664 10/11 2:58 (Autumn, Day, Midrar)
Luna, currently residing in the fourth layer, concentrated on the massive amount of her Black Blood that was currently filling the fifth layer and was currently trying to assert pressure on the last two remaining walls at once, straining both of them together.
Quickly the vital fluid started to writhe and boil, its temperature rising violently and rapidly, to the point that even with the 50 cm large walls separating her from it she was still able to feel the heat washing over the sealed room she found herself in, being saved from cooking alive thanks not only to her own nature as a Lunarian but also to her own Skill-based Resistances.
'Hey, Amber, Sabel, Mafel, they should be concentrating entirely on me at this point. You three are free to move in.' Luna sent to her Mates her message thanks to their Mark.
'Finally! I was so tired of waiting in the second Floor's Dungeon Boss.' Amber sounded out, her voice spiking up to mirrow her rising excitement as she quickly led their two Mates to the exit.
After all, Mark and his Party waited to attack her until a good ten minutes after her Mates would have dealt with the Floor Boss, when the three of them should have already stepped in the third Floor; her Mates instead, having anticipated the attack on Luna, bode their time until her signal while waiting and preparing within the second Floor's Boss Room itself.
-
Almost immediately after her message, a majestic golden bird made of flames exploded from the exit of the Dungeon, her luminous feathers made of solidified flames surrounding protectively her Human and Elf to both hold them in place and to help them deal with the sudden pressure caused by her acceleration.
Mafel and Sabel meanwhile were holding on to the purple horns belonding to said golden bird for dear life, ethereal feathers and mane gently enveloping and covering the two.
Sabel, having nothing to do beyond just maintaining her grip, turned her attention to her tallest Mate, intent on asking her a question to distract herself from the speed of their movement, question that was however completely forgotten once she saw her incredibly pale face.
"Are you, are you scared?" She asked incredulously, her black eyes opening wide as her amusement started to rise, unable to stop either her smile or her rising emotions, more precisely her desire to tease her Mate.
This desire was certainly not helped by Sabel remembering all the times that the ashen haired one teased her from their meeting, both the more innocent ones during the day and the much less innocent teasing that she suffered during the night, teasing that was especially prevalent once all four of them started to sleep together.
Mafel heard the mocking tone contained within Sabel's words and immediately turned towards her, paying full attention on the Human and most importantly being careful not to watch the ground that passed at sickeningly high speed beneath the three of them.
"I am not afraid!" The former Specter instinctively protested, her mouth opening before her mind could process the situation and in so doing unwittingly confirming her own trepidation to both of her present Mates.
Mafel could only whine once Sabel started to mockingly reassure her by petting her head as if she was a scared child. "Aw, don't worry Mafel, we will take care of you. There is no need to fear any heights with the two of us here." The Human embraced the taller one at once, almost as if she wanted to calm her down, a way to both make fun of her but also a genuine attempt to distract her from what really bothered her.
"I am not scared!" Sabel's provocation worked, Mafel's pride being stung and causing her to stand up fully, her fear completely forgotten in favor of manifesting her righteous anger towards the black-haired one, launching herself at her and pushing her down. "You are lucky that we are too busy for me to punish you or I'd make sure that you wouldn't be able to walk!"
Sabel shivered at the light in her purple and golden eyes, gulping once before hesitantly commenting to try and redirect her attention away from herself. "We are currently over Amber's body, you can't-"
"Oh, if that is the only obstacle, you don't need to worry. I don't mind at all." The golden flames around them flared gently, flickering in amusement as the voice of Amber sung out from the flames. "After all she teased you reguarding your very obvious fear, punishing her for this would be only natural."
Amber did her best to stoke the passion burning within Mafel for her own amusement, her own golden flames rising up to firmly envelop Sabel and Mafel with transparent flames, obsuring their bodies from the outside with golden light, keeping them safe from the speed she moved at and at the same time, would easily enable her to enjoy watching the two of them from all sort of angles.
Mafel's eyes narrowed further, glowing slightly because of the intensity of her current emotions, as Amber's words did their dual purpose of both not-so-gently pressing against the Elf's pride and stimulating her desires even further.
Sabel gulped. 'Well, at least she is not thinking about her fear right now…' She thought to herself, knowing that she could stop her Mate but not really willing to unless the Elf would go too far.
-
Mark scowled, watching carefully the ground and grass around the cube rapidly charring because of the heat that escaped from the earthen cage, understanding that she was trying to stress both Grug himself and their stock of Healing and Mana Potions. "Shit!" He couldn't help but exclaim, full of rage towards his enemy, already preparing another batch of his Rising Potion for the Half-Dwarf.
"Come on, Grug, you can do it." Mark encouraged his friend briefly, his lips twisting in a frown once he saw the rivers of blood and sweat that stained both his body, clothes and the ground underneath him.
His blue eyes focused back on the cube, noting how the stone was darkening significantly, the rocks forming it starting to crumble apart and erupt into brief and angry embers of Blood Flames that then were smothered by more grounded up rocks that rose up and then fell down upon the crimson flames.
"Blood Flames feed on blood to both heat up and grow, the fact that they seem to be raging without slowing down any and are instead growing more intense, means that she must be burning an ever higher amount of her blood. Considering her passive Recovery and the speed at which she could Convert her Vital Mana into more of it…"
The blonde scowled, finding that while she was losing more Energy than she was regaining, the rate involved would be far from enough to exhaust her significantly, even considering the fact that Blood Flames tend towards demanding ever more from their wielders.
-
Within her temporary prison, in the meanwhile, Luna sat down calmly, her eyes closed softly as she breathed in and out gently, a small bloody mist being emanated with each of her exhale.
Luna was in a much more precarious situations than Mark actually assumed, however, as because there was no remaining connection between her body and the mass of Black Blood in the next layer, she was forced to use much more Vital Mana that the Regressor previously calculated, needing to constantly create more of her vital fluid through the wall, being forced to drown some of her Blood Flames herself to assure the stability of her scarlet flames.
After all Luna needed to make sure that the flames had both enough of her liquid to burn and allowing them to both grow and heat up while needing to maintain the existence and liquid state of her blood despite the ever increasing heat of her flames.
If Mark had known this facts and when considering the amount of Vital Mana she was constantly spending and Channeling, he would have correctly calculated that she would have freed herself with around 50% of her Vital Mana remaining, enough to still be a very significant threat, even if in a much worse situation that the Human actually guessed.
Luna calmly continued on her meditation, intent on saving as much as possible of her Energy, judging the heat that washed over her and moving on to emanate a wave of cold blood from her shadow, creating a pair of layers around her separated by a vacuum that allowed her to ignore the rising heat, thing only possible thanks to the lack of air to transfer heat between the two layers.
And even if this would only last just as long as the external layer of Black Blood would not evaporate, it would still comfort her in the meanwhile, allowing her to recover some Energy that would have otherwise been spent to recover from the heat and the theoretically Burns.
The white haired one calmly waited, doing her best to patiently focus on the flow of her Blood and her Energy all around and within her body, progressively increasing her efficiency with it as she eagerly waited for her freedom while at the same time enjoying the emotions coming from her incoming Mates.
----
Thanks for reading, comment if you have any thoughts about this chapter and story in general or any suggestion at all.
If you want to read chapters in advance of this and my other story, I have a Patreon.
( patr*eon.com/White_Chaos )