"Gah!"
Aefia gasped as she was practically thrown onto the wall. Luckily her head was alright, but the situation was...
...Well...
Wasn't it too early to judge that the bad things were finally over?
Not even five hours before receiving her crown, she was dragged to the basement by a bunch of enraged Guardians. That included The Guardian of Everlasting Health too.
"You insolent bitch!"
Ah! Where did I hear that before? She grinned to herself. She was expecting that as the newly risen third Aethalgard, she was going to face this very pissed off woman all the time—in this state. To think she had to get rid of two people till now.
Kazimir and this Health woman.
Victoria grabbed her by her bangs, tilting her head all the way back, painfully. She could hear her back crack at the sudden motion as two other Guardians surrounded her. Knowledge and... She didn't know the other.
She designate them like that because she doesn't know their names—and she didn't want to know their names.
"Answer me... Why did you accept the position as the third Aethalgard?!" Health asked while banging her head back against the wall.
"Why do you want to know? It's my personal matter—"
Smack!
Her head snapped to the side as she took the slap. The pinned crown fell to the ground and shattered.
As sarcastic as Aefia was...
"Oh dang! My pretty crown..." She whispered while looking at it pitifully. The diamonds immediately took off and rolled away. The rubies stayed inside the flowers. She only wore it as a playtime accessory to spend her boring days by.
Health grinned as she touched her own crown. Then snapped her gaze back at Aefia's face as she slapped her again. "Did you like it? Well you didn't deserve it."
"She probably came to take the crown. Nothing more."
"She just wanted to flex the position. That is it."
Both of the other two guardians spoke.
Chaperons then. Aefia calculated while pulling her eyes back to the woman's disgusting and annoying face. "Woman... You are quite surprising I would say."
"You bitch!" She raised her hand to strike her again, but Aefia caught her wrist in a bruising grip.
"I have a title that equals in ranking to you... You better respect me the way I like it. I have enough power to expose you if you would like." She whispered, soft enough to not reach the two men's ears. "I should be telling you to refrain from violating my face, but it seems I should be warning you against some other things too."
"Oh so you are trying to act all high and mighty in front of me now?"
"Do you want to call it that? Because I think I would say—"
'—the second Aethalgard Heir wanders around bribing weak guardians.'"
Aefia mouthed the word to her. Not using her own voice for it. And this caused a hand to wrap around her throat, making Aefia gasp slightly.
"Pull out the dagger. I rather commit a crime then have her around." Health spoke while staring deep into Aefia's unyielding garnet gaze. A glare that spoke so little but so much at the same time.
As soon as the wooden hilt touched her fingertips, Health stabbed it directly towards the girl she was strangling. But the blade buried itself into concrete.
"Did you forget the saying that a combat-type guardian can never be tackled by a recovery-type? ...There is a reason rules were invented. I in particular... Am I specialist in combat."
"What makes you say that?"
"... My actions..." Aefia whispered as she used her free hand to grab the dagger's hilt. She wasn't harmed, luckily.
"Hahaha, that is so funny. Just that you have got some good reaction time doesn't make you better then the rest of us... Rookie!" Victoria tried to lunge a second time. Only to fail because Aefia moved her head to the opposite side in time.
The only thing was, the hand at her neck was weak and strong at the same time. It made certain movements difficult. Usually the ones she preferred using all the time.
Splat.
A drop of blood rolled down Aefia's chin, staining her collar a deep red with hues of orange. It was just a scratch, true. But it burned, since it was at her face. However, in two blinks of an eye, the wound shut itself as if it was never there. The blood that was still stained on her was as if someone else's got there.
Perks of being with someone who had the healing element.
It appeared so that sometimes, if someone with magic interacts with another person with magic, they are linked by something called resonance. Their magic can sometimes feel the presence of another user and if it is prolonged, then they can interwine and sometimes become dormant inside each other.
Since Aefia had been close to Helio quite a long time now, his magic transfered to her and that dormant magic just saved her from an injury. It can also be said so that her magic is also dormant in him. So if he ever came across a situation where her destructive element can save him, it will automatically activate for him.
As Aefia stared at Victoria, she felt proud for some reasons. Like she was showing off Helio and his magic to someone who carried the same element and hated her. As if saying her own elemental user was actually not even on her side.
Feeling defeated, Victoria retracted the knife and let go of Aefia's neck.
"This one is hopeless. Tie her down and teach her a lesson that she will never forget." She declared while walking out of the basement.
Immediately, the two men's eyes fell on Aefia, accompanying a smirk that hinted whatever is about to happen.
Crap. This is going to be tense.
One of them grabbed her by her arm and stood her up while the other punched her in her abdomen. The pain radiated right through her eyes. She saw sparks of white, blue and green all at once as another one landed on her. Every inch of her breathe left her lungs, leaving her suffocated and frustrated.
The healing element can only fix damages if it were dormant in another person. And being punched at the gut was not a damage. She had to find a way out all herself.
She knew how to escape... But she wished someone in particular would just appear and take her out of this.
She was honestly done with this. Just... done.
Her teeth gritted as she twisted her arms out of the man behind her and used her leg to kick the one punching right at his own stomach. Then used her freed elbow to jab the other at his ribs.
Both of them fell on their knees, but they went done.
As she gasped for breathe, they used their magic to trap her. Rose thorns buried themselves into her wrist and throat, and pulled her down to her knees. Her bones groaned trying to keep her weight supported from the sudden drag.
They stepped up right in front of her, grabbing her chin and tilting her head to meet their gaze.
"I just don't understand just how a rookie like her climbed to Aethalgard so fast. I understand she looked a lot alike like her, but still... It is unfair. Even Silence failed to her. What kind of dark magician is she? Did she control Justice's mind?"
"Could be. Look at her. She is quite beautiful though."
"What does it even matter? What about we use her the way she used the previous Death? I would love to see her piled up with work at such a young age, buried in tones of stress and pressure—until she suddenly dissapears to take her life."
"Yeah. It would be fun."
Aefia's eyes immediately widened. Her pupils contracted and she went dead pale. Haha... What?
She wasn't just an obstacle... But a robot to them?!
"Oh look at her. Are you scared—?!"
Smack!
Aefia's fist connected with the talking man's jaw. She took deep breathes as the thorns tore away from her skin—dragging a bit along the way. She remembered struggling with them before she broke free. But she was too blind by rage to even mention the pain that had erupted momentarily.
More than that, her body acted on its own.
As if those words had made her take revenge for the previous Death.
Nevertheless, she liked the feeling.
"Haha..."
The two men immediately looked at Aefia, one of them carressing their brusied jaw.
"Hahahahaha!" She laughed maniacally, sending her head back while using her blood stained hand to cover her eyes. "I loved it... I loved the feeling of revenge. I don't know why..."
Revenge for another person—she wanted to say. But she for some reasons couldn't. Her mouth moved on its own. Her body was hers, being used by another person.
Maybe it was Daphne. But she would have took over by permission. There was no stepping over the boundaries.
But this felt like someone from her past was bsing her body to take her own revenge. Like... She was taking revenge for her own stained, struggling past.
"You people... Shouldn't be considered guardians." She laughed while saying. "Let me make a point that will come useful to you lot in the future."
The two men stared with questioned gazes at her.
"Maybe stop making others work for you or you will lose your positions. The Aethlagard will be mad if they find out." She lowered her gaze at them from the ceiling.
"Yeah like they ever will." They scoffed at the same time.
"Well if one knows, the rest knows. If two knows, there is no chance of escape. If two knows but own is hiding, it is corruption being detected first-hand."
"What does that mean?" The bruised man stepped forehead to grab Aefia by her bangs. She held her smile and her glare. Her crimson eyes shining like the blood she was about to spill.
"That I would love to see some heads being chopped at the execution block." Aefia answered without blinking.
Enraged, he raised his hand.
Of course Aefia won't let herself be touched by stereotypes.
She grabbed his wrist mid-air and twisted it until his back was to her. She used her heel to kick him at his lower back until he let out a shierk. His scream echoed against the empty basement until he lay flat on his back and cradled his hand.
"You beast!" He shouted.
"I am. In fact... I am called the Reawakened Beast. That is—for a fact—a name given by Justice himself." She answered while adjusting her cuffs. She grinned at his struggling, before lifting her gaze to the one backing up against the wall. "Yes well... You see... I died once. And woke up as the Guardian of Death. Immediately promoted to Aethalgard. You guess why."
"You are just that superior! That is why!" He gasped out.
As she wanted to end things fast, she turned the air in the room into thick vapour of blood. Replicating the scent on a true battlefield right after a war. The stagnant air was enough to choke a regular human. And the rotting corpse? Way worse.
"Hmm... Is that what you think? My mind tells me otherwise." She propped her chin on her hand while looking down at the man with hostile eyes. "But I am to deal with what I wanted to finish before I have to leave for my coronation. So please... Co-operate."
He gulped as he watched the injured man lunge from behind to grab her by the neck.
Because his footsteps weren't quiet—and by directly staring into the reflection in the eyes of the man in front of her—she was able to tell without needing to be told.
She spun on her heels and grabbed his bruised wrist, twisted it the second time that day and used the hidden blade in her shoes to scratch his nose. She wished she could have crushed it. On second thought...
As soon as he held his face while shouting in agony at his distorted features while falling in his knees, Aefia grabbed the back of his head and banged his face straight into the wall. She spent a lot of her energy at once, but it was satisfying.
"Consider this a punishment. In four hours or so I will become an Aethalgard. I will take justice for myself and what has been done to a 'fellow' guardian." She smirked while walking over to the second man.
"No wait—please! Have mercy! I was forced to do this by the second Aethalgard!" He shouted while watching the injured one slid down the wall with blood smearing as he trailed to the floor. He was definitely unconscious.
"How did she force you then? Be honest... Whatever you claim now will be used against you in the future. Trust me... But some woman are not what they seem." She warned, straight-forward and no filter.
"I—she..." He took deep breathes, becoming suspicious to Aefia's eyes. "She promised me with—I can't say anything about it! She will kill me if I tell it to the others!"
"Then I suppose you won't receive my mercy."
"Yes—wait what?"
"You failed to explain so you won't have my mercy." She stared while folding her arms in annoyance.
Before the man could say anything else, she had already lifted her palm high above her head and brought it down in astonishing speed against his neck. He fell unconscious almost immediately, leaving the room too silent.
A few minutes later, a bright flash of light appeared at one corner of the room and from it came a white-haired honorary knight that Aefia most definetly knew of.
"My sovereign! You are getting late—! What the heck happened here?!" Matthew shouted while dropping his clipboard to check on the guardians.
"They tried to kill me. So I took defensive movements. I hope it isn't bad?" Aefia added, trying to look innocent. In truth, she was most definitely pleased of her actions.
He was inspecting the two men when his eyes drifted to the unhinged smile Aefia was wearing.
"I mean it isn't bad... But what is... Behind your back?" He asked.
Aefia tilted her head to the side like a doll... while she still grasped the dagger tightly behind her. Her mind racing through different thoughts that was still connected to this situation. But... Also connected to the smile she was flashing at him like a puppet.