Rafe looked at his status screen for a long time, very confused. The fruit he ate gave him two passive skills based on his luck stat, and also increased his luck stat. Now that he thought about it, Rafe had never tried to increase his luck, because the stat had very little use in combat.

The skills were still not directly useful in combat situations, but they would probably come in handy when preparing for the next fight. Or the one after that.

Rafe saw many fights in his future. Provided he survived the battle today, that was.

He was startled when he opened his eyes.

Ma'la and Goleon were standing ahead of him, bowing at their waists as they spoke with the women in the mirror.

"I see…" the more talkative of the two women said. "I guess that was the best you could do given your desperate situation. I will wish you children success for now."

"Thank you, elder," Ma'la spoke reverently.

"Oh, you are awake boy? Good." The woman in the mirror addressed Rafe. "It's about time you set off. But before you go, you should take this little token of mine."

Something floated from the mirror. It stopped right in front of Rafe and hovered there for a time. It was like a large wooden coin. On one face it had a lamp like logo and words that Rafe vaguely thought read like a slogan for an organisation. On.the other side was a bearded man's face.

"Is this some kind of school?" Rafe asked.

"Indeed," the woman said. "With this token, if by chance you ever land in our sector or in a nearby sector, you'll be able to quickly find us."

Rafe didn't even bother reading the school name or what he assumed was its motto. He wasn't going to school ever again anyway, so why should he care about something like that?

"What's your role in this so called school?" he asked.

"Sally is the head teacher," the woman announced with a beaming smile.

Sally was probably the white haired one. She was more reserved, and at the moment she was holding Rafe's old earrings and examining them slowly. But Rafe could tell she was paying attention to the conversation going on.

"I don't think I'll ever be coming there," Rafe said honestly. "Please keep your token."

"Don't be too hasty," the woman said. "As I've said before, you're someone with too great a fate it often leaks out. It will affect everyone around you, even your planet. But that's not all it does. You are going to walk a long journey, and on that journey you're going to meet millions of people. Sometimes those people might have their great providence, or they might be influenced by you. Either way, your journey will have to continue, yet you can't just leave these people floundering about.

"I've tried explaining it as best I can. For example, that girl I can sense coming. She has your fate shrouding her like a cloak."

Rafe immediately felt his muscles tense. From what this woman said before about his body leaking fate and attracting people to him, to what she was saying now, he knew exactly who must be coming. Filoria aquamarine Benhaven. He was going to kill her.

"Perhaps killing her is not the best idea," the woman in the mirror said.

For the first time, Rafe glared straight into her eyes. He even growled a little.

The woman sighed. "I get it. I would have wanted to kill her as well if I were you. But I am not you. I can read somethings just by looking at you. You will definitely regret it if you do this, and it might cause an emotional pin that might hault your progress later on.

"Of course, the main reason I want you to spare her is because she has already taken your fate, and I don't want it to be lost. That is my selfish reason. But you, you shouldn't kill her because right now you are not in control! You are not in control of your own emotions right now. You are….hmm."

"What were you saying?!" Rafe said with a growl. He wouldn't let Filoria survive if he saw her today.

The woman was frowning thoughtfully. "She is not the only one on this planet who has devoured your fate, is she?"

And at that moment the mirror cracked. The woman told him the artifact was single use, and he had not known what she meant.

And the last thing she spoke about some one else having devoured his fate? Could it be that…?

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Rafe shook his head vigorously. He did not want to think about her. It would just make his heart ache. It would dull his sword.

A minute after the mirror broke into millions of pieces, Rafe heard the door to the secret compartment creaking. He knew it was time.

He did not ambush her. What need had he for such crude means? He had his sword in his hands. He waited there patiently for Filoria to arrive.

There was a male's voice though, shouting and shouting about being chased. And when they entered, Rafe realised he knew this man. It was the damn old torturer. The one whose name he did not know.

The two walked in, but they were too deeply immersed in their argument for the first thirty seconds or so. Then they noticed Rafe standing there and watching them quietly. Filoria gasped and took a step back. The man was shocked for a moment, but then he took a step forward with a cruel glint in his eyes.

"Huh! The kid is right here! The Chosen wants—"

Rafe flicked his sword a little.

"What are you trying to do?!" the old torturer screamed. But then his left arm slowly separated from his body. The pain came half a second later, and the man howled so loudly he could be heard from the moon.

"My armmm!!!"

Rafe struck again, again. Small, precise cuts. It didn't even take him three minutes to have a howling torso and head. He struck one last time, tired of the sound. The torturer died there.

Filoria's back was pressed onto a wall, and she was staring at Rafe in horror. She looked down at the corpse, then back at Rafe.

Rafe only tilted his head slightly, waiting for her to attack.

"I lied to you before, you know?" he said. "My level… I'm just a level sixteen wind dancer."

Rafe turned off the effect of his veil skill, and he felt Filoria scanning him with an identify skill or something similar. She gasped, trying to step back in even more horror.

Rafe wondered what she was so scared of. He just proved to her that he was far much weaker than she was. Why was she hesitating now?

"I don't have all day to play with you, so I'll just make it quick."

He walked forward at a leisurely pace.

Before he could get to her though, the secret door, which had not been shut before, opened to expose a bloody and familiar man.

Rafe frowned as he turned to someone he formerly would have considered a friend. He remembered the days when Collab helped him refine his two newest fighting techniques. Those were simpler and nicer times.

But Collab did not show any intention of obstructing Rafe's revenge. He stepped away from Filoria, who was looking at her old master beseechingly.

Rafe also remembered that Collab came to the prison over these last few months, never leaving the underground chamber for longer than it took him to get his meals. Rafe tried to ignore the fact that someone he knew might have been there, but Collab was there, watching the situation. Watching over him. Now he looked at him regretfully but his stance was clear.

He had fought a few powerful people, based on the fact they were able to tire the strongest E grade on Primus out a bit. Now he was bloody, but he was standing aside, telling Rafe to do whatever he wanted.

Rafe nodded in acknowledgement and stepped towards Filoria, the tip of his sword pointed towards her heart. He was going to kill her.

'Don't kill her!'

The voice was not physical. It was like a kind of spiritual message. It sounded somewhat familiar. Rafe didn't have to wonder long who'd sent such a message. There were more than two people in the room after all.

He turned and frowned at Ma'la and Goleon. Ma'la was holding something. A tiny model of the spear he gave Helare all those weeks ago.

'Don't kill my sister!'

It was no wonder the voice sounded similar.

"What do you mean by this?!" Rafe asked the gods with a growl.

He didn't care if Filoria and Collab took him for a mad man. He needed to know what was going on.

"We tried to preserve as much of her soul essence as we could, but we could only get so much. It will take some time for her mental faculties to become active again. But she has always thought of the other young lady as her sister, and in her new form, she needs a master, and she has already made her choice."

Rafe's expression turned ugly.

"What?!"

'Remember your promise!' that mental probe tried again.

In his mental eye, he saw that moment when the Chosen first turned on the projection device, and the scene that followed after. Rafe promised Helare that he would spare the Ma'la if he was ever to be their judge.

"What does this have to do with anything?!"

A bell tolled out in the city.

"It is time," Ma'la said, and then she walked out with Goleon.

It would take only one second to kill her. One moment, less than a heartbeat, and Rafe would be free of this hatred pervading his heart.

But he forced his hand down, and with a heavy heart walked out of the hidden room. He had already put the elven woman and her pod directly into his soul void, and now he had the feeling he couldn't put another human in. It was at capacity in terms of how many humans it could hold. All the pixies had finished fading away.

Rafe regretted that he didn't know what came of the weird multi colored sprite and the contents of his phoenix egg. He had not remembered to ask.

He heard Filoria fall to the ground with a thump, clearly still shocked at being alive.

He didn't know why he decided to spare her at the last minute. Was it because of that lingering wisp of consciousness from Helare that still considered Filoria a sister? It was probably the gods manipulating the situation.

In any case, Helare chose to help Filoria at this crucial moment. Maybe because of some lingering feelings or something, Rafe decided to spare Filoria on a whim. He failed the princess that day, and maybe this was his only way of attorning. Filoria was a lucky girl.

He didn't have to walk down the entirety of the spire. They didn't have the time anyway. He walked toward the only window in the Chosen's office and looked down. Sure enough, one of the tamed monster beasts was hovering there, Ma'la and Goleon and an unfamiliar wind god on its back.

Two hours of flying later, the promotion event was yet to start. Rafe recognised the place they landed almost immediately. It was the little island on which the entrance to the Deufont dungeon was situated.

There was a large cave with a tiny entrance a few kilometers behind the Deufont entrance. It was there that Rafe saw more than a thousand ethereal beings, all assembled as if they were going to war.

And what they were working on looked familiar. It was gigantic and made of clay and it was not what Rafe had expected at all.

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