Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 1216: Shocked

The sharp, deliberate throat-clear shattered his pleasant trance.

Quinlan blinked, straightened his posture, and turned toward the sound.

Feng Jiai stood a few meters away with arms before her crossed. However, the oriental teen did not look to be as jealous as she normally would’ve. Next to her, Felicity leaned against a pillar with a smirk that said ’caught you!’

Quinlan didn’t bite. He did not acknowledge that he had just gotten into a trance by staring at the sexy butts of his girls. Instead, he simply exhaled, "You two ready?"

Both women shared a glance, half disbelief, half exasperation, before sighing in unison.

"Always so shameless," Feng muttered under her breath.

Felicity’s smirk only deepened. "Let’s go! I can’t wait!"

Without another word, Quinlan gestured for them to follow and started down the corridor.

Soon, they found themselves outside and in a small crater carved into the earth.

This was the pit where Ayame and Iris tended to hold their catfights whenever they got on each other’s nerves, which meant this crater was used basically every single day.

As a result, it became quite deep with the passage of time.

Though Quinlan did not know if he could call it cat-fighting anymore... Those two women might’ve had short statures and seemingly delicate bodies, but the Goddess knew they were both extremely stubborn with quite the attitude.

Anyhow. As a result of their frequent ’disagreements,’ it became perfect for training.

They slid down the crater’s edge one after another. Loose dirt tumbled beside them as they descended.

Feng gave a low whistle as her eyes swept the widened pit. "It’s gotten bigger since I last saw it... Two days ago."

Felicity nodded while resting her hands behind her back. "Those two are hard workers."

"Hopelessly competitive, more like," Quinlan muttered under his breath.

The floor of the crater was a mosaic of scarred stone and hardened dirt. Burn marks, fist gouges, and mana residue painted a battlefield well used.

"Alright," Quinlan sighed before stepping forward. "Let’s see what the two young ladies can do."

Felicity’s grin grew. "Hehe~ Prepare to be shocked!"

In her hands, her wand flickered to life, but instead of glowing with color, its crystal dimmed, draining the light around it until even the sun above seemed slightly duller.

The air shifted.

It wasn’t dramatic. There was no thunder, no rumbling aura, no violent pulse of power.

Rather... everything just quieted.

The breeze that had been teasing their hair stilled. Dust, halfway through its descent, slowed and hung suspended. She hadn’t even cast a spell yet, but the mere action of the girl sending mana into her wand had quite a noticeable effect.

It was the sign of an extremely potent mage.

"Interesting," Quinlan murmured.

He raised his hand. Flame erupted from his palm in a single thought, then flickered out before it could reach full form.

He tried again, this time summoning a sphere of wind. The air spiraled briefly, then unraveled like smoke sucked into a vacuum.

Water followed, drawn from thin moisture in the air. It coalesced for half a heartbeat before flattening into mist and vanishing.

Felicity giggled, twirling her wand once. "Hehe~ Told you. You can’t use that stuff near me anymore. My class has an innate nullification ability I can toggle on or off. No one is permitted to cast spells in my presence so long as I don’t allow it."

Quinlan’s lips curved upward. "Is that so?"

Her grin faltered at his tone.

His eyes sharpened, and his mana surged.

The air quaked, and tremors began rippling through the ground. The pressure of elemental energy built up around him in defiance of her null field, and Felicity’s own magic strained.

Sweat formed along her brow. The pressure was crushing as reality itself bent under Quinlan’s will.

"Ugh!" she gritted her teeth while clutching her wand tighter as the shimmer of her null zone wavered. "[Energy Absorption]!" she cried after pointing the wand at him. Sensing that a mere passive area of effect silence wasn’t keeping him at bay, she knew she had to bring out the big guns.

A translucent pulse expanded outward, rippling through the air itself. For a brief instant, color bled from the world. The sunlight dimmed, the air stilled, and even the mana surrounding Quinlan trembled.

His elemental power faltered.

The swirling winds around him slowed, the ember at his fingertips flickered and began to die, drawn toward Felicity. The null energy wrapped around him, soundless and merciless, threatening to swallow his magic whole.

Quinlan’s eyes narrowed.

"Trying to eat my mana, huh?"

The ground quaked.

His aura detonated outward as pressure exploded like a thunderclap. The crater’s edges shuddered under the weight of his presence as he tried harder.

Wind roared. Fire reignited in defiance. The pull of her null spell strained to hold.

"W–Wait!" Felicity gasped. Her wand began shaking violently as the air around her warped under the collision of opposing powers. The shimmer of her absorption spell wobbled, then snapped before scattering.

Quinlan stepped forward through the backlash, calm and unbothered. Flames were coiling lazily around his hand, giving him quite the imposing appearance. "You almost got me for a second. Not bad. Not bad at all."

Felicity’s face flushed from exertion. "Curses! I thought I had you..."

He smirked and extinguished the fire with a flick of his wrist. "You did, until you didn’t." Then his expression softened. "That class of yours... if it grows stronger, you’ll be a nightmare."

Then he added with an expression that Felicity found outright infuriating, "But for now, I’m still the man of the house."

She pouted, visibly deflated. "... That’s cheating."

He chuckled softly and stepped closer, resting a hand on her head. "No. That’s experience. You’re level one, and you barely understand what that class can do yet. You need levels and mastery both to face the stronger people of the continent."

Her pout deepened, but she didn’t move away. Instead, the teenager looked up into his eyes and blinked rapidly. "Do you really think my class is amazing?"

Quinlan could only chuckle as it was obvious the girl was fishing for compliments. But he obliged. "Yes. This class is a frightening beast. Once you master it, you’ll make a clown out of almost any man."

Her eyes lit up at that. "Really?!"

"Really."

Felicity’s grin returned full force, bright and proud. "Then I’ll work hard! Next time, I’ll stop you!"

"Looking forward to it." Quinlan nodded, then looked toward Feng. "Now then, what about you, brat?"

Feng smiled in response. However, it was not quite her usual smile. Quinlan didn’t know how to put it well, but she seemed to have changed in a small but noticeable way.

Such an observation became more evident than ever when she decreed, "Quinlan, I realized that I must step away from you for a bit. Your presence is too all-consuming... If I stay, I feel I’ll forever remain a lovestruck teenager, or rather a half-baked person. I want to go on an adventure of my own, hoping to discover myself better. That’s why I must ask..."

She took a deep breath. "Please release me from the [Subjugation]."