The moment Lily entered her new house, Naluri was there waiting for her with her usual warm, big smile. The moment Lily looked at her, everything around her started to change, she felt like the house was the same one they had in Yalemba. It was as if Naluri was waiting for her to return from the tower outside the city.
"You're back, Lily!" said Naluri happily. The moment she spoke, Lily snapped back to reality and realized that everything was different. Their old house didn't exist anymore, Yalemba didn't exist anymore. Everything related to her childhood had been destroyed by the Krukins and Archilochus.
"Oh, hey," she answered. Naluri, understanding that it wasn't her usual tone, turned back and invited her to the kitchen. "C'mon, we're ready to eat!" she called. Lily realized that she was starving and immediately followed Naluri. "Alright!"
Naluri, hearing her tone change, gave a big smile. 'I hope it was only something temporary…' she thought, looking at Lily sitting at the table, smiling warmly.
'I can't let her discover this… she might be an Alterid like me, but she's too old. I'm the only one who will be able to get revenge for Yalemba…' thought Lily. 'No one needs to discover my revenge.'
"By the way… why are you already back? I remember talking with Alerya; she told me that the city would need help from all Alterids. Shouldn't you be giving help to them?" asked Naluri, worried that Lily might have stopped working or had already grown bored. She knew how much Lily loved going to the mainland; Naluri thought that as long as they weren't going there, she might not do anything to help Therya.
"Oh yeah, Alerya asked us, but Darian proposed something else," answered Lily. Naluri looked at her confused, wondering what Darian might have asked.
"He wants to return to the rocket he used to come to Earth after all this time. Because the Princess didn't want to send him alone, Liro, Vane… and I were chosen to go with him."
Even if Naluri knew that going to the mainland was Lily's dream, she was a bit unsure about sending her alone. However, hearing that Darian and the others would come with her, she felt relieved.
"Is it alright if I—" Lily started to whisper, asking if she could go, but Naluri interrupted her.
"That's such great news, Lily! I'm so happy for you," said Naluri while walking close to Lily to hug her.
"Remember that I'll always be here waiting for you, alright?" she said with a big smile on her face. Lily had thought that Naluri would cry or wouldn't accept it, but seeing how she was reacting made her feel happy. "Alright, I promise I'll be back, just like every day we were in Yalemba…" The two women remained close, hugging each other for a long time.
As the day went on, Lily spent it together with Naluri, while Darian was currently about to train with Snowy.
He was alone in the training camp of the Veilguard, and Snowy still hadn't fused with him. "C'mon, Snowy, I need to become stronger for both of us," said Darian while pointing his arm toward the creature in front of him.
Snowy without hesitation fused with his arm, and Darian's body began to change as usual. Darian looked over Snowy's entry point; he didn't see any tails poking out of it.
"I think I need to begin to train my resistance in this form…" he whispered while starting to train his body by doing physical exercises.
Whenever Darian entered this form, his body became more resistant, so he didn't feel any actual improvement. 'Maybe I should try to do it without Snowy…' he thought, when he suddenly heard footsteps behind him. The one who reached him was Allocen.
"Are you training for tomorrow, Darian?" he asked in his usual tone. Darian slowly nodded. "Yeah… but you see, I want to become physically stronger," he said. Allocen thought for a bit before answering. "You told us that once you fuse with Snowy, your body already becomes physically stronger, so why do you want to do this?" he asked.
"You see…" Darian stopped speaking for a moment and thought about whether he should tell Allocen about the projection of the tails. He realized that if neither Liro nor Vane knew about it, Allocen wasn't someone who needed to know it either.
"Is it because of the fact that Snowy was asleep for a long time since you returned to Therya?" asked Allocen while getting closer. As he approached, Snowy came out of Darian's body and climbed on top of his shoulder. Both Snowy and Allocen exchanged a look, and then Darian answered.
"…Exactly," he said while looking down. "I've come to the conclusion that Snowy falls unconscious for this much time because of me," added Darian.
"So, is it because your body can't keep up with his power? And maybe Snowy needs to put in too much strength?" whispered Allocen. Darian, hearing that, nodded.
Before he could answer, Allocen spoke again. "I'll help you with my magic," he said while moving to the edge of the training camp. Darian's expression changed and a big smile appeared on his face. "Thank you!" said Darian. "C'mon, Snowy, look at how strong your owner will become," he said proudly. Snowy jumped off his shoulder and positioned himself next to Allocen.
"Whenever you're ready, Allocen!" shouted Darian. 'Well, he asked for it…' Allocen knew that he could not go too strong with his power, so he decided to first go very slowly with spikes emerging from the ground.
The first one went directly in front of Darian; it was small enough and slow enough that it would never be harmful to a human, creating just a single scratch. The spike was aiming directly at Darian's stomach. Darian tried to dodge it by rolling on the ground, but it didn't work; he was too slow, and the spike hit him on his arm.
Darian looked over at the place where the spike was about to hit him and realized that both the spike had disappeared and he didn't have any injury on his body. "I removed it right before it would hit you," said Allocen. "Shouldn't we focus—" Allocen began to speak, but Darian interrupted him.
"C'mon, Allocen! We can keep going!" he shouted. A small smirk appeared on Allocen's face, and the spikes, always with the same speed and thickness, appeared from the ground going directly at him. While Darian was able to dodge some of them, others arrived as well and he couldn't dodge them in any way; consequently, some small scratches appeared over his body.
Darian was currently breathing heavily. Another spike was aiming for his left arm; the moment he removed the arm just in time, another spike reached for his left leg. Darian, with a beautiful move, was able to dodge it, even if he was already feeling tired. 'I can't stop now…' he thought, while looking around for other spikes to rush at him. While he glanced around, he was sure that he heard Allocen talking, but Darian didn't feel that he was talking to him, partly because he couldn't hear his words, and because Allocen was looking at Snowy.
But Darian didn't have time to think about it. Darian was too distracted and didn't see another spike rushing at him from behind; the moment it hit, the spike created a small scratch.
"Ouch…" he said, touching his back and jumping forward. The ground was full of spikes that were removed the moment Darian got hurt by this last one. "I've seen your progress, Darian. Even if it was small, you were able to dodge most of them," said Allocen while removing all the spikes. Darian had a proud look on his face.
"Now…" said Allocen. Suddenly, from the ground emerged a small version of his golem. It was the same height as a Bladekruk, so a bit taller than Darian.
"Wait, it isn't fair! Before there were only spikes!!" shouted Darian. "You just need to dodge its attacks. You can do it," said Allocen in his usual tone.
The golem immediately started to rush at Darian, a bit faster than the spikes. Because Darian could see where the golem was coming from, he rolled on the ground and was able to dodge the first attack, but then the golem moved its right arm to hit Darian. Darian wasn't ready to jump or roll again, so he put both his arms together to block the hit.
At first, Darian was able to block it without any problem. Allocen, realizing that it was too easy for Darian, forced the golem to put in more strength. Darian felt that the strength was definitely becoming stronger, but he didn't hold back.
In fact, he used all his strength trying to fight back the pressure of the golem. Allocen remained surprised to see Darian able to fight back with this much power. Slowly, the golem's punch was becoming weaker for Darian as he was able to overwhelm it.
The moment Darian was able to free himself from the arm, he wasn't able to unbalance the golem like he would have done when he was fused with Snowy.
NOW! he thought. The moment the space was enough for him to move, he rolled away and was able to dodge the attack of the golem. He then remained on his knee, looking at the creature and breathing heavily.
Darian heard clapping. When he looked behind him, he saw Allocen. "Perfect. I think you've upgraded your reflexes enough for today…" he said while calling back the golem.
"Should we upgrade my resistance? Can you still help me?" asked Darian. Allocen didn't have anything to do today, so he agreed without any problem.
Darian put himself in the push-up position. "C'mon, Allocen, put some weight on top of me!" shouted Darian as he began to do push-ups.
Allocen created a small rock and slowly put it on Darian's shoulders. It was heavy enough to give Darian a hard time; in fact, there were times he couldn't even get up. He felt that soon he would fall on the ground without any more strength.
'I… need…' Darian's eyes met Snowy's, who seemed to be watching him directly. Darian remembered all the times Snowy had to use a lot of his power to save and help him. In his mind, the scene of when he encountered Snowy in his mind replayed over and over again.
Allocen was about to remove the weight on Darian's back and replace it with a lighter one, realizing that Darian might not be able to do it, but what happened next surprised Allocen.
"ARGHHH!" shouted Darian. Now he moved up and down almost without any problem. Allocen, surprised, first looked at Darian and then at Snowy, thinking that he might have done something to help him. Allocen walked closer to see if everything around Darian was becoming colder, as happened with his power, but he felt that the temperature was the same.
'Mhm, let's see where this will go' he thought while smirking and returning next to Snowy, watching Darian.
All the day passed like this. Darian, together with Allocen, remained training all day. After they finished, Darian's body was full of scratches and he could barely stand on his feet.
"I'll help you go to Lara," said Allocen with his hand outstretched in front of Darian. "Thank you for today, Allocen." Darian grabbed the hand and, with the help of Allocen, he began to walk towards the hospital, where Lara was likely located.
Snowy slowly jumped onto Darian's shoulder and licked his face. Darian laughed softly. "Eheh, Snowy…" he whispered with a big smile on his face.
The moment they arrived at the hospital, they saw Lara going out. The moment she spotted them and noticed Darian with multiple scratches on his body, she immediately rushed over. "What happened?!" she shouted, scared that something bad might have happened in the city while she was working.
"We just trained…" said Darian. Lara made a mad face and slammed her hand on Darian's head.
Darian and Allocen exchanged an amused look before they both laughed together. Lara's expression changed too, and she smiled as she began to heal Darian.
After that, Darian and Allocen returned to the main building. Darian could walk again without any problem. "Well, thank you so much for today, Allocen!" said Darian, waving happily at him. Allocen did the same. "There is no need to worry!" he said happily as both of them headed toward their rooms.
'I didn't expect him to do that…' thought Allocen. The moment he turned the corner and Darian couldn't see him anymore, he stopped for a moment. 'I'm sure him… Snowy didn't do anything… then what happened to his body?' Inside Allocen's head was the scene when Darian gained that random boost and was able to do the push-ups even with that huge rock on his back.
'Let's see how things will go…' he thought, his expression was impossible to read, as he slowly entered his room and closed the door behind him.