'She who broke the chains of fate.'
That line resounded in Evan's head, and it dug up his mories of a certain place in Wolfen. The Hall of Statues he and Heather had explored.
One of the statues he saw there had that tagline, and the na attached to it was the sa Belphont had called Kayla.
But as the head of that statue was destroyed, Evan never saw the face of the spirit, so he didn't make the connection as his mind was more occupied with the Demon statues.
Despite all that Belphont said, Kayla didn't react or respond in any way.
"Thousands of years ago, there was no Deity who did not know her story. The Star who broke the chains that bound her to her fate.
She stole the body of Pri World Aidos' "Great Spirit of Lightning", gaining physical form and becoming a Spirit herself."
Belphont kept calling Kayla a 'Star', and a part of Evan felt he didn't an this figuratively. Perhaps, his expression revealed this as Belphont laughed and spoke.
"You're wondering why I'm calling her a Star, aren't you?
That's because that's what she is. An actual Star…like the Sun in your sky.
Kaylatheurge is one of the most Ancient Stars of this Galaxy, destined to remain one until the day she burned out and collapsed on her own weight, transforming into the deadliest black hole the Orithyia Galaxy would ever see.
That was her 'Fate' decided by the Universe, the 'Fate' she broke out of when she stole the body of Aidos' Great Lightning Spirit.
And I assure you, the Universe didn't like that very much."
"…"
When Belphont stopped speaking, silence reigned supre. Evan didn't even know where to start being surprised from.
'Kayla is a Star?
Is it like the planet's Consciousness? Do stars have consciousnesses too? And she was supposed to beco a black hole, but broke out of that fate?
What the hell is all this bullshit?!'
It sounded like Belphont was spinning so kind of absurd tale, but the notifications that appeared before Evan's eyes in the next mont confird that EVERYTHING Belphont had said was true.
[Minimum-Level Awareness Threshold Reached.]
[Switching Existential Facet.]
[Releasing First Seal Layer.]
'?!'
Before Evan could utter a word, a massive surge of magic power erupted from Kayla's body, hurling him off his feet and slamming him into the wall behind him.
The Dream Dinsion's barrier creaked under the pressure of her magic power, the air around them shimring and distorting from the sheer density of power.
Shaking off the rubble, Evan looked toward Kayla, his eyes widening in disbelief.
Kayla's full Spirit Raint had manifested itself, and the Fragnted Crown on her head slowly regained its other pieces. More jewels appeared on its surface, and each one lit up with the glow of a different elent.
But this was not the source of Evan's shock.
He was more concerned about Kayla's appearance.
Gone was the familiar visage of a young, early-teen girl. In her place was the figure of a beautiful woman who had reached the peak of her physical maturity.
Though her face remained unchanged, it now bore the matured features of adulthood.
More alarming still was the exponential growth of her power.
What began at the level of a Legendary swiftly increased to Sovereign, and within re monts, Kayla's aura eclipsed that of Rathal and Kolvar combined.
With a burst of energy that fractured the spatial barrier of the Dream Dinsion, Kayla's power surpassed transcendence and stepped into unknown territory.
"Haha! I was right! You NEVER gave up your power!
No one in their sane mind would give up the power they'd spent hundreds of millennia working for!"
Belphont laughed aloud as he spoke, turning towards Evan without bothering to conceal the sinister grin on his face.
"The Universe doesn't take kindly to 'Celestial Body Consciousnesses' who abandon their roles. It always tries to return them to where they belong.
Even if thousands, or millions of years pass…it never forgets.
Kaylatheurge here devised a ans to avoid this, cloaking herself with the auras of other stars. But I wonder, with all the ti she's spent on this World, when last did she renew that cloaking?"
**CRACKK!!
A thunderous crack reverberated through the Dream Dinsion, causing it to shudder violently. This made Belphont's grin widen further as he continued.
"I don't know how long it has been, but it seems it's been long enough that the cloaking has disappeared.
Without that cloaking…the more her power returns…the easier it is for the Universe's inbuilt 'Bounty Hunter' to co to claim its prize."
As Belphont's words hung in the air, the spatial barrier of the Dream Dinsion shattered, and a rift in space tore open.
From the rift, a golden chain Evan found eerily familiar burst forth and coiled around Kayla's left arm. Simultaneously, a second rift tore open, from which erged another chain that ensnared her right arm with firm restraint.
Kayla didn't try to resist. She just silently sat there and let the chains of causality restrain her without a word.
A third chain erged from the spatial tear and at this mont, Evan finally moved.
'Blessing of Destruction: First Activation.'
Destruction Essence surged on his blade and Belphont's Illusion Clone instinctively backed away, reflecting the real Belphont's wariness of his Destruction Essence.
However, Belphont was not Evan's target.
The Hero's sword cut through the air at supersonic speed, slashing the third golden chain that tried to ensnare Kayla's legs.
Just like he expected, his destruction essence was able to harm the chains of causality, and even destroy them completely.
This sight shocked Belphont as the Illusion Celestial did not believe Destruction Essence could be this powerful. It was only an imitation of the real Destruction law energy, after all.
'That's right…this brat is an Irregular!
Laws that maintain balance go haywire around him! Causality's a law that maintains balance, so it's weaker than usual simply because he's present!'
Belphont charged towards Evan, conjuring a legion of clones that unleashed spells of all elents from every possible direction.
He couldn't let Evan destroy the chains of causality…he had to let those chains take Kayla away.
Faced with Belphont's onslaught of spells, Evan stabbed his sword into the ground and used a skill he took from Laurene.
"Elental Surge."
He unleashed the full power of his sarthim's Red Flas, mixing them with as much destruction essence as possible, releasing an omnidirectional wave of power that incinerated all the Illusion Clones and their spells in one fell swoop.
The flas did not extinguish but continued to rage and burn, climbing high towards the ceiling, filling every inch of space where Belphont could manifest another illusion.
Another chain of causality suddenly appeared and Evan's body moved automatically, slashing it with World Sunder and destroying it.
He stabbed the Unforged Vale into the two chains already restraining Kayla and broke them off, freeing the spirit.
Yet, her eyes remained vacant, unresponsive to her surroundings.
Evan stabbed his sword into the ground and activated Elental Surge again, releasing another set of sky-high waves of flas that burned violently.
Only the small area around him and Kayla was free of the raging inferno.
Getting down on one knee, he took his hand off his sword and grabbed Kayla's shoulders.
Her beautiful face, frad by long black hair cascading down to her waist, looked distant and forlorn. Her noble gold eyes, usually so vibrant, were now dim.
Evan honestly did not understand why Kayla harboured such an intense fear of him discovering her past as a Spirit Empress.
Well, besides the part where it unsealed her power and brought Causality after her.
When he felt her emotions running wild earlier, he discovered that Kayla's fear of him finding out was more because she didn't want him to hate her and less because of Causality.
For so unfathomable reason, the Spirit was utterly convinced that Evan's knowledge of her past would lead to his hatred, and the fear of being hated by him was the driving force behind her not wanting Belphont to reveal her past to him.
'Now, how am I going to get her to respond?'
Just as he thought that, another chain of causality erged, bursting through his flas and he caught it on instinct. A searing pain shot up his arm as the chain burned his skin as if warning him to cease his interference.
Before he could infuse his palm with destruction essence, a second chain materialized, but this ti, the target was not Kayla, but him!
Causality perceived him as an obstacle in its path to Kayla and sought to get rid of him first!
In a swift move, Evan used the first chain to entangle the second, tying them together. With the chains temporarily neutralized, he turned back to Kayla.
He understood that her mind was currently closed off, and she was unresponsive to any physical stimuli.
The boy reached out to grab her hand and then tugged at the connection between them, a decision he nearly regretted in the sa second.
[IMSORRYMASTERPLEASEDONTHATEDONTABANDONMASTERDONTHATEIMSORRYFORDECIEVEINGYOUPLEASEDONTHATEIPROMISEIWOULDNOTLIEAGAINDONTHATEIMSORRYIMSORRYFORWASTINGYOURTRUSTIMSORRYFORCAUSINGYOUANYPAINIPROMISETOBEHONESTFROMNOWONPLEASEFORGIVEANDGIVEANOTHERCHANCEIDONTWANTTOLOSEYOUASMYMASTERPLEASE HAVE RCY ON .]
"?!"
That single infinite string of erratic thoughts flowed into his mind and he forcefully shut off the connection since there were so many things jumbled together that his head ached just trying to process them.
Those were the thoughts currently swirling around in Kayla's head, and using Ti Difference to sort them piece by piece, he was able to extract a few coherent lines from them.
'I'm Sorry Master.'
'Please Don't Abandon '
'Please Don't Hate '
'Don't Abandon '
'Master, Don't Hate '
'I'm Sorry for Deceiving You'
'Please Don't Hate '
'Please Forgive '
This made Evan heave an exasperated sigh, as he wondered just exactly what happened in Kayla's past that she was so sure he'd hate her for.
'Whatever it is, that's a problem for the future to handle…for now, I need to get her back to her senses.'
Nevertheless, that was easier said than done.
Even if she could respond to physical stimuli, Evan highly doubted that he'd be able to create enough to trigger a response.
The mont his fingers touched her skin, he instinctively understood that despite how slender, smooth and soft it felt, all the Transcendents on Aidos combined would not be able to cause a scratch if they attacked with their full power.
'That's so ridiculous level of Durability right there…'
With that option out of the way, Evan chose to try a slightly risky thod.
Even if her mind was currently clouded with things Evan considered unnecessary as he didn't hold any feelings of hatred towards her, he was sure that the defensive instincts of soone on her level would definitely react to what he was about to do.
He channelled his destruction essence…and directly attacked Kayla's mind via their connection.
Well, calling it an attack was dignifying it. All he did was will the destruction essence to throw itself at her without restraint.
And just like he expected, Kayla's right hand moved instinctively and reached towards his neck.
However, at the last second, her body jerked and she grabbed her right arm with her left.
Looking up at her, Evan saw the light had returned to her eyes.
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