Chapter 1034: Nudity
Chapter 1034 – Nudity
Lux exhaled.
The First Covenant’s words echoed again.
Ask the girl who still remembers her mother’s fear.
"Cyrinne," Lux murmured.
Corvus tilted his head. "You already knew?"
"I had a dream."
Zehar’s smile vanished.
Corvus froze.
The dawn wind moved between them.
Zehar’s voice lowered. "What kind of dream?"
Lux turned fully now, wing still covering him enough for Corvus’s fragile concentration. "A visitor."
Corvus’s feathers flattened. "High-level?"
"Higher than me."
Zehar’s eyes narrowed. "That is not many."
"No."
"Identity?"
Lux looked at the horizon. "The First Covenant."
Corvus’s beak opened. Closed. Opened again. Nothing came out.
Lux glanced at him. "Finally. Something stronger than nudity."
Corvus ignored him.
Zehar stepped closer. "Impossible."
"That word is becoming lazy."
"The First Covenant is sleeping."
"Yes. Apparently talking in dreams counts as sleeping for ancient beings."
Zehar’s hand tightened around his cane. "What did it say?"
Lux’s expression hardened. "A lot. Most of it annoying. It claimed Kaelmor is not draining it directly. Not yet. He’s using residue. Leaking mana."
Zehar went still.
Corvus whispered, "Residue?"
Lux nodded. "And if Kaelmor reaches deeper? It may wake incorrectly."
From behind them, the balcony door opened.
Sira’s voice came dry and immediate. "Why are you naked during a crisis?"
Corvus muttered, "Thank you."
Lux turned his head just enough to see Sira standing at the doorway, arms crossed, hair loose, eyes sharp and very unimpressed.
Behind her, Fiera peeked in and smiled.
"Well," Fiera said, "at least the crisis has a view."
Lux slowly turned his head toward her.
Fiera smiled sweetly.
The kind of smile fox women used when they had already committed the crime inside their head and were simply waiting for the victim to notice the knife had decorative ribbons.
Sira crossed her arms harder.
Lux sighed. "You guys wake up early."
Sira raised an eyebrow. "We didn’t sleep much."
"That sounds unhealthy."
Her eyes narrowed.
Lux immediately looked away.
Yes.
He heard it.
The hypocrisy.
It arrived, slapped him, and sat beside Corvus.
Fiera leaned against the balcony doorframe, tails swaying lazily behind her. "We only checked out some of the things."
Sira stepped onto the balcony, eyes flicking once toward Zehar, then Corvus, then Lux’s wing-covered dignity. "And also, we need to tell you about something else."
Lux’s expression shifted. "What is it?"
Sira hesitated.
Sira said, "Ever heard of a curse?"
Lux stared at her. "For mortals?"
"Yes."
Lux blinked. "Sira, I was Hell’s CFO. I have seen mortals cursed because they bought suspicious antiques, signed fake investment contracts with minor demons, stole from witches, loved the wrong person, hated the right person, or clicked ’I accept’ without reading terms and conditions."
Corvus muttered, "That last one is always fatal."
Lux nodded. "Legally."
Fiera smiled. "So yes?"
"Yes. What kind of curse?"
Lux continued before she could answer, because his brain had unfortunately already begun sorting curse categories.
"Bad luck curse? Bloodline rot? The kind that siphons money? Or people’s ability to make money? I’ve seen a lot of those. Some are crude. Some are very elegant."
Fiera raised one finger. "No."
Sira’s face tightened slightly. "A human became a tower."
Lux paused.
Corvus slowly turned his head.
Zehar lifted one brow.
Lux stared. "A human became a tower?"
Fiera nodded.
Lux was silent for three seconds. Then he slowly rubbed his face. "I woke up five minutes ago."
His mind moved.
A human turned into a tower.
That was not a normal mortal curse.
Transformation curses existed, yes. Flesh to stone. Flesh to gold. Flesh to wood. Flesh to ash. Those were simple enough in theory. Horrifying, but simple.
But a tower?
That meant scale expansion. Structural binding. Spatial distortion. Possibly consciousness trapped inside architecture.
Lux’s expression sharpened. "So he got cursed by something similar to my Midas Touch?"
Sira tilted her head.
"The difference," Lux continued, "is I can turn anything into gold. This curse turns flesh into stone? Or structure?"
Fiera nodded slowly. "Something like that."
Lux’s gaze lowered toward the balcony floor as he thought. "If it is stone conversion, that is one layer. If the body became a tower, then the curse didn’t only petrify. It reorganized. It imposed purpose. A shape. Maybe a function."
Sira continued, "Naomi found something in the Delacour estates."
Fiera nodded. "Yes. There is something like that there."
Lux winced. "A tower?"
"A battle tower," Fiera said. "A cursed mortal became a battle tower inside the Delacour estates. Naomi wanted to tell you about it yesterday."
Sira’s expression softened by a fraction. "But you already seemed like you had enough."
Lux was silent.
Naomi had held onto her own problem because he had looked overloaded.
He exhaled through his nose. "So can we..."
"Yes," Sira said immediately.
Lux blinked. "I didn’t finish."
"You were going to ask if we can look into it."
Fiera’s smile became more dangerous. "But there is a problem."
Lux deadpanned. "Of course there is. Problems reproduce near me."
Sira said, "You need to face them directly."
Lux frowned. "Who?"
Fiera’s tails swayed once. "Naomi’s father."
Lux stared.
"And," Fiera added, with the delicate delight of someone placing another knife on the table, "her mother."
Lux looked at her. "I see."
Sira’s lips twitched. "They demand you meet them if you want access to that place."
Lux’s expression remained calm. "Sure. We met once."
Sira’s eyebrow lifted.
Lux continued, "I’m sure we’ll have a good relationship."
Fiera laughed. She laughed like a fox watching a prince walk confidently into a trap made of parental judgment and breakfast scandal.
Lux looked at her. "What?"
Fiera wiped an imaginary tear from the corner of her eye. "Lux, you didn’t meet him. He caught you."
Sira looked away, but her mouth curved.
Fiera continued, merciless. "He caught you in the hotel restaurant the morning after you slept with Naomi."
Zehar nodded. "Continue. I enjoy aristocratic humiliation."
Lux slowly inhaled.
Then laughed.
A real laugh.
Low, warm, and slightly helpless.
"Yeah. Clearly, he didn’t like me much."
Sira crossed her arms. "That is one way to describe a father seeing his daughter with Hell’s famous playboy prince over breakfast."
Lux held up one finger. "City playboy. He doesn’t know I’m a demon."