“Daaaaaaaammn.”

The Fire Fairy drawled, whistling as she circled around the Draconian with her usually fiery eyes. Mikella just smirked with pride as she posed with one hand on her hip, pretending to be a supermodel.

“I knew you would come out incredible, but a dragon? You’re always surprising me, Mikky.”

“Isn’t that the usual?” Mikella replied with a grin. That got Myra to scoff.

The girls were in the Lord’s home, their friends visiting them at the moment to celebrate their advancement. Though only Myra and Piker visited, because apparently the other soldiers wouldn’t be able to handle having so many Journeymen under one roof.

Honestly she thought they were just chickening out. Though it might be possible she was ignoring the fact that, once hearing that she became something like a dragon, they instantly changed their minds. Bunch of wussies, really.

Piker stood to the side, his towering icey form staring at Mikella with an impressed nod. Though he mostly stared at the wings behind her back.

“With the ability of flight now, you’re even more dangerous to face. I can’t even imagine fighting you now.”

“You can probably figure it out. Probably,” Mikella said, trying hard, and failing, to assure Piker of his own ability.

“Sure…” Piker shook his head, though there was that smile on his face. He was showing that a lot these days, particularly around Myra as she went back to him, her elbow placed on his thick arms with a rising grin.

“So, what’s the plan? You still have a few days before you gotta leave, right?” Myra asked.

“Yep. Cloud and Val said that we gotta get used to our new bodies before going on any long journey. I can probably go now, but I do feel a bit weird sometimes.”

“Changing your race is pretty difficult to get over,” Piker said. “I remember barely getting out of bed, and even wielding my sword strained me.”

“Thankfully I can do that now,” Mikella said with a grateful smile. “I’d be bored out of my mind if I can’t swing my sword.”

“True that. By the way,” Myra turned her head left and right, her eyes searching. “Where’s Zeke? Is he in bed suffering like Piker did?”

“You also suffered too, you know,” Piker added, furrowing his eyes at Myra to which she shrugged casually.

“Oh, he’s reapplying his tattoos. Said he felt weird without them, so he went back into making them. Seems pretty excited too. He wanted to improve them ever since he did it the first time.”

Both Piker and Myra looked at her with widened eyes. Myra shivered, rubbing her exposed arms as she shook her head.

“He’s willingly applying his rune tattoos now? A day after advancing? Is he a masochist or something?”

“Well…”

Mikella wondered that too, and quite frankly, she had no right to say anything considering she often hurt him during their sparring sessions.

“Is it really safe to do that? Are the lords okay with this?” Piker asked, seemingly more concerned than flabbergasted.

“Oh, yeah. Cloud’s there watching him like before. I saw how it was going on, and it was a lot more professional than I expected. It got a little boring for me since the two just kept talking about runes and shit, so that’s why I’m here playing with you guys.”

“M-Mind if we watch?” Myra asked, her eyes actually glowing in excitement. “I wanna see how Zeke handles it. Maybe we can also do that.”

“I don’t know…” Mikella said in an almost sing-songy voice. That made Myra roll her eyes. “Zeke’s gotten pretty daring these days. I think he’s going further than before.”

That immediately got the two’s attention as Mikella led them towards where Zeke was applying his tattoos.

*****

It was a familiar pain to him, something that he felt so long ago. It was familiar, but it had that same old bite that made his eyes tear up in a wince.

He could have waited until his body was in its prime, but he felt naked, truly naked, without his tattoos. He felt he could die at any moment without them, so he ushered Cloud to help him out like before.

Unlike last time, Cloud was just really there for emotional support. Thanks to Zeke’s improvements, he can basically do his tattoos all by himself. Still, it was crazy to do this sort of thing without a buddy to help you in case shit went wrong.

His right eye closed tight, a familiar sizzling reaching his ears the moment his skin was torn up by the pen in his hand. Though the pen wasn’t really writing on his skin, but on a proxy made by his barrier and runes. What really cut him up was the tiny laser of pure mana made by another of his rune array barrier near his right forearm. This was so that he didn’t have to be directly on his body part, and made it ten times easier to handle.

Though considering that he was going through the similar old pain, Cloud was ensuring that he drew it precisely. The drawings were the newly revamped tattoo runes he made over the year, figuring he needed to update them to go along with his newfound power.

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There was that acrid smell of burnt skin and coppery blood, droplets of it falling to the wooden floor that was covered with a towel for this occasion. Another rune array, thankfully made by Cloud, cleaned up the excess blood to ensure Zeke can continue with his process. Zeke was still a bit off using his magic, so having some other mage help him out made it a lot more easier.

All in all, it was a much better procedure than the last time. If he considered the last time being in some shady alley with an unlicensed and probably untrained tattoo artist messing up his body, this time he was at a reputable establishment with safety procedures in place to protect the client. It still hurt like hell though, and wondered constantly whether his Pain Resistance would go up once again.

“Zeke, you sure are made of some stern stuff,” Cloud whistled. Zeke noticed him shaking his head from his peripheral vision. “Even I couldn't handle this kind of thing when I broke through.”

“It just felt so weird without them,” Zeke admitted. Another wince passed through him as he started his next convoluted tattoo. “I’d feel so messed up if I don’t do this as soon as possible.”

“I get that,” Cloud chuckled. It was a mirthful one, filled with understanding. “No matter what anyone says, you gotta let a mage have his things. I don’t care how hot or cold it is–I refuse to not keep my dozens and dozens of belts on hand. I’d feel naked without them.”

“I feel you,” Zeke grinned. It felt shaky however from how his teeth gritted. “At least I won’t lose my tattoos.”

“Unless someone skins you alive,” Cloud grinned, causing Zeke to force himself to not shiver under the process.

“Don’t mention that. It gives me the creeps knowing that someone with magic can actually do that shit!”

Hearing Cloud laugh aloud as he began the process to clean up the blood made Zeke wonder whether Cloud enjoyed messing with people as much as Val. Was this a Journeymen thing? Is Zeke gonna do the same?

He shook his head as he started the greatest work he would ever do, smiling as he did so

*****

“Holy shit… yeah I can’t do that.”

“I’d be surprised if you still wanted to do it after watching this.”

Myra shook her head in disbelief while Piker just looked at her as though she was crazy for even considering it. Meanwhile, Mikella watched from afar, knowing exactly how the process was going even without watching it.

Zeke was always the sort to push himself if it meant progress. It was the reason why he managed to keep up and raise his Kinetic Perception and Unarmed Mastery to the max despite mages having some issues raising those specific skills.

Pride swelled in her chest as she spotted Zeke beginning another complicated rune on his back of all things. With how his body is tensing up, his muscles became even more pronounced, leaving a very lasting impression from her side.

“Seriously though, Zeke’s got some good muscles,” Myra commented off-handedly. “It’ll only be a matter of time before women will come and flock to him.”

Whether Myra did so deliberately or not, that got Mikella’s eyes widened.

What would she do if that ever came to pass? She never even gave that a thought until now.

*****

Zoan was in the middle between great emotions warring inside of her. On one side, she felt proud knowing that her mission was a success. On the other side, however, stress and anguish fought for her attention.

A year passed since she got stuck in this insufferable body of a little girl that was supposed to be her vessel rather than her actual form. While she understood the reasoning for her decision, it was still aggravating.

Aggravating, and also worrisome. Normally such a power wouldn’t be possible on a young man that barely touched the surface of the system just a year prior. For attunements of a higher realm, she should’ve realized just how dangerous and unpredictable they can be.

But what is really worrying is how this happened in the first place. Even if the attunement was capable of absorbing her power, the fact that it managed to do so proved that something was wrong. Very wrong.

The towers, the monsters inside the tower, the mana influx caused by said towers… everything was going wrong in ways that she was never told about.

Sitting on the sofa with a book in hand, a fascinating survey on the geological expedition done a hundred years ago that led to the discovery of the biodome that made an entire desert that could span across a large country, her mind wandered. This was the only way to pass the time as she cannot do anything in her current state and can only be patient for her power to return.

But it was taking longer than absolutely necessary. At her stage, it shouldn’t be possible for her powers not to return even after a whole year. Something was blocking her way to get it back.

And it wasn’t the attunement Zeke carried. No, something around her vicinity, or rather across the world of Tarial, was interrupting the process.

The only thing she could think of is that the system made a flaw when designing the towers. Impossible enough to even believe in such a thing, that was her best guess. Otherwise, the towers reacting in such a way wouldn’t have been possible.

There was also the lack of her comrades from the otherworlders of the other towers. Even if they did perish, Zoan should have been notified when the angels failed in their duty.

Granted, it took her longer than she wished to contact her own wards before leaving the tower, but that was within the margin of error she was told to be aware of before leaving the celestial realm.

But this goes beyond the margin of error and straight into an emergency where she needed to contact her superior. Unfortunately, even in her reduced form, it was impossible to do so thanks to whatever it was that was interrupting them.

Who, or what, could it be that was making such an issue for Zoan and the rest of the angels? Where were they, and if it was possible–have they perished along with wards they were in charge of? All of these questions filled her mind all while she tried to answer the very same questions her wards were asking her.

She wasn’t being deceitful when she made an oath of silence to avoid answering the otherworlders’ inquiries regarding their duty. But even if she did have the answers, the current circumstances would make them moot.

So for now, the best she could do is to figure it out on her own, which was becoming incredibly taxing as no amount of books she read would give her the answers.

That, and ensuring that the wards were still safe was still part of the mission, regardless of how the situation came out.

“Zoan!”

A highly excited voice rang out, forcing Zoan to turn around from reading her book to spot Clara and Ana there, Clara waving at her with her eyes glittering like fireflies.

“Zoan! Come on over! There’s this dress that I wanna see you in before we leave!”

As Clara said, she pulled out what looked like a rather flowy pink dress, showing it off as though it was the greatest thing imaginable. On the side, Ana smiled like a cheshire cat, giggling to herself for the possible ‘fun’ time she’ll have while watching Zoan.

Truly, regardless of the situation, Zoan has to take care of her wards, even if it means trying to get along with the young Clara’s wishes. Though she did try to hide her twitching right eye as she forced herself away from her book-reading.