Careful control kept over his breath, Onyx raised a hand, palm aimed at the tree before him.
A complete recovery from the rebound of his brief high was still a ways off but he could feel it. There wasn't as much as he was used to but alongside every vein ran a cool energy, mana running throughout his body like the blood beside it. It'd begun to settle, random freezes in the energy flow not nearly as common compared to when he was bedridden.
He focused, the cool energy synced up completely with his intentions and shooting down his right arm.
Light flickered around his hand.
Then, a puff of black smoke left it, the pathetic cloud dissipating in seconds.
Unexpected.
He was weak sure, but he should still be capable of some basic elemental control. Unless-
Onyx curled his pal into a fist, keeping a stream of energy gathering in it. This time, as he took a step up to the tree, fist held an inch from its bark, he kept the flow internal rather than leading any of it beyond him.
He sent his fist forward.
There was no momentum behind it. No form. No technique. Just a simple punch from a range that all but assured no amount of force could be built up before it struck.
Bark splintered, leaves shook free, and the tree snapped, falling over with a crash.
Onyx raised his fist, looking it over.
Normally outputting that level of force with a body woefully unprepared to deal with it would've resulted in broken bones at the very least. All that marked his knuckles were shallow scratches. Deep blue flames sparked to life beneath the torn skin, hidden from view in less than a moment as the skin regrew over it.
So that's how things are. Onyx thought, a finger ran over his knuckle. The energies that filled this land were actively disrupting his ability to use mana. Seeing as those attempts could do little against his natural defenses to protect himself their influence was restrained to only mana that left his body. It is what it is.
He was too weak to overcome it now but his high was evidence enough that with enough mana the attempts at disruption would become a nonissue.
Healing, reinforcement, physical enhancements, and plenty more were still on the table until then.
All more than enough to trivialize the threats he'd dealt with so far.
Marika appeared beside the tree's splintered stump. She said nothing, only locking eyes with him.
She'd quieted down but her impatience remained, that shared connection enough of a reminder of the situation.
"Nothing more to say?" He questioned, more curious than anything else. Their emotions might be pooling together and giving some measure of insight but that alone wasn't quite enough to map out intention.
"Mine words mean little to thee."
She said that as if resigning herself to his decision but nothing coming from her spoke of a person giving up. The impatience, frustration, and the anger. Especially the anger. A rage that wrathful was truly one of a kind. And damn annoying.
"You're really something, aren't you?" He said, looking her up and down. Even without her power she still fit the title goddess, that thin cloth of her revealing dress accentuating her curves. As for her face? It was damn near a match for Melina's, the giant of a woman appearing positively serene as though nothing could possibly be a bother. "How can you keep such a straight face when you're so damn angry all the time?"
A raise of her brow did away with that picturesque serenity. "Thou manages it as well, no?"
"Fair enough." Onyx said. This violation of his soul might be new territory but no matter what form it took or how it came about, anger was anger. Deal with anything long enough, even if the intensity never faded, it'd become just another part of life.
Whether that anger belonged to him made no difference.
He turned.
Ice filled his veins, his mana flow suffering a sudden halt.
His body locked up mid-step, face on a one way trip to the ground. Luckily, he never reached it, one of his arms falling over Melina's cloaked shoulders as she slipped under his side, managing to support his weight.
"You require more rest." Melina stated.
"Worried about me?" He, ignoring both the pain and stiffness of his arm, raised it, ruffling her hair about. "Don't be, I know what I can and can't handle."
Melina hummed, silently guiding him up the island and away from shores. She said nothing about it, but he could tell from the way her head pressed against the inside of his shoulder that she was taking the chance to feel the numbing coldness that held him in its icy grip.
Unless that fire she spoke of was completely counteracting it, it was sad that she was so sensation starved that she'd share in the unpleasant frigidness just to feel something.
A sentiment that was shared, Marika's pity mixed with his own. Though there was something else to it. Something quickly overshadowed by her usual persistent negativity.
XOXO
Distant foliage shook and shifted, rustled by winds and animals alike.
Despite being nowhere near the island's shores, he could hear the waves washing up onto the sand.
He could even tell exactly where Melina was. Granted, the faint unintrusive connection formed between them kept him distantly aware of her general location, he actually picked up on her silent steps, the slightest crunch of sand accompanying each one. She was walking the island's edge, keeping an eye out for danger. That or lost in her thoughts.
That woman did a lot of thinking.
Since arriving in this world, he'd spent a majority of his time meditating with his attention focused inward. Barring riskier methods, he hadn't cared to attempt or lacked the supplies to carry out, meditation of that nature was the most effective way for bringing about mana. Now that he had it at his disposal, however, with frequent use of the energy his body would slowly acclimate to its presence and better house it. His soul would respond in kind, raising the upper limit of what it produced.
Naturally he was doing just that, attention turned outwards and physical senses enhanced by mana. With constant interruptions from the halting and trudging of his mana flow he couldn't yet get a perfect understanding of how long he could keep it up or the exact range of his expanded senses, but it was an entertaining exercise.
The wrinkling and folding of cloth came from directly across from him.
Admittedly much of his attention kept returning to Irina. Unlike running, her endurance and tolerance for it improving slowly, she wasn't getting any better when it came to meditation.
And he definitely sat at the center of the reason for that.
He could hear her toying with her clothes. The changes in her breaths. Even the occasional quickening of her heartbeat and changes in her expression when he narrowed the range of his senses to the ruins alone.
Would she? Won't she? He was quite curious whether or not she would ever dare to directly broach the topic of her feelings for him.
"Um, Onyx?" Irina said, finally building up the nerve to speak, her heartbeat at its quickest. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
"You've been to many places, but you've never mentioned your homeland. I've been wondering a little bit about it."
"Oh?" That was an oddly mundane question for her heart to be beating so fast, each thump loud and clear to his ears even as they spoke. Some kind of segway to something else? "I guess I haven't. Well, what do you want to know about it?"
"Ah, well, I was-" Her heart rate managed to further intensify as she trailed off, each beat probably pumping plenty of blood to her face and reddening it. "I was just wondering how courting worked in your homeland."
And the initial question suddenly made plenty of sense.
It wasn't quite the direct questioning he'd been wondering if she'd ever build the confidence for, but it was pretty damn close. The proverbial go ahead so obvious that only the densest of people could miss the implication in it. No one would randomly bring up another's culture and focus specifically on the romance part of it for idle conversation.
"Honestly, I'm not sure. I was pretty young when I left my homeland, so it wasn't something I ever had the chance to bother with, but I would guess it varied by social class. Not much more I can say about it." He admitted with a shrug. Things had gone south long before that though, society in shambles before he ever had such thoughts.
Tough times for sure.
"Oh, I see." Irina said, pausing for only a moment. "But you've been to many places. I assume there's some custom you've adopted for yourself?"
Onyx opened his eyes. Irina had timidly lowered her head as red as he expected and her fingers were toying with themselves. This was probably as direct as she was ever going to be by the look of things. He might as well take the initiative now and, more importantly, wipe away any illusions she might have about him.
Flirting and teasing was good and all as they were but anything beyond that would just end up problematic.
"Irina, I know have feelings for me." He said, shifting from his cross legged sit to a more casual one. She tensed up but made no denial. "But I think you should know what kind of person I am."
"I-I know that I probably won't see you much after you recover. Even if it weren't for the Elden Ring I don't think you're the sort who would stay in one place or settle down and I don't want to make you do that. I just-"
"That's not inaccurate but that's not what I meant." He interrupted her before she set off any further down the tangent that looked ready to burst out of her. "Like you said, I've been to plenty of places, seen plenty of different customs for courting as you call it. In that time many have told me that love is this all encompassing thing. Once they love one person, they won't even entertain thoughts of another. Some even say they don't have them at all."
"It's never really been that way for me." Onyx said. He respected those who were genuine in that belief, to each their own as it were, but it was one of many viewpoints he never understood. "I like you, Irina, and if we spent more time together that could turn to love but that wouldn't stop me from loving another or acting on it. It's who I am."
"That's…" Irina trailed off. The drum of her heart was as loud as can be, the young woman completely out of sorts. However she predicted this conversation going, this wasn't one of the possibilities she entertained. "I-"
"Do not compromise yourself for anyone or anything." Onyx said. That would be the only piece of advice he offered.
Whatever things went from here was up to her.
"Surely thou must realize this is but a farce." Marika appeared far behind Irina, floating just beside the ruin's entranceway. "She is blind and confined to an island with naught but her father, a demihuman, the little one, and the man responsible for saving her life as well as her father's in a time where most wouldst sooner cut each other down than exchange words. Quite the choice thee hast given her." Even if her form wasn't always present, she was constantly listening in, gathering plenty from their conversations.
He raised a brow. "If you're trying to make a point, get to it."
"This is manipulation. Thee art taking advantage of her. Do not pretend otherwise." From anyone else, except maybe Melina, that would've been accusatory, but he could tell that wasn't the point. If she felt any sympathy for Irina or truly cared about what was going on, her emotions didn't so much as waver to show it. She wanted something else.
"Alright."
As his brow dropped, hers rose. "Why admit to it so readily?"
"The only difference between how you and I see things is intention. My intentions mean plenty to me. They mean nothing to you." He said with a shrug. "You'll see things your way, I'll see them mine. I don't care to argue perspective."
Marika's pale golden eyes bore into his own.
He still didn't see much of a point in this conversation. As much as he loathed to admit it, she knew him better than any other in this land could possibly hope to. Their entangled souls granted her a degree of insight that hundreds of years of companionship could only hope to replicate.
Something that was a two way street.
"Why is it impossible to believe I helped her with no ulterior motives?" He questioned. Yes, he had deep and unwanted understanding of what kind of person she was but all that shaped her into that person? He was very much curious about that.
"Thou art a powerful being." She stated, her stare not easing in any way. "What I can not comprehend is why thee would see so much time wasted on a mortal that has little to do with thyself."
"Oh, I didn't know I was talking to Queen Marika, the goddess of time." He jabbed, the amusement born from the bit of sarcasm entirely one sided. She didn't even blink. "Who are you to decide what is and isn't wasted time for me?"
She stared. Then turned, a subtle flash of annoyance filling their connection as she faded away with what sounded like a click of her tongue.
That might've been the most normal thing he felt from her.
"I…" Irina began, his attention draw back to her as she trailed off. "…I'm…Truthfully, I am not sure what to think but…but I do know that I want-I want to be with you. That's enough for me."
He hadn't expected an answer from her so quickly, prepared to leave things at that for the night, but if she'd made her choice, he wasn't going to be talking her out of it. "As long as you're sure."
Silence soon took over, Irina slowly raising her pressing and twirling fingers up to her face in a poor attempt to conceal her embarrassment. "Then…does this mean-" She stopped short, no more sure of herself than when the whole conversation started.
"I guess we're courting each other as you put it." Onyx said, cracking a slight smile.
A smile bloomed across her face though it quickly dropped again, anxiety still filling it. "Then, erm, there is something I would like to request." Irina began. "In the books that I've been read, these things are usually sealed with a, well, a kiss. Can I, no, can you-" She fumbled over her words, stopping and starting again.
Onyx chuckled lowly but obliged, rising to a kneel in front of her and raising a hand. Irina fell, her breath hitching in her throat as he cupped her chin, tilting her head back up. The thump of her heart was clearer than ever as he brought them closer, their breaths brushing across the other's lips.
He did away with the rest of the distance, her soft lips brought to his.
The kiss was short. No more than a smooch that was over as quickly as it began, Onyx opting to keep things innocent. Nevertheless, Irina's face might as well have been a tomato, though that embarrassment did nothing to detract from the shy smile in place, her hand rising up to touch the edge of her lips as they parted.
Cute.
XOXO
(A/N: Much of what Marika says will likely be done with the intention of her getting what she wants and/or attempting to force Onyx to doubt himself or undermine his actions. That said, she isn't speaking nonsense or lies at all times, truth used as basis for many of her claims and statements. In others words she will attempt both blunt and subtle manipulations. It'll likely be a while before she's likeable, if at all, to anyone who isn't already sympathetic and or partial to her looks.
But that's part of what makes it so interesting to write her. I don't why but there's really something entertaining about writing interactions with her as well as her dialogue. Still a day one hater of bible speak. Learned not to beat myself up over it though and just maintain a formal way of speaking with some old English thrown in throughout it. Should work fine for all but the most picky of people who actually know all the grammar rules and verbiage associated with that crap.)