Half an hour ago, Maltyie had barked an order for them to head far into the camp. Though, no one actually expected Kian arriving so quickly, so a few unfortunate coup members were caught in his attack. Even now, he relentlessly struck the fortress with his Aegis's specialty while his body floated up high in the sky.

"Maltyie! I'm up here on the rooftop! I'll stall him!' I said through my earpiece.

The stone military fortress underneath my feet started to crumble down to earth from Kian's rays of plasma. It whipped against the walls, disintegrating the structure bit by bit.

"Alright! But there's Relly with Kian over there. Lily will a.s.sist you, so don't do anything ras.h.!.+"

Sure enough, Relly popped out from behind a pile of snow wearing a nasty grin on his face. Kian was hovering in mid-air, with pale blue plasma beams circling him obediently.

Judging from his Aegis's specialty, he was obviously controlling the plasma himself instead of Relly. Even though Relly was the one with the specialty to produce and manipulate plasma. Come to think of it, maybe Relly's role was only to provide Kian with plasma...

Plasma was considered the fourth state of matter, and since Kian's Aegis crystals were able to control any matter it made contact with, plasma became a whole another weapon for him to use. It made sense for Kian to utilize it this way.

Cras.h.!.+

"Oh no. This fortress is going down!"

The stone underneath me finally collapsed and I jumped off the rooftop. Kian who was hovering in mid-air took the opening, his plasma whipped in my direction. My first Aegis's self-defense reacted to it, sending an elongated crimson s.h.i.+eld in the plasma's path as I freefall.

However, the deformed s.h.i.+eld evaporated instantly and I barely dodged the plasma. My body rolled itself across the snowy ground the moment I landed. When I stood back up, I noticed the right sleeve of my Uniform had caught Kian's plasma attack.

"Ava, I don't think you can get near him without taking out Relly first," said my Aegis. "It's risky to fight with those two supporting each other."

Relly threw his own plasma at me and I dodged; when Kian weaved a different one to strike me from behind.

"Ava!"

Lily went to block the attack with her own body and the plasma exploded upon contact, with Lily herself remained unscathed. She had entered her Full Aegis Form ever since the fortress was attacked.

"Lily... Thanks!"

"I'll take care of Relly," she quickly said. "Everyone had escaped to the camp. We can go all-out now."

"Yeah!"

If everybody had escaped, then, I could actually use my Mode without any reserve. After all, my only opponent would only be Kian so it shouldn't be hard to throw everything I had onto him. And despite what Klaus said about his strength, I managed to injure him pretty good the last time we fought.

I just have to push harder right then and there. I can win against him myself.

"Where are you looking at? I'm your opponent!" said Lily.

She stampeded towards Relly with bloodshot eyes and swung her right arm at his side. Relly evaded her attack, but it took no time at all for Lily to follow up with a powerful kick to his stomach.

"Bllaaargh!"

Relly countered with a plasma beam, but it didn't have any effect. Lily grabbed his arm wrapped with his own Aegis crystals and it disintegrated.

"You are no match for me when I'm this close."

She quickly punched Relly in the face and he fell down hard. Of course, that wasn't enough to defeat him, and it didn't serve as a killing blow. But, Lily surely had her former ally under her control.

"Hmm..."

Kian hovered back to the ground, his plasma whip still circling him. I immediately closed the distance between us.

"You might want to fight me with everything you have... Ava," he said with a solemn expression.

"I don't need your advice!"

Without delay, I activated my Mode and multi-colored flames immediately engulfed my Uniform.

"That's more I like it!" said Kian with a smile. "I just need to defend the border. And stopping you here will be a step closer to that."

With a flick of my wrist, arrows of flames shot at him. His plasma whips coiled around him and my attack crashed into his plasma barrier. Then, the plasma unraveled itself, spiraling upward towards the sky before plummeting in my direction.

I leaped to avoid it, but once those annoying whips slashed at the snow, it shot back up just as quickly. I tried my best to dodge it and the plasma barely grazed my face.

"Ava!" yelled Kian.

He stomped the ground and his plasma coiled around him once again, but this time it exploded into a blinding white light. However, what came with it was a force so great it blew everything about a few hundred meters of the area.

"Aggh!" I struggled to stand as my Aegis crystals scrambled to protect me from the blast. Each s.h.i.+eld and dome I formed— it disintegrated in a few seconds. My hands, legs were being ripped off slowly as the blast threatened to swallow me in it.

"I.. can't... hold on..."

A pink figure from out of nowhere entered my field of vision. Before then, there was nothing but white light. Suddenly, the ear-piercing noise deadened and the blast itself dissipated into a mere warm breeze.

"Lily, you—"

"Don't worry, it doesn't affect me at all. My Full Aegis Form is immune to Aegis Users, remember?"

Indeed, she was in her crystallized form, and she saved both of us. Relly, on the other hand, was injured from Kian's unnecessarily powerful maneuver. If Kian really wanted to kill me, he could have just keep attacking with his plasma without expending it in such a way.

Using the plasma as some form of explosives only helped in discarding his good weapon. I couldn't comprehend his reason at all. It was like... he threw it away because I struggled to fight him before.

I would hate it if that was true. It meant that he underestimated what my Aegis could really do.

"Why..." I muttered.

I approached Kian who was looking at me with those same sad eyes ever since we met back in Russia. As expected, he didn't do anything to harm me and I got a few dozen feet close to him.

"Why you did that? I don't understand. You could have easily focused your attack on me the whole time... But you never did. The control you had on your plasma was very loose... Why?!"

Kian stood there, his face darkened. "It's for your sake, Ava... I can't really find it in myself to... hurt you."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Ava, don't," said Lily. She came over to my side and pulled my arm.

"We are fighting," spoke Kian. "Don't get emotional on every little thing. It may cost you your life."

"But you said it's for my sake!"

"Indeed. I did say that."

A plasma beam cut through the air from our left, and it was aimed at me. I was about to counter when it veered sharply to the clouds high above— which caused it to miss me.

"Kian?! What are you doing?" shouted Relly.

"Don't interfere. Your job is only to provide me with your plasma. That being said, you can run away and die, or whatever you want to do. Though, I doubt you can get far—"

Multi-colored flames slammed at him from the front and he was pushed back by it. I didn't stop there. More flames roared at him from all sides.

"..."

Relly manifested cl.u.s.ters of his pale blue Aegis crystals and it released a wild amount of plasma in my direction. Lily was quick, her pink crystals already wrapped itself around his feet, before engulfing him in mere seconds. He broke free from it, but Lily was at his side the moment he used his plasma to force a way out and got his face smashed from her fist.

"Agggh!"

Relly shot a look at Kian, who managed to get back up from my flames, unscathed. "d.a.m.n you! To think that you use my plasma as a protective layer—"

Lily pulverized him into the snow with a flurry of punches. To finish him off, she enveloped his body with her pink Aegis crystals, and with a hard stomp, Relly shattered into pieces.

"Come to think of it. Mom did order me to dispose of him if he ever becomes s nuisance. It turns out your friend did the work for me, Ava."

Right then, after Kian spat those words, the flames that were meant to be thrown at him vanished into thin air.

"Wait... What do you mean by Mom? Amathelia is your... mother?" I said, my eyes widened.

"Amathelia is your grandmother... And I'm your father."

"... Huh?"

I didn't know why, but my body froze after he uttered those words. It was not true, I knew that much. He was clearly lying. He wanted to throw me off so that he could get rid of me quicker.

Yes, it made sense. Consigning me in a situation where he could kill me easily, that was his goal.

"I'm not going to fall into your trap!"

Felicia's crystallized upper body sprouted from Kian's back, and also gave me those similar sad eyes. Kian sighed out loud, caressing Felicia's head ever so slightly.

"Come to my side... my daughter. Amathelia wants you to join us. This is the perfect time for you to do so, isn't it? Come back to your Papa. Okay?"

"You're lying!" I shouted. "There's no way... no way that you are my father!"

"..."

I glanced at Felicia, who was still staring at me with those eyes. For some reason, anger and hatred started to well up inside me.

"She's your mother, Ava... Felicia is your mother. Look, you must remember her, right? And... Ah, right. You don't remember... I'm sorry."

"No. You're lying! I don't believe you. Lies... You... you are lying!"