Everyone waited patiently. Everyone, including Eris, which was unusual, sat silently. Their companions were gone for only an hour, but everyone was worried - even Eris, who was unskillfully trying to hide her feelings. Aru was sitting the farthest from the group. She wasn’t sure if putting trust in Ed and Ivory so soon was a smart move. She was starting to regret it, making up dark scenarios in her head. She wrapped her hands around herself, before her eyes appeared images, which she wanted to forget; of military, people with weapons in her hands, the color of blood, the cries of men, women and children, burning homes, towns and villages. She shook her head, but it did nothing, bad thoughts kept attacking her; then her mind brought back memories of certain beautiful, proud birds – sick or dead ones, eaten by flies. She bit her lips then, and looked in Edward’s direction with anger in her eyes. Suddenly, a plan appeared in her mind. She took a deep breath, then got up and walked over to the golden-haired boy. Everyone looked at her.
“Could I… talk with you?” she asked. “Alone.”
Edward nodded his head, surprised. He got up and followed Aru to the courtyard. Kyoko saw this as a bit suspicious, Eris „hmphed” and looked away. Kasei, on the other hand, thought about ways to mess with Edward, when Lorenzo got back.
Aru walked ahead. Edward was behind her, although he wondered why she wanted to walk so far away. In front of them there was nothing, only a wide valley filled with sand and bits of grass. Only long distance away could one see silhouettes of houses and tall buildings in far away towns. However, behind them rose Yodiara – a gigantic city, with the tallest buildings built in Gormilia to this day.
“I’m curious about something, but I’m not sure if it’s the right moment…” he started.
“Yes?”
“This house, is it yours, or have you found it?”
“Found it. But it doesn’t make a difference, since it’s abandoned anyway” she replied in an empty tone.
“Yeah, it probably doesn’t. Thanks for quenching my curiosity.” He smiled slightly, but she didn’t smile back.
“Why do you trust me, Edward?”
“Well, good question, I think I told you the answer once already. Because you seem like an alright person, so that’s the reason.”
“Ah… thank you” she emptily replied again. “But ‘seems’ is still not a sure answer, right?”
“What do you mean?” he asked. Aru smiled, and also giggled quietly. Edward’s eyes widened.
“I’m naïve” she said out loud, with a noticeable irritation in her voice. “You are too. You really thought I’d believe your words so easily? That I’ll give you my seal, so you can get your wish? That I’ll make it easy for you?!” she shouted out. The golden-haired moved away a little. “That’s enough, Edward of Rebellar!”
She threw a fireball at him. Edward jumped away at the last moment. He quickly got up from the ground, while focused huge amounts of fire around her hands.
“So that’s the kind of person you are, Aru?” he asked, although he felt like he saw this kind of behavior somewhere before. The red-haired laughed.
“I don’t know what kind of wish you may be holding. I don’t know the details, Edward. But you know what? I don’t give a damn! Have you heard about the war between Nihoria and Voyca? My parents died in this war! I’m Aru of Voyca, my role is to be a caretaker of phoenixes, of beautiful birds, which are permanent companions of fire mages. But as you know, there’s less and less of us. Fire magic is disappearing, and no one knows why – phoenixes are dying, and magicians of fire together with them. Nihoria destroyed us, killed many wonderful mages, and less and less of them are being born. Phoenixes are on the brink of extinction… And my role, like my mother’s and grandmothers’, father’s and grandfathers’, is to care for them! So, you know, Edward… I didn’t have any bad intentions… Yes, I even believed that we could be partners! But no! I have to win this game! My honor depends on this, the honor of my family and the future of fire magic! So fight with me, number eleven!”
Edward suddenly remembered the fury he felt when fighting Hemv. Now he knew what Aru’s behavior reminded him of. However, he had no time to think, Aru threw at him a set of fire bullets, Edward ran, defended himself with his arm that got burned. He stumbled from pain, quickly used a simple healing spell, to give himself at least a bit of relief. He cursed himself inside for not learning more spells for battle, gave himself a philosophy ban and an order to learn more spells, at the same time trying to create a plan for the battle. He focused energy around his hand, deciding to try anything. He threw a stream of magic in Aru’s direction, which turned out to be effective, since she had trouble stopping it. He bought himself a few seconds to analyze the situation.
“I feel sadness” he said. “But I was prepared for betrayal from you. The die has been cast.”
“Of course it has been, philosopher.” She smiled.
~
She tried to buy as much time as she could. She ran, sometimes hiding behind trees, at the same time planning her next steps. She tightly held Lorenzo in her hands, trying to protect him from any danger. In one moment her legs got hit by magic and she fell forwards. She felt burning sensation in her calves, leaned on a tree and breathed heavily.
“Hey, Lorenzo” she said. “I want to tell you something before Catherine gets here.”
“I’m listening…”
“I know that I’m advancing too quick, but… You remind me of someone who I met long ago. That person… was very precious to me. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to tell him about my feelings. You know… I believe in reincarnation… and maybe it’s dumb but…” She laughed. Lorenzo didn’t say anything. “But I think that the moment I saw you, I fell in lo…”
The pegasus pierced the tree by which they were sitting. Ivory jumped away with her hurting legs and stopped a bit further ahead, kneeling. She squeezed Lorenzo close to her chest, her face was beaming.
“Heh” she snorted. “Maybe I should stop babbling, and start thinking about what I’m doing?”
“Ivory…” he whispered shyly.
“You can ignore what I said, if you want. I just wanted you to know that. But now… please, help me in this battle.”
“I’ll do it!” he answered boldly, but a mix of different emotions could’ve been heard in his voice.
“I think that a normal weapon like you won’t do… Simple spells too… But if we used black magic, then…”
“Do it.”
“But I could hurt you.”
“It’s fine. I trust you.”
These words made her giggle cutely but sincerely. Then, she got up. She felt burning in her legs, but even this pain has now been rewarded. She focused the black magic on the gun, it soaked into Lorenzo, who only hissed a little. Catherine seated herself more comfortable on Karia, she looked quite calm.
“Ended your show?” asked the brunette. “Honestly, I’ve no idea what you are, and when I look at you, I get shivers. So will you let me in on the secret and let me get to know you more?”
“I’m sorry” she said with a smile “but I don’t enter relationships with creatures that disgust me.”
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Ivory held the gun more confidently in her hands and started shooting in her enemy’s direction. Karia still dodged skillfully, but Lorenzo’s bullets, seasoned with a pinch of black magic, let them finally injure her. When the pegasus slowed down because of wounds, Ivory shot out a spell out of her hand. Unfortunately she missed, but the pegasus’ mane still got hit. Black hair split like an overloaded line and fell to the ground. Catherine pet the pegasus on its snout, then whispered something in its ear. Black magic around the pegasus started to pulse more violently. Ivory fortunately was ready for this. Despite the pain, she focused magic in her legs and jumped out in their direction. The pegasus, wanting to protect its owner, knocked Lorenzo out of Ivory’s hand using its snout, and the girl returned the favor by kicking Catherine’s face with all her strength. The gun turned into a brown fox, which under the blow’s strength became incapacitated. He flied a few meters back, fell powerlessly to the ground and started shaking from pain and black magic that was floating around his body. Catherine, on the other hand, also flew back, but in the other direction. Ivory now had a few seconds to decide; she didn’t know whether to go to Lorenzo’s side, or to take care of the pegasus, since it was so close. Karia however threw her in the fox’s direction that was oversaturated with magic. Ivory groaned from pain in her legs, that was getting worse with every second. She crawled closer to Lorenzo and lightly pet his shivering body. The pegasus slowly walked in her direction. She thought about what to do next. Catherine, lying on the ground, was looking at her, laughing.
“Come on, Karia… Crush them… I’ve had enough of them all.”
“Understood” replied the pegasus, which began charging in their direction. But then it was Ivory who smiled. She got up quickly, trying to ignore the pain, focused as much magic as she could, then punched the horse in the snout as hard as she could with her fist covered in condensed aura. Pegasus stopped, its hind legs started shaking.
“Poor animal” she whispered with humility in her voice. A scythe appeared in her other hand. “It’s sad that those like you can’t be saved yet.”
She quickly moved her fist away from the horse’s muzzle, gripped the scythe’s handle in both hands, and with a quick, practically invisible move, made a cut. The pegasus fell, headless. Ivory was shaking from the pain her legs, she felt a burning sensation. There was no blood; the pegasus’ body turned into shining ash, which slowly floated in the sky’s direction. The huntress looked at the scene with a tired, sad look for a while. Lorenzo, a witness to what just happened, was still lying like he was paralyzed. Ivory lowered her head, her scythe disappeared, and she put her hands together.
“Please, God of Cleansing…” she said almost inaudibly. “Save those, whose souls were corrupted by darkness… Take away the corruption in their hearts…”
Ivory stopped the prayer, when she heard laughter. She looked in Catherine’s direction, who was slowly getting up. She wasn’t afraid or her because she knew that Catherine without her pegasus wouldn’t be able to do anything. The only thing that was still creeping her out, was her laughter. It was an insane, disgusting, and scornful laughter.
“God?” she mocked. “There’s no god! God was created by people, just that they could believe that there’s something righteous in this damned world! But you know what? There isn’t one. There completely isn’t.”
“Oh” the huntress replied, calm. “Says someone that hunts innocent people?”
“Innocent… there’s no one completely without sin. I only punish people overflowing with pride, who don’t care for anything else than wealth! I hate them! They don’t know hunger, poverty, only prosperity and the belief that they can have anything they want! You know what happens in a village struck by famine? Dwellers start eating each other. And I, to survive, had to eat my own friends. Aristocrats took everything from us! They bought our village, took our money, our fields, everything! Help never came, and anyone who tried to run was caught and murdered! They made us slave away, just so they could stuff their faces, fatasses! AND THEY GAVE US NOTHING! But that ended. I was the last one to survive… so I ate them too. If they made me eat my friends, then I went and ate their flesh too! And now I eat those similar to them! Aristocrats, everyone wealthy… because it was them that imposed their own rules on us! I’ve had enough of them not doing anything and having everything! My dream is to become a man-made god. To get rid of all pain in the world! To give everyone all that they want, and to slaughter those pigs, all of them! Maybe you destroyed my pegasus… But I won’t let you win so easily. I will also slaughter you, eat you… I’ll give your bones as a gift to those idiots…” She suddenly began laughing disgustingly. Ivory got up, completely unmoved.
“Do you even know what you’re talking about?” asked the huntress.
“Eh?” Catherine stopped laughing.
“Equality? For everyone? Create an ideal utopia without any suffering?” she asked with a visible scorn in her voice. “Get rid of pain? Give everyone everything they want? What would that be? If everyone could get all they want… what would that look like? People are blind. They would go and riot in the end, because each and one of them would think that they can have anything. Wars would break out, murdering others for one’s own goals would be an everyday occurrence… and finally someone wouldn’t have something they want. Pain truly is the worst evil… but can a rainbow be made without a bit of rain? By losing something, we learn to care for what is then given to us, by knowing pain, we can be truly happy! Even, if there are those who are defeated, even they have a bit of happiness in their lives! And those, who fight for happiness… possess the truest happiness on this earth! Not one given that’s given to you, but the one fought for with own hands is the most valuable on this earth! You would take away this happiness, no, you would take away all of it, if people wouldn’t know pain! Their life would become colorless, and later full of brutality. And the whole utopia would perish, having made the world worse than it is.”
“You’re lying” she hissed out. “Liar, liar… Who are you even to know that?!”
“I…” She looked in Lorenzo’s direction. “Also lost something that meant a lot to me. But I believe that, nevertheless… my prayers have been answered. But you… desire something that you don’t deserve. Happiness… true happiness won’t be given to someone, who killed innocent people! You’re disgusting. You’re a hypocrite… and you don’t even have any idea what you’re talking about.”
“SHUT UP!” she cried out. “I’LL WIN THIS GAME! I’LL CREATE A PERFECT WORLD WITHOUT PAIN AND SUFFERING, WORLD, FOR WHICH PEOPLE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR! AND FINALLY I’LL BE HAPPY, FINALLY!”
Catherine threw herself in Ivory’s direction, who caught her arm and twisted it. After a moment she kicked her in the stomach with her knee, the cannibal fell to the ground, she hugged her torso.
“You killed innocents for your own enjoyment” said scarily serious Ivory. “Someone like you… won’t understand what is the true happiness, gotten through working humbly. I can understand your hate, I don’t blame you for it, it’s fully understandable. But what you did to all those people… it’s unforgivable.”
“Who are you even to judge me?!” she screamed out. Ivory kicked her again, this time in her face. She slowly bent down caught her twisted arm by the wrist.
“I can’t let someone like you participate in the game.” Ivory held her other hand closer, and with magic started to tear out Catherine’s seal with number five. She started kicking, but it was for nothing. The huntress got up, looking from above at the weak Catherine, who without her pegasus was weak like a work. “Who am I? Something that awaits everyone.”
Ivory summoned her scythe and carefully caught it in her hands. She moved it behind her head, then with all strength stroke Catherine. Lorenzo heard the very unpleasant sound of bones breaking. He didn’t look.