This kind of reaction, in this kind of specific situation after the kind of stuff that happened… For any other sane male, it would take a huge dose of craziness to act like that. A huge dose of craziness, or the perspective of being burned alive once again, just as the life turned from sad stagnation with no future, into the bright road with an undefined ending!

"I'm sorry…"

Taking one more step back, Fen hit the wall of the room with his shoulders. Due to the multiple candles still lighting up the place, his fully erect pridehood seemed to attain some kind of aura, only making the situation more awkward.

"No, it's me who should be sorry. I failed to control myself, pushing the situation into this direction…"

Stopping Fen from his apologising, Kaisha shook his head as her eyes regained their usual clarity. At the same time, the fire that only pretended to cover her charms diminished, once again replaced by that skimpy outfit of hers, that for some reason wasn't damaged at all!

"Although looking at the state you are in…"

Suddenly bringing her fingers to her lips, she hid her slight smile as her cheeks covered in an intense blush the moment her eyes inevitably rested on Fen's manhood.

"Don't mind me. With how cute you are, it was obvious that I would end up that way."

Rather than insisting on apologising, Fen forced himself to make a good face for the bad situation. This wasn't the time for him to enjoy becoming a proper man. Even if people in the city were a lot more open about this natural aspect of living, it wasn't a trait that this young man was willing to assimilate. Not when it came to one of the only humans in the entire city that had a good shot at burying his future in the flames of a stake!

"Oh my, thank you for your kind words."

Maybe it was only her natural reaction or maybe it was another attempt at seducing her classmate, but the smile that blossomed on Kaisha lips as she spoke those words, was one of the toughest attacks to endure that Fen has experienced so far in his life. Thankfully, the vision of becoming a part of brutal show for the sake of increasing the church's prestige was enough of a deterrent to allow the young man to retain his sanity.

"Anyway, would you mind finding some clothes that I could use? After all, my robes…"

Looking down on himself, Fen was quite baffled to notice that there was nothing left of the outfit that his archarity provided for him. While this alone was already a huge pain in the ass with how he would have to find a way to explain how he lost it, without a spare set of robes, he would have to traverse half of the city stark naked!

"Yeah, don't worry about it. As long as you benefited from the ritual…"

Standing up, Kaisha moved to the entry of the room, finally opening its doors. In the sudden onslaught of the light, all the details of her perfect figure came to Fen's sight. From her long, slim legs, to the supple buttocks that only pretended to be hidden behind the belts of cloth that she was wearing, all the way to the detailed outline of her bone structure that appeared under the delicate skin of her back. Yet, as if not minding giving such a show to her classmate at all, Kaisha even went forth and leaned downwards as she reached for one of the shelves that happened to be just behind the doors.

With her outstretched butt aimed perfectly at Fen's eyes, his hand inevitably moved forward, as if he wanted to grab her waist and rock those hips for as long as it would take for the two of them to lose themselves in the pleasure… Only to force himself back into the neutral position.

"Here you go."

Straightening herself up as suddenly as she leaned before, the girl turned around and threw a bunch of simple robes in Fen's way. Thankfully, before the sight of her barely covered front could make the young man lose his control, the clothes landed right on his face, freeing him from this alluring view.

'I need to focus…'

Putting all his attention on dressing himself up, when the young man was finally done, he raised his head only to see his classmate already covered with a baggy robe, completely hiding away her charms.

"I hope that this ritual helped you."

Even though her precious body was no longer accessible to Fen's eyes, just her smile alone was enough to kill his soul on the spot.

"Don't worry, you can't even imagine how much it helped… how much you helped me."

Despite what transpired after he woke up from that sea of fire, there was no denying it that Fen's meeting with Draconis and those few advises that he offered were more than enough for the young man.

'Let it flow, rather than trying to restrict it…'

Going against everything that both Mark and Stiel advised him to do in order to learn the control, Fen induced his flames once again. This time, rather than trying to force them into a certain shape, he simply wished for it to appear!

Firstly, a fire formed all over his hand, just like it did during all his previous exercises. The next step would normally be to suppress his talent, in order to limit how much of his flame could surface. But at this point, Fen knew that it was actually the point that made the further steps impossible to achieve.

That's why, rather than trying to block his talent from manifesting, he simply slowed it down. As if calming his own emotions and state of mind, Fen continued to relax his fire. Rather than wrestling with it to prove who was in control, he simply adjusted it to align it with his current, relaxed state of mind!

And just like that, even without doing any other steps that would otherwise be required, a stable, candle-like fire formed atop his pointing finger!

"Seriously?!"

Seeing the sight, Kaisha revealed her rare, stunned face. With her big, dark blue eyes open as wide as her eyelids allowed, her lips parting ways and revealing the innards of her mouth, she just stood near the doors, watching the impossible happen.

"Hmm?"

Surprised by his classmate's shock, Fen turned his head towards the girl with a questioning marks appearing all over his eyes.

"Did you seriously managed to break through this bottleneck with just a single ritual?!"

Hearing her distressed voice, Fen couldn't help but notice that amidst all the shock clearly audible in her tones, there was also a bit of something that sounded like a disappointment?!

"Is that seriously something that strange? Or did you hope for some more opportunities for this kind of skin-to-skin contact?"

A realisation struck Fen's mind. No matter what her motives for hoping for more events like what just happened were, it was clear that his progress clearly stomped over her expectations. With how she was bound to know about the recent commotion at the cathedral if he allowed this topic to linger for any longer, the risk of the church suddenly focusing its attention on him would be far too great! That's why the only solution to the current stalemate was to go on the offensive!

"Oh?"

Struck by this leading question, Kaisha initially stood motionless with a stupefied grin on her face, while her cheeks continued to reach new heights of how bright they could become. But just like her newly made friend a moment ago, rather than allowing herself to be swept by the situation, she instead placed her cards on the table and went all it!

Moving a few paces forward, she quickly reached Fen's body, throwing her arms around his neck. With how quick and decisive this action was, the young man could only watch as her face once again got closer to his, with her glib tongue escaping from the confines of her mouth and wetting her lips.

"What, does that perspective scare you off?"

Pulling herself on Fen's body, Kaisha moved her mouth directly beside his ear, whispering those words right into his mind, while pressing her body tightly against the young man's chest.

"You know, I wouldn't really mind picking up where we left a moment ago!"

Changing the position of her arms a bit, she allowed her body to slip down back on the ground, only to properly hug herself into Fen while placing her ear on his chest, as if she wanted to hear his heartbeat.

"Okay, okay, that was a bit too rash."

The strange atmosphere, not to speak about the sight from a moment before, were now both gone. As arousing as Kaisha's actions would be in any other scenario, at this point, Fen's body was simply too tired of the constant changes of his mood to react strongly to her advances. Using this opportunity, Fen simply laughed the situation off, gently pushing the girl away.

"Let's say I believe we should know each other a bit more before going for it. For now, how about you will accompany me back to the fire serpent archarity? With how blank my mind is right now, I think I will need your help to come up with a creative answer as to what happened to my clothes!"