As time passed by, the day of the travel was getting close, Friday was just around the corner.

Meanwhile, the war between Redzen and Asgard was made a fact, it was not the same simple short fight as before. This time Redzen made known that they won't stop until conquering Asgars territory.

Luckily, the spatial rift was left untouched for now, nobody knew what would happen if it was touched in the middle of the war.

The night before Friday, Mike wanted to ask Claire about the spatial rift, but his question disappeared while getting new information related to his ability.

"Master, you are ready to advance it to phase 1 if my calculation is right. You already got most of the qualifications and your result in sparring was satisfactory enough to show your reaction speed using it."

"Finally! How can I advance it then? I feel like I improved but I don't feel anything special to it."

"Simple, there are two methods. Training your ability continuously would take too much time, training it in a real fight would be easier, so basically-"

"Basically, train it in a fight, sparring or real one, right?"

"Yes. The second method is even easier since I don't like the idea of fighting you for real, even when suppressing my full strength."

"No need for your comforting words, and yes it was sarcastic, keep going."

"Sad, I already prepared to answer that one. Anyway, the second method may take some time but is still fast, just use that thing again." It pointed in the direction of the exhausting training device.

"Then I could advance to the next phase quickly if I just keep training like before."

"Yes, but not exactly, you need to get exhausted by it, totally exhausted, but still need to use all of your willpower to last as long as you can."

"Simply put, I need to improve my record."

"Yes, master. But the data says that you need to last longer than ever before, it may take some tries and even some days. But I am sure you will succeed soon, you can already last for a long time."

"Somehow, I feel like you are talking in a dirty voice tone." He went to the device, he already finished his evening training so it was right if he fainted but still would like to succeed on the first try.

"It took you long to realize it."

"..." Without answering to Claire, with hands placed on the device he was ready and the device started to turn on.

"Want to use the mechanism to lock your hands in place?"

"I have enough power of will to resist... but, what if I withdraw before I finish, would that improve my ability to the next phase?"

"That's true, but the speed is the lowest, it may take you weeks or even months, the idea of advancing to next phase is to use your ability to the limits."

"Ok, enough talk then, let's fucking go!"

After he finished his words, he started using the Bloody Hand, he didn't receive the exact number of seconds he needed to last, but could not count seconds with so much pressure anyway.

To say how to advance was easy, but while in practice, it was harder than expected. He knew it, but it was still complicated for him.

The first five seconds were exhausting enough and felt like double the time. Why time have to pass so slowly sometimes? It was that kind of feeling.

Until 10 seconds, it felt like the world was spinning and moving weirdly all around him, it was already the edge of what he could resist, but finally, the next seconds were the real fight.

After 10 seconds it was the decisive moment. In those training days, he decided to exhaust himself using the device and then sleep quickly, but the result was barely 10 seconds, the android said it was normal while not totally prepared and was still helpful for him, but he still would rather not to achieve less than previously.

11 seconds, and he felt like already fainting, for him it felt like 30 seconds under intense pressure. At 11 and a half seconds he felt like almost a minute under intense pressure.

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Anyway, he could not count seconds anyway so he decided to think that less than ten passed in any second, so he could keep giving his all any moment.

Finally, the world was going dark when the device stopped and his body got in the arms of someone else.

This time, Claire said no words and let him sleep with questions in his mind while finally sleeping.

The android could not talk, in its mind the words could be hard to put into translation for human understanding.

The next day, he received the morning with the usual jokes.

*Ding*

"Congratulations, you have received the title: 'The one who fainted after 12 seconds'"

"That's better than last one"

Today was Friday, his worst day of the day, he felt like he forgot to ask something last night but dismissed it, since he needed to work anyway.

The day went easy, and he got his clothes quickly done, his luggage was light as usual... well, it has more to it than meets the eye, this time was the android who did everything, Mike only needed to take a bath, eat, get his clothes, weapons, and tools on, and then receive the luggage Claire prepared.

"I will miss you, master" Said Claire while wiping its non-existent tears.

"You are a terrible actress... do never get in the acting ever"

"I was acting bad on purpose, master, it is you who cannot understand my acting at all."

The assistant was probably equipped with a module specialized in sarcasm and irony, so he didn't want to discuss it anymore and after a second, he just left without a word.

"I don't know if I like to have a sarcastic assistant or not..."

This time he went to the airport directly after receiving a message from the other bodyguard.

At the airport, he was guarding Rose from the back while going to board the plane.

But it was strangely quick, like the plane was ready so fast or like he arrived late, but he checked the time and even arrived early.

To answer his question, the plane was a private one. A private jet.

"Oh right, rich people, I forgot" he wasn't stunned, he had seen more incredible things before.

His relaxing look, made the other bodyguards think that it was not his first time in a private plane, that, or he was too professional.

"Have you ever boarded a jet like this before?" Asked the male bodyguard, he was the only bodyguard he could have normal conversations sometimes because the female bodyguard never talked to him.

"No, is my first time, why?"

"Nothing, just asking."

"...?"

For them, he was indeed too much a professional or very good at lying, both worked for them.

The pilot was the male bodyguard and the co-pilot was the female bodyguard, so it let him be the only one with Claire in the plane, there was no other in the jet aside from the 4 of them.

They left the airport quick and soon were on route to New Gaia's islands, the travel was mostly silent, aside from Rose's question from time to time, she had a mysterious look on her eyes while looking at him.

Mike felt uncomfortable but could say nothing, and she knew it but never tried to hide her look, but 3 hours of travel was too much for her to keep looking at him.

Mike felt relieved that she finally withdrew her gaze from him, but her questions were more about his family and so on. Like his current close family and so on.

He never thought she had some interest in him, she was beautiful but would rather not involve his relaxing life with people like that. The sole thinking of her having a crush on him never crossed his mind, he doesn't like to be involved in other people's problems.

As they arrived on new Gaia's island, it was his job to be beside Rose for a while until the other two completed the procedures.

He didn't feel uncomfortable or anything like that while beside her, it was his job and he understood the importance of it.

They completed a procedure and got them some time, they had weapons with them after all, so it took some time to get full access to the islands.

They left in a luxury car, and only the 3 of them accompanied Rose in every moment.

They reached the hotel and nothing unusual happened, the female bodyguard had given Mike his routine tasks previously, so he was free sometimes, the time was used to train his ability, mainly going around in a circle with eyes closed.

At next day, they followed Rose from one place to another, she was enjoying being on a little vacation on the island of another country, but the afternoon arrived and she needed to attend some kind of meeting with other people.

When reached the place of the meeting, Mike finally understood not much later Rose's questions about his life.

The building for the meeting was small yet luxurious from the inside building, guarded by a few armed forces.

But what made Mike understand Rose's questions was a different thing. Inside the meeting room, they were received by different people, Minister Slades who is also the father of Rose was one of them, but Mike already knew about him.

"Slades, checked, more politicians I don't care, checked... Louis Blood, checked... why problems are searching for me these days?"

In the meeting room was a young man barely older than Mike, in his late 20s or just 30 but his appearance was similar as Mike's.

The man, Louis, was young and looked like someone important, different from the other people inside that were most of them, old people, excluding Rose and Louis. The bodyguards of course and armed forces were an exception, they were not part of the conversation.

As they got inside, they wanted to start the conversation after Rose finished meeting her father and the others, but got taken away by Louis' actions, a smile showed on his face but not while looking at Rose, they thought it was maybe Rose, but while they followed his eyes, they understood that it wasn't Rose, it was Mike.

Mike thought about his grandfather's advice: Keep yourself away from Louis. Those words' heaviness was well transmitted in the letter.