared to infringe upon it. Your adventure continues at empire

    ording to all the legends that the prisoners coborated between themselves over the past centuries of sharing the same fate as their ancestors from ages long gone, this barrier and its effects were just that, the domain of the god of death. A disy of genius magical engineering that went haywire and created the devious trap that countless experts found themselves locked inside of.

    Still, those who came to see the life within this hostile in, those who could see the endless tiny changes happening all over the ce, couldn''t care less for themotion that everyone heard.

    It was just another sign of life. Sure, more intense than anything any of them experienced, but in the end, it was still but a trial.

    A challenge this devious ce threw at them to coax them into breaking the taboo and decreasing their distance from the barrier. A scheme that was extremely effective, given how Juno could see quite a lot of people who, in the moment of carelessness, broke the taboo and stepped out of the beaten path along the barrier, losing the distance and bringing themselves closer to the inescapable fate.

    "The only reason you are saying that is because you''ve lost hope," Iseramented with an awfully arrogant expression on her face.

    "In this ce, hope is no more than poison," Juno calmly replied.

    He could still remember the time when he was just like this newbie girl. The time when he still had hope that maybe he was someone special, he was the one that would cross this imprable barrier and be the first man to ever achieve it.

    He could still remember the time when the signs of life that he finally started to notice only served to reinforce his delusions.

    But most of all, he could still remember the day when he finally realized, all the bits and pieces that thisnd offered to its prisoners to rekindle their hopes were nothing more but the way for the creator of this ce to take a piss on all those who fell prey to it.

    Those who lost hope, those who lost themselves, those who killed their own selves�� Those were the ones who changed and adapted. And while it proved the human resiliency against all the possible odds��n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    It came at the cost of giving up on hope. The treacherous hope that stubbornly refused to let them go of their personality.

    ''If it''s not a poison, then I don''t know what is.''

    The ultimate goal in this ce was to survive for as long as possible, feed off the everpresent mana, and use it to refine one''s self to the state of aplete void�� And then, one day, upon reaching perfectck of self, they could try to challenge the barrier.

    In this ce, the inner workings of the god''s domain were no secret. As a ce with traditions longer than any of the countries or nations that existed in the current day and age, all the prisoners had ess to the wisdom passed from over fourteen hundred years ago and all the wisdom the prisoners managed to uncover ever since.

    There was no way to record all of the knowledge that the prisoners discovered. With how the only equipment in this prison consisted of whatever various prisoners brought when falling into this devious trap, there simply weren''t enough things to write with or write on to keep track of such an extensive, ancient record of people''s findings.

    That''s why, all the knowledge of this prison was passed down by the means of oral tradition, shared between all the prisoners throughout the onlymodity they had more than they could handle - the time.

    ''And that''s another reason why she''s so eager to try checking thatmotion out, even if it woulde at the cost of breaking the taboo.''

    Juno perfectly understood Isera''s mindset. It was something he graduated from himself many years ago, after all. And so, just like a parent seeing through the tricks and fits of their kids, he could see right through the girl as if she were an open book.

    And more than anything, he knew that no words of discouragement, reason, or warning would be enough to stop her from leaving.

    ''It''s likely thest time I see her,'' Juno thought as he scanned the face of the girl several steps closer to the barrier than he was.

    "No matter what I say, it''s not going to stop you, is it?" Juno muttered, not interested in wasting any energy attempting to convince the girl otherwise if he knew it was a wasted effort, to begin with.

    "That''s correct," Isera announced as she stood up and patted down the dust off her knees. "I''m not interested in rotting her until the day my body gives up, and that''s assuming my mind wouldn''t give in to the madness of this ce first."

    Packing up the few things she could call her own, Isera got herself ready to leave in a matter of mere minutes. And as she turned around, she threw onest look at the man behind her.

    "Are youing with me, or are you satisfied with the idea of rotting here?"

    There was no trick, maniption, or any other fancy technique in the girl''s question.

    It was a simple yes or no choice.

    A choice between peaceful emptiness or foolish, deadly hope.

    Ten years ago, Juno would hesitate. But today, he didn''t.

    "I''m good where I am," Juno imed before turning his body perpendicr to the deadly barrier in order not to roll in any closer in his sleep. "Good luck, though."

    Isera looked at the man for a bit longer, only to then shake her head and turn away.

    "No," the girl shook her head before taking her first step towards themotion far out in the distance, amotion that has long since died off. "I still have enough will to resist the pull of this ce. And that means��"

    Taking a few more steps, Isera stopped for onest time and looked over her shoulder, giving the man onest look.

    "It''s not me who needs luck, but you."

 Chapter 401 First fight in the new camp

    The one downside of the barrier Fay installed in ce of the doors to our apartment within the administrative building was theck of ability for anyone to knock on them.

    A downside that whoever was currently furiously smashing their hands directly against the wall, found a clever way to negate.

    "What the hell��?"

    Raising my head from Fay''s fine bosom, I looked over to where the dark barrier covered the only entrance to the apartment.

    In theory, there was a perfectlyfortable and even oversized bed for us to use. But after taking the liberty of sleeping on the mossy floor that Fay created�� we both agreed that it was simply nicer to sleep on the floor rather than on the bed.

    It had the perfect hardness that catered to the legacy of thousands upon thousands of years that humans lived like just another animal within the forest. The moss that it was covered with was just cold enough to be refreshing, stopping us from getting too hot without actually making us feel cold.

    The overall sensation ofying down on the soft moss scratched the itch that I never knew that I had before. And whatever this mosscked in terms of softness or warmth, Fay''s naked body was always there topensate for.

    Or, if looked at it from Fay''s perspective, my naked body was there to pillow her head, warm her up, and keep her within the reassuring embrace throughout the night.

    Still, regardless of how much bliss it was for me to just keepzing around with Fay inside our apartment, the speed and the intensity of the knocking gave quite a clear message.

    ''We need to get going, huh?''

    Allowing my head to fall right back down to where I pulled it up from, I abused our bond a little, too rxed to go for the effort of opening my mouth.

    ''I guess��''

    When using our bond tomunicate, the words were just a fraction of the message. The feelings, the deeper thoughts, the intent, even the physical status�� All of them tagged along my direct thoughts, only for Fay to share everything about her current state of self when she willed me back.

    For just a few more seconds, I rxed within Fay''s cuddle, enjoying the softness of her flesh or the warmth of her skin. Yet, as soon as I managed to gather my wits, I rolled over to the side, taking a few breaths now that Iid apart from the girl before finally forcing myself to stand up.

    ''Clothes��''

    I looked around, searching for where my yesterday''s attire ended up after the rather intense way in which we both lost our clothes upon our return to our love''s nest. Soon enough, I was pulling up my pants only to then catch the wrinkled shirt Fay threw my way.

    Pulling the shirt down over my head, I then raised my eyes to the show Fay happily gave me as she dressed, always making sure to stand at a perfect angle and in a perfect position not to leave anything to my imagination.

    She wasn''t tempting me in hopes of getting right back to business right this moment. The furious knocking reached the point where various nts and wines growing on and along our walls started to actually shake!n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    No, Fay''s little dress-up show wasn''t aimed for right now but was a promise for what woulde to be once we would brave through all the tasks today was going to throw at us.

    After all, tomorrow, we would part our ways as she would stay behind while me and udy would be the only ones to go back to the barrier area of the starlight in. A victory that I couldn''t feel more shitty about, but a victory necessary given how we couldn''t tell whether the light of the stars actually impacted our kid or not.

    "��me on��"

    The shout of the person on the other side of Fay''s barrier grew so loud, that we could hear its faint echo on the other side. Thankfully, by then, we were both properly dressed up albeit in clothes that wouldn''t really go under the radar in a corporation strict about its workers'' presentation.

    ''It''s a good thing this isn''t a corporation,'' I thought, patting down the wrinkles of my shirt before checking in on Fay and then moving over to the doorway.

    "Let''s get this shit over with," I muttered and registered Fay nodding her head before pushing ahead and stepping through the barrier.

    It was really a miracle of a craft.

    Even though no person, sight, or sound could pass through the barrier, I felt absolutely no resistance as I walked right into it, through it, and then emerged on the other side only to see Kash''s sweaty forehead and furious glimpse in her eyes.

    "Just how long were you nning to fucking take?!"

    Despite obviously trying to shout, Kash''s voice was all raspy, only serving as proof of just how long she was screaming at our doorway. Looking down and to the side, the rim of her hand was all torn and bloodied, leaving crimson marks in the spot where her continuous strikes dug past theyer of paint and left a dent directly into the concrete prefab.

    "Our shift starts in an hour," I calmly pointed out without even looking at the clock.

    Here, in the real world, I didn''t need to bother tracking time as I somehow could do it with just my guts alone. And while it wasn''t as precise of a measurement as a proper clock, it was good enough for me to follow.

    "What''s the problem?" Fay asked as soon as she followed me past the barrier and stepped into the main corridor of the lodging area in the wing of the administrative building. Find your next read on empire

    "Huh?" with her anger only growing, Kash rapidly turned her head to Fay��

    Only to catch my cold glimpse, swallow both her saliva and anger, and only then speak up.

    "There was a fight."

    Honestly, the calm manner in which Kash announced the news made the information far more pressing than if she were to scream it out loud.

    There was grace and importance in silence; dignity that shouting could easily remove.

    "What fight? Who fought? What are the casualties?"

    There were more than enough people gathered in the new camp for some conflicts to be inevitable. Such was the fate of ces where a huge number of people gathered.

    ''It''s actually strange if not an outright blessing that there were no fights for us to deal with before,'' I thought before forcing my mind back on the right track.

    Kash wouldn''t act the way she did if it was just a small matter of two people opting to use their fists to solve some sort of disagreement.

    ''Heck, I doubt they would bother me even if such a fight resulted in deaths!'' I thought�� Only to hesitate a little and thenpletely change my opinion. ''Wait, if it''s a first death in here, we will need to properly address it, so maybe that''s what happened?''

    "Did you know that in the week that you were away, we''ve started doing business with the frontier town?" Kash asked, her voice indicating this small detail of great implications was merely just the prelude to what made a simple fight into a problem massive enough for her to wake the two of us up so damn rudely.

    "I''ve heard about the ns to do so but no, didn''t know they already went into effect," I replied.

    Cooperation with the Imperial frontier town was one of the very prerequisites of our deal with Etaria. It was to be initially the first and only city we would be allowed to trade with and trade in, all for the sake of letting both the princess and the empire atrge know how fair we were in our trades.

    It was also a measure we willingly agreed to, knowing how scary it would be for the imperial nobles if some strangers from only god knows where not only managed to defeat the imperial expeditionary force, take most of its soldiers captive, and then enforce some sort of peace upon the empire.

    In their eyes, if we were allowed to spread throughout the entire empire right away, our presence would instantly be the hook, the actual reason for the great peace terms we offered the empire.

    And through the natural, cold-blooded calction, they woulde to an assumption that our presence was bringing benefits so massive, that the lives of tens of thousands of men of the expeditionary army would pale inparison.

    "It''s been exactly four days. Not that long in the grand scheme of things, but within those four days, we observed one hell of a problem. A problem that gave birth to the fight I came here to tell you about."

    Kash didn''t need to finish. Just her looking over my arm to where Fay stood in silence was enough to indicate the one element of the puzzle that I missed.

    ''Oh my fucking god��''

    All the strength in my body suddenly vanished when I had to face the consequences of my oversight.

    An oversight that all of the decision-making individuals made.

    "So it was all about a woman?" I asked just to confirm, pretty annoyed with the idea of assuming something if I could get a proper answer with little to no effort.

    If I were to stay silent on this topic, it would be an insult to all the questions that I couldn''t get a simple answer to.

    "That''s right. But while the fight itself is actually a good thing as it allows us to start introducing our ownws��" Kash hesitated for a bit, only to look away as a small blush appeared on her cheeks.

    In the end, the genius architect shook her head, turning her face back to one of perfect stoicism as she brought her eyes up and looked me directly in the eyes.

    "All the VIPs are gathering at the ground floor to discuss the issue, imperial people of importance included," Kash announced, only for a slight grimace to cut across her otherwise stoic and calm face. "And you two are the only ones left."

    I took a deep breath and looked over my shoulder before sparing Fay a small smile.

    "If that''s the case, it''s better if we hurry, isn''t it?" I suggested as I turned my head back to its natural position before grabbing Fay''s hand and pressing ahead. Yet, before we could pass by Kash, I couldn''t help myself and smirk a little.

    "It would be rude of us to make everyone else wait, right?"

 Chapter 402 Not enough women to bed (Double chapter)

    "You are finally here," Makary raised his eyes up to the two of us as we entered the room already filled with all sorts of figures.

    The crowd inside was actually much bigger than I expected.

    Instead of just me, Fay, Makary, Etaria, and maybe the two of Makary''s aides sh lieutenants, there was a total of around forty people gathered inside and seated along all the sides of a massive, square table.

    With a nce, I counted up to a total of twelve people of imperial affiliation with Etaria at their head. When it came to the earth''s side, there was Makary along with a total of nine of his men, with me, Fay, and Kash filling up the count of twelve.

    Lastly, for the third side in what should be a two-sided discussion, a group of six managers and six most heavily prompted imperial workers were present to represent the interest of all the fifty thousand workers within the camp and the further twenty-five thousand that would join it before the month''s end.

    "What a huge crowd," I spoke out before heading to the only part of the table, right by Makary''s side, where there were still two seats left.

    "It''s a matter that we cannot deal with at our own discretion, after all," Makary was quick to counter while giving Etaria a short nce. "It wouldn''t be much of a cooperation otherwise, would it?"

    The princess noted Makary''s annoyed stare but opted not toment on it or challenge it with a stare of her own.

    "Right on the money," I smiled while pulling the seat for Fay and helping her get seated.

    It''s not like she needed my help. She was perfectly capable of pulling the chair for herself�� but would that still be the case a few months down the line, once her belly would start visibly bulging out?

    And if it was only a matter of time before all sorts of diforts woulde to appear in Fay''s life, I decided it was best for me to already get used to performing all sorts of small acts of loving care, even if it was something as simple as helping her get seated.

    Nearly forty people watched in silence as I helped Fay sit down and then pushed her chair in as she lowered herself over it before finally taking down my own seat and leaning over the table.

    "I know we are the ones that arete, but can you guys fill us in on the exact details of what happened, what''s the issue and why is it so important to drag everyone here?"

    I wasn''t here to question the judgment of whoever was behind this meeting. How could I do so, if all I knew about the topic was some hearsay from Kash''s mouth?

    "There was an�� altercation between two imperial workers during their trip to the town," Ziggy, one of Makary''s lesser aides, revealed.

    I only managed to bring my eyebrows together, forming a look of confusion before the man caught on.

    "They received personalmendation twice, allowing them to move to an advanced division. And once that division received amendation as a whole unit, we lifted them to the third and second ss worker status."

    ording to the tone of the man''s voice, that alone should serve as an exnation.

    But being away from the camp for thest week, I apparently missed an establishment of some sort of a ss system, rendering me unable to see through the point Makary''s aide was trying to make.

    "It''s a tranted employment scheme from back home," Makary hurried with yet another exnation, only serving to let me understand the exnation his aide just offered.

    "All the imperials start as a fifth ss with basic food and lodging. Firstmendation lifts them to fourth ss with better food and less cramped housing. The third ss is something like being an agency worker. The second ss turns them from a part of the crowd into acknowledged workers while reaching first-ss gives them the right to be a trainee for a higher-end job."

    The exnation was fairly simple, just like this entire scheme.

    Yet, as reasonable as it was to give all the imperials a clear and simple path to lift their status from mere tools to move stuff around orplete most basic jobs to proper members of the new camp''s workforce��

    I still couldn''t see how advancing thrice, from fifth-ss worker to second-ss worker would give anyone the right to visit the the town.

    ''Having a day off is one thing, but to let them go to an Imperial city�� Isn''t it too early? What are the chances any of those allowed in the city will actually return, rather than just casting their clothes aside and merging into the crowd of locals?''

    "It''s because of their whole division receivingmendation from their overseer, lifting everyone''s status to third ss or above. Being able to visit the townes with the punishment for the group as a whole if their numbers dwindle by the time they are to return."

    Makary came in with thest part of the exnation that I needed to finally grasp the situation�� and unknowingly, he allowed me to already figure out how everything yed out.

    If those men were to be allowed into town one by one, there would hardly be any chance for the conflict to arise. But as they were only allowed to leave for the town as a whole division, their number alone made all sorts of altercations all the more likely.

    "Honestly, I don''t really get what''s all the issue," Etaria spoke out, forcing me out of the bubble where only Makary and his aides existed, pulling me back to the reality where there were two entire factions that could have an entirely different understanding of what happened in that frontier town.

    "Two men had a disagreement and ended up resorting to violence to solve it. That''s literally it," Etaria continued while slightly leaning over the table''s edge. "What''s the issue? And why was it so important for us to gather here and discuss it?"

    ''It''s not like you have anything better to do, isn''t it? I thought but wisely kept my tongue locked behind my teeth. Stay updated through empire

    "It''s not about those two guys having a fight," Makary pointed out while shaking his head. "It''s about deciding what would be an appropriate response to such events, a response that would fit both our understanding of order and the imperial approach to customs andws."

    ''He is missing the point,'' I thought, leaning over the table myself to indicate I was about to speak out.

    "It''s not about how we should respond to this particr case, but about the system of rewards and punishments that we need to establish. A system that won''t, due to our ignorance of your culture, be taken as a great offense."

    Etaria squinted her eyes�� but ultimately leaned back in her chair as if to imply she finally got our point.

    "Then, there is the issue that their fight brought up to everyone''s attention. And it''s an issue of all those workers either missing their families or just thepany of a woman."

    ording to what I knew, the armies of a period back on earth would often be apanied by a second army of civilians, following the soldiers with the intent of making money off dealing with whatever the soldiers out in the field would be missing out on.

    Just like that, people made fortunes serving alcohol, creating mobile gambling dens or outright brothels on carriages.

    Historians called this process the scourge of armies, as it only served to demoralize the soldiers and slow the march of an army down.

    ''But life is never as simple as historians make it to be,'' I thought, wholeheartedly disagreeing with such arrogant sentiment.

    Out in the field, men still needed something to take their minds off the dangers of their work and the daily toil of serving in a low-tech army. And what else were they supposed to spend their time, energy, and money on if there were no bars, gambling dens, or brothels to serve as a sink for all three of the things that all soldiers had in overabundance?

    ''In a sense, failing to address this point is what brought all of us here in the first ce,'' I thought, leaning back in my chair with a heavy sigh.

    "In the imperial army, how would you guys deal with the issue of soldiers��" Makary hesitated for a second, "soldiers having more energy than they can burn through?"

    Etaria cast a furious, insulted nce at the man.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "The imperial army never faced such issues! We first enforce great discipline in our legions and then simply give them enough work not to let them think about useless things," Etaria announced in a prideful if not outright boasting voice.

    Yet, rather than showering her with praise and apuse�� Everyone either gave her an exasperated look reserved for the naive ones or outright avoided looking her way in the first ce.

    "And what''s the stance of the imperial workers on the issue?" I asked, turning my head over to where the six most acimed imperials were to represent all of their colleagues along with six of their direct superiors.

    There, I was allowed to observe quite a meaningful change.

    Instead of stealing nces at the princess to gauge how far they could go with their words, those imperials��

    They looked over to their superiors instead!

    ''They fear their boss more than the princess,'' I took a mental note while hiding a small smile. ''It seems those guys trained them well.''

    Still, contrary to the princess, the six supervisors of the construction team didn''t bother to give the workers any looks. And the only one who actually bothered to speak out��

    "Speak your mind. You are not here to sign praises or fall in line, but to give us urate feedback. Also, keep in mind, we are not asking about your preferences and opinions alone, but the sentiments that prevail amidst all the other workers."

    The man who spoke had no elegant uniform on. In fact, despite the early hour, a single look was enough to start spotting the signs of hard work all over the man''s attire, from spots where paint sshed over his shirt or the dirt sticking to the bottom of the man''s pants.

    There was nothing about the construction officer that would reveal his status�� Nothing, beyond the casual expression on his face and extreme, near endless load of stoicism bursting out of the man''s eyes.

    That, and the way how Kash, despite sitting at the direct end of the table to the man, instinctively lowered her head the very moment she looked at the man.

    "If you ask about ourpanions in general��"

    The first of the acimed, imperial workers finally gathered enough courage to speak out at the table filled with all sorts of extremely important figures.

    Still, despite facing Makary and me, the two bosses of the entire operation, despite facing the very princess that he used to serve through a proxy just a few weeks ago�� The man simply gulped his saliva down and chased all the fears away, raising his eyes and facing both his task and fate head-on.

    "I believe the third and second-ss workers have it the worst. Advancing to the fourth ss gives us better food. Reaching third ss puts us on the waiting list for better lodging. Reaching second ss, though, only brings us more money�� Money that we can''t really spend."

    The imperial worker cast a sweeping nce across the table, most likely expecting all those important people to jump up and tear him a new one��

    Only to see people taking their time to process what he just said instead. And that had to be one hell of a boost to the man''s confidence at the moment.

    "Third-ss workers still have to wait to get any real benefit while second ss gets a benefit they cannot use," the man repeated thest of what he said before shrugging his shoulders. "With that in mind, it''s no wonder they would be desperate to reward themselves once the opportunity arises.

    And with a whole division''s worth of men rushing to the city to find something to drink, some cards to gamble, or a woman to bed for the night��"

    The man put a stop to his words, the look of anxiety returning to his face.

    "With a whole division rushing to get those things, it''s only natural there won''t be enough bars, gambling dens, or whorehouses in the small, frontier town to amodate everyone. And thus, they are forced to wait for their turn again," I pointed out, drawing parallel to the problem of the third-ss workers having to wait to actually get the reward of a better lodging.

    "Good," Makary spoke out in a voice just serious enough tomand everyone to look over at his face. "That means, we now know what the issue is," he mentioned in an already softer voice only to cup his hands right before his face as he leaned over the table and cast a sweeping nce across all those seated around its edges.

    "Now, the question is, how do we deal with those issues?"

 Chapter 403 Co-rule of an entertainment zone?

    "First off, I don''t believe a simple brawl is something that we are the ones that should be responding to," Etaria spoke out while leaning back in her chair. "If we are to respond to every little altercation like that, we will never be able to solve all of the issues while also rendering ourselves too busy to work on the things that actually need our attention."

    Hearing those words, I struggled to hold back a sigh.

    "It''s not about reacting to everything, but creating guidelines of what''s allowed and not, what are the rewards for the actions we desire and what are the punishments for the actions we forbid."

    Hearing Fay''s voice, I raised my eyebrows in a mild surprise.

    It was rare to see Fay include herself within meetings like that as anyone more than just a passive, silent observer.

    To a degree, she attended those either to hear what her next task for the day or to be just as a form of moral support for me. That''s why, hearing her low-key scold the princess for bringing up this issue yet again was more than I could handle, forcing me to lower my guard and allowing a chuckle to escape from my lips.

    "And what is it that''s so funny?!" Gritting her teeth in reaction to myugh�� or maybe in reaction to the way Fay sneakily reprimanded her for stalling, Etaria asked.

    "I''m sorry, it''s nothing," I shook my head only to then lean over the table and cup my hands together before resting my chin upon them. "But what Fay said is correct. We are not here to judge this particr case but to figure out what''s the problem and solve it. Then, we also need to createws that will rece Imperialw within thends that we control."

    My words instantly put an ugly grimace on Etaria''s and some of her ministers'' faces.

    ''Well, I wouldn''t smile like an idiot if someone told me, straight in the face, that they are going to rece thews andmon sense in thends that, just until a few weeks before, I considered to be my own.''

    Etaria closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. Yet, rather than speaking out with renewed confidence after a moment of rest, she only ended up giving the men that she came to the negotiations with a furious stare.

    "How do you want to solve the problems that we discussed, then?" one of the princess'' ministers took Etaria''s look personally and leaned over the table, in a gesture that silently grew akin to picking up the microphone and gaining the right to speak. "Gambling dens you can build, inns and taverns you can build and stock up yourself. But who�� brothels?"

    The minister changed the name he called the businesses centered around the oldest job in the world right as he felt Etaria''s piercing stare on the side of his face.

    The minister shook his head.

    "It might be just me, but I can''t recall seeing an appropriate amount of women anywhere in your camp. So, unless you are going to bring them over from wherever you came from��"

    "How about we establish a co-ruled entertainment zone?" I spoke out before this particr minister could push his loosely hidden baits any further.

    What followed was Makary''s furious stare that I decided to ignore�� because the minister was right.

    Just like workers, engineers, soldiers, or literally anyone else from the Earth, it was possible to bring a huge amount of women over to the camp from Earth. But, just like workers, engineers, and soldiers�� They would be freakishly expensive!

    With that in mind, if there was anywhere where the entertainment zones should procure their staff, it was from within the empire. And even if we went ahead and offered double or triple the usual rates for the jobs in any other part of the empire, the staffing cost would still turn into a fraction of what we would have to pay the experts and professionals from back home.

    "And how is that co-rule supposed to look like?" Etaria asked, quite notably only interested in this part of what I''ve said, unable to be bothered to ask about what I meant with entertainment.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "It''s simple," I smiled to my own thoughts first, before taking several seconds to sort out all my thoughts and ideas. "We would build the entire thing, we will decorate the entire thing, set up streets, carriages from the new camp to the zone and back, another set of carriages going from the zone to the frontier town and back, supply lines to maintain the operations of the zone��"

    Rather than just finishing up, I took my time again to search for what else we could provide for the construction and operation of such a zone.

    "And where does that co-rulee in?" Etaria pressed, forcing me to lower my eyes and look her in the face while hurrying up with my own exnations.

    "You guys will be the ones responsible for staffing it. Since the job there will be rtively easy and extremely profitable, we will split all the jobs in half, with one part getting staffed by the imperials serving under us, while the other half will go to whatever you bring in to fill the role."

    I took a deep breath, only to raise my eyebrows and lean slightly further over the table to indicate I wasn''t done yet.

    "Obviously, if either side cannot staff the spots they need to, the other side will gain exclusive right and obligation to do so. So, just like mentioned, since we cannot really staff the brothels, it will be up for you to organize the girls��"

    Seeing the wrinkles appearing on Etaria''s forehead, I had to win quite the battle against myself not to smile.

    "It will be up to you to organize the girls for the brothels, while you will also be the party benefiting from the taxes they will be paying."

    Just as Etaria was supposed to protest and once again ask her question, I finally reached the point where I could exin it without suffering through her interrupting me every other sentence.

    "Every worker of every business within the entertainment zone shall pay a total of two pieces out of every ten they earn. One part will go to the business itself, while the other part will be paid as a tax."

    "What about the remaining eight parts?" one of the imperial ministers asked while already preparing a piece of parchment and a chunk of coal stuffed into some sort of tube to write with.

    "They will be the rightful earnings of the worker," I replied while shrugging my head. "As for the part that will go to the business, it will serve to expand its operation. And once each brothel, tavern, theater or bathhouse will reach its final capacity��"

    Right now, I really had to struggle a whole damn lot not to smile.

    "It will be put up for sale at hundred and twenty times the monthly ie of from its half of the tax. And whoever ends up buying it, will be the ones to decide whether to get that tax for themselves, or reinvest it back into the business they''ve bought."

    There were many ways to start the process of integration between our camp and the rest of the imperial world. A process that just the exchange of prisoners wouldn''tplete, assuming this process alone was enough to start it to begin with.

    No, only when the imperials working directly for us would start to mingle with the imperials from the rest of the empire, would the word about the benefits we offer to those who are loyal to us would spread.

    And if losing the potential ownership of several shops, brothels or taverns was the cost of doing so��

    Then so be it!

    "Is money all you think about?" Etaria asked in a strangely condescending tone. ''Two parts out of ten, one as a tax while the other��" She didn''t even bother to properly finish up the sentence of mine she was quoting.

    "No," Etaria then added only to lean forward in her chair, rest her elbows on the table, and cup her hands together to create a support on which she rested her chin. "What you are talking about is merely money. But what I want the answers for, are the way in which co-rule would work."

    Hearing the question�� I actually hesitated.

    Not because I wasn''t keen to share the answer, but simply because I didn''t have one. Readtest chapters at empire

    Just like Etaria pointed out, money was the only aspect of the situation that I''ve considered. And as a wed yet ultimate form of expressing value, it could also serve as the source of power within the zone.

    But Etaria, that damned imperial, golden princess, apparently didn''t put gold in her eyes, remaining free from the hold it had over men throughout the ages.

    "It''s simple," right as I struggled toe up with a witty and actually smart answer, Makary finally came to my rescue. "If we want to cooperate on this, we need to agree to one thing."

    Makary calmly raised his eyes, the hints of how he looked at me before now nowhere to be found and looked right into the princess'' face.

    "Whateverws we end up establishing in the zone, they shall remain supreme. And regardless if it''s amoner, a noble, a princess, or me, all shall be obliged to respect those."

    Etaria squinted her eyes and locked her arms on her chest.

    "And you want me to blindly agree to follow, or at least ept, thews that we didn''t agree on yet?"

    By now, rather than cheeky, Etaria appeared to be simply exhausted by how hermon sense made it nearly impossible for her to follow the rapidly evolving debacle.

    "No, not at all," Makary shook his head before gracing the princess with a small smile. "Thews that we agree on will dictate my behavior as much as yours, Peter''s, Fay''s, or a randommoner. As for whatws we agree on," Makary''s smile only grew wider, "that''s the topic for another meeting, isn''t it?"

 Chapter 404 If you want to earn my fancy, hovercraft give me, Nancy

    "Care to tell me what was this all about?"

    Even though the meeting was now over and the number of people in the room decreased from nearly forty to just five�� I was nowhere near ready to leave.

    Not when the nice, cooperative attitude the princess showed before I left for my trip suddenly turned intobativeness.

    "That''s the question I''m asking myself," Makary shook his head before heaving a long sigh from the very bottom of his guts. "Do you think it might have something to do with your�� advancement, or whatever you call it?"

    I looked over at Makary while grabbing a cookie from one of the tes disyed on the table before passing it over and feeding it to Fay.

    "Do you think she''s jealous? Or maybe insecure?"

    Now that Makary mentioned it, when our cooperation first started, we held an overwhelming military advantage over Etaria. Yet, when it came to the number of supremes, it was her force that held the upper hand.

    Between Etaria herself, udy who turned out to be a different sort of a supreme, and then at least one more supreme I was sure she kept hidden, there was at the very least, a total of three supremes siding with her. Enjoy more content from empire

    On the other hand, when it came to our group, there was only Madam�� and that''s pretty much it.

    Sure, she might have loads more experience and practice when it came to using or outright understanding her powers�� But she was still just one supreme.

    But now?

    With both me and Fay reaching the level of a supreme?

    "That might be it," Makary sighed. "And if those�� supremes are really as valuable as everyone makes them to be, it wouldn''t be easy for her to have more of them reinforce her group. And that��"

    This time, rather than finishing up his sentence, Makary simply looked over at my face while pretending to ignore how I kept feeding Fay all sorts of snacks that I could find at the table, all the while she rxed back in her chair and gracefully allowed me the joy of spoiling her.

    "Yeah," I nodded my head before taking a deep breath only to then sigh it all away. "It might be stupid, but it''s not like our history was built by cold-hard logic alone."

    Most of the wars erupted not because of an actual conflict but because of the emotions of the poption that the rulers had to, to a degree, listen to.

    Wars often erupted because of some stupid sleights or insults. Even the legendary conflict between ancient Greeks and Troy allegedly started because of a personal conflict between the rulers and the stealing of Agamennon''s wife by the young prince Paris.

    But when it came to wars that were cold and pragmatic?

    Even after scouring through my head for quite some time, I could onlye up with a few examples.

    Examples that upon further examination, revealed to have emotions and personal conflicts at the very foundation of thetter, logical reasons for the war to start.

    "In other words, it would be best if she could get some reinforcements or��"

    I sighed.

    Makary didn''t need to finish this sentence either.

    If Etaria was worried about her position and how much she could do for the empire without the advantage of having more supremes than we did, and if it would be problematic for her to receive the support of further supremes from the Empire''s interior, then the easiest way to solve her worries was to remove the new supremes from the equation.

    Or, in simpler words, to have me and Fay leave the camp and move somewhere else, where our presence would bother the princess all that much.

    "I''m sorry man, but I''m not going to have Fay tag along again, not when she is pregnant."

    The very moment I said those words, I could feel the difference appear in Fay.

    It was a simple thing, her mouth froze while her teeth failed to crack the cookie I fed her.

    "Pete��"

    "Fay, dearest," I turned over to face my girl properly. "I don''t want to go on a public rant about how much I love and treasure you. Not because I''m ashamed of it, but because we can both tell how annoying it would be for everyone else in the room," I stated outright, giving up on pretending not to notice the looks Makary and two of his lieutenants gave me.

    "I''m married myself, so don''t mind me," Makary interjected while putting a small smile to hide his annoyance. Yet, before I could respond, he looked over at the two of his single subordinates, "but I cannot say it''s the same for everyone."

    I rolled my eyes and looked back to Fay.

    "I know that you are as worried for me as I am for you. But crossing that damned in is something we have to find a way to do. At the same time, I would rather give up on this whole world than have you enter it again before getting an extensive check-up that will prove it''s not actively harmful to our child."

    By now, the cat was long out of the bag. And while Fay''s stomach had yet to bulge out, all the people important enough to interact with me or her were already in the know.

    "Miss Fay, I know that you are going to be worried about Peter, but such is the nature of humans," Makary joined in and actively supported my point albeit in a way I didn''t expect. "It was always the role of the men to go out and hunt while the women would stay back home to care for the children.

    And sure, things changed over time as our civilization developed, the perception of things changed, the roles of each sex also changed��"

    Makary shook his head as his face grew darker and darker.

    Knowing the most recent history of the earth, I could pretty much tell what he was going about.

    "Whether it''s right or not is not for me to judge. But when looking objectively at history, it was the very attempt at upsetting this ancient bnce, bnce ingrained into human DNA, that the world suddenly started to go to shit. And again, it''s not my ce to judge which was the reason and which was the result��"

    Makary shook his head again.

    "In the end, right now it''s not just your life and health that you would be risking by going with him."

    Hearing those words, Fay reached out and grabbed my wrist only to move my arm away, pulling the half-eaten cookie away from her mouth.

    "While that''s most certainly true, even if something happens to our child, we can always make another. A possibility that will no longer be there if Peter fails to return due to theck of my support."

    I blinked my eyes a few times.

    ''And here I thought we''ve already agreed on this topic..''

    Still, regardless of how much I wanted to whine about it, I simply couldn''t refute Fay''s words. After all, if not for her presence alone serving to reinforce my mental state during the week that I struggled to get ustomed to the influence of the starlight, there''s no telling whether I would find it in myself to actually return.

    ''Imagining a scenario where I just decide toy down and die��'' I took a deep breath. ''It''s really a lot easier than I would like it to be.''

    There was no denying the dangers of the starlight in. Not after witnessing and then experiencing them firsthand. And to top it all off, we have yet to find a way to ovee a burden that appeared to be impossible to crack!n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Or rather, we have yet to test the methods for simply ignoring the problem of the barrier of the true, direct light of the stars.

    "Okay, let''s drop this topic for now," I suggested, knowing full well it wasn''t the time nor the ce to discuss this issue. Quite honestly, I couldn''t bring myself to consider Makary as a valid person to join in on this conversation when it wasn''t his kid''s or his wife''s health that was at stake. "How about we talk about what we need to cross that damned in instead?"

    Heaving a sigh of relief, Makary nodded his head before putting on a more serious look on his face.

    "First, I''m d to hear that you seem to have an idea on how to tackle that�� barrier, was it?" he admitted before cupping his hands together and leaning over the table only to rest his chin atop his hands. "The question is, what it is that you desire of me?"

    ''I really didn''t expect him to look at me in this way,'' I thought, taken aback by the situation.

    Up until now, I was under the impression that we were on the same team, we were trying to achieve the same goals. But from the man''s expression alone, I somehow realized that getting the one thing that I believed could solve the issue of that damned barrier��

    It might not be as easy as I hoped it would be.

    "It''s fairly simple," I sighed. "If it''s autonomous vehicles that can ignore whatever spell or illusion it is that stops people from moving away from that barrier, then there''s one, prime candidate for how we could cross to that barrier''s other side," I imed before leaning back in my chair and looking Makary straight in the eyes.

    "In other words," I smiled a little, "if you want to earn my fancy, hovercraft give me, Nancy."

 Chapter 405 And so, the second siege of the Basal fortress begins

    In the end, even Banjay''s genius and trickery had its limit. And despite his best attempts over thest three weeks, by the time a fresh, imperial region arrived at the foot of the Basal fortress��

    The situation was pretty much the same as during thest stage of the siege of their predecessors.

    "To see an entire damned legion all at once," Banjay muttered to himself, staring down at the living and breathing mass of people from the very highest point of the ancient fortress. "It truly is a sight to behold."

    Far down below, an enormous mass of humans swarmed the narrow pass leading up to the fortress''s main gate. Thanks to his supreme eyesight, Banjay could see all sorts of siege engines littered all over the imperial army, proving that just like he learned how to deal with them in the process of the ongoing conflict, the empire also learned from its past mistakes.

    ''That cuts off three months of preparation they would need to actually start the siege.''

    As little as there was for Banjay to do at this point, he still couldn''t help but rack his brains for any smart ideas that could help him change the fate of the kingdom.

    ''How did they know, though?'' Banjay gritted his teeth, once again facing the wall of frustration brought upon him by his ignorance.

    Banjay made sure his n was executed perfectly. In other words, there wasn''t a single agent of the empire left within the patriarchate borders, with all of themying down their lives for their rotten cause and losing their lives at the hands of Salicious troops.

    "It doesn''t make any damn sense, I know," to Banjay''s side, Oxxymented.

    Being the minister''s aide for as long as he was, he could pretty much read the man''s face as an open book. It was a skill Oxxy would never dare to reveal in public�� But with the two of them standing alone at the very top of the fortress, there simply was no physical means for anyone to eavesdrop on their conversation.

    As such, the moment right now was one of the rare chances for when Oxxy could stop holding back and reveal both his true face and the true extent of his ability.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    Stay connected with empire

    Hearing Oxxy''s words, Banjay looked over to the side and cast a long, piercing look at the man.

    "I know that too," Banjay sighed, struggling to maintain rity of his thoughts.

    The legion took a whole week longer than the worst-case scenario Banjay assumed the very moment he learned of their march.

    Three weeks that Banjay spent desperately running around, scheming, nning, and tricking himself into believing it would change anything.

    But while it was possible for his methods to work on the bled-out legion he faced in the past, against an overwhelming power of over fifty thousand front-line troops supported by just as many logistic and support personnel��

    There was a limit to how far a trickery could get one. Just like the news of the former legion''s destruction could only travel so fast, proving that the second legion, the army that Banjay could see at the fortress foothold right now, had to already be on the move by the time Banjay imed his major victory.

    In other words, there was no spy that sent the news to the empire. There were no survivors of the battle who managed to avoid the scrutiny of Banjay''s troops only to then brave through thebyrinth all on their own and bring the news to the nearest imperial unit.

    Or maybe there was�� But that didn''t change the fact the second legion appeared far faster than they could if the emperor had only given them the order upon receiving the news.

    No matter one''s genius or trickery, there was a limit to how fast an entire, massive army could move.

    And now, with no more tricks left for Banjay to y, he had to face the impossible odds�� again.

    "Any news from the saboteurs?" Banjay asked, hoping for at least a sliver of hope to light up his thoughts.

    "If any of them survives, we will be sure to watch how they die in the legion''s hands," Oxxy pragmatically replied.

    Banjay''sst-ditch idea; a suicide mission for those who were willing toy down their lives for the patriarchate. An attempt at somehow blocking the northern entrance to thebyrinth, cutting all the imperial supply right at its most vital chokepoint and effectively allowing Banjay to starve the enemy out.

    Thest three weeks proved crucial for his efforts to restore the fortress garrison to its peak size, fill the fortress granaries to the brim, and establish all sorts of support services ranging from field hospitals for dressing the lightly wounded, to a fully-fledged hospital hidden within the bowels of the fortress for the heavily injured all the way to piles of simple projectiles the soldiers could throw down the fortress'' embankments once the first line of defense would be broken.

    But all of those were like a drop of solutions in an ocean of needs. And while they both served their predesigned purpose and also raised the morale of the troops now that a tiny wound would no longer spell death��

    The numerical advantage of the imperial troops was simply far too great. Judging from the number of siege engines they dragged along proved they had no desire to turn this battle into a prolonged siege.

    "How long do you think we will hold?" Banjay asked, struggling not to let his thoughts discourage him.

    "The firstyer will fall in two, maybe three days," Oxxy replied, holding nothing back and giving a pragmatically on-point estimate.

    "The secondyer should hold at least for a week, the third should buy us another week. The main wall will hold a month at most."

    For a structure that rose up from the very bottom of the mountain pass all the way to the point of nearing the peaks of the nearby mountains, it was many times thicker and sturdier than any of the other walls within the fortress.

    Yet, while it meant it would be far harder to actively damage the Basal''s main, curved wall, once even the tiniest scar would appear on its surface, the weight of the material the main wall was built with could topple the entire structure all on its own.

    ''If the main wall were to break and copse��'' Banjay thought, quickly considering a radical opportunity that he just realized.

    It was nigh impossible to copse the sides of the pass. It simply wasn''t within human means to alter the geography to a degree necessary to cause the reaction Banjay wanted. And he didn''t have the hordes upon hordes of men necessary to mine the base of the mountain down so that its upper part would copse upon a slight touch of a pickax.

    Still, while altering the sides of the past was a thing no human could achieve without an endless supply of free manpower�� Copsing the main wall of the Basal fortress was well within Banjay''s means.

    ''It would cost me my head, given for how long we defended this ce,'' Banjay thought, well aware that the shout ''Basal still stands!'' became the cornerstone of the unifying force that brought all of the people of the patriarchate together.

    And if he ever dared to willingly destroy it, even if only in a desperate attempt to turn the legion''s victory in a siege into a bitter draw, he could very well just stay behind and join empire ranks when knowing what the people themselves would do to him on the streets, not to speak about the punishments that dull patriarch would dole out for him.

    "You are thinking about something ridiculous, are you not?" Oxxy pointed out with a small, forced smile on his face.

    "You know me well enough to read my thoughts, I know. You don''t need to rub it in my face every damn chance you get," Banjay nearly cussed his aide out.

    As valuable of a helper, secretary, and secret de as he was, there were moments when Banjay wondered whether all of his service was worth the many, hurtful jabs Oxxy would throw at him whenever they were alone.

    "Let me guess," Oxxy''s smile turned genuine, "assuming the sabotage won''t work, and with how we can''t bring down the mountains on those imperial heads��"

    Oxxy stopped his sentence before properly finishing it and took a look around, swinging his head as he absorbed and then processed all the information hidden within their surrounding.

    Then, as his eyes moved back to Banjay''s deadly serious expression, Oxxy''s face turned nk.

    "Don''t tell me��"

    "It is my job to find a way to stop the empire from advancing past the fortress and into the hills where they will finally be able to make proper use of their numerical advantage," Banjay countered only to squint his eyes and squeeze his hands down at the stone barrier that protected all the idiots stupid enough to climb so high up from falling all the way back down.

    "And what''s the purpose of this fortress, if not to be just one of the tools at my disposal to that end?" Banjay turned his head to look right into Oxxy''s eyes as he asked.

    Yet, before his aide could answer, the sounds of the imperial horns cut through all the distance that separated the legion from Banjay at the very top of the main wall of the Basal fortress. And like a wave of fluid, the imperial army started to move towards the first and the weakest of the Basal''s four walls.

    "And so, the second siege of the Basal fortress begins."

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