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Chapter 127: Insanity’s Stairway

“Sorry to hear that,” Rakna slurred and looked at himself. He blinked when he sensed mana coming from his clothes which were all black for some reason. “What happened to my clothes?”

Nyx cleared her throat with a near-imperceptible blush. “You were… naked when you reverted to this form. I didn’t have access to your spatial ring so I just used my shadows to make temporary ones.”

“Oh,” he blinked then called upon his storage to don a new set of clothes, the shadow ones being dispelled at the same time.

“Oh yeah, speaking of that, those scars of yours are no joke,” the minotaur commented and the therian simply glanced at him with an unreadable expression. “Seriously, it even made mine look like the love bites of death. I didn’t look at it too much cuz’ I figured it would be kind of rude but I saw enough. How did you get them?”

Nyx secretly tried to look over her shoulder. She also was curious about it. Though, what she had seen was even less than Tairen since she had looked away as fast as possible.

Rakna maintained his silence for a moment before opening his mouth, “Results of a damned and misspent youth.”

“…” “…”

“More importantly, how was it?” Rakna ignored their indignant stares. “I don’t remember anything after I grew nine tails.”

Tairen snorted. “Take a look for yourself,” he said and his eyes shone. With what was probably his HL, he then projected a holographic screen in front of them. “The whole idea was for you to know what you can do while lunar powered, right? It would have been stupid to not take a video.”

“True. Good thinking,” Rakna nodded as noted that the image in front of him was considerably higher quality than what his own HL could do. “By the way, sorry about this, Nyx. But I don’t think I will be able to walk for a while. Nothing serious though; thankfully.”

“It’s all right,” the former goddess replied calmly. “It’s also easier for me to make sure you don’t go on a rampage again.”

“Hey, do you want me to play it?” Tairen asked while pointing at the video. “There’s actually a few things I’m curious about.”

“Sure. We have time until we get to Black Steel,” Rakna agreed and the minotaur promptly told his AI to play the video. The first thing they saw was him intoning the first line of his Cōl Lāli before targeting Nyx. At that point already, Rakna was amazed. “Interesting… I don’t know if I should be worried or proud of myself for being so combat-efficient while berserk.”

“And that’s not the end of it,” Tairen said and they quietly watched as the werewolf in the image cast Natcattiram Cataract thrice in a row. Rakna raised an eyebrow and opened the notifications he had missed while matching them with the timeline of the recording. His Mystic magic had indeed leveled up, twice, to be exact, along with other proficiencies and skills.

“This!” Tairen suddenly shouted, pausing the video right where Alzero managed to pierce through his defense. “That’s one thing I don’t get. That sword was rubbish at best. How did you injure me with it?”

Rakna hummed. “I see… I’m impressed by a mindless version of myself… it’s an odd feeling.”

“…it’s not really the time to be drooling over yourself.”

The therian scowled at the minotaur and pointed at the screen. “That; is mainly your fault.”

“Huh?”

“You stood still like an idiot, overconfident of your defense, so ‘I’ simply took the chance to hit the only focal point I could see on you with a weapon forged with nothing but dimensional stability in mind.”

Tairen groaned, being called an overconfident idiot by a newbie, then reacted to a certain term he had said, “Wait, did you just say focal point?”

“Yes. And no, I don’t feel like explaining. Just move on with the video.”

“Now I know why Gray likes you so much…” He grumbled under his breath and played the video again. Rakna watched fascinated as the shadow wolves cast magic of their own and with a quick look at the logs, he saw that his Call of Fangs had become level five; a three-level increase. But the most interesting thing by far was the thirty-star variation of Gemini.

He was truly amazed that he had improved his spell on the fly like that. He opened the description and saw that the new variation cost 200 MP and would increase the overall effectiveness while also changing his actual appearance if he wanted to.

After that, Tairen paused the image for a second time when the recording reached the point where he had sneaked up on him and tried to attack his soul.

“This,” the minotaur sounded rather serious. “I understand that you seem to be a powerful soul practitioner but that word… Antanasia. Is it really what I think it is?”

Rakna furrowed his eyebrow. “If you know what it is, then the answer should be obvious.”

“Antanasia?” Nyx raised her voice questioningly.

“Enthymio,” Tairen said. “A spiritual dimension composed of seven layers. The first one is called the Gradation of Reflection, Antanasia. In layman’s terms, it’s the Mirror World.”

The shadow goddess immediately understood. “So, he used the reflections of the swords to get close to you while you were preoccupied with a puppet. Brilliant.”

“As expected of me,” Rakna expressed with a blank expression and the two sighed. After that, they watched the rest of the video where he was beaten down by an earth-shattering palm before Nyx’s array came into place. The last scene was the collision of the Tailed Pearl and Fragor Thanatos.

“Really, Tailed Pearls are as powerful as ever,” Tairen commented with a huff as he turned off the holographic projection.

“Tailed Pearls… is that something inborn to the Nine-Tailed Wolves?” Rakna inquired.

“Hm? What, you don’t know?”

“No. I don’t have that skill in the first place… at least not at the moment.”

“Guess it was a temporary thing then,” the minotaur shrugged. “Tailed Pearl is the Nirvana Skill that all wolves and foxes of the Nine-Tailed Clan are born with. And their might just can’t be given justice by what you saw in the video since I made sure to lessen it with my magic. There’s a reason why the fox and wolf branches are the most feared and respected of the clan.”

“I see…” Rakna muttered and they arrived at the station. “Speaking of your magic, what was it?”

“Oh, that. It’s a byproduct of my Nirvana Skill. It’s called Fragor. Without going into the specifics, it’s basically a magic that allows to ‘break’ the world as I perceive it.”

“Sounds powerful.”

“Hah! Obviously! I’m not called the Bull of Destruction for nothing, nor am I part of the Throne of Glory by chance. Just like you,” he stated and the train emerged from the underground tunnel with the chimneys rumbling. “Anyway, I’m going to leave here. You’d be surprised by how busy we get on the higher levels. I’d love to chat with you longer but it’s getting late.”

“I understand,” Rakna nodded. “Thank you for the help today.”

“No problem. Here; we’ll see each other again,” Tairen sent a friend request to him and Nyx and pulled out something that looked like a Badge of Honor. “See ya,” he said and disappeared at the end of the countdown while they embarked on Black Steel’s Spear.

“Oh, Rakna,” Nyx spoke up. “It seems we will have to sleep together tonight.”

“…yes?”

⠀

* * *

⠀

Frankly, there was barely anything that could embarrass Rakna. The closest he got to feel such an emotion was when his uncle would get… weird in public. Even this situation wasn’t something he would lose his composure over. That’s why even if he was lying down in a bed with his back pressed against a literal ex-Night Goddess, he was calm… just utterly dazed.

“…can I ask you why you can’t just make another array?” He ultimately found the force to ask. “Or why do we even need to continue dealing with lunar energy while indoors?”

Nyx sighed quietly. She was also a bit embarrassed but at least she was relieved that it was with someone like Rakna. You didn’t need to be a genius to see that he was a man that, if not completely apathetic to everything in life, would never make a move on a woman in this condition.

“It’s simple,” she said. “Firstly, if I was in my prime, making a self-sustaining array would be as easy as breathing but it’s impossible for me at the moment. This System is making me go through the correction basis of everything I knew in the past. The best I can do right now is continuously fuel an array for a maximum of an hour which can only lead to me getting tired. But, luckily, my unique constitution as a divinity of the night is enough to confine it by just me being here.”

Rakna hummed. “What about my other question?”

“Lunar energy is an ‘idea’. It is a power generated through concepts and thoughts. While it is true that its concentration is higher when you’re directly under the moonlight, just the fact that it is night and that the moon is a full circle is enough to saturate the air with lunar energy. That includes closed dimensions; like you saw in the Pavilion’s Filters. That’s why I can’t let you alone. Just think back to what you did earlier, if you were to turn berserk in your sleep, it wouldn’t be pretty.”

“Well… I can’t deny that. Additionally, if I understand my mentality correctly, if I turn again, my first move could be to fly up and carpet-bomb Black Steel with Natcattiram Cataract.”

Nyx smiled wryly. “Should I commend you for such insight?”

Rakna shrugged. “Not really. It would be a self-destroying move. Yes, I would cause a lot of damage in a short time but there’s a 100% chance I would be arrested doing so. From what I saw in the video, ‘I’ would definitely avoid that,” he said and squinted his eyes.

“So, the next best method… would be to summon my shadow wolves, as many as I can, and order them to scatter and kill on sight. Then, I would use Gemini and disguise a few of them as members of the Nine-Tailed Clan and then conjure a Tailed Pearl. Nobility or not, they would be accused of the crime and a conflict would spark. Best case scenario; a civil war. Then again, the System might have contingency plans against copious crimes like that.”

Nyx’s eyes widened as he explained that devilish plan with an emotionless voice. Despite herself, she couldn’t help the shiver that coursed through her body. “You… sound as if you have experience in the matter.”

Rakna fell silent for a moment. “…I do. A part of my life was spent learning how to efficiently spill the most blood possible. I was so driven by the desire to kill that my uncle admitted to me that he considered cutting my head off on several occasions to stop me from becoming a true murderer.”

The former goddess let out a breath and her expression became gentler. “…I praise you.”

“…what?”

“I have met many people like you in the past… But all of them had already reached the dead-end, unfortunately,” she said softly. “Some were good people that were pushed off the edge by others and forced to live by blood. They failed to make peace with themselves and instead lost sight of what and who they were. You are like them.”

“…”

“But, unlike most, you didn’t take the last step. Was it thanks to your uncle? Flavia? Allan? I cannot say. But you did not reach the dead-end. That requires more courage and determination than even I wouldn’t claim I possess.”

“Not taking the last step doesn’t imply that I’m off the staircase,” Rakna retorted as coldly as ever but Nyx knew better to not notice how defensive he was about the subject.

“Everyone is. If you want to use a stairway as a metaphorical path to insanity, you can be sure that every living being in Existence has a place in it. It is not because you still tread on it that you have lost the choice of which direction you should take,” she said solemnly then sighed.

“I haven’t known you for a long time so I will not pretend to understand or know everything about you. But if it helps, I witnessed with my own eyes how much Flavia and Allan trust you. They would gladly lay their life for you. Evelyn is the same. If you haven’t noticed yet, she admires you.” She paused. “…and so do I. Your strength is more than mere fighting prowess.”

“Do not doubt yourself. That last step is far away from you now. You could say that with each person that you protect and who wishes to protect you, you take one step down…” She trailed and smiled lightly. “If you’d like, I could be one of them.”

Rakna clenched his hand and relaxed it immediately afterward. His expression loosened further than it had in more than ten years and a curve, regardless of how small it was, was clearly formed at the edges of his lips. “Thank you… Nyx.”

The goddess’ taciturn complexion became even softer. They had their backs facing each other but she just knew. She couldn’t see his smile but she could feel it with her entire being. “The pleasure is mine, Rakna.”