Arthur Olvasen POV:

"Technique Deployment: Thunderforge Coffin."

Blue, crimson, amethyst and white sparks frayed between my father's fingertips that were interlocked in the shape of a Tesla Coil as they formed a complex layout, rippling outwards and creating a shimmering, electric armature in the air.

The air crackled, sky darkened, and a low hum of a thunder, not yet manifested, completely filled the atmosphere.

His spell had ripped open a space into Jayden's Technique Deployment.

As soon as the words left Aksel's mouth, his Technique Deployment started to overpower what remained of Jayden's half-destroyed TD as it manifested in a peculiar space amongst an infinite lattice of interlocking electric fields and lightning bolts that left my senses reeling.

The environment seems to stretch and fold in impossible ways, with arcs of electricity dancing between invisible points in space.

As the extremes of the TD began to close, everything started to feel disorienting.

The "walls," if they can be called that, seemed to extend and contort in ways that defied Euclidean geometry.

An invisible force gently pushed me back to the precipice, away from the hammering bolts of lightning that scorched and seared everything with touch of a mere second.

My back touched something that was solid, liquid and…gaseous at the same time.

When I reached out, my hand vanished into what appeared to be empty space, only to reappear in an entirely different location.

This was odd. I knew my father—Aksel Olvasen was the first one in the past 12 generations to finally manifest a Technique Deployment, and I knew it was a complicated phenomenon. But I had never even fathomed it would be this complex…and jarring.

While Ed's TD was much more brutish, sealing away the target's Arcanum to slowly make the body eat itself, Aksel's felt much more technical.

Which is quite ironic if you think about the fact that this man can't think straight for any more than a few fleeting seconds. Generously speaking.

My attention returned back to the boundary as I receded my hand.

It was like observing a shadow that doesn't correspond to its object as every surface around me exhibited the same anomalous behaviour.

With my senses still disoriented and my mind struggling to comprehend the odd space I was in, I tried to take a step forward.

The surroundings shifted, suddenly and seamlessly.

It was extremely jarring and I almost got hit by a stray bolt of crimson lightning.

Usually stepping forward decreases the distance to the target destination.

However, as I stepped forward it resulted in the manifestation of new walls which further morphed…expanding like some complex geometrical shape. A weird series of ever-evolving chambers, each transiently stable before transforming into another.

Electrical energy surges coursed like frenzied snakes through the ground, creating a web of glowing, conductive paths that all converged and met right underneath Aksel's feet that were now touching the ground of his half-manifested Technique Deployment.

The air was charged with static electricity causing our hair to stand on edge.

And just as Jayden's Arcanum was about to combust like the column of lava from a mountain's funnel, the lattice of electricity expanded rapidly in a bright white glow.

With a sudden, forceful pull, the lattice contracted and then exploded outward, creating a blinding flash of light.

I snapped my eyes shut on a pure reflex, the blinding light causing my eyes to feel like burning coals were placed on them. Even when I snapped them shut, the area behind my eyes seemed to be flooded with a bright white light, as if seeping through my skin.

A minute passed. And then another. I wasn't even sure if I was alive. Everything was...white. Like standing in a sterile, white room. After a few moments of using magnetic fields to push away the bombardment of light waves, I finally saw it.

The surreal, augmented dimension of interlocking electric fields and lightning bolts.

Electrical columns warped and twisted, forming pathways that looped back on themselves. Aksel stood at the centre acting as a conductor of the immense electric energy that made the air drum.

I looked around myself.

Cubes within cubes, each embedded within layers of space that folded onto themselves. The whole structure appeared alive, convulsing with an eerie rhythm.

He glanced in my direction, nodded and then looked down at Jayden, frowning. "The nerve of you is applaudable." He hissed, his killing intent giving way to more lightning to crash in random places, leaving charred ground and burning the air itself with the sheer heat of the lightning bolts.

Jayden looked in my direction, "You were quite right." He laughed and turned his direction towards him. "Surely your son doesn't take after you in smarts!"

With a wide sneer he raised his own hand and brought the ring-shaped hand sign close to his eye.

"Technique Deployment: Requiem of Eternal Rest."

As he spoke, a murky black darkness started to fill the air from his side. Like a tidal wave, it started as a slight ripple right behind him before starting its crawl upwards, fighting against the lacerations caused by crimson lightning into the rising inner barrier of his own Technique Deployment.

He can use it more than once…this is bad.

A sickly green aura rose like mist all around Jayden and the familiar sound of bones creaking intermingled with the constant backdrop of thunderclaps.

"Save your breath." Aksel seethed through his teeth as he raised his hand. A spear made of pure lightning started to form in his palm. Like knitting a sweater, threads of multi-coloured streaks coiled like sentient beings, moulding...shaping themselves.

Aksel's fingers tightened around the long base of the spear as the sparks solidified, taking a coherent shape rather than the ethereal state they were in while knitting themselves together.

"Fascinating." Jayden smirked as he raised his hands to the side. The giant cross behind him glowed and at the same time the stench of death grew increasingly overwhelming.

Monsters—giant worms, centipedes, wyrms, Orcs—and sentient creatures—young and old demons, trolls, dwarves…a few elves—alike began to reanimate behind him, forming a giant wave of unintelligent, dead beings that locked their dead gazes on Aksel's electrified form.

Perhaps I was wrong about the interpretation of his Technique Deployment, since there were monsters in his army as well. And since the man he was facing never encountered a monster, it was impossible for my theory to be correct.

As if realising my confusion, he glanced at me. "Inside my Technique Deployment I can summon anything. Even those that are bound to fail." He smirked. "When you plucked the Queen's prongs out and destroyed the entire adjacent skin, did you have a specific reason for it?"

Aksel's eyes shifted from him to me. It didn't look like he understood anything that was happening, but his eyes were inquisitive, as if curious about what Ed was referring to.

"Back at the Keep…" I began, "…when I casted Hailstorm and escaped afterwards, I was fishing for something." I paused and saw him tilt his head. No one attacked. Both Ed and Aksel—father's barriers were clashing, fighting for dominance and space-time continued to flip in and out, causing discordance everywhere, but they themselves remained still amidst this God forsaken phenomenon.

"Your resurrection...necromancy, it isn't exactly bringing the dead back to life, or specifically, just yours is different." I pointed at Gunnar who was still visible from my vantage point, his form spilling in and out of existence as the cuboid…no, tesseract-like inner-domain of Aksel began to gain dominance. "You are them… and they are you." I paused once again, letting my own words sink in. So, I, myself, could make sense of it. "A Divine Covenant. A sacrifice of the resurrected servants' half-alive will in exchange for you to inherit their share of…skills. Powers. Or a portion of their memories. I couldn't understand it back then and that was why I went all out against the Wujin army to destroy the Queen. To render her unable in any form to be resurrected later on and be used to control millions of mindless, blood-thirsty soldiers. Since the soldiers, even after being resurrected, are unable to function without a Queen."

A bitter taste filled my mouth. "I suppose all that was for nothing. You can steal its commandeering skill in exchange for the loss of intelligence from the Queen. Even though it is only inside the Technique Deployment."

Jayden's smile only widened. "I knew it!" He hid his face behind his hands and looked up, as if revelling in some kind of ecstasy. "Not only strength that far surpasses Category 4, you have something mysterious as well. Deep within you. Something far more ominous than that intuition of yours!" He cackled as father shifted.

The lightning spear in his hand vibrated subtly, not just humming with the familiar sound of a spark manifesting, crackling through the air and then fizzling out, but resonating with a frequency that tingled through my entire body even after the distance between us that seemed to stretch for miles on end, yet felt to be situated at an arm's length.

The echo of the cracks, the shadow of its path that could have been taken, or perhaps will be taken, invisible to me, created a lattice of motion that folded back on itself. It was extremely jarring.

I tried to not focus on the twisted dimensions. But it cleared a few things. Ed was holding back on his Technique Deployment back then. To not kill me immediately. The reason why he erected it was so Michael's brash nature won't cause any problems for our discussion.

"Ah, right!" Jayden's golden eyes gleamed. "I said it before. You're just like him." He paused. "Adam. You're just like him!"

"Shut your mouth, demon." Father's voice bloomed like an explosion inside a vacuum. Silent, but sharp. Destructive. Searing hot against the skin.

"I do not really wish to fight." Jayden spoke up, his voice—amplified by Arcanum—drowning out the hullabaloo of lightning swooshing everywhere like a whip. He then looked between me and Aksel. "But you humans…you are way too interesting! Let's entertain each other! Peace negotiations can wait!" The mention of negotiations caused Aksel's ears to perk as he looked at me.

"Wait, what? You were discussing about—"

He was interrupted as hordes of creatures started to make their first moves towards Aksel.

"You might want to exclude the pup before we fully manifest our Techniques. As much as you might love him, as a father, I, as well, do not want someone so interesting to die as a mere collateral."

I was about to talk but some kind of pressure…super compressed, built up around me, like the very fabric of the space rejecting me. It didn't seem to be limited to me, my physical body, but the general concept of me. Of Arthur Olvasen.

I had no idea how to put it exactly into words, but it was strange.

I wanted to stay, observe this once in a lifetime phenomenon of a fight between Technique Deployment users, but the push was relentless. It felt like being squeezed through an impossibly small gap, forced through a pinhole.

Overwhelming would be an understatement.

A tidal wave of spatial distortion fuelled by Arcanum pushed against me.

I could feel my physical…no, my essence that felt like a wisp drifting into ether, being compressed, twisted, forced into an alien form that didn't fit in this makeshift world or that.

The dimensions around me started to collapse, the intricate lattice of the tesseract tightening, lightning forming a net all around me, constricting and then green aura overlapping like the final layer of a gift wrap until there was no room left for me.

Every atom of my being screamed in protest; every molecule stretched to its limit as I was expelled.

And then, I was falling.

Not just free falling, but being...I couldn't tell. I couldn't describe it.

The events that happened were too quick for my tired mind to keep up with. The only thing I could register was Jayden's somewhat perverted excitement, mention of me belonging to Category 4, and then his attention diverging from me to fighting Aksel.

There was no coherence in behaviour, as if the twisted dimensions had twisted their behaviour as well.

The panorama compressed, the colours bleeding into each other as I was thrust out…spit out, tumbling through a few seconds of a murky black void and back into this... limited existence.

The transition was a violently jarring shift from the fluidity of higher dimensions to the rigid confines of the current one.

I hit the ground hard, gasping for breath, the air thick and heavy compared to the ethereal nothingness I had just been a part of until now. My chest heaved up and down violently, hyperventilating.

Taking hold of the Ambient Arcanum—to the best of my ability—I tried to control it, and my breathing, filling my primary node.

After a few seconds of rest, I finally took the first lookup.

The clash of Technique Deployments was invisible to the naked eye. I couldn't even feel a single distortion into the ambient Arcanum that could give away their presences.

Looking down towards my hands, I saw myself perched atop a guard Wujin's body that had toppled over.

The ground was roughed-up, charred—long lines of black originating from one place and then disappearing before reappearing over the other side of the field. A byproduct of the friction caused by Slipstream every time I had blipped in and out of the quantum state.

Now that I think about it, I was lucky the Wujins were not spread out that much. Since I can't use Slipstream over long distances due to many natural reasons. And also because of the limitations to my physical body.

I felt my eyelids close, fatigue catching up to me but the dull throb throughout my body had begun to subside, courtesy of the Arcanum existing in purest form in this place, unlike Earth's which was less potent and muddled.

My gaze washed over the entire battlefield, taking in the dead, prone forms of the Wujins and then slowly trailing towards the two Arcanum signatures—Michael and Ed engaged in a bare-knuckle brawl; Ed's Nightcrackle nowhere to be seen.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

I focused around them but couldn't find Ed's strange sword anymore.

There were too many new elements to Eden that we were unaware of.

The obvious difference in behaviour and approaches of high-ranking individuals, unmentioned weapons which can manifest out of thin air...as if stored in a separate, pocket dimension. "If" you can even call it pocket dimension.

The small hill behind Michael lurched as the waves of grey flames, in tandem with Ed and Michael's intent pounded like hammer against an anvil.

Despite the distance between us, I felt Ed's eye focus on me, piercing through it and his killing intent flared tangibly.

His arm swung and a small arc of decay flames swished through the air.

The total distance between us was around 60 or so feet. The arc of flames blinked 10 times as it was passed through a filter of Arcanum barriers I erected, slowly whittling down its power. It was something I had learned from Ed's chainmail's defence barrier.

By the time it had reached me it was nothing more than hot wind carrying a decaying property which was swatted away by the arc of lightning that extended from my body and then fizzled away.

Michael's fist collided against Ed's face as his entire body caved in before being propelled back with such force that it shook the entire mountain behind.

He looked back at me. His shirt was torn all over and blood streamed down from the corner of his lips, left shoulder and just beneath his ribs where a slash extended from right where his solar plexus would be and towards his latissimus.

But it was shallow. Shallow enough to not kill him.

His eyes were gleaming and the Arcanum around him was flaring, more and more. He felt hesitant, distant. As if not wanting to reveal or fight much in front of me. But he had no other choice.

I had pitted him against Ed for a few selected reasons.

As I watched Michael take and deliver hits, I observed what I needed. From the start.

The corrections in my assumptions regarding Michael's Divine Covenant. The rationale behind the false pretence, presumably, of refraining from killing, the truth about brute physical strength that seems to supersede any human and much more.

I couldn't tell before because of various uncertainties, but it's quite clear now. The 'sacrifice' for the physical boost was indeed his Arcanum amount. His physical attacks were doing less damage now, comparatively, but the amount of Arcanum swelling out from him was not allowing the efficiency to fall down.

He was still not using his Arcane Art.

But I supposed for the Whites, using their Arcane Art is something they don't exploit very often. And while it can cause the highest form of destruction known to mankind, it is also quite harmful to the user himself.

Ed tried to shrug Michael away, but he held him by his collar and pulled Ed towards himself, driving his knee into his ribs. The blow did not send shockwaves, which were usually created by the pure brute strength, however, Ed fell to his knees, blood gurgling out of his mouth in huge amounts.

Michael was relying more and more on his Arcanum with each passing moment.

That confirms it. I suppose I have no further need to observe him any further.

As the battlefield continued to rumble, I tried to look for Jayden and my father. There were still around, I could tell that much. The tingle on my skin like a bug was crawling on it was enough evidence to let me know that, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly where.

It was like they existed everywhere. Above—beyond the clouds, beneath—buried underneath layers of dirt and around—like the air itself.

I closed my eyes and let my senses expand as an extension of my spell.

And while usually this spell was enthralling, at the current moment it was leaving my senses reeling with a dissonant intensity.

Arcanum from different sources was being used in an offensive way, snatching away the usual serenity in the atmosphere and was replaced by the repulsive look of spells weaponizing and launching, destroying...eating away at everything.

It was strange. I thought I would not care about such things.

Something so trivial as to what the open space, the Arcanum inhabiting it, looked like. But here I was, feeling a little queasy over the shift in the atmosphere as I picked on micro changes—almost all of them.

Residual Arcanum from the clash of Technique Deployments hit my expanded senses like a rogue ball suddenly hitting an eye.

The sudden impact was jarring as I was taken aback, leaving me blindsided. I felt my senses recoil violently, yanked back as if someone had grabbed hold of them and pulled with all their might.

My awareness, which had been spreading out like a tangible extension of my body was abruptly condensed back into my physical form.

But in that brief moment before my senses fully returned, I glimpsed something.

An Arcanum signature. Far away, amidst the small congregation of trees underneath the shattered platform that we had housed ever since we came to Eden.

Alone. Trembling. Afraid…but bright. So bright that it cut through the smokescreen of Arcanum violently clashing and destroying terrain all around us.

It was like a full moon, the glow radiating from it piercing through a nimbus of black clouds.

'I almost forgot about her.'

Lightning hissed around me as I augmented my legs before dashing forward. Before long I had reached the place. Weaving through the choppy congregation of trees, I closed in on the Arcanum signature that was pulsing and dying in a rapid succession.

"Hello." I greeted, removing the dangling branch from a tree that was poking down away from my face as I reached out.

At the same time the figure suddenly turned around. Eyes shut from sheer panic; a hand blurred like a slap towards my face. Catching it with my left hand, right over the fabric of my attacker's wrist, I looked down at her.

"Solid slap. Would have knocked a tooth or two out of my mouth." I smiled...tried to, looking into her eyes that were red, and huge bags made her give a weary look.

A wave of regret washed over me watching Astrid in this condition. It was all because of me that she was like this.

I felt my gaze soften as her trembling eyes widened in realisation. Her lips moved to say something, eyes widened even more and when instead of words all that came out was a gasping breath, her eyes suddenly narrowed, shining and the crease of her forehead eased out before her lips quivered and she fell into my arms.

There was a rawness to her surrender...some kind of unfiltered vulnerability that struck me to my very core.

I coiled my arm around her shoulder, hesitatingly, the touch—despite the layer of clothing—sending shivers down my spine.

Rubbing my hand against her back I hugged her sagging body close and placed my chin on her head. "Deep breaths. Deep breaths." I whispered.

She didn't reply, but I could already tell that she was reliving everything from the way she was clutching at my sleeves as firmly as she could. Her knuckles had turned white.

"Mmmphhfff..." her voice quivered, words drowned out underneath constant sobs and sniffles. "I... I was so scared. I... I can't do it anymore, Arthur..."

The effects of the spell were wearing off. The foreign boldness and will to fight monsters while throwing the prospect of death away was a good addition to her character, but it was, nonetheless, not her.

And it was finally catching up to her.

(A/n Reference to Chapter 11: Thunderclap - Ⅱ)

I breathed out a shallow breath as I patted her head with the base of my palm, avoiding touching her clean silver strands with my hands that were caked with a mix of blood—both mine and Wujins'—dirt and grime. It felt like a crime touching her.

She didn't deserve it...but then again, nothing is fair. Life isn't exactly a bed of roses.

Should I tell her it's fine if she doesn't want to do this anymore?

Or should I say that she should forget about leaving me?

Or should I just convince her otherwise, contrary to the above two?

All of these were viable.

But after staying by my side...does she deserve to be treated like this?

It was a strange question. And I was quite conflicted about it myself. I normally would've done the logical thing until now.

But I couldn't. Was this me...actually, me? Or was it just a projection of someone else instilled into my mind by that woman.

Evening out the frayed strands of Astrid's hair, I squeezed her once against myself, jolting her to her senses.

I needed to answer now. The silence was getting almost stifling.

She sniffled, breaking from the hug but still leaned against me, her forehead pressed against my chest.

Her hair obscured her features as they fell from the sides like a curtain.

"Sor..." I paused.

Genuinely apologising, even if it was my fault, felt strange. It sounds pretentious to even think about and makes me think if I am any different than Michael. But at the same time, why should I apologise?

Right and wrong deeds do not exist. It's a matter of perspective.

Right?

Even so...I felt like...

"I am sorry." The apology came out as naturally as breathing from my lips. I had expected it to fall flat. Worsening...straining our uncustomary relationship. But it wasn't exactly like that. And the undertone to it surprised even me.

With her forehead touching my chest and the rest of her body powerlessly sagging backwards, she moved once, sniffling and then wiping her eyes with her sleeve. Before I knew it, she removed her head and then with as much force as she could, struck it back into my chest.

"Ouc..."

Well, that hurts.

I sometimes forget she's just a child.

"Like hell I'd accept your...cough, cough...apology..." She cried out but her voice creaked making the whole situation more sardonic than serious.

"Fair enough." I replied.

An expression of pure disbelief appeared on her face. "HAHHH!? What do you mean, fair enough???"

"I would've opened a dictionary, but I broke my pho..."

"That's not what I mean!"

Oh! She's talking about why I said that.

"Well, I am acknowledging the lack of acknowledgement of my apology." I tried to explain. "A mere sorry won't change the trauma you have experienced or the things you had to see."

She scowled. "I..." She paused. She tucked her hair behind both her ears since she had lost her hair pin and was now just loosely resting on her shoulders. And despite the mud stains and the aftereffects of continuous exposure to lack of sleep and close calls with death, she looked just as beautiful as ever. "I died, Arthur. So many times...It's not just about what I saw..." Her voice took a soft edge, as if she was reliving everything again and again in her mind.

"Well, you are still breathing."

"Seriously?"

"Uhhh..." I most likely should not have said that.

"Geez..." She wiped the dried trails of tears from her eyes and shook her head.

Before she could talk, I spoke again. Even though I didn't mean to. "It would be understandable if you want to quit...after all this. I have been treating you as an expendable commodity until now. So, it's natural."

Why would I say that? I couldn't tell myself. Her mind was blank and there was no thought swirling in it. In this vulnerable state I could somewhat peer into it and know what she was thinking.

But something stopped me. Was it my conscience?

Do I even have one?

Her brows arched upwards. "Quit..." she savoured the word, and then looked up at me with a frown, "...and then what? Who do I have left other than you, Arthur?"

Ah...yeah. Perhaps I forgot midway. Perhaps I got attached.

Wasn't it like this since the start? It's just how I had constructed our relationship to be. A transactional relationship.

Empathy had no place in it. It didn't deserve to be there.

"True." I replied. "Sorry for assuming."

She looked down, biting the inside of her cheek. Disregarding my own revulsion to any form of physical—skin to skin—touch, I placed my hand over her face. It was burning, a colour of red extending from one ear to another.

"If things don't go south everything is going to get sorted today. So, don't worry any further." It felt quite bitter to talk to her like this.

She looked at me with a confused look, staring intently for a good few minutes. As a strong gust of wind blew bent the trees in our direction, she blinked her eyes a few times before nodding. "Good to hear that."

"Yeah."

I replied and then turned away from her. It's for the best.

The shadow of thinly lined trees around us was suddenly absorbed into a peculiar shadow as I looked up. Through the canopy of skeletal branches, a bizarre shape loomed overhead—a shadow that defied the norm of the ones I had seen.

My mind dismissed it as a mere illusion, instinctively, but as I stared harder, I remembered the complexity of the inside of Technique Deployments.

My mind struggled to understand it, like trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces. The turning shadow wasn't flat. It felt alive... like me and Astrid. Just...colourless.

As I looked up once again, I spotted the Tesseract, visibly shaken and scarred. Cracks ran all along its edgeless body.

Crimson lightning flickered and crackled, sending arcs of red energy from the crevices in the right half and the other half had multiple protrusions—skeletal structure, with bone-like branches jutting out, white and eerie against the evenly bright sky.

I was about to turn around towards Astrid but at the same time the air was almost electrified by the sheer force of their conflict.

As I watched, a crack appeared in the tesseract, a jagged line that split it in two. The sound was sharp, like the snapping of a giant branch, and it echoed through the forest, making me coat my body in a thick sheen of Arcanum. Astrid did the same, but just to be safe, I manifested a small dome of electric and magnetic field around both of us.

The tesseract shattered, its pieces scattering like shards of glass in every direction.

From the epicentre of the explosion, two figures emerged.

My father, Aksel, had a small cut that extended from his left brow and stopped parallel to the base of his nose. Meanwhile Jayden was pretty much unharmed, but the few Wujins and other monsters all crumbled to dust as the tesseract shattered.

The two of them floated in the air for a brief second and then Jayden said something. Following that, the two of them landed on the ground while sending a huge wave of dust in every direction.

Even from here, I could tell that Jayden's Arcanum had dwindled to an extent that even Astrid held more Arcanum than him at this very specific moment.

"Stay here." I looked over my shoulder and readied myself to sprint in their direction.

However, she suddenly gripped my hand. "You haven't misunderstood anything I said...right?"

Her forehead was creased upwards, worry and many more emotions flashing like a face-paced slideshow in her pale blue eyes. They were mesmerising, but I was reminded of something. There were limits that shouldn't be crossed. A line, I reminded myself, to not cross. To never get ahead of myself.

Slowly slipping my wrist away from her grasp, I looked away at the buildup of the Arcanum in the form of a hurricane. "Don't worry... I haven't."

She didn't reply...or perhaps, even if she did, I didn't hear it. I was gone before she could blink or think over it.

My situation didn't bestow the luxury of pondering over such things. Not now. Not until I had achieved my ambition.

A grand ambition, in my eyes at the very least.

As I reached the area where the two had landed, my feet came to a screeching halt.

The two of them were standing face-to-face, their breathing heavy, their bodies marked with signs of the nigh cataclysmic clash which would've levelled the mountains here if they didn't fight in that enclosed place.

On the contrary, much to my own surprise, there was a strange calm between them. My father was holding back a delighted smile. Something Jayden, the supposed Lord of Demons, didn't have the decency of as he showcased his somewhat unscrupulous smirk on full display.

"I haven't had this much fun since my wife!" Jayden exclaimed.

Excuse me? What were these two doing inside? 😭

"I could say the same!" Aksel boomed with the same fervour.

Hmm. Well, who am I to judge? But doing something so indecent with your opponent mid fight. How wei--

"My wife almost killed me when we first sparred. After that no one except her was able to challenge me this much!"

"Hmph! I had a nigh similar experience!"

Uhhh...

Aksel looked in my direction.

"Oh, Arthur." He let out a laugh. "I think we can negotiate with this guy. What do you say?"

This man can't be serious. The urge to facepalm rose in me.

I was about to talk when suddenly Jayden interrupted me.

"I am ready to discuss on equal terms. After exchanging blows with your father, I think it was unwise of me to think otherwise."

It was suspicious. Really suspicious.

Once again, before I could talk, a mountain in the far distance rumbled. As we all turned our heads in its direction, I saw a white-haired boy, his body lodged like a starfish into the mountain's thick surface as a giant crater formed behind him.

His once blazing Arcanum signature suddenly fluctuated before fizzling out. Ed took a step forward and placed his hands over his shoulders. Like peeling a flattened, baked cookie from a baking parchment, Ed yanked his twitching body. The space around him cracked as Nightcrackle appeared in his hands.

Just as he was about to swing his sword at Michael's arm, he suddenly turned and caught the blade with his bare hand.

Ed's eyes widened as Michael smirked at him.

"About time." A wave of dread filled the entire battlefield as an unbottled amount of Arcanum flooded out of Michael. Like an overflowing chasm. As he gripped his fingers around the sword tightly, visible cracks began to run all along it.

"Phase 1: Decons—-"

Before he could chant, Aksel flicked his finger and a bolt of lightning shot towards the two. Both Ed and Michael's senses flared outwards as they pushed each other, The bolt cleaved the space between them and a around 3 feet wide crevice formed in the ground.

Both of them looked in our direction. A mild look of panic appeared on Michael's face as he saw my father standing side-by-side with Jayden. Someone he was supposed to beat.

It was a justified reaction. Since The Seven Syndicates have always been at each other's throats. That is more-so the case for us—Whites and Olvasens. The history is filled with people in our families going against each other and causing cataclysms in different parts of the world.

Now that he was all alone, he was bound to feel some kind of panic or hopelessness. As a matter of fact I would be surprised if he didn't react in any way.

Jayden waved his hand and brought middle finger towards his lips which had a peculiar ring over it. "Do not engage in further combat, Ed Vorlith. That is an order."

The voice, unhurried and as dignified as ever, came immediately afterwards. "Yes, my lord."

My father, Aksel, pulled his arm as he spoke as well. "Come here as well, Michael. No need to fight anymore."

I could almost hear Michael swear.

"Understood, Mr. Olvasen." The subdued undertone of respect felt forced, but I couldn't blame him, at all. I would be the same.

I guess.

As Ed and Michael began to walk in our direction, keeping a safe distance from each other, my father turned towards me.

"That man seems strong. I can't see how you did not want to go against him." He paused, his olive eyes trailing against the wounds on my body. "It's not like you to go against mindless beasts and then straight up against someone who you have no chance against. What's up?"

It would seem like my father's brain is indeed capable of critical thinking. Or basic observation.

"I had my reasons." I replied. I could reveal my observation of Michael's Divine Covenant. This was crucial information as this would explain the approach taken by the Whites for generations. However…I had no real reason to do so.

My own family was just as much of my enemy as the Whites. I was not bound to do favours to the Olvasens.

I pointed my finger at Jayden. "Long story short, because he wanted to talk to me, I couldn't grasp on a chance to fight Ed."

"Oh. Alright, that makes sense."

As we were talking, Jayden suddenly clasped his hands together and turned towards me. "Putting that aside, let us depart immediately."

"Depart?" I raised a brow at Aksel, rather than Jayden.

"We are going to his domain." Aksel remarked as he looked up at the sky. "Until the Frontier completely opens. For negotiations."

It would be several days on Earth. With even Aksel gone, it is possible that others might either come here…which is less likely, or…they can attack our house in Bergen.

It didn't really irk me. If anything, I could be liberated from that woman. Yet, somehow…that house itself…

It feels like there is still a part of me. Buried deep underneath the layers of soil, sediments…underneath the hidden chambers. A part of what made me…me. A human.

The sound of Astrid catching up to us made me shake my head as I got rid of the rather philosophical thoughts.

"Ah, you." Aksel pointed at Astrid behind me. "Good job leaving the small gap open for me. I knew I could depend on you."

I turned around to face Astrid. "What small gap?"

"Uhh…I made sure that the rift I entered through would be closed once I go inside."

A realisation dawned on me. It was opening. Like a flower blooming from its epicentre, the dome of Frontier was about to break. The first place to get merged. It was about to…

"If you want to do negotiations, you better hurry up." I spoke up as even Michael and Ed caught up to us and stood a few metres away.

Pointing up at the sky, I spoke as everyone's eyes widened. "The Frontier is about to break. And since it follows Earthen time...we might only have a few hours. A day at maximum." I declared as Jayden frowned.

"Then let's make haste. We shall immediately leave for Lawold." He smiled brightly as he extended his arms to the side in a welcoming gesture. "The City of the Lost Moon."