WIEDERGEBURT Act VII: Chapter 30

Riesener was huge—even for a Lightning Giant. If I had to guess, I would have said he was at least sixty meters tall.

With a howl that sounded akin to a storm, he raised his hands high above his head, and a massive wellspring of Spiritual Power so thick I could practically see it covered the entire chamber. I didn’t know what he was planning, but the hair on my arms and neck were prickling. He clenched his gigantic hands that could crush humans like ants into fists.

The earth shook. I bent my knees to avoid falling. Siv screamed as she fell into me. Kari, Fay, Lin, and Siv all looked up, prompting me to follow suit as I wrapped an arm around Siv to steady her.

I was just in time to watch as several massive chunks of earth plummeted toward us.

My eyes widening, I let Siv go and leapt into the air, drawing my fist back and throwing it forward. My punch pulverized a large chunk of stone. Not that it mattered. There was so much falling rock that simply destroying one would never be enough.

Siv’s eyes glowed silver as she held out her hands. Spatial distortions appeared in the air around me before they coalesced into a swirling vortex that sucked all the rocks in. I landed back on the ground next to Siv as she swayed, but most of my attention was taken up by the massive hole in the mountain.

I could now see the sky.

I could also see the massive storm brewing.

“That does not look good,” I said.

“It does look very bad, and I’m afraid the situation is worse than that.” Kari pointed at our resident Great Overlord. “He looks like he’s itching for a fight.”

We all looked at the Great Overlord of the Third Realm. He was staring right at us, his eyes the same red as a Sekbeist’s. That was the surest sign that his body had already been taken over by the Sekbeist Overlord, though he seemed to lack intelligence, as he didn’t speak. My best guess was that because what had taken over him was just a limb, it did not have the mental capacity to do more than corrupt him.

“Tora? Tora! Snap out of it!” Fay suddenly shouted.

I looked over to see that Tora was completely healed, but she wasn’t responding to Fay’s words. Her eyes were glazed over. In other words, the monster core lamp was turned on, but there was nobody at home.

“Damn. Siv, I need you to take Tora somewhere safe,” I said. “Come back as soon as you can. Kari, Fay, Lin, and I will try to hold Riesener off until you return.”

“Okay.”

Siv ran over to Tora and Fay, picked up Tora, and flew into the sky. Riesener tracked her with his eyes and roared like he was angry that she had decided to leave. He aimed his hand at her and clenched it into a fist.

Lightning descended from the sky, but I swept out my arm and created an incredibly pure partial-sphere shield above Siv’s head. The lightning struck the shield and dissipated. Water only conducted electricity if there were impurities in it.

Since I didn’t want Siv being targeted, I stomped on the ground, pushing my Spiritual Power into the stone floor, which split open. A chasm formed. It grew larger, opening a gaping hole underneath Riesener’s feet, though this literally did nothing. I soon realized our opponent wasn’t actually standing. He was floating above the ground.

Perhaps it was my attack that attracted his attention. He turned to me. Roaring, he aimed his hand at me.

I thought he was going to fire another lightning bolt, but then a black tear opened in front of me. I tried to dodge. I was too slow. A bolt of black lightning tore from the dimensional crack and slammed into me. I think I screamed, but I had no way of knowing. The world around me went black as my mind was overridden with pain.

When I came to, my body was embedded into a wall. I blinked several times to regain my bearings. A large rumbling caused my attention to shift back to the large chamber, where Kari, Lin, and Fay were battling against Riesener.

It was really quite something.

Kari was meeting lightning with water. She seemed to have the same understanding I did, that the lightning would be ineffective so long as the water was pure. She was acting as a shield for Lin, who had created an intense black flame over her hand and was feeding it power. While Kari acted as a shield and Lin prepared an attack, Fay was right in front of Riesener’s face. She kicked him in the face so hard that he stumbled back. Sadly, all this seemed to do was make him angry.

I grimaced as Riesener moved faster than Fay anticipated and smacked her away, his hand coated in black lightning. Fay went flying like I did, slamming into a wall, plowing through it, and disappearing out the other side. With her out of the way, Riesener turned his attention on Kari and Lin.

Not on my watch.

Placing my feet on the wall, I channeled Spiritual Power into my feet and blasted off. I felt like a Spiritual Technique as I was launched toward Riesener so quickly it took no time at all to reach him. I only had a moment to attack, though, so I stuck out my fist and coated it in death energy. The black energy engulfed my entire arm as I slammed it into Riesener’s face.

Riesener’s face cracked as he stumbled back. I pushed off him and landed on the ground behind Kari and Lin. It looked like Lin was already finished readying her attack. The black flames looked thick, like she’d condensed it many times. I could feel no heat from this fire. Just a chilling cold.

“Take this!”

Lin threw her flame at Riesener, who did not seem like he could dodge the attack in time, and yet, just as I thought the flames would explode in his face, he disappeared in a flash of lightning. The flame struck the wall. A black sphere of power expanded to nearly ten meters before disappearing, leaving behind a gaping hole in the wall that was shaped like a perfect circle.

“Damn it! This princess missed!”

“Look out!”

I sensed the fluctuating Spiritual Power first and responded by shoving Kari and Lin out of the way. Then I lifted my hands and created a shield made of life and death energy. At that exact moment, a dark portal opened up and black lightning rained down from above. I gritted my teeth so hard I could taste blood on my lips. My knees threatened to buckle under the power of Riesener’s assault. I soon fell onto a knee, veins pulsing on my arms and neck as the lightning continued to rain down on my shield.

And then it stopped.

I was so shocked that I stumbled forward. Righting myself, I stood—or I tried to stand. A foot suddenly appeared in front of my vision. It struck me so hard in the chest that I thought I could hear all my ribs shattering like twigs.

“Eryk!” Kari shouted as I flew backward.

I hit the ground hard, bounced, and quickly righted myself so I landed on my feet and not my back. The water element flowed through my body, healing and soothing me. I also summoned an alchemy pill and popped it into my mouth. That would help a little.

“Eryk! Are you okay?” asked Kari as she and Lin came over to me.

“I’m fine,” I said. “Where is Riesener?”

There was no sign of him as I looked around, which I found strange. He had just kicked me hard enough to break my entire ribcage.

Kari shook her head. “He’s hiding in another dimension, I think. When he kicked you, all I saw was his foot.”

“That’s just great,” I grunted. “And Fay? How is she?”

Lin bit her lip. “We do not know. She has not emerged from beyond the wall.”

That worried me. I wanted to go and check on Fay, but I didn’t think Riesener would let us do that. He would attack the moment we let our guard down, of that I was sure.

“Do you have a plan?” asked Kari.

“I wish. I’m not sure how to find someone who can hide in another dimension,” I muttered.

At that moment, I sensed fluctuations of Spiritual Power above us. Kari and Lin sensed it too. We all dodged out of the way as a giant fist slammed into the ground where we had been standing. It retracted so quickly we couldn’t attack it, disappearing into the swirling black vortex, which vanished itself moments later.

“Damn it. If only we had someone with us who mastered the Concept of Dimension,” I said.

Fay was studying how to use the Concept of Dimension under Fray, and she had even managed to touch it, but that was a long way from achieving mastery. She could not yet use it reliably in combat. In truth, I should have sent her away the moment Riesener’s seal broke.

“Then perhaps you can use my assistance,” someone said.

At that moment, a portal appeared on our left and a leg shot out, swinging in a wide arc toward us. Kari, Lin, and I were about to jump away—when a spinning black disc appeared in front of us. The foot slammed into the disc as though to kick it away. It received an incredibly unpleasant surprise, however, when the disc sliced off its big toe.

The foot retracted back into whatever dimension it came from. At the same time, someone stepped through a portal that had formed next to us. It was Chloe, and she had brought Siv back with her.

“Siv, is Tora safe?” I asked.

Siv nodded. “She is at the Whiterun Hot Springs.”

“That’s about as safe as she’ll get right now,” I said with a sigh, then focused on Chloe. “Can you drag Riesener back into our dimension?”

Chloe thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Riesener is hiding within the tenth dimension right now.”

“And what is the tenth dimension?” asked Kari.

“It is a single point that represents all the possible branches of ever possible timeline of all the potential universes. According to a theory proposed many eons ago, the tenth dimension is made up of vibrating superstrings, which create subatomic particles that make up not only our universe, but all universes. Of course, this theory itself was debunked, but it is true that the tenth dimension allows someone to view every possible timeline of our current realm. I’m sure that right now, Riesener is viewing each timeline and choosing the one that gives him the best chance of killing us,” Chloe explained.

What Chloe said made no sense to me, but I only possessed the smallest grasp on the Concept of Dimension. What she proposed was simply too far outside of my understanding.

“Do not forget, the concepts I have mastered are Time, Space, and Death. I only know what I just told you because Lady Fray taught me about it.” Chloe shrugged. “I’m mostly just paraphrasing her.”

“Well, shoot,” I grunted. “In that case, how can we get him to leave his dimension?”

“We need… cough cough… we need to present him with a timeline in which he believes he has a chance at winning,” someone said to my left. We all turned and found a certain redhead stumbling toward us, blood running down her head, though it appeared the wound had mostly healed over.

“Fay!” I shouted. “I’m glad you’re okay. I was worried.”

Fay smiled at me as she limped over. “Thank you for your concern. It will take far more than a single punch to defeat me.”

“You were saying something about presenting him with a timeline that he believes he has a chance of winning.” Chloe gestured toward her. “How do we do that?”

“By reaching into a higher dimension and manipulating it to present him with a false image of his victory,” Fay said.

I didn’t really understand what she meant, but I wasn’t about to ask. Now was not the time.

“Can you do it?” I asked.

“I’m certainly going to try,” Fay responded with a wry smile. “You’ll have to protect me while I work though. I haven’t gone beyond the fourth dimension yet, so I don’t know what will happen when I try to reach into the eleventh dimension.”

Fay sat down, and we formed a circle around her. I wasn’t sure what to expect as her Spiritual Power began vibrating at what seemed like a very high frequency, but I got a bad feeling when cracks began forming around us. Something felt wrong about all this.

“Something is coming out!” Chloe suddenly shouted.

I remember how, the few times I had seen someone use the Concept of Dimension, there would occasionally be strange beings on the other side. What appeared before us now was one of those creatures.

It looked nothing like I expected. Covered in a layer of grotesque flesh with boils and warts all over, this monster looked like a kind of disgusting fish monster. Tentacles protruded from its body at odd angles, writhing, slithering, dripping with mucous or some other viscous fluid. Its hollow eyes were pitch black. A mouth filled with rows of decrepit teeth and a face not even a mother could love greeted us.

The thing lashed out with one of its tentacles, but I severed it with the light element. The creature flailed backward. That was when Kari burst forward, creating a ransuer and impaling the creature through the face. Blood exploded out of the wound when Kari removed her weapon and leapt back. Horrid howls and pained shrieks echoed from the monster as it fell to the ground, writhing and twisting before it shriveled up.

“What… is that?” asked Lin.

“An inter-dimensional monster,” Chloe said. “I do not know its name, but I have seen Lady Fray summon several before. She said they are creatures from another dimension who wish to invade our own dimension.”

“Whatever they are, there are more of them coming!” I shouted.

Indeed, several more black dimensional portals were opening up and more of these creatures were emerging from them, tentacles flailing.

The five of us flew forward and attacked these creatures, slaughtering them with claws, fists, whips, spears, and rulers.

Siv swung her clawed hands, which were now large and covered in scales. Spatial tears ripped into putrid flesh. Black blood oozed along the ground as she killed them by the droves.

Lin slapped her tail against the ground, summoning several dozen earth spikes, which impaled one of the creatures, punching multiple holes in its body. She then lashed out with her whips, tearing into the monsters that were further out. I noticed she didn’t use the Concept of Negation. I wondered if she was saving it for when she needed it, or if maybe she was afraid of using it.

Kari and Chloe were working side by side. Spinning the light spear around in her hands, Kari sliced through the bodies of several fish creatures. Meanwhile, Chloe was severing everything around them with precisely timed strikes of her sword. Unlike Siv, whose attacks created visible ripples, Chloe’s attacks looked like perfectly normal sword slashes. Only someone with keen senses would be able to tell she had created an incredibly fine spatial blade.

I backed up several steps as one of those monsters came at me, raised my ruler above my head, and brought it down. The death energy tore into the creature, splitting it down the middle. I held out my hand and blasted the two halves with fire. The smell of burning flesh filled my nose. It was awful, but the result was the fish monster turned to ash.

Looking back to see how Fay was doing, I gasped in shock when I saw blood running down her ears, mouth, and nose.

“Fay! Something’s wrong with Fay!”

Chloe looked back as well during a brief moment of respite and grimaced. “It looks like she is pushing herself. It’s common knowledge that trying to exceed one’s abilities is incredibly damage. If she keeps this up, it might leave a sequela that she can’t recover it from.”

“Then we should stop her!” Siv shouted.

“We cannot.” Chloe shook her head. “That might be even more damaging than if we let this happen.”

I swore. This was one of those damned if we do, damned if we don’t situations if I had ever seen one. Since we couldn’t do anything for Fay, we tightened our guard around her and fought against the extra-dimensional fish monsters.

I’d long since lost count of how much time passed. Minutes? Hours? Days? It all seemed like a blur to me.

Fay’s situation became worse the longer she traveled through dimensions. Blood began pouring out of her eyes, she lost control of her bladder, and her body turned pale, frail, and weak. Yet we could do nothing for her except protect her.

I hated it.

When Fay finally collapsed, I lost it and rushed over to her. I ignored the blood, the smell, and everything else as I lifted the woman into my arms. She was so limp. Her head lolled against my chest.

“Fay! Fay!” I shouted.

Fay cracked her eyes open. They were bloodshot. Her lips peeled back in a grin, and I felt my heart constrict when I saw how stained with blood they were.

“He’s… coming…” she said before fainting.

“Shit! Shit shit shit! Everyone! I need you to protect me while I heal Fay! Riesener is coming!”

The women with me all nodded as they closed ranks. A black portal suddenly opened several meters away, and Riesener stepped out, his blood red eyes narrowing at us as a nasty grin spread across his face.

Riesener thrust out his hand and black lightning shot forward. I now understood this was some kind of dimensional lightning, though I didn’t know much more.

Chloe stepped in front of us and moved her hands clockwise and counterclockwise to create a circle. A portal opened up before her, the lightning flew in, and the portal closed.

Siv and Kari rushed forward, one leaping into the air, and the other traveling along the ground. Riesener tracked Kari as she ran along the stone floor. He fired bolts of dimensional lightning at her, but she zigged and zagged to avoid each attack. She moved even faster than she could when using the Flash Step. It was like she was stopping time in short bursts to avoid each attack.

While Kari was keeping Riesener busy, Siv flew high above his head and descended. Her left leg transformed into a massive dragon’s leg as she flipped around. A thunderous boom echoed around us as she slammed her heel on top of Riesener’s head, forcing the man to his knees and causing the ground around him to shatter.

Before Riesener could retaliate, Kari was in front of him, stabbing him in the chest with her ranseur. His body froze in that moment. Runes appeared around him, spreading from Kari’s weapon to cover every inch of his body. It was a time lock created from a rune array rather than pure time manipulation.

That was the moment when Chloe acted again. She stepped through a portal as a connecting one opened in front of Riesener and swung her sword. I was sure she wanted to remove a leg, but while Riesener’s body appeared to be frozen in time, his ability to use Spiritual Power had not. A dimensional barrier appeared in front of him. Chloe’s sword slammed into the barrier but didn’t break it. She was also forced to leap back with Riesener shattered the rune array with a roar.

And then a black flame exploded in his face. Lin had thrown it. He screamed and placed his hands over his face. I thought that might do him in, but then, much to my shock, the black flames disappeared inside of him. His muscles bulged. The already visible veins became even more prominent. It was like he’d suddenly become buffer.

“Did that just make him strong?!” shouted a shocked Lin.

“Lin! Don’t use the Concept of Negation anymore!” Kari commanded.

“This princess won’t!”

I stopped focusing on the battle to heal Fay, who was looking worse and worse as time went on. She had lost a lot of blood, her Spiritual Power had been depleted to practically nothing, and her vitals were all functioning erratically.

With one hand pressed firmly to her chest, the first thing I healed was her heart, which was the most important organ of all. Anything else could be restarted, even her brain. However, if her heart stopped beating or got destroyed, she would not be able to heal from that.

To further prevent her from dying, I infused her body with life energy. Her body tried to reject my energy at first. I gnashed my teeth together and forced more life energy into her. Another moment passed before, slowly, her body began sucking in the life energy. It didn’t nourish her, but it would keep her alive.

I summoned several pills next, popped them one by one into my mouth, and fed them to her. The first was a Plasma Pill, then the Spiritual Recovery Pill, and finally the Physical Enhancement Pill. Each one served a specific purpose. One restored lost blood, another restored lost Spiritual Power, and the last would help reinforce her physical body while I healed her.

Finally, I channeled the water element through her body, healing all the damage done to her. I healed one organ at a time, starting with her brain, then her lungs, kidney, and liver. These along with the heart were vital for survival. I mended her bones and less vital organs after that. Once I was certain her body was stable, I laid her on the ground and looked at the battle.

Kari, Siv, Lin, and Chloe were darting around Riesener’s legs, presenting hard to hit targets that confounded the Lightning Giant. He roared and screamed in rage. Lightning rained down from the sky and tried to strike one of the women, but none of them hit.

I glared at him. Standing to my feet, I began gathering all the Spiritual Power I could muster and expelled it outward through my left hand, which I clenched into a fist. A ruler appeared in my hand. It was blacker than anything I had ever made. This weapon, which was about two meters in length, was created from death energy that had been condensed and folded several thousand times.

With sweat forming on my brow, I hefted the weapon over my shoulder, grabbed it by the blade, and waited for the perfect chance to attack.

Kari slammed her foot into the underside of Riesener’s chin, snapping his head back.

Siv struck him with a reverse heel kick to the back of his head. He stumbled forward.

Lin wrapped her tail around one of his legs and yanked, forcing him to take a knee.

Then several white threads of light wrapped around him, locking him in place, though he tore apart those spatial threads as quickly as they formed.

I waited for a second longer, blinked, and threw the ruler with all the strength I could muster. The weapon flew forward like a streak of black. It plunged into Riesener’s chest, exploded out his back, and became buried up to the hilt. My aim was true. Through my connection to it, I could sense that my attack had pulverized his heart.

Riesener stopped moving the moment my weapon impaled him. His raised hand, which had been prepared to try and squash Chloe, slowly lowered. His shoulders slumped. Then he pitched onto his side, the ground shaking.

He was dead.

However, my attack did not end there.

My ruler broke apart, but the death energy did not scatter and instead spread across his body, causing an ugly black discoloration to appear on his flesh. Swells and blisters soon formed. Some of them popped and strange fluid gushed out. Then his body began withering. It grew thinner and smaller, becoming shriveled before, just like what happened with Ask, his body dissolved.

“Did… we win?” asked Lin uncertainly.

“I think so,” Kari said, half-smiling. “Though I am almost expecting him to come back.”

“I know what you mean,” Chloe said. “We was a fierce foe. I can fully appreciate how powerful the Great Overlords were now that I have fought two of them. They are true paragons of their race.”

Sighing as the women talked, I knelt beside Fay and lifted the woman into my arms. She felt too light. Even though I was able to stabilize her, I was still intensely worried for her safety, and would be until she woke up and I could confirm that she would recover.

“Hey,” I called out to everyone. “Let’s head back to the Whiterun Hot Springs. I’d like to get Fay into a bed, and we should check up on Tora as well.”

I also wanted to sleep, but that wouldn’t happen until Fay woke up.

***

It didn’t take us long to reach the Whiterun Hot Springs Resort thanks to Chloe’s ability to open portals. We stepped into the main lobby, where Iona stood waiting. She informed us that Tora was awake but unresponsive. I wanted to check on her, but my wife took priority right now, so while Chloe went to check in with Tora, I had Iona lead me to a bedroom that I could let Fay rest in.

The room I was given was nice. It had all the amenities I would expect from a once famous hot spring resort.

I set Fay on the large bed, made from a type of soft foam. She was still in her clothes, but they were covered in blood and other liquids, and I didn’t think she’d appreciate waking up covered in her own fluids. I grabbed her left leg, removed her boots, then did the same to her right leg. I removed her socks next, then lifted her legs and hips so I could remove her pants. I left her panties on. After that, I removed her vambraces, lifted her torso so I could remove her jacket, chest plate, and shirt. Now dressed in nothing but underwear and breast bindings, I gently laid her back on the bed.

Then I went to the door.

“Excuse me,” I said to the maid standing on the other side of the door. “Can you get me a bucket of water, a washcloth, and some soap?”

“Of course, Master.” The maid bowed to me.

“Thanks.”

It only took a few minutes for the maid to return with everything I request. I placed the bucket off to the side, wrung out the washcloth covered in soapy water, and placed it on Fay’s face. The first thing I cleaned was the blood around her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Her ears were the hardest to clean. I had to twist the ends of my cloth and gently dab the insides to remove all the blood. I used the water element to help with the cleaning.

Once her face was cleaned, I dumped the filthy water out the window, then used the water element to summon more water, which I heated up with the fire element. Then I added more soap, dipped the rag into the water, wrung it out, and began wiping down her body. I started at her chest. Working my way down, I cleaned her stomach, thighs, calves, before finally reaching her feet.

“Mmm… hmmm…”

I looked up as I was cleaning the dirt from between Fay’s toes. The woman was stirring. I set her foot on the bed and came over as she slowly cracked open her eyes and gazed around the room.

“Fay?”

“Eryk…” Fay mumbled, voice a soft whisper. “Where are we?”

I smiled at her question. “We’re back at the Whiterun Hot Springs.” Reaching out, I placed my hand against her cheek, caressing her skin as I leaned down and kissed her. “You had me very worried, you know. You can’t afford to be so reckless.”

“But if I didn’t act recklessly, Riesener would have continued attacking us from the tenth dimension,” Fay whispered. She blinked several times. “I’m guessing we beat him?”

“We did—thanks to you,” I admitted. I understood what Fay was saying, and even though I agreed with her, I still didn’t want the woman taking such a reckless risk again. “How do you feel?”

“Awful,” Fay admitted. “I can’t seem to move my body. Everything hurts. But I guess that’s to be expected.”

I nodded slowly. “Can you explain what you did?”

“Riesener was hiding in the tenth dimension,” Fay began. “There are many theories regarding the number of dimensions that exist. Some people believe there are only ten dimensions. However, Lady Fray told me that she can see into the eleventh dimension, which she believes is the highest dimensional plane within our universe. But she also confided in me that she thinks this is only for our universe.”

“You mean there are universes out there that consist of more than eleven dimensions?” I asked.

“So Lady Fray believes. I think so too,” Fay said. She seemed to be gaining strength as she talked, though she still couldn’t move.

“Why don’t I wash off your back while you tell me more,” I suggested. “I didn’t get a chance to do that yet.”

“Oh. Yes, please. Thank you very much.”

Because Fay still could not move herself, I lifted her up and scooted in behind her. She almost fell back against my chest, but I kept her in place with one hand, and removed her breast bindings. Once her chest sprang free with a bounce, I grabbed the washcloth with the other, and began wiping down her back.

“Now, where was I?” said Fay.

“You are talking about how there are universes with more than eleven dimensions,” I said.

“Right. I’m sure you remember those monsters you fought while I was traveling between dimensions,” Fay started. “Those are the proof that universes with higher dimensions exist. There are not creatures like that in our dimension. According to Lady Fray, those monsters are called transdimensional beings because they cross through dimensions through rifts and gaps. This is why you sometimes see strange monsters when dimensional tears appear during battles.”

“So I see,” I said. “I’m going to assume those creatures can travel here because our universe has less dimensions than theirs?”

“That is what Lady Fray believes,” said Fay. “She said that beings from universes with more dimensions can travel to universes that have less dimensions than them, but they cannot travel to higher ones.” She paused. “I think Lady Fray attempted to travel to a higher dimensions once and failed.”

“Makes sense.”

I finished washing Fay’s back, then used a combination of fire and wind to create a warm breeze that dried her off.

Letting her fall against my chest, I pulled her close, wrapped my arms around her waist, and set my head on her shoulder so I could look at her heaving breasts from above. They were very enticing. I really wanted to play with her inverted nipples right now.

“You’re poking me,” Fay muttered, cheeks red.

“You can’t blame me,” I replied with a cheeky grin. “We just finished fighting a life and death battle that nearly killed us. Of course I’d be horny after that. I need a little physical affirmation to let me know we’re both alive.”

“Of course. Mmm…”

Fay’s soft moan as I placed my hand on her chest was music to my ears. I fondled her breasts with gentle movements, massaging them. I spread my fingers around them, then massaged inwards in a circular motion. My right hand moved clockwise and the left counterclockwise.

“So what does all this have to do with what you did to Riesener?” I asked, my voice warm against Fay’s ear. I smiled as she shuddered.

“Mmm… If the tenth dimension allows someone to see every possible timeline within our realm, then I thought… oh… I thought the eleventh dimension would grant an even clearer vision of all the possible futures…”

“And did it?” I asked.

Fay’s nipples began poking out of her skin as I continued my massage. I applied some pressure to her breasts, causing the nipples to poke out even further, then took one of her nipples between my fingers and rolled it between my fingers. I didn’t remain focused on just her nipples. I also rubbed her areolas.

Fay’s breathing had grown a little labored by this point. Small trails of sweat formed on her skin and traced glistening trails down her body.

I placed both hands on her left breast and began moving them in undulating motions that caused her boob to sway and bounce. Fay pressed her feet against the bed and arched her back, leaning into me, her breasts pushing against my hands.

“Eryk… ooh… that feels… so very good…”

“Then I’ll keep doing this. But you still need to answer my question.”

“H-how can I answer you when you make me feel so… oooh!”

Fay’s body stiffened for a moment before she slumped back, her breathing heavy, chest heaving. I smiled and stopped massaging her breasts. Instead, I let my hands trail over her stomach, slide between her crotch, and cup her panty-clad sex. The fabric was wet. It became wetter still as I rubbed my finger over it, finding her nub and giving it a soft rub.

“Mmm! Eryk!”

“So… about that eleventh dimension. You traveled there?”

“Y-yes!” Fay gasped as she bucked her hips, grinding her crotch into my hands.

“And what happened while you were there?”

“I saw… things… hmmm! Mmm! Oooh!”

“What kind of things?”

“Don’t… remember… it was… haaa… haaaa… it was all very strange…”

I wondered if the reason she couldn’t remember was because of what we were doing, or if there was another reason. Then I dismissed the thought and slipped my hands down her panties. My hands became wet with her fluids as I cupped her warm sex, rubbing my finger along her labia before reaching for the little pearl peeking out from its hood.

“Mmm! Hhhhnnn! Aaaaah!”

The moment I directly rubbed her clit, Fay’s entire body came alive. Her hips jerked, feet pushed against the mattress as her toes clenched against the sheets. The scent of her sweat filled my nose, thick and heady, and I decided I needed to taste her, so I leaned down and began kissing, nibbling, and sucking on her neck as I played with her like a hardanger.

“Eryk! I’m—OH!”

Fay’s juices coated my hands as she orgasmed. Her entire body grew taut like a drawn bowstring, then became completely slack like she’d lost all her strength. Her hi[s shuddered and twitched. I watched her breasts as they jiggled and heaved.

“Well, I suppose what you did doesn’t quite matter,” I admitted. “I’m just glad you didn’t do any permanent damage. I’ve checked you over with Spiritual Perception while you were unconscious. What you did will leave a sequela, but it can be healed with time. That said, you won’t be going into battle for at least several more months.”

“I guess… that’s fine,” Fay said between pants. She tilted her head and looked at me, her beautiful eyes pleading. “Did I… help? Was I useful this time?”

“You were very useful,” I said as I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers.