Chapter 268: Brief Respite

His expression was so serene and grateful, he could have shed a tear.

Diya, not one to be fooled so easily, caught on immediately. Her prior doubts from earlier disappeared immediately, and she called Uhtred bullshit the same way Zara had.

Assuming he had been calm and collected, or even serious, she might have still harbored some doubts, but right now, he was playing around so blatantly that it was impossible to take him seriously. He clearly didn’t care whether they believed his cover story or not.

And in truth, Diya didn’t really care about the details of his explanation either. She was smart enough to understand that whatever was happening was directly connected to why Uhtred was an absolute monster compared to every other ascender on Earth.

Prying into the secrets of the planet’s top ranker wasn’t something she felt the need to do.

She stood in silence for a few seconds, searching his face with a flat look before letting out a long, defeated sigh.

"Well, if you’re actually serious about learning, I can teach you the basics of healing magic," she said. "Lord knows we could use another high-level healer around."

Uhtred’s face lit up instantly, a genuine look of eagerness returning to his eyes. "Really? We can start right now—"

"Tomorrow," Diya cut him off sharply with a scowl, "...or today, actually, since it’s well past midnight already."

Uhtred’s posture visibly deflated. "Ah, shucks. Whatever happened to the bashful, cooperative Diya from a few hours ago? That Diya would have jumped at the chance to teach me right now."

A faint flush of red touched Diya’s cheeks, but her scowl only deepened. "What the hell are you talking about?! Get your head out of the clouds and go get some sleep! There’s matters you need to attend to first thing in the morning!"

"Huh? But what about our training session—?" Uhtred began to complain, but a deathly, unblinking glare from Diya made him swallow the rest of his words instantly.

He held his hands up in defeat. "Alright, fine. Sleep first, duties in the morning, then healing magic training. Got it."

He stepped forward, playfully patting Diya on the shoulder and pulling her along as he and Zara headed toward the main exits of the training facility. Diya grumbled something under her breath, but she followed along anyway, lightly elbowing him in the ribs as they walked.

Together, the three of them left the silent facility, stepping out into the cool night air. They engaged in easy, mindless small talk as they made their way through the quiet streets toward the central residential sector of the city where their homes were located.

It was a rare, peaceful moment — one of those brief windows where Uhtred could just exist as a normal human being rather than the undisputed powerhouse of humanity. The same went for Zara and Diya. Behind all the bloody battles, the relentless grinding, and the constant pressure to stay ahead of the rest of the world, moments like this allowed their actual personalities to come up to the surface.

Uhtred intentionally slowed his stride, letting the walk drag out just a bit longer. Sensing the mood, both Zara and Diya naturally adjusted their pace to match his. If anyone were to ask them an hour later what they had spent the walk talking about, none of them would have been able to recall the specific topics. They simply savored the quiet atmosphere, enjoying the cool night breeze and looking up at the night sky.

The stars above looked subtly different now compared to the pre-Integration days, shifted slightly by the planetary expansion shenanigans of the System’s arrival.

"You know... sometimes, I really look forward to what’s coming next," Uhtred said softly, breaking a short silence as he stared up at the stars. "Especially after this five-year buffer period ends and Earth is fully integrated into the Grand Multiverse. Think about all the different planets we could visit, the places we could see out there among the stars..."

Zara and Diya both looked up toward the sky, small, faint smiles touching their lips as they listened to him.

Then Uhtred’s tone shifted, growing slightly heavier:

"But at the same time, I know that for any of those dreams to even be possible, Earth needs to be in a position of real strength within our universe," he continued. "Our planet, our powerhouses... and I, personally, need to be strong enough to act as a deterrent against any greedy eyes looking down at us. Only then does that future actually exist. Only then can we travel freely across the stars without having to worry about some alien civilization..."

Zara stayed quiet for a moment before speaking up. "That’s a grand dream, Uhtred. An exhausting one, too. You might call it your personal goal, but because of how big it is, it directly shapes the lives of every single person living on this planet. That’s a ridiculous amount of weight to carry on your back... especially for someone who hates dealing with responsibilities."

Uhtred cracked a wistful, self-deprecating smile at her words. He didn’t deny it because there was no point. She had read him completely. By nature, he was someone who despised unnecessary trouble, particularly the kind of political, administrative, and organizational headaches that came with managing large groups of people.

Yet, where he stood now, avoiding those headaches was simply impossible. The existence of the System, the existence of leveling, the existence of the path of ascension, made it such that he, as a single individual, could amass so much strength — to the point where his decisions affected the planet as a whole.

He wasn’t going to stop forging forward — that much, he was certain of. Which therefore meant he would also have to deal with the pesky stuff that came attached to that path.

Fortunately, he wasn’t carrying the load entirely on his own. He had companions he could actually trust. Dennis was practically working himself to the bone managing the political circus and organizational mess that Uhtred refused to touch.

Then there was Zara, who handled the high-risk situations that fell outside standard operations — the kind of dangerous threats Uhtred usually had to clear personally, but couldn’t always attend to when he was occupied. Her complete destruction of that weird cult the previous year was a perfect example. He hadn’t needed to leave his training room for a single moment and yet the threat had been wiped out.