𝕾𝖔𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖔 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖙𝖔: 𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖞 𝕱𝖔𝖗 𝕴𝖙? 𝕭𝖞 𝕿𝖆𝖞𝖑𝖔𝖗 𝕾𝖜𝖎𝖋𝖙
***
The man with raven hair, a patch on one of his eyes, having the same color on the other, making me see a small scar under his eyes, has said.
The man seemed like a normal human being, but he was holding a weapon of value.
My eyes could deceive me, however, not my scent. The way he had the same terrifyingly dark scent over his figure kept reminding me of the two creatures, Jer and I encountered back in the Silvian State.
"You may have freed a thousand slaves, Zeno, but that doesn't mean that this would stop, you knew that well, so why still do that?" The man paused but he never brought his weapon down from our throats.
Instead, he kept pushing it on until I could finally feel some weird shivering. The cold metal didn't bring it, but it might have been because the metal was absorbing our aura.
As soon as I knew what the man was doing, I tried to grab Clifford's coat and signal him, but his eyes weren't on mine, it was darted on the man that was in front of us, a man who was wearing all black as if he had been a crow of darkness.
"So what are you going to do? Don't you remember the last promise you made to me? That when I finally caught you, you would die in my hands, Zeno?"
"That was because you were still part of that group, but now, all you have is an empty shell, Lucas, you also knew that," this was the first time I saw Clifford gritting his teeth while menacingly looking toward the opponent.
When I looked down, I could see that his hands were tightly wrapped as if the nails he had, finally sliced his palms creating a small pool of blood dropping through the floor.
Then, I heard a man named Lucas laugh.
It was a terrifying laughter, one that could give someone shivers.
As I returned my gaze toward the opponent, I saw a dark aura looking behind him, his weapon took a gap between our fleshes but he never put them down.
As his shoulders shook, the dark aura from behind kept on growing and growing until it became a cloak of someone hiding through it.
"Vestia, if I say one you should follow my moves and tightly grab onto my hands but if I say two, we follow this man's orders"
"What are you talking about? Shouldn't we defeat this guy?"
"Do you trust me?" I couldn't help but narrow my eyes and bite my lower lips, a hobby I couldn't let go of, not when I was this confused.
"Like I said before Clifford, answering me with another question wasn't the right answer..."
But he only held my hand and gazed at my soul.
At that second, my breath got caught in between.
"Do you trust me?" He repeated and I sighed, as I nodded.
"Good," he added. Then he closed his eyes for a second before finally looking in front of us.
That's when his appearance changed and all I could see were flashes of lights flickering through the air, lights that formed to mist of bluish-silver in hue, a different kind of light that I saw the second time around.
"Clifford, what are you doing——"
Before I could get to hold his hand tightly, his slender and long pointing finger went to touch in between my lips and he smiled, a kind of smile that could reassure someone that he had the answer.
The answer to this problem, and thinking of everything, I realized, that this man we were currently facing was an acquaintance of him, that's why they might have known each other before.
"Ahh, finally..." Lucas spoke crawled his weapon on his back and disappeared while he welcomed his hands with open arms, a kind of gesture I would never understand from an enemy.
"You're indeed the last descendant on the blue rose of the Clamorians, Zeno, how terrifyingly beautiful you are, a haunting message that kept me chasing you for years and years," his voice changed, and now, it had a tone of yearning from it.
Then I realized, he had been the one I'd been tasked to bring back to Oratio all along.
However, what do I have to say?
Especially not in this kind of situation we've kind of entangled with.
"Before doing what you must, shouldn't you first greet my friend over here, Lucas?" Clifford asked, Lucas' eyes averted Clifford's figure then switched to mine.
I could see how he glared at me, and the one from behind him, took a large weapon, one that looked the same as Jer, but it was huge and a different style.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Zeno, do you still believe that I will spare you just because you have a friend on your side?"
"Did I ever talk about that, Lucas? Why don't you just show even a little gratitude for her? Besides, I might also want to take a look at this place before you put me in that cage"
"That does seem reasonable but don't you want to save your friend after? You know she might die afterward"
"Nah, I guess she can handle death pretty well..."
I widened my eyes as I fixed my gaze on Clifford whose real name was Zeno, and the words he just said.
He asked me earlier if I trusted him and I did, just that, how could he speak of death so lightly?
"Then I guess I could spare some little time you have left, oh and by the way, nice meeting you young lady..." he said but I didn't give him the satisfaction to turn his back and lead the way
"I have a name"
"We all have but because I don't like knowing the name of the ones that'll die by my hands because knowing it would be a waste of my second"
"But you knew about his name," I pointed to Clifford's real name and Lucas, the name of our opponent only laughed
"That's because we have our own little history, young lady"
"But what if I survived? Would you rather know my name now?"
"There's no one that'll survive my death Artemis, young lady, not even the gods"
"Who are you?"
"Let's just say, I'm Lucas."
***
The man toured us around the place, and I found a lot of information about it, but he kept insisting that we would waste our knowledge because we would never escape him.
Oratio didn't tell me about this, was he expecting I would even make it alive from entering the enemy's den?
I don't know because he's the kind of man that I wouldn't be able to understand, not even when I used my powers to know what he truly has in mind.
He's just unreadable.
"Now that I've let you seen everything, every little crook of the corner, would you two be prepared?"
"Prepared for what?" I asked, gripping Clifford's hands tightly I knew he was already gazing at my side but I never averted my gaze on Lucas.
The man laughed as if he was crazy, and in the blink of an eye, with a snapping of his fingers, the place changed and we were already in the middle of what I could recall as the Velhim's place.
The first place he showed us, the place full of water, and on top of the water was blue flames raging as if we were in hell.
There were four roads to take because our feet were touching the grayish ground made of bricks that had been designed in the shape of a cross. We were currently in the middle.
As I looked beyond, the walls had the same build as the ground, they were made of grayish brick walls but in the middle of the wall, from the direction southeast, I could see an arc-shaped and within that arc-shaped lay a small two-door.
"What is that?" I tried asking Clifford but his attention went to Lucas instead, as I could see him narrowing his eyes while biting his lips.
"Is this the way you truly wanted to end things in the past, Lucas?"
"Hahaha, if not, then why else would I bring you to this place?"
"Don't tell me, you joined this group to avenge Ellora, Lucas Ellora was a victim in this too, you just couldn't——"
"Shut up!!!!" When Clifford mentioned that name, I saw how Lucas had changed his stature both of his hands were covering his ears, and his body continued to twirl and toss in the air while the one from behind him, continued to sway as if it was slicing the air and making the blue flames reached on us.
I tried my magic and I could finally feel that I regained some, and it blocked the blue flames continuing to point to our figures.
"Stop!!! Stop!!!! Ahhh!!!"
"Come on, he's unstable"
"What why? And who was Ellora that you've mentioned?"
"It's none of your business, so why don't you just stick to my plan?"
His arrogant behavior showed again and this time, I could feel how his hand was tightly gripping on my hands. He may have a very handsome face but that doesn't mean that he could just trample on my figure.
"I'm being nice in here, Clifford—"
"Quit saying anything..." he said as if he was irritated and I was about to claim my hands when I saw this ball of fire gushing through us in a matter of minutes I could even see arrows pointing our way and a huge light was already heading towards us once and for all.
"I guess I changed my mind to cage both of you, you two should die in hell!!! No one would ever speak of Ellora's name, especially her killer!!!"
"I guess you leave me no choice then..."
Everything happened so fast because the last thing I knew before my vision faded was his soft crimson lips becoming one with mine as I gulped something from his mouth.
"Vestia, from now on, you're not allowed to be far away from where I am, now that we've had our contract..."
"What do you mean?" I asked but I felt like my words became like a whisper because when I closed my eyes, I wasn't in the abyss no more.
***
"So how was your day today, Vestia?" Henry asked
"It's the same as usual, only that, I never thought time would pass and I would eventually get to study inside the academy with my friends"
"Yes, it's already been four long years, and I guess that older brother of yours would indeed be rude to you again..."