Hildegarde looked at Mane's sleeping figure with a gaze that told of many stories – many unhappy stories. How would her own Tested do when the time comes? Initially she was confident Mane could easily leave this world behind because though he had friends in it, his heart was strong enough to abandon it as long as those friends were well equipped to handle the chaos of this world. It was one of the reasons Mane had helped the twins and Dan to grow stronger. But now what was he going to do? The feelings the boy had for Lily were best described as crushes so though Hildegarde used to tease him about it, she knew it wasn't going to last. And as Hildegarde correctly predicted, time apart from each other erased those feelings from Mane's heart. Now he regarded the Elemental Princess like a sister; news that would crush Lily's heart if she knew since she genuinely was in love with Mane. It was different for Sunflower. With her, Hildegarde could see that Mane genuinely did love her. HE shared everything with her and sought her opinion of everything he did, even when she had no power to make any real difference. Most fearful of all this was that Mane hadn't noticed his continues dependence on Sunflower and had slowly fallen too deep to climb out. And for some reason, Sunflower's initial curiosity about the boy – which her sisters had warned her about –had led her down the same hole, and she had fallen several feet deeper than Mane like her sisters predicted. Added to the fact that the two were always together, Hildegarde judged that a day like this would come. And it did. Now what was Mane going to do? As long as the boy realised what he was feeling for Sunflower was the love between a man and a woman, he would also consider the things Hildegarde was considering.
"Will you really be able to leave this world behind when it is time to go? Would you really? Can you leave it all behind great Supreme? What will you do when the time comes, Mane Harbinger; especially when you have already fallen in love with someone?" Hildegarde sighed once again before settling next to Mane and falling asleep a short while later.
There was another who was keenly interested in Mane's current love life, but for different reasons. While Hildegarde was worried about Mane's mental wellbeing, this person was more annoyed by the boy's antics than he was worried. In fact, there was barely any worry in the first place. As for who this person was, the answer lay in Mane's Soul Space.
"What a coward," Cronos snorted with displeasure. He could see and hear everything Mane did so naturally he had seen it all. Usually he couldn't be bothered about the boy's life and slept most of the time. But this time he happened to be awake. As to why he was annoyed, the reason was simple.
"That girl has a special constitution. Sleeping with her would bring enormous benefits to his fire bloodline. Yet this idiot refuses to do what is right!" Cronos screamed in rage as his voice rocked Mane's soul. However apart from shaking slightly, it did nothing more. Clearly Mane had gotten strong enough to resist Cronos. It wouldn't be so easy for the Selfish Titan to best Mane now, especially in the boy's own 'home'.
Yes, the reason for Cronos's fury was Mane's constant rejection of the one idea Cronos had pitched to him throughout the past couple of years: sleep with the triplets. Cronos was largely experienced, and even without True Eyes he could smell that the triplets were special. Mane had little knowledge about special constitutions, but the Star Maps of the three sisters were indeed special. However unlike the Titan King, Mane didn't think about it so much.
Cronos wasn't concerned that Mane was in love. To him, love was nonexistent and only power was relevant. Initially when Mane was stuck at the Heaven Realm, Cronos let Mane in on a little secret. The triplets – Rose, Daisy and Sunflower – were somehow very special. Each of them was an embodiment of the element they controlled, and sleeping with them would allow Mane to reach the Full Mastery Realm of understanding regarding those elements! Of course Mane immediately refused. Not only did he not see Daisy and Rose in such a manner, even if he did he wouldn't treat them like Power Up packs. Also he was not going to sleep with Sunflower for such a reason.
"That fool!" Cronos raged as a powerful aura burst out of him. A dark red aura was summoned into his palm and he slapped the ground beneath him as hard as he could.
*Boom*
The Soul Space shook once again, but it was fine. There were no damages even after Cronos's rampage. It did seem that venting had helped though. For the Selfish Titan King of Time calmed down greatly after the slap.
"His self-control is amazing," Cronos admitted as a small pink orb was summoned into his grasp. The orb pulsated like a beating heart. And with each throb the pink aura around it grew slightly stronger. This was the power of the Succubus Cronos killed recently. It was the very same one Cronos had destroyed when Mane was in the Nature Barrier!
As the one who gave Mane the power to Devour, he was much better at using it. And though he had transferred the skill to Mane, remnants of its power still remained. And Cronos opted to use a large chunk of those burning embers to devour the power of the Succubus when he killed her. He morphed her power into a heart, capable of constantly regenerating lost power. And he did that all for one purpose: to force Mane to do that which he didn't want to do.
When Mane kissed Sunflower, it wasn't because he had lost control of himself. And it wasn't because he was only just realizing how amazing the woman who had accompanied him these past few years was. While he did lose control, it wasn't because his self-control failed him. There was an actual culprit behind the entire issue; a culprit Mane had not a clue about. For it was because of the Succubus Heart that those two events occurred. Unfortunately since Mane had no idea what had actually happened, he was sure to find fault with himself for his lack of self-discipline thereof. If only he knew that the true mastermind was the Titan King who lay within his Soul Space, he would have his guard up from this day forward. For Cronos allowed its power to consume the boy. He spent more than half of what had been produced yet he failed. And that was why he was angry.
"The girl is no slouch at self-discipline either," Cronos frowned. Initially he wanted to use Sunflower since he judged that she loved Mane more than he loved her. At least even if they loved each other just as much as the other, she was aware that what she felt was love, unlike the inexperienced boy. To him, that made her an easier target. So when she settled onto Mane's chest and kept her face glued to his neck, Cronos allowed the power of the heart to permeate through Mane's skin and it concentrated at his neck. And poor Sunflower who injected it all in when she was offloading kisses on Mane's face temporarily lost control for a bit. And that led to her first real kiss with Mane.
"I rushed it," Cronos confessed. The heart was barely at 10% capacity when he used it on both of them. After all, he had only recently acquired it. If he gave it more time, it will be fully charged.
"Then all I have to do is wait for the right moment," Cronos smirked dangerously, with his eyes gleaming at what he considered a genius plan.
If Mane could see Cronos right now, he would be surprised by how eager the Selfish Titan King was to see him lose his purity. And that would alert him even more. For the one known as Cronos never did anything that didn't ultimately benefit him. And as wary as Mane was of him, this time he had been caught unaware. One couldn't blame the young Supreme though. There was no way he would have thought that Cronos would have the ability to manipulate his emotions when the Selfish Titan King was trapped in his Soul Space.
Ultimately this all boiled down to the fact that he didn't completely understand Devour. If he had reached the Full Mastery Realm of Devour Mane would know that it was possible to create an artifact from a dead creature. And while the artifact may not be particularly high leveled, it will possess that creature's rarest skill. Then again, even if Mane knew all this, he may not have connected his mistake to Cronos still. Not only was the young boy under the impression that Cronos couldn't use the power of Devour again, if he had sought to blame another for what transpired, he would have branded himself cowardly.
"Sleep young Supreme. The time is coming when sleep will be hard to come by and chaos will reign," Cronos's eyes flashed ominously as he declared to no one but himself.
"And you will bring it forth. Hahaha! Hahaha!"