Chapter 276 | If Something Had Happened To You…

Chapter 276: 276 | If Something Had Happened To You...

Lyra looked up to find Dexter, and relief appeared immediately before vanishing just as quickly.

Her eyes widened at the blood on him. His clothes were damaged, one sleeve ripped apart, and his forearm was covered in punctures and torn flesh.

His shoulder was worse as a bloody hole had been punched completely through it.

Lyra’s face drained of color, and her mental voice slammed into Dexter’s mind. ’Dexter?!’

He squinted and winced. "Not so loud."

Lyra rushed toward him, her hands hovering over his shoulder as she tried to find somewhere safe to touch. ’What happened?!’

Dexter glanced at Grandma Lucy, who stood several meters away quietly observing them, then looked back at Lyra. "We were ambushed."

Lyra froze. ’Ambushed?’

"Yeah."

Her brows furrowed, and Dexter saw the suspicion immediately. Lyra remembered those men. She remembered the hand approaching her neck. After that... nothing. It seemed they knocked her unconscious.

Dexter looked into her confused violet eyes. Lyra was optimistic, kind, sometimes ridiculously obsessed with food, and also playful when she felt safe and comfortable with you.

There was an innocence in her that had somehow survived everything she’d experienced. What would happen if he told her the truth?

Even the strongest person would struggle with that knowledge. And for Lyra? She might begin to spiral.

Fear would become sadness, sadness would feed the shadow corruption.

No, Dexter sure wasn’t going to tell her that another consciousness existed inside her, because that would simply make her depressed and sad and whenever Lyra’s negative emotions increased, so did her Shadow Corruption!

Once the corruption reached 100%, it could eventually transform her into a gateway connecting their world to the Shadow Realm, killing her in the process.

Lyra touched his injured forearm, her expression distressed. ’Did those two men do this?’

Dexter slowly nodded his head.

Lyra’s eyes turned a bit watery. ’It’s because of me. You’re like this because of me.’

Dexter immediately shook his head. "You’re thinking too much about it. They simply attacked you at random because you look like someone they knew."

Lyra looked into Dexter eyes searching if he was lying but Dexter wasn’t because he was telling half the truth. She looked like someone they knew, Aurelyx.

She sighed in relief but was still worried. ’You shouldn’t have fought them yourself, from my estimation, their strength is at the Peak of Ultra realm.’

’Since you’re a Hero working for the Hero Association, once you press the distress signal, a nearby Hero would come to your aid.’

’If something had happened to you...’ She paused and didn’t want to complete those words.

Dexter smiled, raising his hand to gently stroke her cheek. "Nothing happened Lyra. Moreover, my skin is very thick."

Lyra’s cheeks puffed, and Dexter almost laughed.

Lyra knelt beside Dexter and carefully examined his forearm first. The Violet Violent Thorn Vine had left ugly injuries, with thorns that had pierced deep and some that had exploded inside his flesh. His regeneration was already repairing the damage, but the wounds still looked terrible. Lyra’s hands trembled, and Dexter noticed.

"Hey." She looked up. "I’m okay."

Her expression said she didn’t believe him, so Dexter smiled. "Seriously."

She opened a small emergency medical pouch from the supplies Dexter carried in his spatial storage, and Dexter raised an eyebrow. "When did you learn first aid?"

Lyra stared at him. ’I was once an high ranking Hero.’

"Right."

He sometimes forgot. Before their injuries, his wives hadn’t been helpless noblewomen. They had entered dungeons, fought monsters, seen blood. Mira had been known as the Crimson Valkyrie. Selene had been a powerful A-rank Hero. And Lyra... Dexter glanced at her. The Shadow Saintess, Aurelyx.

His smile faded slightly, and Lyra noticed. ’Does it hurt?’

Dexter immediately smiled again. "No."

She stared.

Dexter corrected himself. "A little."

Satisfied with his honesty, Lyra returned to the wound and cleaned his forearm carefully. Dexter didn’t flinch, but when she wrapped the bandage around his arm and tightened it...

"Ow."

Lyra immediately loosened it, and Dexter grinned. "Got you."

She froze, then realized he’d tricked her. Her eyes narrowed. ’You...’

"Made you stop worrying."

She immediately smacked his uninjured arm.

"You’re becoming as Violent as Mira."

She immediately smacked his arm again.

"Okay, okay."

Grandma Lucy watched them, then her gaze moved toward Dexter with a raised eyebrow as though asking. You’re really not telling her?

Dexter met her gaze, then winked. Lucy’s eyes narrowed then she sighed and didn’t say anything.

Dexter didn’t know exactly how much Lucy understood about Aurelyx or Shadow Corruption, but judging from her reaction earlier, she understood enough.

While she was wrapping his forearm, Dexter stared at her beautiful face, he couldn’t imagine losing her today. It would be devastating.

Lyra glanced at him and he quickly closed his eyes.

As he closed his eyes, he remebered the destructive energy within his body. If it were anybody else, it would have been impossible to handle but this was Dexter.

But not to mention the pure energy of the Limitless Grand Cosmos Scripture, he has several ways of purging the energy. Dexter chose to use the fastest way, the Abyssal Heavenly Flame.

Flames instantly surged from within him as it flowed through every path of his body, instantly burning the energy evaporating it instantly.

When he reached the wound on his shoulder, his jaw tightened as the destructive energy left by the white-haired elder reacted violently, like burning needles buried inside his flesh. Dexter inhaled, and the Heavenly Flame burned even hotter.

’Sssssss!’

Tiny strands of foreign energy began escaping, but Dexter’s face remained indifferent to the pain.

One minute, two and then three minutes.

Then the last trace vanished, and Dexter’s regeneration immediately exploded into action. Lyra raised an eyebrow as the bleeding stopped and his muscle fibers stretched across the hole, bone began repairing, and skin gradually formed.

Within minutes, what had been a horrifying wound started to heal rapidly.

Lyra cleaned the wound and bandaged it just in case and Dexter let her do it for her peace of mind.

[A/N: Should he have told his Lyra about Aurelyx? Is it the wrong move or the right one?]