Power Punch

It's been around an hour since we flew past the barrier and we are now at the edge of the island where the barrier ends. We agreed it's not a good idea to try crossing it again earlier, because, while we would cope with the consequesnces, the collateral damage would be massive, and it would be unadvised closer to the human territories. So we're now passing Black Harbor a few kilometers to the side and flying onto the island from its edge.

The barrier, by the way, is smoothly ending a couple of kilometers past the island's edge, and now that I look at it, the mana density on the very edge doesn't change at all. Which isn't a particular surprise, but, seeing it all, it suddenly becomes obvious why mana density is the highest in the middle of the island.

"Are we landing here?" Letty, secured in my arms, asks through the whistling wind. My speed has increased greatly from the last time we have been flying, not only because my Demonic Flame has grown larger.

"Only for a moment." I reply, starting to lower my attitude. "I'll write to Catherine and Xethu, and as soon as we have any reply we're picking up again."

"You're picking me up." She mumbles and I snort in amusement. Letty could easily fly by herself, and was doing just that at the beginning, but for some reason, likely her lack of appropriate affinity, her energy consumption was incomparably larger than mine and she didn't last even ten minutes when flying at my maximum comfortable speed.

Speaking of affinities, she has her Space-Time affinity I kinda forgot about, but she's only beginning to experiment with it and she hasn't managed to produce any reliable transportation methods. Or any useable results, to be honest, because she refuses to rely on the abilities she can make. Just like me.

Now I have her in my arms and she's supplying me with some of her energy, another thing she learned she can do from her talent trees. More specifically, she's converting her Nihility into pure energy in some weird process she gave up explaining halfway though. I only picked up it has something to do with antiparticle annihilation and equal energy across all quantum fields. The important thing is that it works, and I'm flying almost at the speed of sound.

I approach the island and bleed out my speed with assist from my affinity, and I'm about to land smootly on the grass by the road before I realize I don't have to bother. I fold my wings a couple hundred meters from the island and plunge down at what's at least fifty meters per second, midway shifting my hold on Letty.

I decide not to turn on my accelerated perception for a bit more thrill and when I'm about to hit the ground, I push half of my Primordial Energy into the ground and into Letty. Another thing I've managed to do - injecting her with Primordial Energy without it being consumed. Up to now I've only been exertring influence over her body, but not directly to every part of it.

I land on the ground and stop almost in place and almost instantly. Almost, because a five meters wide crater forms under my feet as I sink a few inches into the ground with Letty cradled in my embrace, amidst an outward spray of dirt and a loud grinding sound from below my feet.

Just like what happened when I tried to pierce the barrier a while ago, just not so spectacular.

I let Letty down onto the ground, but she still doesn't stand by herself, having her arm wrapped around my waist. I bring out the chat with Catherine and others and see quite a lot unread messages, though I don't bother reading through all of them. What interests me is the one on the very bottom.

Catherine: Helia, if you haven't seen the messages above, we are going out for a longer request with a group of other hunters. It's for Water Serpent materials, mainly horns, so when you'll be reading it, we'll probably be on the way along Black Creek to Black Lake. If you want, you can probably catch up to us if you follow it.

Black, black, black, why so black. I assume Black Creek is the river that flows through Black Harbor, and, thinking about it now, I'm pretty sure I saw Black Lake on the map Ave'A has shown me.

"Are we catching up to them?" I ask Letty giving her a side glance and showing her the panel, disabling system censorship for her on the way.

"...Sure." She nods after a moment.

I respond with a nod and bring the panel to my front to type a message.

Helia: Alright, we'll probably be at your camp in the evening. Are the others players?

That should be enough. Now to the message from Xethu, cause I've a blinking notification icon about that. It's from an hour back.

Xethu: Hello, I had more free time recently and I've been practicing flying, and I arrived in Black Harbor today. I was wondering if we could meet up. We could also talk in person about what happened back then.

Hm. "Letty? Would you mind some company?" I ask and she looks at me questioningly. "Xethu is asking if I can meet with her. I fugure it wouldn't be a bad idea to take her to Catherine and others with us. And talk with her on the way."

"Sure." Letty smiles lightly and shrugs.

"Speaking of, I should have asked that sooner, do you have anyone you could play with?" I ask, looking at her with a small frown.

"Not really." She shakes her head with response, surprising me with her lack of... I don't know, sadness or anything, as she says that. "I never really had any permanent friends, mainly because I never had a chance to spend more than a few weeks with anyone apart from my parents. I have quite a lot of... um, acquaintances? They aren't exactly friends, but we meet from time to time when we visit different systems with my parents. I know some of them are playing VOW, but we never tried to meet up." She shrugs unconcerned and looks up at me with an embarrassed smile. "If you ask me, you are enough for now."

I barely stop myself from snorting, since it's no topic to laugh about, and give her a small kiss to the cheek, then go back to the chat window.

Helia: We can meet on the road east from Black Harbor then. If you wanna talk, come here and we'll figure things out.

At first I intended to ask where she is, but frankly, I don't want to enter the town now. It's just... asking for unnecessary trouble. Not to mention Madella and, uh, Malcolm, and whoever else is paying attention to me will note that I returned to the town.

The reply from Xethu arrives surprisingly quickly, in barely a minute, so I probably caught her resting.

Xethu: Sure, I'll be there in a few.

And that's it, huh? "Xethu will be here in a few minutes." I say to Letty. "Do you have anything to do in the meantime?"

"Nah. Let's just relax?" She poses it as a question and I promptly plop down on the ground, pulling her with me onto my lap.

She stays in place for a while, but soon pulls herself up with dissatisfied face and turns around to look at me. "Why is it always me sitting on your lap?" She asks quietly no one in particular and sits down next to me, then pulls my surprised and unsure how to react ass onto her lap. "I wanna spoil you." She mutters into my ear and I melt down with a quiet moan when she holds me tightly and starts running her hand through my wild hair.

Damn. I love it. I just... love it.

"Mmmrh~."

...

"Xethu is flying here, I think." Letty says softly and I snap my eyes open from my position on her lap. I turn my head to the direction of Black Harbor and spot a small black shape flying through the air above the road, distinctly visible thanks to being above the trees and still illuminated by the sun.

"Alright, let's get up." I mutter and I'm just about to pull myself up before Letty stands up and lifts me up with her, letting me stand by her side, but still holding my hand. I glance at her face and spot a tiny, embarrassed, but happy smile there. Ehehe. She seems to really like taking care of me. Not that I don't like it. The complete opposite actually.

We wait a while longer as the figure in the air approaches us, and when she's a few hundred meters away I become certain it is Xethu. She lands a ten-odd meters from us and walks up a bit uncertainly, and I take in her image, though not before her insides. Her demonic mana is... around one and a half the strength of mana, which isn't a particularly large, but still significant difference, and its density in her body is around six times the base soul size, which is a lot more than I expected. She's almost on the level of Geru in terms of pure power, which isn't a lot comparing to me, but it's very much comparing to Wayfarers I know.

Anyway, her looks. First of all, she's tall. Almost six feet, which is even more than I have when I stand with my legs straight, though her horns are completely different and much smaller. As she said when we talked before, she has much more than two horns, eight or ten at first glance, and they grow from the sides of her head to the front and up, with the two foremost the largest and almost touching with their tips above her forehead. She said they make a crown on her head, and looking at her face, crown does indeed match her.

Her face is, to put short, beautiful in the way it's usually understood, soft, with full lips and rather narrow eyes with red irises. Not at all like mine, which I'd say is more alluring than beautiful.

Xethu's aura and face just makes you think of a queen, I guess, because that's the only way I can describe it. Her ears are also a bit pointy, in this matter very similar to mine, and her face, as well as the rest of her skin, is rather pale, contrasting with her black hair reaching past her shoulders.

Now, looking down, her figure is just like I expected. Generous bust, slim waist, wide hips, though I can't say it's hourglass figure, and enough muscle not to look frail, but nothing more. I once heard that humans are naturally attracted to women with waist size being three fourths of bust and hip size, and she really fits into that, unlike me. Not that I don't like it. My figure is pushed to the limits, and that's simply what I look like and what's good about me.

Anyway, she's currently wearing simple brown leather jacket, which most likely was supposed to be just hunter's protective equipment, but ended up emphasizing her chest, and short, tight pants from some durable material, plus a belt on her hips with a sword scabbard and a few sacks strapped to it.

And she has long legs, dang it. Yup. Not very long, mine are probably longer, but they really catch attention. Also, she isn't wearing boots as I would expect, but simple sandals that show her feet with long, pointed claws. Looking at her hands, now held together in nervousness, she has very similar claws at the tips of her fingers.

And the last thing, but definitely very important, are her wings, which are just as you would expect of a Black Crow. Large, more or less the same width as mine, sprouting from her shoulder blades below her arms and covered in black feathers, now folded on her sides.

"Hello, Xethu." I greet her with a smile. "Good to finally meet you here."

"Hello, likewise." She replies in kinda deep, but high voice and nods somewhat meekly, completely not matching her looks, then glances at Letty on my side.

"This is Letty." I say before she can ask. "My girlfriend." Xethu blinks and looks at her with confusion.

"My name in VOW was Levia." She says, catching the reason. "But for various reasons I decided to use Letty."

Xethu nods and looks back at me with questions all over her face.

"Before that, we were going to catch up to Catherine and her group doing a request. Would you mind if we talked on the way?" I ask her and she nods, so we start jogging lightly side by side first around the city to reach Black Creek. "If you're worried about Letty, you can speak freely because she was directly involved in the whole thing and knows... I think everything I know, including that I'm trans and all that." I glance at my girlfriend and see her smirking in amusement.

"Alright." Xethu nods, jogging on our side, and stays silent for a moment. "I was questioned by the police and even GSA, and the thing kinda blew up to international level, because someone entered an acrology unnoticed and kidnapped you." I glance at Letty and see her cheeks gaining a light red shade. Well, well, well. We've a kidnapper.

"But I didn't have anything to hide to I told them all I knew. Your mother got into trouble though, because she was bulshitting about finding her son and bringing him back to her, and she started accusing me of things with agents present. GSA didn't need five minutes and my testimony to understand that doing as she wants would be bad for you, and she got dragged to separate questioning about child abuse. I don't know about the results, but GSA should be with you on that matter." Xethu giggles and I make a grimace that's somewhere between wry smile and expression of disgust. "Though they'll still probably be searching for you."

GSA, huh? Galactic Security Agency, which doesn't sound good, and is probably worse, but at least they aren't hypocrites and fanatics. They were created as a non-national organisation that upholds international law and investigates important crimes if someone demands an intervention, and they've mostly been doing their job. I don't trust them to really be impartial, but at the very least they aren't directly against trans people, same-sex relationships, and a lot more things that some regions prohibit because of some stupid beliefs, for example cybernetic or genetic modifications.

"We'll deal with it if it comes up. What about you though?" I ask. "You didn't get into too much trouble?"

"Nope, no problems." Xethu shakes her head. "I got questioned once by the police, once by GSA, and then I went back home and into VOW. My parents got to know about the thing as well and they weren't exactly supportive, but they weren't bothering me too much, and for now I'm treated as a witness and a victim. The fact that they found me unconscious helped. I might be suspected a bit, but not enough to keep me suspended."

"Alright, I'm glad."

"How did it all go on your side?" Xethu asks with concern. "I don't think it was pleasant."

I look at Letty with raised eyebrows. She understands theh suggestion and replies to Xethu herself. "It was me." She says and Xethu trips on the ground in surprise.

"What?"

"It was me who, uh, kidnapped Helia, using your wording." Letty giggles. "I'll skip the reasons and circumstances, because it would be too much of explaining, but I took her away to my place."

"Yup." I confirm when Xethu looks at me with disbelief. "I'm living with her now, and I'm not going back anytime soon. Not to that house after what my mother did."

The demoness stays silent for a long while, processing the information. "...When I think about it now, it actually makes more sense." She finally says. "I mean, who would want to kidnap you? What for? And your reaction makes sense now." She sighs loudly and her lips shape into a smile. "Well, alright. That's at least a major concern off my mind." She says and stays silent for a while. "I'm happy for you."

"Hm?" I look at Xethu with surprise.

"Yeah. I'm happy for you." She says louder with a nod and looks at us with a bright smile. "For you both actually. You got together here, you got together out of VOW, and you got away from your parents. You could hardly ask for anything more, I think." That's one think I have to disagree with, demoness. I've my body as well.

I smile brightly at that and look at Letty, who giggles happily. "Well, indeed. Thanks. Good luck on your side as well."

"Mhm. Thanks."

We lapse into a silence for a long while, and at this point we reach Black Creek, so we change our course and start jogging along it. After a while I ask a question that's been bothering me for a while. "Xethu, you're abnormally strong. What were you doing up to now?"

"Hm? Uh, killing monsters?" She says uncertainly. "Though I had a girl teach me fighting, and large part of it was in practice against monsters, so that has probably contributed greatly."

"Okay." I nod. "Just so you know, counting that your demonic mana is significantly stronger than ordinary mana, you're probably around twice as strong as Catherine now. In pure strength, I mean."

"Huh? Seriosuly?"

"Yup."

"What about you?" Xethu asks, narrowing her eyes.

"Do you want to see?" I raise my eyebrows provocatively and grin, running up to her front and turning around, starting to go backwards and relying only on my magic sense to know where I'm going. "Attack me."

"Huh? Okay..." She says somewhat unconvinced, but does as I say. She lifts her wings up and shots forward with a strong beat, only when she's about to reach me pulling back her arm and swinging her fist at my stomach. Hm, that girl must have taught her well. No stupidly telegraphing attacks is something that most beginners struggle to understand, instead focusing on strength and speed. I certainly haven't grasped it fully in two or three weeks after I've begun with my martial arts.

But, well, what can she do in the end. I extend my arm and catch her fist in mine easily, pull her towards me, nullifying her momentum, and jab her under her arm. She tries to twist her body to avoid it, but isn't fast enough and lets out a hiss of pain when I hit her ribs with my knuckes.

I then nullify her momentum again, grab her arm under her shoulder and throw her over me with a grin. Xethu yelps in surprise, flaring her wings, and flies aside, just barely avoiding an intimate meeting with a five meters wide tree trunk. A moment later she stumbles on the ground, though manages to steady herself after a while, and looks at me with wide open eyes.

"Damn, that was amazing!" She exclaims in something between surprise and awe. "How are you so strong to throw me just like that?"

"Primordial Energy." I shrug. "I'm a Primordial, remember? I'm naturally strong."

She gives me a joking glare and raises her eyebrows. "And you got that from the randomizer?"

"Yup." I nod with a grin. "And since we know you're strong, would you mind going faster?" I ask.

"Sure. How fast exactly?"

I shrug in response. "Set the pace. We'll manage." I glance at Letty, running on my side, and she gives me a nod and a smile.

"Alright." Xethu says, turns around, and starts running.