Belial - a fateful night (Vol.1) ✅

Chapter 34

Almost a week passed while Lyric and Aleks recovered. Lyric had to recover from his blood loss, while Aleks had to replenish his energy reserves. He had gone far beyond his limit, which had taken its toll. Aleks didn't waste the time he spent on bedrest. He read numerous books on the anatomy of demons and the different races, as well as demonic medicine.

Since his seal had been loosened, his body had changed. The changes weren't noticeable at first but his mind had sharpened. He was able to store more information and capture correlations. He also felt that his vision and hearing had sharpened.

Belial had told him a lot about hell and its structure in recent weeks, and the books gradually filled in the gaps. But he was still a long way from grasping this other world.

Without telling Belial anything about it, he had secretly tried to activate his mark, but he hadn't succeeded. Hundreds of times he has gone through the fight in his memory. Hundreds of times he felt the blade penetrate his chest. It must have had something to do with that particular moment, but he didn't know what. It was as if his head was trying to withhold information from him – it was so close and yet intangible. He had recorded his ideas and attempts on countless pieces of paper, trying to get closer to the solution through them.

After getting the OK, Aleks was allowed to leave bed. Today they would sit down and go through further plans.

Langora appeared holding a tray as she walked into the common room, where Aleks sat on the sofa. He was deep in his thoughts that he didn't notice her entrance. When he noticed a movement from the corner of his eye, he became violently terrified and inadvertently smashed the tray out of her hand.

The drinks crashed on the floor.

The drinks fell to the ground as if in slow motion. The moment the glass with the limes hit the floor and shattered time stopped.

Langora saw Aleks' distraught face.

"I-I'm so sorry." The young man frantically tried to pick up the shards and injured himself with one.

"Young Lord, calm down!" Carefully, she took the young man's hand to examine his injury. It wasn't deep, just a superficial cut.

There was shame on his face.

"Young Lord, it's not all as it seems at first glance. For you this is a nuisance, for me, an unimportant little mishap. Don't worry."

Embarrassed, he nodded and together they cleared the shards before Langora set out to get more drinks.

"It's not all as it seems at first glance," Aleks muttered. I have taken the wrong approach. I need to change the perspective of the situation. He took a pen and a fresh piece of paper. Let's start anew. He had focused too much on the mark and the resulting skills. Why should these abilities differ from his ability to heal? They ultimately had the same origin - his soul.

Aleks went back in his memory to a time long before he had met Belial. When was the first time he used an ability? He recorded all the impressions he felt when he was healing the woman. Farther.

He worked his way through all the situations – their first meeting, Belial's fight with Rukia and finally his fight with Lyric. He had almost filled two pages. Then he systematically went through the writing and circled all the aspects that were repeated.

He surveyed the paper in front of him. "What do all these situations have in common?" he muttered thoughtfully. He thought back to the conversation in which Lyric had talked about his abilities.

"Lyric, how do you activate your runes?" "I activate them by touching them and expressing their purpose. Something like "Read!" or "Draw!"

Aleks had said something a few times, but that couldn't have been the trigger.