“Huh?!”
Shen was momentarily baffled by Sylvia’s sudden drop in power, causing for his skill to cancel and let Sylvia fly towards him uncontrollably.
I-is she setting me a trap? No, she’s too powerful to use such tricks. B-but then why? Maybe this is truly a trap?! She’s a mischevious one after all! Wait. No time to think! She’s here and still no signs of power?!
“Oy! Are you alright?!- Guh!”
Not knowing how to react, Shen tried to catch her, only to find himself pinned on the ground with Sylvia locking both his arms down and herself above him. Her white hairs were now falling beautifully around his head with some even atop his cheeks, while Sylvia’s beautiful smile appeared right in front of his face. With amusement in her melodic voice, she giggled calmly,
“It seems that I am the one who got you~.”
Shen was momentarily dumbfounded, staring with dazed huge eyes at Sylvia but then he quickly regained consciousness and reacted vehemently,
“No, just ho~ld up a second?! Just what the Hell was that, woman?! You actually suddenly cancelled your power just to confuse me? Are you nuts?! If this was a real fight then you would’ve been blown to bits-…?!”
Seeing him so irritated while under her, Sylvia couldn’t hold herself but lick Shen’s nose-tip, making his expression freeze as if his brain just short-circuited.
Someone, please tell me just what this woman is thinking…
Sylvia then got up but still sitting on his stomach, lightly chuckling and explaining,
“Please calm down, Shen. I’m not sure how to explain, but I’m unable to fight against you. I simply can’t, and you just observed what happens when I do.”
“Huh?”
Shen looked surprised then thought for a moment while resting on his elbows. Although he couldn’t make heads or tails from what Sylvia just told him, he still asked unsure,
“So you’re telling me that you actually can fight, and pretty well at that, with about anyone but me…?”
“Yes.”
“What the Hell? God…”
As if asking to himself, Shen collapsed on the grass once again, feeling somewhat dejected for being unable to have a serious confrontation with the strongest person he knows of.
Afterwards, a funny feeling raised from bellow his stomach and he finally became aware of the softness that was resting on top of him. With a plain look, Shen immediately affirmed,
“Sylvia, don’t forget that I can feel your nice soft butt on me.”
“Yes, I am aware. And thank you for the compliment.”
Failing to make her at least feel embarrassed, Shen’s eyes turned into slits and asked,
“So~ are you not going to move?”
With a slight smile and composed behaviour, Sylvia asked playfully,
“Do you want me to move?”
“Well, what do you think?”
“I don’t think you want me to move.”
“I what?”
With a dumb-looking stare, Shen waited for Sylvia to explain herself, but understood right after he observed her silvery eyes shining with a golden hue.
“You know I can observe the aura’s colours, right? And at this moment, I can see some pink from you, with quite the strong concentration from your little brother~.”
She looked behind and observed a dirty pink emanating, feeling successful in making Shen aware of her sex-appeal.
Knowing what she meant by that, Shen rebuked while having his eyes turning red,
“Hey! Now let me see if I’m the only guilty one here!”
Activating his [Devil’s eyes], Shen immediately observed how around Sylvia only a greyish-blue colour was swirling around, maybe with a few dark-pink strands swirling here and there.
The little pink strings represented lust, but the garish-blue means-
“Frustration with guilt…?”
Shen blurted out by mistake and Sylvia’s mischievous eyes flashed with shock, but then she quickly calmed down as she slowly got up to leave. With a calm and a slight tone of sadness, Sylvia informed,
“Alright. I won’t bother you now. Please excuse me.”
“Huh?”
Observing her weird behaviour, Shen got up and asked confused,
“Hey, is there something wrong? I might be unable to understand, but maybe I can listen…?”
“You’re truly sweet with about anyone who would need a helping hand, aren’t you? Thank you, Shen. That’s why I love you.”
She chuckled lightly but her eyes still shone with sadness. Shen frowned then asked again confused,
“Seriously… Just what’s wrong?”
“Mmh, please don’t worry about me, Shen.”
“Is there something you can’t tell me?”
“Shen, please…”
Sylvia shook her head, making Shen understand not to ask too much, but then he lightly sighed and simply shrugged his shoulders.
“Alright. If you need any help, you know where to find me.”
“Thank you.”
She smiled lightly one last time then she left towards her room. After she entered, she lightly pulled on her curtain and observed Shen right behind the villa, sitting down on the unusual green grass for meditation while waiting for his golems, outside being as cold as the end of autumn. A long sigh escaped her mouth as she thought of when she stared through Shen’s aura just now.
Light pink colours are feelings of love… dark pink means lust. His aura was pink indeed, but… it didn’t have even a speck of light pink…
A slight feeling of grief enveloped her as she understood that what gave off as new-born love for her was in truth just different stages of lust, with no real feelings of love for her.
I mean, there are colours for respect, admiration, truthfulness, friendliness, even this lust and other dark feelings like desire or wish to possess me are thing he showed in the past as well… but the love from before is… nowhere to be seen…
Although Shen reobtained many feelings for Sylvia from the past few months since he woke up, the most important one was still lost and yet to be found, making her still unable to re-enter Shen’s heart.
Is like he forgot about “love” itself…
With a heavy heart, she sighed once again then tried to meditate, momentarily putting such thoughts at the back of her mind.
Of what remained of this month, Shen tried to focus on training the golems and also master some martial arts that he was still unaware that he knew of, scarring William and his wife at first because of the fluctuating blue energy inside the armours, screaming about how armoured ghosts are fighting between themselves inside their courtyard, giving Shen a thought time explaining them the truth.
While Shen focused on training the golems, Sylvia would disappear for a few hours and get back by Shen’s side now and then. If Shen would ask what happened, she would say that she went to visit the white-heads, worrying for their wellbeing inside the kingdom.
In one night, while Shen continued to work on the golems and on crafting other telepathy rings, Sylvia went into a trance, emptying her mind and while being unaware of it, she enters into a dream, shown to her by foreign powers.
.
Suddenly the environment changes and atop a green hill with a small but old green tree under which, there was Sylvia with teary eyes filled with hope while gazing at a confused Shen.
Shen! Is it true? If I can take out the devil from inside you, you will remember me again?
With a hopeful glint in her big eyes, Sylvia asked naively,
W-well… To be honest, I’m not 100% sure. This is just what I heard from my Superior Spirit. He said that, “in a way”, I’ll remember you if you “open my heart up”. Whatever that means…
Your heart! Shen! Maybe your memories have been stolen by the devil, but your heart will forever remember what you lost! Maybe your love from before will return once again!
With hopeful eyes Sylvia threw herself in Shen’s embrace and exclaimed like a young girl, making him stare troubled but still slowly hugged her back.
Let’s try it! All I have to do is to connect to your heart while you’ll weaken the chains that bin you, right? I will do it! Please, just let me do it!
Alright, alright! God, how will you even meditate with such enthusiasm…?
Shen asked with a mild smile and Sylvia simply giggled like a girl in love. She then sat down and, just as said, she connected to Shen’s heart and in front of her appeared two humongous black-iron gates covered in chains and filled with threatening pikes.
So this is Shen’s heart now. Even though he weakened the seal, it still looks so menacing… My dear, is time to free you from this Hell!
With a wave of her arm the chains broke while the pikes bent outwards, giving free-way to Sylvia to touch the gate and lightly push it.
OPEN!
-WOOSH~!-
Strong golden flames evaded through the opened gate but going around Sylvia as if trying not to harm her. The gates continued to open and a chained devil appeared on the other side, slowly getting up and breaking his own restrains, a nasty smile forming on his dark face as he slowly gazed at her.
Devil, is time for you to leave this place and to never return! Your role ends here.
At Sylvia’s wilful and strong words, the devil’s smile turned even uglier. His bloody mouth parted its lips and whispered threateningly as blood spewed around,
[Oh, but it just starts now… Omisus! Let the spectacle begin!]
Right then, strings of memories of how Sylvia closed portals that could’ve give Shen the chance to return home, and how she tried to make him forget about his old world so he could focus on this one, not letting even Ryu to speak to Shen about the Earth. Such memories went past Sylvia like a whisper of the wind, dissipating in the dark space around her.
W-what?
Sylvia’s expression froze as a feeling of dread washed over her. The fact that Rosabhi had all these memories was something not that surprising, devils being able to acquire any and all kind of knowledge when wanting and imparting them to anyone they desire. Because of the excitement and moment of blissfulness, Sylvia couldn’t help but forget such details, also never actually expecting for Rosabhi to be this heinous as to show to Shen her actions.
Momentarily dazed, Rosabhi made use of this moment and with a quick move, his bonny dark claw stretched out toward Sylvia, seeming as if wishing to pierce her, only to stop right in front of her chest, retracting back and holding whatever he had in between his claws. What appeared to be a heart appeared trapped between his long nails, shining and continuously absorbing energy, only to emanate it around like waves of vital chi.
T-that’s-!
[Omisus’ heart? Well, not quite. These are his feelings that wished to evade just now and reach to you. By opening up, Omisus gave me the opportunity to reach his feelings for you~.]
Y-you! Give them back!
Sylvia immediately wished to rush inside to take the little golden heart from the devil, only to be repelled by one of the chi-waves from it, the heart now seemingly buzzing, it’s shine palling but it was now slowly recovering its vitality. However, Rosabhi won’t let this moment escape his claws.
W-what did you do?!
[Foolish Luna~. For what reason you think I released those memories just now? Although it won’t be enough to make this idiot hate you, it was still enough to create a weakness in his feelings. Now all we need to do is to inject some of my essence here and~…]
One of Rosabhi’s dark and sinister nail slowly stabbed through the heart, making it tremble and twitch violently, the space around also quacking with violent tremors.
-GROAN~-
A deep and painful groan resounded like an echo throughout the entire space, making for even stronger tremors to appear and shake everything around.
Stop! You’re hurting him! Please stop it!
Sylvia screamed desperately as she slammed into an invisible barrier, banning her from entering Shen’s heart that was now slowly turning darker and colder.
[Hahahaha~! I hurt him? That’s perfect! Let him feel the pain he made me relive again and again for millennia! Let him endure what I had to endure until he’ll break and turn into a devil! LIKE I DID!]
The little heart in Rosabhi’s claw dimmed its shine and slowly turned from golden to red, then to blood-red, then to a dark-bloody colour, giving of a murderous and sinister aura. The meaning of such a transformation meant that Shen’s feelings just changed for the worst, and Sylvia knew this.
I-I must return-Gah!
Just as she wished to return from her meditation, a strong shock wakes her up from her trance and after she opens her eyes, she observes blood flowing down her mouth as her innards were in disarray. A cold and indifferent Shen stood before her, his arm reaching towards her while preparing another red [Energy Ball], letting the Devil use his body so he could defeat Sylvia who was now stronger than him, but with no possibility to go against him.
S-Shen…?
A horrified expression covered Sylvia’s face as a feeling of dread and helplessness washed over her entire body.
… Now I remember…
?!
On Shen’s indifferent face two strands of blood slowly flowed down his cheeks from his bloody eyes which now were gazing sharply at her, such making her heart to sting.
I still have no memory… but my feelings for you have returned.
T-then why-
Because they now turned into hate.
Another [Energy Ball] was shot out and Sylvia, still in a state of shock, was unable to react in time and took the blow in full.
Gah!
The energy ball exploded right in front of her and sent her flying for a few dozens of meters, stopping on something with her back. When she looked back, she saw that she actually stopped after bumping into Shen who instantly appeared where he stood now. With tears into her eyes, she reached up to him, her hand trembling. She knew that what Rosabhi used as reason to turn Shen into what he was now, was the information of her closing all the gates that might have given Shen the possibility to return home.
S-Shen… I did it… for you… So you won’t have any regrets, Shen…
He inclined his head with a lax expression then lifted her by the neck, clenching his grip hard enough to almost stop her flowing blood.
Gah! S-Shen…! P-please-
No regrets? Listen up you dumbass. Just who are you to say that I would’ve regretted if I would have returned home? Just who are you to ban me from thinking of my home? Just who are you to decide and think in my place? Are you actually that dumb thinking that “love” is actually a slavery contract? So you wished to chain me to this rotten and collapsing world just how Rosabhi was chained to my soul? And you call yourself human?!
S-Shen, please… wait…!
No more words, monster.
Nine great revolving crystals appeared atop Shen’s opened palm, ready to charge up his newly created skill. The nine crystals then united and a purplish-red sphere formed, lightly directing it toward Sylvia’s stomach.
[God’s Bane]
-BOOOM~!!!-
A shockwave strong enough to obliterate the entire hill, with a thunderous sound to make even space itself shake and bend, left behind a large crater in which Sylvia’s weakened and injured body was laying down, breathing heavily and while coughing, grabbing her stomach in pain while spitting blood. The cloth from her stomach area was completely destroyed while a dark, bloody bruise appeared with a deep imprint as if thunder struck her in a spiralling form.
S-…Shen… I never…. wished you… wrong…
With a weak and hushed tone, Sylvia said while trying her best not to lose consciousness. Shen on the other hand slowly levitated right in front of Sylvia, staring from above with cold indifference. He then opened his palm and inside it, a dark hole started forming, which was slowly but surely forming a star inside of it. While the star was creating, Shen’s calm voice resounded.
The fact that you destroyed any chance for me to learn of my past while thinking you do me good only shows just how much of a plague you’re to me.
Shen’s tone was calm, but for Sylvia it sounded even colder than the frozen Hell. It sounded as if the two of them just met for the first time in their lives. As if Shen was now slowly killing and erasing everything inside him that had something to do with her. These thoughts made her tremble in grief and even for her heart to slowly bleed in sorrows. Small tears fell down her cheeks as she stuck her forehead to the ground.
Shen… just what… should I do… for you to forgive… me…?
…
Shen continued to stare coldly and looked at her left ring finger, on which a golden ring was shining dimly with the rune of protection shining with a weak glow.
-SLASH~-
!…
One of her fingers suddenly was sent flying but Sylvia didn’t even flinch, only looking with wide-open eyes at the ring she received from him, now slowly levitating towards Shen.
Ho~?
Shen looked inside the ring and observed a small space magic-circle for depositing. He activated it by forcefully destroying the connection between it and Sylvia, making her head to throb, then he took out from inside it a small white rose with its petals still closed.
S-Shen. Please… give it back…
Sylvia tried with all her might to get back up and to reach towards him, but Shen didn’t even mind her as he said with a small smile.
You know? I choose this rose not because it was the most beautiful from all the roses, but because in a way or another, it reminded me of you.
…
Sylvia stopped for a moment and looked helplessly at the golden ring and at the small, young rose, while Shen continued to talk,
I always asked myself why I choose a rose that didn’t bloom for you.
Then the ring shattered into thousands of pieces, turning into powder that flew with the wind, making Sylvia shout in tears,
Noo! Shen! Please-Cough-!
Because of her severe internal injuries, Sylvia started spitting blood while her consciousness was slowly drifting away, now laying down while barely being able to gaze at the rose in Shen’s hand.
Shen then continued with the same indifferent eyes, cracking the stone pot in which the rose was in and grabbing it by the closed flower.
Now I know… It was because my love for you was yet to bloom, just like this rose with its petals still closed. However-
-POW!-
The rose then suddenly exploded into tiny pieces, each piece being engulfed by dark flames right after, burning in the air and leaving nothing behind.
Unable to even move anymore while staring at the burning pieces, Sylvia couldn’t do anything else but cry in silence as her sorrowful eyes dimmed, losing all hope.
Such a mistake shall never be done now that I learned the truth. And you, just like this mistake, shall be forever erased.
[Super Nova]
Shen then lowered the blinding sun downwards toward Sylvia, shooting it and completely erasing her after a great explosion engulfed the entire surroundings such, having his first wilful kill in this life.
…
“Guh!”
Sylvia suddenly woke up while sweat covered her entire body, trembling and feeling a bone-chilling coldness enveloping her. She hastily looked around and after seeing the familiar room inside William’s villa, She finally breathed a sigh of relief. Feeling a fluctuating aura outside, she looked through the curtain of the window and observed Shen continuing to wait for the golems even in the middle of the night while meditating. Remembering Shen’s indifferent gaze inside her dream made Sylvia pull the curtains back. She entered into another meditation to heal her weakened aura then focused slowly on a connection she wasn’t aware when it has been formed.
Rosabhi.
She called out calmly but with some lingering emotions still present in her tone.
What did you showed me and why?
After a few moments of silence, like a nightmare, Rosabhi’s voice resounded with growling irritation,
[I detest this name and the one who gave it to me.]
Then a more sinister yet amused tone reverberated through Sylvia’s mind,
[Kekeke~. How was it? Lovely, right? The future in which you will finally release your loved one from the strains of the devil and receive his never-ending gratitude and benevolence~. Oh, such a dreamy ending.]
…What are you implying?
Hearing his sarcastic remarks, Sylvia couldn’t help feeling irritated and asked once again with a repulsive feeling.
The next moment, another deafening laughter struck Sylvia’s mind, making her frown bothered.
Khuahahahaha~! you foolish girl! What is so hard to tell from that premonition?!]
Premonition…?
Sylvia’s face palled and her left hand on which the ring was still placed on her finger, slowly started trembling. Thinking that her dream was actually another premonition but from the devil, left her heart to sink.
Engulfed in her own thoughts, Sylvia finally asked with a frozen expression,
Why did you show me such…? Don’t you wish to be freed from inside Shen’s burning soul’s cell?
[Kekeke~… I do wish to get out from this hellish place. But once I’m out, I’ll also be forced to leave. Even worse, he might destroy me the moment I’m out. Why should I risk myself when I can let him worry every day, feel the fear of having his seal broken at any moment?]
And such… you decided to show me this so I won’t open his heart…
[Being all the time under pressure, feeling tense and even nervous, like a pebble under the weight of a mountain. Ahahahaha~! Why would I risk being erased when every day I’m paying him back in full?! And now that you know what the consequences are, you won’t be able to release his soul… Never!]
You devil! How dare you… How can you use my weakness like this…
At this moment Rosabhi’s words struck Sylvia like a bullet in her heart. Although she was now much more powerful than Shen, Sylvia was using Hamata as a medium to transmute her feelings of love and affection into strength and power. Because of her strong feelings, the pure energy received after transmuting would rival anyone on Sario, but this left one great weakness: she will become completely helpless in front of Shen, the source of her power, having no chance of confronting him if he ever wished to turn against her whole-heartedly. As a result, she had no way of stopping Shen from giving up on Sario without having to resume herself to other underhanded methods. Closing the forming spatial rift every time it happened to open, asking and even convincing Ryu to join her into making Shen see Sario as his home-world, but indirectly making him have Shen forget about Earth as well, using her own appeal into trying to distract Shen’s attention when it was drifting back to his own home. Such underhanded methods made her feel like the last woman especially that she did all of this to her own beloved one, such making her feelings of frustration and guilt to grow by the day.
[…]
Feeling her incredible anguish, Rosabhi’s amusement subsided then growled in contempt.
[Many times have I told you not to choose Omisus, but your love has blinded you even as a godly spirit. Foolish Luna, now look at you, burning yourself in the fires of Hell for that bastard Omisus.]
Huh…? W-what do you mean?
Sylvia’s heart shook and asked confused, unable to believe that the devil actually showed some kind of compassion for her.
The devil then turned more agitated and wished to continue,
[Why don’t you understand, Luna? I am the one who-]
