"Heal him."
Vivienne commanded.
Evelyn flinched at those words, she stared at Lucian, at the cracked floor behind him, the blood beneath his body and his ruined legs.
His screams still echoed in her mind. Lucian never talked about the day his parents were taken away from him, but seeing him scream, calling their names as he extended his trembling hand forward again and again—
It was clear how deeply he felt about that day and seeing him in a state he was in, seeing how his mind fell into the deepest pits of despair, seeing how much pain he was in, Evelyn...
She felt... hollow.
She slowly turned towards Vivienne, then, in a shaky, weak voice.
"Does he... really have to go through it all...?"
She asked a weak question.
That question made Vivienne turn towards her. The woman looked at her with piercing cold eyes and even though she did not say anything, Evelyn got the answer.
"I... I’ll heal him."
She spoke in a soft tone as she walked towards Lucian.
She once again stared at his ruined legs, the protruding bone that had pierced out of his flesh, it was gory, and as if she did not want her to keep looking at it any longer, Vivienne waved her hands and red thread plastered Lucian’s leg together.
"You have two hours."
Vivienne commanded as she walked out of the Training Hall.
"Y-Yes..."
Evelyn lowered her head.
She was barely holding back her tears, she had already tried three times when she saw Lucian scream, she couldn’t cry again, not when he needed her help.
Two hours later, Vivienne returned.
She had no plans of letting Lucian rest, nor did it seem like Lucian wanted any rest. He only stared at the Woundglass. Vivienne activated the artifact, the red glow overwhelmed Lucian’s eyes and once again—
Lucian returned to the Illusion World.
Once again, his parents were taken away from him again and again, until his mind deteriorated, the distinction between an illusion and reality became thinner and finally—
Lucian’s mind broke down, the Form answered, he moved at an impossible speed his legs couldn’t bear. His lower body shattered, he fell, Evelyn healed him, and then it happened all over again.
Again.
And again.
And again.
It was a clear, non-stop torture with no rest.
It was the same pattern, he saw the illusion again and again until he believed it was reality, he spent time with his parents, he laughed with them, complained to them, or stopped them from fighting each other.
Then comes the knock; the demon appears. He freezes; his parents are taken away, tortured in front of him, and he loses himself in despair.
It happened again and again.
And somewhere inside that despair—
A very small part of Lucian’s consciousness, the consciousness that knew why he was doing what he was doing—
It started noticing.
The pattern, the shape, the moment the anger becomes useless, the moment fear had no meaning, the moment he stops begging, the moment the mind starts searching for way outs, the moment where only despair remains, the moment when...
The question arises.
What is it you desire?
Lucian began noticing it all.
Of course, Lucian still couldn’t activate it on its own, it wasn’t that easy, but at the very least, he could, at some level, remain conscious.
The next day, after the training, Lucian returned to University like nothing happened. He sat in the class, answered questions professors asked, smiled when the students surrounded him.
No one there knew that only a few hours later, he would be back in Vivienne’s hall, forcing himself to reach the lowest mental point possible, again and again.
No one knew that beneath his calm expression, he was... memorising despair.
If that was even a thing.
And as planned, after classes, he returned to the Training Hall where Vivienne and Evelyn waited for him.
The same cycle repeated.
The Illusion, the breakdown, the Form, the ruined legs, the healing and repeat.
Again and again.
For days.
During the weekend when he did not have university, he didn’t even return to his house, he only trained.
Even during the days when he was supposed to attend the University, if the number of lectures was low, he actually skipped classes to train again.
He did not wish to waste time.
Not till he learned what he wanted to learn.
He gave every free hour to training.
By the fourth day, Evelyn’s face had lost most of its color.
Lucian was an Incubus, a Demon of Desire; she was not. Her body was not built to have sex with him multiple times a day, and because she was forcing herself to do it in order to heal him, the toll it was taking on her body was becoming more and more apparent.
And how would it not?
She was used to having sex once every three days; now she was doing it multiple times in a single day, sure, the session itself may not be as tiring as it is when Lucian takes the lead and takes it slow, but it was still a massive increase in frequency, something a human body couldn’t take.
Lucian could see that as well.
He noticed how she looked weaker than before, but every time he opened his mouth to say something about it—
"I said I will stay."
She would glare at him.
"You are pushing yourself way beyond healthy limits, you don’t get to tell me what to do."
She made it very clear that she had no intention of stepping back, so in the end, Lucian too, had no choice but to give in to her.
He only accepted her help, all while he couldn’t believe just how absurdly lucky he was to have her.
It wasn’t just him.
Vivienne noticed it too.
She noticed how much the girl valued her student, she noticed how she watched him closely even though her body trembled at his scream and her tears wouldn’t stop.
It made her nod in satisfaction.
Of course, Vivienne never showed it to her.
"Heal him again.
I’ll be back."
She only spoke coldly as she walked out of the Hall.