Overpowered Wizard-Chapter B4 Ch31: She’s Changed

Overpowered Wizard-Chapter B4 Ch31: She’s Changed

Seeing Naomi like this gave Zarian some personal whiplash. Lovewar was dead. His wife, or ex-wife, finally divorced him, at least for now. Everything was going off the rails, Zarian included, but Naomi stood in the middle of the chaos like she was boating across a tranquil sea.
“You? Calming me down?” Zarian laughed shakily. “You’ve really turned things around like that, huh?”
“It won’t matter much if I can’t help you. Besides, your girlfriend trusted me to do this.” Naomi came forward, enduring the weight of the gravity devil no matter how much came crushing down upon her.
If anything, her aura technique seemed to shine further. He noticed how stable, dense, and durable her Third Stage felt as she grasped his hand with hers. She wasn’t even transforming her body, staying relatively normal.
“I’ll take the edge off your mind so you can focus on using sorcery. If you can’t beat it raw,” she said.
“You mean beat it smart, right? No, you meant what you said. Sorry. I’m being dumb again,” Zarian apologized as Naomi palmed his forehead and sent a pulse of psionic aura.
Normally, skills weren’t accessible in Aura Ignition. Naomi, however, was far enough along that she could use her ignition to produce psionic effects in their simplest form. Anything more complex would require Half Ignition or no ignition.
A cozy and protective layer blanketed his mind, offering peace, and then going further down to touch his soul. Through his mind, Naomi could reach his inner depths, a scary prospect to allow if it weren’t anyone other than Naomi. Zarian trusted her, even after everything.
“You’re not dumb, Zarian,” she said. “You’re just handling more without wriggle room to explore. Now that I think about it … you’ve been given a terrible hand that kept slipping out of your grasp every time you wanted to go all out. Pair that with you being all heart deep down and I can see how it’s inevitable that things would get messed up along the way.”
“That’s no excuse. I should be better at this.”
“How can you when you’re not even allowed to remember the mistakes of your past self?”
“Okay, yeah, that’s not fair, but I still have enough context to know I’m screwing up constantly. And sometimes there’s this part of me that wants to let the screw ups happen and see what they lead to. Sometimes, I just want to welcome the chaos.”
Zarian looked up as thousands of sorcerous symbols covered the air regardless of the low aura density. He was going to drain a lot of power out of himself from this, but he’d still come out ahead mostly. Naomi looked up with him as they held hands, gravity magic and anti-gravity sorcery shining above them.
“Para’s not with you,” Naomi noted.
“Another point toward chaos.”
“What do you mean?”
“I let her off the leash. She’s her own person now. Or maybe more than a person. Yeah, probably.” Zarian opened up his mind, and Naomi had a close look for herself through his memories.
“Motherfucker,” Naomi hissed. “She can do it all! That’s not fair!”
Zarian felt an impish need to laugh at her reaction. Naomi was still Naomi, but just happier and more at ease.
Holding her hand was painful for him, because he already knew the possibilities between them for more had closed off. Still, there was a tingle that went beyond just power. There was a mess of unsaid things and actions that would get left behind them, buried under mistakes and wishful thinking.
“Chin up. Don’t be down now. We have long lives ahead of us, Marine. Just remember to adapt, overcome, and the rest of that motivating crap.” She bumped her shoulder into his, and Zarian’s mood buoyed.
He forced himself to release her hand as the gravity devil spell finally ended with the help of some sorcery and aura manipulation. Once all the magic was cleared away, Naomi turned off her Aura Ignition, and two bumped fists.
It would’ve been a happy moment if Zarian’s attention hadn’t drifted to something over Naomi’s shoulder.
“She’s behind me, isn’t she?” Naomi asked wryly before turning around.
She and Zarian were standing in a smooth crater that was two thousand feet wide and thirty feet deep at the center. There were patches of various materials from the many buildings Zarian’s power had compressed like tin cans before he had it under control. It was safe to admit that Naomi had become immensely strong despite his own growth.
She was still far beneath him in levels and overall power, but her tribulation must’ve given her a leg up in her body. Still, she was nowhere near enough to handle the greatest threat across the entire world other than Zarian. Naomi must’ve known that because she willingly took a step back and moved behind Zarian.
Para tilted her head, her shining blue-green gaze absorbing the sight of them hungrily, her serpentine tail moving casually from left to right behind her. Zarian’s lion tail was held straight behind him from the tension and the discomfort of low aura density.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a .
“This world is too small for us now,” Para said with barely a hint of her berserk rage. Zarian knew it was still in there, but she was holding it more tightly than before. “I had an interesting talk with the Infinita System for me to land back here. I’ve gained a few achievements for it, y’know?” She waved her hand about. “I’ve applied seals to myself, too, for the safety of the little morsels.”
“Does that mean I could kick your ass if we go for a round?” Naomi’s patented cocky smile returned.
“My dear friend, you wouldn’t be yourself anymore if you fed me with your entire being. But if you do wish to become one with me for all eternity, you can always ask more directly.”
“Whoa! She’s sharp with the smack talk, too! Alright, alright, I’ve learned to recognize when I’m beat, so I won’t press any further.” Naomi raised her hands as a sign of peace, which surprised Zarian.
Even Para raised a scaled eyebrow at that before taking two steps forward, as if she wanted to embrace Naomi. Instead, Para retreated as she thought better of it. Her face became an emotionless mask.
“I’ve concluded that we’re enemies for the foreseeable future. It would be best that we keep our distance, or you risk being consumed by me. That would be regrettable, wouldn’t it? To end your adventures when you haven’t achieved your peak.” Para slowly turned around. “Tell the others this as well, would you, Naomi?”
“Why not tell them yourself, huh?” Naomi pressed. “I went ahead because Ruvaria told me to be here. But Gilbert, Hannah, and Bianca aren’t far away. Come on? You’re going to turn your back on them like that? Even Bianca?!”
Zarian kept his mouth shut and let the drama play out as Para shivered, her tail snapping. Her dark and carnivorous aura leaked from her body as she kept her back turned to them.
“That’s why I must implore you to tell the others to keep away. I’m not certain of my self-control just yet. And only my dad is somewhat safe around me. He can defend himself adequately if I’m tempted. But … the rest of you would be easy pickings. Desirable pickings, really.” Para looked over her shoulder with a wicked and toothy grin. “Because I do love you. I love you so much, it would be worthwhile to take you as mine. To take Gilbert and Hannah as mine. And Bianca especially. I can make you all a part of my flesh. It wouldn’t be quite symbiotic, but it wouldn’t be all parasitic, either. I’ll grant you many mercies.”
“That’ll kill us,” Naomi said.
“No, it wouldn’t,” Para said merrily.
“Yeah, it wouldn’t,” Zarian said grimly.
Para carried on. “I can keep you all alive throughout. I can even grant you some measure of free-will mostly. But you will be mine in all ways. Your bodies. Your powers. Your thoughts. And yes, even your souls. It’s all thanks to my dad for freeing me. This is why I must give you this warning. If you get in my way, I might not be able to stop myself.”
Para laughed. “It’s actually hard to not spread myself across this entire world and make it all mine. Even with the low aura density, it would be laughably easy.”
“Zarian,” Naomi said tensely.
“Yeah?” He took off his big, poofy hat.
She cuffed him lightly on the head. It was far lighter than he deserved. She really was nicer these days, but the hit was more symbolic than anything.
Even Naomi could see his propensity for screwing up and unleashing chaos had gone past the line once again.
Para nodded at this. “One last thing. You have my condolences with Lovewar’s death.” Then she finally void-ported away.
“Shit. That was another thing on my mind. Sorry, Zarian,” Naomi added sincerely.
“You all make it sound like Lovewar and I had a thing. What we had was the potential of a friendship that never materialized. There’s no need to apologize there.”
He shook his head and checked the timer. They had half a week to rest before the Final Round began. That was surprising to see, honestly, because it felt like he’d been going nonstop for a while. He wasn’t sure what to do with himself, especially after Para had strutted in and out to leave her warning.
Looking around, Zarian saw a gathering crowd waiting at the edge of the gravity crater. They looked more curious than anything. The driders of Carrowmore were weird like that, he supposed.
When the cavernous city rumbled again, Zarian looked up as a few pieces from the ceiling came down. Then he remembered a little side project he’d left behind before the tournament started.
“I should get something done here before heading home. I’ll probably lose a day or two the moment I see Ruvaria,” Zarian said honestly.
“She’s head-over-heels for you now that she’s your…” Naomi trailed off when she noticed the lack of a corrupted wedding ring. “Is Lovewar dead because of that?”
Zarian looked down and realized the mixed connotations that were going to spawn from this. “No, I told Lucy to divorce me, do what she needs to do, and know that we can re-marry whenever she wants. I won’t say no.” Zarian huffed a heavy breath. “Sinfeast’s the main reason Lovewar’s dead, and I gave Lucy her freedom to handle that as she saw fit.”
“So … you’re not married anymore?” Naomi’s stance shifted, and the situation became tense.
“No, I’m not married. But I’ll have to marry her again if she wants that.”
“And what if she doesn’t? It’ll be just you and Ruvaria?”
“If we can save the universe and finally find that elusive thing called stability, maybe. But Ruvaria strikes me as a very open lady. And I’m not really traditional other than preferring crazy women. So, I’m pretty much a Floridian with it.”
“Uh huh.” Naomi looked hard into his eyes while keeping her psionic magic to herself. They didn’t need magic to feel what was happening right now.
Zarian sighed. “I can’t. Not after what happened.” The load on his shoulders grew heavier before it finally fell off. The words he needed to say came out easier than he’d expected, but they felt impactful still. “It took me a while to realize what we did was wrong. Like completely wrong. I don’t have it in me to blame you entirely, but I’m honest when I say that you deserve some resentment.”
“I know, Zarian. You should resent me. And I’m sorry.” She shifted half a step back. “I’m serious. I’m truly sorry. What I did wasn’t fair to you. What I did was bring my stupid baggage into a relationship that could’ve gone better if I didn’t keep my head up my own ass. But I was huffing my bullshit and spreading it all over–”
“And I had/have my own bullshit,” he chimed in.
“But I knew that. I’m older, y’know? Not just in age, but in experience. I knew, but I didn’t handle things honestly. Everybody’s acting all glad to see I’m back, but I pushed you knowingly and now I have to face the fact that I screwed up something that could’ve been wonderful. The way Gilbert looks at me makes it burn extra, y’know? He really does have a way of making a sinner feel bad for the sins.”
Zarian chuckled at that. Gilbert was an equal-opportunity big brother figure and model of righteousness. It was funny to think the man had a scolding prepared for Naomi of all people.
Seeing how Naomi was being earnest and sad over it all, that meant she actually cared about Gilbert’s opinion. More importantly, she actually cared about Zarian, and she was voicing it in a way that was more honest, even if it was messy.
She really changed.

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Chapter B4 Ch31: She’s Changed