Broken - 3

[Gabriel pov]

As my body was thrown, the wind rushed through my hair like a particularly angry… something - My hand was the first to impact, then my arm… and so on. Until I had knocked my full body into the demon. 

From the mere sight of her slightly open mouth, her eyes, which had opened significantly wider than they were, and the grasping nature of her arm.

I felt that she was of no mind. This demon… this cultist… whatever she may be, she held no expectations that something of this order was to happen. Only that it had.

And within that very moment. Between deliberation and thought. I found myself groping some limb. It was… it was something. I was not quite able to feel what it was.

Only that it was… quite soft and stretched and struggled within my hand. A moan echoing from the lady as I grabbed it harder. Knowing that if I let go… that when, not if, this surprise ended, that I would die a swift death at her hand.

So I gripped it harder. Despite knowing that she was turned on by my action.

Still, with what seemed like a subconscious ability. I activated my own.

And within the moment. Yes, after a particularly large moan. One that I even blushed at. I had never heard something so… so… so lewd.

I wanted nothing more than for her to disappear from within my sight. But not truly. Only that she calmed down a bit.

That was what hurt about the next moment. For my ability healed the soul. Restored it to its natural state. It was within this ability that such an outcome came.

I had seen it happen so many times that I had almost become numb to it. Only I did know that some could survive. However, that was above my own explanation.

For my ability - as I had stated - dealt with the soul. Knowing such, any entity that was tainted from soul to body. They would not be able to survive as, at least in body, against a force that stripped that taint from them.

Restoring them to a natural state. Their body would break down, their soul detached and sent to the next realm. Into the waiting arms of the goddess.

So as my ability activated. That small taint within her soul exploded into one of great magnitude, trying to fight against my own. But it was not enough. Her body writhed. Trying to turn back to its natural state.

And when it could not keep with the power of that taint, who had morphed her such, she dissipated into dust. Only her last words - such powerful and important words - were only transformed into an anguished scream.

So when all was done for, when I felt my hair be covered by ash. A burial that only I cared for. With rites that I only cared for. A carefully dug out part of my heart for the pain that I had witnessed within that soul of hers.

I tore my gaze from the sky and to Aia, her face the picture of surprised. A calm within my voice.

"What." My voice was calm. It was supremely calm. There was no rage within my voice. "Was that for." I finished.

There was no hint of rage within my voice, nor was there any other emotion. I used my - perfected - deadpan as I gazed at her with dead eyes. I was the perfect image of calm. My features within my face held no tenseness.

There was not a single hint of what I truly felt. For I didn't.

My head was tilted to the side, in such a curious way, my eyes closed with barely a slit of the pupil visible. A smile on my lips.

There was not even a hint of rage within me. I was the picture of calm. No one, not even the greatest of cold readers could tell of any emotion within me.

Yes, there was no rage nor was there any dissatisfaction within my voice.

Only the weight of disappointment as Aia tried to stutter out a response. Her mouth opened and closed in an infinite cycle.

Only to stop as I held a hand out. As she struggled against her own mind to give me an answer for her blunder.

"It…" I spoke, "is fine. Just take us towards whoever orchestrated this."

When I felt within her soul, discarding my imperfect sight for such, I found a hint of embarrassment. That hint of embarrassment was the only reason I let her off so.

Obviously - even if I didn't think rationally and only trusted that sight - she held no ill will against me. And because she held none. For that reason and that reason alone. I did not hold her blunder against her.

"And please." She perked up, her soul blazing this way and that in askance of a way to make up for that mistake of hers.

I sighed, letting the weight of my words settle upon her mind before I spoke again.

"Do not let it happen again."

Only then did something truly strange occur within my mind. I- I had never thought that I would be this defiant. Of course it was in the context of life and death, as other times had been.

But looking back upon every instance of my submissiveness. I had thought that it would last forever. And forevermore.

Yet with each passing day I was becoming more and more confident. With each and every passing conflict, every healed person. I found myself becoming more and more defiant to those conflicting wills.

And now, as I gazed at the powerful detective - self proclaimed at least - I found myself not intimidated by her power. But more exasperated at her personality.

'Hmm~' I hummed to myself. I truly was growing wasn't I?

"Alright, I'll be more careful. I- I truly do not know what came of me." She stuttered, validating my thoughts.