Aefia sat in front of the officeroom. The mentors were discussing the information Aefia had just told them.
"The King of the Demons' Dungeon has an alliance with the Torture Cell. The demons are slaves for the Torture Cell. They are currently forced to work on a huge project for the Torture Cell and the big project is taking place at Hellas." Aefia made sure she mentioned the term more frequently to grab Ms. Avry's attention.
"That project is part of a much bigger project of the Torture Cell. The Torture Cell are planning on murdering two Guardians and destroying an entire dimension. The two Guardians' identities are unknown. Another interesting thing I have found out is that four Guardians are currently working on a revealation for the person who wields the elemental absorbtion skill.
"The person who wields it, is called the King of Tyrants and he or she is the most wanted person in the entire cosmos. The person is wanted for the succession of countless thrones.. It is yet unknown who exactly it is, but one of the succession offers is that he or she becomes the future Demon King."
"That is all highly sensitive information! How did you intercept all that?" Ms. Avry stood up. You know...I have my ways. Afterall I am the one who is the most wanted, actually my skill.
"I moved between dimensions. It seemed to me that the person of the other dimension didn't see me." Aefia lied. "When I woke up, I was back at this world, but my ears were heavily bleeding." Aefia said calmly.
This was her strategy she had planned up for the past hour. To make it seem like the truth, a few part needs to be lies.
She couldn't exactly say that she was the most wanted person due to her skill. If she said that, she would be discovered and so will her elemental absorbtion skill.
"But may I ask why this elemental absorbtion skill is the most wanted skill in the entire universe?"
"We are not sure why. Some revealations state that it is one of the most powerful skills a human can have and due to it, certain unexplainable events would occur." Ms. Avry explained.
I have my question answered than. This unnatural things that had been happening was due to this skill. Now that I now about it, it is required for me to be silent about it too. Nevertheless, this was why I decided to expose of the dimensional shift case.
"I see...well I think, since that is one of the most powerful skills, my instincts are telling me that to find that person, we need a powerful being equivalent to that person's power to face and find them." Aefia said.
"If your instincts say that, we can't take that information for granted. Your wolf instincts are the ones that will keep this entire competition alive some days. For now, wait outside the office. I will talk to the mentors about this." Ms. Avry signaled Aefia to the door.
Mission accomplished. Increased awareness. Plus, I have got my answers.
***
"Thanks for the information you gave us earlier, your psychic abilities are growing by the looks of it. You will need to know a few things first about it. Wait in the lobby, we will come to explain it to you." Ms. Avry came out a few moments later.
"Sure, anyway I can help, I will try my best." Aefia gave a slight bow. Making sure her mentor notices her injured eye.
"May I ask why your eye is tied up?"
"Oh, the dimensional shift has injured me in quite the manner. I had gotten more severely injured before but I managed to heal them using Helio's power."
"What other injuries? Can you specify? Including your eye."
"My throat was partially slashed and there was a stab wound at my side. My ears were already bleeding and my eye was hard to open, it is still bleeding for no reason."
"WHY DIDN'T YOU INFORM A MENTOR? THESE ARE FATAL INJURIES."
"Calm down, I thought you were all busy since you look pretty tired lately. I thought, maybe I shouldn't bother you and the other mentors and inform about it later. But I also thought that I needed to survive, so I asked for Helio's help." Aefia gave a smile while expressing that it was nothing to her.
"First, let's get help from the nurses office." Ms. Avry smacked her forehead with her palm.
"No problem!" Aefia followed behind. While passing the lobby, Aefia signaled to Helio about the current situation. Helio signaled back. Great, it's working as planned.
The nurse's office, was more of an operation theatre then a normal clinic-like place. There were injections and scissors and many other things Aefia couldn't name. I need to endure it for the main plan to execute properly. Even if it means going through operation I guess.
Aefia gulped and sat at the entrance of the nurse's office. Ms. Avry discussed somethings with the nurse while Aefia anxiously stared at the injections. She wasn't afraid of them, she wanted to play with them for the time being.
Aefia was an awkward kid from a young age. It was said that due to the trauma and abuse, she was always feared as a possible child murderer. While her best friend Nada used to play with dolls, Aefia used to grab a knife from the kitchen and cut off the doll's head. "They don't have lifes, it's nothing to be sad about," she would tell the other kids.
She would do so to stuffed animals and sometimes, any thrown away mannequins she could find in front of the shops in her father's supermarket.
She was called a psycho for carrying a knife around with her anytime she went out to meet her father's colleagues. When they would ask why, " Don't you have fear about what might happen to my father when the business deal doesn't settle?" is what the young Aefia would reply.
Her psychotic behaviors and mentality slowly recovered as she grew and learnt more about the people around her. Not everyone was always thinking about their benefits, some people are working on improving the benefits for other people while tirelessly going through a lot everyday only to get betrayed at the end.
It was especially when she met Nada, that she realized it was better to let down of her guard sometimes than to live in a multi-secured cage full of thornes and inflict imprisonment on oneself. It was being unfair to those who actually work to keep you happy.
"Aefia, do you mind if we have to operate you due to your condition? Although we don't know how bad it is." Ms. Avry asked a few minutes later.
"Sure. But to operate don't you need assistants?"
"Yes, we are getting ourselves an assistant." Ms. Avry stared at the fabric Aefia used as a way to stop the bleeding. "Why are you using the cape of your cloak as a make-shift bandage?! You know how expensive it is."
"Yes I know but a property of this cloak is that it doesn't stain or spoil. Even when I sleep or my blood falls on it." Aefia said with a smile.
"YOU SLEPT WITH THE CLOAK ON?" Ms. Avry's face darkened.
"Well not exactly, you see I was tired and I didn't notice that the cloak was on and I went to sleep..." Aefia nervously tapped her boots against the floor. The boots, were also stained with blood from the fighting with the beast. Why didn't I realize this earlier!!
Ms. Avry looked at what Aefia was staring at with a pale face. "Why are your boots stained! Aefia what is going on?"
"Well...my blood fell on the boots when I stood up...I didnt notice it earlier." Aefia wiped her wet forehead. Please buy it..It's nothing like it can't be true! My blood is indeed stamped on it.
Meanwhile, Aefia could see the nurse was heading towards the lobby. She was probably going to get her helping hand. "Alright, I believe you. Your stab wound was probably that badly injured." Ms. Avry finally said. Yes! I was tiny bit close from being revealed.
"You need to get inside the room if you require operation you know. Unless you want the equipments to be brought here."
"You know? I would prefer the equipment brought here then." Aefia replied, trying to make it seem like a joke. I just remembered, I am a terrible joker...
Ms. Avry got hold of the cloak and yanked Aefia into the operation theatre. "Okaay Okay let me go! I can walk!" Aefia cried while being pulled by Ms. Avry.
The door behind her shut and Aefia sat on the bed. "You pulled me in too early. The nurse is still not here." Aefia explained.
"They will in a minute. She has to send the mentors away first due to your injury. Doesn't she?" Ms. Avry sat on a bench at the opposite corner of the room.
"But the questioning will take place right? And did I forget to tell you I also have an injury on the back of my head?" Aefia said while pointing to the location.
"What?! Let me see!" Ms. Avry got up. She turned around to face away form Ms. Avry. "That's a huge gap on your scalp. Didn't that hurt?"
"It only made my head hurt but not the gap you are talking about."
"Makes sense, there is a crack on your skull. Congrats, you have earned the most talented dumb person award." Ms. Avry clapped.
Hey! I am not as dumb as I seem. I can't see the back of my head to examine my own wound okay?!
"You are going to need stitchings. I don't know how you are still alive."
"I already know I need stitchings. I also know you need to do something else."
"Cement your skull and probably extract your eyeball. It depends on how the situation turns out."
Aefia stayed silent at that. By the time, the nurse had come back. The nurse was a middle-aged woman with black hair and blue eyes. Ms. Avry told the nurse about Aefia's head, "Really? How did she manage to stay alive after all those injuries?"
"I believe it's truly a miracle she is still standing." Ms. Avry replied.
The nurse checked the wound on Aefia's head. "Alright, when the student comes, we will start procedures with the skull." The nurse lady finally spoke. A student? I am not getting further killed, am I?
She had to put on a blue plastic apron and gloves but didn't receive any order to open her eye yet. They waited slightly longer until the assistant came. She took out her pocket watch and wore it around her wrist.
After another ten minutes, the assistant entered. Finally! Who is this student! It was none other than her teammate, Helio. I should have guessed, he had the healing ability.
"So what do I do?" Helio asked while walking towards the equipments.
"You will have to continuously supply health to her, at her current state I don't think she can handle the pain that comes with the procedures."
The nurse gave Aefia a clean fabric to cover her eye with while they took of the cape she had tied. The cape was still clean and there was no sign of blood on it. At first, Ms. Avry doubt the injury existed but when blood started to pour down from the eye, she realized Aefia wasn't lying. She helped her hold the fabric tightly enough to prevent extra blood lose.
While the operation was ongoing, her consciousness slipped away and she got the opportunity to rest for a while. In a few minutes, she was back at the dimension she was at during her nap this afternoon.
This time, Aefia walked around the palace and took in the details for further identification later. "We have forgotten to tell you this earlier, but you will be assigned more missions in the future." The voices came back.
Her ears were bleeding, yet again. But luckily she was in the operation theatre and Ms. Avry noticed. "She is in another dimension. Her ears are bleeding."
"Cover it up. Make sure she doesn't hear anything from this dimension." The nurse instructed Ms. Avry.
Because of which, Aefia's pain was taken away and the bleeding stopped. The voices continued speaking, "In your future missions, you will need a small team to help you complete them."
"Now you may have a few member from your team back at the competition, but they need to be strong enough to face the enemy. In the future, make sure to get powerful Kings and Queens to work with you. You may use your identity as the King of Tyrants or whatever title you want. We will alter the future revealations based on that. Remember your team can only hold a certain number of set members."
"Also, your next mission will be in two weeks. We believe you have enough time to prepare for it."
"You may now choose your desired title." The voices went silent. Aefia thought through whatever she had heard. There are more missions for me to accomplish besides the competition itself. I need to have a small number of teammates from the competition so they can help me cover up my missing cases if there is.
I will also need to be wise enough since in the future, I might not have space for someone with exceptional skills that I might need. But also, having too many members would be harder to maintain.
Finally, based on my skills and all my elemental traits, since my abilities are psychic and most of my Phase names are based on those traits, I will go for the title...
"I will be identified as 'The Manipulator of Time'. Another title of mine, would be 'The Dimensional Shifter'. The first title would be used in revelations while the second title will be used to address me personally. The number of slots for my team would be set to eight. All would be selected slowly and under a few circumstances." Aefia spoke out for the first time. She doubted the voices would reply back to someone as low as her.
"Well then, we should call you 'The Dimensional Shifter' from now on. For your first reward in completing the first mission, you will be granted the power to move between whatever dimension you want as long as you don't kill anyone innocent. Your second reward will be dropped by soon."
"Let's conclude this meeting for today. We will bring you here whenever we need to tell you confidential informations in the future. Until then, protect yourself Dimensional Shifter." The voices cut off as Aefia felt the falling sensation again.
Aefia woke up with a glowing right eye and sweating forehead. "You are back. Did you receive any revealation?" Ms. Avry asked while removing the two clothes she was using to cover her ears.
"There is an unclear revealation I have gotten, the first stage for the destruction is about to begin." Aefia answered with a stern and serious face. I am telling the truth, a nation-wide crisis and tragedy is about to start, soon. And I know the exact date for it too.