Dimensional Descent

Aina’s chuckle pulled Leonel out of his thoughts, leaving him speechless. They had entered another world of darkness, and a gaseous blackness flew all around them. On top of that, their lives were being plucked along under some unknown symphony, controlled by composers that likely didn’t have their best interest in mind.

What could this little vixen possibly have to chuckle about?

“Look at your face, so serious and so confused. You’ve spent the last almost three weeks doing nothing but thinking. What is that worth to someone else? A couple months? A couple years, maybe? You’re still not tired?”

Leonel didn’t even know how to respond to this. For a second, he thought that someone was trying to whisper doubts into his mind and that they were using Aina’s voice as a convenient in. But soon, he realized that it really was this future wife of his that was teasing him.

Seeing Leonel’s expression, Aina laughed harder.

“Aren’t you having too good a time with this?” Leonel finally responded.

“What can I do but have a good time?”

Leonel felt a hand rub at his crotch and squeeze a few times.

“I know what it is,” Aina said seriously. “You’re too pent up, I haven’t been doing my wifely duties.”

Leonel blinked, then turned and cupped Aina’s face. Seeing the serious look in his eyes, Aina almost stopped her joke completely… until he spoke.

“Who are you and what have you done with my Aina?”

Aina scoffed. “You become a completely new person every other day and I can’t change just a little bit?”

Although Leonel could tell that Aina was joking again, his eyes dimmed somewhat.

“I’m sorry.”

Aina’s heart skipped a beat.

“I know. I’ve been pulled in a lot of directions lately.”

He never really thought about it, but if he changed so much and so frequently, would Aina even like him anymore?

He had been too neglectful. He thought a lot about how he would react to things, but not enough about how everyone else would. Just Joel’s probes alone should have alerted him to this, but Aina actually had to make a joke about it before he registered that it might be a problem.

Leonel opened his mouth to say more but Aina’s hand had already covered his lips.

“You’re thinking too much about it. Do your parents know what your personality would be when you had just been born?”

“Huh?”

Staring into those beautiful eyes, Leonel was completely in a daze. He didn’t have the brain capacity remaining to even understand what she was saying.

Aina giggled. “Not everything has to be logical. And don’t give me some nonsense about evolution and protecting your offspring, you’ll make me annoyed.”

Leonel couldn’t help but laugh, looking at that pouting face, it seemed that she was already annoyed.

“Your child will undergo a myriad of changes in their life. Your parents were different people before they had you, and as you grow, they would grow too. If we marry, and have children, how many changes would I undergo? How many changes would you undergo?

“My love for you became unconditional a long time ago, why are you worrying about stupid things?”

Leonel blinked, remaining silent for a long time. After a while, his lips parted.

“You’re trying to seduce me, aren’t you.”

“What gave you that idea?” Aina tilted her head to the side. “Was it the heartfelt words? The fact we’re all alone now? Or was it my hand on your-”

Aina squealed as she was swept up again.

—–

In the depths of flowing darkness, a group of demons moved. There were four of them, each one of which had powerful, crimson bull horns, skin as dark as night, and flaming golden eyes that looked as though they deserved to be floating in the skull of an undead.

Whether male or female, they were all extremely muscular and walked around bare-chested, having nothing more than a beast skin cloth covering their lower bodies.

There didn’t seem to be a leader among them, even down to their heights, they were all of perfectly equal height and build. If not for the slightly puffier chests and longer hair of the women, it wouldn’t even be possible to tell their genders apart at all.

At that moment, they all came to a stop at once.

Moans drifted to their ears and they looked toward one another. Their blood began to boil somewhat before they shook their heads.

“Unbelievable. It’s got to be those Lust Demons.”

Despite his “harsh” words, one of the Bull Demons was already pitching a tent, and his eyes had already stopped looking off into the distance and were entirely focused on the female Bull Demon by his side.

“Look at me like that again, Larkan, and I’ll chop it off.”

Oriza pulled a chipped ax from her back and glared at Larkan.

Larkan cleared his throat, it sounding akin to an avalanche. “Those Lust Demons are truly despicable.”

The second male Bull Demon fell into a booming laughter as Larkan shifted uncomfortably.

“Let’s go over there and deal with that,” Oriza snarled. “This matter is too important for them to get swept up in such nonsense.”

The group of four moved and they closed the distance quite quickly. But they were a bit stunned by what they saw.

It was a storm of dense black feathers, swirling like a tumultuous storm. The sounds of the moans were just as feverish, but the power coming off of them made their hearts sink.

“Run!” Oriza barked, turning and rushing away at her fastest speed.

She had only just spoken when a few black feathers peeled away from the group and two of them died almost instantly.

Oriza spun back, leaping with all of her strength away from the fierce attacks and swinging down her ax with all her might.

She reacted quickly enough, but she felt the bones in her arms crack and almost shatter entirely.

Listening to the moans fade as she rushed into the distance, she was speechless.

She knew the only reason she hadn’t died was that that woman was far too engrossed in her love affair.