"What the fuck is this stupid building?!" Sōsuke was walking through the corridors of the base. 'I told Spencer I'd find their boss to figure out what happened, but I don't get shit about this damn building.' he thought, before turning into another hallway.
"For fuck's sake, I've already been here!!" he yelled, punching the air out of frustration.
He kept walking, and in the distance he heard people talking, men greeting someone respectfully.
He approached and saw something pretty strange to his eyes. 'Is that bastard flying?!'
He was stunned as the man began to move away. 'Shit, he's probably someone important, I can't lose sight of him.'
So he started following him, running past soldiers who stared in utter confusion as Sōsuke tried to make as little noise as possible.
He was getting closer to the man, who had just landed, but before Sōsuke could call out to him, he entered a room.
Sōsuke arrived in front of it, the door was slightly open. 'Am I even allowed to go in?' he wondered. 'I'll just wait for him to come out.'
Sōsuke peeked discreetly inside. In the room, he saw two men talking.
"Sorry for making you wait, Magnus. I had to go on a quick trip," said the man Sōsuke had followed.
"No problem. So, Ehecatl, you want to prepare your search for the Well of Urd?" Magnus asked.
"That's right, but first, please stop talking to me so formally. Call me Tachi. I hate being called Ehecatl."
'Ehecatl? The fuck is that?' wondered Sōsuke.
Tachi continued, "So where exactly is the branch of Yggdrasil, and how do I reach it?"
"It's in Iceland, in uninhabited lands. Deep within the Vatnajökull there is a tree, a unique one. Its name is Jokülsvardur. It looks like a massive weeping willow. It is a branch of Yggdrasil, a gateway in our world that allows you to enter it," Magnus explained.
"And how do I activate the damn thing?" Tachi asked.
"Touch its center. It will react to your divine presence. But that's only the beginning. Once inside, you must find its roots. Yggdrasil is the link between worlds, so don't make a mistake, you could end up somewhere you won't like at all."
"What does Yggdrasil look like? I mean, on the inside," Tachi asked.
"Well, I don't know. But I was told it's a malleable place, constantly shifting. Nothing is completely true between worlds, Yggdrasil reshapes itself according to you. That's all I know.
But it's not fundamentally hostile; creatures and people have made their nests there. Yggdrasil is… blurry. And I haven't recovered all my knowledge about it."
"I don't get a word of what they're saying, but why go to a damn place like that?" thought Sōsuke, still behind the door.
Tachi leaned back fully in his chair, looking up. "Fuck, If all I had to do was fight my way there, that'd be quick. But traveling through some kind of other dimension… Still, it's the only way to save Akyo."
'Save Akyo?! It's one of the tw, so he's dying?' Sōsuke was shocked. When Akyo had pushed him into the helicopter after sensing the three threatening energies, a fourth, massive one had exploded, he understood it belonged to the black-haired boy, since he had already sensed Soren's.
But someone with such power, beaten to the point of being near death, 'Gods exist, and they're real monsters. then, If I'm one of them, can I reach a level like that?'
He looked at his hands. "I need to get stronger," he murmured.
"You're spying on them?"
Sōsuke jolted. The man who had recruited them earlier stood right next to him, he hadn't even noticed him.
He asked again, "So? What do you think of what they're saying? And what's that about wanting to get stronger?"
"How long have you been there, you psycho?!"
"I was walking down the hallway and saw you listening at the door, so I figured I'd do the same. I've been here since the beginning. You were really focused," explained the blond. "I can't remember if I told you, but my name's Nicolo. Nice to meet you."
Sōsuke stood up. 'He's super nice, this guy!' He shook his hand. "Sōsuke, nice to meet you!"
"So, why do you want to get stronger?" Nicolo asked.
Sōsuke explained, "The guy inside said one of the two who brought us here is in a bad state, even though I felt like there were entire worlds between us. I need to get my revenge on the purple-haired dude, but if there's such a gap, I'm screwed."
'He's talking about Soren, funny, he kinda had the same motivation,' Nicolo thought, smiling.
"Well, hate to break it to you, but the purple-haired guy, Soren, got kidnapped. And the black-haired one, Akyo, got beaten to near death trying to protect him. No revenge for you."
"What?!" shouted Sōsuke. 'Kidnapped? What the hell,'
He thought for a moment, then an idea hit him. "If I get stronger, and I save him, that means I'm stronger than him, right?"
"Technically, yes. So, would you be willing to fight with us to save him?"
Sōsuke grinned and stepped closer to Nicolo, fists clenched with excitement. "Yeah! And then I'll beat him!"
Nicolo laughed. "Perfect!" he said, before grabbing Sōsuke by the arm and pushing him into the room where Tachi and Magnus had stopped their conversation.
Sōsuke found himself on the floor in front of them. 'What the—?'
He jumped up, not sure what to say. "I wasn't listening at the door. Not at all."
Nicolo entered behind him. "He's lying."
"You motherf—" Sōsuke began to growl before being cut off.
"I was listening too, to be honest. But I've got big news, Tachi, the dwarf on my left wants to get stronger to save Soren!"
"Yes!" announced Sōsuke, standing straight like a soldier in front of Tachi. 'Wait, did he just call me a dwarf?'
But before he could think more about that terrible insult, Tachi laughed.
"Don't worry about that. We already have a special program for you," he said.
"But first, we need to determine your nature. It won't work the same if you're a god or another kind of divine being."
"Determine my nature? How do you do that?" Sōsuke asked, clueless.
Nicolo began, "The Foundation is a centuries-old organization, and an ancestral knowledge has been passed down through generations, allowing us to identify the nature of any being."
'What could it be?' wondered Sōsuke, eyes wide.
Nicolo continued, staring straight into Sōsuke's eyes, his brows furrowed with extreme seriousness.
"Sōsuke… we're going to give you… a rectal exam."
"…Huh?"