Akiko and I spend the next couple days locked together in passion, expressing our emotions and newly deepened love courtesy of the system as well as just simple, old fashioned trauma bonding. Periodically, she leaves to go attend to whatever chaos is unfolding outside the estate – which has already been repaired, apparently – or go to acquire food for us, and leaves me to focus on healing Sandra and seeing to my foundations as well as comprehending what this new stage of cultivation entails for my soul and body paths.
The first time I get a free moment, Jun Li coming to grab a still reluctant to leave my side Akiko, Ios chirps back inside of my head for the first time in a couple days. ‘It really is a testament to how far you’ve come that you can get sexed up by a goddess of a woman for two straight days without freaking out about anything that happened during your tribulation. Or afterwards. Proud of you, sweetheart~! Hehe~!’
I feel a blush creep to my face but can’t really deny her words, finding it strange myself that I haven’t been more… focused on what exactly went down during the tribulation. Both from the Empress as well as myself. Gaining a new Intent – a violent as shit one at that -, treating the Heavenly doppelganger like an all you can eat energy buffet, and then having the most important title in my status page get ‘adjusted’ by the system. Shit… I haven’t even looked over what that even means now…
Y-yeah… I guess I got kind of distracted. Maybe part of it was I was still a bit scared to look over and really sort through what happened. Emotionally and mentally. Plus, I just couldn’t help but shower Aki in kisses and hugs and other fun things after she told me all about her past, being so open and vulnerable with me about something that obviously still hurts her. Is it weird that I didn’t just like… dive straight into healing Sandra? I ask out cautiously, a slight tinge of guilt worming its way through me as I consider that aspect of my recent escapades.
‘Hmm…’ Ios hums thoughtfully inside my mind before continuing, ‘I don’t think so, honestly. Sure, now that you’ve ascended your soul path you have more options in regards to healing her, but you are likely still going to need to figure out the how of it now. It still won’t be as simple as just blasting Qi into her soul like a fire hose, I’d wager. You’re going to need to meditate and figure out what exactly you gained from expanding and shaping your soul, how it interacted, meshed, and merged pieces and parts of itself and then essentially do the same for Sandra’s wounded parts.
It’s going to be new territory, Amelia. I don’t think anyone in this whole Heavenly Layer, not to even mention Mara, has ever attempted what you are trying to do. Heal a foreign soul in such a direct, invasive manner. At most, some higher Realm cultivators may simply instruct others on how to cultivate their souls, give them pills or other items to reinforce and aid the process. You’re going to likely be the first person ever to bring someone back to life, truly and fully.’
Damn, when she phrases it like that I definitely don’t feel any pressure at all! Nope, not even a tiny bit! ‘But anyway, I don’t think you should beat yourself up over letting off some steam with Akiko, especially after she opened up about herself like that. I was listening, of course, and even I wanted to just buy some cheap ass mechanical body so I could come over and give the poor woman a hug…’
Ios’ voice gets a bit heavy, the obvious empathy and care for Akiko shining through before she adds on, ‘She’s been through so much, Aims. All of the girls here have, in some form or fashion, but I could never fault you for wanting to wrap her up in your arms and kiss all those bad feelings and memories away as best you could. You’re bonded to her now, nearly as deeply as you are with Sandra, and that comes with its own set of challenges and rewards. Nothing I think you couldn’t handle, though! Besides the fact that the system wouldn’t have tried to upgrade the title like that if you didn’t have a chance, the fact that you two are just absolutely devoted to each other is obvious for anyone who has a pair of eyes and functioning brain~.
Speaking of,’ Ios rambles on happily, ‘we should probably take a look at what all changed for you between the tribulation, your titles upgrading, and you getting that Intent, you little over-achiever you~. Want to do that now or do you want to try and see if you can make progress with Sandy first?’ It’s my turn to hum back in contemplation, laying my sore from wild and delicious sex body down to the still slightly damp mattress below. I cringe a little at the cool wetness from someone’s juices – surely not mine, obviously! – before sliding over a few feet to a still unsoiled portion of the bed, closing my eyes in a pleased way as I snuggle under the blankets.
“Let me try and take a crack at healing Sandra first. I genuinely feel bad that I’ve put it off this long…” Ios doesn’t say anything in reply, opting to just let me feel what I feel and move at my own speed, which I greatly appreciate. She’s come a long way herself, not always trying to make me think out my emotions and move past stuff before I’m really ready. Like, I get why she had to be so on the ball in the beginning, I was a mess. A real walking disaster, honestly. But the fact that she trusts me enough and typically knows when and how to pop in with some advice or genuine care really has done a lot for our relationship.
I close my eyes and focus, falling into my soul space before I even register that I’m there. I look around, curious to see if the model or network has changed any from my breakthrough and find quite the surprise! I still see the core of the model, the silvery sphere of the moon, the voided river branching to it, but where my soul was previously a golden, fiery ball of energy, a perfect copy of myself now floats languidly. Like I’m floating across a still pool of inky black water, my wavy red hair splaying out behind me in its unseen waves as my azure eyes look at… me?
I try to focus on the moon again, finding that my soul shifts her eyes over as well, like I’m her but still somehow outside of her? It? Am I me? I start to get a headache, moving a hand up to my throbbing forehead in the real world which the soul does as well, my feelings of discomfort also being plastered on her face. Okay, this is just fucking trippy. I’m going to label this as some… spiritual sense or soul sense or something and just move on. Maybe the soul manual or the Empress can explain further on why I’m having the wildest version of an out of body experience later, I got shit to do.
I do my best to not focus on how the soul avatar follows my movements out into the other parts of the space around us, my curiosity still leading me to search for any new abnormalities or additions. I actually find a few, which does kind of shock me. The first is that there are several, circular planed spinning glyphs at various joints and key sections of the body. The arm, elbow, wrist and hand, the neck and all along the spine, my knees, ankles, and soles of my feet. And more besides that.
I think back to the dream I had when I was apparently in a coma – another thing that I hope doesn’t become a constant when I breakthrough or advance, that shit is inconvenient as hell – and find that their placement perfectly matches what I saw in that fugue state. Taking that realization to heart, I try and focus on the warm heat of my blood, its pulsing rhythm gained from my beating heart and fed by the air in my lungs.
It takes a few moments, even with whatever my Wisdom stat is now, as the concept is still somewhat foreign to me. I eventually achieve what I want to see when I take a step back and try to imagine looking into myself with a microscope, the concept solidifying inside of me as my vision whooshes down to the intended target. Well, targets, as I now can see millions upon millions of the red little guys floating and carrying their payloads of oxygen and carbon dioxide to and fro across my entire body. I drill down further, examining one making its way toward my arms, and am proven correct about the dream state being informational as shit as I see the cell not only carrying air, but also trace amounts of Qi which disperse themselves to the musculature there before it makes it’s return trip to the heart.
So cool~! So… If I want to increase the output of Qi to specific parts of myself, I’ll have to… what? Try and force Qi either into my lungs so it can be dispersed evenly across my blood? Or actively focus on filling up any cells going to the muscles, skin, and bones? I try the latter option, picking a cell at random and pushing drastically more Qi into it. The results are… a bit horrifying, as the unfortunate little trooper can’t handle all of that energy and ends up bursting inside of the vein it was meandering through.
I give a small twinge of apology to the valiant soldier, mentally telling its next of kin that it’s sacrifice was not in vain. So, that kind of rules out that option then. At least until I get better control of Qi, maybe? Or my body and blood become more resilient and able to better withstand the energy… Well, let’s try the lung thing before I throw in the towel for now. As fun as all of this is, I still want to get to Sandra before Akiko comes back and she fucks me silly again~.
This surprisingly works much better~! The natural rotation of the blood through the heart suffuses them with a much more manageable level of Qi after I focus and pool the silvery starlight particles into my lungs, letting the body do what it does best and regulate itself. I take it a step further – just on a whim at seeing the lung thing pan out – and try focusing Qi directly into the corded muscles of my arms in lieu of waiting for the blood to carry it there over time.
I quickly learn two things. The first, is that it works! The muscles greedily eat up the energy being fed to them, to a point, before they seem satisfied and then the blood begins to level them off and stabilize what I’ve done. By the end of the experiment, I can feel my arms become stronger, even if my stats don’t necessarily go up from the experience. The second thing I learn is that it hurts like a bitch!! I nearly howl out in agony when the Qi first started dripping directly to my target, the shock of pain sending spasms through my physical body and my soul avatar who is floating out in the void still.
“Aims?? Are you okay sweetie??” I hear Ios quickly ask from over my avatar’s shoulder, turning both it and my perspective to take in the full and also complete form of the spirit companion in question. I can’t help but to let the space around us tinge in a pretty shade of pink as I realize that she is stark naked and literally standing a hairs breath away from my soul avatar. To my shock, the soul avatar itself also blushes, its discoloration perfectly matching the color’s surrounding us.
“This is still so bizarre,” I speak out discordantly from myself, the voice of the avatar echoey and wavy but with a tinge of power behind its words. Ios reaches out and cups my face with two of her hands, the other two going to land on my hips as she looks me up and down in a motherly, concerned way. Seemingly satisfied, she seems to realize that we are both naked here in this realm, and that my generous breasts are nearly pressing up and into her still amazing but slightly smaller ones, her own blush coming to the surface as she floats away a few paces.
I raise up my hand to touch my cheek where she laid her hands on me, the sensation electrifying in a way that I’ve never felt before, the phantom memory of it still tingles and sends pleasant shockwaves through my avatar. Maybe its because it’s the soul space? Like, we are touching each other on a more intimate and intense level while we’re here? Oh god… what if… what if we had sex here…
In a bit of a self-own, the soul scape which was only faintly tinged in flirty pink now becomes awash in a lustful and vibrant cherry, the crimson on my cheeks all too telling of the reason why. Ios chuckles softly a couple times before she says, “Feels different in here huh? I wonder what you were thinking that got this place so… horny~? Hehe~. You look great by the way, well done on making your avatar~!”
I huff and turn my head to the side, not wanting to prove her right even though she 100% is. “W-well! It was just a new experience so of course I was going to be curious about some stuff! But… thanks, for the compliment… Getting back to the point, yeah I’m fine. I was just testing out some stuff for the soul and body path. Well, mainly the body path. I found that while I can’t necessarily load up a red blood cell with Qi, I can flood my lungs with it and have the body distribute it along with oxygen like normal. A slower but surer path to building up my bones, skin, and muscles and stuff.
What made me cringe in pain was that I tried force feeding said muscles directly with Qi, and while it worked, and was way quicker, it also hurt like a mother fucker! Although once they got fed all the way, the pain did stop… Maybe I just have to suck it up and do that for everything? Heavens, I hope not…”
Ios just floats there as I ramble on in thought, speaking out my thought process a little bit as I raise a hand to my chin. “Aims.” Ios says in a tone between astonishment and incredulity, “You’re just supposed to slowly feed Qi through your body, mostly just using your lungs and blood like you said. What you’re doing is shit you’re supposed to learn in the 4th Realms, the Eternal Body Rank! Jesus, you are a monster.”
I can’t help but to give a shy smile as the avatar rubs the back of its head helplessly. “Uhm… Oops? Should I stop doing that then and just focus on improving the Qi dispersion rate to the blood? Probably could adjust and fix the pressure and flow of it too so that it delivers the energy better…”
Ios just sighs as she shakes her head, her curly blonde hair waving behind her apparently giving up on rationalizing anything about this crazy scenario. “No, honestly at this point it wouldn’t matter. You already know how to do it, so you’re going to subconsciously steer whatever you end up doing towards that direction anyway. The reason it hurts so damn much, by the way, is that body cultivation is generally a pretty painful thing to master. You’re essentially constantly destroying and reforming your entire body, making it better and better at using and absorbing Qi. It hurts extra bad because you skipped a whole ass Rank and went straight toward shit people do after they’ve been cultivating for a hundred years or so, typically.”
I give her one more shy shrug of my shoulders before nodding, not bothering to tell her about the already formed meridians I found too. At least, not yet. I feel bad for overloading the poor, sexy woman who surely has her hands full with my constant antics~. “Okay then, I’ll just… devote some time to that when Akiko gives me a break, in-between healing Sandra. Speaking of, want to come with me and go see her? Since you’re here and all.”
Ios’ eyes light up at the offer, one of her hands reaching out to hold mine as she smiles and nods eagerly. “I would love to tag along~! You ready to head there no-…” She’s cut off from her question as we instantaneously teleport over to Sandra’s spot in my soul space, her perfectly healed shell bobbing up and down slightly in the void as Ios just shakes her head once more at me. “Definitely a monster~. I remember when you first started doing all of this, how much time and effort it took you just to figure out how to get here. You’re starting to really come into your own, love. I’m proud of you.”
I do my best not to shy away from the compliments and attention, just opting to give her a little hug as a way of saying thanks before turning back to Sandra’s form, both of our eyes looking over the still silent passenger. “*Sigh* I wish it would be just as easy to heal her. At least to the point that she can reliably talk back with us. I don’t know why she’s still asleep, especially when she was so much more vocal and emotive during the trials… I wonder if the Empress would know…”
Ios turns back to me with a questioning look as she asks, “What makes you think that? Did she say something to you about Sandra aside from what to do to heal her?”
I shake my head, a hypothesis starting to form from the few interactions I’ve had with the powerful deity. “Not quite, but… When I was fighting Panic, towards the end after the Empress smacked it to the ground and then smote it, she talked directly to me for the first time. Kind of like how she did when I was in the crater after… eating… the clone that Heaven sent down.” I shiver in a confusing mix of emotions at the admission, speaking it aloud still making the complicated feelings start to bubble up and fight with themselves again. Ios reaches over and lays a hand on my shoulder, the sparking touch jolting me out of my cloudy expression from the sheer intensity that it brings in this space.
I give her a small smile as I raise my hand up to hers, “Thanks. I’ll… I’ll come to terms with all of that later. I don’t think I’m quite ready to go over all of it just yet, but I’m okay. Anyways, the Empress gave her speech to me, telling me ‘be not afraid’ like some biblical angel spooking the pants off some poor farmer in the desert, before she told me to rest. That was when I was out for days on end, and I only woke up when the Empress turned to me in the dream… er… memory and told me to wake up. And she did the same thing when I was asking her how to keep healing Sandra…”
Ios hums alongside me as she thinks, still giving the occasional rub across my soul avatar’s skin that threatens to make me break out into small moans. Okay… we are for sure having sex here at some point if just casual touching feels this amazing~. Well, not like here here, in front of Sandy’s sleeping soul. Back at the flow model or something. Hell, maybe I can build a place that Ios, Ilya, Sandy, and I can all crash at? Thoughts for later~.
Ios pipes back up as I’m laying out my fantasy floorplan, seemingly coming to the same conclusion I have. “I see what you mean. Every time you’ve interacted with the Empress in a dream state, or I suppose in a somewhat liminal space like during the heart demon trials, she was the one that told you to wake up. Until she gave that command, you were stuck asleep, seemingly. So, I’m guessing you’re thinking that she commanded Sandra to rest too?”
I sigh as I nod, my vision once more looking back to my sister in a complicated way. “I think she did it after the trial, and honestly I can’t blame her for it then. Sandra had used so much energy, got hurt so badly, that the smartest thing to do was to put her to sleep. It just irks me that she’s still asleep, and that I don’t remember the Empress speaking through me to tell Sandy to rest, so that means she has some level of autonomy outside of when she’s possessing me. Which is still kind of a scary sentence, now that I say it out loud, but at least it’s been more of a… joint ownership over my soul and body these last few times.”
Ios just agrees quietly with me as we both float there, taking in the sparkling golden shell of Sandra Dufort for a few moments before she leans over to give me a hug. “We will figure it out, sweetheart. I promise. Even if we have to go scold that uber powerful being to get it done~. Want me to hang out while you get to work here? Or do you want some space to settle your mind?”
I smile into the hug, the full contact once more reinforcing the idea that we may not need toys after all to start getting more physical with each other~. “You can stay, if you want honey. I’m going to do like you said earlier, focus on what exactly I gained and how I made this avatar and deconstruct the process mentally. Maybe I can piece together how to help Sandy recover those damaged internal bits if I understand how the whole system works. As much of it as I can understand for now, anyways.”
Ios gives me a final squeeze before floating back a few feet, giving me space to cross my legs and focus on myself, my soul, and the avatar that binds me with both.
