For now, instead of giving Power Stones to this story. I would really appreciate it if you could give them to a new one. DxD: Symbiotic Devil. You can find it on my author profile or just by searching for it.
It would help a lot.
…
Half an hour later, Natasha and Xialing descended to the second-to-top floor, the entirety of which had been modeled into a large gym for their use. Alex was already waiting for them when they came down.
"Is it out of both of your systems now?" Alex asked. "Things are at a critical juncture for me right now, so it's going to be a year before Xialing can return home anyway. You both have been arguing for two days for no reason."
"And pray tell, why would you not tell me this last night, Alex?" Natasha asked, crossing her arms. "You know better than anyone how I feel about this."
"Yeah, I know," he said. "I know better than you even. Do you want Xialing to start hating you? Because that's what all of this is leading to. Her goal, since the day she joined us, has been to take over her father's legacy and finally receive his recognition. That hasn't changed even after a decade, and a few conversations definitely won't make a difference."
The girl in question was silently standing at the side, looking down.
"She will spend the next centuries fighting and training. What's wrong with me wanting to give her a few more years of normalcy?"
"I can do that when I want!" Xialing said suddenly. "Why are you choosing for me? Dad's already promised that he will let me take a break whenever I want. What else could I ask for? It's something I want to do, Mom. Why won't you let me?"
Natasha was left silent at her outburst.
"All right, enough talk about the future. None of this will come to pass until the end of the year, so we can slowly convince your mom, okay, honey? For now, forget about all of that and focus on your training. That's an order," he said, turning to Natasha. "For both of you."
Natasha nodded, steeling her expression into one of focus and calm, one that Xialing practically mirrored, with some minor differences.
Alex smiled at Xialing's expression as two bodies split out of him while he crossed his arms and stood back. The other two walked toward the two women. At the same time, both women's casual home clothes morphed into their respective combat suits. Natasha's suit was still the same black leather combat suit that every Widow wore, with the addition of a sixth red glowing line going along her body to represent her status as the commander of the Widow Division. Xialing, on the other hand, wore an outfit that seemed to be made of the scales of a dragon. Unlike the Great Protector's silver scales, however, it was composed of black scales. With a mix of black scales and tight-fitting leather that hugged her body, the outfit made her look very much like Natasha, down to her expression and stance, yet also gave her a distinct difference from her adoptive mother.
Immediately, the mother and daughter charged both of Alex's clones; their mere burst of speed left a shockwave in their wake as they appeared in front of their respective opponents. Both of them made the same move on Alex's legs, trying to trip their respective opponent clones with support from their charging momentum, but that's where the similarities stopped. Natasha's opponent jumped up and grabbed her arm to throw her over his shoulder, while Xialing's opponent sidestepped and elbowed her side.
As the two women dealt with the attacks and continued their sparring, Alex stood behind them, observing both of their actions and shortcomings, and what they could improve upon. Logically speaking, both Xialing and Natasha were already better than him in terms of raw technique and martial arts. But what he had was the advantage of far greater speed than either of them. Natasha, even with the enhancement multiplier of their bond, barely reached the threshold of a Low Cosmic Physique, while Xialing barely reached the level of a Superhuman Physique after going through an entire decade of optimal development and enhancement alongside Alex's regular training.
Compared to Alex's Cosmic Physique, which could obliterate entire planets with casual movements, their superior technique held no meaning. But, both of them were combat geniuses in their own right and could easily identify their shortcomings as long as they had an unbeatable opponent. All Alex needed to do was continue pushing them to their limits.
Of course, sparring was only one part of their daily training. They stopped after an hour, as Natasha and Xialing barely took five minutes to recover before Alex started them on intense physical exercise, including strength and stamina training, cardio, and more. Not to mention, Qi training,
If Susan could see the intensity of training that both Natasha and Xialing were going through, she would be quivering in her symbiotic boots after realizing that Alex was taking it easy with her for now.
It was midnight by the time their training concluded, and both women were splayed on the ground, unable to move even a single finger after everything that they had gone through. Even after a decade of consistent training, Alex still pushed them to their limits, leaving them unable to move in the slightest.
"Good work, girls," Alex squatted between them and looked at Xialing. "You are getting closer and closer to the peak possible strength that you can possess as a human without relying on my enhancements, Xialing. I'm proud of you."
"I wanna sleep, daddy…" she mumbled weakly, looking at him with needy eyes.
"I know, I know. I'll tuck you in, don't worry," he said, gently patting Xialing's head. "Come on." he wrapped an arm around Natasha's waist and the other around Xialing's, picking both women up in his arms without the slightest issue. As much strength as they had, ultimately, they still had slender and highly compressed muscles after all his biological improvements. First, he went into Xialing's room and gently let the girl down on the bed, leaving another body to tuck her in as he took Natasha into their bedroom.
Unlike the gentle way he handled Xialing, Alex roughly dropped Natasha on the bed and looked down at her with a flat expression.
"Nat," he said, crossing his arms with a stern expression on his face.
The exhausted spy lady lazily opened her eyes with a complicated expression, already having expected Alex's stern reprimand.
"What's going on? It's been two days now. Why are you trying so hard to keep Xialing from doing what she wants?"
"…" She didn't say anything for two minutes. But under Alex's unyielding and stern gaze, she cowered and sighed weakly. "You don't want to know."
"Unfortunately, I have to know," he said. "If it truly means that much to you, I will keep her here for another decade. You know that. As much as I care for our little girl, you are more important to me. You always will be. If you truly want me to keep her here, she will stay here, period. Of course, the resentment that she will build will be real. And she will come to hate you. Maybe not this year or the next, but it will happen. Can you handle that?"
Natasha looked into his eyes for a moment before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "If she goes back to my Earth…199999—I'm never getting used to calling my home by a number. Anyway. If she goes back there, she's going to become the same as Yelena. Setting up the Ten Rings as an army under your command…serving as the general of that army. For that…you will expose her to your unruly methods…The same ones that you use on the Widows to keep them obedient to you and Yelena."
"The Widows listen to Yelena because she is their leader."
"You and I both know that's bullshit," Natasha snapped. "They are the same as me at their cores. Ambitious, unwilling to work under anyone. I didn't believe that back then, but from the occasional glimpses you give me into the things happening over at Earth-Z, I know it to be true. The Widows are women holding immense power. Who wouldn't get ambitious with such capabilities? Maybe the new recruits will be different. But the original widows? Not a chance. The reason for their continued obedience lies in your manipulation methods. The…pleasure that you provide them."
"Assuming that's true—"
"It is," Natasha interrupted. "And let me finish. You will end up employing the same methods on Xialing's subordinates. In the first place, you won't form your Tertiary Bond with males, which immediately eliminates all males from Xialing's subordinates. For the women…I know you won't be able to help yourself from playing with them. Ultimately, Xialing will find out and realize what's going on."
"She knows about the birds and the bees, Nat," Alex said. "She will understand it."
"No, she won't… Not when she feels the way she feels," she said tiredly. "Ultimately, as much as you tried to keep yourself a father figure in her life, you are more than that to her. You know I'm right."
Alex pressed his lips together at her words, unable to come up with a retort.
"That's why I'm so against letting her rush into it. I want her to get over her feelings before she is exposed to those things…"
"How long have you known?" Alex asked with a helpless expression.
"Long enough," she said.
"Fine," he said. "I already said that we'll wait another year. If necessary, I'll tell her that she still needs training and focus on making her stronger for a few years."
"Thank you for understanding," Natasha said with a happy smile.
"Ten years is enough time for even someone like me to start caring about someone other than a primary host," Alex said as he slipped into the bed beside Natasha, pulling her into his arms. She easily fit her face in the crook of his neck, enjoying his comfortable embrace as she fell asleep.
***
If you like the story, follow it and leave a review and whatever else, it motivates me a lot. I try not to leave any mistakes in the chapters, but if you find something glaring, let me know, and I'll try to fix it.
If you want to support me, check out my Patréon. I post advanced chapters there and do weekly polls to decide the stories that I will be posting for the week. No pressure though, I'm eventually going to post my content publicly regardless.
www.patrèon.com/addyctive
(Replace the è with e)