Arah was incredibly tempted to act at the moment.

With the Lost Emperor unconscious and Bound by the power of this unknown Goddess, and with every single threat in the vicinity either gone or out of commission, it was the perfect time to get the drop on his Partner. All he needed was to use the newly found information, and he’d be able to make the Outsider move to his advantage. Having the Lost Emperor on his side would have definitely been useful, her power being a natural counter to Amaterasu, but it wouldn’t work.

Emperors did not follow others. They carved their own path. And Arah’s own nature would neither fit in well with her nor accept her dominion over him. No, he had a far better, far more advantageous option for himself.

The fabled Outsider.

Arah had heard stories. Myths and Legends passed down from the Norms of Old. For some, it was a story of hope. For others, it was the foreboding herald of the impending doomsday. The ones hiding in the Desert believed it to be a paradigm shift, but for Arah, it meant just one thing.

Ascension to greater powers.

The Outsider was not a God. He was never supposed to be one. No, he was weak, would be weaker than the frailest God out there, but he’d have power above Gods. He’d have a power that surpassed them, and that was what made him so dangerous.

Made him such a prize in everyone’s eyes.

No doubt that was why even the reincarnation of the Lost Emperor kept him by her side.

But luckily for Arah, no one had yet told him the truth. Or selective portions of the truth, for that matter. The svartalfars— wily, stubborn creatures that they were— had been perfectly content so far to see him tested in different scenarios before coming to a conclusion. The earth-dwellers were sticklers for protocol, and wouldn’t realize the importance of spontaneous action even if it smacked them on their face. Arah had suspicions that the Earth-shaper of an Asukan had some clue about Lukas’s origins and his relevance in the World, but hadn’t acted on it yet. The Lost Emperor would have probably been the first to act, but the sudden emergence of the Goddess had put a wrench in her plans.

Arah couldn’t bring himself to think too bad about it. Their loss was, after all, his gain.

He wondered if he could convince his Partner to devour the Emperor. Arah wasn’t exactly familiar with what the devouring process really entailed, but if it had worked on Raikou, a very-much mortal reincarnation of the Lost Emperor shouldn’t be any more difficult.

No, wait. It would. There was, after all, a reason why Fimbulwinter wasn’t absorbed by the Greater World and left to reincarnate on its own.

…No. Better not risk it. Besides, his Partner held affection for the Reincarnation, so trying to pit him against her could potentially spoil their working equation. The odds would be too heavy. Should things go wrong—

No. The risk of failure was too great, too high, and Arah had no idea what would happen after that. No, it would be better if he managed to get the Outsider firmly entrenched on his side by giving him the one thing he sought more than anything else.

“Tell me, Partner,” He purred, “How far are you willing to go to get that Goddess back?”

Lukas knew Arah was laying a trap before the ifrit had even spoken those final words.

Whether or not he had an actual way to bring Inanna back was irrelevant. After the shit that Lukas had pulled through with Tanya in her Other form, everyone and their mother that had witnessed the event would know about his desire to bring the Goddess back. It could be that Arah held an actual idea to pull such a thing off. It could be just a rumor or even a myth. It could be a way to simply get him further entangled in the messes that kept forming all around him like a massive web.

But yes, it was a trap and a sloppy one at that.

Still, it would grant him access to information he didn’t have in his hands. Zuken was out. Elena was indisposed. Burger was… somewhere, and Tanya was currently asleep from the mana drain. There was no doubt Arah had chosen this time specifically with that in mind.

“Depends on what is at stake,” He replied. As someone that shared a mental connection with him, language was not a barrier for Arah. It allowed Lukas to talk aloud by speaking in English.

“The stake…” The ifrit hummed. “Everything is at stake. Everyone wants a piece of the Outsider, but no one wants to tell him why.”

“And you’d be willing to do that?”

“Of course. We’re partners, you and I.”

“So you say.”

“Would I lie to you?”

In a heartbeat. Lukas didn’t say.

“Tell me, Outsider,” Arah demanded, “Do you believe in prophecies?”

Lukas physically leaned back, flummoxed. “I… haven’t dealt with prophecies before, but I think… I hate them? They’re all cryptic warnings whose only true meaning can be figured out after the event is over. All it does is make people believe in its nonsense and act upon it in certain ways that trigger events to happen exactly in the order as defined in the prophecy. It’s the worst kind of self-fulfilling crap.”

People made new choices in every moment of their lives. The idea that somehow, the outcome of all those choices, those infinite futures, could all somehow have a common confluence that could be divined with the help of obscure tools was simply too fantastical to be true.

As were gods and goddesses and yokai. But here he was.

“A rather cynical viewpoint,” Arah murmured, “But one I can appreciate. You are full of surprises.”

“It’s hard not to be an overachiever.”

“In the interests of efficacy, let us return to the point. More than a millennium ago, the prosperous Yokai kingdom met the full might of the Asukan Empire in an all-out war. We… We lost everything. Our lands, were destroyed. Our people thinned to small pockets scattered across the world. Our Relics were taken away and stored in the Empire’s treasury. Our gods… killed. Even our own realm Ikai, once a bright star of Potential, now stands fragmented and splattered across Asukan lands, infiltrated by their filthy hands as Asukans continue to pollute and exploit our resources.”

Wow. For a creature that was malice and malignancy made manifest, that was some bias. But while Arah spun a fine yarn, all Lukas could hear were empty statements.

“But our legends in Ikai speak of a herald. An event that would unleash something terrible and great. An emergence unseen since the Fall of the Aesir. A power that would come from the Outside.”

And then it clicked. The Outside. When the others were calling him an Outsider, it wasn’t just a term to denote his extraterrestrial origins, but something worse.

Something Inanna had described as the Great Dirge.

The In-Between.

An absolute void of pure blackness into which all Potential would vanish— that was how Tanya had described it.

“And what of it?” He demanded, rising up.

“I cannot share anymore. Not here. Not within Amaterasu’s domain. Even the merest mention of those legends would create stirs in the world around us. As strong as I am, and as skillful as you are, neither of us can really stand a chance if They take notice of us.”

“They?”

“The Asukan Pantheon.”

“And why’s that?”

“Such legends and titles… They have power. They are Power. Just the merest mention invokes them. Makes them… real. Tilts the universe in a certain way. I acquired this information at great personal risk. Why else do you think I hide away in the borderlands instead of feasting off weak-willed bremetans to grow strong?”

Lukas had a mental image of the ifrit coiling around itself in a serpentine fashion. “Use the Well. Enter into a borderland. Travel with me into the heart of the Ikai realm. It is there that you will have your answer.”

It could also be a vicious trap.

“Travel with me to the heart of Ikai, Partner. And if you are amenable to a bargain, perhaps I will be able to fulfill your wish.”

Bring Inanna back.

“Are you offering me a choice? Because sooner or later, I will find a way by myself, without getting into whatever twisted schemes you’re cooking in your ifrit brain.”

“Yes. But how long will that take? How long can you survive with the entire world out there, just a step away from tearing you to pieces? Sooner or later, someone is gonna know. And when They do, they’ll come for you. They’ll find you, and not even your Outsider powers can stop them.”

Lukas clenched his fists. “How do I know this isn’t trickery?”

“You don’t. But you can either take a leap of faith. Or stay as you are, living a life of regret, unable to fulfill the promise you gave her. You said you want to bring her back, and I am offering you a chance. I am OFFERING you a chance! Don’t you want this chance?”

Lukas exhaled. This could very well prove to be his undoing, but the ifrit had him pegged.

“Fine,” He replied, “What do you need me to do?”

Arah smiled.