Chapter 208: EXTRA Chapter. GATES 1.
It is honestly wild how quickly humanity just accepted the fact that glowing magical portals could rip open the sky at any given moment. Like one day everyone is just going to work and paying their taxes and complaining about the weather and the next day a literal rift in the fabric of space tears open above the city skyline. These rifts are called Gates and they are completely terrifying. They dump out monsters that look like they crawled right out of some twisted nightmare and if they are not cleared out fast enough they erupt and destroy everything in their path. The only reason the world has not ended a hundred times over is because of the Awakeners. These are people who randomly got superpowers when the Gates first appeared. They are treated like absolute royalty now. Like they are celebrities and weapons and heroes all rolled into one heavily publicized package. And sitting at the very top of that ridiculous hierarchy is Bai Li.
Bai Li is officially ranked as an SSS Class Awakener which basically means she is a walking natural disaster. She is widely recognized across the globe as litraly one of the strongest people to have ever lived. The funny thing is that nobody actually knows what her powers are. She has never revealed the nature of her abilities in any interview or press conference and every single battle she fights only creates more insane rumors. Some people swear they have seen her control time itself because her enemies just freeze in place before they die. Other people firmly beleive she can erase existence because monsters just vanish when she looks at them too hard. A few crazy conspiracy theorists online even think she is not entirely human and that she is some kind of guardian angel or demon sent to protect the earth. Governments treat her with overwhelming respect and her enemies are absolutely terrified of her. No one has ever seen her take a serious hit or get injured in any way whatsoever. She is the ultimate cold and untouchable legend to the public.
But the reality is so completely different that it is almost hilarious. Despite her terrifying and overwhelming reputation Bai Li is absolutely nothing like the cold god the public imagines her to be. When the cameras are off and she is safely behind closed doors she is playful and shameless and endlessly affectionate. More importantly she is completely and entirely devoted to only one person in the entire universe. Her wife Yan Cijin. Yan Cijin is an SS ranked Awakener known everywhere as the Bloom Empress. She possesses these elegant but utterly devastating nature based abilities that are capable of overwhelming even the largest Gates. She can summon massive glowing lotuses that crush buildings and vines that tear through steel like it is wet paper. She is admired worldwide not just for her incredible strength but also for her breathtaking beauty. In public Yan Cijin is always graceful and perfectly composed. She has this regal aura that makes people want to bow when she walks into a room. But whenever she is alone with Bai Li she becomes adorably shy and easily flustered. She turns bright red whenever Bai Li openly flirts with her which happens roughly every five minutes.
The media absolutely loves them. The contrast between them makes headlines constantly. You have the world’s strongest hunter who acts like a mysterious shadow and the world’s most beutiful hunter who looks like a nature goddess. But to the people who actually know them they are just the world’s sweetest and most obnoxious married couple. Just last night Bai Li returned from a incredibly dangerous S Class Gate that had popped up over a major industrial zone. She cleared it out in record time without breaking a single sweat and as a reward the hunter association granted her an entire month of mandatory leave before her next deployment. They always try to give her time off so she does not get burned out but usually she just ignores them. This time however she practically ran out of the association headquarters. Instead of accepting any interviews or attending any fancy political dinner invitations she happily disappeared from the public eye just to spend every single waking moment with Yan Cijin. What follows over the next month is definately not another epic battle to save the world from destruction. It is simply thirty perfectly peaceful days shared between two women who are so deeply in love it makes everyone around them jealous.
The very first morning of their vacation starts exactly the same way every morning starts when Bai Li is home. The massive futuristic city outside their window is still dark and quiet but the soft morning light is just starting to filter through their bedroom curtains. Bai Li is already awake because she barely needs any sleep anyway. She is lying on her side just openly staring at Yan Cijin who is still fast asleep. Yan Cijin looks incredibly soft and peaceful with her dark hair scattered across the white pillows. Bai Li smiles this massive goofy smile and gently reaches out to trace the line of her wife’s jaw. She leans in and presses a super soft sleepy kiss to Yan Cijin’s forehead. Then she moves down and leaves another gentle kiss on her left cheek. Then the right cheek. Then the tip of her nose. Finally she captures Yan Cijin’s lips in a slow and warm kiss that lasts until Yan Cijin softly groans and starts to wake up. Yan Cijin slowly opens her eyes and blinks against the morning light. The very first thing she sees is Bai Li grinning at her like a total idiot.
"Good morning my absolute gorgeous perfect wife," Bai Li whispers in a rough and sleepy voice. She wraps her arms tightly around Yan Cijin’s waist and pulls her closer so there is zero space between them. "Did you sleep well because I spent the last hour just watching you breathe and realizing how insanely lucky I am."
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TO BE CONTINUED.
