Tales of Revenants

Chapter 70 – Bounded Time

They have arrived at a secluded forest from the outskirts of Folconthorn, the capital of Archreverie itself.

Aside from its long-distance apart from Eagleborn, they have reached within a thin layer of technomagic detection to inform the caster whether someone passes the bounded field; which is clearly Tetra's doings.

She made Laken's party and Eris pass through prickly briars crawling around the proximity. Her choice of place to establish her office was somewhat surreal.

No one would go through this forest just to report their findings. It's more like a hideout than a facility.

After they crossed the thicket and trees inhabited by countless bugs and insects, they were greeted by an orthodoxical Valkyrian home in the middle of nowhere.

It has a second floor and eye-catching murals with different colors all over the walls, and the glass pane windows make it comfortable to live just by looking at it, but it was not architecturally different from those at the Eagleborn Town.

"By office, you mean your house?" Xenon remarked after he let go of Laken, Eirisse, and Luciella from his safety clutch.

"Is it that different?" Tetra was quite unsure herself but can still keep a brazen attitude.

"Forget it," Xenon just gave it up. He doesn't want to deliberately incur her wrath again.

"Come here, everyone's welcome," now Tetra sounds like a newlywed wife who had her relatives visiting her house.

"Excuse us..." Eris showed her respect. Her wounds are no more, thanks to Luciella's Light Blessing.

Even though Luciella is used to Xenon's wild card demeanor, she's still astounded by how a mechanoid can just switch to different kinds of emotions and characters in a flip of a coin. She's just wondering how their overall structure works out.

"I thought I was unusual, now I get what my comrades feel when they watch me change attribute," Xenon blurted out.

He tweaked few arsenals on his shoulders activating his thermal device to warm up the surroundings.

"You're one to talk, wretched alloy," Tetra switched to her annoying attitude.

She just provoked Xenon with a famous zargonian insult that will surely put the golden heart of any mechanoid to rend from such offense.

"No, doesn't work anymore," Xenon just accepted what she just threw at him. It seems he understood Tetra's also trying hard to blend as a normal person by actually acting one.

He knew it since he's the same as her not until his comrades, especially Alisa, taught him the way human and other race interacts with each other.

Tetra went to a nearby room. After a few ticks of the clock, she went out carrying a handful of soft fabrics that looked like towels and dispenses them out to those who needed it.

"Why I don't have one? You really mad at me aren't 'ya?" Xenon's bickering again not getting his share of a towel to wipe his armor dry.

"You understand. We don't need such a thing. Grow up." Tetra snubbed him off. They have the same wavelength of likability but their characteristics make it hard to get along with one another.

While Eris was wiping her soaking-wet wings from the corner, she noticed Laken carefully drying Luciella up with the cloth to keep her snug. He doesn't mind about his health and he's solely engrossed on her condition.

Laken's just considerate with others, but envy filled Eris's heart seeing how much he cared for her as he gleefully pats her head keeping her safe and sound under his protection.

She grew as a strong-willed valkyrie who doesn't falter no matter the challenge. But deep in her heart, she also wanted to experience what is being protected would feel. She stoops in desperation like a damsel in distress.

When Eirisse smells the scent of Tetra's fabrics, she can't have enough of it.

Unlike Alice's mansion and private paradise that's have an abundant mixture of green decoratives, Tetra's taste as seen from her house is quite peculiar.

Her wallpapers and flooring have eccentric patterns of the color pink, her sofa, and most of her furniture also somewhat colored-rose.

Eirisse didn't expect Tetra's femininity level is quite high than a usual mechanoid defender exactly opposite from Sheria who rarely expresses herself.

After all, they may be created as a different gender and entity, but they don't have an actual gender due to the fact their physical body is quite lacking its proper form.

The idea alone is what excites Eirisse on how do they work and how an artificial intelligence made from magic and alloys can develop such personality. Because he's the reason why her heart beats with meaning.

While Eirisse's at it, she wrapped herself with the soft fabric to keep herself cozy. It may sound a bit rude but she speaks for Tetra, not from the good-willed side of her, but for her position as the eight Heavenly Hero tasked to save the world.

"I'd like to ask, but you must know we are Revenants and you're letting us on your private life," Eirisse pointed out the obvious.

Tetra's silent and directly looking at her like some kind of doll, but Eirisse thinks she certainly is a human replica beautifully designed as mechanoid.

After a while of unusualness, she suddenly decided to stand up and went to the backside of her home, waiting for her arrival.

They thought they're just hearing things from the loud creaking noise and static cacophony, but she came back carrying a serving tray with a kettle and few cups enough for everyone.

She just came back from the kitchen after preparing something mild to warm the visitors up from the sudden rainfall.

When she relaxed from the sofa, she straddled her left leg sideward upon the table before speaking, "I heard you guys and Alice have some sort of agreement, and I never expected she solved a national affair. Now, I also have a proposal, too."

"Just my opinion, but I think she had a few loose screws on her duralumin head." Xenon interjected while he nonchalantly took the kettle to voluntarily serve her visitors including himself.

From the scent and physical analysis Xenon examined by secretly inhaling the elemental compounds of the vapor; he thoroughly scanned the ingredients used assuring there's nothing like some sleeping drugs added to it.

What Tetra served them was a pure brew of high-quality coffee. The beans are especially only being cultivated on the Archreverie itself because of its rich soil formed from over the past wars.

"You're rude. Isn't showing my house and serving them with the perfect blend of coffee will make you guys trust me?" Tetra shared her view upon what she just did. Xenon even thinks she got the wrong idea.

"We're rude, but don't you realized we're wanted criminal, except for Laken he's the real deal." The moment Xenon slipped his tongue for another joke, he received a double-side flip head-chop from Laken.

Maybe the fact Eris couldn't talk herself out was because she's too intimidated by the idea of her being in the house of a Heavenly Hero she looked upon.

She's secretly one of Tetra's fans for being a role model valkyrie. Eris idolized her endeavors and heroic feats; after all, she's the second valkyrie who joined the rank of Heavenly Heroes.

The first one is none other than Helenia, third Heavenly Hero who was alumni of the Tower of Sorcerers, known for her unique void magic that can surpass Morgan, Wise Elf of Ancient Flugel, in terms of combat ability alone.

Despite the situation, Tetra fixed her attitude, sips coffee from her cup, and frankly blurted out what she wanted to say, "No. I'm serious. Alice offered the Shard of Cosmos to save the Astral Kingdom, and I stole her idea, gladly granting you this..."

At first, they have no idea what she was talking about, but then she began to remove her military coat and even her upper undergarment to show them her chest made of silicone and alloys at its frame to perfectly replicate true female bosom.

Upon inserting her fingers between the line wedges setting apart the Arcanum Core's encasement to her middle sternum, things got pretty palpable.

She seriously opened the frames on her chest just to get only one thing; it's a shard that glows a dim light with a ticking clockwork inside its crystalized mirage.

It was beside her majestic core wrapped with different colored wires and intricate technomagic bindings.

Tetra pulled the shard out of her heart before locking the encasement and finally closing her chest.

She dons her clothes afterward in front of them without showing any kind of shame or whatsoever. Though she had much more pressing matters than getting embarrassed.

"This is the Shard of Time. In exchange for this not-so-useful artifact, I seriously needed assistance." With the Shard of Time on her open palms, she gladly offered it to Laken's party by getting onto their side.

Eirisse's work is to determine whether a person is earnest to do evil towards another.

The main feasible problem would be probably she can't just look at the eyes of someone artificially made.

She doesn't know what's in the heart of mechanoid defenders as they are beings of absolute mystery.

When times like this, Xenon takes the lead by scanning the length of emotions and other differential factors in determining when someone is lying. For example, the heart's beating, their drastic change of behavior, and much more.

What he discovered instead was that Tetra's being dead serious just by glancing at her straight countenance. They weren't even able to read any malice as she's completely being honest.

They thought she invited them solely because she set up a trap, but they were wrong all along as she gravely needs Laken's help.

No matter what ordeal Tetra faces, a Heavenly Hero, it must be something that can bring about the threads of fate into motion.

It may be circumstantial for Alice who was lazy and truly a scaredy-cat but actually a good-hearted hero.

But for Tetra, a valkyrie who doesn't know fear, and now wants the help of a wanted criminal, there must be something dreadful enough to strike fear upon her golden heart.

Eris was totally confused and doesn't know what is going on anymore. Everyone's attention was drawn when Tetra flicked her fingers as if denoting something, "Come out now you two."

Right after she gestured her palms, without further notice, a mounted undead out of nowhere passed through the wall as it growls the voice of war. The undead knight rider reined with his metallic chains before his undead horse calms down.

Its hooves burn everything with each step, but its spiritual form makes them delusional as it was not the case since those that inhabit the spirit realm can't directly interact with the living; therefore others sadly can't even see it.

They were all surprised to see Alisa who was saddled together behind the dignified undead knight, along with the riddle that forges their newfound quest.