Elias blinked his eyes rapidly, not sure how to process what it had just said. The system has now marked her as his wife and vice versa. He had to be sure that she had a choice in this so he asked right away.
"Did it ask you about being my wife?"
"Yes, and I chose yes."
"I can feel the magical connection between us and it's a massive difference."
"How so?"
"Before there was this trickle of magic connecting us through the lord/servant thing, but now it's like a raging river. I bet your magic capacity more than doubled, and your golem skill will affect my avatar skill and vice versa." Eli did his best to explain, trying to hide the fact that he could feel her feelings now, and she wanted to test this connection in other ways.
"Well I think we should test this out, just so we know what it can do, for science," Tara said while failing to hide a smile.
"Well, if it's for science, how can I say no," Eli said as he pushed himself on top of her and kissed her letting his feelings mix with hers in their shared magical connection.
This was a whole new level of connection, and they explored every inch of it. After another hour, both were covered in sweat and breathing heavily. They crawled their way into the stream's water and just held each other while it slowly rolled over them. She rested her head on his chest as he played with her hair, and together they caught their breath and brought their emotions back under control. He felt like this was good practice for him gaining more control, he knew she noticed it so he didn't mention it, as much as he would like to just exist in this world alone with her, he knew there were bigger things going on and he was going to do the work to get them done.
He reached out with his magic sense and was having trouble sensing the area, his connection to Tara was interfering with it, making things feel murky, or muted. It took a minute but he pushed past it and he felt the 12 people that were walking towards them. He told her to armor up, but she sensed his alarm and was already doing it. He put on his ape underwear, cloak and mask and blinked as close as a line-of-sight blink could get him to the one that was furthest away. Appearing behind him he grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him around and grabbed him by his head with a hand on each side. Picking him up off the ground he waited until he screamed then asked him loudly why he was here.
As the man kept screaming like a monster had just grabbed him, Eli doubted that this guy was able to hear his question. So as some of his friends arrived to help him, he asked them instead.
"Why are you here?" Eli said in a low voice that he made sound rough and gravely.
"We came looking for you, assuming you are Lord Ash." one of the smaller men said.
"Why?" Eli again was being dramatic with his voice.
"Our town leader wishes to form an alliance with you," a slightly smaller man said.
"I don't believe you!" Eli growled as he started to squish the man's head a little tighter. He could feel their fear and malice towards him in their magic, they were dripping with bloodlust and murderous intent.
"Enough with the batman voice," Tara said while snorting a laugh, "They are scared enough, just ask them nicely to tell the truth or they die like the one back there that tried to jump me while I was getting dressed."
No one spoke for almost half a minute, then Tara spoke again.
"No one comes out into the wild, this late at night, to do nice things," she said. "Tell us why you are here and who sent you and you get to live, don't, and I let him kill you for interrupting us."
No one said anything, so Tara looked at Eli and nodded. He crushed the man's head to pulp, then blinked to another and crushed his head, then another and crushed his head. After three Tara stopped him with a glance and he stopped with his hands over a fourth man's head. His hands were covered in blood and brain matter, squishing it all up against this man's head. To the men gathered around Eli, they could barely see when he would appear and disappear, so they simply saw him smash the guy's head he was holding then 2 guys heads exploded with a flicker and he was holding a fourth. Eli was chuckling in his head, that would have scared the shit out of him if he was one of these guys.
"Stop, I'll talk," they all said.
After Eli let the guy go, they said that they had been sent to investigate this area as a punishment and the lord of their town was just as scary as Lord Ash. They would be forgiven if they managed to kill Lord Ash, but would be beaten and exiled from the city if they failed. They admitted that they knew they were screwed after seeing what he had done to the landscape, but did not want to turn back. Tara asked what they did to get punished and they said that it was because of an argument over one of their wives, she had joined the lord's servants party and told him to kick rocks. It was voluntary but he complained loudly enough that it was starting rumors so they were being punished.
Tara told them to go to the north and find a village to protect from the monster horde, if they lived they could seek her out for work if they wanted. After they walked away, Eli looked at Tara and she was shaking her head at him.
"I can't believe that stupid voice you did," Tara said. She could feel the hesitation and shame he felt for killing so many so easily so she was trying to lighten the mood.
"Was it too much?" Eli asked
"Not for those fools but it won't do anything against those that are actually smart and/or strong."
"I know, at first I was just acting on instinct, making a guy in the back scream to draw them away from you. I almost just started killing them but I stopped myself." he explained, kind of embarrassed.
"Let's get you cleaned up, you have a couple brains all over you," Tara said. "Besides, watching you flex your strength like that really got me going. I might as well join you." She grabbed his blood and brain covered hand and they walked back to the creek.
**************
Cory's life had not amounted to anything before the end of the world, he barely passed high school and just started working in retail selling auto parts. He lived with his mom in a small apartment since she was on disability for various medical issues. She was very kind and did her best to help him with money or advice when she could. Half a year ago, she had known that she wasn't going to live much longer so she would have these daily talks with him trying to give him some wisdom to keep him from making bad choices. The thing she had said to him the most before she passed, was for him to find a good woman to help him take care of himself.
That was a tall order since he didn't socialize much, but a couple weeks after her passing he started spending one night a week being social. First it was just a burger and a beer at a bar, then he would hang out with work friends, but he was just too shy to really get a girl's attention. Then the world ended and all that time alone playing video games paid off. He was pretty good at this, he got a jump early on having an innate sense of how magic worked that he couldn't explain. His early success led to a few scared middle aged women, seeing how alone he always was, to stay near him for protection or tips on how to get strong.
This backfired as he was so not used to having the attention of a woman that his training stopped as he tried to train them and just enjoy having them around. After two weeks they no longer needed him and they went looking for stronger people to form a party with. All except Bethany, she didn't seem to like him much but she stuck around him. She never said why and never brought it up, so neither did he. Cory knew he wasn't smart, but he wanted to be a good man that would make his mother proud. Lord Ash was not a good man, he hurt Bethany and him with magic, a strange dark feeling of magical pressure. He complained to Bethany about it but she seemed fixated on him for some reason, now she was starting to seem like she wasn't a good person either.
Despite all of this, there was something about the group that Cory didn't want to leave. Stevens was turning out to be a great friend and was always doing what he thought good people would do. Tara had some bad habits, he thought, but she did keep them safe for a long time and not ask for anything in return, that's what good people do. He only really took issue with Lord Ash, he never even said he was sorry for breaking Bethany's arm. He also made them threaten all those towns just because he can't enter the safe zone. Cory was going to have to discuss this with Stevens when they met up this morning, it was going to be a crazy day, the first monster horde event.
Eli and Tara were standing at the meeting place just outside the barrier in the middle of where he had wrecked the ground. Stevens, Bethany, and Cory were walking up to them from one direction and a young girl was coming from a different direction. The new couple were holding each other watching the sun come up until people started getting close enough to see them clearly then he put his cloak and mask back on and they stood apart. This was something they had discussed, that they would act out the Lord/Servant roles when he was wearing the mask, and the lovey dovey couple when he wasn't.
People needed to see him as inhuman, and them having a normal relationship would make him seem human. When the three reached them, Stevens stopped dead in his tracks, gave Tara an assessing look and then had a big grin on his face while nodding his head. Tara put her face in her hands knowing that there had been a betting pool in their office building when Eli and her would finally do it. Cory was oblivious and was checking out the destroyed terrain, but Bethany noticed the exchange and knew what had happened the night before, but she wasn't going to give up. From his displays of strength so far, and his planning, he was going to be a big deal, she just needed to be patient, this thing between Tara and Lord Ash was new, and when that new feeling wore off, she would be there.
After a few words, and greetings, they all noticed the young girl walking up to them, she didn't look hesitant or shy, she looked pissed. They started looking at each other, trying to figure out which one of them had pissed off a teenage girl this badly, but soon they could see who she was looking at and they all turned to Eli. He knew this was going to be awkward so he just stood still and looked at her, hoping Tara would take over, until he finally recognized her as Audrey, the girl he had been helping. Now he was really confused as to what could have pissed her off this much, and why she was marching up to him like she was going to slap him.
Tara stood between the two and opened her mouth to speak, but the girl cut her off and started yelling.
"Get out of my way kung fu barbie, I'm here to tear him a new one." Audrey yelled.