Layla's smile turned sardonic at Obstruction's words.
Indeed, if they played their cards right, they could make two parties in good terms turn hostile. However, Obstruction was targeting the wrong parties. He had no idea what relationship the Time Keeper and the Void Master had. More specifically, the relationship between Stella, the First Time Keeper and Caelan, Kyran's predecessor.
The two were friends before they got engaged. Their engagement was mainly for political reasons, but they had no qualms about it. As a matter of fact, Caelan was not a candidate to be Stella's betrothed. But since the Tower Family did not want the union of the two families to be too constrained, the Patriarch then let Stella choose her partner.
Stella could have chosen any of the Ashton Family's genius bachelors. However, she chose Caelan— who, at that time, was known as the bastard son of the previous Patriarch with zero talent for magic— much to the chagrin of the latter's elders.
Nevertheless, the Ashton Family Elders could only grit their teeth and keep their opinions to themselves because the Tower Family was not opposed to Stella's decision. The union of the two families might appear to be a mutual benefit, but in truth, the Ashton Family were the ones who would benefit the most from it because of her status as the Time mage.
As for the Tower Family, who others believed had received an unfair bargain from the union, they actually accepted Caelan wholeheartedly. They treated him well— completely contrasting to how the Ashton Family treated him.
Stella chose Caelan to be her betrothed, not because she was secretly in love with him but because she knew he would never take advantage of her status as the Time mage. That was how much she trusted him as one of her close friends. Furthermore, she hated the thought of getting intimate with a man she did not know— not that she ever thought of becoming intimate with Caelan.
Caelan, on the other hand, agreed to the arrangement because he did not want his cousins to take advantage of or hurt Stella for their own selfish reasons.
To Caelan and Stella, marriage for convenience did not really matter. What mattered most was both respected each other. They also had no delusions about 'falling in love.' After all, Stella knew Caelan harboured special feelings for Layla, though he never considered pursuing her.
There were many reasons for this.
Unlike the Tower Family, the Winfrey Family placed great importance on having a 'strong' mage to marry Layla. The main reason was that they wanted to become the 'Leader' of the Four Great Families. But apart from this, it was mainly because Layla was a healer yet also very sickly. They wanted a strong-bodied mage to become her husband to ensure Layla's offspring would not inherit her 'sickly' body.
For this reason, the Winfrey Family proposed a union with the Regis Family.
The Regis Family, oblivious to the insidious plan of the Winfreys, accepted the proposal with no qualms.
Truthfully, Zane agreed to the union mainly because of the same reasons Caelan agreed to become Stella's betrothed. Zane knew how important Layla's healing ability was and did not want others to use her for their own benefit.
The four were friends and believed they had to look after each other.
Romantic love and such were not their priorities. Their era did not allow them to prioritize those things because of the ongoing war with the demons.
In any case, another reason Stella chose Caelan to be her partner was to avoid strange rumors about him and Layla because the two were 'unusually' close. After all, Layla and Zane were already engaged then.
Stella also felt sorry for Caelan since he was mistreated by his father's family just because he was born out of wedlock and possessed no magic energy.
Unfortunately, Stella did not expect her feelings for Caelan would develop into real love.
Fearing Caelan would call off their engagement if he discovered her growing feelings, Stella chose to keep a safe distance from him. However, because of this, she failed to notice the gradual change happening to him.
When it was revealed that Caelan possessed the most powerful Ancient magic— Void, the distance between him and Stella had already grown to the point she could no longer recognize him.
Ultimately, one thing led to another and then Caelan became the Dark Sage. Soon, he also died after trying to save Layla.
Recalling this made Layla's brow furrow slightly. She never understood why Caelan thought he had to save her from her own magic.
In any case, Stella blamed herself for what happened to Caelan. She was convinced her decision to keep a distance from him started everything that led to his death. If she had been with him all those times, she could have given him advice and even helped him carry whatever burden he had.
He would not have to face everything alone.
Guilt and regret. These two emotions of the First Time Keeper were why Layla was convinced the current Time Keeper would never turn against Kyran.
These emotions were imprinted in the current Time Keeper's Time core, and after being passed on to many generations, they have likely grown stronger.
"You don't know anything about a woman's heart," Layla said after a short pause.
Obstruction did not say anything. He only stared at her, which unnerved her a little.
Ignoring his stare, Layla looked at the huge array above and changed the subject, "My people will arrive soon. Once they dealt with the veil, we can make our move to stop the Dark Sage's Ultimate Weapon from fully awakening."
"Once the veil is gone, I will leave the Human plane."
Layla frowned. She looked at Obstruction again and said disdainfully, "What ever happened to 'I will settle your affairs'?"
Frankly, she never really believed Obstruction would settle her matters. She only felt disdainful at the fact that he brazenly declared his retreat.
"We will. So long as you keep the Macabre Glacier in tact. If possible, take full control of it, too," Obstruction replied meaningfully.
Layla did not respond. However, she heard the words he did not say aloud.
She did not expect Obstruction to realize she had not taken full control of the mirror. Nevertheless, this did not seem to deter him. If he was, he would not have said 'we' when he responded to her accusation.
Then the 'we.' Obstruction seemed he could no longer deal with the current situation alone and planned to ask another outside for assistance.
"Bringing another outsider would require a separate invitation," Layla started, managing to keep her wits about after recalling she already gave out three invitations, which was her limit using an ancient incantation.
These three invitations had been given to Deception, Ruin and Savagery.
When Obstruction wanted to come, Layla replaced the invitee from Deception's invitation to him. It was quite easy because they were together and the invitation was with Deception.
If Obstruction wanted to, They would need another invitation if he wanted to bring someone from the outside when he returned to the Human plane.
'It is impossible to create a new invitation. I could send another invitation only after I retrieved the ones I gave to Ruin and Savagery. However...'
Just as Layla was pondering this, Obstruction had already replied.
"There is no need for an invitation. Our faction leader has ways to enter a plane."
Layla raised her brows at this.
"So he is an even more powerful Space mage?"
Obstruction's mood seemed to darken at Layla's remark
"Do you think Space magic is common?"
Layla only shrugged in reply.
Layla harbored no ill intent when she said that, but hearing her speak casually about Space mages was a huge insult to Obstruction.
Sensing Layla's nonchalance, Obstruction no longer pursued the matter and asked, "How long must we wait for your forces?"
"It depends," Stella replied with a smile. "But rest assured, this time around, I will not lose."
Obstruction did not respond and only looked at the huge array above.
Currently, the amount of magic fluctuations in the surroundings has stabilized. Whether this was good or bad, they had little time to consider anything else. In the end, he could only agree and wait.
At another location in the Regis Estate, True Void's body started to dim. This alarmed Kyran, who was keeping an eye on him nearby. Nevertheless, the latter remained silent and did not voice his doubts.
Kyran did not want to disturb True Void's awakening.
While silently observing, Kyran suddenly sensed strange movements with his heightened senses.
Unlike Obstruction and Layla, Kyran and the rest of the Regis Special Forces were unaffected by the veil. And with Kyran close to the estate's Outer Walls' border, he actually sensed movements almost everywhere.
Kyran's eyes narrowed as he turned to the high wall behind him. He looked at True Void, who was still caught in a trance. He knew then that it would be bad to leave True Void unguarded to investigate the movements outside the walls.
In the first place, those movements might not emit killing intent, but they were obviously up to no good.
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