Overpowered Wizard

“Oh, shit, I’ve gone down in the rankings. Or have I gone up?” Zarian had no idea.

He would have to ask Ruvaria about the rankings along with a ton of other questions. That would come later, after he and Para had something to eat. It was hard to think straight without pleasing their monstrous appetite.

“There’s a trap door near you. It’s enchanted to block your aura perception specifically because I wanted to keep it a surprise. You’ll find all the food you need to satisfy that hunger of yours.” Ruvaria’s voice carried from around the corner and reached Zarian with a gust of caressing wind and a scent of something sweet.

“Food first. Flirt later,” Para hissed with her four serpent heads.

Zarian rolled out of bed and landed on his feet. He stood still to settle into the changes from his radical growth.

Even without the Intense Aura Hat, his aura abilities were incredibly more potent. His body felt so strong he was afraid that one wrong step could destroy the floor underneath him.

Because of the intense growth, Para’s parasitic threads had woven tighter around each part of his body, from skin, nails, muscles, bones, and all.

Para kept slithering about with four snake bodies extending from around his back. Zarian had to admit he really was rocking the chimera-look now. Better than what Sinfeast had tried to pull off at the Chimera Tyrant Lair.

Finding the latch on the enchanted trap door, Zarian flipped it open with a flick of his finger. Para contracted from her broad size until all four serpents could coil easily around Zarian’s body. His lion tail waved behind him as he descended the steps and into a cool subterranean room.

“You haven’t eaten much, have you?” Zarian asked.

“I hibernated while waiting for you to wake up,” Para said. “Ruvaria would come and go to check in on us in between her projects, which would lead to me waking shortly for updates before hibernating some more. So, yes, I’m starving. And I think it’ll be nice to save what remains of Foodie’s cooking for later.”

Without further ado, Zarian and Para feasted.

Once they finished, there was nothing left down in the massive basement. Their appetite had grown gargantuan, keeping pace with their ballooning stats. That might become a major concern for them later down the road.

Zarian didn’t think too much about that problem right now. He strode through the cabin sections and reached the idealistic kitchen area where Ruvaria sat with a new book.

He noted her changes with his own eyes. He’d already swept over her with his aura and devourer traits, but seeing was believing, and what he saw gave him some pause.

Then he pressed on anyway. Ruvaria placed down her book and looked up at him as he approached.

Before she could utter another word, Zarian pulled back her seat with one hand. With the other, he scooped her up by the waist.

There was no resistance. She gave herself over to him like she was his prize as Zarian pressed his lips to hers and lost himself for a moment, completely struck by wondrous and delightful bliss.

Her lips were soft, supple, and sweet. Her lithe body against his muscular own, wrapped in his arms, felt delicate despite how dangerous she truly was.

There was no danger at this moment. Only vulnerability and joy.

As she kissed back, she kissed passionately. She kissed with openness and excitement. She kissed like she’d wanted this for a long time.

After all, the two of them were lovers of all that was magical. And all of that magic between them sparked and crackled with energetic lightning flowing around them. The sheer friction of their auras moved like wild currents while clapping like booming thunder.

The cupboards shook and slammed. Utensils fell over. The table rattled, and the chairs ended up knocked aside. But everything remained whole and unbroken.

Any lesser dwelling without the legendary materials and enchantments of the Sorceress Queen would’ve gotten blown down by their combined might and fervor.

After what felt like a long and short time, things settled down when Zarian broke the kiss.

He looked into her rose-tinted face and took in the first immediate change.

A mythical emerald stone replaced her right eye. Then, when he looked down, he saw the magic prosthetic grasping his shoulder. It was pale and wooden, almost like a doll’s arm sculpted by a master woodcarver. Ɍ𝘢𝐍ɵᛒΕș

Both her original right eye and right arm were gone.

“It was Overwhelming Darkness, wasn’t it?” Zarian asked.

Ruvaria smiled kindly. “Yes, but no … it was my curiosity. I looked where I shouldn’t have dared. I reached further than I should’ve reached.”

“Ruvaria, no…”

“I’m sorry, dear. I couldn’t help it. All of your dark power is fascinating. In the end, I gleaned something that would help me break past a certain bottleneck. But at a cost.” She waved about her cream-colored and intricately carved wooden prosthetic. “And … I saved the universe, of course, when you lost control. Unfortunately, you weren’t able to seal yourself as we hoped at the ultimate moment.”

Zarian sighed. He had half a mind to tell her off. He also had half a mind to follow his other urges.

Why did he attract crazy women? Why was he so interested in them in return?

“I’m assuming that the damage is so extensive you can’t heal it?” Zarian asked.

“It’s engraved into my soul, dear. The damage is a part of me now. There is no healer, at least of the Master Ranks and even Champion Ranks, who could fix this. But it is a worthy sacrifice for what I’ve achieved.”

Zarian knew of one healer who could fix something that seemed permanent once the healer was strong enough. He kept that to himself for now as he glared into the elf empress’s face.

“Ruvaria.”

“Yes, dear?”

“Never again. Do not ever sacrifice a piece of yourself like that. Not with me. I got issues. And what you did is going to screw with me for a while.”

He expected her to argue or debate with him. Instead, her cheeks turned rosier, and she looked down from his gaze, thoroughly ashamed.

Bottom lip quivering, she took her time to answer. “I knew you would get mad. I was afraid of it, too. But I figured it would be best to deal with it and be forthcoming. It still stings.”

Zarian huffed. “Of course it should sting. But I need you to say it. You won’t sacrifice yourself like that again. Say it.”

She pouted. “Well, if you must insist, I won’t make such a sacrifice again. I suppose I don’t have the same benefits that the incredible human woman, Naomi, has. And that is fine. You and her are a match made for each other.”

Zarian slowly set Ruvaria back on her feet without letting her go fully. She didn’t pull away from him either.

“Speaking of Naomi,” he said with a low growl. “She’s on my ass-chewing list, too.”

“There’s quite a lot of that to chew, if you’re being literal.”

Zarian ignored the joke. He was going to have Para speak her mind when he noticed Para was gone from sight and from the forefront of consciousness.

The Parasite Cloak +3 had hid her material into his body and shut the door to her private space in his mind. She must’ve done that the moment Zarian kissed Ruvaria.

Fair enough, he could handle things from here.

“I want to take the blame for all that happened, but to be honest, Naomi shares the blame, too,” he said. “We went way too far. I’m not even sure what got into me or her.”

Ruvaria smirked. “I can hazard a guess, but it’ll be inappropriate.”

Zarian sighed. There was no need to guess. He, a wizard, and Naomi, a cultivator, had placed themselves under a lot of tension.

Thus, in a moment with passions running hot, he wiped out an entire mountain range and damaged two freaking moons. It was still hard to wrap his head around that. Such a thing only happened in anime.

Zarian released Ruvaria. He rubbed his hands up and down his face with a groan. He was going to dread the conversations he was going to have with Gilbert and the others.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He could already feel the Christian man’s disapproval, like an executioner’s axe on his neck. As much shit as he’d given Gilbert over their adventures, he appreciated the man a lot, and disappointing him felt terrible.

“I have to face facts,” Zarian muttered, his tail coiling around Ruvaria’s waist. “I have to be held accountable even if I rather not.”

Looking at Ruvaria standing still, ensnared by his tail, Zarian took his time to examine her some more. Despite the losses, she still seemed to act as his adoring teacher, and something more.

“How’s Naomi?” Zarian asked.

“She will be in a coma for quite some time.” Ruvaria rubbed her soft left hand over his fuzzy tail. “I have her secured and safe. I’m using the best enchantments and alchemies that my family can offer to keep her body from deteriorating after pushing too far beyond her mortal limits. She might awaken from her ordeal in six months to a year.”

“Damn.”

“There is good news.”

“What’s that?”

“She’s still training. Her brain activity suggests so. Such a willful nature like hers won’t allow her to rest easily. I imagine she’ll grow her Willpower to an extreme degree that way.”

Zarian barked with laughter. Even when stuck in a coma, Naomi would find a way to train. It was almost fitting. That woman chased after power like a fish to water.

He shouldn’t laugh about that, knowing the damage wrought because of them. But it couldn’t be helped.

He was in love with that woman. He was in love with her ever since she stuck her neck out for him and helped him get into the Marines despite his issues.

Which was why he needed to make sure he had a clear head around Naomi. She was dangerous to him. They were too dangerous around each other.

“Anything else on your mind, dear?” Ruvaria’s emerald eyes, one of flesh and one of stone, looked up at him invitingly.

Zarian’s chest felt like it was on fire. His thoughts became murky. He leveraged his improved Willpower and thought about the most pressing information that mattered.

“So, to reiterate Naomi’s case, she’s under your care and will be in a coma from six months to a year. I’m going to assume you will also take the opportunity to study her safely and without sacrificing much from yourself or Naomi.”

Ruvaria flashed an impish smile. “I’ve learned my lesson in regard to sacrifice. But yes, your assumptions are correct.”

Zarian fixed her with a glare. She lowered her head like a scolded child for quite some time before he moved on. “What do the rankings mean? Because I’m the 31st Mage.”

“Oh, congratulations. You aren’t too far from me. I’m the 3rd Mage of the Master Ranks. I’ve never gotten down that low before, but I suppose recent events helped me skip up near the top of all the Master Rankers.”

“When you say ‘all the Master Rankers,’ do you mean across the world?”

Ruvaria shook her head. “All the Master Rankers across all the Infinita Star System. In fact, the rankings don’t truly matter until you reach a Greater World. But we’re still included in the rankings, anyway.”

Zarian was dumbfounded. There was a big universe out there. He would know, since he ate all of Infinita that one time.

Ruvaria was basically saying that out of all the Master Rankers in the rankings, he was the 31st Mage, and she was the 3rd Mage.

“How?!”

She giggled. “Because we’re better than most others regardless of levels. The higher your level is as a Master Ranker, the more that detracts from your ranking. But having levels and experience would usually mean you’ve done quite a number of incredible things to improve your ranking.”

“What’s the basis?”

“It’s based on your stats despite your level, your achievements, your abilities, and your Feats of Adventure. You are the 31st Mage of the Master Rankers because everyone else beyond you is not as great as you even if you’re still low in levels. I’m assuming the Star System is not accounting for your apocalyptic nature, or maybe it’s factoring a fraction of that, which grants you quite some leeway.”

“I came down from being the 492nd Mage. So, fuck, even being within the top 500 is insane if we’re accounting for all the fucking Master Rankers of an entire universe.”

“Oh? Then you really proved yourself. I suppose destroying some geological and astronomical features while in the low Level 100s would do that.”

Ruvaria laughed, which was music to Zarian’s ears.

It nearly pulled him away from his shock, since Zarian couldn’t wrap his mind around the scope of it all just yet. He was the 31st of all Master Rankers. And his teacher was freaking 3rd of all Master Rankers. And they hadn’t even left the Lesser Realm of Worlds yet.@@novelbin@@

Wait, who are the next thirty rankers above me? Who is the 2nd? Who is the 1st?

Shaking his head, Zarian asked, “When do those ranking changes happen, anyway?”

“The start of a season. You became the 31st Mage, and I became the 3rd Mage of the Master Ranks in Early Autumn. Though, having been inactive for quite some time might drop you in the rankings, but I wouldn’t worry about that. These games of ranks only matter when you first venture into a Greater World. Down here on a Lesser World, they remain as instruments of inflating one’s ego, really.”

Zarian nodded. The rankings would not be a big deal for him until after ascension. But he was already starting off with a huge lead.

He would probably slide down the rankings once Early Winter arrived, but he imagined he would climb back up even faster after he ascended.

That begged the question of when he should ascend and why the Star System had given him a main quest based on waiting. He was supposed to talk to Ekri the Tailor, but Zarian kept avoiding it.

He figured if there was anyone who might know what was happening, it would be Ruvaria.

“I have a mythical main quest called All Roads Lead to Carrowmore. I was supposed to talk to Ekri the Tailor about something going on that has the Star System recommending for me and my friends to wait before ascending. Do you know what’s up with that, Ruvaria?”

“You rather not hear it from that bug’s mouth?”

“I really don’t want to. I don’t like the guy. And he makes me angry whenever I think he’s around Naomi.”

Ruvaria chuckled softly. “You and the human Naomi are truly quite the pair. Well, I wouldn’t worry too much about Ekri. He saw something in Naomi similar to how I saw something in you, though that bug isn’t one for these kinds of intimate persuasions, as one may think.”

She chuckled again as she flickered the fingers of both hands through the tuft at the end of his tail.

Zarian raised an eyebrow. “He doesn’t … get around?”

“He has no children. He has nothing but himself. Very much unlike me. In fact, driders are notorious for having many children. Most don’t survive to adulthood, so he’s quite the exception.”

“Oh.” Zarian wasn’t sure how to take that. He still didn’t want to like Ekri. But now his dislike of the drider was a little fainter. He brushed it off. “Well, do you know what’s going on?”

Ruvaria combed the fingers of both hands, flesh and prosthetic, through her long waterfall of gold-silver hair. She leaned forward to rest against his hard body. When she finished with her hair, her hands laid delicately on his arms.

“The Carrowmore Thousand Year Tournament is happening Early Summer 1534 D.E.,” she said.

Zarian’s eyes widened. “Fuck! That’s next year! Hell, that’s less than a year away. It’s about to be Late Autumn so we have seven fucking months.”

“Hm, yes, that and upon the ending of the tournament, all of Corma would ascend.”

Zarian froze.

The mental door to Para’s private space cracked open. A toothy mouth appeared on his shoulder and said, “Oh my.” Then Para receded away, all physical traces of her gone, the private mental door shutting.

Zarian recollected his thoughts quickly, using a bit of his free evil +7, but not much. “Ascend?”

“Yes. This world has reached its peak and pushed over the edge. Most likely thanks to myself and you. Thus, the World of Castles and Caverns is going to become a Greater World, where it’ll be more accessible to Master Rankers all across the Greater Realm. And as a Greater World, that also means we can have more regular visits from Champion Rankers and those in the Level 200s.”

“Something tells me I’m going to be fighting a bunch of Master Rankers and Champion Rankers after our world ascends, won’t I?”

“You and I both, dear. You know what’s the worst part?”

“What?”

“We won’t have to do a First Star Ascension Trial. Instead … we must compete in a First World Ascension Event.”

Zarian gave Ruvaria a moment as they both reconciled in different ways. Her father died during his First Star Ascension Trial. Now they had to consider an entire world being put under judgment.

Softly, Zarian urged the conversation onward. “Does that mean the way our world gets treated depends on this event?”

Ruvaria nodded stiffly. “Exactly. If we do poorly, others from the Greater Worlds will have more privilege to do what they like with our world. That would give Champion Rankers, who live on Greater Worlds known as Champion Worlds, more freedom to act as they please. That might be okay for the likes of me and you … but for the rest of the world.”

Zarian frowned. He didn’t like the idea of off-world foreigners coming in and making a mess of things. That was usually his thing, and the thing of his freedom alignment.

“I guess that means Carrowmore was always a part of my destiny,” he said.

“It is the same for me. I have business to settle there. With the Carrowmore Barons. And with the one who lurks deeper in the shadows, the Countess of Carrowmore.”

“Never heard of her.”

“That’s the point.”

“Fun. I got a trait for that. The Countess of Carrowmore better not turn out to be a bunch of gnomes in a fashionable trench coat.”

Ruvaria burst out into laughter that sounded like more music to Zarian’s ears. He laughed along with her.

He couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t wait anymore. He stopped caring about the lines getting blurry and his many issues. He lifted Ruvaria off her feet with his tail and took her out of the kitchen area.

With a flick of his tail, he tossed her down onto his bed. She wasn’t wearing much, only something silky and see-through. And he hadn’t woken up with anything on him.

So, he returned to bed just the same as Ruvaria looked up at him with a smile. He stopped himself with only an inch of room to spare.

“I’m in love with her, you know? With Naomi,” he said. “We have our issues, and she can be shitty, and I can be shitty, and we got stuff to work out. But … I sense there’s something else between you and me that’s worth trying out. If any of that bothers you, let me know now and I’ll stop.”

“It doesn’t bother me.”

“Really?”

“Dear, I’m ten thousand years old. And I’m experienced. Do you really think I’ll be bothered so easily?”

“I’m not so sure. You still have a heart, Ruvaria.”

“And this heart cares for you, and cares for your development. The human Naomi is your match. She is your challenge. Yes, she is a frustrating and brusque mortal, but she is everything that fits you. However…”

“However?”

“That doesn’t mean we should leave you in a tense and destructive state. It is time for you to relax, dear student. Let me ease your burdens so you can better handle your feature endeavors.”

That was all Zarian needed to hear, unable to hold himself back anymore. He hadn’t had a release in forever. He hadn’t had pleasure or peace or the fulfillment of his carnal desires in forever.

Every brush with Ruvaria’s lips stole his breath. The taste of her neck, her collar, her breasts, and further down her flesh was sweet. The sound she made when he nipped her ears between his teeth was like the cry of an angel. The feel of her fingers and toes tracing over the contours of his limbs, regardless of the prosthetic, was heavenly. The emotions that welled up from how she accepted him so easily and cared for him without demanding much were more than he could ask for.

And then there was the wet warmth of being inside of her, all while more of her aura unfolded from her body and swallowed him up with her vast power, placing Zarian in between two different worlds of pleasure, one of flesh, and one of magic. As he thrust, her aura pressed down upon him with pulsating heat that matched the rhythm of her racing heart, crushing him lightly against her, squeezing him from all sides, enhancing each sensation they shared.

Eventually, when they finished together, it was a miracle the cabin survived.