“Tell me what you found out.”

“Ah. Yes. Understood.”

Vena was a bit off. She had a lot on her mind recently. At the moment, she had an audience with queen Aislin. Hilde sat beside her. Lysis sat beside the queen.

Aisli’s expression softened. She smiled softly. She was asking Vena to provide information about her lover. It was for the benefit of the kingdom but using force and authority might cause a turn for the worse. “Vena, you don’t have to force yourself. I know I’m asking you a lot. Please let me know if it’s too much.”

“N-no, it’s not that!” Vena said.

“Your Majesty, if I may?” Hilde interjected.

“Alright,” she nodded.

“If I were to assess his capabilities then it would be difficult, even at this point.”

“I see. Even with Vena’s eyes?”

“Yes,” Hilde nodded. “This is the first time in a while that she’s been unable to comprehend what she saw.”

Hilde described what Vena had told them before. It was that time when he descended. That incident in itself was a first for a hero. Hero summoning was common. A hero to actually descend from the skies was new. Lysis furrowed her brow.

“Lysis, what do you think?” Aislin turned to her. Lysis was also there during the fight between Kiryuu and the siblings from the empire. The prince was incompetent but the same could not be said for the princess. She was a high ranking adventurer. The new hero was more than a match for her.

“I mean no offense but I believe he may be the most powerful hero to ever appear.”

“None taken,” she smiled. “I’m relieved that he ended up in the kingdom.”

Otherworlder heroes tend to stay with the first nation they come into contact with. Their main mission is to remove the threat of the evil god. There’s a reason why otherworlders are treated well because of this opportunity. They are still a force to be reckoned with. Most nobles consider them as military might and they’re not wrong in that aspect.

During her time as a hero, Queen Aislin could be said to be the most powerful among the seven. After each cycle ends, the blessings of the goddesses would diminish. A small bit still remain and they keep most of their abilities. But for Queen Aislin, she still has a strong blessing. The other heroes only have a minor blessing remaining.

Despite that, she was told that the new hero was still stronger. She wants to make sure he would not bare his fangs against the kingdom. Although, that seemed very unlikely at this point. After all, he had already established himself within the populace. Rumors have it that he has a fondness for women. There might be nobles that would try and offer their daughters to him.

But that kind of plan might not work too well. He was already surrounded by very prominent beauties.

“Tying him down to the kingdom, huh?” Aislin muttered.

Hilde coughed at her remark. Oops, she leaked that out, huh? Well, that was also an option. She ended up as a queen. It wouldn’t be much of a surprise if he became a king in the future.

“As a last resort… maybe…” She teased, her playful nature surfacing for a bit.

Hilde reacted but Vena just blinked her eyes. It was a bit peculiar. Vena was the most attached to Kiryuu. That much was obvious, even compared to Shino and Dessa.

“Vena,” Hilde noticed it as well. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

Vena took in a deep breathe to compose herself.

“I love him,” she declared. It was as if those words were addressed to herself. “I believe I do. But at the same time, I think I’m also afraid.”

It was the same when her eyes first triggered. She was confused, seeing strange things around people. It took her a long time before she was able to grasp her ability. She could distinguish a lot of things with her eyes.

She felt afraid of the unknown. His explanation was that he was someone that travels between worlds. That might be able to explain the strange sight. It was awe-inspiring, in good ways and bad.

That night, she gave herself to him. She thought it would finally quell those lingering fears. It didn’t. It did affirm her feelings for him. She truly believes that what she felt for him was love. But she didn’t want to accept that she also felt fear.

“You mean to say that he was lying when he said he was a traveler between worlds?” Aislin asked.

“No, I don’t think he was lying. But I think he was not telling the entire truth either,” Vena didn’t use her eyes at the time because he asked her to trust him. She wanted to trust him.

“If he was hiding it, there must be a good reason,” Aislin nodded.

“Maybe… he’s also afraid,” Hilde said. She remembered that time when he descended. That time, Vena had taken a step back. The expression he made was painful to see. It was as if he was expecting it.

Shino had a strange attachment to him. Dessa was fascinated with the memories she saw. Vena had her eyes. Hilde had… nothing. She even treated him so badly. She also almost killed him.

At the very least, she wanted to tell him her story. It was a traumatic past. But it was a part he was not involved with at all. Even though it was painful to recall, she gave it her all. That day, she felt a heavy burden lifted.

That was enough for her. She already prepared for the consequences. Somewhat. She thought that he would be crazy to forgive her with just that.

But he did. It seemed too good to be true. A scenario straight out of a fairy tail. But she grabbed hold of that moment. That time, she started getting attached to him. Slowly, but surely, her affection for him started to grow.

It might be her way of atoning as well. She would believe him. She wanted to.

She subtly analyzed his words and actions. Unlike the other three, she had no means of seeing him in a special way. He was worried when they asked him about his identity. He picked his words carefully. He didn’t lie but he was definitely hiding some things from them. She believed he had a good reason.

“If you found out who he really is and what he can do? Will you still love him the same?”

A moment of silence befell the room.

“I believe there is nothing to worry about. After all, we are only trying to gauge his power,” Lysis broke that silence.

“That’s right,” Aislin confirmed. “It’s just a habit of precaution. I don’t think there would be any problem for the guild and the kingdom to support our heroes.”

“Heroes?” Hilde raised her brow.

“Yes, we have finished the summoning. We will introduce the summoned hero to the guild soon.”

The summoning was a great success. Usually, the gathered power is meant to summon two heroes. This time, they only had to summon one hero. There was a surplus of magic power offered to the goddesses. For sure, this hero will also be powerful.

It was a girl from another world who was summoned. She was surprised at first but she suddenly broke down and started crying. She kept muttering ‘I was right’ while they tried to calm her down. She was resting in her given quarters for now.

“Leave her to me when the time comes,” Hilde said. “What was her heaven?”

“Jupiter,” Aislin responded. Each hero was blessed by a goddess. Each goddess had a realm called a ‘heaven’. It is believed that magic users call upon the stars to give them power. Heroes call upon the heavens themselves. An insignia appears on a hero’s body to show their heaven.

The new hero was a bit lethargic after she broke down. The castle servants assisted her in bathing and getting dressed. It was at that time that they found the insignia on her shoulder.

“I see,” she nodded. “Vena, can I leave it to you to find out Kiryuu’s heaven?”

“I understand,” she nodded and closed her eyes. She took in a deep breath and sighed. “Please leave it to me.”

They already have an idea thanks to Rionna. Hilde just used this as an excuse to have the two have a one-on-one talk.

“Mistress,” Alexios bowed his head as the goddess entered the audience chamber. “My apologies for calling you. A soul is on its way here.”

“A soul?” Maia sat down on the throne. Myrina bowed her head as she had passed by. “Have the blessings been assigned?”

“Yes,” Alexios nodded. “Aside you and Lady Merope, all the other goddesses have bestowed their blessings. That is, as far as I am aware.”

Maia immediately used her vision on the approaching soul. There was most likely a good reason why Alexios called her. Her sister, Merope, has yet to choose a hero. In her own case, she chose a hero but didn’t impart any blessing. It was a useless thing to do.

“It’s tainted,” she said. “It didn’t go through the purifying process and headed straight here. We might have a troublesome visitor.”

“Erm, could it be that person?” Alexios coughed. He refused to acknowledge that person as a hero but he couldn’t deny the power he wielded.

“Hm,” Maia checked on Kiryuu’s soul. To her surprise, he was heading here as well. “Make that two troublesome visitors. He’s also heading here.”

“What?!” Alexios shook. “H-he didn’t hear me, d-did he?”

“Relax yourselves,” she fixed her posture on the throne.

The two attendants bowed their heads and steeled themselves for the arrival of the souls.

A small blue flame appeared before them. It materialized into the form of a young man. He was dressed in a formal fashion with a black and dark gray color motif. He hunched forward with his hands in his pockets. Black unkempt hair. Black sunken eyes. A malicious grin.

“Dear goddess, I have answered your summons,” Rayis said mockingly.

“You must be mistaken,” The goddess Maia replied immediately. “Begone.”

She made a shooing motion and Rayis was sent flying and out of sight.

Rayis did not expect to be thrown back that far. But he was already prepared for something like this. He still had access to all the abilities he stole. He stabilized himself in midair and flew back towards the goddess. He approached his original position but something hit his face. He hurtled in another direction.

Kiryuu had appeared before them and kicked Rayis away. He turned towards Maia and bowed his head. “I have come to your aid, my goddess.”

Maia’s lips curved a bit into a frown. Here is the culprit, she thought. He was definitely the root of this. There was nothing she could do about it. No matter how abnormal that other soul was, he was an even bigger anomaly. She will just have to interrogate him later. He owes her that much for bringing this mess here.

Suddenly, a blade made of dark energy pierced Kiryuu’s chest. Rayis had appeared behind him, grinning.

“I’ll be taking your blessings now,” he laughed. From his experiments, he had to understand a skill first before he can take it. He normally does it through appraisal. He needs to decipher the name of the ability. Then, he just needs to comprehend what that ability does.

He obtained the ability to appraise and the ability to steal skills through a stroke of luck. He tracked down a reincarnator, a beastfolk slave. He killed that slave and found the orbs inside their body.

He obtained the ability to identify objects and to take some of their properties. He developed those skills no matter what it took. There was a lot of blood on his hands. A simple item identification became complex appraisal. A simple property mimic became a skill deprivation. That was the purpose of building his organization. It was all so he could grow stronger.

During his last struggle, he was able to appraise the previous hero. He comprehended that heroes are given blessings from the goddesses. Those blessings would enhance a person’s stats. They allow them to go beyond the limits of normal humans, even otherworlders. The gap between a hero and a hero candidate was vast. He assumed that this new hero had blessings already. But…

“What blessings?” Kiryuu turned his head to the side and looked at Rayis. He was pointing two fingers at him. A concussive blast blew away Rayis and the sword dissipated.

Maia could see a gaping hole on Kiryuu’s chest. He turned around to where Rayis was and she could actually see through his chest. The hole started to close. She understood that because it wasn’t a physical body that he could do that. It wasn’t a task that could be called easy. She made a mental note not to apply any form of common sense to this person.

“What the fuck are you?!” Rayis immediately appraised Kiryuu when he got up. He could see from his title that he was a hero. But everything else, including his stats, titles, and skills, were marked with [???]. Even his name was barely comprehensible. It said Kiryuu but it seemed scratched all over.

Kiryuu didn’t respond.

“Whatever! I’ll just take it from your corpse!” Rayis shot up into the air. He conjured a hammer crashed it down on Kiryuu’s head. Or so he thought. He whiffed and hit nothing but the ground.

Kiryuu had jumped back to avoid the attack. As the hammer smashed the ground, he jumped on it and kneed Rayis’ jaw. He landed on the ground and immediately followed up with a strong kick to the abdomen.

Rayis staggered backward and jumped away from Kiryuu’s range. He didn’t have a physical body but he still felt pain. He jumped further back and made some distance between them.

Kiryuu didn’t move nor speak. Rayis waited a bit more but it seemed that this hero was not going to take any action.

Rayis pondered for a bit. He kept losing in close quarters combat. That part about the missing blessing nagged at him. He should have appraised him at the very start.

“Is it a counter or a retaliation ability?” Rayis stood still for a while. Nothing happened. He purposely left himself an easy target but his opponent wasn’t at all moving. Kiryuu didn’t even speak a word. He just looked at Rayis with indifference. It was frustrating.

“[Vetrivel!]”

Rayis summoned a golden spear. It has a wide spade for a spearhead. On his command, it flew straight towards Kiryuu.

Kiryuu shifted his body to the side. His hand moved at a blinding speed to grab the shaft. If he hadn’t, the spear would have went straight for the goddess. White energy wrapped around the spear and crushed it. The spear warped and shattered like glass.

“Quite the faithful dog, aren’t you?” Rayis tried to taunt Kiryuu.

Kiryuu raised his hand towards Rayis. A white and gold spear shot out from his palm. In the midst of its trajectory, it shattered. The fragments split into many smaller variations of itself.

“Bastard!” Rayis spat out and created as many barriers as he could. That spear had the ability to ignore a target’s defense stats. For enemies with a weakness to certain attributes, it would take on those properties. It was a very powerful and versatile spear. He used the skill called Weapon Summoning. He had also taken someone else’s knowledge about legendary weapons. He could not produce the original but he was able to create a disposable duplicate.

The spears clashed with the barriers in an explosive clash. As the smoke clears and the dust settles, Rayis could be seen standing but in tatters. He was able to protect his vitals. Many spears pierced his limbs and lower body.

“Impossible!” The only other person that was able to go through his barriers was the previous hero, Aislin Anrion.

“No, you’re still a hero, I suppose,” he muttered. “Even though you’re just a hatchling, you’re still pumped full of abilities given to you, huh?”

Rayis had nothing. He clawed his way to where he was. He was still no match for a hero. He was willing to sacrifice anything and everything for his own sake. He still needed to take revenge on the people that forsook him and threw him away.

He still had an ace up his sleeve. He wasn’t able to use it on Aislin. He probably would not get the chance. She was already battle-hardened. She already had the experience. That was why they were able to defeat the evil god.

This one seemed reliant on his abilities. Rayis had been wide open for a while now but this hero did nothing but wait.

“A counter ability, huh?” Rayis said. "An ability that counters after taking an attack. It probably deals damage equal to the power of the attack. That is troublesome but..."

“[Shades of Sheol!]”

A black magic circle appeared behind Rayis. The space started to tear, revealing a dark mass inside it. Several dark and horrific arms started to crawl out from it. They extended and constricted Kiryuu.

“Tch,” Rayis clicked his tongue. The arms started to drag Kiryuu into the tear. But his expression didn’t change at all. Except his brows that furrowed as he was trying to resist. Rayis wanted to see an expression of fear or panic.

“Whatever,” the arms dragged Kiryuu into the tear. Even if he reached out, there was nothing he could do but sink into the void. The torn space stitch itself shut.

Rayis kept his eyes towards the celestial beings. He felt a bit more satisfied now that the goddess and one of her aides had a panicked look on their faces.

“Alexios, was I hallucinating?”

“No, Mistress,” he replied shakily. His knees were buckling but he managed to keep himself upright. “I never realized that witnessing such a thing would bring this much distress.”

“Where’s your hero n—?”

“Myrina, how about you?” Maia ignored Rayis, who was trying to brag about dispatching the hero. “Myrina?”

Her aide did not respond. She was still poised and ready against any attack.

“Mistress, she has fainted,” Alexios pointed out. Myrina did faint while in a battle-ready stance.

"..."

"It is impressive that she managed to keep her poise."

“I see. I can’t blame her,” Maia understood that Myrina will always choose fight than flight. Her own body wanted to flee. That conflict caused it to shut down instead. “Take her back to her quarters. Both of you rest.”

Rayis was confused. He was completely being ignored. The aide, Alexios, walked over to his unconscious companion. He slung her over his shoulder and proceeded to walk away. This pissed him off.

“You’re not getting away!” his shadow expanded from under him. Its arms tried to reach out and grab Alexios.

“Ah, you’re still here?” Maia forgot that there was still a troublesome visitor remaining. Several chains of light appeared out of thin air and restricted the shadow. It allowed Alexios to get enough distance from them. He exited through a summoned door that immediately vanished.

“The fuck is going on?!” They were panic-stricken a while ago, weren’t they? He disposed of the hero, and they were at awe with his power, right?

But the aide completely ignored him. The goddess forgot he was even there. “I just took out your hero! You were trembling with fear!”

She sighed and crossed her legs. She felt a bit more relaxed now. She could deal with this one, at least. Something tells her that she didn’t need to do anything. She leaned back on her throne as the chains tore the shadow apart.

“I guess you didn’t see it then,” she muttered.

Rayis fell on his knees in anguish. “Saw what?”

She felt a shiver down her spine and trembled slightly. All throughout that ‘fight’, Kiryuu never said anything nor did his expression change. Whatever it was that Rayis did, it dragged Kiryuu out of that realm. Because the tear was behind him, he didn’t see Kiryuu’s expression before he sank into the void.

A grin. It was a grin filled with malice. They recalled that time he bested them. He was naked and used a pillow, of all things. He was playing around. He was toying with them. That’s why it surprised her when he appeared. He seemed different—serious, almost. Then she realized they were all dancing to his tune. A requiem for this unfortunate guest. She looked at him with eyes full of pity.

“Stop looking at me with those eyes!” Rayis spat out. He tried to charge forward but he couldn’t. He looked down and saw those dark arms grabbing hold of his legs. The tear opened underneath him and he started to sink into it.

“Shit! Why?!” He conjured up the golden spear and started stabbing the hands dragging him down. For each limb torn by the spear, two would emerge. They overpowered and dragged Rayis into the void.

Maia watched the tear close. Dead silence. It was uncomfortable. She got up from her throne and exited the audience chamber. She couldn’t really grasp the series of events that occurred. But she didn’t want to think about it. He will definitely return after he was done. She wanted to forget about it and move on. Actually, a nap sounds nice right about now. Maybe a couple more pillows and a fluffy comforter would make it all better.

Rayis found himself face down on the ground. He clutched his head as his vision started to clear.

“Where am I?” He looked around as saw that he was on a flooded plot of land. He could feel the wetness of it. There seem to be some crops planted on this land. He looked up, expecting to see the sky. He saw countless glowing streams and currents across the dark void of space.

He heard footsteps and turned around. He saw the hero approaching him while cracking his knuckles. He was grinning. The way he was expressing a semblance of emotion perturbed Rayis.

“Welcome to the rice fields, motherfucker.”