Even after many glowing reviews from Cici and her family, as well as the ones from Clarissa, Marina had needed further convincing that was strong enough to be trusted with Clarissa's safety. For my part, I just directed a small portion of my aura on her. She had passed out and awoke a couple of hours later. She did not need further convincing after that. She claimed that my power felt higher than any of the high ranked nobility she had been around. I had barely even hit her with it, so that didn't really give me a highol opinion of the nobility around here.
After that, Cici and I began to get ready. Marina had attempted to tell Cici that she didn't need to go, but my glare, Cici's glare, and even Clarissa's scolding had gotten the woman quickly backtrack on that idea and apologize. She did sound sincere when she mentioned that it might be dangerous and merely didn't want her in unnecessary danger, but I reminded her that not only was my wife capable, but I would be there as well, and that I would watch over all 3 of them. The stern woman had actually blushed at bit at that.
We all had a nice dinner after that, and then everyone retired for the night to do some packing and planning for our departure, with us offering them both guest rooms. It made me glad I had made the house so big and built it with so many extra rooms. We would be leaving early tomorrow morning, which did make me sigh. I just got back and finally had my mom back in my life again. I didn't want to leave her aleady.
That being said, I also couldn't just ignore Clarissa and do nothing. This sounded dangerous, and if that Baron's brother is anything like he was, I wanted to be there to keeo her safe. She was a good person, and I did like her. My mom had understood, and even found it sweet that I went so far for those I cared about. She said there would be plenty of time for us now, and in the mean time, she could stay here and learn and get to know Anya, Warren, Haigo, and countless other people in the village that was now her home. She was still having some issues getting used to the more primitive parts of this world. I knew she'd be fine while we were on this little trip.
The trip itself would be easy, and thankfully, it was only going to be Clarissa, Marina, Cici, and myself traveling, so we wouldn't have to lug around much, and I was already trying to figure out ways to speed up the trip, as well as making things a bit easier in regards to what we were bringing along with us.
I was currently messing around with my Abyssal Manipulation, as there was so much I could do with it that I hadn't even scratched the surface. I was outside behind my home, sitting on a chair in the backyard as I played around with my skill. As far as I could tell, there was a lot of things I could do with it that were almost purely up to my imagination. I could make stuff from it, as well as alter things with it just based on my intent.
I was envisioning using my power in a way that I had both seen in many shows and read in many books. If I could make things, then perhaps I could make a storage space using the Abyss. Just as I envisioned what I wanted, a black hand sized circle appeared in front of me, and it looked just like a black version of the portal outside of the village.
"Huh. Is it going to be that easy?" I muttered, as I picked up a shoe, and inserted it inside.
I dismissed the it, and then proceeded to sit there pondering what else I could try to do with the power while I waited. After about 10 minutes, I envisioned the opening again, and it popped up instantly this time. I inserted my hand inside of it, and envisioned the shirt I had thrown inside. Sure enough, my hand wrapped around the soft fabric, and I pulled it back out. I looked at the shirt with a stupid grin on my face.
"Nice."
I tested it with a few more objects, and during that time, and began to understand more and more about this particular use of my skill. It was almost like creating a skill within a skill that only I could use. Kinda like how I could use the Abyss to create items, I could also use it in this instance to store them. I had a pretty good grasp on it by the time Cici had stepped outside to check on me.
"Darling, what are you doing?" Cici asked me curiously as she came over and made herself comfortable on my lap, making me chuckle.
"Just testing out my power. Here, look at this." I said, before throwing a loaf of bread inside of the storage space I had made, and then closed it.
"I don't get it." She said in confusion.
"Ah, but now watch this." I said, and then proceeded to open the space back up, reach my hand inside, and pull the bread back out.
"Oh! Dimensional storage?" She asked, and I shrugged.
"Yeah, I guess. It's something like that. I've been out here testing and refining it, and I've been slowly getting the hang of it. I can store a bunch of different things in here at once, and I can tell exactly what's inside of it just by thinking about it. It seems to have an infinite storage space. I wanted to see if I could use my power to make something like this, and it seems to be working pretty well."
Cici blinked at me, and then began cackling.
"Eli, Dimensional storage rings and bags are super expensive, and you just made this because you felt like it?" She asked me with a giggle.
"Well... yeah." I replied, and she just laughed again, before leaning down and kissing me sweetly.
"Do you even realize how unnaturally powerful you are?" She asked me.
"I mean, I think so. I just don't really care to think about it. As long as I'm strong enough to take care of you and everyone else, and protect you all from danger, that's all I really care about." I said, and that caused her to begin rubbing her face all over my mine, making me laugh.
"I love you." She purred into my ear.
"I love you too." I replied as I kissed her forehead, and she sighed happily, her tail wrapping around one of my legs.
We sat there for a moment like that before I had another idea that I wanted to try, and Cici could actually help me out with this one. I stood with her still in my lap, causing her to laugh as she wrapped her arms around my neck.
"I want to try something else. I think I can make our journey even easier." I said, and she gave me a small pout, and from the spike of desire I felt from her, I knew where she had hoped that situation would go, so I added, "And after that, I'd really like to try something with you."
I sweetened my words by pinching her ass, making her squeak in delight.
"I like the sounds of that." She cooed as she ran her hand down my arm and bit her bottom lip, "What did you need help with, darling?"
I smirked as I released her, and then grabbed her hand, and walked a few feet out into the grass.
"I've been practicing with one of my skills, and that's how I made the storage space. I'm pretty sure I can do even more with it, and I wanted to try something. Can you stand still?" I asked, and Cici smirked as she stood in front of me, and then backed up a couple of feet.
I stood there, and using Abyssal Manipulation, I imagined a bubble of protective energy surrounding my wife that also allowed me direct control over its movement. I'd seen something like it before, and after what happened with Warren, I wanted to try a different method that was less crude than dragging people around using my tendrils.
A dark translucent barrier of magic surrounded Cici. Her eyes widened and she looked up and down, and left and right.
"Eli... what is- OH!" She said, and then yelped as I used it to begin lifting her into the air. I grinned like a madman.
"Hell yes! It's working." I said, my wings emerging from my back as I began to flap upwards to match her.
"Eli, please don't drop me." Cici said, and I chuckled.
"Never. Don't worry, I've got you." I said, and then with a flex of my will, I shot both of us up in the air, and just as I'd hoped, the barrier both brought her with me to match my flight, as well as protected her from experiencing the sudden jerk in her body, as well as the windforce she would experience at higher speeds.
"Shit!" Cici yelled as we ascended even higher into the air.
Soon, I began flying us around in several directions high in the sky, and after a few minutes, Cici's fear of being so high without me holding her turned to wonder, and once she realized it was safe, she began to laugh.
"Okay, this is actually really fun." She said, and I grinned at her as I increased our speed.
I should be able to do this with multiple people. It used a decent amount of mana, not that it meant much to me. This skill of mine was actually nuts. There was so much I could seemingly do with it, and I was only scratching the surface. We flew around like that for about 30 minutes as I grasped more and more of the ability, and grew more confident and comfortable with it. Soon, I flew over to Cici, and reached through my bubble, taking her in my arms. She smiled as she wrapped her arms around my neck, and locked her legs around my waist. Then, she kissed me deeply. Once she released me, she gave me a heated look.
"That was fun. I'm sure that'll come in handy, but now... care to make good on your promise?" She asked me, her sultry voice causing blood to rush to my penis.
"Yes." I said immediately, and began to fly us back down at high speeds.
"Good, because I'm feeling pretty empty." She said, before bringing her mouth to my ear, and licking my earlobe with her soft tongue, "Will you fill me up?"
I didn't need any convincing.