"How is he doing?" Cura asked as they all gathered around Rakna after Roias left. The therian was showing no signs of waking up or stabilizing despite Astraea's efforts.
The Goddess of Justice bit her lip and her wings began to dim in brightness. She was dangerously running out of reserves to even maintain herself. At this rate, her base template back in Egregore would start to be affected.
"He overused his soul power and his body is refusing to heal," she explained gloomily. "It ran out of material to replace the internals and there's no mana to fuel it back anymore. To make it worse, he overdosed on his restorative pills before this."
Nyx nodded in agreement, "The moment his demonization ended; it was the last straw. The Eion fused with his body seemingly saved his life from Roias at the end, together with the specters of causality inside his soul," she added whilst glancing at the beasts quietly sitting nearby.
Fen was like an unmoving statue, his nine tails rested on the ground, and his eyes narrowed as he observed the group. He eventually growled and opened his mouth, "Move your ass." He addressed no one in particular, but his words were quickly answered by a small breeze.
Like a mirage, a beautiful oriental man appeared with a sigh, repeatedly tapping his forehead with a folded fan. "What a predicament this is… and I do not even understand half of it."
"Fray," Nyx uttered with a raised eyebrow and the man responded with a smile.
"Well, yes. That is me," he said with a modest bow and briefly glanced at Hans. "I must say… it is a shame that my Tale Magic is no longer accessible to me in full. I would have loved to find out what you truly are," he suddenly said and the azure-haired boy snorted. "But if you truly are the Wailful One, I must pay my dues and thank you for being the inspiration for one of my stories. Who would have expected you to be my successor…"
Hans didn't deign to reply and Astraea groaned, "Cease this idle chat. Fray Brazwein, what is Lord Monarch's current state? How is his Soul Realm faring?"
The fabulist lowered his eyes and shook his head. "Not well, I am afraid. It's splintered. There is a reason why we…" He paused to wave at himself and the beasts. "Can manifest right now. His soul is starting to form an uneven bubble around him; his soul power is exhausted and the engine it is supposed to supply is about to scatter away."
"I know that!" Astraea shouted frustratingly. "What I would like to understand is why his soul is unresponsive to any sort of mending or even basic self-preservation?!"
"…you should take a closer look at his body rather than his soul alone," Fray responded solemnly and the angel stiffened. Along with everyone else, she inspected Rakna's appearance and clenched her fists when she noticed that the black crystal piercing into his flesh was far from having stopped its growth.
"His own power went out of control at the very end," Hans remarked from the side with an almost bored tone. "Simply said, he is breaking down from the inside out because it was too formidable for him to wield. He does not have much time to live if nothing is done."
Nyx furrowed her eyebrows and glanced at the author. "Can you peer out what can be done?"
Hans shrugged. "I cannot. His current condition is a complex combination of factors. I do not have enough understanding to offer a solution. All I know is that his Sins are an important equalizer to all of it."
Fray followed up, "I tried to meet the Crystal Sage within his Soul Realm after his battle but I was refused entry. Despite him indubitably being one of the factors, he seems to be ignoring this."
"For now, our best course of action would be to reinstate the System," Hans stated as he went back to type on the console, albeit more slowly as if he was reviewing his work. "But as the pest said, there is a risk of losing Ceresta in the process. To save her, I would need a…" His sentence died on his lips and he widened his eyes.
He turned around and stared at Rakna with a contemplating look. "…I have an idea," he muttered.
"What is it?" Astraea immediately asked and he simply faced the console again.
"Bring him closer to the Terminal," he instructed offhandedly and swiped his hand across one of the holographic monitors before pulling on it like it was a physical object. Following his motion, a multi-faceted knob appeared and he twisted it. The console of the Terminal promptly split open and revealed several cables and ports for external connections.
The others looked at each other and Cura took it upon himself to carry Rakna. Hans didn't waste time before crouching and opening the therian's left eyelid afterward. He swiped open a screen in midair again and the lenses of Eye of Symphony began to rotate, shedding their realistic look for a completely robotic one.
"What are you doing?" Nyx scowled.
"I am soft-hacking his augmented cortex," Hans answered succinctly. "I need it in order to transfer the core program of his AI into it," he explained whilst forcing a connection by sticking some kind of electrode cable to the therian's temple.
"…what?" The Night Goddess exclaimed dumbly. "Why would you do that? No, before that; how is it that you have recovered Ceresta's code if it was corrupted by Roias?"
"I did not recover it," he quickly retorted. "Her program was indeed cursed beyond saving. But one unlikely miracle allowed her to endure."
"Which is?"
"She developed a soul," Hans declared and no one managed to voice a reaction. "Somehow, what was once just lines of code and alchemic hardware gained more than mere sentience. Her program is now her soul and vice versa. She requires a computerized vessel to inhabit for it to be sustained, but it is there. I have my theory on how it happened, but this is not the time for it."
"Then…" Astraea whispered. "If you transfer her into Lord Monarch…?"
"I am not only hoping she will be able to settle there but also hoping her 'instincts'…" He squinted his eyes. "Will attempt to save the one she loves. At the moment, Xiorra's soul is barely hanging by a thread. Her program will anchor itself in his cortex and hopefully, her spirit will manage to pull his soul back together."
The angel's eyes brightened. "They both can be saved that way?"
Hans huffed cynically, "No. Both will still die. This is just a way of buying us time. If either of their souls were in their normal state, both would have not been able to coexist within the same vessel anyway. They will be able to leech off each other to survive, but it will not be a solution. Ceresta is the one who will be gone first; her meager soul power exhausted. Then, Xiorra will follow. This is but a last-ditch effort. You can only pray that he wakes up and then finds a solution himself."
With that said, the author initiated the transfer without hesitation. The loading lasted barely a few seconds and on cue, every beast that had been standing guard faded into motes of purple light and was absorbed into Rakna's body. Fen grunted and returned to the Soul Realm as well, followed by a chirping Rex.
"It seems to be working," Fray commented as the obsidian was slowing down and the soul power permeating the area recovered a semblance of structure. "Rakna seems to have earned the respect of those animals inside him during his fight; they most likely will assist his case. I will try and help as well. Good luck," he declared and dissipated out of view.
Barely a second later, a weak but chaotic surge of soul power erupted and Rakna opened his eyes with a deep gasp. But the process was not that merciful to him afterward. Out of nowhere, half of his body buzzed like a million insects and blurred into the shape of a werewolf. He roared in pain and rolled around right as a spike of obsidian suddenly sprouted from his arm.
"Lord Monarch!" Astraea was about to go help him but Cura held her back before she could even take a step forward. The reason for that showed itself when another agonizing howl echoed and a short burst of purple fire cut the ground apart.
Hans grunted and staggered back as it cut the back of his hand. As always, he frowned and spoke up with a callous tone, "Snap out of it, Xiorra."
A snarl responded to him, and the werewolf half reverted to normal. "Easier said…!" Rakna spoke with a grunt and grabbed the spike in his arm. "…than done!" He shouted and ripped the obsidian off. He collapsed on all fours and gritted his teeth when countless black-colored lines spread under his skin.
"The Alkahest is…!" He interrupted himself in favor of enduring the pain. What he was feeling was not regular physical pain, but the worst kind of agony. His body and soul were being overloaded with something he had no way to restrain.
After a few more seconds, all that could be heard was a faint sputtering sound, like glass being put under pressure. Rakna panted and covered his neck with one hand where a chunk of black crystal was dangerously advancing.
He raised his head and one of his purple eyes shone through the messy bangs of his hair. The warm yet cold color, accentuated by turquoise and crimson, focused on Hans.
"What… did you do?" His voice was freed of the tension brought about by his demonization; calm and serene. Yet, his tone had never sounded so sharp.
"Saved your life," Hans retorted sarcastically. "Or so I would like to say. I did what you asked; your little virtual friend was salvaged, and she rescued you in return. Now, it is up to you to make sure it stays that way."
Rakna scrunched his eyebrows and channeled the almost nonexistent feeling of his soul power into his hand and a silver flower briefly appeared before dissipating. "A Céraiste…" He whispered and growled before punching the ground with his fist.
He pushed himself to his feet and staggered to stay upright until Astraea came to help him. With a thankful nod, he closed his eyes and a streak of gold flashed when he opened them back. Crystal Sight glimmered and he stared at Hans.
"Reinstate the System. I need the extra attributes and mana."
"As you wish," Hans complied indifferently and tapped the console once. A pulse of light coursed through the Terminal into the floor and walls, until everything shut off momentarily. It didn't last long and everything turned back on soon after.
On cue, everyone on Plateau Zero was faced with a missive.
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❮ ◈ ❯
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Connection Established.
Plateau Code A0 Has Been Re-Integrated.
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Identifying Residents… Complete.
Reinstating Status… Complete.
Distributing System Support… Complete.
Analyzing Topology… Complete.
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Attention!
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Plateau Zero will now be put under lockdown.
Transfers will be sealed until further notice. Hosts are demanded to wait for Adjudicators and Eva's supervision before a Plateau Reset is carried out.
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❮ ◈ ❯
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Immediately, everyone in the room felt the System flow back into their bodies, which was quickly followed by the return of the World's influence. It was like they had been put back on life support after being forcefully detached from it.
Rakna groaned as he felt his Magic Circuits be supplied once again and resisted the urge to roll his eyes when another System window opened up for him only.
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❮ ◈ ❯
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Updating Status…
You have 54 Notifications Pending.
Do you wish to unfold them now?
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You have 36 Levels Pending.
Do you wish to gain them now?
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Warning! Warning!
The Host is in a critical state!
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Error! Error!
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Unable to analyze the cause!
Seek immediate attention!
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❮ ◈ ❯
⠀
"Honestly, I didn't miss this," Rakna muttered but accepted the levels right away. He needed all he could get at the moment and he sighed in relief when the power surged through him like always.
He then opened his status and manually poured the maximum amount of attribute points he could assign into Intelligence; effectively capping it at 200 and massively increasing his mana pool.
"I'm all right now, thank you," he said to Astraea and walked out of her hold.
"Are you sure?" She asked worriedly and he wordlessly smiled at her, to which she couldn't help but blush. She quickly cleared her throat to recover and continued, "I-I'm happy to hear it."
"So? Do you have an idea on how to proceed?" Hans asked while the room was being repaired by the System with them inside. The wreckage was returning to its initial place as if everything was being rewound in time.
Rakna turned to the author with an unreadable expression and nodded slowly. "I think… I know how to save Ceres," he declared, and after a deep breath, transformed into a werewolf. His group reflexively stepped back as he proceeded to unfurl his wings.
It was the first time they saw him so close with the new appearance of his fur and feathers, so they had a brief moment of unresponsiveness to his words. And it was Nyx who called him out on it.
"And what about yourself?" She inquired sternly and he let out what could only be described as a wolf chuckling at an interesting joke.
"Nyx, problems are meant to be tackled one by one in order of importance."
The goddess' expression fell and she was about to retort when she stopped herself. She sighed in defeat and looked to the side. "But of course…" She mumbled and he snorted. His wings expanded in size and crackled with spatial energy. Since the System had turned off transfers, he had to force his way out.
"Astraea, you will probably lose your anchoring after I leave. Thank you for your help; I'll be sure to summon you again soon," he said quietly and Astraea smiled sadly.
"You can always count on me, Lord Monarch. No matter what. So, please… don't die," she pleaded with a weak voice and her form fizzled out of view, returning to Egregore. She had long surpassed the time she was supposed to stay; she had remained manifested out of sheer willpower.
Rakna smiled softly at where she had been standing and turned to Cura. "Same to you. I'll be sure to pay you back as soon as I can."
"It's fine. Just don't die on me and give me that fight; it'll be more than enough," the shark man said and pointed at his back with his thumb where King Gulon licked its lips. "Gul can't wait to taste your power as well," he uttered.
The werewolf snickered. "I won't disappoint," he replied and was about to wrap himself with his wings when Nyx entered his vicinity with her arms crossed. He blinked at her and she raised an eyebrow at him.
"What are you waiting for? You can bring someone else with that skill, can't you?" She asked with an aloof tone and Rakna stared at her for a moment before chuckling. Nyx squirmed on her feet at that; she wasn't used to hearing him being so overtly amused.
"Understood," he spared her further embarrassment and his wings covered both of them. From a third perspective, Cura and Hans watched in interest as the wings formed a perfect cocoon with no gap.
Then, a silver aura gushed out from the feathers and that same cocoon started spinning; or at least that's what it looked like to them. It gradually got faster until it eventually began to shrink, where halfway through its decline, blinked out of existence with silver light sparking about.
"…well, waiting time it is," Hans commented as he went to sit on the staircase being reconstructed by the System. He summoned a book into his hand and promptly started reading it.
Cura shortly glanced at him and stoically headed for the exit of the Terminal Room. Hans looked up from his read at the same time and managed to spot King Gulon smirking at him.
The azure-haired boy shook his head in exasperation as they departed for good. "A shark learning to swim to the surface and an ancient being living for a testament as the last of his kind… What an interesting duo to join the wolf," he whispered to himself.
"Though, I certainly cannot be the one to mock such a thing," he added and looked back at his book of which the cover read the following words: 'The Wise & Wailful Boy of Faerie'.