Aldric was at the guild door.

Outside, on the threshold, with his coffee.

The three arrived with the gear they had learned to carry after Grimvast — enough, no more.

Aldric looked at them.

Drank.

"I hope you come back."

"We’ll come back," Kai said.

"We came back from the A_D_M labyrinth," Lira said.

"I know." Aldric looked at her. "That’s why I still haven’t commissioned the statue."

Lira looked at him.

"I’ll keep coming back just so you won’t put it up."

Aldric looked at her and smiled.

"That was exactly the plan."

Lira looked at him a moment longer.

She kept walking.

---

[DraconicLegacy: "that was exactly the plan" — ALDRIC IS A GENIUS]

[Chris_Murray: Aldric manipulated Lira into promising to come back with the threat of a statue. respect.]

[Warwolf: Aldric has been building toward this for Chapters. the statue was always the plan.]

[Per_Sundin: Lira is going to come back. she promised without promising. Aldric knows it.]

[Kalgarth: the Valdris guild is going to miss them. Aldric won’t say it like that. but the statue says it.]

[Drakeking: "I hope you come back" from Aldric carries more weight than any dramatic farewell.]

[TheDeadDragón: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ toward Mount Heiguers ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

---

The north road was different from the west.

The west had the kind of terrain that opened up — fields, the mountain pass of Grimvast visible from afar, space.

The north climbed.

Slowly at first, then more consistently, the dirt road turning to stone.

The air was colder.

Lira pulled up the collar of her leather jacket.

Serah didn’t.

Kai noticed Lira pulling up her collar.

He didn’t say anything.

But at the next narrow stretch where the road allowed it, he walked beside her instead of leaving her three steps behind.

Lira noticed it.

She didn’t say anything either.

---

[DraconicLegacy: Kai moved beside Lira when she pulled up her collar from the cold]

[Chris_Murray: without saying anything. without pointing it out. just moved there.]

[Warwolf: Serah saw it. her markings didn’t rise. Serah let it pass.]

[Per_Sundin: Serah letting it pass is more significant than if she had reacted.]

[Kalgarth: Lira noticed Kai moved beside her. didn’t say it. kept walking.]

[Drakeking: the north road being the north road. no drama. just the three of them and the cold.]

[TheDeadDragón: these little things are Lira’s whole arc in summary.]

---

"Qi," Lira said, when the road opened into a flat section. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Kai looked at her.

"Walking is the best time," Lira said. "The body in motion facilitates the flow."

"Does some text say that?"

"I say it. Eight hundred years count as text."

Kai considered this.

"Alright."

He closed his eyes — not fully, just enough to search for the origin.

Lira walked on his right and read the resonance Qi from his wrist.

"Seventy-one," she said.

"Yesterday it was seventy."

"Movement raises it slightly." Lira released his wrist. "Work from the origin while we walk. By the time we reach the mount it should be at sixty-eight."

Kai worked the resonance Qi from the origin as he walked.

Serah, ahead, listened without turning around.

---

They walked like that for hours.

Lira correcting the Qi on the flat stretches. Serah reading the terrain ahead. Kai in the middle processing.

Different from the road to Grimvast — there the tensions had had edges. Here the edges had worn down or found their place or simply learned to coexist with everything else.

"Do you see the mount?" Serah said, at some point in the afternoon.

Kai lifted his eyes from the road.

On the northern horizon, above the line of the tall northern sector trees, the shape of Mount Heiguers was visible.

"I see it," Kai said.

---

The resonance Qi rose.

Not because Kai activated it — on the contrary, Kai was actively working to keep it at sixty-eight from the origin.

It rose on its own.

From sixty-eight to seventy-two in ten seconds.

To seventy-five.

To eighty.

Kai felt it from the origin.

It was a response.

Something on Mount Heiguers was responding to Kai’s resonance Qi.

"It detected us," Serah said. Without urgency — like someone stating a fact they already expected.

"When?" Kai said.

"A while ago." Serah looked at the mount on the horizon. "It’s waiting for us to arrive."

Kai looked at the horizon.

Mount Heiguers kilometers away, the resonance Qi responding to something that was there, the energy signature from the report — the ground that shakes before it arrives, the combat aura that A-rank hunters described.

"Alright?"

The ground shook.

A single time.

Lasted two seconds.

It was gone.

The silence afterward had the specific weight of what’s coming.

Kai smiled.

---

[DraconicLegacy: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ THE GROUND SHOOK ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

[Chris_Murray: Kai’s resonance Qi rose on its own because something on the mount RESPONDED to it. that’s reciprocal. the entity feels him too.]

[Warwolf: "it’s waiting for us to arrive" — the entity knows they’re coming. it’s been waiting.]

[Per_Sundin: one step. kilometers away. and the ground felt it here. that’s the weight of something that makes A-rank hunters unable to classify it.]

[Kalgarth: Kai smiled. the same smile as yesterday. the ring one. he knows exactly what’s coming and wants it.]

[Drakeking: Lira read the resonance Qi responding to the mount. she knows what it means. didn’t say anything.]

[TheDeadDragón: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ Warlord ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ]

---

Lira looked at the mount.

Looked at Kai smiling.

Looked at the terrain between them and the mount — the northern sector trees, the rocks, the kind of distance that on foot would take until tomorrow.

"The resonance Qi rose to eighty," she said.

"I know."

"Can you lower it?"

"I’m trying."

"Did it work?"

Kai looked at the mount.

"No."

Lira looked at her own hands.

"The entity up there is actively responding to your signal." She looked at him. "That’s never happened before."

"I know."

"And?"

Kai looked at the horizon.

"And tomorrow we arrive and see what happens."

He kept walking.

Serah followed him.

Lira stayed a second looking at the mount.

The ground didn’t shake again.

But Kai’s resonance Qi stayed at eighty as he moved away down the north road.

Lira followed him.

---

[System — notification]

[Current viewers: 4,700,000]

[The system notes that an entity on Mount Heiguers responded to Kai’s resonance Qi]

[The system notes that the ground shook once]

[The system notes that Kai smiled]

[The system notes that the resonance Qi stabilized at 80% — controlled by the external entity, not by Kai]

[The system considers that new]

[The system also considers that tomorrow is going to be an interesting day]