Silence settled inside the tent.
Ashen lay on the mattress, staring at the fabric ceiling above him as Alice slept in his arms. Her soft body was pressed against his side. Her breathing slowed as she drifted into a deep, peaceful sleep.
One of her hands rested over his chest, as though she needed reassurance that he was still here.
Ashen lowered his gaze to her sleeping face.
Traces of tears still lingered at the corners of her eyes, yet her expression was serene… almost blissful.
Anyone seeing this scene would struggle to imagine what had happened only moments ago.
Ashen, however, remembered everything.
The loss of control. The maddening hunger. The beast he unleashed…
His fingers twitched slightly.
He remembered his body changing, reason swallowed, giving way to a primal instinct. He remembered pinning Alice beneath him, recalled the madness in his own breathing, and how close his fangs had come to tearing through her throat.
One more second… One more moment of indulgence… That was all it would have taken.
And yet…
Ashen's expression remained calm. Because in truth, from beginning to end—
Everything had been under control.
He had known from the start that he wouldn't be able to bring himself to push Alice all the way to the brink.
When it came to her, his heart had always been too soft.
So, he devised another plan.
If he couldn't force himself to do it, then he would simply shut down his consciousness and let his body, guided purely by instinct, do the job.
Achieving that was relatively simple with a combination of Lucid Dreamweaving and Somatic Autonomy.
Of course, he didn't stop there. Using those same Path Skills, he set two separate triggers.
The first would activate just before Alice lost control of her concepts, forcibly halting both their coupling and the overwhelming pleasure.
The second would activate the moment Alice successfully attained her Anchor.
Monitoring her Anchor was straightforward. Through Dreamweaving, he could directly observe the state of her mind and detect the exact moment of breakthrough.
As for determining when her concepts were about to rebel, that was even easier.
Even if Somatic Autonomy couldn't perceive concepts directly, it could still detect their influence on her flesh.
After reaching Zenith mastery, the skill's versatility had increased drastically. One of its most useful improvements was the ability to preprogram commands that could execute automatically at a later time.
That was how he had awakened at the precise moment, right in the middle of his rampage over his lover's body.
'Though… sometimes I feel like the skill is half-alive and simply listening to my wishes instead of following preprogrammed commands…'
Either way, his plan had worked exactly as intended.
In fact, Alice had exceeded all his expectations and succeeded on the very first attempt. He had originally expected to repeat the process several times, based on Seraphine's experience.
But perhaps he should have accounted for compatibility as well before drawing comparisons.
Despite Seraphine possessing the absurd advantage of increasing her affinity with Chastity through intimacy with him, which was a paradox ridiculous enough to make even logic give up, she still lagged behind Alice's compatibility with Lust for now.
Either way, after this whole Anchor business, Ashen found himself strangely grateful for Sloth's traits, even if its progression was slower than all the other Sins combined.
After all, despite its glacial pace, Sloth never encountered bottlenecks in its advancement.
Whether he prepared an Anchor or not, he would eventually reach the next step safely as long as he properly embodied his current epithet.
…which he had already accomplished by lying motionless under a boulder for a hundred years.
'So now, all I can do is wait…'
Ashen sighed.
Ashen had been about to use this rare moment alone to visit his twin Soul and ask a few questions when he felt a familiar probe brush against his barrier.
It was Seraphine, using the barrier's alert function as a makeshift bell.
'Well… it's been over ten hours. She must be worried.'
Ashen dissolved the soundproof barrier and called out.
"Sera. Come in."
He barely finished speaking before the tent flap shifted, Seraphine already inviting herself inside.
Her curious gaze swept across the room. Then her cute nose twitched twice, picking up the lingering scent, before her eyes finally settled on the couple resting on the mattress.
Seeing Alice sound asleep, her lips curved upward.
"Is it a success?" she whispered.
"Yes… and you don't need to whisper. I cast a spell; she won't be waking up anytime soon."
For some reason, Ashen whispered back anyway.
'They say foolishness is contagious. Perhaps airheadedness works the same way…'
As Ashen drifted into his thoughts for a brief moment, he noticed Seraphine casually removing her shoes, long coat, and even her nun's habit before slipping onto his other side.
He glanced sideways as she snuggled against him.
"Hi…"
"Hello there."
As he answered her unexpectedly shy greeting, Ashen found his eyes wandering over the Saintess clad in pink underwear.
Seraphine didn't seem to mind.
If anything, she seemed to treat his gaze like some kind of wandering hands, subtly shifting to accentuate every place she felt his eyes linger on.
Before long, however, she seemed to realize just how silly she looked.
A deep blush spread across her face.
Unable to keep up the act any longer, she moved closer and buried her face in the nape of his neck.
Ashen had to hold back an involuntary laugh at the adorable reaction.
"I missed you…" came her muffled voice.
"I know…" He reached up to caress her golden hair. "That's why I worked so hard to have you back by my side."
"Really?!"
Seraphine lifted her head from its hiding place and looked up at him with sparkling eyes.
"Really." A faint smile appeared on his lips. "After yours truly wreaked havoc for four months, they decided having you healing people in the rear wasn't nearly as efficient as keeping you by my side and healing me exclusively so I could keep going."
Seraphine nodded rapidly like a chick pecking at rice, making Ashen smile even wider.
"Well, it wasn't strictly their idea," he added. "The proposal came from me."
"Oh?" Seraphine tilted her head. "How did you convince them?"
"It was easy." Ashen spoke with blatant smugness. "I told them I know your skills better than anyone, and that with you by my side, my usefulness would increase exponentially."
He paused, the smug grin widening.
"Of course, my merit did most of the heavy lifting. They couldn't exactly ignore me."
"Really?" Seraphine giggled. "Just like that? Well… at least you didn't lie to them. If there's anyone who knows me best, it would undoubtedly be you—the one who has accompanied me for more than five hundred years…"
"Well, none of them are privy to that little detail, but even so…" Ashen looked almost exasperated. "I still can't believe they're making the Consort of the Vampire Primordial act as a simple healer."
He clicked his tongue.
"Tsk, tsk…"
"Can't disobey superiors." Seraphine gave a helpless shrug in his embrace. "And if I try to explain, they'd ask me how and when. My hands are tied."
"Well, don't worry, my dear consort." Ashen grinned. "I'll help you unfurl your wings."
His eyes gleamed.
"We'll show them what the Saintess is truly capable of."
"Can't wait…"
Seraphine never finished her sentence.
The urge to kiss him surged too strongly, and her body moved on its own.
She lunged forward.
Their lips met in a heated clash, and before long, their tongues intertwined. Seraphine even bit his lip, as if she wanted to devour him whole.
'This horny little…'
Ashen briefly considered retaliating, but ultimately decided to let her do as she pleased.
It had been a while.