Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot-Chapter 158 - 157 - Raven’s wakes up.

Sometime later.

"...the demon vanished before we could even move. It was as if he was preparing to leave long before he saw us."

"Squeak!"

"Nibbles says that he can’t stay here for long. This place reeks of demonic mana."

"Siris is now stable. Mostly."

"...She’s literally duct-taped to a boulder."

"Well, she tried to cut the head off a half-burnt demon."

"I wanted to get at least one head, and that one seemed most normal to me!"

The voices blended like a static hum at first. Raven stirred.

Pain.

It was like every bone in his body had filed a complaint and unionized overnight.

His muscles screamed, his veins itched, and his core felt like it had been through three incompatible software updates.

But he could move.

Barely.

He clenched his right hand—and the tattoo on his skin pulsed.

"Ugh..."

He groaned.

The moment he did, the background went quiet.

"...is he waking up?"

There was a whisper.

’Selena?’ Raven thought, shifting on the softness under his head.

"I think so."

Another voice replied, and Raven knew exactly who it was.

’Clara.’

Then he opened his eyes. Slowly.

"Good morning~" Clara cooed from above, staring down at him with a smile as he lay on her lap.

Raven stared at her for a heartbeat, then closed his eyes.

"Let’s do it again," he said.

Clara giggled as he opened his eyes again, and Clara leaned in again.

"Good morning~"

Raven smiled, raising his hand and pulling her closer.

Chu~!

He kissed her lips lightly, making her smile wider, and then he sat up straight, only to see Selena staring at her with an expectant expression, her head tilted.

He opened his arm, and she crouched down, hugging him before her lips met his.

A short kiss followed.

Then, with their foreheads touched, their breaths trickling on each other’s skin, Selena muttered. "Do you know how worried we were?"

"My bad," Raven whispered. "Next time, I’ll try to make it more obvious that I’ll be falling unconscious."

Selena deadpanned, putting some distance between Raven and herself, staring at him.

Raven shrugged innocently, making Selena shake her head with a helpless smile.

Soon, he stood up, stretching a bit, groaning as his muscles still ached like hell.

Then, he willed for Omni to materialize, and his tattoo pulsed, and Omni appeared in his hand.

"Damn, man," he let out a long breath. "I didn’t know I’d go radio silent if you, my owner, passed out! That’s messed up!"

"Guess we learn something every day." Raven rolled his shoulder, only to pause as a voice called out from behind.

"Hubby!!" Siris’s whining voice echoed, "What about my kiss?!"

Raven turned around and deadpanned. "Why is she duct-taped to a boulder?"

He turned toward Selena as he asked that.

He had a feeling she was the one who did that.

Selena didn’t dodge his gaze and shrugged. "Would you have preferred a half-burned demon head staring at you when you woke up?"

Raven’s expression froze, his head creaking toward Siris, who looked away, mumbling. "I was trying to bring you a gift."

"Who told you that I liked decapitated heads?"

"Well, you were talking to a demon’s head during mid-fight before," Siris defended herself. "So, I thought you liked talking to them."

Raven didn’t know what to say, so he merely sighed, moving toward Siris, groaning in the process as every step was strenuous.

Then, with a clean slash, he cut off the duct-tape-like things keeping Siris in place.

"Yeah, sure," Omni muttered dryly. "Use the blade that slices through reality itself... to cut some damn duct tape. Genius move, boss. Truly peak efficiency."

"You are the only blade I have, Omni," Raven spoke with emotion. "Who else am I gonna use if not you?"

"Don’t think those sweet words are gonna melt me," Omni said flatly. "I’m forged from the strongest cosmic metal, not marshmallows. And besides—your little psycho queen over there? She could’ve snapped those restraints with a flick if you just gave her the go-ahead."

"Well," Raven scratched his head, "She was looking at me with those expectant eyes, so I moved on instinct."

Before Omni could say anything, Siris jumped on him, hugging him like a koala on a tree.

"My kiss?" She asked, making Raven lean forward and peck her lips.

"Hehe~" She beamed, sticking her tongue out at Selena, who merely shook her head.

"Now," Raven, holding a groan of pain, forced a smile at Siris. "Can you get down? My body can’t really do more than walking right now."

Siris quickly jumped down, her expression filled with worry.

"Sorry," she muttered.

"It’s fine, Siris," he said, patting her head. "I’ll carry you all you want later."

Siris’s expression lit up, and she nodded furiously.

The others approached him, Clara and Selena reaching him from either side, letting him lean on their bodies.

"How’s your body?" Lia asked, her tsundere side nowhere to be seen as only worry was visible in her eyes. "Should I try healing you?"

"Nah, don’t worry," Raven waved his hand. "No healing can heal the drawback of a mortal body trying to wield a dangerous power."

Before anyone else could say anything else, Raven turned toward Jessy, the sanest of the group, and spoke.

"So? What happened?" He asked. "I need to be done with everything here quickly so that I can finally get some proper sleep."

Jessy nodded, giving a calm but concise report.

As Raven listened, he moved further into the cave along with Selena, Clara, Jessy, Graye, Siris, and Jake.

Every step, however, was like stepping on regrets for him.

Rufus, Alex, and Nibbles weren’t with them, as they had stayed behind, guarding the entrance.

Inside the cave, the deeper the group walked, the colder it got. Not temperature-wise. Atmosphere-wise.

Then, when they finally reached the end of the cave, they saw it.

A human figure, lying right next to the summoning altar, surrounded by ancient stone carvings and dried blood trails that looked far too geometrically perfect to be natural.

The figure was male. He was slim, his skin pallid, almost waxen, like a perfectly preserved corpse.

His chest didn’t move. His eyes were closed.

There was no breath or aura.

"He’s been dead for a long time," Jessy murmured, frowning.

Everyone stood in silence, the weight of the atmosphere pressing down—

"Um," Graye’s voice piped up.

All heads turned.

She was crouched beside the body, staring intensely, her nose almost touching the man’s face.

"He just—he, um, he... jiggled."

"...Jiggled?" Raven asked.

"He wiggled!" Graye insisted. "Like... like a little... twitch worm thingy! I saw it!"

Everyone stared.

"Graye," Clara said slowly, "are you... sure?"

"Yes! I’m not crazy! Well, not the bad kind!"

Jessy sighed. "She probably sneezed and mistook the shadow movement again."

"I did not! He’s twiggling! I mean—twitching!"

Before anyone could respond, Siris straightened up beside her. "She’s right," she said coolly. "That corpse is moving. We should cut off its head now. For safety."

"No," Raven said automatically.

"But—"

"No."

"But it’s wiggling, and that’s what they all do before they screech and lunge at you!"

Ignoring those two, Raven had already walked up to the altar, examining the summoning circle. His fingers brushed over the grooves. Omni hummed louder.

"Looking at everything—the human and the tree veins—I don’t think this is a normal summoning circle," he muttered. "This is something new."

"Hm," Omni hummed in Raven’s head. "That stroke right there? Screams life. That one’s sacrifice. And that squiggly nightmare over there? Yeah, that’s pure summoning. So, safe to say, this ain’t your average summoning circle. This one’s got drama written all over it."

’...You know about magic circles?’ Raven inwardly questioned in shock.

"What? Why can’t I know about them?"

’...Well, you seemed more like an action lover than a knowledge lover.’

Omni paused. "...That’s true."

’So? How do you know about it?’ Raven pressed while brushing the veins away from the altar.

"Well, I got all those magic circles etched on my body," Omni shrugged his imaginary shoulders. "Sure, mine are way too high-level to be compared to these flimsy knockoffs, but hey—basics are basics. I know the language, even if these scribbles barely qualify."

’Wait—! You’ve got a summoning magic circle—’

Before Raven could complete his words, Omni spoke. "Imma stop you right there, man. I ain’t answering squat till you unlock them restrictions, alright? So save your breath. No point askin’ when the lock’s still on."

Raven sighed, now staring at the complete magic circle with his arms crossed.

Meanwhile, Siris kept poking Clara with her elbow. "Tell him! You tell him! He trusts your voice."

Clara was ignoring her.

"Fine," Siris turned to Selena. "You’re a princess. You tell him the corpse is twitching."

Selena didn’t even glance. "The last time I listened to you, you tried to bring a goat into training."

"It was a war goat." Siris hissed. "He was a patriot."

Suddenly, Jake stepped forward, staring hard.

"...Wait."

He squinted.

"...It’s breathing." frёewebηovel.cѳm

The silence snapped like a wire.

Everyone turned.

The ’corpse’ just took a breath. A small one. It was shallow but definitely there.

"I TOLD YOU!" Graye shouted, triumphant, doing a little victory dance that nearly tripped her over a rock.

"Thank you," Siris said smugly. "Now can we decapitate him?"

Raven narrowed his eyes, staring at the man on the altar, who had now slightly shifted his fingers.

"...No," Raven said. "We wait. We don’t know for sure if he’s human, so for now, we stay alert."

"So do we not stab him?"

"No stabbing."

Siris sighed and pouted. Graye whispered to her, "Maybe later?"

"Maybe later," Siris agreed quietly.

Jake leaned closer to Raven. "What do we do if he’s not a human?"

Raven didn’t respond right away.

Omni pulsed.

"If he is a demon, we’ll get our answers out of him," Raven finally said. "Then let Siris handle him."

He stepped back from the altar, Omni in hand, the cave flickering in the light.

Behind them, the group stood tense.

The figure twitched again.

This time, it opened its eyes.

They were pale, sky-colored eyes.

"...op."

That’s what it said.

"Did he say, ’OP’?" Graye asked in a whisper. "Is he talking about Raven being OP?"

Everyone turned to her speechlessly; even the figure on the group seemed to be doing the same.

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