“They… look like you?” KL asked while rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“I don’t understand. Do you mean like their hair?”
Kanami shook her head. “No. I mean they’ve got the same facial structure, the same hair color, the same nose, everythin’. The only difference is she looks like I did when I was a kid, and she’s got crimson red eyes.”
The sudden bombshell was too much for KL to handle, especially since he didn’t quite understand why this information rattled Kanami in the first place anyway.
Regardless, there was a bit of relief within him, as now he didn’t need to think too hard about generating an appearance in his head, instead only having to imagine a child version of Kanami.
“Okay, I think I get it.” He broke his own train of thought as it boarded a new one. There were still questions lingering in his mind, and he had no intention of dropping them in such a crucial moment.
“What’s this Quintella person’s goals anyways? I mean, I can see why she’d want to mess with you, but I don’t quite get what Saya has anything to do with this.” His intuitions were on the right track.
Quite honestly, Kanami wanted to spill everything that she knew about Quintella, Saya, and the Primes as much as she could. But with the current state of the world, it was too early to give out information that would cause unnecessary panic.
The man before her was an absolute wildcard. If he were to deviate off course from her own plans, then it would spell out trouble for this loop. In the off chance she were to be announced as a Mage Tower Candidate due to her power potential, it would be inevitable that people would interrupt Saya’s adventure to seek out the status themselves.
So for now, she needed to play it quiet, and cool.
“I’m not really sure why Saya’s involved,” she went on. “If I had to guess, it’s probably got somethin’ to do with that book of Kuno’s. She did take it from them, after all.” Kanami was quite proud of her lie, thinking that it would have been convincing enough to encourage KL to stand down. However, her expectations were in the wrong places.
“That makes no sense either. If she lodged something in Saya, that means that she had to have been there in Atrila, right? So why didn’t she just steal the book then? When we found Saya’s body, she was just laid out on the ground.”
There was too much logic and reason behind KL’s thoughts that Kanami cursed him in her mind. But if she were to misdirect the man as much as she possibly could, then she’d have to reply with a new response as quickly as possible. A new event was needed.
“And who’s to say she even put it in there? Maybe somethin’ happened to her when she was a kid.” Kanami stated, her chest puffed out in confidence, with not a single stutter in her words. Seeing her determination, KL was somewhat convinced, pulling away ever so slightly, indicating his withdrawal from the conversation.
But something within Kanami made her question her actions. She herself had claimed that she wanted to let KL know about the upcoming events so that he would arrange plans and contingencies to save as many lives as possible.
Unlike Viera, who often took immediate action on a lot of things, KL was more of a logical man when it came to his execution. Because the Guild was primarily funded by the taxpayers of each nation, he had to exercise caution when enacting his authority, else he would potentially anger one of the nation leaders.
It was a prime reason why he had hesitated to deploy the necessary countermeasures against the attack on Atrila. He wanted to interfere, absolutely, but if the nation of Volcaria, where death meant weakness, caught wind of their resources being used to save others, they most definitely would not have been happy.
So in a way, it would simply be much safer to just tell him the truth outright and ask him to keep it as secretive as possible.
“Okay, my second question is—” Before he could finish, Kanami interrupted him.
“Sorry, I lied.”
It was like a sudden bullet shot into his chest. He had no idea where the apology had even come from. His face was perplexed, carrying the same expression that one would have if they were accused by their sibling of something they didn’t do.
Kanami went on, “Quintella did insert the fragment in Atrila. The reason she’s involved with Saya is ’cause of her unique nature and history.”
“I’ve also got some deep history with her, which is why I’ve been hunting her for as long as I can remember.”
The sudden honesty was like a breath of fresh air for the Guildmaster, especially coming from someone that he didn’t know all too well. He had grown too used to people constantly tiptoeing or lying around him that a grin formed on his face.
“Saya’s got a crazy amount of potential, and I know Fridan’s probably thinkin’ about turnin’ her into a Mage Tower Candidate. But I need ya to hold off on that for at least a few more months.” Kanami said, as she crossed her arms.
Sighing, KL replied, “I can definitely do that. But the absolute maximum is around the meeting taking place in Keptas this year. Every nation has to declare a new candidate, and I don’t think Viera’s going to back down from having an arcane mage on the roster.”
Placing her right hand on her chin, Kanami pondered for a moment, then raised her head back up. “Yeah, that should be fine. If she’s already at the point where she could destroy a curse on her own, I’m sure she’ll have grown quite strong by then.”
“Sorry, I interrupted you. What was your second question?”
“Right,” KL affirmed. “Well actually, that question isn’t relevant anymore then, so I’m just gonna loop back.”
Kanami nodded, “okay.”
“You said that this girl supposedly looks like you. How come though? Are you guys related in some way to where you’d go out of your way to tell me that you guys look exactly alike, besides the eye color?”
“Surely, there must be a reason why you specified that, right?”
He wasn’t the Guildmaster for no reason. In every transaction, every deal, and every conversation, being precise with details was one of the major qualities one needed to have for the job. While vendors often looked for ways to twist their own words to smitten people, KL did the opposite, nitpicking a single sentence into fragmented words, running its meanings back and forth within his mind.
The more Kanami talked to the man before her, the more respect she gained for him. Yes, they’ve known each other for years, but never once did they have to engage in such a serious conversation before.
Even so, despite being an expert at picking apart someone’s words, he was certainly lacking in the speaking department. The mere suggestion of Quintella being somewhat related to her irritated her beyond oblivion. But this wasn’t the fault of KL, since she hadn’t really told him much information, and Kanami knew that.
“That bitch stole my face.” She said it so bluntly that it took KL nearly a whole second to process her words.
“Stole?” he cocked his head to his shoulder, raising his brow in confusion.
Kanami was now presented with two choices: either she had to explain to the Guildmaster everything that she knew, or she would have to simply brush the details off completely. After all, their similar appearances didn’t really matter in the long run, so it was something that she could choose to omit without consequences.
But having come this far into the conversation, she felt like it was somehow wrong to back away now. “We’ve been enemies for a long time. When she first met me, she said she liked how I looked, then just went and copied my face.”
“I was around twelve at the time. She mixed in more adult-like features into the face and body, but not enough to fool a bouncer at a bar”
Explanations often led to people understanding a situation better, but Kanami’s words only confused KL even more. His eyes sank to the ground as he quietly hummed in thought, trying to process what she had just told him.
At first, there was doubt. But seeing how recently they had encountered a man who had the ability to bend their bodies into mud, it wouldn’t be completely impossible that someone would be capable of copying faces.
“If she can copy your face, doesn’t that mean she’s untraceable? I mean, what’s stopping her from copying anyone else?”
Kanami raised her palm to prevent his advances from going too far, ““No, she wouldn’t do that. She’s a total freak and loves messin’ with me. In a perfect world, yeah, she would, but nah.”
KL couldn’t help but question Kanami’s definition of a “perfect world.” If anything, wouldn’t that make it harder to track someone down?
Despite coating her explanation with a layer of insults, there wasn’t a single lie that she told. Sure, there were some crucial details missing, but they were nothing but fluff that would add to more unnecessary misunderstandings. From her point of view, KL was plenty confused anyway.
Partly it was due to her fragmented way of telling history, but also because her experiences went against his understanding of reality. Having experienced too much throughout her many lives, nothing seemed out of the ordinary for her, but for KL, and most likely the rest of the world, it was a completely different story.
“What kind of history do you guys even have? Also, how come you know so much about the Spear of Eudoxia anyway?”
“Besides the surface level stuff that everyone knows, I think it’s not hard to come to the conclusion that you obviously have some kind of connection between the spear.”
“But you know, I want you to be as honest with me as possible. This weapon is said to be able to destroy cities with one blow. If you know where the rest of the pieces are, I’d say fuck the church and tell me where it is.”
“If the church manages to assemble the spear, or god forbid use it, then the world’s power balance will be all out of control.”
Kanami clicked her tongue as she scratched her head in frustration. Her attitude was enough to halt KL in his tracks. There was a moment of pause before KL realized she wasn’t frustrated over his warning about the dangers, but at the fact that she had no choice but to agree with him. This time, it wasn’t personal. It was just that, when laid out in such a way, it made her seem extremely irresponsible.
“I know, I know…” she mumbled, turning her head slightly to avert her gaze away.
“To tell ya the truth, I’ve got zero clue where the rest of the spear is. I lost it a long time ago, and with all the pieces scattered across the world, I joined the Church hopin’ I could track ’em down.”
“You keep saying long ago, but how long ago are we talking about?” KL asked. “As far as I know, the spear has been in the history books for the better part of a hundred years now. I checked your file from the day we met, like I do for everyone, and it said that you’re clearly around my age.”
“Hah? Can you not look at other people’s files? You creep.” Kanami fired back, but the Guildmaster had no intention of entertaining her. When people’s lives were at stake, there was nothing on the planet that would force him to budge his strong assault of facts and questions.
And so, as a response, he simply stayed silent, staring daggers at Kanami. Perhaps she wasn’t someone he expected her to be. It was clear to him that she was hiding crucial details from him, it’s just that he had no clue what they were.
Letting out a loud, audible sigh, Kanami gathered enough determination to finally reveal her identity to the Guildmaster. If it were Viera or even Hana, she wouldn’t feel the least comfortable, but for some reason, she felt differently about KL, though she couldn’t exactly put her finger on it.
“To start,” as she spoke, the room had seemingly gone silent. KL watched on with utmost attention, not wanting to miss a single word of her confession. “Everythin’ you know about the myths, like the Aspect War, the Aspect of Hope, Despair, Domination, it’s all messed up. There’s a big misunderstanding.”
“They’re not gods, but Aspects.” A detail that people had been saying wrong their entire lives. Everyone called Eudoxia the Goddess of Hope, when the person in front of him, who seemingly had ancient knowledge, just made the claim that their normalized way of thinking was, in fact, wrong.
Kanami nodded as she watched KL’s breath hitch in surprise.
Though many people knew about gods, Aspects were something entirely different. While gods were often defined as beings that ruled over or embodied concepts, Aspects were the concepts themselves given form, born from immense amounts of magical energy generated by the desires of people, resulting in incarnations of flesh and blood.
“They’re from the Fifth World, right?” he hesitatingly asked. It was a phrase that he had heard in passing from Kuno when she was still around. Even though she never truly elaborated on what it meant, context clues and simply reading the room indicated that it must be what she was talking about.
Just as she was going to reply, a sharp sting pierced through every inch of her skin. Immediately, she stopped breathing, confusing KL, who watched her halt mid-explanation. Her skin went completely pale, and the expression on her face went blank, as if a doll had replaced her. Her fingers twitched faintly at her sides, stiff and unresponsive, as though something invisible had taken hold of her body.
A high-pitched ringing flooded her ears, building and building until it felt like her eardrums were on the verge of bursting. At the same time, heat surged through her body, like molten lava had been poured down her throat and spread through her veins, searing everything it touched.
Her eyes darted all across the room. She twirled her body around multiple times, as if looking for an opponent that wasn’t there.
The senses in her body went into extreme overdrive, as the loud hum of her magical gears started to whirl through the office. KL covered his ears in displeasure, making a disgruntled face as he watched the girl before him slowly start to levitate off the ground.
“Wind magic? No—”
It was too calm in the room for it to be wind magic. Having a wife who abused her magical gift on an everyday basis told him at least that much. Plus, her Birthmark had been dormant this entire time. What she was producing didn’t feel or even look like ordinary magic. Hell, even Saya and Kuno’s Arcane Magic was something he could at least comprehend, but this was something entirely different.
Six rods of light, each the size of three longswords, protruded from her back slowly and creepily, bending and swaying like wings. Unlike normal wings, however, they felt as if they had no bones in them, nor any solid matter. Their light seemed to distort reality around them, blending solid objects into nothing but mush while burning away anything that it touched.
The air itself warped and shimmered around the rods, as if unable to withstand their presence. From the outside world, nearly half of Atrila was bathed in the overwhelming white light, making it seem like it was daytime.
Then, the small piece of metal tucked away in her jacket pocket started to glow, shining a faint light through the dark texture of her clothing. KL immediately saw it, but Kanami was so preoccupied with honing her senses that she ignored the artifact entirely.
Her breathing grew more jagged as her legs quietly quaked. It felt like her stomach was being pulled by an iron ball below her. She clenched her jaw and formed her hands into fists, squeezing her nails tightly into her palms.
When she forced her eyes shut, all the senses that would otherwise be natural, such as the smell of the air or even the fan’s weak wind, were heightened tenfold. From the edge of her vision, like an infinite pillar of light calling out from the void, she finally locked on to what was calling her for help.
A flash of images sparked from behind her closed eyelids, showing a gray monster barely getting hit by three weapons. Three long white spears that were inlaid with pristine gold. Unlike the fragment that she held, these were far better kept.
They were fake, Kanami knew that. The real spear had been shattered for far too long for her to even remember. But she only knew one other person in the world who possessed the ability to summon and use an Aspect’s Will.
When she slid her eyelids open, KL was confronted with someone entirely different from the one he knew. Her eyes were now mixed with gold and yellow, no longer carrying the passive blue of the sea that they once did.
Averting her gaze from the man before her, she turned to the window on her left, staring out into what seemed like the empty night sky. Seemingly teleporting, her eyesight snapped from one location to another, like she was opening and closing scenes in a theatre. It continued for several seconds as she travelled across Fridan and into the borders of Aimafina. There, she saw the remnants of Yucu Saa, but her target was just a bit further.
Finally, snapping one more time, she locked onto her target.
“Found you.” Kanami stated. Her voice no longer carried the accent or tone of someone from Keptas. Instead, it sounded distant and hollow, as if it didn’t belong to her, each word echoing faintly as though spoken from somewhere far beyond the room.
Aware of being watched, the silhouette waved back. Then, Kanami’s gaze fixed on the silver monster soaring across the skies, with a black cocoon in one hand, and the limp body of Saya Idlansil in the other.
“I’m coming for you.”
KL twisted his face in confusion, finally taking cover under his desk to prevent the bright light from burning his retinas. With each flap of her holy wings, the room seemed to get hotter and hotter.
A loud hum shook the ground, waking everyone in the castle up in an instant. The maids and staff quickly got under their desks, assuming there was an earthquake impacting them. On the other hand, Viera and Hana immediately sprung to attention, ready to face whichever threat was before them.
Veronica, who still remained by Albo’s side, closed her book fiercely. She activated her Birthmark with her right arm raised and pointed at the unconscious boy, ready to defend him over her own life.
Peeking his head out from under his desk, KL yelled out, “Stop! You’re gonna—”
But before he could finish, the room exploded with sheer force, sending all the furniture inside flying and crashing across the room. Air around them ruptured outward in a violent burst, heat surging through the space as if the very atmosphere had been set ablaze.
The being that was once Kanami shot forward, tearing through the window, the glass melting at its edges before it could even shatter. A deafening crack followed, echoing through the thick stone walls.
From a hundred to zero, the castle ceased its rumbling, and the city of Atrila fell back into silence once more. In the clouds, flashes of light flickered like a switch being turned on and off constantly by a child.