Alice always felt incomplete whenever Ashen was away from her. Luckily for her, she'd discovered a trick of sorts to soothe her longing.
Closing her eyes, she dove into the inner visualization of her pathway. Before she even reopened them, she felt herself being engulfed in a tender embrace.
Her eyelids fluttered open, and the sight of Ashen greeted her. Unlike the current rugged, muscular man she knew, he was slimmer and had more boyish features. This version of him was no older than eighteen, but so was her current self.
This was a memory she dearly cherished: the day she and Ashen took each other's virginity, and also the representation of her Sin.
Without him, there was no lust to speak of, and without him, she wouldn't have even chosen this Sin.
Alice sighed in contentment as she felt him entering her, his movements almost cautious but still soothing.
In fact, at the start, even knowing when and where this memory came from, the visualization always stopped at the first moments of embrace. But the more she advanced on her pathway, the more the memory progressed… until it eventually became complete, and Alice knew she was ready to ascend.
It had been a while since she'd been ready, but unlike others who were allowed to advance immediately, she'd been asked to prepare the Ashbastion's defenses first.
The defenses of the fortress were simply much more important than the addition of another sixth-step pathwalker.
But now that she was finally done with that, she could finally ascend and look for her Ashen.
"System, you can start. I'm ready."
[Acknowledged]
[Step advancement initiated: Bound Siren (Step VII → Step VI)]
[Warning: Soul Resonance Required. Domain Knowledge 'Lust' Will Be Imprinted.]
Her mana flared without warning, and in response, nine tails appeared as her innate skill triggered on its own to combat the overwhelming need for mana control.
Zest—
At last, the mana got barely under control, but Alice didn't get a breather because 'Knowledge' assaulted her next.
An overwhelming slew of conceptual information hammered at her skull, and her brain could only interpret the knowledge as visions.
She saw a painter who harbored a forbidden desire for his mother, which he knew was wrong. He never acted, for he could simply not.
Instead, he poured that heat into his hands. Painting after painting, restlessly, relentlessly, obsessively—each canvas another attempt to map what he could not have.
His brush became a metronome for his longing: stroke, scrape, blend. Years stacked like layers of varnish until at last he produced one piece that did not age, that held desire like trapped light.
The image no longer needed him; it had become the thing he'd loved.
She saw a writer fall in love with an imagined woman whose habits he invented and whose small cruelties he excused.
He fed her life with sentences; he sacrificed meals, sleep, friends, years—all for the architecture of her days. He loved her so completely on the page that he kept rewriting her reality until the story outshone his actual life.
In the end, he'd given everything to make her real, but the outcome was a mere masterpiece. She did not exist beyond a book, but his own existence revolved around a fiction's gravity.
She saw a sculptor fall in love, but instead of courting her, he sculpted her. Statue after statue, each more exacting than the last; each iteration a refinement of fervor.
With every chisel-spark the original woman faded into history and the marble took on more truth than flesh ever could. He studied the curve of her mouth as if it were a problem to solve, and solved it endlessly until he no longer remembered which version had been alive and which had been conceived.
When he awoke from his obsession, the statue had long since surpassed the woman, and he realized that all his feelings had transferred to this perfect, uncomplaining, immortal sculpture.
She saw and saw and kept seeing. The visions did not abate.
King covets throne, mentor covets muse, painter worships hands, writer craves fiction, sculptor adores stone, baker cherishes curves, courtesan collects glances, soldier remembers touch.
Baker, carpenter, tailor, mason, smith, scribe, brewer, weaver, hunter, sailor, miller—one name spilling into the next until the roll of professions blurred and Alice couldn't see anything anymore.
Soon, the visions switched to things even more incomprehensible. Objects learning to be desired. From crowns and altars to keys and contracts. Structures starting to breathe…
In the end, her consciousness completely stopped trying to interpret the conceptual knowledge, but everything was still shoved deep into her unconscious mind.
SSssst—
[Soul Resistance Check: Passed.]
[You have taken another Step toward Ascension. Congratulations!]
[You are now a Step VI, Clockwork Muse.]
Alice's forehead was dampened in sweat, and she felt feverish, but she acted as if it were nothing and softly called out. "Status."
==============================
Name/Arrival date: Alice Sinclair - 2023/02/11
Sex/Age: Female/26
Height/Weight: 175cm/64kg
Current condition: Acute fever
Pathway: Step VI: Clockwork Muse
Thema: Automata
Affiliation: Atlas Defense/Creation Department/Wrath Domain.
Title: None.
[2. Traits]
—Determinant's Eye
—Cold Process
—The Fool's Constant
[3. Physical Level]
Strength: E+ | Endurance: E+ | Agility: E+
Perception: E+ | Stamina: E+ | Mana: E+
[4. Abilities]
4.1 Innate Powers:
—Nine-Tailed fox
4.2 Path Skills:
—Spark (Basic+)
—Fervor Compiler (Basic+)
—Mind Repository (Entry-)
—Fixation Mark (Entry-)
4.3 Other skills:
—Basic mana Cycle (Skilled+)
—Construct Forge (Skilled+)
—Construct Command (Skilled+)
—Mana Circuit (Skilled)
—Clean (Skilled+)
[5. Cognitive Depth (Thoughts, Mindset, Disposition)]
— Get this over with and see Ash / Patterned Reason/ Disciplined Passion
==============================
Alice swept her gaze across the status window. The most noteworthy thing was her E+ stats across the board—courtesy of Ashen's care.
"Hmm… Show me the new skills' descriptions."
She asked, outwardly nonchalant, but her mind was filled with her new epithet's possible meanings and how she was supposed to embody it.
==============================
Mind Repository
Create and maintain a mental memory palace that records sensory snapshots of voice timbre, gait, micro-gestures, phrases, and even scent-maps.
When trained, Mind Repository allows the recording of structured cognitive entries such as statements, diagrams, and stepwise derivations of proofs or procedures.
Capacity is finite; recording complexity scales with cognitive depth, causing extended or abstract data to consume disproportionately more space. Older entries degrade unless actively reinforced. Recordings cannot replicate inner intuition or fabricate unseen logical leaps.
==============================
==============================
Fixation Mark
Permanently designate one target that the host must feel lust towards.
Observing the target repeatedly builds a behavioral model: movement, speech, habitual timing, and tactical responses. Once sufficiently profiled, the model can be enacted by the host or uploaded into automatons to make them behave like the target.
Effectiveness scales with observation depth. Choice is irreversible; the Mark binds permanently
==============================
"So one skill basically gives me photographic memory but with some bonuses, as for the other…"
Alice's lips widened into a smile, and her impatience, which she'd been trying to bury under restraint, flared. "Fixation Mark… I like it. Being only able to mark one target may be a massive nerf for anyone else, but it wasn't like I'd feel lust for anyone but him, so it suits me just fine."
Any other regular Lust pathwalker would risk it all to mark the strongest being around them. Profiling someone more skilled and masterful would make them that much more deadly without having to do anything…
Anyone else with Cold Process for a trait would probably do the same, but Alice was a fool for Ashen. And when it came to him, no amount of logic or coldness could hold back her foolishness.
'Now, I have one more reason to see him…' She silently mused, her cool facade melting into a blissful smile as she imagined their reunion.
Fortunately for her, while Ashen was a mere fifth step, he was a hidden gem that would make putting the mark on him worthwhile in the long run… if he stayed alive to make it so, that is.
She faintly hummed. "One last thing before I leave…"
Closing her eyes, Alice returned to her Lust visualization space, and as expected, the previous visualization was no more.
…Instead, she found herself on her knees with her right cheek on the pillow. Her hands were pulled taut from behind. 'Oh. I know this memory.'
It didn't even take Alice a moment to realize what "intimate" moment the Sin visualization had chosen.
This was back when she was twenty-three, and Ashen had already turned into a lazy do-nothing man. Surprisingly enough, even during those moments, their bed activities never stopped.
Akidia, Ashen's mom, who was also her adoptive mother, had explained to her during the "talk" in her early teenage years that intimacy wasn't something you held back from your significant other to manipulate, no matter what you wanted.
She'd also told her that it was her duty as a woman to keep her man's balls always empty… so even when things got out of hand and fights escalated, somehow, Ashen still had enough mind to fuck her, and she still yielded with it, and even enjoyed it.
The bed activities, while they had their own flavor, ended up as what they coined "hate sex," even though there was no hate involved, but more irritation. Anyway, this memory was one of their more intense ones.
Alice observed that Ashen's features were mostly blurry in the visualization, indicating that her understanding of the current step was minimal.
'Well… another reason to quickly advance… I kind of want to relive this memory… haah~'
With a thought, she quit the visualization and slowly stood up. The fever was slowly but surely abating, but she didn't have any more patience to wait. She needed to see him now.
The process of finding him didn't take long when she could walk in and out of headquarters unrestrained and get answers for most of her questions.
The search had finally brought her to the Chapel, and even the brave nun who tried to block her turned timid with one sharp glare.
Click—
When she opened the door to the room where he was supposedly in, she understood why the nun had behaved that way.
"Ah!"
"Oh."
Her eyes took in the sight of her lover and best friend tangled in a messy kiss, and the sharp pang of hurt that she expected… did not come.
Was it because she'd already prepared herself for this sight? Or perhaps because it was Seraphine in his embrace and not a random stranger…?
'Or do I have some kind of strange fetish?' She wondered amusingly.
No… diving deeper into her own emotions, she discovered that it was simply because of how happy they seemed—even if that happiness was built on her exclusion.
She simply desired Ashen's happiness above all else and loved him too much to linger on jealousy and resentment.
Her mouth told a different story, though. "What do we have here…? The Saintess and the Sinner. A perfect combination. Now, only a tragic event is missing, and your story will turn into a masterpiece. Should I amend that, perhaps?" She tilted her head.
"Ally!! You're here too?!!" While Ashen's face stayed frozen in an awkward smile, Seraphine didn't even seem to register the biting tone.
Leaving Ashen's embrace as if he were an afterthought, she rushed to jump into Alice's arms. "I missed you so much!!!"
Alice could only helplessly open her hands to catch the airhead.
"What are you doing here?! Did they trick you into signing a contract, too? Oh my god, Ally, you can't be here, it's super dangerous!"
'Yeah… A bit too late for that, Sera. She was here before both of us.' Ashen shook his head.
"What's done is done now. Stop fussing about it, Sera."
"Oh." Seraphine instantly quieted, but not before muttering, "At least we're reunited now… I'm glad…"
"How about you answer a question of mine instead?" Alice lowered her voice and tightened her embrace. "Did you have fun seducing my man, hmm? My little slut of a sister."
Seraphine's face instantly paled as she finally remembered what she'd been doing… what she'd done… and with whom. "I'm… Sorry."
"Sorry? You didn't look sorry at all when you were all over him just now."
Ashen, who was spectating the strange sight of the two women in an intimate embrace but saying words that didn't match the suggested intimacy at all, decided it was about time to interfere.
Barging in on such an explosive atmosphere demanded a lot of guts, but if he'd learned one thing from his relatively short harem life experience, it was that the most important thing was to thicken your skin and be as shameless as possible!
"Girls, let's calm down, shall we?"
The moment he spoke, two sets of eyes turned toward him—one languid, almost nonchalant, while the other awkward and uncomfortable.
And he instantly understood the meaning behind both gazes: Don't interfere, it's between them.
"...Okay, I'll just stay quiet here…"
Alice cast him one last glance before refocusing on the "best friend" in her embrace. "So?"
"Uhh… I know he's yours, but I like him!"
Seraphine tried to think hard, but in the end, ended up blurting out something that only made it worse, and Ashen had to physically hold himself back from facepalming.
Pah—!
"If you like something, you snatch it even if it's not yours, you slutty rogue?!"
Seraphine felt her backside warm from the smack and her face reddened in humiliation, but she didn't release her embrace. "It's not snatching!" Her voice seemed to rise in response, though.
"Oh yeah? What then? Did you slip, fall, and coincidentally land on his dick?"
Alice was almost exasperated at this point, while Seraphine's reasoning had crashed somewhere along the way when the conflicting thoughts of not wanting to leave Ashen and not wanting to make Alice hate her started creating fireworks in her already flowery brain.
This made the already loose filter on her mouth loosen even further.
"No… It's borrowing! Yes, I just borrowed him… I always borrow things from you, Ally, you can't stay mad…" She then showed her the puppy eyes she usually employed when she wanted to borrow one of her heels.
"Oi… I'm still here, you know…"
"Shut up."
"Ash… not now…"
"...Yes, ma'ams…"
Both women went back to glaring at each other after shutting up the now-forgotten man. One looked stubborn while the other looked like she was about to unleash another butt slap.
"C'mon, Ally, you know my personality already… I can't be with any other man now… Please…"
Slap—!
"Keep quiet for a second." Alice had to wonder how seeing Seraphine kiss Ashen didn't rile her up as much as the current nonsense she was spouting.
If she didn't know her personality, she would have long found a way to bury her, saintess candidate or not.
Unfortunately, she did know what lay behind the slutty behavior… and more than that, Ashen had already claimed that he wanted this slut as his woman, and while she hadn't verbally agreed, they both knew she'd already silently consented.
This whole charade was just her letting off some steam and catching up with her best friend.
If she were really mad, she wouldn't have started with words.
"Haah… You're lucky for our circumstances, but once we're back to Esperra… see how I'll deal with you…"
"Does it mean that you agree? Yaay!!" Seraphine's hands snaked behind Alice's neck, making their breasts squish further as she started showering her cheek with pecks. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Alice, you're the best!"
'What a sight for sore eyes…' A certain man remarked by the side but didn't dare to open his mouth.
Alice, meanwhile, remained unimpressed. "Don't thank me yet. What's your current epithet, slut? Let's see if you really need to borrow anything at all."
"It's Keeper of Desire! And can you stop calling me a slut?"
"Heh. What should I call you then?"
"I don't know… maybe Ashen's slut? I'm not some random slut, after all."
'This little…' Alice started regretting her life choices, starting with the day she'd met this minx.
⛧⛧⛧