Chapter 104
"Yes…we are kin."
The moment she said those words, there was a brief lull of silence before a white light covered the both of them. Aurelia widened her eyes in alert at the sudden phenomenon. But Igor was more lost than afraid…because he recognised this light.
This was the light of the time chamber.
"What-"
He barely had time to finish his word before the both of them vanished along with the light.
Shuu!
.
|DxD|
.
In the familiar landscape of grey with shining auroras in the dim skies, Igor and Aurelia appeared in a flash of white. Aurelia was taken aback at the sudden change in scenery. Apart from the building in front of her, there was no other structure in sight. In fact, the horizon seemed to stretch on forever.
While she was taking in the sights, Igor began walking away from her with a frown on his face. She followed right after and when she saw what he was looking at, she was in a daze. Following his line of sight, she saw two giant hourglasses that had sand trickling through to the bottom. It appeared as if the both of them had just reset since the top half was still full.
But while she was in awe of the sight, Igor's frown only grew.
"I can't bring us out."
"..."
Aurelia was lost, something Igor quickly noticed.
"Oh, right. This is the time chamber. I use it to train from time to time."
Her eyes widened in shock.
"You mean that this is…our sacred artifact? The time chamber that over half the world fought for?"
Igor could only smile wryly at her words, unsure of how to answer them.
"I don't know about sacred. But this is the time chamber."
While Aurelia was busy absorbing his words, the blonde was waging an internal battle with himself.
[Is it right if I call it the Hyperbolic Time Chamber? It does look like the one from Dragon Ball, but its weaker. Hmmmm…decisions, decisions-]
"Great! This is simply great!"
Igor was literally pulled out of his thoughts by the silverrette who suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders.
"If you have it, then it means they never won! Our people's legacy still remains!"
Aurelia released tears of joy at the revelation. She had no idea how Igor had the time chamber, but the fact that he, an Aryan had it meant that somehow, their people managed to elude the greedy invaders and kept their legacy safe through him. The continued possession of the time chamber in their hands meant that the blood of her kin wasn't shed for nothing and their deaths weren't in vain.
Without further thought, she dashed away like an excited child, uncaring for the noble image she had imprinted in the blonde's mind crumbling. With her snow white hair spread all over, she whizzed around the place and took in the sights. She was truly excited to the point that she couldn't hold herself back.
"This is truly amazing!"
Meanwhile, Igor stood in place like a proud father.
"Heh~."
His arms were folded with a small amused smile on his face. Who knew that stern-faced woman he met could suddenly giggle like a child high on candy. The very same woman who had quietly sat at the breakfast table a few moments prior was now flying around the auroras like a four-year-old. It was such a stark contrast that he couldn't wonder if they were two different people.
But they were in fact, the same person. For years, Aurelia kept herself sealed off without having any reason to be happy. Her mind had been so soaked in planning her vengeance that the only one who could even manage to penetrate into her heart was Kunou, Yasaka's daughter. But even with the existence of Kunou, she could never fully be happy with the Himejima less than fifty kilometres from her.
But all it took was one day for her to gradually bloom from the shell she had trapped herself in. The Himejima were no more, meaning she no longer had to harbour thoughts of vengeance. She discovered and met her kin, destroying the loneliness that she was the last of her kind. In one day, the shattered spark of life within her was reforged and rekindled.
And now, she discovered that the pinnacle of her people's ingenuity was not taken by her enemies, nor was it lost. It was not secretly hidden away by some organisation or destroyed. Her people's ultimate creation, the pinnacle of their intelligence, still remained alive within possession of their descendant.
The Aryan Time Chamber was the crystallisation of over hundreds of thousands of years of knowledge. The ability to create an alternate dimension with a different time dilation was something no other mortal race could claim to have accomplished solely by themselves.
If word of its existence never got out, their race would've been set to become the strongest by the end of the century. But circumstances disallowed that. Her people were strong but they barely had the time chamber for fifty years. Facing relentless attacks from the world which resulted in two World Wars, they couldn't hold on in the end. Although some details of the war were still shady to her due to lack of existing records, Aurelia no longer thought much about it
Marveling at everything, she flew down towards the blonde with stars in her eyes.
"Igor. This is…this is absolutely amazing. Words can't describe how marvelous this is."
The blonde chuckled.
"Glad you think so. Because we're stuck here for the next decade."
"...what?"
Her smile gradually fell.
"What do you mean?"
Igor pointed up to the two hourglasses.
"Well, I don't know how or why we were suddenly brought here. And I can't bring us out. What I do know is, we probably can't leave here until that sand completely runs out and we're automatically kicked out for a month. It'll take ten years for that to happen and in the outside world, a year would've passed by then."
"Oh…"
On the contrary. Aurelia wasn't sad or even affected by the news.
"It's just a decade."
"..."
Igor was taken aback by how easily she took it. He was used to staying here for a long time he was relatively nonchalant about this. He assumed that she would atleast show some sort of fear or anger. The only reason he wasn't freaking out is because he wasn't as worried about the happenings of the outside world.
With Asia in Shuri's hand and with Shiva's word of no one exacting vengeance, he wasn't overly concerned. And he knew that news would eventually reach Azazel and Baraquiel and if he knew the old man, he would certainly refuse to leave his family for the next decade.
As for Aurelia, ten years were nothing to her. With her long lifespan, she wouldn't feel the difference. Besides, it wasn't as if those ten years were going to be spent doing nothing. Knowing the purpose of the time chamber was for her people to train, it would be foolish not to make the most of it.
And it was also with that thought in mind that she suddenly thought of something.
"Igor. How long did you train here?"
Mentally counting the number of years, the blonde answered.
"Well…it's been roughly sixty years now. I've been training since I was four."
Aurelia nodded at his answer before it clicked.
"Four-years-old?"
"Yep. Nothing much to do except train in here."
"..."
She considered the thought briefly.
"You trained her for six decades…alone?"
"Of course. I wanted to get strong."
Taken aback at how he answered 'matter-of-factually', Aurelia was awed.
"Incredible…"
She couldn't even imagine how strong he'd have to be to endure that. Those who've never been alone would never truly understand just how soul-crushing it is to have no one. Loneliness is like a rot that steadily eats away at your sanity until you break.
She knew from personal experience since for an entire month, the loneliness from losing her family almost crushed her. She couldn't fathom how when he was younger than her, he survived the next six decades.
Noticing how she got concerned over him, Igor grinned.
"Don't think too much, sister. I'm still breathing, aren't I?"
Indeed he was. When he first used the time chamber, it was indeed hard for the first few years but eventually, he did get used to it. By focusing on his training, he was able to not think too much about anything else. A brain can't think when a muscle is torn after all. But Aurelia wouldn't accept such a flimsy sentence from him.
Walking over to him, she grabbed his hands and looked into his eyes with pure concern.
"How did you do it? How did you survive?"
The silverrette knew cases of full grown men who either killed themselves or lost their minds when thrown in isolation. So for Igor to tell her that he'd been alone ever since he was four was something she truly couldn't comprehend. For all she knew, it was impossible for him to be sane after such a long period of isolation.
Feeling warm at how she showed such concern, Igor decided to enlighten her.
"What do I say when someone tries to use logic on me?"
"..."
Aurelia knew he was referring to the conversation that was had about him during breakfast. Although she rarely interjected between Shuri and Cleria, she did listen. After a while, her mind clocked in on how Cleria was retelling a story of Igor beating up a thug who tried to threaten him with his boss' name.
In reply to that, Cleria told them that Igor said,
'I'm too stupid to understand threats.'.
It had the table chuckling at the shenanigans he got into in the early '90s.
Having the answer in her head, Aurelia replied.
"You say that you are…ignorant."
Igor shook his head like a teacher refuting their student's answer.
"Don't try to sugar-coat it, sister. I am stupid, not ignorant. And I am proud of that. There's no shame."
"..."
Aurelia couldn't process the words. She tried to make sense of them but couldn't figure out-
"Why are you proud of being…stupid?"
All she got was Igor pointing at her with a grin.
"Because of that right there. Smart people always think too much. They always sit, contemplate, and consider. They're always calculating or trying to comprehend something. Simply put, they're always in their mind. Stupid people? We just do. We don't think too much. Is it good? Is it bad? We don't consider that. We just do and I can tell you now, sister. If you want to survive being alone, you need to 'think' less and 'do' more."
"..."
Aurelia remained silent. Even with her intelligence, she couldn't quite make sense of Igor's words in that exact moment. She tried to think upon it but all she saw was Igor's condescending grin.
"You won't understand if I just tell you. Come on. You'll understand once I show you."
.
AN
.
If you're interested in reading ahead, here's the link: patreon.com/HolyGambler