Chapter 191 191: A Special Mission With the Demon Queen?
Chapter 191 191: A Special Mission With the Demon Queen?
Ryan did not respond immediately to Ophelia's statement.
"Hey, do I seem that ugly to you for you to say that?" he responded with a certain irony, downplaying the matter with his usual tone of voice.
"No, physically you are very attractive," she said with a mischievous smile that curved her lips in a flirtatious manner.
"But you exude so much mana that even when you suppress it, it still stands out far too much around your body."
The demon queen took a step to the side, running her eyes over the human's silhouette without a single ounce of shame.
"I would say that it is common in your case to draw attention in such a manner, although there is absolutely no one who can escape my vision."
She took a short pause and then added, keeping her arms crossed right beneath her bust.
"The key point here is that, normally, heroes have a bright blue aura when releasing their mana. It even reaches the point of looking completely golden depending on the enormous density of power they store within their bodies."
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye with her other eye closed, as if looking in greater detail at the energy flow surrounding the boy.
"But yours in particular is a rather strange mixture between a very dense purple tone and a bright red mixed together. And it has become notably darker since the last time I saw you in the dungeon. Unlike us pure-blooded demons, who due to the natural high density of our lineage's mana usually always display a clean violet color."
She stepped a little closer, tilting her head, once again invading the distance between their bodies.
"It is as if your true power does not come from this world," she affirmed with a tone of doubt that broke her tranquility for a moment.
The confirmation that his energy was becoming increasingly darker had a completely logical explanation within his own knowledge.
Everything was directly due to his system's debt anomaly. It wasn't the clean energy of a chosen hero, but rather the power of an anomaly that broke the rules established by the deities.
Ryan looked at her with distrustful eyes for a moment due to what the woman had just said about his origin.
Ophelia seemed to notice the sudden hostility in the human's fixed gaze and backed away for a moment, rapidly shaking her hands and her head to calm the atmosphere.
"Of course, I do not intend to pry into your private matters or your secrets of strength," she assured with promptness.
"Rest easy on that front, it is not as if that matters much for the plans we have ahead of us in this war. We have already talked about many strange anomalies in this conversation, right?"
Ryan sighed, slowly letting out the accumulated air through his mouth while relaxing the position of his shoulders.
"Yes, I suppose you are right about that. Anticipating what is to come, what we spoke about a moment ago was highly useful for me. There are many things I did not know about the demon kings, like that defect inherited by their children born when the mother is just a common demon."
Ryan brought his right hand to his chin for a moment, rubbing his skin slowly as if deep in reflection.
"I wonder what would happen if it is a human who has a child with a demon," Ryan murmured in a very low voice, speaking almost to himself.
With the image of Beatrice inside his head.
Ophelia caught the murmur immediately due to her acute senses and brought her hands to her mouth for a moment, hiding her laugh in a mischievous manner.
"Fufu, fufu, you aren't going to tell me that... you want to test that right now with me?" Ophelia asked, her tone of voice becoming extremely low and sensual.
The demon queen took a short step forward, ending up almost pressed against his chest.
She grabbed the dark fabric at her cleavage with her fingers and shamelessly began to pull it down much lower than normal.
The movement stretched the garment, showing the abundant pale flesh of her large breasts, but she stopped just in time without revealing everything completely.
It was an obvious physical provocation, an attempt to use her pheromones and her enormous attributes to destabilize Ryan's mind.
Ryan observed the exhibition with a cold and entirely flat gaze, flatly refusing to show the slightest hint of agitation or desire.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say," he responded with total disinterest, completely ignoring the proximity of her breasts.
"So, do you have one of those portals ready for me? I would like to return to my village as soon as possible."
Ophelia's smile froze for a brief instant upon seeing that her physical bait was ignored.
She let go of the fabric of her dress, letting it return to its original position over her large chest, and let out a small pout of frustration.
"Even if it was just a simple joke, do not ignore me in such a cold manner," Ophelia murmured, crossing her arms once again. "You will cause my self-esteem as a woman to plummet."
"No, I highly doubt that," Ryan said, pointing his index finger at her in a direct and accusing manner.
It was evident to his eyes that she was just continuing to play with him to test his reactions and see exactly how far she could push his patience.
"You are a far too serious man, you know?" she said with a sigh of resignation, reaching her right hand right into the empty air.
A magical inventory opened in front of her with a faint flash of mana, revealing several objects stored inside.
The demon queen searched through the slots and pulled out what served as a long-distance transportation portal.
Then she tossed it into his hands without any prior warning and turned around lazily, completely giving him her back.
"Just charge it with your own mana," Ophelia added, walking a couple of steps toward the edge of the grass.
Ryan caught the portal heading toward him, snagging it out of the air with a quick movement of his gloved hand.
He guided a steady flow of his energy into the artifact, however, nothing happened.
The runes did not light up and the space did not show any kind of transportation distortion.
'It doesn't work?' Ryan thought, furrowing his brow.
He tried again with much more force, releasing a concentrated burst of his mana.
But the portal only glowed very faintly for a brief second and completely shut down, returning to its inert state of a common stone.
"Hey, I don't think this is working," Ryan said out loud, looking at the woman's back.
"What? That is impossible," she reacted, turning around abruptly with an expression of total disbelief on her face.
"You just have to charge it normally with your mana. Let me borrow it for a moment."
She walked quickly toward him, roughly grabbed the artifact from his hand, and observed it closely. Upon noticing that it was in perfect condition, she handed it back to the human.
He took the circular object once again, concentrated his energy, and tried again by releasing a steady flow.
But the result was exactly the same; the stone remained cold and dead in his gloved palm.
"How strange this is, that is exactly the portal you need to connect with the coordinates of your refuge, I am completely sure of it," Ophelia murmured, scratching her cheek.
"How strange, that is the portal you need, I am sure."
The demon queen looked at him with doubt, trying to find an explanation.
"It should work, it is as if something were interfering. That would only happen if the fixed point was removed, but you guys have the robe, so... That shouldn't happen."
'Fuck... we actually don't have that damn robe in the dungeon...' The thought crossed Ryan's mind violently as he remembered the past events.
He was going to have to have a serious disciplinary conversation with Helen as soon as he set foot back in the village.
"I suppose there is no other option, I will have to tell Ivis to fly you back," Ophelia said, letting out a long sigh of annoyance.
"I am not trying to sabotage your return or hold you by force within my domains... I truly have no idea what is going on with the artifact," she said with a tone of genuine frustration in her voice.
"Even so, right now I must take care of an urgent matter on the border," Ophelia added, immediately changing her countenance and fixing her crimson eyes on the human.
"If you want to return quickly to your home, you will have to accompany me on a little mission. After finishing with that matter, we will meet up with Ivis so she can take you back. What do you say, Ryan?"
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