Sky lay down, still disorientated and confused about where he was. He knew exactly what happened during the ritual but didn't want to say anything about it. He needed time to process everything that had happened, and he also needed to figure out what he was going to do next. For now, he would just rest and try to clear his head.

"Pst!" Avis whispered, peeking his head over the bed.

"Avis?!" Sky jumped up, forgetting that he was in the infirmary.

"Shh!" Avis hushed him, "You need to keep your voice down and do as I say. No one can see me, so you don't need to worry about that. Just act like I'm not here."

"Okay, what's going on?" Sky whispered back.

"You're in quite the predicament, my friend. Do you have any idea where you are?"

"The Central Kingdom's castle, apparently."

"Exactly! Do you think you're here simply out of the kindness of their hearts?! They're probably monitoring you for any side effects the chaos might have had."

"Wait, what if they find out about the darkness attribute?"

Avis's face said it all. Sky was in a castle filled to the brim of brilliant people with unknown skills and abilities. Yet, for all he knew, it would only take one of them to peak at Sky and know about his status, attributes, and even the soul system. Avis paled at the thought.

"We need to get out of here. Get in your soul space; we have some planning to do!" Avis said as he puffed into nothingness.

Sky followed promptly as he entered the familiar environment of his soul space.

"How do we escape?!" Sky said, panicking at the thought.

"I don't know yet, but first, bring up your status."

Sky was quite surprised by the request, mostly because he hadn't checked his status in a very long time.

"Status Loading..."

Sky's status:

Ether Capacity: 100%

Health: 100%

Stamina: 100%

--

Strength: Lvl.9

Agility: Lvl.10

Endurance: Lvl.16

Ether: Lvl.14

--

Skills:

Ether's Eye: Lvl.4

  See the world from the perspective of ether.

Ether Manipulation: Lvl.3

  Manipulate ether around you.

  Strengthened by 'Ether's Skepticism'.

Darkness Manipulation: Lvl.1

  Manipulate the darkness within you.

  This will have a weaker effect on other variations of darkness.

Will of Nature: Lvl.4

  Imbue your will into the nature around you. The plant's age and your corresponding level will depend on how practical this skill is.

--

Titles:

Opposing Harmony

Blessing of the Forest

Evolved: Ether's Acknowledgement > Ether's Skepticism

New Title: Death's Door

New Title: Touch of Chaos

--

Saturn's Relic:

Darkness: Lv.6

Nature: Lv.10

[Locked]: Lv.0

[Locked]: Lv.0

[Locked]: Lv.0

[Locked]: Lv.0

[Locked]: Lv.0

[Locked]: Lv.0

--

"You've gotta be kidding me..." Avis said as he looked over Sky's status.

"You're telling me. I haven't checked my status in a couple of weeks, and yet, so many things have changed?"

"Open up your titles."

"Titles Loading..."

--

Opposing Harmony:

  White and black, light and dark, living and dead. One cannot exist without the other. Harmonise two opposing attributes.

Effects:

  -80% control over harmonising attributes.

  Error resolved, loading extra effect:

  Fusion.

--

Ether's Skepticism:

  You hold qualities of ether, and yet you don't.

Effects:

  User can now synergise with ambient ether.

  Control over attributes derived from ether are weakened by -20%.

--

Blessing of the Forest:

  The heart of the forest has acknowledged the user.

Effects:

  User gains the ability to commune with plant life and will have greater influence over nature.

  +4 levels to nature attribute.

  Healing factor increased by 60%

  [Note: Leave this forest and never come back.]

--

Death's Door:

  The closer one is to death's door, the more they can see.

Effects:

  User can now see things that are beyond the veil of life and death.

  User's health and stamina recovery rate is increased by 50%.

Warning:

  Blessing of the Forest and Death's Door are incompatible.

  Dropping effect to compensate:

  User's health and stamina recovery rate is increased by 50%.

--

Touch of Chaos:

  The user has been touched by chaos.

Effects:

  Sense the chaos within the darkness.

--

Avis's mouth gaped open as he looked at Sky's titles. "I think I'm growing envious of your growth."

"What is 'fusion'? And what does it mean by 'beyond the veil of life and death'? I don't understand any of these titles." Sky asked, ignoring Avis's comment.

"I've lived for so many years, and yet I've rarely ever heard of the concept 'fusion'. It's as it sounds. You fuse two attributes together, but not permanently. It's a process very few are capable of doing, and this title is basically gifting it to you."

"But I tried that weeks ago, and nothing happened. Darkness and nature cancel each other out."

"That's because you're too much in your head. You need to learn to feel the attributes and not think about them."

"And how am I supposed to do that?"

"Practice, practice, practi-"

"Okay, okay. And what about 'Death's Door'?"

"Hmm... I think it means you can see things beyond the veil of life and death. Like, maybe you can see ghosts or something. What do you think, system?"

A message box appeared in front of Avis after a moment, "There is not enough information to make a conclusion. Perhaps it could be talking about the soul?"

"You ask the 'soul system' a question, and it responds with a maybe? That's not helpful at all."

Avis sighed. "We can't ask anyone, or else we'll raise suspicion, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens."

"How about-"

"The 'Touch of Chaos' is similar to the darkness title you had in Belvoir Forest. By the looks of it, you'll have an easier time using the chaos attribute from your darkness attribute. For now, focus on nature and darkness. Over time, you'll find that you can sense the chaos within the darkness."

"Another attribute... I'm surprised the relic didn't react to it."

"We don't know that for certain, so I'll keep an eye on it for now. Remember, the faces only glowed when the goddess gifted you the nature attribute."

Avis fell silent, thinking of a way to get out of the castle. He didn't trust this place for even a second, so the first thing he needed to do was find a way out. Avis had many ideas, some good and others bad. He knew that Sky had a talent for manipulation, so teaching Sky the shadow attribute was possible. But Avis didn't know enough about the shadow attribute to teach it. Another way was to use Sky's ability to fuse attributes, but Avis didn't know how that worked. It was rare to be capable of merging attributes, let alone when they're complete opposites. Even if Sky could fuse them, what kind of effect would it have?

Avis was pulled out of his thoughts by a familiar voice. "What are you thinking so hard about?"

"Just trying to figure out how to get out of here."

"Well, we know they have one guard watching me, and we know we are in the infirmary. We can start by gathering more information. There must be a servant or someone we can ask about this place." Sky said thoughtfully.

"Worst comes to worst, I can make a distraction too. That way, their eyes are off you and on me. I can easily escape, so that leaves you with plenty of time to run away." Avis said.

"We are in a place of unknown, and you want to be a sacrifice. You have no idea if there is someone here who can see you, let alone capture you."

"I can't believe I'm getting scrutinised by you of all people... fine. Any other ideas then?"

"Is there anything that my attributes can do?"

"There is a shadow attribute that is derived from darkness... I just don't know how it works or how to teach you to use it. You're an anomaly, Sky. I can advise you on ether, but the darkness is another story."

"Then what about fusing the darkness and nature attributes? We don't know what kind of effect it'll have, so why not give it a go?"

Avis sighed. He didn't want to waste his time if it didn't benefit the current situation. But, for now, they weren't going anywhere, so finding out about the fused version of Sky's attributes could help them.

"When you fuse attributes, you have to do it internally. Both attributes are in harmony, so try to fuse them as you release them from a single point. Do you understand?"

Sky nodded and focussed on releasing both attributes from his right hand. Last time he had tried to fuse both by separating them in each hand and forcing them together. Unfortunately, this caused the attributes to cancel each other. However, the method Avis was teaching seemed more refined and thought out.

Sky focused on the two attributes within his pathways. he watched as the two attributes wrapped themselves around ether. The two attributes collided as he forced them together and slowly started to fuse. Finally, they began to merge and a tiny dot, barely the size of a marble, formed. It was a mirky green colour, giving off a strange aura.

"What is that?" Sky asked.

"I don't know, but be careful with it."

Avis was on high alert. He didn't know what kind of effect the fusion might have on Sky. The two attributes were complete opposites, so it may be too unstable for Sky. 

Sky continued to hold the marble in front of him. Then, after a moment, he started to tremble, and all the energy within him was being pulled towards the marble.

"I need to release it... the more I try and control it, the more erratic it becomes."

"You need to be careful. I don't know what will happen if you lose control of it."

"I'll be careful."

Sky slowly released his grip on the attributes, and the dot floated down to the ground and dissipated over a patch of grass. It didn't take a moment for the grass to die, but something strange happened after. The grass grew back, this time a blackish green colour. Avis floated towards it, analysing the structure of the grass. It looked similar to regular grass but had qualities of darkness and nature entwined into one.

"A plant with the nature and darkness attribute? It's almost like a rebirth." Avis was surprised. He had never seen anything like it before.

"The etherlines are not affected by it." Sky said as he looked at the surrounding etherlines.

"How can such a thing exist? A darkness attribute plant which lives side-by-side with ether... The attributes must have fused on a cellular level. Maybe this is what the plant would look like if it was born with both attributes."

Avis looked hesitant, but he didn't know what else Sky could do to hide the darkness attribute.

"Sky, I don't want to sound impulsive, but what if we completely fuse the darkness and nature attributes? Then, we can call it a variant of the nature attribute if they ever ask questions; that way, you can't be caught with the darkness attribute."

Sky looked appalled at the suggestion. He understood why Avis would say that, but to combine both attributes, leaving him with this unknown would be reckless.

"Are you insane?! I could end up like that plant! What if the attributes are unstable, and I can't control them? I could end up hurting myself, or worse, someone else!"

Avis wasn't sure of the risk either and only had thought of fusing both permanently a moment ago, so he understood Sky's concerns.

"I... I don't know. It's a big risk, and I can't force you to do it. But, if we don't do something, sooner or later, someone will catch you with the darkness attribute. We can't hide it the way it is now."

"I'll think about it."

Sky didn't want to make a decision now. He needed time to process everything that was happening. He was also worried about what might happen if he fused both attributes. He didn't know if he could handle the unknown attribute. If he would risk something like that, he would first have to understand the attribute.

"I'm going to study this attribute more before making any decisions. We should at least know what it does before fusing the attributes."

"Get some rest first, Sky. You look exhausted."

Avis was right, Sky was exhausted. He had used a lot of his energy to fuse the attributes, and he needed time to recover.

"Alright, I'll go rest."

"I'll keep watch."

Sky exited his soul space and slowly opened his eyes. It was turning dark, and he realised he had been in his soul space for hours. As he rolled to his side, he found a short young girl standing beside his bed with a blank expression. She had dark skin, pointed ears, long black hair, and piercing black eyes.

"You're awake," Ennith said.