Chapter 85: Scarred Villain

The garden had turned into something between a training ground and a small circus by the time the sun started sliding toward evening.

Logan moved through the same cut over and over, Grimlord’s Blade tracing a slow arc through the air, hips leading, shoulder following, the way Elder Rishin had drilled into him over three days that felt more like three years in hindsight.

He had been peacefully, and in focus, just doing the sword training in the past three days, working to progress his Sword Intent.

It reached 17% so far.

Under the trees a short distance away, Daniel and Helen sat cross-legged beside Garen and Isolde, all four of them settled into the same quiet, breathing rhythm Isolde had been teaching them since morning. It wasn’t much yet. A little steadiness. A little more awareness of their own bodies than they’d had a week ago. But it was a start.

They would have easier time controlling MP when they become players.

Closer to the house, Vina threw a wobbly punch at absolutely nothing, giggling the whole time, while Andrivida corrected her stance with the patience of someone who found the whole exercise thoroughly charming.

"Elbow in, little one." Andrivida’s voice stayed warm even through the correction. "There. Perfect."

Overhead, chaos of a different kind unfolded entirely. Billy looped through the air in Duskfall Leviathan’s full form, Sonic weaving circles around him fast enough to blur, and Solveig’s clones took turns trying to knock each other out of formation just for the fun of it. All three trying to outdo each other in combat.

Terry sat planted on the ground below all of it, watching with the placid patience of something that had chosen not to participate in nonsense today.

Five in the evening, and for the first time in longer than Logan could remember, absolutely nothing was trying to kill anyone.

He was in a different mental state for the past three days.

Just then, a figure arrived.

She came through the garden gate at a pace that wasn’t quite a run, hair still slightly mussed from ten straight hours of sleep, and the second her eyes landed on Logan, everything else in the garden might as well have stopped existing.

Her cheeks were already flushed by the time she crossed the last few meters between them, and whatever her eyes were saying, it wasn’t subtle about it at all.

Under the trees, four sets of eyes cracked open in perfect unison, looking at the duo.

Logan felt the attention before he even turned his head, and the second he did, all four pairs slammed shut again, meditation resuming with theatrical enthusiasm.

Alice caught it too. She shot a flat look toward the trees, unimpressed, before turning back to Logan and deciding the whole thing wasn’t worth the effort of commenting on.

She leaned in and pecked his lips quick, gone again almost before it registered, then immediately looked anywhere but directly at him, cheeks going a full shade darker.

"Ahem." She cleared her throat, composing herself with visible effort. "So, while I was walking over here, I bumped my own Player Tier up to four as well. Are you going to push yours up again, or can we finally play together?"

She looked up at him with the exact kind of wide, hopeful eyes like a puppy that made refusing anything feel physically impossible.

"Of course we’re going to play together." Logan grinned, sheathing his blade. "Pick a time and a date."

"Hmm." Alice tapped her chin, feigning deep consideration. "Should we go on an actual date somewhere today, before we get to that?"

Her voice climbed just slightly on the last few words, pitched exactly loud enough to carry straight to the trees.

Under the trees, Isolde’s meditation posture didn’t so much as twitch, but the corner of her mouth curved up just slightly. Garen’s own breathing hitched for half a second before smoothing back out. Neither of them opened their eyes again.

Logan huffed a laugh, glancing once toward the very obviously-not-meditating parents, then back to Alice. "Yeah. We can go out. We also need to learn about some of the event patterns for the fourth floor’s game, so we can take full advantage of them no matter the kind of Map we get."

Alice nodded, smiling. "Yep. And if we’re matchmaking together, with you having already won twice while breaking records, and me having won once myself, the Tower’s going to surely add some players just as exceptional in the match pool. It’s going to be fun."

Logan’s eyes glinted. "That’s correct."

Elder Rishin hadn’t been shocked to see his Rank-X Talent, Boundless Genesis.

He’d been shocked, but not in the sense of not knowing what it was.

He knew. In his world, there were two players with X-rank Talents.

He knew more than that, even.

Rank-X Talents represented something tied to the Tower itself, and whatever authority actually ran it. There were no Rank-X Classes. Only Rank-X Talents.

Logan had felt Elder Rishin wanting to say more, but then holding back.

He hadn’t wanted to push for it either since he didn’t want to say it.

But he was curious.

’Will I run into someone else with a Rank-X Talent, from some other world? I can’t be the only exception out there. That’d be too arrogant, given how vast everything actually is.’

He might not even be the only one on Earth.

But the thought only made him more determined to get stronger.

"The sun will set soon. I’m hungry. Should we go grab something first?" Alice asked.

"Yep. I’m hungry too. Let’s go."

From the trees, Garen’s voice arrived. "Don’t forget the masks. Go with random appereance. Romo, you too. Full security."

The Romo spacecraft revealed itself from stealth above them, extending a beam of light that enveloped Logan and Alice, and pulled them straight up into the ship.

Logan brought Billy, Solveig, and Tom along for the ride, the rest of his own roster staying behind in the garden.

Seeing them go, Isolde smiled. "How about the five of us go out somewhere too? Vina, we’ll leave it to you. Choose a place."

Vina’s eyes twinkled. "Really?! Yey! Thank you! I have a perfect place in mind."

...

Inside the ship, Logan pulled out his Myriad Appearance Mask and Alice pulled out hers.

"I’m going to go with random option this time." He activated his own, and his face rearranged itself entirely, height shifting a few centimeters, hair darkening to a plain brown, his whole bone structure settling into someone nobody on Earth had ever met before.

Alice activated hers a moment later, and where Ruby Starviel’s sharp, confident features had been standing a second ago, an entirely different woman now stood in her place, soft-featured and unremarkable in exactly the way a disguise was supposed to be.

"Not bad." She turned her new hands over, inspecting them. "Though I liked my old face better."

"You’ll get it back the second we’re home." Logan grinned. "ROMO, you’re on stealth the whole way, right?"

"Affirmative." The ship’s voice came calm and even. "Full sensor-cloak engaged. Hull disguised as standard civilian transport. No signature broadcasting of any kind for the duration."

ROMO wasn’t just fast and armored. It was built to disappear completely the second it needed to, an entire second layer of protection wrapped around the two of them without either of them having to think about it at all.

They landed a short while later outside a place called the Snow Tree Cafe, its windows glowing warm gold against the darkening sky, and walked in as two people neither of them actually were.

...

Deep beneath the surface of the city, in a control room lit only by the glow of a dozen monitors, a man leaned forward in his chair.

A scar ran the length of his neck, old and pale. A tattoo shaped like a claw curled up one side of his face, from cheek to eye.

"Sir. We found Romo. The scan was successful this time." One of the technicians didn’t look away from his own screen. "Two people exited it and entered the Snow Tree Cafe. A young man and a young girl."

The man grinned, slow and satisfied.

"Finally." He rose from his chair, cracking his neck once. "Send the men. Send the Tier-9 summons too. I want them both taken alive and brought here."

One of the guards nearby hesitated. "And if it’s not actually her?"

The man’s grin didn’t fade at all.

"I have Garen and Isolde Rezvolt’s blood sitting in a vault three floors below us." He said it like it was nothing. "Run the girl’s blood against it the second you have her. If she isn’t their daughter, kill them both and dump the bodies somewhere nobody will find them."

"And if she is?"

"Then bring them both here." His eyes glinted, the same shade of hunger running underneath every word. "Alive. Unharmed. I’ll have my revenge."