New Member of the Party

"Don't you want to talk to Mama?" I ask Helena.

She gasps before flying here using her powers. She's getting adept at using it.

On my lap, she sits. Zuriel uses a more advanced way of communicating with Zaori. It's like a foggy ethereal mirror floating in front of us. Clouds surround its edges and it is bigger than my speculum.

Zaori's face shows up and she's lying on that same sofa. By the look on her face, she's still suffering from her wound.

"Hello, Your Majesty," Zuriel greets. "How you doin'?"

"Tch, don't ask," she scoffs.

"Mama!" Helena yells.

"Oh, hello, my darling. Been a good girl?"

"Uh-huh! Look what I can do!" She floats using he powers and that made Zaori smile.

"Good job, my darling. Keep practicing."

"I will!"

"Okay, can you go and play now? Mama wants to talk with Papa."

"Okay! I have friends!"

"Good, good," she nods. "Have fun." As soon as Helena goes away, she frowns in pain. "So, what do you guys want to talk about?"

I let Zuriel tell her.

"There is a. . . bit of a conundrum that I wasn't expecting."

"What conundrum? Where is the Prudentia Library Frame?"

He grins very wide. He's like a puppy in front of her.

"It was taken by someone else," he says without moving his jaw.

She closes her eyes in frustration. "Who is this someone?"

"A Collector from the CTO."

"Darn it," she curses, glaring sideways. "Well, that's that. I guess we'll make use of the knowledge we have for now. What about the island?"

"I'm keeping it running until you send someone to take over, my Queen."

"Good."

"And uh. . . I want to tell you another thing."

"Speak."

"I want to divorce."

She narrows her eyes as she looks at me. I get goosebumps. "Why?" she asks.

"B. . . Because. . . I. . . find it hard to level up lately."

"You know that is not true. You leveled up a lot."

He squirms nervously, out of ideas on how to reason with her. "But uh. . . I want to do this in my own way."

"But you asked me—it was your own choice."

"Yes, but I changed my mind." He smiles nervously.

She looks at us one by one. "Are you guys plotting against me?"

"No, we wouldn't do that," he argues calmly. "We just—"

"Are you sure about this decision, Zuriel?"

There is no hesitation written on his face as he says, "I am."

"Very well. I will deal with both of you in 95 years." Then she specifically glares at me. "Take very good care of our daughter. I wanna take her back strong and beautiful after I kill you."

"I will raise her well, and I will not die until I get to the Edge of the Server. She's gonna meet her grandmother there."

I glare at her to let her know I'm serious. No matter how long and how much it takes, I will get to my mother.

She scoffs at us before disappearing. I never felt so relieved. It's like I removed a very tight rope around my torso. I was sitting straight and puffing my chest to look tough all that time.

"Oh, I've done it. . .," Zuriel mutters as he walks in circles in front of us. "I've done it!" he cheers and again mutters, "I've done it. . ."

He does this for a minute until I got enough.

"You're dizzying to look at," I say. "Settle down. I thought I was the nervous one here."

"But you don't understand! She's not joking, you know!"

"Yeah, so?"

"So, we need to match her strength as soon as we can!"

"That's what I've been doing all this time."

"Well, I gotta say that your progress sucks. You're still Level 90 after like. . . five years?"

"It's still good progress. By the time we face her, I'm gonna be Level 1000."

"That's not enough. You need to be at least 3000. Not to mention, Leveling up gets harder as you get higher and she's gonna be stronger by then too."

"What's your plan, then?"

"Create a harem of my own. You should too."

I turn my gaze at Nisha. She looks at me, concerned about what I'm about to say. We already had an agreement so, I say, "No, that's off the table for me."

"Are you even serious?" he scoffs.

"I am."

"I believe you are but that's just because you're stupid. Even all of the Ringers used the harem system just to pass the Tenth Ring."

Nisha pulls my arm and whispers, "Are you sure about this?"

"I am. I'll make it work somehow."

"It will be okay for me even if you change your mind."

"I said no."

Breaking away her gaze, she mutters, "Okay. . ."

Then Zuriel says, "I understand that you're not used to polygamy but sooner or later, you will have no choice."

"I doubt that will happen."

"We'll see." He rests his back against the back of the bench and his hands behind his head. "Anyway, let me join your party now."

"I thought you want a harem."

"I can still have a harem even if I already have a party."

Well, that's new to me. Apparently, that wasn't described in the File.

So, I send him the invitation and he accepts right away. I think I also have to make Helena join in so that she'll have a share of the resources we obtain. I'll do that later.

"Alright," he wraps up, rising from his seat. "Since I'm the strongest, the smartest, and arguably the handsomest in this party, I'll do the planning."

As I recall, there is no such word as "handsomest". Right after saying that he's the smartest, he spoke a dumb word. How ironic.

"Any objections?" he asks, standing in front of us with his hands on his waist. His grin makes him look more annoying.

"I'll go with whatever Cancer decides," Nisha says.

She's depending on my decisions, as always.

I think about my decision for a second. He means, basically, he's going to lead us.

"On one condition," I say.

"What?" he asks.

"That everything you plan must be for our goal to get to the Edge of Shannia."

He rolls his eyes because what I said was already a given for him. "You got it, party leader." He salutes mockingly.

"Very well," I nod with closed eyes and arms folded.

"I'll brief both of you on the objectives we need to fulfill so we can surely get to the Edge. The first objective, of course, is that each of us must have at least one Legendary Skill before entering the Tenth Ring. But that is if we survive Zaori's wrath that's inevitably coming. That is our second objective."

"Couldn't we just run away as far as we can?" Nisha suggests.

"No can do, Miss Nisha. Wherever we are, she can get to us in an instant."

"What the hell?" I exclaim. "How?"

"Remember that time when I teleported to you?"

I remember that. I was in the prison and he suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "Yeah, I think I do."

"That's how she's gonna come to us."

*Gulp* "No, that's. . . scary. Stop joking around, Zuriel."

Laughing, he says, "I'm not joking. She can do that. That's one of her Legendary Skills. It's called, 'Perpetual Omen'. She marked it onto me, you, and Helena. It can't be removed until she uses it."

"Then is that your other Legendary Skill too?"

"Yup!" he nods proudly. "Good deduction. But keep it quiet, okay?" I nod. "Miss Nisha?"

"Fine," she nods.

"Now we move on to the third objective: Destroy the CTO!"