CHAPTER 360: I'll Call You Daly

Saphira was once again eating a meat that she has no desire of knowing to which beast it came from.

Though she was wondering why that entity remained silent after their last talk.

She would feel its presence from time to time but it never spoke again.

Though she was not bothered at first but as time went by she was starting to feel bored with her routine, she was actually looking for that presence chattering.

"You are there I can tell."

For the first time, Saphira actually initiated a conversation with this presence.

"…"

"I'm getting bored, entertain me a bit," she asked.

"..."

"Come on, you can try to dissuade me more."

"…"

Saphira clicked her tongue and thought back to their last conversation. She tried thinking of the reason why this presence suddenly went silent.

A frown appeared on her face when she thought of something.

"That's impossible, right?" she spoke at her own thought.

"…"

"You couldn't possibly go silent just because we talked about camaraderie, right?" Saphira continued.

"…"

But her gut feeling is telling her that she was actually right.

She exaggeratedly gasped, "No way."

"…"

"I see…"

Saphira leaned back on the wall as she came to a realization with this reaction of the presence.

Then she started laughing in a mocking way.

"You kept telling me that I should just give up. But now with this, I can tell, it is what you did," she said as she played with the made up knife in her hand.

Instantly she felt a strong emotional disturbance on one side.

With swift movements, she threw this knife towards that side and felt it hitting something other than the wall that should have been there.

She also heard someone grunting.

"How…"

A voice filled with disbelief came from that point where she threw the knife.

Saphira laughed, "Did you really think I was just playing around all this time? Eating and drinking when tired and fighting when needed to?"

"Wha-!!!"

The presence that had been hiding all this time was utterly shocked when Saphira pulled and it was pulled along by an invisible force attached to the knife that hit it.

It was still shocked at the fact that it was hit and that it didn't get the chance to actually pull the knife from it before it was pulled out of the darkness by Saphira.

Saphira walked over when she finally got the chance to see the shape of the presence that had been speaking to her for a good while now.

"You-"

Saphira's face dropped when she finally got the chance to see this person.

Yes, the presence wasn't some kind of a beast that could talk but instead it was a person.

A person surrounded by darkness but it was obvious that 'she' was once a living person.

But what shocked Saphira to her core was the face of this person in front of her.

"Lily?!?"

The person who was glaring at her furrowed her brows when she heard the name that she was called.

"No, you are not Lily," Saphira retracted her comment.

"What are you going on about? Suddenly hitting me and dragging me like this?"

"Well, since you look exactly like her, I will call you dark Lily instead."

"…"

'Dark Lily' was agape and speechless with her nonsensical words.

Saphira rubbed her chin, "But that is too long."

"That's why I am asking you what are you doing?"

"Then how should I call you, now that we have met?" Saphira tilted her head to the side not listening to 'dark Lily' in front of her.

"Dark Lily."

"Dark…"

"Lily…"

"Ooh…"

She hit her other hand with her fist, "Daly… I'll call you Daly."

Once again the person now named 'Daly' by Saphira was agape.

'Was there something wrong with this person's head?'

That is what is going on in her mind.

"Who the hell are you?" she blurted out before she could stop herself.

All this time, she had been portraying herself as someone who has complete control of herself. All she needed to do was to taunt this person. But with just a few words, she was so shocked she ended up reacting to Saphira.

"That's a good reaction," Saphira said, making Daly's brows twitch.

"Now that we are done with the name. Tell me, who are you?" Saphira asked.

The resemblance was truly there but she couldn't pinpoint why this person is in the dark world while someone who looks like her was the guardian of the light ability.

"..."

Daly was ready to return to darkness but found that she was unable to do so.

It is then she realized that a thin layer of light was surrounding her body. Her head snapped towards Saphira.

Saphira had a smug smile, "I already told you, did you really think I was simply surviving?"

"How are you able to do this?" Daly asked.

She had not realized it before but she can feel it now that she is concentrating on Saphira. The mana inside her was completely different from before.

When she just started fighting, her mana had depleted a lot and she had expected for her to actually be completely out of it in another month. But thinking about it now, it has been more than half a year since she came here, yet her power has not diminished and instead it actually maintained itself.

What was even more shocking was her physical mana, it had doubled since her arrival.

"I must say, the taste of those beasts are really not to my liking. If not for the fact that I was hungry before I wouldn't have tried it. And if not for realizing that I can convert those dark energies into light as I consume them, I wouldn't have enjoyed it the way I do."

Saphira laughed, "I was close to giving up, you see. But then again, I remembered that, that was not who I am. I am Saphira who lived after all those crashing downs. And I have them... the people who are surely doing their everything just to get me back."

Saphira noticed the changes in her emotions through her eyes at her last words.

She furrowed her brows and remembered the way this person had been discouraging her in trying to survive and her words of no one coming for her.

Things about the past experiences of some sudden memory coming to her, Hunter, Qirin and Vermilion Bird.

Then another laugh escaped her lips, "You have given up."

Daly's eyes went wide and looked at her.

Saphira didn't mean for it to sound as if she was accusing her but the way she reacted, Saphira knew what she was thinking was the reality.

"No..."

Daly started shaking her head.

"I... I didn't want to give up... I..."

Saphira saw the dark energy surrounding Daly turning erratic as she started being emotionally disturbed.

Without much thought, she reached out to grab the hand that Daly used to cover her face.

"I know."

The way she blurted out those words, made Daly feel as if she truly knew.

"NO!!! You don't!!!" she denied.

"I know!!!" Saphira didn't back down.

"How will you know?!?! We lived in different times!!!"

"Because I have seen them. Not with your face but with your emotions!!!"

Everything made sense now.

The reason why Vermilion Bird has no memory of the first host.

The reason why she and Vermilion Bird would see snippets of a different person's past.

And the reason why even all the taunting, the discouraging, why despite everything, Saphira couldn't find it in her to treat the presence hiding from view in a bad way. Or to think of her as her enemy.

Saphira had experienced so much, words alone will make her realize the story behind them.

After seeing so many things, the plot about the first host of Vermilion Bird was no longer a difficult one to decipher for her.

Daly looked straight in her eyes and she shuddered at what she saw.

There was no doubt in them, not even a single bit.

"I know, Daly. I was not there with you but I was able to feel all your emotions. Because I did have them as well."

Daly shook her head in disbelief.

"And I can confidently say I know as someone who also held the light ability."