A wide level disparity is needed to behave as rampantly as the elder from the Eternal Wind Sect did. It wouldn’t be strange if his level surpassed 600 or even 650, added to the magic artifacts he possesses, these calculations aren't far from reality.
After venting for a few minutes, Lawrence feels it's time to put this woman in her place. It won’t be long before she reaches his level and is able to read his mind, by then it will be hard to change her attitude.
“Rise, Serene Will, you must be thirsty… A week without showing you my love.”
Serene Will frowns, knowing what will happen next.
And she is not wrong, Lawrence has sex with her in front of Sky Petal, reminding her of her place. From that moment on, he enjoyed the bodies of both women.
Hours later, he checks the current state of his women and smiles.
“Hm, not bad.”
Leaving the two women fainted with pleasure on the bed, Lawrence happily heads to the bathroom to take a shower. It's quite amusing to see them wake up and discover their current state, especially Serene Will, the prouder of the two.
It wouldn’t be until Serene Will regained her senses that Lawrence asks about the belongings of Eonis Pavilion.
“Is there anything of use to me?”
Serene Will understands his words, but then shakes her head. “The only magics that are somewhat related to sacred affinity are a lightning magic and a light magic.”
“Do I look stupid?”
He clicks his tongue and extends his hand, “Hand them over, seems you forgot that the Dimensional Rift skill doesn’t appear in just any cat or dog. I may look this way, but my talent in sacred magic is not bad at all.”
With skepticism, she hands them over and evaluates his gaze.
He reads them and then nods his head. “Right, they are related. I'll entertain myself these days turning them into sacred magic.”
She is shocked, she may not read his mind but is quite skilled at reading involuntary movements. Lawrence really has talent in sacred affinity.
‘Tsk, what other good item will those storage rings have?’
Lawrence sincerely wishes to snatch their rings and check their contents, but if he does, they will have no desire to find more. There is no worse worker than one who hates his job, taking all the good items will only bring the opposite result.
Reluctantly he avoided asking for the rest.
+++
Divine Plane.
“Lawrence, are these really your words?”
Coldness Divine has gained a much deeper understanding of the world thanks to Lawrence's words, but the more she understands, the more she begins to feel the interruptions in her enlightenment.
They are minor disturbances that alter the flow, at one moment she is about to reach the final purpose when a flicker holds her back from continuing.
Lawrence is not being honest when interpreting the mysteries of the world.
“Whose else would they be?”
Thanks to Celestial Firmament, he understands that it’s hard to tell when an entity has been in contact with a dragon. They are beings difficult to perceive, due to their closeness to the world. Lawrence is not afraid to mention the subject knowing this.
Coldness Divine pauses for a second and then nods. “True, a monkey speaking with a dragon. None would be crazy enough like me to have you as a guest.”
‘I’m sorry to tell you there’s another crazy.’ He responds in her thoughts.
Both are sitting in front of the fish pond, but only Lawrence sees them as pets, because Coldness Divine sees them as prey. The beauty is hard to express for a dragon, the fish themselves might be beautiful in Lawrence’s eyes, not for Coldness Divine.
In her eyes, the laws of the world are much more beautiful than anything else.
‘Hah, this woman is already beginning to doubt. It won’t be long before she realizes that my words are borrowed, but no matter. I have been prepared for that day for a long time.’
It’s in the following days that he decides to take the second step in his plan of capture.
“Huh? Hide my wings? Do you know what you’re asking me, human?”
“I know, that’s why I’m doing it.”
The atmosphere changes completely in just an instant, the amusement in her eyes disappears, replaced by hatred and disdain.
“Give me a good reason not to show you your place.”
Any servant would fall to the ground trembling in fear, in fact, Lawrence himself feels chills just by making her his enemy.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
He knows he’s risking a lot, but must maintain his stance.
“Level compression.”
Coldness Divine narrows her eyes upon hearing those simple words. Her understanding is enough to grasp one or two pieces of the puzzle.
“I won’t explain further, it’s your choice.”
“Human…”
The atmosphere quickly turns hostile.
“Do not disappoint me a second time, Lawrence. To fail means to lose everything, you won’t be different from them in my eyes.”
Her small wings disappear without leaving a mark or trace. Coldness Divine sits down facing away from him, this single action representing her stance towards him. Once Celestial Firmament said it, reducing his size beyond a certain limit is humiliation.
Coldness Divine feels her pride wounded as she hides her roots. If it weren't for living in this type of place, she would have preferred to be dead rather than heed the words of a human.
Contemplating her uncovered back, a smile appears on Lawrence’s face.
He hides his smile and says: “Do not obstruct my mana for any reason, you know as well as I do what will happen.”
Lawrence positions his hands on the warm back of Coldness Divine, right where her wings used to be. It is strictly necessary to have access to her heart, as this will be the core of the cycle.
The words of Celestial Firmament come to his mind.
The chances of success will depend on your luck and talent. They are much farther from the world compared to the ancient dragons, yet at the same time, they are closer than any human.>
Mana flows into the body of Coldness Divine, starting from her heart.
“Kuh…”
Blood spurts from her mouth. Coldness Divine tries to endure it, hiding the blood between her hands, but the origin is far from over.
“Endure it, I’ll heal your wounds while I perform the cycle.”
The mana should follow the path proposed by Lawrence, but her dragon instincts disrupt the continuity. Each path holds a meaning, there are thousands of them that make up the level compression.
Each time it advances, her instincts discover the meaning and try to guide Lawrence’s mana towards another direction, when he refuses, damage occurs.
But neither Lawrence nor Coldness Divine are aware of this.
“First cycle, did you memorize it?”
“Barely.”
A single word is so hard to say, in her life, this is the first time she feels her body so chaotic and uncontrollable.
“Damn it, do it right. Weren’t you a genius?”
“Kuh…”
‘Bastard! If I weren’t in such a miserable state, I’d retort!’
Lawrence would like to slow down this process, unfortunately, the speed must be stable or else the failure will destroy Coldness Divine’s internal organs. In her case, it would only mean going back in time, but Lawrence can’t afford to fail!
He must not forget his original purpose at any cost!
“Second cycle, well?”
“...”
“Are you a masochist? Do you like feeling pain?”
“Kuh…”
‘Trash! It’s humiliating enough to hide my wings! I won’t tolerate your degrading insults!’
The cycle generated is slightly different from what Lawrence is accustomed to, according to Celestial Firmament what is sought is not the cycle, but its purpose. It’s already surprising that he completed one cycle, a second? Simply, Lawrence is putting all his effort into not killing her by accident.
“Third cycle, don’t tell me--”
“I did it, now leave.”
“Oh, congratulations, Coldness Divine.”
“Don’t stroke my back! Don’t get cocky, human!”
Her wings appear inadvertently, Lawrence steps back with his hands raised in a sign of peace. Coldness Divine snorts, but she does not dare waste valuable time. She clearly remembers the cycle created by this man, it was not stable enough to compress a level, but necessary to impress her deeply.
In silence, he observes her carefully, moments later he smiles.
“You succeeded on your first attempt, not bad.”
Her level decreased from 318 to 317, yet maintaining the same strength.
Internally, Coldness Divine feels a new world opening before her eyes, different from a human, dragons are capable of seeing much more in the compression of levels. Lawrence needed several attempts to learn about the remnants after the compression, she unconsciously was aware of them.
In other words, not only did she succeed on the first attempt, but it was a perfect compression.
“Have you fallen in love with me?”
The smile on his face is enough for Coldness Divine to understand he is playing with her. “Ha! Bring me more of these changes and maybe I will.”
“Tsk, as if it were that easy.”
The cold heart of a dragon is far from melting.
+++
“It’s no longer effective to keep hunting the demonic beasts around, is it time to delve deeper?”
Sky Petal picks up the core of a demonic beast and sighs, they have been hunting all day and only now has her level increased by one.
“What do they say?”
“They say it’s feasible… or something like that. Sometimes it’s hard to discern their meaning.”
They have slain a variety of demonic beasts, her initial level of 320 increased to 360 within just days of arriving in the city. Now that weeks have passed, they will soon surpass the level 400 barrier.
“If I used my methods, we would have surpassed this long ago--”
“Serene Will.”
“Hah…”
Serene Will can only sigh. The waters have calmed, there are no hunters willing to have ulterior motives towards them. The small fame they gained that day has made life much easier for them.
If this were the Inferior Plane, Serene Will would have left long ago. Only by going against the current will she sharpen her sword. Lawrence was not wrong in mentioning her role as the protagonist, because in the Inferior Plane she was always in the eye of the storm.
Despite everything, bad habits never die, they just camouflage themselves.
“Good news, that question you asked me has just been answered by the plants.”
Weeks ago, Serene Will had her ask the plants a question, but those stationed in this place did not have the answer. Her words were transmitted thousands of kilometers until one was able to respond.
“There’s a cavern that meets the conditions, but it’s located in White Utopia City. Why did you want to know?”
“For this…”
“A fire ingot?”
In her hands, a magical mineral of fire affinity.
It’s no different from any other, but the ability of Serene Will says otherwise. She infuses her mana into the mineral forming a unique pattern, the next instant it glows changing shape.
“A sun?”
A fire sphere resides in her hands, upon closer inspection it is possible to observe the archaic design of a sun. Sky Petal doesn’t need to think too much to discover its purpose.
“That’s the key to entering the secret hideout of Eonis Pavilion…”
“I’m surprised you were able to figure it out with so few clues.” Serene Will smiles and continues saying: “It’s been a while since his death, the rumors should have quieted by now. I’ve been thinking about how to deal with him, thanks to you now I know how.”
“It won’t be as easy as you think. The information I have is limited, but that man has a myriad of enemies. His death has only caused them to spiral out of control.”
“I know, that’s why this time we’ll need his help.”
Sky Petal blinks curiously, it's strange that Serene Will smiles when talking about that man behind his back. Normally, she avoids mentioning him, could it be that she misses him? His visits have been kept to once a week, perhaps that time is not enough to quench the thirst she harbors inside.
The next day someone opens the door to their residence without even knocking.
No words are necessary, for Serene Will approaches him and kisses him.
Sky Petal says: “Lawrence, we have something to tell you.”
He immediately frowns, ‘Damn it! What happened now?’
The last time he heard those words, it was due to a head-on war against hundreds of knights in silver armor, what could it be this time? A confrontation against an evil sect?
“We have enough clues to ensure we have found the secret hideout of Eonis Pavilion. His treasure vault.”
“Oh.”
Slowly Lawrence withdraws his hand from Serene Will’s neck.