Cheon Hae-Won sat at her desk at one in the morning, laptop screen glowing in the dark of her dorm room. Her hands still trembled. They had been trembling since the storage room. Since Ro’s hand between her legs. Since his mouth on hers and that feeling like her entire body had been set on fire from the inside.
She pressed her thighs together. The mory sent heat rushing through her again.
No. Focus.
She opened a new browser tab and typed: Essentia types energy drain intimate contact.
The search returned standard results. Energy absorption abilities. Catalyst types that pulled ambient Essentia from the environnt. Flux types that converted kinetic impact into stored reserves. Nothing matched what Ro had done to her.
She tried again: Essentia aphrodisiac effect physical contact.
More standard results. Pheromone-based Root types. Chemical manipulation Catalyst abilities that required conscious activation and environntal setup. All docunted. All registered. All completely different from what she had experienced.
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard.
She typed: Incubus Essentia.
The screen loaded. Search results appeared. Hae-Won clicked the first link.
THEORY: MYTHOLOGICAL ESSENTIA CLASSIFICATIONS
The following thread discusses hypothetical Essentia types based on folklore and mythology. These abilities DO NOT exist in docunted form and should be considered entirely theoretical.
Hae-Won scrolled down.
A user nad HeroTheoryBro had written: If an incubus-type Essentia existed, it would operate through intimate physical contact to drain life force or energy. The drain would likely trigger intense pleasure responses in the target to facilitate repeated contact. Power scaling would be exponential based on intimacy level. However, no confird cases exist in NEA records. If such an ability DID exist, it would be classified SS-rank minimum and subject to imdiate containnt protocols.
Another user, EssentiaFacts, replied: Containnt wouldn’t work. An ability like that would make the user effectively immune to conventional restraint thods. The mont physical contact occurred, the target would be compromised. This is exactly why such abilities don’t exist. The evolutionary pressure would have eliminated them or the wielder would have been terminated by coordinated governnt action centuries ago.
HeroTheoryBro responded: Fair point. Still fun to theorize about.
Hae-Won clicked to the next page of results.
A forum called PowerScaling Central appeared. The thread title read: What fictional Essentia would you want if you could have any power?
She clicked.
The top comnt, posted by DreamBig2176, said: Incubus ability hands down. Imagine walking up to any hero you want and just draining them. Titan? Done. Phantom? Easy. Valkyrie? Please. You’d be unstoppable AND you’d get to sleep with everyone.
RealistGar replied: For real. Half the guys in this forum would kill for that or hypnosis. Walk up to any girl, activate the power, profit. But it’s fantasy. Essentia doesn’t work like porn.
PowerHungry88 added: I’d still take it over teleportation. Screw utility. Give the broken harem protagonist power and let speedrun the AP Top 100.
Hae-Won’s face burned. Her thumb went to her mouth. She bit down on the nail.
So deplorable. These n were disgusting. Talking about using abilities like that on people. On heroes. On won who had worked their entire lives to reach the top of the rankings.
But.
Ro had sothing like that.
Hae-Won’s stomach twisted.
That was why she had been so overwheld. Why her body had responded the way it did. Why she had moaned and gasped and let him touch her in a storage room like so kind of—
No.
Ro had done sothing to her. An aphrodisiac ability. Sothing that ssed with her mind and made her lose control. That was the only explanation that made sense.
She pulled up the academy registry. Typed in Ro’s na. His file appeared.
Ro D’Angelo. Class 1-A. Registered Essentia: Pending Retest (Passive Null Result).
Pending retest. Right. Because he was lying.
Hae-Won clicked through to his contact information. Student ID number. Ergency contact. Personal cell phone number.
Her finger hovered over the number.
She should report him. Go to the disciplinary committee. Explain what she had discovered about his changing Essentia signatures. Leave out the storage room. Leave out the kiss. Leave out everything else.
But she had no proof that would hold up. Just her ability readings and his glowing purple eyes. And if she reported him, he would know she had been monitoring his Essentia without permission. That was technically a violation of academy privacy policy. She would get sanctioned.
And.
Her face burned hotter.
And she wanted to know what he had actually done to her.
Hae-Won copied the number into her phone. Stared at it for a full minute.
This was insane. It was one twenty-six in the morning. She should go to sleep. Forget about Ro D’Angelo and his stupid smirk and his hands and his mouth and—
She hit call.
The phone rang once. Twice. Three tis.
Then soone picked up.
A woman’s voice. Sleepy. Rough. "Hello?"
Hae-Won froze.
That wasn’t Ro.
"Hello?" the voice said again. "Who is this?"
"I—" Hae-Won’s throat closed. "Is this Ro?"
The voice sharpened imdiately. No longer sleepy. Fully awake and alert. "Who is this?"
"I need to speak with Ro D’Angelo."
"Ro is busy." The voice carried weight now. Possessiveness. A clear warning. "Try again tomorrow."
"This is important. I need to—"
"I don’t care." The woman paused. Hae-Won heard movent on the other end. Sheets rustling. A muffled voice in the background. Then the woman ca back. "Ro is occupied. Call during normal hours."
"Please, I just need five minutes—"
"No." The single word cut like a blade. "He’s with right now. Whatever you want can wait until he’s not inside ."
Hae-Won’s entire face went nuclear. Her hand trembled so hard she nearly dropped the phone.
Inside her. Inside.
Ro was having sex. Right now. While this woman answered his phone for him.
"Who—" Hae-Won’s voice cracked. "Who are you?"
"Who are YOU?" The woman’s tone turned dangerous. "And why are you calling my boyfriend at one thirty in the morning?"
Boyfriend. Ro had a girlfriend. Of course he did. Of course he did and he had still kissed Hae-Won in the storage room and touched her and made her—
"I’m a classmate." Hae-Won forced the words out. "From the academy. I needed to ask about today’s assignnt."
"At one thirty AM." The woman didn’t sound convinced. "Right."
"It’s urgent."
"Nothing about howork is urgent at this hour." The woman sighed. A different sound ca through the line. A low groan. Male. Definitely Ro. The woman laughed softly. "See? He agrees. Call tomorrow. During the day. Like a normal person."
"Wait—"
The line went dead.
User Comments
0 comments from readers