“A new bodyguard?” Rakna raised an eyebrow as he heard Nyx’s report. “Then… is he the one who was interfering with Crystal Sight?” He muttered to himself. “Did you notice anything discerning about that guy?”

“Not much. Faint purplish skin around his neck, sharp-looking hair, and if I had to guess, his eyes are not normal at all. I don’t know a lot of creatures capable of producing a perfectly rounded light from their pupils like that.”

“So, it’s an uncommon race,” Rakna concluded as he sat on the hotel room’s bed.

“…is he one of the Scorpions, you think?” The goddess said with narrowed eyes.

“Well, it wouldn’t too high of a leap of logic,” the disguised therian hummed as he twirled Scherzo on the tip of his finger. While in thought, he glanced at the window, “By the way, do you know where Hans is? He should have already returned.”

“I do not,” she shook her head.

Rakna clicked his tongue and his left eye deployed its mechanical lenses. “I should have made him buy an HL,” he grumbled. “That bastard only has ink and paper in his head. Not even a basic phone to contact him.” Nyx giggled softly while Eye of Symphony hacked through the city’s cameras until it found his target.

“Found him. Looks like he’s staying in another hotel,” Rakna frowned. “Should I just call the hotel itself and switch to him…?”

“Wait,” Nyx stopped him. “If he went out of his way to book another room… Don’t you think he is purposefully avoiding us? Calling through Zero’s network might go against his purpose.”

“Avoiding us, huh? What could… oh,” he interrupted himself. “He caught some unwanted attention then? And he doesn’t want to lead it back to us… But if we can’t contact him, it’ll be complicated to share intel.”

Rakna sighed and took off one of his gloves. He then willed one of his fingers to detach itself and fall into his other hand. At basically the exact same time, a new finger had already regrown in the former’s place.

“…as unnerving to watch as ever,” Nyx couldn’t help but comment and he snorted.

He clenched his hand closed and when he opened it back, the finger had transformed into a steel-colored Eion automaton in the shape of a pillbug; also humorously known as roly-poly. They were small crustaceans often mistaken for insects, with a glossy external shell that could roll into a ball.

“This should be appropriate enough to contact him sneakily,” Rakna said with a nod as he let the pill bug roll off his palm out the window. “Though, the question is, what managed to unsettle Hans enough for him to decide to keep his distance,” he added as he watched the miniature robot go.

“It’s not another member of the Scorpions, is it?” Nyx raised an eyebrow.

“Who knows? The Abyss is supposed to be around too after all,” he retorted. “I’ve sensed several vampires in this Plateau already. Demonic energy as well.”

“Are any of them participating in the Arena?”

Rakna shook his head in the negative. “Doesn’t seem like it. Mostly humans; a few elves, therians, and the sort. There weren’t too many large threats, to be honest.”

“I see… a full contest lasts a week, right?” Nyx asked and he nodded. “Do you think you will have to compete there for the whole duration?”

He shook his head. “Unlikely. At the very least, Bora might be impatient enough to try something against me as soon as the second or third day. I mean, look at me,” he joked with a half-smile whilst waving at himself. “Irresistible.”

Nyx chuckled. “Enough to earn the title of Femme Fatale, indeed.”

“Don’t remind me,” Rakna grunted and changed his sitting posture. He sighed and crossed his legs whilst stirring his soul power. “Well, we’ll see tomorrow. I’ll be meditating for now. I couldn’t hope for a better place to train my soul. If you need me, don’t hesitate to shake me or something.”

“Understood,” Nyx replied and watched him close his eyes. After a moment, she could tell his mind had already retreated deep inside his soul. She smiled faintly and quietly went to sit right next to him.

She then pulled out a book from her soul storage, something she had already taught Rakna before coming to Zero, and peacefully started reading. While it was embarrassing to admit, she had never felt as relaxed before as she did while listening to the therian’s heartbeat close to her.

* * *

“Hm?” Hans raised his head from the desk provided by the hotel room where he was writing on a small notebook he carried at all times. His eyes secretly turned toward a miniature steely creature making noises as it crawled on the wall in front of him.

‘…of course,’ the author commented blandly and let it roll into his sleeve where it stuck itself onto in wait for a future command.

* * *

“| The second round will now begin. Please prepare, |” the emotionless announcement sounded in the Arena the next day.

Rakna hummed as he looked around. Somehow, the whole substructure of the Arena had changed overnight and what used to be a massively large open ground had turned into layers of individual rooms. Currently, he was alone in one of them.

That didn’t stop him from being able to hear the crowd through the walls, nor did he fail to notice the obvious cameras encrusted in the corners of the chamber.

“| First Wave. Begin. |”

As the statement rang, several undulations of blue light appeared in the room. Rakna furrowed his eyebrows under the mask and calmly unsheathed Sonata. Shortly afterward, a dozen of creatures had been fully teleported inside with him.

They were all about the same size as a human. Some had animal legs, horns, tails, etcetera. Others were deformed with even bones pushing outward against their skin as if they were trying to make an exit.

‘…chimeras?’ Rakna thought and raised his guard even as they made minimal movement. They just groaned and dithered on their feet without acknowledging his existence. That was until he opened his eyes wide and activated Crystal Sight.

The feedback he received almost made Obsidian Blood shift. At the same time, all of them abruptly roared in his direction and charged simultaneously. He immediately jumped back to a safer spot, kicking one of them against the wall in the same action.

‘Some botched up homunculi…’ He frowned heavily. ‘All these things are human-based chimeras,’ he added internally and parried a scythe-like arm from one of them. His arm surprisingly trembled at the force behind it. He had already activated Lifeblood Rage but they barely seemed affected by the blood control.

‘Physical abilities enhanced several folds,’ Rakna noted calmly before increasing his soul weapon’s oscillation frequency. The blade whistled softly as it cut through the weaponized arm like butter and lopped off the owner’s head right after.

Rakna proceeded to gather Sword Intent just as Chiron had taught him. An invisible, formless, and ethereal force clad his sword as his eyes moved to pinpoint each target. ‘Cut, Sonata,’ he mouthed silently, and with Ripple of Rupture’s footwork, he weaved through the attacks and swung his weapon exactly eleven times.

His figure appeared like a blur, not due to his speed, but the sheer absurdity of his skill. When he stopped moving, the strange blur disappeared in a snap and every chimera promptly lost its head.

Their vanquisher was about to sheath his blade, but he paused when he sensed one of them twitch and stand back up. The others followed suit soon after.

“…undead?” He muttered. “No. There’s no death energy… a core maybe?” He theorized and used Crystal Sight. This time, he focused on their internals. “It’s not?” He blinked in surprise. However, he felt something else. It felt horrid, like a curse, but far more condensed and stable.

Rakna scowled as they prepared to lunge at him. He gathered Intent once again and pulled his arm backward, wielding Sonata in a thrusting stance. His Soul Weapon’s Tainted Holiness didn’t seem to be triggering against this energy. It should be able to harm evil-aligned creatures but it seemed this strange energy was more ‘primal’ than a simple curse and somehow resistant to Holy Magic.

Quietly, he decided to pour a decent amount of mana into his Intent and use it to forcefully scatter the dark energy. A delayed blast of pure mana should do the trick.

‘Pierce,’ he spoke in his mind and thrust forward. The force around the blade burst and split into the same number of chimeras. In the blink of an eye, all of them received perfectly round holes in the middle of their torso. Then, small waves of mana erupted around their injury and as if puppets severed from strings, they crumbled to the ground.

“| Ranka Valcroft. First Wave Cleared, |” the voice announced in his room. “| Sixty seconds before the Second Wave begins. |”

“Tch,” Rakna clicked his tongue and returned Sonata to its scabbard.

“{So, they even use living beings as bogus zombies for their games…}” Fray commented.

The disguised therian remained silent; his gaze fixed onto the unmoving corpses that were slowly being teleported away by Plateau Zero itself. He couldn’t help but feel something unsettling about these creatures. Their strength was rather lackluster admittedly but…

What made them so much stronger? Science? Magic? A Nirvana Skill? An alchemist like Evelyn?

What about outside of Zero? Would these chimeras be able to use skills and magic?

Can they be made to retain mental faculties? Can they be created without a living base?

How many of those do Kratos have? Do they collect the dead participants for this?

And most worryingly, the weird power source controlling their body emitted some sort of feeling he was familiar with. But perhaps because it was too diluted or twisted, he couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

‘…dangerous,’ Rakna thought grimly.

“{What is?}”

‘Nothing. Let’s say we better destroy Zero as fast as possible,’ he uttered and readied himself as the next wave of enemies appeared. And as he feared they, albeit in fewer numbers, were stronger.

He sighed and drew Sonata, his legs blurred and he kicked the ground toward them.