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Divine Celebrity 82
🕑 Added 2022-11-19 04:01:01 +0000 UTCFor a moment, I said nothing, examining the face I hadn’t seen for the last few days.
Our position was rather squished. MR machine was not exactly small, as it was designed to fit even overweight people in a comfortable manner, at least enough that they didn’t experience a breakdown during the thirty-minute period they needed to stay immobile.
It was not designed to fit two people, especially since I was not exactly small. My guide, in comparison, was relatively tiny, but her huge wings compensated for it, filling the MR machine even when furled.
Considering the nurses responsible for taking the measurements weren’t panicking, I confirmed she was still undetectable to others, but she still didn’t just pass through the machine like a ghost, making the machine cramped even as she floated inches above me.
Still, despite the confined space, relaxation filled me.
A part of that relaxation was physical — or magical — as a certain drain disappeared, showing that her recovery was not just relying on Intent, but something more — an interesting question, but one that I would handle later.
However, the bigger source of it was relaxation. While I hadn’t reached the limit of my Endurance, I was not looking to stand awake for days, hoping to avoid another attack from the killer shadows. Hopefully, she would have a solution.
Pity I was already in the MR machine, and was unable to speak for the moment.
My guide clearly didn’t share the same restriction. “What’s going on, where are we,” she said even as her gaze turned to me.
I was about to make an amused expression, but an important detail stopped me.
Her expression.
Since the day she had entered my life, she had a silly, almost childish expression on her face, one that disappeared on rare occasions — like the time I tried to get away from the ritual she had detected, or the time I had mentioned Zeus’ name. But even during those rare occasions, it was a fleeting move.
Yet, this time, it was not a temporary time. Her expression was sharp and tense, ready to lash out.
I moved my head, knowing that I would receive a warning. The speaker crackled before the technician’s voice was heard. “Please don’t move, or we have to start again. It’s important for your health,” they said.
“Is this true? Is this some kind of … healing device?” my guide said, and I nodded.
“So, the attack on the ritual still injured you even after I extinguished it,” she said, but this time, I blinked twice. “It didn’t,” she said, with a frown on her face.
I blinked once, confirming, and she fell silent, realizing that it was hardly the most appropriate location for interrogation.
It was good, because it allowed me to focus on her great change of attitude. Gone was the amused, cheerful woman, replaced by a sharp and attentive angel, one that was much more fitting to be named as a guide.
Clearly, her long sleep while she devoured most of my intent helped her to recover herself even more. Which was good, as it meant I could use all the Intent I collected freely.
I closed my eyes to check that — subtly, hoping not to alert her — but when I checked my mental space, I barely held back a curse. Now that she was awake, she was taking all the intent for herself with an even stronger intensity.
And her pull was not limited to the new intent. She was even pulling some from the System.
I barely held back a curse, and the only reason I was able to keep my curse back was that it was a mere trickle that was flowing from the System to her.
If it was before, I would have warned her about that, but facing a sharper personality, I was afraid of actually doing so. I was facing an unknown, and it was best not to play around.
However, soon I noticed the signs that her personality was not transformed, at least not completely. After half an hour, with nothing to do, there was a limit I could control my gaze, especially since she was still wearing the same leather ensemble, revealing an amazing cleavage for my gaze.
One that was literally perfect.
Yet, as she noticed my gaze slipping down, her first reaction was not aggression, but a deep blush that reminded me of her first reaction to the football party.
“Don’t look,” she said as she raised her hand, and her clothing transformed, the leather ensemble melting into a long, white gown that covered her skin, one that gave no hint of sexiness. A pity, I thought, an emotion that didn’t survive for long.
Because I watched as the gown she had summoned melted at the same speed, leaving her completely naked. “No,” she gasped in shock as she wrapped her wings around herself in a panic, hiding her beautiful breasts from me.
Too bad it was too late, as the slight delay she experienced was enough for me to commit them to my long-term memory. But since I was not a moron, I closed my eyes to allow her to try to fix whatever problem she had been dealing with.
I didn’t want to push too much before I got a better sense of her new personality.
I also left my eyes cracked, as I was still a sneaky opportunist.
It was good, as I had caught a few more interesting glimpses as she tried to summon several different outfits, only for every single one of them to melt away after a second, adding quite a bit of new memories of her barely-covered body as her wings moved.
I had to admit, watching a beautiful supernatural being failing to dress was an excellent way to kill time during a medical process where I should not move. Five minutes later, she surrendered to the inevitability, and let the same leather outfit appear.
Which didn’t melt away.
“Aphrodite,” she murmured in frustration, which gave interesting implications, but I wisely stayed away from prompting her about that point. “You can open your eyes now,” she said. “How long I had been recuperating?” she asked.
I blinked the appropriate number of days, which made her eyes widen. “That much, the absence of mana must have been impacting me more than I expected,” she murmured, confirming that, while her excessive silliness had disappeared, she was still not the smoothest of the operators.
“Did anything happen after the interrupted ceremony?” she asked, and I blinked once again, giving her the positive answer she searched for. “What happened?” she asked tensely, but I just shrugged, slightly enough not to receive another warning from the nursing staff, hoping that she would understand it was hard to describe without speaking.
She accepted that, and started waiting while I closed my eyes, focusing on the annoying crackling of the MR machine as I tried to make sense of her personality change.
The difference was easy to point out, but hard to truly measure. She was much more serious compared to her earlier flighty attitude. Cagier, certainly, but it was not an effective one, considering just how much information she managed to spill out.
Or the way she fell apart once she experienced her wardrobe malfunction in what appeared to be a divine prank from the Greek goddess of love — giving me a beautiful show in the process.
I decided to think of her change as sobering, her earlier cheer and lack of attention related to some kind of intoxication effect after her waking up. Probably related to the lack of magic in the modern world if her last murmur was any indicator.
A murmur that showed her personality was not too different even as she tried to act more measured, easily letting important information like that slip.
Of course, there was a chance that every single action she took was extremely measured, and she was a master manipulator, but I discounted that possibility.
Not because it was impossible, but because there would be nothing I could do if that was the case.
My life was difficult enough without going down a spiral of paranoia.
I continued to lay, ignoring the presence of the incorporeal angel floating above me, treating the moment as a rare occasion to rest.
After all, with my guide back, I had a feeling more exciting times awaited me.
Comments
John Hall
I really hope it doesn't take much longer for him to take control of his relationship with the guide. We don't need a repeat of Caesars constant "I have to hide who I am from everybody forever" plotline.
KingConner
Thanks 4 the chapter!😋👍
Person
No (former?) Coach Spencer fallout yet. And no "holy crap, where's all this intent coming from?!". My predictor gizmo must be on the fritz again. I wonder if she'll show up on the MRI? Probably as an indistinct blur given how much she's moving around?
