Aerion was more lost in her thoughts than usual over the next several days, but that was about all the fallout Cosmo’s meeting had caused. Considering how Aerion wasn’t raging around promising vengeance, I considered this a favorable result.

  While Aerion’s hatred of the god certainly hadn’t vanished, I could tell he’d had a similar effect as when I’d first met him. The guy was a consummate ass, often joking around when he shouldn’t be, but something about the way he acted registered no malice or desire to harm.

  I think that was far more powerful than any apology Cosmo could have made to her; Aerion had spent so long believing he was an active menace that his goofy, surprisingly genuine personality left her at a loss.

  She’d sort through her feelings in due time. As for now, we had plenty to keep us busy between Syrril’s Spartan training regimen and taking care of our newborn chick.

  Especially when the chick in question was a voracious phoenix who somehow managed to get her talons on Soul Crystals no matter how well secured they seemed to be.

  Her secret weapons were cuteness and the ability to spontaneously combust, burning everything around said crystals. The thing was a devil in disguise, despite her cute face.

  As for why we were currently marching deep into the Sylvanglades? Well, that would also be on account of our little devil.

  “I’m just amazed she’s grown so much,” Aerion said as we walked.

  The little phoenix stood proudly on my shoulders. Her wings had grown in and were starting to form a coat of feathers, though I doubted it would be her final set. While not large by any stretch of the imagination, she’d easily doubled in size since we first hatched her.

  “Probably not a surprise, considering how much she’s eaten,” I said. “All that energy has to go somewhere, right?”

  “Cooo!”

  Galia nuzzled my cheek like I’d just complimented her. Maybe she thought I’d give her more food if she did?

  Well, she was right. The little devil.

  She had thankfully learned how to control her fire—turning it on and off at will, in no small part thanks to the expertise of the Elven trainers. They really did know how to handle small, rambunctious animals—even phoenixes.

  Unfortunately, the cheeky bird had swiftly learned that making things spontaneously combust was a great way to get what she wanted. Something she abused to the absolute limit until Aerion and I started disciplining her.

  The big pouty eyes she gave us when we did were almost enough to make me melt, but I held firm. We couldn’t afford to have her grow up into a vicious beast. She was dangerous even now. I shuddered to think of the tragedies a misbehaving adult phoenix could cause.

  “Figures she’d pick a creature that would take us to the most dangerous part of the forest,” I grumbled. I genuinely wondered if she did it to spite us.

  We’d laid out almost ten different types of Soul Crystals in front of her—bought not just from our tree, which we had already cleaned out—but from the other two elven clans as well.

  The expenditure this time had nearly bankrupted us, even with all our wealth. Money didn’t seem especially hard to come by, though, and given that the elves had already promised Mythril armor and weaponry as restitution for our earlier troubles, it wasn’t like I’d be hurting for it anytime soon.

  As such, both Aerion and I spared no expense.

  I gave the little phoenix a glance. If only she knew how much we’d spent on her…

  Galia tilted her head, nuzzling her beak against my neck.

  “Alright, alright, you can stop now, you little mongrel,” I said, handing her a quarter of a Soul Crystal.

  We’d learned early on that if she even saw a full Soul Crystal, she wouldn’t stop until she ate the whole thing. Giving her tiny chunks like this not only taught her discipline, but also prevented us from running out of our stockpiles.

  “And besides,” I said, poking her beak. “You’re not just a bystander in this, you know. You’re gonna help take down these monsters too.”

  Galia blinked rapidly.

  “I still feel she’s too young,” Aerion said, glancing skeptically at the small creature.

  “It’s not like we’re going to have her fight them on her own,” I said. “But you saw her status sheet. She’s got offensive magic, and we need to see how powerful it is. The earlier she gets the hang of it, the easier a time she’ll have later on when she grows up. And maybe she’ll be a bit less privileged when she learns how hard it is to find Soul Crystals.”

  “I know,” Aerion said. “But forcing her to fight feels wrong.”

  Galia’s head swiveled between us curiously.

  I chuckled. “Don’t worry, she’ll be safe. Besides, she’s a phoenix. She literally comes back to life if she dies.”

  Those were not the right words to say, as Aerion’s death glare proved.

  “Sorry,” I said, raising my hand.

  We walked on, eyes peeled. The beast we were looking for was called the Sylvan Razorwraith, and it lived in the very core of the Sylvanglades.

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  As a Foundation-rank crystal-bearing, bipedal monster, I wasn’t especially worried about its lethality, considering Aerion and I were both on the border of Convergence. I doubted this thing could harm us even if we just stood there and let it claw at us.

  What I was worried about, however, was that these monsters were found primarily on the border of the Sylvan Reavers’ domain.

  Granted, we had planned on paying them a visit eventually, but neither Aerion nor I had reached peak Divergence yet. I was at D-9—just one rank away from maxing it out—but Aerion still had a couple to go. We definitely weren’t ready to take the Trial yet.

  From everything Syrril had said, we’d be well advised to move in quickly, take the Trial, and get out before the Reavers even knew we were there.

  I had mixed feelings about that, as did Aerion. She wanted to at least try and communicate with them to learn more about herself and her abilities.

  When someone as powerful as Syrril advised caution, though, one simply didn’t ignore them. I hadn’t yet decided what to do, but we thankfully still had some time before we crossed that bridge. Maybe we could take the Trial, then try meeting them once we’d ascended?

  From everything Syrril said, the Divergence to Convergence ascension wasn’t like the ones that came before. We’d be significantly stronger after.

  Our prey saved us the hassle of hunting it when it charged us with its razor-toothed maw wide open.

  I readied Light of the Fearless, but instead of attacking, I blasted it with a soul attack of my own.

  This was something that Syrril and I had worked on tirelessly over the past week—dueling again and again until I finally managed to strike back at his relentless soul assault instead of merely defending.

  It had taken forever just to reach that point, and even longer to hone the attack into something that could be used reliably in combat. I had only managed it the night before, after an intense half day of training.

  Apparently, soul attacks couldn’t be mastered by meditation alone, but only during combat, and only when your enemy was legitimately trying to kill you. Inconvenient, but thanks to the ridiculous 460 points I had in Order, I could now manifest it. Even still, it took all of my concentration to form the strike, made harder since my life wasn’t in imminent danger.

  It was worth the effort. Syrril had shown me just how potent soul attacks could be if weaponized, and against something at the Foundation Rank with no defense, the monster didn’t stand a chance. It simply collapsed—dead before it hit the ground. I doubted it even knew what hit it.

  “Impressive,” Aerion said, looking at the corpse. “But weren’t you supposed to let the little one have her turn?”

  “Oh, right,” I said. “Oops.”

  Galia flared her wings and cawed aggressively at the corpse, as though that would do anything. It might’ve been a terrifying gesture if she were about ten times her size, but as tiny as she was, it was a bit like a Chihuahua barking at an elephant.

  “You’ll be a great warrior one day,” I assured her, stroking her back. “A strong, fearsome beaky.”

  Galia pressed her head into my neck and closed her eyes in glee.

  “She won’t if you pamper her like that,” Aerion said, plucking the phoenix off my shoulder. “Come on! You’re going to fight the next one.”

  Galia protested by squawking and flapping her wings. Her inability to fly away made her much easier to handle, but at her current rate of growth, she’d probably manage it in another week or so.

  “Yes, yes, I know you hate me,” Aerion said, gripping the protesting bird. Unfortunately for Galia, Aerion was stronger than I was despite her delicate looks. The poor bird had no hope of escape.

  At least she was calmer around Aerion these days, her tantrums not lasting nearly as long as they used to. Was that a sign she was warming up to the elf? Or had she simply given up and accepted her fate? Either way, Aerion was visibly happier whenever she held the baby phoenix—something that never failed to put a smile on my face.

  “All right, there’s another one,” Aerion said, thrusting Galia out in front of her. “You see him?”

  There was no way she couldn’t, considering the monster was charging right at her, mouth open, saliva flying.

  Galia squawked in terror as Aerion brought out Aurora, swiftly sidestepping the beast and smashing the pommel of her sword against its neck. The beast went down, but it wasn’t dead.

  “You see? He’ll come back and eat you if you don’t do anything,” Aerion said, thrusting Galia toward the creature again. “You’re a bird made of fire. So use your fire!”

  Galia squawked again—but no fire came. It took the monster rising and charging her again before she finally burst into flames.

  The beast hesitated, stopping mid-charge. It was the worst move it could have made.

  In the next second, Galia squawked again, spread her wings wide in what I could only assume was supposed to be a threatening gesture, and jumped onto the creature.

  “Hey!” Aerion said. “You’re not supposed to—”

  Aerion froze as Galia landed on the beast’s head and started attacking its eyes with her talons. Were she any other bird, her attacks might have poked its eyes out and done little else. But she was a phoenix—and she was on fire.

  As it turned out, Galia’s flames were no ordinary flames. They were not only hotter, they spread like wildfire, and it was only thanks to our strong Vigor that we could fight the effects.

  The Foundation Rank beast didn’t have that sort of defense. Galia’s flames rapidly spread until the monster was doused in fire.

  The Razorwraith panicked, its movements growing wilder and wilder as it was burned alive.

  Galia hung on regardless, kicking and clawing at the monster’s eyes until it suddenly stopped and crumpled to the ground.

  Her flames, however, continued to burn the corpse until there was nothing left.

  Nothing, that was, aside from a Foundation Rank Soul Crystal.

  Before either of us could stop her, she’d picked it up with her beak and swallowed it whole.

  “You remember what happened the last time you ate the whole thing!?” I said, rushing up to her.

  Galia didn’t answer. She was too busy choking on the too-large crystal she’d just swallowed.

  A few panicked moments later, she vomited it back out, looking up at me with guilt.

  “That better be the last time you give us a heart attack, you greedy little bird,” I scolded.

  Galia extinguished her flames and pouted, cooing miserably.

  This, of course, triggered every protective instinct in my body, and I scooped her into my arms.

  “You did good, Galia. Really impressive attack you used there.”

  And that wasn’t just empty praise, either. Sure, it might’ve been a weakling, but being able to set our enemies on fire would be enormously useful. Even if they didn’t burn to ashes, being set alight made for one hell of a distraction.

  “Alright, let me cut this up and, uh…” I trailed off as my spidey sense told me something was horribly wrong.

  “I see them,” Aerion said, tensing.

  Somehow, in complete silence, a half-dozen elves had managed to surround us. Their expressions were neither jovial nor angry, but cold.

  Dead.

  Devoid of anything human.

  It was an expression I knew well. For it was the same exact expression Aerion wore when she activated [Reave].

  “Fuck.”