"Please listen to me before this becomes something none of us can repair," Vella said while both hands tightened around Hajin's wrist. "You already won, but the remaining aura is changing you."
For several long breaths the blood-covered alley went completely quiet around them.
Crimson haze flickered across Hajin's eyes while his shoulders lowered beneath the first part of her voice.
The blood-spattered grin faded from his mouth, leaving exhaustion plus confusion where violent pleasure had been.
Vella stepped one pace closer without releasing the wrist held between her hands.
"Come back before that corruption chooses another thing you cannot undo."
Recognition almost entered his stare, but the residual Beast King aura surged through his empty pathways.
One instant of the old Hajin surfaced, then the aura drowned it beneath borrowed rage.
Hajin tore free, swung one arm backward, then struck Vella across the face before either understood the movement.
