The corridors were closing in on me, and my heavy footsteps felt like hammers striking the chest of the earth.
My aura wasn't just energy; it was a living, starving entity.
I felt it scratching the walls around me, shaking the stones and leaving black cracks behind me as if the place were crying out for relief from my weight.
My breath came out burning and accelerated, as if my lungs were too small for the vast anger dwelling within me.
I rushed toward the academy's backyard, needing the void to breathe.
I stopped in the middle and began to inhale the cold air deeply, trying to extinguish the fire residing in my gut, but suddenly... everything froze.
I sensed his presence—that familiar golden weight, that coldness my heart could never mistake... or rather, "his" cursed heart that was now drumming in my chest, urging me to kill.
I closed my eyes tightly, and I felt the tears of rage burning my eyelids.
"What does he want now? Hasn't he had enough? Is he truly seeking his own demise?"
I turned toward him slowly, and in that moment, I wasn't just Aria, the rebellious student.
My hair was flying wildly around my face, driven by the winds created by my surging energy.
My eyes... I felt them glowing with a radiant red—a color that did not belong to humans, but to Hell itself.
When I opened my mouth to speak, my voice did not emerge alone; it was laced with a deep snarl—a sound coming from the depths of "The Void," the voice of the beast that had begun to swallow my being.
I screamed at him, the words coming out like crashing rocks:
"Have you not had your fill of provoking death, Prince? Or did you come to see how I will tear this contract apart with my own hands, even if it costs me ripping your heart from your chest?"
Kaios stood a few paces away. He didn't take an offensive stance; instead, he stood with aristocratic coldness, hands behind his back.
He looked into my radiant red eyes and showed no fear; rather, his face bore the features of a mentor watching his pupil surpass herself.
He took one step forward, letting his golden aura collide with my Void aura, generating sparks of energy in the air between us.
He spoke in a calm, provocative tone:
"Look at yourself, Aria... this beast roaring now is the most beautiful thing I've seen in you so far. You don't want to kill me; you just want someone strong enough to endure the ugliness of your truth... and I am here."
The bracelet around my wrist was glowing with a pitch black—a blackness that didn't just absorb light, but screamed of the ruin Vasilios had warned me about.
I didn't feel my body move; I was a hurricane of shadows.
In the blink of an eye, Kaios was pinned to the ground under the weight of my superhuman speed.
I straddled his chest, pressing my thighs around his waist with enough force to nearly crush his ribs and keep him down.
I circled his neck with my hands, squeezing with all the malice I possessed, while my other hand formed a fist with veins bulging, throbbing with the lust for murder.
The echo of the beast inside my head resonated like a funeral wail:
"Kill him, Aria... erase him from existence... let me see his blood water this soil!"
As for him... he didn't move a muscle.
He was completely submissive, lying beneath me with an aristocratic coldness he didn't abandon even while choking.
Worse yet, he was staring at me with a smile that widened to reveal pure madness.
His golden eyes were shining with a sickly joy, as if he had been waiting for this moment since eternity.
I raised my fist, charged with Void energy, and aimed it at his head with the intent to blow it apart and end this nightmare forever.
But, in the moment preceding the disaster, my hand veered off, driven by the remains of my shattered will.
I delivered the punch directly beside his head, sinking into the ground with a force that shook the place and sent dust flying around us.
I pulled my hands away from his reddened neck and pressed my palm against his shoulder with desperate force, closing my eyes tightly to stifle the scream of the beast that had begun to tear my mind from the inside, wailing:
"Kill him now! He is weak... he is yours!"
I felt his hands gripping my waist firmly, pressing down to trigger the "Contract" between us, making our hearts beat in one mad rhythm.
He asked with provocative coldness:
"Will you kill me next time? Or will you accept the fact that we are two sides of the same coin of destruction?"
The pain was no longer just a sensation; it became an entity gnawing at my skull from the inside.
I released Kaios's shoulder to grab my head with both hands, digging my fingers into my scalp and pulling my hair wildly, trying to uproot that scream tearing through my consciousness.
The voice of the beast in my head had turned into a sharp funeral wail demanding blood:
"Kill him now... tear him apart... do not let this weakness taint us!"
In the midst of this internal hell, Kaios's cold voice pierced the fog of my pain, only making things worse.
His provocative words fell on my open wounds like acid, inciting the dormant blackness within my depths and giving it new fuel.
"Stop resisting... surrender to it..."
I felt the skin of my face stretching and tearing under the weight of the energy.
I looked into the reflection of his golden eyes and saw horror... dark black veins had emerged on my cheeks and forehead, Void energy flowing through them like a black poison disfiguring my human features.
I could no longer bear this double noise: the beast's scream and the cursed Prince's voice.
I exploded with a scream that shook the corners of the yard—a scream that was never human, but a cracked roar of pain and defiance:
"Stop! Everyone, shut up! Damn you... damn you, Kaios! Stop talking before I blow this place and everyone in it apart!"
I was shaking violently above him, the black veins on my face throbbing with every beat of his heart sent to me by the contract.
My body was collapsing, my energy spiraling out of control, while he remained watching my transformation into a "monster" with a calmness that only a devil could possess.
In the heart of the black storm tearing my mind, and as I felt strands of my hair nearly coming loose from the force of my grip, a faint ray of memory emerged.
His voice echoed in the corners of my consciousness like an ancient hymn:
"My heartbeat is your only prison..."
I stopped screaming suddenly and began to focus with every ounce of remaining awareness on that calm rhythm emanating from his chest.
Amidst the noise of my racing breath and my surging pulse, his pulse was... regular, steady, and cold as winter ice.
I listened with intense focus, as if drowning in an ocean of stillness, and the beast's wail faded gradually until it became a distant whisper, then absolute silence.
I slowly moved my hands away from my hair and opened my eyes to see the world returning to its natural colors as the Void aura withdrew, vanishing as if it were nothing but a passing nightmare.
I felt his hands still gripping my waist tightly, as if he were trying to anchor my soul in my body.
I blinked several times, staring at his very close features, and said to myself in awe:
"Damn, this cursed contract works with terrifying efficiency!"
I placed my palm on his chest, where my antidote lay, and closed my eyes, sighing deeply—a sigh that expelled all the toxins from my chest.
Suddenly, my body began to shake—not from pain this time, but from a wave of loud laughter I couldn't suppress.
I raised my head toward him, my eyes having returned to their calm red color, and said through my hysterical laughter:
"To hell with you, man! Truly, to hell with you!"
I continued laughing as if I had completely lost my mind, while the black veins withdrew from my face, leaving behind an exhausted paleness.
I looked at his face, and for the first time since we met, I saw a crack in his marble mask.
His golden eyes widened in genuine shock, and his eyebrows rose in surprise—the surprise of one who never expected a "Void" episode to end with a mocking laugh.
Kaios remained silent for seconds, watching my face which had returned to its natural beauty, then his surprise slowly transformed into a cunning side-smile.
His body finally relaxed beneath me, and he said in a low tone:
"Laughter in the face of annihilation? It seems I wasn't wrong when I chose you for this contract... you are either brave to the point of death, or mad to the point of greatness."
I finally stopped laughing, but my features didn't return to stone. Instead, that confident, provocative smile that had always been my first weapon appeared.
I stared at him for a long time.
With a calm motion, I pushed my messy hair back, then tilted my head and lowered myself until nothing but our ragged breaths separated our faces.
I slowly raised my hand and placed my palm on his cheek, where the mysterious dragon tattoo stretched.
At the touch of my fingers, I felt something amazing: the tattoo began to move! The dragon vibrated under his skin as if it had woken from a long slumber in response to my touch.
In that moment, I saw Kaios's eyes flash with liquid gold—a brilliance that wasn't anger, but something much deeper... it was disturbance.
I drew closer, until my lips almost touched his, and fixed my gaze deep into his eyes, which were beginning to lose their usual coldness.
In a deep whisper dripping with confidence, I dropped my bombshell that shook his being:
"I am the one who chose this contract of my own free will... dear Kaios."
I smiled boldly and fearlessly before his shocked face.
In that second, I felt true victory; for the contract never lies.
I felt his heartbeat inside my chest—it wasn't steady as it was moments ago.
It was pounding madly, loud drums of confusion, astonishment, and tension that the cold Prince had never felt before.
Kaios's body stiffened completely under the weight of my confession. The shock wasn't just from the words, but from the truth transmitted to him by the contract: that I was not lying.
For the first time, Kaios felt his mask had completely shattered. His hand, which was holding my waist, tightened with involuntary force.
He felt heat flowing through his veins, rivaling the heat of his golden aura.
He swallowed hard, his golden eyes searching my face feverishly, as if trying to find a hole in my claim.
He brought his face closer—not as an attack, but a desire to regain control—and whispered in a choked tone:
"You chose the prison? You chose to be bound to a monster like me? Either you are more cunning than I thought, or you are planning a crime that destiny will not forgive for both of us."
The dragon tattoo on his cheek glowed with a faint golden light under my hand, expressing his internal emotional turmoil.
I wasn't satisfied with his confusion; I felt an overwhelming desire to crumble what remained of his false pride.
I raised my other hand with provocative slowness, my fingers sliding between the strands of his pitch-black hair scattered on his forehead, brushing them away from his eyes which hadn't veered from mine.
With my movement, I caught sight of that rebellious white strand—the strand that always increased my irritation and his mysterious charm at once.
I ran my thumb over it with a gentleness hiding a threat, and brought my face so close there was no room for air between us.
In a whispering tone, intentionally cutting the letters to pierce his silence, I said:
"We shall see about that... Kai-os."
I pronounced his name very slowly, as if tasting the flavor of my victory on my tongue.
At that moment, I felt the violent tremor hit his being through the contract; the heartbeat thumping in my chest was no longer just disturbance—it became a raging rhythm, a true earthquake telling me the fortresses had fallen.
Kaios froze in place, as if hearing his name that way was the "spell" that paralyzed him.
His golden pupils dilated until the gold nearly swallowed the blackness.
I felt his hand on my waist suddenly move to rest behind my neck, his fingers cold and trembling with an unusual intensity.
He didn't defend, he didn't attack; he was just trying to cling to reality while the world around him drowned in Aria's presence.
He pressed his lips together firmly for seconds, as if preventing himself from uttering something he might regret, then his voice came out raspy, deep, and weighted with something like enjoyable defeat:
"You are playing with fire, Aria... and fire only burns those who think they own it. Do you truly realize what you are doing to me right now?"
My smile widened to reveal a victory I hadn't planned, but whose sweetness I tasted in every frantic pulse reaching me from his chest.
I didn't flinch before his grip that circled my neck with a lethal softness; instead, I leaned my body further toward him, as if challenging him to approach that edge he feared.
I fixed my gaze on his closed eyes, felt his hot breath caressing my face, and said in a confident, calm tone, truthful to the point of terror:
"Yes... I realize it very well, Kaios. And I also realize that you fear this fire as much as you are drawn to it."
In that moment, everything went still.
The wind died down, the distant academy sounds faded, and nothing remained but the rhythm of our hearts, merged into one mad beat by the contract.
Kaios opened his eyes slowly, and the gold in them was no longer cold; it looked like liquid lava.
He didn't say a single word. He merely ran his thumb over my lower lip with a slowness that made my body tremble, then suddenly pulled away with feigned coldness, saying in an attempt to hide his final confusion:
"Then, get ready, Aria... because the game is no longer yours alone."
I slowly straightened up from his chest, feeling the cold air fill the void his body left.
I sat beside him on the scattered dirt, while he moved with composure, propping his upper torso on his arms, letting out a long sigh laden with a strange relief, as if he had just emerged from a grueling battle with himself.
He began rearranging his clothes which my madness had disheveled, but my eyes didn't leave that tattoo resting on his cheek—the dragon tattoo whose glow had begun to calm and fade.
Suddenly, an idea flashed in my mind like a spark in total darkness.
I remembered what is said in ancient legends:
"Every being has a soul, and every soul has a name that grants it power."
I turned toward him suddenly, sitting directly across from him in a sudden position, making him stop arranging his clothes and stare at me with surprise and seriousness, as if trying to read my features which had changed from anger to wild curiosity.
My eyes widened with a brilliance both childish and challenging, and I brought my face close to him, whispering the question that pierced his silence:
"What is the name of your dragon... Kaios?"
An absolute silence prevailed—a silence different from all that preceded it.
It wasn't a silence of fear or confusion, but a sacred silence, as if I had asked about the secret of his creation.
Kaios's hand stiffened over his shirt collar, and the features of relief vanished from his face, replaced by a mask of deep mystery.
The dragon tattoo on his cheek quivered slightly—not in anger, but as if the entity lurking under his skin had heard my call.
Kaios looked into my eyes for a long time, and I felt through the contract a wave of ancient sadness and awe surging through his heart.
He didn't smile this time; instead, his voice dropped to become as deep as the echo of caves, and he spoke in a tone of absolute gravity:
"Names in our world, Aria, are not just letters... they are chains. Whoever knows the name of the dragon possesses the key to the soul inhabiting it. Are you sure you are ready to carry the weight of this secret?"
I didn't back down; the spark of challenge grew in my eyes as I nodded firmly, as if throwing all his warnings behind my back.
The consequences didn't matter to me, nor did the curses that feed on secrets frighten me.
I moved closer to him until I felt the heat of his breath, and said in a tone full of determination and curiosity that was nearly burning me:
"I told you before... I don't care about curses, and I don't fear chains. So, stop stalling and say it... what is its name?"
A heavy silence fell, one in which I felt his heartbeats through the contract slowing down to become deep and steady, as if his body were preparing to release a secret suppressed for centuries.
Kaios looked into the depths of my eyes, and for the first time, I didn't see that provocative coldness; I saw a dark respect for my boundless audacity.
Kaios closed his eyes for seconds, and I felt through the contract a strange vibration flowing through his soul, as if the dragon within him had let out a searing breath.
Very slowly, he reached out and took my hand, pressing it with a lethal softness, then leaned toward my ear until his voice was but a sacred hiss intended for me alone:
"Erebus..."
He uttered the name in a resonant voice that made my limbs tremble.
As the letters left his lips, the dragon tattoo on his cheek glowed with a bright golden light for a moment, and I felt a silent scream echoing in my mind—the scream of a great being that had just awakened.
Kaios pulled back slightly to see the effect of the name on me, his eyes shining with a non-human brilliance as he whispered:
"Now, Aria... I have given you the key to my soul. 'Erebus' only responds to those who acknowledge their darkness... so are you ready for the price this name will demand from you in return?"
I blinked several times, feeling the echo of the letters of his name resonating in the corridors of my mind like an ancient hymn awakened from sleep.
The name carried a majestic weight, but I couldn't suppress my admiration. I whispered in awe:
"Damn, Kaios... your dragon's name is truly magnificent!"
My eyes remained fixed on the dragon tattoo on his cheek; it pulled me with an irresistible magnetic force, as if the tattoo were demanding my recognition.
I didn't hesitate; I reached out and pressed my palm firmly over its place on his face, feeling the heat of his skin burning my fingers.
In a moment of mysterious revelation, as if a voice from the depths of "The Void" within me was the one speaking, I repeated the name I felt echoing in my soul:
"Astaroth..."
The moment the name left my lips, the world around us shook.
It wasn't just a word; it was a "key" I turned in a forbidden lock.
Kaios's body stiffened completely, as if a golden lightning bolt had struck him.
He didn't expect me to utter another name, or perhaps the older and more terrifying version of his dragon's name.
Through the contract, I felt a wave of royal panic.
Kaios, the Prince who does not falter, was now terrified—not of me, but of the power I had awakened with a single word.
I felt that the dragon had begun to submit to me more than to him, because I knew its lost "true name."
Kaios pulled me toward him forcefully until my chest hit his, and said while panting, the veins in his neck bulging:
"You did it... you dug into the graves of my ancestors, Aria. Now, Astaroth has awakened, and he will not rest until he sees the world burn... or sees you as a queen on his dark throne."
His panic only increased my euphoria, and his warning only deepened my desire to persist.
I raised my other hand to grip his head firmly, holding him before my eyes which had regained their demonic brilliance.
My mad smile widened—that smile that only appears when death is dancing nearby.
I was enjoying the collapse of his defenses, and enjoying even more that name that had grown in my mind like a poisonous flower the moment he uttered his false name.
I don't know from which corridor of my cursed memory this name came, but it was like the missing piece in the puzzle of my soul.
I pressed my fingers into his cheek and the dragon tattoo that had begun to writhe as if trying to emerge from the pores of his skin, and I repeated it again, in a more confident, more authoritative tone, as if placing a chain around the neck of the dragon itself:
"Astaroth..."
With the second pronunciation of the letters, not only did the world shake, but I felt an earthquake exploding beneath our feet.
My black aura surged to blend with his golden glow in a terrifying cosmic embrace.
At that moment, Kaios lost every ounce of his aristocratic coldness.
Kaios's defenses fell completely; his body went limp in my hands as if the name had robbed him of his will.
The dragon on his face began to glow with a deep red light mixing with the gold, and his breath came out scorched.
"Astaroth" was responding to my call—roaring under Kaios's skin in recognition of its new queen.
Kaios stared at my face with a look that mixed pure horror with fatal fascination.
He whispered in a broken voice, the gold in his eyes nearly extinguishing before the redness of mine:
"What have you done...? You summoned the ancient king... Astaroth only obeys those who are stronger than him... are you... are you the one who will lead me to the abyss, Aria?"
Through the link, Kaios no longer felt his own heartbeats; instead, he began to feel my pulse dominating his being.
The balance of power had shifted completely; the Prince who thought he owned the contract was now a prisoner of a name uttered by a woman who knew no fear.
To me, Kaios was nothing more than a body carrying the entity I desired.
I fixed my gaze on his eyes, which were drowning in dark, liquid gold, and brought my lips to his ear—but I wasn't addressing him; I was calling the soul lurking behind the bars of his skin.
I said in a tone that was calm, cold, and earth-shattering all at once:
"I am the abyss itself... Astaroth."
With the third pronunciation of the name along with this declaration, the wind died down completely, and the blood froze in the veins of Kaios, whose limbs turned stiff.
Suddenly, the silence was no longer silent; instead, a deep voice exploded in my head—a voice like mountains colliding and rocks shattering at the bottom of the ocean.
It wasn't a voice heard with the ear, but a telepathy shaking my being from the inside.
The voice of Astaroth:
"Aeons have passed since a human uttered this name without their tongue burning... O Abyss incarnate, I have smelled the scent of your destruction from behind the veil of years. What then do you ask of the King of Fire, whom this weak Prince has enslaved?"
I felt Kaios's body convulse beneath my hands, the veins in his temple throbbing madly; he was "feeling" this dialogue which transcended his perception.
The dragon was addressing me, ignoring its master, recognizing my authority which surpassed the lineage of kings.
Kaios was in a state of spiritual awe.
Through the contract, he began to feel Astaroth rebelling against his golden chains to submit to my darkness.
His head fell onto my shoulder, his breath coming out exhausted as if the dragon were absorbing his energy to speak with me.
He whispered in a lost voice:
"Aria... what is he saying to you? I feel him... leaving me... heading toward you..."
Despite his weakness, I felt a stab of jealousy mixed with fear; the dragon that was the source of his strength and pride had begun flirting with the abyss dwelling within me.
Kaios realized that I was no longer just a partner in a contract, but had become the "Lady" who might lead him to glory or total destruction.
While I was erasing the dragon tattoo with my gentle touches, I felt the violent vibrations surging under Kaios's skin.
His body was a battlefield between his shattered pride and Astaroth's sudden submission to me.
A calm, mysterious smile, devoid of any ambition other than the pleasure of control, appeared on my face.
I whispered, my voice flowing like poisoned silk into Kaios's ear, while my mind was still connected to the entity of the great dragon:
"I want nothing from you... Astaroth. I only wanted to experience the feel of your attractive name between my lips, and to see how your master would tremble when he realized that I hold the key to your prison."
A majestic silence prevailed, broken only by Kaios's rapid breathing.
Through the contract, I felt a fierce disappointment from the dragon; as if he were longing for a destructive command, but at the same time, he bowed in reverence to this arrogance.
As for Kaios, his situation invoked both pity and fascination.
He couldn't take it anymore; his defenses collapsed entirely, and he rested his head on my shoulder, panting as if the words I uttered were whips lashing his soul.
He whispered in a trembling voice, filled with a tone I had never heard from him before... the tone of surrendered defeat:
"You trifle with my sacreds just for amusement? Damn you, Aria... you made the King of Dragons kneel just because you desired to taste the letters of his name."
He closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of my hair mixed with the scent of Void energy, completely surrendering to my power, as if he finally realized that resisting "the abyss" is a slow suicide.
He slowly raised his head from my shoulder and looked into my calm red eyes.
There were no burning glares this time, but a vast bewilderment.
He reached out to hold a strand of my hair and said with bitterness mixed with fascination:
"You will not kill me in my body, but you will kill the warrior within me... won't you?"
With playful features, I brushed his hand away with a light strike before he could go too far in messing with my hair.
I pulled back slightly, wearing an expression of feigned innocence—the kind that always precedes a storm.
I looked at him with eyes full of a charming cunning and said in a light tone, as if I hadn't just shaken his very being moments ago:
"Don't look at me like that... I'm not that bad to the point of killing someone, Kaios. It's just that I felt a bit bored, and I wanted to have a little fun."
I spoke my words with a coldness that provoked him more than my previous anger; for to a Prince like him, being a "means of amusement" for a woman of the abyss is an insult surpassing the impact of death itself.
My words froze the blood in his veins for a second, before a short, broken, and dry laugh escaped him.
He looked at his hand which I had struck, then raised his golden eyes toward me in genuine wonder.
"Amusement? You dug into the deepest secrets of my soul, and awakened a sleeping king who almost burned the academy, and all of this was... just amusement?"
Kaios stood up and reached out his hand to help me up, but his look carried a dark promise:
"If this is your way of having fun, then get ready... because my turn to play has started now, and I promise you that my amusement will be no less exciting than yours."
I tilted my head, and that cunning smile widened on my lips to reveal the unquenchable spark of challenge in my red eyes.
I wasn't afraid of his threat; rather, I felt like one who had finally found an opponent worth the trouble.
I looked at him boldly, my voice filled with provocative curiosity:
"And how will that be, Your Highness? Show me how princes amuse themselves when their crowns are stolen... and how 'Kaios' plans to play with the abyss without getting burned?"
Kaios lowered himself to my level, exploiting my challenge to close the distance between us further.
He leaned toward my ear, and I felt the heat of his breath, which had returned to a regular rhythm, laden with a renewed and dangerous confidence.
He said in a low, resonant, and chilling tone:
"True amusement is not in power, Aria, but in 'possession.' I will make you realize that this contract you chose of your own free will will pull you into my world until you become the prisoner in it. I will watch you as you try to escape my influence, and I will enjoy every time you are forced to listen to my heartbeat to save yourself from your monster."
I let out a faint laugh that carried all the meanings of disdain for his threat, and gave him one last look that swept him from head to toe, as if I were re-evaluating an opponent whose prestige had just fallen before me.
I said in a confident voice that penetrated the silence of the yard like a blade:
"Oh, really? Then let us see which of us will submit to the other in the end, you despicable Prince."
Without waiting for a response, and without giving his extended hand the slightest attention, I stood up slowly and gracefully, brushing from my clothes the dust of our psychological battle.
I turned away from him with complete coldness, leaving him behind to struggle with the remains of his confusion and the echo of his dragon's name which still trembled in the air.
I walked with steady, measured steps through the corridor leading to the dormitory building, completely ignoring the path to the classroom.
I no longer cared about the lessons or the students' stares; all that occupied my mind was that euphoria I felt as I saw Kaios collapse.
I went directly to my room, locked the door firmly behind me, and threw myself onto my bed, closing my eyes, while the echo of his heartbeat still resonated in my chest through the contract... but this time, it was a defeated pulse.