Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

18 - The Beginning (5)

Aria said it as a joke, but a Hourglass actually appeared in front of her.

It was golden-coloured and contained light purplish sand. Flying around it was a black butterfly akin to the one on her neck.

No, it looked too similar.

She used a random knife as a mirror and her assumptions were correct.

The butterfly tattoo was gone.

She looked at the butterfly in amazement.

When she paid more attention, she found out that time had stopped. Aria, the butterfly, and the hourglass were the only ones capable of movement.

"You... Can you turn back time by.. say, 2 minutes?" Aria shrugged.

She reached towards the butterfly and lightly touched it.

The creature landed on the tip of her finger.

The butterfly danced as if it understood her words. It circled around the Hourglass and left trails of the same purplish sand everywhere it flew.

The sand from the Hourglass was being sucked in by the butterfly.

When the sand was completely depleted, the time had already reversed.

The flow of time continued.

She was back before the Giant's meteor shower hit. However, her health was still below 1000, when it was supposed to be around 3000.

Still shocked, she withdrew the knife from the inventory once more and checked.

Indeed, the butterfly was still present. Rubbing over it, she dazed out for a second but then remembered that the fight was still going on.

[Weapon <Knight's Blade>'s attribute <Undying Will> has been activated. User's stats have been raised by 42%.]

..Thank God.

Her attack power should be enough by now.

Aria got up and dusted her tattered clothes. It seemed like hunting monsters required hundreds of spare clothes. There were several rips here and there, and the said outfit would no longer be presentable to wear.

Following her actions, Dion and Jin wanted to attack as well, but was stopped by Aria.

"Stop. Just me is enough. Rael, you too. Fall back,"

Dion was dissatisfied as he probably looked forward to fighting the monster until the very end. Though, he knew his limits and retreated.

Yoo Jin was more rational. He gazed at Aria and nodded, as if giving encouragement.

Rael was not amused. He wanted to argue, but did not dare defy his master's orders.

Now, the only one left was Aria.

Wielding the sword, she huffed a deep sigh and closed her eyes.

"Alena, use <Puppeteer> on me,"

"H-huh..?" Alena jumped. She did not expect to be called so suddenly.

"Hurry,"

"Y-you trust me that much..? No, I'm... Ahhh, whatever!" Alena started the controlling process on Aria as well.

Alena noticed an anomaly. Everything went smoothly, but it was weird.

Aria smirked when her assumptions were right once again.