{Edited} A Merchant's Odyssey - Chapter 23 (Patreon)

AN: Edited chapters do not count toward monthly quota's

Chapter 23: “Sebastian.”

"That was a bit much, no?" With a dry look, Sebastian vanished the leftover bloodstains as they hovered over the ravine's entrance on his flying carpet.

Neo huffed, arms crossed, and didn't look at him.

To say she didn’t take his story well was an understatement, especially the part where he had to talk her out of going on a murderous spree of Unspeakables.

It took the worst argument they’d had since they met over half a year ago, plus a complete breakdown of Sebastian and Aunt Andy’s plans for the Unspeakables demise, as well as a good bit of stabbing before she calmed down enough to accept it.

Thankfully, he was long used to her ways and had a good stock of healing elixir pills.

'Who knew she was so protective of me?' Sebastian mused, bemused, and reached over to gently pull her to his side. "Neo."

It spoke to how much she had calmed down that she didn't fight him, letting him tug her into his lap, but she still refused to look at him.

“You know my plan.” Sebastian placed a gentle kiss on her neck, arms around her as he held her close. “If I don’t have full confidence in my success, I’ll come to you for help.”

Neo finally turned her head to look at him with narrowed eyes, her opinion clear.

“I promise.” Sebastian nodded, staring back with genuine honesty. “I'm serious; I wasn't hiding it from you. You know how I am; it just slipped my mind.”

If anything, that just made her narrow her eyes further.

A bit of charades later, and Sebastian understood her issue.

"Neo, you know I trust you, right?" Sebastian jerked his head toward the ravine. "I'm literally putting my life in your hands right now. I needed your help, and I asked for it.”

He leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers, their mismatched gazes locked inches apart.

“If I need help, I’ll never be too proud to ask.” He lowered his voice to a harsh whisper. “But for now, you need to let me handle it.”

His vendetta with the Unspeakables was personal, but that wasn’t why he was pushing her away. Rather, it was because her specific skills weren’t of help for the next few steps.

Sebastian already had the raw Mana to match Dumbledore, and the raw firepower to decimate the Ministry of Magic if he played his cards right.

He could even successfully run away with his custom-designed portkey, but would that solve his problems?

Not at all.

He didn’t know who all the Unspeakables were, where they were outside of a general idea of the Ministry’s basement, what they were capable of, what they had cooked up in their labs over the years, or anything.

Countless people in the Ministry had nothing to do with his blood feud.

Sebastian was flying blind, and if even one Unspeakable with a vendetta got away, that risk could blow up in his face years down the line, something that he found unacceptable.

He knew he could take his family and run to another world, but was that a real solution? To cut off an entire world instead of facing a single group of less than a hundred wizards?

No.

Sebastian would take steps to know his enemy.

Once he had what he needed, he would systematically remove them with a surgical scalpel.

Only then would he sleep easily.

Neo’s stubborn frown still didn’t let up, yet she pressed back into him with an urging expression.

Sebastian sighed and realized he wouldn't appease her in a single conversation.

"We're about to dive into a life-and-death adventure.” He pointed down at the ravine. “Can we put this off until later?"

That finally made Neo snap out of her funk as she nodded in acceptance, professionalism coming through as she knew there was a time and place.

"Thank you." He kissed her and saw her physically restrain a smile. "Because I wasn't kidding when I said we're going to get swarmed down there."

Sebastian had explained it earlier, but he repeated it to make sure she was in the right headspace.

"I'll take care of our flight and keeping the beasts off us, but we'll have to rely heavily on your illusions to get us through.” He explained. “Even if that means we can’t just go full speed.”

Despite having her Martial Soul awakened, it didn't make Neo's illusions stronger just yet, more vivid and easier for her to command, perhaps; but she needed Spirit Rings or greater Soul Power to see immediate improvements.

Her illusions were typically stationary in a space around her, not anchored to herself but to the area. Inside the area, they were picture-perfect copies according to her imagination.

Still, the faster they moved on the flying carpet, the less she could keep her illusions intact.

“This is going to be a heavy drain on you.” Sebastian tapped her umbrella. “So try to restrain yourself from stabbing out at anything.”

Neo pouted at the words, but she nodded to show she understood.

“Good, and remember, if you feel like your life is at risk, don't be afraid to pull back.” He began lowering the carpet. “We can do this run as many times as we need.”

Sebastian had already carved Portkey recall stations for them.

One of his first successes using Soul Power to fuel runes came from his custom portkeys, because he knew the process intimately as its creator.

His father might have provided the prototype, but Sebastian was the one who finished it.

As long as Neo had the Aura to power it, she could use the portkey without issues.

However, that wasn't everything he prepared; this time, they each wore clip-on earrings that blocked sound waves above and below a certain decibel.

They also wore anti-corrosion enchanted cloaks and goggles to protect from the black water and vapors.

And even a ring, which Neo was happily playing with.

“Whatever you do, do not take off that ring.” Sebastian motioned to the runic ring on her finger. “The mental ensnarement of some of these beasts is the real danger we’ll be facing. Once activated, the ring will send a jolting alarm into your head every five seconds. Turn it on now and try to get used to the sensation.”

Neo excitedly twisted the ring he gave her and twitched as the alarm vibrated in her skull.

It wasn’t a piercing alarm that would distract her in a dangerous moment, but a steady pulse that would allow her to shake off any enthralling trance.

From the notes he had acquired from Elder Lu, Sebastian realized the Spirit Beasts that obscured the mind weren't directly targeting individuals, but putting out a SEP field that hit anything in its area.

“Alright, you ready?” Sebastian asked, holding them steady while he gave her a few moments to get used to the alarm.

Neo summoned her mask.

A moment later, a dozen copies of them riding a flying carpet appeared in the air around them.

“Good.” Sebastian smiled at her skill. "I'll start picking up speed; let me know when you can only maintain six copies."

She nodded, and Sebastian set the flying carpet toward their target, dropping into the mist.

‘Once more into the breach.’ Sebastian muttered and focused his mind.

The corrosive mist enveloped them in welcome as they entered, but Sebastian wasn't wasting energy this time.

He moved quickly before the thickening mist could eat away at them, dropping into a light fog that felt like ants crawling over their Aura.

The swampy ravine appeared before their eyes, and Neo’s eyes widened behind her mask as she finally got a glimpse of Sebastian’s horror story.

The rusty-colored fog was clear enough to see through, but cloudy enough to put you on edge.

The black, bubbling water set the hairs on the back of one's neck on end.

The alien purple trees lacking leaves shifted eerily around every corner.

And the screeches and roars echoing off the stone walls seemed to come from all sides.

"Steady." Sebastian whispered, picking up the pace and frowning as he saw Neo's illusions drop to ten, the fog around them shifting as it took note of their presence. “We need to move faster.”

A broom might reach 200km/h or more, but it didn't keep one's hands free to cast unless they stood still.

A flying carpet could reach a top speed of 150km/h and allowed freedom of movement, something Sebastian valued much more.

'At top speed, we could reach the area where the Jade Serenity Lily resides in around three hours, but if…' An alarm rang through his mind, and Sebastian grimaced as the encroaching fog vanished. "Damn, it's already here. You good, Neo?"

Neo shook her head as her own alarm woke her up.

Her eyes narrowed behind her mask in displeasure as her illusions dropped to eight.

The flap of wings rang in Sebastian’s ears, and he immediately banked to the right, securing himself and Neo to the carpet with Sticking Charms just as a leathery bird dive-bombed past them. “Hang on.”

The swamp came alive around the two as forms noticed the intruders.

An anaconda-sized eel with far too many sightless eyes poked its head out and shot jets of black water at them.

“Son of a bitch.” Sebastian threw up shields. “That’s new.”

The corrosive water slammed against the shields, not slowing them in the slightest.

Disorienting screeches from deformed monkeys slammed into them, but their earrings protected them from the sound waves.

Trees shifted as branches wiped at them with punishing force, forcing Sebastian to throw out overpowered Severing Charms to remove the offending limbs.

Nearly silent, furless bat hordes shot at them with gleaming fangs, smashing into his shields and getting sent flying with broken bones by his empowered Banishing Charm.

‘I’ve never been gladder to have greater gravity control.’ Sebastian thought as he rapidly fired off Banishing Charms, the spell having far more force than anything else in his arsenal aside from his Spirit Rings.

The flying carpet cut through the air, the wind whistling in their ears as Sebastian kept his eyes on a swivel, pointing his palms every which way to banish anything that got too close and shield anything that would impact them.

There was no moment to rest; every five seconds, it felt like a new ensnarement was shattered, only for another beast to be right there, about to attack.

'Thank Merlin, I brought Neo.' Sebastian thought with a trace of cold sweat after getting a moment to look over at her illusions. ‘I owe that old pervert another box of cigars.’

He mentally thanked Elder Lu for the tip as he saw the results of her presence.

The Spirit Beasts of Demora Falls sensed prey through energy that moved through the mists.

As much as they attacked them, they were attacking the illusions just as much, splitting the horde and easing the pressure.

The six illusions Neo kept up took her full focus; each time a beast disrupted one, she had to shift her attention to repair it.

After minutes of repairing them over a hundred times, Neo tapped his shoulder to indicate her limit was approaching.

“Keep it up a bit longer, Neo.” Sweat dripped from Sebastian’s brow. “We’re almost through to the next area.”

He kept firing off Charms while controlling the carpet to maneuver at their speed, a task as difficult as flying a WW2 plane in a foggy dogfight.

Demora Falls had designated zones, starting with the cesspool of violent survival of the fittest.

Neo squeezed his shoulder in acknowledgment, but kept her focus on the illusions as they were repeatedly torn apart and repaired.

‘I need to take the pressure off a bit.’ Sebastian reached into his pouch and pulled out a belt of Dust grenades. ‘If they can sense energy, I’m sure they’ll love this.’

He pulled all the pins at once and banished them in every direction but in front of them.

“Fire in the hole!” Sebastian yelled and grabbed her arm.

Neo had a moment to look up and recognize what he threw out before the world around them lit up in a multi-hued display.

Electrifying yellow, freezing blue, tempest green, and burning fire created an orchestra of color that momentarily banished the fog and blinded every beast in its radius with the energy release.

Sebastian cackled at the effect. “And you said explosions were cheating.”

Neo shot him an amused look and slapped his shoulder to tell him to focus.

The beasts weren't distracted long as they returned, but Sebastian was ready with more grenades. 'Explosions are the true answer to life’s problems.’

It took a few more explosive distractions before Sebastian finally saw the end of the swamp's black waters, where it met bleached white earth.

“Final burst, Neo.” He called over his shoulder.

Her masked face dipped, shirt drenched in sweat as her chest heaved from keeping up her illusions so long.

A massive geyser of black water erupted just off the shoreline where a truck-sized spiked crocodile with the jaws of a shark shot out to snap them up.

“You really think I wouldn’t be prepared for a mini boss at the finish line?” Sebastian scoffed, staring straight into the nightmarish monstrosity.   

He was waiting for just that moment as he revealed an already charged Spirit Ring Grenade in his off hand, swirling not with blades of buzzing wind, but with twisting shades of purple arcs.

“I'm Sebastian White, you bloody cunt!" He roared and shot off the grenade.

It launched forward like a bullet and slammed into the inner roof of the Spirit Beast's mouth, the shell cracking as a single condensed Charm exploded with the force of a dozen casts.

Gravity hit the massive beast, shattering hundreds of teeth as the condensed spell latched onto it and forced it to flip onto its head.

"Flippendo, bitch!" Sebastian flew right by, middle finger raised in salute. "Get flipped!"

The truck-sized crocodile literally spun like a top, flying through the air and cracking against a tree that immediately tried to pierce its scales.

Neo dropped her illusions once they crossed over to land, then fell into his lap in a fit of giggles.

“What?” Sebastian lifted his arms innocently. "I can't afford to kill it. That thing's gotta be a purple beast; the sheer energy of its ring will fuck up my insides."

Despite having his level maxed out until he solved his body issues, Sebastian could still fuel his Spirit Rings with more years from killed beasts.

But his current channels couldn’t handle anything more than yellow rings. A purple ring would likely force him into a week-long healing period with God’s Tear.

He didn’t even absorb the entire Spirit Ring from a killed beast. Most of the energy was taken up by his pendant for reasons he couldn’t understand, and the rest flowed into his Spirit Rings, pushing them both to Purple after two months of occasional experiments.

The pressure on his soul had only grown, and he decided to slow down until he leveled up further.

Neo pointed behind them and made a swirling motion with her fingers.

“Oh, that.” Sebastian formed a Spirit Grenade in his hand. "Once I got it to purple rank, I realized I could switch the base Charm with another.”

The swirling green blades were replaced with twisting purple arcs, then shifted to stunning reds, and finally to freezing blues before he canceled the grenade.

He smirked smugly. “Pretty cool, right?”

White made a perfectly stable grenade, Yellow let him add as much Soul Power as he wanted, and Purple let him shift its loadout.

Neo stared at him for a long moment, then shook her head.

“What?” He asked in confusion.

She made a gesture.

"I do not have an explosion fetish!" He defended himself.

She gave him a pitying look.

Sebastian puffed up imperiously. "You're just jealous because I can make things explode and you're stuck boringly stabbing stuff up close.”

Neo reared back, scandalized, and quickly ran a hand across her umbrella as if to soothe it.

"And now I feel bad for some reason." Sebastian stared at the odd sight, mixed emotions swirling.

Why did he suddenly feel bad for an umbrella?

He bowed his head. “I’m sorry.”

Neo hmphed in acceptance and jerked her chin ahead.

“How about I find something especially fun to stab later?" Sebastian offered.

Neo turned her head slightly to the side, eyeing him with barely hidden interest.

“I’ll make it really bloody.” Sebastian tempted.

She visibly struggled.

“Reeaaallyyy bloody.” He rolled his tongue. “And it will run from you.”

She caved and held up a pinky.

“I promise.” Sebastian wrapped his pinky around hers, sealing the deal before the two looked at each other and laughed.

They each recovered their breath while Sebastian looked around them curiously. “We made it through.”

Neo nodded and leaned against him in a side hug.

“I’m proud of you.” Sebastian kissed the top of her head. “I know you’re not used to keeping illusions up that long, especially in such a chaotic scenario.”

Neo made a wavy motion with her hands, indicating she'd been in a good few high-speed chases before in Bullheads, but even she admitted it was never that intense.

“I'll put down some markers, and we can return to the cliffs to rest." Sebastian said, moving the carpet down toward the ground, not directly touching it, but hovering over the white-colored stone.

His hands shifted into claws as he reached down and carved Portkey markers for both of them. 'They won't last more than a few days with this terrain, but it should be enough for now.'

He looked over at how tired Neo was, despite her trying to play it cool, and knew she needed a rest.

With a twist of collapsing space, the two returned to the fresh air above, breathing deep and sighing in pleasure as the carpet softened their fall.

Sebastian groaned and fell on his back, staring up at the fluffy clouds with a smile. “Nap time?”

Neo vanished her mask and rolled over onto him without hesitation, kicking her legs in the air and giving him a puppy-eyed look.

“Sure thing.” Sebastian chuckled and ran a hand over her, cleaning her off and drying her clothes. "Rest up, Love."

She leaned up and kissed him, happily nuzzling into his neck as she drifted off without an ounce of caution.

‘How did I land a woman like you?’ He mused with a gentle smile at the beautiful, defenseless creature.

A few alert wards were thrown up before Sebastian wrapped his arms around her protectively and began to breathe easily, letting his eyes drift shut as he recovered his spent resources.

‘Just a short rest.’ Sebastian was out like a light.

0000

“Demora Falls, part two.” Sebastian announced grandly.

The duo was back where they left off.

Neo raised her umbrella in a cheer and pointed dramatically toward the unknown.

Sebastian laughed and flicked her head. “Focus, this zone is going to be tricky.”

Thick fog covered the land, and the trees took on deformed shapes, their shadowed outlines shifting as they moved.

“The Shifting Maze.” Sebastian announced a tad seriously. “The number of enthralling-type Spirit Beasts that live here is going to be an issue. Don't mistake your mental alarm for anything else, alright? In fact, let's stay connected." He took out a rope and tied their waists together. “If one of us looks out of it, we need to tug or slap the other awake.”

Neo wasted no time in teasingly slapping him without any real force.

"Funny." Sebastian turned his gaze ahead and hardened his voice. "Set up your illusions; we still have a distance to go."

Neo nodded and got serious.

Six copies appeared around them at a distance, Neo not bothering to try more after their first experience.

"Also, this is where the Nightmare Parrot lives." Sebastian pointed out, and Neo's eyes widened. “If we see one, we’ll take a detour.”

Neo’s excitement was palpable, but she took a breath and kept herself in check.

The carpet moved forward, but the speed slowed because of poor visibility and thick branches.

Barely a minute in, Sebastian's nose filled with the most delectable scents, his eyes blurring as the carpet began to turn, only for Neo to yank on the rope and snap him out of it.

“Thanks.” Sebastian frowned as he corrected their course.

A minute later, Neo shifted toward the edge of the carpet, her illusions blurring into bells, before Sebastian pulled her back and she fixed their cover.

Back and forth they went, the two facing all manner of sensory ensnarements that washed over them.

Most were wasted targeting Neo's illusions, but the remaining seventh caused both of them all kinds of trouble.

One moment, Sebastian felt itchy all over as he saw insects crawling over him; the next, he saw his father calling out amid cursed fire in the fog.

Neo's illusions were buzzing back and forth into reality, from her panic at feeling like she was drowning to the rattling of chains on her childhood bedroom doors.

The lovers saw their worst fears come to life, and only the other's presence kept them going.

Unlike the first zone, the illusions were far more potent here, almost overpowering the buzzing mental alarms.

Their fingers connected almost unconsciously as they leaned on each other's strength to shake off the lifelike illusions.

A time or two, Sebastian snapped and launched waves of Banishing Charms at the ghostly appearance of a bloody Nym, asking why he was too late, only to hit nothing but air behind it.

And the hallucinations weren’t the only danger.

The ground would crack as centipede rodents lashed out.

Bleached-white wooden serpents struck from the thick branch cover.

Neo lost her focus entirely when they hit a spider web the size of a swimming pool and proceeded to stab the car-sized spider that rappelled down on them a few dozen times.

It took nearly half an hour of this insanity-inducing pace before Sebastian finally stopped them in place.

"This isn't working." He admitted with red eyes.

Neo shot him a glare that clearly said, No shit.

“I don’t even know what direction we’re facing anymore.” Sebastian shook his head and pulled out a compass that just spun. And not a regular compass, but an enchanted one that was supposed to always point north.

“I’m getting a bit tired of this reactive style of traveling.” He reached into his pouch and grabbed a row of grenade belts. “I think it’s time we use the explosive method.”

It said something that Neo didn’t even make a joke this time.

She merely held out a hand to accept her own belt.

Sebastian wrapped the belts around his chest and pulled the pin on one with his teeth. “Fuck this place.”

Neo’s eyes flashed with fire as she followed in tune.

From there, their progress changed as they introduced modern solutions to medieval problems.

The Spirit Beasts of the Shifting Maze were ambush predators and illusionists.

Once they pulled back the veil and didn’t allow them a chance to ensnare, the beasts were tinder for the flames.

Amid the explosions that followed, Sebastian paused as a wind Dust grenade blew away the heavy fog, revealing a thrashing bird falling out of a tree.

“Neo!” He yelled.

She snapped her head to where Sebastian was pointing and grinned brightly, urging him forward.

"Watch our backs. I got this." Sebastian changed course toward it, back-to-back with Neo as she tossed grenades like they were going out of style.

The fog tried to roll back in, but Sebastian was having none of the terrain's games and aimed his palm toward the faint outline of the fallen bird.

From nearly a kilometer out, Sebastian's Mana flared in an overpowered Summoning Charm, the targeted spell latching onto the bird like a hook before it could resist and flew toward them.

Sebastian watched it get closer and flashed a massive red stunner into it.

“I got it!” He grabbed the bird and made a sharp turn with the carpet. “We’re heading back!”

Sebastian’s claws flashed out and carved rune markers into the earth fast enough to make a master balk.

“Go!” He called out.

Neo and Sebastian activated their portkeys on the spot, twisting through space to return to the ravine's entrance with their first prize.

Neo groaned from the transport, holding her stomach as she vanished her mask and fought back the need to puke.

“Sorry.” Sebastian was green himself as he rubbed her back. “The greater the distance, the worse the experience.”

She shot him a betrayed look, and he could only shrug.

“I never said magic was perfect." He covered his mouth with a hand. "If I had a better teleportation method that didn’t use precious resources, I’d use it.”

She seemed to accept that and went back to taking deep breaths as Sebastian once more cleaned them of the filth they had accumulated.

A few minutes later, she was well enough to sit up and study their prize.

“One Nightmare Parrot, as ordered.” Sebastian chuckled at her eagerness and floated the bird between them.

Despite its name, it didn't look like a parrot species either of them recognized.

It had a red body and black wings, was the size of a hawk, and was covered in insect chitin.

Neo poked at the odd creature with a slight grimace, and Sebastian wasn’t too far behind her. “Yeah, it’s an ugly little shit.”

He tossed it to her, and Neo reactively stabbed it through the head.

The bird twitched, then sagged as a yellow ring floated up from its body.

"Go ahead and absorb it; you should know how to do it instinctively." Sebastian conjured a recliner for her, and Neo happily blew him a kiss and plopped down.

She closed her eyes, and barely a moment later, the ring floated over to her and entered her chest.

‘It’s odd to see it from this side.’ Sebastian had shifted to his panda form, watching the process with a floating notebook by his side. ‘There’s so much I don’t know. How does this entire system operate? What rules does it operate on? Why does no one talk about it?’

He rapidly wrote down what he could glean.

In the weeks of tearing through old scrolls, Sebastian had gathered all kinds of information, many of which were clues about their long-forgotten runic language, but not a single scholar had written about the actual system cultivation operated on.

'Could that drivel have had some truth to it?' Sebastian's eyes flashed with interest as he recalled the mention of gods. 'I had taken it the same way powerful ancient wizards were labeled gods in the history books, but what actually comes at level 100?'

Titled Douluo were the peak of the world's power system, and anyone who reached level 90 had their name go down in the history books.

However, among the hundreds of recorded names, a fraction were said to have crossed level 95 in their lifespans.

‘Who made this system?’ Sebastian rapidly wrote. ‘Why is so much instinct involved in the process? What happens when you reach the peak?’

Spirit Hall was literally a Theological faction, and the countless statues of an angelic divine figure weren't lost on Sebastian.

Yet, the idea of accepting divinity as real bothered him.

Not because he couldn't believe it, but because he had no knowledge of how they worked.

‘Could what I’ve been seeing in God’s Tear really be divine in nature?’ When he examined the drops under a microscope, he understood nothing of what he saw. Everything about it was foreign to his knowledge base. ‘What is a god?’

Sebastian’s thoughts took him down another road, tangents flying one after another, until a sound broke him from his pondering.

The screech of a car tire, the roar of an engine, the scream of a man, the cries of a baby, the crossing of blades, the bark of a dog. All of them and more echoed across the clearing where Sebastian stood as he found Neo looking around in wonder.

“Neo?” Sebastian spoke up while rubbing his ears.

She was on her feet now, focused on him, and her lips twitched.

"Seb-." The voice of a strict elderly woman rang out, and Neo frowned.

"Sebas-." Next came a squeaky, childish voice.

“Sebasti-.” A deep smoker's voice followed.

"Sebastia-." Melanie Malachite's voice rang out.

Neo frowned harder, and Sebastian opened his mouth to tell her to take it slow, but in the next moment, he froze.

“Sebastian.” The voices cemented as one.

Neo locked onto him, her lips curving upward. “Sebastian.”

Her lips stretched wider into the most unhinged smile he’d ever seen from her. “Sebastian.”

The voice was calm, almost innocent-sounding, yet it held a trace of mania that simply fit Neo far too well.

“Neo?” Sebastian took a step back as she bent over and laughed.

“Hahahahahaha!”

The manic laugh that rang out silenced the demonic screeches from the ravine behind them, its feminine pitch ringing far and wide.

Undulating loud and whispering, close and far, high and low, deep and light.

Yet distinctively her.

Aura and Soul Power flared as one around her, crushing Sebastian’s conjured recliner and pushing dust and loose debris away as dormant energy within her soul finally found release through a new Spirit Ring.

Sebastian’s eyes nearly popped out of his head as he watched it unfold. ‘She just shot from level 10 to 20 in a single shot. No, she was always level 20; she just didn't have the Spirit Ring to channel it properly.'

The world twisted, and reality wept as Neo's Overactive Imagination took control.

The ground shook and shifted as pillars of Neapolitan ice cream pierced through shattering stone; the ground vibrated as it changed into a plush vanilla-white carpet, the sky turned strawberry-pink and chocolate-brown, and a cracked mansion appeared like a mirage behind her laughing body.

A large padlock formed in midair, hovering above.

Beneath it, ruby statues took the shape of an aristocratic man and woman standing above a trembling child.

“Speak! I know you can do it, Trivia!” The man shouted.

The padlock cracked.

“Why won’t you speak to me, Trivia?” The woman begged.

The lock creaked like tortured metal.

“Just speak, and I’ll forgive you for what you’ve done, Trivia.” The man asked calmly, his voice tinged with anger.

It aged and rusted.

“Go to your room, Trivia. When you decide to speak, you can come out.” The woman commanded with a shriek.

The padlock shattered, chain links falling like rain, tingling as they hit the ground.

Neo stopped laughing and didn’t even glance at the statues of her childhood trauma, eyes locking onto Sebastian with the intensity of glowing stars.

Her steps echoed through the space, the statues cracking and falling apart like sand as she passed them by, her hips swaying hypnotically as she didn’t deviate from her target.

And said target stood there, watching calmly as Neo embraced something she never had, something locked away in her heart, the final chain her parents held on her.

Arms appeared around his neck from behind, gently wrapping around him as faint, manic giggles rang in his ears.

‘I can feel them now.’ Sebastian noted in surprise.

His gaze remained locked on the Neo he knew to be true.

She stopped before him and looked up into his eyes, her lips twitching as she moved muscles she had never had to before to mimic the sound coming from her soul.

“Sebastian.” The light, slightly heady voice rang in his ears.

“Neo.” Sebastian calmly responded; his notebook forgotten as he smiled. “Congratulations on finding your voice.”

“Thank you.” Neo giggled, reaching up to caress his cheek lovingly. “I made you a promise.”

"Did you?" Sebastian raised a brow and took her hand, feeling her fingers entwine with his. “Ah, earlier today.”

“Mhm.” Her voice vibrated with that same manic echo as she took him in. “I want you to hear my first words.”

"I told you it wasn't necessary." Sebastian chuckled at her conviction. “I’ve always heard you loud and clear.”

The beat of a heart rang through their surroundings.

“Sebastian.” Neo leaned into him, eyes lidded with more emotion than she knew what to do with.

She reached around his neck to pull herself up to his lips, feeling his hands grip and hold her to him.

Mismatched gazes stared into each other’s souls.

“I love you.” She whispered against him.

“I know.” Sebastian whispered back.

“Say it.” She pleaded.

“Make me.” He grinned.

If there were ever a phrase to describe Sebastian White, it would be The-Child-Who-Played-With-Fire.

Neo’s eyes glowed as the illusions around them shifted to a world of blades. “That can be arranged~.”

Sebastian never averted his gaze as his grin turned forced. “You’re very persuasive.”

“I can persuade you more, if you want.” Neo grinned back as a blade slowly rose between his legs.

“Sounds like fun.” Sebastian grabbed hold of her peach bottom and lifted her up with a squeak of surprise until he was the one looking up at her. “But you should know, being passive isn’t my style, Love.”

Neo shivered at his accent and the firm grip of his hands pressing through her thin pants.

She stared down at him from where his face was nearly pressed against her bosom and felt heat build in her core. “Say it, Sebastian.”

"Make me, Neo." His eyes were proud and defiant, teasing and loving, conveying the words she already knew he was saying but had never spoken.

“I want to hear it.” Neo pressed their foreheads together. “I want to hear your voice say it.”

“Show me how much you want it.” Sebastian’s lips ghosted over her cheek. “Show me all of you.”

Neo’s lips curved at the challenge, her legs tightening around his waist. “Take me home.”

Sebastian silently flicked his hand, his pendant glowing beneath his shirt as a gate opened to the loft of his workshop.

Resources be damned.

Neo's lips fell to his, her illusory world shattering as the two left the dimension and fell into his bed.

And for the rest of the night and well into the morning, Neo showed Sebastian all the sounds her new voice could make as she determinedly broke his mattress.

Only at the very end, when she clamped down on his sweaty form beneath her and collapsed against him with a moan of deep pleasure, did he lean into the side of her head and say the words she wanted so desperately to hear.

“I love you, Neo.” He whispered as he held her close.

She stilled and turned her head to stare up at him, a smile of pure joy on her lips. “I know.”

Chapter End.

AN: Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you thought.