The sun had gone down long ago, and Lukas found himself holed up in his room.

Unleashing Fimbulwinter inside the Banksi mansion had drained the lifeforce out of every single being in the estate, including Elena herself. As a result, there had been no one to spot the sudden emergence of Inanna’s specter, nor the clash that had evidently followed. Tanya had dropped like a marionette, her body completely drained, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Lukas had put her in her bed and slowly trudged back to his room to analyze the situation and its possible implications.

If he were, to be honest with himself, he had gotten a bit carried away with the events happening in this new world he had found himself in. Between the surprise factor, his gaining control over his powers, his relationship with Tanya, and the growing tumultuousness with the other Asukans he had met in the Crypt, he had had his hands full. Add in Iylaerion and the svartalfar and every other curveball that life kept throwing at him, he had all but left his desire to get Inanna back on the backburner.

A truth that he was ashamed about, especially since he had promised he’d bring her back.

“Bringing back a goddess,” Arah mused, “If nothing else, you do not fall short of ambition, Partner.”

Lukas snorted. The ifrit had no idea of the things he desired. And even his own desires looked like pocket change compared to Inanna’s.

“But this experience explains many things. I’m beginning to see why you are so comfortable with my Unbound presence despite the difference in power.”

Lukas snorted. “I kicked the crap out of you if I remember correctly.”

“Was that what you did?”

The casual, playful tone of the kami left him at a pause. He remembered quite well how the ifrit had arisen from the magma below and attacked them with extreme prejudice. While destroying the physical construct had been remotely easy, the true ethereal creature had been much, much more difficult to subdue, and even then, he had used an improvised ritual to take advantage of its nature and bind it to himself.

“You’re forgetting a key tenet of our innate nature.”

“Which is?”

“Do you know why we kami possess other hosts?”

Lukas grimaced. If what he understood was correct, then kami did not possess ‘skills’ but ‘aptitudes’. This new classification was akin to disks containing compressed information on their corresponding skills. A backup of sorts. When a kami possessed a host, it sort of ‘downloaded’ these aptitudes into the Host system and expanded them into ‘Skills’, at the expense of the Host’s Schema. Because these newly downloaded ‘skills’ were listed as part of the Host, he or she was able to use them while generating mana using the kami’s own ability as a natural mana forge.

It was the only theory that made sense, considering that Arah had skills worth around ten thousand units while boasting barely twenty units of soul capacity.

It was also why letting Arah possess him like his other Monster Prototypes was a bad, bad idea. For all he would get would be his instincts. The skills were already there in his Schema by default thanks to his initial sacrifice right after the Binding process.

And if he considered that aspect of their nature then—

“Holy!” He swore, “You’re telling me you allowed me to capture you?”

The sound of his condescending laughter rumbled all over his skull. “Silly Partner, we kami can sense the soul capacity in our prey. When I sensed you, I knew I had to have you. A walking-talking buffet of potential as yourself, entering right into my own lair, it would be insane to let you go.”

His stomach did a nasty flip.

“Then the— fight?”

“A test of sorts. My first impression of you was that you commanded a weak kami. My intention was to determine its nature, and then overthrow it.”

“But I didn’t have one.”

“It might come as a surprise to you, but you do not smell like a lifeforce user. Rather, there are many, many smells around you. It is almost easy to think of you as a crowd and not… an individual.”

A rather astute observation, if he did say so himself.

“And what did you infer from our fight?”

“That you are like a very venomous wasp. Too weak to warrant me going all out, but if I was careless, you could very much kill me for certain. Trying to fight while keeping the damage to a minimum was frustratingly vexing, I tell you. I can see why the other Asukans, and even the reincarnation of the Lost Emperor are wary of you. Underestimating you is just as potentially lethal as underestimating a wild kami in the open.”

Lukas took careful note of the odd description Arah had used for Tanya. He knew that her powers of Fimbulwinter had appeared in Emperor Meynte of the yokai, but the ‘Lost Emperor’ title seemed just as significant as everything else.

“My initial approach was to regenerate my physical construct over and over until you were exhausted and spent. Once that was achieved, it would have been child’s play to take advantage of your exhaustion and frustration to delve into your soul and corrupt you from within.”

But he hadn’t.

“I sensed the raiju closing in. The Elders are usually satisfied with killing intruders without care or caution. But once in a while, they do tend to feast on prey if it is good.”

An image of himself in the form of a braised chicken served on a plate in a kami restaurant flashed in his mind. He hurriedly crushed that thought from memory.

Seriously, his imagination needed therapy.

“Let me guess, your idea for trying to rush things up was to shift into a fiery ethereal state?”

He felt the ifrit shrug. “It was the most convenient way. It was hilarious, seeing this puny bremetan conjure a Shikigami Ritual inside the Ikai realm.”

That took him by surprise. “I—”

“Don’t understand? It’s not difficult, Partner. The ritual is backed by the power of the Goddess and her Eternal Light. Bremetans lure weak and hungry kami out of the borderlands through their wells,” He uttered the last word out like it was the vilest curse imaginable, “and bring us kami into the lands of the Eternal Light. Where Amaterasu’s power shines bright. Using that advantage, they turn our possession against us. We gain the soul capacity, but we become subservient to our Host’s commands. A twisted mockery of our true intentions.”

That made sense.

“I performed the ritual in the Ikai realm.”

“Where Her power does not penetrate. Imagine my surprise when the ritual that seemed so familiar turned into a vicious trap that even I myself could not shatter my way out.”

He knew the rest.

“Even then, it was as good an opportunity as any. Altered ritual or not, no bremetan could gain my power and stay untouched. You should have turned into a raving warmonger, a puppet with myself holding the reins.”

Lukas clenched his hands.

“Do not be surprised, Partner. This is a world of predators. You can either prey upon others or be preyed upon.”

He didn’t have to like it, but he did understand where the kami was coming from. In hindsight, it explained a lot about the symbiont he was hosting in his very soul.

“Imagine my surprise, when you proved completely unfazed by the influx of my mana. I expected a formidable warrior. I did not expect… an Outsider.”

Lukas had been referred to by that term ever since he had met Tanya and the others. But on hearing the kami mention it in such meaningful tones, he started to wonder if the word actually held any specific meaning other than the general description.

That raised the question— why was the kami being so overly forthcoming about the entire thing? As much as he hated it, it was now clear that Arah was clearly leading him around without him knowing any better.

The ifrit laughed. “You forget my kind’s disposition, Outsider. Even when I was entrapping you, I had my reasons. Now when I am more forthcoming with you, I have my reasons.”

And those reasons involved his status as an Outsider. No, that was not it. It involved Inanna, or at least, the fact that he wanted to revive her.

That was it.

That had to be it.

…Right?

“An accurate assessment,” The ifrit laughed, its voice booming inside the walls of his mind. “All this time, I had made myself content with just growth, but now I see it. It was my destiny all along. It is no coincidence that you managed to overpower Raikou and assimilate him into yourself, while I stay on, independent. Your Partner.”

Lukas suppressed the urge to gnash his teeth. “And that is?”

“Tell me, Partner,” His voice went down conspiratorially, “how far are you willing to go to get that Goddess back?”