Luzbel remained on her knees under the rain.
Head lowered.
Eyes lost.
The water fell heavily, sliding down her face, her neck, her back… but she didn't react. It was as if the cold no longer existed for her, as if her body had simply decided to shut down. Her mind was far away.
Very far away.
Empty.
For a long time she didn't move.
She didn't shiver.
She didn't breathe in a hurry.
She was simply there… broken.
Finally, she stood up.
There was no rage.
No visible tears.
Only a dead expression.
She turned around and began walking toward the training hall. Her steps were slow, heavy, as if each one dragged something invisible behind it. The sound of the rain striking the ground was the only thing accompanying her advance.
Then she raised her gaze.
Her soaked hair fell over her eyes, covering part of her face. Through that dark veil she looked at the gray sky—thick, sickly… a sky that seemed just as empty as she was.
She wasn't thinking about anything.
She only looked.
She looked… into nothing.
—What am I going to do…?
Her voice was barely a whisper drowned in the rain.
When she finally returned to the training hall, she saw them from a distance.
Everyone was talking among themselves. Their voices were filled with tension, fear, disbelief. Tight gestures. Restless looks.
The atmosphere was full of uncertainty.
Luzbel stood still at the entrance, silently watching them.
One by one.
The worried faces.
The frightened faces.
The confused faces.
But then… her eyes stopped on one.
Morgan.
And something inside her tightened.
Every time she looked at that face… she didn't see only Morgan.
She saw someone else.
A face buried deep in her memory.
A memory that still bled.
He looked too similar.
The same features.
The same gaze.
So similar… that it stole the air from her chest.
It was as if the past had returned only to tear the wound open again.
But there was something else too.
A spark.
A fragile and painful hope.
The feeling that that person's will… their ideals… their way of seeing the world…
had not completely died.
Luzbel slowly lowered her gaze.
She stepped away from the group without saying a word and walked toward one of the darkest corners of the room.
There she crouched down.
She hugged her own legs tightly, as if trying to hold herself together so she wouldn't fall apart.
Her body began to tremble.
The tears came out in silence.
They were not desperate sobs…
They were something worse.
A tired cry.
An empty one.
—What am I going to do…?
(Luzbel said, sobbing.)
Morgan was standing with his back turned.
He wasn't speaking.
He wasn't listening.
His mind was trapped in a dark loop, repeating Helios's words over and over again. Those words hadn't been just a warning… they had been a revelation. Something in her voice, in her gaze, in the way she had looked at him… as if she had seen something inside him.
Something even he didn't fully understand.
Something frightening.
Morgan clenched his teeth, trying to organize his thoughts… trying to convince himself that none of it meant anything.
But then it happened.
As if something invisible had pushed him.
A chill ran down his spine.
An instinct.
Something like a sixth sense.
Morgan turned around.
And his eyes found something in the farthest corner of the entrance.
Dark.
Silent.
Luzbel was there.
Curled in on herself, hugging her legs tightly as if she were trying to keep her body from falling apart. Her shoulders trembled. Her face was hidden between her knees.
She was crying.
And she cried like someone who no longer even had the strength to break.
Morgan didn't hesitate.
He began walking toward her.
Quickly.
Zarachi noticed immediately. She frowned and called out to him, worried.
—Where are you going?
Morgan stopped for barely a second.
He turned his head.
He gave her a soft smile… calm… as if nothing were wrong.
But he didn't answer.
He looked back toward the corner.
Toward Luzbel.
Zarachi followed his gaze… and then she saw her.
Her chest tightened.
She had never seen her like that.
Never.
Luzbel had heard everything inside the academy.
Insults.
Mockery.
Contempt.
Words spat with hatred, with fear, with an almost instinctive cruelty. Some called her a monster. Others looked at her as if her mere existence were a stain that dirtied the place.
They humiliated her.
They insulted her.
But none of it ever seemed to touch her.
She never responded.
She never defended herself.
She never lowered her head before them.
She remained firm.
Cold.
Unshakable.
Like a wall built from stone and silence.
From the outside it seemed like nothing affected her, as if the words simply bounced off her skin and fell dead to the floor.
But now that same person was there, in a dark corner, curled in on herself. She held her legs tightly, hiding her face between them while her body trembled in silence.
She was crying.
She was suffering.
That sight squeezed Zarachi's heart with an uncomfortable force.
For a moment she thought about going too.
About approaching her.
About helping her.
But something inside her stopped her.
A strange feeling.
As if that moment… didn't belong to her.
As if there was only one person who should be there.
And it wasn't her.
So she remained silent.
Watching.
While Morgan kept walking.
In the corner, Luzbel still had her head buried between her legs. Her breathing was irregular, heavy… as if every breath hurt.
Then she noticed it.
A sound.
Footsteps.
And suddenly… two feet stopped in front of her.
Luzbel didn't react at first.
Then slowly… she raised her head a little.
Her tired, wet, red eyes found a face.
The same warm smile.
The same calm gaze.
Morgan was standing in front of her.
He extended his hand toward her without hurry, without pressure… as if he didn't want to invade her space, but also didn't want to allow her to sink alone.
And with that voice of his.
That strangely kind voice.
Soft.
Filled with a gentleness that seemed out of place in such a cruel world.
He spoke to her.
—Do you need a little help…?
End of chapter.
Next chapter: It's okay to cry.