PREVIOUSLY
But then, I felt something shine on the back of my head. And, was that huffing and puffing I heard?
My eyes widened. No way.
Turning back, just as I had thought, Raegis was still able to catch up to me even though I was probably around 500 mph right now, only 200 short of Mach 1! Then, I saw the glow of silver around her body and cursed at how unfair the world was.
Unfortuantely, I wasn't the only one who had an awakening in the world of speed. Using my eyes, I could see that Raegis had the ingenious awakening of applying the concept of her power, of the ability [Connect] with herself, effectively boosting her speed through the power of her Steel.
I looked forward. Monsters tried to attack, but they were too slow now. We simply passed through them before they could even reach us, and we must have appeared as a white/silver blur to them.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
No matter. Even if Raegis was about to catch up to me, I was still able to have the upper hand since it was just a couple hundred meters before we arrived there.
"More. . .more!"
Hearing the words behind me, I grew even more determined and with a final push, I relinquished all of the chi from other parts of my body and focused all of them into my legs, and my core so that I didn't break down while running.
Then, the world disappeared as I broke through the sound barrier.
BOOM!
A sonic boom erupted behind me, as I was now faster than sound itself. In an instant, I appeared before a certain clearing with an odd, willow in the center. I had arrived.
Then, I attempted to reach the small, thinner tree beside the lonely willow since I didn't want to suffer from that pain again by attempting to touch the Gate of Silver.
"More!"
I didn't even dare look behind, and even think of how Raegis still managed to reach me, and instead, I lunged forward, hoping to touch the willow so that I could claim victory. I didn't have to worry much about crashing into the thing since I had already saved a small portion of chi solely dedicated to protecting me, making sure all of my bones didn't break from inertia.
My fingers looked so long in my view, probably warped from the speed I had achieved, but Raegis's arms looked longer, as her head suddenly appeared from the right side of me, as she too had jumped forward to reach it. I was worried for a split second that she would have crashed into her death right there and then, but I remembered that she was doused in Silver energy. Heck, she was probably more protected than me.
Hours turned into minutes, minutes turned into seconds. Was time even relevant at this speed anymore?
Time slowed down as my fingers were just centimeters away from the thin bark of the tree, but then my heart skipped a beat and my face scrunched in pain, along with my fingertips.
That single moment had provided a window of time, so short to the average mortal but an hour's worth for Raegis as her fingertips landed onto the tree first while I mouthed the words 'No'.
Then, time resumed as a champion had emerged.
BOOM!
Speed died, and the world returned to normal. Inertia followed as we both crashed into the tree with enough force to probably topple the Empire State building, but in this small clearing doused in Silver Energy, all we did was create a loud noise as we both fell back on our ass, with Raegis falling on top of me which almost took my lungs out.
She raised her arms. "WON!" Then, she collapsed on top of me, panting like a dog. Well, that makes the both of us.
If it was possible, Raegis probably would have started dancing on top of my body but we were both completely exhausted.
While my pride had definietly been hurt, I was still extremely happy that my attack dog managed to surpass another milestone and this time, it wasn't even on purpose. If she learend how to achieve and maintain such a speed, I probably won't have to worry much about anything under the Top category of monsters and beings. And, with the power up she was about to gain from this [Gate Of Steel], she would be able to go toe-to-toe with the higher graded monsters under the Top Category.
Yes, I had lost the battle but truly, I had won the war.
But first, let's focus on healing the both of us first.
"Haa. . .I'm completely spent," I petted Raegis's hair on top of me as our chests heaved in synchrony. "[Heal]."
The familiar bucket of cold water splashed on top of our heads, in the metaphorical sense of course, as I felt my tense muscles freeze in shock before relaxing, gradually healing. Oh right, I'd really recommend everyone to not do what I'd just done in using another power from another system directly after so thoroughly using your reserves in the other system. That was just a recipe for disaster.
The only reason I was able to do it was basically, my constitution that allowed all energies that entered and left my body to be in harmony.
It needed to be, otherwise, how would it be able to love every race equally?
"So," I started. "What do you want?"
". . ."
"Raegis?"
". . ."
I was about to check up on Raegis but then, she snored. I could only laugh in response as I let out a deep sigh, and felt the exhaustion also starting to catch up with me. Looking back at the race, it wasn't as if there wasn't anything good that came from it since I had now stepped into the world of superspeed through the race. Although, I was still holding back on deciding if it was worth it until I heard Raegis's request. No doubt, it was probably going to include some lewdness.
There would have been a canopy of trees if not for the special aura of silver that surrounded this little clearing, an aura that was so spiky that it probably would have agitated any normal person, but me being the Maiden, and Willow being the literal owner of the place, it didn't really do much to us.
So, for now, before I felt sleep descend upon me, I looked at the open sky that was beginning to turn a dark-orange, and wondered if it would be okay to take a short nap in this position while Ivanka would be watching me.
And then, I wondered, what was Ivanka doing?
***
I arrived in a white space. There was nothing except whiteness for miles, and I couldn't use any of my abilities here. Then, front the white, came something new, a table, some chairs, a coffee and two cups, before the moon descended upon me in this solitary room.
"Beloved."
I recognized that voice anywhere, but it sounded warped, weak and hoarse. And just as I'd suspected, Ivanka appeared before me, but this time, her form felt so weak that I couldn't even recognise her for a second.
"Ivanka?!" I rushed to her, catching her before she fell forward onto the table and injured herself even further. "What ha-Who did this to you?!"
Before my rage boiled any further, Ivanka waved me off, giving me a good tap on the shoulder before trying to get on the chair by herself. I tried to help her, but with her Alpha pride, she probably didn't want to embarrass herself any further in front of her bitch, so she simply waved me off again.
I loved Ivanka, but as a former man - wait I was stil a man, ah fuck it - I had to be understanding of her stupid pride, and simply let her do it herself.
It didn't help that everytime she stuttered forward, and her body swayed like a weak leaf, a part of my heart broke. When she finally got herself settled onto the chair, I took my own seat and then looked into her usually strong, smoky eyes.
Now, they were nothing but a dull grey.