章節 596: Elemental Control
As was often the case, Vahn awoke just before 5 AM feeling refreshed and comfortable, hugging the beautiful Eina's waist gingerly so as not to wake her up. After enjoying her warmth for a while, Vahn pulled out Eva's orb to check its status but, unlike the past few months, Vahn noticed a slight abnormality within the orb that made his heart shudder. It didn't seem to be completely active, but Vahn could sense the stirring of an incredibly powerful energy within the orb while small blue arcs coiled within its interior. Without any hesitation, Vahn tried to sink his consciousness into the orb and felt the darkness creeping in his vision before a voice sounded in his mind, this one decidedly different from Sis', "Stay out you idiot, the space isn't stable yet!"
Vahn stopped trying to enter the orb, but he kept his intent probing around since he wanted to hear Eva's voice a little more. Though he wasn't sure she could hear him, Vahn spoke out within his mind in a soft tone, "Eva...I miss you..." Silence persisted for several seconds until a very quiet, almost sobbing tone sounded out within his mind at the same time as his intent was 'forced' away, "I miss you too, you idiot..." When he was forced away, Vahn saw the most complex magical formation he had ever seen covering the outer shell of the orb. Even activating his [Eyes of Truth] didn't allow him to see through its entire sequence, but he was able to glean a great deal of information that should prove useful in the future, even though his heart ached a little.
Eina seemed to have sensed his abnormal state as she began to move around in his embrace before turning her body towards him. Seeing those same gentle, emerald-green eyes, Vahn felt his melancholy ease a bit as he bent forward and kissed her forehead, saying, "Don't worry, I just heard from Eva and felt a little sad that we can't meet just yet. I'll feel better after moving my body a bit..." Though she was a little surprised that Vahn mentioned Eva, Eina decided not to ask about it since it obviously made him a little sad thinking about her. Instead, she just hugged his body and pressed her ear to his chest, listening to his heart while saying a few encouraging words...
After leaving Eina, so that she could rest a little more before her own shift started, Vahn went down to the training grounds and began warming up his body while calming his mind. It was very obvious that Eva was making some kind of preparations for his return and it seemed that the day he would be able to enter the orb was approaching quickly. He didn't know what changes she was making, nor the costs that would be involved, but he believed she was doing her best for 'them'. Though he wanted to learn many things from her in the future, Vahn also knew he needed to treat the damaged little vampire well since she really did deserve it.
Without something like [Will of the Emperor], Vahn knew that immortality was a very 'dangerous' thing for mortals, especially if it was 'forced' upon them like in Eva's case. Since he also had the potential to help others become immortal in the future, Vahn had been thinking about it quite a bit and knew some of the negatives associated with it, planning for how he would deal with them when the time came. He couldn't truly make someone 'unkillable', but giving them eternal life shouldn't be too difficult with a bit of effort. However, this was an important matter he kept close to his chest for the time being, as he didn't want to change how the girls 'lived' by giving them false-promises of eternal life. There was also the matter regarding his children, and their future progeny, as he couldn't simply make everyone born from his lineage immortal.
One 'solution' Vahn had been thinking about what coming up with a way for people to pursue the path of immortality on their own, something that should be possible in any world with variable Tiers. Though there may be Laws governing the existence of Tier 4 entities within the world, Vahn knew that several factors could change the fundamental structure of the world, just like during the battle between the Primordial Gods and the Elder Gods of Destruction and Chaos. With his children, the Vanir, being born into the world it would effectively remove the cap on the world's Tier, allowing greater control over the Laws for anyone that comprehended them. If a system existed to promote the growth of people through physical, mental, and spiritual development, Vahn knew 'anyone' would be able to reach immortality through their own efforts. At the very least, people could live for hundreds, even thousands, of years...
While he was lost in his own thoughts, performing something similar to Tai Chi, the other girls started to show up for their morning training as well. Tiona and Tione made a beeline towards him but, seeing that he was lost in his thoughts, decided to leave Vahn alone as they watched Ais and Haruhime spar. Vahn was aware of their presence and smiled gently in response to their thoughtful actions before continuing his routine at a slow and fluid pace. The reason he had taken up Tai Chi was that it helped him attune himself with the world itself, giving him greater control over the elements even without using his [Rakshasa Body] or [Will of the Emperor]. Thus, as the routine progressed further, wisps of watery mist began to follow his movements as a gentle breeze flowed around his torso and coiled around his arms. Vahn knew his control while using his Innates would undoubtedly always be higher, but he wanted to get to the point where his basic understanding of elemental control was good enough to teach to others...
Everyone had a variety of different elemental affinities within their body, many working in conjunction with each other while there were a few, such as in the case of Eina, that clashed. If they had a proper understanding of the elements that flowed within their body, Vahn was confident anyone would be able to achieve elemental manipulation. The only true requirements were an external sense that was attuned to the elemental energies within the environment and the balance between a person's mental and emotional state. If you could 'empathize' with the element you were trying to control, it was much easier to make use of the energy and push it further.
Fire elements were 'fueled' by passionate emotions, such as love, compassion, fervor, and even anger. Though it was capable of causing devastating damage, you had to make sure you didn't allow yourself to be swallowed up by it as one of the basic 'laws of fire' was that it could use anything as fuel, even the person trying to wield it. For those that pursued the path of flames, they needed to have a strong conviction and an understanding that flames were not simply meant to cause harm, but also provided warmth, light, and hope. Though it could be used to take lives, it was also one of the fundamental elements of creation itself and it was inarguably more worthwhile to create than it was to destroy.
Water elements used more muted emotions, such as reverie, relaxation, melancholy, and sadness...it was an element that could nourish life, but also sink it to the depth of a bottomless abyss, crushing its user just the same as its enemies with the pressures involved. To make proper use of water, you had to be fluid in both mind and body, allowing negative energies to flow through you without letting them linger. Practitioners that mastered the water element would typically be infallible by nature, with calm minds like placid lakes, allowing ripples to pass over its surface but preventing anything from causing any significant turbulence.
Earth elements were almost all about stability and patience, somewhat rigid in their structure but allowing for powerful offensive and defensive feats. To manipulate the earth, you needed an earnest personality that emphasized patience, control, and steadfastness. Though the earth allowed all creatures to tread across it, the power contained beneath their feet could topple entire civilizations when urged to actions. Earthquakes were a terrifying natural disaster while mudslides and landfalls could devastate entire armies, making them entirely incapable of resistance. To make proper use of the earth, you needed both determination and endless compassion, understanding the significance of each action you took and the consequences therein.
The last of the basic elements, Wind, was simultaneously the easiest and most difficult to control of them all. Like fire, you could use passionate emotions to generate gales, but the lack of control meant you were also subject to your own attacks. When used with a calm and placid mentality, such as when using water, the air would flow freely and you could use to gentle currents to destabilize and support others, letting the wind 'crash' against objects by using their own momentum against them. Lastly, it was also capable of great devastation and synergized well with the earth, allowing typhoons and tornadoes to devastate anything within its area of influence, but only if you had the stability of mind and perseverance to make such a phenomenon a reality...
Vahn found himself having a preference for wind over all the other elements, even though fire was typically his most used in combat as a result of his perfect affinity with it. The only emotional fuel needed to control the wind was having a sense for 'freedom' or 'eagerness', meaning that any free spirited person with an affinity for the wind would be able to use it. However, this had some major downside since, if you allowed yourself to be completely like the wind, you would lose yourself and any focus introduced into your life could consume you...
Ais was a good example of this, as she had a 'perfect' wind elemental affinity and was able to use the Spirit Magic [Ariel] to great effect. However, because she had been using the skill in the pursuit of power, Ais had given up developing her mental state to maintain a proper balance, resulting in her personality being somewhat 'lopsided', though she was improving in leaps and bounds. Instead of just focusing on destroying everything with her wind, Ais needed to understand the other, more gentle and 'free' aspects of her elemental control...if she accomplished this, even without [Ariel], Ais would be able to use her wind freely.
As if she had sensed he was thinking about her, Ais broke away from Haruhime's attack and looked towards Vahn, tilting her head to the side in confusion as the other girls present turned to see what she was looking at. Vahn simply smiled in return before twisting his body in a fluid motion and allowing his arms to trace a gentle arc before thrusting them forward as wind elemental energy tailed the motion and sent a breeze at the girls. Ais' hair blew along with the gentle breeze he had created, causing her to bring up her hand and remove a few lingering strands as a small smile appeared on her face. Even Vahn didn't know what he was trying to convey to her, but he felt like she 'understood' what he was trying to say as her smile seemed to convey understanding and gratitude.
Though he was interested to know what she had gleaned from his relatively random action, Vahn wasn't finished with his own routine so he quickly transitioned from using wind into shifting his weight and stepping into the ground firmly. The area beneath his feet solidified allowing his next step to segment a piece of the earth and launch it up into the air at the same time as he struck forward with his palm, sending the piece careening towards one of the nearby target dummies. It wasn't that powerful of an attack, smashing almost harmlessly against the target, but it was a step in the right direction.
Without tarrying on the results, Vahn twisted his body around, as he had learned spirals, twisting, and arcs were all 'laws' that could be used to generate more power in movements. With his hands trailing in a smooth arc, Vahn inverted his palms before 'whipping' them across the air as if he was igniting a match. His fingers trailed sparks across the void as flames combusted in the space beneath his palm before he shot it up in a pillar of condensed flames. Just like he did with the earth, Vahn struck the bottom of the compressed flames with his second hand, causing the flame pillar to become several times larger in an explosion of flame elemental energy. His ability to manipulate fire was simply much stronger than his other elements right now, though this didn't discourage Vahn at all. Since he could achieve such feats even in his normal state, Vahn knew his control over the other three basic elements could reach the same level with practice...
To wrap up his routine, Vahn began tracing his feet forward in a curving pattern of footwork, almost like a river coiling through the mountains. His hands also snaked forward as he traced them in gentle arcs that constantly converged together, building up a greater volume of water around his body that was pulled directly from the atmosphere without using any of his own energy. Once he had built up enough, Vahn shot the water forward in an arc before snapping his wrist back and causing the water to perform a similar action, allowing a loud 'snap' like a whip to sound out. Vahn smiled and, in the same pulling motion that was initiated by his whip-like movement, converged the water elemental energy by compressing it rapidly. By the time it coiled back towards him, Vahn had a spear of ice nearly three meters long that he caught with his left hand. Unfortunately, it quickly broke when he tried to throw it since his mastery of higher tier elements was severely lacking at this point.
Instead of getting flustered, as he had in the past, Vahn stepped forward in a pushing motion with both palms out before pulling them back towards him, almost like he had created a wave in a small basin before allowing it to crash against the side and return. With this motion, the piece of the ice spear immediately melted back down before pooling back in Vahn's hands as he created a small vortex before hardening it into a beautiful sphere of ice once again. As before, his control slipped away instantly and the orb came to rest on his palm instead of defying gravity like when he manipulated the other elements. Vahn just smiled in response before closing his eyes and concentrating his intent on the sphere in his hands. Though it was still ice, the inside of the sphere began to slowly shift around like a vortex as Vahn tried to manipulate the solid-form of ice in a controlled environment instead of trying to move it outside...
This wasn't the first time he did this and it wasn't any easier than the last time he had tried, making Vahn both happy and exasperated at the same time. It was actually a lot like water, on a fundamental level, but the ice elemental energies were several orders of magnitude more difficult to control. He couldn't even shape it at 1% the same speed as when he controlled water, so Vahn knew his understanding of the ice element was severely lacking, even though he didn't understand 'how' it was lacking.
Unlike most people, Vahn could see the structure of mana itself and this should, theoretically, give him an even greater understanding of it. Reality seemed to differ, however, and, though he could exert some small influence over the ice, it wasn't of practical use just yet. He was better suited to simply freezing things than he was to manipulating the ice directly...though that wouldn't be enough to make him give up. Eva had a perfect affinity with darkness and ice, so Vahn believed he could learn a few things from her in the future. After all, though he never really called her it, Eva was indeed his 'Master' when it came to learning how to use 'real' Magic...
With his 'routine' coming to an end, Vahn smiled, took a very deep breath, and then let it out as he tried to relax his mind completely. The sphere in his hands was around 15cm across and Vahn wanted to wrap things up by trying out one of his more difficult to use skills. With his [Eyes of Truth] activating, Vahn manipulated the ice to create a focal point in the center before activating his rarely used 'Oblivion' skill. This time, he wanted to see if he could use the skill to create pure elemental energy without interfering with the basic structure of the ice elemental energy in his hands. Under his intense focus, a small black sphere expanded from the center of the ball of ice before the entire thing exploded at the same instant that he 'replaced' the core with fire elemental energy.
Though the resultant explosion was very loud, the ice crashed harmlessly against his body in small fragments before a molten ball of pure fire elemental energy, around 4cm across, crashed into the ground and began sinking into it. Generally speaking, elemental energy wasn't really that concentrated and there was a great amount of 'distance' between the individual particulates of mana. The orb he had created, however, was completely filled with fire elemental energy and there was 'zero' distance between the mana as it continued to bore into the ground seemingly without any intent to burn out.
Vahn tried to manipulate the small ball of fire elemental energy but found that, without having any space between the mana particles, he couldn't actually exercise any control over it at all. It wasn't until he activated his [Will of the Emperor] that he managed to pull it out of the ground, but not before it had sunk almost twelve meters into the soil. Fortunately, though they looked over after the explosion, everyone just assumed Vahn had created it intentionally as his expression had solidified as a result of his intense focus. This allowed him to avoid embarrassment even though he could 'sense' that Terra was a little upset since the flame sphere had destroyed part of her dominion...
(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Baka! Baka! Baka!','Avatar Vahn','Hot Potato')
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=14397149
paypal.me/Einlion
Discord Invite: https://discord.gg/Jwa8PKh
章節 597: Purity
Vahn let the small ball of flame energy hover just above his hands and realized there wasn't actually any heat radiating from its surface, as would be emitted by a normal flame. When he held it in his palms, however, Vahn noticed that the surface itself was easily several thousand degrees and, if not for his immunity to fire, he likely would have burned himself severely, if not making a hole clear through his hand. Many potential applications of the orb came to mind but, with his [Eyes of Truth] active, Vahn could see that the flame elemental energy was slowly returning to the void over time without anything to keep it stabilized. It slowly started to expand after a few minutes had passed and Vahn realized it was trying to disperse as heat began to radiate from it once it reached around 10cm in size from its original 4cm.
This 'accidental' discovery showed that it was possible for pure elemental energy to exist, at least temporarily, in a stable form that wasn't bound by conventional laws. Flame energy typically radiated a great deal of heat yet, when it was 'pure' flame elemental energy, it was almost perfectly contained. Vahn suspected it was the introduction of other elemental energies, such as when the ball came into contact with the ground, or even his own hands, that began to destabilize it. Instead of being bound solely by flame elemental laws, it was now coming under the influence of various other laws and needed to obtain a state of equilibrium by expanding and absorbing other elemental energies. Given enough time, it would simply disperse back into the void, likely by exploding or expanding to a point where its density made it able to slip back into the imperceptible gaps of the void itself.
Not knowing how big the resultant explosion might be, Vahn controlled the expanding ball of flame elemental energy and shot high up into the sky at several times the speed of sound. If not for the fact it took nearly half his energy reserves to make the 4cm ball, Vahn speculated it would be a powerful means of attack since it should be able to burn through almost anything. Now, he just waited to see what would happen to the ball once it left his control so he shot it out of his domain and allowed it to continue upwards until, nearly a minute later, a bright light exploded in the sky thousands of meters above the City. It was almost like the twinkle of a star except that it was currently early in the morning and the sun had already started to rise in the east.
Vahn felt a powerful ripple crash into his domain as the temperature of the air for several kilometers was increased by a few degrees in an instant. As it was early in the morning, the air temperature was very cool and there was even a light layer of fog in many areas of the City. Now, at least in the airspace above the Alliance, most of the fog dissipated completely and there was a slightly turbulent airflow as the cooler air surged to replace the small pocket of warm air, pushing it up higher into the atmosphere to dissipate harmlessly. Vahn watched this entire phenomenon happen from start to finish, even drawing the attention of almost everyone that was sensitive to mana within several kilometers.
Lefiya chose this moment to come over as she asked in a low voice, "Master...what kind of Magic spell was that...?" Since she was confident nobody could hear her question, Lefiya had 'defaulted' to calling Vahn Master, something he knew was common for those that subordinated themselves to him. Shaking his head, Vahn smiled and explained, "That was closer to pure elemental control than actual Magic. I created a sphere of pure flame elemental energy, around 4cm in diameter, and it expanded to several meters before releasing its energy into the environment... it's not at a level where I can control it freely, though, so don't ask me to teach you how to do it just yet." Lefiya nodded her head and looked toward the sky where the light had been previously. Most people couldn't sense it, but Elves would be able to feel that the mana had become very turbulent and it was actually quite beautiful to observe, almost like a rainbow expanding from a singular point that still glowed with an intense radiance...
Vahn was also able to see it and he felt like it was similar to watching a star explode, something he had previously experienced when he had the 'dream' of eternity. The small ball of pure flame elemental energy was actually very similar to a star as well, though the balance of mana was one-sidedly in favor of flame elemental energy instead of being a composite of other forces. If he could achieve the correct balance between the other elements, or perhaps glean an understanding of higher elemental laws, Vahn could potentially create small stars in the palms of his hands. He decided to study a few of the physics texts that existed within the system later to see if he could get a better understanding of the energies involved.
---
After their morning training came to an end, Vahn paired up with Chloe and Shizune to eat breakfast while making their preparations to enter the Dungeon. Shizune, though sensitive to the flow of mana like the Elves, had seen the phenomenon created by Vahn and her eyes had been drawn to it with clear intrigue on her face. Chloe had sparred with her at first but, seeing the inspired look in Shizune's eyes, didn't punish her for the lapse in concentration. Vahn had previously told her about the changes happening in Shizune's body so Chloe understood it was important to allow her to have insights during moments of inspiration. She was also interested in 'rare' skills, so there was no way she would stand in the way of her own disciple when it came to awakening such an ability.
When Vahn had updated her Status Board, he noticed there had been an increase in her Magic parameter once again, though not as drastic as the previous instance. Her Innate was very obviously related to Magic and Vahn was interested to see if it was her [Tamamo] or her [Moon's Prayer] that was spurring the growth of her Magic parameter. All of the information he had obtained about Tamamo was that she was a fox goddess, though not from the record of Danmachi, and that she had been a courtesan spirit of several Emperors, Kings, Generals, and Officials. It was a bit 'saddening' to know that one of Shizune's Innates might have some connection to being a courtesan goddess, as this meant her 'fate' as a slave may have been brought about as a result of her Innates existence.
One of the things Vahn had deduced from his research into Innates is that people often found themselves in situations where they 'could' awaken if there was a powerful stimulus. This meant girls like Lili, with an Innate that allowed her to bear immense burdens, experienced tragedies that caused them to carry heavy physical and emotional burdens. In Shizune's case, she was almost 'fated' to always be a courtesan or a concubine the majority of information Vahn obtained about Tamamo seemed to indicate such a fate. Most of the stories ended with Tamamo herself being betrayed as a result of severe misunderstandings, forever in the pursuit of a love that could never be as many of the men she favored lacked an understanding of her existence. They feared the power she had at her disposal and tried to seize it for themselves or, if they were unable to, kill her to prevent her power from maturing to its full extent...
As for her [Moon's Prayer], Vahn had absolutely no idea how it would be awakened and there were few insights he had gained even after scouring a few hundred texts. There was a lot of symbolism related to the moon, some even related to Tamamo herself, but that was pure speculation at this point and Vahn would have to pay close attention to Shizune if he wanted to truly understand the activation requirements. Without a 'flame seed', he wasn't sure if her affection for him had any influence on the development of her Innates at all, but that just made it all the more important to find out how Shizune's awakened since it would help him understand how other's might develop their Innates in the future. Presently, both of her Innates were still (sealed), but Vahn expected one of them to make an appearance in the near future if Shizune's mentality underwent a strong enough stimulus.
To allow Shizune's Magic to develop further, or at least allow her to become familiar with the flow of mana in her own body, Vahn gave her a bangle that allowed quick-casting of a simple 'Fireball'. It was much weaker than even Bell's [Fire Bolt], but it was enough to give her an edge against some enemies by surprising them. She was already the type that put a lot of thought into combat and having a backup attack that could be used from a medium range was a huge boon for her. Since it was also 'magic', Shizune had been very excited and Vahn had to replenish her mana quite a few times by the time they returned home. When he checked her Status Board in the bath, Shizune's Magic parameter had grown even further, although it had slowed down to a relatively normal pace at this point.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[STATUS]]
Name: Shizune Yuel
Race: Kitsune
LV. 1
POW: G253->G297
END: G222->G243
DEX: F324->F360
AGI: F388->E415
MAG: F303->E418
Skill: [Tamomo: Innate(sealed)], [Featherfoot:H], [Stealth:I->H]
Magic: [Moon's Prayer: Innate(sealed)]
Development Skill: [Abnormal Resistance(sealed)], [Insomnia(sealed)]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To reward Shizune's hard work, Vahn gave her head, ears, and tail a good grooming, but only after the bath had come to an end since he wasn't trying to stir her up. She was in the category of girls that were very weak to his [Petting] Development Ability, so she was much easier to keep under control compared to the past. All he had to do to make most of the Beast Girls calm down was pet them for a few minutes and they would turn completely docile, oftentimes even dozing off after a bit. Vahn was very fond of [Petting] since it was much 'tamer' than [Hands of Nirvana] and it also allowed him to get a better understanding of the peculiar 'petting laws' and its unique energy. He figured that, if he could learn how to create the energy and infuse it into his domain, Vahn would be able to 'pet' everyone around him simultaneously...
Once her impeccably soft tail had turned a glossy sheen, Vahn tickled the bottom of Shizune's feet to wake her up, causing the 'young' girl to startle in surprise as she pulled her foot away in a panic. Vahn laughed and said, "You are becoming much stronger, Shizune, keep up the good work." while stroking her head and the inside of her fluffy ears. Shizune's face showed a great deal of comfort, causing her eyes to squint happily as she said, "Yes, I will keep getting strongerrr..." Her words trailed off at the end as she nearly fell asleep even though she was sitting upright. After her head bobbed, Shizune's eyes widened slightly and she lifted it back up before almost immediately letting it bob again. Vahn had a large grin on his face and decided to stop teasing her, pulling his hand away and saying, "Make sure you rest properly, as it is just as important as pushing yourself during training."
Shizune nodded her head and rubbed her eyes, even though she really hadn't been that sleepy previously. Vahn's hand was just too comfortable and, though her mind was that of an adult, her body was still a child's, meaning her stamina was still lacking and she had bouts of tiredness after exertion. Vahn sent her off to her room before making his way over to check on Riveria, Terra, and any of the other girls that might be in the garden. He expected that Riveria would want to inquire about the 'flare' he created earlier and Vahn was also curious about her own understanding of the phenomenon. He expected that Riveria would be one of his more capable students, at least in the beginning, so her ability to understand elemental control would be the key to helping the other girls understand it.
Unsurprisingly, Vahn found Terra leaning against her roost and sunbathing while Riveria was also soaking at the side of the wellspring, allowing her body to recline against the smooth earthen surface along the edges. Activating his [Eyes of Truth], Vahn could see natural energy gently flowing into her exposed abdomen, which had completely healed at this point. Her fair white skin now had an intricate flowery formation on her abdomen and Vahn felt that it enhanced Riveria's almost ethereal beauty. It was much like how the green runes on Terra's body enhanced her exotic qualities, though Vahn felt like it would be difficult to convince Riveria to do something similar on her own arms, legs, and back...
Terra had noticed his arrival almost immediately and had a rare 'frown' on her face as she fluttered her wings and said, "Master, please don't go around destroying parts of my territory without warning me..." Since fire elemental energy was very effective on many of the natural elements, the amount of damage done to Terra's formation was much greater than the actual size of the hole. The fire elemental energy had dispersed into parts of her dominion and it took a great deal of energy just to remove the ambient energy to repair it. Knowing this, Vahn had an apologetic smile as he walked into the wellspring and made his way toward Terra.
Riveria had been somewhat startled by Vahn's sudden arrival but quickly tried to relax after seeing that he was dealing with Terra. She had been present when Terra was repairing the formation earlier and knew that she had been uncharacteristically upset about the damage that was done. Since there wasn't much she could contribute to the conversation, Riveria did her best to remain calm and just relaxed her body into the water once again. It was extremely comfortable to feel the cool wellspring water against her skin and she was very aware of the influx of natural energy being absorbed through the formation. However, now that Vahn had arrived, Riveria could feel a bit of heat rising up in her body and it made her heart begin to beat a little faster...
Though he was interested in the reaction from Riveria, Vahn knew he needed to deal with Terra first or she would probably be upset with him and pout later on. She didn't show it much through her actions, but Terra was a little prone to jealousy and Vahn had been slowly learning how to see the signs through her body language. The fact that she spoke out to him the moment he arrived showed that she was very distraught about his earlier actions and, if he didn't make it up to her now, she would probably brood over it when she was alone later. At this point, she no longer slept in her room at all and, even when it rained and stormed outside, she still spent more time in the garden than in the Manor. Vahn didn't like the thought of her feeling melancholic while dragging the tips of her wings through the water so he wanted to apologize through his actions while also replenishing her diminishing reserves of source energy.
Once he reached her side, Vahn unhesitantly placed his left hand near Terra's lower back, just above her tail, as he said in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry, Terra...I had been trying something new and was unable to control it properly. Next time I try something like that, I'll make sure you know about it beforehand." Terra had already relaxed her body against her roost again, seemingly ignoring his words but doing nothing to stop his actions. Vahn knew she was just taking advantage of the situation to get pampered by him but that had been his intention from the start. Instead of trying to continue the conversation, Vahn pulled out the thin fibrous brush and began the painstaking process of grooming Terra's wings without using the essence to speed things up. Realizing this, Terra's feather fluttered in a way that told Vahn she was very happy...
More than two hours later, Vahn finished grooming Terra's wings, even having her turn over her body halfway through so he could get both sides. Terra spent most of her time naked, to the point that everyone that visited her garden was completely 'immune' to the sight. As for Vahn, he appreciated her beauty greatly and knew she would be happier if he let his eyes wander around a bit. She really was 'unique' in many aspects and Vahn found his interest in her only increased with time, wondering when things would develop to the point where he was able to share more intimate moments with her.
There was actually nothing standing in the way, if he wanted to push things forward, but Vahn felt that Terra simply wasn't 'ready' for that type of relationship just yet. She was still stabilizing, much like how Fenrir had taken several months to adapt, and Vahn felt that it would be better to allow her to get closer to other people before taking things further. He also knew that Fenrir would probably be very upset if she 'lost' to Terra in that regard, and he didn't want there to be a conflict between them. Though Terra was good at 'handling' other people, even getting a few advantages against Syr and Riveria, she couldn't really deal with Fenrir very well since many of her actions were irrational and based on instinct. Since Fenrir would get 'hostile' if Terra tried to talk around her, they didn't spend much time together and Fenrir had only rarely come to the Garden, even though Fafnir was often around when it wanted to soak up some sun itself.
After he had finished combing through all of her feathers, Vahn rubbed Terra's very firm stomach for a bit and said, "Don't be angry with me anymore, okay...?" in a soothing voice. Terra's eyes opened in response to his words before her characteristically gentle smile appeared on her face and she said, "I can't stay angry at you, Master~." in a playful tone. Vahn knew she hadn't truly been angry with him, just 'upset' by his actions and the unexpected consequences. From the moment he apologized to her directly, Terra had already forgiven him, something they were both aware of. Him helping her groom was just to thank her for all the efforts she put into repairing the damage and allowed him to replenish her energy while his own naturally recovered. If he tried to restore all of Terra's energy at once, Vahn would be completely drained so he used the grooming as a way to make the process more natural while also 'apologizing' to Terra.
Terra's wings now felt very refreshed and there was a subtle tingling going through her body, which she was very fond of and only happened whenever her Master treated her. She had a high affinity with natural elemental energy, but her Master's source energy was several orders of magnitude more pleasant. Every time he topped her off, Terra felt like she could sleep for days with the pleasant energy radiating through her body and making her feel happy. However, she just sat up and turned around so she could relax against her roost again before diffusing some of the energy he had given her into the formation below. She was determined to make her territory expand to the periphery of the Alliance's Territory in the future and using her Master's energy was the best way to increase it quickly. It also accelerated the time until she would next experience his care so, while keeping it subtle so as not to draw too much attention to her actions, Terra allowed the tingling sensation to slowly fade as the warm rays of the sun bore down on her leafy-green feathers...
(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Don't eat this (UwU);...','Shizune's Growth','Terra is so spoiled~!')
(A/N: Brief reminder that Shizune's affinities are Fire/Darkness which is why Vahn gave her a bangle that lets her use fire. Chloe's affinities are Ice/Darkness, just like Eva's, which is why they are both avoided by Terra. Natural Elemental Energies are elements such as Life, Wind, Water, Earth, Light, Vitality, Wood, Etc... things that are typically destroyed by fire/ice/darkness (UwU).)
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=14397149
paypal.me/Einlion
Discord Invite: https://discord.gg/Jwa8PKh
每周推薦票狀態
200+ 推薦票
榜單 
114 推薦票 
段落評論