“Well… that’s a turn,” Rakna said as he looked at the system window in thought. Evelyn tilted her head in confusion but she had indeed recognized the item. She had seen it before in her old house.

“That’s a… chimeric core, right?” He nodded and she hummed. “That’s rare… Which class?”

“Nightmare.”

The succubus almost dropped her toothbrush. She opened her mouth wide. “T-that’s incredibly valuable! Where did you find it?!”

“Is it that impressive? It’s only the third one in the classes.”

“Of course! In the first place, even the most basic of chimeric cores are at least Orange Items. The Lurid Class ones are generally Purple. Above that, Nightmare and Naraka are Red but they’re also much rarer than regular items of the same category. Revelation Cores are Gold and the End Cores are said to rival the Philosopher Stone; one of the few items speculated to surpass Gold rarities.”

“Uh,” Rakna reacted coolly. After everything that he had gotten through sheer luck, in his personal spectrum, this core was maybe just around 7/10 in terms of actual rarity. “I just found out I have a use for it but is it any good to you?”

She waved her hands whilst shaking her head. “No, no, no! I wouldn’t be able to do anything with it at all! I’m far too inexperienced to get anything out of it without blowing myself up.”

Rakna snorted. “All right then. Let’s see what it does then,” he uttered and selected ‘yes’. The orb promptly melted into his gloves like some sort of living organism. They flashed black and red for a short moment and he felt their shape change somewhat around his hands.

Once done, the gloves had gained the same color pattern as the orb had and there were very small additions to the fabric; as if minuscule red diamonds had been weaved in it.

❮ ◈ ❯

Designation: Armor/Gloves

Name: Wight Andante

Rarity: Red

Durability: 100%

Effects: +100 (L)DEF / +50 ATT (Unarmed)

Perks:

- Eion Core Boiler: This item autonomously generates energy that is incidentally able to rebuild it at a very high pace when it is damaged. The fragmented Chimeric Core integrated into it similarly generates mana and stamina and stores them for the user to employ at will. It is disconnected from the wearer’s Mana Pool and is thus not included in any spell cost.

Current Mana & Stamina Capacity: 2 500/2 500

Current Regeneration: 5/Min

- Nightmare Bite: When used on a target within five minutes after their death, extracts 10 Exp and stores it. The consequent amass can either be transferred directly to the wearer or anyone else it touches, or be converted into suitable energy for the Eion Core Boiler at a 1:2 ratio.

Current Capacity: 0/500 Exp

Note: The normal rule of level gap applies and no experience will be extracted if the user is five levels above the target.

- Symphony Imprint: Whoever wears these gloves can wield Sonata at will. Additionally, the energetic connection between the two will increase the energy production of Eion whenever they touch. Effects: +100 ATT to Sonata & +50 DEF & ATT to Wight Andante.

- Eion Strings: Weave sturdy strings of Eion from the fingertips of the gloves. They are scorching hot and can easily tear through flesh and metals. They last thirty minutes and are capable of repairing themselves at the cost of longevity.

Max Length: 10 meters.

Cooldown: 10 seconds.

Note: Evolvable.

❮ ◈ ❯

‘It jumped up from Blue to Red,’ Rakna thought. ‘It’s even higher than Sonata now… Which makes sense considering the first perk. The Bite is interesting… but it’s basically bonus experience long as I give myself the time to use it. Though it can also mean an additional grand of MP or STA.’

“{That’s an incredible amount to have at your level,}” Higure commented. “{Especially mana. It’s a lot more practical than stamina for most people. You included. With this… there’s practically no chance for you to run out of mana for a long while.}”

‘Well…’

“{Yes, yes, I know,}” she continued before he could say anything. “{You will probably use this even bigger mana pool to do crazier things. So, the only thing that changed here is probably the scale of what you can do.}”

‘Hm… I wonder what’s the maximum optimal number of wolves I can summon now…’

Higure sighed exasperatedly. That’s exactly what she meant.

“Did you just fuse two items into one?” Evelyn finally asked after the shock of what she had seen settled down. “How does that even work? It’s high-level transmutation…”

Rakna glanced at his gloves and mused, “You know what? I might as well tell you all today.”

“Eh?”

He smiled faintly and looked at her in the eyes. “Let’s get everyone together and then I’ll tell you who made these gloves.”

* * *

Half an hour later, after Flavia woke up and Rakna reassured her everything was going well, they went out to a restaurant close to the Pavilion and called Allan and Marie on the way. They arrived at the same time and ordered their breakfast.

“Hey, Rak, you got Symphony along with the Poraxidium?” The blond asked curiously as he noticed Andante, though a bit different from what he remembered.

Rakna nodded. “I figured it would be a good idea.”

“No kidding. That means you’re wearing Allegro, right? Sheesh, that thing is as freaky as always.”

“What are you two talking about?” Marie asked curiously and he chuckled.

“Why don’t you show them?” Allan answered by redirecting the question to the therian.

Rakna sighed and pressed on his watch. Without even him needing to stand up, Allegro manifested itself and he swiped his hand across his face right on cue for Scherzo to form. When the hood was on and the purple ellipses lighted up, the people who hadn’t seen it yet, namely Marie and Evelyn, were taken aback by both the eeriness and quality of the outfit.

“There; enough,” Rakna said and quickly retracted the whole armor before anyone other than his group could see it. Thankfully, there weren’t many people because of how early it was and he had made sure to get there stealthily so that no paparazzi would stalk him.

“As cool as always,” Allan snickered. “So? Why are we here? To continue climbing the Plateaus?”

“Yes,” Rakna nodded. “But I also wanted to tell you all about something rather important,” he said and an item flashed in his hand, which he calmly placed on the table upright.

“Eternal Night?” Evelyn was the first to comment on the Cross that he had pulled out.

“Who is that?” Marie scowled. She had barely any knowledge of things outside her Dungeon other than the most common topics.

“A sort of all-mighty god,” Allan explained. “Remember; it was on the news when Rak was meeting the mayor. That’s the god the Basilica believes in. But, Rak, why are you showing this to us?”

Rakna snorted and connected everyone telepathically. “Alexa, do I have the clearance to access the information about the Kind Demon possessed by the System?”

[Affirmative. Eva personally allowed it,] the AI’s voice echoed in everyone’s minds.

“Then tell us; where does he come from? What is his name? And… what is mine?”

[The being known as the Kind Demon, universally referred to as the God of Eternal Night, has been confirmed to have been raised on the planet labeled ᛤᛡ.63.5B; commonly known by its inhabitants as ‘Earth’.]

Allan and Flavia widened their eyes in shock. “Wait a damn second! Is she talking about-”

“Let her finish,” Rakna merely said and the blond closed his mouth.

[The real name of the Kind Demon was provided to the database by the Basilica’s founders shortly after they touched the Eternal Night Cross. His name is Arimane R. Blade, descending from the last clan of Life Hunters; the Reigen.]

“That’s…” Allan was already starting to have a million thoughts. To Evelyn or Marie, this name did not mean much since they were not previously privy to it but he perfectly knew it. There was no chance for him to ever forget it since he had read it so many times in history books.

“The founder of Aurora… the most infamously acclaimed killer in human history,” Flavia remarked with a whispery voice. She glanced at Rakna who was sitting with his arms crossed. There was no way she wouldn’t make the connection. She had already suspected it before after all.

There was one thing that her grandfather, a general from the first stages of Aurora, told her after he met Rakna’s uncle. It echoed in her mind right at that moment: “That man… I am positive to have seen him somewhere before… His poise, his gaze… There’s only one person I met who matches these traits. Could he be…? No, it must be a coincidence.”

[The Kind Demon had no relatives from what was known. Until recently.]

‘It wasn’t a coincidence, grandpa,’ Flavia thought with a wry smile and Alexa continued.

[He had an adoptive nephew whom he trained and gave his own name to,] she stated and by that point, Allan had caught on. He looked at his childhood friend in shock and the conclusive answer came right after, [The name of that nephew is… Rakna Xiorra Blade.]

“Holy shit!” Allan shouted right away and the others got so startled by it that they could only nod at the sentiment behind it. “Dude! Are you telling me that all those times I was training under the greatest war criminal and hero ever?! Who also somehow became a God?!”

Rakna sighed. “Clap it down, will you? Why don’t you go out and shout it from the rooftops while you’re at it?” He deadpanned and the blond blanked. He put his hand on his forehead and leaned back on his chair.

“The worst is that I’m not as surprised as I should,” he grumbled. “I should have figured when you said that the old man was the only successful case of an Eion super-soldier. Who else could it be other than the guy who unironically drove governments to give him titles as edgy as ‘Demon’ and ‘Earth Conqueror’?”

Flavia chuckled. “I agree. I already suspected it myself… the God part was completely out of any of my possible guesses though. Is that really true?”

The therian shrugged. “I confirmed it with my own eyes.”

“That’s… certainly unexpected,” Evelyn uttered dazedly. “I don’t know very much about the Kind Demon. My family never had interactions with the Basilica. But the number of times I’ve heard of him is honestly terrifying… Wait, so is he the one who made your gloves?”

Rakna nodded at her. “Yes, that thing you saw earlier wasn’t transmutation at all. It was something he invented himself on Earth with nothing but technology and his genius.”

“I will be frank… I have no idea how shocked I should be here,” Marie admitted. “I don’t know who the Kind Demon is in the slightest.”

Nyx let out a small smile. “Imagine a man that can topple down worlds with a snap of his fingers and most likely annihilate this entire System with a single spell.”

“Yes…?”

“Now, take what you imagined, make it a hundred times stronger, and it’s essentially his uncle in a nutshell,” the goddess said amusingly whilst pointing at Rakna with her thumb.

The lamia blinked. “Wow… I think I got the idea now. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Allan chortled and rested his head on his palm. “If the old man is that overpowered, why does he not just bail us out of here then? Punching monsters is fun and all but I’d prefer to go back home where there isn’t a risk of dying, you know?”

“He can’t. I got to talk to him, it was a bit of a complicated process, but long story short, he told me to find a way to escape the System or dismantle whatever method they use to hide from him.”

“Tch, so we’re still at square one. We have to continue climbing until we get somewhere. How long will that even take?”

“As much as it takes,” Rakna declared as he retrieved the cross. He breathed in and took everyone aback by showing a rare smile. “One step at a time. For now… let’s get to level 100.”