Raiga:

On his way to old Jack's place, Raeven was hit hard with the realization that suddenly dawned on him. He remembered what Vornerie had said to him about the eruptaur. It wasn't a C-grade copper-level beast, it was iron-rank! He wouldn't have dreamt of downning an A-grade copper beast, let alone an iron-ranked one. Even a G-grade iron-rank beast would dwarf the strongest of copper-rank creatures in power, and the eruptaur was a rather high-grade one. He knew that the beast was at a disadvantage, what with the fact that it had just finished evolving at the time, and it being locked in place by Vornerie's mixture of wind and telekinetic energy, but iron rank was iron rank, no matter how you looked at it. Next, the shock of seeing the red wyvern with odd, merky black scales kicked in. It had popped out of a hole through reality and dove into his wild flames, fassioning them into a physical body made of fire, as ridiculous and nonsensical as that sounded. It was so sudden, it boggled his mind! Next thing, it spoke about a Starborn, whatever that meant, hinting that Raeven and whoever this Starborn was would meet at some point. The wyvern had addressed Raeven as 'flameling' for some reason, most likely due to his chosen element being fire. Then, it sank into the ground and vanished, not leaving a trace of its passing behind. The wyvern was much, much smaller than the eruptaur had been, standing about 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Its body was solidified from his fire Vaq, though it stopped being normal elemental fire Vaq as soon as Vornerie had infused his core with wind. He wondered what that hole in space was, exactly? Could beasts always come out of thin air? Before long, he arrived at old Jack's home. He knocked on the door, and it soon opened for him.

"Raeven, my lad. Welcome back! I heard the warning and I was so worried about you. They say one of the d-grades hung back and started absorbing all of its hurd members, who all ran to their death without hesitation. They say an iron C-grade was born from that evolution, and everybody is constantly iterating the fact that you were the one who killed it. Is that true? Sounds unlikely, unless someone had weakened it for you, and you just delt the finishing blow. Come in, come in and let's talk!", the old man said, waving Raeven inside. The boy complied, putting off his shoes and placing them at the entrance, then entered, shutting the door behind him. It was a farely small home, with only a single bedroom, a kitchen, and a joint bathroom and cleaning room. The wooden floorboards creaked beneath their feet, and Jack led Raeven into the bedroom. There were 2 beds, a small armory, and shelves filled with small books and papers, as well as a few cultivation-related items here and there, although not many of them and not of any significant value.

Jack sat on his bed, facing Raeven, who sat on the other.

"So lad, the beast?", Jack prompted, his wrinkled face neutral.

"It was more or less what you said, it was weakened for me, and I only bombarded it from range. Wasn't anything much, maybe they're just hyped up because it was an iron-rank beast or something.", Raeven replied lightly.

"Well that's the point, lad! You weren't supposed to be able to defeat anything at iron-rank. The copper-ranked ones are already hard for most iron rankers due to their abnormal power. Was it Valerie who helped you?", he asked.

"Something like that.", Raeven replied.

"Something like that? Avoiding the question, are we? Don't worry, lad, you know you can tell me anything.", Jack smiled.

"Well, senior defender Valerie and someone she referred to as Vorn fused together somehow and turned into this huge giant that did all the work, basically.", he explained. The man gasped upon hearing Vorn's name.

"Vorn? Dear God, he's still alive? He was banned from participating in any defense quests because he messed up and got 4 of his students killed, then he vanished and we never heard about him ever since. And now, you tell me he helped Valerie? That stubbern lass, she's going to kill herself one of these days.", he muttered to himself. Raeven wondered why the old man referred to her as a lass despite her being middle-aged, but he figured that everyone was considered young in the elderly man's eyes, except maybe other old men. And that part about Vorn killing his students was worrying, and not at all what he thought Vorn was like from their interaction. A bit uncaring, certainly, but was it that bad? Jack interrupted his train of thought by speaking again.

"I imagine it has been an exhausting day for you, lad. So rest here and I'll cook up a meal for us. Shouldn't take too long, but you can meditate and cultivate a little until I wake you up. Now rest well, lad. You've earned it. Never think that your contribution was minimal, and don't downplay your actions. You must know your worth.", he instructed, and stood up. He shuffled to the door and left Raeven to his own devices.

Raeven closed his eyes and looked at his now-changed copper core. Before, he had imagined it as a gyant orange ferness, containing all of his fire energy. But now, the walls were dented and warped, a sign of his earlier bombardment, which strained the core. Above, brown-green clouds shot drops of liquid with the same color down at the now weak and feeble flames inside his ferness, which caused them to gutter and rage wildly, threatening to become completely unstable and wink out, making the resulting ash Vaq overwhelm his core and destroy it and cripling his cultivation for good.

He opened his eyes again, and stood up. He walked up to the shelves, fishing out a candle and a translucent box filled with a reddish powder. He dipped the candle's tip in the powder, then lifted it back up as soon as it lit up with a small flame. He put the candle near the bed, but far enough that the wooden beds wouldn't catch fire. He sat on the floor, cross legged. He closed his eyes once more, and started drawing in the energy emitted from the candle, filling his core with it. In addition to gathering more energy, he wanted to support the fire with in so that it had a lower chance of turning his core into ash. The process was slow and tedious, but no better solution presented itself. Unless he got a reward that would help him draw denser and more potent energy, he would stick with the low quality product Jack had procured for him. The fire-aligned core powder acted as another fire that lit up the candle, adding some of its magical propperties to make it a little bit better than an ordinary flame.

Jack had said it was from a d-grade high iron-ranked false flame elemental. False elementals were living blobs of a certain type of energy. When defeated, they would drop a core containing a sizable chunk of their energy. The earlier the elemental was killed, the better the core that dropped, since if it was defeated early on, it wouldn't have the chance to empty its core of energy. Therefore, the dropped core would be more potent. The crushed one inside the box he had lit the candle from wasn't as potent as it could have been, but the team who had slayn the beast had struggled with it. That team had the decency to give Jack the weak core to ease Raeven's cultivation, at least. But he resolved to make a name for himself in the city and earn something better. The fight with the eruptaur was the first step to reaching that goal, even if the kill was assisted. Still, progress was progress. Sadly, most of the fire he was cycling wasn't actually filling his core or supporting the energy within. It was reparing the dented and warped walls, and only about a third of it was contained in his core.

The fire was filling his core at an agonizingly slow rate, but soon it sped up a little. Bit by bit, the dents on the core walls were being repared, and more fire energy was spilling into his 5-inch-deep chamber, where his energy used to burn freely, eager to be used. Now it just looked like it was struggling to keep itself burning, battered by those strange wind droplets. His core was about a quarter of the way full, and it didn't look like the situation was improving at all. He felt a brefe shaking sensation from outside, and he knew it was old Jack waking him up from his meditation. He left his unstable core alone, and opened his eyes. He blew on the candle, and the fire winked out. He placed it where it had been before, beside the elemental core powder box, and followed Jack toward the kichen.

They arrived and sat at a wooden round table, where 2 plates were filled with a deep green stew, Raeven recognizing it to be from a Tharo's meet. The feline creatures were common around Elva, the small town to the west that was always mocked at by being called a village. He didn't know how the town avoided beasts, but Tharos were both hunted down and cherrished there. He had never heard of any formation that could make the beasts just... ignore the whole settlement entirely. Defensive formations existed, certainly, even ones that could work for an entire city. But the most those could do was create a formidable energy shield powered by tens of platinum coins' worth of beast cores. Raeven stopped thinking about weird towns with unthinkable formations and continued taking in the room that he had seen thousands of times throughout his life there. Besides the plates, there was a piece of bread and an orange that felt infused with Vaq. They began eating, and Jack spoke.

"You know, lad? There's a big feast coming up tonight in celebration of you defeating the C-grade iron rank eruptaur. It was a huge jump in your achievements, regardless of the circumstances."

"Oh? Who's arranging it?", Raeven asked interestedly.

"Officer Richard Jackal himself! You should be honored, lad! No one your age has ever caught his interest as much as you have, and he recognizes your worth!", Jack replied enthusiastically.

"My worth? I'm just a simple defender. There's nothing about me that's different from any other defender other than rank.", Raeven said.

"Hah, don't make me laugh, boy! You're a genius. Not believing it doesn't mean it's not true. It's good that you're humble, for arrogance is the path to doom. But you must know yourself and how others see you. You're a local hero now. You're not the only genius I've met, and I know for a fact that there's someone far more ridiculous than you twenty leags away. The order would rejoice at having you among their ranks. I'm not saying I support or hate them, it's just a fact.", Jack said with a chuckle.

"Maybe you're right. I'm just... sick of the beast attacks. They are getting more violent. I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but I certainly did. The lower-rank ones are coming in larger packs, and there are more C-grades like the eruptaur coming. I can feel it in my bones. There's something driving them here and I intend to find it out. For that, I need power. I have... a bad history with the strong, and I intend to help those who are like I used to be become like what I am now. For that, I believe that the World Order is my best chance. I can do something good by killing the filthy defiers who oppress the weak with their strength. I will be the fireplace that protects them from the cold evil of monsters, both beast and man. I am the fire that burns the darkness... or I want to be, anyway.", Raeven said, his voice gaining passion and gravitas before he caught himself and snapped out of his dreams. Jack chuckled and patted his hand.

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"Your choice, kid. I just want you to think carefully about this decision. I know that you were treated badly by Thanor of the Frost Mountain team of defiers, but not all creatures that come from the Nether are evil, Raeven.", Jack said softly.

"I will, master.", Raeven said with a sigh, looking at the floor as a sign of respect. People didn't bow to each other in the Omnis. They instead lowered their eyes based on the level of superiority of the other person, and looking an elder or master directly in the eyes was a sign of challenge.

Raiga's defense office:

"What did you say, lieutenant? Vorn has participated in the battle? Why haven't we detected him all this time, why didn't we determine his location? Why aren't you doing your job!", officer Henry West thundered aloud, his face red with anger.

"Sir, he was hiding from us using unknown means, and we couldn't have guessed that he was married to senior defender Valerie, it was too unlikely to happen so we didn't think of it!", the lieutenant tried explaining.

"How did they leave the city undetected, seal off their contract, and return here, all without you suspecting a thing? Did they sabotage the wards in some way?", the officer questioned.

"No, sir, the wards are working well as always. We don't know how they did it.", the lieutenant replied.

"Declare Valerie and Vorn under trial, and schedule it to be held tomorrow morning at eightth ring. It shall be a public trial. Do you understand?", he ordered. To his credit, the lieutenant objected, showing a modicum of morals.

"But sir, shouldn't you consult the other officers first?"

"Are you questioning my orders, lieutenant? The officers are busy, and only I am present here right now. And now, I call the shots. So when I say do something, you do it instantly, no questions asked. Understand?", he said in a threatening tone.

"Yes, sir. I will declare the trial right away, sir.", the lieutenant said, and scampered out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Valerie and Vorn's hideout:

"Did ya hear the news, Val? We're under trial now. Bloody bastards just figured out that we had slipped out of their fingers 3 times in a row. The sun rose and set and none of them was the wiser. The spyrits are recording their conversation as we speak, and one of the officers looks like crap with anger right now.", Vorn told Valerie. The woman giggled at the news.

"Oh, let them declare it. We'll just go there, answering every question with a sip of tea!", she said.

"Yeah, truth stone or no truth stone, no one cares. The case doesn't need a truth stone either way. I didn't kill Alan and his team, may the God grant them mercy. Oh, oh by the Holy one, the spyrits are detecting a strange noise... No, They've been destroyed! One of them was spared, I think they've pinned us down!", Vorn's tone quickly turned from mildly mocking to panicked, but then a raspy and slightly slurred voice spoke through the sound projection array built into the remaining spyrit.

"Hello, humans. Your spies have been bugging me for a while, their buzzing is so annoying. Mind if I squash them for you?"

"Who are you?", Vorn sent through the spyrit.

"The wyvern, obviously. I'm surprised you don't remember. I would've thought that my ellustrious appearance would have stuck, but I guess that creatures like you lack some attention to detail.", he said in mockery.

"Why are you blowing up our only way to avoid the officer's grasp?", Vorn asked warily.

"As I said earlier, they've been bugging me, so I eliminated them. I'll eventually squash this one as well, but I'm a bit lonely right now, so I'll stick around for a bit.", the creature said.

"Who do you think you are, you bloody bastard?", Vorn roared.

"Uh... a wyvern? What else would I think I am? That's just dumb.", the creature said.

"There's no way you're a wyvern, that's just absurd. They're no more than myths and legends!", Valerie said doubtfully.

"You saw me with your own eyes, and you still think that?", the voice asked, exasperated.

"It could have just been an ellusion.", valerie suggested.

"Oh, by the God! How in the Merciful one's name do you know how to make artifacts and formations, but not know of netherbeasts? Do you even know what a sp... No, no, by the Gracious one no! Why's she here!", the voice trembled at the end, showing evident and bone-deep fear, and the last of Vorn's spyrits exploded with a faint pop.

"What was that all about?", Vorn grumbled.

"Don't know. Did you hear its fearful tone at the end? That sounds concerning.", Valerie replied. "And do you think it's really a drake?"

"I did hear the tone, and I don't know for sure. Regardless of that, who's the 'she' the wyvern was afraid of? If it talked back at us without any fear of what we could do, then what scared it is so much more powerful than us, which is very worrying, since we don't know what this 'she' could or would do. Or it could just be that the creature is the best actor and it just used that as an excuse to leave the conversation, but I don't think it's likely. Either way, we should be much more careful. Bloody thing destroyed all of our spyrits, so it has proven it has at least a measure of power and skill. Which means we'll have to make new ones. In the mean time, let's hope that our hideout holds and we don't get discovered before we could restore our protections. God protect us.", he muttered at the end, Valerie echoing his words.

"Don't forget to arm them, just in case. The so-called wyvern actually tought us a lesson and pointed out one of our vulnerabilities. Well, 2 of them. Don't forget the fact that it clamed to sense them somehow. Use every trick we know in hiding the spyrits.", Valerie warned.

"I'm on it, Val.", he nodded. "And if they find us, then Vornerie will certainly teach the goons to never mess with us!", he added with a grin. She grinned back, and Vorn started making spyrits in earnest.

Kerrio:

He was walking in a long hallway empty of all features, except for a flashing eye in the distance. Since it was the only visible thing that wasn't just a featureless gray wall, he made his way toward it. It was floating in the air, its color blue-white. The gaze of the eye centered directly on him, and a thundering voice spoke, shaking the ground.

"Remember what she told you, Wanderer. Be your soul!", the voice of the Eye reverberated across the empty hallway and into Kerrio's very bones, making his body rattle and threaten to vibrate itself to death. Then he jerked awake with a scared yelp. He shook and thrashed in terror, but a hand slid across his hair, calming him slightly. A strange green energy entered his body, like the one Eileen used to water the plants when the water was scarce. It calmed him by merely existing, and thinking about it actually made Kerrio feel better.

"What's wrong, Kerrio? What are you scared of?" Eileen spoke, her voice filled with concern.

"Nigh... nightmare.", his voice trembled. "What was that eye, the eye!", he yelled, looking panicked. The energy had indeed calmed him, but just remembering that giant eye undid all that calm as if it wasn't even there.

"Whatever that eye is, don't think about it. It's not there anymore. You're safe now!", she reassured him.

"Thanks, thank you!", he uttered, and she smiled at him.

"Where is it?", Queltsom asked grumpily. "Where's this stupid eye that's scaring you, Kerrio?"

"Relax, Queltsom, it's probably just a nightmare.", Eileen answered.

"No, I feel something too. It's like something was inside Kerrio for just a moment, and the leftovers of that presence are still there, like a sent.", he explained in a serious tone. Queltsom connected with the pressure's sent, like he usually did when contacting Korvelia, and followed the trail. He found a gyant pressure at the center, and he sent it a message.

"Wy are you scaring my friend?". It jerked back, and the entire trail was eliminated.

"Warning! Warning! The Eye has come the Eye has come|the Eye has come..the Eye has come &^$$##&^8&^% ErRoR the Eye has come the Eye has come the Eye has come the Eye has come.", a piercing sharp system notification sounded out in Kerrio's mind. He'd never understand it fully, not anytime soon, but it sounded like the System itself was scared of this Eye, most likely the same eye that he had seen in that weird vision. That did not look good, not in the slightest. If an entity that could give stats and loot was scared of the Eye, then how powerful was it, exactly?

"No, mom. The eye is real, even the System is scared of it. First the Cataclysm, and now this Eye is after me too? What is up with this omnis!", he ranted.

"What's the Cataclysm?", both of them said aloud, surprising Kerrio.

"I'm not ready to talk about it yet.", he replied quickly.

"Where is it? I'll destroy it!", Queltsom growled.

"We'll have to get stronger, much stronger if we want to defeat it. The Cataclysm and the Eye are reminding me that I should work hard to become strong. I'm not sure about the Eye's motives, but I definitely hate the Cataclysm's guts!", Kerrio said, shuddering involuntarily.

"By the God, you two are not supposed to live through this!", Eileen thought to herself, praying for their protection.

The Unseen Eye:

She was the Eye of Knowledge and the Eye of Doom. The Buyer of the Past and the Remaining Piller. She was the Unseen Eye, one of the Primordial Guardians of the Omnis. Well, she was the last true guardian, as most of the other Primordials betrayed the cause and turned to evil. She had sensed a nether portal opening in the distant first floor, where the weakest of the weak dwelled. It was an awful floor when it came to its energy density, being the farthest from the Omnexus, a sun-like object that was at the core of the Omnis, providing energy to all the floors, though not all equally. The closer a floor was to the Omnexus, the better its energy would be. The nether gate turned out to be the manifestation of a nether wyvern, nothing more than a little fly in her eyes. It was only one high bronz-rank netherbeast, the flames that forged its body limiting its actual power. As a result, the Nether infection wouldn't do anything to the floor, not even hurting the creature itself anymore. It would inevitably meet Erias's descendent, whose uncontroled presence would seap into the wyvern, lessening the effect of the nether infection considerably. Then, the wyvern's spirit would be able to slowly clenze itself of the remaining nether energy.

Two very important individuals were in that floor, however. One of them was a newly discovered Arcane Pathwalker. If he survived, he might even become a Primordial, like the Eye herself. She certainly hoped that would happen, in order for the Omnis to have more of a chance against the dark. The other being, luckily a friend of the arcane one, was the Last Refiner himself. Though considered a mere myth by his people, he was very much real. His power may have been sealed, but she knew that he was capable, or talented at the very least, when he successfully detected the traces of her passing into the arcane one's mind. The leader of one of the major forces of light in the Omnis took him under her wing, not literally of course, and then sent him off to the first floor, where he eventually met the arcane one.

The Eye suddenly sensed a cataclysmic disturbance in one of the middle floors of the Omnis, as an entire continant spanning over half the size of the floor was converted into a base for the forces of Raxor, the minor devil who led the Dark Legion. Even though the sorcerer that summoned him had been presumably killed, the damage had already been done, as the devil had a physical body anchoring it to the material layer of reality. The only ways to get rid of a demonic being was to destroy its vessal, forcefully cut off the link between it and its vessal, or kill it by reading sacred texts, if it was evil. If it was good, it would always resist to be summoned. Demons and other beings were forbidden to interact with each other, but sorcerers always strove to commune with them, sacrificing innocent people and turning them into vessals for them. The Eye descended down, teleporting up above the corrupted continent. With one pulse of the eye that was the only part of her body, the Unseen Eye destroyed the whole area, cutting off a limb before the entire body could get infected. The Eye went back to observing the people who represented the future of the Omnis, fretting over the loss of yet another sizable chunk of her energy, which was extremely hard to replenish. She hoped that this nightmare would be over soon, or she might lose her mind.