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Hou Yi cracked his eyes as he sensed people entering the other room next to the one he was in. A big pane of one-sided mirror separated the two rooms, something he was used to seeing in such situations. The people in the other room would be able to see him, while all he saw was a mirror. The mirror was made of some advanced and very sturdy material that had also been reinforced with magical runes. He’d tried to break the glass on pure principle, although he hadn’t made a real effort. Their captors had treated him and his companions cordially, so he was willing to return the favor for now.

They had attempted to escape after the tests had ended and the storm had spat them out, but their ship had been destroyed by demons, and there wasn’t really any effective way to leave the world without a fast and maneuverable vessel. Still, they had been strong enough to defend themselves against the stray demons that wandered their way, and they could always retreat inside the storm if things got too hairy, thanks to Heng’e’s protective spells. Things had looked rather positive as the presence of the immortal order of monks had given the Host an advantage and they seemed to be winning, which would’ve likely allowed Hou Yi and his companions to leave peacefully. He might have been forced to give up the Spark of Divinity as a price of their freedom, but they had no grudge with the Host. However, things had taken an odd turn.

To their shock, it hadn’t been the Host or even one of the two Scourges present that gained victory. It had been the strange ships that relied on technology. The ships had been on the losing side until a particularly large vessel had appeared. More specifically, a being on that ship. Hou Yi had not been able to see what had happened exactly, but they had all felt the power of the being as they had flashed their might as a warning to the other parties present, causing the Host and the Scourges to retreat. Despite his previous experience, the comparatively low rank of his current body made it impossible to estimate what the rank of that being was, but it had to be at least twelve, which would make the being an equivalent to a Golden Immortal or a mid-ranking Deity. What a being of that rank was doing here was an open question.

Their party had been among those that had been captured on the surface of the world and they had been brought aboard the large vessel shaped like a fish. They’d almost burst into laughter once they saw the ship that looked like an enormous goldfish, except they knew the situation was too serious to do so. They had been treated well after their capture, and the capture itself had been peaceful. They had been separated and questioned once they had been brought on board, but that had apparently been done to stop them from agreeing on stories, as they were provided with comfortable quarters and even quick glances of their companions to ensure they were all alive and well.

In fact, Hou Yi was pretty sure that among the handful of people on the other side of the mirror was at least one of his companions. Lakshmi if his senses were accurate. It was hard to say for sure as the runes etched on the mirror were rather skillfully made. Their presence implied that someone was going to question him again soon. That should have been fairly obvious anyway, since they wouldn’t have brought him into this room otherwise. So far, the questions had been quite general in nature. It was as if these people had only just arrived in this universe.

His hunch proved correct as the door to the room was pushed open and a woman walked inside. The woman was decidedly different from anyone he’d seen before for many reasons. For one, she was apparently a human in appearance, though there was a weird ethereal quality about her. Most of the people he’d seen so far were from a dozen different races, but no humans before now. From what little he could see, she seemed fairly attractive, though nothing out of the ordinary. Secondly, he couldn’t sense her power at all. It was like she wasn’t there. Thirdly, unlike everyone else he’d seen so far, she was clad in a complete and ornate plate armor made of some dark metal. Only her face was visible as her hair was also covered by a black cloth hood. The front of her armor was covered with a tabard that bore the symbol of crossroads for some reason. Hou Yi personally called the type of cloth she wore paladin crotch flaps, as it was usually the holy warriors that wore them.

The fourth odd thing was that the woman was cradling a tiny dragon in her arms. It was barely larger than his palm, and it had green scales all over its body. Interestingly it also had hood-like protrusions on its neck, making it look like a cobra-dragon or something similar. The woman closed the door behind her but left it unlocked, seemingly confident in her own ability to contain him with her powers. She sat in front of him, with a simple metal table typical for such interrogations between them, still cradling the little dragon in her lap. The tiny being glanced lazily in his direction.

“Hou Yi, I presume? True Name Celestial Archer.” The woman asked in a pleasant voice.

‘Well, this is a little interesting. She's throwing around my True Name so easily.' He thought to himself while answering. "That is correct."

“We wanted to confirm a few things. We’ve questioned both your companions as well as the others we captured, and there are a few details about your answers that seem either a little odd, or just need some clarification.” The woman continued with a voice and tone that you’d expect from someone working in a service industry instead of an interrogator.

“Confirm away, although I do have a question of my own, if I may?” He also wanted some answers.

“I assume this has to do with your release, yes? We have not yet determined what we’ll do with you exactly. Some of the others we caught attacked our people and might have to bear the consequences, though we were not currently planning on killing them. Your group came willingly, so we bear no animus towards you. You’ve also provided us with information, albeit maybe not all that willingly. The fact remains though, that as you’ve likely already guessed, we are strangers to this universe, and that places certain limitations on us. For now, you will remain in our custody, and if an opportunity should present itself, you may be either set free or used as a bargaining chip with other groups. Exchange of prisoners and that sort of thing.” The woman seemed quite honest and frank in her words, which made her words all the more alarming.

Notably, their gear had not been touched, as they’d even been allowed to keep their weapons. Shockingly, they hadn’t even confiscated the Spark of Divinity. “That’s both reassuring and worrying.” He said honestly.

“Life sometimes is. Now, on to my questions. We discussed about the parties involved in the previous battle, and two of them were identified as Scourges. Interestingly, the others mentioned them as two of the three Scourges. You said two of the four. Now some might think you were trying to lie to us, but the person questioning you said you seemed quite genuine with your words. Would you like to clarify?” The woman looked directly into his eyes, and he could sense she would be able to detect any lies.

“Most people I’ve heard also speak of only three. However, I’ve…been born in this universe before, and back then there were four. I do not know if the last one was defeated, or if they’re simply laying low. Knowing their nature, it seems unlikely they've been completely wiped out though, so that's why I mentioned four." He was somewhat surprised he was able to acknowledge his nature as a reincarnator. That meant that the woman was also one, and so was everyone observing this interrogation.

“The Underworld, the Netherworld, and the Inferno. What would the fourth one be if they still exist?” The woman asked as if talking about the weather.

“The fourth one had several names. The Hive, Growth, Swarm, Green Tide, and so on.” Hou Yi replied.

“So, a hive-mind species of some nature?” She confirmed.

“It’s a bit hard to explain. It’s not a single species or genus. I’m not even sure if they were plants or insects in nature. They seemed like a mix of both. They could range anywhere from tiny critters and fungi to large beings bigger than this ship. They could also survive in all conditions and regrow from nothing but a bunch of spores. That's why it's a little difficult to believe they're entirely gone.” Hou Yi added.

“Fascinating.” Her voice seemed almost bored. “On to another matter. You mentioned other reincarnators being present on the world we took over. Any Names beyond those of your companions?”

“One. Karma.” Hou Yi saw no reason to keep that a secret when doing so was a potential risk to him and his companions.

Suddenly the tiny dragon in the woman’s lap opened its eyes as it pounced on the table, now suddenly very interested and focused. The tiny form was practically radiating intensity and power, and Hou Yi was suddenly quite sure the tiny dragon was the one that had driven away both the Host and the Scourges in the earlier battle. “Karma is here?! Are you absolutely certain?”

“Y-yes. I checked her Name myself.” How had he forgotten the tiny dragon was present? Naturally, it too had to be a reincarnator to be able to listen in on the discussion.

"Well, well, well. Things just got interesting. She wasn't among those captured, was she?" The tiny dragon looked towards the mirror.

“There was no one with that Name among those captured. We did hear that several ships escaped before our arrival though.” A voice replied though a speaker of some sort.

“So I missed Karma by only a few hours. Well, she doesn’t have the Name for no reason. At least now I know she’s in this universe and somewhere in these so-called Higher Planes. I’ll run into her eventually. Wait…” The tiny dragon suddenly narrowed its eyes. “Maybe she can explain what caused this whole mess. Yes, if anyone has the explanation, then it would be her.” The being seemed to be talking to itself at this point.

“Um, you know her? And who might you be anyway?” Hou Yi inquired carefully. He hoped the tiny but extremely powerful dragon wasn’t an enemy.

“Know her? Hah! I’ve known her longer than most of your kind have lived, all of your lives combined. As for me…well, you can Call me Ysendra. Most don’t know about me, but you should’ve at least heard about a little project Karma and I created together. The Crossroads.” The tiny dragon seemed to be enjoying his reaction.

“T-the Crossroads?!” Yeah, he’d heard about the place. The place in-between. In-between time, universes, magic and technology, and many others. The place had also been ancient even before his first life. And he’d gotten mixed up with the beings who created the place? “Fuck me.”

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"That was eventful," Karna commented as she finally brought their ship back to the Magocracy. Most of the ships the Magocracy had were sent to find resources and worlds, so the sudden appearance of a large ship like theirs drew some attention.

“That it was indeed. It’s going to take a while to unload and catalogue all the resources we recovered. It’s going to take even longer to figure out the best way to utilize them.” Tsumi commented while taking a glance at her disciple, still laying on the control orb of the ship in her cat form.

"You do that. I have a construction project to complete." Karna commented and leaped down before stretching in a very cat-like manner. She’d been constantly piloting the ship at top speed since they left, and she'd taken several detours, just in case they had been followed. "Master, can I borrow your private vessel for the project? I want to find a suitably remote location to do my work."

“I’d love to lend you the ship, but I can’t. I’ll have to catch up with our exploration parties as soon as I get the chance to leave. While Wolfgang is quite competent at times, he’s going to have trouble holding up the front by himself.” Tsumi shook her head apologetically.

"I can create a portal for you if you'd like," Arjuna suggested.

“While that would be handy, I’ll have to decline. The same rules from before apply. If someone were to ask you if you know where I am, I want you to be able to honestly say you don’t know. And with the mess that we ran away from, I wouldn’t be surprised if a certain Emissary were to ask some questions. They might not have recognized Arjuna, but they talked directly with Tsumi, so…” Karna shrugged her kitty shoulders.

“So what will you do?” Arjuna asked.

“I guess I’ll have to see just how much my phoenix bloodline has developed.” She said a bit cryptically. “Before that though, I want to see Duskclaw and the little one.”

-----

“Well. I didn’t think I’d be back here so soon.” Karna mused while looking around her at the lair of the business-dragon Llethunaxx.

“I was hoping you’d return Tiny Titan. You always bring such nice business with you. What can I do for you this time?” The blue dragon asked with a cheery voice.

“I need peace and quiet. More specifically, I need someone to make sure I won’t be bothered for a while. I also need a fair bit of space for my project, so this can’t happen in your lair.” Karna made her request.

"You want me to play guard dog in some remote location? For how long?" The dragon seemed less than enthused about the idea. At least in his lair, he had his usual joys.

“Hard to say exactly. I’d say six months or thereabouts.” Karna guesstimated. She had pretty much all the materials for her project thanks to all the acquisitions she’d done beforehand, and the Blackstone was the most important part, but she’d still need to either refine or create some materials herself, which would take some time. There would also be a lot of complicated spellwork required. Not quite as complicated as when she sped up the Expansion, but higher level, which meant she’d either have to spend some time supplying the requisite mana, or she’d need to borrow someone else’s power. Maybe Arjuna and Tsumi would give the whole thing a jump-start when everything was ready?

“Six months in the middle of the biggest rush caused by the Expansion. That’s not going to be cheap.” The dragon haggled, as suited his nature.

"Ah, but you're not taking part in the rush," Karna argued, getting into the spirit of haggling.

“Perhaps not, but I am a business-dragon. I provide materials, services, and contacts to those that do. I’d have to leave much of that business to my cultists…I mean henchmen…I mean subordinates.” The haggling was once again not about the real price as they both already had a price in mind, though different in this case. The haggling was just part of the process and most importantly fun.

After a solid ten minutes of haggling, Karna finally pulled out the vial she’d gotten as a bonus reward from one of the tests she’d passed inside the perpetual storm. “This is my offer.”

“And what would that be?” Llethunaxx asked intrigued. He could sense something that stirred his blood inside the vial.

“This is blood from a Sea Wyrm. Not just any Wyrm though, but one from the Divine Planes that has reached immortality. It’s not quite dragon’s blood, but it can be used to incite your own bloodline, to help it evolve.” She made her pitch. Offering Llethunaxx the blood of a divine dragon could have disastrous consequences, since the dragon was not strong enough to handle consuming it, but a Wyrm? Well, dragons naturally suppressed the other related bloodlines and thus could benefit greatly.

Llethunaxx licked his chops, showing just how intrigued he was. He also knew there was something else, because Karna’s offer was too good. “What’s the catch?”

“Well, the ‘catch’ as you so eloquently put it, is that I may need a bit of help during my project. I’m approaching rank six, but until then, my strength and powers might be somewhat insufficient for the project. Thus I’ll also need you to watch over my next Awakening as well. The same rules as last time, just that the place will be different.” Karna explained.

“What place will it be this time?” Llethunaxx asked suspiciously.

"I haven't yet decided if I should go with the polar region or the deepest ocean. I had a plan, but our recent visit caused some changes to that plan." More specifically, the presence of the gauntlets she’d found made things more complicated. Did she want to address one of her still existing weaknesses, or did she want to take advantage of the possibilities the gauntlets provided? She was intending on both eventually, but which one should she go for first?

“Either way, we’re going to have to deal with some trouble. The sea monsters won’t just leave us alone, and the polar regions are a haven for some quite nasty species.” Llethunaxx nodded. Now the deal seemed much more even.