A silent regard for burning things.

John Newman, the Gamer, a level 51 mage of some description was looking up at the silent dragoness sitting on top of him. His tattered clothes were all over the place and likely had burned into an irreparable state already. Nathalia had cleanly removed everything from his body, from the shirt and pants to gloves and rings. The only thing that was left with him was the Necklace of World Ender.

“Where did you get that?” Nathalia demanded to know and tapped twice on the orange stone dangling from his naked chest. She had been too preoccupied with wanting to and then getting fucked to notice the thing, and unlike the things on his fingers it hadn’t gotten in the way, so she had ignored it but now that she took more than half a lust hazed second to look at it she recognized it as something disturbingly similar to the stone in her own chest.

“Uhm, uh, Gaia gave it to me,” John hastily stammered the truth. Nathalia did not look convinced, “Gaia gave it to you?” she repeated, the constant tapping of her claw on the necklace a reminder of her stone-cutting claws being very close to his throat. “Yes,” he reaffirmed after gulping audibly, not like he had a more believable lie he could present. Her index finger stopped tapping and her eyes locked with his, “A male cow’s dung she did,” the dragoness voiced her disbelief, “Gaia doesn’t just give stuff away, and your powers are getting stronger by repeated actions, are they not?” “No, well, yes, that is part of them,” John corrected himself as Nathalia’s expression darkened, the destroyed landscape all around suddenly in an uproar. “Explain, mortal,” the dragoness commanded, “from start to finish you will tell me exactly what your powers are and why you were capable of keeping me out for so long.”

John took a deep breath and started relaying his story to the dragoness. He had to start at the beginning with this, with how he woke up one day not so long ago, how he learnt about the Abyss, about his powers encompassing not only grinding but also loot (he had to go on a tangent about what video games were to get that point across) and what had happened with the Bloodfallen. He then ended on the last couple of days and the train ride of emotions he went through. It had little place in the conversation but talking about it with somebody who wasn’t involved was a good change of pace. In the end, Nathalia finally rose from his naked form. John was surprised to see her not hide herself in scales for a change.

“I see,” she said, deep in thought, her eyes set on something in the distance. “That is why I smelt lingering hatred on you…that fire elemental of yours is a fragment of Krieg, right?” “Yes…OH DAMN!” he just now remembered that Salamander was somewhere in this hellscape. He searched for his mental connections. He couldn’t feel Aclysia and the others. That was not to say that their bond was severed, he could vaguely make them out to be there, just that he couldn’t feel them and their emotions as usual. The exception to that was Salamander, who only now managed to get into contact with him. ‘There you are, you useless shithead!’ she cursed right into his brain, ‘Swing your arse over and help me, I am in a bit of a doozy.’

She sent him her mental sight aimed at an animated armor made of greyish black stone. It moved with ease and honestly was more playing with Salamander than fighting her. John would have loved to confirm what it was by using Observe on it, but he already had a good idea. “Nathalia, is that golem your familiar or something?” he asked. Nathalia, as if insulted, blew air out of her nose, accompanied by a slight flickering, “familiar? I have no use for such things, he is just a guardian I create to take care of weaklings,” she made an off-handed motion, and three more similar golems rose from a nearby poll of lava.

There was a new titbit of information, “You are a goddess?” John carefully asked. “Of course I am,” Nathalia answered, “my nature is no topic of debate here, however, tell Krieg’s kid to stop struggling, she will get here faster if the golem carries her.” He did just that and then followed Nathalia as she walked off, crying after both the gloves he made and the new shoes he bought just yesterday for a moment.

“I see your feet can handle the ground,” Nathalia said with slight self-satisfaction, “I had no idea how cold I needed to make this place so someone as weak as you doosn't burn themselves.” She guided him to a basin filled with water, surprisingly. More of the golems were around and carving the basin into perfect form. “My old sanctuary is gone, this is the best I could make in a hurry,” Nathalia said and sunk into the water. ‘So, she didn’t scale herself because she planned to take a bath,’ John realized and, following a gesture from the dragoness, got into the water as well, stashing the necklace away for the moment.

Nathalia sighed as she relaxed, John felt reminded of the many baths he had taken with Rave, it was similarly hot. The mixture of Nathalia’s naked form and Johns memories made him erect once again. Nathalia raised one of her long eyebrows, “An energetic one as well, I approve,” she said, “but the next round will have to wait for a moment, your little familiar is here.” Indeed, one of the golems came into view, carrying Salamander in its crossed palms.

Despite being carried like a princess, Salamander looked extremely pissed, like somebody had just peed on her favorite campfire or something. The moment she saw John she tried to fly over, but the Golem was a lot faster than her, simply plucked her out of the air and kept her locked up in his hands until they arrived at the bath.

The Golem made a gesture that was a mixture of bowing and reaching out to Nathalia in order to present his mistress with the captured fire elemental. Nathalia picked up the tiny spirit between index finger and thumb and looked at her. “You are a small one for one of Krieg’s children,” she commented in a degrading tone. “And you are about as arrogant as I expected!” Salamander, not being a particularly diplomatic personality either, shot right back. Bad for her that one of them was clearly in control here.

Nathalia sunk her hand under the water. With a noise similar to a drop of water hitting an already hot pan and instantly vaporizing, Salamander vanished under the surface. John was panicked, but he had no idea how to help his fire spirit. “Cease worrying,” Nathalia said, “This is not killing her, it just feels very uncomfortable, I assure you.” Thereby slightly calmed John kept still, staring at the flame under the water.

About a minute later Nathalia raised her hand again. Salamander coughed, her normally flame-clad body having become largely naked but from where John was John couldn’t make anything out. “Where was I, child of Krieg?” “Dunno wasn’t listening,” Salamander, still not of the cooperative mind, answered. As Nathalia was about to dip Salamander under the water again John decided to try and take control of the situation, “Her name is Salamander, would you please stop?” he pleaded.

Nathalia shot him a quick glance, looked at Salamander for a moment, “Fine, Salamander, you seem to come after the less boorish parts of my friend. That in mind, and that your master is of interest to me, I will leave you with a warning.” She nonchalantly threw Salamander over to John, who caught her. It spoke a lot about Salamanders state that he could even touch her without burning his hands. He sent her some mana to fix that dilemma, and a moment later she took flight again, the fire hiding her sensitive areas flickering up again, as did her hair. “Thanks,” she said in a **** tone and hovered next to his head as Nathalia continued speaking.

“It seems she is still a mere spark,” she rubbed her chin, “unlike that earth elemental you told me about, this one is not yet ‘evolved’ I take it?” “That is correct; I hope to do so next week…” John hesitated, then he raised a question, “Nathalia, can you help me?” “No,” That was a very immediate refusal, “I don’t feel like getting mixed up in this. However, I can maybe help you in exchange for a favor.” “How and what favor?” John asked as he had already gone into the debt of a German princess, no reason to stop at a dragoness; however, he would need to figure out what exactly he was about to get into. “I will give you an item that works with the one Gaia has gifted you, and I will help your elemental further your development,” Nathalia laid down. That sounded good, weird formulation though, “Don’t you mean ‘Help you develop your elemental further’?” John corrected carefully. “”No,”” answered both Nathalia and Salamander at the same time.

“I am surprised you would know the lesson I have to teach him,” Salamander interjected. “I have seen enough elementalists in my time, and I know your father, of course, I know what John has to learn yet,” the high dragon stated and closed the small distance between herself and John. “To see if I can do it, however, I first need to strengthen your bond, and for that, I need to find something out.”

John’s eyes were glued to the cleavage of Nathalia’s large breasts swimming on the surface of the shallow basin. The light brown skin was glistening in the steam, and he needed to focus to ask the question, “What do you want to know?”

“Your powers, you say Gaia gives them to you.” “That is what I always assumed, yes, do you think it’s different?” John was eager to find out about this, eager enough to raise his eyes and concentrate back on the conversation. Despite using them all the time, his own powers were a mystery to him, after all, they had just shown up one day.

“We will see in a moment,” Nathalia grabbed his hand and sunk her teeth right into it. John, who had been healed to full thanks to getting the dragonesses blessing during intercourse again, saw his HP drop by 15 and then slowly by 5 more points as Nathalia drank some of his blood. The pain was surprisingly bearable, but that might just be because he had been through worse by now.

Anyhow he was washed over with power a moment later.

John stared at the windows with an open mouth. “I take from your expression that it worked,” Nathalia said after letting go of his hand. “What? I mean how? I mean…Explain please?” John stammered. “The answer is easy, John Newman. These powers you have are granted to you not by Gaia but are merely overseen and supported by her. Although they have manifested in a way irritating to me you have an unique ability of **** power,” Nathalia smiled like she just heard the news of her greatest enemies’ demise, “you may have the potential to challenge Romulus one day.”

“So, you just, gave me of your power instead Gaia of hers or what?” John still needed to understand just a bit more. “Essentially, unlike Gaia’s power, mine is no bottomless well, however, so don’t expect me to show this kind of generosity again,” Nathalia explained.

John needed a moment to digest that new information and think about the wider implications. So, the ability to instantly learn stuff from books, get loot and experience points, all of that was his own ability, and all Gaia had done until now was give him the energy in order for these things to function.

“But why would she do that?” John asked. Nathalia shrugged, “I don’t pretend to understand what Gaia is thinking as Romulus does, she has been before me, and she will be after me, such is the nature of the world. In regards to my earlier offer; I do not know yet what I will ask of you in return for my help. Expect it to be a heavy favor, however.”

The dragoness knee softly rubbed John’s cock as she positioned her leg between his legs, her body so close to his he felt the heat radiating from the inferno underneath her smooth skin, her glowing orange eyes were the only thing he could see, “Do we have a deal?”