Gilgamesh returned to Clara's office and sat on her swivel chair, staring at Firnen City through the large glass windows behind him.
He seemed completely comfortable and at ease in that chair, as though he were sitting on a throne overlooking his subjects.
He wore a pleased smirk.
As he did this, he was in constant communication with the Omniscient Author. When he was bored sometimes, he would chat with the Author and dig into any and all information he could think of.
This way, he found out a lot of things.
'The Severance of Fate seems to have persisted even as you traversed pages. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.'
Gilgamesh frowned as the Author said this, and thought about what his inherent nature had told him.
The Bright Speck had manipulated events in order to take advantage of him resetting his life.
However, that could have only happened because his inherent nature had not awakened. All he had back then were his memories, which were now mostly lost.
In addition, his inherent nature was now majorly unavailable to him, since his soul had received constant damage in the mystic realm.
All in all, the Bright Speck had to have known his inherent nature would not awaken. It was not impossible that it had even played a part.
But how?
Gilgamesh did not know enough. All he had were flashes of his time in the First Page- of him conquering nonstop.
With a sigh, he continued to abuse the power of the Omniscient Author.
The thing he was least worried about... was Little Feather.
Currently, she had left Firnen City behind and was heading toward the distant jungle. In this world, her cultivation could not be considered high, but she did not care.
With her mission in mind, she merrily skipped along while admiring the world's ghastly charm.
Before long, she reached the path that led into an eery jungle. Under the canopy of dense foliage, no light could be seen save for the faintly glowing herbs and mushrooms dotting the landscape.
With a firm look in her eyes, she ventured forward.
"I wonder what my inherent nature is..." She stroked her lower lip as she pondered.
The dark jungle was silent, and all around her the air was deathly still. Little Feather kept moving, and even shut her eyes as she pondered.
"I hope it's something cool. Something that doesn't lose out to Big Brother's, too. It needs to be cool and powerful, just like his."
A peculiar energy started to rise from the dense jungle, coming from the world itself. This energy slowly grew, and spread out in a massive circle around Little Feather's surrondings.
"It has to be useful, no matter where we are in the Book. On top of that, it has to be different! Unlike any other inherent nature anywhere else!"
Not too far away, Clara hovered in a ghostly form, completely imperceptible to Little Feather.
She sensed the peculiar energy appearing in the jungle, and was instantly put on edge.
'What is that ghostly energy? Why does it feel so pure?'
As she looked on in silent shock, Little Feather kept talking about what she wanted her inherent nature to be like.
As she did so, the energy only increased in potency, and soon filled the entire jungle. However, wherever Litle Feather went, it would swiftly depart from that area.
This energy was avoiding her for some reason. Not daring to touch her.
'The only time I've felt energy this pure was when the red crystals emerged for the first time. Those are things that are born from the Book of Existence itself, so the purity of their energy is unmatched.'
'Could this energy be born of the Book also?'
"Above all things, I think my inherent nature should be a sign of my respect and adoration for Gilgamesh. Whatever it is, it has to pay homage to him."
"Mhm! I just can't wait to see what it is!"
She had finally finished her wishful thinking, and was now wholeheartedly focused on traversing the jungle.
Recognizing that she was finished, all of the accumulated energy filling the jungle finally rushed toward her.
This energy was the purest energy of the world, coming from the Book itself. It perfectly blended with the world around Little Feather, and thus she did not notice it.
In fact, unless you had come into contact with this kind of energy before, it would be impossible to detect it.
Thus, Little Feather was not even aware she was being bombarded with energy until the last moment.
As the last scrap of energy entered her body, there was a deafening explosion that erupted from here. A decimating shockwave spread across the jungle, rending the nearby trees and scattering countless leaves.
Plants and trees were completely destroyed in a radius of half a mile, leaving Little Feather speechless.
"What just happened...?" As she asked this question, the scattered leaves that were falling suddenly shifted unnaturally.
They no longer fell to the floor like regular leaves were supposed to. They shifted about strangely, as if being guiding by an invisible hand, before landing on the ground to form an intrictate design.
Little Feather gasped, and Clara was speechless.
The leaves had fallen to create the image of a large feather on the ground.
"How interesting! I wonder how such a thing could have happened." Taking a moment to admire the feather, she continued walking through the jungle.
She made a promise to tell Gilgamesh about it as she went on her way, then she heard a loud cry of pain coming from a short distance away.
Little Feather instant became vigilant, and stealthily ran ahead.
Eventually, she hid behind a large tree and peered out at the sight of a giant, muscular man weilding a great axe.
He was locked in an intense battle with a massive grey-furred wolf, its mouth dripping with blood.
It had just taken a chunk out of the man's left shoulder. His arm fell limply at his side.
Surrounding them were numerous dead wolves, all similar to that one, but much smaller.
"A sneak attack. As expected of the coward, Mars. But, even if I die here today, I made a promise to my family to take you down with me!"
The man's broad chest swelled as the muscles on his right arm bulged. He lifted the axe as ghostly energy filled him, surrounding his body in an azure light.
The wolf seemed to sneer as it snarled, and suddenly spoke.
"You should have known not to mess with my pack. Now you will die, and all I will remember of you is how delicious your daughter tasted!" The wolf gave a throaty laugh as it said this.
The man's short red hair turned spiky as it rose into the air. His energy swole to a deadly point, and his axe was bathed in energy.
"I will kill you, Mars! Soul-Splitting Axe!"
The axe fell with furious intent, acheiving a speed so great that the blade heated up and began to glow.
At the same time, the wolf growled and summoned its energy, and bit at the axe blade. The image of a full set of wolf teeth appeared, created by the wolf's energy.
The axe clashed with those teeth, and was instantly locked in a stalemate.
Little Feather looked at the scene with bright eyes.
"Revenge for his family," she whispered.
"I hope that guy wins."
Not wanting to see the outcome, she sneakily snuck away and left that area of the jungle behind.
As the two were locked in a clash, a tiny object slowly glided down from the air, coming from absolutely no where.
Neither the man nor the wolf noticed it until it landed on the point where the axe and the wolf's energy attack were meeting.
More specifically, it landed on the man's axe.
In that instant, the wolf's energy faltered just a little.
That was all it took.
The man's axe broke through the wolf's attack, and as Mars cried out in surprise, his body was cleanly cut in half by the 'Soul-Splitting Axe' attack.
Even his ghost was cut in half, forbidding him from an afterlife.
Mars the wolf perished, and the man finally relaxed, falling to the ground.
His thoughts traversed time to take him back to his family, and he instantly began to sob.
"Demear... Elys... I have finally avenged you both. May you rest easy..."
He suddenly gasped and struggled to sit up, looking at the object that had fallen onto the blade of his axe.
He did not know why, but he was certain that this object had helped him secure his victory. If it did not show up, he would have lost.
Picking it up from the ground, he brought it close to him. The object seemed to shimmer in the dark, and suddenly started to glow in his hand.
He did not even notice that, as he held the glowing object, the wound on his shoulder was rapidly recovering.
"This little feather," the man said, holding the feather that had fallen from the sky.
"It has saved my life. I thank you, whoever you are, for taking pity on me. I, Erik, am eternally grateful."
Clara had not stuck around to witness this, or else she would have been struck dumb.
Perhaps she might have also partly solved the mystery of Little Feather's inherent nature, had she seen this.
From that day onward, the man would never let this feather leave his side.
And from that day onward, Erik never lost a single battle.