“Aurelia…”

Gruuu!

A burst of aura covered his form like a gentle white flame.

“...I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

His fire had been stoked and his battle lust soared to its peak. His impression of Aurelia had rose to new heights to the point that he genuinely respected this woman as if he had known her for years. In this fight alone, he verified his gut-feeling that this woman was a warrior, and…that she was kin.

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|DxD|

.

Far away from the scene of the fight, Shuri, Akeno, Asia, and Cleria were standing outside the house with worried or awed expressions on their face. While the adults were worried, the two children were awed and rightfully so.

From the distance, motes of flashing lights and magic circles were relevant as the sounds of explosions filled the vicinity. The fight between Igor and Aurelia had scaled up to involve energy attacks of various margins. The giant plumes of dust and gravel burst up like brown curtains that continuously spread throughout the forest.

The blows and attacks those two traded were beyond impressive. Just the rumbling of the earth alone was a testament to the power behind the attacks. Even the resulting sounds from their attacks and clashes were…

Crack…BOOM

…loud beyond measure.

Shuri couldn’t help but worry that the isolation barrier wouldn’t be able to withstand the shockwaves. She could see it gleam continuously whenever an attack that missed its target collided against it. She couldn’t help but hold Asia and Akeno a little closer to her just in case they needed to run.

Shuri still couldn’t believe that things had come to this point. Everything had happened so suddenly that she couldn’t even put a word in. Breakfast was moving normally with stories being traded across the table. Most of the time, it was Cleria complaining about the blonde or the church while the only boy in the room stuffed himself with food, remaining oblivious to the varied looks he got from everyone.

But the most surprising thing was when Aurelia wanted to talk to Igor alone. Then all of a sudden, the blonde proposed a fight and in an instant, they were gone. It didn’t even take long before the sounds of fighting reached all the way over here.

Now, Shuri was worried that as the four of them stood here, one of them here could catch a stray blast.

“I think we should stop them before it gets too far.”

Hearing her friend’s words, Cleria walked over and reached up to place a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry too much, Shuri-chan. Nothing will happen…hopefully.”

Cleria tried to optimistic because in reality, there was little to nothing either of them could do with their strength. Neither of them could properly qualify as high class entities. At best, they could be seen as middle-class in terms of combat capability. But in a fight between two god class entities, they could forget about trying to interfere. Just the shockwaves from their clash alone would grievously injure them…if they were lucky.

While the two adults were worried, the two little girls on the side were a different story. Akeno was focused, her eyes squinting in order to catch a trace of the two fighters. Right now, Igor and Aurelia’s fight was not limited to just land. Visible shockwaves and collision points could be seen all across the sky but Akeno wasn’t satisfied with just that. She wanted to see exactly what moves they were making, especially the blonde.

As for Asia, she was content to simply cheer her brother on.

“You can win, big brother!”

Her eyes sparkled at the shining motes in the sky, the streaks of light reflecting in her eyes. Her hands were clasped together, her eyes wide open in wonder. She had never seen such a sight before in her life. But if there was one thing she was confident in, it was that her brother would win, because her brother is the best.

.

|DxD|

.

At the scene of the battle, Igor and Aurelia were floating a few metres away from each other. The blonde’s hand was visibly red from having deflected an ice-shard while Aurelia’s stomach had a visible red bruise from the result of failing to block a punch.

The blonde sported many cuts on his body from Aurelia’s sword, his shirt riddled with atleast a dozen slits. Fortunately, the damage was largely cosmetic. Very few of her strikes managed to do more than scratch his skin.

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Aurelia was not without damage either. She was wary of Igor’s punches more than his aura blades because of just how much power there was behind those fists. The case in point was previously when her chest armour bent inwards after a particularly nasty attempt at a liver shot that she failed to block. Her stamina had taken a hit, but a bit of magic allowed her to recover.

Both fighters were far from winded, the flames of their aura still radiating brightly. This clash of white and blue had resulted in a draw. Even when Igor pulled out tricks like [Instant Transmission], Aurelia seemed to have been built with an early warning system that allowed her to react quickly. It seemed that just like him, she was also sensitive to spatial fluctuations or at the very least, had a magic spell that allowed her to sense spatial fluctuations. Yet even with this disadvantage, he enjoyed this bout and sincerely wanted to carry on.

But before that, he had a something he wanted to confirm with the silverrette.

“You are Aryan, aren’t you?”

He was roughly eighty-percent sure. Ever since he saw her, he got this somewhat strange feeling that he knew her. Although it was restrained, he could tell her lifeforce wasn’t normal. Having spent time with, and fought a lot of long-lived species, Igor could vaguely tell if someone was much older than they appeared or not and one thing was for sure- Aurelia was far older than she seemed. His third suspicion was her way of speaking. It was way too archaic, similar to the way some of the older people in Indra’s army spoke. Although not substantial, it helped aid in his guess that she was old and thus, not a normal human.

But the final piece of the puzzle was when they fought. It is nigh impossible to fully restrain one’s aura in a fight unless the gap between the person and the opponent was so significant, that the stronger being could afford to restrain their power. When they fought, Igor finally felt the abnormal amount of lifeforce she had for a human. One, he could tell that it was in the hundreds, her lifespan or lifeforce roughly matching his own. The second was the density or purity of her lifeforce. As a person grows older, the density of their lifeforce increases as the years go by. His was relatively mellow in comparison to hers that was nearing Vasco’s lifeforce in density. He couldn’t pin her exact age, but she was definitely above fifty-years-old.

Taking those factors and the notion that his kind had been annihilated over fifty years ago, his suspicions that she was Aryan shot through the roof. Unless there was another race of superhumans that existed, she was definitely an Aryan. His confirmation would’ve been quicker were it not for her white hair. That threw him in a loop for a while.

But when she walked out of that plume of dust, when he saw those beautiful eyes lusting for battle, something in him screamed that she was kin. Just like how someone could identify someone from their hometown through their accent, Igor could instinctually feel that Aurelia was someone very familiar, and all it took was an exchange of fists to confirm his gut-feeling.

Knowing that refuting was pointless, Aurelia nodded her head.

“Yes. I am indeed an Aryan.”

Scratching his head, Igor frowned in confusion.

“No wonder you felt weird. But I wasn’t sure until we fought a few times.”

His gaze then turned serious.

“I don’t know why, but my instincts tell me that you are blood. I can see it in your eyes…you have that fight in you, the glare of a warrior.”

“...”

Aurelia stared silently at him. When he said those words, her mind travelled back to the speech her father gave her brothers and the soldiers when they were invaded.

‘Our enemies have arrived, but we are not afraid. Our ancestors were not afraid. We are proud Aryans who have persisted through history. For we are a race of warriors! It is in our blood! It is in our instincts! Take your sword! Take your spear! Take your pike! Take any weapon! We will fight until the last man! We Shall NOT SURRENDER!’

This time, she did not feel sadness, but pride. She cannot bring back her kin from death, but not one of them died on their knees.

[I have schemed for so long that it seems I have forgotten what it means to be a warrior.]

Facing Igor’s words, her eyes were opened. She had never felt more alive than now when they fought. Her blood sang in jubilee every time she strained her mana veins to block another attack. She enjoyed and relished the feeling of a good fight.

Revealing a genuine smile, she sighed.

“Benefactor. Thank you for your kind words. Because of you, I have discovered a side of me that I have suppressed for too long.”

Aurelia didn’t hide her heritage intentionally. But in this fight, she realised that all this time, she called herself a proud Aryan yet didn’t embody that. It was the same as a normal civilian calling themselves a soldier just because their father was a soldier when they never even held a gun in their life.

In this fight, Aurelia realised she was indeed like the civilian in this scenario. But now, she has turned into a fully-fledged soldier, a genuine warrior who can bear the monicker of her ancestors, a woman who can bear the name of Drachenberg with pride.

“Benefactor-”

“Igor. Call me Igor. Don’t call me ‘Benefactor’. It doesn’t suit the current you.”

He could tolerate being called “Benefactor” from a talking robot. But for this woman he admired, her calling him “Benefactor” was too…”meek”, for his liking.

“I understand…Igor.”

Flashing a thumbs up, the blonde grinned.

“That’s better. So…wanna continue? To be honest, I can still go a few rounds.”

“...”

Aurelia didn’t say anything but gestured around the vicinity. Hectares and hectares of land was destroyed in their fight. Gorges and craters left scars across the landscape that would surely cost thousands of dollars to fill. Trees were strewn about either uprooted or torn apart into pieces of wood, something that would be hard to explain to the mundane.

The only good outcome was that despite the intensity of their fight, the isolation barrier was still intact. This meant that for the time being, no one in the mundane world would notice that not even a few kilometres from town, a devastating battle had taken place.

Catching the silverrette’s hidden message, Igor frowned. As much as he wanted to fight, he knew Shuri loved this forest and if they fought any further, there was a chance of making restoration impossible, or damn-near impossible.

Letting his aura retreat inside his body, he sighed.

“Fine. We’ll fight another day…I guess.”

Aurelia quietly nodded.

“Yes…”

Then immediately, she rushed towards him.

Su!

Igor widened his eyes and was prepared to take a defensive stance when she suddenly…

“Heh?”

…hugged him.

.

AN

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