A week's journey to the Somuli plane proved to be a boring endeavor.yy7
Kyran thought the things he brought with him, which were several sets of materials for creating puppets, would be enough to keep him busy.
Alas, it only took him three days to finish all the puppets he was supposed to create in a week.
When Kyran finally arrived near the Somuli plane, he donned his armor and exited the ship. Since the plane already had a Sovereign, he did not want to alert him by appearing directly outside. Besides, Flos's people or even Ruin might be nearby. He did not want to expose himself too early in the game.
After putting away the ship, Kyran carefully scanned his surroundings and slowly approached the plane. Just as he expected, he found several presences observing the plane.
There were a total of nine Sovereign essences observing the Somuli plane and Kyran recognized four. Among the four he recognized was the essence of Sovereign of Dusk, the one he met and clashed with when he was on his way to the Regis Estate.
Kyran tilted his head in amusement. He had thought the Guardians would have Wing negotiate with the Sovereign of the Somuli, but apparently this task was given to Dusk.
Not that he cared.
Right, he should be careful in voicing his opinion now that he agreed to be their consultant.
Another presence Kyran recognized was Light. The latter had left the Human plane soon after Nolan became the Sovereign, and Kyran missed the chance to remove the mark he placed on her.
Obviously, he did not want to leave his mark if it meant other Sovereigns would recognize and use it to track him down. But seeing that Flos had not done anything, Kyran reckoned Light had hidden the mark pretty well.
Come to think of it, having Light negotiate with the Somuli's Sovereign might be advantageous for Kyran. In the worst-case scenario, he could use her to pave an escape route for him.
Kyran could have asked Dusk to do that, but because their first meeting had not been that great, he would rather use Light— who was on the enemy's side— than ask Dusk for a favor.
The third presence Kyran recognized was someone he met in one of the planes he trained at. What surprised him, however, was that person was not a Sovereign before.
With an emotional sigh, Kyran was again shown how time passed differently in every plane.
'Could he have joined Flos's side?' he wondered while observing that person's surroundings. So far, each of the presences he knew was too far apart. Obviously, they were also hiding from other Sovereigns.
Not that it did them justice when Kyran's concern. His magic sense had grown by leaps and bounds, and after being accustomed to the Lower Realm's energy, he could integrate it more into his Void magic, resulting in others being unable to detect it.
To Kyran's chagrin, the owner of the last presence was none other than Ruin.
'He really came himself,' he thought, feeling an incoming headache.
As for the rest of the presence, Kyran guessed they were Sovereigns from other factions.
Axil's and Flos's factions were the only two famous ones recruiting Sovereigns for the upcoming war, but others were also forming their faction.
Kyran already knew there were six more factions apart from Axil and Flos's. If the five presences he sensed represented one of each, then that left only one other.
'No, he might be representing another faction,' Kyran thought, recalling the owner of the presence he recognized.
'Looks like all of them are here to poach the new Sovereign,' Kyran could not help but shake his head in exasperation.
It was alright if all of them came here for the Somuli's Sovereign, but if word came out about Cyneah possessing the Macabre Glacier and if she was indeed, the Saint— Kyran could almost see all of these factions trying to get their hands on her as well.
'I can't be careless with my investigation,' he thought, thinking of using an item he had not used in a while. 'She knew me by that identity, might as well use it here.'
With that in mind, Kyran teleported and slowly entered the Somuli plane without triggering its cradle.
That was one of Kyran's advantages. Since he was not a Sovereign, he did not trigger a plane's cradle if it already had a Sovereign.
Axil and the rest knew this, which was why they were adamant about poaching Kyran for their cause. With him in their ranks, it would be easier for them to enter a plane and find a chance to negotiate with a plane's Sovereign ahead of the others.
Kyran teleported to the middle of a lush forest in the Somuli plane. He did not know how far he was to the Kingdom of Cretea. But since that was the Sovereign's homeland, he did not want to go there just yet.
Besides, Wing never said the Saint lived there. Kyran even had an inkling the Saint lived somewhere else. Because if the Saint had been in Cretea all this time, why did it take the Sovereign that long to find her and have her heal him?
If Kyran also considered Cyneah's situation when she called out to him, it was clear she was in a disadvantageous place to a human like her.
For these reasons, Kyran decided to search the city where these 'complete beings' and beasts coexisted first.
'Now then,' Kyran removed his armor and took out his face-altering mask and changed his face to Nar. This was the item he had not used in a long time.
After leaving the Human plane, he never had the chance to use it until now. He did not see the need to hide his identity even when he visited different planes. In the first place, his magic was too flashy to hide.
In the Human plane, he managed to trick others into making them believe he had Strengthening magic while he pretended to be Tyr, but that was only possible because of the Human plane's special condition. But with the limitations in the magic law of each plane, it was harder to hide the nature of his magic. The key word there was 'harder.' Thus, it was still possible, but it would be exhausting.
'No signs of forest beasts,' Kyran mused.
He was not complaining, though. Without beasts to hinder his movement, he could find his way out of the forest faster.
One of the things he realized after visiting other planes was that few beasts dared attack him. However, this was not the case when he went out for training. He rarely encountered beasts, but they never tried to steer away from him. He guessed whoever oversaw the Tower of Tribulations made it so his ability to keep beasts at bay would be kept in check. After all, without beasts to test him, his training would be useless.
Still, that did not mean no beast would attack him. When they did attack, however, they were either being controlled or were under the orders of another.
After confirming that the coast was clear, he belatedly realized he did not ask Wing the Somuli's time. This made him scratch his head inwardly. He did not think he was that excited to investigate the Somuli's Saint that he would forget to ask for such basic information.
Taking out a device he created to determine a plane's time, Kyran found a safe spot— on top of a huge tree— and teleported there. After that, he activated the device and let the energy in the surroundings fill its energy core.
Kyran's eyes almost popped out of their sockets after realizing time in Somuli was erratic. This meant that time could run ten times faster or five times slower than in the Human plane, depending on its season.
Those numbers were only an example. They could be ten times, seven times, or even thirty times. Such an erratic flow of time would be hard for anyone to keep track of things outside. No wonder the essences of Sovereigns outside had not tried to enter the Somuli plane.
Kyran sighed while looking up at the night sky.
There were plenty of stars in the Somuli plane. He would have thought he was in the Human plane if not for the four moons hanging with them.
'I'll have to check with Zephyr later to determine the current time difference here,' he thought. 'Such an erratic time flow will be hard to detect using my device.'
In instances like this, he could not help but think of Stella. If he had the Time Keeper by his side, he would not have any problems figuring out the time flow in a plane.
But it was only a thought. He would not ask her to accompany him because her presence was needed in the Human plane.
Putting aside this thought, Kyran jumped down the tree and started looking for the exit.
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