A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

During the next few months, nothing all that interesting happened.

Everyone trained, Erik's relationship with the other advanced, he had a number of sexual encounters with each of them, except for Alice of course, and Erik's spatial affinity awakened.

Finally, near the end of the tenth month after they first entered their new home, something major happened.

Five people were standing around a single black dome in the training room. Well, four were standing, and one was sitting on Erik's shoulder.

"Are you sure today is the day?" Emily asked, a little anxious as she watched the dome.

"Absolutely," Erik nodded seriously. "She's worked hard, had a lot of help from Elora, and was able to grow in this ideal environment without any distractions. I'm sure today is the day. She'll have reached second rank faster than any of us."

Despite his many advantages, Erik still had to advance two systems at the same time, making it no surprise that, even though he remained the strongest among them, he also advanced the slowest.

Emily groaned a little inwardly as she heard what Erik said. A little reluctant, she turned her gaze to Elora, who had been steadily ignoring Emily ever since what happened in the hotel room. "Thank you for helping Emma…" she mumbled, having to drag the words out of herself.

While Emily still held some resentment for Elora's dismissive attitude, and a little fear over the fact that Elora had controlled her when they first met, she had now spent almost a year without exchanging even a single word with Elora, and many of those feelings had some time to settle.

Thus, she decided to reach out a little.

Elora turned to Emily and grinned playfully. "Are you sure you want to talk to me, Emily? And here I thought you couldn't stand me."

Emily sighed, "Yeah well… you didn't break your word about leaving me alone for a while, so I guess I realized you can't be all bad."

It was actually Erik who had convinced her to reach out at a time when Elora was busy exploring the library. He figured it was best if these girls worked through some of their issues before he married Emily, rather than after.

"I would never break my word to Erik," Elora giggled, and then shrugged casually. "Regardless, I didn't help Emma for your sake, but I suppose you're still welcome."

With that, they turned their attention back to the dome in front of them, although Emily still looked a little troubled. There was one more thing she wanted to ask Elora, but the communication between the two of them had only just opened up again, and she still didn't like Elora much, so she wasn't sure how to bring it up.

In the end, however, she decided to wait. If all went well, her relationship with Elora would soon experience a significant shift, and she figured it would be easier by that point.

Suddenly, the black dome seemed to flash ever so lightly, before disappearing not long after. In it's place now stood a brightly smiling and clearly excited Emma.

"I did it!" she exclaimed with balled fists and trembling body, before suddenly glomping Erik. "Are you proud of me?!"

"Of course I am, little glimmer," Erik chuckled. "Reaching second rank in just under a year is impressive, even if you had a little help."

Astrid and Alice also came up to Emma and quickly congratulated her. Everyone liked Emma and had some kind of relationship with her, so it wasn't a surprise that they were all there.

"Thanks guys!" she smiled brightly. "I can finally be of use in a fight now! Plus, we can help big Em, right?!" she almost shouted with excitement, largely ignoring her own accomplishment.

Emily's expression was a strange mixture of happiness and anxiety as she panned her gaze between Erik, Emma, and especially Elora, as she knew the fairy would be the one to actually do this.

The room was filled with tension as everything looked at Elora, who was happy to keep the tension up for a moment longer as she looked around with a teasing grin. After enjoying the moment for a bit, and getting a mental prod from Erik, she nodded with a chuckle. "Yes, we can finally stabilize Emily now."

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A few hours later, Astrid and Alice had gone back to their own training, and Emma, Erik, Emily, and Elora were now gathered in Emily's room.

"So, uhm— how are we doing this?" Emily asked, a little unsure as she scratched her head nervously.

She had been waiting so long to finally be rid of her corruption, or at least to not have it worsen anymore, and now that the moment was finally here, she only hoped everything would go according to plan.

Elora jumped off of Erik's shoulder and flew down to the ground where she started drawing a sigil while she explained. "Well, last time we needed to use… whatever-his-name, as a catalyst so that you could shake loose some of the darkness in your soul while you tortured him.

We did that, because Emma's light was inherently weaker than your darkness, due to her having been lower rank than you at the time. But, you can never get all the corruption that way, which is why some was left behind. This time, we don't technically need that, as Emma's light should now be powerful enough to cleanse everything."

Having listened attentively, Emily's face now formed into a wry expression as she muttered, "Except for the parts that have already ingrained themselves to deeply, right?"

Elora flew around low to the ground while using her dark green magic to draw various concentric circles and symbols, slowly forming into a glyph that they all recognized.

At the same time, she nodded at Emily's question, "Yeah, nothing we can do about that. You have become more callous, bloodthirsty, and possessive than before, and that's not going away. Unless you actively try to fight those instincts, but that never ends well. I suggest you just accept it as a part of you."

"What about…" Emily began as her eyes inadvertently panned towards the nearby Erik, who immediately couldn't help but smirk a little. In moments, both Emma and Elora's lips also curved into that same knowing smirk.

Seeing their reactions caused Emily to plant her face into her hand as she groaned, "Just… ugh…"

"Yes, Emily? Whatever you want to ask, I'm here for you," Elora said with all the innocence and kindness she could muster.

Which was not much.

Emily groaned harder, and turned to Erik for salvation.

Deciding to ease her suffering, Erik finally lost his grin and explained, "I think we talked about this before, right? It's hard to say whether those desires of yours were always there or just got inflamed by the corruption. Only one way to find out though, right?"

A little defeated, Emily nodded, and turned back to the fairy. "Alright, so… what is the sigil for then? Isn't that the Heartfire sigil that you used to test Emma back in Frostvik?"

"That's right!" Elora grinned mischievously. "While not as effective as what we used back in London, it will still help. Besides, just because we don't really need to loosen the darkness, doesn't mean we shouldn't! This is what they call 'two birds with one stone'. You'll marry him anyway, right?"

"You…! I haven't agreed to that yet!" Emily exclaimed, suddenly remembered why she disliked Elora so much. The woman was always trying to get Emily into her flow.

"Okay, but you're struggling with whether or not you actually have feelings for him, or if its just any of the several things that are currently affecting your mind, right?" Elora continued, her voice like the velvet sound of a tempting devil on Emily's shoulder.

Finally finished drawing the sigil, Elora spread her arms out at her creation. "Well, this will give you the answer!"

"That…" Emily stammered as she looked between Elora, Erik, and the symbol, before suddenly sighing. "That's not a bad idea." The notion of giving Elora any credit physically distressed her, but she had to admit to desperately wanting to find out if her feelings for Erik were genuine or not.

"Alright, so let's get started!" Elora, ever eager to get more powerful women into Erik's harem, was quick to grasp the chance, and pointed Emily towards the sigil on the floor.

Emily sighed, and sat down on the circle with hers legs crossed.

"Don't worry, big Em! It'll go great! After today, you'll finally be free! Emma exclaimed, equally eager to get rid of Emily's corruption. Besides wanting her sister not to suffer anymore, she also still blamed herself a little for what happened back then.

Before they got started, Erik also offered a few words of caution. "Remember, Emily. The beginning will be quite torturous for you. We'll have to remove the enslavement for this to work properly, which means the corruption will take hold again. Combine that with the Heartfire sigil, and… let's just say I doubt this will be as much fun for you as my punishments."

He chuckled a little at the end, earning him a glare from Emily, but then he smiled. "I believe in you, though."

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