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Azure Chronicles: Crusade of The Spirits
Chapter 4: Nighttime Routine

Chapter 4: Nighttime Routine

The bathroom door slid open, causing steam to seep out into the hallway before Lumina, Camellia and Metsu exited the bathroom, while wearing towels as dresses.

"Man, that was refreshing don't you agree Metsu?" Camellia cheerfully asked as she picked Metsu up and wrapped her arms around her as if she was a teddy bear; Metsu let out a low purr as Camellia stroked her head.

"It is pretty nice isn't it, especially after the modification Lu-chan did to the bath," Lumina remarked as she tied her hair into two pigtails with white frilly hair ties.

"Did he do it with alchemy?" Camellia excitedly asked, only to be disappointed when Lumina explained how Luminous modified the bathroom and the distinct lack of alchemy used in the process. As Lumina and Camellia reached their bedroom, Lumina noticed that Solus' bedroom door was open.

"They sure like leaving their door open..." Lumina mentioned as she felt a cold breeze flow past her and make her shiver.

Nebula(with the futon blanket still around her body) sat on the window seal, with the window open and stared out at the snow-covered, stone-tiled patio as the sun was starting to set; Solus fell to his knees as he heavily panted and gasped for air.

"Impressive, you were able to last five more minutes over yesterday's sparring session," Luminous stated as a storage pocket(a colourless magic bubble) appeared next to him and one of his miruku tendrils reached into the storage pocket.

"I guess that's the closest thing I get to a compliment from you," Solus joked as he staggered to his feet.

Nebula continued to watch Solus and Luminous until she heard footsteps behind that made her lean backwards. Nebula spotted Lumina and Camellia, with Mestu sleeping on her head like a cat, walking into the bedroom.

"Oh so that's where the chilly wind was coming from," Camellia remarked.

"I should have figured... Nebi-chan, you know you'll catch a cold if you sit in front of the window while it's open," Lumina stated as she used her telekinesis to close the window. Nebula sulked as she pressed her face against the window. Lumina and Camellia were intrigued by what Nebula could be looking at and strolled over to the window.

"Oh, she's watching Solus train," Camellia remarked as the group watched one of Luminous' miruku tendrils pull a magic card, with an alchemy magic circle on it, out of the pocket storage bubble, before it disappeared. The moment Camellia got a good look at the alchemy card she became extremely giddy.

Solus, although it wasn't as prevalent as before, was still heavily breathing when he felt Luminous place the alchemy card on his head. Solus perplexedly took the card off his head and inspected it with a cautious glare.

"Is this another one of your experiments?" Solus rhetorically asked.

"Indeed. However it would be more accurate to call this a trial run since I've already confirmed the functionality of this alchemy circle," Luminous stated while instructing Solus how to activate the alchemy circle, which boiled down to channelling mana through it.

"Right... but what does it do?" Solus asked.

"It's an alchemy circle that's able to transform magical power/energy into biological/chemical energy," Luminous explained. Solus gave a slow nod but Luminous could tell Solus wasn't following.

"In gamer talk, which I'm sure you're familiar with, it turns MP in SP," Luminous added.

"Oooh," Solus said with a relieved expression before he activated the alchemy circle, causing it to glow red. Red energy began to shoot out of the card before the energy wrapped around Solus' body as he felt his fatigue fade away. The alchemy circle eventually stopped producing energy before the card crumbled into magic dust.

"Interesting, if the alchemy circle's mana is completely expended then it will crumble away, I'll have to keep that in mind," Luminous mentioned as he grabbed the training sword from one of his miruku tendrils.

"Is your research all you can think about," Solus remarked before he dashed at Luminous.

"I'm a man of my work, and your stance is too wide," Luminous stated before blocking Solus' two-handed strike while only holding his own sword with a single hand. Solus spun around, mid-air, and launched a flurry of strikes that Luminous easily blocked.

"Your shoulder movements are too rigid," Luminous said before attempting to strike Solus, but Solus managed to block the strike and was sent flying. Solus backflipped through the air before landing on the patio.

"Impressive, the last time you did that you, as Lumina gracefully put it, fell on your ass," Luminous remarked from behind Solus. Solus spun around but was instantly struck in the stomach by the pummel of Luminous' training sword. Solus dropped his training sword as he staggered backwards and held his arms over his stomach.

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"Geez... if I didn't know any better I would've... thought you were trying to kill me," Solus painfully joked while grunting in pain.

"Hardly, you wouldn't be able to tell if I was; I think this will conclude today's sparring session," Luminous stated as he picked up the training sword Solus dropped and began to walk off with Solus following him.

"Bummer, I was hoping it would last a little longer," Camellia complained.

"I guess so, but we should probably head back to my room; Solus might think we're weirdos if he sees us naked in his room," Lumina commented as she and Camellia walked out of Solus and Nebula's bedroom.

Nebula took her face off of the window when Solus walked out of view, and she quickly climbed down from the window and hurried across the bedroom as the sound of the front door opening echoed through the house. Nebula popped her head out into the hallway and spotted Solus and Luminous as they were taking their shoes off.

Nebula happy floated out of the bedroom before quickly flying over to Solus and landing on his back. Nebula went to bury her face in Solus' hair, but the moment her skin made contact with it, her entire body shivered as she felt the slightly rigid and freezing cold hair rubbed against her face.

"I suggest you should have Nebula massage your shoulder while you're taking a bath," Luminous stated as Nebula breathed on Solus' hair, in an attempt to warm it up.

"Yeah-yeah," Solus remarked and as he blinked Luminous suddenly disappeared. Solus darted his vision at Luminous' room just in time to see his bedroom door close.

"How... do, Sol-kun?" Nebula tiredly asked.

"Who knows," Solus remarked as he noticed the gold-like glitter that floated through the air before disappearing. Solus gave a shrug before turning to head down the hallway.

"Besides, I think it's about time we had our turn taking a bath," Solus remarked. Nebula rested her chin on Solus' head and quietly yawned as Solus walked down the hallway.

Solus slowly layed back in the hot bubble-filled bath and stretched out his arms as Nebula peacefully floated through the bath and into a cluster of bubbles. Solus placed his hand on his shoulder before squeezing it and making his face cringe.

"Phsss... gods, that was dumb," Solus strainedly said while slowly massaging his shoulder.

"No... me do," Nebula quietly voiced as she reemerged from the soapy bubbles. Solus tried to protest, saying he can handle it, but Nebula's narrow glare made him relent.

"Fine..." Solus murmured as he sat up and moved a little forwards. Nebula happily swam behind Solus before floating out of the dark blue bathwater. Nebula pressed her chin against Solus' shoulder and squinted at it. Nebula slowly opened her mouth and quickly glanced at Solus, who looked awkwardly glanced from side to side.

"Something w-wrong-" Solus said as Nebula abruptly bit Solus' shoulder before starting to chew and suck on it. As Nebula continued to do whatever she was doing, Solus sighed as he rested his chin on his free hand.

"I should have figured you do something strange," Solus commented as Nebula made her way to Solus' neck and started to nibble on it.

Solus, with a towel wrapped around his waist, carried Nebula, wearing a large towel like a cloak, into their bedroom. He placed Nebula on the floor and lifted the futon blanket that was haphazardly scrunched up onto the futon with his telekinesis; he flattened and straightened out the futon blanket before slowly lowering it onto the futon.

Nebula took a step towards the futon but was stopped by Solus grabbing the towel she was wearing; she slowly turned to face Solus before instantly trying to run away when she spotted a paintbrush in his hand.

"Don't try to run away you know we have to do this every month," Solus stated as he pulled the towel off Nebula's body causing her large breast(around double the size of her head) and chubby thighs to jiggle. Nebula attempted to run away again before Solus managed to grab her and wrap one of his legs around her waist.

"No! I don't you want to," Nebula protested as she tried to wriggle free from Solus' grip.

"Will you hold still? If you don't stop the next time I make macarons I'll intentionally make them all lemon flavoured,". Solus' threat seemed to get through to Nebula and she begrudgingly stopped with a stroppy expression on her face.

"Don't be like that, Nebi-chan, I won't hurt myself too much," Solus remarked; Solus raised his arm over his head and went to pierce his forearm with one of his horns before being head-butted in the chin by Nebula, who voiced her disapproval of Solus stabbing himself. Solus staggered backwards and tripped on a dumbbell.

A loud thud shook through the house, making Lumina and Camellia look over in the direction the thud came from.

"Ok... we'll leave the spirit pact until tomorrow... then," Solus' muffled voice said defeatedly from his room, while Nebula groaned in pain. Camellia(sleeping on the top bunk) layed back in down in her bed before staring up at the ceiling, which was covered in luminescent stars and various shaped moons.

"I guess it was about time he'd try to reapply Nebula's spirit pact mark," Lumina remarked.

"I know how that feels, Metsu gets surprisingly feisty when I try to reapply hers" Camellia joked as she realised something. Camellia quickly climbed out of bed, dropped onto the floor and hurried over to Metsu. Camellia lifted up the hair over Metsu's neck and check the slightly glowing magenta ring, with a symbol inside it, on the back of her neck.

"I'll probably have to reapply her mark tomorrow as well," Camellia tiredly remarked as she walked back to the bunkbed and got into the bottom bunk.

"Umm, Cami?" Lumina agitatedly asked as Camellia wrapped her arms around her.

"Yeah, Lumi-chan?".

"What... are you doing?".

"I'm too tired to climb back up the bunkbed again, so can I just sleep here?" Camellia pleaded as she rubbed her cheek against a grumpy Lumina's face.

"...Fine..." Lumina begrudgingly said as Camellia continued to rub her cheek against her. Camellia abruptly stopped, making Lumina sigh as she knew Camellia was about to ask an annoying question.

"Say... would you consider Nebula a loli or a shortstack?" Camellia asked with an innocent expression. Lumina angerly exhaled as she picked up her pillow before covering her face and letting out a muffled scream.