Chapter 53: Opening of Hearts

Lily gasped in surprise as she instinctively felt Alex become even more dangerous in an instant. Something that had never happened to her before. No one could suddenly just raise in strength out of nowhere. 

"Well, aren't these guys kinda powerful," he laughed.

Fwish!

Suddenly groans were heard within the mist, she couldn't see what Alex was doing but to her, it seemed as if his fingers would twitch like a puppeteer and another undead groan would be heard.

'How can he always seem to know what to do?' She frowned, this was something even she couldn't wrap her head around. Alex is a country bumpkin, he shouldn't know anything about the outside world. 

"All done." His voice broke Lily out of her thoughts. He suddenly ran towards her and looked at her in worry."You okay?"

She looked into his eyes and saw the deeply hidden worry he had for her. This made Lily smirk and hug him. "Alex, promise that you won't leave me."

"Huh?" Alex was baffled by this, from what he remembers there shouldn't be any mental status effects. 'Why is she suddenly hugging me? Is there some kind of illusionary effect?'

Lily on the other hand smiled at his confusion. He always seemed machine-like with his exuded confidence, it unnerved her. But now she realized what was wrong with him, to her, Alex was just simply growing mentally faster than normal due to his intelligence. 

"Oy, Lily, come to your senses!" He called out to her, it was no time to get lost in such thoughts.

Her sight cleared and Lily's eyes looked at him with a knowing look. Instantly Alex's mind went through thousands of possibilities, contemplating if she noticed anything too abnormal in him. Of course, the thought of killing her also crossed his mind, but he got rid of that thought as soon as it came. Even if he wanted to, it would be a waste and it wouldn't be something guaranteed because her guardian should still be able to sense once Lily's life was in danger.

'What is wrong? Do I have to use it? Is this a good time to do so?' Alex was panicking and his hand clenched, his skin crawled. Whatever was affecting Lily was inconceivable in his view. It was something beyond his understanding. So from his baggy shirt, he pulled his {Dragon Horn} and blew in it.

*BOOOOOM*

The whole structure of the building shook as an earthquake had hit it. Alex didn't hold back and the only reason the place was able to hold up was due to the one who built this place. 

Still, Lily was pulled out of her thoughts once she saw Alex's body burst in blood. Like sweat, blood was sipping out of his skin, his missing eye had also started bleeding again and his bones felt like they were rattled. Though he was a Rank 3 Mage, something like using a Legendary Attack, artifact or not, it still gave him horrendous injuries. His HP had dropped below 20% and was continuing to drop rapidly. 

Lily's hands were over her mouth, she couldn't believe her eyes. Alex was already injured, adding this on top would guarantee his death unless something was done quickly. 

"Alex!! Why the hell did you do that?!" She shouted the question at him and the only response she gets is his body swaying and about to fall backward. 

*fwish* In an instant she places herself behind him and cautiously catches him, making sure not to rustle his injures. 

Even Alex winced at this, today had been a terrible day for him. First the problem with the Hell's Creature, the Gods, the cold, and now this… he was so done with this. From now one he resolved to never try and rush things like this. If he had waited a year or two more he would have eventually noticed that Ain was the Headmistress in disguise. 

Then this whole mess wouldn't have happened, now he can see clearly where this whole problem started. Why did the Gods only pay attention to him after the Headmistress' body was killed? She then had her soul get into one of her doppelgangers in the Magic Academy, in no way would she have been able to get back before Alex took the Dream Mage's Treasure. 

He was supposed to have left and escaped from there making sure to escape the Headmistress, never to go back to the Magic Academy… at least that was his plan. 

Now he could see that she probably noticed something wrong and decided to be vindictive and if she couldn't have the treasure she would sacrifice Alex's life by notifying the Gods… or only one God and the rest looked at it because they were curious. Since they can't enter the mortal world, Gods were quite nosy beings.

'Tch, I thought my life had value to her. As long as I held the potential she wouldn't mind something like this. But I was wrong.' Alex pondered what he should have done better. 'As long as I don't have power, I shouldn't try things stupidly like this. 

It was supposed to be an easy way of killing off the Headmistress and I wouldn't be attached to it after all. Mages wouldn't hold grudges and will become friends with someone who tried to kill them yesterday… for benefits of course. Fuck! Fuck!! Fuck!!!'

He was enraged and clenched his teeth in anger, his brows frowned, and ready to lash out at anyone. 

Lily seeing this mistakes it as him being in pain and tried to bandage his body to stop it from leaking blood like a waterfall. 

"Alex!! Why did you do that?" She inquired again, wondering if there was something around.

"Obviously because of you, acting all strange, what the hell was up with it? Hugging me and acting so strange?" 

"What?!! That was simply a hug, don't you know what showing love is?!" She hissed angrily, the way Alex said it made her feel like it was her fault.

"You stupid bitch." He mumbled, finally tired of keeping an outward mask.

"What did you just call me?!!" She fumed in anger, but Alex just looked at her. Usually, she would have a hard time reading him, but the look on his face clearly said 'What a dumbass am I looking at?' This of course angered her even more. "Do you want me to leave you here?!!"

"Well at least then, I wouldn't be bleeding to death if you had this train of thought before." He dictated, not even bothering to soften his speech to make her have a more favorable expression of him.

"Well maybe if you weren't always such a cold bastard then I wouldn't have to try and see if you even need me or not? Am I toy to you? Some kind of amusement as you advance faster than me?" Lily poured all of her emotions and insecurities out at him, how he always felt so robotic, was he even human? Can he feel anything?

Alex took all of this into account, in the end… she smirked… the smirk slowly developed into a smile and the smile into full-blown laughter. "Hahahahaha!!"

Finally, she had enough and yelled out. "Why the hell are you laughing?!!"

He stopped laughing for a second and noticed Lily's flushed face. He then started laughing even louder. "HAHAHAHAHA!!"

"Damn it, I liked it more when you hide your emotions." Mumbled Lily as tears rolled out of the corner of her eyes.

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 Don't forget to throw some power stones :)

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