
When their fists clashed, a dust cloud erupted.
Nuan Yulong blasted backward, unable to withstand the full frontal might of Xia's hybrid energy. Not letting up, the newly crowned Celestial Bride dashed after her, pumping the energy she mentally dubbed 'White Force' into her limbs. Their battle raged as Ciel and Decimo engaged in their own game of wits.
Around the four dancing combatants, the World of Wines wavered under SANCTION's light. Xia's spell operated at full force, sealing her enemy's power while magnifying her allies'.
Under the shining suppression, Nuan's Aura turned sluggish, brought to level with her opponent. Still possessed, she fought on, swiping with her greatly weakened invisible blade. The slash drew a line of blood from the Celestial Bride’s exposed flesh.
But it was useless. The healing properties of Xia's new power patched up the wound without leaving a scar or a scent of copper, and the odds weren't done stacking against Nuan
WHITE MAGIC RANK II: STRENGTHEN
The same spell once deployed against her resounded again. However, powered by the White Force, the effects were entirely different. Blessed blood capillaries glowed with multiplicative power as it funneled into a punch.
A single booming hit from Xia knocked her adversary into the ground, carving a trench across the land. Like a plowshare attached to a rocket, Nuan raked across the earth before colliding with another hut that broke apart on impact.
Xia landed just as the flying debris exploded, revealing a bleeding and tattered Nuan staggering forth. The hybrid energy gathered in Xia's hand for another spell.
WHITE MAGIC RANK III: BIND
White Force flew into the spell, but unlike the previous shackles, the empowered energy gave the spell a new shape: a javelin. Catching the sealing construct in her hand, Xia hurled the weapon at her new punching bag.
Barely risen from the previous damage, Nuan received Xia's impalement in her shoulder. There was no pain from the attack, but her entire shoulder went numb. She tried to pry the binding spell from her shoulder with an Aura-infused grip, but it stubbornly clung to her flesh. Undeterred, Nuan raised her hand and charged her Aura for her signature move.
GIANT ROTATION BULLET
In response, Xia channeled her power into her favorite attack. Hand lifted skyward, she funneled the light from within into a condensed form. Burning like a lens reflecting heaven's grace, she unleashed a mighty beam, piercing forward like a shining ray of hope.
WHITE MAGIC RANK IV: SMITE
The rotating ball of Aura and the destruction spell collided. Aura ground against Mana of disintegration, releasing a flood of energy which eroded the very ground and hummed like a metallic beast in the air. In a roar of wind, Nuan's magnum opus technique canceled out Xia's enhanced pillar of light in an explosion that collapsed every building in the settlement.
Hurricane-force winds sent bodies ragdolling through the air. The few standing structures—fragile as children's toys built of sticks and glue—collapsed in the magical aftermath. Amidst this destruction, the Celestial Bride was first to recover. She burst forward, her enhanced form cutting through the chaos like a blade, summoning javelins of pure light.
Weakened by battle and exhausted of Aura, Nuan attempted to block her approaching enemy through the burst of gale, but it was futile. Xia's binding javelin pierced through her hand and struck Balor's Grip directly. Nuan's eyes widened at the sudden influx of sensory information as the parasite ceased functioning. Unable to respond, she immediately fell unconscious.
Decimo, witnessing this battle, didn't take the result well.
"How can this be?" Decimo screeched amidst the dust and sound rising from the broken woods, his black conceptual space clashing against the Princess of White's light of condemnation. "Even when weakened, she is still a—"
Shunk!
He looked down at the metal edge sticking out of his stomach, coated in his black blood. Eyes doubling and chest numbing from the paralytic toxin, the Blackwing member glanced back at the Union Lord who emerged from behind his stealth tech's shield.
Got to love their spectacle," Ciel said dryly, noting the pile of wood where he hid. He looked up at the retreating darkness of the World of Wine fracturing to pieces. "Provided enough noise to cover for us." His eyes narrowed. "Now, tell me everything I want to know—"
Decimo interrupted by biting down on his teeth, releasing the poison capsule. With a shudder, he went limp.
"As expected, they didn't mind killing themselves to stop information leakage," Ciel sighed in cold blood, dropping the dead body to the ground. He fluttered his lab coat and dumped the body of his first kill into the shadows. "But they should have found a way to dispose of the body too."
He glanced at the blue sky above and walked to his companion who loomed over the unconscious girl impaled with a sealing stick of light.
"Ciel," Xia asked, gesturing at the parasite in Nuan's chest. "How do I get it off?"
He leaned closer and observed the stabbed creature: a cross between a starfish and a man-eating plant. The rubbery texture and unknowable terror of its aesthetics proved beyond doubt this was Balor's work. Thankfully, he had an eon to spare studying such things. From his ever-expanding array of tools, Ciel produced a syringe filled with pink chemical, uncapped its lid, and stabbed it into Balor's Grip.
Feeling the silky poison shutting it down, the mind-controlling horror shook as if undergoing shock. It released itself from Nuan's chest and finally went limp.
"This should clear it out," Ciel said, observing as Nuan's face settled into peaceful slumber.
"Yeah," Xia nodded contemplatively. She looked at her arm glowing with newfound might. "I will miss this power for sure," she muttered and turned toward her temporary partner. "Okay, you can lift whatever boost you gave me now."
"It's permanent," informed the not-so-temporary partner. "Once you sign the contract, it's for eternity. Don't you ever hear the term 'until death do us part'?"
Xia's smile lasted only a second. Her mind processed every single word spoken by her would-be husband. Lips quivering and skin whitening as realization dawned, she arched backward and screamed loud enough for the fleeing settlers to hear; those same villagers now running from their demolished homes and fields upturned with trenches and debris.
"What?! Isn't there a divorce for this kind of thing?"
"Yes," Ciel nodded. "It's called death." He sighed. "Why do you think I tried so hard to keep distance between us?" He revealed the truth to the horrified woman now collapsing to her knees. "You had several opportunities to dodge this fate, but you just had to be nosy, didn't you?"
She struggled up, grabbing him, desperate for any solution or compromise to escape the fate she had condemned herself to with a kiss. "Okay, we can still do this," she grasped at straws and looked into his face. "Why don't we just pretend this never—"
"Psychological compulsion," he broke the dream into sixty different pieces. "You might not know this, but the longer this contract takes effect, the more your feelings toward me increase in intensity. I believe I don't have to explain the meaning of 'absence makes the heart grow fonder.'"
Even understanding that, Xia responded with anger, beating futilely against his chest. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"
"I lied to you to avoid this exact scenario," Ciel let the Crown Princess vent her anger. "But you just had to be too smart for your own good, didn't you?"
Feeling the punishment of her ignorance, Xia now reduced herself to bargaining. "But I'm Curtis' Crown Princess," she moaned. "I can't just get married to somebody I met in a single day! What if I actually meet someone I love?"
"Tragic," came the reply. "I never wanted this ability either. As for someone you love or your status—" the Lord of Union gave her a pitiful look "—you have absolutely no other options. The psychological compulsion and biological changes will ensure you'll never see other males as anything but dogs. Your genetics are being enhanced so far beyond average mortals that you're essentially infertile. Even other Lords are genetically locked from inseminating your eggs."
"Wait, then how do I get an heir?" Xia shrieked. "If this gets out, my position as Crown Princess will be in danger!"
"How do you think?" Ciel gazed heavenward with no amusement. "They called you Celestial Bride, not celestial virgin. Who do you think you're a bride for, then?"
Xia fell silent, and with horror, she pointed shakily at the handsome devil who would be glued to her for the rest of time.
"Yeah," Ciel agreed. "This ability is impossible, and that's why I don't want to talk about it." He huffed. "My relatives knowing this is bad enough, but if this knowledge becomes widespread, I'll never escape the sexual deviant's label." He gave Xia a sidelong glance. "And now I have to watch one more mouth because of a certain someone."
She wasn't amused by this. "So are you telling me you are—"
"God no," he chuckled in despair. "I won't, but this psychological influence goes both ways. Trust me, within five years your mind will be twisted enough that you'll be baking me cake and talking about filling the house with a gaggle of kids all by your lonesome." He clenched his fist in repressed rage. "And the worst part is this psychological compulsion will work on me too, so I doubt I can even refuse you when that time comes." Ciel yelled toward the sky, aiming his grievance at the Void. "Thank you so much for this goddamn ability! Power of love? More like the power of psychological compulsion!"
Seeing the very master of this Authority equally powerless as herself finally broke Xia's last hope. "This is bad," she sulked. "Can it get any worse?" Then she remembered a certain word. "Wait, Decimo talked about wives." She turned creakily toward Ciel. "What does that mean?"
Ciel stiffly turned and walked away. "We will not talk about that, and I do not want to think about it!"
"That's pretty much confirming my theory, isn't it?" Xia spoke, following him. "Are you telling me your ability works best in a polygamy?"
"Stop talking about it!" he yelled, speeding himself to leave the carnage of broken wood while his new bride hurried behind him, demanding explanations through her tears.
And thus began the story of the house which would rock the planet. The tale of a reluctant womanizer fighting for dear life against a universe content to throw more wives at him.
Hmm