1834 Endure

"You're here..." Rychard said lightly.

Orinik gently patted down the slight wrinkles in his clothing. He was just as immaculately dressed as dressed, his robes looking like an evolved three-piece suit held together by a few chains of gold and silver. Even so, it didn't feel gaudy or nouveau riche. He carried the air of a refined gentleman, and air that was even sharper than it had been in the past now that he wasn't forced to wear the Void Palace's uniform.

Orinik looked much the same as he had in the past, the only difference being that he now had a beard, which was of course perfectly groomed. What was interesting, though, was that his beard had neat strands of silver hair, a nice contrast to his dark skin. This was odd, though, since he didn't seem to have aged at the same rate as Rychard. He seemed to be the same youth he was in the past.

"If I didn't come, wouldn't you have ruined everything?" Orinik asked lightly.

Rychard wasn't enraged by these words, or maybe it just took more than this alone to enrage him.

"If you can point out to me where I've ruined everything, I would actually very much appreciate it. Even now, I'm not sure where things went wrong," Rychard replied.

"Isn't it obvious to you yet? You've been played."

"By who?"

"By who else? Leonel Morales."

Rychard's gaze narrowed and he looked toward Orinik deeply.

"Explain." He eventually asked.

"You showed your hand too early. You're not as detached from this as you thought. If you wanted a chance for a sneak attack to work, then you should have let him trample all over you during his visit. There are no information networks that are infallible, if they hadn't been specifically looking for signs of your action because you led them like calves to the river to exactly what they needed, things wouldn't have happened like this. Or at the very least, your losses wouldn't have been so devastating."Têxt belongs to .

"And how does the destruction of the Chaotic Water Sector fall into all of this?" Rychard asked.

"This is something we still don't have the whole picture on, but the information released by Shield Cross Stars should be at least semi-accurate. It's just unlucky. They were destroyed before we could make use of them properly, but this is also a favor to us. The variables in Earth's territory are now at a minimum."

Rychard's gaze narrowed. "You knew that they were of the Cloud Race."

"Not completely, but we had our speculations. Regardless, since they weren't part of the cause, they were destined to be destroyed. They were part of the previous world order, they're part of the very system that deserves to be taken down. That Graros character didn't hesitate to sacrifice one of his own sons for the sake of power, what right does he have to be one of us?"

Orinik's expression was placid, but the sneer seemed to be clear in his voice.

"Then what do you want to do, exactly?"

"We wait," Orinik said coldly. "Very soon, Earth won't be able to deal properly with its own internal struggles."

Rychard's gaze narrowed. "Weren't they destroyed?"

"Those four families aren't as simple as they seem. In the Cataclysm Zone, the region I went to was under the control of the Laevis family. There's something very fishy about all of this. Those four families might not be human at all."

Rychard's pupils constricted. "Not human?"

"Not human may not be the correct way to say it. They may not be humans of our Human Domain is a more... accurate statement."

After saying this, Orinik turned and began to leave. "Endure for now. Very soon, you won't have to endure anymore enduring."

Rychard watched as Orinik vanished without a word.

He too had heard inklings of those four families in the Cataclysm Zone. His assumption had always been that it was Zone was a marker of the end times of the Human Domain, a Zone demarking a future where those four families took precedence, a Zone where, much like Terrain of the path, it was created to give them an opportunity to survive.

This assumption seemed perfect to him, especially since the Human Domain was facing threats from other races. The Cloud Race had already infiltrated so deeply and the others were only waiting for their opportunity to pounce.

But Orinik's conclusion seemed to be different. Of them all. for some reason. Orinik seemed to he the most mvsterious for reasons he couldn't nut his fineer on. Although Orinik had come from a family much stronger than the Viola, in the grand scheme of the Human Domain, they were nothing more than ants, being even weaker than the current Thrusting Skies Sector or the former Chaotic Water Sector.

Even so, upon his return, Orinik had elevated the status of his family even faster than he had.

Rychard had been convinced that no one could have gained from the Cataclysm Generation more than he had, but then he met Orinik. And now, Leonel seemed to have returned with a vengeance and had, according to Orinik, been leading him by the nose.

Endure, huh?

He had already been enduring for almost three decades, even a few more months wasn't a big deal to him. All he had to do was be ready when the time came.

Unfortunately for Rychard, Orinik wasn't the only intelligent man in existence. Leonel had known weeks ago that he had yet to destroy those four families completely and he knew what kind of danger they posed.

So why would he let Rychard survive for longer than he had to? Just when Rychard thought that Leonel might try to suffocate him to death, a month later, an all out war erupted, executing a sneak attack Rychard could only dream of.

In a single half night, half of Rychard's territory vanished and another quarter was swallowed up as he commanded a tactical retreat. By morning, only the Three Pillar Galaxy remained.