The wounds over Ryu's body slowly closed.
One of the greatest abilities of the Spirit Body Talent was the power to heal through the absorption of your primary element. With so much extreme yang lightning surging toward him, it was child's play for Ryu to return to his peak form.
Now that Ryu had opened his second Body Vessel, in order to have enough strength to attack his third, he would need to reach 125 000 000 jin of strength. Both of his Phoenix Bloodlines would provide 20 000 000 to the total while his Dragon and Qilin bloodlines would provide 42 500 000 each. They currently had already provided 8 000 000 and 17 000 000 respectively, so he needed to make up the difference.
His current strength had finally crossed the 50 000 000 jin barrier.
"Ailsa…?" Ryu looked down toward his lap. He was going to ask why she hadn't gotten off of him yet, but his words stopped on the tip of his tongue.
Ailsa's skin tone had paled considerably. Her breathing was erratic, and she was sweating profusely. Somehow, her golden hair seemed less vibrant.
Ryu's heart ached completely out of his control. His first instinct was to have her get off of him, but he hadn't considered for a moment the amount of work it took for her to accomplish this.
It might be far easier to awaken weak Talents of his bloodlines, but those on the level of Spirit Body and Storm Soul were rare even amongst Lightning Qilin themselves. Ryu's parents didn't even sense and awaken theirs until well into the Cosmic Sea Realm – and they were already great geniuses of their time. The act of stimulating and awakening them so early on wasn't nearly as easy as it seemed.
Ryu placed a hand on Ailsa's shoulder, rotating her in his lap until both her thighs lay on one of his, and her back lay on his other. He looked down toward her pale face with a frown. He wasn't even in the mood to cast glances toward her body despite the fact her breathing cascaded through her like a wave.
Ailsa smiled weakly. "… Just… Let me rest here for a bit…"
She rested her ear to Ryu's chest, breathing heavily.
Ryu sighed, wrapping an arm around her waist and holding her thighs with the other. There was no point in creating some faux distance between them in a moment like this. Plus, he didn't think Ailsa deserved such a reaction from him.
Ailsa blushed slightly, feeling Ryu's actions. However, Ryu couldn't see her reaction because of her sweat drenched hair covering much of her face. Though, had he, his face would have likely twisted into a weird expression. Why was it that she was embarrassed about such a thing and not the fact she was currently naked in his lap?
"… This isn't so bad." Ailsa said softly.
Maybe it was because of her current state of weakness, but Ailsa said something out loud that she would usually keep to herself. She knew that Ryu avoided reading her thoughts like they held some sort of incurable disease despite the fact he could find out everything about her just as easily as she could him. So, she was also quite aware that even if she thought those words, he wouldn't have known that she had… But, something compelled her to speak them instead.
With her ear to Ryu's chest, she could hear his heartbeat pause for a moment before becoming steady once more. At the very least, he didn't shove her off his lap. So… That was a bonus?
Ailsa sighed inwardly. She had spent much of her youth dreaming of her Life Partner. Much like not ever human had a Faerie, not every Faerie gained a partner. And, even those who did might sometimes be paired with a tree or some river or some other inanimate thing that may never be able to speak to them in their lifetimes.
Cases like Ailsa and Ryu, who were born at practically the same time, and were so suited for one another, were not even one in a trillion.
She had tried to look for Ryu when she was younger. Usually, Clans like the Tatsuya Clan would do a small check to see whether their youths had a Life Partner. But, maybe due to the fact Ryu had a False Spiritual Foundation, his Clan never did so.
But, Ailsa had known he existed for a long time. It was just that Ryu's cultivation was xistent, so finding him was far too difficult.
Finally, after almost a billion years of waiting, she finally had him by her side. Regardless of how cold he was, he still gave her a comfort she couldn't get anywhere else. However, she would be lying if she said that their relationship didn't leave her feeling empty at times.
Due to her pride as a Cultus Faerie, she still did everything in her power to help Ryu. She was even already prepared for this to be as deep as the both of them went for the rest of her life.
Ailsa smiled another smile that was hidden from Ryu. It was somewhat sad, but still carried a somewhat content attitude.
'I guess this is all we'll ever be… Maybe I'll have to accept that…'
After catching her breath, Ailsa moved to push herself up, but found that her waist was still being absentmindedly clamped down by Ryu. He didn't even seem to notice that she had tried to leave his arms.
"… Ryu?"
Ryu was seemingly snapped out of his thoughts, blinking slightly after he realized he was the one stopping Ailsa from getting up.
"Oh. I'm sorry." Ryu released his grip.
Ailsa pouted slightly, but still pushed herself up.
"… Ailsa."
"Hm?"
"Do you ever get bored? Just sitting on my shoulder all the time, I mean."
Ailsa was stunned for a moment before bursting into a spring like laughter. But after a while, she realized that Ryu was completely serious.
"With how much time you spend in danger, when is there ever really a dull moment?"
"… You don't miss… walking around on your own two legs?"
Ailsa didn't know how to answer. She really hadn't thought about it before. Her whole world was Ryu now. Since she met him, she hadn't even missed her home, let alone thought about the things she wanted. Even her hope that Ryu would accept her could be seen through the same lens as well.
"… If our intimacy was deeper, wouldn't you be able to enjoy life a little more?" Ryu asked.
Ryu knew quite well how unfair these matters were for Ailsa. Despite his outward demeanor, his emotional intelligence was very high. He didn't need to look into Ailsa's mind to grasp much of her thoughts.
However, he couldn't erase Elena from his heart. She had been waiting for him for so long, he owed her so much… But the truth was that Ailsa had been waiting for him just as long even if he hadn't been aware of it…
"… You could say so, but these kinds of things can't be forced…"
Ryu sighed, standing up. He loomed over Ailsa, seemingly having gotten taller after awakening his Lightning Qilin Spirit Body Talent. His lean body and chiseled form seemed to brim with far more power than it had in the past. However, he wasn't imposing to her at all.
He simply looked at her for a moment. Maybe it was because he was constantly in pain when he cultivated with her methods, but he never truly registered that for ever step of improvement he made, she was pushing him from behind with all of her might, even to her own detriment.
"Ailsa, I promise you." Ryu said firmly. "I promise you that if you're willing to wait for Elena to return by my side, I'll do my best to give you a happy life."
Ailsa stood stunned as though she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
At that moment, she felt Ryu probe into her mind for the first time. It was a sort of feeling others might have found invasive, but she couldn't hide the smile on her face as tears she hadn't registered began to fall.
She dove into Ryu's arms, squeezing him as tightly as she could. Her happy giggling between sobs only made Ryu feel more guilty. He hadn't even promised her anything concrete, yet she had reacted like this.
"Can I get a kiss?"
Ailsa looked up at Ryu with a mischievous grin. There was something about the way her drying tears sparkled in her ruby eyes that made her look exceptionally beautiful.
"Kidding, kidding." She dove back into Ryu's arms, giggling away.
Ryu's mouth hung open for a moment before he shook his head and smiled, hugging her back in return.
"Open up! Your ten-day period has come to an end!"
The abrupt shout interrupted the Life Partner pair as the mechanisms of the rounded closed down opened from the outside.
Ryu sighed, shielding Ailsa with his back.