A pause.
Then Aria answered, her voice warmer but full of conviction:
"Huh? Who do you think we are?"
"Do you really think we'd give in that easily?"
Ari immediately followed, her tone louder—almost smug.
"You ever seen either of us surrender? To anyone? Darkness or not?"
Garius chuckled softly, a rare smirk barely visible beneath the moonlight.
Of course he knew.
He remembered long ago—when the celestials sought war, conquest, domination...
But Ari and Aria?
They had refused.
They begged Fransesca not to seal them—
because all they wanted was to live freely.
And so she had spared them.
Set them gently on the quiet hill behind the Armand estate—where the grass swayed peacefully and the stars watched over them.
They didn't choose war.
They chose home.
Now, that home needed them again.
Garius whispered, more to himself than anyone else—
"…I'm counting on you."
Garius smirked, and his right eye gleamed—
The Eye of Truth, ancient and all-seeing, activated.
