"He is what?" Meera cried.

"The Saviour of the Worlds," Silas repeated.

"Or their Destroyer," Cossus added. "Depending on which version of the prophecy you believe."

Once again, her heart began to race for perhaps the fiftieth time since she had been here. So, this is what that mirror meant. Neel was indeed in trouble. They didn't have any prophecies about saviors or destroyers back home, but they did have fantasy books with these kinds of prophecies. Life was always challenging in these books for those the prophecy was about or any directly involved with them.

"What is this prophecy? Meera asked.

Silas scratched his head and looked to his brother, who sighed. "And you're supposed to be the one who keeps track of these things. Honestly, did the Scythes teach you nothing?"

Silas shifted uncomfortably on his feet at the mention of the Scythes. "No, they didn't teach me about the prophecy of Serenya. They had other things to cram into my head."

Surprisingly, Cossus didn't have a snide remark or a retort for that. She would have expected to call him stupid or something but nothing. Whatever this Scythes place was, it was off-limits when it came to snide remarks.

Meera crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "Um…still waiting?"

The Hunter brother spoke this time. "I don't know the exact words, hardly anyone does aside from the mages and the scholars, but we know what it states loosely. Serenya was an Oracle—"

"I heard goddess," Silas interrupted.

"Do you want to tell her?"

Silas raised his hands.

His brother glared at him, even as he began talking again. "Serenya was some important lady back in the day, thousands of years ago. She recited the golden lines that have haunted the worlds ever since. It basically goes that when the Great Dragon Aetheron is ready to swallow the worlds, a Champion with powers unlike anything we've ever seen will rise. Then there is some stuff about killing or dying. Sorry, like I said, I don't know the whole thing. Anyways, the gist of it is that your brother or the Champion is supposed to banish the great dragon and protect the worlds. There is also the part about leading us to a utopia, but most people think that was added later."

Meera swallowed. "And where is this dragon?"

Silas smiled and pointed up. "Right above our heads." From in-between the rain, Meera got peeks of the massive planet.

She gasped. "The dragon is the planet?"

"No, no, that's Mirithia, mother of all," he clarified. "You see the ring around her? That's Aetheron. Or his body, at least. You see, the dragon is so huge, it encompasses the entirety of the Mirithia."

Cossus continued. "The prophecy states that when the Champion reveals himself. It is the signal of the end times. That Aetheron will wake and judge the worlds one by one and find them unworthy. By unworthy meaning, he'll make a meal of them. It would be up to the Champion to save us or let us die."

It took everything Meera had to stay rooted to her feet. "But-But those are the ring of a planet. How is someone supposed to defeat something made of ice and dust?"

They both frowned and exchanged glances.

Silas leaned in. "How did you know that Aetheron is an ice dragon?"

Meera had to resist the urge to slap her forehead. Because that is what those rings are made of! That was what she wanted to say, but she already had enough to deal with, coming to terms with her brother being the Champion of this supposed prophecy. She couldn't sit here and explain the science behind it all. So, she focused on another topic.

"When I first got here, the system took some names. I'm sorry, I don't remember. What are these worlds?"

Their frowns lightened. "There are three of them, Rhione, Ealisto, and Gethys. We are on Rhione," Silas explained. "If not for these clouds, we can see Ealisto and Gethys on most nights."

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Meera remembered seeing two large moons in the night sky when she got here. She could figure out which was which later on. She even had questions about how they travelled between the worlds. If they had rockets for interplanetary travel, or was there some teleportation magic involved? Then something struck her.

"Does the prophecy tell us if the Champion is he or a she?" Meera asked.

They both shrugged, and Silas replied. "Like we said, we're not that learned in the prophecy's details. You would need to confirm that with someone learned in this field. Most likely another Oracle."

"Where do I find one of those?" Meera asked.

Cossus answered this time. "Oh, it's simple, you exit this forest, take a left and walk until you hit a wall, and then a right from there and you'll come to Oracle town."

"There's an entire town for oracles?" Meera asked.

Cossus looked to his brother. "This one is dense, isn't she?"

"Or you're just an asshole," Silas countered. "Sorry, Meera, my brother was being a dick. We don't know where to find an oracle. They're extremely rare. Even most mages and sorceresses don't know where they are. The best I can tell you is the sorceresses of Akhessai might know. They are the lead covenant of mages in the world."

"More like worlds," Cossus added. "But going to them for help is like going to a bloodthirsty lion and hoping he won't eat you for dinner."

"So dangerous, noted."

"Very dangerous," Silas said. "Even my guild made sure to steer clear of them."

Your assassin guild. She almost blurted out, but given how they had recently strung her up and that it seemed to be a sore topic for Silas, she didn't broach the subject further.

"Going back to your question of whether the Champion is male or not," Cossus said. "I know where you're going with this. You're thinking your brother might not be the Champion, maybe it's you, but you're not the Champion."

"How come?"

"Because the prophecy says the Champion will have world-hopping powers on top of other equally awesome powers." He scratched his head. "I think it even states his class, and though I don't know the exact name, I'm sure it's not a stealer class."

Meera's face fell. He had cut to the heart of it. She hoped her brother was not the prophesied one, and maybe it was her. But given what her reflection had said, how she couldn't keep track of him because of his ability, and now, they were saying the Champion had world-hopping powers. It would be understandable why Neel was so hard to find. And he already had six months of a head start.

But there was nothing to it. She had to find him at all costs. She would first go to the village of Belacre, and if that didn't work, she would go to these sorceresses. Even if it meant throwing herself before a lion, there was nothing to it. She had to save Neel, or her dad would never forgive her.

Silas clapped her on the back. "Don't look so glum. Sometimes, it's best to not be the important one."

Meera frowned. "No, that was not what I was sad about."

He went on. "Besides, your class ability is one powerful ability, perhaps the most powerful one I've ever seen. You took my Ambush Tactics with just a simple cut. It took me weeks to earn that skill."

"Yes, with that ability, you can steal the most difficult skills with just a cut," Cossus said. She could almost see the gears turning in his head. "I wonder if you could steal someone's class ability. If they had no other skills."

"Doubt it," Silas said. "It's not a skill but an ability, and her ability only lets her steal skills. Am I right?"

Meera nodded. They debated what she could steal and could not when something struck her. Something she had failed to realize in the rush of the moment. She didn't need to kill Silas to take his skill. Just a simple cut was enough. Relief flooded her to the point that she almost wept with joy.

"…very well become the strongest adventurer I've ever seen," Silas said, snapping her attention to his words.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"You have no limitations with that ability," the Assassin explained. "We all are limited by our classes. We cannot earn skills beyond what our classes allow. A warrior cannot earn any mage skills and vice-versa, but you could. You could be a warrior fighting on the front line while wielding the strongest magics. You could try any possible combination of things."

"How do you know that?"

"Because that Ambush Tactics is specific to a handful of classes, like mine and some other hunter or…"

"Assassin classes," his brother finished for him, earning a mighty glare from Silas. "What? You don't think she didn't see your Assassin tag when she Identified you. Why do you think she ran?"

Silas looked at her, and Meera nodded quietly, making him sigh. "I really have to be rid of this class one of these days."

She wanted to ask him why, but that delved into his history, which was off-limits, and besides, they didn't know each other that well. So, she asked for something that wasn't off-limits.

"Which way to Belacre? I'm sorry all this running away from monkeys, and then, well, you guys, I seem to have lost my way."

Silas chuckled. "It's okay. We'll show you the way. We're headed there anyways to offload the corpse of that ape we killed. If you want, you can travel with us, and we can show you more of how this system works, and maybe you can gain some levels along the way."

"That is if you can trust a pair of hunters who just strung you up by your feet." Cossus grinned, which was somehow more alarming.

"Quit doing that. You'll scare her off," Silas said.

"Sure thing…Assassin."

Seeing these two bicker brought a smile to her face. It was almost like how she and Neel used to be when they were kids. It seems they never outgrew their bickering phase.

"Fine, I'll come with you as long as you promise not to scare me half to death or hang me upside down from a tree."

The Hunter stretched. "Can promise the second part, but the first part not so much, given Silas' ugly mug."

Then the two were off bickering again.