“Okay…” Rakna rasped out between breaths, his mind thoroughly exhausted in ways he could have never imagined possible since he had his brain augmented. “So… get it?” He asked tiredly, using the table to support himself.

In the first place, he was the last person someone should ask for communication advice. He was the kind of person to force someone else into his flow, or unassumingly follow another’s. He was more accustomed to analyzing than conducting a conversation.

Lilia looked deep in thought until she eventually replied, “Maybe?”

“…good enough,” the therian muttered. All he wanted was to wash himself off this burden. “While we are on this, you could also try to say more than a few words when you speak. You know, aside from your writing messages. It could help. A lot. It also could have; especially me.”

“No,” she instantly refused.

“…why?”

“Weird.”

“…right. My fault for asking,” Rakna deadpanned and sighed, straightening himself. “Can I ask you about something else then? I need info on a couple of things if you have it.”

She blinked and waved her hand to signal him to go on.

“First of all, do you know about Plateau Zero?”

Lilia’s expression shifted instantly, her eyes sharpening. “Why?”

Rakna calmly raised his hand, “Before you get any ideas, I must do something there. I’m currently already looking for entrances to that place. I just wanted to know if you ever encountered them or if you have knowledge about its inner workings.”

She stared at him silently for a moment. “…nothing,” she said. “Difficult to find. Strong guards. Ask for status,” she explained in succession, using more than two words for the first time.

“They ask for your status to get in?” Rakna scowled and she nodded positively. ‘Then I suppose it really was a good idea to ask Eva for that…’ He thought and mused. “Has the Throne of Glory ever tried doing something against them? Our Leader is the second-ranked Host, right? I feel like that would be something he’d at least get around investigating.”

The quiet woman shook her head again. “Zero System against us. Kratos avoids strong Hosts.”

“Well, shit,” the therian clicked his tongue. “What the brat said about it being well-hidden to the point it evaded her surveillance was not exaggerated after all.”

“{Hm, would Bora Quaso have more control over the Plateau than Eva expects?}” Fray voiced out his doubts and Rakna sighed internally.

“Fine. I’ll wing it,” he shrugged. “What about Soul Beasts? Would you recommend getting one?”

Lilia tilted her head. “No. Inefficient.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Weaker. Soul Beast is half your power. Lost if it dies.”

Rakna frowned. “True. I didn’t think of it that way. If the Soul Beast dies, it’s an important part of your soul lost forever.”

“Ah, but,” Lilia softly exclaimed. “Powerful race; worth it. Exclusive skills too.”

“{As she says,}” Fray commented. “{If there is a specific aspect in which you lack, you can bolster it up by choosing an appropriate Beast to make a contract with. Additionally, powerful races such as dragons will always grow strong even if they are technically weaker versions of Soul Beasts. In that regard, the Summoning which relies on luck, if it even works, is far more disadvantaging.}”

‘Did you have a Soul Beast while you were alive?’ Rakna asked back.

“{I did not. I reached my Manifestation. Considering my rather unique skill set, it was the optimal choice to aim for something complementing it. No Soul Beast could have synergized with my Tale Magic. And if there were, the rarity would make it unviable.}”

‘Makes sense,’ the therian nodded. “All right. Thank you, Lilia. It was…” He paused for a second and cleared his throat. “Fun… talking to you, I think? Anyway, I’ll be going. See you next week for this obviously unfair test of mine,” he jested and headed to the door.

“Hm,” she subtly hummed. “Bye-bye.”

Rakna smiled faintly at the adorable sendoff.

* * *

After he was out, he considered trying his hand out at a Summoning Ritual. He had plenty of money for it, after all. And he apparently had the ability to use his Manifestation already. And that either meant he could once again cheat the system, or it would be impossible for him to get a Soul Beast.

After deliberating, he ultimately chose not to. He wasn’t too keen on getting a new companion all of a sudden. However… he had the perfect candidate for a Contract instead.

‘As for the others, I’ll let them choose. Though I certainly don’t have enough Talys for everyone,’ he thought as he quickly returned to Nebula. ‘100 million for a Contract is a bit much. My discount should work for this, right? But for the others, it might not be accepted to share… I’ll have to wait for the earnings of Harvest to come in, or ask Kara.’

With that settled, he gathered everyone and led them outside Athens, where he made a platform for everyone to stand on with his GHB skill. The green hexagonal shield appeared above the water and, as he had once done before, Rakna enclosed everyone within a closed structure.

“I’m going to try something by the way,” he immediately said afterward, as if he had been waiting for them to willingly enter a trap of his making.

The group began sweating nervously. “Please, tell me it’s not something dangerous…” Allan nearly begged on the spot. “When you say ‘I’m going to try something’, it’s the ‘I’m going to make a nuclear bomb with magic’ or ‘let’s try to forge a weapon that explodes with every strike’ kind of trying.”

“Well, there’s no explosion involved in this one,” the therian replied a bit too calmly.

“…that doesn’t convince any of us, devourer of mine,” Higure shot back.

“Don’t worry. Now, let me focus. [Valkal,]” Rakna intoned and everyone instantly felt the whole buffer shield being struck from the back and shoved forward by a few meters. The one who caused it merely let out a relaxed hum. “I see. I thought too fast and not clear enough.”

“…Rak, what the heck is ‘thought too fast’ supposed to mean?”

“It cannot be a good sign in my opinion,” Natsu said blankly.

“Let me try again,” the therian ignored them and took a deep breath. “[Valkal,]” he repeated and the improvised shuttle abruptly began to fly forward without any prior sign of acceleration.

The scenery flashed by rather fast but it was nothing startling for anyone there. Astraea was even eagerly admiring the beautiful sight of the blue horizon.

“Uh… it’s actually… fine?” Allan said hesitantly.

“Wait, I think I got the hang of it. I’ll accelerate now.”

“Of course, I spoke too fast,” the blond hung his head down, and soon enough, they felt the shuttle moving faster and faster. But nothing shocking happened. When it reached its apparent maximum speed, it was still slower than what Rakna could achieve with his wings, or even what most of his companions could if they went full throttle. Nevertheless, it was considerably fast.

“How are you doing this?” Nyx asked curiously. “It doesn’t feel any different from usual, and I can’t sense any sort of energy propelling us. And it’s certainly not the shield itself.”

“My Valkals; my tails are pushing it right now,” the therian answered with a small frown on his face, it took more concentration than he expected. “They aren’t that strong, but what they can do is move as fast as I think. They don’t have the concept of momentum on the Reverse Side, but they also don’t have a concept of physical recoil. Thus, I can make this thing go pretty fast like that.”

“No, no, no; I didn’t understand a thing of what you just said,” Allan waved his hand around.

“However, the limit to this is when the resulting speed becomes higher than the pushing force. In this case, my Valkals will phase through the buffer shield altogether because they can’t interact with something whose Reverse Version is at a higher stage of displacement,” Rakna explained and paused to take a look at everyone staring at him. “Get it?”

““No.””

“Oh… ok.”

* * *

Ten minutes later, they all jumped down and landed on the water, which was instantly frozen by one step from Rakna. The latter also raised an eyebrow as he sensed a more than familiar energy several miles away.

‘That feels… like me?’ He thought perplexedly. ‘It’s as if I released a spell there…’ He ruminated and eventually looked at what the others were focused on; a small floating isle with a house built on top gradually appearing before them like a mirage. Pronos’ presence could be felt inside.

Rakna hopped onto the island and as everyone followed after him, the house’s front door opened and a blue-haired boy stepped out. Instantly, the group had two distinct impressions. The first was born out of confusion about the presence of a child. But the second quickly turned into wariness.

A boy with azure eyes and hair, clothes that seemed juvenile but formal, an expression set in stone, and a gaze that could make one cower in self-doubt.

“{That is him,}” Fray spoke up with certainty and Rakna squinted his eyes. At the same time, he let out a short burst of his frost aura. A cold breeze spread throughout the island and a strange sound akin to something shattering echoed, but the boy did not even react.

However, he opened his mouth right after. “You noticed, have you?” His deep register of voice, disparate from his appearance, startled most of his ‘guests’. “As expected, reading your story turns out to be quite a difficult venture. To be clear, my Tale Magic you have dispelled now was passively cast. It was not out of malicious intent.”

“Tale Magic?” Evelyn reiterated and looked at the boy. “Then, this is Fray’s successor?”

“If you mean the next owner of the Unique Path known as the Scribbler of Tales, after the Exalted Quill; it is I indeed,” he acquiesced with a faint nod. “Hans De Vale. At your service.”

“Eh?” Higure exclaimed oddly. “I know that name. Devourer, that’s him, right? The author of that book we read.”

“That foolish hero’s story; the one who kept trying in vain,” Rakna added calmly, but his expression uncharacteristically displayed some amount of displeasure, which earned him a few concerned looks from his friends. “That’s rather shocking, honestly.”

“What is?” Hans replied with a composed attitude.

“That someone full of hate like you could write such a selfless story,” the therian retorted and the two of them fell silent, engaging in a nerve-wracking staring contest.

“Looks like… these two don’t have the best of chemistries,” Marie remarked quietly.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Evelyn raised her voice in confusion. “They’ve barely met. Why would they dislike each other?”

“You got it wrong, girl,” Natsu retorted, hanging from her shoulder. “People don’t need a reason to hate sometimes. Some love without prior signs; some hate without reason. That’s just how it is.”

“As he says,” Hans broke the stalemate with Rakna by briefly glancing at the Celestial Blaze. “But there is one; a reason. Ladies and gentlemen, do you know in what circumstances hatred proves itself to be the strongest?” He inquired everyone, his tone incisive and borderline mocking; just as he had demonstrated to Pronos previously.

“…” No one answered his query and he eventually lowered his head, closing his eyes to answer it himself.

“Two men cut from the same cloth,” he stated and snapped his eyes open to glare at the therian in front of him. “Those alike despise each other. Why? For in similarity, comes understanding. Similar or not, they are different; and they intuitively spot those differences. That is the source of their hate; they see a denied version of themselves. An alternate fate.”

Hans raised the corners of his mouth and let out an insidious smile.

“Naturally, nobody appreciates gazing into a distorted mirror, having their splintered reflections jeering at them for being able to be what they are not,” he declared, and once again, silence befell the small island.

However, this time, this stillness was denied by a nonchalant hiss and the figure of a little Hydra slithering out of the home with a chicken leg in one mouth. Pronos blinked as everyone turned to him and continued chewing on his food before swallowing the chicken piece whole.

The little guy let out a burp-like noise and licked his lips. Then, he gave them all a look as if he was asking them ‘what are you standing there all dramatically for?’. Ultimately, the conflict in the air was decidedly expunged by Pronos watching them like they were crazy people.