A few moments later, Aelia and Kane were alone in the room again. 

"Are you sure that was a good idea?" she asked him, somewhat sceptically. "The only place you'll find snow demons so far from the Nox Dominion is in Nivian, one of the strongest four countries in the North… she might have been useful." 

Thoughtfully, Kane used his left hand to drum on the armrest, while his head still leaned against his right. Then, he nodded slowly, "You're right. Her strength was meagre, but she was young, and her composure was impressive. I doubt she was just a nobody." 

He calmly stood up and moved over to the door leading deeper into the Sanctum while he continued with a shrug. "So yes, she might have been useful… But not anytime soon. We are still far too weak to interfere in a country like that. 

"But we won't always be!" he then exclaimed, as Aelia could practically see the wide, ambitious grin splitting his face, despite looking at his back. "And at that point she could still be useful! Yet, it was obvious she wouldn't be convinced to stay for any reason and forcing her would have just turned her against us." 

Reaching the door, he turned back towards Aelia, who still stood by the large chair and looked at him with a frown. Kane grinned slightly, "This way, however, she has a good impression of me, and when I make my way to Castrum in the future, which I surely will at some point, I might look her up…" 

He winked suggestively, "And who knows what might happen then?" 

Aelia rolled her eyes, knowing full well her new boss would attempt to seduce this snow demon into giving them an advantage in Nivian. "You know, I wonder where you'd land on the scale of good and evil, Boss," she muttered wryly. 

"Oh? Is this a lesson in ethics by a bandit?" Kane grinned playfully. 

If possible, Aelia's eyes rolled even further, nearly disappearing into her head while she sighed, "Just an observation." 

Kane chuckled and shrugged. "I just do whatever is necessary to advance the goals of me and my people. Good and evil are useless concepts, because no one who truly embodies either of the two would care about the distinction.

He continued, his voice sharpening with conviction. "A truly good person wouldn't care about such a label, and neither would someone truly evil. At that point, 'good' and 'evil' become no more than tools, used by those who fall in the middle, to label what they cannot otherwise comprehend." 

Then, his tone turned graver. "And I refuse to be bound by such pointless classifications." 

Aelia blinked for a moment, as if to internalize exactly what he said. But then she suddenly began to laugh softly and shake her head, "Whatever you say, Boss. Be sure to whisper that in the ear of the next person you kill, alright?" 

Kane smirked at her impudence, but didn't mind. "Maybe I will!" he instead exclaimed. 

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

But then he waved his hand at the exit with a grin, "Now, go. It's time for Luna and I to start our seclusion, while I leave the base in your capable hands. Be sure to try and get some time for your own progression, however. Now that you have a second stage technique, I fully expect you to be at that level when I come out." 

That comment made Aelia's eyes twitch. So far, she'd barely have time to look at her technique long enough to use its base version against Luna. Now she was supposed to break through to the next stage within a month, while also taking care of the base? 

The worst thing was, that it wasn't impossible. She'd been hampered by her first stage technique, but she had been at the top of the Core Awakening stage for a few years now. She was primed to break through, if she'd just get at least a week to herself. 

Yet, before she could lodge any complaints, Kane disappeared into the Sanctum bowls with one more statement. "Oh, by the way, I don't know if your crew had a name before, but from now on you are called Lupae Timoris." 

Aelia blinked at the now closed door Kane had left through, and then groaned while rolling her eyes and walking to the exit. "She-wolves of Dread? I guess there's worse names…" 

Kane had quickly realized that this world's language had some similarities with ancient Latin, and decided to lean into it, despite the mystery it brought. After all, it wasn't the only similarity there was with this world and ancient Rome.  

When he first realized this, he figured there'd been a cultural exchange through unstable rifts at some point in the past, but now that didn't make sense… because this world had been been quarantined for the last ten thousand plus years. 

So why was there such a similarity between this world and Earth's ancient Rome? 

Not that it mattered to Kane right now. He's stopped thinking about the many questions he still had, because there was no way for him to find answers at this point in the game.  

Instead, he just filed all his questions away for later, and focused on the present. 

Meanwhile, Aelia suddenly received a message on her armband. When she read, she raised an eyebrow. "A gift for deciding on a name without me?" she mumbled curiously to herself. But when she actually saw what the gift was, her eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. 

* * *

Two weeks later, Kane was sitting in the Sanctum's meditation area, legs crossed, eyes closed, and hands hovering in front of his chest with their palms facing each other. His hands were about a foot apart, and between them danced a black sphere of energy. 

In the middle of this sphere pulsed a dangerous, maroon coloured light, and the surface held a strange sheen, as if made of dark, fluid ice. It radiated with a piercing cold that would instantly make most first stage Mystics shiver, and feel like they were engulfed in a cold, dark, wintery hellscape. 

Such was the power of Kane's Eternal WInter technique, combined with his Dreadwolf essence. 

Currently, he was making his newest attempt at breaking through to the next stage, something he'd done a number of times already in the past week. He was having a little trouble, for the simple reason that he was making things harder than they absolutely needed to be.

But that was the sacrifice he made for his future. 

After discussing it with the more experienced Ella, he'd decided to try and break through using both the Eternal Winter technique, and the Crescent Moon Manual, despite knowing they weren't compatible due to their vast difference in level. 

Breaking through by combining his Dreadwolf essence with the Eternal Winter energy, which combined his shadow and ice elements, wouldn't solve that compatibility issue either, but it would lay a foundation for the future! 

After all, the Crescent Moon Manual would always remain with him, and the Eternal Winter technique was designed to create a strong domain that could be easily integrated into other techniques in the future.  

Thus, if he could now break through by using mainly the Eternal Winter technique, while infusing it with at least a little of his Dreadwolf essence, that would not only empower his foundation but also make things easier for him in the future.