664 10/12 0:03 (Autumn, Sunrise, Midrar)
"What do you mean that our Marks help in 'feeling more strongly'?" Amber wondered, her amber eyes blinking a couple of times in confusion.
"Well, if I make a comparison between the current me and Scarlet, I can easily note various differences. Counting for the fact that the body is a filter that distorts the Soul, I am certain of various changes in me. For example I have much more intense desires than before." And here Luna looked down on the Human in her arms meaningfully, enjoying the way she blushed brightly.
"Isn't it because you are physically older then when you died? After all, you were fifteen then, weren't you?" Amber asked, the one of them that was able to remember the feeling of rapidly changing ages because of her nature as a Phoenix assuming Humanoid form.
"No. While that does have an impact, it is far from a significant change. I already underwent puberty before becoming a Ghoul and I can still simulate how I would think as an Half-Elf, a Ghoul and the current me, as an incomplete Lunarian." Luna negated calmly, her eyes crystal clear. "By using our Marks, I can experience the way you three feel. And Phoenix, former Dungeon Boss or Human, even if differently from each other, you all feel more intensely that I ever did."
The Lunarian's words were filled with a sort of hungry fascination, an all-encompassing covetousness that caused a shiver into her Human, the closeness between the two allowing her to physically hear the overwhelming desire contained within those words.
Instinctively Sabel rose her hands, her fingers pinching the white-haired one's cheeks, distracting this last one. "What are you doing?" The Lunarian asked, letting the hands freely touch and move her face, red eyes blinking at her full of curiosity.
"I am distracting you. Be distracted." The black-haired one commanded, continuing in her efforts without any pause.
"I am super distracted." Luna nodded, amusedly playing along with Sabel's intentions, opening her mouth and letting her tongue grab one of her fingers, trapping it in place at once. "However, you should be more careful. Distracting me is all well and good but you should really pay closer attention to the kind of distraction you want to create or you will end up in much deadlier problems than those you tried to escape."
Her mouth closed around the finger, her fangs brushing teasingly against the skin, a shiver moving across Sabel's back as she immediately jumped away from Luna's arms, landing on her feet and rapidly starting to run forward, instinctively starting to run.
"And she starts running. And in the right direction at that." Mafel whistled impressed. "Are we sure she doesn't have a strange Innate Skill like Instinct?" She wondered, well aware that those particular Skills seldom appeared.
"No. Someone's Status does not reflect everything about them. For example, an ability that targets an heart or a brain would be worthless if used for example on me, Skeletons or Phoenixes in their original Forms yet this would be shared in neither the would-be-victims' Status nor in the ability itself. Similarly, a genetic issue or predisposition isn't shared." Luna corrected immediately, soon followed by Amber's addition.
"In addition to that, things like knowledge, talents, preference and genuine instincts are not rendered explicit in one's own Status. The Instinct Skill and other derived Skills are instead based on the unconscious elaboration of various sensory impulses and Skills to generate a subconscious warning. That is the basis behind those types of Skills. And Sabel has neither an Instinct Skill nor the required extrasensory abilities." The Phoenix added, having previously studied how exactly that kind of Skills worked hard to try and obtain one of them.
Unfortunately her control over her various Senses and senses alike was too direct and precise, precluding her from ever gaining this type of Skill, issue quite common in Races with a direct access to a Sensorary Skill.
"Well, better run behind our Sabel or she will reach the capital all alone." Amber mused, accelerating her steps, one of her hands finding Luna's arm and pulling the taller one behind her, unwilling to leave her to proced on her own and risk being lost.
"I cannot become lost, I know at any time your vague location. If we split, I can always just go right through any obstacles to reach you." Luna rolled her eyes, unaware that this exact scenario was what the Phoenix wanted to avoid most of all.
After all they all knew full well the massive amount of collateral damage she would thoughtlessly cause in her efforts to reunite with them.
Anything between her Mates and the Lunarian would be wiped out completely.
Best not give her any chance to get lost.
"Semi-changing argument, your lack of sense of direction is probably linked to your Unique Skill. Do you know what exactly your Unique Domain will look like?" Mafel asked, gazing into Luna's Soul.
"Scarlet didn't have time to reach Singularity A but I can guess its Effect, the forceful Conversion and Assimilation of everything within into myself. Why?" Said Lunarian answered with her own question, thinking little of the matter.
"I wasn't speaking about its abilities but I can tell the rest from just that description. You subconsciously reject all divisions except for 'me' and 'not me'. Similarly to that, you deny the existence of locations being separated by space altogether." Mafel nodded satisfied, glad of having finally figured out the reason behind her Mate's absolutely terrible sense of direction.
"I see. In that case, my being a Lunarian would probably influence it too. After all the Lunarians' Dream does not possess fixed locations, size or dimensions and we are from the start made to deal with that situation." Luna added casually, not thinking much about either the matter of her sense of orientation or what she revealed about the Moon, the three hurriedly moving after the moving away Human.
A couple of minutes later, the three having long since reunited with Sabel, the four moved back towards their destination, the capital of Midrar.
The swordswoman, having already ran off once, was now unable to retreat ever more, her arm stuck in a vice within Amber's left hand, their Auras pressing against each other as the Phoenix tried to assist her in properly learning how to handle it, Luna in the meanwhile was redirecting most of the strain of continuous Aura usage right to herself.
While in the future they would undoubtedly need to adapt and master the full weight of its usage on their own to push their limits both reguarding that Skill and in general, doing such a thing with a power they could barely control would be a dangerous action for an inexperienced user.
And considering both Luna's previous ease when it comes to using her Aura and the fact that she no longer had that Skill, the role of teacher naturally fell to Amber, the more experienced one, while Mafel was subtly Casting Holy-Attribute Spells to make sure the Lunarian would heal faster that she could be harmed, before the strain could be felt by their Mates and in so doing distract and worry their Human.
Their walk proceded without disturbance, Luna's Senses spreading out and carefully feeling out the location of any nearby Monsters, concentrating mostly on seeking out the twisted vitality typical of Undeads.
Yet while she was able to find a number of Monsters around them, none of them felt particularly near, strong or matching what an Undead should feel like, causing her lips to turn down. "Why are they so rare…" She half-lamented, her eyes searching for Mafel's.
This last one, after a brief gaze to Sabel, making sure that she was still distracted, before she answered. "Outside of Dungeons, Undead Monsters are incredibly rare. The fact that there are none is a positive for the general population, isn't it? The existence of Undeads is a terrible omen for a very good reason."
"I suppose so. After all all natural Undeads cannot reproduce as they need corpses to Raise more of them, they need places filled with grudges. Alternatively, they can be forcefully Raised with necromantic Spells or Skills but not only is creating Undeads out of People illegal but necromancy itself is looked at negatively by the populace." Luna nodded uncaringly.
Mafel sighed at once, her mind working hard to properly control her Holy-Attribute Mana, minimizing both any traces of her actions, hiding them from Sabel in front, and any stress from using too much Mana.
Forward their Human was finally starting to figure out how exactly she should manipulate her Aura properly.
And with it, her Unique Skill Rebellion was finally starting to obey her consciously, forming a thin coating around her body that would weaken all Skills and products of Skills applied on her.
Unfortunately she was still unable to apply a filter to it, weakening also positive Effects beyond just the negative ones.
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