After seeing blue trails in our vicinity, we became cautious. The Forest Spirit chanted his usual thing and initiated the magic sense. Alyssa, myself, and the Forest Spirit got inside the AC and were in touch with her.
"I can sense it," she said.
"Yes, I can sense it as well, princess. The moment you feel the location of the bullet is ideal, activate your tic and pray to the Gods," I said.
The excitement built up inside me, as we were finally about to start our plan and stop this trouble once and for all. Moreover, I craved to witness Alyssa's beautiful time-reversal once again.
*4:30 pm 35 seconds*
The bullet bounced right and left, crashed on the trees, and whirled all around us, destroying the forest in our vicinity. Alyssa calmed herself down and after a few quick breaths, started her side of the plan.
I augment my senses, spinal cord, reflexes, and arm-muscles, and prepared myself as well.
4 seconds passed, 4:40 pm 39 seconds
"God's time minor. Time Reverse."
That blue orb appeared, and she reversed the time of that orb.
The world around us became a pool of water. The sparkling sounds produced as a result of her tic interfering with space-time continuum enchanted me.
[No matter how many times I experience this, It always mesmerizes me. Beautiful.]
Everything was the same as that time in the library, except, there was a logic-defying occurrence. That monstrous bullet swam in this pool of water around us, piercing its way towards us. It was seeking 'present' amid 'past,' thus attracted towards Alyssa. The plan had worked.
I signaled the Spirit and prepared myself to start the commands once the bullet was close enough. But then, something unexpected happened. Something which I never foresaw coming.
Alyssa held my hands tightly. Perhaps out of fear? Perhaps out of excitement?
[Damn, my heightened senses are sending tremendous amounts of pleasure to my brain! Talk about wrong timing.]
The bullet reached the ideal distance, it was now or never. I took all my resolve to ignore the pleasureful temptations and focus on my task at hand. But as I was about to start the command for amplification, an even wilder situation developed.
Alyssa crumbled in fear and excitement, and, facing towards me, squeezed my arm between her chest.
[ [ [ Her bosoms are touching me, this feeling is bliss! The soft sensation and warmth that has eloped my arms are too much for me. I don't deserve this much pleasure~ ] ] ]
It's not like I didn't have experience with women: I had plenty. But it's because I augmented my senses that the pleasure I would normally receive had multiplied several times, completely clouding my head with sexual thoughts and detaching myself from reality...
[Now I understand why they call her a Goddess~]
*4:40 pm 35 seconds*
The bullet entered the chamber; it had speeds much higher than light and was about to crash into us. I stood still, unable to move an inch.
But that wasn't the end for us. Alyssa somehow sensed that I was not in my right mind and had initiated the necessary commands at the last moment. Followed by the Forest spirit blocking the diffused bullet with his energy-field, they neutralized this threat.
"You are useless. That was close! We would be mincemeat by now if I hadn't acted. What were you thinking? Did fear freeze your moronic stone of a brain?"
She misunderstood the situation, clearly. But it was not like I was gonna clear the misunderstanding. For the reality was far worse.
Her fists clenched and her finger pointed at me. She then dismissed her stare and looked away. Her anger was different from Beth's anger. It had a tone of bitter-sweetness to it.
But It wasn't only anger that came from her; she was thrilled as well. Her endorphins and dopamine had spammed her brain and given her shocks of pleasure waves from dealing with that risky and out of world situation.
[So, in the end, we both had pleasure... ehehe.]
"Humph. What else could we expect from the prince of Bezereck? Anyways, now that the problem got resolved, we need to report it to my mother. I hope she didn't take any grave actions after the message I sent; after all, there was no invasion, only some stupid tachyon destroying this forest. But on the serious side of things, where did that come from? Was some prank conducted here?"
Alyssa's fears came true as we heard the sirens of Military warcraft, along with sonic booms, as the Military Farcaster patrolled through the forest.
Alyssa called upon General Rudolf, who was leading the warcraft. And along with the Forest Spirit, she explained the situation that occurred. General Rudolf, impressed with my quick thinking and planning, thanked me dearly. He also apologized for not coming sooner. But, he disagreed with Alyssa's attitude to the present situation and considered Shura Forest to still have a threat lurking.
He thought the assault with tachyon was the work of an intruder, and they needed to make sure that there was no such person here since that was the strict orders given to him by his superior, Minister Vazer.
[I would have been happy with General Rudolf's actions except for the fact that Vazer was involved. He is a backstabbing bitch, if he gave the orders to patrol here, then there's definitely something fishy. At least according to my father's reports that is the case. But the Ice-Queen trusts him over my father.]
A swarm of Military Farcasters and drones hovered in the air. This finding was soon overshadowed by the discovery that a huge chunk of Ice-Queen's Military force was now at the Shura forest.
[If I assume an intrusion to have taken place then, thinking from the intruder's mindset, I would use the tachyons to create havoc in the forest thus keeping the forest spirits busy; the animals would run wild and create havoc in nearby cities thus keeping the city police busy.]
[Now if I want to infiltrate and attack the throne, then what normally would follow in my plan is to keep the final line of defense, the military, busy. This is exactly what is happening now!]
I explained my doubts about the current situation and Vazer's involvement, to Alyssa. But, since I had no evidence to support my baseless statements â and she thinks of me like a lowlife â she didn't believe a word. However, she did take the precaution to go back to the throne room as fast as possible.
When we reached the Queen's castle, it was around 5:00 pm. At the entrance we found heavy security guarding the castle and further troops were being dispatched to the cities: there was a Red-alert and everyone near the castle seemed to be on guard.
Minister Vazer saw us entering and walked towards us. He bowed down to Alyssa and kissed her hand.
"Good afternoon, Princess Alyssa and Prince Charles. You both were very brave in the Shura forest. And I am really glad you solved that situation," Vazer said, bowing his head before us.
Then with sharper eyes and a solemn face, he proceeded, "However, princess, I don't quite agree with your attitude towards the situation,"
[Wait! He knows all those already?]
"Thinking from the intruder's mindset, their plan must be to create havoc in Shura Forest using tachyons; distracting the Spirits. Followed by distractions in cities and our own HQs to divert our forces out of this castle. But, worry not, I won't fall for their traps and will tighten castle security and improvise our plans," he said.
She signaled me that I was wrong about him.
[That was smart! He came to the same conclusion as my augmented intellect. Moreover, he applied remedies to solve those problems. Perhaps, I was wrong about him, but I get this feeling that he reeks of diplomacy.]
Using my tic, I couldn't sense any abnormal change of emotions from him. Almost as if he maintained a mental poker-face.
After entering the throne room, Alyssa ran and hugged her mother. Her mother smiled and hugged her back.
After a beefy lunch with the Queen and her nobles, we prepared to leave the Ice-city. The spaceship was scheduled to leave in the evening, and before that happened there would be a small parting speech by my father, King Azmuth. There was still some time at hand so I took this opportunity to meet Beth.
While searching for Beth at Military quarters, my younger brother, Snizel, approached me with a curious smile.
"Big Brother! I heard you encountered a tachyon? So, does it actually move faster than light?" His skin was flushed and pupils dilated.
"Calm down, small ass. I will tell you everything in detail, but not now. Right now I am in a hurry," I said. "By any chance, did you see Beth anywhere?"
"Beth? I think I saw her walking towards the lake, princess Alyssa was with her too, if I remember correctly."
"What? With princess? Why were they together?"
I froze and trains of thoughts ran through my head. I could think of nothing less than trouble imagining them together.
"I don't know, it seemed like a friendly walk to me."
Charging off from the Military quarters, I immediately went towards the lake to find them. My younger brother followed me as well. He bugged me to tell him more about the tachyons and about Alyssa's tic throughout the short journey.
Running through the Ice-roads, I reached the lake. The whole day's stress got overruled by the lake's pleasant blue sensation.
Tossing my head side to side, I expected a large scale duel or a death battle. Finding them smiling and laughing together while whispering completely threw me off.
But to my surprise, things were different from what I imagined. Beth had her arm hung around Alyssa's shoulders and they both were in close proximity, gossiping about handsome men among the nobles of Ice-planet and Bezereck. Seeing this no one would think of them as two rivals fighting for their love.
It was somewhat disappointing.
[I mean, I at least thought they would fight for me. Fuck.]
Snizel ran all the way on the Ice-road approaching us from behind. He came to a stop, and after taking in a few breaths, and called me out.
"Big Brother! You are too fast, not everyone has tics like yours." He said.
"Yo Snizel! Didn't expect you here. Wait! Charles!?? Why are you here as well?" Beth turned her head and caught us.
"Ah, my Prince. Were you following us? And if I am not wrong, Snizel must be your brother?" Alyssa asked.
"Following you guys? No, no, no! Definitely not. I don't do such peasant-like things. I just came here to... Um... Admire the lake! But that aside, are you both close friends already?" I asked.
"Big brother? I thought we came here worried that Beth was with Alyssa?" Snizel asked.
Alyssa hid her smile at Snizel's innocent remark.
[That stupid brother! He has no control over his mouth!]
Beth came towards me, with eyes full of fury and clenched fists. She brought both her arms together, as if, about to strangle me. Her arms came to my neck and gave me a big tight hug! She screamed with joy and kissed me on my lips.
"Oh, darling, you were so worried about me that you ran to meet me here? I love you so much Charles~" Beth continued kissing me. Her face was flushed and her heart raced, making her blush and smile.
Alyssa giggled, probably realizing what was actually happening here. While Snizel tried to look away from us.
[Beth, I am so happy that you are such an idiot. Please continue being an idiot.]
"Beth, I was so worried about you. You should at least take some guards with you when you go out of the castle. It's Red-alert right now!" I feigned worrying and held her tight.
"Oh, Charles, you worry too much. My mother is the strongest warrior in all of Bezereck, and I am the strongest teen warrior. No one would dare to touch me. Not to mention, I have you as my boyfriend to save me if something happens."
After feigning some more concern and a mini-drama playing out, we finally settled down. Alyssa seemed to be skeptical of my concerns for Beth but didn't interfere. Beth came close to Alyssa and tightly kept her arm over Alyssa's shoulder and declared:
"Alyssa and I are best buddies now! She is an amazing woman, just like me. There are so many common interests between us. We were talking our hearts open for more than an hour before you guys came."
"Beth, stop bothering the Princess. You cannot randomly call any person you talk to, a best friend." I said.
"No, my prince, she wasn't bothering me. I actually enjoyed her company and pretty much did talk my heart open with her. I have never met anyone who treats me not as a princess, but a normal person: she was the first. As for best buddies, I am not so sure, maybe in the future."
Alyssa looked towards Beth and winked at her.
[ [ [Whaat? How? This is not good news! Definitely not good news!] ] ]