Barkeep Ji gave Grey a weird look when he strolled in with two frostbitten girls under his arms. One of them was already missing a leg, and what little of it was left had turned completely black and flaking, tidbits of blood seeping through from the wounds underneath.
The other’s breath constantly formed icicles that dropped to the ground like pinging raindrops of metal needles. Neither of them looked like they were in very good condition.
According to the angel lady, this process should have lasted seconds. But it had been several minutes now, and both of them looked like they were already at the end of their rope.
"I’m going to leave these two here. I don’t know where else to put them. This is considered a safe room, right?" Grey asked.
Barkeep Ji nodded.
"Safe room as in it’s actually a safe room? Or safe room as in someone can fuck with it whenever they want and ruin everything?"
Barkeep Ji only smiled in response and Grey could only shake his head. It seemed he wasn’t going to get a better answer than that. He could only hope that they’d be fine and come out the other side of this. Otherwise, it would cause some real issues.
"I’m going now," Grey said after setting them down in a room. The two women huddled against one another, but he wasn’t sure if there was any real warmth coming from that with both of them giving off so much chill.
But since they seemed to prefer to be closer to one another, Grey wasn’t going to be the one to stop it.
"Are you going to try and clear the arc?" Barkeep Ji asked.
"That’s right," Grey said. "Why?"
Barkeep Ji didn’t reply.
"Fuck me," Grey mumbled. He didn’t know what the problem was, but the fact Barkeep Ji was asking the question meant that there was definitely an issue.
It didn’t take him long to figure out what it was. Finishing the arc probably removed a lot of the restrictions around the separation of zones and empires, not to mention the various locations these individual arcs were taking place.
On the one hand, it would free Thi Lan. On the other, it would probably make the territory a free-for-all.
However, one way or another, Grey was going to have to clear the arc.
’Let me finish Chapter two first. Chapter three won’t be finished immediately anyway.’
"I’ll deal with it when the time comes," Grey said, a light of confidence in his eyes.
He was always confident, but this was on another level. He felt untouchable right now, and he would only continue to grow from here.
With the rebirth waters...
There wouldn’t be any obstruction to his progress.
Barkeep Ji still didn’t reply directly, only nodding.
Grey was about to step onto his teleportation platform when the ground shook violently.
’What the fuck.’
Grey’s head turned in a certain direction. He was sure that he had dealt with everything. The only thing left was the last of the Volthari. Was that it?
"You’ve got to be kidding me," Grey scoffed when he realized what was happening.
The treasure that Thi Lan had been given could act as a barrier when it was activated properly. This would protect this entire zone from evasion.
Before Grey left, he planned on activating it properly. The only reason he hadn’t already was because he needed to teleport to the city that Baron Giyoto was in, and he couldn’t do both at the same time. In fact, he was already planning on how he was going to penetrate the spatial barrier to get back here when he finished up.
Thanks to the treasure, there was also a method of detection when people were about to and in the process of breaching the wall. That was how Thi Lan had gotten to them so quickly, and it was also how they had known to leave Grey to go and defend the frontlines together.
And now, Grey was using that to see that a certain Guardian was just about to breach the very same anti-space wall that he and Amunet had gone through just a day earlier.
"Well, well, well."
Grey caught sight of The Relentless through the glyphs. There wasn’t exactly an image, but he recognized that aura all too well. How could he not? It had killed him once before and nearly did it again not long ago.
"You’re about to have a very, very bad day," Grey said with a grin.
You see, the thing with One Line Vessels was that they were a slingshot across space. It formed a super highway that essentially allowed you to break a ton of physical laws without suffering the backlash of doing so.
Things like wind friction or G-forces were nullified within the One Line Vessel. But because of that, you had some drawbacks too.
For example, you couldn’t change your destination after it was set unless you were strong enough to weather the spatial storms and rip yourself out.
Granted, The Relentless might be strong enough to do exactly that.
But would he be strong enough to do it fast enough that he wouldn’t be halfway to Timbuktu by the time he pulled himself free?
Now that was a very interesting question.
Grey spread his arms out wide.
"As much as I’d love to play around with you, I simply do not have the time. So... how about you fuck off instead?"
Prometheus roared to life and its flaming form danced into being, diving into the circuitry of the teleportation pad and twisting its shape.
The first time Grey and Amunet crossed the spatial barrier, their One Line Vessel had lost its momentum and drooped down. It was almost like a projectile that caught a face of strong winds and died down a lot closer than it was meant to.
So this time... Grey just did the opposite.
Instead of allowing The Relentless to slow down when he hit the barrier...
Grey stomped down on the gas.
"Bye bye, have a nice time."