PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

The reason was straightforward, Desmond was not a variable, an obstacle, or a threat that could be avoided. Silvia was smart enough to understand that with the difference between them, Desmond could crush her like he was dealing with an ant.

As Desmond’s right-hand man within the military, Silvia knew more about Desmond than most and had interacted with him personally, so she understood the kind of man Desmond was.

In essence, Desmond dealt with people in four different ways, each depending on how Desmond perceived said person. Long story short, in Desmond’s mind, there were only four types of people. Those that Desmond perceived as family, tools, obstacles, and those that he viewed as enemies.

As easygoing as Desmond used to be with Silvia, she knew that the category she fell into was one of the tools, and the only reason Desmond was a little nicer to her was that she was friends with Claire.

Unfortunately, at that moment, Silvia was pretty sure that Desmond was treating her like a potential enemy, which terrified her. Amidst her nervousness, Desmond was the first to break the silence.

“Tell me, Silvia, how strong do you think I am?”

Strangely enough, Desmond asked a question that had little to do with the current situation. Silvia wanted to respond, but the implied threat turned into a show of power as Desmond filled the entire room with a dense wave of mana.

Unlike Rundert, who destroyed his office in a rage, Desmond had perfect control over his mana, only pressing Silvia, who immediately fell to her knees, unable to resist the pressure.

.....

Desmond continued speaking as if he had never intended to get an answer to his question. “Power is something inquisitive, Silvia. The weak are usually at the mercy of the strong, those with the power to force their will on others. The weak suffer, helplessly yearning for power, so they never have to suffer again. But do you know what happens when those people get power?”

Desmond was pouring so much mana into the room that he basically began to poison Silvia, the mana becoming so thick that it soon began to fill Silvia’s lungs like a viscous liquid, preventing her from breathing.

Mana by itself wouldn’t have those properties; normally, Silvia’s body should just absorb the mana and assimilate it, but Desmond’s control over this mana was so strong that he could hold on to it even inside Silvia.

Instinctively, Silvia tried to force the mana out of her body, but no matter how hard she tried, the mana had no intention of obeying her. That was how big the difference between Silvia and Desmond was; even inside her body, she had no control over the mana.

Since her intention was never really to torture Silvia, Desmond withdrew the mana from her, letting her breathe. Desperate, with her forehead covered in a cold sweat, Silvia did nothing more than pour as much air as possible into her lungs.

Desmond continued his monologue as Silvia struggled to breathe like a fish out of water. “What happens, my dear Silvia, is that as soon as that weak person gets power, it starts to abuse the weak. As I said, power is curious; it can be both a poison and a cure.”

With her blue eyes full of fury and fear, Silvia said nothing as she looked at Desmond. Desmond didn’t seem to care, he would say what he wanted, and Silvia would listen to him; she had no choice.

“Take your situation, for example. Just a second ago, that energy that gives you access to your ice powers, those that took you to where you are, that same energy was flooding your lungs, preventing you from breathing. On the other hand, I can’t pretend that it’s not me who was in control of that power; in the same way, that I was the one who gave you access to the medicines to cure your sister.”

The sudden mention of her sister certainly aroused a reaction in Silvia, an almost primitive instinct for protection that was quickly overwhelmed by a more powerful survival instinct.

At this moment, Desmond was no longer looking at her as if she were a person; no, he looked at her like she was just a nuisance to deal with, which terrified her.

Then, something unheard of from Silvia’s perspective happened. Desmond manifested an esper ability that he shouldn’t have. One could only blame the ignorance of the human race for the misunderstanding, as it was believed that all esper could have a single ability that would evolve over time.

In Desmond’s case, he was known as a Strength-type user, with an intense energy manifestation ability that he displayed in his fight against Keneth; but this was completely different.

Four incredibly realistic-looking water snakes formed on the ground. Silvia could almost hear the snakes hissing; worse still, she could see how these water creations slowly crawled towards her.

“You have always been a curious person Silvia; you are also intelligent enough to know that I hide all kinds of secrets.”

Silvia wanted to move, but Desmond’s predatory gaze wouldn’t let her; she could only stay still while the snakes began to climb her body.

“By this point, you should have realized that even by the standards of someone with talent, I am simply too strong. What you see now, my ability to bend water is nothing compared to all the secrets I keep up my sleeve.”

The snakes continued to crawl through Silvia’s body, wrapping her, binding her almost indecently, with her body writhing as they caressed more than one sensitive area around her, something Desmond had done on purpose.

“The point here, my dear Silvia, is that you are in a position where you only have two options.”

With a sadistic smile, Desmond paused, not even mentioning the options he talked about before controlling the water snakes to tighten their grip on Silvia’s body.

The tension certainly caused Silvia some pain, but as Desmond expected, instead of looking pained, Silvia was flushed red. Leaning down a little, Desmond approached Silvia, placing his index finger under Silvia’s chin and forcing her to lift her face.

Silvia glazed, with small gasps escaping from between her lips. The smile on Desmond’s face grew even wider in response. “I have never had your inclinations, nor have I met anyone who did, but I understand that they should not be so intense; you must be quite a special case.”

Silvia wanted to be able to jump out the window and die of embarrassment. She hated Desmond for making fun of her and humiliating her, but she also hated her body for reacting this way.

“I think it should be clear to you at this point.”

With barely a gesture from him, the water snakes collapsed, releasing the wet and humiliated Silvia. Desmond knew his limits; no matter how much he exploited Silvia’s inclinations or weaknesses, she would not become compliant through the use of force.

There was also no misunderstanding about what happened just now, Silvia’s body might have reacted due to how peculiar she was, but that was it. This was not a fantasy scenario where the masochistic girl fell in love with you after giving her some pain.

To be perfectly clear, Silvia’s chances of falling in love with Desmond were about the same as Desmond’s of winning a fight against the archangel of balance Katya at this very moment.

Silvia’s incompatibility and apparent contempt for Desmond aside, she didn’t have those interests. As far as Desmond knew, Silvia didn’t have those interests or drives, at least on a personal level. With Silvia, the topic of masochism seemed to be more of an alien reaction of some sort, though Desmond didn’t know enough about it to make any claims.

Whatever the case, up until now, Desmond had only shown Silvia who she would face if she didn’t behave. Now, he needed to show her what she could get if she was an obedient girl.

“I understand you were upset about the incident a few hours ago, but I thought you should be smarter, Silvia. If I wanted you dead, your body would already be rotting in some unknown forest corner. Of course, that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t the one who gave the order for that attack to happen; it just means that the goal was never to kill anyone.”

It took Silvia a moment, but she finally mustered her strength to push herself off the ground. Looking at her uniform drenched by the water snakes, Silvia used a low-temperature wave to turn the moisture into tiny frost particles before brushing them off as if dusting herself off.

“If your goal wasn’t to kill anyone, I can only assume that what you wanted was exactly what happened next when the internal investigations department came in full force to investigate Rundert.”

With a smile, Desmond responded. “Smart girl. Maybe you should use your sharp mind to see the bigger picture; your sister still needs the medicine in my possession.”

Silvia clenched her fists tightly, clearly frustrated and annoyed by Desmond’s constant threats.

“Like I said, you should see the bigger picture. The only reason you’re in this situation is that you keep opposing me. You have seen how I treat those close to me. As long as you abide by our agreement and stop lashing out at me, there is no reason for us to continue fighting.”

Silvia kept silent; she knew that Desmond was right. Siliva just didn’t want to accept it. The truth was that she was letting her prejudice cloud her judgment. Objectively speaking, working for Desmond was a hundred times better than working for Rundert; Silvia would probably already have been the victim of all sorts of unspeakable abuse if she had been under the direct command of the commander. She knew all this; she was simply too closed-minded to see it.