The Hybrid Mage

Act 1: Ch.40 - Epiphany

"Novarion?"

"Long time no see Rei." I said as I stood up before shooting her a quick glare. "Oh, and don't call me that again. It's just Nova now."

As I looked at her, I couldn't help but pick up the differences compared the Rei I knew before to the one standing before me. Her long white hair was now more of a platinum blonde; her skin was a slightly deeper shade of red and the scar once drawn across her face was gone. Her figure was curvy and mature whilst also remaining slim with tone in her muscles that could be easily seen. Although instantaneous I found myself being drawn back to her face; her teeth, her curved horns, her black eyes as dark as night, every detail I found myself unconsciously memorising. Without even realising a single thought came to mind seemingly out of nowhere...

She's beautiful.

Rei still remained to be completely stunned, even more than I, frozen still with her hands over her mouth in disbelief but she did not take a step back. Instead, she took one forward. Then another. And another. She slowly approached me with caution however I frowned as I noticed an empathetic kindness in her black eyes, no trace of bloodlust, murderous intent came from her. It confused me. Her hand, hesitantly but gently reached towards me in such a slow fashion that I could see every detail. The slight roughness and calluses from training. Dark fingernails that were slightly longer and sharper than most, almost like the beginning of claws. Her expression was one of sympathy as a pure-hearted aura seemingly lit up around her. I was stunned. Still as a statue. Taken aback at Rei's reaction as she gradually placed her hand on my cheek gently. Her skin was cool but not cold and surprisingly soft despite the appeared roughness. She locked our gazes with her pitch-black eyes as my jaw dropped slightly before they wandered around the rest of my face, rising as if to glance at my hair before lowering them back to me.

"I'm so happy that you're alive." Rei said sweetly in her soft voice as her lips curved into the kindest smile I'd ever seen. The thumb of her hand on my cheek gently brushed that side of my face in a way would be reassuring to most. It wasn't for me. It was the opposite. The moment I felt her touch adrenaline shot through my veins. My body tensed as an icy sensation consumed me until I could not move an inch. The thumping and pounding of my heart in my chest grew harder and harder, faster, and faster. The air seemed to leave my lungs as I desperately tried to pull it back in with rapid breaths. All the while something in the back of my mind had been opened. Something pushed deep down within from long ago reawakened and plunged me into the depths of a feeling that attacked every inch of my body. It felt as though my head was about to split open as flashes of images crackled in my mind like bolts of lightning. Images of a dark room. Being tied to a chair as the smell of blood and faeces filled my nostrils. And a sensation was there as well, a searing burning one like a white noise that continued on forever. A violent feeling that refused to leave. Pain. It was pure, agonising, unending pain that consumed these images and more, ones of a woman with ginger hair and a clouded eye. Images of her sitting on top of my lap as she... hit... me. Punched me. Bit me. Burned me. Strangled me. Kissed me. Stabbed me. Groped me. Cut me... mutilated me, drowned me, violated me, raped me, broke me over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Never ending; the white noise of my screams shredding my throat were all that could be heard. They rushed into my mind like a tidal wave or a train crash all at once as that icy feeling intensified a hundred times over. Fear; freezing, crippling, fear. It snatched me as that woman's face, her laughter and my shrieks filled my mind. It happened all at once. It hit me all at once like a bullet straight to the head point blank. All from that one touch.

"Don't touch me!!!" I screamed, slapping her away and jumping back so suddenly that I nearly tripped over my own feet. Half stumbling onto one knee as I panted heavily, my heart continuing to pound so hard I thought it was going to explode out of my chest.