"Alright, stop it. Enough playing around," Razeal said finally, his voice cutting through the tension like a blade. He didn't raise his tone; he didn't explode. He just spoke calm, firm, commanding. And somehow that was enough to make the air itself freeze.

Maria's water blades mere inches from slicing through Neptunia's throat halted mid-movement. Still sharp and deadly. Still humming with killing intent. But frozen exactly where they were, trembling faintly as if resisting the order.

Neptunia, feeling the sudden cease of danger but still surrounded by shimmering death, exhaled slowly. She lifted both her hands slightly to her sides in a show of surrender almost amused surrender. Not defiant, not panicked, just… accepting. As if saying Fine, if I die, I die but at least I said the truth.

Maria, however, didn't look amused.

Her eyes narrowed, sharp enough to cut stone. Her head turned slowly.. too slowly to face Razeal. Her expression was blank coldness, but her voice…

"Are you ordering me?" she asked, every syllable dipped in frost.

One of her eyes.. her crimson eye flickered violently, glowing brighter and brighter until it looked like a burning ember about to ignite. A dangerous, demonic red pulsed out of it, staining half her face in a faint glow. Her aura grew heavier, thicker, darker. The room seemed to bend around her presence.

Razeal felt the shift. The sudden, unpredictable sharpness.

He hadn't expected this from Maria. But the moment he saw that flickering red unstable, wrathful eye his confusion vanished.

Demonic nature…? Sin of Pride? The thought ran through his mind. Her evolution. The devil power. It was bleeding into her personality now subtle but undeniable.

Still, even with that realization, Razeal didn't back down.

He smirked.

"Maybe I am," he answered lightly, stepping forward without fear. "What about it?"

His crimson eyes flared in response bright, intense, arrogant, cold. He didn't hide it. He met her fury with his own, meeting her demonic aura with his own arrogant one.. Vamparic and power of Razeal itself.The atmosphere grew heavier as both auras collided invisibly.

Maria fully turned toward him, abandoning Neptunia entirely. She stepped forward too, matching him. Her height slightly taller now from the devil evolution didn't intimidate him. He still stood taller. And he made sure she noticed.

"Why should I follow your orders?" she asked coldly, standing straight before him.

Her face was inches away from his. Her breath cold. Her eyes one blue, one glowing crimson locked onto his with unwavering intensity.

Razeal lowered his gaze slightly to meet hers, looking directly into both those eyes. Neither moved. Neither blinked. It was like the entire room had been swallowed by a tense, suffocating silence.

They just stared.

Two beings with clashing pride, refusing to bow to the other.

Even the air seemed scared to move.

Neptunia, however

"Heyyyy guys…" she said slowly, raising a cautious hand as if trying to defuse a bomb. "I don't mean to interrupt you both, but can y'all maybe… take these sharp things away from me? I'm kinda worried that in both of your conflicts I might get sacrificed. And I have no interest in dying today. I was just trying to help, okay? Can we…?"

Her voice tapered off awkwardly, but it finally broke the frozen spell binding the room.

Maria blinked once. A small exhale escaped her nose. Almost like she was snapped out of something.

She turned her head just slightly, looking at the floating water blades circling Neptunia's throat again seeing them as if for the first time. Realizing what she was doing. What she almost did.

"What… whatever," she murmured, her voice quieter now, almost dull. She shook her head lightly as if annoyed at herself, annoyed at losing control. Annoyed at… everything. The crimson light in her eye dimmed. Slowly. Not fully but enough.

The blades dissolved melting into harmless droplets and falling back into the ambient water in the room like they were never weapons at all.

Neptunia sighed loudly in relief and slumped slightly in her chair.

Razeal smirked.

"And here I thought you wanted to fight me now," he teased, watching her reaction.

Maria didn't take the bait. She turned her gaze back to him, but this time her expression was less icy and more calculating. More serious. Possibly troubled.

"Why do you want to know about who loves you," she asked, "or how to make someone fall in love with you?"

Her tone wasn't mocking or angry. She just asked flatly.. As if its the important and totally ignoring everything which was going on before..

Razeal shrugged.

"Well, nothing much. I just got to know someone who loves me the most is gonna kill me. So I thought I should know. After all, this is very important to me."

He said it casually.

"You gotta be kidding me," Neptunia suddenly muttered, pressing her palm to her forehead as if dealing with a hopeless child. "Is this… is this for real? How dense does one person have to be?"

She rubbed her face aggressively, shaking her head in disbelief.

"He had such a good opportunity in front of him," she whispered to herself, absolutely exasperated. "And this is the nonsense he chooses to ask about now? Deep waters help us, he actually wants.. Sigh.. She literally being so obious. He's dead. He's so dead. Did no one teach him how to talk? How to interact? Did he just crawl into life without social understanding?"

She sighed long and deep, shoulders slumping as if giving up on life itself.

But she didn't interrupt. She just sat there, staring at Razeal and Maria, waiting for the disaster to unfold.

Maria, who had been staring at Razeal while he spoke so casually about finding someone who loves him just to avoid dying, felt something inside her drop like her stomach tightening, sinking with disappointment so sharp it almost annoyed her. Her expression didn't explode or twist dramatically instead, it shifted subtly, a small shake of her head, a soft exhale from her nose, the kind of reaction someone gives when they expected something, anything, and got the exact opposite.

I actually thought maybe… maybe he wanted to find someone he cares about. Someone he wants to spend a life with. Maybe he still had some real emotions in himself.. Which maybe he just doesn't wanna show.

That was the thought echoing in her head quiet but undeniable. Guess he only has a dark heart inside. Not an ounce of warmth. Just… cold calculations.

She didn't want to know about whatever prophecy or destiny nonsense he was going on about. Whether it was true or ridiculous didn't even matter. Just the idea that he believed it and that he wanted love for such a purpose made her feel disgusted. Absolutely disgusted.

Her eyes narrowed sharply, cutting through the space between them as she asked, "So you're going to find someone who loves you? And then maybe kill her so she can never kill you? Is that what you're concerned about?"

Her voice was flat. Emotionless. Cold. Like she already knew the answer and hated it.

"No, no, no." Razeal shook his head immediately.

The quickness of it made Maria blink and raise an eyebrow. A tiny spark of surprise lit her expression.

Neptunia, who had already assumed doom for this conversation, perked up slightly. He's not that big of an idiot, she thought. Well… at least he has some brain cell functioning.

But the hope lasted exactly three seconds.

Razeal continued.

"That would be such an idiot thing to do," he said, shaking his head again, uncaring about how everyone was staring at him. "I mean, if I killed someone who loves me the most, then it'd be pointless. Because the person who loves me second-most would then become the first. Meaning I'd still die from them. So why bother?"

Neptunia's mouth fell open.

Maria's eyes went blank.

The room itself went quiet.

Razeal, completely oblivious, simply kept explaining.

"I want to find that person and make it so they just… won't be able to kill me. Maybe there are ways. If not, then I'll make them love me so much they can never think of killing me. I think the reason I even have this end is because no one's going to love me that much. So it'll be easy for them. But if someone does love me that much even more than whatever destiny wants.. then maybe I can make it possible. I just want to make it possible for my end to not come."

He nodded, completely serious. Completely unbothered. Completely unaware of the emotional carnage he was causing.

"I mean hey, it's the best solution I can think of for now. If I get another idea later, I'll think about it. But first, I need someone who loves me the most. Or make someone who will love me the most. I'll think about the details later."

He said all of that calmly. As if discussing what to eat for dinner.

Maria just stared at him.

"So the whole point of you trying to find someone who loves you," she asked slowly, "is to use them? For your benefit? Just so they can't kill you? Nothing else?"

Her voice was dead.

Emotionless..

Flat.

As if she was done giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Neptunia, on the other hand, placed both elbows on her knees and buried her face in her hands.

He's a gone case. Completely gone. Why… why did he make this worse? He's so toxic. Actually toxic. I would NEVER choose a guy like this. Ever. People always say looks don't matter look at the heart. And his heart? His heart must be pitch black. Tar. Ink. Just darkness.

She sighed deeply, nodding in her own thoughts.

Maria is wasted on this dude. He's not worth it. Even if he's handsome and strong and everything else… this guy is not partner material. At ALL.

Maria inhaled slowly through her nose, trying very hard to understand what she was hearing but failing.

"And what about the person who loves you?" she asked finally. "Let's say you find her. What then? Is her entire existence, her entire presence in your life, just for this one reason? To not kill you? Anything else you want to add? Like hey, someone loves you, what are you going to do about it?"

Her tone was still flat, still emotionless but now there was a strange heaviness behind it. A weight. A depth. Something she wasn't saying.

Razeal paused.

A small silence stretched out between them.

"…I haven't thought about it," he admitted finally. "I don't know. I really can't trust anyone, if you're talking about relationships or marrying them. I told you before, right? I can't trust people."

His voice didn't waver.

Didn't soften.

Didn't hint at anything else.

"But I'll definitely treat that person better," he added after a moment. "I mean, I can't be bad to them, right? If I'm going to make someone keep loving me, it'll need a lot of effort. I'll give them… everything they ask for. At least what they want."

He said it thoughtfully, like he was discussing strategy. As if love was a responsibility. A transaction. Something to maintain, like a flame you feed with fuel.

He spoke with zero understanding of emotions yet complete seriousness in his intention.

"Stop it… really, stop it." Maria's voice cut sharply through the air, slicing clean through Razeal's calm explanation like a blade. She didn't raise her voice, didn't shout, but the weight of her tone felt heavier than any scream could. Her brows pulled together, her jaw clenched in a way that showed genuine frustration not anger, not fear, but disappointment so deep it almost physically pained her to express it.

"Believe me… if you keep thinking like this, it might actually become true that someone who loves you will kill you," she said coldly. "Because you definitely don't deserve them. You just want to use that person. Leave this idea."

Her words were like stones dropped into still water heavy, final, sending ripples through the room.

Razeal blinked, thrown off by being cut off so abruptly. He turned his head down toward her, mildly confused, brows lowering slightly. But then Maria's earlier words replayed in his mind her strange irritation, her sudden tension, everything she had been saying since the start of this conversation.

"Well, I don't think I don't deserve someone," he said casually. "I mean. prove me wrong, but I'm a very, very desirable person. I'm good looking. Very strong too. Hardly anyone my age can defeat me. Not to say I'm the world's richest person right now. Believe it or not."

Of course he was the richest person alive, he thought. Who else carried an actual star in their pocket? Like literally..

He truly believed every word.

But the more Maria listened, the more her shoulders lowered not in exhaustion, but in disbelief. The disappointment in her face didn't fade; it deepened, sharpened, almost hollowing her eyes. She stared at him like she was looking at someone she no longer recognized.

"You don't deserve anyone to love you," she said, shaking her head. "And those things you're bragging about… they don't make you desirable. They make you attractive, maybe. But desirable?" She shook her head again, this time with a quieter kind of sadness. "To be desirable, one needs so much more than that. Strength, wealth, power… none of those things make anybody fall in love.. Beleive me you can get girls with that but not love.. If someone you think will love you because of that then.. I think richest people wouldve had stories more glorious about love not of there conquests and victories."

Razeal looked at her as if she were the one saying nonsense.

"You don't know about me," he said simply. "You're always looking at me with the wrong perspective. Since you think what happened before was true, you misunderstand everything. If you knew me, really knew me, you wouldn't even think.."

Maria cut him off again, sharper this time.

"You know yourself best, right?" she asked coldly. "Then how about tell me this: if you had a sister.. the one you really loved and cared for would you let her marry you? Or fall in love with you? Tell me. Would you?"

The question dropped.. Very genty and lightly..

Razeal's mouth closed halfway through his sentence, his expression solidifying as he processed her words. Neptunia, who had been watching their back and forth with excitement filled eyes as if watching a drama, went completely still, scanning their faces one by one, sensing how the atmosphere had shifted into a dangerous, emotional battlefield.

Razeal genuinely thought about it. For once, the chaotic, arrogant haze inside his head stilled.

Would he?

He went through every piece of himself his past, his darkness, his selfishness, his instability, his capacity for destruction. And after several long seconds, he looked back at Maria.

"…Yeah, I would," he said with a confident smile. "I know I would.. Totally."

Maria's eyes didn't soften. They didn't widen. They only grew colder.

"Well," she said, her voice flat and sharp, "I don't think I need to say you are lying. Since you know it yourself. Right?"

Razeal's smile slowly fell, wiped away like chalk from a slate. He didn't argue.

He didn't defend himself. He didn't even deflect.

Because he knew she was right.

If he had someone precious a sibling he truly loved he would never want them tied to him. He would never want them to bear the weight of his darkness, his instability, his nature.. He's cruel and very.. very brutal and selfish. He would never want anyone he cared about to come close to him.

Honestly he himself wouldn't like… him.

He inhaled lightly but said nothing.

Maria watched the shift in his face the tiny flicker of truth crossing his eyes and knew she didn't need to press further. She got her answer. And she didn't celebrate it. There was no smugness. No smirk. No satisfaction.

Just quiet, tired resignation.

She gestured toward herself with her thumb, then toward Neptunia behind her.

"We've never been in a relationship," she said plainly, "so I don't think we can give you any advice on how to help you find someone who loves you. Nor how to make someone fall in love with you. So you should find someone with experience. Maybe they can help."

She didn't linger.

Didn't look back at him for permission.

Didn't give any opening for more discussion.

She simply turned around, letting the conversation end right where it stood.

"Alright," she continued, tone leveling out, "let's prepare ourselves. We should leave for the First Sea now. I know you don't want to wait anyway." She said to Razeal..

While her gaze briefly flickered toward Neptunia who gave her a huge thumbs-up, grinning proudly with a wink, despite almost being killed by Maria just minutes before. As if that had been some small, forgettable incident. As if she wasn't the type to hold grudges.

This girl really doesn't fear death, Maria thought but said nothing.

Neptunia's expression said it instead:

"Good job, girl. Proud of you."

Maria exhaled, long and slow, then looked away.

And behind them, Razeal stood silently— expression unreadable, thoughts shifting wildly beneath the surface.

Razeal silently watched Maria's back as she bent down to pick up the fallen chairthe same chair she had thrown aside when she stood up in anger. Her movements were sharp at first, then slowed, as if she suddenly remembered she wasn't supposed to show agitation. Her long hair shifted over her shoulder as she straightened, but Razeal wasn't looking at the chair or her posture.

He was staring… almost blankly… almost thoughtfully… as if something heavy had settled in his mind.

He didn't know what he was feeling. Or maybe he did and simply didn't want to define it.

Maria, sensing his silence, didn't say anything just kept her back turned. The quiet between them stretched, almost awkward, almost fragile.

Then suddenly

"No," Razeal said, voice calm yet firm, slicing through the air. "We aren't going to the First Sea yet."

Maria froze mid-movement. Her fingers tightened in confusion around the chair's back.

Even Neptunia paused her playful smirking.

Razeal continued, his tone steady but carrying an unusual weight. "We are going to look for Levy. And Aurora. Before going anywhere else."

Facing them with an expression that wasn't arrogant or pride-filled just… something else even he doesn't know.

"It was my responsibility to bring them," he said. "And since they were lost because of me… getting them back will be mine too."

The room stayed silent for a heartbeat.

Another heartbeat. As if Maria had forgotten how to think for a moment.

She slowly straightened, turning to look at him with clear surprise flickering in her aqua and crimson eyes. It wasn't a small glint it was unmistakable shock. As if she was seeing a version of him she had never seen before.

Razeal didn't seem to notice her expression.

Or maybe he did and ignored it. His gaze drifted away, unfocused for a moment, as if he was replaying something in his mind that only he could see.

"But… what if he's dead?" Maria finally asked, the disbelief in her voice obvious. "Like you said before. And won't it waste time? Wasn't that the reason you didn't bother to go after them in the first place? Since aurora and yograj cant die.. They be alright only him."

Her brows tightened, confusion sitting heavy on her expression. Because this Razeal the one promising to go back for someone felt completely different from the one who refused earlier. It felt… off. Strange. Unexpectedly so.

"Don't worry about time," he said quietly. "I an not in that much of a hurry."

Maria's mouth parted slightly. Since when? she thought.

"And as for if he is dead…" Razeal slowly tilted his head to look her in eyes, and this time his crimson eyes flickered with something wild, something determined, something dangerously certain. "I'll get him back from the dead."

Maria nerrowed her eyes.. Looking lil confused and surprised . Neptunia's eyes widened, her playful smirk fading into genuine curiosity.

"He was my person," Razeal said simply, as if that explained everything. "I'll get him back. Alive."

Then he did something even stranger.. He tried to smile.

It wasn't a real smile. Not even close.

It was forced, crooked, unnatural… like someone trying to imitate an emotion they didn't quite understand. Like someone stretching muscles they never used before.

His lips curled up slightly, stiff and almost awkward, but his crimson eyes didn't soften they only glowed brighter, deeper, more unsettling.

Maria stared at him completely thrown off.

"Umm…" she breathed, unsure what reaction she was supposed to have. Her eyes flickered across his face the strange smile, the intense eyes, the flat tone. It didn't feel like a joke. He wasn't mocking or looking like if he was bluffing either?

It was like as if he truly meant it.

What happened to him now? she wondered, suspicion coiling deep in her chest.

Was he finally taking responsibility?

Trying to be better?

Trying to fix something?

Trying to redeem himself?

Her expression tightened not cold, not angry, but confused and cautious. She didn't trust this sudden change. But she also couldn't deny the strange shift happening right in front of her eyes.

Neptunia, on the other hand, looked between them with an amused since she didn't know him much she didn't understood much in here nor surprised like Maria was still raised brow

but even she couldn't hide the spark of confusion and curiosity.

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