Scathach and Cytortia walked out of the auction houses and into the afternoon skies. The young goddess toiled away from the entire ordeal. Beside her, the warrior maid in her furry form lectured her student on accounting.

“We get the money, right?” Cytortia stretched lazily. “Those pills sold for millions. We are already out of the red!”

Scathach nearly choked on that naivete.

“Didn’t Rem warn you about accounting?” Scathach said. “What happened to investment check and capital booking?”

Cytortia cringed.

“Let be honest here. Rem is way better at the job.”

“Yeah,” Scathach said. “And you are doing great at pushing him to an early grave.”

Cytortia stood still for a second. The badger’s comment was an understatement. Ever since the Paracis, Rem was a walking bag of exhaustion. He smiled and said everything was fine, but nobody bought it. She admitted Rem was an adept liar, but his poker-face fell when he was being selfless.

Here she was, complaining about balance-sheet while her friend worked himself to death.

“Hey,” Cytortia quietly spoke. “How do I balance the account?”

Scathach paused in shock. Suddenly, she sensed a familiar presence. The badger looked around the corner in a split-second of panic.

“What?”

“An old friend,” Scathach whispered. “Go to the train. I will catch up with you later.”

Cytortia hesitated, but the badger’s glare sent her away. Scathach waited for a few minutes for Cytortia to fade from her sight before starting a conversation with no one.

“Come out, Marley,” Scathach said in annoyance. “Your bloody magpie already gave you away.”

Behind a column to her left, a sandy-hair man in a tattered tunic and worn-out cloaked stepped out of the shadow. On his shoulder, a tiny magpie blew a small flute in greeting.

“Hello, old friend,” the man named Marley began. “Care for a drink?”

...

Phantasia is big enough to contain several Earths. This truth got registered, accepted, and proven. Tragically, this results in one major logistical problems: transportation. People need to move from A to B for society to function, and vast distance suddenly made societal maintenance much harder.

The answers come in many shapes and sizes: magical airship, teleportation network, and flying magical creature. Anything drifting was set to soar is the rule of the game.

Given Horizon Dawn’s cash-flow crisis, the substantial range separating Millian and Northland Forest, and Rem Breaker’s immense paranoia about World Enemy watching them from wherever World Enemy set-up their Hobble Telescope. The gang had narrowed down the only method to reach Millian.

Go to the train-station.

Hyper-channal was a train which used a series of gateways to shorten travel-time. When the train passed through the station’s gate, the spell enchanted on the train’s body generated a time-fluctuation, reducing the time for the passenger to reach travel from point A and B.

Essentially, this spell enabled the train to travel at a higher velocity, not by accelerating the vehicle but by creating a bubble of space which moved faster compared to the surrounding.

It was the gang nest setting.

...

It was a peaceful scene.

Shadow framed Rem’s face as he slumbered. It was a guise, a mirage concealing the intense battle erupting in his mind. Through minor miracles and human’s spirit, the boy again emerged victorious. But every victory came with a price, a price he couldn’t afford to pay forever.

Beside him, the elf also slumbered.

And she was having a conversation.

...

Luxinna never forgot this place.

The balconies of whitewood stood high and suffocating. From above, the jade-color light illuminated the court of the elf-lords sickly green.

The girl crumbled down on all four as her trauma resurface. She breathed roughly, suppressing the urge to throw up with all her might. Unlike that fateful day, there was no elf-lord here; only a helpless girl, a trauma, and golden mist.

A girl walked out of the golden mist.

“A knight who will save everyone,” recited a girl. “Are you serious? You can’t even save yourself.”

Luxinna spun to a familiar 10-years-old elf.

“You are me,” Luxinna said, blinking in surprise. “Me from back then.”

The younger Luxinna sighed.

“No, I am the representation of this moment,” the younger Luxinna replied, conjured a wooden chair, sat and distastefully stared at the older version. “I am sure not crying for uncle and grandpa to save me. Even then, what a bang-up job they accomplished? Well, exile is better than death, I guess.”

“Shut up,” Luxinna scolded furiously. “They tried their best!”

“I know,” younger Luxinna raised her hand in a gesture of surrender. “I am grateful we still have our neck. What about the elephant in the corner: dear daddy?”

“H-He has his reason.”

“For executing us!?” The younger version threw her arms to the sky. “You must be kidding. I think you already stop deluding yourself when Rem — who is by-the-way a better friend than our sister — talked that fantasy out of you.”

The girl continued.

“What did dad often say? It is a duty of the chosen to lead those below them. Isn’t that sound plain wrong to you? Guess what? It’s our family’s motto. We call Mia Alusto an egotistical ass! Guess what hon? She’s our great-great aunt and Magnolia sure as hell think the bitch is an embodiment of virtue. Our blood is mud, accept it!”

The younger Luxinna spat to the ground.

“No wonder the Threshold exists,” she groaned. “Reality might be a whiny ass, but it does exceptional work keeping power from the hand of egomaniacs.”

“What Threshold?” Luxinna suddenly felt terrible about that word. “What does any of this even mean? Is this a part of my Mana Core?”

The girl snorted.

“Yes, this is all about True Magic,” the younger Luxinna frowned to the heaven. “True Magic isn’t like those fancy spell-casting and cultivation. Those so-call practitioners only stick with the easy-stuff: learn some law, train your physique, maybe hone your mental voodoo, and hopefully become powerful to blow up the planet. Us? We don’t do kiddies’ stuff.”

“Kiddies’ stuff,” Luxinna’s comprehension killed itself. “Are you telling me that my parent arranges marriage and grandma’s obsession for a cultivation technique is all for kiddies’s stuff? You can’t be serious?”

“Yes, kiddies’ stuff,” the younger girl shrugged. “You can also substitute some words with useless, inadequate, and weak.”

Luxinna flopped down to the floor with tears in her eyes.

“What does that even mean? How does that even work?”

“Mana stocking is only that, adding more power,” the younger Luxinna explained. “Same with honing muscle and spirit. You just add more numbers to a Status ID, but do numbers conclude everything when you move it out of context. It will be just a plain number. Hence, the World let those counterfeiters walked with only a wrist-slap.”

“They don’t get away with it! Heavenly Tribulation exists!”

The younger Luxinna face switched from annoy to solemn.

“Lux, do you seriously think the nigh-impotent entity who foresee all reality in 4-Dimension and perceive past, present and all futures will only fling a few bolts of lightning at a puny crow despite knowing that in a hundred years that bird will be a threat. Instead of lightning and life-endangering phenomenon, why not directly stop it heart or separate the soul into tiny pieces and scatter it throughout cosmos? Those ‘Heavenly Tribulation’ are the universe laughing at how stupid you are for following the stick and carrot in the reality TV-show featuring your stupidity.”

Luxinna tried to protest, but she couldn’t. It made sense. If the universe had the pre-cognition to perceive who could reach level 10000, why not went with the one-hit-kill when your opponent was a lv 10?

“You mean the reason I was born — my grandmother’s pursues of the ultimate technique — is a huge joke by the universe?”

“Yeah,” younger Luxinna answered flatly from her chair. “Hilarious. The World has one mean humor.”

Luxinna felt a part of her died.

“Then who I am?” Luxinna asked in her stone-cold shock. “Why am I even born?”

“Finally, you get it,” the younger Luxinna cheered, deliberately missing the point. “That is the crux of True Magic. It’s not a pursuit of power, but meaning!”

“Meaning?”

“Ding! Ding!” the young Luxinna excitedly declared. “True Magic replicates the process that created the Satholia you know today. It is the act of using the power generated by the clashing of the Center Force and Malice to create a conceptual entity; the Supra Mayaa.”

“Supra Mayaa?”

“Yes, that what we called the being like Satholia,” younger Luxinna said wistfully. “Entity which embodied ideal and story. A living concept unbound by rules. The World Enemy might have the potential to destroy the multiverse, but a Mayaa operated at a higher level. Here is a comparison: you have a glass of water. Now, how to make it the purest glass of water possible?”

“Clean the glass.”

“How about making the glass cease to exist?” The younger Luxinna raised her eyebrows. “There is nothing purer than emptiness. That is the crux of a Mayaa. You operate out of an impossible to quantify matrixes. You are powerful as you need. The universe can’t deal with the Mayaa’s haxing, so it collapses when a Mayaa arrived.”

“How does this solve my problem?” Luxinna said. “What this has to do with me?”

“I am arriving there,” the younger Luxinna explained. “Right now, you are rife with conflict; an identity crisis, a traumatic memory, and cluelessness about how you should feel about your family. Those are component you have to overcome. Each challenges defeated transforms into an ability under your True Magic. Those abilities are Legends.”

“Legends,” Luxinna repeated. “How does that work?”

“You will learn when the time arrives,” the younger self faded away. “We will meet again when you are ready, but beware. The World learned about True Magic and Supra Mayaa when Satholia ascended. In response to such unstoppable force of nature, it placed a Threshold to block your progress if it is not happy with your direction. Reality is pulling all stop to make sure all Mayaa got its seal of approval. The higher your Natural Hierachy, the tougher the Threshold.”

Luxinna looked at the fading girl strangely.

“You mean those Mia Alusto’s crap dad sprouted is-”

“Is backfiring on our entire race,” The girl vanished as she finished the sentence. “Apparently being the bless children of Heaven get you kicks by the World now.”

The jade light swallowed the world. But despite that, Luxinna giggled happily. Despite all that happened, the truth that Lucian Drakokia got kicked hard by the heaven he praised filled her with euphoria.

...

Scathach and Marley finally came face-to-face under the station’s shadow.

“No,” Scathach said. “Continue dreaming, Marley. It will never happen.”

“That girl is our best chance,” Marley pleaded somberly. A magpie chirped on his shoulder, oblivious to the tense mood.

“If Tai Hua Tianshang is your best chance, quit.”

Marley facepalmed.

“You never see her fight, Scathach,” he said to the Badger. “Her potential surpasses anyone I have ever met. Given time, she will bring balance back to Phantasia.”

“Then what do you do next?” Scathach said. “Submit to her as our all new overlord.”

“She gives freedom to the people,” Marley sighed. “Look Scathach. You don’t understand how bad it is around here.”

“I do,” Scathach said calmly

Marley slammed his fist to the wall and glared at the badger in anger. Scathach didn’t budge. Her eyes were uncaring. For her, this was another day. People prayed to gods like her for salvation, but it was not her business to give any.

Their plight was none of her concern.

“You don’t even care, do you!?” Marley screamed.

“Yes, I don’t,” Scathach said. “This is reality, Marley. Injustice happens, people die, and the culprit get away. Accept it and move on.”

Marley gritted his teeth.

“That was not the reason I become S-Rank,” Marley twitched dangerously in a barely suppressed rage. “Why can’t you see it? You, Olympus, Asgard, the gods, how can you be so blind.”

With that, Marley began an unstoppable triad.

“Yesterday, the Grand Empire just doubled their slave demand. Do you realize where they are getting them?”

“The Mergia Trade Federation or Enma Enterprise,” Scathach answered.

“That’s it!” Marley asked. “That’s all you have to say! Do you know how many wars they orchestrated to fill that demand? The smaller states are turning to hell! The Demonic Continent’s forces pillages and rapes their way across Solovar. Hundreds of colonies in the buffer state fell to the Vampire’s attack last week. You know full well what those parasites do to their prisoner.”

“I can’t take care of one million strangers, Marley,” Scathach said. “What I care about is the fact that you have the nerve to ask me to join the Liberator.”

“You rather side of the bastard who forces the war refugee to sell themselves to slavery over the person who tries to free them.”

“I am not taking any side, Marley,” Scathach sighed. “My stance in this is neutral. Without those major powers, the world’s balance will crumble.”

“Hell with the balance!” Marley screamed. “Balance didn’t save my father or brought those evil sacks of shit gorging on their golden throne to face justice. Do you understand why so many rallies under Tai Hua?!”

The magpie chirped in panic as Marley’s fist slammed into the wall for the second time.

“This is the reason.” he ranted resentfully. “As myriad different factions burned Phantasia on the back of the powerless, you, the gods, do nothing to stop any of that.”

Marley’s breathing turned rough.

“Do something Scathach?” he pleaded. “Tai Hua will pull Aurorin to the ground. If you don’t pick side now, the gods will fall next. You are my friend, Scathach. Please don’t do this.”

Scathach closed her eyes and answered.

“I can’t. What’s happening is not my business.”

Scathach left without looking back.

Marley’s eyes flashed dangerously, but the fire of rage soon faded to reveal only sadness.

“Where are you going?”

“A vacation,” the badger lied.

“Are you using the Hyper-Channel?”

“No,” she lied again.

“I could shorten the trip.”

“I don’t want your help, Marley,” Scathach said. “Now go.”

Marley left dejectedly.