Adonis’s other hand, wrapped in the sheets, rubbed Belle’s lower half, reaching her crotch, then began caressing her deeper.
What is he…? What is this…? I…
Belle bit her lips, and the taste of iron filled her mouth, spreading down her throat. Some of it spilled from her lips. Blood pooled at the corner of her mouth, trickling down her face in a thin stream. But before it could reach the sheets, Adonis lapped it up with his tongue. With his thick, shapely lips curling oddly, he sucked on the blood pooling at Belle’s mouth.
In that moment—
I’ll kill you.
—a fierce, firm sense of will rapidly filled Belle’s mind and exploded. The next moment, an intense pain shot through her abdomen. The strange pain made her entire body ache. She went limp, her every muscle stiffening and screaming out.
Her lips finally separated, but the taste of iron was still distinct. She tried to force her fingers open, but a horrible pain and numbness washed over her nonstop. Belle moaned, her back arching up as she tried feebly to pull her waist out of his reach and escape. But the man’s hands grabbed her, pinning her down.
Belle raised her jaw. She gritted her teeth, pushing herself up with her elbows, trying to force her stiff body to shake the man off with all her might—but then another jolt of extreme pain ran through her.
“Aaaaaah…!”
A cry tore from deep in her throat. Tears pooled in her eyes. The man’s shadowed form pinned her down with overwhelming weight. As she breathed heavily, he lifted his head, his lips mouthing something. What had he said? But before Belle could even ask, Adonis leaned forward, and the meaning of his words came to her.
“You’re warm…”
Just then—
Thud!
Abruptly, a loud sound split the air and the world tilted. The bed lurched, making Adonis roll off Belle. Before either of them could grasp what had just happened, the sheets were forcefully pulled from the bed, tossing Adonis off, while Belle banged her head against the headboard. The shock of the blow made Belle partially regain her senses.
She was completely nude and exposed, looking around in a daze. One of the legs of the bed—no, one of its corners—had disappeared entirely. And the one who gnawed it off was now slurping in the tattered sheets.
His red eyes met Belle’s.
Kitty the Nothing.
He swallowed with a gulp, the sheets sucked into his mouth. As always, it was impossible to tell what the Rabbitia was thinking as he lacked any facial expression, but his eyes suddenly turned to Adonis. Kitty’s gaze displayed no interest, no sympathy, and no understanding; all it did was perfectly reflect whatever it was directed at. And right now, those eyes were fixed squarely on Adonis.
“Hrgh…” Adonis hurriedly fixed his garments and let out an animalistic growl.
His face was full of inexplicable terror. In his right hand was a sword he’d drawn out of thin air the moment he saw Kitty. But the man simply stood there without moving a finger, the tip of his blade fixed on Kitty the Nothing. The sword clattered, trembling in his grip, and eventually his hold slipped and the weapon fell, lodging into the floor. Adonis stumbled away from Kitty, like he was faced with some horrible monster.
Suddenly, Kitty turned to face the floor. Scattered there were the raven flower feathers Adonis had trampled earlier. Kitty tottered over to them, pinched a feather with his fingers, and put it in his mouth.
Deep, bottomless darkness that consumed everything equally peeked out from between his lips. Consuming magic—Rest au Rant. It swallowed the feather, disregarding both Belle and Adonis, walked over to the corner of the room, and squatted down there.
Adonis let out a breath. The fear finally drained from his face, only for him to turn to look at Belle with a tense expression. Belle did the same, looking at Adonis. But her eyes swam, unfocused, staring at Adonis in that same partially dazed state.
Her body was covered in blue bruises from where Adonis’s decaying hands had scratched and torn off her clothes. Belle stirred slightly, and an intense pain immediately lanced through her stomach. That physical pain soon gave way to emotional anguish, which swirled in Belle’s heart, producing a single droplet filled with anger and sorrow.
One by one, tears began running from Belle’s dazed eyes. It didn’t feel at all like she was crying; it was as if her eyes had started weeping of their own accord. Tears brimming with frustration ran down her cheeks in burning trails.
Adonis looked like he was about to say something, but before he did, he left the room. The sound of the rain intensified when he opened the door, quieting as soon as he closed it behind him. The soft din of the rain sounded like it was coming from somewhere far away.
Kitty the Nothing had disappeared without Belle realizing. She had no idea how he left. Everything felt vague, like it had all been a dream. None of it felt real. The pain alone remained, brewing in Belle’s body and making her feel dull and heavy.
She traced the pain with her fingers. The depths of her abdomen throbbed. She looked at the red that had stuck to her fingertips, and when she rubbed it, it flaked off like dry mud.
An inappropriate yawn escaped her lips. Belle sluggishly wiped away the tears, but it did nothing to stop them. At this point, she didn’t care. It felt like she had thrown away the part of herself that wept. She tried to hug her knees, but the pain in her abdomen made her give up, so she only hugged one knee and looked blankly out the window.
The cold rain outside spread, darkening the sky. Her head still felt quite numb, rejecting the very act of thinking. She couldn’t put together a single thought. It felt like her heart was shattered to pieces, and suddenly, a thought crossed her mind.
It was a good thing Kitty the Nothing—not the All—had seen her like that.
✦ ✦ ✦
“It’s already so dark…”
Adonis looked up feebly at the black sky, cold and wet. He appeared exhausted, and yet his legs kept moving automatically.
Where to…?
He had nowhere left to go, but his legs seemed to move detached from his will. Adonis eventually walked outside the city, finding himself in Lower East Town. He continued a long way farther, and eventually a small hill came into view.
He heard something on the other side of the hill. It was beckoning him… And for some reason, Adonis accepted it naturally, following it. It wasn’t new, either. It always called to Adonis, guiding him. Something had sprouted within Adonis, making him feel this way, and spurred his battered heart to keep going.
It wasn’t long before he was standing at the top of the hill. A choir of thundering voices echoed mysteriously. Lamenting voices. With the sound of the howling wind, the swarm of shadows raised their voices in maddened howls.
NOWHERE…!
A childlike grin played over Adonis’s lips. The carefree, relieved smile of a lost boy who had finally found a parent to take him home. Tears ran down his cheeks along with the rain, flowing into the mud by his feet.
He stepped into that mud. In front of him was the horde of darkness-clad shadow figures, dancing madly. The closer Adonis came to them, the more maddened their undulations became and the louder their cries of lamentation. They wore tattered cloaks, their hands, legs, and faces covered in bandages that had inexplicable spells that flickered occasionally drawn all over them.
The innumerable silhouettes danced around Adonis as he approached, using the fire irons in their hands to poke at Adonis’s shadow, playing rusty instruments and clanging old, chipped swords together, beckoning Adonis deeper into the edge of darkness.
Adonis was slowly swallowed inside it—and eventually disappeared from this world.