Everyone is surprised to see Angela awaken a beautiful catalyst as her soul weapon. Lena and Marie have just witnessed the power of Mira's soul weapon and already understand how important such a tool is for a mage.
Mira understands that better than anyone there and is very happy for her 'sister.' She sees more and more similarities between them.
But without a doubt, the person most shocked by that is Lust. She is only finding out more about Soul Weapons with Lucien due to Aylin's memories, but she has a vast general knowledge in her mind, which leaves no doubt that it is not easy to awaken such mysterious weapons.
And he just wondered if there was an easier way not only to awaken the soul weapon but also to choose what it would look like.
Lust didn't want to say how absurd his theory sounded, but now she feels like she's the only fool there. A few minutes after Mira shows the power of her catalyst, Angela awakens a catalyst as well. [This can't be a coincidence!]
Lucien suggested that because the soul weapons are the manifestations of their souls and have primarily to do with their will. Yet, Lust can't help but think that perhaps the demonic energies, particularly Envy's, in Angela's body have more influence on this than they can imagine.
Anyway, Angela now has a perfect soul weapon for a mage, which makes her much stronger. And when Lucien's wives get stronger, he gets stronger, which is good for everyone.
When Angela saw Mira using her soul weapon, she was fascinated, despite not having the slightest idea how to use such a tool. But now, having her own catalyst in hand, she instinctively understands how to channel her mana through it.
"Run, Marie!" She exclaims as she starts to channel her mana into the catalyst, making it glow with beautiful blue light.
Everyone can see that she is about to attack Lucien, but as he still has a few seconds to try to capture the girls, he lets go of Lena and swims toward Angela.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"Attacking when you should run away?" He asks sarcastically with a loving smile on his face. "You've always been bold, Angela, but I think you're getting overconfident too."
"Hehehe..." Angela can see and feel how proud Lucien is of her, which makes her even more confident.
She was jealous of Mira when the Naga Queen proved to be so amazing, and Kamala looked at her mother with those eyes bright with pride and admiration. And now, she can experience it too, all thanks to Lucien, which makes her love him even more.
She wants to make them feel even more admiration for her by breaking Lucien's barrier and securing that reward for her and her daughters. But at the same time, it's so hard to attack the man that does so much for her, even if it's just a sparring session.
'Don't hold yourself back now.' But then Lucien's voice echoes in Angela's mind. 'You can do it, my dear, break my barrier, and I'll spend the next hours rewarding you and your daughters.'
Lucien doesn't want to be unfair to any of his wives or have preferences. But while Mira and Kamala came very close to breaking his barrier by having hundreds of years of training and a powerful bloodline, Angela and her daughters are almost doing it with a low power level and no inheritance advantage, which makes it clear just how much they are trying hard for the sake of their family.
Angela is motivated by Lucien's words and does her best to gather her remaining mana in a powerful attack channeled through her catalyst. In fact, she only has the energy for that due to Lucien's demonic energy within her body, helping her to regenerate mana quickly.
The blue light from the catalyst shines even brighter, and Angela points it in Lucien's direction as she exclaims. "Take it!!"
As before, Angela creates ice spikes to attack Lucien. But this time, the ice spikes that come out of her catalyst are more powerful, bigger, faster, and so cold that they freeze the water in their path, heading toward Lucien with extreme speed.
Lucien, who swims toward Angela to capture her, tries to dodge the ice spikes without stopping, but with each ice spike that passes him, the water around him freezes until he finds himself trapped in a solid block of ice.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})[Shit!!] He can't help but mentally curse due to how powerful that ice feels. But the truth is that he is more happy than frustrated because that is the power of his beloved Angela.
"You got him!! You did id it, Mom!!" Lena exclaims in happiness when she sees Lucien trapped in the ice block.
Kamala also seems to believe in that, but Mira, Marie, and especially Angela know that it's not that simple. And just as they'd expected, Lucien doesn't take long to break the ice block with his incredible muscles and powerful wings, still containing his strength halfway, of course.
"Hehe..." Angela maintains an excited expression as she continues to channel her mana into the catalyst, creating more and more ice spikes.
Lucien smiles as he swims between her attacks, destroying the ice with his wings, which constantly damages his barrier. Meanwhile, he can't help but mentally comment to Lust. 'Her soul weapon is amazing! That brings us closer to a victory, right?'
'It's actually impressive,' She replies. 'Catalysts greatly improve the offensive power of mages, but it doesn't solve their main problem, their low defensive skills.'
'So let's train Kamala and Lena to be guardians for their mothers!' He quickly suggests. 'We can make them train with Jeanne and Dawn; Naomi is also excellent defensively.'
'It could work...' Lust comments in a neutral tone. 'But Kamala seems to like being on the offensive more, and Lena's skills still make her a mage rather than a warrior.'
Lucien understands that, but he can't think of a better strategy. 'I'm sure we can motivate them… remember how the girls spoke of Jeanne with admiration after she protected the whole group with her shield? I think we can use pride to motivate Kamala and Lena to protect their mothers in that way.'
'Pride???' Lust cannot stop bad feelings from growing in her heart. 'Do you want her to join the training too???'
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})'I didn't talk about her, you know.' Lucien quickly comments. He knows that Pride makes Lust more jealous than any other sin, including Envy.
'...' Lust doesn't say anything. She knows her jealousy and worries are exaggerated, but she also knows how much Lucien admires and desires Pride.
Lucien refocuses on training with the girls. After being hit by many ice spikes, his barrier is about to crack, but he finally gets close to Angela. She is exhausted but keeps attacking because she can see that she is about to win.
However, she is helpless as he approaches to capture her. Lena still has energy, but as she's already been captured, she can't interfere while Marie is too far away to do anything.
*Burble*
Lucien shakes the water around Angela with the flaps of his wings. She realizes that ice spikes can't hit him that close, so she uses the last of her mana to create a blast of ice that freezes everything around them.
That spell turns everything within fifty meters into a block of ice, except for an area a few meters around her. Lucien was so close to her that only half of his body got trapped in the ice, while his top is free, within that area with Angela.
She sees him there, trapped in front of her; a good attack could create a crack in his barrier. But she is exhausted, without the energy to kill a mosquito.
"Ah... ahh..." She kneels on the ice in front of him as she takes a deep breath.
Lucien makes no effort to break the ice yet. He just smiles lovingly at Angela. "Do you need to recover some energy?"
"Yep." She quickly responds, gazing at his lips with an imploring expression.
"How about some kisses?" He asks with a devilish expression.
She looks into his eyes. "Are you going to catch me?"
"For sure!" He quickly responds, then they both start laughing.
He breaks the ice and kisses Angela, capturing her in the last remaining second of his time.
Angela is quickly revitalized by Lucien's kisses. But now, she is no longer in the game, so she cancels that block of ice, allowing others to see that she has been captured.
Kamala and Mira keep their expressions neutral because even though they think Angela and her daughters should earn that reward for working so hard, they don't want to be left out.
Lena sighs, sad that she hasn't been able to do much to help her mother. Meanwhile, Marie, who now has two minutes to freely attack Lucien, doesn't seem too excited.
Angela notices Marie's expression and can't help but be a little sad too. She really thought they could win, but in the end, she failed.
"It wasn't a loss..." Lucien lovingly speaks as he lifts Angela's chin and makes her look into his eyes. "The girls worked very well as a team, and you, my Ice Queen... you were really outstanding!"
She is usually not modest, but his loving praises make her blush. Angela looks at the catalyst floating around her wrist. "This... I didn't think your training methods would have such effects so quickly."
He runs his fingers along the icy surface of the catalyst before caressing Angela's face. "It's your merit, fruits of your hard work, my dear."
"I guess so..." She smiles as she enjoys his caresses.
Lucien would like to stay pleasing Angela longer, but he swings away from her and looks at Marie. "You can still win this; my barrier is about to break; you just need a good attack."
Marie should be excited, but she just swims towards him with a sad expression. "Everyone knows my magic isn't as powerful as Mom's, and my body isn't as strong as Lena's..."
"Oh?" He looks at her with a curious expression. [Would that be another of her plans?]
"You can still do it; for us, sister!!" Lena tries to encourage her.
Angela also wonders if that is one of Marie's unpredictable plans, but she tries to encourage her daughter. "We only came this close to winning because of you, Marie. So it's okay if you want to give up now..."
"..." Marie has a hard time holding her proud smile as she swims towards Lucien. She is also close to her limit, and without his help, she only can cast a big spell once, so she wants to create a perfect opportunity for it.
"Is that it? Are you giving up, Marie?" Lucien asks.
"What else could I do?" She asks in a fake sad tone as she slowly continues to approach him.
'She doesn't give up, hahaha...' Lust praises Marie in Lucien's mind; they can both see that she hasn't really given up.
Yet, Lucien wants to give Marie that chance, so he opens his arms to her. "It's alright, my love; you're really great, so let me kiss you for your hard work."
Marie smiles as she swims towards him with open arms. "Thank you, hubby..."
They keep up the act until they're inches away from hugging, then Marie creates ice blades in her hands and tries to attack Lucien. Since she didn't openly say that she gave up, the game should still be ongoing.
Lucien isn't really caught off guard by that move, but he limits his agility even further as he tries to dodge her ice blades.
And he succeeds. Marie is low on mana, and her speed is pretty lacking compared to the other girls, so she fails to hit him. Yet, she creates ice blades in the water behind Lucien, which hits him in the back.
*Bam* *Smash*
But those ice blades break on contact with his barrier, not doing enough damage to crack it.
"Ah..." Marie makes a genuine sad expression as she realizes she doesn't have the strength to do that.
But before she can really get sad, Lucien hugs her from behind and starts kissing her neck. "Your best feature may not be power, but you should be happy because your strategies worked so well."
"And what does that mean?" She asks.
"That you will be an excellent leader!" He quickly responds, making her feel really good.
