Zeke tried to swallow, but his throat dried up after Cronus appeared in the ward room. He looked like a pissed off teacher called over into a chaotic classroom. He wasn’t quite sure what had happened during the process, but after seeing the warded room and its messed up state, he can sort of understand what happened.

Zyler froze up immediately at the sight of a true Master, and held Diaga close to himself as he backed away from everyone. Diaga followed him, unable to really understand or go against the one who entered.

“Master,” Cloud stepped over, the only one in the room doing so as Val went over to the otherworlders as if ready to protect them. “Please don’t be alarmed. There’s a reason for–”

“To keep a secret like having someone with overwhelming power at the palm of your hands, and not tell your gracious and merciful master?” Cronus intervened, shaking his head in disappointment. “Have I truly raised you so wrong that you can’t even do something as simple as that? My poor boy, you absolute fool.”

Zeke gritted his teeth, taken aback at him casually insulting Cloud like that. He gripped his fist, but he kept his anger at bay. Losing control now would only make it worse for him as Cloud took on that remark gracefully.

“What have you done?” Cronus ignored his insults entirely, looking around the warded room. “I wanted to have you relax and enjoy yourselves before you leave, but it looked like you were having some fun. That’s really not fair of you, Cloud. Here I was being at least grateful enough for the sudden visit and giving you an extra week of preparations. It feels like you really want to dry up whatever goodwill you have with me.”

“Master…” Cloud grimaced, but he stared back with fervor. “That is not my decision to make.”

“Oh?” Cronus actually looked surprised, raising a brow. “Do tell.”

“You said that I had to report you over anything of interest. But you never said to backstab someone in order to do so. I only did exactly that. Zeke here is like a brother to me–a family. While I do admit I had done wrong in not telling you about the towers, I can’t in good conscience tell you about these two’s personal powers as this was their own business.”

“That’s interesting,” Cronus huffed a snort at him. “Considering how you eagerly sold out your own family to me back in the past–”

“Those ‘people’ are not my family!”

Cloud growled back, his eyes turning furious at his master. They even glowed with mana at his words, his power surfacing from his words. Zeke instinctually held onto Mikella as she did the same, not expecting such a reaction.

After a moment, Cloud realized it as he shook it off. Cronus, for his part, stayed quiet as Cloud continued, all the while Val watched with a steady gaze, not showing any emotion.

“...Master, will you at least let Zeke rest before we explain further?” Cloud eventually said. “He was doing a favor for an ally of Eve Glade, and it took a lot of mental exertion on him.”

“I’m surprised he’s even standing at all,” Cronus said, not feeling even slightly affronted from Cloud’s outburst. “That’s fine. But I expect a fully detailed report. Finish your business with Bastion and come find me when you’re done. Honestly, you should know how good I treat you sometimes…”

Cronus waved off his hand as he turned back around, all the while Isabelle looked over at the otherworlders, smiled at them, then back at the bastion allies.

“I apologize for the messy meeting. I realize this is our first time meeting each other. I would love to speak with you two after everything is settled. I’m certain that young Seer over there would need to be accustomed first.”

“Y-Yes,” Zyler inclined his head respectfully at the woman. “Thank you. I will do just that.”

Isabelle smiled again then left to go after Cronus. Zeke always thought the two were practically glued together, but now it felt like Isabelle is the sort to go with her own pacing. Meanwhile, he can’t tell whether Cronus is just sadistic or borderline chaotic. Seeing someone like that in the famous fourth stage made him fear that perhaps all that power would make anyone go crazy.

Cloud rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to breath to retain his calm but failing miserably as his breaths kept getting harsher. Val went over to brush against his arm, muttering something softly. Zeke ignored that–that was clearly something personal between the two of them.

“Zeke, you good to go?” Mikella asked, prompting to respond with a nod.

“Yeah. Let’s… just get this over with.”

…..

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The explanation to Cronus about Zeke’s power took longer than Zeke felt comfortable taking. Then again, the way Cronus kept staring at him might have been the cause for his discomfort.

They only explained how he got it, how he had been using it, or rather unable to, and how it had been so far. Once they got to where they are now, Cronus remained seated, crossing one leg over the other with a thoughtful stare at the ground.

Another moment of heavy silence occurred before Cronus asked Zeke himself.

“So, what did you do to that girl?” Cronus asked. “It looked more complicated than just ‘fixing her up’, as you would say.”

At that point, everyone, including his comrades, stared at him. Especially Zyler and Diaga who were unfortunately caught up in the Master’s curiosity. Mikella only shrugged helplessly at him, figuring that revealing what he did wouldn’t hurt anybody.

“It’s not a major secret I’m keeping, but it was more of an experiment at best,” Zeke said, wincing at the word. It really was an experiment as he wanted to know if it would work, but didn’t like that he experimented on a live person. “I realized that Diaga’s life channels were being drained consistently, so I tried to use Barrier Craft to first protect them from the magical drain her Class demanded.”

“But even Barrier Craft cannot keep up with that work forever,” Cronus said, gesturing with an open hand. “Surely you’re not expecting to keep healing her like that forever when the barrier breaks, do you?”

Zeke shook his head. “I thought of that too, then I realized something else. As long as you have enough magic, you can do pretty much anything. So the one thing I wanted is to ensure that no matter how long she lived, her life and kinetic channels would survive from her Seer Class Skills. So I used my attunement to power them up. Basically, I supercharged them with enough juice that it’ll last forever, and made sure that it wouldn’t hamper her daily life. At the same time, I restored her health, which is why she looked the way she does now. Now that her mana can’t intercept her health’s pathways, she should be able to keep going.”

Diaga smiled at the thought, hearing the answer herself. Zyler spoke up in return.

“Diaga, how do you feel? Do you feel any restraint? Can you move well?”

“Yes,” Diaga nodded. “It’s amazing. I don’t even feel any restraint despite having those barriers on my channels. However…”

“However?” Zyler asked, his ears perked up.

“I received notifications that due to an outside influence, some of my Class Skills have decreased in power. I can still use them, but their range and power have dramatically decreased. As long as those barriers are in place, I can’t use my Seer powers as well as I had before.”

Zeke looked back at her in shock. He knew she would have difficulty using her Class Skills thanks to the lock on her channels, but he never expected to have actually halved her Class power like that.

“Seriously?” Zeke asked. “Then–”

“Oh, please don’t misunderstand,” Diaga raised her hand. “The skills that require a portion of my health and stamina are the ones heavily impacted. My other skills are completely usable.”

“That’s fine with me,” Zyler let out a breath. “Not like I ever want you to use them ever again. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Zeke breathed easily at that. Almost crippling someone is definitely not how he would call ‘fixing someone up’. But if the person is fine with being blocked like this in exchange for a good healthy life, then that’s all he could ask for as a healer.

“Interesting…” Cronus nodded slowly, rubbing his naked chin. “So you poured so much power that it became a barrier of your choosing. And to create barriers that restrict a persons’ channels as well. I haven’t intended that skill to have such a feature, if I say so myself. You could easily snuff a life out without them even realizing it.”

Zeke grimaced. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t thought of that before. In fact, he even considered doing such a thing for his combat style. But it felt… wrong, in more ways than one.

“Then again, that’s just impossible, even at my level. I can’t imagine someone standing still for so long for me to place a barrier in their guts,” Cronus waved off the idea, no matter how gruesome it sounded. “I’m satisfied, but I’m still rather ticked off that I wasn’t told of this. I expect to be better noted later in the future even after I leave, Cloud.”

“Yes, Master,” Cloud bowed his head. “Thank you for your understanding.”

“I suppose this is enough. Do tell me if you plan on making more interesting experiments next time. Isabelle, let us leave–”

“Wait, Master Cronus.”

Zeke suddenly said, stopping Cronus as he stood up. He raised his brows at him, waiting for him to respond. Even Mikella looked back at him in surprise, but Zeke just had to know.

“You… you know about attunements of a higher realm, right? How extremely rare they are and how only certain people can use them?”

“Yes, of course,” Cronus asked. “I’m certain even my bumbling student here taught you that, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, he did,” Zeke nodded. “But… I don’t really understand. At first, I wanted to get Undeath so that I could save Val from a fate literally worse than death, but I got The World all of a sudden.”

Zeke swallowed. At first, he thought he was forced to have this from the gods that have taken them against their will. But after finding out from Zoan that this was completely unintentional, he had to know what it was.

“Why do I have this attunement?” Zeke asked. “Even with my… circumstances, I don’t know why I was able to take this attunement for myself.”

“That is because you didn't,” Cronus answered as easily as he breathed, stomping Zeke’s expectations. “Aspects from higher realms do not get chosen by us. They choose their users for themselves.”

“They choose their users?” Mikella asked, unable to hold back. “You mean, they have a will of their own?”

“Hence why Zeke cannot control such an attunement so easily,” Cronus flashed an amused smile. “Can you imagine a power like that bending the knee to a mortal brat? You have to show your worth for it to follow your orders… or you risk losing yourself to it.”

The mood turned heavy as Cronus left it at that, leaving with Isabelle in tow back to where he was originally staying. Zeke turned to himself in thought, regarding the power he wielded.

He wasn’t sure, but it felt like Cronus knew exactly what he was talking about.