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Early Evening - Late Spring : Strait of Western Elynnor

"I'm here to make a deal."

Piercing straight through my instinct, her words filled my mind with a deep and distracting confusion. -W..wh..what?-

I stared at the ancient with a look of bewilderment.

Seeing me stop fighting back, she slowly let go of my tail. "Sorry if I scared you. I got a bit excited after finally finding you."

It was as if my brain was stun locked. I simply didn't know what to say.

"W..why were you looking for me?" As much as I hated to admit it, I was plainly inferior to such an overpowering and domineering dragon.

The difference in our strength was so vast that I wasn't sure if even nuclear would work. -What could she possible need me for..-

"Before I can get to that, let me do something." Quickly closing her eyes, she started moving a disgusting amount of mana to create a brutally inefficient space rune. It looked like she tried to copy one of the space runes left by Bahamut through pure brute force.

-She wants to isolate us?- Although the rune she was making was extremely crude, it did indeed create space mana, just instead of making a gate, it made a cloud that just warped our surroundings.

"Here, let me do it.." Finally snapping out of my mental stun, I dissipated her rune and created a gate, just instead of sending us to the void, I kept us inside the gate.

"How did you.." She looked around in awe as our surroundings vanished into a pure darkness.

"Hooh.." I took a deep breath to calm my nerves before I spoke. "If you wanted to kill me, Id already be dead so..."

"R..right. An old friend sent me to make a deal with you." She turned to me with a determined look.

"Why didn't your friend come themselves?" -And who is that friend to be able to send you?- I was already skeptical.

"Well, it's not that simple... In any case, let's get down to business." Her face quickly became serious. "I need you to kill someone."

There was a short and painful silence that wrapped around us. "Excuse me?"

"I know it sounds crazy, but my friend said it was someone that threatened her life that even I can't kill." The desperateness and worry in her voice felt genuine but it just threw me off.

-If its someone that even you can't kill.. then the f*ck am I supposed to do?- "You must be mixing me up with someone else. I'd be killed by you in a heartbeat, let alone someone even stronger."

"Well, I felt the same but after seeing you in person, I'm starting to think it's possible. You’re fundamentally different after all."

-What… How does she..- Questions ran through my mind, one after another, but I couldn't think of an answer for any of them.

Before I could finish thinking, she opened her mouth and pulled out a weird looking purple sphere with trillions of black, moving tubes inside of it. -A hypersphere?!- It instantly reminded me of the tesseract I saw when I first reincarnated. The color, and design on its shell was the exact same.

As I was staring at it, she casually threw out another bombshell. "The fact you recognize this is proof that you're the person she told me to look for."

The instant I realized what she said, I felt a shock of electricity course through my body. -The only people that know about that are Mother and Father..-

"The man you need to kill is named Magni. I don't know too much about him either, but ‘you'll know him when you meet him’."

-God.. I wish she'd stop throwing up red flags..- Under no circumstances was this a deal I should take. The request was too outlandish and vague, and the contractor was someone who knew far too much about me. -But I really need that artifact..-

As I eyeballed the hypersphere, I tried to clarify something. "So.. that artifact.."

"This is the downpayment."

-Sh*t..- Whoever I was making the deal with was someone that knew I couldn't refuse the deal in the first place. "Fine.. I'll do it... Whats my time limit?"

She showed a look of relief once I agreed. "She said to just do it once you get the chance to."

-What kind of time limit is that?- It was once again, too vague to make sense of.

“But let me make something abundantly clear, Sir Ragnarok.” She gave a threatening glare as she pressured me with her excessively heavy aura. “If you fail this commission, and my friend dies.. I won't stop with just killing you..”

It felt as if the world stopped turning for a moment. My entire body stiffened up and I broke into a cold sweat.

“Haah..” With a deep breath, she eased up her aura and lightly tossed the artifact to me. “Here..”

-Oi!- Instantly breaking into a panic, I tried to catch it as gently as possible.

The instant it touched my palm though, it shined a bright purple light and moved right in front of my face.

-WHAT THE?!-

As I was flashbanged, an all too familiar robotic voice appeared in my mind.

"Clearance: Approved

Authorities: -Error-

-Update Impossible-

-Update Delayed-

-Please reconnect to a server at your earliest convenience.-

-Assuming Temporary Authorities-

Authorities: Approved

Conditions: Met

Activating Procedure: E?????p???s???i?????l????o???????n???? "

-W..wha..- The voice was mostly clear and understandable, but before I could process what it said, a horrible pain, as if my brain and eyes were being ripped apart, shot through my head.

As I lost control of my mana and the gate dissipated, I heard the ancient's voice again. "My name is Amphitrite, if you really do succeed, I will forever be in your debt."

The genuinity in her voice dissipated the anger that built up from the pain, but even if I wanted to do something, I couldn't move.

Before long, my vision faded to black and my stomach was filled with that gut-wrenching sensation.

Even today, I can vividly remember the feeling of powerlessness mix with the feeling of sinking into the ocean..

What a horrible combination that was..

Once I finally woke up, I could only feel cold, dry sand beneath me. -Huh.. w..where am I..- Looking around, I noticed I was laying next to Ilios in some kind of underwater bubble, but even though there wasn't any light, I could see extremely clearly.

-So my thoughts have sped up, and my vision got better..- I was quick to notice the two obvious changes, but I didn't take the time to think much about it. There was something much more urgent weighing on my mind. -How long has it been?-

Normally, my internal clock (instinct) would tell me how long it had been even if I was in a dragon sleep, but this time, I was completely in the dark. -Sitting here and thinking about it wont do me any good though..-

As I slowly sat up, I accidentally woke up Ilios.

*lick-lick-lick-lick*

Without even seeing him wake up or move, I got assaulted by his licks.

"Haha, I'm alright, I'm alright." I tried to calm him down by petting him before things got out of hand. Once things finally calmed down, I mumbled under a guilt filled breath. "It doesn't help that I don't know how long you were left alone this time.."

As if understanding what I said, Ilios casually backed up and wrote in the sand.

'IIIIII IIIIIIIIIIII' (6 and 12 tallies) He sat down and gave a proud look when he finished writing.

-Gosh.. so it's been 6 months... WAIT WHAT?!- Although just two sets of tallies, it quickly reminded me about how smart he was. -I guess he is an Ancient Fenrir...- "Did anything major happen while I was asleep?"

Ilios tilted his head slightly.

-I guess that question was a bit..- Before my thought could finish though, Ilios created a bright spotlight and illuminated everything outside of the bubble. -What is he..-

Outside of the bubble was the seafloor, an endless and dark abyss of sand and rock, but around a hundred meters away, there were several massive tentacles, lining the ground.

Not quite understanding what happened, I looked down at Ilios to see him puffing up his chest. -Haha.. why is he..- It took a moment for everything to click. "YOU KILLED THAT?!"

A broad smile came to Ilios's face as he gave a strong nod.

I sat in awe for a moment before a pure pride washed over me. "Good job, Buddy! To think youre so strong now!" I excitedly leaned down and rubbed my head against him. "Next time there is a big fight, it might be you protecting me!"

But Ilios didn't seem to like that idea. "Arw.."

Hearing the odd noise he made, I pulled away from him a bit. "Hm? What's wrong?"

Casually lifting his paw, he pointed to me and swirled his mana around the bubble.

-What is he..- "You want me to use magic?"

He gave a strong nod before giving a look of anticipation.

"A..alright... What kind of magic d-" I cut myself off as soon as I started controlling and reading my aura. -What.. the..-