Lord Shadow

The sky of the Seresian world is quite the same like Earth. Not, he thought to himself.

If he had to compare the two, this world felt like it is brand new.

And the air is clear. Too clear. Like this world had just been born. The feeling felt very foreign for him.

It was like a newborn baby instead of a decrepit old man. That is the feeling he felt the last time he was on Seresian world. A decrepit old man on the verge of death

But now, it is full of vitality and it felt like the world is reborn.

Floating there on the sky, below him is the vast wilderness with greeneries all around

Azief had not expected to see such a structure.

Azief eyes widened as he looks at that structure in the distance because it truly shocks him. He knows that such structure should not have appeared here.

For a moment, he truly thought that he is in another world. It is a tower that reaches the sky, the peak of the tower could be seen amidst the flowing clouds that passes through the many towers of that palace.

He knows right away that this palace is not of Seresian origin. He had been to a Seresian palace before. He had seen their castles and their residence.

It is unlike any of buildings in the Seresian world. 

Most of the Seresian building has that ominous aura around it. Some of it is even made of animal bones and the slaves and servants of the Seresian world.

Instead, the palace in the distance, it is more like the building he would see on Earth

But if that is the only thing, it would not have made him so surprised.

It is the fact that this palace, glowing even from afar, with its tower reaching to the sky is made of ice

  'Katarina?' that is his first thought. 

There is only one person he knows that could create such structure with ice and that is Katarina. And it is not like the Demons would know the architecture of humans.

They have no reason to construct such structure.

Even though they have human-like slaves, the demons in the Seresian world did not pay attention to the advancement of the technology under the human slave and constructed the structure in their world following their own aesthetic. 

Then Azief eyes narrows suddenly. 

He felt an energy force is coming toward him with great speed. He looks toward his side and there is another shock in his heart

'What the hell!' once again he shouted this in his mind. Someone is coming toward him with great speed in the far distance. 

But Azief did not employ any stance 

It was almost like he is defenseless.

Then he shakes his head.

'Who knows? Maybe this is fake' he once again uses his Divine Sense, trying to assess whether he is in an illusion array or whether he is inside some kind of a trap.

But he senses nothing is wrong. This is not an illusion. Even though some powerful illusion could try to trap him, if he truly concentrates, he would find some flaws. 

But the Laws around him while distorted a bit, was not unnatural. 

The distortion after all is because of him coming out from the portal that connects the two world and is not something that is unnatural.

What would have been unnatural is if there is no distortion at all.

So, he concluded quickly that he is not in an illusion. But if this is not an illusion, then how could he explain what he is seeing now?

He is thinking of a lot of things in that moment. Trying to make sense of how this is happening

But he had too little information to infer anything. 

So, he could only stand there on the air waiting for that person to come to him. And then a few second later, that person is in front of him.

There is silence between them as they look at each other eyes. Azief tilted his head. And then she smiles.

And he was just dumbfounded. And she, seeing him like that, she laughs. The silence between them is broken

And Azief before he knows it, also laugh. Was it because it is too absurd? Was it because it is nothing like what he had expected?

No.

It was because he once again heard her laugh. The person in front of him right now, floating like a goddess of beauty is Katarina. 

Five days. That is how many days he had spent his days worrying about her. But now that he looks at her, she did not change even a bit. 

He looks at her, trying to see if she is injured in any way, fearing that there would be scars on her skin and seeing that nothing is wrong, his heart felt a bit relieved.

Her cheeks are rosy, and her face, like always…. beautiful in a way that is hard to describe. Her energy is off the roof and her aura is calmer than the last time Azief saw her. 

And because of all of this emotion, seeing her smile, seeing her laugh, he also laughs

They laugh. And Azief is speechless. Before he came here, he had a lot of things to say to her. But now, that he met her, he become speechless.

Because the meeting is too sudden and unexpected. 

he did not know what to say. 

Happiness come suddenly. 

He thought he had to fight off against hordes of demonic monster. 

He thought he had to use all of his strength to fight the Demon King. He was even ready to sacrifice his life to make sure that Katarina could come back home.

Right now, the question of how this happen, why the sky in the Seresian world is blue, why there is a castle of ice that stretched toward the sky, why the Seresian world look so different from what he remembers, why she is fine, where is the Demon King, all of that question seems to not matter right now

Seeing her, in front of him, safe and out of harm, looking fine that makes it all good. Today….is a good day

Katarina flew closer to him and then she hugged him. Azief hesitated and then he hugged her too. 

Maybe, because words aren't enough, only this kind of gesture could express what is in their heart.

She smiles and whisper to his ears, still hugging him

'You're here' He paused for a while before saying

'I'm late' he said

'You're here' she answers back. 

Azief suddenly understood and there is only a faint smile on his face as he hugged her.

Because that is what matters to her. Not that he is late. Not that he is not there to save her. 

It is that he is here. Coming for her. And that is all that matters. They hugged for minutes in the sky. 

It was like they were substituting all those missed hugs. They did not say anything, just hugged each other in the sky, like some kind of a divine couple. 

Azief close his eyes as he hugged her close to him. He wanted to make sure that he is not dreaming. 

And if it is a dream, he doesn't want to wake up. This is too good of a dream. 

And she accepted and embrace him, feeling happy and warm. It is almost like they never wanted the hug to stop.

Then they slowly float down. Only when their feet reach the ground that they release each other. 

Azief is calmer now. 

Looking at Katarina blushing face, Azief restrain his urge to tease her. 

In this world, it is probably only him that could see her blushing. This is a side of herself she did not show anyone else.

It is not done so that he would like her. It is a natural thing that she did not intend to do but keep doing in front of him.

When people are in love, they are different than others but in a way they are also the same as others.

She blushed because it is him. And she laughed and felt happy because it is him. And it is because she is laughing that he laughed.

Katarina is not a woman that she had known for long. But the attraction between them is almost instant

The moment they met each other, the moment they look at each other eyes, it was like a firework had exploded somewhere in their hearts

It is fine if they have never met. 

But they did. 

And feelings are not so easily boxed in once it is let out. if Azief was the only one who was feeling like this, it might have been easy for him to slowly forget that feeling.

But when they share the same feeling, then how could it easy to deny such an attraction? 

It only took him three days to open up to her. And it only took her a glance for her to fall in love with him

They fell in love in the most mystical and most cliché way that even romance movies would not employ such method in any of their stories

It is the most old fashioned way people have been falling in love. 

Victor Hugo wrote in his book, Les Miserables that the power of a glance has been so much abused in love stories, that it has come to be disbelieved in. 

Few people dare now to say that two beings have fallen in love because they have looked at each other.

Yet it is in this way that the love between these two had begun. 

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