The large thundercloud lion growled, its massive jaw a few steps away from Dallion. With its speed, it could easily slice through Dallion or pierce him with a thunderbolt. In normal circumstances, Dallion could have taken his chances. Without combat splitting, however, the risk was far too great. Hoping against hope, he glanced at Jiroh. The second thunder beast was keeping her and the other furies in check. None of them seemed to know what was going on. Unfortunately, that didn’t matter.

“You made a deal with him,” Dallion glared at the mage.

There was no surprise emanating from her. There wasn’t even a lot of regret. She was somewhat sorry about what was going on, in the same way one regretted losing a stick of chewing gum. Strangely, Dallion wasn’t as upset at her betrayal as he was about her stupidity. She had no doubt figured out the effect the cloud theaters had on magic. All she had to do was to use that and gain enough power for a spell back. Dallion would gladly have helped her. Instead, she had made a deal with one of the worst possible people in this world: ambitious, arrogant, with a sense of superiority.

Superiority… The word made Dallion think. The fury was way too overconfident. A little overconfidence was normal, some more could be expected considering what the library alliance represented in this world. However, now that he was focusing, the air of overconfidence and superiority was so pronounced that it almost felt like a brick wall.

“You knew.” Dallion turned to the thunder fury. “Even before we asked, you knew what we wanted.”

The smug smile on the other’s face told Dallion that he was on the right path.

“You’re an awakened.” Dallion hated himself for being so stupid right now. All this time he had assumed that since Olm didn’t shimmer, he had to be from this world. The truth was that an awakened stopped shimmering upon returning to their world of origin. Jiroh was no longer shimmering. There had already been proof that historically she wasn’t the first to have come back. What if there had been another who was back not that long ago? “You never wanted to stop us from finding a way back to that world. You wanted to go back there with us.”

“Close.” Olm tossed Dallion’s dagger to his other hand. “I suspected it existed, like some of my superiors did. Unlike them, though, I wanted to go there. And I was made an offer.” He glanced at Katka.

The mage was already going through the artifacts one by one. While she held them, the fingers of her other hand were moving in the air, as if drawing symbols.

“Step onto the theater,” the thunder fury said. “I don’t care how the path is opened. I just want to get there.”

“Is that fine with you, Katka?” Dallion asked.

“You’ll need me either way.” The mage took another of the objects, repeating the process. “I’m the key, I just need a power source.”

The thunder creature next to Dallion growled again, letting him know that further delays wouldn’t be tolerated.

Fun. Dallion took a deep breath and took a step closer to the metal podium. At that point, he suddenly stopped. As things stood now, he was facing two thunder beasts, a thunder fury, and a mage—which although she didn’t have her powers, remained an awakened. Taking them on along would be ludicrous. That’s why he had no intention of doing so.

“What will you do once you get there?” Dallion asked.

The fury was just about to give a—no doubt smug—answer, when Dallion resorted to his awakened skills. Combining athletics and acrobatics, he leapt up in the air as fast as his reaction would allow him. Instead of leaping away from the thunder monster, however, he went straight for it. That cause both it and the thunder fury to lose a second, to determine what his plan was. By then, however, it was too late; Dallion had already taken out his secret weapon with his left hand and shoved it into the body of the thunder beast.

There was a sudden pop as the large creature was sucked out of the air and into the aether cube. The general’s toys had proven useful for a change.

Never thought I’d be glad to have you, Dallion thought. The mere thought of using the cube to imprison a cloud creature had seemed revolting so far. However, thanks to Old, he had come across possibly the only creature in both worlds that could be said to be an exception. Thunder beasts weren’t like cloud creatures, they weren’t like furies either. From what Jiroh had told Dallion, they never born, but made; and the only way they were made was by being forced to kill in anger.

Seeing that its twin was gone, the second thunder lion turned around, redirecting its attention onto Dallion.

“Stop!” the thunder fury ordered. At that point, though, the first domino had fallen. The plan he had created was quite good, but there always was a way to break it, and Dallion had done just that.

As the lion dashed at Dallion, Jiroh flew at Olm. Bolts of lightning flew everywhere.

Don’t get hit. Dallion told himself, as he removed his right boot, tossing it at the approaching creature. The speed at which he did it was adequate, though the material not so much so. Lost its sea iron sole add-on, the boot passed straight through the thunder cloud without causing any harm. The creature lost shape briefly, but quickly regained it. As any being created out of hatred, it paused to enjoy the desperation of its victim.

Dallion felt fear bubble within him. He strongly suspected that the thunder hurry had ordered his pets merely to stun Dallion. After all, he would still need the human to open the portal, and Katka had shown that’s he couldn’t be trusted. Even so, what Dallion was about to do next terrified him. Gritting his teeth, he held on to the weapon he had hidden in his booth and struck the lion, while also doing a point attack.

Waves of pain swept through him one after another. Dallion felt the shock of electricity pass through him to the point that he almost fainted. Instants later, he felt a wave of numbness and exhaustion, only followed by a second zap. On some level, the zap was weaker than before, but still close to Dallion’s pain threshold. Thankfully, the thread-splitter had done its job, piercing through the thunder lion, as well as the cloud structure behind it. When it came to Flora, this was a weapon of vast power that was unseen before, mentioned only in legends.

“How?!” Olm shouted as he pulled away from Jiroh. “I took it from you.”

You only took a copy, Dallion thought as he struggled to remain conscious.

That had been one of the things he had asked Jiroh to make for him: a stone dagger that resembled the thread cutter as much as possible. Katka had seen him using during their battle on the cloud citadel, but she hadn’t managed to get a good look, so there was no way she could describe it in detail to Olm.

However, that wasn’t the only item he had asked her to make. The second was a stone jar. Whole not completely uncommon in this world, it had the advantage of being mistaken for an ancient artifact. There was no way to tell the age of stone, especially in a world in which the local inhabitants controlled the flow of air. Furthermore, it had the advantage of hiding something that no one would expect.

Just a bit more, Dallion gritted his teeth. Three of the dominos had fallen. One final piece remained before he could attempt his trip back.

“Skye!” he shouted.

At that point, the lid of the stone jar flew off, and a white cloud emerged, surrounding Katka.

“What the heck?!” the mage tried to get creature off of her, but without Dallion’s sea iron gauntlet, she might as well try to punch vapor. A constant mix of hissing and growling came from everywhere, depriving her from the rest of her senses.

“Stop them!” Olm shouted. Even with all the unexpected events taking place at once, he managed to see what the real danger was. “Don’t let them get to the podium! We still need—"

Torrents of air pushed Dallion and Katka into the cloud matter before anyone else could react.

“Luck, Dal!” Jiroh shouted. That was her final favor she could make. After this, they would be in separate worlds once more, linked only through memories. One could always hope that the Moons would allow them to meet each other occasionally through dreams, but the Moons were unpredictable beings at the best of times. While hope remained, for all practical reasons, this was goodbye, a far briefer goodbye than Dallion had hoped he’d have.

Be well, Ji, he thought as the white matter surrounded him. You better be right about this, Nil! Take us back!

An electrical zap enveloped Dallion. However, it wasn’t as painful as the experience moments ago. Rather, it felt like static. Then, suddenly, the whiteness extended everywhere. All sound disappeared, along with every other sensation. Dallion’s initial thought was that he had fainted, when he suddenly found that he could see his body floating in the endlessness.

YOU ARE LEVEL 46

A large blue rectangle emerged in front.

“Thank you,” Dallion whispered. There was no doubt about it. He was finally back.

You are in a small, dark room.

Smash the window to choose your destiny!

This seemed oddly familiar. Thinking back, it reminded Dallion of the first time he had awakened. The realm had urged him to do that at the time, but why was he going through the same process twice?

Not having any other option, Dallion gently tapped the rectangle with his hand. Just as before it shattered into pieces, only this time there were five options presented: body, mind, reaction, perception, and empathy.

Choose the trait you value most so you can continue into the halls of judgement.

He was offered a free level up? That was a gift in itself, but what was even more astonishing was that all of his traits had advanced by three as well.

“So, this is a loophole.” Dallion smiled.

The first time he had entered the awakened world, he had been granted one level and three at all available stats. Now, due to his unexpected departure and return from the world of furies, the awakened world applied the same logic as if he had just awakened again. It was definitely a cheat, but not Dallion even wanted to repeat.

“Mind,” he said as he pressed the cyan rectangle. Just as before, he couldn’t resist increasing his trade to an even forty.

The surprises didn’t end there, however. No sooner had the rectangles disappeared than a new one emerged, only this one didn’t have text in it, but rather an object: a paintbrush with yarn around the handle.

ART skills obtained!

You’ve broken through your forty-sixth barrier!

A green rectangle emerged, with all of Dallion’s skins beneath it. There were nine of them now in total. The physical skills and music were most developed of all, of course, but the crafting skills had also started to pick up. It was good to see that all the activities Dallion had done while in the world of furies had also had an effect, boosting his zoology to nine and writing to seven. It was forging that had seen the greatest increase, though. All the instruments and parts Dallion had to make as part of his arrangement with the library alliance had pushed up his forging to thirty-eight.

“Lucky,” a voice said.

Dallion turned around to see a large green Moon floating in the distance. This wasn’t just an image or a representation, but the real thing, located hundreds of thousands of miles away.

“Eleven have used this loophole. None of them got lost.”

You’re right. That’s very lucky. “What’s the loophole?”

“Haven’t figured it out? A shame for all those points on mind.”

Normally, Dallion would consider that an insult, but he knew the Moons much better now. There was a hint in it somewhere. All that he had to do was look. Sadly, this time he was coming up with a blank.

“Don’t worry,” the Moon said. “It’ll come to you. Just remember where you’ve been.”

Easy for you to say. This entire thing seemed so surreal that it almost felt like a dream. And then Dallion remembered—the last time he had been in the awakened world, he was underwater.

A sudden force of cold hit him from all sides, knocking his breath out.