Realms Against Us, We Chose This Destiny

Part I: Chapter 7

This is early because I have a lot to do for the whole day so I wanted to get this out of the way. 

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"Marinette?" a hand waved over her face, "Hey Mari, are you there?"

The girl shook her head of the awe that had shocked her into stillness and smiled weakly at the fox on front of her, "H-hey Alya. What are you doing here?"

Alya put a hand on Marinette's forehead and frowned when she realised how drained Marinette's energy was, "We're here to see if you're okay. And from the looks of it, you are absolutely not! What are you even doing out of bed?"

Marinette looked to where Nino and Luka were standing behind Alya and sent them an awkward looking smile. Nino just gave her a look which meant that he agreed with Alya's sentiments and that she should head back to the comfort of her bed. Meanwhile, Luka gave her a sincere smile and timidly waved at her.

But she noticed the wince he tried to hide and ducked away from Alya to get on front of him, "Are you okay Luka? You seem to be hurt," she tried to place a hand on his arm but he shifted his body away, clutching his arm defensively.

"It's fine, really. I just got hit by a piece of falling marble earlier. It's nothing new to my job. And it's nothing that shouldn't be healed in a day."

From the uneasy looks Nino and Alya were giving each other, there was something more about his injury that they weren't telling her, "What is it? What happened to him?"

Marinette was well versed in the language of looks the couple gave so she knew they were debating whether or not they should tell her. Luka, who had spent a lot of the time with the couple, could also tell what they were trying to do and just shook his head at them, "A prisoner escaped the Howling Spirit dungeon which we haven't caught yet and he's destroyed part of our library. I got caught up trying to help people escape but I got hit by a small bit of falling debris. As I said, it's nothing major."

She almost slapped his hand before remembering he was injured, "Nothing major! Lift your sleeve and allow me to check it. I'll be the judge of your injury thank you very much."

She lifted his sleeve without any prompt and gasped at what she could see. From both sides, similar sounds could be heard from the other two in her room, "Luka! This is more than you told us!" Alya stormed over to where they were and turned to Marinette, "You must heal him."

Part of his hand was stained with an almost ink-like black substance but when Marinette ran a finger across it, it felt rough like paper, nothing like the smooth skin she was used to. What's more was that as soon as she placed her finger on the wounded area, it felt cool to the touch, reminding her of someone who had left just moments ago. It was surreal. Marinette had never encountered an injury like this in her short life- and even though it was short she had seen many illnesses and injuries that she had learned to heal.

Luka forced his hand away from her, "Leave it. Whatever you do, it's not going to help."

Luka never thought he would ever be on the receiving end of the famous 'Marinette glare' Alya and Nino always told him about, "And how do you know that?"

"Because," he sighed, "The person who escaped wasn't just some run of the mill criminal who took their chance to leave when half of the prison collapsed. He didn't just decide to destroy the library for the sake of it. No. He is dangerous and he does everything for one reason and one reason only. When he attacks, there is rarely a chance of recovery because his power is unlike anything else. His only desire is to destroy. And now he is out, it won't be much longer before everything and everything we know could be destroyed because of him-"