Chapter 22 – Eternally burning

"Say, Levia..." I ask as I fly with her pressed into my chest held in midriff by my left hand. "Would you mind if I tried doing a few figures?" I remember she was saying something about excitement a while back.

She looks up at me, or more like tries to and manages only to press her head into my boobs, then instantly lowers it in embarrassment. "Uh, you mean, like barrels or rolls?"

"Yep." I confirm.

"Uh... just be careful, okay?" She replies somewhat uncertainly. "And don't do anything crazy. I mean, flying is really nice and I wouldn't mind some entertainment, but don't drop me."

"Sure~." I answer in excited voice, grinning. "Losing you is the last thing I want." I add what can be interpreted in various different ways and she doesn't reply. And I notice her earlobes getting pink, hehe. Cute.

We have already passed the third village between Riverside and Black Harbor and it's around noon now. We stopped for an hour on the way, since although I didn't get tired and my muscles didn't ache, it's exhausting both for me and Levia to fly for long. I tried doing some figures then under the excuse to stretch and relax my wings somewhat. That excuse was for Levia, not for me, because she wanted me to rest.

It was really exciting, the feeling of freedom when you fly like that. I didn't fly far away since I wasn't focusing on that at all, but just the view would be enough for many people to get addicted to flying. For me it's the feelings accompanying it that makes it great, but in the end I was doing it alone.

The point is, I want to do something with Levia. Anything, just to do it with Levia, and I'd like to see her cute face if I do something crazy. Okay, she said not to, but that's the point. Or is it? That would definitely be the reason for cute face though.

Does that make sense? Fuck, I love her so bad.

I push some more demonic energy into my wings to have more acceleration and start by turning upside down in the air so that Levia is laying on me. I grin, seeing her trying not to lean on my boobs - why the hell is she so insistent on not doing that - and start spinnning slowly. I gradually increase how wide each rotation is, making wider and wider barrel rolls, and the at the last one I start falling freely due to beeding out of speed at the highest point.

I place my right hand on her midriff as well to hold her tighter and start diving to the ground. I feel Levia getting a bit tenser with time till I am around five meters above the ground when she almost starts to panic, then I flare my wings wide and beat them strongly. They make make a booming sound and we shoot forward along the ground at what is at least thirty meters per second, pulling her along with me as she squeaks in high, girly voice.

I start rising slowly, watching with a grin as she pretends not to have reacted to my stunt, and make half a circle in the air, then turn around and steady my flight.

I start rising and turning upwards, beating my wings, and I accelerate till I am flying upwards, at which point I release my hold of Levia.

...

<Levia's POV>

"Heeey!" I shout in accusatory tone, unable to stop myself in time. You idiooot, you dare throw me like that!?

I stop flailing my arms I instinctively started to at some point and spread them wide, steadying my flight somewhat. I look around in search of Helia and my Mechanical eyes quickly point out a small figure sailing through the air below me on her back with a wide grin on her face.

You damned... Demoness...

I reach the peak of my flight, ekhm, that dummy's rude throw, and notice Helia abruptly changing her direction in an impossible turn that looks as if she was rotating on the tip of her wing. It should by all means be impossible, and I as a Mechanical saw very well that this single turn at thirty two meters per second broke at least a few laws of physics, but that's Helia. Yep, that explains everything.

Shit, I'm grinning. And I can't help it, damn it!

Do I trust this idiot? I do.

I fold my arms close to my body and turn in the air, starting to fall headfirst to the ground. I adjust my position a bit to look at Helia spinning beautifully in the air and approaching me at breakneck speed. I see her spreading her wings with a booming sound and stopping sharply in front of me while upside down - what the hell even is that move - and beating her wings, accelerating instantly to my speed of falling and positioning herself perfectly in front of me with a silly grin on her face.

I start laughing joyfully before realizing it and almost choke on the air as we fall at over forty meters per second, but even that doesn't stop me from grinning widely and giggling at Helia's behavior.

I spread my arms wide, looking at Helia, and catching my meaning she moves her wings lightly and flies closer to me. I look her in the eyes as she stretches her arms and wraps them around my waist, pulling me closer to her warm and hot body and securing safely. I wrap my arms around her, carefully positioning them under her wings, and look at her from up close as she looks down at the ground. Damn she's gorgeous.

She grins once again when my senses tell me we are barely a few tens of meters above the ground, and yet I'm not even consiering the impact to be possible. Helia stretches her wings and turns sharply, pulling me with her with much less force than there should be thanks to her affinity.

And I open my eyes wide, suddenly feeling something soft on my cheek as my head is pulled forward under the pressure. Something a bit moist, wonderfully tender and pleasantly hot. It feels... just like in these books... like... like hot, steaming lips. Like Helia's lips. Like I always imagined them to be~.

Holy shit, that was, that was, that was a kiss, wasn't it?

...

<Helia's POV>

Whooow, shit, that wasn't in my plans! But it felt so good~! I absolutely loved it!

I never thought my first kiss to the cheek would be accidental, but I can let it slide because of how nice it was. And Levia's cute face makes it even better.

"Ooops, an accident." I grin, pulling my head back with my heart flipping from the stimulation, and look at Levia who has a tad dazed look on her face on eyes wide open. "Did you like it?"

Her face up to her ears immediately gets beet red at faster rate than I thought possible and she shrinks and turns her head away with her face scrunched in embarrassment. She leans forward to my neck - hey, you're right now most definitely not denying anything - and presses her head to my collarbone to hide her eyes.

I steady my flight and start flying leisurely, calming myself along the way since I'm not the only one with increased blood pressure, as she stays silent for a long while.

"...It's the first time I felt anything close to what I read in books in the past. I always wanted to feel the same as those characters." Levia says quietly. "It was nice, I guess..."

Ehehe, how cute~.

"Hmmm~." I smile, with a hum. "Do you want to feel more of it~?"

I almost feel her choking on the words she might have had in her throat and her body shakes a bit, be it from amusement, embarrassment of excitement, I can't tell.

"You damned Succubus~." She whines in pitiful voice. "You tell me you're not one, and you throw such... things out of the blue..." Her voice quiets down as she finishes in resignation and a moment later she regains her vigor and shouts in embarrassment. "You're the most damned annoying, lewd and indecent girl I've met!" She frees her left hand and hits me on my shoulder weakly.

Cuuute~! I can't, I just can't! I love it!

Fuuu- I can't just say that!

...

"Say, did you ever wonder why this island is called Beholder's Eye?" I ask Levia as we fly leisurely for a while, her face still red despite the fact I turned her around and I'm holding her by midriff. And she still hasn't answered if she wants more kisses and smooches, so it's safe to assume she doesn't mind, but it's kind of awkward now.

"Hm? No. Do you know why?" She asks curiously.

"Wanna see?"

"Uh, sure? What though?" She turns her head and looks at me from the corner of her eye.

I grin in response and turn sideways, starting to accelerate down the slope on the edge of the island.

"Huh? Is it below the island?" She asks loudly as the wind starts to whistle in our ears.

"Yup!" I reply and fold my wings, turning sharply around at the edge and starting to fall straight down. I turn around once again and hear Levia's gasp as she sees the eye with tentacles squirming around.

Damn, it would be good if I could stop falling... Or actually...

Hm, I don't see magic pulling me downwards, so it should be gravity, right? Then what's gravity? It's the space-time continuum being folded, and the objects falling downwards, sliding down it. The cause of it is mass.

Then what's mass? It's energy, simple.

In that case... first coat me and Levia with demonic energy and then with the Flame in my body lemme just invert that...

"Whoow, hell... what just happened!?" I hear a startled shout from Levia and refocus on my surroundings, or rather what I see around me since the closest thing to me is the island that's already a few kilometers away. Past a small, almost unnoticeable film of my flames on both of us.

The feeling I just had in my stomach, the one you have when gravity is pulling you down has... turned around. I look down, look up, and no, I haven't turned around accidentally.

Oh. Oh, damn. Is this really so simple?

"Hm hm, nice~." I say melodically. "I just inverted our mass."

I feel Levia blinking despite not seeing her and she asks in uncertain voice. "Um, what?"

"I've Energy affinity on very high level. Mass is energy, so I can affect it." I explain quickly. "Though I didn't expect it to work so well."

Levia stays silent, seemingly mulling over what I just said, and I flip upside down quickly, changing the direction we are flying in. I flat out our flight approaching the island and slow down near the stone ridges and cliffs on the edge, beating my wings quickly. I carefully maneuver and gently land on top of the highest cliff in vicinity. I mean, from my my perspective. I let Levia stand by herself but still keep my arm around her waist, the fact she doesn't seem to notice or pretends not to.

The eye in the center of the island stays the same, menacing, beautiful, almost unmoving. "I wonder what it is." I say quietly. "I mean if it's living or is it a construct."

"Hard to say." Levia muses. "But I don't want to get close to check."

"Yep." I nod ligtly. "Same. Though I'm tempted."

We stay in place for a few more moments before I scoop Levia up in my arms and glide down past the edge of the island. We fly for a long while along it, looking around the stone walls of raw beauty, like the mountains on Gaia, and my breath stops for a moment when I see something.

A waterfall on the edge of the island. It's huge, not in the way how much water flows down, because there's not much of it, but how it flows down. There's a large, very flat cliff on the edge of the island that starts on something of a grassy hill and drops straight down instead of a slope that's normally there. And there is water flowing out of that cliff in quite small quantity and falling down, dispersing into mist a few hundred meters lower, creating beautiful stretches of mist that flow between the stone cliffs.

I instantly set my course there and glide down, or upwards considering the gravity is still inverted. I spot a small ledge by the side of the waterfall and set our mass back to normal. Levia gasps lightly at the sudden change and I adjust my position to upright one, then soar up to the platform and start slowing down, beating my wings lightly.

"I'll be landing, Levia." I warn her.

"Mhm." She nods, already looking at the place and not so in thought.

I land steadily on the five meters wide ledge, a far cry from my first landing both in accuracy and in softness, and release Levia to stand for herself. I fold my wings and let them rest comfortably. I then turn around and glance at the waterfall that sends a mist of water in our direction from time to time and look with a smile at Levia who is standing on the edge and looking at the islands in the sky.

I walk up to the edge on waterfall's side and sit down with my legs dangling down and lean forward a bit, looking down to the mists. I guess the sight more or less explains what happens to the water, at least to small amounts of it, that flows down the island.

Funny that I don't feel any discomfort at all from the cold stone.

"Why did we land here?" Levia asks from behind me and tense in nervousness I hope I don't show. I turn to her with a smile and tap the stone on my side.

"I wanted to tell you something, and when I saw this place I thought it's perfect. A nice view and far away from any ears and eyes." I tilt my head. "Well, there's one, but it doesn't matter."

She walks up to me so that I need to raise my eyes to look up at her and sits down close to me. Damn, I... fuck. I look at the waterfall in front of me, leaning a bit in her direction, and I feel this stupid anxious knot in my chest that refuses to go away.

"Yeah, it's a nice view." She nods with a small smile. "Reminds of freedom."

Yeah, it does in a way. A flat stone cliff, a small waterfall dispersing into mists and islands in the limitless sky both above and under you. With sun hidden behind the island, shrouding this place in a dark shadow.

I look to my side at Levia's profile. Sharp jaw and nose and yet delicate looks, snow white skin, vibrant violet eyes, deep like abyss, rounded by pitch black lashes and eyebrows. Lips bright pink and juicy, small, but full, curled in a small smile, begging to be kissed and bitten. And all that rounded by long, pitch black hair tucked behind her slightly pointed ears.

Beautiful.

Hm, how do I do that? Hm, I could... I don't know. Uh.

Well, fuck the rules, fuck the world.

"Levia, I..." I start and stop with a knot in my heart and in my throat. Aaa damn it! I gulp and open my mouth once again.

And don't manage to say anything as Levia turns her head to me and looks at me from the corner of her eyes.

Fuuu...

"Um. I don't know how else to say it, so..." I say, making Levia turn to me with raised eyebrows. "I love you."

Wide open eyes, a swirl of unintelligible emotions within them. I lean forward slowly, finding Levia's lips with mine in a kiss, and shit she doesn't pull back! Aaaa oh my gosh! I actually did it!

Soft, tender, small, perfect. A bit cold, pleasantly so, as opposed to my burning hot lips. Wow, just... gosh.

I love her so~ fucking much.

I feel her stiffen for a moment and then she melts into the kiss, slumping down a bit and leaning to me. I look into her eyes morphing from wide open in surprise, through a daze and into uncertain and hesitant eagerness as she starts fighting me back with her own, making the butterflies in my stomach only merrier.

The kiss is passionate and long, not like I pay attention to time in the likely best moment of my life up to now.

I wrap my arms around her slim body and abruptly pull her onto my lap with legs spread wide around my waist and I press her directly to my body on its whole length. She squeaks in surprise into the kiss, making me groan in response. Fuck, how long I have waited for that. For her. For evething.

I stretch my wings wide and cover us with them, hiding our shapes past shining eyes and moist lips reflecting the soft glow of light in the shadows, and I feel Levia shiver as I trail my tongue on her lips. I give her last small bite with my long fang on her lower lip that makes her shudder once again and pull back slowly with a sensual smile and seductively narrowed eyes.

I look her in the eyes that gaze into mine with passion, love, and yet conflict, uncertanity and anxiousness.

"H-helia." She whispers. "I'm... I'm a Mechanical."

"So?" I ask, raising my eyebrows.

"And you're a human." She says with tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

I lean forward and press my lips to hers, shutting her up, and lock her in an iron grip and another passionate, but this time slower and more calming, reassuring kiss. When I pull back, Levia's eyes are already filled with tears, but her lips and eyes are smiling. "And I love you. I absolutely don't mind you're a Mechanical. And you don't mind that I'm trans?" I ask.

She shudders as I say that again, now when she was listening properly, and buries her face in my neck. "N-no, I don't care. I... I..." She chokes on ver voice, on her emotions for a painful moment, then takes a deep breath. "I don't know. Two weeks ago I didn't even know about love other than the stories I have read... But when I saw you it was like... I don't care about that, I love you, Helia!" She almost shouts messily, her voice cracking at the sheer intensity of the emotions she wants to convey, and she squeezes me tightly.

My mind blanks for a long while as my heart beats so hard and with so much joy it's almost painful and my body becomes hotter.

Gosh damn shit I can't.

Unable to stop myself I cup her face with my hand abruptly and raise her head, then press our lips together again, in an even more even more heated, more desperate kiss than before. I feel my body becoming hotter, fuller, more demonic, and I squeeze her with my arms, pressing our thighs, our waists, our chests together and keeping her with me possessively, almost in a frenzy.

I feel Levia melting into the embrace and I feel her lips parting, and I push my tongue into her mouth, only now realizing it's a bit longer than it should be. She jolts, feeling it invading her, but doesn't resist at all and instead fights with it, sending shivers of pleasure down my spine. I put my hand up into her hair, pressing her head into mine from backwards as if what I have wasn't enough and running my fingers through it. I slide my hand into the folds of her fabric on her hips, searching for her skin, yearning for her touch.

When Levia slowly, a bit fearfully slides her hands down to my waist I moan in pleasure, fulfillment, the feeling of belonging, and how beautifully right it feels to be the one caressed, to be in the position of a woman as well. She, stimulated by that, abandons subtlety and grabs my body strongly, possessively, her hands on my ass, pulling herself to me, squeezing my ass, sending a wave of shivers down my spine and making me arch my back with a groan in a jolt.

Our lips are torn apart abruptly and I look at us in a moment of clarity, then lean back and pull her to me from my previous very possessive and suggestive position. I squeeze her in a tight hug as she leans her body on mine, tears of happiness spilling from my eyes. "That's one thing we have in common, Levia." I say in a bit croaky voice.

"Mhuuh." She lets out in confirmation. We stay like that, cuddled together in each other's warm embraces and we don't need to say anything to understand each other's acceptance, each other's feelings. The relief from expressing our feelings, the happiness, the fulfillment. And yet, the mind of a person being as it is, we both have our worries, and not all shown.

"Um... sorry to ask... now, but I need to know..." Levia starts speaking uncertainly.

"Hm?" I prompt her.

"Um, out of VOW, you're a human, and I'm a Mechanical." She says and I don't interrupt, knowing she has more to say. "And it's like... well, not about kids, though that's also a problem." I inhale a fair amount of air in surprise as she jumps at least, like, two steps ahead without any warning. "I mean... humans age, right?"

"Oh, if it's about age, I don't think that's a problem." I say, trailing my hand through her smooth hair. "I have good hundred years to live still as long as nothing happens and I'm sure there are ways to extend that."

"Mhm." She nods with tense face. "But I can't help but worry, you know?"

"Hush." I say with a smile. "Concern yourself with more immediate issues. You'll grow old even faster than me if you worry so much."

She starts giggling at that comment and I smile wide. My Levia, my love. I lean forward a bit and kiss her on the forehead, making her freeze for a moment. "Um...?"

"My Levia." I say as if it explained everything, and she shudders lightly and tightens her embrace, apparently judging it really did. I don't miss the huge smile that blooms on her face.

"My Helia." She says after me, and this time I feel the bubbly happiness making me smile uncontrollably. And I feel heat and energy suddenly accumulating in my lower abdomen, and I look at it in alarm with my magic sense.

My Flame is twisting in strange ways in my belly making patterns I completely can't make sense of and giving off the feeling of something being finalized, like the last step that will make me complete. The heat builds up in my crotch and grows to a level when Levia notices it and pulls away a bit, looking down in surprise.  "What's happening?"

"Dunno." I answer, pulling her back with a dissatisfied face and with her almost leaning over the edge being only the minor concern, she pulling away in itself being much larger issue. "But I don't think it's anything bad. A gut feeling of sort."

The energy accumulates in my lower abdomen for a few more seconds, twisting by its own rights I can't make sense of, and finally settles down, but not before making one large turn and somehow... embedding itself into me, permanently, eternally, unchangeably, and I feel a spike of sudden pain that makes me yelp.

And I feel... I feel Levia, I feel the connection between us, I feel her, intimately, closely and truly as it should. I feel... complete? That should be the right word.

"W-wow~. What happened?" Levia jolts in surprise and exclaims in wonder, likely feeling the same as me, and asks both in concern and amazement, looking at me.

I slowly look down on my abdomen and place my hand on it. And I feel nothing with my hand, but I slowly realize that I see something with my magic sense. It's like... it's a tattoo. It's a tattoo, an outline of a heart with slim lines drawn around it, nine of those on each side, looking a bit like feathery wings. Inside the outline of the heart there is a diamond shape of somehow, inexplicably, slightly differing energy, somewhat not fitting the design and yet perfectly in its rightful place.

"It is more than a tattoo, Helia." I suddenly hear Shiva's divine voice, speaking in calm, reassuring and somewhat proud manner. "It is the Heart of the Star, the proof of your eternally burning love."

Heart of the Star? I guess... I am a star. Star Demoness.

"Heeelia~." Levia stretches out her voice in complaint, poking my cheek with her little finger and making me smile without realizing it. "What happened?"

I lean forward and lock our lips under a sudden impulse and she whimpers under me in surprise and happiness at the same time. I release her as she starts squirming under me and look at her, not at all satisfied with what I got. When she looks at me, when she sees my eyes, she flinches and her gaze morphs into a nervous, anticipating one and she bites hep lip, tensing.

I lean forward and place a small, tender kiss on her lips, then on her cheek, then on her neck, and I feel her shiver. I raise my arms a bit, trailing them on her back, and slip them under the folds of her clothing and I feel her smooth, strong back. My fingers trail over her muscles and I feel them shifting slightly under the pressure, and I kiss her once, and twice, and once again on her neck. I open my mouth and trail my tongue over her collarbone, and I feel Levia falling apart as she groans in my arms, clawing at my back lightly and squirming in pleasure and for me to stop at the same time.

I feel my ribcage bursting, I feel my heart leaping in happiness as I raise my head and kiss Levia lightly on her forehead, then tightly hug her small frame with such a wide, such vibrant smile I have never made before.

I sit her sideways on my lap and wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her close. I lean my head on her shoulder since my unimpressive height puts her head a bit above mine and settle content as she runs her hand through my hair absentmindedly. And I love it! It's like... it's incredible, I feel like I belong there. It's indescripable, but really nice.

"I like it." She says quietly.

"What?" I ask, raising my head a bit.

"Your hair." She says and I feel something flipping in my chest and I smile uncontrollably. "It's so wild, like fire."

"Mhm." I mumble into her neck and kiss her lightly there. "Yours is nice, too."

We lapse into silence for another while till I recall something. "Say, Levia, do you remember what I told you when you were logging out?"

She tenses for a moment and then curls up a bit in embarrassment. "I... I do." She mumbles nervously in small voice. "You said... I'll need to... r-repay you when I log back in. For leaving you."

"Yup! I demand you to cuddle me." I say without batting an eye and grin as she looks up at me with her mouth in a circle, blinking. She clamps her mouth shut and frowns lightly, then raises up from my lap and sits on my side with determined expression.

Before I'm able to ask what she is doing she wraps her arms around my waist and pulls me onto her lap decisively, then pushes down a bit to put my head under hers. My heart flips as I see this side of her I haven't had a chance to feel before and-.

Oooh~, heavenly~. I really do belong here.

I melt into Levia's chest when she starts to run her hand through my hair while wrapping her arm around me in a protective gesture and leaning her head lightly on mine. And my mind only loses more of its integrity as Levia plants a small kiss on my forehead and I completely lean into her, relaxing my whole body and putting my whole weight on her chest.

"Mmmrh~." I let out in happiness and feel Levia's chest shaking a bit as she giggles.

"Your face is so cute right now. Your ckeeks are glowing in gold, I think." She says, and I hear a wide smile in her voice. "And you're gorgeous." She adds in smaller voice.

"Mmmh." I say affectionately in affirmation with bubbly happiness welling up inside my chest. It's so... natural, surprisingly so as I've thought of myself as a man not two weeks ago and I'm already considering it normal to be called hot and beautiful. But it's also so blissful, fulfilling, as if I received the best compliment in my life, and it's repeated each time I hear Levia saying it.

I love it.

I love her.