Chapter 162 - Matters of the Heart

The Ring mystically disappears after Toph sets her new normal. She looks at Tulen and finds that its function works exactly as Naruto had described. She is aware that Tulen had draconic traits, but now naturally ignores them and begins to forget about them. Her earth sense fills in all the uniqueness of his body that had been giving him grief with typical human-like characteristics. The horns and wings, which are the only parts relatively more difficult to fill out, have been omitted.

Soon, the only thing reminding Toph that he is not fully human is the memory of making the rule and the incongruence between his total weight in her earth sense and the weight of the human parts of his body she can still sense. She wonders if she had made a mistake for a moment before dismissing it. Tulen can live in Republic City with his sister now. He can have friends and a normal life among humans, while still maintaining the friends he has among Spirits. They will believe he had been a pure human all along. This is a lifelong regret of Nuwa and Azula!

Toph's sacrifice does not go unrewarded. Even though she spends most of her time alone, she rarely introspects. She prefers to train or simply empty her mind and soak in her earth sense. That earlier moment of introspection leads her to a breakthrough! She feels her expanded earth sense tap into a vibration coming from far below the bedrock she normally senses. It is not random like a tectonic movement, but more like the beating of the heart. "What's this?"

Toph drops to the floor on all fours and earthbends the ground below her to be more solid, then extends her senses as deep as she possibly can into the earth. She hears the thumping vibration with more clarity and her head immediately goes blank. The next thing she knows, she finds herself standing up with full chi. Her heart is beating wildly, her body drenched in sweat, and she feels more powerful than she has ever been in the past.

"Flying fire ferrets!" she screams. "That's what drew me here in the first place!" She looks up at the sky and the sun has moved position, indicating it has been several hours, none of which she remembers. "Ohoho, I should be cautious with this goldmine. Woo! My heart feels like it's about to beat out of my chest!"

Toph tests her bending and finds that it is slightly more powerful and more finely-tuned. Something about that experience has improved her understanding of earth. Turning her attention to what is above what she had just sensed, Toph is not surprised to see the massive roots of the World Tree come up in her surface-level earth sense. She laughs ostentatiously and brags, "I found the secret you are hiding deep underground, Woody! I'll call it the Heart of the Earth."

Feeling thirsty, Toph starts toward a nearby pond. However, she snags her foot on something and halfway trips, "What the-?!"

This is an odd moment. Ever since learning earth sense, Toph has never tripped. Her powerful Root Chakra points, located on her feet, are what make her earthbending so devastating. The Root Chakra emphasizes stability and oneness with the earth. It should be impossible for her to trip! How is she tripping now?

Toph stands up straight and uses her earth sense to carefully path out where she is going and manages fine, until she stops paying attention and almost trips again. "Damn it!" She could just teleport to the pond to sate her thirst, but unfortunately, it is a matter of personal pride now.

She angrily tramples the ground with each step after that. Any object she could potentially trip on is instead ruthlessly crushed beneath her bare feet until she arrives at the pond.

She pauses and lets some of the rage steam out of her before turning around and shouting, "What did you do to me, Woody?!"

~ ~ ~

Still seated atop Zagreus, Nuwa looks around at the layout of the 11th chamber. It is much like the earlier chambers with its typical torture dungeon ambiance. There's only a few traps and no difficult terrain like the 10th chamber. Nuwa says, "Okay Big Bro. These guys must be easy for you now, so let me try doing most of the damage this time. Just keep dashing so we don't take hits."

When Zagreus takes his first step in the 11th chamber, both siblings expel a tiny, but noticeable, amount of purple mist from their bodies and feel empowered. They have served their penalty for a full 3 chambers and now have access to Chaos' Boons!

Nuwa can shoot normal arrows and Zagreus can use his Cast without taking damage. Zagreus tests out his regular attacks and finds that his attack speed has gone way up, as if he is in fast-motion only when he attacks, but returns to slow-motion whenever he moves around or does anything else. The effect of Chaos' Boon for Nuwa is an 'increased sync rate', whatever that means.

She soon finds out when the enemies spawn and she starts shooting from her perch. Not only does Nuwa know Zagreus' next moves through their rings, their thoughts synchronize such that she can fire directly out of his dash whenever it happens. Sync rate apparently lets her piggyback on Zagreus' stronger battle instincts to guide her on what she should be doing in battle!

It reminds her somewhat of Enlightenment mode, where E-Nuwa does an action, which she has to learn and memorize for later use. This time, Zagreus' thoughts guide her towards the optimal battle strategy and she allows herself to be swept up in the current. Nuwa watches in awe as she uses bow techniques she has never used before, occasionally meleeing nearby shades with her bow while Zagreus dashes away. She then uses all of her flexibility to unleash a hell of arrows in all directions.

Her Dao Strings are used so often that they run out, but they return to her just as quickly when the enemies go down. There is little wastage in Zagreus' movements. He is either dashing away from an attack, or lining them up so that Nuwa's arrows can utilize their piercing effect on multiple enemies. Occasionally, when there are too many enemies, it would be too inefficient for them to run away and for Nuwa to be forced to use a normal arrow on an enslaved enemy at the front of the line, so Zagreus helps out a little by finishing them off with a spear throw.

By the end of the battle, all the thugs, witches, and inferno-bombers are dead. Nuwa is panting with excitement at what she is learning with her higher sync rate. Zagreus asks, "Everything alright, sis?"

"I'm great." replies Nuwa. "I feel invincible!"

Zagreus winces at the concept of being invincible after so many beatings from Megaera. Achilles and Megaera had thoroughly humbled that thought out of him. Even though he has broken through recently and will probably get his first kill on Megaera, Zagreus is aware of how much help he is getting. He would not be able to beat Megaera without all of the temporary Olympian blessings.

He warns his sister, "Just remember it's only a feeling. Meg always pushes me to my limits even if I have a great set of Boons."

Nuwa mentally agrees, 'Right, I should focus on learning and not be complacent. I can't rely on Zagreus to guide my thoughts in battle forever. If we die, we will lose Chaos' Boons as well, which means we will no longer have a high sync rate.' Nuwa sucks in her breath and cools down. She says, "Got it, Big Bro."

A bloody red orb spawns in the center of the chamber. The siblings both say "Ares." together. Zagreus turns to Nuwa and gently says, "It's up to you, babygirl." But in spite of his mellow tone, she could sense his excitement.

Nuwa hesitates. Ever since Azula's injury, she had only been having sex with the people she loves, either Azula or her closest friends. Even in the orgies that followed, she had been cautious to always include Azula and instinctively avoid allowing Zuko inside her, because he had been the reason behind Azula's first tantrum. Out of love, Nuwa had locked the more adventurous parts of herself away. Since then, Azula and Nuwa have both grown for sure, but Nuwa is still not sure whether Azula would be fine with flippant sex.

She could feel those parts deep within her begin to emerge. The high sync rate with Zagreus let his excitement bleed over into her as well. Nuwa debates internally, 'Now Ares.. he is a lean, black killing machine. He exudes masculinity in a way that Zag, a true family man, does not. Of course, Big Bro Zag is the only one for me in this Record, but is it really okay? Will Zag hate me if I enjoy meaningless sex with Ares?'

Zagreus senses her overthinking mood through their connection, but not her specific thoughts when she's not specifically directing them towards him. He desummons his engagement ring and says to her, "Sis, no need to worry about the consequences anymore. I'm not sure exactly how you lived as a mortal, but you don't have anything to worry about here. We are chthonic immortals and Mother Nyx won't let anything horrible happen to us."

Nuwa is also worried about those points, but she voices the major point of concern she is facing, "Big Bro.. if I like it a lot, will you be upset?"

Zagreus says, "Nuwa.." while untangling her off his back and setting her down. Nuwa fidgets uncomfortably at his chiding tone, until he cups her cheeks and kisses her forehead tenderly. She looks up at him as he says, "I love you too much to care about that. Whenever you're happy, I'm happy."

Feeling butterflies all throughout her body, Nuwa hisses in delight and hugs her hubby. Then she hears him whisper, "I especially love seeing you slutting it up."

Nuwa's eyes widen, her pussy moistens, and she feels her arousal ramping up. Nonetheless, she narrows her eyes and asks, "Why, Zag? I need to know what you have to gain by sharing me with others. What we are planning to do is hardcore. I want to be sure that I am fulfilling your kink and not inadvertently going overboard or making you uncomfortable."

Zagreus pulls out of her hug and grumbles a little, "You worry too much. I'll guide you along and take care of everything. Do I really have to say?"

"Yes!" Nuwa exclaims, "For my peace of mind."

Seeing how serious she is about this, Zagreus also gets serious and explains, "It has to do with Father. Please don't make me spell it out."

With a sharp inhalation, Nuwa apologizes, "It's my fault, Big Bro. Sorry for being so pushy."

Zagreus pats her head and scolds her, "Didn't I tell you not to worry? Let everything go and have fun. Ready?"

Nuwa takes a deep breath and tries to reconnect with who she was as a carefree soul when she was a teenager in the Avatar Record. A subtle, mischievous smile bubbles onto her face recalling her antics back then. It disappears when she opens her eyes, but the recollection has primed her for what is coming. She checks to make sure her appearance is neat. All the dashing that Zagreus did in the past two chambers, had managed to clean up the leftover cum.

She nervously desummons her ring, summons her [Divine Font] and places her hand on the orb. Her Dao Strings vibrate with excitement as they bask in the bloody divine glow. Undeniably, Sex and War are extremely compatible, although their Daos are almost exact opposites. One has to do with love and procreation, while the other has to do with hate and death. Perhaps opposites attract.

Nuwa declares, "In the name of Hades.. Olympus, I accept this message!"

The orb explodes into a bloody glow and most of the divine energy is sucked into the lamp. The siblings hold hands as the divine projection of Ares spawns. The brawny form of Ares appears and looks confused for a moment that he is capable of thought rather than serving as a normal message. He then observes Zagreus and Nuwa and jovially proclaims, "Zagreus, my kin, it is a wonderful circumstance to finally meet face-to-face! Shall we celebrate with our fists?"

Seeing the lack of response from the two opposite him, Ares chuckles and corrects himself, "Where are my manners?"

He approaches Nuwa, takes her other hand and kisses the back of it. "My lady, your beauty is as divine as your sharp fangs are deadly. Much like a certain lovely Goddess I know, your nudity must serve you better in battle than armor itself. And you wield Coronacht, the Heart-Seeking Bow! Perhaps you have already smitten my good cousin's heart, hahaha!"

Zagreus slaps Ares' shoulder, "Lord Ares, it's good to meet you too. Thank you for all the help you have been providing me. This is my half-sister, Nuwa. She has as much of my Father's blood in her veins as I do, so she's family."

Nuwa offers a graceful smile, while inwardly miffed at how little Ares reacts to her sexy body. 'He is either a total musclehead or Mistress must have thoroughly inoculated him against the power of the female body.' Still, his passive aura of intimidation and hunky body causes her to react. Her nipples slowly harden to poke through her fishnet bra.

She scolds herself, 'C'mon Nuwa.. Get it together. He may be my cousin and a God, but he is also my target of seduction to improve my powers. If I want to become a Goddess of Sex or even stronger, I have to be in control!'

Nuwa bows slightly, allowing her almost fully bare tits to sway in the confines of their bra, and greets, "Pleased to meet you, Lord Ares. I will be accompanying Zag on his journey to the Surface from now on. Is there anything I can do to thank you for all the help you've given my brother?"

(A/N: Nuwa trying to recover her inner slut!)