Leveling Up by Seducing Milfs-Chapter 302. From the Furthest Future, and She Already Knew the Question Was Coming

Chapter 302: 302. From the Furthest Future, and She Already Knew the Question Was Coming

The socket needed to be reattached. Since the grief construct was built upon the same theoretical framework as the Archon’s architecture, the Archon was able to navigate around it.

The Archon could not bypass the element that would secure the socket against its frequency, which was a distinctly human characteristic that corruption could not replicate.

The bond network functioned effectively because it was interconnected. In the simulation, the Archon demonstrated its ability to accurately mimic the bond network.

The Archon could replicate the shape of Carmilla, the voice of Sebastian, and the open expression of Heinz so accurately that it deceived him for a considerable time.

However, it could not replicate the origin of a bond.

The exact moment of real connection that created a thread had to happen in real time between real people; a copy could not take its place. The bond network was real because the things that made it happen were real.

The socket needed a bond that was new enough that the Archon hadn’t had time to model it yet. It was too new for the thread to have been built into the corruption architecture’s expected framework.

It also needed to be strong enough for the anchor it provided to withstand the external corruption frequency.

He read the text two times and then looked at her.

"Liora," he said.

She nodded.

He understood the text’s implications. The bond with Liora had existed since his arrival in Zorathia, yet it had not developed in the necessary way.

The socket required a stronger foundation layer for the bond, one that allowed both sides to feel vulnerable. This type of connection was too specific, too human, and too rooted in the real lives of two individuals to be something that a corruption architecture could anticipate in advance.

He thought about what that meant in real life.

He thought about Liora. She had been standing at the entrance to the Golden Temple courtyard with a communication crystal in her hand, motionless. She had sat beside him in the garden, reflecting on how most grief manifests.

She had also stood at the door to Thessara’s study, organizing everything as if she already knew what needed to be done.

She had told him that the lake was three hundred years old and that the process of sanctification completely and thoroughly cleansed the source material. What I said was what she said.

He folded the paper and put it in his coat pocket with Thessara’s note on it.

"I need to find a way out of this..." He said, "There’s something else."

"The vision... Valdris, at the end... and Zephyra." He stopped. "Is that already—has that already—"

The girl’s face changed.

She shook her head slowly.

Not yet. He understood she meant nothing yet.

Then she held up three fingers, closing them one by one until her hand formed a fist. He grasped her meaning.

A countdown was in effect. Something had already begun that he couldn’t completely stop, only redirect.

He took a breath.

"I’ll figure it out," he said.

She looked at him with kind eyes and an almost-smile. There was something about that look that felt older than the small body it inhabited, the white hair framing her face, and the bright, empty space surrounding them.

It was the gaze of someone who has known another for a very long time.

"Please tell me...!" Rick asked, "Who are you?"

She knew the question was coming.

He could tell she was about to say something because she straightened up a little, like someone does when they’re about to say something they’ve thought about a lot.

She placed her hand on her chest again, over her heart. Thereafter, she pointed at him.

Then she made a gesture with her hands that showed something going a long way.

"W-what...?"

She repeated the gesture, placing her hand over her heart again before pointing at him.

"I guess that means you’re somehow... wait, let me rephrase that," Rick said. "Are you... connected to me?"

She nodded.

Rick then held his chin. "Let’s see... did you come from a long way to get here?"

And she nodded again while Rick kept on guessing.

"Outside Zorathia?" 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

She shook her head and then pointed upward, indicating the direction Rick was looking. "You’re from the sky...?"

She shook her head again and began making hand signs that resembled the letters ’F’ and ’U.’ Rick continued guessing until he finally got it right.

"Are you from the future...?"

She smiled widely and nodded vigorously.

"Holy shit... future...?" He said, "Like from the furthest future," and she nodded.

Then, to his surprise, she reached up and flicked him in the forehead with two fingers.

It was a precise gesture—neither a hit nor a tap. Just the right flick and someone familiar with this person would know how to deliver it.

BAM!

Rick opened his eyes.

The roof of the guest room in the east wing of the mansion. He saw morning light coming through a window.

The sound of the building around him was vibrant and alive, like a place filled with people—not still or static, but moving in an unpredictable rhythm.

Liora was next to him.

She sat in the chair beside the bed, clearly having been there for some time. Leaning slightly forward, she resembled someone who had been intently watching a sleeping person, unable to look away long enough to feel as though they were leaving something behind.

When she turned and saw him looking at her, her face went through many different things quickly before settling on something calm.

"W-what the...? What the... fuck...?" Rick looked around. "I’m... back...?"

"Thank the gods." She said, "You’ve been out most of the night."

"After the socket caught fire in the study, you collapsed in the hallway. I’ve been here ever since."

Rick slowly sat up. His body felt like it had been doing things for a long time and had just stopped, and it was telling him the total.

"That white-haired girl... I don’t understand her motives, but she sent me back to a place where I can feel that all the connections I’ve formed with the MILFs are stable..."

’Did I just get sent back to the past to fix something?’ Rick wondered as he surveyed his surroundings. He noticed that Liora was wearing the same outfit she had on when she returned from the Golden Temple.

It appears that he is likely back at Valdris after returning home from Meridia. Perhaps his socket was already spiraling out of control until he began to consider that dominating Liora and acquiring a useful skill might be the solution.

After all, she’s the key to cleansing the corruption, and he can see it clearly since the battle in the Underwater and Cthulhu that she deals with all corruption.

"Yeah... I had to try... even if it’s the stupidest thing to do by having sex... I remember that I still haven’t gained any skill from her because I didn’t dominate her."

"Hey, Liora," he said.

"Yes."

He stared at her for a while.

He thought about the dream. He thought about the paper in his coat pocket, the warm amber disc, the white void, and the person who had flicked him in the forehead as if they had done it many times before.

"I need your help." He said, "And I need you to know what I’m asking before I ask it."

She waited, which is what Liora did when she knew there was more to come in a sentence.

"The socket," he said. "After the Severance Rite, it’s more open to the Archon’s frequency than it should be."

"The grief construct is there, but it’s not enough by itself..."

"The Archon created a simulation around me using the bond network as a framework, and I spent most of yesterday inside it, witnessing things that I cannot reveal."

He had witnessed Liora pause in the streets of Valdris, and he wasn’t willing to reveal more than was necessary. "I know what will happen if the corruption architecture is completed."

"And I know what stops it."

Liora was very still, like she was when something important was coming and she was making room for it.

"What are you..." Liora looked confused.

He said, "A new anchor."

"Something the Archon hasn’t had time to model."

He wants something real and unique to this moment between these two people, something that a model of everything that came before cannot explain.

He looked her in the eye.

"I’m asking if you’ll help me." He said, "Tonight!"

"Not because the system or the rite or anything else says so. Just because you and I are here and I trust you and the moment has to be real for it to work."

Liora stared at him for a long time.

While he watched, her composed face displayed a range of emotions. His expression shifted in a way similar to how Liora’s face changed when she contemplated something personally significant, contrasting with the way it looked when she focused on matters requiring her professional expertise.

"You’re asking me," she said.

"Yes."

"Not the system nor the bond, but me...?"

"Yes."

She looked down at her hands in her lap. She stared out the window.

She turned around and looked at him.

"Yes," she said, and it was the same "yes" she used when she really meant it.

Rick let out a breath.

"Okay," he said. "Let’s start at the beginning, then."

"I want to have sex with you and let me dominate you."

Liora blushed hearing that. "I like to see you try..."

"...Hero of Mature Hearts."