Lone's meditation was disturbed once more. He could feel one, no, two souls heading his way. He could barely sense one of them, however. He recognised the stronger soul as Eolande's.

'Wasn't she paired with Rachel? Is that who the incredibly weak soul belongs to? What on Earth happened?' Lone thought as he got up and looked in the direction they were both coming from.

In the distance, he could see Eolande with a tear-stained face flying through the air as a charred husk followed behind her. "No way..." Lone couldn't believe what he was seeing.

He didn't wait for Eolande to arrive. Using all of his strength as well as his Haste skill, Lone was soon upon the frantic girl.

"Lone! It's Rachel! You have to save her!" Lone had never seen the usually coy and playful girl, Eolande, so panicked before.

From her words, the charred lump of... something, was supposedly Rachel, and she was somehow alive despite her condition. Lone nodded immediately. "Can you keep her floating? I don't want her to touch the ground, if at all possible."

Eolande's mana was being stretched very thin, but regardless, she agreed. Worst case scenario, her mana organs could get permanently crippled for overuse and being forcefully utilised like this, but Eolande didn't care. Lone could fix such a thing later if it came down to that. No injury was permanent in the wake of his unparalleled healing skills.

Lone was aware that what he was about to do would put him at a severe disadvantage against Ythmagobla, but he didn't care. Much like Eolande, he couldn't, no, he wouldn't let a fellow Wanderer die when he could stop it.

Lone hadn't recreated Rachel's body before since she had yet to experience an awakening, but he had plenty of experience with Foxkin anatomy from his own, Breena's, and also Lossa's recreations.

Channelling his mana points into his Creation Magic, he imagined Rachel's body being recreated.

Item does exist in Altros.

The host has a great understanding of the item. 40,000 base MP cost. 5,000 additional MP has been consumed to compensate for the lack of the host's knowledge.

45,000 MP has been consumed to recreate the item: [Eight-tailed Crimson Foxkin [Rachel Redtail's] body].

Neither Eolande nor Lone minded the grotesque and soul-invaded noises of Rachel's body being reformed via Lone's magic.

"You can cancel your spell now, Eolande," Lone calmly said as he took a blanket out from his Dimensional Storage and used it to cover Rachel's nude figure.

Eolande did as instructed and collapsed to her knees. "I'm glad... I made it in time..."

"What even happened? We're lucky she broke through the S-rank barrier and became a double-S-ranker. The energy from her rank-up was keeping her soul - and barely her body - intact." Lone wasn't angry that he's had to use up a portion of his mana to save his friend, he was just concerned how she had gotten into that state in the first place.

Eolande was taking a moment to catch her breath. Apparently, she was coming down from an adrenaline high, so Lone took this time to check his status. He was curious to see if he'd gained anything from Saturn absorbing those ten XX-ranker souls.

Status Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 26 Level: 988 [+124] Species: Foxkin Rank: S Race: [New!] Ascending Foxkin HP: 16,670/16,670 [+610] SP: 92,000/92,000 [+10,000] MP: 489,140/534,140 [+200,000] WF: 1,500/1,500 Basic Stats Strength: 2,245 [+20] Vigour: 1,667 [+61] Dexterity: 5,451 [+49] Agility: 6,503 [+172] Vitality: 9,200 [+1,000] Luck: 501 [+100] Secret Stats Charm: 281 [+40] Charisma: 497 [+150] Magic Power: 53,414 [+20,000] Control: 940 [+600] Rage: 5 [-79]

'Nothing new, huh? This is all of the stuff I gained when Radiance fused with me...' Lone was a bit disappointed that he wouldn't get anything if Saturn acted on its own. He still had to test if he gained stats and levels from directly using Saturn with his hands, though.

Eolande was now ready to talk about what had happened to her and Rachel.

Two minutes was all it took for Lone to fully understand the situation. "It's no wonder she punched right through to double-S-rank after just recently becoming an S-ranker. She killed that Emperor Slime mostly by herself, huh? And I bet it was her willingness to kill herself to do it that let her pass the enlightenment bottleneck..."

Eolande nodded solemnly and her expression seemed a bit... lonely. This didn't escape Lone's notice. "I know that you played just as big a part in the general's defeat, Eolande."

Taken off guard by his surprising words of acknowledgement, Eolande's face flushed. "Th-Thank you."

Lone smiled in response. He looked at Rachel's unconscious body and frowned once more. "She's in a deep sleep of some sort. I'll need time to fix her soul. It's impossible to do it now. Eolande, can you bring her to your Glade and stay there with her for now? Neither of you is really fit to be fighting, now are you?" Lone used his Soul Reinforcement a few times to stabilise Rachel's soul at G-rank before binding it to her body tightly just to be safe. It had been pushed down to I-rank and almost crumbled down into nothingness, which was worrying.

Eolande didn't disagree with his words. She wanted to be more helpful, but right now, the best way that she could help Lone would be by resting and recovering her mana. It would only create more eventual work for him if they won today were she to completely cripple her mana organs beyond any conceivable usage.

"Be careful, Husband. Don't be blinded by arrogance, okay? An Ancient-level being, especially the dragon, is no foe to be messed with lightly. Even if you are the master of its father Primal Essence." Eolande's words were coming from her heart and contained none of her usual wise-assed attitude.

Lone wasn't an idiot, not anymore, at least. "I have no intentions of repeating my mistake with Clicker. Don't worry. I might run my mouth a bit, but I don't plan on taking any unnecessary risks. Though mind you, fighting an Ancient-level being and even thinking that I have a chance to win would sound like an impossible risk in the first place to most people, huh?"

Lone's charming grin sent Eolande's heart into a tizzy. "Just don't do anything stupid." With that, Eolande carefully touched Rachel's hand and sucked the unconscious foxkin into her Glade along with herself.

Lone couldn't help but worry about Sophie after seeing Rachel, but he knew that she would contact him if she was in any serious trouble, so he tried to calm his rapid pulse and resume his meditation as he waited for Ythmagobla's arrival.

Soph's eyes slowly flickered open. She tried to raise her body as soon as she came to but a certain pressure on her chest stopped her from doing so.

Readjusting her eyes to the darkness of the cave, Soph saw that the thing holding her down was actually a hand. A green and scale-covered hand, to be specific.

"Swind?" Soph's voice was hoarse and dry.

"You're awake, Miss-ss ss-Soph?" Swind asked as he continued to work on some bandaging with his mechanical arm. That very bandaging was what was stopping her arm from bleeding out.

The girl moved her head around a bit to gain her bearings. She noticed three things in particular; first, her wrist didn't hurt at all despite her hand being severed, second, she felt extremely weak, and lastly, there were several system notifications waiting to be read in the corner of her eyes.

"Please, Miss-ss ss-Soph, I know you must be confused, but do not move ss-so much. I could only ss-stop the bleeding and cancel out the pain with what little herbs-ss and ss-supplies-ss I had on me. Wait until I am finished before you try to ss-sit up again. Also, try not to talk in the meantime. It will only damage your throat. I will give you ss-some water in a minute. Just as-ss ss-soon as-ss I'm finished with your arm," Swind explained very patiently and in a relaxing tone.

Seeing as how she had no other choice, Soph decided to check the system notifications. She did consider contacted Lone, but now that she was out of critical danger apparently, she thought it would be wise to not worry him before his big battle.

Congratulations! The host's unique magic skill [Barrier Magic] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 8. Congratulations! The host's unique barrier magic subskill [Barrier Blade] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5. Congratulations! The host's unique barrier magic subskill [Barrier Blade] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6. Congratulations! The host's unique barrier magic subskill [Barrier Blade] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.

'Um, It's kinda annoying how it notifies me per level-up... Why can't it just show me all of the levels in one message?' Soph thought. This was the first time that one of her skills had levelled up so much all at once, so now she could sympathise with how often Lone complained about this little feature of the system's that she hadn't ever experienced until now.

Congratulations! The host's unique barrier magic subskill [Barrier Blade Barrage] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3. Congratulations! The host's unique barrier magic subskill [Barrier Blade Barrage] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4. Congratulations! The host's unique magic skill [Teleportation] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 2. The host has developed the passive skill: Physical Pain Resistance. The host has developed the passive skill: Mental Pain Resistance. The host has overused their mana organs which has resulted in them being sealed until they can recover. MP is unusable while the mana organs are sealed.

She had expected her mana to be sealed, so that wasn't a surprise to her considering how much Sophie had overtaxed herself before losing consciousness by constantly using her Barrier Magic and Teleportation.

Soph smiled faintly. 'I finally got those two skills... Lone got them when we first met, but it took me almost three years to get them... Am I a little bit closer to him now, I wonder? Sophie, are you there?' A second later, she got a response. 'Yeah. We are sorry for not successfully killing that woman,' was what she had to say.

Soph just smiled and silently shook her head. Sophie was a real idiot sometimes despite how mature she liked to act.

She waited for a few more minutes, but Swind still didn't seem to be done yet, so Soph felt like checking out her status to see exactly how much damage she had suffered during Sophie's fight with Itchy.

Status Name: Sophie Vladimirovich Sex: Female Age: 974 [+1] Level: 988 [+583] Species: Human Rank: S [Up 2 entire ranks!] HP: 754/1,350(1,650) [+220] SP: 1/670 [+160] MP: 0/1,057,690 [+830,000] WF: 2,000/2,000 Basic Stats Strength: 157 [+52] Vigour: 67 [+16] Dexterity: 275 [+71] Agility: 111 [+26] Vitality: 165 [+22] Luck: 69,298 [+344] Secret Stats Magic Power: 105,769 [+83,000]

As she had suspected. Only her magic and luck had increased a lot since she was a B-ranker, but most importantly, her health points seemed to be lowered permanently by three-hundred points thanks to her missing hand. This wasn't a real issue since Lone could heal her, but it still weighed heavily on the girl's mind.

'Why are all of my stats so... bad except for Magic Power and Luck? It's not fair... I'd be so much more useful to Lone if my stats raised like his did... Why don't I have a skill like Growth Accelerator? He's such a big cheater...' Soph wasn't jealous of her lover, no, she was just upset that she wasn't as useful as she wanted to be. She couldn't even fight, but Sophie could, so she wished that she had a cheat or two to help with that like Lone did.

Of course, her Teleportation and Barrier Magic was already an incredible set of cheats, but Soph was a girl with very little self-confidence, so she was blind to her own amazingness.

"Finished," Swind suddenly said, derailing Soph's train of thought.

He leaned back and cracked his neck after handing a small water-filled gourd to her. "I'm glad I found you when I did, Miss-ss ss-Soph. Any longer, and you might have died from blood loss-ss. Why didn't you contact Mr Immortus-ss immediately?"

Soph very carefully raised her torso and looked at her heavily bandaged wrist. She drank from the gourd that Swind had given her slowly before she replied. "Sophie would have, but she lost consciousness as soon as Scratchy fled, which knocked me out too. She thought she'd be fine since she was covering the wound with a barrier, but neither of us expected to pass out from the mental pains. She'd used up all of my mana, and it was the first time that she or I had ever done that, not to mention that she kept forcing my mana organs to supply her with magic power even after that."

Swind frowned. "That was-ss both very foolish and very thoughtless-ss, Miss-ss ss-Sophie," Swind said directly to Sophie, not Soph. "What would you have done had I not ss-saved your life? What would have become of Mr Immortus-ss in that ss-situation?"

Sophie took over Soph's body and lowered her head while she stared at the floor in shame. "I know..." A few seconds of silence passed before Sophie asked a question. "How did you find us anyway, Swind? Weren't you fighting with the main army?"

Swind nodded. "I was-ss. During the battle, a ss-strange man tried to assassinate me. I managed to repel him with a new ability I ss-somehow gained. Apparently, Lemurians-ss have always-ss possessed an inherent ss-sixth ss-sense. I awakened this-ss power. It led me to you ss-shortly afterwards-ss."

"I see." Sophie didn't expect that answer, that was for sure. It sounded almost like an unearthly instinct rather than a sixth sense, but she knew nothing of other races and their powers, so she remained quiet.

Swind put his hands on his knees and got back up on his feet. "Can you walk, Miss-ss ss-Sophie? If not, I ss-shall carry you. It would be best if we left this-ss place for now."

"I don't think I can walk yet..." Sophie said as she struggled and tried to stand.

Swind carefully picked the girl up. "Carrying you it is-ss, then."