The morning light was soft and dim, cutting through the forest mist like thin ribbons of gold.
Lilith and Omen had spent the night together, one sleeping while the other kept guard and vice versa.
After the initial loss of touch between Omen and Lilith's thigh, the boy felt a weird sense of emptiness.
All this was new to Omen since all his life he'd barely ever been able to twitch his body, much less move or see.
It was mainly because of this that everything happening right now was totally new to him.
After all, knowing things in theory and being to apply it in real life were two entirely different things.
Lilith walked a few steps ahead, her long black hair moving lightly as she listened to Omen speak.
He had been talking non-stop since they left the cave, his voice low but calm.
"So, this story you're telling me is in a world which has flying metal birds that carried people around?" she asked, tilting her head slightly, eyes full of disbelief.
Omen let out a small laugh. "Yeah. The people of that planet called them airplanes.
They used engines to move through the sky, in fact, it's nothing like here."
Lilith blinked slowly, clearly struggling to imagine it. "That sounds like magic."
He smiled faintly.
"You could say that-"
The forest wind brushed past them, carrying the sound of birds and distant water.
Omen felt strangely at ease after Lilith had given taken out another one of those trinkets from the space cloud of black hanging on her waist.
And just like every other time she simply said that it was just there when she looked again in the cave.
Omen was tempted to ask her to look inside the space pouch but after his previous staring atrocity, he didn't have the guts needed to ask her.
As for talking so much like this reminded him what it was like to be human, something he hadn't felt in years.
He had been blind for so long, both in body and in heart, but hearing Lilith listen, really listen made him want to keep talking.
She had told him how she'd spent most of her life trapped in that cave, tortured and forgotten by the same race she called family.
Her voice didn't shake when she said it.
But her eyes…her eyes said enough.
And that made something inside Omen boil.
'Those bastards,' he thought, his jaw tightening a little, unaware that this was the first time he expressed anger in his life.
After all, his character was just that of a dead man without any personality. The boy was yet to realise the changes happening inside him.
'They called her weak and left her to rot?' His mind replayed the calm way she had said that she'd been "defiled," her tone flat…like she'd accepted it.
"Who was it?" Omen had asked softly once, not long ago, when they were leaving the cave.
Lilith had stopped in her tracks then. For a second, she didn't breathe.
Then her entire body started shaking, not from fear, but from something that went down her very brain.
Omen saw her lips tremble and the faint crossing of her legs, only making the gleam in his eyes a shade sharper.
"Don't—" the 19-year old girl had whispered, her voice unsteady. "Don't ask me that, Omen."
The boy hadn't asked again.
He didn't need to. The look in her eyes had already told him enough, whoever had done it didn't deserve to live.
Now, walking beside her in silence, he tried to calm himself down, but the thought wouldn't leave.
The world around him might be new, but cruelty…cruelty was the same everywhere.
Lilith noticed his quietness and turned toward him. "You're angry," she said softly.
The boy nodded. "Wouldn't you be?"
"I was," she replied. "Then I stopped. Rage burns you faster than it burns them."
Omen didn't respond.
He couldn't decide if that was wisdom or just the words of someone who'd been hurt too much.
The silence stretched for a while before she tried to lighten the air again. "Tell me more about this world of stories you talk of," she said all of a sudden.
Omen smiled faintly. "Hmm, where do I even start? This place had stories, songs, machines that could talk back, and even lights that could turn night into day!"
Lilith looked up, eyes wide. "That sounds like a paradise."
He gave a short laugh. "It wasn't. People there still found ways to hurt each other.
No matter how bright the world gets, darkness doesn't really go away."
She didn't say anything after that. The air grew colder as they stepped deeper into the woods.
The forest floor was darker here, trees twisted, their old roots hanging like veins crawling across the dirt.
Omen slowed his pace.
Something felt off.
"Hey," he whispered. "Do you feel that?"
Lilith's eyes narrowed, her pupils shrinking. "Yeah…we're not alone."
A few seconds later, a deep, commanding voice echoed through the trees.
"Halt!"
The sound made Omen freeze. His body tensed, instinctively stepping back, but Lilith's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist, stopping him.
From behind the nearest tree, a man stepped out, tall, broad-shouldered, and dressed in dull silver armor that looked scratched and worn. His helmet was off, revealing a face with sharp eyes and a trimmed beard. His expression screamed authority.
The sigil on his chestplate glowed faintly blue, some kind of insignia Omen didn't recognize.
"Identify yourselves," the man ordered, his voice heavy. "You're trespassing in territory under the protection of the Lunar Order."
Lilith's expression darkened. "The Lunar Order…?" she muttered.
Omen frowned. "We don't mean any trouble," he said quickly. "We were just passing through…"
The man cut him off sharply. "Silence!"
The air around him suddenly shimmered as his hand moved towards the hilt of the sword strapped to his waist.
The weapon gave off a faint white glow, almost holy-looking under the dim light.
Omen could feel his heart beating faster. Lilith hadn't moved an inch, but her eyes had already turned a deep red, the same shade she had when she fought that blackened beast.
The man's gaze shifted between the two of them. Then it stopped on Lilith's eyes, and his expression twisted with pure…adultred, lust.
***