Aria didn't move an inch. Her giant sword remained steady, looking less like a weapon and more like a steel extension of her own arm. Her gaze was heavier than the blade itself. The air between us was charged with the faint scent of burning—the smell of my blood mixed with the corruption of the dragon I'd just slaughtered.
"I asked you a question," Aria said, her voice dropping an octave, making it infinitely more terrifying. "Who are you? And why do you reek of ancient death? Normal humans don't walk out of 'Vargas's Rift' alive."
[Caius, kill her.] Celine whispered in my mind, sounding bored. [Or better yet... let her kill you. Look at those muscles, look at the mana flow in her sword. If she kills you, I can copy her 'Dawn Sword' skill. Go on, provoke her! Tell her her armor looks cheap!]
I ignored the bloodthirsty parasite living in my head.
"Me?" I raised my hands slowly in a gesture of fake surrender. "I'm just a passerby who fell into the wrong hole. My name is Caius. As for the smell... well, the dragon didn't own toothpaste."
Aria narrowed her eyes. "Liar."
One word. And suddenly, the world shifted.
I didn't see her move. The "Predator's Eye"—which grants me a 0.5-second glimpse into the future—screamed a bright red warning in my brain. I saw a ghost image of her sword decapitating me before it actually happened.
"Drop!"
I threw myself backward with everything I had, landing on my ass in a humiliating fashion. Her blade passed through the space my neck had occupied a microsecond ago. The wind pressure generated by the strike was so violent it sliced the boulder behind me into two smooth halves.
"Holy..." I muttered, cold sweat pouring down my back. This woman wasn't just a "knight." She was a human-shaped natural disaster.
"You dodged that?" Aria raised an eyebrow in slight surprise, though she didn't stop. She raised the sword again. "Good move for a mere 'passerby.' But demons are good at dodging too."
[She's too fast, Caius! You can't run. Death is your only option here!]
"Shut up!" I shouted aloud.
Aria paused for a moment, thinking I was speaking to her. I scrambled up, feeling a strange heat rising in my throat. The "Breath of Decay" I'd stolen from the dragon was boiling. I couldn't beat her. And I didn't want to die right now—not because I feared death, but because dying by her hand would respawn me back at the bottom of the pit with the dragon, and I hate repetitive grinding.
"Listen, Goldilocks!" I shouted, aiming my mouth at a massive rock beside her. "Huuuugh... GRAAAAH!"
Instead of words, I unleashed a dense cloud of yellowish-green gas. I didn't aim at her—she'd dodge easily—but at the rocky ground beneath her feet. The gas touched the stone, and with a terrifying hisssss, the rock melted into a pool of boiling sludge in seconds.
Aria leaped back with light grace, covering her nose with her armored vambrace. "Black magic?" she said with disgust, though her sword lowered slightly. "You wield the power of dead dragons."
"It's not black magic, it's war loot!" I said, wiping my mouth which now tasted like sulfur. "If I were a demon, I would have attacked you in your sleep or tried to eat you. But here I am, trying to have a civilized conversation while you try to detach my head from my shoulders!"
A heavy silence fell. The wind howled between us, carrying dust. Aria looked at the pool of molten rock, then at me. She seemed to be thinking. Her blue eyes scanned my body as if reading an open book.
Suddenly, something strange happened. A tiny drop of blood trickled from Aria's beautiful nose. She wiped it quickly with the back of her hand, as if hiding a flaw, but I saw it.
"You're bleeding," I said without thinking.
Aria froze. She looked at me with a gaze that would have killed me instantly if looks could kill. "I do not bleed," she said coldly.
As soon as the words left her lips, a small cut, thin as a silk thread, appeared on her right cheek, and a drop of blood rolled down.
My eyes widened.
[Oh... that is interesting,] Celine whispered in my head, her tone shifting from boredom to malicious curiosity. [Look at her aura, Caius. She is bound by a "Vow of Truth." Her body rejects lies. Whenever she lies, or denies reality, her body harms her. She is a knight of the "Old Covenant."]
I smiled. A small, cunning smile I couldn't hide. We have a super-powered knight here who physically cannot lie without getting hurt? That information was worth its weight in gold.
"You aren't sure I'm an enemy, are you?" I asked, taking a cautious step forward.
Aria remained silent. The bleeding stopped. Silence meant agreement.
"You need proof," I continued, pointing to the road behind her. "And I need a city. My clothes are torn, my breath kills birds, and I need a hot bath. How about a temporary truce?"
Aria slowly sheathed her sword—a movement that produced a heavy metallic ring. "The nearest city is 'Orichal'," she said dryly. "And it does not welcome strangers tainted by black magic. If you accompany me, you will be under surveillance. One wrong move, and I will slice you in half before your blood touches the ground."
"Fair enough," I shrugged. "By the way, I'm Caius."
She looked at me with royal disdain. "And I am Aria. Lady Aria, Commander of the Third Guard of the 'Silver Dawn' Guild. Do not forget the title."
She turned and walked, her cape fluttering behind her. I followed. As I stared at her back, the ghostly version of Celine appeared on my shoulder, whispering in my ear.
[You survived with your tongue this time, rat. But be warned... that woman hides something more dangerous than her sword. I smell blood on her that isn't hers.]
"We'll worry about that later," I whispered to myself. "Right now, I just need a bed that doesn't try to kill me."
But, as is always the case in my life, calm is just a lie preceding the storm. Because on the horizon, we saw black smoke rising from the direction of the city she mentioned.
The city of "Orichal" was burning.