Chapter 271

"Well, we're in a safe location, and I have established several alerts to make sure we won't be ambushed," I said with a smirk. "Do you have something more interesting in mind to kill some time while we waited for the idiot who dared to imprison you?"

"Well, no..." she whispered. "But, this is Tree of Life, the holiest place for us elves..."

"I need to make sure nothing is wrong with you, and the closer we are, the better," I answered with a smirk. "Your clothes would only get in the way. And, what's the problem. You venerate nature, and can you imagine anything more natural than what we're about to do?" I said even as I got rid of the remaining fabric on her body, leaving her completely naked.

"But..." she whispered, which melded into a moan as I put a gentle kiss on her neck, making her tremble.

"Don't tell me you're not excited to do it at the center of the Tree of Life. Can you imagine somewhere even more appropriate..."

"Well, no," she whispered, trembling on my lap as she said that. "But, still..."

"You know, I'm not exaggerating when I say it'll help me to examine you."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yes. Would I lie to you?" I said as I put my hand on her chin, my tone husky enough to make her shiver. The blush that covered her whole body was not a surprise, as Seldanna was innocent enough to be extremely vulnerable to charm, her inexperience and social status working against her.

My recently boosted Stats helped greatly as well.

"I... Still..." she murmured, trying to find words, only to fail spectacularly. She was silenced when I raised her head to meet my gaze, her lips parted slightly. I didn't bother saying anything else, and just leaned forward for a kiss.

She responded, her tongue invading my mouth readily while I reached to her chest, enjoying the softness of her breasts. "Damn, girl, I missed it," I whispered as I pulled back for a breather.

"Shut up, and start your examination," she said and leaned forward to continue the kiss, while her fingers moved along my body, getting rid of my clothes. Her initial hesitancy was quick to disappear, leaving its place for pure arousal, one that was enflamed further by her close encounter with deadly danger.

While she got rid of my shirt, I leaned forward, adding some very necessary hickeys on her beautiful tits. "Naughty," she gasped, but considering she fell on her knees and got rid of my pants right after, it was not exactly an insult.

"And I missed this," she whispered before capturing my girth between her lips... I wanted to focus on her body, but I wasn't exaggerating when I said our closeness would allow me to examine her situation better.

The first thing I noticed was that the connection I had felt that led to her was not an illusion or a mistake. There was truly a thin connection of Divine Spark connecting her, and the Tree of Life was the other end of the connection.

"Fascinating," I murmured, and Seldanna's gaze found mine even as her head continued to bob. I smiled at her, acting like she was the intended target of my words.

The true target was the connection itself. It wasn't a strong connection ... nor it was particularly stable. My first thought was that it was poorly made, which wouldn't have been surprising.

The proper ability to manipulate the Divine Spark was a rare ability, after all...

Yet, the more I examined the weak connection, the more I realized my initial assumption was wrong. The connection was not poorly made ... or even actually made artificially in the first place. The more accurate way to define it was to say it was growing organically, no different than a tree.

However, the growth was very slow, which was why it took a while for me to realize that. I didn't question why such a connection was growing. It was clearly a ploy from whoever threw Seldanna in this special prison — probably the High Priest.

Similarly, I wasn't panicking about the connection itself, not when I could easily snap it off. Yet, I did not.

Such a connection was not necessarily harmful. Oh, I had no doubt that whatever her captor planned was careful about her safety ... but with my constant observation, things were different.

A sharp hint of pain brought me back to the present. "Pay attention to me," she warned, leaving teeth mark on my shaft.

"Someone is pushing her luck," I answered, my throaty tone putting a smirk on her face. I smirked back even as I grabbed her waist and pushed her onto her back before crouching between her legs, assaulting her delicious folds with my tongue.

Circling around her knot, it triggered a rather loud moan, but from the way her legs tightened, I could feel that she was satisfied by the action. "You're the one that pushed your luck," I said.

She failed to come up with an answer against my satisfied smirk, and soon, it was impossible for her to actually do so, because I let my tongue free, raiding and invading every sensitive spot between her legs, teaching her a new meaning of the pleasure.

I expected her to retaliate by grabbing my hair, twisting her body, or retaliating in some other way. Yet, she did not, just accepting it passively as I invaded her core with my tongue. She might not be the most experienced lover, but still, there was a certain ego boost in stripping the rebellion from a sexy blonde with a few brushes of my tongue.

She gasped and moaned as I pushed her steadily toward a climax, so much so that she didn't even bother to comment as I removed the rest of my clothes, matching her in nudity. She did gasp in shock when I added my fingers to the assault of my tongue, dancing at the entrance aggressively.

Moans filled the prison as the climax finally hit her, opening her soul even more. While she gasped for breath, I turned my attention to the magical details once more.

The first thing I noticed, the growth rate of the connection increased several times. Soon, the soft connection turned into a magical root, one that reminded me of the ones the Guardian Trees stretched through the Aether Dimension to gather and convert mana, only stronger, and it started sending tendrils through Seldanna's Divine Sea.

My first assumption, it was a method to drain Seldanna of her Divine Spark, one that would strengthen the tree. But that didn't make much sense, not with the crystals on their possessions. Why bother doing that.

Then, I notification popped into my view, showing my first guess was wrong. Diametrically so.

{+1 Nature Spark, Elven Priestess}

"Okay, maybe they are not trying to steal her spark," I murmured as I examined her soul space, ready to address the problems. I expected her Divine Sea to turn chaotic, as foreign Divine Spark required quite a bit of effort to suppress and absorb.

However, I expected a weak wind from just a point of Spark ... but what I found was a raging storm, threatening to destroy her Divine Sea. Without my help, it would take barely a minute for a point of Spark to destroy her sea.

It was not about potency ... but control. The Divine Spark she received was moving with a deliberate movement, thrashing to destroy her sea.

I had many ways of resolving that, including purifying that lone point of Spark, but I chose to apply an indirect method.

{-300 Nature Spark, God Forest}

{+300 Nature Spark, Elven Priestess}

The sudden influx of Divine Spark calmed her Divine Sea, preventing a dangerous rapture, and giving me a chance to examine the nature of the connection. The foreign spark continued to rage inside her, trying to find a way ... which gave me the impression that, while it was being controlled, the intelligence behind it was animalistic rather than sapient.

Which explained why the connection continued to grow despite my intervention. I was ready to intervene and reverse it, but it was better to watch without taking action. Divine Spark was a complicated issue, so, the more observation, the better.

"Is something wrong?" Seldanna whispered suddenly. "I can feel something weird with my magic ... it's fluctuating."

"It's complicated," I answered. "They cast some kind of spell on you, one that's supposed to drain your power, but I managed to block it."

"It doesn't feel like that's the end," she said, worried.

"Technically, it could be. I could stop the process easily if you want..."

"I'm guessing there's a but," she said, catching on to my implied point. "Why don't you tell me rather than dawdling?"

"It's an opportunity. I can let the process continue and do my best to control it. If it works, you'll be much stronger."

"How much power, and how stronger?" she asked.

{+1 Nature Spark, Elven Priestess}

The notification was a warning that I shouldn't delay the treatment. "A tough question. About the danger, I'm quite confident that I could terminate the process if it goes too badly ... and about the power, we're talking about a significant amount."

"How significant," she asked.

"Potentially,, enough to make you the strongest person in the capital by a wide margin," I said. It was a guess, but considering the source of the connection, a pretty safe one.

She waited for a moment, then her expression solidified. "Do it!"

{Strength: 16 Charisma: 22

Precision: 16 Perception: 16

Agility: 16 Manipulation: 22

Speed: 16 Intelligence: 16

Endurance: 16 Wisdom: 16}

{Purified Divine Spark: 342}

{Pseudo-HP: 8000 Mana: 15000}

{ADDITIONAL SPARKS

Light - Chosen 7.4

Nature - Chosen 10}

{MINIONS

Guardian God Forest - 1152}

Elven Priestess - 372}

[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]