CHAPTER 9

  "Felled by a Mortal"

  "...not human." The joke, spoken from the lips of the sweet girl, reminded the Dark Lord of his true nature once again. What did it mean to be human? Did eating ice cream define one's essence? He watched the joyful girl who seemed to radiate happiness.

  "Can ice cream truly bring such joy...?" the Lord thought with surprise, watching as Seline ruthlessly finished her cone.

  Dan focused on her aura. Surprisingly warm and bright. He couldn't comprehend what had influenced her so. He had never seen such energy emanating from a human. The Lord glanced at the people passing by. They all emitted energy. But none came close to hers:

  The man grinning from ear to ear had a grey, almost colorless aura that starkly contrasted with his outward appearance. The shuffling old man had a warm yellow aura, but marred by careless black smudges – traces of past malice and envy. The woman looking down her nose at passersby had an aura that was a cocktail of fear and resentment. The laughing children, still unformed, had auras the color of the dawn sky, yet already stained with patches of twilight – irrevocable things had already happened in their young lives.

  And then, her.

  Molten gold. Pure and hot. Not a hint of negativity, even though something had literally just happened to her that should have left a mark. And how much more like that had she endured...

  "I hope... what I'm about to do won't distort her palette..." the Lord thought, watching the wind play with her wheat-colored hair.

  They were already heading back. The streets they walked towards her grey apartment building entrance seemed different now – not just a backdrop, but part of this fragile moment. Trees bathed in streetlight cast long shadows that merged into black rivers on the asphalt. Seline walked beside him, her arm occasionally brushing his. Each fleeting touch echoed within Dan as a barely perceptible, warm jolt somewhere in his chest. He caught the scent of her perfume – the same floral one, mixed with the spring chill, but without the dust now... A completely human, transient aroma that somehow etched itself into his memory.

  It distracted Dan from the thought that the point of no return was approaching. The moment when he would become just a memory to her. He felt cold, but it wasn't the familiar kind. Piercing. Cold, layered over the warmth of this evening. Another new sensation. An unpleasant one. Empty. He saw the very door they approached with each step.

  "Well... here we are..." Seline said softly, stopping at her building entrance. She smiled at him, timidly but sincerely. "Thank you... for the evening." Hope rang in her voice, the hope that this was just the beginning. She looked at him as if he had just given her an entire universe, not simply bought her ice cream. Her blue eyes shone, illuminating the dark street.

  Dan felt that gaze and what lay behind it. He had seen hope a thousand times. But this time, he knew this hope was doomed. He was dooming it. This understanding intensified the cold. But Dan had to do what he had spent this entire evening with her to achieve. The Lord looked down at the ground, where in the light of the entrance lamp, their shadows merged. The air around them thickened for a split second. A wave of ancient energy, alien to this world and invisible to the human eye, filled the space. That second was enough for Rin to execute his master's command. Two emerald eyes blinked beneath the girl's feet and vanished instantly. She felt almost nothing. Just a slight prick, like a minor electric shock, making her skin prickle for a moment. Dan noticed and immediately checked if she was unharmed.

  "Are you alright?" the Lord asked, restrained and even, making sure his Darkness had fully dissipated.

  "Yes... Everything's fine," Seline smiled, waving a hand dismissively. She was already chalking the strange sensation up to nerves, the overwhelming emotions, a draft. "Just... my imagination. A draft, probably." She smiled again, trying to regain her earlier mood.

  Dan exhaled. It was done.

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  "Good," he nodded with relief and looked at her. He knew he needed to say something now, but the words stuck in his throat. He didn't want to do this, but he had to.

  "I..." he began his farewell, but caught her gaze again, full of joy and hope.

  Seline looked at him, filled with awe. She had never felt like this around a man before. She wanted to take his hand. She wanted to hug him.

  "I have to leave," Dan forced the words out. They were swift and cold.

  "Yeah, it's late... I should go too," the girl replied, not yet grasping the meaning of what she'd heard.

  Dan averted his eyes. He could no longer bear to look into hers, which had been shining just a second ago but were now beginning to understand.

  "L-leave...?" her voice trembled, becoming thin and fragile. She wanted to step towards him. To hold him back. To stop him. She wanted those words to mean only that he needed to go now, not forever. The ground began to shift beneath her feet. She froze but found the strength to ask: "F-for long? Will we... see each other again?" Her voice shook; she didn't want to hear the answer.

  "I don't know," the words came out heavily. Because he knew it was for a long time.

  Dan's words hung in the air like a sentence. The remnants of that bright smile melted away like the last ray of sunset. The eyes that had shone moments ago began to dim. The future she had imagined for herself began to cloud over, threatening to unleash a downpour.

  Dan wanted to, but couldn't. Couldn't look at her. He felt the Darkness within him growing colder and darker. An unfamiliar yet somehow known sensation gripped him. The emptiness inside him grew denser. For the first time, he felt weak, but the choice had been made long ago:

  "Take care of yourself..."

  Without waiting for a reaction, Dan turned and took a step. He didn't want to see the rain that was about to pour from her eyes. He lowered his head and walked into the dark street. He hadn't wanted to, but he had hurt her. Not in the way he'd intended. Worse. He had hurt the very person he wanted to protect. But there was no other choice.

  "My Lord... I'm sorry," thought Rin, watching his lord vanish into the night from the shadow beneath Seline's feet. "I will be here."

  Dan stopped for a second, looked back towards Seline, and whispered into the void:

  "Thank you, Rin..."

  Seline remained standing by the iron door. She didn't cry. She was stunned. His words spun in her head like sharp shards, cutting through everything. Mechanically, she unlocked the magnetic lock with her key, pushed the heavy door open, and stepped into the dark entrance hall. Only when the elevator carried her upwards did the first hot tear roll down her cheek. Then a second. Then she couldn't hold them back anymore. She leaned against the cold wall of the elevator, feeling her world, which had just found color and meaning, crumble to dust.

  "He left me. He left. He won't come back. What did I do wrong? Why?" Thoughts fluttered like trapped birds, bringing only pain and an overwhelming sense of loneliness.

  Dan walked down the street. He was leaving. Fleeing from the pain he had caused, from his own unimaginable weakness, which he seemed to have displayed for the first time. His long, swift, aimless steps echoed dully on the pavement of deserted alleys. Before he knew it, he was at that familiar bench in his own courtyard, where he spent so much time. He hadn't noticed how he got there; he'd covered the long distance far too quickly. He sat on the bench, trying to order his thoughts. He focused on his breathing. Exhaled.

  The relief of duty fulfilled mixed with an icy wave of emptiness, unlike anything he had known in four thousand years.

  Dan reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled pack of cigarettes. In a futile attempt to distract himself with the ritual of smoking – a ritual that had no effect on his immortal being – he sought solace in the false sensation of humanity. He tried to focus on the dry facts:

  "Now, with Rin nearby... she's safe, nothing threatens her..."

  Nothing except his own actions. Cruel and immoral from the outside.

  Dan couldn't shake the thought consuming his mind: "What was that?" He wasn't thinking of a specific moment, but of the entire evening.

  He recalled the moments like scenes from a film. Her smile when he offered ice cream – sincere, vulnerable. Her embarrassment when he caught her from falling. Her gait – light, fearless, full of trust. Her eyes, full of hope... and how they had dimmed... But more important were the sensations. Those very ones that had thrown the Lord off balance:

  Warmth. When she smiled beside him, looking at the lights on the embankment, warmth spread through his chest, contradicting the eternal inner cold.

  Emptiness. That very emptiness gnawing at him now. Not the familiar silence, but one that roared louder than thunder.

  Cold. Not the kind radiated by the Darkness. But the kind that shackled him when he saw the light fade from her eyes at his words.

  "Is this weakness? A mistake? That very 'life' I spoke of to my brethren?" For the first time, he felt vulnerable. The Dark Lord, felled by the gaze of a mortal girl. Absurd.