Blessed by Night

"Kyaaa!!"

"Huh?"

Both Malachi and Bianca immediately sat up on the bed and looked at each other strangely. Mal might\'ve been tired, but there is no way that he wouldn\'t remember going to bed with her. "B? Why were we..?"

"A-Ah, we didn\'t do anything! I came in a while ago and I saw that you were sleeping and I just wanted to play a little joke..." She explained shyly. While Mal was asleep, Bianca laid down next to him on the bed and stated taking selfies with the both of them.

However, Mal had grown accustomed to sleeping next to someone ever since Sei had moved in, so he instinctively grabbed her and pulled her close. Suddenly Bianca\'s joke was no longer funny and she tried her best to escape without waking him, but Malachi only clung to her tighter. Finally, she resigned herself to her fate and decided to wait for him to wake up, but she was so enticed by his body heat and scent of the sheets that she ended up falling asleep alongside him.

"S-So you see, I didn\'t do anything weird to you and I didn\'t stare at you in your underwear or anything, I-I just wanted to take pictures of you with my finger up your nose!"

While Morgan was trying not to die of laughter, Malachi was still holding onto Bianca without even realizing it. "Yea, I know we didn\'t do anything, don\'t worry."

"..."

Malachi and Sei spent a lot of time together. And since he was a twenty year old man with raging hormones and she was a middle aged woman with needs that had long been unfulfilled. As a result, the two of them had sex whenever they got the chance, and Mal was a quick learner and rather proficient. If Bianca had done something to him, not only would he have woken up, but she wouldn\'t have nearly as much energy as she had now. "...Time for training."

"Hey, I asked you a question!"

-

Just like before, Malachi was back in the clearing with Morgan with a bit of anxiety behind his orange eyes. Bianca had been sent to do her own individual exercises, leaving the two men alone to do gods know what. "Alright lad, let\'s begin." Morgan pointed up at the sky where the sun was shining brightly overhead.

"For most people, they must learn to adapt to times where they do not have an advantage, but you do not have that same restriction. Anywhere at anytime can be your home turf."

Malachi seemingly understood what he was being asked and his eyes became black and empty. The bright day suddenly changed into a beautiful yet eerie night, and he was already beginning to feel right at home in this atmosphere. But even though he was being filled with energy, maintaining this fabricated night was terribly taxing.

"Good... Now come at me."

Malachi looked at Morgan like he had just asked him to jumpstart a car with a fleshlight. Creating night like this always rendered him practically immobile. So to ask him to fight was almost like a bad joke. "I know that I ask something difficult of you, but so what? Are you telling me that the limits of your ambition only go this far?"

"...Nah, course not." Mal said with a cheap smile.

At the end of the day, this was what he had come for. He always knew that he would have to get over this hurdle one day, so why not now?

Reaching behind his back, he unsheathed the twin iklwa he\'d received from Luna and gave them a delicate whirl. "Those look pretty dangerous." Morgan said with an impressed whistle. "But that\'s not quite what I wanted to see."

"Huh?" Almost on cue, Morgan\'s skin became dark and molten, and he expanded and grew to a height of 25 feet.

The temperature easily rose to 100 degrees, and all of Malachi\'s work to turn this place dark seemed to have been for naught.

Morgan was a massive flaming behemoth that wasn\'t much different from a miniature sun, forcing the young man to take a step back.

"Maybe I should have been more specific. We are primordial blessed boy, against us mere weapons are nigh insufficient. Only through power on par with ours can we be felled." For Mal, this training was only becoming more and more unrealistic. Thud.

Thud.

As Morgan stepped forward, his large feet left flaming footsteps in the ground and caused small tremors. "Does the task feel difficult? Insurmountable? Good, life will be like that. And if you want to clash against Alex Heller, this feeling will only be multiplied a hundred fold."

Malachi flinched and his eyes widened in shock. "How did you-"

Bang!

Morgan casually kicked Mal with the same energy that one would an empty soda can on the street, sending him flying through the air like a kite with it\'s strings cut.

After being brutalized so terribly since last night, he had admittedly become more accustomed to pain, but he still noticed the sensation of his skin burning and the air leaving his lungs.

Correcting himself in midair, he landed delicately on his feet but immediately fell onto one knee.

"It was easy enough to guess, there is only one enemy who would require power like ours.

Don\'t know why you\'re rushing, but I figure you\'re trying to get revenge on that slimy bastard, and that\'s enough for me. "

Malachi laughed dryly and pulled himself back to his feet. "Almost forgot why I was doing this for a second. Ain\'t that a shame?"

Dark shadows began rushing towards Mal and encased his body.

Instead of darkness making up the entirety of his being, he used it as a kind of armor. Before he knew what he wanted his future to look like, he couldn\'t become Nyx\'s avatar and fully attain that level of power. "I hope that you won\'t take it easy on me, Morgan." As the flaming giant looked down at the man encased in stars, nebulas, and darkness, he felt slightly impressed by the amount of control. "Oh? Why is that?"

"How am I supposed to grow if you do?"

Whoosh!

Malachi disappeared from his place on the ground, and appeared high in the air right next to Morgan\'s head. BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!

Malachi threw a kick aimed directly for his jaw, but Morgan held up an overly large hand to stop it. \'This strength is real...My arm is trembling.\' Morgan was actually rather proud.

He had never had children before, but somehow he knew that this is what it would feel like to watch his child take his first steps.

"I\'m afraid I can\'t comply with your request, lad. For me to truly going all out would eviscerate this whole island. Bit much for simple lessons, no?"

Morgan flexed his hand and an entirely black sword with a molten tip appeared out of thin air.

"But I can promise to bring you as close to death as I can, as many times as I can. You just promise me that you\'ll come back alive every time."

Even though none of Mal\'s facial features could be seen, Morgan knew that he was smiling underneath the mass of black stars.

"Shall we begin?"

-

"..."

"..."

"...I miss him."

""Same. / Me too.""

"All of you make me sick!"

After getting off the phone with Malachi, the girls had the wind taken out of their sails completely. Now they were lounging on chairs poolside, staring blankly up into space and seemingly a million miles away. Serana had never been so annoyed in her life. "We were having fun before he called, why do you guys have to be such downers now!?"

All three of Mal\'s girlfriends stared blankly at Serana as if they were going through some tribulations that she couldn\'t hope to understand. "Jeez, I should have hung out with Aisha and Aubrey instead! Even if they\'re all coupled up and cuddly at least I don\'t have to worry about them ruining the mood."

"Give us a break, we\'re still in the honeymoon phase. He\'s all I can think about." Anna said honestly. Luna nodded silently in agreement, and Serana turned her gaze towards her mother who had yet to say anything. "And what\'s your excuse, mother dearest? You should be out of the cupcake stage already."

Sei tilted her sunglasses downwards and gave her daughter a pitying look. "Honey... Sometimes women have needs that-\'"

"Eww, gross!!"

Sei only shrugged as if she did not see the problem with her statement. Suddenly, she got a call on her phone and after sighing in disappointment when she realized it wasn\'t Malachi calling, she answered. The first thing she heard was the voice of her energetic head chef from her restaurant, Tito. "Hey boss, how are you?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"I\'m fine, Tito is something the matter with the shop? It\'s rather unusual of you to call me."

"Ah, well... This is kind of awkward..."

Sei immediately sat up, concerned about what her employee might be about to tell her. "About twenty minutes ago, we had a lady come in asking for you by name. I don\'t know if she\'s lying or not but... she says she\'s your mother."

-

100 chapters! Woohoo!

I fr never thought this novel would make it past chapter 53, I was that determined to never pick it back up. But despite my own expectations, I did and it\'s actually been kinda fun to write this again. And all of the support and kind words I\'ve received from all of you make all of the sleep deprivation worth it. Thank you to all of you for giving me the courage to make it this far.