His face is just inches away from Ian's. Looking deeply into Ian's blue eyes, he senses his heart banging against his rib cage. He shakes from the intensity of locking their eyes. Feeling that he is losing his self-control, Kyrie unconsciously closes his hand into a fist on Ian's chest.
He pushes his hand on Ian's knee to back up, but Ian's lips instinctively follow him closely, like he fell into Kyrie's spell. His hands slide through Kyrie's thighs up to the waist, and Ian pulls him back to attach their bodies.
Their breaths quicken along with their hearts. Kyrie gulps in nervousness. The unwillingness in Ian's eyes to see him part away from his body is making Kyrie lose his mind.
Ian slowly moves closer, and his breath starts to brush against Kyrie's neck.
"You smell like the sun…"
"The sun?"
"Yes… Always managing to calm me and warm me… just like the sun…"
A warm and moist touch lands on his neck.
Kyrie trembles.
Ian senses Kyrie's quivering body. His brows furrow while he holds in his desires from bursting out. He lets himself lean on Kyrie, planting his forehead on Kyrie's collarbone to give himself a few seconds to pause.
Ian leans back. His eyes unable to hide the glint of expectation, so much that Kyrie wants to indulge in such temptations with just a slight look at Ian's face. The fire burning inside his heart wants to incinerate the rest of his body to crisps.
Kyrie's blush extends to his ears, giving off the charms enough to snap something within Ian.
He grabs Kyrie's shirt and draws him closer. They close their eyes to feel the surge of electricity running through every nerve in their body.
Kyrie opens his eyes. His eyes narrow as they arch while enjoying the expression on Ian's face.
He is no puppy but a wolf in disguise.
Ian's lower lip trembles as he reaches deeper.
Their lips separate when Kyrie falls forward while Ian lands on his elbows.
Ian pulls Kyrie's shirt again.
The ripping on his shirt resonates in their ears. Their eyes shoot wide open before they touch each other's lips, and their eyes simultaneously look down.
A massive chunk of the front gets ripped off and is currently sitting on Ian's hand.
It is a plain sight of delicate pearl skin, so soft that Ian feels that it will blemish with force. He gulps as his hand, on its own, moves to touch the seductive body.
A bloody scream resonates the smithy, stopping Ian's hand from adventuring further.
The shout immediately shakes the couple up. Kyrie falls on his bum while Ian unconsciously slides back like being caught in a crime. Both blaze in crimson red like the fire burning on the forge.
"You just ripped my creation!!!"
A young lady runs over to pick up the piece ripped off.
Kyrie and Ian freeze as they look dumbfounded at the girl. Slowly sliding his hands to grab the hooded cape, Kyrie covers his exposed chest, his face pales while looking on the ground in a daze.
Kyrie has almost let go of the purity that he kept for himself even back in the previous world, swearing that he will consummate once he ties the knot.
Like the clouds lifting from their minds, Kyrie and Ian both feel like they have broken from a spell that made their blood rush. Like being controlled, their bodies acted on their own, trying to fulfill a hunger that got awakened inside.
Kyrie's eyes catch something dripping on the ground, and he follows the leak with his eyes. The girl has two trails of blood running down from her nose. Her eyes tear up as she looks at the broken piece.
She finally notices something running down her face. She touches it and looks at her hand filled with blood. She screams once again.
"Why? Why am I bleeding? Did I get a cut on my face?"
In complete shock, she starts to wipe the blood with her hands, covering her nose and her mouth's surrounding with blood.
With the worst timing, Phanes enters into the smithy breathing heavily from running.
When the girl screamed, the city's essence fluctuates. The surroundings start to lag as if the city's scenery is connected to terrible wifi.
The panorama starts to shift between illusion and reality. The view of a crumbled down and desolated city would appear and disappear in less than a second over the illusion.
The air becomes concentrated with an outpour of essence that went out of control, creating a thick gold fog surrounding the city.Phanes touches at the golden particles of the air, but to her surprise, she cannot absorb them.
'How is it possible that I cannot absorb essence? Despite the fact that the essence in the air comes from a relic, relics are still created by gods. We use the same essence that we possess to create them,' Phanes frowns.
Erebus touches the particle that lands on his fingertip, and his eyes narrow.
"This… this is not the type of essence we can absorb," Erebus lifts his hand to catch more particles.
Phanes's eyes light up in realization, and she turns to see Erebus letting out a sigh while shaking his head with a sad expression.
"This essence must be from souls."
Essence.
That is an energy of creation that the gods possess. Unlike mana, which is just energy that already exists, and as long as the world still exists, mana will never run out.
Essence is different.
This energy is bestowed to the gods once they gain their title to become a god - a one-time transaction. That means that as long as gods have essence, they will never die. However, once depleted, those gods cease to exist.
Yet, it is not that easy for gods to just cease to exist since their reserves are not a joke. It takes extreme conditions for gods to cease to exist due to a complete depletion of essence.
Other than gods possessing essence, other things possess essence. Naturally, they are things that gods use essence to create. Relics are an example, and mortals are another. Their souls are containers of that energy.
For gods, there is a way for them to absorb essence, and that is through other gods channeling essence to them. However, there is another way that essence can be absorbed, and that is through relics. The concentration of essence and purity is greater, unlike the essence that is from a soul. Although essence of a soul can be refined, the impurity makes it harder for gods to absorb due to the mixture to the mana of the world.
Mana cannot be absorbed by gods because that is how 'The First' created them. To maintain the balance of the universe, gods cannot use any other energy than essence, unless they go through devastation. The fall of a god makes them lose the ability to use essence, and they gain power over chaos energy.
As to why 'The First' wanted this way, the gods themselves don't know. However, for many, they believe that it is for the delicate balance of the universe. Since where there is a beginning, there must be an end. For there is creation, there must be destruction.