Mirage - Shall We Date Wizardess Heart' Fic

Chapter 65: The greatest battles are the ones fighting within

At last, both girls got to the top of the spiralling stairs. 

A big iron double door stood ajar; they passed through and, cautiously pressed forward. The air in there felt different than it had been before that location. The moon's red light shined in from the windows on the top distant ceiling, filling somberly the memorial with a cold, mysterious atmosphere. More than anything else, in the centre of the chamber was the statue of a gigantic stoned dragon. An interesting detail, the statue of the Dragon of Time was completely dyed in red, one of his eyes flashing brightly under the unique moon's light.

While Aurora remained supporting her body weight onto the door framing, Liz ran towards the motionless man laying down on the floor by the dragon statue. She checked for the king's pulse and put her hand under his nose to confirm he was breathing.

Completely exhausted and drained, the other wizardess leaned herself against the nearest wall and allowed her body to slide down until her butt hit the floor. Given the quantity of the stair flight she had to climb up, the patch that once kept her from bleeding out was now fully covered in blood, and it seemed that the excess was starting to drain from the edges. Taking off that piece of drenched cloth from her flank to avoid further infection, more blood gushed out, staining her jeans. Her hand acted quickly and applied some pressure onto it. She could feel her pulse vigorously beating against her hand, the warmth of her vital fluid flowing out instantly dispelled a tunnel vision that threatened to take her to an unconscious state. She closed her eyes and breathed in a couple of times.

"That's good. Seems like he only passed out." Liz sighed mainly to herself, relieved that there were still no casualties to account for.

"That's not something to be glad about." Luca's voice was deeper and colder than usual. He was also sitting on the ground and leaning against the wall while holding onto his right arm. Minor some bruising and a few superficial cuts, his injury didn't seem too serious, just a dislocated shoulder.

"Luca...? What are you doing here?! How did you get here?! And, what's going on?!" Liz asked frantically, noticing that a ginger male student was engaged in magic combat, barely keeping the other guy at bay. 

"That's Guy..." Aurora muttered. She watched the fight as well, unnerved at how dangerous the battle was getting. What is he doing here? She thought to herself.

"I swear on the First King's soul Luca," Liz breathed deeply then rushed on, "Trouble follows whenever you go."

He shrugged a shoulder nonchalantly. "I would have been fine If only this ginger-fail hadn't shown up and ruined my plan." Luca was expressionless and emotionless.

"What plan?" She pressed her lips together for a moment. "Don't tell me you were also going for the gem, Luca." It was a rhetorical question, he didn't have to answer.

"The cat is already out of the bag, isn't it?" he almost scoffed.

"But why? Why would you risk being expelled and your own life for it?" she said in a high pitched voice just as a loud crash sound came from the battlefield.

 "Because...!" He glanced at Liz, who was watching him with a confused expression."Because-- I needed to know the truth about my past. I needed to know if I was really her son-- who my father was..."