"…it ans that you might not be fully human anymore."
Silence again.
My heart pounded like it was trying to escape from my chest.
"I'm still ," I whispered, feeling tensed now.
Venus gave an almost blank look as he continued.
"I hope so." The silence stretched long after Venus said it.
I don't know what I expected next.
A joke?
A laugh?
Maybe even a sarcastic 'just kidding.'
But no.
Venus didn't laugh.
He didn't even move.
He just stared at —his face stone-cold, arms crossed with a faint glow sparking across his fingers.
The kind of glow I'd seen right before people died in duels.
"Venus?" I whispered, scared.
Still nothing.
His eyes locked onto my glabella, where the blood had entered.
Then his gaze drifted onto my head where I almost felt like a stub seed to be growing outward, glowing like ink under the candlelight.
A flicker of fear rushed up my spine.
And for the first ti, it was not the fear of the blood…it was the fear of the man standing in front of .
"Say sothing," I begged, my voice shaking.
But he didn't, instead, the man took one slow step back.
Another.
His right hand moved slightly behind his robe, where I knew he kept a hidden weapon, the kind only high-level mages carried for assassination-level strikes.
That's when it hit .
He was considering it.
He was actually considering killing .
What the fuck?!
"No—Venus, stop!" I cried out, scrambling off the slab, my knees barely holding.
He didn't attack.
But he didn't lower his guard either.
"I saw it happen with my own eyes," he said quietly, his voice a low growl. "That blood didn't just integrate with you like it does for other people…Pixie, this was sothing totally different.
Sothing I had never seen, not to forget the little stub growing on your head like those demons horns—"
I tried whatever I could to make Venus think otherwise as I used that cute voice I'd always taken advantage off whenever I was in a knot.
"Grandpa—please! Listen to yourself!! People often gain features of hollows after integrating with them! Why are you doing this with ??"
I saw Venus's eyes soften as he gave what I said a thought but ultimately shook his head. "You know how much I dot on you, brat.
If anything, I wouldn't even dare hurting you with how crazy Noah is..."
Venus shook his head, smiling wryly. "But there is one thing more important than Noah and my feelings for any of you."
His face turned stone cold as he continued telling things about how his duty as a fallen king and being the head of one of the pillars of humanity forces him to take decisions he might be hated for no matter the cost and all that bullshit, making my face almost turn pale.
I pressed a hand to my chest. "I'm still ! I can think! I can feel—Venus, I'm crying right now, damn it!"
I was.
I hadn't noticed until I felt the warmth streaking down my cheeks.
His expression shifted, just barely.
But he still didn't let go of the weapon.
"There's sothing you need to understand," he said, slower now. "The Hollows weren't just monsters. They were strategists. Manipulators.
Their king was the worst of them all. He led the assault from the shadows. We never saw his real body—only the havoc he created through hosts.
He never showed up, yet he was everywhere."
"So what?" I said, choking on my breath. "You think I'm so kind of host now?"
Venus didn't answer.
"You're thinking of killing . Right now," I whispered.
"Just in case." He didn't deny it.
And that hurt more than anything else.
"You adored ," I said, stepping toward him, "when I had first co to this house with Noah...it was you who had assured that I'm safe.
That I could always return to this family no matter what happens—" I shrieked, unable to believe my eyes.
"I'm not making this decision because I don't care," he said, pain visible on his face. "I'm making it because I have no other option."
A pause.
"You don't know what I've seen, Pixie. The mont those Hollows had struck our world, half of humanity had died already.
And the remaining half?
We lived in fear if we would be able to see the light of the next day."
"I'm not a ticking ti bomb!" I scread.
"Then prove it."
That hit like a punch. "Prove it? How the hell do I prove that I'm not secretly an alien sleeper agent?"
Venus didn't flinch. "Tell what you felt when it entered you."
I opened my mouth. Then closed it.
Because the truth?
I did feel sothing.
Sothing cold.
Ancient.
Not evil, but...empty.
"I felt like I was falling through space," I admitted. "Like I wasn't alone in my own head."
He nodded slowly.
"I also felt like it was ant to be there."
His brow furrowed.
"It wasn't trying to control ," I went on. "It was completing sothing. Like...like I've always been running on 90% and this was the last missing piece."
Venus's hand twitched away from the weapon at last.
"That doesn't an it's safe," he muttered.
"But people do this kind of thing all the ti!" I blurted. "Hollows are dead, right? We use their remains in artifacts.
Power amplifiers.
I saw you gifting one to Dario just a while back!!"
Venus's eyes narrowed.
"That's different. Those are filtered, stabilized fragnts."
"Well maybe this is the sa!" I cried. "Just... unfiltered. Raw. But it's still just power. Just an integration."
I took another step closer, daring to look him straight in the eyes.
"You can't punish for getting lucky."
His shoulders finally dropped, a long breath escaping him like he'd just finished holding it through a battlefield.
"I should've destroyed that vial when I found it," he said bitterly.
"But you didn't."
He chuckled dryly. "No. I didn't."
The tension in the room slowly receded by a little, but sothing heavier replaced it, I realised.
It was responsibility.
Venus rubbed his temples, thinking hard. "If this is truly a Hollow King's blood...the implications are massive. You're not just a treasure now, Pixie.
You're a potential weapon."
"Or a target," I said quietly.
He looked at , his expression unreadable. "Both."
"…"
I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly feeling cold.
"So what happens now?"
Venus turned and walked towards a sealed cabinet, pulling out a strange silver crystal that glowed blue.
"I'll monitor you," he said. "Run tests. Teach you control. But Pixie..." He turned to again, his tone grim.
"If you ever feel sothing... off. Sothing pushing at your thoughts or trying to change you...you call through this crystal imdiately.
No matter how small."
I nodded, asking him softly.
"And if it's too late?"
The Old King of Blackblade hesitated.
"Then I'll do what needs to be done."
I didn't reply.
Because deep down, I knew he ant it.
***
P/S: 2 Golden Tickets to go for a Bonus Chapter! And no, the gt I have given due to the Magic Castles do not count.
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