"He should be here."

"He never actually said this is when he would return."

"I know, but I mean, the implication-"

"The implication? You're talking about Founder Rory of all people."

Apostolos frowned, having no counter to that.

Ten years. It had been ten years since Rory had left Ehkorrus, and things had changed quite a bit. With every year and every wave defeated, another batch of anywhere from seven to fifteen folks appeared, their city growing by leaps and bounds. Most of the folks were below tier five, a wall that many slowly collided with. Nearing two hundred citizens, perhaps the most interesting change was that some folks were finally starting to have children.

Glancing to his left, Violet smirked at him for a moment.

Not going there.

It was an odd sight to see folks, some of whom he even considered friends, carrying small children, now responsible parents.

Probably the strangest of all was little John, who wasn't so little anymore. Sixteen years had passed since he'd first arrived on Aelia, and the young man, now in his mid-twenties, had started dating one of the newer citizens a few years prior. Only a year prior, they had decided to get married and have a child, and, well, the rest was history.

Hell, many of the original generation were married or in committed relationships, the only exceptions being Marcie and the true leader of Ehkorrus herself, Irene.

"Hey, you there?" A hand was waved in front of his face as he glanced to his left. Once more, his girlfriend frowned at him.

Violet frowned at him.

I still can't believe she managed to wear me down.

After years of her openly expressing her feelings for him, he finally gave in, unable to deny his feelings towards her.

That and she had pinned his ass during a spar and demanded that he take her out on a date or she'd stop sparring with him altogether.

It had helped that they were both now old enough that what had once felt like a problematic age gap, around seven or eight years, was much less meaningful now that Violet herself was in her thirties compared to his forty.

How time flies.

Without Rory or even Eia, life was simple, even in the chaotic moments. No Banes, no insane creations, just the constant progress of Ehkorrus as it grew with each passing day. With that said, technically speaking, Ehkorrus had been weakened even with the significant expansions. The loss of a tier seven that was their founder meant the next two strongest were himself, Violet, and Marcie, who were all closing in on tier seven themselves, another few years before they'd reached that point.

The loss of Rory had just meant they had to take things in a bit less of a reckless fashion, and it had worked out well.

And yet, it still doesn't feel right.

Apostolos wouldn't lie; he missed his adopted brother. It also didn't help that Rory was becoming a bit of a…weird figure to Ehkorrus.

Which is to say, the Rory that Apostolos knew, and the Founder of Ehkorrus, was slowly drifting apart, 'Rory' being forgotten entirely in favor of the legendary founder, a myth more than a man. Even amongst the original generation, Rory had already taken on a bit of an off-hand approach, like a ghost that would appear, muttering as he worked on something or another, only to vanish to who the hell knew where.

There were times when Apostolos had walked through Ehkorrus and heard someone say something along the lines of 'Praying to the Founder' for luck, or 'May the Founder smile upon me,' and other such lines that just made Apostolos uncomfortable.

But he was the Chief Protector; he couldn't come out and condemn his people, not when he needed to be the pillar of strength.

Thus, he was forced to watch helplessly as the living memory of Rory, of who he was as a person, was instead replaced and supplanted by that mythos of the Founder of Ehkorrus.

"Hellloooo?" Violet waved her hand more vigorously in front of his face once more. "You're really out of it."

The two of them had decided to take watch in front of the Null Window for the tenth anniversary of Rory's departure from Ehkorrus. The fact that two of the three strongest figures of Ehkorrus were… standing there was beginning to attract attention, but Apostolos didn't care much.

"I was just really hoping he'd return. He was never good at remembering small details, so I knew it might be a long shot, but… I wanted him to return, remind people that he was a real person and not some made-up Santa Claus."

"Santa Claus?"

"Some person Rory mentioned at times, a phrase for a made-up person, I guess," Apostolos sighed.

"Why don't the two of us pay a visit to the Maw, maybe do some hunting to get your mind off things?" Violet squeezed Apostolos's hand, noticing the melancholy on his face.

"And who will be here in case of-"

"Relax." She squeezed his hand once more. "Marcie and Manda are here. Between the two of them and some of the other tier sixes, things are fine. Honestly, Marcie alone is probably enough for anything other than an upper-echelon tier-six monster. And speaking honestly, when was the last time a random monster attacked Ehkorrus?"

"….Six years ago."

"Six years ago," Violet said, repeating the words. "And it was fried by the walls before anyone could even question what was going on. That was a high-tier six monster as well. You can take a week or two away from the village."

Apostolos frowned, but noticing a few people watching, his smile returned, masking his feelings.

"Fine. We can check in on the Khan while we're at it."

"Always focused on the job, aren't we?" Violet asked, teasing Apostolos as she raised her eyebrows at him.

"Yeah, yeah, save it. Progress is slow there. We just don't have the manpower to construct all the pylons needed for the Khan while also working on Ehkorrus, but I don't want the Khan to think we're ignoring it."

"That lazy snake is probably sleeping anyway."

"I wouldn't call it lazy, considering the extent of its injuries and internal damage it took fending off the Bane years ago. That aside, you know the Second Prince will be there to meet with us."

"Uck, that pompous little…" Violet muttered before rolling her eyes. "Well, maybe you could come over for a bit before that?"

Apostolos sighed once more, watching his girlfriend repeatedly raising and lowering her eyebrows suggestively at him, looking rather foolish the entire time.

A fool, but my fool.

"Fine."

"This place always sucks," Violet muttered as the two of them traversed the putrid landscape that the Khan called home.

"Yes, well, you know the Khan hates it just as much as we do."

"Still sucks."

"Quit moping, we're almost there," Apostolos said. The two of them had decided to take the long way there rather than teleporting directly there from the teleport platform on the second floor of the Maw. It was mainly to take a look at how things were progressing, which was to say… slow. At the rate things were going, it would likely take another two hundred years for the whole, uncompressed territory of the Khan to be fully brought under its influence and take on its affinity.

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That said, as they neared the temple, nearly a mile away, the landscape began to change. No longer were there putrid, acidic rivers and bone trees, and nasty-tempered snakes everywhere. Instead, prismatic grass was sprouting from the still marred but slowly mending earth, with small golden saplings popping up as well. Even the acidic rivers changed as they neared, flowing with electric-blue liquid that tingled upon contact but brought an extremely revitalizing feel to the body upon ingestion. It was about as idyllic as any location within the Maw could be, thanks to the influence of the Khan stretching its aura and affinity throughout the lands, aided by the pylons Rory had conceived and left for them to continue to create.

"Hey, what's that?" Violet asked, pointing something out to Apostolos. Looking in the direction she was pointing, Apostolos was surprised to see what appeared to be an oversized golden pillbug covered with prismatic-colored flakes. If he stood next to it, it would have been nearly halfway to his knee, and given his height, meant that it was a reasonably large bug, if not otherwise imposing.

Aside from the appearance of a monster that they'd never seen before, it was being watched over by a snake, at least thirty feet long. As far as appearance went, it looked like a miniature version of the Khan, just with less grandiose cresting.

"We greet the Second Prince," Apostolos made a point of calling out to the serpent, bowing as Violet copied his motion, her lips barely puckering.

"Ahh, Ssson of the Suns." The Second Prince turned to face them, its serpentine face always tricky to read. "I welcome thee to our Hallowed Home."

It was the classic exchange they always began with —a verbal reaffirmation of their continued commitment to friendship.

"How fares your sire?" Violet followed up with an inquiry about the well-being of the Khan, which always helped improve the Second Prince's mood.

"Better, he continues to heal at a steady rate. It is good that the journey to the Tenth Realm is a marathon, not a sprint. His time lost making immediate progress shall be reclaimed severalfold over due to the efforts of your Master."

It was a backhanded remark to both of them, albeit not one made out of malicious intent. Violet was lower on the hierarchy than Apostolos; thus, to the Second Prince, he was her Master. Meanwhile, Apostolos was lower on the rung than Rory, who was viewed as equal to that of the Khan, so Rory was his Master.

Annoying, but not one that Apostolos was about to make a fuss out of.

"That is pleasing to hear," Apostolos said, speaking before Violet had a chance to add anything of her own.

"Indeed. Hasss the Architect and the First Prince returned as you hoped?"

"Sadly, they have not," Apostolos answered, genuine in his sadness over the fact.

"A pity, but our betters work on timeframes we often fail to understand. Still, I would appreciate meeting the Architect and my senior Prince someday."

It was something that the Second Prince had said before. Every time Apostolos found it a bit strange how the serpent seemed to use the term 'Prince' as a genderless term, knowing that Eia was a girl. Still, it was yet another subject he had no intention of digging into. All that mattered to the Second Prince was that there existed only three figures he respected as superiors: the Khan and Rory at the top of the ladder, followed by Eia, his elder sister. Apostolos was viewed as more of an equal, and as for everyone else, well, the snake could be a bit grating.

"Was the last delivery of pylons satisfactory?" Apostolos questioned, changing to a 'business' related topic.

"Sssatisfactory?" The Second Prince thought about it for several seconds. "Yesss, I ssupposse so. The craftsssmanssship is still inferior to the originals, but to reach the level of our bettersss is no sssimple task."

Unity theory is a bitch.

The Unity theory was something Rory himself had referenced in the past, with Gil being the leading proponent of it nowadays. It was a relatively simple theory, which stated that an item created from start to finish with a singular 'lead' was far more potent than one built and processed by many parties in an assembly-line style.

The issue with the Unity theory was that multi-field artisans were not the norm. While Rory made it seem easy, most were challenged just by committing themselves fully to a single field, much less multiple ones. It was a matter of pride that Gil, Viviann, and Mariah were the next closest in ability, primarily due to the frequency with which they worked together, having managed to pick up bits and pieces from one another.

And yet, they still didn't come close to Rory. Of the three, if Apostolos had to say one was 'closest' to Rory in that fashion, it was likely Gil, and that was in part due to how much he had idolized Rory. Mariah was likely the 'smartest' of the bunch, but she also only really cared about Alchemy.

Viviann… Well, she was still the best Inscriptionist of Ehkorrus. It was just that she seemed to lack the same spark the other two had. It wasn't something Apostolos himself could easily explain, just a sense or a feeling that he got from her, almost like what he had felt when he had once been following Rory's path.

It wasn't exactly one-to-one, but Apostolos had a sense that he wasn't far off.

A hand bumped his own, as Apostolos found himself back in the present. Violet gave him a side eye as she had noticed him drifting off in thought.

Call it a quirk I inherited from Rory.

"So, you were saying about this, uhh-" Violet waved at the golden pillbug, which had crawled up to Violet, now rubbing itself against her thigh.

"A new spawn," The Second Prince said proudly. "It was discovered a single fortnight prior. A naturally spawned tier two monster appearing on the second floor is nigh unheard of."

"Heavenly Pillbug," Apostolos said as he gave the small monster a quick examination. "Very…. Descriptive."

"Indeed," The Second Prince agreed. "While not a truly outstanding ssspecies, it is the firssst to have spawned within the claimed territory of my Sire."

"It must be nice not to have a monster spawn be a competing snake for once."

"The lesser serpents are but mere beasts," The Second Prince said, voice full of scorn. "Mere bottom feeders who could do naught but consume one another, whereas my Sire could dream."

"Anyway," Apostolos quickly changed the subject. The Second Prince could get extremely passionate regarding the subject of the other serpents and just how great the Khan was in comparison.

It wasn't as if the Second Prince was wrong, just that Apostolos had been subject to the same spiel enough times not to be interested in hearing it yet again.

"I am glad for the good fortunes you have received," Apostolos said after a moment of thought as to what to change the subject to. "I do have one inquiry. Do you have any further details on the disruptions as of late?"

"Little," The Second Prince answered honestly. "Learning of the ongoings within the Maw is not an easy task, and one I can only undertake occasionally. At best, I reaffirm my prior observations: things stir."

If Rory were here, this is where he would sigh and complain about cryptic messages and foreshadowing.

One of the roles of the Second Prince, aside from acting as their liaison with the territory of the Khan of Blue Lightning and Ehkorrus, was to be the eyes and ears of the Khan throughout the third floor of the Maw. The Third floor was at least a hundred times larger than the second floor, and that was even before accounting for uncompressed space. What that meant was, without a large force of tier six and tier sevens to explore, even a decade since Rory had left, barely any further had been investigated directly. Half of their info was obtained from the Second Prince, who would scout throughout the Maw from time to time, gathering details and relying on its surprisingly potent stealth skills given how eye-catching the serpent was.

"Well, we appreciate the update," Violet said, speaking on Apostolos's behalf. "With that, I believe we will take our leave. We originally meant to come here to hunt throughout the Maw, so perhaps we may look into these 'stirrings' as well."

"Sssuch would be wise, indeed." The Second Prince concurred. "Do watch yourssselves. While the Son of the Sssuns has little to fear should he be struck down, the sssame may not be said for yourssself."

As much as Violet wanted to retort, she bit her tongue, as once again the Second Prince said no lie. While Violet was one of the top three strongest within Ehkorrus –Marcie had barely beaten her in the year prior's tournament— that meant little against the scale of power within the third floor. A tier six human would generally prefer to face off against high-tier-five monsters, and only the stronger members of Ehkorrus would willingly challenge an equal tier monster. Even fewer were those who could hit above their weight class, Apostolos, Marcie, and, if the match-up were at least marginally favorable, Violet herself, assuming she wasn't relying on her boosting skill.

Unfortunately, the Maw was filled with monsters ranging from high-tier-five or base-tier-six, all the way up to tier seven, albeit far more rarely. Even working together, it was not unimaginable that they could encounter a monster that was outside the realm of defeat. In that case, Apostolos would respawn in Ehkorrus.

And Violet would die.

Shaking off the grim thought, Apostolos gave a short bow to the serpent.

"We appreciate the sentiment, and we shall look after ourselves to the best of our ability."

"Good." The serpent answered dismissively, signaling it was just as prepared to end their conversation. "I would not wish to inform my Sire that a significant underling of his sworn friend had perished foolishly."

"Right, yep, well, time to get going," Violet said through gritted teeth. "Appreciation and all that, bye!"

"It wasn't that bad," Apostolos said.

"I swear, even when not trying, that snake just cannot stop sounding condescending for an instant, except when it's either proselytizing about 'Oh my Great Sire,' or 'The Great Architect,' bleh. Annoying."

"Relax," Apostolos said soothingly. "He means well, in his own fashion."

"Damn snake. Though, I guess Eia was always a bit haughty too, ehh?"

"Oh, you have no idea." Apostolos chuckled as he recalled some of the few times he had fought alongside the snake. "Even without speaking, you just knew she was pretty much looking down on anyone who wasn't Rory. I think she viewed us more like cute little pets to protect or something."

"The Great Guardian Beast," Violet said, fluctuating her tone in the best approximation of some of what she had heard in passing throughout Ehkorrus. "Her gaze could petrify even the mightiest monsters, the most loyal pet and beast of the Founder."

"Where did that rumor even start?" Apostolos asked, genuinely perplexed. "Nothing about her turned anything to stone."

"The crystal scales, maybe? Conflating points about her wouldn't be that surprising, given that the only one who ever fought alongside her was you and Rory himself."

"I guess that makes sense," Apostolos said with a sigh. "Though, there is one part about that which would get someone strangled."

"Oh? What's that?"

"The idea that Eia was anyone's pet."

That got a laugh from Violet, whose hand found his own.

"Alright, well, let's go look into these stirrings now, why don't we?"

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