Seeing that clarisse has lowered her sword, Thomas sighed in relief before taking a seat then pointing at a near chair. "Come, take a sit. We have a lot to talk about."
Without saying a word, Clarisse nodded and sat across Thomas. The two were facing each other, none dared to be the first to speak to the point the atmosphere felt a little bit awkward.
Then thomas told her of what he saw. Her meeting with her brother, Chris. The necros which appeared to capture her and Gazzel, the agent of the organization.
During the entire chat, Clarisse was extremely shocked. And her surprise when Thomas mentioned her meeting with her brother didn't escape his eyes.
When he finished, both of them were staring at each other. After a few moments, Clarisse took a deep breath and asked with some uncertainty in her voice. "Are you one as well?"
"One what?" Thomas had a guess about what she meant by that question, but he didn't answered.
"An experiment, like me." At the last moment, her voice failed. Thomas could only imagine how nervous she must be feeling right now as she didn't even have something like the information he got from that agent.
"No, I have nothing to do with all of that. But in a way I guess we both are meras."
'Meras?' The young blonde girl was confused by that word.
"Hehe." Thomas scratched his hair, then went to use some of the words said by the demon lord. "Meras, mixed beings. A person which has something unnatural or otherworldly mixed with them. I don't know a lot about it, but I can tell we both are Meras."
When he said the word mera, Thomas activated his partial demon transformation on his right arm which transformed into a large demonic claw filled with unique purple patterns. "I don't know how it all happened. After that day the city was attacked by demons, I woke up with these powers. I have not been subjected to any experiment it just simply happened."
While he wasn't telling the whole truth, it couldn't be considered as a lie since he really didn't know how or why he got the system.
"Something unnatural..." Clarisse muttered the words, agreeing with Thomas. She understood what Thomas meant.
Back when they used to be in the same class, Thomas was just a brave and energetic boy obsessed with martial arts and the wish to become an adept. So he spend most of his time training instead of playing with the other children. He didn't have that many friends even at that time and clarisse had been one of his few friends. Even so he was still pretty popular with his classmates and teachers.
Truth be told, she was indeed interested in him more than as a friend but they were too young at that time and each went their separate way.
When they reunited at the cake shop all those weeks ago, she had felt something different about him, he had lost that highly spirited aura and had become a lot quieter. The overwhelming confidence he used to have has been nearly extinguished and replaced by some deep melancholy. She had always been curious about this determinate ex-classmate could change so much in just four to five years.
In the end, no matter how big the change in personally had been, he still didn't lose that spark in his heart and the courage to rush forward amisd danger in order to save lives. A courage she has always failed to see it in herself who tried to escape from her problems.
It was really late so Thomas went into moonshadow form and took directly to her place before heading back home.
As soon as Clarisse saw she was alone in her room, she started thinking about that day.
.....
Clarisse had just finished helping evacuate all the civilians away when they found the military.
"You guys, come here." The soldier took a few other conrades to escort these people to safety.
Immediately he noticed something strange when finding that group. The manager, her coworkers and customers were completely terrified of the scene they had just witnessed.
Some even pissed themselves, but one single girl in her teens had pair clear, sharp eyes which didn't seem to be afraid.
"Mister, there is no need to worry about me. I can protect myself."
Instead of following the soldiers, Clarisse refused their protection and rushed back to the cake shop by herself. At that moment she had felt the presence of a high rank demon and understood it wasn't the time to hold back.
In her present state, she didn't have any power to fight but she could clearly feel Thomas drawing the demons.
Once she reached the street, she saw all the low-rank demons gathered around the big, silver-haired one and she knew he was the high-rank demon.
From how distant she was, she could only watch the high rank demon threw the spear which pierced through Thomas' chest.
'Claire, I need you.' Clarisse pressed her hand against her heart and uttered the some words. Her body shook as a fiery wave of flames burst from the ground like magma. Her hair changed colors as the plain facial features of her face transformed into an astonishing beauty.
"You want me to help?" A streak of scarlet flames crossed through the street, cutting down hundred of demons.
The high rank demon noticed the appearance of a human expert and tried to defend himself but was blown away by her fist.
That red-haired female snorted when seeing how easily she dealt with that demon and went to look for the youth her other self was worrier for only to find an unbelievable event happening before her eyes.
She had followed the traces of blood to reach stone stairs. Thomas body which had a huge hole on its chest floated off the ground when a yellow-colored dimensional rift opened in the air and took thomas inside.
...
At least it was what her other self, Clair, had told her. Clarisse couldn't believe what she heard from her alternate personality. How could a human who was heavily injured suddenly open a rift by himself and enter it.
On the next day she went to his address to see if it was real and then she real all those injuries he had been inflicted with were gone as if they never existed.