Blessed by Night

Chapter 152  A New Promise

After becoming the avatar of night, Malachi was strong.

However, he was in no way strong enough to clear a SSS rated gate on his own in under twenty minutes. It was insane. Nonsensical even. He wouldn\'t have believed it if it weren\'t coming directly from the mouths of Luna and Bianca. "Did I hurt either of you..?" He asked.

Luna and Bianca both shook their heads no, but Bianca\'s cheeks admittedly became hot when he remembered how he pushed them down. She elected not to tell him about how they almost had their first time inside of a gate as she wanted to save him the shame of doing it and herself the embarrassment of admitting that she almost went through with it. "You didn\'t hurt us, you actually seemed to recognize us if only a little." Luna said. Malachi wondered if the reason why he recognized the girls was because they had a bit of his essence inside of them. And if they didn\'t... he shuddered to think of what could have happened to them. Before he could fall too deep into his self loathing, Luna climbed on top of them and took his face in her hands. Her eyes were gentle and contained unparalleled concern and affection. "Darling... Do you know why I love you so much?"

"...Nah.. still trying to figure that out." He admitted. "It is because you are the most gentle and loving person that I have ever known. No matter what you have suffered through in the past you have always remained the same compassionate man."

Just to make this moment a bit more tender, she pressed her lips against his forehead and let them linger there as she spoke to him. "I know that you love all of us so much that it hurts, and you should know that we all feel the same way about you. But we cannot be the reason why you lose yourself and become someone vengeful."

Luna would never be able to forget the few moments before Malachi changed. She could literally feel his entire being drowning in worry, hatred, and negativity. That wasn\'t the man she loved. And it practically broke her heart to see him become someone like that. "You always say that you\'ll do whatever we ask of you, yes? Then I need you to make all of us a promise right now." "...Name it."

"No matter what happens, you cannot let the world harden your heart again. You are the most powerful man alive, so that means that you have to be that much more mindful of how you deal with adversity. I don\'t want you to become someone the world has to fear every time one of us gets a little scratch. I want you to always be the man who is unconditionally compassionate, and looks out for those in need above all."

As of this moment, Luna may as well have been asking Mal to give her the moon. How could he not react if something happened to these girls?

How was he supposed to just keep a smile on his face and keep moving?

Not just them, but if anything happened to his sister, or his best friends, or even one of the other girls at the guild, he felt like would go absolutely ballistic. And who could blame him??

He was already so tired of loss that the slightest danger aimed at someone he loved was enough to send him off the deep end.

But the more he thought about it, he realized that therein lie her point. Malachi almost ate people today. Innocent, kind people who had never done a single thing to him were almost taking up permanent residence inside his stomach, and he didn\'t even remember it. All because he was overwhelmed with the fear that he might lose Anna, and a rage that wanted to make the whole world pay for her loss. That wasn\'t healthy. Luna was right; he had to get control of himself before another incident like this took place in the future, and he destroyed the world before the other nightmares even got a chance to. At his core, he was a good person who didn\'t want to cause any harm. It wasn\'t in his character. And he couldn\'t let the world change that about him... no matter what obstacles he may end up facing. Looking around, he could see Sei, Bianca, and Luna all giving him the same concerned eyes. Even though Luna had been the only one talking this whole time, it was clear that they all felt the same way as her. Malachi fell backwards onto his bed and let his arms flop to his side lazily. There was a strange sense of relief in his chest, like a weight had just been removed. Maybe it was because now, he knew exactly what he had to do. "I won\'t promise you that I would just be the same if anything happened to any of you, cause I know that would be a lie. But I can atleast promise you that I won\'t be that monster again. But I can promise you that I\'ll work more on getting these new emotions under control, so that I\'ll always be able to pick myself back up."

Visible relief could be seen on Luna and all of the girls faces. Malachi always kept the promises with them no matter how absurd they may have been. And now, they were more than confident that this one would be much the same. His bold promise caused all the girls to promptly dive on top of him and smother his face with kisses. It was a very sweet moment, and it reaffirmed his commitment to keeping the girls happy by not losing himself. Somewhere deep inside, there was a perfect balance that he need only work to find. But if it meant these girls would keep smiling, he would work as hard as he needed to. - That night, after the group coming back from the gate got showered and changed, they came out to join the rest of the guests in the living room. There were a medley of strange looks being thrown their way, almost as if they couldn\'t believe they didn\'t hear any moaning coming from their room. The rest of the night was spent in good spirits and community, with lots of laughter and jokes being thrown out casually, along with a few shared stories for Joanne who became something of a newcomer to the group. But despite that, Mal couldn\'t figure out why he  felt like he was forgetting something. This feeling persisted all the way through the dead of night, where he and the girls were lying in bed trying to go to sleep. After all of the girls were snoring lightly, he sat up on the bed when he finally remembered the guests he\'d had in storage. "Fuck... Morgan." Slipping out of bed, he started pulling on his clothes in the darkness while trying not to make a sound. However, Sei\'s eyes flashed open not long after he started getting dressed, and she also pulled herself out of bed. "Are you going somewhere, honey?" She whispered. "Yea I... have something that I sort of need to deal with." Sei did not ask any further questions and moved towards her dresser, where she also started to get dressed as quietly as possible. "What are you doing, love? Get back in bed, I\'ll be back in a few minutes." "I want to come with you." Malachi had literally just come back from an entirely different world while she spent all day worrying about him. She didn\'t want to be apart from him any more if she didn\'t absolutely have to. Besides, a part of her blessing from Hypnos meant that she didn\'t actually require sleep. It was more like a luxury that helped her to relax and pass the time when it was dark. Malachi stared at her back as she pulled a sweater and jogging pants over her body and let out a defeated sigh.

He already knew that there was no changing her mind, so he thought of a way to have a bit of fun while the world around them was still sleeping. "Alright then, since we\'re going out let\'s make it a little date night, hm?"

Finally finished getting ready, she showed him the enchanting smile of a mature woman as she took his hand in hers.

"That sounds very nice. Where are we going?"

Mal pulled on a black hoodie over his bare chest and zipped it up halfway before taking his girlfriend\'s hand in his. "I have to run an errand first but afterwards, we can go wherever you want."

-

Currently, Malachi and Sei were standing side by side in the backyard of Morgan\'s multi million dollar mansion. He held out his hand and a portal of darkness opened up in the sky, and a woman fell out onto her butt. "Ow! You could be a little more gentle with me, don\'t you think so, handsome?"

Malachi suddenly felt Sei\'s grip on his hand tighten to an unfunny degree. He always forgot how strong she was now that she was blessed, but this was a very loud and dangerous reminder. Glancing at her, he could see her staring holes into his head wearing a smile that was not a smile on her face. "Honey... who is this bitch?"