This was the first time he ever saw Cloud and Val lose their cool. Cloud looked ready to have a mental breakdown while Val, who was originally so cheerful and upbeat, was now making a rut after pacing back and forth with her arms crossed. There was a manic look in her eyes, as though she was considering thousands of plans at once.

He didn’t like this at all, so he asked. “What’s going on? Who’s your master?”

Cloud took a moment to answer. He closed his eyes, already sitting down on his chair with his fingers laced together, before breathing heavily.

His right foot kept tapping on the floor, his energy ramping up with no way to let it out normally.

“He was my teacher for some odd years, and he’s coming here to Eve Glade,” Cloud finally answered. He unlaced his fingers and faced the two. “He sent me a message not that long ago, and I wanted to see you all as soon as I could. With him coming, there could be a lot of… things that he might ask for.”

“Like what?” Mikella raised a brow. “And why is he coming here?”

“He…” Cloud let out a heavy breath. That sounded more defeated than anything else. “He’s the sort that gets his way no matter what. He’s a bastard that has lived for nearly two hundred years and is still an active Lord in Arcelot.”

Zeke’s eyes widened at that. “Arcelot? Isn’t that place super special?”

“How so?” Mikella asked, turning to Zeke.

“Arcelot is a special place that doesn’t live anywhere in the physical world of Tarial. It’s actually inside its own dimension of sorts,” Zeke said, rubbing his chin as he recalled the book about it. “You know how this world is big, but there are also places that are not in this world? They live in their own pocket dimensions, and they’re often owned by people. This one, though, is as big as a country…”

“Wait, so this Arcelot place is a whole ass country and it’s not even on Tarial?” Mikella asked incredulously. “How is that even possible?”

“It’s possible as long as you have the magic necessary to keep everything contained,” Cloud explained. Him explaining like usual actually took the edge off, relaxing his facial features. “My master is the sort that is capable of managing the entire country, with several other mages working together to keep the place stable. As for Arcelot itself–it is a kingdom built entirely on magic.”

“It’s also where we were born.’

Val said, dropping the bomb that made the otherworlders stunned. Val let out a defeated breath too as she sat near Cloud and crossed her leg over the other.

“That’s where we came from, and once we got strong enough, we got out to live out on our own,” Val continued. “Though, we were actually sort of… kicked out rather than moved out, actually.”

“We burned a lot of bridges, to say the least, when we left,” Cloud said, adding a smile. “But my master and I still kept in touch. Thing is, he hadn’t sent a message to me in over a decade. I kept wondering why he of all people wanted to do something with me, but…”

He stared at the two, frowning even deeper. Zeke felt a knot being tied in his stomach.

“He knows about us?” Zeke asked, the room turning more tense than before.

“Somehow, yes,” Cloud answered, closing his eyes. “He wrote in the message that he knows about you two. He even connected that you both are responsible for the towers that are appearing all over the place.”

“What?!”

Mikella shouted, nearly standing up in response. After calming down a moment, she sat back down, her face riddled with tension and panic.

“Towers are appearing… all over the place? Did I hear that right?”

“Yes,” Cloud nodded. “And he even went ahead to investigate one of these places. Of course, as you figured, he couldn’t enter without someone connected to the tower. And considering that he somehow found out that we took care of both those towers in our areas… he figured the new people we invited were responsible for that.”

Zeke laid there on the couch, too stunned. Did they have a seer of sorts on their own side? That would explain a lot since according to Bastion, that’s who they found out about their biodome near Eve Glade.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

But that was connecting too many dots. Just how many connections did this master have to find out about their identity already?

“Honestly, it wasn’t even that where he got interested. He found out that you can use some special magic, Zeke,” Cloud grimaced. “Particularly about your Barrier Craft. He isn’t certain of the specifics, but he was very interested in how you got that skill in the first place… at least that’s what he wrote in the message.”

“Is he planning on interrogating us?” Mikella asked. “Do we have to tell him where we come from? And more importantly–is he dangerous?”

“Dangerous is… not the word I would use,” Cloud evaded, looking away from MIkella’s intense stare. “I’d say unpredictable.”

“You mean bat-shit crazy,” Val answered.

“Right, that,” Cloud nodded. “Bat-shit crazy. But he’s my master. And more importantly, he’s the lord of Arcelot. It’s not as huge as the Kingdom we are under, but it shouldn’t be messed with.”

Zeke rubbed his forehead forlornly. Their lives just never get any easier no matter how often they fight and train. Apparently even reaching Journeymen wasn’t enough. Hearing about his master’s master being bat-shit crazy wasn’t exactly comforting rather than saying he was dangerous.

Mikella clearly had the same feeling as she answered. “Right, so we’re screwed if he finds us. And if he doesn’t find us, this town might be in trouble, right?”

“Y…Yes,” Cloud answered, unable to meet her steady gaze. He let out a heavy breath, seemingly having many tortured years behind it. “He’s not a bad person. I’ll say that for sure. He had taught me many things that helped me survive. I owe him that much.”

“So we should just give ourselves away? What do you think he plans on doing to us anyways? Just whisk us away to the next tower?”

“Most likely, no. He’ll probably ensure that you two aren’t so dangerous to have around. It might even be possible that he could have some plans for you if he found out about your special status.”

“Is he… gonna force us to learn skills we don’t want?” Mikella said, her tone sounding heavy and ominous.”Like… skills that would be harmful to us but better for them?

“No,” Cloud shook his head. This time, he stared directly at Mikella. “He may be a lot of things. He’s the sort to withhold information to someone just to see them hurt themselves in their misguided attempts… but he’s not a monster. I’ll tell you that much.”

Mikella and Zeke both let out a breath in relief from hearing that. It was doubly so since they only have a limited amount of skills they can learn.

“Okay, so that guy is coming here… right?” Zeke asked. “What do we do? I know we can’t run away. That’s just asking for trouble. But we shouldn’t just stand idly by either, right?”

“Right,” Cloud answered. “I just got the message today, so most likely he won’t be arriving for at least a month. If we’re lucky, several. We can prepare you two to ensure that you’ll have some survivability. Not that I expect Cronus would hurt you or anything… but better safe than sorry.”

Cronus… Zeke recalled that name. Thanks to his high Intelligence, he can basically remember everything from his old world just at a mention of a name or procedure. He liked to read a lot of things even in his old world, but that doesn’t mean his memory was perfect. Now though–he can easily recall that Cronus was actually a name of one of the titans from greek mythology.

Did that have some sort of connection?

“Ugh… well, I suppose I can put all that to the side. I heard you two have reached Journeymen requirements. I’m sorry for dampening your festive moods, but congratulations all the same.”

Hearing Cloud trying to rear the conversation back into a positive spin brought the otherworlders to get back into the swing of things. Mikella put on her usual smug smile which had no business being as cute as it was before Zeke spoke up.

“Yeah, we were ready to get started on the breakthrough right now.”

“Any plans for the race choice?” Cloud asked, and after listening to their answers, Cloud nodded. “Picking one of the fae races is definitely useful for the both of you. Though don’t instantly rely on just one race. It might be possible you might not have the race you initially planned to choose.”

Zeke and Mikella nodded, understanding that the choices are dependent on their own merits and achievements than anything else. However, Zeke knew deep in his heart that both he and Mikella had what it takes to get the sub-race they wanted.

“Alright, then I suppose we can–”

A knock echoed out from the door. It was loud, but concise and respectful. Cloud stopped mid-sentence and turned, frowning as he stood to get to the door. After opening it, he looked surprised, as well as everyone who saw who was behind the door.

“Zacharia,” Cloud said, seeing the giant near seven feet tall man standing outside. He wore his casual clothing rather than his heavy armor, but his presence was still as intimidating as usual with his true stone-like expression.

Nothing much changed for the man over the year just as much as the lords, and somehow his facial expression never made a change once even when the town had advanced so much.

He looked around the house to see the otherworlders and Val. He nodded, as though wishing for them to hear as well before turning to Cloud. “We have visitors coming to town. And they don’t look like normal folks. Got a whole platoon behind him. Not sure if you know him, but he looks important.”

At that moment, Cloud paled. He became so pale that even Zacharia started to look worried. Val turned silent as well, and she looked like she was actually shivering. After a moment of awkward silence, Cloud took in a large breath.

“Fuuuuuuuck!”

Somehow, Zoan managed to block Ana’s ears who remained confused at the scene. Clara was fine. She was used to hearing curses.