"Thanks for inviting me in for breakfast," Chop said with a nod as he took a seat by the table.

"No worries," Ihasu said with a smile. "I hope you slept okay. Sorry to put you in the shed."

"Oh, no, thank you! It's the best night's sleep I've had in a century! I apologize for the intrusion," he told her, speaking about a thousand times more politely to her than he did to Eik.

"After the scary first meeting the kids had with you, it would be good for them to see that they don't have to be frightened of you anymore."

"Again, I'm very sorry for doing that. I thought I would have a bit of fun with your husband, but I see now that I went too far," the old man said sheepishly. "I suppose I've been away from society for too long. Please forgive me."

"If my kids are fine with you, then I can get over it as well," Ihasu said, throwing a glance into the living room. A pair of eyes were boring into the old X-ranker with terrifying intensity. "Although it might take our son a little longer to get used to having you around… Although we aren't married yet." Judging by the tone of her voice, Ihasu herself wasn't exactly comfortable with the whole thing either.

"Not married? Lad, I must say, I didn't take you for a man to establish a family quite so improperly," the old geezer said, an air of annoying, old nobility sneaking its way into his voice.

"Oh, give me a break, will ya?" Eik said as he set down a pitcher of… some kind of juice in the middle of the table. "A proper family is made up of love and warmth, thank you very much. We can get married any time we wish and neither I nor Ihasu are in a hurry, are we, my love?" he said, flashing her a loving smile, but it fell quickly when he saw her face. "Wait, are we?"

The corners of her lips lifted slightly. "Well, not in a hurry, maybe, but I'm not against the idea. We do have two kids, even if none of them came to us in the conventional manner."

Eik stared at her, gaping dumbly. "What? Why didn't you tell me? I want to marry you too, obviously! I just thought… Well, I don't really know what I thought. I just never really got around to asking you…"

He went to her and swept her up into a tight embrace. She laughed musically as he spun her. Bin joined in, giggling as she danced around them.

"Congratulations," Chop said.

The next ten minutes were spent in excited conversation about their upcoming union. Bin had about a million ideas about what they could do. Chop simply watched with a smile that hid a whole lifetime of memories of a time long gone. "Remember to let your brother and us get a word in as well, yeah?" Eik chuckled.

"I know, I know," she grumbled.

"Your son is… he's really something else. I can't believe you did something like that, lad," Chop said to Eik without taking his eyes off the boy hiding under the couch.

Eik smiled as Mis wandered over to lie against Goo, the boy immediately calming albeit only a little. "I'm sure there are others out there who can do something similar. X-rankers can do some pretty crazy stuff, after all. As you have made me realize."

"I don't know about that," Chop muttered grabbing the butter and a knife. "This? On the bread?"

Eik nodded. "Yeah, it's pretty good. But there's gotta be someone out there who can do something like it? Now that he's here and living in my house, it just feels kind of… normal."

"Well, I've certainly never seen anything like him in my life, and I've been around."

"What about the other Worldbreakers out there? Can't any of them do it?"

Chop bit into a piece of buttered toast topped with a couple of slices of cheese. "Goodness, that's heavenly, isn't it? To be clear, Eik, I don't hang out much with… well, anyone. I know from having spent my younger years as a more or less ordinary man, that there is this general impression that supreme rankers are somehow, simultaneously, both complete social hermits and all buddy-buddy with each other."

"So you're not?"

"Well, the first part is true, I suppose," the old man chuckled. "but no, I'm barely aware of the others. I usually only sense them vaguely here and there during the Expulsions."

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"During the Expulsions?" Ihasu asked. "Why then?"

"Because that's when we all come out of our little holes in the ground."

"Why?" Bin asked loudly with the tone of someone who wasn't quite sure what they were talking about.

Chop sent her a smile. "Old folks like us with more power than we know what to do with often only want two things—advancement, and a challenge. And if we're lucky, exploring the worlds closest to the Chasm during the Expulsion can offer us both."

"So there were more X-rankers in that desert yesterday?" Eik asked, suddenly feeling faint.

"Nah, I think I would have noticed that… Unless it was— Nah, no, definitely not," he said, cutting himself off cryptically halfway through. Eik exchanged concerned glances with Ihasu.

"So the Expulsion is like your own little seasonal amusement park, huh?" Eik wondered aloud.

Chop snorted. "Hah! I suppose you could put it like that, yeah."

"I get it."

Having absolutely slathered a slice of toast in butter while they spoke, Ihasu waved it in the air. "Goo, come have a bite to eat. You're going to get hungry later if you don't eat now!"

"I don't like him!" the boy howled from under the couch.

"Oh, he speaks, huh?" Chop chuckled looking to Eik and Ihasu. His grin dropped when he saw the expressions on their faces. Their daughter, Bin, looked just as shocked. "What?"

Almost unable to tear his gaze from his son, Eik slowly glanced at his future wife. "Did he just…?"

"I think he did…" Ihasu answered, having trouble snapping her own jaw closed.

Puzzled, Chop looked back and forth between the two of them. "What exactly did he do?"

"He talked!" Bin exclaimed, dashing into the living room and crawling under the couch to Goo, giggling the whole way.

"Hasn't he talked before?" Chop asked.

"No, not really," Eik muttered, he and Ihasu both going into the living room. Chop decided to stay back in the kitchen. "The closest he's gotten was once when he called me a lemon."

"A lemon?"

"Yep. What else can you say, cutie?" Eik asked his son.

The little boy growled like and angry cat. "I don't like that old fart," he declared again.

"Where did you learn to say that?" Ihasu asked, eyes already seeking Eik's sheepish face.

"Anyway, I should get going! Lots of stuff to do today!" Eik announced and slapped his knees as he stood back up. "Don't let my cute son say anything more until I get back. I want to hear it all," he said with a grin.

"I'll go with you."

"You don't have to. Why don't you… do something else instead?"

Chop shrugged. "I don't mind tagging along. It's more fun than doing nothing. Not to mention that I think your boy here would appreciate getting the house to himself for a while."

Eik glanced at his son who continued to glare angrily from his hiding place under the couch. With a sigh he beckoned for the X-ranker to follow him. "Yeah, you're right. Fine, come along for today."

"Yes!" the old man celebrated and grabbed a jacket Eik had given him the day before.

"Can you take Bin to school? I'll get Goo ready once you've left," Ihasu said as she kissed Eik goodbye.

"Yep. Get your butt in gear, young lady," he called to his daughter who had already run into her room to get her bag.

"Don't cause any problems out there today, all right?" Ihasu said.

Chop grinned. "I'll make sure to keep your future husband on a tight leash."

She sent him a raised eyebrow loaded with enough skepticism to shut down an X-ranker. "That included you too, grandpa."

His grin stiffened as he shoulders dropped. "Yes, ma'am…"

Eik snickered and hit Chop on the shoulder. "Don't mess with my wife."

***

After dropping off Bin safely at school Eik brought up the evolution notification from yesterday while Chop browsed the various stalls they passed on the way to the fracture hall.

[Skill evolution available. Skill available for evolution: Monarch's Will]

[Choose one]

[Monarch's Will — Toxic Initiation]

[Monarch's Will — Admittance to the Realm]

Okay, what… Admittance to the Realm? Was that naming really just as straightforward as it seemed to be? Was it really just a trait that let him go to the Profound Toxic realm? He could already do that, although he hadn't gone since his S-rank evolution that made him the Monarch of Toxin.

Would there even really be any value in picking that trait over almost anything else? Sure, at times he had issues getting into the mental space required to make the transition to the other world, but it wasn't to the point of needing a genuine ability to help him.

But at least it was easy to tell what it did, unlike the other trait. Toxic Initiation could easily refer to a number of possibilities.

It could be that it would transform Profound Toxin somehow, although that was a little difficult to imagine considering how proud and primal the Worldbreaker always was. Or perhaps it was another version in the same vein as the purple Visage of Death and the green Panacean Quintessence.

Another possibility was an initiation that referred to Eik himself and a change that would happen in him. True Toxic Harmony already turned his body into actual Profound Toxin but if Toxic Initiation took that transformation and made it permanent, it would definitely be powerful.

Once his train of thought began to touch on the likelihood of soul unification between himself and Profound Toxin and reaching a more complete point of fusion, like Chop had spoken about, he decided that it was enough.

There were many things it could be, but the reality would probably be only one of them, or even something totally different that he hadn't considered, but no matter how he twisted and turned it, the best option at the face of it seemed to be the Toxic Initiation after all.

When he accepted the Toxic Initiation, there was no transformation to be felt. No noticeable change in his skin or tissue. No nothing that felt like it could empower him.

There was, on the other hand, a different, new sensation spreading through his spirit. Something strange.

Something that… could leave him.