'This place looks so different in the morning,' Rex thought as he strolled through the entertainment district.
The afternoon sun beat down with the dry intensity of early summer, casting long shadows across mostly empty streets. Only the cleaning and maintenance crews were around, sweeping away the remnants of last night's work. And as he neared Belit Babili gate, a Familia woman strolled up toward him.
"You're looking different," Samira said, giving him a slow once-over. "And you even cut your hair short?" she added, stepping in close to inspect his face.
"I liked it longer, but this look softens your eyes..." she murmured, raising her hand gliding her fingers along his chin, pausing over the light stubble before resting her other hand gently on his chest. "And it sharpens that jaw."
Rex, of course, didn't mind the attention—but right now, he had other things to do. "I'm here for a meeting with Ishtar." He said, getting straight to the point, "Is there a way I can meet her without prior notice?" Scavenger already confirmed he would be able to get a meeting with her, so he wasn't worried about rejection.
"Ishtar gave the command to let you and Zanis in whenever you show up." Samira gave a sly and unreadable smile as she turned around, Rex walking after her, with the girl saying over her shoulder. "I wonder how good you two are in bed for her to say that. Even I and Aisha don't get to meet the goddess whenever we want~."
"It's just business meetings," Rex replied simply.
"Ha!" Samira laughed. "That's exactly what Zanis said. You two must've planned that line together."
Trying to change the subject, Rex asked, "So how have things been?"
He used the opportunity to feel out what Ishtar had been up to. It turned out she hadn't done anything to Bell and his group—which was good. Maybe she was learning her place.
Leading him up Belit Babili, they arrived at the floor where he had last met Ishtar, where they were met by Tammuz who seemed to have been waiting for them.
"Follow me." Tammuz said calmly, addressing Rex. Without another word, he turned and walked away.
"I'll be off." Samira said, patting Rex's shoulder. "If you've still got energy after bedding the goddess, don't be shy—come find me," she winked before walking off.
Rex waved over his shoulder and followed Tammuz. It didn't take long for them to arrive in the room Rex had met Ishtar a few days ago and Tammuz opened the door, allowing him in. The vice-captain closed the door, leaving to get Ishtar, leaving Rex alone in the room.
Sunlight streamed through the wide windows, casting a golden wash across the polished floor, couches, and table, the grid-like shadows of the window bars stretching in perfect lines. The room had a scent like it had just been cleaned, with the atmosphere much different than it was last night.
'Lighting can really change the mode of a place.' Rex thought, looking around. 'This doesn't feel like the sex chamber it felt like before.'
He wanted to sit and wait but just decided to stand facing the door, waiting. As confirmed by Scavenger, the goddess had received words about what happened down in Knossos and he knew she would be pissed. Acting cocky right now isn't smart, so he stood and it didn't take long until the door was opened once more by Tammuz.
"...You." Ishtar spoke in a low voice as she stepped into the room and into the golden wash of sunlight from the window. Stepping into Rex's longer and larger shadow, her lips curled into a slow, smoldering smile that didn't reach her eyes.
"How have you been?" she asked as she stopped in front of Rex, with Tammuz closing the door, waiting outside. She trailed one lacquered nail along his stubbled jaw, as if testing its edge. "I was worried the labyrinth might scuff my favorite wolf." The fingertip drifted to his lower lip as she smiled.
Suddenly, the kiseru cracked across the same cheek her touch had just caressed. His head tilted from the blow, and he playfully winked in the direction he was looking at before turning back to face the goddess with a serious face.
"You brought that flat-chested jestress into Knossos." She hissed as she struck the other side of his face with another whack of the pipe, "Killed my bull." Another hit. "Sabotaged my plans."
She jabbed the butt of her pipe into his forehead, forcing his head back. "Do you even comprehend what you've ruined, mutt? Huh?" She asked, knocking the pipe against his forehead as she raised her voice, "Everything!"
"If you would just listen—"
"Listen?" Her voice rose sharply as she back-handed him with the same hand that seconds ago had stroked him. "You expect me to listen after cavorting with that boy… that meddling pest Loki… and that bitch?"
She leaned in, noses nearly touching, breath scented with spiced smoke. "Tell me, my precious Magnus." She spat his name like poison, fuming amethyst locked on cool amber. "When did you start wagging your tail for someone else? Have you been crawling behind my back all this time?"
"The morning after our meeting, for some reason still unknown to me, Hermes came to me." At this, Ishtar frowned. "He asked me to assist the Loki Familia in searching Daedalus Street for a certain 'super-secret evil organization trying to destroy Orario'... Knossos."
"Fufu…" Ishtar chuckled softly, shaking her head. "First, that messenger spilled that woman's weakness straight into my ear—while pretending it was because of my charm...Bell Cranel!" She raised her voice theatrically.
"Dear Hermes knew I would send my girls to snatch that little rabbit-boy—to use him as bait and drag Freya into Knossos." Her lips curled into a slow, knowing smile as she lowered her arm. "So he could run and yap to that bitch... and tip the first domino toward the downfall you so graciously foresaw."
She sneered and met his gaze. "Then he asks you specifically to help that group of clowns sniff through Daedalus Street? Really? Did he think you would bond with them after a little shared hardship? Is this his attempt to pull you away from me?"
"I don't know," Rex admitted with a shake of his head. "But I decided to play along and help search for Knossos because I was curious. What made you so confident Knossos would give you the edge to take on Freya?"
"And now that I've experienced it for myself…" He nodded once. "By using Knossos the right way, you might've pulled it off. The terrain alone makes it nearly impossible for only someone like Ottar to move freely. Divide and conquer? Trap their executives one at a time? Honestly, it was a smart strat—"
The kiseru pipe missed his face by an inch as he flew out of Ishtar's hand, slamming the glass window behind him with a metallic ring.
"Do you believe I didn't know that?" she snarled, her face contorting with divine rage that caused Rex to shiver. "Do you believe—"
She forcefully slapped cheek with her now free hand. "I didn't know that!? I planned this for years, you insolent mutt! And with one swaggering stroll you shred it?! You not only removed the aspect of surprise from Knossos, but you also killed my bull with Loki!"
"That's where you're mistaken." Rex's voice cut in casually. "The Loki Familia didn't kill Gugalanna," he said simply. "I did."
Ishtar froze for a second then opened her mouth—but nothing came out. Her eyes widened in genuine confusion as she noticed he wasn't lying. "…You… what?"
"I soloed Gugalanna," Rex repeated calmly. "I killed your Divine Bull alone. No help. No back-up. Just me, myself, and I."
"W-wait…" Ishtar blinked once, wondering if her divine ability to tell lies was malfunctioning. "...but—didn't you say… you were only Level Five then?"
"Something like that," Rex said, nodding.
"Then… how…?" she whispered.
She knew how powerful it was. Gugalanna was strong enough to annihilate her entire Familia. No one besides Phryne—only when level boosted—stood a chance. No, Phryne herself wouldn't be much of a challenge to the bull. She could confidently say that in all of Orario, she could count on one hand how many people would be able to fight it. Yet Rex… killed it alone?
"I told you I had abilities that allowed me to fight levels above me, right?" he asked with a tilt of head. "That Demi-Spirit Bull was powerful, but not untouchable. The Loki Familia would've killed it even if I wasn't there, and, luckily, I was the one who killed it. Because now I've leveled up, I'll be more valuable to your cause than that bull ever could've been. For example…"
He walked past her, heading toward the door. Stopping just in front of it, he glanced over his shoulder at Ishtar, who stood still, staring at him silently. Smiling slightly, he extended his bandaged arm toward her, hand open invitingly.
After a moment, she moved, stepping forward. But just as she reached for his hand, he shifted it away and grabbed the doorknob instead. At this, Ishtar silently lowered her hand, deciding not to say anything, unwilling to embarrass herself. It was clear now he hadn't been offering his hand, just beckoning her forward. Indeed, that's what Rex was doing.
Holding the doorknob of one of the large oak double doors, Rex twisted it, chanted in his head, then pulled it open.
Silence.
At this, Rex glanced back at the goddess. "Goddess, don't you see?" he asked, mildly confused by her lack of reaction.
"I see, yes." Ishtar nodded, eyes focused on the other side of the doorway.
Instead of the hallway that should have been there, the door opened into a large, empty, uninhabited room—Rex's room back in Cupidinem. And how did he do this? Simple. It was his new official magic:
— — — — — — — — — —
"Door To Somewhere"
— While opening any door, the user can chant to link it to another door they've previously encountered, creating a portal between the two.
— As long as a user knows a location or has been there, they can access it via Door To Somewhere.
— If no suitable door exists at the destination, the user can instead create a temporary magical exit door in that location.
— The portal stays active as long as the door remains open.
— Once closed, the portal closes, and the same door can be reused for a new portal.
— Mind cost increases with distance, how well the user knows the exit location, and whether a real or temporary exit door is used.
— All doors open for the user when chanting.
[Chant: "Open Sesame"]
— — — — — — — — — —
Basically teleportation via portal creation, with extra steps and restrictions.
"What's with that reaction?" Rex asked, gesturing at the open door. "Aren't you surprised?"
"I am," Ishtar replied.
And she truly was—though her expression barely showed it. She was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that her Bull hadn't been killed by Loki Familia executive, but by a level 5 Rex. Alone. And topping it off with this magic made her unable to know how to react.
"I don't like your reaction," Rex muttered.
He closed the door, then opened it again while chanting in his head. This time, the other side revealed Zanis's office—it felt as if they were simply standing outside it in the hallway of the office's open door as the exit portal was the real door.
He closed the door and opened it again—this time space itself seemed to bend inwards like a door in a random alley in Orario to reveal Rex and Ishtar standing inside the same room, the goddess' expression blank. The moment lingered before Rex calmly closed the door, the spatial door closing and vanishing without a trace.
Then Rex opened it again, this time conjuring a door in a quiet corner of the Orario Library. He closed it, opening it to another location. Then once more. And again. Again—
Just as he was about to close the door again, Ishtar reached out and gently touched his forearm. He paused, and her eyes widened slightly at the shattered, devastated dark adamantite room beyond the frame.
"…Is that… Knossos?" she asked softly.
"Yep," Rex said as he poked his head through the open doorway, scanning the battered chamber with a look of casual familiarity. "This is where I fought your Bull."
Ishtar blinked, her eyes drifting across the ruined room. The fractured walls, shattered floor, and twisted ceiling all made of adamantite—now broken. "Are adamantite walls supposed to break like that?"
"Nope," Rex replied, casually nudging a chunk of adamantite that had rolled into the room with his foot, sending it clattering back into the room. 'I should come back for all these chunks later.'
Closing the door, he opened it again, this time to a random coner in Daedalus Street. "What other person do you know with teleportation magic like this—especially with practically infinite range?"
He wasn't bragging—just stating facts. Though the Mind cost scaled with distance, the cost per mile was way lower than he expected. He could open a door down to the 25th floor and back multiple times over and still be nowhere near drained.
"With this magic, we could easily separate Freya Familia Executives," He continued closing and opening the door to new locations. "Transport back ups, and now, after leveling, I am much stronger than—"
"Ahhhhhh—!" Ishtar's undignified shriek was cut off abruptly as she and Rex were suddenly yanked out the door, sucked by the sudden shift in air pressure.
Along with them were every loose item in the room—cushions, tables, chairs. But before anything crossed the threshold, the pressure slammed the door shut with a thunderous clap. With the original door closed, the floating sky door vanished instantly.
Rex barely had time to realize what had happened before he found himself flipping uncontrollably through open sky—over five miles above Orario, tumbling in the air where planes would normally fly.
'Hmm,' Rex thought as he flipped and twisted through the air, wind rushing past his ears. 'I should've known this would happen,' he mused casually. 'Opening a door to the sky was not so bright, was it?'
The world spun around him, then suddenly caught sight of something in the distance. Focusing on it, he noticed it was Ishtar spinning wildly in the distance, completely naked. 'Right...' With a green glow in his eyes, Rex's wooden sandals shifted, spreading up from his feet over his body in a layer of swampfire armor until he was fully covered.
He stabilized himself mid-air, facing Ishtar as a sunflower bloomed beneath his feet. Then, with a sharp boom, a large blast of orange-yellow fire exploded from the sunflower beneath his feet, propelling him forward with a forceful surge. From the ground, the flame only looked like a distant glimmer in the sky, swallowed by the bright blaze of afternoon sun.
He reached her quickly, calling upon Scavenger and his mental compartmentalization to work out a method of catching her without hurting her from the momentum. First, the fire from his feet dimmed, narrowing into concentrated and piercing blue jets. Smaller sunflowers then sprouted along his legs, back, and ribs, each one firing precise bursts of flame that balanced him.
Then he extended his arm, steadily matching her chaotic flight until their hands met, which she quickly gripped tightly. Wooden tendrils sprouted from his armor, snaking along her arm, encasing her from head to toe, emitting a steady warmth and feeding her oxygen.
As her movements slowed with his, Rex adjusted his position and gathered her gently in his arms like a princess. The goddess clung to him instantly, arms locking around his neck, her face pressed firmly into the crook of his collar. Slowing to a stop, Rex hovered there, the controlled bursts of fire from the sunflowers along his legs, ribs, and back kept him balanced.
As he drifted there, he looked down as a lone cloud floated by below him to see Orario. It was a tiny circle far below with the 1.55 miles—2.5 kilometers—tall Babel towering from its center, stretching above the clouds but nowhere close to their height.
After staring at it for a few seconds—trying and failing to discern anything in the surface of the city—he looked to the horizon. There, the curve of the planet stretched in a vast, sweeping arc, its edge blurred in the haze of the upper atmosphere. Pale blues deepened to violet where the sky met the void, and the world below shimmered like a living map. It was beautiful—an entire world laid bare beneath his feet.
"Ishtar," he called and the goddess finally lifted her head, sunlight catching the edge of her wooden mask as she looked at him. "Isn't the view beautiful?"
Ishtar remained silent for a moment and finally, she said, "Magnus," she calmly called his name.
With a bright smile behind his mask, he answered, "Hmm?
"All I see is darkness."
Rex blinked, then glanced down at her blank, swampfire-like wooden mask, the glowing red eyes like his staring emotionlessly up at him.
'...Right.' He had forgotten he could only see through his own helm thanks to Nictitating Membrane++ physical property. Without it, it would've been pitch black.
"Return me to my room—immediately." Ishtar said flatly.
"Yes, ma'am." Rex instantly replied. 'This would've ended much worse if my wooden saddles had flew out my legs after getting sucked out the door.' He thought with s shudder at the thought of indirectly killing a god. 'Let's just get out of here.'
[Author's Note: Door To Somewhere—that was going to be the chapter's name.
From what's been shown in this chapter, what do you think of it? It's a powerful magic, and with basically infinite range, he can literally do something like open a door down to the Deep Floors and let monsters flood the world. Of course, he wouldn't do that—but the possibility is endless, and you'll see just how useful it can be in later chapters.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and Adios~!o(*￣▽￣*)ブ]