Chapter 30 – Beautiful

Let me send Levia a video call. I haven't used it much before, but right now it's a good choice. I click the button and wait barely a few seconds before a window displaying Levia's a bit dishelved appearance pops up in front of me.

"Hello~!" I greet her with a wide smile, not deccelerating my perception, but just speaking slowly. "You're fine I see?"

"You're asking me that!?" She puffs out her cheeks in annoyance. "It was you who left only her legs with me!"

I roll my eyes at that, still smiling though. "I'm fine, it didn't even take me even two seconds to regenerate them." I wonder where did my wing go, but well. I won't be going searching for it across dimensions, duh.

"Where are you, for that matter?" Levia asks curiously, then tilts her head with a frown. "And you're speaking weirdly."

"I've accelerated my perception just in case." I reply to the latter question. "I'm just speaking slowly from my perspective."

"Um, how much?" Levia frowns.

"Around... ten times, I think."

"Oh, then is it fine if I speak like that?" She asks and I blink, and I burst out laughing as I hear her speaking almost normally, but in incredibly high, squeaking voice. "What?" She makes a cute frown and still uses this fantastically high voice, making me laugh even harder.

A moment later her eyes unfocus for a moment and she shuts her eyes, her lips in a tight line as her cheeks get cutely red. "Um, ooops." She squeaks out. "Is it fine now?" She asks, this time in almost normal voice and I stiffle my laugh to answer her.

"Yesh, it's good. It was better, but not good for my sanity." I reply, switching back to my normal manner of speaking, in reality being extremely fast, and she glares at me. "Okay, sorry, it's good. But it was really cute."

"Anyway, where are you now?" She asks, not at all smoothly changing the topic. And not at all reducing her blush.

"Um, I'm kind of out of this world. In fourth dimension or whatever." I say and Levia blinks cutely a few times.

"You... what?" She asks finally with an angry frown. "Don't tell me he threw you out into the void or something?"

"No, no." I wave my hands quickly. "I'm actually halfway to you, I think." Actually, that doesn't explain anything, does it? "Um, lemme explain from the beginning."

"Mhm." Levia nods and I see her sitting on a rock through the screen and looking at me attentively. Her black longbow dissolves into nanobots and flows into her body.

"So, I got teleported to an arena in the Highlands, which belongs to a church of people who call themselves Viell'Heirr. The stony guy was one of them, but he was acting on his own, guiding those aberrations, or um, Viell'Mengde I think they were called, onto us. There was a woman there, she introduced herself as Ave'A, the grand priest of their church, and I talked with her a bit. Oh, and she was using a lot of space magic, and was extremely powerful. If I fought with her, I would probably have been in serious trouble."

Levia raises her eybrows in surprise at that. "But you didn't?"

"No, I didn't. I could have asked for a bout, but I'd rather come to you." I giggle and she smiles in embarrassment. "After I talked with her about some things she teleported me out, and then I was trying to teleport to you with similar method I saw her use. I'm now halfway to you having used up most of my energy."

"Oh, okay. That's good. I thought we wouldn't get back together before you need to log out." She nods with a smile, but the next moment frowns in worry. "Actually, how much till you come here?"

"I'm not sure." I take a look at my Demonic Flame and see it around... thirty percent full. So it was around five percent regenerated over what, three minutes? No, faster than that. Either way, it's just borderline enough to get to Levia before I need to log out, as I have less than half an hour left. "Um, I think I'll be able to come before I need to log out, but just barely." I say apologetically, focusing back on Levia. "Though I might be able to come faster if I think a bit."

"Um, you don't need to." She says, but I hear slight disappointment in her voice.

"I think-." I begin and pause as I suddenly feel some kind of energy appearing in the shape of a... fragment of a large sphere, I think, touching the orb of space I'm in. A moment later it starts moving quickly in my direction, soon covering my whole perception field.

What the hell is that? This energy feels... empty. But not in the way Levia's Nihility is empty, but it just... lacks something. It lacks the energy filling it, and it kind of... slips under the space and seems to disappear, as if filling a sort of empty layer you didn't know was missing. Or, no actually, it's just the opposite, as the energy flows over the space I'm in the space seems to enter it. I... think so, at least.

And- Holy shit! There's something closing in on me from the edge of my perception with incredible speed, covering at least five meters per second in my greatly sped up perspective. And it's ugly! It's so ugly I don't think I have seen something more repulsive in my life. If I had to describe it... it would be a ball of... something, with teeth-filled, round, grotesque mouths sticking out like pimples in random places, the whole thing five meters in diameter. Reminds me of ancient Earth's Lovecraft's horrors.

It's filled with some sort of black, chaotic, swirling energy that feels kinda... weak, but is still three or so times stronger than mana. The density though is nothing impressive, a few times the base soul size, I think.

I pull back my arm and coat it with flames, shaping them into a gaunlet, and slam the approaching thing with all my strength as its ugly, oily black shape with similarly black teeth appears momentarily before my eyes. I feel... blergh, yuck, what the fuck? I yank out my arm out of the oily, slimy and disgusting thing that simply collapsed inward when I hit and tilt my head sideways to avoid a mouth extending and flying in my direction, at the same time slamming my hand into another one aiming for my belly and deflecing it sideways. A small tinge of excitement runs down my spine. This shit can fight back!

I beat my wings to get away from the thing that finally poses a bit of danger to me, halfway realizing there is no air to push me away from. Shit. My grin still doesn't falter though. I don't have enough energy to go back to Levia...oh, righto, there's a source of energy knocking on my doors, isn't there?

My excitement and will to fight are pushed down as I get a sudden idea. Now, how to get this energy...

I stretch out my hands and touch the thing lightly, feeling the slick skin, or whatever it is, and release my Primordial Energy inside the thing, with the purpose to devour, to consume, to multiply itself feasting on the energy, and with immense satisfaction I see the monster literally falling apart in flames and disappearing amidst a stretched out shriek, or what must be a shriek in this space lacking any air to carry sounds.

I take back my arms as I see the last remains of the monster being devoured in a blaze of vibrant yellow flames and pull all this energy back into me, offhandedly deccelerating back my perception. Thanks for the meal~.

I'm kinda disappointed that I killed it so early, but I much prefer to get back to Levia than to exchange blows with some eldritch horror, even if it's the first thing in a while that can fight back somewhat. And considering it decided to drop on me so conveniently, I won't be complaining.

...Actually, thinking about it, let's get the fuck out of here, because I doubt it was the strongest monster out there.

Hm, there isn't even a hint of pain after that acceleration. The cause after using it in the fight with Elena must have been something else. Maybe my body has hurt itself having lost the support of Primordial Energy and still trying to perform on the same level?

No matter, I'll need to experiment more later on. I look at my Demonic Flame and with surprise notice it's a bit over half full. That's... both more and less than I expected. Less because the simple amount of energy inside the monster was much larger, in fact around ten times larger than I got from it, and more because I didn't expect consuming foreign energy and regenerating Primordial Energy to be so easy.

"Helia, what the hell was that?" Levia asks in a bit shaky, alarmed voice.

I turn to the screen still displaying her, now standing upright, visibly a tense and a bit scared. "Don't worry about it. I have no idea what it was, but it wasn't strong enough to compete with me." I grin with the aftertaste of the fight that, while wasn't really satysfying, was at least a sort of challenge.

"That's not the problem, Helia!" Levia squeaks out. "When you released that flame, my dangers senses were shrieking as if I were to die!"

I blink a few times in surprise. "Though the chat window?" I ask in confusion and this time it's Levia blinking.

"Right, what?" She mutters and looks around herself in alarm, but soon her face morphs into even more confused frown and she looks back at me. "Um, what was that flame?"

I think for a moment about the question, remembering a situation from two days ago when I was out in the forest with Catherine and others. When I got pissed at that goblin back then and vaporized it. They said I was really scary back then. In that case, is it the purpose of the energy that matters? I wanted my Primordial Energy to destroy the goblin back then, and I was really furious, while this time I wanted it to devour and consume. Both sound... very dangerous, so it might be it.

"Um, how do you see that?" I ask, willing my flame to be gentle, soothing and bringing some of it above my palm. I look at Levia and see her face relaxing ever so slightly.

"Wow, it's... soothing." She says softly in wonder.

"Oh, okay." I nod and pull the flames back into my body. Turns out my Primordial Energy can also have a lot of unintended effects more or less related to what I want it to do. For that matter, I wonder if I could make the my attack feel harmless, but in actuality be deadly. Not like I'll be testing that now. "I think that depending what I want my flame to do, it will seem to be different to other people. Just now I wanted it to be gentle and soothing, and ealier it was to devour and consume."

"Oh. I see..." Levia nods slowly. "So it's like people can sense the intent of the flame? That's interesting."

"Yeah, more or less." I nod. Actually, it's a surprisingly accurate description. "Though it might be better to say that the flames send out their intent and everyone can feel it. Well, no matter. I got some energy from this monster and I'll be able to get back to you in a while." I say with a wide smile.

...

"Gimme a moment." Levia mutters somewhere in the middle of some casual talk about her weapons, standing up and creating a large spear out of nanobots. "There's a monster coming." She says and waves the window with the video chat away, offering me a better view of the fight from a larger distance.

I watch her intently as she swipes her right foot back and leans on same leg, turns her torso to the right and pulls her arm holding the spear back, all this time concentrating on a target somewhere further away. And showing off her body beautifully, since the cloth she's wearing isn't very loose and doesn't cover her arms and shoulers.

I see as the muscles of her arm contract and become rigid, her whole body folding forward a bit, and the spear starts moving forward. Then her right leg shots forward and stands firmly on the ground, and all her momentum is stopped, tranfered to the spear beautifully, something I can admire even better than any normal person since my Energy affinity gives me some understanding and insight into the inner works of physics.

The spear shots out forward with incredible speed, completely not something one would expect from her frail body, and she starts accumulating Nihility in her feet. Within the time the spear manages to cover around twenty meters she gets ready and shots forward along the ground, following the spear, and starts creating another weapon in her outstetched arm.

At this moment the monster comes into view, and I realize it's a... worm. Yup, it's a worm alright. Huge, at least two meters in width, and much more in length, though I can't tell even an approximate since it's mostly burrowed in the ground. It has a huge mouth full of sharp teeth, though, unlike what you might expect, it isn't all it has on the front. It also has a whole set of sharp blades... kinda like mandibles around it mouth, and it distinctly has something akin to a head, since it has two large, though flat eyes on the top of its head. And a lot more samller eyes around its mouth.

Anyway, a moment later the spear arrives in front of the monster and burrows deep in its forhead. The worm lets out a piercing howl, and Levia cuts it short by smashing a huge, black hammer into the back end of the spear. It goes deep enough for its three or so meters of the shaft to be completely buried in the monster. She could have done it in much less... showy way, but I guess I'm not better than her in this matter.

The worm stops moving, though its body still spasms a few times, and Levia digs into the thing to find its magic stone while pulling the video chat window to her.

"Had a good look?" She asks with a smirk, glancing at me through the panel.

"Yeah, though not nearly... close enough." I say in low voice and with narrowed eyes and my girlfriend turns visibly redder. Ehehe.

Speaking of closeness... I have around eighty percent of my energy accumulated. It should be enough to go to Levia. Alright, let's do it.

I feel the connection between us and pull on it, containing my squeamish excitement from getting better of me and trying experimentally to limit energy consumption to seventy percent. And as suddenly as it was earlier I feel Levia and her surroundings. My energy... around ten percent. Looking at the thread... there are a few kilometers of distance left and decreasing.

"Alright, I see you." I say to Levia, glancing at the chat window that displays her now running figure. I see her stopping slowly and looking at me with confusion.

"Yeah? I see you too?" She asks and I feel my face getting golden. Well, hrm.

"...I mean I see you with my magic sense." I explain when she grins at my unusual display of embarrassment.

"So? Are you coming?" She asks impatiently with her face turning into a happy smile when she gets what I'm implying.

"Yup, stay still, and give me a moment." I reply and focus back on the connection.

I yank on it lightly to bring me to Levia, and feel myself being almost next to her, inside her actually... no other meaning here, I mean that it feels as if our bodies were overlapping. I stretch out the connection between us to its normal length and it... doesn't really elongate. Hm. I try to push away just a tiny bit and I see the thread becoming three or so meters long. And it's in normal state.

Now to push out the space I'm in... how about trying to pull it out of the depth I pushed it in... or something like that. I try doing just that and I suddenly appear in a forest, and a moment later a tree behind my back explodes with splinters and only my timely put out fiery shield prevents me from being turned into a bloody porcupine. Levia stands exactly in front of me, so she is in no danger, but she looks at me with stupid expression as I appear, form her point of view most likely out of thin air in a spray of wood.

"Ooops." I say, but the next moment snort in amusement, unable to contain myself. "Didn't notice there's a tree here." Damn, it's dangerous. I mean, I could easily kill Levia with that if I didn't pull back a little bit. The problem is that I can't perceive the other side by myself. I'll need to do something about it next time. Not now though, later. Later... Later...

I stumble forward and wrap my arms around Levia, hugging her tightly, and bury my head in her shoulder. I feel tears welling up inside my eyes and my face shaping into a pained, tearful grmace despite myself. "Levia." I say in croaky voice.

I feel a gentle hand on my head as it starts making small circles. "It will be alright, Helia." See, it's not alright. It will be. When will it be? How much time do I have to endure? How much more suffering?

"Helia." I hear a stern voice just next to my ear and I freeze. "Helia. Helia. You'll be fine. We'll be back together soon, as we're together now." I hear Levia's voice, now gentle, soothing, like my flame was, and I fall apart, crying aloud, crying bitter tears into her shoulder as I hold her tight and don't let go. Why do I have to do that? Why do I have to log out, to leave her?

"My little Helia." I hear and I smile amidst my tears and choke on my tears. "You're a strong girl." Another spasm shakes me, another wave of conflicting feelings tearing through every fiber of my body. "You're powerful, you're strong." I hear Levia saying with confidence. I'm strong. "You're my greatest, best, strongest, most persistent and only girl." I feel an incredible, proud, hot, gentle, burning feeling welling up inside me. "So, live strong, and we'll meet here next week. Alright? Please do it for me." I hear Levia saying, I hear her voice shaking and changing in tone by the end and I look up in alarm.

I press my cheek to Levia's scruched up, almost tearful face and I shift my arms desperately to hug her tighter, more reassuringly. I kiss her on her cheek and on her lips and hug her again with tears welling up in my eyes just after I stopped crying, my eyes still wet from the previous time.

"I'll call you lots, okay? Just tell me when you're available and we'll talk." I say in a bit croaky voice, half attempting to reassure her, and half asking for something to lighten the load on myself even a tiny bit.

"Mhm." Levia nods her head vigorously. "I will. I will."

We stay in silence for a long while, holding each other tightly and not letting go, giving each other tiny displays of affection.

"I need to go." Levia says softly. I glance grudgingly at the clock and see it is already almost time for me to log out.

"Mhm." I mumble, giving her last tight squeeze, and pull away slowly, looking into her violet eyes. I lean forward and lock our lips in a long, needy, demanding kiss. When I pull away, I have tears in my eyes again. Damn it. "See you soon." I squeeze out, my throat feeling as if clamped.

"Mhm. See you soon." Levia replies with her lips in between a smile and a tearful grimace, her fingers nimbly and yet hesitantly tapping on the panel. She then looks at me with this guilty smile, leans forward to give me a small kiss on the cheek, and logs out, her body starting to disappear into the Spirit Mark.

Why is it so painful? Why is it so hard? I'm leaving her for barely five days, not even that considering I'll get to talk to her, but it's just... so heart-rendingly, beautifully painful. How much I love her, how much I want her, how much I need her.

I don't wait for her body to finish disappearing and slam the button to log out.