Aura

Suddenly, Kai's thought about the entire mountain teleporting somewhere didn't sound that far fetched.

"What do you mean by that?"

Cecilia sighed.

"The blizzard seems to... like the mountain. Every once in a while, it will teleport the mountain. It can only be teleported in the four cardinal directions, but the distance it's teleported back in that direction varies.

It's North right now, and luckily it's closer than usual, but I'm not sure when it will get shifted again."

Why couldn't anything be easy?

Kai was near certain that he was getting screwed over by someone. Even though everything ended up okay, just the process of getting to okay made him want to sleep for a week.

... Even though he had nearly already done that.

"Fine... We'll rush to the base of the mountain, from there we can slow our pace a little and make sure we reach the peak safely."

Cecilia nodded in response.

"Okay then."

Kai then watched as the ex-Queen packed up the tent. It was a rather simple process, it just went directly into her spatial storage ring, making Kai wonder how much internal space it actually had.

Once it was stored, the six of them set off towards the Royal Peak.

Kai softly bounced on Umbra's back, Remy also clutching onto the wolf's pristine black fur.

Realising that he was still only wearing his bodysuit, Kai equipped the rest of his items.

His Chrome Skin slid over his bodysuit, the silver liquid solidifying and creating a lustrous set of armour.

His boots appeared over his feet, wrapping around his feet and giving them another layer of comfort.

His spatial storage ring manifested around his finger. The only thing stored inside it was the Shopkeeper's rickety table, but Kai was sure that he would probably find something useful or cool along this journey.

And lastly, the Flame of Hope placed itself around his neck, the ember in the centrepiece still burning softly.

His stats increased with all the items, making Kai feel a little more confident, but that was a false sense of it as if any beast like the one who made his ears bleed by roaring showed up a small boost in stats wouldn't make much of a difference while getting crushed beneath it.

"So, Petunia, what's the first thing that you are going to do when we get out of here?"

Cecilia spoke in an effort to keep the young girl entertained, but also to keep her happy.

She had to have gone through a lot in these last seven months, especially since Castillian took such a heavy interest in her.

Cecilia knew that nothing indecent was done to Petunia, but she was still abused and forced to endure all of Castillian's insults and arrogance, who knows what that would do to a young girl?

But to the ex-Queen's surprise, she seemed to be handling everything well. And not just well, extremely well, it was like it hadn't affected her at all.

It was kind of eerie, but Cecilia assumed that the child had locked it all away as a sort of coping mechanism, which wasn't necessarilly a bad thing right now, but could affect her in the future.

"I'm going to find my daddy, then I'm going to go eat waffles."

Cecilia laughed softly, the melodic sound ringing in Kai's ears.

"Waffles? You can have waffles tonight when we set up the tent again later. Do you want that?"

Petunia shook her head vigorously as she continued to hop in the snow, admiring the steps she left behind.

"No. I want to save the waffles for when I'm with my daddy. They also taste better when I eat them with him."

Cecilia smiled softly.

"I'm sure they do..."

The next moment, to Kai's surprise, Cecilia turned to him and asked the same question.

"What about you, Sir?"

Kai blinked, surprised by the sudden question. He hadn't really thought about it that much.

"I don't know? I mean, I don't even know what's out there, you know? All I know is that there's a place called the Forest of Ethania, a perverted moon God, a place called the Nation of Lust, there's Genesis, and... that's all I know.

I wouldn't even know where to begin, it just seems like there's too much.

Still, I wouldn't mind directing a movie though..."

Kai still hadn't given up on that pipedream of directing a movie about Failure. It would also be kind of fun, he had The Ever-changing as backup, so calling out a perverted God in a movie seemed like an entertaining thing to do.

Plus, he owed it to that living tree.

Smiling softly to himself, Kai glanced back at Cecilia, only to see that she was... blushing?

A second later, Kai got the reason why?

"What's lust? And what's a pervert?"

Hearing that question asked so innocently almost made Kai choke on air.

Cecilia blushed furiously before managing to answer Petunia with a stutter.

"I-it's something for adults."

Just as Kai was about to tease her by saying he was still technically a child as well, he remembered that he had already turned eighteen, that was something he would still have to get used to.

Wanting to change the subject, Cecilia focused on the third part of what Kai said.

"You want to direct a movie?"

Kai nodded softly.

"Yeah, about this person I met in my tutorial, and about their Subdimension.

To be honest, I think that they're gonna be the most mentally strong person I'll ever meet, I don't think anyone will ever compare to them.

Their will was... incredible. They held back against a God, protected a heap of wildlife, created an immense forest to protect the ground and keep it safe, protect their closest comrade from an abomination that was sent their to murder them, and then they ended up killing that same abomination in an intense battle, along with me and his comrade of course."

Kai sighed softly. It may have sounded like he was praising Failure a little too much, but those were his true thoughts. The impact the man had on him was way too big to just be forgotten in less than a year.

And to make Kai even more certain that Failure really was that great of a guy, it was only because of him that they managed to escape the city, that seed being the catalyst of their escape. That power up was the only reason Kai was able to fight Ezekial in the first place.

And now that he looked back on it, Kai had no idea what the seed would have done when he touched it, meaning he had gotten a little cocky when fighting Ezekial.

Kai sighed softly. At least it all worked out in the end.

But he still had something else to say.

"And do you want to know what his name was?" Kai grinned.

Cecilia blinked, a curious expression on her face.

"What was it?"

Kai laughed out loud.

"Failure, his name was Failure."

Before Cecilia even got the chance to speak, Petunia had already spoken.

"That's a really dumb name."

Kai grinned again.

"It really is, but it's an incredible name at the same time."

Petunia frowned.

"No it's not, failing is bad."

Kai sighed and glanced down at the young girl.

"Think about it like this, your name is Petunia, right?"

Petunia nodded.

"Yeah, I'm Petunia."

Kai hummed softly.

"Right, and Petunia is a type of flower. So tell me, are you a flower?"

Petunia frowned softly.

"No?"

Kai nodded.

"Exactly. So tell me, do you think Failure really was a failure?"

Petunia glanced down at the snow, falling deep into thought. It was a little comedic to see a young girl thinking so hard, but it was an entertaining sight nonetheless.

Finally, after a few moments of intense thinking, Petunia responded.

"... No?"

Kai smiled.

"Exactly."

Kai had thought that that would be the end of the conversation about Failure, but to his surprise, Cecilia ended up asking something about him.

"... What was he like?"

Kai raised an eyebrow slightly, surprised that Ceculia still wanted to know about him.

"Hmm, well, let's see... He was smart, way too smart, he could also see my memories so that made for some embarrassing moments. He was also really kind, but really cruel to his enemies at the same time.

He also gave off the presence of a forest. Like, I get that he was actually a spirit and all, but how can someone give off the presence of a forest?"

Cecilia blinked.

"Was it his Aura?"

Kai shrugged.

"I don't know, isn't Aura like a presence or something?"

Cecilia shook her head.

"It can be, when someone is proficient enough with controlling their Aura, but it's really an extension of a person.

As a being levels up, they get a little more Aura, that's just how the system works. That's why mainly God's have Aura's. God's and beings with enough will to manifest it themselves.

Kai sighed softly.

Failure definitely had enough will to do so, but... Seriously? Ezekial had the same amount of will as Failure?

Realising that Kai was a little confused, Cecilia explained it a little differently.

"I don't mean their Will stat, I just mean their mental will. And Aura can come in different forms, if this Failure person had the Aura of a forest, then that's because they wanted to protect, or to persevere.

And Ezekial's Aura, he wanted to destroy, that's how he was able to manifest it even if he may not have been as mentally strong as Failure."

Kai sighed softly.

"So you knew what Ezekial was really like?"

Cecilia shifted slightly and stared at the ground.

"Actually... I didn't. I saw him fighting you out of one of the windows, and those red arms...

He was always kind to me, even while I was under the hex, so I thought maybe he really was nice, but... that was all a facade."

Kai sighed softly. He had believed the same thing.

But Aura... He was curious, what would his own Aura look like?

The six of them continued to make their way towards the Royal Peak, making small talk and trying to keep the mood light.

After a while, Petunia got tired and ended up climbing on top of Umbra as well, leaving Cecilia as the only person walking.

Kai felt a little guilty, but he had an idea of how to make it up to her later.

But as they got ever so closer, Kai felt as if something was off, like there was just something strange about the surrounding area.

It was then that he realised he hadn't looked backwards in a while. Turning to look over his shoulder, Kai-

Wished that he hadn't.

Surrounding the ruined city was eight gargantuan black spikes, each rising above the clouds of the blizzard.

The spikes did not move, nor did anything else move near them. Kai was confused how eight spikes could have randomly appeared around the city.

But it was only after he saw them shift a little did he realise what they were.

The eight gargantuan spikes were not actually spikes...

They were legs.