Rakna yawned as he entered the Pavilion’s commune section. He had left while the others were still sleeping. No one had noticed him except, of course, Nyx who almost gave him a heart attack by taking control of his shadow form out of curiosity…

“Well, her Shadow Control is a Nirvana Skill,” a certain cat said from the top of his head. Just that fact alone was attracting more stares to him than usual. “And she is, by birth, the Shadow Goddess even though she lost her divinity. I wouldn’t be surprised if she is immune to anything Shadow or Darkness related.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the therian muttered as he rubbed his neck a tired tone. Unluckily for him, his Sin of Sloth passively made it harder for him to wake up. At first, he thought it would be easily fixed now that he had an augmented brain, but there was barely any effect. “Bullshit,” he said irritatingly as he started swiping randomly at the Quest Board.

“{Well, the power of Sins obviously beats technology. High-tier spells affect the very existence of something. Even a robot can sleep if the highest order of magic is used on them. Magic is supposed to transcend common sense after all,}” Fray commented.

“{If you want to counteract it, you should either raise your level or acquire other sins to balance them out. It might also be a good method to get around your Obsidian Blood. Your Eye cannot fix everything.}”

‘I know… Say, you three, what do you think is the best? Union or separation?’ He asked mentally.

Higure jumped on the Board and sat down as he continued to look through quests. She eyed him with a hum. “{Union is the way to go… but separation is less risky. That’s all I can say,}” she replied in kind.

“{I agree with Union,}” Fray concurred. “{You have already seen glimpses of it, haven’t you?}”

‘Yes,’ Rakna nodded and stopped navigating quests to look at his hand. He conjured a hoarfrost crystal and before it could disappear, he consciously activated Obsidian Blood whilst concealing the change in his fur color from the busy people nearby.

The result was the blue crystal blackening before shattering and releasing a lukewarm breeze to the surroundings. A few Hosts around had their clothes and hair flail with the wave and they all stepped back in surprise.

Rakna’s red eyes glowed for a few seconds before returning to purple. ‘See that? I thought it would be possible to create a Union Magic out of Hoarfrost and Volcanic… But it doesn’t seem compatible at all.’

“{Well, they are polar opposites…}”

“{But you know the true reason why, don’t you?}” Higure asked right after.

Rakna nodded slowly. ‘I think so... ‘Cold’ evolved into ‘Hoarfrost’. But my Volcanic element is still at the Exceled level whenever I change states. I need to find out how to break through.’

[Why not use a Skill Point, Rakna?] Ceres suggested. [You possess three, after all.]

“{I would not recommend it,}” Fray retorted.

“{I agree with the youngster,}” Higure followed.

‘And I also agree,’ Rakna followed up with a sigh. ‘The problem, Ceres, is that my magic element was evolved in a specific way. I regained a part of my emotions and the Sage affected it. I have no idea if using a skill point will do something significant like it did to Cold Star. In which case, Union Magic might become even harder to use. I need both of them to be… crystal, for the lack of a better term.’

“Sounds reasonable…” Higure muttered out loud. “Wait, ‘Ceres’? Who is that?”

[That would be me, Dusk Lioness,] the AI responded. [I would like to be referred to as Cerestia if you do not mind.]

“{Ooh?}” Fray raised his voice in interest. “{How interesting… really…}”

“Cerestia, huh?” Higure grinned. “So, what, ‘Ceres’ is reserved for Rakna’s personal use only?”

[…yes.]

The cat burst out laughing and Rakna faintly smiled. He finished taking quests in the 50th Plateau and closed the Quest Board’s interface.

“Hey, Xiorra, is that you?” A voice said and the therian looked at the source with a raised eyebrow.

“Ah… you,” he muttered as he saw a familiar pair of twins coming his way. The blond siblings from the Walker Orphanage, who had helped him fight Aquila. “Leis and Leia, was it?”

“Yes,” the brother said with a polite smile. “We haven’t met since the Tutorial, right? We did come across Allan a few times though when our Guilds cooperated.”

Rakna nodded with a hum and observed his attire. Compared to the Tutorial, he was now wearing a white and black uniform with stripes around one of his sleeves. His weapon was still a katana but obviously of a far higher quality than before.

As for his sister, she seemed as brash as ever outwardly. She carried a heavy hammer on her back and wore metal armor. She almost looked like a heavy knight in the making. Their eyes crossed and Leia blushed a bit before looking away.

“What? What are you looking at?” She uttered and her brother chuckled.

“Nothing… You two seem to be doing well,” Rakna ultimately said.

“Nowhere near as well as you,” Leis responded drolly. “We’ve seen you on the news several times and you’re also a bigshot with many connections already.”

“Yeah, and your hair and tails,” Leia added with a frown. “Why are they blue now? And how come we didn’t know you also had a twin?”

“I don’t have a-” Rakna paused and facepalmed. “Right… forget that. Karna didn’t go to the same school as me. He was taken from somewhere else,” he improvised a story for his supposed brother. “As for my fur, it’s just mana dying. It’s due to my magic’s nature.”

“Since when black holes had anything to do with blue?” Leia asked in confusion and Rakna threw a deadpan look at her. “W-what?”

Leis sighed. “Leia, you don’t just pry into someone else’s abilities like that.”

“Oh, my bad…”

“But I have to admit I’m curious about something. That,” the swordsman pointed at something and Rakna followed his line of sight to his tails. “Didn’t you have four? Why are there three now?”

As he said, Rakna only had three tails behind him. The last time he appeared publicly, he still had four so Leis had no idea that there were actually two of them missing.

“I heard beastmen of pure blood get to grow tails and that represents their power,” Leis continued with a hand on his chin. “There’s no way to lose levels, right? I just wanted to know if it’s something I should be careful about…”

“Nothing like that. I just shed them for a certain skill,” Rakna replied vaguely.

Leis smiled. “I see. Since you’re probably far ahead of us, I was just worried if there were things capable of making even you lose levels. I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to ask you to avoid it for my team.”

The therian shrugged. “I haven’t encountered anything like that for now. What do you say, Ceres?”

[There exist level penalties, other than the failure to conquer a Plateau in time, but they are quite uncommon and only found in rare Ordeals or particularly dangerous Dungeons.]

“Hm… From what my AI’s telling me, you’d need to really be searching for it to fall prey to anything like a level penalty.”

Leis blinked in surprise then sighed. “Even your AI is better… Mine didn’t have an answer.”

“Probably because it concerns higher Plateaus. I simply have an unusual clearance. Anyway, did you want something else from me?” Rakna asked. “I still have things to do.”

The swordsman shook his head. “We won’t bother you any further then. We were just here to take a few quests as well. I honestly expected you to brush us off. You seem different from before…”

“Things happened,” Rakna said and beckoned Higure to climb his shoulder. “Before I go; my old man was pretty close to the Walkers, so if you need help one day, I’ll treat it as a favor,” he added and left with a wave of his hand.

Leia stared at the therian’s back for a moment. “He looks almost… gentle now.”

Her brother smiled. “I suppose this kind of place can change people in a lot of ways. Anyway, we’ve already spent too much time here. Let’s get some Quests and try the 30th Plateau’s Trials with the others.”

“Alright.”

* * *

“That boy isn’t half bad,” Higure suddenly said as Rakna walked down the stairs.

“You mean Leis?” Rakna asked. “What makes you say so?”

“Observant. Vigilant. Loyal. Sharp. He asked you something that has low chances of being a threat to him and his friends, but he still did. And I could tell with a glance that it wasn’t just to make idle chatter,” the cat said as Rakna stopped near the reception of the Pavilion where the young woman behind the counter started sweating as she waited for them to finish their conversation.

“I see what you mean. Even when relaxed, his mind goes straight to benevolent practicality. He is not a goody-two-shoes; he’s far beyond that. He’s a leader through and through with a mind made to survive first and succeed second but never one without the other.”

Higure nodded sagely. “As expected of you. An even better analysis than mine.”

“Not hard.”

“Hey!”

Rakna snorted and turned to the receptionist who stiffened and flushed at the same time due to the coldness accompanied by the beauty of those purple eyes.

“Ahem, what can I do for you?” She pulled herself together and inquired with a professional smile.

“I want to establish a Sub-Guild,” the therian declared and she froze. Everyone around in earshot also had the same reaction. Rakna frowned and looked around.

“Don’t you all have something better to do? Like pathetically dying during a Trial?” He said without even an ounce of subtlety. “Don’t listen in to other people’s conversations. And I swear… if this is ever mentioned in the news tomorrow,” he snarled and his hair and tails glimmered.

“I will hunt you down and eat your damn heart,” he uttered icily and a black aura of despair arose over him in the shape of a wolf with a red skull mask. The effects were immediate and most people ran out of the Pavilion while the others fainted.

Higure watched with an amused eye as they bumped into each other at the exit. Rakna turned back to the receptionist who hiccupped.

“Sorry, I’ve had a bit too many grievances with news outlets. As an Emperor, I should be able to go to them directly and threaten- I mean, retrieve compensation, right? What do you think?”

The werewolf made a barely visible smile at that and she nodded as fast as she could.

“Yes! Of course, Sir!” She shouted but her mind was singing a different song. ‘Why is that smile so damn immaculate after he threatened to kill dozens of people!? Mom, I wanna go home!’

“So, about the Guild-”

“I WILL NOT TELL A SOUL!”

Rakna sweatdropped. ‘Did I overdo it?’

[Yes.]

“{Yep.}”

“{Indeed.}”