Dawn- An age of Darkness

I got into the baths and Ve and Alisa both followed me. 

"The girl\'s bath is on to the left you know."

"I\'m aware," Ve said, sliding down into the spring. She didn\'t bother washing herself first.

Yeah sure didn\'t seem like she was aware. 

I also went in, albeit in the opposite corner. Ve was wearing a towel so it was fine. 

It wasn\'t. 

Which left- "Alisa why are you here?"

She gave me a dull stare. And then- "You were trying to get rid of me and just doing this with the dragon over there? Might I ask why the sudden change of heart?" she smiled. "Oh and please don\'t say you\'re worried about me, because I\'ll get very mad." I actually had a hard time understanding what she was referring to. The bath or me wanting to separate? I had a feeling she was talking about both. 

And it wasn\'t like I chose Ve, it was more like she chose me and I was stuck with her. 

Alisa actually didn\'t take off her clothes and was just standing here. She wasn\'t going to shower, she just wanted to talk I guess. Which was good, cause I didn\'t want her to come here either.

Ve was quiet and just enjoying her stay. Which was good cause I at least had one less thing to worry about.

Me? I was kind of freaking out. What the hell was I supposed to say?

There were two girls in the men\'s bath and I had just a towel protecting my sanity.

I took a deep breath. "I don\'t want any of you to get hurt. I can\'t bear any more deaths. I know it\'s your freedom and I\'m aware you guys are doing things according to your own free will but- I don\'t want you to die." I gave her an honest answer, the best one I could. "And do you- do you have any reason to die for me?"

The sound of water was the only thing present. Both of them were rather quiet. They didn\'t say a thing.

Finally, Alisa let out a groan. She looked at me, a bit teary-eyed. The tears threatened to come out but they didn\'t. She was also glaring. She took a step forward, and then another and before I knew it, she was in front of me, clothes all wet, cheeks wet, and eyes full of fury. 

She grabbed my face with both hands: at one point I felt like she\'d hit me but she didn\'t. "A reason for me to die for you?" she came close, still glaring, and kissed me. She kissed me hard. "I love you, is that enough? Take a hint already, you moron!"

Excuse me?

What?

Why?

I was confused on so many levels. "What the hell is wrong with your brain? I thought you were supposed to be the demigod of wisdom or something? Then why the hell are you choosing me?" 

I was basically a disaster. I didn\'t have any charisma. Most of my time was spent on pretending and the rest on training. So, why the hell was this happening?

I could only think of one explanation. And that was perhaps she was joking- but that face didn\'t look like that of a joker. \'She\'s serious…\'

She cleared her throat. "I\'m aware that my intelligence is advising me against this, however, my heart won\'t listen, and therefore-" She again kissed and almost scratched my back. 

She literally forced her tongue in.

"That\'s enough!" I tried to backstep.

Her lips were so close, very close. Obviously, I backtracked and slipped. My hands acted as support and my head barely stayed above the water: this wasn\'t that deep. Alisa was on top of me and she looked rather serious. "So, what do you say? Good enough reason for you?"

Her body was wet and her clothes were kind of transparent now. I could see underwear and a lot more than just that. I could feel the heat radiating from her body too. 

She was pressing a bit too hard on top of me. And it was getting way too hard to maintain balance- and my sanity behind the curtains- the towel to be more exact: yes, something was rising up.

"Ahem! Let\'s not indulge in impure relationships whilst in the bath," Ve said. Her tone was kind of formal.

Alisa gave her a stare. "Oh? And taking advantage of him and hugging him, and taking your sweet time wasn\'t impure? And I thought dragon born were supposed to be honorable."

Huh?

And Ve wasn\'t actually denying anything either. 

"Say, something?" I looked at her and she stood up tall.

Ve sighed, let go of her towel, and headed for me, completely bare. "Yes, I too have developed feelings for you, Daarc Green. However I respect your wish and would stay away from you as you have chosen the high elf," with a hand on her chest, she declared. "But you shall find me by your side until the day you die or emerge victorious against the heavens."

Seriously, what the hell was going on?

And those round- ah….

People, I was going to die soon. So, why the hell were they saying this stuff?

Oh wait, they were saying stuff knowing I\'d die soon, after all, they wouldn\'t have another chance to say anything. That did make some sense but-

I was yet again reminded that neither girl had any shame. 

"TH-the hell are you people doing!? This is a sacred place!" A sudden scream resounded. 

I didn\'t want to turn my head but as I looked at the entrance, I saw Viola staring at us, blushing red, Biteria on her shoulder glaring. 

Shit. 

***

Breakfast was quiet. No one said a word. 

I was kind of embarrassed to look at anyone, especially Viola. I still stole glances at everyone though.

Ve and Alisa were normal: too normal. Biteira had gone back to being a girl and was currently glaring at me while chomping on meat. I guess the bunny form was only temporary and it was to console me or something. 

Viola just looked flustered while that left the half-elf who just looked at us, a bit confused. 

I too was confused so I didn\'t blame her. I was still pretty embarrassed though.

We were the only ones dining. The royal family was basically non-existent. And I\'d already put the son and wife of the duke on house arrest. So far, they didn\'t have any charges against them, so there wasn\'t any point in sending them to the dungeons or executing them. I did have plans to let go of them but for the time being, I was waiting for everything to cool down first. 

The silent breakfast just kept on going. It was somewhere around 11, so this was more of a lunch than a breakfast though.

Finally, near the end, Alisa cleared her throat. "Alright, I seem to have found something."

This was a small room and only some maids and soldiers were here apart from us. 

Our breakfast was pretty much done. So, I guess a discussion wasn\'t going to hurt. 

"That being?" Ve asked. 

"Why don\'t we make him a half-dead?"

Half-dead? Like Lianne I suppose? Yeah, I didn\'t want to live that long and turn into a goblin-like thingy. And I didn\'t want to die either. I guess I was being too picky. 

"You already know his blood contains divine blood. So how would you accomplish that?" the half-elf said.

This was going over my head so I just remained quiet.

"That I haven\'t figured out yet. But- this curse works very similarly to being an undead. If we could only figure out who cast it." Alisa thought for a second and then turned to me. "Do you know who cast this on you??"

"The emperor? He\'s the one who summoned Me." wasn\'t it obvious before? Hadn\'t I already mentioned it? 

I didn\'t know why but I felt like we were on very different wavelengths.

"Hmm… Only a divine being could have achieved this level of a curse. I thought you\'d know at least that much." Alisa sighed. Hey, how the hell was I supposed to know that? "Though, according to your friend Mig, you were never intended to be summoned. Meaning, it could have been very well possible that you weren\'t actually summoned by the emperor. Rather someone else summoned you and that someone gave you the curse. The emperor just wanted to play with you and so, all that happened. Or it could have been that he was also collaborating with someone else- a god perhaps."

"Wait, wait, you\'re not making sense. All this time I took for granted that the emperor summoned me. And he himself said that he was the one who summoned me. But then-" A small realization hit me.

Last time, there was Ashirnae present. And the guy was present in the forest as well when that demon first tried to kill me.

"Then how come you weren\'t summoned in Demonica? Didn\'t you think it to be odd that there wasn\'t anyone there to greet you when you were first summoned?"

"No, cause I was too busy not dying." At the time my only goal was to get out alive. "Anyway, as you remember, last time there was Ashirnae there. So, it could be him."

"I don\'t think so. Ashirnae doesn\'t possess any curses like this. All his curses either make you a full undead or kill you on the spot," Alisa said. "He doesn\'t have anything regarding regeneration."

Yeah, I had a hard time believing that. Someone who could make people turn undead, could very well give them regenerative powers and then kill them for fun. Yeah, so, I really wasn\'t convinced. 

Besides, though Alisa knew a lot, it wasn\'t like she was all-knowing or something. It was always possible that she was just wrong. 

Ve sighed. "Bickering won\'t get us anywhere. If there\'s no cure then how can we slow it down?"

All eyes turned to Alisa. "Keep him from straining his body too much."

"That\'s kind of impossible," I admitted. "After all, if I don\'t train, I\'ll die."

If I didn\'t train hard, I\'d die. If I did train hard and even won, I\'d still die. The situation didn\'t really seem all that nice. And yet, somehow I felt better than before.

"That\'s a fair point, but there are other ways to train instead of exerting yourself," The half-elf said. 

"Like what?"

"You can practice just making your mana flow freely. That way, you\'ll strain yourself less."

Sigh.

So far this wasn\'t the least productive.

But maybe practicing magic was the best answer after all.  I saw most potential to become stronger in that field. But the moment I\'d lose my mana or run out of it, it\'d become useless. 

"I didn\'t want to do this but-" Alisa stood up and placed her book on the table, opening a certain page. "According to this- there\'s a sure way to increase the longevity of one\'s life." She blushed slightly. "I trust you two know what I mean?" She looked at Ve and then the half-elf. 

Both were quiet but they nodded. 

"Being?" I asked.

"We- you and-" Alisa paused. "We\'ll have to mate. Or to be exact, you\'ll either have to mate with goddesses or find demigods. You possess divine blood and mating with us would slowly but surely increase that amount. The more divine blood you\'d possess the harder it would become for the curse to fully activate and claim your life: in short, your life span will increase. Lucky for you, you\'ve got three choices." 

My eyes kind of twitched after a long time. "Yeah, I think I\'ll pass." Even my cheeks twitched. 

The feeling was very nostalgic and I wanted nothing to do with that.

"HUH!" Viola stood up glaring. "You three are in love with HIM!" 

She was actually pretty quiet all this time.

The half-elf sighed. "No, but these two are. I\'m afraid I have no interest in him."

Though I was glad I had one less problem to deal with, it did kind of stung. And wait, she knew those two were in love with me?

How thickheaded was I?

"However-" The elf continued. "I\'d be happy to answer his call if he were to invite me to his bed. After all, who can resist a man of such caliber?" She was joking obviously, giggling slightly. 

Unfortunately, I wasn\'t a fan of such jokes. 

I was going to die, you frigging immortal morons!

Sigh. 

Anyway, I stood up. "Let\'s find another way. And even if you increase my lifespan and the curse activates, it\'ll be pointless, won\'t it?"

Alisa kind of looked away. So, basically, she didn\'t have a way to find a cure or slow down this. But she was just trying to ease my passing or something?

The hell was she trying to achieve here?

I sighed. "I\'ll be in my room for now."

I was mad, but getting mad at them seemed wrong, so I didn\'t let it bother me.. Solitude was better for me anyway.