The Virtues' Magecraft

Page 40: Judgment of Right and Wrong

The chatter of the Virtues and the others continued on, even as Anastasia leaned closer to Alexander. "C'mon," she said, grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him up. "Let's talk," Anastasia mumbled.

Alexander swallowed his saliva and followed her. And as soon as they left the room and shut the door behind them, Alexander finally responded and asked. "So... what do you have to say that we have to go to a whole other room just to talk?"

Instead of a verbal response, Anastasia only turned around, smacking the palm of her hand across his face.

"...Well, then," he mumbled, his cheek already red from the rapid impact.

"So...." she said. "You decide to take on a Titan. The equivalent of a Paladin in the Golden Dawn."

"..."

"Do you understand the problem I have with that? Not just me, but everyone else. Including Lumiel, who randomly proclaimed to be your older sister now."

"Yeah, she's just weird," Alexander chuckled.

"Don't change the subject."

Letting out a dejected sigh, Alexander's smile faded away. "Giovanna was there. I couldn't not protect her."

"You could've ran. Escaped. But you decided to fight. And you ended up getting shot by a seed that grows on magic energy. You fought until your body gave in. All because you decided not to run."

Their eyes met. "What's your point here?" Alexander asked her.

"You could've died, Alexander. If we got you here a minute later, you would've died. If Hjálmarr wasn't there, you would've died. If this happened on Midgard, you would've died. Why can't you understand that? Don't you value your own life?"

Alexander clenched his jaw.

"You... You can't risk your life like that anymore. You have to live, Alexander. Remember that."

"Y'know, those are strange words to tell someone right before they go into a battle, right?" Alexander said.

A thin smile grew onto Anastasia's lips. "Well, we're all going. I just had to say those things to you. But knowing you, you'll disregard them, anyway."

Alexander smiled in return. "I won't disregard them, I'll just forget." But that smile of his quickly faded as he once again locked eyes with Anastasia Velda.

"When... When you guys found me and the others... was there any kind of corpse there? Somewhere in the forest?"

Anastasia paused before shaking her head.

'Atlas must've transported it...' Alexander thought to himself. He spat out a sigh and sat down onto the floor, flattening himself against the wall.

"Before I met the Titan of Life... I fought another titan. The Titan of Death. They were sisters," Alexander began.

And from there, he explained. He explained everything. The way Lilith was already 'dead' and the way she asked him to kill her. The way Eve only attacked because of Lilith's death.

Again, he let out an exasperated sigh. And Alexander drooped his head, his eyes fixated on the floor to avoid Anastasia. "Anastasia..." he said. "Have you ever... You've never killed something instead of exorcising, right?"

She sat down beside him, pressing her back against the wall. Still, Anastasia didn't face him. She knew she couldn't. "I haven't," she said.

"But..." Anastasia continued. "As magicians, things happen. I don't think I'd have a problem with this. But, still, there's only so much we can do as humans."