Eli’s home was destroyed, and its remains had blown into the winds. The sound of a body being dragged across the floor broke the silence. The elderly man wasn’t dead, and the knights escorted his limp body through the portal.

The portal…

It glimmered gold and purple and had come out of me in a plume of agony. The other end led to where Gerial had come from. I turned towards the remaining knights.

Each one of them wore robes, but I could see armour underneath. They stood at the ready, eerily still. They knew about my Mark. I was exposed.

Why wasn’t anyone talking?

I don’t know what I had expected, but silence wasn’t it. Shouting, maybe. Disbelief. I’d even expected people coming to drag me away never to be seen again.

“They won’t make a move unless you tell them to.” Gerial spoke.

His voice brushed faintly against my ear, and he tiptoed around me. He was scared of what I was going to do. He’d told people I had the mark. In this entire world he was the one person who truly knew what that meant. What I would gain, and what I had lost.

I turned to him, and he flinched.

“Thank you.” I spoke. “Thank you so much.”

He squeaked as my arms wrapped him in a hug.

“You saved our lives.”

Gerial’s body tensed in surprise. Then he hugged me back. I let go, and William walked up to him and gave him a hug as well.

William didn’t speak. I could see the ordeal was still affecting him.

“So, we walk through that portal and we’re back?” I asked Gerial.

“Straight back to the island.” He confirmed.

I eyed the surroundings One last time. The entire building was unrecognisable. Between my stone creation, and Eli’s last attack…

The entire roof was gone. The building around us as well.

I hadn’t seen it because of the dust and destruction, but if William hadn’t stepped in front of me in that final moment, then I would’ve died.

I gazed up and saw the same view that the observatory had. Various colours littered the sky, but there were no stars above us.

I would have to find out more about the rifts.

I didn’t want to get caught out again. I looked at Gerial, he had used magic inside a rift when I’d first met him. There was a lot to learn from him.

Now I didn’t need an excuse to see him. The Church of Crijik would encourage it.

“How screwed am I?” I asked.

The Mark of the Crijik. I’d been keeping it hidden ever since I’d received it. I'd done my homework on the church and its people, and the Crijik itself.

Laypeople didn’t get access to valuable or accurate information. If I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I wouldn’t even believe the Crijik was real.

Gerial has been my main source of information.

“That depends.” Gerial looked away from me. “Things will probably be quiet for a while.”

His words were positive, but his tone and body language suggested otherwise.

“What do you mean?” I pressed him. “Is that a bad thing?”

“There’s two of us.” Gerial stated simply and snuck a glance at the knights.

Oh. Right.

There had never been two people that were Marked by the same divine and alive at the same time. It was unprecedented. The knights around me didn’t look shocked. They didn’t look like they felt anything.

That wouldn’t be the case for others, even those in the church.

Gerial was thought of as a divine in human form. All marked ones were. Now there was finally a case where that might be disputed. Or maybe not. Maybe my existence only further proved an opinion I had never even heard of.

That was the issue.

With the amount of people involved, every angle would be argued. People held the divines in high regard. From the moment I was discovered I had stopped being Andross Silver.

I was now a political chess piece.

I became conscious of the people around me. I mimicked Gerial’s position of silence. There would be time for answers, but there were things that needed to be done first.

I stepped towards the portal, William beside me, and then I strode through it. There was no nexus, or purple world, one moment I was in the remains of Eli’s home and the next I was in the most glamorous room I had ever seen.

I blinked in surprise and then heard a sniffle. William had started crying beside me, but his lips were curled up in a smile.

They were tears of joy.

He rushed through the room and swept open the doors, running outside without looking back. A familiar corridor greeted me and then disappeared as the door closed behind him.

We were back in the Wilhelm mansion.

My legs turned to jelly as they released the tension of the past few days. I fell back, straight onto a chair. I looked at it with a frown.

Had that been there before I fell?

A faint wind brushed against me. It was subtle, but I followed it to the billowing robe of one of the knights. He stared at me stoically. He had put the chair underneath me as I fell.

The movement had been too quick for my eyes to see.

I looked at the door. My dad was through there, and I wanted to see him. I had to let him know I was okay, but there was something else I had to do first.

I turned to the knights and hesitated.

“Could you leave us alone. I’d like to talk with Gerial.”

In unison they disappeared, the door flying open and then a gloved hand gently closing it behind them. I had been trying to keep my eyes on them, and I’d failed.

“Now that we’re alone, we should have the hard talk.” I spoke. “I need to know the consequences of today. At least the cliff notes.”

Gerial’s shadow crossed over me. His eyes shone with intelligence, and sorrow.

“I don’t know. Not fully. But I’ll try and tell you the likely reaction.” He pulled up a chair and sat down. “You won’t have many peaceful days ahead of you. Most of the church will be divided by the news. Tests will have to be done, and… there will be deliberations on your status and whether or not you really are a Marked one.”

“It’s possible for them to declare that I’m not a Marked one?” I asked.

“No.” Gerial shook his head. “We both know that can’t happen. But some will fight for it. Especially because you don’t have the physical manifestations I do.”

He waved his fingers in front of his face. I had forgotten about his purple eyes, they blended into the background now that I was used to them.

To an ordinary person it would be damning evidence.

“How long do these deliberations usually take?” I sat back.

It wouldn’t be a terrible thing if the church was forced to leave me alone for a while. The question was whether they would keep it a secret or not.

“One or two years. You’ll already be in school by that time, and the church would be more than happy to recommend you to Koshima academy so that we’re together.”

“I was hoping to get in with my own skill.” I smiled to show I was kidding.

Gerial missed it.

“My dad was impressed by your display. He was already considering you before this happened.”

The headmaster was only considering me?

I didn’t know what the people were like at that Academy, but they would be fairly skilled if I was only under consideration. I thought I had been a lock in for a position.

There was another thing on my mind.

“What was that portal?” I looked at him, but he was shaking his head.

“First time for me too.” He tapped the air in front of him.

Right. The system.

I concentrated on my skills.

[You have unlocked the skill Celestial Convergence.] [You have unlocked the skill Metal Manipulation.]

Pain tolerance(I): Level 4. Experience 50%

Celestial convergence.

I didn’t know what it stood for, but I knew what it did. It established a portal between Gerial and me. I looked behind me and it was still there.

Eli had already been taken through before we’d gone through. There was nothing left there except for ruins and bad memories.

I waved my hand and it closed.

“The church may lay claim to that realm after today.” Gerial said. “Once teleportation is fixed.”

My heart clenched. “We can’t teleport?”

I wanted to go home. I was acting tough, but I had been through a lot. Being held captive, chains wrapped around me for days. Even if I was an adult, I needed time to process it all.

“We can. Others can’t. Alyssa’s here, so we can use teleportation now.” Gerial beamed. “She's a pretty cool girl. I think she’s a bit crazy like you, using her Mark a lot.”

Alyssa? I remembered the name.

Fue’s Marked one.

“I thought that was a ruse. Didn’t Eli fake their congregation’s arrival?” I asked.

Gerial shook his head. “They were stuck at the mansion. Eli didn’t teleport them to the arena. They had no idea what had happened until we came back. My dad was furious.”

A blazing figure crossed my mind. The headmaster had burst into white flames to defend Gerial. I wouldn’t want to be on the other end of that.

“Do you want to meet her?” Gerial’s eyes sparkled. “She’s coming to our academy too. It’s going to be great.”

My eyebrow raised at his tone. There was a chirp in his words, and a melody in his movements. I think this is what they called the springtime of youth.

I thought about it. A Marked one like Gerial and me. It would be nice to meet them. Then my arms ached, and my head pounded. Thoughts of my loved ones covered my vision. It would be nice to meet Alyssa, but my body and mind couldn’t take any more.

I could always introduce myself at the academy.

“There’s only one person I want to meet. My dad.”

Then a thought crossed my mind, and my stomach dropped.

“Am I allowed to go home?”

The church wouldn’t want to let me out of their sight. I wouldn’t blame them, considering what I’d just gone through.

“You can go wherever you want to.” Gerial stared at me. “I can too. I just don’t. You’ll understand, once rumours about you start spreading. Enjoy your time before people start trying to take bites out of you.”

I chuckled, and then stopped as his expression stayed flat.

He wasn’t joking.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be able to let you know about any news now.”

I shivered. I couldn't imagine going through the pain of celestial convergence just to receive news.

“I don’t want to go through that pain again.” I shook my head.

“What? No.” He laughed. “I'll be able to communicate with your guard detail. They’re already set up around your house.”

My what now?

Gerial read my expression.

“You can go wherever you want, but you’re going to have guards. The church won't let you go anywhere without them. You’ll… get used to them.” He shrugged. “I forget they’re there now.”

The conversation trailed off. The idea of having an escort everywhere I went was comforting and disturbing at the same time.

Privacy wouldn’t exist for me.

I clapped my hands against my cheeks and put on a smile, much to Gerial’s surprise.

“Okay. My dad is here. My life is safe. I’m a-okay.” I pushed myself up.

Gerial followed closely as I strode through the door and out into the corridor. The guards were all there, flanking a single person as they made their way down the corridor.

They’d brought my dad.

My footsteps echoed across the corridor as I ran towards him, and he swept me up into a hug, tears running down his face.

I turned to talk to Gerial. He was gone.

No, not gone.

I could see his blurry outline with my mana sense. He had turned himself invisible again the moment he saw my dad.

“It’s going to be a lot harder than just sitting around and waiting, isn’t it?” I asked.

Gerial nodded.

There was a reason he stayed invisible in front of strangers.

I sighed. That would be something that I would have to deal with in the coming months. Maybe the church deliberations would buy me some time, I couldn’t know.

I’d have to ask my guards.

For now, Gerial said I could go home. So I would. My dad led me to the main hall, and I could see figures in white robes clustered around a portal.

How are they operating it without the nexus?

More questions piled up, but they were stopped as the figures turned to us. Some were curious, they could see the knights gathered defensively around me, and others prepared the portal.

A small figure in a white robe and mask approached us.

“Two for teleport?” It was a girl's voice.

Thoughts of home enveloped my mind. I didn’t have to hold back my emotions. My body shook with joy at the thought of finally leaving.

I’d need to process a lot of things once I got home.

I walked past the robed girl, my mind a thousand miles away. My dad spoke to her, and the portal shifted. I could see the purple world. A boat waited for us, and beyond it I could see another portal open.

It was the way home.

We walked through the portal and onto the boat. Then it began to close around us. My dad froze, just as he had the first time we’d come through. There was a shift in the mana around me and the boat moved on its own.

I sat back, ready to relax during the trip.

“Alyssa!” I heard a familiar voice call out.

I turned towards the portal and saw Gerial bowing low to the small girl in white robes.

Oh? That was Alyssa?

I’d been too caught up in my thoughts and hadn't made the connection.

Fue’s Marked one took off her mask, and strands of hair cascaded over her shoulders. Gerial was facing the ground shyly, much to my amusement.

He was such a kid.

He said something to her, but the sounds didn’t make it through the closing portal.

Alyssa turned towards my dad and I, a curious expression on her face. I met her eyes… A memory surged into my mind. I was being pushed. Falling. Dying.

I grabbed the edge of the boat, holding on for dear life as the memory swamped me. I pushed it back, and her face once again entered my vision.

Then the portal dissolved, and the world faded away as I stared into her golden eyes.