Two days later…

Bang!

With a powerful clash, Lucas skidded back, his shoulder dislocated. Loosening his stance, he popped it back in with a casual flex.

With a slight smile, he gazed at Sasha in genuine wonder. She stood in an aggressive stance. Her feet wide and her claws bloody, a fierce fighting spirit burning in her eyes matching Lucas'.

"Dang Sasha, you're really cutting loose. That's good."

Sasha's expression became a little awkward as she took a more neutral stance. Her gaze subconsciously went to Evélyne who stood outside the training field. Sasha felt a sense of peace as she saw her.

Even though her expression was neutral as always, Sasha could sense her emotions as clear as day. This encouraged her to continue. As Sasha exhaled in preparation to keep fighting, Lucas hastily chimed in,

"Time out, time out. It's already been four hours, Sasha, that's more than enough. I know it's very stressful for you to limit yourself so much. So… Thank you."

Sasha was surprised at first but then her tail began wagging. With a faint blush, she said,

"No, thank you sir Lucas. With you as a sparring partner, my control has grown by leaps and bounds in just a few days. I should also thank you for your patience with me."

Lucas just shook his head as he thought,

'How can a killing machine like her be so shy? Even though she holds back, the glimpses of power she has shown is no less than Evélyne… let's just hope everyone isn't so strong or I might truly go insane.'

Getting lost in his own thoughts, Lucas didn't notice Evélyne walking up to him.

"Do you want to go to the library?"

"Hmm? Yeah. Oh, I've been meaning to ask you. Why are the books so vague?"

Evélyne tilted her head, Sasha moved to her side as she asked,

"What do you mean?"

Lucas cupped his chin, ears fidgeting as he fell into thought. When he could properly articulate himself, his furry tail gestured behind him as he spoke,

"Well, some things like history, geography, ethics, and so on are very clear but other subjects like physics, biology, and chemistry are extremely vague. They basically just give me hints to figure out the principles myself, why is that?"

"That's how it has always been. Is there a more effective method of sharing World laws and mysteries?"

Evélyne asked in turn. Hearing this new term, Lucas was intrigued as he asked.

"World laws? What are those?"

Evélyne paused for a moment before she decided to say,

"Reading up on them yourself would be preferable. Knowledge from the library can be quite subjective."

Lucas furrowed his brows as he asked,

"Then how will I know what I understand is correct?"

Evélyne's tranquil gaze became lost for a moment as she processed his question. She smiled faintly ask she said,

"You don't. From my understanding, no knowledge is infallible. So just strive to keep learning."

Something about what Evélyne just said gave Lucas a weird feeling he couldn't place. Thinking on it for a bit didn't yield anything so he said,

"I should head for the library now, I feel like I'm close to figuring something out. Catch you guys later."

"See you later, sir Lucas."

"Goodbye Lucas and good luck."

Sasha and Evélyne waved him off with the former beaming a warm smile. Lucas walked off barefoot on the stone path. After walking for a bit with the afternoon sun beaming down, stretching his shadow. Thoughts about his stay so far popped up in his mind, he asked himself,

'…Is it okay that I don't hate them anymore, Crash? I'm still going to escape but…'

Receiving no response, he continued.

'I… I am doing what you asked buddy. I still have a lot of work to do but the future is bright. I just wish you were here to see it… I wish everyone was.'

With a melancholic smile, he continued his trek, heading towards the library. Moving through the now familiar halls, Lucas smoothly got to his destination.

Gazing within, he saw the library had very few readers. Apart from the first day he came here, the library was always this sparse so he didn't think much of it.

He walked to the closest shelf and took out a plain looking black tome. Walking over to an empty table, he placed the book on the table and coiled his tail around his waist.

"I should check out World laws before reading up on Runes. Let's hope I can figure out how to draw my own Runes after this."

Exhaling deeply, he sent his mind into the book. With his intent to study World laws, he found himself floating in a void. With no questions floating around, he decided to take the initiative.

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"Hello? Umm… What are World laws?"

The void shuttered, a short string of text appeared;

[World Laws: They are guiding principles of the individual domains.]

Before Lucas could ask anything else, he was ejected from the book. Waking up, he grumbled to himself,

"One line of text? Seriously—"

{Requirements met, information packet—[World Laws] has been acquired.}

Wiki calmly chimed, Lucas' displeasure immediately turned to joy as he asked,

"So… what types of world laws are there in this domain?"

{You don't have access to this information.}

"Right… So how do I learn and understand World laws?"

{By studying the World and its inhabitants.}

Lucas' cupped his chin at this, he then asked a question he had asked before, hoping for a different answer.

"What is the World?"

{You don't have access to this information.}

Lucas sighed at this. He asked some more questions for about five minutes. With each "{You don't have access to this information.}" he lost hope in World laws in the meantime.

"I should read up on Runes. This is leading me nowhere fast."

With his mind made up, he sank his consciousness into the book once more.To his surprise, he found himself in the cavern once more. He was in the Yggorin village to be specific. Apart from Pike being absent, everything was identical.

"Why am I here?"

He felt a swirl of emotion at this sight but he finally just sighed and focused on the task at hand. Looking in front of him, he saw a floating image of a Sigil. This Sigil was rather simple, just a circle with a dot at its center.

With no further instructions to work with, Lucas did what was the most obvious. He sat on the floor and engraved the Sigil on his forearm. Activating the Sigil produced a gentle chime as the one in the air vanished.

It was replaced by two more complex linked Sigils. The one above was a rectangle with two smaller squares within it, while the one below was an oval with multiple concentric lines cutting within it.

Like the previous Sigil, Lucas activated these with ease but as the third image appeared, he didn't immediately try to solve it. Looking down at his hand, he said,

"I wonder what these Sigils can do if I put them together."

Memorizing the Sigils, he continued on with his lesson. The third image was a minor jump in complexity given it was now a Rune rather than just a Sigil. Lucas smiled when he saw the image.

"Speak of the void born."

The three Sigils that made it up were the three Sigils he drew before. He analyzed the Rune for a few minutes before coming up with a way to activate it. With a strategy in mind, he swiftly imprinted the Rune on his left forearm and activated it.

He arranged the Sigils in a straight line, with the circle Sigil at the top and the rectangle Sigil at the bottom. Beginning from the bottom, he activated each Sigil in the blink of an eye. His focus was razor sharp as he waited for the Rune's effect.

To his surprise, nothing went wrong as the Rune smoothly activated as his arm took on a white glow. His fist emitted a soft like into a cavern ahead.

"It's a flashlight Rune?"

After analyzing it further, he realized that really was the case. He deactivated the Rune and fell into thought once more, ignoring the new Rune that appeared overhead.

"Hmm… I really wish I could understand what each Sigil meant… wait, how did I know how to activate the Rune? [Runic Intuition] helps my intuition but can I push it further? Let's see."

He brought his focus to the Rune as he sat, doing his best to meditate. It didn't take long for him to stop when he recalled where he was.

"I could pass out if I keep this up. I should just learn what the book has to teach me first then meditate when I get back to my room."

With his convictions made, he began activating each Sigil faster and faster. From 4 Sigils to 10 Sigils, he passed all of them easily. From eleven to fifteen was a struggle as Lucas' Mind was already at the brink. He struggled to stay in the book. Only through sheer will power did he get to the 16th image. What he saw instantly sent him out.

Waking up with a throbbing headache, didn't detract from his delight. Looking at the Hardening Rune on his hands, he could actually tell what it did at a glance.

"It's almost as if… I'm reading words off a page. I get it now…"

———

"Flynt?"

The voice was distant, muffled by the rustling of leaves.

"Flynt?"

Flynt laid in a sparse forest, the trees stretching endlessly in every direction. He could feel a burning absence from his left elbow. The ground was dry, covered in dead leaves and dried blood. A cold wind cut through the silence as he shakily stood up with clenched teeth.

"Flynt…"

The voice again—weaker, trembling. He turned toward it, his breath catching in his throat.

Vai lay sprawled against a tree, her body broken, her chest barely rising. Half her face was gone as blood seeped from her wounds, staining the bark behind her. Her vacant eye twitched toward him, unfocused.

"Flynt…"

His head snapped to the right. Anna was there, reaching for him, her legs warped and stretched like cords of string. Her fingers clawed weakly at the dirt, desperate. Her face was pale, her breaths uneven.

"Flynt, help me…"

He tried to move, but the forest stretched, pulling them away. The ground between them widened with each painful step he took.

Crack.

His breath hitched as Ana's arm twisted the wrong way as she struggled to crawl towards him. A fresh wave of blood soaked into the earth beneath her. She was still looking at him. Still calling him.

"Flynt…"

The whisper crawled into his ears, overlapping, surrounding him.

His body shook. Electricity crackled up his left stump, desperate to lash out—to do something—but the distance just widened.

He was powerless.

Again.

"Flynt—"

A black streak suddenly shot towards him, its Crimson eyes brimming with malice.

"No!!"

The world snapped to darkness—

"Flynt Rayce?"

A nurse dressed in white and green medical gown asked. Flynt started awake from his waking nightmare. He raised his head from his knees as he stood up. Dark rings cycled his eyes and he looked quite a bit thinner. The nurse frowned at him as she asked,

"Is your Synap malfunctioning?"

Flynt's face was blank as he simply said,

"No. How is Vai doing?"

The nurse's brows furrowed further but she gave him a curt response, as she pulled back a strand of her violet hair.

"The injuries to her brain have been stabilized but given the volatile nature of the spatial energies in her injuries, you can't see her for now."

Flynt's empty gaze somehow dimmed even further as he asked coldly,

"What about Ana?"

The nurse's expression became subdued when she heard this question. Taking a few moments to get the proper words, she said,

"We did all we could but… she will most likely never walk again. She is still in a comatose state so—"

Flynt tuned out the rest of her words as he stood there in a daze.

"Flynt? Flynt?"

"Thank you for speaking to me, nurse. I'm going to take my leave now."

Flynt said flatly as he walked away. The nurse had a worried expression as she made a mental command on her holo pad.

/Domain dive victim, Flynt Rayce, seems to show abnormal behavior. Synap watch protocol enabled./

———

Flynt could barely see the white and sterile halls of the hospital as he moved through out of the building. By the time he became aware of himself, he was moving through the streets with no sense of direction. After multiple hours, he found himself back at his home. Sitting on his sofa, he looked at his left hand in contempt.

'I made the wrong call. We should have left that thing alone.'

Electricity crackled and shifted on his left hand, exposing its metallic nature.

'Everyone trusted me but I… my choices… ahhh!'

He couldn't bring himself to finish the thought as he punched into his floor, creating a small dent in it. His Synap immediately activated a hologram.

{User is showing an elevated state of negative emotion, Please—}

"Shut up!"

He grabbed the Synap and threw it at the wall. A blast of lightning followed behind it as the device went silent. Flynt just sat there in silence, frustrated and in despair.

Suddenly, his Synap shot back to him and hovered in front of his face. Before he could react, it produced a simple question in the form of a hologram.

{Do you want revenge? [Yes] [No]}

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