My Time in Teyvat [Tales of Luna, Book 2]

Chapter 10 - The Rising Phoenix

How come I didn't feel it?

"Do you still sense it?" Luna asked, still looking around. "Do you smell anything?"

"Besides how musty it smells here?" Yuji asked pinching her nose. "I don't sense much of anything here anymore aside from your frantic heartbeat."

Luna checked her heart just as she wondered if there was some kind of defense mechanism in the throne room that she was not aware of.

"Well, either way, can you sense a darkness in me?" Luna asked, approaching Yuji. "When I fought Rosaria, it was like something took over my mind and body. Something- dark."

"May I?" Yuji asked as she reached out a hand towards the center of Luna's chest.

Luna nodded silently, her eyes still darting across the throne room just in case.

It had felt like Yuji was touching Luna's heart directly. Yuji closed her eyes for a moment before opening them and shaking her head.

"You are still the same Luna I know and adore." Yuji said with a solemn smile. "Are you sure it wasn't just the heat of the battle?"

"I am, I've felt this before. When I was fighting another villain. I hated him so much, and I felt this orb of darkness in me-" Luna wondered if she could still reach in and see it.

Familiarity hit her first as she mentally probed and felt the moving darkness inside, but her heart dropped as she saw how immensely it had grown since the last time she had sensed it. It was no longer an orb, it was like an entire planet of darkness inside of her, shifting every second. Cold and alive.

"You can't feel that?" Luna asked as chills ran down her spine. "I'm looking at it right now and it's absolutely huge!"

"What? What do you mean right now?" Yuji asked as she turned around, as if expecting to see what Luna was seeing.

"Inside of me. It's much, much, bigger than I remember."

"I-" Yuji hesitated before closing her eyes once again.

Luna waited as she kept an eye on that gargantuan mass of darkness as a sense of looming doom crept up on her.

How did I not feel it growing so out of control?

"Sorry, I don't sense anything evil." Yuji said as she opened her eyes once again.

"Are you sure? It's right here." Luna said, still in disbelief as fear crept up her throat. "It's like I'm staring at an entire planet."

Luna looked at Yuji, she wasn't sure for what. Reassurance?

But Yuji simply looked back at her, seeming to be at a loss for words.

"Hey." Yuji finally said as she approached Luna and held her hands. "Nothing bad is going to happen. If it's been inside of you this whole time and I didn't sense it, it's because you got this under control."

"I- I didn't even know it was growing." Luna said, feeling genuinely terrified. "Much less to this extent."

"Hey," Yuji called again, grabbing Luna's attention. "it's okay, we can figure this out together."

"What if it takes over who I am?" Luna voiced her thoughts before suddenly being hugged by Yuji.

"It won't. We won't let it!" Yuji said, her eyes glistening as they seemed to be tearing up. "While we are at it, we should probably clean this place up a bit and maybe make it pretty somehow."

"What?" Luna asked, wondering if Yuji was joking.

But the girl in pink seemed dead serious.

Luna couldn't help but let a light laugh slip by.