Chapter 74: Blue

"Coincidences.. or maybe not," Rallaka said, identifying the story once more and taking it into account.

"If the name definition does matter, how does it relate anyway?" Aria grumbled, theorizing over all the different solutions.

"Well.. there is another thing that we can probably theorize upon,"

"What?" Aria tilted her head as Rallaka floated towards a certain corner, bring back with him a picture frame.

"The picture we saw when we first came here, the one that made us suspect Leonis' influence on this dungeon," Rallaka gave the frame to Aria. "Don't you think it's a bit strange?"

"What is strange? The blurred faces?" Aria knocked on the profile frame, turning it in all directions to observe it better.

She pried it apart forcefully, and managed to crack down the frame a few tries.

The blurred picture slipped out. Along with it, a small piece of paper.

"..There was something," Surprised, Aria picked up the paper and read the contents out loud. It was in archaic letters. The mix of archaic and modern letter usage in the room made Aria wonder what was the reason for it.

"When you are not here, I can't stay sane. Your favorite color is pink, so I dyed everything in pink, but I still feel sad. So I added an important object to convey my feelings," Aria said.

"An important object..." Reina mumbled.

"If happiness is pink, what would sadness be?"

"Blue?" Elgin said.

"Blue, an important object. Do you have any ideas?" Aria asked.

"Have!" Reina exclaimed loudly. "There was a creepy bunny with blue accents. I didn't like it, it made me feel strange," she ran off to fetch the object she mentioned.

She came back with a bunny plushie, with a blue eyepatch, a blue button as its other eye, a blue choker, and a blue ribbon tied to its ears.

"Certainly blue," Aria took the object from Reina and inspected it.

"Take off all the blue accents," Rallaka suggested.

Aria followed his words and began stripping the bunny off its accents.

Once she finished, nothing happened immediately, so she thought that the solution was false.

But then, a sudden loud click sound ensued seconds after.

It made everyone turn their heads to look at what had happened.

The sound came from a nearby wall, which was still intact with no damages in the slightest. Nothing was out of the ordinary.

"...I don't know, but we probably did something right," Aria approached the wall and began extending her arm to touch it.

She knocked on the wall, and received an echoing sound.

Meaning that, the walls weren't completely solid. There was room in between them.

"..You heard it," Aria turned to the others and shrugged.

She took out [Halvargg] and brandished it against the wall.

"Oh, my dearest sword, I really do feel bad for you," Aria rubbed her sword with an awkward smile, remembering what [Halvargg] had went through.

This time, too, the object was going to be wrongfully abused. Aria almost felt bad for the inanimate object.

Aria stabbed [Halvargg] into the wall, and indeed, it pierced through.

She shimmied it downwards to create a larger crack.

Following the hollow sensation, Aria was able to carve out a rectangular shape.

Peeking into the crevice, her eyes laid down on a dreadful sight.

"...Great," Aria sighed, rubbing the back of her neck as it was starting to get tense.

A lock was displayed in front of them. Of course, the key was not in sight.

"Fuck," Aria cursed. "Is Leonis this bored?" she complained over the consecutive complex puzzles they've had.

They tried to figure out the key for a couple minutes, with no results appearing in front of them.

After some time, however, Rallaka approached the group.

"Wait, no. I think he became generous this time," Rallaka said.

In his hands were remains of a torn up bunny plushie and a golden key. The plush toy was of course, the very one they used to unlock this compartment in the first place.

"..You ripped that thing apart? How cruel," Aria blinked repeatedly, taking the key from Rallaka. "Woah. Is this really.."

She stuck the key inside the keyhole, and it fit snugly.

Twisting the object allowed the lock to harbor a clicking sound, signifying that the lock had been opened.

The prize, however, was not located inside the locked compartment. It was on the other side of the room.

It opened a gate.

They looked at each other and cautiously walked inside the new room, and found one lonely figure in there.

Aria and Rallaka quickly recognized that figure as the one they have been suspecting.

The figure they called Leonis was as familiar as ever.

He was clad in torn up black robes, with messy bandages wrapped around his body.

Only, his vitality looked much less powerful than before. His body used to be quite robust even after he paid the price of striving to be a forbidden necromancer because of his past as a paladin.

However, now, Leonis looked to have nothing more than just his thin bones. As if one kick would be the end of his body.

"Leonis?" Aria called out, drawing the attention of 'Leonis'.

With how he reacted to her call, Aria was now certain that the one floating before her was indeed the Leonis she once knew. 

The figure sat down, docking his head upwards and looking at the space's ceilings.

"I.. build, world. For Adele, Alice, me," he said.

"Intruders. Not good,"

"You. Who?"

The man's speech was unclear. His sentences were cryptic, but with the key words, one could understand what Leonis wanted to imply.

"Are you Leonis?"Can you understand me, Leonis? My name is Aria. Aria Schreiner,"

Aria wanted to add in the fact that she had met the being before, but was still considerate of her team's presence.

"You.. Aria, Summoner. Why.." His voice was shaky as he spoke.

Perhaps it was because he had been isolated in this space, with his turn to fight never coming up.

In the first place, Leonis was not typically aggressive. He only had one goal, and that was to fulfill his dream to give his wife what she deserved. What he owed the woman for letting her suffer under such a tragic fate.

With that one goal in mind, he set off on his journey. He might have hurt others on the process, but he never started anything up unless he needed a certain benefit from said target.

Aria's lips trembled as she weighed out her options. Her identity. The past she carried.

Beside her were the people of the future, countless years apart from her prime time.

By revealing her true identity, how would they take it in as?

Treat her as a hostile presence because she was different from them? Because she was an unidentified figure that went beyond the 'laws' of the world?

Yes, she was someone who wasn't supposed to exist.

She chose to answer Leonis with the truth.

"Yes. Yes, it is me. I am the Summoner. Do you remember me?" Aria spoke.

Not only Leonis, her Earthen Spirit who was floating by her side also became shocked.

Rallaka's doubts were confirmed.

Aria's identity. Why she knew so much, and where she got her skills.

She was Aria Schreiner, the world famous Summoner.

Her team was also put in a strange situation. Aria was talking as if she knew their enemy.

Leonis did not respond for an entire minute.

Then, he continued to talk.

"Remember.. You, prayed. Our home," Leonis' tone softened up as he began to recall a distant memory.

It was unclear, but he remembered that Aria, being one of the members of her investigation team had prayed very sincerely at that time.

Before he finally set off and left his home, he was actually hiding in the shadows and watching as people went in and out of his abode and the surroundings.

He had mixed feelings over it, because he had already formed hatred for his abode. No longer could he recall the precious memories he shared with his wife Adele. The place had been stained black for him.

In between those groups of people, Aria stood out to him.

On her first day, she investigated with her comrades like normal. However, after that day's duties ended, she separated from her team and went to a secluded place near his house.

Leonis followed her because he was curious on what her intentions were. Whether she was going to commit a negative act or a positive one.

His eyes watched over her, his presence clad in illusory magic to hide from Aria's senses.

The woman knelt down and clasped her hands together for prayers, stayed still for a few minutes, and brought gifts for means of formality. She also let her spirits cast magic spells that were forms of entertainment.

Sparkling balls of light, mixed with colors from other elements, creating an enchanting sight of glory within the clustered forest beside Leonis' house.