Chapter 194: Second Source.
"Arla-"
"Waah~" She cried in his arms.
"Arla, that's enough." Dina sat up and looked down at her as Sol tried calming her down, but she only cried harder.
"That was my first time coming so close to death, I always had more than enough mana to run away but it was completely gone~!" She wailed and clung on to Sol's torso, causing Dina who had already calmed down to sigh.
"Enough." Sol used [Authority] and like a switch had gone off, she went quiet and looked up at him obediently, several nurses and the head doctor were still there watching it all unfold and Mark with his friend were still watching from the door, though now they were standing on the inside of the room.
"Ikaris?" Sol closed his eyes and reached out for her.
"I am okay now, love, they are fine, so I am as well." She replied, seated on the bed with Sara sitting on the floor and holding her heart as she stared up at her. "Thank you Sara, Usami." She looked to the corner of the room where Usami was standing with her back turned and her forehead pressed against the wall.
"You really scared me there for a sec, y'know." Usami huffed and looked around. "I thought you were gonna die for real."
"My life was not in any real danger, but the pain I felt was very real." Ikaris sobered from seeing her dream-like smile and looked at her hands and then at Sara who was still shaking in fear after thinking she was going to die as well. "When Sol accepted Dina and Arla, on the same night the three of us communed for the first time, I secretly bound their souls to mine.
"Not by contract but literally, the bond the four of us share would not be disturbed by it and I would always have an extra measure of ensuring their safety, though my soul is many times stronger than theirs it is still painful having a part of you being torn away and destroyed, I did it so I would never lose them, because just like he does, I also love those two, I love them eternally, and I am terrified of losing them, my fears were actualised today, and it makes me happy I had done this." Ikaris scooted to the edge of the bed and smiled at Sara, holding her cheeks and pulling her to her knees.
"I apologise for worrying you, Sara and I thank you for taking such good care of me."
Now it was her turn for tears as Sara started crying, she wasn't there when Sol disappeared after the war, and she was absent-minded when Sol's chest was imploded by Sitri; this was the first time she had seen the maid cry openly, she silently held on to her hands and wept.
"Everything's fine back home as well." Sol sighed in relief and stood off the ground. "Like I said before, I want answers." He glanced at them alternately and then stared at the six other people in the room. "You all tried, at least." He gave the doctor and nurses a nod and then looked at the other two present. "You are?"
"I-I'm the one who found them, Dina and I are in the same..." Mark dug into his pocket nervously and took out Dina's phone.
"...You left your phone, earlier-" he extended it to her but it was Sol who took it from his shaking hand.
"You touched her?" Sol asked and Mark felt the weight of his stare baring down on him as the taller man spared him a dead glare.
"She was unconscious I didn't want to risk hurting her so, no, I called the hospital but-"
"Thanks." Dina lowered her head as did Arla upon Sol's gesture. "Thank you all." She turned and did the same towards the nurses and doctor.
"We appreciate your help, but we are fine now." Arla added and then together they walked out leaving Sol standing with the doctors as he stared at Mark.
"Who are you exactly, what kind of relationship do you and them have mister?" Mark's friend asked and Sol looked past the nervous man at her and sighed with a relieved smile.
"Master." Dina slid the door open and glanced in at him. "Ikaris is waiting." She called, and Sol smiled again and took two business cards from his shirt pocket handing one to the doctor and another to Mark's friend.
"Don't call me mister, I'm the same age as you, if there's something you need in the future give the number on the bottom left a call and ask for Sara." Sol raised an amused brow and then looked to the doctor who was out of loops because of seeing two women who by all rights were supposed to be dead recover after a man just walked in and told them to get better.
"You all tried your best to help them, I'm sure you're doing your best otherwise as well, so since I'm in the area and it's still in development, I'm going to be talking to your branch finance department about an expansion and some needed upgrades to your facilities." Sol walked past Mark and took Dina's outstretched hand.
"Oh my god." Mark's friend mused and slapped the card Sol had handed to her on his chest.
"What is it, Eve?"
"I was just rude to Sol Vestic." She balled her fist and punched herself lightly.
"Who?"
"Are you completely disconnected from reality?" Eve grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the emergency room forcing him to bow as Sol, Arla, and Dina left. "I've never seen any image of him but to think he'd be so handsome!" She squealed, standing straight and blushing.
"Who is he?" Mark asked again.
"He owns this entire area!" Eve snapped at him "Sol Vestic; he's like the richest man this side of the planet, Dina's boyfriend is the world's youngest multibillionaire, you can kiss whatever hopes you had and shove them back up your ass man you have zero chances she'll ever notice you."
"What are you even saying, I saved her life, she's gonna be all over me the next time we meet." Mark scoffed. "Not even the richest man can win a woman's heart if she grows feelings for someone that saved her life, it's just evolution, I'm invincible." He chuckled.
"You're an idiot, he showed up and calmed them both down when not even the doctors knew what was going on." Eve corrected him as they both left, expecting to find them by the front, but upon reaching outside roughly twenty seconds after they had lost sight of them, the three were gone.
***
"A voice in your head?" Ikaris sat opposite of Dina and Arla in the living area with Sol standing behind her, arms folded and teeth grit in fury while his hair wafted around his head weightlessly.
"Er -yes." Arla answered. "Disaster befalls all who ally, it is inevitable that you meet your doom, the time draws nigh." Arla repeated what she heard when she fell unconscious, and upon saying it the temperature in the room dipped to negative degrees as Sol stopped moving and looked at her while Ikaris looked over her shoulder expecting this like of reaction from him.
"I'll fucking kill him," Sol stared at Arla wide-eyed. "I warned him!" He spun on his heel, but right at next to him Ikaris stood quickly grabbing his hand before he set off.
"It is as you said, love, killing him will offset the balance of every reality and kill us all in his absence."
"...Then I'll beat the shit out of him within inches of his eternal life and trap him in the beginning like Darkness was trapped, he antagonised and nearly killed them, he had every intention to when he stole their mana like that!"
"You were in pain because of him, the baby was in pain because of him, I can't forgive this!" Sol roughly pushed her hand off his own. "This wasn't your fault, it was his, how dare he after I warned him?"
[There is no need to go seeking, I am already here.] Sol heard the familiar voice and snapped violently, ready to lash out at the source of his anguish out but froze with his opened palm inches from Arla's face as her eyes shined white while she stood facing him. [I warned you Sol Vestic, of the consequences of- ghuaa!!]
Sol grabbed Arla's forehead like a priest and bent her backwards pressing his hand on her abdomen and expelling the invasive light out of her like a demon, and then grabbing it by a fragment of its tail and vanishing with it."
"Shit!" Dina grabbed Arla after she was left falling, unconscious from the sudden divine possession. "Ikaris..." She fell to her knees and cradled Arla slapping her cheek. "She's not responding..."
"She will be fine." Ikaris stared at them after feeling no threat to her soul "Fundamentally, light does not harm-"
"He has been harming, though!" Dina growled tapping Arla's cheek again.
"Because of me." She answered and for a brief moment imagined going back to light, a second later though she held her belly and took a seat. "Lay your trust in our Master, he will fix this."
"What if she dies?" Dina asked placing her fingers on the crest in the middle of Arla's chest when it started humming and releasing crimson mana. "What if she doesn't wake up?"
"Master will handle it, Arla will be okay."
"Why is he doing this?" Usami asked cradling Arla with Dina while Ikaris and Sara approached them. "Can't he just use words without threatening someone's life?"
"The time for talking has long passed, Sol warned him multiple times and he..." Ikaris sighed and placed her palm against Arla's abdomen, injecting mana into her.
Inside of an infinite black space a pair of entities shone, one white and barely with any form, while the other source of light was Sol and all the glow of his Godslayer transformation.
[You cannot harm me, I am the father of all- ghaaaa!!] The entity screamed out in pain when Sol tore a piece of it and fed it into the darkness.
"I don't need to kill you to get rid of you, I can always reduce you to a formless mass of unintelligible light, as long as you're not dead all life will remain!" Sol grabbed an arm and tore it off, sending it hurling through the dark which quickly swallowed it up as well.
"You've crossed the line, I gave you the benefit of a doubt because you're supposed to be all good, and Ikaris cherishes the very atoms you breathe upon, but all you have shown me is why I should get rid of you!" Sol roared and forced him onto his back and stepped in his chest, tearing his leg away and feeding it to the darkness above them.
"I won't tolerate any more attacks from you against my family, I don't care who or what you are!" He grabbed the entity's head, but stopped dead in his tracks when he sensed another source, and sure enough looking behind himself there indeed was, the light was a shade bluer than the one he knew before him but the powers that it had were a fine likeness, it in fact was another source of eternal light, and this one had a feminine figure, his fury turned into him questioning his sanity as the entity closed the gap between them walking along the darkness and leaving small ripples of light as she did.
"Wait, child, do not harm him any further."
"What, how?"
"He was only acting on your behalf."
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