Take Up the Cross – Chapter 64: Siren on the Highest Perch ☆

Still’s agile body flows like liquid darkness as she somersaults the gap. Landing the jump while cutting the rope holding up the platform she uses to bridge it, it falls as she steps off.

With Adris unable to alter course, he jumps straight for the cut break rope that swings wildly after being freed.

(Futile! Absolutely futile!)

Grabbing it, he crosses to the roof ahead before bounding after Still, losing no time in his pursuit.

(WEAK!)

Across the maze-top roofs of Petripolis the chase continues, with Adris discovering something about both her and it. His abusive stalker knows every airborne connection across the streets below, using arches, roofs, and diving from heights to elude him.

And the city seems almost perfectly put together to grant her the security of a fast escape.

(But you can’t escape me! Eventually you will tire, while I will be fresh to fight! HAHAHA!)

Though she’s pulled every trick on him, from loosed, rolling stones to fake landings that collapse upon receiving weight, none of it is new to a Zon’Til orphan, and magical rabbit boots leave his pursuit mostly effortless.

(If anything, this is simply a refreshing dip for a body that’s long missed it!)

The feeling of danger flitting just at the edge of his recognition is a high he never gets often enough. Though he’s in no real hazard given his expertise, every minor miscalculation is like the blade rubbing against his skin without cutting. A roof tile falling free to collapse to the ground below makes him hotter.

With his target more agile than he, matching it requires daring crossings of his own.

After an uncounted number of minutes of adrenaline-filled pursuit, their chase nears its inevitable end.

Choosing to run to a high, pyramidal public building near the center of Petripolis, Still ascends its decorative face to the roof above. Reachable only from a nearby building, Adris dramatically bounces up behind her using his momentum to corner her as he skids to a stop.

Drawing his cross out, he gives a welcoming smile as he creeps towards the figure waiting on this hidden overlook with a slanted roof.

(Even if I have to dance with your blades, I’m going to brutally demonstrate how you can’t keep fucking with me!)

Cornering this woman after she threw everything at him feels like pleasure, since he can’t wait to…

Whipping her heavy cloak off, Adris jumps back while expecting whistling blades.

But instead of blades, his eyes are assaulted by the real object of his desires.

Though still wearing her cowl, signature hat, and short cloak, below that is left much barer.

Skin-tight black mesh is covered by a slinky back-and-front dress that leaves her sides exposed, tying loosely together at her waist. The light, blue satin with dull-purple wave patterns keeps revealing more of her as the wind flows past and she stands crossing her legs.

(It looks very… much like my past.)

Lacey gloves and long leggings enhance the effect as she lifts his bottle of honey wine so he can see it. Luxurious gestures invite him closer with each word.

{A real man shouldn’t be punished with such a dull drinking spot. The most stunning view in Petripolis is the only appropriate place for a night of revelry.}

(… What?)

Lowering herself to the roof and reclining elegantly on it, Adris realizes that there are a few pillows here for comfort.

Along with a closed basket and other bottles.

Adris is lost until he looks around, blinking at the real gift she’s offering.

Taking in the sight she offers, he finally notices the town of Petripolis below him. This stone mausoleum of habitation that is mostly choked by vegetation is a much grander sight from up high.

Like the king, or god, of this pyramid is what Adris has become while he looks down on all his lessers.

Seeing past the edge of this mountaintop valley, if he could suddenly grasp the ability to soar he’d have the perfect place to take flight from.

(… What…? She brought me up to… gaze at the distance? No, there’s a con. But…)

As though his body isn’t his own, he tepidly comes to stand beside a coquettish young lady looking up at him. Running her hand down her exposed side, she hints to him with fingers that linger near where her dress ties to itself.

A dress that nearly exposes the gap between her thighs with how it’s folded right now.

{I sometimes feel the urge to jump, even if that sounds strange to admit.}

Temptingly swishing his bottle at him, she is waiting for a guest.

(… Yeah. I get that… Zon’Til had that effect as well, sometimes.

… No, don’t lose track! This is a trap! … Isn’t it?)

He finally decides to sit despite his hesitation, sneering at Still as he does so.

“Taking what’s mine and then offering it back as a “gift”? Don’t you feel that’s a little callous and disrespectful?”

To his hateful voice, she only gives a sultry nod and produces a glass. Made of fine crystal, it’s pushed into his hand before the woman draws herself up a bit, uncorks his bottle, and pours him a drink.

Forcibly relaxing with this, Adris is full of dubious thoughts when she finally responds.

{Forgive me, I have hands that move before my thoughts do~. I wanted to watch you steal a little satisfaction while I was chased by those hot eyes that drink me like I’m your liquor.}

Taking his hand, the young lady with an attractive body…

(Who are you!? What even is going on!?)

… coyly signs before bringing his finger to the lips of her false, painted smile.

{What sort of man is the one always in front of me…? When I heard Ave recount your stories, I thought ‘why can’t I have been who you told them to, first’?}

“Wanting to hear about me? So that you can…?”

{Bridging the gap a bit more, wiping out some of those lingering mysteries… Have you ever heard of partners who know so little about each other?}

(What is… your plan…?)

{I want to hear the impossible…}

Scooting closer to him, Still waits for him to sip his drink before she assassinates his ego with pleasureful stabs.

{Stories of matched wits, arrogant fools, and the excellent man who puts them in their places… aren’t these the treasures hidden from me?}

Touching his cheek lightly, she exudes desperation only in this moment before re-adopting her quiet surety.

{“Adris fehl Dain”… If not with your regal voice giving life to such wonderful tales, then how can I call the experience complete? Hey, the nights around here can be quite cold. Won’t you… heat them up with the stories of a world beyond the clouds?}

(… Well… I… am pretty good at spinning a tale.)

{The more lurid the better, right? A man of your quality will always have the right words to make the story go down smoothly…}

Smiling a bit at the description despite himself, he wonders what sort of stories he can draw from his past to impress her with while he figures out what her angle is.

(They are all pretty impressive. … Okay, if you want a story, then have one. Your words will reveal everything about your plot!)

Silently draining his cup, a boy’s voice eventually starts weaving a tale with some reservation, before exuberant gestures with excellent timing bring a more eager thrill to his recollections.

“How bizarre. It just… hangs in the sky?”

{While you have a “torch-like sun” that spins in place, ours is quite circular and wandering; but, don’t fret, it always goes in a line.}

Staring askance at the descending orb of fire that is consumed by the horizon, Adris chalks it up to Zennia’s impossible nature as an unbroken world.

(Won’t that make the shadows different in places depending on the time of day? How tactically disadvantageous. West is that way, so the sun only sets there?)

{The story of “the rapacious regent, his stone-faced beauty, and the challenge of loyalty” was it? This one will be raunchier, right?}

“Right. Ah, gracious of you.”

Another glass is poured for him. The wind feels quite cool, though his body is ever more flushed. Having finished what was left of his honey wine, her new alcohol has a sharp bite to it in the back of his throat with each swallow. The flavor turns more mellow and enjoyable when sipped, instead.

{It’s called “whiskey”. A delicacy of the east. Its aroma and character remind me of…}

Worshiping his features as she signs, she leaves off on the who while feeding him a piece of bread with a spicy meat slice and rich jelly on it.

(… I am a bit robust at first, but I do grow on you, it’s true!)

Though he wants to call her flattery empty, there’s nothing lacking, for he clings to every word.

(… Almost as if it’s tailored for me. But I don’t hate it.)

“During the time of the passing aurora lived a degenerate regent who abused his authority! Only one man saw this truth and was willing to challenge it…”

More vivid and poetic with his next tale, Still pulls herself ever closer to him as he creeps his arm around her waist.

Lush hips earn his hand in turn, with Adris smiling absentmindedly as the tale is woven.

In the province of Yufan, a regent who claimed to have the most devoted wife bragged about her as he sought to prove the infidelity of others’ wives.

His method was…

“A cruel man who drew flowers into his grasp, only to bury wilted petals in his cellar after breaking them off the stem…”

{A monster.}

“The truest kind.”

Hearing of the man’s evil, Adris had come with a powerful merchant friend to the city of his home, interrupting the regent’s philosophical gathering to pose a cutting question.

“Is she fidelitous if caged forever in a home without visitors? How can a man’s wife be truly devoted if that devotion is never tested?”

The regent became enraged by the idea; but, left safe because of the open setting, the man’s question forced the regent to declare a feast for every man in the city. He secretly desired that they would meet his wife, only to be found wanting and humiliated. Adris specifically had been invited…

{He was going to flay the man alive after the party proved the wife incorruptible, right?}

(Clever girl.)

… At the party, nothing transpired except for a grand display of the regent’s wealth and corrupt pleasures.

“The widows he took as servants were trained to accept the touch of any man and feel only pleasure. To the husbands who attended after being sent for, these women played elegantly with their feelings and stroked their deepest desires, before inviting them to… release these within their embraces.

All so the regent could hold power over them.”

{If they took the poisoned fruit, then don’t they only have themselves to blame?}

“The man thought the same, but understood how terrifying the draw of another is…”

{“Terrifying”? Are you terrified, Adris?}

A hat shades Adris’ view as her head leans closer to his.

(Sometimes a bit fearful… But not with you. I “get” you, though I also wish you weren’t taller than me!)

“What do I have to do with this?” Grinning at Still, he then shakes his head dismissively. “The man in question is the one who experienced the story. He recounted…”

Only the morning after, when the man had brought his wife, a renowned aura warrioress whose countenance never wavered, before the assembled men to reveal her face had the regent discovered the truth about the previous night.

Underneath the veil was a blushing woman who could not hide her true, newly discovered self.

{How did the man… claim her affection?}

Reaching for Adris’ glass between his legs, Still’s hand brushes intently against his son before pulling the glass away.

(… Much… like that.)

“Though the regent was wary of the men and had all watched, he was not watchful of the women they brought with them, excepting that he wished to mark them for his own debased conquests…”

{… He dressed as a woman?}

“Such was the man’s beauty that he could hide in plain sight as a flower among sinful gardeners. Trained as they are to halt men, guards know that women on Xin are fond of visiting each other for permissible pleasantries.”

Taking the opportunity, the man had donned the clothing of a woman and joined with a willing partner to sneak into the regent’s party, then to the lady’s room much later after earning her trust over shared food.

After setting himself to her with words, he discovered that the stone-faced beauty without a heart moved his own more than any other woman he’d met before. Winning her heart first with words, then with a willingness to die by her hand, and finally with the announced despair of living a life without her presence…

“She didn’t merely give in. She fell deeply for him… The man speculated that the wife, who lacked in feminine graces, found what she could never have for herself in him.”

{Huh, that’s not impossible. Though you should amend… “that man’s” thinking for another idea.}

“Oh? How so?”

Moving her hand down the cylindrical bottle between her legs, she brings it back up to rub the opening.

{Only a feminine man, one self-assured but also seemingly vulnerable like her, could release her frozen heart. Keeping her confidence among men at all times, she was never allowed to associate the freedom of… release and safety with a man’s rough charms.}

“… I see.”

(That doesn’t sound like you at all.)

{The depravity of making love to a man as beautiful as a woman was probably a fine extra, though~!}

“And ‘making love’ was what they did, for so long did they tryst that their smells became mixed…”

Still’s thigh gains his touch as the story becomes more lewd, while her hand wanders to his lap as she continues to act sultry.

“What man did this!? THERE IS ONLY ONE POSSIBLE CHOICE!”

Upon discovering his wife’s face twisted with the lingering of true romance, the man had gone insane.

Horrors were intended upon the man whose philosophical query precipitated this, for his flesh would be cooked and then eaten.

Excepting for one thing.

“The man and his merchant partner were discovered locked up in the regent’s own jail, the last place he searched!”

{He escaped from jail during the night and then returned?}

“How could he when he was too intoxicated to stand? Having accosted a member of the soldiery while heavily taken by the amorous pull of honey wine, the man and his friend were locked away the whole time. Drinking the night away with their guards after having honey wine smuggled in!”

Freely wobbling breasts wrap around his arm, while Still silently laughs as she appreciates the scheme.

{Who did the man bring in to do this for him in his place?}

“… Excellent foresight you have! Yes, the actual source of the victory was an old friend of the man’s, a rather rakish, androgynous fellow who had been aided years before…”

Once this absolute cad had heard the story in the man’s letter, he’d been desperate to prove the man’s prose about the lady’s beauty, and impossible conquest, true or false. With talent like that, the lady had succumbed where the man would’ve likely failed.

{A perfect alibi?}

“Absolutely. The regent could’ve had the man killed anyway, but the merchant was powerful, not disposable, and would hardly accept such a lawless offense without reporting it to the Imperial authorities.”

{But such a small victory…? Is a blush worth it?}

“Only a blush? What of the belly she gained thereafter?”

When Still’s smile becomes a startled frown when her hand passes over it, Adris chuckles.

“The man’s rakish friend had a certain gift of sterility, but also faced bouts of being unable to perform. Along with the letter was a tincture, an enticement, that promised to solve the latter…”

{How cruel~! Was… the man punishing this manslut, too?}

(Of course. He’d even tried to fuck Serras after I saved him, with the only reason he survived that being that I kept her from hacking the half-fruit, dick-sucking ladies’ man’s bigger head off!)

The man had even tried to seduce Adris afterward, leaving him cringing briefly at that insulting injury.

“Cured and invigorated, the man made sure that the wife left lasting proof of the regent’s folly, regardless of the assurances given to her.”

{… And what happened to her?}

(That was… an interesting outcome.)

“After the regent went wild with rage, he tried to have her killed. In his haste, he forgot a key point: that the woman was his chief warrior and a peerless fighter.”

{There was nothing left of him?} With this question, Still’s smile is truly evil; yet, her entwined hands are full of love.

“Nothing. His regency ended in a yellow flash of waving fire.”

{A perfect ending for him~! What of the man, the rake, and the lady?}

“While the man departed to continue his travels, the lady, in her need after, eventually hunted down the rake who had stolen her heart and forced him to return.

With her as regent and him as her bound consort, this stone-faced lady transformed into a firebrand with a very expressive demeanor, one who went on to conquer province after province…”

{Love makes women strong, Adris!}

She strokes the fingers on his cup absentmindedly while pouring him another glass.

(Strong? She was reborn into a demon.)

Sighing after the story, the heat in his body has soaked into his muscles.

(Those were good times.)

Buttons come off as Adris’ nimble fingers fumble with them. Adris watches the town below that is quickly going dark, drinking in its scents as he takes in more whiskey. Its more putrid, human scents are fading with the heat of the day passing, leaving only the soft remnant of the living flowers which have partially claimed it.

{Does… “the man” regret not finding out the truth himself? Witnessing her body be reborn from his superior touch, instead?}

Still can’t fathom why Adris didn’t take that chance, her eyes flashing curiosity.

(She wasn’t really my type. Besides, I already had a woman I wanted and was… fairly true to…)

Caught in his embrace with Still, that reason seems sadly hollow now.

(… I was more interested in punishing him, I guess.)

“The man had much finer tastes, as I recall him saying. Far more… discerning.”

{That’s a word that I recall being used before!}

She makes a few more tempting remarks before they go silent, as Adris’ suspicion of her thwarts further fishing into his past.

“… Well, you’ve heard certain stories of Xin, Still. What are your impressions?”

{A land of mercenary magical warriors, a bottomless fall from the edge, and godkings who cut down armies in a single slash? Impressive enough, but isn’t the man whose thoughts describe them equally impressive?}

(Haha! Yeah, maybe! But this man isn’t done, yet!)

Smiling at her disarmingly, his hand comes to her mask as he stares into it.

“I’ve heard from the other three about interesting things, but never discovered answers to my real questions.”

A hand comes up to touch his grasping one, while the other eagerly gestures.

{What’s the topic?}

“I know about Xin, but what about… Zennia? Can you reveal to me its hidden beauty?”

Lightly on the edge of the mask his grip pulls. Her neck twists with the attempt.

(… Will you rage? Will you refuse? I have to know, now. Who are you?)

Eager to see her refuse so he can insult her afterward, Adris’ heart also has another hunger.

(Try to refuse me.)

“As you say, how can partners be partners if they’ve never seen—”

Her quick hand pulls on the forbidden mask before he can finish.

Revealed underneath is milky skin with a paleness afflicting it.

Brought close to his own face, her heart-shaped one is also full of soft features. Showing a girlishness that won’t leave her even with maturity coming, wine-colored eyes return his hungry stare with their own subtler yearning.

Those manicured lashes and eyebrows give her a well-kept dignity, yet bluish lipstick and eyeshadow give her a touch of a wild side.

She finishes pulling the mask to the side of her head before a flirtatious air kiss flies towards him.

Tilting her head and pouting, she expects something that his blank face isn’t giving.

“Ah. … Beautiful.”

The compliment earns a polite smile and a wink.

Drawing away from him, she reaches up to her cowl and hat to pull them off. Revealed underneath is slightly curly, dark burgundy hair that releases from its confinement to fall over her shoulders.

Still tosses her favorite hat away while rubbing his arm.

{“Still” comes from “Stillwater”, a sort of family name.}

A simple comment prefaces the most personal discussion they’ve had since the study room.

“‘Stillwater’? Only your family name…?”

{Disappointed?}

“No. Names don’t define a person.”

(Or I would only be a calamity.)

Tapping his cheek, she then allows him to cradle her more closely.

{Names hold a lot of meaning, you observant and kind boy.

… Do you like it?}

“… I don’t dislike it.”

{Don’t dislike, or like? How unclear!}

“… I… appreciate the name and the woman.”

Adris touches her face before she even hints at permissibility, learning of the coldness of her skin. Finding it the same as the cool night around her, that confirmation makes her much more real to him.

When he goes to feel her neck in an obvious move, she asks a dangerous question at his next discovery.

{Does lacking that beat change too much?}

Even if the question should carry hesitation, she’s only bold with her gestures.

Cold and “still”, this young woman is identified as not being “on his side” of humanity.

(Never eating or drinking, or even once being seen sleeping, I think I always knew. If Ave is very pure, then I suppose you aren’t, so that’s why she shocks you?

Like with Lycia… I have to say…)

“Nothing changes.”

Though her face is serene and her expression muted, he still catches a flash of a grin.

(… I don’t know why it’s like that, but I think you’re “human” enough that I don’t notice.)

{Hmmm? Truly…? Perhaps I should confirm that.}

Leaving his arms, she lays her head down on his lap. Feeling her soft hair with his hand, she looks up at him while giving a command.

{I haven’t heard enough stories! Do you have another one? Something a bit more… intense?}

Watching her lay on her side as her hand comes to his pants, this troublesome girl who constantly throws him off his guard wants a very specific tale.

(Huh!?)

Cethran’s cloth becomes a play toy shortly before it becomes an annoyance, earning a quick untying before she unclasps his pants.

{You see what your stories do for me, but I haven’t seen your reaction.}

“… You want to see?”

{Do you think I can sleep if I don’t?}

“Do you even sleep?”

{I definitely won’t unless you amaze me.}

Remembering back to a dangerous fight, Adris begins to have doubts about this night.

(Right, you promised things.)

When her life seemed like it was ebbing, Still had made outrageous offers if he could save her.

While one side of him salivates at the thought of holding that over her…

“… I never intended to ‘claim’ any of that.”

Still’s eyes go wider as her cheeks tighten, with the admission darkening her prior glee.

“In the end, you… fought for my ‘existence’ as well. We’re squarely—”

A rushing hand silences his lips with brutal efficiency, before pulling back to offer gentle words.

{Don’t talk about debts to a woman… taken by a mood, Adris. Can you really look at me and think that’s the only thing going on…?}

Still perfectly alluring, her soft smile glosses over anything said in the past while her words make it a needy demand.

(I can. I think this is just you stroking your own ego after making those offers. But if you want to pretend it isn’t, then…)

“… I see. I should just give myself to you, then?”

Shaking her head, she looks pained by the tone.

{Don’t give anything except for a story~. Just drink in the night as you’ve drank from your bottle. Adris, this night is all for you.

Accept everything as if it was something you’ve always deserved…}

Stuck looking up at him, she is “distraught” while awaiting his decision.

(You’re too good at this. I don’t think my body is going to give me a choice, anyway.)

The moment she turned on her seduction is the moment he wanted to hold her, and her almost-convincing emotional turns have sealed his fate. All he can do is find it hard to breathe without being allowed to lunge at her.

Memories of her vicious reactions to his prior attempts to take control of their amorous encounters stay his hand.

(For a story, how about one that conveys our relationship?)

“… In a quiet town at the edge of the world lay a house of ill repute; yet, for all of its vices, there was one woman who wore them so well that none could think poorly of her for it.”

Eyes widen briefly as Still considers the opening of the tale, before she grins wickedly.

{A woman so perfect that even the tarnish was a virtue? What did she look like, Adris?}

Loose pants are aggressively raided, with her hand fitting inside to grip what she wants.

“Nobody knew her face, but she wove a dance with flashy fans to captivate them before they realized it. Showing her supple body off with confidence, vivid clothing drew as much attention as the flesh. Even though…”

To answer her move, Adris reaches down to claim a soft orb that he pulls from her dress. Getting a feel for it over that infernal covering she wears, she returns the favor by brushing along his erecting length.

“… no one heard her thoughts, they always felt passion in her movements. Every time people’s eyes strayed to her, she was there to be seen glancing back, briefly; but, if you stared at her…”

{She wasn’t available?}

Calves pull up and down tauntingly. Still’s hand draws Adris’ cock out into the cold air so she can stare at it.

“… Yeah… Eventually, no matter the mystique… people longed for more than just being tempted.”

(No matter how attractive you are, I’m getting worn out by this game you’re playing when I can’t help but feel like it’s going to blow up at me!)

Knowing that she has ulterior motives, he curses himself for almost falling into this trap. Already hard enough for her to stroke, she does so while looking up with a sad smile.

{Why were they only tempted?}

“… What?”

Her youthful face and blue, luscious lips corner the head of his cock as she repositions, while coy signs continue their dance of words.

{If they were in her sight, even if only for a moment, why didn’t they send signals? Gesture something alluring? Draw her to them?}

“Because she was always trying to be the one pulling them in… it was always, haah…! some sort of snare. She kept kicking them aside…”

Hissing as she rubs under his crown, Adris grows more unsure as Still’s face remains placid.

{Did they eventually see her face? The… real her?}

“… Eventually. But by then, they had to wonder… ‘is it too late to care’?”

He can’t get over feelings of being toyed with, even when the show is about to begin.

(You’re still so… annoying, sometimes.)

{How tragic. That woman lost a lot if she lost the crowd. After all, weren’t they all in love with her?}

“That’s a bit much! She’s just… ah… a woman with a unique style that captivates men…”

{My, she should’ve tried harder.}

Still completely ignores his innuendo and increases her speed while also feeling up under his tunic. Drawing heat from Adris’ burning body, she seems to grow warmer while he grows comfortable.

(… It’s not enough.)

As much as a trap as it is, Adris still feels like plunging into it.

“Anyway… isn’t it only lurid enough when you get to the details. For all her curves and assets, it was the attention with her moves, ones tailored to each man, that proved her appeal.”

{… What happened to that important attention?}

“She stopped giving it, so they went away.”

Twitching and angry, Adris’ cock belongs to Still’s hand now even as he rejects the woman herself.

Dark thoughts are plaguing him at this growing sense of anger. A girl who has already used him before is earning his desire to push her away and leave. While it’s an intimate seeming scene if seen through intoxicated eyes, a girl in blue and purple is no different from…

(You’re just… another betrayal waiting to happen. This is a mistake. I didn’t come up here to be seduced by a woman who’s just looking to earn something—)

{That woman made an ignorant mistake, perhaps?}

(… Huh?)

A quick hand halts his body being thrown up, with fast gestures trying to steal his heart again. Rubbing on her lips before going to his, the question she asked is too alluring.

{When that woman showed her face, what was the thing the crowd wanted most from the features revealed?}

(To kiss you, like you offered…)

His own mind betrays him, producing a rush of terror as he realizes the implications.

(… Shit! I didn’t want anything! … Why is Still so different right now!? She’s always tempting, but right now she’s like one of those rich women who preys on men!)

Their gentle tussle ends in Still gaining the advantage, refusing his escape while her velvet touch continues to break through his logic to the drunken feelings he’s repressing.

{Hey, Adris… you haven’t finished the story. The people that watched her woo them with her style and strut… if they had… one chance to have anything she possessed all to themselves, what would they…?}

Full of longing, these hand signs end without completing her thought.

(… I’m… too…)

Like with Avenalliah, Adris realizes his own body now refuses his signals. Though the alcohol numbs the deep burning, his mind is already five steps into the act of throwing her down and thrusting into her.

That drunkenness she’s been working him toward serves her ambitions completely.

(… I made a mistake…?)

“… Her lips.”

Though it feels like a gross surrender, Adris understands he can’t really stop this.

{Oh? A romantic choice~!}

Smiling up with a genuine expression, the ever silent girl’s hand is more jaunty and whimsical after.

{To tell the truth, that was what I hoped you’d ask for~.}

The moment after giving up that thought, blue-painted lips are placed on his head before parting.

Slowly forcing his length into her mouth, Still closes her eyes as she envelops him. Her throat is savaged by her own motions when she angles his cock to dip into it.

“Oh! OH! Still!”

Torn between a feeling of losing and eager acceptance, Adris puts his hand on her head.

(Are you sure you want that much all at once!? No, you don’t need air? Mmm, you’re good!)

Though chilly, her mouth quickly becomes warmer as Adris feels his own heat reflected from her.

{A man shouldn’t worry. Drink and relax. What you want… share with me.}

(Weird! But… okay.)

Bobbing on his cock the whole time, Still’s free hand effortlessly “talks” to him while she services, finishing her gestures by rubbing on him. She slurps him exuberantly, with the wet tunnel her mouth has become is just as slick as Lycia’s was.

A tempting woman in black intentionally applies pressure ever so laboriously, working around his breathing to extend the buildup.

(She’s not going to make this fast? … If you want to… please me, then I guess…)

A filled crystal glass is in one hand as his other enjoys the elasticity of what he pulls on. She curls a bit to let him rub her breasts easier while also positioning his cock to drill deeper. Still’s medium-length burgundy hair spills out over his legs as she pulls back to eagerly clean the head of his cock, with him panting slightly as he leans over her.

(The material is just like you. Satin and soft, giving like these!)

This melon offered and squeezed harshly is far more womanly than Ave’s or even Kol’s.

“… You’re into this.”

A raised spot, a hint of the flesh underneath, gives away Still’s own thoughts on Adris’ body.

{A hard, exquisite dick from an adoring fan… isn’t that what she secretly wanted?} Pumping his dick while she sucks on his end, her slightly almond-shaped eyes narrow with approval.

“Who?”

Popping his dick out while she strokes it, the grinning woman’s face is much less pale now.

{This dancing temptress you’re describing, do you really think she’s so complicated?}

Adris’ hand is taken by hers, forcing him to massage more earnestly. Still’s back arches as she flashes her eyes seductively.

{Adris, are women really so mysterious?}

“… Yes. They are; but, also they’re not!}

{Correct, one hundred percent~! What about her fan?}

Praising him with her flourish, she then waits for his choice.

“That fan isn’t complicated for that, either… he probably wanted her to take his cock and suck on it without stopping to breathe. To live on nothing but the smell of it as she worshiped it.”

Like a beast, Still rolls away from Adris before stalking forward on hands and knees to his front.

She presents her mouth as she slowly opens it to reveal a pink tongue dripping juices, with the effect giving him fear that a sensual monster from the Castillo is about to assault him again.

{If that’s what you want, then…}

Shifting in place, she suddenly freezes her hand.

A look of terror flashes across her face.

(Are you okay?)

A hand flies to her cheek, stroking it before he knows why he’s doing it. Still calms as she looks up into his eyes.

{… Haha, you’re too naive, Mr. Adoring Fan~!}

Sticking out her tongue, the young lady then effortlessly swallows his member.

(What!? AHHH! OH!)

Like a reverse forced deepthroat, Still grabs onto his waist and begins thrusting forward. At the perfect angle, she goes to the base of his cock with each gliding, juicy movement.

Trapped against the roof, Adris is given everything he wanted by an arrogant woman who slurps his length and dribbles onto the tiles.

(… What is the… point of this!? Hah, Still!? … Oh, what is your plan…?)

It grows more apparent that a girl who vigorously serves the king of this rooftop has no plan more devious than extracting his semen.

Squishing noises come with the exchange of air while her throat claims him. At first having her eyes closed, she opens them again to look up at him as he begins to pant.

{Everything… you… dreamed… of…?}

“… Not yet! Show me more…”

Spaced gestures end in her pulling his hand to her head, demanding his attention to it. Clumsily burying his hand into her hair, the insanity of a “master” being attacked by his “servant” prevents him from concentrating on not cumming too early.

(She’s giving herself to me!? This… control queen!?)

There’s nowhere to back up to as she threatens to never release his length, because her tongue won’t even let it escape when she finally pulls off. Latching onto and licking around his head, she slobbers on him as she makes hasty gestures.

{… Are you ready to find the relaxation you’ve deserved this whole time?}

“What relaxation?”

Attention, the kind Adris insinuated she never gives anymore, is given as she pumps and licks his dick. That wonderful attention becomes loving and having only the appearance of subservience.

{It’s not your fault. None of this is. I know that. They take advantage of you, but I won’t. Adris, I promise…}

(I don’t know that! At least you see what they’re doing. If only I could…)

Kissing his dick, she then rubs it against her cool cheek.

{We’re partners, right?}

“… We are.”

(I was the one that decided that, no matter how stupid it was…)

{Then won’t you let a partner free you from this horrible day? Adris… let me give you a fairy tale night in this stone garden overlooked by golden horrors.}

Trapped by the Castillo’s greed, he’d once desired this woman too much, going so far as to include a provision that sounded…

(Familiar…)

That desire for a “partner” had lessened when he left, but now he sweats at the situation which causes his heart to throb.

(… I don’t want… to… fall again…)

{Adris.}

(She can feel my heart wavering!)

Leaving her tongue licking on him like a candy, she implores him gently, in such a softly menacing way as she flows past the barriers he’s putting up.

{Words of trust are pointless. Forget about the word “trust” entirely. Adris…

… I will prove these feelings I have right now.}

“How? Which ones?”

Though he desperately wants her to, he’s not even sure if they’re talking about the same thing. The dark is all about them now, with only a small fairylight in a silver cage illuminating them other than the violet light of Traveler above.

{I don’t know which ones, because they’re all a longing for a man’s touch… but they’re real! Just like yours are. Feelings that don’t have words to describe them, but I only want them now.

So, for your release…

tell~

me~…}

Popping his head back in, she licks the slit as she asks the final question.

{Is this what you want…?}

She flicks her tongue along the tip, while her hand snakes down to her legs and disappears when she squeezes her thighs together.

{… or…?}

Adris swallows once before all caution is thrown out.

Pulling his pants down, he then rubs her cheek.

“… Climb on top.”

{That’s what the dancer wanted, too~, I bet! A patron who would step onto the stage so she could dance with him…}

Instantly abandoning sucking on him, she instead walks up on her knees.

(This is… a trap. With them, it’s always a trap, somehow.)

She shows off her almost-bare crotch when she pulls her dress to the side and kneels leaning back. Liquid clings to and stains the mesh, a patch right where Adris’ favorite toy is found.

In a sultry movement, Still’s arm extends to the side, before she flicks her hand…

Producing a dirk from nowhere, she brings it between them.

The action without anger or killing intent still sets his heart beating rapidly.

(It’s always a trap. Still isn’t… someone I can really have. We’re just… useful rivals…)

Watching it while paralyzed from intoxicated lust, Adris is completely at this woman’s mercy.

(I will… always be betrayed if I…)

The knife rips through his tunic slowly, butchering the excellent work of the woman before him. Exposing Adris’ glistening chest to the night sky, she stares at him with a serene smile, while her eyes look supremely attentive.

Adris feels her “sight”, the one like his, picking over every piece of him as she visibly excites.

“What is your first name?”

Catching her off guard, her face looks panicked as the lust falls away.

She looks blank with her own thoughts, almost haunted by them, before she relents by smiling in a troubled fashion.

{… it… was… Cyrene.}

“Was?”

{… a long time ago; but… please, I prefer…}

“Still is a beautiful name, too. No matter what our group does, you calm all my troubled waters when you feel like it, right?

Cyrene Stillwater…?”

Closing her eyes, she smirks at the name spoken.

{… What an absolute tease. Appeals like that are pure calculation.}

The dirk gets a kiss before she sticks her tongue out.

{A winning smile and clever words buys you nothing~, but I don’t… dislike it.}

Rather than stabbing him, she brings the knife down to her crotch when she pulls her dress aside again.

Patting her mons with it, she twirls the knife before pointing to Adris’ hand.

(Sexy and dangerous.)

Grabbing onto the mesh, he pulls out on it.

With a quick motion, she slices through the excess…

A perfect, dripping slit is revealed when she does.

Rubbing the knife over the back of his hand, she then pulls it away while grinning.

(Yes, I do want to!)

A flowery hole easily parts to let his plunging fingers in up to the knuckle. Lacking Ave or Kol’s tightness, a trained pussy is perhaps even more enjoyable with how she shifts while he thrusts into her.

Fingers slide in easily, but her hunger is too firm to let them leave the same way.

A basket makes a cracking sound as a sweeping hand gores it with her dirk, but she only rolls her head with every jerk of his digits.

{Come on, Adris. Give me more than that.}

“… Come and take it, just like I told you to originally.”

The woman quivers while “laughing” at this ancient joke, hugging him closely before she throws her legs behind him and sits on his lap.

Freed of that foul mesh, Adris enjoys raw what was hidden the first time as he plunges into a cold, yet slick, passage.

Sloshing sounds come as Still, in her acrobatic manner, begins to ride him on the inclined roof.

“You’re so wet and tight…!”

This close to him, the girl can’t “talk” anymore, able only to rub his head as she furiously lifts and lowers. Flesh that was cold at first is quickly heating in the same way that her mouth did.

(She’s stealing my body heat, just like… hmm, Lycia! When we fuck, fuck yes, she’s coming alive! Is this slick, leeching feeling… oh, more! … What the undead hunger for on Zennia!?)

While Kol was a naive, rambunctious pleasure, Still is pure, controlled talent.

(Ahh! Yes! A girl with experience… is totally different!)

Rather than stupidly eager, Still is passionately steady as she goes. Adris’ curved cock slides along her walls as he’s pushed up into her by the comfortable weight of her figure. Hands on his shoulders are used for leverage, but Adris doesn’t care so long as she’s the one doing the work.

This lewd ride in the night of Petripolis is an exhibitionist tease, though who could see them this high?

(Mm… this girl is… so strange.)

Stealing his honey wine, she nearly crushed him with the idea that he’d lost everything except for snakes around him.

Taking him on a wild ride across Petripolis, he’d rediscovered the thrill of the chase that he hadn’t had since Xin, one that was painfully absent without him realizing it.

Hearing stories and enjoying flirting, she’s finally giving everything to him that he’s ever wanted.

True comfort.

“Still, a beautiful girl with a sexy appetite!”

He supports her by holding her butt, fingers digging into the groove between her cheeks ever so innocently.

Reaching down while stopping her ride, she slaps his ass when he digs too deep.

“Haha! Sorry, partner… I’ll get your permission first, is that right?”

An inviting sneer as she signs denies that.

{Who needs permission for pleasure, Adris?}

The taller girl then leans in and sucks on his neck as he gasps, leaving his cock twitching at this rare affection.

“… As long as you feel it…”

Licking the spot she brutalizes, her face is congenial as she begins to grind against him gently.

{… What I feel will suffice.}

“You… don’t you…?”

Almost as if she’s made a mistake, she stops responding, instead riding him more vigorously.

“… I’ll give you— Hey!?”

Pulling tightly to him, she ignores him as she continues to serve by dropping weight to keep him down.

Like a beast that’s found its prey between its jaws, Still’s gentler hunt won’t end without a kill.

(This isn’t… just about me. It is… but, also…)

As she rides him, he thinks of how to make it better for her.

(Is she frigid… huh!? There’s no way, r-r-right!? She’s so fucking wet… And last time she went off like a rocket!)

Moaning as she constricts on him, he feels his release isn’t far off. If he cums alone, it’ll be fine, but Adris feels conflicted about leaving that sort of impression.

(That closeness I had with Serras and… Kol. Mmm, you’re not a monster to me! This pleasure isn’t just some release on my side!)

Something is fluctuating in his feelings as he gives in to this girl.

The heat growing inside isn’t something he wants to just give away without her feeling it, too.

(… Ah, ah…! Wait! Like with Kol! That… oh, connection…!)

When awakening with Kol, he’d been able to feel a link between them. More than just from her outflow of aura, it was there the entire time.

(… The links I thought would die off when unnecessary remained…)

Like with Serras and his original technique, perhaps something of that is left within Still even now after darkness and the Beyond mutated it.

Reaching out with his aura senses, their joint contact is so personal that he feels like it should be a link of its own. A thick, slapping ass against his legs comes with squishy boobs crushing against him when she squeezes and tempts him. Two bodies grind as sex becomes mutual hunger and his sweat stains her mesh.

While one hand is wrapped around for leverage, she strokes his neck while leaving choice instructions.

{Feel~. Good~.}

(I will… with you!)

Drawing from his body, he wills something to stir with all of his training. At the same place as where Kol’s “aura” connection was felt, Adris forces that spot to strengthen and connect as he concentrates on Still.

Fixating on the pleasure her tightening, soaked cunt is giving, he grips her fat butt and rubs his hand on her spine while searching for her side’s link.

At first, nothing happens.

But when he rubs the small of her back while sensing, a feeling like lightning shoots through him.

Shaking with the feeling, Still clenches his length hard as she grips his body.

(OOOH!? That was… good! It felt like… twice as much!)

When she refuses to move, he picks her up slightly and then drops her while concentrating. Pleasure jolts once more with this bottoming out, even though Adris can’t tell how far he pushes against her inside. Though taller than him, she’s bound to feel full by how deeply he’s in her.

That point of contact between them is what he feels flowing back from his senses reaching in.

(It’s there! … Ooh, but it’s so weak!)

{St—oooop! Stopppp! What ahe youh do-hing!?}

Leaning back, the shocked girl is staring at him hungrily, despite her furtive, drunk hand signs.

“… Hah… hah… we are… really alike, right? Haha!”

{Wh-hat?}

“Kindred spirits end up feeling similar things, right? Are you surprised at feeling pleasure in my embrace?”

Still’s angry stare doesn’t buy his explanation at all.

{… D-Don’t do weird sorc-ery…}

“… I can’t not do it… plus, I can only manage it for little longer. Still…!”

Bringing her face closer, he warms her with his heated breath.

“… Feel it too!”

{Ah… Ai… I will, eventually… you obsessive fool…!}

As Still’s control of the situation degrades, she grimaces before finally “laughing” haughtily.

Shrugging her shoulders and showing a thin smile full of concern, she’s forced to give up when her prey decides to nibble back.

{Ah, fine…! Just keep doing it! It feels weird… but good! But don’t blame me if your brain fries!}

Without waiting for a rebuttal, she begins to ride his full length greedily. Taking him to the tip as far as she can, she slams back down.

Noisy slapping earns a groan from him with each drive, leading to the weak link they share jolting when he can transfer the sensation of his pleasure. Adris begins to lose consciousness as he collapses into the pillows behind him, for the double duty of being receiver of mind-bending pleasure and transmitter is almost impossible with how drunk he is.

(I haven’t worked with aura recently enough!)

{Ah, now you’re relaxed! Perfect! Give in to that feeling, Adris!}

A lewd woman climbs off his cock to thrust her crotch for his inspection…

{Give everything to me here! I’m going to free you from it…}

Opening her soaked lips to reveal the squirming hole he’s been using, she licks her fingers and plunges them inside to show off.

{Mark your favorite dancer, Adris. Who else can have her… huh~?}

“… No one!”

While he becomes consumed with need, she kneels over him and drops onto his cock, using both arms to hold herself up and drive down.

(Whoa, I’m too gone for this. If it keeps escalating…)

But the barriers she’s bypassed leave his heart and truest desires way too transparent as he voices them.

“I didn’t… run… ah.. away like those cowards! They don’t deserve…!”

{Right! Adris is… bb-rahve…! Hmm, an actual… real man~.}

“You can’t escape me, anyway! I’ll conquer this whole… town before it can corner me!”

Losing her balance as she continues, the slutty siren servicing him briefly looks like just a woman lost to pleasure before she stops her eyelids from fluttering and smiles.

{Do it! I want to see! I know you can! Only Adris is… good enough~!}

(You’re fucking right I am! Oh, always like I say… you’re going to be… mine!)

A flame that was burning out becomes a blaze as he readies to shoot. Ropes of semen are awaiting the rich, velvety hole that’s desperate to squeeze him dry.

All of Adris’ doubts fracture in a moment, replaced by a terrible drive to make her his.

(I’ll give you all of it! You wanna… cum with me like last time, you perfect slut!?)

“A slut only for me.”

{… Huh!? You devilish boy! I should… slap you.}

Far from looking offended, the tight-bodied woman in black lifts her dress to show where they connect when she leans back. Pink lips coax an angry member to relinquish what it’s hiding, and the owner of them has ample room at the end of the passage milking him.

A busy hand mocks him as she continues to ride.

{Does this… look… like what… a shluttt would do…!?}

“… Ah, not any slut! My slut!”

{… Haha, too cheeky… okay… for tohngtt~…}

Untying her dress and letting it fall away, only her supple body is in sight now.

Guarded by mesh except for her head and perfect pussy, the thief that’s been shadowing Adris this whole time finally slips past his defenses when he finds her the sum of his desires.

{… Fine… I’m your slut, oh false god.}

Watching those words, something inside Adris bursts.

A heart that was beating wildly pops all of its locks as the chains fly off.

“… Give yourself to me! Still!”

{??!?}

Before she can sign in protest, she’s rolled over and pinned to the roof. Drilling wildly into the girl, he supports her head as he keeps thrusting. Burgundy hair falls away from her face, one frozen in shock of this rapid attack on her.

“Always pulling something on me… ha, ha… but not now!? You fuck with my mind, but I can’t not want this! I want you!”

Losing something of his dignity, she shudders with the sensory feedback. But even as she does, he begins to feel hatred and doubt piggybacking back on the pleasure he’s pouring into her by their connection.

(… She doesn’t want more!?)

She lightly slaps him to come to a complete stop when he slows. Despite obeying, his addled state leaves his balls begging for him to continue.

“… Are you safe? Was it… too much?”

Holding her close while still inside of her, she timidly pats him to confirm, remaining motionless for a while…

(What did I do wrong…!?)

… until she flinches when his thoughts fray. Immediately after, she wraps her legs around his waist as she adjusts his entry, inviting him to thrust deeply.

A feedback link powered by something other than aura vibrates like a heart. Like two hearts beating in unison…

{- You… insane… spiteful… unique man… fine, I can’t… anymore… so go ahead, fuck me senseless. -}

Orders he doesn’t see or hear sound like a good idea, even if a part of his brain is trying to understand where they come from.

The rest burns up with horny need.

“… Ooooh! You’ve got it!”

Everything is poured into succumbing to the growing pleasure. With a woman ready to accept everything from him, Adris hammers away at her juicy cunt with a technique debased by his intoxicated craze.

“Taking Petripolis… hah… I’ll do it… with you! Let’s plunder… this whole city!”

Nearly as warm as him now, or so it feels to his skin, Adris longs to warm her very core.

A woman who constantly bickers with him in novel ways is getting slammed into the top of a building by a man’s weight.

(Nothing wrong… with that! She’s plenty strong!)

Lasting far longer than their brief night in the Castillo, she doesn’t mince words or test him with daggers.

Instead, she becomes a mutual outlet for their equal need for satisfaction.

Haughtiness is impossible to find in his personal stalker who clings to his body while eagerly counting the seconds until his release.

Not lovers, but also not just “friends”, at least for tonight a needy cock has found an equally insatiable slot to fit in.

Panting as he increases in speed, he sucks on her fingers that he steals away as she “sighs”.

(I’m done for…! Undead… can’t, right… so it’s fine!)

“Take it all!”

While his muscles freeze for a moment, they quickly act accomplish the solution he’s looking for. A turgid cock becomes a lightning rod of pleasure as his loins find their time to let loose copious semen into a willing girl’s tight hole. All of Adris’ passions and doubts flow away to the person who demanded he give them up.

(Ah! Take it all! Still—

—LLLL!? AHHHHH!?)

The moment his semen coats her insides, Adris’ brain starts kicking like an aura technique is backfiring into it.

An explosion of colors flushes into his head and rampages through his body as Still starts shaking like a bucking horse.

Clinging to him, she thrashes while he keeps uselessly dumping more cum into her.

(————!? ———AHHHH!?)

The scent of strong, lingering fumes of whiskey obscure the sky, while the clenching cunt tightening rhythmically begs for more of his gift.

It sounds like squishing that leaches his heat away until cold becomes what he is, too.

{- AAAD—ADDRRISSSSS!? -}

Flayed by violet light, the man tastes a ringing from something that vibrates within his vicinity. Its flavor is like the eternal night that hides bells from the beyond, spicy and salty, and as that spreads, the woman the man dyes white inside begins to spill over into him.

Trying to flee from it at first, the two are forced to mix in the middle of their connection after the woman notices the man’s distress and takes charge.

Finding the connection, she doesn’t break it, but rather works to separate their thoughts that are quickly becoming a chorus of affection for each other’s sexual prowess and…

For a brief moment, the man sees the world in ripples.

Everything has a beat to it, even the violet circle above, which flows away from its source through an astral, dark blue sea that is the world.

Innumerable beats are sensed around him, though he doesn’t know their exact locations.

Where shadows should be, instead they seem like sucking pools of dark radiance leading to somewhere beyond.

The pain of something is subsiding, though he knows it will never be gone.

Freed from the certainty of a man’s body, he feels a bit limitless when he tries to move.

An outline of red is above him that is different from the other shapes, for it wears a mask shining black so strongly that it—

Ripping free of these thoughts and feelings as his senses continue to merge and confuse, the man wants to throw up and also fill her up again.

From her shuddering form, he feels that longing returned without words being given.

(————Ah… I… was…?)

Collapsing onto her soft body, he can’t manage any more for tonight.

All he can do is be held by another as she also collapses.

Two bodies are devoured by the ever-present, yet obscuring, barrier between day and…

I wasn’t happy with how it turned out, so I did a V2. I’m trying a different way of writing. I think I need more “oomf”.

Characters:

Glossary:

Chapter 63         Table of Contents          Chapter 65