"How does this feel?"

"Hmm...a little sore, but...feels good. Ah..."

"Ok, let me move over here."

"Ah~ Yes! That's it! That's it!"

"Yeah? We got it?"

"It's...It's coming! Fuck yes! FUCK YES!"

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Lera screamed, kicking the door down when she caught Wu dressed up in his full battle suit with his hands hovering right over a topless Fatera as she knelt on the ground with her hands resting on her big muscular thighs in front. There was a dark shadow looming over Fatera's body as lines of dark red cracks pulsed underneath her skin.

Wu...Fatera...topless...her face turned beet red as her head started to spin. Lera bit on her lips before she slammed the door shut angrily and ran away with her footsteps rapid like a quick string of drumbeats.

"Huh..." Wu turned back to Fatera as she continued her breathing practice while facing away from Wu. Then, as her entire body pulsed once more, the ground vibrating with her powering up, those red cracks turned black, and Fatera's thrown back into the past.

Finding herself bathed in warm light and floating in the middle of space, Fatera slowed her thoughts, separating her physical body from her soul before she slowly navigated through the space within.

Then, she found herself waking up in the inn where she and her father was staying at. It was a long and arduous journey that the two had been on, and they had finally reached their final stop. It was an unsuspecting town not too far away from the capital city of Yarka.

Little Fatera had fallen asleep the moment her head touches the bed, but her father didn't. Instead, he held onto a book and read it from cover to cover again and again under a dim lighting Cast. The crowds outside the window woke little Fatera up as she rubbed her eyes. She sat up, her eyes looking out of the window into the mountain peaks in the distance as a cluster of stars lit up the sky.

"What are you reading?" Fatera asked, her voice light, and her father smiled before closing the book.

"Just getting to the end of my story." He said with a look of satisfaction when suddenly, everything around them exploded and they were bathed in a sea of fire. He remained seated in the chair that's been slowly turned to cinders, and he looked casually at Fatera who instinctively conjured up a coating of the Wave, shielding her body, "You have learned all that you needed to learn from me, Fatera. For me, this is the end. But your story is just beginning...find something you can fight for, and fight until you become the world's strongest."

"Why are you saying this...?" Fatera asked when her father whirled his finger around as a portal Cast opened up under Fatera's butt, causing her to fall right through. She reached her hand up and out, grasping towards her father with her tiny hands as she screamed.

"Remember this!" Her father's voice came through as multiple figures dashed through the flames towards him from overhead and the portal rapidly closes, "I never wanted you in the first place! Don't ever come back! Get away from me!"

"Dad...?" Fatera's body shot up to erection, and her crimson eyes were wide as if she had seen ghosts of her past, and she did. With tears flowing down her face without her even realizing, she turned to Wu, distraught, lost, and pained.

"Fatera...what did you find?" Wu asked, his voice soft as he sat down next to her.

"I...I found the truth..." Fatera lowered her head before she ground her teeth together and shook her head, "No. I have just found some trash. I don't need it."

She had thought the reason her father left her was that she was weak, and she had been on the journey to becoming stronger and stronger ever since...but was that really the truth? Did she manage to convince herself of that fake past driving her forward?

What if...her father never cared for her? Then, in exchange, she never should have let her father be the reason for her own strength either. All those years wandering around and fighting countless opponents, Fatera sought strength and challenges just to prove herself worthy to both herself and her imaginary father, yet at the end of the day, what fucking gives?

"Wu?" Fatera asked, looking towards Wu and calling him by the name, "Thank you for this."

"You found it?" Wu asked, and Fatera nodded with a smile before channeling the power and instantly creating the black lines all over her body even without the need for Wu to push her to the limits with the Void Domain, "What you were looking for?"

"Yes, I did." Fatera smiled, extending at the knees onto her tippy toes before she folded her ankles backwards and rolled onto her feet, "From now on, I fight not to prove my strength, but for my own enjoyment. Ya get me? I am gonna have all the fun fighting strong people around!"

Honestly, that had always been who Wu perceived Fatera to be. However, internally, she had been motivated by the reward mechanism of potentially being strong enough for her father. When she recalled what truly happened back there, what truly was her father's last words to her, she felt liberated. She felt lighter than ever before, her body charged with energy.

Her own energy.

Her father is dead, and he pushed her away at the last moment of his life. That was it. The future is now completely in the hands of Fatera's. She is free to do whatever she wants, whenever she wants, and she can fight whoever she wants.

She doesn't know whether she will be able to access Dominance mode again, and she isn't sure how much of her fighting style revolvesd around the need to look strong, rather than actually being strong. Once she takes off all of her shackles of always trying to prove her strength, rather than gaining strength, what will remain of her?

All of these questions are hers to answer, and Fatera couldn't be any more exhilarated by the challenge. Better yet, a training arc on a tropical island sounds like the perfect place to do it.

"Sounds good to me." Wu gave her a thumbs up before she stood up and pushed him out of her room, "So long as you help us stop whatever PORA's doing."

"Yeah yeah." Fatera said, "Now go! I need to pack!"

"Pack?"

When Wu stumbled out onto the main porch, Lera was sitting angrily on the couch before she tossed a straw hat right into his face as his hands completely missed the catch.

"Did you not check the date?!" Lera said, swinging her hands, "Today is the day we go to the islands! Or are you too busy getting all hot and sweaty with Fatera?!"

"Oh shit." Wu cocked his head back before looking at the calendar on the wall. Over the past few days, he had been so preoccupied with trying to help Fatera reached a state of maximum physical exertion that he had completely forgotten about everything else. For Fatera, it was about being able to reach a high state of stress and arousal while being completely stationary as she tries to push through the resistance to the flow of Wave generated by the Void Domain.

But for Wu, it's about keeping the projection of the Void Domain constant and precise, focusing on just the volume of space taken up by Fatera. It was a grueling training for both of them, though successful, Wu had completely forgotten about everything else going on around them.

"I need to pack!" Wu said, about to spring towards his bedroom when Lera tossed a bag of luggage over the couch.

"I have packed for you while you and Fatera were going at it. Hmph! You are welcome!" Lera said, turning her head away from Wu with her arms crossed and cheeks puffed out.

"Ah...thanks..." Wu let out an audible phew before picking that up. However, a small tentacle was shot out from Ver's hands before it wrapped around Wu's wrist, holding it in place. Wu turned towards her, and Ver tilted her head before gesturing for Wu to talk to Lera first.

"Ah...Lera?"

"I am not talking to you today!" Lera said, rolling to face the other way on the couch, though Wu caught her eyes looking through the reflection of the living room mirror, "Talk to Fatera instead!"

"I ain't talking to him," Fatera said, coming out of the room with her bag full of white crop tops and brown shorts. For her, it was about packing up all of her supplies of the signature outfit she had stocked up in the wardrobe, and it was done in a matter of minutes, "I was just using him for my own good!"

"You don't have to put it like that..." Wu dropped his head in defeat before Augen yawned and walked out dragging a little suitcase.

"Sounds like an action-packed morning." Augen said, "Should we go now?"

"Yep." Lera said, standing up from the couch and ignoring Wu as the group of five hurried out from Fatera's house. The locking Cast activating and creating a shield around it as their golden chariots lifted off.

This time, Ver was flying her own chariot with Augen and the pieces of luggage. Lera, Fatera, and Wu were left behind, and they shared an awkward short ride to the Illiol college with Lera ignoring Wu, Fatera snacking away on a piece of steak that came out of thin air, and Wu figuring out how to best explain everything.

As the sets of Chariots rattled down near the busy airspace, Lily waved her hand towards Ver and her group before her five-man squad walked out from the shadow of the Illiol college arches.

"Who do we have here..." Ver murmured, as Lily emerged with Yuna, Braka, Matty, and her second in command in the college. Then, their chariots landed and the group hopped off from within.

"FATERA!" Yuna screamed, jumping up and down in the air as she waved towards her girl crush excitedly, "I haven’t seen you in ages! Let's fight some more!"

"Ya bet." Fatera laughed before the ladies bumped their fists together.

"Lera! You too!" Yuna said, brushing her messy hair behind and wrapping her arms around Lera's shoulders before giving her a big smooch on the chin, "You fought well last time too!"

"Ver." Matty said, approaching Ver before he half-bowed forward, "I look forward to our rematch."

"Me too." Ver smiled back, "It was...fun."

"Well...ain't this fun?" Augen asked, tapping Wu on the shoulders as he watches on at the reunion.

"Indeed." Lily's companion in college said, his pale face looking even more reflective under the shining sun as he reached his hand forward, "My name is Shin Takuni, and I am the Vice president of the Illiol college. And uh...Wu, if you are able to provide us with the training we desired, then we may be able to work some backdoor methods to bring you back into a college. Potentially even to Illiol due to our influence."

"Sounds good to me." Wu smiled confidently, feeling the rough callous on Shin's hands as he nodded and turned around.

A tall slim young man with pale skin, tall nose and deep eyes. Shin Takuni carried an aura of mystery about him, yet something felt strange about it all.

Wu wondered, as his One-Shotter and Ver's Sky Splitting Sword both vibrated lightly in their pockets.