Leveling through Lust

I wanted to punish the crown prince for daring to capture my sexy angel. I even have several ways to deliver such punishment. But, as I dug a tunnel underneath the capital — easily bypassing the magical defenses built to prevent such a problem — to bring her to the safehouse I had established for emergencies, unable to teleport due to her dangerous state, I ignored that desire.

At this point, revenge wasn’t as important as making sure her problems wouldn’t suddenly explode. The prince was not someone that I would have trouble reaching. I could take him down any time.

My focus was on making sure Mariel was safe.

Even as I created a tunnel to allow a secondary access point to my safe house, I did my best to avoid touching Mariel with my mana, afraid of somehow breaking the fragile balance between the Light and Darkness Sparks.

Usually, even the mana of different natures didn’t play well together, let alone the Sparks, and I didn’t know why Light and Darkness were the exceptions to that.

Not that it was the first time I had noticed that. Mariel had been using their opposing nature to keep her own ill-advised step into Divinity in check, preventing her Light spark from burning her body.

However, I didn’t dare to do anything until I could drag her into the center of the base and activate all the wards. Not just the defensive wards, but dozens and dozens of wards, some arcane while others relied mostly on tantric mana.

Designed especially to address the Divine Spark-related problems. After seeing Helga’s situation, I expected the others to experience similar problems, and was prepared for the worst.

Well, what I expected to be the worst. It seemed that I had to revise that estimation downward significantly. I used the wards to carefully examine her situation, trying to come up with a diagnosis.

There was good news. Well, one of them.

Against all odds, her situation was stable.

Unfortunately, that was the extent of what could be termed as good news. I had been hoping to just remove Darkness Spark from her, which would leave her only with her Light Spark. Unfortunately, the two Sparks were even more intertwined than I expected — or even thought to be possible.

Worse, the Sparks had already mixed with her body, enough to complete her first step into the Godhood, which took the removal of the Divine Spark from her off the table. Divine Spark was not like a mana, and an external source of power that could be added and removed without consequence.

Divine Spark bonded with the carrier on a fundamental, existential level, requiring a mental alignment while changing the physical parts subtly. It was still possible to reverse it when the bonding process was on the level of Chosen or Demigod, but once the vessel reached Godhood, the issue was far more troubling.

Worse, I didn’t even know where the changes made of the Divine Spark started and where Mariel’s angel nature ended. After all, she was the only angel I met under non-combat circumstances, and she was already juggling the two opposing Divine Sparks desperately then.

Making a judgment call about it was difficult.

I needed someone to help me brainstorm. After casting a few spells to make sure the base was secure and no one was following me, I teleported to Helga — finding it annoying that teleporting her back was equally impossible due to the way she bonded to her domain.

How frustrating. No wonder gods used avatars often. Unfortunately, the only method we know was too expensive in terms of Divine Spark for Helga to afford — not to mention the disadvantages of using such a method on System space.

“Still, it’s a good thing that you have found her, right?” Helga said.

“Certainly better than the alternative,” I answered. “Still, that doesn’t solve our problem. Any ideas?”

Helga stopped for a second, her beautiful face creased with a frown. Then, she spoke. “How far are you on forging those beacons,” she said.

I sighed. “So, you have the same idea as me. I was hoping that you would come up with something else.”

“Maybe if you give me two years and unlimited access to literature on Divine Sparks that the Eternals had collected, but without it, I lack the basis to make any kind of progress on the topic,” she explained.

I nodded, understanding where she was coming from. Even with all my advantages interacting with Divine Spark, my understanding was very limited, and my approach was blunt. For example, I strongly doubted that copying the draconic method of reinforcing my body with Purified Spark was hardly the most efficient method of strengthening myself … but it was the only method I had.

In that vein, Helga’s hands were tied as well — and not the fun way.

Of course, that left another problem, which led to the reason for Helga’s question. I needed to find an unoccupied plane for Mariel to complete her Apotheosis. The trick we used for Helga was beautiful and elegant … but ultimately, it was only possible due to her exceptionally unorthodox Divine Nature, making such a small location viable.

Using the same trick would waste Mariel’s potential. Assuming that was possible in the first place.

“Do you think that we could use the same trick we used here for Mariel as an emergency,” I asked. I already guessed the answer, but I wanted to be sure.

Helga thought about it a bit, then shrugged in defeat. “No, not even if you’re willing to sacrifice the potential. The whole point of my domain is the Darkness Ward hiding me from the System. Mariel has both the Light and the Darkness, either could easily break the ward while she goes through the merging process. And, the less we talk about the potential combination issues, the better.”

“I see,” I admitted with a soft sigh even as I started walking, and she accompanied me silently. We went toward the forge I had built there.

The forge wasn’t as big as the one I had in the capital, but since I could use my magic without limit here, it was far more advanced.

“What’s your plan?” Helga asked, subdued as she helped me to create a batch of beacons that would hopefully allow me to return faster than my previous attempt.

“Nothing complicated,” I said, feeling frustrated as well. The last thing I wanted was to leave the main material plane now that everything was in order once again. Unfortunately, that was inevitable. “I’m going to go and do my best to find an unoccupied plane.”

“And, do you think that’s doable?” Helga asked, realizing the problem.

“Likely not. So I would probably use Mariel’s light spark as cover to invade one of the weaker undead planes and hope that it would take a while for the Eternals to realize the change.”

“Not exactly a plan, is it?” Helga said, and I shrugged. Sometimes, that was the best one could do. “How about the beacons?” she asked.

“That’s a bigger problem. In their current state, they won’t last more than a few minutes unless I embed Tantric Spark in them…”

“And, that would create too big of a risk of discovery,” she said.

“Exactly, so I’ll probably create a web of teleportation that allows you to eject those to the Primordial Aether. I’ll also create a pattern that’ll send them out periodically, and I’ll do my best to return in a week or two. But predicting that it’s hard, and I want you to send them out with full power if you face an emergency,” I said. “I don’t want you to take unnecessary risks.”

She looked frustrated about the need, but luckily, she wasn’t like the others, who might have taken such a thing personally.

With that, we spent the rest of the day filled with magical research and construction — interrupted by a few quickies. I did my best to perfect the beacon deployment system, which was frustrating as I was struggling to create some kind of magical message that I could detect from a great distance, but at the same time, it needed to avoid the attention of the Eternals.

But, after some struggle, I managed to create something that I hoped to work, one that relied on creating a very complicated mana flare instead of a better message, one that could easily be written off as background noise by anyone who wasn’t looking for it.

Hopefully, it would help. At the same time, Helga finished creating a complicated ward that used Light and Darkness mana, balanced by tantric, one that would keep Mariel stable through the chain of teleportations.

Hopefully.

“Be careful,” Helga said after placing another kiss on my lips.

“You too. And, don’t do anything to reveal your location even if you receive a message from others. Just send the signal we arranged, and I’ll return. We can’t risk them baiting you.”

“Don’t worry too much,” she said with a wet chuckle. I kissed her one last time, and teleported to the capital. Luckily, the prince’s intervention gave a good reason for the disappearance of the master blacksmith. Still, I left a few letters for the apprentices, writing them like I had prepared beforehand.

Additionally, I had left several messages that could only be read by the girls, using our shared experience as a clue. The messages didn’t say anything other than wait near the capital, in case someone else understood it.

Then, I teleported to my real destination.

To Mariel.

For a moment, I said nothing, examining her beautiful visage and her marred wings. “You’re such a source of trouble,” I said with a chuckle as I started to build the ward Helga had designed around her. “You’re lucky that you’re so pretty. Because you’re the most troublesome one,” I said with a mocking sigh.”

Then, I grabbed her and teleported away.

—

{Strength: 45 Charisma: 45

Precision: 45 Perception: 45

Agility: 45 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 45 Intelligence: 62

Endurance: 73 Wisdom: 45}

{Purified Divine Spark: 58410}

{Pseudo-HP: 15000 Mana: 20000}

{ADDITIONAL SPARKS

Light - Chosen 7.4

Nature - Chosen 10

Knowledge - Chosen 10}

{MINIONS

GODDESSES

Elven Goddess

Goddess of Knowledge}

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