"Hey. Wake up." A feminine and a little childish voice entered my ears as someone shook me up.

Wake up?

Why the hell!

I didn't want to wake up! It was too early...

"I'm sleepy," I mumbled as I swatted away the annoying hand over my shoulder that was shaking me. But that hand was persistent. It latched onto me again.

"Get up! It's time."

What time?

Speaking of time... Just how much time has it been?

How long have I been sleeping?

When was the last time I was awake?

I don't remember.

I remember meeting those four dumb demons.

Ah. Right. Didn't I go to Lilith's place after that?

The fragmented memories slowly made its way to my mind. And when I finally recollected the details of the things that happened at Lilith's apartment, it hurt! It fucking hurt.

Eve!

I'm sorry!

I apologized as loudly as I could inside my heart, hoping that it would reach her. And at that moment, someone splashed a bucket of ice-cold water upon me. I quickly rolled myself to the side to prevent the water from doing more damage than it already had done.

"Damn it! What's your problem?" I roared as got up. When I looked around, I saw a blond girl standing there with both her hands in a defensive stance. Her little frame looked frail, and her face had a tinge of red. She wore slightly worn clothes and there was a black choker in her neck that looked like it was made of metal.

"Who the hell are you?" I instantly used my all-seeing eyes and realized that she was an angel.

"Hu? Do you have a concussion? But I remember I treated you well..." That girl was shocked. She quickly put down her defensive stance and walked towards me. She placed her palm over my head. I felt her lifeforce entering my head. I opened my all-seeing eyes and observed her. Her healing ability was even stronger and purer than Lilith. But Lilith had more potential than her. I did not doubt that she would, one day, become a better healer than this person.

"Just who the hell are you and what are you doing in my bedroom." I hit her hand and pushed it away.

"Bedroom? You do seem to have amnesia. I don't know if I should treat you or not." I agreed that I didn't remember what had happened, but I had some fragments of those memories. Calling it amnesia wouldn't be right. I tried to think and find who she was.

"Wait... Are you Maria?" I had heard one of the Seraphs was a powerful healer but I had never met her before. The lifeforce of this girl in front of me was surely on par with the Seraphs. I had no intention of measuring her with her appearance. Even though she looked and behaved like a young girl, she was way older than me in age, most probably.

"Sigh. My poor hopes." I was right! It was really Maria. But what was she doing here? As why did she woke me up so cruelly?

"Just what do you want from me?"

"It's time to wake up. You were snoring so much that it was getting irritating."

"I don't snore!" Eve never told me that I snore. This Maria is such a liar.

"How do you know?" Maria questioned back.

"Just why are you here?"

"Are you blind? Can't you see this? You're the one who put this shackle on me! You're the one who forced me to be always around you." Maria pointed at that metallic choker in her neck. That only looked like an accessory to me, not a shackle. And there was nothing holding that choker down. She could have left anytime she wanted.

Maria sighed as she felt my questioning gaze.

Maria then walked away. She was about seven feet away from me when she stopped. Or I should better say she was forced to stop. Maria was held down by a chain that materialized out of nowhere, connecting to the choker of her neck. I followed that chain only to realize that its other end was wrapped around my left arm.

Wow... What was that?

"Can you please let me go? It's urgent." Maria pleaded with teary eyes, as if I had wronged her. I was sure I must have done that to obtain a reliable healer...

I stood up and tried to unwrap that chain from my arm, but it was to nought. The chain would not budge, no matter how much force I applied. I checked its material and found that it was made of Requidust. But that didn't make sense. I could break Requidust if I used full force, but this strange material wouldn't show any sign of breaking. It was hard, but it felt elastic. It was like a weird ability instead of a material.

"I can't break this ability for now," I informed Maria. I let go of it and rested again.

"Why the hell? I need to go to pee!" Maria jumped over and shook me hard.

I was dumbfounded. She could have said that before, and I'd have tried other things to break that chain! I wouldn't want a girl to embarrass herself in front of me by wetting her clothes.

I got up and tried harder to break that chain again. I even hit that chain with Eden's Scream. A crack appeared. But to my despair, a lifestream syphoning ability was infused in that chain which regenerated that material... My dark form was way too perverse to create an ability like that.

Did I have to go to the dark side again to break it? But that wasn't fair! I didn't want to do that for such a stpid matter. And then a question appeared in my mind.

"How did you go before?" Breaking and recreating the chain repeatedly for small things was a dumb idea. I would never waste my lifeforce like that, no matter how my senses might have dulled with darkness.

Maria blushed and looked down. I knew she was hiding something from me! I just stood there without speaking anything else. Minutes passed and she couldn't tolerate it anymore.

"You always increased its length by infusing your lifeforce," Maria said in a meek tone. I couldn't help but chuckle at her expression.

I tried to infuse lifeforce into the chain, and it worked. It was like automatic creation, but when I stopped feeling that chain with lifeforce, it started to contract and restore to its original length. Just how many strange abilities did I infuse in this chain, I wondered. I infused more of my lifeforce and the chain kept extending, but in my weak state, my lifeforce wasn't enough to extend and maintain that chain by more than thirty feet.

Maria quickly hopped out of the tent, and I followed her. The moonlight welcomed me outside. The cool breeze freshened me up and took away with it the traces of sleepiness I had left. I knew that it was too early, but I didn't know it was the middle of night!

I walked to a tree near the cliff and sat down against it. Even though Maria had done a good job in healing me and the flames of resurrection were at work, the amount of lifeforce I had left was pitiful. Next time, I hope I would be more careful when I visit that damned place.

I raised my head and saw the moon shining brightly. It reminded me of the time when I used all-seeing eyes to look at one of the three moons of Eden. I never saw anything special about the moon. It just looked like a big chunk of rock floating up in the sky. Yes, it looked beautiful, but it wasn't important for survival. I once asked mother what is the purpose of the existence of the moons. Mother told me that everything has a purpose, but she didn't explain it to me. That answer was so vague that I couldn't understand it.

At that moment, the moon appeared strangely alluring and wondered if my Eve would be looking at the same moon right now. I wished the moon could act as a messenger and tell her on my behalf that I was sorry. Tell her that I was almost done with crafting Pandora's heart. Tell her that I wanted to see her soon. Tell her that I will not be a monster anymore. Perhaps that was the purpose of the moon.

I felt homesick...

It was too hard to stay away when my heaven was within my reach. But I didn't want my Eve to suffer because of me. That night the demons attacked me, I somehow regained my senses. But what if I didn't? What if my dark side devoured her too? It was scary to think of that.

An owl's hoot brought me out of my thoughts and I realized Maria hasn't returned yet, and I could not even sense her presence. I could sense that someone was connected to the other side of the chain, but not Maria herself. For fear that something untoward happened to her because of being bound to these weird chains, I decided to look around. I followed that chain that led me to the south of the tent.

I could hear faint cries and it didn't take me long to find out that that voice belonged to Maria. She didn't sound like she was hurt. She instead sounded desperate and irritated. I tip-toed and hid behind a shrub before looking at her. I realized that it might be a bad idea, but I couldn't help myself. I saw Maria trying to free her neck from that choker by using a wooden stick. It looked so comical. The stick broke and a part of that stick got stuck in that choker. Maria grunted in pain and then tripped down.

I couldn't break that material even with my full strength and she was trying to do the same with a stick. I couldn't help but chuckle faintly on her actions. Somehow, my faint voice was enough to enter her ears. Maria quickly gazed in my direction.

"Pervert! Pervert!" Maria hissed. She then quickly ran to me and sent a kick at my face as hard as she could. My lifeforce was spent, and I had no defence. It so hurt. But instead of being angry at her, I couldn't help but imagine how Maria was so similar to Lucy. That's how Eve had described her younger sister- energetic, violent, caring and, at times, smart. Maria had all those except smartness. Seeing my defenceless state, Maria wanted to hit me again, but I parried it and pushed her aside. Her action could potentially let me fall to the dark side again, and I didn't want that to happen. I just retreated instead of duking it out.

I went back to the tree at the cliffside where I had previously been. After a while, Maria too returned.

"I was not peeking. I was just checking upon you." I explained myself and clear the misunderstanding in case Maria thought otherwise. Maria had a complicated expression on her face.

"I know! Just what are you? You were so violent when you were at Gehenna that even the demon sovereigns and kings pissed themselves. And now you're so calm and peaceful. Tell me, which one is the real you?"

"They both are real... They both are me... I am but a bloodthirsty trying to defy his fate."

"I don't know what to say... Why don't you just give up on repeatedly going to Gehenna and getting injured? Why don't you stay the way you are?"

Well, why was I so hell-bent on going to Gehenna? I pondered upon it, and then more memories started to stir up. I remembered how Chronos confessed that the four of them were the reason for the flawed judgement!

Those assholes!

Chronos must die!

How dare those filthy demons mess with mother's Judgement!

How dare Asmodeus touch my Eve!

My peaceful senses were once again corrupted by the thoughts of vengeance. No matter how hard I try, I just cannot escape myself. I tried so hard, but all I got were a few moments of serenity. The amount of time I was in my senses was getting shorter. I needed to finish Pandora's heart soon!

I felt like drowning again in the dark emotions. They were like the earth devils, trying to bury me underground along with them. I remember how this dark side was like a gently wave at first. Now they felt like a huge tsunami ever-present behind me, just waiting for me to let go.

"Maria... If one day... My dark side endangers you... Call her name... Eve... It should... stop me still."