Chapter 44

"We start with the strongest in here!" Her voice resounds in Lucelia's head as she watches the flower bloom. The blood-red flower swayed against the wind as if it were just a flower, even though it should not be possible.

Badum…Badum.

"Next one should be…Aha! The second strongest duo in here!" With her words, new flowers bloom. from this ice prison that held me, She could only hear their fading scream, A splatter of blood marred the ever-clear ice, blocking the view of the beautifully and haunting chrysanthemums, the flowers bloomed in two as if it was only neutral to be together. One was red, and the other was pink.

"Stop it!" Banging against the ice, the wall bounces back at her with such force that it pushes her away.

"You can't stop me, I am the one who is in charge here." The Soul said. She could hear her snicker, taking in the pleasure in my despair.

"Alright, what should be the next one? Why don't you decide?" countless images of people appear before her eyes, screaming, running, all of them, looking at her in contempt and hatred.

Suddenly, A little girl flashes up in her mind and in that instance, the image shows the little girl she thought about.

Lilia, the same name with almost similar features as the maid she knows, yet they are the complete opposite.

While the Lilia she knows is strict, she is kind and understanding. This little girl is just naive and innocent.

Lucelia watches, as the image starts to become more vivid with each second until the said girl appears before her, just across the wall that separates them.

By just destroying this wall, she could take this girl away, away from this, away from everything, where it would be safe.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

With each hit comes a scream, her hand bloodied as she continues to smash against the ever-still wall. Lucelia screams for the little girl to run away, but the little girl just stares at her, eyes unblinking and dull as if there is no life in there.

"Lilia! Runaway now!" even then.

"She won't."

"I beg you! Run!" she continued to scream out.

"After all, where would she be if not with you?"

It goes on and on, the second turns to a minute, the minute turns to an hour, and the hour turns to a day. Each second she screams out, each minute she bangs against the wall, each hour she pleads against the little girl and each day she begins to lose hope.

Emotion seemed like a fleeting thing, one moment she was screaming hysterically like a mad woman, and the next she was crying as if everything was over.

Has it been a day? A week? Or a year? Since she starts to plead for Lilia to run away, the said girl never does any of those. She just continues to stare into Lucelia with the soulless eyes like a doll that should never belong to her.

The more she continues, the more hope she continues to lose the little hope she has, the voice still mocks her with the same sound as her.

"Hey! Cheer up! Look, I will give you some gift I think you would like." The Voice Whisper near her, Turning her unfocused eyes she saw her reflection. no that was not her reflection, but that was her, from head to toe, it was unmistakable her.

The black blade was gleaming under the sun like never before, under its hand the sword slowly rise.

"...no…stop it…" Her hoarse voice is nothing but a whisper against the wind. "S-stop it!" Ignoring the pain she felt when spoke, she raised her voice higher and higher, her Hand glowing with fire as mana coursing through her body.

Slamming against the wall, harder and harder. Each hit was infused with more mana than she could ever imagine and each time the wall shook, sending the shock back to her, but with each shock, a small crack formed, each crack turned into a line and each line slowly spread out over the stainless wall.

The sword struck down.

"STOP THIS!" With a final punch, the wall broke down, panting heavily, she took in the dark surroundings. "Come out! I know you there!" Screaming out in the open emptiness, nothing but silence responds to her.

"You've been messing with me for a long time now! ever since I've been teleported and started this journey." Her voice echoes in the dark, "You said you're part of my soul, but I think not. You are not a part of me, at least not the part I will acknowledge. You…are not me."

The silence was overwhelming, but slowly, the voice started to fill the empty void. "And? Even if you don't accept me as a part of your soul that doesn't mean I'm not."

"You said we fuse with something that makes my soul stronger-"

"Our soul, you mean. Denying it won't make us magically become apart."

She glares at her reflection, and the reflection returns the glare with a smile.

"Laplace, that is the only thing I could connect my soul with."

The reflection's smile deepened, slowly, and the body began to twist and turn, becoming some ugly flesh that would make for nightmare fuel.

"Let's meet again, This time, in the real world."

Everything shatters.

/- - - -\\\

"Lucelia? Are you ok?" a calm voice, full of worry. Feeling the familiar heat of the desert, the humidity from all the water that began to vaporize because of the sheer heat.

Slowly opening my eyes, I see the golden desert, clear of any blur. A far cry from what I was used to these past months. Turning my head left and right, taking in the scenery, I found the source of the voice.

Karas, staring right at me in her gray eyes, it was… Fascinating how much emotion I could read from those eyes.

"Yeah, Sorry. I just space out a bit." I answer Karas with a smile, taking notice of the little glow from her body. I tried to not mind it but the moment I saw Karias swinging his sword around, his body was glowing as well.

"Oh, that's alright then, but what happened to your eyes? it's kinda funny." Her face was red, her breathing was a bit heavy and she shifted in her seat a lot. Karias was next to her too, taking a lot in my eyes. As I look at his own too. His eyes were shining bright orange, like the sun.

I focus back on Karas, tilting my head in confusion as I watch her pull something out of her pocket. no is it more accurate to say…her clothes?

It was a round mirror. "I didn't know you always have a mirror on you," I said jokingly to lighten the mood. not to calm myself down, and to stop myself from vomiting at their sight.

I'm still… a bit shaken by that Dream, Everything in there… felt so real, too real that I was almost unable to discern it from reality. From the wind, the sound to the scream and blood.

But enough is enough, I won't be shaken by that dream, not by Laplace.

Taking the mirror from her, I take a good look at my face. The first thing I notice is that my face is ashen. Well, after that experience, the fact that I'm not puking and crying right now is a surprise in itself…it just feels like I awake from some long, long dream.

I focus my attention on the thing Karas mentioned, my eyes, the color of it should be gold, Zenith says it always shines brightly in the sun but what I saw in front of me is not the gold color I was used to.

I saw light pink eyes, with a green cross on them. Maybe I was still shaken by that dream and still not fully awake. I closed my eyes and opened them again, focusing on what was in the mirror. Nope… Still the same pair.

As I focus my attention on the eyes, suddenly, the green cross pupil starts to move, spinning counterclockwise, it starts slow but the more I focus the faster it spins, and the more vibrant the color outline becomes, green, no, it blue? Now it is red? it constantly changes color-

"Ugh!"

Falling down the floor, I feel my hand being grabbed by something strong. Looking I could see Karias on top of me, panting heavily, his eyes looking straight at me, cheeks flush red, and trying to… pull his pants down…?

"oi, what are you doing!? This isn't funny!" I said out harshly, and tried to move my arm but… It's not moving, someone was grabbing me.

I looked over and saw Karas, in the same state as Karias. My mind went blank, trying to proceed with what happened until a feeling of something slowly pressing on my thigh knocked me back to reality.

Karias, finally pulling his pants down was trying to shove his…thing. Shit shit shit SHIT!

"OI! UNHAND ME KARAS! STOP GRABBING-Mhm!?"

Just as I struggled to get out of the girl's hold, Karas's face dropped down and reached mine, without hesitation she went for my mouth.

The feeling of her tongue entering my mouth as she took my first, I drew blank, I shifted around, kicking Karias away from me, and my hand struggled against Karas's clutch.

Seeing that there was no way for me to talk some sense into their head, I began to struggle more violently, kicking his jewel, but that bastard still dodged it.

Biting the girl's tongue, she finally takes her face off, I take in the deep breath I need as I prepare my lungs.

"Lemes! Help!" screaming for Lemes at the top of my lungs, I prepared my mana, I launched an Ice ball at Karias's head, but that bastard just took it head-on and continued to rip my clothes off!

Shit! My mana still hasn't recovered from filling up the water, I can only apply a bit of my Touki here. Hopefully, it will be enough.

As I gather my mana, I hear the footsteps of Lemes rushing in, spreading mana to my hand, I struggle to break free from Karas's grab.

She also used Touki, as her strength far surpassed mine at the moment, but I used all my strength and broke free from her, without hesitation I punched Karias's face before Karas managed to grab me again.

It sends him flying back, but he gets up like it is nothing. Luckily, Lemes comes in just in time. "What's going on!?" He put Karias in a choke hold, but Karias struggled against him like there was no tomorrow.

"This! Effect of the succubus?! But there none here…"

Karas managed to grab hold of me again, but this time I was prepared, breaking from her hold with all my might, I pushed her back and stuck her on the chin. She was not knocked out immediately but another strike to the back of her head did the job.

As I lay down Karas slowly and apply healing to her tongue, further draining my mana reserved. I looked over to Lemes, he put his strength into choking and I saw Karias punching him but it was over, Karias finally lost consciousness.

"Hm…He got stronger. Now tell me what happened." Lemes, carefully lay Karias down next to Karas, I quickly cloth myself again.

"I don't know. They suddenly attack me out of nowhere. Ah…it was after I looked at both of them in the eyes that Karas said that my eyes were weird so I took a mirror from her and…they attacked me."

Lemes drop-down, panting and clutching at where Karias has punched him, "Damn brat got some strength, Hehe. guess I teach him good." He laughs and flinches from the pain, I approach him and hold my hand over where he got punched, my hand grows lightly as the magic I use is not a strong one, it only eases the pain after all.

Looking around, I don't see anyone coming. perhaps, Lemes make sure that no one is here? He probably thought it was a big monster that the three of us couldn't handle so he made sure that the group was safe before heading here.

"Have you…ever heard of Demon eyes?" Lemes suddenly said. I look at him in confusion but as soon as our eyes almost meet he avoids it completely.

"Of course I know, Ghislaine got a mana eye, I already told you about it right? Or have I not?" I said, taking my hand away from him and looking over at the two sleeping peacefully, though I think they going to have some bruise waking up.

"Yeah, I think it was during your break? Anyway," He got up, patting his side to wipe away dust and sand, "You may know of demon eyes, But do you know how many types of it there are?"

"I…don't know? I only heard of Mana's eyes, besides demon eyes are a rare thing why would it matter to…oh, holy shit…" I put my hand over my eyes, looking for the mirror that I dropped during that scuffle.

"Kishiriga Kishirigi, The demon empress, has twelve of these eyes, or so I heard. I don't know if she has this but…Do you know of the eyes of affection?"

I turn my head to him so quickly that he almost cannot avoid my eyes in time, Eyes of affection?! Are those a thing!?

"What…kind of eyes is that?"

"Just like its name, the eyes make that so anyone who locks eyes with it has affection toward the bearer, but you, you were different, the effect is almost like a succubus phenomenon. That was probably why they attacked you, you already seen the effect of succubus on men right? Never thought you would be able to affect women though."

Eyes of affection…Is that what my eyes have become? And it was stronger than that, it was just a succubus phenomenon on crack! Just from one look and it able to affect those around me that much?!

What…would happen if I looked long enough? Why would I have these eyes? Why me? Why did it appear now…

Anashia got raped by a priest from Millis, A fucking priest, raped on the street where no one can find them and she got pregnant from it.

and how could Grandma have so many descendants? If it was to the point that her lineage hasn't died down, or her blood become too thin to actually matter? The answer would be inbred, incest to keep the blood pure, is not something unheard of, even back in my old world, in the old times most royals married their first cousin or even their niece.

If that was how she kept the blood pure then how many? How many people, has she gotten pregnant with? To the point of having enough to actually thin it down and breed them together again?!

"Here" Lemes's voice get me out of my thought, shit this happens a lot, getting stuck in my own thought, I look over at what he handed me, and I saw a piece of long white cloth. "Warp this around your eyes, until you can control those eyes, or never take this off at all because most can't even get a bit of control in."

"Hah? You expect me, to wear this and essentially blind myself? In this situation?"

"Yeah, what? If you can control those eyes then I will let you show those eyes around, but in this situation, well, do you want all of the people here to try and get a piece of you? Don't worry, the cloth is not that thick, it would blind you somewhat but you could see a silhouette of everything around."

Shit…he was right…If I go out like this, I would just get overwhelmed with people trying to have their way with me. tch, taking the cloth from Lemes, who still looking away from me, I warp it around my eyes as best as I can, as I finish wrapping it, I open my eyes only to see everything is white and a faint outline of color.

"I warp it, how is it?" I said, looking at his silhouette, it was…weird not seeing his face but it seemed he looked me in the eyes.

"Hm…I don't feel any effect, so it should be safe, or it may be because I overcame the effect of succubus long ago. We will need to test it."

"then how do I control it? you can't expect me to wear this forever, even more, when we are in the middle of the desert and something could attack us at a moment's notice."

"I don't know, I never have demon eyes much less even encounter them. Test it yourself, and get Karias or Karas to help you, if it is you, you could handle both of them even when you are at full strength right?" Lemes's silhouette picks up something. probably Karias and Karas.

"Well, the plan is ruined, so we probably stuck here for a while. Get used to wearing that, you'd probably be stuck with it for a long time." with that said, he left with two in tow.

I watch as his silhouette slowly disappears and sigh to myself, taking off the cloth, I observe it, rubbing it, and feel the coarseness of the fabric, the color at first I thought was white, but it is actually gray, and only the gray fabric I see on this journey is…loincloth.

Yeah, no wonder it got some stain on this and a funny smell. Burning it with flame, I cut the cloth from my cloak and walk to where Lemes and the group are. No way I can navigate with a fucking blindfold on.