Eric, at this moment in time, was in a camouflaged rocky sphere reevaluating his choices in his life, quite a strange place where to decide to start a process this important, but the painful voice of Rubra had this effect on him, so he continued thinking.
*She started lighting fire to everything in her surroundings, and she asks me what went wrong?!*
*The strange thing, was that I didn't feel any killing intent deriving from her.*
If it was luck or not depending on the point of view, he had experience recognizing killing intent deriving from monsters or killers, like the various bandits he encountered in the past or his past 'dear' comrades.
Up to this point, everything seemed to follow his predictions: he stupidly decided to tell her the truth in the false hope of getting his first honest relationship with someone.
Following hardly ever his irrational and emotional self, he started feeling unsure about this plan even before he began speaking.
Then, when he started seeing flames, he thought with thick irony: *I knew at that moment I fucked up.*
Slightly sad but constantly berating himself for even trying the less safe and optimal way, he proceeded with his plan B.
He tamed the rocks under his feet and, hidden in the flames, he created a 1 to 1 copy of himself.
Then thanks to the diversion, he managed to escape the circle of fire(death) created by Rubra and proceeded to escape with the help of the surrounding wind, subjugated like the rocks.
Finally, with the same method, he created this make-shift secret base to hopefully wait for Rubra to go away and gain the possibility to escape from the forest.
All of that happened without any minimal fluctuation in mana: both his Dominion and the Phoenix kin skill didn't use mana, and none, apart from rare individuals that could perceive souls, could recognize from a distance something strange was happening.
Living with her for such a long time, Eric was still ready to bet that she wasn't trying to trick him and that she was genuinely worried, not understanding his behavior.
His mind was cursing him while doing this.
It was similar to the usually depicted angel-devil interaction representing the internal struggle about the choice to take but, in his case, it was more correct to talk about a battle between the left(rational) and the right(emotional) lobe of his brain.
Still, he decided to talk to her, writing letters in the ground through his Dominion.
''Don't you want to kill me because of my lies?'' a wall with the words engraved on it appeared in front of the crying phoenix.
After finishing reading, she started crying louder.
''How could I ever kill the person I love?! ''
''You suffered so much and still found the courage to tell me the truth!''
The time felt like it stopped then and there for Eric first, with a sharp pain difficult to describe in the middle of his chest.
His pain was caused by her louder cries.
A couple of seconds later, he realized what she said.
The same happened to Rubra: her emotional pain was so much that she didn't manage to control the feelings she had concealed up to that point.
She definitely didn't want her confession to happen that way, crying, surrounded by flames while talking about death, betrayal, and another woman who was possibly interested in Eric.
Sadly it was too late for this kind of thought.
Hidden in his now ever so comfortable rocky hideout, he felt a variety of emotions in a combination he never felt before pain, fear, unrest, doubt, and unexpected to himself happiness.
His mind was a mess at the moment, but something similar was happening in hers.
She didn't hear or receive any answer to her words through the wall in front of her.
What was disappointment for not having a perfect confession became fear of the pain of being rejected by her beloved.
The surrounding silence was painful to her.
The flames listening to her disappeared since her mind was in such disarray.
Not knowing what to do, she decided to escape to the place that could give her any relief at this moment: the cave where she lived with her parents.
Eric was still as confused as before, but when he saw her in the process of enveloping her body in the fire to start flying, his feet moved without his will, and his right lobe won after an extenuating fight.
''Stop, please!''
His strong voice reached her just a moment before his right hand grabbed her left arm, his speed higher than her thanks to the help of wind together with fire.
Tears were still in her usually pale face, it was now red showing him the effect his escape attempt had on her.
Unconsciously his mind said:''Still beautiful. ''
Blushing even more, but not out of pain but happiness, her reaction made Eric understand that he vocalized his thoughts and he turned on his feet, starting to blush himself.
''Cough...so you don't want to kill me, eh?''
He said, in order to relax the mood and, at the same time, try to shift her attention from his blunder.
Giggling slightly but still shy about what happened before she answered:''Already told you, stupid.''
In his mind, the alert lights passed from red to yellow, but still, he didn't manage to forget what she shouted before while crying and what name had the emotion he was feeling now, so he tried gaining time asking some more questions.
''So you got angry because of my lies...?
He already knew it was the wrong answer from what she said before, but it was the only logical answer he could get at, and he had to ignite the talk in some way.
''No, it was because I got angry thinking about what your ex-comrades did to you and...''
She was calmer now, but the longer the silence became, the lower her gaze went as if trying to disappear because she couldn't see anyone.
He couldn't help but find that image cute, and a desire to tease her made him say with a slight grin:'' And...?''
Watching his face, she started pouting but continued with a lower volume of voice still.
''I was jealous because of your relationship with the woman you called Esis.''
The picture was complete for him now.
She was in love with him and started raging because of the combination between wrath and jealousy.
He had to do something about it now.