"So, let's start?" Kamala asks in an excited tone. "If we go first, that will also help balance things out, right?"
Lucien sighs. "Not exactly. I mean, I'll make sure the barrier is equally strong for each group."
Lena smiles, but Marie still seems determined to be stubborn. "Everything looks pretty good, but aren't we missing something like this?"
"And what would that be?" Lucien quickly asks. He's already realized that listening to Marie's ideas is a way of pleasing her as much as arguing with her.
She smiles as she explains. "Why not make it more challenging? Just being defensive isn't going to help us get better, you know."
He understands what she means, and before she can suggest anything, he does. "I got it, so how about I give you two minutes to attack me before counterattacking for 20 seconds? If you can't defend yourself, then it's over, but in case you escape in that time, I'll give you two more minutes to damage my barrier."
Marie bites her lip due to the incredible speed that Lucien presents a new plan. She just wants to agree with him, but that makes her feel so predictable and also similar to all the girls who just agree with everything he says.
She really doesn't want to disagree with him for no reason or just out of stubbornness, but she also wants to stand out among his wives; otherwise, she would be just another girl in his life.
"Thirty seconds." She speaks; that way, she accepts his plan but can also participate in its decision in an independent and original way. "We can hold out for thirty seconds."
"..." Kamala and Lena roll their eyes with the same annoyed expression. They don't understand why Marie always tries to disagree with everything Lucien says.
"Alright." But Lucien quickly agrees with Marie. Her stubbornness is part of her character, and he appreciates it as an unusual kind of charm.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"Nice, sister..." Lena comments in an upset tone. "You've just made it harder for us to get it before everyone else."
Marie thinks about keeping quiet, but that voice in her mind forces her to respond. "Hubby's goal here is to prepare us for the hardest fight of our lives, rather than pleasing us."
Lena shakes her head, unsure what to say. At that moment, Kamala approaches her and whispers loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Does your sister have some mental problem?"
"Hahaha..." Lena can't help but smile because for the first time someone seems to think exactly like her. "I bet so!"
Now it's Marie's turn to roll her eyes while Mira and Angela just watch their daughters' weird interactions.
Lucien can see that Kamala and Lena seem pretty likely to form a good friendship, just as Angela and Mira get along, leaving Marie still as the 'most complicated girl.'
As the girls laugh together, Marie seems to realize how out of place she is, and her eyes end up meeting Lucien's. She expects to see disappointment and even pity in his look, but all she sees is a loving, understanding smile.
"Everyone ready?" He asks.
"Yep!" Kamala is the first to respond while the other girls nod.
Lucien approaches Mira and Kamala before taking their hands and looking at the other girls. "Stay at a safe distance, so you don't get hit by collateral damage, but stay close enough to see and analyze all of Mira's and Kamala's abilities and fighting style."
"OK." Angela and her daughters nod before walking several feet away from Lucien, Mira, and Kamala.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Lust materializes her body and creates a barrier of demonic energy in front of them as additional protection.
Lucien continues to hold Mira and Kamala's hands as he tries to give them as much demonic energy as possible to boost their bodies. As soon as he gives them enough energy, he finishes with kisses on their lips, making them smile and blush.
"Don't hold yourself back," He comments. "I can take everything you have."
Mira smiles with a loving expression, but Kamala makes a naughty look. "I have so much to give you..."
Lucien smiles and lets go of the girls' hands before walking back, creating the visible barrier around his body as an extra layer of armor. "So, let's do it..."
The girls' eyes sparkle as they're clearly excited, not just them but Lust as well, and she speaks in Lucien's mind. 'This is so stimulating.'
'Really?' He asks, a little confused.
'Yeah,' She confirms. 'Sexual pleasure is not the only thing that motivates us, you know.'
Lucien usually focuses on sexual pleasure as that's what he has the most control over, but he understands that their demonic energy is based on pleasure, any kind of pleasure.
Before he can talk about that, Lust continues. 'You've trained with the girls before, but never anything like that... we have a very clear direction here, which is to make the girls stronger, and that makes you stronger.'
As Lucien listens to Lust's whispers in his mind, stimulating pleasure from the inside out, Mira and Kamala look at each other. They know that to have a chance of receiving that reward and proving their strength to him, they will have to do their best ever.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"How are we going to do it?" Kamala asks her mother.
Mira makes a thoughtful expression; she's been thinking about that since they got to that place. "I don't think any elaborate strategy will have any additional effect on him... so let's make it simple, you keep him busy while I prepare my most powerful attack; when it's ready, I'll give you a signal, and you get away from him."
"It looks good to me!" Kamala nods and then takes two curved swords from her storage ring. Those swords are made of oceanic jade, one of Blue Star's rarest materials, and it would certainly do serious damage to Lucien depending on how much force she uses in her attacks.
'Good treasures...' Lust comments in Lucien's mind about the jade blades. 'But you must help her awaken her soul weapon as soon as possible; any training would be wasted if her soul weapon ends up not being dual blades.'
'I'm working on it.' Lucien responds as he looks at Kamala.
Kamala smiles at him before getting into a fighting stance, leaning her top forward like a snake preparing to pounce. She also holds one jade sword upfront and the other backdown like a long dagger.
Lucien doesn't really know what to expect as he's only fought Nagas inside the sea. Now that he thinks about it, Kamala and Mira are at a disadvantage for fighting out of the water, and while he just wants to see their abilities, it also seems weird since the competition will likely be underwater.
He closes his eyes as he uses his demonic energy and connection to the purple world to make water appear out of nowhere, covering all that big rock and turning it into a globe of water. But the mountains and trees remain in the same place, making that scene seems quite surreal.
Acting in sync with him, Lust makes the barrier in front of Angela and her daughters become a globe that protects them and maintains oxygen in that place. But it's just to make them more comfortable since due to their water affinity, they have almost the same advantages as the sea races.
Kamala's smile gets even more beautiful as she looks at Lucien with a grateful expression. Now inside the water, her tail softly swings as she prepares to attack him.
"Here I go!" She exclaims before rushing towards him as fast as she can.
*Burble!*
Her movements stir the water as she looks like a shadow to Angela and her daughters. But Lucien can clearly see her movements in slow motion.
She's as fast as anyone in the middle Immortal Realm, actually faster than most. Yet, he can't help but compare her with someone else and comment with Lust. 'She's much slower than Saria...'
Kamala quickly gets in front of Lucien and starts attacking him with her jade swords. First, she doesn't use all her speed in her attacks, fearing she'll hurt him. But when she realizes that he can easily evade all of her blows, she increases her speed to her maximum, and yet it still seems impossible to hit him.
'Maybe she's not so different from Saria.' Lust comments in Lucien's mind. 'I mean, out of the water domain.'
'The water domain?' Lucien comments. 'I wonder if Kamala could do a water domain; she has a water affinity, right?'
'She has, like most sea creatures.' Lust answers. 'But Saria had her water affinity altered and improved along with her blood lineage, which seems to be directly connected to her water affinity.'
Before Lucien says that Kamala and Mira also have powerful bloodlines, Lust explains. 'But Kamala and her mother's lineage doesn't seem to be related to water, but to Chaos mana, so I don't think they would benefit from a water domain as Saria and Nea.'
As he continues to dodge Kamala's blows, even holding his speed to half, Lucien asks Lust. 'A chaos domain then?'
'A chaos domain? Hahaha...' Lust starts to laugh. 'An elemental domain can only be made when someone has incredible control over a specific element. Water is one of the best elements to a domain, but even people with a high Chaos affinity can't really control it as Chaos is for sure the most unstable energy.'
'So, is it impossible?' He asks.
'I'm not sure.' Lust answers honestly. 'I've never heard of anyone doing a Chaos domain, but if you want to understand more about it, you should talk to Wrath. Her demonic energy is the most unstable energy after Chaos mana, so she must understand more about it than anyone else.'
'Alright, I'll talk to her later.' Lucien responds before refocusing on Kamala and her mother.
Kamala continues attacking him with her jade blades. She tries different moves with high speed and precision, making it clear that she has excellent close combat skills. Yet, she doesn't have any magic or special abilities since she's never tried to awaken her bloodline abilities.
Meanwhile, Mira is standing in the water a hundred meters from them with her eyes closed and a concentrated expression.
As Lucien looks at her, he notices a dark sphere appear around her; the sphere seems to be made of black energy but with yellow threads that make him feel a strange sensation.
'It's a catalyst.' Lust comments in his mind and quickly explains. 'If you're wondering why her soul weapon is like this, it's a catalyst. This type of soul weapon only awakens in people with great magical potential and is very useful as it helps such people to control their energies and channel them into powerful magic attacks.'
'The perfect weapon for a mage.' Lucien can't help but comment.
'Exactly.' Lust answers. 'Angela and Marie would be lucky if they could awaken catalysts as their soul weapon too.'
'Hmm...' Lucien thinks of something, and Lust is curious about that, so he quickly talks about it. 'What if they could influence it? I mean, we already know that soul weapons appear when we open the first soul gate due to generally our need... so why couldn't we make this need more specific?'
Lust finds that idea pretty crazy, but even with so much knowledge in her mind, she's only finding out more about soul weapons now, with Lucien.
'Maybe it's possible... actually, it would be amazing if the girls could choose their soul weapons.' She comments.
'Yeah, it would be really nice...' He thinks aloud as he looks at Mira, channeling her chaotic mana with the help of her soul weapon.
