I pulled Seldanna underground even as the cheers exploded on the surface, celebrating their victory, unaware that just how close to disaster they were after their spectacularly bad intervention. I kept my attention on the surface, dealing with the nearby undead scouts, but not even for a second I believed that I was able to deal with all of them — or even a significant minority of them.
The attack was too calculated for them to just have a few observers close in, and the explosion itself was too spectacular to be missed. My best hope was to hide the details of the victory.
However, as I pulled back, I noticed another interesting thing.
Small particles of Divine Spark, flew toward my victorious priestess, just like the forest had been receiving them constantly. However, her current Divine Spark wasn’t reacting as I had expected.
With the tree, the reaction had been simple. Then it was weak, the sparks were absorbed violently into its tiny collection of Divine Spark, like trying to add more coal to a fledging fire, about to extinguish. Only my intervention kept the tree alive and absorb the energy smoothly. But, as it started to get stronger and stronger, the absorption capabilities turned much more substantial.
At this point, I didn’t need to intervene to help it absorb.
Yet, with Seldanna, it was different. Rather than being absorbed by her Divine Sea — which I decided to temporarily name — they floated around like fireflies, with no intention of merging. As if she was pushing them away.
No wonder there were no notifications warning about the absorption.
I watched as those sparks danced around her magical presence, not going away, yet not merging. Curious, I let that continue even as I turned my attention inward, putting the gift from the undead to work.
{-302 Divine Spark}
{+3 Perception}
“Fascinating,” I murmured as I enjoyed the difference the increased stats were made, enough to trigger a significant difference in my senses. It helped that I was getting more proficient in assigning stats, allowing me to extend the difference between them somewhat.
With my enhanced perception, I could see that what was going on was not a simple issue. Somehow, the layer around her Divine Sea was rejecting the infusion of the spark, like a magnet pushing different polarity.
Maybe it was like the difference between having and not having Sapience, maybe it was something completely different. I lacked the information to understand it.
Luckily, I thought as I cast the spell to awaken her. I had sufficient time to assess that.
“Where am I —“ she gasped before she raised her head and looked at me. “What happened in the battle.”
“We’ll talk about that in a moment, but to not push you too much, the battle is completed successfully, with no loss,” I explained to her as I caught her gaze. “Now, tell me your biggest mistake.”
“My … mistake,” she muttered.
“Well, I was forced to intervene against an enemy you should have been able to handle alone, so there was clearly a mistake,” I said, and to her shocked expression, I continued. “There’s no guarantee that I will be here able to help you during the next battle,” I suggested.
“You’re leaving,” she gasped in shock.
“Not yet, but ultimately, that’s on the table,” I reminded her. “But not immediately, and not until I’m sure that we’re secure here,” I said, and she relaxed. “Unless there’s an emergency,” I added, and she was tense once again.
“Then, what?” she said.
“We don’t know about the scale of the next attack,” I admitted. “I’m sure that that beast was an attempt of last resort, but not from their leader. I’m sure they are much stronger. No, this was the last resort from the unlucky lich they tasked to defeat and secure the borders before they could move inland.”
“And now, their true elites will arrive,” she gasped, afraid. “Maybe we should send another courier to the other tribes. Maybe they would come.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, they’ll arrive,” I said with a chuckle.
“They didn’t, at least not yet. What changed.”
“Well, two things. First, we’re able to defend this spot far longer than anyone could expect, even though they abandoned it as a sacrifice,” I explained, doing my best to frame their lack of attention as negative — not that I needed to work hard for that with their all historical baggage.
“And second?” she asked.
“Second, I’m sure that the spectacular explosion would be more decisive than any message we can send. It’s proof that we’re standing here, with more power than they expect. And if there’s one thing the rulers don’t like, it was the others gaining the same power.”
“We don’t have a ruler,” Seldanna declared decisively, yet with her pretty face, it came across as petulance. “Tribes are independent of whatever they have there, even if they dare to name it as the capital.”
“Sure,” I answered. “But are you sure they would answer the same if I asked them?” I countered, and she fell silent. “Exactly,” I said with a chuckle. “But enough about that. Let’s go back to the question. What was your mistake?”
“My … mistake,” she whispered. “I wasn’t very familiar with my power,” she said.
“No, that was just something forced by the circumstances, that’s not your mistake,” I corrected her.
“Then, what was it?” she asked hesitantly.
“You pushed yourself too much, trying to protect stupid people against their own mistakes. You have already ordered them to retreat, but they ignored your order and did something incredibly stupid. You can’t risk everything to protect them. Not when it was at the risk of killing anyone.”
She ducked her head shyly.
I chuckled. “But you knew that, didn’t you,” I asked, and she just nodded hesitantly. “But you did it anyway, because you knew that I was there to protect you…” I continued, and she nodded again, blushing even more.
“Naughty…” I said with a chuckle, letting my voice earn a throaty tone as she shivered. “Such a naughty move, using me, are you willing to pay the price, then?”
“Yes,” she answered, which came much quicker than I expected, making me shiver in anticipation. “Yes, I am…”
It seemed that I wasn’t the only one that was frustrated by our massage being interrupted halfway. “Good, first, your punishment,” I said, and patted my lap. “Come here.”
“Punishment…” she gasped, surprised, but that surprise didn’t prevent her from walking forward steadily until she stood in front of me.
“Now, lay on my lap,” I whispered, my tone suggestive. She shivered, but the arousal in her eyes was unmistakable. Not that I blamed her. I was not only her savior, but also my massage skills were spectacular.
“Well, you’re the … leader,” she whispered as she followed my direction and lay on my lap, her robe thick enough to cut the feeling significantly, even as I put my hand on her back. “Are you —“ she started, only to be interrupted by a gasp.
A gasp came after my hand landed on her hips.
“Am I … what?” I asked with a chuckle as I raised my hand and landed on her bottom.
“That punishment,” she gasped. “Maybe something else…” she whispered, managing to sound throaty as she did so.
“Something like what?” I said as I chuckled, acting like I didn’t understand what she was leading toward. It wasn’t believable, of course, but she was too shy to point that out. Instead, her eyes fell on the floor demurely.
The next spank landed, and her chin clenched as she tried to keep her moan in. Which wasn’t too difficult, as my spanks were more playful than painful, and her thick robe further blocked the pain. “I …” she whispered, but that was all she was able to say.
“Well, since you can speak, the punishment is clearly not effective,” I said with a chuckle, and grabbed her robe. “I should work hard to dissuade you from such dangerous gambits.”
She said nothing for a while, losing herself in the sensation as I slowly pulled her robe up, slowly revealing her beautiful legs to my view, with curves to die for. “Thank you,” she managed to say as the robe continued to climb, which surprised me. “You’re a very selfless hero.”
After a week, I must have made an even greater impression.
“I am a hero, right,” I said with a chuckle, though it was certainly not inaccurate. After all, I was doing most of it as a mixture of powering myself up and experimenting on Divine Spark, but that didn’t change the fact that I was their savior.
And, from her perspective, I did so selflessly, without even revealing myself, letting her take all the credit.
Not to mention, empowering her in the process.
She was ready to reward me for it, if her silence as I slowly peeled up her robe was any indicator, revealing her surprisingly perky ass considering the plumpness of her hips…
It was going to be fun, I decided as I spanked her ass once more, this time only her underwear to block my touch…
Her moan was simply beautiful…
{Strength: 8 Charisma: 10
Precision: 8 Perception: 12
Agility: 8 Manipulation: 10
Speed: 8 Intelligence: 10
Endurance: 8 Wisdom: 9}
{Purified Divine Spark: 410}
{Pseudo-HP: 2869 Mana: 7352}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Light - Chosen 7.4
Nature - Chosen 10}
{MINIONS
Guardian God Forest - 2050}
Elven Priestess - 70}
[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]
