Divine Calendar Year 5568
The Faceless Realm
Outer World: The Forsaken World
***
Nova was about to exclaim joyfully(at her answered prayers) but she paused when her eyes anchored on a figure, perfect skin speckled with water drops, rising from the glistening pool...stark-naked.
Her eyes dropped immediately and brazenly, from their flawless upper muscles to curiously study their mesmerizing lower body. They were quite...her lips parted. Oh my... Her pupils trembled as her fingers slackened. Her throat dried up and she bit her lower lip.
Nyx quickly assumed his physical form, exhausted by Nova's unconcealed thoughts. He appeared beside her and glanced at her worriedly. Right now, all he could do was watch as the innocent 'lamb' in the hot spring was continuously violated in Nova's fantasies.
"I'm convinced now," Nova whispered to herself breathily. Her cheeks were flushed. Her eyes darkened with intense feelings. Nyx didn't even want to guess what those 'intense feelings' were.
"W-What...are you convinced of...?" the boy beside her asked, trembling as he looked away from her.
"I'm convinced that I had saved the world in one of my past lives. Otherwise, why would I find the thing I love most as well as one of the things I enjoy most, all at the same time?" she asked, already gliding down from the gaping hole at the side of the cavern. Nyx ran after her and grabbed her waist, hugging her from behind to restrain her.
"No! You can't go there! I won't let you commit a crime like this!" he protested, grasping her waist tightly. Nova's eyes narrowed. She was smiling warmly as she looked down at the small arms clasped around her. Nonetheless, her eyes were as cold as the frosty world outside the cave.
"Nyx. Let. Go. Of. Me. Right. Now," she enunciated every word, her ice-cold palms settling on Nyx's warm arms. The boy shivered as though his soul had been caressed by the devil.
His face paled. Nonetheless, he pursed his lips and stubbornly maintained his stance. "I won't. I know what you're thinking of doing. I can't just watch you commit a crime. How could I ever speak nobly to others with the knowledge that I once left you to your own sinister devices?" he asked adamantly.
Nova chuckled icily as though he'd cracked a joke. Again, her words dripped with venom. "You're overthinking. I'm just going to pass my greetings," she remarked in a carefree tone and continued striding with a gleeful spring to her step.
She was now around 200 meters from her prey...cough...guest—who was, unfortunately for her, hidden behind a large, blue crystal jutting from the ground. She clicked her tongue at her obscured view. Well, at least the prey—er, no, friend—had not noticed the predat—um...her—yet.
Nyx gave up and let go. Anyways, she would probably not do anything wrong...right...? He sighed deeply. Nonetheless, at that moment, a large shadow dashed past them nimbly. His eyes widened as a massive force promptly sent him flying into the air only to land roughly on his side.
Nova suddenly felt a humid breeze lift the edges of her black hair and make her skirt flutter gently against her thighs. Then, the euphonic but frigid voice of a man sounded beside her ear, followed by the chilling sensation of a sharp metal against her neck.
"Who are you?"
The girl inhaled a sharp breath, frozen by the intense bloodlust of the man behind her. With the blade at her neck, her mind was woken by a rush of blood from her ear. His cold words seemed to have frozen her ear but heated her blood.
"I'm...I..." she paused, hesitating, sensing that Nyx had been demobilized in the split of a second, since he was not responding to her signals. Ugh... What was this situation? Couldn't she ogle in peace at the first, good-looking male lifeform to have appeared before her?
"Waste another second and your head, as well as your child's head, will be severed by my sword," he threatened.
Her child...? Nova stifled the laughter threatening to break out from her throat.
She had 77 lives though. Maybe she could humour this man by dying and reviving?
Nova shook her head inwardly at the silly thought. No. The most important thing would always be survival. She cleared her throat and focused on her words. Everything she would say would determine her life or death. "I'm...a lost young lady. My son and I had our family torn apart by terrifying beasts as we were wandering within the labyrinth," she said, sobbing morosely and wiping her crocodile tears. 'If he doesn't fall for this, he's a psychopath.'
Nova suddenly extended her hand to her back without looking at the man's face directly. The man didn't motion, but she could feel the cold metal on her neck quiver slightly. Her fingers found his hand that clasped the hilt of the sword.
"Just end my life right now. But I beg of you, please spare my dear son and take him as your own! He might have a stubborn personality and cries a lot, but he's too precious of a gem to abandon," she articulated in a high-pitched tone, tears rolling down her rosy cheeks, and nudged the sword to press her neck. Blood trickled from the shallow cut at her neck. This was really taking her act to the next level, but it wasn't enough yet.
"This blood..." Nova sniffled as her other hand caressed the shallow cut on her neck. Blood marred her fingertips as she smiled sadly with tears balancing on her eyelids. "As long as my blood runs in his veins, I will still be alive through my dear, beloved son."
Nyx, who had been struck down earlier, gasped from the crystalline ground and looked up at the odd scene. Nova was weeping pitifully as she encouraged the man to kill her but spare her son.
'She had a son?' Nyx wondered disbelievingly, but a daring thought struck him.
"Mother! How can you say that I'm stubborn? How can you say that you would leave me?" He piped up in a childish and hurt tone, his brows furrowed. Crying was a bit too much for him though, even in that situation.
The masked man dressed in a pitch-black outfit from head to toe released a soft, tired sigh and retracted his sword after peeling Nova's fingers off the hilt. Nova turned her body and repeatedly bowed with her palms clasped together. "Thank you. Thank you so much, good sir," she said repeatedly, "My ancestors have granted you a blessing that will follow even your direct line of descendants."
"Next time, don't spy on people," he coldly advised her, his blue eyes catching her conflicted gaze. Nova's smile turned crooked as she looked into his blue eyes and nodded wordlessly.
As the man in a black mask assessed the specks of Nova's blood on his sword, Nova and Nyx secretly communicated telepathically. Though, on the outside, Nova appeared to be a caring mother checking if her traumatized child had any injuries.
Nova(her smile replaced by a wiggly incision on her face): "He noticed me, huh?"
Nyx(rolling his grey eyes discreetly): "You deserved it. You wanted to cheat on my father."
Nova: "Your father is a cuckold."
Nyx: "..."
Unlike what both of them had in mind, however, the masked man was not at all convinced by their act. His interest was increasingly piqued as he studied Nova's blood.
His blue eyes glinted darkly with inexplicable feelings. His dark-gloved hands rubbed the blade's sharp edge, tracing it until he stopped before the crimson traces of blood. "Dark witch's blood, huh? Very...interesting," he muttered under a shuddery breath to himself.
In this unorthodox but fated encounter, the gears of fate were slowly but definitely beginning to shift.