Glenn moistened his lips, leaning back comfortably on his sofa, trying his best to ignore the unbearable silence. Milena was sitting still, half-shocked and half-angry. Javier, thankfully, had regained his inhumanity, whatever trauma Milena had successfully imparted on him gone. Sahro was frowning deeply, still working his gears on the illusion magic, trying to find a way to defend himself from such attacks in the future. And Liara was back to sipping on her glass of coke, the bottle safely kept by her side.

All in all, an interesting picture, but a much too silent one. Glenn elected himself with the right to break it and he smacked his hands loudly, garnering the team's attention.

"Alright, let's forget about what's just happened, and concentrate on the serious business at hand," He turned toward the shocked, fallen noblewoman, "...Milena, what did you find with Javier?"

Milena's eyes found clarity back again, and she shook her head slightly.

"Uh, yes, so..." She stuttered, struggling to find her words before finally pulling herself together.

"We talked to a few dozen witnesses, in the Butcher's District, the Ragged District, and Lark's Avenue," Milena winced, recalling a few unpleasant things,"...We got scammed a few times, with "witnesses" asking for money against information..."

Glenn blinked and rubbed his chin.

"...You didn't give them anything, did you?"

Milena whistled and looked to the side guiltily, before sighing and shaking her head.

"Well, it's done, so no need to dwell on it, is it? I've had a few issues due to that, a few bandits, a couple of mages, and a particularly annoying knight, but thankfully..." She patted Javier's shoulder with a wide grin, the Pale Son slowly turning his empty eyes toward her.

"...Javier there was here to help me get rid of them!"

The silent hunter turned to Glenn, his eyes still failing to convey any emotions. And yet...Yet Glenn still found a hint of despair in that dead fish's gaze.

'...Stop hallucinating.' Diamanes warned. Glenn turned away from Javier and concentrated back on Milena.

"So, we had a ton of very useless information, but still..." She smiled and crossed her arms, "...we did get a few things!"

Glenn leaned forward expectantly, all ears.

"Firstly, Redan was indeed apperceived in the Eastern Town, mostly around Lark Avenue and the Butcher's District. I have at least three witnesses that testified they saw him on Lark Avenue, and only a single one on Butcher's District," Milena explained proudly. Glenn whistled, impressed.

"We figured out that much in the black market with Sahro. You're an actual investigator, we—well, I had to go to an information broker to learn this!"

Milena blushed, before drawing a deep breath and focusing back.

"Now, we're not done. Secondly, and it's a little unrelated, there's a rise of..." Her smile died down, "...people disappearing and others claiming the Onnea's Church is their enemy. There was mention of the "Savior", and the "Lord", but no god specifically. I'm not sure—"

"The Thorn's Cult again, then. No surprise here," Glenn interrupted her, his lips curving upward beastly. He couldn't wait to crush those cockroaches again under his boot, sword, or whatever would do the trick. The more time he spent in this damned world, the more he was convinced the whole religion should be abolished, for it was bringing nothing to the world, with their putrid, evil god. Epinos. If Project Damocles was indeed a god-killer, then...

Glenn shook his head, allowing Milena to continue. She moistened her lips.

"I'm—I'm not sure it's them, since there was no mention of the Cult or any signs of their presence. But something is indeed a little more than weird in this town..." Milena bit down on her lower lip.

"I couldn't get any clear idea of where Sir Ice Wolf was though, but I think we should concentrate our efforts on Lark Avenue," she concluded, with a tint of disappointment. Glenn grinned and rubbed the back of his neck, already thinking about what would happen next.

"...Then our next destination is set. We got the same information from the Indigo Bureau, with the addition of the disappearance of most forces of the Church of Onnea in Lark's Avenue. Oh, and we might be at odd with the Skinners, so careful around them," He thought back to the crazy woman from back then in the not-brothel, and grimaced, "...fire at will, they're fucking murdering sickos. We had our faces covered with Sahro and me, but we never knew. And before you ask, yes, my arm was also covered."

Milena nodded deeply, before suddenly snapping and looking at Liara.

"I kind of forgot she was there, but could you present me?"

Glenn froze for a few seconds, before chuckling.

"Well, this is Liara, another Black Heir. She's part of the team now, I guess..."

He scratched the back of his head, his eyebrows creased. He had no idea what Liara could do, and she was pretty much under-fed, sickly, and in need of rest. Even if he had accepted her stay with the group, she couldn't come fight with them when he didn't even know whether she was a swordsman or a mage. Well, she did know how to defend herself with a sword, but so did he, and he didn't think of himself as a swordsman.

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Maybe he was a magic swordsman? How should he categorize his fighting style?

'Melee-mage?' Diamanes tried, only for Nelg to laugh at him.

"Lame. No, he's a Spellblade! That's a much cooler name!"

'...I like Spellblade. It does sound cooler...Sorry, Diamanes, but Nelg wins that one.' Glenn admitted, giving credit where it was due. Diamanes grumbled, acting as though he didn't give a damn.

'...I'm much better at naming spells, anyway. I'm still working on Gravity Manipulation's new name...'

Glenn shrugged, dismissing the thoughts. He turned toward his teammates, watching curiously as Milena tasted the Coca-Cola and liked it, another person joining his Coke-loving cult. Liara was the first member, Milena the second. Soon enough, he'll have many people to share a coke with...

No, that came out wrong.

Anyway.

"So, how do you all feel? Does anyone need a rest before going back to it? I Meditated most of my Mana back, but I could use another hour," Glenn stated. Milena shrugged.

"We barely fought, and they weren't that strong, just annoying. I'd still take the hour of break though, personally, before we go investigate Lark's Avenue."

Sahro nodded and glanced at Liara, who had finally put down her glass and was holding her stomach with a confused scowl.

"...I'll try to install Liara in my suite, and get her a proper meal. An hour should be enough for me to gather my strength back, so let's get going then."

Glenn looked at Javier, who gave it back to him silently.

Emotionlessly. As usual. The young man forced his eyes away from the silent hunter and smacked his lips.

"Perfect, then. In an hour in front of the Dormitory then, sounds good?"

"Yep"

"No problem."

Glenn smiled and stood up, stretching. Things were moving forward, and he liked it that way. As soon as he'd got Redan out of his mess, his situation would be completely unblocked, and he could head for the Bourgeoisie. A bit of grind might have to be imposed to raise Nelg's level first, but that shouldn't take long if he set about it as he had during his three months of madness.

After that, a quick Baron's beheading, another quick grind to get to the next Circle of King's Rise, and the meeting with Exan. That was going to be exciting too, no doubt.

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch," Nelg warned, calming his host's enthusiasm. Glenn grimaced and nodded slightly while he opened the door for the others to leave.

'Yeah, let's keep my head in the game. Let's take this one slowly, carefully, with all the weapons I need to get rid of Howard,' His traits hardened and he gritted his teeth as he closed the door behind Javier.

'I'm not risking another failure.'

On those wise words, Glenn went and sat on his bed, cross-legged. He entered Meditation and calmed his mind and heart, steeling himself for the rest of the road in front of him.

At first, his objective had always been to survive and try to find a way out of this world. But now that he had friends, and people to avenge...

Going back to Earth will have to wait for now. Well, it's not like he had any actual leads about how he was supposed to about this problem, anyway. Besides helping Onnea with the Seeds of Darkness and trying to squeeze out another meeting with her. He still had so many questions for the goddess, after all. Why was he brought into this world, and not another? Where was Earth? She still didn't explain what "Earth being gone" meant, after all. Hopefully, she wouldn't be so "restricted" for their next meeting...

If next meeting there was.

"Sorry to interrupt your introspection, but I thought you might want some more precisions about what eating a few souls did to me," Nelg's voice suddenly rang in Glenn's mind. The young man opened his eyes to his Mana Heart, floating gently toward the second one orbiting nearby, Nelg's Mana Heart.

His armored self was standing in front of it, his arms crossed. Glenn went and stood beside him, watching Nelg's Mana Heart. If he was the Magellanic Clouds, Nelg's Mana Heart was like a Sun. A very, very bright Sun, but somehow still very, very dark. A dark Sun? It was hard to describe and didn't look...finished, like a half-completed pottery.

"So, we got how many souls already?" Glenn asked innocently, trying to ignore how ominous and horrible the question sounded. Nelg moistened his lips and pointed at the Dark Sun, something small pulling itself away from it. A little, finger-sized ring landed on Nelg's opened palm, under Glenn's curious gaze. Nelg picked the ring up and looked through it, looking at something only he could see.

"...Twenty-seven human souls. I've already used five of these—sorry, six to fuel the growth of my First Circle."

Glenn looked at the ring quizzically, then at the massive Dark Sun they were standing in front of.

"...Tell me, Nelg, aren't the Circles supposed to be around your Mana Heart, not inside it?"

Nelg threw the ring up and down, lost in thoughts.

"Well, that's what I thought too, but..." He squinted and looked at the ring, sighing dejectedly,"...Yeah, I just didn't want to believe it."

Glenn felt a hint of worry in his heart but still chose to ask Nelg about what he meant.

"...Explain to me, please."

Nelg bit down on his lip and rubbed the back of his neck, which was covered by a steel gorget.

"...Well, it seems to differ depending on the souls, but my Circle grew the equivalent of a centimeter for that last one..."

He looked up at the Dark Sun with a grimace.

"And I think I need my First Circle to be large enough to surround the Dark Sun for my Second Circle to be created."

Glenn silently looked at the Dark Sun, his arms crossed.

"...It's going to take a while, isn't it?"

"I mean, the Baron can wait a few months, right? He's not going to fly away..."

"I don't want to agree, first because this world is fucking insane, and secondly because the bastard can probably fly. Remember, he's supposedly a vampire or something like it."

"Oh yeah, forgot that detail. Well, let's just act as if I didn't say anything."

"...Sigh..."

Glenn and Nelg watched together silently the Dark Sun, waiting for Glenn's Mana reserves to be filled.

Exactly an hour later after everyone left Glenn's suite, Milena, Javier and Sahro were standing in front of the Dormitory, waiting for the last member of the team. Sahro kicked a stone away, impatient.

"Always late, this ass—" The Dormitory's door opened, letting Glenn exit the building, his eyes stuck on the Exan Egg. It had been exactly an hour, he had made sure of it thanks to this ancient version of a watch.

"Well, well, everyone's ready?" Glenn asked, grinning widely as he carefully stashed the Exan-Egg in his dimensional pouch. Sahro grunted with a nod, followed by Milena, who also had something to add.

"Just for the information, I took the liberty to ask the Restoration Operator when he will be able to see you. In the end, he's not free for at least a month, due to some urgent business, so you can worry later about that book of yours." She quickly explained. Glenn pinched his nose, before shrugging dismissively.

"Our plates are already full with Redan's stuff, it's fine if I wait a little for your Restoration Operator."

Glenn rubbed his hands together, Mana crackling around him. His instincts were telling him a crazy battle was coming, and he was more than excited to fight it.

"Let's get to Lark's Avenue, people. And then, we're kicking the Thorn's Cult's ass!"

"...Wasn't the mission saving Redan?"

"Whatever, it's probably more or less the same thing!"