"If you're busy…."
"No, it's ok! They're all good. We're friends, you can tell me anything as long as you don't puke on me."
Kai from the orb was just like he always was. Smiling and calm, almost like an innocent flower. We were fairly close since we usually hit off extraordinarily well. Even amongst the other people I knew, the way I could relax with Kai was something I could only do with maybe Lethe and Albert.
"Notice anything different?" I asked.
The god of adventurers crossed his arms and looked at me in speculation deep.
"Oh!" He slapped his hand on his palm as if he had just struck Eureka and screamed. "Your scars are gone!"
"Miss Receptionist, hook Kaiser up for an eye test when he comes back."
"Are you sure, manager? I think this is more brain test material."
The manager nodded. My friend was being slandered out in the open and he puffed his cheeks in response. I could tell he did.
Then, he finally reeled back in surprise and spoke out loud.
"HORNS!"
The dragons behind him flinched.
"You've got horns now! What the heck happened?!"
"Don't I look cool?"
"You don't, it's edgy. Didn't I tell you that one time someone was trying to cosplay as a demon?"
"The one where you dunked the guy in a freezing lake in the middle of the night thirteen times?"
I, to my own surprise, remembered his tales.
He nodded.
"Well, I guess this is different. Are you a demon now?"
I could also see a small being floating on his shoulders, waving at us as we waved back. But the others likely had no idea of Titania's niece and the princess of the fairies sitting together.
"There's a lot to tell you," I said.
"Hm, in that case, let me wrap this up in a minute."
I nodded and the visual disappeared again.
When an insane amount of mana or ki intervened with something else, even people could not move their own. Kind of like the difference between drinking water and drowning in it.
The orb was currently being drowned.
We had no choice but to wait for a bit. He seemed to be taking more than a minute so I pulled out some cards and the four of us went for a few rounds of poker.
It was when I was about to reveal the royal flush I got from rigging that the feed connected again and a slightly, just very slightly dustier Kaiser showed up. Behind him, the corpses of a hundred or so dragons lay.
Dragons, I was yet to kill even one.
"Alright, you can tell me now—Are you playing poker? No fair."
This guy was slightly insane in the head, huh?
***
It took a heavy minute, but I told Kaiser everything. Halfway through, I also started telling him about who I was and where I was from at which point the others left the room as if to give us some space.
It wasn't needed, but the manager was always overtly kind like this.
They also came back though when Kaiser started asking me about the cuisine of Earth right after my admittance and incited a good laugh from me.
From the demons and the gods, the outer gods, and my guess about the dungeons, even the orb I had found and the regression of my friends, he was told all of it.
"It seems a little out there, kinda like a tale but."
"No, of course, I believe you."
Of course, huh?
Kaiser slightly tapped his head.
"Eugy. You told me you didn't have a lot to experience when we first met."
I nodded.
"But that seemed to have been a lie, huh?"
"No. What I had raked in back then were just bland memories. Experiences are also followed with emotion."
"What about that healer guy who makes you share food?"
"Well, we always had a strong sharing culture at my home place. I'll count that as an experience though."
The both of us chuckled.
The time for small talk was over.
"You want to learn to keep your power in, it would be best to do it in stages like me."
That was the plan. If I could seal just bits of my ability at a time, it would make things a lot easier for me in terms of surviving.
"Mine is more of a psycho-physical blockage. A barricade to keep things in, but in your case, the gates like mine will be your greatest weapon."
"That's right. But…"
"But Eugy," Kaiser spoke. "You're like a twig. What good is your power being amplified for a long time when it's just a weak power?"
I gulped some air.
I would have blown a fuse, but now… I couldn't deny it. I was young, sure, and I was also growing with time. I was growing at such an astonishing pace that I could probably replace Kaiser in a few decades.
Decades. A time we didn't have.
Kaiser had killed a hundred dragons in a breath, but getting even ten of those would be tough for me, not to mention that other dragon that had holed my stomach.
"Don't fret it," Kaiser spoke. "If these outer gods are that dangerous… I'll teach you."
The manager's jaw dropped, and so did the receptionists.
"Not just how to be weaker. But to be strong. In one, maybe two years, I can teach you."
I clenched my fists.
This opportunity.
It won't come around again.
But I didn't have one or two years. My drive for strength had gone nowhere, but my drive to protect the ones I needed to was just as large. If I could have better chances by handling this through everyone, then that was what was needed first.
"We'll shrink it a few months," I said. "If you don't mind."
"Don't worry about it now. I still have time before I can return to the place. We'll see the situation and decide then." As if reading my worries, Kaiser spoke up.
"Right. Let's do that."
He smiled, I could tell he did, and then crossed his arms once more.
"But this orb thing… it seems bothersome. Your World's End was already a menace like nothing else I had seen. But for it to survive that, I doubt even I can."
"Orb?" The receptionist, who had also stepped back in the room asked. "Did you find an orb too?"
I raised my brow.
"What do you mean too?"
"There were a lot of reports about people finding orbs of some kind all over the place. I had just received a few letters from the vice guild master."
"Orb…" the manager hummed too. "The few people that have reported back have also talked about an orb."
"Lily sent a letter saying that too…" Maria added.
Intriguing. Very intriguing. Kai and I both had our brows scrunched as I pulled the orb out and placed it in front of us.
"This thing?"
***
"O-Oh!"
A voice rang out in a giant room.
"A-another… another of them! The spell has worked on another of them."
Inside the booming dome, dozens of small portals hung in the air. Through all of them were sights of places far far away.
"Another?" Someone responded to the raspy old voice.
"I have found traces of the outer gods in another world!"
"How? Guess we know our next destination as well. For now. Make me way towards Earth."
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