My first reaction to seeing Zant is happiness, and that is followed immediately by great worry.
“Am I in trouble?” I ask him.
“When are you not, Sir Gwyn?” he asks, not bothered by the extreme heat even as he wears his usual suit. Next to him stands a human man with cold eyes that sweep the area with a gaze that seems as if he can see further than Tess. Something about his presence worries me. He feels powerful.
“Who is your friend, Zant?” I ask the tiny guy.
“This is Aant,” Zant says with a short nod.
A quick telepathic communication is exchanged between them, and Aant launches toward the sky with a speed I can barely track.
“Aant seems to be busy,” I note.
“Yes, Sir Gwyn, he takes his role seriously. Before you ask, he has been called here to assist the First One.”
“I see,” I say, and from my pocket, I pull out a tab of chocolate that I hand to Zant. As he lets his guard down to swiftly unpack it, I create a manabloc chair, grab him, and make him sit on my leg while he, unbothered, starts nibbling on it.
“How strong is Aant?” I ask.
He gives it a thought for a moment. “He is by far the most powerful of us. He is almost at the level of a Ruler, and with a few items, he is possibly comparable to one.”
“That powerful?” I ask, replaying that cold face of a human in his forties with short brown hair and a fit physique.
“Yes,” Zant nods.
“So what are you doing here?”
“I am supposed to observe and learn and keep an eye on you in case the imitation of Lissandra Hawthorne returns, or the wyverns show an intention of communicating with you.”
“So things have gotten that bad?”
He bites into the chocolate and shakes his head. “It is not that bad, as neither side seems to want to cause unnecessary deaths. I think both parties are simply trying to get the most out of this situation while the other side blocks them from doing so.”
“Hmm, so the one winged wyvern is calling other wyverns to free it and possibly Lissandra on one side. Meanwhile, Diligence and Ruby fight to keep them both tied to the tutorial as they do not want them to mess with things outside?”
“That does not apply as much anymore, Sir Gwyn.”
“Can you tell me why?”
He pauses, giving it deep thought. “I think I can.”
Zant snaps his fingers, and the sounds from the area around us silence immediately. All wavelengths, all signatures, all of it disappears while the air around us becomes hazy, turning us and everyone into a confusing blur of colors.
"You can share some of this with your friends, though I’ll leave that decision to you. Outside the spatial separation field, five wyverns are currently circling Xyphos. The Aurate Consortium has arrived in force, bringing some of their highest rank battleships and a full unit of Arbitrators. They’ve even hired The Magi and The Slayer, both of whom are already on-site. Other corporations have mobilized as well, and one has even deployed the Meridian Unit. To make matters worse, Felix Maro is there, prepared to manifest the Ruler of Temperance, while the Ruler of Greed and the First One are also present."
“That seems like a nice mess. Are they worried about Starless Sky possibly appearing here?”
“Yes. The corporations joined because of the contract that forces them to defend Xyphos in this situation and because of their interest on the ground. The Rulers want to stop the tutorial from further breaking so they can go back to a normal state, and the wyvern and the imitation likely want to escape the tutorial.”
“Zant, you are hiding something from me.”
The tiny vyssari jumps a bit and looks at me with big eyes.
That causes me to smile. “You know what I would do if I were Dili? I know the guy, so I am confident I am correct,” I say, grabbing the chocolate from him. I break off one piece to eat before returning the rest to him. “I think Diligence wants to strike a deal with the wyvern. He might even let it go after some deal or promise. But I think he wants to hurry this up before Lissandra exits the Labyrinth. He wants to sort it out before then and somehow make it so that when she exits, she will find herself still locked on the 12th floor of beyond.”
“That is an interesting theory, Sir Gwyn.”
"Did Dili get a system quest to do that, and is that why he's putting so much effort into it?"
The tiny vyssari stays quiet, and I almost feel that I am a bad guy as I pat his back.
“It won’t work," I tell him.
“Hypothetically speaking, why wouldn’t it work?” He asks.
“Because I think he will need Greed’s help to make that happen, and I do not think she really has her heart in it.”
“That is an interesting observation. From what I am aware, Lady Greed does not have a good relationship with the imitation, and they have even threatened to kill each other multiple times.”
“Yes, I think these feelings are real, and they will jump at each other’s throats one day. Ruby because she hates seeing someone walking around in her master’s face, and Liss for Ruby, allowing for her memory to be turned into this and made into a constantly replicating, lobotomized replica of herself in the tutorial. Yet, Zant, I still think I am correct.”
“Emotions are confusing sometimes.”
“I know, right?” I smile and tap his back while looking at the sky, which is blurry because of the field around us.
“Sir Gwyn.”
“Yes?”
“I have been observing the situation down here for a while and noticed that you and Lady Lily are experimenting with the help of some vyssari, and purifying the blood carrying wyvern lineage.”
“Yes.”
“I wonder. You have not asked me for a sample.”
“Zant,” I say, serious, “from all I saw, I think you are young, almost a child, correct?”
“Yes, Sir Gwyn. I was born not long ago, and I am still considered a child.”
“Asking for blood from you would feel disgusting to me. I do not mind observing it as I did with Izzy, that much is okay. And I realize it is illogical, after all, you are already so powerful, and something like that would not hurt you at all. But even if it is only because of my whim or because of some illogical feelings I hold, I have to say no.”
"That's truly illogical."
“Right?” I carefully put him on the ground. “But I am arrogant enough to think that I am the one who is correct, so you can work with that. If anyone asks you for your blood, or tries to make you hurt yourself for them, just tell them no and call your older brothers or sisters to beat them up.”
“I think I might do that.” He nods seriously.
Later that day...well, the day and night do not change here as we are on the sunny part of a tidally locked planet, even if I wonder how it works with this spatial quasi-lock around the planet. Does it let the light in, or did they recreate it somehow? It is all weird.
Regardless, according to my calculations, I have twelve hours before it is time to evolve my trait, and we have already started the preparations.
Of course, I have most of it planned out, and the others here are just helping me. My head is already shaven, and using the mirror Lily holds up, I watch as I draw inscriptions over the surface of my skull.
This set of inscriptions is done with my own blood, and some of them mimic, to a low degree, what Liss did to put me into thought acceleration. There have been warnings about that, but for now, I decide to ignore them, putting my trust in my mind to handle it.
It takes me a few hours, first to draw the main inscriptions and then the smaller nets. Sophie helps a few times, too. The entire time, Lily patiently holds the mirror without any words that might distract me. Somewhere in the distance, Maya fights demons trying to get here and talk to me, while the rest of the members of group 4 move in between, checking on this with curiosity or doing their own things, like training or participating in the unofficial quest.
When the inscriptions on my head are done, I am about to take off my shirt, but I realize pulling it over my head would, even with low chances, since they are fixed, mess with the inscriptions. So, instead, I tear the shirt off. No one says anything, but I notice some suppressed gasps and weird twitches in the movements of the group 4 members, so I look down at my chest.
Sure, I am slimmer than usual, and there are plenty of scars, but it isn't that bad. There is still an emblem over where my heart is that I still train with sometimes. A fragment rests on the back of my pale left hand, and the key to the 6th floor of Beyond is on my right forearm. A new addition is a big burn scar on the right side of my chest over where my Ignition heart is, and from it, something akin to a web of scars spreads, burned into my skin. Using it so often at such a high level bears a cost on my body, even if I control most of its force.
When I twist my right arm and observe it, I have to conclude that I have indeed become slimmer, though there is no difference in the power I can exert.
“So?” I ask Sophie.
The mind mage just shakes her head and takes a few bottles and a brush. Both of these bottles are filled with a mix of my blood and the most expensive, best mana-conductive paint we have found. During testing, I found out that sometimes such a mix is better, and some inscriptions even require different percentages. It is mostly when an inscription is not as powerful, and the blood overwhelms it, weakening its function.
Sophie then begins to draw on my back according to the blueprints I made and had checked by her, Savi, and Maya. Out of everyone, she has the most experience with it and can improvise, though I would say Maya probably still has the steadiest hand, so she will draw some of the more important parts while overseen by Sophie.
The entire time, I continue to gather mana, careful not to disrupt any of them. There is a huge halo floating high in the air above us that I am connected to through my [Weave], and I make it spin faster and faster, pulling in as much mana as I can while supporting it with my Ignition heart.
When the inscriptions are done and drying, I will use black mana to gain much more before breaking it apart to extract normal mana. This process is to make my Mana Vessel stronger, and the black mana will join the side of my Empyrean Ichor.
I will do what I did before. The pressure from my ichor, Empyrean blood that the last elf used, and the purified wyvern blood will force my Mana Vessel to fight back. That is the only function these bloods have here: to put pressure on my vessel.
The possibility of my ichor evolving or strengthening is not even a secondary concern. Though I do not even think it would evolve into anything. At most, it would purify what I have.
I had to explain it to Dennis a few times. Simply put, I just want to put pressure on myself and on the process, and that comes from the Empyrean and wyvern blood. These should not affect me in any other way than picking a fight with my Mana Vessel.
My blueprints are very detailed, so it takes a long time, but I patiently sit there like a statue by halting all my kinetic movement so I do not mess with their effort. At some point, I stand up so they can paint my legs, too.
I get a few pokes at the fact that I had to shave my legs and every other place. Being as young as they are, Dennis and Min-Jae find it amusing, and I think I appreciate the attempt to lighten the mood.
Once all of it is done, which took close to twelve hours in total, I reach toward the sky, and the halo that kept spinning high there floats down, finding itself right above my head. There is a decent amount of mana in it as I reach in and compress it further until it blinks and turns black.
Even though I purposely avoid using black mana or relying on it, it does not feel like I am out of practice. It fights against me for control of all that gathered mana, and I fight to keep it to myself.
I guide it to expand, and though it is not that obvious normally, I can see it with my eyes. I watch how it begins to devour all surrounding mana, taking it under its control so easily.
Not once have I found it weird that it is able to do that, not even as I learned more about the Black Mana God. It was just his energy, some sort of force that was extremely rare and, because of that, left him as one of the weakest gods.
That was until the system took it, used it as inspiration, and after the contract with the Black Mana God, made a lesser version of it, it started to spread by gifting people mana hearts and awakening the planets. It makes sense for this original version to carry such dominion over all mana. Yet, in the end, even that was not enough, even as the Black Mana God became a godking, presumably the most powerful of them, growing stronger the more the system spread mana.
That is why I do not want to rely on it. I will use it when needed for a simple reason: because I can. But I think I will make my own way by taking control of normal mana without relying on fragments of a dead god.
The longer that black halo spins, the more mana it gathers from further away. It pulls mana from the members of group 4 other than Lily and Dennis, as I do not let it touch them. It pulls mana from the attendees around us, with some of them getting scared. A few even try to attack, but they get pummeled down by the members of group 4 surrounding me.
The halo pulls even more mana from the corporations nearby, totally draining it from some of the ships' batteries. Of course, there are some attendees and some ships that are able to defend themselves and keep their mana, but I do not push them.
When it feels like the right amount, the black halo stops spinning, but inside of it, an immense force fights against me, wrestling to stop me from taking over, but I just continue to push. It shrinks back a little to its usual size and begins to blink between black and dark blue a few times until it stabilizes.
Then, it floats lower and lands on top of my head, exactly in between the sets of inscriptions drawn there. From it, all these inscriptions begin to light up, and mana floods into my body.
At that point, Lily steps ahead and stabs my left arm with two syringes: one with the purified wyvern blood and the other with the Empyrean ichor.
I slide into thought acceleration at the same moment as I use the token to strengthen my Mana Vessel to the second stage.