Anger shot up her eyes, along with frustration and panic. A mixed expression that didn't feel like it was her the one feeling those emotions at once. Her gaze only settled onto the face of her mentor who still had a little bit of consciousness remaining and by the passing time, she still couldn't heal her with the small amount of energy left.
"There is no point of trying to use it on me." Ms. Avry's voice became hoarse. "If you want to leave this place, then you will have to heal yourself to kill that leviathan. You will be doing me a favor if I got to hear your voice one last time." Despite this harsh environment, her smile didn't wipe off. The blood-covered shivering hand rested against the pale face as her last words left her mouth slowly.
Aefia's right hand placed on top of her mentor's as her eyes became shadowed, but no speech could still be heard coming from her mouth. Her mind was occupied with thoughts that would only feature questions starting with why and what. Still, she didn't reach her hand out to heal herself.
"I have a story of mine I want to tell, but I don't know whether you would be able to hear it all in the short time that I am still alive." Ms. Avry let her hand drop from her face as she stared up at the high-rised ceiling. "But in order to hear it, you will have to slaughter the dragon at the end...and promise me one thing."
"Yes...I would like to hear it." Aefia's words escaped her mouth finally, as her eyes fixated at the dragon, that was resting on the ground while glancing at the two humans in the centre of the small circle it had formed. Its mane was bright gold, and it's eyes silver, also a stolen creature by the Guardian of Silence and was turned into evil actions.
With shocked eyes, Ms. Avry continued. "You know that when someone is at their home world, they die out permanently and don't come back. Just like that, I will not come back. I will not be back unless you keep my words in your memories, thats the human life." She closed her eyes for a second.
"Before I became associated with this competition, I was a normal person, a soon to be mother. I had a happy family and a life that I really didn't want to leave, until that day when I fell from the stairs. Someone pushed me, a jealous friend, that was my last vision if I recall it like that. That woman, she looked a lot like that person who was seemingly the Guardian of Silence."
"Then was she the one? Looking alike and personality isn't just a coincidence among humans." Aefia suddenly spoke up with anger as she very well knew that Silence had escaped before she could take on her, which meant the battle was a lose for her side. "I really don't know who she is, but I think I know her very well due to memories that are erupting in me."
"Look my dear, I don't want to judge people that early, but jealousy always comes from sorrow." Ms. Avry continued speaking while opening her eyes for a moment to cough up blood. "Whatever or whoever she was, I don't care anymore. Because if that day of my life didn't come by, I won't have met you at the competition either." Her smile was penetrating through the young girl's mind as her eyes shrunk speedily.
"The same day that I was admitted to the hospital, I had received two bad news at once. My brother rushed over to my side with teary eyes, telling me I was no longer a mother, and that I had become a widow. I thought that was the end of my life...and I couldn't explain what else had happened after that. I closed my eyes, and didn't wake up until after three days. The intense emotional distress and added the pain, they had gotten me into a weak state that disabled me from walking for a very long time.
"That day, I finally opened my ears to listen to what really had happened. I fell down the stairs, and that endangered the fetus to the point they had to cut off the entire organ system from working again. I know that you will understand it, means that I can't have the ability to carry a child again. And on his way to check on me, my husband died in a train accident where within three hours of being carried to a better hospital, he died. I turned expressionless for a long time from then, people asked me if I was alright, but I couldn't answer it in any particular way.
"I was discharged after what felt like a long time, and on my way back home, I walked. I was grateful for suddenly being able to get my days back, and getting the opportunity to start back up again. But there was always that one part of me that restricted anything new from being given a try. I was stuck in that life for a very long time...unexplainable amount of time.
"In contrary to that, one day, I was greeted with a secret offer to participate in a small organization that was going to save humanity. I thought, if that is about saving many more kids, I would join it. But what did I find out? It was a secret organization that was forcing mentors to speak lies to a bunch of teenagers who are having a hard time navigating life. That was when I started my journey of falsehood, which even I heavily regretted for trapping a bunch of kids inside the competition and keeping them away from the life they could have experienced.
"That is also when I met you that day, when I was handing out leaflets. I have got to admit, it was an embarrassing thing trying to get the attention of humans like that." Ms. Avry laughed for a short while which ended with a cough and blood spilling out from her mouth. "When I had caught sight of you, those souless eyes felt like starring at a mirror and seeing a past-self reflect back as a human. You were the last to enroll, and no one forced you, you did it yourself. That left me with the happiness that I didn't have to wait longer trying to embarrass myself."
Aefia smiled along with it. Recalling that last day back at Earth, and then looking down at the injured person speaking while resting her head on her lap. Before long, Ms. Avry started speaking again. "Then I suddenly felt a bond with you, an inescapable bond where I couldn't really say what that was or why is was. It was something like speaking with the grown-up version of my dead child. No...it was more like my child woke up from the dead and grew up before coming to see me. It took me a very long time to see you were not a dead human walking around.
"Honestly, the day you came back to me with those injuries, I felt scared and frightened so much, that it brought me back to the day when I had gotten the news of my life being fully destroyed. One of your eyes were gone...and did I forget to say? Your eyes seem to have been healed..." She held out a hand to lift her hair from her left eye that looked like nothing had happened to it. "Why didn't I notice this before?...but also, I don't have the time left to listen to your reason."
Her hand slipped from the eye, leaving her with a smile on her face. "Then there was that day, you said you were going to leave the competition. I had no doubt you had found out the truth, and I actually wanted to free you from this slavery. Although I am mad at the duchess for not taking good care of you, I am actually happy that she managed to drag you out of that competition and place you in the position where you can find the truth.
"Coming to that fact...I want something from you to be done since I can't do it in my place." Ms. Avry coughed for a very long time following that as Aefia pressed her hand tightly at the wound. "The others are still touring the lies and are trapped in there. I want you to release them and send them back to Earth. You are powerful, and your magic is very destructive too. I know that if you are willing to, you will be able to release them with almost no force. I know the next part is going to be a very intimidating thing...find the true owner of the competition."
"What do you mean? There is a true owner?" Her eyes enlarged as if shocked by the command. "Yes...the guardians, I told lies about them to the rest of you too. Go find the competition owner...and demolish this lie show. The destruction isn't real...it's the competition's doings. The worlds aren't real...there is only one world and it's this planet. Nikoan...its true meaning is...theland of the deceived. Free that, and free it's people from the invisible sickle of lies. I have seen you as a daughter, so I know you will be able to do that."
Her hand placed onto Aefia's head. "Finally...I want you to go live the life of an ordinary human. No one cares about being alive if they think about their regrets and they think they can't move on from that trauma. Mothering figures are such people who summon into your lives to guide you, so I would be heartbroken to come along and find you still traumatized with this situation. If you are truly revengeful, fight back for me the next time you face that pesky Guardian, you know she is a major root."
Her eyes shut finally as she let out a deep breathe filled with blood and despise. "At last, I am glad I am dying on the hands of someone who I wanted to protect as my own family and bloodline. I also have a regret of mine...that I can't witness you grow anymore...see you fulfil another one of my vision. But I will be watching over you, so when you go back to Earth, go live a life that I couldn't, because your life still has a long road left. My final words to you would be...don't live with...regrets."
With that being said, her hand slipped from her head and her last breathe got carried away with the soft breeze. Aefia set her on the ground and held Ms. Avry's right hand close to her face. Tears left her eyes as she placed her down properly and stood up, which triggered the dragon to awaken and lift its head. "I will keep your promise... mother." She wiped her face with the back of her hand, taking away the last remnants of blood to wipe off as well.
"Puppet, can't I revive her in any possible way?" She softly spoke while her eyes shadowed and stared at the now dead mentor with a smilling face. "No, her core isn't there. Otherwise you would have absorbed it. Like you had commanded though, I have taken away one of your skill. The cursed one." The small wolf beside her spoke as it immediately dissapeared saying that.
"Then, I will finish the remaining of the battle and get out of here as the promise I had kept for her." Aefia's eyes diverted towards the beast up front. Now what is this one's loophole? Her thoughts engulfed into the matter between the dragon and how to defeat it.
Her fingers spread out as multiple threads bind against the dragon's from either sides, stopping every one of its motions, making it look like an ice sculpture that breathed golden dust. Her steps continued towards the leviathan, as soon as she came towards a threshold, she leapt into the air and held out her sword that turned ablaze with bright red fires.
Every inch of strength inside her blood vessels were sent towards her right hand that held the sword with the black blade that contrasted with the red in the dimly lit space of the dungeon. "One blow...and this ends here." She spoke to herself as her trajectory locked towards the dragon's head, where a silver gemstone rested as she plunged towards it with light pressure, and slammed the sword down with the most.
The red fire burned the gemstone into a molten form as it slid off the skull and appeared somewhere else. "What?!" Immediately turning alert, she jumped up again and glanced towards her back at the dragon and it's eyes. So that was the reason. She spoke while looking directly at the middle of the skull, where the brain supposedly was.
This time around, she didn't light up her sword, and trusted her instincts as the hilt slid through her fingers, the sharp end faced the target area precisely as she shoved it towards the skull with her maximum strength. Soon after, she knew there was only a split second worth to see how it went, and opened her eyes completely as they shrunk with the passing time.
The skull shattered in an instant, and the weapon puntured into the gap as it went deeper. Finally, she fell backwards and watched the scene change before her, the small gaps in the wall dissapeared as it shifted to represent something else entirely. The scene in front of her, unveiled itself as the sight was unbelievable the way it was changing.
Harsh wind blew across her face, foliage grew from the sides and taller by the passing millisecond. Her perspective seemed to have changed into a standing position, as her eyes settled into a very intimidating scene, that made her slump down on the ground at the end, with her knees still holding her up.
Two greying tombstones that seemed new, popped up from the ground with names being engraved into them with a hand that wrote on it with complete ease. On one of them, it was written 'Avry Tober'.