Under The Veil of Night

"It’s futile," Aria smiled. "You can’t do anything to me."

"That’s not up to you!" Kanae replied as she dashed towards Aria once more. Her sword was swung towards the man’s shoulder as hard as it was possible for her.

Before Aria could evade, Kevin locked his position by attacking the other side. Using his other hand, Aria blocked the attack from Kevin as Kanae cut through his shoulder. His right arm dropped to the ground.

"Oh," Aria looked at his lost arm; it had started to slowly re-grow.

"You can even do that?" Kanae was speechless. What should she do to defeat him if he continuously regenerated himself? Every part of his body was open for attack, yet their attack never got in.

"Well, let’s just cut his neck," Kevin suggested.

"Ok."

The two of them dashed forward once again. As Kanae was faster, she reached Aria first and attacked by jumping up and slashed her sword downward. Using his hand to block, Aria was unguarded, so Kevin used this chance to cut his right foot. In an instant, the man fell to the ground as he lost one of his feet.

However, Aria swung his sword, pushing both Kanae and Kevin to the back. His brows furrowed as he initiated his power faster, growing back his feet in mere seconds. On the other hand, his hand was still in the process of growing again.

"It seems that your power is actually limited," Kanae grinned. Her keen eyes spotted the beads of sweat on the man’s face. It wouldn’t take too long before he was defeated.

Aria didn’t reply. He felt his communication device vibrate, so he picked it up. Hearing the voice of Ferdinand, his body unconsciously tensed up.

"Sir!"

"Aria, regroup back in the tower," Ferdinand ordered in a demanding tone. "I’ll destroy all of the buildings after you get back here."

"Yes, Sir. I’ll go there after I destroy all the pests here," Aria replied. His eyes narrowed when he saw the two of them reach his place once more. Nimbly, he moved back from his place and evaded their attack.

Ferdinand frowned slightly when he heard the sound of metal clashing. These rats shouldn’t have been able to escape as he had ordered them to use the puppets. Never mind, he believed that Aria could handle them.

"Be quick, Aria."

"Yes, Sir."

Taking the phone back, Aria focused his attention to the two people in front of him. Compared to the nonchalant him from before, he became extremely focused as he wanted to finish the fight sooner. His master is waiting for him.

Slash!

Kanae sensed danger and attacked the man even quicker than before. Forcing her feet to move around the man, she cut off his feet once more as Kevin took his attention.

"Move." Aria’s face was rather ugly. He was rather impatient because he didn’t want to make his master wait any longer.

Seeing that he could grow back his feet even faster, Kanae frowned. They knew that Ferdinand was in the tower as they could hear the conversation of these two. However, they wouldn’t be able to get there before defeating this man.

Bang!

From behind them, Jason had finished the fight. Kanae flicked a glance at Jason as an idea was formed in her mind.

"Oro, catch his attention!"

"Aye, Captain." without thinking, Jason moved towards Aria. His large sword was swung at high speed towards the man, forcing him to pay more attention to them.

Kanae took Kevin’s arm and ran towards the stairs. "We’ll go first. Leave this place as soon as you end the fight, Oro."

"Yes, Captain."

Jason subconsciously responded to every order that Kanae gave him. Although he knew that they were no longer captain and subordinates, he couldn’t help but do what she said. Especially when he heard his codename, his body would just move without thinking.

He could see that Aria was specialized in regeneration. However, the beads of sweat on Aria’s face showed that this man didn’t have much stamina left in his body.

Clang! Slash! Peng! Bang!

Jason continuously attacked Aria with large power. Using his sword weight to his advantage, he managed to push Aria back again and again. In the end, the man couldn’t move anymore.

"You won’t be able to move anymore," Jason remarked calmly.

Aria knew that he would die for sure. He had overtaxed his power by fighting against these three just now. If he tried to heal himself again, he would die for sure.

"You’re not bad, Oro."

Jason looked at Aria with wonder. He had researched the man’s background a bit, so he knew that this man was the right hand of Ferdinand and also, the one who knew Ferdinand the most. Their personality didn’t match at all as Aria was not an ambitious person. However, this man continued to stay by Ferdinand’s side and did every single one of his demand.

"You know what he did is wrong, why do you keep on staying by his side?"

Aria raised his head. His body no longer did any regeneration, so his blood flowed out like crazy. He looked straight at Jason, eyes devoid of any emotion. "He saved my life. My life belongs to him. Whatever he says, I’ll follow."

Jason shook his head. "He’s just using your past and loyalty for himself."

"Even if he did, I will not care. Without him, I’ll never be here," Aria answered solemnly. "Aren’t you the same?"

’For her, I’ll do anything. Even if it means sacrificing my own life, I’ll do it because she’s the reason why I’m here.’

His own words and thought that he once uttered out rang inside his head once more. Jason smiled slightly. He knew very well how much he cared for that woman, even far more than his own self. Either in the past, present, or in the future, she would be someone important to him. However, she never asked anything from him because she did it out of her own freewill.

"They’re different. She’ll not force me to follow after her."

"Neither does Master Ferdinand. I follow him because I choose to, and I wanted to see the perfect soldiers he creates."

"Even if it means sacrificing a lot of innocent people?"

Aria looked back. His face was extremely solemn as he replied. "Sacrifice is necessary to reach one’s goal."

The two men looked towards each other. Only they knew how much that person’s worth in their heart was. No matter what the other said, they would not bulge because they trusted and cared for that person very much.

"Nothing is entirely correct or wrong in this matter, isn’t it? There are things that you can see from both sides."

Aria nodded his head. His judgment of someone would be based on what he had experienced would be far bigger than from what he heard.

Jason sheathed back his sword. For him, Ferdinand would be no more than a ruthless man, who nearly killed him during his youth. On the other hand, for Aria, he would always be his master and leader. Someone whom he followed and respected at all cost.

Even if he disagreed, he would never voice it out. It was all because he didn’t want to be abandoned by his master.

He would never fully understand such a relationship. However, he knew that it existed and some people might experience it or heard about it. It was truly a dependent relationship, one that was very fragile and might crumble at the slightest bit of external force.

Slash!

Aria looked back at Jason. "I don’t need your pity."

"I do not pity you," Jason replied. "Farewell, Aria. I hope you can have a better master in the other world."

Aria didn’t reply. He has always been afraid of being abandoned, so he stayed his opinion for himself. Staying alongside Ferdinand has always been his dream, so he would not make that person hated him. The only thing he could do was make sure that he was useful for him.

Even though so, Ferdinand never treated him any differently. He wanted to be the man’s most trusted aide, but it was a far-fetched dream. If only he knew what that man wanted to achieve, he would have worked even harder.

Jason watched as Aria dropped his head as he had lost too much blood. He sighed to himself.

’I need to get away from here soon. If I’m not wrong, there should be an emergency exit in this lab.’