Chapter 127: I’ll Be Here When You Come Back
Screams now echoed across the entire floor. Between the illusions and the Slime Seraphs taking advantage of them, even those whose minds had been reinforced, or who had resistance from an item or a skill, were going to pay the price of this night, and perhaps that of the previous nights as well.
Unable to close their eyes under the Slime Seraphs’ sneak attacks, they would see their fatigue pile up and their mistakes multiply, and so on, night after night.
One thing was certain: at that moment, every human on the first floor shared only one dream, to reach the second floor promised by Paydragon Enterprise so they could finally breathe and rest.
Meanwhile, Arielle, or rather Aria, had spent several minutes already keeping the three youngsters from straying too far from the camp despite their illusions. Because yes, beneath that armor and the alias of Arielle hid none other than the rank-SSS demon, Aria.
And Frelja, who, to everyone’s great surprise, was none other than Freya, had stayed silent the whole time, until she suddenly spoke up.
"We finally caught Kaguya~! I’m going to go—"
She was cut off mid-sentence, stunned. In an instant, faster than anything she could conceive, the armored woman who had been standing on the other side of the camp was now in front of her, helmet in hand.
The flickering firelight shone in her amethyst eyes, and in them was love, tenderness, and a faint touch of apprehension.
Freya, surprised as well, looked at her.
"...Aria?"
But Aria said nothing.
She simply raised her hand and laid it on Freya’s cheek, very gently, first with her fingertips, then with her whole palm, and slowly stroked it with her thumb. She stayed like that for a moment, looking at her without a word, as if to engrave every line of her face before letting her go.
Then she leaned in and pressed her lips to hers.
It was a slow, tender kiss that asked for nothing but to be there. Freya closed her eyes and laid her hand over Aria’s, still against her cheek, gently lacing their fingers together.
When their lips finally parted, they didn’t pull away right away. They stayed like that, foreheads almost touching, smiling at each other with all the love they held for one another.
Then Freya finally sat down, and she was the one who broke the silence, in a tender voice barely louder than the crackling of the fire.
"I’m going now, Aria."
"Good luck, I’ll be here when you come back. Go with a peaceful mind, Freya."
And at her beloved’s words, she closed her eyes.
Then everything changed at once.
The fire wavered, its flame bending one way and then the other though there wasn’t the faintest breath of wind, before abruptly shrinking to a few glowing embers.
All around the camp, the trees began to stir, their branches creaking and swaying all at the same time, and leaves fell by the dozen into the mist.
The air grew heavy and thick, and every breath took a little more effort than the last. Even Aria, still holding her helmet, froze in place, her fingers slowly tightening on the metal until it groaned.
Freya, who had been sitting upright, curled in on herself all at once. Her knees came up against her chest, one hand dug into her hair and gripped it by the fistful, and the other pressed against her mouth so hard that her nails marked her cheek.
A murmur slipped between her fingers, always the same word, repeated over and over without the slightest inflection.
"Leave... leave... leave..."
Her voice died for a moment before returning, lower and clearer.
"Leave."
At the sight, Aria’s heart clenched violently. Something had just happened, and what radiated from the Freya curled up before her, the pressure that weighed down the air and bent the trees, told her it was something enormous.
Freya had awakened, or at least a part of her had.
But Aria also knew that right now her mistress was lost and needed her, as always.
The words Freya had whispered to her the night before, in the tent, came back to her: the next time she had an episode, Aria could study her and leave her in that state as long as it wasn’t too serious, since it would cost them nothing.
Part of her wanted to, burning to observe and understand a knowledge she did not hold, or at least not entirely. But the other part, far stronger, the part that loved her mistress, her lady, her love, could not bring itself to leave her like this.
So she started forward without a sound, the helmet still in one hand. In the palm of the other, the quantimanas gathered just as they always did, and a small ice cube took shape, its cold biting at her fingertips.
She leaned over Freya and reached for the bare nape of her neck, and the ice was a breath away from her skin when a hand closed around her wrist.
Damn... I was too slow.
Slowly, Freya’s gaze rose to her, and their eyes met just as they had moments before. But this time Freya’s mauve eyes were gone, leaving only two irises of solid golden yellow.
The color of avarice.
"So... even you?"
There wasn’t a trace of love left in that gaze, which left Aria’s eyes and slowly travelled down to her hands.
The disgust that rose on Freya’s face then was so strong that it overflowed and spread all around her. Aria felt it seep into her eyes, into her skin, into the earth and into the very air she breathed. The wind rose all at once, the trees twisted more violently still, the embers scattered in sprays of sparks, and in the middle of that uproar Aria could hear her beloved’s heart beating far too fast and far too hard.
Freya’s lips parted.
"Disgus—"
Aria didn’t let her finish.
She let go of her helmet, which rolled into the dirt, and without trying to free the wrist Freya still held, she bent one knee, then the other, and bowed until her forehead nearly touched the ground in a bow of complete submission, her gaze fixed on the earth.
"I’m sorry, my lady. I believed, more than I should have, that it was for your own good. I beg your forgiveness. I swear on my name that I am yours and under your orders."
Freya’s expression shifted from disgust to stupor. Aria’s words had something to do with it, but they weren’t what left her like this. It was what she was seeing at this very moment, her eyes still fixed on Aria’s fingers, bare and pale, trembling slightly in her palm.
The rings... are gone?
The wind eased a little, the trees slowed their swaying, and the disgust squeezing her chest ebbed along with them as the warmth of that sight warmed her heart. She let go of Aria’s wrist and simply sank back into a sitting position.
With the disgust dulled, she could finally think, at least a little, about the way Aria was acting. Aria hadn’t moved an inch and remained bowed before her.
"Speak."
Aria didn’t raise her head.
"My congratulations on your ascension, my lady."
"Did you know?"
"In a way, yes."
"I see..."
Freya crossed one leg over the other and rested her cheek on her fist, her gaze lost in the embers. The more she thought, the deeper the gold of her eyes grew, and a deranged smile slowly spread across her face while, all around them, the branches began to creak again.
"What should I do now?"
Aria’s hands clenched against the ground, her fingers sinking into the dirt, because she had no wish at all to say the words that came next.
"Go to the Western Continent."
"Hmmm... I see..."
Freya slowly lowered her fist from her cheek and reached out toward Aria. With her fingertips, she lifted her chin, then stroked her cheek, slowly, but there was nothing tender left in the gesture, nor in the gaze that studied her. It was greed, pure and simple, the caress of someone touching what belongs to her.
"I’m going to have a little fun here, and I’ll leave when I feel like it." She turned her head toward the three youngsters, still lost in their illusions at the far end of the camp. "Take care of what belongs to me, as agreed, and of the rest."
Aria bowed her head even lower, her cheek still resting in Freya’s hand.
"It will be done according to your orders, my lady."
Freya withdrew her hand, stood and began to walk away without a backward glance.
"Wait, my lady! At least take this."
𝗳𝒓𝗲𝕖𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝔬𝘷𝐞𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝗆
Freya stopped.
Still on her knees, Aria straightened her upper body and raised her right hand in front of her, palm open, before slicing a clean cut across it with a fingernail of her left hand. Blood welled at once and slid down her wrist in a thin dark trickle. With her fingertip, she drew on that same palm a circle adorned with letters Freya had never seen and could not read.
The next instant, black arcs burst from her hand with a deafening crackle and lashed out all around them, striking the ground, tearing through the air and ripping apart the leaves hanging in the mist, while the last embers of the fire went out at once.
Aria plunged her fingers into the heart of the circle and slowly drew something out.
First a grip, wrapped in plain black cord, then a round guard without the slightest ornament, then a blade, long, so long that Aria had to raise her arm above her head to draw it out completely.
A nodachi.
Its blade was slender, barely curved, of a dull grey steel, with no engraving and no particular shine, nothing to set it apart from any other weapon.
Aria lowered her head again and presented it flat across both palms, the blade spanning the full width of her chest, her blood still staining the steel.
Freya walked back. Her smile widened, and her eyes turned once more to the purest gold as her fingers closed around the grip.
She lifted the weapon in one hand and turned it slowly before her eyes, watching the mist’s faint glow slide along the edge. Then, almost carelessly, she cut through the air with a simple flick of her wrist. The mist split in two across the whole length of the camp, the leaves still falling parted into clean halves, and a thin, deep line carved itself into the earth all the way to the trees.
"That’s a fine weapon you’re offering me."
"A weapon that belongs to you, my lady."
And without another word, Freya dashed into the mist, the long nodachi in hand, and vanished.
Aria stayed on her knees in the dirt for a long time, her bloodied hand resting on her thigh, staring at the spot where the mist had swallowed her, until the sound of her footsteps had faded.
Then she reached toward the cold ashes, and a small flame sprang from her fingertips to lick at the wood, slowly bringing the fire back to life, its glow dancing once more across her armor.
She raised her eyes to the sky, and a single tear slid slowly down her cheek.
"I’ll be here when you come back, my lady."
She picked up her helmet from the dirt, wiped the dust from it with the back of her hand, then slowly put it back on and lowered the visor, letting that tear disappear behind the metal.