So when he saw that Ashton remained silent even after he had finished applying the ointment, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Ashton's bed was only made for one person and it was stuck against the wall to leave as much space as possible in the room.
It was perfect he thought, he pushed him gently against the wall and he lay down on his bed on his back, not feeling any more discomfort due to his wounds, he smiled to him and motioned for him to settle next to him, his left side not having been touched by the spell it did not risk to hurt him.
His single bed left them no choice but to be intimate and after some hesitation, Ashton finally lay down next to Nolan trying to keep a little distance between them but Nolan then put his arm around his waist and pressed him against his body.
Ashton let himself go, wondering if he was dreaming or not, and Nolan then started the conversation, caressing his waist from time to time, and after discussing for a long time, avoiding topics they didn't agree on, finally exhausted by their respective day, they both ended up falling asleep in each other's arms.
........
Still at the Sun Sect but in a pavilion this time, Alan who was watching Erik eat without appetite and who seemed to have his mind elsewhere ended up asking him not being able to take it anymore : "Sweetheart, what's wrong ? Are you not feeling well ?"
Erik saw that Alan had finished his dinner and said : "I'm sorry, I'm not very hungry tonight ... If you're done, I have to tell you something, do you want to go talk in the living room."
Alan smirked and stood up, he cleared the table and left the dishes for later, he turned back to Erik who was looking more and more nervous and he wondered what could be making him so nervous.
He said to him : "Let's go to the bedroom, I don't know why you're so nervous, but unless you cheated on me with another man, which is impossible because my best friend spends his days with you, there's nothing to worry about."
He walked around the table and came to embrace him from behind, he nibbled his earlobe and kissed his neck saying : "So, are you coming ?"
Erik nodded and let himself be led to their bedroom, he let Alan undress him and once they were both naked under the blanket Alan then asked him : "Sweetheart, spill it, this suspense is killing me."
Erik leaned on one elbow and looked him in the eye : "I have two things to confess to you, the first thing I learned it just before we entered the purple dungeon and the second one we just found out today."
Alan frowned and asked : "We ?"
Erik immediately replied : "Me, Axel and Kevin."
Alan raised an eyebrow, he didn't know that Kevin had gone to train with them, he nodded to tell him that he could continue and Erik finally jumped in : "A week ago Kevin told me that if I wanted to I could become a Warrior Spirit and he told me that you were my trigger, he offered to train me so that I could become one."
Alan was obviously shocked by this news but he eventually calmed down and he took some time to think about it, some of the information Kevin had given them about Warrior Spirits was coming back to his mind so he asked him : "Is the combat intelligence skill by any chance the Stage 1 of a Warrior Spirit ?"
Erik simply nodded and Alan then said feeling confused : "Sweetheart that's a pretty good thing, it's actually something downright amazing, so why didn't you tell me that earlier ?"
Erik then said to him : "Do you remember what got Kevin to the Stage 2 of a Warrior Spirit ?"
Alan looked at him and then suddenly realized, Kevin had been tortured for a whole month before he could pass the Stage 2, and he didn't even remember what happened to him because he was too traumatized by the experience.
Alan paled and pinned Erik on their bed positionning himself on top of him, he asked angrily and worriedly : "What the hell Erik ! What kind of training did you do this afternoon and don't even try to lie to me."
Erik put a hand on his cheek and caressed his face to calm him down, he told him everything that had happened and he saw Alan gradually calm down, when he had finished his explanations Alan said to him : "I understand better why you have hidden it from me now.
If Kevin hadn't come up with this solution that allow you to train on your own, bearer of the Pentagram Mark or not and best friend or not, I would have made them both pay."
When Alan realized that Erik was ready to train until he passed out from exhaustion to become stronger he said helplessly : "Why Sweetheart ? Why are you doing this to yourself ? If it's because I wasn't able to protect you from that Vampire, I can get stronger, just give me more time, okay."
Erik smiled at him and said : "It's because you're so strong my love, that I want to get stronger too."
He kissed Alan and Alan asked him afterwards with a frown : "What's the second thing you want to talk about."
After this first revelation Alan really didn't know what to expect but Erik seemed relaxed now so that must be a good news.
He waited patiently and Erik finally told him with a smirk : "Well something unexpected happened during my training.
I passed out twice and the second time it happened I didn't collapse like the first time but kept walking without stopping."
Alan looked at him wide-eyed with surprise and immediately asked : "Does that mean you're already at the Stage 2 of a Warrior Spirit ?"
A thousand and one questions were running through his head, if Erik had already moved to the Stage 2 he would have known, right ? And Erik often came back from his training sessions exhausted, but he had never lost consciousness, at least not to his knowledge.
Erik's smile widened when he saw all those emotions pass through his man's eyes so he finally said : "Kevin told me I was almost there but not quite yet because I hadn't managed to detect them while I was unconscious.
And after waking me up he asked me a few questions and he found out that the reason I was already so close to becoming an Absolute Warrior, which is a Warrior Spirit that has reached stage 2, was because of you."