Ruri’s face twisted quickly, and Alm and Bruno felt very strange witnessing it. "Circumstances led us to this, um... we probably won’t meet again," they quickly spoke awkwardly but soon felt even more uncomfortable. Why were they trying to justify themselves? Both thought in unison.
Ruri huffed and turned, walking in Corin’s direction, who kept his gaze on the whale without breathing. "Master gave only a few hints, but I’m the one who’s by his side day and night without a second apart," she murmured and approached Corin without looking at the whale.
Corin only noticed Ruri when she took a step in front of him, blocking his view of the whale. "I’m Ruri... master’s second disciple. Nice to meet you," she said and bowed gently.
Corin trembled, and only then did his brain process correctly. "Hm... Corin... the skeleton..." he interrupted his words, feeling the whale’s cold gaze.
Ruri then spoke, giving a slight smile. "Master doesn’t like too many formalities. Just be obedient when you feel the chill coming from him, and when he... well, you’re a boy, I think he... well, just always be obedient and informal! We’ll get along well."
He nodded quickly, feeling his heart race in front of that smile. His blue eyes sparkled, and instinctively, he scanned Ruri, his inner turmoil only increasing. Soon, the whale approached. Watching Corin’s reaction, Ruri intimately held her master’s hand, making sure to place his arm between two sensitive points. Corin observed that with serious eyes; he definitely got the silent message.
The two disciples seemed to understand each other with just a few gestures, and he bowed to Ruri as if regretting his thoughts that flowed against his will. Ruri just smiled faintly, not caring. In fact, she was internally proud; she felt that her development was satisfactory... it just lacked the person who should admire it by looking at her correctly.
"Stop being embarrassed and act normally, I don’t have time to waste. How did you end up here?"
"Yes!" He nodded energetically, lifting his gaze. "After the Divine Ske... Ahem... Once master disappeared after showing the world your supreme power, I dedicated all my time to assimilate all the sacred teachings. But, after three years... I felt something inside me clearly triggered, and a chain clouded my mind."
The whale snorted in understanding. At that time, they didn’t know how the queen created her heroes and didn’t have a method to stop her dominance rune. So, they just thought that killing the heroine would force the queen to move many resources, giving Corin time to rise... but the queen took only three years to find him and try to create a new hero using him.
"At first, I... completely lost my free will," Corin continued, clenching his fists. "But after a year, when I shamefully destroyed the monument of the divine skeleton, that’s when I managed to awaken my will subtly. Then, gradually, I regained control of my actions, preventing myself with all my strength from sinning again."
Alm and Bruno nodded. They already understood from Sesel and Oria that, with a strong will, the hero could feel the queen’s chains and resist her will a little.
Corin continued with a guilty look. "To atone for my sins, I dedicated myself to spreading the name of the divine..."
The whale cut him off sharply, preventing him from saying useless things. "So, after that, you were forcibly brought to this place, right?"
"Yes! I just felt a golden power sealing me, and the space distorting, creating a door and pushing me inside... I had no chance to resist." Corin replied with regret. "I quickly understood that I was captured, but it seemed like an opportunity for me. After fifteen thousand years, I reached the last island; the necromancer told me I was the fastest in history."
Ruri laughed. "Hahaha! Master took just a few hours! The heroes aren’t anything special, it seems."
Corin looked at the whale with a shocked expression. His veneration towards his master only grew after hearing Ruri’s words.
The whale nodded, speaking. "And why didn’t you complete the final test?"
"The test consists of ten challenges. I passed nine, but to complete the last one... I would have to kneel before that bitch’s statue! So, I felt that she would chain my mind completely forever." Corin said with hatred in his eyes. "That’s why I came back and decided that I would never betray master again, even if I die! And I would kill all the heroes who came here."
The whale snorted, and Ruri smiled, satisfied. Soon, the whale asked the question he had been pondering since they spotted that island.
"These challenges, how are they?"
Corin quickly replied. "First, I was shown a combat technique to study, but it was only once. After that, a reflection of myself appears, and it uses everything I have, incorporating this new technique."
"At first, it was extremely helpful, and I quickly learned how to use the technique by fighting against the reflection of myself. Then, from the second to the ninth reflection, the techniques were of a higher tier, taking everything to another level. But the world around us also changed, and there were other challenges besides the reflection. I had to fight in a world of higher elements, against armies, and even against various reflections of myself. Everything became increasingly difficult, and it took me a thousand years to reach the ninth level."
Alm and Bruno nodded, confirming their suspicions. All three floating islands trained an aspect of the hero: individual strength, elemental understanding, and group strength, all converging on the final test. And the level of the challenge wasn’t just defeating an evaluator; they would have to fight against a stronger version of themselves.
’We have a little over 15 hours.’ Bruno thought seriously. ’We almost died to our own power before, against the reflection of the city in the desert. Now that we’ve developed many other weapons... that reflection must be on a hardcore level.’
The whale fell silent for a few seconds, while Ruri looked puzzled and murmured, "So many years... how could you have known master for so long?" Corin heard the question and was confused, not knowing the answer.
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The whale heard that and reflected on it, remembering Almin. When they refined their home planet and killed him in the process, they were only a few hundred years old. Then, millennia passed until everything happened, and they went to the queen’s universe. But when they met Almin again, he seemed to have memories only from the point where he died. Clearly, Almin did not experience the difference of millennia.
Now, with Corin, a little over four years have passed since they completed the first main mission. But for Corin, adding the time he spent inside the heavenly realm, nearly fifty thousand years have passed. Perhaps the extra years that Almin lived before Alm and Bruno arrived in the queen’s universe were equivalent to the thousands they lived in their original universe.
"The space between universes must have its own temporal laws, and in the universes themselves, time and space naturally pass differently. Maybe a thousand years in our universe is a million somewhere else. Don’t worry too much about it; after a few thousand years, age and time become irrelevant," the whale spoke gently to Ruri.
Following that, the whale turned, waving to the group that stood in silence at a distance, waiting for them to talk privately. They approached, and the whale sighed, looking at the entrance of the mountain. They would have to pass this test... and still carry everyone with them, making everything more challenging.
Corin then took a step towards the whale. "Master! Now that we have met, I will follow you forever! I promise not to disappoint you again; give me another chance!" He spoke and knelt, touching his forehead to the ground.
"Get up and stop that," the whale spoke, turning to him. "Initially, accept joining my group. Try not to fall too far below Ruri, and don’t disappoint me again."
"Yes!" He roared, and the robotic voice asked if he accepts becoming a companion of the hero. "YES!" He roared again, even louder.
All the hero’s power flowed to the whale, but he did not pass it on to Ruri as he used to, leaving her looking strangely at her master. The whale quickly removed the queen’s presence in Corin and returned all the heroic power to him.
Then the whale turned to the two, looking at Ruri. "Now, you have a rival; I can’t give preference only to you. I will honestly benefit whoever deserves it, so strive. Both of you!"
Ruri and Corin stood side by side, clenching their fists firmly. "I’ll do my best to surpass you!" Corin said excitedly.
But Ruri was thinking of something else. "What’s the name of the third sister? I want to know the name of my rival."
The whale and Corin turned to Ruri with strange eyes. To her, Corin didn’t even register... the real competition was with another.