The Harvester

“I think you need a better decoration, little sis,” Rakna commented blankly as he stood inside the dark space where he was meeting Eva.

“You really are not letting go of that sibling dynamic anymore, are you?” The little girl deadpanned, having long given up to continue the cute act in front of the therian. “Also, what, do you want me to move us to your soul realm like last time?”

“Why not? At least, my soul realm is pleasant to look at.”

Eva rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. “How about this instead?” She said, the surroundings changing into the room she uses when alone.

Rakna blinked at all the plushies everywhere and the pink furniture. “What are you, a kid?”

“…what are you, stupid?”

* * *

“So, are you done being passive-aggressive?” Eva said with a pout, sitting on her bed while Rakna leaned against the wall. “Did I do something to make you mad? Or are you just making fun of me?”

“Aren’t you the one increasing the difficulty of my Trials?”

“What? As if that troubles you,” she retorted blankly. “Take it as friendly teasing from your lovely baby sister. Now, onto serious matters. When do you plan to deal with Plateau Zero?”

“As soon as my wolves find what I’m looking for,” Rakna answered. “When I used Dead Men Tell on Fang way back, it wasn’t high level enough to see things in detail. As a matter of fact, it was not enough to see what the 100^th Plateau looked like. But I got names of places supposedly meant to be entrances or meeting points. On that front, don’t you have some intel for me?”

“Not really,” she shook her head. “They hide well. Sometimes, I find them, but they’re always quick to erase their traces and destroy any sort of meeting point I potentially discover.”

“How do they even do that?”

“Well, I initially wanted to be the one to tell you, but you found out yourself, didn’t you? That the Nine-Tailed Scorpions are involved with Arena Zero? Those pesky bugs have a few members that are incredibly good at concealing themselves and others. I believe one of them even has a Nirvana Skill capable of somewhat affecting the System’s surveillance.”

“I see…”

“Also, if I had to guess, the Nine-Tailed Wolf Cub they kidnapped, the one you killed, was probably planned to be ‘handled’ in Plateau Zero if it had gone as they intended. That kind of scheme using the Initiation dimension as a way to mask their traces is something only the Scorpions could do.”

“Uh, uh. And?”

Eva gave him a sullen glare. “Yes. I don’t know anything useful about their location. Happy?”

“Yep,” he nodded shamelessly.

“Aah… whatever. First, take this,” she said whilst tossing a small object toward him. He lifted his hand to catch it before looking at it. It was a small yellow cube releasing faint light. “You will need that once you get there. As I said before, your primary objective is to find a Terminal and use that for me to get access to it.”

“I remember,” Rakna acquiesced and stored the cube. “What about the one I have to kill; Bora? Do you have at least a grasp of his strength?”

“Hm, yes and no. You see, Plateau Zero is a flaw in the System, as you know. I made sure to isolate it the best I could after it was hijacked, but Bora came into the picture a few centuries ago. Before that point, it was a problem that wasn’t worth fixing and only a few individuals would find their way there out of pure coincidence.” 

“However, Bora came into the picture and managed to hack the Terminal. He disconnected himself from the main server and turned Plateau Zero into a place under his control, expanding his reach to wherever he wanted. I don’t have any information about his status due to that. But I do know one thing; his level before he was disconnected was 359.”

“And I suppose he can’t level up further without a connection to the server?”

She nodded. “Exactly. That doesn’t stop him from growing stronger through his own efforts, but it shouldn’t have made much of a difference to him. It’s been a few centuries, yes, but that man was not particularly talented. Since he lost all the support from the System once he disconnected, you should easily be able to defeat him since you possess a status that would be far less handicapped by the lack of support compared to other Hosts.”

“In short, I can expect him not to be too strong but have tricks up his sleeve… What are the chances someone stronger is protecting him?”

“Plenty,” Eva shrugged. “It’s your job to pull through if that happens. I’m not asking you to go there and fight them head-on. What I’m telling you to do is destroy them… whatever the method.”

Rakna squinted his eyes and they both fell silent for a moment. “…hey, do you think it’s possible I could keep my magic going in there?” He ultimately asked and she frowned.

“Frankly, I’m not sure. It’s not as if a Host’s magic is solely provided by us. The magic element you awakened to belongs to you and you only. What we provide though is the mana. We also provide the magic formation creation, as well as what you would normally lack to cast it. It’s basically the same thing as skills; we give you resources to use something that you learned. You have the engine on; we give you the fuel. And in a sense, the opposite is also true.”

“So, essentially, if I want to use my magic in Plateau Zero, I would need to first escape the clutches of the System’s infrastructure, learn how to cast the spell all on my own, and find a new source of mana?”

“Uh… yeah… pretty much. That’s why I don’t know. Normally, it would be impossible since you’d need to literally overpower the System’s influence and you’re nowhere near the level required for that kind of stunt. But… you do possess other things that happen to overpower the encoding level by just existing.”

“My connection to the old man and the Crystal Sage,” Rakna nodded in understanding. 

“Yeah…” Eva slowly responded, her breath hitching when she heard ‘Crystal Sage’ come out of the therian’s mouth. “T-that’s why it might be possible for you, but it’s only hypothetical,” she cleared her throat to hide it.

“Hm,” Rakna seemed too lost in his thoughts to notice.

“Ahem, anyway! You can go whenever you want,” she continued. “If you think that you can’t do it alone after getting a grasp of things, you can ask me. I’ll try and get you someone trustworthy. Or if you manage to find a way to bring people without raising suspicions, then that’s fine too.”

“Alright. I’ll infiltrate the Plateau whenever I can. Before I leave, it’d be helpful if you could give me a way to alter my status. It would make blending in easier.”

“Aah, that… well, I can. But it’s a special case, understood?” Eva frowned. “It’s against the rules of the System for someone to be able to fake their status. I’ll send an update to your AI soon and she will be allowed to do it but only if it involves your mission. Is that fine with you?”

Rakna shrugged. “I have no problem with that. It’s not like I’m desperate for that kind of ability at the moment.”

“Right, you’re already going willy-nilly around with enough identities as it is,” she deadpanned. “I suppose a new one must be made this time?” She added with a satirical tone.

The therian snorted. “A short-lived one though,” he said casually.

“Whatever. You do what you think is best,” Eva waved her hand and his body started fading. “See you soon, Big Brother. Don’t die, okay?” She jested and he was ejected from her virtual space. Once he was gone, she let out a sigh. “I did my part; this is what you wanted, right?” She sighed, speaking to no one but herself.

“Gaah! This is so annoying,” she shouted and jumped on her bed, rolling around. “Prophecies, my ass! As if an AI cared about that…” She uttered with a pout. “Aah… but it’s about time. You’ll take another step forward, Big Brother. Good luck,” she whispered.

* * *

When Rakna came to, he found himself back inside the Pavilion’s Terminal Room. He hummed to himself and quietly left, heading to the entrance hall through the corridors.

“{How was it?}” Fray inquired. “{Eva cut me off from listening in.}”

“Nothing special. I got the item needed to do what she wanted me to and she told me a few things about the involvement of the Nine-Tailed Scorpions.”

“{Aah… so as we feared, it become even more complicated.}”

“I suppose. Though for now, all I have to do is wait.”

“{Hm…}” Fray mused. “{Well, that aside, I have something to tell you. I have found a few transcripts about the ‘Crepuscule Queen’,}” he abruptly stated, his tone sounding quite odd. As if he was about to say something that made him give up on life.

“Uh? Something interesting?”

“{I would say so, not on the level of your Kzanaria however. But at the same time, you could say it surpasses it in sheer absurdity. From the start; eons ago, before most Laws of Existence had even been established, existed a realm called ‘First Twilight’. There, lived creatures that were one of the first to have ever existed. As ancient as Phoenixes, as old as Gods, and hoarier than Time.}”

“{Those creatures of Twilight had an unfortunate weakness. They could not live with Time. Only the Darkness of an Immutable Night could welcome them. When the world began to move forward with time, they perished one by one. However, they had a Queen. As they were going extinct, she made one desperate attempt to save their ancestry.}”

“{She sacrificed her blood and flesh to create offspring that would survive the mutable world. Her children went on to spread around the world; their survivability and power reaching heights that even Gods were jealous of. Soon, they were named… Dragons.}”

“…eh?” Rakna exclaimed dumbly, his steps pausing.

“{The Queen of The Crepuscule then decided to scrap her realm into a dimension that would never see the light of the day or the waves of the River of Time,}” Fray continued his story despite the therian’s interjection. “{She imprisoned herself for one day she would be able to be free. Her titles resound far and wide, the Crepuscule Queen, Mother of Twilight and Dragons, Tiamat.}”

“…what the fu--"