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Of course, he had a way to solve it.
Aria's situation was similar to Elsa's. Both were beings who had lost their bodies and been left with only their souls.
So the answer was simple.
He could just use the Ark Sphere to make her a new body.
While Ais held Aria's body and wept, Anos Kanzaki finally finished off the One-Eyed Black Dragon.
He had no idea which meteor had landed the final blow. All he knew was one thing.
Using Ophis's power felt incredible.
Ahem.
Ding!
[Silver treasure chest opened.]
[Congratulations: Reward obtained. True Longinus-class Sacred Gear, Holy Cross]
[True Longinus-class Sacred Gear, Holy Cross. An evolved form of the Sacred Cross, one of the three Relic Longinus. While retaining and strengthening its original power, it also gained many mysterious new functions.]
"A cross?"
The Holy Cross was one of the three Relic Longinus.
A small violet cross that could fit in the palm of a hand.
Legend said that the Sacred Cross itself housed the will of a certain being and had the trait of changing owners again and again.
That certain being was, naturally, the will of the God of the Bible.
The Incinerate Anthem did indeed contain the will of the God of the Bible.
But the Holy Cross Anos had just obtained seemed to be missing that part.
"If I remember right, this Sacred Gear changes depending on the user."
Take Walburga, for example.
She had been one of the stray magicians of the Khaos Brigade, successor to the Eastern Witch of Oz, Augustus, and she inherited the Sacred Gear Incinerate Anthem from her defeated master.
Her Balance Breaker summoned the Flame Yamata no Orochi, a violent beast of fire born from the soul of the great serpent.
Later, when it passed to Lint Sellzen, the same Sacred Gear instead brought forth a flame angel.
"Well, I guess I just got a new toy."
Anos smiled.
At this rate, if he ever wanted to go around convincing people he was really a god, he had one more very useful prop to work with.
"Ais, let's get out of here, People are already on their way."
Anos warned her.
"..."
Ais still had not fully come back to herself.
She just stared at Aria's body, showing a softness and fragility she never displayed in front of others.
For all this time, revenge had been the thing holding that girl together.
But now the object of her revenge was gone.
And all the strength she had built around that purpose had drained away in one breath.
"Sigh."
Anos let out a quiet breath, then used magic to take Ais away.
He had no intention of letting others see that he was the one who had dealt with the Black Dragon.
Even before, he had only acted because there was no one nearby except Ais.
He took the hollow, broken Ais back to Hestia Familia.
If this were the kind of story some people liked to imagine, then this would have been the moment for the opportunistic scene where the hero took advantage of a girl while her heart was defenseless.
Unfortunately.
Anos had never really been interested in a girl's body.
What he wanted was, by its very nature, something deeper than that.
And worse.
"Ais... Ais, look at me."
Anos reached up and turned her face toward him by force, making her look straight into his eyes.
All this time, Ais had fought on the assumption that her mother might still be alive somewhere inside the Black Dragon.
Even though she knew the odds were tiny, as long as the truth was unknown, there was still hope.
The desire for revenge had driven her to become stronger.
Driven her to endure.
Driven her to do many things she otherwise never would have done.
But now both of the emotions supporting her had vanished at once.
The One-Eyed Black Dragon had been slain by the Holy Child.
And her mother Aria had been confirmed dead.
It was as though her soul had been hollowed out in a single instant.
What Ais needed now was for someone to fill that emptiness.
That was why Anos still had not told her that there was another way.
Because he really was that kind of person.
A bad one.
The sort who could see through someone like Diadora, precisely because in some ways they were alike, only Anos was far more dangerous.
"Ais... Ais..."
He kept calling her name.
By rights, his voice should have been able to reach straight into her soul.
But now.
Ais did not react at all.
"Ais?"
Anos frowned.
Her eyes were vacant.
All the light had gone out of them. She was staring in his direction, yet it was as if she could not actually see him.
"Looks like I really am going to need something more than ordinary methods."
Anos looked at the soft red of her lips and leaned down.
Taking advantage of someone.
There was no better phrase for what he was doing now.
"Mm?"
For the first time, a trace of awareness returned to Ais's eyes.
She felt herself wrapped in the deep, unmistakable presence of a man, as though it were sinking into every empty part of her.
Something unfamiliar spread from her lips.
Was it sweet?
Bitter?
No.
It was something more complicated than that, something mixed with far more than a single flavor.
At last, Ais began to understand what was happening and instinctively tried to resist.
But the moment she felt the strange sense of peace and rescue flowing through the contact between them, she stopped fighting.
"Just like this... stay like this..."
Ais closed her eyes and let herself be filled with that sense of safety.
Only like this could she stop herself from sinking into grief.
Only like this could she forget all of the pain.
"Hm?"
Even Anos was slightly surprised.
He had not expected Ais to stop resisting and start clinging to the feeling instead.
Was she actually bolder than she looked?
"Ais..."
When he finally let her go, Anos's expression carried a trace of helplessness.
Had he gone a little too far?
But at this point there was nothing to do except let things unfold as they would.
The moment that feeling of safety was pulled away from her, Ais looked at him with naked longing.
She herself was not aware of it, but Anos could see very clearly how dangerously inviting she looked in that moment.
How easy it would be for a man to lose control.
"Anos..."
Ais said his name softly.
At that moment, she seemed to understand the shape of their relationship at last.
A hero.
Someone who could make another person feel safe.
Was that not what a hero was supposed to be?
Someone who could protect a girl from an evil dragon.
Was that not what a hero was supposed to be?
Even now, Ais did not fully understand what her father's words had meant.
But she knew one thing.
Whenever she thought of the word hero, the first face that rose in her mind was Anos's.
"Ais..."
Calling her name once more, Anos gave her what she was silently asking for and bent toward her again.
"Mm..."
The tension left Ais's body.
At that moment, all she wanted was for the emptiness inside her to be filled.
Only then could she forget the ache for a little while.
Only then could she borrow back some reason to keep existing.
"Ais, don't go back tonight."
After an unknown stretch of time, Anos drew back again and looked at the faint flush on her face as he spoke quietly.
"Mm..."
Ais did not fully understand what not going back meant.
But she did know that she wanted to stay by Anos's side.
She wanted him to hold her up.
She wanted him to fill the part of herself that had gone missing.
"Ais, leave the rest to me."
Anos leaned to her ear, lightly catching her small earlobe between his teeth as he spoke again in that voice that could pierce straight into the heart of anyone who heard it.
"Anos..."
Ais nodded instinctively.
At this point she could no longer tell whether the scent on her skin was her own or his.
His breath against her ear, the faint sting of his bite, the heat brushing across her skin.
It all felt strangely good.
Still, what Anos did next made her pause for a moment.
She vaguely remembered Tiona once telling her what sort of response she should give if Anos ever did something to her.
A few seconds later, she remembered exactly what Tiona had said.
But she had no intention of following it.
Because in Ais's heart, Tiona and Anos did not occupy remotely the same place.
"Leave everything to me."
Looking at the girl whose face held both shyness and a trace of fear, Anos spoke softly.
"Mm..."
Ais's answer was simple.
And firm.
And so.
While the whole of Orario burned beneath the sky.
On land that had just been ravaged by the One-Eyed Black Dragon and struck by falling stars.
In one of the few quiet places left untouched.
Perhaps.
Even under Aria's gaze.
Anos and Ais held each other.
Neither of them said anything.
But at times like this, words were unnecessary.
All that mattered was responding.
Anos did not even bother opening the other treasure chest that had appeared.
This was no time to ruin the mood with something like that.
...
At Hestia Familia.
Hestia came stomping back in, clearly furious.
By the time the divine meeting had ended, it was already deep into the night.
The Black Dragon's sudden appearance, then its equally sudden defeat, was enough to demand a meeting of the gods by itself.
Ouranos's disappearance was enough for another.
The fact that multiple Familias had simply ceased to exist was yet another reason.
In short, far too much had happened tonight, and Hestia's mood was awful.
"Ahhh... Things were finally going so well with Anos, and then they had to drag me out. Why tonight of all nights?"
Hestia stamped her little feet against the floor, venting every ounce of her frustration.
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