The once deep in slumber citizens of Drakon now awoke from Raize's influence, and have started to recollect their normal lives with little to no clues.
With their Monarch still in tact, normalcy shall return in the city very soon. And within a certain Goth Mansion, three people resumed their council undeterred.
"123 souls out of 300... I'd say that's a feat in itself without rest. Something I cannot achieve in my current state. Oh how you impress me so." Raize said bemused as he stared down on several beautiful marbles in a glassed vase.
They are set in varying hues aglow.
"I know this may seem like a stupid question to you two, but why are there different colours...?"
Then Raize glanced towards Lea's direction to Nia's query, expecting a well-thought out response. And without fail, she read through the atmosphere with rasp attention.
She cleared her throat with a soft cough then informed, "In theory, essences are influenced by their environment. Such as plants are usually green, woods are usually yellow, while blue is water. I believe these knights' souls represent their thoughts."
Nia frowned, while Raize nodded his head in understanding. Then it was him who enlightened Nia's confusion.
"When you have nothing; no knowledge of anything, your soul is white. A foolish white. If you are educated, a very wise one, your soul would be violet. . This is what we would see in a colour spectrum. While red is the lowest form of representation of thoughts by color. This is much like the visible spectrum of colors, or in simpler form, a rainbow that normal human eyes can see."
Nia felt heavy with his ignorance. He had never been taught before, and neither has he ever picked up a book for he cannot read. Met with such difficult concepts, he felt resigned to give up. Although no one could possibly blame him, for the knowledge of Science in Sabio was not that advanced. Alas, he was curious enough to ask.
When Lea noticed his depressed mind and heart, she felt an urge to do something. Without delay, she grabbed for a paper lying on the Study table and a pen inside the drawers. The pen required to be dipped in ink, and luckily there was one within the drawer as well.
Raize immediately understood her intentions and he too grabbed for whatever coloured pens he could gather from his luggage. He could only pick out red, blue and black. Then he laid it out on the table where Lea was working on a diagram.
She smiled at his actions, and immediately got to work.
Once done, she dragged Nia to take a look.
He pondered over the simple chart for a while before Lea decided to indicate the colors in the spectrum. "Although there are colors not in this spectrum, it still shows you the frequency of each color by order. In layman term, the more sensible thoughts pass through your mind, the higher your compatibility with essences is, causing your soul to tinge a color leaning towards this side, the purple hue.
"Let us see the marbles in this vase. This is the soul of a priest, what color do you see?"
And like a good student he is, Nia replied dutifully, "Green?"
"And what does that tell you?" She gently asked.
"He is... hmm... well, smart?"
She gave a slight nod. "But not enough. He is mediocre."
"Then how about me?" Nia pointed to himself.
Gazing at him, Lea did not want to say the honest truth, but she felt resigned to respond. "You are a stupidly one of a kind that is not considered in human color spectrum. But your soul is.... an orange hue?" She said reluctantly, while successfully analyzing Nia's strength on a different scale than that of humans'.
He felt slightly disappointed, but he felt he understood the concept of color spectrum more than before. "Hmm. So in humans' s-spectrum, there's the highest that is violet, then blue, green, yellow, orange and finally red. Violet is what color?"
Lea pointed at a book cover in the shelf. "That is close enough to violet."
"Ah... Almost similar to your previous hair color.... It's pretty."
He appeared mesmerized for a moment, staring at the book. But at the sound of a snap, he was zapped out of his daydreaming right away. Then he looked at Lea in bewilderment, and saw a small smile on her face.
"You've kept away so many lives from danger due to your howling, you deserve more than the knowledge we just shared. But for that, you will have to wait." She said quietly.
"Oh.... So that was it was." He muttered under his breath, briefly glancing at Raize who had his eyes closed while sitting erect. The latter remained thoughtful and observant with his own silence. His thoughts on Raize slightly shifted to a better light.
"Time to investigate further. Raize, do you wish to meet the others?" She queried while picking out one marbles after another, examining the contents very carefully for crucial information.
He opened his eyes to her query. "Your assistance will be most appreciated. I haven't heard from Ulla since Sabio. I could care less about the other or others in this case."
His meaning understood completely, Lea felt pity for Bright. But she did not express anything on her face, instead, she gave a nod. "I would like to meet her as well. I believe her progress will be a great help to our plans of liberation."
"You know of what she has been up to?" Curious, Raize asked.
She nodded her head without blinking an eye. "Not in detail, but rather, I can feel her from miles away and the fluctuations of her thoughts."
"Unbelievable. What are you exactly now, Lea?"
At his flabbergasted query coated with indifference, she simply shrugged.
"If I knew, I'd have a better handle to this world's impending doom."
"You sound like you care very much."
"I care well enough, Raize."
"Your indifference is crumbling."
"I never was that indifferent." She smiled, which made him stunned for a moment, for her words gave out what she truly was.
Then he sighed exasperatedly. "I can't be left out now. This factory-mansion is useless. I've studied its nook and cranny, and I believe I can handle the machinery if I meet another one."
"Impressive. Then I shall leave that part of the work to you, President."
".....That's... I've almost forgotten."
"So have I."
Nostalgia struck the two almost at the same time. Briefly, they thought of their previous world. Their prior lives very much changed, it felt impossible to turn back anything to normal now. What they were left to do was move forward, and do what they can to preserve what was left.
Suddenly, upon touching one of the marbles that was of color blue, it lit aglow in Lea's hand. Then images resurfaced like a movie on a big screen. The three were very much surprised, but watched the events unfold with rasp attention.
"This is quite a find. Where did you find this young Spirit?"
"Eh. Well, I was on an expedition in Ingrid for new research purposes. Don't you find it exciting coming back to our natural experimental grounds? And well, I did what my heart told me to do. I went to the forbidden island."
"What?! Didn't our supervisor strictly told us not to play around that small island?"
"Just keep it down... Honestly, it was easy getting through the tricks by meager Spirits."
"So you even brought one of our Spirit Stones??"
"Well, yea. I'm not that foolish to venture anywhere without it. You know how useful they are. And I wanted to collect more, ya see."
"If they found out.......... You'll be...."
"If you don't tell, no one else would know. I just told them I went on my holiday somewhere in Sabio."
"Can't deny this though.... This Spirit is so unique..... Whereabouts in the island?"
"Beyond the boundary."
"Holy... You actually ventured past that Red Town something?"
"Yea, Redfield. None noticed me, so it's fine. It was amazing. The best vacation I had."
"Why? What did you see? What was beyond the restricted area?"
"Well...."
And the images were cut off then. But Lea wore a deep frown on her face as if a heavy predicament was just thrown at her that was meant to explode her to smithereens. While looking at her, Raize also pondered every word he just heard.
"Forbidden island? I felt like I heard something like that before....."
"Solirario Isle." Lea uttered coldly, and Nia felt a shiver through his spine.
"You've been there?"
"Yes, before I crossed the sea. Introduce yourselves, Nill, Mill and Lill." She called.
And in the next moment, the white dusts in her eyes disappeared. The white streaks on her hair were gone. Then came three Spirits in the form of dusts.
"Greetings, friends of Lea. I'm Nill. These are my sisters M---"
"Wait, wait. Being older doesn't mean you should do our introductions too! I'm Mill~ Nice to meet ya, handsomes!"
"Lill."
"Considering we've introduced ourselves very late, I shall give you a fair warning. We Spirits are fair, and we are not biased. But nevertheless, we are on your side." Nill informed. Despite her intangible appearance, Raize could imagine a mature woman standing beside Lea.
"That's contradictory, but as long as you are willing to assist us, I don't care for what you are." He replied with his stone cold indifference. With Nill's face unseen, he could only guess she was affected by his response slightly.
"These three led me to Redfield, where I learnt more about the Spirits and the Living Spirits. It's a town where red eyed people reside in solitude. But even so, they could not wield the essences due to a Living Spirit that once struggled to live by sucking every essences in the radius of the town. But who knows now. She left the world and became one with me..." Lea informed, gently tapping her chest. Her expression gentle, Raize felt anew with the latest information.
"Does that mean you can absorb essences....?"
"...I suppose so. But it must depend on the Spirit themselves."
"How peculiar... A vessel, but not? A master of your own, but capable of mingling with the genuine Spirits of this world. Lea... do you not consider yourself part of the essence?"
"I was made from thousands, maybe gazillions of essences. But I was reborn from my wish to continue living, and the ones that granted that were the essences. The souls of the dead; the nature of things. I'm not sure if I am still human or a Living Spirit."
Staring intently at her, Raize felt excitement within him. "Interesting..."
Then Nill said, "Not the time to ponder such matters. We must seek unison to impede the Apostles. What are you two intending to do?"
"With the Apostles' unexpected move, thanks to Raize's blatant performance, which perked their curiosity a while, we are given a day's time to revise our plan." Lea summarized.
"Speaking of which, why did you appear very serious after seeing the memory of one measly Researcher, Lea?" Raize curiously queried.
".................."
"Don't remain silent now. You can reveal it can't you?"
"I certainly can."
"Then?"
"Do you remember the voice in Izaya's head?"
"...Didn't we assume it was a Spirit...? You don't mean..."
"Yes... She is that young Spirit."
"How do you know?"
"She was shouting in that memory."
"...I cannot truly fathom what you are. I never heard anything else..."
"She is telling the truth. We heard her despair from within Lea as well." Nill informed.
"How about you, Nia?" Raize looked towards Nia who kept his silence, for he could barely keep up.
"I thought those were just machine sounds...?"
Raize facepalmed at Nia's misconception. "Good enough. So what now, Lea?"
"A half day's work? Informing Ulla with the incidents. Next? Stall for time."
"Stall? I think you and your Spirit friends are powerful enough?"
"Raize, you miss the point they have strange tools to instantly enslave Spirits. I cannot fathom what they can do to others, and I do not intend to risk their lives. They don't deserve such treatment."
"..Lea....." The three Spirit sisters uttered in chorus. They felt warmth from Lea's words, especially since they were aware of how genuine her intentions were. They've remained within her for quite a long while to know what kind of person Lea was, and how willing she was to risk just about anything for the good of the world. They knew quite well she was worldly kind, and will not settle for a short-term solution.
"Very well. Per your desires, I'm willing to postpone my plans."
"Plans of what kind?"
"You'll see."
"...." Lea looked at him suspiciously, but decided not to ask once again. For the meantime, he was willing to help. "Let us take our leave."
Then the Spirits Nill, Mill and Lill were once again absorbed by Lea. She could feel the difference in her strength with the three at her disposal, and the next moment, they were in a room with Ulla and Ulyssis. As well as the headmaster of Sabio-U.
"Lea?! Raize??" She exclaimed. Her light brown eyes lit with glee.
⚜
Music Video Info: Koe No Katachi | A Silent Voice
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4RALfgWHbo
Violin ver.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FSLo59dOHo
Notes:
There is a spectrum for humans, while there is another measurement of strength for Halflings (Half Spirits).
And there is a whole different spectrum for Spirits.
Victor is borderline violet, while Ashe is blue. Nia is orange due to his level of ignorance, but his strength as a halfling still cannot be ignored. He may be of a lower hue, but his strength is greater than that of average humans.
Raize is violet and so is Seth and Liam. They are the always-improving-human type, and easily able to adapt to notions and situations. While Izaya is red, while Duran is green. But both of them are not very well adept with essences despite the strength of their soul. In other words, their mind is not flexible enough, but they are still superior human beings with skills and talents of their own.
Nia is obedient to Raize because the latter is wickedly strong in terms of using his strength. It is especially evident after the incident in Sabio where he almost died by Raize and Seth's hands. But despite the two, he still survived. This shows he is not that weak despite his level of intelligence.
Lea is her own spectrum. As she is not categorized as neither a Spirit, Living Spirit, Halfling, beast nor a human. But she is not almighty either.