PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

496 Chapter 496 Stigmas and demonstrations

While the members of the Astryd residence took care of various matters, Silvia and her sister, Samantha, heeded Desmond’s extended invitation. On this occasion, Samantha and Silvia took the presence of Estella more calmly, who attended them at the door before retiring to the kitchen to finish dinner.

As soon as Silvia and her sister entered the living room, all attention was focused on them, specifically Samantha. Samantha’s long black hair was now sky blue, her skin had lost its sickly pale hue, and her eyes now had a crystal blue glow, an appearance incredibly similar to that of her sister.

Desmond was the least surprised as the person who gave Silvia a certain potion. Samantha awakening an ability similar to her sister’s was one of the possible scenarios.

There was a little hail of questions and answer sessions between the girls, but Samantha showed her graceful and calm temperament, responding gently and patiently. It was unknown if it was out of boredom or just a bit of revenge, but Desmond pointed out the clear difference between the temperaments of the sisters.

“Well, at least one of the sisters is a kind soul.”

If looks could communicate words, Siliva would be saying some dangerous things to Desmond. To scoundrel to take Silvia’s attitude seriously, Desmond laughed to himself.

The atmosphere quickly began to heat up with the presence of so many people and the addition of a succulent banquet prepared by Estella. The conversation was casual enough at first, but things took a turn when Desmond’s face turned stern.

“I was waiting for you to come out on your own, but it seems like you still need a little push from time to time; How about you join the dinner, Revna?”

To Silvia and Samantha, it seemed as if Desmond was speaking into the void, causing them both to look at each other strangely; one can imagine the sisters’ surprise at seeing a woman step out of the shadows.

.....

Quite tall for a woman, with curves in all the right places and a toned body that showed through tight sportswear, with her red hair and blue eyes, and an oval face with flawless skin, Revna was quite the beauty.

Adding to the daze, Samantha blushed slightly at the sight of Revna in tight, slightly revealing clothing, but no one at the table paid her much attention. Everyone’s attention was on Revna, for one reason or another.

Strangely enough, even Claire, Sasha, and Cecilia seemed surprised by Revna’s presence, perhaps because they knew that Revna rarely showed herself in front of anyone other than Desmond.

Claire was the most surprised since, after her last conversation in private, Revna had made a habit of showing herself more and more, although her improvement was relatively slow; Seeing Revna perform in front of so many people was quite a surprise. You had to know that Revna’s reluctance to show herself to others wasn’t just a personality thing but something deeper and more complicated.

Oblivious to the more intricate details, Silvia and Samantha still noticed Revna’s awkward posture and body language, but not knowing what to say or do, both sisters fell silent. However, Silvia had already joined some threads when she saw how Revna came out of the shadows.

Being the center of attention for so many people was hell itself for Revna, who had developed something akin to a phobia towards such a thing. Memories of the suffering she went through when she was treated like a commodity and a slave, memories of how those people looked at her while they raped her friends, those eyes full of unholy desires flashed through Revna’s mind in a single instant.

Revna began to feel nauseous, her dizziness turning her mind into a blur, and nothing but a need to hide away from other people’s sight filled her consciousness. Having talked a bit about it with Sara and Natalie, Desmond was already expecting something like this.

Much like back then, at least from Revna’s perspective, as she was devoured by a maelstrom of malevolence, her Master’s voice came forth to banish all darkness.

“Come, this time you can sit next to me.”

Not needing a response, Desmond took Revna’s hand and pulled her into the chair next to his that now lays empty after Claire changed seats. Like a doll without a string, Revna stiffened, her nervous demeanor remaining, but at least now, she didn’t look like she was going to lose her mind.

Due to Revna’s appearance, new introductions and explanations had to be made, but Desmond took Revna’s place to respond, knowing that just being in the room was enough pressure for her.

Seeing the awkward atmosphere, Desmond decided to start a conversation with Silvia. It took nearly half an hour, during which both Silvia and Samantha stood in a daze as Desmond explained everything he knew about the arcana, mana, and aura.

Desmond was, at best, a complete novice to the path of mana, not to mention the other two paths. However, in the eyes of a race uncivilized in such matters as the human race, Desmond knew too much.

Samantha just took it all in with a graceful but obviously curious attitude. At the same time, being more mature, Silvia saw all the unknowns in Desmond’s explanation, including the most obvious of all, which was why Desmond knew so much.

When Desmond refused to answer Silvia’s questions, she didn’t even show surprise; she had already expected something similar. However, Silvia still had a question for which she was waiting for an answer.

“Why tell me all this?”

Desmond was silent as if contemplating something particular, which lasted a couple of seconds. “It will take time to explain. How about you follow me to the courtyard for now?”

Since the conversation had taken such a turn, everyone present followed Desmond out into the courtyard. Once in the garden, Desmond took Sasha’s hand and kept walking until they reached the center of it.

The Astryd residence was quite a rarity within the city. Not only was the architectural design considerably old, but in terms of space, it was immense; only the house’s backyard was as big as a football field.

For a moment, both Silvia and Samantha looked confused, thinking that it was strange that Desmond would choose this moment to flirt with one of his women, but the next scene silenced all his thoughts.

After giving Sasha a kiss on the cheek, Desmond whispered something in her ear before backing away from her a considerable distance. “Would you be so kind?”

Though somewhat shy about being intimate in front of other people, Sasha nodded before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. From one moment to another, a liquid fire began to come out of Sasha’s body, wrapping her body in a dress that seemed to be made of crimson magma. Sasha’s hair fell like a waterfall of vermilion fire, and while her ruby ??horns were greatly extended, Sasha’s current appearance was beautiful to the point of being unreal.

Showing her naiveness despite her calm and elegant demeanor, Samantha looked enthralled with Sasha’s appearance, unaware of what Silvia found terrifying. Like the surf in the middle of a storm, wave after wave of overflowing power endlessly overwhelming Silvia’s senses, she had never seen someone so strong besides the commander.

Even Desmond felt somewhat helpless against the supernova of energy radiating from Sasha, even though he was the one who had asked Sasha to make such a display of power. Trying to wipe the bitter smile from his lips, Desmond made a comment that failed to hide his helplessness.

“I hope you’ll be nice to me.”

Despite the tone of his words, Desmond’s resolve was as firm as ever. Thumb * Thumb * With each heartbeat, intense bursts of crystalline blue mana flooded Desmond’s body, quickly creating a terrifying pressure around him.

Desmond prepared himself by taking a martial stance, retracting one of his fists as thousands of mana threads engulfed them. The blue ocean-patterned gloves finished forming as Sasha had created a small fiery flower in her hands.

Realizing how deceptive the flower’s appearance was in Sasha’s hands, Desmond took a deep breath, but since this was part of what he needed to prove, Desmond bit the bullet and went on with his role.

“”

Desmond’s ability was very similar to other skills used by Mei Fei Long, who used waves of destruction as her offensive medium. The only difference was that Desmond’s technique was less chaotic, and his destruction was more subtle. Unfortunately, the water shockwaves collapsed endlessly in front of Sasha’s flower.

Contrary to its cute appearance and small size, Sasha’s flower was made up of only two things, fire and pure destruction, concentrated to the point where it was terrifying. While Desmond might have the upper hand in combat prowess, when it came to sheer destructive power, Sasha took the crown with tremendous ease.

Due to the way both abilities operated, there were no explosions or shockwaves or anything like that, but just the residual mana fluctuations were enough to make Silvia nauseous. Silvia looked once more at the pair of monsters with eyes full of fear, wondering what this demonstration meant.