The room was silent.
It wasn't a comfortable silence, the kind that invited rest, but a heavy one, burdened by the remnants of a battle that had nearly cost them their lives.
Lusian had barely moved for hours. His torso was wrapped in rough linen bandages, several muscles still burning as if fire were coursing through their fibers, and every time he tried to change position, some part of his body reminded him in the most painful way possible that it had been a terrible idea.
Beside him, sitting on a worn wooden chair, Elizabeth remained there. She wasn't sleeping. She had been watching him for some time with that calculating stare he had always found difficult to decipher.
"Are you going to keep staring at me?" he broke the ice, his voice hoarse.
"Yes."
"Until when?"
"Until I stop thinking you're going to get up, walk out that door, and go looking for another creature that wants to kill you."
Lusian remained silent. His gaze briefly shifted toward the worn wood of the entrance, assessing the distance, before returning to Elizabeth's eyes.
"I wasn't planning to do that."
"Liar."
"I haven't even said anything."
"I know you."
Elizabeth crossed her arms over her chest, straightening her posture. Lusian sighed, a gesture that immediately made his rib cage protest with a sharp stab of pain.
"I'm fine."
"They found you without a single shred of mana."
"That happens."
"You couldn't walk."
"That happens too."
"You had blood in your mouth."
"That was less pleasant, I'll admit."
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes, analyzing every micro-expression on his face.
"And yet you killed a creature like that."
Lusian stopped wearing that cynical half-smile he used to downplay the seriousness of the situation. There it was—the real problem. The knot in his throat that neither water nor time could undo.
He closed his eyes for a second, and the memories of the mountain returned with overwhelming clarity. The monster with its gaping jaws. The desperation of his own body as it began to give out. The mana fading from his channels like water slipping through his fingers. And then... that absolute emptiness.
And what came after the emptiness.
"I don't know what happened," he admitted, his voice barely more than a whisper.
Elizabeth remained silent for several seconds, allowing the weight of his confession to hang in the stale air of the room.
"Then let's start with what you do know."
Lusian looked at her, finding a firm anchor in her eyes.
"My mana was empty."
"Completely empty," Elizabeth confirmed.
"Yes."
"And before that?"
"I was exhausted. Every attack cost me more. I could no longer maintain the same intensity. The weight of the air felt like it was crushing me."
Elizabeth nodded slowly, piecing together the fragments of the tragedy they had narrowly escaped.
"That matches what we saw in the ravine."
"What do you mean?" he asked, frowning when he realized she seemed to understand something that he himself didn't.
He could still remember that strange dissonance inside him.
"When I was fighting... I felt like I could keep going."
Elizabeth frowned, confused.
"But you were exhausted."
"Yes, but I could do much more... I simply ran out of fuel."
Lusian closed his eyes again, searching the recesses of his muscle memory for that anomaly.
"My body was finished. My muscles barely responded. My mana was disappearing. Every attack cost more than the one before."
He paused, and the sound of his own uneven breathing filled the silence of the room.
"But I didn't feel like I had reached the limit of what I could do."
Elizabeth said nothing.
Lusian opened his eyes.
"It was like knowing you can still run a hundred kilometers... and someone forces you to stop after two."
"But were you injured?"
"Yes... but that feeling of absolute power is addictive. The problem is that the mana doesn't last long enough."
Lusian slowly shook his head.
"The problem is that the mana doesn't last long enough."
Elizabeth's expression changed.
"The mana."
"Yes."
Lusian clenched his fingers.
"I could feel it. I don't know how to explain it... but it was there. There was more strength. So much more. I felt like I could push, strike, destroy far more than I was doing."
His voice dropped.
"But every time I tried, my body simply didn't have what it took."
Elizabeth watched him closely.
"Lusian, please, don't push yourself any furth—"
"I know."
Lusian fell silent for a few seconds.
"But I have to learn to control this."
The sentence hung between them.
"My mana reached zero, but it didn't feel like reaching the end. It wasn't that I had reached my limit. It was worse... I could feel that there was so much more, but I had no way to reach it."
Elizabeth slowly ran her fingers across his bandaged chest.
"Lusian, your body is badly injured. Don't try anymore."
Lusian looked at her.
He didn't answer immediately.
Because he knew she was right: his body still couldn't withstand that power.
"I know."
For the first time, there was no confidence in his expression.
"And that's what worries me."
He barely managed to sit up before the pain forced him to stop.
"What Kheris left me... I don't know how far it can go. I don't know where its limit is."
He looked down at his hands.
"The only thing I know is where mine is."
Elizabeth understood.
"Your body."
Lusian slowly exhaled.
"I can feel that there's far more power than I'm capable of handling. But my body still can't control it."
Lusian closed his eyes.
The sensation was still there, buried deep within his body.
That presence.
That power that had remained completely intact even after his mana had been extinguished.
Then the idea finally clicked.
Divinity is the engine.
A Formula One engine.
A machine capable of producing an absurd amount of power.
His gaze lowered toward his own hands.
This body is the chassis.
A chassis that hadn't been built to withstand such an engine.
And finally, he understood the third piece.
Mana is the fuel.
Lusian remained motionless.
His reserve was small.
Ridiculously small.
He could have a monstrously powerful engine and a body capable of channeling it for a while...
but if the tank held only a few liters, everything would end the moment the fuel ran out.
It didn't matter how much power the engine had.
It didn't matter how much the chassis could withstand.
Without fuel, he couldn't keep going.
Elizabeth stared at him for several seconds.
The fear she had felt when she saw him on the brink of death was still present in her eyes.
Then she pushed him back against the bed.
The kiss was deeper, more urgent than ever. It was no longer just desire. There was fear in it—the fear of having nearly lost him, of discovering too late just how much he meant to her.
Lusian's surprise gave way to the fire between them.
Their naked bodies met once more, as if that new battle were the only one that truly mattered.
And as she held onto him, Elizabeth made a decision.
If a danger like that ever appeared again, she would no longer hold back.
She didn't care if Lusian discovered her true nature.
She didn't care if he finally learned that she was a demon.
If she had to choose between keeping her secret or saving him...
this time, she would choose Lusian.