In the morning of the next day, in a display of unexpected mundaneness, Rakna was mindlessly scrolling through the news of the System with Eye of Symphony while eating breakfast.
Jutting from the sides of his seat were exactly seven tails. Between the day prior and now, he had finally crossed level 400. However, it didn't contribute much to his abilities. At this point, most of his fighting strength was derived from his attributes, which were currently ready to their Ascent into the 400s.
And although he had recently figured out how to transmute life force and skills to some extent, it seemed he lacked the method to increase it. He had tried to steal levels from others, but although he could convert it, he was incapable of taking it for himself.
The only exception was when he gave away his own, like with Higure. But even that was limited to people whose souls he had a deep connection with.
"It would be good to reach level 500 before the raid..." Rakna muttered to himself. "But with how stingy experience gains are starting to become, I don't think I can make it in time for tomorrow."
"Can't you go to a higher Plateau and exploit the level difference there?" Evelyn, dressed in her pajamas, sat across from him drinking milk from a straw.
"I tried yesterday," the therian sighed. "But Eva also disabled experience for Candy Road users. I got this tail on the way down because I was already on the verge of leveling up."
"Ah, that's a shame."
"You don't say..." Rakna was reaching for the waffles when he sensed an odd presence next to the table. He and Evelyn both looked toward the source and blinked in surprise.
Flavia... or at least, they were pretty sure it was her. Her figure, clothes, and face were completely normal... if they ignored her currently snowy hair and eyes, her frigid expression, the noticeable dark purple collar around her neck, and the compelling aura she exuded.
"We need to talk," she raised her voice, sounding completely different as well.
Evelyn was staring in confusion... though she continued to drink her milk.
As for Rakna, he raised an eyebrow. "Cuniya," he uttered. "What is that appearance?"
"This is our Resonance," the White Witch, currently in control of the body, answered. "We finally completed it last night. Flavia has offered me command so that I could talk to you."
"I see. So, you succeeded," he nodded. "Hans said it would be quite hard. Coming from him, that might as well mean impossible. Congratulations."
Cuniya scoffed in pride. "We managed. More importantly, I've heard Eva granted you the right to travel Plateaus at will."
"Mhm," he hummed agreeingly. "Is there a Plateau you want to go to? Family to meet as well?"
"No. I have family to kill."
Rakna nearly spat his food. He coughed and turned toward her. "Excuse me...?"
"I said," she narrowed her eyes. "I have family I want to... no; must kill. Bring me to them."
* * *
On a Plateau that looked... ominously normal, Rakna flew through the sky in his wolf form. Every time he flapped his wings, space distorted in his path. At the same time, his eyes branded with a golden cross were rapidly flickering as if searching for something.
"...I found a trace," he eventually said and made a sharp turn, ignoring momentum altogether.
"Good," a response came from his back where Cuniya, occupying Flavia's body, was sitting with her legs hanging from the side. There wasn't a single visible sign that she was being pushed by the wind or even shaken around by the speed, as if protected by something.
"By the way," Rakna spoke up. "Can you really maintain your Resonance for that long?"
"We could stay like this for eternity if both of us so desired," she replied matter-of-factly. "There is simply no better stabilizer than my Possession Magic, after all."
The wolf snickered. "Is that so?" He said and spread his wings, parachuting himself. "This is quite an annoying Plateau to look at," he grunted, oddly complaining about what seemed to be a meek meadow with a small village in it.
This was the 360th Plateau, which bore the inauspicious name of 'Fallacy'. There wasn't much to say about it other than Hosts would immediately frown at said name. But, when entering it, most people would not find anything wrong.
Scenic meadows, welcoming towns, peaceful Wilden, and delicious food summed up the kind of image this Plateau gave its visitors. However, it was a veil of deceit. The truth was that all things in Fallacy had inherently warped appearances.
Blades of grass could be spikes of steel, and nobody would notice until touching them. Fruits and animals could be disgusting enough to vomit, but people would find them delicious and cute.
Furthermore, the species that populated it were devious creatures that thrived on the trickery of their surroundings. Mimics were a dime a dozen, and viciously, the Trial challenged Hosts to visit villages until they identified the special ones artificially made by the System, where residents are genuinely welcoming.
And to do so, they were required to trust them, or the Trial would fail. All in all, this Plateau was collectively despised by Hosts; it forced one to develop paranoia and overcome it right after.
"They are all skinwalkers," Rakna hummed, circling the village like a vulture. "Are there any that you recognize amongst them?"
"No. Even if they're sloppy, skinwalkers can change everything that is not their soul," Cuniya said and dismounted the wolf, commanding the very air to allow her to stand on it. "So, I wouldn't be able to tell from sight alone. But that doesn't matter; they have the information I want."
The witch immediately propelled herself toward the village with telekinesis. She landed right in the middle of the village, causing a small shockwave.
"Bleh, sand," Rakna huffed as he blinked to get rid of the particles. Yet... there clearly was no sand to be seen anywhere below him, or around where Cuniya had landed.
Wordlessly, he followed after his companion and touched ground much more softly, just behind her. Which was quite ironic, considering he currently was bigger than even nearby houses.
One of the villagers tentatively took a step toward them. "Um... greetings, Miss," he spoke with a slightly uneasy tone; an understandable reaction to seeing a woman fall from the sky alongside a winged wolf. A normal thing. Too normal, even.
In the blink of an eye, Cuniya appeared in front of the man and kicked his stomach with the full force of Flavia's telekinesis.
"Urgh...!" The man crashed into the house behind him so fast that it created a sonic boom.
Right away, the other villages began to act scared, turning to flee.
"Stop right there, you filthy creatures," Cuniya raised her voice and they stopped. "I will only ask once; where are the Vellai?"
Every villager silently turned their heads, suddenly looking emotionless. Dozens of eyes focused on her all of a sudden, but they didn't say anything.
"Damn it..." However, the man she kicked walked out of the crumbling house. He was holding the side of his face with his hand. "Where do you come from, bitch?" He spat out and as he removed his hand, a patch of missing skin revealed a foul piece of flesh. "You're not a Host?"
"I said I would only ask once," Cuniya reiterated. "Answer my question."
"Heh. You're looking for those lofty Flesh Crawlers?" He sneered. "What do you want with those bastards? Considering the way you look at us, there's no way you'd be any better with them."
"Third warning."
"Fuck off. We're not telling you anything," the skinwalker cursed and ripped the skin of his hand before filling it with mana. "We'll take your skin instead."
Cuniya sighed as the rest of the filth also did the same thing. Her eyes glowed and the collar that glowed on her neck wriggled. "Kneel," she ordered and they submitted.
"...!" Without understanding why, all of the skinwalkers fell to their knees as if possessed.
"The next one who speaks and doesn't answer my question will die."
The fake villagers looked at each other in shock, not knowing what to do. But after realizing that they were up against someone massively out of their league, they instantly believed her. And as a result, none of them dared to speak.
"You insolent..." The White Witch gritted her teeth in anger.
"This is going nowhere…" Rakna breathed out, startling the skinwalker who thought he was just a particularly intimidating pet. That's also when they noticed a certain feature; the multiple tails behind him. "I'll extract it myself."
"You are--!"
The skinwalker's exclamation was cut off when his head was torn off his body. At the same time, the same thing happened to every other villager in this place.
Cuniya's widened slightly as their blood sprayed. She looked over her shoulder with a confused look. She could tell that Rakna had somehow stretched space around their heads to decapitate them, most likely with that Cosmos skill he was so fond of lately, but strikingly, he had done so with no diffidence whatsoever.
His tone had sounded as if killing them was just that more convenient, and the only justification he could ever need. The White Witch hadn't known him for as long as some, but she had Flavia's memories to peruse; it felt unusually snappy coming from him.
'Also...' Her eyes twitched. 'Are you aroused right now, you insane woman?' She spoke inward to the other person sharing this body.
"{...}" Flavia did not say anything.
Unbeknownst to either of them, Rakna himself was surprised. 'First, my sense of time... and now this? Arch Madness is certainly having effects,' he thought. 'Well, it's not as if I'd care much about killing these guys regardless.'
The wolf walked to one of the heads and stamped on it. "[Dead Men Tell.]"
The memories of the skinwalker were absorbed in him. With his abilities, it was now hilariously easy to extract the memory of a target. Eye of Symphony gathered, processed, and organized it in less than a second, giving Rakna further understanding of this Plateau that Cuniya had yet to tell him about and the information they were looking for.
"They're to the east," he said out loud. "When selling 'skins', they would go to a valley filled with a sealing mist. They apparently are using the remains of a Nuckelavee as material for it."
"Can you teleport us there?" Cuniya asked curtly.
"I can..." Rakna squinted at her. "But let's chat on the way instead. Get on," he said as he lowered his wings for her. He smiled. "At cruise speed, we'll get there in ten minutes."
The witch frowned irritatingly but Flavia's thoughts pushed her to accept. She clicked her tongue and reclaimed her spot on his back. On cue, she felt what was shielding her earlier return and the wolf kicked the ground to take off, blowing away the village at the same time.