In his room, Kyran reviewed the Lower Realm's map while listening to Zephyr reading the reports from Aki and Len.
In the past year, Reuben and Tritus were able to progress in listing down the names of those who went missing because of the rift.
The first time Kyran browsed through the names, he was surprised to find Gage's name on the list.
Based on a more detailed account that led to his missing status, the last time Nolan heard from Gage was when he was about to meet with the leaders of the rebel faction. At that time, Nolan had only returned from the Tower of Tribulations and was about to check on the situation in the Regis Estate. But after that message, there had been no signs of him.
Kyran instructed Tritus to find more information about Gage, thinking the rebel faction might have killed him when he went to meet him. But the interrogation of the leader of the rebel faction turned negative when they confirmed Gage did not appear in the designated meeting place. They also confirmed not hearing from him since then.
Since the interrogation with the rebel faction did not show any result, Tritus backtracked and investigated Gage's whereabouts before his supposed meeting with the rebel leader. There Tritus discovered remnants of a rift appearing close to the last location Gage was seen.
Tritus surmised the latter might have also accidentally entered a rift from that.
Because of this, Kyran included Gage's name in his list of people he would search for because he had been one of the first people who helped him. It did not matter whether his contribution was big or small. Risking his life was enough reason for Kyran to see him as one of his own.
When Kyran and his puppets left to visit planes, he had them look for the Noir, and the others, including Gage.
"Still no signs of Noir and the rest, master," Zephyr reported after a quick sweep of Aki and Len's message.
Kyran sighed. He initially thought finding information about Cyneah was far more difficult than finding traces of Noir and the others. He did not expect to have more trouble looking for the latter than the former.
"Tell them to return. I'll have them stand by until I confirm whether the Saint in Somuli is Cyneah. If that's the case, I'll have all able puppets focus on searching for them."
Neo balked after hearing this, "Master! I want to help find the mistress."
"I am more than enough to accompany master in searching for the mistress," Zephyr told him matter-of-factly.
"Actually, I want you to stay here and keep an eye on the puppet's progress," Kyran told Zephyr, not turning his attention away from what he was doing on the table.
"What?" Zephyr exclaimed. "But master—."
"I can sense True Void is about to wake up," Kyran continued, not giving Zephyr a chance to complain. "He can accompany me."
Zephyr scowled, "Is he not supposed to supervise the puppets? Why am I the one doing his work?"
"You're supposed to supervise the beast Sigils, but since I left them in the Human plane, you can look after the puppets first," Kyran responded with a shrug. "Besides, True Void has to replenish his depleted magic energy, he can't do that if he stayed in the ship."
Neo chuckled, "If True Void used the ship's magic energy to replenish his, sir Loar will go mad."
"Why are you calling that guy sir?" Zephyr scowled at Neo.
Neo raised his brows questioningly, "Why not?"
"Alright, you two," Kyran finally raised his head and got up from his seat.
Immediately, Neo and Zephyr looked at him attentively.
Kyran looked at them and said, "The plane I'll be heading to is far from here. Neo, you've been to the Kaio plane. It is about a week's journey from there."
"Ah," Neo's face distorted as he recalled the plane Kyran had mentioned. "That plane? I'd rather not return to that place."
The Kaio plane was barren, with rarely any living thing in sight. The few living could only be found underground, and Neo, a puppet, was not fond of such spaces.
"It's not like I'm telling you to go back," Kyran said with raised brows. "In any case, I'll warp in that plane and go to Somuli from there."
"Will it be safe?" Zephyr could not help but ask in concern. Most of the time, when traveling to a plane from a different one, they encounter realm storms or beasts.
Storms were one thing. As long as they could steer away from their area of influence, they could continue their journey with no problems. However, in seven out of ten instances where they saw a storm, they encountered realm beasts.
It was as if these realm beasts lurked just outside a storm's area of influence to devour any ships that would steer clear from the latter.
Escaping from a realm beast was hard because they were invisible. One could only rely on their magic sense to feel their presence. Kyran had no trouble locating a realm beast, but whenever the latter sensed someone 'looking' for it, it would unleash its skill, enveloping everything in its influence into darkness.
Zephyr and the others had experienced that darkness, and it took some effort for Kyran to retrieve them.
"It won't," Kyran replied. "But I'll be fine. Keep me posted. If you found clues about Master Noir and the others whereabouts, let me know at once. You know how to do that, right?"
He was not telling Zephyr to contact him through the communication device because of its limitation but through their connection.
Zephyr nodded, "Alright. Be careful there, master. If you need back up, let us know."
"I will," Kyran replied. He was not about to tell them there was no need. If what Axil and Wing told him about Flos's and Ruin's movements were correct, he might need them when the time comes.
Of course, before he could consider anything else, he had to confirm if the Saint was Cyneah.
And with that, Kyran donned his armor and left, warping in an instant outside the Kaio plane.
Contrary to what Wing had expected, Kyran could not warp inside a plane. He could only appear outside its vicinity.
While this did not seem to matter much because what was important was him warping at such a long distance, the real crux of the matter was his state after warping.
Just as he told Wing, it was draining. It took over half of his magic energy and almost all his stamina just to warp outside a plane. The plane's distance did not matter. As long as he warped, he would be drained.
Because of this, he would be vulnerable for a few hours. That was why before warping, he donned his armor.
After that, with his remaining magic energy, he summoned a small ship and went inside.
The ship was not made out of magic but something Loar lent him. Though it was supposed to be 'lent' to him, he already made adjustments, and it more or less responds only to Kyran's will.
Loar was aware of this, and being his usual self, he was chill about it. As a matter of fact, he was ecstatic whenever Kyran adjusted his creations. To him, he was gaining more rather than losing because of the profoundness of Kyran's ideas.
In any case, Loar already gave that ship to Kyran, and the latter was free to do anything to it. Others might think he was being generous by gifting a ship, albeit a small one, to Kyran. But it was nothing compared to the things Kyran had given.
After all, he had been helping them gather resources for the faction. Such a small thing to repay his hard work was nothing.
The ship would normally only accommodate three people at most. Even then, it would already feel cramped inside. But with Kyran's adjustments, it could now accommodate seven people, and that was only in its control/navigation room.
Kyran also included three more rooms inside. Two bedrooms and a pantry.
All of these were possible with Kyran's Void magic.
Loar begged Kyran to do the same with the rest of his ship when he saw this. But Kyran only promised to make one. He was not being stingy, but creating all those adjustments took a huge toll on him because the materials required needed Void energy.
Those things could only be created by Kyran, using the concept of the teaching on Void energy he got as a reward from the Tower of Tribulations.
Loar happily agreed. He was only joking when he asked Kyran to adjust all his ships anyway. For Kyran to agree to adjust, one of his ships was more than enough.
Kyran went to the control room and input his destination on the panel. After that, he went to one of the bedrooms to rest.
If there was something he had learned this past year, that was to allot enough resting time for himself.
The sourc𝗲 of this content is free(w)ebnov(𝒆)l