Aether Chronicles: Birth Of A Legend-Chapter 178: Their First Kiss

Raegar felt the cold being chased away thanks to the four girls cuddling up to him, each one falling asleep apart from the Vampire. After doing that, he turned to Dominique, who was still awake, staring at him with her big green eyes.

''So you're a Necromancer?'' he asked quietly.

A flicker of unease crossed her face, but Raegar quickly dispelled it. ''That was incredible!'' he continued. ''The power you wield is nothing short of extraordinary. I don't understand why your family shuns it. Necromancy is fascinating, and Death Aether? It's like nothing I've ever seen, wild and mysterious in all the best ways.''

Dominique's face froze in genuine shock, her eyes widening as a flush of surprise chased away her earlier unease. The sudden shift in her expression drew a soft chuckle from him, his amusement warming the chilly air.

''I'm serious,'' he went on, his voice brimming with infectious enthusiasm. ''I'm fascinated by all things Aether and magic, Death and Necromancy included. You've got to teach me it someday; I want to understand its depths, how it weaves through the fabric of life and beyond.''

Leaning closer, he gently brushed a stray lock of her blackish-green hair from her face, his touch light, grounding her in the moment as her heart started racing, and it showed with red cheeks.

His grin widened, and a mischievous expression appeared as he added. ''Just imagine the look on your father's face when he hears his daughter taught the 'famous' Tetraarch Death magic. He'd probably choke on his pride!''

Dominique's giggle danced through the tent, a bright sound that softened the chill of the night. Her big green eyes sparkled with a mix of surprise and warmth as she leaned closer, her voice teasing yet laced with a vulnerable edge.

''Now picture his face if I showed up with you on my arm,'' she said, smirking. ''Not one of my prim-and-proper sisters, who are perfect ladies, but me, the tomboy who'd rather spar than curtsy. He'd probably faint from the scandal of it all!''

Raegar's chuckle rumbled low, his eyes glinting with amusement and something deeper, something unspoken that made the air between them hum. He moved closer, the blankets draped over them brushing together, their shared warmth a quiet intimacy in the cramped tent.

''Oh, I think you're plenty ladylike when it suits you,'' he murmured, his voice dropping to a softer, more earnest tone that sent a shiver down her spine, one that had nothing to do with the cold. ''But I like you just as you are, fierce, fearless, and a little wild.''

Before she could respond, he leaned in, his breath warm against her skin, and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. The gesture was tender, deliberate, and utterly unexpected, stealing the breath from her lungs.

Dominique went still, her breath catching as her heart stumbled in her chest, a soft flush blooming across her pale cheeks. Her eyes widened, caught between shock and a spark of longing, tangled with a deeper, unfamiliar ache she couldn't yet name.

The moment stretched, charged with unspoken possibilities, as Raegar pulled back just enough to meet her gaze, his own eyes searching hers with a quiet intensity that made the world outside the tent feel impossibly distant.

Everything seemed to fade into the background, their presence muted by the electric pull between them, a fragile thread of connection that neither dared to name but both felt humming in the space between.

As Dominique's heart thundered in her chest, a wild rhythm that drowned out the soft crackle of the fire and the distant howls beyond their safe place. Her eyes, still wide from his tender kiss, locked onto his, the warmth of his gaze pulling at something deep within her.

Panic surged, a chaotic swirl of thoughts tumbling through her mind. 'What is this?' she thought, her breath hitching. 'This feeling, this pull, it's too much. He's the Tetraarch, I'm just… me. A vampire. A tomboy. This shouldn't happen.'

She felt her hands tremble slightly, tucked beneath the blankets, as she fought the urge to bolt from the tent. Her mind raced, screaming at her to pull back, to laugh it off, to hide the vulnerability threatening to appear. 'He's just being kind. He doesn't mean it like that. Does he?'

But Dominique's body betrayed her, leaning closer almost against her will, drawn by a quiet, primal instinct that whispered. 'This is right. This is now.'

Her cheeks burned, the flush deepening as her gaze flickered to his lips, then back to his red eyes, searching for a sign, a reason to stop. There was none, only his charming smile, warm and unguarded, making her heart ache with a longing she didn't dare name.

Before she could overthink it further, before the panic could win, something fierce and certain ignited within her, urging her forward. Dominique leaned in, her breath trembling, and pressed her lips to his in a deep kiss.

It was no gentle peck but a bold, desperate claim, her hands finding his face, fingers curling lightly against his jaw as if to anchor herself in the moment. The world fell away, leaving only the warmth of his mouth against hers as their first kiss unfolded.

The soft hitch of his breath and the electric spark that coursed through her silenced the chaos in her mind. In that moment, she was simply Dominique, no longer the outcast daughter of the D'Ambrose family or the tomboy who failed their expectations.

She was a girl alive, bound to the boy that caught her eye from the first day they met by a kiss that pulsed with the weight of fate. Raegar's breath caught, a jolt of surprise flashing through him when her lips met his, sudden and passionate.

Yet the shock melted away, and he leaned into her, eagerly returning the kiss that matched her intensity. Her warmth seeped into him, a slow heat, chasing away the lingering chill in his bones.

Their connection deepened in the quiet sanctuary of the tent as the world beyond faded to a distant hum. The Vampire gently broke the kiss and murmured while cuddling up closer. ''Let's rest now and return to Drakenwood at dawn. Baldur will know what to do thanks to being a smart owl.''

Raegar nodded, and the two drifted into a deep sleep, cradled by the hollow's protective embrace, the tent shielding them from the cold as the night creatures stirred beyond and tried to lure them out.

He had sternly warned the girls to shut out the sinister whispers echoing in the night, ensuring none would be lured beyond the hollow's safety. They pressed closer to him, their warmth beating back the chilling darkness.

At dawn, a thunderous clash of steel and roars tore Raegar from sleep, his heart pounding like war drums as people screamed and orders were barked out while the scream of Devils echoed across the land.

Without hesitation, he surged from the hollow after casting an Aether bubble around the tent to let the girls sleep. Moments later, he emerged into a chaotic dawn where Devil Hunters clashed ferociously with a horde of fiends spilling from a crimson-glowing Red Gate.

Raegar's eyes blazed with shock as he summoned his Bloodrose armor and twin daggers, their edges shimmering with death. 'I need to kill them before the hunters fall and the school is threatened,' he thought, gripping his blades.

The air was thick with the stench of blood and screams of clashing steel as Hunters and Devils battled it out. His gaze fell on the Red Gate pulsed like a wound in the sky, spewing a relentless tide of fiends, snarling and clawing at the outnumbered Order.

''That's an entrance to the Devil World,'' he muttered.

When laying eyes on that, his heart thundered in his chest as he surveyed the carnage. The ground trembled beneath his boots, littered with shattered weapons and the twisted corpses of friend and foe alike.

Without thinking, Raegar activated his special ability Fusion Overdrive, his body erupting in a blinding cascade of Aether. The power surged through his veins, a molten torrent that shattered his limits and propelled him to the pinnacle of Tier Ten.

His armor gleamed like a star forged in battle, and his twin daggers sang with a deadly hum, their edges vibrating with Lightningfire. He launched across the battlefield, a comet of destruction, his movements a blur too swift for mortal eyes to follow.

Devils fell before him in droves, their monstrous forms shredded into a thousand pieces by the merciless dance of his blades. Claws, fangs, and sinew sprayed in gory arcs as he carved a path through the horde, each strike precise, each slash a death sentence.

A hulking, horned fiend lunged, its maw dripping venom, only to be bisected mid-roar, its remains collapsing in a steaming heap. Another, a writhing mass of tentacles, reached for him, but he spun, his daggers a whirlwind, reducing it to a pile of quivering flesh in seconds.

His rage was fueling Fusion Overdrive as it pushed his body beyond mortal constraints, his muscles screaming, his vision sharpened to a predatory edge.