43 Being watched

That night, after another exercise session, Juin lay on his bed with ice packs on his thighs. He was working on his homework… or at least, he was trying to work on his homework. However, his mind was completely elsewhere.

Lucifer's words and Warlock's words were repeating themselves in his mind.

"Wait, I think… that x should be 13…" A deep voice suddenly sounded next to him.

Juin glanced at Lucifer, who was lying down next to him on the bed, and asked, "You know algebra?"

"Yeah, that's what that gorgeous teacher of yours said…" Lucifer said as he looked at Juin's mathematics homework. "Come on, finish your homework so that we can train again."

Juin sighed. "I can't focus. I kept thinking about Ashton…"

"What are you going to do about it? Do you want to find out the truth?"

"What should I do?"

"I'm not you. You are the owner of this body, so you have to figure it out," Lucifer said. He still had no intention of letting Juin know that he could take over his body when he was sleeping since it might come in handy one day. For now, since Juin already knew about the state of his soul, the guy could make the decision himself.

Looking at Lucifer, who was of no help, Juin could only sigh inwardly as he tried his best to focus on his homework. St. Xavier wasn't one of the top schools in the country for nothing. The amount of homework each day was enough to kill him.

After another two hours, Juin finally finished his homework. He removed the melted bags of ice from his thighs and placed them on the floor while yawning softly. He then glanced at Wesley, who was already sleeping with his blanket hanging halfway between his bed and the floor.

"He's going to get a cold later," Juin remarked as he shivered slightly. He then glanced at the opened window that was in between his and Wesley's beds. Despite his vehement protest earlier, Wesley still decided to leave the window open. And as Juin's body was completely wiped out from the training session earlier, he could not get up to close the window.

But now that Wesley was asleep, Juin was worried that the younger boy might get sick if exposed to cold air for a long time. So, even though he was tired, he still dragged his feet up to the window. Just as he was about to close the window, he suddenly saw a shadow moving near the tree outside the house.

Narrowing his eyes, Juin found a shadow that looked like a human near the tree.

"Lucifer," Juin hissed as he kept his eyes at the shadow, unwilling to lose track of who or whatever it was that was keeping an eye on his house.

Lucifer glanced over at Juin, and in a split second, he arrived at Juin's side. "What?"

Almost immediately, Juin turned around while pretending that he did not see anything outside. He then folded his arms and whispered, "I think someone is watching us…"

Lucifer looked out, and he saw the shadow as well. Not only that, but he also saw a few other shadows hiding near the houses nearby. "You've been marked…" Lucifer said with a frown. As he tried to sense the strength of their "visitors", he added, "But we knew this would have happened sooner or later. Merge with me."

"What? Seriously?" Juin asked in a low voice as he glanced at Wesley, who suddenly turned away to face the wall. "Is this a good idea?"

"Don't worry. I won't use as much energy as before. I just need to send a warning so that they know that you aren't someone that they can mess around with," Lucifer said once he sensed their strengths. In between sitting still and actively sending a warning, he preferred the latter as the impact was stronger. People already knew that Juin was not a normal human being, so there was no point for Juin to pretend that he was weak.

It was not as if he wanted them to know what Juin's strength was; this was just to scare them into thinking twice before attacking Juin.

Lucifer glanced at Juin. After sighing in defeat, Juin nodded slowly. Even if he said no, he had a feeling that Lucifer would make him do it regardless.

"Merge!"

Juin heard Lucifer say the word, yet nothing happened.

"Oh," Lucifer looked at Juin and said, "you need to relax and think about how much you want me."

"That… sounds wrong��" Juin mumbled. Yet when he saw how Lucifer was glaring at him, he quickly shook his head, closed his eyes, and tried to think back to the other day, when he had felt so helpless and desperately needed someone to help him.

When he saw the bright red dot of light in a sea of darkness, Juin immediately knew what to say.

"Merge!" Juin and Lucifer both said at the same time when they felt the connection.

Juin then felt his subconsciousness take a step backward while another stronger consciousness took over. Before, when he was so affected by his raging emotion, he did not feel this change of consciousness. But this time, he was in his own house and he was also a lot calmer, thus he was able to sense the merge.

It was a weird feeling, to feel one's consciousness being actively pushed aside and left in a dark space. Juin watched as a humanoid figure covered completely in a bright red light drifted through his own soul, and at that moment, Juin felt a surge in energy.

When he opened his eyes in the physical world, Juin's pupils were blood red for a split second before turning back to normal. He lifted his left fist and a bluish glow appeared on his fist.

Snap!

He snapped his left fingers, upon which a bluish glow formed into a blue flame above his index finger.

Without looking out the window, he flicked his left index finger, and the blue flame shot out fast as lightning before hitting the nearest person who was hiding near the tree in the front yard. Upon hearing the shriek, "Juin" grinned evilly as a shadow of a huge being with horns formed on the wall behind Juin, illuminated by the bright light on his finger.

Juin, or the one currently taking control of the body, Lucifer, flicked his finger four more times, upon which four blue flames shot out at the other four persons who were hiding under the cloak of darkness.

Still merged with Juin, Lucifer then smirked as he turned his body slightly to look at the five persons who were jumping around as they tried to remove the blue flames that were now burning up their clothes.

"Would they be fine?" Juin asked with a chuckle as he watched the five persons, who were all dressed in dark clothing, dancing about in panic. It was a weird feeling. He could see everything, like he was still the owner of the body, and yet, at the same time, he had no control over the body.

"They would…" Lucifer smirked. "That's just a small prank, to teach them a lesson. Either they extinguished it or they would be sent back naked. Although, I must say that your reputation as a notorious coward must have reached their ears. They actually sent such small fry to watch over you. I reckon, in a one-on-one battle, you could have beaten them with your Soul Fire."

Juin chuckled, completely ignoring the insulting remark and focusing only on the good point in Lucifer's words. Sometimes he felt like Lucifer was less of a demon king and more like a naughty teenage boy, and when he thought like that, it made Lucifer less scary to him.