"I was wondering who had woken up the low-levels from their slumber," A chilling voice entered his ears.
He looked down, as he was still mid-jump, only to see Eve's furious eyes glaring at the swarm of low-level accurseds.
The next thing that Raven witnessed made his heartbeat race faster than a V12.
A single slash.
She quickdrew her sword, and a tangible, ever extending blade, made up of nothing but mana, left her sword and…
Silence!
The entire ground went silent.
The next second, every single accurseds' torsos slipped from their lower body.
They were cut in half by a single swing of her sword.
Hundreds of accurseds.
Even his crystal wall was split in half with laser precision.
Before his second foot even lifted off from the wall, he lost his footing.
Thud!
Uff!
He fell on the ground, face-first.
Due to the mind-numbing effect those accurseds had on him, he barely felt any pain.
But even now, he could feel the glare on his back.
'This dirt feels quite nice,' He gulped, staying motionless for a second, 'I should keep my face planted in here.'
"Get up, Raven." Her voice wasn't loud, but it sure was effective.
He immediately got up, his head still down.
"What do you think you were doing here, waking up the low-level accurseds from their slumber?"
And Raven already had an excuse ready for this.
"I- I just remembered the quote stating, 'To overcome your fears, you must face them.'"
Lying was like a second nature to him at this point.
And given his assumed troublemaker and foolhardy personality, pulling off a stunt like this wasn't completely out of question.
Slap!
A crisp slap echoed in the now quiet atmosphere.
"Had I been a few minutes late, the concentration of the radiation would've already driven you crazy, and…"
She took a breath, "Solis forbid, you would have been converted into an accursed."
Slap!
Another slap echoed in the surroundings.
Apart from the slap and Eve's voice, there was nothing else.
Raven kept facing the ground, not putting up any form of resistance.
Those slaps held no mana or real strength behind them, but they hurt him more than the actual beating he had taken back when treating.
"Here!" She tossed him something small, spherical, which he caught without even looking up.
A pill.
"Eat that to cleanse the remnants of any radiation that entered your body."
Raven gave her the slightest of nods.
"I don't have any more time, since I have yet to catch the main accursed behind this," She turned around, not even looking towards him anymore.
"You'd better be inside the carriage by the time I get back as well."
Her words were piercing his heart like a dagger.
Maybe it was because the original Raven's emotion was slowly leaking into his psyche.
But this feeling was really shitty.
Even opening his mouth felt like a chore to him now.
"Not a single defiance of my orders now, and you'd better be ready for your punishment now."
She immediately vanished from the spot, leaving behind the defeated, sorry figure of Raven.
He ate the pill immediately, 'Damn, this is better.'
Huff!
'Damn!'
Whoosh!
Suddenly, his guts churned, and the dirty ground below turned into nothingness.
Wheeze!
He was back in the air.
"Haha!" A mechanically echoing voice irritated his ears, making him finally look up.
It was the silver woman.
Smirking and chuckling straight to his face.
Raven's fist curled up, his nails digging into his skin.
He gritted his teeth, glaring at her with a murderous stare.
"Hah! Looks like it was worth waiting for your sister to arrive."
She laughed again.
The bait to enrage him was so obvious, but it was really effective.
"Give me the stuff already," He snarled, his voice low.
He feared he would start yelling and raging if his voice was any higher than this.
"Not before you complete another task-"
Sss!
Raven covered his face with his palms, slowly exhaling to calm himself down.
What was this woman's problem?
"Say the magic words, and I will give it to you." Her annoying words fell onto his ears again.
His chest heaved in anger, but he still held back and said, "Please."
"Your reactions are so cute," She cupped his face suddenly, making him flinch violently.
If he could, he would have pummeled her face to a pulp.
But sometimes, a person should know his limits and bow down to the strong.
Her cold hands seductively caressed his face, making him close his eyes in frustration.
"This dirt doesn't suit you," She whispered in his ear, making his body feel even weaker.
His hair stood up on its end as the excess stimulation triggered a danger signal in his body.
Her fingers glided through his lips as they made their way inside his mouth.
What was she trying to achieve here?
He wondered.
But the next second, he felt something extremely chilly on his tongue.
"Don't bite!" She whispered, her tongue brushing off his earlobes, "Swallow it whole."
Raven ignored the blatant sexual assault on him and obeyed her instructions.
He swallowed the freezing orb, and his throat constricted at once.
Kugh!
A surge of energy rushed inside his body, making it feel like he was floating inside liquid helium.
He immediately lost all sensation in his body, and his consciousness floated in the air.
He wondered if this was how it felt when one did fentanyl.
After what felt like a second to him, he regained the sensations in his body parts.
His eyes slowly regained their clarity.
And the first thing they saw was the grinning face of the silver woman.
Ugh!
What a horrible way to regain clarity.
"Your question?" She asked, reminding him of the questions she promised to answer.
"Give me a way to mask this mark in front of anyone."
"Done!" She said.
Her hands were still interlocked with his, and Raven suddenly felt something in his hand.
"Read this only when you're alone," She whispered, and slowly increased the distance.
"Also, stay low for a while, and don't do anything suspicious anymore."
"Are we done?" He asked, his tone emotionally neutral.
"Mhm!" She said, her head tilting down, as a grin appeared on her face.
"Considering that as a service on the house," She said as she turned around, "We are done here."
Before Raven could decipher the meaning behind her words, his footing changed again.
He was right at the door of his carriage.
"What was that about?" He wondered, as he looked down.
'Oh!'