Inside the spiritual sea, Cipher and the Heavenly Demon sat across from each other, meditating in silence.
Cipher opened his eyes and looked at her. "So..."
She remained silent, her eyes still closed.
He waited a moment, then tried again. "About earlier..."
Still nothing.
He leaned forward slightly. "Are you really going to ignore me?"
Her eyebrow twitched, but she said nothing.
"Come on, I know you can hear me."
Another twitch.
"Hello? Heavenly Demon? Anyone home?"
A vein appeared on her forehead.
He poked her shoulder with his finger. "Hey..."
Her eyes snapped open, glaring at him with clear annoyance.
"Are you still angry about that?" he asked with a sigh.
She crossed her arms and looked away.
He sighed again. "Look, you know it yourself. I’m not some kind of moral hero. I’m not willing to risk my life for such a thing. While my goal is to save the world, my existence is even more important as the one with the power to breakthrough limits." He paused. "I know I might seem narcissistic for saying this, but I’m more important alive than any Saintess. After all, the Saintesses were alive the first time and nothing happened, the world still ended. So you can trust me when I say I won’t risk both our lives for something stupid."
She finally turned to look at him, her expression softening slightly.
He smiled. "So, can you finally tell me if there’s a way to unlock the soul? I’m just thinking of it from a power standpoint and also as a safety precaution. You said it yourself, right? It’s like a secondary body. So I wanted to have it as a safety mechanism."
She looked at him for a long moment, then sighed. "It’s impossible. You have to wait until you get to the Soul Formation realm."
"Is there really no other way?" he asked.
"It’s possible," she said slowly. "The Soul Formation is based on a theory I developed, so if I could come up with a new theory, it might be possible. But the theory might not be compatible with you, and I have no body to test it on. Testing it on you is just suicidal." She paused. "Or, you could just level up to level 700 or whatever and breakthrough automatically. What do you think?"
"Well, when you put it that way..." he said, deflating.
...
The following day, Cipher and Dante faced each other in the training room. Dante had already activated his berserker form, his muscles bulging, veins pulsing with power, eyes wild and unfocused.
He charged.
Cipher sidestepped easily, watching as Dante’s fist demolished the wall behind where he’d been standing. Another wild swing came, then another. Cipher avoided each one with minimal movement, his body flowing around the attacks like water. When Dante lunged forward with both arms extended, Cipher simply leaned back, letting the massive form crash past him into the ground.
As they fought, Cipher acknowledged that Dante really was out cold with no reasoning whatsoever. He sighed. He had wanted them to train together so he could gauge the risk of Dante using this power with the team.
The risk was quite high. Among all of them, Dante was now the greatest raw damage dealer - excluding himself, of course. While the other team members still had some way of fighting back, it would be better if they didn’t have to fend off their own teammate in a fight.
Dante roared and came at him again, strikes coming faster and more desperate. Cipher evaded each one easily - a tilt of his head, a step to the side, a slight pivot. Then Dante jumped, bringing both fists down in a devastating overhead strike that shattered the floor where Cipher had been standing, leaving a crater and spiderweb cracks spreading outward.
But Cipher had already moved. He appeared next to Dante’s neck mid-air and delivered a precise chop to the pressure point. Dante’s eyes rolled back and he collapsed.
A few minutes later, Dante came to. "I lost," he said, noticing Cipher hovering above him.
"Did you really expect to beat the strongest human? That’s some confidence you got there," Selene said as she walked in.
"It wasn’t that bad. You have some potential," Cipher said with a smile, offering a hand and pulling him up.
Dante wore a downcast expression. "What do you think? Am I really a danger to the team?" he asked.
"Yes," Cipher said.
Dante’s face fell, disappointment clear in his eyes.
"But..." Cipher added.
Dante raised his face.
"But that’s not something for you to worry about. As the team leader, I’ll find a way to make my team fit well with each other." He looked Dante in the eye. "Don’t use that ability anymore. For now, you should practice your shield movements and maybe some meditation. As for the berserker thing, I’ll find a solution for it. You can trust me."
He then turned to face Selene. "Is it time?" he asked.
"Yeah," she nodded.
"Well then, see you later," he said, leaving with Selene.
Dante scratched his head after they left. "Meditation?"
...
Cipher and Selene walked down the corridor together.
"By the way, I forgot to ask Dante, but why couldn’t I reach you guys yesterday?" he asked.
She looked to the side. "Umm, everyone decided to go partying to celebrate winning their bets, and I accompanied them to ensure they didn’t take it too far," she said.
"Is that so?" he asked.
She nodded.
"But I couldn’t reach you either, did you still take it too far?" he asked.
"Must’ve been the loud noises around us," she said.
He nodded. He supposed it was fine team building. It seemed that they stayed together mostly when he was around. Hanging out just them was also good.
"Did you have fun?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said.
"You didn’t squander all the money, right?" he asked.
She remained silent.
"Right?" he asked again.
She smiled. "Of course not. I was just messing with you," she said.
Her expression then turned serious as she moved forward and opened the door. "We’re here. Remember to put up your appearance in front of others. No one wants to see a flimsy strongest human," she said.
He nodded and walked in.