Chapter 619: Aurora’s Resolution To Climb
’So cool!’
Seeing Leo’s performance, Kara took a second to fangirl before rushing to the frozen Aurora, pretending to check up on her.
"Aurora! Hey, Aurora! Snap out of it!"
"What..."
Looking at the sisters who had collapsed to the ground, Aurora still failed to register the hit-and-run that she had just witnessed.
’What just happened?’
She had just been calming herself with the fact that it was impossible for him to be there, but somehow, the person who almost caused her heart to go haywire did find his way into the Gate.
’Just how...’
Last time, she was still the kind of naive person who would get tricked by his disguise, but this time, Aurora had been extremely vigilant from the very first second she stepped into the Gate.
’Did he somehow obtain the Ability of unrestricted teleportation?’
The only presence that her enhanced senses had picked belonged to the exact three people who had entered the Gate with her.
Yet, without any warnings, Cassian’s presence only registered once he appeared in front of the Thorn Duo.
’It’s definitely not stealth.’
Even without her recent power-up, Aurora’s senses were as sensitive as they could get.
Not only could she detect movement through faint traces such as vibrations in the ground, but she could also sense the usage of Enigma.
That was precisely why even Stealth Ability Users turned useless in front of her. After all, utilizing their Ability required the usage of Enigma, which would, in turn, give Aurora an even bigger signal about their location.
At this point, the only thing that made sense was that he had to have teleported in after their entry, perhaps through a device or a mark that he left on the Thorn Duo, which would be consistent with the fact that he appeared before them first, but...
’Or... Maybe he was already inside before we got in?’
No matter how Aurora thought about it, the Ability to teleport between Gates and Earth didn’t seem to make any sense.
She was more inclined to believe that he was already inside the Gate, having only used a quick movement Ability to take them by surprise before Aurora could realize he was there.
Even that kind of instant movement could be considered broken in a different way, but Aurora could never underestimate Cassian’s capability, especially after she witnessed what he did last time.
The location of this Gate was quite secretive, but if he tracked the right person and used the same movement Ability that he had shown them to slip right in, then this theoretical break-in would definitely be possible.
’Why is my heart reacting so violently, anyway?’
As her heart cooled down once again while she was analyzing the situation, Aurora couldn’t help but question the identity of her intense emotions.
She thought that it was trauma-induced fear at the start, but that didn’t seem to fit the frozen state she had been in.
Aurora didn’t believe that she was a powerless person. Even if Cassian was overwhelmingly strong, she was sure that she had the ability to run away from him if she really was in fear for her life.
’It’s definitely not about them.’
She was also sure that she hadn’t frozen in place out of devastation for what befell the Thorn sisters, not this time. If anything, Cassian had kind of done her a favor by incapacitating them.
All in all, her state appeared to be more of a flustered kind of reaction, but Aurora couldn’t tell what that meant.
It had only been so long since she had started experiencing any emotion or desire aside from selfless heroism, so her emotional library was extremely lacking.
"Are you alright?"
Standing by Aurora’s side, the person who held the answer to Aurora’s first question wore a worried expression on her face.
As the culprit who carried Leo into the Gate in her shadow, Kara did expect some kind of surprise from Aurora, but she ended up being the one surprised by how intense Aurora’s reaction was and how long it had lasted.
While it was true that her main assignment had come to an end once Leo dispatched the Thorn Trio and relieved them of their Abilities, Kara still had one more side quest to do.
Leo hadn’t exactly stressed the importance of it, but he did mention that it would be a bit helpful if both she and Aurora reached the final room of the Gate as quickly as possible.
As such, Kara hoped that Aurora would lock in as soon as possible.
"I’m fine."
Thankfully, it didn’t take Aurora too long to pick herself up now that Cassian was nowhere to be seen.
In fact, seeing Kara’s worried face actually increased the confidence in Aurora’s eyes.
’I’m not completely alone this time.’
Despite all the talk she had with herself, believing she had truly become cold-hearted, Aurora had come to trust Kara all the way to the point where she couldn’t bring herself to doubt her.
At the same time, unless one understood how an extra Special Ability like Star Pupil actually worked, it was extremely hard for one to pick up on how the Cassian smuggling operation took place.
Even the fact that both Kara and Cassian’s abilities were essentially the same was just as hard to tell.
After all, not only did the visual effects produced by each Ability look completely different, but each one of them also used their Abilities in completely different ways.
"Good. What do you think we should do? Should we go in as well or-"
Despite having a clear goal in mind, Kara still didn’t want to force a choice on Aurora; rather, she attempted to lead her in that direction, but...
"Yes. Let’s follow behind."
Before Kara could even finish the sentence, Aurora showed her eagerness to push forward.
Aside from the fact that she needed to clear this final colored Gate regardless of the circumstances, Aurora simply had too many questions that only Cassian could answer.
Just what was the nature of these Gates that had guiding voices attached to them, how could he identify them before even entering them, and why enter these ones specifically, and most importantly...
’I need to confront him, one way or another.’
Aurora was fully intent on understanding the nature of the emotions she felt.
Since running away would never provide her with answers, she could only choose head-on confrontation to settle all of her problems at once!
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