The golden threads of the sun crept through my room's curtains, but they weren't half as hot as the excitement boiling in my veins.
A "diabolical" idea had been born in my head, enough to make the dignity of the cursed prince melt like wax under the flame of my mockery.
I jumped out of bed like a hurricane, showered with lightning speed, and carefully donned the official academy uniform.
I pulled my hair into a messy bun that suggested a calculated spontaneity, added simple touches of adornment, and a heavy spray of my favorite perfume.
Standing before the mirror, I contemplated my wide, defiant smile:
"Get ready, Kaius, for the bomb I'm about to drop will make your throne tremble."
I left my room with the wind panting behind my confident strides. As I approached the classroom hallway, I spotted him.
He was there, in his usual provocative manner, leaning against the wall with aristocratic coldness, skillfully fiddling with a gold coin between his fingers while the girls around him whispered with bated breath at his nauseating handsomeness.
I said to myself with a vow:
"And now... it's showtime."
I gathered my breath and called out in a loud voice that pierced the hallway noise:
"Kaius!"
Time stopped for a moment; he turned slowly, and his sharp yellow eyes collided with mine.
I didn't give him a single second to process my presence. Instead, I dropped my resounding bomb in front of everyone:
"Good morning... my Dragon!"
I deliberately pronounced the word "mydragon" with a tone drenched in affection mixed with authority, as if I weren't merely greeting him, but placing my mark of ownership on him in front of the world.
A deathly silence fell—a silence so profound that I heard the ring of the gold coin as it fell from Kaius's hand and hit the floor.
The girls' gasps rose like a choir of the panicked, and whispers began to spread like wildfire:
"Did she say my dragon?"
"Are they dating?"
Meanwhile, the teachers froze in their tracks, horrified by the sheer audacity.
I saw the veins in his neck pulsing clearly, and the tattoo on his cheek glowed with a sudden, disturbed golden flash, as if Astaroth within him had recoiled in response to my call.
The coin fell, and he didn't care for it. He kept staring at me with wide eyes, as if I had stripped him of his majesty in the middle of the courtyard.
Through the contract, I felt a wave of violent turmoil washing over him.
His heartbeat, drumming in my own chest, grew fast and irregular, telling me one thing: I had successfully struck his pride to the core.
Kaius stepped toward me with strides that seemed steady but were charged with immense tension.
His voice dropped to a hiss only I could hear while his eyes blazed with bewilderment:
"Aria... do you realize what you've just done? You've declared war on my reputation in front of the entire academy!"
My smile widened with a fake innocence I had mastered on my face. I intended for my voice to be audible and clear, like a bell ringing in everyone's ears.
I gasped lightly, placing my palm over my mouth in a brilliant performance, looking at him with wide eyes overflowing with feigned "worry," and said in a resonant voice that made the entire hallway freeze:
"Kaius! Don't tell me you've lost your memory? Have you really forgotten? We made that contract yesterday... is it possible you forgot so quickly?"
I blinked my eyes several times in front of his shocked face, as if I were an innocent child trying to remind him of a shared "intimate" secret, while in reality, I was plunging the blade of my mockery deep into his royal prestige.
The silence that pervaded the hallway was terrifying. I could almost hear the hearts of the girls around us breaking; the teachers were nailed to their spots, and students began exchanging stunned glances.
For in the academy's dictionary, the word "contract" meant only one thing: an eternal, inescapable bond.
Kaius stood frozen, seeing no one but Aria—this mad girl who dared to pull the "DarkContract" into the light and turn it into a public "scandal."
I saw the tattoo on his cheek pulsing with a glowing red color; Astaroth inside him was about to explode from the sheer confusion and power.
He took one step closer, enough to make the students shrink back in terror, but he leaned down to my level and whispered in a voice trembling with suppressed rage and shock:
"Aria... you aren't just playing with fire; you're burning the entire academy over our heads! A 'contract'? Do you realize you've made yourself the Prince's 'fiancée' before the entire Empire now?"
With total lightness and audacity, I took the step that made the whole hallway hold its breath.
I drew closer until the scent of my perfume mingled with the smell of his surging golden energy. I slowly raised my hand to rest it over the dragon tattoo that was twitching under his skin.
I began to stroke it with my fingertips with a deadly softness, as if I were taming a fierce beast in front of everyone.
I said in a resonant, audible voice, charged with the accent of a devoted and confident "fiancée":
"And so what? Whether it's a contract or an engagement, the result is the same... No one in this cursed Empire matters to me or deserves a glance from me, except for 'my dear dragon' here."
I was faking absolute innocence, painting that starry-eyed look on my face that suggested to onlookers that I was his and he was mine, while I was actually digging my claws into his royal pride and stripping him of his dignity piece by piece.
Beneath my hand, I felt Astaroth shaking with dark joy, as if the dragon had surrendered to my touch, leaving its owner to face the scandal alone.
Kaius couldn't pull my hand away; with my touch on the dragon tattoo, he felt a strange numbness spreading through his veins, as if Astaroth were commanding him to stay still.
He stood frozen, bewilderment coating the features that were once invincible.
The students' gasps rose like a hurricane, and girls began to retreat with pale faces, while Kaius fixed his yellow gaze on Aria's eyes.
He whispered in a hoarse voice, trembling between anger and suppressed infatuation:
"You truly are mad... You've made yourself a target for every enemy of the throne with these words. 'Your dear dragon'? Do you realize that now you're no longer just a student, but the Prince's partner in every coming destruction?"
With a smile that sliced through my face like a poisoned dagger, my red gaze met his turbulent golden eyes, and I whispered in a dancing tone that held not a shred of fear:
"And I... I cannot describe how excited I am for this destruction, Kaius."
I didn't wait for a response. I removed my hand from his dragon tattoo with a provocative slowness, reaching out to settle in his wide palm.
With a sudden movement, I interlaced my fingers with his firmly, ignoring the tension that surged between our skin like an electric current from the cursed contract.
I pulled his hand behind me and dragged him with an audacity no one in the Empire's history had dared to show.
I walked through the academy hallways like a queen leading her royal captive, my wicked smile never leaving my face as I heard his rapid heartbeat thumping in my chest, telling me the extent of his confusion and the loss of his dignity beneath my feet.
Kaius froze for a second, as if his brain had stopped processing reality.
The Prince, whom everyone feared even to breathe around, was now being dragged behind Aria as if he were her subordinate.
He didn't pull his hand away; instead, he surrendered to the strength of my grip and followed me with steps that seemed calm but hid a volcano of bewilderment.
He looked at our joined hands and felt Astaroth inside him growling with a muffled laugh; the dragon was enjoying being the "property" of this abyss.
The hallway that was teeming with students turned into a silent guard of honor.
Mouths hung open in shock, and books fell from the hands of female students who couldn't believe that "Cold Kaius" was walking behind a rebellious girl, even allowing her to interlace fingers publicly.
Kaius leaned in slightly as he followed her, whispering behind her ear in a tone overcome by dark pleasure despite the anger:
"You aren't dragging me to class, Aria... you're dragging us both to the gallows. But I'll admit... this kind of 'destruction' is starting to appeal to me."
My loud laughter rang out to fill the classroom corridors—a laugh that wasn't without the tone of a victor who had thrown the first stone in this chess game.
I entered the hall with confident steps, all eyes fixed on us like poisoned arrows, and I dragged him behind me until we reached his usual seat.
I sat beside him with total ease, as if I owned the place and everything in it, then released his hand with provocative slowness.
I leaned my elbows on the table and placed my face between my palms, staring into his golden eyes which were overflowing with a mysterious glint under the effect of the shock.
I said in a tone dripping with cunning and spite:
"What do you think now, Kaius? How does it feel for the Great Prince to see his 'prestige' crumbling, and his reputation chewed on by students' tongues as the biggest scandal in the academy's history?"
A suffocating silence filled the class; students stopped breathing, and the teacher froze with chalk in hand, while I enjoyed every second of this royal confusion.
Kaius sighed deeply, exhaling hot air as if expelling the remains of Astaroth's burning within him.
He didn't move to pull away. Instead, he leaned back in his seat, interlacing his fingers with the coldness that returned to shroud his features, but a mysterious side-smile began to form on his lips.
He looked around at the terrified and curious faces, then returned his gaze to me and said in a very calm voice, but one that carried a weight that terrified everyone in the hall:
"Scandal? You call it a scandal, and I call it 'changing the rules of the game.' If my reputation is to be linked to a woman like you, so be it... but remember, Aria, scandal is a fire, and you are now in the center of its flame with me."
While I was absorbed in the clash of my defiant gaze with Kaius, the classroom door burst open violently as Christoph stormed in, his eyes scanning the faces eagerly like someone searching for a lost truth amidst the wreckage of rumors that filled the halls.
I raised my hand and waved to him with confident coldness.
As soon as his eyes fell on me, he froze for seconds that felt like an eternity; he had just realized that the nightmare he heard outside wasn't just student gossip.
He stepped toward me with shaky strides, distributing his scattered glances between me and Kaius, who sat beside me with the provocative dignity of kings.
He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut off his train of thought with a finishing blow, saying in a resonant tone dripping with sarcasm:
"Christoph! Good of you to come... let me introduce you to my 'dear fiancé'... Kaius."
A deathly silence fell over the hall, as if the air had been sucked out of the onlookers' chests.
Christoph stood transfixed, his face turning as pale as a wall. He murmured in a voice trembling with shock:
"You're hallucinating, Aria... this is impossible. Tell me you're joking!"
I shook my head in cold denial, a mysterious smile playing on my lips as I said:
"No jokes here. It happened faster than you expected—or even I did."
Then I turned toward Kaius, fixing my gaze on his golden eyes which were watching me in a suspicious silence, and added in a tone carrying all the cunning of the abyss:
"Isn't that right, Kaius? You could say it's... mutual interests."
He didn't deny it. He didn't move; he remained in that sitting position, back against the chair, fingers interlaced with aristocratic coldness.
He looked at Christoph with a sharp gaze that made the latter take a step back.
Kaius said in a deep, calm voice:
"Interests are what run the world, Christoph... and Aria realized early on that her interest lies in the shadow of the dragon. Do you have an objection to my 'fiancée's' choices?"
Christoph looked at me with eyes full of disappointment and bewilderment, as if seeing the monster he warned me about had already swallowed me. He whispered in a choked voice:
"Interests? With this man? Aria, you aren't making a contract... you're signing your own death warrant!"
Everyone turned to the teacher who began demanding silence, but the contract binding me to Kaius started pulsing strongly.
I felt Astaroth's muffled laughter inside Kaius's chest, as if he were enjoying seeing everyone collapse before our new "game."
With a cold smile, growing on my lips like a poisonous flower blooming in broad daylight, I stared into Christoph's terrified eyes.
I had no intention of reassuring him; rather, I wanted to increase the weight of the truth he feared.
I said in a terrifying tone, calm enough to cause shivers:
"And who said I wouldn't be executed, Christoph? I only... postponed my death for a time that suits my 'dear dragon'."
I threw my words out like a blade tearing through the room's silence, and turned slowly toward Kaius.
My gaze pierced him, loaded with a hint only he understood; a hint reminding him that the "contract" binding us wasn't just an alliance, but a shackle for a shared death.
If I fell, he fell, and if my soul was extinguished, the flame of Astaroth would go out with it.
Kaius's side-smile froze for a moment.
He felt the blow below the belt; my words weren't directed at Christoph as much as they were a reminder to him of my power over his life.
I saw the tattoo on his cheek pulsing with a sharp golden flash, as if the dragon within him were growling in recognition of this inevitable fate.
He reached out and grabbed my hand that was on the table, squeezing it with a force that took my breath away for a second, as if proving to everyone that he owned this "abyss" even if it would lead him to the gallows.
He said in a deep voice that shook the corners of the classroom:
"Death in your company, Aria... seems like the only reward worth waiting for in this boring life. Isn't that right?"
A funereal silence followed. Christoph retreated, holding his head, unable to comprehend this "dual madness."
The students began whispering in terror:
"They're talking about death as if it's a stroll!"
The classroom fell into a charged stillness, like the calm before the storm.
Christoph retreated with heavy steps, a mysterious look forming in his eyes; it was a mix of disappointment, terror, and something else deep I couldn't decode, as if he were saying goodbye to a version of me he no longer knew.
He sat in his seat with a back as stiff as a sheet of ice, refusing to turn toward me.
Around me, whispers rose like the annoying buzz of bees, and the students' gazes pierced me with poisoned curiosity.
As for the teacher, his features had completely changed; his gaze no longer carried that usual pedagogical authority.
Instead, a look of awe mixed with fear settled in his eyes.
He was eyeing me as if I had suddenly transformed from a rebellious student into a predatory, untouchable entity, simply because I had become the "fiancée" of this jerk sitting next to me.
A sharp annoyance took hold of me, and I felt a desire to scream in all their faces.
Damn them! I don't want these fools to fear me because I am "connected" to him, or because my shadow became linked to his cursed golden shadow.
I am Aria, and my strength stems from the abyss that dwells within me, not from the title this prince bestowed upon me.
I sighed heavily, and a tightness from deep within me pushed aside a bit of my previous excitement.
I stared at Christoph's stiff back in front of me, and felt a rare pang of guilt; he was the only one who saw the "real Aria" behind all this destruction.
"I have to tell him everything later..."
I told myself bitterly,
"I can't let him think I surrendered to this prince of my own free will for no reason."
Kaius felt the change in my energy; the contract doesn't just transmit heartbeats, but also sparks of annoyance.
He placed his hand on the table near mine, as if deliberately confirming our connection before the eyes of the teacher who was avoiding looking at us, and added sarcastically:
"Look at the teacher... he's trembling. Do you want me to order him to start his lesson, or should we settle for this much morning 'entertainment'?"
My nails moved in one last motion, deeply scarring the wood as if drawing a wound that wouldn't heal, then stopped suddenly when his hand approached.
I didn't shift my gaze from the void, and my eyelid didn't flicker, but I felt the heat of his provocative palm that landed like an invisible shackle next to my fingers.
His voice, saturated with mockery, flowed into my ear like a slow poison, trying to drag me into his farcical play.
Through that cursed contract, I felt his steady pulses and the shiver of his pride that fed on the fear of others.
He sees the teacher's terror as "entertainment," and I see it as just more noise in my head crowded with Christoph's image.
Without turning to him, and in a low voice that came out dry as burnt autumn leaves, I said with a still-distracted mind:
"Do whatever you like..."
I relaxed my hand resting over the scars I had made in the table, and followed with a coldness that killed all his attempts to provoke me:
"But don't expect me to applaud your sarcastic show. The teacher is trembling with fear of you, and I... I just feel bored."
My words were silent bullets aimed at his ego while my eyes remained hanging on Christoph's back, as if I were apologizing to him with my silence.
Kaius wasn't the type to accept being ignored as valid currency; his golden pride didn't allow him to be mere "background" in a scene where he was the protagonist.
When I spoke my cold words, I felt through the link that joins us a sudden wave of heat.
It wasn't burning anger, but something more dangerous... it was the pleasure of challenge.
He slowly withdrew his hand from the table, but didn't move away. Instead of being enraged by my description of him as "boring," I saw from the corner of my eye a wicked side-smile forming on his face.
He tilted his head toward me slightly, getting close to my hair until I felt his cold breath dancing against my ear, and said in a calm, confident tone that shook my being:
"Boredom? Then it seems your standards for excitement are very high, Aria. I'll consider this an invitation from me to raise the ceiling of the show."
Suddenly, with a movement characterized by absolute sovereignty, he raised his voice to address the teacher cowering behind his desk like a wet bird:
"Mr. 'Price'... I think my companion is bored with your sterile curriculum. What do you think about giving the entire class a 'holiday' for today? But on one condition..."
Kaius stopped speaking, his gaze still aimed at my profile, as if monitoring my reaction to see if I would break my stillness. Then he continued cruelly:
"On the condition that everyone leaves now... except for the student sitting in the front, Christoph. I want to spend some 'friendly' time with him to get to know my fiancée's old friends."
In that moment, my fingers stopped digging into the table. The blood froze in my veins.
Kaius knew exactly where to strike; he didn't hit my pride, he hit my only weak point in this room.
He wanted to prove to me that "whatever he likes" might include crushing all that remained of my humanity.
I finally looked at him, my eyes sparking with fire, while his smile widened as if he were saying to me explicitly:
"Welcome to my world, where there is no room for boredom."
I remained silent for seconds, watching the surreal scene unfolding before me.
It took no more than a blink of an eye for the classroom to empty; students scrambled toward the exit like a panicked herd of cattle, and the teacher was the first of them, dragging his cloak behind him in pathetic cowardice.
I remained, along with Kaius and his heavy shadow, and Christoph who stood like a mountain of ice in the middle of the storm.
I turned toward Kaius; anger had begun to boil in my veins, shattering that mental paralysis I was in.
I shouted in a choked voice, loaded with all the poisons of hell that dwell within me:
"What the hell are you trying to do?!"
His eyelid didn't flicker. Instead of answering, he raised his hand with provocative slowness, pushing his coal-black hair back in a movement oozing with vanity.
That rebellious white strand fell over his yellow eye—that eye that wasn't human in that moment; it was glowing with sparks of defiance, as if it were a mirror to a soul that knows no bounds.
His smile widened—the smile of a victor who finally managed to force me to look at him.
But what froze the words in my throat wasn't Kaius, it was Christoph's movement.
I heard the sound of his calm, steady steps, which were nothing like the steps of the broken person I saw minutes ago.
He approached us and stood at a very close distance, staring at us with a strange coldness—a coldness I hadn't known in him since I entered this academy.
There was no disappointment in his eyes, but a terrifying void... as if he had finally decided to reveal the monster he had been hiding behind a mask of kindness.
From my perspective, Kaius wouldn't be satisfied with just looking. He saw Christoph's approach as an encroachment on his property.
I felt his heart pulse with sudden heat, which was Kaius's signal to tell me he would begin his own "show."
Kaius extended his hand in a sudden movement, not to strike Christoph, but to grab my jaw and force my face to look into his yellow eyes, completely ignoring Christoph's existence as if he were an insect, and said in a voice dripping with poison:
"Look at me, Aria, and don't care about the wreckage standing behind you. Since the class is ours now, I will teach you the first lesson in belonging."
Then he released an aura of his dark energy that made the chairs around us shake and retreat backward from the pressure, isolating us in a narrow circle, as if placing an invisible wall between us and Christoph, challenging the latter to take one step inside his forbidden zone.
My breath froze in my chest as I witnessed a transformation I couldn't have imagined even in my wildest nightmares.
Christoph, that calm, composed person who always represented an oasis of tranquility for me, had disappeared.
But to my surprise, Christoph's eyes ignited with a terrifying defiance, and it wasn't just a passing look of anger; it was a declaration of war.
Suddenly, the air around him began to vibrate, and his body ignited with a raging fire—a wild energy whose weight I had never felt before, an energy threatening annihilation and destruction to whoever dared to cross its path.
Christoph didn't care about Kaius's dark aura, and he wasn't deterred by his influence.
With steady steps that pierced the charged silence, he stepped to the limit Kaius had set, as if smashing invisible glass, to stand right beside me.
So close that he almost touched me, and I felt the heat of his fires grazing my skin, bringing life back to me after I thought I had frozen.
I watched this scene for the first time; Christoph losing his temper, unleashing the beast latent within him.
My eyes widened with an astonishment I couldn't hide, and I felt something else creeping into my depths... a deafening admiration for the world.
He was beautiful in his anger, terrifying in his strength.
When Kaius saw this blatant challenge, he didn't retreat. Instead, that smile on his face widened to turn into a silent laugh dripping with evil.
To him, Christoph was no longer a boring obstacle, but a rival worth crushing.
With royal slowness, Kaius stood tall, leaving an aura of blackness flowing behind him like a torn veil.
He placed his other hand on the table, leaning his body toward Christoph until only a hair separated them, and said in a tone full of malice mixed with curiosity:
"Oh... so this is what you were hiding behind the mask of kindness and idealism? Fires from hell?"
Then he turned to me with a fleeting look saturated with possession, before returning his gaze to Christoph, whispering with deadly coldness:
"This step of yours cost you a lot, Christoph. You've crossed the line that separates survival... from annihilation. Do you really think your fire can match the darkness that dwells within me?"
In that moment, the dragon tattoo on his cheek began to glow with a deep red color, and I started feeling immense pressure in the room as if the walls were about to collapse over our heads.
Kaius was preparing to prove to Christoph and me who the real master was here.
The room turned into a miniature hell, and I was the one caught in the center of the hurricane.
Kaius, with a demonic majesty, was releasing waves of condensed energy that weren't just magic, but invisible blades tearing the air.
With every wave he sent, I heard the fabric of Christoph's clothes tearing, and saw his body being scratched and wounded before my eyes.
Even his face wasn't spared; the next wave caused a deep gash in his cheek, a thin thread of crimson blood flowing down his pale skin.
And damn it! He didn't move an inch.
Instead of breaking, Christoph increased the release of his energy, his fires raging more and more, as if he were feeding them with his blood and soul.
His fires collided with Kaius's royal energy in an explosion that shook the foundations of the classroom, shattering the glass and dropping the books.
Despite the wrinkles of pain etched on his features, he continued staring at Kaius with unyielding sharpness.
He even reached out to grab my hand firmly, shouting in the Prince's face with a sharpness that shook my being:
"I won't let you take her and turn her into a corpse... you bastard!"
My eyes widened in shock, and my heart began to drum the beats of madness in my chest. I felt terror for him taking over me, so I screamed at the top of my lungs:
"Damn it! What are you doing, Christoph?! You idiot!"
When Christoph uttered the word "bastard," I saw Kaius's features change in a way that terrified me more than ever before.
The smirk disappeared, replaced by a coldness capable of freezing oceans.
With terrifying slowness, Kaius raised his hand, and his movement wasn't human.
Suddenly, the dark energy condensed around his hand to turn into something like chains of burning black shadow.
He didn't send waves this time; instead, he lunged with lightning speed toward Christoph.
In the blink of an eye, Kaius was holding Christoph by the neck, lifting him off the ground as if his weight were no more than a feather, causing his fires to gradually suffocate.
Kaius whispered in Christoph's ear in a low voice, but it reached me like a snake's hiss:
"Do you think the courage of suicide will save her from me? You've committed the sin of touching what belongs to the throne, and now I'll show you the annihilation you were promising."
Kaius's black energy began to leak through the hand Christoph was holding, as if using my body as a bridge to deliver a painful magical shock directly to Christoph's heart, to force him to let go of me while hurting from the inside before the outside.
While Christoph's body was rising from the ground and Kaius's grip was tightening around his neck, I felt something explode deep inside me.
Fear was no longer the driver, but that abyss I had always tried to suppress.
The dam collapsed completely, and I unleashed my black energy to sweep through my being.
My eyes widened, and my gaze in that moment wasn't human at all.
I felt a searing heat burning my pupils as they glowed with a deep crimson color, while black veins throbbed like poisonous spider webs to surround my eyes and stand out on my cheeks.
The front strands of my hair flew up from the immense energy pressure I generated, as if I had become the embodiment of catastrophe.
In a movement swift as lightning, I found myself gripping Kaius's hand that was choking Christoph's neck.
It wasn't a woman's grip; it was a pincer of enchanted steel.
I tightened my fingers with all the spite I possessed, until I heard the sound of his bones cracking and breaking under the weight of my brutal force.
I forced him with that terrifying grip to release Christoph, who fell to the ground coughing up blood he had choked on, while I remained staring with my red eyes into Kaius's yellow eyes.
I screamed words that came from between clenched teeth, like the hiss of inevitable death:
"If you touch him... or touch a hair on him ever again, I swear by all I hold dear that I will kill you then... and I don't care if I die with you, for my soul essentially means nothing to me!"
A funereal silence fell over the classroom, and I felt through the cursed bond between us how my feelings reached him like waves of naked truth.
He sensed the sincerity of my words; he knew I wasn't just threatening, but that I was a walking corpse that didn't fear annihilation.
I threw his broken hand away with violence and disgust, as if getting rid of a filthy carcass.
As that energy faded, I began returning to my natural form, leaving Kaius in a state of bewilderment before this power he hadn't accounted for, and Christoph trying to regain his breath amidst a pool of blood and destruction.
A funereal stillness filled the classroom after the echo of the words I threw in his face like a death sentence.
I looked at Kaius, expecting him to erupt, to burn the place and everyone in it, or to kill me on the spot... but what he did made shivers run down my spine.
He didn't scream in pain despite the sound of his bones shattering that had filled the room.
Instead, he lowered his gaze to his hand that was hanging at a strange angle, fingers crushed and blood starting to turn blue under his skin.
He raised his other hand very slowly, and with his healthy fingertips, he began to feel the shattered wrist with a terrifying coldness.
Then, with terrifying slowness, the corners of his mouth rose to form that smile that doesn't resemble humans; it wasn't a smile of anger, but a smile of insane ecstasy.
He raised his gaze to me, and his yellow eye was shining with a strange glint, as if I had just given him the most precious gift of his life.
He said in a calm, steady voice, as if he didn't feel a shred of pain:
"This is the beauty I was searching for behind your rebellious mask, Aria... that filth, that honest spite... and that desire to kill."
He tilted his head to the side, completely ignoring Christoph who was lying on the ground, as if he were no longer part of his equation.
He took a step toward me, indifferent to my threat, and whispered as he brought his face close to mine until I smelled the scent of his dark energy:
"I believed you... I felt your sincerity through the contract like a blade tearing through my chest. And that is what makes you perfect for me. I won't touch him now, not because I'm afraid of your threat, but because I want to see how far you'll go to protect him... I want to see how much darkness you'll release next time."
With a sudden movement, he used his magic to mend his bones in an instant; I heard the sickening sound of bones knitting together, then he straightened his clothes coldly and added:
"The real entertainment has just begun. Go to your stupid friend... heal his wounds, for the more your connection to him grows, the greater the pleasure of breaking you will be when I pluck him from you at the right time."
He left me standing in my bewilderment and turned to leave the classroom with confident strides as if nothing had happened, leaving behind the smell of death and the promise of a coming hell from which there is no escape.