Chapter 524 A big piece of the puzzle (part 2)
Chapter 524 A big piece of the puzzle (part 2)
Freya was momentarily in shock at the sudden revelations, she approached Daimon in a matter of seconds, which made Rita who was observing everything thoroughly from Daimon's shadow, prepared to protect her young master on the spot.
But Daimon transmitted his intentions to her, which were not to act unless Freya showed hostility after realizing he wasn't the "hero" from the Mermen Sea, which they now knew was as much of an asshat as Adam, but with a bit more of luck, since he lived until he reached the Stellar ranks, not one but twice.
The fact that Freya reacted to the vertical lines in Daimon's pupils, the trait gained thanks to the Black Armored Shark's lineage, combined with the trident of the storm being the item that acted as the secondary legacy left for Adam, made it clear that the though the hero only showed to have darkness affinity in the records of Neptune, he used to have water affinity before.
Normally obtaining an affinity is quite hard, but losing one is even harder to the point that is considered impossible, which is why originally the guy from Freya's story and the hero from the Mermen Sea, didn't appear to be the same person.
You might be thinking what happen to the guys that get gnawed away by nether, aren't they losing their affinities, but it's not the same, they don't lose their affinities, but instead are infected by nether, and slowly turn into it, there is a big difference, when losing there are no traces left of it, as for the second case there are.
For example, that purple nether the crazy girl now commanded, has traces of poison, so either her poison is fusing with her nether to give birth to a variant element, like Aura's plasma, which prior to him obtaining Demon Light, was probably the most violent element he and all the girls had seen or heard off, or her nether has poisonous properties by innate, maybe both, since no one knew what was Sarah's father's real abilities, much less what was the result of Bell's already talented lineage mixing with that of really high ranked Nethereal.
Anyway, knowing about the ability Freya and her first host had to split things up to such extreme extents, everything fell in place, that guy lost his affinity, his arm and his administrator, but he was still a system user and a hero, so he made his comeback properly, even in that he was better than Adam.
What rings Daimon's curiosity is that, the hero only obtained the Black Armored Shark lineage, in his second opportunity.
'According to the hero bullshit traits I know off from games and stories, when a hero survives and returns, he gets stronger, that would make the Black Armored Shark lineage, more important than the Trident of the Storm…', he thought.
And yet, even after obtaining the Dracolevia lineage, that wasn't one of the five hidden gems nor the still remaining two legacies, he had to obtain for the missions.
Speaking of the Dracolevia lineage, which is what came out whenever Daimon used the Black Armored Shark lineage now, Freya carefully observed the gray sphere on Daimon's hand, but ultimately shook her head.
"That is the "Ethereal Capsule", an item which I obtained thanks to my second companion, though Karla was stripped away from that bastard, she was left free to cause troubles, the second time I wasn't going to let the history repeat, so I sealed that guy's source of power, which is that detestable lineage in that item… how did you get it and more importantly, what the hell is the lineage you are manifesting right now?", asked the silver armored woman with genuine curiosity.
"You'll get your answers after I get mine, alternatively you can agree to tell me everything you are still keeping from me, since it appears that out objectives align with each other", said Aster.
"You are rather greedy you know… I'll think about it, for now I will tell you what you are wondering right now, but before that, is that girl also concealing her real aura?", asked Freya as she pointed at Sarah, to which Daimon nodded at the crazy girl.
"Show her", naturally the crazy girl didn't miss the chance to throw herself at Daimon, both literally and figuratively, she tried to jump onto Daimon's lap, just to bounce on the bed since Daimon used blink to appear a few centimeters away from her, but the crazy girl didn't forget to say.
"The only one to whom I will show "mine" is you~", she said, that being said she did deactivate the concealing effect of the bracelet, and her real aura was out for Freya to observe.
This time she didn't get as surprised as when she saw Jasmine's real self, she instead nodded to then say.
"As you probably already figured out by the way I worded by story, those two didn't have descendants, even my first companion who found someone to love, hadn't reached that point before everything was over… so that girl with light affinity, normally couldn't be their descendant".
"However, the younger sister found a friend who she considered her real sister, after going through so much together, she even knew about me and everything that was happening, and naturally she wasn't an average person either, her family had the strange property of always having two descendants, of completely opposite affinities".
"She already had a partner back then, but didn't have offspring yet, due to the war only ending not too long before we disappeared due to the bonus mission, so she probably only had children after receiving the Northern Light Sky lineage, from me, since one of her two children was for sure going to inherit it, the other must have been born with darkness affinity and one that should equal the abnormally strong one of his/her sibling…".
Now it was the turn for Daimon and the others to be surprised at what Freya was saying.
"Does that mean that me and Sarah are…", before Jasmine could finish her sentence, Freya nodded.
"Yeah, you two descend from that girl, the difference is that you somehow inherited enough of the Northern Light Sky lineage by innate, to awaken it, though it shouldn't have been this early, since it was quite diluted, but now… you are not that far from reaching the initial concentration that my second companion attained, still yours seem to be way different than what I know, so I barely recognized it", she said as she gazed at Daimon.
The only unknown "variant" that she could think off right now, was that previously masked youth, whose true nature was a mystery, he was manifesting a lineage that in terms or hierarchy appears to be above the one of the enemy that caused the death of her two hosts, after all.
Daimon felt Jasmine's happy gaze on him and he limited to smile back at her, he didn't choose to continue supporting Jasmine to surpass the limits that had been shackling her predecessors down, to gain her sympathy nor to get something out of her, he did so because she was his precious friend and taking advantage of her, would make him trash like Adam.
Which is also why he didn't mention anything about it, between real friends, there is no need for words, when actions speak by themselves.
Naturally the small exchange between them, didn't escape Freya's eyes, she of course knew the abilities of the lineage of her second host, so she was positively impressed by the fact that Daimon actively helped her at the cost of not getting two free life passes in exchange for her life.
'It seems your descendant is way wiser when it comes to life partners… or at least that appears to be the case', she thought with a nostalgic air around her, before she cleared her throat.
"Ahem, there seems to be a problem though, your lineages were purposedly diluted along the way, from what I can see as of right now, it wasn't in the first generations, but probably by the fifth or sixth one I would say", she said.
Jasmine's pretty eyebrows frowned, her family lacks records from the Matriarch's of the first generations, there is hole in the history of the Light Palace, which Aurora thought she was managing to fill thanks to the diary that the first Matriarch supposedly left behind.
But now, she highly doubted that said book was left behind by the either one of the two people that shared the lineage she has, otherwise why wouldn't have they mentioned about the passage to Kerrol being probably a trap, not only that but none of the two "first" Matriarchs, in other words the second companion of Freya nor her sworn sister, married the hero of the Mermen Sea.
So, said hero didn't leave his legacy in the territory of the Light Palace out of love, and then a big new question appeared, since Abaris's family was supposed to descend from the hero, in this case, that being a lie would be the better outcome for a change, but that gray sphere made it so there was a possibility that it wasn't a lie, and that complicated things.
Especially because the crazy girl who was lost in her thoughts previously, hugged Jasmine before saying.
"Mom has shown me the records from our branch of the family, and we do have records from the sixth Matriarch at the time, and that was when we took the charge of being the eyes in the shadow of the Light Palace, even working outside of the jurisdiction of our own family, whatever the case, Jas was my little sister prior to this and she'll be my little sister after this".
For a change the crazy girl said something quite nice, even Daimon couldn't help but smile at her words, only to see her licking her lips at him, which destroyed the moment.
"That would explain why your poison affinity is way stronger than that idiot's, not to mention you also have darkness affinity by innate, your family branch was supposed to be the main one", concluded Daimon.
Though it's not that uncommon for a talented descendant to appear on a secondary branch, the difference between Sarah and her cousin Purplehaze was abysmal to the point that they couldn't be mentioned in the same sentence, from Daimon's point of view.
Sarah being affected by the curse, was still way stronger than Purplehaze, she didn't miss to Jasmine in terms of talent at all, the same applied to Bell, she was the strongest of the three sisters, which included Sylvie and Jasmine's mother, after all.
"It seems like a lot happened back at Neptune, even after we were out of the picture, unfortunately even if we do find Karla's remaining existence in Kerrol, she won't have the answers regarding that, there hadn't been any outsiders entering Kerrol since back then and communication between the two planets is not possible through the passage as it was sealed", said Freya.
To which Daimon nodded, Kerrol was a big piece of the puzzle for sure, but the main mystery lied in Neptune, the mission he obtained was centered in Neptune after all, so the answers should be there as well.
That being said, visiting Kerrol was a must, otherwise he would have taken way more time to decipher that there were not only but two moments in which the history of Neptune was manipulated and overwritten.
"It didn't escape me that you said the remaining existence of that Siren "in Kerrol", what does that mean?", asked Daimon.
"Well, as strong as the ability "Sever" is, neither my first companion nor me, could completely split Karla from the system to which she was attached, what we were fighting earlier was the incarnation of her personality which is what was stripped away from that bastard, but a part of her, her original body to be more accurate, is still chained to that system", answered Freya as she clenched her right hand a couple of times.
"In comparison, me and that angel girl are both mind and "body", even if we are only incomplete incarnations as of current, while Karla had used that dark energy to fabricate a "meat puppet" that suited her two forms", she added.
'Tsk, so that's why I got an incomplete skill, not only because I stole just a small part of her existence, but because she isn't a complete being to begin with', thought Daimon, now it made sense that the Siren was so weak, to the point that Freya who had basically zero reserves of energy left, was able to match up to her.
Daimon noticed that Freya was hesitating to speak, so he gazed at her, his sharp amethyst eyes made the silver armored woman, chuckle behind her metal mask, even if she didn't say it, she was sure that Daimon would find out later, as he seemed to be proficient in deductions and reveals.
"I originally wasn't going to speak about this, since it is a "personal" matter to a certain extent, but I guess it involves you two as well now… there was someone reaching Kerrol, through a different route than the passage, some time ago".
"Surprisingly that person slipped through Karla's net, in part due to where she landed, which was in the middle of nowhere, luckily for her and for myself, the scarce days where the seal faltered enough for me to project my consciousness out of that star, I used to wander where Karla never visited without expecting anything, but that day was different, I saw a "shooting star" flying through the sky of the wilderness".
"So, I followed out of curiosity and what appeared before me was a woman amidst the process of being corrupted by the most ominous dark energy I have seen so far, even stronger than the one Karla somehow obtained and here is when things get interesting, because that same woman is in this caste right now".
Daimon frowned, the only one with darkness affinity that wasn't present in this room, was Emily, and though her darkness wasn't a joke, from his point of view it wasn't stronger than Karla's nether, in fact it was still quite behind, at least in terms of utility and intensity.
Though that could also have to be with the fact that Emily, is in her strongest state comparable to a Half Stellar from Neptune, which isn't something to look down since she is at the middle stage of the Arch rank, her talent allows her to jump that far in the realms, meaning she won't be weaker than Annete once she reaches the peak Arch rank, the same applies to Jeanne, but she doesn't have darkness affinity so she doesn't count for this supposition.
'Wait a moment… you have to be kidding me', thought Daimon as he gazed at Freya who realized the silver haired youth managed to read through lines.
And now the decision was up to him, which put Daimon in a small predicament, on one hand what he just discovered was probably a key part for his mission, on the other hand, the shock might be a bit too much for a certain someone.
Still, this wasn't something that could be avoided, so he nodded at Freya, who then left the room for a moment, only for Daimon to say.
"We'll be back in a moment".
"Mm", those two nodded and then Daimon followed Freya out of the room.
…
Daimon gazed at Freya as they walked towards Jeanne's room where those three were.
"Can you still use that ability?", he asked only to see Freya shake her head.
"That was the last use I had, I only gave it to her because she kind of reminded me of those two… to think such a coincidence would exist, no, even if Karla didn't notice it, there is no way such a thing would happen without a third's interference", she said.
Daimon was lost in his thoughts for a moment, but he came out of his daze when they arrived at Jeanne's room.
Just as he was about to knock on the door, Reyne opened it for him, Jeanne and Emily could be seen at the bottom of the room, sitting cross-legged on the ground, their bodies were bathed in a pretty red light, in their vampire forms.
"Mom and aunt will be finished in a minute, come in and wait", happily said Reyne, to which Daimon nodded as he entered the room followed by Freya.
Though Reyne didn't ask, it was obvious that she was wondering why Freya came, but Daimon limited to say.
"She also needs to speak with them".
Just as Reyne said, Jeanne and Emily stopped their ritual and then returned to normal, the red light condensed into a small crystal that fell to the ground so that Emily could grab it and keep it in her spatial ring.
"Did something happen?", asked Jeanne to Daimon, he was welcomed at all times, but it was strange that Freya tagged along,
since they weren't acquittanced with her, or at least that's what they believed.
"What's the earliest memory you two have?", suddenly asked Freya, to those two.
Needless to say, but Jeanne and Emily frowned at the personal question, but they saw Daimon nodding at them, so they properly answered.
"I woke up in the wilderness with my daughter in my arms", said Jeanne.
"I was in coma and woke up thanks to my father achieving an advance, which made him the strongest Archduke of all", added Emily.
"You two, got along ever since meeting right, not only that but you took a liking to that little girl quite easily, despite the difference in race am I right?", asked Freya.
"Yes, what is your point?", said Emily with her usual sharp voice.
"I was out for quite some time, so I honestly couldn't recognize you at first, to think you actually developed in such a way, I guess everything is possible", mumbled Freya before saying.
"You two were originally a sole person, I used the last shot I had of a powerful ability to separate you so that you would survive, the human kept the original affinity of the body which was light, and the other adapted to the darkness but on the process got in shock and probably stayed asleep for a long time".
"The original one was also about to give birth, so I placed a though weak, helpful barrier to keep magic beasts or other threats away and helped that child come to the world, I remember it as if it was yesterday, as it was a girl with a strong character, based on her loud cries".
"…", the room fell in a sepulchral silence until Freya added the last nail to the coffin.
"In case you wonder why would I have gone to such lengths for a stranger, to the point that I used all the energy I had amassed for that little escape, that is because even in that demure state… that woman resembled the two friends I couldn't protect and I couldn't simply feign that I didn't see it", she said.
And then it was Daimon's turn to speak, since it would be easier to strike when the iron is hot.
"I also wondered why did I feel like Reyne was somewhat familiar
when we first met, despite the not exactly good impression of the group she was with back then, it's because I know her sister, in other words, you two used to be the one that was supposed to inherit the Light Palace sect, Jasmine's mother, Jessica Ivory".