The hivemind is conquering for me?

Gabrielle’s entire body was on edge as she looked before her. She saw the look of fear in her son’s eyes and almost broke. She was on the cusp of activating her power involuntarily and with all these weak Psionic wielders present who had no resistance to Psionic dampening, the results could be catastrophic... But to protect her son, she would do so if needs be.

She watched on as Nerissa erected her dome, no noise could get through, but the presence of it had brought attention to them. ’It does look like he is less agitated though.’ She thought before turning her attention to Hailey who had gone pale as she looked on.

’Oh my poor child, the look on your face almost killed mommy. Don’t worry, the bad Princess won’t hurt you again. Mommy will make sure of it. She is so sorry she went along with the plan, she was desperate to meet you and didn’t think of the consequences.’ She thought as she continued to observe.

Meanwhile, I rubbed my forehead. ”Right, I get the jist, I will have Hailey explain the rest. I am upset you didn’t tell me though Nerissa, I thought we had gotten closer. You can put down your dome now.” I stated, causing Nerissa to reply with a prompt. ”No.”

”Um... Okay?” I said before looking around nonchalantly. I then began fidgeting idly while looking around as Nerissa continued to stare at me. After a short amount of time, I then turned back to her and asked. ”Why not?”

There was a slight pause before Nerissa pressed another sequence on her armour, the dome around us turning opaque. After we had gained privacy, she removed her helmet and looked me straight in the eyes and said.

”Apollo, I have wronged you by not informing you thusly of this surprise. Granted I did not know they would announce it in such a public event, I thought you would be told in private. Still, I have betrayed you and the guilt I am feeling is multitude. I haven’t felt this way in a long time and I wish to do something to make this right.”

”I see.” I muttered. Truth be told, now that the panic had left me, this was actually a good thing. Sure my trust was broken by those I asked not to share my secret with, but at the same time, the trust was broken so it would not need to be broken again. My craft was now legal, to me at least.

”Ness, look. It’s fi-” I started, but she cut me off, closing the distance between us so we were face to face. Her hands made contact with my shoulders as she anchored herself to my body.

”It is not fine Apollo, despite my silence the majority of the time, despite my original goal of simply sating my intrigue. Nymphs feel emotion a lot more intensely than you do. This guilt. It will eat away at me if it is not attended to and you simply saying its fine will not be enough. Please. I implore you, request something. Anything.”

”Uuhhhh.” I wasn’t good on the spot and with her gorgeous face inches away from my own, I was having difficulty thinking. ’She said anything, but I literally cannot think of anything!’ I thought to myself.

Literally my mind was blank. Our relationship wasn’t really a give and take kind of thing. We sort of just shared information with one another freely so I couldn’t think of a single thing I wanted from her.

As she just stood there thinking of things for a while, my Origin thrummed and from within the golden vault inside of my mind, something slipped through that impervious defensive structure. A random piece of information that I had once known. It was niche, but considering the other similarities between the old universe and this one, it was worth a shot, especially if my Origin brought it to the front.

”How about a blessing?” I simply asked and Nerissa’s face somehow turned a deeper shade of green as a look of mortification appeared upon her face. ”W-what?” I noticed the expression and explained.

”Well, Nymphs can grant blessings to people right? And depending on their respective traits, it can be different? You are a nature Nymph right? Like there are sea, fire, air nymphs and stuff like that. Right? Each has their own blessings they can give. So I was thinking you could give me yours?”

Nerissa was left in a stupor for a moment. Just when she thinks this man has shown her everything he has to offer. He pulls this crap from out of nowhere? ’By my Goddesses, where does he pull this stuff from?’ She couldn’t help but think.

”Apollo... A blessing isn’t as casual as you are suggesting. It is a very... Emotional thing for us. There hasn’t been a blessing since the gods still walked among us. There are... After effects that come after a Nymph gives away her blessing and I don’t think you are ready for them.”

It seemed I crossed a line by mistake, the blessing a bigger deal than I suspected. ”Alright Nerissa, no worries. Lets just call us even then for me bringing this up? I don’t want anything from you if it’s going to make you uncomfortable anyway. I understand completely.”

Nerissa hadn’t expected this. She thought Apollo asked because in his odd knowledge compendium, he knew more about it, but it seems she was wrong. With this small tilting point, she took in a deep breath and steeled herself before closing the distance again.

Before I had a chance to react, Nerissa had clasped my cheeks within her palms and I couldn’t even resist as she pulled my head towards hers, forcing our lips together. I was immediately mesmerised, not by the kiss itself, it was a simple prolonged peck that just felt nice, no. What was going on inside me was a much different thing altogether.

I felt a Psionic energy coursing through my body. It was a strand of energy I have had zero interaction with before. It felt primordial like Sol, but not nearly as intense. It felt... Natural. To a normal person, or most Psionic individuals, they would have felt nothing but the pleasant feeling, but with my ability to feel my entire body when I choose to, I could feel the changes undergoing within me.

My muscles slightly knitted together in a new way and my bones became revitalised. It wasn’t by a lot as my body was already in peak functionality, but I could tell this was a small change in growth and I could tell it would linger and continue to nurture me, even aid me in fixing the most molecular flaws I make in my enhancements.

Once I felt the energy settle within me, now a part of me, always swirling in the background alongside the other energies that course through me, Nerissa parted her lips from mine and looked at me. ”Intriguing.”

I smiled and instantly quipped. ”Well the kiss was nice, now how about that blessing?” Nerissa ignored me and began running her hands across my body freely, ignoring the hate filled gaze of Orchid in the process.

”Remarkable. Your body practically absorbed my blessing seamlessly. I have never heard of someone taking to it so well.” She said as she stroked my bicep innocently. ”So what? Are you looking for those side effects you mentioned?”

Nerissa looked up at my face with a very expressive expression of surprise as I asked that. ”Side effects? What are you- Oh no. Silly Apollo, the side effects were for me. Blessings are incredibly powerful Psionic rituals. It didn’t look like much happened because I am a Psionic entity, but trust me, a lot did. I basically convened with the universe itself when I kissed you. Forging a sort of contract to hand over my blessing to you. No you have nothing to fear, the only side effects humans get is when they cannot take the full strength of the blessing, they begin to expel the energy and its like a pheromone, making you irresistible to your own kind for a while, you won’t experience that though, as I said, you seamlessly absorbed it all.”

”Oh.” I simply stated, not sure if not having the pheromone was a good or a bad thing...

”So are you going to be ok? I hope the side effects aren’t going to negatively affect you. I wouldn’t want you to suffer for me, Nerissa.” I asked, causing a soft touching smile to cascade across her face.

”No, Apollo. The side effects will not cause me harm, but it is too early to determine if the effects will be good or bad. That is up to nature to decide.” Her reply caused my ease to worry up and I began checking out my body, flexing slightly as I felt the way this perpetual energy stayed within my body, constantly moving through.

”So, other than my slight increase in strength, does your blessing do anything else?” I wasn’t trying to sound ungrateful, I already enjoyed this blessing already, I just didn’t know enough and wanted the facts.

Nerissa smiled and nodded her head.

”Of course Apollo, It also...”