Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls

Chapter 555: Elion is nervous.

The massive wooden and iron door of the private bathroom creaked open, breaking the heavy, damp silence that had settled after the storm. Elion stopped in the doorway.

His face, normally a model of severe composure and calculated elegance, showed no shock. Instead, it settled into a flat expression of pure, weary resignation.

His eyes, the same amber color as Kael’s, but infinitely older and colder, scanned the scene with the efficiency of a general assessing a post-conflict battlefield: the pool of murky water, the torches flickering low, the clothes scattered like wreckage. And then, they landed on the two intertwined bodies on the black stone slab.

Kael was on his back, one arm thrown over his eyes, his chest still rising and falling rapidly. Nidhogg lay on her side, facing him, one leg resting on his, possessive even in exhaustion.

The soft light clearly illuminated the dragoness’s body: her breasts, thighs, and, most strikingly, the center between her legs, where the silvery, translucent fluids of her own essence visibly mingled with Kael’s white, opaque semen, trickling in slow threads down the smooth stone.

Elion watched for three silent heartbeats. Then, a single, deep sigh escaped his lips, a sound laden with age-old weariness.

"It seems," she said, her voice clear and sharp as glass in the silence, "that I’ll have to order a magic padlock. For your cock, son."

Kael shuddered and removed his arm from his face, turning his head to face his mother. There was no shame in his eyes, only a profound weariness and a trace of the golden glow that seemed to linger beneath his irises.

Nidhogg, for his part, moved lazily. Her golden eyes opened and fixed on Elion, not with defiance, but with a slow, satisfied curiosity, like a large feline watching a smaller, irrelevant creature invade its territory.

She didn’t even bother to cover herself.

"Get dressed," Elion ordered, completely ignoring Nidhogg’s gaze. "Both of you. Bath first, if you can manage to separate long enough for the water to cleanse more than just... the success of your exploration." Her tone was acidic, but controlled.

"Afterwards, appropriate attire. Meet me in the east library in an hour." She paused, and her gaze finally met Nidhogg’s, and this time, there was a steely edge to it.

"We have matters to discuss. Serious matters. Including, but not limited to, how I’m going to seal a filthy dragon like you in a fucking tree with several tentacles entering your cunt and your gaping asshole." Elion spoke naturally, but she was clearly nervous.

Very nervous.

Without waiting for a reply, Elion turned, her long dress rustling against the stone floor. At the door, she paused for a moment, without turning back.

"One hour, Kael. If you don’t show up downstairs in an hour, I’ll skin your dick off with a runic cutting spell." She spoke and disappeared down...

Kael remained motionless for a few seconds after the door closed again.

The silence that remained in the bathroom seemed different now. It was no longer the heavy silence of newly shared intimacy, nor the lazy warmth left by physical exhaustion. It was an awkward silence. Tense. Strangely human.

Elion’s casual threat still hung in the air like a cursed rune.

Nidhogg blinked slowly.

Then tilted his head slightly to the side.

"...She really did say tentacles."

Kael covered his eyes again with his forearm.

"She was nervous."

"She was extremely specific."

"My mother has emotional problems."

"Clearly."

The dragoness rested her chin on her hand as she observed his profile lying on the heated stone. The residual golden glow still coursed across Kael’s skin in tiny, almost invisible veins, remnants of the primordial sap and the energy shared between them. Even his breathing seemed heavier now, laden with mana too dense for an ordinary human body.

Nidhogg slowly slid her fingers across his chest.

Not provocatively this time.

Almost contemplatively.

"She’s scared."

Kael opened one eye slightly.

"Of us?"

"Of you."

That made the humor fade slightly from his expression.

The dragoness continued observing the golden glow beneath his skin as she spoke in a lower tone.

"You’ve changed."

Kael let out a small, tired sigh.

"It was literally a bath of ancient mana followed by sex with a primordial draconic entity."

"When you put it that way, it sounds irresponsible."

"Because it was irresponsible."

Nidhogg smiled slightly.

But the smile didn’t last long.

She slowly ran her fingers along the line of his chest to the center of his sternum, where the energy seemed more concentrated now. Beneath his skin, something pulsed. Faint. Golden.

Her fragment.

Kael immediately noticed when she turned serious.

"...Is it bad?"

Nidhogg was silent for a few seconds.

The bluish steam continued to slowly drift through the colossal bathroom while the waters of the primordial pool pulsed in the background like a sleeping heart.

Then she answered:

"No."

But there was too much hesitation in that single word.

Kael noticed.

Of course he noticed.

"You’re lying."

"I’m calculating."

"That never reassures anyone."

The dragoness let out a long sigh before finally moving. She slowly stepped off the rock, her tail gliding lazily across the warm floor as she walked to the edge of the pool. The golden glow reflected on her bare skin and the small scales scattered across her body, transforming her silhouette into an almost unreal creature under the vivid illumination of the roots.

She plunged one hand into the primordial water.

The golden currents reacted immediately.

Small circles of light spread across the surface.

"Kael."

Her tone was now completely different.

Elder.

Heavier.

"When you drink the essence of a primordial entity..." She observed the water as she spoke. "You create a bond."

Kael remained silent.

Nidhogg slowly raised her golden eyes to him.

"And bonds have consequences."

The glow beneath his skin pulsed again.

Stronger.

Kael sat slowly on the stone, still feeling his body absurdly heavy and light at the same time. The mana within him felt different now. Warmer. Deeper. As if something had been added to the fundamental structure of the magical core itself.

"What kind of consequences?"

Nidhogg hesitated.

That alone was a bad answer.

"...You carry part of my essence now."

"You already said that."

"Not just energy." She slowly crossed her arms under her chest. "Instincts too."

Kael narrowed his eyes.

"...Instincts."

"Primordial dragons don’t function like humans." Her gaze remained fixed on him. "We leave marks."

Silence.

Then Kael slowly massaged his forehead.

"Of course they do."

"I didn’t do it on purpose."

"That’s exactly what someone who did something absurdly problematic would say."

Nidhogg seemed genuinely offended.

"I would have warned you if I knew you would advance so quickly."

Kael was silent for a moment.

"...Advance."

The dragoness looked away for half a second.

Enough.

Kael immediately realized.

"...Nidhogg."

She didn’t answer.

"...Nidhogg." Her tail moved slowly behind her body.

A classic sign of guilt.

Kael closed his eyes.

"What the hell have you done to me?"

The dragoness let out a long sigh.

Then she pointed to his chest.

"The bond is stabilizing faster than it should."

"Is that bad?"

"Possibly catastrophic."

"Excellent."

She slowly approached the stone where he sat again. Her body still radiated intense heat as small golden droplets trickled down her skin and evaporated before even touching the ground.

When she stopped before him again, her golden eyes were serious.

Very serious.

"Kael... when you enter the Original Realm..."

She touched his chest precisely over the golden glow.

"...Yggdrasil will feel it."

The entire bathroom seemed colder for a moment.

Kael stared at Nidhogg in silence.

Then she spoke slowly:

"...She will feel you in me."

Nidhogg nodded.

There was no joking now.

No teasing smiles.

No comfortable irony.

Just the truth.

"And Yggdrasil already hates me without needing any more reasons."

Kael let out a dry, incredulous laugh.

"So technically I just made the worst possible strategic decision before entering a realm controlled by an unstable entity that might want to kill me."

"...Technically."

"Fantastic."

Nidhogg observed his tired face for a few seconds.

Then, unexpectedly, she moved even closer and cupped his face between her large, warm hands.

"Damn."

Kael raised an eyebrow.

"That was surprisingly sincere."

"Because I really didn’t want to complicate your life any further."

She slowly stroked his skin with her thumbs.

"And yet I did."

Kael observed her golden eyes in silence for a few seconds.

Then he let out another tired sigh.

"...You’re an ancient disaster."

The smile that appeared on her lips this time was small.

Weak.

Almost vulnerable.

"Yes."

For a few seconds, neither of them spoke.

They just stood there while the blue steam slowly filled the bathroom and the primordial waters pulsed gently behind them.

Then Kael finally tilted his head back slightly.

"My mother is really going to try to kill me."

"Probably."

"And maybe try to kill you first."

"She’s tried before."

This made Kael look at her immediately.

"...What?"

Nidhogg seemed distractedly proud.

"It was a very beautiful runic spear."

"You’re talking about it too casually."

"She was going through a difficult phase."

"My mother tried to murder you with a magic spear."

"She hit my left lung."

Kael remained in absolute silence for three full seconds.

Then he slowly pointed at her.

"And you two treat me like I’m emotionally unstable."

"You inherited it from her."

"That doesn’t help."

Nidhogg finally began to laugh again.

Loosely.

Warmly.

The sound reverberated softly through the bathroom as she rested her forehead against his.

And for the first time since Elion had entered the room—

Kael realized something important.

Despite the chaos.

Despite the utter insanity of the situation.

Despite the existential threat posed by Yggdrasil.

Despite the primal bond now connected to his own soul.

Nidhogg was happy.

Genuinely happy.

Not like an ancient entity playing with something interesting.

Not like a satisfied predator.

But like someone who had spent too much time alone.

And who now finally had something she feared losing.