Chapter 62 - More Insight

"Ugh," Takumi woke up with a splitting headache, the last thing he remembered was flying through the air right before he lost conciousness.

Clutching his head, he slowly rose from his sleeping position only to be greeted by a rather pleasant sight; all his women, including Ichika and Reiki were gathered in his house, all with worried expressions painted on their faces.

"Are you okay?" Ichika asked frantically.

"We all rushed over when we heard about it," Luna and Aiko continued simultaneously.

"We fixed your house so don't worry about it," Meril spoke up for Kirika who was awfully quiet.

Being surrounded by so many dazzling women who all shared a common feeling for Takumi sparked a sense of gratitude in him, I could get used to this harem thing, he thought with a slight chuckle as the residual pain faded.

"Ladies, I'm fine. No need to worry," Takumi finally spoke up.

Everyone in the room, except Reiki, heaved a loud sigh of relief.

"Glad you're okay," Luna giggled as she left a kiss on Takumi's cheek before leaving in a prancing walk.

All the other members of his harem gave goodbyes like that, leaving kisses before exiting with joyous steps. The only person who didn't kiss him was Ichika, who ran out with a beet red face after saying goodbye, no doubt from the thought of kissing him.

Now only Reiki was left with Takumi, he presumed it to be her having some information to give him in relations to the effects of the breakthrough. He kindly asked her to explain.

"Okay, I've already told Misao so here's what I noticed." Reiki said before she began explaining in detail.

"So it turns out that you can effectively use all of the scales which were in the last growth but only at their specific level of power along with the enhancements that came with using ki. Dragon Force is originally controlled by the dragon emperors so you reaching the remaining growths will give you unmatched strength, almost as much as they once had."

She paused for a moment to allow Takumi to take this in before continuing.

"So what I've truly gained from this is that the true power behind dragon force is inherently linked with ki, and this fact is quite intriguing. And due to that I have a request… Would you… volunteer yourself to let me study your ki?"

Takumi was taken aback by this request, moving from his contemplating expression to one of shock, he ran the possibilities by his mind. Could it be she indirectly wants my body as well? he pondered, his narcissism finally mixing with his new found love for polygamy. But when he noticed the sparkling in her eyes like a scientist who had just made a groundbreaking discovery, that thought was forced to be cast aside.

"Sure, why not." He responded with a smile.

Reiki's body spasmed in joy as her wings fluttered like a dog would wag it's tail, she then took her leave after thanking him deeply.

"Speaking of my body," Takumi muttered as he laid back on his bed with hands interlocked behind his head, "I should talk to those girls, bah, it's getting late so I'll do it tomorrow."

***

Although it was quite late in the night and the people of the village were fast asleep. Those of duty were wide awake in the overthrown kingdom.

"The Queen ordered us to remove Aegis' connection with the dragon now." Tai said with a solemn tone as he entered the dungeon.

His voice managed to jolt three demons who were asleep on the floor out of their slumber. They rose with exhausted expressions as they asked him to repeat, his solemn tone disappearing as he did so.

The deceased demon seemed to be replaced with another female who asked how the process was done, she was cruelly ignored as Tai beckoned them over to where Aegis was bound.

She was still tied to the wooden 'x', not showing any signs of ever moving from that position. Her hands and feet had already gone numb from insufficient blood supply as they slowly turned blue but even through all this discomfort, she managed to doze of as her head hung in sleep.

*slap!~*

With a solid palm to her cheek, Tai woke her up. Her fluttering eyes narrowed in displeasure upon seeing who stood before her, Tai could care less however.

"Hello dear Aegis," He said with cold sarcasm, "it's time we remove that pesky voice from inside your head."

The scowling expression she had soon changed to absolute shock, Daichi was the only voice keeping her sane through these trying times. She almost pleaded for help when the earth dragon spoke to her.

"Don't bother, I expected this. Just try your best to remain strong." He stated, disheartened.

A single tear escaped from Aegis' eye as she could no longer hear his soothing voice, only his presence which she knew would soon disappear.

"Hmm, a tear?" Tai voiced, "no matter. Absorb!"

He placed his hand on her chest as he activated a scarib attribute, this was the one most used by demons; the skill with the ability to steal dragon force. The other demons followed his actions as every bit of energy was sapped from her body. A faint yellow light flowed from Aegis' body into the demons' for a number of minutes until she was completely drained.

Her body slumped forward as she felt incredibly weak, she cried uncontrollably due to Daichi's aura no longer being in her body, she was now at the thin line between sanity and madness.

A pulsing sound frightened her from her thoughts, looking up, she saw the three demons circulate her dragon force as they directed it into Tai's body, every fibre in him now radiated this yellow energy.

"I'll never get over this rush!" He reveled.

Soon after, when all the energy was now circling through him, waiting to be put to use, he thrust a finger directly into her chest. Her eyes widened as she gritted her teeth in pain; Tai simply laughed as he directed the now tainted energy back into her body.

She felt as if she was being jolted by millions of electric shocks as the energy took her body as a host; Her dragon mark which had disappeared during the extraction returned to it's original place. Every last drop was sent back to her body, only with the exception of Daichi's control. Her mind couldn't take anymore as she fainted.

Tai couldn't help but laugh loudly as he trotted out of the dungeon, the despairing sight of Aegis truly amused him.