Beast Gacha System: All Mine-Chapter 227: Depiction of Truth

Arkai had known who did it the moment he saw the pigeon.

That bird, carrying that spell, trained to respond to only one person’s command.

Sienna.

It had been getting worse these days. The way his sister looked at him. The lingering glances, the touches that lasted a beat too long, the way she found excuses to be near him, to brush against him, to breathe the same air.

He had told himself it was nothing. Sibling affection, twisted by their family circumstances. She was his sister even if no blood bound them.

He never thought it would escalate to this.

To drug him. To lock him in a room. To create a situation where—

If Cecilia hadn’t entered that office when she did—

It would be Sienna.

She would have been there. She would have been the one to find him, to ensure that the drug ran its course in the expected way it could.

His sister had always admired him. He had taken care of her since she was young, protected her, guided her. But although they shared no blood, how could she—

She was his sister!

He had to move.

His initial assumption had been that Cecilia was still at the Athenaeum. The conference was still ongoing, surely she would be there, would be surrounded by people, by witnesses. Sienna wouldn’t dare try to harm her in such a public setting.

But Cecilia was away. She had left the school, left the city, gone somewhere alone.

Sienna would use this opportunity.

For a while now, Arkai had come to a realization. Sienna might act, he believed that. But also, he realized that he had known she would. The certainty in his gut, the immediate fear, the way his body had started moving before his mind finished processing—

Did he unconsciously know his sister was capable of this? Had he seen the signs, catalogued them somewhere deep, and simply refused to acknowledge what they meant? He saw her as that kind of person? Someone who would harm another for these kinds of reasons?

He had been shocked, yes. But was the shock because he hadn’t expected it... or because he had expected it all along and had been lying to himself, telling himself she would never, could never, go this far?

The grief was what shocked him.

Sienna—

He crossed through towns via teleportation gates, each jump a blur of light and compression, his mind fixed on a single destination. Cecilia’s childhood town.

He had read her file, the one his men compiled that detailed her origins, her history, the shape of the life she had lived before the Athenaeum.

She was raised in a clinic. He knew that much.

When he arrived, the town was small and quiet, snow already dusted its rooftops. He ran through its streets, stopping strangers, asking if they had seen her. A blonde girl, beautiful. Some shrugged. Some pointed vaguely. No one cared enough to truly notice.

The panic began to creep in.

What else? His mind raced through the documents he had scanned. What else had he learned about Cecilia Araceli?

Right.

She had a deceased adopted mother.

The cemetery.

Arkai ran. His boots crunched through fresh snow, the cold biting at his lungs with each desperate breath. The hill rose before him, steep and white, dotted with gravestones that emerged from the blanket.

He had found it. The cemetery just outside of town, the one the last person he asked had pointed toward with a vague, uncaring gesture.

This must be it.

His legs burned with mana as he climbed, pushing through the deepening snow, his heart hammering against his ribs with a rhythm that had nothing to do with exertion.

The hill seemed to stretch impossibly, each step taking him higher, further from the town below, further from everything familiar.

And then he felt it.

The air changed. The domain of the cemetery felt like another world.

Arkai’s eyes widened.

***

When dozens upon dozens of pigeons nosedived from the sky, Cecilia had wondered what kind of magic Sienna was using.

Vision? Unique?

Was Sienna from the Unique Magic Department like her in this world? That seemed unlikely.

Although classes and activities at the Athenaeum were mostly divided by year, and younger students usually gathered in different buildings, there were still classes where seniors and sophomores overlapped. Especially within the same department.

But Sienna was a sophomore. Cecilia was a senior. Different years, potentially different departments. The overlap would be minimal.

Which meant this girl was most probably from the Vision Department.

Vision magic was generated from the soul, its manifestations limited only by imagination and mana control capacity. Animal taming? Brainwashing? The pigeons were alive, Cecilia had confirmed that when she scanned them earlier. So Sienna wasn’t creating them. She was controlling them.

Interesting.

Cecilia reached out, her fingers brushing the beak of the nearest pigeon. It hung suspended in the air, frozen mid-dive, held in place by her telekinesis like a specimen pinned to a three dimensional plane.

She caressed it absently, her mind turning over possibilities.

Not only the pigeon was frozen. The entire cemetery had.

The air hung still. The wind had ceased its gentle movement. Falling snowflakes were suspended mid-descent, each one a tiny crystal caught in a moment that would never end unless she commanded it. Branches that had been shaking under the weight of snow were frozen mid-sway.

Everything was suspended in time.

Only Cecilia could move.

Sienna stared at her in horror.

She was frozen too. Her billowing hair caught mid-float, her pose locked, her expression a perfect capture of fury and intent. Every part of her was hijacked by telekinetic mana so absolute, so complete, that she could do nothing. Not move. Not speak. Not even blink.

Even if she tried to produce more mana from her soul, upon release, Cecilia’s power would simply take control of it. Overwriting it.

This woman—

What was she even—?!

[Cecilia, you are very cool!]

[We admire the essence of your soul!]

"Why are you praising me for overpowering a sixteen-year-old girl who isn’t even real?" Cecilia deadpanned internally.

But even as she thought it, she acknowledged the truth. This dimension was created by powerful entities, ones capable of recreating the most accurate depictions of people from the real world. Every detail, every nuance, every truth about them could be reflected here.

Which meant any information she gathered about someone in this world could correspond accurately to their real-world counterpart.

The pigeons.

What did pigeons mean to Sienna? More importantly, what did pigeons mean to her and Arkai?

"It’s enough, Sienna." Cecilia’s voice carried through the frozen air, calm. "You’re not my match."

Sienna’s frozen lips managed to move, just barely, just enough to hiss. "How did you know... that I’m alone...? I could have paid people to—"

"You didn’t." Cecilia cut her off. "Your brother will find out. Also, you’re not smart enough to find a surefire way to defeat me without complications."

She walked closer to the suspended girl, her footsteps silent on the snow that shifted beneath her weight.

"Why do you think I left the Athenaeum today?"

Sienna’s eyes, the only part of her that could still move, flickered with confusion.

"To lure you out, silly." Cecilia’s smile was warm, kind. "Also, to prove to your brother, without a hint of doubt, that you were the one who actually did it."

She raised her hand to her side. From the frozen air, a recording crystal drifted closer, gently into her palm. Its surface caught the light, capturing, preserving from the start of their interaction.

"It’s a bit pricey." Cecilia’s smile widened. "Thankfully, Eastiel actually sent me money..."