If Rache had to make a top three list of his least favorite things to do in this world, it will certainly start with going through safety training for diving back when he was young. Most Fisher family kids grew up in the ocean, and they naturally picked up the tips and tricks for riding the Waves by themselves or from their friends.

Therefore, the sleep-inducing lecture was certainly both tedious and useless.

Carrying on the themes of tediousness and uselessness, the second on the list would certainly be the regular general assembly of the entire Fisher family, where they have to listen to the rambling of Charles and Darren Fisher for god knows how long. Prior to today, the general assembly sits firmly at the top of the list, because he hadn't had the fortune of experiencing whatever the hell this is.

As of the second day of the Ethereal Conference, it had already taken the cake for being the literal worst thing he has done. Then, today just took everything to a whole new level.

As the deals from the House of Fisher regarding the purchase for access to the defensive Casts were rejected, the contingency of Rote came to fruition as all forty houses received a simultaneous notice regarding the nature of the previous day’s discussions, done exclusively by the upper houses.

Certainly, there was outrage, and certainly, there was far more screaming and shouting in the main hall now with double the number of houses and double the number of people wanting a piece of the pie. The lower twenty houses had already despised the division of the upper and lower houses, particularly the assignment of House of Silverthorne as the gatekeeper into the top half, and now that they learned of their attempts at further consolidating power…

“If this isn’t hell on earth, I don’t know what is…” Rache sighed before pressing his fingers into his temples with a light massage to sooth the ringing headache that started thanks to the arguments. So far, the lower twenty houses had spent the first half an hour contemplating the implications of the failed deal before banding into different factions, some demanding equal distribution of the Casts for free, while the others voted to outlaw all of the defensive Casts all together.

Rache looked towards Charles and Darren who sat side by side as they spoke into communication Casts with leaders of the other houses, and he rose up subtly before sneaking out from the main hall.

Ordinarily, it would be a bad look for a house to have a member of their party depart from such an assembly, but everybody’s too hot-blooded to notice.

As the wooden door slammed shut behind him, the voices of the politicians finally became blocked out. Rache let out a relieved whistle before strolling towards the snacking station. A handful of teenagers from the other houses were also standing around the table and gossiping about the party last night before they quickly noticed Rache’s Fisher uniform before backing away from him.

Rache smiled politely and walked up to the table, casually glancing at the garden beyond the window. The views of the Southern slopes and the markets far out in the distance made him want to get away from here and roam the streets while riding the Cerberus right at this moment. But Rote had told him that part of strength is the ability to endure, particularly when it comes to the least favorite things he's ever had to do.

Speaking of Rote…where the hell is he…? Rache crossed his arms and tried to calm his annoyance through furious finger tapping. Rote was supposed to be here with them, with him. But he had disappeared ever since they departed their residence together earlier that day.

“Can you sense where Rote’s at?” Rache asked, pressing to the side of his temple as his Mark of Manifest in the shape of a three-fingered claw pulsed once and the Cerberus sprung awake.

“Of course, I can.” Cerberus said as he caused one of Rache’s green eyes to turn blue when he started to see the strands of Wave all around him, “Trace the red lines.”

Rache blinked once and focused even further. Among the ocean of blue around him were a few swirling red lines that slowly flowed through the air.

“What…is this…” Rache raised his eyebrows before putting down the plate of snacks, “I haven’t used this ability before…”

“There are far more things you haven’t used before, kid.” The Cerberus replied sternly, “You still have a long ways to go before you become strong enough to fight the Kraken and its Manifester on equal footing.”

“Yeah I know…” Rache scratched the back of his head before he headed down the corridor, following the lines.

Thanks to the Cerberus’ heightened sensitivity to the Wave in the environment, Rache was able to see the Wave fields around him both in space and in time, though he could already feel the drain on his Wave from using this ability. Perhaps he should have snacked a little more to replenish himself...

After tracking through the corridors, he then spotted the red line circling out around the door before appearing in the courtyard just outside the ground floor window. Glancing first to make sure nobody spots this devious behavior, he then swung the window open and vaulted straight over it. Landing lightly onto his feet in the middle of the courtyard surrounded by buildings on all sides, he then continued following the red lines forward until the red threads of Rote’s were abruptly cut short just outside a South-facing garden.

“There’s…nothing here...” Rache said, blinking and slowly approaching the end of the red Wave line as it simply floated in space while being cut off. "The garden…it had a distinct feeling of emptiness...it felt..too empty..."

Rache noticed the local Wavefield within the garden, or rather the lack thereof. It’s natural for there to be pockets of space with lower density Wave, but for it to be completely empty in such a strange place…

Rache drew his concealed blade and hid it behind his wrist before poked his finger forward against a gentle resistance from a shield Cast.

“Not bad.” The Cerberus said, suddenly shutting down all of Rache’s Wave in his body and his weapon before taking control of his body and sending him tumbling straight through the shield layer.

Then, he saw Rote being pinned down by Ver as Lera looked straight at him with a surprised look on his face.

“How the hell…” Rache looked at his hand as the familiar feeling of Wave returned to his body, “What was that barrier…? How did you do that?”

“The first layer suppressed Wave, as you had experienced before. Therefore, you only needed to suppress your own Wave before moving through.” The Cerberus explained before the claw mark over Rache’s right eye started to glow further and the body of the Cerberus prepared to appear, “Then, the shield after was standard, and easily torn through with a little pressure.”

“Rache!” Rote shouted before he reached his hand out towards him as Ver pressed her Sky Splitting Sword near his throat, “Help…me!”

“I am coming!” Rache’s eyes turned blue and glowing as the Cerberus became fully manifested right beside him. The beast's three heads cocked back before blasts of flames, wind, and shock waves were fired off simultaneously. Rache then hopped onto his back before the Cerberus sprung forward, charging straight at Rote.

“Stay back or he is dead!” Ver threatened before she tilted her blade in. However, Rote pressed his neck into the body of the blade as it pierced through his skin and blood poured out from the wound. Ver’s eyes shot open with the shock as both of Rote’s eyes suddenly turned glowing red with strands of his hair burning up like flames when raw power surged within Rote’s body.

With the diversion caused by Rache, Rote threw Ver off him with a single shove.

In the meanwhile, Wu dashed in front of Ver and Rote and stood in Rache’s way with dozens of Void domain shield layers active in front of him to slow down the man-beast combo. He charged up his rifle and fired a condensed Wave orb right over the shields that bounced straight off the Cerberus’ body. Then, he fired a series of shots with some being covered with Void domain and the rest being regular Wave orbs. The barrage of attacks slammed onto the Cerberus’ body and helped halt his momentum.

“What an annoying trickster.” The Cerberus grunted as even he struggled to manipulate his armor’s defense to match up with the rapidly varying nature of Wu’s attacks. If an attack was purely made of the Wave, the legendary beast can easily dispel it upon impact using his mastery of Wave control. However, if he caught onto the fact that it’s covered with Void Domain, then he needed to become more patient with his Wave control, thus messing up his usual timing.

Despite the ordinary look of those Wave orbs, the concentrated attacks from the One-Shotter gemstone is able to pierce through his raw physical armor, and that’s why he’s being extra cautious. And right now, that extra layer of care was slowing down his response time.

“I got it!” Rache said, leaping off the back of the Cerberus and stepping forward, “Back me up!”

Wu tilted his rifle up and aimed at him when a blue platform suddenly formed underneath Rache’s feet as he kicked against it with so much force that it nearly shattered upon impact. However, that rapidly changed Rache’s trajectory as Wu’s shot whizzed by where he was and hit nothing but a ghost.

“WATCH OUT!” Lera shouted, activating Void Domain that covered the entire garden as the rapid movement of Rote was frozen from right behind Wu, and the tips of his new blade were inches behind Wu’s back. Wu turned and rapidly jabbed to the side as the Anti-void domain Casts lit up around both him and Ver’s body, allowing them to move freely.

Rache retracted the Wave back into his body and slammed his blade onto the ground, looked down at his hand as the Cerberus struggled to maintain his form outside of Rache’s body. Rote’s eyes and hair were glowing red like hot iron, and Rache had never seen him power up like this before.

“Suppress your Wave…” Rache murmured, “Remember...they somehow have this strange attack…”

Rote was finally able to move again after he started to relax, and he looked down at his tingling finger before staring straight at Lera again, “No wonder you had been able to survive until now.”

“Are you okay?” Rache asked as Rote smiled lightly.

“I am more than fine,” Rote said, turning his palm towards Rache as he noticed the blood that covered his entire palm. Rache clenched his fist before pointing his blade towards Ver, “She shall pay for it with blood.”

“Oh…no...no. That’s not my blood…” Rote smirked before he reached into his pocket and took out a piece of red paper. Then, he placed his palm upon it before turning around, “It was fun fighting you three, but now…the battle’s over.”

Then, he glanced back at the Cerberus who was barely holding his form, and he turned and ran towards the boundaries of the Void Domain.

“Wu…your back…” Lera noticed the line of opening on Wu’s back as he spun around in circles and tried to see it. Then, as the adrenaline started to go away, the stung in his back made him freeze up as every breathe seemed to trigger the pain more and more.

“Ouch ouch ouch…” Wu tried to bear the pain as he forced himself to stay still, though Lera quickly applied a Cast to stop the bleeding and fix up the armor.

“I’ll stop him!” Ver said, dashing through the air with her far superior speed under the condition of the anti-Void Domain cast. However, Rache and Rote were far closer to the boundary of the Void Domain, and Rote was the first to make it out before Rache turned and parried Ver’s attack with his blade . The Sky Splitting Sword shattered Rache’s blade upon impact again, though the momentum sent him flying out from the barrier too.

From the moment Rote stepped out, the red piece of paper started to glow before a single red Wave pulsed outward with him as the origin, and initially, there was only silence. However, as packs of birds rose up from the trees in all directions, smoke started to rise through the air, and sounds of rumbling started coming in from the distance.

As Ver retracted her Sky Splitting Sword now that they were standing in the open, Rache also tossed away what remained of his blade.

“What…have you done…?” Ver asked.

“The target all along…” Rote said with a smirk of satisfaction before he pointed towards Wu as Lera’s projection Cast slowly started to dissipate along with her Void Domain, “Was you, Wu. Your blood was all that was needed to activate the defensive Casts again. Your blood was the second criteria of activation in this realm!

“And now…no one in the Ethereal realm will be able to resist the voice of PORA.” Rote said, reaching both hands to the side as concentrated columns of light started rising up all around the Ethereal realm, "Let our final dance begin!"