"You… are… the… devil's… incarnate."
"Hahahahaa."
"I am Lucivar... the Devil. Accept my gift."
"Help, please… help! Those things want our soul. Please, just save my sister!"
"No, Malfoy… dieeeeeee!"
Poke.
Weirdo.
Poke. Poke.
Ha ha ha… pathetic.
Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke.
You can't even fight for yourself.
Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke...
"Nghhhhhh!"
He jerked awake, his body quivering to the rhythm of phantom taps. His head felt heavy and clumsy, as though it were filled with sodden pulp. The dream... no, the nightmare, still lingered in his skull, hot and suffocating, clinging to him like tar. It had been so real that waking felt like being expelled from one reality into another.
He squinted, trying to recall the last shards of memory, scanning his surroundings with bleary eyes.
But there was no darkness. No harness. No Netherforge. But...
"Who taught you to sleep that way?" came a voice. Feminine. Cool, yet cutting.
Dax blinked, his gaze sluggishly sharpening, and it found a woman standing beside him. A sword sheathed at her hip glimmered faintly in the light.
For a brief moment he understood that she was the one who woke him from that disastrous nightmare he was having. But at first she was blurry, and her voice somewhat echoed through his head.
He glared, the remnants of his nightmare still scalding his nerves.
"Did you wake me with that sword?"
Her figure was blurred, her voice still echoing in his skull. But then clarity struck him... and his breath hitched.
"Oh my…" he sneered, though awe tangled within the mockery.
'An angel.' That was the only word his starved mind could muster. Her beauty was not the fragile, porcelain type; it was sculpted, deliberate, as though a god had spent millennia chiselling her into perfection.
Her cropped top clung to her form, accentuating soft curves and sharp cleavages. A bare midriff shimmered under the sterile light; smooth, taut, and dangerously seductive. Her hips swayed with a rhythm that could shame the crafts of heaven itself.
She sat beside his bed, and a flush of heat crept across Dax's face despite himself.
"Yes," she replied coolly,
"I did. And if you had slept any longer, I would have used the blade instead of the hilt."
"You're joking, right?" Dax forced out, doing everything in his power not to drown in the soft succulent orbs that pressed beneath her shirt.
"I don't do jokes," she smirked.
"But tell me, why are you staring at me like tha..."
"Nothing," Dax cut her off abruptly, before her words even landed. His eyes darting elsewhere, his thoughts a mess. God, I'm acting weird, he scolded himself. Not the first impression I want to leave here.
Struggling to recover, he settled for charm.
"So why did you wake me? Unless, of course, you just wanted to hear my subtle voice and gaze upon my handso..."
The girl's laugh cut him short before he could pile on more bravado. An arrogant, cutting laugh that gutted his words before they could bloom.
"You can't possibly believe I woke you for your cuteness."
Dax winced. She was arrogant, indeed. And yet irresistibly magnetic. Maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't hurt to try with her. It wasn't like he had much experience speaking to girls anyway.
"Well then," he pressed, mustering confidence. "Clearly, that was the reason. Unless there's another? Speak it."
To his surprise, she blushed. A quick flare of color across her cheeks. Victory surged in Dax's chest, only to collapse when the blush vanished as quickly as it came. Leaving him to wonder if he had imagined it. Guess this was harder than I thought.
"Well, you might be cute," she admitted, lounging back in her chair, eyes narrowing like razors. "But that's not why I'm here."
Her gaze stripped him raw, peeling layers as though his soul were laid bare beneath her stare.
Dax gestured flippantly. "Then go on."
"Coming here is a nightmare for me... trust me.. I never wanted this."
Those words hit Dax like an iron pressed into his chest. His stomach twisted, but he kept his face neutral.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I would've loved to explore… other paths. To be anything else. But not a Maltheron."
Fury stirred in Dax. Or maybe it was confusion. Her eyes lowered, self-pity etching her features, but he wasn't buying it.
"I didn't want to be a Maltheron," she said softly. "But here I am. Assigned to you."
Assigned? Dax's mind recoiled. Assigned... as if she were some handler sent to babysit him. The thought made his blood simmer. Hadn't enough people already branded him pathetic? Back in school, he was the class joke. In the neighbourhood, the same story. And here? If they saw him as a joke again, then maybe it really was a curse.
The word seared into him. Fury churned. Was she here to ruin his mood?
He swallowed, voice edged with suspicion.
"Maltheron…" he asked, "what does that even mean?"
"It means," she said carefully, "I am to guide you, share information and provide fundamental training to help you cope as a Beyonder."
The word Beyonder snapped him awake, shattering fog, as memories rushed back. He looked around again, the room was brilliant and white, lit by pristine white lights affixed to the ceiling. He was in an infirmary, sterile and sharp with the scent of antiseptics. No longer in the ascension pod. No longer in the nightmare trial.
Shouldn't I be inside an ascension pod? he asked himself, since that was the last place he remembered before he was put into that heart-skipping test.
And maybe now he had passed, since he had received his appraisal... something that somehow still left him with more questions than before.
"So… you're a Beyonder too?" he asked, eyes narrowing.
The girl smiled as she replied, that arrogant nature still in her voice as if it was fused into her since childhood.
Perhaps it was how Beyonders behaved.... who knows.
"I'm Naya Matilda," she retorted, "and yes, I'm a Beyonder. But unlike you, I'm not a Stirred."
Her pride radiated like a crown.
Dax exhaled sharply. Of course she wasn't. She was higher, loftier, basking in superiority. Her tone carried the smugness of someone who had always been told they were better.
Well, it made sense since she was like her sensei. But why should it be a lady? He couldn't help it, so he asked.
"So…you mean you are like a sensei to me, right?"
Her eyes flickered in confusion. "Sensei? What is that?"
Dax almost fell off the bed. "What? Who in this century doesn't know that? It's an old word, it means teacher, like an... A.E."
"A.E?" she asked, tilting her head.
Dax groaned. "Another word for teacher. Don't tell me you don't do webnovels either?"
Blank stare, from Naya. Then: "No."
He almost fainted. Who didn't read webnovels?
He began to explain, but she cut him off again; smirking. "Of course I know what you meant. I was just toying with you. And you fell for it. God, you're just another Stirred I'll have to endure. Honestly, I would've preferred if you were a girl."
Heat flared in Dax's chest...anger, challenge, and something else he didn't dare name. She was infuriating. Arrogant. Rude. And yet… somehow captivating. Like a flame he both wanted to extinguish and still lean closer to.
Her words had bit deep, but Dax swallowed his pride. Fine. Let her think she's clever. I'll bide my time. Already, he could feel himself liking her arrogance, her fire. She wasn't just a handler to him no more; she was a rival. And rivals could be fun.
He kept looking at the girl. Her dark Beyonder aura made her even hotter, and this little chaos between them made the moment more lovely. It was like he just found a competitor, and hell yeah, he was going to beat her ass.
'Can I though?' he asked himself, "She's not a Stirred."
Her next words cut him off from his thinking.
"Well then, stirred boy," she said with finality, standing tall. "Get your ass off that bed and follow my lead."
"You don't really have to act like my sister," Dax muttered.
Naya froze, as though she had seen a devil leap from the shadows.
A devil.
Well... wasn't that exactly what he was?
"Excuse me?" she snapped.
"Relax," Dax backpedalled. "All I'm saying is... you don't have to command me like that. Even if you're my… Maltheron… we're basically the same age."
Her seethe cut through the room like glass. "That's exactly what I should be doing. I am your teacher. You will respect that."
Dax smirked, eyes brushing over her elegance.
"No way. I don't respect rude... and I think you are stuck with me"
"You..." She clenched her fists. "You look like someone moulded from the Devil himself."
She wasn't wrong. He was the Devil's Incarnate. And if there was one thing he detested.. it was being commanded. Especially by a woman.
"Well," Dax said with a dark smile, "you're not entirely wrong."
Her jaw tightened. She exhaled, very much exasperated. "You wouldn't want to make me angry. Because if you do… I'll make your training very, very hard."
Dax paused for a while. Damn, had he fucked up? She was right, she might make his training miserable. But that might just be a stupid threat to scare him into obeying shitty commands.
"Good," Dax replied, finally standing. "I look forward to it."
Naya flung her hair back, striding toward the door. Dax followed, his lips curled into a wolfish grin.
Who knew how long it would last, the rivalry, the tension, and the banter? He enjoyed it. But he was already certain of one thing.
Being a Beyonder had its perks.
But being the Devil's incarnate?
Tsk.
That was priceless.