Even though Ver and her little squad first arrived at the city of Eternal Light all by themselves, Stark was kind enough to invite them on the shared multi-day ride back to Fog city, stopping daily at each of the cities they past by before Wu got a chance to visit each of them. The senior advisers volunteered themselves to ride a separate chariot with the guards that accompanied them, while Stark and the three younglings shared the main ride.

“So…that’s it, huh?” Stark leaned back after hearing about all that’s happened as he watched Wu down a sweet drink with no regard for anybody else, “Now that the man responsible for PORA on the Eastern continent was gone, and the weapons that everybody’s fighting over had been deactivated…the middle-ranked houses might have tried to start something with the Fisher family over losing those Casts…”

“And they wouldn’t be able to do anything now.” Ver said, swirling her hair around her fingers, "Apart from pointing a few fingers and being angry for a while."

“Correct.” Stark sighed, “The Fisher household are strong enough on their own, and from what you have told me about Rache…They are about to be even stronger.”

“It will all come down to what happens next year.” Ver said, “As it should be.”

“As it should be.” Stark nodded.

The four rode in silence for a bit as Ver looked at Wu who gave her a silly smile that made Ver wonder how much alcohol was in that container.

“I am going to the Western continent with these two.” Ver said, “PORA’s planning something over there, and we do not know what.”

“And I suppose the training duties for the next generation of Vaughan kids are less important in comparison…” Stark joked before reaching into his pocket and taking out a small metallic flask. He twisted open the cap and took a big sniff. Wu immediately locked his eyes on it, and Stark smiled before offering him some, “It is certainly curious that they did not place more effort into trying to control the Eastern Continent. However, compared to the might of some of the bigger countries on the Western continent, I am not that surprised.”

“Are the countries’ powers really this disparaged?” Wu asked as Stark nodded slowly before taking a sip himself. He made a face as his brows pressed into one another, and golden droplets of liquid got stuck in his mustache.

“I was on tour around Basha during my training.” Stark said, “Basha wasn’t remotely close to being the largest or strongest country there, and yet its military might competes with Ethereal Realm easily. As a matter of fact, if they wanted to conquer the East, they could have done it at any time in history.”

“What stopped them?”

“Time, the ocaen, and the Ten Heavenly Pillars.” Stark replied, "Those living gods disliked change, and so we didn't change."

Wu sat back, and for some reason, he thought about what Augen once told him about the Ten Hellish Phantoms that he will eventually assemble. Speaking of which, it has now been a solid while since they have parted from Augen and Fatera.

“Plus, the later years of the Third War were fought over in the East, and a quarter of this continent is still nigh uninhabitable.” Stark took another sip when a tendril reached out from Ver’s knees and curled at him. Stark looked amused before he handed the flask to the tentacle.

“The Voidlands.” Lera said, looking at Stark as he nodded, "Unless you hunt demons for a living."

“So...what do you expect to see in the West?” Stark asked, “If anything that happened in Varous, Talonia, and Ethereal realm were any indication, then whatever’s going on in the East would be ten times crazier.”

“Um…lots of crazy strong opponents, new enemies, old friends, new friends, old enemies?” Wu scratched his head, “Sounds like a bit of an adventure. Plus, PORA.”

“No biggie.” Lera smiled, “Just a little PORA.”

“And plenty of opportunities for us to get stronger.” Ver said, “That’s the other reason that I am going.”

“You really did your thing out there, that’s for sure.” Stark said before he glanced out into the distance as the mountain ranges that Fog city was located in finally came into view, “Just remember to come back here for the tournament. We need you. Not many houses in the lower half have someone at the Perfect Synchrony level, and I will not drag my old bones into some crazy shit like that again.”

“Of course.” Ver teased, “So long as Wu doesn’t latch onto me for that long.”

“Hey! We will make sure that you get back here for sure.” Wu protested as Ver kicked him in the leg lightly, “In fact, we will come to watch you, if that’s a spectator thing.”

“It certainly is.” Stark said as he lowered his head, the memories of his tournament came pouring back.

The roars of the crowds, the sky-high battles across multiple structures and battlefields, and the political jostling behind the scenes….

It’s bound to be a hell of a fight.

“Oh, by the way.” Ver crossed her arms and leaned back as the Kraken’s tentacle returned an empty metal flask to Stark with both itself and Ver’s face red, “We are not just rising past the lower half. We are taking it all the way. By the time the next Ethereal Conference comes, we will be living atop that mountain."

"I will remember that." Stark smiled.

After the four arrived back at Fog city, they took another day to rest and recover as Ver showed Wu and Lera around the tourist spots along the mountain hiking trails. Though thanks to the Kraken’s Whirlpool abilities, they didn’t exactly hike up to the top above the clouds, where the sheath of seemingly endless white covering the earth simply reminded them of Caligo.

However, the two certainly enjoyed the gesture, and they also enjoyed not having to worry much about the world or a floating island coming down at any moment. After providing the Vaughan family with the protocol to take down the defensive Casts, they finally decided to head out into the Western continent.

“Just…be careful out there.” Ver’s mother said before she hugged her lightly.

“You know me.” Ver said, rubbing her on the skinny shoulders, “I will get Shrak’Ahk to teleport some gifts.”

“I am not your personal carrier!” The Kraken complained within Ver but was promptly ignored.

“Your safety and happiness are the best gift I could ever ask for...” She smiled before looking at Wu and Lera, “Thank you for taking care of her.”

“Of course.” They replied at the same time as Ver let her mother go. Then, she swirled her fingers as a Whirlpool Purple formed just outside of their door.

“Tell Stark I said goodbye.” Ver said, “Ask him not to miss me too much.”

“Oh, he will.” Her mother smiled, “Go before he regrets letting you go.”

Ver smiled and waved before the three of them stepped through the Whirlpool Purple.

Through a short distance, the teleportation felt instantaneous. However, when crossing distances the size of an entire kingdom, it not only takes far longer to reach the other end of Whirlpool Purple, but the actual Wave connection also takes a lot more Wave to maintain and upkeep.

Thus, they made frequent stops at cities in the midst of their journey, switching overriding regular chariots while the Kraken recovered its strength alone.

It took them a whole day to reach the waterfront of Ethereal Realm far more south than Costa city, and that’s the same port city that Ver parted way with Kaire Jinn all those moons ago, where the seed of her venturing to the Infinite Acadmey was planted. However, different from last time, the official transport to the Western continent had been terminated ever since the island fell and political turmoil rocked the entire world.

Sitting along the docks with floating ship Casts being tied up and with their feet dangling over the edge, the three then waited for the Kraken to slowly shuffle its way out from its Purple Whirlpool among the waves.

“I said, I am not your personal carrier!” The Kraken complained before opening up its shells as Wu, Lera, and Ver walked in like passengers to the most abnormal ship ever, “Don’t you dare mess everything up inside me!”

“Relax, Shrak’Ahk.” Ver said, comforting the Kraken with her touch against the wall of flesh, “These two will behave, right?”

“Like we always do.” Wu also tried to touch the wall of flesh, but it squirted the green gel at his face instead which he dodged easily.

“I thought you love swimming,” Ver asked.

“Where I actually swim, your friends won’t survive.” The Kraken sighed, “Just don’t make me do this too many times…it’s embarrassing, especially now that the Cerberus is alive.”

“Sure sure~” Ver took a seat before the Kraken’s flesh wrapped around her body. Wu and Lera shared a weird look when the Kraken suddenly surged forward, throwing them against the back of the shells as it flew through the water, creating massive wakes that nearly topped the ship's Casts around them.

It took one day before Wu had set up a little workshop in in the dry spaces of the Kraken's interior with Lera’s help. After all that’s happened so far, if he was to be prepared for what’s to come, he needed far better technology on all fronts.

However, it will all have to start with the scanning system. The basic Wave sensor that he had been using had been proven insufficient, and Wu just had a few ideas he wanted to test.

It took another day before he started chipping away at granules of the Kraken’s shredded shells, and he turned those into Wave-sensitive crystals before arranging them in tiny arrays atop lines of Cast like transistors in a computer. Then, as Lera projected a uniform Wavefield for it, it created a granulated image that had a way higher definition than the blobs he used to have.

As she slowly changed the content of the Wave, it was reflected in the intensity of light that came through the crystal array and the pattern formed by it. By connecting that set to an amplifcation Cast and a projection Cast, Wu had just made the first pixels on this world.

Obviously, Wu marketed this as an attempt at recycling waste products of the Kraken, stating that the shells it shreds on a day-to-day basis were in fact helpful to someone as weak and helpless as him.

It will be a long time until he could make TVs with the Wave, but for the purpose of collecting and demonstrating visual information about the Wave fields around him, the new goggles were more than enough.

Ver, on the other hand, was far more direct, and she went ahead and helped incorporat the Kraken’s shells into all of Wu and Lera’s armor, much to the displease of the Kraken. Then, she dropped a bucket-ful of shells in Wu's little lab.

It got to a point when tendrils from the Kraken will reach into Wu and Lera’s room while they were asleep and steal away pieces of its shell that it wasn’t even using anymore. However, Ver clearly sensed its intentions, and swiftly returned it all to the bucket the very next morning.

It was a whole week of rapid travel until the outlines of the Eastern continents came into view, and another day before they finally reached the shores Eternal Xia.