One Step Closer

After what felt like minutes, the compad's ringing finally ceased with a click.

- Ryker? -

"C!"

Ryker quickly grabbed the compad and held it up to his face, grinning from ear to ear. Just hearing the voice of his best friend, again, was enough to make him all smiles.

- What significant event transpired on the 3rd of last Demiurge? -

"Huh?"

Caelus's question, however, threw him off guard, his smile slowly turning into a look of confusion as he tried to remember what happened on that day.

"What's up with the pop quiz?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

- I have to make sure it's actually you, of course. -

"I'm calling from Mini C's compad, though..."

- You could have taken that by force. -

"Whaaat..."

Well, it was just Caelus being Caelus, he supposed... Ryker rubbed his chin as he recalled the events of last summer, letting out a low "Hm..." as he thought.

"Uh, so was that when we accidentally blew up Officer Kira's office, or was it the time we accidentally got Lil involved with the Volusian Mafia...?"

- ... I suppose those events work to verify your identity, as well. -

Seemingly satisfied with Ryker's answer, Caelus sent a ping for a set of coordinates, the location showing up on the compad's area map.

- Meet me at this location. I'll come and explain what the situation's been like, so far, - he said.

"Ah, wait, did anyone else come over with you?" Ryker asked before he hung up.

- Lilliana was also transported with me, but she isn't here, at the moment. -

"Huh? Why not?"

- Like I said, I'll explain more when we meet up. See you in a bit. -

With that, the call ended with a beep, leaving Ryker to scratch his head and sigh in annoyance.

"Well, better get going, then."

Hopping out of bed, he left his room to head out to the meetup location.

--

The city was bustling, cultivators of all kinds walking by as Ryker made his way over to the specified coordinates. Although this was also a city of the Eastern Region, the buildings and layouts here were much different than that of the Wandering Battle School's city, with many layered towers and high walls hemming in the roadways.

{So, what's Caelus like, Ryker?} Bestie asked him as they walked the busy streets.

'Hm, well, like I said a while ago, he's pretty much a genius,' Ryker thought, in answer, 'He's always been doing stuff like magic development and research ever since we were in middle school.'

Memories of being Caelus's guinea pig for countless experiments growing up flooded his mind, along with the endless amounts of trouble he had dragged Caelus into. Thinking about it, they really did cause each other a lot of headaches, huh...

'It might seem like he doesn't really care, when you first get to know him, but, well... he's friendly enough once he considers you a friend.'

{Hm, and he's the one who created Mini C, huh... Okay! I'll do my best to make a good first impression!}

As Bestie fired herself up for her first meeting with Caelus, Ryker arrived at the meeting place, an elegant looking teahouse that he quite frankly wouldn't have been able to afford to enter, back home.

He went inside and took a seat at an unoccupied table, ordering a pot of tea from the waitress who came over, and he anxiously looked towards the entrance as he waited for Caelus to arrive. Although it had only been a few weeks, it felt like forever since he had last seen him.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, he spotted the pale young man with a familiar mop of black hair hanging over his eyes, and he hurriedly waved at him from his seat.

"Yo! C!"

Caelus smiled as he noticed Ryker waving, weaving through the tables towards him without hurry.

"Ryker. Good to see you haven't gotten yourself killed, yet," he said, taking a seat across from him.

"Hehe, I try, yeah?"

The two young men grinned at each other, before clasping each other's hand, performing a complicated handshake while the other patrons surrounding them looked on in curiosity.

"Man, I was wondering if I was ever gonna see you, again," Ryker said, tearily rubbing at his nose with the back of his hand as their handshake concluded. Seeing Caelus in person really drove it home; he was one step closer to getting back to Greyson Shores!

Caelus just nodded with a small smile, taking a handkerchief from out of his disciples robes and handing it to Ryker, who took it and blew his nose.

"Come on, Lilliana would never let you live it down if she saw you crying, like that."

"Heh, well, that's true. Where's she at, anyway? You said she wasn't here, right now?"

Ryker crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, wondering what exactly had happened. The sister he knew definitely wouldn't have separated from Caelus if she didn't have to. Especially not in a situation, like this.

"Right. She's on a mission for the Dabang Sect, at the moment, so she won't be back for a while," Caelus explained, to which Ryker looked at him with a questioning stare.

"A mission? For the sect?"

"It's a long story. I suppose I should start with how we ended up here..."

At this point, the server had come out with their tea, and for the next half hour or so, Caelus filled Ryker in on how he and Lilliana had been forcefully transported to the Eastern Region on that day they had all decided to meet downtown.

It was a similar phenomenon to how Ryker was pulled into this world, and similarly to how Ryker was able to attract Long Meiling's curiosity, they had managed to utilize their talents to attract the attention of the Dabang Sect, where they were currently living as guests of the sect.

For the past few months they had been working for the Dabang Sect, Caelus by developing new technologies for them to use, and Lilliana by helping their disciples with various sect missions. At the same time, Caelus had steadily expanded the network of MagiDrones above the Eastern Region, in order to continue searching for Ryker.

Ryker just nodded along as he listened, though something about what Caelus told him caused him to scratch his head in confusion.

"That explains the robes, then. But, wait, a few months? I've only been here a few weeks!" he said, to which Caelus crossed his arms and legs thoughtfully.

"Indeed, with the manner of travel being a spatial teleport over such a long distance, it wouldn't be surprising that the time we each arrived here was radically different."

[Then you've already completed an analysis of the phenomenon that brought us here, sir?] Mini C asked, the compad laid down on the middle of the table.

"Not a complete analysis, but enough to know that the distance between here and Greyson Shores is well over the maximum limit of my distance calculator," he said, lightly sipping on the tea they had ordered.

"That, and the spatial phenomenon was centered around the jade amulet your father had given Lilliana. The same should be the case for yourself."

"Dad's amulet?"

Ryker took the jade amulet from out of his pocket, examining it closely. It was a small, teardrop shaped piece of milky white jade, inscribed with strange patterns and characters.

His father had given these to him and his sister saying that they would protect them, but getting sucked into another world was kind of the opposite of that, wasn't it?

"Indeed. I don't know what's so special about them, yet, but whatever it was that brought us here was definitely targeting those amulets."

Caelus took another sip of his tea as Ryker rubbed his chin. Just what could it mean, if these amulets were the reason they were brought here...?