Aburus smiles upon hearing Yrathea’s answer, but it gets wiped off the moment he hears what she says next.
“…but only in exchange for your daughter. You can take our Chaos user, and we will take yours. Isn’t that the perfect deal?” She suggests.
…
“Are you taking this as a joke? You think we don’t dare to wage war?” Aburus asks in a low and dangerous voice.
“Do as you please. Any hostile action towards us would be retaliated with double the ferocity. We are not cowards, Aburus.” Yrathea answers plainly.
“So, you’re choosing one person over countless of your countrymen. I see.”
It might just be my imagination, but I momentarily saw a triumphant look on Aburus’s face. But it was gone before I could blink.
“What’s the point of this farce anyway? I cannot believe you actually thought that I would agree to any of your demands.” Yrathea asks, sounding genuinely confused.
But it seems like Aburus has no intention to answer this particular question. He simply takes a step forward and raises his hand as a finalizing gesture. “You’ve stated your intentions, there’s no need to waste our time with this conversation.”
He pauses for a bit before continuing.
“Now, heed my words. I, as the King of all Demons and the representatives of the System-independent countries, officially declare an all-out war against the System-dependent countries. Prepare yourself.”
With this, he leisurely turns around and leaves through the swirling void. As the void pops out of existence, a heavy silence falls.
After making sure that Aburus and the others have truly left, Marianne slowly pulls me out of her shadow. I want to say quite a few things, but the pressing atmosphere doesn’t allow me to do so.
“Ilsevel.” Yrathea suddenly speaks.
“You and the other leaders need to leave and prepare an announcement for the public. You know it already, but make sure it doesn’t cause panic.”
“Leave it to us,” Ilsevel replies with a bow. Immediately after that, she and the other leaders vanish into thin air.
“The rest of you need to get started with the preparations. I’ll join you in a minute. Marianne, you stay,” Yrathea continues, addressing the hooded ones now.
After the second batch of people leaves, only Yrathea, Marianne, and I are left in this eerily quiet place with the dark World System tower looming behind us.
“What’s the matter, Yrathea?” Marianne asks, sounding slightly nervous.
“You know what you must do, Mari. We need to act fast,” Yrathea says gravely.
“But… But there are some complications now. I am not sure if we can carry through the plan.” Marianne says, giving me a quick sideways glance.
“I know I am asking a lot, but you agreed to this. This is our only choice. You need to do it. Everything’s at stake.” Yrathea says a bit sternly now.
….
Marianne looks quite conflicted, but she still gives a reluctant little nod.
“Very well. Meet me in private once it’s done. I’ll have to check the effectiveness personally,” Yrathea says before disappearing as well.
“… What the heck was all of that?” I ask, finally feeling that it’s okay to speak.
“Not here. Come with me.”
Marianne grabs my hand, and we sink into darkness again. The moment light returns to my eyes, I find myself standing in a dimly lit room. Strangely, there’s nothing in this room except a big double bed in the middle.
Once I get stable on my feet, Marianne lets go of my hands and sits down on the bed gracefully.
“Now, ask me what you want about tonight. I’ll answer everything that you’re allowed to know,” she says, looking at me with her crimson eyes.
I cannot help but notice that her hands are still shaking. I felt it again when she grabbed my hand. It’s as if she’s caught a severe cold. Also, I remember that she was perfectly fine in the morning.
What happened to her? Well, I don’t really care enough to ask right now.
“Are we really going to have a war?” I ask, getting to the most important thing first.
“Yes. You’ve clearly seen and heard what Aburus said.” She answers patiently.
“And is it because I touched that weird symbol on the WST? Why did you make me do it if the consequences are so bad?” I ask with a frown.
“Is it because you touched the rune? Well, yes, but not exactly. War was inevitable the moment we found out Aburus’s daughter is a Chaos magic user. Your appearance only changed the side that declared this war. So, it was only a matter of sooner or later.
“But I will admit, we really didn’t want to expose your existence this early. In fact, it severely messed up a lot of our plans. As for why I still made you touch the rune? It’s because what happened wasn’t supposed to happen. None of us had anticipated that sort of reaction by the World System Tower. We knew about the light that shot out of the tower, and that’s why we prepared the best defenses we could to prevent any energy from leaking. In fact, we’ve easily stopped it multiple times in the past, but for some reason, we failed this time.”
“But why do guys even care about that rune at all? So much so that you’re fighting a war over it,” I ask incredulously.
“We don’t exactly care about that rune in particular, but we do care for what those six runes being lit together signify— the fact that all the six types of Elemental Magic users have gathered before the system tower!
“The side that activates those six runes together will be able to pry into the secrets of the World System Tower itself! We will finally be able to answer some of the questions that have long troubled us. Maybe we can even obtain something beyond our wildest dreams. And most importantly, we will be able to find out which side was right. The strange reaction from The World System Tower confirmed our doubts, so it’s a war to win the rights over those runes,” she answers with a faint smile.
…
“You just confused me even more. Can you go into detail about those secrets and questions and whatnot?” I ask with my eyebrows raised.
“You’re not allowed to know the details for now. But we will tell you everything soon enough. Sooner than you might expect.” Marianne says with a somewhat sad smile. Almost as if she isn’t too thrilled about the prospect of me knowing those things.
[Psss… buddy, listen.]
“By the way, can’t you just activate those six runes without the System-independent countries knowing? I mean, the WST is right here in our backyard.” I ask wonderingly.
[It’s urgent! Listen to me!]
“No, we can’t. We have no idea about the energy signals that might be released and whether we can stop them or not. You saw what happened today. If we really go ahead and try to activate the runes then… well, you probably cannot even imagine what the other side would do,” Marianne says with a sigh.
“But—”
[LISTEN HERE, YOU FUCKER WITH A TINY PICKLE!”]
What the…? Tiny what?
[Never mind that. You need to run out of here and find your women!]
Huh? Why?
[Beast awakening is about to be activated any second now! And you don’t want it to be activated in front of Marianne! It won’t be able to overpower her at all!]
Fuck!!! Why didn’t you say anything sooner!?
[I told you the moment I sensed it. Now, hurry!]
“Eh, I’m done with all my questions. Please excuse me, I need to go and find my girlfriend. It’s urgent,” I quickly say. And without waiting for her to answer, I turn around and dash towards the door.
“Stop.”
Suddenly, my legs freeze. I can still move my upper body, but I cannot take another step forward.
“We’re not done here, Jacob,” Marianne says quietly.
“Please let me go! I told you it’s urgent!” I almost shout out.
“I am sorry, but I cannot let you go just yet. And don’t struggle. You can’t break my spell.”
“What is the meaning of this!? What are you doing!?” I yell as my legs automatically turn around so that I’m facing Marianne again.
“You are important, Jacob. I don’t think you’ve even begun to realize just how important you are to us,” she says, staring down, not looking at me directly.
“We wanted you to grow stronger, much stronger than you are now before your existence gets revealed to the other side. Because we knew they would do anything and everything in their power to get you. But unfortunately, they know about you now. And it’s too early.”
“Alright, I get it! Just let me go now!” I plead.
But Marianne ignores me.
“We want to protect you at all costs, Jacob. But even we are not confident that we can protect you all the time. There are certain restrictions that the other side can make use of. And once they get you, it’s all over for us. They have ways to make you work for them— against us, that is.” She tells me with a sign.
“Fuck! I won’t help them, alright? Now, free me! I seriously need to go right now!” I yell at her.
“It’s not that simple, Jacob.” She shakes her head. “You are too weak to resist them. And that’s why they will be trying their hardest to get you. There’s only one perfect solution to this that Yrathea and the others came up with while discussing the worst-case scenarios,” she says.
“And what is it!?” I ask impatiently, hoping she would let me go after telling me that.
Marianne finally looks up and our eyes meet.
“You will have to become my Thrall… my slave through the Blood Bond.”
[BEAST AWAKENING]
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