Like a broken puppet, Jered couldn't hold himself up anymore.

His body slowly arched back as he dropped to the ground. However, right before the impact—right before the swelling explosion could swallow him—someone caught him mid-air and safely carried him away from the smoke, the fire, the blood, the destruction. Wings, fleshless, almost featherless, and as black as the night sky, flapped powerfully. A whiff of some exotic perfume wafted into his nose, not that he had time—or the mind—to appreciate it.

Lucy placed him down on top of a faraway hill.

He was drifting in and out of consciousness, pain covering his body like a blanket. He had lost a lot of blood, still was. And his nearly depleted mana was not enough to fix the mess he had become.

"You needed this," Lucy whispered with a smile, not concerned by the blood bubbling out of his mouth and trickling down his chin in crimson rivulets, "You've always faced opponents way weaker than you. This time, you faced someone who was as powerful as you, and you won. You won!"

Whether Jered heard her or not was unknown.

She stroked his cheek, "Don't you worry, my child. I won't let you die in my domain."

"..."

It was the first time she treated him like a relative.

A crimson, magic pattern swirled to existence underneath Jered, glowing in purple hieroglyphs.

Mana flooded out and spread out in a dome around him. Its magic density was so high that it felt like he was underwater, breathing in the liquid power.

Jered's eyes fluttered, the inverted face of Lucy focusing in through the red haze of her mana, "I... won... right?" he croaked out.

"Yes, you did," she replied, allowing the drainage of her overwhelming power to heal him, "You're learning at an unbelievable pace. It won't be long now, nephew. You're so close to the next tier. You defeated a Demon, Jered. And you did it as a human. That's an accomplishment not many can proudly gloat about."

She was being overly enthusiastic about it, but it would have been a lie if he said he wasn't proud of it.

He had come close to death, only to triumph over his foe and survive.

Slowly, his wounds began to close. Even his bleeding stump was wiggling with ungrown flesh. He thought it would have been a cozy feeling, but it itched and hurt like crazy.

"I want to scratch it."

"No, don't," Lucy advised, "If you do, it will come out deformed."

"..."

Eventually, the restless flesh abruptly elongated into a freshly grown arm.

The crimson dome ebbed away, and so did the rampant waves of mana around him.

Jered shoved himself up with a grunt. There was no pain to speak of, but he was almost mana drained, and his Mana Circuit had been under a lot of pressure during the fight.

"Wait," Lucy pushed him back down, "Rest."

He blinked at her, his eyebrows scrunching down, "I'm fine though?"

She smiled, "We have to start with the next training session right away, but you're in no condition to train."

"You want me to train, right now?"

"Yeeees, but you clearly can't... hmm," she tapped her chin, a mischievous smile twisting her face, "But I have something that would pepper you up in an instant!"

He didn't like the tone of her voice. She was the Devil. Even if she meant well, a whole nursery of newborns would probably be sacrificed in the process of her kindness.

"And that is?" he probed.

"Just lie down and open your mouth. You can close your eyes if you want, but I would be offended if you did," Lucy emphasized by baring her fangs in a Pennywise sort of way.

"..."

Jered was not foolish enough to incur her wrath—he had just escaped death, after all. So he did as she wanted.

With his head now resting on the ground, he opened his mouth wide open and stared at her.

She nodded approvingly, her sharp fangs retreating behind the luscious, crimson membrane of her lips. She got up, crouched above his face, and spread her legs. Jered had a perfect view of the delightful, enticing curve of her bum and the hairless, tight pink lips staring back at him. The sight might have been amazing, but he had a bad feeling about it. Lucy re-conjured her whip, turned it upside down, and jammed the thick handle inside her honeypot.

The little 'o' between her folds gripped tightly onto the makeshift dildo.

"Ohhhh!"

She bit her bottom lip, her moans rumbling in her throat, like a fine instrument tugging at his innermost, primal desire.

Jered was so surprised that his mouth clicked shut.

"Hmmm!" Lucy sheathed the handle deep inside her. Her legs quaked with pleasure as her love nectar ran down the length of the whip and dropped on his face, "J-Jered... open your mouth..."

"What?"

"D-Drink it..." she commanded in a breathy voice.

"..."

"Do it!"

He swung his mouth open, though still bewildered by the series of events unfolding.

With one last, disappointing groan, Lucy slipped the whip's handle out of her dripping pussy, "Yes... come on, baby, drink it all!" with two fingers, she spread her nether lips further apart and let all of her love juices flow down straight into her nephew's mouth, "Drink auntie Lucy's nectar!" she even went as far as fingering herself to make sure there was enough liquid to fill up an entire cup.

It was as if someone had turned on the tap barely enough for a flimsy thread of water to come down.

That was what Lucy's snatch was like.

Jered unconsciously swallowed what she gave him. And the more he did, the more aroused she got. A barbaric, twisted glint flashed past her dilated eyes. To her, it was a throw-back in time, a game that stirred her primal roots. Taboo or not, that was her kind of fun. Maybe, deep down, the fact that he was related to her made it better, kinkier. Was it a family thing? It would certainly explain Jasmine's dangerous tendencies.

Her naughty hose sprinkled his face with her love, running along his unfurled tongue and down to his stomach.

A weird feeling bubbled inside him.

[Mana Pool: 82/1963]

[Mana Pool: 356/1963]

[Mana Pool: 721/1963]

[Mana Pool: 1283/1963]

...

Jered's heart brimmed with a rush of hot energy. And then said energy branched out to the rest of his body, making him more than ready for a second round against Zonor—if only the Demon was still alive. His head was bereft of thought as he eagerly drank Lucy's ambrosia. She tasted like water and sugar, and her sap flowed smoothly down his mouth. It was what was giving him power.

Due to the erratic movements of her fingers, some of it failed to fall in his throat, but she was providing him with enough that it didn't matter.

She squeezed every drop out of her and into his tongue.

"Looks like junior here wants some of it too," Lucy wore an amused, flushed smile as she glimpsed at Jered's crotch, "Alrighty! Break's over. Time to train!" she schooled her expression, toning down her rough breathing. And then she got up, walking and talking as if nothing had happened.

Jered blinked away his trance, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and stared at her retreating form, "What was that?"

"What do you mean?"

His stare hardened.

She rolled her eyes with a chuckle, "Jered, my magic density has reached such a state of power that every piece of me is saturated with it. It is more diluted in my fluids, however, hence less dangerous. In layman's terms, what I just fed you was liquid mana. It tasted good, didn't it?"

He wrinkled his nose, "Couldn't you have given me something else? Your blood, for example?"

Lucy nodded, "Yes, I could've," then she smirked at him, "But where is the fun in that?"

"..."

She waved a hand, "You can think of it as a special reward for defeating Zonor. Now, though, back to work!" her whip flew back to her hand as she flogged it at him, "Hurry up!"

He quickly evaded the first strike, but the second one came way too fast.

It landed on his back.

A red line grew on his skin, blood trickling down.

Jane favored Jered's suggestion and quit her job. Normally, she would have never done something like that. After all, letting her teenage son take care of her didn't seem right. She was the adult there. The parent. But it was true that he was making enough to support all of them, and the thought of keeping a tight eye on Jasmine was too good to pass up. If she was busy with work, who knew what unholy acts those two would commit.

Jered was more rational, and she was glad for that. While Jasmine was an emotional bomb. She thought more with her heart than her head.

They claimed nothing was going on.

But there were a lot of things that didn't add up.

And Jane was hellbent on putting a premature end to whatever was going on. There were some good signs, though. She didn't see Jered spending a lot of time with Jasmine. He was out most of the time, probably due to his work and social obligations. However, when he was at home, she'd see that concerning dynamic again. The looks they'd send each other. The whispers. The secrecy. And the inappropriate giggles Jasmine never managed to hold back.

"Moooooom ~" Jasmine's pouty voice snapped her out of her thoughts, "Stop spacing out!"

"Sorry..." Jane tucked a chock of hair behind her ear, "So, what do you want to watch?"

They were in the living room, their television blinking with Netflix's logo. There was not much to do now that she didn't have a job, and she wasn't a big fan of social media either, so she felt eerily disconnected from the world. Watching movies with her daughter and trying not to think about more delicate topics was all she could do.

"..." Jasmine tilted one eyebrow up, "I thought you said you didn't want me to choose the movie... because of last time... even though it was an accident!"

"Ahem," Jane cleared her throat—and her mind, "You're allowed to choose one," she prompted her, only because she couldn't shrug off the thought that her daughter might choose another movie that would provide her with more hints about the relationship between her and Jered.

Naturally, Jasmine caught her mother's sharp and thoughtful yes. She was reminded of Jered, of what he told her. Yes, she enjoyed stretching the limit of her relationship with her brother, but she didn't want to see their family fall out in the form of Jane finding out, splitting them, or disowning her. Jasmine schooled her expression, "Are you okay, mom?" she asked.

"I'm peachy ~" Jane said in a tone reminiscent of Jered.

"A-Are you sure?"

She nodded, smile locked in place.

"Just choose the movie, honey."

Jasmine scrolled through the titles, but there was nothing eye-catching.

'Hunger.'

'Flesh.'

'Blood.'

'Feed.'

A throbbing headache hammered away at her skull, and she had to stop herself from showing its signs on her face.

"Fuck, not now!"

Jane blinked, staring at her daughter with wide eyes, "E-Excuse me?"

"No... it's nothing," Jasmine's heart thrummed when her eyes met her mother's. She could see right through Jane's beautiful skin. She could see her veins, pumping blood, pulsing with each heartbeat. She could see the flesh, the muscles, and the rest of her delicious anatomy, "It's... nothing..." she repeated in a hazy tone, lost in the throes of hunger.

However, it was her mother Jasmine was looking at. She was off-limit food. Just like her brother, but he wouldn't cry over a galleon of his blood missing, or an arm. He could regenerate it, after all.

Jane was human, frail, defenseless. And she loved her.

She couldn't do that to her.

"I'm... I'm sorry..." Jasmine forced out as she sprung up to her feet and dashed upstairs.

"Jasmine?"

Jane called out, but only her daughter's bedroom door slamming shut sounded out.

"..."