Dark and bothered

“What’s wrong?” asked Maya, coming to Seth and massaging his back. She didn’t know what had happened, but his face bore an expression she had never seen him make before.

Seth turned to look at her and flashed a forced a smile while shaking his head. “Can you please try to create a mirror to see what’s happening in Julie and Lisa’s apartment?”

At moments like this, Seth missed his lack of access to the records, not wanting to have Maya see what he had done but also needing to know what would happen next.

“I’ll try,” whispered Maya, water mirrors not being an easy thing for her to conjure at the seventh shell.

Water energy coursed down her feet and sunk into the ground, slowly flowing throughout the capital and reaching Lisa and Julie’s apartment.

Slowly, a mirror made out of pure water appeared before the two, and its surface reflected an image of Julie’s face stained with tears, hugged into Lisa’s chest.

“Show me Lisa,” said Seth, closing his eyes momentarily.

The image changed to reflect Lisa’s face, which bore an almost demonic visage compared to her mother’s heartbroken one. Darkness energy flowed out of her eyes, covering her face in a foggy black mist as black veins kept pulsating under her skin.

The mirror shattered the next moment, startling Maya and making her recoil. “Wha… Wait, I’ll make another - “

“No need,” interrupted Seth." If she could break your mirror at the sixth shell, it’s already happening. Wait here and order everyone not to intervene or react no matter what happens. That goes for both the girls and Asteria."

Feeling Seth starting to use his space energy, Maya grabbed his hand and asked, “What is happening? Let me help.”

Seth covered her hand and smiled to reassure her, “Just trust me. Nothing bad will happen.”

After giving her hand a slight squeeze, Seth teleported away, his lips muttering softly, “at least to me.”

Seth arrived right in the center of Lisa’s room. Without giving her any time to react, Seth’s destruction energy exploded, consuming all the darkness mist that had already filled the room, and he grabbed the panicked Julie’s hand, dragging her away from her daughter.

Lisa’s black eyes moved to Seth, wave after wave of darkness energy expanding outwards and covering the whole building, its walls and furniture turning black from the amount of energy gathering in one place.

Before Julie could make sense of anything, Seth teleported her away, straight to Maya’s room, and blinked right next to Lisa, breaking space around the two and pushing her through the space tear, arriving into the vast plains outside the capital.

After releasing Lisa, Seth’s hand was already rotten black. He discarded the energy forming it, allowing it to dissipate into a dark mist before reforming a new hand and blinking away from Lisa.

‘At least I got her away from the city….’ Seth heaved a relieved sigh, happy Lisa didn’t break his teleportation and cause even more damage to the capital. ‘Should I attack her now, Lust?’

‘Not yet. Play around with her for some time. It needs to be completed first.’

Seth looked at the scythe of darkness Lisa held as she charged toward him and started blinking back repeatedly. ‘Do you know how long it will take?’

‘There’s still light out there, so probably quite a while.’

Seth looked at the fog slowly covering the sky above and sighed as he avoided Lisa’s berserk attacks. For a time, avoiding them was still simple, but as less and less of the sun’s light made it through the darkness curtain, Seth could feel Lisa’s power growing exponentially.

‘I might have to use more power than I initially thought…." thought Seth after a few hours of exhausting his space energy to move away from Lisa.

Just as Seth was considering stopping to fight back, Lisa stopped her assault. Her pure black eyes started tearing up, a smile grew on her lips, and she spoke coldly, “Surrender now. You have served me well all these years, so I will save a spot for you in my domain if you swear allegiance now.”

Seth smiled at the condescending words and asked, “Oh? And why should I? Are you so dumb to think you can take me on? Even after everything you have seen through her eyes?”

“Hahahaha.” Lisa covered her lips and started laughing uncontrollably, energy flowing out of the universe, plunging the whole world into complete darkness. “What would a lowly human know of my power? I might have cared if you still bore one inside you, but now... you’re too weak. Tremble in fear as I claim this world as my domain.”

A black crown manifested itself high above the world, shrinking in size and slowly falling toward Lisa, hovering just a few inches above her head.

Seth’s eyes flashed a dark-red color in the ever-present darkness, and he watched the show Lisa was putting on with a growing smile. ‘I guess that’s it.’

‘Wait for her to remove her physical shell.’

Just as Lust answered Seth, Lisa’s body faded away, leaving behind a pure dark source hovering mid-air and two smaller ones on the side.

The energy inside the darkness source was only at the level of the sixth shell once it exited the body. Still, the darkness energy all around moved toward it, pushing against its seventh shell as it and the divine crown started moving toward one another.

The space and water source started slowly cracking under the pressure the darkness energy was putting on them.

‘Now.’

With Lust’s words, Seth lifted his fingers just before his eyes and drew a simple line. The line extended outwards, splitting the darkness source and divine crown apart. No soul, energy, or body connected the two anymore; even the space seemed to have broken apart around them.

Seth appeared right before the divine crown, his eyes flashing dark red as destruction energy replaced the darkness, consuming it entirely. Placing his hand on the divine crown, Seth gathered the destruction energy and formed a seal around it.

“Finally,” muttered Seth, looking down at Lisa’s sources, who had already started to fall apart.

“It’s been hard on you. Hang on just a bit more,” said Seth with a sad smile, using his space energy to pull Isabel and Caitlin from Endora.

Isabel and Caitlin, who had no idea what was happening and were still confused by the darkness that fell upon the capital just moments earlier and Maya’s orders not to intervene since it was Seth’s doing, looked at the situation before them and asked simultaneously, “What do you need?”

“I want you two to heal Lisa’s soul and give it a body. I’ve kept the damage minimal, but it’s still in pretty bad shape.”

Caitlin and Isabel nodded and shared a look before life energy flowed out of their bodies, entering Lisa’s feeble and withering soul.

‘You know this is not enough,’ said Lust as Seth watched the process with a focused look.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Even with the damage to a minimum, darkness had spread her roots into every part of her soul. Even if you heal her, she will still be under her influence, even with her divinity sealed. You need to seek her.’

‘I understand...’

Caitlin and Isabel worked tirelessly for over a quarter of an hour, with even Seth helping create her physical body to speed up the process.

Once complete, Lisa’s body was fully reformed around her three sources and the sealed divinity Seth had placed in her womb.

She was still unconscious, her soul slumbering from the constant shocks and damage Seth’s destruction caused.

As Seth held the feeble girl in his arms and Isabel worked on recovering her soul, Seth asked the system, ‘Can you estimate the damage her soul had suffered?’

<About 42%>

‘And how much will the damage increase if I remove darkness’ influence?’

<Over 80%. A more accurate prediction is only possible by knowing the amount of influence the darkness will had on it.>

‘Over 80% of her memories… will she even be Lisa anymore?’

<She had long stopped being the same. I can transfer the memories in the previous records and the ones you have to make up for any holes in her memory.>

Seth nodded with a sigh and just waited for Isabel to heal the broken parts of her soul. After hours, Isabel finally lowered her hands and nodded, “The damage to her soul is gone, but its state… I did all I could.”

“I know. Thank you. You as well, Caitlin. Wait for us back in the capital,” after the two girls nodded, Seth teleported them back to Endora and caressed Lisa’s cheek.

“Lust, perception. Please,” muttered Seth, lust and perception energy coursing through his fingertips, slipping into Lisa’s soul, slowly separating the corruption of darkness energy and pulling her consciousness to the surface.

As Seth retracted his energy, Lisa opened her eyes and fixed them on Seth, a pained look contained inside them, “Teacher….”

Seth barely contained his emotions as he nodded and smiled, “It’s me. How are you, Lisa?”

“I don’t know… everything hurts, and I don’t know why… did something happen? Did I do something stupid again?”

Seth shook his head, her words cutting straight into his heart. “No, Lisa. I did something wrong and am about to do something even worse.”

With Lisa appearing even more confused, Seth asked Lust, “Can you or perception soothe her pain?’

‘I can,’ replied Lust, and Seth allowed his lust energy to sink into Lisa’s soul again.

Lisa’s previously pale cheeks started to turn red, and the weakness in her eyes began to fade as she looked to the side and asked, “Teacher… I’m feeling hot and… bothered.”

Seth pulled her head toward him, forcing her to look into his eyes as he asked, “Lisa, do you remember my lust source?”

“Lust source?” asked Lisa, bits and fragments of her memories returning to her and causing her to get even more embarrassed. “The one that teacher uses with teacher Maya...”

Seth nodded and lifted Lisa’s face toward his own, looking straight into her panicking eyes as he captured her lips. Lisa raised her hands to push against Seth’s chest, but as soon as their lips connected, she felt her strength leaving her.

After releasing the beet-red Lisa from his kiss, Seth asked with a small smile, “Will you give me the honor of being your lover, Lisa?”