What was the Darkness core? What exactly was the meaning of being now able to channel aura through elemental darkness? And where did this core's seed even come from?
'So many questions...' I sighed a little while wrapping my hands firmly over Fay's stomach.
Having her so close to me, having her scent once again fill my nose, feeling on my skin how her muscles slightly shifted... And all of that, while the storm of her hair enveloped me, seemingly turning me into a part of her morphed, animalistic form.
Even with clothes in the way, thanks to our bond I could feel every fiber of Fay's muscle, her skin, her nerves...
And the sea of primal, predatory instincts now flared up to its full swing.
The strange, profound aura continued to snap all over the girl. And as I soon found out, within the morphed form of a massive fox made up with her hair... Fay's aura was in a state of constant flux.
On the outside, a single bit of it would instantly snap, decaying into the more common form of aura while releasing all the energy held up in its much more complex form. Inside the storm of Fay's soft hair, the average energy of the aura was the same. And with nowhere to release its energy to, it remained in the constant state of electric tension, ready to unleash the moment Fay willed it.
Still, the half-sphere of the electric storm continued to feed on Fay's divine aura, slowly but surely draining her strength. And even with her improved stats...
'I wonder if I could use our bond for it...' I thought...
Whether it was my instincts or the gift of knowledge that made me aware of all those details and their meaning... it blessed me with the understanding of what it meant to channel aura through my core.
And the moment I mentally reached out for the weird darkness that blossomed in my eyes...
I've found out the answer to the second of my three initial questions.
Where did this core's seed come from? What was this darkness core? Additionally, what was it supposed to do? Those questions would have to wait their turn. For now, I finally felt what it meant to channel my aura.
'Go.'
The energy that nearly overfilled my limits from all the killing I did today was now gone, used up by the system to contain and assimilate the foreign core. But the echo of all the strength I gained prior to that...
I could feel it cursing through my veins. The physical power I didn't have before. The mental capacity of my mind. The sense of all the energy I had to bathe in to obtain those powers. And then all the experiences that led me to grow as strong as I was right now...
All of those components of my growth contributed to this distant echo, a memory of my power. And now, I've gained the ability to not only feel it much better than before... but also freely channel it through the darkness my eyes more or less evolved to perceive.
With less than a thought, with a bare desire, I urged this echo of my strength to go forth.
Tisss...
With a sound... no, with a feeling of air escaping through a narrow hole, something left my system, streaking through the elemental darkness of my vision. It took sharp turns wherever the darkness grew too thin to carry the amount of aura I channeled. And then...
A massive, sharp shard suddenly solidified from a darker spot beneath one of the fallen horses, shooting forth and piercing straight through the invisible barriers of those strange, well-decorated cavalrymen.
BOOM!
Fay's storm exploded with new intensity as she released a mute growl, one that I only felt through the vibrations that spread throughout her flesh. And with the flux of the sparks of her divine aura rushing out from her bloated hair, everything and everyone that found themselves within her range, froze, their body tensing up under the constant assault of powerful electricity.
Just like with my solidified darkness, Fay's electric attack easily pierced whatever barriers the cavalry had...
Cursing at myself in my thoughts for resting down on Fay's delicate back, I reached out, desperate to grab at something and lift myself up to lift my weight off her spine...
Only for my body to freeze when I just happened to grab high on her waist enough to feel the bottom of her breasts press against the upper rim of my hand.
"Peter!" Fay cried out. Distracted by what she surely felt through our bond and the unpleasant smell of the rotten blood I'd vomited out, she lost her focus, causing her storm to quickly weaken, and lose its density.
With a huge part of the burden raised, the humans charged even further, only three, two steps away from bringing us into the range of their weapons.
On their faces, I could see triumph, relief... and cold determination not to let this moment of near-victory turn into a grief of sudden defeat.
My other hand already grabbed the handle of my gun, slowly raising it up...
Too slow.
With my mind going into overdrive, I could tell as much. By the time I would be ready to shoot, at least two blades would reach us, potentially doing the unthinkable and marking Fay's flawless skin with eternal proof of my failure to protect her!
In the heat of the moment, I gripped the girl slightly tighter, changing my objective from pushing myself back up to an attempt at pulling her away, to the side, to the back, anywhere where the human blades couldn't reach her...
Only to feel Fay's surprise fill the entire bandwidth of our bond.
As if only one question existed in her mind.
"Right now? But we are busy fighting, are we not? If you hold back for just a little longer, I won't mind at all, just let me clean all of them up. Oh, I can feel you rub against me. Just a little longer, m'kay?"
Fay never voiced her concerns out. And yet, I could perfectly decipher them from the momentary shock I gave her.
And she was right.
My entire body was rubbing against her while hidden in the raging storm of her long, silky-white hair. And with how close we were, our bond...
In the fraction of a second I had left to react, I gave up on my attempt to remove Fay from the path of the sword and a spear already swinging at us. I wouldn't be able to make it, anyway. So, I've brought my hand up a bit, collapsing my fingers on the soft mount of Fay's breast.
With this slightly more intimate touch, the width of our bond grew even winder...
Finally, it allowed me to guide Fay's aura through me, using my own strength for nothing but reinforcing the elemental darkness all around, turning it into a pathway for Fay's strength.
'Just a single second!' I thought as our auras mixed and mingled and then mixed again before rushing through a single point on my abdomen and then, like a spark, exploding along the pathways I'd laid down.
In the fraction of a second I had before human weapons would reach us, the night suddenly grew a lot darker than before, as if certain spots on the ground consumed all the light around.
Tss...
Like a slithering snake, the lighting coursed along those darkened spots. And upon reaching their end... It produced extremely thin yet comically long needles that pierced into the attacking humans before unleashing the might of Fay's lighting from the inside.
And by the time a second passed and I managed to raise my gun up, aiming it at the charging men...
There was no one left for the two of us to fight.