Chapter 9: To Save This Dream (Part 2)

Nic’s voice echoed in Aria’s head. Her body was still sore, but she was no longer feeling sick to her stomach. As she opened her eyes and struggled to get up, she looked at her surroundings.

She was in the alley next to a broken and destroyed house. The square that was directly in front of her had become a warzone. At its center was a black maelstrom, not too different from the one she had seen in S-012. This one was multitudes larger, however. Standing at its edge was Jack Cariatel, trying to punch his way into the maelstrom, but was being stopped by a wall of green blobs.

Standing between the Irradiated maelstrom and Aria were Sarman and Yuuki. Sarman had Yuuki locked in his arms still but was seemingly starting to loosen his grip.

“Aria! Nic, he’s in the storm!”

Aria barely heard Yuuki as she called out to her. Instead, her focus was being drawn behind her. Sitting on the ground was a sheathed sword. In its crossguard was a green gemstone.

She limped over to the sword and grabbed it off of the ground. When she grabbed hold of the hilt, the magic within her and the gemstone synced up. The magic feedback loop had started. Aria’s control over the wind grew even greater. She could feel each individual stream of air as they rushed towards the Irradiated maelstrom, carrying even more Irradiation from around the city.

But that wasn’t the only thing that changed when the magic feedback loop started.

“With this much magic, I should be able to adequately support her even if we can’t communicate.”

She heard an androgynous voice nearby. She had never heard it before. She looked around but saw no one nearby. In fact, it sounded like it was directly in her head.

“Who’s there?”

Aria held up the sword in front of her as she continued looking around. It was heavier than she thought it would be, but not too heavy for her to hold up.

“Oh? You can hear me now? And just so you know, I’m talking to you in your head directly.”

The voice chuckled a bit as it answered. It seemed to find her actions funny. But even still, hearing that it was talking directly through her mind made Aria look at the gemstone in the sword, wondering if it was from there.

“Please don’t think I’m some mere gemstone. Let me at least introduce myself before that point!”

Then introduce yourself?

Aria simply thought it instead of saying it out loud. The voice seemed able to read her thoughts, so it would probably look a bit more normal to other people if she just thought things.

“Ah, fair. Ahem. I’m Aerial, the Wind Spirit Progenitor. And I am also the source of your magic.”

Aria froze. For nearly seven years, she had thought she had exceptional born magic. But now she was being told that the entire time, it was simply a one-sided contract with a Spirit Progenitor?

Knock it off. My magic is my own. No one else's. And it certainly isn’t yours.

“Oh? And what proof of that do you have?”

It was a question that Aria had no answer to. She simply wanted to believe that it was true. She lowered the sword in her hands as it got heavier the longer she held it up. The sword…

The sword! That’s my proof. Spirits can’t be the catalyst for magic weapons. So my-

“Let me stop you there. Lesser and Greater spirits can’t, yes. But Spirit progenitors can. In fact, for us it is just like creating a lesser spirit, but we are simply confining it to a metallic body.”

Aerial shut down Aria’s argument quickly. There was no other way to disprove what they were saying. Her only option was to accept the truth.

“Oh, I should also tell you. Since you couldn’t hear me before, every decision you made was still your own. Every feat of yours still belongs to you. I’m simply your power bank, so to speak.”

Aria sighed before turning back to the Irradiated maelstrom in the square. Jack Cariatel was still trying to smash his way past a barrier of wind spirits to no avail.

Then let’s test out this expanded power of mine with the sword.

Aria lifted her hand and felt the air around Jack. In an instant she took it all away, leaving the Hunter in a vacuum. He grasped at his neck as he tried to figure out what was going on. When he saw Aria, he created a large stone and flung it at her with his own stone magic.

The boulder was bigger than the ones she had struggled with before. But now, as soon as she switched to focusing on it, she was able to stop it and fling it back at Jack, using only the wind around it.

Next, she swung with the sword. As the sword arced through the air, a blade of wind was shot out from it. It flew towards the hunter at high speeds and was stopped at the last second by the creation of a wall directly in front of him. Aria was about to launch another one when the ground beneath her feet began to rumble.

Before she knew it, she had been flung into the air by the appearance of a stone pillar directly beneath her feet. She flew up about 20 mer before reaching the apex of the height she would reach.

“Let me get this.”

Aerial took some control as they condensed the air beneath Aria’s feet. This gave her someplace to stand mid air. Using this to her advantage, Aria began running. With each step she took, Aerial created another platform for her foot.

Soon she was directly above Jack. Using this as an opportunity to attack, she jumped. She let gravity pull her down as she readied her sword to strike her opponent from above.

But Aria is not a combat tactician. Her attack had been obvious from the start. So Jack used effortlessly dodged, causing Aerial to have to catch Aria before she slammed into the ground.

As soon as her feet were on solid ground, she swung again and again. Her swings were wide and unrefined. She hadn’t learned from Yuuki, or Nic, how to fight. Each of her attacks with the sword was predictable.

And at the same time, Jack was able to counterattack without Aria even noticing.

“To our right!”

Aerial called out into Aria’s brain. She stopped her attack and looked right, only to find a boulder barreling down on her. She had no time to stop it.

She was flung backward.

Aerial had once again used his authority as the Wind Progenitor to have the wind pull Aria out of harm's way. She landed close to Yuuki and Sarman, and as she stood up, the once massive boulder split into hundreds of small rocks and was sent her way.

They rushed past her, opening multiple wounds all across her body. Aria had no way to stop it.

A burst of heat passed over her. Flames covered her vision. When they were done, the rocks had all been burned to ash. Jack was screaming in surprise as vines intertwined themselves around his arms and legs.

“Aria!”

She looked behind her. Her childhood friends were standing there. Sarman was supporting Yuuki with one arm while the other was extended towards Aria, fires still lapping around his fingers.

Yuuki, who was being supported by Sarman, was holding her sword into the ground while she coughed up blood.

“I can hold him for 30, maybe 60 seconds. You have to end this in that time…” Yuuki coughed up even more blood, forcing her to stop talking.

“Got it… Yuuki… Sarman… I’ll finish this.”

Aria looked back at Jack, only to find another boulder being hurled at her. She swept it to the side with the wind. It seemed that he was able to still control earthen constructs without touching them, even while bound.

Aerial, is there any way for us to quickly end this?

Even without Yuuki giving her a 60-second timeframe, she wanted to finish the fight sooner. Nic was stuck in the maelstrom without the ability to purify the Irradiation he was absorbing. The only way the two of them knew how to activate his ability, and the only way it had been activated in the past, was when she had kissed him.

She would have to do it again.

If she waited too long, then he would die from the absorption. So she wanted to end the fight as fast as possible.

“Not as our connection is now. We would need more magic power. And more importantly, you would need to be fine with this ending with Jack’s death.”

Jack’s death. It was something that Aria thought she was fine with, but hearing Aerial say it, her stomach churned. She wasn’t sure if she was really fine with it after all.

Is his death the only way?

“Trying to keep him alive would take too long. You wouldn’t be able to save Nic at the same time.”

She had to choose. Take a life to save Nic, or let Nic possibly die by sparring Jack’s life. When put like that, the choice for her was simple.

How do we get more magic power?

“Enter a two-way contract with me.”

A two-way contract. Aria knew about them. It was the second of the two forms of contracts one could have with a spirit. The first, one-way contracts, were commonly found with lesser spirits, as they could not talk back to the human contracted with them. It simply required one of the two parties involved to verbally consent to the contract. A two-way contract was the evolution of that. Both parties consented. It is said that those who enter into two-way contracts are able to use more of the spirit's power at once.

That was what Aerial was offering.

Aria stood up fully. Another boulder was heading straight for her, but it stopped in midair. Everything around her stopped.

It wasn’t her doing. After all, all of her magic had just left her body. It coalesced in front of her. A transparent green suit of armor made up of the wind. This was Aerial's physical form. Similar to how Salamander could appear as a flaming lizard.

“A Spirit Progenitor?!”

Sarman was the one who shouted in surprise, but Aria was sure that all three people watching her felt the same surprise.

“Aria Towsend, I offer you this contract.” Aerial began speaking out loud. Its voice remained androgynous, even in its physical form. “I will give you my power, my strength, and my magic. In exchange, I ask that you support Nic Verilo. Be the pillar he can lean on. The one he can put his faith in. Be the one that he lives his life for. And live your life for him just the same. Those are the stipulations of our contract, do you accept?”

Aria was at a loss for words. She had been expecting something far different than what Aerial had offered.

“Did I say something wrong? I have risked my own life to support you and him so far. I will continue to do it, as long as you accept the contract.”

Aria didn’t know it, but Aerial was speaking the truth. It had, in fact, risked its very life by allowing Nic to gain access to the memories of his ancestor stored in his blood. Releasing the seal laid there three hundred years ago went against the wishes of Aerial's creator.

“I accept the contract.”

In a split second, Aria’s connection to the wind came back. Once again it was even stronger. The wind armor in front of her had moved onto her body, conforming to her skin.

She was now wearing something she had seen on Sarman multiple times; the armor of the spirit kings.

“For you, it would be more accurate to call it the Armor of the Spirit Queen.”

Aerial was once again speaking directly to Aria through her head. Aria released the wind that was being held around her. When she did, she directed it all at the stone boulder, smashing it into pieces of dust before blowing them all away.

So what kind of plan did you have in mind?

Aria still didn’t know Aerial’s plan for dealing with Jack, only that it would involve Jack’s death.

“I’ll be real honest, neither of us are good strategists. At least, neither of us can compare to a trained Hunter. So instead, we’re just gonna hit him hard and fast.”

A single strike. Fast enough that Jack would be unable to dodge. Hard enough that he wouldn’t get back up afterward. And there was only one place to get enough speed to do that.

So we’re going up?

“You caught on quickly. Up we go!”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

Aria was quickly thrown into the air. She tumbled around as Aerial continued to accelerate her upwards. A small bubble of air formed around her head as she reached heights so high up that Sanum was becoming a small circle beneath her. The temperature had quickly dropped, leaving Aria freezing.

“I need you to trust me, Aria. Relax your body.”

RELAX?! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO RELAX AT THIS HEIGHT?

“I will guide your body back down with the wind. All you have to do is make sure that sword is ready to plunge into the Hunter.”

Aria somehow still had the magic weapon in her hand. Listening to Aerial, she gripped it tightly with both hands.

She reached her highest point and began the descent.

She had just made a contract with Aerial. She had to trust him. So she relaxed her body, letting it straighten out.

Her speed increased. It kept increasing the closer she got to the ground. Surprisingly, Aerial was keeping the wild wind from hitting her actual body, keeping her relatively safe.

Reaching a point mere mer away from hitting the ground, Aerial leveled out Aria’s body. She careened through alleyways and streets, flying directly over the heads of hundreds of people. Aria knew the layout of the city. She was flying almost directly at Jack.

She pointed the tip of the sword in front of her.

At the speed she was flying, it only took Aria a second to cover the rest of the distance to Jack.

He had broken out of Yuuki’s vines.

But it was too little, too late.

Aria smashed into Jack. The sword punctured straight into his heart. But she didn’t stop. She couldn’t. Momentum pulled them both forward.

Aria heard multiple walls shatter as she pushed Jack’s body through them. She wasn’t sure how many they had broken through before they came to a stop. The sword pushed straight through Jack’s heart was stuck in the cracked stone of the wall, pinning the lifeless body to it.

Aria’s feet hit the floor as she began coughing. Blood splattered across the ground with each cough.

While she hadn’t been hurt externally, the plan of Aerials had put a lot of stress on Aria’s body in a short timeframe. Because of this, she was suffering from internal bleeding. Her entire body was on fire. She stayed hunched over, coughing and wheezing as she tried to regain her breath. It wasn’t until she felt something warm drip onto her back that Aria stepped back.

Jack’s blood was dripping from the corners of his mouth. His lifeless eyes were opened in shock. It seems his death had been quick, but not painless.

“The Hunter is dead.”

But our job isn’t over yet.

Aria left the sword in Jack’s heart and turned around. She stumbled through the openings in the walls she had created, eventually coming back out into the square.

The maelstrom that Nic was trapped in was still going.

Aerial.

“You plan on going in and kissing him again?”

It worked last time. The likelihood of it working again is our only shot.

“... Fine…”

If Aria had taken a second to actually listen to the Spirit Progenitor, she might have heard the hesitation in its voice. But she didn’t. She marched on into the maelstrom, trusting that Aerial would put up a barrier of wind in time. The barrier was barely off of her skin, but it blocked the Irradiation from reaching her.

It didn’t take her long to reach the center of the maelstrom. There, standing with an arm outstretched, was Nic. He had black veins running the entire length of his body, from head to toe. Unlike last time, where he had already been unconscious when Aria found him, this time he was still here. His face was contorted in agony, but when he saw Aria walk up to him, it softened. His eyes widened in surprise for a second before going back to how they were.

“Aria…?”

His voice was weak, strained beyond belief. But she heard him.

“Mhm. It’s me.”

Aria reached out her hand and cupped the side of Nic’s face. Of course, her hand wasn’t actually touching it thanks to the wind barrier, but it was enough for Nic, who leaned his head into it.

“What about Jack? And Sarman and Yuuki…?”

“Everything out there is taken care of. All that’s left… is you.”

Hearing this seemed to relieve Nic as he closed his eyes and took a long, shaky breath.

“Then I leave that up to you, Aria…”

Nic smiled as he told Aria that. Aria herself was trying to stop her heart from beating too fast. She leaned in closer and was about to bring her face in line with Nic’s when a voice in her head spoke up.

“I’m sorry. There’s only one way.”

In the instant that Aerial spoke, Aria’s body was wracked with pain. It was too much for her to handle. Her vision faded fast. The last thing she saw was her hand, black veins protruding everywhere as Nic’s face contorted in fear slowly.

“ARIA!”

Nic couldn’t tell how long he had been in the middle of the maelstrom. His existence within it was simply agony. He had far surpassed the amount of Irradiation his body could handle long ago. So now every waking moment he was on the verge of passing out.

Nic pushed through the pain. He persevered. So when he saw Aria appear before him, he was thankful. Even he knew that the only time his Purification ability had knowingly activated was when she had kissed him before.

“Aria…?”

“Mhm. It’s me.”

She reached out and cupped one side of his face. He let his head fall gently to the side, but he still couldn’t feel the warmth of her skin. She had a wind barrier up so that she could walk through the Irradiation.

“What about Jack? And Sarman and Yuuki…?”

He had left everything to her. To them. While he was happy to see Aria here, he worried about what was happening outside of the maelstrom.

“Everything out there is taken care of. All that’s left… is you.”

He was the final piece that needed to be taken care of. More accurately, the Irradiation was. And he was the only one who could take care of it. He closed his eyes and breathed out a long sigh of relief. The pain that racked his body seemed to disappear as he thought about everything being over. A smile formed on his lips.

“Then I leave that up to you, Aria…”

She leaned in close to him. He could almost feel her breath as she got closer.

But before anything could happen, her eyes snapped open in surprise. Nic watched in horror as her veins turned black. She crumpled into his body.

“ARIA!”

He screamed her name. The pain didn’t matter anymore. Nothing about his body did. He stopped any absorption of Irradiation and fell to his knees as he held Aria’s body close to his.

He desperately tried to absorb just the Irradiation out of her body, but was unsuccessful. Every time he tried, the Irradiation around them would just seep back into her body.

There was nothing he could do.

Why?

Why?

Why?

That was all Nic could think. What had he done to have to watch the one person he loved more than anyone else die in his arms? Why couldn’t his body do what he wanted and purify the Irradiation within him? Why did Aria’s barrier fail?

He had so many questions and no answers. Something wet was in his eyes. He closed them and let out a long wail.

The tears poured.

“WORK DAMMIT! MAGIC WORK!”

In between the sobs, he called out to himself. He called out to his body.

He wanted to save Aria more than anything else. And yet he cursed his body that wouldn’t do anything.

Suddenly, like a switch was flipped, Nic’s body grew lighter. At the same time, the maelstrom seemed to grow crazier.

Nic kept his eyes closed as he cried. He didn’t care about his surroundings.

A strong wind kept being pulled into Nic, but he didn’t feel it.

He knew it was there, but paid no attention to it.

Nic simply cried.

Something cupped his cheek. It was warm, soft, and familiar. A thumb wiped away the tears in one of his eyes.

Nic stopped breathing.

“Nic…”

A sweet, angelic voice softly called out to him. He didn’t want to believe what he was hearing. He didn’t want to feel hope, only to have it crushed seconds later.

“Nic… open your eyes…”

Her voice softly called out to him again. Nic did as he was told this time.

Aria was in his arms, her eyes wide open as she smiled at Nic. The veins that had covered her body just moments ago had disappeared. She was perfectly healthy, well… not perfectly. Her lips were still covered in the remains of her own blood that she had coughed up earlier. Her body had multiple bruises all over it as well. But she no longer had Irradiation running through her veins.

“How…?”

“How do you think, dummy?”

Aria teased Nic as she used her free hand to grab one of Nic’s and pulled it in front of his face. Just like Aria, Nic’s skin was free of black veins.

In fact, Nic didn’t even hear the noise of the wind that had caused the maelstrom. It had disappeared. In its place was a clear sky speckled with green blobs of all shapes and sizes. A familiar green blob raced down from the sky and landed on Nic’s head.

“All you need… to awaken born magic is a strong emotional response… Last time it was me kissing you… This time, it was simply your fear of losing me.”

The change Nic had felt in himself, like the flip of a switch, had been him activating the purification ability at last. He was finally able to purify Irradiation whenever he absorbed it.

“So everything is over now?”

Nic looked down at the girl in his arms. She glanced back up at him expectantly before shaking her head.

“No, there’s one last thing that needs to be taken care of.”

Aria leaned up and pressed her lips against his. It was Nic’s first kiss that he would remember. Full of the taste of metal. But it was something he would never forget. The two closed their eyes and pulled each other closer.

“Alright! Break it up! If you want to make out, do it when you’re alone in the dorm or something.”

Sarman’s gruff voice separated the two of them. He was standing in front of them, a beaten and battered Yuuki in his arms. She didn’t seem to be conscious and also looked to have the worst injuries out of any of them on the surface.

“Yuuki! Is she okay?!”

Nic was worried when he saw her. She had helped him get there, and he felt responsible for dragging her into the mess in the first place.

“She overestimated her ability to use a magic weapon as someone without magic. In short, she broke some vital components in her body. Components that my feathers can’t heal on their own. She needs to get to an expert fast.”

Nic didn’t know for sure how bad it was, but based on Sarmans explanation, it seemed that Yuuki had pushed herself beyond her capabilities and had damaged herself because of it.

“In that case, son, I’ll have a unit get her to the best professional in the city.” A familiar voice to all three of them spoke up.

Ordwell Chapman, the head minister of the city of Sanum, had entered the square. Behind him, a number of soldiers rushed by. Two of them had a stretcher between them. Those two ran up to Sarman.

“Father…”

Sarman seemed torn by seeing his father there, but he quickly handed Yuuki off to the two men with the stretcher. Once she was strapped in, they quickly ran off into the city.

“Hey, Nic…”

Aria whispered in his ear as she sat up. She wanted to stand up, but he was still holding her. He quickly let go and stood up after she did.

Ordwell looked between the two of them before grinning like a madman.

“I’m sorry for interrupting your moment, though I think my son did that before me. Nic, it looks like you were able to take care of the Irradiation here like you did in Aric, thank you. Do you think you will be able to do it again if needed?”

Ordwell addressed Nic first. His question was simple, yet important. Nic could finally purify the Irradiation he absorbed, meaning that he could theoretically be used to systematically heal the world of the pain his ancestor inflicted upon it.

“I can. I was very much conscious when it happened, and I should be able to replicate the feeling of purifying Irradiation again.”

Nic was saying what Ordwell wanted to hear. In truth, Nic was actually unsure on how to replicate the exact feeling, but he felt like he would still be able to do it either way.

Ordwell nodded with a smile on his face at Nic’s answer.

“What about Jack? Is he…”

Was he still alive? That was what Ordwell wanted to say but he seemed to be scared to voice it.

“He’s dead. It was him or Nic, and I made my choice.”

Aria was the one who answered. There was no remorse in her voice, and Nic felt he could understand why. If he was the one in her position, he thought he would make the same choice.

“And his body?”

A flash of surprise crossed Ordwell's face at the fact that Aria had been the one to kill Jack, but it was quickly removed as he asked for the body of the Hunter. Aria pointed to a broken wall nearby.

“He should be through there.”

“You… destroyed an entire wall?”

Ordwell motioned for a number of soldiers to check past the broken rubble for the body.

“Multiple actually. Not sure how many it was though. Was a bit preoccupied and didn’t count.”

Both Ordwell and Nic looked at Aria suspiciously. Both of them had only seen her magic power before she created a full two-way contract with Aerial. They also didn’t know about the contract in general. So they thought that this amount of destruction was a bit much compared to how strong her magic was. Sarman seemed to catch on and cleared up the confusion for them.

“This amount of destruction is actually on the tame end, considering she now has a full contract with the strongest Spirit Progenitor out there.”

“What?!”

“I see.”

Nic was in shock while Ordwell nodded in understanding. When Nic saw Ordwell not freaking out, he turned on him.

“Ordwell, how are you not freaking out about that revelation!?”

“Well, even back in the rad-town, she was showing signs of using a progenitor's magic so I had a hunch it would be something like this.”

As he was talking, the soldiers that had gone to check the rubble for Jack’s body came back with only a bloodied sword and nobody.

“Sir! We only found this sword laying on the ground. The ex-hunters body was nowhere to be seen.”

“What!? He was dead! I saw it with my own eyes! There’s no way he could have pulled the sword out of his heart and started walking again!”

When Aria heard the report from the soldiers, she started yelling up a storm. Not only had she sent him through multiple walls, she had also apparently stabbed him in the heart as well.

Ordwell held up a hand to stop her.

“I believe you. It seems that they got to his body first and whisked it away.”

“They?”

Nic, Aria, and Sarman all asked the question at the same time.

“The ones who gave Jack the ability to create Irradiation. They are also the ones responsible for the death of my wife, Lily.” Ordwell turned to look at Nic directly. “Nic Verilo. Will you help me in bringing these people down?”