Shadowbane

Perhaps it was information overload, or the fact that everyone was exhausted, but nobody said anything until Petey dropped me in one of the pools inside Lunaria's cavern after the battle was over.

"So this 'Seifer' was Niro all along," Kai was the first to speak.

"Niro?"

Aresa, who had finally stopped crying, lifted her head from her knees and looked at me, "An assassin who works for the Phoenix Initiative. I always forget he existed because he would disappear for five or more years at a time before popping back up again to kill someone."

"And then he'd disappear again, right?" Xi followed up, causing Aresa to nod at her.

"Do you think Euphemia knew he was here the whole time?"

The two siblings looked at Aresa. She looked like she was about to instinctively refute it, but then she put her face back into her knees and went silent. I waited for a while but she apparently didn't plan on answering me. Oh well, it's not a big deal. I already planned on meeting Euphie at some point so I could ask her why she's engaged to---Ah. I'll try asking her about that instead.

"I heard she's also engaged to the Supreme Leader. Is there a reason for that?"

"... Maybe. It's hard to tell with her." She replied. Kai went to say something but then Aresa lifted her head up quickly and looked at me as if she just realized something. "That scythe! You left it in my vehicle. The driver wasn't sure what to do with it. Is that a gift for me or something? I don't want the stupid thing! Especially not after seeing it kill Shana..."

"That was the plan originally, but I was thinking it over while inside the bathhouse, and I think I'd like to use it instead. For two reasons specifically. One; I had given it to you to sell because it seemed pointless in my hands. The damned thing absorbs souls, so if I use it, I'd never get stronger, but while I was in the pool I thought back to how good it was at destroying magic attacks."

"So it wasn't your own strength that was deflecting all of his icicles?" Kai said.

"My strength played no role in it whatsoever. Not only was I not enhancing the scythe, but it's completely impossible to enhance it. I tried, and all it did was greedily absorb my mana."

I continued, "Anyway, the first reason I decided to keep it, is that right there. Plus, I can still remove their limbs or wound people with it. I just need to make sure I don't kill them. Judging from the fact that it absorbs mana from spells on contact, I assume it also tears into people's souls as it slices through them, so I'll only need to avoid hurting people with the scythe if I plan on looking at their memories. That's the only time I need their souls fully intact or it just comes out as a garbled mess."

I could technically still get their memories after slicing them up with the scythe, but I'd need to wait until their souls repaired themselves, which would require me to keep them as a prisoner or something. That's a lot of extra work just so I can fight someone with the scythe instead of having Petey cut them in two or crush them with my fists like I usually do.

"And the other?" Xi asked.

"It'll be invaluable in the Elven lands."

"What?" Kai asked while the other two looked at me dumbfounded for a moment.

"Is it really that much of a surprise?"

"Huh? Oh, no, it's just..." Aresa trailed off before rubbing her eyes, "I, I didn't know you were still planning on going there. When are you, um..."

"Leaving? Not until everything here is taken care of. I've already said way too much to the siblings here on my thoughts given your situation, so for now I'll just let it all play out and help you the best I can, like I did in Viseux. But once that's done, I'll head to Arcadis and try to build a rapport there. I hate dealing with politics and rankings, but I really have no choice except to try and rise up the ranks inside one of the clans until I have enough sway to get them to seriously consider Viktor a threat. Because even without asking you, I already know what their replies have been if you requested assistance from them."

"You really think you can do that...?" Aresa laughed, "Come on, Rei. The last time you were there you were a kid. I've had more dealings with the Elves than you have at this point, and I know those assholes will never care about what is happening outside of their own continent. They think they're untouchable after all. So who cares if a single person owns all of Aetheria outside of their lands?"

Kai interjected, "Are they wrong though? About whether they're untouchable or not. I've seen some of their mechs in videos, and I was honestly in awe... I'd give anything to own one of those spider-mechs. If we had a dozen of those in our lands, we might have been able to protect our homes instead of being forced to abandon them..."

"I think those are rare. The spider ones, and any other high-tech mechs they own. Most of their power armor and mechs are second-hand crap they make themselves by attempting to reverse engineer the high-quality human electronics they find in the ruins and underground. All of the power armor you've seen out here is also second-rate garbage. If you want to see real power armor, you'd need to visit Arcadia in person."

I continued, "Also, they didn't build those spider mechs. Those were found abandoned, and most of the ones they find are inoperable, because they don't know how to repair them. So when one of those mechs stops moving, there's a good chance that they won't be able to get it moving again. And it's even worse for the 'alien' machines. I have family on my Mother's side that are part of a crew who were tasked to figure out how they operate; how to control them, and find out if it's possible to build one of them, but I think their research went literally nowhere? I swear that's what my mom said, but I'd need to pour through my memories to know for certain. Admittedly though, that was a long time ago. So even if she did say that, it's super outdated information at this point."

"... But the point remains. You wouldn't be planning to seek out their aid if you thought we stood a chance against Viktor without them." Aresa said.

"I'm just planning ahead. And I know it was premature of me to tell these two that I don't see much hope here for Termia."

I went silent for a minute. I knew that the three of them needed to leave, but her question had hit me harder than I thought. I realized that the reason I had told the siblings that the situation here was hopeless, was because I was becoming used to losing to Viktor.

I reversed the memory to the point where Ishar was stabbed. I left it there for a few seconds before rewinding to when Shana and Markus died. Then the Tengu and all the ninjas. Nisha, then Keith, then---

"Rei...?" Aresa said with a little tremble in her voice, but I didn't respond to her.

Albel and Lindon appeared next, dead in the hotel. I then rewound it to the underground city. Albel and Lindon died again as the casters blew them up. I rewound it some more to the point where the armored monster killed those two, yet again. I continued to rewind, stopping on random death scenes. Anywhere from my own, to Brian's, and even Janet's.

And then, I did something I hadn't done a single time since I revived on Urza the first time. I brought up memories from Xelba. The three of them watched the memories wide-eyed as I chased Viktor through the city. The sounds of battle from outside the city and the screams from the citizens as my skeletons chased them down meshed together to form a scene that would be impossible to forget.

The fully armored Reimia in the memory leaped through the air, slashing at Viktor as he warped from one rooftop to the next. While I watched the memory, I immediately realized something was off. I was chasing him at the time and clearly wasn't paying attention as well as I should have. Rage was the only thing pushing me forward at the time. And after the battle I also had no time to think about what went wrong, since I had died and was saddled with a whole slew of new problems to deal with. But Viktor's actions in the memory were strange. Instead of just warping far away in a single jump, he was warping to a nearby roof with what looked like a panicked expression on his face.

It felt like hours back when I was trying to kill him, but in reality, the time I had chased him was maybe a minute at most. Viktor finally ended the cat and mouse game when he disappeared near the temple, but I knew where he really was. I ran through the corridors until I came upon his office, and sure enough, the hidden passage he thought only he and Ash knew about was open. But even if it wasn't, I had watched him open and close it from nearby when I was a child.

His brother, my master, knew I was spying on Viktor from the shadows, but he made no attempt to stop me. Eventually, Viktor realized I was a real security threat and engraved a bunch of Dwarven runes while also installing crystal lights that shone on every corner of his office. But it was too late. I already knew of his secret passage. I knew how to open it, and where it led.

And because of this, the look of shock on Viktor's face when he saw me barreling through the underground caverns toward him was something I had never forgotten. However, it was all for nothing. We reached the main cavern where the underground portal to Aetheria was, and I was unable to stop him from running through it. There were powerful Eldritch Gods down there, and one of them had his Lords cut me off on the bridge that lead to the portal to the portal. I was forced to watch them all flee through the portal as the entire city collapsed onto both me and the portal.

Before the others could say anything I rewound it again, this time stopping on the scene where I had first met my unit. Everyone there, including me, ranged from ten to twelve years old.

A girl with a long red ponytail walked up to Rei and pointed at her face, "You're weird. Why do you look like this?"

"Because I do, stupid girl."

The girl's face turned bright red as she pointed at Rei again, "Stupid?! Y-You're the stupid one!"

Rei looked at their master, "Master, can't I train alone? These kids are dumb. They're uh, um, what was it... Oh! 'Not on my level!'"

Master sighed, "You're a kid too you know? You even look younger than they do! And where did you learn a phrase like that...?"

"That boy said it. The one who has the same hair color as this girl with the dumb-looking face."

Master lightly smacked Rei on the head, "Stop harassing your new teammates, and don't copy anything Ash says. That's the only other red-headed boy I know of that you could have copied, and he's also the last person you should be looking up to."

All of the new unit's parents were watching us from nearby since this was the day of our union. But a few of them were clearly unhappy with my presence.

"Bear---Sorry, I mean 'Master'." One of the male parents said after approaching him. "I know that Lord Viktor personally vouched for her, and while I know that means we can expect great things from her, I'm just wondering if she really has to be in this unit? What I mean is, can't she go somewhere else? Surely there is a unit that would be a better fit for her?"

Rei kicked a pebble at the man, "Shut up fatty. Go rub that oil off your face, it's gross."

Master smacked Rei in the head again, but this time with much more force. "I'm sorry about that, Jay. She's a little rough around the edges right now, but after a few months of training I'm sure we'll knock that mean streak out of her."

I could hear Aresa laughing from my right, "You were a little brat!"

"Aww, I think she's cute!" Xi said, making her brother shake his head as he retorted, "You're only saying that because you were the same way."

More of the parents came forth and began laying on complaints about the last-minute addition to the unit. As this was going on, one of the boys from the group approached Rei. The red-headed girl was revving up to yell at Rei again, but she stopped when she saw the blonde-haired boy walk up to Rei.

"I'm Simon, the leader of this unit."

Rei scoffed, "Did your mommy cut your hair? It looks bad. And why are you the leader?! We just got here!"

"That's right, my mom did cut my hair and I'm grateful that she did." The boy responded with a smile before continuing, "And I love her very much."

His straightforwardness gave Rei pause. She looked down at the ground, frustrated, until the boy spoke again.

"I hear you spend most of your time near the drainage pipes, playing with the birds. I love birds as well! We keep a few as pets in our home. You should come over and see them sometime."

"Y-Yeah, maybe... I do love birds..."

Seeing the deflated Rei, a Kitsune girl with purple hair began to giggle.

Aresa poked my arm, "Rei, I'm really really really loving the opportunity to see your past, but it's almost morning. Can we do this another time? I wish I could stay now, but..."

I skipped the memory ahead to the part where my friends were being thrown into the chasm beneath the temple. I heard Aresa say 'Ah...' as Vi, the red-headed ponytail girl from earlier who was now an adult, had been thrown into the chasm. The Xerathian broodling chomped down on her, turning her into mush at no time at all.

"It's not that I don't have faith in you, Aresa," I said while watching the men from Xelba throw in another one of my friends. In the background; I, Simon, and Nera were all locked in battle with Ash and a Satyr. "I think some part of me is just... Tired. There were times on the trip here with the siblings that I found exciting. And even acquiring my own home here really did make me happy."

I continued, "But at the same time, there's a part of me that is completely exhausted and fed up. It's going to be a very difficult struggle to beat Viktor here, and I can't help but think about how much easier it'd be if the Elves deemed him a threat. And there's also another part that makes me think they'd be the best choice to bring him down. Viktor hates his own kind, so there has to be some bad blood there. I'm sure someone in Arcadia remembers him, and hopefully wants him dead, just as Viktor wants them dead."

"I... I understand, Rei. Ehm, not entirely since I haven't gone through what you have. But looking at your memories here, I do see where you're coming from..."

I smiled and went to eject them out of my soul realm but stopped at the last second, as I remembered one very important question I had been wanting to ask her. "One last question. What is the 'wellspring' that you mentioned earlier? Is that the reason the Tengu, Rai'ga, and others are trying to capture you?"

Aresa smiled, "Clever! You figured that out just from hearing me say its name? But yeah, I learned of it after I came to Telebron. Lunaria sensed me right away and reached out to me. She explained it in great detail, and I even found some ancient books that filled in some extra bits of info as well."

She continued, "Every moon or planet on Mother has a location known as the 'wellspring'. I'm still not entirely certain of why, but every heavenly body around Mother gathers up ether and expels it through a large chasm that goes all the way down to the planet's or moon's core. This ether is special though, as it's tied directly to the core, which means as soon as I connect to the ether, I also connect to the core... Understand?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't sound all that different from what Arkaios does?"

"Bah, don't compare me to an Old God! And it is completely different. You said he siphons from the core. That's not what my mom did, or what I can do. Although, I do it at a much weaker rate than she can."

Her smile went even wider, "We can expand our domain indefinitely from the wellspring! And eventually, we can control the entire planet. Mother was apparently very close to completing that on Urza, but then she was killed, so... And I didn't know about any of that, nor were there any books on the matter that could have informed me. Rai'ga could have told me, but he obviously didn't want me to pick up from where my mom left off, because I would've made life very difficult for him in Viseux, and eventually Urza itself would have turned against him if I had wished for it."

"Can Viktor make use of it? The Tengu said that he knew about Shiva's ability."

Aresa shrugged, "First I'm hearing of this, but it's not a huge surprise. Wasn't the Tengu working with him back then? He's probably the one who told Viktor. And if not, it won't matter." Aresa glared at my chest, "I'll never be a slave that controls the wellspring for someone or something else."

Ahh, now it all makes sense... Lunaria plans on using her to control all of Aetheria. I'd love to ask Aresa about how she plans on doing that, but I'll need to wait until there aren't any fairies around. It does make me wonder if there's more to it though. Surely Lunaria knew I would just ask Aresa directly? It's odd that she went to the trouble of blocking my connection to the Tengu over a question that Aresa could easily answer.

Aresa leaned over and hugged me, "Okay, we really need to leave now, but I'm so happy you're finally back, Rei..."

I hugged her back and began to rub her head just like I had all those years ago. This made her pull back and frown at me, "I'm not a kid anymore... Actually, wait! I wasn't a kid back then either!"

I continued rubbing her hair while smiling gently at her, "You'll always be a kid to me, princess."

Aresa puffed her cheeks out but it only lasted a second, as she must have realized how childish it looked. The siblings saw that and laughed at her for a bit before we all said our goodbyes. Aresa and Xi left my soul realm, but Kai stayed and looked over at me, "What are you going to do now? Go back to sleep?"

"No. I'm going to comb through Rodger's memories, and then..." I stopped and looked at Kai, wondering if I should say the rest, but no matter how I looked at it, it seemed foolish to not see what his thoughts were on my future plans. "... I'm probably going to visit this 'Hyun' that you mentioned before."

Kai's face scrunched up, but before he could respond I continued speaking, "What do you think about this idea? And don't hold back. I know the 'correct' course of action would be to slowly get a feel for the city so I can fully understand the players here and how to move forward, but I don't think we have time for that. Whatever this 'Phoenix Initiative' is, I need to get as many answers as I can out of them as soon as possible. Right now I should be out there looking for the main Xerath hive or Rai'ga's location, not dealing with fucking politics or getting attacked in alleyways. Although I was obviously the one who started that fight..."

Kai sat down and closed his eyes. While he thought on it I fully absorbed Rodger's soul and brought up his memories. I rewound a bit looking for the moment they were given orders to track me down, and it was surprisingly easy to find. Rodger and the middle-aged portly man were sitting in a park playing a board game when the nearby payphone began to ring. The portly man got up and answered it. I raised the volume as much as I could but I still couldn't hear the conversation from Rodger's point of view. The booth itself must have been soundproof.

After about a minute the man put the phone down and came back to the table, sitting in his chair opposite of Rodger. "New job. A girl with long white hair and red eyes. Bringing her in peacefully to speak to the boss is the preferable option, but if it turns physical, we are allowed to incapacitate her." The man continued, "Also, the boss says that we don't need to hold back. She'll survive most injuries according to him. So you already know what ability I'm going to use."

Rodger whistled, "Scary shit right there~! I sure as hell wouldn't want that thing chasing me."

Chasing? That slow-as-hell lightning ball was supposed to chase me? An insect could have outrun that!

I marked this place in the memory to come back to it later before telling the soul to rewind to the most recent high-stress situation. It did, but it wasn't quite the scene I was hoping for.

Kai's eyes shot open the second he heard what was happening in the memory. He took one look at it and laughed before glancing over at me, "Rodger was known as quite the womanizer. So you're probably going to be seeing this a lot."

It's not the first time I've come upon a scene like this in a person's memories, so it wasn't all that shocking to see. If anything, the normal people of the world are apparently always having sex. Sometimes I wonder if that's the only reason they get up in the morning.

I rewound to another high-stress scene, and this time it was a battle to the death, but the portly man wasn't there, so I kept rewinding.

"You two siblings have lovers? I'm not sure about you, but Xi seems like the kind of person who would definitely have one."

Kai shook his head, "We both used to be engaged. Political marriages, except we were both happy with our partners. But then..."

Kai went silent. I was curious of where he was going with that, but I didn't press him on the issue. Instead, I kept rewinding until I found what I was looking for. The portly man had fired that ball of lightning ability at someone during a battle in a warehouse. And just like Rodger had alluded to, once the target of the ability turned around and ran, the lightning ball sped up and continued increasing in speed until it hit the man. After that, it dissipated into nothing just like it had after it hit me.

"Lady Aresa said you were strong against lightning attacks, but I'm still surprised to hear that you were unscathed after being hit by that."

"It was different for me. Did you see how much the ball had changed while it was moving toward its target? There were far more bolts shooting out of it and they were far stronger than the ones that ripped through me. I mean shit, look at that guy! It literally fried him."

More than satisfied with the display, I absorbed the portly man's soul for his abilities. Soon after that I could feel two new abilities appear inside of me.

"Kai, how fast are you?"

"... Can't you use a dummy or something? You're clearly well versed in using your soul realm."

"But isn't it more fun this way?"

"Fun for you or me?"

Kai sighed and walked over to another landmass. When he was in position I began to charge the ball of lightning ability. Immediately, I could feel it requesting a target. And of course, I targeted Kai instead of some boring soul realm illusion.

The results were amazing. It didn't matter how fast Kai went, the ball continued to speed up until it hit him, and because it took almost triple the time it had to catch Kai compared to the man in the memory, the damage inflicted by the ball was ridiculous. Since we were in my soul realm I made sure he didn't feel any actual pain, but what was supposed to happen to him was clearly shown on Kai's body before I reversed him to his original condition.

Despite his earlier complaints, Kai walked over to me with a big smile on his face, "Consider me jealous! Your ability to steal other people's abilities and use them temporarily sounded amazing on paper, but actually experiencing it is something else entirely. That is an extremely dangerous ability if the person it's targeting chooses to flee."

Yeah, that's the crux of the issue, isn't it? I need them to flee to make use of it. The look of despair on the portly man's face when he saw me walk through it makes much more sense now. I had completely by chance done the one thing necessary to counter his ability. Even I would have taken a large amount of damage from the attack that just hit Kai.

"Rei." Kai said with a serious expression, "Be careful in the Northern District. Hyun's 'home' is literally the head office of the Phoenix Initiative. He almost never leaves, and it's packed full of Dwarven runes and other security measures. Try not to die or get caught, okay? You've only just returned to Lady Aresa's side."

"That's the plan."

"... One last question. Are you going there to kill him?"

"What? Oh, I didn't say why I was going there yet, have I? For starters, I'm going to try and get as much information as I can out of him. Whether he speaks to me willingly, or I torture him, the option is his. I could just look through his memories but I'm kind of hesitant to do that after what had happened with Seifer... I know how to remove any connections that may spring up from eating a worshiper of Rai'ga's now, but what if there are ramifications for devouring multiple worshipers? If it becomes impossible for me to block a connection from Rai'ga, that would be devastating. I can't risk that, so I'll most likely need to torture him."

Absorbing him would still be an option if I could contact the Tengu, but a certain someone made sure I'm not allowed to do that.

"I see... Well, tell us tomorrow what you find then. I still need to show you the West side so I'll be here to pick you up after I rest for a little while."

Petey sent a warning to me. Apparently, Aresa was returning to my home and she had the scythe with her. She could have returned that to me later, but I suppose now is as good of a time as any to take it back.

I exited my soul realm and jumped off the bed before opening the door just as Aresa was about to knock on it. I expected her to just hand off the scythe and leave, but instead she entered the room again and slammed the door behind her. After that she turned to look at me, and I could see a weird look of fervor on her face.

"What's wrong?! Why the hell do you look so excited right now?"

Aresa threw the scythe on the bed and began laughing. Except, it wasn't your average laughter. She was clearly very happy about something, and Kai picked up on it as well.

"Lady Aresa, why do you look so jubilant all of a sudden?"

"R-Rei! You're so stupid!!"

"You came back to tell me that?"

Aresa giggled again while pointing at the scythe, "It holds the souls. Like the Grinning Demon. Get it? Come on, stupid! You should have noticed that right away after holding the scythe!"

Holding the souls... If I remember right, the Grinning Demon did that so it had a constant source of energy, just like how Mother and Meiza'thul keep all of the souls they take, keeping them alive indefinitely instead of absorbing them like I do. It's obviously a better way of using souls, but I don't even have that option so... Ah!

Just then, I realized why she was so happy.

Aresa smacked the scythe and giggled some more, "The Eldritch in here is very unhappy, hehe. He knows exactly what I have planned."

"... You plan to save Shana? Using that chant the Goblins taught you?"

"Brrrr wrong! Well, half wrong." Aresa responded. But after seeing the look of confusion on my face she continued with a sigh, "Come on, aren't you the one who was originally going to flee Urza for Gaia? You should know more about that place than I do."

I sat down on the bed and put my head into my hands, "Those are all childish fantasies, Aresa. I've heard of people keeping their loved one's souls with soul magic and trying to take them to Gaia so they could revive them with the crystals there. But that's just..." I thought back to my friends on Urza, "... All fantasies. It can't work. There's no way Gaia is as wonderful as everyone says it is. No one ever comes back from the fucking place, so how do we even have all this information on it to begin with?!"

Aresa walked up to me and bent over, placing her face right in front of mine, "Rei, what am I?"

"An Eldritch Lord. And? Are all Eldritch scholars on Gaia or something?"

"Yes, actually."

"What...?"

I stared at Aresa dumbfounded.

Aresa sat next to me and placed the scythe over her lap before patting it with a grin on her face. "We have two directives that are drilled into us. One; propagate anything with a soul on the worlds surrounding Mother. Two; Any worlds fully dominated by a single Eldritch, as in they won the war for that world, must then journey through Mother to reach Gaia. That is our main objective. To conquer Gaia. And I'm pretty sure it's the Demon's main objective as well."

Aresa smiled at me and continued, "Everything you heard, is true. Immortality is normal in Gaia. The only way to truly kill someone is to absorb them, or conquer the domain housing the crystal their soul is tied to. Because those crystals revive anyone who dies in their domain. Over, and over, and over."

I know about that. I heard it a million times from my friends and I forced myself to believe that ridiculous fairy tale because I wanted to live in such a beautiful place with them, indefinitely. But if Aresa is saying this, then it's probably true. Which would also mean that Shana could be...

With a beautifully content smile still on her face, Aresa held the scythe up. "So we just need to bring this scythe to Gaia, and we'll be able to resurrect Shana. I know we can't do it right now, and while you might be able to do it alone, it'd still take you at least half a year to go there and come back. So for now, it's more about the possibility. Just knowing we can do it, you know? I was certain she was gone too. But so long as we keep this scythe safe, we can always bring her back. And, as a plan B, we can always have Kai here take it with him."

While I was becoming more and more ecstatic over the idea that we could actually revive Shana, that last part she said had taken me by surprise because of how odd it was. "What? Why Kai?"

Kai stood up and walked to the front of Aresa, looking at the scythe. "I do not mind Lady Aresa. But you know there's a chance we won't make it, right? I feel Rei should hold onto it just in case."

Kai then looked at me, "I was going to tell you tomorrow after showing you how bad the West district is. But my plan is to round up as many of the refugees as I can and leave for Gaia. Only after the summit and Rai'ga is dealt with of course. But it shouldn't... No, it can't be delayed any more than that. It's obvious that the Supreme Leader plans on using my people as a pretext to hand over the nation to Viktor. But if we're gone, he can no longer use us, can he? And that's not even mentioning the other hundred reasons we should leave this city and try our luck in Gaia."

"I..." I looked at the scythe, "... I think I'll keep it. The road to Gaia is a nightmare. I'm not saying I doubt you or your skill, Kai. It's just that you're going to have tens of thousands of people with you as you travel for thousands of miles over Mother. And from what I've heard, the strongest Eldritch in our galaxy are all residing on her. So the journey is going to be extremely difficult. If not impossible..."

Kai laughed and rubbed the back of his head. At first, I thought he was being shy, which was a weird response to what I had just said, but then I realized that merely being reminded of what was awaiting him on Mother was making him nervous.

"It's not me I'm worried about. You know of my ability, I'll probably survive whatever hits me along the way. But my people... Most of our fighters died on Yulia. So what's left of my nation is almost entirely ordinary citizens. Fortunately, Lady Lunaria is planning to send large batches of fairies with us for assistance, and she said Belfos is going to help as well, which I'm eternally grateful for. But even then, I know you're right, Rei. I have a strong feeling that our journey to Gaia is going to be nightmarish on a scale I can't even imagine."