Valier POV:
I decided to listen to Irene and I lowered myself so her hand could reach my head. And then, she began to pat my head. Once she was satisfied, she withdrew her arm and smiled. It seemed that being in the school had made her happier, that was good. It'd be a pain if she was depressed. From what I knew, after Iris had died and I had disappeared, she had changed completely.
Her life was turned upside down before she was even 10. So I was surprised that she could even smile like that, though I can't say I'm displeased. It would do me no good if she was depressed.
The posse of children were frightened. But the awfully chatty one was already forming his next attack. Of course, Irene noticed, she looked at me with eyes that simply screamed 'leave it to me.'
And so, I activated my Demonic Eyes. Information flowed through my brain, it was like being able to see three different things at once. I could see the muscular and skeletal systems of the posse. I could see the Mana Flowing through their bodies, and I could see the very particles of Mana floating around in the fireball that the boy had made. I could also see what was actually happening.
I could tell that I could take that attack to the face and walk it off, but I wanted to see what Irene was wanting to show off. When I looked at her, I was able to see something interesting, or rather I wasn't able to see what I was looking for.
There wasn't a Rune on her body. That made no sense, at this point, she should've awakened her Rune and had the ability to use it to a small extent.
As I was thinking of all of that, everyone seemed to slow down. The fire attribute Mana particles halted their dance. The child started moving in slow motion. When I tried to move, my body would move at an absurdly slow pace.
I couldn't move my pupils, so I couldn't see everything. Well, rather than my pupils being unable to move, it was more like my pupils moved so slowly that it was as if they weren't moving at all. Thankfully, my eyes could see everything that was in my field of vision, meaning that my pupils didn't really need to move for me to see everything.
My thoughts also felt like they were slowing down, but I was able to focus my thoughts and I was able to use my peripheral vision to look at Irene. She seemed to be the only one moving at normal speed, but her body seemed to be freezing over, slowly but surely.
She touched the boy's hand, and his entire arm froze over.
And then, time returned to normal. Irene's right arm was coated in a thin sheet of ice, her arm began to shiver. She seemed to be in pain, and somewhat tired from using that time thing.
'What? That's... absurd!'
Godsbane was... frightened? No, confused would be more apt.
'Valier I'm sure you've used your eyes to check, but your 'sister' doesn't have a visible Rune, right? That's because she's one of those people who's Rune doesn't show on their skin, or that she's gone past the point of it being permanently on her and has reached the point where it only appears when it's in use.'
'I don't care, answer this question for me, what was that?'
'Time manipulation. She seems to have a Rune of some Deity who has an authority over time itself. Hence why I was able to move freely in that slowed time. From the looks of it, it's still in its hatchling stage. At it's full power, I don't doubt that the ability to truly halt the flow of time would be possible for her.'
Sweat trickled down my forehead. This wasn't her Rune in the novel, in the novel she did have the ability to decelerate others via ice, but never could she truly manipulate time itself. She merely used ice to slow everyone, including herself, down. It was the inverse of someone like Anastasia who had used heat to speed herself up.
Even I could only perceive her actions due to my brain operating on a different level, I doubted they could even understand what just happened.
'But actual fucking Time Manipulation? Man, that's bullshit.'
'Valier... you're not one to talk about bullshit. You're a Demon Blood who can create stuff from virtually nothing, you probably have the best Eyes in existence, you somehow have the heart of a Dragon, you have me and a small army of assassins, and more, at your disposal. Let your sister manipulate time if she wants. You have way more things going for you.'
'Erm, fair enough. And even with that time ability, I think I'd still win in a fight. So I suppose I can't complain about it.'
I couldn't really complain about Irene when I had all that, and when I had the power of the Gods, of Mankind, of Dragon's, and of Demon's.
Irene broke away the Ice that had formed on the kids arm along with the Ice in the halls, leaving only a rather red arm. I quickly headed over to the shivering Irene and deactivated my Eyes. She was concealing the fact that she was cold quite well.
I decided not to do anything about it, if she was uncontrollably shivering, I'd use my Magic to warm her up. But she was trying to conceal it and she was doing quite well at concealing it.
It'd be a shame for me to ruin such an effort.
Irene looked at me and smiled once more.
"I've got a class so I'm going to have to head off now, but if you run into any trouble call me. Oh, and just to let you know, I read the letter you sent me. Also, I'll come find you later on, I want to have a little talk with you."
I had sent Irene a letter, telling her I would hold back while I was here. Irene already saw me fight at full power before, so I decided that it'd be better if she knew that I was holding back. That way I wouldn't have any issues or misunderstandings.
After Irene had left, I looked at the children. They were sitting on their asses, but as soon as Irene left they got up. But before they could say anything I took a step and immediately reached them.
I then snapped my fingers and formed swords above me, I was able to make them float. I then moved the swords to the throats of each of the children.
"This never happened, if anyone finds out. Then you'll disappear without a trace."
And with that, I made my swords dissapear, I turned on my heel and headed back to the party.
'Valier, I'm starting to see why you don't want to show people that strength of yours.'
'It's to prevent complications.'
'Don't lie to me. It's because you don't know how to control yourself. You're incapable of holding back, you always go too far and do the unnecessary. You kill when you don't need to and expose your strength at the wrong time. You're subconsciously tricking yourself that you're hiding yourself for some grand cause, when in reality all you're holding back is to stop yourself. To stop yourself from becoming a…'
'What? What do you know about me? Stop acting so damn high and mighty just because you have access to my memories. Don't pretend like you understand me, don't act like you understand.'
'Instead of worrying about what I say, just focus on not killing the next guy who breathes the wrong way.'
I then began to move once more, making my way to the party once more. I didn't particularly understand why I acted like that. I didn't even know I could have outbursts of annoyance like that. But it was fine, acquiring and understanding my own emotions wouldn't be a bad thing at all.
When I made my way back to the party I got a few glances, but nobody really cared. Nobody was trying to annoy me. Nobody was trying to fight me.
That was how it should be, if they left me alone, I would live my life quietly.
But, if push came to shove, I'd be willing to reveal my strength. It's not like I'd lose anything by taking my place as the strongest first year. To be honest, I wouldn't even need to use all my strength against anyone aside from Artorius, even with his whole type advantage against me.
As I was walking back, I heard footsteps, I then felt Angelica use her Eyes Of Truth on me. I let her use them on me, curious as to see what her eyes thought I was.
I didn't look at her, whatever she saw, it certainly would please her. But if she never brought this up, then neither would I.
I then headed back into the room, ignoring her entirely.
Edited By: WorthyAdversary