As Flonne and Laharl were revealing what happened, Ivan's initial relief faded into a wide-eyed, open-mouthed stare of disbelief. Flonne had gone out for a walk in the middle of the night, by herself, for reasons beyond his fathoming, and then used up all her power helping Laharl... not that she shouldn't have helped him or anything, but it was like she had no idea how dangerous that had been! They'd been lucky to make it back.

He closed his eyes to sigh, then let them open again. "Well, I'm glad you're okay," he admitted. "I thought after everything that woman did to catch you..." He let the sentence hang. If he'd been any thicker into that fight himself, he'd have been dead.

But one thing still didn't quite make sense. "But... what did you mean by 'drowning in darkness'?" he asked.