"[That's Enough]."

Turning to the young man who had just appeared within her haven, something that should have been impossible for anyone to do, Aquarius found herself face to face with Jared.

'This human..'

His body was unmoving, and the space around him was still in flux, not fully stabilized due to his abrupt appearance, and her halting the flow of reality.

'... He invaded my impenetrable haven?'

Aquarius could detect trace elements of his energy around her, and it all began to make a lot more sense to her at this point.

'He used Spellcraft, huh?'

Jared must have disguised his Aether as the surrounding Aether prior to the time she set up her Haven, thus giving her the illusion that she had blocked everything about him out.

'But, even if they were his Aether, the energy was dormant. To activate, they would have required a catalyst..'

Once Aquarius recognized this, she realized what had just happened.

'This bastard..!'

The [Resonatia] Spell he peformed must have had two layers to them.

One of thos effects was to perturb her thoughts, sure, but what if he used the opportunity to also activate all his dormant Aether, using Spellcraft to control them to do his bidding.

'Once he used Spellcraft on them, he was able to interfere with Space here and appear within my haven, almost as if he had been invited.'

Still, that didn't account for how he would be able to bypass her barrier.

'It's still impossible! Unless..' Aquarius narrowed her focus on the spatial energy still yet to stabilize around Jared, and she noticed the issue right away.

'I see. So he first of all transferred himself to his pocket dimension, and then used the gatweway provided by his Spellcraft to access my haven directly.'

That saved him the relative effort of directly breaking through her barrier from the same dimensional plane.

'He's brilliant. He really thought this through..' Aquarius thought to herself.

When they first met, she thought of him as weak. While she was yet to dispose of that perception she had of him, Aquarius now recognized that he was more.

'He is weak.. but he has a powerful mind.'

Now that she knew his trick, Aquarius also realized that he must have transferred his consciousness to his private dimension, allowing his Great Sage's Memoir to take control of his body and perform preset actions.

That way, she wouldn't have been able to interfere with his mind, and he would merely be a puppet on a string—albeit temorarily.

However, when he traveled to his pocket dimension as a measure to invade her haven, he must have recollected his mind and come for her in full force.

Everything added up nicely.

'A brilliant young man indeed. I will admit it, Jared Leonard..' If she had lips, Aquarius would have smiled at the young man in front of her.

'... I have never met any man like you.'

Unfortunately for Jared, however, his plan had one major flaw.

His opponent was Aquarius.

'Perhaps this strategy would have worked on some of my siblings, but.. not me.'

Not only was she smarter than them, but the nature of her Representation was simply too powerful for her to be affected by Jared's plan—despite how grand it was.

'This time, it's over.'

Aquarius stretched out her hand, going beyond the barriers of the present, and into the future.

The magnificent sight appeared as if her water-like form was breaking the surface tension of thicker waters, sinking deep into the recesses of turbulent waters.

The future was uncertain, thus chaotic.

However, for Aquarius, she was able to easily navigate the future and reached out to her target.

'I am certain you used a simila defense mechanism as last time to ensure I can't touch you in the present, even if reality is on hold. However..'

All she had to do was simply do so in the future, at a time where hie Great Sage's Memoir would not have registered what she had done in the present.

The result..?

~TAP~

.. She easily touched him.I think you should take a look at

Reality soon returned to normal, and as Jared tried to reach for Aquarius, he was met with yet another impenetrable wall that stopped him dead in his tracks.

"O-ow!" He was forced to bounce back, thanks to the glass-like field that prevented him from even reaching her.

However, before he could do anything else.. he felt it.historical

A touch on his lips.

It felt cool, but also warm. Jared couldn't describe it. It felt like an all-encompassing ocean had graced his moist lips with a touch.

That was when Jared realized the truth.

"I lost, huh?" He smiled, raising his head to look at Aquarius, who simply watched him with a smile on her faceless face.

Within her water-like body, the infinite stars within glittered, and her liquid arms were behind her, almost as if taking a courteus pose.

"Indeed. It was inevitable that you would lose." The Constellation responded. "You're only mortal, after all."

Despite Aquarius saying this, she felt a stirring within her that was impossible to ignore. Never before had any mere mortal come close to impressing her this much.

It was unbelievable that Jared had done all of this himself.

"You are right.." His voice stirred Aquarius from her trance-like thoughts, causing her to return her gaze on him.

"... Rather unfortunately, I am only mortal."

Even though he was smiling, Aquarius recognized some form of sadness evident in his gem-like eyes.

It called her closer to them, but she resisted it instantly.

"Y-you do not need to feel bad, you know? You were actually impressive.." Aquarius found herself stuttering slightly, and she chastised herself for it.

She also felt incredibly embarassed that she once thought of him as some weak and insignificant human. Her poor judgement came as embarassing flashbacks that made her cringe despite being made of primeval waters.

"Thank you, Aquarius. For you to compliment me, it must mean I really did something right."

"Whatever. It was impressive, sure, but not particularly revolutionary." Aquarius swiftly snapped back.

She couldn't let a human like him get too cocky.

"Haha.. is that so?" All he did was respond with a soft chuckle, and Aquarius felt like he was somewhat laughing at her.

It took a decent amount of her self control not to comment any further.

"Y-yeah. We should probably head back.. to the others."

Only the two of them were present in this vast realm, but Aquarius was certain that her siblings were watching them.

That was one of the reasons why she couldn't slip up and praise him too much.

If she did so, then her pride would be tarnished, and the eleven wouldn't let her catch a break. There was no way she was going to mar her image.

"You're right. Thanks for the duel and the kind words." Jared's words echoed in her head, causing Aquarius to stare at him once again.

This time, his eyes showed no hint of sadness or hesitation.

No.. nothing like that was evident in the slightest.

There was only one thing that Jared's eyes displayed, and it caused Aquarius' heart to skip a beat.. despite not having one.

"This should be more than enough."

*

*

*

[A/N]

Thank you all for reading!

What a wholesome end, wouldn't you say?

Yes, I know some people will want to start saying some things, but.. I reserve my comments.

Discord Link: https://discord.gg/yMPNRURZJh