Deli started leading her out of the room, walking down the corridor, passing Wijus door and many other big doors, until the door got smaller and smaller.

Coming to a stop in front of a plain, dark wooden door, which hinges seemed to almost fall of.

“Were here …” Deli suddenly said, seeing the confused expression on Spera face she couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle.

“You wouldn’t want to really spend the entire time in our high real Main chambers right? You do know that the time there is flowing very slowly. Your mortal body needs about a week to recover enough … do you really want to spend six months in my room. Not that I am complaining but I think it would be quite boring for you since you would have to train the entire time.” She said, chuckling once again when seeing Spera desperately shaking her head.

Pointing at the rundown door, she spoke once again.

“This is an abandoned room of a small deity, as such, it is free for your use and the time in here flows even a bit faster than on Prena, requiring you to only spend two to three days in here for a week to pass.”

Pushing the door open, it started creaking ominously but Spera couldn’t see it breaking anytime soon.

The room inside was bare, the floor made out of concrete, but Spera could see a big pillow in the middle of the room, with a small podest next to it, holding the crystal she had used last time for her concentration training.

“Well then, get on with it. I will visit throughout the day, but I don’t think you will notice me so just start training.” Deli said, pulling the door closed behind her as she left the room.

Making herself comfortable on the pillow, Spera took the crystal ball into her hands and started her training.

Nothing else to do, so I should just train a bit …

For the first two trials, Spera could still only reach the nine-second mark, making her mana explode in her direction every time afterward.

Before starting the third trial she especially took a deep breath and tried to calm her mind, which had been agitated my the two failures.

This time she could finally maintain the light in the ball for ten seconds, but in the next moment, the ball suddenly started to increase it’s glow as she felt the resistance within the ball lessen. Pulling her Mana back the resistance in the Ball suddenly intensified as the glow in the ball almost vanished. Panicking Spera poured more Mana into the ball, making it glow once again. But just as it had stabilized the resistance suddenly vanished completely making her being blasted from the ball, as the excess Mana was being released towards her.

As she lay on her back, even in her soul-form she felt like she couldn’t breathe. Gasping for air she slowly pulled her body up into a sitting position.

Looking down she could see no signs of bruises.

Of course, there are no bruises, dumbass … you are in soulform right now!

Spera started scolding herself, but then she suddenly saw something interesting.

Instead of bruises, her soul suddenly had a few spots that didn’t shine as brightly as the rest of her. Touching one of the spots, a slight ache traveled true her soul. Overall Spera felt quite battered at the moment. But a noise from Delis direction let her jump up and start training again.

When she was at a point where she almost gave up, her entire soul riddled with not-glowing spots, she suddenly heard Delis voice behind her.

“Spera, dear. I would recommend for you to train as long as I didn’t say that you should stop. Wouldn’t you also think so ?” She asked, but her voice towards the end was so sweet that it made Spera shudder in fear. Without saying anything else, she could hear Deli sit down on a chair behind her. Not daring to turn around, Spera nodded and started practicing once again.

Immersed in her training, Sprea took no notice of the time.

After training until her mind screamed at her to stop, but still going further of fear from Delis reproach, it was as if she fell into a trance, her mind shutting off and the true benefit of training as a soul emerged.

she could feel the fatigue that had accumulated in the last hours, draining away, and came to the realization, that it had just been her mortal mind that had held her back. It had been that mind that had told her that she couldn’t train anymore. truthfully it had also been the immense concentration that had been needed for the exercise that had put a strain on her mind.

As only a soul with a now turned off mortal mindset, she just knew that it wouldn’t be strange to train until eternity. As such two days went by until deli finally told her to stop. But just as she stopped, her mortal mindset came back online, making her fall to the ground in exhaustion. Looking up, she could see Deli sitting in a comfortable looking armchair, drinking tea while smirking down at her.

“So .. how far ?” deli asked crypoticly, but Spera knew that she was asking about her training process. What else...?

“First circle steady …”Spera gritted out, as she knew that she had once again disappointed. And just as she predicted, disappointment flashed through Delis eyes, which she quickly masked with indifference while taking a sip of her tea.

“How long can you hold the second one ?”

“I am blasted away by the third turn. It’s too fast for me to retract my Mana …” Spera excused herself.

“But in the first circle, you can hold the glow steady throughout, right ?”

Which Spera answered with a sharp nod. “ Yes, not one flicker.”

“Haa~ alright … Muwa had wanted you to meet his friend, but there seems to be a small complication so the meeting was postponed to next year.”

She said, causing Spera to look around and finally notice that they were alone in the room. Spera had previously thought that all three siblings would visit her, was slightly depressed by that.

“Where is Muwa ?” she asked.

“Went out for a bit to arrange the meet-up. He was behaving really secretly so I wanted to go find out, but Wiju said that I should oversee your training …”Deli said with a slight pout.

“Let’s go back to my room. We will meet them there …” She said, starting to stand up but seeing Spera not move, she settled into her armchair once again and drank her tea, waiting for the little soul to open her mouth.

“Deli …”Spera suddenly started, finally being alone with her.” I wanted to thank you …”

Surprised Deli almost choked on her tea.

Few people ever thanked her, more likely cursed at her, and she knew that given her situation Spera shouldn’t feel gratitude towards her.

Seeing Deli’s confusion, not knowing what she talked about, Spera couldn’t help but smile.

“Deli, thank you for letting me reincarnate into my current life.” She said.

“Even if you are always threatened ?” Deli asked incredulously.

“That is just because I am weak right now. But you three gave me the tools to make me stronger, now I only have to grow up.

Deli stared at her in shock and bewilderment. She had never anticipated such a reasoning.

Without her even noticing a glimmer of warmth entered her eyes, a bit of goodwill towards this little soul took hold of her. She was indeed special.

They sat in front of each other in silence, until Wiju and Muwa loudly entered the room.

“Hey, Sis! I am back !” Wiju called, Muwa humming to go along.

“There you are! Took you long enough.” Deli muttered. Getting up to meet them at the door. Spera following behind in silence.

All four of them slowly made their way to delis Mainroom, Wiju chattering along the way and talking about a new kind of spell somebody had attempted to build which caused a disturbance in that particular worlds mana which made new Mana beasts appear. Interested in the topic of Mana beasts, Spera having never heard of the terminology before, she wanted to talk with Wiju but one look from Deli let her shut up. The look explicitly saying ‘You are too young to know’

After a while, Spera saw her opportunity to once again talk with Wiju, ass their topic came to an end.

“Wiju!”

“Yes, little one ?” He asked in confusion.

“Could you tell me what happened with my Grandpa ?” She asked.

Confused about her meaning, Wiju let a book appear in his hand, flipping through it at an alarming speed while muttering to himself.

“No, that she couldn’t know about him … him neither … That side of the family is still a secret to her .. Who could she mean ?”

Hearing that Spera was too confused to interrupt, trying to gain more knowledge about her apparent “Family secret”, but Deli seeing this, quickly interrupted.

“Spera who do you mean ?” She said with a sharp glint in her eyes, that discouraged Spera from pouting.

“I mean my Grandpa … I told you about his condition when he came back right? Well, he was one day suddenly better, but there is still the possibility of him being affected. I just want to know if he will be ok …” She said, letting her head drop with sorrow. She could still vividly remember that day in the sitting room, and the incident in the library. Even if on the surface they didn’t have anything to do with each other, her gut told her that they were.

Silence followed her statement, which caused Spera to look up. She saw Wiju and Deli staring at each other, obviously conversing but she couldn’t make sense of it. Looking at Muwa, he just stood to the side, leaning against the wall comfortably with crossed arms.

“Alright! Alright! “ Delis sudden voice brought her back to the conversation. Seeing Wiju smile at her and Deli looking sullen, it seems like he had won the little altercation.

“Well dear, I can’t tell you everything …” He began, two books appearing in each of his hands, already opened at a certain page,” But I can tell you that given time, your Grandpa will be better once again. He will never return to his top form, but there will be no deterioration of his condition … Just … he will have to have a better … relationship … with his partner.” He ended, blushing slightly at the formulation.

Seeing Spera tilting her head to the side and looking at him in confusion, he knew that she didn’t understand.

“I am not having that conversation !” He suddenly almost screamed, causing Deli and Muwa to chuckle.

“So he will be alright ?” Spera asked, still confused about the last few sentences.

“Yes, yes ... “ Wiju said, blushing.

“Ok …” Spera said hesitantly.

But she was interrupted by Deli that still chuckled a bit, “Come on. Let’s go to my room. I think the conversation has ended.” She said with a tone that didn’t allow any resistance. Silently they walked towards her room.

Entering Delis room, the table with tea and four chairs had already materialized in front of her desk, which made Wiju and Muwa immediately sat down upon.

Hesitantly Spera also sat down, followed by Deli who seemed to gracefully glide onto her chair and immediately take up her cup of tea.

“Come, drink a cup of tea and then you can be on your way,” Deli uttered after a few tense seconds that Spera hadn’t moved, over the rim of her teacup. Wiju and Muwa had also leaned back in their chairs and started sipping on their cup, Spera being sure to have seen Muwa adding something to the cup out of a small silver container that had been hidden underneath his clothes. Seeing her noticing his actions, Muwa had winked at her and put his index finger on his lips, asking her to keep it a secret.

Brought back to the situation by Delis words, Spera looked up in confusion.

“Do you think that is such a great idea? The cup last time let her gain the small margin of divine energy and I already had two before… What if that large amount has larger consequences ?”Wiju interrupted, finding his sisters behavior quite dangerous. If she earned more divine energy, nobody could predict what would happen to her. It was too dangerous.

“That’s what I want to find out,” Deli said righteously. Even if she liked this soul, the unknown was much too enticing for her to just let it be.

“So I am your guinea pig ?” Spera asked, feeling a bit stifled by her attitude. She had thought that the last few interactions let her at least claim a bit of affection from Deli.

“You could say that ..” Deli said offhandedly, feeling a bit wronged by her accusational tone of voice and Wijus and Muwas disappointed looks.

“Wow, I feel loved …”Spera muttered in a whisper, but since all three people present were Gods they could naturally hear her.

“Well right now you are more of an interesting research subject than anything else …” Deli conceded, not realizing that she had hurt Spera's feelings with her off-handed command.

“So you don’t even see me as a mortal?” Spera asked incredulously, her eyes starting to sting with unshed tears as she stared at Deli’s cold facial expression, not one hint of the warmth that she had previously seen could be spotted.

Which made Deli look at her with an expression that told Spera that she was cute to even think that this could be possible.

“Be satisfied as being seen as anything other than an ant! If I so wanted to I could wipe your whole planet. The only reason why I don’t is that my mother asked me to be more compassionate, or I wouldn’t even have tried to get acquaintance with you and would have wiped you the first time you came here. Don’t interpret my tolerance of you as a weakness. Now drink your damn tea and be on your way!”Deli said, her countenance starting to blacken as her dark personality became stronger, a sneer on her lip, belittling Spera's feelings of hurt. Deli had started to feel irritated since Spera had started questioning her, like a little pin, starting to scratch at her heart.- Now that she had let out her feelings, she felt refreshed but seeing Speras hurt expression, an uncomfortable feeling settled in her heat. Not wanting to further analyze it, she took up her cup, that she had banged on the table when she lost her temper, small cracks having appeared in the fragile porcelain and lifted it to her lips, the cup slowly repairing itself throughout the action.

Helplessly Spera looked at WIju and Muwa that had kept quiet throughout the entire confrontation, seeing them looking uncomfortable, she knew that they felt their sister having gone overboard but they wouldn’t interfere. Which caused disappointment to course through her soul.

Looking down at her small fingers, feeling powerless she only muttered, ”That escalated quite quickly ..” which made Wiju show a forced smile.

“Don’t take it personally, she had a lot on her plate and took it out on you. Even if what she said is the truth.” He started, excusing his older sisters behavior.

But he was shocked by her next question.

“Am I a burden ?”

Spera asked her insecurities welling up again and making Delis speech much more impactful than it would have normally been.

Taking a moment to take a deep breath and organize his thoughts, Wiju spoke up once again.

“No, but it isn’t as if we are emotionally attached to you.

Yes you are a distraction from out normally boring life and maybe in the future, we will even come to care for you, but as it is you have the status of an interesting toy.”

He said, not wanting to lie to her and also wanting her to understand her current situation.

He had seen that his sister became more tolerant of the little soul, and even he had fun talking with the curious little thing, but still, she didn’t amount to much in his current life.

And if she wanted to survive she had to understand that.

Depressed but seeing a silver lining in Wijus words, Spera took up her cup of tea and slowly drank it up.

Seeing as they still all stayed in an uncomfortable silence throughout the process, she took her remaining courage and started saying her goodbyes to them.

Just as she wanted to ask Deli to sent her back, Muwa opened his mouth. He had kept quiet since entering the room, surprising Wiju and Deli.

“Little one … let’s talk next time alright. And I also want you to meet my friend.”

Smiling up at him, Spera felt her depression lessen.

“Of course. I would be delighted ….”

But before she could say anything else, Deli and Wiju interrupted her.

“Speaking of which …”,”... Who is your friend ?”

“”I didn’t know you had any …"” They both said teasingly.

Which made Muwa glare at the both of them.

“See you soon …” He muttered, almost turning away from Spera in the process, but this caused Spera to only smile much brighter up at him.

“I look forward to it …” She said.

But suddenly Deli snapped her fingers and she just vanished from her place, making Wiju and Muwa frown at her.

Pleased by her action Deli just shrugged her shoulders and gave them a mysterious smile, while once again sipping her tea leisure.

But at the moment Spera could only think So last time the trip through window was just her amusement huh?