Chapter 344: Ch 343: Relieving Stress - Part 2

Lyra froze in place, and for perhaps the first time since Kael had known her, she looked completely incapable of finding the right words. Her face slowly turned red as she stared at him, and the confident expression she usually wore disappeared almost completely.

"D-Date me? You want to...?"

She repeated, as if she needed to make sure she had heard him correctly. Her finger was pointed at her chest, wondering if she had heard him correctly or not.

Kael nodded, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed himself.

"Yes. If you are still interested in me, then I don’t see why we should keep dancing around the subject. It’s not like someone else has confessed to me either."

Lyra stared at him for several seconds before covering her face with both hands. Kael was well aware of what was going through her mind.

He was not blind to Iris and Seraphina’s interest in him. But those two had not shown the courage needed to even say a word to him.

"This is not fair. You cannot suddenly say something like that after I have spent so long trying to make you understand how I feel."

Kael remained quiet, and Lyra continued.

"And you are asking me right before we enter a dungeon?"

Kael finally sighed and decided that he should answer her question now.

"I thought it would be better to tell you before we went in."

"That makes it even worse!"

Kael could not help but laugh at her reaction, but Lyra eventually lowered her hands and looked at him with a bright smile that was impossible to hide.

"Fine. Then I accept. It’s not like declining you was ever a choice I had in the first place."

She reached out and grabbed his hand before he could say anything else.

"After we clear this dungeon, you are officially going on a date with me."

Kael looked at her sparkling eyes and felt like he needed to tease her a little bit.

"Is that how it works?"

"It does now."

Lyra declared before pulling him towards the dungeon entrance. Her energy seemed to have increased twofold, and she was much more cheerful compared to before.

Kael shook his head helplessly and followed after her, but there was a small smile on his face as well.

For someone who had spent most of his life avoiding romance, he had somehow ended up promising a date to the Demon Queen.

He supposed things could have gone worse for him.

’Let’s think about this later. For now, I need to focus on the dungeon in front of me.’

The moment they stepped inside the dungeon, however, the atmosphere changed completely.

The bright streets of the modern world disappeared behind them, replaced by a dark cavern filled with glowing crystals and strange markings carved into the walls.

Kael immediately stopped walking.

"This is different from the previous dungeons."

Lyra nodded while looking around.

"There is something strange about the mana here. It feels almost as if this place was built for something. The monsters here also look strong. Ah, I want to smash them all."

Kael closed his eyes and reached out with his senses.

The dungeon core was somewhere deeper inside, but there was another presence mixed into the mana. Something that made the back of his neck feel cold.

"Lyra, stay close to me."

She looked at him with a teasing smile.

"Are you already worried about your future girlfriend? Don’t worry, because I am strong."

Kael sighed.

"I am worried because there is something inside this dungeon that should not be here."

The smile disappeared from Lyra’s face, and she looked serious all of a sudden.

"I see. In that case, you are the one who needs to stay close to me. I promise I will protect you with my life—"

That was the last thing Kael wanted. But before he could say anything, the ground started to shake and collapse. It made Kael and Lyra lose their balance, and they almost fell into a crack. But Kael managed to grab Lyra at the last second and use his magic to get them out.

The crack continued to expand until it slowly started to engulf the whole floor. And soon, monsters began to emerge from that crack.

"These monsters..."

Lyra started but was not able to finish speaking. Kael was already aware of what she wanted to say.

"They have a demonic essence. It’s as if someone has taken the demons and mixed them together to create these creatures. They don’t seem to possess any intelligence either."

Those words made Lyra hiss, and she looked even angrier.

"So, in other words, someone decided to make chimeras out of the demons, right?"

She asked in an annoyed voice, and Kael nodded.

"It seems to be that way. So, what are you thinking of doing next, Demon Queen? It seems like something that is within your domain to handle."

Lyra did not say anything at first, and her eyes continued to look at what was happening in front of her with a chilling calmness.

But it did not take her long to make a decision either.

"Well, isn’t it obvious what I want to do? Since these monsters decided to take the form of my people, then it is only obvious that I should welcome them as my fellow demons, right? I will show them the real demon world courtesy... by smashing them into pieces."

Lyra jumped down toward the hole where these chimeric demons were coming from, and she wasted no time in starting to kill them.

Kael followed her down after some time as well, but unlike her, he just watched from the sidelines. For now, he had no desire to join her.

The chimera demons were slow and had no mind of their own. They were just following their instinct to go after whatever was moving.

And Lyra took advantage of this, and with a single smash, she took out waves of them.

But no matter how much she smashed, there seemed to be no end to these monsters, and she was starting to get tired.