Mind Demon's Path of Domination

His world briefly darkened before lighting up.

He stood above serene water and below a pitch-black sky. He couldn\'t have stood atop the water in the real world, he would just sink. Becoming stronger didn\'t make him be capable of such magical powers, he didn\'t have a demonic trick that could help him stand on water.

I feel calm, he thought, walking forward.

The world was mostly water wherever he looked. In the sky, there were nine stars. Nine little shining gems that seemed like stars, to be exact. His nine demonic tricks. Mark gulped, feeling a sort of awe creep up his heart.

He was in control of… so much power. So much power it felt scary.

Yet, not enough power.

Blank-faced, he walked atop the cool water, bare feet kicking up little waves.

He gazed as far as he could look, searching for the end of this world.

Did it go on forever?

It did feel like it went on forever. The real world felt like that, too.

Yet, his World Space was full of water, and there was no visible land. Mountains were there, land was too, but it was all buried under a world-covering ocean. Only one piece of land truly stood atop the water, a small island made of black stone.

He looked at the distant image of the island—Reolr\'an was there, Yuri was there, and so was Dona.

Not only them, but his servants, the Boss Demon, and the Minotaur were there, too. And beneath that island, buried in seawater, was the Violet Mirror.

Inside his Soul Space, he could stretch his Soul Sense to an incredibly vast distance, and teleport wherever he wanted to teleport into with a thought. His figure blurred and materialized at the edge of the island.

He was in here with his Soul, not his real body. So he was human-sized, human-shaped, and human-looking.

Smile.

Reol\'ran sat on the edge of the island, her toes dipped into the water. In the darkness, she seemed alight.

White hair like that of a legendary moonlight fairy descended from the sky, white fluttering eyelashes, and amethyst eyes nestled between them. So piercingly beautiful, one would be lost in her visage if they so much as had the courage to admire.

"I thought you would interact with Yuri and Dona," he said, moving towards her.

She didn\'t speak, looking at him with her beautiful eyes.

Mark frowned. Her gaze was wrong, somewhat different from the usual stare that always seemed to be gauging him.

He smiled and sat beside her, dipping his soul-legs without fleshly feelings into the water. She mustn\'t be feeling anything either. Souls can\'t touch, feel, or taste.

"What happened?" he asked.

She looked sideways at him. "Why do you want to know?"

"I wonder. Tell me."

The warrior sighed and leaned against his shoulders. Mark was a bit stunned, her soul could touch his soul now. It felt physical—more physical than anything he had touched since arriving here.

And strangely intimate.

"Your soul is a bit more substantial now that you became a middle demon, it can touch me," she said.

Mark wrapped his hand around her waist witha wider smile but instead of revealing a relaxed expression like Yuri and Dona revealed when he touched them, Reol\'ran showed a grimace.

A grimace that he didn\'t understand.

Mark felt a sunken feeling.

"Why are you making that expression?"

Reol\'ran stared at him weirdly. She sighed.

"I didn\'t expect my emotions would be this intense," she said, a seething edge to her tone that he had never heard before. A seething, cold edge.

Mark looked at her in surprise.

"If I could, I would kill those two right now. In cold blood. Dona? Yuri? I tried to suppress the feelings as much as I could, to act as your obedient little fiance. Wife-to-be.

But…" She growled, staring daggers at him. "I can\'t. I can\'t do this anymore. Just looking at them through your eyes makes my guts wrench into a disgusting knot. Now that they are here? Interact with them?

You have to be joking with me, right?"

She laughed mockingly.

"I hate them to the marrow of my bones," she said. "And truly, I hate you accommodating them, too. You—You. Even your touch doesn\'t do anything more than awaken all that lingering hate that I keep trying to bury into nothing. You are mine. Mine." She looked away, turning her eyes to the nearly nonexistent flow of water.

"Why should I share the only thing that was supposed to be mine with them?"

Mark didn\'t know what to say. He could see her gritted teeth, her pained expression.

"You were supposed to be mine, and mine alone.

"Why?! Why is it that everything destined for me gets stolen so easily? I got my city stolen when it was destined for me. I got left behind while others moved on with their own lives. Why? Why me?" She bit her lips, her pale face nearly tearful.

"Mark, I... I hate you so much! It\'s you, you are the reason I am such a mess!"

Mark remained silent.

"So what do you… want me to do?"

The warrior of a woman trembled, then, she seemed to suddenly weaken. After a while, with a sigh. Reol\'ran just simply fell on Mark\'s thighs, looking up at the dark sky littered with nine stars.

She had not felt warmth for so long; it was so cold inside that ice. Mark\'s soul felt warm.

She took a calming breath. Indeed, seeing Yuri and Dona so upclose had just pressed some buttons in her.

Mark looked down at her beautiful visage.

He didn\'t really understand Reol\'ran. He considered her his woman. Fiance. A warrior. Yet, she was mysterious, strong, and somewhat distant from him at the same time—unlike Dona or Yuri, he felt like he didn\'t know her at all.

She looked at him with pained eyes.

"My city, I don\'t care anymore," she said. "It\'s just material things. I\'ve seen past such things. And my hate for you—it\'s." She looked away, face rigid. "It\'s not hate towards you in particular. I like your touch, don\'t get me wrong.

I liked it when you tried to catch me last time, too. I wanted to bond with you more. We were supposed to grow through such things. Bond, love, do things I wouldn\'t do with anyone else. But the moment you touch me, I understand, you also touch Yuri like that. You touch Dona like that."

Mark rubbed her white hair with his palm, gently pushing it back to reveal her strong, hate-filled expression.

She bit her strawberry lips. She was confused, frowning.

"I want to tolerate them, Mark. I want to let you have your fun. But them being… here is too much. I feel sick."

"You hate them?"

"I do. A lot." She looked at him, then, her expression slowly melted into a serene one. "I will warn you. If you don\'t tell me not to, I will probably scheme against them with a heart full of hate and maybe even try to get them killed. I could become more vicious than a demon, so don\'t test me."

Mark leaned down and his lips clenched around her strawberry lips. He could feel it. Her taste. Her warm breath. She tasted a bit like strawberry.

Souls weren\'t supposed to feel taste but they could feel the taste of other souls. He could even feel her on an incredibly intimate level.

A slightly panicked expression flittered across her face.She gulped, then stayed still, eyes wide open.

Absolutely still.

His tongue moved into her mouth and she difn\'t react. Even as his tongue rolled around inside her mouth, wrapping around her tongue, playing with it, she didn\'t move an inch. She just became a statue.

Stunned beyond belief.

Mark broke the kiss.

Her panic rose to another level and as Mark watched, he saw her start to blush from her neck to ears. Completely flustered, she looked away. The woman was even panting, her eyes so moist, it seemed she—the hardened warrior—might end up crying.

"What do you say now?"

She stuttered, then sat up and scuttled away from him, She said with feigned calm: "Show some respect, I am a Tier 4 being!" She even snorted. "And I still hate them."

She flusteredly walked around for a bit, fuming in embarrasment, and with a last glance at him, teleported away.

Mark took a deep breath, feeling her lingering scent. He hadn\'t known she would get so flustered like this.

He touched his lips. Her soul is so pure.

In kissing, Dona and Yuri could hardly compare to this. No, they were not even close. This, he didn\'t know what this was but this was truly a wondrous feeling.

Reol\'ran was on her own level.

Mark wondered when he would get another chance to do this. This time, she seemed to have been taken off guard more than anything.

Maybe she expected it but was still flustered?

How… cute.

For all her seriousness talking about her hate, she was just asking for more of his attention, right?

But she really was frustrated. He could see why she would be, though. Anyone would be frustrated if they had to spend their life the way she was living these days. Her body trapped in a sphere of ice, and Will trapped in a silent dark space. Even he would blow his top if he was in her situation. Especially if he comes to know he had to share his dark space with another two people.

I\'ll have to calm her down a bit.

Mark still couldn\'t get that kiss out of his mind. Would she mind if he greeted her that way from now on?