She wasn't wearing her uniform, the one she was to don as the dean of Nexia academy.

Instead, she wore something quite casual, something that would make her hard to recognize if one wasn't acquainted with her.

A plain white t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and sunglasses.

Quite plain.

And still.

Under the moon, her soft smile curling her lips, and her dark hair taken by the evening wind, Verity couldn't help his chest tightening.

"Yes?" He said, not sure why she'd come.

Felicia turned around, hands behind her back. "Let's walk."

Verity frowned, but stepped forward. "Sure."

They walked through the academy grounds. By this time of night, there wasn't a soul around.

It was just the two of them.

Felicia glanced over her shoulder. "Thanks for helping out."

Verity scoffed. "Not like you gave me a choice."

She shrugged. "Well, if you'd been faster, this wouldn't have happened." She said, smirking.

"If I remember correctly… you cheated." Verity retorted.

She shrugged again. "Don't you know the saying? If you're not cheating, you're not trying?"

Verity chuckled, and a short silence settled between the two of them. After a while, his lips parted again.

"So? Why did you call me out here? Surely it wasn't just to talk about the past?"

Felicia stopped mid-stride. "....Would that be so bad?"

"Felicia–" he said, interrupting himself.

She turned to him, a smile on her face, but this one slightly different. She let out a low chuckle, and her face turned back to normal. She began walking again.

"Yes, I did call you out here for a reason." She pushed a strand of hair out of her face. "The Passage to Heaven… It seems what that entity told you wasn't baseless after all." Her tone grew serious. "Soon, it will open. The Tremble scale confirms it without a doubt."

Verity thought for a moment, then spoke. "I see… but again, why are you telling me this privately?"

Felicia, as whimsical as ever, pointed to a nearby bench, and beckoned Verity to sit, before sitting right beside him.

She continued. "Its classification was IV previously, but now… though the classification is purely hypothetical, the mana density around it is such that it only makes sense to classify it as a category V Gate."

She leaned back. "There was a long debate with many suggestions, but Humanity, or as you know, the Great World Alliance, has decided to not send in a raid team, by fear of losing its champions." She paused, measuring her words. "We'll wait for a break… and we'll face them here, on Earth, with all of our forces."

Verity stroked his chin. "So you're sending people to the Atlantic Ocean…? What about the human settlements? Won't that leave them vulnerable to demons until your return?"

"Yes, it certainly will, and that's assuming we do return."

Verity felt unease in her voice, which was unusual for Felicia.

"...Out with it. I know this look" Verity said.

Felicia put a hand over her face.

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"Haha… so perceptive…"

She sighed. "There's just… so much resting on my shoulders, Verity. I've always found the Sword to be a source of fun, enjoyment, pleasure… but now, I've found myself only using it to cut down my opponents…."

She looked at her hands. "How many must I kill? How fast must I do it? And… what would happen if I wasn't there?"

Verity listened to her silently.

"There's nothing fun about this. It's just… tedious. Cut, cut, cut, and cut, doesn't matter what, doesn't matter when, just…" She swung her arm. "Cut."

She inhaled deeply and let her arm fall on her thigh. "In any case, we'll make an announcement soon. Ask for volunteers… You know how this goes..."

Verity had rarely seen Felicia this… lethargic? No, perhaps that wasn't the right word, but she did seem tired.

She turned to Verity, her eyes now serious. "I need you to protect the WHDC while I'm gone, Verity. The demons will attack without a doubt, and you're one of the few people I trust to do it."

Verity narrowed his eyes. "I mean… sure, I would have done that regardless."

Felicia shook her head. "No, I'm telling you to lead the defensive. I want you to command troops. Your very existence is inspiring for the people of the WHDC. I need… The King of Fools, the demon hunter, the silent protector of humanity… to not be so silent anymore."

Before Verity could even reply, she placed a finger on his lips. "Take a few days to think about it first." She narrowed her eyes behind her sunglasses. "You were about to outright refuse, weren't you?"

Verity looked away, not confirming or denying what she'd just said. "Sure, I'll think about it."

"Great!"

Verity began standing up, and Felicia pushed him down. Then she leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Just for a bit."

After a second or two, she sighed. "This feels nice… Why did we ever stop…"

Verity did not answer.

He wasn't sure if he could.

—

'Lots to think about...'

Verity's day, as all his days had been for the last four years, had been quite busy.

And now, with the clock close to striking midnight, he was still training.

He drew runes on the ground, trying to understand their compositions and their intricacies.

Verity had made substantial progress in his understanding of the runic language, but his runic sorcery was only… useful, not powerful nor impressive.

He couldn't throw fireballs, level the earth, or call upon the winds.

Of course, the teleportation system he'd come up with was phenomenal, a masterful combination of the concepts of Flow and Form.

But even so, it wasn't something that could be used in battle. It took some time to charge up the runic system on his back, and the teleportation itself required an enormous amount of mana, that amount increasing with increased distance.

Verity clicked his tongue as he etched markings into pieces of stone.

He'd been working on derivatives of a specific Primordial Rune.

The rune of Fate.

He believed that as it stood, he possessed a good understanding of the runes of Form, Flow, and Truth. All his current runes were derivatives of the three, and Verity felt that these three were likely the most straightforward among the six.

The next logical step would have been the rune of Communion. After all, as a concept, it wasn't as abstract as 'Fate' or even 'Sacrifice', but Verity needed power, greater power, more than ever.

'I can't stay like this…' He thought. 'I'll never reach Spear-Body-Unity…never.'

And so he needed another path for the time a demon of that level would inevitably descend onto Earth.

What could hold greater power than Fate itself?

Perhaps Death, but the rune of Death felt ominous… dangerous. It seemed like something that should be handled with great care.

Verity was no longer as foolish as to inscribe the rune of Fate onto his own body as he had done with Truth, which is why he had been trying to etch it into pieces of stone.

Rather, he'd been piecing the strokes that made up the rune apart, investigating its structure little by little. It was a process of trial and error until his [Runic Eye] showed a rune that translated to something, anything.

It wasn't very efficient, but it was all he had, and it was what he'd done until now.

He smashed the ground.

Why wasn't it working?

He'd been at it for months, and he hadn't found a single derivative. His research was going nowhere.

Was Fate different from the others?

Did it perhaps have no derivative?

He wiped his face with his hand, and he grinned. "Heh."

"If you can't get it on the first try, do it again, and again, and again, and again, until it works… and if it doesn't… then I'll just beat it into you until it does."

Those were his master's words.

Verity was a dullard.

There was no point in wallowing in frustration in front of an obstacle.

There'd been dozens, hundreds, in the past, and there will be innumerable walls for a dullard like him in the future.

He kept writing until the sun rose.

—

In a brightly lit office at the very top of the Red Magic Tower of Europe sat a man. A tall man with blonde hair and blue eyes. A man with a decently impressive build and an imposing air to him.

The expression that lined the sharp lines of his face made it seem as though he'd be difficult to approach and his sharp eyes tended to scare anyone brave enough to address him in the first place.

He was dressed in an elegant suit, a short half-cape cascading from his shoulder.

That man, though stern looking, had a fondness for what he deemed fiery hues: the blaze of yellow, the heat of red, and even the cool flame of blue.

As such, he always dressed flamboyantly, and he was easy to recognize.

He pressed a button on a watch attached to his wrist. "Speak," he said.

The voice on the other side of the watch was casual, as though not caring for the respect that the man's figure demanded. "Ah, sorry to bother you in your O so important work, but the meeting location has been decided."

The man creased his brows. "...I see. Pray tell why you believed that was worth interrupting my work."

The voice chuckled. "I thought you'd want to know… and ya know, since it's the commander's meeting and all…she will be there."

The man's pen snapped in between his gloved fingers. "I see."

"Indeed."

"Sergio… Do you think it will work?"

Sergio, on the other side of the line, paused for a moment. "It's rare for you to ask for my opinion but… Yes, I'm sure. Your plans have never failed before, and they won't now, Johann."

Johann threw his broken pen into the trash and retrieved another one from his drawer.

Sergio then seemed to remember. "Ah, but the real reason I'm calling you is because I met these two incredibly beautiful women, and I may or may not have promised them you'd be there if they agreed to–"

Johann hung up.

The Roaring sun, the Master of the Red Magic Tower, and one of eight S-rank Protectors in the entire world, cracked his knuckles, one at a time, using the edge of his chin.

Without saying anything else, he returned to his work, quiet settling over his office.

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