A few hours later.

“| Here it is, everyone! The conference in New Athens for the Beast Emperor is about to start. |”

“Well, damn, Rak and Kara aren’t wasting time,” Allan commented as he watched the broadcast on the TV. He took a bite of his waffle and hummed. “This is for ‘Harvest’, right? What exactly are they going to sell there?”

“The main product will obviously be any item derived from the Eion Tri-Core,” Evelyn said as she also watched with everybody else in the room.

Kara and Ranka had left earlier, soon after the second clone had been summoned by Rakna.

“I’m kind of scared of what mom is going to do for this…” Kaelith muttered worriedly. “She’s been surprisingly professional nowadays but whenever she appears publicly…”

“| Hahaha, hello there~ |” On cue, the head of the older vixen popped on the screen and spooked a few reporters in the plaza where the announcement was taking place. “| Oh, this is exciting! Don’t you think so, Ranran? |” Kara hugged the female therian next to her with one arm.

“| Don’t call me Ranran, you drunkard… |”

“See?” Kaelith deadpanned.

“Who’s that?” Lanata asked, her ears twitching curiously, and pointing at Ranka. “She’s so pretty!”

“It’s Rakna,” Nyx smiled in amusement. “Just with a little twist.”

“Right, ‘little twist’,” Allan repeated sarcastically.

“| Let me introduce you! This is Ranka Xiorra, |” Kara smirked mischievously at the crowd. “| She’s the savior of Plateau Zero, big sister of Rakna Xiorra, and a drop-dead beauty! |” She hollered and everyone noticed Rakna himself standing behind the two women with a blank face.

“| ‘Big sister’, my ass… |”

“Hahaha, he doesn't wanna be there in the slightest!” Higure burst out laughing. “Hehehe, clone or not, my devourer is the same no matter what.”

“| How lively, |” the chuckle of an elderly man echoed and the camera focused on Gaelius wearing formal attire instead of his white coat. “| If you’ll excuse me, I’ll permit myself to take over this presentation, |” he smiled.

“| Harvest is a project launched by Rakna Xiorra Blade, and Co-Founded with Lady Kara Yahkshasa and yours truly. Our research was focused on an invention crafted by Eternal Night Himself dubbed the Eion Alkal! We have engineered a machine capable of manipulating this product. And the result is this! |”

Gaelius raised his hand where a smooth cyan cube sat on his palm.

“| Please engrave this in your mind as you will see it a lot. We named these cubes ‘Transpith’. They are the compacted culmination of our research. As for what they do, let me show you, |” he grinned and visibly began to pour mana into the object. “| It is programmed to build. And the materials are none other than raw energy. And hop! |”

He tossed the transpith in the air and watched as it shone brightly. When it touched the ground of the open plaza, it immediately expanded like a swarm of insects and then shaped itself into a much larger structure.

At the end of it all, a brand-new house was erected in front of everyone. The spectators blinked in shock, not understanding what happened. However, those with an acute mind grasped the value of this demonstration in an instant.

Gaelius laughed. “| But that’s not all! Do it, lass! |” He signaled to Ranka who harrumphed and used her index finger to point at the house.

“| [Star Flare,] |” she chanted indifferently and a flare of Everfrost Energy was unleashed, tearing a large hole into the building but leaving the surroundings unscathed. Then, she gestured her hand and threw a sphere of raw mana at the house, which was absorbed in an instant.

After a few seconds, the damages were repaired as if they were never there.

Allan whistled in appreciation. “So, they mass-produced what our house is made of?”

Kaelith crossed her arms. “It’s more than that. Gaelius used a house to appeal to a wider variety of customers but essentially, what he showed is the capacity to create any object by simply feeding mana or other energies to the transpith. In other words, an all-powerful 3D printer.”

“And there’s still more,” Evelyn smiled.

The next half an hour passed with Gaelius showing different applications of the Alkal. It included concepts such as a healing paste that could mend all injuries by replacing lost flesh and organs and then gradually transform into the real thing by relying on the body’s organic resources.

He also pitched ideas of weapons, androids, enchanted items, alchemy, and even the production of edible food and drinking water with further research. He even mentioned the unique product that relied on Rakna’s Nirvana Skill; the Cardiac Pills capable of restoring large percentages of stamina and mana on top of healing injuries.

“| All right, I’m sure all of that is exciting, right?! |” Kara stepped forward again. “| But there is still one more piece of exciting news for our dear future customers. Should Harvest attain revenue of ten billion Talys by the end of next month, we will celebrate by conducting a summer photoshoot with none other than our gorgeous sibling pair, Ranka and Rakna, as the models! |”

“…” The house fell silent.

“| … |” The site of the inauguration was much the same while Rakna’s tail clone facepalmed.

On the other hand, Ranka’s expression turned into the very depiction of the words ‘Death will not be enough to save you anymore’ but nobody seemed to care as the crowd began to cheer, men and women alike.

“…why does it feel like this was the most well-received announcement?” Flavia smiled wryly.

“This is dangerous…” Allan crossed his fingers in mortification. “I don’t want to scar myself for life but I want to see those photos so bad…” He muttered to himself and Marie didn’t even know what to say for once since she half-agreed.

“I mean, my devourer’s female form is undoubtedly beautiful,” Higure snickered. “It almost makes me jealous,” she said and her tail began to sway excitedly as she imagined the scenario of the night before with Ranka added to the mix.

“Well, it’ll happen,” Kaelith shook her head. “Ten billion is low-balling. Mom used a number big enough to spur people and to guarantee that it will happen.”

“Hey, more importantly…” Allan pointed at Ranka’s face on the TV. “It doesn’t look like the fox lady got permission from, well, either ‘version’. She won’t go out of control, right?”

“Hm, probably not,” Nyx said with a straight face.

“That’s not reassuring at all…”

* * *

Meanwhile, Rakna sighed as the broadcast was projected in his vision by Eye of Symphony.

“That woman…” He sighed. “What the hell is she promising on her own?” He grumbled and looked up at the gray sky of the 75th Plateau. This place was mostly lifeless; with stone, iron, gravel, and concrete making up the entirety of the landscape in a mockery of true vegetation.

After a few minutes of wait, a loud boom echoed in the distance, and with a shockwave that arrived delayed by a few seconds, Cura crash-landed with Gulon on his shoulder.

“Hi there,” Rakna smiled. “You got here fast.”

The shark silently surveyed the deserted terrain. “Grainvar, huh?”

“Aye,” the therian replied candidly. “It’s a neutral Plateau and there’s no need to worry about a few destroyed mountains. The better option would be my Soul Marble but we will see if we get to that point.”

Gulon cackled and Cura didn’t bother to translate since he knew there was no need.

“What do you mean ‘cocky’?” Rakna rolled his eyes. “This is a spar. You two are probably doing this to grow stronger, I get it. But I’m not dueling you to the death; I don’t need it. Using my Marble so many days in succession will only hurt me anyway.”

The living weapon growled again and he sighed.

“I can’t help it. One of my tails grew a pair of legs and breasts then sauntered off.”

At those words, Cura and even King Gulon looked at him weirdly.

“Yes, I know. Stop looking at me like that,” Rakna grunted and called Sonata to his hand. The scarf transformed into a Guandao while he snarled throatily and began to grow in size, his fur growing and his eyes swirling into their usual purple and mystifying shape.

“Don’t worry, even with one-sixth of my attributes unavailable,” the werewolf pointed the polearm at his opponent, his wings unfurling behind him. “I’m more than a threat.”

❮ ◈ ❯

Ascent: II

Werewolf Attributes:

STR: 353.6 | END: 344.2

SPD: 347.7 | DEX: 319.44

INT: 412.5 | LCK: 10

❮ ◈ ❯

Cura silently lifted Gulon and shifted to a form less anthropomorphic, his head elongating into one of a shark and his muscle mass expanding along with the fin on his back. King Gulon followed the example and his scales became wholly white, with red tendrils coming out from the tip of each.

Rakna snorted and lowered his center of gravity. “[Ghost of Rupture,]” he whispered and his body immediately began channeling his internal force at full power, briefly blurring his silhouette. With one eye closed in concentration, he also manifested an orange-colored mane on top of his already physical one.

On the other side, a colorless and shapeless blanket of ‘force’ descended on Cura. It was erroneous to call it aura or even a type of energy. It felt more… ‘primitive’ than that.

A tense moment of silence befell before Cura broke it by kicking the ground, smashing hectares of land behind him. His figure fizzled out of view and Rakna’s wings promptly glowed silver right as his Star Flare was invoked.

In the blink of an eye, two weapons clashed midair, and a city’s worth of area was crushed under the pressure.