The corners of Evangeline’s narrow eyes curved up. She tilted her head to look at him, her gaze shimring as she smiled and said, "Then do you want to leave with ? To escape this quagmire."
For a rare mont, Nix was stunned. His purple eyes reflected her smiling face.
He suddenly let out a low chuckle. "You want to take back with you?"
He paused, his voice laced with a sinister chill. "Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill them?"
"Kill them right in front of ?" Evangeline laughed softly, a vibrant allure blooming at the corners of her eyes.
Their gazes locked, eyes like pools of ink, bottomless and inscrutable.
"Loras is useless in your eyes, but what makes you think I’m what you’re looking for?"
Evangeline pressed a fingertip to his chest, her red lips curling into a mocking smile. "Nix, you don’t love anyone. You even loathe yourself. How pathetic."
An undisguised bloodlust flickered in Nix’s purple eyes, utterly chilling.
Unfazed, Evangeline suddenly gripped his chin, forcing him to et her gaze.
"Loras created you from his despair. But what about you?"
"To kill him, you’d even beco entangled with , The Virago. Nix, why go to such lengths?"
"In my eyes, you and Loras are twin flowers born from the sa root. I won’t kill him, and I won’t kill you. Let help Loras with the Star Pattern. Wouldn’t it be better for you to coexist?"
Her fingernail traced a gentle line along his neck. "Why must one of you die?"
In the shadows, Nix’s purple eyes flickered like poisoned fireflies.
Nix scoffed and swatted her hand away.
For the first ti, undisguised loathing surged in his eerie purple eyes. "He must die."
"Either you help kill him..."
Nix stared her down, his lips twisting into a maniacal grin. "...or I’ll kill you along with him."
Loras was a spirit born of moonlight, as cold and pure as frost.
In the eyes of others, whenever the silver moon hung high, he seed divinely blessed, unfurling his petals as moonlight flowed through every vein, as if the Beast God himself had bestowed upon him a sacred glow.
But "he" was rely a shadow that had crawled out of the abyss of Loras’s despair.
Whenever Loras’s spirit shattered, "he," cowering in the darkness, would awaken.
At first, "he" was just a pathetic creature, trembling deep within a crevice of rock. "He" had witnessed all the world’s pain, despair, and filth. Everything Loras couldn’t bear, "he" was forced to swallow.
To survive, "he" had no choice but to gnaw on blood-soaked Beast Crystals.
A Moonlight Flower is born of the moon’s glow. But one day, that very moonlight beca a blade that tortured "him" with a thousand cuts. Every pure ray seed to sear "his" tainted spirit. "He" could no longer bask in the moonlight.
And so, as day turned to night, "he" and Loras would take turns controlling this decaying body.
With the first light of dawn, Loras’s consciousness would recede, and "he" would crawl out from the abyss of their mind to take over the empty shell.
Every inch of "his" skin scread in silent protest.
And Loras? He never rembered the whimpers or the bloodshed.
Fortunately, the moon rarely appeared during the rainy season.
The two of them were never twin flowers from the sa root.
They were rely two roots twisted together by fate—one planted in the pristine moonlight, the other mired in a foul-slling bog.
"He" was Loras’s shadow, his festering wound, his filthiest camouflage.
He wanted everyone to die.
An increasingly rich, dark fragrance billowed around Nix. His long purple hair stirred as if alive, but just as his killing intent erupted, a slender, pale wrist entered his vision.
Warm fingertips gently rested on the back of his ice-cold hand, bringing a sliver of warmth.
"Let go." Nix’s low, hoarse voice sounded like a demon from the Netherdeep.
After what Evangeline had said, he clearly had no intention of pretending any longer.
Just then, a ray of moonlight pierced through the window. The pure light filtered through the gaps between their entwined fingers, branding a mottled pattern on the back of his hand. He trembled in agony, his body on the verge of convulsing.
Nix’s long lashes trembled. His purple eyes stared at Evangeline’s hand as his lips slowly curled into a morbid smile.
"Since you know I don’t love you,"
"how dare you touch ?"
His voice carried a taunting cruelty. The moonlight rendered his skin nearly transparent, as if he would crumble into ash in its pure glow at any second.
Evangeline stubbornly tightened her grip, her eyes curving into a smile. "I can teach you how to..."
Before she could finish, she felt sothing wrong. A sticky fluid was seeping from where their hands t. Her brow furrowed. "Nix, what’s happening to you?"
Evangeline looked up and t a pair of purple eyes that were losing focus.
Fine, bloody cracks were spreading across Nix’s skin at a visible rate, a horrifying sight.
He wrenched his hand free from hers. His slender figure staggered back a few steps, ssy purple curls falling across his pale cheeks.
He walked to the half-open bamboo window and, with a loud SLAM, threw it wide open.
Outside, there was a lull in the storm. The moon hung high in the sky, its light almost blinding.
Nix tilted his head back, letting the moonlight wash over his face.
He coughed violently, spitting up a mouthful of blood. Green-tinged foam dribbled from his lips and traced a path down his pale jaw. He let out a low laugh. "How ridiculous... This body has never been mine to control."
"He’s afraid of you. He doesn’t dare co out."
"And I... am afraid of the moonlight."
Bloody froth spilled from his lips as he spoke, his voice growing fainter. "Evangeline, you can never teach... a monster born without a heart."
Under the moonlight, a fine mist seed to rise from Nix’s slender form.
Another presence, timid and weak, was awakening within the body.
Nix closed his eyes, the pain wracking his body so intense it bordered on numbness, and waited to be consud by the moonlight.
’Isn’t Loras terrified? Isn’t he afraid to face all this?’
’Well, I’ll just rip this body apart and let him face this bloody ss himself.’
A mocking, pleased smile curved Nix’s lips, then froze.
He slowly lowered his gaze. A pair of slender yet incredibly strong arms were wrapped tightly around his waist.
The warmth radiating from behind him was so intense it made his back ache.
He didn’t understand how such a slender, frail body could erupt with such imnse power.
"Let go." Nix’s voice was an unrecognizable rasp, but his fingertips spasd uncontrollably.
The searing pain from the moonlight began to fade. The warmth at his back was like a shield, blocking out the sharp blades of light and protecting him.
Evangeline pressed her forehead against Nix’s trembling back, desperately pouring her Spiritual Power into his body.
Her voice was as soft as a sigh. "When you’re in pain, can you please not smile?"
Nix trembled but didn’t turn around.
Evangeline continued to hold him, her Spiritual Power slowly seeping into the burns left by the moonlight.
"Loving soone is the most difficult lesson in this world."
"You may be a heartless and unfeeling student, but I am the best teacher of this subject."
Nix’s back was as rigid as iron. He couldn’t understand Evangeline’s words, but he could feel her warmth seeping into his cracked body, inch by inch. As clouds obscured the moon, his heartbeat began to race, wild and uncontrolled.
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