Aefia's eyes turned towards Silence, with a creepy smile against her face as she suddenly appeared with a scythe. It was a very golden one, which added the most amount of fear against her kind as she forced herself to stay silent. Why is that Guardian behind me like I had committed a huge crime? Why is she always after me?!
Her hand slowly moved away from her mouth as she let go of Puppet at the same time. The small wolf creature enlarged to a size with its manes on fire, like when it displayed power in front of the woman. The tension was added, no one knew who would go for whom and when an attack would cut through someone's throat.
"I am curious, why are you after me? I may have ended the contract, but I didn't yet tell anyone about the truth I have already found out." She finally spoke after a long while of staring, with her hands bare and not filled with the grip of any weaponry. "Why am I someone you are after, given that there are more people in the competition? But you are only chasing me?"
"Even when I chose someone else to trail behind, they would say the same thing as you. Out of so many people, why me? If I say I have no reason, they will still go out of their way to kill me because they want to stay safe. But before your curiousity reaches me, why are you such a well-known person by the higher ups?" The woman covered in golden hue spoke with her voice sounding like a harsh royalty.
"How am I supposed to know?" Aefia answered back sternly. "Then it seems you are just trialing me because you sense the presence behind me, don't you?" Her face lifted up as her eyes fell level to level with the woman's and her hand shoke with anxiety. It was a new thing, because she was alone trying to deal with a Guardian. Her mind was running around thoughts and gaps as she debated to herself to choose escape or fight.
Isn't it better to escape when I know I can probably not deal with this woman until the end because she is just as powerful as I fear her to be. She is a guardian, and I am a phase two. The huge difference in power, and I don't know her steps and movement...Darn it! I am screwed!
Beads of sweat settled against her forehead as she quickly recovered herself with the last remnants of the healing energy to stop fatigue from getting into her. Four hours of sleep, although better then the last time, it was still insufficient due to the nervousness she was facing and her stress that was radiating. Focusing her eyes on the person in front of her, her mind set into a calm as she breathed out silently and stood still.
The Guardian of Silence, a mysterious woman who, although not as powerful as the other Guardians, but definitely an entity someone would dare not to face. And she was standing right in front of someone still considerably a rookie to elemental magic. Just anyone standing in that same atmosphere, would have an idea to kill themselves then to face her, and she knew very well that there was no way for her to die now, because she wasn't a Nikoanian citizen.
Aefia was adopted to the royal family due to a false prophecy, and she isn't blood-related, that was enough evidence to say she isn't a citizen. Her stay there was extremely short and she still didn't understand what the terms of the world was, that made more sense she wasn't a citizen. Finally, she was forced to face a life where some people who were already citizens, they would have enjoyed her place every second if the battles she had faced wasn't included. Whether that made her a citizen or not, it made her a stranger.
The woman suddenly smiled very wide, which ticked off Aefia's nerves and she flinched while trying to step up and in front. Why is she suddenly smiling like she enjoying the situation I am currently in? What is so funny about having a young girl face you like she has no other life?
"You know? I am surprised you haven't surrendered yourself, neither have you planned on fighting yet. Just what are you planning on doing? Standing there and staring at me with your mind telling you to decide back and forth? But you are here just wasting time as the outside world is slowly getting eaten up by the absorbing element I had placed there." The woman turned around and away from the young girl and the wolf.
"If I try to fight, I know I would lose. That is a downside of choosing that option. But if I choose to step down, you would place your attacks on me and I can't fight back. So either ways, I am going to die. You know the better choice? Just stare at your enemy like you have a determination and hesitation at the same time." She spoke while recalling her words inside her mind.
As if triggered by a few words that struck her like knives at her back, she immediately turned around with her mouth agape and her pupils shrunk to a small dot. The golden iris had a slight brownish ring around them, and there was immediate signs of loopholes. "What a clever and brave young girl! No wonder the duchess believed the woman's words in an instant and went to go grab you, and put you inside your little bird's cage. I have got to ask, the palace must feel very...restrictive, am I right?"
I am not going to fight, let her test my patience. Aefia thought to herself as Puppet growled beside her. No question came out from her mouth for a very long time, as if her mouth was stitched and she tried to ask them, her nerves went up in flames as her blood pressure increased steadily with the feeling of causing a major headache shortly. But the only thing, she wasn't controlling her emotions, so what was? Glancing at the woman, one look was enough to spill out the tactics the Silence had planted from the very start.
"Are you going to stay silent?" The one winged guardian spoke while tilting her head. From the long distance, she was captivating to the eyes, which meant she was trying her best to get along and inside her mind until she can forced out something from her. What was it? This was the thing she wanted to find out. How was she going to do so?...it was a matter left to rot shortly after.
The woman's eyes turned into a cat-like with the sharp pointy pupils and the silver shine against her eyes, they burned at her gaze. "I know the presence that is following you. Why is the Torture Cell's leader guarding you like you are a toy they had produced with extreme hard work, and she has the free will to mendle with it however they like?"
"The Torture Cell?" Aefia's eyes turned shocked. "I don't think they are following me in any sorts. How is that a possibility that an enemy of my own, that probably also wants me dead, they trail me around to protect me? This is not making sense in anyway, stop spitting around lies that you know will have no effect on me." Following the words, her eyes narrowed as they started glowing a little maroon over time.
"Pitiful child..." The woman spoke while closing her eyes. "You seem to never understand something someone tells, but why?...Pitiful child." Slowly, the golden glow left her body, revealing a lesser lighting around the cave as she spread her hand out both directions. "Pity...within two days, three miracles happened and each time...it got worst." The sinister smile returned to her face as heavy footsteps followed around her and eventually, entering the room.
"The first night, you woke up at the exact same time as the dungeon's opening. Even you were questioning why that was, but you threw the thought away by saying it was just a coincidence. Then you found out you had a stalker, which was absolutely not something to worry about, so you threw that away too." She held out her index finger as if counting the three things.
"The next morning, you realized you had another unidentified stalker, and you took this into great considerations as to why a strange person would be staring at you from outside the palace. Then, suddenly, you heard about them wanting to kill you and then, I guess you still don't know, you were adopted because that person spread a false prophecy that the empire was about to go down due to a major cataclysm." The woman held out the middle finger with the index, while pointing at it. "Fun fact, you didn't know this but your siblings did...and they didn't tell you. Well...everyone except the little child."
Aefia stayed silent as her ears pricked at the words. How does Silence know about all this? My life is led through intense secrecy, I make sure that...it's as if a microphone and camera was set on me on a daily basis and they captured every single detail and now they are recalling what they had seen in the recording. What exactly does this woman want from me?!
Her frustration became immense as she struggled to keep herself from attacking the woman in front of her. She could see the single wing twitch as her glance fell on them. "What else? What else do you know about my life and the second day? The miracle then must be that I am standing right in front of you not knowing what step is right or wrong. I am basically leaving in fear and learning multiple shocking truths that are binded to me and I don't really know where to run. And then this dungeon is also stealing away living matter from the outside world."
"Yes, and one last shocking truth, is that I stole a very huge amount of your magic energy, to be able to continuously steal the matter from the outside world. You are the only one who has the elemental absorption skill, so when Lady Gray had killed you, her power activated some sort of reaction among your nerves that caused a very long lasting effect against your health. That's why...you found out that upon entering this area, which is basically packed with your energy, you have gained a lot of your strength back." The woman held out her hand while smiling.
"What is wrong with you?!" Aefia shouted as her eyes turned extremely red and she held out her hand which was covered with the same red colour of her eyes, as waves appeared around it and her sigil casted onto her face. She had activated her maximum strength through which she planned to take on the Guardian of Silence. Her teeth gritted as her fist clenched at her side, while her right held the hilt of a sword that didn't fully appear yet.
The blackness contrasted against the bright red glowing area of it. The edge was lit in flames, red as it cut through the waves and swung towards the woman. Leaping, her feet felt light as the target locked upon the enemy with a fierce energy engulfing her mind. The part of her mind throbbed as her footsteps left flower buds blooming below her. Along with the sword's fire, the after burns left smoke the colours blue and red, with glittering stars in the bluish line.
As soon as she was high enough, her fingers spun the hilt of the sword around as the sharp edge faced the Guardian with the evilish smile, and she fell down towards the ground at a very fast speed. The black blade struck the ground, and Silence seemed to have moved away in that small amount of time, but the short amount of time that she was allowed, didn't allow her to think about the enemy.
Heaving heavy breathes, she stayed knealing on one knee as her hands wrapped around the hilt of the sword which shrunk back to its dagger form. It was extremely clear it had dealt major damages, so it was the only thing she could use as for now and restoring it would take a very long time. Flinging it up, she stood up to her feet and scanned her eyes around the area, but even the holographic footprints weren't visible and Puppet stared at her from the distance with its teeth bared as if ready to attack her.
"You still don't understand I have the skills I had stolen from you, to use against you. Your skills and tactics, so basically you are facing yourself. How are you going to escape the that?! By now, the shock enough is enough to make you tear your brain out of you." Silence spoke near her ears as she slid her finger along the edges of the small wings that had appeared from behind her head. "Let me do you a favour...you are going to exhaust your energy in a short amount of time too, so I will tear your heart out before it explodes due to the immense pressure."
Her nails turned into claws as she held her hand against her back, but before it could get towards her, a hand had stopped the wrist while holding it in place. "I am thankful for your offer, but no thanks." Spinning the wrist around, she kicked her knees and the Guardian immediately fell to the ground.
"You will never learn young girl!" A laugh spilled out from her mouth as she snapped her finger and the entire area shifted into the next room, where the sight was almost way too triggering for Aefia to keep her eyes open. She stumbled backwards as she noticed a person hanging on red threads over her head, as blood fell from limps that were tightly wrapped in those strings.
Silence vanished again, but she didn't notice this because her head had hung low from that area around her. The Guardian's fingers lifted her chin to witness the terror in front of her. "Enjoy the sight...pitiful child."