"Master?"
Having just returned home and led Kino and Thales upstairs, Phoebe froze.
Before her, Master Wyatt stood holding his staff. His expression was completely unreadable as he called out to someone behind them. Phoebe's instincts kicked in instantly—they had been followed.
"A friend? What friend?" Kino stepped past Phoebe to look at Master Wyatt.
Suddenly, his expression twisted into utter terror. Letting out a sharp yell of "Ghost!", he turned on his heel and bolted back downstairs. Right behind him, Thales reacted identically. The two of them scrambled in a frantic, terrified race for the exit.
"Uh..." Both Phoebe and Master Wyatt fell into a visible, awkward silence.
Granted, Master Wyatt's appearance wasn't exactly conventional, but it was hardly terrifying enough to warrant that kind of reaction. The two buffoons kept sprinting toward the door as if they truly had seen a phantom.
Phoebe made a move to follow them down, but Master Wyatt extended his staff, blocking her path. Looking up, she saw her master's expression turn deeply grave.
"Wait," he instructed.
Moments later, two overlapping voices cried out in shock from below: "Whoa, what the heck?! How am I flying?!"
Downstairs, Kino and Thales had been on the verge of bursting through the front door to escape Master Wyatt. But the moment they crossed the threshold, it felt as though gravity had completely vanished. The two floated into the air, utterly out of control. They bobbed up and down like corks drifting in water, slowly floating right back inside the room.
"Hey, hey! It really is haunted! Phoebe, do you see this?!" Kino thrashed wildly in midair like a drowning man, flailing his arms and legs in desperation.
Glancing to his side, he saw the chubby Thales floating right alongside him as they drifted back up toward the second floor.
A flicker of astonishment flashed in Phoebe's eyes, impossible to hide. She looked toward her master. "Master?"
Master Wyatt took a slow step forward, shaking his head. "Take those two and move to the side. We have a guest... an uninvited one." His voice was deep, weighing every word.
From Master Wyatt's tone, Phoebe sensed an ominous shift in the atmosphere.
The moment her master finished speaking, two dull thuds echoed as Kino and Thales dropped from the air, landing in a tangled heap on the floor.
"Ow, you're crushing me! Fatty, you seriously need to lose some weight!" Kino complained loudly.
Looking up, his eyes met Phoebe's. She reached down, yanked the two of them up by their collars, and dragged them to the side.
In the next second, the bickering duo went dead silent.
This time, an aura palpable enough for even ordinary humans to detect was creeping up from the first floor.
"May I ask who comes to visit?" Master Wyatt tapped his staff against the floorboards.
For the first time, a trace of wariness surfaced on his face. This caution stemmed from a subtle anomaly in his senses. In this universe, warriors were judged by the magnitude of their Hetero-Energy. Yet, the approaching presence possessed an aura that fluctuated wildly, spiking and dipping in a manner that was deeply bizarre.
Several pairs of eyes locked onto the staircase.
Finally, a middle-aged man of exceptionally striking bearing floated up into view.
Seeing Zoran's method of locomotion, Kino and Thales opened their mouths to yell again, but Phoebe swiftly clapped her hands over their faces to muffle them.
To the boys, the middle-aged man looked like a perfectly normal human, albeit one with a remarkably commanding presence. But the problem was… he was floating! What normal person gets around by levitating?
Faced with these two who were acting like they had never seen the world before, Phoebe could only helplessly keep them pinned to the side, doing her best not to disrupt the guest her master had spoken of.
At the same time, she quietly channeled her inner strength, ready to strike at a moment's notice.
At this critical juncture, possessing the Netherworld Key, the vital artifact required for the resurrection of Hades, and suddenly being cornered by a strange, unfamiliar man, Phoebe couldn't help but assume the worst.
Master Wyatt was thinking along the same lines. However, unlike Phoebe, Master Wyatt possessed a hundred thousand years of experience and memories. He was absolutely certain he had never seen this man before. The newcomer was not one of Hades' subordinates. In fact, across all Seven Parallel Universes, he had no recollection of ever encountering this figure.
Zoran frowned slightly as he surveyed the cluttered environment before turning his gaze directly to Master Wyatt. He called out with effortless familiarity, "Master Wyatt."
"It is I. And you are, my friend?" Master Wyatt kept one hand behind his back, leaning slightly on his staff as he took a step forward. He maintained a calm demeanor; after all, he was a formidable powerhouse in his own right. His Hetero-Energy and ultimate techniques were incredibly powerful, even if he rarely chose to use them for offense.
Hovering in the air, Zoran casually waved his hand. Kino, Thales, and Phoebe were gently lifted off their feet and swept down to the first floor, landing squarely and neatly on a worn-out sofa.
"Hades' forces are stationed in deep space. Being targeted by them puts you in a very difficult position," Zoran said, his pace unhurried and conversational.
Master Wyatt's expression softened slightly. He could tell that the stranger meant no immediate harm. Yet, his guard remained up. "For your Excellency to seek me out, you must have a purpose. You might as well speak plainly."
The effortless way Zoran had just moved the three youths gave Master Wyatt significant food for thought. There had been no sign of Hetero-Energy being channeled. It was like an entirely different kind of power, one he had never witnessed before.
Zoran smiled faintly. "Communicating with intelligent people saves a lot of trouble."
"To make a long story short, I am here to break the endless cycle of this world," Zoran said, cutting straight to the chase. "Therefore, I would like to make a deal with you."
With a single sentence, Zoran struck right at the core of Master Wyatt's existence.
In this universe, only one thing could be called an endless cycle: the hundred-thousand-year reincarnation loop. Everything was trapped within this cycle, maintaining a strange, fragile equilibrium.
In the world of the Ultra Beast Force, every powerhouse possessed their own conviction, drawing strength from that belief. Master Wyatt's conviction was to maintain the balance of the universe in his own way.
Yet, the universe was currently trapped in a perpetual conflict involving Hades, the Snow Emperor, and various warring factions. In one millennium, one side oppresses; in the next, the other slaughters. As one rises, the other falls, alternating in an endless cycle.
Master Wyatt murmured, "What kind of deal?"
Zoran spoke deliberately. "The resurrection of Hades is already set in stone, and conflict will erupt once more. I can help you, and I can help Kino. The price of this exchange requires nothing more than the answer to a single question."
Master Wyatt fell silent for a moment.
His gaze remained fixed entirely on Zoran. In the brief span of their conversation, the Hetero-Energy within the stranger and another inscrutable power had been fiercely intertwining, rising and falling in waves.
This man's state of being was extraordinarily bizarre.
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