"Ahh," Freya sighed pleasantly, as she dipped deeper down into the water of the lake, until only her neck remained above the surface, her long pink hair splayed out behind her atop the water, "it's a shame we had to stop, even I didn't expect you to be so…" her blue eyes lock with mine, sparkling, "insatiable, hmm?"
I'm up to my nose in the lake water right now.
The impossibly clear, impossibly cool lake water.
Typically, when you go to a sauna like this, you're supposed to alternate between the sauna itself and a cool water source, like a lake or bath, every five to fifteen minutes or so.
We were in the sauna there for hours.
It was morning; now it's well into the afternoon.
Thankfully, as gods, we aren't liable to pruning, but still…
I know I just mentioned it, but it bears repeating.
The lake water is impossibly clear. I know that just means it's clean, likely owing to magic in some way, but right now I'm focused on the fact that I could still see Freya's body, completely.
Her completely naked body, as if that's all that different from the 'swimsuit' she was 'wearing' earlier.
Despite the cool water all around me, the inside of me was still burning up, and my head, although much clearer now, was still clouded by a thick haze.
Right. I'll be frank. I'm still incredibly down bad, and if I weren't in the process of holding myself back with every ounce of willpower I possess, I'd be fucking her silly still right now.
Freya, of course, doesn't help matters much herself.
She giggles, a gentle airy thing, before swimming closer.
I still completely, as she softly pressed herself back up against me, her hands on my shoulders, her chest against my collar, I could practically use her tits like a pillow with the way we were floating in the water right now.
"There there~," she utters down at me with a sweet smile, as her hand slides up to my face, her thumb brushing against my cheek, "I didn't mean to drive you so wild, you know? Nor leave you so pent up, but, in case you weren't aware, I invited your club out here as well…" she trails off, her smile turning slightly abashed, implications obvious.
Beneath the water, I clench my hands into fists, over and over, working the primal tensions coiling beneath my skin.
The tension that makes me want to grab her hips, and finish pulling her right up against me, and rut into her crazy.
After all, she's not the only one naked in her. The only reason Nori Junior hasn't gone full mast quite yet is I'm holding him back.
I take a second to close my eyes and breathe through my nose.
Through the haze, a thought occurs.
What the hell is wrong with me!?
If I were paranoid, I'd almost assume I'm being spelled, my libido or desires messed with by the Goddess pressing against me right this second.
But no. I could tell. I'd be able to feel it if she was using her aura or powers on me.
There's nothing there. I'm under no other power right now. This is all me.
Looking back, I've always been like this, haven't I?
Though I mostly manage to hold it back. It leaked out most when I was with Yasaka, in the hot spring…
Yeah, what kind of question is that? It's not what's wrong with me; I've always been like this, deep down.
That's part of why I tried so hard to hold onto my self-control. Why I made that rule for myself: about not sleeping around, only with those I and the other girls know about and approve of.
I made the choice to let go this time. To stop holding back, completely.
Hah. Fuck me. I really am an animal, huh?
I hope the others aren't too mad.
Although, I have a sneaking suspicion about Rose. She definitely played a part in setting this up, somehow.
As I breathe out through my nose, my fists relax, and with a small kick, I raise my head a bit from the water, letting my mouth free to speak.
"Don't worry about it." Were the first words to leave my mouth, followed by a sigh. "I let myself go there. Of course it was going to come to an end eventually." I shrugged, looking off across the lake, away from her.
Really, she's too nice, trying to accommodate all my desires like that. Even I'm not entirely sure when it'd end, when I'd run out of steam.
With a soft push, she guides my gaze back to her face, her smile having returned. "Lord Kusanagi-"
I grunt to halt her for a second, my arms coming up and wrapping around her waist. Not to grab onto anything, simply to hold her. She gave a pleased hum as I spoke up.
"Noriaki. Or Nori, please." I interjected, "I don't think there is a single thing I haven't done to you yet. We're so well beyond formality at this point, it isn't even funny."
Seriously. Hours. I've done everything to this Goddess.
Well, everything that I actually enjoy, that is. I don't have extreme tastes or anything; some might call that boring or plain, but I'd rather be that than decide I need to spice things up by turning into a goose.
She gave me a light, amused chuckle, nodding in agreement before following up with, "Just Freya with you as well then, yes?" I nod back in turn, and she continues, "Right then, Noriaki~," she almost lovingly drawls out, damn near making my breath hitch, "please don't start beating yourself up over this. Rose warned me of your stamina, and we were the ones to jump you, in the end."
I knew it!
I huffed at that, "I still choose to let myself go wild, Freya."
"Hmm~!" She hummed, leaning forward just a touch, so her face was almost right against mine, as she asked a very simple question: "Who wouldn't?"
You know what?
"Fair enough," I grumbled out, eyeing her lips and getting ideas.
She giggled as she pulled back. "Trust me, Noriaki, you'd have driven yourself more wild otherwise." She traces a finger along my chest with her other hand, "I have a sense for this kind of thing, and can manipulate it too, but I wouldn't dare touch such a thing without your permission, and besides…" she leans in closer, her soft body squishing against mine, her breath hot against my cheek, "Isn't working it off far better~?"
My hands twitch, and my entire body shudders as I grumble back, "Goddess of teasing, more like~..." I trail off, voice dipping dangerously low for a second.
Freya pulls back with a small, cute pout. "I'm serious as well, you know. Not just that, but other things. We had a plan, Rose and I," she sighs, "although it seems Rose couldn't really handle the heat from the sauna, and the passion on top of that…" she trails off, a bit worried.
Rose did come back a few times after originally leaving, now that I think about it.
The poor girl really couldn't handle the heat, and she almost straight up passed out on us when she was sandwiched in between us.
I had to send her home after that; she looked genuinely unwell at that point.
She should be fine now, though, and Freya is certainly giving me ample motivation to pick up where I left off with Rose back at the inn.
"Plan?" I ask, eyebrow raised with curiosity, only for Freya to shake her head, drawing her finger back to her lips.
"A lady doesn't talk about such things~!" She smiles sweetly, but it's oddly thin, and there's a tension in it I can't quite place. "Let's just say, while partly for you, it started as your Rose's idea…I had my own reasons for going about it. Is that enough?"
Of course it started as Rose's idea. I guess, there, I'll just have to ask her when I'm done with her.
I let out a sigh. "For now, Freya, yeah, that's enough."
Freya seemed satisfied by that, her natural, beautifully sweet smile returning as she leaned back in, this time pressing her head against my shoulder, and just lying against me.
I leaned back a bit, my arms coming up just a bit, wrapping around her back instead of her waist, and I held her as we floated in the water.
For a moment, we drifted just like that.
And for that moment, it was peaceful. I wasn't animalistically horny; my mind was quiet, for once.
My gaze arced upward, toward the 'sun' that had passed its halfway point in the sky and was well on its way to dipping halfway further down.
I feel like I'm forgetting something, though.
My eyes started to close.
An image of a platinum-blonde-haired woman in a long white cloak carrying a sword flashed through my head.
The very image I tore from Plain Jane's mind.
Oh. Right.
"You know," I grumble, causing Freya to shift a bit and look up at me with a raised eyebrow, "I'd hate to cap this off by talking about business, but…" I trail off, as Freya's look at me shifts into a full-on pout.
An incredibly adorable pout that straight up made my heart ache.
I chuckle, "I know, I know, but it was part of my plan for coming here, you."
After a moment, Freya responded with a soft huff, "Ours was better…"
Now that?
"I couldn't agree more." I concurred easily.
She sighed, but we both knew that at this point, there was no more stalling, so she sat up a bit more and asked, "Well then, what's this business you wished to talk about?"
I let out a breath. "Before I gave you that girl the other night, I managed to pull quite a bit from her head, using my powers."
Freya hummed, "Truly? She's woken up, and though I separated the girl from her Sacred Gear, she's refused to say anything and has been outright resisting my Valkyrie's magical manipulations."
Somehow, I'm not even surprised.
"Yep." I continue, "I've learned all about her acquaintances, since she never really joined them. The Hero Faction, and their other leader. Charlemagne, and her Another Longinus."
At that, Freya's gaze sharpened.
For a moment, she said nothing before slowly nodding.
"Go on then, please. Explain everything you learned." Although her voice still sounded like honey, there was an edge to it, not directed at me, but an edge regardless now.
So, I did.
Starting with Charlemagne and her Another Longinus. Her ordering Plain Jane to stay away from the Norse world, but her going anyway.
I told her of the other Hero Faction members. The one Plain Jane received her prophecy from and the ones the girls ran into.
I tell her of the Ancient Sacred Gears, how many of them are incomplete, and how this group of Hero Faction seems to be some kind of gathering of them.
At last, I inform her of the trek me and the girls made to the area where the evil dragon's aura was found, and tell her of the holy power myself and Zekka found, just down from the aura's location, by the river.
And what exactly that could mean.
It was odd, watching Freya's face as I spoke.
She never spoke back. Didn't ask any questions, not yet at least, and yet…
She didn't become more stoic; her face didn't grow hard. The softness in her cheeks and eyes remained, yet as her smile dropped, replaced by a steadily neutral frown, I could feel a shift regardless.
I could sense it, too. Her aura, if I reached out and felt it, I would compare it almost to flowers in a sense, swaying gently in a nonexistent wind, constantly pleasant.
Now, I could feel where that wind was coming from. A storm, not literally, of course, but it felt like that. A rising storm, not of lightning and rain, but of blade and battle. It had a growing edge to it that was unmistakable.
Goddess of Love and War, huh?
When I was finished, she had but one question.
"Are you sure about all of this, Noriaki?"
I nodded. "Very sure, including my speculation. Something is coming here, to your town. I'm not sure of their ultimate goal, but I'm confident I'm on the right path."
To my surprise, Freya spoke up, "I have an idea of what they could want."
I blinked at that. "Just like that?" I asked back.
She nodded gravely. "I wasn't sure, but hearing what you said about Ancient Sacred Gears gave me an idea." She leaned in closer. "Tell me, Noriaki, you said it seems to track that these types of gears seem to be 'incomplete' in some form or another, correct?"
"From everything I've heard and seen?" I nod along. "Yeah, seems so."
"Do you think then," Freya follows up, "that it'd be safe to logically conclude that these gears' incompleteness could lead to it impacting their bearers in some way?"
Huh.
"You know, I never really thought about that." I muse aloud, "As far as I'm aware, all the current users of Ancient Sacred Gears don't experience anything odd normally; they just can't use their gears to their greatest extent."
"Do you think it could?" She asks again with particular emphasis.
"Well, I'm no Sacred Gear expert," I state, not entirely sure, "but yeah, I guess the potential is there. It'd probably have to be a very specific gear, though. Maybe something that grants a specific power, rather than having a weapon or object as a base?"
That's what I guess anyway. If the gear is incomplete, and you don't have an object of some sort to channel it, and it goes directly through your body, it'd line up that something could go wrong there, in my opinion.
Slowly, Freya seems to nod, as if accepting that answer. "If they went after your Zekka for her Ancient Sacred Gear, then…" I could almost see the gears as they visibly turned behind her eyes. "I could see them coming here for someone, too."
My eyebrow raised. "You know someone who might possess an Ancient Sacred Gear here?"
Her next nod was grave. "The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. But I-" she let out a shaky breath, "I am unsure where exactly to go from here. Logically, I should pull her away, place her someplace safe, or use her as bait to lure these fools in…and yet."
Her, huh?
Let me take a wild guess.
"The reason we came here," I utter slowly, "why Schwe came here, yeah? She has an Ancient Sacred Gear? Regin, I think she called her?"
Freya sighed, "Yes. That girl has a rather unique constitution, one that requires her to consume extreme amounts of salt to even continue moving."
…Salt.
"Seriously?" Was the only thing I could even think to say to that.
Freya chuckles darkly at that. "I tried everything to figure out what was wrong with her. I even allowed Odin to take a look, but he…" Her frown twists into something far uglier for just a second. "He refused to say anything. I knew he knew something. He saw something with that eye of his. I could see it on his face."
Somehow, I'm not even slightly surprised.
I am shocked at how bitter Freya sounds, though. I didn't think she could sound like that.
"As time went on," Freya continued, her voice holding back barely restrained fury, "Regin's condition got worse, her body getting weaker, day by day, bit by bit. If this keeps up, she'll…" Freya trailed off, an almost haunted look in her eye as she gazed off.
This Goddess, huh?
It's my turn now to raise a hand and caress her cheek, gently. The act caused Freya to perk up, her gaze snapping back down to me in surprise.
I smile warmly up at her. "You care a whole awful lot, huh? About Regin, about Schwe. About everyone here, yeah?"
Freya's face flushes slightly. "I…yes, of course I do. Why wouldn't I?"
I shake my head at that. "I know goddesses that are kind. I know goddesses that care, in their own way. But…you just care. That's it. You don't really need a reason, and that, by itself, is beautiful."
Freya's face burns from her cheeks to her ears as her eyes widen, and I chuckle heartily.
"So." I continue, as Freya continues staring at me, "You think Regin has an Ancient Sacred Gear, right? If that's the case, then we'll need to prepare for them to come after her, likely for whatever power her gear has."
Seriously, though, salt? I don't recall any sort of gear related to salt, anywhere.
"You don't want to pull Regin away, because her friendship with Schwe is still healing, right?" Freya nods slowly at that. "Right. We don't have to. I'll stick around the girls, keep an eye on them at all times, especially Regin. We'll be ready. And when they come? I won't let them take her."
It'd be easier that way. I'm confident I'm quick enough to act before they can take her, or do anything to her, and I want them off their guard about my ambush as much as possible, so they'll leave themselves wide open.
To keep that advantage, the best way to go about this is to simply let things go as they currently are.
Freya blinks at that, then gives a soft chuckle before responding, "All of that talk about my caring being special, yet here you are, hmm?"
"Hey now," I utter back, "Regin is a friend of one of my girls, and you care for her an awful lot too. That's enough for me. Otherwise, I'm usually far more selfish and self-serving."
"Is that so~?" Freya hums, gaze half-lidded, and smiles teasingly sweet.
"Mhmm~..." My hum is closer to a growl, as my hand travels down her back, sliding slickly to her waist, a shudder following down her spine, where-
"DAMN!"
We both freeze up as a particularly bratty voice calls out.
"SENSEI HAS GAME!"
Slowly, like a robot, my head turns, and there, standing at the shoreline, is the shrimp.
Avi, seeing me look at her, starts waving happily, standing along with the rest of the girls who all seem to be looking on in various states.
Lile scratches her chin as she looks at us, before looking over at Zekka for whatever reason, pulling out a small notebook, and beginning to write something down.
Zekka, who doesn't notice any of that, because she's too busy trying her hardest not to look. I think she's screaming silently, considering the way her mouth is open.
Schwe looked on in sheer and utter contempt, while another, smaller silver-haired girl stood next to her, sharing a similar look. Could that be Regin?
Ah. They would be pretty protective of Freya, wouldn't they?
I slowly turn my gaze back to Freya, who simply looks back at me and chuckles, without an ounce of shame or embarrassment on her face.
"I did warn you." She chides sweetly.
"That you did." I give her.
I then proceed to finish moving my hand and grab a big handful of that ass, causing her to gasp in shock and flush completely.
Before she can say anything, I quickly mutter into her ear.
"Next time. I'm not going to rut into you like an animal," I warn her right back, perhaps revealing a little bit too much in the way she shudders against me. "I'm going to make sweet, sweet love to you, understand? Exactly what a Goddess such as you deserves~..." I punctuate that with a particularly rough grope of her behind, causing Freya to let out a low, sultry breath.
"I-I…" she stumbles, face flaring red, "I…s-see."
You know I said that to tease. I swear, if this is one of those cases where she's never had love made to her that way, I'll throw myself into space.
"No, no, NO!" I hear a girl screech before a flash of light radiates from the shoreline.
["W-Wait! Zekka! The other wa-"]
Sploosh. A second voice came and went just as quickly as something hit the water on the opposite side of us.
Wait, that pleading…
Heh. I think Zekka just pitched her sword straight into the water.
Ah, well. We'll fish him out later.
Now, since Regin is here, I wonder if I could convince Freya to stick around here with me a little while longer…