Preparing For Round Two

"Where were you?" Ken asked while doing some stretches inside a room. He hadn't seen Aria for an hour now and was confused.

Aria had a slight blush momentarily remembering the quiet embrace she had just shared. She began to reminisce right in front of Ken.

In the sky, Celine finally spoke after an hour of silence.

"Also, could you imagine if I loved somebody else?"

Her words confused Aria.

"Somebody like Ray is too similar to me so if I loved him he would bring out my trauma and we would probably cry in a corner together," she lightly snickered at that thought. "Neither I, nor him would want that future of drowning in our sorrows. We're both too 'doom and gloom', you know?"

For some reason, that made sense to Aria. The life of slavery left a deep mark on Celine that she tried to hide but Aria could see her silent resentment towards humanity. Living with Ray who didn't have a happy attitude towards most things would bring that trauma back and not in a good way.

"Ken is a good guy and his personality matches mine but his goal differs. I no longer want to become the strongest but he does. It's the opposite problem I would have with Ray, whose goals I agree with but personality is insufferable."

Celine could be seen evaluating all of her peers she had made. Every last one of them.

"Maybe Melina, but she's too devout of a believer in God. She would end up praising me and writing a bible about my epic life instead of loving me."

"In the end, you're just perfect!" Celine tightened the embrace, squeezing Aria so tight she thought she would die.

"You have an outstanding personality able to put up with somebody mentally unstable like me and you have a lovable goal I will gladly help you with."

Aria began to think logically and it seemed Celine was right. Everybody she knew was too radical like Ken, depressed like Ray, or literally crazy like Melina and her devotion to God.

Aria soon interrupted her thoughts. "Wait! I can't settle yet! What happened to pushing Celine away slowly?"

She became more flustered quickly and began to move restlessly in the sky. She had a war to prepare for! She couldn't be settling down and thinking of love!

Lightning magic crackled in the sky as Aria used it to escape Celine's telekinetic power and Aria crashed onto the floor like a meteor.

Celine let her go with a mischievous grin. "Ken was right. That worked as good as a charm spell."

…

"Hello?" Ken was very puzzled as to why Aria froze when he asked her a question.

"Ahem, I was doing business but now let's talk about war," she coughed out. The first battle had concluded when humanity retreated and now they were making preparations for the second battle.

"Don't talk to war with me," he shrugged. "Go find one of the three master mages and talk to them. They probably care more about their people than I would."

Inwardly, Ken was annoyed contrary to his outward nonchalant appearance. He wanted to fight in the most dangerous front lines but he was told it didn't fit the "thinning the herd" strategy and was forced to hold back his full power.

"It concerns if you can have a 'true battle' you idiot, and it's two master mages now, not three." Those words had Ken interested and he immediately snapped his attention back.

"I get to fight in the front lines?!" He hadn't cared at all for the master mage who had died or the 'kid' who surpassed imagination to kill her.

"Sadly no, you get to fight in the back lines. Their back lines."

Ken immediately looked happy but his knowledgeable side kicked in. "Are you trying to kill me? One direct hit from a tank shell and I'm injured, a few more and I could die. Not to mention how bad it would be if a missile hit me."

"No, I plan to end the war today," she declared easily.

"Neply, the kid who killed a master mage, he showed me how poor the morale of the human forces we are facing has. They barely like each other and they are supposed to fight together? We must capitalize on their low morale after losing and our high morale to end the battle swiftly."

"I propose an all-out attack that I will personally lead to reduce Valerian losses. I will draw all the fire and attention while you get to make a mess and test yourself."

"That sounds fine," he was still thinking on how good he found this plan. "But I've been meaning to ask Celine for help to increase my strength so let me do that first. It's hard to find her now that she is always in the sky though."

Aria became slightly irritated at that name she had just managed to weasel herself away from but that was because she knew how to grab the annoying god's attention.

"Sigh," she let out a low curse and clicked her teeth before helping Ken.

She looked towards the sky while using her hands to form a cone and make her voice louder. "I need you Celine!" She yelled.

In a flash, the moon became engulfed in a vibrant violet light and Celine stood before them while eating ice-cream.

"So soon!" She exclaimed.

"And I was so sure I could finish this before you called!" Celine reluctantly ate the rest of her ice-cream in one bite.

Aria crossed her arms and huffed. She didn't like the fact that Celine made it sound like Aria was dependent on her. Aria wanted to speak about how she only called for Ken and not for herself but was interrupted.

"Don't get angry with me now because it just tells me that my methods are working." Celine walked by while heading straight to Ken and the cold wind left a message for Aria.

"I've figured it out now, you're a tsundere and you don't even know how you feel about me yet. I've never actually seen a tsundere in real life and that's why I was scared when you got mad but I know how to win your heart now, don't worry. My knowledge of anime finally comes to use."

Coming from Valeria, Aria had no idea what a tsundere was but it clearly wasn't good with how Celine delivered it.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Celine asked Ken.