The Guardian Demon (The Guardians of Nine Heavens #3)

Chapter 33: Johanne and Balthazar

Johanne watched Balthazar in stupefaction. For a long time, neither of them gave a word. Then, tears began to fill Johanne's eyes:

"What has happened to you..?"

"Don't give me that pitiful look, woman! It disgusts me!" The boy slapped her across the face yet again.

"I am sorry..."

"Huh?"

"I am sorry... If only I knew this would happen!" Johanne's eyes reddened from tears. "Why did you have to go this far?! All for me..."

She wept whilst gazing into his dark eyes with her shimmering blue ones. Balthazar, much to his stupor, could notice that they were not empty like the ones of a girl younger than him, but far wiser than a hundred-year-old woman's.

W... What's with this girl? As if she's truly linked with her past self, hence knows the secret of being through death and returning...

"That's because she's indeed done that. Lord Incubus has helped her."

Succubus had sent him this telepathic message. She timidly stood there in a corner and watched both of them. He glanced back at Johanne. He felt a strong urge to stroke her hair. He resisted this strange feeling for long, but then acquiesced - the desire was so strong that it couldn't be shaken off if not fulfilled.

Once Johanne felt the boy's sturdy hand caress her, a familiar sensation surged through her skin.

His touch does carry a tint of the exact same warmth as Cedric's.

"Balthazar..."

"Huh?"

"What have you come here for?"

He hesitated. He didn't want to reveal that he had been motivated by a strange urge that tormented him from the inside - apparently, the tint of that old priest Cedric's conscience that still dwelt within his soul, for he, no matter how he wished to deny it, was indeed Cedric and Baldassare of the elder days. Noticing his hesitation, Johanne went on with her soothing tone, much in High Priest Joan's manner:

"You have not risked coming beyond the borders of hell by performing a dangerous Reverse Summoning Technique only to curse me in the face, have you?"

Now it was the last straw. The boy snarled and slapped her again:

"Stop it! Shut up!"

"You too can feel your true self crying in agony from inside you, can't you?"

Johanne went on with her eyes blazing blue as they used to in her previous incarnation. It seemed that the chain between her current self and her soul was getting tighter now that she had reunited with her past brother.

Both of their souls are resonating... Succubus watched them in a stupor. Amazing... Both Cedric and Jewel were pure humans, yet, their souls are so tightly bonded that they can feel each other's presence even now when hidden deep within the subconscious of these two kids.

"Shut up! Shut... Ugh!" Balthazar raised his hand to slap her once more, but instead, his fist hit the wall beside her, making a small crack in it, so frustrated and enraged he was. Tears appeared in his eyes too - the tears he sought to conceal, for so long. "Yes! Yes, my inner voice has been telling me to find you, for all these years! It is aching, it is tormenting! And yet, it is blissful, as if it is indeed the purpose of my life... Can I not choose how to live?! Why should some voice be dictating to me the steps I take? It is unbearable!"

"It is unbearable, because you've long swayed off the right path, so now, wrong ways seem more appealing to you. However, if you continue to follow your desires and ignore that voice that speaks within you, you will soon forsake even that little light that's left in your soul. Your true self will disappear forever. You will be consumed by Black Energy. I guess, your little demoness isn't too malevolent towards you, or else, she wouldn't have guided you to me." Joan glanced at the blushing Succubus, who hid behind her demon wings. "I wonder... is she the one whom you harboured back in our past?"