The area of the battle was an unsightly thing. After recovering his aura enough, Mr. C cast the concealment spell again and covered the whole area, leaving unsuspecting cops and the fire department to think that the calls they got from the people around were false alarms.
Mr. C called in the repair division and they teleported to Brookworth university in no time.
Ronnie sat atop the trunk of a car next to Lily, they were covered by a large towel. Josh stood at the side, still in awe of everything he had seen earlier.
There was an awkward air between the two, they hardly said a word to each other.
"I'll just— give you two a moment yeah?" Josh said, excusing himself and walking up to Jay.
The silence continued with both of them stealing glances at each other.
"So—" they both chorused.
They looked at each other and had a slight laugh.
"I'll go first. There's something I really have to tell you" Lily said, stroking her hair behind her ear. She then turned to look Ronnie in the eyes.
"I'm sorry I lied to you, Ronnie. I didn't know how you'd take the truth." Lily said.
"What truth?" Ronnie asked.
"How do I put this, demons feed of human aura. All the negative emotions humans feel, it radiates off to the demon realm and we feed on it. Therefore—"
"Demons indirectly engineer unfortunate events to provoke negative emotions from humans in order to steal off aura." Ronnie interrupted.
"Have you been doing that since came here?" He asked.
"doing what?" Lily asked.
"Causing humans to feel negativity in order to feed on our auras" Ronnie said.
The air around them got even more tense as the conversation progressed.
"No, I promise I haven't. I'm always with you, at every minute of everyday." Lily said.
"The thing is— being around humans, being around all this negative energy, I absorb all of it without even trying to, whenever I'm not with you" Lily added.
Ronnie stared at her with confused eyes.
"I don't think I follow" Ronnie said.
"You have a pure aura, Ronnie. Yours keeps me under control. It's safe to say you're my limiter" Lily said, with a small smile.
"What if I go out of control again? I can't help you if I can't even keep myself under control" Ronnie said.
"I'll be your limiter then. Our contract, we have a special bond, Ronnie. It's not something I can explain" she responded. She ran her fingers over the sigil on the back of Ronnie's palm.
Ronnie wore a small smile.
"Thank you, really" he said.
Lily still looked uncomfortable. Her eyes wandered, hardly meeting Ronnie's.
"What's wrong? It's all over isn't it?" He asked.
Lily took a big sigh.
"That thing I said about you not having people you care about, about you but having a family, I shouldn't have said that. It was such a hurtful thing to say" Lily said, her voice shook.
"Again, she has shown her vulnerable side to me. There's definitely more to her than I am yet to know" Ronnie thought as he stared at her in amazement.
He flicked her forehead lightly and gave her a warm smile.
"What was that for?" Lily asked with a confused expression.
"It's your punishment for being mean to me, we're good now" He responded. She smiled, then laughed.
"This face, I want to protect this smile" He thought.
"Why— why are you so fixated on protecting me? Even when you knew I was much more powerful than you?" Lily asked.
He wore a shocked expression.
"Was she reading my mind? Can she do that?!" He pondered.
"You don't have to answer that. The question came to mind randomly" She said.
"Oh, I see." Ronnie said and laughed nervously.
"The thing is— I brought you to this world. I want to make sure you're safe. So I'll do anything to keep you safe. I— care about you, Lillith" Ronnie said. His pale face had turned beet red. He looked away from her.
Lily was left speechless after receiving the answer to her question.
She muttered a silent "I see" and went back to being silent.
"I still can't believe it. Your friend really summoned a demon. I saw the whole thing with my eyes and I still can't believe it. How are you taking all of this?" Cynthia asked. She stood with the rest of the squad, and Josh. Jay leaned against Dylan. He was trying to replenish his aura after healing the whole squad.
"I'm having a hard time processing it, but I think I understand. I was there when he summoned her, with his blood. We didn't expect it to work out. I especially thought it was some dumb board game. Although, he acted strange at some point" Josh explained, he rubbed his chin.
"Strange?" Mason asked.
"He could read a strange language, speak it even. I secretly took a picture of the board and searched for it online but I found nothing at all on it" Josh replied.
"Can we see the picture?" Mason asked.
"Sure" Josh said, pulling out his phone and searching for the picture.
They gathered round, all burying their faces in Josh's phone.
"It's— demon tongue. We took classes on it at the academy" Cynthia said.
"demonic tongue? If Ronnie wasn't yet bound to Lillian when he picked up the board then how could he read that language? Is Ronnie a—"
"Now aren't you a bunch of mystery loving detectives? Are you all done patrolling the perimeter and checking if there are any injured?" Mr. C interrupted. He had come out of nowhere.
"Yes sir!" They all stood attention, all of them expect Jay who was still too weak.
"We should clear out for the fix—it—felixes to do their thing. You all are dismissed for the rest of the day" Mr. C said. He placed both hands on his waist, looking at Ronnie from that distance.
"Chief, what do we do about this one?" Zeke asked, pointing at Josh.
"Well, he saw everything. It's all up to the kid" Mr. C said.
"Boys," he called out.
"Sir?" They chorused.
"Make no mention of the sword to nobody within the agency. No one at all, understood?" Mr. C said, he wore a serious expression on his face.
"What's a sword?" Zeke asked.
They all laughed and headed off.
"See you later, Chief" Cynthia said.
"C'mon kid" Mr. C said and gestured for Josh to follow him as he walked towards the car where Lily and Ronnie sat.