The Guarded Princess

XVIII

"Loki," Lucy looked at him and smiled.

The creature flew at them again, angered by the fact that it had dared to attack them. Loki turned around and narrowed his eyes as he prepared his Regulus, attacking it once more and defeating it with ease. A large explosion followed, resonating through the dungeon.

"Regulus."

A series of explosions followed, attacking each one of the creatures on the ground as well as the ones in the air for more had come at him. Each one returned back to rukh within the next second and the others watched with shock at how easily they were defeated. He jumped back down and watched to see that it had returned back to its original state of rukh. Seeing that it was partly safe now, he relaxed. He dusted his hands and suit before turning around to look at Lucy again. He smirked and walked over to her, hands in his pockets.

"Lucy," he softened his eyes. "You look well."

She smiled in return. "Compared to before, that might seem so," Lucy chuckled.

"The color in your skin looks better, too," he remarked. "It's been seven years since the Tenroujima Incident and for a moment, we thought that you had forgotten about us."

"I wouldn't dare," she said. "You guys are my most precious friends. You're irreplaceable."

He widened his eyes and chuckled to himself. "You're still the same Lucy even after seven years. My one and only Master."

Masrur narrowed his eyes slightly at the word "Master". If he called her by that, he must also be serving under her. He had thought that he was the only one that had been serving under her but it seems that he was wrong. But, according to Lucy, he should be the only person to serve under her. His mind was in turmoil as he tried to figure out just what kind of relationship the two had.

"You've made friends," he noticed.

Lucy turned to Kouen and the others and smiled. "Yes. They're all my important friends. They're the first people I met after waking up."

"I heard," Loki said, furrowing his eyebrows at them.

They tensed up and not once had they seen such a murderous radiate from someone. His hazel eyes stared deep into the depths of their eyes, searching for something. After what happened seven years ago, Loki wasn't going to let her go with someone so easily. If they happened to be like those selfish and arrogant humans, he would kill them right on the spot. Lucy saw the expression in his eyes and smiled sadly, knowing all too well of what he was trying to do. She tugged on his sleeve.

He looked at her in question. She shook her head and met his eyes.

"They're different," she reassured him with her bright smile, the smile that she always used to flash seven years ago. "They're my friends. The first ones to truly accept me."

"But..." he voiced but seeing her eyes, he stopped. "If you say so," he smiled. "Then a question, if you may. I'm guessing it's because of them that your eyes seem to light up again and your complexion returning back to what it had been. After all," he breathed and softly caressed her hair, mesmerized by how beautiful she was after seven years of not seeing her. "You look much livelier than you had been."

She widened her eyes, not having realized that.

Loki smiled and looked at them. "Returning back to the topic at hand, is this a dungeon?"

"You know it?"

"If you know of it, why wouldn't I know?" he smiled. "But, why would you be here in a place that can easily get a normal human killed within a split second?"