Chapter Thirty Seven.

Chapter Thirty Seven: Meddling…

He felt like he was on fire.

If not for the secret room in Greg's mind that kept the core of his mind safe from outside influence, Greg would have been really confused. To him, it would have seemed like one moment he was okay and in the next, he was on the verge of breaking down from an overload of lust. With the secret room in his mind, however, he had been conscious and aware all through the events that had taken place. Greg had been contemplating the vast lifespans of mages when he felt his whole body lock up and lose the ability to move as if he'd been subject to a petrifying spell. Given that this wasn't his first time experiencing this, he didn't panic. If anything, he was curious to find out what it was that Olivia wished to keep hidden from him. Heck, even when Olivia had cast the second spell and stated that it was for his protection, he hadn't been rattled, instead, his curiosity only grew.

If Greg had been given a hundred chances to guess what would happen next, the thought that the primordial that had left Olivia behind would make an appearance, wouldn't have even featured anywhere among the guesses. Greg could only thank his lucky stars that Olivia had felt the need to freeze him up. If not for that, his heart would have been hammering away in his chest like it was trying to break out. At the very least, being frozen like a mannequin spared him the trouble of pretending like he didn't recognize Olivia's original. Greg suspected that any such pretenses would have been seen through almost immediately. Much to his great relief, however, the fact that he was frozen made it so that the primordial didn't even glance his way.

When Greg had been pulled into the realm of the deity-level being that gave him a second chance at life, he had been given a first-person view of Olivia's original. Back then, however, the deity-level being had been kind enough to quickly cleanse Greg's mind from the effect of the aura coming off Olivia's original. This time, however, Greg wasn't as lucky. There was no one to mitigate the overwhelming aura flowing from Olivia as it washed over him like a tsunami. Of course, being frozen, Greg couldn't show any outward signs of the havoc that the primordial's aura was wreaking inside his body. Greg, however, knew that if this was a willpower training session, he wouldn't have even lasted the first ten breaths.

Through his willpower training sessions, Greg had already come to learn of the fact that his own sensations could be turned against him. That is exactly what had been happening to him all through the conversation between the healer and the primordial. The primordial's aura didn't force the feeling of lust on you. If that had been the case, then Greg could have been safe inside his secret room in his mind. Instead, what the aura did was cause your feelings of lust to shoot through the roof. Worse still, in a positive feedback cycle, the more your lust flared up, the more susceptible you became to the aura. If Olivia hadn't covered him in an aura shield, before connecting to her original, Greg was certain that he would have been lost to the lust. As things stood, Greg maintained a tenuous grasp on rationality and was doing all that he could not to lose it. It didn't help that, for the second time, Greg had been turned into a mannequin while facing the healer and this time she wasn't hidden behind her desk. The curves of her alluring body became even more appealing the more Greg was ensnared by the thick aura of lust.

Greg had just barely enough rationality to follow the conversation between the healer and the primordial. He, however, couldn't dwell on it too much at the moment as he had to focus on keeping his mind together. Fortunately for him, the conversation only lasted a little over three minutes before the vast and oppressive aura of the primordial disappeared from the cave. But while the aura of power had disappeared. The same wasn't true of the lust. The aura of lust seemed to be like a miasma left behind by the primordial. Even in her absence, it was still lingering within the cave. What made the situation worse was the fact that Olivia collapsed as soon as her original had departed! Greg couldn't be too sure as to the cause, but he suspected that it was from the strain of housing her much more powerful progenitor.

The reason the collapse of his familiar made the whole situation far worse was that, it seemed that the aura-shield required her to be conscious in order to maintain it. The moment Olivia passed out, the light of the shield quickly flickered out of existence. The thick aura of lust that had been left behind by the primordial slammed into Greg like a ravenous hound. Greg felt like a flame had been lit within him that drove any manner of sense, logic, or rationality out of him. He was like a piece of dry wood that had been thrown into an inferno. The last conscious thought he could remember having was that, at least he remained frozen. That way, he wouldn't do anything stupid…

***

It took a full minute for Alena to compose herself once more. Having your life in someone else's palm was a feeling one didn't get used to easily. Able to relax now, her gaze turned to the scroll in her hand. The temptation to open it and peek at its contents was almost overwhelming. Alena, however, knew herself all too well. One of her weaknesses as a student of magic was that she tended to lose herself in her research. She could go for weeks digging into a certain subject and not even feel like a day had gone by.

Of course, that was back when she still had her powers. Back then the need for sleep was negligible. She could go for months without sleep and just a single night of sleep would be enough to completely rejuvenate her. In the first years after she was betrayed and badly injured, she had to maintain the same sleep schedule as a mundane human to allow her body to recuperate. Now that she was at the same power level as a third-tier mage, she could, at the most, go for a week without sleep. Not that she usually did. Ninety percent of her mana pathways were still badly damaged. What little magic she used usually ended up being far more taxing than they ought to be because of this. As a result, she never went more than three days without sleeping to allow herself to recover.

This is the reason she tossed the scroll into one of her last remaining storage rings. She knew that if she opened the thing, it might be days before she came back to herself and remembered that Roka was still frozen and the familiar on the floor. She didn't know if the familiar would recover on her own, or if the spell cast on the boy would break with time. Either way, it probably wouldn't look good if either one of them regained consciousness only to find that she had disregarded them and turned to her research. With a sigh, she turned to Olivia first. Casting the spell spectral hands, she made a few ghostly hands to pick up the passed-out familiar and moved over to the bed to lay her down. As she walked back over to the research side of her abode, her eyes landed on the boy who still stood frozen as a statue. She might not be familiar with the particular spell that Olivia had used on the boy, but as a seventh-tier mage, Olivia had more than abundant experience in pulling apart spells. She should be more than able to do the same with this one. Especially because it didn't seem to be all that intricate when the familiar was casting it.

The only hesitation Alena had about this course of action was how she would explain the sudden change to the boy. In one second, they were talking about her age with the familiar standing off to the side. And in the next, the familiar was passed out on the bed for no apparent reason. A part of her was tempted to just leave the boy as is, at least until the familiar woke up. That way, they could pretend that nothing out of the place had happened. After all, the interaction with the real powerhouse behind the familiar had only taken a few minutes. She, however, discarded this plan as there was no telling how long Olivia would be out. If she was passed out for hours, there's no way Roka wouldn't notice the passage of time. There was just no way not to notice it if in one moment it was morning and the next it was noon.

Coming to a stop before the boy, Alena sent her mana-sense forward to feel out the spell holding the boy in place ready to break it. Someone observing her face would have noticed the pause, followed by an expression of surprise followed by a look of fascination that crossed her features. She had been right, the spell wasn't complex. But just because it wasn't complex didn't mean that it was easy to break. If anything, Alena couldn't find any weak points for her to attack. Each part of the spell was so intricately tied to the rest in such a way that it both enhanced the other parts of the spell and protected the parts connected to it. Probing the spell for weaknesses was like trying to find out where a circle began. You'd just find yourself going round and round in circles. Of course, with her abilities restored to the third tier, Alena could easily use brute force to break the spell if she wished to. She, however, was disinclined to do so. As someone who was obsessed with magical knowledge, she immediately shifted to her researcher mode as she poked and prodded at the spell trying to find its ins and outs.

Half an hour later, there were beads of sweat on the healer's forehead as it was quickly becoming clear that apart from brute force she would have no other way of breaking the spell. Olivia simply hadn't left any exploitable points in the spell. She had tried applying pressure to several different parts of the spell, but it didn't present any weaknesses. She had tried overloading it with mana and yet every element perfectly supported the others and refused to be overwhelmed. She tried pulling it apart, but it was like the spell was held together by powerful magnets. It was no wonder that there was barely any disturbance whenever the familiar was about to cast a spell. This control of mana is at a level that not even she could have boasted of when she was a seventh-tier mage.

Another incense stick of time later and Alena let out a long sigh and gave in. Getting lost in taking a spell apart was no better than getting lost in her research. She could always ask the familiar to demonstrate her spell work later on. Summoning all the mana that she could, she reached out to the spell and through sheer brute force began to force it apart. Gritting her teeth, she had to put a lot of mana into it as the spell wouldn't come apart easily. The familiar pain of pushing her broken mana pathways just a little bit beyond what they could handle began to spread out through her body. She, however, didn't relent. This is how she had slowly recovered through the years, by slowly forcing her core and mana pathways to accommodate just a little bit more than they were capable of in their injured state. Despite the pain, Alena couldn't help but grow more fascinated by how the familiar weaved her spells. Even as the equivalent of a third-tier mage, she was forced to go all out to break it apart. If she could learn to have such tight mana control, it would take her spell-casting to the next level.

Her whole body was bathed in pain from the effort of breaking the spell, and for a second, she was uncertain whether she would be able to break it. In the end, however, the spell did indeed come apart. A sigh of fatigue left the healer as she closed her eyes and tried to calm herself after the ordeal. Over the years she had come to learn that the pain wasn't as bad if she didn't move around that much after exerting herself. Small movements wouldn't be that bad but perfect stillness was the best. Her attempt at recovery, however, was the reason she was caught completely off guard by what happened next.

Alena's eyes went wide when she felt herself pulled into someone's embrace hand her lips locked with those of another. An involuntary moan escaped her lips as she felt a hand on her breast while the other had circled around her back and was firmly latched on to her ass, kneading it like dough. Her nipple was pressed up against the palm of the boy's hand sending tendrils of pleasure coursing through her body every time he brushed up against them. His tongue had already found its way into her mouth and lured her own into a dance of exploration as they tried to explore everything about the other.

Alena's initial surprise at being accosted by the boy passed and molten fury quickly took its place. A small explosion went off between the two of them and while she remained in place, the boy was sent flying across the cave slamming into one of the workstations on the far end of the cave. "Have you lost your damn mind?" She half-spoke, half-growled at the boy who was already getting up, much to her surprise. The answer to her question, however, quickly revealed itself when she looked into the eyes of the boy. The rabid look in them was nothing like the gaze one would expect from a rational individual. There was no pain from being flung across the cave. There was no fear of angering a seventh-tier mage, there was only desire, an all-consuming desire that seemed scorching in its intensity.

It was only now that Alena was reminded of the lust aura that was still thick in the air. Being a seventh-tier mage, her willpower and mental fortitude were far beyond that of mundane humans. Her core and mana pathways may have been badly wrecked, but her mind and willpower remained as strong as ever. As such, while Olivia's progenitor had been present, the aura had been empowered enough that it affected her. But after she had left, however, the effect of the remnant aura had been suppressed enough that she could ignore it. It was a critical lapse in judgment on her part, but she had failed to consider what the aura would be like for a mundane human.

The realization of what was going on led to a moment of hesitation her anger petering out as she realized that Roka wasn't really in control of himself. The spell that sent the boy flying across the cave was a spur-of-the-moment act motivated by her sudden fury. Now that she was more level-headed, Alena didn't try to cast any more spells. After overextending herself just to break the spell cast by the familiar, Alena couldn't push her core and mana pathways anymore. She had to maintain a delicate balance of knowing when to push and when to hold back lest she cause even further harm to her core and mana pathways. She had gotten lucky once, she wasn't willing to tempt fate a second time.

The brief moment of hesitation, however, was all Roka needed to cross the distance between them again. Rather than retaliate for being attacked the boy pulled her in and kissed her with even more passion. Before she could figure out what her next move should be, she found herself in his embrace. And as if that wasn't bad enough, his attention was causing her to lose the battle against the lust aura. Her mental fortitude as a seventh-tier mage made it so that Alena could suppress and ignore the effects of the lust aura. That, however, didn't mean that she was immune to its effects. Her body was still very much affected by it, she'd just been able to ignore it right up until the boy picked her up.

Without her thinking, her legs wrapped around the boy's waist and her hands rose to the sides of his face pulling him even tighter into the kiss. Some small part of her was sending out warning signals cautioning her that she was walking down a path of no return. Another part of her, however, craved this connection. She may not have allowed herself to dwell on it, but ever since her betrayal, she'd been so alone. Unable to trust anyone enough to reveal who she really was or turn to them in her lowest moment, she had been carrying on all by herself. And despite the large gulf in power between herself and this boy, for the first time in a long time, she felt seen! She felt heard! Here was someone that despite knowing her and all the problems that might come their way just by being close to her, still hadn't turned away from her. He hadn't done the smart thing and walked away. Much as the part of her that had been hurt and betrayed didn't want to admit to it, she craved this. She wanted it just as much as she wanted to get back all that she'd lost.

The longer Alena remained undecided the more she moved past the point of no return. The more she didn't act, the more control the boy took over the situation. Perhaps a small part of her knew this and in a roundabout way, she had chosen to not choose anything in order to give up the burden of having to decide. Alena didn't know, and in all honesty, didn't care. Instead, she had given in to her wildly beating heart and the chaotic sensations of pleasure that inundated her from the boy's touch.

Alena had been so lost in the boy's kisses and touch that she didn't even notice the boy crossing the cave. She only became aware that they had moved when the boy pushed her and she felt herself fall back onto the bed. A part of her brain was shaken awake by this and she couldn't help but wonder if things weren't moving a bit too fast. The thought, however, was lost in a chaotic storm of pleasure in the next second as she felt the boy push her legs apart and place a deep almost longing kiss on her sopping wet pussy, paying particular attention to her clitoris and mercilessly bombarding her with pleasure. Alena didn't know whether it was the thick aura of lust that had filled the cave, or the fact that she'd never allowed any man to touch her so intimately, that made her so sensitive. Every touch, caress, kiss, and lick by the boy sent her into higher and higher planes of pleasure. Her legs had long since clamped around the boy's head, her fingers gripping his hair as she pulled his head tighter against her leaking love canal.

Whether the boy felt anything from his hair being pulled so hard, Olivia couldn't tell. The look in the boy's eyes was of a man possessed. He'd barely felt it when he was flung across the cave, Alena doubted his hair being pulled had even registered in his mind. Instead, he continued to drive her wild with his heavenly tongue on her clitoris. Like a massive wave, she could feel the pleasure building up within her. Her toes curled, her eyes rolling into the back of her head even as her body convulsed with unmitigated pleasure as an orgasm washed over her. Alena had to fight to catch her breath even as she rode the waves of pleasure coursing through every fiber of her being. The aura of lust still hanging in the air didn't help as every inch of her skin felt like an erogenous zone. Now that she had given in and stopped resisting it, it was seeping into her very being, driving her to the same heights of crazed lust and pleasure that the boy seemed to be lost in.

This was why there wasn't any consternation or shock in her eyes when she came down from her orgasm to find the boy completely naked and looming over her. She didn't even protest when the boy reached forward and began to tear the dress off her through sheer brute strength. If anything, she could feel her arousal grow the more of her garments he tore off her. In short order, both of them were naked and fully exposed to each other. Alena couldn't help but look at the monster that hung between the boy's legs. A part of her still couldn't believe just how big the boy was. Another part was mesmerized by it. She both dreaded and craved the feeling of having the boy inside her. Before she could reconcile this contradiction, her eyes went wide as the boy sank into her all the way to the hilt.

A slight whimper of pain left the healer at this. Had Greg been a bit more lucid enough to check, he would have been shocked to notice the slight trickle of blood that left the healer's pussy. He, however, didn't, he was a man possessed. There was no romance or intimacy in this act, this wasn't an exchange of emotions or a bonding experience between lovers. Instead, it was rough animalistic fucking and the two participants who were lost to the lust aura, wouldn't have it any other way. The whole cave was filled with the lewd sounds of flesh meeting flesh as the boy repeatedly drove his gargantuan cock into her depths. The pain of losing her maidenhead was soon lost in the haze of pleasure as Alena very quickly found herself thrusting back to meet each of Roka's thrusts and to drive him as deep as possible.

Alena couldn't help but groan in pleasure, her pussy clamping down on Roka's cock even as another orgasm drove her deeper and deeper into the clutches of pure and unbridled lust. Something between a moan of pleasure and a deep bestial growl escaped Roka and Alena could feel his dick twitching inside her. She, however, wasn't all too worried about the deluge of baby batter that was being deposited in her depths. The stronger the mage, the harder it was for them to get pregnant or to impregnate another. It was a phenomenon that had been studied far and wide to no avail. Even if the two participants were the perfect picture of health, and did nothing but have sex for ten cycles straight, if one of the two was past the fifth tier, then the chances of conception were next to nil.

The explanation that people had come to accept for this was that nature maintained a balance. If tier eight and nine mages could produce children, how powerful would those children be? And with lifespans measured in the thousands of cycles, it wouldn't be long before the world was overrun by the powerful progeny of these powerful mages. And with their parentage, they would be almost guaranteed to reach the higher tiers. And given how many resources it took to take one person from tier one to tier nine, the world would very quickly be turned into a wasteland unable to sustain this rate of consumption. As such, the ability of higher-tiered mages to procreate was completely curtailed. While the explanation led to the very natural question of how it is nature could sterilize the higher-tiered mages, no one really questioned it as they had yet to come up with a better explanation.

The issue of conception, however, only fleeted through her mind for a few seconds before it was once again lost to pleasure as they continued to rut like animals in heat. Alena soon found herself in several different positions. On all fours, standing against the wall, riding the boy, hoisted up into the air and so on. The boy was simply tireless and somewhere along the way, all her higher functions were lost to the unending tide of pleasure. She lost track and stopped counting somewhere after her seventh orgasm. Giving herself completely over to the boy, she let him have her any way he wanted and just sunk in the bliss of letting go. For a few precious moments, she wasn't consumed by anger, hatred, and thoughts of revenge. For a few precious moments, she was… happy!

***

An impish smile played on Olivia's lips as she looked at the naked tangle of limbs that was her master and the healer. It had been a bit of a gamble, but her little ploy had worked out magnificently. While connecting to her original was indeed an arduous task that had taken a lot out of her, it wasn't enough for her to pass out. At worst, it would have left her in a weakened state for a day or so. She, however, had chosen to overplay the toll that channeling her true self took on her.

The reason for her doing this was very simple. She knew she was an impediment. Even though the boy tried to hide it, Olivia could tell that there was a barrier between herself and him. It was almost as if he couldn't bring himself to truly trust her. Why that was she was yet to fully puzzle out. Monitoring his thoughts and perusing his memories hadn't given her any clues to go on. The same was also true of the healer. She may have entered into an agreement with her out of necessity, but it was clear that Alena didn't see her as anything more than a connection to her true self. Not that any of this bothered Olivia one way or the other. So long as the task given to her by her true self of helping the boy become the perfect vessel of lust was achieved, everything else was just details.

With their attitudes towards her, however, chances of anything happening between them with her around were next to nil. Even if she stayed hidden within Greg, it wouldn't have helped. They both knew that she was aware of all that was going on around Roka. It'd be no different than if she was standing right there. As such, she had pretended to pass out. That way, any reservations that might have kept them from acting on their impulses were removed. Of course, that was just the first half of her plan.

After her true self had withdrawn, the thick aura of lust that she left behind should have faded within a minute. Or at least it would have if Olivia hadn't actively sustained it. Her intention hadn't been to turn her master into an unthinking slave to the lust. However, with someone like the healer around, she'd had to keep the lust aura potent enough to affect a seventh-tier mage. Unfortunately for Roka, that meant that he was steeped in lust levels that were far out of thresholds that he could resist. The only silver lining was that he'd managed to find an outlet for it. After the vigorous fucking he'd just engaged in, Olivia knew that he'd be okay in a few hours.

A sigh left Olivia as she stood up from the bed and walked over to where the sigil was. She knew that the boy would probably object to what she had done. She, however, knew what the boy didn't. The 'seeds' or system, as the boy called it, weren't spread around out of benevolence. In the end, only one seed would be left standing and all the rest used as nourishment for that one seed. At first, Olivia had been content to take it easy, guide the boy whenever he needed it but otherwise leave him be to make his path. Her true self's words, however, had changed all that.

While it may seem like her answer had been directed at the healer, Olivia knew that it was also meant for her. Her true self had no reason to reveal that there were other seeds with far more powerful backgrounds. She had said it partly to inform her that not all seeds were starting from the same starting line. There were other seeds with far greater advantages than Roka, and if she didn't step up her game, Roka would most likely fall to one of those more advantaged seeds. She had no intention of failing at her task, if a little meddling is what it took to see the boy succeed, then meddle she would…