Hello, dear readers! Here's chapter 62!
I'm finally done moving! So things are now picking back up especially about this novel. I've already started replenishing the patreon chapters with chapter 69 already available and chapter 70 only needing to be edited. Hopefully chapter 71 will be done this weekend. In any case, the release schedule will be back to 1 chapter a week. That's a relief!
My goal is to finish Book one in at most three months, which, from what I planned, is feasible. Of course, I'll also need to re-edit a bunch of chapters after that before turning the whole thing into Epub format and putting it on Patre0n. Wish me luck for that!
Something else: If any of you is also reading from w0ttpad, I've got some problem with the site. I can't access it from where I am. So, don't be surprised if there is a lack of chapters posted. I'll try to fix it as quickly as I can.
That's it for me!
See ya all later!
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Damovotsk, Molkovia, Earth.
Demian's P.O.V.
A few hours later, the sun started rising on the horizon, illuminating both the previously dim sky and sea, the reflection on the gentle waves giving a golden hue to the dark blue water. The scene was so beautiful that the two cousins fell silent and simply admired the scenery, enjoying the peaceful moment together. Some time passed again before the two heard someone's steps resounding from the staircase linking the two floors of their penthouse. Unlike Bryn who used her Divine Sense to check their owner, Demian only paid attention to his Bond's feedback to instantly find out the answer. Knowing who it was, a joyful smile quickly appeared on his face, something that the giant redhead noticed instantly.
"This bond of yours is really useful." She commented, easily guessing the young man's thoughts from his reaction. Nodding his head, Demian replied. "It is. Too bad we can only send feelings and not thoughts. Although I guess I shouldn't complain." The muscular redhead did not comment on those last words, but instead let out a small sigh. Not commenting on her 'response', he instead turned his head toward the opened bay window where a charming petite redhead with her eyes closed was smiling happily in his direction. As if her vision was still working, she began moving toward him with a spring in her step, remarking playfully. "So you were here, Babe. Afraid of my revenge for last night?"
The suggestive tone she used made it easy for anyone to understand what she meant. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed Bryn rolling her eyes with annoyance, increasing the amusement he already felt at Sera's unbridled comment. In a similar playful tone, he replied. "We both know that afraid doesn't exist in my dictionary. You're free to bring on any revenge you can cook up. I'm confident that my body can take it." Pausing for a second, he added. "But not now. Now, we need to decide what's our next step. Although I'd prefer if Aunty was awake to brainstorm with..." He suddenly stopped talking as his ears caught the sound of another set of feet walking upstairs. Deploying his Divine Sense to check their origin, an amused grin immediately surfaced on his face at what he found.
"That's..." Bryn said as a similar expression appeared on her face. As if in sync, she and Demian looked at each other and started chuckling, which kindled Sera's curiosity. "What are you two goofballs laughing about?" Despite Bryn not speaking, the blue-eyed young man knew that the petite redhead was aware of her sister's presence through the lack of surprise he could feel (Or not feel?) through their Bond. HOW she was aware of that? That, he did not know. He would have to ask her about it later. In the meantime, he shoved that thought aside and answered, still sporting a playful grin. "Wait a bit and you'll find out." Grabbing the confused-looking woman from her standing position beside him to sit her on his lap, he noticed that the confusion on her face swiftly turned into a satisfied expression, especially as his strong arms circled her upper body. 'If she started purring, she'd really look like a cat.' He thought, amused.
Hitting his chest lightly, she exclaimed softly. "Don't make fun of me in your head!" Cocking his brow, he asked, curious. "How did you know?" Turning her head in the direction of his own with an accusatory look, she stated. "So, I was right!" A few chuckles escaped his lips before he replied. "I betrayed myself, didn't I?" Her serious expression instantly turned playful, while a few giggles escaped her lips. "Yep!" Patting his muscular chest, she added. "But I'd rather have a clumsy oaf like you as a lover instead of a sleek liar. Those need to be burned at the stake." Tilting his head, he remarked. "That sounds extremely personal." Setting her cheek on his torso, she replied. "Don't worry about it, Babe. Just be honest with me and everything will be fine." Kissing softly the top of her head, he claimed gently. "Always. I've always been terrible at lying anyway. In both this life and the previous one."
A few giggles escaped her when his words reached her, prompting her to comment. "That's true. It's not a bad thing, though." As the two were flirting with each other, Demian noticed from the corner of his eyes that Bryn was staring at them with almost no expression on her face. Nonetheless, having known her for years, he did not miss the envy hidden in her gaze. Her reaction brought out a strange feeling of guilt in his heart. However, before he could do anything, his Aunt's voice caught his attention. "You guys are already up?" She questioned before a lazy yawn escaped her lips. "We were waiting for you, Aunty." Demian explained. "Uh?" The puzzled look she sported only lasted for a second before realization lit up her eyes. "You're talking about what we should do next?"
Nodding his head, he replied. "Exactly. Why don't you sit with us?" Following his proposal, she found herself a wooden deckchair lying around. Setting it in front of the three, she then plopped down on it. As she was about to say something, her eyes were attracted to the broken guitar on the ground before swiftly moving to the cracks marring the young man's chair. Cocking her eyebrow, she asked, curious. "Why are those two like that? Did you guys fight while I was sleeping?" Feeling a bit embarrassed, especially with Bryn giggling on the side, he countered her joke with a simple answer accompanied by his usual 'innocent' look. "Not really. I think I fell into another state of enlightenment and accidentally broke through to the next level. I'm at the Second Level now, by the way. The broken guitar and cracked deckchair come from the energy wave blasting them at that time."
The casual way he mentioned what happened made the mature woman speechless. Rubbing her face tiredly, she mumbled. "'Accidentally broke through' he said..." Shaking her head slightly, she lifted her head back to stare at him silently for a few seconds, the latter only broken when Sera exclaimed. "So, that's why I felt like your energy was stronger! I wondered if I was hallucinating or something." At that moment, Adeliya claimed, half-jokingly, half-seriously. "Congratulations, Demian! I really want to slap you, but I'm happy for you." Chuckling at her teasing remark, he replied. "Fair enough. And thanks. It'll increase our safety by a lot." Nodding her head, she remarked. "Speaking of which. What's the next step? I'd like to hear you three's thoughts on that."
"We can't stay here." Sera stated matter-of-factly. Stroking her back, the blue-eyed young man continued. "Sera's right. It was one thing when it was only Petrovich and those goons who were 'normal humans', but we'll definitely have to face real cultivators from now on." Pausing for a brief moment, he added. "We're not ready." Nodding her head, Bryn claimed. "I agree with you two. We need to find somewhere we can get protection to give us time to grow our cultivation base. We also need to get access to cultivation spells. Otherwise, we'll just be those guys' punching bags." "Getting some weapons might be useful too." Sera supplemented, prompting the two fighters to agree immediately.
Demian then remarked. "But how can we do that? If we go 'incognito', there's a high chance that we'll get tracked. Especially since I'm pretty sure it'll take a while for me to reach the Peak of the Chi Gathering Rank. It'd give them plenty of time to find us. Unless I get to experience enlightenment every other day, of course. Not that I think it's possible, even with my Perk helping." Pausing for a brief moment, he added doubtfully. "The only one I can think of is Sergei, but I don't think he'd help us either. After all, he did mention that this whole situation is a test for us." The four people fell into a thoughtful silence at his words until the young man noticed the hesitation on his Aunt's face. Feeling curious, he questioned. "Do you have a way, Aunty?"
The middle-aged woman seemed startled by his question before her gaze moved to his face. A brief second later, she responded. "I... I think I do." With a reassuring gaze, he insisted. "Go ahead, then. Why are you hesitating like that? Is it something terrible?" He added teasingly. The mature redhead, however, did not seem amused as she replied. "Nothing terrible no. It's just..." Rubbing her eyes for a moment, she then declared firmly, the previous indecision painted on her face instantly vanishing. "We can contact your father. If he can protect himself from Danilov, he can do the same for us. And since he sent some of his men to protect us in the past, I'm sure he wouldn't mind it if we went there temporarily."
As the words left her lips, Demian's body subconsciously tensed up simultaneously, while a feeling of anger started brewing in his heart, clouding his mind until a muffled grunt of pain resounded in his ears, waking him up instantly. Lowering his gaze, he immediately noticed how tightly he was squeezing her, and the painful expression on her face. Not waiting any longer, he relaxed his entire body, which prompted the petite redhead to let out a relieved sigh while the raven-haired young man exclaimed full of guilt. "I'm really sorry, Love. Are you alright? I didn't mean to hur..." His words were instantly cut off by a small hand on his mouth before he heard her say. "Don't worry too much about it. It happens to everyone."
Pausing for a brief second, she added after she twitched in pain. "But don't do that again, alright? It freaking hurts." Nodding repeatedly while he reiterated again and again that he would be very careful from now on, his guilt fueled by how understanding she was being. He even tried to move her from his lap for fear of hurting her again, but she immediately stopped him while stating. "If you force me to leave, I promise you that we won't sleep in the same bed for a while, Babe. I know you can control your strength, so don't be a baby about it." Knowing her well by now, he knew that her threat was real, which made him hesitate for a few moments. He only made up his mind when he noticed her crossing her arms while her face scrunched into a frown.
"Alright, you win. I'll just... I'll be careful." The irritation on the petite redhead's visage immediately turned into contentment after she heard him. "Good!" Noticing the concern still present in his mind, she added. "Look, Babe. Don't forget that I've got access to your Perk. So, my healing factor is very high. To be honest, the pain's already disappeared and I feel even better than before." The sincerity he felt through their connection alleviated a big part of his worries, prompting him to declare firmly to her. "I still shouldn't have lost control of my emotions. I promise there won't be a next time." Shaking her head, she said. "Don't make that kind of promise. You may be superhuman, but in the end, it just means that you're even more human, with all that it implies. As long as you don't go too far, then it'll be fine."
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he finally caught on to how much wiser the woman in his arms was compared to himself. 'I still have so much to learn. And here I thought I was already mature...' He thought wryly. Nodding his head in assent, he then moved his gaze toward the middle-aged redhead who looked at him with concern, while he caught a similar expression on Bryn's face. Their reaction brought a warm feeling in his heart, proving again, if that was even needed, that the three women cared about him deeply. "I'm sorry. Your words triggered something in me. Please continue, Aunty. You were talking about my fa... father." When it came to his current body's genitor, pronouncing the simple word out loud was incredibly hard. Of course, having had an absent father in his previous life was not really helping him deal with this kind of trauma.
The mature redhead observed his facial expression for a few seconds before continuing the earlier conversation. "Right. I think we should contact Roman and find shelter under him for a while. At least until we're strong enough to deal with Danilov. What do you say? Unless you've got other ideas?" Despite his unwillingness, Demian knew that they had no other options, prompting him to rub his eyes tiredly while his two cousins agreed with Adeliya's suggestion. The latter, however, looked toward him and proposed in a caring tone. "There may be other options if we keep thin..." Waving her concern away, the raven-haired young man declared firmly. "No need. I won't act like a child and put the three of you in danger just because I've got some childhood trauma. I'll just have to deal with it myself."
His response brought a satisfied smile to her face as if she already knew he would react in that exact manner. Nodding her head, she claimed. "It's decided then. I've got his number, so I'll be in charge of contacting him. Hopefully, we'll be able to move out today." The other three agreed with the plan before Bryn said. "We might as well prepare our stuff while you call him, Mom."
With their plan ready, the four bustled about to prepare for the next step of their journey.