A moment after he grabbed her hand, two pulses of light flowed from his arm into Cassie's.
One was the Axiom of Virtue, while the other was something even Reinhard hadn't expected.
He immediately summoned his runes to see what had happened.
Handle of Pride was the enchantment that allowed him to grant his attributes and certain other abilities to others. In return, they would become his subordinates. Through that connection, he could use their senses and communicate with them mentally. Not only that, but they would also feel an inclination to follow his commands if he wished for them to do so.
Though, due to his flaw, he wouldn't be able to abuse something like that without a justifiable reason.
The strange part was that Handle of Pride was no longer just an enchantment attached to a memory.
Cassie had received it as a memory itself.
In her runes, two new memories had appeared.
One was the Axiom of Virtue.
The other was [Handle of Pride], a Divine Rank Memory.
Seeing that shocked her.
She already knew Reinhard possessed a Divine Rank sword, but she hadn't expected him to have another memory of the same rank.
As she focused on [Handle of Pride], words slowly appeared beneath its name.
Unlike the enchantment description, however, this description was written from the view of the subordinate.
Reinhard silently watched her for a few moments, giving her enough time to finish reading.
Since he was still holding her hand, he finally used his aspect.
Using [soul essence control], he guided soul essence into the memory and created a new attribute.
Then, through Handle of Pride, he transferred that attribute to Cassie.
The eight-handled wheel of sin turned clockwise in his soul sea, and with that an attribute appeared in Cassie's runes.
It was called [Sonar Sight]; with it, every time sound was produced in the environment, Cassie's mind would automatically reconstruct every surface that reflects, absorbs, or distorts the sound waves into an updating 3D mental model. Essentially, she could detect where every physical object in her surroundings was if sound was being produced. There was obviously no color, light, or texture, though.
Just as she got the attribute, Cassie didn't say anything for a few moments.
She remained sitting there while her attention seemed to drift away from the runes. Then, almost hesitantly, she slowly turned her head to one side.
Every sound was reflecting back to her mind as a rough outline of the world around her.
Reinhard quietly watched her while she familiarized herself with the attribute. Every few seconds her head would turn ever so slightly towards another sound before stopping again, as though she were trying to understand exactly what she was seeing.
Looks like it worked.
From the corner of his eye, he noticed both Nephis and Sunless staring at Cassie with undisguised curiosity. Or perhaps the more accurate description would be that they were looking at him through her.
Neither of them spoke.
After another few moments, Cassie finally lowered her head.
"...Thank you."
Reinhard simply nodded.
"You're welcome."
Instead of letting go immediately, her fingers remained wrapped around his hand for another second or two before she seemed to realize it herself and quietly pulled away.
Phew, at least there was no hug or anything cliché like that.
***
Before anyone had the chance to ask a single question, Reinhard's intuition suddenly flared.
Since he had such a close connection to fate, his intuition had become unnervingly reliable. And a few times in the past it had proven to be right every time.
Immediately, Reinhard stood up.
The sudden movement drew everyone's attention. Even Cassie instinctively turned towards him, now able to follow his movements through the rough mental image created by [Sonar Sight].
Nephis frowned.
"What happened?"
Her sword appeared in a shower of sparks.
[New attribute acquired.]
[Attribute Name: Echo Perception.]
Suddenly, silhouettes began appearing in Reinhard's vision.
Every nightmare creature within range revealed itself as a faint outline, regardless of whether walls or coral stood between them.
His eyes swept across the surroundings.
Nothing from below could reach them, and there was nothing that could cause harm at the top either.
That left only one possibility.
The sky.
Reinhard immediately looked upward.
Far in the distance, a single silhouette moved through the air.
It was still too far away for [Echo Perception] to reveal any details. All he could make out was an enormous dark shape steadily approaching.
They had no way of fighting something like a flying creature, so on Reinhard's command, all of them quickly left the place of battle.
Not long after, something huge got closer, and then with a whirlwind, it landed near the corpse of the dead centurion.
The nightmare creature was unlike anything they had encountered so far. It was enormous, easily twice the size of the carapace centurion. Its muscular body was pale like a corpse, supported by two powerful hind legs and six forelimbs that jutted unevenly from its broad chest, each ending in long, curved talons.
Its neck was covered in long black feathers that continued across a pair of enormous wings, while its head resembled that of a raven, complete with a terrifying black beak and large, unblinking eyes.
While they hid behind rocks, the creature feasted on the dead centurion, easily breaking its carapace apart with its talons and beak. Then, satisfied, it grabbed a few scavenger carcasses with its paws and rose back into the air, creating a small hurricane with each flap of its black wings.
The creature left the cliffs and flew back the way it came.
It was moving west.
Only after its silhouette completely vanished did Reinhard hear someone behind him let out a quiet breath.
He turned around.
Nephis and Sunless were still standing with their weapons drawn.
Cassie had also raised her staff at some point.
She was clutching it tightly with both hands, her shoulders tense and her face set in quiet determination, as though she had fully intended to stand beside the others against that flying monstrosity.
Objectively speaking, that was an unexpectedly appealing sight.
"What do you think that thing was?" Sunless asked.
"I don't know," Reinhard answered.
"Same," Nephis said.
With nothing else to discuss, Sunless returned to practicing his thousand strikes while the others also got busy with their respective tasks.
***
Good day for Cassie x Rein shippers. Don't think it's finalized though; Rein and I are twisted individuals, so anything could happen.
Muhahaha.