Meanwhile, after checking if a side room was empty, Lith and Phloria entered it and she locked the door behind them.

"Don't worry." She said in reply to his silent question. "The room is sound proof, no one can hear us from the outside."

Lith used Life Vision to check his surroundings while Solus did the same, replying only when their magical senses confirmed her words.

"Are you really hurt or is there something you need to tell me?" Lith knew that Quylla was a Healer almost as good as he was and that the phantom pain was likely an excuse.

Lith would have loved to tell her about he too had needed to speak with her in private, but seeing her with his amulet and between the arms of someone else had left him more confused than he had expected.

Everything that came to his mind would either make a fool out of himself or make the situation even more awkward than it already was.

Phloria was experiencing almost the same emotions. She had avoided Lith until that day because time had helped smother her feelings, so that their relations.h.i.+p felt like it could be a thing of the past.

But everything seemed to be coming back after seeing him again. Phloria's mind felt so fuzzy that she didn't even remember the reason why she had brought him there.

"Kamila seems nice. You two must be happy together."

"Kallion doesn't seem bad. I hope he treats you right." Lith had so many things to say to her, yet only the most idiotic ones seemed to be willing to pop out of his mouth.

"He doesn't seem bad?" Phloria chuckled, making him realize how much he had missed that smile and the sound of her voice. "So he doesn't seem good to you either."

"I don't know him. I can only say what I see." Lith shrugged.

"Why are we here?" His question came out much colder than he intended. His brain and his mouth seemed to be disconnected.

"I just wanted to know how are you. I mean the real you, not the mask you wear in front of everyone else. Have you mastered Death Vision yet?" She took a step closer, realizing it was the first time she had to look up to meet eyes with him.

Their past was so distant, yet it felt like it was yesterday.

"It's not a power, more like a curse." He replied.

"I have learned how to keep it under control under normal circ.u.mstances, but that's it. To make matters worse, there's no trace of something similar in any book I've consulted. You have no idea how does it feels to watch everything and everyone you love die over and over again."

"I remember it almost drove you insane." She sighed.

"Did you tell your family about that thing with you and the shadows?"

"No. I have never told anyone else, but I got better." It pained him to admit that she was still the only one he had ever shared that secret with. In his mind, Solus didn't count because they didn't share anything, they were one and the same.

Lith flexed his shoulders as his second form swallowed his tuxedo. He stood slightly over two meters tall, covered in thick curved black scales with hands and feet that ended in razor sharp claws.

It still lacked the horns, the wings, and the tail which only appeared during tribulations. His face was a black slate with no nose or ears. Two yellow eyes were open, while the slits for the other five, although visible, were shut closed.

'Why did you do that?' Solus was shocked.

'I don't know.' He honestly replied. Just like when he had fought the Abomination lurking near his house, it simply felt like the right thing to do. Yet while back then it was a response to his fury, now it was to his fear.

The part of Lith which had never stopped hurting ever since Carl had died, which was so full of hatred that it only wanted the entire Mogar to burn, was trying to prove its point.

It wanted to show him that he had done the right thing by letting her go. That there was no one he could really trust. A cruel grin appeared on his face, revealing a mouth full of fangs and fire as he expected her to scream in terror.

"Good G.o.ds." Phloria turned a little pale in surprise, but she didn't flinch.

"All those years ago I was right. You do really have dragon blood in your veins."

"Since when do dragons look like this?" His voice was a low growl as he waved at his demonic appearance.

"Dragons look however they want." She shrugged in reply.

"If you had feathers, I would have thought of a phoenix or a griffon, but scales yell dragon to me." Phloria stepped forward instead of back, just like that night in her room. This time she needed to stand on her tiptoes to touch his scaly cheek.

"Does it hurt?" Even the question remained the same.

"No. Not since I've accepted what- no, who I am. Thanks to you." He placed his scaly hand over her soft one, unable to hold his words anymore.

"As I told you after the second exam, I'm a broken man, shattered into so many pieces that my original form is unrecognizable. Yet you managed to turn the metal I've spent my whole life steeling myself to be, into soft fabric.

"Then, you spent almost two years of your life mending me. No matter how many times I pushed you away, either with my rude actions or my endless secrets, you were always there for me.

"You picked up all those pieces that I had given up on and sewed them back together. You've seen me at my worst, yet you never gave up on me, not even when I showed you this ugly self of mine.

"You taught me that even in this cruel world there can actually be someone who's worth trusting, someone that can accept and love me beyond what shallow words can express."

His thumb caressed the back of her hand as smoke and flames came out of his seven eyes in small bursts. It was supposed to scare her, but it made her cry instead. Unbeknownst even to Lith, his second life force had no blood nor tears, only fire and shadows dwelled in his body.

"You made me want to try and be more than powerful, to be better. For all that, I'm grateful to you and I always will be. I don't care who you marry or what kind of person you'll become, I will always be there for you.

"If you ever need my help, just call my name and I will come. I will discard my duty and my honor, I will pierce through the gates of the heavens and the netherworld if they stand in my path.

"Not even death could prevent me from coming to fight by your side, because that's the only way I could ever repay you for what you did for me."

Lith turned around, a.s.suming his human form again.

"Now it's better if we return to the Main Hall, otherwise people will start gossiping about us. More than usual I mean."

Phloria stupidly nodded at his back, despite knowing he couldn't see her. She and Solus were both crying from the bottom of their hearts, because those words were the closest thing to a love confession Lith had ever done.

'f.u.c.k me sideways! Solus, why didn't you stop me? That was the closest thing to a love confession I have ever done!' He thought.