News of Gavreel’s arrival reached Ira’s ears during the passing weeks. To be more specific, Ira was in the garden with his children when Avery came to tell him.

“An angel? You don’t mean these two angels.” Ira asked while lifting Zephyr into the air. Raveria sat on his shoulders and made strange faces at Zephyr who giggled excitedly.

“The music we heard that day was made with divine energy. Apparently, her name is Gavreel, and descended while the Grenitian Kingdom was under attack by Tel’vian airships. There’s no reason to suspect that the rumors are false since Sylun sent people to verify,” Avery replied. “So what do you want to do?”

“Me? I don’t know.” Ira held Zephyr closer to him while Raveria placed her hands over his eyes. “You said her name was Gavreel? I wonder if she was what Raveria was worried about in her nightmare, but…”

“What is it?”

“I’ve seen memories of Angels and while they’re strong, I don’t think either of us would have trouble with just one.” Ira spoke honestly. “Maybe I’ll go visit her.”

He put Raveria down and looked at Zephyr who babbled on incoherently.

“Do you want to? You don’t know what they have planned and you tend to ignore possible threats.” Avery reminded Ira of his battle with Lyra’s group.

Ira sighed before speaking. “I’ll be careful. If she threatens us then I’ll kill her, easy enough right? I doubt she’s even here for me since she hasn’t said anything about me.”

“So you’re going?”

“Yeah, I kind of have to,” Ira said with a smile. “But not right now.” He added.

If Gavreel showed no sign of threatening behavior then Ira decided he wouldn’t have to interfere with her. He wanted to get his Reality Separation ability to a higher level of control before he even thought about meeting with Gavreel. Other than that, Ira was sure that he would be extremely hard to kill as is. The Sea Serpent’s heart reinforced his skeleton to a level where he could survive an unimaginable amount of pressure. Since he hadn’t consumed it completely he had yet to gain the full effects. He wanted to give the entire thing to Rhys but honestly, it was far too large for her to eat. Though he had a few ideas to help.

“Anyway, I’ll go take Zephyr back. I need to help Rhys out and go see Charles,” Ira said.

“I’ll watch Raveria,” Avery responded while placing her hand on Raveria’s shoulder who was busy studying her mother. She wanted to know if she would have to train and the answer would dictate her reaction.

Ira nodded and vanished from sight with Zephyr in his arms.

“You don’t have to train today, Raveria,” Avery stated without looking at her daughter.

“I love you, mom~” Raveria spoke happily.

Avery slightly grinned at her daughter while shaking her head. When Avery was Raveria’s age she wasn’t as reluctant to train. At least, not how she remembered. Casey instilled a sense of responsibility in Avery that helped with the process and the latter wondered if she needed to do something similar with Raveria.

…

Charles, after completing a huge milestone in his research, did not settle down as expected. He grew even worse for wear. The dark circles around his sunken eyes became an almost permanent feature. His face had become gaunt with exhaustion present on every inch of it. His hair had gone grey in certain areas which told of his condition. Every now and again he would fall into a fit of coughing but the man himself seemed unaffected by it all.

Charles’ actions were lively as he scribbled notes onto worn out parchment filled with previous musings of his research. The Behemoth Blood was his newest target, one which he spent weeks trying to unravel. In fact, he had been hard at work since the first container of Behemoth’s blood was brought to the Underground City. It was a highly poisonous substance that was fatal when a large enough amount made contact with a person’s skin but he had found a way around it. Diluting and letting sit over time reduced the fatality of it. The research took far longer than expected because Sylun forbade Charles from asking volunteers to soak themselves in the Behemoth’s Blood. Unless Ira said otherwise, Sylun would continue to believe it was a death sentence unless Charles could provide evidence.

How did Charles find out without experimenting on anyone? One could take a look at his right hand and see the partially damaged tips of each finger. Charles used himself as a test subject to find the right mixture. Needless to say, his dangerous gamble paid off.

Suddenly, a male Dark Elf entered the room and spoke up. “The Keeper wants to know if you’ve made any significant progress. He will be coming by later today and the Queen has told me to inform so that you can prepare.”

“Yes...That’s alright…” Charles waved his hand without fully listening.

The Dark Elf could tell that Charles’ attention was elsewhere but didn’t react as his behavior had become commonplace during his time in the Underground City.

“Remember, the Keeper will be by in a few hours,” The Dark Elf said before leaving the room.

“Few hours...Yes…” Charles mumbled under his breath while going over his notes.

…

Back in the Valkyrie Fortress, Rhys held her rapier tightly while practicing various movements with it. She hadn’t been able to train during her pregnancy and was eager to pick up a sword again. Rhys pointed the rapier at a training dummy and then a bolt of lightning flew from the point and struck the inanimate victim. The air crackled and the smell of burnt wood filled the room but Rhys wasn’t satisfied. She changed her target to a thick sheet of steel that hung on the other side of the room.

Lightning surged around Rhys body before she charged forward and thrust her rapier at the metal construct. Lightning covered the length of the Rapier and it passed through the metal sheet with very little resistance.

Rhys exhaled before examining the chipped rapier with a satisfied look. She planned on asking if he could make one from Godsteel.

“Knock knock.” Ira’s voice could be heard as he entered the room with Zephyr in his arms.

Rhys turned around to see Ira standing in the doorway with Zephyr who voiced his unintelligible opinion on various matters.

“Do you need a new weapon?” Ira asked.

Rhys looked at the rapier again and then nodded. Using regular weapons, no matter how good they were, wouldn’t work when used in conjunction with a high amount of strength.

“Here, you can use this for the time being.” Ira snapped his fingers and a longsword in a black scabbard appeared from thin air, landing in front of Rhys. To be more accurate, the sword hovered in front of Rhys with a low hum. It was the aptly named, Paradox Sword.

Rhys slowly reached out toward it but held some reservation. Eventually, she decided that Ira wouldn’t hand it over if it was dangerous and she grabbed it. The hum stopped and the sword became still in her hands. It almost appeared to be a regular weapon.

Rhys made a questioning expression and Ira instantly knew what was wrong.

“What? Don't you like longswords? It doesn’t matter just look at it,” Ira snapped his finger again and the Paradox sword had become a rapier. “Go ahead and try it out.”

Since Ira urged her on, Rhys unsheathed it to find a completely black blade with a faint steel-colored luster along its edge. She withheld her thoughts and stabbed the black rapier into the sheet of metal and what happened next caused her to be dumbfounded.

The rapier pierced the metal like paper and the entire sheet of steel began warping and crumbling before breaking into pieces.

Rhys’ jaw dropped as she looked at the weapon and then to Ira.

“So do you want to use it for now?” Ira asked with a grin.