As the sun sets overhead, I allow my consciousness to shift between all of my body doubles, like I'm in three nations at once, continuing my work while sitting here with Raven as she heals.

One double continues to work with Bri and Rodrigo, acting as Mr. Freeman as transmissions are sent out to all of the eight Regional Directors.

Most still need time and resources to handle the events of today's surges, but it's settled that new teleport crystals will be handed out to each of the Regional headquarters today. This will allow all high-level Elite C-Class Hunters, B-Class, and of course, the remaining A-Class here in the Apex Region to be ready to attend.

The meeting is set for tomorrow morning, bright and early, as I have many announcements to make.

Meanwhile, in the two labyrinths I have control over, in the Apex Region and Dark Continent, a new project is taking place.

Two of my doubles are hard at work siphoning pure mana out of the Apex Region's labyrinth and funneling it into the one in the Crimson City.

On the top floor of the Apex Region's labyrinth, my doubles find the same exact phenomenon as the Vice City one I hibernated in. There's a demon, fast asleep on a black block of stone. There's no dragon in sight...

With no way of communicating with the guardians, despite multiple attempts at telepathy, I decide there's no use thinking about it now, and I'll just continue my process.

Instead of using the old method of farming element stones, waiting for monster respawns, and imbuing them with my Plunderer skill to absorb the dungeon's pure mana, they're now using a combination of my crystal creation skill and the pure power of my Plunderer skill to naturally absorb mana into its physical form and transport it directly from labyrinth to labyrinth.

It's a tedious process, which takes a lot of mental and physical strain, but it's far faster than the old method. Instead of managing to absorb tens of billions of MP every hour into containment stones, I'm able to expand my red aura throughout the entire floor and safely collapse each one, converting it into a pure crystal form in the same time, netting me hundreds of trillions of MP per minute, speeding up the process by a massive leap.

I estimate there's over 500 quadrillion MP in the Apex Region's labyrinth. While I could destabilize the entire labyrinth in a matter of minutes if I went all out, that would waste a lot of mana, so to be safe I'm taking it slow. At this rate, it should take about 12 to 24 hours to complete the process, but all I have is time.

The Apex Region's labyrinth will be drained down to 60 floors, making the strongest monster inside roughly level 3000, while all of the siphoned mana will be placed in the Crimson City's labyrinth, bringing it up past floor 90. I'm not sure exactly what floor it'll reach, but it will surpass level 6000 monsters for sure, giving the Crimson Army and my teammates more floors to train in and level up.

__

While all this is occurring throughout the eight Great Regions and the Dark Continent, the obliterated forest region that has been sucked dry of mana turns a shade of orange as the sun sets and curves over the horizon.

The white glow around Raven's body continues to shine brightly, and the portions of pure white marble that imprison her arms, legs, and major portions of her torso flake away into the air as her muscle tissue and bones grow back in their place.

The weak dull light of her Divine Core slowly grows brighter and hotter too, sending out a raw, uncontrolled aura of pure True Core light in all directions, easily covering 50 kilometers.

I'm glad I stayed here and didn't try to bring her back to the Crimson City.

Even with my own True Core and mental strength, withstanding this pressure is not easy. I'm sure any normal hunter caught up in this aura wouldn't survive a single second.

The white mansion continues to crumble away, and by the time the sun sets completely all that's left is the foundation of the building, a few intact sculptures, the white dragon and the deceased True Core user on the barely held-up remains of the top floor, and the cracked and crumbling walkway of white stone that stretches out into the darkness.

The only light left once the hibernation's white glow fades is both of our bright yellow True Cores lighting up the night.

Once I watch the seconds tick down to zero, I stand up and take a few steps back, preparing to retrieve my weapons and activate my Greater Form if needed.

However, once the white light disappears, I find that isn't the case at all.

There's a light ding in my head that tells me Raven's hibernation process is complete, and this echoes through both her and my consciousness, as I've been closely monitoring her for so long I hear her system notification too.

Her fingers move first, then she flips her palms to look at the fronts and backs.

Next, she takes a step forward, and her head turns slowly in my direction.

Our True Cores light up the area around us, and both of our perceptions are good enough that even in pitch black, it might as well be daytime.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

However, with no sun in the sky, it still gives the atmosphere quite a dark setting.

Her hazel eyes meet mine, and she speaks out loud.

"You saved my life... why?"

She stares at me without any malice, not even keeping her guard up, accepting that if I wanted her dead, I would have finished the job already.

I pause to think, then reply back into the silence of the night with a shrug.

"Why not...?"

We stare at each other for a few seconds longer, then her gaze leaves mine to look at the state of the mansion around us.

Her echoing footsteps make their way across the rubble-cluttered entrance hall until she's right below the dragon and the man turned to stone.

"So, your True Core ability... you can steal power from whoever you kill? Be it pure Divine Energy, skills, or even a True Core ability itself."

I'm surprised at her words, as she's laid out this fact so bluntly, and with such little data to back her claim.

The link of loyalty created before the healing process is still extremely strong, unwavering, almost like blind trust as she's putting her life in my hands. It's odd...

I don't bother confirming her suspicions as she already knows it's true, and ask a question of my own.

"Who are you people? The Order. I want to know why you told me it would be better to act like I lost our battle... and who exactly you wanted to keep it a secret from."

The corner of Raven's lip curves up an unnoticeable amount, and she doesn't turn her gaze away from the petrified white dragon above her, reflecting back her yellow aura's glow.

"Well... it seems after aligning myself with the threat known as the Flame Emperor, and failing to protect a fellow member of the council, I don't think there's any point in keeping secrets."

She lets out a sigh, and turns back around to walk toward me again.

"Plus, we've triggered the throne's awakening, the alliance will crumble soon whether I tell you or not."

She stops in front of me, and my expression shows I want nothing else but a response.

I can feel lots of mixed emotions churning around in Raven's head as she tries to organize her thoughts...

I've had many hours to think this over, while she has basically just woken up from a coma after our battle and learned of the death of another member of her organization.

If I were to only read her body language and facial expressions, I'd have no idea of the mental strain she's juggling right now. So, I patiently wait and give her a moment to formulate a response.

"The Order... is an organization formed long before the dungeons appeared in this world. I, for one, only had the privilege of joining about five decades ago, once the throne was discovered, and the Great War was fought."

Internally, my interest is piqued. The reason being, she doesn't look a day over 30, but she's speaking of witnessing an event that happened half a century ago. However, I don't make any physical reaction to her words, and she continues.

"There were ten members, but in the last few days, you've managed to dwindle our numbers down to eight."

She looks back toward the petrified man, then back to me.

"None of the outer members are truly loyal to the others. We have all just signed a pact in order to conserve our energy over the years. If a fight between two True Cores broke out in this world, well, it would result in both of their early deaths without question."

We both know she's pointed out a false idea here, as both of us are still standing, but her next words make me second-guess this.

"Divine Energy is not meant to be wielded in such high density in this world. Even if you believe you've gamed the system, there is a cost for everything. Mr. Freeman is a prime example of this fact—healing magic only gets you so far. Time always catches up to us..."

We stand in silence for a few seconds again, as I take in her words, but still have so many more questions that need to be answered. Now that she's opened this box of previously unknown knowledge, I need to hear it all...

"What do you mean by outer members? Does this mean there's some kind of ranking to this Council? And... the Great War... 50 years ago... you said the throne's appearance is what triggered this war. Why?"

The corners of Raven's lips visibly turn up, and it looks like she's on the verge of letting out a laugh.

"You... are truly an interesting one. With an ability like yours, maybe the path of growth is endless... Your reckless nature has granted you great opportunities, yet it could have easily been the root of your downfall as well. I'm impressed you've made it this far, sticking your nose in places it doesn't belong without getting yourself killed..."

The tense mood breaks a bit, as this feels like Raven's attempt at giving me a compliment and adding in humor as well, so I smile back, but I still cross my arms and reply in a serious tone.

"I know. I'm out of the loop. That's a large reason I decided to help you in the first place, if you're still curious as to why I saved your life. I need answers to questions no one in my kingdom knows. It appears to all be trapped away behind the public eye. What happened here 50 years ago? What is the real reason everyone is so obsessed with that damn throne?"

Her smile stays on her face, and she lets out a chuckle while turning back toward the dragon and petrified man above us.

"Other than the big three, that man was the closest source to an answer you can get to finding out what really happened back in the Great War. Despite his quirks, he's quite the history enthusiast. A real originator freak. That's the reason he left the central branch and isolated himself out here 40 years ago, to study some unreadable runes."

She clicks her tongue and shakes her head, then stares up at the empty black sky above us.

"I doubt he ever figured it out. He'd have rubbed it in all of our faces if he did. My best guess over the years to rationalize it has been that whatever civilization perished on this world millennia ago just left artifacts behind to play a cruel joke on us all..."

She pauses, then turns her head back toward me.

"Then again, joke or not, the throne was still discovered. The only legible originator text we have left states this throne is the key to understanding the divine. Once the doors open, it's said a single being will walk through and claim this world as their own. If they can climb high enough, their core shall never go out."

Raven shrugs and walks back over to me in a nonchalant manner, clearly rehearsing something she's heard before countless times over the years and not thinking much of it, but her words mean a lot more to me hearing them for the first time.

I don't even have enough mental space to respond quickly; I just think to myself.

Memories of Monk talking about these originators in the past flood through my mind. There's the link between Qi being an energy source that predates mana on this world and the black material that makes up his temple, and the tower in the center of the Dark Continent.

Ember's past mentions of the Great War, and the fact that he somehow died around the same time and was reborn 50 years later with no additional knowledge of this world; it must be connected as well. After all, his Divine Core is special... he called it an Immortal Core, one that never goes out.

More and more thoughts race through my mind, making connections, and over half a minute passes before I realize Raven is standing right in front of me still waiting for a response.

She's pulling a small silver device from her item box with glowing yellow gems on the face of it.