The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'
Chapter 101 - Of The Empyrean, For The Horizon

Chapter 101: Chapter 101 - Of The Empyrean, For The Horizon

Elua and Qatrand unhurriedly made their way to the edge of the upper venue. The soft glow of the Starbloom flowers at the front of the terraces faded behind them as they distanced themselves from the stairs. In the dark, their silver outfits kept some shine to them in the low light by the luminescence of the gibbous moon overhead.

They followed a path lined with unlit stone lanterns - the silver-veined rock they were carved out of seeming not as impressive as they were in the daylight. Eventually the newlywed couple emerged onto a small, secluded overlook that faced the sea. A low, ornate railing of the venue’s usual metal served as the only boundary from the cliff.

In the center of the viewing spot waited a beautifully designed stone bench. Inlaid upon it were swirling, sigil-like patterns of silver that were nearly as spectacular as the starscape above. Cushions in rich shades of blue and green that must have been prepared by the staff invited them to sit and bask in the tranquility of the moment.

Altogether, the space was quite intimate, yet open... with a very clear view of the full expanse of the night sky above and the vast moonlit waves below.

"This is amazing. Did you already know it was here?"

The swordswoman didn’t answer her wife in words, but there was a swell in her spirit that was clearly ’puffed up’.

’I’m glad I asked the attendants to prepare.’

When they approached the bench, the heiress ’noticed’ a small, elegant table to the side of it. One side of it was adorned with a vase of fragrant, night-blooming flowers. The other held a tray bearing a black teapot and two delicate matching cups. The scents of both mingled with the salty breeze as the reincarnator struggled with what to say out loud.

’I-is she trying to romance me into oblivion?’

Though, like she could tell with Qat - so too could the Yecine note about El. The blonde’s smug leaning heart grew three sizes and then skipped when the ’predator’ stifled her for a moment. The sound of the waves crashing against the cliffs below provided a poignant backdrop, a reminder of the constancy and resilience of nature.

As well as the forces that eroded things away.

’Mintwolf? No, that’s no good either. I especially wouldn’t like... to explain that to anyone that hears.’

The tall teenager shook her head with sudden refusal at the very thought. The brunette - slowly coming back from her frayed senses - tilted her emotionless face with a brush of ’curiosity’ at the movement and the momentary ’rejection’ in her husband wife’s spirit. As it looked like her beloved would refuse to respond to her, she expressed ’worry’ before squashing it back below her ’love’.

"Ignore that."

"What if I don’t want to?"

Tendrils of spirit poked at her tipped with all kinds of positive emotions. The near constant breeze carried with it the scent of the saltwater below. The illusionist exhaled and stopped keeping that feeling bottled up... and the moment she did the swordswoman took a step and reached for her hand.

Qatrand led Elua to the bench and settled her onto the plush cushions before taking a seat right beside her. After only a few seconds, her cute wife leaned into her shoulder... her head seeking its perfect resting place. She wrapped an arm around her El’s waist in support.

"I’ve been thinking about something, but it’s a secret. It’s nothing that serious, so if I worried you... I apologize."

With the immensity of the universe above and the cherishing presence of her husband-wife beside her, Elua felt a sense of peace wash over her. Amid the loving intimacy... the burdens of the past and the challenges of the future seemed to melt away in earnest, rather than simply be wedged down to deal with later.

But things always shifted into some other form! The mass of her experiences remained, but transmuted into a positively charged form. Certain and uncertain shadows within her were replaced by warm and comfortable lights.

’I feel as though this is like what any of the countless stars above must feel, if they could.’

Eventually they both leaned back to gaze up at what they were supposed to have come for. Breaking to consume some of the tea only once, their spirits tussled playfully with each other in the relaxing night for over an hour, speaking no more words.

Though one had a lengthy past that should have curbed her enthusiasm... and another lacked the ability to properly gauge far off in the future - the pair of lovers felt strongly that this night was just the beginning of their journey together.

"I wanted to share something with you. A gift, you might call it."

Elua spoke aloud without looking away from the sky. Each star above functioned as a celestial witness to the bond between the two Lower Realm cultivators... and the ancient one of them couldn’t wait to let her beloved feel a taste of the eventual power of her own Element.

Qatrand hummed in agreement. After resting with her on the bench, she was ready to create a new memory - one untouched by the schemes and machinations that awaited them. The young bride shifted and laid the back of her head on her ’groom’s lap. Her mint eyes softly glowed with the low strength of the moonlight.

’Maybe I’ll just watch her a little longer first.’

They sat in companionable silence staring at each other, until the reincarnator began to guide Qatrand through a series of visualizations. She described the dance of planets around a solar mass... the birth and death of stars... weaving together the tale of the reality of the universe spanning eons.

"Imagine with me, Qat. Our sun - it rests at the center of our system of planets. A magnificent, energetic orb with gravity so immense that it holds entire worlds leashed in its thrall."

The young voice took on a hypnotic, primeval lecturing quality as she began to guide the swordswoman through the empyrean dance going on all around them. Her words were meant to paint vivid pictures to match the sensations she was about to share through her fragment. The one she stared at let her eyes drift shut, her imagination attempting to conjure the image as Elua spoke.

"Picture the planets in its hold... their spheroid shapes orbit the stellar body, bound by its gravitational embrace. Each one formed over an unimaginable amount of time, from different materials blasting out during the violent birth of its light emitting and life maintaining tether."

The diagram she’d seen in the illusory training tool came to mind, and the Yecine could almost feel the tug of the sun’s gravity, the inexorable pull that kept the planets in their eternal dance. The illusionist gradually started to offer her senses and memories of what she was discussing to her beloved. She felt the thigh underneath her skull tense involuntarily.

"Some of these incidental children, like our own world, are special. Small and rocky with liquid water taking up its surface, sitting in the perfect spots to sustain our existence."

She allowed a full image to transfer through her spirit. Elua’s memory of standing on the moon and looking back at their planet as a peak Defier. The milky atmospheric cover and bending light from the sun not doing enough to completely stifle the blues, browns, and greens.

It had been so enlightening and so touching... and certainly was something that no one else in this region could show her husband-wife!

"Others are rocky but without such luxuries for the maintenance of life... and others still are vast and gaseous. Nothing a mortal could ever breathe, even should they be able to withstand the temperatures and pressures."

She recalled visiting the highly volcanic world closer to the sun as well as the one with the biggest volume that remained gripped by the immense pull of the bright point at her back. Elua let vague glimpses drift across their connection, not wanting to ruin every first for her.

’Though eventually taking as many as I can is definitely-’

The brunette cleared her throat while closing her own eyes.

"Those worlds swirl with wind and storms like ours - the only difference is that a single vortex can be sized to engulf all of our planet. I can’t even begin to describe the scale of distance between worlds... not in a way that you can understand. Yet, the gravity from this sun of ours *still* reached out that distance."

It really was an amazing force, one so encompassing and powerful that she couldn’t imagine someone better to wield it than her husband-wife. However, she knew that Aspects were far from entirely unique... and that some day they may encounter another. The scheming cultivator wanted to make sure her Qat would be *better*!

"But the thing is, our sun is just one among innumerable stars throughout the universe. Each is a master of its domain, in its own right. A nexus of gravity and spinning energy born in the hearts of vast nebulae... clouds of gas and dust that again cover distances I can’t properly explain."

The blonde’s mind soared through the cosmos under the direction of her wife’s spirit, who spoke the words with undisguised ’wonderment’. She witnessed the birth of a new star from the view of a Demi-God. She could almost feel the radiating heat and energies. The forces that burst outward and the raw power of cosmic creation.

"And when stars die..."

The reincarnator whispered next as her voice grew tighter with a strange hybridization of sorrow and awe. Seeing something end that was unfathomably old was simply heartbreaking. But it was also the most terrifyingly beautiful thing she had ever witnessed in her last life.

"The most massive stars, many times larger than our sun, collapse under their own gravity. Their insides compress until the rest of it explodes in a display that throws out such light and energy that I don’t have words to describe... and leaves behind the dense remains that will grow dark with no more heat to prove its existence."

The blonde felt a shiver run down her spine, the images of a dying star searing itself into her mind - made even more powerful with the knowledge that the one sharing them had seen it with, if not her current eyes, her own from the past life. Qat’s eyes fluttered open to meet the mint green pools reflecting the stars above.

"El, I..."

A finger lifted up and touched the ’older’ girl’s lips. The young bride knew what was about to happen - what her darling wanted to do in this intimate moment - but she had a duty to continue.

’There is one final, important thing to describe.’