Chapter 147: Progenitor

"The hell…?!"

Before the random stranger that was unlucky enough to stand in the way of the doors that I opened could react in any way, a small knife already penetrated his brain. Instead of bothering with crushing through the resistance of the man's skull, I simply slammed the blade of my huge knife through his open mouth upwards before kicking the lifeless body away.

"So? Shall we get going then?" 

Ignoring the stunned faces of the unfortunate's victim colleagues, I took a look at the Ayda in the back.

"Why are you so theatrical? They are all going to die either way. What's the point in dabbling your hands and killing them by hand?"

Walking out from the insides of the tavern, Ayda didn't even spare a single look at the corpses behind her. After all, we were here to bring mayhem to this place and all those who were willingly here. If we were to agonise over every life taken, we would long go insane before accomplishing any substantial progress in our mission. 

"Well, you are right." Forcing the remaining strangers away with a single bout of my repulsion, I extended my hand towards the girl. Grasping her fingers, I instantly gave her hand a squeeze, attempting to send a bit of positive energy to the girl.

In the end, even though it was her own war, I still couldn't stand the idea of Ayda going on a rampage. For as much as I could, I would love to keep her as far from the bloody mess of fighting as possible…

But life was never that favourable for me. If we wanted to achieve real peace, we could only do so by proving our strenght first!

"Hey…" Using the fact that our hands were now interlocked, Ayda pulled herself forward, leaning over my entire arm. With her lips moving right beside my ear, her voice managed to invoke a thrill in my mind. "Once we get this matter over with, I will give you a time better than you could imagine."

Already ensnaring me with the vision of the future reward, Ayda clearly knew how to push my buttons. Just by rubbing her soft body against me, she managed to replace the thoughts about the incoming massacre with just the perverted side of my mind. 

"Let's go, for now. We shouldn't stir any greater commotion before that execution will happen. It's better if we leave those corpses as they are. Hopefully, that will attract a bit of their attention…"

Looking towards the centerpoint of the camp, Ayda furrowed her brows. Even though I was unable to read her aura right now, I could still that she was clearly worried about her colleagues held by that 'general'. But now that I thought about it…

"Hey, mind explaining something to me?" 

Not daring to stop, I asked only after we fled from the scene of the murder. As we were running at a breakneck speed, I had to repeat my question a few times before Ayda finally heard it properly.

"What's wrong?" 

Sending me a curious glance, the girl also revealed how empty her face was. Given that we were about to turn this lively camp into a sea of blood, I expected that some kind of emotion would reflect in her eyes. Be it wrath, anger, hate, lack of any emotion in her eyes was kinda scary right now. 

But after a second of thought, I realised why did this girl decide to rid herself of any negative emotions right now. If she were to use them to drive herself, even if only by an accident, then once the mass slaughter would begin, she could be unable to hold herself back.

As a witch rather than a true mage, she didn't have the fancy options of managing her state at such a low and intricate level as I could. While for me, going berserk was an easily reversible process that could at most be considered taxing, for Ayda it was akin to jumping out of a bridge while hoping to somehow survive. 

In other words, outside of extreme cases, it was pretty close to outright suicide.

"Ever since we entered the camp, I stopped being able to read your aura. I only noticed it when I was unable to read the man I was about to drink with. Mind explaining why does that happen?"

Pulling back on Ayda's hand, I managed to stop her for a moment long enough for me to ask this question. As much as she was in hurry, bringing that topic up still managed to root her in place.

"Wait, so you didn't know?!"

Staring at me with her eyes wide open, Ayda then suddenly slapped her forehead with her hand.

"Right, you were so talented that it just came naturally to you…" Shaking her head to rid of the shock from my question, Ayda took a glance of the arena in the middle of the camp before looking me right in the eyes.

"What you call reading the aura, is actually a skill that one can practice, even without being a witch. You learned it on your own as if you learned how to use your own senses once awakening them for the first time. Imagine it as if being a blind person who suddenly learned how to see."

A sudden eruption of shouts and a general commotion in the distance momentarily stopped Ayda's explanation. Only after we both made sure that no one seemed to be chasing us, did the girl return to her monologue. 

"Just like one can learn to read the aura, one can learn how to hide his own. Obviously, breaking through such sneaky techniques also is possible. But now, you need to learn one more thing. There are actually two types of true mages."

Pulling me deeper into one of the darkest places in the entire camp, Ayda suddenly wrapped her arms around me, hugging me deeply. Only when her silent and gentle whisper reached my ears did I understand that it was just an attempt to make us look natural.

"You are actually not a true mage, but a progenitor, father to your own lineage. In the entire history that I know about, there were only twenty progenitors or so. And as you already know, you can become a progenitor by mastering both witchcraft and wizardry to a satisfactory degree. On the other hand, there are actual true mages."

Pulling me even closer into her embrace, Ayda suddenly freed one of her hands, before grasping my own hand and placing it on her stomach. While I couldn't feel anything physically, once I actually focused, I could feel that there was a tiny aura hidden deeply within Ayda's own!

"Our child won't become a progenitor, but a progeny of the first class. That means, it will be a true mage born out of progenitor and a magic sensitive woman."

As if the massacre in front of us wasn't huge enough to shake my mental state, Ayda actually revealed to me that she was pregnant! 

For a moment, my mind blanked. 

Even though I knew this was the inevitable outcome of going at it like some teenagers whenever we had a spare moment, suddenly slapped with reality, I still failed to digest it right away. 

"Dear, do you mean…?" 

Grasping the girl's head between my palms, I stared down her eyes. With sparks of joy appearing in her pupils, Ayda wrapped her hands around my neck before biting her lip and lightly nodding her head. 

"Don't worry though. Being a witch, I can hold it from growing for a few months. And no, it won't harm it. Rather than that, it will make it easier for our child to grow strong later on…" 

As if we weren't in the middle of a huge camp filled to the brim with enemies, Ayda melted down. It seemed that just talking about our child was enough to bring her mind to some soapy and rosy dreamland. 

"Dear, I'm honoured to hear that and extremely grateful to you. But there is one thing that will have to change then."

Knowing that Ayda was pregnant, making it even harder for me to accept her overstraining herself. That's why I had no other choice but to inform her that…

"Dear, I want you to go back. I can wipe this entire place on my own. You need to take a lot better care of yourself now!"

Still shaken by her sudden revelation, I instantly started thinking about the ways to bring her back to the safety of the village, when her hand suddenly forced my head up, recreating our eye contact.

"Dear, the other reason why I'm holding our kid back, is because it's still super small. Right now, I'm no different from before, so don't try to do everything by yourself. Just the amount of worry I would have to suffer if you went off on your own…"

Slamming her head on my chest, Ayda allowed the moment to pass, just enjoying my warmth. As I attempted to surround her with my arms to keep her even closer, the girl suddenly jolted awake, grabbed my hand and started pulling me once again.

In a few moments, we reached a huge building, one of the few ones built with proper materials rather than being just a cloth construction on a wooden frame. After climbing to the highest, fourth flour, Ayda brought my attention to the crowd gathered in the middle of the now visible area.

"You see all those people? Half of them are female witches." 

Pointing her hand at the group of people in an extremely bad state, Ayda then moved her hand towards the elevated platform on which the main force behind this entire camp was seated.

"That girl in the middle is our real target of the massacre. Do you remember when I said that for the true mages to appear, they need to be born out of progenitor and magic-sensitive woman?"

With a bad premonition appearing in my mind, I stared blankly at my dearest beside. 

"If it was just about impregnating, then true mages would never fall out of grace like that. In short words, the stronger the woman in terms of her magic potential, the greater the chance that her kid will be able to obtain the progenitor's bloodline."

Still unable to comprehend what this silly girl was trying to suggest… No, I was already perfectly aware of it. I just didn't want to acknowledge the fact that this small element of my life, my romantic life, would soon be spoiled by the reality around me as well. 

"Dear. Normally I would hate it if you were to sleep with any other woman besides me, but…"

Suddenly turning silent, Ayda lowered her head as a sad smile surfaced on her face. 

"But this time, in order to save both this and many other worlds… I have no choice but to encourage you. In other words, the reward that I will have for you once we will be done with this place…"