A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Elora shook her head, "I'm personally more concerned with the pain you'll have to go through, but the corruption will be fine. With me in your soul, corruption will always have little effect on you. Besides, this sigil is crude and a little faulty. With some adjustments, using it will be much safer."

Erik lost himself in thought for a moment. To be honest, the idea of mixing his bloodline with that of a feline creature was not particularly appealing to him.

Not to mention that he enjoyed the idea of gaining ice as an affinity. Having lived in the frozen tundra of northern Norway for most of his life, he had always felt a close connection to the cold.

Still, he recognised the need for an increase in speed and agility as he could often be quite bulky in a fight.

He looked at Elora with a power-hungry smirk, "Can't I just get them both?"

Elora rolled her eyes at him as she felt like giving him a smack on the head if she wasn't holding those vials, "Since when did you turn into such a masochist? No, you can't get them both!"

Then, gaining a thoughtful expression, she backtracked a little, "Well, not right now anyway. I still believe you should get both of these eventually, but we need to wait until you properly blend with one before we start on the other."

Then she smiled reassuringly, "Don't worry, though. It won't take seven years again, as we're both more powerful now. Especially the winter wolf bloodline should be done in a year or so."

Erik laughed lightly, "Alright, alright. So, I'm sure you have a recommendation?"

But Elora shook her head, "I really don't. Do you know how many bloodlines I have stored? Close to a hundred! These two are already my recommendations out of all of those."

Most of those bloodlines would never be introduced into Erik's body, some because they were simply too incompatible, but for the most part, it was simply impossible to blend that many bloodlines into one being.

Erik nodded and started thinking again. He knew the fused affinity of ice-lightning, or thundersnow, was powerful and rare, but the shadow affinity was extremely versatile and useful.

Plus, shadow would be available immediately, but for thundersnow he would have to combine ice and lightning first. Not to mention that Elora was right, he could use the extra speed that the Bakaneko bloodline would give him.

Basically, it come down to strong future benefits and low current benefits, or mediocre benefits across the board.

But when he realized that, it didn't take him long to come to a decision. He wasn't planning on fighting anyone particularly powerful for now, and while he wasn't arrogant enough to believe no one on Earth could defeat him, he wasn't planning on seeking out the most powerful people here, either. At least, not yet.

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So, he nodded, "Alright, let's do winter wolf! Since it will take a shorter time to infuse, and I'll need some time to combine ice and lightning anyway, it's probably best if we start with that."

Elora nodded and, while she stowed away one of the vials, sighed a little in relief for some reason. Perhaps because he chose the less painful option? Erik didn't know, but it only made him more sure of having picked the winter wolf.

She then drained the other vial into the air and made the blood inside float before the sitting Erik, "Are you ready?"

Although she said the same words as back on Söl, they were spoken with much more concern and less enthusiasm this time.

Erik smiled reassuringly at her and nodded, which made Elora feel a little better as she took a deep breath and guided the blood into Erik's body through his pores.

Afterwards, she swiftly expanded back into her larger form and settled in front of Erik.

She snapped her fingers and caused a shimmering bubble to appear around them, which would keep out the sounds of screaming so as not to wake Emma. Not out of concern, of course, but simply because she knew Emma needed her sleep for her awakening tomorrow.

When she was done, she took another deep breath and made some blood-red magic circles appear in front of her that started floating around Erik before they started turning, as if attuning themselves to something.

As Erik sat on the cold floor with blood-red sigils around him, attempting to make him more than he was, his body began to subtly convulse in agony as his insides were being broken down and reshaped to be compatible with the winter wolf bloodline.

Erik slowly began to groan, first softly, then louder, as he clearly tried to keep himself still and endure the pain in an unconscious effort not to disappoint the woman he loved with his screams.

He clenched his teeth, tightly shut his eyes, balled his fist, and tensed every muscle in his body as he fought the torment while beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Yet it was only a few seconds into his ordeal when he felt a small hand press against his chest and the soft voice of Elora in his ear, "Don't suppress it, my love. Let it all out. And let… let me try to lighten your load a little."

Erik suddenly felt the pain lessen a little as the hand on his chest began to tremble. He heard a small yelp in front of him before it transitioned into a high-pitched groaning.

He forced his eyes open and saw Elora hunched over him with her hand on his chest and her face in front of his while she had her eyes tightly closed.

Her whole body was lightly shaking, causing Erik to quickly speak with a strained voice, "What are you doing, Elora?"

Elora lightly smiled, even as her voice came out shaky, "I- I'm taking some of your pain through our bond." A small tear escaped from her eye, "I'm s- sorry I can't take more than this, but I'm afraid I m- might faint, and the infusion will fail."

Instead of feeling thankful, Erik felt anger instead, as he spoke through his clenched teeth, "I- Idiot girl! We both have our jobs. This is mine!"

But Elora shook her head, "N- No! We are partners, and I'll share this with you, too! You can't stop me!"

She was right. He had no idea how she was even doing this, let alone how to stop her.

So instead, he groaned through the pain, "J- Just you wait! When this is over, we're having a conversation about this!"

Elora smiled lightly in acceptance.

But the pain was only getting worse as it didn't take long before they both started to let out their pain in screams in a concert of pain. Eventually, Elora collapsed onto Erik's chest, where he wrapped his arms around her in an effort to comfort her.

But as the pain kept getting worse, Elora did something unexpected. She snapped her fingers and made both Erik's armour and her clothes disappear.

Erik was naturally flaccid as could be, but a little seidr magic perked him right up while also quickly preparing Elora as she sheathed him inside her.

She wrapped her arms around Erik's neck and her legs around his waist as she slowly started moving whilst whispering in his ear, "S- Sex is an acceptable form of pain relief. Let me comfort you."

Erik actually felt himself relax, and the pain diminished even more as endorphins slowly began being released from the soft embrace of his partner and lover.

They tightened their arms around each other as they moved slowly through their shared pain while the blood-red sigils kept turning, slowly mixing Erik's bloodline with that of a winter wolf.

It took fifteen minutes for the process to complete, at which point all the pain suddenly disappeared, and the couple collapsed onto the ground, finally being able to let their bodies relax.

They panted as they lay naked in a pool of their own sweat, with Erik still sheathed inside Elora, though neither of them had any interest in continuing with Elora's improvised pain relief method.

Elora spoke through her panting, "I.. can't believe… that was only a small part… of the pain you felt. I felt like… I was going to die!"

Erik chuckled even as he panted and could barely keep his eyes open from exhaustion, "It's just… a difference of perspective… I don't doubt you could… take that pain too… with some training."

Elora giggled as her voice slowly trailed off, "I think I will take your word on that. I'm not sure I'm interested in 'pain training'."

Erik smiled suggestively, "Are you sure? You seem to enjoy it when I spank you."

But Elora didn't hear his last words, as she had already drifted off to sleep, while Erik followed soon after.