"Heal him again.
I’ll be back."
Vivienne only spoke coldly as she walked out of the Hall.
She returned two hours later and the cycle continued for the rest of the night.
By the end of the fifth day—
It happened.
Lucian understood.
The feeling, the shape of helplessness, the weight behind it, the place inside him where everything broke down, the pain he felt, the way his energy moved when it all happened—
He understood it all.
And when the demon in his Illusion walked through the door, this time, Lucian did not scream. Instead—
His eyes turned cold and—
What is it you desire?
The question appeared.
"Speed."
Lucian answered.
Granted.
And in the real Training Hall, his body changed, an absurd amount of Demonic Energy gathered around him and his body vanished, leaving behind a violet-black trail.
Evelyn stared at the sight with a grim look on her face, prepared to heal him. Vivienne, on the other hand, watched it with a smile.
That made Evelyn frown.
Vivienne noticed that frown and her smile widened—
"He did it on his own this time."
"...what?"
"He succeeded in activating the Form without the Illusion."
"But he was inside the Illusion..."
Evelyn did not understand. Vivienne shook her head.
"The Illusion hadn’t reached the trigger point, he activated his Form before it."
"So he... succeeded...?"
Evelyn asked in disbelief.
"Yes."
Vivienne nodded with a smile, her red threads already plastering Lucian’s legs together.
"Heal him."
She ordered.
"Y-Yes!"
Evelyn answered with an excited look on her face.
From that point, the training changed. The Woundglass was no longer the centre of everything. Just as Vivienne had predicted, Lucian no longer needed it to activate his Form.
He could now activate it whenever he wanted.
So now, Vivienne began studying the Form itself.
How long it lasted, how much energy it consumed, the changes it made to Lucian’s body, she began running countless experiments, each at Lucian and Evelyn’s cost.
With Lucian collapsing again and again and Evelyn ’healing’ him every time he did.
Until finally, Evelyn was the one who fell.
"Evelyn!"
Lucian, who had just regained consciousness, caught her as she fell on top of him with a weak look on her face.
"I’m fine..."
Her eyes fluttered as she answered weakly.
"No, you’re not!"
"I can still..."
"Evelyn, I said no."
Lucian’s voice changed.
This time, he was far stricter than before. Evelyn tried to move, but her body refused to. Lucian looked at her, her face was pale, her lips were dry, her breathing weak.
She had pushed herself far beyond what she should have.
"We’re stopping."
Lucian spoke as he picked her up.
"Your trainin—"
Evelyn tried to say something but—
"My training can continue without you."
Lucian didn’t even let her finish. He walked towards the door, then suddenly, the door opened and Vivienne walked in.
She stared at Lucian, then at Evelyn, who was in his arms, and she stepped back from the door, letting Lucian leave.
Lucian left. He brought her back to the room the Enclave had provided her. On the public side, Evelyn Starling’s rest period was extended by another week.
Her fans were worried, but her management controlled the response, the Enclave cleaned up the edges.
Behind the curtain, Evelyn slept soundly.
Lucian took care of her, he brought her food, made sure she drank enough water, he also tried to be beside her every time she went to sleep or when she woke up.
And during the remaining time, he continued training.
He couldn’t train his True Form since Evelyn was out, so Vivienne brought him back to the basics.
His strength, speed, control, and the techniques Vivienne had taught him before.
At the same time, another thing that was going well for Lucian was his relationship with Naomi. Since she now knew quite a bit, the tension between them was gone.
In public, they kept a careful distance, Naomi only played the role of the childhood friend and a neighbour who was stuck with him.
In private, it was different.
Lucian visited her in secret whenever he could and not just for sex, he visited her just to talk. Sometimes, they would talk for hours. As a geek, Naomi had quite a lot of questions about the Supernatural World, Lucian told her what he could.
They joked, they laughed together, sometimes, they watched anime together, which was mostly Naomi forcing Lucian to watch her recent favourites.
Lucian complained, but he watched them nonetheless. Spending time with Naomi felt easy again, his heart wasn’t as heavy because he no longer had to lie to her.
There were also times when Naomi cried while listening to everything that had happened to Lucian. She constantly apologised for being angry at him, to which Lucian constantly told her that it wasn’t her fault.
Then, there were the intimate times.
Naomi was Lucian’s first, and Lucian was Naomi’s.
They had a certain connection that was stronger than normal, so when they got together, their bond strengthened very quickly.
Lucian was even thinking about forming a Contract with Naomi, an idea he quickly discarded since that would make her an open target, especially if any demon sensed the Contract.
Whatever it was, Naomi and Lucian grew closer and closer. Evelyn, who heard about it all when Lucian returned, smiled at that.
She liked Naomi, more so since the girl knew stories about Lucian that Lucian would never tell her on his own. She felt like Naomi connected her to Lucian and told her about the version she would otherwise never meet.
At the same time, Evelyn recovered as well.
With that, Lucian continued his True Form training, only this time, he was far more careful regarding Evelyn’s health.
Then, on one Sunday when Lucian decided to stay in the Enclave and continue training, something happened—
"Again."
Vivienne ordered in her usual, flat tone. Lucian nodded, then he raised his hands and focused. The next second, however—
He froze.
He looked down and noticed something odd.
A thin silver road appeared beneath his feet.
The road stretched throughout the Training Hall, passing through the far walls as if they did not exist.
Then—
It disappeared.
It all happened for a brief instant, so brief that Lucian doubted whether it was real or just his imagination.
"...did you see that?"
He questioned with an unsure look on his face.
"See what?"
Evelyn asked with a frown.
"Didn’t you see that silver road?"
"A silver road...?"
"Yes, it branched forward and expanded everywhere."
"Lucian... I think you are pushing yourself too far.
You have started to hallucinate."
Evelyn was confused, she had no idea what Lucian was talking about. For a moment, that made Lucian think he was hallucinating but then—
"Yes."
That was when Vivienne answered.
He looked at her and Vivienne’s expression had changed as well.
"Training’s over."
"What happened?"
Lucian frowned in confusion.
"An Ancient Spirit just woke up."