Belial - a fateful night (Vol.1) ✅

Chapter 31

Two days later, a visibly ill-tempered Lyric arrived at Ariana's villa. He was wearing dark blue trousers and a violet-blue shirt with a black sweater - for once without a floral pattern. A pair of black sunglasses with rose appliqués on the edges covered part of his face, but not even that could hide his bad mood. He had been so close to a breakthrough when Belial's raven had arrived, forcing him to stop and set off, hence the reason for his bad mood.

Ariana greeted him with joy and Lyric elegantly bypassed a hug since he couldn't stand them. She was as disgustingly good-humored as ever, as if she had eaten a clown and pooped it out as a rainbow. "Lyly, how are you?"

Again, this ridiculous nickname. He frowned and gave a, "It's fine."

"As always, the grumble puss. It's as if you just swallowed iron nails," she returned with a snort.

If he was honest, he would have preferred to do that instead of standing here with her and being smothered in her good-humored nature. But what's the point, he couldn't change it. At that moment, Belial came around the corner, and Lyrics' face brightened. His friend greeted him with a firm handshake. "Where's your mate?" Lyric asked as he didn't see the blonde.

"He's waiting in the common room. Let's go," Belial replied and Lyric nodded before following them.

Lyric found the blonde sitting on the sofa, looking at his left hand with a serious expression on his face. What's going on? Where was the warm aura that surrounded him before? Time to get to the bottom of this.

Belial didn't mention the reason for his visit in his message but he would soon find out. He assumed that it had something to do with Aleksander - what else? - He sat next to him, took off his sunglasses, and hung them on his collar.

"Well, what's the news?" he asked the demons' mate directly.

"Three days ago, Ariana dissolved the top level of my seal. That has revealed something, and we don't know what it is. This sign appeared and we wanted to get to the bottom of it," Aleks replied, holding his hand out to the runic demon.

When Lyric saw the symbol, his face darkened. "May I touch it?" he asked, and Aleks nodded. Carefully, he ran his finger over the symbol. He didn't feel any ennoblement, the skin was smooth. As I thought.

"Do you know what that is?" Belial asked.

"It's not a rune. Runes are burned onto the skin, so they are scars. You can feel them when you run your hand over them. So, it's a curse mark."

"A curse mark?" Ariana asked, who was surprised by the answer. "That's not possible. There is no negative vibe from this."

Lyric interrupted her with a hand gesture. "It's not that kind of curse mark."

He knew that Belial and Aleks didn't understand what he was saying, so he explained it in detail: "There are two types of curse marks. The first and most widespread type is that in which someone is cursed, which is triggered by the fulfillment of a condition."

"Like yours?" Belial returned with a sad face.

"Yes," he replied briefly. "The second type of curse marks is very rare because you are born with these. By saying a specific command, Aleks can trigger a response or action. You could say that he can trigger a blocked ability. These are skills that can be dangerous when they get out of control. This isn't limited to one skill, there may well be several."

"Then this is like a seal, which the owner can dissolve himself. What happens if Aleks activates the mark?" Ariana asked.

"He can use his ability unrestrictedly, but only until he runs out of energy. Then it will deactivate itself automatically."