More than twenty thousand Mermaids watch the fight between Lucien and Saria. There are no more s.p.a.ces for observers, but those farther away still try to get closer to see what will happen next.
[Kill or kiss?] They wonder.
For all of them, the answer would undoubtedly be kissing, but they know that royalty has to make sacrifices for the sake of the people, so if Lucien is really a threat, Saria will have to kill him.
Perhaps in most places, royalty means a group of people who live luxuriously and enjoy privileges fueled by power and wealth.
But in the Mermaid Kingdom, royalty means a group of people or rather a lineage of individuals who sacrifice themselves for the good of all Mermaids.
This has been the case for several generations. And it's because of it that all the Mermaids love Nea, would sacrifice their lives for Saria without thinking, and it's also because of it that Kaise's name is always in their heart.
Then again, even though all the Mermaids there can see that Saria definitely doesn't want to kill Lucien, they can't decide if that's right or not as they trust her to lead them.
And everyone has the answer when they see the water blade disappear from Saria's hand. [Kiss, she chose.]
Lucien smiles at Saria; he was not wrong to have the highest expectations regarding her. And of course, he doesn't think twice, having the way between their lips free, he kisses her.
He doesn't act very quickly and leaves the option to back off to her. But she doesn't even think about avoiding his lips, certainly because she wants that badly, but especially since that is the rule of their innocent little compet.i.tion, and she won't break the deal.
Then their lips touch again, in a kiss as good as the first; nothing too bold and just a peck on the lips.
Lucien doesn't think about anything and just enjoys the sweet taste of Saria's wet and delicate lips. But despite enjoying that so much too, she can't stay calm.
[Everyone is judging me now...] She wonders. [I bet they think I'm being seduced by this devil and putting our people at risk.]
[No, I'm wrong...] She gets nervous because it's the first time she's done something so daring, but Saria doesn't lose faith in her people, just like they continue to believe in her.
Saria wonders if she should have killed Lucien when she had the chance, but the Mermaids generally act on instincts rather than reason.
By being more sensitive creatures than most, they can feel when someone wants to hurt them. And she doesn't feel anything wrong with Lucien, just the desire to do her good.
Again, Saria wants that moment to last much longer, but it suddenly ends, leaving her body even more frustrated.
Lucien slowly moves his lips away from Saria's as he smiles. "Looks like you made the second point... yet, I feel like I won the prize."
"Hehehe..." She giggles as his praise feeds her ego. "Well, you kissed this charming Princess not once but twice, so it's natural that you feel so happy."
"Shall we continue?" He asks as he can't wait to kiss those perfect lips again.
Saria knows she shouldn't stop the battle to give Lucien her full attention. But on the other hand, she still doesn't know what to do about Mira and the big barrier she made, so maybe he can give her the answers she wants, after a few more kisses, of course.
"Try to keep up with me if you can..." She smiles and attacks him with her rapier, also creating many water arrows that fly from all directions towards him.
She's definitely not as powerful as Tyrion, but within her domain, Lucien has one of the most exciting fights ever.
They exchange powerful blows at high speed while teleporting over and over the place. And after six more pecks on the lips, Lucien is finally about to add tongue in the next kiss.
But he is forced to stop and move away from Saria when he feels that a certain cursed sword is trying to destroy his home in the purple world again.
'What happened?' l.u.s.t asks while Saria is also confused.
'The Ghost Lady…' Lucien explains. 'Can you try to contain her a little longer? I still don't know how it's going to affect Saria.'
'Sure.' l.u.s.t goes to the purple world and tries to calm the Ghost Lady. But the cursed sword is totally out of control, flying around the house and making a mess.
Due to Lucien's power level and mainly his demonic energy, l.u.s.t currently has a power equal to the Immortal Realm middle stages, which should be more than enough to handle the Ghost Lady.
But the cursed sword also received a lot of demonic energy from Lucien, and now it is even more powerful, giving l.u.s.t a hard time trying to catch her.
That quickly turns into a cat-and-mouse chase around the house until l.u.s.t corners the Ghost Lady in Lucien's bedroom. She blocks the door, and the sword cannot pierce the extraordinary magical walls around them.
"What are you going to do now, little sword?" l.u.s.t smiles as she materializes her whip to capture the cursed sword.
The Ghost Lady knows that attacking l.u.s.t is useless, or rather, it would only upset Lucien, so with no option, she flies onto his bed and starts releasing a strange dark-blue energy.
"It..." l.u.s.t is confused by what the sword is trying to do.
Then she mentally speaks to Lucien. 'Are you feeling something different?'
'What do you mean?' He asks as he dodges Saria's attacks.
'The cursed sword is releasing a kind of energy...' l.u.s.t explains as she continues to try to understand what the Ghost Lady is doing.
'Energy? Hmm...' Lucien tries to find anything different in his body and then finds it at the same time he notices Saria gazing at his waist with a curious expression.
He looks down and notices that his tattoo is glowing bright purple, the way it does when he's making a soul contract with some woman.
'She's trying to get a soul contract!' Lucien and l.u.s.t speak at the same time.
'But…' Lucien is confused. 'You said cursed weapons couldn't connect to someone's soul like normal soul weapons...'
'It's because of the chaotic energy and desire to just destroy.' She explains. 'No one has ever managed to have a cursed weapon as usual soul weapon, but it is unlike anything else... it seems the Ghost Lady wants something more than just destroying everything.'
Lucien understands that the situation is unique, which makes him even more dubious about accepting that soul contract or not. 'What should I do?'
'The sword clearly wants to use this soul contract to go to you and meet her sister, but only you can decide what to do.' l.u.s.t comments.
He had no intention of preventing the sisters' reunion, but he was concerned that the Ghost Lady would get out of control and hurt someone. However, if he makes a soul contract with her, he will have more control over her and could prevent her from hurting anyone.
'Making a soul contract with a cursed sword, what could go wrong?' He wonders as he accepts the energy of the Ghost Lady.
In a flash of dark-purple and dark-blue light, the sword appears in his left hand while he holds his red katana in his right hand and blocks Saria's rapier.
The Ghost Lady glows with a purple aura, and Lucien's tattoo appears around her hilt, making it clear that he really made a soul contract with a cursed weapon.
Saria isn't surprised by the appearance of another sword as she's seen Lucien materialize two katanas, so she thinks that's just another one of his many secrets.
She forces her rapier further against him, and he uses the Ghost Lady along with the red katana to block her attack.
"I can already feel the taste of it..." Saria comments in a teasing tone as she looks into Lucien's eyes. But then she notices familiar words on the Ghost Lady's blade.
"More than friends, we are sisters of different parents, inseparable in life and beyond." She reads aloud those words, which are written in the royal language of oceans.
Old memories surge in Saria's mind, along with a great shock. She remembers stories about how her older sister and a Fox Princess saved the Blue Star a thousand years ago when she was just a child.
"Their promise..." She thinks aloud as she stares at the Ghost Lady. "Kaisa?!?!?"
Lucien barely has time to think about his next action when l.u.s.t gives him crucial news. 'She's here!'
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A few minutes before. Tens of miles away from Lucien and Saria, Claire and the Naga messenger swims at top speed.
Claire can't fly yet as she hasn't reached the Sky Realm, but her speed in the water is very high due to the treasures Saria gave her. Even the Naga messenger, which is in the Immortal Realm, has a hard time following her.
She stays focused as much as possible, and even Greed is thoughtful as she wonders about Lucien.
'What's he like?' She asks.
'Who?' Claire can't even think clearly due to the excitement of meeting one of her siblings again.
'Your brother, of course.' She answers. 'Since there weren't many memories about him in your mind when we signed the contract, I didn't think he was really important to you.'
'Important to me?' Claire thinks about how she feels about Lucien. 'He is important to me! In fact, all my siblings are... I just spent a lot of time focused on my desire to be like Naomi, and I haven't been with my other siblings as much as I would like.'
'Well, you can start correcting that mistake now, with your brother.' Greed suggests.
Claire thinks something is wrong because Greed didn't seem to like the idea of them meeting Lucien and l.u.s.t a few minutes ago. Yet, now she is advising her to have a good relations.h.i.+p with her brother.
'What are you up to?' Claire asks.
Greed doesn't want to tell Claire how she plans to use Lucien's abilities to strengthen them and them alone. 'Nothing special... I'm just curious about how your brother is like; I bet he's too charming to have caught l.u.s.t's attention... or he's just been what's left for her.'
[Charming?] That word awakens in Claire's mind some embarra.s.sing memories.
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Six years ago.
Claire and Naomi are twenty-two years old, they are already beautiful grown ladies, but one is cold as a snowman, and the other acts like a brat kid.
In an inner courtyard at the mountain fortress, they observe a sparring session between their younger siblings, Lucien and Sophia.
Well, that's supposed to be a sparring session, but the way Sophia uses her body to hold Lucien to the floor makes it seem more like a dangerously naughty play.
Lucien cannot see the intentions behind Sophia's approaches, or rather, nor does she notice how much her body already desires his.
But the older sisters can't help but notice that the situation looks strange. Then Claire comments. "Doesn't it seem a little inappropriate?"
"Inappropriate?" Naomi asks sarcastically. "What's inappropriate about letting Sophia have a little fun?"
"Fun?" Claire doesn't really understand what fun is. Nothing looks good to her, so it's like the world is always gray.
Naomi rolls her eyes. "Are you really not affected by Luci's charm??"
Claire knows what charm means since she's read about it in books, but having such knowledge doesn't really help her understand why Sophia is so happy when interacting with Lucien or why Naomi always says weird things about him.
"Ohh, come on..." Naomi shakes her head and then shows Claire her hand. "Look this."
She places her hand over her right breast and starts to ma.s.sage it; then, she points to Lucien. "Look closely at how his abs are hard and hot... look how his face is devilishly handsome and matches his body so d.a.m.n s.e.xy perfectly."
Claire does as Naomi says and observes every part of Lucien's body and how his sweat drips onto Sophia's also sweaty body.
Her own body starts to get warmer too, so she feels Naomi lead her hand up to her breast too and teach her to touch herself that way.
"Tell me, wouldn't you like to be touching that perfect body right now?" Naomi asks as she continues touching herself and watching Lucien. "Don't you think Sophia is having fun there?"
Strangely good sensations arise in Claire's body, something physiology that goes far beyond her cool personality... something that starts to add some color to her gray world.
"Yeah, she's certainly having fun there..." Claire joins Naomi's game and starts touching herself more and more as she can't stop imagining inadequate situations with her young brother.
Both sisters distance themselves from the normal world, entering the dream world, where anything is possible, and their growing female needs are satisfied.
And as a result, they lose track of what's really going on around them, including Eve, who looks at the naughty sisters with a furious expression right now.
"WHAT THE h.e.l.l ARE YOU DOING?!?!" Eve awakens Claire and Naomi from their wet dreams with a shock they will never forget.