Chapter 207: I Had To Pull Out

[I-I knew that Mother sacrificed herself to save me... b-but I just...]

[Shhh... It is okay. You do not have to force yourself to speak,] Elias whispered gently, pressing Natasha’s head against his chest as he patted her back.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and held him as tightly as she could, weeping as she remembered that damned day. Her shoulders trembled, and although she tried to suppress her sobs, the grief she had carried for so many years poured out of her.

Elias continued patting and rubbing her back while humming a soft tune to calm her.

Feeling her breathing gradually calm and her arms loosen around his waist, Elias allowed a frown to appear on his face.

’Why did the Night Shade send an assassin to capture Natasha?’

He knew how cruel an organization the Night Shade was, but that was about the extent of his knowledge. No one knew what they truly wanted or where they had originated, and the only thing consistently associated with their appearance was the destruction they left behind wherever they went.

Elias lowered his gaze toward his wife, and his expression softened as he watched her sleeping face.

It was unfair.

After everything she had endured during her childhood, she had still been forced to suffer more.

Her parents had died when she was just nine; her foster mother had sacrificed her life to save Natasha, believing that the girl she had raised would one day grow strong enough to change the world, yet Natasha had instead been left crippled by a failed ritual.

Elias narrowed his eyes as another question surfaced in his mind.

’Why had the ritual failed? And what kind of ritual was it that even Natasha could not perform?’

Back then, Natasha’s Mana/Spirit stat had been one hundred and thirty-seven, far exceeding what an ordinary person could achieve and even surpassing that of extraordinary individuals.

With such immense spiritual energy, the failure made little sense.

The possibility that someone had deliberately sabotaged it was as clear as day, yet the Sun Church had done nothing about it. Either they had been unable to uncover the truth, or Natasha had simply ceased to hold any value for them after the failure.

The latter possibility made sense when Elias considered her origins.

Natasha was from Jorn, a kingdom where the Holyland of Spirit stood alongside various orders and churches that revered different spirit beings. The Sun Church, however, worshipped neither a spirit being nor one of the Old Gods.

Instead, it revered a star.

The Sun.

That distinction set the church apart from the other spiritualist factions, bringing its doctrine closer to humanity while placing it at odds with the fundamental principles of the Path of Spirit.

Ascend beyond the limits of the physical shell and become a spirit.

To pursue that path, one had to gradually transcend the limitations of the mortal body, and many believed that worldly attachments and desires would eventually become shackles that prevented further advancement.

From that perspective, the Sun Church had a clear reason to distance itself from someone who carried the blood of its enemy. However, Natasha hadn’t merely been an ordinary candidate; she had been expected to become a saintess.

She might even have become the greatest saintess in the church’s history.

Yet, when she needed them most, they hadn’t looked back even once.

’How can they be so blind?’

Elias sighed and pushed the thoughts aside. He already had far too much to consider, and there was little point in diving into another mystery when he hadn’t yet resolved the problems directly in front of him.

For now, he needed to focus on the present.

He snuggled closer to Natasha, carefully wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her forehead before closing his eyes.

Before long, he, too, drifted into sleep.

–––

Fortunately, Monica’s worry about the sound echoing was proven unfounded because, if it had been true, the sound of the rocking bed and Elias’s lower body slamming into Natasha’s would have echoed throughout the hideout.

Natasha had her arms wrapped behind his neck, and she bit his shoulder while he pistoned his cock in and out of her pussy, each deep thrust caused the head to kiss the entrance of her womb.

Elias slowly licked the side of her face. His left hand held her waist while his right hand caressed her breast and pinched her dark nipple.

Both their bodies glistened with sweat, and the bed rocked beneath them as they made love.

Eventually, Elias felt his cock swell inside her warm folds, and he thrust deeply, the head kissing the wall of her womb.

A tremor ran through Natasha’s body, and Elias pulled out.

At that moment, his cock throbbed and shot threads of cum over her abdomen while water sprayed out of her gaping entrance.

Elias stared down at his wife with a proud look before placing a hand under her face and kissing her deeply.

Natasha returned the kiss, but when they parted, she looked at him with a slight frown and asked while glancing at the semen on her abdomen, [Why did you not do it inside?]

He gave her a wry smile and responded while looking around for something to clean her with, [Nothing wrong with being careful, no?]

Her frown deepened. She handed him her handkerchief and said, [What do you mean?]

He rubbed the back of his head and said, [You would not want to get pregnant so early, would you?]

Natasha blinked a few times. [I... I do not, but why are you worrying about it now?]

The last two times, he hadn’t shied away from pouring it as deeply as he could, and...

[Better later than sorry, yeah?] he responded with a chuckle as he cleaned her abdomen and then himself.

While doing so, he kept his gaze on the orange screen before him.

[Status]

[Name: Natasha Sephila]

[Rank: Warrior]

[Affection Rate: 52]

[Talent: Child of Divine (SS)]

[Physical Constitution: Heavenly Demon Physique (Dormant – Stage: II)]

[Stage II Progression: 25%]

[Weapon: None]

[Weapon Mastery: None]

[Weapon Aura: None]

[Mana Aptitude: S]

[Mana Affinity: Light (S), Darkness (S), Holy (S), Unholy (S)]

[Mana Circle: None]

[Spiritual Aptitude: SS (None)]

[Spiritual Affinity: Divine (SS), Demonic (SS), Ghost (S), Elemental (S)]

[Spiritual Stars: None]

[Stats]

[Strength/Constitution: 31]

[Speed/Agility: 24]

[Stamina/Endurance: 29]

[Perception/Comprehension: 18]

[Mana/Spirit: 137 (0)]

[Skills]

[Spiritual Sense (C)]

[Spiritual Ritual (A)]

[Demonic Sovereignty (SSS)]

[Destiny]

[–Breaker of Divine–]

[–Master of All Demons–]

[–Seeker of a Forlorn Dream–]

[Shares a connection beyond time-space with Elias Crimson.]

[Daily Query: What are the chances of Natasha getting pregnant today?]

[Answer: 70%]

The previous night, Natasha’s Affection Rate had crossed 50, and a new section called Daily Query had appeared on her status screen.

It simply allowed Elias to ask a single question per day about his wife, and the answer was based on the current day.

He didn’t know why, but he decided to ask about the chances of Natasha getting pregnant. When he saw the number, he knew that he had to pull out.

He was a responsible man, but that didn’t mean he would seek out more responsibility, especially when things were already so hectic.

So, he believed that making his wife slightly sad was better in the long term.

[You are acting weird,] Natasha said with narrowed eyes.

Elias let out a forced chuckle and replied, [I just want to be careful. Nothing else.]

She continued staring at him for a while. Then, she raised her hand and said, [Stop cleaning me and give it back.]

He furrowed his brows and began getting off the bed as he responded, [Let me get it washed fi—]

Before he could finish, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him.

Elias fell beside her, and she quickly rolled over him, sitting on his abdomen while her breasts hung above his face.

She took the handkerchief from his hand and muttered, [I will wash it when I want to.]

Elias was far too confused to understand why she was acting this way and just nodded mindlessly.

She leaned forward and kissed his forehead. [Good boy.]

She moved down his abdomen and fell beside him, the handkerchief clutched in her hand, and her other hand interlocked with his.

An hour later, Elias, Olide, and Sermus sat around a table in Olide’s room, with Elias at the head and the other two on opposite sides.

The merchant appeared rather displeased with how his room was being used, though he refrained from voicing his complaints.

"You are a mage, right?" Elias asked, glancing at Olide before turning toward Sermus, who had kept his head lowered until then.

Olide furrowed his brows, wondering why Elias was asking something he already knew, but he nodded regardless. "I am."

"Do you know runic magic or magical formations?" Elias asked.

Olide shook his head. "To learn runic magic, I would have to join the Mage Tower, as they possess most of the knowledge concerning runes. However, I cannot do that because of my circumstances. As for magical formations, I have never given them much thought."

"You are a busy person, after all," Elias remarked.

Olide smiled faintly at the comment, but then his eyes lit up as though he had suddenly remembered something.

"Ah, but this place does have magical formations. They are simply hidden from a mage’s Mind’s Eye and Mana Sense."

’So this is why Monica was worried,’ Elias remarked inwardly.

"Did the Purple Lily do that as well?" Elias asked.

Olide shrugged. "I do not know."

His gaze then shifted toward Sermus, who had been quietly examining him throughout their conversation. Olide frowned before turning back to Elias and asking, "Why are we sitting with a servant?"

"He is not just a servant. He is also a mage... more accurately, he used to be one," Elias replied.

"Used to be?" Olide muttered, his brows drawing together.

Elias nodded. "Yes. He is a Pathless runesmith, and I want you to learn from him."

Olide blinked several times before muttering, "What?"

Sermus appeared just as confused, his gaze moving between Elias and Olide.

"You have no choice in this matter," Elias stated firmly. "If I tell you to do something, then you do it without asking why."

Olide fell silent, seemingly struggling to decide whether he should protest or accept his circumstances. Meanwhile, Elias rose from his chair, having already decided how he would proceed.

There was another reason why he was forcing Olide, one he had not shared with either of the men.

An orange screen hovered before his eyes.

[Name: Olide Grayson]

[Physique: Eye of Arcane Revelation — Tier I]

[Status: Dormant]

[Awakening Requirement: Gain an understanding of 1-star magical formations.]

[Eye of Arcane Revelation]

[A mystical eye which allows the person to see flaws in a magical formation of the same tier at a simple glance.]

[Tier: 1 - (1-star)]

’Heh,’ he smirked and walked to Monica’s room.