A few hours later, Erik finally finished absorbing all of the insights he’d managed to gather from that incredibly advanced sigil used during Naeku’s trials.
Smiling, he raised his hand and waved it in the air. Wherever it passed, a small tear in space followed, revealing a void of nothing behind it. Yet, it closed again almost as soon as he passed. It was like one hand opening a zipper, and another following right behind to immediately close any gap that appeared.
This was the aetherium-saturated environment, which immediately repaired the damage he inflicted upon the space-time continuum. Honestly, if he’d done this on an unawakened Earth, even just this little would have likely ripped open a black hole and destroyed the planet.
Still, this was already a lot more than he’d been able to do before, and so he looked at his hand in wonder. "Amazing," he muttered softly to himself. "I mean, it doesn’t actually accomplish anything helpful, but still," he chuckled.
Doing this was simply proof of the fact his understanding of the spatial affinity was already surpassing his rank in it. These were two different things, after all. His ranking was determined by the amount of runes and glyphs he’d been able to form using this affinity, not his understanding of it. Fortunately, this deep understanding would help immensely in progressing his rank later.
For now, however, he had a date with Emily...
Waving his hand to dispel the isolation barrier, Erik smoothly got to his feet and looked around. The training room had gained a few more isolation spheres, but there was no one doing any physical training right now.
He moved out of the room and towards his bedroom, where he’d detected Emily waiting for him. Somehow, he wasn’t surprised she’d assumed this was what he called her for. Not that that was unfair, but still... There were more reasons he could have called her...
As soon as he entered his room, he found Emily on her back, splayed out enticingly on the bed, her head aimed in the direction of the door. She was naked, of course, except for the items he’d given her when they visited the illusory BDSM club, as well as the collar she never took off.
Leather straps bound her voluptuous body, accentuating her beautiful curves, while magical but still fake cat ears popped up from her head, as well as a tail out of her ass. Together with the large black collar covering half her neck and the oversized metal ring dangling from it, she truly painted quite the picture.
As soon as he entered, Emily arched her back, pushed her chest towards the ceiling, and pressed the top of her head against her hands, which were lying on the bed, so that her head was upside down, and her twinkling, black and crimson eyes looked straight at him.
"There you are, my beloved husband and master!" she cooed enticingly, a wide grin on her lips.
Smirking, Erik stepped closer, and Emily quickly flipped around. His beautiful, raven-haired goth-kitty-slave-wife started crawling towards the edge of the bed like a real kitten, her tight ass, large breasts, and fake tail swaying in the air.
"Is it finally time to punish me for scaring your subjects during our wedding, Master...?" she asked with playful sensuality, practically dripping with excitement. "I’m so excited for you to use my wedding gift on me~"
Erik’s steps staggered for a moment, and a wry expression flashed across his face.
"You forgot!" Emily immediately cried out accusingly with wide eyes, her body halting in place.
Smirking, Erik closed the last bit of distance between him and the bed. Before Emily could complain any more, he conjured the leash from her collar and pulled her the last bit of distance towards him.
Emily yelped, but before she could even adjust to this, Erik then yanked the leash up, forcing her upper body to practically dangle on the leash as only her knees still touched the bed, and her arms hung uselessly next to her body.
Emily didn’t complain or resist in the slightest, but she still glared at him from her new position. Yet, behind her anger was the excitement at the way he treated her, even now, as her collar made it a little more laborious to breathe.
Finally, Erik possessively took her lips with his own, and they kissed passionately for a while. As they did, Erik never loosened the leash, and Emily never even tried using her hands to keep her body upright. In fact, as a third-ranked Arcanist, keeping her body upright wouldn’t be that difficult, but she deliberately slouched a little... because she enjoyed feeling helpless and controlled.
Finally, Erik pulled his lips back and smiled at Emily’s lust-filled, but still somewhat angry expression as she panted with some difficulty. "I’m sorry, my love," he whispered dominantly, still not giving her any room to breathe properly. "I’ve been busy, and it slipped my mind... but I think now is actually the perfect time."
Emily’s anger melted back into excitement as her lips curled into a wide grin. "Then you’re... forgiven!" she wheezed through her partially closed throat. "It’s not like... I mind when... you just call me... for sex..."
Erik cocked an eyebrow and chuckled. "Now who’s forgetful? Didn’t I tell you there was something I had to talk to you about?"
Emily pouted. "Oh right... But we can... still have sex, right?"
"Hah!" Erik laughed, finally releasing her leash. "Yes, I don’t doubt you’ll demand it after I tell you what I need you to do for me."
Having truly not used a single muscle to keep herself upright, Emily sagged down instantly, only barely managing to stop herself from falling to the floor. Her excitement only rose further from his treatment of her.
Truly, her trust in Erik was unfathomably deep. A relationship like theirs was immensely fragile, because it could easily turn into abuse. Erik never pushed it further than she could handle, however—partially thanks to their bond—but this only worked while Emily was absolutely sure he never would in the first place.
The balance in their relationship was simultaneously fragile and as strong as steel.
"W— Will I not... not like it...?" Emily wheezed and panted, catching her breath as she pouted at him. She now kneeled on the bed with her back straight, while her hands rubbed her collar and throat.
Smirking slyly, Erik sat on the bed next to her and shrugged. "That depends on how much pleasure you derive from following my orders and serving my—and our—interests."
"Hmpf," Emily snorted, before simultaneously flipping onto her back and putting her head on Erik’s lap. She looked up at him with a pout. "You know I like being punished for ’not’ following orders more than following them, Master..."
Erik looked down at her with a grin and used one hand to start pinching one of Emily’s erect nipples. "Then I guess I’ll need to discipline you back into compliance..."