A kiss for a heart

Appearing in front of Caitlin and Maya on the deck, Seth winked at Maya and grabbed the startled Caitlin’s hand before teleporting again without saying a single word.

Once Caitlin’s vision recovered, she saw they were now inside a room in the ship’s hull. Aleena slept peacefully on the bed with an open book on her chest.

Seth made a shushing gesture toward Caitlin and used his time energy to freeze Aleena’s brain.

“Is she injured?” asked Caitlin, getting a familiar feeling from the scene in front of her.

Seth nodded and led Caitlin next to the bed by her hand. “Check to see if you can feel what is wrong.”

Caitlin nodded and placed her hand on Aleena’s head, spreading her life energy all over her body.

Since her brain was frozen in time, Caitlin couldn’t use her energy on it, but she didn’t need to, as a frown appeared on her face once her energy reached her heart.

“She’s dying, “ muttered Caitlin, feeling Aleena’s slow and exhausted heartbeat.

“She is, yes, but she is also lucky enough to have met us.”, Seth said with a chuckle, but this didn’t reduce the frown on Caitlin’s face.

“I can’t heal her. My energy feels like it’s plunging into a bottomless hole whenever it comes close to her heart. Doesn’t that mean my life energy is too weak to help her?”

“Indeed it does, but did you forget you’re not alone? We can treat her together. She was once an academy student but failed to stabilize her source. The broken source she created inside her heart crumbled into pieces and is now clogging it.”

“Even broken, the source kept absorbing earth energy from the surroundings. The energy gathered inside her heart and stuck to the pieces of her broken source. This increases the pressure on her heart, and as time goes on, she will die.”

Catlin nodded and looked at Aleena’s peaceful sleeping expression before asking: “Do you plan to destroy the pieces of her source gathered at her heart and me to heal her as you do that?”

Seth smiled and rubbed her hair: “I see there is indeed something else inside that head of yours besides food. Yes, that’s exactly what we’ll do. Are you ready?”

Caitlin nodded with a grin, glad that Seth praised her, even if it was in such a weird manner. “I’m ready. Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”

Seth didn’t wait anymore and said: “Alright, I’ll start. Stay next to me and do exactly what I tell you to.”

Seeing Caitlin’s serious expression, Seth slowly undid the buttons on Aleena’s blouse. Once he undid the third button, her breasts were released, and both jumped out of her tight blouse, stretching the shirt underneath to the maximum.

“Wow.”, muttered Caitlin from the side, not expecting her breasts to be so large.

Seth lifted an eyebrow and gave Caitlin a strange look, causing a slight blush to appear on her face as she lowered her head.

Seth’s face turned solemn, and he moved her shirt up, letting her breasts hang freely. Ignoring the tantalizing display in front of him, Seth placed a hand right under her left boob and closed his eyes.

<Does host need assistance?>

‘No need. Just observe the situation and let me know if anything goes wrong. The operation is not difficult, but its location is, so I can’t afford to make mistakes.’

The system remained silent, and Seth started sending his destruction energy inside Aleena’s heart. He could feel her crumbled source slowly trying to fight his energy and push it back, but Seth only increased his output and easily fought back.

Once the earth energy in Aleena’s heart was pushed out by his destruction, Seth said softly: “I’ve cleared all the energy inside her heart. Push your life energy in and cover the entire heart. I’ll move the destruction energy out of the way to make room.”

Caitlin blushed again as she looked at Aleena’s breasts. She had to place one hand close to her heart, but Seth had taken the safest spot there.

Left with no choice, she placed one hand on Aleena’s breast, right above Seth’s hand, and ignored the soft feeling in her palm as she started pushing her life energy inside.

Seth allowed it to pass through, and soon Aleena’s entire heart was filled with life energy.

“I’ll start removing the pieces of her failed source. I might also destroy some of your energy in the process. Try to keep your energy active at all times. We need your energy to heal any damage that might appear from me removing the source.”

Caitlin nodded and activated her energy. Since the source pieces were still there, her energy was being consumed quickly without doing much of anything.

Seth knew he was in a race against time and had to finish the operation before Caitlin’s source drained, so he started the procedure.

Slowly, piece by piece, Seth started removing the crumbled source.

<STOP>

A bright red message appeared in Seth’s vision, causing his heart to jump in his chest and his removal process to stop instantly.

‘Are you trying to have my heart fail as well? What happened?’

<The piece host is attempting to remove is too deeply embedded in her heart. Removal would cause massive internal bleeding, and her heart will stop completely.>

‘Hmm, give me an alternative.’

<A gradual removal. Start with the part embedded in the deepest inside Aleena’s heart and alternate your destruction with Caitlin’s healing. It will take more time and energy, but it’s the safest alternative.>

Seth wasted no time and said: “Caitlin, a piece is too deeply embedded inside her heart. I can’t remove it all at once, so I’ll take it slower. Please heal along with my removal.”

“Please hurry, teacher. I’m getting tired.”, said Caitlin, her eyes somewhat droopy.

‘System, how’s her energy?’

<32%>

Seth said nothing more and started the removal progress. He did as the system told him, splitting that piece into smaller ones and beginning the removal with the deepest one. Only that piece alone brought Caitlin to about 17% energy.

<Host, her energy would be consumed before the operation is over.>

‘I know.’

Seth continued the removal operation, afraid of what will happen if he stopped now, and said: “Caitlin, your energy won’t hold. I need you to start absorbing life energy from me. I know what you want to say, but please trust me. I’ll be fine.”

Caitlin swallowed the words she was about to say, and they continued the operation. Once her energy reached one percent, Caitlin placed her trembling hand over Seth’s and slowly started absorbing life energy from him while supplying it to Aleena.

Seth felt a wave of dizziness hit him, and alerts kept appearing in his vision, but he knew losing some life energy would be no issue, so he continued. He only had one more piece to remove.

The last piece took about five minutes. Once it was removed entirely and the damage healed by Caitlin, she stopped absorbing Seth’s life energy immediately.

Turning towards Seth, an uncharacteristically worried look replacing her usual happy-go-lucky one, Caitlin asked: “How are you?”

Seth opened his eyes and heaved a relieved sigh before rubbing Caitlin’s head: “I’m fine. You did well.”

“But your lifespan - “

“It’s only a few years. No problem.”, said Seth, using his finger to smooth the frown from Caitlin’s forehead. “Get some sleep. I know you’re exhausted.”

Caitlin stared into Seth’s eyes silently for a while, but after not spotting anything wrong with him, she left the room to rest. She was utterly spent, just as Seth had guessed.

‘How is Aleena?’

<The broken source has been completely removed.>

<All damage has been healed by Caitlin.>

<Host remaining lifespan: short of ten million years.>

“Talk about useless information.”, muttered Seth as he fixed his eyes on Aleena’s breasts. “She hid them quite well...”

Seth had his share of staring and forced the bouncy boys inside her shirt before buttoning her blouse again. Once he made sure she looked good and propped, he stood up from the bed and released his time freeze.

Bending down next to her bed, Seth poked her cheek with his finger and said: “Wake up, sleepyhead.”

Aleena frowned and moved Seth’s finger away in her sleep, but Seth didn’t mind it and poked her again.

Eventually, Aleena’s eyelashes trembled gently, and she opened her eyes. She looked confused at first, but then her eyes landed on Seth, and she smiled: “Sorry, I fell asleep.”

She figured he must have come for her treatment, but she was too tired to wait for him and fell asleep.

“No problem.”, said Seth with a slight chuckle before asking: “Are you ready for your treatment?”

Aleena stood on her butt and yawned once while stretching. “Yeah, let’s get it over with. What do I have to do?”

Seth barely kept himself from laughing at her attempt to keep her calm, even if he could see the anxiety in her eyes.

Using perfect body control, he forced his face to turn serious and said: “Don’t move and close your eyes.”

Aleena nodded and closed her eyes. She felt her heartbeat increase, a feeling of anticipation and anxiety overwhelming her.

A wet sensation on her lips made her snap her eyes open right after. Using her hands to push Seth away, she asked in indignation: “What are you doing?”

“What do you mean what I’m doing. I just healed you. Can you still feel the pain coming from your heart?” replied Seth, his face the definition of virtue.

Aleena realized that the constant pain from her chest was gone just now, and her face flushed instantly. She was about to apologize for wrongly accusing him again, but she remembered something and frowned.

“My pain was gone ever since I woke up…” She muttered before her eyes widened, and she asked: “What did you do?”

Seth chuckled and said: “I arrived here with my student while you were still asleep, so we took that chance to treat you then. She left to rest since she spent quite a lot of energy, and I remained here, waiting for you to wake up. As for that kiss, take it as my payment for the treatment.”

Aleena blushed again and nodded with her head lowered. Bringing her hands over her heart, she could feel the solid and healthy heartbeat coming from it, and feelings of hope and happiness blossomed inside her, feelings she had long forgotten.

She couldn’t even care about Seth taking advantage of her. A mosquito voice escaped her lips right after. “Thank you for healing me. Also, thank you for everything else you’ve done for me.”

Aleena was getting emotional, so she didn’t lift her head up so that Seth wouldn’t notice her red, teary eyes.

“No problem. Your pain should be completely gone now, and you can cultivate again.” Said Seth before using his creation energy to make a few books appear out of thin air on the bed.

Aleena’s eyes widened as she spotted the books appearing in front of her, being created in real-time.

‘Is this another source?’ She then realized something and jumped in front of Seth, grabbing the edges of his collar, not caring about the tears that flew out of her eyes as she asked: “Is that creation?”

Seth smiled and nodded before letting the books drop on the bed. “Yes, I have six sources.”

“What are the others?” asked Aleena immediately, not releasing Seth’s collar yet.

Seth had to admit he was somewhat impressed by how quickly she let go of her reservations. He flicked her forehead and said: “After you create your source, I’ll tell you. You’re already way past the ideal age to cultivate, and you’ll need to put a lot of effort into creating your source.”

Aleena rubbed her forehead with a wrong look, but then she forgot about her complaints as she asked: “What do you want to tell me now? I want to know what other energies you have.”

“Hmm. I’ll give you one per each kiss you give me. They must be on the lips, or they won’t count.”

Aleena’s face flared instantly, and she just now realized how close her face was to Seth’s. Returning to the opposite edge of the bed, she nodded and picked one of the books, opening the first page to read like she was trying to pretend Seth was not there anymore.

Seth didn’t mind her reaction and sat up to leave the room. He didn’t get the chance to teleport away when Aleena asked: “You’re building a harem?”

She has seen Seth fool around with Maya, Hollie, and Tiana and read quite a few books to get an idea of what Seth was planning to do.

“Of course I am, and you’ll be part of it.”, said Seth before teleporting away.

Once he was gone, Aleena looked up with a red face and used her fingers to gently touch the lips Seth had kissed before.

Her lips curled into a small smile, and she turned her eyes to the book.