Legacy World 4.6 Just A Dream

Vlad felt like his never-ending hunger was finally satiated and thirst finally quenched. This feeling of completeness was so amazing and sudden that it surprised him. How could it compare to what he felt when he saw that fake angel?

He began to take pride in the fact that she was one of the rare created demons that kept her senses. He studied her more closely. There was clarity in her eyes and not crazed madness. Her aura was a perfect stable hue of murky red. He wondered about the object of her hate, but that was something he could find out later. More importantly, it meant that her power would be stable. She would not have to struggle with the issue of fleeting emotions. She was definitely not someone simple.

This led to his curiosity about her ability, identity, and behaviour. He knew how eating was like an addictive drug to demons like her and how the quality of meat was like the quality of a drug. So, he could guess that the meat tasted passable at best. Why would she not give up her human ways despite becoming a full-fledged demon?

She continued to impress him with her intuition. This made him lose all thought and will of leaving her side. It really pleased him that he was the one teaching her and not anyone else, because he could hog all her attention to himself.

He also could not help but feel tempted to tease her. It did not cross his mind that he could annoy her to the point of driving her away. So, when she turned her back on him, it shocked and angered him. No one had dared to do that to him ever since he came to power. Not demons nor angels. More than that, a sense of loss welled up inside him the longer he stared at her retreating back. It made him desperate to keep her by his side no matter what. He brought her into the dimension between earth and hell with him. Since she asked to be taught, he would. What better way to learn than to experience it first hand?

He only calmed down after she pointed out his irrationality. It did nothing to change his objective, though. He properly reviewed their fight and was once again impressed by her adaptability. Having confidence in her ability to learn and grow, especially under pressure, he had no qualms about using himself as the subject of experiment for her hellfire.

However, the longer he left her to her thoughts, the more intense her murky red aura became. It worried him. Such occurrences were normal and fine if they were in the middle of a battle. There would be a balance of input and output. With no outlet, her power could rampage within her and turn against her, especially when she did not have any experience with containing a large power within her.

He decisively acted obnoxiously carefree in an effort to distract her and honestly spoke of all the desires he had towards her. Meanwhile, he carried unspoken questions and worries in his heart.

/Why? Who or what does she hate so much? Why did she change into a demon? She had to have enough hate to survive the transformation. What happened to her?/

Somewhere at the back of his mind, he knew that he was being overly obsessive and indulgent. After all, he only knew her for no more than a couple of hours. Yet, he could not help but feel as if he knew her from long before. Perhaps this was the effect from dreaming about her for a long time. Having settled with that explanation, he never cared about the details after that.

Vlad felt so comfortable and at ease beside Vanora that he was sound asleep before he knew it.

It was a dreamless and peaceful sleep.

Suddenly, he felt like something precious was getting further away from him. If he did not chase after it, he would lose it forever. He forced himself awake. When his eyes flew open, he saw nothing but darkness. He looked all around and ran all over, but the dark was endless. He tried to use his powers to break out, but nothing worked. A feeling of dread suddenly filled him and turned his body stiff. He very slowly turned around with bated breath. The moment he caught sight of the still body lying in a sea of red, his blood ran cold.

Vlad's eyes flew open to reveal eyes so black that one could not tell a difference between his pupil and iris. He shot up and looked around fervently. /Where is she?/

He looked at his hands and saw that they were completely fine. /Was it all just a dream? Was it just another dream?/

For some reason her image in his mind became weaker and weaker the more he tried to recall how she looked. He could only remember her silhouette and that blood was everywhere. /I thought that I finally found her. It felt so real.../

He raised his hands to cover his face. His nails dug into his forehead. His eyes opened wide in anger and disbelief. /How horrible... To have a taste of what it is like to be with her only to be alone again...!/

His shoulders slouched. His head dropped low. The black of his eyes spread such that his originally white sclera became black too. Black thin wisps of smoke began swirling around him and the vegetation around him decayed almost instantly. Any animals, including birds flying, in the vicinity dropped dead and got reduced to ashes, leaving not even bones behind.

"What're you doing now?!"

The most beautiful sound he would ever hear in his life rang out loud and clear. He snapped his head up with his lips apart. "It wasn't a dream." He whispered under his breath. There she stood, just outside the circumference of the devastation around him, with an equally shocked expression.

Vanora had calmed her emotions down during her quiet stroll. Not worrying about the time she would take to return when Vlad woke up, she approached the river and took her time studying her reflection on the water surface. According to the original soul's memories, she had short shoulder length dark brown hair. However, what she saw now was a full mane of blood red hair. There was also blood and dirt smeared across her mouth. She was covered in more grime and dirt all over. Her faded brown clothes were merely worn out cloths held together with cloth straps. Her body was not only undeveloped but also malnourished.

/What beauty was he talking about? His eyes are probably faulty./

BaoBao kept quiet as he did not know how to defend Vlad. It was true that she looked in no way presentable to anyone.

She took off her dirty clothes that were more like rags then briefly washed them in the river. She hung them on a low branch of a nearby tree before entering the ice-cold river. She rubbed off all the blood, dirt, and grime, then rinsed through her hair. Just as she relaxed in the water and was about to review her earlier battle with Vlad, BaoBao informed her that Vlad had woken up.

[He doesn't look good. You better rush. Really rush.]

Vanora put on her clothes and ran back to Vlad at her top speed.

From a distance away, she could see the growing sphere of devastation spreading from Vlad. She stopped at the edge of it and yelled, "What're you doing now?!"

When she was met with his pitch black eyes, her heart jumped. She always knew that Vlad had black eyes, but had not pictured it this way. Those dark eyes shone and glistened in the sun. It made slowly draw her eyebrows together.

/Is he...?/

[He's crying. Vanora. He's crying, isn't he?]

Within the next second, he teleported to her and caught her in a tight embrace.

"You're real! You're really here!"

Thinking that he was acting dramatic all over again, she casually patted his back and comforted him. "Of course I am. Did you have a bad dream?"

"I thought that everything that happened between us was just a dream. I woke up and saw that I was all alone. My hands were totally fine too. I didn't like it one bit." He explained while still holding onto her tightly.

"What are you talking about?" Finding that it was getting difficult to breathe, she gently but firmly pushed him away. She looked at him and found that his eyes had already returned to its red colour. Tears looked like they could spill out of his eyes anytime. There were already little droplets perched on his lush eyelashes. She raised an eyebrow then raised his arms up between them. "Look at how your sleeves are almost burnt to your shoulders. How did you miss this?"

His face held surprise which gradually changed to an expression like he just had a revelation. Vanora sighed. He did not seem this emotional nor careless in the book. She really wondered why he was acting in such a way around her. "Anyway about me being away, I simply went to take a quick bath."

He blankly stared at her and finally noticed her damp clothes and wet hair. She was already half dried from running at her top speed.

He brought his hand to the top of her head and gently combed his fingers through her hair. His eyes obviously lingered on her neck. His gaze then traveled along her jaw to her pale pink lips. He gulped loudly as the picture of her bathing in the river filled his mind. He instinctively closed the distance between their lips. His eyelids lowered in a dramatically slow manner. Meanwhile, Vanora felt calm. During her walk, she had made sense of his behaviour as acting out of lust, being the demon that he was. She was ready to stop him the moment he got too close, but found that there was no need to. Vlad had stopped himself. He stared off in a distance behind her. His brows were slightly drawn together. He then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Sorry, I've been neglecting your needs." He smiled wryly. "I'll bring you to a place for a good bath."

He hugged her and held her head snug against his strong broad chest such that she could not see anything. BaoBao later confirmed her suspicion that Vlad was trying to hide something from her. [Vlad smiled while he stared at something behind you. It's out of my range so I can't tell what he was looking at. He looked REALLY creepy! Really! Then, a black mark in the shape of a rose covered the ENTIRE ground where you both were standing. It disappeared after awhile, then you both just disappeared into thin air.]

/A black rose... Based on the book... He placed a curse there. I wonder if his loss of control earlier drew some angels to the area./

[Does this mean his range of detection exceeds mine...?] BaoBao sulked. He felt like he was becoming more useless the stronger and more helpful the second male leads were.

/Something tells me that it was more of an instinct than a clear detection of the angels' presence./