Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

Melinda retrieved a scarf from her spatial ring and used it to clean Gilbert's blood off her knuckles while the members of the Sapphirine guild celebrated their first win in the guild war.

They had not actually doubted their capabilities as, individually, every member of the Sapphirine guild is a force to reckon with... However, their smaller numbers compared to the other guilds had surely been an issue but this win had improved morale beyond bounds.

Screw their smaller numbers!

They were going to win the Guild war regardless of it.

All this, they said amid their celebrations but while the guild lieutenants (Nicole, Valerie, and Suri) agreed with some of the points made, they knew it was important to take the celebrating guild members down a notch.

"This is just the first battle and it was against a guild that lacked an alliance. We need to prepare for the attacks of the rest of the guilds.

If anything, our victory has finally put us on the map. Especially Melinda defeating Gilbert Doe... No Guild leader in his/her right senses would dare underestimate her anymore so we can't rely on that surprise anymore.

We need to knuckle down if we want to win this war"

There was no need to mention that Melinda had held back significantly in that battle as that would defeat the purpose of the speech which was to quell complacency.

Meanwhile, Melinda did not address her guild members and just smiled to herself as she said,

"You do realize that the moment you got in range of the headquarters, I sensed you right."

She seemed to be speaking to no one in particular and her eyes were still on her knuckles but someone replied.

A young man with back-length black hair and enchanting sapphire blue eyes walked forward and toward her.

Walking close behind him was Sassy who quite enjoyed the sight of the battle that just happened at the headquarters courtyard and was still looking all-around at the members of the Sapphirine guild.

Hal's eyes, however, were on Melinda and he never took his eyes off her.

Until he made a move, his presence had been completely unnoticed as though he were invisible which had been intentional on Hal's part.

"Of course you did" Hal said in a low voice and low as his voice had been, everyone at the scene heard him and turned their eyes in their direction.

Nicole grinned at his return, Valerie looked away and only sometimes cast furtive glances at him.

At the right of the male masterpiece that was Hal Doxon, not one of the members of the Sapphirine guild, who were all females, was apartheid.

Hal just had the looks and the aura that would make any woman swoon.

But being the cultivating experts that the ladies all were, they hid the effect he had on them and rearranged their expressions to simply observe the exchange between Hal and Melinda or look over at the emerald-eyed beauty that had come here with Hal.

In regards to his identity, it was not exactly unknown to any of them.

Either they knew already about the monster who was so good that even the impressive and incredible Melinda Dane, the leader of their guild, could only come second to during the Entrance exams or they already knew about Melinda's fiancee being an absolute hunk.

Although they all agreed, while not saying it out loud, that the word 'hunk' was nowhere near enough to describe the manly beauty and perfection of the young man now in front of their guild leader.

Hal sensed their looks and even their expressions. He sensed it all so clearly that he could almost read their minds through it... But he shut it all out and focused on Melinda whose shoulders he grabbed.

"Took you long enough. You have some nerve not coming to see me the moment you got back" Melinda said.

Her words seemed upset and Hal might have fallen for it had it not been ruined by her grin.

He just chuckled and pulled her close to press their lips together.

Melinda wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to herself while she pressed herself tightly against him. Her perky breasts pressed against his chest.

Hal enjoyed the feel of the round orbs against him and he quite missed the feeling of it but it was the kiss they were sharing that had his total attention.

It was the kiss that felt the most electric.

To those viewing them with enthusiasm usually veiled in indifference (the bunch of perverts), it was just a passionate kiss between two lovers but for both Melinda and Hal, it was more than that.

The kiss transcended the physical plane.

It transcended anything Hal had ever felt thus far.

It was like a reaffirmation to the two that their connection went past any contract.

Like a reaffirmation that they were meant for each other.

Even as they kissed, the two remembered when they first met... When they first actually met.

Not when Melinda bought Hal as a slave to set him free and not when Hal's bloodline did what his mother had been doing all his life which was to control his life and his relationships.

The first time they actually met was that night when Melinda revealed she had been mostly immune to what his bloodline had tried.

The first time they actually met was when she poured her heart out to him. When she revealed herself to be a sociopath which actually attracted him to her.

It was funny that, as lustful as Hal was, it was not Melinda's looks (which were undoubtedly out of this world) that attracted him to her in the first place. It was her character. Her goals.

Her hatred of Men.

Crazy as it had seemed, and even more so since he had actually liked a woman who hated men, it was what had started a true relationship between the two.

Since then, their relationship had only grown to the point where Hal could say for sure that he had never felt this way about any other woman.

He cared for all of his women of course and would fight and do anything for them just like they would do for him, but his connection with Melinda... Was just Special.

He had relived his reincarnations and had full knowledge of the multiple lives he had lived because of his mother's reincarnation ring and it made him completely sure of his conviction.

This was the closest thing to love that he had ever felt.

While he would not flippantly claim that he was now in love for the first time in his reincarnated lifespan, he felt like he was very darn close.

'Do you feel it?" Hal asked in his mind, not expecting a reply but he got one regardless,

'Yes. Yes, I do. I never want to stop feeling it' Melinda said in his mind and they smiled against each other's lips.

To the two, time seemed to have stopped running and they were in a bubble away from everything and everyone but to all those observing, they were very much still in the physical plane, and time was still running.