High above the arena Pasenos, two beings hovered. One, a man of raven black hair, with features one would have easily mistaken for a youth just past their second decade. They were putting on a simple cotton shirt and pants, which ruffled lightly under the wind. And their sapphire blue eyes, which had a single rune inscribed on the surface of both orbs, gazed down at the duel happening below.

  "Did you see it?" Merak said with a touch of awe, an unusual emotion for someone who'd seen almost everything there was to see in the mortal realms.

  The second person, a woman with long golden white hair which fell smoothly down her back. Today, she was dressed in a white blouse and a long flair skirt, which stayed undisturbed despite the more-than-gentle wind blowing in the surroundings.

  "Yes," Leceia nodded, also with a touch of awe. "Yes, I saw."

  Both Ascendants weren't shrouded in any form of technique, but despite that, their presence was still undetected, even to the Divine King down below and the Ascendant watching from the next planet over.

  "Was this the reason you decided to protect him?" Leceia said without physically turning to Merak, but despite that, he could still feel her attention. "Because you knew what his alignment would amount to?"

  "No," Merak shook his head. Honestly, he would have loved to simply lie and agree to what she'd just assumed, but there was nothing to gain from that. Instead, Merak told her the truth, at least a part of it. "The boy keeps Damien grounded in his humanity," he answered and then explained when Leceia finally turned to him with confusion.

  "Haven't you noticed yet?" He nodded at where the other one, Damien, was standing, beside the other scion of House Verille. "Damien has little humanity in him, I've noticed. He tries very hard to make it seem otherwise, but I'm sure even he is aware of how little compassion he has within. Keilan, on the other hand, is a ball of sunshine that dispels the darkness surrounding his brother."

  "Isn't that a bad thing?" Leceia argued. "We both know how destructive compassion is for beings of our levels. The boy will die, and die swiftly if he holds on to it."

  "I agree," Merak nodded. "But there's a difference between having little compassion and having none at all. Had Damien not been found by that hunter and had been left to experience the cruelty of that world without the cushion of love to fall back on, the Sunfire Spirit King would have been the last of that World's problems."

  "So Keilan is his cushion?"

  "Yes," Merak nodded in affirmation. "And he needs to stay that way. Until Damien admits to his emotional shortcomings and confronts them, he will become a monster should anything unfortunate fall upon his brother."

  "This is a weakness plain for all to see," Leceia commented. "It has as much chance of backfiring and opening the boy to his enemies, especially now that he's defenseless."

  Merak quirked an eyebrow, a tug on his lips. "Does he look defenseless to you?" He nodded down at the duel below.

  "You know very well the caliber of enemies they'll encounter, especially now that his brother, Keilan, has just taken in a Fragment into his soul. Reality has a way of pitting the worthy against the worthy, regardless of realms."

  Merak grunted. "Then you should help him through his current predicament."

  "I am a Life wielder, Merak. My authority does not cover the soul."

  Again, Merak grunted. "Then we'll just have to find another way. The boy has just touched the Air element, and damn me if I'll let that go to waste."

  Leceia chuckled in amusement. "Look at you, being all caring."

  Merak huffed but didn't reply. Instead, he changed the topic to another one just as important.

  "How goes the Adjudicator's investigation?"

  Immediately, Leceia's smile vanished, replaced with a deep, thoughtful frown. "I'd say 'going well', but that depends."

  "That bad, huh?"

  Merak couldn't help but quirk an eyebrow at the sigh that came out of the woman just as her shoulders relaxed, not in relief but in exhaustion, though Merak knew that to be exaggerated.

  "It's like reality wants her to find the boy."

  "Why's that?" Merak frowned.

  "Her investigation is coming on fast, too fast, regardless of the many blocks and ends we've placed behind us. And I don't know how, but she's catching on to the fact that the primal cults, as well as Shadow Hall, all played a role in the disappearance of those planets. It's only a matter of time before your ward's role comes up, and they start looking into the no-name Spirit lord with a web of powerful beings and association spiraling around him."

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  Hearing that, Merak's face turned thoughtful. He wasn't worried about Damien being discovered, not any longer. If reality wanted the boy discovered, then there was nothing he nor anyone else could do to prevent it. Still, he couldn't help the shiver that went through him at the thought of the boy getting unveiled. Admittedly, Merak knew nothing of the boy's true identity, and asking Gray would have been pointless, seeing as the Minder also lacked the information; but Merak had already seen the importance placed on the boy from the Transcendent Lords of two different Dimensions, and coupled with the swiftness with which the Order Lords were searching, even though they knew nothing of what they were actually searching for, spoke volumes of the war that was sure to occur when everything finally came to light.

  "The Adjudicator and the Primal Ascendants have to stay untouched," Merak finally said. "Their deaths would draw the attention of the Supreme Primarchs of those cults, and even Transcendants if this is as important as I think it is."

  "I noticed you didn't include Kidrak Morr," Leceia homed in on him with narrowed eyes.

  Merak understood what that look was for, and he smiled at that. "No, I won't be the one acting. I understand very well that a single move from me would send waves across the cosmos, and that is something we do not want,—" he paused. "—At least not yet."

  Leceia nodded. "Then who?"

  Merak would have loved to send her, but for the same reason as he, Leceia could not act. A move from her wouldn't draw as much attention as a move from him, but nonetheless, attention would still be drawn.

  "I haven't decided," Merak answered. "Shadow Hall hasn't outlived its usefulness yet. I'll see them squeezed up for everything they're worth before I cut off the head of that snake."

  Damien sat down at the edge of the bed with his eyes trained on the sleeping form of his brother. The result of the duel had seen Damien awarded the winner by default when it seemed Solis wasn't going to be fighting in any capacity anytime soon.

  Aside from the physical injuries, both duelers had incurred a massive amount of mental strain that was certain to see them both bedridden for hours at the least. Thankfully, all missing limbs had been successfully reattached, and for the ones that were too far gone to serve any more purpose, a new limb had been grown.

  The abode they had been granted had been extremely bare when Damien had moved in. It wasn't until Vanis had informed him that the decorations were left solely to the occupant's discretion that Damien finally understood why. But with the urgency and need for Keilan to lay somewhere, he hadn't done more than willed into existence a bed on one side of the massive, half-a-mile-wide rectangular room.

  Looking at the place, Damien didn't need Gray to explain for him to understand that the place had been spatially expanded. Like seriously, what did one need a room larger than the entirety of some castles back on Ra for?

  Damien sighed. He was just going to leave it all for when Keilan awoke.

  Finally given the privacy to get his thoughts in order, Damien's mind went back to the duel.

  Back on Ra, he had always been regarded as an extremely talented wielder, so much so that multiple kingdoms had made great efforts to bring him under their control, forcefully even. Watching Keilan battle Solis, a stellar prince, to a near draw in a massive battle of wills suddenly made Damien's achievement seem insignificant.

  Frankly, even, he didn't have any achievement to speak of compared to Keilan's Ascended art or Solis affinity alignment. Damien was just... Average. He wasn't outstanding nor was he a true force of nature in battle. He was just a wielder who was lucky enough to have had a great affinity at his command. And despite the fact that he should have been happy for his brother, Damien still felt somewhat jealous, with the feeling of inadequacy added to it.

  Multiple times, he'd been foreshadowed as some special existence with a powerful task ahead of him. Words like that coming from beings like Merak and Gray, and also the strange old man, really imbued within Damien the weight of what his future would entail, even though he tried very hard not to let those things get to him.

  How was he to live up to the destiny foretold when he couldn't even contend with the first Spirit lord of great power that he came across?

  He didn't have an ascendant technique at the back of his tongue nor did he have an affinity alignment to smooth things a little bit better for him. All he had was an affinity that wasn't even his, and two others he couldn't even access.

  "You know, Aizrah was always like this whenever his mood was down," a sudden voice from behind startled Damien into alertness.

  Turning around, the first thing Damien did when he saw who'd spoken was to blurt out. "You!"

  "Yes, me," the person standing a few feet before him said, and then he smiled. "How are you, Damien?"

  Instead of answering, he scrutinized the old man. The last time Damien had seen him had been when he'd been hijacked from what he now knew was a Spatial gateway. And considering the weight Gray had put on beings who could even so much as locate a person in those metaphysical paths... Yeahhhh, this old man was powerful, extremely so.

  It wasn't a wonder how he'd been able to appear behind Damien without so much as a blip in his senses or on the ambient essence.

  Just like the last time Damien had seen him, his appearance looked unchanged: an ageless facial feature that still gave off the impression of vast ancientness. A physique that looked near broken down, with tiny whisps of white hair rising from his head.

  Definitely. Even though looks could be deceiving, there wasn't a doubt that this man was old, very old.

  "Who're you?" Damien asked. He knew how deadly a question like that could be to a higher being, but he just couldn't help himself.

  With a raised eyebrow, the man said. "If I recall correctly, we had this conversation the last time we met, correct?"

  Damien nodded, his memories suddenly jumpstarting. He remembered asking the man this same question, and he also remembered the warning that had been passed along.

  "I apologize," Damien said with a subtle bow, careful not to give off the impression of being submissive. "My memory seems to have failed me."

  The man seemed to notice his gesture, because he smiled. "Spawn of Aizrah. Like your father, you refuse to bow to anyone. If there was ever a doubt about your lineage, your recent act has just disproven it."

  Damien would have apologized, but it seemed the man took no offense. Instead, he tried to ask about his father but was forestalled when the man raised a palm.

  "You wanted to know my name, but since I cannot give you my true name, I will give you one of many which I have been called over the aeons."

  He smiled at Damien.

  "You can call me, Tesulsn."