?chapter 617 felicia''s intangible gauntlets & alexandra''s reflection armor (part 5)

    ''a girl with a strong personality but a cute shy side, lucky you darling, said lilia from within the mind space as she saw alexandra isolating herself from the outside world. aster limited to chuckle, despite lilia''s positive words, the jealousy behind her voice was palpable, camila just joined them officially not too long ago and that possessive mother of his still hasn''t gotten over it, though camila has yet to stay with them.

    felicia also found the previous scene rather amusing, she giggled and then jumped out of the rock where she was sitting, landing a couple of meters away from aster.

    "how about we take our "date" some distance away from here, since a certain someone forgot to add a layer of spirit energy to her barrier, to prevent us soul path cultivators from basically see through it", jokingly said felicia.

    "ahhhh!", a startled shout came from within the black spherical barrier, where alexandra was hiding her red face from earlier, before a thick layer of dark gray spirit energy covered the thing, blocking felicia''s spirit sense from seeing through it, of course that only happened because she wasn''t really trying to spy on her.

    it''s worth mentioning that aster didn''t see alexandra''s embarrassed face, as he had already focused on felicia.

    "sure, your time your choice", said aster, the two of them then floated towards the cast, leaving the previous area for alexandra.

    while they were flying, aster couldn''t help but notice the curiosity shinning on felicia''s

    eyes.

    "you are going to burn a hole through my back if you keep looking at me like that, you know", he said.

    felicia chuckled, she skillfully made a few turns on the air, courtesy of the telekinesis she learned thanks to her soul cultivation, positioning herself in front of aster, sitting cross-legged while facing him, of course she didn''t stop advancing.

    "it''s just a silly question of mine, perhaps because the situation

    different than when tia

    tagged along in our previous date, but i noticed that besides that teasing bad habit of yours, you purposely try to anger some of us, the ones that aren''t your lovers if i must say, why?" she asked.

    ''for being a rather carefree person, she surely pays attention to the small details'', thought aster.

    ''humph, more like she pays attention to you, darling, mumbled lilia, aster scratched the back of his head, as he said.

    "dragonkin can develop many different special traits, most are of course battle oriented, but among them there is one that only male dragonkin who are highly talented in the

    energy path and dual cultivation, can awaken, "mystery", basically it makes the ones who obtain it, more attractive for women by adding a certain aura around them, normally this is tied to one''s cultivation meaning that for it to work the target must not be too strong or it could not only be resisted but also noticed and taken as an offense by the other party...", aster stopped there for a second before continuing.

    "however, in my case this isn''t tied to my cultivation but to my yang energy, and as you probably have already noticed, just being radiated by my yang is beneficial for you, so this "draconic charm" isn''t perceived as an attack unlike "mystery" so it can''t be resisted passively, unless the other party has an equally strong yin energy".

    yin and yang energies are a whole separated thing from spirit energy, besides using some rare resources like yin and yang accumulation crystals or similar stuff, the only way to increase them is either having been born with a body constitution oriented to it, or being a dual cultivator and for the latter there is a limit as to how much it can be increased.

    "this is actually something that i share with my mother, since she has a similar problem, however while yin by nature is stealthy, yang is the complete opposite so while my mother has the incredible ability to keep her real "self" hidden for others, i have no choice but to show off whether i like it or not".

    "to prevent annoying situations, i completely ignore girls with whom i''m not planning to relate at all to reduce the impact i have on them, for my lovers there is no problem as this only affects those who don''t have strong feelings for me already, but for allies and friends with whom i''m bound to interact often... well, i have to make them experience some small doses of negative feelings from time to time to not accidentally influence their mindsets", he said.

    let alone alexandra who was spying on their conversation, while believing that those two didn''t notice it, even felicia was surprised to the point that she forgot to keep flying and she nearly bumped into aster, luckily the latter reacted in time to stop a few centimeters away from her.

    as if a movie was rewound, the gray-haired mother remembered all the interactions that aster has had with her daughter and the others who aren''t his lovers, he had to take such measures into account and yet they didn''t seem planned at all.

    "this is in part why i took a couple of years to train back at the planet where i was born, until i learned how to keep this under control, luckily aria is not only resistant to it since she has a yin type body constitution but she could tell if my yang was being naughty", he jokingly added.

    it took felicia a moment to process everything, she couldn''t help but admire the playful fac?ade that the dragon youth put in front of everyone, not letting the others realize the effort he put in order to obtain real friends.

    ''someone who despite being able to obtain everything he wished handed to him the easy way, decided otherwise, no wonder you even got that unruly girl to be interested in

    you, she thought but then another doubt surged.

    "mm, now i just wonder why didn''t you tell them about it, i''m pretty sure they would understand it, you even got that stubborn daughter of mine to get along with you after all?" she said to which aster bitterly smiled.

    "it''s not like i am especially hiding it, more like you are the first to ask about it, that being said, i wouldn''t stoop as low as to want them to feel moved by something that should have been like that from the very beginning, and just like a certain someone who is spying on us while hiding inside that black spherical barrier, i despise those who mistreat their close ones over benefits".

    felicia nodded satisfied by aster''s answer, she then flew away at high speed while inviting him to follow her, not without thinking.

    ''i guess that if someone had to have those dangerous eyes, you would be the best choice''.

    oblivious to that, aster followed behind only for him to be obstructed by an invisible barrier put by felicia''s telekinesis out of nowhere, forcing aster to maneuver midair to avoid it, it was that or being forcefully dragged into an air bag created by the attraction property of her soul energy.

    aster heard felicia giggle at him from far ahead, she took the chance to put some distance between them.

    "i heard from tia that you used a "peculiar" telekinesis with her, so i wanted to see it for myself, also a bit of payback for playing with a young maiden''s heart-", she said. aster chuckled in response, his pupils turned into vertical ones and he was now able to see the mined field that felicia has created all over the air, felicia was one hard tricky opponent to take by surprise, anything affected by her soul energy would drag anything that has spirit energy towards it, and spirit sense does include spirit energy, so trying to detect her with it, would only alert her of your presence and also would be a waste of spirit energy, since your spirit sense would be distorted.

    luckily aster''s eyes could achieve a similar but more detailed result as spreading spirit. sense, with the difference that his range was more reduced, unless he combined both, but for this little obstacle game with felicia there was no need for that. aster focused his sight on felicia''s figure, then an invisible hand made out of telekinesis extended out of his body, aiming at her right foot, at the same time he accelerated towards her while zig zagging to avoid all the traps she left behind.

    of course, the now black-haired felicia as she had used her innate ability, heard aster increasing his flight speed, so she did the same or more accurately she tried to, before she suddenly felt a firm hand grabbing her right ankle before she was pulled backwards. "ahhh!", a startled exaggerated shout echoed through the air, making aster who was about to reach her, stop in cold wondering if he maybe pulled on her feet with too much strength, only to see felicia mockingly smile at him, her hand which was cladded in her soul condensed black clawed gauntlet, flashed towards her ankle and actually severed his soul energy which was holding onto her.

    "you won''t have it as easy as with tia-", she playfully said as she dived downwards, landing on the ground, leaving a slightly baffled aster behind, she actually feigned that scream to interrupt his chase and also finished the race earlier thus claiming the "victory" in this little game, sure it was cheating but a win was a win. "well, just like her attribute and innate ability she is certainly as opposite compared to tiana as one can be'', thought aster as he descended, landing in front of the victoriously

    smiling felicia.

    "was that shout necessary, you would have won anyway?", asked aster to which felicia

    shrugged in response.

    it is impossible for him to know what was felicia''s state that time, however based on

    what he witnessed, it should have been the case.

    "why the strange restrictions, is it similar to kana being put in dangerous situations by the damn heavenly law, as punishment due to proximity with spirit energy?", he wondered.

    it''s worth mentioning that said problem with the little girl, stopped after she met him,

    robert was the last idiot that kana had to face alone.

    "and here i was going to investigate that strange inner universe of yours to create an

    advance flaw for you, but you made one yourself so i guess this time you don''t need my

    help...", aster''s words were interrupted by felicia pouncing on him, tightly grabbing his shoulders.

    despite how fierce it sounded, don''t forget that aster''s body is ridiculously tough, so for

    him this wasn''t in any way startling, what took him by surprise was her expression of disbelief and... hope?

    "what did you say?", she slowly asked.

    "tiana must have told you about it, the "flaws" i can see with my eyes can mean an opportunity to improve, recently i learned that even if there aren''t any, i can instinctively feel where and how to make them myself", answered aster, this was something he obtained after helping rya with her fragmented soul.

    "then... did you feel a way to improve my inner universe?", she mumbled only for aster

    to shake his head in response.

    "it doesn''t work like that, a flaw is an opportunity, i don''t know what or how to take

    advantage of it by default, i have to study many aspects of the person in question to deduce the most viable answer and even then, ultimately i can only guide others to a certain point, whether they succeed or not is up to them", he said. countless thoughts flashed through felicia''s mind, but the light in her eyes didn''t diminish at all, she then realized how unrefined were her actions and slowly let go of

    aster, while helping him accommodate his shirt and taking a few steps back as she was

    too close. "ahem, sorry for that just like that poisonous pale girl and the ice princess, tia and me have an origin for our constitutions, in our dantian which included our inner universes, so i thought that maybe by improving it we could eliminate possible future troubles, but

    i''d rather reach at least the genesis manifestation realm before meddling with that, what do you think?". aster nodded in response.

    "no need to rush it, you created a flaw already and the one i can sense will for sure take

    way more time to be exploited, so it can be left for later, having more than one flaw at once is not possible advance but troubles to solve after all", he said. felicia happily smiled and then starting from her hands all the way to her biceps, her

    skin was cladded in her black soul condensed clawed gauntlets. "tia needed that glaive to use her technique properly, but i should be able to make do

    without one, of course if you have a nice pair of gauntlets to gift me later, i''ll be really happy-" aster bitterly smiled, he did have a pair of gauntlets for her, after all he has seen the pair of energy constitution mother and daughter, fight and train enough to create personalized spirit treasures for them, also he had the main material needed for her

    gauntlets thanks to a certain little snake which was sweetly sleeping in beast space inside that golden dragoon tattoo on the back of his hand.

    he craned his neck and with a wave of his hand, his incomplete black sword soul weapon

    emerged from the mind space, and twirled around his body as if to celebrate being taken

    out by aster.

    "tia and alexandra earned their gifts, let''s see if you can do it".

    with those words, those two flashed and their soul condensed weapons clashed,

    repelling each other.

    "clang!", their soul weapons were so solidly condensed, that they produced sparks and metallic sounds when clashing, while normally they would bypass physical barriers to harm the clash with energy ones in their pursuit of harming the soul of the target.

    "so that''s why tia started referring you as "stalker", i personally take it as a compliment. that you went through the hassle of making personalized equipment for me, i had to put so much effort in mastering soul condensation because none of the spirit blacksmiths i met on my travels could make me a weapon that could be used along with my innate

    ability".

    "it was easier to order a spear for tia since her ability is projected outwards unlike mine", she said as she sighed, not without forgetting to claw towards aster''s chest with her

    right hand only for the incomplete black soul sword to block it.

    but then she pointed her left palm towards him to use telekinesis and to send aste

    flying, but her soul energy was cancelled by aster''s one, since she was already used to the concept of mind and body synchronization unlike tiana, she could fight using both at the same time with ease, but still needed to practice with aster to take that last step.

    "again!", felicia felt the wall that has been frustratingly blocking her way, softening and contrary to her happy mood, she fiercely charged towards aster once again. meanwhile a few dozens of kilometers away, inside a black spherical object on top of a

    rock, alexandra was dying of curiosity while a single thought was being repeated in her

    mind.

    "what was that strange scream for!''.