Aefia lifted the patch of hair that was covering her left eye. It was still bleeding, but not as much since it had already reached a level of magic which it could withstand. She had her eye open the entire time, but she just refused to keep it in show, worried that the others might get scared or the demon king could use it as an opportunity to twist things around.
She opened her left eye, revealing a glowing red eye with a demonic pupil. It was a demonic eye, meaning that Aefia was partially a demon. It wasn't like she didn't know about it, but she found out not too long ago. And when she did, she was just as shocked as Helio was now.
"Just how did you get a demonic eye?!" Helio asked.
"I am pretty sure it is due to the magic I had absorbed from the sword which I needed to destroy the evidence of. Since I had very little time to think any sort of things due to my panic state. I do remember my eye hurting even more after I had fully absorbed the magic from the sword and it turned into dust." Aefia explained while releasing the patch of hair which she was holding.
Helio stayed silent for an irritating amount of time. It seemed to Aefia that he too was suspicious of her. "So are you partially a demon now?" he finally asked.
"Not really. I wasn't engaged in any sort of ritualistic magic, nor was I a victim of any sort of rituals. So that rules out the possibility of me actually being a demon." Aefia explained. "Now that you mention it, I think I can actually use that bow because I already am possessed with the demonic magic." She picked up the bow again.
"Maybe you should ask her lady if she knew what these writings say. Somehow, it is easy to consider that since she is at least two hundred years old, she could have already learned these languages from a long time ago. Or maybe as being part of the royal family, her son had to learn these runes for the future?" Helio said after a short while.
"So, am I supposed to ask her or her son to translate these writings?" At hearing Aefia's words, Helio nodded. "Well, then I would like to ask my system too. If it votes yes, I will go and ask both of them." Aefia answered while opening her vibrant red screen that almost blinded her.
[Wait! I am sleeping!😠]
"Knock! Knock! Its the rising morning sun!" Aefia said while knocking the screen with her knuckles.
[Why are you so rude!😭 I just wanted some rest after that tiring work!😭]
"You have slept enough. If you answer my question, you can go back to sleep." Aefia continued knocking.
[Fine! What is the question?😤]
"So, we think it is possible that her lady and her son could know the ancient runes written on the body of these weapons. But the fact is, what if they don't know and they suspect me of being tied to some sort of another evil organization?" Aefia explained.
[Wait, ancient runes? Show me.🧐]
Aefia looked at Helio with a questioned face. Helio shrugged and took out his dagger. He laid the dagger next to the bow and the two spears. Aefia waved her hand at Helio to stop him from doing so. "No wait! How the heck do I show a system something that has no camera? It literally is a screen and nothing else." She explained.
"Oh wait! That does make sense! How does a screen have any sort of power to turn into a camera?" Helio laughed at the realization.
"Don't laugh too much. It gets annoyed with even a very small amount of criticism. I had to slap it to work earlier when I first faced the the dragon. It was laughing at me saying that I really deserved it." Aefia spoke with a smirk and a neutral face. "Also, I suppose you have a screen of your own too. Try waking it up by tapping the air in front of you. It will jump up because it thinks of you as an enemy. That's how I did it almost a week ago."
Helio did as Aefia had instructed him to do. Suddenly, a lime green screen appeared in front of him and it seemed that it was talking back to Helio. "Oh wait! It does work! My one is telling me to avoid disturbing it!" Helio said while poking it even more.
Out of the contrary, the screen moved down and slammed into his face with full force, making him lean all the way back while almost touching the ground. "And this thing is defensive!" Helio said with muffled voice as he was covering his mouth. He wiped the spilling blood drops from his face and asked Aefia. "How do we turn it off? It won't stop arguing."
"Actually...even when you shut it off, it will bounce back up and slam into your face. It seems, that the 'defensive' measure you think it is, it is just slamming into the face of its owner." Aefia laughed.
"Anyway, don't we have a thing or two to do? It seems that the demoness is having a small and fun conversation with her lady and her son." Aefia said while looking back. "Oh right, how do we show you the weapons and runes again?" She asked her system.
A second later, Helio's screen popped up and he told Aefia, "My screen is saying that to show it, you need to hold it in front of it. Or wave it and the screen can come to life and work as a normal human. Alright, wait, let me try."
"Strange. My screen is awfully lazy right now! It was a second or two late then your screen. Alright, let me just wake it up one more time to test out the thing your screen just said."
She waved at her screen and soon enough, it dissappeared pixel by pixel. She noticed that Helio's screen was acting the same. "Was this supposed to happen?" Helio asked after both their screen had fully dissappeared. "How am I supposed to know?! Your screen said that!" Aefia said with annoyance. "Maybe your screen just wanted to go take a rest just like mine."
When Aefia put down the bow, she noticed the red pixels return and form into an animal figure. Helio's lime green pixels too formed into an absurdly small shape until all the pixels had formed. "What is this?! Its a lizard!" Helio spoke with disgust. He almost pounced up from his sitting position when the lizard spoke. "Why are you ready to run? I am your screen in the form of an elemental animal."
Noticing that the lizard wasn't willing to do any harm, he sat back down. The lizard crawled towards him on the ground and climbed onto his hand and sat on his shoulder. "Were you aware about the fact that our screens could turn into our elemental animal?" Helio finally asked.
Aefia was distracted for the whole time. She was looking at the final amount of pixels settling onto place. The figure was a fearful creature, with pointy ears and who was currently resting. "So...my screen really is sleeping... Helio, tell your screen to figure out what those runes are. I will go wake my lazy animal up." Aefia said while walking towards the red wolf.
She poked the ears and brushed the fur. Although it was more of an illusion, it felt the same way as interacting with a real life animal. She poked the nose and played with the fangs a little time more. Soon enough, the screen woke up and growled at Aefia with its fangs bared at her. Her wolf had finger long fur which were extremely soft.
Aefia stayed squated with her hands up in a surrendering position. "Hold up! You were supposed to do a thing or two. Fortunately, Helio's screen is already doing half the work for you, so if you do the remaining half, I believe I will let you rest for the rest of the day."
"Ugh! Alright! Where are the weapons?! I will be done with this in a few seconds and then I will sleep for as long as I want. Until, you are in real danger of course." Her screen spoke in her elemental animal's form.
She glanced back to see if the work was being done. She got up and walked with her wolf towards the four weapons laying on the ground. Helio was already investigating his dagger with his lizard who was still sitting on top of his shoulder. Upon seeing Aefia and the wolf, the lizard climbed onto Helio's hair, where it became invisible to the human eye, but the lime green glow was unmistakable.
"Well, my lizard just said that my dagger had the words 'Nicolos Albert' written on it." Helio explained as Aefia sat at her previous sitting position. "Nicolos Albert? So it is the name of the original owner of this weapon. Your dagger is safe to use then. But can't we change the names? Maybe we can remove the encrypted text instead?" Aefia asked.
"You may remove the writings, but you will have to add more wooden pieces to keep it sturdy." Aefia's wolf spoke. Helio was shivering the same way his lizard was. "Are you afraid that I will tear off your heads? Don't worry...because if I do, my owner will tear my head off next." Her wolf told Helio.
Aefia looked at the wolf with scary eyes and a creepy smile as it was saying that. "I am glad you figured that out, but I don't appreciate the fact that you are willing to do that for actual. Tell you what, let's give you some punishment so you won't do it even without my presence."
"Calm down. Its not like I will do that with 'one' person's presence. I will obviously do it some other times." The wolf snickered. It abruptly looked up and whimpered with fright as its ears flopped to opposite sides.
"Kill my owner and I will kill you." Helio's lizard spoke to Aefia's wolf.
"Kill my lizard and I will kill you." Helio spoke to Aefia's wolf.
"Well, now you know who to best kill. No one is willing to side with you in this." Aefia spoke to her own wolf.
Surrounded by three creature with scary and frightening faces, the wolf decided that it was best to avoid any sort of problems and complete its work as fast as possible. It walked up towards the four weapons and read each of them.
I feel bad for bullying you, but if you don't fix your attitude sooner, we will all have to do the same thing again. Aefia thought to herself. Honestly, I don't think you really deserved it. I will make up for it in the future.
"I heard that Aefia!" Her wolf jolted her awake from her deep dive into her mind. She looked at the wolf with its wagging tails and pointed ears. "Don't worry, I knew you all had reasons for doing so. I forgive each and everyone of you."
Helio and his lizard looked at Aefia with curious eyes. "Sorry, I completely forgot the fact that my system could read my mind." Aefia said while scratching the back of her head. "So does that mean my system can read my mind too?" Helio asked.
"Yes. What did you think? If hers can read her, than I can read yours." Helio's lizard replied. "Anyway, back to work."
"So which is your weapon?" Her wolf asked her. "I am guessing its the bow." It used it's paws against the frame work if the bow. "I am sorry to say Aefia, but it seems that your own senses...failed you."