Seven hours before the Armakea's planned attack on the Eidum's borders, Kyran could finally summon Anan, Eikin, and Tamir. He instructed them to follow Achim's lead before returning to the Eidum's HQ.
Kyran had not fully recovered from absorbing Achim and the others, which was why he wanted to return and ask the old man for help.
The old man was not familiar with healing one's magic core. Thus, Kyran only wanted him to alleviate his exhaustion.
Kyran sighed, recalling how he used up all his healing pills yet saw no improvement in his magic core. Although only one of his magic cores had cracks, and his condition was not as severe as the first time they got damaged, it was still enough to make him uncomfortable. He constantly felt a prickling pain in his chest when his servants moved or used their magic. The pain was tolerable, but he felt that when all his servants made major movements or cast high-level magic at the same time, the prickling in his chest could become unbearable.
Having Cyneah heal Kyran's strained magic core was ideal because she was already familiar with them. But Kyran ultimately chose not to ask her for help. If he did, she would know he had been doing something dangerous and strenuous to have suffered his magic core again. He did not want her to worry and waste her energy if she insisted on healing his magic core. After all, the Armakea was about to launch a large-scale attack. If Cyneah healed his magic core, she would be too exhausted to do anything else.
Kyran did not waste time and warped directly to his room in the Eidum's HQ. He already tweaked the HQ array formation and did not have to worry about triggering its defensive array.
Initially, he wanted to improve the border's array formation as well. But because he had been busy teaching the Eidums, he did not have the time to hunt for materials he would use for its improvement.
As soon as Kyran appeared in his room, he almost jumped in fright, seeing Cyneah sitting at the foot of the bed.
"Neah."
Kyran belatedly regretted not placing any array in his room. Putting Cyneah aside, if others entered his room and he happened to warp in, it would be troublesome to explain how he did it. Then again, among the people in the HQ, Cyneah was probably the only one who would dare enter his room without reservation.
Frankly, that in itself was scary for a whole different reason.
Cyneah raised her head slightly after hearing Kyran's voice.
"You sure took your time," she said.
Kyran flinched inwardly, hearing the rare bleak tone in Cyneah's voice. He looked at her, noticed the exhausted look in her mirror-like eyes, and knew he had been waiting for some time. She most likely went to his room right after finishing what she had to do in the Infirmary.
"Something came up," Kyran said slowly while observing any change in her expression.
There was no change. However, he felt a sudden chill in the room and knew he was doomed.
Cyneah looked at Kyran, focusing all her magic sense in the room so she could see his silhouette better.
Cyneah's magic sense was now comparable to Kyran's.
Her improvement was all thanks to the thin magic energy in Somuli. To ensure she could see her surroundings, she had to put extra effort into controlling the limited magic energy in the surroundings. Nevertheless, her range was limited, and when it came to seeing Kyran's silhouette, her level was still insufficient.
Frankly, Cyneah could already see Kyran's silhouette, unlike in the past, but because of the Shaiha concealing his presence and aura, no amount of magic energy was enough to form his silhouette completely.
Sensing the movement of magic energy in the surroundings, Kyran knew Cyneah was trying to see him. With an inward sigh, he communicated with the Shaiha to lower its concealment effect.
Because of this, Cyneah could finally see Kyran's silhouette a little better. Raising her head to level her eyes to where she believed his eyes were, she felt a vague emptiness because she still could not see his face.
Before she could say something, she watched him touch his face and remove what appeared to be a mask. This made her remember a similar mask he gave her and her master, Anette, to alter her face back when they were working. Unfortunately, she left that mask in the cottage.
"You're wearing a mask all this time?"
Cyneah asked instead of asking what she wanted to ask.
"Yes," Kyran replied and sat on the single chair beside the bed.
Cyneah frowned, "Can't you change your appearance to match a complete being? If you had, the Eidums would not have been on guard around you right from the start."
She knew how the face-altering mask worked. Although the one she had did not change one's hair color, she remembered hearing from Zephyr that Kyran already improved his face-altering mask. She also recalled Anette wanting to ask Kyran to improve the mask they had so they no longer had to change the color of their hair manually. But because the situation suddenly took a sudden turn, Anette did not get the chance to ask.
Kyran shrugged, "I didn't know dark hair and eyes posed a problem. Besides, I don't remember anyone with blonde hair and blue eyes and couldn't apply it on the mask."
Cyneah raised her brows in surprise, "You mean you use another person's feature using the mask?"
"No," Kyran replied. "But I need a reference to set a new look."
"I see. Your mask is truly something. No wonder master wanted her to be..." her voice trailed off, remembering why she was there and immediately said with a slight shake of her head. "Putting that aside, where did you go in such a rush?"
"Like I said," Kyran said, sounding as uncaring as possible. "Something came up. It's not that important, though."
"Yet you are only returning now."
"I went to patrol the border afterward."
"The Abbot did not see you near the Eidum's border."
Kyran's brow twitched. He had not studied the border's array formation and, thus, was unsure what other features it had. If he knew there was a surveillance formula, he would have used one of his puppets to stay near the border.
"Right, where is the old man? I gave him a token he could use to hide, but if something happened, it is best to have him return to the Void World."
"So something is about to happen?"
"I did not say that."
"No, but the tone of your voice says otherwise."
Cyneah wore a bitter smile and added, "Did you forget? The rest of my senses compensated for the lack of my sight."
Kyran did not respond and only looked at her in silence.
When he did not answer, she knew something really happened.
"I know something happened," Cyneah started. "You can't shoulder everything, Nar. You have to tell us so we can prepare for it."
Kyran remained silent. After a short pause, he finally said, "You're right. Something did happen, and I had to check on it. That's why I had to leave in a hurry. But the reason I'm not saying anything is not because I planned to shoulder everything. It's because there is nothing to say."
"Does that mean you already have a contingency plan in motion?"
"Something like that, yes."
"And letting us know may jeopardize that plan?"
"Hm," Kyran replied with a nod.
Cyneah sighed and sat back. She looked at him and said, "You already had a plan in motion, yet you say you're not shouldering everything alone."
"What is about to happen is only a small piece of a bigger picture," Kyran told her. "After this, even if I want to solve everything by myself, I can't pull it off alone. That's why I said that."
Cyneah's brow furrowed slightly.
"You mean this is only the beginning?"
"Yeah," he confirmed. "I only set up the stage. What comes after that is the real deal."
Cyneah lowered her head and contemplated what Kyran had said. After a while, she looked at him again and asked, "How big is it? The stage that comes after?"
"As big as conquering a plane?"
Cyneah gaped at him in shock.
"A plane? Not a nation?"
Kyran smiled, "Like I said, I've only set up the stage. Conquering a nation is only the start."
"You... when you first suggested a conquest, were you not referring to conquering another nation to add to the Eidum's military strength?"
"I did."
"Then why are you suddenly talking about conquering the plane?"
"Initially, I don't have such a plan," Kyran admitted. "But seeing how much you cared about the Eidums, I had to consider it."
Cyneah felt her heart skip after hearing that. She did not need Kyran to fill in the rest of what he meant for her to understand the gist of what he wanted to say.
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