Zarek had hardly stepped out from the Godsfall Tear when he was suddenly tackled by a rogue little woman. Priya barreled into him with such speed that, had it not been for Zarek's quick reflexes, he might have actually had the intention to attack her.
"Oof… what are you tackling me like this for, babe? I'm very injured right now, I'll have you know."
"Shut up, Zarek Ashford. I'm not finished with you yet."
Zarek could only laugh, casting a glance up to the skies above. It seemed that he had been gone for longer than he thought he would be.
While he thought the Godsfall Tear would be a challenge, he didn't think it would be to the point that it would take the whole day. And knowing Priya, she probably knew that he was going out to do something ridiculous the very moment he left, but she chose to suppress those thoughts and let him go.
When he didn't come back quickly enough, she would have known that he went to one of the two D-Grade Godsfall Tears. So she had probably been waiting around here for a while.
"Why do you always have to do stupid stuff? You couldn't take me along this time?"
"I just had to stretch my limbs a bit. I fell asleep and forgot the time."
"If you're going to cheat on me, don't you think you need a better excuse prepared than that?"
Zarek's breath hitched in his throat. "What are you talking about?!"
Priya laughed. It was rare she caught Zarek off guard, so she had to take advantage when she could.
"It's good that you're alright, Zarek. We thought the worst had happened."
Zarek looked up with a playful glare. "So you're the one filling her head with so much nonsense?"
Zade coughed awkwardly. "Absolutely not. But you were gone for quite a while, and the monsters seemed very interested in this dungeon for some reason. It was quite a feat to keep them all away. Priya insisted on staying, though."
"Hm…"
Zarek finally took a look around the park, finding that there were, indeed, quite a few signs of combat.
That was interesting. When a Godsfall Tear was active with participants inside, the flow of outer Godsfall fell considerably. The fact that even with a nerf, the Tear still attracted so many just went to show how difficult it was.
"There were Mutants among them," Zarek said, more as a statement than a question.
"Mutants? You mean the stronger ones? Yes, there were three of those."
"Mm. Give me the crystal of one of them. You can keep the other two."
"Uh… about this… I was trying to tell Priya earlier that she should just keep them. We couldn't kill them without her."
Zarek gave Zade a smile. "That's fine. We just need one. I'm a man of my word, and Priya is my right arm. What I do reflects on her, and what she does reflects on me. I said it already, we'll only take what we need."
There was a silence for a long while. Looking at Zarek now, Zade felt as though a weight on Zarek's chest had been alleviated. He had seemed so much more serious earlier in the day.
Could it be that the reward of the D-Grade Tear was enough to change his mood so much?
While the end result wasn't perfect, Zarek never feared trouble. His anxiety from earlier was about not being sure of which of his secondary and tertiary plans to actually take.
But now that he had Atom Link, there was no need to worry so much.
Honestly, he felt a little bad now because he had come to like Zade and his brother. Taking Atom Link away from the two of them—even if they had only been able to earn an inferior form—was unfortunate.
It was because Zade had learned to so expertly make use of Atom Link in the future that Zarek was able to come up with this path.
[Reverb Dynamics: D-]
[Abilities: Recall]
Revert yourself or an object to a previous state. This state must be perfectly Recalled by you, and any mistakes will lead to failure. The degree of perfection depends on the degree of Reversion aimed for.
Zade's Talent, Reverb Dynamics, was able to revert objects to their previous state. Unlike with Temp Duplicate, Zade innately blurred the line between inorganic and organic already. However, he still benefited from Atom Link in the same way.
No matter how great his medical knowledge, he could ultimately only grasp the changes to his body to a limited level. Plus, much of Earth's medicine was limited. To say that they understood 100% of the human body was ridiculous.
With Atom Link, Zade had been able to comprehend the human body down to a molecular level. As a result, he was able to decipher things that millennia of human innovation couldn't.
When he grasped this ability, he was able to progress the science of Godsfall and its interactions with the human body by century-leaps at a time.
Coupling that with his ability to revert his body back to a previous state—even when he made mistakes—he could just backtrack and try a new path.
If Zade had an even stronger version of Atom Link, it was a wonder to think about the sort of advancements he would be able to make in the future.
Of course, all of this was just Zarek's speculation, and it wasn't like Zade ever came out and explained all of this clearly, but he was still about 90% sure this was most of the story.
In exchange for how the brothers had treated both himself and Priya, Zarek already planned to reward them in thanks. But now, he felt even more sure that he had to. Feeling the insights Atom Link was giving him, this time Zarek knew that he had chopped down a huge reliance of Zade.
However, just as Zarek was about to say more, his eyes sharpened.
He looked back toward the Tear.
It was still there.