The Demon Queen's Royal Consort-Chapter 89 - Consequences - I

** Seven days after the banquet

"Behind you," Elian said.

Blue lightning serpents hissed as they slithered across the ground toward me like living creatures.

"Learn to sense the effects prana causes around you. Every spell, every attack manifests a resonance that can be felt and used to predict what's coming!"

Blood dripped from my body. My arms were limp and bleeding, my clothes reduced to tattered rags barely covering me. The serpents quickly surrounded me. Two tried to bite at my knees while two others lunged for my face.

Crackling yellow lightning daggers formed in my hands. With difficulty, I swung horizontally, slicing through the two serpents attacking my face, then leaped upward, reducing gravity around me to evade the other two.

The severed serpents reformed, merging with the two that had missed their strike, becoming a massive anaconda. Its body stretched up to my height, and in a swift motion, it struck at my legs.

I combined my two lightning daggers—a technique Elian had taught me and one I'd refined to my current limit—forming a spear over three meters long. With aching arms, I hurled it at the anaconda Elian controlled effortlessly.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

Electric explosions echoed through the arena as destruction unfolded beneath my feet. Both the serpent and the spear annihilated each other.

"Phew... that was close," I cursed.

Too soon. From the wreckage, a thin serpent, no thicker than a finger and barely thirty centimeters long, shot toward my chest, hitting me dead-on.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

Like an electric bomb had detonated inside me, my body was blasted backward, completely paralyzed, a massive burn searing my ribcage. I crashed into the ground, cratering the floor and sending debris flying in all directions.

"Bleugh..." Blood sprayed from my mouth.

The dust settled as I lay motionless in my newly dug pit. Elian sat in a beach chair, reading the same cryptic grimoire that always stole his attention. Beside him, rhinos, wolves, eagles, panthers, tigers, and other lightning beasts lounged lazily.

"You've improved over the last week. But I thought you'd slow down after the tournament," Elian remarked.

"Grrr..." I groaned, forcing myself up. "I want to be at my best when I finally enter a dungeon," I admitted. "I can't stand being cooped up in this tower anymore. Though I knew things would get tough, I never imagined it'd be this bad."

"Yeah, it's pretty rough! I almost feel bad for Selene, having to deal with this as queen," Elian said, tucking away the grimoire and eyeing my condition.

"Damn it! I've got at least a hundred marriage proposals from the twelve noble families, not to mention the thousands of others from people I've never even heard of," I grumbled.

"And then there are those crazy merchant-scientists who want to rent my body to study my condition!"

"Those are the real problem. Too much money, too much influence across multiple races. Merchants can smell profit from miles away, and apparently, you're the most lucrative thing they've found in decades!"

"Haaaa..." I groaned in frustration. "As if that wasn't enough, when they couldn't rent me, they started treating me like a breeding bull. Requests like, 'impregnate my heiress daughter,' 'impregnate the strongest warrior in my village,' 'rent for a night of pleasure, each ejaculation paid in gold by weight.' What the hell is wrong with these people?"

Elian's lightning summons dissipated, and I collapsed beside him, exhausted after hours of getting pummeled by these cursed beasts.

"Don't forget the mages camped outside the castle, claiming you're the key to half the world's research. Promising wealth, magical engineering breakthroughs, and enlightenment for demonkind."

"Phew... and then there's that mess. What's Selene going to do about the magic towers from all those races camped outside?" I asked, curious. "Is she really going to lend me out like a lab rat?" I added skeptically.

"Relax. If there's one thing that won't happen, it's the magic towers getting their hands on you. With a few exceptions, Selene isn't too fond of mages," Elian replied.

"But this won't last forever. Eventually, we'll have to concede to one of the thousands of requests pouring in daily," he explained.

"What do you think it'll be?" I asked warily.

"I won't lie to you, Glenn. Revealing your third affinity was the worst thing that could've happened at the banquet. Even if you'd revealed yourself as a Warlord, it wouldn't have been as shocking. There are plenty of incredibly talented magic warriors out there."

"But there's no mage with three affinities—and there never has been," I finished.

"Exactly! We're waiting for the real big fish to show up. Giving the right person a favor might drown out all the other demands for your body, dick, and balls," Elian joked, mocking my misery.

"Go to hell!"

"Ahahaha... You really turned out to be a troublesome disciple. Who knew you'd give me such a headache so soon?"

"Suffer with me! Or do you think life is just about beating up your disciple and reading cryptic books?" I teased.

"Sounds about right."

"What about my dungeon? When's that happening?"

"It's all set. We're just looking for the last member. Lesley said she knows a quiet way to get you out of the castle without anyone noticing."

"Last member? I thought I was going solo."

"That was the original plan, but we had to adjust," he explained.

"First, the dungeon at your solo level is in a very public, heavily watched location, and well... given your situation, we had to switch dungeons," he said briefly.

"The new one is much more dangerous than the last, and you'll need a party to conquer it. But again... given your circumstances, we can't just pick anyone. Hence the delay."

"Phew..." I sighed, disheartened. "Just when I thought I'd finally get to test my close-combat progress, I have to keep up the mage act again. Honestly, fighting you and Lesley, I have no idea how I stack up against others."

"Yeah, unfortunately. Nothing we can do about it."

"Fine, anything's better than being locked up and watched twenty-four seven by Lesley."

"Just saying it out loud is terrifying," Elian joked.

"You have no idea. I feel like her eyes are drilling into my back every second. In the shower, doing my business, and... you know, even during those moments with Dahlia and Hera!"

"Hahaha..." Elian laughed loudly. "Is the Bellator family's darling a voyeur?" he teased.

A shiver ran down my spine.

"I don't even want to joke about that! If it were Rose, I'd get it, but Lesley?" I questioned.

"Fair point!"

"Master, if Rose and Lesley are from the same family, why are they so different?"

"Rose is the direct daughter of the Bellator leader and his primary wife, while Lesley is the child of one of the Velsari."

'Velsari? Ah... concubines,' I recalled.

"Changing the subject, how's your energy accumulation for the breakthrough?" Elian asked.

"Phew..." I sighed in frustration.

"Both my mana core and prana core are maxed out with lightning and gravity energy, but the natural spatial energy is growing at a snail's pace," I explained.

"Interesting. I thought having dual cores would make doubling your internal energy take much longer—around six months. But not even two have passed, and you're almost there."

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I was an Initial Awakened, and to break through to Full Awakened—the final stage of the Awakened rank, I needed to completely saturate my core, forcing it to hold double the energy I currently possessed.

Since I had two cores, this had to happen twice.

Once by absorbing natural energy from my affinities and converting it into prana, and again as mana. I'd break through once the internal energy in my cores reached double their initial saturated capacity.

The only problem was that to convert natural energy into prana and mana, the only energies I could absorb were those of my affinities: lightning, gravity, and space.

Lightning was the first energy to reach saturation, and I felt my power grow by a third at that point. Gravity came next, not long after, adding another third.

The real issue was spatial energy.

It was an incredibly thin, almost imperceptible energy. My senses had to stretch to their limits just to absorb tiny wishes that barely satisfied the two gluttonous cores inside me.

On top of that, having two cores proved extremely disadvantageous here. After all, from the start, I'd only been feeding my prana core, and it wasn't even close to twenty percent saturation, while my mana core hadn't received a single drop of spatial energy.

"At this rate, you'll take as long as I originally thought—but not for the reason I expected," Elian concluded. "Our plan to visit locations with more apparent spatial energy is also on hold until, at the very least, the chaos in the castle dies down."

"Phew... Nothing we can do about it!"

As the relaxed conversation between master and disciple unfolded in the magic training hall, a far more tense and dangerous discussion was taking place in the castle's main meeting chambers.