The information crashed through my mind in a tangled mass — too much, too fast, no ti to sort through it all. I knew I’d need to process it properly later, piece by piece.
But right now, my muscles were screaming at . Everything ached too much for to care about anything else.
I let myself fall back flat against the body of the dead beast, its cooling flesh oddly comfortable beneath . For a mont I just lay there, staring at nothing, letting my body remind exactly how close that fight had been.
The first thing that surfaced through the fog of exhaustion was the tier designation.
’Three plus signs. Is that normal?’
I’d assud the plus sign system was sothing exclusive to spirit gates. Made sense at the ti — nobody taught us otherwise. The academy ntioned that Spirit Beasts inside gates couldn’t be judged purely by tier, that they exhibited behaviors that amplified their threat despite technically being weaker than higher tier. The square-faced instructor had grouped them into elites and boss levels.
So naturally, I’d thought the plus sign designations existed to mark those categories.
I hadn’t expected to see a outside a gate at all.
And now that I had, questions were bubbling up faster than I could push them down.
The academy’s version of the world. How much of it was actually true? I’d known the answer wasn’t "all of it" for a while now. But to what extent had they shaped our understanding?
’How deep does the gap go?’
It baffled . More than baffled — it unsettled sothing in my chest, a creeping awareness that I’d been walking through a carefully curated version of reality.
"What are you thinking about with that sour look on your face? You won. Celebrate it."
I glanced up as Kassie’s voice cut through my thoughts. She was standing over , and I had no idea when she’d arrived. One mont nothing, the next she was there — her shadow falling across my face.
She extended her hand toward .
"The crew is waiting for you... Master."
My hand stopped halfway to hers.
’M... Master?’
She curled one corner of her lips and exhaled, sothing almost like amusent flickering in her expression.
"It seems I’ve underestimated you." She glanced toward the floating mass of grey and red that used to be the beast, then back to . "If you could do this much with raw strength alone... I think you’ll turn out to be one hell of a warrior."
She pulled up. As I found my footing, I caught the shift in her expression — a grin spreading across her face that had nothing warm about it.
"Thinking about it is already giving shivers," she said with a dark tone. "We need to take your training more seriously."
A chill crawled up the back of my neck.
"Mr. Cade!"
"Cade!!"
"Yooo, what the actual hell?!"
"You’re freaking strong, gods!!"
"Good one, kiddo!!"
The chorus of voices pulled my attention upward. Everyone was lined up at the ship’s railing, shouting down at — faces split with grins, arms waving.
Kassie glanced up at them and chuckled, sothing lighter entering her expression.
"Well. You should head up there."
I looked at her, cocking my head with a small smile. "You an... we."
She went still, her expression blanking into sothing unreadable.
"I said, live like a normal person." I held her gaze. "You wanted a chance to live again. Here it is. You don’t have to stay confined to that Cathedral for the next twelve hours."
Her eyes flicked between and the ship, sothing uncertain passing through them.
"...Are you sure?"
I narrowed my eyes. "What? Of course I am. Please — now take and fly over to the ship."
Kassie hesitated for a mont but did as I asked. She grabbed my hand, lunged in one simple leap, and landed on the deck with barely a sound.
My legs almost buckled under , but she held steady. Not just Kassie — others had reached out too, hands appearing from everywhere. Including the straw hat lady.
Her fingers had barely grazed my sleeve before she pulled back.
I glanced at her and watched her retreat, lowering the brim of her hat to hide her face.
’Ah... the Ronaldo effect.’
I let myself grin internally. So things were universal, apparently.
"Boy, what in the — what are you? What is she?" Derry was the first to speak, jabbing a finger toward Kassie. Then at . Then at both of us. "What are the both of you?"
His voice sounded genuinely terrified.
I straightened up and took the liberty of a proper introduction.
"Hello, ladies and gentlen." I spread my hands. "My na is Cade Marlowe, and I’m an F-rank Spirit Summoner." I shrugged. "On paper, at least. In practice, I think I’m sowhere around B or A rank? If I wanted to be cocky about it, I’d say S rank — granted, I recently whooped the ass of one S-rank like that, so..."
Tristan’s grin was imdiate.
"I hope you’re not over there claiming false glories."
"God, it wasn’t about you. Let have my mont, okay?"
The crew had gathered around now, faces split between amazent and sothing approaching awe. They kept glancing up at Kassie, who stood perfectly still beside — hands folded, eyes closed, radiating the kind of composed nace that made people very aware of their own mortality.
"Oh, and yes — this is Kassandra." I gestured toward her. "My first and most powerful Spirit Summon. Villainous Spirit, to be exact."
Silence settled in the atmosphere first. Then the reactions hit all at once.
"I knew it! Those red sparks — she was a Villainous Spirit!"
"But aren’t they supposed to be... like, incredibly rare?"
"Wait, are you an otherworlder? Gosh, I’ve never seen an otherworlder before. Bro, can I have your autograph?"
"Hey hey hey! Everyone!" Po suddenly exploded, tail and ears standing on edge. He thrust his hand toward the sea. "Onto the boats! We need to retrieve every part of that Serpent! And have a very nice serpent stew — I will create a masterpiece!"
"Right away, Master Po!"
"Ah, Master Po’s masterpiece!"
"Six-gods, who would’ve thought such fortune would befall us today?"
The crew scattered imdiately, bodies already leaping over the railing and splashing into the water below.
The storm had vanished. Calm light pierced through the darkening clouds, and everything was clearing. Amidst it all, I made sure to shout:
"The spirit core belongs to !!"
I rembered too well the effort I’d gone through to hide my spirit cores back at Atherre — only to never get the chance to claim them.
’I’m getting it back in ti.’
But I was also sure that by then, I’d have more than enough.
I turned — and caught Nisha at the edge of my vision. She was smiling, already stepping away as everyone dispersed. I didn’t rember her coming close or hearing her voice among the others.
Sothing cold settled in my chest.
Sothing was wrong.
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