Drip…Drip…


    Very subtly, fresh tears spilt from her eyes. However, her eyes slowly brightened up not with excitement, but with resolve.


    Slowly closing the distance between them, she muttered underneath her breath.


    “I shall follow you forever.”


    Then, very chastely, she kissed him on the lips.


    Chuu~


    .


    |DxD|


    .


    Igor was rather taken aback at the sudden kiss. His eyes widened in complete surprise when he felt her mouth against his. Yet just as quickly, she pulled herself back. Before he could however, fling the nastiest curse words he could off the top of his head, the tendrils that had barely stretched beyond his jawline suddenly covered his entire face, petrifying him on the spot.


    He felt Triny hold his cheeks while a bright flash covered his vision.


    “?!”


    And then, it suddenly happened. His vision instantly changed from white to random magic circles that were spread all around him. The change was a bit too sudden for him to process, but he eventually caught up.


    [Seals?]


    They were different in colour and size, but he could tell that these were seals. He certainly couldn’t understand what they were for, but it looked like there were hundreds of seals here. He wasn’t sure.


    Then, just as his eyes looked around in wonder, he heard the voice of man.


    “Your existence is too dangerous, Trihexa. Your presence disrupts the peace of this world. As such, I must seal you away.”


    He couldn’t see the man, but he could tell by his voice that he was tired and verging towards the point of exhaustion. He was still confused as to where exactly he was when his mind was suddenly assaulted by a myriad of emotions.


    Anger


    “?!”


    This…this was beyond what he felt when he slaughtered the Himejima clan. This anger, this rage was completely unlike anything he felt before. This feeling had gone far beyond the term, ‘blind rage’. This was a desire, a desire to completely destroy. The man who was the object of that rage was now gone. Those numerous seals that were glowing had dimmed, yet their existence was still there and barred any passage.


    Loneliness


    Just as quickly as he was overwhelmed by rage, his vision darkened. And it remained darkened…for YEARS. To him, it felt like seconds, but he could tell that years had passed in this darkness. And in that infinite darkness, his rage was completely submerged under the wave of loneliness.


    Betrayal


    Accompanying the feeling of loneliness was betrayal. It was heavy, making it the most prevalent of all the emotions he was feeling. Was it that man who betrayed her? Igor couldn’t make sense of all these feelings.


    [What happened to you, Triny.]


    Time seemed to move so quickly, yet so slowly. He knew somehow that he was observing thousands of years of history. The most crippling part? Most of it was in darkness. There were very, very, very few moments where there would be light.


    In that light, there would be glimpses of different entities as they rampaged. But that would quickly fade away to darkness once they died or got killed.


    Time passed again in the darkness, and Igor felt himself growing mad. Constantly having to endure these heavy feelings was not good for his psyche. Decades passed like seconds and the feeling of loneliness continued to increase.


    There were periods in time where there more visions than before. He would see the different perspectives of unique entities and how they destroyed everything in their wake before they inevitably died in the end.


    Igor was not one to be afraid of a little blood, but it was harrowing to suddenly be watching the short lives of different people from a first-person perspective only for them to end up dying.


    There was especially a period in time where one of the entities he witnessed was fighting an army of blonde people with blue eyes like him.


    [Aryans…]


    His eyes gained a little light when he saw what amounted to his ancestors. His perspective shifted from what he now believed were yokai to other yokai during the course of what he recognised to be a war.


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Almost all the yokai he spectated were always alone and were launching suicidal attacks against his ancestors. It was as if they willingly let themselves become berserk for the greater boost in power. When they died, Igor watched with a heavy heart at the corpses of his people. Yet, such was life.


    The vision would fade to never-ending darkness and the appearances of the ‘light’ soon became very few and far in between. It wasn’t until what he estimated to be two or three decades that the light appeared. And when the perspective shifted, it showed a very familiar forest, with a very familiar corpse in front of him.


    [...aunty.]


    Everything passed by in a blur. His desire to destroy the Himejima overwriting his compulsion to destroy the world, Shiva’s sudden arrival, and his cold massacre of the Himejima. The vision darkened when Shiva told his past self to cancel the transformation.


    Then, almost immediately, the vision lit up again. This time, it was the Underworld and instead of the perspective of himself going berserk, he found the vision focused on his past self lying on the grass in an unconscious state.


    What grabbed his focus was the sudden change in the emotions he was feeling. Curiosity, Disbelief, and finally, Hope.


    Small little tanned hands stretched out from his vision and touched the face of his past self, and the amount of joy he felt in that one singular moment made him understand everything.


    [I see…]


    .


    |DxD|


    .


    Trepidation. That was all Triny felt as she held Igor. His head was on her lap, his eyes closed in unconsciousness. His hair was still crimson as always while the black tendrils covering his skin were slowly receding towards his chest.


    She was scared. The sun was shining as always and the lush surroundings were peaceful. Yet her mind was the complete opposite.


    [What will he think?]


    She knew what the world thought of her existence. She was a beast, a mindless beast destined to bring about the end of the world. It was quite ironic since the very person who sealed her away once destroyed the world himself in a great flood. Yet while he was still lauded and worshipped, she was cursed.


    [He said he trusts me.]


    In all the millennia she has lived, she had the opportunity to read the memories of those who were killed while drawing upon her power.


    [Will he see me as me, or as the beast of the apocalypse?]


    It was a question that she feared the answer to. Triple Six, Trihexa, Bringer of Armageddon, Harbinger of the End Times, Apocalypse Beast, and a myriad of other titles were what she was called.


    [I don’t even remember my name anymore.]


    It had been so long since she was imprisoned that she forgot her name. She wasn’t even sure if she had a name. But whatever it was, Trihexa definitely wasn’t the name she was born with…if she was even born in the first place.


    Her fingers gently traced the contours of his cheekbones, her nervousness evident in her eyes.


    [Out of all the people who have drawn upon my power, you are the only one who has responded to my call.]


    A part of her still couldn’t believe that after years upon years of being sealed away, she was finally able to feel another person’s warmth.


    [You are able to see me, talk to me…]


    Her thumb trailed over his lips.


    [...and touch me.]


    Her eyes moistened as dark thoughts took over.


    “I don’t want you to leave.”


    Leaning towards him, her hair spilled over his cheeks like a curtain. She pressed her forehead against his, her nose inhaling the scent of his hair.


    “Please…please don’t leave me alone.”


    She wanted to believe he wouldn’t, but reality had never been kind with her.


    “I-I don’t want to be alone again…”


    She hadn’t told him, but for the merger to happen, it would all depend on whether he truly accepted her. Now, she was regretting that choice. If he truly rejected her from the bottom of his art, then she could never see him again. She would return to that void where she would be alone again in the dark.


    As time passed, her hope slowly waned while her sense of anxiousness grew. The tendrils were gathering at his chest. He would soon awaken and once he did, everything would be revealed.


    “...”


    Her heart lurched towards her throat as she felt him gradually awaken. Her body trembled as she subconsciously tightened her grip on his cheeks. It was only when she felt his jaw stiffen that she abruptly sat up.


    When she did, she found his eyes were open…and he was glaring at her.


    [No…]


    “You.”


    Igor looked at Triny with a very evident frown on his face.


    “Why didn’t you tell me?”


    Sitting up, the redhead ignored her stuttered response as he yelled at her.


    “Why didn’t you tell me you were a several millennia-old hag!”


    “I-I-I-I….what?”


    “Bloody hell!”


    Gradually stand up, Igor gripped his hair in rage.


    “I thought I was a bloody paedophile because you kissed me goddamnit!”


    “...whaa?”


    Triny had never been so confused in her life. The words he were saying were not processing properly in her head. However, she wanted to verify one thing.


    Meeting his glare with her own nervous gaze, she softly spoke.


    “I’m…Trihexa.”


    Folding his arms matter-of-factly, Igor replied as if it was obvious.


    “Yes. I know and I don’t care. What I want to know is, why did you hide that you were older than my lineage? Did you know that I almost went crazy when you kissed me?! Do you know the trauma I felt?! I…wait a minute.”


    Completely disregarding her for a moment, Igor began doing some mental calculations.


    “She’s thousands of years old. If I combine all my ages, I’m barely eighty.”


    His eyes widened as if he had come across a revelation.


    “You’re the one who kissed a minor. So its you! You’re the paedophile! Bloody hell. Why? WHY am I surrounded by them? WHY!”


    “...”


    Watching the redhead yell at the skies, a bud of hope grew in Triny’s heart.


    ‘Yes. I know and I don’t care.’


    That single sentence repeated itself over and over.


    [Does…does he accept me?]


    She didn’t believe it was this easy.


    “Um…Igor?”


    “-monkey sage, and now it is…heh?”


    The redhead turned to face her as if he wasn’t ranting just a second ago.


    “What’s wrong?”


    Faced with his gaze, she nervously played with her fingers.


    “I’m…I’m the beast…”


    “...”


    *Blinks once*


    *Blinks twice*


    *Frowns…*


    “Beast? What beast? You’re a child-molester. You just molested someone thousands of years younger than…oh no.”


    Palming his forehead, he suddenly felt weak.


    “Dear God. I was molested by a super pervert. My first merge and it happens to be a molester of all things.”


    “...”


    Triny couldn’t hold it anymore.


    “Pfft…”


    As he repeatedly confirmed that she wasn’t a monster…


    “Hihi~.”


    …and that he didn’t see her as the Beast of Apocalyspe.


    “Teehee~.”


    …all her worries were washed away.


    “Hihihihihi~."


    “...”


    Slightly removing his hand from his face, Igor peeked at the little girl who was giggling heartily with a small smile of his own.


    [A beast would never laugh like this.]


    .


    AN


    .


    If you’re interested in reading ahead, you can scout my patreon under the username, “HolyGambler”. Until the next chapter and thanks for reading.