?


    The next day arrived like a blur, and I stood alongside my team as we made our final deliberations concerning the situation at hand.


    All thirteen of them—Kuzon, Edward, Aloe, Ciara, Serah, Maria, Ana, Aurora, Lemi, Jerry, Z''ark, Beruel, Gerard—stood side by side as I faced them to deliver my address.


    "We have two major objectives currently. One is to take care of the Hive that has formed a distance from here. We all have sufficient information on it, so I won''t go into the details." I began, my hands steadily positioned behind me.


    The mission was simple—destroy the Hive and leave no trace.


    I would determine the ones who were capable ofing with me for the more important mission of stopping Legris.


    "Of course, some of us will be sitting the match out, unless, of course, you require assistance. Kuzon, Edward, Ciara, and Aloe will not be participating in this event due to my knowledge of their capabilities."


    The point of this exercise was to understand the current abilities and limits of everyone on the team. Since I already had a good idea of the capabilities of everyone who was disced into different worlds, that left the ones who weren''t.


    ''I won''t say I canpletely guage Ciara''s abilities, but based on my assessment thus far, her current capabilities should be enough.''


    Besides, with her freakishly fast growth rate, it would be useless to try to know her current limits.


    ''Plus, I don''t want her to interfere with Jerry''s evaluation.''


    Out of everyone present, Jerry was the only one who potentially didn''t qualify. That meant this mission didn''t just serve as an opportunity to understand his abilities better, but it was also a test to see if he could remain on the team or not.


    It was the best I could do for him.


    "I have sent my Automatons to study the Hive, so I have a good understanding of its structure."


    The Automatons I sent were Gawain and two other assistants, considering their capabilities, so I was fairly confident of their assessment of the Hive''syout.


    "It''s essentially a huge mass of Nether, with several life forms detected within. One could call it a breeding ground for the Nether vermin. I suspect they possess parasitic tendencies, and the capability to rapidly corrupt Aether into Nether, hence exining the reason the Hive has sustained itself for so long."


    It also seemed to be expanding, so the sooner we took care of this mess, the better.


    "Now then… I''ll be teleporting us to the Hive. As exined before, you''ll be operating as individual units so that it''s easier to gauge your respective abilities."


    Nether was a very dangerous element, and if they were to be facing something that could turn Aether into Nether, it was probably more efficient to operate in a group.


    However, that would prove problematic in judging the effectiveness of their individual abilities.


    ''Everyone present can use Aether. That''s the base requirement to even be considered for this task. But even that might not be enough this time.''


    I was surprised to see Jerry possessing an Aether Core, but I suppose he spent the past ten years training like hell. I could only imagine how much time he dedicated to ensuring he was stronger.


    That was probably why he was so desperate to go on this mission.


    ''Well, that and trying to impress Ciara maybe? Not that I don''t understand the sentiment…''


    After saying a few more things, I concluded my speech.


    "Any questions?"


    A hand swiftly went into the air, a prime example of enthusiasm if I had ever seen one before.


    It belonged to Beast King Gerard.


    "Destroying this Hive is important and all, but wouldn''t it waste more time if we were to do it this way? I thought we were in a hurry to stop that Legris fellow."


    The moment he asked the question, my heart sank.


    "Haa…" I was rendered speechless, unable to say anything in response to his query.


    It wasn''t that there was no proper response to give, but… I was just too exasperated to say anything immediate.


    "Were you not paying any attention to what he was saying at all?" Serah''s voice loudly echoed in the silence, rescuing me from my current predicament.


    I noticed a scowl on her face, and her arms were folded in impatience as he stared at a slightly shivering Gerard. Unlike me, it seemed she didn''t have the patience to stomach the question.


    "This world''s time cycle is about thirty times faster than our normal world''s timeline. That''s why ten years passed here when only about three months passed for most of us who were disced."


    It was precisely as Serah said it. This was the side effect of Neron swapping worlds, and so even if we spent thirty hours in this world, only an hour would pse in the normal sense of things.


    A lot could happen within even the shortest time frame, but considering the utility of testing my teammates and understanding their abilities, it was worth the risk.


    ''Besides, time is rtive. Some of us spent considerably longer in our world than others. So, even if we ount for more or less time, it''s impossible to know the kind of time Legris operates under.''


    When considering that alone, it made more sense to operate as swiftly as possible while not neglecting important aspects of preparation just because we were in a rush.


    "Any other question?" I asked, looking at the faces of everyone.


    Perhaps one or two wanted to rify a few things, but a mere nce at Serah''s frown would scare anyone from trying to waste any more time.


    ''I wonder how she''s holding up. At least she knows Neron is safe, but still…''


    She hadn''t seen her husband for ten years, and she was just recently told that he orchestrated his disappearance.


    I wonder how she felt about it all.


    ''Well, he didn''t orchestrate it. It''s more like he regted the event to flow a certain way. If he hadn''t intervened, things would have ended up much worse for sure.''


    I was sure Serah knew that, but that would probably not stop her from feeling hurt.


    ''I can only hope things work for the best. Once this is all over, things will return to normal…'' My thoughts trailed as I activated my Arcana to transport everyone to the designated location of our mission.


    ''... Hopefully.''


    *


    *


    *


    [A/N]


    Thanks for reading.


    Let us delve into the world ahead of us, shall we?


    Discord Link: https://discord.gg/yMPNRURZJh