"What do you mean you don't have it on you?" Silence spoke, clearly irritated that she was being rolled around by a young girl who wasn't even one percent the age that she had survived. "You are certainly not as intelligent enough to fool my eyes and get away that easily... Where is it?"
"That is the thing, dumb and false Guardian... I fooled you... And you can't seem to be accepting that you are in the brink of losing." Aefia answered while pointing at Nada's direction. "Check her pockets you idiot... You think I can't do much within ten seconds? This was all planned while you were busy asking me questions and calling out the situation ironic."
The woman infuriatingly turned around and held a stunned gaze at the dangling locket at Nada's fingers.
"I told you my cousin isn't dumb..." She replied while wearing it around her own neck and pulling the locket up to take a closer look. "But honestly... I think I am keeping it. You are an Imperial family member... You have got plenty more!" She mocked her cousin.
Aefia simply clicked her tongue in response.
"What is going on?!" Silence shouted, interrupting the mockery coming from both directions. "Oh nothing you didn't catch or miss... But if you are still suspicious... Go use my skills, and you will be greeted with the absolute truth of what you have actually missed... In detail..." Aefia returned with a maniacal smile at her face.
The woman stomped her feet, and with a sudden break in the atmosphere, they all plummeted into the abyss again, to the time that the ten seconds count down had started.
"I have been always curious why I have never managed to get my hand on them... Until just now... I just realized you have been behind it. Anyways... You have your ten seconds." The illusion of Silence spoke.
Aefia ran to grab the bomber jacket, and then swung it around Nada's shoulder, and in the process, she pulled out the locket from her hoodie pocket, and slipped it into the bomber jacket's pocket while lifting her hand. Silence observed the interaction more closely, nearing the illusions as they embraced each other.
"Once outside... Go to the cliffside... Aefia is waiting... And I am just an illusion she created." The silver and black hair at her face acted as a barrier to keep away from being detected. But when Silence was at an angle, she caught the sight of the mischievious and fierce eyes, and the smile that defied her playful mindset. "I want to present her an April fool's prank..."
The abyss timeline skipped forward following the last words, until the time that the illusion pixelated and flashed a last grin at Silence's face. And the air dissipated into the reality of the cliffside.
"An April fool's prank?!" The Guardian shouted while diverting her gaze to the place that Aefia was standing, but was shocked that Nada was standing shoulder to shoulder with her cousin.
"What the heck?! How?!" She shouted while eyeing the two girls at the same time.
"Well you said I was stupid... But sometimes I realized you let your guard down... And I moved myself to stand next to her... Because she keeps me safe." Nada replied while resting her elbow on her cousin's shoulders. "I mean... I guess I have also inherited the genius in my family line."
"Yeah I don't care... I just want answers from that girl... Not you." The woman spoke with a stern face. "If I took away your powers... How did you exactly create that illusion?"
"Oh... Well that brings me back to the time I had been fighting with those monsters. I got an alert from my system telling me that my element was not found, and that I was using up my last remnants of my strength. It hasn't been long that I realized that just means my own strength that I have been accumulating that is connected to my astral form." Aefia replied while removing Nada's arm from her shoulder.
"I also happened to remember that I sacrificed the illusion I had created of Brittany, and at the last moment when I was done dealing with the monsters, I used my last energy to create a similar illusion to me. But here is the catch, I had to leave two items behind to be able to make myself seem more 'me' in front of you. So I had to give away the coat and the locket."
"Following that, I realized that the place I had left my illusion to sit at, there was a trap door, and I pushed her into it. I don't really care if she survives because she wasn't me and I wasn't going to be the one to get the damage. After I had her fall into that rabbit hole, I made a sort of connection with that illusion, so her mind is actually mine down there. That part where I whispered to Nada while hugging her? I was the one speaking, but the voice wasn't mine, it was my illusion's.
"By then, I was already at the place I told Nada to be at. But if you want to ask about my mask? I had taken it out when I left the Countess to die in the snow. I knew the monsters would sometime sooner, come to end me by your words... So in a show of fear, I had it at my grasp. Added to it though... You may have noticed that I love making a huge entrance at the end of my successful plan..." Aefia spoke while tossing the mask into the air and then catching it again.
"Well that is smart... Not for enough to fool me." Silence spoke with narrowed eyes.
"Not enough? What if I told you I know your real identity?" She snapped back. "In fact... You know why I had hidden the person with the healing element? Because if you have that last magic, you were going to try and break the current rules that had been established by the true Aethalgard Heirs, and become the ultimate ruler over the world, and destroy it however you want..."
"How did you get that information?!"
"Do I need a source? I have been questioning my own origins lately, and I just happened to realize... That I may have a past where I was connected to you back in a life... It feels like someone erased my mind before I had been teleported to this life that I am currently leading. And I may have been forced into this world... The one with four Guardians guarding me from different angles whenever I am drained of health. Because... I have a sort of inheritance."
"No you don't!"
"Well yes I do... And you may have killed my ancestor to steal that power and I may have been somehow sent to Earth as a saved person. I happened to learn one thing about magic and Guardians in my time in Nikoan... Your life tells who you were back then. And my life and its bloody hell... It just means I am connected to the Guardians in the side of Eclipse. Am I right? And how come... The Torture Cell is chasing me? Must mean they are trying to tell me something..."
Silence turned silent, finally, acting like my title and name meant what it said. "You really learnt it that far... You are right..." Her eyes turned shadowed. "You are related to both the Guardian of Death and the Torture Cell." She added while lowering her head in a form of gesture that stated she was guilty. But both two that were standing were confused as the cousins watched the Guardian of Silence bow down low in the snow. "I am sorry."
"Wait... Hold on..."
Aefia spoke while moving forward with a confused look on her face. "I am?" She asked in a tone of voice that defied the confidence she had used just a few seconds ago. "Holy cow! I am that extraordinary?!"
"Wait... What?"
The woman lifted her head from the snow, with a lot of them stuck to her forehead as she lifted her face to look up at the girl. "Then what was that all about?! You literally made me bow and you don't know about what you just said?! Was this a new psychological trap to me?!"
"I honestly didn't know that it was a case. I just followed the rule that we can speak delulu to a Guardian to fool them. Didn't you fool me back then?"
"You will never learn." The woman spoke while standing up and facing the girl with irritation and anger.
"I guess I would never..." Aefia dropped her smile and turned serious. "You know... I had made a promise... And I am trying to fulfil it... But I can't thanks to you..."
She added while lowering her voice by an octave. "And I am just trying to take my revenge by making you bow in front of me."
At least I would know that after I do that... You won't be able to go out of your way to get anymore people out of my life.
"Then what kind of revenge was that?!" The woman yelled.
"A kind that I want to remember as a core memory when I lose again. You may have seen that I have a little too joyous since the time I had seen Nada. You should know more than this since the time you had seen my expression change."
"You psycho! What is that you are about to do?!"
"When the time comes... You will learn."
"When?!"
"... Even I don't know..." Aefia answered back while looking at Nada's direction. "But! I came here to rescue someone and I am going to get out of here with this someone." Her tone returned to the playful tone of a kid. Both of the two other people were left in a state of complete confusion, the long time that the girl was being suspicious.
"I don't care..." Silence spoke while holding a hand to the ground below her, summoning icicles from within the snow and targeting it precisely on Aefia with her silvering hair in a blur. But just when she expected blood to flow onto the icy surface, her eyes fell widened to find the girl already leaping into the air, and pushing herself off the icicle to back off. Her steps fell feather light on the snow as she pushed her cousin away in the process.
A sword appeared at her left hand, with a brilliant and shiny polished black blade. Her hands turned to grip the hilt as she cut through another icicle at the ground in front of her. "It sure does feel good... To have my personal sword back." She spoke to herself while spinning the hilt between her fingers and adjusting it at her grip.
"Tsk... Savage brat..."
Silence whispered to herself as she watched the girl slowly step forward, and then with a flash in the air, she reappeared in front of the woman's face with the sword point to her face. The Guardian's eyes shut as she felt her footing vanish and then a grasp causing air to rush out of her lungs all at once.
"What is it? I can't get my last moments seeing your fearful eyes?" Aefia asked while holding her at the end of the cliff.
"Do you think... This is your last time seeing me?" The woman spoke while grabbed onto the girl's wrist in an attempt to break free. "I will haunt you again and again, in your dreams and in your daily life, everywhere..."
"I know... And that's part of my promise..."
Aefia answered back while turning more stern in terms of expression. "But I am not done getting the most out of you. Say... Did you just lie to my face about my origins? That I am truly linked to a Guardian? Because animals bow to me..." Her grip tightened against the woman's throat.
"So is it that you know or don't know?"
"Just answer me..."
"Yes... But it isn't beneficial for you to know."
"It's my matter."
"And it was also your matter when you died so many times in your life already and your own cousin doesn't know... Your brother tries to kill you twice... But you give him a birthday present... The duchess is ripping you to shreds and it is still your matter... That woman is crying for you to accept her apology and it is not your matter..."
"Shut up!"
"It was your matter when the Count tried to poison her and you executed him, you were bullied and almost killed... But it is not your matter that the woman is killing servants close to you to just be the only one close to you. It is not your matter that she is trying to get your attention and be a lovely mother of a daughter for once..."
"Well it's her mistake for pushing me far and forcing me in the first place."
"But unless she took you in, you would have never been able to know the truth behind the competition and the lies you all were told..."
"... You..." The words got stuck at her throat as she started to dangerously loosen her grip on the woman's throat as her eyes widened.
"Despite her and deeds to you, she was just giving you her twisted way of love and trying to ask for forgiveness."
"Well it is her fault that she has official failed!" Aefia silently shouted. "It's her fault she had me tortured from the very beginning and that I hate calling she mother in front of anybody! She tried to kill me so many times and now she is suddenly feeling the necessasity to come and apologize?!"
"It takes time for humans to process that they have made a mistake."
"But she took too long already. There is no more space for her." Aefia replied back while sticking up another finger.
"Well we will see. We will see if you can resist long enough... Everyone wants a mother's advice every once in a while... We will see if you will ever scram to the duchess's side to cry at her lap and ask for help." Silence flashed a smile at her.
"Don't worry... I won't..." Aefia replied while letting the woman fall to the rocky ground below, and watching until she heard the sound of the body slamming hard against concrete.