The others followed Mark's lead as they travelled down a flight of stairs that led deeper beneath the City Lord's mansion grounds.
"How many Yellow Crystals are you going to use?" Mark asked Elton on their way down. "If you were to set up a regular Flyrogenesis array, then you would require around six crystals..."
"I need eight. With six I can only store enough divine aura to hide the city from an A-rank at best," Elton answered. "For an S-rank, eight should be the minimum."
"Alright, I will give you ten, just to make sure."
"That should be enough," Elton nodded.
"The more crystals used, the more work I have to do," Lin sighed imagining the workload that would soon pile on her desk after this situation. "Damn that no. 343, had to attack this city."
"It's actually a good thing that no. 343 decided to attack this city," Mark pointed out.
"'It's... a... good thing?'" Ethan voiced his confusion.
"The only other city in the entirety of the Empire that can match our city in defence strength would be the capital," Marthan explained. "If it was any other city, I doubt they could even lend a few Yellow Crystals, much less ten. The damage would have been too much if other cities had been attacked instead."
"That's how it is," Mark confirmed.
The group of four reached the end of the stairs and resumed toward their destination, now walking on a flat surface, arriving in front of a large open door about 10 meters tall and half as wide, with countless guards lined on opposite ends on the other side.
"Welcome back, City Lord!" The guards clad in golden armour stood with upright postures, unmoving, their figures symbolising strength, power and endurance.
"Good work, men!" Mark shouted in response to the cries of the guards. "Keep up the good work!"
"Yes, sir!"
The group walked by the guards to another large open door equally as large as the previous door. Walking past a third door of the same calibre, then a fourth, a fifth, a sixth, finally they arrive at long last before a large closed door.
"This is it," Mark stopped as he gauzed the door, inspecting it up and down and across.
"Dimension gates, huh?" Elton said.
"That's right, all these stupidly large doors are dimension gates," Mark explained as he continued to observe the door from different angles. "Only those of the Rindell family bloodline can navigate through the doors and reach this destination without being lost. If someone else not of the Rindless bloodline or not acquainted with one of the Rindell bloodlines were to cross the gates, they would be teleported back to the previous gate, making no progress."
"Neat, right?" Ethan slid beside Elton, looking up at him. "By the way, tell me, how strong are you? Can we have a friendly match, so I can see for myself if you are really an SS-rank?" His eyes glistened with anticipation.
"I don't really see the need to prove myself to you. To begin with, my rank should have been a secret, if not for this situation," Elton said. "It makes it simple for me if you guys were to not believe me."
"C'mon~, don't be stingy~. Let's have a fight~, just a friendly match. Please~," Ethan's request soon turned to whines as he circled around Elton, childishly asking for a match.
Marthan quickly appeared behind the whining Ethan and slammed a fist in his head. "Oww~, that hurts! What was that for?!" Ethan turned on his heels to look at his brother, gently patting his own head that ached.
"Don't mind my brother, he's just like this. Ignoring him is the best solution," Marthan apologized on behalf of his childish brother. "No one would believe he's the older one..." He eyed Ethan who continued to caress his head.
"Who cares~?" Ethan took his hand off his head and stared at Marthan. "It's fine as long as one of us is competent."
"How many times have I--," Marthan persisted but was cut off by Mark.
"Alright, alright, that's enough," Mark intervened with exasperation.
Mark placed his hands on the stone door that contained countless scratches that at first glance appeared to be random. A yellow aura seeped out from his body, lighting up certain scratches that formed two magic circles much similar to a Venn diagram. After a delay of a few seconds, the door creaked open, the light that escaped through the small gap growing in size as the doors pulled further apart from each other.
On the other side, a large blue-black vortex greeted them, swirling around and producing an ethereal sound that sounded much too fluid. Mark reached his hand into the vortex and retracted something, holding a somewhat transparent yellow crystal that glistened even without the need for light.
"That's the last one," Mark commented after having extracted ten exact Yellow Crystals from within the vortex. The scratches lit up on the separated doors and they pulled closer, closing, once more forming the magic circle, just like puzzle pieces falling in place. The magic circle's glow resided for some time before fading away, returning to normal scratches on the door.
Elton squatted on the ground in front of the Yellow Crystals piled on top of each other. Extending his right hand, Elton injected divine aura into the Yellow Crystal at the top of the pile. The crystal in question glowed a radiant gold, turning more transparent than before. The injected divine aura continued to travel along into the other crystals, causing them to all glow the same gold as the first Yellow Crystal.
"All right, the quality seems good enough, this should work fine," Elton said.
"Well, they are the finest ones I had on hand," Mark remarked with a smile.
Elton raised to his feet, following his lead, the Yellow Crystals ascended to Elton's chest level as they hovered in the air. The crystals, numbering ten, circled with Elton at their centre. Each Yellow Crystal was the same size as Elton, as a result, their spinning around Elton completely blocked him from the view of the others present.
"Now then, I'll go set up the array," Elton relayed. "After that, we can meet up in your office to catch up. It has been a long time, after all."
"Yeah, sure," Mark responded with a thumbs up. "See you in my office, then."
The Yellow Crystals disappeared into thin air alongside Elton.
"Just how powerful is that man, for you to be trusting him?" Lin approached Mark once Elton was gone.
"You saw the proof, what reason is there for me not to trust him?" Mark turned around with a question of his own.
"Of course, there is that proof, but there is something else..." Lin said vaguely. "There is something more to your trust in him. Your eyes hold no doubt that he will fail. Even though this situation is unique, and no one knows how it may end, you still have unwavering trust that he will solve this problem. You don't doubt for a second that he might fail. Why is that?"
"It's just natural for me to trust that man," Mark replied matter-of-factly, a smile on his face.
"Just how strong is he, for your absolute unwavering trust?" Lin grew even more curious.
"'Trust,' huh?" Mark worded and Lin tilted her head to one side in question. "What do you think is most important for someone to trust another?" Mark continued with a query for everyone present. "I'm asking you guys too," he spun his head to face Ethan and Marthan.
"Trust, let's see..." Lin pondered Mark's question. "For me to trust someone, they have to be reliable," Lin said. "So, I think reliability is important for an individual to trust others."
"I am of the same opinion as Lin," Marthan chimed in, supporting Lin's statement. "To trust someone, they have to be competent. I don't plan on trusting someone who I can't depend on."
"What about you, Ethan?" Mark asked.
"Who cares about all that," Ethan blurted, joining the conversation. "As long as they are strong and fun to hang around with I can trust them."
"So, you think reliability is an important factor," Mark looked to Lin who nodded in affirmation. "And for Marthan, it's competence. For Ethan, strength." Mark concluded their points. "You are not wrong, all the answers you have given are definitely correct. They are all correct, and they all share one thing in common. I'm pretty sure you two can see the connection, Lin and Marthan."
"Hey, why am I being left out?" Ethan cried. "Don't go assuming that I don't know anything!"
"Are you telling me you understand?" Mark looked with a curious expression.
"Of course I do," Ethan proclaimed with confidence.
"Oh, go ahead and enlighten us, then," Marthan sarcastically urged Ethan. "I'm sure it's nothing more than your usual nonsense."
"Rude~! I'll have you know that I'm correct," Ethan said as he looked at Mark and answered with a smug face, "It's strength, right?"
While Ethan wasn't incorrect, his answer wasn't the answer the others had arrived at and it had been the same answer that he had provided previously. It was an answer that was true for Ethan, and not a factor that served as a connection between their answers. Expecting such an answer from him to be a matter of course, the others continued their conversation, ignoring Ethan.
"It's to know what they are capable of," Mark revealed the answer.
"Hey, don't ignore me," Ethan complained but was ignored.
"You can't rely on someone without knowing what they are capable of. Same with competence and strength," Mark said. "Trust can't be built without knowing what the other can do."
"Are you saying you can trust him because you know what he is capable of?" Marthan interrogated Mark, but he shook his head in answer.
"No one knows what he is truly capable of," Mark relayed.
"Then...?" Lin questioned. "How can you trust him."
"No one knows what he is truly capable of, but we know what he can do," Mark explained with crossed arms. "We know he has the power that entitles his rank, that is why I can trust him. There's also the fact that I've known him for a long time, but that's not all there is."
"But is he really that powerful?" Lin repeated the question that she asked at the very beginning that had yet to be answered.
"I have my doubts, as well," Marthan added. "Other than that one time where he slipped into the room without our notice, I can't really feel that much power from him. He seems to only be stronger than average."
"I disagree," Ethan voiced his disagreement. "That guy is strong, much stronger than anyone I've met, ever." This coming from Ethan, who had developed a sort of sense much similar to Lieu that allowed him to gauze his opponent's strength, it was rather convincing. Even then, the others weren't fully convinced, still holding doubt about Elton's prowess.
"It's only natural that you see him as weak," Mark said. "You've only seen his ordinary form."
"'Ordinary form?'" Lin probed. "Are you saying that he has another form?"
"Not just 'another form,'" Mark corrected. "He has 'other forms,' ten thousand of them at that."
A sudden silence befell them as the three carefully tried to process what Mark had just said.
"H-Huh?" Marthan was the first to break the silence, his disbelief softly echoing. "H-How many forms did you say?" The absurdity of the information that Mark so casually relayed was definitely processed by the minds of the others, but they had not accepted it. Marthan and the others all wore a dumbfounded expression, their eyes wide and their mouths agape.
"Ten thousand," Mark clarified.
"T-Ten thousand?????!!!!" The simultaneous screams of absolute disbelief from the three filled the underground room.
Meanwhile, Elton soared through the skies, the walls of the city in view, the ten Yellow Crystals following closely behind.
"Let's set up the crystals, first." Once outside the walls, Elton snapped his finger. The Yellow Crystals flew in all directions, positioning themselves at certain points around the city in a circle, one remaining beside him. The crystals glowed brighter as if they were a light source, spinning around the city in a clockwise direction, forming a connected circle with their fast speeds.
"Now to make the array." The tip of Elton's index finger glowed the same colour as the crystals and using it he wrote gold ancient writings on the air before him.
The words formed and faded, each time a word faded, a pattern drew itself within the sphere formed by the spinning crystals, in response. Elton continued to write, and the array progressed toward completion. Scribing the last of the words on the air, the three-dimensional sphere of patterns was concluded.
"Alright, all done, now to activate it," the crystal that had remained beside Elton hovered before him. Making physical contact with the crystal, Elton used his left hand to send divine aura into the Yellow Crystal. The completed spherical array glowed a blinding radiant gold, momentarily stealing Elton's sight. Once the light had faded, the Port City of Miles which was once visible within the array, disappeared along with the array itself, alongside the Yellow Crystals.
"That should do," believing his work to be done, Elton vanished from the scene, returning back to the city.
********************
"So, now we just wait?" Mark asked as he gazed out the windows in his office, on his feet.
"That's about all we can do," Elton reclined his head into the couch he sat on. Having finished setting up the divine array, Elton now returned to Mark's office for a catch-up session for the first time in two hundred thousand years. All he had to do now was to wait until no. 343 was at a close enough distance for Elton's Divine Trait to deem him as a danger.
"Knowing you, it should have been easy to find no. 343 and already take care of him," Mark said, fully aware that this commission was nothing more than a joke that Elton could end at any moment if he so wanted.
"That's not really the best solution," Elton denied Mark's words.
"Hmmm, I guess you are right," Mark spun his chair around and descended onto it, his body facing the window, his back to Elton. "If the Kingdom of Rior really is involved, then we have to flush them out to gather as much intel as we can." For that reason, it was in the Empire's best interest to allow the plan they believe the Kingdom of Rior to be a part of to play out, so they have a higher chance of attaining relevant and crucial information. Hence why the criminal god had not yet been eliminated.
"There's that, of course..." Elton said, his ulterior motive showing ever so slightly.
"Oh, right. I almost forgot you are that type of guy," Mark recalled Elton's true nature that is normally well-hidden under his indifferent self.
"It won't be fun if the prey isn't cornered enough," even though Elton said that his expression remained unchanged, the same unfazed look as always. "I have to drive them to the brink, get them to exhaust every possible method they can think of to try and beat me, only then is it fun."
"You really are like Ethan in this regard." Mark was right. Elton, much like Ethan, was also a battle maniac, but on the milder side. Elton enjoyed fights against strong opponents, it was a form of entertainment for his bored self, he did not necessarily engage in fights with the intent of becoming stronger, which was one of the reasons Ethan loved fighting so much.
"'Ethan?'" Elton tilted his head, unsure as to who Mark was talking about.
"The oldest of the twins," Mark answered, clarifying himself to Elton.
Elton thought for a little while and soon knew who Mark was talking about, "Oh, you mean that one that kept on pestering me... Something about a fight?"
"That's him," Mark affirmed. "Now that I think about it, why did you decline his invitation?" Mark was curious. Someone like Elton who enjoyed fighting had declined the invitation to a duel.
"Just wasn't in the mood, I guess," Elton answered vaguely. "They say that 'with great strength, comes great responsibilities.' But no one ever says, 'with great power, comes great boredom,'" Elton looked up at the ceiling with narrowed eyes. Someone of Elton's level was feared and admired simultaneously. If he so tried, many would not be able to match him in terms of power, among many other categories. Elton, however, found such power completely and utterly boring. While great power may be convenient, over time it degrades into a cause for violence, with those that are not on your side working to bring forth your destruction. Once you become capable of things unlike what any others are capable of, things become less stimulating and your emotions die over time, much like with Elton.
Even among other SS-rank individuals, Elton was special in that his power was far greater than they could imagine. As a sort of solution, Elton divided and sealed his power into ten thousand different forms, with each form possessing a different level of power and its own unique traits. Now, Elton was able to adjust his level to any opponent without completely overpowering them, thus able to fight at their level and if necessary, above their level.
"Just a privilege of the strong, I guess," Mark smiled, spinning the chair around to face Elton.
"I can understand the importance and value of strength since I was once weak myself, but too much strength is a pain in its own way," Elton spoke as he reminisced about a distant memory.
"You were never weak," Mark corrected Elton. "You were never weak, it's just that your powers had yet to awaken."
Long before Elton awakened his true power, when he was known as Elton Windblade, he was a member of a noble family, now fallen due to certain events that had occurred in the past. Elton was a kind boy who appreciated everything around him and cared for others, a boy who expressed much more emotion than the current him. However, Elton's family valued strength above all else, like any other noble family, and Elton who was weak then, was constantly looked down on. The members of his family ignored him, made fun of him, and his mother who was of common birth constantly blamed his weakness and his entire existence for the reason why his father neglected her.
But it was not all hopeless. Not everyone around Elton treated him in the same harsh manner, regarding his existence as equal to filth. One of his many elder sisters, Lina Windlade, were one of the few people who still showed care for Elton who was regarded as a failure. She was the main reason that Elton had not grown up hating the world and instead developed kind tendencies.
"But I wasn't able to show this power, which was why they all labelled me as a failure. It's the reason why my father abandoned my mother," Elton recalled memories that he in the past would rather have hidden, memories that he had accepted for what they were. "Perhaps that's why I didn't feel anything when the house declined and eventually was destroyed."
"I wasn't able to do much for your family, either," Mark's face turned grim. "I might have been able to help your family recover if I tried harder," he clenched his fists tightly, and regret took over his face.
"You should have no reason to blame yourself," Elton shook his head, "The fact that you went out of your way to help people who were never going to help you in return is admirable enough." Even if Mark had helped the house and even if they had recovered, once again standing on their feet as one of the noble houses, they would have not expressed any gratitude toward their saviour and instead would exploit the relationship they shared for greater benefit.
'Their greed was never-ending, after all,' Elton sighed in his mind.
"But... still..." Mark continued, not fully convinced, still harbouring a little guilt. "I had a personal favour to return..."
"The favour was returned when you looked after me and my elder sister, so you should have no reason to worry about that any longer," Elton insisted. Elton was fully aware that the source of Mark's guilt was different from the reason he worded it. Though he had a personal favour to return, the reason he was so particular about it was that he was in love with Elton's mother, Aella. "Enough about this gloomy conversation, was this what you wanted to talk about?"
"Ah, no..."
"Oh, I wanted to ask you something," Elton changed the topic to something more relevant to the present and the future, leaving the past as the past.
"What is it?" Mark asked with a curious look.
"Those twins, did you take them in because you knew their worth?"
"'Knew their worth?'" Mark questioned, unsure as to what Elton was implying.
"So it was just a coincidence, huh?" Elton concluded. "Those twins are special," he explained.
"Special? How so?" Mark queried Elton, urging him to further elaborate his words.
"Nevermind, it doesn't matter, for now," Elton brushed the topic aside. "Let's give them another few hundred thousand years. It might have the opposite effect if I were to say it now," Elton remained nitpicky with his words, not revealing the full details of what he was trying to say.
"Again, what are you talking about?"
"Don't worry, just know that those twins could one day provide to be good entertainment for me," Elton relayed. If the twins were to grow more and master the gift they have been bestowed, they could rival some of the strongest in existence. Elton anticipated the time when they would hatch and develop well enough to entertain him.