Infinity: Rising of the Soul Weavers

"Okay!" Maya instantly dismissed her previous words and said happily. Having Raven rearranging her hair made her mood soar up the heavens and she could not conceal it even if she tried to. 

In just a matter of seconds, she put her beautiful light silver armour on, and she was back to looking like a respected Seraph.

"Oh, Kay," she suddenly called while putting her silver armour on. "How much time did we spend? I felt like it was a few mere moments, tell me it wasn't just a minute or two…"

"A minute or two?" Raven was extremely surprised. "It seemed like we spent at least some hours!"

The duo looked at each other with narrowed eyes before looking at Kayla with questioning gazes.

She didn't answer. She only raised two fingers up.

"Two hours?" Raven asked, surprised. She thought it was a bit more, but that was still close to her estimation.

"Wait, two minutes for real?" Maya opened her mouth. "Damn it, I knew it! I should not have taken it easy then. Rave, you better watch out for me next time, I'll take you to fourth base as soon as we start so that we can't miss a thing!"

Raven blushed but didn't say a word. She was used to Maya's way of talking, even though it sounded extremely weird and almost foreign to her...

*Sigh*

"Do all angels have such bad time perception? And stop uttering such inappropriate words, you're not alone anymore!" Kayla didn't know how to react, so she could only sigh in frustration. "And, well, you two spent twenty minutes…"

""Oh…"" both girls were surprised, for different reasons.

Dismissing their weird gazes, Kayla redirected her attention towards Raven. "By the way, Rave, you've ranked up. Hehe, congrats!"

"Huh? What? How?" Raven asked in confusion. "I ranked up?"

"Well, didn't you feel like you were flying? Err, what is a word to describe it… transcending at some point?" She asked.

"Hehe, she was transcending alright!" Maya winked at her with a charming expression.

Raven blushed but shook her head in disapproval. Trying to think about such events, she suddenly remembered something.

"Wait? That… I did feel something like that… wasn't it because of… you know…" her blush slowly spread up towards her earlobes and down towards her slender neck. She almost resembled a burning-red rose.

"Well, not quite," Kayla said with a smile. "When you two 'forgot yourselves in the moment', Maya was subconsciously releasing her mana crazily, while you were absorbing it at a similar rate.

"While your Mana Core isn't as good as it can get at the moment, the surplus energy that was released really helped widen your capacity, hence you're standing at rank Star Ninety Eight!"

"Rank Star Ninety Eight, hm, not bad!" Maya raised a thumbs up. "But hey, this is not nearly enough. You need to practice more." Saying that, she grinned mischievously. "Alright Kay, with all due respect, get out. Rave, armour off!"

Both Raven and Kayla looked at each other and then back at Maya who was still grinning.

"Get a hold of yourself!" Kayla shouted. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Huh? What are you talking about, I'm absolutely perfect," Maya said. "In fact, I've never been so perfect in my entire life!"

"Ugh, whatever!" Maya lost her patience. "But to be fair, her rank up wasn't the best result Raven got out of this. Right?"

"Same question, different context; what are you talking about?" Maya tilted her head and looked at Raven.

The girl in question smiled genuinely as she approached Maya. "Thank you!"

With a quick peck on the lips that surprised the receiving end, Raven suddenly took a deep breath and closed her eyes before her docile behaviour took a one-eighty degree turn.

Her golden aura suddenly flared and lit up the void around her. Her weak shy aura suddenly became full of confidence. 

Cracking her neck with a quick motion, she grinned devilishly while testing every part of her body; closing and opening fists, kicking around, manipulating her golden strands of mana…

"What the hell happened to her?" Maya was the one truly taken off guard this time. 

"Hehe," Kayla chuckled delightfully. "Although you technically haven't… err, haven't taken her first time, yet I guess, you have allowed her to break through her shell. Now, Raven is not what she used to be!"

"Sorry, what?" Maya tilted her head. "More information would be much appreciated, you know!"

*Sigh*

"Didn't you say it yourself?" Kayla asked. "Didn't you mention before that this would be like facing her fears and crossing the line out of her comfort zone? Well, you were right.

"Raven had always concealed her true intentions from everyone around her and never truly trusted anyone. 

"Even you and Maria… Although she genuinely loves you and would die for you, she had never allowed herself to show any weakness in front of you.

"Although I knew everything, I technically wasn't an outsider and so I could not help her in that regard.

*Sigh*

"Whenever she used to smile, her smiles would be fake. Her expressions and behaviours would almost always be fake as well. They were fake to the point that she herself believed them from time to time. 

"But that meant that whenever something serious happened, she had to continue storing those negative thoughts and emotions inside her mind, in a place where she would always ignore and never acknowledge… 

"If she had continued down that path, the best outcome that could have happened was her forming a second personality and suffering from a serious disorder. And the worst outcome would have been a complete breakdown of her mind which would have either killed her or made her like an emotionless robot..."

"What!!? And you kept that for yourself?" Maya suddenly shouted, extremely upset. "How could you do something like that? Weren't you supposed to be always there for her? How could you!? How hard would it have been to let one of your clones tell us about it, huh?!!"

Kayla didn't reply. She just looked down at her feet in a sorrowful expression.. Pain was visible in her dark purple eyes.