Aquarius calmly stared at the young man before her, and she only had one thought.
'He's weak.'
As a Constellation who was boundless, having access to the infinite branches of her realm, she knew what true power meant.
Of course, she knew that by mere mortal standards, Jared was already among the 0.0000000000001 percent in existence—no, perhaps even in a smaller range than that.
However, there were still several entities that towered over him.
One of those entities happened to be her.
"I'm ready!" Aquarius heard him say definitively, and all she could do in response was sigh.
If she had a face, what she would be showing now was disinterest at the sheer pointlessness of this exchange.
Still, as a Constellation, she was bound to honor the deal.
"Very we—"
~WHOOOOOOOSSSHHHHH!!!~
Before Aquarius could conclude her statement, she suddenly felt a strong coalition of energy gathering in a single location.
'Hm?' Focusing her senses so she could detect even the most minute building block of energy and existence, she realized the truth.
Everything was flowing in one direction!
'Him, huh? So he is absorbing as much Aether as possible. But he can't handle that much power, can he?'
The Aether in this plane was far purer and more concentrated than anything that existed in the mortal worlds.
A certain amount was bound to utterly destroy a person.
'He seems perfectly fine, though. Ahh… he's not particularly absorbing it, is he?' She thought, realizing that the young man was simply drawing all the energy to himself without taking it into his body.
'A wise choice. So he's drawing more energy to his end. Why?'
Aquarius already knew of the abilities that Jared Leonard had in his arsenal. She knew he could use all 22 Arcanas, though none of them would do him any good in this realm, and against her.
This tier of existence surpassed anything the Arcanas had any business manipulating. As such, he had no ability to control things on a conceptual level.
'He also has a wide array of Spells, a variety of Familiars, a few Transformations, Martial Arts, and a couple of other tricks.'
Then again, that would do him no good against her.
'No Spell of his can affect me. Plus, his Transformations and Martial Arts are useless against me.'
She had seen him try to combine all of his unimpressive traits to challenge the other Constellations, and while he held his ground for some time, he ultimately failed in his pathetic venture.
'But I'm different…' Aquarius thought to herself, feeling the Aether within her swell.
None of those petty tricks would work on her.
"I'll finish this pointless charade in one blow." She declared.
Her statement wasn't out of arrogance or some elevated conceit. No, to Aquarius, she was just stating the facts.
Her power was the simplest, but also the most effective when it came to any situation.
'[Representation: Freedom]'
In an instant, all of time seemed to stop, and Aquarius was the only one who was functionally existent.
Jared Leonard stood still before her, a complete mannequin that could do nothing.
"It's over." She whispered.
The Unwritten Laws prevented her from directly harming him, but according to the details of the deal, if she was able to reach him in a way that would definitively mean her victory, then it would be counted as such.
'In the end… it was this wasy.'
Jared had indeed fared better against her younger ones, but she wasn't as considerate as them. There were more important things to consider than this human.
'He was too greedy.' In a flash, Aquarius appeared right in front of the frozen body of her target, and then raised her hand to touch him.
A single touch would be enough to prove her victory, wouldn't it?
'Then… hm?' Aquarius' hands slowed down, and downright eventually stopped almost as soon as she reached out to Jared.
For some reason, her liquid hands trembled slightly, and ripples appeared on her fingertips as she tried to touch him. It almost felt like… there was some sort of wall that separated the both of them.
A wall of infinite distance.
'What is this resistance?!' Aquarius wondered to herself.
She had never felt anything like this in all of her existence. No… it shouldn't have been possible, to begin with!
Aquarious represented the concept of Freedom.
As such, she had never been shackled by a barrier in all of her existence. The problem with Legris Damien was the every first time anything of the sort had happened, which was why it puzzled her so much.
But even that felt different from this!
'I am one with the energy around, and am unshackled by any form of boundaries.'
Her power negated any and all kinds of barriers, allowing her to be able to achieve desired results through being connected with everything.
Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence—even among the boundless Constellations, she was truly limitless.
That was why she was able to pass through a conceptual layer of space-time that not even Jared could detect, making it seem like he was completely still.
In reality, he probably wouldn't know what hit him until it was too late.
Yet… why was she being stopped?
Why couldn't she reach him? She didn't understand it.
'Does it have something to do with all of that Aether he was gathering earlier? If so, then what Spell did he use?'
Aether was annoyed to no end, but no matter how much she tried to reach him, it seemed like he was only getting further away.
"It seems I will have to try a different approach."
The instant she said that, reality resumed as usual, and Jared began to move. However, even before he could take a single step to react to Aquarius, she lunged at him with her hand, now able to easily bypass all the supposed limitations that would have held her back.
There was no escape this time… nothing to hold her back.
'You're mine now!'
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[A/N]
Thank you all for reading!
Is this the end for Jared? I wonder…
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