"I see, so you came here in case I would try something stupid down there," Rakna summarized the enforcer's intentions, and the man, who had introduced himself as Drath, nodded respectfully.
"I apologize if I have offended you."
"There's no need to apologize. It's natural that you would be alerted if someone suddenly dived into the waters surrounding the city. It could be a threat to the island's integrity after all."
The law-enforcer nodded once again. "That would be mostly correct, Your Majesty. However, your identity and safety were also involved. The city's defenses are on par with Black Steel, and we have plenty of contingencies if the island's buoyancy were to fail us. However, strong maritime Wilden sometimes wander around New Athens, attracted by the Silver Mana. We were worried that Your Majesty would get hurt."
"I see," Rakna said. "Incidentally, by 'Silver Mana', do you mean the submerged half of this island?"
"Indeed."
"Are you not worried Wilden would damage it?"
"Impossible," Drath retorted without hesitation. "Silver Mana is the name we give to the material born from a natural occurrence called Mana Metamorphosis. It is mana in its primal form given shape through a physical medium residing in the limbo between physical and spiritual. In secular terms, it is an indestructible object. It cannot even be scratched."
Allan whistled at that from the side. "Damn, is that even possible? To be indestructible?"
"Well, rather than indestructible, perhaps calling it immutable would be more accurate. It is a force of nature that will retain its defined shape until the concept of 'nature' itself is erased from it. You could say that only powerful Celestials could have a chance of doing anything to it."
"Are all cities in Atlantis built upon something like this?" Rakna asked curiously.
Drath shook his head. "No, Your Majesty. While there are a few other cities aside from New Athens that have a similar foundation, Silver Mana is far too rare to be employed for every one of them. It is already a miracle for there to be such an amount of it. Research has led us to believe that Atlantis' exceptionally pure waters combined with the foreseeable waves of energy produced at the time of the System's creation let such an agglomeration of mana be possible."
"Hm," Rakna candidly replied as if he had something on his mind.
"Let me guess, My Lord," Natsu spoke up from Evelyn's shoulder. "You are thinking of attempting to use Silver Mana as a forging material," he commented with complete confidence in his words.
"Of course," the therian affirmed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "But I'll need to find a way to do it. I can probably get some results with the skills I have, and Founding Intuition should help me."
His companions smiled wryly as he said that, he clearly didn't even entertain the word 'impossible' in his objectives. That's something they were used to but Drath was repeatedly blinking.
"Hm?" Rakna then noticed something. "Hey, where are Nyx and Higure?"
"Oh, they went on ahead to visit the city," Flavia explained as Tyran cutely sat on top of her head after having reverted to his smallest form.
"I see… and Pronos?" He inquired again, not seeing the little guy anywhere. He closed his eyes for a moment to sense his presence and glanced at the water with a wry smile. "Nevermind… he does like swimming. I should have expected that. I'll let him have fun," he said and turned back toward the enforcer who was awkwardly standing there. "So, Drath, was it?"
"Yes…"
"What else have you come here for?" Rakna questioned and the man promptly straightened. "Don't lie and say you have no hidden motive. You even said so yourself; my identity is part of the reason you're here. So, who is it that wants to see me?"
Drath lowered his head with a stiff expression. "I apologize… I am plenty aware that this might be an inconvenience to you, but it was an order," he prefaced his next words. "New Athens does not have a singular ruler, unlike Black Steel. Instead… it is self-regulated under the influence of a group of nobles. They have… ordered me to make contact and invite you to a celebration planned in your honor."
Rakna clicked his tongue. "I barely arrived and they're already trying to butter me up…" He said under his breath but Drath visibly heard it as he further lowered his head in shame. "Well, it's not your fault. I appreciate the honesty. Do you have an invitation letter for me?"
"Yes," he nodded and pulled out a neatly crafted envelope radiating faint energy.
"Thanks," Rakna didn't even wait before he was handed it and used a Valkal to snatch it. To anyone else, it would appear as if the envelope had jumped out of Drath's hand to land in his. The law-enforcer in question instantly began to sweat as he stared at his empty hand.
'God… a monster. This boy is a monster…' That was his honest thought. After all, how else could he explain having been unable to react to this phenomenon despite there being more than 300 levels of difference between them?
Meanwhile, Rakna opened the envelope and checked the letter. He read the invitation in a matter of seconds and then scanned it with Crystal Sight to make sure there wasn't anything untoward contained in it. This letter was made of a special paper to make sure it wouldn't be damaged in a conventional manner as well as serve as an unfalsifiable identification.
'At least there's no tracker or a remote analysis spell crafted into this,' he thought and stored it. Since he had crossed out his biggest suspicion, he might humor them. "Alright. You can go now," he said to Drath and the enforcer perfectly understood he wouldn't get an answer to the invitation right away. So, he simply saluted by putting a fist to his chest and left.
"I guess that's that," Allan shrugged afterward. "So, how was it down there?" He asked his friend as they collectively headed further inside the city. The crowd had become much smaller after the two giant pets were gone, but even then, they still parted ways to allow them to pass.
"It was interesting. Water is heavier than normal and more magic-resistant," Rakna replied.
"I see. So, that's what 'metaphysical stability' meant," Flavia nodded in understanding.
"{And you should be mindful of it,}" Cuniya abruptly spoke up. The White Witch usually remained silent but she tended to barge into conversations from time to time. "{An increase in metaphysical stability implies that most spells will vary in relative gradation. After all, even the air itself has an increased resistance. Explosions, for instance, won't be as big.}"
"Hm, but that applies to everyone," Marie remarked. "It puts no one at disadvantage. But we should indeed be careful to adjust our spells to familiarize ourselves with the difference."
"I think I can bypass that with Rift Shuttle though… Dimensional energy shouldn't be affected by the metaphysical stability of the physical world. Pouring it into my spells should shield them from interference to some extent," Rakna calmly theorized and the others fell silent.
Allan sighed, Marie shook her head, Evelyn smiled wryly, and Flavia facepalmed softly. And Natsu had that far-away look on his face that would make Buddha proud.
"{Damn cheater…}" Cuniya grumbled through telepathy before returning to the depths of Flavia's soul with a harrumph.
Rakna nearly let out a chuckle at their reactions before observing New Athens' architecture. They had entered the first layer of the city, with the second already above their head. It seemed that the buildings themselves were the pillars used to support the upper floors.
The view was intriguingly clear as well; each layer had numerous openings for streams of water to connect them as well as enough to share sunlight. Though, as expected, that couldn't extend to everywhere, so there were occasional parts that were plunged into darkness.
The therian's gaze lingered on one of those places for a short moment then focused next on the attention directed at him from the passersby. Unlike more common Plateaus where a lot of normal civilians lived, he could feel a drastic difference in pressure. The average strength of the crowd around him had unmistakably skyrocketed.
'That could be dangerous…' He thought then was pulled back to reality by Flavia's voice.
"So, how long are we going to stay this time?" She asked with a tilted head.
"Oh, well, it depends…" He responded with squinted eyes. In the first place, there were two things he had to do in Atlantis. The first was obviously the Myth Council. "Ceres, would you happen to know when the Council meeting is scheduled for?" He asked out loud.
[Yes, it's in exactly four days' time. You should normally be notified by the System on said date and time.]
"Well, that's that. We'll stay for at least four days," Rakna casually shrugged. "Other than that, there are those 'Arenas' I heard about. I'd like to see what they're all about. Also… Fray," he abruptly called up to the one residing in his soul. "You've been awfully quiet. Can I assume it's what I think it is?"
"{Hm…}" The storyteller sounded pensive. "{Yes, I believe so. It is quite hard to sense it accurately from within your soul but the likeness of our nature makes it possible; I found them. The successor to my Tale Magic is in this Plateau. But they seem to be quite far from New Athens.}"
"I see. Which direction? I'll send one of my wolves there."
"{There,}" Fray voiced and used a strand of soul power to point in a precise direction.
Rakna let out a positive hum and mentally commanded one of the summons he had invoked earlier to head there. "My wolves should be able to recognize your inheritor's presence if it's any similar to yours, so I can leave that on hold for now until I get a result."
"{That is no issue.}"
"Well, in that case, let's go check out the Pavilion first, as always," the therian followed up. "Ah, but before that…" He stopped walking, suddenly recalling something.
"What's wrong?" Evelyn spoke as everyone came to a halt as well.
"Nothing. I just better fulfill my promise or I'll get chewed out," Rakna deadpanned as he conjured a small constellation in his palm. He activated Crystal Sight to boost his concentration and began to fiddle with it, sometimes making a magic circle appear before it ultimately faded away again.
"…are you altering a spell in the middle of the street, My Lord?" Natsu asked incredulously. Truly, only his master would do something so unbelievable as that so nonchalantly.
"Well, yes," Rakna snorted in amusement and then flicked the constellation to activate it. Right as he did, star energy began to flow out of his body to form the silhouette of a woman. Her white long hair adorned by golden hairpins fluttered together with her wings as she materialized, her blue eyes slowly opening.
When the spell was completed, Astraea stood in front of Rakna in her usual white dress. The angel promptly beamed at him, "Lord Monarch, it is a pleasure to see you again."
He let out a faint smile. "Sure, sure. Here, as promised, this is Atlantis. I can tell that you're barely holding in your excitement. I modified your constellation so that you can stay manifested for half a day. Of course, I had to compensate with some of your fighting strength for that."
The Goddess immediately dropped all pretense and let out an even bigger grin before wrapping her arms around him. "Hehehe, thank you, Lord Monarch!" She said happily, her wings flapping flippantly behind her as if to mirror her mood.
Evelyn sulked at the sight and Allan burst out laughing.
"Really… that man doesn't ever seem to stop collecting women," Marie commented blankly with a mock bite in her tone.
"Please don't make me sound like a playboy…" Rakna deadpanned as Astraea rubbed her cheek against his face like some cuddly cat. "Also, you, stop doing that… and retract your wings already, there's no need to give people more material for their headlines," he said as he pushed the angel's head away.
"Oh, you are correct," she came back to her senses and cleared her throat. Her wings then shone before dispersing into motes of light. "So, so, so! Can I go?" She asked enthusiastically.
Rakna sighed. "All right, but take this guy with you," he said whilst waving his hand. A wolf jumped out of his shadow before shrinking itself into a pup. The therian picked it up and gave it to Astraea who held it in her arms.
"What a cute little one," she said with a smile.
The therian snorted. "Well, that little one is level 120. He could slap you to death if he wanted."
"…"
"Woof!" The wolf barked with his tail wagging.
"Anyway, he's insurance. In case you get in trouble, I'll know."
Astraea pursed her lips and pouted. "What? Don't you trust me, Lord Monarch?"
"It's the world that I don't trust," Rakna replied solemnly and she began to recover her smile. "As well as you," he added and she froze.
"Did you really need to say it?!"
"Yes. Now, off you go. To minimize risks, be sure to avoid obese men with pimples, blond men with annoying smirks, and overly nice people," he said with closed eyes as if he was conveying words of wisdom.
"Aren't all those cliches, Lord Monarch…?"
"But weirdly accurate…" He uttered with a sad exaggerated sigh.
Astraea blinked speechlessly. "I see…" She replied with a tilt of her head before quickly recovering her eagerness. "Well, I will be going then! I'll be careful!" She professed happily before dashing off toward the closest water bridge with the shadow wolf in her arms.
"She looks really excited," Flavia remarked. "It's quite a cute contrast to her usual self."
"Hm, from what I gathered, entities from Egregore are both ageless and children," Rakna said as he watched her leave. "They know nearly everything there is but until they are summoned in the way I do; they are essentially just people with knowledge but no experience. To her… it probably feels like her first adventure."
"So, this is what you promised her?"
"Yes, I summoned her last week to reinforce the house and she got a bit mad that I had once again called her for work…" The therian recounted wryly. "In the end, I made a promise to let her roam freely in the 100th Plateau when we would reach it. I owe her that."
"I see. Hopefully, nothing happens to her…"
"Well, if it comes to it, she can dismiss herself. Though it'll probably depress her," Rakna said and resumed walking. "Anyway, let's go. I want to get settled while my wolves gather information," he said and silently brought up a system window.
He swiftly eyed it and hummed. 'I guess it's time for this too,' he thought.
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❮ ◈ ❯
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Hey, Big Brother! Come see me, I'll give you what you need for your mission.
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❮ ◈ ❯
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This was the last thing he had to do in Atlantis. The Quest he had accepted in exchange for Marie's rights as a Host. 'This is going to be a pain, isn't it?' He grumbled.