At the same time as Evalaite had stabbed him, Arius's eyes flung open. He was overtaken with an intense rage, as shown by his eyes, red as mortal blood. In a fluid motion, he whipped Evalaite around and pounced on top of her. Their station's had been reversed, but the knife still stuck into Arius's throat. The hilt of it pointed downward, close to Evalaite's widened and horrified eyes. Somehow, he was alive with the blade jabbed deep into his throat.

While he kept Evalaite pinned, his other hand reached up for the knife handle and pulled. Some last drops of golden blood splattered outward, and then the wound healed over instantaneously. The slice through his throat had been completely erased, not even a scar. His healing rate was insane, even among gods.

Arius smiled. His eyes changed with a flicker to their golden version.

Val watched on. Adrenaline coursed through her mind at this new information. Arius could not be killed, even if he received a fatal injury. How could anyone pose a threat to him if they could not kill him?

"Nice try," he jeered, "but I always come back from the dead. It is impossible to kill me, but very possible to kill you." He slung the knife for Evalaite's throat, stopping with the blade's edge pressed against her skin so that it brought about a sliver of gold.

Insights of the Past told her that his little speech had been a lie. While he was closer to true immortality than any of the other gods, Arius could not survive all fatal injuries, only the ones that kept most of his body's vital points intact.

"I thought that you might have a reason to keep your mind hidden from me. It was to conceal your murderous intent!" He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head hard. "I am a fool for letting your game go this far. I am guessing that you are fond of Tavras after all? That would make sense. You're soulmates with him, after all."

Arius seemed to be stalling and hesitating, not something that Val would have expected from the ruthless god of war. Then again, his eyes had become glossy under Evalaite's influence from the moment that he had woken up.

Evalaite struggled beneath Arius's stronger body. "You have a sorry excuse for a Mind Shield. Even as you put up your best defense, I can see everything about you without difficulty." Easing herself against the stone floor, Evalaite smiled since she believed herself to be in control of this situation. One delicate hand lifted to stroke Arius's cheek.

He hovered over her, frozen, while he let her touch him all over his face.

Evaluate fussed with the messy strands of his hair. After tucking that behind his ears, she stroked the side of his face close to his eyes. "Aw, you can understand so well why someone would want to kill you. What was it that made you think so poorly of yourself? Do you have a tragic backstory?" In a purring voice, Evalaite asked, "Do you have daddy issues?"

"Stop reading my mind," Arius snapped. "Nether, read it all you want, for all I care. You will not find anything to use against me that has not already been leveraged by my old man."

"Ha!" Evalaite laughed curtly in his face without a care for the knife that was pressed against her neck. "I do not even need to read your mind. You give me information willingly from your own lips. Can you tell me why you are having this conversation with me? Why have you not killed me yet, Arius, god of war?" Her smile was so self-assured, it was evident that she already knew the answer.

For Arius, he blinked a few times as if coming back to consciousness, but a haze fell over his eyes again. Meanwhile, his power leakage had faded so that his eyes returned to their dull, natural brown color. He stared unmoving at the knife at Evalaite's neck. "I… don't know."

"You cannot kill me." Skin flashed as Evalaite threw back her head. She further exposied the tender underside of her neck to Arius. Her arms trailed upward so that she could lay across the floor in a classically lewd and submissive way—ironic, given that she had Arius under her control on top of her. In that motion, she plucked the knife away from her own neck. "I will be taking that from you."

Locked in her ability of Seduction, Arius had no other choice but to let her slither like a snake beneath him.

Her fingers played with the knife that she held over her head. "I could keep stabbing you until I figure out what kills you. How does that sound to you?" She licked her lips and traced that knife tip close to her lips. "I really doubt that you can come back to life from everything."

"Fuck you," Arius managed to spit out. Based on the way that his neck strained, those words of defiance seemed to take an undue amount of willpower for him to utter.

"I think that you misspoke." A wicked grin climbed onto Evalaite's lips.

A soft groan came from Arius as he squeezed his eyes shut. The sound was not one of pain, but almost recognizable as pleasure. "Fuck me," he whispered. "Stop messing with my head, or body, or whatever it is that you are doing to me! Leave me alone."

"No," Evalaite said with a tittering laugh. "I suppose that I could give you a safe word." She brought the edge of the knife to her lips. There, she tapped the blade as if genuinely considered the idea. "Then again, I don't believe that I care about what you want. Did I ask for your consent when I stabbed you? No." She laughed at her own sick joke. "At least I will make you forget about that. The memories that I am going to give you will be a lot more pleasant."

Evalaite lunged upward and flipped Arius over to his back now. For such a delicate frame, she slammed him onto the stone floor hard.

A tremor ran through Arius's body. He was definitely not shaking from fear. That must have been some other kind of reaction incited by the way that Evalaite toyed with his body and mind.

When she placed two fingers overtop of Arius's forehead, a ring of silver light began to glow against his skin. His eyes closed, and his face turned into the peace of sleep. Again, he was unconscious.

"Consider yourself lucky, Arius, the Ravager, god of war and love. I think that you might just be more useful to me dead than alive." Sticking a finger deep into her mouth and coating it with her saliva, Evalaite drew that same finger down the center of Arius's lips.

That was simply repulsive.

In truth, Val had a hard time watching this. It was like watching an overpowered sociopath beat an innocent person around in a brutal display. Instead of being a physically stronger bully, Evalaite was the mentally superior one. She brought unnecessary abuse upon Arius, complete with sexual overtones.

Though Val did not have a physical stomach in her vision, she still had the churning sensation of disgust. Apparently Arius was being psychologically violated, and knowing Evalaite, it abhorred her to imagine the content in which she edited into his memories. Perhaps Val could have discovered the nature of Arius's phony memories with Insights of the Past if she tried hard enough, but frankly, she did not want to know.

As it was, Val knew enough to understand that Arius and Evalaite should not be a couple by any means. Funny how the supposed god of love could have the most messed up relationship imaginable.

Evalaite dusted herself off, wiped off the knife, and concealed it away again. She wandered about Arius's home as if she owned the place. Having found his bedroom, she hauled him up by the armpits and dragged him into the shadowed rectangle that made for an interior doorway.

The manner in which Arius behaved in the morning would reveal exactly how Evalaite had changed his memories.