“Because I said so. All you need to know that with my name, no one will dare touch your family. And Nandi here will keep a watch on them so that nothing happens without our knowledge. Now, tell me. What is your answer?”

“...”

.

|DxD|

.

Igor was hesitating. The offer to receive personal training from the strongest people he knew excited him to no end. The thrill of gaining strength, of enduring gruelling training called out to him with the subtlety of a temptress.

The only reason he hesitated, was because of his family. Regardless of whether they would be protected or not, he genuinely wanted to spend more time with them. Not once had he ever spent more than a month with any of his loved ones.

At the very least, he wanted to spend some time with them before he disappeared for the next few years.

“I can’t, Lord Shiva. I’ve barely spent a week with my family. Perhaps after a year?”

It was a compromise he was willing to come to terms with. He just hoped Shiva would agree to it.

“...”

Although a bit disappointed, Shiva didn’t begrudge him.

“Alright. After a year, I will come again. In the meantime, I do hope you grow stronger. Training in that new state should be your focus for now.”

“I also agree with my lord, young Dimori. Your bond with little Trihexa has brought up quite a few significant possibilities you might wish to explore.”

“...”

Igor was surprised, but also not surprised that Nandi knew of his bond with Trihexa.

“Thank you. I will keep your words in mind.”

“Ohohoho~. Splendid. Now, I believe we should depart, my lord. His companion is quite eager to see him after all.”

Shiva closed his eyes briefly before he grinned.

“Yes. We shouldn’t keep them apart any longer. Dimori. I shall see you in the next war.”

Vwong!

In an instant, they vanished in a pillar of blue light, leaving Igor alone in complete confusion. Standing there dumbfoundedly, he had no clue what they were talking about or meant.

“What companio-”

Su!

The answer was revealed when just a short while later, an apprehensive-looking Aurelia suddenly appeared next to him in a golden flash. Her sword was drawn, her eyes blazing with frightening killing intent that slowly faded away when nothing seemed to be amiss.

“...”

She turned to look at Igor, her fear instantly overshadowing her ferocious expression. There was so much blood on his face that she briefly froze in absolute shock.

“Igor!”

Letting her sword vanish, she quickly cupped his cheeks and began searching his body for any other signs of damage. The sight of dried blood coming out of all seven of his orifices made her worry soar to the highest levels.

Without waiting for his consent, she tore off his shirt and placed her hands on both his chest and stomach. Immediately, she spread her mana through him, healing him as much as she could without further damaging him.

Twelve different magic circles manifested around her, all of them spreading around Igor in different positions. Her eyes glowed blue as she slightly glanced to the side, almost as if she was reading from an invisible notepad.

“Coils are slightly fragile from stress. Energy levels are much lower than usual. A significant amount of calories had been burned in the last few minutes. B-Brain has suffered near-fatal damage, but…but should recover.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Despite trying to keep proper composure, the amount of small injuries she found on him made her falter. His brain, despite healing at a visible rate, was very, very fragile. The blood coming out his ears? Those were parts of his brain.

How he was still alive, nevermind conscious, was beyond her comprehension. What she did know was that he had almost died. He had almost died…and she wasn’t there. In all their years together, the one moment he suffers a grievous injury just happened to when she wasn’t there.

Sniff…

“You’ll be alright. You’ll be alright.”

Unable to stop the steady trail of tears, she was unaware of the gaze Igor was giving her. He had never seen her panic this much before. It was…not like her.

“Stop worrying so much, Lia. I’m fine.”

“...”

*Vein Bulge!*

Fine? Fine?! FINE?! He loses weighable grams of his brain and he says he’s fine?!?!

“No you’re not fine! You’re not fine at all!!!”

How could he be fine? Disregarding humans, even other supernatural species would outright die if their brains melted. He had a brain-bleed and still had the gall to say he’s fine?

“If we don’t do anything, you’ll die, Igor! You’ll die!”

Just from interpreting the data received from her magic circles, she could tell that the amount of trauma his brain had suffered was far, far beyond the acceptable margin. Several different parts of his brain were bleeding and if not treated, he would die in less than ten minutes.

He was healing. His body was hard at work in healing him, but she didn’t want to leave things to chance. This was the brain. If there was even the slightest bit of error, problems could range from a sudden change in personality to the development of an outright disorder or even death.

“Don’t move, Igor.”

She didn’t want any of that to happen to him. Completely focused on her work, she placed her hands on his cheeks and closed her eyes. Slowly, she let her mana enter into him, taking absolute care not to trigger a reaction that may possibly kill him.

[Calm down, Aurelia. Calm down. All you have to do is absorb the blood and let his healing do the rest.]

However, her hands were shaking. This wasn’t the first time she performed the procedure, but this was the first time where she was under so much pressure. There was absolutely no room for failure here.

[Breathe. Breathe-]

Suddenly, she felt Igor’s hands layer over hers. They were large and rough, completely covering her smaller hands. Opening her eyes in surprise, she was confronted with his stupid smile that made her want to lash out at how casually he seemed to take this situation.

Was he really so brain-dead that he didn’t realise how critical this-

“I believe in you, Lia.”

“...”

He pressed her hands against his cheeks, not looking away from her in the slightest.

“You can do it.”

He could feel her mana circulating in his head, but he didn’t fight it. It was like an itch that he needed to scratch, but he didn’t interfere. It was absolutely dangerous for mana to be in his head like this, but he trusted her.

“...”

Nodding silently, Aurelia blinked away her tears and continued healing him. Strands of her mana penetrated through his head and into his brain where she shivered once again at how much of a close call it was.

She navigated her strands towards the blood splotches where she proceeded to “vacuum” the blood. She made sure not to interfere with the flood of ki flowing around his brain. She sucked away as much of his blood as she could without causing further damage to him.

She then manipulated her mana to come out through his ears where gradually, there was fresh blood hovering in midair. Under her control, the blood suddenly vanished into thin air. She didn’t want to risk leaving it here, not when she knew that sooner or later, supernatural entities would come here to snoop.

As one last feature, she cleaned the dried blood on his face and cheeks.

“Done…”

Sighing tiredly, Aurelia could now casually admit that this was one very close call. Less than five minutes had passed, but it felt like an hour.

Now that he was healed, she needed answers. She needed them yesterday.

“Igor. What happened here?”

She kept her tone level and calm, but she wasn’t taking no for an answer. Igor was quite tempted to call out the irony in this, but this wasn’t the most opportune of times.

“Lord Shiva and Nandi came to visit me. They extended an offer for them to train me. I didn’t accept on the spot, but they’ll come back in a…year.”

Casually recounting the recent happenings, he paused when he noticed how Aurelia’s eyes had widened after each of his statements.

“Lord Shiva wants…to train you?”

“Hm? Yeah. I was surprised too. But he does want to.”

“...”

Aurelia had so many questions in regards to that statement, but they weren’t important compared to the reason why he had a brain-bleed.

“Alright. And…what happened for you to get hurt so much?”

“Oh right. You remember those markings I had on my body? That was the result of taking nature energy into my body. I wanted to see what would happen if I transformed as well. I’ll admit that I didn’t completely think things through with this one.”

Rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, he chuckled.

“Still, I don’t regret it. At least I have something new to work on for the rest of the year.”

“...”

Aurelia didn’t know whether to congratulate him or spill out profanities that would make a miner blush. Not only had she rushed over here as fast as she could, but she was even blocked by a barrier. The amount of panic she felt in that moment was indescribable.

[No…]

She wouldn’t remain on this topic anymore. She didn’t want to think about the what-ifs anymore. He was fine. Nothing too terrible happened. It would not do if she constantly pursued this incident.

“I hope you succeed, Igor.”

Giving off a genuine smile, she glossed over everything. However, her desire to further further her sealing proficiency was renewed. This was the first time she had been forcefully separated from Igor. She would make sure it would be the last.

.

AN

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I kind of thought our dearest Lia would mother over him about the dangers of accessing unknown forms and whatnot. I guess she gave up on him like a mother gives up on her drunk son.

My patrons are already on chapter 196. So if you want to read ahead, you’re welcome to join the club.

Until the next chapter.