Aaron paced slowly across his room, footsteps quiet against the stone floor. He moved not with urgency, but with an agitated restlessness, like a kettle moments before boiling. His eyes occasionally flicked upward, toward the bizarre sight that still hadn't left since it first appeared.
Vivian.
The strange woman with long silver-white hair sat cross-legged atop her floating staff, as though gravity had no say over her. The staff itself hovered effortlessly in the air, its ornate, crystalline top glimmering with a faint bluish light that pulsed with each breath she took. Her attire was otherworldly, an elegant fusion of flowing robes and skin-tight black stockings traced with golden patterns, as if divinity itself had been stitched into her fashion. Her violet eyes sparkled with amusement, lips curled in a mischievous smile that made Aaron feel like he was the punchline of a joke he hadn't heard yet.
And still, she floated. And still, she remained silent.
Aaron sighed heavily, folding his arms and finally breaking the silence."…How long do you plan on hovering there without saying anything?"
Vivian perked up, grinning as if she had been waiting for that cue."Right now! Because the new chapter has arrived~! Sorry to keep you waiting! Tehe ☆"
She stuck out her tongue playfully and winked, the kind of cheeky gesture that made Aaron's eyelid twitch in annoyance.
"I get the feeling you're going to be extremely irritating," Aaron muttered flatly. "But I'll set that thought aside, for now. So… Lady Vivian, was it? What exactly are you? Your voice… I think it was the same one that whispered to me that day."
"Just Vivian will do~" she said, twirling a strand of her silvery hair around her finger. "Hmm? Oh? Do I really look that graceful that you need to address me with honorifics? Kyaa~, my lord, you're so bold~!"
Aaron exhaled sharply through his nose, eyes narrowing at her with visible exhaustion.She's insufferable, he thought.
Vivian giggled softly behind a hand, her laugh refined and composed, as though she were a noblewoman amused by the antics of a fool. Her very presence seemed to blend elegance and chaos in equal measure.
"As for your question…" she said after a pause, her tone softening slightly, "I'm the one who will guide you on your journey."
Aaron blinked. "What does that even mean? I've made it this far without you."
"Did you now?" she said with a sly smile. "You were half-dead after your fight with that Ender, remember? The one called Honorless."
"Ugh…" Aaron averted his gaze, scratching the back of his head with a grunt. "Okay, fair point."
Vivian chuckled again, her staff gently rotating in the air like a lazy windmill. There was an undeniable grace to her, no matter how irritating she acted.
"My lord," she said, her voice carrying a whisper of seriousness for the first time. "Are you curious about your new power?"
Aaron looked back up at her, the memory of those dark wings and blinding speed flickering in his mind like a dream half-remembered."If I'm being honest… yeah. I want to understand it. If I have to face another Ender, I want to be ready."
Vivian's smile shifted, no longer teasing, but almost… proud.
"Then let me ask you this," she said. "Do you know the legend of Avalon's Guiding Spirits?"
Aaron furrowed his brow, digging into the vault of his childhood education."Right… I think I do. They say everyone has a guiding spirit, but they act in secret. They're forbidden from revealing themselves… because no one is meant to know the path of their destiny."
He looked up again, eyes narrowing."…Are you saying you're my Guiding Spirit?"
Vivian tilted her head, her long hair swaying like silk in the air.
"Something like that, I suppose?"
Aaron let out a long, slow sigh."…That answer is anything but reassuring."
"But I'm not like the other Guiding Spirits," Vivian said, raising one finger like a teacher about to give a lecture. "I'm the kind of spirit that lets you become a vessel, one capable of wielding Ender essence. You see, you were born… different."
Aaron blinked, confused."Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"
Vivian tapped her cheek thoughtfully."Hmm… How should I explain this?"
Suddenly, with a flourish of her hand, a floating chalkboard materialized out of thin air. Aaron instinctively took a step back, unsure whether to be impressed or alarmed. Vivian didn't skip a beat. She drew a sequence of figures, starting with a monkey, then a hunched cave-dweller, and finally a modern-looking human.
"Let's say this is the basic idea of evolution. Life starts simple, like monkeys, and over time, through countless generations, we get ancient humans… and eventually modern ones."
Aaron squinted at the crude drawings."Wait… monkeys? Humans came from monkeys?"
"That's what the old world believed," she replied casually.
"But… no. That doesn't make sense. We were taught that humans descended from the heavens to await the end of the world. That the survivors of the apocalypse were the chosen ones, the ones worthy to live."
His expression twisted into a frown. This explanation clashed with everything he had ever been told.
Vivian glanced at him with a raised brow, her tone dry."Hmph. Sounds like this world's doctrine has been… severely watered down. But I'll keep going."
She erased part of the chalkboard with a dramatic swipe of her hand and continued, this time drawing a bull with three horns.
"Tell me, my lord… how many horns does a bull have?"
Aaron answered, albeit slowly, "Three… but the elders used to say they only had two."
Vivian smiled knowingly."Exactly. That's called evolution, or mutation. Sometimes it's triggered by changes in the environment. Sometimes it just… happens. A chameleon changes color because of a mutation called mimicry. A lizard can detach its tail when threatened. And a butterfly's wings? They can mimic flowers or even eyes, all thanks to selective mutation."
Aaron nodded slowly, piecing things together.
Vivian then drew a figure of a human again, but this time, with a faint aura emanating from it.A glowing presence.
Aaron narrowed his eyes."What does any of this have to do with my power?"
Vivian floated closer, her expression softening into something almost reverent.
"My lord… you are one of those rare, evolved humans. A deviation from the norm. A mutation in your kind's lineage. You… are what I would've called a New Type."
"New Type, you say…"Aaron repeated the term slowly, the words feeling foreign on his tongue.His brows furrowed. He still didn't fully understand.
Vivian let out a dramatic sigh, floating in a slow circle around him like a teacher who'd just explained a lesson twice too many times."To put it simply, my lord," she said, her voice returning to its whimsical calm, "you are not like the others. You are a human... but not entirely of this world's design. You are something more."She drifted closer, her presence soft yet strangely weighty."And I… am the Guiding Spirit assigned to walk beside you, until your path reaches its end."
Aaron exhaled and leaned back against the bedpost, his mind still spinning but finding a fragment of clarity in her words."…Alright," he muttered. "I guess I can accept that explanation. So in short… being a 'New Type' means I can absorb the essence of an Ender. That's what you've been hinting at, right?"
Vivian beamed, clasping her hands as if he had just passed a test."Exactly!"
Aaron opened his mouth to ask another question, his tone turning more serious."Then… what exactly are the End---"
Before he could finish, Vivian was suddenly right in front of him.
Gently, but firmly, she pressed a single finger to his lips. Her expression shifted, losing its usual playfulness.Her voice dropped to a whisper."A Guiding Spirit must not speak of the future, nor the threads of fate that have yet to unravel."
For a moment, the air in the room felt colder. The silence that followed was not empty, but full, heavy with implication.
Aaron stared at her, wide eyed, the unfinished question hanging between them like a blade suspended in time.
Aaron brushed Vivian's finger away from his lips with an annoyed expression."Alright, alright. I get it. Maybe."His tone sounded like someone who had just dived too deep into an ocean of knowledge and surfaced without fully understanding everything they saw down there.
He then lay back on the bed, staring at the cold ceiling of the room, before shifting his gaze to Vivian, who was still floating, her hair and robe fluttering as if an unseen wind blew from another dimension."So… this New Type… is it just me? Or are there others like me out there?"
Vivian simply shook her head slightly, then gave a small snort."My Lord, I am no all-knowing being," she said lightly, almost mockingly. "I know the path of your destiny, yes… but that? I'm not so sure. You might be the only one, or not. Isn't that exciting?"
Aaron let out a soft sigh and nodded."Makes sense," he said, then closed his eyes. His eyelids felt heavy, whether from pain, exhaustion, or the new burden he now had to bear after this conversation.
"I'm going to sleep," he murmured. "I've taken in too much information today…"
Vivian only gave a soft laugh, her voice like wind chimes, light, yet haunting. She began to fade, her body becoming transparent in the dim light of the room."In that case, My Lord…" she said in a mysterious tone, her voice echoing as if it came from two places at once, "I'll leave you with one last piece of advice."
Aaron opened one eye slightly, just enough to check if she was really still there.
"The Exploration Division, was it?" Vivian continued. "Join them. Discover the truth about why the Enders appeared in this world. Because some answers… you won't find behind Avalon's walls. And some, may change the way you see everything."
And with that, Vivian vanished completely, no trace of voice, light, or movement remained. Only silence.
Aaron finally surrendered to the drowsiness that washed over him like an unstoppable tide. His consciousness slowly slipped away, sinking into a warm darkness.And for the first time in a long while… he slept.