Titaness Agnethe Akselson

After Al had recovered and returned, he found himself bewildered by the scene before him. Ellie was engaged in a conversation with a mud-covered giant who surprisingly possessed the ability to speak broken English. Cesar, Jin, and the other blue giant, who had shot and pummeled Al into oblivion, all lay unconscious. Slowly, Al cautiously approached Ellie, who reassured him with a wave that it was safe to do so.

"Me, Father sent me to North. Get Help," the mud-covered giant named Loh' spoke in his limited understanding of English. Despite his rough exterior, Loh' possessed remarkable intelligence and had managed to grasp some English words through his brief exposure to a human phone.

Al turned to Ellie with confusion, prompting her to inquire further, "Your father sent you to get help? Is your family in trouble? Perhaps we can lend a hand."

Loh', struggling to decipher and articulate her words, took a moment before responding, "Help from North." Ellie found herself puzzled by his statement, asking, "What do you mean by 'North'?" Frustrated, Loh' replied, "North people under water, ask them help."

Al interjected, trying to make sense of the situation, "He must be referring to the Blood Leafs 5th Immortal Ring. It is we're we are headed after all. If a family as formidable as theirs requires assistance, anyone in the Immortal Chasm should be more than capable of providing aid."

A few hours later, Loh' was conversing in English fluently, as if it were his native language. Asoto' had awakened, and before he could pounce on anyone, Loh' swiftly calmed him down. Meanwhile, Cesar and Jin both gazed at the giant who had nearly taken their lives, now accompanying the group of four.

"As I mentioned earlier, we are not aliens but Tonovians," Loh' explained. "Our history stretches back tens of thousands of years in our homeland of Tonovia. However, our ancestors were human, so technically, we are also human, albeit with slight differences. My teacher, Geova' Murellus, recently dissected five unknown creatures. She determined that they were an entirely foreign life form to our planet, we named these creatures 'The Rakh-ahtan.' which means invaders. This triggered an alarm in Tonovia, prompting us to prepare for an invasion. The day finally arrived when they attacked us. At that moment, the Father of fathers, my leader—not my actual father—sent me and his actual son, Asoto', to seek help from what he described as an underwater human civilization up north, beneath a lake."

Loh's talkativeness surprised the group of four, although they found his revelations mind-boggling. They discovered that, unlike themselves, who harnessed Will, the Tonovians utilized Ancestral Essence to achieve similar effects. Al, in particular, found this distinction intriguing. The six of them began to exchange knowledge and information, except for Asoto', who appeared perpetually annoyed and could not comprehend a single word being spoken.

"I don't know the connection between your people and the God Leaves, but based on what I've learned about them, your best chance for help would be from regular humans, these God Leaves only acre about themselves" Al murmured almost inaudibly. Though Loh' heard him, he chose not to respond.

The group of six proceeded northward towards the Blood Leafs' 5th Immortal Ring, even though they didn't have the exact coordinates, they knew 5th Immortal Ring was located somewhere beneath Lake Huron.

They swiftly crossed the border between Michigan and Indiana and soon found themselves entering Huron National Forest. As the temperature dropped, their bodies had to exert more Will to preserve warmth, which slightly slowed their progress.

In contrast, the two Tonovians thrived in freezing cold environments. However, unlike the four cultivators of Will, the Tonovians needed to eat to sustain themselves, which meant they had to spend time searching for edible rocks and stones suitable for their kind.

On one such occasion, Loh' departed with Asoto', who had started following him, to search for food. They left Al and Jin, who were practicing breathing techniques, while Ellie simply meditated.

Meanwhile, Cesar paced back and forth, consumed by his thoughts. "If hidden underground civilizations exist, it's highly probable that aliens also exist. That means I was right when I saw my brother being abducted. He could still be out there somewhere," Cesar rambled, displaying signs of mania and paranoia.

Al opened his eyes, fixating on Cesar's wild gaze, and shouted, "Cesar, pull yourself together! You're our Captain. Just as you're willing to risk your life for my mother, I'll do the same for your brother. We just need to be patient, remember what you told me. We need a complete team." Al's words echoed loudly, gradually calming Cesar.

Ellie then opened her eyes and alerted the group, "Guys, we're under attack. Someone just destroyed a mirrored copy of mine." As she spoke, her enormous mirror materialized swiftly.

Six individuals closed in on them, causing Al and Jin to swiftly rise and shoot in opposite directions. Two assailants targeted Cesar and Ellie, while Al and Jin dealt with a lone enemy each.

Cesar, without hesitation, confronted a tall, black-haired man and a brown-haired woman with his spear, slashing and jabbing relentlessly. The man lacked a weapon, but his gray gloves began to emit a luminous glow as he extended his arms, generating a colossal wave of plasma that moved fluidly.

In response, Cesar unleashed a destructive gust of wind with a single slash of his spear, colliding with the plasma wave, resulting in an explosive electrical discharge that dispersed Cesar's wind. The brown-haired woman, wielding a rapier sword, attempted to stab Cesar, only to be met with his spinning back kick, thwarting her assault.

Confident in his direct hit, Cesar was taken aback when he realized he had missed.

Without delay, both adversaries pounced on Cesar, prompting him to ascend into the sky, his body lifted by his spinning spear summoning a powerful stream of wind. As he reached a considerable height, Cesar ceased spinning his spear and propelled it with the force of a wind deity, causing the clouds to scatter. His spear moved with incredible speed, generating sonic booms in its wake.

The man who had conjured the plasma shield attempted the same defense, but Cesar's spear effortlessly pierced through the plasma, triggering electrical discharges from the trailing wind.

In a moment of desperation, the brown-haired woman selflessly pushed the man aside, only to have the spear impale her right leg, driving her mercilessly into the ground. The scene turned gruesome as she screamed in agony, yet Cesar remained unmoved as he began to descend, the wind catching him swiftly.

Al encountered a petite woman brandishing a small knife. Feeling unimpressed, Al chose not to deliver a lethal blow but instead disarmed her and forcefully slammed her to the ground. To his astonishment, the woman split into two upon impact.

The one lying on the floor swiftly recovered her knife, and both assailants launched simultaneous attacks against Al. This time, Al opted for a ruthless counteroffensive, wielding his own crooked knife. However, each time he struck, the women would split again, multiplying rapidly until Al found himself facing eight of them.

He had to evade a barrage of knife thrusts coming at him from all directions, both in front and behind. "Damn it, should I keep attacking and creating more of them?" Al pondered, his thoughts racing. Suddenly, a numbing sensation shot through his left leg, indicating that a knife had been deeply embedded in it.

Suppressing the urge to scream, Al forcefully kicked the women away, prompting another round of splitting. Gritting his teeth, he extracted the knife from his leg, enduring the pain, and began hacking and stabbing mercilessly, all while sustaining cuts and stabs in return.

Within seconds, Al found himself locked in combat against a small army of these diminutive women. He relentlessly sliced and stabbed, consumed by a frenzied state of mind. His A.R.C (Autonomous Revolution Converter) labored tirelessly to materialize his Stubborn Will, enabling him to heal his wounds while engaging in the furious battle.

Meanwhile, Jin unleashed lightning blast after lightning blast at a robust, muscular man who continuously regenerated his burned flesh. However, his healing abilities were gradually slowing down. "He must be a Stubborn Will user like Al, but unlike Al, he seems to lack the speed and strength to match me," Jin speculated.

With one final powerful lightning blast, the man was electrocuted to a permanent end. Jin then proceeded to join Ellie, who was locked in combat with a colossal 30-foot woman. The giant swung her fist towards Ellie, who swiftly transformed into a mirrored reflection of the giant's blow, sending giant woman soaring through the air shaking the ground upon impact. In an instant, Ellie reappeared beside the reflection, which shifted back into her mirror that covered her, rendering her invisible once again.

Just as the giant woman's fist had landed where Ellie had stood, a shirtless man with spiky hair appeared, tossing a web-like structure in an attempt to capture his unseen adversary. "Damn it, Agnethe! How did you let a mere mirror take you down like that?" the man bellowed in frustration.

Out of nowhere, Ellie materialized and delivered a mighty slap to the man with incredible force, sending him crashing to the ground, before vanishing once more. Jin, observing Ellie's impressive resilience, hurried to assist Al, who resembled a dark strawberry pincushion, with knives protruding from his body.

Despite his wounds, Al somehow remained standing, defying the odds. "He's a Stubborn Will user, just like Andrew, yet he operates on an entirely different level," the petite woman contemplated, observing Al's unwavering determination, as her army of duplicates continued their relentless assault on the lone man.

Jin joined forces with Al, combining their powers to unleash a relentless barrage of electrifying blasts and stabs and slices. In the distance, the original petite woman found herself drenched in sweat, unable to withstand the overwhelming assault from both Al and Jin. Her A.R.C, unable to sustain the manifestation of her Will any longer, finally ceased its operation. As a result, all of her duplicates vanished into thin air, leaving behind a scene of a blood-soaked Al, and Jin, who was beginning to feel the drain on his own A.R.C.

The only remaining confrontation unfolded between Cesar and the man with the gloves. Cesar proved to be more adept in close combat, refraining from utilizing his Wind Will as he relentlessly pummeled his opponent with punches and elbows, evading the man's plasma attacks. With a devastating knee strike to the gut, Cesar incapacitated his adversary, rendering him unconscious.

Afterwards he walked over to retrieve his spear which impaled the brown-haired women. "Wait, Agghh" She screamed as Cesar retrieved his spear. The women continued, "Please don't kill us, we're sorry. We'll give you everything we have."

Cesar gave her an expressionless face and very simply asked "Why did you attack us?" The women looking a little confused said "What do you mean where outside of the Blood Leaves 5th Immortal Ring stealing is permitted and so is killing" She whispered the last part. Cesar sarcastically said "Oh you were just trying to kill us for loot, well in that case it's fine you can go free now."

Al joined him, his wounds were slowly recovering but he added mockingly "Yeah, you're actually giving us a reason to kill you. But I think we can come to an agreement. You mentioned the 5th Immortal Ring, that is exactly where we are headed if you take us there, we can call it even, and of course give us all of your Merits. Or we can just kill you now." The women looked at her Captain who was lying unconscious and at the rest of her team all defeated especially at Andrew Eustis their Stubborn Will user who seemed grave and promptly accepted Al's proposition.

Sometime later, Asoto' and Loh' joined the group, they noticed that their party had grown by one member. Meanwhile, the woman left behind by the attempted thieves gasped in astonishment, exclaiming, "Agghhhh, those are giants!"

Ellie couldn't help but chuckle at her reaction. "You're one to talk, considering your Will allows you to increase in size. They are actually a hidden underground civilization of humans called Tonovians. We found each other in a similar way to how we found you, haha," Ellie explained. Loh', disturbed by Ellie's lightheartedness, voiced his concerns about the dire state of his people and the imminent threat of war for all of humanity if they didn't take action.

Ellie's expression turned apologetic as she realized the gravity of the situation. Meanwhile, Agnethe, who had been listening intently, interjected, "Well, in that case, I need to guide you to the 5th Immortal Ring." She was trying to accommodate herself into the group she now found herself in.

As the group continued their journey, Agnethe shared details about the intricacies of Immortal Rings in contrast to Mortal Rings, specifically mentioning Captain Nobutoshi Yoshioka who was in the Immortal Chasm, known worldwide for his Exotic Banishing Will, a unique variant.

Agnethe also shared her own experiences, shedding light on the dynamics within her team. She spoke of her Captain, Merfyn Glenville, who possessed the Exotic Ionic Will, and how she and Andrew, their Stubborn Will user, were treated as expendable pawns. How she specifically was chosen to guide Cesar and his Phantom Ring because they did not care for her.

"To be honest, I've been longing to break free from my Phantom Ring for quite some time now, but I fear Merfyn's wrath. And Andrew... well, he's too infatuated with Jade, our Splitt Will user, to care about anything else. It's only Rocco who makes me reconsider my choices. We both entered the world of Will together," Agnethe confessed as the group continued their journey through the forest.

Loh', particularly intrigued by Agnethe's personal struggles, offered his perspective. "Why don't you simply speak to Merfyn about how you feel?" he suggested, prompting Agnethe to contemplate why she hadn't taken such action, she provided a myriad of reasons why it seemed impossible.

Loh' responded with confidence, "You are under the influence of what my people call Tumbalh-shotkl. It's when you find yourself living more within the scenarios that play out in your head than in the real world." Agnethe, curiously repeated the term, "Tumbalh-shotkl,".