Aria's voice was filled with so much hatred that she didn't even care whether her vocal cords would get severed from the sheer loudness of the scream. Her face turned red as she turned around and stood up as she channeled every ounce of Origin inside her body.
Then, she moved her hand, slicing her wrist, and immediately, blood gushed out like a torrent. But, before it could drop to the ground, the blood suddenly started floating in the air as it quickly surrounded Aria's body like a wicked snake.
Damian looked at the scene with a small smile as he said. "Oh, if that isn't the infamous blood manipulation. Such a beautiful Talent."
However, Aria didn't respond as she quickly shifted the blood's shape to that of long arrows. In a matter of moments, hundreds of blood arrows were created around Aria, filling the whole Then, with a move of her hand, the endless arrows flew toward Damian.
"Die!!" She screamed with blind anger. At this point, she couldn't hold her hatred anymore. She had lost everything, her father, her beloved Kai, and everything else. She sacrificed her happiness for their sake only to see them get out of her grasp in such a way by this bastard.
It was painful, incredibly painful to the point where Aria couldn't even breathe or think at that moment, she just followed her instinct which was screaming for her to kill that man, no matter what. If he dies, all her pain will go away and all the suffering her beloved would go through would also be gone.
'Die! Die! Die!!' The arrows reached their target and swarmed him from all angles. Each arrow was strong enough to pierce iron and stone.
However, at that second, in a shocking sight, Damian swung his arm. Suddenly, all the arrows broke into pieces and fell down to the ground one after the other like a swarm of dying flies. Aria felt the arrows breaking as they were connected to her and her face turned from anger to hopeless shock.
"Tsk, tsk, you do not understand, do you, Aria? Our deal was indeed something that I agreed upon and I delivered what I said. However, your father was simply too weak to handle the pain and killed himself. If there was someone to blame, it's your father, not me."
"Shut up!!!!!" Aria shrieked as she dashed toward Damian with her fists tightened. Swinging her arm, she tried to punch him. However, Damian easily dodged the attack.
"Your dad was never a man who could handle the cruelty of this world. He was a naive, spineless rich man who didn't know his true value."
"I said shut up!!" She responded with a series of punches that were missed completely.
But, Aria kept attacking as ferociously as she could. After all, if she stops then what had she left to do? What was she supposed to do other than try to kill this man with all her being?
Her desperate attempts to kill him weren't out of hatred alone, but also out of hopelessness and loss. Tears streamed down her face endlessly as she punched and punched, hitting walls around her. In a matter of minutes, she destroyed the whole cell and the prison.
"It's pointless, girl. You will never kill me nor hurt me. You will only hurt yourself even more." Damian said as he suddenly stopped one of Aria's punches with his hand as if it were nothing.
The girl tried to pull it away but it was tightly stuck in there so she could only clench her teeth. "Let… go!!"
"Let me be clear here, Aria. You only have two choices now: Either you simply kill yourself because of your grief and lose everything. Perhaps your regret will follow you to another life. Or, you can work for me and perhaps you will have a chance to fix your mistakes. After all, Kai is my own son, he's my flesh and blood and I only want the good for him. He will be my heir and the future ruler of this world."
Aria found herself completely silent at his suggestion. Although her boiling anger and hatred were still there, she at least was able to listen to him.
His choices were rather the harsh truth. If she simply lets this as it is, she will fall into depression and end up killing herself from pain. She knew she would never be able to handle this life without Kai and her father, the last two people who cared about her.
So, if she wanted to live longer, she needed to find something to do, a goal of sorts that would be enough to stop her from killing herself. That goal was rather easy to determine.
'If I work for him… I would end up meeting Kai again for sure…' She thought to herself.
She already had a rough idea of Damian's goal which was to rule this world and everyone that lives in it. So, Kai was bound to appear again and he was bound to meet her sooner or later. When that time comes, who knows what could happen?
Perhaps he would kill her which was the highest possibility or perhaps… A very small chance that their relationship would take a different course.
But, that was simply wishful thinking that Aria willingly held on to just so that she wouldn't end up losing every hope in her life. That was Aria's character, a very hopeful person even in the darkest of times.
Even to someone that she hates this deeply, Aria decided that if she wanted to have another chance, she needed to take this opportunity, as bad as it looked.
"Fine…"
Damian's grin widened as he replied. "Good choice, little girl."
At that moment, a deal was created between two people. One of them had lost her purpose and the other was ready to use that weakness to his advantage.
***
*Back in the present day*
"So, how is your school days going, darling?~" Kaya asked as she sat down on Kai's lap and hugged his neck happily. Her face looked like a happy puppy in the embrace of its master.
Kai had his eyes closed for a while now as if he was thinking about something. He only opened them when he felt Kaya's kissing his cheek.
"What were you thinking about?" She asked with a small smile. Her lips were close to his ear.
"Sigh, a small memory of mine." He replied before he wrapped his arm around Kaya's waist and rested his head on her shoulder.
'Oh, is Kai in the mood to cuddle now?' She thought to herself with a small smile.
"My school days are fine. They're busy but I'm not having a bad time." He replied.
"Is that so? But, you seem under the weather lately as if you're bothered about something
The last few days were indeed odd for Kai. His mind had been completely occupied by what happened between him and Aria a few days ago. He couldn't get that picture out of his head at all for some reason.
His instincts told him that there was something that he was missing but no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't see what he was missing. Aria's behavior was indeed weird but it didn't give him any hint about what she truly thought of him.
Kai thought that he was either dense or his mind simply didn't understand how to handle situations of this sort. That did certainly affect his general mood in the next few days. His life with Aria in the same apartement went on normally, although with some awkwardness and tension.
But, the two knew how to prioritize their mission over their feelings, and that worked perfectly well. Kai was able to finally take a huge step in one of his plans which was to finally leave to explore one of the ancient places that he suspected to have something related to the Progenitro's arsenal.
But, before he does that, he needs Aria and Kaya to come with him since they aren't going on a normal trip. Aria was knowledgeable about this topic since she worked for his father and Kaya was a professor who could cover their tracks.
That was why he even came to Kaya's office at noon, to talk about this topic which somehow ended up with them cuddling on the sofa and enjoying each other's embrace silently.
"Are you sure that the place we're going to related to the progenitor?" Kaya finally asked after a while as she looked at Kai's eyes.
"I'm not sure. But, according to the map I got that day from the auction, it most definitely could be related to it. After all, I can't explain that map with anything but that. Whether we find something or not is up to luck." He replied.
Kai didn't rely too much on that map since it could simply be indicating something completely different but he still wanted to check the place either way.
After all, whether it was the arsenal itself or something else… Both could be very important.