Saileri
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[TWS] Chapter 16 - The Source
🕑 Added 2020-10-23 13:28:19 +0000 UTCAssuring that there were no more wolves left in the area, Miria headed towards Asterios who was in her body. Seeing her approach, he started lifting himself up with the help of the wall behind him. It looked like the paralysis that held her body down was finally giving up, but Ast still stumbled during the motion and began falling forwards.
Miria kicked off the ground and appeared in front of him in a flash, catching Asterios in her body before he fell. It was an unimaginably weird and confusing feeling. She, now in his body, was holding him, now in her body, in her arms, against her, which was Ast’s, chest. Too much confusion on who was who was making her brain dizzy.
One thing was sure. No matter who was who at that moment, seeing her own body leaning against Ast’s naked chest had the same effect on her as usual. Or rather, it was even stronger since right now, she could clearly see herself getting hugged by him and she could feel her own, soft breasts squishing against Ast’s chest, which was now hers for the time being.
That made her extremely conscious of her own body since she was now seeing it how Asterios usually did. He raised his head, which was hers and was lying on her shoulder which was his, and looked at Miria. He soon giggled in her voice.
“So, that’s how I would look if I blushed, huh?” Ast spoke as her.
Miria’s eyes widened and she averted her gaze. She was making the usually collected Ast’s body blush. Could this situation get even weirder? It actually could as she started experiencing an unknown to her warmness below her waist. He giggled again and hit her chest, which was his, a few times with his fist, which was hers.
“Hahaha, oh, come on! You are getting me hard by looking at yourself, hahaha,” he laughed from her body cutely.
Miria shivered, understanding now what exactly was the source of the warm feeling down there. She was really embarrassed. She didn’t expect Ast’s body to react so accordingly to her thoughts and mood, almost the same as it would happen with her own body, but naturally in an adequate physical way. She wanted to run or apologize, but she knew Ast wouldn’t like it.
And then, the crystal in Ast’s chest suddenly cracked a bit. The fractures quickly grew over the whole gem and it shattered into tiny particles. She felt the familiar pulling feeling in her mind and the swirling blur happened again. They found themselves back in their respective bodies, dropping to their knees during the short interval when there was no control over them.
“Ow, ow, ow, fuck!” Asterios cried out in pain after his mind returned to the proper home.
“Master?!” Miria shouted concernedly. She didn’t feel that much pain when she was him.
“I’m fine, this much had to be expected with what I did. But, I can tell that you didn’t spare my body, ouch…”
“I… I didn’t do anything serious! Everything felt great! Even your scorching hot energy! I could do things I would have never been able to do with my own body!” She desperately tried to explain her experience to him.
“That’s… interesting. But the first part was because I blocked off most of my body’s pain receptors before we switched. If I didn’t, you would have a hard time controlling a body that’s much weaker than yours. I had to somehow make it adequate for you.”
Miria realized what he meant by his words earlier. “That’s why you told me not to tear your body apart... and I almost did it! If I exerted a bit more power it could have ended badly!”
Asterios chuckled. “Yeah, but nothing could have been worse than dying to them, right? That’s why I used the Limit Breaker too.”
She tilted her head. “Limit Breaker?”
He pointed at the hole in his chest. “That crystal. It kind of erases the restraints your brain puts on your body so it won’t hurt itself. It’s not something commonly used and I think you can guess why.”
“A lot of pain?”
“Yep. Fuck… argh… Hooooooh… But, you made it. Without completely breaking my body. That requires a lot of control. Congratulations. And thank you. You saved me again.”
He patted her head with a pained smile. Miria hugged him closer a little bit hesitantly. She still felt a bit guilty due to her mistake. Ast leaned them against the wall again and sighed. They both started slowly drinking a regeneration boosting potion. Miria noticed his hair and eyes also turning back to black and blue.
Miria pondered. “So… what did you exactly do, Master?”
“I skipped a few important steps on the whole master and familiar bonding path and forced you into a quite high-level technique that allows us to switch bodies while preserving both of our characteristics and abilities. I had to use a quite frowned upon way to do that, using that circle on my own chest, but in the end, it worked. Who cares if something is considered forbidden magic if you are facing certain death. It’s not like I was going to hurt someone. And well, the Limit Breaker also was an additional assurance that you would be able to somehow operate my weak body. Someone as strong as you would definitely find it limiting. Thank gods the whole technique actually worked,” he explained.
She shook her head. “You are wrong. While I have no doubt that it helped, I’m confident in saying that it would have been almost the same without it. The moment I’ve found myself in your body, I’ve realized how huge the difference between our spiritual energy is. I felt like I had infinite reserves of mana to draw on. All the abilities I’ve used were like a few times stronger at least. This wasn’t the effect of the Limit Breaker, I’m sure of that.”
“Hmmm… I certainly felt a similar sensation to the one when we had first met just before we switched, but it’s impossible. I’ve noticed a slight change recently, but nothing as great as what you’ve mentioned…” he stroked his chin while contemplating the information.
“It is possible! Even your hair and eyes looked like they did back then!”
Asterios froze for a moment and turned his face to glance at the confident in her words Miria. “What do you mean by like back then? It’s not the first time?”
Miria shook her head again. “No. Actually, when I arrived in this world, your hair was white and your eyes were crimson red. They turned black and blue after you’ve fallen unconscious. At first, I thought that it was perhaps how Humans react to magic or something. But then, when you used that vision technique, your eyes turned red again and they actually had vertical pupils like mine do.”
Asterios understood now why Miria was acting strange at that time. She must have been surprised by that detail. It was shocking for him to learn about his appearance changing. He had a strong feeling that it was somehow linked to those weird, hot outbursts of power in his body.
“And back to now, after you used that transferring technique, your hair turned white the first time after our meeting. It’s only a guess, but I think that when you exert some amount of your power, they change accordingly. And you definitely were emitting a lot of it. I had a hard time to even comprehend the amount of energy in your body. You don’t feel that scorching hot mana all the time?” Miria continued.
“No, I don’t. Honestly, I only remember a weird feeling just before summoning you. I was a weakling my whole life as you should know. There was some kind of an outburst and I did feel a lot of power back then, but it got drained instantly, perhaps into the summoning process,” he started analyzing the events from the past, recalling sensing something breaking before the energy surged out. “Then, it never happened again. I guess it did just now, but I left my body before it reached its peak, if I get what you are saying correctly.”
“Definitely. You are much more amazing than you think you are, Master!” she shouted at Ast with a lot of admiration in her voice.
“Well, there might be some truth in that I guess. All the skills we have tried in the past, like the Haste sigil, worked quite differently than what I was used to before. I need to investigate this.”
“Yes! We could grow a lot stronger with that. I’m sure that you know a lot of powerful techniques that you could use one me so that I can do better in protecting you, Master!” He could see her tail wagging meekly, most likely still slightly affected by the poison.
Asterios sighed, understanding from where she came with that and moved closer to her.
“Miria.”
He pulled her towards himself and leaned over his chest, beginning to stroke through her hair with his fingers.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself for that little mistake. It was literally our first real fight together. It went much better than it could have gone against such an unexpected enemy. Groups of adventurers have issues with it and you did it solo. You did great so stop beating yourself down and be proud of what you did. Got it?”
Miria’s cheeks got a bit rosy. She didn’t run away from his caring hand but enjoyed the pleasant sensation. She nodded. “Okay… and… I’m sorry…” She snuggled closer to Ast and relaxed for the first time since they woke up this day. It felt really good to just lean on him and let Ast pat her head. She pushed it more into his hand, guiding his fingers to her ears.
Asterios smiled seeing Miria finally release all the tension. She seemed so cute and serene this way. He gladly fulfilled her wishes and scratched behind her adorable ears, making her squirm a little, but the charming smile on her lips told him that she enjoyed every second of it.
They rested like that for fifteen minutes, until the poison in Miria’s body got completely nullified and she regained her full strength. She still had some visible wounds, but nothing as serious as Asterios, whose chest was all bloody and there were countless cuts and bites all around his body.
When she glanced at his face, he looked to be deep in thought. It didn’t stop him from carefully brushing through her hair. Ast noticed her gaze and smiled at Miria. She blushed and quickly looked away. How could she look straight at him while leaning on his chest? And she was now aware of how it looked from his perspective, making it even more embarrassing.
Ast chuckled. “I guess we’ve recovered enough now. Let me just try something out, okay?”
Miria got off his chest and sat leaning against the wall again. Asterios moved in front of her with some trouble. He would feel the aftereffects of the stunt they pulled for at least a day or two. Nevertheless, he sat cross-legged in front of Miria and took a deep breath.
“Let’s see if anything changes.”
He closed his eyes and joined his hands between his knees, creating a triangle with his fingers. He then proceeded to make a few more weird signs and shapes with his fingers one after another and finished at the triangle again. After ten seconds, Miria could notice his spiritual energy slowly increase. Soon, Ast’s hair gradually turned white again.
She watched as a green magical circle sprouted under her body. It was filled with Elven runes, but she wasn’t aware of that since there were no Elves in her homeland. The structure grew enough to match her size and started glowing intensely. Little motes of green light arose from it and flew upwards.
It was not only a beautiful sight but also Miria began feeling a warm sensation enveloping her whole body. Her eyes widened seeing many cuts on her skin disappearing. She instantly understood that Ast was using some kind of healing technique on her.
Meanwhile, after Ast closed his eyes, he dove deep into his mind and recalled one of the medium-tier healing spells that were in the Summoners’ arsenal. It was a technique developed by Elves and consisted of the master converting their spiritual energy into regenerative one and sharing it with their summon via their connection. The downside of it was that it consumed a great amount of the Summoner’s mana and no one was able to maintain it for long enough to heal more serious injuries. But, if Miria was right, he should have plenty of it.
Asterios completed every hand sign required for its activation and spread his consciousness through his whole body. He searched for that abundant, scorching hot mana he once experienced and Miria described. He noticed some kind of a dormant source in his heart, where the main hub of spiritual circuits was located.
His spiritual consciousness, which was travelling through his body, approached what looked like a huge, blazing orb of crimson, swirling flames. It was his first time seeing and feeling that thing. He never noticed it before and he explored his spiritual circuits regularly, at least until the day he summoned Miria.
It became obvious to Ast that this weird thing was somehow connected to the feeling of some barrier enveloping his body being broken on the day of Miria’s summoning. He floated closer to the enormous source and placed his imaginary hand on its surface.
At that moment, his consciousness connected to something that felt like an extension of his own body, his own spiritual circuits, like regaining something that was long lost, but still existed, just waiting, lying dormant. The familiar, fiery mana burst out of it and filled his body, but to a lesser extent and with him having much more control over it.
Asterios retracted his consciousness and began focusing on fueling the technique with his new mana. He could feel how much of it was being consumed with each second, but it had barely any effect on the vast pool of the hot energy. After thirty more seconds, the skill stopped sucking on his reserves so he concluded that it finished.
He opened his eyes and saw Miria looking around her body in amazement. He also took a glance and raised his brows. Pretty much all the damage on her skin and fur was reversed. He healed her almost completely and it barely consumed a bit of his previously dormant mana. He still could feel it coursing around his circuits.
Miria noticed him returning and smiled. “Thank you, Master! This is unbelievable! Ah, and also, your hair and eyes changed when you started doing whatever you did. They are still white and red right now.”
This confirmed Ast’s suspicions. The change in his appearance took place when he drew on that fiery spiritual energy and it coursed through his body.
“What about now?”
Ast tried clearing his circuits of it, pushing the mana back into the blazing core at his heart. Soon, the hot sensation subsided and he returned to his old self.
“Wow. It turned back. Did you figure it out, Master?” Miria asked excitedly.
“Well, at least part of it, I think. There’s still so much I don’t understand or know about this stuff. But, I’m sure it will be helpful. Let’s leave the details for later and get out of this den. Care to help me a bit? I’m still all sore from the Limit Breaker.”
Miria naturally agreed and lifted Ast, supporting him with her own body. Before they left the cave, he taught Miria about the Bloodfang and she collected valuable resources from its remains under his guidance. They skipped all the other normal wolves since they had plenty of materials already.
She jumped back to her realm and brought a grappling hook which they used to climb up through the hole in the ceiling, finally getting out of the cave. The sun was still up so they began searching for a good spot to make another camp before they returned to the first one. It would be wise to recover more and prepare again.
