After getting enough rest, the group set out into the forest, heading for the Statue as the sun was starting to go down; a short while left before sunset.

As the team of twenty people or so ran through the forest, Leia raised her voice, “Hey, guys, what’s the plan to fight the eagle anyway?”

“We have to pin it down,” Rakna immediately replied. “If we want to deal with this as efficiently as possible, we have to stop him from taking off somehow. We could use Nyx and Flavia’s help to do that but I think a more… ‘physical’ approach is needed.”

“Such as?” Dan inquired and Rakna looked around for a second before signaling everyone to stop with a raised fist.

“You,” he pointed at one of the members of the Wing Walkers.

“Me?” The man raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“What’s your name?”

“Bennett. Bennett Walker,” he answered.

“Then, Bennett, is it all right if I ask you to give me your weapon?”

“Eh?” Bennett didn’t know what to say. He turned toward Leis who nodded at him. He then took the weapons he had attached to his back. They were a pair of miniature scythes connected by a chain from the handles. Some just called it Chain Blades while its more official name was Dual Kusarigama.

“Sure, I mean, I don’t think I can do much anyway. But I don’t want to sound cocky but these are hard to use,” Bennett said as he handed them. “I’m the only one with these because I trained for years with it.”

“No worry,” Rakna said and grabbed the handles of the weapon. He first judged the weight of the two blades before twirling them with ease. “I know how to use these as well,” he said and Bennett could only shrug.

“So? What are you going to do with those?” Leis asked what was in everyone’s mind.

“I said that we needed a way to pin it down,” Rakna replied and put the Kusarigama on the ground before pulling out his scarf, from which Pronos jumped out with a curious face.

At that point, no one knew what he was doing but Rakna, on the other hand, was perfectly aware of the System window that had appeared in front of him. “Yes,” he said to apparently no one and before the onlookers could ask him about it, they suddenly watched dumbfounded as the scythes shined before merging with the scarf.

Then, without transforming Sonata, Rakna took a look at the description of the new form of his weapon.

❮ ◈ ❯

Designation: Blade/Dual Chain-Blade

Name: Azure Sonata

Rarity: Blue

Attack power: +50

Durability: 100/100

Perks:

- Intertwined Miniature Eion Systems: The weapon possesses memory of form and is able to switch from one form to another with an Eion energy influx as the trigger.

Currently available: Scarf, Guandao, Bow, Kusarigama.

- Eion Chain: By decomposing the chain into small segments of energy, it can be put under great strain and stretch for a good distance until it reaches its breaking point.

- Oscillation Blade (Bladed forms only): Through oscillation, the blade becomes ten times sharper and can generate heat.

Note: Evolvable.

❮ ◈ ❯

‘This is even better than I expected,’ he thought before wearing his scarf again and letting Pronos get back under it. Then, he suddenly got an idea and used Appraisal on the ‘evolvable’ note.

❮ ◈ ❯

Weapon: Azure Sonata

Number of current evolutions: 2

Requirements for next evolution:

- Any weapon with a rarity of Green or higher

- Host Level 20

Note: Currently, Azure Sonata cannot assimilate weapons that are too dissimilar in size. Additionally, keep in mind that one type of weapon cannot be absorbed more than once.

❮ ◈ ❯

‘I see, that explains why certain weapons started glowing after I reached level 10,’ he commented internally and looked back at the group. “I’m done. Let’s go,” he declared and started running toward the Statue again; the rest following him shortly after.

“What did you do exactly?” Leis asked as he caught up to him.

Rakna glanced at him for a second. “You’ll see. In any case, let’s continue the conversation we were having. First of all, I have an idea on how to pin it down to the ground but for that to happen, I also need Aquila to get low enough. There’s no way to tell for sure if he’s going to fly around us while shooting magic at us.”

Leis nodded at that. “I agree. It will also be very hard to attack it from a distance because of that defense. Our only chance to hurt it is through blades.”

“Correct. To do that, I was planning something but I would need all of you to distract him while I prepare for it,” Rakna said.

“For how long?”

“Five minutes at worst.”

Leis frowned and closed his eyes in thought. He really didn’t like the idea of entrusting the lives of his team to someone he barely knew but Rakna had proven to not only be resourceful but also reliable.

“Fine… five minutes. If after five minutes I judge it to be dangerous for my gang, I’ll retreat.”

“I’m okay with that,” Rakna agreed without batting an eye and stopped for a second time. He gazed at the statue in the distance and estimated the distance. “It’s around a kilometer away. Let’s separate here. You’ll reach the statue in about three minutes. That will be the cue for you to start the five-minute timer.”

“Got it.”

“Also… [Call of Fangs],” Rakna uttered and four level-ten shadow wolves emerged next to him. He crouched next to them and whispered something.

The four wolves nodded then ran toward Nyx who almost jerked in surprise. They surrounded her and sat down like good dogs.

The former goddess looked at Rakna inquisitively, which he returned with a snort. “They’re under your command for six minutes. In other words, you have around three minutes to fight with them. With your shadows, you should be able to do wonders.”

At his words, her eyes widened before her mind started going through everything, she could do with these wolves’ ability to meld into shadows. “I’ll use them well, thank you.”

Rakna nodded at her and turned into a wolf. “Flavia, if everything goes well, I will need your help so be prepared for the signal. Don’t worry, you won’t miss it.”

“I understand. Don’t do anything reckless,” she replied.

Rakna paused for a second. “Well, that will be rather difficult. But I’ll try,” he said before running off at full speed, leaving behind an exasperated Flavia and a sniggering Allan.

“Let’s hurry up,” Leis said to everyone. “Let’s not waste any time.”

* * *

While running, Rakna activated his Stealth skill so that Aquila wouldn’t notice him. And after two minutes of running through the foliage, the skill’s level had already increased to 4. ‘Is this the effect of the Eyes of the Soul?’ He wondered.

[That would be half-correct, Rakna,] Alexa stated when she heard his thoughts. [The Eyes of the Soul do indeed increase the speed at which you improve on new skills and abilities. But in certain cases, there is what we call a Correction Basis. In other words, it’s when a Host has already enough experience to perform a skill at high levels of proficiency but hadn’t unlocked it yet.]

‘I see. Because I already more or less knew how to kill my presence before unlocking Stealth, I got to level it up faster than normal.’

[Correct.]

‘Good to know,’ he added and stopped running when reached his destination; the back of the Eagle God’s Statue, in a dead angle of Aquila’s sight.

Pronos came out from under Sonata and hissed whilst trying to see the top of the immense statue in front of them. “Not yet, little guy,” Rakna whispered while lying down in a shadowy spot behind a tree. “Let’s wait for the others to engage… and then we’ll try to be like a bird ourselves.”

When Pronos registered his master’s words, he snapped his head upward with an expression that could only be translated to one thing: “Wut?!”

* * *

Meanwhile, Aquila looked down and watched as the group of humans came out of the forest. With his eyesight, he could make out every single detail about them and he also spotted the girl who was releasing a divine presence.

But then, his eyes darted but he couldn’t find what he was looking for. ‘Where is the wolf the clown was talking about? Did they separate?’

As he was thinking that, he remained still on top of the statue of the God he served. Even as they all approached the exit located between the Eagle God’s Statue’s claws, he still stayed motionless.

* * *

At the same time, Leis was getting anxious. He was getting closer and closer to what seemed to be a large wooden gate at the statue’s feet, but Aquila wasn’t moving at all.

‘Were we wrong about this? Do we really just need the souls?’ He thought and signaled everyone to standby as he got close to the gate alone. He slowly reached for it and touched the old-looking wood.

Immediately after, dozens of small spheres of light came out of his chest. He stepped back in shock and let go of the door but the spheres continued to emerge one after another. They would then go through the gate and disappear.

When all of them were gone, there was still nothing happening. When Leis was about to just try and push the gate’s doors again, it started glowing strongly and he was forced to cover his eyes.

But, without looking directly at it, and keeping his eyes down, he saw the shadow of the gate moving as well as the sound that went along with it. ‘It’s opening,’ he thought and as he began to believe that it really might not be required to fight Aquila, a voice shattered his hopes.

“{My congratulations, humans. You have opened the gate,}” it spoke in their minds. “{Now, pay the price for the lives you hunted or survive this ordeal.}”

Less than a second after these words, the same voice boomed across the island. This time it wasn’t just inside their head, it came from the very top of the statue, “[Jade Rouse]”

Following nothing but his instinct, Leis turned around and kicked the ground as fast and hard as he could. He got away from the gate and without a warning, a jade-colored pillar struck the area where he was standing before.

If one looked closely at it, they would see that the pillar was in fact a very compacted zone of raging winds. Leis rolled on the ground as the magic struck behind him and sent a blast of wind on his back.

He grunted and recovered by slamming his hand on the ground and vaulting back onto his feet with the members of his gang rushing toward him.

“Well, shit…” Allan muttered as he looked up. Nyx and Flavia mimicked him and their expressions sunk as they saw the large eagle gliding above them with his wings fully deployed, spanning over at least 20 meters.

Aquila flapped his wings and the entire group had to be careful to not be blown away by the wind caused by that simple action. The eagle’s golden eyes glowed as he gazed at them.

“Now, humans… Struggle for your life!”