’More of these star-studded bastards?’ Rias thought, eyeing Savast and Baddan. He couldn’t believe how they kept showing up. At this rate, they would overcome him with numbers alone. To beat them all, he needed to handle the obstacle gatekeeping his very own technique – Vali.

Yet, a part of him couldn’t help but wonder...

The gloom from Savast was palpable. Rias was taken aback. For he had never seen a beast mourn a human so thoroughly. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Very few could have understood just what Savast was going through, and why. He stood there, looking over Kintar’s corpse with all three of his eyes glazed with darkness and sorrow. He’d tried to reject the reality he saw, but it seemed true – irreversible.

Kintar, the monster he’d thought was impossible to kill, was dead.

How? Why?

Only the Unlimited Stars, the Stark Troops, and Skullius knew that Savast joined the Stark-Soul Order because of Kintar. The Mage had fought against the Cluster General many times outside the carefully-curated regiment that was the Impossible Task. She’d slaughtered many Cluster Generals and their beasts, but had spared Savast after a hard battle. Savast had been at her mercy, but she didn’t kill him.

Unlike every other beast she killed during her training, the Warpsing Fleshimon Savast QUEi was different. He was a powerful Mind Caster who, during their battle, had slipped his tendrils into Kintar’s mind in an attempt to use her weaknesses and thoughts against her.

Savast had failed miserably. Kintar, after all, didn’t have the average combatant’s mind. Heck, hers wasn’t even the average human mind. With her chronic depression and autism, Savast found himself confused when he roamed her thoughts. In fact, that ended up being the reason he lost against her: Kintar’s chaotic thoughts warped his own, ruining his strategic combat style and even the flow of his mana.

Kintar was fascinated by this, though.

What did you think about my mind? Interesting, right? she’d said, grinning.

Are all you humans teetering on madness? What was that? Spectrums upon spectrums of narrow, disjointed thoughts, cripplingly dour half-sentiments, all firing every moment, Savast himself had said, miserable and vomiting.

Ah, that’s just me. I stand for myself, sadly. Everyone constantly babbles on and on about how strange I am – "Oh look, she’s biting my arm!", "She only pretends to care – she’s a little devil without a heart." She sighed. Master probably has difficulty understanding me, too. Allora was different, though. She had looked at Savast. And I get the impression you are, too.

And thus, Kintar became Savast’s gateway into learning about humans. Unlike Baddan, who had Skullius to look up to directly and Grim to bond with, he had Kintar. He got to understand Skullius’ desires and mission through the little monster’s eyes – her obsessions, her vulnerabilities. In a way, it was even more impactful than it would have been if Skullius had recruited him.

Kintar might have annoyed Savast on so many different levels, but he cared for her. He understood her just as much as she understood him. In this new life of his, she was her anchor. He served Skullius because Kintar told him it was the worthiest cause in this life, especially for a Cluster General that had lost its purpose.

...And thus, with her death, came a fracturing of everything.

Savast’s new identity.

Savast’s resolve.

Savast’s future.

Baddan saw him break. That wasn’t good. When someone whose greatest strength was their mind snapped, the kind of chaos that followed was difficult to predict. It would explode outward all the same, though. Baddan feared what that explosion would look like.

...But Grim was looking forward to it.

Watching from the distance, he sharpened his mind and said, "You can hear me, right, three-eyes?"

*

Outside the Egg of the Future Dawn, Suzamete was still reeling.

How had this thing suddenly warped here? Why did she detect a powerful trace of time on him? Who had made it cross through time to reach the present from the past? Her instincts told her that it couldn’t have been anyone inside the Egg itself.

Even she – a Deity – couldn’t warp time freely within Aigas, especially with the Rules shattering around her. Only someone with authority over something greater than the miniscule concept of time could have accomplished such a feat.

...And that was why Soizar was in disbelief.

The Arch-Lich had allowed Savast and Baddan to slip away because the appearance of the Egg here was a marvel on many fronts. He disregarded everything else as his socket flames flared, igniting with a series of emotions.

Could it really be?

Indeed, he’d regarded Rias as a full-fledged Bearer of Undeath as soon as he had arrived on Aigas, as did Souran. He knew the necromancer was fighting a battle elsewhere. But that hadn’t been an interest of his until now.

It only became an object of interest when a familiar voice trickled in his head, soft and swaying. It was a voice he adored – the voice of his master.

"IT’S SIMPLY DIRECTION, SOIZAR. TAKE IT AS THAT," said the Eminence of Undeath. "I’VE BEEN SWAYED. ABANDON ALL ELSE AND BRING THAT MAN TO ME. HE IS MORE CAPABLE AS MY MANTLE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE. I’VE DROPPED HIM AT YOUR FEET. RECOVER HIM, AND I WILL REWARD YOU GENEROUSLY."

Soizar’s glasses nearly shattered as his socket flames flared. "Hooo...."

To think he was being graced in such a fashion. It was the highest honor to not only have the Eminence of Undeath speak to him, but also make a bequest. And by all that was Undeath, he was to be rewarded as well if he succeeded?

"Your wish is my command," said the Arch-Lich, and he didn’t deign to even try and hide his greed.

The Eminence wouldn’t have cared to add or correct herself in any fashion, he realized. It was as he had heard. Only he and he alone was chosen for this mission. Souran, whenever she decided to return, wouldn’t have to know.

"Oh, Somanda," said the Lich, and all his agency rushed to his head in bulk, his mirth and playfulness stripped away. "You thought you were the only vessel for miracles, didn’t you?"