Aria blinked, finding herself flung away from Elara with a force that would have been trivial to counter under normal circumstances. But the cuffs—those irritating Cuffs of Balance—were holding her back, restricting the power that usually flowed through her like an endless torrent.
Her feet touched down lightly on a soft patch of grass, her black diamond-like eyes narrowing as her senses expanded outward. The world around her was laid bare—every tremor in the earth, the sway of every leaf, the faintest murmur of distant creatures. Yet one thing was missing.
'I don't know where Elara is,' Aria thought, the realization settling in with a strange unease.
She climbed atop a nearby boulder, her small legs swinging rhythmically over the edge. It was an almost childlike motion, out of place for someone who exuded such overwhelming presence. She looked more like a porcelain doll perched for display than a being of unimaginable power. Only the subtle rise and fall of her breath betrayed her as something living.
"This world is interesting," she muttered, her voice barely audible over the gentle rustling of the forest.
This world was so unlike her own, where survival was a ceaseless cycle of hunter and hunted. Here, she wasn't an unwanted anomaly, a weapon with no purpose beyond destruction. Here, she had... a hand to hold.
'I hope even you will understand love, child,' a voice echoed faintly in her memory, unbidden and unwelcome. Her lips pursed as she tilted her head, the thought lingering longer than it should.
"Why did I remember him?" she wondered aloud, her tone more curious than perturbed. Her legs swung faster, her kicks picking up a rhythm that echoed faintly through the clearing.
CRACK.
Her left foot collided with the edge of the boulder, shattering it to dust with a sound like thunder. Aria blinked down at the destruction, her expression as impassive as ever. She felt nothing—no pain, no strain. Her body, fortified by the Unbreakable Vajra Body, wasn't something a mere rock could challenge.
"Elara…" she whispered, her hand reaching out as if to grasp something intangible. Empty air. She clenched her fingers slightly before letting them fall to her side.
The forest felt too quiet. Too still.
"Should I destroy this forest?" she mused, her voice carrying the same tone someone might use to decide whether to pluck a flower. Her black and gold aura began to unfurl, tendrils of divine energy and miasma intertwining in waves that pulsed outward, rattling the trees and sending animals fleeing.
The cuffs glowed faintly, their restrictive enchantments flaring to life as they struggled to contain her power. But Aria wasn't one to be easily restrained. The energy around her grew heavier, denser, until cracks began to form along the metal surface of the cuffs.
"Stop!" a voice rang out sharply, cutting through the tension like a blade.
Aria looked up, her energy retracting as if on command. Descending through the trees atop the sinuous form of her Amethyst Snake was Medea, her violet eyes filled with both exasperation and wariness.
"Do you want Elara to fail?" Medea sighed, her tone carrying the weight of an adult scolding a particularly obstinate child.
Aria tilted her head, her gaze unblinking. "Fail?" she repeated, her voice tinged with genuine confusion.
"Yes, fail," Medea replied, pinching the bridge of her nose. "It means Elara will be scolded. She'll be upset."
The word seemed to sink in, and Aria tilted her head the other way, her brows knitting together ever so slightly. The shift in her expression was subtle but enough to make Medea sigh again, deeper this time.
"Listen," Medea said, her voice softening. "I know you don't understand everything about this world yet, but breaking those cuffs will ruin everything for Elara. The Mystic Trials are meant to test teamwork, and if you bypass the rules, it will hurt her progress."
Aria blinked slowly, the swirling energy around her finally dissipating. "Elara… will be scolded?"
"Yes," Medea confirmed, nodding firmly. "And I don't think either of us wants that."
The Prime Eterna seemed to consider this for a moment before giving a slight nod of her own. "I will not break the cuffs."
Medea exhaled in relief, though her shoulders remained tense. "Thank you. And for what it's worth, I'm watching over every student. Nothing bad will happen to Elara."
Aria's gaze lingered on Medea for a moment before she returned to the ground, her movements fluid and unhurried. She sat back down on what remained of the boulder, her legs resuming their gentle swing.
"Good," Medea said, her voice quieter now as she turned her snake away. "Just… keep holding back. For her sake."
As Medea disappeared into the canopy, Aria's gaze remained fixed on the horizon, where she knew her summoner must be. Her hand reached out again, grasping at the empty air.
"I want to hold your hand Elara."
__________________________________________________________________________________
"Seriously, what the hell is that monster?" Medea muttered under her breath as she urged her Amethyst Snake forward, its sinuous body cutting effortlessly through the dense undergrowth. The frustration in her voice echoed her thoughts, her mind wrestling with the absurdity of what she'd just witnessed.
She knew Aria was an anomaly—Prime Eterna beings were rare enough, but one like Aria? She wasn't just powerful; she defied logic. Breaking the Cuffs of Balance wasn't supposed to be possible without catastrophic consequences. Yet Aria had nearly done it as if it were a matter of mild inconvenience.
Medea's grip tightened on the reins of her snake. "Just how high is her current level? And her potential... it's beyond anything I've ever seen."
A soft voice resonated in her mind, calming yet thoughtful. 'She is peculiar,' Vera, the Amethyst Snake, spoke telepathically, her tone carrying a weight of contemplation.
Medea frowned, her lips pressing into a thin line. "I assume you mean peculiar in a different way than I do?"
'Indeed,' Vera replied. 'As you know, we beasts mature through the formation of cores, reaching adulthood when we possess eight. However, the level of sapience and emotional maturity is directly proportional to our biological grade. Luminara beings, for instance, achieve the intelligence of Astra beings at fewer cores. It is the natural order.'
Medea tilted her head, the gears in her mind turning. "And yet Aria…?"
'She is an Eterna,' Vera said simply, the words carrying a gravity that made Medea pause. 'Eterna beasts are born with the full sapience and emotional maturity of adult humans when they form their first core. Aria, however, is working on her third core—and she remains like a child. Her intelligence is high, yes, but her emotional development is... stunted.'
Medea's breath caught as she considered the implications. "Do you think it's deliberate? Or... something else?"
Vera's silence stretched for a long moment before she responded, her tone hesitant yet firm. 'Trauma, Master. It can only be trauma. That child, from the moment she came into existence, likely never had anyone to depend on. Not even once.'
The words hit Medea like a physical blow. Her hands slackened slightly on the reins, and she could feel the weight of Vera's words settle into her chest. "Not even a single dependable figure?" she murmured.
'Not one,' Vera confirmed. 'Even Eterna beasts, born of higher biological grades, require guidance. Before their first core forms, they are as helpless as any creature. But Aria... something about her world must have denied her that. She had no one, and so she shaped herself. This warped sense of maturity she displays is not natural. It's the result of survival, not growth.'
Medea felt a pang of something she hadn't expected—pity. No, it wasn't just pity. It was a deep, gnawing sadness for the young girl who walked like a colossus yet carried the wounds of a life where no hand had ever reached out to steady her.
"She's a child pretending to be more," Medea said quietly, more to herself than to Vera. "No wonder Elara feels so protective of her."
'Precisely,' Vera agreed. 'Aria's strength is undeniable, but her vulnerability... it's a quiet storm, hidden beneath her power. And it will continue to shape her until someone finally teaches her what it means to rely on another.'
Medea exhaled slowly, her gaze lifting to the horizon. The forest around her felt heavier now, the weight of Aria's unspoken past pressing into the very air. "Someone like Elara," she said softly.
'If Elara can bear the burden of that role, perhaps. But it will not be easy. Aria's wounds are deep, and trust is a fragile thing for a creature that has known nothing but solitude and struggle.'
The Amethyst Snake paused as they reached a clearing, Medea's mind still racing. The pieces of Aria's enigmatic personality were falling into place, but each revelation only deepened the mystery.
"Trauma," Medea murmured again, shaking her head. "Not even Eterna beings are immune to it."
'No one is,' Vera replied gently.
Medea's gaze hardened, her resolve sharpening like a blade. Whatever trials lay ahead, she knew one thing for certain: Aria's journey wasn't just about forming cores or growing stronger. It was about healing—and finding the connections that had been so cruelly denied to her.
And if she could help guide that journey, even in some small way, she would. For both Aria's sake and Elara's.