Ascension of the Goddess of Decay

Lia lay on her bed, holding Lacey's sleeping form. Her thought processes were...messy and almost chaotic in a way.

'What are we? Does it truly matter? I guess I should ask Lacey what she thinks, but if I do that carelessly, would it upset her?'

Her thoughts were leading her almost nowhere, thus there was only one solution: she would talk to Lacey when they both woke up.

.....

Almost two months had passed since Lia's time in the Academy began. She had finally adjusted to life here, and despite all of that, she still felt like something dangerous was barreling towards her.

Actually, that feeling never went away-not since it first appeared back when Saro explained her situation. She could almost....feel the impending calamity. Like she knew her life was becoming too peaceful and something was coming to ruin it for her.

Lia and Saro spent a vast majority of their free time searching for clues or hints about where Ve went. They couldn't come up with much, but they did locate some residual magic in a room that was decimated by an explosion. Saro theorized that it was Ve's doing and Lia agreed. However, the trail went completely dead following that. They were ultimately getting nowhere.

The frustration of that realization annoyed Lia and Saro both. They were worried she was planning something, and if Saro's guess was correct, it would be something explosive.

.....

Lia, Sisha, and Lacey had learned quite a bit of things these past couple of weeks. Lacey was proving herself to be quite the alchemical talent. She was practically capable of creating miniature bottled spells and was beginning to learn how to create potions. Meanwhile, Sisha was becoming quite the summoner. The variety of snake type beings she summoned from beyond the realm were always interesting. Plus, she had the knowledge necessary to occasionally harvest poison from the creatures she summoned.

Lia herself also learned a great many things. Hysteria is apparently a magical blade created out of an ancient obsidian-adamantium alloy. Supposedly, the forging technique used to make her (called fire-brushing) was almost exclusively used by dragons. Furthermore, the entirety of the weapon somehow had an integrated set of mana-circuits on top of a decay-infused orichalcum outer lining. Lia theorized that the mana circuits implanted in Hysteria were somehow connected to the whole...dying star idea.

Not much could be said for her research into the Darkova Family Blade. She was reluctant to interact with it in such a manner until the consciousness fully formed. Thankfully, it seemed to be relatively close.

Besides the gains she got from the forging class, both Lia's benefitted from each and every class they took. Their favorite, however, was the adventuring class. Actually, now that she was thinking about it, wasn't their first Dungeon Exploration coming up soon?

.....

Lacey stirred in Lia's arms. The two of them had only gotten closer these past couple of weeks. Every so often, they would sleep together like this. It brought them comfort and serenity, particularly Lacey.

"Muh...Liaa..."

Lacey muttered in her sleep.

Lia smiled warmly and pulled her closer. She would usually stay up later than Lacey, if only to watch her cute sleeping face for a tad bit longer. Eventually, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

.....

Lia's eyes groggily opened to see Lacey's lust filled eyes staring at her in a haze. Was it just Lia, or was Lacey gradually getting more and more beautiful every day?

Lacey spoke first. "Good morning." She then immediately planted a very passionate kiss on Lia's lips.

Lia, not willing to be out done, decided that she would "win" the kissing competition she imagined was happening.

Lacey ended up thoroughly defeated and both of them got out of bed shortly afterward.

Lia had...no delicate way of putting this so she just asked it very blatantly.

"Hey...so...what are we?"

Lacey froze in the middle of pulling her pants up, and Lia continued.

"I mean...we kiss, have sex, sleep together. We're a couple...right? Unless you have another definition?"

Lacey's mind seemed to short circuit.

"U-I-Uh. I. We can be if thassh- Ouchhh"

She hurriedly put her hand to her mouth, having bit her tongue. Lia chuckled a bit, only one thought crossing her mind. 'She's so easily flustered, it is adorable.'

Lacey took a deep breath and then nodded.

"I want to be a couple..."

Lia smiled warmly at her and then nodded. "I do as well."

Lacey seemed to swell with happiness as she jumped up and down. Lia chuckled a bit, letting her do her thing as she dressed herself.

"If you don't get dressed fast enough, we'll be late for class, Lace."

....

Sisha looked at both of her friends with a raised eyebrow.

"You two finally made it official? I was expecting it a bit sooner, but congratulations."

Lacey looked a bit embarrassed, but Lia smiled.

"Yeah, so any idea what we're doing in class today?"

"Not a clue." Sisha responded plainly.

The teacher entered then with a smile.

"As all of you are expecting by this point, we are going to be doing our first Dungeon Excursion this upcoming weekend. We will be passing out rations and various other supplies the day we set out to travel toward this Dungeon's location. If you require special rations or some other form of required items, please submit a form for the items and we will acquire them ahead of time.

As for how this will actually proceed, we are going to be entering two at a time with a time interval of about half an hour in between each team. We will allow you all to form your own pairs, as teamwork will be vital for this.

If any of your lives are in danger, you will have a talisman that you can crush. When you do so, it will create an intensely bright heat that will eliminate all monsters around you for a very large radius. Once you have crushed the talisman, remain near the place you were and one of the staff will make their way toward you and escort you and your team member out.

Remember, the area you will be in is not merely a training ground or anything of that nature. It is real and you can die or get seriously injured there. Proceed toward every encounter with caution and forethought.

We will be registering the pairs at the end of this class, so please take the remaining time of this class to ask any questions and decide on your partner for this."

Lia was the first one to raise her hand. Anny instantly nodded to her.

"Why are we only forming pairs of two? Doesn't that make it harder on the teachers and staff if multiple people get put in danger?"

Anny nodded. "Yes, but the dungeon cores tend to spawn monsters based on the amount of people that enter at once. Hence we go in groups of two and stagger everyone's entries by an hour."

Lia nodded. She had no more questions, but was somewhat confused. Groups of two are...somewhat small in her eyes, there is always strength in numbers. Regardless, she couldn't make a huge scene about it.

Lia was about to discuss what their three person friend group would decide when a pale white hand landed on her desk. She looked up to see the white haired, pale skinned girl staring at her with piercing blue eyes.