On Hans’ island; it had been more than five minutes since Rakna had sunk in the water. Everyone was silently waiting for him to resurface while the boy at cause was sitting at the outdoor table, a book opened in his hands.

“…how much longer is it going to take?” Nyx spoke up, her arms crossed as she leaned against the wall of the house. Compared to the others, she had almost no hostility toward him. In fact, aside from her, even Pronos was utterly unbothered despite it involving his master.

The little hydra always trusted his instincts when it came to people. To him, Hans was without an ounce of doubt… the most harmless person he had ever met. Which was both outlandish and oddly acceptable.

The blue-haired boy glanced up from his book at Nyx and grunted. He slipped his hand under his jacket and pulled out a pocket watch. He clicked it open and proceeded to write a few words in the air with his finger. They merged with the object and the needles began to spin relentlessly.

Hans calmly waited until they stopped and when he saw where they pointed, he snorted and put the timepiece back in his pocket. “Six,” he uttered indifferently while resuming his read. “Five,” he added and everyone perked up in realization. “Four, three, two, one…”

On cue, without warning, a pillar of turquoise energy erupted from underwater and brought with it a deluge of snow. The entire sea around the island, and further, instantly turned into a block of ice hundreds of meters thick.

The drop in temperature was daunting but it was nothing compared to the intimidating aura that followed. It felt like the heavens had grown eyes and were looking down on every lifeform below as if they were nothing but, and everything less than ants.

“Pride at its purest form,” Hans commented as everyone sweated under the pressure. “Unpleasant for sure but arguably respectable,” he muttered and the pillar of energy eventually receded. The sound of waves had been replaced by the noise of ice distending. The snowflakes landed on this picture of ice age and spawned protrusions akin to frost flowers.

However, the effusive spiritual force was still present. In fact, it was getting stronger. At the same time, a dreadful miasma began to seep out from the ice.

“Demonic energy… no, sinister mana,” Evelyn reflexively made the observation.

“Two, huh?” Hans noted as he saw the miasma. “Pride… and Sloth. Interesting.”

“What is?” Nyx scowled at him.

“Firstly, there are not many people capable of harnessing the power of Sins. There are even fewer capable of acquiring more than one,” he responded. “He is on his way to gather all seven I reckon and become a Devil, though not literally; it is nothing more than an honorary title. Those kinds of people are called Nefis; humans possessing mock Infernity. They are also known as the precursors of Nephilim.”

“Gathering all Seven Sins is not about symbolism; it is about understanding the nature of life itself and being capable of channeling that perception into Demonization. Those who take the opposite road; the Seven Virtues, become Nefas, imitations of Divinity. Rakna Xiorra took the path of Sins for that is what he partakes the most in.”

“Ultimately, I am simply wondering,” Hans squinted his eyes at the ice in the distance. “If this man’s fate is so convoluted and intertwined it borders causality, what is the purpose? Where are the Sins going to lead him? Why does he need to understand the concept of human inception?”

Then, the ice cracked loudly like a clap of thunder. Booming sounds echoed as if the whole block of ice was being smashed in repeatedly until a certain spot burst into pieces. A large claw speared through and each finger latched onto the ice.

Slowly, the creature pulled itself up and a werewolf with aqua fur stepped onto the ice. Shrouded by the dark miasma of demonic energy, his purple eyes shone through and displayed a terrifying oppressive sense of domination. In between blinks, one would see the illusion of a pair of demonic horns and wings on the werewolf.

This lasted for an agonizingly long handful of seconds, until the sinister energy scattered in a short burst, leaving place to Rakna as he reverted into a therian. The oppression in the air was lifted at the same time and he walked back to the island.

Everyone gradually noticed something different about him. Other than his fur, of which the shade had become a slightly glossier blue, there was a different air around him. He audibly sighed and hopped onto the edge of the island.

Almost instantly, Flavia crossed eyes with him, and the second it happened, her lips quivered and she covered her mouth. Her eyes watered and Rakna looked at her with a smile; it wasn’t like his usual half-hearted ones or those he showed consciously. It wasn’t anything big but she could tell for sure; it was genuine… and filled with an acceptance she had always hoped to see.

She approached him and once she was close enough, she broke down crying and hugged him. Her muffled sobs echoed as Rakna patted her back and everyone concurrently agreed to simply watch fondly.

On the other hand, Hans raised his eyes briefly with a blank face. He eyed the hugging couple and hummed. “The romance genre is to be lacking nowadays,” he commented and someone promptly clutched his head.

His eye twitched and he glanced up to see Higure looming over him, her eyes glowing menacingly and her mouth forming an ominous smile.

“May I help you?” He replied sassily.

“Shut your mouth, or I’ll tear you a new one.”

“…fair enough. That is a satisfactory bargain.”

* * *

❮ ◈ ❯

Inferno Star

The second stage of maturity of the mythical phenomenon known as the Volcanic Star. Within a shell of pure crimson, its energy is capable of burning everything it comes in contact with.

---

Everfrost Star

The final stage of maturity of the mythical phenomenon known as the Cold Star. The raging blizzard within its core, the cold it emanates, and the brilliance at which it shines is said to be able to pierce time itself.

---

Note: Elemental Stars, as per their classification, are posited to have four stages of maturity. The first one is called Expansion. The second is Consolidation. The third is Culmination. And the fourth has never been properly conjectured, but it was dubbed Collapse.

❮ ◈ ❯

Rakna read everything in a blink and summoned an enneahedron crystal of Everfrost Star in his right hand. The new version had its expected turquoise color while the energy inside of the crystal was a spotless white and in a perpetual motion that resembled a snow storm.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Rakna triggered Obsidian Blood and the crystal turned crimson, with raw energy of a darker shade than its container sluggishly moving around inside.

“Back to square one…” He muttered as everyone observed his experiment. “The volcanic star got its evolution but so did the hoarfrost. They’re still unbalanced. I can’t fuse them quite yet.”

“You’re trying to make a Union Element of the two, right?” Flavia inquired from his side; her mood noticeably cheerier than usual. “Do you know what it would make?”

“Not sure exactly,” Rakna replied as he extinguished his magic and switched back to Everfrost. He then grabbed one of his lupine ears and pulled it above his eyes to see. “Still blue at least. It didn’t go back to white or anything.”

“About that, what happened exactly?” Allan inquired whilst raising an eyebrow at Hans who was dispassionately spectating from the side as if what he had just done, which included him besting Rakna in battle, was completely trivial.

Rakna also glanced at the silent author and wordlessly swiped his hand in his direction. The azure-eyed boy lifted his head at the same time and casually pressed on something in midair.

Ding!

❮ ◈ ❯

Hans De Vale has joined Obsidian Throne!

❮ ◈ ❯

“…” Allan gawked at the message in his eyes. “What the fu--”

* * *

“My, my… furthering the decoration,” Fray muttered to himself as he stepped out of his library. He had purposefully not intervened in the battle between his tenant and his inheritor. He knew that Hans was attempting something based on an intrinsic understanding of Rakna.

“It was a good call, after all,” he added and looked around. This soul scape had been put through even more changes during the ordeal. The twin stars that hung in the sky resembled giant jewels filled with power rather than stars at this point.

The rain of petals afflicting this realm was a much blurrier blend of turquoise and crimson than it was before. The original black petals were now much rarer. The flowers covering the ground were of a purple as beautiful as ever and the rivers of mana shimmered like always.

However, the most lavish additions were the numerous spike monuments made out of either red or blue crystal scattered across the land. Some lay flat on the ground, others tilted to the side, and the rest stood perfectly straight; but they all reflected their respective colors like a lighthouse.

“That is fine and all… but what are they doing now?” Fray narrowed his eyes at the thousands of animals suddenly emerging like mirages. This was not the first time he had seen these anomalies in Rakna’s soul.

He had always assumed they were a part of his past and what makes him who he is, but they had never been as rampant as they were now. These animals, ranging from all sorts of wildlife, were all gathering around the spikes in a circle. They slept near it, guarded it, and admired it.

Fray sighed. “My tenant is getting more and more confusing as time goes by. It is one thing to have a talent that surpasses logic, or impossible aptitudes, but this soul does not make any sense… and what I just said is also quite a sentence…” He droned. “What do you think?” He asked out loud and a growl came from above him.

“Don’t care,” Fen grumbled as he relaxed on the floating pages of the library. The nine-tailed cub had a callous attitude toward everything happening. But beyond his gruff personality, one could see the vigilant eye he spared to look over these animals.

The truth was that some of those were threatening enough to be wary of. Elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes, tigers, and bears. Heck, there were even a few actual dinosaurs roaming the soul scape. They were far less in number, hardly reaching the tens, but that did not undermine their presence.

“Lady Ceres,” Fray spoke up, speaking up through an isolated telepathic channel he had managed to create to converse with Ceresta without involving Rakna. “I am aware that you have been shown his past. Do you have an idea of what this is?”

[…I do,] her voice resounded in the air as if she was being broadcasted everywhere. As a matter of fact, a few of the beasts perked their ears when she spoke. [I refuse to betray Rakna’s privacy but there is a need for you to know, I am sure. My assumption is that these animals are the lingering death causality Belial mentioned; a side effect of Rakna surviving direct contact with concentrated negative energy from all of their remains, giving birth to Obsidian Blood.]

“What? All of them?” Fray uttered dumbfounded, his face twisting. “How could he have survived that? Not only was he in a world without magic, but no amount of willpower or talent could allow a human to survive an influx of death causality into his soul. Much less if it comes from an amalgam of incompatible life forms. I would have given it the benefit of the doubt in any other context, but this does not hold in any manner.”

[I’m afraid I am in the dark as well…]

The fabulist frowned and scrutinized all the wildlife again. He gradually noticed a peculiar detail, other than the monuments, they occasionally gazed at something else.

He followed their line of sight and gaped in realization. He had almost forgotten about the crystal mountain erected far off into the soul sea. “Him…! That is the only explanation,” he uttered. “But that cannot be a coincidence…” He concluded and leaped off his library for the first time.

“Rexam, if you will,” he said calmly in his fall and a light flashed in the sky. It swooped by at speed even Rakna himself would have a hard time perceiving and caught Fray. “Thank you. Could you do me a favor?” He asked the Luquila he was riding who chirped happily in response. “Splendid. Get us to that mountain over there. Do you think you can?”

Rex twittered positively and flapped his six wings. He shot off toward the highland that shone like a diamond as Fray firmly held onto his fur.