"It’s almost time. He will arrive soon." Eren, looking up at the night sky, tried to spot anything approaching through the thick layer of rain-bearing clouds, faintly lit by the strange sunlight.
It had been almost three hours since he and Rhys returned to the Beyond and joined the two researchers.
Apart from those two, there was nothing from the Human military visible around, as Adyr didn’t want them drawing unnecessary attention before they began their assault on the Umbraens.
Even the two researchers, Dr. Veyla and Isolde, weren’t informed about the true plan. They still believed Rhys and Eren were assigned only to protect them and help transport the mining equipment.
"Mr. Eren, when can we get our equipment? The earlier we start, the sooner we can begin extracting the energy crystals," Veyla asked with a tone sharp with impatience.
Eren paused for a second, his gaze shifting to Rhys, waiting for him to answer.
"Sorry for the delay, miss, but your equipment will have to wait a little longer," Rhys replied, not lying, only withholding the full picture. "We’re short on transfer resources and struggling to maintain the current supply line."
The Player Headquarters had already spent a massive amount of energy crystals just to transfer the necessary equipment and military force for the upcoming war. They had gone beyond their budget, forcing them to postpone other projects for now.
What remained in their stores had already been distributed among Players, so they could use their Spark skills freely without interruption.
Now, their only hope was to gain valuable spoils from the Umbraen Kingdom to refill their nearly depleted energy reserves.
Eren suddenly leaned closer to Rhys, lowering his voice to a whisper. "Do you think we can get other Practitioners’ resources by killing them?"
The casual tone in which he spoke of killing wasn’t the shocking part—it was the idea itself: taking a Practitioner’s resources and even the Sparks they kept inside their Sanctuary.
They had killed other Practitioners a few times; they had even taken the bodies of Umbraens and sent them to the researchers already, but there was no information on how to open their Sanctuaries and take what was inside into their hands. They didn’t even know if it was possible or not.
Rhys glanced sideways at him, raising one brow before sighing. "You’re a Practitioner yourself. Why are you asking me?"
"Oh, right." Eren straightened, realizing how naive the question sounded. He fell quiet, thinking deeply, but his focus broke when something caught his eye far off in the dark sky.
"Commander Rhys, do you see that?" He squinted toward a small glimmer that seemed to be growing brighter, moving closer.
"See what?" Rhys tried to follow his gaze, but his second-generation mutant eyes weren’t nearly as sharp as Eren’s.
Fortunately, his exoskeleton came to his aid. A metallic compartment on the back of his neck opened, and a semi-headset unfolded upward, locking over his head with a low mechanical hiss.
He looked at the panel the helmet projected across his vision and activated the magnification system. The world zoomed in, and after a few adjustments, he finally located the faint silver spark Eren had spotted.
When he magnified it another level, the shape became clear.
"A flying whale, huh? What kind of fantastic story am I in?" he muttered with a short laugh as the helmet retracted, folding neatly back into the metallic compartment behind his neck.
He turned to Eren. "Looks like Adyr and his new companions are approaching on a flying whale."
Eren blinked, momentarily surprised. Adyr hadn’t told them how or with which type of transportation he’d arrive, yet the revelation didn’t shock him as much as it did Rhys.
As a Player who wielded powers that defied reason—and one younger and more adaptable—Eren’s mind accepted the impossible more easily.
Besides, they both knew what the approaching Silver Whale meant. Even if they hadn’t met Silverlight Zephan in person, they were well aware of who he was and what his Rank 4 Spark looked like. There was no doubt in their minds that the incoming creature was no enemy.
With that peace of mind, they watched the silvery speck glide closer and closer, growing with each heartbeat until its massive outline took shape before their eyes.
Then it came close enough for even ordinary human vision to distinguish.
"W-What is that?" Veyla and Isolde, who had been near the excavation site giving orders and observing the work, ran toward Eren and Rhys, pointing skyward with wide, alarmed eyes.
It wasn’t their first time seeing a Rank 4 Spark—but their panic was exactly because of that. The last time they had encountered one, it had been the Dragon Rider Sevrak, and they had barely escaped death.
"Don’t worry. They’re not here as enemies. Adyr is coming," Eren said, his voice calm but firm enough to steady the trembling researchers.
Dr. Veyla and Isolde were taken aback for a moment and focused on the massive body that grew larger in their view with every passing second.
They thought they already had enough to amaze the other researchers with their stories, but now they realized the thing approaching would be the main course, turning everything so far into mere appetizers.
Velari people also stopped what they were doing; all of them waited and watched, ready to greet those arriving atop the Rank 4 Spark, their hearts tense and heavy as tools hung idle at their sides and the whisper of voices faded into the slowly settling silence.
Then, under everyone’s gaze, the Silver Whale began to descend, slowing until it hovered just above the ground, the air rippling beneath its bulk and dust skimming outward in small rings.
After that, the four figures, including Adyr, descended from the whale’s head like messengers arriving to announce peace, their boots touching earth in soft steps while the whale’s glow framed them in a pale halo.
"Are we doing this now?" Eren asked, pausing and glancing at Rhys.
Rhys sighed, hesitated for a second, then nodded. "Yeah, let’s go." Then a faint grin slipped through his annoyance as he added. "Don’t forget the word I told you."
Eren acknowledged with a short dip of his head, and the two moved forward in quick steps until they stood before the four figures, who regarded them with interest.
Then, directly in front of Adyr, the two dropped to one knee, bowed their heads low, and spoke in loud, energetic voices so everyone could hear:
"We greet the Young Master Hellcraft."
Liora, Zephan, and Throgar stared at the two with clear surprise, especially at Rhys in his exoskeleton, trying to make sense of what kind of armor that was.
Meanwhile, Adyr smiled calmly and thought to himself, This old man knows how to spoil a moment. The amusement never reached his posture, which stayed composed and formal.
It had been his plan, explained at the meeting on Earth, to play the ’Young Master’ card, making the natives believe he was from a powerful family, with the STF and other Players merely his family’s chosen retainers. The title was simply a tool to set expectations and secure cooperation.
But ’Hellcraft’ was never part of that plan; it was Rhys’s private joke, a flourish he added to the theater to make himself feel a little better while bowing his head.