Chapter 11: Power Leveling V

Elaine was lying on her bed, a gorgeous, naked woman on either side of her. While she had always been quite adventurous in bed this was not a common occurrence for her. In fact, before the Invasion she'd only experienced something like this twice and, as such, she did not consider herself an expert on this kind of situation. Even so, she was fairly certain that it was unusual for both of the other women to be crying and sniffling while cuddling in to her.

She had nothing to feel guilty about, however. They weren't crying because she had upset them. She had merely told both of them that she loved them. She hadn't expected that kind of emotional response but it was comforting to see. Both that Evelyn didn't regret admitting her feelings and that Ophelia clearly felt the same.

Elaine had never felt so loved, so cherished, in her life. The only thing that could possibly make the situation better would be if Alexis was here, the third woman she needed to confess her feelings to.

God but I'm a cunt, she thought. Two women who love me right in my arms and I'm thinking about another.

And then Elaine was startled out of her thoughts when Ophelia flicked her forehead.

“Get out of your head, stud.”

“What do you mean?” Elaine said. Her tone wasn't whiny. Elaine didn't do whiny. She was righteously indignant.

“You had that mournful guilty look on your face,” Ophelia said. “The one you always get when you think you're a bad person for having a harem.”

Elaine didn't say anything.

“What was it this time?” Ophelia asked. “Did you feel guilty because you haven't told Alexis yet?”

“You can't read my mind, can you?” Elaine asked, concern in her voice.

“I wish. Then I could hear all those naughty fantasies you always feel so guilty about.”

“Naughty fantasies?” Evelyn asked.

“I'm sure you've seen the look,” Ophelia said. “Her eyes go distant and her breathing quickens and she starts blushing. Then, a few seconds later the blush intensifies and she suddenly looks super guilty.”

“Oh yeah, that. So that's what that's about?”

“I do not have a naughty fantasy look,” Elaine protested. And then her cheeks went crimson as Ophelia shared a picture of the naughty fantasy look she'd taken with her CARD. “I hate you.”

“I hate you, too,” Ophelia said and then leaned over to kiss Elaine.

“You can have all the naughty fantasies you want,” Evelyn said when they broke the kiss. “I'm just glad you're not feeling bad about my confession.”

This time Elaine was the one who flicked Evelyn's forehead. “You'll never have to doubt how much I love you.” And then she kissed the redhead.

Ophelia let them have their moment before she said: “You all did your leveling already, didn't you?”

“Uh-huh,” Evelyn said dreamily, still drunk on Elaine's kiss.

“Then I guess I should take my turn now.”

Ophelia stared at the skill 'Patron Deity of Blood Sacrifice' for several moments, then she threw herself at Elaine and showered her face with kisses. When she was done she cuddled into Elaine's side and whispered: “Thank you.”

Elaine hugged her tightly to herself: “This is your power. You gained it.”

Ophelia was shaking her head but it was Evelyn who spoke up: “No. She couldn't have gained that ability on her own. You gave that to her.”

“If that's true then you deserve at least as much credit,” Elaine said. “After all, it was your blood that made this happen.”

Evelyn shrugged, not denying it but also not agreeing.

“I would kiss you as well but I'm not sure you'd want that,” Ophelia said, giving Evelyn's hand a squeeze.

Evelyn bit her lip as she considered it. She'd learned that she was a little bi around the edges but even so, kissing girls at parties had never done anything for her. Then again, before she'd been with Elaine kissing hadn't done much for her in general. And Ophelia was a very attractive woman. What cinched it for her in the end was the look Elaine was giving them. Evelyn smiled wryly as she saw the look of hunger on Elaine's face. Her pervert of a lover wanted to see her two girlfriends kiss.

“Get over here,” Evelyn said and opened her arm wide, inviting Ophelia in.

Ophelia smiled wickedly and crawled on top of Elaine, resting her entire body weight on top of her stud of a girlfriend, and then leaned over to kiss the pretty redhead. Ophelia had seen the look on Elaine's face as well and so she made a show of it, giving Evelyn an open-mouthed kiss designed to look as sexy as possible. At the same time, while the kiss looked sexy, it wasn't deep or demanding, just in case Evelyn decided she didn't like it and wanted to stop. And so it came as a bit of a surprise when she felt Evelyn's arm pull her in close as she deepened the kiss, shoving her tongue into Ophelia's mouth, invading her and claiming her in a surprising show of dominance and desire.

Laying on top of Elaine as she was Ophelia could tell how much her lover was enjoying the show, her cock twitching like mad as she watched the two of them make out.

“There,” Evelyn said once they broke the kiss, a little out of breath from the exertion, “now you see that biting me was a good thing? No hard feelings, it felt great and it got you a super awesome ability.”

Ophelia let out a wry chuckle. “Alright, alright. I still think it was a terrible loss of control but I admit it worked out in the end.”

“Wanna do your leveling now?” Elaine asked.

“Probably better,” Ophelia said. “Otherwise this guy here,” she pushed her thigh against Elaine's slowly growing erection, “is going to distract me again.”

“Can't have that,” Elaine said. “So, have you decided on what to buy?”

Ophelia squished her lips to one side as she considered her options. “Yeah. It will take some finagling, but I think I know how to optimize this.”

“So you finally bought that herb lore thing, huh?” Elaine asked.

“Yeah,” Ophelia said. “I thought it was worthless until that herb garden showed up, except...”

“I know that look,” Elaine said. “It's the same look Evelyn gets when she uses her Akashic Knowledge.”

“Huh?” Evelyn asked. “What look do I get?”

“Like you're deep in thought and shocked at the same time. It's cute.”

Evelyn blushed and stayed silent.

“So, what did you learn?” Elaine asked.

“That herb lore,” Ophelia said. “It's a lot deeper than I thought. It's also not that useful to me.”

“Even if you can pull the herbs out of thin air?”

“Yeah,” Ophelia said, then concentrated in that distinctive way that preceded the use of an M-Skill.

Finally she summoned a little spot of distorted space and reached into it. It looked bizarre, her hand disappearing from the real world, making it seem like her arm ended at her wrist. Finally she pulled her hand out of the distortion and pulled out a bushel of red herbs.

“This is Bloodwort,” she announced. “It doubles regeneration. What am I supposed to do with that? I already heal so fast that if I poke myself with a needle I have to rip it out immediately or my skin attempts to heal around the needle.”

“I mean, if you eat some of it and then use your Umbral Embrace that would give others even more healing,” Evelyn said.

“Or give it to Alexis to make her Beacon of Salvation even stronger.”

Ophelia opened her mouth, then closed it.

“Anything else interesting?” Elaine asked.

Once again Ophelia reached into her pocket dimension and pulled out a bushel of green herbs. “This is Moly,” she announced. “It dispels magic. But my abilities already do that.”

“But...” Elaine began but Ophelia cut her off:

“But I could give these to others for when I'm not around to help. Huh. I'm beginning to see the pattern here. They don't give me anything new but they enhance what's already there.”

“Exactly,” Elaine said. “Also consider that these are fairly low-rank abilities, all things considered. The fact that they are still useful is pretty good on its own.”

Ophelia nodded in acknowledgment.

“So, what about the blood thing?” Evelyn asked.

Ophelia considered how to phrase it. “I feel weird,” she finally said. “I mean, I feel good. Really good. But it's like... I've lived with this aching thirst for so long that not having it there is odd, like I'm missing a limb. A useless limb that did nothing but ache, but a limb nevertheless.”

“So what, you have phantom pain syndrome?” Elaine asked.

Ophelia snorted. “No, it'll just take a little while for me to get used to feeling so good.”

“That's good,” Elaine said.

“I hope so. Now, what did you get?”

Elaine wordlessly shared her stat screen.

“I think I have to agree with what Prudence said earlier,” Evelyn said. “Your stats balloon a little too fast.”

“Is she upset about Elaine outpacing her?” Ophelia asked.

Elaine opened her mouth to deny it, then closed it again as she thought. “Maybe? We arm-wrestled and I beat her handily. She wasn't that happy about it.”

“You're very much alike,” Evelyn said quietly.

“How so?” Elaine asked.

“You're used to being the strong one in relationships,” Evelyn said. “And that's fine. I really love that about you. But Prudence is the same. But now, for the first time, the person she's interested in is strong enough to kick her ass. She doesn't quite know how to deal.”

“Well shit,” Elaine muttered.

“Huh?” Evelyn asked.

“I thought something similar when she started sending signals,” Elaine admitted. “She's... I think she's hot but...”

“If you say you don't want to pursue her because you're worried about what we'll think I'll hit you,” Ophelia said.

Elaine snorted. “No, I'm over that. I think. No, it's more like, she's hot, sure. She's competent. And it's kind of cool to be with someone who has had similar life experiences, but... I don't feel any chemistry with her.”

“I think you'd feel differently if you saw just how much chemistry the two of you could get up to,” Ophelia said.

Elaine rolled her eyes at the suggestive comment. “As I said. She's hot. But if it's about being hot then I've got four hot partners already. Hell, I got a sexy redhead right here in this bed. I want more than just a hot body.”

“So you aren't going to pursue her?” Ophelia asked.

“If she wants to try I'll be happy to try as well,” Elaine said. “I just don't see it working out.”

“Hey, that's cool,” Ophelia said. “Just so long as you don't refuse to try because of some dumb hangups.”

Elaine nodded, glad that Ophelia understood. Then she turned to Evelyn. “You got a new Bond Level, didn't you? Wanna check out your new abilities?”

Evelyn blinked, then nodded.