Aster felt the happiness Sarina was radiating right now and he inwardly sighed, as the maiden of the star she knew the ability she got, so she was clearly in cloud nine after seeing she could use that golden light, she has seen him using.
“Now that I think about it, I haven’t explained them how my attribute works… that was my mistake”, he thought.
He didn’t hide it on purpose though, Sarina and Kana haven’t asked him about annihilation, if anything Kana liked to see how he used the golden armor, so she probably thought annihilation was the “sword” of the armor.
But now that Sarina could use it to some extent it was better to explain her how it worked, although star maidens weren’t affected by the abilities of each other, there were four girls in the group which weren’t star maidens, Kana, Eris, Mylene and lastly Camila.
“Mm?”, Aster felt Sarina’s breathing slowing down, she actually fell asleep in his arms, but again it made sense, she just broke through so although her reserves of spirit energy were full, she was mentally tired, especially because her ability seemed to put a toll in her soul instead of her body.
Aster gently kissed her forehead before carrying her like a princess as he returned to the castle followed by Lilia and the others, once they reached Lilia’s bedroom, he let her down on the bed next to Kana which was also sleeping.
The image of those two peacefully sleeping with happy smiles made him chuckle.
“Like mother like daughter”, he mumbled while stealing some glances at Lilia and Alice who were so alike.
Alice stuck her tongue at her brother understanding what he was trying to say.
“Seeing Sarina using your attribute made me remember something I wanted to talk with you darling”, said Lilia with a serious expression.
Aster more or less could guess what she was about to say, but he still nodded.
Lilia turned to see Eris, Mylene and Camila before continuing.
“You are now part of this group… one way or another you three have a “link” with my darling, so I’m pretty sure you will never betray him, what I’m about to say will make you be our eternal allies or enemies so if you don’t want to be involved then this is your last chance to leave”.
After saying that Lilia carefully observed the expressions of the three of them, Eris was completely relaxed, she used her lifetime only chance to make an oath with the cosmos tree as witness, to assure Aster would not betray her.
Of course, nowadays she was sure that even without that oath he wouldn’t do something like that, and since she wouldn’t do it too, then there was nothing to be afraid of.
Mylene was a special case, although at first, she hated the feeling of being “enslaved”, she soon understood that wasn’t the case, Aster never ordered her to do anything, in fact she felt at ease with him unlike the people of her own family.
Aster wasn’t a two-faced person, if he liked something he will protect it, if he didn’t like something he will destroy it, it was as simple as that, but what truly made her start to see Aster more like a friend was that she saw how much he worried about his family.
On top of that, thanks to him she and Eris freed themselves from years of hatred which was inherited in their families, in her eyes he was his benefactor.
Camila was a bit troubled, Aster already “saved” her life twice, first when he didn’t wipe out the Wolfstein family, then he even helped her to deal with the changes she was undergoing.
After getting to know him a bit better during these days, she understood that he didn’t do it for the treasure map, the only reason as to why he helped her was because she was a decent person, also probably Lilia spoke on her behalf.
She was sure that if Isaac were be in her place, he would have killed him without a second of doubt even if he offered him the chest as compensation.
After thinking about for a couple of seconds the three of them reached the same conclusion.
“I will stay”, said the three at the same time.
If someone was worthy of befriend in this world, that was Aster.
Lilia inwardly smiled seeing their expressions.
“Hehehe there is no escape for any of you three now”, she thought while keeping a calm expression.
She then walked towards Aster and under the slightly blushed faces of Eris and Mylene and the shocked face of Camila, she kissed him.
Eris and Mylene were already a bit used to seeing them flirt with each other, so besides feeling a bit shy they didn’t say anything.
Camila on the other hand was in awe, the previous situation in which she saw Aster carrying Lilia like a princess suddenly made sense.
Although she felt surprised it wasn’t the end of the world, so far, she already understood that lineage was important in the family from which Lilia comes, if not she wouldn’t have come all the way from who knows where to find someone with the Wolfstein bloodline.
“I have heard of cousins or even siblings marrying each other… but mother and son, that is not that common, on the other hand what can be common about a star formation boy who can make me feel powerless even after I reached the star tribulation realm”, she thought before looking away until Lilia stopped kissing her son.
At this point she decided to try and not be surprised about anything Aster does, the only thing she was confused about was, why Lilia decided to show her this.
Lilia gave one last kiss to her son before turning to see Camila.
“Eris and Mylene already know about this, but you are new in our group, everyone besides those two is or will be my darling lovers”, she said as she pointed at Eris and Mylene.
Camila felt the corner of her lips trembling a bit but she didn’t say anything, and limited to nod while giving Aster a weird gaze.
Lilia giggled at her reaction and then let go of Aster.
“I’m not telling you this for no reason, it’s just that you will be travelling and staying with us, so… you’ll see us being clingy with each other so I wanted to take this doubt out of the way”.
Aster chuckled, Lilia clearly wasn’t just doing it for that reason, he noticed the red of her eyes was a bit bright which meant she was having a small episode, probably because she wanted some attention, so he left her do as she wanted.
He also noticed Sarina woke up so it was time to speak about the main subject.
Aster sat on the bed next to Sarina and caressed her face making her open her eyes as she smiled at him.
He then extended his hand for all the girls to see, the characteristic golden color of annihilation gathered in a small ball above his hand.
“Eris and Mylene, you two already have seen me using this right?”.
“Mm”, they both nodded, back at Prasil they saw Aster fighting using that terrifying golden light as a weapon, what surprised them is that now they didn’t feel threatened by it unlike before.
Of course, Aster noticed their confusion so he explained them how it worked.
“My attribute is rather special, it’s called “annihilation”, and it basically allows me to decompose anything…”.
Aster told them the basics about annihilation, how he could control it to either be harmless or to destroy whatever he wanted, he also explained them that any living thing killed with annihilation wouldn’t die but… it will be completely erased from existence without any possibility of reincarnation.
Eris immediately raised her hand to interrupt Aster, her face had a slight tinge of both expectation and fear, as if she found hard to believe in his words.
“W-Wait, what do you mean with completely erase from existence?”.
Of course, she had a hard time believing that there was such an attribute, people from this place were really far behind in knowledge about the soul, as a proof of that no one has surpassed the soul king realm.
But Eris is different, leaving aside her energy cultivation which has gone above the heavenly conqueror realm when she was in her prime, she was also a soul sovereign, meaning her knowledge about souls was he best in this mortal plane, if we don’t take Rya and maybe the twins int account.
That’s why she was trying to confirm what Aster meant with “erasing from existence”, because doing that wasn’t within the power of a cultivator… only the heavens can fully dictate the fate of a soul.
It’s not a matter of how strong one is, it’s more like a law of the nature, that is something her grandmother taught her when she started walking on the soul cultivation path.
Although it’s called soul, living beings can have up to five souls, the “human soul” which allows one to “feel”, anger, happiness, lust, anxiety, in other words all the emotions are contained in this soul.
After that there is the “mortal soul” which is basically the one that contains what makes a person be himself, some people theorize it’s a combination of memories, experiences and personality.
Then there is the “rational soul”, as it names stated, it’s the one that allows a living being to think and communicate with others.
The fourth one is probably the one which everyone confuse as the whole soul as it is the one that “low ranked” cultivators can see, “martial soul”, it’s the soul where all the techniques and abilities are contained, the soul avatar a soul cultivator develops is a representation of this soul.
Then there is the “origin soul”, according to her grandmother this soul is unreachable and unperishable, it only has one function which is returning to the cycle of reincarnation after the person dies.