Aefia grabbed onto the finger and twisted it with a fluid motion as noise of bone snapping echoed and she shot at the mage's left ear with her gun. It seemed like a miss, but the bullet bounced off the glass shield and flew into his stomach.
"I believe I have some business left to finish up before the library closes in another hour. So, I will freeze the time around here, and we both can take our revenge. How does that sound?" Aefia spoke out. "I don't believe it will be a lengthy process that way, so I was just suggesting. But I appreciate any suggestions you have to offer too."
"And what revenge do you have to take over me?" Albert asked while snapping his finger back into place with a swift movement. "I am now in a particulated state, and thanks to the demon you had in your team, I was able to respawn and I learned about your destination from her."
"Who, Aritea? She isn't part of our team." Aefia spoke while the air stood still around them. "I was planning on disposing her afterwards. I had a feeling she would be a troublemaker, so that is why I never really asked her to specifically 'join' my team."
"Hold on, what?" Albert stared with shock at the completely expressionless teenager in front of him. She definitely didn't seem like a person he had faced a while ago, the person who was strangled and stabbed just an hour ago. "You are supposed to be afraid of me right now. And you are not worried about the dangers you will face, how very brilliant of you kid. Do you not have fear?"
"Fear? Haven't I already told you I don't have a fear? Please don't change the topic like that, it makes my nerves overwork themselves. Maybe if you didn't speak so fluently about my past, my present and a bunch of lies back during our last confrontation, I might have spared you." Aefia said as she lowered her pistol to her side. "You might want to explain your stay in this world if you don't want to permenantly die. The Guardian of Death is missing."
"And how much do you know about the Guardian of Death?" Albert asked. "What if they are weren't actually missing? Because it has been eighteen thousand and a hundred years since they dissappeared."
"And what do I specifically do with that information? Do you think it will be of any use to me?" Aefia spoke out with a threatening tone. "My child, how old are you?" Albert asked with a much more calm expression. He kneeled down on one knee as his particulated form vanished, and in there stood his usual cloaked form.
"Fifteen years and one month. And how is that supposed to be any of your concern?" Aefia asked with a curiousity that made her mind suddenly ask many questions at once.
"If one month is equal to a hundred years, then it had been eighteen thousand and a hundred years in total since they went missing. I was thinking, just what if...you were a reincarnated who was previously the Guardian of Death?" Albert asked with a grin which she had seen multiples of time before.
"You don't think that it will confuse me." Aefia replied with a smile back. "Because it could really just be a coincidence that my birth was exactly eighteen thousand and a hundred years ago based on what calendar? Not the Aglic, is it? And to tell you the truth, many more people were born in the same day as me." She shrugged to make her speech more effective.
"Fine! You are smarter than I really thought. Although, you should keep in mind that you are indeed a special person with a special background, and a very interesting past." Albert spoke as he lifted his hands into a surrendering position. "I can tell you a little more about your past if you want?"
"Yeah yeah! Like I believe anything you have just said. I don't even care about my life on Earth, so get a more serious and delightful teenager who is reckless enough to believe everything you say. But although I am someone who trusts everyone, this isn't a novel, my life in particular isn't." Aefia replied while making a sock-puppet gesture with her left hand.
"Hey! That's disrespectful to someone who is older than you!" Albert abruptly stood up. A sharp pain went through his bones as his knees shock and he dropped back with a 'crack' sound.
"Oof! This guy is a grams! I should go easy with the attacks the next time I am thinking so!" Aefia spun her gun's trigger around her finger for a few seconds and waited for him to get back up. "Don't waste my time, I didn't come here to chit chat about nonsense and myth that never happened."
Albert stood back up, this time a little slower than before. As soon as he was almost upright, Aefia fired and he rolled on the ground to defend himself. Then another bullet fell right on the ground next to him. He immediately responded back by barrel rolling to the front.
"I am amazed how a bone creaking elderly could dogde both bullets. But if they all went through, I could easily sent you back to the dimension your body was left to rot. Oh right, I forgot how Aritea had fed it off to the chimera dragon." Aefia spoke while still remaining calm and rather, she was awkwardly grinning which caused Albert's all nerves to shiver.
He moved forward with a similar approach he had tried to use before, by trying to stab out her eyes. But instead, Aefia tilted her head slightly to the right and grabbed the wrist, standing on her usual position. While holding the gun on her right hand, she kicked his knees and punched the ribs while flipping him over in the air and slamming him down on the ground with a very hard 'thud!'.
Speechless, Albert tried to move to the right while Aefia shot his palm which caused him to pull his left hand closer to himself and scream while holding it. "What is wrong with you psycho! I didn't threaten you this time!" Albert sat up while grabbing on the hand with a tight grasp.
"I completely remember...that before I left the library, you said something from the far distance in a whispering tone. You said, that the next time you will be sure to finish me off. So I thought, for my own safety, I would have to come back quietly to have you killed. You know, growing up in a rich household, I learned selfishness. I only do what I want to or think is right, I don't care about how much disadvantage the others receive." Aefia replied while slowly extending the pistol at Albert's head.
"Let me tell you a number of things you have done, that made me come up with this one last meeting where I will make sure you never ressurect again." She said while holding out her hand with no fingers lifted. "The first, you had planned to harm Nada, knowing she is extremely close to me. And that is something that clicked a switch in me, which forced me to come back."
"Not only that, you were almost about to make her commit a ritual where, you would seal her soul forever and take over her body so you could freely use her ice powers, which you didn't get the chance to use for another ritual back at your world.
"Do you know exactly how mad it made me in specific? I wanted to ripe your head off from the rest of your body, with my bare hands! And I think I am still willing to do that, but I am not as brutal as I seem.
"Second, her lady didn't do much harm to you by not offering you skills in battle! And you still went out of your way to try and...end her life like she was nothing! Nothing!" Aefia's eyes flared with a very bright red-magenta colour, that was enough to scare Albert's soul out of him. "Her lady may seem like a very negatively determined person, but honestly...at least she isn't as ill-minded like you! But you still wanted to kill a mother in front of her...son!"
Albert slightly quivered in place at words that came after a split second. He was ready to plead, but not to give up. Aefia didn't even allow a single word from his mouth. "Tell me one thing, how would you react, if your parents were to die in front of you own eyes? Or what if you are the parent and your child watches you die? Torn to shreds or executed?" She asked with intense anger in her voice.
"Stop! I repent! I don't want to continue listening to anything else!" Albert bent down with his forehead touching the ground. "I will do anything you want done! Spare me!"
"No, I am not sparing you after you have done three things that still gets my nerve. I may be forgiving sometimes, but I am definitely revengeful. I will watch you suffer to death, that's my revenge for you." Aefia said while taking out her knife from its shealth.
"If you want to know the third thing...you had stolen my memories and used them against me." She spoke while the blade extended into a beautiful flower and vine decoration that wrapped around the invisible part and unvield a sword. "There is one thing that I am extremely weak about, and thats my memories."
The blade pointed directly in front of Albert's face, which restricted almost every sort of eye movement. He cried in sympathy as he tried not to blink as much as he could. "I am just saying, I might want those memory fragments back. But of course I can't just get them back and I have to end you because you actually read through my memory fragments and they are saved in your mind as duplicate copies." Aefia spoke as she slowly lowered the tip of the blade. The sudden weapon exchanges sent subsequent fear waves at Albert.
"But in that place, I think I should ask a few questions about Nada, since you were in her body and you have probably read through her memory fragments too. So, I am asking, what does she fear about me? If you answer this question, I will think whether to let you go."
Albert let out a sign of relieve as he tried to recall what he had heard or seen inside Nada's mind. But then he recalled, that he hadn't actually paid much head to what was in her mind but rather, possessed her so he could use her in a sacrificial ritual. "I am afraid I don't remember. I hadn't gone through her mind that thoroughly." He looked down on the luxurious red carpet that was covering the entire length of the library.
"Hmm?" Aefia looked at Albert who was now scared for his life, which made her laugh. "You know? Back when I had killed you the first time, you were the one who was scary to me. I wasn't expecting such a twist in role from you!" She slowly shealthed her knife and took out her gun to refill it. "Anyway, let's end our meeting today. May you rest in peace for the remainder of your afterlife."
"No! Please! If you send me, she will make me suffer! I will be tortured." Albert pleaded for his life as he touched his forehead to the ground with a 'thud'. Aefia grabbed his hair with her cloak and pulled his forehead towards her pistol's end. "The third time, is the last time."
She shot it only once, and let go of his hair as he fell down to the ground and the same orb appeared in front of him just like back at the mission. "Puppet, open your shop." She called out while looking around. "Oh right, Puppet is with Helio, alongside with Cindy." She slammed her palm onto her forehead. Then, a system notification appeared in front of her.
[Warning: Time will resume within the next sixty seconds. Counting: 58 seconds left.]
That instant, an idea popped inside her mind as she immediately reached for her inventory.
After a while, another gun shot was heard at the library's restricted area. By then, Aefia was already outside with the rest of her team members, waiting to head home. A scream was heard, which echoed across the entire room and outside the exit. The receptionist woman came running out of the area with a panicked and terrified face.
The manager was present, and so was the Duchess, who went there for regular inspection. The receptionist lady came scammering out of the area and fell on her knees as soon as the door was flung open. "What is the matter?! We have a royalty here! No amount of commission is allowed at around this time!" The manager grabbed the receptionist as he held his fist up in order to punch her.
The Duchess grabbed the manager's wrist and looked at him with a serious face as he let go of the receptionist. "What happened in there?" She asked while helping her up. "Would you like to show me what scared you like that?"
The receptionist stood up as she slowly followed the Duchess inside and pointed at the carpet. "A dead body...there is a dead body in here!" The receptionist staggered with her words.
"This man, doesn't look like from around here. He has the appearance of a mage and you can clearly see it with the book he is holding. And would you look at that?" The Duchess pointed to the symbol on the leather cover of the book. "This symbol is one which belongs to the Torture Cell. It is something important, that matters because...this signs that the destruction of our world is nearing." She spoke as she picked up the book and passed to a guard of hers.
"And of course, there will be no launched investigation and I would like to have a thorough speech with the manager." She looked towards the man and he instantly broke into sweat. In the distance, she noticed a odd looking girl at the exit, with a oddly calm expression, facing backwards.
Aefia noticed the Duchess watching her, and flashed a smile while turning around. Helio and Nada noticed the exchange of wordless conversation and looked with a shocked face towards her as she moved forward along with the rest of the team.