It takes a while before Sam eventually returns to us, a sheepish and unnaturally embarrassed look on her face, which is notable because she is typically rather shameless. Right now, she can’t even look at me without getting flustered and then looking away. Which leaves me embarrassed because I now know for certain that she was probably thinking of me…
Thankfully, no one makes any jokes or draws attention to any of this. None of this is her fault, and honestly, the entire time that she was gone, everyone sat quietly in thought, probably trying to figure out what their Sin is going to be and how they would have to deal with it for the rest of their lives…
How can they judge her when they might soon be in the same boat as her? They can’t.
We leave the building without a word, everyone falling into position as we run through the unnaturally cold streets of the city.
----------------------------------------
“So, this is the source of all the cold…” Nathaniel says as we all stare up at a massive wall of ice that cuts through the city and connects to every building that is in its way, their bodies becoming frozen towers of ice and stone, like in the ramparts of ancient castles.
Walking up to the wall, which is easily tens of meters tall, I place my hand against it and have to reel back as the ice almost instantly freezes my skin to the wall. Looking at the wall with mana sight, the thing is practically aglow with the chill of ice mana.
“Beautiful… Who ever made this, they really know what they are doing.”
Frank walks up as he puts his gauntlets on. “Let me handle this. We need to keep moving. We’ve already spent too much time here.”
We could try and find the end of the wall, but I have no idea how far this thing goes. And besides, they probably have guards stationed at any entrances. We will just have to be fast and move before they can find us.
Stepping aside to let him do his thing, he winds up and releases a powerful punch with his whole body, a punch that would have sent a literal tank into doing a wheelie and dent in its armor.
The wall of ice violently cracks with the sound of breaking glass and a rumble deep in its core, but it doesn’t break.
Pulling back hard, Frank rips his gauntlet free from the wall, a layer of ice having formed over it.
As he goes for another punch, I stop him and watch the wall. Amazed at what I am seeing. The others can’t help but stand and watch as well at what they are seeing.
The wall is rapidly healing. The cracks and fissures made by Franks blow are quickly sealing up like they were never there.
“Amazing… The wall is all one giant magical construct. But somehow, whoever made this, they managed to get it to continue pulling in energy from the surrounding cold to fuel and repair itself. I haven’t even figured this out for my shadows yet… What the hell is up with these Goblins?! Why are they so gifted with magic?”
“Ma’am, we need to get through the wall. We don’t have time to examine it. Let me break it. Shouldn’t take too many hits to do it.”
“Ah, right… Sorry, it’s just, I know you can’t see what I’m seeing. But no breaking it. It is too loud and will draw attention. Let me, I’ll cut a hole through it.”
Frank nods and backs away. Giving the wall one last look over, I manifest shadow flame in my hands and then point them forward.
Flamethrower, flamethrower, flamethrower… it’s all about imagination…
Pushing my flames forward with my will, a constant stream of black flames shoots out and hits the wall, digging into its surface and leaving not even any melting ice behind. All that is left is a messy circle of a path leading through the wall that even gouges out parts of the road below.
Dismissing any left-over flames that are still trying to eat everything they can touch; I lead everyone through the wall as I dig my way through it. As we pass through, the wall of ice slowly starts to heal and seal up behind us, soon to be returned back to its untouched state.
On the other side of the wall, we find the burnt remains of a snow and ash coated city.
----------------------------------------
Gra
Nice and cozy~
Two figures laze comfortably amidst a field of flowers, their bodies held close together as they cuddle under the warm sun, watching the clouds slowly drifting by in an infinite expanse of blue. The smaller of the two figures whispers something with a giggle, bringing a flower overflowing with golden nectar to the lips of the taller figure. Words make little sense here and hardly form coherent sentences, but the mind fails to grasp these details, only needing to know that something lovely was said, something pleasantly whispered into the ear like a gentle kiss. The only information that needs to be processed in this moment is the taste of the nectar running across their tongue and spilling from their lips, the soft body in their arms, and the warmth of the sun on their skin.
With a mouthful of nectar, the taller figure leans over and presses their lips against the shorter ones. Their tongues mix as the delicious fluids are passed between each other and spill from their soft lips like liquid gold that shines under the sunlight.
Licking up a few stray drops from each other’s lips, they giggle as their noses touch. Being unable to hold back any longer, their hands go to each other’s body and begin to search and explore, touching and squeezing wherever they can.
As they tumble through the flowers and scatter their petals in the wind, the shorter of the two ends up on top, her hands pressing down on the taller one’s chest. Slowly, as she smiles hungrily with her freckled face and crooked teeth, she slides her hand down their body, fingers gliding over every curve as they work their way down to between the taller one’s thighs.
They let out a moan as those delicate fingers find themselves between their legs.
They plead with gargled words that make no sense in this place, pushing their hips forward desperately.
The shorter one says something, her face unclear as she grabs the other's chest and pushes her fingers deeply into-
I snap awake as something in my Aura reacts to a disturbance happening outside.
Moving to get out of bed, I am forced to stop as I find my body wrapped up in vines with flowers growing all over them. Looking down, I find Vivviv cuddled up against me, deeply asleep. Under the vines and our fur blanket, I can feel her arms wrapped around my waist, her legs intertwined with mine. She has her head buried in my breasts and her breaths are warm against the fur covered hide that I wear as a shirt.
With my arm trapped in between us; my hand is pressed up against her little belly and my thigh. One of her hands is currently grabbing my rear, and she squeezes it as she moves a bit in her sleep, letting out a happy mumble that barely escapes from where her face is hidden away.
“Vivviv, you need to wake up. Something is happening outsi-“
I try to wake her, but she just tightens her grip, her vines wrapping around the both of us more like a constricting snake. I try to move around some to shake her, to try and wake her, but my trapped hand ends up moving further down her body, right above her crotch.
I can feel a surprising amount of heat radiating of from her against my hand as I freeze up and stop moving. My mind can’t help but go back to and remember the dream that I was just having, causing my face to heat up in embarrassment, thoughts of what she was about to do to me as she sat atop my body in the dream, coming to my mind against my will.
She was about to put her fingers inside of… If I moved my fingers right now, I could…
I shake my head violently, shaking those thoughts away as I try to ignore the feeling of her naked body touching me and the softness of her thighs against my hand.
We’re just sleeping together because she is soft and warm. I am not going to do anything to her! I won’t!
Trying to pull my hand away from her and pushing against the bindings of her vines, my hand slides between us, but my middle finger ends up slipping between her thighs, touching her deeper and finding even more warmth and softness. She lets out a muffled moan in her sleep as my hand is finally freed from between us and manages to break free from the vines.
Did… did I just?
She starts to move around more as she lets out some noises, her legs parting as she clamps herself onto my leg, just above the knee. Rubbing her face against my chest, she starts to grind herself against my leg, letting out muffled panting noises as she moves.
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Is she? What is she doing!?
I freeze up, I don’t know what to do in this situation. My mind wars between shoving her away from me and simply letting her continue.
I can feel the warmth against my leg growing and getting wet down there as she starts to move faster and let out some moans that are growing louder.
Her hand grips my rear tightly and she bites me on my breast through my clothes. I panic from her sudden violence, my mind freed from its confusion. Using my freed hand, I quickly move to shake her shoulder.
“Ahhhh!!! Vi-Vivviv! Wake up! Wake up damn it! Stop it!”
She finally stops and loosens up on me, letting me go. “Hugh~? Big sister, Gra… what is it? Something happen?”
She pulls her sleepy face from my chest, some drool falling from her lips and connected to my clothes as she gives me a happy smile. “I just had a really good dream, it was nice~”
I am not going to ask her what she was dreaming about…
“Vivviv, I need you to let me go so I can get up.”
“Mhh? Oh, hahaha, sorry~”
Letting out a giggle, she pulls away her vines and flowers as she sits up and scooches over to sit beside me. I try my hardest to not look at her naked body that is only barely covered by her vines, her legs still spread open as she sits on her knees. Even though she has parted from me, my leg is still wet and hot from where she was pressed against me.
Grabbing some of our bedding, I quickly wipe my leg down and hide it.
“Mmm, big sister Gra, why are you blushing? Wait, why do I-?”
“Don’t worry about it! And didn’t I tell you to make some clothing already!? You need to cover up more…”
“But I have my vines, and plus, your Aura keeps me safe from the cold anyways?”
“It’s not… It’s not about the cold. Just cover up, please.”
“Hmm, ok. If you say so.”
Saying that, she directs her vines to wrap around her chest and to finally cover her lower half. Flowers blossom on her new chest wrap and loincloth as the rest of vines grow and move to cover her legs in a skirt of vines, leaves, and flowers. Some of the vines are tightly wrapped around her thighs and running all the way down her short legs to where they tie around her ankles.
With her vines having moved to hang from her hips now, rather than from her shoulders like she normally has them, her upper half is now fully exposed except for the chest wrap, which can only do so much to cover her very full chest, which seems to be trying to squeeze its way out from the bindings.
She’s not naked anymore, but why is this not helping?
“Is this better?”
“Uhm, yes, that is… better, yes. Here, wear this over your shoulders.”
Grabbing some furs from nearby, I drape them over her shoulders to help cover her body some more. With her blessedly covered, I can finally start to feel myself relaxing some.
“Mrr, like I said, I don’t really need it. Your Aura keeps me safe from the cold.”
“Yes, but I would feel better is you wore something. And, if we get separated, I won’t be able to keep you safe, so please wear it.”
“… Ok, big sister Gra. I’ll wear it.” She says with a blush as she looks up at me.
I have to look away from her as I grow embarrassed from looking at her, with her head sticking out from the fur with her messy short hair and her little crooked horn sticking out of her hair on the side of her forehead.
Why the hell is my heart beating so fast?
She suddenly sits up with an ‘O’ expression on her face. “Oh! Big sister, why did you wake us up? It is the middle of the night still. Did something happen?”
You mean besides you grinding against my leg in your sleep!?
“Ah, uhm something happened to trigger my Aura. I think my wall was broken through. It is probably just brother Gov’es coming back from scouting and melted part of my wall instead of waiting for me to open it for him.”
“Oh, what should we do?”
“Mmm, nothing, I guess. Luckily, Father didn’t put me in charge. Let’s just go tell brother Safta. He is in charge, so he can deal with everything…” I say with a tired shrug as I stand up and rub at my boob where Vivviv bit me. She has some sharp teeth…
Straightening out my clothes to make sure that I am tidy and covered properly, I move to leave our room as Vivviv rushes to catch up with me and grab hold of my hand. I have to fight off the sudden urge to shake her off, as I am still not used to being touched, though her touch is much more bearable than everyone else’s, pleasant even... Once I calm myself down, I tighten my grip on her hand and walk her out of the building where we are staying.
Leaving the building immediately makes me feel even less motivated to do absolutely anything.
Vivviv had taken the liberty of coating the building, inside and out, with vines and flowers, moss and grasses, filling the entire place with lovely smells and colors. But outside is grey and dark with everything frozen over, a result of my dominating this place with my Aura and the great frozen wall. Thick ice grows everywhere in sheets and hangs from every surface as dangerously pointed icicles, the floor is a tripping hazard, and the air is tinted with a bite of deathly cold.
Despite the extreme colds here, the captains and little ones under my command are protected by my mark, my blood marking their skin as a single circle with a dot in the middle, painted on their forehead. Vivviv has the same on her, but she had demanded that I paint it on her left breast, just above her heart…
The other two forces that are here, led by brothers Safta and Hajka are being protected from my cold Aura by their own power. Safta’s heat is well served to this purpose, but Hajka has used his control over earth to dig burrows for his forces to rest in underground as they huddle up under furs and keep warm by the fires of torches. Unless they are needed, Hajka’s forces will be remaining underground while we stay here, with Safta’s and my forces responsible for guarding the frozen wall.
Walking with Vivviv past stationed guards of little ones with three lines of blood marked across their faces, we enter Safta’s residence where we find him sleeping.
I give him a kick as Vivviv hides behind me, startling him into waking up. A fire ball ends up getting thrown at my face as he panics from suddenly getting woken up, but I just block it by freezing the air in front of me.
“Brother Safta, wake up!”
“Ah! What the hell is wrong with you!? Damn it sister Gra, why do you wake me!?”
“Shut up, someone just broke through my wall. It is probably just brother Gov’es. Go check on him.”
“Probably? Is it Gov’es or not, shouldn’t you be able to sense him with your Aura? So, why the hell should I do it? You go and check, I’m sleeping.”
“I don’t know, it’s weird. I felt someone break through my wall, but I can’t feel anyone coming through. Also, because you are in charge here, not me.”
“Even more reason why you should do it.”
“Nope. My job is to maintain the wall. Your job is to be in charge of guarding it. I’ve been doing all the work since we got here. Time for you to go do your job instead of sleeping all day and scratching your ass.”
“… If it is just Gov’es, then why should I bother? Screw you, I’m going back to sleep.”
I just start kicking him as he tries to go back to sleep, Vivviv angrily tries to pull his covers off of him, giving little grunts as she is losing the tug-of-war against the sloth that is trying to hold the covers over his body.
“Because it might not be Gov’es you lazy bastard! What if it is an enemy? Now get up and go do your job. Or do you want me to tell Father that you’ve been slacking off again?”
“Ahhh! Fine, fine damn it!!! Just stop kicking me! I’m getting up!”
Cursing, he lets go of the covers and gets up. Vivviv falls on her butt with a yelp along with the covers when he lets go, and I have to look away as he comes out with nothing covering his lower half, his member hanging freely for the world to see. Vivviv lets out a startled scream as she crawls behind me to hide at the sight of him, her face blushing furiously.
Bending over, I grab the covers off the floor from where Vivviv dropped them and chuck them at his face. “Cover yourself up! What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Geez, will you stop yelling at me!? What the hell is up with you? Just give me a bit… So, what, you don’t sleep nude?”
“No, I sleep with my clothes on. I’m not weird.”
Vivviv peaks out from behind me and quietly says, “I do… Is that weird?”
“Ah… Uh… No, no, you’re not weird Vivviv, I’m sorry…”
“Why does she get special treatment?”
“Because fuck you, that’s why. Now put your damn clothes on!” I yell at him as I try to hold down my embarrassment.
I just want to forget about what happened earlier. But seriously, why do I give her special treatment? If she was one of my Captains, I would have beaten her bloody for what happened earlier. Instead… I just can’t stop thinking about how soft she is to hold… how nice her hands feel… how… Focus damn it! Focus!!!
Muttering some curses, Safta pulls the covers around himself and ties them off as he ignores my internal turmoil. Scratching at his head, he heads for the exit of the building and grabs his weapon from where it leans against the wall. It is a long metal pipe that turn at a sharp angle at the end. It is a bit dented-up and is dyed red and rusty from having bludgeoned many heads.
“Ahh… Waking me up so damn early…”
Following him outside, he asks, “Where was the break in at?”
“It came from that direction, closer to brother Hajka’s side.”
“Then why didn’t you wake him up instead?” He asks with an exacerbated moan.
“Shut up and stop complaining already, will you? Just go and check it out already.”
“And pray do tell, while I am off working out in the cold and harsh dead of night, what are you two going to be doing?”
“Pah! Obviously, we’re going back to bed. Unlike you, I actually did my job.”
“Haah… And you call me the lazy one… Hey, how about when I get back, you let me borrow Vivviv there for the night?”
“I will freeze your dick off and shove it up your ass hole if you touch her.”
He backs away with a smirk on his face and his hands both raised in surrender. “Alright, alright, I joke. Just a joke~ I already learned after what you did to brother Arigaly, when he tried to lay you. Hahaha… I can still remember the screams…”
“Then stop being a dumbass and get moving.”
“Yes, yes Princess.” He says with an exaggerated bow before turning away. Yelling at his guards, “Hey, go and wake up my captains. Make it quick! Get moving!”
The little ones with his mark quickly go running off as they chatter in a broken version of our language. Despite Father having gifted us words, the little ones are still too dumb to fully utilize them and can only speak in broken and barely understandable sentences.
“Don’t call me Princess…” I mutter as he walks away.
Watching the little ones, I can’t help but remember a little bit of when I was still one of them, before Father had changed me. Most of my memories are of fighting and nearly dying, with hardly any of it being of doing any actual thinking beyond a base desire for meat and other animalist urges…
Looking away from the little ones and swallowing down some disgust at those memories, I tighten my grip on Vivviv’s hand and turn to walk away. Ignoring Safta as he is ordering around his forces, we head back to our residence to get back to sleep.
I’ll make sure that Vivviv is sleeping with her back to me this time. Should be safer…
Pushing down my embarrassment at what happened earlier, we make to go inside, but come to a stop as my Aura reacts to a presence. Suddenly, in a place where there shouldn’t be anything, is a new Aura that whispers of silent and deadly shadows, of an all-consuming void like some bottomless hole in in the nothingness of space. Brother Hajka’s Aura soon slams into it, the sounds of collapsing earth coming from the distance where their Auras clash.
Some incredibly loud noises start to ring out from that direction, not too far from where the breech in the wall was. It sounds like thunder is clapping incredibly fast, and it doesn’t take long until the night is suddenly lit up with the blazing light of Safta’s fire, his own Aura joining in to push against the intruders as buildings start to go up in flames.
“Big sister Gra, what is happening over there?”
“It’s not Gov’es. We’re under attack… Haah, damn it. Come on Vivviv, we have to go help or I will never hear the end of it from them…”
Calling out and pushing my will towards all the marks that adorn my forces, I yell, “Wake up and get moving! We are under attack! Move, move, move!”
All around us, the little ones emerge from where they were sleeping, crawling out from hidden holes and out of the broken remains of the human city, hooting and hollering as they run off to go and join the fight.
“Come on Vivviv, let’s go. Just stick close to me and I’ll keep you safe.”
“Mhm. Yes, big sister.” She says with a big smile as she looks up at me, her hand held in mine.
Giving her hand one more squeeze, we both go running to see what is going on.