June 22nd, 2032 | Betrayal of Value

Kaze walked into a grassy, moonlit alley between two buildings and placed his back against the wall, casually waiting for Sage to approach him, daring her to move forward.

"I thought you were a joke." She laughed bitterly, moving toward him slowly.

The redhead was forced to initiate her desires and admit that her disdain for him only a week ago was grossly misplaced and that her lust for power guided her interests.

Despite her bitterness, she approached him with hypnotic swiveling hips, with her red hair swaying in a ponytail.

"Do you judge me?" Sage asked while pressing her loose green shirt on his body, letting him feel her borderline C-cup breasts against his chest.

"All non-threatening behavior from females is acceptable so long as misconceptions guide it and they recognize power when they see it." Kaze replied with a slight smile.

Sage closed her eyes at his words, deeply attracted to his ambition and strength.

"I still feel foolish and guilty, approaching you a week after mocking you," She chuckled in self-deprecation.

"If you seek full redemption, there are other ways to apologize with your mouth." Kaze replied with a charming smile.

Her heart thumped at his words, her mind flooded with desire but fighting against her obsession with her image.

They were in an alleyway only a few blocks from the party, and their exit was as conspicuous as the open location.

"Here? Surely you understand how pathetic I'd look." Sage smiled bitterly.

"If not here, then the repentance you seek would have shallow meaning, would it not?" Kaze asked charmingly.

"Besides, these people are insignificant. Who do you seek approval from?

A man with great power, or the people that are jealous you seduced him in a sea of willing women?"

Sage laugh-scoffed in amusement. "Your arrogance truly knows no bounds, does it?"

"Oh, love." Kaze chuckled breathlessly, "You don't know the half of it. Move your hand down a bit lower, and you'll find another justification for my assured behavior."

She took a deep breath and followed his command gliding her hand down to his crotch. When her hand reached his package, her eyes widened in shock. "Y-Your not even hard yet. How?"

"Some forms of power are bestowed upon those who are destined for greatness at birth." Kaze replied while gliding his eyes down her body, "Just as your body was bestowed upon you."

Sage blushed, pulled away slightly, and let herself fall to her haunches.

Kaze's body reacted as she unbuckled his belt with pure lust. She didn't care about her reputation, as his very presence made everything else irrelevant.

The woman unbuttoned his slacks with difficulty, fighting against the large rod pushing against it.

When she released it, she lightly gripped its base and stared at it, intimidated. However, her heart pounded violently, acting as a war drum beckoning her forward.

Sage tucked a few strands of red hair that escaped her ponytail behind her ear and opened her mouth as wide as possible.

She inserted his shaft until it touched the back of her throat and then closed her mouth, pressing her mouth against it and sucking.

The second her tongue touched, an unnatural pulse of pleasure washed through her body.

Sage immediately fell to her knees, allowing herself to submit to Kaze and her desires shamelessly.

She was in an alleyway, a quarter-block from a raging party, in a location people knew she went to.

However, she was on her bare knees, her white skirt pressing against the ground without concerns of the grass stains.

Kaze gasped lightly with a satisfied expression, enjoying the first woman he courted outside of resource gathering who had "rudimentary" skill in pleasing a man.

After a few minutes, the two heard yelling approaching.

"Yo, stay back, man. There are cops here on the guy's payroll, and he has hundreds of people as witnesses!" A man yelled.

"I don't care! That's my girl he disappeared with!" Another yelled.

Sage pulled Kaze's rod out of his mouth with a beating heart. In a haze, she kept planted. Kaze, however, closed his eyes in annoyance, not moving an inch.

A man passed the alleyway and then froze when he looked down it. He was an athlete with a loose black t-shirt that showcased his muscle.

Four other men followed him with various levels of emotion on their faces.

His eyes trembled when she locked eyes with him. "Jesse?"

"What the fuck!?" Jesse yelled at full volume without approaching, too stunned to move.

"J-Jesse, I…." Sage stuttered in embarrassment while standing up, showcasing the grass stains on her white skirt.

"I can't believe you!" He scoffed while looking at Kaze, rolling his eyes with his ten-inch rod still hard.

"Can you keep it down?" Kaze scoffed in annoyance, "It's obvious there was a misunderstanding, but your yelling won't change that."

"What the hell did you say, you stupid prick?" Jesse yelled.

The emperor scoffed in disgust and waved his hand. A silver barrier of warping space cut off the alleyway from intrusion.

Sage and Jesse looked in each other's direction but were equally stunned by the barrier. She could barely hear nonstop screaming on the other side.

"How annoying." Kaze scoffed while waving his hand. A full dome of warping space enclosed the area, making everything fall silent.

Jesse punched at the warping space, but when he hit, he passed through it, and his body fell through the void.

Luckily, one of his friends caught his hand as he fell. When he did, he stared downward at his friends, holding his wrist from thirty feet in the air.

"P-Pull me back! Now, Lester!" Jessed begged at full volume.

Lester didn't know where his voice called from but pulled back, bringing him back to level ground.

Jesse fell to his knees with trembling eyes.

"What happened? Where did you go?" Lester asked, "You look like you saw hell."

The man didn't listen. While his cultivation technique from the Skye Plane cultivators made him stronger, he wasn't certain he would have survived that fall.

He would have fallen face first, and breaking his fall with his arms would have snapped them. Worse, his cultivation-free friends may have died if he fell on them.

It was brutal, no matter how he looked at it.

Lester tried looking into the gate, aware that it wouldn't kill him immediately. However, Jesse grabbed his wrist. "D-Don't do that. That m-monster nearly killed me."

"Did he try to use a cultivation technique on you?" His friend asked.

Jesse gulped and reached his arm into the warping space while lying on the ground. Then he flipped over his body and pointed up.

His friends focused their eyes on the black object in the sky. When he waved his hand, they finally understood what was happening.

"H-He really tried to kill you!" Lester cried, "This is attempted murder!"

Feeling the influx of Qi and seeing their experimentation, Kaze closed his eyes and switched the warp gate to another location.

While no one would believe the emperor's crazy cultivation technique, he knew there would be a crowd of witnesses soon and didn't want to deal with it.

Their hand disappeared from the sky, bewildering them. However, no one dared to figure out where the new gate led.

"What's going on… Kaze?" Sage said with trembling eyes.

"I just put up a barrier to block out silence their yelling and block their intrusion." Kaze replied with a calm voice.

"W-Wait. Are you saying you want to continue?" She stuttered.

"Why not?" He asked, "You're here, disregarding a past relationship. Does that not imply that you want to be here?"

"I do, and we've never been in a relationship, but…." Sage began, conflicted by her words.

"He's a longtime friend I've hooked up with recently. We're not in a relationship, but he doesn't feel that way. What person would I be if I disregarded him?"

It was a classic relationship dynamic that played out regularly and showcased why sleeping with friends is never a good idea.

"The incessant shaming of sexual pleasure in this world is as tiresome as it is loathsome." Kaze laugh-scoffed.

"If you insist on extorting such detestable beliefs, then reconsider the value.

You purposely accepted an opportunity to build relations with a powerful person. Turning that away would be ill-judged and foolish."

Sage looked up at him with wide eyes. He constantly reaffirmed her ambitious and power-seeking ideals.

"It doesn't change the damage to our friendship." She sighed.

"You've already committed, have you not?" The emperor chuckled, "Running after him will make imply unjust guilt and only serve to worsen the situation."

The redhead gave him a wry smile. "He's still my friend, though. That doesn't feel right."

"Kaze scoff-laughed, "You'd betray your rights and value as a woman to appease someone's delusional beliefs. Do you value yourself, your decisions, and your desires so little?"

Sage's heartbeat pulsed as she looked into his eyes. His charm, confidence, and aura were calming and appealing.

Even now, as a mob yelled outside the barrier, he urged her to move forward with the same carefree demeanor he held while bribing Meridian City's police chief.

The thought of continuing made her feel perverse and indelicate. Yet it also made her feel like a woman, unrestrained and defiant.

Her heart thumped as she stared into his eyes and slowly fell to her knees, opening her mouth and [apologizing].