"So, what's the plan?"

This time for a change, Eve's head was on my lap and it was my fingers that played around with her hair.

"As I said, there is no way in which we could either go against or even attempt helping Makay. If it wasn't some kind of hallucination or some kind of superb technique to make me think he is way stronger than he really is, then unless I were to use my most powerful techniques, then we don't stand a chance against him."

Even with my bellowed fiance right at my lap, happy to cuddle with me as we were talking, my mood was still sour. What I thought to be the great opportunity or chance, turned out to be nothing more than something slightly more useful than damned trash!

How the heck was that supposed to be a reward for casting an apocalypse class spell? How was an ability to breathe life into a creation of mine something that was on par with releasing a power capable of splitting continents… or to be more realistic, islands in half?

"Dear, calm down. You are hurting my hair."

Hearing Eve's soft reprimand, I realised that just by thinking about this matter made me involuntarily tighten my first, pulling on the soft hair of my beloved.

"I'm sorry."

Relaxing my grip, rather than brushing through Eve's hair, I moved my hands a bit lower and started massaging her shoulders.

"You said that we can't go against him, but it's not like we intended to do something like this in the first place. But how can you tell that we won't be able to help him? Since the lord is so keen on hiding his strength, doesn't that mean that he is trying to prepare the trap against those who will go against him?"

With Eve's expression returning to the same relaxed one that she wore before I accidentally hurt her, I could once again focus on the topic of our discussion.

"You see, if he is hiding his strength, then that means that the enemy he expects to attack is powerful enough to endanger anyone who is as strong as he pretends to be. But as you might guess, even though I'm stronger than that and Makay is in reality even stronger than me, those differences are not as great as one might expect. Don't forget that one's skill also plays a huge role in the battle!"

Felling Eve's soft body giving way under the pressure exerted by my fingers, I couldn't help but start to get some frivolous thoughts. Even though we were going at it whenever either of us had even the slightest resemblance of the lust, I still couldn't get enough of either cuddling or making love with her.

Knock.

With our conversation still going, a sudden sound of someone hitting against the wood of the door broke our immersion, pulling our attention to the doors.

"Come in."

Even with the solid material blocking my sight, I could tell with my energy vision that it was Celleria waiting on the other side. But what I couldn't tell, was how broken her eyes looked like when she entered the place and showed her sobbing face!

"What happened?"

This time, it was Eve who sprung into action first. Instantly raising from my lap, she jumped at her step-sister, instantly enveloping Celleria in the soft embrace.

"He… He…."

Unable to properly articulate her words through her sobbing, the girl's knees gave up, pulling the two girls to the ground.

"Let me guess, something happened with Otto?"

It wouldn't take a genius to come to this conclusion. With how this local patrolman was the only one who visited this place so far, with how Celleria's eyes were lured to his body whenever he moved or spoke, it was given that the two of them would end up somewhere else during the time where I couldn't see her around this place.

The question now, wasn't who was responsible for Celleria's state, but what did he do to her in the first place?

"Y-yes… He… I thought he liked me… But when we ended up in his house…"

No matter how annoying she was, it didn't change the fact that for anyone else besides me and Eve, Celleria still had a fair bit of strength on her own. Seeing in how the broken state of mind she was in this current moment, I realised that this couldn't happen just because of something as stupid as heartbreak caused by the fleeting and momentary sympathy.

With this thought appearing in my mind, I properly scanned her entire body with my energy vision, even going as far as to repeat the same action with the aurastic vision. And in this one moment, I realised the gravity of the matter.

"Eve, I will be going out. I more or less know what happened."

Not even responding to my finance's questioning look, I simply walked out of the house while still trying to retain my calm, only to jump into sprint right when I was far enough from the house for it to not be endangered by my sudden change of momentum.

"How could I miss that…"

There was no denying this. The tinies element of Celleria's blood that she shared with Eve due to the two of them coming from the same father, was now gone. During the time of my quick inspection, I could tell that she had sex with Otto, but what stroke me even harder, was that it was from her womb that this lack of the immortal bloodline was spreading around her entire body like some kind of vicious curse!

With how I managed to grow by leaps and bounds by harvesting the yin essence of the various women, it was entirely possible that harvesting other aspects of one's cultivation could be possible just as well!

Yet, due to the change to my ego forced by the healing effect that Eve's presence had on me, I simply ignored anything that was even remotely connected to this aspect of the cultivation!