The explosion generated by Maya's attack shocks everyone on the battlefield, whether they are Mermaids, Nagas, or Krakens. Despite being a very famous figure in Blue Star, no one thought Maya was that strong.
Not only did her attack obliterate that powerful Kraken, but it also sent power waves for tens of miles. The heat of her flames drove away all the storm and dark energies from the place, breaking the portals in the sky.
That was the closest everyone around felt to what it would be like to be near the Sun.
"Maya..." Although many people are concerned about Maya's state, Naomi is certainly the most shaken. After spending a few months in the Rising Phoenix Clan, she became connected to Maya, after all, who could not be attached to such a gentle and pure creature.
"She is fine." Greed comments while looking at the sea of flames ahead.
It's still hard for anyone to look in the direction of the impact as the heat hurts their eyes. But again, Lucien resists the pain and stares into the flames in search of Maya.
"She's in the water!" Lust finds Maya with her magic sense and points the direction to Lucien.
He doesn't think twice about diving into the sea in that direction. Millions of gallons of water were evaporated from that area by Maya Maya's attack, but the sea quickly replaced them; however, even the water that came from miles away is very hot, almost boiling.
Yet, Lucien continues swimming toward Maya. In a few seconds, he sees her slowly sinking towards deep waters. Her body is naked, and she looks passed out; there's also a red glow around her fair skin, but that light is fading.
Maya is so powerful, but now Lucien can only see the fragile little girl who needs to be protected, so he flaps his wings hard, creating swirls in the water as he swims towards her.
He takes her limp body in his arms and flaps his wings again, swimming to the surface and then flying high in the sky until the sunlight can touch Maya's whole skin.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"Cough, cough, cough..." Maya spits out water as she regains consciousness.
"Maya? Maya??? Are you okay???" She hears a familiar voice call her name in a concerned tone; it's Lucien, of course.
"What..." She is a little confused at first, but then her mind starts to clear as she feels a very pleasant heat enter her body.
Maya also feels strong arms holding her, which gives her an instinctive sense of security, but even though those arms are so warm, she feels a cool breeze touch her skin. "Why..."
[No way...] She has an idea of what might be happening, but she definitely doesn't want to believe it. Yet, she eventually opens her eyes and realizes she is naked in Lucien's arms as he flies over the battleground.
"WHAAAAAA!!!" She exclaims, then hugs him tightly, not because she wants to hug him but because she is too shy.
"What happened???" Lucien fears something is wrong with Maya.
"Don't let them see me!!!" She screams as she tries to hide in his arms.
"Ohh??" Lucien can't help but find the timid Maya so cute. "You literally just exploded yourself up, but you're worried that people will see your naked body??"
"I don't like people seeing me like this!!" She quickly responds.
"Alright..." Lucien suppresses the urge to laugh and quickly pulls a fluff blanket from his storage ring to cover Maya's body.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Lucien has already used that blanket himself, so it smells like him, and Maya feels it even before the blanket touches her body, but she still lets him wrap her body in that warm blanket even though she knows his scent will linger on her body later.
She flies out of his arms and looks at his face with a flushed expression. "Thank you..."
"No problem." He smiles and then turns his back and spreads his wings, hiding her behind him. "You can put on clothes in peace; no one will see you behind me."
Maya can't help but think that Lucien's wings are so big and beautiful; in fact, his whole body looks perfect in every way. But now, specifically, she feels that he is an impenetrable wall that can protect her from anything.
"This will only take a minute!" She quickly takes clothes off her storage ring and starts putting them on, but then she looks at Lucien and pouts. "Don't peek!!"
"Fine, fine," Lucien responds. Before, when he saw her in the water in that state, he didn't even pay attention to her naked body, but now, knowing she's okay, he can't help but be curious as to whether her private parts also look like from a teener or an adult woman.
Maya still fears Lucien will try to peek at her, so she tries to direct his attention elsewhere. "How is the battle going??"
"We're winning… thanks to you." He comments as he looks at the last Krakens being defeated by Nea and his wives. "Your flames were so powerful that they destroyed the portals."
"We're winning thanks to everyone's hard work..." Maya ignores his compliment, but she feels good about that. "But you and your family are the main reason for the Mermaids and Nagas fight so well."
Lucien smiles as he sees all the Mermaids and Nagas well, most of them are injured, but Sophia and other healers are healing them quickly. "I want to be able to do much more for them..."
Looking at Lucien's back, Maya senses an incredibly good vibe coming from him. He's still a teasing and sinful devil, but he's also a gentle protector, one she's getting used to having around.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Maya, Maya!?!" Naomi flies towards Maya and Lucien. She was in the Earth Realm peak and advanced to the Sky Realm during the battle due to the huge amount of energy Gluttony made her shield absorb.
"Naomi!" Maya looks over Lucien's shoulders at Naomi. "I am fine."
"Whew…" Naomi lets out a sigh of relief. "That was so crazy... I didn't know you could create such a powerful attack."
"Hehe..." Maya giggles as she steps out from behind Lucien, already fully dressed. However, she immediately starts to miss that good feeling. "That was no big deal."
"How not? If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be able to defeat that Kraken." Lucien looks at Maya and can't help but be disappointed that her body is fully covered by a long dress.
Maya can see Lucien's disappointment in his eyes, and somehow, she feels proud that she can arouse his curiosity. Due to the Phoenixes being truly immortal beings, their bodies never change after they turn eighteen and many of them don't seem to mature enough at such an age.
"Yes, that was amazing!!" Naomi speaks in an excited tone. "But... what was that? A type of spell or special ability??
"An ability... I think." Maya seems uncertain about that. "Actually, I don't remember much about my race... it's been so long; my memory gradually gets lost over so many years..."
Lust materializes her body beside them and looks at Maya thoughtfully. "I thought I saw your body disappearing for a second during the impact..."
"That's called burning the body, I guess," Maya explains. "When a Phoenix's body is destroyed, it generates a powerful explosion, but our bodies are made of pure fire energy, so as long as our fire essence is not damaged, our body is restored immediately."
"But what if that fire essence is destroyed too?" Naomi asks.
"So our immortal core creates our bodies from the beginning." Maya quickly responds.
When Maya talks about her immortal core, Lucien and Naomi can't help but feel bad. They are planning to make her give up her life so that they and their sister can live, but how could it be easy to do that with such a good and pure creature?
"We have to return to the battle; there are still enemies to be defeated." Lucien tries to change the subject.
"Fine, I'll help them." Naomi thinks of something and stops Lucien from returning to the battlefield. "The situation seems to be under control, so keep an eye on Maya a little longer; maybe she's not fully recovered from that burning-the-body thing."
Lucien can see that his wives and the Mermaids are easily dealing with the last Krakens, and they don't need his help, but he doesn't understand why Naomi is making him stay with Maya,
He doesn't want to be around her while he plans to take her life, but he doesn't want to seem insensitive either, so he nods. "Alright."
"This will be over quickly," Naomi comments as she flies toward the battlefield with her big pink shield.
Lust returns to Lucien's soul, leaving him alone with Maya, and the mood gets weird. He doesn't know what to do, so he tries to act casually. "Where's my blanket?"
"Ehhh... that?" Maya blushes. "I had to keep it in my storage ring to get dressed, you know..."
Lucien understands that dressing up while holding a blanket seems complicated, but he doesn't understand why she just didn't return that to him. And he can see in her eyes and in the fact that she's not taking it out of her storage ring that she doesn't seem to want to give it back to him.
"You can give it back to me later." He smiles friendly.
"Mm." Maya quickly nods, but in her heart, she knows she won't be able to return that blanket to Lucien again; after all, how could she give up such a fragrant treasure?
