As their love making came to an end with Ashley falling asleep in Andrew's embrace, he then proceeded to take her to the shower. It had already turned dark as they had been at it for hours without stopping thanks to their incredible stamina.
He took her clothes before cleaning them with a thought along with his which were drenched in their bodily fluids.
He covered her body with a light blanket as he carried her in a princess like manner through the halls before running into one of his maids. Looking at the duo, she increased her pace to avoid confrontation with Andrew.
Andrew ignored her as he finally made his way into his room. Naturally there were multiple rooms present which some were occupied by the maids but he chose one that had caught his attention as it had a beautiful overlook at the small lake that had manifested at the bottom of the waterfall.
He removed her blanket revealing her well-crafted body, prone and invulnerable to all before taking her to the tub. After the water had warmed up, he then proceeded to gently place her in.
She reacted sensing the difference as her eyes groggily opened up to see Andrew placing her in the tub. Andrew surprisingly cut a bit of his finger and a dark crimson drop landed onto her head.
She was bewildered by this but her jaw was sore after their session thus she opted to remain silent. His cut immediately healed right after the first drop trickled.
He removed his hoodie and placed it on a rest. He shed off his clothes leaving him with only his undergarments.
"You want to do it here in my vulnerable state. Do you have any shame?!" She frowned but Andrew knew that it was her theatrics. "I don't plan on getting my clothes wet." He refuted.
*Splash*
Ashley made a ripple on the surface big enough to make a splash on his face but he stopped it from reaching his face. "You're no fun." She pouted seeing her attack was blocked.
"Well if you plan on actually doing damage to my ego, then you have to put in a lot of work." He reminded her as he looked down at her body which was obscured by the bubbles floating on the water as he brought a sponge and gracefully washed her body.
By now she could move her body but she decided to take advantage of the situation and let Andrew serve her. It didn't take long before he was done, after carefully cleaning every inch of her body and of course teasing her in the process.
Her body would involuntary flinch when he would touch her soft spots which he took great reverie in before finishing her off. She made sure that she would enact her revenge on him.
Bending over, he picked her up as her body was dripping with water to which he filtered some of it off her before taking her to bed. There was a small trail of water that followed him to the bed where a towel had been arranged.
He gracefully put her down as he then proceeded to wipe the water off her. "I have a surprise for you." He said as he materialized a small trinket that he had been keeping hold off.
As soon as she saw it, she paused momentarily before putting it on. Andrew manifested a similar trinket to which he put on his wrist with her name imprinted on it. She pounced onto him as she landed a kiss which were mixed with sobs.
As past memories resurfaced, when they got them and when he passed away shortly after. "Promise me that you'll never leave me. Ever again." She mumbled. "Of course I'll never leave you." He said as the two embraced each other in a hug.
[{Warning, Omniphinx requires you to move to the next world in less than two days.}]
A notification prompted in front of him. He contemplated as he saw this.
[{Andrew: Do I have to do this?}]
[{Omniphinx: Yes, you've stalled for long enough already, and I've been lenient with you allowing Fear to take your place with the establishment of the prime echelon}]
[{Andrew: Can you explain why I have to do it?}]
[{Omniphinx: Let's just say it's for your sake rather than mine}]
'What kind of response is this?' Andrew thought as he knew that with him being here, he was on borrowed time.
"Hedonism I want you to meet up with her." He issued a command. "I'm on it, but this will cost you extra for the extraction." Hedonism added. "You two have broken me enough, there's nothing left to break." There was a pause before a response rang out.
"And that's the shame of it, I liked it when you would squeal and cry out in pain and sorrow." A devilish cackle followed before Andrew terminated the conversation. He had to separate with Ashley again but this time, he wouldn't leave her distraught.
It wasn't that he didn't value his promise but he knew that extending his stay here would have dire consequences. Evidence of this was 'her' appearance already. 'Nothing escapes God's eye.' He thought.
"Then retract your promise and make it that I alone will be your only priority, no one else." She demanded. "And what makes you think that you aren't. The rest are merely toys to help pass time. Oh, and we'll start training tomorrow."
She wanted to protest but realizing that she would be more useful to both herself and Andrew if she was stronger, she looked forward to it. She would show off the skills that she had already learnt making him to stop underestimating her.
They broke off and Andrew now went off to the bathroom to take a shower as Ashley took her time to get dressed and it wasn't long before he was done. With numerous clothes present, Ashley had a hard time picking as she was overwhelmed with her options.
Andrew made his selections pretty quickly before reappearing back to Ashley who was now wearing one of his hoodies and shorts which were overshadowed by the hoodie. He ignored that and the two started to watch the news from the television in their room.
The visuals of the events that had transcended at the stadium were played as numerous along with other news such as the rise of emergence of beasts as of late and the introduction of use of actual monetary currency to buy the in game currency heloid coins.
A chart was proceeded to be shown showing the ratios.
[{100 dollars= 10 heloid coins}]
[{1,000 dollars= 100 heloid coins}]
[{10,000 dollars= 1,000 heloid coins}]
[{1,000,000 dollars=100,000 heloid coins}]
[{After transaction, there is a daily cool down}]
[{Any changes can be made to the leader of the Black Ace Guild identified as Dark Rose.}]
Looking at it, without a doubt that these figures would raise an outrage along with the crazy cool down to reuse the transaction feature which would register to players after making it into the middle ring and going to the Black Ace Guild.
And looking at her name, it was clear that she was a player from this world as her name was in white and not red. How she was able to do so was a puzzle most had on their minds but they were certain that she would be making a lot of money.
Most players had yet to even leave the outer ring as leveling up was too demanding and the exp earned was barely sufficient. That and also people had real life responsibilities to cater for but unfortunately, it would seem that the skills earned in game would work against these beasts.
Andrew made sure that the spatial cracks where these beasts would emerge from wouldn't be in populated areas to avoid genocide which was in contrast to Hedonism's idea.
After that, the reporter, a clad make in his thirties proceeded with the highlights which talked about the numerous and strange events undergoing in the country and the world as a general.
Ashley knew that her dad by now according to Andrew should have been taken away for interrogation despite him being clueless of what had happened. "They'll realize that she doesn't know anything and let him go." Andrew said as he was getting ready for bed.
Turning off the lights and the television with a thought, the two immediately fell asleep in each other's embrace.
...
Ashley who had anticipated a dream to distract her mind was shocked when she appeared in a castle suspended in eternal darkness. Its pristineness was uncanny, showing no signs of any life whatsoever but despite this, she couldn't wake up.
Looking around, she could feel a terrible ambience with the darkness which motivated her to go closer to the castle and to her surprise, looking at it, there was someone way at the highest balcony.
"Andrew?!" She wondered in shock. She wondered that whether she had been so infatuated with him to have this dream. Andrew who was casually hanging off the edge looked down at her before disappearing.
*Tap-Tap*
Feeling a tap on her shoulder, she looked behind to see Andrew standing there with a small smile plastered on his face. "I decided to start your training much earlier than I thought." He said as he held his chin in contemplation.
She tried to talk but no words came out of her mouth.
*Snap*
With a snap, the image of the void along with the castle shattered revealing and barren plain with nothing present in it. It seemed to span for an indefinite range with the limit out of the eye's view but Andrew knew that there was an end to it.
A small unidentifiable object hovering way above them seemed to radiate light which covered the entire plain giving it an unrealistic and ominous vibe to it.
"So this is your mental state. For your nature, it's quite peaceful." He commented as they stood in between a seemingly never ending barren green grassy plain. He brought up his fingers as he stretched them out before bringing the tips closer together slowly.
A mild pain assaulted her body but she felt it spread across the plains, feeling that she was connected to it.
The near infinite grassy plains started to collapse on itself as if being pulled to where they were. The plains would rise high up before collapsing on itself, as if it was being folded by an unseen hand and it repeated itself with the place uninhabited revealing nothing but white void.
In a matter of seconds, the process was done and only a small chunk of land was left spanning around a few kilometers radius. The red object hovering in the sky started to slowly descend before coming into full view.
Ashley immediately recognized it. 'His blood?!' She recalled the event as she observed him place it into the ground and a small white and red flower sprung out. It was small and hard to spot from afar looking more like a speck amidst the green background.
But as it grew bigger and bigger, it started to spread its roots all over till it reached the edge but that didn't stop it as it further spread deep into the void. The vibrant green grass faded till nothing was left other than the roots of the flower was present to which smaller flowers began to blossom from.
The main flower had yet to blossom with the void which was pristinely white started to turn slowly clash with a hint of red emanating from the flower. She was baffled as she couldn't understand what was happening as she could feel her soul undergo a transformation.
It wasn't painful, but rather blissfully addictive with her soul resting in the buds on the main flower crawling into a ball. Andrew observed the scene unfold as he speculated that it would be of great importance to her.
The white void which was slowly undergoing a slow transformation would take years as it had yet to fully turn red before dissolving into blackness but he could hasten the process or have his subjects do it but rather than just do that, he wanted her to expand it herself.
And a quick way of increasing this was something that she had been doing this entire time with even get realizing it.
Devouring souls.