Asela, Chester, Hel, and Cecil stood in front of a table. Their expressions were grim as a lake appeared on the map on the table. Moments later a red bird arrived followed by an orca, and finally a white fox.

The orca engaged the bird and began to damage it greatly before the white fox arrived. It seemingly raised a paw to stop combat before leaving. The other two stopped fighting and left as well. Minutes after they left that coordinate of the map, plants surrounded the lake as rivers were carved into the ground.

“Why isn’t our captain on the map?” Hel asked the question that bugged Asela but not Cecil.

Cecil adjusted his glasses. “He has a constant aura that disrupts his ability to scry and record. Unless he’s willing, he won’t show up in a picture as anything more than a blur. That's only from the visual senses. Sound-based senses, or advanced hearing could bypass it as well as heat sensing. Unless he’s aware that an enemy can do either of those things. As he can manipulate either his heat or his bodily functions at will. It’s disconcerting when he shuts off his heartbeat and pumps his blood manually.” Cecil squinted.

“He can do what now?” Asela seemed concerned.

“He can manually control every organ in his body, with limited access to his brain. Something about setting up safeguards to prevent accidentally killing himself, he then deleted the trigger phrase from his memory.” Cecil was informed of the phrase during its creation a while back as it required intent and was something he wouldn’t hear directed at him. It was an emergency phrase that would give him access to 100% of his brain functionality. Accessing deleted memories, and triggering abilities his body wasn’t ready to handle.

“Why do you know that?”

“He told his spirits and one of them informed me of the details after he accidentally created something that shouldn’t exist. It’s odd, as that was right around the time he started calling himself Rion.” Cecil lowered his voice a bit as a black fox seemed to be approaching their room with an angle.

A single knock hit the door before it opened before he could knock a second time. The door knowing not to stay closed for the second knock.

“Bastion. What are you doing here?”

“Hmmm? Where’s Mr.Teacher? I finished painting and want to go play. Is Eden he…” Bastion’s eyes caught on to Asela.

“Hello there.” Asela waved as the kid stared at her in confusion.

“Can big sister play with me?” Bastion was shorter than her after all. However, the difference wasn’t as big as one would expect for someone her age.

“I’m the co-captain of my team.”

“And I'm the masked scotch!” Bastion said proudly.

Hel sighed. “We’re working right now. Why don’t you go play with the gremlins?”

“They may even let me fire the cannons.” Bastion ran through the door, his arms spread out as though they were wings.

Cecil pressed his thumb and middle finger against his nose before voicing a command. “Someone please don’t let him anywhere near the cannons. If he so much as touches the runescript things will explode, and not in a fun way.”

No one in the room seemed to move but within moments a floating spherical orb entered the room carrying confused Bastion, who was currently suspended in a field of purple mana,

Chester adjusted his glasses before looking at Cecil in interest. “He can break enchantments?”

“He can trigger the safety wards on anyone just by poking them if he cared to. Not sure when his power grew that much but I don’t trust him near anything that could level a mountain. He’s already tried to enter the mech.” Cecil squinted at the young child whose dreams were constantly crushed by "grown-ups".

Well older teenagers, as far as Bastion was concerned were a whole digit above him. Thus they were old, he saw no difference between 12 and 99, though for some odd reason once someone hit 100 they were young again. The logic stirred conflicting thoughts so Bastion looked at the bubble he was in and popped it with a poke.

Pop!

“It’s just like a bubble! I need more!”

“My aren’t you a greedy child,” Asela stated.

‘

“I per-sur am-bi–vil–ious-ant.” Bastion closed his eyes in frustration as he forgot the word he was trying to say. Before locking onto a corner of the room and tilting his head to the side.

Cecil squinted as the word seemed to be a mashup of two other words. “Anyway. Our captain is probably in the room now being creepy and mysterious.”

“I’m not creepy. Just didn’t want to interrupt.” Kyrion appeared in the room and withdrew a few vials of blood he’d taken from Birdion while he wasn’t paying attention.

“It’s creepy. How long have you been there and why didn’t we notice you?” Hel stated.

“Haven’t you been listening to Cecil’s whole explanation? Just assume that I’ve been here the whole time mentally and may have arrived at one point in between the time Bastion left the first time and was returned.

“Bastion. You are now on Captain watch. If you see him pop in, speak up. If you do so, I’ll make an ice cream factory just for you.”

“I don’t know what a factory is but I want it. Will they have Kimchi ice cream?” Bastion's odd eye seemed to return for a brief moment filled with

“Kimchi…Does this world even have an equivalent?”

“Does it matter if you know how to make it?”

“You want fermented cabbage, to be turned into an ice cream flavor?”

“A spicy ice creams.” Bastion nodded.

“I’ll experiment with it, but you’ll need to taste test.”

“No thanks. It isn’t for me. It’s for that conniving White Fox. He tricked me out of half of my cookies by splitting them in half! So I'm going to burn his mouth up with vegetables.” Bastion rubbed his hands together maniacally. “I’ll say its Spacy Strawberry Blast.”

Asela looked at Kyrion and shook her head. “That's one of your pranks. What have you been teaching your students?”

“I haven’t done anything of the sort since I took him in. Well, not in front of him. But I've been on my best behavior. Foxes honor it’s not my fault people either try to rob me or antagonize me in ways that end in minor inconveniences or long trips to the bathroom for an extended period of time.”

Bastion nodded, “You're right. I should mix powerful laxatives in a Rock Da. Road batch and say it was a factory mishap.”

“You could make up a condition and call it lactose intolerance that way, he’ll think that's why all that ice cream could be dangerous to his stomach,” Kyrion said instinctively.

“That’s a real condition though.” Cecil stated.”

“Not in this universe. The way we process food is slightly different. Sugar doesn’t leave waste; it's burned up by our cells and turned into small bursts of mana due to its ability to hold and store it. When you see a spirit master chewing on sugar cane for an extended period of time chances are they are powering a spell that needs a whole lot of mana. It's why bakers and patisseries are so well sought after. And candy makers can become kings of small countries with our current level of advancements.” Kyrion explained a piece of lore that took years for him to understand as he pulled out a chocolate bar infused with his earth mana and had high levels of caffeine in it.

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“Aren’t you the Black Fox?” Chester asked.

“No? That's silly, my name is Bastion. Mr. Kyrion said so and he’s always right unless Mrs.Lin says the opposite.” Bastion said sagely.

“I didn’t tell him to say that.” Kyrion took two steps back.

Asela raised an eyebrow. “Nicole’s not going to like this development.”

“Can we just focus on the plan?”

“Plan lactose intolerance is underway.” Bastion saluted before attempting to run off.

This time Michele picked him up and tossed him over a shoulder. “I’ll look after him. Rie needs some assistance with the other hoards of monsters nearing the walls. There are two low-tier expe— Nevermind.”

“What happened?”

“The Gremlins reported that Arion used one of the mech cannons to fire a blast capable of creating a trench in that general area. There is nothing left alive for miles along that area. What did you create in this world?” Michale looked at Kyrion.

“This is his creation. I just added a better power source and fixed the weight issue.” Kyrion pointed.

“That level of destruction is in parameters but requires time to charge up. Based on current knowledge only two of those shots can be fired in eight-hour intervals. I’ve used both thus anything else from that machine will be pushing it. Have our people move inwards for now as the sun is nearly set. We’ll need to sleep in shifts soon.”

“I’ll take the first shift with Noah if you don’t mind. He seems distracted.” Kyrion stated.

“You do realize that has more to do with you beating him so soundly right?”

“He was mentally compromised, injured, and exhausted. I have no right to be a captain if I can’t beat an opponent in that state. Also, I capitalized on all of that when I slapped him. The shock of healing mana that had a mental cure is what did him in.”

“Wait. You can knock people out with healing magic?”

“It is better to do so when dealing with mental spells as causing orders in one’s brain to fight while conscious can lead to temporary or permanent insanity. I don’t like doing that to friends. Nicole wasn’t under Lisa’s spell but she was under a more insidious one known as doubt and fear. Did something happen recently?”

Asela sighed. “You attacked our group last night. They had your scent and everything. According to Nicole.”

“Ah…That would explain why Birdion tried to steal one of my cloaks.”

“What?” Cecil said as he hadn’t been informed.

“Yeah, he broke into my room yesterday night and we had a standoff and he took a wall with him.”

“If he has your hair.”

“My hair currently contains a makeup that causes it to light on fire and disintegrate when removed. Also, I got a bit of his blood already. He has his hair.” Kyrion shook his head and a few sparks flew in the air around his head.

“Right. Bella and I will volunteer for the midnight shift. I suggest Tiffany and Atimin work in the early morning.”

“Three shifts?”

“Meh. It sounds like three but you all are just acting as contingencies for my web of clones and Chesters orbs.”

“Clones?”Asela raised an eyebrow.

“It’s a secret elven technique. Don’t worry about it.” Arion and Rie arrived as they were teleported into the room.

“What do you want?” Rie tilted his head back at an odd angle and looked at Kyrion.

“You’re getting a shorter neck next time. Necks shouldn’t do that.”

“It would also make you slightly taller.”

Arion cleared their throat. “I suggest we get to the point, I was busy reading a book on human interaction on a deserted island to better understand humanity. So far some have regressed to cannibalism and other heinous acts against each other. The male lead has been betrayed by his lover and is currently roasting over a cookfire. How does it end!”

“Do you want me to spoil that one? Are you reading books via my memory?”

“No, I have physical copies made by the lord of dungeons.”

“Ah…That's the point where.” Kyrion started as he suspected Karl was using his memories and adding stuff to make it more exciting.’

“Shush!”

“Kyrion. Go talk with your friend.”

Kyrion sighed as he jumped through a hole in the floor that closed itself as he passed.

----------------------------------------

The room Kyrion landed in was a basic weight training room only the weights were drastically higher than they looked. Noah was busy testing the arm weights and adjusting to the lack of mass and yet increased weight.

“They use gravity runes to increase their weight. It’s how such an item is much heavier than it looks.” Kyrion said as he entered the room.

“I see. And the bigger weights have more runes on them to explain the exponential weight increases.” Noah pointed to a set of large cubes connected with a metal pole.

“Correct. It’s probably why I’m currently physically stronger than you.”

“What?”

“Yup. I bet I could easily put you through that wall over there with a single palm strike.”

“Do you want to start a fight?”

“Is my intent hard for you to discern?” Kyrion asked haughtily while sending mana into his eyes.

Noah’s muscles bulged as an angry vein appeared and a transformation started to begin before fading rapidly as he held his chest.

Kyrion shook his head and approached Noah white flames coating his fingers.

“What? Are you?” Noah took a step back.

“Leeching bastards. That's how he got so strong so quickly! How did Charles…He must have known but stayed quiet for some reason.” Kyrion held his chin with his other hand as he thought.

“Speak sense!”

“That long. Let us see what else is weaker than it should be.” Kyrion swept Noah’s legs, his movement leaving behind afterimages.

“Light of purification!” Kyrion fused healing energy with fire and space to create a gateway into his friend's core.

Noah’s reaction was somewhat delayed as a hand passed through his torso and held a white sphere. Said sphere was crushed and a vast amount of power came rushing out before flowing into Noah.

Noah twisted mid-fall like a cat managing to land on all fours both confused and enraged.

“That anger. Give into your rage. Your hatred.”

Noah’s eyes glowed red as he charged forward and tackled Kyrion. The force was enough to cause him to fly into his mana-enforced walls.

Kyrion enhanced his muscles with mana causing him to use 80% of his reserves to get him off to no avail.

Noah then bit into Kyrion’s shoulder. The burst of raw mana caused him to go into a frenzy after seizing up.

In that weakness, Kyrion slid under him and let his regeneration kick in. “Sheesh. Give in a little less next time.”

Noah turned, his height doubling as he ran forward only to be sent through a portal that sent him right outside of the fortress.

Kiara walked into the room right after. “Did you need to antagonize him?”

“No. I don’t regret the end result… Though he did drink some of my blood. That is less good.” Kyrion looked to Kiara who seemed to have a familiar irritated look on her face.

“Did you have to convince us that you were de–” Kiara stopped as walls rose around her, cutting off her escape which put her on edge.

“This needs to stay quiet.”

“Pretty sure the only one who hasn’t picked up on your disguise is Nicole. You’re doing what she did to you. Only more intentionally, I didn’t think you were so…”

Kyrion waited. He wasn't walking into that one.

“Fine. Is there another reason?”

“What do you know about shards?”

“That last word sounds like gibberish to me,” Kiara said honestly.

“Well, let's say that I'm pretty sure there are at least two people in Nicole’s head. People don’t change their mannerisms that much without a drastic event. Like Noah, Nicole felt different during the forest trial not sure when or why? However, I didn’t realize that was due to a parasite infecting his core. Oh…” Kyrion realized something.

“The obsession occurred after I saved their life…Well healed them. The healing probably brought Nicole into dominance. Though I am quite concerned.”

“How certain are you that you just missed some cues? You were gone for a bit, people change, especially at that age. I remember when you couldn’t read.”

“So…did you know there was something hampering Noah’s growth?”

“I thought it was mental. Like you, I thought he was scared to fully transform. A common trait among beast types. It’s usually to precaution to prevent becoming the creature mentally and physically.”

“I suspected as much as well. We must have seemed pretty condescending.”

“I have tact. Shouldn’t you bring him back?”

“He needs some time to adjust to the change in his abilities. I know he’s a hugger, but you should probably tell the others not to accept any hugs from him for a while. Or let's work on anything delicate. I’m bad with balancing metals and our mech needs some work.” Kyrion stepped through a wall his body seemingly phasing through it while in actuality he timed a portal to appear right as he passed.

The walls trapping Kiara sunk into the floor as Atimn fell to the ground.

“I was just walking when this wall appeared. Do you know where it came from? Or what it was keeping hidden?”

“Noah accidentally transformed while inside the room. It detected him as a hostile entity for a moment. The person in charge of this place booted him out and followed after them.”

“I see… What about that girl who did me in?”

“Sharpening her blade. It was a bit dull as none of us were removed when her sword slashes struck.” Kiara stated.

“Great. I want to be in the exact opposite direction.” Atimin stated.

“You sure you don’t want to do a round two?”

“She’s around our age and one of the most skilled sword users I've seen. My instincts say get as far as I can.” Atimn turned to go the opposite way as a silver-haired woman in golden armor walked right past him.

“That wasn’t Nicole…Are silver-haired people common?”

“Descendants of certain royal families have traits like that. If you need something to do then you should start weight training. I’ll see if Isaiah will act as your spotter.”

“No. No. I’ll stop skulking about and get some rest. I have an early morning watch.” Atimn ran straight towards his assigned room.