Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

Chapter 183: Storm of Darkness

What was the Darkness core? What exactly was the meaning of being now able to channel aura through elemental darkness? And where did this core's seed even come from?

'So many questions…' I sighed a little while wrapping my hands firmly over Fay's stomach.

Having her so close to me, having her scent once again fill my nose, feeling on my skin how her muscles slightly shifted… And all of that, while the storm of her hair enveloped me, seemingly turning me into a part of her morphed, animalistic form.

Even with clothes in the way, thanks to our bond I could feel every fiber of Fay's muscle, her skin, her nerves…

And the sea of primal, predatory instincts now flared up to its full swing.

The strange, profound aura continued to snap all over the girl. And as I soon found out, within the morphed form of a massive fox made up with her hair… Fay's aura was in a state of constant flux.

On the outside, a single bit of it would instantly snap, decaying into the more common form of aura while releasing all the energy held up in its much more complex form. Inside the storm of Fay's soft hair, the average energy of the aura was the same. And with nowhere to release its energy to, it remained in the constant state of electric tension, ready to unleash the moment Fay willed it.

Still, the half-sphere of the electric storm continued to feed on Fay's divine aura, slowly but surely draining her strength. And even with her improved stats…

'I wonder if I could use our bond for it…' I thought…

Whether it was my instincts or the gift of knowledge that made me aware of all those details and their meaning… it blessed me with the understanding of what it meant to channel aura through my core.

And the moment I mentally reached out for the weird darkness that blossomed in my eyes…

I've found out the answer to the second of my three initial questions.

Where did this core's seed come from? What was this darkness core? Additionally, what was it supposed to do? Those questions would have to wait their turn. For now, I finally felt what it meant to channel my aura.

'Go.'

The energy that nearly overfilled my limits from all the killing I did today was now gone, used up by the system to contain and assimilate the foreign core. But the echo of all the strength I gained prior to that…

I could feel it cursing through my veins. The physical power I didn't have before. The mental capacity of my mind. The sense of all the energy I had to bathe in to obtain those powers. And then all the experiences that led me to grow as strong as I was right now…

All of those components of my growth contributed to this distant echo, a memory of my power. And now, I've gained the ability to not only feel it much better than before… but also freely channel it through the darkness my eyes more or less evolved to perceive.

With less than a thought, with a bare desire, I urged this echo of my strength to go forth.

Tisss…

With a sound… no, with a feeling of air escaping through a narrow hole, something left my system, streaking through the elemental darkness of my vision. It took sharp turns wherever the darkness grew too thin to carry the amount of aura I channeled. And then…

A massive, sharp shard suddenly solidified from a darker spot beneath one of the fallen horses, shooting forth and piercing straight through the invisible barriers of those strange, well-decorated cavalrymen.

BOOM!

Fay's storm exploded with new intensity as she released a mute growl, one that I only felt through the vibrations that spread throughout her flesh. And with the flux of the sparks of her divine aura rushing out from her bloated hair, everything and everyone that found themselves within her range, froze, their body tensing up under the constant assault of powerful electricity.

Just like with my solidified darkness, Fay's electric attack easily pierced whatever barriers the cavalry had…

PUFF

A small cloud of smoke suddenly appeared more or less in front of the now paralyzed men, showering them in colorful, extremely fine sparks.

Tack.

Fay's storm suddenly died within the small circle around the cloud of dust, the power of her divine aura repelled by the intense yet unstable explosion of equally as intense aura.

Still, while both our attacks were effective… The humans had some sort of countermeasure for Fay's powers! And it was most likely due to the difference…

PUFF!

Several more smoke bombs went off all over the place, replacing the diminishing protection of the first one.

"Charge! Cut them down!"

A brave soldier at the front ignored an ugly injury to the left arm. It must've been crushed by the weight of his elegant force when their previous charge came to a crushing stop.

"Now!"

Even more bombs went off in the air when triggered by the snapping bursts of Fay's concentrated aura, carving out a narrow path where the electric power of her lighting couldn't reach.

'It's because she can't channel it!' I thought, summoning two more shards of darkness from no more than a thin shadow. The sparkly dust bombs humans threw at us lit up the surroundings a bit, considerably thinning out the elemental darkness all around.

'So it's not directly, linearly related to the brightness,' I thought, taking notice of how just a little light severely thinned the elemental darkness down, greatly limiting the intensity of aura I could channel through it.

One of my shards pierced the brave soldier who continued to rally his companions even when the long blade of darkness pierced straight through his elegant armor and came out from his back. The other shard, however, struck something a mere inch away from its target before crumbling apart.

A fresh explosion of sparkling dust thinned out the darkness even further, depriving my attack of its foundation and leading it to shatter when faced with a barrier.

'Shit!' In this moment, with the cavalrymen once again resisting the pressure and charging the two of us down, I realized the downside of my core.

Sure, I could now easily channel my aura through the darkness… But for how easy it was, solidifying objects out of it required quite a thick chunk of my aura to work out, even more so when used as weapons and confronted with other usages of aura or even obstacles as simple as plate armor.

On the other hand, without a core, Fay was limited to just scattering her divine aura around, creating a powerful area of a storm… And with no apparent ability to limit and concentrate its power.

'That's why…'

Right as the idea solidified in my mind, the drawback of having my aura broken reached my flesh, instantly leaving a painful, bleeding mark all over my chest.

Looking down… I was surprised to find no blood whatsoever… Only for my stomach and lungs to revolt. My mouth filled with a disgusting, sticky liquid, instantly making me keel over and rest on Fay's back while my face swung over her shoulder.

"Bleurgh…"

Struggling to get the viscous liquid blocking my airways out of my mouth, I vomited it all out… Only to see Fay's perfectly white and clean clothes die red when marked by my blood.

For a second, I struggled to even maintain my vision of darkness. My breath turned heavy as ice-cold sweat covered all of my head and most of my upper body.

Cursing at myself in my thoughts for resting down on Fay's delicate back, I reached out, desperate to grab at something and lift myself up to lift my weight off her spine…

Only for my body to freeze when I just happened to grab high on her waist enough to feel the bottom of her breasts press against the upper rim of my hand.

"Peter!" Fay cried out. Distracted by what she surely felt through our bond and the unpleasant smell of the rotten blood I'd vomited out, she lost her focus, causing her storm to quickly weaken, and lose its density.

With a huge part of the burden raised, the humans charged even further, only three, two steps away from bringing us into the range of their weapons.

On their faces, I could see triumph, relief… and cold determination not to let this moment of near-victory turn into a grief of sudden defeat.

My other hand already grabbed the handle of my gun, slowly raising it up…

Too slow.

With my mind going into overdrive, I could tell as much. By the time I would be ready to shoot, at least two blades would reach us, potentially doing the unthinkable and marking Fay's flawless skin with eternal proof of my failure to protect her!

In the heat of the moment, I gripped the girl slightly tighter, changing my objective from pushing myself back up to an attempt at pulling her away, to the side, to the back, anywhere where the human blades couldn't reach her…

Only to feel Fay's surprise fill the entire bandwidth of our bond.

As if only one question existed in her mind.

"Right now? But we are busy fighting, are we not? If you hold back for just a little longer, I won't mind at all, just let me clean all of them up. Oh, I can feel you rub against me. Just a little longer, m'kay?"

Fay never voiced her concerns out. And yet, I could perfectly decipher them from the momentary shock I gave her.

And she was right.

My entire body was rubbing against her while hidden in the raging storm of her long, silky-white hair. And with how close we were, our bond…

In the fraction of a second I had left to react, I gave up on my attempt to remove Fay from the path of the sword and a spear already swinging at us. I wouldn't be able to make it, anyway. So, I've brought my hand up a bit, collapsing my fingers on the soft mount of Fay's breast.

With this slightly more intimate touch, the width of our bond grew even winder…

Finally, it allowed me to guide Fay's aura through me, using my own strength for nothing but reinforcing the elemental darkness all around, turning it into a pathway for Fay's strength.

'Just a single second!' I thought as our auras mixed and mingled and then mixed again before rushing through a single point on my abdomen and then, like a spark, exploding along the pathways I'd laid down.

In the fraction of a second I had before human weapons would reach us, the night suddenly grew a lot darker than before, as if certain spots on the ground consumed all the light around.

Tss…

Like a slithering snake, the lighting coursed along those darkened spots. And upon reaching their end… It produced extremely thin yet comically long needles that pierced into the attacking humans before unleashing the might of Fay's lighting from the inside.

And by the time a second passed and I managed to raise my gun up, aiming it at the charging men…

There was no one left for the two of us to fight.