Bo…oss?.." Levy murmured weakly. His half-dazed eyes lifted toward the figure holding the sword by its handle the very sword that had been frozen mid-strike, just inches away from Aurora's eye.

Even in his half-dead, recently revived state, Levy recognized that voice instantly. No matter how different the man looked now.. or how drastically changed his appearance was same ..that cold, sharp tone belonged to only one person.

Razeal.

But the man standing before them was…

completely different.

His hair once white and short were now long, flowing, and silvery, shimmering like liquid moonlight drifting gently in the water. His eyes, too, had changed, deeper, sharper, carrying a noble chill not to say totally changing colour from blank to crimson now. His height seemed greater, his posture impossibly elegant, and his entire face had become striking, almost unimaginably handsome, enhanced by the noble attire wrapped around him black and blood-red fabric lined with intricate gold patterns, the kind only worn by someone who walked among the highest ranks.. Making levy confused as how did this poor guy got such expensive looking clothes.

Still, despite the change, Levy recognized him. The voice, the faint trace of familiar sharpness in his features it was unmistakably his boss.

Levy blinked in disbelief. Out of everyone in this world, Razeal was the last person he ever expected to come for them. Levy had been certain.. absolutely certain that Razeal wouldn't bother returning. He had even told Aurora that he wouldn't.

And here he was.

Still

A sigh of shaky relief escaped Levy's lips. A heavy pressure in his chest loosened.. They be safe now and the first thing he did with his regained life was turn toward Aurora.

"Are you fine, Aurora…?" he asked softly, still breathless as he tried to steady himself. His gaze couldn't leave her.. After anything ofcourse he couldn't.

Aurora, who had been staring at Razeal shocked by the way he had stopped the sword a hair's breadth from blinding her finally shook her head, snapping out of her trance.

"I'm fine… How about you? Are you fine?" she asked, turning her full attention to Levy instead, her pink eyes warm and trembling. She didn't even spare Razeal another glance. To her, right now, there was only Levy.

She squeezed his hand tighter.

Levy felt his chest tighten again, but this time from something warm.

"Thank you… for doing all that for me," he whispered. "You even brought me back from death. I really thought I was gone. I… I don't know how I can ever pay you back.. It was so risky you should've run.."

He wasn't looking at anything else not Razeal, not Maria in the distance, not the Atlanteans around them.. only Aurora. Her tear-filled pink eyes. Her trembling smile. Her face so close to his.

"It's fine," Aurora murmured softly, voice gentle but laced with affection. "What would I not do for my future husband? Anything, sweetheart."

Her pink eyes shimmered with pure love and possessiveness.

Levy felt heat crawl up his neck. "I can pay with my body…" he whispered, leaning closer, grabbing her other hand as their faces inched nearer.

"Oh? And here I thought it was already mine," Aurora replied, her tone dipping into something warm and teasing, almost slurred with emotion. Their foreheads nearly touched, breath mingling as if they were already alone in their own world.

They were lost.. completely forgetting where they were, forgetting who stood around them. The world had shrunk to just the two of them.

"Cough." A light but pointed sound echoed through the water.

"Seems like you two became very close…" Maria's voice chimed as she finally caught up to Razeal and swam into view. She hovered just slightly above them, arms crossed, eyebrows raised high as she stared down at the two love-dazed idiots on the ground.

Her voice snapped them out of their trance instantly.

Aurora's eyes twitched as she looked up at Maria. Here she comes again… she thought bitterly. Always ruining my moment. She's definitely jealous…

Levy glanced at Maria for only a second just one before looking right back at Aurora's face, unable to pull his eyes away for long. After everything that happened, he couldn't stop looking at her. He remembered her dancing for him, bleeding for him, crying for him, reviving him…

His heart ached and warmed all at once.

Above them, Razeal stood motionless, sword in hand, but his expression had shifted. His eyes scanned the scene with a cold, calculating sharpness. He saw everything.

Aurora's feet and legs, still stained with dried blood. The small mound of sharp debris she had been forced to dance on for days. The thick layer of blood coating the stones beneath it.

The skin ripped from her feet, evidence of repeated cuts and healing, over and over again.

Then his gaze slowly drifted downward first toward Aurora, then toward Levy and then finally stopped at Levy's neck.

Though Levy was fully healed, the entire area was still soaked in dried blood, the stain marking clearly where the bone dagger had pierced from back to front. There was even a faint reddish imprint along the skin, a silent testimony to how close he had been to death only moments ago.

Razeal's eyes narrowed dangerously.

He heard Levy mutter earlier, "You even brought me back from death…" That, combined with the blood residue and the impossible resurrection, clicked together in Razeal's mind in an instant.

His cold gaze lifted up toward the strange object hovering above Levy and Aurora.

The white bony dagger floated in the water like a living ghost. It had tiny fluffy arms, a soft, feminine-faced expression carved into it, and bright pink eyes that blinked gently as it moved. The thing wasn't being held or supported by anything. It simply hovered there, aware, breathing emotion, reacting.

One look was enough.

Razeal connected all the dots.

Aurora's boon. The power to grant emotions to non-living objects…

But this dagger was far more than just "emotional."

It was alive.

Fully sentient.

Razeal's eyes narrowed even further, a faint glint of surprise slipping into their cold depths.

Is this what her boon can do?… It's far beyond what she explained. She can bring objects to life… even give them souls, it seems and even having special abilities.. well more special then she had told for sure. he thought

"Seems like you two had quite some hard time in here," he said finally, voice flat but edged with something bitter.

Aurora lifted her head sharply at his voice. "You are very late… Where the hell did you get left at?" she snapped, irritation dripping from every word.

Levy might not have been waiting for Razeal, but Aurora absolutely had been. Every hour, every minute, she had counted on someone coming to save her and Razeal was the one she had believed in the most.. Well.. Trusting her father was last thing she would do so yeah he was her only option..

"Well," Razeal said, rolling his eyes, "if you had shot that pink light earlier, I would've come faster."

He was telling the truth. He Maria and Neptunia had been searching for three days straight. He couldn't sense them anywhere, nor could he track them until that blinding pink beam shot through the seas like a flare. Once he saw it, he rushed here instantly… only to find these two fools nearly dying on top of each others.

Maria floated up beside him just then, crossing her arms."You finally caught up. So slow, aren't you?" she muttered toward new ariving figure.

And then as she said Neptunia, arriving with cold grace as she floated next to Maria.

"At least I didn't get my chest ripped open for this speed up," Neptunia said dryly, giving Maria a pointed sideways look.

Maria bit back her irritation. Ever since their small fight earlier, the two had developed a dangerous yet amusing rivalry every opportunity became a chance to throw verbal knives at each other.

Aurora watched the interaction and then glanced toward Levy.

Neptunia, however, turned her attention toward them.

"So these are your other left-out partners?" she asked, eyes scanning Aurora and Levy who were still pressed close together, hands intertwined, sitting almost intimately against the stone floor. "They seem… quite weak."

She said it bluntly because she truly couldn't sense anything from them. No threatening aura, no mysterious power, no monstrous presence that matched the pink light she had sensed.

But…

Her eyes narrowed as she stared at Aurora's now-pink hair. If anyone resembled the pink beam even slightly, it was Aurora but even then, she couldn't feel any energy from her anymore. Just color, nothing else. And then there was the strange floating dagger…

Maria answered casually, "These are special... Atleast better then me. Believe it or not, we all got kidnapped to be on this team. Well, I came by myself but if I didn't, he was going to kill me anyway.. Atleast these two were invited."

She threw Razeal a sideways glance.

Razeal met her glance with a silent, unimpressed look.

Neptunia frowned slightly. Kidnapped and invited? Even these weaklings? she thought, glancing at Levy and Aurora again. It didn't make sense to her yet.

Razeal cut off the discussion with a sharp wave of his hand. "Anyways.. we're getting late. Let's finish what we have in here."

His eyes then shifted past Aurora and Levy toward the far side of the ruined open-water structure.

A crowd of nearly a hundred Atlantian guards and workers stood there, staring wide-eyed at the newcomers. Behind them were the cages dozens upon dozens containing imprisoned humans, Atlantians, strange creatures, and even dangerous monsters.

The entire layout told Razeal everything he needed.

A kidnapper's den? or maybe A slave-trading nest. He thought obviously one doesn't need full story the blood, the cages and everything lined up in itself.

Suddenly the octopus man and the others, who only moments earlier had been on high alert due to sudden energy blast from aurora as prepared with swinging weapons and all, now froze entirely.. as seeing new figures apearing in this place.

Is that the boss that guy was talking about? He thought to himself don't know why his danger senses ringing wildy just seeing that man standing in there and one more thing.. He hasn't even seen when and how did that man apeared in there.

"B-Boss… w-we… we are in danger…" The trembling voice came from one of the men standing beside the octopus leader an older Atlantian, his legs shaking so hard his knees nearly buckled. His gills fluttered uncontrollably, struggling to pull in water.

The octopus man didn't answer immediately.

He couldn't.

His eight limbs were trembling, his pupils dilated wide, his heart pounding so violently it felt like it was clawing its way out of his chest. Cold dread washed over him in a wave so suffocating it nearly made him vomit.

----

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.