Sunday, November 26th, 2045
Demiliore Mansion, Griffin City, Netheria
It was afternoon time, and five girls, who seemed to have taken a bath only a few minutes ago and still bore some signs of fatigue after the excruciating training they had been put through, worked happily on preparing their lunch for the day.
Their chatter came to a stop when one of the phones on the table started ringing, and Kiara immediately rushed to it to pick it up.
"Becca!" She happily greeted her sister-wife and then guessed the reason she had called for. "Have the dates been decided?"
"Yes. The Trials will start from the 9th of December." Rebecca informed her, and the little Miss of the Demiliore Family happily informed the girls who were looking her way about what Rebecca said. "Where's Keith? He isn't picking up his phone."
"He's taking a nap," She informed her and then started asking about how things were going on their end.
After they ended the call, Kiara rejoined the girls in preparing lunch, and an hour and a half later, when everything was ready, she happily walked into her husband's room to wake him up.
The surprise she received when she opened the door stunned her, and she witnessed a sight that she had never seen before.
There, on top of the bed, Keith was levitating in the air, still seemingly asleep, and there were nine beautiful Aura Discs around his body, all revolving clockwise in a beautiful swirling pattern.
Out of curiosity, she slowly approached the bed, and then leaned in close to one of the discs, carefully inspecting it.
It was not long before she deduced that these were not some simple Aura Discs as she could feel them brimming with Mana as well.
Kiara drew her hand forward, and then carefully tapped the disc with the tip of her finger, only to feel a soft repulsion at the contact.
After experimenting with it for a while, she started putting more strength behind her hand, and she discovered that the more strength she used, the stronger the repulsion became.
However, what intrigued her the most was how the discs always got in the way whenever she reached forward to touch Keith. It was as if these Discs had a mind of their own and were determined to not let anyone or anything touch him.
A playful smile suddenly crept on her face as she conjured up a ball of azure flame in her hand, and then she hurled it at the shield to see what would happen.
To her surprise, her attacks simply bounced off the disc and came rushing right back at her.
Kiara stopped the fireball with her hand without much effort, dispersing the power it contained, but her eyes were still fixated on the mysterious discs that surrounded Keith.
"Having fun?" She heard a voice that broke her out of her musing, and then she met her beloved's eyes which were smiling at her as he descended on the floor, and stood in front of her.
"What are these?" She curiously asked as she watched the discs become smaller before they simply vaporised into specks of amethyst light.
"It's a Battle Art that I have been practising." He informed her as he leaned in and planted a kiss on her forehead.
"What is it called?"
"The Nine Discs of Demise." He said and then lazily stretched his arms. "Those discs that surrounded me were the Second Discs of Demise, the Discs of Repulsion."
"Do they repel all forms of attacks?" She followed him into the dressing room and then the washroom as he washed up his face.
"They can if you have trained enough." He nodded as he wiped his face. "I am working on controlling them subconsciously. Trying to make them my instinct."
"That does not sound easy..." She frowned but then smiled as she remembered that he had indeed managed to do it.
"I have made some progress. But yes, it is not easy."
"Tell me about it!" She excitedly asked as she wanted to know more about this Battle Art, and Keith satiated her curiously as he answered all her questions.
"It's a Hell-Grade Battle Art." He smiled at her.
"I wish I could learn it." She pouted, sneaking a glance at him to see his response, but Keith only smiled at her.
"Sorry, but you can not learn it in the Primal Desolation Realm." He shook his head, making her sigh.
"Not fair..." She pouted again but then giggled as he tapped her head and caressed it. "Rebecca called me earlier. The date has been finalised. The Trials will begin from the 9th of December."
Keith looked her in the eyes and understood her intentions.
"You want to come with me?"
"Yes!"
"And you want to participate?"
"Yes!"
"Not allowed." He straightforwardly forbade her, and his little sister stuck her tongue out at him.
"I understand." She told him but still pouted a little. "Amira and Reina want to come as well. They will take a week-long leave from school."
"It's fine." He shrugged, not really caring about it, and then led Kiara into the dining room where Minami, Kashish, Yingying, and the twins were waiting for them. "Ready for your weapons training?" He asked even before he sat down, and it earned him misty eyes from the twins, who were on the verge of crying.
"My body hurts..." Reina pleaded, but Keith simply grinned at her before focusing on the meal.
An hour later, all six of the girls found themselves back in the training room, and then a battle against a force of Shadow Creatures started where they were forbidden from using their Aura and were required to hold on with only their weapons, which in all their cases happened to be swords.
Keith, of course, only wanted to push them to their limits, and thus, the difficulty of the battle varied for all of them. They all had to individually work on dealing with their share of Shadow Creatures, and only the twins were pairing up, despite the force they had to deal with being relatively very easy.
They had asked if they could start Cultivating, but Keith told them to wait for some time.
No one knew why he wanted them to wait, but they all trusted him and so none of them raised any questions or insisted on it.
The twins were not disheartened either and happily listened to him, and since he was already helping them raise their fitness and was also training them in combat, they had their hands full anyway.
Whilst the girls trained, Keith too was working on his control over the Shadows. And if one looked closely, they would find that he was not wearing his God Ring.
Yes, the Shadows he was using right now were not aided by the power of God Stone. He had discovered that he had an affinity for them and could construct them even without the God Stone, which was all thanks to his Bloodline, but where the God Stone helped him with the control, here, he had to work on it all alone.
Keith understood the importance of working on his control over the Shadow Constructs as it would later help with other forms of Magic as well. And thus, he was enjoying himself as he experimented with it, using varying forms and densities of Shadow Constructs to battle the girls.
"We did it!" Both Amira and Reina excitedly smiled at each other before they plopped on the ground, having managed to hold on for longer than anyone expected of them.
"You smell so nice..." Kashish could not help but say as she sat by their side, curiously leaning in to smell the sweat that was oozing out of their bodies.
It did not smell like swear at all but like a very enchanting perfume.
And then her eyes turned to Keith, Kiara, and Minami, who all did not seem to have any body odour and smelled pleasant even when they were sweating. However, unlike their mysterious natural scent, the twins emanated a very pleasant floral smell that always reminded her of the beautiful flower valleys near her home.
After they rested for a while, Kashish stood up and started following Keith to his room, and only after they arrived in it did he turn around to look at her.
"Yes?"
"Do I possess a Special Physique?" She straightforwardly asked.
She had listened to Minami's stories and knew that Special Physiques existed in the world. And for the last few weeks, she had been busy piecing the clues together.
Kashish had already concluded that the Twins did indeed possess some kind of Special Physiques, after all, their progress and fitness defied the limitations of a normal human of their age. They were not even Aurors. And then there was this floral scent that they emanated all the time, which she knew was not common.
She had had enough time to realise that her unusually fast progress in Cultivation was not normal, and did not necessarily equate to her extraordinary talent.
The smile that crept on his face was her answer, and her heart started racing in anticipation.
"Help me awaken it." She asked.
"Why?" And he asked back.
"I want to become stronger," Kashish answered without any hesitation.
"And why do you seek strength?" He stepped forward and pulled her chin up, making her look him in the eyes.
"I want to stay by your side." She spoke the first thing that came to her mind. "And I want to keep up with the rest." And she revealed the truth.
The resolve in her Ice-Blue eyes intrigued him a lot, and then he leaned in and captured her lips.
Kashish gasped at his action but did not resist. Her hands clutched onto his shirt as she found herself losing her mind to his divinely sweet taste, and then there was her racing heart that felt unusually warm right now.
When their lips separated and their eyes met, she instinctively stepped forward and tip-toed to kiss him again, this time, wrapping her arms around his neck.
She was inexperienced in the art of kissing, and Keith took his sweet time as he helped her learn how to kiss properly.
