Finally at Home Again

It was warm.

A comfortable feeling enveloped him.

Vincent felt like flying in the middle air.

Motionless in the air to follow along the flow of the wind…

It was so peaceful…

He didn't know lying deep in the middle lava would be this comfortable.

It wasn't burning at all.

It was warm with a lot of fire element covering him from head to toe.

It felt so nice…

He really wanted to sleep in there right away.

Unfortunately, no matter how comfortable the feeling was, he still needed air to live.

So he could only reluctantly swim to the surface of the lava.

A loud vibration immediately felt by him as he was nearing the surface. The lava was waving violently to all over directions.

Vincent let out a gasp as he came out of the surface.

His dark eyes widened in surprise as he looked around at the situation.

The Big Boss Red Qillin was fighting so intensively in the middle of lava and the enemy was…

Vincent couldn't help but watched in awe as he saw him…

It was his goddess.

Noctis was flying in the middle of air above the lava lake with the darkness surrounding him. He was frowning at the Big Boss Red Qllin. He blinked as he finally saw him staring at him but didn't say anything as he only frowned again.

Vincent immediately wanted to know what his goddess was thinking. But after a moment he dismissed it. Knowing his goddess, he probably was thinking about the Big Boss Red Qillin was so annoying or something about him who was so worthless to even fell into the lake.

Vincent decided to come out of the lava lake instead. He didn't want to disturb his goddess's fight. This small character would only disturb the awesome fight between two big bosses. Cough.

Sure enough, after he came out of the ground, his goddess finally moved. At the same time, The Big Boss Red Qillin also moved a huge torrent of lavas toward his goddess. The lava torrent was so powerful and violent. A loud explosion was transpired as the attack met his goddess. Energy turbulence was so huge that even he also felt the effect.

For a moment, Vincent couldn't felt but worry as he saw the attack.

Even though his goddess had said casually about killing a Rank 4 High Magical Beast before, he didn't know if his goddess could defend against such attack since he didn't know his goddess's real level.

But after a while, he finally let out a relief breath as he saw the scene that was happened after.

The darkness enveloped his goddess like shield wall. After the attack finally subsided, the dark wall revealed the person inside them was safe without a scratch.

Noctis then raised his right hand. Dark mana enveloped his hand as he wrote a few runes casually in the middle of air. Dark runes immediately lit brightly before dark energies then appeared above the Big Boss Red Qillin forming a large magic circle.

The huge beast roared as he immediately detected a danger. With all of his might, the beast attacked his enemy.

Noctis just titled his head at the dark energy circle above the huge beast ignoring the beast's attack. A faint smile appeared at the corner of his lips before he whispered softly.

"Dark thunder…"

BLAARRR!!!

A huge dark thunder struck down in a loud explosion.

The huge beast didn't even get a chance to roar in pain as his body was charred to death. A sparks of lightening still could be seen on the body as the beast fell down on the lava lake in motionless.

Vincent gasped in stunned awe as he saw the attack. A shudder was spread all over his body. But excitement was growing inside his heart.

His goddess was so powerful!!! ♡〜٩( ˃́▿˂̀ )۶〜♡

Vincent wanted to cheer loudly. But he forced to calm himself as he analyzed the situation. Even though he knew Noctis could cast a long range magic, it was different with high magical spell. To be able cast a long range attack easily like this, his goddess should at least already entered his third awakening. There were so much of gaps between him and his goddess. He had to quickly increasing his level.

Even Marie was so strong. She seemed able to control wind element, so she must be at least in second awakening. It was just a guess though, since he never really met anyone strong other than them.

Marie walked to her master after the fight was over. She seemed like didn't get hurt. Even there wasn't any blood of red qillin in her clothes. She looked like just came back from strolling instead fighting the herd of red qillin.

Almost all the red qillin was fleeing after seeing their leader was beaten while the rest was killed by Marie.

The huge beast body was thrown over to the ground by the darkness with a heavy slam. Marie immediately checked body. She only nodded lightly before stored the body to her spatial ring. Her frightening battle axe was also already vanished. She must have stored her weapon in the ring too.

After they came out of the crater, the sky was already dark. Even the moon was hung high in the sky.

Vincent let out a relief sigh. He took a glance to the crater. Somehow he felt reluctance to leave the lava lake. There was so much fire element in there!

Noctis was frowning at the dark sky. He didn't know it was already so late.

"Master, shall we find a place to rest?" Marie asked, since she knew his master had to take a sleep regularly.

"I guess… Let climb down from the peak first, I didn't want to bother with the red qillin herd when they came back." Noctis mumbled disappointedly.

He then turned at Vincent, without further ado he demanded. "Carry me."

Vincent blinked in speechless. But since he had already experienced it before, this time he quickly get down and turned his back to his goddess.

Noctis immediately jumped at his back and warped his arms around Vincent's neck.

Carefully, Vincent raised his body before tightening his grip on his goddess's body. Just like that they climbed down the peak.

By the time they passed the red forest, Noctis was already sleeping soundlessly on his back. They found some clearing near a huge tree.

"Is it really okay to rest here?" Vincent asked as he looked around their surrounding in the forest. They were still in the East Mountain. But since it was already too late, they decided to rest first and climbed down again in the early morning.

The place looked really dark and dangerous. Didn't in the novel always say that monster was more violent at night?

Marie just nodded and said, "Wait here." She then walked to at least twenty meters distance from him.

She crouched down and drew out something from her ring. She then dug a small hole in the ground and buried the thing in the hole. She then changed her position in another direction and buried another thing again. She did it for a few times until all of buried thing was creating a circle surrounding them.

After she was done burying all of them, she stood from the ground and drew out her mana force. There was a flash of bright light drawing a circle wall surrounding them before vanished again.

Did she just create a defensive parameter?

Vincent couldn't really see it clearly since she turned her back at him.

Marie came back to his position after she was done. She cleared some dry leaves on the ground before drew out a white cloth, thick blanket and a pillow. She spread the while cloth near the huge tree and then placed the thick blanket on top of it before placing the pillow.

"Please move Master to rest here." She said to Vincent, pointing to the blanket.

Vincent blinked from his daze seeing her action. But he immediately moved to place carefully his goddess on the thick blanket. He gently fixed his sleep position on the blanket before Marie placed another blanket to cover her master body.

Vincent couldn't help but caress Noctis's hair gently.

He sat beside his goddess before raising his head as he saw Marie already moved around again, she collected a few tree branches and made a bonfire near them. Her action was really smooth and in familiarity as if she already did them so many times. Well, maybe she was, since she already served her master longer than him.

All aethers around them then were quickly gathering together surrounding his goddess as usual. Vincent watched in awe as they were absorbed slowly by his goddess.

"Why all aethers are like that?" Vincent asked Marie in low sound after a while. "Why did he need absorbing them?"

Marie glanced at him briefly. "Master's body is different from other demons. He was created solely from the purest form of chaos aethers. His body needed a lot of chaos aether to quickly grow. Absorbing aether in sleep will fasten Master's grow. Therefore, Master needed to sleep regularly."

Different from other? He did not feel any different between Marie and Noctis. Vincent thought curiously. "Can you just use… you know, some magic or potion?"

"Of course not. You cannot just fasten your body grow with some hasty methods. It will only create impurities on your body." Marie explained before taking the other side of her master to sit.

"You don't need to sleep?" Vincent asked again after he saw Marie only sat in vigilance.

Marie only glanced at him briefly before watching their surrounding again. "No, you can sleep if you want." She replied shortly without explaining anything.

"But should you take a rest for a while?" Vincent asked in puzzlement as he remembering all fighting with red qillin was done by her.

Marie stared at the distance of dark forest in silence for a moment, seeming pondering whether she should answer to his question or not. After for a while, she opened her lips again.

"I am here because of Master, so I will live to serve and protect Master until the end of my life."

Vincent turned to silence. Such a conviction declaration, he was wondering what happened between her and Noctis.

They continued to sit in silence afterward, just waiting the night to pass.

Vincent decided to take a look at his magic core, since he hadn't got a chance to check them.

He closed his eyes immediately to check.

There wasn't much different inside his body. But after he took a closer look at his magic core, he saw the change. The bead now was brighter and more transparent. Inside the bead he saw the flame and darkness was spinning freely and in the center of them was a flower. Not the lotus flower that he just eat. It was similar but created by fire and dark as if it was blending with his element.

It was a pretty sight.

Vincent turned his focus to his mana pool. He then began to absorb aether and begin refining again. But this time, he decided to absorb them from his skin not through his breath. Because of his training recently, he could easily absorb them. Though the flow speed was a bit slow, since his mana path hadn't been corrected.

But it was fine!

He could just take it as double training!

Vincent thought vigorously as he trained all night

..

..

..

The next morning, Noctis immediately demanded cakes after he woke up.

They took some breakfasts before finally continued their journey to home. They already accomplished their objective after all.

Too bad, his goddess was still energetic as ever after sleep nicely all night. So Vincent could only sigh bitterly as he couldn't carry his goddess again… ((´д｀))

They climbed down the East Mountain before walked back to Dark Hollow Forest.

Their return journey was as peaceful as their departure. After experiencing such excitement in the lava crater, he suddenly felt a bit bored on their return journey.

Of course that didn't mean he want any more experiences right now. Being safe was also good.

It was in the afternoon they finally reached the base.

Vincent watched in awe as the darkness opened the cliff wall again. The huge cave inside immediately was appeared. Noctis immediately demanded cakes for the lunch from him.

He looked at the huge stone door that was closed again after they entered. He still couldn't believe that they really just got outside and fighting a lot of red qillin. He suddenly felt bit tired after such experiences.

He then turned to his goddess who already walked to the kitchen.

A smile couldn't help but curled at the corner of his lips.

They finally at home again, huh?

Vincent decided to make a special huge chocolate cake for his goddess.

They ate lunch together pleasantly.

Afterward, Vincent decided to take a sleep for a while as he felt a bit tired before training again at night.

But as he was about to walk into his room, his goddess suddenly called him.

"Where are you going?" Noctis frowned.

"Eh, I want to go to my room…" Vincent asked in puzzlement.

Noctis only frowned further in disapproval. "Should you train with Marie? You already skipped for two days!!" he scolded.

Cough!! ━Σ(ﾟДﾟ|||)━

Goddess, please let me at least rest for a while!!!

Vincent suddenly remembered that his goddess was so vicious! (ToT)