Blair looked at Aella with confusion while the teenager jumped back with a shocked expression. Her conversation over the phone never mentioned anything related to wings. The only detail related to his identity as a Naturalis was that his hair sometimes gave off an unnatural glow.
“You… How do you see those?” He asked in a panic, getting defensive and ready to sprint as if he had a chance of escaping Aella.
What Aella saw was something slightly different than others. After obtaining her second tail, she gained two abilities that the system didn’t list, both related to her eyes.
The first was night vision. The second was the ability to see through illusions. This ability was tied to her abysmally low Mind stat, but her bad stats didn’t matter much for a non-combatant who is still probably level 1.
The boy was of African descent and carried a striking presence, characterized by a youthful confidence that Aella utterly shattered. He stood tall with a posture that conveyed a sense of self-assuredness, and his skin was a rich, deep brown. From a glance, it was easy to tell it was smooth and that he took care of his skin extensively.
With short, stylized hair, he was a handsome young man for all intents and purposes, but behind a thin veil of mist that only Aella seemed to see were two black butterfly-like wings that radiated two different glows, one a bright yellow like the sun and the other a dull silver.
‘A Celestial Fae~ He’s also a part of the Spirit Species, huh?’ She mused.
Rather than a species in the traditional sense, what Aella refers to is closer to a classification, much like how humans and dogs are mammals.
Elementals like those in the Abyss Nest, Foxin like Aella, Fae, and all their subtypes. They are the most numerous classification of life yet have one of the smallest percentages when it comes to intelligent population.
That is to say, Aella is closer to being a monster than a person in mind, body, and soul.
“Although we’re not as good as those Fae tricksters, we Foxin are masters of illusions too. Such a low-level illusion wouldn’t get past me.”
‘Even if we don’t get our Illusion abilities until the fourth tail…’
This boy glared at Aella, looking at his tails and back at her.
“You’re a Kitsune. Come back here; it’d be more trouble if someone saw a Naturalis here.”
With a confident smile, Aella nodded, following him back to a cozy living space, greeted by a small mechanical dragon.
‘Wait… Dragon?’
Doing a double take, her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the Dragon.
It was a sleek, metallic black. Mechanical scales covered the underparts of its body and neck, with more synthetic ones making up for its head and two arms.
It had no legs, slithering like a Wyrm, but with the horns of a Western Drake and a body made of pure armor, not to mention the two glowing core-like items placed in its shoulder and chest.
“You… Have a dragon?” Aella said, words escaping her mouth before she could stop herself.
That made him even more on guard. As his eyes fell on Aella again, the mechanical marvel lunged at Aella. Undeterred, Aella pushed Blair away before wrapping herself in Mana and allowing the artificial beast to coil around her.
Immediately, she felt her Mana faltering as she had to reinforce it several times.
“This physical strength… It actually surpasses Aetherion. How curious.” Aella chuckled, using [Apprasial] on the Dragon.
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Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
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“Who… Are you… How do you know I shouldn’t have a dragon?”
Grayson Ford. Both his parents were killed by the [Children of the Lost Sun] 5 years ago; he was the only survivor. The cult let him live after they learned that he wasn’t born with a Dragon Core like other Naturalis.
That wasn’t all, though. 2 Years later, he found a Dragon Core in the wild and tried to hatch it, but the moment it hatched, it died. He was incompatible with having any biological dragon. That was the information she and Blair were given.
Hearing that, Aella nearly lost her mind. First, she was dealing with a select few Naturalis being the only things in existence with a Tier 10 Dragon Core, and now she’s dealing with a Naturalis who doesn’t have one at all.
“I’m just a girl who echoes the cries of Naturalis who have fallen because of those cultists. Yes, that sounds nice. I shall be Echo, the Whirlwind Maestra. You may call Aella, though.” Aella introduced herself, her smile not faltering momentarily as the Eidolon Gear tried to tighten around her more but failed.
‘Yeah. That’s a cool name. Glad I came up with it on the spot~’ Aella hummed to herself inwardly.
“You… Were also targeted by the cult?”
“The other way around. The cult has done nothing to me. I am the aggressor here.”
In disbelief, Grayson backed up. “You’re just a child! You expect me to believe you?”
Letting out a sigh, Aella easily freed herself from the grasp of the serpentine-like Dragon.
“If age is the problem…” Aella began to speak, her apparent age increasing to that of a fully grown woman in her early 30s, “Then yes. I expect you to believe me.”
Showing off more, her age continued to shift around fluidly, from elderly all the way back down to her actual age. “Even gender is nothing but a suggestion to me. If you want proof of my identity, you can look up the past few incidents in Vancouver.”
If she leveled her transformation skill, that wouldn’t be a lie. Being free once again, Aella casually spread her arm across the couch and asserted her dominance.
“What do you want with me? I don’t want anything to do with those freaks!”
“And you don’t have to. You can never meet them again in your entire life. It’s only a matter of time before I eradicate them anyway, so I’ll get straight to the point. I want allies who can support me from behind. I want a group who can hold up heaven while I travel to hell and kill the devil if you understand what I mean.”
Grayson didn’t know what to say. No, perhaps he knew exactly what to say but simply couldn’t. His mind raced faster than it ever had before. One thought entered and left his mind before he could adequately begin to grasp the information.
He did his best to hide his emotions as he sat on the other couch, but unfortunately, the two people in the room with him were a maniac old hag, and a businesswoman who had trained to see through people’s poker faces for decades.
“Now, of course, Mr. Grayson Ford, if you wanted to avenge your parents personally, I have the means to grant you the power to do that?” Aella continued speaking since Grayson didn’t.
Still trying to grasp the situation, his Eidolon Gear protectively coiled around him, causing him to look up in surprise before briefly smiling.
“You’re comforting me? Thanks, buddy.” He mumbled, his mind growing ever so slightly clear with the thought of his companion being with him.
“Can I ask questions?”
“You haven’t said a single thing that isn’t a question. Be my guest, continue.” Aella chuckled.
His heart sank further when he realized that this girl who looked like a child was leading the conversation this entire time, but what could he do at this point?
“Why me? Surely others are in a similar state?”
Aella nodded in understanding. It was an expected question.
“Because you’re the first,” She answered bluntly, “However, now that I’ve met you, I’m dreadfully curious about how that Dragon works. According to [Apprasial], it doesn’t have a Tier, but it has a rank. Does it age despite being artificial? Now, I know a decent amount about Magical Technology, so this doesn’t apply to me, but I don’t think you need to be a genius to understand that creating life naturally is one of the hardest things. To do that artificially had to have been at least thrice as difficult. Finding such an intriguing fellow as my first officer is just my luck. So how about it, you wanna jo-”
“Aella, we need to go now!” Blair cut her off before she could continue speaking, glaring at her phone.
“Why? What happened? Why do you sound panicked?” Aella questioned. Grayson being equally, if not more, confused than Aella.
In response, Blair pointed her phone at Aella.
“The girl we were keeping our eye on is actively being attacked right now.”
Letting out a deep sigh and standing, Aella rolled her eyes. “How the fu… No, that really is just my luck. Let’s go save her.” Aella commanded before running to the door.
“Oh, boy. I don’t know if I’ll be back later or tomorrow, so think about the offer while I’m gone.”