"Are you alright?" Matthew asked Faralynn sitting beside her leaning against the wall.

"I'm good. The pain is gone. But my leg is busted. It healed wrong and now I can't move it right." Faralynn said showing him how she had trouble moving her leg. "How's Ffyr?" She added.

"She's ok. She's resting inside the necklace." Matthew said looking at the jewelry. "She'll be ok in while."

"And you? Are you in pain?" Faralynn asked looking at the holes on his armor showing new scars on his skin.

"I''m not in pain. But I have no idea how my insides are." Matthew said passing his hand over the new scars and trying to feel his internal organs.

"Can't believe we survived." Faralynn said looking around. All that was left of their fight was dark marks on the stone from where the fire singed it.

Matthew took a deep breath and stared at the distance. Suddenly he felt awkward remembering how he behaved just moments earlier due to the demonic mana. He fidgeted on his place taking looks at Faralynn who was checking the condition of her own sword.

"I'm sorry." Matthew finally said after a couple of minutes in silence.

"I's alright. I too had demonic mana in me. I know how we can get." The elf excused him.

"The fucked up part is this I wouldn't have survived until now if it wasn't for the mana." Matthew said looking at his hands. "While I'm fighting. While I'm struggling for my life. It feels good. And some part of me can't tell apart what is the demonic mana influence and what is me."

Faralynn looked at him and didn't say a word. She put a hand on his shoulder encouraging him to speak more.

"These feelings I get with the demonic mana. They're not something that I don't think about sometimes. It just gets overwhelming when I'm under its influence. I do like to fight. I realize that's why I chose to be an adventurer. I wanted this. I wanted the excitement. The feeling of getting powerful. The feeling of surviving despite the odds."

Matthew sighed and looked up.

"But the demonic mana makes it so much more vivid. So much more enticing. It starts to bring joy in making my enemies hurt. It makes the feeling of warm blood on my skin fell like a hot shower in a cold day. I know I scare others when I'm like that, and it makes me enjoy it."

Matthew looked at Faralynn's eyes. He could see himself reflected on her purple irises. Her face had no judgment. Just a soft acceptance.

"It scares me. How good it feels. After I purify myself, I can still remember every feeling. Every single thing. Every cursed thought I had during the influence of it. And I start to hate myself for having those thoughts. Specially when they develop into hurting my friends. Of doing horrible things to them."

Matthew put his face on his hands.

"The things I just said to you. I didn't mean them. I didn't want to say them. But some part of me wanted that. And I can't kill that part of me. I'm sorry, Lynn. I'm very sorry."

Faralynn embraced Matthew bringing his forehead to rest into the cold of the steel of her armor. She caressed his hair comforting him.

"We all have a part like inside of us. I sometimes catch myself having similar thoughts and I don't even have any demonic mana in me anymore." The elf said with a soft voice.

"Really?" Matthew asks hugging her back.

"Yeah. Sometimes I think about what I would do with my uncle if I ever had him in my power. I'm not very pleasant." Faralynn confessed. "Or how incredibly jealous I was when I learned you were on a date with Rin." Her voice got somber now.

"Who told you about that?" Matthew asked leaning away from her to look at her face.

"Rin told me." Faralynn gave him a sad smile.

Matthew felt like he was just got cheating on her. Although their relationship has been nothing but platonic so far, it was very clear to him and to anyone else that she liked him. And just the fact that the always shy Faralynn was so open to him right now, was a clear declaration of that.

"I'm sorry." Matthew apologized.

"Why?" Faralynn turned her head with a sly smile. "We're not dating of anything. If you want to go out alone with my best friend, you're free to do so." She added with a tone that said just the opposite of that.

"Lynn…" Matthew called her name thinking about what to say.

"I'm going to say this now, before I lose my courage." Faralynn declared with her commanding voice. "I like you Matt. I hated you at first, but somewhere along the way I came to like you. It's ok if you don't feel this way about me. It's ok if you prefer Rin over me. Or that Vanessa that you look at like a lost puppy. But I wanted to say this now. When it's just the two of us. And when my nerves don't make me shut up." The elf chuckled at that last depreciative remark about herself.

Matthew looked at her purple eyes while her face flushed bright red. Her ears twitched a bit when he gave no immediate answer. She was so damn cute. And, when she was serious, she was so beautiful. She was always gentle with him when things got difficult. When he bared his heart to her, when he was hospitalized… She was always supportive and tender.

He couldn't deny he liked her as well. That he wanted not only to be with her physically, but also intimately. He wanted to see more of that serious side of her. To know her wishes, to understand their likes and dislikes.

It made him laugh to himself upon realizing that. It was not like that with Erin, she was cute and pretty, sure, but he didn't care about her the same way. His relationship with Vanessa was much more like his own relation with his sister than with a lover. And with Mia he only felt responsible for her after she was assaulted. He cared for her, sure, but not like that.

All the other women around him, none of them were like that.

He could not deny anymore. He could not hide it anymore. His hands cupped Faralynn's face. This time he was being gentle and not forceful. He brushed her huge bang to the side so he could properly see her face which blushed bright red now.

"I like you, Lynn. I really do." Matthew said looking at her eyes.

Faralynn held his hand gently and looked at him expectantly.

Matthew didn't ignore it. He closed the distance and kissed her. First a small peck on the lips. But soon enough they engulfed themselves in each other's embrace kissing passionately.

A sound of a loud and teasing whistle interrupted them.

"Get a room!" Ffyr teased them.

Having an audience made them both stop and look away from each other in embarrassment.

"I didn't mean to interrupt." The fairy said laughing. "But I think we should move."

"She's right." Matthew said getting up and offering his hand to help Faralynn get up as well. "If the others were coming after us, they'd be here by now."

"Yes." Faralynn agreed taking his hand and getting up herself.

"Do you need me to carry you?" Matthew offered while collecting his weapons that were scattered on the floor.

"No. I can walk. I can't run tough." Faralynn said testing her stride.

"Good. Where should we go?" Matthew said looking at Ffyr.

"Me? But I got us into this mess…" The fairy said remorseful.

"You're our best bet to find a way. Otherwise, we'll be just walking on blindly." Faralynn explained.

"Ok then." Ffyr said faking excitement. "Follow me." She added unsure on herself flying away.

On the move, they drank some mana potions to restore their mana. They went forward with care. Without Vanessa's Sense skills, they were pretty much relying on their own senses to find traps.

A stone that looked out of place or with a slightly different color was enough to make them stop and check extensively for traps.

This made their journey quite slow and mentally draining.

After about an hour of walking, they were met with 3 more minotaurs. Each carrying different weapons again.

Matthew took the front while Faralynn drew her bow.

In their state, they weren't sure if they could beat those 3. They looked back and wondered if they should run. Matthew thought about carrying Faralynn and running full speed back. But he wasn't sure he could outrun those minotaurs.

While they thought about a course of action, the minotaurs took steps forward getting closer and readying themselves for a fight.

That's when Matthew decided to shoot. He aimed, but, before he could pull the trigger, the shadows of the minotaurs shifted under them. Then the shadows spiked up as if they were mode of solid matter and pierced the minotaurs' heads making them disappear instantly into mana.

"Thank god." Faralynn said recognizing what happened.

Faynn soon made herself seen by the couple.

"Found you!"

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