Chapter 9: Chapter 8. Within my expectations

Chapter 8: Within my expectations

19 days before Gamwick and Babelroth's duel, later afternoon

"Oooh! This is so delicious," a slightly transparent girl said. "So this is how it feels like to eat."

Aria gently smiled as she prepared another serving of soup, but silently, she thought it weird how normal the girl seemed considering what she was.

Of course, she would be seen as a freak if she ever went anywhere outside the Deadlands, but compared to the things she and Rhea had experienced this day alone, the girl wasn't that strange.

"I thought you be more impressive than this," Rhea said bluntly. Aria winced, but didn't intervene yet and continued bringing more food. She knew Rhea could be a handful, and hoped Ms. Greenvine would be able to handle her. Maybe they could become friends, or best friends even.

Ms. G coughed on her spoon, letting a bit of soup fall on her legs. Aria hurriedly came to help her, but was shooed away. "Are you sure? I still have some medicine for burns right there."

"Ah. Sure, sure. I'm Rank One too, you know. S-something like this isn't enough to hurt me," she said, making the soup vanish from her body. Aria didn't say anything more, but gave Rhea a look, and departed to the kitchen, which by the way was now in a completely different room.

It seemed Ms. G didn't miss the chance to renovate their home for the better.

For herself, Aria found that she was quite satisfied by the changes. Everything was more spacious and comfortable now, there were even two stairs leading up to another floor and down to a basement. A bit more and it could be called a mansion, it was luxurious enough for nobles.

"Stop your acting and let mother look at that burn." With her improved senses, Aria could hear everything happening in the other room like she was right there, and as she dutifully made more boar soup (it wasn't time to scrimp on food since it'd go bad anyway), she was quietly cheering Rhea on. This was an opportunity to make a good impression on Ms. G and create strong links. Deep bonds could be born in an instant or built over time, but it wouldn't hurt to stack the odds on your side.

"I told you it doesn't hurt," said Ms. G in that cute voice of hers. "I'm sturdier than I look. See? No burn."

"Yes, no sign at all," Rhea admitted, "but it still hurts, right?"

"Wha- I told you it doesn't!" Ms. G cried, she sounded extremely frustrated. That was the Rhea effect, alright. Aria decided to come back to mediate things before they escalated further. "Why are you being so insisting on this?"

"I am not. You're the stubborn one, here."

Just when Ms. G seemed to have a hot counter ready on her lips, Aria loudly put down the big, iron-wood cauldron on the table. They both went silent, Aria smiled.

"Well, since the both of you can eat so much, I brought everything." Aria looked across the round table. "And Ms. G-ah!"

The small girl tilted her head when Aria went quiet in the middle of her sentence. "Yeah, are you alright?"

Rhea stumbled over her words. "Ah, you see-"

"She's just being pointlessly considerate," Rhea explained. Her words, combined with her default fierce expression, made her seem uncaring and cold. She looked at Ms. G with a curious gaze. "We call you Greenvine, but do you have another name?"

The little girl shook her head with a smile. "No, I was born on the same night you arrived. I don't have another one, and I'm happy with my name."

"Yeah?" Aria blurted. She reddened when two pairs of eyes suddenly focused, but pushed on. "No, I lived here long before Rhea was born, and this tree was already very big and old by then."

At those words, Rhea finally returned her focus on the little girl before her. Her stare was piercing, and if you weren't used to it, very unnerving.

"Yes, but I was only a tree," Ms. G didn't seem to notice, and replied simply, "an ordinary tree. But then I was bathed with strong Aether and became conscious."

"I see," Rhea said, nodding as if she understood everything. "I don't... remember it very well, but you must've absorbed some residual Aether from Aria at that time, and that caused you to evolve."

"Yes, yes. That's it." She nodded sagely, with a satisfied look on her face. So cute. "I think."

You think?

They, Rhea and Ms. G, continued throwing theories at each other. Rhea asking questions and Ms. G doing her best to answer.

Aria pursed her lips, it seemed like she was the only one not getting it. She lacked some core knowledge or context to even try to follow the conversation. Or maybe both.

"..."

But it wasn't like she needed to understand. Looking at the two of them excitedly and peacefully talking like this, she felt a smile breaking out. Everything was coming together; their home was more lively like this.

She quietly returned to the other room, and let them to their talk for a while, explanations and such could wait.

"So, did the pain go away?"

"Yeah," she said. Her eyes widened and she began sputtering. "Wait, I mean no! Ah, that's- You, really, why are you so insistent about that? I already told you I was fine!"

"Don't bother," Aria piped in. "Rhea is very confident in her vision."

Rhea nodded. "Be it hidden or lost, nothing escapes my sight."

"That's such bulcrap-"

"Kriiiiii!"

There was a strange sound, then they heard a deafening explosion from outside. The ground shook, but they only felt it for a second before it unnaturally stopped at once.

"I got this!" Ms. G shouted. Her already transparent body flickered, and her eyes closed shut in concentration. There was a moment where there was only a heavy silence. "There are giant Beasts fighting outside."

Rhea shot to her feet. "How many?" she asked.

"Two," Ms. G answered. She grunted, and Aria heard the sound of something meaty splashing against something hard from outside. "I can't protect us for long if it goes on, that blast drained too much of my reserves."

Aria pat the little girl's head, silently encouraging her. She bit her lip, and glanced to the side where Rhea used to the side where Rhea used to be. Her heart thumped.

"Rhea?" Aria shouted, frantically looking around. She calmed down when she found her immediately, but panicked again when she saw the blade in her hand. "Rhea! What are you doing?"

"I'm preparing," Rhea said. She stored the sword away, got another necklace, and observed the shiny gauntlet it produced; she hummed. "You know we have to fight, don't you?"

"What? No!" Aria hurried in front of her, and griped Rhea's shoulders. "We can always run away. They're not after us, they're fighting each other. We'll slip way quietly and wait for them to go away."

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Rhea shook her head, and looked her right in the eyes. "And what about Greenvine? This house is not just her Focus, it's her true body, she'll die if it gets destroyed."

Aria blinked, then she processed the words, and paled. She had forgotten. That transparent body was so conspicuous that she forgot it was only an avatar. If they left, Ms. G will run out of Aether sooner or later, and she'll be defenceless.

Aria looked at the girl in question, a girl that was straining herself with all her might to protect them. She turned to Rhea again, she seemed to have given up choosing a weapon, and was patiently waiting for her decision.

There was an explosion again, and she heard Ms. G's quiet, pained whimper. She decided. "Alright," Aria said, "but we're not charging out there head on."

"Of course," Rhea said. "We'll have to plan around them. Like always."

Aria chuckled. She nodded once to Rhea, then went back to see Ms. G.

The small room was as she left it, unchanged. There were still brightly glowing veins running along the walls, humming and pulsing. The soup and cauldron that was spilt from the first explosion were still laying on the floor.

Sitting at the table was a little girl, if she stood straight, she would just be able to reach Aria's knees.

She pat her head again, her worries thickened when she noticed how transparent the girl had become. "Good job there, Ms. Greenvine. Hang on a little more, okay?"

She left immediately after saying her piece. Rhea was still waiting for her by the door. When they were about to head out into the danger, Aria heard the sound of a small thing approaching.

"Good luck," Ms. G said when they turned around, she was tightly holding her hand to her chest. "You better come back fine, you hear!"

Aria smiled. Really, she was so cute.

"Naturally," Rhea replied nonchalantly. She then turned towards the door. "Everything is already within my expectations."

Aria laughed and followed, her ethereal hair flowed behind her. "You heard that? We'll be back."

And they were gone.

__&__

"Kriiiii!" The Lion Hedgehog laughed. Its black spines trembled along with its mood. It swiped at its opponent with its claws, trying to dig into the Desert Carp's flesh, but was once more repelled by the fish's similarly black scales.

A strong light gathered before the Desert Carp's mouth, its Aether generously poured out and was compressed into a ball. It roared, the ball quivered, then was launched as a bright beam of light.

The air screamed, and burned. Even the Desert Carp was blown away by its own attack.

"Kriiiii!" The Lion Hedgehog immediately crouched, and rolled into a ball. The beam hit it full on, but the spines on its back were unnaturally resilient, and instead of the Beast being burned or even disintegrated, it was merely sent flying.

The darkening sky was lit up with countless lights.

As soon as the beam touched it, it was separated into multiple smaller lasers by the Lion Hedgehog's sharp spines. Some of them went towards the painfully visible giant, glowing tree, but were seeminly easily repelled by a blue-green barrier.

The Desert Carp let out a roar again, this time more ferocious than before. It appeared that it reached the breaking point; it charged clumsily on its stout legs, and although it looked silly, it got into striking distance within a second. It was faster on land than its appearance suggested.

"Faster than boars, at least," Rhea thought, she continued observing with her Side Sight.

She and Aria had indeed gone out to stop these two from destroying their home, and killing Greenvine in the process. But, "It's impossible."

Beasts were much more powerful than normal animals. Unlike humans, Rank One Beasts only grew stronger physically, and only certain individuals got special powers. And even then, from what they had seen over the years, those individuals weren't much of a threat either.

Rhea had thought they could at least use strategy and tactics to trap one or both of these two, or get them to go away. However, when the target was above a certain level of strength, basic traps entirely stopped working.

"Rhea," Aria whispered beside her. She was pale, dazedly looking at the two Beasts battling. The both of them were hiding behind Greenvine's tree body, protected by the barrier.

Rhea took a deep breath, and forcefully shook those thoughts from her mind. She hurriedly detached her true self from her body's instincts.

It was a long time since she faced such an overwhelming threat, and she had allowed her meat bag emotions to take over.

"It's alright," she said.

She had observed the fight attentively until now, but now that she wasn't quaking in fear, numerous solutions jumped out at her.

Truly, the battle looked impressive when seen from the outside; on the one hand, there was the Lion Hedgehog's defence, which appeared flawless. Add its unceasing laughter in the face of its opponent into the pot, and it was all the more unsettling.

She imagined that was the point.

On the other hand, there was the Desert Carp and that absurd breath attack. In terms of attack power and Aether capacity alone, that attack shouldn't be possible for Rank Two beings. Which meant, since it hadn't evolved yet, that this Desert Carp was in the higher tiers of the Second Rank.

Of course, it was the same for the Lion Hedgehog's defence. It's resilience should also be above Rank Two to be able to tank that beam. But defence power alone wouldn't carry it through the Third Barrier.

"It wants to cannibalize the Carp." It was obvious. For the Carp, it was a horrible match.

Whichever way you cut it, Rhea admitted to herself, they were Zeroth and First Rank small fries trying to fight against not one, but two superior ranked Beasts. It was completely hopeless.

"It's already in the bag." However, in spite of everything, Rhea dared to boldly say this out loud. Because, "I can see the countless ways we could lose, but also the few ways we could win. Knowing both, our victory is assured."

Aria was silent for a while, then she let out a heavy sigh. It was a ridiculous statement, worthy of the worst crazies. If normal humans had heard her, they would call her mad and try to exorcise her.

Aria was different. She just squared her shoulders, leaking out a faint sense of intimidation, and looked ready for war.

"Then, guide me, and let's kick their butts."

Rhea couldn't help it, and grinned from ear to ear. "Yea, let's."

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