'Am I hearing this right?' Quinn questioned what he was currently hearing to Void, 'He definitely said that his master is a God. I don't think that things will end well with us... I am out for a mass-deicide, apparently after all.'
'Do not worry about that. As I said: just focus on things in the Tiny World for now; do not get involved with these Gods. Not now,' Void continued, 'Besides, I know this God that he speaks of. We have quite the complicated relationship, but I am sure that he shall help you. Not all the Gods are on the same page; remember this.'
Trying to forget about the whole thing, Quinn remained silent for good second when Aaron finally spoke: "Shadow Ki is certainly something way beyond my expectations. I do not think that it can even be called Ki with how it just negates it.
"Either way. Please," Aaron continued, "Accept my allegiance to you. I shall respect our saviour's wishes and serve you to my fullest, sir."
"Yeah, yeah, just don't call me that," Quinn accepted, thinking that it would be good to have a person who is not only strong, but also has strong influence in the human and Vampire Worlds—hopefully, "Just don't call me that. I'm still younger than you. I'm your student in this school, and we both trained under the same master, after all."
Aaron smiled as he got up and placed his hand on Quinn's shoulder, "You are destined for great things, Quinn. I hope you realise this gift that master has blessed you with; do not forget his kindness and sacrifice in the noble act of unification of all beings against the Order of the Higher Beings; even if it makes but a miniscule difference.
"That scroll... I trust you keep it safe with you—it is what master depicted as a means to an end, if it were to land in the hands of someone worthy; and, I believe it that it was meant for you. I may have not known you for long, but I can sense that you will become something far beyond what is the norm; even amongst the Lords of the other species—under the contract, or not."
Quinn excused himself after a while, to escape the endless cycle of praises and flattery, with the age old excuse of having other things at hand in the meantime—before the vacations begin.
He eventually found himself in Section III, the vast marketplace of the military academy's city, browsing all of the wares—be it in, or out of sight—at a mass scale. Amongst the wares, he came across quite the familiar and unforgettable name. A certain Dwarf he had met on Butani; the one who forged his Black Knife: Andre Arlo.
'That guy... how come he's here,' Quinn wondered, 'Wait, is he still here? Surely, he is. Unless he works for some company—which he doesn't—or he hired some muscle to get his shit here. Doesn't hurt to ask around...'
And, ask around, he did. Finding the whereabouts of the person in question rather swiftly. Andre should be in Sector V of the city as of now. Quinn could have just called him... and he wondered why he didn't. 'Human habits die hard, I guess.'
Arriving at Section V of the city at a breakneck velocity, Quinn was in the area where forging rooms were rented to Magic Weapon forgers or other smiths.
Using his Arcane Energy to pinpoint Andre's location, and which forging room he had occupied and was present in, he felt an unfamiliar type of frequency and aura; one of a Dwarf, apparently.
Appearing right in front of the door of the said room, Quinn was ready to knock on it, and call out his name. But instead, he was greet by Andre right in front of the door as it opened.
"Ya think yer slick, hotshot?" Andre stated, "Any half-sized, average Dwarf motherfucker could sense something like that landing right out their doorstep."
It was true. Although Quinn had not used [Body Modification] to make sure he does not produce any disturbance, he still tried to land relatively softly; and from his perspective, he did land without making any noise.
But, you cannot look down on a Dwarf at the Lord level, a slightest bit. Andre could sense the vibrations in the ground from within his forging room, where the fire raged on, and the heat was enough to cause him to lose buckets of sweat.
"What're you doing here, gramps," Quinn let himself in and covered himself with Origin Energy to cancel out the heat of the forge and stay cool. "Well, stuff happened and I just got here: lookin' to sell my disposable shitty equipment to some stupid kids. Never expected you to be in this particular academy base.
"So? Wha'dya want, kid. Ooh, 'member that other Soul Core you gave me? I tried to study it and created a blueprint that can store a Soul. You probably don't even understand how impressive that is, but think of this: this might just be a way... to bring back a person from the dead; with their Soul Core.
"I mean, the guy won't be back in his body, but the Soul-! It will continue to exist outside of its mortal counterpart: the mortal body that eventually dies and decays. But, Souls don't decay! No, they are forever! If you damned the Soul Core into a piece of equipment, consider it possessed by the Soul of that being; that's how your Black Knife got so much stronger, isn't it?"
After the long one-sided conversation with Quinn, Andre was finally settled to listen to the former.
"Are you sure that's what you made? If so, how the actual fuck did you manage to do that? It's not even been that long since I gave you that thing. It's been just over a month and a half! Fuck..." Quinn massaged his forehead with his fingers, "What is this thing that you made? Show it to me."
Andre cleared a table off to the side of the forging room and pulled a sort of ball out of nowhere.
[Soul Catcher]
...