Chapter 173: Cheating With TOM

After riding with the girls, I promised them all individual time together, save the sister, they were inseparable, and that was another thing in itself. We had reached the mountains and it had been four hours, I was starting to get itchy. I could have jogged here and back before Cable finished his ridiculously long piss. That man was a garden hose, someone should talk to him about pissing out the door, not good to hold it for that long. 

I stretched and Alex slipped under my arm as I was dropping them from an over the head elbow pull. She smiled up at me, and I let my arm slip around her waist, pulling her close. I looked into her dual-colored eyes, bright red that bled into a brilliant yellow, making her eyes seem like they glowed. With her back hair and fair skin, Alex looked radiant, and I kissed her, but then she pulled away.

"How are you doing? Honestly though, dear. I can see that you're itching to move."

"I'm trying, I just am so used to going at hyper speed, slowing down...is a bit of a drag."

"Then go for a run to the coast, get outside of the range and use some magic. Then come back and relax with some of us; you should also be talking to Titania since it is her parents we are going to visit. There are a couple rules that I don't agree with, but the odds are forever in your favor, no matter how hard we bend them our way," Alex said laughing afterward.

"What do you mean in my favor? I don't really think the scales ever reach past even when it involves bending things to my favor! You are serious about me going for a run, right?"

"I can't stop you," Alex said, shaking her head.

"You could, you would just have to push me over and sit on me, but then I suggest you be pushing me into a bed or the party is going to get an eyeful!"

"Go for your run! You need to be making those suggestions to the other women, now that you have decided to lift the pregnancy ban."

"Is that what they were calling it?"

"Yes, that's what they ARE calling it, but that's better than some of the names they call you. I wonder if it was such a good idea to give us free will on what to call you! So, just keep that in mind or you are going to have some angry wives, also you should be sleeping with Nuwari and Nika next, their moon phase is in two days. I'm really surprised the girls don't line up more, but maybe that's a good thing."

"Moon phase? Like they are cheating with TOM?"

"Cheating? Who is Tom? They are certainly not cheating on you with…"

"Time Of Month, TOM, it's a joke. Jeez, try to be funny and this is what I get. Still, I will go for my...run, and then I will come back to see Titania, and I will bed the two suggested before the end of two moons!"

"Git!"

I laughed and then turned, jogging off, but as soon as I got about a mile away, I snapped open all three Gates. The ground cracked under my feet, but I was far off the road, and this area was already like a dried wasteland. I could have run around the mountain, but I wanted to stretch my legs, and give the Gate a little workout, get used to it in this body.

I still had all my other magical abilities, but this one was different, the Gate was an all-power that was limited by fifteen gates, but anything past the tenth gate was dangerous to use. The gravity and pressure that you created were intense enough to shatter the landscape just from being in my presence. Still, something had changed after my fight with MainFrames demon minions.

After I had closed the gate, I wasn't nearly as invincible as before, like I had lost some power. At the time I figured it was just from getting the shit kicked out of me, but the feeling had persisted. Maybe it was the magic not being as potent, but I would be outside of the zone soon. 

I had just reached the bottom of the mountain range, so jump as far up as I could make it. I smashed into a cliff face and dug my fingers into the stone like it was dirt about twenty meters up, and started to climb. I had to move very fast or I would just end up falling, each handhold broke rock away, and sometimes large sections would send me scrambling. The worst part was that I couldn't use normal handholds, because they just shattered in my mad dash up the mountain.

The climb up wasn't too bad, but I was gaining a new appreciation for the fire and planetary magic that I used for flight. Still, the hard part was over, but down would still take some finesse. I closed two gates and left the one open, I still needed some strength to do this, but too much would have me breaking the ledge I was hoping down to. 

I was tough with my gates, but not invincible, with only three Gates open, a fall of fifty meters or more would do some serious damage, if I could even get up at all after. So, I had to plan my route for as far as I could see, and then stop and check again. Going down was easy for the most part, but if I got myself to a spot where there was nowhere to jump to, then the backtrack would be hard and dangerous.

So, maybe I should have just taken the long way around, and I would have been through the barrier, but this was exciting. The fight with the demons made me aware of just how mortal I still was, even with all this power, there were things stronger. Not only monsters but things like this mountain. 

Without even trying, this mountain could end my game without even trying, just like the games before, they are tests, the proof that we are looking for when we are trying to reach the top. This proof tells us that we are on the right track or that we need to work more, but for some, the test will be the end.

I hand-picked my path, and the descent was a simple direct path with two to ten-meter drops, but about fifty meters down the path started to become more erratic. There were three routes I could see that would take me down another thirty meters, but then there was a shear in the mountain that cut in and made it impossible to see what ledges were down below. I would have to pick a path and risk it, then if I had to, I would open another gate to try and get to one of the other ledges. There would be a thirty to forty-meter jump between the last ledges, so there were no good or obvious choices.

'Take the middle one, I think that it is higher than the other two, and you will have access to either side with only one jump.' -Nina.

'Crap, how's it going babe, you're so quiet, that I almost forget that you are inside of me. Sorry, babe.' 

'I just enjoy listening to your thoughts as I cataloged other ones. This is special to me because I am the only one that gets to share these thoughts with you, besides Elise, but I think it is a lot different with her.' -Nina.

'Gah! Elise! That woman still hasn't taken my powers, but I think she is waiting for something. She avoids the topic like the plague when I bring it up, but still wants to act lovey-dovey with me.' 

'You will figure her out, she always plays these games with you. Elise might have been being obstinate when you met, but now that she has her memories back, she is just playing hard to get. Plus, I love her half renditions of your thoughts when she gets mad at you, she is cute this way!' -Nina. 

'Ha ha, yeah, real cute, especially the part where she is mad at me for only getting half the story! Nosey girl, but that must be the curse of it. Still, if she would just give in and take my magic, then she can hear the whole story if she needs to!'

'But, what if she really wants you to take the power away? Will you do that for her? If she asks it of you?' -Nina.

'If she asked it of me, in a heartbeat, I wouldn't hesitate if that was her choice. I can't imagine how hard it has been for her, and I guess I haven't really thought if the women want to have powers or not, but I could give her the option of a new magic as well. Whatever Elise or any of your choices are, I will support them. That is, unless you or someone that wasn't human asked me to take their magic, I couldn't do that. It would be the same as killing you with my bare hands.'

'I am glad to hear that, but now, you have a mountain to climb down, so be careful!' -Nina.

I focused back on the three paths waiting below me, but my mind was still on what we had just talked about. It was true that I hadn't really considered if the girls even wanted to keep their magic. Maybe I would have to talk to Addel about this, but for now, as Nina said, I had a mountain to climb down.