Chapter 80: Void’s End – Part 2

Chapter 80: Void’s End – Part 2

Today is the 20th.

I wake up to Roxanne's puppy dog eyes asking me for milk, so I give her what she wants and fill her mouth.

I leveled up to 36. My [Mana Genitals] and [Piloting] increased by 1 (now 3 and 3).

Alissa leveled up to 39. Her [Bow Use] increased by 2 (now 33).

Roxanne leveled up to 39. Her [Fire Magic] increased by 1 (now 3+27).

Ciel leveled up to 39. Her [Glaive Use] and [Light Magic] increased by 1 (now 21 and 27).

Lina leveled up to 36. Her [Throw] increased by 1 (now 4).

Our skills didn't increase much because we've been stuck on our ship most of the time. Once we leave this fake Broken Skies, I think we'll have enough time and space to train again.

We exit our tent for breakfast and notice how the light blue sky makes a perfect contrast for the black holes ahead to stand out. Their pure blackness is chilling while the warped light bending around them is dizzying.

I fear them just like I fear heights, or did, now that it's nearly impossible for me to die from a fall, thanks to [Telekinesis], but I digress. The fear of being so close to certain death is humbling. Even though these black holes operate differently from the ones in Earth's reality, they're no less dangerous, and in fact, the Dark Voids certainly have a higher kill count than Earth's black holes.

Breakfast is rather quiet due to how we're all too mesmerized by the incredible sight to talk.

I put some butter on my algae baguette, then I slap on a slice of ham and a slice cheese. I close the baguette and take a bite, loudly crunching into it. The crust is just as perfect as it was when we first bought it back in Goldport. [Item Box] is truly amazing.

The Floater comes over to refill our mana, then we land on the Carrier for my Gull lessons.

I approach the sexy white wolf with a grin. "Missed me?" I ask her.

Hukarere shows me a toothy smile and answers, "Of course." Her dragon tail wags rapidly in excitement.

I stand on the tips of my toes, then I pull her head down towards me and kiss her snout. Her long tongue enters my mouth, and we have a quick, messy kiss. Alissa sighs in satisfaction inside my mind.

I wave to Aihopu as we board the Gull. He seems to be excited and fired up for today, panting exactly like an Earthling Border Collie. I tell them about our infiltration of the fortress, and he listens like a child being told a bedtime story. After that, we play fetch with him for a while until his excess energy is spent, though we don't make him go too far from the Looping Winds because of the danger posed by the Dark Voids.

Hukarere is unreasonably horny. She seems to have really become addicted to my cum, so she didn't search for someone else to play with while I was gone, and she was definitely sexually active before meeting me, so her hunger just built up.

I leave a gift inside her, then Aihopu uses my cum as lube to continue fucking her. I'm pretty sure that he's... not completely straight.

After getting pounded until her hips give out, she lays her head on my lap so that I can play with her beautiful white fur. I especially love its blue tips, they're so adorable. While I play with her fur, her head bobs up and down, her slick tongue wrapped all around my shaft.

What's the true boundary between like and love? The only difference between what I feel for Hukarere, Silvane, Nononya, Osaria, Klein, and the wives is the intensity of this feeling. I've never had sex with Silvane or Nononya, but I consider them my friends, and I'd definitely bang their brains out if I could. I'm obviously attracted to Hukarere, and I enjoy savoring her very much, but I feel a lot more affection for Silvane and Nono, not to mention the gulf between them and Osaria and Klein. The difference in intensity between what I feel for my wives and all the other women may be like the radiance of a sun compared to a faraway star, but both of them are still celestial bodies.

Even my friendship with men. I still feel affection for them, I just don't want to also have sex with them. For me, distinguishing the different types of love isn't like making a Venn diagram, but rather, it's like a fuzzy set. Everything overlaps smoothly, making the boundaries blurry, but the extremes are still very clear.

I think I can't stop myself from falling in love because of how blurry the line is, but I can at least keep my priorities straight: wives first, concubines second, flings third. Wives have an absolute veto and should always be satisfied first, no matter what; concubines have an allotted time, and I ask for exclusivity in exchange for a comfortable life; and flings will only happen when there's an "opportunity," though I'm sure that Alissa will help create them.

Osaria is already a concubine, and I think we need to make it official with Klein, too, though she'll likely have a special clause about the exclusivity in exchange for servitude as a knight.

But I'm not sure which category Hukarere falls in. Ignoring that she's technically dead, I kind of want her to be around, but not enough that she'd be considered a concubine, and she likely won't accept the exclusivity, so perhaps she can be a "regular" fling.

It's "odd" to think of relationships in this way, but it's necessary. While a monogamous marriage can make do with only implicit ideas of what the relationship should be, a harem with this many women and different ranks requires a clear structure so that nobody feels neglected. "Happiness" depends a lot on expectations, so giving someone the wrong idea about what sort of relationship I'm looking for would just cause problems.

"Hey... Hukarere," I call her attention.

"Hm?" She asks and tilts her head to look at me, but her tongue keeps going.

"You know that I have many wives, but I'm not looking to add any more. The relationship you and I have is amazing, but it'll never be allowed to progress, so we're never going to marry."

Her tongue slows down, and she stares at me, deep in thought.

She suddenly averts her eyes and strokes me, then she frowns and takes my dick out of her mouth. "You're a noble, aren't you?" She asks, her gentle voice just above a whisper.

"Yes, I am. Well, we are. My wives may not all have a noble background, but we're all nobility."

She sighs and gently licks my head with the tip of her tongue. "Nobles never change..." She whispers, then her sharp, angled eyes stare intensely at me. sorry..." I whisper to her smile apologetically.

She closes her eyes and shakes her head, then deepthroats me once and says, "No, you shouldn't. You have seven wives. To think that I'd ever enter a harem like yours is just silly. It doesn't help that I like threesomes, so settling for just one man was going to be hard, anyway."

I cringe. I don't want to say this, but I have to be honest with her. I can't request the same I did from my wives because it wouldn't be a fair trade. "I mean, since I can't make a commitment with you, I also can't ask you to be exclusive to me."

She lifts her eyebrows in surprise. "Oh, so... no promises, but also no restraints?" She starts licking my head again with puppy eyes.

"Exactly. I want you to be happy and not just chain yourself to me while I can't give you everything you want."

She smiles wryly and starts stroking me vigorously to make me cum fast. "Well, after you got me addicted to your cum, you should at least take responsibility for it."

"Wait, you're actually addicted?" Aihopu asks.

We look outside and see him sitting on the edge of the Gull, casually inspecting his feathers. He suddenly turns to us and cringes. "Sorry, didn't mean to eavesdrop, but these ears are very sensitive."

Hukarere snorts and answers, "Well, to answer your question, yes, his cum is very tasty, for some reason."

He looks at her exposed pussy lips, still coated with a mixture of our cum, then rubs the chin of his snout in thought. "Can I taste it?" He asks, tentatively.

"You're not sucking me off," I immediately answer.

Hukarere rolls belly up and spreads her legs. "Come here, taste this," she orders with a grin.

I roll my eyes and look away while he makes slurping sounds, and she moans.

"Divines step on me!" He exclaims and chuckles. "It's bitter, but it's also pretty good. Incredible, I didn't know [Mana Genitals] was like this."

"Yeah, well, that's just how he is," Hukarere replies with a shrug.

He takes a look at me, then awkwardly turns away. "Well, I'll just let you two continue..." And he goes to check on the catapult.

"Where were we?" She asks with a grin, then rolls back on her belly and resumes sucking me off.

"Me taking responsibility for your addiction," I casually respond.

She goes silent and loudly slurps on me until I give her some more milk.

She swallows and licks her lips, then says, "Right... well, you're going to leave soon... so please come back one day and take me away."

I smile sadly and feel a tightening in my heart. "Are you sure about that? We may be explorers, but we're land-dwellers at heart. Our home isn't in the Broken Skies or Sky Lands."

She matches my smile and answers, "Yeah. I have friends in Whakamutu, but no family. I know that my hometown was petrified in the Calamity, so I have no real home to return to. I'd just like to travel around the realm and find a new home."

I pat her head and caress her fur. "My condolences."

She shakes her head and closes her eyes, enjoying my touch. "It's fine. It's been so long that I'm over it now."

I swallow heavily and say, "I'll do what I can to come back to Whakamutu, but I make no promises."

"Yes."

"We do eat wood, so what's the problem?" Paraaone asks, slightly confused.

"It's not wood, it's smoke," Yunia replies.

"But it's smoke that comes from a piece of wood, so, technically, it's still wood," Ririmu continues.

"Do you say that steamed veggies are 'water-flavored'?" I question him.

"No, because, normally, water has no taste," he responds with a wry smile.

"It's like saying that mushrooms are dirt-flavored vegetables. It's not the technicality that's important, but the 'unclean' connotation that 'wood' and 'dirt' have," Lina responds categorically.

"It's a matter of whether you want the words to be as precise as possible or the image that they conjure to be pleasant," I add.

"Oh~..." Hukarere coos and claps.

Ririmu grins and bows. "My question has been answered, thank you," he says in a fake polite tone.

Shortly after lunch, we have to stop because the Looping Winds has been disrupted by a Dark Void. The smokey highway spirals into it, thinning out until it hits the anti-matter barrier and dissipates completely. This black hole is powerful, having a very large area of influence on the mana and light particles around it, which allows it to steal the mana of the Looping Winds for itself.

Off in the distance, the Looping Winds seems to reform, so at least our safe path forward wasn't destroyed by the Dark Void. The Looping Winds must always complete the loop, so, if it was completely blocked, then it'd just break down entirely and stop working.

"These Dark Voids are too volatile. You'd need accurate information about their sizes to plan a proper path through this area," Paraaone consoles me.

The Carrier starts firing its Trinity Cannons to range the black holes ahead.

"Well, we did the best we could," Lina answers and shakes her head.

"That Dark Void is stealing the Looping Winds' mana, so what happens if it grows until it's out of control?" I ask.

"There's a way to steal the mana back, but we don't have time for that. If left alone, it'll either continue to absorb all the mana sources around it until it starves, or the winds around it will gather enough to pierce its anti-matter barrier, then it'll return to being small," Paraaone answers.

"What even causes a Dark Void to form?" Lina questions.

"I don't know. Some people say that it's related to Ender, the Nemesis, but they only appear near the edges of the realm."

Lina and I would love to read some Chimeric books about this, but I guess we'll have to wait until we go to the Sky Lands to find them.

It takes us an hour, but we carefully make our way between the Dark Voids and safely return to the Looping Winds. It definitely slowed our progress, but we still reach the edge of Void's End before the sun goes down.

We see large islands off in the distance, hidden behind the colored clouds. Those are the remains of Ozymandias. The Maw resides somewhere in there, but it's most likely at the end of the Looping Winds and right next to the portal that should take us... somewhere.

We stop just before we exit Void's End. The Dark Voids are the perfect protection for us because that aberrant monster is a heavily magical being, making it extremely vulnerable to these black holes.

"The Floater and the Celestial Horns will scout ahead in search of the Gaping Maw while we wait here," Hihiriwa orders.

"I'll stay here, just in case," Paraaone assures us.

There are no monsters, animals, or even spirits here because of the black holes, but you never know what could happen.

"Thank you. We really appreciate your and Oritiki's consideration for us," I respond and give him a respectful nod.

"You could show your appreciation with more of that smoked meat," he comments with a grin, and I smile back.

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