Chapter 71: — The Mantras.

Kael bolted upright, his chest heaving as he gasped for air, his skin slick and his bedsheets soaked through with cold sweat.

The remnants of the void still clung to his senses, but the phantom weight of the dragoness’s presence was gone.

He didn’t waste a second. Stripping off his ruined clothes, he sat directly on the cool floor, centering his mind and lungs. He frantically recited the first mantra, then the second, and finally the third.

A wave of relief washed over him when he realized they were etched into his memory with perfect clarity.

He began to test them.

He chanted the first mantra, but his body remained unresponsive; nothing changed, leaving him with a furrowed brow of confusion. He didn’t let the doubt take hold, though, and moved immediately to the second.

As the syllables left his lips, the effect was instantaneous and overwhelming. The air around him seemed to warp as ambient mana, previously dormant, began to rush toward him like a river bursting through a broken dam.

It poured into his pores, flooding his veins and settling deep into his core. Within minutes, his body was filled to the brim, humming with a density of power he had never known before.

For the first time in his life, Kael felt the true, intoxicating weight of mana coursing through him, vibrant and vast.

Kael realized his body had always possessed a massive mana capacity, but the dragoness had placed a seal on him to hide his true potential.

The first mantra successfully unlocked this reservoir, flooding his system with power.

He then tested the second mantra; it forcefully flushed all mana from his body, effectively concealing his reserves. He deduced the strategy: use the second to hide his power in public and the first to unleash his full capacity during life-or-death situations.

He marveled at the dragoness’s foresight in securing his survival.

It was finally time to test the third mantra. Kael sat cross-legged in the center of his room, drawing a deep breath to steady his racing heart before intoning the ancient, rhythmic syllables.

As the words left his lips, he didn’t feel a surge of power or a physical shift, but rather a profound, cool stillness washing over his mind—like dipping his head into a glacial stream.

It was refreshing and strangely grounding, though that was the extent of its immediate effect.

He couldn’t be certain if it was truly working, but he held onto the faint hope that when the Demoness tried to claw her way back into control, this mental anchor would be the shield he needed to hold his ground.

With all three mantras accounted for, Kael shifted his attention to the pendant resting against his chest. He reached up, his fingers brushing the cool surface of the green gemstone.

He poured his focus into it, attempting to resonate with the object as he had so many times before, but it remained stubbornly dormant, no more than an ordinary piece of jewelry.

He didn’t let the lack of response bother him. The dragoness had been clear: the true potential of the stone would only unlock once he had passed through the crucible of the awakening ceremony. He felt a quiet, rising sense of anticipation.

For the first time, he wasn’t just walking into the ceremony blindly; he was armed with secrets, guarded by ancient mantras, and backed by a power that was finally beginning to wake up.

Kael headed to the bathroom, scrubbing the remnants of his intense mental training from his skin. Once he was clean and his body felt refreshed, he made his way to his mother’s room.

The air in the room was quiet. Amelia was fast asleep, curled on her side with her back to the door, facing away from him. Kael didn’t hesitate; he climbed onto the bed, sliding in behind her.

With practiced movements, he hitched up her skirt, exposing the soft, rounded expanse of her large butt cheeks. He pressed his hardening cock firmly against the crease of her butt crack, finding a sense of grounding in the warmth of her body.

He reached around, settling his hand over her breast, feeling the steady rise and fall of her breathing as he pulled her slightly closer.

As sleep began to pull at him again, his final, lingering thought was one of heavy determination: Tomorrow is the day. Let’s just hope I don’t mess anything up.

Kael woke up to the friction of his morning hard-on pressed deep between Amber’s ass cheeks. His hands were still locked firmly onto her tits.

He shoved his hands further inside her clothing, skin-on-skin, relishing the way her warm, soft flesh felt against his palms in the cool morning air.

He squeezed and kneaded her tits, massaging the heavy weight of them until he felt her nipples harden into stiff points. He shifted his focus, pinching and rubbing those erect peaks hard.

“Ahmm,” Amber moaned, a low, breathy sound escaping her throat, though she stayed dead to the world, buried in deep sleep.

Kael didn’t worry about her waking up. He knew she was out cold, and without anyone else in the room to disturb, he felt completely free.

He kept his grip firm, teasing her sensitive nipples while keeping his cock ground deep into her crack, enjoying the illicit, heavy heat of her body before the day’s ceremony began.

Kael continued to work over Amber’s tits, pinching and rubbing her nipples until she was letting out rhythmic, soft moans in her sleep.

It was still pre-dawn, the sky just barely beginning to bruise with the first light of day, and the town of Korua remained completely silent and asleep.

He eventually grew bored of her breasts and pulled his hands away, sliding off the bed. He stood over her, his cock still throbbing and rock-hard from the morning arousal.

He stared at her exposed, rounded ass as she remained sprawled out, completely unaware of his presence.

He stroked his cock, his eyes narrowing as he considered his options, calculating exactly where and how he wanted to dump his seed before he had to leave for the ceremony.

Kael gripped Amber’s legs, bending them back and pulling her toward the edge of the mattress until her ass was perfectly positioned for him.

He spat onto his hand, working his fingers around her sphincter, massaging the tight muscle until it began to soften and yield under his touch.

Within a minute, she was slick and relaxed enough for him to move.

He wasted no time, lining his hard cock up with her hole and driving it forward. With a firm, controlled shove, he sank the head and half the length of his shaft deep into her tight, warm ass.

Amber let out a muffled, drowsy moan, her hips twitching against the friction, but she didn’t fully wake.

Just as he settled into the rhythm of the thrust, a sharp realization hit him like a bucket of ice water. He froze, his dick pulsing inside her wet heat.

Damn it, he thought, his jaw tightening.

She told me no anal for a week.

The memory of Amber scolding him about her soreness flashed in his mind. He was technically violating the rules she had set for her own body, but the sensation of being buried deep inside her was intoxicating, and the way she moaned—even in her sleep—made it incredibly hard to pull out now.

He stayed buried there, caught between the thrill of the act and the risk of her waking up to find him doing exactly what she had forbidden.