"Evette, do you know where the Inoue siblings and that maid are?"

Evette quirked her head, "Aren't they still here...? I just saw them over there at that back table a minute ago."

I looked at where she was pointing but I couldn't see them, and for good reason. Their table was currently surrounded by a group of people.

"Are they friends of theirs? I really need to talk to the siblings."

"Hmm..." Evette stared at the group for a few seconds, "I think they're Leon's friends? So no, they're definitely not friends of the siblings. I'd bet anything that they're harassing them again. Especially Eve."

Leon, Leon...

It took me a moment but I eventually remembered where I had heard that name before.

Right... The son of Uruguay's Clan Leader is named Leon, and wasn't he the one who won that tournament? It took place after I left for the emblems, and that was also why the Inoues' ended up as vassals to Uruguay. It was because of some dumb ass bet that they made.

I waited for Luna to respond but she said absolutely nothing, and that's when I realized she wasn't inside my soul. I was about to panic when I remembered that she was with Nia when I left to grab the emblems. She'll probably remember everything from the reset since she was inside of me, but if not then that's fine. She can easily watch my memories and catch up on her own.

After thanking Evette for the information I walked over to the table where the siblings currently were, but halfway there I realized that I knew who the people surrounding them were. It's the two honeytraps and their boytoys... Looks like they were from Uruguay. I didn't think about that clan at all in the last timeline, but I can already tell they're going to be a pain in my ass this time around.

I pinched the Kitsune's bra strap and pulled it back far before letting go. It snapped hard into her back, causing the girl to shriek in surprise before whipping her head around at me.

"W-W-WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

One of the men sighed and looked at the girl, "Calm down, Feni. Stop your screaming and tell us what the armored girl did."

Feni pointed at me, putting her finger mere inches from my eyes, "This bitch just snapped my bra! I've only seen that happen to a couple of girls before, and it was always from young boys playing pranks..."

The man narrowed his eyes as he turned to look at me, "Is there a reason you're assaulting our friend here?"

I smiled, "I was trying to get everyone's attention, and it looked like it worked. Now do you mind leaving? I need to talk to the Inoues' alone."

"Was there something you needed to ask us in regards to the mission, Miss Reimia?" The two men between me and the table stepped aside when they heard the man behind them talking, and that's when I finally got a close look at the Inoue's Clan Leader. He was smiling kindly and looked very welcoming, but I could see the fury beneath his gaze. It felt like he was going to bite the throat out of someone any second now, and it was clear that nobody here had picked up on it.

"No sir, there's something else I need to talk to you about. It's rather important too, so..." I looked at the grunt from Uruguay, the man who was still glaring at me. He smirked in response and chuckled, "So in other words, you want us to leave? Well too bad little medieval girl, we---"

I cut him off while addressing the Clan Leader again, "What are the rules on attacking people again? Can I just throw them all out of here?"

The mood quickly shifted as the Uruguay group began to channel their mana. However annoying they may be, they clearly weren't amateurs. I expected them to continue shit talking and throwing their egos around, but instead they immediately prepared for a fight. Truthfully, I was slightly impressed and happy to see it.

The Inoue's Clan Leader continued smiling at me with his fake smile as he responded, "Fortunately, battles are not allowed in here, as the Lounge is frequented by people who would cause a brawl every day if it was permitted. So no, you can't throw them out of here and then walk away without facing any consequences. However, you can request a duel."

I looked back at the man who appeared to be the thug group's leader, "How about it, champ?"

"... I accept." Weirdly enough, he seemed interested and disinterested at the same time.

"Now what?" I asked the Clan Leader, and he responded with, "Either go outside, or go to the arena."

"I don't care either way... Just begin walking. The sooner this is over, the better."

The man practically snarled in response as he turned and exited the Lounge with his cronies in tow.

----------------------------------------

~Eve's POV~

I watched as the strange girl in black armor followed Leon's men out of the Lounge. They turned right at the door, suggesting they were heading toward the arena.

"What's with her...? It's not like we have secret information about our emblem. And if we did, we would've forced it onto her instead of just sharing pleasantries with her father!" I asked.

"That was her Uncle." My brother said, "And I don't know what she wants with us at this stage, but I'm more than happy to watch one of the Uruguay's get their faces caved in."

The way my brother responded made me raise an eyebrow.

"I was pretty sure she'd win too, since she must be pretty powerful or really stupid to take on our mission alone, but why are you so certain of her victory? You never take guesses, brother."

He chuckled and jutted his thumb toward Shizue, "Our lovely 'Maid' here already told me about the strength of our contractor."

"Shizue, is she somewhat stronger than the ice bastard, or is she a lot stronger than he is?"

Shizue looked at me, "She's going to crush him and then devour his flesh in front of his friends. I've seen her do it before."

"Right, thanks a lot..."

We waited for a little bit, staring at the Arena screen that was always on. There was duels and training sessions going on all the time and people enjoyed watching them, so the largest TV in here was designated as 'The Arena Monitor'. It took about five minutes, but Leon's friend and the girl eventually showed up on it. No words or time was wasted, as the both of them began channeling their mana right away, which was far more evident on the girl thanks to the transformation she was undergoing.

"Well now, isn't that interesting..." My brother said, leaning forward while resting his chin against his hands.

It's beautiful... I've seen a few people with external manifestations of their aura, but they were nothing like the red halo and wings I'm seeing now.

Leon's henchman summoned a massive lance made of ice into his right hand and promptly disappeared from view, but he wasn't gone for long, a second later he re-appeared behind the girl mid-swing with the lance aiming straight for the back of the girl's head.

Seeing that lance was bringing back memories... That man was the one put on trial when two newcomers were found out in the frozen wastes with their heads blown off. Their consoles showed that they had been attacked from behind, and the sound from the attacker was strangely reminiscent of what was occurring on the monitor now, and he was out in the wastes near their locations according to his mission statements. But that wasn't enough, so he was let go. Normally it WOULD be enough since there was video of him creating headless corpses in the arena as well, except the next thing we knew he was working for Clan Uruguay, so it was obvious that a deal of some sort had been brokered between the two.

I watched as the girl swiftly turned around and punched straight into the lance. Her fist smashed through the ice until it connected with the man's face, which resulted in his head exploding into a thousand pieces as it splattered all over the Arena's glass walls that surrounded it. Outside the Arena I could hear several girls screaming as officials were preventing the men from charging into the Arena to attack the girl.

"... Shizue, was this the outcome you expected?"

My brother looked like he was in awe, while shockingly, Shizue also looked surprised, but when she saw me looking at her she immediately reverted back to her impassive face before saying, "No. She has a very unique soul that's housing a currently regenerating Eldritch soul, so I knew she'd be stronger than the average person, but to punch straight through that lance would be no small feat. That man is... Was, known as the 'Ice Killer', because of the way he could pour his overenhancements into the ice weapons he created, so that lance would have been far stronger than your average elemental weapon."

Sounds like it was stronger than most melee weapons? Outside of the high tech energy blades of course.

"Poor girl... It's sad to hear that someday she's going to die to the Eldritch nesting in her soul." My brother solemnly said.

"Negative, Master. She's housing the Eldritch. It's a symbiotic relationship."

"What...?" Both I and my brother said at the same time.

Shizue shrugged, "You'll have to ask her. I'm only reporting what I see in her soul."

We both went silent as we wondered how such a thing was even possible. While we were lost in our thoughts, the girl strode through the front door and straight up to our booth.

----------------------------------------

~Reimia's POV~

"Sorry about the delay, but I really need the three of you to come with me. There's something I need to show you." The Clan Leader raised an eyebrow but before anyone could respond I raised my hand, "One last thing before then though. I know the girl's names, but I don't know yours."

"Solas."

"Okay then. Solas, Eve, and Shizue, I'd like to show you something here on R-4 real quick. It'll make anything I say after it much easier to understand."

The two girls looked at Solas who smiled at me (this time a real one) in response while standing up. He then motioned toward the door before saying, "After you."

I turned around and promptly left the lounge. We walked through one street after another until most of the area around us was empty. We were at the backside of R-4 now, which was mostly residential homes that weren't being used.

We eventually stopped in front of a large temple and Solas immediately said, "Does this 'something' involve Lord Arkaios? I've only spoken to him once before, and while I am not a prudent follower of his, I do appreciate everything he's done for Arcadia. It's honestly sad that nobody here wants to worship him anymore."

"Becoming a warrior for all of eternity is too scary even for me..." Eve said.

"That's not why we're here. I only want you to go inside, with or without me. You'll have some questions after that, which is where I'll finally be able to tell you the full reason I sought you out."

Eve and Shizue didn't move, but Solas strode right through the temple doors. I thought they'd all go in merely out of curiosity, but Eve is just staring at the ground while Shizue is emotionlessly watching the temple doors.

A few minutes later he came back out and closed his eyes while rubbing the brim of his nose. "Well, you were right... I have a glaring question that really needs an answer." He looked at me, "What happened to Lord Arkaios?"

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"He lost all of his influence in our realm after draining every drop of ether out of his temples, all so he could send me back here. And I can prove it with my memories, but I know there are some rare individuals who can fabricate memories, so that's why I wanted to show you that Lord Arkaios was gone, as it'd give much more credence to anything I had to say."

"Back here...?" Eve mumbled behind me.

"... The possibility of fake memories will not be an issue." Solas glanced at the maid before continuing, "But how far back are we talking here?"

"Whoa, hang on!" Eve cut in, "Why do you both keep saying 'back'? You aren't uh, saying she went back in time are you?"

"Shizue, if you will." Solas said.

Shizue nodded before looking at Eve, "Lord Arkaios can also rewind time if all of the necessary procedures are done beforehand. Which leads to there being a major hole in your story, Miss Reimia." She turned toward me, "I found the idea of rewinding time fascinating, and while I knew it was something he rarely did *as per his own words to me,* I still kept an eye out, waiting with hope in my heart that one day the mark would suddenly appear on my soul. But such a day never came... The air didn't ripple, nor was there a crack echoing throughout the world around us. So I must ask you; was there another way for our Lord to cast the 'Full Reset'?"

"He already had a reset point placed onto my soul, and the day he placed it, was today. This is one day before I left to grab the two emblems."

"Hmm..." Solas scratched his chin while looking at me for a few moments, "Let's return to our Clan home for now. There's very few people around, but eventually someone is going to notice that Lord Arkaios is no longer here, and it's best that we aren't around when that time comes."

I shrugged, "I don't care where we do this, so I'll follow you wherever."

Solas nodded and began walking toward a nearby alley. We went through one street and alley after another, heading for the elevators in the exact same path I have always took from Arkaios' temple whenever I visited him.

----------------------------------------

"It looks exactly like Yulong's place. Are all Clan homes the same?"

Solas inserted his keypass into the slot next to the front gates. "You know Yulong? From what little we managed to dig up on you, you're new to Arcadia, so you must've met him in the future?"

"It was. I met him after I returned with the emblems." I said as I followed him into the Clan house. The first room looks exactly like Yulong's again... I guess they really are all the same.

He then lead us through multiple hallways until we entered a large lounge area. There was a bar in one corner of the room, a fireplace, several couches and chairs, one massive TV, and a weird antiquated looking game in the corner.

"What's that called?" I pointed at the game. Solas looked at it and brightly smiled, "Foosball! Only Yulong likes it so I never get a chance to play it these days. Or, well, I could ask Shizue to play, but there's no point in doing that... Try playing it with her later. You'll see what I mean."

He sat down on the chair at the head of the coffee table, while his sister sat on the couch to his left. I sat on the opposite couch as the maid took up position behind Solas.

"Now then, please continue. I have multiple questions already, but I'll save them for after you're finished."

"I'll do a summarized version first, and then we can get into the details." After Solas nodded I continued, "I acquired both of the emblems in about a few months? It's hard to tell exactly how long I was out there because I slept for many days on end multiple times. And before you ask, that's just something I can do. Stay awake for weeks, then sleep for weeks. But I can tell you that when I returned there was a celebration going on. Uruguay had just won that event, which means you guys lost."

"What?!" Eve stood up and shouted, but she sat back down after her brother told her to calm down.

"Did you watch the footage so we'll know how we lost?"

"No... Sorry, I wasn't interested. I had other bigger plans and I left the city again soon after I had returned with the emblems."

"? You managed to bring back TWO emblems and you immediately left the city? Normally people would've been celebrating for a month straight, and we definitely would've thrown you one hell of a party, even if we did just become vassals to Uruguay..."

Shizue cut in, "If this is real, and I'll confirm it before she leaves, then we have a real problem on our hands, Masters."

Solas leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling, "True... If we end up as slaves to those freaks it's all over. And Reimia, I'd love to know why you left the city in a hurry."

"I decided to put off the celebrating until I finished my real objective. Which I accomplished when I rode the Leviathan to the northwestern side of Caedrus and grabbed the core's codes."

"......"

They all went silent for a moment as Solas continued staring up at the ceiling. He eventually sighed and said, "Okay, I just need to make sure of something, because this was already ridiculous enough as it is, and while Lord Arkaios disappearance is very bizarre, I'd still prefer to have absolute proof before we go any further. Can our lovely 'Maid' here enter your soul realm for a moment? She'll tell you how to share your memories with her when you're inside. She is able to copy and thus validate memories if the other person gives her permission."

"... I'm ninety percent okay with that, but I'd really like to know what she is first. Her soul is bizarre and nothing like any other soul I've encountered before now."

"Oh?" He finally tilted his head down and looked at me with a smile. "You even noticed that? Only a few others have been able to tell that her soul is different." He continued, "Well, it's simple really. She's a relic. My adorable sister and I found her one day and brought her back here. But ever since then she's decided to be our maid, for whatever reason..."

"A relic?? That doesn't sound simple at all. Is there other relics like her that are shaped like Humans and have weird souls?"

"Not that we've found! Lucky us, right? Except we can't use her for her original purpose, and according to her she was only a prototype anyway. And unfortunately, those fucking Uruguays have been hell bent on taking her from us ever since we found her. That and, well..." He glanced at his sister.

Now this is new... I never expected there to be a manufactured Human like her. So she's basically a machine then?

I waved Shizue over toward me, "Shizue, come here. Let's get this over with." She quickly walked over and sat down on the couch next to me. I reached out and grabbed her hand, quickly pulling the both of us into my soul realm.

"Now how do we do this? And if you don't mind, I'm curious as to what your 'original purpose' was."

She looked around the environment; Terra'ka's planet. "Eerie, feral, colorful, and with a clear night sky... It's a beautiful world. And for me to copy your memories you only need to bring up your earliest memory you want me to see. I will immediately copy all of your memories from that point forward."

She continued as I brought up the memory of the day I left Mother, "I was to be a test unit for a new class of mechs, the 'Arcane Mechs'. We would provide support by connecting directly to the mech. You have seen the spider mechs, yes? They were the first generation of Arcane Mechs, but I can't connect to them without permission from a senior leader in the division, or someone above them in the chain of command. However, I believe unlocking the core functions of Arcadia would allow us to bypass that, so I hope you are telling us the truth."

"Was the spider mech the only one created from that generation?"

"No. I drove others before I suddenly woke up one day with Master Solas and Eve standing over me. The lab was spotless when I went to sleep, but when they woke me up it was falling apart, grimy, and..." Her emotionless face changed to one of longing.

The memory of me staring at the portal on Mother appeared around us. Shizue looked around and said, "Where is this? I thought you'd bring up a Caedrus memory, but there are no pretty summer forests on our continent."

"This is on Mother. I took the portal over there back to Aetheria directly after this, and then I flew over to Caedrus."

"You flew---Wait! This is Mother?!" Shizue looked around excitedly. "O-Ooh! It all looks so normal!" After looking around the area she looked at me with clear desperation written all over her face, "... Can you take it back to the moment you first appeared on Mother? You don't need to worry about us wasting too much time looking at your memories. For every hour in the real world, only one second will have passed in my soul realm."

Whoa... I had heard of people who mastered their soul realms and were able to slow time down drastically, allowing them to train far more than the average person, but one second per hour is insane...

I laughed and brought up the memory of the day I left Arcadia with my parents. "Here, take it all. Hopefully the siblings will have some information for me in relation to Viktor, so if they aren't too bored skipping through my memories, I would like them to take a look at the blonde Elf in them. He's the man who created the Xel'nethra, and he's originally from Arcadia."

She nodded, "We know of him. When the Masters were looking for some way to bring down Clan Uruguay, they found a snippet of information about how they despised Arkaios' Warrior 'Viktor'. We couldn't do anything with the information though, so we dropped that line of inquiry and never went back to it."

Again with the Uruguays...

I watched as Shizue entered a prayer pose. A golden aura appeared around her that slowly dissipated as she stood back up and smiled at me, "Thank you, Miss Reimia. I now know that your memories are real and will be showing them to my Masters. That is what you wanted, yes?"

"It is. Thank you, Shizue."

I exited my soul realm and Shizue immediately told the siblings that my memories were real. Solas went back to staring at the ceiling while Eve looked like she was going to be sick.

"... Please continue, Rei. We'll watch your memories in a bit here, but still, I'd like you to finish your summarized version first. I need something of a breather to process this, and listening to you should suffice. It's not that I doubted you, in fact I found your story highly probable since Lord Arkaios had disappeared, and the only way that would be possible is if he purposely drained all of his energy. But after Shizue confirmed it, and the fact that Lord Arkaios would only send you back here if something catastrophic happened, well... You can imagine how we feel right now."

"But why us...?" Eve said, causing everyone to look at her since she had been mostly silent since we arrived at their home. But Solas and Shizue quickly looked back at me, clearly both wondering the same thing.

"If you're hoping for a well thought out reason, then I don't have one, it was originally based off pure instinct, but as I sit here I think I know why I felt like I should come to you three. An up and coming Hunter, and a Clan House that I can easily re-acquire the emblem for, giving you much more prestige and power, which is exactly what I need. And it just all around felt wrong when I saw in the news that all three of you had died on a mission. You didn't seem like the types that were destined to just randomly die like that. I'm basing this off of nothing, I get that, but that's how I felt. And now that I think about it, that meant this Clan House became part of Uruguay, right?"

Another suspicious point for that Clan.

"So we did die... I knew it was a possibility, but I can't say I'm ecstatic over the idea of seeing my death confirmed in your memories." Solas said while Eve gripped her knees hard. She looked like she was grinding her teeth and holding back tears at the same time.

I know hearing you died wouldn't exactly be a great thing to hear, but still, her reaction seems strange? Now that she knows, there's a good chance she can avoid it, but instead she looks like she's about to break down... I'm getting the feeling that she's upset about something else entirely.

"Basically, I got the core's codes and handed them over to six different people. I'm pretty sure Evette is the one who turned em in, but the rewards went to me. Not that it mattered in end, but between me returning here and her unlocking the core a month had passed, and you three died during that month. Can I ask why all three of you would be away on a mission? After acquiring your emblem it seems odd that you'd do that, so I can only imagine that Clan Uruguay forced you to go."

Solas sardonically chuckled while shaking his head, "That's pretty much the only explanation I can come up with. Unless something in the core gave us information in relation to Shizue. If we can get our hands on some of the later Arcane Mech models we wouldn't have to listen to anyone. Especially not Clan Uruguay, so maybe... But wait, you said the core was unlocked at the end of the month? Are you positive?"

"That... Is actually a good question? My Uncle told me that they unlocked the core and a few hours later all hell broke out in Arcadia. There was Xerath in power armor absolutely eviscerating people in the lower levels, while machines were everywhere in the upper levels."

"What the hell? Xerath in power armor? Even in my worst nightmares I never imagined such a scenario..." He continued, "So you don't actually know then, but it sounds like it was unlocked around that time, which means we didn't adventure outside after finding information in the core that told us where we could find some Arcane Mechs."

Maybe... Now I'm not sure anymore. Any one of those six people could've turned the codes in at any time and I wouldn't have known about it.

"How do people even know if the core is unlocked? Is a message sent out to the consoles in all the homes or what? I was at a bar in the lower levels resting when the Xerath and machines attacked."

He shrugged, "I assume no one knows. The core room is on R-1, and that's about as much as we know."

As they went silent I thought about what I should be doing afterward. My Uncle is with the Uruguay Clan setting up that bet, but once he's done I should tell him and Bertram about what happened. Is that everyone though? Is there anyone else I can talk to? I went out of my way to not make any friends here, so... Oh, Yulong! I need to convince him to leave his home, but he should definitely be there for the meeting too... Unless.

"Hey, Solas. Yulong is a friend of yours, right?"

"Yes, and if you're about to ask whether he's trustworthy or not, I'd say he's probably the most trustworthy person in Arcadia." He continued, "Honestly, it was shocking to hear that you knew him, but also a happy revelation. That man needs friends but he's too damned awkward and doesn't know how to approach others. Plus, it doesn't help that several of the Clans really do want to kill him so they can try to get someone they know to take over the Napoleon Clan."

So if someone really did unlock the core much earlier than I thought, then it most likely wasn't him. I really want him to be in the loop, so I'll visit him after this, especially since he had mostly finished translating those Abyssal books and murals, so if I show him my memories he can pick up right from where he left off.

At this point I far more important things to worry about, but still, something might come of it and I'd like to know everything I can about the Abyss before I leave here anyway. So *even if* there wasn't any profound reasons behind it, I still want to know damnit.

"So should I wait here? From the sounds of it you guys could look at most of my memories in the blink of an eye. I don't see a reason I should leave unless you're planning on scouring my memories hours from now."

"... Reimia." Eve said while her brother was lost in thought. "Thank you for bringing this to us. Give me a few minutes and we'll go inside of Shizue. It's a little strange at first, but you'll get used to it, it just takes time. Even I felt weird inside of her the first couple of times." She said while looking at Shizue, but in response Shizue looked away and put her hands over her face. "S-So improper, Mistress. You shouldn't be telling others about what you do to me behind closed doors..."

"Ughhh..." Eve exaggeratedly fell back into the couch and looked away from Shizue.

I was revving up to laugh when Shizue suddenly looked up with a much more serious expression on her face, "Masters, there is a problem. Eremnon is here."

"Huh? What do you mean 'here'?" Solas said.

Good question. The God of Demons doesn't make house calls, so is she making another joke?

She pointed up, "His eye is in the sky, and he's dropped a few Demons outside of the city. One of them is speaking and it is demanding entry into Arcadia."

Suddenly a memory from the distant past popped into my head. It was of Markus explaining to everyone in the Veca temple that the full reset might draw the attention of Meiza'thul and Eremnon.

I forgot all about that... Well that's just fucking great. Looks like things are about to become far more hectic around here.