Hello, dear readers! Here's chapter 64!
Ill' let you enjoy the long chapter.
See ya next week!
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Damovotsk, Molkovia, Earth.
Demian's P.O.V.
The rest of the road trip was relatively uneventful, filled only with some friendly, sometimes flirty banter between the two lovers and punctuated by peaceful silence. A few hours later, Demian finally spotted the nearby capital city. Throwing a brief glance toward Seraphine, he declared. "We're almost there, Love. I can see Molvograd from here." His words pulled the redhead from her thoughts before she commented with visible relief. "Finally! Long travel by car is really my nemesis. I feel sore all over." Chuckling wryly, Demian replied. "You're complaining but what about me?" Glancing his way, an amused smile found its way to her face before she responded. "Fair enough! To be honest, I don't think it's the best solution to keep the muscle car. It's too impractical."
Nodding his head, he remarked. "I agree, but it's Bryn's car, so she's the one who has to make the decision." Tapping gently on the armrest located to her right, Seraphine replied. "True. I'll talk to her about it later. By the way, do you know where we're going exactly? I forgot to ask Mom earlier." Scratching his cheek in embarrassment, Demian responded."I also forgot. Let me ask Bryn." As soon as those words left his mouth, he used his Divine Sense to prod his older cousin, prompting her to deploy hers in his direction. "Big sis. Could you ask your Mom where we're going exactly? Sera and I forgot to ask." Clicking her tongue, the redhead sitting by his side remarked. "You didn't have to tell her that, Babe." Her tone then switched to curiosity with her next question. "Are you using the so-called Divine Sense to talk?"
Ignoring the amusement coming from her reaction, he answered with pride. "Yeah, but we had to be clever about it." As her mouth was opening, Demian was easily able to guess what she was going to ask him and thus explained himself. "Divine Sense, at least for us, can't transmit thoughts. I don't know if it's a Level, Rank, or technique problem, but whatever it is, Bryn and I can't talk through it. So, we brainstormed a bit about how to go around that problem previously..." The interested expression she was sporting brought a smile to his face, giving him the urge to stop talking for a moment, just to tease her. Noticing the man falling silent, the young woman had an exasperated look surface on her face. "We both know you're doing it on purpose." Chuckling slightly, he declared. "I'm just joking, Love. Your irritated look is just so cute that I can't help but tease you. To be fair, every look of yours is either cute, beautiful, adorable, or funny..."
His sudden declaration made her expression switch from slightly amused, to delighted. Those last words even brought a big smile full of happiness to her face. Her beautiful expression was so captivating that his mind fell into a brief daze before shaking himself awake when he noticed the car moving dangerously close to the railings on their right. As a relieved sigh escaped him, the tension gradually left his body before a thought traversed his mind. 'Damn it! That was close!' Tilting her head, the petite redhead asked, curious. "What's wrong, Babe? I can feel the fear inside your heart..." Throwing a brief glance toward the clueless woman, he answered nonplussed. "I'm scared of you, woman. Well, more like I'm scared of how incredibly beautiful you look. I almost sent us into the ditch when you smiled at me." Looking speechless at his explanation, she mumbled wryly, her feelings were a chaotic mix of pride, happiness, and exasperation. "How can you make both a compliment and a reproach with the same words...?"
Shaking his head, he was about to reply when his Divine Sense caught Bryn's words from the SUV in front of them. Freezing for a second, he stated wryly. "About your previous question, we just use our Divine Sense to 'hear' the other's words. That's how we got around the limitations." Cocking her eyebrow, the redhead suddenly said. "Seeing you changing the subject so quickly... Let me guess, Big Sis told you something, didn't she? Something along the line: 'Stop messing around or I'll beat you up.'" Her guess was so accurate that Demian let out a sigh of amazement before commenting. "I really don't understand how you can be so good at guessing that kind of stuff." With a prideful smile on her face, she replied. "I'm very smart and I know the two of you like the back of my hand. So, of course, I'd be able to guess her reaction. That aside, did she say anything else about our destination?"
Nodding his head, he repeated what his oldest cousin told him earlier without mentioning the fact that Adeliya was laughing so hard from knowing what happened that she almost sent the car into the ditch as well. Thankfully, Bryn's superhuman reflexes saved the two of them from wrecking the car for such a stupid reason. "We're close to my... My father's mansion. From what she told me, it should be located right outside Molvograd. On the North side of the city, to be precise." Tilting her head slightly, she muttered with interest. "I wonder what Uncle is like... I think the last time I saw him was when I was only three years old when..." As if she realized what she was saying, she did not finish her sentence. While sporting a stony expression, Demian finished her sentence. "...When I was born and that man decided to abandon me. You don't have to be scared of saying it. It's the truth after all. I've had 18 years to get used to it."
As his voice resounded in the car's interior, he noticed the car in front turn off the highway and head along a smaller road. Following their lead, he spun the steering wheel to the right, his focus partially shifting from the road before him to the small hand that unexpectedly found itself on his shoulder. "You're forgetting something, Dem. I can feel your emotions, so lying about that in front of me is completely useless." Fidgeting slightly in his seat, he tried to divert her attention with an awfully bad joke. "What about behind you? Would that work?" Noticing the crease between her eyebrows, he knew deep down that she would not let him avoid the subject any longer. He could not help but hope, though. 'Unfortunately' for him, his intuition was spot on. "Demian Mikhailov! Are you a child or a grown man? Tell me what you're feeling for God's sake!"
Her words instantly melted every wall, shield, and other 'protective measure' he set up around those deep-seated wounds he had carried for years, vainly hoping for them to disappear by themselves. Unfortunately, those festering emotions turned into uncontrollable anger, the latter starting to cloud his judgment at high speed. Thankfully, his mind was strong enough to temporarily control himself and quickly stop the car on the side of the road. Aware of what could happen to the woman he loved dearly in case he lost control, he immediately exited the parked vehicle and started walking away swiftly, going deeper and deeper through the forested area nearby. Despite consciously believing that going farther from Seraphine would solve his problem, his walking pace was strangely slow, as his mind and body were working on different wavelengths. His legs even stopped moving when her voice reached his ears, while her heart was filled with anger and frustration. "Wait for me, for God's sake! Why don't you want to talk to me? Am I just someone you can discard when you're done fucking me?"
Those words instantly broke the last tenuous grasp he had on his rage, prompting him to turn toward a thick oak close by and throw several heavy punches, cutting the trunk into two pieces, with the upper piece falling noisily on the ground a few meters away from him. The brief explosion of violence seemed to have vented some of his pent-up emotions, at least enough for his mind to steadily regain control of himself. Turning his head toward the redhead who had dashed to his side, he spat angrily. "I'M FUCKING PISSED! HAPPY?" Shaking her head slightly, she started mumbling. "Of course not, but..." Cutting her off, he shouted. "SHUT UP! STOP TALKING! JUST... Just stop... Please..." Looking a bit hurt, the woman could only utter one word. "You..."
Feeling the hurt she was experiencing through the bond, he turned his back to her as uncontrollable tears started running down his cheeks. Fear, anger, sadness, and a flurry of negative emotions were growing inside him, making him recall the previous situation with Bryn. While a sad smile surfaced on his face, he started blaming himself inwardly. 'Why am I like this? I feel so useless... I've got everything I've ever dreamt of but... I'm such a loser...' As his thoughts turned darker and darker, his spiritual energy started going out of control, rampaging inside his spiritual channels to the point that they were getting damaged more and more. Unfortunately for him, his mind was too busy to catch what was happening to his body. It was only until his channels were about to break that two relatively small arms circled his torso from behind. The unexpected physical contact instantly dissipated the fog filling his mind and helped him realize his precarious situation.
A slight mental exertion later and his rampaging inner energy returned to normal, flowing smoothly through his damaged channels. 'That was close!' He thought briefly while letting out a relieved sigh. He also noticed that, despite being relatively slow, those previous damages were starting to heal up, probably due to his Perk, eliminating the need to find a healing medicine to deal with them. Feeling a bit better, memories started rushing back to his mind, reminding him of the reason why he was in this situation in the first place. Swiftly turning around, his strong arms brought the petite woman in a tight embrace. While a tremendous feeling of guilt filled his heart, he whispered in her ears, his voice breaking a few times from the emotions he was experiencing. "I'm so sorry, Love... I... I don't know why... I was so... So angry... I didn't mean to talk to you like that... I'm sorry... I'm really sorry..."
Tapping gently on his back, she replied with similar emotions lacing her voice. "It's okay... I shouldn't have pushed your buttons like that... I just felt like you were going away from me and I got really scared..." Shaking his head vehemently, he declared. "Never! I'll never leave you! You're the most precious person I've got in this world..." Pausing for a second, he then continued with some hesitation. "It's just that talking about my father, I felt... Like my mind was filled with dark emotions that tried to bring me down and everything around me..." After falling silent for a few moments, the two felt much better, prompting Seraphine to declare. "I get that you don't... I mean, if it's too difficult for you now... I..." Chuckling wryly, she muttered. "I can't even speak properly now... Why do I feel like I'm getting dumber..." Rubbing her cheek gently against his torso, she commented light-heartedly. "You're definitely rubbing off on me, Babe." Chuckling deeply, he replied. "Aren't you the one doing the rubbing there?"
Pausing for a second, he added. "Joke aside, you don't have to explain. I get it. To be honest, I don't think burying those emotions will do me well in the long run, especially considering what just happened. That and we're going to meet him today, so..." Letting out a sigh, he pondered a bit on his next words before starting to speak slowly. "I've shared a bit on my previous life's father with the three of you a while ago..." After some hesitation, he continued. "I didn't go into too much detail, though. One reason being that, technically, he wasn't a big part of my life. The other reason is that he did have a big impact on my life. The thing was, it wasn't a good impact." The petite redhead's voice then reached his ears. "Since your parents divorced, I can see why... I sometimes dream of my Dad, of what it'd be like to have him still be around..."
Stroking her back tenderly, he wondered out loud. "I wonder what's the worst... Is it to have never met your father but know that he loved you? Or is it to have your father so focused on 'growing his international business', as he put it, to have time for his children, to the point that I'm not even sure he knew our name...? And that's without even taking into account my current father who, for some reason, abandoned me as soon as I was born and never contacted me again..." As the words left his lips, his voice turned somewhat absent-minded. "I guess they both saw me as worthless... After all, why would they do what they did if they didn't see me as worthless, right?" Despite feeling hurt, Demian could not help but have a feeling of longing for something that, deep down, he knew, he was not meant to have. However, as a famous philosopher once said: 'The Heart has his own logic that Logic itself can not fathom'.
"Babe! Look at me!" Sera's voice caught his attention, prompting him to lower his head until both of their eyes met. The woman that seemed so...Tiny, so...Fragile... That same woman embraced by him suddenly exuded an incredibly powerful aura that compelled him to focus intently on her and her next words. "You need to understand this, Babe. You define your own value. No one, not even your own biological father can do it for you. That being said, I get that his opinion of you still hurts, but it's only that: his opinion. Also, don't forget those around you who are convinced that you're an amazing person. So, why should you let those people's opinions have an impact on who you are and what you do?" As soon as those words registered, his mind shook slightly, making him see the situation in a different light. Nonetheless, old habits were hard to get rid of as he replied, although not too convincingly. "It's not as easy as you make it seem, Love." Cocking her eyebrow, she retorted. "But it is! You just THINK it's hard. I can even prove it to you." Not letting him speak, she carried on with a simple question. "If it's so hard, as you put it, what makes it so? Is someone putting a gun on your temple? Or maybe put a knife on your throat? Come on, give me the specifics." "I..." Despite wanting to answer her question, his mind drew completely blank. "The reasons are... They are..."
'Right. Why did I let them make me feel miserable for years? I... No... Fuck! I don't know...' A brief thought traversed his mind before he asked, feeling lost. "I don't know, Love... I... I feel like you're right but I just don't know what to do..." Searching his face for a brief moment, a satisfied smile appeared on her face as she claimed. "You're the only one who can find the answer to that. My only advice is to face what you're feeling. Don't hide it anymore. Remember that I'm your lifelong partner and that means I'll also be here for your 'Heart problems'. Not just your 'Dick problems'." Those last words made him burst into laughter, lightening the heavy emotions previously plaguing him and making him realize. 'Right. One step at a time. As long as I'm aware of those negative emotions and face them, there'll be a time when I'll be completely free from them.' As the thought went through his mind, a few words left his lips. "Thank you, Love. For everything you are and everything you've done and are doing for me." His words and the warmth in his voice made the woman blush and smile in happiness.
Without leaving her any time to respond, his head lowered until their lips touched. As soon as their mouth connected, however, something unexpected happened. A huge surge of energy appeared in Demian's body before being mirrored in Seraphine's body. The two panicked slightly when they noticed the fact that they were incapable of moving their body. Fortunately, a few seconds passed with no adverse effects happening to them, calming their tense nerves. Feeling reassured, Demian then started investigating the origin of the energy surge and its effects on both of their body. What he found through his Divine Sense stunned him for a moment before his heart became filled with delight.