Mid Afternoon - Early Winter : Northeastern Bahamut

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*fwooosh* *fwooosh* *fwooosh-Thud* As I landed in the courtyard of Myles' estate, I was immediately greeted with the odd looks of everyone nearby before one of the bigger ancients by the gate hastily flew over.

"Sir, you must come through the gate." The knight wore a look of confusion as he looked me up and down.

"I left with Myles just this morning. Do I really need another security check?"

He paused as he squinted his eyes slightly. "You are.. him?"

My face immediately warped with confusion. "Uh, yeah?" -Did they forget my face already? Or is it just because I don't have much aura right now?-

But thankfully, he quickly straightened up after I confirmed it was me. "I apologize for not recognizing you, sir! I hope you may forgive me!" He immediately lowered his head to the point his nose touched the ground

"You're fine." It felt a bit odd seeing such a large dragon bow to me, but I couldn't say it felt bad. -I guess the scene I made this morning really left an impression...- "Anyway, do you know where Asimi is?"

"I believe she is still within the estate. As for where, I am unsure."

"Hm... Alright, thanks." -I guess I'll just ask a maid...-

Seeing me turn away, the ancient called out to me one more time. "If there is anything you ever need, you may ask anyone here! We will be happy to assist you!"

-Don't they need to go through Myles for stuff like that?- I questioned it immediately, but at the same time, I wasn't in any position to complain. "Alright, thanks!" Finally turning back toward the main entrance of the estate, I started making my way across the courtyard and up to the massive double door. -I wonder if Myles would mind me borrowing a room for a couple days...-

But as I idly thought to myself and gently opened the door with my wing, I poked my head into the entrance and immediately felt something slam into my nose. *thump* -Hm?- Instantly snapping out of my thoughts, I met eyes with a slightly shrunken Ilios hanging off my nose with his tail wagging so fast it blew up the rug behind him.

"Haha, it's good to see you too, Ilios!" Finally opening the door enough for me to get in, I walked inside and let Ilios climb up onto my head, but I almost immediately noticed something odd. -Why does this room feel.. a little smaller?-

And that was when Grandmother rounded the corner. "I figured you were coming back when Ilios started getting excite- huh?" Her smile turned to a look of confusion almost immediately. "Did you grow?" Immediately trotting over, she started closely inspecting me.

"What do you mean?"

"You're a little taller and your horns are a tad longer."

-Huh?- Without aura, I had gone this whole time without noticing a single change, but the moment I looked down at the ground to gauge my height, I noticed the difference. -I really did grow... When did that happen?- Although not much, I had gotten a couple meters taller and was now just over 37 meters tall. "Uh, I'm honestly not sure when or how that happened..." -Did I grow suddenly when I turned my mana into divinity? How would that have worked?-

"Your aura is almost non-existent too..." She looked up at me with a serious, but worried look. "Are you really going to feign ignorance?!"

"N-Not at all..." I immediately started clamming up. "I went to help Myles with something at the Hall while he dealt with Leander and Megalos, and ended up getting into a fight, but it's nothing to worry about." -There is no way I can tell her I fought a god...- There was a short pause before I tried to quickly change the subject. "Regardless, I'm still really tired from it. Do you think he would mind if I borrowed a room for a few days?"

But instead of Grandmother responding, the butler Myles spoke with before we left came up to us. "The strong are always welcome to stay here, but may I ask where the lord is?" He gave me a look of suspicion as he waited for my response.

"He's still at the Hall handling the aftermath. I kicked up a bit of a scene, so he's got a bit of extra cleanup to do."

"Hoh? Sir Kalfas is cleaning up for someone?" He immediately raised his eyebrows, but I couldn't tell if his surprise was genuine or not.

"It's just the way things turned out. It's better for him to take the credit right now."

Everyone immediately stopped in their tracks and went wide-eyed.

The butler was no exception, but he immediately played it off. "Hoho! In that case, you are more than welcome to stay here. Would you like me to show you to a room?"

"If you could."

"Then, right this way, sir!"

As he bowed and started walking away, I felt Grandmother's laser-like stare toward me. "I will explain things more once I wake up." -I need to come up with a good story first...- Finally following the butler, I quickly made it into an adjacent hallway where I could ease my nerves slightly, and eventually made it to another large double door.

"This will be your room for the time being. Should you need anything, please put mana into the artifact on the lay stone and a maid will come in."

-Oh, so the same thing as at home...- "Alright. Thanks for the accommodation."

"You are very welcome, sir. The strong are always welcome in this estate." He immediately bowed.

"Ah, one last thing before you go. When Myles returns, tell him not to tell Asimi about who I fought." -I might be able to get away with telling her I fought Erpo...-

He gave me an odd glance before lowering his gaze again. "Is that all?"

"Yes, thank you again."

"It is our pleasure."

Seeing him get up from his bow and turn to leave, I turned back to the door and carefully opened the mana lock to go inside. *vwoop-click*

The inside of the room was nothing special, with a large stone pad and several generic decorations and old paintings, with a couple artifacts scattered about, but as I approached the stone pad, I noticed a large rune on it that somewhat resembled the one in the Tree of Prayer. -Just instead of spreading out mana and running it in a circle, it focuses it toward the center like a lens...-

It was a simple, but shockingly efficient rune. -I wonder who made it...-

But that question slowly faded out of my mind as I laid down and activated it with an artifact on the edge of the pad.

*Vwowowoom* As I thinned the walls of my reserve and felt the steady stream of mana start flowing into it, the discomfort I felt from my mana exhaustion vanished and an unreasonable sleepiness surfaced.

"Uwaah..." Letting out a yawn as I laid down, I quickly helped Ilios get situated before closing my eyes and attempting to fall asleep.

But even though I was incredibly drowsy, I had too much on my mind to fall asleep right away.

"Haah..." It had only been around two hours since I split up with the goddess, and honestly, I still felt conflicted; unsure of how to make sense of my mix of emotions or what to even consider doing going forward.

My original plan was to return here, grab Ilios, and go to Atlas to meet up with everyone, but now, I felt as if there were things that had begun to take priority, the most urgent of which being investigating the ancient wreckage and the place in the mountains north of it, where Holcyon got the fusion artifacts. -If it's really an Acardi lab or something, I need to go and investigate it before Myles can get to it...-

Assuming Myles would have to go through some official formalities after cleaning up the mess I made, I estimated that I had around a week before he would send people out to investigate it. -But I can't take any risks with this...-

Thankfully, I had a bit of leeway I could be completely confident in. -The closest space rune is the temple... Even if they left the Elder Hall now it should take two or three days to get to the edge of the Holy Kingdom from that rune...-

It essentially meant I had two days to rest, and, the most worrying part, to find it.

I already knew it would be a time crunch, even if I had several days to look for it because of what I had been told about the mountains and environment there, but I had no choice but to make it work. -But now that I think about it... I wonder how much the Acardi influenced my reincarnation...- The memory of the moment I first touched The Artifact, suddenly surfaced as I thought about it. (Ch. 2-3) -'Damaged soul of higher dimensional being', huh...-

Previously, I had believed I just misunderstood it, as the artifact generally spoke to me through my own thoughts rather than in any specific language. -But now that I somewhat know the Acardi language, I can confirm it... I can confirm it wasn't a misunderstanding.. and I can confirm...-

My thoughts paused as a sentence was replayed in my mind. 'Conditions Met: Activating Procedure ◇̧̕≠̧҉∬̷§̷̸͏§̧͜͢†̶̷͢‡̴͞∝̶̢̕"'

'Conditions Met: Activating Procedure ◇̧̕≠̧҉∬̷§̷̸͏§̧͜͢†̶̷͢‡̴͞∝̶̢̕"'

'Conditions Met: Activating Procedure ◇̧̕≠̧҉∬̷§̷̸͏§̧͜͢†̶̷͢‡̴͞∝̶̢̕"'

...

The procedure name still made almost no sense even after listening to it closely and attempting to connect its structure to Acardi words I knew, even if it only vaguely, but after replaying it in my mind several dozen times, the gibberish slowly became more clear, and understandable...

And eventually, the structure of the noise matched two specific words almost perfectly.

'Conditions Met: Activating Procedure: Forced Transcendence'