“What?” Thalandi exclaimed, hanging off father’s shoulder to get a proper look at the notification. “What the fuck is All Right, Come Back Here For A Second supposed to be? No, actually, before that, how the fuck is that even possible? Such a ridiculous trait name makes absolutely no sense!”

  “I think it’s just Profound Toxin fucking around with me a little bit. It’s an inside joke between us from a little while back,” Eik clarified.

  “An inside joke between you and Profound Toxin…?” she asked with a frown packed with confusion. “Isn’t Profound Toxin the name of one of your abilities?” she continued and shot her dad a glance to which he nodded slightly. “You’re just as crazy as I thought,” she grumbled.

  “My daddy is not crazy!” Bin yelled at Thalandi while Goo narrowed his eyes, showed teeth, and shook his little fist angrily in the air with a silent scream of righteous fury.

  Eik just laughed. “I think Worldbreakers just tend to be a little strange. At least that’s largely my experience with it.”

  The initial response was silence. Shocked, disbelieving silence from Thalandi and Uja while Philip Sr. and Rebecca just stared in hesitant confusion. After a couple of seconds, Thalandi’s eyes snapped to her father. “You have known about this for years, haven’t you, dad?”

  He pursed his lips sheepishly and cleared his throat. “Uuh, yes?”

  Rolling her eyes, she turned back to Eik. “So you’re a Worldbreaker? Since when?”

  He arched an eyebrow. “Since, uuh… since always?”

  She clicked her tongue in annoyance. “I knew you were doing way too well in the Championship…” He had clearly already done too much outrageous stuff to garner much surprise by the fact that he was a Worldbreaker on top of everything else.

  “All right,” he sighed. “Anyway, I think this is the sign that I’ve done the thing I had to do to get that other thing,” he said. “But before any of that…”

  With a sweeping gesture from their Monarch, thousands of Profound Toxic beasts surged out of Eik like an army deploying. They scattered in all directions, slipping narrowly past Rebecca and Philip Sr. who both yelped in shock and pulled their son in close between them.

  “I was about to suggest the same thing,” Clan Leader Gul remarked. “We can think about everything else once we’ve secured the city for certain. I’ll send my shadow soldiers out as well.” Gul’s dark summons followed Eik’s floating through the air as they scanned every street and building.

  Both armies worked together to cover as much ground as quickly and effectively as they could. Designating the Dayarunar estate as the center of the operation, the summoned troops, numbering in the tens of thousands, were soon present in the entire city and checking absolutely everywhere for any traces of monsters.

  Rescue efforts around the affected areas had already begun in earnest, the Living Manifestations joining in wherever they were needed. Incapable of speech, it required some frantic gesturing to convince the people that they were not, in fact, monsters out to rip their heads off or feast on their guts. Luckily, summoning abilities were common enough that most people were quick to put two and two together.

  When Eik and Andihar returned to the estate after combing through Gimleh, the others were still waiting for them there. Molanda had arranged for food for everybody, including Rebecca and Philip Sr. as well as the families of all of her employees, hoping to give them something else to think about. These people were not used to the kind of excitement they had been subjected to today.

  Despite their relatively light relationship with death and the possibility of dying along with the few attacks by the cult of Moon Shall Swallow that had occurred over the past few years, even the citizens of Gimleh weren’t capable of simply disregarding such an experience. Not to mention that this nonchalance toward death described warriors and the people at headquarters a lot more accurately than the commoners in the main city.

  Eik, Andihar, and Gul had quickly met up with a few other high-rankers involved in the cleanup and rescue operation. Mn’Toakh along with a squadron of powerful Alliance troops had sought them out herself and offered to coordinate their efforts. P?lse and some people from his family also offered a helping hand, once more raising Eik’s initially negative impression of the man.

  He might be an annoying, whiny little bastard, but he stepped up when his help was needed. And that was something to respect.

  “How did everything go?” Ihasu asked, taking his hand as he joined the large group at an empty seat at a very long garden table.

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  “Great. At this point we can say with nearly one hundred percent certainty that we’re good. There don’t appear to be any remnants of the monsters left in Gimleh or the vicinity, but there are still people and summons patrolling all over, just to be on the safe side.”

  Leaning into his shoulder, she breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s really good to hear,” she said, Rebecca and Philip Sr. nodding with vigorous agreement from across the table. “But, hey, I’ve been wanting to ask, Eik,”

  “What?” he asked as Bin and Goo fought to be the first to sit in his lap. In the end they got a leg each.

  “Am I mistaken or did your big, giant Monarch thing punch the hell out of the spawn of the Lord of the Moon back there?”

  “No, that’s pretty spot on all around,” he said, grabbing a pocket that appeared to be made of some kind of boiled leaf containing meats and spices.

  “But isn’t that guy made entirely out of your aura?”

  “Yeah. What’s your point?”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Now you’re just playing dumb. How did you do that? I’m sure you couldn’t do that before.”

  With a grin, he flashed his forearm where the relevant ability trait was etching itself into the skin in glowing letters. “It’s called Corporeal Incarnation, baby! Check it out!” he said and manifested his aura, leaving out both the blue, toxic properties as well as the spirit crushing pressure he was capable of exuding.

  A theatrical flourish and a tiny flex of his aura saw his father’s water glass fall over and pour liquid all over the table cloth. What a perfect and totally safe demonstration of the ability of his aura to physically affect objects in the real world.

  “Eik!” Rasmus’ voice called from a few seat down, disappointment painfully clear in his tone. “Who taught you that it’s okay to push over a glass when you’re a guest at someone else’s house? That’s very rude!”

  “But dad!” the chastised S-ranker whined. “I just saved everyone from certain doom! Can’t you give me a break?”

  “Your two wonderful children are sitting right there on your lap watching your every move! Think about what you’re teaching them.”

  Eik grumbled but didn’t talk back. “Fine, sorry…”

  “You’re so funny, daddy,” Bin giggled and scratched him on his stubbly chin. Goo was already reaching out to push over a glass belonging to the husband of one of the Dayarunar estate workers two seats down, his little arm extending far beyond human limits.

  Sheepishly, Eik batted down his son’s snaking arm and caught the youngling in a tight bear hug that prevented him from trying to follow any more of his father’s mischievous behavior. “Sorry, everyone,” Eik muttered, his eyes darting around as everyone watched him. Goo struggled in his grip but Eik didn’t let him move an inch. “Gooey, don’t— don’t be like daddy.”

  Philip Sr. chuckled and fed Eik’s wild rascal a cookie, recoiling in shock as the boy snatched it up out of his fingers like a snapping turtle. “After saving us all and showing us something so completely insane as what what you just did, you can do whatever you damn well please, as far as I’m concerned.”

  Concurring nods followed around the table. Not a single person was looking at him askance. That had simply been a trick of his imagination. As a matter of fact, their eyes were filled with gratitude and admiration. Even his father’s eyes were full of love and pride.

  “What are you doing here, like… freakin’, trying to make me cry, or something?” he muttered, blinking repeatedly as laughter spread around him.

  Ihasu patted his arm and he leaned in to speak quietly to her while the rest of the table returned to their previous conversations. “Hey, can I get your opinion on something?” he asked her.

  With a nod she leaned in as well and he held up his forearm, allowing only her eyes to see the script that appeared.

  [Skill evolution available. Skill available for evolution: Living Manifestation]

  [Choose one]

  [Living Manifestation — Fortification]

  [Living Manifestation — Harass]

  [Living Manifestation — Empower Original Life]

  “Fortification and Harass would probably both be great additions to my fighting power. I’m assuming Fortification basically grants all Living Manifestations tougher bodies while Harass gives them the ability to distract or grab the attention of an enemy. But…”

  “You want my opinion on whether to pick Empower Original Life?” she guessed.

  “Yeah. We both know Goo is already stupid strong for how little he is but would it actually even be sensible to make him even stronger? I mean, would it be safe to let such a crazy little guy run around as a high-ranker? What if he, you know… kills someone by accident?” It was a concern Eik had had even before this trait was offered but now it was a more relevant line of thought than ever.

  “You say you’re going to move into X-rank now, right?” she whispered.

  “I think so, yeah.”

  “I still can’t believe that’s real, by the way,” she added with a deep, steadying inhalation before she continued. Eik could only agree. It was… insane to a degree that couldn’t be expressed well with words.

  It was a level of power that would make him utterly untouchable—a rank that was so incredibly rare that even the greatest powerhouses and leaders of civilizations had never even met a single one of them. That’s how amazing they were. And he was standing on the threshold.

  “You and me both,” he mumbled and caressed her cheek lovingly.

  “I’m scared. What if you change?”

  He smiled. "I won’t. Chop said that at least part of that is a consequence of the extreme age X-rankers can reach as well as the generally bizarre personalities of Awakened who managed to reach such a mythological plane.”

  “Still…”

  He pulled her close. “You and the kids will be my first love and priority whether I die tomorrow or in a thousand years.”

  Body trembling slightly against his, she fell silent for a few moments before she forced herself to move on. “Anyway, how about you get that taken care of first, and then, when you know how X-rank changes you, you can make a decision about the evolution?”

  With a smile he rose from his seat. “Sounds good.”

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “Did I tell you about the time I woke up in one of the Dayarunar guest rooms after the Championships?” he began, throwing a thumb toward the mansion. “I was so hungry that I devoured a bowl of nuts before even figuring out where the hell I was.”

  She laughed. “Okay, so?”

  “That bed was like a cloud.”

  “All right?”

  “Isn’t that just a perfect place to become an X-ranker?” he asked her with a grin.

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