It was now early morning. With the sun rising over the landscape, it revealed nearly ten-square-kilometres of land that was completely decimated. Hills that once dotted the land were completely flattened and the already small amount of trees within the area were completely destroyed. There were several dozen holes caused, some of them in the shape of a massive handprint while some were craters worthy of being a lake.
Another thing that was illuminated by the morning sun was the large body of a maroon-skinned humanoid titan. If not for the periodically movement of its chest, it would've been mistaken for a corpse. And rightly so because the current state of the blood titan overlord was…abysmal.
There were multiple lacerations on its body as well as other similar wounds that were caused by Uehara's giant bone blade or fist. Its chest was visibly bent inwards while there was a rib that was directly poking out.
HUFF…HUFF…HUFF
But despite all its wounds, the titan overlord was visibly healing with each breath it took. Although the rate of healing was very slow compared to when it was fighting the previous day, it was not too bad since the wounds would heal by noon at most.
On the forehead of the overlord, Uehara was sitting cross-legged on the titan with his scroll rolled out in front of him.
While he didn't have any visible wounds, he was quite exhausted by the brawl. The right arm of his coat was completely ripped off, revealing the skinny arm of Uehara. He had consumed a lot of energy creating bones, meaning he was very hungry right now.
As a side-effect, his eyes were also bright red now.
[I overestimated myself. My body is too taxed right now. I doubt I can even fly back home in my current state.]
It also didn't help that he was still recovering from the affects of the Aura-Flowing State technique. Using it in tandem with sage mode left his chakra network feeble. Due to this, he can barely channel any worthwhile chakra without wincing in pain.
Raising his leg a bit, he rested his chin on his knee while he stretched out his other leg. The scroll was still unfurled and was placed on his right.
Sitting in silence with his new titan friend, Uehara had one question that he honestly wanted answered.
"Can you grow hair or are you permanently bald?"
The overlord opened his left eye and looked at Uehara before grunting.
"Mm"
"Good. You must grow your hair. The last thing I need is to be blinded when standing on your head as we face our future enemies."
"Mm"
Uehara frowned.
"What do you mean you'd rather sleep? You're coming with me. As your new alpha, you have no choice but to listen to me."
"Grr"
Giving one last growl, the titan closed it's eye. Silence reigned over the area. The cold mountain breeze didn't affect the two demons at all. Even though Uehara wasn't in his sage mode, a little breeze like this meant nothing to him when putting his dragon physiology into consideration.
But Uehara did notice how the strand of red hair lying over his forehead he got before didn't turn black.
[I assumed it was an after-effect of perfecting my flame-sage transformation. But now, it doesn't seem like it. I don't feel anything different about it currently so I won't worry about it now.]
Lying on his back, he knocked against the forehead of his giant companion.
"Hey. Drop your blood on the scroll so that I can finalise the contract."
"Mmmmmm"
Uehara's mouth twitched slightly.
"Do it or not being able to feel your arms will be the least of your worries."
"Grr"
The titan begrudgingly lifted up its arm and brought its finger over the scroll, letting a drop of blood drip over it. A brief flash of red emanated from the scroll, signifying that the contract was complete.
The titan let its arm fall back to the ground with a satisfied huff, not minding how the minor earthquake scared away the chakra beasts attracted by the blood.
Uehara moulded some earth into a stylus and spoke to his titan friend.
"You have a name big guy?"
"Mm"
"Then I'll wait until you name yourself. Until then, I'll call you Big Red."
"Mm"
Standing up with some difficulty, Uehara closed the scroll and strapped it to his back again.
"I'll need your help in a few days Red."
Pressing his finger to Red's forehead, Uehara ignored his burning chakra coils as he transferred all the knowledge he has on humans.
"Assuming you never knew about humans, this should be enough to get you up to speed."
Having done his task, he was about to teleport when he felt his chakra coils protest in indignation.
Sigh
Unclipping the scroll, he placed it on the ground and laid his head on it like a pillow.
"Grrrr"
"Get used to having me rest on your head. If you hate having me on your head, then find a way to compress your power and make yourself smaller."
Snorting in resignation, the titan relaxed its body and closed its eyes. At the same time, Uehara also relaxed his body and entered his mindscape.
…
BOOOOM
Flexing his fist, Volkarin's eyebrows were contorted in silent fury.
"I tell him that he should not push his infantile body and yet what does my idiot of a son do?"
Getting up from one of the hills dotting his mindscape, Uehara went into a coughing fit. Replicating his current state in reality, Uehara was also skinny in his mindscape, especially his right arm. He looked dreadfully emancipated, which was very dangerous for his infantile body.
This was a fact that Volkarin knew very much.
"Treating my words like fart in the wind. What a wonderful son I have."
Cracking his knuckles, a strained smile formed on his face, making Uehara instinctively shiver.
"This father of yours will show you just how happy he is to have a wonderful son like you."
…
It was early morning, just a few minutes before sunrise. Chizuki was not feeling alright these past few hours, most of it having to do with the presence of Shikibu. Although she didn't hate the woman much, she loathed the fact that she was becoming 'too' familiar with her master.
By now, she had already accepted that she harbours heavy feelings for Uehara. She'd already lost count of how many daydreams she had where she was all grown up, chiselled and in that golden transformation of his. Already knowing her master they way she does, it wasn't hard for her to construct a picture of how he would look all grown up.
But to this day, Uehara had never once shown any sort of attraction for the opposite sex. Even Shikibu failed to garner any sort of reaction from him. There were even times when she wondered if her master wasn't interested in the fairer sex at all.
[Enough thinking Chizuki. Worrying about things like this won't help you.]
Either way, her daydreams were interrupted when she saw Shikibu saunter out of the house with all four of her tails in view. She wore a particularly revealing red kimono that matched well with her long red hair.
Observing her creamy white skin, Chizuki couldn't help but notice that her breasts had also grown slightly. From her vantage point on the branch she was sitting on, she could see how the valley between the two peaks seemed to have…extended.
That predictably caused a twitch from her lips.
[Stupid fox. Just die!]
Watching the fox walk over to her, Chizuki expected her to begin with her usual teasing when she finally noticed the serious expression of Shikibu's face.
When Shikibu was close enough, she jumped onto the tree branch Chizuki was sitting on, earning a flinch from the blue-eyed beauty.
Shikibu didn't say anything and just stared right into Chizuki's breasts hidden by her black robes, making said woman unconsciously cover them up.
"Murasaki. What do you want?"
Shikibu didn't respond. Instead, she peered to them even more and frowned.
"But mine are bigger. What did Aoki-sama mean then?"
Catching the name of her master coming from the buxom vixen's mouth, Chizuki instinctively released killing intent.
This caused Shikibu to snap out of whatever reverie she was in. She coyly smiled at the killing intent Chizuki was releasing, noticing it was much more than usual.
"Oh? Did Aoki-sama not relieving you cause you to build up stress?"
A groan escaped Chizuki's mouth, making Shikibu's eyes light up.
"Ara? How long has it been now?"
Chizuki didn't reply. Ever since Shikibu found out about how she felt pleasure from Uehara feeding on her, it provided her with endless material to tease her with.
Not wanting to put up with Shikibu's teasing, Chizuki started drawing in nature energy, causing the vixen to shift away a bit after feeling the intense cold threatening to plague her.
Putting up her hands in mock surrender, she pouted.
"Fine Chizuki-chan. I'll stop teasing you~"
But that wasn't enough to quell the ice queen, proven by the fact that a large ice mace was forming in her hand.
But before Chizuki could even use it, she felt Uehara's current condition through the link. She could only ever know his condition either when he allowed it or when he retreated into his mindscape.
She didn't waste time before shooting off north-east to the mountain region, the territory of the blood-titans.
Although she was panicking, she was still focused enough to enter her sage mode. It was similar to Uehara's but without the draconic features. Black lines flowed from her forehead, spiralled around her eyes before ending at her jawline, just next to her ears. Her eyes turned golden while her pupils morphed into slits, the same as Uehara's dragon eyes before they evolved.
Getting closer to the target of her worries, she didn't even bother marveling at the destruction surrounding her. Spotting the figure of a large humanoid titan lying on the ground, she remained calm when she sensed that it was sleeping.
But as she got closer, all reigns of self-control broke away when she saw Uehara's condition for herself.
Landing on the forehead of the titan, she nearly panicked at how awful Uehara's condition looked.
"Master…"