Chapter 357: What happened to you?

"...I need to stop raising flags."

Lucian muttered to himself and just then—

BOOOOOOOM

He heard another explosion, this one was much stronger than the others. Even when he was hundreds of meters under the ground, he could feel the vibrations travel through the ancient stone beneath him.

He noticed the dust falling from the ceiling, he also noticed the smallest fragment of rock that shifted at the very corner.

He was noticing an awful amount of things now.

And the worst part—

"COME OUT!!"

Neroth’s screams were now deafening, overwhelming his already sensitive ears. He could hear him far too clearly, but even then, he couldn’t tell where the voice was coming from.

That was the problem.

Right now, Lucian was hearing every damn thing, very, very clearly. It was all messing with his head violently.

He tried to calm down, to focus on individual sounds and try to make sense of them.

He failed.

It was too overwhelming, tens of thousands of footsteps alone were enough to overwhelm his senses, but along with them there were also screams, some were terrified screams and crying, some were orders he couldn’t make sense of.

He could also hear some glass breaking, metal twisting, water, rain...?

He had no idea.

It was too much.

"Ghh..."

Lucian felt a strong headache.

His sense of smell wasn’t making it any easier either, he could smell the blood, the sweat, the scent of the oddest of things.

And the worst was the desire.

Tens of thousands of strands of desire, desire to run away, desire to control the situation, desire to tear the enemy apart.

Every single thing was being blended together into an incomprehensible mess.

And then there was him.

"LUCIAN CROSS!!! COME OUT! OR I’LL COME TO YOU!"

The Archdemon was angry, very, very angry.

"...and here I thought we two made such good memories."

Lucian sighed to himself.

BOOOM

He then heard another explosion, he looked above, he still had no idea what was happening. One thing, however, was very certain.

Whatever it was that was happening, it wasn’t small.

The entire Arcelis Territory seemed to be falling apart.

Lucian slowly pushed himself up from the ground very, very carefully, he had absolutely zero faith in his ability to control his new body.

Then, something else happened.

Click.

Lucian looked up as he sensed something move right above him.

He recognised the sound even when his mind was being overwhelmed by an unimaginable number of different sounds.

It was the same mechanism that brought him down here.

And very quickly, Lucian realised it.

She was here.

He remembered Aurelia saying she was coming, then Neroth telling him how she would need thirty minutes, just like he did.

It seemed like thirty minutes had passed.

"Finally..."

Lucian let out a big sigh.

His eyes remained fixed on the ceiling, very quickly, the stone moved apart and a platform came down.

Once the platform descended enough, Lucian could see her.

Aurelia.

Only that...

"Aurelia?"

The instant Lucian saw her, his expression changed.

Aurelia was... barely standing.

Her shoulders were slumped, her breathing was much heavier than normal, her usual perfect posture was gone. If it wasn’t for the stone pillar she was holding, Lucian highly doubted she would even be able to stand.

He kept staring at her.

Her usual presence, that terrifying, almost impossible-to-detect presence that Lucian was now used to...

It was nowhere to be seen.

She looked... weak.

And Lucian couldn’t understand it.

Aurelia Veyr was an Ancient Vampire.

A monster who even Vivienne acknowledged. In the time he interacted with her, he had never seen her look even remotely vulnerable, then...

What happened now...?

And a more ominous question—

Who did it?

As Lucian thought about it all, Aurelia descended. She tried to walk towards him and instantly lost her balance. Lucian acted on instinct and moved towards her—

Big mistake.

His body moved much, much, much faster than he had imagined in his mind. Aurelia noticed his movement and widened her eyes in surprise. She also quickly noticed his lack of control and while she did try to move away—

Her body simply couldn’t.

"Shit—"

Lucian couldn’t stop himself either, he collided right into her and both of them fell on the ground with Lucian now lying on top of her.

For the next few moments, neither of them spoke.

Lucian blinked.

Aurelia stared at him.

Lucian had one hand planted beside her head and his other hand was wrapped around her waist. Their faces were barely a few centimetres away.

Lucian was looking down at her, she was looking up at him.

It was quite romantic really.

Just that—

BOOOOOM

The territory they were in was in shambles.

"This is hardly the time to jump on me, you know?"

Aurelia spoke as she continued looking at him. Noticing her relaxed tone, a slow smile appeared on Lucian’s face as well.

"I just couldn’t control myself."

It was actually true.

Just not the way Lucian was saying it.

Aurelia stared at him. His smile grew, her expression remained flat, but what mattered more was that she didn’t push him away.

Probably because she couldn’t push him away, but Lucian ignored that part.

He just stared at her with a big smile on his face.

She looked pale, much paler than usual, her breathing was also strained.

And while Lucian stared at her, she stared at him and as she did, her expression changed. Her eyes moved all over his face, his darker hair, his brighter, deeper eyes, his clearer skin, his denser body.

Then, her eyes returned to his face, his face that now seemed... even more handsome than before.

"You..."

She called out.

Lucian was always... stranger than normal. His very existence was mysterious, but this...

This was something different.

Lucian’s entire Aura had changed.

Aurelia could feel something deep, something... demonic from him.

It was strange to say it, considering Lucian did have demonic blood, only this time, everything, his very presence seemed... very, very different.

"What happened to you?"