The silence in the administrative office, at the top of the Astralis Requiem tree headquarters, was almost absolute, broken only by the comforting pulse of the sap running through the living wooden walls.
Lohan, in his crystalline blue slime sphere form, lay relaxed on the fossilized wood pedestal he’d shaped himself.
His biomass reserves were stabilizing after the massive burn he’d carried out to evolve his abilities, and the feeling of fullness was qualitatively greater than anything he’d ever felt.
Suddenly, the air in the middle of the room crackled. Particles of white and gold light began swirling, condensing into the elegant, majestic figure of a white, two-tailed fox.
Lisa was back.
As soon as her form fully stabilized, the fox let out a long sigh loaded with a frustration Lohan recognized instantly.
She didn’t take on the rigid, authoritative Guild Master posture she usually showed in front of the other members, seeing there was only Lohan there, her shoulders dropped and her pointed ears tilted back slightly.
Her golden gaze met Lohan’s and, for a moment, the "Ice Queen" vanished, giving way to Lisa, the friend who had little by little become so dear to him.
"Halon... I swear if I have to hear one more speech about ’interplanetary logistics and asset optimization,’ I’m going to end up turning someone’s terminal to ash." Lisa complained, her telepathic voice resonating in Lohan’s mind with a closeness and intimacy that caught him off guard.
She walked slowly toward the pedestal, her paws sinking into the moss carpet. "Really, how do people manage to spend hours discussing profit margins while the real world is literally shifting under their feet? Ouch, my head is throbbing."
Lohan watched her approach, feeling a genuine satisfaction at seeing that she felt comfortable enough to open up to him like that.
’It seems like now that there’s no more secret identity between us, she also doesn’t need to hide her frustrations from the other world from me anymore, finally being able to vent more openly with one of the possibly few people who won’t judge her or just flatter her by agreeing with whatever she says out of wanting some benefit.’ He thought.
The day they’d spent together in Eden-3, despite all the setbacks and the staff’s deplorable behavior at the restaurant, had served as a powerful catalyst for tearing down the walls Isabella had built around herself.
After everything they’d been through that day, not just going out together, but also through the light moments when it was just the two of them at his place, at hers, or alone in the car, she no longer saw Lohan only as the Mythic Slime who was her guild’s vice leader in the game, but as a friend both in Elysium and in the real world.
"Welcome back, Lisa." Lohan said, his tone carrying a gentle amusement.
He used Structural Stability to project a small hand of blue gelatin, which emerged from the side of his body and waved invitingly at the empty space on the wooden pedestal beside him. "I thought you’d take longer. Didn’t you say family meetings at the Vance Group drag on forever?"
Lisa huffed, a small puff of vapor coming out of her muzzle. "This time I used post-Elysium fatigue as an excuse. To be honest, having an actual medical note in hand helped a lot with keeping them from holding me there for another three hours."
She looked at the wooden pedestal Lohan had invited her to lie down on, and felt a rush of excitement, remembering the feeling of absolute comfort she’d felt the last time Lohan had let her rest there. "My real body might be in a state of the art capsule, but my mind in Elysium feels like it got run over by a bunch of Stone Golems, I’ll take you up on that invitation to lie down on your little throne."
"Always available for the President," Lohan replied. With a fluid motion of his mass, he shifted toward the edge of the pedestal, leaving the center open. "Lie down. You look like you need a system reset."
Lisa didn’t hesitate. She leapt smoothly onto the white wooden pedestal, settling her slender fox body onto the warm, organic surface. Lohan waited for her to get into position and then, naturally, he spread himself over her.
Unlike when he acted as Living Armor in combat, where his mass turned rigid and overpowering, Lohan expanded his slime body to cover Lisa like a liquid blanket.
His blue gelatin, naturally cool and refreshing, wrapped around the fox’s back, neck, and part of her flanks. Isabella let out an audible gasp as the contact was made.
The slime’s temperature was the perfect contrast to the constant heat her Spirit Flames generated internally.
"Oh... Halon... this is..." Lisa began to say, her voice faltering for a second as she closed her golden eyes. "This is scarily good. My mind was so overheated that feeling your cold gelatin right now is like diving into an oasis in the middle of the Sycorax desert."
Lohan didn’t limit himself to just covering her.
Using Morphological Memory and Biological Elasticity, he began a rhythmic, wavelike motion across his whole biomass.
Small pulses of pressure began to massage Lisa’s muscles beneath her white fur, tension she’d built up from the stress of the real world starting to dissolve under the Slime’s skilled touch.
But the real difference came next.
Lohan activated Sacred Light Core Lv 11. Thanks to the new Celestial Harmony trait, the energy he now channeled was harmonizing.
Through Synergy Bond and the Weaver Mother, Lohan began injecting slow, dense pulses of Sacred Light directly into Lisa’s system.
The golden blue energy flowed from his gelatin into her skin, filling Isabella’s mana channels with a vitality that seemed to purify even her darkest thoughts.
"The feeling... it’s changed since last time," Lisa murmured, her head resting on her front paws as she gave herself over fully to the relaxation. "It’s deeper... like you’re recharging my very soul, Halon. What have you been up to while I was gone? Digesting another deity?"
Lohan let out a mental laugh that made his gelatin vibrate gently against her body, intensifying the massage. "Nah Bella, I just did a little housecleaning. I evolved almost all my basic abilities to level 11. The Sacred Light Core is now operating at a much higher fidelity. I’m glad you’re enjoying it, because it cost a fortune in biomass."
"Worth every unit, even if the only improvement is the comfort it brings..." she replied, her voice growing sleepier and more relaxed by the moment. "But speaking of fortunes and housecleaning... I’m still a little upset with you, Halon."
Lohan tilted part of his mass forward, as if looking down at her face. "Upset? What did I do wrong this time? I thought the massage was earning me credit points with you."
"The barbecue you promised me," Lisa said, in a tone that mixed accusation with a neediness she rarely let show. "I spent that whole afternoon thinking about that smell of grilled meat and smoke, only to be dragged to a crystal table where the food looked like plastic in the company, seriously, Halon, you owe me a real meal."
Lohan felt a pang of disappointment in his core remembering the interrupted dinner.
He’d really wanted to show her that simple, tasty side of his life. "You weren’t the only one disappointed that day... I was looking forward to seeing the ’Ice Queen’ with her hands covered in barbecue sauce, wrestling with a delicious pork rib. It would have been a priceless moment."
"Real funny," she shot back, but there was no anger in her voice. "But to be honest... I loved our time in the Porsche, even if it was short. And seeing Reginald Sterling’s face when he realized who I was... I think that made up a little for the lack of grilled protein."
"We’ll find another chance, Bella," Lohan said, his voice coming out deeper and closer over the mental link. He subtly increased the density of his gelatin over her, the embrace becoming firmer and more enveloping. "Honestly, it’s just going to depend on you finding time to come over to my place, though this week I already have a commitment scheduled."
"What?!" Lisa asked, shocked, feeling a sense of crisis for the first time.