"Tsk... You finally woke up. Took you long enough." Helia sighed before kicking Lorem off Asura's body, his face pale while she squatted beside his body.

Lorem became confused—her best friend, who vanished thousands of years ago, suddenly appeared with barely any changes.

Helliana seemed different. However, her personality was mostly the same.

"Helia!?" Lorem shouted before realising her body remained stuck against the wooden floor, all the pleasure from his touch suddenly assaulting her brain, a pure sexual bliss that happened once before when he touched her in the classroom.

"Ahhhhh!" Lorem moaned loudly before almost passing out again.

"Tsk, that idiot bird. She could have handled a bit more... Oh well, Asura, I'll suck you dry again before putting some of her curses into the monoliths. Touching her is too much to handle, yet you held on tightly."

Helia shook her head before kissing Asura's pale lips, absorbing all the curse energy while Lorem listened...watched and gawped in shock.

Her mind couldn't comprehend the situation.

"Why!? You swore only to kiss..."

Helia smiled before sticking her middle finger up. "Sucks to be you; Asura is mine now. Get in line, red feather bitch!"

"..." Lorem lay on the floor, unable to move as her body trembled from the pleasure of losing a small amount of cursed energy from her body; she could feel what a big difference that small amount created.

'I can use up to a Stage Five power and won't suffer backlash or injuries... How amazing.'

Helia continued draining Asura before sucking the curse energy into the Devouring monolith. Which then worked overtime, the entire thing glowing bright purple as if it would explode.

She turned back to see Lorem's euphoric face and quivering limbs and smirked with a twisted smile, her eyes narrowed with delight.

"Haha, look at the slovenly princess of the Imperium, exposing her face when reaching climax in public." Helia laughed mockingly before returning to Asura, gently stroking his hair with a worried look.

"Y-You... shut up, Helia! Stop molesting my student!"

Lorem's trembling arms pushed her body off the ground; she sat weakly before glaring at Helia.

However, the devil woman ignored Lorem, stroking Asura's hair while checking his pulse, brushing her fingertips across his lips and looking at him with a deep, affectionate gaze.

'She likes him... Does she mistake Asura for Sura?' Lorem thought before Helia turned, her face showing a cruel smile that brought fear to Lorem.

"I'll tell you something interesting, Princess Red Feather. This boy... isn't just his reincarnation or a body double..."

Helia's body seemed to erupt with a massive power... Beyond what seemed possible, her golden eyes narrowed, glaring at Lorem with a fierce visage as if warning her.

"He was Sura, from the moment we abandoned him to the moment his soul could finally be reborn through nirvana after those disgusting experiments... This boy is no replacement or a mere stand-in. He is MY Asura."

"!" Lorem watched Helia lift Asura into her arms before standing in the argent moonlight; it was a beautiful sight that caused Lorem's heart to twitch.

She wanted to know more: where was Helia?

How did she appear now?

But the beautiful scene, a reverse of the past where Sura would carry Helia to the nurse when she became anemic.

Lorem forgot those questions, enjoying the view before Helia glanced towards her coldly.

"Remember this well, Princess Red Feather... Do not come close to Asura without the resolve to fight for him and never let go—I will allow no one to steal him from me again.

"Oi crow, you've been saying the damn name people used to make fun of me for a while now!" Lorem snorted before trying to climb her legs and arms like jelly. "Give him back, Helia—he is my student!"

'Damn, she's much more stubborn than in the past...'

Helia clicked her tongue before turning around. "He is mine; deal with it, Lorem. Your curse energy is now lowered, so we are even..."

"WAIT!"

When Lorem called her sharply, a smile came to Helia's red lips like she expected this to happen.

"What...?" Helia stopped before glancing back at Lorem.

"Is Sura alive!?" Lorem's question caused Helia to remain silent. "Is he still alive!? Tell me!"

Her demeanour became increasingly crazed as if she hadn't quite processed the facts Helia said, maybe because the dream showed the two intersecting. Lorem's rational mind was trying to deny it, her heart almost bursting from her chest as her flames exploded from her back.

"Helliana!"

"..." Helia smiled before stepping closer to her, holding Asura's body. Her eyes gently observed her dear friend.

"Yes, Sura is alive... but he doesn't remember anything from before. He died once, but thanks to using my heart back on our homeworld, he could be reborn with our race's nirvana."

"No, that's impossible. Sura was a black dragon! How did he get a phoenix heart... Your heart was too weak! You needed a heart transplant to survive! I remember the surgery!"

Lorem's words, like a raging tsunami, continued like flash flooding to deny everything Helliana had achieved and endured over thousands of years.

However, she did not get angry or attack Lorem for doubting her efforts. Helia understood Lorem's feelings and thoughts.

"..." Helliana smiled before pointing at Asura's sleeping body. "Pure dragons have two hearts, Lorem... Do you know what this kind fool said before the operation to my mother and father... haha."

"What?"

"May I have your daughter's weak heart transplanted into mine... I am used to two hearts beating at once, that's all." Helliana repeated Sura's words, smiling bitterly.

"My parents cried while nodding, knowing they were taking advantage of his dead father and that his heart was my only option for survival. So either way, it didn't matter. But he would become weak... After the operation, he slept for days before awakening."

Helliana recalled the events of that day. She learned the truth that accepting her faulty heart shortened his lifespan by thousands of years.

It was devastating because they announced the project to escape soon after. Sura's heart in her chest boosted her bloodline and vitality, and she passed the medical tests... But it was the opposite for him.

"He sacrificed his vitality for me... Hahaha." Helia chuckled with a rueful look before kissing Asura's forehead.

"So when those lying cultists began to cut him apart... to experiment on him... I gave it back."

Helia narrated the events to Lorem, starting when they announced the plan to abandon the world. To them, finding the doctors who offered to transfer their bloodlines and the last day when Helliana returned to Sura's heart and entered the monoliths.

Lorem didn't know many things that happened.

'Behind my back… all these years, she has been suffering to keep our Sura alive or his soul from being destroyed?'

Lorem felt ashamed she doubted Helia.

'To think she has been alone for thousands of years to save him... Helia, you idiot. Sura wouldn't want you to endure all that pain!'

Helia smiled before Lorem could say anything. "Don't pity me, Lor, or try to apologise... You did nothing wrong, and neither did he, and I kept it a secret from you, Sura and anyone. So don't blame yourself."

Helia's gentle expression made Lorem bite her lip before nodding.

'She always read minds better than me... Damn crow!'

"Now, Princess Red Feather, listen carefully. If you want Sura back, don't interfere with Asura or me... Because he is gone. The moment our world exploded, so did he."

"Despite maintaining Sura's memories and personality, Asura isn't here for us to use as a replacement. So stay clear, Lor."

Helia's gentle expression faded, replaced by a fierce glare as her wings unfurled, causing a powerful wind that blew Lorem onto her back.

"Helia, wait..." Lorem tried to shout, but Helliana's power was immense and continued to climb above what she could produce.

"Sura is gone. Please accept that."

Lorem's words froze as Helliana flew into the distance, carrying Asura towards the platform where Xavida slept.

'He is gone... Sura is gone.'

Lorem lay on the ground, her mind blank.

The man she had waited for all this time... who gave her reason to endure this curse and the bone-eating pain it caused her each moment.

However... despite being slow over the many years in the kingdom, fighting, enduring and living as the royal knight Lorem made her sharper than before and more mature, and she realised something.

"She wasn't telling me to stay away, but if I couldn't see Asura as Asura... not his past incarnation, Sura."

'Come to think of it... If I underwent nirvana, and he was obsessed with me now, wouldn't it be cruel to the reborn me?'

Lorem smiled bitterly before slowly climbing to her feet. "Helia, you dumb crow... Making me feel better without realising it."

Lorem slowly followed Helia, stumbling towards their platform before hearing Xavida's sweet moans echoing from the room, while Helia fluttered her wings above the room, sitting on the roof watching the moonlight.

"Evening, my scarlet sister. Did you make your choice?" Helliana asked before Lorem arrived, leaning against the wall of the platform.

"Shut up... I need to process everything first."

Helia laughed before fluttering her wings. "Take your time. It was so lonely, waiting for this moment."

"..." Lorem glanced towards Helliana before her eyes drifted below, the sound of Asura and Xavida performing adult acts in Xavida's bed.

"Why did you never tell me about your heart? I could have given you mine... You know a cross-species transplant, especially divine beasts, is dangerous..."

Helia smiled before shaking her head. "It was pointless; Sura's heart was compatible with me. Yours would have killed me, Lor. Also, I accepted his choice to help me, even if it meant he became weaker. Because that was our promise."

"Promise?"

"Mmmm... Before the operation, we got married." Helia revealed their wedding rings before humming a nostalgic song.

The rings were unlike humans, but Helliana pierced her most prominent plume at the base like a clasp, while the other was fixated on a curved black horn.

It looked identical to Asura's horns when using his Liberación, while in a normal state, it was just the imprint.

"We were so adamant, hahaha. My parents said it was too early, and Sura's stepmother slapped him so hard it broke his jaw, yet we exchanged vows in the hospital, and he promised to protect me forever while accepting my broken and failing heart."

Helia laughed happily, like recalling the happiest moment of her life.

Lorem felt her jealousy rising before sighing. "That sounds exactly like Sura... Idiot. Why would he do such a stupid thing...? He said I would be his first wife!"

Helia smirked before looking at Lorem. "Sorry~ I snatched him first, hahaha. Deal with it, Princess Red Feather."

"Damn Crow!"

"Dragon-loving Bitch!"

"Tsk!"

Lorem couldn't refute it because she felt attracted to the black dragon side of Asura before discovering his phoenix bloodline.

"You should hurry up. If you want to fight for the second seat, Lorem," Helia teased before laughing.

"Xavi has been with him five times today already, not to mention the lovely Mu Xue, who adores him more than her own life—you're falling behind, hahaha."

"Tsk! Shut up, crow! You stole my fiance first, so I don't care! I'll steal him back, hah!"