"I don't understand" Rey murmured, stroking his chin as his narrowed eye depicted hints of disbelief.

"Adonis would never bail on the group."

Rey knew he was very cynical and distrusting most of the time. He found it difficult to trust most peopleespecially after all he had experienced. But, there were a few people who managed to break through that wall of his.

Adonis Levi was one of those people.

'He genuinely wanted to help this world. He's always had that personality since we were in school, and he still hasn't changed at least, not by much.'

Sure, he was dealing with some issues of inadequacies, but Rey always knew he would overcome them. No matter what, it made no sense for him to escape.

"Perhaps I ought to inform you of the incidents that led up to your battle and eventual collapse in the Capital." Ater offered. "That way, you can get the full perspective on everything."

Right now, Rey was extremely limited by the information he had.

He didn't know anything about the struggles of his classmates before his arrival, or the aftermath of his battle with the strongest foe he had ever faced.

This absence of sufficient information was bound to skew his understanding of the current situation; hence, influencing his judgment on them.

Since Ater had been taking care of things for nearly three months, he would have gotten the full story, making him the perfect person to inform him of the details.

"I think that would be good." Rey nodded.

And so, without any further tangents, the Familiar began to divulge everything.

The calamity that befell the Capital.

***********

'The hell?'

With a bulging eye that seemed like it would explode at any given moment, Rey listened very attentively until the conclusion of Ater's exposition.

'I knew Billy was dead, and I suspected that Snow died too. But Eric? Him too?'

Just like with most of his classmates, Rey wasn't particularly close with Eric. They hardly spoke to each other, though they had a few things in common.

'We both loved this world. I liked that about him.' Rey cast a sad smile as he sighed, finding yet another reason to blame himself.

'Unlike me, he was a very smart guy too. Even when we were in school, he usually got near perfect grades.'

Sure, he acted smug a lot of times, but Rey never really disliked him. Eric wasn't among the people who mocked him, and while they were completely different, they had very similar sets of ideals.

For that alone, his death seemed a little more impactful than the demise of Billy and Snow.

If that was all, then perhaps Rey could rest easy.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case.

'Nearly twelve percent of the population died in the entire incident. Thirty nine percent were badly injured, with a good number of them in critical state.'

Some Capital denizens died after the calamity was over, which extended the number of casualties to a whooping twenty-three percent of the population.

'That's tens of thousands of people all of them dead.'

Rey couldn't allow himself to feel guilty, even if he wanted to. Still, he found it disrespectful to the dead that he couldn't even cry for their sake.

Sure, he could manipulate the glands in his eyes to secrete tears, but that would not be genuine.

He wanted to feel bad.

So many deaths; so much catastrophe and yet he had to feel nothing.

"I hope you do not blame yourself, Master. Even if you had arrived early"

"More people would have been saved, at the very least." Rey whispered, his head downcast as he squeezed his fingers against each other.

Emotions had to be bottled in, but merely going through the casualtiesas well as the consequences of the demise of all those peoplewas enough to conjure such a reaction out of Rey.

"I'm not saying people wouldn't have died. Based on the nature of the invasion, it would have cost lives either way. But I could have saved even a couple thousand more people."

"...." Ater said nothing, simply staring at his Master.

"It was due to my hubris. After killing that Commander, I should have known the Dragons would make their move eventually. For the first week or two, I steeled my mind in preparation, but they never showed up. So I somehow wrote it off without realizing it."

Even if they had shown up during those two weeks that he expected them, would he really have been able to stop them?

Four Commanders and a Generalif it was left to the version of him from back then, how would he have fared?

'Not to talk of a Dragon Lord showing up' Rey shook his head and laughed at himself. 'I would have lost badly.'

'Yet I spent my time worrying about Adrien's manipulations, playing a silly game in the Adventurers City'

He should have stuck to the goal he had from the start.

'Grinding I should never have stopped grinding.' He thought to himself, staring at his two hands.

'I'm not as strong as I can possibly be. So there's no reason for me to stop now.'

"I admire your resolve, Master, but you still shouldn't blame yourself. The enemies are to blame for putting you in such a position, so you should focus your rage on them."

Rey chuckled in response to those words. "Is that what you did?"

"Pardon me?"

"I mean, I'm sure you also had the same thoughts I'm having. If you had arrived earlier, perhaps these things wouldn't have happened the way they turned out."

"Well"

"Of course, I know you had important business to attend to, and we'll get to that eventually. But didn't you have those thoughts of regret?" Rey asked, a broad smile playing on his face.

"It would be a lie to say I didn't. Things would have been quite different if I had been present at that moment."

"So you're saying you could have defeated that thing? If you were present, that is."

"Haha it would be a rather difficult fight." Ater scratched his haid, causing the crimson strands to dance in the air.

He had a playful smile on his face, though.

"But would you win?"

For a moment, the atmosphere soaked up silence. Rey cast a piercing gaze on Ater, while the latter finally ceased his joking look and took on a more serious demeanor.

"I am not sure." He finally responded. "I still have no clue what manner of Beast that was, or what power he used against you in the fight."

"..." Rey remained silent as he watched Ater go on.

"Since it's a Divine Beast, though, I'd expect it to be stronger than I am. I'm very weak, after all."

"... But would you win?" The question echoed once again.

"I would."

The tension evaporated in the air as Rey nodded as he stared at Ater.

"I could tell somehow. After all, now that my perception of everything has changed, you look entirely different in my eyes now."

"Oh? How do I look to you, Master?" Ater asked with a brilliant smile.

"Well" Rey's narrowed eye glowed brightly as information about Ater popped up in an instant.

[STATUS WINDOW]

- Name: Ater (LQ#i&3r)

- Race: Bakeneko (Unknown)

- Class: Absolute Summon (S-Tier)

- Level: 101 (09.12% EXP)

- Life Force: 1,000 (500) [insert]

- Mana Level: 1,500 (750) [insert]

- Combat Ability: 2,500 (1,250) [insert]

- Stat Points: 10,000

- Skills (Exclusive): [Shapeshift]

- Skills (Non-Exclusive): [Dark Magic]. [Magic Supremacy]. [Possession]. [Compulsion]. [Illusion]. [Undead Summon] [A$!!?

\>.\K].

- Alignment: Chaotic Evil

[Additional Information]

An unknown entity whose true form remains a mystery, but takes the form of a cat. It is a great trickster with malevolent desires. It is a wicked entity.

Stay away from it.

[End Of Information]

"... I don't understand it myself."

'I can now see the glitches that Esme was mentioning back then. I guess it's because of my upgraded Appraisal, but what about Esme's case?' Rey wondered to himself.

Before he could fully process things, however, Ater interrupted his thoughts.

"Well I did tell you, Master, that I was the only Familiar you really need." He puffed his chest out and smiled proudly. "And I still mean that!"

"Without those two Summons I would have died, though"

"A-ah, well they're exceptions." The floating Familiar chuckled nervously.

Upon bringing up the Phoenixes, Rey swiftly remembered something elsethe final Familiar that he summoned back then.

"Now that I think about it, the purple egg should have hatched now, ri?"

"Master, with all due respect We should stick to the topic at hand. One thing at a time, right?" Ater swiftly interrupted, smiling as sweetly as possible.

Rey felt an awkward tingle on his skin, and he could see the slight unease that twinkled in Ater's eyes as he stared at his face.

"Fine then let's go back to Adonis." He sighed, his thoughts on the other things mellowing out as he focused on the Hero's disappearance.

"What's this you say about a letter?"

*

*

*

Thanks for reading!

I'm guessing you've all noticed the differences in Ater's Status Window. Guess he Leveled Up a whole lot while he was away.

I know what you're all itching for, though. Don't worry in time.