A Villainess Should Be Strong

Back in the city, Estelle came back to meet Heine and Yulia, who were standing side by side while looking at the still raging storm.

"Estelle," Heine noticed her arrival and called out her name, in which she replied with a nod.

The two were left on the scene with a sudden note, so they were quite perplexed at Estelle's line of actions.

"What did you get at the manor?" Yulia asked in curiosity, not noticing anything different with Estelle.

"Well, a ring," Estelle raised her hand to make them get a good look at the jewelry. "A ring that I can't take off, at that,"

Estelle demonstrated herself trying to pull out the silver circlet, which ultimately failed. Estelle sensed no involvement of magic in the lock, but she was certain that a considerable amount of mana was drawn from her mana bank by this specific object.

"Ehh.. is that so?" Yulia looked particularly interested in the ring, because it dealt with a sealing lock that could apprehend even Estelle. Observing it with gleaming eyes for a few moments, Yulia soon turned around and got back to the subject.

"Soo... This ring," Yulia hummed. The ring seemed to ring a bell inside her head, but she couldn't bring herself to remember what it was.

"It'll help, somehow," Estelle was still in a hurry, so as much as she wanted to converse and discuss the ring more with the two, she had to rush and stop the storm.

"It should be so. When I checked, the ring acted as a controller.. or perhaps it was more of a reactor towards the storm. I don't know the exact relation, but it is certainly connected to the storm," Even now, Estelle still felt the pulling force that directed her towards the two storms.

The force in the larger storm was stronger than the smaller one, which was an understandable thing.

Estelle once again prepared to take off, but this time, Heine was there to restrain her. His palm held the girl's own.

Estelle was caught off guard, but slowly composed herself and faced Heine. "Why?" she asked.

Heine kept his silence for a few seconds before opening his mouth to convey the message.

"As always, don't do rash things," Heine warned, releasing his grip and smiling like nothing happened.

Estelle raised a brow at Heine's strange demeanor, but she didn't question it for long. There seemed to be a deeper matter into this. She wouldn't look into it right now. "I'll keep that in mind. I'll go now to investigate,"

"Stay safe," Heine waved as Estelle propelled herself and flew in the sky with a rapid pace.

Yulia, who was watching from the sidelines approached Heine and stood in front of him.

"...What did you do?" Yulia calmly asked, her eyes alert as she glanced at Heine.

Heine wore an innocent expression, but Yulia knew that he did something within the short period of time in which he grabbed Estelle's palm. He touched the ring in that contact.

"Hmm... Casual research," Heine replied, raising both of his palms and rubbing them together in amusement.

"Let me rephrase my question. What did you find out?" Yulia asked once more.

"..Not much,"

"One more... Will it be dangerous to Estelle?" Yulia raised her brow, a tinge of worry sprouting on her face.

"Yes, and no," Heine chuckled. "All I can say is.. It might be a good time for you to come back to Alfheim soon?"

Yulia stilled for a moment, processing Heine's words.

"You mean.. the ring is that one?" Yulia widened her eyes, getting the hint of what was happening. There was something that both of them knew. A piece of information that they didn't share openly.

"It's still only an assumption, but it should be," Heine gazed at his own palm with a complicated gaze. The power he obtained, a skill that allowed him to study an object just by touching it with his bare hands.

He used it on the girl, and it both worked and didn't work on the ring. It revealed things that brought up some questions.

Hearing Heine's vague answers, Yulia grew irritated.

"..You and your disgusting secrets," Yulia clicked her tongue, turning her head away at the spirit's behavior.

"Hey, everybody needs to have a secret, right?" Heine laughed, watching as Estelle rose up to the sky. For a split second, her ring glistened. Even though the distance between them was far, the ring's shine was enough to let Heine detect the object's existence with his bare eyes.

"You keep everything a secret from the poor girl. She doesn't even know how much you've done for her, I really don't know why you're willing to go this far," Yulia tilted her head.

"Because she's her," Heine grinned, walking away from Yulia's location.

"Damnit," Yulia muttered.

______________________________________

Estelle rubbed the tip of her nose when she reached the pinnacle of the storm. She circled the disaster to once again find out where the most concentrated force was located at.

This time, it was much more easier. The ring practically revealed everything. It brought her to a certain location, where she was granted a shield that allowed her to trespass into the storm's barriers.

The ring guided her. It guided her to a stone, where her hand was able to reach the item and touch it.

Starting there, her efforts began to feel like a joke. Her mana flowed out of her bank and into the ring. Then, just like that, the storm began to dissolve.

Like crumbling sand, the dust rained down, but most of it were carried by the strong wind.

Whatever the phenomenon was, the storm was strangely fixed in a short time. One storm was done, the other was not. Even so, it was still frustrating to see it happen.

The storm, which had plagued her for so long was now dispelled.

In her hand was now a black spherical object. After the storm dispersed, the magnetic force began to feel stronger. Like her heart itself was now responding to the pill.

"This is.." Estelle held the small pill carefully. She had the instinctive desire to place the black gem on her ring.

It called for the two's combination. Estelle was a bit distraught and hesitant on whether she should do the action. She had a fear, a fear for if the connection would cause another backlash to happen.

She had a bad feeling.

Even so, something told her that it had to be done. Otherwise, things wouldn't progress.

Bracing herself, she took a deep breath in before pressing the circular sphere onto the ring's socket.

The two surface's instantly molded together to form a complete ring.

Then, a reaction occurred.

Estelle was overtaken by an overflow of her golden mana, which spread out to the air and revolved around the ring.

It felt very hot, like her entire arm caught on fire. This fire soon spread to the entirety of her body, in which she started moaning in pain as she struggled to bear it.

This was a completely different sensation than what she expected to happen. It wasn't Arayle's magic, but it was just as painful if not more painful.

The mana was continuously absorbed into the ring and the stone that she put on top.

She wished for nothing more than to be able to cut her arm off, because of how much anguish it caused her.

Struggling to combat it, Estelle cried, and cried.

But then, she was once more hit with a stronger shock. With a shriek, her tears of blood fell down, and her body also started to collapse.

Her consciousness was knocked out, and she began falling because her flight spells were now canceled.

Estelle fell with a delayed velocity because she was able to envelop herself with a slowing magic right before she lost consciousness, but it was still quite high.

Heine, who kept his eyes at Estelle noticed her strange behavior that finally led up to her fall.

"Shit," Heine cursed, realizing what was happening.

He immediately cast flight magic and ran towards Estelle's falling body, desperate to catch her.

It was a relatively short distance, but his heart raced like no other time. This was his sister, someone her treasured and couldn't bear to see get hurt.

Heine should've known that in terms of physical endurance, Estelle wouldn't even die from a fall that high. Her HP was formidable.

Even so, he ran, sprinted, and jumped up to catch the girl's body before it touched the ground.

Estelle was unconscious, and in her right hand's ring finger was an ominous ring with a black sphere that now gleamed with a slight blue hue mounted on the socket.

"The World's Eye.." Heine mumbled, lowering Estelle's body with care and tracing the ring on her finger. "It didn't disappear after all,"

"Heine," Yulia soon caught up. "She needs to contract us three soon. If not, she'll die,"

This time, Minerva had also arrived on the scene and was looking at Estelle with a grave face.

"I know," Heine replied, standing up to face the two siblings who had a solemn look. "I know.." he repeated.

"Are you scared?" Minerva sighed. The three had discussed this matter before.

The matter of the Constellations' signment with Estelle as the leader. There were multiple reasons why this action must happen.

Of course, there was also the matter of Estelle's path of finding out who she truly was, but another part was on how she wouldn't be able to live much longer if she didn't obtain the Constellation's power.

"Scared? Not at all," Heine frowned.