Expecting that answer, Aella turned and began to leave before tossing a piece of paper to Aimi.
“2 Days is all I’ll give. If you decide to join the cause, come to that location 2 days from now at the same time.” She said, walking straight past Blair with a severe expression.
“Is everything alright? Did you accomplish your goal?” Blair questioned.
Stopping in her tracks, Aella nodded, “But I was wrong. We need to push our plans forward now. In 2 days, I’ll get my ID so we can officially start the business. Can you have everything ready by then?”
The urgency in Aella’s voice remained stagnant in Blair’s mind. The insane and whimsical Aella has such a serious tone—the possibilities of what could cause this. Just the notion genuinely terrified Blair to her bones.
“What happened? Explain to me.”
Shifting, turning to Blair with a glint of murderous intent in her eyes, Aella scoffed at her own stupidity. “I was wrong. Blair, their target was never the [Demon Lord Prospects.] It was their loved ones. Blair, the target of the cultists is you and Indigo, not Seraphina,” she explained.
“Whoever runs the show behind the scenes is trying to forcibly awaken the Demon Lords. No, not just the Demon Lords; they’re trying to awaken something in all Naturalis with a high rank. I was too lax. I was confident in my ability to detect lies that I didn’t even consider the most basic trick in the book. The cultists themselves were lied to.”
In hindsight, it was so obvious. They sent recruits after a 10th-tier dragon in the case of Seraphina. With Aetherion’s personality, he wouldn’t attack unless Seraphina herself was attacked. He wouldn’t extend his protection to her parents unless she gave the explicit order, something a 9-year-old girl wouldn’t be able to do on time.
“We need to start the funding within the next few days. We also need to find a specific Abyss Nest. It doesn’t need to be high rank. It just needs to be unowned and have a high density of Mana in it. Whether it’s F rank or SS, I’ll find a way to conquer and make it ours. On top of that, I need to start refining pills to assist in Seraphina’s and my own cultivation. If those two join, then they do as well. Shit, I have too much to do, and I don’t know how much time I have left.” Aella explained, trailing off and beginning to talk to herself halfway through.
“Wait, what do you mean by forcibly awakening the [Demon Lords]? You can’t just say something so ominous and expect me to understand.”
It was then Magnus stepped forward. “They’re trying to awaken a new SSS rank [Abyss Nest].”
Aella pointed at Magnus, “Maybe, but here’s the thing. An SSS rank isn’t what they’ll awaken. It’ll be something far worse. At least on the level of a God,” She responded matter of factly, not bothering to elaborate further for the time being. Too much was on her mind for her to properly articulate her thoughts so that people who were over a millennia younger than her would understand.
To her knowledge, Earth has only ever experienced a threat up to the 9th Constellation [Lyra, The Harp].
Although she couldn’t fight an SSS rank threat on her own, hell, she was sure she’d lose to Magnus if they were to fight, but this world has managed to beat one before, so they could naturally do it again, especially if she lent her aid.
However, entities of the 10th Constellation [Libra, The Scales] were different beings altogether. The beginning of Godhood. Even if she were to reach the 7th Constellation and fully awaken Sylpheed, she couldn’t guarantee that she’d win.
It wasn’t just conjecture either that made her think something above the SSS rank would appear—the title of Demon Lord. Never once in the cosmos has that title ever gone to a mortal. Although every world acts independently on almost all fronts, some laws in the universe are… Well, universal.
Aetherstreams are one, [Epics] another, and the title of [Demon Lord].
“Now hold on, kiddo, how are you so sure about that?”
“Kiddo?” Aella asked, activating her shapeshifting to meet the large man eye to eye. “I’m old enough to be your ancestor’s ancestor, child.” She stated in a commanding tone, her appearance that of her previous life at her peak.
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18 Tails. As uncanny as that number sounds, that was the most tails she had ever had at one point. It has been a very long time since she stopped counting how many years she had lived. She usually says around 1,000 for simplicity, but the actual number was far higher than that.
Although provoking one of the only people in the world that she couldn’t physically beat seemed like a bad idea, she wasn’t in the mood to deal with these infants right now. Luckily, with her [Transformation] skill reaching level 3, she has far more fluidity in her transformations and can easily spoof her tails and her aura to some extent.
Right now, she appeared to be on a similar level to Magnus, even if it was just a ruse. While Aella was an idiot, she wasn’t an irredeemable idiot. She researched the 12 SS-rank individuals worldwide and has gotten a pretty good understanding of their characters.
Magnus Armstrong. Said to be the Strongest Human, he was a man with an even stronger character. He believed that the world needed balance more than anything and, as such, remained neutral in situations for as long as possible.
As long as the cult stays active like this, Aella was sure he wouldn’t make a move on her yet. Not when she had proved her capabilities of keeping the cult in check as they were the most significant threat to the balance of the world.
Reverting to the original form she took as Echo, Aella rolled her eyes. “Ahem… Apologies. I lost my cool. I’ll tell you the same thing I told that girl. In 2 days, come to the location on this piece of paper, and I’ll do my best to explain the situation.
“Blair. Before we head back, I also want to give that boy one of these pieces of paper. And I doubt our original excuse is gonna work since Stormy kind of just teleported to me. Can we make one more trip before we return?” Aella asked genuinely, trying her best to cool her head down.
Blair nodded in agreement, so Aella began to leave the park with Stormy in tow. Blair stayed back, bowing to Magnus and thanking him for protecting her before following behind.
“The Whirlwind Maestra, huh? Echo, she said her name was. It’s quite peculiar how that demonic healer had a child this past decade who he said was a Naturalis reminiscent of a Japanese Yokai, and then this girl appears out of nowhere.” Magnus mused to himself while walking toward Aimi and her small group. “It seems I’ll need to visit some old friends.”
“Girlie, let me help you get her to a hospital!”
…
‘Status.’
=
Aella Rossi | Foxin | Adolescent Dragon
Title: N/A | Achievement Points: 1700
EXP: 183,492 | Level 52: | Stat Points: 65 | Skill Points 56
Dragon Slots: 1 used, 1 remaining
Dragon Core: Auilanthros Stormweaver | Rank: 3
Health: 66,500/76,500 | Mana: 115,000/115,000 | Stamina 18,999/18,999
Traits: 3 Tails | Whirlwind Maestra
Dragon Skills: [Dragon’s Breath] | [Electricity Manipulation] | [Water Manipulation] | [Wrath] | [Infusion]
Personal Skills: [Foxfire LV 3] | [Transformation LV 3] | [Charm LV 2] | [Blessing LV 1] | [Curse LV 1] | [Appraisal LV 1] | [Whirlwind Maestra LV 1] | [Advent Compass LV 1] | [Shared Consciousness LV 1] | [Mana Synthesis LV 1]
STR: 255 | DEX: 210 | SPI: 230 | AGI: 240 | MND: 75 | CHA: 150
=
“That’s weird. At level 25, I stopped gaining experience points, yet I surpassed 50 without any trouble. Is it because I killed a bunch of small fry instead of a Mini-boss?” Aella mused while stepping out of Grayson’s workshop.
“Those are some dangerous words you’re saying out in public. How many people did you even deal with there?” Blair asked
Aella shrugged, “I honestly couldn’t tell you. I was on autopilot the entire time. That aside, any idea what our new excuse is gonna be?”
Blair pondered the question before shaking her head. “You?”
It had been a good half an hour since they departed, and Aella had the time to calm herself down fully. She elaborated further to Blair so she understood the danger she was in as the mother of a [Demon Lord] but ultimately told her that she shouldn’t worry too much.
Aella was, after all, preparing for the worst-case scenario. She probably had more than enough time before the cult could awaken one of the Demon Lords.
“You’re not gonna like this, but…”
“You’re not telling Seraphina the truth.” Blair cut Aella off before she could finish.
“Not the whole truth! Blair, I don’t think you understand how strong your daughter is right now. If we’re talking about numbers alone, she’s probably stronger than I was with two tails. I won’t tell her you and Indigo are the targets, but she needs to know some of it so she can protect herself. I won’t be around to protect her that often.”
Blair stayed silent, eyeing Aella in the mirror as the young girl sat in the back seat.
“Listen. I’ve never been a parent. I’m not gonna pretend like I know what it’s like. However, I understand what it means to sacrifice everything to protect your loved ones. If that’s the game, I’ve been doing it far longer than you. Just trust me.”