"Um, hello?" Samur titled his head, as if he couldn't understand the reason behind my reaction.

Is he kidding me? No, right, he WAS kidding me.

​​

But how could his acting be so perfect?

Did he fake everything? Was his every expression, every word, every emotion, a façade?

Is it possible? Is it truly possible imitate the emotions of a torture victim to such an extent?

Did Samur truly lie to me?

That's what he claims.

Which means he lied to my heart.

It means that everything I felt for him was absolutely meaningless.

I was reminded of a past I had buried deep inside me. I was once again exposed to the dreary, sleepless nights, and I had once again subjected myself to the screams of agony and eyes full of terror of those people.

And for what?

For a fucking joke?

Is that it? Have I returned to my hell just to let Samur have a laugh or two?

Unforgivable. Absolutely unforgivable.

I cannot stand for this. This calls for retribution- ha!

Would you look at him?

Even after pulling off such a dirty joke, he still has the audacity to smile and tell me to not take it seriously?

I was close. I was THIS close to finally moving on from my past, yet a fucking joke brought me back to square one.

"You fucking piece of shit!" Before I knew it, I pounced on him.

We fell on the ground. I saw red and started pounding him.

You piece of shit, you fucking piece of shit! How dare you insult my care for you! How dare you plunge me back into my despair just to have a laugh!

His mouth moved, but I honestly couldn't hear anything he was saying, until-

I focused on his eyes.

A cold chill caught my spine as darkness surrounded me, and my hands stopped.

In this never-ending darkness, his eyes were the only things I could see.

'How…'

Despite the situation we were in; in spite of me pummelling him repeatedly, his eyes were smiling.

They weren't filled with fear for his fate or remorse for what he had done to me.

No, those were the eyes of a victor.

His eyes had turned into crescent moons, as if he found this entire affair to be amusing; amusing because it was going exactly as he had planned.

Was… was his joke not just a joke?

What if-

"Weren't you supposed to have zero attack power?" His words brought me back from the darkness.

As my heart calmed down a bit, I realised what I was doing. I was beating up a 12-year-old child who had just sacrificed both of his arms for my sake.

"It would seem I have stepped on a landmine. Bruh." He sighed.

Even though his words suggested otherwise, there was still no guilt or sorrow in his voice.

If I had to say, it seemed that he was just making a calm observation about me.

However, those eyes were still there.

While trying to keep myself calm, I withdrew my fist.

"Thank you- guh!" But I couldn't stop myself and punched him again.

Oh my God, okay, this needs to stop.

I need to calm down and revaluate the situation.

There is the possibility that what Samur pulled was more than a mere prank.

But just looking at his face is pissing me off. I need to be alone for some moments.

And what better place to be than the vast, blue sky?

"Ah, wait, what about healing me?" He asked as I stood up to fly away from him.

"Fuck off."

Let this be his punishment for the time being.

He won't die, of course. I already made sure of it. But he would still feel a bit of pain.

I turned back into my Dragon form and took off for the skies.

The wind hitting my face and the sun giving me its warmth helped me calm down a bit.

Alright, let's try organising the things I know with an objective mindset.

First of all, it is undeniable that no matter his intentions, Samur's 'joke' has affected me far more than any physical wound would.

The things I had so desperately buried in my head have been dug up. I was once again reminded of the past I was running away from.

Of course, I'll recover from this. I always do; getting up after falling down seems to be my speciality.

But until I can bury those memories again, I'm in hell.

The first question is; why did Samur do that?

Let's start from the beginning.

When Suraja caught Samur, he asked me to fly away. I could not, however; I couldn't just sacrifice a child for my own sake.

Samur then concocted a plan to get us both out of there.

Perhaps Samur realised that he wouldn't be able to stop me from sacrificing myself for him, so instead of wasting time persuading me, he immediately went for the next best possible option.

Which shows that he has the capability to quickly, calmly and precisely analyse a situation and act on it without hesitation.

Samur's arm was sliced off by Suraja, but forget a scream, he didn't even wince at the pain. The same goes for when he cauterized his wound and when the tool he used to kill Suraja blew away his own arm.

He either has very high pain tolerance or has a way of making himself invulnerable to pain. It's difficult to know for the time being.

However, why did Samur insist on killing Suraja when we could have escaped? Was he perhaps worried that Suraja would eventually track us down?

Then, did he do it for my sake? Or did he have some other reason?

Then there's his complete lack of hesitation when he jumped off my back to kill Suraja. He didn't show any surprise when his tool exploded, so he perhaps knew that it would.

Yet he chose to go with that plan.

He did something similar when he saved Noelle; he acted swiftly and sacrificed himself without any hesitation.

And according to Azell, while Samur did have a way of saving himself, they practically had to force him to use it.

Looking at all of this, it is almost as if… Samur is looking forward to his own death.