Although one of them escaped, the purpose of my return to this world could be considered successful.
It has only been two days but we managed to accomplish pooling all Transcendents in one place and dealt with them swiftly.
This is mostly because of the progress I made during my time in the Dark World as well as the progress the girls made while I'm away.
Thankfully, the World of System and World of Spirit's Portals were closed before the actual descent of the Dark World Transcendents, otherwise, we would be facing the same problem in those worlds and with the lack of our own Transcendents, the situation in all the worlds would be dire.
As I left Raiden to deal with the aftermath of the battle, I took the girls including Reinys and the other two back to the Whiteshade Division.
Old Man Reol also came with us since the Door of Transcendence will come three days later. He even wanted to stay to help Raiden wrap up everything. However, Erin nagged at him and even pushed me to help her convince him to make him change his mind.
In the end, he gave up and followed us to the Whiteshade Division.
To help Raiden in his cleanup job, I asked Ophelia to stay and lead the remaining Whiteshade Division members, although they're also grieving for the deaths of the others, they know full well the extent of that battle. They were already exposed to not just one Transcendent battle after all.
Ophelia readily agreed and like always, it's her show of gratitude. She also managed to breakthrough last night and she's now a 3rd Stage King Realm. With the stones I left her, it's possible for her to reach Emperor Realm in the future.
Although I asked her if she wanted to come with us to the other worlds, Ophelia rejected and said that the Whiteshade Division needed someone to lead them. With the upcoming cleansing of the Corrupted and the remaining Dark Beastmasters, another round of land grabbing will happen once again.
A high number of their population either died in Raiden's war or because they were Corrupted completely and that will leave most of the land uninhabited.
Hopefully, they could rebuild again and this time, have proper relations with each other despite being in different tribes.
Well, they're Barbarians so conflict will still sprout and that will allow for the survivors to progress quicker.
With the quality of the Source Energy rising thanks to the descent of the Dark World and Erin and Avelin becoming a Transcendent, reaching Emperor Realm and Transcendence might not be a simple dream anymore but of course, without some external assistance from someone like me, it will take years before one naturally climb up the ranks and rise to challenge the Transcendent Trials.
"Zerina."
Once we settled back at the fortress of the Whiteshade Division, after talking about the experience for a while, each girl returned to their rooms. Well, this time, I was left with a choice on who I will visit.
After spending the night with Yuko, I owed the others some alone time as well. Well, 'owed' didn't sound great. Let's just say, I also wanted to spend an alone time with them. To finally hear what's in their mind.
And to start off, I arrived at Zerina's door. This is the girl who always tries to be considerate.
Most of the time, she would settle herself talking at me for a short time before giving the rest of the 10 minutes to Yuko when the Interdimensional Communication still had a shared cooldown. And when my Incarnation was sent here, she would also only ask for a bit of its time before letting it do its objective here.
Now that I'm here… I want to hear everything from her. Ever since that day I left her behind in that world.
"Daisuke, come in." As soon as the door opened, Zerina who had changed out of her ash-gray armor into a one-piece black sleeveless dress that wonderfully accentuated her alluring figure bashfully lowered her head, not daring to meet my gaze.
She's shy or perhaps, she was anxiously waiting for me and when I really appeared, she got flustered and didn't know what to do.
As I stepped into the room, I noticed that this has the same air as her room in the World of System. There's the aromatic scent that came from the lit candles giving light to the room, the somewhat dull gray-colored decorations lining up and the slightly opened window which let us peek at the night sky.
Before she could scurry away from me, I grabbed her arm and pulled her in my arms. "Why are you running away?"
"This… I'm not running away, I just thought of opening the window."
Judging from how she couldn't look straight at me, this excuse she made was a terrible lie.
Although we still somehow admired the view, it's unnecessary for this occasion.
"Forget about the window. I still haven't held you like this, right?"
Even when we had the time to spend together during those few days before we went back to Earth at the World of Systems, it only consisted of us sitting next to each other to talk about things and sparring with her to increase my Sword Mastery's experience.
And although it felt nice, the experiences we shared through my Incarnation don't count.
"Y-yes, this is the first time…" Zerina meekly answered, a lot different than how she carried herself when in front of the others.
Right now, she's back to the daughter of the Noble House of Westcolt. The tragic first-born daughter. The girl who I met in that dark room.
I put my hand at the back of her head and started caressing it all the while brushing her hair with my fingers.
Soon enough, Zerina felt comfortable from it that her arms finally moved and returned my embrace.
Moving us from that side of the door to her bed, I gently laid her down before taking the space beside her. Turning her body to my side, we ended up being face to face to each other.
Most of my memories with her were experienced by my Energy Incarnation. Technically, that's still me but… it's like I was just watching it in a first-person perspective.
Tonight, I'm here with her, my flesh and blood body. Feeling the warmth of each other.
Hugging her in this bed, Zerina naturally returned it. Soon after that, my face gradually inched closer to her, reducing the few centimeters of distance between our lips.
With the realization of what I'm about to do, Zerina softly whispered my name.
"Daisuke…"
"I promised you. I will kiss you for real now that my real body is here… And more."
It was during that night when I first sent my Incarnation to her. That promise, I could finally fulfill it for her.
Because I reminded her, Zerina surely remembered that night and her already red face turned even redder before she slowly closed her eyes while her lips parted open.
Waiting for me to make the move, Zerina completely entrusted her whole body to me. As I traced her lips with my thumb, my head moved and finally traversed that last few centimeters.
As our lips met, the soft sensation of her pink lips pressing against mine filled me with simple pleasure.
Although I already kissed most of my Companions, this first kiss I'm sharing with Zerina could be considered a precious moment.
Soon enough. From soft kisses, we moved onto a more passionate one before getting lost in it.
Before anything else, I'll make sure to let Zerina know that she's not less of Yuko and the others, I love all of them. I'm going to pour all my affection into her tonight, letting her understand my seriousness about her.
As time passed, it didn't take long for us to end up in the same situation I had with Yuko last night.
With how much we longed for each other, we lost track of the time that hours seemingly passed while we're absorbed in that… kind of state.
When we finished, Zerina exhaustedly lay her head on my chest to catch her breath.
"Daisuke, stay this close to me."
"I will. I won't let you be away from me anymore. Remember what I told you about my Transcendent Trials?"
"Un… What happened there… it will not happen in this present. You're with me and I'm with you. I became this strong because of you… I'm now one of your swords. Together, we will cut down anything that will come between all of us."
Among everyone, because of my Adaptability, I'm the only one who managed to retain everything I saw in that Transcendent Mind Trial. But for her and the others, they all forgot what happened there except for the emotions they felt. Yuko was like that back then, as soon as she completed her Transcendence, she fell in my arms. Surely, what she experienced in that was about us.
"Right. I will make sure that it will not happen. When everything's over, I will make a place for us where we can spend the rest of our life on."
That's a great dream but considering there's a lot more mystery yet to be uncovered, it will stay as a dream for a long time. Nonetheless, I will keep them all close to me. Even if there were times where we had to separate, I will go back to their side.
"What I remembered, the world we were in… it's peaceful one day but something happened that overturned everything which made that peaceful place to be destroyed in less than a day…"
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m