The unrecognizable figure of Flavia confronted the trio in front of her. Her snowy white eyes that appeared both clear and clouded were beholding them with an unreadable look.
“The White Witch… you’re the Boss from that Dungeon,” Higure concluded with a frown. She was quite fond of Flavia, and the sight of her being overtaken infuriated her. She snarled, “What is this supposed to mean?”
The witch ignored her in favor of glaring at Rakna who was unexpectedly calm. Despite the fact that even Nyx, whose composure could sometimes be terrifying, was visibly on edge.
“How did I know?” Rakna finally responded to her initial question. “Simple. I just saw it.”
“What kind of bullshit explanation is that…” She gritted her teeth.
“Marie Vellai Cuniya,” the therian continued. “That was your name, wasn’t it? I don’t have much to say to you, so I’ll make it quick, release your hold on Flavia’s soul.”
Cuniya sneered. “And why should I? Do you seriously think I would abandon my chance to return to the world of the living? The side that should make demands is me ins--!” She swallowed her next words as the temperature of the house shot up. For a second, she felt like she was dropped inside a volcano, and when she crossed Rakna’s eyes again, she stiffened.
The remnants of his original eye color had turned red behind those golden crosses. The seat under him was barely resisting the heat thanks to Astraea’s prior reinforcement. “Listen,” Rakna opened his mouth with forced restraint. The only reason he hadn’t already tried to rip out Cuniya’s soul and burn it like the first time, was thanks to Crystal Sight’s calming properties.
“There is no ultimatum allowed for either you and I. There is no demand that you can make. If you harm her in any way, you are dead. It’s as simple as that. Even if I have to face Flavia herself, if only to give her peace and destroy you at the same time.”
“You… you wouldn’t do that! I saw this girl’s memories!” Cuniya shouted in fear. “There is no way that you would kill her! She’s too important to you!”
“That’s precisely why,” Rakna coldly retorted and she shivered. “You have no idea of how badly you have chosen your victim. There’s no threatening available for you here.”
The witch bit her lip and suddenly backed away from the couch. The therian didn’t react much but both Higure and Nyx stood up. Cuniya was already looking around for a way to escape but she was quickly put down by Rakna’s next words.
“Give up. You’re in my territory. And my wolves are everywhere. But most importantly, you can’t do anything can you?” He said and put a cigarette in his mouth. He lit it with a snap of his fingers and Obsidian Blood completely died down.
“I can see it. Flavia told me your magic was possession and that it allowed you to hijack the laws of nature themselves. However, Flavia’s soul, even mixed with yours, doesn’t have that affinity yet and you’re currently reliant on it. In other words, you are alienated and powerless.”
Cuniya opened her mouth in shock and quickly closed it in mortification, her face paling.
Higure was equally startled, but for a completely different reason. “Wait, you can see affinities with those eyes?!” She shouted and Nyx also gave him a curious look. “Doesn’t that mean you got a glimpse of her Soul Stele!?”
Rakna didn’t reply and settled to just stare at Cuniya. He had a clear view of her internal energies and soul with Crystal Sight, down to the last detail. Even without prompting a System window, if he focused enough, words would appear to tell him what he was looking at. In a sense, perhaps he was indeed reading the surface information of one’s Soul Stele.
The White Witch’s composure quickly began to break. Her expression was gradually approaching a state of distress and Rakna closed one eye, scrutinizing her with the other as if he had discovered something interesting.
“Damn monster…” She muttered with clenched fists. “Then what?! Are you just telling me to go die?! Huh?!” Her façade ultimately collapsed and her yell was loud enough to even put a pause in Nyx and Higure’s hostility. “‘This girl is similar to me’? To hell with that!” She shouted, repudiating something she herself had first thought.
“She has everything! What about me?! Am I even denied my last chance to live?! What’s so wrong with that?! Are you going to tell me a monster like you would not make the same choices I did?!”
Her voice broke several times and tears spilled from her eyes. Nyx and Higure watched her with widened eyes while Rakna remained as impassive as ever.
“I would,” he indifferently said. “I would kill, rob, destroy, if it served my interests. Even more if it involved the safety and life of those I care about. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Then why should I be punished for it?!”
“Because you met me,” the therian once again cut her off apathetically. “Because your self-valued and self-justified interests conflict with mine. That’s all the wrong there is to it; it’s not fair.”
Cuniya’s expression contorted into fury and she lashed out with her arm, summoning a wave of telekinetic power that knocked over the furniture. Some of it directly attacked Rakna but he only muttered one word before it hit him, “Valkal.”
The telekinetic force collided with something and dispersed. Before Cuniya understood what was happening, something invisible and oddly soft wrapped around her and restrained her.
Rakna then wordlessly extended his hand toward the crying figure of Flavia’s body and a limb of soul power extended toward her neck. He pulled and the transparent image of a beautiful white-haired woman emerged. Her skin pale as snow was stained with tears.
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The astral projection was helplessly dragged until Rakna was truly grasping her neck. He stared at her in the eyes, and she glared back with pained and maddened eyes.
“I can’t get rid of you forever,” he uttered. “But every time your soul begins to regain a major size and form like now, I will personally reduce it to nothing. Last time, I burned you with the flames of my Volcanic Star. This time, it’s the cold that will burn you. Soul or not, I realized that my magic could damage it. It will be far more painful this time around.”
“{Then do it,}” she gritted out through telepathy. “{DO IT!}”
Rakna tightened his hold and a frosty soul power slowly covered her. Right before it seemed he was going to end it; a hand gently grabbed his wrist to stop him. The therian glanced to the side where Flavia was standing, giving him a sad smile.
“It’s all right… I want to take care of this myself,” she said.
He carefully observed her, making sure nothing was wrong, and nodded as if this development didn’t surprise him at all. On the other hand, Cuniya appeared distant; her gaze was resigned and empty, up until the point she was shoved back into the deepest parts of Flavia’s soul by Rakna.
“So, it’s as I thought, isn’t it?” The therian sighed and blinked to deactivate Crystal Sight. He leaned back on his seat and Flavia wryly smiled as she casually put the furniture back on their feet with a wave of her hand. “She can’t separate from you.”
“What?” Higure exclaimed. “Why would that happen?”
“For some reason, her possession is too advanced,” Nyx commented with a hand on her chin. “It’s as if their combined souls were a singular piece of cloth sewed with two different strings, but with equal repartition. They’re very distinct, but inseparable.”
“That’s why she reacted so severely,” Rakna continued. “She didn’t need to cry over this if she had a way of actually leaving Flavia’s soul to overtake another. Not to mention there is no way for her to deceive me; she was genuinely despairing.”
Flavia nodded at his conclusion. “You’re right. I’ve been aware of that for a while now. I have these occasional dreams about her life, her experiences, and our current situation.”
“Why did you never tell me?” Rakna scowled and she smiled nervously.
“I didn’t want to worry you… When you forced her to take over my body just earlier, I could have regained control any time. And I have kept that status quo since a week ago. Apparently, the reason she returned so soon and broke through the temporary confinement of your guildmate is that our souls were more compatible than she expected.”
“Don’t tell me, young lady, that in your all-encompassing kindness, you took pity on her?” Higure said exasperatedly, already aware of the answer.
“Um…” Flavia shyly fiddled with a strand of her hair. “Y-yes?”
“Of course, you did…” The lioness sighed and flopped down on the couch.
“But… it’s because I don’t think she’s as malicious as she appears,” the Chaos Witch added with a melancholic expression. “I saw her memories. And you too, Rakna. I’m sure you already made your opinion on her.”
The therian looked at her in the eyes for a moment before shrugging. “I did. At worst, she has a mean bone but nothing about her is inherently evil. Rather, I’m probably worse than her.”
“Don’t say that, Rak,” Allan’s voice sounded as he walked down the stairs with a yawn. Marie was following behind him with a thoughtful look directed at Flavia.
“Eh? Since when were you listening?” The former teacher asked.
“Well, not so much listening; we heard bits,” the blond retorted. “We only heard the chick in your soul breaking down; this house is so damn well isolated. It’s even better than what it was back on Earth. That didn’t stop me from waking up though… freaking enhanced senses.”
“I like it when there isn’t too much noise,” Rakna said with a small smile.
“Ah yes, and you. You’re just an entry-level psychopath, Rak. Not really evil,” Allan said helpfully and the therian gave him a deadpan look.
“Yes, Al, and a psychopath can easily commit evil without thinking.”
The blonde blinked. “Why’d you… Wait, no, you threw me off! You never call me Al! You only do it when you want to change topics!”
“Because it works.”
“…am I that easily manipulable?”
“Yes,” Marie was the one who concurred to the blond’s self-doubt and his ego took a blow.
“Where is Evelyn? Sleeping?” Nyx tilted her head.
“Huh?” Allan recovered from his short-term depression. “No… I think she’s still in her lab. Maybe she’s too concentrated. I swear, I tried to call her earlier. I entered and waved my hand in front of her but she didn’t even react and just kept on mumbling incomprehensible stuff. The fire pup told me she had been like that for hours.”
“Well, the girl’s a Phantom. She doesn’t need sleep or food,” Higure commented. “There’s basically nothing stopping her from being focused on one thing for all eternity.”
“Hm, by the way, Rak. The System told us that you added a Quest to the Guild Board and that we had to go to the Pavilion to check it,” Allan said. “What was that exactly?”
“Yes, I wanted to ask as well,” Nyx concurred. “Weren’t you down here all this time?”
“Kind of. But you don’t need to worry about that Quest. The difficulty is off the charts. We wouldn’t come back alive from it.”
“Really?” Allan exclaimed with a raised eyebrow. “Even for you?”
Rakna nodded. “It’s rated SS. I’ve never seen that danger rating before on any of the Quests given at the Pavilion. Heck, I haven’t even seen an S ranked one yet. But those are not scaled based on my strength but the overall prowess of Hosts and Locals.”
[An SS difficulty rating is the gray area between possible and impossible,] Ceres intervened. [It’s not technically unfeasible, but you will either die doing so or come out crippled beyond the point of no return. Realistically however, it devolves into something along the lines of a sure death with less than a 1% chance of success.]
“That’s kinda scary…” The blond sweatdropped.
“Anyway,” the therian sighed and stood up with a grunt. “Time to hit the hay. Also, tomorrow, I’ll be busy with some stuff but after that, we’ll start hunting again and getting your attributes up with the Scale of Maat.”
“Right. The eating hearts thing,” Allan deadpanned and yawned. “Well, fine by me. I’ll take the day off tomorrow then. I just wanna sleep honestly. Good night, guys,” he said and went back upstairs.
“Good night,” the lamia said and followed him. Nyx similarly excused herself and Rakna gave one last look at Flavia.
“I know,” the witch said with a smile without him even speaking up. “Don’t worry. I’ll be okay. I’ll talk it out with her for now.”
He nodded. “If that’s what you want. Good luck, and good night.”
“You too.”
* * *
Rakna breathed out as he came out of the shower. Nyx had apparently bought a Utility Item from the Pavilion that produces water self-sufficiently, and had connected it to the house’s pump.
“She should have asked me for the money. It mustn’t have been cheap since it was a Utility Item. I wonder how much she has,” he wondered out loud.
“Well, she often goes out on her own, doing Quests and exploring the System. Considering who she is in the first place, it wouldn’t be surprising if she already has one or two trump cards of the same kind as yours,” Higure remarked as she licked her paw, lazily lying on the bed. “She’s quite a hard-working one, that girl. But she never shows it.”
“Mhm… it’s true I don’t see her fight at full power often, if at all. But with Crystal Sight, I was able to notice better than ever how strong she is. Excluding me, she is definitely the strongest among us.”
“Hm, true that,” the lioness nodded. “I would know since I’m the one she has a pet contract with.”
“By the way, horny cat, why are you here?” He inquired blankly. “I’m pretty sure there are still more than enough rooms in this house for you to take.”
“Come on, you don’t expect me to occupy a full-size room. I don’t even have access to my human form yet,” she huffed. “Well, not that it will change anything if I get it.”
“No, it will.”
“No, it will not.”
“It will.”
“Not.”
“…I’m not going to sustain this joke,” Rakna grumbled and lay down on the bed.
“Hehe, so that means, I win,” Higure stated with an impish grin and jumped one of the pillows next to his head. “You’ll see. Soon enough, you’ll experience the male fantasy every morning. Of course, at night too.”
“Shut up and sleep,” Rakna replied dryly and turned off the lights with a snap of his fingers. When he was about to cast Sloth and Onera, he heard a loud boom from outside as well as the hisses and roars of two certain beasts.
“Oh, the kids woke up,” Higure commented. “I know someone who won’t appreciate this…”
“Fucking reptiles!” On cue, Allan’s yell echoed through the walls. “Someone’s trying to sleep here!”
“Yep, that,” the lioness chuckled and Rakna shook his head.
He prepared to enter the dream dimension when he caught a glimpse of Higure’s excited eyes. He stared at her for a moment and raised an eyebrow. “No,” he uttered.
“Huh?! Why?!”
“No, I’m not going to use Onera on you. I don’t want you to sexually harass me in my sleep too.”
“Well, that too,” she admitted. “But I just want to see what Ceresta looks like!”
“Denied,” the therian declared and promptly closed his eyes, falling asleep.
Higure whined and rested her head on the pillow. “Tch, you’ll see, when I catch up to your level, I swear to the cat gods I will infiltrate your dreams…” She cackled and closed her eyes. Then, she realized something and owlishly opened them again.
“Wait… did I just profess to being a cat?!” She gasped. “I can hear my ancestors crying… or is it the kid who’s going crazy outside?”
“AAAAH! Little shits!” Allan shouted as he started his supposedly peaceful night brawling with the two ‘little’ Hydra and Asura.