“Have you calmed down, Sin?” Kallad called out once he heard the lift door ding.

Sin yelled out from the lift, “Yes I have.” She walked towards Kallad and Rai, who were both sat on the ground, “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding dad. I was... really emotional and didn’t fully hear you out. Also... I couldn’t sleep for very long, so I came back here.”

Kallad waved away her worries, “Don’t worry about it. I trust that you have faith in your father now?”

Sin nodded as she sat down beside him, on the side without the Phoenix’s eye, “I do. At first, I was angry. I didn’t like the way that you were going about this... but now I think that I’m happy that you’re helping Rai at all.”

Kallad didn’t physically move or react in any way, “You were right to feel angry little one. I should’ve been more careful with my words. I’m sorry that I caused you to feel that way. But you’re right, my method isn’t exactly a clinical one... but it’s the one that I feel to be most appropriate.” He grinned a touch, “Do you know much about the Phoenix, Sin?”

Sin shook her head as she clutched her knees, “I don’t.”

Kallad smiled, “The Phoenix is a legendary spirit. It governs life, death, and time. Of all mythical and legendary beasts, the Phoenix was by far the most difficult to summon. But our great ancestor succeeded. Vesta Raven. He’s at the top of our family tree.”

Sin felt like she was becoming engrossed in the story, “What happened after he summoned the Phoenix?”

Kallad didn’t move his head much, but he managed to lightly shake it, “Vesta made a deal with the Phoenix. In exchange for helping the Phoenix find something that it had lost, the Phoenix would aid Vesta’s descendants in their times of need. For the Phoenix to have accepted such a deal, the thing that it had lost must have meant very much to it.”

Sin stared at Rai, who was still sat in a meditative state, “You used that deal to help Rai?”

Kallad smiled, “Of course. He’s going to be my future son-in-law! I’ll do anything I can to help him.” Kallad said these words, but there was far more to it than simply that. He was making a bet on the future by helping Rai. It wasn’t a bet that he felt was folly in any way. In fact, he had the utmost belief in Rai’s ability to change the course of Zenith’s future... of course, that was only applicable if Rai actually wanted to do so. Kallad wasn’t so inhumane that he would force Rai a position that he didn’t want to be in.

Besides, a wise man would never put all of his eggs into a single basket.

Sin cringed, “You always say that.” She giggled.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Sin asked the question in the back of her mind, “What does the Phoenix actually do in a situation like this?”

Kallad was quiet for a few moments. He was thinking about how to answer his daughter’s question. “It’s complicated. The Phoenix is a being beyond all logic. The trials that it will put Rai through are completely catered to him, and I have no window to see what they are. This spell hardly functions as an actual illusion. It works more like an induced meditation. We’ll only know what happens when he breaks free of the Phoenix’s hold.”

Sin frowned, “I hope Rai succeeds.”

Kallad smiled, “The trials aren’t said to be difficult, but they require one to think. The Phoenix will give Rai what he needs to succeed, but ultimately, his success depends on if he can figure it out for himself.”

Sin started tracing circles in the floor with her finger, “What’s the final purpose of this? How will the Phoenix’s trials help Rai with his spells?”

Kallad frowned, “I don’t know the answer to that. The Phoenix has helped people be reborn into themselves before, and it’s also helped people simply solve a small problem. I’m sure that it would have recognised Rai’s problem and found a way to guide him through solving it using the trials. Perhaps the problem was actually an easy fix, and the Phoenix decided to help Rai in some other way instead. I have no idea what the full possibilities are, since the Phoenix doesn’t adhere to common logic.”

Sin allowed her father’s words to sink in. She digested the information provided by him and let out a sigh. “He better make it out soon.”

Kallad laughed, “Have faith in your partner, Sindyl.”

Sin’s eyes widened... “W-w-w-w-what do you mean p-p-p-partner?” She blushed.

“You know, the one who you’re together with.” He would’ve winked but given the circumstances, that was probably a bad idea.

“How... How d-did you know?” She blushed heavily.

Kallad smirked as he lied through his teeth, “I didn’t. Get deceived, hahaha.” He laughed a lot while concentrating on maintaining the spell. He also enjoyed tricking his daughter.

Sin blushed even more, “That’s... n-not fair.”

Kallad messed with Sin’s hair with his left hand, “It’s perfectly fine. I’m happy you two finally got together. You know I was rooting for you guys from the beginning, right?”

Sin softly nodded as Kallad continued messing with her hair. She sunk her head further into her knees.

Sin smiled out of Kallad’s vision, “I’m... happy that you’re always t-there for me.”

Kallad smiled, “Always, little Raven.”

“Why do you sometimes call me little Raven?” Sin thought she’d test the waters a little bit. Maybe it had something to do with her sister that Kallad wouldn't bring up. Even if he doesn't mention Naam, I think he must have a reason for it.

Kallad elected not to tactlessly tell her about her two sisters, “Because you’re a smaller version of me. Little Raven.”

Sin burst out in laughter. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Even dumber than calling your agents little birds.” She couldn’t stop laughing.

Kallad frowned, “I thought it was pretty clever. Why must you rain on my parade o’daughter of mine?”

Sin calmed down from her laughter, “I just do it to tease you.”

Kallad laughed, “How very torturous of you. I’ve taught you well.”

Sin smiled at her father, and the two returned to a comfortable silence. She laid down on the ground to get some rest while waiting for Rai to break out of the Phoenix’s illusion.

Kallad assured Sin that he’d wake her up if anything changed.

A long while passed. It had only been about 40 minutes since Rai went into this state.

Kallad thought about his own experience with the Phoenix’s Eye. By this point, I’d completed the first of three trials. The initial visions helped later on in my life, but I couldn’t make sense of them for years after completing the trials. I’d hazard a guess that Rai only just completed his second trial now. Moving into the third one would be where the most drastic change takes place. I can only wonder what his trials were... I’d be interested to hear about it when he-

Lightning.

Lightning began to spew off of Rai’s body. Runes lit up on his face as the lightning intensified.

“Sin! Wake up and get back!”

She didn’t wake up. Deep sleep? Kallad flicked a bolt of air at Sin’s forehead.

“OW... What the fu-” She opened her eyes and looked at Rai.

Kallad yelled at her, “Get back!”

Sin immediately dashed backwards, as did Kallad.

Kallad formed two miniature rings of solid, yet liquid, flowing mana in his palms. He clapped his hands together and held them.

A translucent barrier formed around Rai, containing the lightning.

Kallad took his hands apart. The rings solidified together in the air, and Kallad formed two more rings.

He clapped his hands together a number of times, forming multiple layers of barriers around Rai.

Kallad held his hands together after forming the last of the barriers, then moved his right hand up, and his left hand down. He rotated them both clockwise, leaving a trail of residue mana forming a larger circle. The rings within the circle began to flare and vibrate where they were suspended. The barriers around Rai coalesced and formed a single thick translucent barrier that was almost pearlescent. Rai’s lightning was intensifying even more. The runes on his face glowed bright.

Sin ran to her father’s side, “What can I do?”

Kallad frowned, “Your defensive spells are lacking. Just in case, focus on staying alive.”

Sin nodded. This is no time to be prideful, accept your weakness and work around it. Focus on staying alive.

Rai’s lightning somehow got even more powerful. The barrier wasn’t holding. Kallad formed more and more layers and combined them again, replacing the shattered barrier within. He resolved to do this as many times as possible to stop Rai’s lightning from rampaging.

Then, it stopped.

Kallad stared at Rai, “Shit!”

His hands began glowing a faint red. He did a convoluted movement with his hands, tracing an incantation onto the floating rings. The barrier’s pearlescent hue slowly morphed into a red one. The barrier itself morphed from a curved barrier to the top-half of a sphere made up of hexagonal faces.

Kallad crushed all of the rings into a tiny ball.

The barrier shrunk to Rai’s size. All of the protective power in the barrier became far more concentrated, which multiplied its potency more than tenfold.

Sin was worried, but she kept her one task in mind. Stay alive.

Kallad’s prediction was correct.

Rai’s lightning only stopped because of one reason.

It was the calm before the storm.

An incredibly bright light came from within the barrier. The walls of the shield shook violently, but they were just managing to contain the power of Rai’s concentrated lightning. Kallad strained his mana channels as he poured more and more mana into the barrier just to keep it up.

The lightning reached its apex.

BOOM!

Smoke spread quickly. The room was full of it.

Kallad felt the barrier shatter. His mana reserves were still plentiful, but it would’ve been ineffective to pour even more mana into making the barrier more powerful, lest he incur the law of diminishing returns. It worked out by simply maintaining a constant flow of fuel to the fire.

He called out, “Rai?”

Sin called out as well, “Rai!”

Coughing sounds came from within the smoke.

Kallad flicked a bolt of air where he knew the right button was on a nearby wall.

The smoke quickly got sucked up into the newly opened ventilation shafts in the walls and ceiling. They automatically shut once the room was clear.

Rai yawned, “Hey... you guys alright?”

Kallad smiled at him, “Yeah, not bad. What about you?”

Rai grinned, “I feel great.”

The flames of the Phoenix’s Eye drifted away from Kallad’s right eye as he grinned in the same way that Rai did back at him.

Sin stared at Rai, then back at her father, then at Rai again. Her mouth was agape, which made a lot of sense given how dumbfounded she was. I’ve decided. These two are officially the dumbest people on Zenith.