Little did Ash know, Vaeloria wasn’t in a deep sleep. Instead, she had slipped into dreamland after hours of intense bonding, lost in visions of a future filled with laughter, warmth, and Ash by her side. But then it all shattered. The moment his presence left her and he went to train, her core began to tremble violently.
She woke up coughing up blood.
"Cough!" She spat silver blood onto the violet grass, her face ashen pale. Her entire body shook as she clutched her chest, knowing exactly what was happening. Her eyes shifted to the Lesser Chamber, and the image of Ash flooded her mind. She wanted so badly to hate him for making her feel these emotions, but she couldn’t even form one hateful thought about him.
Then the memories of the curse came rushing back, the one that had mocked her entire life’s work.
Tears welled in her golden eyes as the once mighty Sovereign of the Silver Court broke down completely, curling into herself on the ground. All of this stemmed from one thing, her path. To step into the S rank, one had to form a path, something that would define their existence for the rest of their lives.
Her path was ’The Path of Dreambound Eclipse’. The vow she made the day she stepped into the S rank was,
"I will never again bow to any light, not even the moons. Only in perfect darkness will I be free."
Those words forged her path with boons and restrictions no one had ever reforged. She began to walk the path of darkness. On this path she thrived in true darkness. Whenever there was no light, no mana glow, no starlight, her power would multiply, giving her the ability to fight two ranks above.
In true darkness she became immortal and omnipotent within her mana sense. Her power reached a level where she could drag entire continents into an eclipse dream, where physics, time, and causality obeyed her whim. This showed a possible step forward past the S rank because the closer she walked to perfect darkness, the closer her tenth tail came to manifesting.
However, with these boons came restrictions, iron-clad, unbreakable chains.
Walking this path meant any form of light, conceptual or physical, would burn her like acid the longer she stayed in it. Light was not just the moon or the sun; it was hope, warmth, attachment, submission, anything that pulled her from absolute darkness. If she ever willingly accepted any form of "light" as her superior, her Path would fracture, and her cultivation would slowly crumble.
At first this was not bad, but her obsession with beauty grew the more she killed, which caused her to become impatient. Her first step off her path was trying to become more beautiful from the moon itself. Then when she learned of the restrictions, the need for love in order for her tenth tail, she realized the sick game the Moon played with her. It directly went against her path and trapped her in a curse.
Once she realized, it was too late as from that point she was sealed.
"...S-silly me..." She said with a wry smile. After being sealed away for a time she didn’t even know, she had time to realize her own foolishness.
However, the curse had come around again. And stronger.
"I just can’t admit that I..." She stopped herself completely, not even allowing the thought to form.
She stood up and straightened herself.
After a few minutes she was back to her old self. She headed back to the Lesser Chamber.
Inside she saw Ash honing past lessons. She closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them, there wasn’t an ounce of emotion on her face. It was like she turned them off with a switch.
She stepped forward and summoned a sword.
It was thin, all black, not even reflecting light.
"It’s time for weapon training. You will soon step into the A rank. By then you need to have good enough mastery over the sword."
As her words sounded, Ash faced her and seeing her emotionless look, he felt a slight sting in his chest, but he already knew the reasons behind all of this.
Before he thought the percentage of the affection was getting slower as it increased, but instead...
’She was just resisting it all due to her path...’ He thought. After seeing her memories, he clearly knew the steps forward on the path of cultivation, but it wasn’t easy seeing the tricks the moon played on her.
He didn’t fault her for turning off her emotions one bit. He would allow her to make her own decisions.
But no matter what...
’She’s mine... and won’t go anywhere.’
As he thought this he bowed with a smirk. He wouldn’t change the way he acted around her. If her path wanted to crumble because she loved him then he would just build her a new one somehow. No matter what he wouldn’t let her work be for naught, but right now it was time to begin another bout of training.