Evelyn groggily yawned and rubbed her eyes as she opened them. She beheld the blanket covering her half-asleep. She blinked a few times then speedily sobered up when she saw that Rakna was sitting cross-legged on an adjacent couch.

She let out a muffled yelp and wiped the drool around her mouth before sitting properly. She took a closer look at him and sighed in relief once she noticed he was in deep meditation.

“{Don’t be so fast in your respite, young Cambion. He still saw you drooling in your sleep.}”

“Eh?!” The succubus almost fell over when she heard a voice in her head. She looked around her nervously and a chuckle sounded before the blurry figure of Higure solidified in front of her.

“{It’s me.}”

“Oh… Higure…” Evelyn began to calm down until her words registered in her mind. “Wait, he saw what?!” The lioness burst out laughing and she flushed. “Don’t make fun of me!” She shouted with a pout.

“{Hahaha! Don’t fret, young lady. You were adorable, you know? Especially when you mewled as he swathed you with that blanket,}” Higure said and enjoyed the succubus’ blush deepen.

Evelyn glanced at the meditating form of Rakna then back at the blanket and even the scarf around her neck. This warmth… the one she felt in her chest was the first she had ever felt from anyone other than her family. Now, it was even more predominant after becoming a Cambion; after she had resigned herself to her fate.

Higure watched her with a softening gaze as she gripped the blanket with a small smile. “{Young lady, can I ask you something?}” She inquired without a trace of teasing.

Evelyn looked back at her with a calmer expression and tilted her head. “Yes?”

“{What is your opinion on your current situation?}”

“Sorry?”

“{I mean to say; are you fine just following my devourer like this? I’m aware of the promise your brother made with him, Rakna told me, but there isn’t any obligation for you to stay with him. You could just bind yourself to something other than Sonata and live your life. I heard Phantoms can even have children.}”

Evelyn’s eyes widened a bit. “So… you’re asking me why I stay with Rakna?”

“{Well, other than your crush on him,}” the lioness snickered and the succubus opened her mouth to retort, embarrassed, but ultimately forced herself silent. It was true, after all. “{I’m not trying to say that you are misguided or something. I just want to know your motives a bit more.}”

She shook her head. “It’s all right. You don’t need to justify it. It’s a legitimate question. I admit that maybe I’m possibly, perhaps, a tad bit, attracted to him,” she said while shyly looking away. “But, regardless, what choice do I have? He freed my brother and took me under his protection. If I were to decline, where would I go?”

“You say I could settle down; I would like that. Even with the constant reminder of the System telling me to climb Plateaus ever since I was unsealed, it sounds like a peaceful life,” she said. “But I’m not ready for it… I will be frank with you, I just can’t find rest,” she stated and clenched her hands. “Just like my brother, I feel my demonic nature boiling every time I recall that day and what happened to us.”

Higure hummed pensively. “{Is it… revenge?}”

“Heh, I don’t even know,” she replied helplessly. “No, I wouldn’t say so. It’s just… anger. I feel angry at myself. Angry at the world. Angry at that damn family. And I can’t erase it,” she spat and for the split of a second, a strand of darkness sparked around her and her eyes glowed red. “I’m not even sure if the ones who caused our demise are even alive anymore. I don’t even know who they were exactly.”

“{Regarding that,}” Higure followed up, noticing but ignoring the odd fluctuations. “{It’s the part I don’t understand well. Rakna told me that your family had been betrayed by the Jin. Why so?}”

“Even to this day, I’m not sure,” Evelyn said somberly. “But I clearly heard the ones who attacked us speak of their orders. If I had to guess, I’d say it was because my father’s influence grew too big for their liking due to his talent and natural charisma as an incubus.”

“{I see… I think I understand. You need closure,}” the lioness concluded. “{Phantoms are beings overflowing with powerful demonic energy. It has the nasty effect of amplifying negative emotions which you thankfully resisted thanks to the purity of your soul. You’re a gentle girl.}”

“Thank you,” Evelyn smiled brightly.

“{Well, irrespective of your motives, I believe it would do good for you to be with Rakna,}” she said and glanced at the teen in question. Evelyn also looked at him, a bit confused.

“What do you mean?”

“{Rakna needs as much love and company as he can get,}” the lioness said. “{Whether it is romantic in nature or not; it doesn’t matter. I know for a fact that his entire being craves it.}”

“You think?” Evelyn seemed a bit doubtful. “He doesn’t act like it.”

“{Does he act like anything?}” The lioness deadpanned.

“…point taken.”

“{What I’m trying to say is that he’s not someone who should be left alone for too long. He has confessed to me himself that his mental state was hazardous. At least, in the past. It would not be a good thing for him to regress.}”

Evelyn stayed silent and gazed deeply at the meditating werewolf before nodding to herself. “I will do my best. I’m not sure how much I can do for him, but if it’s even just as a friend, I promise to be there to assist him.”

Higure grinned. “{That’s what I’m talking about. Obviously, I’ll also do it. I like to believe that being inside his head is a good spot to keep him in line.}”

The succubus giggled and her system abruptly notified her of a message. “Oh, it’s time for us to go. Allan and the girls are ready to go hunting. Flavia’s bringing Tyran and Pronos as well.”

“{Hah, I can just imagine that young man’s reaction at the little Dreorin joining them,}” the lioness quipped and Evelyn smiled.

“True,” she said and stood up. She folded the blanket and wore her cloak again. “Thank you for the chat. It was… appeasing.”

“{It was my pleasure, young Cambion,}” Higure said and she nodded before walking away. As she left, the lioness squinted her eyes in thought. ‘That brief burst of darkness… and that small ripple on her soul… was it a trace of Blackening? No, it was something different,’ she thought and smiled at the realization. ‘Devourer, you got yourself a wonderful ally.’

* * *

When Rakna opened his eyes, it was to the uncomfortable feeling of all his hair standing and his fangs growing over his lips. His brows twitched and he instinctively activated Fabled Sight, his irises turning gold.

“This is…” He whispered when he saw silvery strands of energy getting greedily sucked in by his tails and ears.

“{Lunar energy,}” Higure completed for him. “{Interesting. Your body is absorbing more and more as we get close to the evening.}”

“Lunar energy?”

“{You can compare it to what I explained during my teaching of runecraft; it is a magical concept that is birthed by the world.}”

“I see…” Rakna replied, forced to repress a growl. He frowned and circulated his mana and soul to get control back. His hair and fangs returned to normal and he sighed. He opened his status and noted that his attributes were higher by a few digits. His attention was then caught by a blinking circle in the corner of his vision. He expanded it and a message from Gray appeared.

❮ ◈ ❯

I heard Tairen was going to help you. He will easily be able to keep you in check but I recommend you get the help of your goddess friend. It will make things easier since she should be able to cut you off from the lunar energy’s influence while he holds you back. I already told him about her. It’s your choice if you want to bring her along or not. Good luck.

❮ ◈ ❯

“So, Lunar Magic can do that, huh? Would she also be able to artificially induce my transformation as well?” He wondered aloud.

“{Perhaps. Though, we will have to wait to see how far she can go with it. For now, if she’s able to converge lunar energy, then doing it to the extent you are currently is a baseline. Your attributes have been boosted slightly but you still have control.}”

“We’ll see,” he said. He opened his friend list and selected Nyx. He sent her a message explaining the situation and she replied with a positive answer a minute later. “All right,” he muttered and looked at the time. “We still have two hours before the appointed time. The sun shouldn’t set in its entirety until then but I should head out now in case I transform prematurely.”

“{That would be astute.}”

Rakna grunted and left the private section. Already, he could feel a large increase in lunar energy since the hall was considerably more connected to the outside. He tightened his fists, forcing his Soul Core to pump faster to suppress the transformation. Obsidian Blood was also being nudged too much for his liking.

It got a bit worse when he came out of the building but nothing he couldn’t deal with. He caught a glimpse of both the setting sun and the rising moon and huffed. With Fabled Sight, he could tell that the lunar energy was being fought off by the sunlight. He would probably be fine as long as there was a minimum of sunlight.

He hastily made his way to the station and couldn’t help but snarl a few times on the way, scaring a few passersby in the process. He arrived in the wilderness around twenty minutes later. He went off to a remote place with the most amount of sunlight and the least lunar energy and also ignited his aura to help him a bit.

He sat down and meditated on a surface level to wait until it was time. The sun was nearly gone from the sky and he now knew that this was harder than he expected. His fangs were extending slowly but surely and some amount of fur was growing on him. He had already entered his pseudo-werewolf form.

He had hoped that the full moon wouldn’t affect his rationality and consciousness but based on the rampaging energies inside of him, the chances of that were steeply declining. He had struggled to send a message to both Tairen, as Gray had called him, and Nyx to tell them to join him while giving them his location.

The first to arrive was Nyx. She landed in the grass field he had occupied with her shadow wings on her back and seemed to be hesitant in getting closer.

“Rakna, can you hear me?” She asked carefully.

“…I can,” he replied with a double-toned voice, barely human as is. One could tell in an instant that he was gritting his teeth, his eyes flickering between purple and red.

Nyx sighed in relief. “When is your guildmate supposed to arrive?”

“Should be at any time now,” he said, and as if on cue, his senses picked up something. He looked up and Nyx mimicked him. They squinted their eyes and saw a dark dot getting closer. Then, said dot suddenly turned into a blur for them that crashed a dozen of meters away from them.

“Hahaha! It’s been a while since I’ve been to the First! It’s nostalgic!” A powerful low-pitched voice resounded from within the cloud of dust and the figure that came out of it startled them.

The man was an anthropomorphic bull four meters tall. His skin bordered dark red and coupled with his black horns and blue eyes, everything about his appearance gave him a very sharp and overbearing presence. His musculature was nothing but bulging and he wore a light armor akin to a gladiator’s. The part of his chest that wasn’t covered had a large scar going down diagonally.

“Hey, greenhorns! Nice to meet ya! My name’s Tairen Asterio Apis but you can call me Tai,” the minotaur said with a laugh and turned toward Rakna. “So, you’re Obsidian, eh? While I would love to chat before getting to the point, it seems like we don’t have a lot of time on our hands,” he said after noticing the spasms of the werewolf as well as the fading remnants of sunlight.

“Hey, lady, you’re ready to start extracting the lunar energy?” He inquired with a more profound tone and she nodded, preparing her mana for the task. “What about you, kiddo? Are you ready?”

“…could… not… be… more… so…” Rakna growled out.

“In that case…” Tairen trailed and the last bits of sunlight were no more. His gaze sharpened. “The initiative is yours.”

Rakna wasn’t even able to hear his last sentence as the instant the sun was down, his head snapped upward and his eyes took in the form of the full moon on the horizon. His heartbeat accelerated and his ears whistled.

“{Rakna? Rakna!}” Higure tried to call him but it was useless. “{Tch, so you are a berserk type after all,}” she muttered to herself.

❮ ◈ ❯

Warning! Detected a large influx of Lunar Energy! Your body is reacting to the night of the full moon! Your power will continuously increase until the moon reaches its true peak.

---

Obsidian Blood has been triggered!

- Error! -

Obsidian Blood has been overpowered!

❮ ◈ ❯

These were the last prompts Rakna saw before blacking out as he felt the rest of his body grow along with several appendages down his spine.