NOVEL NEXT Chapter 75: A promising night
The thought about Lucy being a "Vessel of Wrath" hung over Caelen even after the ended conversation with Seralyth like almost cleared sky that still had a black color on it.
The training session ended, and Nivolis finished her part. She just left with no implication of wanting to converse with anyone away, and Serlayth, knowing her, melted her away into the shadows as silently as she had acted around them.
Lucy, breathing heavily but with a focused gleam in her eyes, walked over to where Caelen and Seralyth stood.
"You're getting faster," Caelen remarked, his voice neutral, though his mind was racing.
"She's helping me control my ice magic better, not just unleash it," Lucy replied, wiping sweat from her brow. "It's... harder." There was no complaint in her tone, only a grudging respect for the challenge.
Caelen's gaze intensified as he intended to find out more about this situation. "Lucy. The tree your family guards. The one Evelyn mentioned gives you your physical power. Tell me everything you know about it."
Lucy blinked, thrown by the sudden shift. "The Ancestor Tree? It's... just always been there as long as the Desmire family has existed. My father used to say our strength was its gift."
A shadow crossed her face. "After you tricked him... before I changed... he was ranting. He said the seed you gave him must have been the same fragment of the Tree. That it was the only thing that could explain its existence."
The pieces clicked into place with an almost audible snap in Caelen's mind. The seed from Thalyss. The tree that grants physical power to a family of demon hunters.
He had consumed a seed of primordial lust. What if Lucy's family had been guarding a seed, or perhaps a sapling, of primordial wrath? What if the "incredible physical capabilities" were a diluted form of the Sin's power? It wasn't a gift; it was a slow, generational inheritance.
"And the Primordial of Wrath," Caelen pressed, his voice low. "What do the family of demon hunters say about him? What was he like? Before the Evasion?"
Lucy frowned, digging into old, half-remembered lessons. "Ravethor? The stories said he was... relentless. He didn't conquer or scheme like the others. He just fought. He challenged everything, even the other Sins. They said his rage was so pure it could shatter realms." Her eyes grew distant, haunted.
"I... I remember once, when I was young. We were in a dungeon, training with the other kids. Something went wrong. A cave-in. My mother... she saved my brother and me when the other kids left us in there." Lucy's voice tightened.
"I was frozen. My body just wouldn't move. It was like all my family's famed strength vanished and kept me from moving. I just stood there and watched." She looked down at her hands, now capable of shattering more than stone and the very monsters that took her mother. "I always wished... I'd had the strength to move back then. I could have done something. I wouldn't have just been... a statue."
Her words painted a devastating picture. A vessel, born from a line infused with a fragment of Wrath's power, yet paralyzed by something when it mattered most. It felt less like a coincidence and more like a cruel twist of fate, or a design to create something else.
Caelen placed a hand on her shoulder, the gesture firm, commanding. "That won't happen again. You're not that girl anymore. You're getting stronger. And I will make sure no one, and nothing, ever makes you feel that powerless again." The promise was absolute, a vow from one primordial scion to another.
Lucy met his gaze, a flicker of the old, hard defiance returning, now backed by a newfound sense of purpose. She nodded once, sharply.
Seralyth, who had been observing the exchange, spoke up. "Knowledge of demons is one thing. Application is another. The archives hold texts on lightning magic. If you wish to refine your affinity beyond instinct, it would be a logical next step." She paused, a glint in her eye. "And if you grow restless from reading, I would not be opposed to a sparring session. It has been a long time since I faced a potential equal."
Caelen considered it. The offer was tempting. But his thoughts were already leaping ahead. He had the knowledge. He had a theory about the Desmire family tree. He had a Vessel of Wrath to train and a Scion of Charity to corrupt.
"Perhaps later," he said to Seralyth. "But, the spells." He looked out past the castle walls, towards the horizon swallowed by darkness. "And then...."
The time for passive learning was over. The Scion of Lust was ready to walk into the shadows and claim what was his.
After he felt like the conversation and theories were done, he decided to leave them. Leaving Lucy to her cool-down exercises, Caelen moved through the castle, his senses extending through the Demon Link.
He found Evelyn not far away, in a smaller, sunlit herb garden adjacent to the main courtyards. The contrast between the black sky and the vibrant, defiantly green plants was stark. Silver was with her, the assistant's posture relaxed as she carefully snipped a few leaves from a fragrant bush and placed them in a small basket.
Evelyn looked up as he approached. Her chocolate skin and shimmering gold hair seemed to absorb the strange light, making her glow. "Caelen," she said, a soft smile touching her lips. "I was hoping to see you before I left."
"Left? I thought it would have happened by now," he asked, his tone even.
"That is tomorrow," she clarified. "Silas... well, he's intense. But he's taking me to a training ground his dark elf faction uses. He says it's the best place to learn to control what I am now." She glanced at Silver. "We were just saying our goodbyes for now."
Caelen's gaze shifted to Silver, who even now seemed very calm, which confused Caelen due to his overflowing power of lust, which is more potent to women, but looking at her, she seemed to be just fine, which makes her even more interesting to Caelen who left that for now. "Silver. How do you find this place?"
Silver's eyes met his, her expression as inscrutable as ever. "It is not bad," she stated plainly. "The elves are... precise. I am learning their recipes. They are healthy." She held up a sprig of some leafy herb. "Good for digestion."
A faint, genuine smile touched Caelen's lips. Of all the chaos, Silver's pragmatic simplicity was a constant. He turned his attention back to Evelyn. The [Abyssal Charm] in his gaze softened, becoming more intimate, a focused warmth.
"A whole night before you go off to be molded by a bitter prince," he murmured, stepping closer. His voice was a low, inviting hum that seemed to vibrate in the very marrow of her bones. He reached out, his movements slow and deliberate, and gently tucked a stray strand of her glowing golden hair behind her ear.
The back of his fingers traced the line of her jaw, a whisper of a touch that carried a jolt of pure, undiluted sensation. "It seems like a waste to spend it on simple goodbyes." He leaned in slightly, his crimson eyes holding hers captive. "We should have a proper send-off. Just you and me. No talk of training or trees or wars to come."
His voice dropped even further, into a register meant only for her. "I think we could… generate our own heat. A final lesson in the power you now carry."
The implication was crystal clear, layered with the intoxicating promise of pleasure and connection that only a Primordial of Lust could offer. It was an order wrapped in silk, a command softened by the flicker of genuine desire he felt.
He wanted to feel the full extent of her transformed power, to stoke it, to claim her completely and imprint himself upon her senses before she walked into the unknown.
Evelyn's breath hitched audibly. A deep, warm blush spread across her cheeks, a reaction that had nothing to do with the ambient temperature and everything to do with the overwhelming allure he projected.
It was a siren's call woven into the very fabric of his words, impossible to resist. She looked from his captivating, smoldering gaze to Silver, who simply gave a slow, unconcerned blink, utterly unfazed, and then back to Caelen.
A slow, shy yet genuinely eager smile appeared on her face, breaking through her melancholy like rays of sunlight. Her golden eyes twinkled. "A proper send-off," she repeated, her voice husky and eager. "That would mean a lot to me."
"That's the kind of thing I like to hear. I would let you enjoy your moment with your assistant, but after this, I'll find you." Caelen, still sounding intense, walked away, heading somewhere else.
_
["If you're enjoying the story, don't forget to drop a power stone or add it to your library—it really helps me keep writing!.]
[SORRY FOR THE LATENESS, TRYING TO ADJUST THE OLDER CHAPTER"]