To make sure everything worked out as well as possible the second time around, Nemesis took on the role of guide. She was ready to immerse her brother in a state of deep meditation, helping him absorb the energy of the blue core.
Thanatos was calm, for he now possessed the secret knowledge of the structure of the Vial Soul.
In the realm of meditation, time seemed to stop. Nemesis told Thanatos to immerse himself completely in the experience, to become one with the rhythm of his breath and the subtle sensations pulsing through his being.
Thanatos' thoughts were freed from the attachments of the world. The outside world disappeared and his eyes opened to the inner space of Vial Soul.
He saw the center of his existence and then looked at his body. The body was an astral projection as the real body was next to Nemesis.
«Unbelievable! I can see my own Vial Soul and one violet Star circling around,» Thanatos pondered mesmerized.
Thanatos began the immediate process of cultivation. He imagined absorbing the core energy from Second Star monster.
With each breath in his physical body, his Soul began to absorb the blue core more strongly. The meditation showed itself to be effective.
Not ten minutes later, the core crumbled to ashes as there was no energy left in it.
Thanatos felt a dense swirl of blue energy accumulate around the Soul Vessel, which almost instantly transformed into the Second Star.
Nemesis realized that her brother was on the verge of a breakthrough and helped him by giving him a small energy jolt.
— OH! I have ascended to the second degree, I have a Second Star! — Thanatos spoke joyfully as he opened his eyes and saw his own sister.
— I know, brother. I have helped you.
— Is it really that easy to improve? — Thanatos felt a surge of strength and greater control over the power of Chaos. Control was far from perfect, but now he could confidently form a compressed sphere in the palm of his hand or cover his hands with a thin layer of destructive energy.
— You're only partially right. It was easier for you to progress with this core because it was the next best color and shape in your stage of cultivation, and because you extracted it yourself from the monster. You must also take into account your uniqueness, your new knowledge of the structure of Soul, and my help in your breakthrough.
— Thank you, Nemesis. I love you, — Thanatos rose from his lotus pose and kissed his sister's lush lips.
The blue-eyed girl moaned into her brother's mouth in pleasure, but after a moment she pushed him away and shouted, — Than, we have important things to do now! First, we need to save our house, New York. And second, didn't you want to know where we could find Evelina? I'm sure she's still alive, since she was lucky enough to be a cultivator.
— You're right, I got carried away with your forbidden beauty and sexual pleasures, — Thanatos nodded and walked out of the luxurious apartment with Nemesis.
...
POV Thanatos.
My older sister told me how we would proceed with the troll and ogre portal.
Destroying the space teleporter is hard enough. It cannot be closed from our side, from the outside. To do that, Nemesis and I must enter the portal and, once on another planet in an alien galaxy, we must destroy it from the inside.
That's what Nemesis will do. I, on the other hand, have to hold back anyone who tries to kill us.
The main problem is that ogres or trolls of the younger ranks who have a degree of cultivation, the Star System, may come to us.
Fortunately, ogres and trolls at this low cultivation level very rarely have ranged or medium combat soldiers. They fight at close range, with the exception of mediocre archers, whose arrows Nemesis will repel in passive mode at 330 yards (300 meters).
As soon as we emerged from the multi-story building, we were met by about a hundred ogres, trolls, and three hundred goblins. They were hesitant to enter the building after releasing my sister's negative energy during our sex, so they cordoned off the entire area.
— Here comes the meat! Thanatos, I'm taking on all the ogres, since they're not easy opponents. You get the goblins and some of the trolls. Cover the sword I gave you with a shroud of Chaos powers.
I nodded and pulled the sword from its sheath. Nemesis told me that it can be imbued with any energy and not lose its structural integrity.
Concentrating on the blade, I released a red energy that gently enveloped my sword.
Nemesis didn't wait for me and set off to chop the monsters in half.
I joined her a few minutes later.
— Kr-ya-ya! Meat! — a single huge troll pointed at me, sending a squad of green monsters my way. A battle cry echoed through the silent streets of New York.
I clutched my sword with a sharp, solid blade that pulsed with otherworldly energy - the very essence of Chaos. I was ready for a protracted battle.
The first trolls rushed forward, their bony claws seeking to tear through my defenses. But I deftly dodged the attack, and my sword slashed through the air with deadly precision. As I attacked, I slashed at the first skinny trolls, who looked like something between a goblin and an ogre. Their key weapons were their long forelimbs and sharp claws that tore through flesh with a single touch.
A howl of agony echoed through the block, and several of the trolls collapsed to the ground, saying goodbye to their lives.
The trolls called for help from the goblins, who sneakily passed me from behind, — Krya-ya-ya!
Sprinting across the hard asphalt of the road, the goblins rushed forward. Their small stature could not match my power.
With every swing of my sword I made a path of destruction, the energy of Chaos soaking the blade. With each passing minute, I was breaking through the ranks of the green monsters more fiercely, I was closing in on the leader of the trolls.
Meanwhile, the goblins scattered, their feeble attempts to overpower me proving futile in the face of indomitable spirit and deadly prowess. As I and Nemesis headed toward the lower area of the park, the goblins decided to defend the upper edge of the park, where their portal was located.
— COWARDS! Wretched meat! After we're dead, they're coming for you, — the large leader of the troll troop shouted at the goblins. He was clearly annoyed by the fact that his ogre allies weren't around, and the goblins had abandoned them altogether and decided to defend their spatial teleport.
— I'm coming for you! — I shouted to the leader of the squad, who was standing at the south entrance to the central park. He grinned and ran off into the depths of the park as well.
You'd think the leader chickened out, but I think he went to his teleporter to request help from the troops.
As the battle went on, I moved with the grace of a dancer among a bunch of silly trolls. I jumped, tumbled, and parried, my reflexes honed by years of training. And the energy of Chaos was surging through my body, intensifying each blow and giving my movements an unearthly speed.
Purple cores were raining down from them, so I could easily identify them as First Star trolls.
Five minutes later, when only a few wounded invalids remained of the one hundred trolls, I spotted Nemesis in the distance, from whom the last ogre was fleeing in a ridiculous gait. But she whirled the air currents into a deadly vortex and sent it at the green giant, who turned into meat in a second.
— Oh, I felt a little sorry for those poor things, — I mumbled jokingly, then looked at the three surviving trolls kneeling before me, — What am I supposed to do with you? Can you speak? If you have anything useful to say, I'll let you go.
One of them looked at each other, then looked up at me and said, — Our leader Wagdrot must have gone to ask an elder for help!
As soon as I heard his words, I killed the other two trolls with a single swing of my sword. Then I lowered myself to the eye level of the last troll and said, — Keep talking.
— Ah... I-I... I only know that our races have a military contract. We must take over as many territories on your planet as possible! We're just warriors doing the bidding of leaders and kings.
When I realized he wasn't going to say anything sensible, I put the blade of my sword to his throat and said, — You invaded my home, feeling sorry for you would be foolish and a sign of my spinelessness.
— NO! You promised... krr-ah-ah! — the troll let out one last squeal before I cut his head off.
I wasn't about to collect monster cores in the heat of battle; my sister and I had a clear plan. I started walking toward Nemesis, who was already in Central Park.
The information about the military contract was quite interesting, and for some reason I had a strong feeling that my older sister had something to do with it, either directly or indirectly.
If Nemesis isn't from this planet, then neither am I? Is it even worth worrying about Earth and its fate?
I think I should, since I've lived here all my life! Regardless of my nature of birth, I grew up here, I have an Earth mentality in many aspects.
I will not intentionally try to protect the entire planet or individual settlements. One has to proceed from the situation, to act intelligently and deliberately. New York is my home, so the two spatial teleporters in the park must be destroyed.
Walking into the southern part of the park, I saw one of the two teleporters. Nemesis was clearing the portal entrance from the troll and ogre guards at this interval.
— Nemesis, is the plan the same? — I asked as I ran up to her and started to help kill the green monsters.
— Yes, little brother.
A 14-foot-tall ogre lunged at me mindlessly as I tried to talk to my sister. I dodged its strong limb, and then leaped onto its back, piercing its heart with my sword.
The ogre screamed painfully and tried to throw me off his back. He would never have thought it possible to penetrate his tough skin so easily.
I drew my sword and jumped off the ogre's back, which wanted to strike me with all its might on its last breath. I was ready to use my hands with the power of Chaos, but my sister stepped forward and blocked the blow with an air shield, which was formed of very compressed and dense oxygen. After the unsuccessful blow, the ogre dropped dead to the ground.
— Ah, sweet brother, I'm so tired of duty and responsibility! Keeping you safe is such a torment! — Nemesis spoke theatrically, covering her forehead with her hands.
— I could have done it myself! Don't mock me or I'll rape you, — I mumbled, slapping Nemesis viciously on the ass.
— AH! That's what I want! I want you to take your sister's vulnerable body by force on some alien planet in some desolate village, hee hee...
I snorted and walked over to the empty spatial teleporter. We got rid of all the monsters on our side, but the hardest part was on the other side of the portal.
— And how will you destroy a portal? How long would it take to do that?
Nemesis shrugged and wrapped her arms around me, dipping her face into my firm chest. She started sniffing at my sweat and said, — Ugh, it smells so good bro's sweat!
— I'm serious, I need information. You're gonna play innocent girl in bed with me, okay? — I tapped Nemesis on the head, after which she bit my nipple through the top layer of my clothes.
— I can destroy a portal in a second, and I can destroy it in five minutes. But given your impatience and bad behavior, I'll give you ten minutes of suffering on another planet! — After saying that, Nemesis tossed me into the teleport, and a few seconds later I was on another planet.
Unbelievable! The energy here is so dense and saturated that it's hard for me to breathe in full throat.
I didn't pay attention to the setup from my big sister. Instead, I paid attention to the rich extraterrestrial aura, the saturated air, and the dense energy. The gravitational force was weaker than on earth, but the planet's atmosphere was more dense.
Nemesis appeared behind me and declared with deep joy, — Thanatos, you know... I am so happy that now you can breathe this kind of air!
My sister, with tears in her eyes, threw herself into arms and began to sob into my clothes.
I didn't understand at all why she was crying so hard. I had to comfort her and reassure her, — Nemesis, please don't cry. It's alright! And anyway, why did you leave me here, if there was a risk that I could suffocate to death in here?
Nemesis looked up at me with her weeping blue pupils. I wiped the tears from her cheeks as she spoke with a smile of thirty-two teeth, — If you were incapable of breathing other people's air, death would be slow. I'd just bring you back and tell you that you're not ready to live in an alien atmosphere and aura yet. Think of my actions as Spartan upbringing and a kind of care.
*Rumble*
Suddenly, in the distance at the edge of the forest, there was the sound of heavy foot stomping. A huge army was slowly coming out of the forest, led by a leader I knew.
— The enemies have invaded our planet! Defend the sixty-second Gate of Deldar! — shouted a battle cry from the same Wagdrot, behind whom stood an army of a thousand trolls and several hundred ogres as allied support.
Oh, this isn't going to be fucking easy!