The expression of shock on her face as I made my offer was beautiful, especially since I didn’t try to hide my aroused expression.

On the contrary, I made a deliberate effort on the other side, revealing a carefully-calibrated sense of arousal, enough for her to pick up.

There were several reasons for that. The first was to give her a simple way to control me, one that she expected me to show considering the disdain she showed toward this so-called Degenerate.

I also wanted to test how she would react to the implied suggestion once she received the solution to the problem that plagued her for centuries. Would that make her pull back to protect her purity? Would she overestimate the strength of her authority and try to order me to continue without changing anything?

It turned out that, even for a beautiful angel living in isolation, the temptation could get too much. I felt like a demon as her beautiful eyes glanced down accepting my offer wordless. Though the sudden movement of her wings, spreading to the side to allow my approach, was a rather more impressive display of her acceptance.

If it was another woman, I would have acted silly and teased her until I earned verbal acceptance, but I could see that for her, even that silent approval was pushing her limits. Just like my earlier touch to her hand showed, she was not exactly used to physical contact.

Despite what my naughty smile implied, I was rather conservative as I put my hands on her, slowly rubbing her shoulders as I infused her body with Tantric-infused Light mana, stretching my manipulation to the limit as I used the energies begging to be released as a destructive force as a gentle massage aid.

I radiated mana from across the whole surface of my hands, the process of absorption for her getting almost three times faster — and that was with her black robe, designed to block light mana.

Without that, the process would have been ten times the initial speed.

She didn’t seem to notice that fact, lost in the speed of transformation. Of course, with the speed I was displaying, it would have taken a long time to actually allow her to absorb all those Divine Spark.

Long enough to be measured in years if I worked on her full-time.

Yet, she didn’t seem to be particularly torn-up about the speed, not that I blamed her. After all, she had been dealing with that problem for a very, very long time, making even a decade a good solution.

Especially since her only other hope was the employer of Janelor somehow solving her problem — and considering Janelor confirmed that to be impossible later on.

I could have mentioned to her about the robe blocking the touch, and I had no doubt it would succeed, but I decided to create a little trick, one that would force her to take initiative.

What was more fun than seducing a pure angel who was far too used to her power and authority?

Tempting her to seduce me instead.

And, the first step of my campaign was a subtle one. I just let my finger drag along her neck, five minutes after I started working on her beautiful body.

A momentary contact, one that could be written off as accidental even by the most suspicious mind. She tensed, but I was getting familiar enough with her physical reactions — with my experience, five minutes was enough to get an excellent read on her reactions, especially since she was accepting a steady stream of mana into her body, which significantly enhanced the accuracy of the information I was collecting.

She tensed, because just as my finger brushed against her neck, I intensified the mana flow slightly as well, making sure she didn’t miss the sudden change in the impact.

As I went back to work on her shoulders, however, she said nothing. I might have assumed my initial ploy failed if it wasn’t for her tenseness, showing her inner turmoil as her initial patience was destroyed.

It was good to see the greed slowly digging its fingers into her psyche. After all, a decade to recover was an amazing period to recover after two centuries, especially for an angel with phenomenal longevity.

Yet, greed was an interesting sin, one that even an angel was clearly not free of.

Not that I wasn’t surprised. She wouldn’t have tried to absorb that Divine Spark in a desperate gambit to become a Goddess, even risking death in the process.

Not that I blamed her. It was clearly a good strategy, one that only foiled because of the subtle Divine Spark-based enchantment, carefully integrated into her existence to prevent that merger — my best guess, though unsupported, the God of Light, adding that to his angels, preventing them from replicating his feat.

Greed was not instantaneous like lust, or unyielding like pride. It was soft and insidious, like an itch.

And, unfortunately for her, waiting for it to slowly trigger her impatience was simply too delicious to be ignored. I continued with a steady pace, determinedly avoiding her neck.

Even as she shuffled a couple of times, subtly trying to direct my touch. But with each failure, the insidious touch of greed showed its head more.

“You’re not that bad when it comes to massaging,” she commented offhandedly, trying to casually lead the discussion.

Too bad for her that it was as stealthy as an explosive spell designed to take down castles, and the fact that it came after fifteen minutes of silence made it even more obvious.

“Yeah, it’s a fun way to help my allies relax after a long battle,” I said, once again playing coy as I said so, but without letting a suggestive pride from infecting my tone.

“It shows,” she said. It was a statement that was strictly against her personality, enough to make a big smile bloom on my face. Her voice still lacked arousal, of course. She was having trouble asking me to focus on her naked neck rather than her shoulder, which was already her limit.

Her current limit, at least.

I was quite enthusiastic about redefining those, but just as greed was a sin, patience was a virtue, one that I was determined to show under the circumstances.

It was the thematically-appropriate move to seduce an angel.

I continued my steady caresses, ignoring the obvious thread of conversation she was trying to convince me to pick, the change of pace certainly entertaining.

Though, she finally surrendered that attempt as I let my hands drag down to the middle of her back. “M-maybe you should stay focused on my shoulders,” she said, her voice hitching despite her best attempt to keep it steady. “M-maybe even climb up a bit more, focus on my neck.”

“Of course,” I said as I started working on her neck. “Although, I didn’t know that angels also had trouble on their back due to that problem.”

“That problem,” she asked, sounding lost.

“You know, big breasts,” I said, enjoying the sudden tenseness of her body.

“W-what do you mean,” she stammered in shock. “I have no such problem.”

“Oh, my mistake,” I said, quick to accept her explanation, but she stayed tense for a moment. Just as she was starting to relax under my touch, I let my hands drag down to her shoulder once more. “Then, there’s no point of focusing on your back so much,” I said.

“N-no, continue!” she said rapidly. “That’s better.”

All she needed was to tell me that the massage was helping to solve her problem, and she could have openly requested me to focus on her neck without making it weird. But that would also mean revealing that she needed me even more than she revealed through the storage creation process, meaning she had to cede even more power to me.

And, she was clearly unwilling to do so.

Unaware that she was only putting herself in a more tenuous situation by doing so.

“If you wish so,” I said, accepting her request, but using a tone that conveyed just how ridiculous I found her request. I brought both hands on her neck, letting my magic slowly infuse her skin and help her to fully merge with the Divine Spark.

As she did so, I was starting to get an even more accurate understanding of the merger process and what it included, and how wildly it differed from my process. At first, I had mistaken the process for simple absorption, but as the amount of Divine Spark under her full control increased, I could see that it was turning into a second layer of circulation, slowly spreading into her body, interacting with the free mana in her body in a surprising way.

Markedly more different than my blunt way of using Divine Spark, though I had no idea whether it was an option for purified Divine Spark in the first place.

Luckily, I had the opportunity to experiment properly.

—————

[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 7334 / 7334 Mana: 9000 / 9000 ]

SKILLS

Grandmaster Tantric [114/140]

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Master Craft [85/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (0/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Titania – Level 35/38]

[Cornelia – Level 22/26]

[Helga – Level 22/26]

[Marianne – Level 21/29]