chapter 570  the perfect combination (part 2)

    seeing iris leaving along with all the guys from the red sword faction, aster chuckled, contrary to her fire attribute, the sword obsessed red-haired girl was quite taciturn, a rare characteristic to find on people with fire attribute, as they tend to be wilder.

    a good example of that is natasha, who despite the traditionally demure and composed attitude of the sun graceful luan clan, is quite... "intense" and free spirited, of course it''s not a rule, but the luan girl happens to be a perfect case of a common believe.

    in comparison, iris channels all her energy into her swordsmanship, that being said, she is quite emotional when it comes to certain things, like the well-being of her three maids, and she also knows how to repay kindness.

    and that made it easier for her and aster to get along, despite the fact that she is technically the representative of an enemy faction.

    anyway, aster put this matter at the back of his mind, right now he had other things on which he should focus, namely the blushed pretty pale girl in front of him, but before that he talked to lilia who was of course messing with rya inside of the mind space.

    ''you know what to do mom'', he said only to hear lilia softly snorting.

    ''humph, you ignored your poor mother earlier but now you are talking to me'', she said as she pouted, which made aster smirk, no one in this world knows how to content that jealous mother of his, better than him.

    ''oh, well, i guess my date with my beautiful lilia will also be interrupted, like it happened earlier, what a shame, unlike with vivian, i will only have a day with you, so we''ll lose at least a third of that...'', aster hadn''t even finished his sentence, when lilia already answered.

    ''i''ll be there in a second, if those bastards try to get in the way of my time with my dar... i mean in the way of our family, i''ll go level the blacksmith peak!'', she said as those red ruby eyes of hers shone in a dangerous light, before she left the mind space.

    aster limited to softly laugh, maybe he was unable to resist lilia''s charm, but that mother of his was also unable to ignore certain him, even if she tried to act as if she was angry, securing her time with her beloved son took priority over it.

    rya could only sigh at the previous scene, on the other hand she was amused to see lilia acting with such promptness, so she limited to say.

    ''lascivious dragons...''.

    aster then focused on vivian once again, she hadn''t cancelled her poison, because she can only use it once, the cycle is limited to a single use per day, in exchange she can keep it, until her spirit energy is completely depleted, since this original poison of hers, was created by using her spirit energy instead of her body as the medium, so that she could stay "clean".

    aster approached her and then extended his hand to first touch the snake-like illusory figure, floating behind of vivian.

    naturally his hand passed through it, as the image was just a "fragile" agglomeration of spirit energy, that being said, similar to its creator, though the image lacked physical solidness, its strength was no joke.

    aster''s vertical pupils shone, the spirit energy which conformed the illusory image was contained a poison at least three times stronger than what was being radiated by it, through the range of vivian''s technique.

    it was to the point that his hand which was in direct contact with it, felt a bit numb, as vivian''s spirit energy gathered around his hand, naturally the paragon body reacted, but he suppressed the automatic defensive effect, which was summoning the golden armor, as he took some notes.

    ''her spirit energy is not trying to harm me, as i feel zero malice from it, it''s just that its effect doesn''t disappear even for me, so when it gathers around my hand, i''m actually somewhat affected by it'', he thought as he retrieved his hand, to then change his target to the source.

    vivian blinked a couple of times when she saw aster placing his hand on her head, but she didn''t resist nor felt uncomfortable with it.

    of course, aster wasn''t just touching her for his tact''s delight, though her white hair was indeed quite silky, he did so because he noticed that vivian''s body was also covered in the poison that the snake-like creature was radiating.

    and the curious thing is that, unlike the previous, he was completely unaffected by the poison directly created by vivian, could be because the cycle was inside of vivian, while that snake-like image was created out of her.

    ''mm, i guess i just found what to focus in training for the next mission'', thought aster, he came out of his daze when he noticed that vivian''s face was red like an apple.

    "ahem, i was just wondering, how come though you produce the same poison as the "black dragon overlord" pattern, the result is different", said aster as he retrieved his hand.

    "mm", vivian slightly nodded and let out a low sound of affirmation, as she released the poison, making the black dragon overlord pattern dispel, to then say.

    "the principle behind this technique is completely different than the way i used my constitution previously, when i use my body as the medium though i can''t decide where it will appear, the pattern will never fully cover my body, instead my senses will be used to compensate for the effectiveness of the poison, at worst i lost my sight, mobility/tact and taste... that was before i met aster, after that i stopped losing my senses".

    "that being said, the first method had the advantage that i could use different poisons, as long as i still had things to compensate for them, which is how i used more than one poison at once".

    "when i use the cycle, the result is quite different, the entirety of my spirit energy takes after the one poison i''m using at the time, so i can''t use anything else, which is why i instead focused on creating the strongest poison i could, one that has a sole but overwhelming property that can be used in all cases".

    "so, while i''m using the black dragon overlord, even the spirit energy that circulates through my body has the same poisonous properties, the difference is that i can control it as i want thanks to the cycle, the downside is that it can''t be externally manifested, as the pattern is the one that occupies that aspect, in fact after i created it, that''s the only poison i can manifest through the cycle, it''s like having another version of aster fighting at my side~", she happily said.

    her inspiration was the fact that aster was quite versatile, having shown to excel in the three paths, not to mention being a talented spirit blacksmith, and also a future spirit tamer.

    aster was genuinely interested in her new fighting style, she lacked in terms of variety but in exchange obtained an explosive increase in both offense and defense, for battles with small groups or individual strong enemies, this was perfect, while her original fighting style was better to deal with large groups of small fries.

    but then it''s worth mentioning that currently vivian only has one cycle, but that won''t always be the case, still for now she had to learn how to properly take advantage of the cycle she has before she can even think on getting a second one, which means that she has to polish the black dragon overlord to perfection. no?v(el)b\\jnn

    of course, the effect will be lessened depending on the number of participants and how they were interfering with the other, but the point is that the effects couldn''t be ignored.

    that being, aster could have used the golden armor, but that would be missing the whole point of this.

    ''those two are really something else'', thought aster, if he tried to "cheat" in this trial, they would have been disqualified immediately, the true nature of this trial was pure and stubborn, endurance.

    "don''t worry, vivian has fulfilled her role perfectly, now it''s my turn so just relax, we''ll be at the peak in a moment", said aster to which vivian nodded.

    "mm", she accommodated closer to aster so that she wouldn''t fall in case aster had to maneuver through the tricky parts of the mountain, of course she knew aster wouldn''t leave her fall, but she wanted to help him even if it was just a bit.

    she trusted that if he was doing something like this, it was for a good reason, since she knows that aster doesn''t chain them by trying to make them depend on him, since that isn''t love but egoism.

    he instead he is the force that impulse and motivates them to improve, while being there for when they really need him, of course a bit of spoiling here and there doesn''t harm anyone.

    so, vivian just rested her head against aster''s body and enjoyed this moment of "need".

    ''i wonder, why do i feel so at ease with him around, i originally thought that it was because he wasn''t affected by my poison, but even now after finding out that he isn''t completely immune to it, i don''t feel any kind of worry, just calmness... i guess that invincible or not, aster is aster~'', she thought as she closed her eyes.

    before vivian noticed and more importantly, before she even had enough of this blissful peace that flooded her heart, they reached the peak of the mountain.

    she opened her eyes just to see aster sweating quite a bit, as a proof that the formations were no joke.

    even if the poison didn''t make any effect on him, the fatigue and increase gravity did make their part.

    ''those godmothers of mine, share the barbarian way to train that mom used back in the day for sure'', thought aster as he left vivian down, to then sit down on the ground.

    vivian''s eyes sparkled, she looked into the improvised bag and then took out a fruit and a vial with water, but before aster could take them from her hands, she shook her head.

    "no, aster fulfilled his role as a leader perfectly, now it''s time for me to help him", she said as she sat down and then patted her lap a couple of times, leaving aster speechless for a moment.

    the mix of expectancy and shyness that appeared on her face was rather cute, apparently this wasn''t "taught" to her by alice or aria, but she took the initiative to do so, so how could aster refuse.

    he laid down on the rocky floor while using vivian''s lap as his pillow, as she personally fed him the fruit, like he has done for her previously, she even gave placed the vial on his lips so he could drink the water without any effort.

    "i don''t know how much have those two tell you but... this goes way beyond the line of friends you know", said aster, he did enjoy the closeness that vivian had with him as a friend, he could understand the weight she put on it, because he was the same, which is why he didn''t want to take advantage of vivian''s lack of experience.

    "...", vivian remained silent for a moment as she looked for the answer to what aster said, ultimately, she just smiled as she looked downwards, straight to aster''s eyes as she said.

    "it''s fine because it''s aster~".

    aster softly laughed and then nodded in response, she is still too new the whole expressing emotions thing, but there is no need to rush, it''s not like she doesn''t know about the matters between men and women, due to the unfortunate situation with joseph.

    "you know, i always thought that your pale hair and eyes looked really pretty, not because of their color because they don''t seem to have been stained by this world''s filth, but there is no need to only wear white all the time right", said aster as he looked into the mind space to then take out a flat large gift box.

    the trial had ended the moment they reached the top of the mountain, and to everyone''s surprise, the sight from here was rather amazing, flying past the height of the trees was forbidden, meaning that they were the first ones in a really long to witness the sight of the plain and the forest from above.

    it was truly worth of including the word "wonderland" in its name, the say that the most colorful pretty things tend to be poisonous doesn''t exist for no reason after all.

    but right now, vivian''s smiling face was more captivating than that, she leaned downwards and to aster''s surprise, she hugged him, though the position was rather strange, it was quite a meaningful moment.

    "thanks, aster", she mumbled as she hugged him, making aster inwardly chuckle.

    ''you could have opened the giftbox first, what if it isn''t what you expected... nah i guess this "whiteness" is part of what makes vivian herself'', he thought.

    while those two enjoyed their moment at the top of the mountain, outside the sect was in a turmoil, the top ten of the monthly trial has changed for the first time in quite some time, but that''s not what surprised them, but the words written next to the new names that appeared on the leader''s board.

    [aster---- perfect score/mountain stage]

    [vivian---- perfect score/mountain stage]

    for the first time in the history of the sect, someone cleared the infamous mountain stage in their first time on the trial, what''s more there were two of them!