As promised, the next chapter which for those of you who follow the story and get notifications, you know that this chapter is also quite long, so I had to split it into another chapter. Don't ask why but there was a lot that I wanted to happen in this chapter, so this chapter bloated further than I wanted it to. Now, even as a fan that enjoys long chapters, don't expect this to be a regular thing. For this story, the max word count for new chapters that I like to keep is 11.5K and below.

Chapter 10: The Demon Remerges

For Kali, she had done her best, she really did. But in the end, she had been bested. Now in this lustful monster's grasp, she could only pray that it wouldn't be too long before sweet death took her. She was all but resigned to her fate when all of a sudden, this intense wave of violent intent struck them. It was so strong and foreboding that even the minotaur that was mere moments away from turning her into a plaything, froze as he started to sniff and air, much like she started doing to try and get a bead on this.

"What the hell?" She asked softly, barely able to speak since the grip on her torso made it hard to breathe. 'What is this scent on the air? It's coming from-' She thought to herself as the minotaur holding her turned to face the source, but before either of them could even react, this force of smoke and steam slammed right into it. It moved across its arm like smoke before plowed into the beast's face, she couldn't see what happened but she did now whatever this force did, it did something really serious as the beast roared not just from surprise, but from the pain, as it dropped her.

She landed on the ground with a thud, but rather than focus on that, she focused on whatever had slammed into the minotaur and was holding onto it. She was in for quite the surprise when she saw that the source of that wave of killer intent was the twig of an apostle, Lelouch. But what caught her attention above all else, was the fact that he had his arm, buried near elbow deep! In the minotaur's left eye socket as the beast roared out in sheer agony. She watched with fearful awe as he roared back at the beast, his voice filled with strength, anger, and bloodlust as he pulled his smoking arm out of the eye socket, in his hand, was the bloodied and ruined remains of the eye he had just pulled out like an absolute savage!

"H-h-HOLY HELL!" Kali yelled out in fright as the boy jumped off of the beast as it screamed out in pain, reaching for its face a blood and tiny pieces of its eye poured from its ruined eye socket onto the ground. 'When did he, how did he?' She asked herself, wondering just on all the questioned this raised and what the hell she was going to do. Lelouch had landed next to her, and with the disgust, one would associate with scraping shit off your shoe, the apostle tossed the broken and useless eyeball aside, the bloodied and deformed eye organ landing with a wet splat, its pupil by chance looking at her as she barely held back the urge the throw-up whatever little food she in her gut.

'Is that its fucking eyeball?!' Kali thought to herself as the situation was taking a while to sink in as she backed away from both the beast and Lelouch. Scared out of her mind at this unknown strength coming from him. 'You tore out its eyeball?! Forget about that.' She turned to him, wanting answers and wanting them now. "How are you moving this fast, and when did you pick up that kind of strength." She wouldn't get those answers as just as fast as before, he rushed her, she didn't even have time to react to him before she felt him pick her up, bridal style. She only had the time to yelp out in shock as he held her to his chest as he rushed her away from the threat.

In his arms, she could feel that he was warm, which was off as she was the hellhound, which meant she was the one that was supposed to have a high body tempt and if her logic was sound, right now, after that emotional and physical workout she put herself through, her body tempt right now should be around 58oC(136oF). Even with that, she could feel that he was much hotter than she, it was almost like snuggling up against a warm blanket. But as soon as the thought crossed her mind, she immediately banished it from her mind, she barely knew this guy! And he was already involved with miss horsey, so he was off the market. It was worse for her when mind betrayed her and pointed out that harems weren't uncommon,

Lucky enough for her, before her mind could go any further down that rabbit hole, her senses caught up with her, and from this proximity to him, she could finally see just what had happened to him. And he was quite different.

Where he was once fair-skinned, a little sun-kissed really, now he was pale, almost as white as ash with his veins pulsating as they glowed, and thumped with the beat of his heart, sending this heated blood throughout his body. His topless nature let her see that the strange tattoo on his chest, was now larger easily being twice its normal size, and had altered itself to now have crack-like additions to it going across his chest as if the tattoo itself was struggling to contain whatever was hidden beneath it. Adding to the strangeness of it, the symbol was glowing red like a crimson moon's light on a still lake's surface.

His body, which was a twig as far as she was concerned, was now altered so that while he hadn't gained anymore bulk to it, his muscles were more defined and bulking as steam and smoke lifted off his form, in the back of her mind, she smelt that the smoke had the scent of burnt pork which lead her to believe that he was burning, but for some reason still standing. Going by the fact he was much…much hotter than humans should be, lead her to think that maybe his body temp being that high was due to this slow-burning he was going through, the steam and smoke were mostly coming from his legs though. The hands that held up also felt different, his fingers felt much stiffer than they were before, almost like he was wearing a clawed gauntlet but she could still feel warm through them, and the fact he was being gentle with her, not using too much force but enough to ensure his grip wouldn't loosen.

His hair had also changed, going by a normal man's head full of black hair to a coursing mane that went all the way down his back, like his body, it too seemed to be burnt as where it was once pure black, now there were shades of ash white hair strands and still glowing red strands which made his hair look less like human hair and more like a half-burnt piece of wood, something she was jealous about as the ragged look looked great on him and she wanted to try and copy it.

But what stuck out, among all of that, was his head. Onto his head was a pair of fox…wolf…? They looked like both, anyway, the point is that he had a pair of black fur-covered wolfish, foxy ears. She wasn't sure if he still had regular human ears as his now mane of hair covered the sides of his head but her attention was drawn to other features. His eyes had this strange bird symbol in them and while they also glowed crimson like the tattoo on his chest, they didn't stay stationary as the bird motifs she was seeing seem to pulsate with energy, matching his heartbeat once she started timing them with what she could feel through his bare chest on her. Those same eyes stared towards the screaming minotaur, his gaze was as warm as the coldest winter night she had even gone through as he starred towards their in agony opponent as if its agony was just an annoyance. Lastly, his jawline seemed…off, she didn't know what but from what she had seen in his mouth, his tongue and teeth were both different as his tongue was much larger than before, mostly in length. His teeth seemed to be much more like hers, suited for a mostly meat diet.

She took all that in only a couple of seconds.

"Stay here, it's mine." He ordered her, his voice different from before, even if she took into account the fact it didn't sound human, where he used to speak with purpose, like a leader as he rattled from orders to them, now he spoke like a king, and a powerful one at that, he spoke as if he was expecting his words to be taken as undeniable orders and to be frank, she didn't feel like testing him as he bent his legs, his muscles bulging more as more stream waved off legs as he jumped a solid 12m back towards the beast, landing with a thud before he pulled his head back, and howled towards the ceiling.

"OOOWWWOOOOOOOOOO!" He howled, the sheer power behind that scream being just as loud if not louder than even the biggest roar from the minotaur, which turned to face this new challenger…it's one remaining eye blazing crimson once more, but more than that, there was more than rage in its gaze, there was a slight amount of confusion…and fear. Lelouch kept up his roar as if announcing himself to all who could hear it, telling all that the king had arrived, that the demon was loose. Then, all at once, he stopped as his head fall forward, his body bent over as he growled like a caged animal baying to be released as he reached into his bag, which by some work of miracle was still attached to his person, and pulled out 2 of the four remaining scrolls and held them in his now bone covered clawed hands, each paper being held by just two fingers.

"I told you, I'm going to turn you into a pile of cooked beef, you drugged up farm animal." The Apostle growled as he pumped magic into his two scrolls, but where the ends would normally alight, this time around, both of them turned to ash near instantly as in their place, two swirling balls of fire, the color of blood started to from just in front of his shoulders, the heat being put out of these two not only be greater than normal, but even the beast could see something…off about them, as in there was more to this fire than meets the eye.

"Now burn!" Lelouch didn't give it time to ponder as he roared out, firing the two fireballs as a sizzling beam of fire right towards the beast, the sound made from this spell sounding like nothing neither girl nor beast had ever heard before as the beams crashed into the monster, sending it back as the fire burned it in ways it couldn't even fathom, it was like the fur, skin, and muscles didn't burn so much as they near-instantly evaporated. The minotaur, even if it was pain like never before, it still managed to defend itself against the merciful short onslaught as not only a second later, the beams of fire, that seemed to even have strange blobs of a darker substance within them.

Kali turned back to Lelouch, seeing him standing there was steam and smoke poured off of him, most of it coming from his shoulders and upper chest. She didn't know why, she had a feeling that he burnt himself with that last attack but looking at the minotaur, it was a fair trade. Even from where she was, she could smell the scent of burnt meat in the air, that threat about turning it into a burnt pile of beef wasn't that far off the mark as to where the beams of fire had hit, mostly around the forearms it used to protect and some areas of its chest had been nearly charred, 3rd-degree burns covered the surface, any semblance of fur or hair long gone as it's flesh was some part cooked but mostly burnt black, with patches of red flesh here and there as the monster whimpered, it whimpered from the pain.

Lelouch then growled at him, holding his head high as if to look down at the much…much larger foe, and arrogance in his stance as it gazed at the beast like it was a lesser creature that had overstayed its welcome, but there was still a cold and unforgiving fury in eyes as he charged at it again, and much like when he took out its eye and carried her way, his speed was far greater than it was a few minutes ago. Seeing him approaching, the beast stepped back in fright before it found its balls and roared back at him, running towards him with its good arm set to attack him and this time, make sure he was dead.

This led to a fierce frenzy of a battle between the two as it was less a fight between man and beast, and more a fight between two animals, locking horns and trying to kill the other. She observed as Lelouch used his smaller size and increased speed to keep running and falling back, getting in close and casting more than a few fireballs are point-blank range, often aiming for spots already burnt. He would also use his claws to slash and cut whenever he cut, meaning that his foe, while still standing, was slowly turning more and more into a mess of burns, cuts, and slashes.

As she watched this in awed silence, she picked up that Lelouch wasn't trying to kill the minotaur so much as he wanted it to suffer. She picked this up as there were numerous times when he could have gone for another crippling blow or even a fatal strike, but he didn't. At first, she thought he wasn't seeing them but then later, she picked up how even when he had a clear chance to rack his claws through its neck, he purposely pulled back even though his opponent couldn't have intercepted him in time.

With that in mind, she kept on watching, wondering as to why the boy, whose body was so damn hot(not in that sense!) that he was burning up, would prolong this fight. Logic would dictate that he tried and end it as soon as possible, even the beast seemed to be coming down from whatever high it was on earlier that gave it that boast, she was in the dark until she saw the smile on his face as he moved around the beast and pulled out his dagger before driving back in, all the way to the hilt in another spot.

He was enjoying this, this fight, inflicting pain on his opponent, hearing it cry, scream and whimper from the continued, unrelenting and brutal assault on it. He didn't want to just win, he was reversing the power dynamic of what happened with her. He was screwing with it, messing around, he was acting in a way that no-one could deny that he was the stronger, and his foe was nothing to him. It went on for not too long, maybe five minutes but for Kali, it might ss well been 5 hours with how much action happened during it. Though it seemed like Lelouch drew the short straw in their last bout as while he managed to leave some minor claw marks on its chest, the beast managed to get arm from the elbow down in its mouth, and bit down, tearing the limb clean off.

"Lelouch!" Kali screamed out of concern as he jumped back from the fight, watching as the beast gleefully chewed his limb and despite the flesh and bone being bonier and…hotter than it was expecting, it was still proud that he got its pound of flesh for the eye. The minotaur then looked at the transformed boy, who hadn't made a sound outside this…strange rumbling. It sounded like a growl but had undertones of a large piece of metal, sizzling in a furnace, and maybe she was crazy from everything that had gone down, but she could have sworn that there was something…sinister in there as well.

Lelouch then, without a word, raised his right arm, the one which was missing everything from the elbow down and where the limb had been severed, steam and smoke was coming off of it. Then, to their two observers shock, that steam production skyrocketed as the heat it was producing climbed so high that the area burst into flames. And from those flames, they watched with silent, aghast awe as his arm grow back. First, the bone before the ligaments, muscle, tendons, and nerves come in. Within mere seconds and in a scene of steam, smoke, and fire, Lelouch had grown back his limb, it was like he had never lost it.

The minotaur wasn't a very right creature, but it wasn't stupid either so while it didn't know much, it knew that whatever it had seen wasn't normal, and then there was the aura Lelouch was putting out. It wasn't normal, hell, it wasn't like any other human it had come across, there was something in this man, in this creature that stroked the fires of its primordial instincts. Those same instincts told the beast that this wasn't a threat you could hope to fight and win, that he needed to run as far as he could as the…demon would not accept submission, only its death.

The monster felt a bead of sweat work its way down its brow as it looked towards this…demon. As if sensing its unease and building fear, Lelouch reached with his newly regenerated arm towards his face, covering the left side of his face as he snarled at it, his visible eye shining right with ill intent. "I took an eye, you took an arm." He started, gaining their undivided attention as the minotaur could feel that bead turn into several as it could even see, that within Lelouch's mouth, there was this ominous red light coming from somewhere down his throat, only visible when you looked down his open mouth. That mouth twitched into an arrogant bloodthirsty smile that showed off all those newly minted pearly whites of his. "But you only have one other eye, and I want it."

With that creepy as hell statement, he rushed in, his muscles bulging even more as more steam and little flashes of fire flew off his form as he closed the distance like it was nothing. The minotaur, in fear for its life, managed to land a blow to him but where he would have been sent flying, all they heard was the sound of broken bones. Lelouch had taken the hit but had sunk his claws into the meaty flesh of the fist so that he wouldn't move from his spot. Though it didn't seem to bother him as the amount of fire coming off of him increased we all as the scent of burnt pork in the air.

Lelouch laughed out loud, his laugh sounding like a mix of a wood-burning fire, rough growls, and metal chains clanging against metal. His joy at this unnerving those watching as even his hair seemed to start to act strange as more of it caught fire, soon leaving him with a fiery mane as his bones reset and his muscles healed themselves, the beast tried to pull back and separate from him but he didn't let go, he went with it as he slightly rose his palms over the surface where he was gripping onto it and started to cast fireball, only know where he normally would fire it point-blank, he kept it going, increasing the heat and size as the beast shrieked and cried out in agony as, by this point, she could both see the building light from the fire being kept close to the monster's fist. All the while, Lelouch kept on laughing at its pain, at the fact he was stronger than it.

The minotaur tried to pull him off with its other hand but Lelouch avoided this by climbing up its arm like a monkey, his remorseless eyes staring into its very soul freaking it out as it tried anything it could to get him off but it was for naught, as the boy reached his head and neck and jumped over it. In the jumped, he landed behind it as he pulled out both the chain he had picked up and his last scroll, he then quickly wrapped the scroll around the chain down the middle part of it. The beast, seriously wounded, losing blood and in serious amounts of pain didn't even appear to a threat anymore. Kali would have felt sorry for it, felt any kind of sympathy for the fellow living creature…if she didn't know just what these kinds of monsters did, not after he beat her silly and tried to turn her into a fuck toy. Oh no, she was going to enjoy this as much as she could.

At this point, Lelouch didn't even bother trying to approach with caution, as he just walked right up to the beast, its strength nearly all spent as it fell to its knees, whimpering and crying as this demon right out of hell walked up to him. The aura of anger around it only growing stronger as it got closer. Even though the beast was still much taller than he was on its knees, it was clear who was the dominant one here as Lelouch had stopped laughing as it made his approach. He scrutinized the beast, even turning his head to the side like a confused pet before he reached forward with one hand, the minotaur, near exhausted prepared for more pain, but was in for a rude awakening when all Lelouch did was lay his hand on the right side of it, the part which didn't have 3rd-degree burns covering most of it.

"You are…in great pain. I hear it, I smell it. You might have had enough of this, yes?" Lelouch asked it, his hand moving around like he was trying to comfort it, his voice as soft and unthreatening as it could sound when his voice-box seemed to be set to 'Hardy's realm'

'What the hell?' Kali thought to herself, confused as to what happened to that savage joy, that animalistic ferocity. The minotaur looked just confused as she did.

"Tell me, do you think this is cruel?" Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, the beast nodded its head, waiting for the perfect moment to try and strike him down now that his guard was down. "That I should stop and let you go?" He kept on acting, looking for the best chance as Lelouch gazed towards it with warmth in his eyes, the mask hiding the icy fury that laid within.

"Then…what would you have done to Kali…and Chirona if we didn't stop you? Would you have let them go, or would you have broken out bodies and took them as your trophies, to fuck whenever you wish?" He didn't know the names, nor did it care for them, but it was pretty sure he was talking about the two females. And he would have loved to get his hands on them, it had been stuck here for so long since the other demon captured it, did funny things to it, before forcing him into that damn cage. It had been so long since he last had a female to play with, the last one was one of the people that kept him locked away, she had made the mistake of getting locked in with him when she was giving him his food. She broke too quickly but two new females, he felt those two would have lasted him quite a while.

Nonetheless, to keep up the act, he kept on nodding his head, a few tears due to the pain leaking from his eyes, well his one eye and the recently cleared eye hole he had now. He didn't care for the males, he would have killed them and ate them as food if he had the chance, but now wasn't the time for that so he lied. Kali watched on confused as hell at this sight, but she was the first to pick up on the fact that the beast's other arm was tense, which meant it was planning something but before she could utter a word of warning towards Lelouch, he spoke up. And his voice sent ice through both her and the beast's heart.

"…Lair" His tone, though it hadn't been warm since he changed, somehow went from the icy's winter's night down here in the capital, to the coldest night on the very top of the northern mountains. And like the Mountains of Snow and Winter, his stare was frigid, unforgiving, and terrifying to any who caught a glimpse of it. "I can hear it, I hear your lust. I heard your heartbeat increase. You have no pride, no spine." He mocked it for its foolish attempted to lie to his face. Seeing no other option, the minotaur used the last of its strength to try and strike him down. However, Lelouch was more than ready for this as before it could even wind up the punch, his hand on its flesh went from soft and comforting to hard and burning as his fingers easily pushed into its flesh.

"The unexpected pain from this caused the beast to miss as it's poorly thrown first flew right next to Lelouch head, seeing this, he apostle struck as his head shot out like a viper's strike and before the minotaur could react to it, he had already bitten into him. His inhuman jaw strength driving his carnivorous teeth deep into the flesh as he then tightened his hold before he ripped his head back, taking with him a large portion of bloody flesh as he jumped back from the screaming minotaur as he landed in a crouch. With his prize, he spat it out back into his hand as he eyed the monster, no speck of mercy to be found in him.

"So let me take my pound of flesh!" He told it as he lifted the piece of meat to his mouth, but rather than eat it like she thought he would do(cause, why not, he's already proven he's a savage) he spat on it and then tossed it aside like it was trash. The ultimate insult for an animal, to know that your predator didn't even consider you a meal, just a pest.

'Damn, this fucker does not play around!' Kali thought to herself as she admitted, that was pretty cool…in a messed up way as the beast, now all but exhausted, held its bloodied and burnt fist to its chest as it tried to back away, scared shitless but whatever the hell replaced the boy in front of him. Lelouch, in his pale and burning form, started to approach the creature, lifting the chain that he had taken out and revealed that while he had been taking, that scroll he had wrapped it with had been activated, and while it was nearly gone, the chain itself had retained most of that heat going by the glowing nature of it.

The beast, seeing this metal vine glowing orange didn't even bother to stay to see what it was about to be used for, all it knew was that he had to run, ran as fast and as far as possible, and hide from this devil. That was the plan as it got up and turned its back, the keyword being 'try'. As soon as it got to its feet, it didn't even take more than few steps before Lelouch rammed into its back, climbing past the numerous stab wounds he had inflicted, past the bent and bloodied great sword that was buried in its back. He didn't stop till he was at neck level as with a snarl of dominance, he held both ends of the red hot chain as he tossed most of it over its head. Once it had cleared its mouth and was at neck level on the other side, he pulled…tight.

It was near-instant, the extremely hot chain went as taut as the hangman's noose, and dug right into the screaming beast's neck. The panic of the surprise assault, the surprise of the move to choke it, and the sheer throbbing pain from the scorching hot chain digging into its next sent it to the floor face first, its one remaining horn cracking from the odd landing. In this situation, it was in no position to offer up any real resistance as it struggled to try and get it…him off it. But Lelouch was relentless as steam flowed off arms like water off rocks as he kept not just the chain tight but pulled it even tighter as he added even more heat to the chain from hands, his flesh constantly bubbling from the heat, only to repair itself before he could lose his grip. His mark of immortality shining brighter to keep up with this, but he felt all the pain, only now… along with his usual near superhuman level determination(stubbornness)he was in a state of mind when his pain didn't matter to him, it only made him want to inflict it into his enemies even more.

"How does it feel, hmm? I've heated this chain to around 1,500 degrees Celsius(2,732 degrees Fahrenheit), close to its melting point." He told the struggling monster as its attempts grew more frantic as the heated chain didn't cut into him, no, it burned its way into him as it could feel that it was close getting deep enough to kill it as even now, even now hurried breaths that entered its lungs felt like it was heated as the monster on its way only smiled at it tightened its hold, speeding up the process.

'How'd he know that?' Kali couldn't help it, she knew it was not the time, but she could curious as to how and why he knew that fact about those iron chains. The minotaur, nor spent of all energy, ceased struggling as its arms fell to the ground with a thud, lifting some dust from the impacts as it started to cry, seeing that its death was nigh, and there was nothing it could do to prevent it. Seeing that it had given up, Lelouch got in close and whispered one last thing to it before it was slaughtered.

"Doesn't feel good, does it? To be the prey, to be the one that's devoured." He asked, wanting this to be as painful as possible for the beast that had spent years devouring man and demi-human like as it used any girl it could for its pleasure. If there was one activity that Lelouch would always enjoy no matter what, it was treating monsters and abusers just like that their victims, a taste of their medicine if you will. "Your flesh tastes disgusting, but I'm sure I can find some alley mutts that will enjoy you." He didn't even bother giving it a chance to respond if it could as he pulled with as much force as he musters in his arms, his legs flexing as well as he used his whole body for this was the chain, now warped and close to breaking apart, finally managed to get through the last muscles in its way, the seething hot metal getting all the way through to his jugular, esophagus, and windpipe all at once.

They didn't stand much of a chance as the smoldering chain made short work of them, the beast dying from lack of blood flow to its brain before it could die from the destruction of its wipe pipe but even so, due to the force of it, the chain did enough damage for her to hear its neck snap, leaving the minotaur's head bent at an unnatural angle as even though it was flat on its stomach, it was facing straight ahead. Kali watched as he didn't let up for a while, for a second she thought he wanted to decapitate it before Lelouch's grip on the chain loosened as he let the thing fall from his badly burnt hands as his code started to dim down, leaving his wounds to heal slower as the apostle, still atop the slowly shrinking to normal size corpse of a minotaur, turned to the heavens and like any proud predator of the night, howled towards the sky, even if they were underground.

"OOOWWWOOOOOOOOOO!" Like last time, it was loud, it had a tremble to it no animal could ever have, it was filled with power. Kali could tell, it was his howl of victory. He howled a second time, almost as if expecting a response from something before he ceased. His tattoo's glow dimmed even more as he slowly, stepped off the carcass, she wouldn't even dignify the thing by calling its remains a corpse, once he touched the ground again, he turned towards her, but once where his eyes blazed, they now looked burnt out and hollow.

"It…is…done…" Lelouch got out as whatever power that flowed through him ceased, leaving him in nothing but agony as muscles and bones screamed out due to being pushed past their limits, his body itself still burning as the last of the fires went out as code mark went silent. He didn't even have the strength to take another step as it fell face first towards the floor. The last thing he experiences before losing consciousness is the heat still coursing through his ash pale and charred body as Kali cried out to him, calling out his name.

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Lelouch looked around, finding himself somewhere he had never seen before. It appeared to be early morning, and there was a faint mist still in the air. He could smell the sea and when he looked towards where the scent of saltwater was coming from, he saw a large bay area. He then realized that, wherever he was, he was by a coast. He walked around, calling out to try and get someone's attention, but found that no-one was even there to respond, he was there…alone. He had no memory of ever seeing this place, nor did he recall ever traveling to such a destination. The only beaches he had ever seen were back in Japan, and this place looked nothing like the island nation.

He decided to climb a hill, trying to get to a higher elevation so that he could hopefully spot something of use, he never picked up on the fact that it took him almost an hour to ascend the steep hill face, to him, it only felt like a couple minutes. Once he reached the top, the calls of strange birds become apparent but with the mist still all around him, he could barely make out their shapes or colors, all he knew was that they appeared to be rather large. He reached for his satchel, hoping to take out something of use or some paper to write his observations down, but he felt nothing down there. In confusion, he looked at his side where he normally kept it, and to his shock, not only was it gone but he was dressed in his old zero attire, the only thing missing was the helmet.

'Just what is going on, and how did I not notice that I'm wearing this old thing?' He asked himself, his confusion mounting as this was a whole new experience. Either way, he wasn't going to get answers just sitting here, so he kept on moving towards the cliff's edge. As he approached, the mist began to clear as he got closer and closer until it was completely gone, allowing him to see the entire bay and it was quite large, so much so that he could barely make out the other side in the distance. All around the area, there were white beaches, clear blue waters, and numerous trees and other plant-life, if he didn't know any better, he'll say this was the Bahamas pictures he often saw in vacation advertisements and textbooks.

Suddenly, he felt a presence behind and when he quickly turned to face it, there was no-one there. No man, animal, or monster, and the birds had all gone silent. He was also stunned as rather ten a creature of some kind, right there was a large rock-like table, he saw the infamous mask of Zero. His greatest creation and possibly the heaviest burden ever created on his earth. He slowly approached it, siding on the side of extreme caution as none of this was making sense, but as he made his approach, he heard a familiar voice giggling at him, recognizing the voice of the Goddess that had seen fit to facilitate his revival, he looked around for her, but her voice was coming from all around him.

"Oh, I knew that it was a good idea to alter your code, but I never imagine that you would set yourself ablaze like that." He heard Janaysia speak, sounding to be both impressed and teasing, and like he was expecting from someone like her, her voice seemed to carry itself on the wind rather than come from a single source.

'Set myself ablaze?' He asked himself, wondering what she was talking about. He didn't remember doing anything like that.

"I'm sure you'll find a workaround for that sooner or later, but it was entertaining nonetheless, I've never met someone that would copy a phoenix-like that. But who better than a demon to try." She carried on as if she didn't mind that he was in the dark as she mused on his expectant future capabilities.

"What are you talking about?" He asked aloud, wanting answers but she didn't seem to be in the mood to give them as she just dismissed his question.

"Oh well, it's time for you to wake up, little demon. You've rested enough, time to return to the waking world." She told him as like that, she vanished, the sounds of nature and the sea returning to normal in her absence. He looked back towards the mask and in his surprise, the geass mark that he had painted onto it started to glow golden. It became so bright that he had to look away from it.

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This time around, he woke up for real. It took a couple of seconds for his mind to clear as Lelouch slowly got up, his body arching as he did so. He looked around and found himself back above ground if the noises of the busy urban streets were any indication. As he looked around, he realized that he was in the inn, on a comfy well-maintained bed but he hadn't paid for rooms, he and Chirona were staying in the stables. The confusion only increased as he looked down at himself and saw that he was wrapped up in bandages, he had a code and he had healed any wounds he had within seconds if not a couple of minutes so why was he wrapped up like this?

He turned to the room as large and saw that, while it was quite the large and most likely expensive room, that he was alone. Not a soul with him that he could ask and find out just what happened and how he got here. He tried to remember himself and he only drew blanks, he could…feel his mind clearing up, but it was taking a while and it came with an annoying headache as, after a couple minutes of this, he only recalled how he and Chirona had found both her people and those two hellhounds. Whatever happened to those two?

Fortunately for him, it seems like he was going to get the answers he wanted as he heard people, two people if he listened carefully, walking towards his door. They stopped at it and fiddled with the handle as they opened it up and walked in. Now, while he wasn't sure what he was expecting, he sure as hell wasn't expecting the rather…unusual pairing that had entered his room.

"Ya, it seems that you're awake. Took you long enough." The man spoke up, while the little girl next to him only gave him a smile that was far too similar to C.C's for his liking. He noted that they were unusual as the two of them seemed like a pairing that didn't fit. Firstly, the man, it was clear that he was an imperial soldier but different to the ones he had met up until now, from how he carried himself along with that armor, he could tell this one was of a much higher quality. That armor in question as he observed wasn't anything like the ones he saw other soldiers wear as were those guys wore one which seemed to be a slightly improved version of Roman legions would have been issued during the time of Caesar, this guy wore something that would have been more at home on a knight during the 13th to 14th centuries. That along with his flowing blue cape made him out to be a soldier of both high rank and skill. His face had some wrinkles, but he didn't appear to be too old, maybe in his early 40s but his steel-grey eyes were as sharp as any well-crafted blade. He was well-groomed, with no facial hair to note and his short light grey hair well taken care of, in fact, he almost reminded him of Tohdoh but unlike the old samurai, he appeared much more…approachable, his smile seemed honest and his stance, though stiff like any soldier, was at the same time relaxed, his hands no-where near the large sword he had at his side.

The girl was vastly different from the much older man standing next to her. Where he looked to be in his late 30s at the absolute youngest, she couldn't be any older than 14 years old. He could tell as she was more or less the same height his sister and Kaguya were when he last saw them. She let her long, black hair grow out and her crimson red eyes watched like not unlike C.C's would whenever she thought he wasn't looking, which was part of the reason he was more wary of her than the adult next to her. She also out against everything he had seen in this world ever since he arrived as she dressed in a Gothic Lolita fashion, with a black dress with red frills, black stockings supported with garters, and red boots. The only reason he knew the exact style was twofold. The first being that the style had become a thing in Japan in the 1970s and even if Britannia tried to erase everything Japanese, it was rather unsuccessful as by that point, even Europeans were dressing like that. The second reason that he knew this was the fact that C.C often dressed in the strangest things, he knew he wasn't the most fashionable when it came to women's wear but it was like C.C was trying to spite him as she never wore any of the stuff he got for her to blend in, rather she would go out and (somehow) get her hands on whatever loud and colorful outfit she could find.

Now, he said that her look and the way she was looking at him was only part of the reason he was wary of her. The other part was the fact that she was carrying what must have been, the biggest martial weapon he had ever seen. The ornate violet and silver halberd she was holding with but a single hand was almost twice her size, so large that she couldn't even fit it through the door standing it up and had to bend it. He didn't know a lot about such ancient weapons but he could tell that it easily weighed more than all three of them combined. With that in mind, he instantly saw that she could use the thing to slice him clean in half, or just rip him apart with her bare hands if she so chose.

Seeing that the two had been silent since they had entered, it was pretty clear they waited for him to speak first.

"Greetings, might I ask you the two of you are?" Lelouch asked them, barely getting that out before he started coughing, his throat as sore and dry as his voice came out rough. Coming closer to his table, the knight went to his table not too far from his table where a cup and pitcher of water sat. He poured a cup of water before walking back towards his table.

"You're kidding, you don't know who she is?" The knight asked him as he handed him the cup of water, confused as to his question as the girl looked mildly surprised that he didn't know her either though she kept that smile on her face, but there was something different about her. Unlike the nobles he had met, she didn't appear to react badly or be irritated that he didn't know her, rather she just seemed caught off guard by it and nothing else.

"Come now, let us give him a break. He has been asleep for almost a full week now." The girl spoke up, her voice much more mature than he was expecting from a girl barely into her teens as she spoke with a mirth that came with life experience or some hidden agenda like Milly often spoke. However, he didn't focus on that as he thanked the man and drank the cup of water, pacing himself as he did to not overdo it.

"A week?" Lelouch asked, his voice sounding better as his throat felt better. How the hell did he end up sleeping for a week? He knew he was lazy, but he enjoyed short naps, nothing like this.

"Well, more accurately, it's been 5 days but you get the gist of it." The girl clarified for him, though it didn't do much for him as, after such an extended period, a day or two didn't mean all that much. "As for who we are, it's quite rude to ask for someone else name before giving your own." She admonished him, or more accurately teased him as she stepped closer to him. Her weapon held straight and true all the while.

'She is more the she seems, the soldier's response also tells me that she must be quite well known here, and such notoriety can only be acquired through a limited number of ways, most of which would mean she's dangerous.' He thought to himself, using the rather limited information he had on hand to make a judgment on the situation. So with that, he hoped for the best and went along with this.

"Of course, forgive me. My name is Lelouch Ja Nemesis, it's a…pleasure to meet you." Lelouch responded, giving them as respectful a bow as he could in his present situation.

"A man with manners, I like that. You may call me, Rory Mercury. The soldier here is Grey Co Aldo, from the imperial court." The girl, Rory, introduced them after he did himself as the knight smiled as he nodded his head when his name was called.

"Imperial court? What would the emperor want with me?" Lelouch asked, he left no trace of his involvement when he killed those guards, even then, such a thing wouldn't normally warrant the attention of the head of state.

"I think it would be better explained once we get your friend in here, she was extremely worried for you." Grey told him as he stepped out, and vaguely, Lelouch heard him walk off through the closed door, reaching the stairs and walking down them.

"Friend?" He asked the only remaining person, who merely smiled at him as she pulled up a chair and sat at his side, the one closer to the closed window than the door as she placed her weapon down on the floor.

"That bicorn girl, she was at your bedside almost the entire time. She had left to get something to eat about 15 minutes ago." Rory explained to him as she found it rather admirable and cute that she had stayed practically attached to him ever since they got there. She wondered how the girl would react to knowing he was awake. She didn't need to wait long as they could both hear the heavy and mistimed quadrupedal movements coming towards the door. That same door was soon slammed wide open to reveal in the doorway, Chirona was standing there.

"Lelouch!" She called out to him, she was dressed differently than before, her clothing seemingly more casual and more focused on just hanging around town over adventuring or combat. He could also make out the fact that her left knee was wrapped up with some thick bandages.

"Chirona I-oof!" She didn't give him time to try and observe her as she crossed the distance in a flash and with a tear-filled smile, knelt and embraced him into a bosom with her hug, though he suspected she was just happy to see him and didn't realize she was motorboating him.

"I was so worried! When Kali came up with you, you were almost all burnt up, we waited for you to heal but then you didn't wake up!" She nearly cried as she held him even tighter, her embrace, though welcomed as even he enjoyed shows of affection and care, was starting to hurt as his body was still wrecked from whatever had gone down that put him to sleep for so long, though his memories of that night were slowly returning, he could only call back as far as finding Kali and her father at this point.

"Slow down, Chirona." Lelouch got out as he tapped her side to get her attention. "Can someone please start again from the beginning?" She let him go at that and got back to her, looking embarrassed by her actions, but not unhappy with them as she was still smiling at him.

"Sorry, I…I got a little emotional there, didn't I?" Chirona asked him, only for the man to shake his head as he returned her smile as he took her hand into his own, squeezing it.

"I didn't say it was bad, just that I would like to get some details about what happened. Believe me, your concern is well appreciated." Lelouch told the girl, appreciating that she cared for him as much as she appreciated the fact that she was a good person. Though he did wonder just how she was there, the innkeeper wasn't very accommodating when they first showed up, so what had changed.

"What happened was that after you…died," Chirona started, though she had to pause for a second to collect herself, his death wasn't a pretty one by any standards. "We kept up fighting, but I lost my cool and got hurt, so I had to leave, I was soon followed by Ghira." She explained, leaving out the part of how she got injured, it was by this point that Grey had finally returned to the room, Chirona having run right on past him when he had told the people downstairs he was awake.

"Hold on, you mean to tell me that Kali had to fight that monster on her own?" Lelouch asked her, starting to remember bits and pieces of the fight and while he didn't recall the full thing, he did recall that it was much too much for any one of them to take on. Was that why he was wrapped up like a mummy?

"Don't you worry, Lelouch. She and everyone else is just fine, all thanks to you." Chirona assured him as she took a breath, just grateful that he was okay, so they could finally put that entire experience behind them at last.

"Hmm?" Lelouch sounded, asking for more info. Seeing that he was drawing a blank, and not knowing why, Grey stepped back into the conversation.

"From what she told us, she was in a very tough spot, on the brink of defeat when you reentered the fight, you had changed…no longer human. Kinda like now." Grey said as he pointed towards him, the rest of the room looking at him as well, which was awkward as while he was used to being the center of attention, being Zero was part showman, after all, but this attention was different.

"Now?" Lelouch asked, though this time his confusion seemed to be humorous they all started to laugh or at least try to hold in their chuckles at his confusion.

"Your serious, you haven't noticed?" Rory asked him, pointing at his head which like the rest of him, was tightly wrapped up in bandages.

"Noticed what? I'm getting tired of this 'I don't know' game you're playing." Lelouch asked back, slightly irritated that he was seemingly out of the loop of what they were treated as common knowledge.

"Forgive me, your head is still kinda all wrapped up in bandages, but surely you must feel something there," Grey asked him as he looked to the side and tried to hide his amusement.

"Give me a sec," Lelouch for his part, gave the man a look before he decided to humor him. He felt around his head with his hands and he couldn't feel something there, something strange as he didn't just feel it with his hands but also he could feel his hands touching whatever was there. "What the hell?" He asked as that was not normal at all. So he began undoing his bandages, slowly at first as he didn't have the strength at present to just tear them apart but once that was done, it was only a matter of unwrapping his head. Strangely enough, he picked on the fact that as he did this, his hearing could grow sharper, better which was odd as he didn't think his ears were that tightly covered, he was still able to hear them around him

"Lelouch, you're supposed to keep the bandages on-" Chirona said to try and stop him but he didn't relent, once he was done, however, he felt whatever was there pop back, almost standing at attention. He reached for his head again and while he felt a distinct lack of hair, he did feel something that he never thought would ever be attached to him. He started to panic a bit as he reached for the sides of his head and he didn't feel them, the familiar shapes of flesh attached to the sides of his head were gone but his hearing was still intact. In fact, his hearing was sharper than it had ever been.

"…Can someone please me a mirror." He asked softly, not knowing what he wanted to see but he needed to see it for himself. Grey and Rory shared a look before the knight walked over to the side and picked a mirror of polished bronze and handed it to him. Lelouch silently took the offered tool and looked at his reflection, being stunned by what he saw. "Holy…I have wolf ears…?" He asked himself, looking at his reflection and what stared back at him was nothing like the sight he had been used to seeing his whole life.

His head was bald, and still covered in patches of 1st and 2nd-degree burns from that fight, but where he was lacking his normal jet black hair, he had gained two new additions in the form of the canine-like ears, he was no expert on them but they didn't look exactly like any wolves he had seen, there were longer, and a little skinnier. They were around 10cm(3.9 in) in length and quite bushy looking, they were covered with black fur while the inner parts of the ears had a red color to them. Without his conscious impact, the two would twitch as they moved around, tracking whatever sounds that they could which seeing how he now had an increased sense of hearing, was quite a lot. He reached to them again and felt them and found that the fur covering them made them very soft and that it felt…nice to pet them.

"More like fox, doctor couldn't place them and just called them a kind of mix between a fox and a wolf. They suit you rather well, reminds me of my bow." Rory spoke up, reaching for her hair bow as Lelouch continued to experiment and feel around his new ears as he tried to soak in the fact this was what he had now.

"But….when…?" He tried to get out, not understanding just why he even got these things in the first place.

"Best guess is that they are from your little change. You'll have to speak with Kali yourself but from what she told us, you were like a burning corpse as you tore into that minotaur." Grey told him as he had read the report the hellhound had given the local guard when they questioned her, and he had spoken with the healers they had called in to tend to him and if he hadn't, he wouldn't have ever imagined that someone could set themselves on fire like that.

"He's right. Once you calm down, you collapsed, completely unresponsive so Kali grabbed you and got you back to the rest of the group where we all ascended back to the surface." Chirona spoke up as Kali had been rather frantic once she caught up with her and her father, her cause of concern being the dead to the world, severely burnt body she all but dragged with her. She was grateful that by the hand of the Gods that they didn't need to fight after that, this was her thoughts as she looked at the petite girl seated next to her companion.

"You were in quite the bad shape when they got back up, I had just finished disposing of some of those criminals who were trying to escape through that not-so-secret any more labyrinth entrance when your little party came rushing out." Rory took it from here, she had been tracking his dangerous and oh so exciting aura when she found the entrance, just in time too as some of their criminals were trying to escape whatever chaos he was caused down there. She didn't give bat an eye as she cut them all down like a farmer cuts his wheat to harvest.

It was quite a surprise for the group to approach the surface, only to hear the dying screams of her victims. Lucky, they had taken a chance and came up to see her rather than any other force which might have done them harm. The hellhounds were shocked to see her, but the Bicorns just thanked Emroy as, like herself, her people worshiped the dark lord. Granted bicorns worshipped both Emroy and Deldort but Emroy still showed them favor.

"I asked her aid as I didn't have the funds or the connections to care for everyone and she obliged, she went around and spoke with healers and even convinced the inn owner to let everyone stay here while they were taken care of." Chirona stated as she all but begged her for her help, which Rory did agree to give as they helped them get back to the inn since it was the only place Chirona could think of and where her remaining medicines and herbs were. They were lucky that as it was very early morning, there wasn't anybody around to give them issues and once they got to the said inn, the owner folded quickly when Rory stepped forward.

Right now, the rest of her people and the hellhounds had been scattered around both the inn, the stables, and the other nearby inns.

"I see," Lelouch breathed out, feeling a whole new level of exhaustion as he placed the mirror down before turning to face the girl in question. "Thank you for that. I don't know what I would have done if I was able to."

"Think nothing of it, I couldn't just sit back and let followers of Emroy suffer like that." Rory replied with a smile, happy that she was able to carry out her duties and help some people at the same time.

"Anyway, word soon reached the city guard of what was happening and they sent some people to investigate, once we learned that Rory the Reaper was here as well, they sent word to the Emperor. I was sent here to deal with the situation." Grey filled him in as to why he was there was it wasn't even a few hours past daybreak that people called the guards in to see to why there were so many demi-humans around, and hopefully take care of them. Thankfully once more, Rory stepped back and resolved the issue without violence as you would need to either have two or fewer brain cells or a death wish to want to start something with her.

"But I do have to say, I never imagined that there was such a vast system of tunnels underneath us this entire time, we've been looking into it for the past few days and still haven't mapped the full thing. Good job on the minotaur though, we found the body and you didn't hold back, it was a wreck." Grey added in with a whistle as he had been present when they heard not just their story but also when they had gone down into the labyrinth, using the map that Chirona had taken from Lelouch's next to destroyed satchel and had found the remains of the monster.

He had only ever seen such a beast twice and the first time around, he and his small party had fled, too green to fight it but smart enough to know when to quit. The second time was when he was older, more experienced, and had more people with him and even then, it was an exhausting effort to kill the beast and it had still cost them the lives of 4 of their number. With that in mind, leaning that such a small and inexperienced hastily put together team had done the same was shocking enough, finding the brutalized remains was just the icing on the cake as he couldn't imagine anything less than another minotaur, an apostle, or a dragon being capable of such carnage.

'Uh, it's all coming back to me.' Hearing all this helped to clear his thoughts and allow him to remember things more clearly. With that, not only did he get his memories back, but also the phantom pains from how hot he got and whenever his bones and muscles were destroyed only to heal near instantly. 'Just what the hell was that? Some kind of berserker mode? Is a code normally capable of that?' He asked himself as he focused on the image of what he looked like, he hadn't ever seen such a sight before in his life and he wasn't sure what to make of it. He had heard that in several warrior cultures, they took drugs and other narcotics to boast their pain threshold and increased their aggression but this far beyond that. "What about the raiders?" He would have to put a pin on that for later.

"We found some corpses, and are looking into it right now. Hopefully either their bodies or armor will give us a clue as to who they were and what group they belong to." Grey told him as along with that corpse of the beast, along the way, they found a whole slew of bodies and from how everything was when they found them, it appeared like there was sheer chaos down there. If Grey didn't know any better, he'll say that they turned on one another and went into a mad frenzy. He had no way of knowing that Lelouch's little play with that one raider had paid off much better than he had hoped as in the confusion, she managed to do quite the damage.

"So no survivors?" Lelouch asked him, getting a no from both him and Chirona while Rory merely pouted, sad that she missed out on most of the action.

"None, they either killed themselves, were killed when we tried to capture them, or…" Grey started before he began to look comfortable.

"Or what?" Lelouch pressed, he needed as much info as he could get his hands on seeing how whoever was controlling all of this wasn't one to underestimate.

"Or something else killed them, it was like their brains burst or something as they started muttering nonsense, pleading with someone but never giving a name before blood leaked out their ears and noses before they dropped dead." Grey told him as it was quite unnerving to watch as prisoners just expired like that. Though Lelouch was more thoughtful about this as he already knew about the failsafe programmed into them like a kill switch in a computer, the real question was what was worth all this effort to hide. He didn't see it, but Rory did pick up on the fact unlike the other two, he didn't seem all this disturbed by the details of their deaths.

"What I want to know is, what did you did do back there? Kali couldn't describe it but she did say your tattoo glowed like a fire when you turned." Chirona asked him to change the subject, and also get some long-awaited answers. With three pairs of eyes on him, Lelouch found that he didn't plan for this, as he had no idea he had such a power so he had to be careful with how he worded things.

"To be honest with you…I have no clue. I remember feeling angry, and useless since I wasn't healing fast enough to help, then I felt this scorching sensation." He started as he could almost feel the heat within in from that fight. "After that, it was like some kind of drug trip, I was there but not really. Honestly, I've never been that savage with…well, anything. But my best guess is that my body's natural limiters were realized, so even though I didn't gain any more muscle mass, I was still performing at levels that shouldn't have been possible." He kept as close to the truth as he could be without giving up too many details as at this point, he had some theories, but he only told them about the one that was most feasible, and believable to those without the full context of his code and strange relationship with his patron deity.

"Natural limiters?" Grey asked him, sounding confused. Oh yes, he forgot that this world didn't have as complex and detail an understanding of the bodies of living creatures as his old one did.

"Yes, all creatures have some form of limiter. For beings with muscles and bones like us, we have them so that we don't break ourselves by accident as unlike parts in a machine such as a wagon, you can't just replace them, and healing not only takes time for can only do so much." He explained to them, keeping it simple for the sack of time and because he wasn't an expert on this. The trio took his words in and thought about and while none of them understood the human body, not being healers and all, they could see the logic in it.

"Makes sense, I can think of more than a few soldiers who would want that but I can see why it a double-edged sword." Grey said as while it sounded nice that all men had an innate power to do more than they normally do, basically being a one-shot bow kind of rained on that parade as it would mean entire armies would be rendered useless after only a couple minutes of combat if they were lucky.

"Anyway, from what I can recall, I must have somehow bypassed those restraints, and my…apostle status meant that I could heal any damage in lightning speed." Lelouch said, really wondering if his code even lets him qualify to be considered one at this point. "Which I why I'm wondering what my body is in so much pain right now, I feel so weak that a kitten could beat me." He finished as he felt his bandaged chest and man, he may have never been the poster child for physical health or male performance, but this was low, even for him.

"Even immortal bodies like ours have limits, maybe you overtaxed it and it's taking a while to, I think the best way to put it would be 'catch its breath'." Rory spoke up, giving her a suggestion as to why he was like this.

"Has this ever happened to you?" Chirona asked her, getting a negative from the apostle.

"Never, but then again, I didn't think it was possible to rush your healing to the point you burst into flames like that." Rory said with a laugh at the end as it must have been quite the sight to behold. After that, a silence fell over the room as Lelouch took everything in and thought about what this meant for them.

"What's going to happen now?" He eventually asked.

"Well, the emperor has heard what has happened and had decided that an imperial escort will company you and the bicorn back to their village, the imperial court will also pay for your expenses." Grey informed him, catching him off guard at such a generous thing from a head of state, and in his experience, politicians never gave out such things without some kind of catch. And for an emperor of an empire that was openly hostile towards foreigners and demi-humans, this was even stranger.

"That seems…rather odd." Lelouch voiced that thought to the knight, who shrugged his shoulders.

"Consider it payment for uncovering this new criminal threat. The emperor ordered that I inform you that the city guard will look into this." Grey told him as a way to explain the rather strange gift from his majesty as even those in the senate found it strange. Prince Zorzal in particular was very much against helping the demi's but the brash teen's wishes weren't his father's orders.

"When can we leave then?" Lelouch asked as he laid back down, giving himself some much-needed rest.

"Don't worry, you'll be out of that bed in a few more days, your lover here made sure to take good care of you as you recovered, having to drink an herbal tea she blended which is supposed to relieve muscle pain and restore your strength and stamina." Rory teased as she looked towards the bicorn, who yelped out in hot pink embarrassment as Lelouch turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

"Is that right? Thank you, Chirona. You're a lifesaver." He thanked her with a smile as he closed his eyes. The fact that he thanked her and looked rather charming with that content smile on his face sent the girl into a downward spiral as she recalled the times she sat by his bedside tending to him, speaking with him as if he could hear her. All of that made her face red as she shot back up to her hooves, ignoring the pain in her knee from this.

"It was nothing! I GOTTA GO!" Chirona managed to get out before she rushed out of the room, in doing so, she left them in stunned silence as none of them thought she would have such an extreme reaction to this. This went on for about a couple of seconds before Grey burst into laughter while Rory joined in but in a much more subdued manner.

"I think you embarrassed the poor girl." Grey laughed as Lelouch just looked on, wondering why she would have such a response to his gratitude. He hasn't been mean or anything with her, and she had only done what one would expect from an ally.

"What, she was nothing but a dutiful lover, I would think jealous, does the miss not treat you like that at home?" Rory pointed out, turning the situation on its head as she turned to Grey. Leaving Lelouch to ponder how in the hell people started seeing them as lovers when they had only known one another for a few days.

"Lover? I thought you were just messing with her but we're not together." He asked the two, wondering how he didn't notice it sooner. It seems that no matter where he went or what he did, he will always attract females, at least now it was a woman rather than some teenagers.

"Really, could have fooled me." Rory shrugged her shoulders, deciding against telling him that Kali and Ghira had already told them how the two smelt like one another. "Sir knight, might I have a word alone with your guest?" Rory asked out of the blue, catching the two flat-footed as Grey looked towards her, visible thinking it over before opting to let her do as she pleased., not like she would do something bad.

"Of course, but don't take took too long, the healer said he needed his rest, immortal or no." Grey said as he left the room, leaving the two immortals alone for the first tme as Rory turned her gaze towards him. He didn't know why, but he knew that no matter how this ended, things will not be the same.

Well, that part is done. Let me tell you when I set out to write this, I had no idea that it would turn into a three-part thing. I was only aiming for two chapters, back to back and yet, here we are. Anyway, how'd all of you like this chapter? I did some experimenting with things here such as trying to give more vivid descriptions and the like as well as getting into the heads o the other characters since if it wasn't already clear, Lelouch wasn't really in the right state of mind when he went all Vasto Lorde back then. And yes, you hear me, Vasto Lorde. His form was inspired by Ichigo in Bleach as not only are these two shows two of my favorite from the late 2000s but both Lelouch and Ichigo are voiced by the same guy in the English release for both their respective shows.

Although I do mean inspired and not copied as if any of you know Bleach, then you know that how I wrote Lelouch's powers and mindset differs greatly from what Ichigo was like when he battled Ulquiorra. One thing for example, rather than having hollow mask with horns that can charge his ceros(energy blasts), he still used his scroll-only now he's capable of pumping far more magic into them, which allowed him to charge up and fire a very(very!) low powered Hadron blast in much the same way the Gawain would of. It's of course weaker as if it wasn't, then that shot would have easily killed that minotaur if not blown giant holes straight through it.

Another thing that is changed is kind of a mix of my Attack on Titan and FMA Brotherhood as he like any of the Homunculus or anyone with a Philosopher's Stone, he was able to near-instantly regrow limbs and repair extensive damage with ease, only where they used their stones to change energy straight into whatever mass they need, his body worked like a titan-shifters in AoT on fast forward, hence the steam whenever he was repairing the damage. The fire was more of my own thing as two of his core beliefs is destruction before creation and that one should be willing to accept the negative consequences for their actions so his body continually destroying itself plays to both of those as when he uses such power(at least for now) it reflects right back at him.

Lastly, Lelouch's dream was an idea I had after watching Rising of the Shield Hero(can't wait for season 2 and 3 BYW) and in both episode one and episode 21, Naofumi dreams of a place he had never been to and has no connections to. I liked the type of foreshadowing it used and without spoiling it for those of you who haven't watched it yet, I used it in much the same fashion. As to where that place is and its connections to him…we shall learn more in time, so don't even bother asking cause I'm not telling.