As he arrived home, he opened the door and walked in with a smile as he announced.
"I'm back…"
The next second, Ariel ran out of the kitchen, she ran across the room into his open arms.
"Brother… welcome back"
He ruffled her hair, "Hey there Ari… why are you coming out of the kitchen? And where's Silver?"
"Big sister Silver is in the kitchen" She pointed to the kitchen.
"Huh the kitchen?" He looked ahead, "Ari stay behind me so you don't get caught up in the blast…"
He approached the kitchen carefully, before he could touch the door, it opened and Silver stood opposite him, with her arms crossed as she stared at him.
"What blast are we getting caught in?" She said with a glare.
He put on a bright smile as he tried looking over her shoulders.
"Silver… haha… what… exactly, are you doing?"
"Cooking" she said curtly, "is there a problem with that?"
He shook his head immediately.
"Nope… not a problem, knock yourself out"
She shook her head and turned around to enter the kitchen as she said calmly.
"No food for you…"
"I'm sorry, I was joking, I just didn't expect you to try it without me this time…" He pleaded in a soft voice.
As he said, a week ago, he had called Silver to show her how to cook the food of this world, and he had spent the entire week coaching her on what to and what not to add, so seeing that she was doing it without him, he was partially surprised.
"Doesn't matter" She replied sharply, not turning around.
"Fine then…" he shrugged, "I'll just have these ice cream all to myself"
Ariel immediately shot up from behind him.
"Ice cream… I want one too"
"Sure Ari, but after we eat" he ruffled her hair, "so ice cream for just me and Ari…" he smiled smugly at Silver.
She stopped and turned around.
'Heh… got you' he smiled inwardly.
Then she stared at his smug face and asked plainly.
"Are you threatening me with ice cream?"
"Yes I am Silvy, yes I am" he answered proudly.
He was confident she would give in, because if there was one thing Silver liked, it was ice cream, she had eaten so much of it that even him couldn't dare say he liked ice cream, and that alone filled him with confidence.
"I see…" she turned her head to beside him, facing Ariel.
As if receiving a telepathic message, Ariel immediately looked up at him and spoke in a cute voice.
"But… I want to share with big sister"
He shot Silver a look and turned to face Ariel, "F-fine… I'll share some with Silvy"
"Yay!" Ariel cheered.
'Traitor…'
Meanwhile, he turned to Silver who now had a smug look on her face.
"That's one point to you Silver… I'll surely get you back"
"Yeah yeah… that's what losers say" She waved him off and returned to the food in the kitchen.
'She had been saving up Ari as a secret weapon… tsk, I really should cut their time together, my little sister is picking up weird habits…'
..
.
After a while, Silver finally brought out the food, and just like she promised, his wasn't among it, he glared at her so much that he felt his eyes twitch.
"Silver… may I ask where my own share of the food is?" He said as he forced his voice to remain calm.
She tilted her head and shrugged.
"How should I know?"
He was about to say a few pieces of his mind, however he thought of something and smiled, then he turned to Ariel.
"Ari… Silvy said she won't give me food"
He chuckled inwardly, 'who said your secret weapon couldn't be used by me too'
Ariel turned her puppy dog eyes to Silver, and she stared at it for three whole seconds before turning to face his face that held a triumphant smile.
"It's in the kitchen…" She said calmly.
His smile widened as he turned to Ariel and gave her a thumbs up.
"Thanks Ari… that's one extra ice cream for you"
"Yay!" She cheered brightly again.
He quickly ran into the kitchen and brought out his own share and ate along with them.
After they finished eating, he cleaned up the place and finally, they settled down again, for the ice cream.
"How was work?" Silver casually asked as they ate the ice cream slowly.
He sighed and turned to her.
"You know my 'work' isn't exactly the type that can just be brought up during family dinner right?"
"What work does big brother do?" Ariel looked between them.
"Well Ari, I help the people fight big bad monsters" He smiled at her.
"Just like before?" She asked as her voice dimmed.
"Yeah… just like before" he nodded.
"Okay" She nodded, then jumped down from her chair, and walked to his front, then she placed her hand on the right side of his chest.
"I'll give you my heart again so you can always be here to play with me" She smiled although there was a flash of sadness in them.
He held her small hand to his chest and smiled as he recalled his second nightmare.
"Thanks Ari… I'll definitely always play with you" he ruffled her hair as he pulled her in for a hug, then he whispered in her ear, "and rush back to your ice cream, Silvy is looking at it funny"
"Ah" her head snapped back to the location of her ice cream, then to Silver, and indeed, Silver was eyeing the ice cream.
Ariel hurried back and picked up her ice cream and turned it away from the melting eyes of Silver. Silver turned to him and asked.
"Are there still any remaining?"
"This is your last one…" he brought out another set from his dimension ring.
He kept every single ice cream he bought in there, because it wouldn't melt since time was frozen inside, and also because anytime he kept it in the refrigerator, Silver would always finish it before he would even wake up.
Silver scoffed as she picked up another bowl of ice cream.
"That's what you always say"
"Tsk…" he clicked his tongue and quietly picked up his own bowl.
"How's your secret project coming along?" Silver asked again.
"I'm working on it, it's difficult to actually steal followers from a Supreme you know… plus I'm still working it out" he answered.
"Oh? How so?" She asked.
"Well if you must know, I'm considering their loyalty to the great clans, and also their abilities, plus I also haven't found a suitable location for our base yet…" he explained.
"Putting all that into consideration, it's understandable why I haven't made much progress yet" he concluded.
"Or maybe you're just lazy…" Silver countered.
He choked, "Cough… I'll ignore that part, I'm being watched closely, there's no way it's going to be that easy" he rolled his eyes.
"And why are you even interested, are you really that bored at home? You can do a few things for the government, you know?"
"Don't mind me, just checking on your grand ambitions" She rolled her eyes.
"Yeah yeah… I'll ask them if they have something suitable" he waved her off.
"Do what you like…" She sighed and returned to her ice cream.
He sighed to himself and continued eating the ice cream, Silver's words had made him remember that he had a ton load of work waiting for him, and very little time to accomplish it, but that was the work for his other body.
The only problem he had currently was securing their secret base, and it had to be secret since he had very little ways to keep them away from the eyes of the people who might have interest in their secret organization.
He thought of finding a hidden citadel, but that alone was a stretch on its own, he also thought of finding a regular citadel and hiding it in the Spirit World, but it was impossible for his current status, he'd have to be a demigod of the Door pathway to achieve such a feat.
The citadel was just one of his problems, the other was protection, he still had to keep them safe, and also rescue those who were probably captured.
Keeping them safe wasn't really a problem for him, but rescuing them if they ever turned hostages was another situation entirely, if he did that, he'd have to confront another Saint, and all it'd end with is the death of a Saint, making the other party his enemy, and being known and targeted was the bane of all secret organizations.
All he could do was make plans after plans, but he still had to find a citadel before any of those plans could be put into action.
He sighed as he pinched his temples, to calm his thoughts, he took a huge chunk of ice cream and ate it, the cool sensation brought him back to reality.
"I really need a third body…" he sighed.
"Lazy…" Silver muttered lowly, but loud enough for him to hear.
"I feel like you're upset with me" He turned to her.
"Now why would I be upset with you?" She tilted her head.
"Why indeed…" he muttered, then he thought for a moment, and the flashback came.
During the week he wanted to teach her how to cook, she told him 'why would I need to learn this when you're here…', he also remembered that she always had a slight frown during the cooking sessions.
'So that's why she was so moody'
He sighed and stood up from his chair and bowed.
"Fine… I'm sorry I made you cook, I'll try to be early next time"
"It's good that you recognized your mistake… I forgive you" She smiled.
"What you're doing is called illegal use of child labor you know?" He said with a slight glare.
Silver scoffed, "you're not a child"
He smiled, then used his ability to reduce his height to a smaller stature, and he made his face more childlike.
With a smug smile he said to her.
"No one will believe you now…"
She stared at him for a few seconds, then the metal spoon in his hand melted and flowed into a case that locked his fingers, he smiled triumphantly and then proceeded to spend the next half hour begging her.
He could easily remove it any time he wanted with his abilities, but where's the fun in that, that's how the chemistry in their home always worked.
..
.
After they had their fun, he left them in the living room and went down into the basement, as he arrived there, what he saw was a clear open space, however at the edge of the room, there was a pod with a very clear design, it was similar to the one used by the the academy, however there were also subtle differences.
This was a dreamscape pod.
He had finally bought one, but he hadn't used it yet, he was busy shuffling his daily life and work, and sometimes visiting Sunny to help train Rain.
Even today, he wasn't here for the pod, instead he was here to carry out a few experiments, he was doing them in the basement so that if anything went wrong, Silver and Ariel wouldn't be affected.
He walked to the center of the room and sat crossed legged as he lowered his head and chanted lowly.
"Child of Change
The Wandering Miracle Magician
Blessed of the Spirit World
Dreamer Cloaked in Mysteries
Soul Travelling through Dreams and History"
As he finished, he heard the familiar whispers in his head, but this time he could make out the exact words, no more murmurs.
He immediately went to his soul sea, and saw the point of light belonging to him glowing, he nodded and summoned the cloak, for the next part of his test as he channeled his essence into the cloak, raising his status to an Attendant of Mysteries.
He turned to the point of light and extended his hand, and poured essence into it, and he immediately felt his essence run down the drain, but on the plus side, he established a connection between the point of light and himself.
He immediately dismissed the cloak and pinched his brows to calm the stinging pain in his head, his earlier actions had nearly drained all of his essence, so after dismissing the cloak, he immediately left his soul sea.
As he opened his eyes to the familiar basement, he immediately felt a tingling feeling at the back of his right hand, he checked it and found a glowing tattoo-like design, the design was one he was very familiar with.
The pupil-less eye with contoured lines.
He immediately felt joy at the success of his experiment. Although he wasn't strong enough to start giving out boons, he could establish a sort of connection through his honorific name, laying the groundwork for any possible boons in the future.
He stared at the glowing design, then immediately sent essence into it.
In his mind, he felt as if an invisible communication line had been opened, and all sounds he heard sounded double like making and receiving a call at the same time and place.
He smiled brightly as he confirmed his success, then he was immediately hit with low essence, he usually kept a threshold of essence that, Merlin, his other self could use in case of an emergency.
However today, he had used below that threshold, hopefully, Merlin would understand and sympathize with him.
He stopped channeling his essence and stood up stretching, then he watched the back of his hand as the glowing design faded into his skin, not leaving a single mark.
"That's efficient… with this, I've solved the problem of communication with the soon to be formed Secret Order" he said to the empty space as he walked out of the basement.
He came out and told a few things to Ariel and Silver, then he walked into his room and laid down on the bed.