"So can you help me with aura?" He asked.
She nodded in response.
"How strong are you exactly?" He asked her.
"I was an 8th Circle Aura Knight."
Leo was shocked. He didn't think that Nefrati would be that powerful. If she was able to break through her bonds, then wouldn't she be considered the strongest person in the entire Empire?
"You want to leave the temple quickly. If the Blood Moon sets, the temple will go down and you won't be able to leave for another 5 years. We will be able to survive because of our curse, but you will die," she warned him.
Leo shook back to reality. He opened his eyes and saw the limp body of Nefrati on the wall. After snapping to reality, he looked around for the exit. Because it was completely dark around him, he thought about the steps he took and was about to try and trace them.
"Don't retrace your steps. Your senses are confounded when you enter the temple. Just walk as I tell you," he heard Nefrati's voice in his mind directing him.
Even though the voice appeared directly in his mind, he wasn't too shocked. After all, she was still in his mind and it wouldn't be hard to communicate with him directly from there. Since she also wanted him to escape from there, her words were very trustworthy.
The steps he took made the first sound in the temple after so long. They triggered the other two voices.
"So you took over the boy? You scheming wench! It was supposed to be me!" The first voice said.
"Take me with you. You know that I can be very helpful to you. If I can be with you then I can make you more powerful. Finding a body outside will be so simple. All you have to do is-"
As she was talking, Leo interrupted them. "She is not in control. So save your begging. I have no need for someone who is trying to take over my body," he said.
"Don't go to them. They are stronger than me. Both of them are 9th Circle Aura Knights. While I was captured for trying to steal from the Blood God, they were locked up because they massacred his country," she said.
"So I'm lucky I got the lesser evil, then," Leo sarcastically said to himself.
"What are you saying? I am not evil at all," Nefrati defended herself.
"Don't think I would forget that you tried to take over my body to escape. In my eyes, you are just as dangerous as the other two. And even if you have this contract, I will still be careful around you. I definitely don't need more danger in my life, so I won't be trying to take the other two. Even if that means giving up more information," he said.
She seemed impressed. "I didn't think you could reason that well inside the temple," she said.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"The temple makes you lose your logic. After some time, you will start to make riskier decisions. By the end of the day, someone like you should have lost all rationale in this place. But I think the power that you have is helping you." She explained. "Turn right."
As he was talking to her, he was navigating to the exit of the temple. Even though the other two were begging him to turn back, he ignored their pleas.
"Also, I was planning on returning your body back to you. I was just going to get out and create a body for myself," she said.
"Sure," Leo replied. He was concentrating on finding his way out of the temple.
"So, what is Solaria?" She asked him.
"Solaria is an empire. The empire that this temple is located in. Well, I think it is more accurate to call it a prison though," he said.
"An empire. Then you must have tons of masters stronger than me to guide you. They might find me, so quickly release me once you leave the temple," she said.
He chuckled at her response. "You don't have to worry. I don't think there are any 8th Circle Aura Knights at all in the entire empire. As for mages, there are probably very few of them as well," he said.
"Mages. Is that what you call people who use that unfamiliar power you are using?" She asked him.
He nodded. "Yes. What I use is magic. Because I use magic, I am a mage. But I am surprised that you don't know what magic is. Since you are a noble, I actually thought you were a mage," he said.
"Turn left," she said. "Why does being a noble have anything to do with power?"
"Well, in the empire, magic is very hard to find. You normally cannot find ways to learn magic unless you are a mage. That was why most commoners had to become Aura Knights," he said.
She laughed at his statement. "How is your empire still functional? Are you a noble too? If you are, then you are in a very dangerous position. If the citizens of the empire are being controlled, then it is only a matter of time before they will revolt," she said.
"I'm not a noble," he replied to her statement. "And revolting is impossible. The nobles are far more powerful than the commoners. I have never heard of any commoner crossing the 6th Circle as an Aura Knight."
"Think clearly. You seem like you are twenty years old. If you are already a 2nd Circle Aura Knight in these twenty years, then you can easily become a 6th Circle Aura Knight after 30-40 years of training hard. And after that, you just need to spend another ten years to break through.
At this conservative estimate, you are becoming a 7th Circle Aura Knight. So why would there not be another 7th Circle Aura Knight? The only way would be that they are hiding themselves, or they were killed." She put his mind to work.
What if the reason that the commoners were so weak was that the strong and talented ones were being killed? But that would be hard since if even one of them escaped and told the masses, he would know.
The other alternative was that they were all hiding themselves. If they were doing that, wouldn't that mean they could all be forming a group that could potentially be trying to overthrow the empire?
"Turn left. You need to hurry up. I don't know when you came, but you might not have a perfect sense of how fast time is passing inside this place. Save the thinking till after we exit," she said.
"Why am I still walking in the first place? From outside, the building looked like it was only 200 meters long," Leo asked her.
"Don't ask me about this place affecting you. I am in a worse position than you. The only reason I can look ahead is because I am stronger and have a better perception," she said. At this point, she sounded a little weary.
"Fine." As he said that, he lifted himself from the ground.
