Sceleris, a system under the authority of the sovereign house, Scele. Vanis had said, with a subtle amount of pride, that although the house was sovereign, they were still majorly under the influence of High House Verille, since Verille was led by an Ascendant and Scele, who were led by a Divine King, sorely needed the protection.

Since the house had just recently joined the alliance, under the civil invitation of house Verille, their twin planets had been moved from its previous system and into one closer to the Lese territories.

The dimensional ship drifted into the system, and Damien, for the first time in his life, laid eyes on an intersystem civilization.

In the distance, he made out two planets, one a vibrant purple and the other a deep sapphire. And in a counterclockwise motion, he sensed as they slowly orbited a large ball of blue gas in the center.

Damien frowned. "Is that a sun?"

With a confused look turned his way, Vanis answered. "Yes. Why the question? You haven't seen a blue sun before?"

Unabashed, Damien answered. "Yes." Honestly, he didn't even know they existed. How did those planets get their light then?

Vanis nodded like it all seemed clear now. "Ohh, you're from one of those backwater systems, aren't you?"

Damien froze, instantly remembering the warning Gray had given. Behind him, he felt Keilan do the same.

The young Verille lord waved his hands. "Don't be ashamed," he said, mistaking their anxiety for embarrassment. "It's not a bad thing to come from an underdeveloped system."

The young man then turned back to the Celestial bodies hovering in the distance.

"To explain," he began, and then stopped, turning to face Damien again. "I assume you know about the System guardians?"

Damien shared a confused glance with his brother, and then back at Vanis, shaking his head.

For his part, the other man clearly looked like he wanted to say something, but held his tongue.

"Like World Spirits which are planets awakening sentience," he began. "Sun Spirits are also the same, except instead of their territories simply encompassing only their Celestial bodies —like the World Spirits — they encompass the entire system."

The man smiled with a distant look in his eyes.

"They mostly act as protectors for World Spirits, especially those who are yet to reach maturity."

"Maturity?" Damien repeated with confusion. "I thought World Spirits were all born mature?"

"Oh," Vanis tucked his new wear tighter—a black coat with red linings. "I didn't mean matured in the mortal sense."

"You see," the man began again. "Celestial creatures are immortal; they can't die a natural death or age like us, so the only way to determine how they age and grade them is the level of essence they are able to generate.

"Unlike us, who grow our powers through the devouring of potential, commonly from beings we've killed, Celestial beings are not like that. They, over time, drink from the ocean of potential running behind the curtains of reality. And that's where the differences come from: we grow by fighting for potential, while they're being fed theirs, except ours Is faster while theirs take time."

Out of nowhere, Xirou's voice boomed. "YOU'RE BEING TEACHY AGAIN, VANVAN. DON'T WEIRD OUT YOUR NEW FRIENDS!"

Damien raised an eyebrow just as Vanis grimaced, pinching the upper part of his nose. Damien expected him to retort, but instead, the young man simply ignored the comment, turning back to his new student like nothing had happened."

"Sorry about that. Anyways, what I was getting at is that System guardians— Sun spirits, officially—as Celestial creatures, can get an affinity beyond the usual Sun fire."

Damien couldn't hold it any longer. "How do the planets get their lights, then? I don't imagine agriculture will prosper from the blue light shining down."

Vanis looked on with confusion. "Who said planets relied on their Sun Spirits for light and crop growth?"

He raised his hands just as Damien was about to speak.

"Ignore that," he said. "To explain, Once they reach maturity, which is at the Ascendant realm, a World Spirit doesn't need their Sun Spirits for anything any longer. Even the gravitational pull of their moons ceases to affect them. They become efficiently independent."

Damien nodded, finally understanding. He stared out into the distance, watching as they slowly approached the planets. That was when he finally saw.

In a line going to and from the planets, were uncountable numbers of tiny dots. They appeared as tiny dots to his eyes—white, yellow, blue, purple, red, and other colors—but Damien quickly realized that those tiny dots were probably massive moving structures.

He stared with wide eyes as they got closer, watching as the tiny dots grew into massive monstrosities.

The first thing he took in first were the dimensional ships. Massive, blocky creations, not unlike the sleek design of Xirou's ship, flew to and from both planets. Some were simply massive pieces of earth carved out and modified into space-moving vehicles. They lack any form of artificial designs, discounting the massive runic lines running all over them, which brimmed with a crazy amount of energy.

Others came in the shapes of castles, simple cube designs, and even the sea-faring ship types, just like Xirou's, except they lacked its detailed design. To him, they looked shabby compared to the swift, parting vehicle he stood on.

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And then came the others. Damien couldn't help the jaw-dropping as he watched a massive griffin fly past their ship, twice the size of the largest land-based castle he'd ever seen. Its feathers were a vivid violet, alluring in its dangerous beauty. And on it ran lines of black, thick and unmistakable as they traced down its entire feathers.

The aura the beast radiated though... Damien whispered in awe.

"A Spirit King beast."

"Yes," Vanis said beside him. "Judging from your reaction, I assume where you're from, Spirit King beasts aren't used as mounts?"

"Honestly," Damien said, forgetting he was supposed to stay quiet about his previous home. "I haven't even seen a Spirit King beast before."

Damien sensed as the other man nodded, like he could relate. That was highly doubtful.

"See there," Vanis said, and Damien traced his pointing hand down towards a massive steed with an ethereal silver-white coat as it gently galloped down an invisible path towards one of the planets in the distance—the purple one, judging by its swift turn as it got closer.

On the back of the horse was a young man wearing some kind of tight-fitting material, the same as the one Vanis and the others had been wearing when they'd been freed. Damien didn't shy away from asking Vanis.

"It's a body armour, helps us Spirit lords with surviving long time in space. You should know that as Spirit lords, we can't survive long in space," Vanis said, turning a questioning eye at Damien. And this time Damien knew that, so he nodded.

Satisfied, Vanis continued. "The suit extends our natural time far beyond the usual. Makes it easy for long voyages outside."

Frowning, Damien asked. "Then why am I still alive?" he gestured at him and Keilan. "We aren't wearing any body suits."

"That's because you're on this ship," the young lord answered, gesturing at their moving wonder. "Uncle Xi had the same enchantments on the suits placed on the ship."

Slowly, their ship joined in with the invisible line of traffic moving toward the planet's orbit. This made Damien frown since, from what he could see, space here was large enough for all vehicles to approach at the same time, saving the time that would have been wasted on the line.

"It's simply for security's sake," Vanis said when Damien asked. "Yes, all these vehicles could approach the planets in their own lane, but as according to protocol, it's not allowed. Likewise in every other system."

Shrugging, Damien turned away to watch as their ship approached, turning left into a 'Y' path toward the purple-colored planet.

His blood chilled as something seemed to pass over them, a curtain of sorts. Damien felt it as something attempted to look through his soul, finding itself blocked. A second attempt, though, instantly saw it successful.

The whole thing happened in such split second Damien at first thought he'd imagined it, and when he looked around, seeing the bitter look on everybody's face, he couldn't help but ask.

"So I wasn't the only one who felt that?" He said to Vanis. "What was it?"

"The World Spirit," the young lord answered, looking like he'd just taken a bitter alchemical potion. "It does this to everyone who approaches. A sort of border check."

Damien nodded. That explained it. "Can it be blocked?"

A snort was his answer. "Impossible," Nalon said, moving a little closer, distaste plain in his voice. "That was the soul scan of an Ascendant, a Spirit lord should not be thinking of blocking that."

"Nalon, be nice," Vanis scolded, voice firm, to which the man in question answered with a reluctant nod and a step back. Vanis turned towards Damien.

"No, an Ascendant-originating soul scan cannot be blocked."

Damien nodded. Like almost everything, his knowledge of soul scans was very little, but at least he knew something about this.

A soul scan was some sort of free-form mind technique. It allowed the user to push their will past the innate barriers of another being, going past the different layers of self and into the soul. On Ra, this was viewed as a sacrilegious thing, a defiling of the soul, so it was a technique that was seldom used by the wider community, only employed by those with zero moral compulsions. In essence, the fleshcrafters."

Huh, Damien's mind flashed. He wondered what later became of them now that Solaris no longer had any use for them.

It was doubtful they'd be allowed to remain on the planet, given their distasteful proclivities. Their love for chaos was also another thing he didn't think would be allowed to remain in the New World Order Solaris was sure to begin creating.

Hmm, oh well. Not like it was his business any longer. He had his one troubles to worry about, like his affinity issue and how he was supposed to grow his power now.

The fight against the Spirit King had showed him how far behind he was. The fact that Vanis could conjure up hundreds of lightning, while Damien still struggled with the dozens, showed him whose mental strength was more powerful.

And to top it off, he didn't have any kind of powerful hidden card like an Ascendant technique, or something similar. How was he supposed to compete with all the talents he was sure to face? If all of them were like Vanis, then that meant Damien was bound to land at the bottom of the pecking order, again.

He refused to be put in such situation again, ever again.

A couple of moons orbited the planet, and it was on one of them that their ship docked, coming slowly to land on a docking field, alongside a thousand other ships arraigned in two opposite lines.

The moment their ship docked, Damien turned to Vanis, about to ask what next, when he felt his vision shake, a voice roaring out an instant later.

"XIROU!!" The entire dock rumbled. "YOU PUT VANIS IN THE CROSSHAIRS OF YOUR BATTLE!"

Damien turned to the man in question, watching as his expression turned sheet white, fear evident in his face. He looked at a grimacing Vanis, giving the boy an apologetic look.

"Sorry kid," the man said. "But I'm not waiting for her this time."

And with that, his body popped, disappearing into nothingness.

"GET BACK HERE!" The voice called again, this time accompanied by the furious form of a roiling haired woman.

Although his first view of her was her standing sideways, looking up into the sky, like she could tell where Xirou had fled to, Damien was able to take in her appearance, and wow, was she a wonder to behold.

Her hair was a deep, shadowy black, long and trailing down her back in a smooth line. Within it, Damien could make out tiny pinpricks of crimson, glowing somewhat dimly, but visible enough in the sea of black.

Her eyes were a normal white, except instead of a normal pupil like other people, hers were of a deep crimson color, not glowing but somewhat close. It was ringed by a band of black, which, as Damien looked closer, had tiny tendrils stretching into the white.

Apparently satisfied with the fear she'd put in Xirou, the woman turned towards them, her white streaked black dress flowing against the tide of an invisible wind.

It was at that moment Damien took notice that everyone else, except he, Keilan, and Vanis, were on their knees, head bowed.

"WE GREET THE LADY VERILLE!," they all chorused, deep and filled with such reverence that Damien had to take a step back, his eyes going to the woman.

On her part, she seemed not to have taken notice of their gesture, her eyes landing straight on Vanis.

With an uncertain smile, the young lord gave a halfhearted wave. "Hello moth—oomph!"

His words hadn't finished forming when she took him in a hug, crossing the distance before anyone had even noticed she'd moved.

"Ohhhh, my sweet boy," she cooed. "I was ready to lay waste to their civilization had anything untoward happened to you."

"Well, I'm fine," Vanis said, voice muffled as he pushed against the tight grip of the woman who was his mother. "Uncle Xirou rescued me."

"Don't even let me begin with that reckless buffoon I call a brother," the woman growled. "His hunger for battle could have seen you injured, or worse. Wait till I lay my hands on him."

"I'm fine, mother," Vanis protested. "Infa—"

"Hold on," the woman cut him off. "It appears those chickens are becoming too daring." She said just as space shuddered, ten massive presence blooming out of nowhere, engulfing everything In a curtain of darkness blacker than night.