“No way… Rak, is that you?” Allan raised his voice dumbfounded and the wolf looked back at him with a blank look.

“Who else would it be?” He said and slowly initiated his shapeshift. For the onlookers, it was quite a special experience to see the process of the change from lupine to human physiology.

They also noticed that during the transformation, a flash of light covered Rakna’s body and when it was gone, he was already human again and fully clothed. Well, to be exact, he looked humanoid again. He still had a tail on his back and a pair of ears on his head.

He grunted and put a hand on his neck before cracking it. “This needs a little more work. Going back and forth makes my body numb,” he commented as if it was the most normal thing ever. He then turned toward Leis and fished out something from his spatial ring before throwing it to him.

Leis woke up from his daze and clumsily caught the object. When he looked at it, he saw that it was a healing potion. “That’s a tier 9 potion. It’s probably better than what you have. I asked my AI; you can dilute it in water and share it. The effects will be lessened but enough for less important injuries.”

“I-you… thanks… It’s not like we really need to know now, do we?” He said with an awkward smile and started telling his subordinates to give all the water they had, which mainly came from the cafeteria of the school. They most likely had gathered some provisions before going out into the forest.

‘A sensible idea,’ Rakna thought while walking toward his friends, ignoring the very obvious stares he was receiving from everyone. ‘I should have done the same… However, I don’t feel as much hunger as I should. Odd. Is it because of the heart I ate?’ While he was pondering the question, he was once again hugged when he got close to Flavia.

He grunted. ‘This time at least, it’s not a crushing one but more a, dare I say so, normal hug. Though I doubt any hug from this woman could ever be considered normal,’ he commented internally and waited for Flavia to slowly step back.

Rakna then looked at her, then Allan, and ultimately found himself staring at a stranger next to them. He didn’t need to open his mouth for her to get the hint but he still asked, “And you are?”

“Nyx. That’s my name,” she replied very succinctly.

“I’m afraid I’m going to hear more than just that. You’re not from our school. Not a student, not a teacher, not a staff, and you certainly don’t look like a parent that was caught up because of a very unfortunately timed meeting. So, I’ll reformulate, where do you come from?”

This time, silence reigned for a moment. It didn’t look like Nyx was willing to answer. Or, to be exact, considering the brief downcast expression Rakna saw on her face, she herself didn’t know how to answer.

“You don’t know?” Rakna tilted his head and that caught Allan and Flavia’s attention.

Nyx sighed exhaustingly. “I do know what caused my presence here. Or rather, I’d say who. But I do not know exactly how I arrived here. I… fought someone and I was defeated. When I was at his mercy, he chose to seal me for some reason. After that, it’s a complete blank. The first thing I saw when I woke up was a school building in front of me, a forest behind me, a horde of kobolds around me, and a weird notification box in front of my eyes.”

“You were… sealed?” Flavia slowly reiterated. “Does that mean you come from a place where magic exists?”

Nyx snorted. “Indeed, I do. But when I came to myself, most of my powers had been completely drained or extracted from my body. The only thing I have left from my prime is my shadow control that this… Nirvana Skill gives me.”

“Oh, fucking hell, another one,” Allan grumbled and Nyx looked at him weirdly.

“I see…” Rakna mused for a bit and his ears folded unconsciously. Flavia suddenly felt the urge to stroke them but did her best to restrain herself.

“So, anyway, Rak. Does that and that mean that I was right earlier?” Allan rapidly recovered from his temporary depression and pointed at his friend’s new appendages.

“Hm? You’re referring to your werewolf guess?”

“Yeah, that.”

Rakna shrugged. “I’d say you’re right. My race is for a fact marked as Nine-Tailed Werewolf. I can’t say that I’m human anymore.”

“But why?” Flavia inquired. “What happened?”

“During the Initiation, I awakened my Nirvana Skill, and let’s say that one of its effects did this to me. I don’t mind the change. Especially since I think it saved my life.”

“How come we didn’t see your tails and ears before though?” Allan followed up.

“Item. Put an illusion over me. That Gray guy must have seen through it. I didn’t put it back before coming in here because I simply have no mana left. Although I can cover the cost with my mana regen, I apparently need 10 MP up front to activate it. I could use a potion but it’d be a waste considering we have time to rest.”

“Uh, makes sense.”

Rakna grabbed one of the pliable chairs placed against the wall and sat down on it. “So? What happened on your way here? As I said, I didn’t attract as much attention as I wanted and there are a lot more injured than I expected.”

Allan directly sat on the ground with a sigh. “At first, it was a piece of cake. Your wolves, I think, aggroed most of them and that’s when we started going in. But the closer we got, the more goblins started coming, and eventually, the eagles went full onslaught on us. As planned, teach began to keep them away but we were cut off by a hobgoblin. I did manage to get rid of it pretty fast but Flavia couldn’t go on anymore and three more hobgoblins were coming in our direction.”

“Ah, those,” Rakna exclaimed insouciantly. “They were entangled with my shadow wolves. They’re all dead if you’re interested.”

Allan snorted in amusement. “Of course, they are. Anyway, we were pretty much done for. Or, well, you could say that we were almost forced to abandon a lot of people behind. But then, shadows started impaling every monster around and she appeared,” he pointed at Nyx. “She practically saved our asses. Then, your wolves stalled the hobgoblins for us and we managed to get inside in the end.”

Rakna cringed a bit internally. It was a bit too close for comfort in his opinion. It was a plan he had proposed and if it wasn’t for a powerful third party, it would have in essence failed miserably. He looked at Nyx, who was still standing still without moving, and she looked back. “Thank you for helping them. It wouldn’t have been pretty without your involvement.”

“What goes around comes around,” she replied offhandedly. “I do hope you will be able to return the favor one day.”

Flavia and Allan laughed lightly as they watched two similarly aloof people exchange gratitude and pleasantries. Not long after that, Leis approached their group with Leia, Gantt, and Dan in tow. The rest of the gang still resting and treating each other.

Everyone sat in a circle and Nyx’s expression twitched as she was finally forced to take a seat if she did not want to stand out like a sore thumb.

“Thanks for the potion, Xiorra. The more serious cases are entirely out of danger now,” it was the first thing Leis said.

“No problem,” Rakna responded.

“Sooo… what do we do now?” Leia spoke up and they looked at her. “W-what? I’m just asking. Are we going to get started on killing the damn birds or not?”

“Well, we still have time, don’t we?” Dan remarked. “The quest’s time limit is 12 hours. It started this morning and we still have around 8 hours to go. I say we rest an hour or two, then get to business. If everything goes well, I say we can wipe them out in a few hours. Though, I have to tell you; I did a quick inventory and we don’t have much firepower left. Only two grenades left, and something like 400 rounds collectively. Do we want to save them for Aquila or not?”

Rakna shook his head. “Don’t bother. One of your guns has around 20 to 30 attack value. I forgot to show it to you, so I might as well do it now,” he uttered and prompted the system to share the status of Aquila with everyone around him.

Leis breathed in sharply when he saw the numbers. “No wonder you wanted help…” He said and the three people at his side nodded. Nyx frowned at the status but other than that didn’t seem to be visibly unsettled.

Rakna shrugged. “Conclusion; no need to save rounds. But keep those two grenades. The strength of the explosion may not be enough to injure it, but the blast might come in useful. Also,” he added and waved his hand. His ring flashed and a pile of guns appeared to the side. “These are the ones I took from Herts. Serve yourself.”

Leis widened his eyes a bit at the sudden appearance of the firearms. He glanced at the ring around Rakna’s finger but ultimately decided to not ask about it. “Thank you. That will help. You don’t want to keep some for yourself?”

“Long story short; I hate guns.”

Leis’ group blinked in surprise at his response.

“But… you’re fine with giving them to us?” Leia asked curiously.

“I don’t like to project my moral stances onto others. You can use as many guns as you want, I won’t mind as long as you’re not some piece of trash using them to oppress others,” Rakna said with a voice devoid of emotion.

“I see…” Leis slowly nodded. “Well, on the topic of not saving bullets, I’m okay with it. It’s not like I can ignore this thing’s monstrous defense and say that bullets will somehow be useful. It will be more worthwhile to use them on the eagles here.”

“With this out of the way, I have to ask,” Rakna glanced at Nyx. “Are you willing to help us or not?”

“You have a weird sense of humor,” she retorted blandly. “Of course, I will. I’m already involved. It would just hurt my pride to back out now.”

“Great,” Leis said and stood up. “In that case, let’s resume the fighting in one hour and a half. It should be enough for everyone to recover well.”

“No objection here,” Rakna said and Leis’ group went back to their gang. He then took out a second healing potion which he lobbed toward Allan who caught it with surprise. He looked at the small potion and gaped.

“You had a second one?”

“I have three. Same thing for the two other types.”

Allan groaned and raised his hand in surrender. “All right. I hereby swear that I will never, ever, question anything you do anymore.”

“You say that every month,” Rakna retorted and Flavia giggled. Even Nyx looked amused with the corner of her lips pulling slightly upward. “In any case, drink that to heal your arm. We don’t want one of our main fighters to be injured in due time.”

“Yeah, yeah, thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Now, I’m going to take a nap. It has already been too long since the last one,” Rakna said oddly seriously and Flavia flinched. “Wake me up when it’s time.”

“Sure thing,” Allan nodded and Nyx closed her eyes in acknowledgment.

* * *

Gray supported his chin with his hand as he sat on top of Aquila’s head. The giant eagle didn’t seem to care about it; at least that would be the first impression if one didn’t pay attention to the faint twitches.

“So, those kids are ready to decimate all of the monsters even after I assembled all of them,” the robot clown spoke with his mouth displaying a flat line. “I guess you can’t fight the power of an S+ potential,” he mumbled. “Doing more than this would be against the rules. And he still has those wolves under his command and he hasn’t even transformed yet-! Woah!”

Aquila abruptly leaned to the side and Gray panicked as he started floating in front of the eagle’s glaring eyes.

“Hey, hey, calm down! I’m sorry, okay? It’s not like there’s a better seat anywhere close. You’re both more comfortable and better placed than any other.”

Aquila huffed and opened his mouth, “My head is most certainly not a place for you to rest and complain about your job.”

“Meh, semantics.”

“Also, lazy clown, I’m sensing more than just a werewolf down there,” the divine avatar said.

“Hm?” Gray tapped his head with his cane. “Oh? Do you mean that girl?”

“I don’t know who you are referring to but there’s a divine presence in that building. Who is it?”

“I thought you knew. Being an Envoy and all. I thought that girl was a sort of scheme from the gods in order to do… I don’t know, something?”

“So, you don’t know either,” Aquila summarized and Gray shrugged. “How peculiar though.”

“What is?”

“Her presence is divine; that is a fact. It is also true that her divine power is very weak. However, I would call that ‘weakened’ rather than just ‘weak’. Even her soul seems to have been put under extreme harm and forcibly reduced to this state.”

“Oh? Then by how much?”

“…I cannot tell.”

“Then what is there to worry about?” Gray spun on his feet to look down at the school. “Maybe she’s just the child of a god and a human. That would explain her odd power signature.”

“You got me wrong, clown,” Aquila scoffed. “I’m saying that I can’t tell from how high she could have fallen. In other words, her divine energy at her prime has high chances to be considerably stronger than what I can even perceive.”

“Oh...”

“Indeed, clown. Indeed…”