A Sinner’s Chance

I awoke to the familiar feeling of Arya cuddling me tightly in her embrace as she slept deeply. Despite the fact that I had just woken up I felt far better than I usually did, likely a result of all the events that happened last night. I didn't want to disturb Arya just yet as she was probably exhausted since not only was her recovery slower, but she also didn't gain anything but pleasure from sex.

I brushed my hand through her long and delicate hair while pulling up my Status. I'd devoured the Hero's Divinity and felt some sort of strength, so I figured it would be represented by my Status.

I had been correct when I felt my Aspect Skill increase after devouring the Hero's Divine energy, but what I hadn't expected was to gain an ominous Title and Skill in addition to a massive increase in my Experience. On top of that, the Title had replaced two that had been there originally, though I could still see them if I focused on the bracketed number next to it.

'Divine Enemy: A Title bestowed upon those who have deprived a God, or their Hero of their Divine Energy. A prerequisite to becoming a Demon Lord. Minor increase in strength against Divine based hostiles. Minor enhancements to Divinity Breaker and Godslaying.'

'Godslaying: A Skill developed to fight against Divine beings as a mortal. Increases all stats when fighting a Divine. Infuses one's Domain with anti-Divinity, hindering Divines inside of it. Pinnacle influence increase among monsters. Pinnacle influence increase among Demons. Combos with Divinity Breaker to increase efficiency of destroying Divine Energy. Combos with Devour to consume Divine Energy as power. Combos with Yin from Yang to convert Divine Energy to Demonic Energy. Granted by Heretic.'

This was the first time I'd had a title that gave bonuses to anything, and while I was happy for any bonuses I could get, the fact that it was a prerequisite to becoming a Demon Lord was not something I was extremely pleased with. As for the Godslaying Skill, while it was rather niche, it made up for that by being incredibly strong, but that was probably only fair since I'd consumed the Divinity of both the Hero and his Artifacts, which I assumed influenced it since I couldn't think of any other condition I could have fulfilled to unlock it.

Thankfully Deception allowed me to disguise my Status Plate because I felt like having these two entries being shown was almost worse than any of the others. I also had to decide what I was going to spend the Experience on, something I'd never really thought about before as I'd only been gaining small increments over the past years. Even when we'd gone through the Labyrinth, I'd only gotten around four hundred, and now I had a whopping 7,500.

I was leaning towards my Primordial Elemental since it was one of the harder ones for me to train naturally, but I decided against spending anything right now and hold on to it for when I hit a growth plateau, or some other situation arose that warranted me spending it.

I let my Status fade from my vision as I laid my head back and began to ponder about the future, only to feel Arya stir before releasing a yawn and groggily raising her head and chest to look around before her eyes settled on me. Arya just stared for a moment before pushing herself slightly forwards and giving me a quick kiss. "Last night was great and um..." She trailed off as her cheeks flushed and twirled her fingers around each other before clasping her hands and taking a deep breath. "Can we do it under the sun next time?" Her words were rushed and embarrassed as she shyly turned away.

Finding her embarrassed actions rather cute I took an arm and pulled her into my embrace. "I don't mind, but why? I didn't think you'd be into outdoor sex, though I guess with the proper web setup it would be just as comfortable."

I could Feel Arya fidget a bit at my question before whispering. "For cultivation." If it weren't for the fact that she was right next to me I doubted I would have heard her say that, though I couldn't figure how having sex related to training the Yin Revolution Skill. So I lightly prodder her stomach with a finger. "What do you mean?"

"The Yin-Yang Technique is a diluted version of another Skill called Universal Yin-Yang Revolution." There was a brief pause as Arya seemed to collect herself. "A Skill that requires a Yin and a Yang, along with carnal pleasure."

Her explanation piqued my interest so I took a brief moment to use Seshat's Library, pulling out the information about Universal Yin-Yang Revolution, which took the form of a thick book.

'Universal Yin-Yang Revolution: A Pinnacle sexual cultivation technique to harness and condense the universal forces of Yin and Yang. To practice this technique requires the consent of a Yin and  a Yang body, usually a man and woman, though exceptions have been noted before. This is best practiced at least once every 24 hours, under a full moon, or under the midday sun. The Yin body learns the Skill Universal Yin, while the Yang body learns Universal Yang, Pinnacle Skills that are used to manipulate energy.'

There was plenty of more information about it but it was mostly just describing how to practice, along with the long and prestigious history that had led to the creation of the technique. It was the first time I'd actually gotten what felt like a proper library book to view about something, but I thought that might be because a technique was vague and wouldn't be a part of the System unlike a learnable Skill. Either way it provided me a baseline for understanding why Arya wanted to perform under the sun.

The small tidbit about practicing it at least once a day wasn't that different from the diluted technique, and I looked at Arya knowingly, an amused smile crossing my face. "We do this every day like the diluted version right? You think you can handle that?" I was both teasing and genuinely concerned.

While I wouldn't have any problems with having sex once a day at minimum, it wasn't like Arya had my stamina or libido, however she nodded. "Once I learn the Skill, it will supposedly increase my sex drive and compatibility with my partner, at least that's what the manual described.

I wondered what kind of effect the Skill would have on me then, I already had a plethora of sexual Skills, so I wondered if it would combo or enhance one of them. Unfortunately it was still early morning, so I'd have to wait until around noon before I could really find out, but I wasn't in a rush as there were plenty of things to discuss until then since I'd put them off last night in favor of a festival of carnal pleasure.

The first thing I brought up was the fact that the Hero had learned that I had once been Velen, from my father who I'd never told no less. Even though we speculated on it for a while I could still only think that Marian had told him, whether or not it was voluntary was another matter, something I planned to take up with her.

The second was her behavior over the few days after I'd woken after molting. While the traces had seemed to vanish, I wanted to at least know what had been troubling her at the time, so perhaps I could help next time. Arya however dodged answering as best as she could only saying that I shouldn't worry about it while looking guilty, like a child who'd been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

I wasn't, however, one to take no for an answer, especially when it concerned the wellbeing of those that were close to me. After torturing and teasing her for the better part of half an hour, she finally caved and told me. "On the day you woke up, a strange spider woman visited me and said that your father wanted to meet you. Not Alcrem of course, she called him the Lord of the Forest of Darkness, Demonweb."

The information came as a shock to me as while I only faintly recalled the Brand of the Dark Lord curse I'd gotten after leaving Phoenicia, the city that was home of the Eldur family's estate. The description had said it was harmless and that it was used by Demonweb to track me. I hadn't understood how I'd attracted his attention at first, but I supposed it was possible that I was his daughter, Ashara hadn't talked much about my father after all. And if he turned out to be a Ghoul that would solve the mystery of why I'd been a part of their lineage at one point.

While I was still reeling from the information, it didn't escape my notice that Arya had left something out, something that I forced her to confess by simply staring at her knowingly. She was simply too easy to read, though I imagine that only applied to me since she was frosty to just about everyone else.

Arya sighed a little as she told me what she'd agreed to. "I need you to meet him in the central area of the Forest of Darkness within three years or I forfeit my life."

Three years was both a short and a long time, and it wasn't like traversing the Forest of Darkness would be a walk in the park either. Me and Arya could probably do it since I was a perfect vanguard and she was a mage specializing in Yang, something that would be extremely useful in the forest. The only problem was that Arya's clan had called her home once this school year ended. Of course, if I could get Alcrem to agree to annul the nullification, we'd be fine and dandy, but there was no telling if he would be lenient enough to do so. While I'd mentioned eloping, we couldn't very well do that if we needed to be in the Forest of Darkness within three years, it was Eldur family territory and I didn't want to imagine what Alcrem would do to someone who abandoned the family.

Those were the biggest issues we were currently facing though I did mention that I needed to visit the Divine City of Luxuria at some point to hear out the pink haired lady who had helped me out when I was only five. We sat in bed a while longer discussing the future though it soon devolved into the silly small details, such as where we would live, how many kids and all the other things nearly married couples often talked about.