Within the pure white space of consciousness, tension quietly spread. Aurora watched Claire act as if nothing had happened, so long as she avoided eye contact, and finally spoke up.
"Go on. How did you manage to bypass me and take control of that power?"
"Ahaha… haha… ha… what are you talking about, Aurora? Didn't you loosen your hold on it yourself?"
"…"
"With someone suddenly inside my body who can control me without permission, I had to prepare a few safeguards, just in case."
"Hah!"
Claire's completely shameless attitude made Aurora laugh.
"Right, right. Your so-called 'safeguards.' If I hadn't repaired your body, you'd be nothing more than a pile of flesh on the ground by now. Don't do that again. I have no intention of harming you. If I did, you'd already be dead."
Hearing that, Claire simply turned her head aside and gave an awkward smile.
An unknown being had suddenly appeared inside her, a witch suspected of having destroyed multiple races. Even if Aurora had helped her several times, trusting her completely was still difficult.
Whether Aurora intended harm was one thing. Whether she had the ability was another.
Still, their time together had not been meaningless. At the very least, it had built a bit of connection between them. Otherwise, the moment Claire found a way to deal with Aurora, she would have acted already instead of letting her remain inside her body. This time, she only resorted to that method because it involved Cid.
"Tch, forget it. I can't do anything about you. It's your body anyway, just be careful."
"Hehe…"
Since her scolding had no effect, Aurora gave up. The initiative was no longer in her hands.
From the moment Claire bypassed her and took control of the three sources of power within her body, Aurora understood that her life now rested on Claire's whim.
At this point, her only value to Claire was probably repairing her body. Claire could use the power, but she had no way of fixing the damage it caused.
Of course, that being said, this was still Aurora's power. If she truly wanted to take it back, she was fairly confident she could win.
What truly unsettled her was Claire's astonishing control over her core power. She did not believe this was Claire's first time using it. Judging by that level of mastery, Claire had been hiding this ability for at least half a year.
These two siblings really were something else.
While Aurora was grumbling to herself, Claire noticed she was no longer angry and leaned closer.
"Aurora, it looks like we can't beat Shadow. Help me think. Is there any other way to save Cid?"
"Save Cid? What happened to your brother?"
Seeing Aurora's confused expression, Claire froze.
"Didn't you say Cid's unconsciousness was caused by Shadow?"
"Oh… that? Your brother just fainted. He'll wake up after resting. I only said that because you looked so anxious. Though, to be fair, his condition is indeed related to Shadow."
Aurora shrugged and let out a soft laugh.
When Cid had suddenly collapsed, Claire had been trying every possible way to wake him up. Meanwhile, Aurora sensed a faint trace of Cid's Magical Power from the direction of the explosion, which led her to conclude it was something like a clone.
At the time, she had already been annoyed by Claire constantly pushing her body to its limits and forcing her to repair it over and over. So she told a lie that was not entirely false, intending to teach Claire a lesson.
She told Claire that Cid's unconsciousness was caused by Shadow, and that if Shadow did not disappear, Cid would likely never wake up.
It was not exactly a lie. If Claire had known that Shadow and Cid were the same person, she would not have ended up getting beaten so badly. But there was nothing to be done. Claire understood Cid less than an outsider like her did.
To Aurora's surprise, after learning the truth, Claire did not explode in anger or draw her sword at her. Instead, she let out a sigh of relief.
"I see… that's a relief."
"Wait… I lied to you. You're not angry?"
"If I got tricked, then I got tricked. I don't really care."
"Hey, hey, Claire, did that beating knock something loose in your head? You got beaten up because of this, and you're just letting it go? That's not like you at all."
"It'd be a lie to say I'm not angry. But it doesn't matter. As long as Cid is fine, that's enough."
"…Just how obsessed with your brother are you?"
After sorting through Claire's reasoning, Aurora could only sigh.
"Alright, Aurora. Let's talk about something else. Is Shadow the one you mentioned before, the one who has been protecting me and my brother all along?"
Ignoring Aurora's earlier comment, Claire straightened her expression and asked seriously.
"Why do you think that?"
"There are a lot of reasons. For example, why Shadow knew Cid was my brother. Why he mentioned the power of an old friend just now. And why my brother fell unconscious the moment Shadow appeared. Cid isn't that much of a coward."
By the end, Claire's voice had risen on its own, filled with anger and fear at a certain possibility.
Her brother Cid had always been the kind of man who, whenever his sister was hurt, would force himself back to his feet and stand in front of her no matter how wide the gap in strength was. He was someone reliable enough to hold up the sky, not some coward who would faint from an explosion.
Though, to be fair, she also quite liked the Cid who would shrink into her arms in fear and call out, "Onee-chan, I'm scared."
Why did Cid lose consciousness the moment Shadow appeared?
Human experimentation!!!
Claire did not want to think in that direction, yet she could not stop herself.
"Claire, trust me a little. I won't hurt you. We'll talk about this later. I'll send you out first. Natsuki Minamiya is calling you again."
The situation had reversed from how it was at the start. The one who did not dare answer had changed from Claire to Aurora.
Watching her body gradually turn transparent, Claire drew her sword and swung it. Invisible Magical Power surged out, and with that force supporting her, her body flickered between solid and translucent.
"Aurora, I really do want to trust you, and I am willing to trust you. It's just… I want you to answer one question."
Seeing the seriousness in Claire's expression, and sensing the three sources of power within Claire's body that she had already set into motion, Aurora understood that if she failed to answer this next question, then even if she managed to send Claire out of the consciousness space, Claire would immediately make her move and dig her out of her body to seal her away.
"Will you… hurt Cid?"
"...No."
Getting that answer, and confirming that Aurora was not lying, Claire finally smiled in relief. She stopped resisting and let Aurora send her consciousness back to reality.
After Claire left, Aurora looked at the empty pure white space before her and fell silent for a long while.
Only after quite some time did she take a deep breath and blurt out loudly,
"You might as well just form a pact with your brother already. Worst case, I'll just remodel your bloodline."