Chapter 601 Aria’s soothing cold & Mira’s warm heart (part 2)
Chapter 601 Aria’s soothing cold & Mira’s warm heart (part 2)
An amusing scene could be seen inside of a dimensional tunnel, where a black-haired youth was floating with a blue haired beauty in his embrace, the previous while being warily stared at from afar by a white-haired girl.
Who could else be casually flirting inside a dimensional tunnel like this, besides Aster and the girls of course.
"If I wanted to do something to you, I would have done it back at the valley where others can't see me, so don't be too stiff", jokingly said Aster while he gently caressed Aria's platinum blue hair.
The response however was Mira softly growling while keeping a wary expression on her pretty face, which made Aria giggle to then say.
"She apparently ended up showing to yesterday's slumber party and listened to the stories of the other's previous dates".
"Mother was right, dragons aren't trustable, I'm not going to fall for the same tricks as them!", exclaimed the ligress girl, referring to how Eris, Mylene, Vivian, Agnes and of course Camila who was yesterday's star, ended up becoming closer to Aster through the dates.
That being said she didn't really believe that Aster had a hidden agenda, after all he had openly expressed his desire for her to make a contract with Aria, while at the same time he stated that he won't be forcing her to do anything she didn't want to, so this sudden wariness she was showing was just her getting a bit nervous after listening to the detailed version of the stories that Kana has told her before, adding the fact that most of the ones that participated had only gotten as far as to receive a small peck on the cheek or hold hands.
As to why Aria knew about it, that is because Vivian told her, the pale skinned girl had gotten closer to Aria, initially it was because she is practically immune to poison thanks to a combination of her original body constitution as well as Rigel's flames purifying effect on her, not to mention that since Alice realized it was fun to "corrupt" Vivian, Aria joined in to balance things.
"Now, Mira, the whole purpose of this is to improve our teamwork, so you can't isolate yourself", said Aria to the ligress girl, trying to prevent Aster's bad habit to show, which is the fact that he enjoys teasing them, to the point that he does it unconsciously sometimes.
Another reason as to why Aria got a long with Mira, is that she also went through something similar, in the sense that before meeting Aster, she didn't belong anywhere, at least not legitimately, since practically everyone that approached her, besides her father and the old man Sebastian, had an ulterior motive, so she is aware of how hard it is to get to trust someone and unlike her, who could for some reason trust Aster since the moment they met, the ligress girl couldn't.
Ultimately, after mumbling a few things, Mira got closer but still kept some distance between herself and Aster by staying next to Aria.
"I do understand having to spend some time with a possible contractor, but why must a spirit ice get closer to said contractor's lover", she said, which made Aster chuckle.
In response, he showed her, his right hand where blue flames lit up all of a sudden, the next second, the temperature dropped quite a bit and ice cladded Aster's hand.
"Because unlike others, Aria and myself share the exact same power", he said, he might not really use ice attribute in his fighting style, but he does greatly use Rigel's flames as their effect is somewhat similar but mellower than that of annihilation, not to mention they don't use spirit energy to burn.
To corroborate what Aster said, Aria extended her hand towards Aster's, her own flame came to life the next second to then mix with Aster's, resulting in the incredible sight of the small wisp of flames expanding its size around five times.
"When we combine our flames, the result is not a simple as one plus one, it's an exponential increase, now imagine what would happen if we add your spirit ice in to the mix", said Aster with a smirk.
The spirit furnace is a good example of the previous, the one he and Aria can create together has a way longer duration and capacity to refine spirit energy, than one made only by him.
Mira's eyes sparkled for a split of a second, she had to admit that what Aster mentioned caught her attention.
'A man having such a pure ice attribute and that fire feels strangely similar to…', she thought.
Mira returned to reality when she heard Aster saying.
"We are about to arrive, don't wander around, this place is quite… fun", Aster's mischievous tone made Aria tighten her grip around his arm, while Mira after hesitating for a second, placed her hand on Aster's shoulder.
…
A portal appeared on the sky from which Aster and those two emerged.
"What the hell…", mumbled Mira as they descended from the sky onto the land, Aria also observed their surroundings before she pouted to then gaze at Aster.
"Sometimes I wonder where you get these weird ideas from", she said, which made Aster chuckle.
"Well, if I was like others, I wouldn't have been able to melt the heart of a certain ice princess, right?".
"Dummy~", Aria felt her heart sweeten over Aster's words, their display made Mira curiously raise an eyebrow as she observed their surroundings.
Having two ice attributed princesses as company one would have expected Aster to take them to a snow fantasy land kind of planet for their date, but on the contrary, he brought them to a charred planet that looked as if a volcanic apocalypse had occurred based on the scorching red sky as well as the rivers of lava and literal fire columns raising from below the ground, suggested.
Seeing those two still wondering about his decision to bring them to a planet which was basically a molten scorching wasteland, Aster smirked as he raised his head upwards to then say.
"I suggest we start moving, ladies", he said as he pointed at the sky making those two raise their heads following the direction which Aster was pointing at.
"Ah right, our cultivation will be limited to the Earth realms while we are here and you can only use innate abilities related to ice, so no cheating".
"You have to be kidding", said the ligress girl with a soft growl, only to be met with Aster's playful smiling face.
What he was pointing at, was a meteor which was falling from the sky, coming right towards them.
Without letting them complain, Aster casually turned around and started running not without shouting.
"Follow me!", Aria limited to giggle before she started running in the same direction where Aster had left, leaving the ligress girl whose eyebrows were knitted together, she didn't understand what was the reason behind doing this.
This planet was a low Stellar grade one, meaning that at most it would benefit those at the Genesis Manifestation realm, even with her cultivation now at the Sea of Knowledge after being tortured for countless years, even without using spirit techniques, she should be able to obliterate at least an eighth part of this planet in a single go, so she couldn't help but think this was a waste of time.
'Humph, I don't have time to waste on these kinds of things, I must recover my strength as fast as possible!', she thought as she gritted her teeth, ice blue clouds materialized on her feet, as she ascended into the sky, flying towards the meteor.
Meanwhile, Aster's vertical pupils glowed as he observed the stubborn ligress girl behaving exactly as he expected her to, the little smirk on his face didn't escape Aria's eyes, she inwardly sighed feeling sorry for what the ligress girl was about to experience.
Above in the sky, Mira frowned feeling the temperature raising way over what she had expected, as a hybrid of spirit beast and spirit element both of ice nature, she should have a high resistance towards fire related things the only exception being…
'No way', Mira's pupils contracted like needles, her eyes focused on the meteor which was falling towards her, she used her Divine Sense to look past the molten rock surface of the meteor, just to see a bright yellow liquid boiling in the center of the meteor.
A light of disgust flashed on Mira's eyes, how could she not recognize the same thing that had tortured her for so many years, that yellow liquid was some form of liquified yang energy.
"Humph!", with a soft snort, cold mist gathered around Mira's body before she pointed her hand towards the meteor, the next second a giant peak of ice formed and was shot in the same direction.
"Boooom!", the sky rumbled as the meteor clashed with the ice peak, the violent reaction between ice and fire fighting for control was as expected quite disastrous, however Mira slightly smiled upon seeing her attack successfully piercing through the meteor.
'With this I should be able to take my leave without him bothering…', Mira who was thinking on leaving was suddenly drawn back to reality when her instincts warned her of the incoming danger.
However, she was one step too late, the moment the ice reached the center of the meteor, both cracked and exploded resulting in a thunderous sound followed by a rain of flaming rocks stained with that liquified yang as well as sharp pieces of ice.
Mira immediately encased herself in a shell of ice to shield herself, she gritted her teeth as she was sent flying quite a few meters due to the explosion, her ice though improvised managed to resist the impact but before she could regain her composure, she saw cracks appearing all over it.
"What!", this time, the ligress girl couldn't help but exclaim in disbelief, even if she wasn't using any technique as that would go against what she tried to prove, her ice attribute focused on solidness as she focused on offensive, and yet it cracked!
Unfortunately, the ligress girl had no time to be amazed by what she just witnessed, the dark clouds above her were suddenly blown away as a giant meteor twice the size as the previous one, appeared out of nowhere, but then as she prepared to admit her mistake of underestimating this planet and then apologize to Aster for her behavior, a blue flash followed by a powerful breeze of cold wind arrived in front of her.
"The spirit formation above the sky analyzes, adapts and counters water and yin-oriented attributes, as long as one hasn't gone past the Transcending realms, the formation will work 100% of the time, since this planet was prepared for elders to train and it won't stop until the ones participating had achieved some form of growth".
The blue flash dispelled, revealing a black-haired youth who was standing on an ice plaque which started to fall due to gravity.
"Booom!", the ice below Aster's feet exploded as he propelled himself using sheer physical strength, flashing through the air leaving behind a trace of broken ice shards, he was using the same principle of the "Lightning Trail" he mastered before obtaining the ability to fly that all cultivators have, to move through the air.
The magnificent timing and the mastered skill, Aster was showing left Mira surprised, there is no way to cheat one's way into the calculated way he was moving, in fact she has never seen anyone bothering to learn how to move through air without the need of spirit energy, since that is a basic skill every cultivator regardless of path, obtains.
"Amazing right, a few years ago, Aster managed to train his reflexes until his body and mind were perfectly synchronized, unfortunately when he advanced his body became too strong and he wasn't able to reach that state… that is until he became a soul cultivator not too long ago and he apparently is pursuing to achieve the same thing but on a much-advanced stage", said Aria who flew until she was floating next to Mira.
"Aria!", Aster's calm yet firm voice drew those two's attention, the ice princess smiled and then her right hand ignited in blue flames.
Aster extended his right arm and caught an intricate ice sword with his hand, as he said he wasn't experienced when it came to use ice, so he left that to his Aria, he however trusted that was unbeatable when it came to swordsmanship within his realm and age group.
While flashing through the air, the ice sword which Aria granted Aster, exploded in blue flames as he swung it towards the meteor, releasing a half moon wave of Rigel's flames that passed through the meteor cleanly splitting it in half.
This time however, there was no explosion, the yellow boiling liquid in the center was encapsulated in blue flames to then be reduced to a hand sized amber yellow bead.
"Crack!", the sword in Aster's hands, shattered the next second, which made Aria sigh, still they earned a second of rest since they somewhat properly dealt with the second meteor, so a third one didn't follow right after.
The three of them descended from the sky, landing on the scorching ground a couple of seconds later, the ice that encased Mira crumbled apart revealing the ligress girl who was looking downwards in a try to avoid Aster's gaze.
"…rry", a barely understandable sound came from Mira's direction.
"Mm?", Aster raised an eyebrow, making it clear that he couldn't hear anything, which made the ligress girl softly growl before she exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, I underestimated the planning you put for this training and came to a conclusion too hastily…", Mira's words stuck in her throat when she felt a warm and comforting sensation on her head, she looked upwards and was caught by surprise over the sight of Aster patting her head with a gentle smile on his face.
"Sorry Aria, I destroyed the sword you made for me after a single swing, I put too much strain on it by adding my own cold flames to deal with the scalding center of the meteor", casually said Aster while he kept patting the ligress girl's head.
"Seriously your physical body is too perverted, to think you shattered a sword that condensed a whole five percent of the total flames I can command, in a single move, luckily I also used my personal ice attribute as the
core or it would have exploded even before the attack reached the meteor", jokingly said the ice princess.
Aster continuously nodded before adding.
"If only we knew someone whose ice was focused on extreme solidness, perhaps we could create the perfect ice, solid and sharp enough to slice through hard rock without breaking but also flexible to so that it won't crack due to strong impacts, while it can withstand my flames which deal with the scorching yang potion dwelling inside the meteors".
The ligress girl could feel Aster and Aria's gazes on her, how could she not understand what they were hinting.
'So that's why I failed… both me and my ice were too rigid', she thought, her eyes also sparkled at the mention of that "perfect ice" which Aster mentioned.
Unknown to her, she unconsciously didn't stop Aster from patting her head even now, as she felt eased through the whole thing.
"I want to participate… no, let me participate, also please teach me more about this mortal plane", said Mira with a much warmer voice as she gazed at both Aster and Aria.
Aster inwardly nodded, he wasn't angry at the ligress girl nor he took her previous wary attitude to heart, for the sole reason that had Lilia and Alice not being infatuated with him, they would have behaved similarly or probably even worse.
There is a reason as to why spirit beasts don't take human form before either the peak of the Transcending realms, or preferably after stepping into the Heavenly realms, their instincts, it is completely different to distribute the innate wild nature of a spirit beast into a body which is hundreds of meters large than into a small human form.
You might argue that they aren't dragons but dragonkin since they were born humans while having a dragon lineage, yes, but their bloodline concentration and purity has far exceeded what they should have according to their realms, age and ascendence, heck, Eris and Mylene mistook Lilia as purebred Darkness Desolation dragoness who had taken human form, back when they first met, while Natasha and Charlotte even considered the possibility of Aster's family having one of the legendary true dragon, a Black Armageddon Dragon to be more accurate as a confirmed ancestor, instead of the usual rumors and records that relate the current dragon families to true five clawed dragons.
Aster has experienced the urges of a strong lineage firsthand, so he could immediately notice that Mira was having trouble dealing with hers, her realm was way higher before after all and even after she lost it, she kept her human body as she lacked the divine energy needed to change forms, she hasn't experienced the agony of her meridians drying like Eris and Mylene because she was nurtured with yin thanks to the formation where she was kept, but she will soon experience withdrawal. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝒄𝒐𝓶
Of course, Aster could help her with that, just like he did for those two, including the use of the elixir they had created specifically to ease the symptoms of those who are used to divine energy having to make up with spirit energy, but that required a certain amount of both trust and contact between them, at least for the first session.
"Uhh~", Mira suddenly let out a startled sound when Aster who listened to her answer a second ago, patted her head again, accidentally touching her ligress ears which had manifested, since she lost her focus and her transformation halted, showing her cute ears and tail.
"Ahem, I think that is enough "encouragement" and you Mira, if you give him an inch, he'll take a mile… believe me", said Aria with a soft cough, making Mira's face redden a bit as she jumped backwards while her eyes warily gazed at Aster who chuckled in response.
'Am I really that scary?', amusingly thought Aster.
"Lascivious dragons", mumbled Mira to which Aria nodded in agreement, before the two of them softly laughed.
'Well, at least they are starting to think alike', thought Aster, while he remembered the soft fluffy sensation he felt on his hand when he accidentally caressed Mira's ears, it was different to anything he had experienced before, but slightly similar to the cuddly sensation he had when he touched Lilia, Sarina or Kana's wings as well as Alice's tail.