Astral Odyssey: Dying Ember

World 4.6: Vanora

Vlad felt like his never-ending hunger was finally satiated and thirst finally quenched. This feeling of completeness was so amazing and sudden that it surprised him. How could it compare to what he felt when he saw that fake angel?

He began to take pride in the fact that she was one of the rare created demons that kept her senses. He studied her more closely. There was clarity in her eyes and not crazed madness. Her aura was a perfect stable hue of murky red. He wondered about the object of her hate, but that was something he could find out later. More importantly, it meant that her power would be stable. She would not have to struggle with the issue of fleeting emotions. She was definitely not someone simple.

This led to his curiosity about her ability, identity, and behaviour. He knew how eating was like an addictive drug to demons like her and how the quality of meat was like the quality of a drug. So, he could guess that the meat tasted passable at best. Why would she not give up her human ways despite becoming a full-fledged demon?

She continued to impress him with her intuition. This made him lose all thought and will of leaving her side. It really pleased him that he was the one teaching her and not anyone else, because he could hog all her attention to himself.

He also could not help but feel tempted to tease her. It did not cross his mind that he could annoy her to the point of driving her away. So, when she turned her back on him, it shocked and angered him. No one had dared to do that to him ever since he came to power. Not demons nor angels. More than that, a sense of loss welled up inside him the longer he stared at her retreating back. It made him desperate to keep her by his side no matter what. He brought her into the dimension between earth and hell with him. Since she asked to be taught, he would. What better way to learn than to experience it first hand?

He only calmed down after she pointed out his irrationality. It did nothing to change his objective, though. He properly reviewed their fight and was once again impressed by her adaptability. Having confidence in her ability to learn and grow, especially under pressure, he had no qualms about using himself as the subject of experiment for her hellfire.

However, the longer he left her to her thoughts, the more intense her murky red aura became. It worried him. Such occurrences were normal and fine if they were in the middle of a battle. There would be a balance of input and output. With no outlet, her power could rampage within her and turn against her, especially when she did not have any experience with containing a large power within her.

He decisively acted obnoxiously carefree in an effort to distract her and honestly spoke of all the desires he had towards her. Meanwhile, he carried unspoken questions and worries in his heart.

/Why? Who or what does she hate so much? Why did she change into a demon? She had to have enough hate to survive the transformation. What happened to her?/

Somewhere at the back of his mind, he knew that he was being overly obsessive and indulgent. After all, he only knew her for no more than a couple of hours. Yet, he could not help but feel as if he knew her from long before. Perhaps this was the effect from dreaming about her for a long time. Having settled with that explanation, he never cared about the details after that.

Vlad felt so comfortable and at ease beside Vanora that he was sound asleep before he knew it.

It was a dreamless and peaceful sleep.

Suddenly, he felt like something precious was getting further away from him. If he did not chase after it, he would lose it forever. He forced himself awake. When his eyes flew open, he saw nothing but darkness. He looked all around and ran all over, but the dark was endless. He tried to use his powers to break out, but nothing worked. A feeling of dread suddenly filled him and turned his body stiff. He very slowly turned around with bated breath. The moment he caught sight of the still body lying in a sea of red, his blood ran cold.