“Two towers… you’re serious?” Zeke asked, his brows furrowing deep in thought.

“That is… what I see…”

Diaga said, but her voice soon trailed as her head bobbed back and forth. She tried to shake it off, but Zyler soon came in and put a hand on her shoulder.

“That’s enough,” Zyler said in finality. “I’ll explain the rest.”

Nobody complained as even Diaga couldn’t help but agree, though her face grimaced in reluctance. Zeke can’t imagine what a horrible state she was in, and tried his hardest not to peer through her with his Restoration skill.

Even from a distance, he could peer through into someone’s entire inner workings with his Legendary skill. Even if he could, quite easily thanks to her frail state… he didn’t like the idea of peering into someone’s body without their consent. Zeke kept learning from Cloud and Val that with all the power they could have, it was important to find the balance between using them effectively and abusing them for selfish reasons.

Zyler stepped over, sitting right beside Diaga with his big bulk. She tried to push him back, but she might as well be hitting a wall with her meager Strength. She only huffed as Zyler completely ignored her and pulled out what looked like a rolled up parchment out of his storage pack. They were seriously acting like a true sibling duo from the way they act, which completely took Zeke off his game. It kind of reminded him of Mikella and Clara, who also sat quietly beside Mikella with a careful stare once the towers came up into the conversation.

As he opened the parchment wide and placed it on top of the small table in front of them, everyone stared at the map that had been drawn probably by hand. There were some clear inaccuracies, at least to Zeke’s eyes, and it looked like a drawing a child would make.

But that didn’t matter to him. What did matter were large red X’s on the north and the south-west. The strange place they were drawn on looked more like a wobbly island surrounded by a blue coloring. That made Zeke pause as he realized what he was actually looking at.

“Is this a map of Arcelot? Or close to it?”

“I’m not exactly a master cartographer,” Zyler rolled his eyes with a smirk. “So I can only tell you that if you were at the very center of this place, these are where those weird towers should be. I can’t tell you exactly where they are, or how far they are, but they’re there. No doubt about it.”

Diaga nodded her head approvingly, proving that he was right. This was most likely drawn with Diaga’s interpretation of her vision, at least according to her skills.

After Cloud looked at it even closer, he nodded to himself as he stood up and rapidly headed over to the other room. After a few seconds of rummaging sounds echoing across, he returned with his own parchment–A much more glistening, nearly expensive looking rolled up paper than Zyler’s own.

After sitting back down, Cloud spread the map over Zyler’s hand-drawn map, revealing a much more detailed map.

Despite the texture of the map feeling glossy and appearing brand new, there were signs of old age as Cloud wiped off any dust from the surface. After settling it down a few times, then lifting the paper to see the red X’s for himself, he pulled out a normal pen and marked two giant X’s on his own map.

Zeke peered closer to find that the map was an official Arcelot map. Since it belonged to a special pocket dimension, normally this kind of map would be expensive. But considering that they came from Arcelot, it made sense that they still have an old map available.

After Cloud and Val muttered to themselves about this, they nodded at the result.

“Thank you for this,” Cloud said. “My Master would surely reward you if you tell him this information.”

“I would love to get a reward, but unfortunately that’s not up to me,” Zyler thumbed at his sister. “This is her gift for these two because she wanted to. It’s mostly for them since she thinks they can get stronger by visiting there. I’m also pretty damn curious as to how that’s possible, considering there was the same tower back at the biodome. I always thought that place was bad news, but was it actually a dungeon?”

Zeke and Mikella frowned, unable to really answer that. There were a lot of things people would be curious about the towers, and only those who knew of their history knew how valuable–and dangerous–they truly are.

After everyone stayed silent on the matter, even the lords, Zyler just shook his head.

“Alright, I guess that’s too much to ask. At least remember us when you plunder for booty, will ya?”

“Brother… gross,” Diaga said with as much of a disgusted look on her face as a regular sister would. Zyler scoffed at her, making a silly face at her.

“Thank you…” Zeke nodded. He was thankful that Zyler had enough tact not to ask too many questions. Especially since despite how they’re allies now, this level of information was something they rather not let everyone know, even if apparently everyone is finding out who they really are these days.

After picking up the map for himself, the two looked like they finished their business and were about to stand. As Zyler helped the struggling Diaga off the couch, suddenly, Mikella spoke up.

“Hey, Diaga… is it possible to heal you?”

Her words caught everyone’s attention, and both Zyler and Diaga turned back to her as if she had gone mad.

“...I’m afraid that’s… impossible,” Diaga said regretfully. She smiled, showing that she was thankful for her thoughtfulness. “But this level of… damage is irreparable. Damage done to the body by Seer skills are… unable to be healed by normal means. And… no amount of concoctions or potions can heal this… I’m certain.”

Zyler stayed quiet, glaring hard at the otherworlders. Rather, he seemed to be staring hard at Zeke, as though Mikella’s words rang through to him.

Zeke stared hard at Diaga instead, looking at her in a different light. Then when he noticed Mikella staring back at him, she stayed silent, but it was enough to know what she was thinking.

“Come on Zeke, you know you want to,” Mikella said, smirking at him. “It’s good enough to try, right?”

Zeke’s eyes widened, realizing that she pretty much saw through him. Even without speaking, she noticed how he wanted to help her, even when he tried his hardest to keep his bleeding heart under control.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

But he knew enough to know that they would have already tried using all sorts of methods to heal her damage. Asking to see if they can do it better sounded impossibly condescending. Considering that he was caught red-handed, however, he nodded.

He approached the two siblings, and Zyler immediately stood in front of him. He kept glaring at him, but there wasn’t any hostile intent in his eyes. He looked up at the large man, being a head below him despite his advancement, as he spoke up.

“Zyler, I got a healing skill that lets me see what’s wrong with their bodies. If it’s okay with you and Diaga, can I check her state?”

“...Would it hurt?” Zyler asked. He sounded helpless, but he still tried his hardest to be careful. “Not even our best healers can restore her back to how she was.”

“I’m not sure if I can even compare to a healer who has years of experience, but if it helps… My skill is at Legendary rarity thanks to advancing to Journeyman.”

That was definitely enough to get Zyler to step back in shock. His eyes widened, then he breathed as he stepped aside. Diaga herself looked at him as though she was witnessing a miracle, but Zeke ignored that as he approached her with careful steps. Standing near a few feet in front of her, he looked at her as a proper healer would.

“Diaga, may I have permission to see?”

“...Yes, go ahead. Though… do not feel bad if you are not able to help me…”

“We’ll see about that.”

Zeke said without hesitation as he flared Restoration. His eyes glowed a bright bluish-green hue, both different colored eyes showing the same color as he peered straight into her.

Diaga froze after seeing his stare, but he slowly got over her surprised face as he stared deeply into her inner workings.

Thanks to his upgrade, his vision became a lot clearer than before. If before was like peering at a low-quality X-ray, he felt like he was actually there, both metaphysical and far away. Rather than just looking at the person’s channels, he could see shapes that were organs and other parts of the body. He had free range to see every single thing inside a person or object, and that was why he was hesitant to use this skill on anyone unwilling to share.

But after finally seeing her inner workings, he couldn’t escape from gasping. It was utterly devoid of life and vigor. The channels that traveled all over her body were estranged, some engorged beyond measure, and one that was utterly spent.

Those are her life channels. The one that contained life energy or Health. Her kinetic channels or stamina looked fine as far as Zeke could tell, though clearly it was weaker than the average Expert mage. The only conduit that was more than fine, if not completely overgrown, are her magical channels, her mana. Even at this distance, it looked like it could completely fill her body up to the brim, and that wasn’t a good sign.

That didn’t mean she had exponentially powerful mana. It meant that her mana was nearly killing her from the inside.

Worst of it was that her engorged magical lines were entrenched deep around her brain. As though her Seer Class required more than just any average body part, it focused entirely on the primal organ necessary for information. There were also plenty of those hungry channels around her heart and intestines, as though the visions required more than just her mind to comprehend them.

As the silence grew from his side, Mikella spoke up through his vision. It was like hearing someone from the outside while wearing huge goggles making him get tunnel vision.

“What’s up? How bad are we talking about?” She asked. He couldn’t see her right now, but he could tell she wasn’t as confident as she sounded before.

“It’s… pretty bad,” Zeke eventually said. He wanted to dress it up and make it sound nicer than it was, but he couldn’t lie about something like this. “Her health is being drained by her mana. It's more like an defect than an infection. It’s not something that can be repaired naturally. Also, it’s no wonder why the healers can’t do anything–no matter how much mana they poured into her life channels, her magical channels would just suck them up and make the process pointless.”

He didn’t hear anyone speak up after a while, allowing him more time to study her body closer. He could sense the poor woman shifting uncomfortably, not knowing whether it was from his steady gaze or the news he just gave.

“Can you do anything about it?” Mikella eventually asked. Zeke didn’t honestly know what to answer to that.

He could heal her, but then it would just get sucked up like he explained before. He could instead try to siphon off the magical channels. If he tried, he could actually absorb the mana residing within her trapped channels into his own, which he can then expel with ease as it was foreign mana instead of his own.

But that would prove too dependent. It won’t last forever, and it won’t restore her health back as the source of the defect was the very mana she controlled. It won't change no matter how much he siphoned it off. Plus, he was sure that if he tried to change anything to the mana by force, it might affect her Class and abilities, and that might bring about a domino-effect of bad events to her own body.

So what else can he do?

“It’s… okay,” He heard Diaga speak. Her voice sounded defeated, but like a true veteran, her tone picked up her despair and carried it on her shoulders. “This has been… how it always has been. It won’t change, no matter how much you try. That is… just fate at its work.”

Fate?

Zeke gritted his teeth. He knew full well what she meant, and he understood what she was trying to say. But rage filled his heart.

Is fate always going to take our future away from us?

The vision of the two skeletons, former otherworlders, flashed in his mind. Was it their fate to die in an unknown tower all by themselves against their will?

And we can’t do anything about it?

The rage, the despair, the lack of power he desired to challenge that fate. He hated it all. He refused to give in to this fate, especially when this girl had no other choice but to follow her dickhead of a father’s command.

That will not be her fate. He refused to accept her fate. Even if he might have to challenge the very fate itself, or the one that designed that fate for them–he will break through it.

And his attunement surged to his response. That finally gave him an idea.

“Cloud,” He suddenly spoke up, dismissing his skill and looking at his shocked expression. “Take me and Diaga to the warded room, where we broke through to Journeymen.”

“Sure, but… what do you intend to do?” Cloud asked, furrowing his brow. But he turned when Val gasped softly.

“Zeke, you’re not seriously going to try to do that, are you?” Val asked, seeming understanding what he was implying. Cloud’s eyes rose as he turned back to him.

“Yes,” Zeke answered without any hesitation. “I got an idea I wanna try out. I promise it won’t hurt Diaga… but I can’t say the same for the house.”

He winced as he looked around the very nice, probably very expensive house. But where else can he go all out without harming his surroundings?

Zyler watched with a steady glare at Zeke while Diaga looked more confused than anything. Thankfully, Mikella stepped up and grasped Diaga softly on her shoulders.

“Don’t worry, I promise you that Zeke won’t do anything to hurt you. I swear on my life and my core that you will be just fine.”

Mikella’s words hung heavy in the air, bringing Diaga and Zyler to look at her in surprise. Zeke turned back, offering a nod.

“So do I,” He promised, to them and to the system. He felt something tugging at his heart, more at his core, and gripping it tightly.

A notification showed up in his vision. Unlike the other notifications, this one had a bright red and gold coloring, the words glowing brightly as though it was begging for his attention this time.

> You have agreed to an oath via the system. Once you agree to the terms, you must follow it to the end. If you go against your terms, you will be penalized with the following:

>

> Decreased Attributes (-50%) for the duration of a week. More time will be inflicted the more severe the oath is.

>

> Do you agree to this oath?

>

> Y/N

Zeke responded ‘Yes’ immediately. He knew the consequences would be dire considering he has to be at his best when he heads towards Arcelot.

But he didn’t mind. He fully intended to keep that promise even if his life was on the line. And he had no intention of sacrificing his life.