Void System: Every Heroine Makes Me Stronger

The bedroom door closed on the sound of settling stone.

A dull crack still carried through the pale wall, followed by voices moving somewhere in the damaged gallery. The Goddesses beyond Maerith’s boundary remained out of sight.

Severin followed Maerith to the washstand with his right hand empty at his side. His fingers closed once around the sword grip that was no longer there.

Blood had dried almost black along the right side of Maerith’s ivory gown.

"Sit," she said.

"You first."

She looked back at him. "Your hand is dripping on my floor."

"Your side is soaking through the dress."

Maerith reached for a folded cloth anyway. Severin took another, dipped it into the basin, and tried to close it over his left palm. Wet linen slipped through his bloody fingers and dropped into the water.

He caught it on the second try.

Fatigue sat behind his knees. His right shoulder throbbed when he raised the arm, and the old ache beneath his ribs returned when he bent over the basin.

Maerith stepped close and opened the torn cloth over his shoulder. Cool water touched the scrape. His muscles tightened.

"This needs binding," she said.

"So does yours. Turn."

"Severin."

"Turn around."

Her pause lasted one heartbeat. Then she obeyed.

The cut along her right flank remained raw beneath the torn gown. Varexia’s power had stopped widening it, but movement still pulled the edges apart. Severin drew the torn edges of the gown away from the wound, cleaned off the blood, and laid a folded strip of linen against bare skin. He passed the longer binding through the split cloth and around Maerith’s waist. His injured palm burned when he tightened the knot.

Her breath shortened.

"Too tight?"

"The wound pulled."

He moved the knot toward the front and tied it again. "Tell me when that changes."

"I will."

Maerith bound his palm and shoulder in turn. Fresh blood stopped reaching his wrist. The scrape still burned beneath the cloth, and nothing touched the weariness in his legs. She used the last clean cloth to wipe dried blood and arena grit from his chest and forearms; he did the same around the binding at her waist.

When they finished, Maerith set the stained linen beside the basin. "What happened to Varexia after she disappeared?"

"She died before the mist released her. Her body and soul stayed together long enough for me to take both."

Maerith’s green eyes sharpened. "Where?"

"Inside the power you couldn’t examine. It’s digesting her. Everything she carried is still sealed."

"Can she act from there?"

"I haven’t seen her move or answer." Severin flexed his bandaged hand. "That doesn’t prove she never could."

Maerith accepted the limit without dressing it up as certainty. "How long?"

"The first estimate was a little over 30 days. It may change if I do."

A low voice sounded somewhere beyond the bedroom. Severin could not make out the words. Maerith looked toward the closed door.

"They will expect an answer."

"They’ll get one after we decide what belongs to them."

Her gaze returned to him. "You kept Varexia from my Angels and the inner rooms. Thank you."

"You don’t owe me your body for it."

Maerith’s expression changed by very little. "I was not offering myself as payment."

"Good." Severin stepped away from the basin. "I kept the mist closed because I wanted Varexia dead, and because I wanted what she carried. I would have done the same if you hated me afterward."

"I know what you wanted."

"Then hear the rest. I want you as my wife."

Stone shifted somewhere far behind the wall. The sound died before Maerith answered.

"You have known me for less than an hour."

"I’ve seen enough. You admitted what your Trial cost me. You changed your plan when the facts changed. You fought instead of putting your Angels between you and Varexia." Severin stopped in front of her. "I know what I’m choosing."

"Earth has no route back for you. I cannot enter the Material World. What does wife mean when distance can become a law?"

"It means the distance doesn’t end it. This is my home when I can reach it. You’re my wife here or below."

"And when we disagree?"

"You tell me what I missed. You warn me when the danger changes. If waiting would cost lives or destroy what I need to know, act first and tell me after." His eyes held hers. "Then I decide what happens in our marriage and household."

"Wisdom is not decoration. My Angels are not yours to spend. This domain remains mine."

"Keep your office. Keep your Angels. Keep this place. I won’t pretend I know what you know, and I won’t command your people through ignorance." Severin moved close enough to feel her breath. "But after I hear the facts, you follow my decision where we are concerned."

"Including what the pantheon learns about the Void?"

"Especially that."

Maerith’s fingers rested against the new binding at her waist. "There is another term."

"I won’t have only 1 wife."

She looked at him for several quiet seconds.

"Do you know how many?"

"No."

"That answer is inconveniently honest."

"You would be first. No other woman enters this bed with me. None of them gains authority over your office, your Angels, or this domain because she marries me."

"My bed," Maerith said. "No other wife enters it. No woman claims Wisdom through you."

"Agreed."

Her thumb rubbed once across the binding. "You can take a Goddess into that darkness. What happens when loyalty becomes something else you can take?"

"Then you say it to my face." Severin lifted her chin with two fingers. "I’m asking now because I want your choice. Not gratitude. Not silence."

Maerith held his gaze. Her hand rose and settled over the dragon tattoo on the left side of his chest, where the torn shirt exposed it.

"I choose you, Severin Morcant, as my husband," she said. "I accept your leadership in our marriage, your control in private, and your final word in our household. I remain Goddess of Wisdom. I will warn you when your premise is false, report what you cannot know, and carry the duties that are mine."

"And after I’ve heard you?"

"I will obey."

The answer came without lowered eyes.

Maerith straightened despite the bandage around her flank. "I grant you standing welcome to my residence, my bedroom, and my arena. My office remains mine to bear. My Angels remain mine to command. In our marriage, I am yours."

Severin’s thumb crossed her lower lip. "I take you as my first wife. I won’t worship you. I won’t use your office as though it were mine. I’ll hear your counsel, carry the consequences of what I demand, and expect your obedience after I decide."

He let her chin go.

"Come here."

Maerith stepped into him.

"Look at me."

Her emerald eyes stayed on his while Severin kissed her.

She met the first contact with the restraint she had carried through the room. His right hand closed at her narrow waist. The other slid into her long golden hair despite the sting in his palm. Maerith’s lips parted. Her tongue touched his, careful for half a breath, then deeper when he pulled her against him.

He broke the kiss before the heat between them swallowed the last necessary fact.

"My hidden power can copy 1 of your Originals during this," he said. "It won’t take yours. I want the one that lets you think along many paths at once."

Her breathing had changed, but her answer remained exact. "Thousand-Thread Mind. Grade S. It divides cognition into exactly 1,000 identity-bound threads and reunites their conclusions without dividing the self."

"That’s the one."

Severin selected the name.

Then he kissed his wife again.

This time he took her mouth and drove her backward until the bed touched her calves. His hand moved from her waist to the torn seam of her gown and pulled. The split ran downward beside the binding, leaving the linen untouched.

Fabric tore with a soft rip.

Ivory cloth slid from her shoulders. Her full, heavy breasts spilled free, warm ivory skin bright against the bloodstained gown. The movement made them sway before they settled against her chest. Severin filled his palm with one. Soft flesh pressed between his fingers. The nipple hardened beneath his thumb.

Maerith drew a sharp breath through their kiss.

He lowered his mouth to her neck, then farther. His tongue circled one pink nipple before he sucked it between his lips. Maerith’s back arched. Her fingers tightened in his hair.

"Ngh... Severin."

He pulled until the swollen peak slipped free with a wet sound, then took the other breast. Her breathing grew quicker while he licked, sucked, and squeezed the soft weight in his hands. When she tried to keep the next moan behind closed lips, he bit lightly around the nipple and felt her whole body jolt.

"Don’t hide it."

"I was attempting to remain composed."

"Stop."

A faint, almost offended look crossed her face. It broke when his thumb rolled over the nipple he had left wet.

"Ah..."

Severin turned her toward the bed.

The loosened gown hung from her hips. He gripped her ass through the thin ivory cloth. Both cheeks filled his hands, soft, round, and heavy enough to make his fingers sink in.

He lifted one hand.

SLAP!

The slap cracked through the bedroom. One plump cheek flattened beneath his palm, spread, then rippled back into shape under a red mark. Maerith gasped. Her hips pushed backward before she could hide the response.

Severin squeezed the marked flesh once.

"You liked that."

Her voice came lower. "I did not say otherwise."

He turned her to face him. "Bed. Edge."

Maerith sat where he placed her, then lay back without compressing her wounded right side. Severin tore the remaining seam below the binding and peeled the ruined gown down her long legs. It fell beside the bed in a pale, bloodstained heap. Her thin undergarment followed, damp enough to cling before he drew it past her knees and dropped it over the gown.

Her thighs opened under his hands.

Golden hair spread across the linen. Her breasts rose and fell with each faster breath. The Goddess of Wisdom looked at him without hiding any part of herself.

Beautiful. Mine.

Severin lowered his mouth to her breast again while his right hand moved between her legs. Heat and wetness met his fingers. He parted the slick outer lips of her pussy and rubbed slowly through the creamy moisture already coating them.

Maerith’s hips lifted.

"So wet already," he said.

Color warmed her cheeks. "You are being crude."

"You chose a crude husband."

His middle finger pressed into her tight entrance.

"Nghn..."

She clenched around him at once. Severin pushed deeper, withdrew, then added a second finger. Her pussy stretched around both, hot and slick, while his thumb found her clit and circled the swollen nub.

Maerith’s legs tightened around his wrist. A restrained moan became a higher sound when he curled both fingers inside her.

"S-Severin..."

"Open wider."

She obeyed. One leg shifted farther over the edge of the bed. The other remained bent away from the bandaged flank. Her hand reached toward his injured shoulder, stopped, and gripped his uninjured arm instead.

Still thinking. Even now.

He worked his fingers faster. Wet sounds came from between her thighs. Her breathing lost its measured pace. Her full breasts swayed each time her hips followed his hand, nipples still glossy from his mouth.

"Ahh... wait."

Severin did not stop. He slowed just enough to make the next pressure deliberate.

"That wasn’t an order."

Maerith’s eyes widened. Then her body gave him the answer before her voice did. Her thighs spread farther. Her hips lifted into his palm.

"No," she breathed. "It was not."

He withdrew his fingers and raised them to her lips.

"Clean them."

Maerith looked at the slick shine on his fingers, then at him. Her mouth opened. She drew both fingers between her lips and sucked them clean with slow obedience, green eyes fixed on his.

The sight hardened him further.

Severin pulled off his boots, stripped away the remains of his shirt, and pushed his trousers down. The loose bandage around his calf stayed tied. His right shoulder pulled when he bent, so he straightened and stepped back between her thighs.

His cock sprang free, thick, hard, and wet at the head. It rose heavy against his stomach.

Maerith’s gaze dropped. Her lips parted.

"That may require care," she said.

"You’ll take it."

Her eyes returned to his. "Yes."

Severin caught her left thigh with his bandaged hand and kept the other at her hip, away from the wound. He dragged the swollen head of his cock through her wet pussy. Creamy slickness coated him. Each pass over her clit drew another small movement from her hips.

"Ngh... put it inside me."

The rest of the sentence never arrived.

Severin set the head at her entrance and pressed forward.

Her outer lips spread around him. Tight heat closed over the first inch. Maerith’s breath stopped. Her fingers twisted in the linen as he pushed deeper, slowly forcing her slick walls to stretch around the thick shaft.

"Severin..."

"Look at me."

Her eyes found his.

He kept entering. Her pussy gripped every inch, wet enough to let him move and tight enough to drag against him. The pressure made her back arch and her heavy breasts roll toward him.

Fuck. Tight.

Severin drove deeper until the binding at her right side shifted.

"My flank."

He changed the angle of her hips, lifted the left thigh higher, and kept his other hand below the wound. "Now?"

"Better."

He pushed the rest of the way in.

His hips met hers with a wet clap. Maerith cried out. Her body stretched around the full length of him, the pressure driven so deep that her eyes widened as though it had reached the mouth of her womb.

Severin held still for only the breaths her body needed to loosen around him. Then he pulled halfway out.

Her inner walls clung to his cock, dragging along the shaft before he thrust back in.

CLAP!

Her breasts bounced. Her hips jolted in his grip. A full moan escaped her.

"Ahhn... Severin."

He did it again.

The bed creaked beneath them. Wet skin struck wet skin. Each thrust buried him to the base and sent a heavy sway through her breasts before they bounced back. Maerith wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him closer, taking him deeper while Severin kept the angle off her wound.

"Eyes," he said when hers fluttered shut.

They opened at once.

He watched the control leave her piece by piece. Her careful breathing became panting. Her fingers abandoned the linen and reached for him. One hand closed on his forearm. The other gripped his hip and tried to pull him into the next stroke before he chose it.

Severin stopped with only the head inside her.

Maerith made a broken sound. Her hips moved after him, seeking the rest.

"Who sets the pace?"

Her cheeks were flushed now, green eyes bright and unfocused around the edges. "You do."

"Then take what I give you."

He slammed back into her.

"Ahh!"

The impact drove her hips into the mattress. Her breasts jumped high, soft flesh rolling under its own weight before settling into the next thrust. Severin closed one hand around a breast and squeezed while the other held her thigh open.

He fucked her harder.

The room filled with the slap of their bodies, the mattress creaking, and Maerith’s moans breaking apart beneath it.

"Nghnn... Severin... ah..."

"So tight," he said. "Your pussy doesn’t want to let me go."

Embarrassment crossed her face even while her hips followed him. "Do not... say that."

"You can barely speak, and you’re still correcting me."

"I am... Goddess of... ahh!"

His next thrust erased the title from her mouth.

Severin drove in short, hard strokes that kept his cock deep inside her. The slick walls clenched harder around him. Cream gathered where their bodies met and spread across his shaft each time he withdrew.

His bandaged palm burned against her thigh. His shoulder stabbed whenever he leaned too far. Fatigue dragged at both legs. He kept the pace anyway, controlling each thrust instead of letting momentum choose for him.

Maerith’s moans rose with it.

"Ahn... ngh... Severin... more."

"Say it clearly."

Her eyes locked on his. "Fuck me harder."

The words came precise despite the broken breath.

He gave her exactly that.

He gripped her hips and drove into her with enough force to make the bed strike the wall. Once. Twice. Again. Her breasts bounced wildly now, pale heavy flesh rolling through his fingers when he caught one. Her legs tightened until her heels pressed into his back.

"S-Severin... I cannot..."

"You can take it."

"Nghnn... yes."

Her pussy began to pulse around him. Severin felt the first contractions before the rest of her body broke. Maerith’s back arched. Her head pressed into the linen. A sharp cry tore out of her as her thighs locked around his waist.

"Severin!"

The tight, wet heat clenched in repeated waves, squeezing his cock hard enough to drag his own release closer. Her eyes lost focus. Her breasts trembled and then went still for one breath while the rest of her shook beneath him.

Severin held the angle and gave her 3 more deep thrusts through the contractions.

On the last, he buried himself to the base.

His cock throbbed inside her. Hot cum spilled in thick pulses, driven deep while Maerith’s pussy continued to clench around him. She gasped at the first release, then moaned his name again as each spurt filled her with more heat.

Severin stayed buried until the last pulse passed.

For several breaths, neither spoke. Her legs remained around him while their breathing and the faint creak of the bed replaced every other sound.

Maerith’s fingers loosened from his arm.

"My husband," she whispered.

Severin withdrew slowly. Her pussy clung to him until the swollen head slipped free. A thick line of white semen followed and ran between her flushed lips onto the linen.

He drew Maerith farther onto the bed and lay beside her. Her back settled against his left side, leaving her wounded right flank clear and his injured shoulder unloaded. He checked the binding at her waist. The knot had shifted but held.

Maerith’s breathing steadied against his chest. One of his hands remained beneath her breast, its warm weight filling his palm.

"The others will never enter this bed," she said.

"No."

"And when I warn you?"

"I’ll listen."

"Then I will obey what follows."

Her hand covered the dragon tattoo over his heart.

A message formed in his mind.

[Skill Copy successful.]

[Skill Grade: S — Transcendent Skill]

[Skill Name: Thousand-Thread Mind]

[Void Imprint recorded.]

Understanding opened without practice. Exactly 1,000 possible threads waited behind one mind, each limited to what he already knew and sensed. Severin left them untouched.

A second change followed.

Heat entered through every place Maerith touched him. It crossed skin, sank through muscle, and reached something deeper than his Core Essence. The bedroom did not change, yet the divine area settled around him differently. What had tolerated him now made room for him.

His breath locked. The reservoir inside him widened with a sudden pull. The familiar depth beyond it answered at once, filling the new space until the pressure leveled.

The scrape in his shoulder still hurt. His palm still burned beneath the cloth. The ache under his ribs remained.

Maerith pushed herself upright on one elbow, green eyes fixed on him. "Severin."

"What?"

She placed her hand over his heart. "You are a Half-God."

He felt no new Skill and no change in Rank. Only a different weight to his own existence and a path through the divine area that had not been there before.

Severin checked Varexia.

[Digestion Target: Varexia]

[Digestion Progress: 0.10%]

[Estimated Time Remaining: 16 days, 9 hours]

The captured presence remained sealed. No skill, memory, or fragment answered him.

"The estimate changed," he said.

Maerith watched him. "Because you changed."

"From 30 days to a little over 16. Nothing inside her is available."

A knock sounded beyond the closed bedroom door.

Maerith reached for the discarded gown. Severin caught the cloth before she could twist across the bound flank.

"My Goddess," an Angel called from the other side. "The others are asking whether Varexia still exists, and where she has gone."