Chapter 18: Love

A fragrance woke Naga up from his tormentous nightmare. The past two nights was hell for him. He couldn't stop seeing his servants become dust and even he became dust in his nightmares.

Naga was unable to bring himself to ponder on the bad dreams with that girl around him. He couldn't wrap his head around the concept of the perfume the lady was using, and he was unable to hate her. He felt very strange. He noticed that his heart was beating twice as fast. Naga didn't know what to do.

He never thought of the female gender as anything but insects, soft insects. He would torture them in very grotesque and painful ways before ending their puny little lives. But this time was very different.

He hadn't been able to bring himself to look the lady in the eyes. Not that he cared or felt bad for killing the ones he did, he didn't. His body was disobeying his every instructions and he didn't like it. He tried to pretend he was still asleep.

The blond girl was looking at the red-faced Naga, who was really failing in his attempt to feign sleep. She giggled softly, causing Naga's frame to shiver, the redness of his face changed from a blush to a bright tomato complexion.

"I know you're awake, silly, you look like a tomato." She giggled again.

Naga's response would have been to lash out and deliver a face-tearing slap, along with some swearing and probably capping it up with the girl's captivity. But he couldn't help himself. The blush got even deeper as he broke his facade. No one had ever called him 'silly' before.... But he somehow like it.

He weakly made an attempt to sit up, half of the weakness was from his body's lack of exercise, the other was from his inability to comprehend what was happening to his body. He still refused to look at the face before him.

The lady made to help him up, but as she touched his back, Naga felt electricity arc through his entire body, and he jolted up like a pole. His legs hadn't seen much use for a while so he couldn't stand. He clumsily fell to the ground.

The girl was shocked, then she burst into a laughter that was very much pleasing to the ears.

"Wow, aren't you a shy one?" She laughed again.

Naga's ears became beet red. He couldn't stop wondering why his body was failing him like this. 'Did she poison me?' he thought with suspicion. 'Maybe she's one of those sick witches that like to see their food struggle before they kill them.'

He had forgotten that his own history. He struggled to stand, and allowed his helper to raise him up. The electricity moved again as she helped him up, but he expected it this time, though he still shuddered slightly.

He was able to remain on his feet this time. His eyes happened to lock onto her own and he hurriedly looked away. If he could get any redder, he would have. The silence slowly made everything become awkward. Naga just stood there like an imbecile, unsure what to do or say.

"Um...so...my name is Helen. In case you're wondering?" She too hadn't seen such a cutely pure teenagers that hadn't gotten opposite gender experiences. She like his shyness. If only Naga was what she thought he was.

Naga was fidgeting as though he would make an escape, but he didn't.

"Um...uh... O..okay. " He stammered.

He hated himself a lot at this point. Naga the uncrowned god, stammering at the face of some farm girl? Death is the only judgement befitting of such crimes against godhood.

"Do you have a name?" Helen asked alluringly. She seemed like she was enjoying herself.

Naga's brain felt like it was have seizures. 'what is all this?' he managed to think. The redness of his face was slowly fading. He gave himself a mental speech, girded his loins like the man he was.

"I-I'm Naga." He finally stuttered with much difficulty.

Helen giggled again. She grabbed his arm playfully, causing the retreating redness to return in full swing.

"Don't be shy." She said with that sunshine smile.

Naga sighed. He didn't notice, but his aura of evil and hatred was slowly dissipating. For the first time in his life, he was a boy.

*********************

The Darkness at the foot of the mountain was imposing, but who had time to stare at the scenery? Diane's head was covered with beads of sweat. She was low-leveled and she couldn't keep up with fight between mammoths. Wiggles had completely surrendered and was shivering in the safety of Diane's pirate hat.

Swift was still able to dodge every strike and dispel the clones into plumes of black smoke. Diane covered herself with in a ball of glowing water which somehow made the clones avert from the her.

Lionface was muttering incantations in a very baritone voice, wielding the shadows like whips which tore at Swift like angry snakes, of which none succeeded in dealing a blow. It didn't take too long for Swift to neutralise all the shadow clones.

Swift appeared behind lionface suddenly. Her huge leg had swung a perfect blue arc towards lionface's head. She didn't expect that lionface would actually block in time. The force of the kick, however, threw lionface off balance.

Swift saw the opportunity to strike again and she took it. Another blue arc cut down towards lionface from above, containing x20 energy, and he was unable to defend himself. His head was knocked down with so much force that it crushed into the ground, exploding upon contact.

During the previous collisions, Swift never really saw what happened to lionface after every fatal kicks she delivered, but this time she saw his head burst into pieces. She sighed, she had been worried slightly that lionface was invincible.

Lionface's dead body began to form a pillar of smoke and a red light shone dully from the top of the mountain, almost unnoticeable, but swift spotted it. She figured that whatever was at the mountain was responsible for lionface's invincibility.

This time, a man in a dark robe, carrying a longsword which looked like it was made from the same materials as lionface's axe. There was a lion on the hilt of the longsword. The man looked regal, like some kind of noble.

The eyes of the trio narrowed. The air that their newly transformed foe emitted was a hundred times stronger than the previous state. The eyes of the enemy was spiteful, full of contempt.

His red pupils glanced over Diane and her shivering hat, his eyes didn't hide their despise. When his eyes landed on Swift, he glowered. He had felt every pain she inflicted, and he was itching to get back at her for his sufferings.

He spoke a string of strange words, and a red moon suddenly appeared over them. An evil smile split his white face as he muttered a "Xiō!". A gravitational force appeared from nowhere and pressed upon Swift and Diane. Diane couldn't bear it and cried out as she crumpled to the ground with a few cracking sounds.

Lionface was behind Diane in a flash of a dark light, matching Swift's speed. Swift's eyes shook as she applied energy and flashed to defend Diane from her crisis. Swift was able to deviate the trajectory of the sword with a well timed kick. But the floor beside Diane was cut like tofu, leaving a 6 feet deep gash in the ground.

The two powerful entities glowered at each other. Swift was slowly running out of energy, and with the new gravity added by the enemy, she had to apply even more energy to keep up with the opponent's newly acquired speed. Lionface was wary because this was his final transformation, and if he lost this time, he'd die.

Diane could only watch from the ground, as the fight was now completely beyond her. She grimaced. 'I won't be a burden!' she thought as she watched.

A puff of black smoke appeared, lionface had made a clone. There was a slight pause before the duo charged at Swift. Swift prepared for the worst before rushing forward to engage the enemy. But something happened.

The clone disappeared into a plume of smoke and the original swung at Swift, and she too engaged him in combat. She was unaware that the clone had reappeared not far behind and was dashing towards Diane menacingly.