Arthur stared at the gatekeeper dissolving into nothingness in front of his eyes. He thought his journey in the Spirits Realm would be an uneventful one, but it seems some higher-beings were watching him.

"The Spirits Sovereign, huh?" Arthur muttered as he stared at the sky. "I wish that I won't get into some mess out of this."

There was nothing for him to do here other than killing Gala for her to turn into a spirit. Of course, if things like the Spirits Sovereign noticed him, things might not go as planned.

After all, he was committing a forbidden act by killing Gala in the Spirits Realm. Even the witch knew that. Arthur would have to do it without the Spirits Sovereign noticing.

"Infra, Earthen, and Skyey World," Arthur counted. He needed to ascend the stairway twice to meet Gala. However, even then, he would need to keep searching for her in the Skyey World. "I guess I need to find the bookkeeper that Mr. Hopper mentioned."

Mr. Hopper helped organize his thoughts, so his absence made Arthur talk to himself. Using the chains earlier consumed a lot of his energy, so he had to walk back toward the stairway.

The sky was sewed back into normality by his chains. This time, he won't strike the bell with all of his strength. Instead, he simply tapped it, and the bell began ringing melodiously.

"Is my spiritual energy that powerful?"

Arthur knew this was supposed to be a test, but he didn't know how difficult it was supposed to be. He looked at the gates of the stairway that ascended toward the sky open in front of him.

He took the first step on the stairway and kept walking up until he passed it. As soon as he passed the gate, he felt a presence behind him. Arthur turned to look at the ethereal man that arrived in front of the bell.

"What is this giant thing?" The man muttered as he stared at the bell with a blank expression. Arthur turned with interest to see how the man would perform. "It must be a test of my strength."

The man spoke in an ancient matter as if he came from a previous era. However, Arthur didn't hear this accent in Alka before, so this person must be from a different dimension or a different timeline.

"Very well. Let this be a test for me!" The man shouted and took his stance. Arthur was amused by his antics and kept watching, even though he could now ascend to the next world.

"For everyone waiting for me!"

'Just do it already. Why is he so talkative?' Arthur yawned. 'This guy looks like he came out of a historical drama.'

"Come!"

The man shouted and punched the bell. The bell barely moved, but it was enough to give a small 'ding' that opened the gate again. The man huffed and began ascending the stairs.

"Wow, that was anticlimactic." Arthur was amused as he waited for the man to ascend the stair. When the man finally saw him, he stopped walking and looked at him warily.

Arthur gave a greeting nod which the man returned with hesitation. Then, seeing Arthur turn and leave without saying anything further, the man followed after him.

After you enter the gate, which the two did, there was a long tunnel. They walked through the cosmos until their bodies became one with the surrounding, and Arthur felt his consciousness rise to a higher state.

When his awareness returned, Arthur found himself standing in an endless plain with willow trees scattered here and there. Beside him was the man from earlier, as white as snow.

"Is this heaven?" The man said in a daze.

"No, just the Earthen World." Arthur smiled and answered. The man seemed to snap out of his daze when Arthur talked to him.

"You speak my language?"

Arthur nodded in response. The man spoke in the ancient Veran language, which existed before the merge of the three kingdoms. Thus, even though there were some archaic words in his speech, Arthur could still understand them.

"Are you a seeker as well?" Arthur asked with interest. He wasn't suspicious of the man even though he might be another disguised Spirits Sovereign's follower.

In this realm, he was at peace for some reason. As if his physical body was the one who doubted others and their motives.

"I am indeed as such," The man said. "Are you a spirit?"

"No, just another seeker," Arthur said with a smile. "How high do you want to go, friend?"

"As high as my fist gets me." The man said with determination as he clenched his fist. "If only I had my wooden sword, I would have pierced the heavens!"

"Oh," Arthur said blandly. "Are you here to contract a spirit?"

"I am indeed!"

"What for?" Arthur asked with interest. The concept of spirits interested him greatly, as it allowed ordinary people to have abilities. However, he never heard of such a thing back in the Yalveran Union.

"I need to defend my village from the calamity," The man said with a resolute face, even though his features were vague. Arthur nodded in response, admiring the man a bit. "Are you here for the same?"

"I'm here for something else, but I'm also doing it for someone I care about," Arthur said without revealing anything more. "Do you know the way to the stairway?"

"What way is there but forward?" The man shook his head as if Arthur was asking the wrong question. "As long as there is a way, there is a will."

"It should be the opposite, but to each their own, I guess." Arthur shrugged as he began walking forward. "Forward we shall go."

He indeed had no other direction to choose, and the man began following him as well. They passed the willow trees and kept walking until the trees turned orange like a flame.

There was not a single spirit around in the plains. Suddenly the sky turned dark despite being sunny a moment ago. Arthur looked up and felt that this was not night but a constructed mechanism by the spirits to feel the passage of time.

"We need fire." The ancient man said, and Arthur looked at him in a speechless manner.

"We literally have no physical bodies. We can keep walking."

"The gods are wrathful at nights," The man said. "That's why spirits never contract when they are sleeping."

"Wrathful at what?" Arthur sighed. "Are you sure that spirits won't contract at night?" He asked, to which the man nodded. "Fine, we will wait here until there's light again."

The two sat beneath a large flame willow tree, which the moonlight lit up. They didn't say anything and simply waited. The man was talkative if Arthur initiated a conversation but was otherwise silent.

Arthur preferred quietness over any form of communication. He wasn't interested in the man's background because of the issue he had on his plate.

Killing Gala.

Even though he tried to treat it as a quest unrelated to him, a debt he needed to pay, and a contract to fulfill, he miscalculated something crucial.

He never thought he would grow attached to the witch.

When he first met Gala, she was just a way to learn how to save Rae from her curse. Now, however, she mattered to him a lot more than Rae did.

Rae was someone Arthur met and fought a lot, but she was more of a responsibility than a friend. She ended this way because of him, so he wanted to help her out of guilt.

As for Gala, she was someone who helped him and stayed by his side in this world. He wasn't ready to be the one ending her journey in life.

But he had to.

"When I was a youth," The man beside him began speaking. "A giant meteor struck my village and killed everyone in it, including my family. I survived because I was in another village, stealing food."

Arthur didn't say anything, and it didn't seem the man was specifically talking to him. It felt as if the man was talking to himself.

"I became a man," He said. "And I sought out the wisest man in the kingdom. I asked him for the reason the meteor struck our village. Did we sin in some way that the gods felt our punishment was appropriate? Maybe it was a twisted series of coincidences that led to their death."

"And what did he say?" Arthur entertained the man.

"His answer wasn't complicated, but a single word." The man turned to him. "The sage said it was gravity."

Arthur stared at the man, who he couldn't see his features. There was no hint of joking.

"He explained that all things attract each other and that our planet attracted a small rock from the sky. Gravity killed everyone I knew."

"And are you here to get back at it?" Arthur asked, squinting his eyes.

"No," The man stood up as the light began returning to the sky. "I'm here to find a spirit that lets me control it. I won't allow gravity to kill the people I now hold dear."

Arthur stared at the man silently. He never asked to hear his story, but maybe the man was also on a quest of his own and needed someone to tell.

"Wait," Arthur frowned. "What's your name?" He stood up from his spot after the man. The latter turned to him with puzzlement.

"My name?" The man looked hesitant but seemed to deem Arthur trustworthy enough to tell him. "This one is called Li."