12 Dagger VI

"This reminds me of the time when you appeared here. You were badly injured and I carried you like this too," Adelle giggled.

"Haha, was I heavy?"

"More like a piece of paper."

"Guess, must've due to the diet Nethere–Wait, did you just scan me?" He felt something intruding his Vis.

Adelle took the advantage that they were in physical contact. So she flowed her Vis to him, thus making a Venevisium contact which allowed her to read about Ervian's Vis. A basic technique known as scan.

Image of six Vis Cores orbiting appeared in her mind. "Sick, you sure are damn talented, eh." Adelle pretended to be surprised, but in reality, she had already scanned Ervian when she was carrying him earlier.

However, that time, she could only read his Vis Level due to Ervian being injured and unconscious. Now, she could even clearly look at what Aspects he had too.

"Hey, you are peeking at people's privacy."

"Well, said someone who needed help using the bathroom. So much for privacy." Her grin was undeniably nasty.

Ervian's cheeks reddened. "I-I t-though I had asked you to not look!"

"Ahahaha, I jest. I jest. I wasn't looking, okay?" She then focused on her reading. "Hmmm, what's this …."

Runic language appeared in Adelle's mind. She knew how to read some of it. "Sensus, Praecantatio, I-I-Inae-Inaemis? And this, ee–eem-fetish?"

"The latter is Impetus, the previous is Inanis. Now that I'm curious too about yours."

It didn't take long for him to skim through. "Huh? You got four Aspects, too?" It truly surprised him. "What are you exactly?"

"Teehee. Guess what?"

"Ardor, Aero, Sano, and Ordo. Woah! It's quite rare for people to awaken three, let alone four. And the latter two, the chance to have this combo is just too negligible! You'll be the most wanted recruit in a medical team. What are you? Super rarest breed?"

Adelle couldn't contain her laughter. "Aside from me, what about you? Your hair isn't silvery." She rubbed his dark-brown messy hair.

"Silvery? Oh! Lektia? You are a Lektia?!" His Sensus just couldn't perceive color beside blue.

"You catch on fast. Impressive."

"How old are you?"

"How dare you ask a lady her age!" She twitched his ears.

"O-ow! Hey!"

Adelle chuckled. "You are so funny."'

They arrived at the edge of the forest and began to enter the Barren Hills area. Ervian used his telekinesis to increase the length of his leaps across the hilly terrain, which would have been difficult to traverse on foot.

"How neat." Adelle commented. "Sometimes I wish I could awaken Aspects like yours."

"The chance would still be pretty high, if you are the same age as me."

"What's your age, then? You do seem a lot younger than me plus I was taller than you by an inch."

"Uhm, seventeen, I guess."

"Really?" She asked in a teasing tone. "Well, that's my age, too. But you are really still too adorable to be seventeen already. Hahaha." She pinched Ervian's cheeks.

"Ughmgh, swhop whit!"

Owing to Ervian, they arrived at the cottage before the sun could touch the horizon.

"How's your feet?" Ervian let Adelle sit on the couch.

"Improving. By the way, could you get me the new bandage in the cabinet over there? These bandages are cheap."

"Uhh, okay." He was quite surprised how picky she can be and how she could even know the difference. He barely noticed it with the new bandage flying to his hand. Well, apart from that he saw it through Sensus anyway.

Adelle continued, "a-and could you change it for me?" She raised her injured feet a little.

Ervian hesitated for a moment. "I feel like you are making me your servant."

But Adelle just smiled and tilted her head. "Pretty please?"

"W-why would I …. ugh, f-fine …." Ervian let her be this time. He had a feeling of what her true intention was. So he proceeds by using hands.

Sighed. He clearly noticed that Adelle stared at his face intensely. "You are starting to creep me out."

"Heehee. Sorry." She couldn't resist the pumped dopamine.

Suddenly the entrance door slammed. It shocked them both.

'W-who?! How can someone possibly bypass my detection?!'

Not just shocked, Ervian was totally frightened. He saw the door was opened, but the one opening it was nowhere to be seen in his Sensus.

"Gramps! You're bac–W-wait, what are you–"

Swiftly a pair of chains made from light-gray Vis coming from underneath where Ervian was standing and tangled his body. Then it retracted so fast that it slammed him to the sturdy wooden floor.

During such a short moment. Ervian was panicking. He sent out his purple Vis outward in the form of a wave.

Lefazio knows how dangerous it is when he touches that purple wave. Before it could hit him in the next second, Lefazio pointed his finger at Ervian.

The Grandmagus used his signature Aspect that earned him the most feared Warden of War calling, the Aspect of Auram.

A ray shot out from his index finger. Moving at speed of light and within split-seconds, it completely eliminated any form of Venevisium it came into contact with except the Vis chains that held the boy's body.

Ervian totally lost it. Even his Sensus was terminated entirely. Whenever he tried to use it again, it would just disappear right away, wasting his Vis.

"Stand back Adelle. Don't get in the way."

Her face paled. Never had she heard Gramps talk in that tone. But she couldn't just eyeing this matter.

"No! Just … why? Ervian did nothing wrong!" She stood bravely with one foot. Her plan that she set in motion is now threatened.

"Ervian?" Lefazio's eyes narrowed. "His name is Ruvian."

"What …." Her eyes widened.

Her memory was flooded by the fact that she read in a book about Battle of the Last Crystal.

One thing that was written without a doubt. "The young Elementalist sacrificed himself to help the Alliance recover the stolen Crystal of Ardor from the chamber of Paramartha kingdom …."

She continued what the book said,

" …. His name was Ruvian Lucentin." Being deceived, she was more perplexed than disappointed.

"Precisely. Or should I say, a reanimation of Necrolyte." Lefazio walked closer towards him.

"Tch." Now that Ervian's real identity cover has been blown up. Not about the Necrolyte. Because he was unsure of himself. "How can you be so sure that I was a reanimation?"

"You died, and now came back alive from the Nethereal. Such power to temper with death was only owned by the Necrolyte. I think you should've known better. You fought them."

"But there was no proof! It was merely an assumption!"

Lefazio took a small vial of blood that is labeled.

"Open your eyes, boy." He showed it near Ruvian's face.

But it seems like no one has told him.

"With all regards, Sir. I'm unable to see."

Dumbfounded, Lefazio ceased his Auram light from his finger. "Don't try anything reckless."

"Fine. How considerate." Ruvian did it in a sarcastic tone.

He finally could gather Vis of Sensus and reactivated it. The small blood vial had a runic label which glowed. It read 'positive'.

'Darn, this is, Vis of Catena, that tied me down. There's no way I could buy myself out of this. Unless, Adelle's Ordo ….'

The said Aspect can be used to burn other Vis. Even though not as potent as Lefazio's Auram.

But, for Adelle. There was no way for her to change sides. At least for the moment.

Lefazio then dropped the vial and let it shattered.

The blood spilt later emitted a strong aura. Normally, mundane things would not behave like that. But since Lefazio and his colleagues tempered with the Vis flow in that blood, they enhanced the original aura so that it could be felt under normal circumstances.

"It's, my blood …." It was obvious that the aura emitted matched his own Vis aura characteristics. But then, there was also another malicious aura coming out of it.

An aura that is similar to the dreadful enemy that he fought valiantly during the war.

"H-how can this convince me if that's true?"

"Ck ck ck. Boy, it seems like Adelle hasn't told you properly." He glanced at her, while she replied to him with a face of 'why bring me to this now?'

"Allow me to introduce myself, then, Chosen One. I'm Grandmagus Lefazio. Back then, I believed you'd met one of us that hailed from Paramartha. Grandmagus Barthusa. She is also your teacher, no?"

It surprised Ruvian. "T-that is about right …."

"We may never have met in person back then. But, I know you well. We worked behind the curtain to support your effort in restoring the Crystals." Lefazio referred to the time when Ruvian was in the special Alliance team.

Lefazio continued, "and until now and the next future, I'll be still working for the sake of this world. All my research is dedicated for this purpose. This is our homeland, is it not?"

Ruvian chuckled. "Then, what do you want me to do? Asking me to kill myself?"

"Don't be foolish. That would just release the nightmarish being from your vessel."

"Then what?!"

Lefazio narrowed his eyes. "You are a threat to this world. But not for the Nethereal."

"You're telling me that I should go back to that damned place?! I've been looking for a way out the entire time since I woke up! Ugh."

"Admit it. You've died!"