John walked unopposed out of the military facility surrounding the portal, heading for the extravagant white building near the city's center.

‘She should be willing to see me, right? After everything she’s done to influence my fate… She might even know the importance of my knowledge right now.’

Seeing the city look exactly like it had when he left made everything seem unreal, like the portal was just a bad dream. The few people walking around in the streets like it was just another day, the cars that drove past, the pigeons resting on the statues… Earth was unmoved.

John could tell he wasn’t in the right state of mind to be meeting such an important figure, but that didn’t halt his steps. He was determined, planning to use his knowledge as leverage to get answers.

‘Maybe she can even point me in the direction of Serah… The fact that she doesn’t have a fate might make it problematic, though.’

He needed something to give him a hint. The moment he got one, he would pursue it with all the determination that was building in his chest. Relentlessly, forever, until they were reunited.

The entrance came into view, guarded by two men dressed in white. Whether they were ECs or just normal guards was hard to tell, but John assumed he would be able to get past either way. They wouldn’t be invokers, he was almost certain.

Taking a deep breath, John approached the two, ready to introduce himself. But before he could speak, one of them looked at him and asked, “Are you here to see the Lady?”

“Uh, yes. Is she available?” John asked, sensing they knew of his arrival before it happened. It wouldn’t surprise him too much, but he didn’t like it.

“Yes, sir. Just head on inside. If you know the way, you can walk straight to her. Otherwise, ask at the desk.” They both started opening a side of the large split door, revealing the empty lobby.

Unable to help himself, John asked, “... Did you… know I was arriving?”

“Not you specifically, sir. But we were told to let anyone looking for the Lady inside today... It happens occasionally,” the guard added, seemingly used to John’s reaction.

“I see. Well, see you later, then!” John said, walking through the door.

The guards chuckled at his words before closing the door behind him, shutting out the sunlight.

John wasted no time looking around and started walking toward the set of stairs that followed the round wall of the lobby.

He saw only one person in the large room, a woman standing by the counter near the entrance. She had an incredibly warm smile as he walked past, but seemed to understand that he didn’t need help.

‘Professional service workers are something else, huh?... This is going better than I expected. I guess there are some perks to seeing part of the future.’

When he arrived at the second floor and started walking to the end of the hallway, he saw a familiar face standing by one of the doors. The man who had led him here the first time, an invoker, was guarding a fancy-looking room.

He looked at John with surprise. “Oh, it’s you? Well, head on inside.” He shifted to the side, allowing John room to enter.

“... Does it get annoying after a while? How she tells you what to expect?”

The man chuckled. “Absolutely. But she has the best of intentions. Now head inside, it’s urgent!”

John wasn’t ready to be hurried inside, feeling like things had developed out of his control. A large part of him even wanted to turn around and leave. But she probably already knew he wouldn’t.

With a deep sigh, John opened the door and entered.

The room was not what he expected. It looked more like an extravagant meeting room, filled with people—seven, to be exact—all looking very grave.

John froze. He understood just by looking at them that these were likely the seven weavers of humanity.

The Lady of Fate stood closest to him, gesturing like she was presenting him to the other people in the room. Then she looked at him, somehow managing to look surprised. “Oh, you’re the one?”

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All eyes were on John, but he managed to stay relatively calm due to her unexpected question. “You didn’t know who would arrive?”

She shook her head before looking at the others in the room. “John here should have something we can use, but I don’t know how significant... John.” She turned back to him. “Humanity is currently in dire need of help. Do you have anything, knowledge, artifact, or special power that might be useful?”

Feeling very put on the spot, John could only nod. Everyone in the room seemed to release a breath at that. Somehow, John got the sense that everyone but the Lady of Fate was just a mirage of sorts, all looking slightly translucent.

But it would make sense that they couldn’t meet in one place. They all had territories to protect, far away from here.

John prepared himself for his following words, knowing they would be unpopular. “...But I need your help first, My Lady.”

She stared at him and smiled a smile that reminded him a bit too much of Serah. “My help? You’ve got it! You'll have my full attention as soon as this meeting ends!”

“The kid knows to take hold of the opportunities given to him! I like him!” a large, eastern European man said with a hearty guffaw. Most people in the room wore armor, but he only wore leather pants and shoes. Even the Lady was more covered with her light and somewhat revealing white dress.

He seemed to be the only one who enjoyed John’s demand, though. Everyone else was either scowling or uncaring.

‘There are people from all sides of the Earth here… Two of them look quite Eastern, three look European, and then one from Arabia, and… Oh, maybe that other continent. Amiraca, was it?’

“... Okay, I’ll trust you to keep that promise. I learned a lot during my most recent trip through a portal. And… I met an alien.”

The reactions ranged from light disbelief to headshakes, while only the Lady seemed to consider his words seriously. “An alien, like, intelligent life? Someone capable of communicating?”

“Yeah. He called himself Sage Full Blue, and he said he was a researcher from a group called the Loreholders. And in exchange for telling him about Earth, he taught me something important about essence. Something that made me way stronger, capable of beating demons while I was still a breaker.”

Another member of the group, a woman with tan skin, stepped forward with a grim face. “Assuming all of this is true, you’re saying you gave away info about Earth without any thoughts of the consequences?”

But the Lady of Fate halted her with a gesture. “Calm yourself, Yadira. If what he says is true, it could let us live long enough to learn the consequences of his mistakes. If not…”

John stared at her in shock, confused about what could have happened for humanity to be on the brink of extinction. “What… what threat are we facing right now?”

“I will explain it to you later, John. But know that it is as serious as I say. Can you tell us what this Sage told you?”

Understanding that time was of the essence, John nodded, considering how best to demonstrate the differing types of essence. It wasn’t something visible, only traveling internally or inside his core.

He held his palm up and used the familiar flame spell to make light. The flame flickered into existence, weaving playfully in the air, reaching about twelve centimeters in height.

“This is a spell created using the normal essence we all know, also called gaseous essence. It’s easy to use, fast to activate, but weak and hard to store.”

Then the flame blazed to life, reaching almost a meter in height and sending heat across the room.

“Now I’m using liquid essence. It’s about five times stronger than the gaseous type, and you can store about five times as much of it. So you effectively get twenty-five times as much energy in your core if you fill it completely.”

This revelation made the weavers pay close attention, and whispers of amazement traveled through the room. The Lady of Fate seemed the most surprised, perhaps because she had the most faith that John was telling the truth.

The flame shifted again, down to about twenty centimeters, but this time it was completely stable, like a large candlelight.

“And this is solid essence. It’s quite slow to activate, but it can store twice what the liquid can and is a bit stronger than the gaseous version. It’s very useful for defense and to stick to surfaces.”

Now, even more of them looked convinced, with some staring at each other in amazement.

John let the flame fade, dropping his hand. “There’s also the plasma essence, but I haven’t touched that one yet. It’s supposed to be very strong, but also very unstable. So be careful if you try it.”

“John, how does someone obtain these types of essence?” the Lady asked eagerly. She seemed relieved by the magnitude of his knowledge, giving them hope of overcoming whatever problem they were facing.

“Oh, it’s surprisingly easy. You bring the essence to your chest and start circulating it, and then you just imagine it turning from one form to another. I’ve found that the best method is imagining the gaseous essence as clouds that make a heavy rainfall work best, and then liquid metal that hardens into a solid for the last step.”

The Lady stared at him in disbelief now. “But… I’ve been trying so many methods to experiment with essence before! I’m sure I’ve attempted something similar!”

One of the eastern-looking men in the room spoke up. “Perhaps it’s similar to breaking through the limits; you have to believe it can be done for it to work.”

“... That certainly is a possibility. But it is extremely frustrating!” the Lady responded, turning to the man. “You should tell your master about this as soon as possible, Lang. And everyone else, try this for yourselves. Then we’ll have another meeting in an hour. Dismissed!”

Everyone already looked deep in thought as the meeting ended, but they all bowed to the Lady before ending the meeting. All of them faded into thin air like they had never been there in the first place.

‘... More technology,’ John thought, ending his spell and turning to the Lady. “Now you’ll help me?”