Lord of Mysteries:Fire of Destruction

TapTapTap.

A soft but fast and constant tapping sounded in her room, bringing her out of her dream world and waking her up.

"Urgh..." growling a little, Flora lifted her eye mask until a tired gray eye was freed.

Looking around, she frowned slightly. Taking off her mask and placing it on her bedside table, Jacob left the warm embrace of her bed.

In her classic white nightgown, she grabbed her coat from the coat rack and put it on, tying the cord tightly around her waist and wrapping herself up a little.

That done, she calmly walked to her bedroom window and opened the curtains.

Standing on the frame outside was a simple blue-gray pigeon, unlike any other, its eyes intelligent.

This was one of the princess's soldiers, Ignir, if she remembered correctly.

Her brow furrowed a little at the sight of it, and she looked around suspiciously.

Opening the window slightly, the disguised soldier entered.

Before she could question what had happened, the pigeon came forward.

"There's a problem with the Sir-"

Flora immediately rushed to her door. Almost ripping it off the frame as she left her room.

Running down the silent and suddenly suffocating corridor in a blur, she quickly reached her partner's room.

Pausing for a second and controlling her racing heart, the white-haired woman sighed slightly.

While this could be dangerous, since she hadn't heard the soldier's last words, Flora wasn't worried that there was an enemy.

With the number of warning systems in the department and eyes on it, she doubted anyone could enter here undetected, either by the princess or his soldiers.

If there had been an enemy, Ignir would not have been so slow to warn and would have started immediately. Even attacking by himself—he may have been a pigeon, but he still had some strength, could make noise, and could attract attention.

Therefore, the problem was not that her partner was being attacked right now, but something unusual had happened that required another form of help.

Grabbing the doorknob, she turned it and entered, her gray eyes drawn to the lying figure on the floor, face down, another pigeon pecking at his head to wake him up, but he did not react.

The dove, another soldier, looked up and when he saw her, he saluted, "Miss!"

"Situation?" Flora said sternly, kneeling next to her companion and turning him over, her eyes searching for any wounds.

"Precisely at 2:45 in the morning, Sir woke up. He was visibly affected and agitated, he walked around the room a little and fainted after looking out of his window!" The pigeon responded with its raised wing while the woman continued her examination.

Sweat covered her partner's body completely, he was breathing heavily and his face was furrowed in pain. He was extremely pale, as if a large amount of blood had been drawn from him.

"He doesn't have any visible wounds…" Flora narrowed her eyes.

A curse of some kind? It didn't seem to be the case. As far as she knew, the princess had something that made it difficult to do anything regarding divination and cursing, it had to be something else.

After reviewing the soldier's words, she quickly walked to the room's window and pulled back the curtain.

Her eyes were drawn to the dark moon in the sky.

'A blood moon... Perhaps that caused some kind of reaction?' The first thing that came to mind was the curse of the Abrahams, but that was impossible, the princess was not one of them!

'Whatever it is, it must be related in some way...' Snapping her tongue a little, the woman closed the curtain and returned to her unconscious companion.

Pigeon Ignir joined them at some point, and he too was trying to wake the man by pecking at his right hand along with the other pigeon.

"He doesn't feel anything in that arm." Saying with an exasperated sigh, Flora knelt next to the guy.

Ignir and the other soldier stopped pecking and looked up at her.

Looking at her partner's pale face, another sigh escaped her lips. One that had a faint trace of disappointment.

Although she had always wanted to do this, she would have preferred to do it with the awake one.

Raising her right hand high, she brought it down with all her strength against the man's cheek.

SLAP!

His head turned violently to one side and black eyes opened wide, "Urghhh..."

Holding a hand to his face, Adryan blinked somewhat lost. His turbulent eyes focused on the figure with the white head sitting next to him.

Blinking again, the figure cleared up to be that of his companion.

"Can you get up?" Flora asked, although she tried to hide it, she couldn't hide the pleasure in her voice.

Oh, that felt much better than she thought.

Adryan grunted a little and gave a weak nod from where he was on the floor, "I think so... Give me a hand..."

"I thought so. You look awful." Flora said flatly as she took his left arm and helped him to his feet.

"I feel worse..." Adryan said gravely and dryly with his right hand on his forehead.

His brain was killing him and he just wanted to go back to sleep.

"Don't be a baby." With a little snort, the woman helped the man sit on his bed.

"Well? Are you going to tell me what happened to you?" She said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, yes... Just give me a second... sigh..." Adryan sighed wearily as he grabbed the glove in his left hand and took it off. His face twisted a little and his true appearance returned.

This caused one eyebrow to raise on Flora's face, followed by the other when the redhead began to take off his shirt.

Coughing a little to avoid getting lost in that sweaty torso, Flora swallowed her sudden dry throat, "What do you think you're doing ..."

Her voice died down a little as she looked at the man's now naked torso. Her eyes focused on his arm, "Oh ..."

Adryan traced the black cracks with his left hand.

Before they barely reached his shoulder, now they had grown and reached a little above his right pectoral, almost to his neck.

"Looks like I'll have to wear high necks from now on, huh? Heh heh." Laughing softly, Adryan sighed and lowered his head slightly.

In a few steps, the white-haired woman stood before him and began tracing the new cracks with one hand.

"And now what is this? You're not going to break on me, are you?" Flora asked with her eyes slightly closed.

Her fingers moved from his shoulder to his neck, careful and gentle, "Can you feel me? My touch?"

At the touch, Adryan closed his eyes and let his worm do what it wanted, "Yes, luckily it's only in appearance."

"Mmm..." Flora murmured a little and after 8 seconds she moved her hand away.

"Your body had a reaction to the Blood Moon a moment ago. Has anything like this ever happened before?" She asked calmly.

"No, it's the first time." Opening one scarlet eye, he looked at her tiredly.

The Jacob did not respond immediately, she frowned slightly.

She doubted that the princess was lying to her. So there must be a reason, something that changed for this to happen.

Using the information she had obtained along with what she knew from recent times, a possible truth was revealed to her.

A slight grimace appeared as she thought about it, "... You think it's because of what happened in the cave?"

"..." Adryan closed his eyes for a few seconds.

Instead of darkness, a familiar memory greeted him; a dark cave with a floor covered in blood and a figure with red eyes standing over everything, an excessive smile on its face.

Opening his eyes, he nodded, "It's a possibility... But I don't think it's the whole reason..."

The redhead doubted it was because of that strange charm they had used to trap him. Hunters Hallow had protected him, so the possibility of that was low.

The same when he died in that lake of blood, Hunters Hallow had protected him from corruption just as the resurrection repaired all damage suffered.

But that they were related in some way and played a role, of that he had no doubt. 

'But for the Blood Moon to do this to me...' Adryan glanced sideways at the new cracks in his body, mistrust shining in them.

In mysticism, people believe that the Blood Moon brings about the rise and eruption of negative emotions and strengthens the power of the underworld and spirit world. Even if the dead weren't summoned, they might still be able to climb out of their graves...

'Technically speaking, my soul is shattered to the point of being considered dead... Is it possible that the Blood Moon will "raise" my soul and that this is causing a reaction? 

'Hunters Hallow said it wasn't safe for me to go up to the temple in my condition, maybe that was why? Because of the Blood Moon, the delicate state of my soul worsened to the point that going up to the City of Calamities was not safe?'

Maybe that's also why his scar got worse, his soul had tried to leave his body but the robe stopped it?

'It's a possibility...' He had no idea how his soul or the robe were supposed to work; this was merely a hypothesis that could easily be wrong.

Still, his mind couldn't help but return to the name Hunters Hallow had used... 

'It called the City of Calamities a temple, it's the first time I've heard of anyone, or anything, calling it that... Hmm, well, maybe it's another way to understand it. Sequence 0 of the pathways related to this sefirot are the Red Priest and Demoness, a temple falls into that range...'

Temple of Calamities... It makes more sense than City, although his favorite will always be the Closet of Calamities.

Shaking his head, he sighed and looked at the floor with a lost look, "Remember when I said my soul is delicate? I may have underestimated saying that, the right word is broken.

"Some blessings from my Lord hold it together but not repair it. The Blood Moon likely provokes a reaction in me that makes my soul want to leave."

Raising his arm and pointing to the new cracks, he added, "And this is the result."

Flora looked at him in silence. Her gray eyes moved from his arm to his face twice.

"Will it happen again?"

"Most certainly," Adryan sighed wearily, "at least until my soul is healed, which I doubt will happen soon."

He then laughed and smiled slightly;

"One of the soldiers woke you up, didn't they? Sorry about that. But don't worry, this isn't something that will endanger my life, so there's no need for you to come and look for me every time it happens.

"I'll have one of them keep guard in my room and he'll be able to help me every time this happens." He finished by closing his eyes, but the sudden sigh from his companion made him open them again.

"You really are a silly princess," Flora shook her head in utter disappointment.

"Your soldiers are much more useful keeping guard outside. It's better if they keep doing that and don't waste their time babysitting you."

"And you want to leave me alone to suffer in the nights with no one to look after me? My, you're cruel." Adryan said amused and tired.

"I never said you'd be alone," Flora said mischievously, and before the redhead could react, she pounced on him.

Thump!

His back hit the softness of the bed and two hands landed next to his head, forcing him to look up.

From her position on top of the man, the white-haired woman smiled with mischievous, sparkling eyes.

"I stole you. Now you are my possession, princess—mine and mine alone. 

"If I have to sleep with you every night to make sure you don't get killed by a little moonlight, I'll do it without hesitation."

Flora laughed a little and added, "I take very good care of what's mine, Princess~"

Adryan looked a little dazed by this and couldn't help but smile wearily, "Then I will be in your care Miss Worm..."

Unable to even finish their game, the redhead could only say that before his eyes closed.

His chest began to rise slowly, in a calm and serene rhythm. Deeply asleep.

Observing his sleeping face, Flora's smile faded in a small sigh. 

The woman extended her hand and squeezed the air a little. In the blink of an eye, the sheets and pillows on the floor appeared in her hand.

Bored, she placed the man's head under the pillow. Flora then lay down beside the man and covered both with the sheet.

As always happened when they slept together, arms wrapped around and held her gently.

'This guy is a complete cuddlebug,' Flora gave a small sigh, her ears completely red.

Although they had slept together several times before, this was the first time there had been so much skin-on-skin contact. 

'I should have asked him to take a bath first...' With every breath of air, the man's scent filled her lungs.

To top it all off, his smell was stronger now. It wasn't a bad smell, but she'd be lying if she said her mind wasn't getting a little cloudy - in the bad sense of the word. 

Before her mind started to create scenarios, Flora quickly used cogitation to calm her state and help her fall asleep.

'Although... this isn't so bad...' With that last thought from her slumbering mind, the world of dreams embraced her.