88 The Angel

Aisha didn't even have time to process Aryn's death before suddenly, her vision went black.

.

And returned soon after, the sound of whizzing projectiles and humming engines blasting in her ears as blood trailed down her quickly mending forehead.

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Aisha's blood ran cold - it was just like her training with Sen - those instant kill spells very familiar to her. But instead of a black laser, Aisha saw thin lines of yellow, tracing across the forest like shooting stars, coming from deep within the forest. And instead of training, this was very, very real. If she died... well, she died. There was no coming back.

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"GET BACK!" She screamed, as Kayle and Morgan stood shocked behind her, eyes still locked onto Aryn's corpse, a similar trail of blood leaking down his face, matching Aisha's, although his eyes stayed lifeless.

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Instantly, Aisha heard buzzing, and she screamed out as pain erupted in her chest, dozens of the tiny little yellow tracers firing straight through the right side of her body, leaving nothing but bloody bits of mutilated flesh and organs. She panted as she dropped to the floor, hands shaking, which thankfully saved her from another volley of yellow lasers, whizzing over her head and obliterating the trunks of two trees behind her.

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Aisha scrambled to the floor to avoid the trees falling on top of her, leaves crunching underneath her panicked movements, as the forest boomed with the sound of the massive, felled redwoods.

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She quickly casted a barrier in front of her in an attempt to make some sort of cover, a hazy mess of unstable energy, but she quickly abandoned that chain of thought when the lasers broke straight through, severing her right arm from her body at the elbow.

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Aisha stifled a cry of pain, dropping down to the ground and starting to crawl away. Even with her amazing senses, she couldn't see whatever the hell was attacking her - it must have been tracking her with sound, so she grit her teeth as hard as she could, even as sharp, agonizing pain tore through her body.

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Looking at Kayle's frightened expression, he knew too. However, his freckled friend didn't seem to get the message.

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"What's going on!?" He demanded.

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Aisha clenched her eyes shut as Morgan's body hit the ground, face pocked full of round holes like swiss cheese, clamping her good hand over Kayle's mouth to muffle his cry of anguish. Sweat drenched her body as she lay still, neck slowly swiveling around to see around herself.

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The sound of engines kept whirring, cutting through the forest ambiance like a knife. Aisha's winced in pain, the high-pitched screeching painful to her sensitive ears, but Aisha didn't dare make a single sound.

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For a while, nothing happened. No sounds of gunfire, no movement. Just the sound of humming turbine blades, masking the quiet, restrained breathing of the two.

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And then the engines got louder, and louder, until the sound was deafening, blotting out all sound. Gusts of wind blew through the forest like a hurricane, uprooting foliage and bending trees, masking Aisha's scream of pain as her ears began to bleed.

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"Run! Run!" She screamed, the sound barely audible above the sound of air pressure. But her frantic gesturing gave Kayle the message, and they quickly scrambled to their feet, sprinting as far away as they could away from whatever the hell was chasing them.

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Aisha panted as she limped through the forest, not able to run at full speed with wounds still deep in her legs, as quick as they were to heal. Sweat and blood dripped down her forehead in small droplets, stinging her eyes, but she dared not close her eyes for even a single second and risk tripping.

.

But the wind never let up, and Aisha's breaths quickened, and her steps became more erratic. She was panicking - it was that feeling that she was so familiar with, the feeling of unknown, of being faced with something that she did not understand. She didn't know what was chasing her. She didn't know what it could do. She didn't even know if running would work, only that running was the only thing that she could do, to even have a chance of living.

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But it wasn't working. It was faster than her, and that meant that she was going to have to plunge herself into a fight with something that she didn't understand, and was most definitely much, much stronger than herself.

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(-ay calm!) A voice cried faintly in her head, finally audible over the sound of Aisha's own heartbeat, and the gusting and shrieking of the wind. (Stay calm!)

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Aisha gulped down a load of saliva and started to slow down, attempting to catch her breath and ease the soreness of her legs. That was right - in a situation where the enemy was faster than her, running would only serve to tire her out. And there was also…

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Aisha grimaced and put her hands on her knees, taking a glance at Kayle next to her, through sweat-matted hair. The kid looked much worse for wear than Aisha, panting and wheezing for breath, but he still motioned for Aisha to keep running, terrified expression on his face.

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Aisha coughed and shook her head no, as the sound of wind grew louder. She checked her body for wounds, hissing at the feeling of something… foreign, inside of her, something solid. Without hesitation, she took a carving knife from inside of her coat and plunged it into herself, clenching her teeth as she searched for the object inside of her sides.

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Finding the object, she looked at it carefully - a little nugget of metal, no larger than a few millimeters in diameter. Aisha furrowed her brows.

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But she didn't have time to think about it, as the sound of whirring came closer, and her enemy finally showed themselves, whirring and grinding growing quieter as it started to come close.

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Aisha had been expecting something mechanical, like Sui, but nothing could have prepared her for what she saw emerge from the tree-line, the massive, flying monstrosity casting a huge shadow on the two adventurers.

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The thing had none of the careful construction put into Sui's design, rather, it was a mass of jagged plates and wires, sharp edges and rotor engines constituting two massive, almost elegant looking wings. In the center of the wings sat a small body and head, clearly mechanical, but not animated like Sui's.

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No, the "face" was a white, expressionless face, plastic and unmoving, a mass of wires extruding from the back like dreadlocks. The chest shared the same plastic, uncanny look, just a single solid piece of composite. Wires hung like tendrils from the bottom of the chest, crackling with electricity, as if they were once connected to something else.

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"W-what the hell is that?" Kayle whispered.

"The enemy!" Aisha shouted confidently, although her hands shook.

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"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US!?" Kayle screamed, receiving no reply. Instead, the machina's eyes locked onto him, red lights emanating from it's dead eyes like floodlights.

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Aisha didn't wait for an answer and struck first, lobbing a huge ball of arcane mana at the machine, taking advantage of it's large frame to throw all of her magic power at the… thing, in a massive, unrestrained attack.

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And watched as without even a single movement, her attack was blocked by a massive shield of red energy, dissipating harmlessly.

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Aisha heard the sound of metal shifting and servos whirring, and while she didn't understand any of the technology, she understood that she was currently looking down the barrel of what seemed to be literally hundreds of guns, hollow chambers beginning to rotate and fill with light.

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And Aisha's heart filled with terror, freezing as she realized she should have kept running.

.

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What happened next could only be described as chaos.

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Aisha screamed. Kayle screamed.

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Bullets flew. Lasers incinerated flesh and foliage alike. The earth shook with the pure amount of firepower that was being unleashed on the forest floor.

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Aisha felt nothing but pain as her body was slowly destroyed, torn to shreds and ripped apart, her pitiful healing abilities not even noticeable amongst the destruction that rained down on Aisha's flesh.

.

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And when it was done, Aisha was nothing more than a bloody pulp. She couldn't lift a single muscle. Or perhaps, it was all gone by now. Dimly, she realized that she had rolled over Kayle at some point, shielding his body with her own. The boy's shocked face laid underneath hers, eyes frozen wide.

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(Damn.) Aisha thought.

.

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-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" Aisha screamed, as suddenly, all the pain returned, all the feeling returned to her limbs, as her body jerked and thrashed against her will. It felt like all of the muscles in her body were cramping all at once, and combined with the feeling of her destroyed limbs, Aisha felt an unimaginable pain, worse than the pain of dying.

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After a few seconds, it stopped, and miraculously, Aisha hadn't passed out, leaving her very, very conscious of a body in front of her, one hand crackling with electricity, the other holding up a massive black shield, protecting her from the mechanical angel.

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"I told ya to run, dammit!" Vega grunted, as her body was physically forced back by the amount of gunfire focused on her body. "That means ALL THE WAY! "

"You…" Aisha's mouth was dry.

"Save it!" Vega shouted. "The talking… the thinking… that comes AFTER the fight!"

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Aisha shut up and simply watched, as Vega braced her entire body against the shield, the sound of plinking bullets and refracted lasers assaulting Aisha's ears.

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It felt like an eternity before the barrage stopped, and Vega's forehead dripped with sweat as she relaxed her body, tossing the shield to the side and picking up her spear to approach the angel, face-to-face.

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"Agh." Vega grimaced. "Looks like her dumb shield worked."

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"I K N O W Y O U ." The angel spoke, in that same robotic voice that Sui had, but with none of the emotion behind it.

"Yeah!" Vega shouted back, twirling her spear in her hand. "Yer one of Shinra's toys, aren't ya! I'm here to return you back!"

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"I A M N O T O N E O F H E R T O Y S !" The machine screeched, the forest shaking with the pure pressure emitting from the machine's speakers. "I A M N O T O N E O F H E R B R A I N W A S H E D S L A V E S ! I A M -"

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The angel's screaming was interrupted when a line of electricity wrapped around its neck, a garbled mess of audio escaping its mouth as its head shook, jerking unnaturally.

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"I'm not allowed in Shinra's lab anymore." Vega cracked a small smirk. "I'm too good at breaking her toys."

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Vega accentuated her words with a tightening of her grip, her entire body lighting up with cracking electricity, traveling down the line into the machine. It thrashed and flailed, screaming in pain as it's systems went berserk, weapons discharging and wings moving wildly.

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"Dammit!" Vega hissed, as a stray bullet caught her in the arm, the tether breaking as her arm was thrown back by the force. Vega attempted to strike again, raising her spear arm, but was forced to put up a barrier as a solid laser focused on her body.

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The laser stopped, and a massive ring of electricity began to expand from under Vega's feet, vaporizing the bullets that were quickly shot her way. Aisha grabbed Kayle by the collar, ready to bolt away from the ring, but was surprised when it opened up in front of her, showing off impressive control.

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The ring slammed into the angel, and a mass of garbled sounds and pitches emit again, but as Vega prepared another lightning spell, she was again forced to block, as bullets and lasers bombarded her head again, like rain from hell.

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Realizing that its attacks were not working, the angel opened up it's chest, its breastplate splitting in two to reveal a familiar, massive glass lens. And indeed, just like Sui's, the lens began to charge up with an ominous, red energy, light beginning to distort around the angel, drawn into the dense ball of magic.

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"Hnnnggg…" Vega grumbled, looking back at Aisha and Kayle, cowering behind her. "You're lucky you two are cute."

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Vega gripped her spear tightly, and it too began to glow, trembling with pure power as Vega began to charge an attack of her own. Aisha's mouth went dry at the pure force emanating from the two figures - it was like she was trapped in the epicenter of two massive tempests, the pure energy radiating off of them enough to destroy the environment around them.

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"Cover… your eyes, ears, well… everything." She muttered. "If you want to have any senses left after this."

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The machine fired its central cannon, the sound of grinding metal and pure power grating in Aisha's ears, causing her to cry out in pain. Sui's spell was trumped in destructive power compared to the angel's, just the raw heat emitting from the blast set the trees alight, and the force pushed the massive mechanical being backwards a good few meters.

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But it paled in comparison to Vega's spell. With a single motion, she raised her spear, and everything turned blinding white.

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She couldn't see anything. She couldn't hear anything. She couldn't smell anything. There was only pain, pain in her ears, pain even in her skin. And this time, the pain won - Aisha felt her consciousness slowly slip away from her, as her head throbbed-

.

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[

*Chu*

*Chu*

"Mwah!"

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"Nnnnh! Mistreeeeess!"

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Aisha whined lightheartedly, pouting as Lorian planted another kiss on Aisha's face, right next to her slightly open mouth. The little fey strained her neck to try and get it on her mouth, but the large girl playfully maneuvered around Aisha's head, a mischievous glint in her eye.

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"K-kiss meee!" Aisha begged, before her eyes rolled back into her head, moaning as Lorian tugged lightly on her ear, the woman taking the opportunity to sneak in another kiss on Aisha's nose. "O-ooohh… hnnnauuunhh…"

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Lorian just giggled and pressed her cheek up to Aisha's, nuzzling the girl's cheek with her nose affectionately, relishing how quickly Aisha's expression changed, from submissive, to annoyed, to pleasured, to submissive again.

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She loved seeing her little kitten's face changing, seeing how easily she could control Aisha's emotions. It gave her a primal sense of… power, of control, like she owned Aisha.

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She blushed, feeling silly. It was redundant. She literally owned Aisha. She had the papers, and, well, Aisha's explicit consent.

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Lorian stroked one of Aisha's ears and lightly rubbed at a spot that she knew would drive the girl insane. And indeed, Aisha's eyes went wide, and the girl started to mew and pant uncontrollably, toes curling and thighs clenching together. Chemicals rushed into her brain at a rapid pace as her mistress, her goddess, rubbed that spot, that amazing, amazing, pleasurable spot, torturing her with sensation, her brain short-circuiting as it was assaulted by both lovey, affectionate, cottony fluffy feelings, and horny, lusty, pleasurable feelings.

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Exerting her control over Aisha's body was different. There was something more… primal, about being able to manipulate Aisha like this, having full control over the girl, over even her emotions, even… potentially, against her will. She didn't just own the girl's heart and body, she owned even her mind. There wasn't a single thing about Aisha that she couldn't stroke to her will. And that absolute control…

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It made her wet.

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Lorian shivered at the prospect, as Aisha purred into her hand, lightly petting the girl and soothing her. A forbidden fantasy, knowing that if she wanted, she could overload the girl's mind, turning her into nothing more than a brainless, mewling, love-addicted kitten, wanting nothing more than Lorian's attention, her kisses, hugs, and-.

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Oh.

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She blushed again at the redundancy, looking down at the girl who was currently mewling and whining while curled up in her lap. She reached down to caress the girl's lip, but without even prompting, Aisha took the fingers into her mouth, sucking on the digits submissively while looking at her adored mistress with the cutest doe eyes.

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"So adorable." Lorian whispered. "You're so cute."

"W-wwwahhh…" Aisha blushed girlishly, squirming as she hugged Lorian's arm to her chest. "M-mistreess…"

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Embarrassment.

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"Good girl." Lorian cooed, watching as Aisha's face lit up, her adorable, plush lips spreading wide into a pure, happy smile, and her ears perking up. Lorian giggled mirthfully as Aisha's cheeks flushed. She was still embarrassed to show off her happy face! So adorable.

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Joy.

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Lorian bopped Aisha on the nose.

"Hey!"

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Anger.

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"I have a meeting tomorrow." Lorian said nonchalantly. "I'm going to be gone for a few hours."

Aisha's face fell, her expression going sad, and her ears drooping.

"W-wha?..." She whispered. "No…*

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Sadness.

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"Aww, it's okay." Lorian cooed, lifting Aisha up so their faces were touching. "It's only a bit!"

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Lorian smiled, and Aisha's eyes fluttered, her cheeks flushing lightly, as Lorian leaned in, finally, for a loving, possessive kiss. Not in embarrassment.

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Love.

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And their lips met, and Lorian cooed as that hungry tongue wrestled over her's, fighting for dominance. Aisha stood no chance, of course, being smaller, and more sensitive, and more submissive, but Lorian was in a playful, lazy mood.

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So she let Aisha set the pace, giggling mirthfully as the little girl started to devour her tongue, as if trying to draw it into her own mouth. Lorian felt a pair of small arms wrap around her waist, and smiled, hugging Aisha back.

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"Nnnnh." Lorian moaned. Ooh, the kiss felt good. Aisha was surprisingly good. Although with how much time they spent kissing, Lorian supposed that the girl would have improved.

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"Aaaahhh…" Lorian breathed out, as she was carresed lightly by the girl's tongue and arms, shivering. Oh, she never knew… Aisha's tongue could move like that…

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(What would it feel like inside of me… I'd cum instantly…)

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Fuck. By now, Lorian had learned to ride out the wave of lust that washed over her, but it was still… overwhelming, just how much she WANTED her.

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It was so comical, how much she owned the little girl, but still wanted her. An oxymoron - she owned Aisha heart, soul, body, she would literally die for her, if she asked. But still beyond her was the ability to confess her feelings, to take what was, in almost all respects, her's. She wasn't stupid - she had seen the way Aisha blushed, the cute way she tensed her legs when she was feeling horny.

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God she loved that expression. The sexiest expression she had ever seen.

…

…

At this point, Lorian just slumped her shoulders in defeat. Why was she such a coward? She had fought demons. Clans. Elith swarms. But she couldn't confess her feelings to this dumb, dumb, stupid little girl, who LITERALLY worshiped her, wanted to spend the rest of her life with - stupid stupid stupid stupid!

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Lorian took her anger out on Aisha, taking control of the kiss and overwhelming the fey's tongue in her mouth, her much larger tongue suppressing Aisha's in an aggressive manner. The lovestruck little fey blushed, her cheeks taking on a flush as Lorian started to growl, forcing Aisha down onto the couch. It was always one of those things that Aisha loved, but Lorian was so reluctant to give - the feeling of submissiveness, coupled with that feeling of danger, while knowing that her mistress would never actually hurt her, made the girl swoon, hugging her mistress from below.

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And of course, like always, the moment didn't last long, as Lorian regained her senses, blushing as she gazed down at the loving, smiling expression of her adored pet below her.

"U-uh… sorry." She mumbled.

"I liked it." Aisha whispered shyly.

"B-but I-"

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Lorian didn't get to finish her blubbering apology as Aisha gently leaned her back, laying down in her mistress's valley and snuggling contently into her little spot. She took Lorian's arms and draped them over herself, and after a little whine, Lorian remembered her cue and squeezed Aisha tight against her body. After a while, she started to pet Aisha too, and the girl's coos and loving noises of contentment once again lightened Lorian's troubled heart.

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"How'd you get so good at kissing and petting?" Aisha asked absentmindedly, pushing her head into her mistress's hand, silently begging for harder pats.

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"A-ah uh…" Lorian blushed. "Why do you want to know?"

"I wanna know mo-o-o-ore about you!" Aisha shivered, as her beloved mistress massaged her sensitive ears. "I-I dunno… H-hhauhhhgg… feels… goooood…"

"I don't think you wanna know." Lorian mumbled. "That was a… um… previous life."

"I want to hear about it!" Aisha smiled cheerfully, squishing her cheeks in between her mistress's chest. "I will love the mistress in front of me forever! Nothing will change that!"

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Lorian's cheeks flushed, and the big girl had to turn away from her little sun's radiant smile.

"Maybe later."

]

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Ringing.

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Aisha distinctly felt… annoyed. Her head hurt. Her head hurt. Why couldn't she hear her own thoughts?

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It was the ringing. It was painfully loud. What was going on?

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She couldn't remember anything. Why couldn't she see anything? Why did it hurt to think?

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She just wanted to go back to sleep.

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(-Hey!)

"Hey!"

"Hey!"

"Hey!"

(Get up!)

"Hey!"

"H-"

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"SHUT UP!" Aisha roared, jerking upright in fury.

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And suddenly, she could see again. She could hear again. The ringing stopped.

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But the pain was still there. Her head hurt. Her mouth was dry. Her eyes stung.

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Her heart ached. That one was familiar. She was used to that one.

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"Hey, ya knocked over my stuff." Vega complained, picking up a few trinkets and potions from off the ground and stashing them back into her cloak. "But I'm glad to see yer awake."

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Aisha groaned as she rubbed her face, massaging her eyelids and cheeks.

"Did we win?" She asked, her throat hoarse.

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"We lived, so I consider that a win." Vega shrugged, passing Aisha a glass flask.

The girl looked at the murky brown liquid with distaste.

"It's hangover cure. It's the only thing I've got."

"But is it…" Aisha hesitated, downing the foul liquid and grimacing. "You killed it, right?"

.

"Yeah, I wish." Vega mumbled, sliding the thick cloak off of the left side of her body, to reveal a massive, gaping wound, her entire left arm, as well as a good chunk of her torso missing. Aisha's eyes widened at the sight, surprised at how nonchalantly the woman poked at the fatal-looking wound, rubbing a small jar of paste on top of it.

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"It got me good." Vega grimaced, taking out a roll of bandages and stuffing it in her mouth. "Or well, we got each other good. I took one of it's wings, it took my arm. Fair trade, really."

"B-b-but you're…"

"Ihm hwhat?" Vega asked rhetorically, mouth muffled by gauze. "Ah rubwy? Crahshy."

.

"If you can't beat it…" Aisha paled. "Who can?"

"More people." Vega rolled her eyes, somehow having managed to bandage her body with only a single arm. "If you can't do something by yourself, you get more people. That's how it works."

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Aisha was quiet, watching as Vega laid down, groaning as she decided to join her, laying down on the hospital bed-

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"Hey, where are we?" She asked, suddenly realizing that they were not in the forest. She looked around at the sterile, white, cloth walls, and the harsh, untuned magicite lighting. It very much looked like a tent, but to her knowledge, none of them had been carrying one with them. Her eyes suddenly locked onto a figure sitting alone in the corner, recognizing the tanned-skin boy as Kayle.

"Just some village." Vega sighed, laying down on her good-… only arm. "I don't want to impose, so we're just staying the night."

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And with that, Vega threw her cloak back over her body and started snoring.

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"You saved me."

"What?" Aisha furrowed her eyebrows, craning her neck to listen to what Kayle had just whispered, in his little corner. "What did you say?"

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"You saved me." Kayle repeated quietly, pulling his knees up to his chest.

"Yeah." Aisha muttered. "Did you not want me to?"

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"You could have died." Kayle whispered. "But you protected me."

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Aisha bit back another sarcastic remark. It was true. She hadn't been thinking about her obligation to protect the kid, she just… did.

"...Yes." Aisha said, in a low voice.

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"..."

"..."

"...Thank you."

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.

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But despite all of her tossing and turning, Aisha found herself unable to fall asleep, even to the soothing feelings and thoughts from her memories. It was… a sort of itch. A feeling of restlessness, like there was something that she should do, but didn't know exactly what. It flooded her body like pinpricks, and the girl scratched over her entire body trying to quell the feeling, but eventually, she gave up, going outside.

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She found herself stargazing again. The cool air soothed her itchy skin and turbulent thoughts, and it made her little shadow friend happy. It was nice. It reminded her of when she was a child, back when…

.

She didn't even flinch as a cold mist swept up next to her.

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"Making friends?" Feng asked quietly.

"..."

"What troubles you now?" Feng tried. "It's always something."

.

For a few minutes, Aisha just sat in silence, her thoughts gnawing at her insides like acid. She was no longer in a position where she could just… say or do what she wanted wherever she wanted. With all the enemies she had lurking around, she no longer held that luxury.

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She didn't know if Feng was an enemy. She had expressed her intentions to make peace with Aisha, but she didn't know how willing she would be if she knew Aisha was withholding, quite literally, the only thing in the world that the woman wanted. She was an unknown. Something that Aisha despised, she hated not knowing things, she hated being powerless - and yet, that was what she was facing, beyond even fighting the angel, she was on a death mission to fight a literal god, someone she didn't even know the full extent of their powers-

.

"I want to run away." Aisha whispered, curling up into a ball. "I wanna go home."

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Feng looked at Aisha with a rare look of sympathy. One that was more common recently, but still…

"You could." She nodded slightly. "There's not a lot stopping you, at least right now."

"Why can't I bring myself to leave?" Aisha whispered. "Why can't I just be a monster, and not care about anyone?"

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"Monsters have hearts." Feng closed her eyes. "Why does someone become a monster, in the first place?"

"I don't know!" Aisha snapped, hands balling up into fists out of frustration. "I'm tired of-"

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"It's because." Feng interrupted, her cool voice cutting through the night, shutting Aisha up. "It's because they love.

"...Love?"

"People become monsters because they love something enough to give up everything else."

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"...Beasts don't love anything." Aisha mumbled.

"That's not true." Feng shook her head. "They love their families. At the least, they love themselves. It is basic self-preservation."

"You're just playing word games at this point." Aisha muttered. "And you're one to talk about love."

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Feng stared up at the night sky wistfully.

"Yeah." She whispered. "For a long time, I didn't love anything. I don't think… you could have called me human, back then. A mindless nothing. No ambition. No… life. And then… before I could even appreciate it, I lost everything I loved. All in one go."

.

Feng took a deep breath, her chest filling up with air even though she no longer held any lungs within.

"Nevermind." She said suddenly. "At any rate… I bet… I bet little brother taught you to be strong so you could protect the people you love."

"How do you know that?"

.

"Because you're just like me." Feng smiled sadly. "You hate yourself. You don't want to go back to your sweetheart because you still don't think you're good enough for her, right?"

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Aisha stiffened.

"I'm not strong enough." She said bitterly. "Everything is completely out of my control. Out of my reach. I'm not strong enough to defeat my enemies, or protect the people I care about."

.

Feng gave the girl a curious look that made her uncomfortable. Then again, everything she did made her uncomfortable.

"I'm not going to say whether or not you're strong enough or not." The tall woman closed her eyes. "You have to grow on your own. But I suppose I can help you a little bit."

"What happened to not interfering?" Aisha asked sarcastically.

"You're thinking of someone else. My job is actually to kill you, remember?"

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"...Ok." Aisha said in a meek voice.

"Yeah, hold out your hand, idiot."

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Aisha did as she was told, and almost flinched when Feng sandwiched her tiny hand in both of hers, black gloves cold on top of her bare hands.

.

She could practically feel the power trembling in her hands. An ocean of it, masterfully suppressed. Aisha couldn't feel ANY of it. Not a single drop of mana was leaked out of her.

.

100% efficient.

.

And without warning, Aisha's heartbeat accelerated as a torrent of feeling rushed through her. She felt like a gallon of water was being forced into her veins with a pressure jet. It was deeply disturbing, although not painful - it just felt as if her entire being was being violated from the inside-out.

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It was no surprise that Aisha quickly retracted her hand, chest heaving as she quickly checked herself over for… something.

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"What the fuck was that!?" She demanded, wanting to cover herself up.

"It's your 'flow.'" Feng said simply. "Humans are built like rivers. They all flow back into each other. Your 'magic' system is a series of channels that carry mana throughout your body, just like your blood."

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"What was the point of doing that?" Aisha shivered. "I d-don't… felt wrong."

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Feng sighed as she stood up, all six feet of height gazing down on her. Aisha gulped.

"My brother left you with a gift. A distinctly physical gift." Feng explained. "Not just your physique, he taught you how to control your blood flow, and the influx of adrenaline into your system."

"I don't know what that means."

"Your mana follows similar working principles." Feng continued, ignoring Aisha. "You can apply the same principles that my brother taught you to control the flow of mana through your body, and influxes of shape, form, whatever. The point of me doing that… was to give a feel for how your circuits align in your body. It's the same as your circulatory system, your "hadral-heart," or soul, pumps the type-12 hadron radiation in a helical framework, through your biohadral-circulatory system. similar to your heart, with cellu-compressive motion, which you…"

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Feng stopped at Aisha's struggling expression, looking like her head was going to explode in pure confusion, face furrowed and looking almost upset. It was cute.

.

"Hm. I can see the appeal." She said offhandedly.

"Appeal of what?" Aisha demanded.

.

But Feng was already gone, leaving Aisha alone in the cold, night air.

"You need to evolve, girl." The wind whispered. "Faster. If you want to survive."