No one uttered a single word.
We all basked in silence as my question hovered in the air, waiting for any form of address.
And then…
"We… do not know."
… I got my answer.
"W-what?" My face warped in surprise as I looked at Aquarius.
She was without a true face, just a humanoid form of water, ever-flowing and fluid. She had no expression to offer me, so I was stuck with her stoic demeanor as she uttered the last words I desired to hear at that moment.
"What do you mean… you don't know?"
"We simply do not understand why we are unable to eliminate him. There are many constraints we possess, and that certainly causes some issues in stopping his deeds, but it is still very difficult to intervene completely."
I didn't understand.
No, perhaps I just couldn't let myself understand.
"C-can you… elaborate?" A question slowly proceeded from my lips, almost as if I was tired of listening to the explanation being offered by these powerful ones.
"Each of us represent and govern certain aspects of existence. As such, we have jurisdictional limitations. We suspect that this Legris knows of this, and as such has found ways to evade our combine actions, bordering on terrirories that require the attention of only one or two Constellations."
I listened calmly, doing my best to keep my emotions in check.
Of course, I wasn't conceited enough to think I could think of a better solution than these boundless entities, but I had to understand the solution better.
"Something about his presence brings interference to our connection, thus preventing us from reaching areas he has visited unless we actively attempt to do so. It is to my knowledge that you possess a few comrades who are Hosts to my brethren, yet they were unable to communicate with them. Am I correct?"
"Yeah!" I swiftly answered.
Edward and Kuzon couldn't communicate with their respective Constellations at all. The same had to apply to Maria, since I just learned that her Familiar was a Constellation as well.
"The areas you occupied were regions that had too much interference for our boundless reach. As such, you were unable to reach us."
The more I thought about it, the more I began to piece it together.
'So, Legris affects the way they are able to use their abilities, huh? It has to be that black thing I saw back then! It also interfered with my Magic!'
Since we were chasing after Legris, that meant every world we ventured into had the same interference as the last, thus preventing the Constellation from reaching us—or rather, us from reaching them.
"But what about back then, in the world Neron hid all our friends and family? We couldn't reach you back then, and it's not like Legris interfere…d…" My words trailed as I arrived at a realization.
"It seems you have figured it out." I heard Aquarius say, and I nodded slowly.
"Neron… interfered with your authority in that world, didn't he? How is that even possible?" I asked.
"No. It was more like he made a deal with us, to leave that reality alone. So we complied…"
This was news to me.
Why would Neron make a deal with the Constellations to prevent them from communicating to us? If they had, a lot of the mysteries we had to uncover by ourselves wouldn't have taken us so long.
This also reminded me of how he didn't tell me the truth back when I traveled through time to meet him, instead forcing me to find the truth myself.
'Why? To what end?'
Was it really so we wouldn't take the easy route? Was that really all there was to it?
"Can you tell me the details of your deal?"
"No. It is a confidential arrangement between him and us." Aquarius shot me down almost instantly.
I suppose Constellations took their agreements pretty seriously.
"More importantly, this Legris erects barriers which prevents us from detecting him passively, forcing us to actively scour the infinite layers of the Aether Branches to find him. Once we do, and we actively break through the barrier, he would have already detected this and fled. As a result of this, it has been impossible to track him down or put an end to his actions before they are wreaked."
It all made sense to me now.
At this point I couldn't even fault or blame the Constellations, even if I tried.
'They are programmed to uphold reality, after all. It only makes sense that they do their utmost to achieve that very function.'
"You must know that Legris is targeting your Hosts, right?" As I said this, all the Constellations around me nodded slowly.
"So why don't you just break the connections between you and your Hosts to—"
"That is impossible. Our connections with those whom we have bonded with can never be broken."
The moment I heard this echo in my ears, I realized just how troublesome the whole situation had become.
Not only were the Constellations in a tight spot when it came to directly intervening, but they also couldn't take away the incentive that Legris had for wreaking such havoc and maching ever so closer to his goals.
"As you can see, Jared, we have also been working on our end to put an end to him, but Legris Damien and his allies are increibly difficult to deal with." Virgo's words drew my atten
"Allies? I thought only Ciel was working with him." I murmured. "There's another?"
After I asked my question, a deafening calm echoed in response.
The Constellations glanced at each other, almost as if deciding on whether or not to reveal whatever was hidden from me.
Thankfully, one of them finally spoke.
"Jared, the other partner of Legris is one you know well. His name is Stefan Netherlore… and he has become just as dangerous as Ciel."
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[A/N]
Thank you all for reading!
I hope you enjoyed the chapter. It's filled with even more exposition, but I just thought you'd all like to know these details
Don't worry, we'll get into the nitty gritty soon enough!
