Another week passed, and the higher-ups seemed to have decided that the various theaters of war had rested long enough.
The march would resume after three days of preparation.
Meanwhile, another change took place within Ashen's army.
Jenna had joined Alice in the command center, relieving her of a considerable portion of her workload, primarily tracking the ever-shifting battlefield and relaying those developments to her.
The two intellectual women seemed to have clicked almost instantly. Before long, they operated with near-perfect synchronicity.
Alice still remained the one drafting strategies and issuing commands, but Jenna's assistance freed enough of her attention that she could finally take to the battleground herself, relying on nothing more than an earpiece to relay orders and receive updates as the situation evolved.
The manner in which she chose to fight, however, raised more than a few eyebrows.
Alice knew exactly what the optimal fighting style for someone with her repertoire of abilities should be... and the most obvious weapon at her disposal was her thralls.
Or rather, her thrall.
So, like the exceptionally competent Lust Pathwalker she was, she stationed herself right beside her mate.
Or, more accurately...
Above him.
Unable to match his speed on foot, she simply abandoned the idea of running altogether. With astonishing balance and flexibility, she climbed onto his shoulder and stood there as though it were the most natural place in the world.
One would expect her to be thrown off the moment he burst into motion.
Instead, she remained perfectly steady.
Alice knew exactly how Ashen would move. More often than not, she was the one dictating those movements through her superior perception, layered atop his own. Combined with a spell that negated the rushing wind and maintained her balance, she stood upon his shoulder as comfortably as though she were standing on solid ground.
Naturally, there was a reason for choosing such a peculiar perch.
From there, she could borrow Ashen's perception and rain spells upon the terrain with frightening precision, turning every Narkal within range into little more than a target.
Alice would crouch upon his shoulder, brandishing her mana pen as she inscribed spell formulas across empty space while he carried her through the swarms. Then, the moment he came to a halt, those glowing words would bloom into devastating magic, transforming the pair into a merciless engine of slaughter.
Whenever they encountered a particularly dense swarm, she would leap from his shoulder, summon her spear alongside countless killing constructs, and join him in culling the beasts firsthand.
While she swept away the lesser Narkals surrounding them, Ashen was left free to devote his full attention to the larger, more dangerous monsters.
Throughout it all, Alice never stopped speaking.
One moment, she was issuing commands through her earpiece. The next, she was directing Ashen toward their next objective. Then she was weaving spells, adjusting formations, or coordinating entire sections of the map.
And just like that, the spectacle of two raging hurricanes dancing across the battlefield was born.
Following Alice's plans from the very center of that storm, Ashen could only marvel at her ability to juggle so many responsibilities at once. She seamlessly performed the work that would ordinarily require several different people, never making so much as a single mistake.
What astonished him even more was that she still found the opportunity to unfurl her nine tails and "test" the potency of her newly evolved mana amidst the chaos.
'If she had enough room to experiment during a battle of this scale…'
Then this was undoubtedly nowhere near the limit of what she could do.
***
"We'll finally continue advancing, huh...? It's about time, honestly." Lapis stretched her sore hands as she spoke, lounging lazily between her brother and big sister Alice.
"True. By then, it'll be your turn to shine, Sera." Ashen nodded before directing the last remark toward Seraphine, who sat on his other side.
It was currently night. They had just exterminated more than a million Narkals during the latest wave, meaning the monsters would remain relatively quiet for the next few hours.
That was why they had gathered in their little hideout to unwind with some idle conversation.
"I can't wait to show them~" The blonde clenched a determined fist before casting Ashen a sidelong glance. "Though I'd rather pass on being Ally's mount, if possible."
Alice smirked.
"Do not worry. I'll only accept Ashen as my mount, regardless."
"Oh?" Seraphine chuckled. "Now I'm positively curious about what that'd feel like. Maybe I should borrow him for a spin as well?"
"I'd recommend it."
"..."
Ashen could only respond with a wry smile as the women continued bantering at his expense.
I love you.
"Hm?"
Ashen tilted his head.
"Did any of you say something?"
Everyone shook their heads.
"Weird... I could've sworn I heard someone mumble something about loving me."
Lucia smiled at him gently.
"You'll be getting plenty of love tonight, dear. No need to start hallucinating about it."
"Okay, okay… my bad." His lips twitched.
.
.
"Now that I think about it, Commander..." Jenna suddenly spoke from Alice's other side. "From what I've observed, your abilities seem better suited for an entirely different approach… one that would allow them to reach their full potential."
Ashen would have been grateful for the change in subject...
...had it not been for the direction she chose instead.
Meanwhile, Alice raised an eyebrow.
She had never disclosed the details of her abilities to Jenna, yet the woman had apparently deduced the majority of their functions through observation alone.
Otherwise, she could not have reached such a conclusion.
'Although... she only seems to understand the logical side of it. And Lust was never about logic…'
She pondered for a brief moment before deciding how to respond.
"Ordinarily, that would indeed be the case," she began evenly. "Bound Siren was the epithet of my Seventh Step. It existed to teach me seduction. After that, as a Clockwork Muse, my Sixth Step taught me to observe my target as thoroughly as possible... perhaps even to the point of obsession."
She glanced toward Jenna, who gave a small nod to indicate she was following.
"My Fifth Step, Mistress of Flesh Automata, then encouraged me to enthrall as many suitable candidates as I could from among the prey I had already observed."
She paused briefly before continuing.
"As for my current Step, Living Vessel of Desire, it revolves around selecting the most capable among those thralls and using him to elevate myself until I become worthy of standing as their queen. Along the way, I would also forge him into my second-in-command... and my general."
She folded her hands neatly in her lap.
"If I followed that progression faithfully, I would most likely command a small army of exceptional men, all answering to my every whim. At their head would stand myself... and my most prized thrall."
Her golden eyes met Jenna's.
"But I chose not to walk that path."
She smiled faintly.
"Do you know why?"
"Because you're Mr. Ashen's woman?" Jenna answered after a brief moment, nodding to herself as though the conclusion were self-evident.
Even so...
Internally, she couldn't help but wince at the inefficiency of such a choice.
From her perspective, Alice was deliberately crippling the potential of her own Path. If she were ever to fall in battle because of that decision, Mr. Ashen would suffer regardless.
In Jenna's eyes...
It was an irrational risk.
"That's rather vague, and I know someone who thinks purely in terms of logic won't find it convincing." Alice offered Jenna a faint smile. "So let me give you an example."
"If you possessed a single tool… one capable of defeating a hundred foes today, yet with the potential to one day defeat millions..." She asked simply, "Would you trade it for a thousand lesser tools that might not even accomplish a tenth as much?"
"I see." Jenna nodded thoughtfully. "If the tool you're referring to is Mr. Ashen, then yes. He is already worth more than the rest of his army combined."
She hesitated for a moment before adding quietly,
"But… he isn't the only one capable of becoming that valuable."
Ashen's lips twitched.
'Braun, my dear friend… if this weren't your daughter, I'd have long since given her a resounding smack…'
"Lust doesn't work that way, dear." Alice's voice remained as gentle as ever. "At least, not for me. To me, Lust is merely one facet of love."
"And I love him."
Her words carried an almost obsessive intensity.
"This love comes with belief, so I believe in his potential."
"With belief comes trust, so I trust that one day, his potential will eclipse all others."
"And because of that, I have invested every part of myself into him."
She rested a hand over her heart.
"There is no room left within it to lust after, love, or even look at another man."
She smiled softly.
"That is why, when the System wished for me to seduce, I seduced him."
"When it wished for me to observe, I watched only him."
"When it wished for me to enthrall, I simply waited for him to bind himself to me."
"And when the time came for me to become a Living Vessel of Desire… he alone became both my forge…"
"..."
"This was never truly a choice, Jenna."
"I belonged to him long before the System ever entered my life."
"And I will only ever belong to him."
She gave a small shrug.
"So yes... in the end, your explanation is perfectly sufficient."
"Because of Mr. Ashen."
"As far as I'm concerned, that is all the explanation I'll ever need."
"...You'll understand once you find someone you truly love, dear."
"Okay..."
"Besides..." Alice suddenly let out an amused laugh. "What you're imagining was impossible from the very beginning."
She pointed smugly at the man sitting beside her.
"He'd kill anyone who approached me with such intentions."
...as though murdering those men would be the most natural thing in the world.
'Oh.'
'The commander is a little touched in the head as well, it seems.'
Still not fully accustomed to Seravelle's customs and laws, Jenna couldn't help arriving at that conclusion.
Then her eyes widened ever so slightly.
She cautiously stole a glance toward Ashen, only to find him already looking back at her with the same gentle smile he always wore.
She immediately lowered her head.
'...I should've kept my mouth shut…'
An involuntary shiver ran down her spine.
'I hope he doesn't kill me now…'
"Oh my God!" Maria, who had been quietly listening from Seraphine's side, suddenly exclaimed. "Miss Alice... your love shines just as brightly as Sera's! How beautiful..."
"That's simply how love is meant to be." Alice shook her head gently. "Love is beautiful by its very nature. It isn't me who made it so."
She smiled faintly.
"People are simply very good at twisting something so sacred into one of the ugliest emotions imaginable."
"True..." Maria nodded melancholically, clasping her hands together in a prayer-like gesture. "I hope my own love remains just as beautiful."
'There it is…'
Meanwhile, Ashen fought to keep his expression unchanged as the ringing inside his head intensified for a brief moment the instant Maria uttered the word love.
"By the way, there's a rumor that a new virus is spreading through the army," Seraphine suddenly said.
Ashen barely heard her.
There was only one reason he had gathered everyone here tonight.
To verify a certain conjecture.
For a while now, he had practically behaved like a paranoid madman, carefully observing every little fluctuation in his intuition.
Only then had he finally managed to narrow down the moments when its warning became the strongest.
"Is that so?" Alice frowned. "What kind of virus? It must have something to do with all the filth these Narkals carry."
"We still don't know." Seraphine shook her head. "The only patients that ever reached the healers... were corpses."
"And there wasn't anything physically wrong with them."
'...Now I finally have my proof.'
Ashen's eyes drifted toward Maria.
'Is it really you…?'
'Or is it this 'lover' you keep speaking about?'
'Perhaps... it's related to your family instead?'
He still found it difficult to believe that someone as weak as Maria could ever threaten any of his lovers.
But...
That didn't necessarily mean she was the danger. She could simply be the one who brought it with her.
"That's... unsettling, even by Narkal standards."
"I know, right?" Seraphine sighed. "Every healer has been wracking their brains trying to figure it out. Even I couldn't find anything wrong with the bodies... aside from the obvious signs of suicide."
"Suicide?" Lapis frowned. "Then why call it a virus?"
"Because of what happens before they die." Seraphine's expression darkened. "The investigations found that every victim began deliriously talking about a grim reaper before taking their own life."
She rubbed her temples.
"So the current theory is that some kind of mental virus is affecting them."
"Are we certain it isn't simply stress?"
"The cases are far too similar for that." She shook her head in frustration.
Despite the bizarre story, Ashen found himself unable to focus on it.
Every one of his thoughts remained fixed on the source of his intuition's relentless warning.
Eventually… he reached a decision.
'Then I'll simply remove the cause.'
His gaze shifted toward Seraphine.
The question was whether it would really be that simple.
He had no idea how attached his innocent Saintess had become to this newfound friend of hers.
'...I suppose I'll find out soon.'
.
.
.
I love you.