Through the mental connection he had with the star maidens, Aster could feel the burning fighting spirit of Aria and that made him smile, she and Alice haven't stopped getting stronger with the intention of proudly standing next to him when the time comes.
And that motivates Aster to not let up, if he wants to keep his family safe, he's got to be strong, just like with Rya, he will never let anything separate them from him.
Aster who was flying towards the Void Manipulation snake, realized his mind was going through what motivated him to fight, and that made him frown.
For a moment he thought he was going through introspective, just like what happened inside Esmeralda's secret realm, but he then shook his head, it was different.
He decided to leave it for later and focus in the current situation, the snake had recovered from the previous shook, its right eye was half closed due to the damage it received earlier and there was blood flooding from the scales Aster destroyed.
Surprisingly the wound wasn't healing, even if it's a yin attribute spirit beast, a spirit beast has an insane amount of vitality, so by any means the fracture on its scales should have cicatrized at this point.
Aster's eyes glowed, he could only think of his Dragon Aura doing something, but he didn't understand what.
'Whatever I'll inspect its corpse later, for now…'.
"Hiissss!", the snake angrily hissed at Aster, this time it wasn't underestimating him anymore, and recognized him as a threat.
The snake opened its snout and then it actually shot two lines of black poison from its fangs, trying to take Aster by surprise.
The plan was successful to a certain extent, the poison flew too fast, even for Aster who was using reaction enhancement, the surprise attack of a Void Manipulation being was too much for him to out speed to dodge.
Luckily, he didn't have the need to, the atmosphere surrounding him blurred and then Aster punched frontwards.
"Boooom!", a loud explosion was created by the friction his fist caused when he punched, and under the surprised eyes of the giant snake, his poisonous spit was blown away and landed a couple of kilometers at the other side of the battlefield, melting the leg of one of the Genesis Manifestation spirit beasts.
Aster felt the urge to laugh out loud, he has started to get the hang of what his Dragon Aura could do, his image flashed and taking advantage of the blind spot he created by blinding the right eye of the snake, he bypassed its defense to land on the neck of the snake.
With his leg cladded in the golden armor as well as Dragon Aura, he kicked the neck of the snake and a thunder-like explosion echoed through the battlefield.
"Crack!", the scales on the neck of the snake exploded on the spot and blood spilled everywhere, surprisingly not even a stain remained on Aster's leg, Aster then turned his body on the air and kicked the snake this time with his left leg, making some scales fly all over the place.
"Hiiiiiisss!", the snake was smacked against the ground and it started to twist its body and smack its tail everywhere, trying to get rid of the pain and also keep the enemy away in the process.
Unfortunately for it, how could Aria let the chance Aster created for her, go to waste.
She grabbed her rapier and pointed it towards the snake, cold mist leaked her body which now had a platinum blue glow covering it, making her look like an ice fairy, her pretty lips slightly opened as she said.
"Ice Fairy, Permafrost Seal", with some gestures, she commanded her ice to restrain the snake, and giant ice chackles raised from the ground, the first wrapped around the snout of the snake pulling it downwards towards the ground.
Then every ten meters another shackle appeared, until the snake was completely pinned against the ground, Aria's face was a bit pale, this technique required her to use a lot of spirit energy, just like permafrost this ice won't melt nor break, ignoring any limitation of her realm, the one being restricted with it won't be able to do anything when touched by this ice, as long as Aria has spirit energy of course.
Right now, the snake was trying to escape and Aria was the only one preventing it, Aster who was already descending from the sky to deal his last attack, shouted.
"Get ready!", he knew Aria wasn't going to be able to keep the snake down for too long, the fact that her ice was sealing the abilities of the snake was a surprise even for him, she genuinely froze it.
"Haaa!", not even a millisecond later Aster moved his right arm backwards and then punched the snake's nape consecutively, a total of eight punches in total, resulting in an area of twenty meters were all the scales of the snake were crushed turning into a bloody mess.
The poor snake couldn't even move but its pupils contracted, and the ice shackles started trembling, in a try to survive it started putting more effort to escape from Aria's seal, since its life literally depended on it.
"Now!", with Aster's greenlight, Nerissa and Tiana who were ready since a moment ago, appeared above the giant snake.
As they previously discussed, Nerissa was the first one to move, her body exploded in water spirit energy and sword intent, she was going all out this time, based on the fact that there was actually water of two different colors surrounding her, in other words she was using the two seas she has mastered.
"Nine Sea's Sword, Raising Tsunami!", the entirety of her sword intent was injected into her sword, which was enlarged due to Ghost Sword, her water spirit energy was also given an edge thanks to sharpening, and when she waved her sword, all of that followed her cut.
"Hiiiissss!", the snake finally broke out of Aria's seal, but it was too late, the wave of blue light released by Nerissa's sword, entered through the weak point Aster created using all the Dragon Aura he had right now, and it peeled the skin of the snake starting from its neck all the way to the tail.
The result was that the skin and meat on the back of the snake was cleanly cut, revealing its column, the snake whose internal body was exposed crazily hissed, the pain overwhelmed it, which made sense since Nerissa's sword basically skinned it alive.
But it was still able to move thanks to the huge vitality a spirit beast has, at least until the next moment when Tiana made her movement.
Her hair turned silver-white and then her body accelerated downwards, she used her innate ability to repel herself, gaining moment momentum as she smacked her war spear against the exposed bones of the spirit beast.
"Booom!", a large amount of dust was raised as Tiana's spear clashed against the backbone of the snake, the shockwave would have harmed Tiana if it wasn't for the array engraved on her spear.
With the momentum she gained along with her war spear which is actually absurdly heavy, she snapped the spine of the snake, its bones weren't as hard as other spirit beasts since its specialty isn't defense, what protected it were its scales but Aster created an opening into its armor, which Nerissa took advantage of to cut it from below.
"Ah, damn!", though Tiana was able to ignore the recoil thanks to her spear, she was still sent flying backwards by it, since her spear bounced back after it crushed the bones of the snake.
"Mm, what is this…", she mumbled.
Before she was flown away too far, she felt a pair of strong arms catching her on the air, Aster was already expecting something like this to happen, so he became a golden flash of light the very moment she was bounced away and caught her on the air.
The moment of contact didn't last for more than a couple of seconds, Aster dispelled the momentum that made Tiana bounce away, using the paragon body and then let go of her.
They then descended to the ground next to Nerissa who was breathing heavily next to the snake, whose eyes were being abandoned by their light, the bones and nerves on its neck were crushed by Tiana, so it was obviously dying, it also lost a lot of blood due to Nerissa's slash.
After confirming it was dead, Aster's image flashed and the next thing Tiana and Nerissa noticed was that he was now next to Aria.
Aria was sitting on the ground with a tired expression on her pretty face, her breath was a bit unstable, but nothing could affect the beautiful smile she had on her right now, she just held back a Void Manipulation spirit beast for a total of ten seconds, it costed her all her spirit energy, but she did it.
"That ice is an innate ability, previously… I could have at most lasted five seconds… this is thanks to my body being stronger now, though the yin of this place helped too", she said with a breathy voice.
Aster softly laughed as he carried her in his arms, she wasn't sitting on the ground just because she used all her spirit energy, she has developed some stamina thanks to her physical training, so she won't collapse just because of that, though a small headache was assaulting her right now indeed.
The reason as to why she wasn't moving at all is the side effect of her "Ice Fairy" form, when she uses that, the excess yin in her body is turned into energy to reinforce her ice, it's a boosting type ability, she didn't add "Bewitching" to it, since she didn't reinforce her soul energy, as she has sworn to only show that side of her to Aster and no one else.
The side effect of the Ice Fairy form, is that after all the yin in her body is circulated to enhance her techniques, some meridians end up filled to the brim with yin energy, making certain parts of the body… sensitive.
In other words, the erogenous zones on Aria's body were overly sensitive right now, it didn't limit to the most common ones like the vagina or her breasts, mouth, lips, ears, nape, back, lower back and inner thighs all of that had become a source of pleasure for her.
Aster carried her and started using his yang radiance to dispel the excess of yin energy, Aria smiled and rested her head on Aster's chest, while she giggled.
Her body constitution isn't supposed to be used for head on battle or an intense amount of physical effort, but for illusions, charm, control using her ice and dual cultivation.
But she has decided to not follow the path that the heavens had prepared for her, but the one she has chosen so that she can walk at her lover's side, whether it's for the better or not, only the time will tell.
For now, she could feel her body all tingly, and aroused, which made her face blush, she isn't as shameless as Alice, so getting all worked up in public isn't exactly her thing, her nipples were especially sensible, making her bit her lip every time they rubbed against her bra.
How could Aster who knows every one of her reactions not notice it, he lasciviously licked his lips as he whispered at Aria.
"We haven't had time for ourselves lately, now that Eris and Agnes are here, we can take it a bit easier, so tonight you are mine", he playfully said.
Aria's face turned red as a tomato, but her smile betrayed her ashamed expression, she just hid her face on Aster's chest and slightly nodded as she let out an almost unnoticeable sound.
"Mm".
While he helped Aria get rid of the excess of yin, Aster walked towards the corpse of the giant snake, it took all of Aria and Nerissa's spirit energy as well as all the Dragon Aura he could use for the time being, Tiana felt her arms numb and she used almost all her soul energy to repel herself, but they actually killed a Void Manipulation spirit beast.
A group of four members of the young generation who haven't even reached the Mortal Transcending realm, actually killed a Void Manipulation being, it is an achievement without precedents!
Well maybe Lilia and her sisters could have done the same back then, if they would have met when they weren't in the Transcending realms which wasn't the case, so this merit went for Aster and the girls.
Nerissa and Tiana were looking at the snake, their minds were still processing the fact that they killed something so many realms stronger than them, they then turned around to see Aster who was flirting with Aria.
"Is she okay?", asked Nerissa, she might be new to the group, but even if she isn't close enough to be considered Aria's friend, she is the senior sister of the Black Sword faction, and Aria is part of the faction too, so she is a junior sister for her.
It's a bit strange, but she certainly worries about each and every of the girls that join the faction, whether she knows them personally or not.
Tiana didn't say anything, but her expression gave her away, she, Alice and Aria are friends and rivals now, so she was clearly worried about Aria who seemed to be a bit feverish.
Aster chuckled; those two confused Aria's aroused state as having overexerted her powers.
'Well in a sense she went a bit too far, just like a body cultivator would', thought Aster as he decided to reward his cute ice princess later.
"Don't worry, Aria is just tired, with a good night of rest she'll be in perfect conditions".
Those two nodded, Aster waved his hand and send the corpse of the snake into one empty spatial ring, which he then sent to the mind space, he doesn't want a bloody mess to stain the space in which he lives with Rya and Lilia after all.
"The battles of the others should be ending too, let's reunite and then advance, there shouldn't be more spirit beasts left in the nearby area", he said.
The girls nodded and they started slowly flying towards the others, there was a curtain of dust preventing them from seeing what was happening in the other battlefields, but they had 100% trust that they were going to win.
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