'So this was what it was about?'
Iris thought that while she healed Damon's arm, and he didn't want to explain much.
"I think the chimera bit me down there in the lab."
She knows it's a lie, but she wants to be as helpful as possible to her savior.
"Done."
"You spent a lot of energy today, it's good if you rest."
'He calls me by my name and then tells me to rest? I hit the jackpot today!'
The skin on Damon's forearm, before all gray... now looks... normal.
"Efficient," he mutters, looking away toward the big window.
Iris blinks, her cheeks turning red.
To her, that "Efficient" was basically a poem.
"I just did my job... Damon."
For her, the legendary Zero, the "King of Death", letting her touch him and showing weakness is like a giant romantic flag.
The silence in the room is heavy and awkward for Damon, who just wants to cry, but it's loaded with romantic tension for Iris.
"That thing in the sewers..." Iris tries to go back into Iron Captain mode.
"Thanks... even if it was reckless to use that 'personal technique'."
Damon feels cold sweat slide down his back.
"Personal technique" sounds way cooler and more heroic than "Broken Gun that sucks my life because I'm a weak F-rank loser".
"It was necessary," he cuts in, walking stiffly to the minibar. He needs water or vodka or a whole body transplant. "Don't mention it in the report, your mother doesn't need to know the details."
"The secret dies with me. Nobody will know you worried so much about my safety that you risked your own life essence to protect me."
Huh?
Damon stops with the glass halfway up.
"Sure," Damon answers, throat dry. "Anything for the mission."
"For the mission... and for us," Iris whispers, so low Damon doesn't hear it.
***
Damon flopped back onto the couch and let out a sigh that felt like his lungs deflated.
"That was insane," he muttered, rubbing his right arm.
"We found a hidden lab in the sewers and I had to use EVE to erase a beast that almost ate the captain for lunch."
Jude, sitting on the floor surrounded by burger wrappers, nodded with his mouth full.
"But you lived, bro. That's what counts. And the captain? Did she suspect anything about... you know, the part where you were rotting alive?"
Damon tensed.
His mind flashed to that intimate moment in the elevator, the warm light, Iris's blush... NO. That was classified material.
"Nah, all good," Damon waved it off. "She healed me, that's it."
From the back of the chair, a black cat yawned, stretching its claws with insulting laziness.
"What a liar you are, 'Pet'," Aiwass's voice echoed in both their heads, dripping with mockery.
"You skipped the part where the 'Iron Princess' was looking at you like you were the last Coke in the desert."
Damon almost choked on his own spit.
"Aiwass! Shut up!"
The cat licked a paw with total elegance, ignoring Damon's mental yelling.
"Oh, Damon, thank you for saving me," Aiwass imitated in a high, ridiculously cheesy voice.
"Please don't die, my heart couldn't take it." She basically proposed with her eyes while she healed your arm."
Jude burst out laughing, spitting a piece of pickle onto the carpet.
"No freaking way!" Jude shouted, slapping the floor laughing.
"The 'Ice Queen'? She's falling for you? HAHAHA! shit, you're playing on Hardcore mode with the feelings of the final boss's daughter."
"She's not falling for me!" Damon jumped up.
"She's just confused because she thinks I'm some tragic hero or whatever. It's... it's the 'suspension bridge effect', that's all."
"Yeah, sure, and I'm the next Mage King," Jude wiped a tear from laughing.
"Dude, if the guildmaster finds out you're flirting with her daughter while you're pretending to be her favorite bio-weapon... she'll skin you alive."
"I'm not flirting!" Damon squeaked.
"Whatever, Romeo. What matters is your cover story holds, so while you guys were in the sewers I finished the dirty work."
"What work?" Damon asked, still red.
"The 'girlfriend' papers," Jude pointed at the cat with a french fry.
"I hacked the civil database last night, now Aiwass has a birth certificate, passport, and a clean medical history from a Pacific island that sank two years ago, so if the Inquisitors investigate, they'll find she's a tragic, model citizen..."
***
Far from the cozy heat of the penthouse, in a room lit only by the electric blue glow of dozens of monitors, someone was very awake.
CLICK. CLICK. TAP.
Pale, bony fingers danced over a holographic keyboard at an inhuman speed.
Dr. Cross adjusted his round glasses, the lenses reflecting the slow-motion replay of the sewer fight.
There it was.
On the main screen, the image froze right when Damon's arm held the EVE Gun.
There was no mana.
Conventional sensors showed a "Void" of data, an error, a glitch in reality.
But Dr. Cross wasn't watching the conventional sensors.
"Magnificent..."
His eyes, bloodshot from no sleep, shined with sick fascination.
He didn't care his precious Chimera got reduced to nothing.
He pressed one final key.
BEEP!
A red warning window blinked in the center of the screen, confirming what his craziest theory had predicted.
[SPECTRUM ANALYSIS: COMPLETE]
[ENERGY SIGNATURE: UNIDENTIFIED]
[PHENOMENON PROBABILITY: VOID RESONANCE]
"I knew it!" Cross kicked his chair back hard.
He paced the room, giddy.
Everyone thought Zero was strong because of his mana level.
Idiots!
What Zero just showed wasn't magic, it was the ability to deny it.
Cross slowly stroked the frozen image of Damon on the screen.
"I thought you got rusty, but you're still the top predator," he said with a nasty little laugh.
"Phase 1 was a success, so let's see what you do when we turn up the difficulty."
CLICK.
The file name blinked red:
[PROJECT: DEICIDE - STARTING...]