Chương 31: 5.X Interlude: Aria

*Knock Knock!*

"Aria?"

In the middle of her bed, Aria laid as still as a corpse, he blood pooling into her bedsheets as red stained her naked form. If one were to see such a sight, one might assume that she had already gone from the world of the living.

*Knock Knock Knock!*

"Aria?!" the male voice from outside her room shouted as he repeatedly banged on the unyielding door. "Open this fvcking door, you lazy bvtch!"

She refused to move, her body as still as the rest of her untouched belongings inside the room. Why, it was as if Aria was actually dead. That was why she couldn't open the door for whoever suicidal idiot was daring to enter her personal sanctum.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!*

"I'm kicking this door open if you don't come out, Sister!"

If Aria was still among the living, she would've rolled her eyes at such a feeble threat. She would've let them kick her door down, if only for the amusement of it, before then putting them in their place for destroying her stuff.

*KNOCK!*

The wooden door shuddered against the increasing force, creaking as it tried to maintain its structural integrity.

*KNOCK!*

The door shimmered as the force pushing against it increased in magnitude. The rudimentary Seigels etched onto it glimmered to life as they tried to do their job against such an insurmountable amount of effort. But sadly...

*THUD!*

The wooden door finally gave way, its Seigels shattering into motes of blue light as splinters flew into the air. Remnants of the shattered door scattered across the room, displaced by a singular foot kicking them all away. The man then pulled out his foot from the hole that he just created in favor of breaking the rest of the door down, shouting and screaming along the way just like the spoiled brat that he was.

"Alright, what gives?!" her daft younger brother burst through the doorway, shortsword drawn as if challenging her again to a pointless duel. "I know you're lazy, Sister, but-"

If she was still alive, she'd feel the intense glare that her golden-haired brother was giving to her still frame. But fortunately, she was still a corpse, slowly bleeding out onto her white bedsheets.

"Aria?" the idiot questioned, poking her body with his sword like a kid playing with an anthill. "What the fvck are you doing?"

The golden boy used the flat of his blade to hit her bare pale stomach. Normally, she would've reacted to such a slight with no mercy. Nobody touched her without her permission; even family.

"We're being summoned by the Emperor," her brother stated while he continued to poke at her bleeding corpse. "It's for your stupid advancement ceremony, so wake the fvck up."

As expected, the boy received the exact same response that he did even before he broke her door down. How ironic, that the one they'd call the Blitz was this slow on the uptake.

"C'mon!" the idiot shouted as he smacked her body about in an attempt to wake her. "Wake up!"

In a different time, Aria would've humored her little brother, no matter how infuriatingly annoying he was. Why, oh why did Mother have to spoil him rotten? Jay could've at least had a lick of common sense in him if he experienced some form of hardship in his life.

"Wake the fvck up!"

Him being drafted as a Zahler didn't help either. The little shvt actually had talent, a talent that Aria had tried to hide by offering herself up to the Empire as soon as she was able to do so. Unfortunately, little Jay had the bright idea to do the same thing the moment he saw her elder sister rise above the ranks.

*Thwack! Thwack!*

No matter his efforts, her body refused to move. No matter how many times the man-boy smacked her with the flat of his blade, she refused to budge. It would've hurt. It still did, really, but there was still the undeniable fact that she was dead at the moment.

"Aria!!"

She would've ground her teeth in annoyance if she could. This piece of shvt was leaving bruises on her body! Couldn't he just finally take a hint?!

"GET UP!"

*THWACK!*

Getting frustrated, Jay swung the flat of his blade onto her still body. Her bed shuddered against the blow, more blood escaping her wound as her body remained as still as it should be.

A moment of silence passed, her brother's gaze still suspiciously eyeing her motionless form. More blood slowly oozed out of her stab wound, its bright red color painting a morbid picture to anyone smart enough to piece the scene together.

"Suit yourself then," Jay harrumphed as he finally sheathed his shortsword back to its scabbard. "I'll tell the Emperor that you're too lazy to even attend your own Advancement Ceremony." His footsteps were light as he finally made his way out of her room. "You need to make your Nenners clean your room, Sister," he snorted as he took one last glance at the disheveled room. "This is why Mother always favored me instead of you~"

*Creak...*

What remained of her door finally closed as the sole occupant of the room was left in the same state that she was left in: bleeding out and motionless. Being a corpse left one with too little options if she did say so herself. If not for what she overheard while she was briefly stalking her precious Flamme's son while he worked, she wouldn't have pieced together just what she had to do to make this possible.

With but a thought, the crimson ooze flowing out of her slowly came to a halt. Instead, they resuming their normal functions of staying inside her body.

"Urghhh..." the corpse moaned as Aria slowly propped herself off of her bed. "He's actually right. It's 'theoretically' possible."

Aria never expected to get stabbed in the chest that day, but at the very least, it gave her a chance to test out one of her dear Rouge's 'Theories.' Something about her ability to manipulate water sparked some sort of idea in the kid that he all too happily shared with her during one of their more... intimate... sessions.

"How exciting~" the Zahler muttered to herself as she meticulously exerted her control over her own body.

Rouge, the brilliant little handsome thing that he was, had it in his head that since she had the ability to control water, she could also, 'theoretically,' be able to control the limbs of anyone she so desired. Apparently, the human body also had water inside of it. It did make sense, really. She had already used blood as a substitute for water, once. And they all drank water so it should be inside the body.

She never thought about controlling it on such a fine level, however.

With a shaky step, Aria got up from her own deathbed, her whole body mechanically moving with but a flex of her own power.

"This is certainly harder than I expected..."

Rouge had said that blood had to keep moving inside the body for a person to stay alive, so she had been using her power to keep her blood from completely leaving her through the gaping hole in her chest. It was hard; concentrating on her own body's 'circulation,' as he'd called it...

But Aria hadn't been dubbed the 'Blutmond' for nothing.

Slowly, and steadily, the blue-haired Zahler adapted to the constant need for her to keep her power active; her heart no longer serving its purpose as it lay lifeless inside her chest. She had to manually circulate her own blood now, lest she'd truly die and be a corpse.

"Advancement Ceremony, huh..." she muttered as she donned the last piece of armor that she would ever wear in her room.

Aria knew that she'd be branded a traitor if she didn't show up for the Emperor's summons, but it wouldn't be right to take claim to a title that she never deserved in the first place.

The Zahler gripped her rapier in one hand as she opened her window leading to a forest below.

"I'm sorry, Brother," she whispered, more as a ritual than actually meaning it. "But Sister's going to have to leave again~"

The former number Twelve was done playing lapdog for Freud's whims. She had a new goal now, one that she should've done a long time ago.

"I'm coming, Dame Flamme~"

Her first love might hate her for eternity because of her inaction, as well as possibly corrupting her son, but she'll at least make sure that the legacy of the Flamme would continue. Then again, how was she to resist if Rouge was almost a spitting image of her beloved? It also didn't help that he gave her the bright idea of trying to use her waters to control people's thoughts.

Really, she didn't even think it was possible. Why, the concept of somehow using the flow of water to inject her own Wesen into other people's minds was such a ridiculous idea that any other Zahler probably wouldn't have believed it. Truly, replacing his drinking water for the day with alcohol was one of the smartest decisions she had ever made in her life.

"Fufu~ Even if he's tainted by Nenner blood, Dame Maira's blood still shines through~"

She had a lot of explaining to do once she saw them. Dame Maira was still alive, after all. Surely, a mere stab wound wouldn't kill the former number Two of the Primzahl Dreizehn.

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