The Villain's Story

"Was the room really necessary?"

Alan laughed, as he raised his finger and set it aflame with mana. He could see well in the darkness, but was unaware if Sabrina could do the same. She did have the element of darkness, so it shouldn't be too hard for her to see in the dark.

Although he was still wondering as to why she did this, manifesting an entire room made of darkness just to inscribe the rune on him. Well, considering the place she was inscribing it, it made sense.

His body was peculiar, and there was not much space left to inscribe the rune. Alan looked down, but all he could see was the top of her head.

"I like this view."

"..."

He chuckled, and she let out a sigh as she focused on her task once more. She was embarrassed, and was it not alright to be so? After all, the position was quite suggestive.

The room was to save herself from the embarrassment, and it worked. It had subsided.

'This is normal.'

'This is normal.'

She chanted in her mind, but unfortunately. Her concentration was not perfect. She was tired, after all.

"Fuck!"

She failed, and the mana rebounded to hit both Alan and her, the former unfazed, but the latter had to take a break.

"You don't need to do this, you know."

Alan sat cross-legged and explained.

"I don't know much about these runes or whatever, But come on, you're tired, and I can regenerate. Even if I get blasted to bits, I'll come back, so just get some rest."

She didn't respond, taking a moment to breathe, sweat poured down her body like a waterfall, even the cold temperature of Lanekia was not helping.

However, she was not the one who was exhausted.

"Black circles underneath your eyes, now and then a bit of snot trickles down your nose before you make it disappear with mana, shallow breathing, cracked lips even though you are drinking water, and twitching of your eyes, and also uneven footsteps."

She came close, and knelt down.

"I'm not the one who is tired, Al. It's you. You've been fighting that thing for who knows how long. What I just said literally mean you're exhausted, your body is exhausted. Whatever regeneration you have can't keep up. The physical body is tired, and let's not even talk about your mind."

Alan was about to speak, but she put a finger on his lips, shutting him up.

"You know what I feel? The moment I died and came back, my body aches whenever I even look at the tunnel leading to that thing. It's as if my muscles clearly remember being annihilated, and that is only once. So what about you?"

What about you? Who challenged it so many times? Alan had challenged Kizmal more than a dozen times, and he came back as a small crystal a dozen times, yet, even if his body regenerated, was the mental and physical burden negligible.

His body was destroyed a dozen times, he was torn apart, ripped apart, blasted to smithereens multiple times.

He didn't know how to answer, because he didn't feel it. He didn't know if he was tired or not, and that was precisely the issue.

"I'm doing this for myself, Our relationship may not be very long but please, I can't bear seeing that."

And then, she started inscribing once more. A small light illuminated her face, the result of the process of inscribing a rune. She had to reduce a rune the size of an arm to the size of a finger, it was going to be arduous.

A few moments passed in silence, and she failed more than a couple of times.

"Want to take a break?"

Alan said, as he stared aimlessly at the ceiling of the dark room. Sabrina let out an exhausted sigh, and stopped moving, her head collided with his chest and drops of sweat rolled down Alan's body.

"Why do you have so many damn tattoos..."

She punched his chest, clearly expressing her annoyance, her job would be so much easier if he didn't have so many marks on his damn chest.

'At least he's a good pillow.'

He was anything but skin and bones after all, His body was a great pillow! While his muscles were more like stone or steel, it was still a comforting experience, especially when his body was always ice-cold. Sabrina always wondered how the constitution of a frost dragon worked.

Her eyes were drooping, she was closer to falling asleep than Alan, the toll on her body was immense as well by her standards. She wasn't a dragon, after all. And while she wasn't in the most comfortable positions, her pillow sure was comfy, and just as she was about to fall asleep.

Alan fell down, laying down on the cold bone beneath him, and because she was resting on his chest, she followed. Although, she abruptly stood back up again.

"Yeah, you're right, I am tired."

"..."

With a tired expression, and an even exhausted voice. He decided to sleep. He had spent some time sleeping on Ariel's body, but it seemed it wasn't enough. But before he did go to sleep... he clasped his hands together and prayed.

'Please, no more nightmares or whatever vision bullshit...'

However, to Sabrina, who had no context whatsoever, his actions were questionable.

"... When were you religious? Who are you praying too?"

He thought for a bit, but decided against explaining the reason for his prayer, after all, while he was sure she wouldn't think he was crazy if he said that every time he slept he would be set to a world where two dragons thirsty for blood were always fighting, and he had to run to survive, it would still sound weird. Incredibly weird.

While they had their fair share of unusual and magical phenomena, this one had to stay in his mind.

"Whoever can give me good sleep... Ariel, God of sleep, or the Top god or Overgod whatever his name was..."

"...?"

And then, he fell asleep. And as much as she wanted to sleep as well, she started inscribing Sai Laka again. It was much easier to do it on a sleeping Alan Peccator after all.