That night before Alana entered R.E.M sleep, she felt as if her whole being was spiralling into something. A force beckoning her body and soul into a tangible object she couldn't decipher. The feeling frightened her and made her faint.

When she opened her eyes again, she felt she was dreaming. She found herself in the same cottage house from another dream she couldn't remember.

It felt like a fresh start, a new experience again.

She found herself sitting at the wooden entrance of the cottage house, a wooden plank on her lap. On top of this plank was a layer of sheet-like paper with murky ink outline of a man.

Before she could decipher what was happening—where she was and who she was—the force of the body she was in, compelled her into a numbness silence. She felt herself becoming one with this body. And while she was merging with the body, somehow she forgot herself entirely.

A mixture of new and old memories began forming into her tangible mind as she became the person in her dream.

"Sit still." The woman said to the man in front of her. The man in black robes matching his dark mane of hair and his serious thick eyebrows. Everything else was perfect on this man. His features were the type she felt she could gaze at the whole day. And yet there was one fault. He couldn't sit still.

She wanted to paint him. She had been wanting this for a while now. He often left her for days on end, to scout out any news of what was happening beyond the four corners of the mortal mountain their cottage house was located. The sanctuary they forged and made a home in.

When he left for this long, she felt that sometimes that she forgot what he looked like. She didn't have any of her previous powers, she had given them all up to chase him. She was as powerless as a mortal. She imagined her body was degrading to old age just like how mortals do.

Everyday he reassured her that she was not aging. It's been twenty years since they married and he was still adamant on telling her how beautiful she was each morning. Some days she couldn't believe him. Other days she basked in his warmth embrace, acknowledging his words.

Life for her was all she could have ever dreamt of. He has always been the goal from the beginning.

"I bribed the old hound down the village for this ink and paper." She reminded him. "I had to give him some of my good berries for him to ascent. So please sit still so I can finish without any mistakes. I only have this one paper and ink."

There was a smirk playing on the corner of his lip. This kind of smile she loved on him because he rarely revealed this side of him to anyone. He was always so serious and stagnant. His icy expression making everyone feel either frightened or awed.

"What will you pay me for sitting still?" He asked her as he leaned his head on the fist of the hand resting on the bench she made him lie in.

She was concentrating on getting his expression on paper right and so in a nonchalant manner replied him, "What do you want?"

"You know what I want." He conjectured.

She looked up to gauge his reaction. The smirk was now on both corners of his lips.

"Hmmm." She pretended to be thoughtfully. "Oh, I know... a kiss on each cheek." She teased.

"Bah." He frowned. "Two low of a price to pay...my back muscle ache too much for this unsatisfactory reward."

"How about, a kiss in each cheek and forehead?"

"Still low."

"A kiss in each cheek, forehead and the corner of your mouth."

"What do you take me for?" He challenged.

"Alright," She abided. "All the kisses I've mentioned including an addition of one kiss on the lips."

"Just one?" He asked, pensively.

She looked down pretending to be concentrating on what she was doing. In reality, she was actually hiding her blush.

"Two." She mumbled.

"Ten."

She looked up again, shocked.

"Four."

"Eight."

"Six."

"Six it is then. We have a deal." He looked completely satifisied with himself.

And so with a determination for her to finish he sat as still as possible until the very end.

"There." She handed him the paper to inspect. "Do you think it a liking?"

He studied the painting for a while as he sat next to her, smiled for a brief moment in appreciation before turning to her.

"My reward." He demanded.

His eyes engaged hers and she was instantly swallowed whole. It's been twenty years with him and yet every moment still felt as if it were the first time.

His touch was a spark and her reaction the fuse. Together their fiery current combusted. Her heart trembled and every nerve tingled with feeling. She closed her eyes and leaned forward. However, before she could kiss him she opened one eye to confirm that his were closed.

She smirked, then landed a kiss on his cheek very quickly before jumping up and running back inside the house.

She hadn't even reached the threshold when she felt herself being thrown over his shoulder. She squealed in surprise.

He swatted her bottom while saying, "Mrs Fury, you've been very naughty. I believe there's a debt you owe and I'd kindly like for that debt to be paid today."

He took her to their bedroom and softly placed her on top of the bed. Then he lunged for a her like starved animal out for its prey.

As she was about to anticipate his intense kiss. Something in this first person world shifted and Alana felt as if her soul was dissociating with the body. Once again her subconscious leaving first persons experience to watch in third person.

There was disappointment in her heart, however through the slight confusion, Alana couldn't understand why she was disappointed.

The film of the scene she was watching was slathered in a hazy glaze. Although the people she was seeing were inscrutable, there was this familiarity with them.

"Give me a child, Mrs Fury." She heard the man demand to the woman.

Alana's cheeks blushed red automatically, she quickly dapped them with her cold hands.

She gave them their privacy, silently apologising for her sex-depraved self for being there in the first place.

"I'm not a creep, really I'm not." She said to them as she was turning around. "So please—please don't mind me."

However, they couldn't even hear her and she was very sure they weren't even aware of her presence.

The minute she turned around, however, Alana startled at seeing a dark figure of a man in front of her. The man she had painted earlier while she was in that woman's body. She finally realised why he had looked so familiar. He was the same man that's had been plaguing her life recently.

Lylas Fury.

"How do you keep managing to enter this portal?" He was as shell shocked to see her as she was.

Alana stared blankly at him, she had no idea what he was talking about.

He glared at her, looking at her as if she were a puzzle and it frustrated him because he couldn't solve it at all.

Alana, on the other hand, was overwhelmed by his presence. Behind her, there was a couple making love. Although that scene was glazed over, it was still very much apparent what they engaging in. She was embarrassed. The whole thing felt as if she had been being caught watching someone's leaked sex tape.

Within her embarrassment it finally occurred to her that she was dreaming. And since this was her dream, Lylas should do everything and anything she asked him. She realised—finally—why she had been disappointed earlier. Somehow she had wanted to know what kissing him felt like.

Without any further thought, she quickly pointed at him.

"You!" She said. "Come here."

The glare on his expression turned into a glower, the look as if she had disrespected his ancestors.

"Dammit, you're not meant to glare in my dream. Smile at me."

The glower deepened. "This is not your dre—"

"Fine!" She cut him off before he could finish speaking. "I'll go to you then..."

She took three steps to reach him, while still grumbling. "...My dream and still you have to be so difficult."

Once she was in front his towering height. She unceremoniously grabbed his collar and with an unprecedented action, she used all her strength to pull him down. It took two seconds before he could register what she was doing. When it finally clicked, it was too late for him. She had already violated him with a kiss.

His lips felt softer compared to the hard glaring mass of his exterior. He was all the things that she hated in a man. Too arrogant, too self-righteous, too demanding, unyielding and too proud. And yet...yet that kiss overwhelmed her into a stupor.

Alana already knew she had been on the verge of falling for him, and so this kiss—this breathtaking kiss—sealed a deal in her heart. The soft lips felt too real, so real, she wondered whether it was truly a dream.

She stopped after ten seconds because she realised she was doing all the work. He wasn't responding.

She looked up to gauge his reaction. He seemed very affected. Though his frown was still permanent, there was an alarming lustrous look in his eyes. It was this look alone that made her inside tremble. Alana began forging a hope, because this look of his told her he had felt something in her kiss.

Before she could blush in mortification, Alana quickly spoke without thinking, "You're so mean..."

Her voice snapped him out of his trance. "This is not news."

"...letting a girl do all the work." She finished.

He startled as he realised she was scolding him for not responding to her kiss. There was a slightly affronted look in his eyes, a recognition there that made him freeze.

"So, so mean..." Alana became overwhelmed as she remembered her heartbreak from earlier. Watching all her paintings incinerating to ash.

"...Destroying my paintings like that. What did they do to you? They were not hurting anyone."

"They were causing a stir with ghouls and demons from the demon realm." He informed her.

"They were just paintings!" She lashed.

"They were not just paintings. They were projections, an opening to be manipulated by evildoers to enter the mortal realm."

Alana was stupefied.

"That's right, Ms Alana. I hope you realise how dangerous you are. A mortal with essence, your origins are perculiar but who cares where your essence comes from. What matters most to me, is how you're a danger to others. A collateral damage waiting to happen. A ticking bomb ready to explode and destroy everything with it..."

Alana saw the flare of his nostril and couldn't believe the words coming out of his mouth. Was he basically telling her that he was angry at her existence?

"...the fact that you're even acting as if you're unaware of your own power is what's most annoying. The innocent act may have won my disciples, but you don't fool me."

"What power? What innocent act? You think I want to kill everyone? M-Me?" He had to realise how ridiculous he sounded. She was as harmless as a fly.

"You were unaffected after knowing that you're surrounded by species that are not human, most mortals would have caved into fear after a day in my realm. But you... either you're extremely stupidity or you have known it all before."

Alana couldn't believe he just called her stupid.

"The demon king is sneaky. For all I know, he may have sent you twenty-one years ago to incarnate in the mortal realms for this very moment." He continued voicing his doubts.

Alana laughed at these accusations. "Is that why you're closely watching over Karla? You think I want to kill her too?" She glowered, biting down the sour taste of her jealousy.

"Like I said, collateral damage waiting to happen."

It was the the fact he was protecting Karla from her, that made Alana furious. Never mind that he cared for her friend, but to purposely watch over Karla because he didn't trust Alana was a low blow.

"I didn't even know the creatures in my paintings existed until a few days ago. For the past twenty-one years, I've lived thinking I was crazy for dreaming such frightening nightmares all the time..." Alana began ranting.

"...I'm just now finding out that in fact those types people aren't a figment of my imagination. Kilan told me I had essence and I didn't even know what essence was until then. So excuse me for feeling so insulted when you say I'm collateral damage."

"Kilan?"

"That's all you got from that. Ugh. You're such a big jerk! I can't believe I'm arguing with you in my dream!" Alana fused.

"Wake up!" Alana shouted to herself. She then proceeded into pinching and slapping herself to wake up.

"Calm down!" He yelled. "Ah you mortals are so fickle, letting your emotions control you too much."

She glared at him.

"Listen, I will repeat this one more time, since you don't remember from last time."

"Last time?" Her eyebrows narrowed.

"It's not relevant anymore." He swatted his hand in mid way as if dismissing the encounter from last time. "But yes, last time I explained that this is my dream portal and somehow you entered it when no one can. I can't possible understand how, that's why I'm guessing Kalak has something to do with this."

"I've never met this Kalak, let along know how he looks like. I only know when I was suspended in your forcefield bubble as you fought the fire demon, that he's the demon king. Why would I be associated with him when I'm just a mortal?" Alana frowned.

"Beats me." He shrugged, answering her latter question. "He managed to impair me before, what would stop him from trying again."

It was the sudden sadness in that sentence that diffused Alana's anger. Her heart thudded twice before stopping at his words. Although he had spoken with his taut voice, she still caught the underlying tone of sadness.

The demon king hurt him? How?

"I've no relations with Kalak." Alana declared in honesty, trying to make him see that he could trust her. She wanted to add that if she were to ever meet him, she would steer clear from him.

Involved with the demon king? In what way on earth could clueless and powerless Alana be involved with such a being. She had found out of about the other realms just yesterday, why would she suddenly be related to the demon king.

"Until I know exactly what you are Alana, I'll have to keep my guards up." He stated, dismissing her declaration.

Alana frowned deeply to herself. He was purposely putting wall between them. He refused to trust her at all and she hated it.

"You mentioned Kilan?" He reminded her.

Alana nodded, still disheartened. "He was a fairie sprite that sacrificed his life to save mine back when we were trapped in the fire demon's lair."

It suddenly occurred to Alana that it might be possible for Lylas to find a way to help Kilan. What did Zenos say? He had powers equal if not surpassing those of the heavenly realm.

"Is–is there a way to save him?" She looked up at him with hopeful eyes.

"Did you see him incinerate when he died?"

Alana nodded, then she winced as an image of Kilan's last moments flashed through her mind.

"Then it means his primordial spirits and essence are no longer tangible to earth. He has ceased from existence."

Alana's hope crashed, her head slumped in disappointment. "Zenos said the same thing..." Her voice was small. "...is there's no way of ever repaying him for his sacrifice then?"