By doing this, her connection to him would become permanent. Enhancements weren’t permanent, even if they changed the bodies of Champions. Gems were.
Now that he knew how the tethers and binding stones worked, and their relation to mental magic, he understood the process so much better. He also knew how other Bastions had been able to read their Champions’ minds. Had they instinctively grasped mental magic, but kept it secret so that they weren’t accused of heresy? Nathan had only worked out how once he started investigating wards against mental magic.
This process didn’t just attach the gem to Ciana. It bound her mind and essence to the binding stone, using the gem and Nathan’s connection to the binding stone.
What were binding stones? Bastions bent reality with them. Messengers invaded Doumahr using them. Champions became demigods by binding their entire beings to them.
Was Omria herself connected to the binding stones?
Nathan realized his thoughts had drifted. But his realization felt important.
The gems weren’t powered by the Bastion. They were the powered by the binding stone, using the Bastion as a conduit.
Moving on, Nathan focused on Ciana. Her emotions and thoughts continued to circle him. He reached out to them in order to finalize the process, and he felt her.
These thoughts weren’t attacking him or attracted to him. They protected him. Ciana exuded protectiveness and love for him.
Nathan closed his eyes and grimaced as Ciana’s emotions washed over him. But he pushed on.
The process took almost as long as it had to give Fei her second gem. Nathan needed to exclude thoughts that weren’t related to the gem, but that was difficult.
When he finished, he knew two things. Ciana’s gem was far more powerful than most monogems.
And she was rutting.
Nathan filed away the latter thought, as the horsegirl did a great job hiding her lust for him. He only realized because some of her thoughts were a touch too lewd compared to her usual self.
Once the process was finished, he left. Ciana’s mind kept watch over him the entire time.
Ten minutes had passed outside. Nathan let her take a break. The other Champions led her to a seat and gave her a glass of water. They whispered and giggled to each other, and Ciana joined in slowly.
Nathan always found that aspect off-putting. He supposed he was touching the mind of a bunch of women, so it was natural they bonded and gossiped about him.
After a few minutes, Ciana rose. She brushed off the comforting hands of the other Champions with a smile.
“Can we find out what it does?” she asked Nathan brightly, her diamond gleaming with magic.
Nathan had an odd feeling about the gem. He always had a connection to his Champions, but this one felt stronger than normal. Something might go wrong. But he kept his expression neutral.
“I know you’re worried, but I want to know,” Ciana said, nearly bouncing on the balls of her feet.
He blinked. “Why do you think I’m worried?
“Aren’t you always worried?” She shrugged. “It’s just… a feeling.”
Was she like Seraph, who somehow monitored his emotions? But Seraph had years of experience. Ciana had only just been gemmed.
“Given what I put into the diamond, it should be a protective enhancement, rather than an ability. The first ability is more emotion-driven. Like with Fei, you’ll be able to choose your next one,” he explained.
Then he pointed at one of the wolf Champions he had given a strength enhancement to. “Punch Ciana.”
“Huh? You want me to hit her? Um, won’t that really hurt her? Like, I can bend steel normally, but now I can bend lots of steel,” the newly enhanced Champion said.
“Trust me. She’ll be fine,” Nathan said, not feeling as certain as he sounded.
Ciana gave him a look that he ignored.
Nervously, the wolf beastkin walked up to Ciana.
“Go ahead,” Ciana said, patting her shoulder.
The wolfgirl shrugged, then snapped out a punch that created its own wind.
A moment later, she jumped back, howling with pain. Ciana’s diamond glowed. Nathan felt a strange sensation, as if something was tugging at his link to her.
“I think I broke my hand!” the wolfgirl yelped.
Narime stepped in and used her regeneration magic. After a minute of wasted effort, the new human Champion stepped in and used her healing magic instead. It worked a lot better.
“What was that?” Ciana asked, looking at Nathan in surprise.
He grimaced. “Punch me next.”
The wolfgirl looked at him in horror. “No! I’ll hurt you.”
He laughed, then felt bad at the way her ears and tail dropped. Raising his hands, he apologized and explained himself.
“Even with a strength enhancement, any injury you do to me isn’t going to be that serious. I’m a Bastion with a bunch of binding stones. While I can’t fight Astra, I can handle a monogem Champion with an amethyst. You have a way to go before you can really harm me.”
The other Champions nodded along, although the wolfgirl didn’t look much happier. Even so, she still lined up and punched him. Nathan didn’t feel a thing.
Ciana’s gem lit up and that strange sensation appeared. The wolfgirl cursed and jumped away.
“That felt exactly the same as the last punch,” she howled, before walking away to be healed.
“That was…” Ciana trailed off, staring at Nathan.
“A sympathetic gem.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I had a hunch.”
“I don’t know what that is,” she murmured.
“They’re rare enough that nobody teaches anything about them,” he said. “Normally, they don’t occur until duogem or later. A Champion needs a very strong… dependent connection on their Bastion.” His expression darkened. “The downside is that the gem won’t function for other Bastions.”
Ciana didn’t react to that.
“It means your first gem is permanently linked to me.” He sighed.
“I don’t see the problem,” she said, staring at him with her bright blue eyes.
He didn’t press the topic. “It hopefully won’t ever matter. What it means is that we’re sharing strength. When you’re attacked, you borrow my physical strength and endurance. When I’m attacked, the reverse applies.”
Ciana pouted. “I don’t need you to protect me.”
“Not dying helps me stay safe,” he said drily. He reached out and ruffled her hair. “It’s a very powerful monogem enhancement. I just don’t like the implication behind it.”
Despite her look, he didn’t elaborate. The expressions on Narime’s and Sen’s faces said enough. Narime was old enough to know about sympathetic gems, and Ifrit must have explained them to Sen.
Nathan had fucked up. At some point, he’d somehow made Ciana mentally and emotionally dependent on him. Given how little he had interacted with her, he struggled to see how. Wasn’t that the whole point of keeping her at arm’s length and keeping her out of the war? To protect her?
Now that they had finished with Ciana’s ceremony, Astra moved into the center of the courtyard. She tilted her head and stared at him.
Time for the main event.
Chapter 27
“Me?” Astra asked.
“In about an hour,” Nathan said drily. “Do you have any idea how painful it is to reactivate your gems?”
“Yes.”
Oh, right. Of course she did. How many times had Astra lost her Bastion in the past?
“Need help?” She pointed at the crate that Sen began to carry over. “The trigem one is complicated.”
Nathan rolled his eyes as Sen began to pull out the catalysts. Astra had taught him this ritual. She was right that it was far more complicated, and he had needed to use it on Jafeila during the disaster that befell Trafaumh.
“You’ve already done enough,” he said.
She blinked at him.
As he h
ad said, drawing the ritual took thirty minutes. The Champions watched with wide eyes as he and Sen drew three circles with connecting lines. Catalysts needed to be crushed and mixed in at different points. Piles needed to be built up in specific locations. Nathan cast several spells and wards during the process, in order to prevent anything from going wrong.
The last thing he needed was a servant running out and tripping. He had awful memories of losing expensive catalysts in his youth due to Vala dropping a plate of food.
Once down, he shooed Sen away. Nathan then stepped over the lines carefully. Once next to Astra, he reached out and pressed his palm against her gems.
Then he pumped every ounce of binding stone magic he had into them and the ritual circle.
The entire courtyard burst with brilliant light. The Champions covered their eyes, save for Astra, who didn’t move.
Slowly, Nathan felt the magic connect with Astra’s gems. Once they lit up, he immediately dove into her mind.
A broken tether hovered outside her mind. This once belonged to her old Bastion. Nathan saw dozens of others in the distance and gulped. He recognized this place.
Astra’s mind was a graveyard.
Something beckoned him from within her mind and he drifted toward it. Astra’s defenses brushed against him, but nothing more.
He suspected this would be the point he died, if she didn’t accept him. Astra’s mind felt tranquil and he felt nothing out of place. When he reached her core, he saw the many tethers hanging off it.
In his original world, he had left the tethers attached. As if that showed respect. This time, he removed them all. He didn’t know why. It just felt right to him.
One of those tethers couldn’t be severed. Nathan didn’t try a second time. His memory told him that this one hadn’t been there when he came here last time.
The magic he had pumped into the gems was fading. One of them remained active, however.
He needed to form a connection to her mind and reactivate her enhancement and gems before the magic ran out. Otherwise, the connection wouldn’t take.
Forming the connection didn’t take as long as he thought it would. When he left her mind, there was plenty of magic left.
Astra clapped. “Well done.”
“We’ll need to talk later about what I saw,” he said with a frown.
That other tether he saw made him wonder.
The morning had been busy, so he sent everyone on their way. For the rest of the day, he helped Sen with her spellblade training. Her main issue was maintaining multiple spells at once, but she was getting there.
For once, he actually had an empty bed. Fei had the night to herself but hadn’t returned from today’s mission. Some beastkin bandits had started raiding the county, and were supposedly based in the enclave, so she had gone there to handle them.
That meant he worked late into the night, practicing his ascended magic. When she still hadn’t returned, he took a shower. He didn’t bother dressing in full afterward, as he planned to sleep. Tomorrow was another day of planning and preparation.
Hushed voices greeted him when he returned to his bedroom. They sounded familiar.
Two very scantily clad beastkin women sat on his bed. One of them held onto the other, preventing her from escaping.
“Fei, what are you doing to Ciana?” Nathan asked, aware of what their nearly naked bodies were doing to his crotch.
“She needs your help,” Fei said, giving him a determined look. Her hands held Ciana by the waist.
Ciana squirmed in Fei’s grasp. She wore a simple cream nightgown with frills. It barely covered the top of her thighs and was sleeveless.
By contrast, Fei wore her usual nightwear: matching black lacy panties and bra. Nathan had seen her in them so many times now that he shouldn’t react to her, but that wasn’t how physical attraction worked.
“I’m fine,” Ciana said.
“You’re not. I’m not,” Fei insisted. “I’ve seen you sneaking pills. Let Nathan help you. He helps me.”
“Wait, Ciana—you’re already taking the medication?” Nathan asked. He walked over to her and held a hand against her forehead.
She burned up, but given the way her eyes glazed over and the sweet scent that tickled his nose, he doubted that had anything to do with being unwell.
“I… I’m handling it,” she mumbled.
He frowned. “How long?”
“Since we returned from the Spires.”
Sighing, Nathan pulled Fei off Ciana. Before she ran away, Nathan slipped between them and held both by their waists. Ciana froze, while Fei leaned into him with a moan.
Within seconds, Fei had Nathan’s cock out. His member slid free of his pants and hardened to its full length with a few strong pumps of her hand. The catgirl giggled when she saw Ciana’s fingers slip beneath her nightgown.
“This can be yours,” Fei whispered. “You’re rutting. It’s natural for us to be tamed. Let Nathan make you feel good.”
Ciana swallowed, her eyes wide and staring at the rock hard prick in front of her. Then she shook her head.
“I want you, Nathan,” she said, looking up at him. “But… can it be normal? I don’t want my first time with you to be like this.” Her eyes watered.
Damn. That face was unfair. Her puppy dog eyes destroyed his defenses.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” he said. “Everything is your choice.”
She sighed in relief. Fei pouted, although her hands didn’t stop pumping him.
“But I will say that you should think carefully about how to manage your rutting. If you have it under control, then you don’t need sex to decrease your libido,” he explained. “Especially in your first year, the rutting can be chaotic. Next year, I’ll only need to take care of you for a month at most.”
“A month?” Ciana squealed.
“It’s not that bad, actually. In any case, if you really think you’re fine, you can go.” He brushed his hands through her hair and tickled her ear.
He felt the shudder that ran through her body at his touch. The fact she gasped, stuck her tongue out, and filled his nose with her arousal only made it easier.
“But otherwise, you might want to join Fei,” he said.
“Oh, am I teaching her how to suck cock?” Fei asked with a grin.
“Aren’t you the jealous one?” Nathan asked.
“But Ciana’s so cute and cuddly,” Fei protested. She crawled around behind Nathan and wrapped her arms around the horsegirl. “How can I not want to be pressed against her, hear her moan and squeal, and feel your long, hard dick move through her body?”
The catgirl’s green eyes gleamed with mischief. She knew exactly what her words were doing to Ciana, and to Nathan.
“Fei, stop messing with Ciana. I’ll gag you if you’re a bad kitty,” he warned.
Fei blinked. “That doesn’t sound that bad.”
“Bad kitty.” He bopped her on the head lightly and she giggled.
Despite that, he quickly found himself with two beastkin kneeling in front of him. Ciana’s hot breath blew over his shaft. She nearly went cross-eyed staring at it.
“How does this fit down my throat?” she mumbled.
“Don’t go that deep for your first time,” Fei advised. “Taste the tip. Savor it. We can alternate, and I’ll let you have the first meal.”
“Meal?”
“Fei, don’t teach her your perverted ways,” Nathan said.
“Aww.”
Ciana’s blue eyes looked up at him uncertainly. Then she smiled. Both hers and Fei’s tails swished back and forth behind their curvy asses. From this position, Nathan saw right down the horsegirl’s top. She wasn’t wearing any underwear and her hardened nipples pressed against the thin fabric.
Next to her, Fei’s beautiful, curvaceous body was on full show as always. Her fingers dug into her panties with lewd, wet noises while she waited for her turn. The black color of her underwear hid the juices soaking t
hem and pouring down her legs.
Nathan ran his hand through Ciana’s platinum-blonde hair before tickling one of her ears. She moaned softly.
Then she leaned forward and closed her mouth over his tip. She watched him closely. He kept a hand close to her horn, just in case it got too close to him for comfort.
“Use your tongue,” Fei advised. “He likes that.”
“I think she can work it out,” Nathan said. “Make yourself useful.”
She rolled her eyes, before ducking in and taking both of his balls in her mouth. He groaned as he came under assault from both angles.
Ciana bobbed back and forth gently, her tongue running circles around his tip. She licked, sucked, and lapped at him. Her movements were slow, but having his loyal Champion clamped on his cock was arousing enough.
Below her, Fei fingered herself while suckling on his balls. She gasped and moaned. The sounds rumbling into his crotch, increasing his pleasure.
After a few minutes, Fei gently pushed Ciana off. Then she took Nathan’s cock all the way down her throat. Her eyes curved in pleasure as she pressed her lips against his body.
She tried to say something, but the fat dick in her throat made it unintelligible.
“Wow,” Ciana said with wide eyes. “Her throat is bulging. Am I going to do that?”
Fei pulled herself off. “If you want to. Maybe not tonight.”
Despite that, Ciana still tried. She bobbed back and forth along his length furiously. Her attempts to take him all the way failed, as his tip filled her little throat and she froze each time.
The fingers of each beastkin pried into each other, and they moaned sweeter and sweeter with each passing second. They covered the floor with their juices and ran their tongues and mouths along his cock.
Nathan felt his climax approaching. Fei spotted it, and pushed Ciana against him. The catgirl grinned as he groaned and threaded his fingers through Ciana’s hair.
He came. Searing ropes of his seed flooded Ciana’s mouth. Her eyes widened. But Fei was behind her, her huge tits pressed against Ciana’s back and her fingers pushing the horsegirl to orgasm.
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