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”Happy?” His 'transportation' asked, clearly annoyed at the tourist-like request he made of her to see the city from afar. Assuming she even understood the concept of a tourist, though Rainer got the feeling she'd be annoyed by it either way. Aurora was annoyed by a lot of things.

”Quite,” Rainer responded, looking over the Void Lords' city. They had spared no expense when constructing it.

At the bottom of the peak, numerous buildings fanned out in a mismatch of culture and style; it was only the very top, a place reachable only through flight or teleportation, that showed unity.

Built as if it were the very peak of the mountain itself, a massive tower of metal extended into the sky, its dark steel marking it a fearsome watcher over all these lands. Around it, the metal extended into a metropolis of towers and bridges connecting them, making the entire city interconnect as if it were almost a single building. Though, more than one tower stood alone with no clear means of entering it.

Rainer quickly realized that there had to be Void Lords responsible for transporting food and other necessities, and chuckled aloud at that.

”What?”

He smartly opted not to share that thought. ”Just a reminder of home that surprised me,” quickly telling a nonsensical lie, finding the image of Aurora 'the food transporter', and who knows what else, to be too much for him to think of a better excuse. And a welcome distraction to recent events. Aurora's stiff hatred seemed to bring out the jokester in him. More so than usual, that is.

He knew he'd likely be doing similar things sooner or later; no reason not to when he had both a Spatial Enchantment and a Ring, but he wasn't the type to be bothered by that. In fact, he'd likely be acting as a transporter of practically anything of use in the beginning. Well, 'he' as in hopefully his Avatar. Or two. The only real limitation to repeating the ritual was the caster's mind and strength of Soul. His lazy fantasy did not include that he currently didn't even have the strength for one Avatar let alone more.

”Any chance I can get one of your Dwarves to build me something similar?” Rainer asked, liking the idea of a magic metal tower, no matter the usual impractically something like that would have.

Aurora stared at him for a long while and he got the idea that she didn't want to agree. Rainer briefly noted that she floated in the air without his assistance, some sort of self-application of [Void Hold] he guessed. Him attempting a similar thing would likely drain his Void Will reserves in a minute or two. He could see why most considered Arcane Spells as borderline useless without a talent for them. Talents were not to be underestimated.

”We are bringing back a few enchanters in any case, I doubt your request would be refused, though you'd likely have to transport or provide any needed materials yourself,” she finally said as if it pained her. Whatever her Overlord's care for this human was, Aurora knew full well she would just be ordered to assist him or punished if she did not. And he was the reason she could come back here in the first place, no matter how little she wanted to admit that. Little did she know, her Overlord shared her envy over his method of [Void-Traveling].

Rainer went over his plans for the guild and further buildings. With such an organic way of building, incorporating Nalmar's workstation enhancements would be even easier. On top of creating a blocked off area for the Mana-Well itself. After all, there was no reason to make an actual entrance to such a hiding-place – he also intended to master and add all the teleportation-blocking enchantments he could find, ensuring the safety of this artifact a divinity had tried so hard to deny him.

Perhaps the Void Lords could help with that as well given their nature? He doubted they were homogenous, especially given the lady right next to him, which meant they had to have developed countermeasures against each other. The only question was whether they would share them. He certainly wouldn't be asking them when he could just ask Talvara directly.

Rainer himself still didn't understand why Talvara treated him as well as she did beyond their original deal. He considered her a friend, but it was hard to say if that was returned, there was simply too much he didn't know about her. And of course the huge difference in age and power, even if said power seemed to be limited in some way.

Nothing for it but to consider her a friend for now, Rainer thought. Certainly, only a friend would do something as childish as putting him with the one Void Lord who hated him. He liked that about Talvara. The Void Lord next to him was fun to joke at when there was no threat of imminent death. Fun for him, in any case.

”Can we go inside now?” said Void Lord complained impatiently.

”Let's.”

Rainer took a quick glance around the room Aurora brought him to. The lack of luxury was a bit surprising, but he already knew the Abyssal Planes was, on the whole, poorer. And perhaps even technologically behind the world he was just in, Alvra, which itself sat in a weird mix of Renaissance Italy, Greek times, and the dark ages when you took into account it's culture and technology also aided by magic.

The bed was most certainly not at a comfort level he'd expect for a guest-room of the Void Lords, but Constitution handled any discomfort easily enough.

”Thanks for watching out for me,” Rainer said as Jor left his shoulder. The Serpent would be keeping an eye on him as he slept. While not fully capable of staying out of his shoulder, for whatever reason, Jor was quite close to doing so at the moment. And the slight glow to its body after eating part of the Elemental could mean taking the final step to autonomy. Or it could be just another snack.

[Appraisal] was still useless, listing the snake-like flier as unknown.

While leftover simmering anger from having his Elemental-child stolen, an absence of a sleep-dosing Fairy, and a general lack of anyone in his bed kept him up a bit longer than planned, darkness took him in the end.

They had all agreed that bringing anyone into [Sleep Learning] might have unintended effects with the time difference. And he had no interest in chancing that. The idea of finding another test subject for something like that bothered him, but he supposed there was at least one advantage to having a large portion of the Demon Race after Kara.

Technically, Talvara entered his white void under a time-difference. She was also the closest thing he knew to a Goddess that wasn't a Divinity and often used Avatars of her own. So it was a moot point.

In the interest of pure efficiency, Rainer realized that putting the Avatar Ritual first would be the best idea. Just as he wanted to have an Avatar to permanently guard his Mana-Well, future Guild, and everything that came after, he wanted access to one in [Sleep Learning]. In fact, given the connection to his Soul, he wondered how that would work in here.

Though, the major problem in that was that his Soul wasn't strong enough. Compared to the Mana monster that Amer was, being the largest pool he had met prior to that Elemental, Rainer's was lacking.

He knew an easy solution to that, one that his companions had either accomplished or were close to: Gunthar's soul strengthening technique. But there were still other parts of the Avatar Ritual he could work on as he plodded forward in trying to gain this skill. That his recent advances in [Soul Detection], when creating the skill that allowed him to bring other people in here in the first place, might be useful was a plus.

However, talking with Talvara came first.

Talvara looked on with hidden amusement as the [Archon] furiously paced around this white space of his. His story involving coming face to face with a 3rd Tier Elemental had been quite a surprise. It was only at the reminder that it technically took him a whole month to get to his Elemental that it made more sense. And why she had not warned him in the first place. It seemed they both forgot about that 'little' time difference.

She thought of lying and painting the Elementals in a darker light, but there was little point. Even Aurora could quickly disabuse him of that notion if he asked, given Talvara's own orders.

So she told the truth, about their location on the seventh plane, about how they took other races under their protection, about how seriously they treated poaching, something she realized she should have mentioned when he first told her about his titles, and how they would love to meet the man who wielded both Arcane and Void.

Oddly enough, that last sentence actually made the [Archon] angrier at them. Ranting about some Mage's Council under his breath. No matter, it wasn't as if she didn't mind that conclusion, whatever it was.

With Talvara making a quick exit, Rainer decided to distract himself with the [Avatar Ritual]. Having no other way, he planned on simply going about it step by step. It was a mix of [Soul Manipulation], [Flesh Manipulation], Devil or rather [Human Anatomy] and most importantly, [Mana Manipulation] and extensive amounts of Mana Crystals involved in the operation of the ritual circle itself.

Thankfully, the actual splitting of his Soul was the very last step, and he could practice everything else as much as he wanted. Not to mention that his [Soul Manipulation] was actually the same level as Amer's. The Devil hadn't been happy to hear that given the literal centuries it took him to learn [Soul Manipulation] in the first place. Of course, the Devil would never do something as insane as attack his own soul in order to learn about manipulating them.

Even the Soul-splitting Devil had his limits.

Rainer started on the first step, recalling how Amer had done this himself. Thinking of the recently slain Taraien [Priest]s, he used them as a model for a just-dead human.

From there it was manipulating Mana into their bodies and using his knowledge of [Human Anatomy] and [Mana Manipulation] to form flesh, akin to how Mana formed earth or water in the respective magics.

With the goal in mind of growing just extra skin, Rainer set to work, knowing he'd have to rely on simple repetition, large amounts of Mana, and the [Archon] class bonus more than anything else. It was good the [Avatar Ritual] itself handled most of the flesh parts, and the prerequisite was only to have the most basic understanding of [Flesh Manipulation].

After an entire night of what had to be the grossest thing he'd done in [Sleep Learning], he gained the skill.

[Skill Gained: Flesh Manipulation lvl 1/10]

He tried using the skill to heal his own wounds, but found his own brain not being a supercomputer a limiting factor and currently wasn't enough to properly manipulate the flesh in a normal way. Any attempts just ended up with a weird and strange growth where the scar should have been.

Rainer spent the next few nights repeatedly drawing and then using the Avatar Ritual, up until the very point he needed to split his Soul.

During the day, he got Aurora to take him hunting for monsters, even if the experience points would be negligible for his high leveled [Harbinger] unless he got lucky. Prodding Aurora with usual joking made the trips entertaining rather than tiresome and proved an easy distraction. Working tirelessly with no breaks of any sorts had its limit, and Rainer understood that making an advancement in magic when he was mentally exhausted wasn't likely. Not when it depended so heavily on his intuition and ceaseless attempts.

Rainer awoke on his fifth day here. He knew it would be just a few minutes before Aurora entered his room without knocking. And then they'd be off to hunt again. The experience for his tier 2 classes wasn't worth the effort, he quickly realized.

”Where to this time?” The Elf entered and showed not a hint embarrassment as she watched him get dressed.

Already used to the lack of decorum thrown his way, he was unbothered.

”I was wondering who trains Void Lords for combat?” Rainer asked. Their fighting style was the closest he had met yet to resemble his own.

”Where exactly would you like to start?”

”From the beginning I suppose.”

Rainer pushed with his Mana and his Void Will as he tried to escape Aurora's [Void Grasp]. Yet no matter how he overpowered [Void-walking], he failed in the end. He was entirely at her mercy.

Rainer rubbed his temples and did his best not to be bothered by the smirking Void Lord standing across from him. The moment an Abyssal Elf learned to Void-Travel, they began their training. And the very first thing they did was learn to use the skill under duress. Whether that included an attacking enemy or interference to block their trip across the Void.

”For all your ability to travel through a barrier, I am amazed such an effortless use of [Void Grasp] prevents you from moving. It seems I had wasted far too much effort when we first fought.”

”Yes, it's all amazing,” Rainer grumbled, ”Are you ready to go again or not?” He was well aware of this weakness. It did, after all, make no sense that he could escape Divine Barriers and yet be held by a [Devil King] or the Aura Strings of the Wolf King. But no amount of complaining would change that. That was what training was for.

”With pleasure.”

Shortly after his training, or 'entertainment' as Aurora likely viewed it, Rainer went to meet with the one of the Ashen Dwarves they'd be bringing back with them. And figure out just what it would cost to have the Guild he wanted built with their metal.

The dwarf himself was brought to his room by Aurora just minutes after she left.

Unlike the dwarves Rainer saw in Neutral City, he'd call this one akin to a young and miniature elf. Nowhere were the muscles or strong jaws of those dwarves.

With dark grey skin, large pure black eyes, a thin frame, and only three feet in height, this old Ashen Dwarf looked more like an evil fae or elf from his home's fairy tales.

”Thanks, my lady, for bringing me.”

Aurora said nothing in response and just went to a corner of the room to lean on the wall, brooding in silence, as the Abyssal Elf would often do.

”How can I help the most esteemed guest?”

The Ashen Dwarf bowed to Rainer. The [Archon] decided not to bother getting rid of formalities as he figured it would only cause problems for the dwarf.

”I need an estimate for a project I want done in your building style,” Rainer started and went on to explain the entirety of the guild, using an Arcane weaved model hovering in the air. Of most importance was a thick chamber at the top of the tower to hide the Mana-Well, though he, of course, didn't specify what it was hiding.

”It'll cost 32 Faarans of Mana Crystals,” The Dwarf responded after making weird high-pitched and then low-pitched 'hmm' noises for a few seconds.

Rainer blinked a few times, noting this was the first time his translation skill had ever failed to convert a measurement. Perhaps 'Faaran' was a measurement of Mana quality of some sort and had no easy translation.

”Aurora, can-”

”Yes, I'll show you an example of how much that is,” Aurora grumbled.

”As helpful and kind as ever,” Rainer responded with a beaming smile, enjoying how much his praise bothered her. He'd get through that shell of hatred one day. Or, probably not.

”And what else?”

The Dwarf titled his head.

”That's it.”

Rainer's interest in the Dwarf's metal skills grew even further. Perhaps another thing he should try to learn about before he left here.

On the sixth night here, Rainer finally starting working on the Soul strengthening skill once more. He felt he was close to learning, having practiced it the longest amongst his group, but there was a strange block to accomplishing what Gunthar told him.

He had since long assumed that strange block was the White Void that was attached to his Soul and functioned as [Sleep Learning].

Rainer sat in meditation as he tried to improve his Soul with that method. And yet no matter how he forced, even using [Soul Manipulation] on top of it, nothing occurred as always before. It was only when he was thinking of quitting and perhaps finding another method of improving his Soul that he decided to try a different way.

If the White Void was attached to his Soul, perhaps improving just himself wasn't enough. He focused on the entirety of the White Void, before being hit with a vastness he couldn't understand. Taking a mental step back, he instead tried to feel for the White Void rather than to focus too closely on the specifics.

Holding on to this feeling, Rainer applied the method of Soul Strengthening not only to himself, but to the entirety of his White Void, wielding the endless Mana to improve an endless space. He slipped on occasion, focusing too closely and thereby not encompassing all of it, but with every attempt he reached closer to the state he was looking for.

With the help from his [Archon] class, Rainer marched forward onto the final goal. He barely maintained consciousness as he felt the entirety of his being almost evolve in strength.

[Skill Gained: Lothfane Soul Empowerment lvl 1/10]

Any further gains in the Soul would be slow and well earned, but Rainer now had nearly all he needed to attempt the Avatar Ritual in full.

It was on the eighth night that Rainer felt he had gotten far enough along to start working on the Soul-splitting and final step of the Avatar Ritual. He had already lost count of the number of times he had performed the ritual itself. And had more than enough memories of a distorted looking clone of himself than he could ever want. However, Soul-splitting wasn't something he could practice.

Failure was not an option.

Painting two ritual circles of blood across the ground, Rainer formed Mana Crystals on one and sat in the center of the other. He went through the ritual as he normally did, manipulating the mana and flesh as the ritual operated and formed a second body.

Rainer focused as he felt the ritual connect him to the second body. Memories flashed by him. He had watched with the utmost attention when Ameriytus had split his soul, and while he had the limitless energy of [Sleep Learning] to recover himself, even still there was a risk to it.

Without hesitation, Rainer used [Soul Manipulation] along with the ritual and with a shout of the [Devil's Soul Language], a part of his Soul split away. He grimaced as he realized he lacked the full control to place it, but with [Void Mastery] and an on-and-off use [Void Hold], he safely guided the entirety of his soul into the second body.

A mental click went through him as he felt his energy pools connect with the second body, along with his Soul and Mind.