A number of hours after Dalric stomached his final plate of rice and fish, when the festivities had ended and most people had gone to bed for the night, Ryku met up with him in a small library hidden away behind a bedroom. He had found a few texts on the different kinds of Devil Glass they had and how they were supposed to be used. It wasn’t quite detailed information on how they were made, but it still provided useful insight.

He put down one of the six Devil Glass pieces he was examining,“You’re done?”

Ryku took a seat next to him, “With the groundwork. We have enough information to implicate Duke Leos and the Taiyos, but nothing cut and dry. Without some kind of clear testimony they’ll both wiggle their way free of any meaningful sanction. I need to go over the details again.”

“Hero Hangaku didn’t talk?”

He sighed, “Not a word.”

“A shame, but not an unexpected one. And getting all those people home?”

“They had pretty detailed logs of the slaves that came in and went out. I had to get some help, but we’ve traced most of their origins. Actually getting them back there will take some time though. I’ll have to report back to my superior first and they’ll handle sending ships over to ferry them. I don’t have the authority to.”

And your superiors’ attention will be focused elsewhere so it’ll take awhile for them to get around to it.

Dalric mentally finished the part that was left unsaid. Though he did cut them a bit of slack, the crowd came from all over the place. The drakens’ home, for example, was three thousand kilometers away. Organizing their return would cost a lot for very little payoff. The fact they’d be willing to do it at all should be commended.

“Do you know how they were taken or sold as slaves?”

“Unfortunately, no. At least not in detail. We know everyone here was sold rather than taken, but we couldn’t figure out by who. The only name we’ve managed to uncode is Baron Mori’s and that’s only because he features in almost every document regarding a sale or purchase.”

Dalric tilted his head a little, “‘Almost every’? That’s quite conspicuous. And he’s the only one that was easy to decode? Seems oddly convenient.”

Ryku sighed even more as he slumped in his chair, “It does.”

Well.

“Don’t worry about it too much. You can’t be expected to understand every nuance and detail on your first day. Wasn’t your job to just report back? You’ve done a tremendous job considerding.”

Dalrci attempted to comfort Ryku as he was fully aware the stress the man felt came solely from him. Without Dalric’s presence there would be no need to try and do any more than he’d already done, but his desperate desire to impress Dalric had him reaching for the stars. It was praiseworthy, but also futile. Dalric could communicate that to him, but there was no need to ruin the productive high he was on. Even if he wouldn’t become Dalric’s student, the work he did here would definitely improve his standing as a Paragon. He was achieving both their public and private goals at once.

“You should get some rest, you can review the information tomorrow when you have a clearer mind.”

Ryku sat back up, “It’s only 11:50-something. I can work a few more hours before I go to sleep. First light isn’t until around eight anyway.”

Getting to grips with the new time system was something Dalric had neglected to do so far. He learned some new terms, minutes and hours, but he didn't care much to figure it all out yet. Physical clocks had obvious massive value to the masses, but he need only grow accustomed to the ebb and flow of ahjer across the days and weeks to know exactly what time it was anyway. That likely sounded needlessly exhaustive compared to the ease of owning a watch, but as far as he was concerned an internal clock that maintained itself was far superior to an external one. He’d learn the ins and outs of them eventually anyway, but he’d do so when he had the free time to spare.

11:50-something. That’s what, almost midni—

Submit!

Dalric fell to the floor immediately.

Submit now!

The Gods were back and they were stronger this time. It had only been a few seconds and he could already feel himself losing control of legs. Thankfully he had a scant amount of ahjer so when that pitiful amount went haywire Ryku was only sent flying into a narby bookcase. It didn’t kill him. That wouldn’t matter soon though as in a few more seconds he lost control of his hands.

Ryku bounced up quickly, “What’s happening?!”

“Run! Run for help!”

Dalric was going to lose. He knew it. He could feel it. The Gods weren’t only stronger, they weren’t distracted this time. They solely focused on overthrowing him as sovereign of his own body. And they’d succeed.

The only saving grace was the fact his body was tired and devoid of ahjer. He also wasn’t wearing his armor anymore, just a robe. If Ryku could gather enough of the top fighters before the Gods took complete control of him, they could definitely fend him off.

Submit!

There went all of his limbs. Dalric panicked, it was too late now. He’d only last maybe twenty more seconds. This was still a pathetically weak attempt to control him compared to what they used to muster, but compared to what he himself could muster it was more than enough. Ryku wouldn’t have time to do anything at all in twenty seconds. He hadn’t even moved away since Dalric told him to run. He instead stood next to Dalric. It was then that Dalric realized he lost his hearing and Ryu was trying to speak to him.

You fool…

It wouldn’t matter, nothing would matter soon. Again, the Gods would have their way and Dalric would destroy everything around him. They were maybe fifteen seconds aw—

I’M THE FOOL!

“RYKU! PUT ALL DEVIL GLASS MY HEAD! NOW! ALL! NOW! ALL! NO—”

He lost his voice, but he just thanked the Elders he even had it at that point. He couldn’t imagine what kind of soul wrenching feeling would be wafting over him right now if he had realized too late. The Devil Glass wouldn’t stop the Gods from taking over, but they would send him to sleep. He had enough strength to override one of them, but there were six on the side stool. There was no way he’d currently have the strength to resist all six. The Gods could only control him for two hours a day and those two hours could not be broken up into chunks, it had to be consistent. So whether he was conscious or incapacitated, their time slot was their time slot.

Ryku actually got the message this time, he frantically grabbed the pieces of Devil Glass and inserted them into his one by one.

Wait a second.

The first one did nothing, but Dalric expected that. The second one seemed like it did nothing as well at first, but it gave him his sense of smell and taste back. The third is when his voice and hearing came back. The fourth did nothing again, but the fifth piece of Devil Glass was when things really flipped on their head.

He reclaimed his torso. Not suddenly, like he did his senses, but through a concentrated effort. Somehow someway, he overpowered the Gods' attempt to control it.

“STOP!”

He didn’t want to move, less he lose too much focus, but he had to stop Ryku at five. He didn’t know what the sixth would do, it could improve his situation even further, he wouldn’t dare risk it though. He had zero understanding of what was happening, but all of a sudden he was fighting back and winning.

Thankfully Ryku stopped in time and Dalric was left to fight the Gods in these new circumstances.

Submit now!

He’d do no such thing. Soon after he reclaimed his torso, his right arm fell back into the fold. Realizing something was up at this point, the Gods tired to swipe his left hand at the pieces of Devil Glass. Dalric used his right hand to swat away their attempt. That didn’t discourage them and they made several more attempts as Dalric fought to keep them away. From an outsider perspective both of his arms erractivaly jerked around as he knelt on the floor. One sought to evade the other and tap his head while the other played keepaway. Overall the cat and mouse act looked like the performance of a madman.

Internally, neither side cared for the aesthetics. They both focused on making progress. However, in shifting their attention to moving Dalric’s hands around, neither side made or lost much actual ground. The Gods could better multitask though, so any ground that was gained ,was gained by them and any ground that was lost, was lost by Dalric. It was only marginal, but he was back to a losing trend.

That is, until Ryku jumped into the mix and retrained his left arm. Ryku didn’t know the full situation, but he made some educated guesses and gambled on them being right.

Dalric couldn’t thank him more for it.

As the Gods focused on throwing Ryku off of the arm, Dalric refocused his attention on removing their influence entirely. By the time they switched back to fully fighting for control, the only thing Dalric hadn’t reclaimed from them was the arm they staunchly fought for. That would return to him soon though. He had only left it to them to keep their focus away from what he did elsewhere. As their last stand they held firm for a while, rebuffing most of Dalric’s attempts to purge them. Like the first time however, their power began to wane. As it did, Dalric poked and prodded, pushing through bit by bit. It took a long time, something like forty minutes, but at the end of it he was free once again.

He had won, again.

He had won, again.

He stood up and immediately grabbed Ryku in a bear hug, almost crushing the man in excitement. He almost crushed him again as seconds after he stood up his body went limp and he crashed back down to the ground.