"Disgusting." Aunt Lavina pinched her nose and looked away. Gilmore looked away as well.

Ryellia patted his back and said, "Don't worry, let it all out."

He didn't think he even had a stomach left, but her words of encouragement caused him to retch out a few more thick and chunky blobs.

"That purple aura..." Unaffected by his actions, the Empress stared into vomit he had just spewed. "Lavinia, it seems familiar, does it not?"

Aunt Lavinia turned around with a furrowed brow and glanced at it. Her eyes started to droop, but she closed them and turned away. "Unfortunately."

The Empress muttered some words and waved her hand once again. This time the essence reaver, along with his vomit, was covered up in crystal.

Aunt Lavinia grabbed his arm without warning and inspected his wound. She pushed it aside and shook her head. "Useless."

Aleister shook his arm. "That hurt you know."

"Weak bones, drink some more milk."

Ryellia rested her hand on his shoulder. "She's right, you should drink some more milk. But, you can do that later. How are you feeling now?"

"Couldn't be better." An obvious lie. His pounding headache still hadn't gone away, and the room still seemed to spin. Along with that, his vision was blurry. He could still feel them burn. However, he'd rather not worry about her anymore right now. It didn't look like she believed him, but she didn't ask any further, so he looked back up at the ever descending Vitreus.

Although now much closer to the ground, it now longer blocked the eclipse. Instead, its mountainous size had morphed into a two-story house. It continued to shrink with time.

"How small does it get?"

Gilmore tightened his hand into a fist and placed it on his chest. "The size of a heart."

"By the time it becomes that size," Aunt Lavinia tapped her fingers across her arm, "the eclipse should have long been over. I fear that something, or, someone," she looked at the essence reaver, "has interfered."

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"Which is more than likely the reason the crystals have descended early," the Empress said. "Don't worry yourself over such uncontrollable situations."

Interfering with the sun and moon...Aleister felt a cold sweat drop from his forehead. The thought, however, brought about a lot of questions. The moon was under the control of, or maybe even was, Sehaline, the moon goddess. While the sun was also under the control of, or was Lamaunth, the sun god. Being able to influence divine beings was beyond the scope of his understanding. In fact, the whole trial thing, crystal, godly essence being imbued in the land itself, all of tonight really, just boggled his mind.

Even a figure such as the Empress of the Lillium Empire was clueless and powerless. Tonight, he felt beyond powerless. Worthless was more apt. Or maybe even pointless. What would it be like to be a god? Limitless power at your fingertips. Although that was the fantastical version of a god. In reality, the rules and confines of the world limited even their power. A good thing, no doubt. There were definitely malicious, divine beings. If they could do wreak havoc all they wished, the world would be complete chaos. Or even destroyed. The idea intrigued him.

Not the destroyed part. Being alive was one of the few things he shared with such powerful entities. Being pointless was fine. Even just the thought of having to rule over an empire caused him mental fatigue. Tied down to one goal, one purpose. Just the thought bored him. Chaos, however. That interested him. Complete disorder and disruption would never leave him disinterested. Well, maybe it might. Order was a necessary balance. It serves as a moment of respite.

Concepts of order and chaos were opposite ends of the natural balance of the universe and naturally manifested themselves within it. The Shattered Steppes and the Southern Wilderness were places of chaos. The Shattered Steppes especially so. While the Kingdom of Kedellgrim, Lillium and Vallonia were places of order. That left Mirror Mountain and the Icewind Tundra as the middle ground.

What was he even thinking about anymore? Where he wanted to travel? How did he go from a divine battle to feeling pointless to creating his travel list? The musings of the mind truly are fickle at times. But he really started to feel that travel itch. Osetia was a diverse sight, but in the end, it was still only was one place.

Aleister's first thought of an intellectual creature was the Thall he encountered many months ago. Wonder how that bastard is doing? Hopefully still recovering from its wounds, but probably not. Training more than likely. That will make his victory all the sweeter when he takes its head.

Unfortunately, that might be later than sooner. Some off handed research led him to learn that Thall's were much more complicated than just being larger gnolls. Terminal Step Rank Two, or Initial Step Rank Three, was where he needed to be. Whatever power Syn lent him that night grew that much more miraculous. All things considered, it was surprising he didn't sustain more injuries. He could regard a month of being crippled as getting off easy. What powers would his contract grant him? He felt a light tap on his shoulder.

"Are you sure you're okay," Ryellia asked him. "You seem—out of it."