Again he passed by the angel, so as not to disturb her, and as it was useless, he took his Pajama top off his face -and he was thinking of putting it back on again; it was strange to be shirtless in an unfamiliar place.
"Wait!... I'll do it... with you, I'll do it."
But once again, she blocked his path, speaking words Cassian couldn't understand.
"Hey, why do you keep getting in my way?"
"The Esmeralda family's poison is lethal, and there is no known cure. As he said before, in a few minutes you will die... sniff! Right now you must be feeling the poison consuming you from within, it must be painful... and it's my fault... sniff."
"Ah! Wait, stop crying. If that's why, don't worry, I don't feel anything, just a little warmth. I'm fine... why are you holding my hand?!"
"I'm sorry, but I need contact for the bonding ritual, so allow me... This is the method that my family created to save other people. I will use it, even if it means being excommunicated... I will do it!"
"eh!!? Union ritual? excommunicated?! Wait!!, I thought there's something wrong here! Let go of me first and let's talk!"
"No!"
Cassian began to worry. The angel, only 4'11" tall, didn't seem to want to listen to him and held tightly onto his hand.
He felt that something bad was about to happen, something irreversible for him. That was the feeling he had...
He didn't know what the little angel was going to do, but he felt he had to stop her, especially since it seemed there was a misunderstanding in the situation.
"Wait, let go of me first and let's talk calmly... hey, let go of me. I don't want to hurt you."
He tried to speak, but she was stubborn. He also tried to pull her off with his strength, but she was holding him tightly by the wrist, to the point that it seemed he would have to hurt her to get her off him.
"No! There's no time!... every moment the poison will consume you more." (≧へ≦)
"If it's about the poison, don't worry. I've always been very resistant. I don't think... cough!"
Just as Cassian wanted to clear up any misunderstanding, he felt a sudden urge to cough. Using the Pajama top he hadn't put on yet, he held back his cough, which was unexpectedly heavier than he thought.
"..."
FSSHHH!
He coughed up a mouthful of black blood. Luckily, he didn't spill it, and his Pajama top caught it all, but the next moment, that shirt began to smoke. Reflexively, Cassian threw it on the floor.
SSSSSSSHHH!
There he saw that the Pajama had completely melted from the blood splattered on it, and, as if that weren't enough, the floor where the blood had finally fallen also began to melt.
"..."
"..."
The little angel and Cassian watched the blood melt the floor for a moment, then looked at each other for a few seconds. Then they both looked back at the blood clot that was still melting the floor.
"…"
"…"
Then they looked at each other again. Although what he saw seemed disturbing—since he had just come out of it—Cassian felt better after coughing up that blood.
That heaviness and heat he had felt left the moment he spat out that blood, even his shoulder stopped itching,.
But the little angel, when she finally reacted...
"Hmph! I hereby begin the ritual... Per flammae lumen..."
She id not hesitate any longer. She pressed herself harder against Cassian and began...
With her hands, she squeezed Cassian's arm tightly, with all her strength, as she began to utter strange words that heightened Cassian's anxiety.
He didn't sense any danger or anything, but he still felt he had to stop her. However, she continued to hold one of his hands tightly, and when he tried to apply a little force again, she cried out in pain.
He stopped his attempts, fearing he might seriously hurt or kill her, and gave up on doing it physically.
"Wait! I feel fine, my body is strong, I mean it! You don't have to... Hey, are you listening to me? Stop! I don't know what you're doing, but it's unnecessary!"
"Et cordis veritatem,
duo animae nunc unum fiunt."
He tried to stop her with words, but she didn't... or rather, she didn't even seem to be listening to him, and she kept saying strange words. It seemed like it was an inevitable event.
"Hey, you! What are you doing? Let her go!"
Bang!
Suddenly, as Cassian struggled to find a way to separate himself from the little angel without hurting her, a third voice—a woman's—intervened, surprising both Cassian and the little angel.
Right after the warning, there was the sound of a loud impact.
The reason: that third person immediately kneed Cassian in the head, sending him flying a considerable distance.
The blow and the voice were so abrupt and unexpected that they caused the angel to loosen her grip in surprise—luckily—allowing only Cassian to be thrown.
"Huh!? Oh no!"
The little angel, realizing her mistake, tried to run immediately to where Cassian had fallen.
"Hey, wait! What are you doing?! It could still be dangerous..."
"Let me go, I have to save him!"
"Huh?"
The third person—a woman dressed in silver armor—stopped the little angel, but she struggled so desperately to break free that it left her bewildered... The woman in armor ended up letting her go.
The little angel ran straight toward Cassian.
"Phew, that was close."
On the other hand, rather than worrying about who or what had hit him, Cassian was relieved that whatever that little angel was doing had stopped...
Honestly, he didn't know what the ritual was all about, but he definitely didn't want to get involved in something strange that he didn't understand, especially because it gave him that feeling of irreversibility.
So he was relieved to know that it had stopped, until he saw the angel running in his direction, with a determined face and strong intentions to continue, to the point of overwhelming Cassian.
"G-get away!"
As if his life depended on it, he got up and started running as far away as possible from that cute little angel.
"S-stop!... I have to save you!"
"I already told you I'm fine!"
"You're not, stay put!"
"..."
On the other hand, from a distance, the woman in armor watched them, unable to understand how a muscular, shirtless, six-foot-tall man could run away in panic from a cute girl barely five feet tall.
It was so surreal that she wondered if she had misinterpreted the whole situation. Who could blame her, when the first thing she saw was a big guy with sculpted muscles, covered in blood, shaking a pretty little girl who looked like she had been crying... not far from a headless corpse?
"Hey, help me! Tell her to stop!"
In the end, the room wasn't that big, and soon Cassian inevitably ended up in front of the girl in armor again.
Cassian, seeing her, did not perceive her as an aggressor, but as a savior, whom he asked for help again.
"Huh? I-I... uh, yes... Y-You, stop there. Stop bothering him."
The woman in armor was still confused. It seemed that she had misinterpreted the situation and hit the wrong person.
Now someone who appeared to be the victim was asking her for help. Although she still didn't fully understand the situation, she tried to intervene, hiding Cassian behind her and stopping the little angel.
"Nooo! Let me go! I need to save him!" ヽ（≧□≦）ノ
Once again, she realized that this little angel was not physically strong at all; she stopped her too easily, which only confused her even more.
Why would someone who withstood a blow like hers, relatively unscathed, run away from this harmless creature?
"Don't believe her! She just wants to involve me in some weird ritual."
Cassian defended himself and gave his version of events. He was completely fine, the problem was that little angel who wanted to involve him in something he didn't understand.
"he were poisoned, by jade poison!"
"Huh? Demonic poison?!"
"Yes, I am a Sephirion."
"Huh! Sephirion? Oh! I see."
They had a conversation, and the woman in armor seemed to understand the situation better than Cassian himself. She immediately released her.
"Hey, no! Don't release her! Wait, don't come over here, stop!"
"I'm going to save you!"
"Would you like me to help you hold it?"
It seemed that the situation had worsened, and now the woman was also on the little angel's side. At that moment, Cassian felt even more cornered, but then he had an idea...
"Wait! The poison doesn't affect me!"
"...."
"... Yes, that's right! I'm invulnerable to poison."
"…Really?"
Finally, upon hearing those words, the little angel stopped and everything about her conveyed strong doubt in his words. She seemed unsure of Cassian's claims.
It was a lie he had come up with, but perhaps it wasn't, since Cassian wasn't sure if it was true either. He didn't know exactly what his own body was capable of.
But he definitely felt completely fine at that moment, so obviously the poison hadn't affected him. So he began to reason:
"Think about it, how long ago was I poisoned... and look at me: I'm intact. That blood was just my body expelling it. Yes... that must be it."
"...I can check."
"Huh? Well, yes, but don't start another weird ritual, okay?"
The little angel didn't seem very convinced and asked for an examination, which Cassian agreed to. Still, he remained somewhat cautious and was ready to react and flee if she tried to cling to him again.
He watched her closely as she approached.
Finally, the little angel stopped a meter away from him and removed her blindfold. In doing so, she revealed beautiful light gray eyes.
Cassian had thought so before, from the way she acted, but contrary to what the bandages covering her eyes implied, she apparently had no problem with her eyes, although they didn't look like normal eyes either.
Suddenly, delicate golden patterns formed in those gray eyes and began to move. They were truly mystical and hypnotic.
She looked at Cassian's body in detail.
Cassian felt as if she were looking into his very soul, to the point that he unconsciously covered his crotch out of habit. Yes, because curiously, that penetrating gaze was not unfamiliar to him.
Nora sometimes looked at him like that... and it gave him that invasive feeling. And the point she often focused on was his crotch.
Now he felt completely naked under that gaze again... although technically he already was from the waist up.
But regardless of what Cassian thought or did, the little angel continued with her business. She stared intently and in detail, without blinking for a long time.
Finally, the golden patterns in her eyes faded until they disappeared. She put the blindfold back on, her face flushing bright red for some reason, and looked away from Cassian.
"Y-yes, as you said... there's no trace of poison. Everything is fine."
She finally seemed to compose herself and gave her verdict. In addition to the intense blush, she seemed relieved.
Cassian didn't fully understand what she had done, but at least it was a relief that she had come to that conclusion. Apparently, there would be no more strange rituals for the time being.
..
.