Chapter 131 - A Familiar Realm

Yin noticed some cold particles brush up on his face. This caused him to wake up and see a familiar place he had already been countless of times before - inside the System.

"You better get up, Yin Sohaya, lest you wish to catch a cold." The Creator's voice sad from a distance.

"Y-Yeah. I am up. Why am here again, Creator?" Yin asked the Creator who had a black void-like silhouette he called a body still.

"You are here for you want to be. This is what your heart desires, to return to a realm where you feel the most warmth. How are your eyes?" 

"My eyes?" Yin was taken aback by the Creator's sudden interest in his eyes. That was when he realized that he was referring to the Nix Eyes and not his literal eyes themselves. "O-Oh. I still cannot control it for long, it also gets strained extra whenever I use my affinity along with it…" Yin responded back.

"Do not worry. That pain and shortly timed usage will go away in time." The Creator answered. "You might be wondering about something else, eh? I am sure of it, you should not even be here at all if that was not the case."

"You can read my mind?" Yin asked him. "No. My dear Yin, I cannot. You are going to have to speak your question out if you wish for it to be answered without delay."

"Very well, Creator. I am still confused why I have not received daily quests at all. How am I supposed to become stronger and level up if I am not even given the daily amount of quests which I used to have prior to turning level 10?" Yin wanted to know.

The Creator approached Yin and pulled his hand. "We should seek shelter. It would be far too cold to talk here under the hail of snow." The Creator led Yin to the same room from where he could only look at, into the room with the old piano.

"Have a seat." He said. Yin obliged and took the seat in front of the massive wooden organ. "To answer your question, Yin. It would be far too easy for you to only do menial exercise and bodily activities just to level up the same way you did prior to merging with the system, right?" 

"What is your point, Creator? Would you just tell it to me straight? I have to get back to the real world as soon as possible! I should not even be held up here for no reason at all!" Yin exclaimed. The white haired Slayer was now getting worked up over being stuck in the dimension of the System, he was here instead of being out there, training and getting ready to be deployed to another mission.

"I have already told you. I did not summon you here. I only have the ability to summon your presence back when you were still not one with the System. Before the merge happened, that is. You are here because you wish to, you have questions, or you wish to do something else. That is where I come into play, I will answer your inquiries." The Creator responded with a bow at Yin, much like a butler would to his master.

"Keep your head up, I am sorry to shout at you." Yin felt bad for raising his voice at the Creator. "Very well, to answer your question, you will no longer have exercises and such in order to level up, from now on, the System is still acclimating to your soul, you will know when your next quest is available, the red flashing message of the System is impossible to ignore for the System carrier, you are no exemption of that." His playful tone turned into a more mischievous one.

"But hear my words, Yin, that man that you have just fought, Adam Rosa, he means business."

"Y-You, how do you know him?"

"His renown transcends the realm of the living and the dead. The Reaper is not someone you should ever take lightly, especially at this point of your maturity. Focus on leveling up and going on missions or whatever the System might tell you to do so that you can level up, do not expect the same easy tasks that were given to you when you were still a lower level carrier." The Creator cleared his voice and coughed it out. "Now, would that be all? I wish to return to my slumber, dear Yin."

"No. I still have one last question for you right now. Just what is the System's connection to the Seraphims and Angels? Every single time I have come across them, they have gone and called me 'Thanatos', almost like they know I am one with the System at this point. Do you mind telling me why that seems to be the case?"

Yin was definitely worried about this one. Yet the Creator shoved it off and chuckled as if Yin was telling some kind of joke to him.

"Much like before, Yin Sohaya, I am not able to answer your question as of now. When the proper time comes, I will tell you the true nature and purpose of the System, but for now, make sure you do not own up and tell them that you are a carrier of the Thanatos System, especially not in the vicinity of those filthy Slayers. Do not disclose anything at all about the Thanatos System. Feign ignorance if you have to in the face of your closest friends. This is only for your own sake. If you wish to save your own skin, pretend as though your powers and abilities merely appeared out of thin air." The Creator's words were shaky as if he was afraid of something.

"You are telling me to lie to my brothers-in-arms. To the people who have recognized me as one of their own, to my fellow soldiers who I have bled through in the battlefield outside the Outer Gates-" Yin got interrupted quickly by the Creator.

"What good do you think you are able to do when bound in chains underneath the dungeons of the Grand Castle!?" The Creator exclaimed.

Yin was silent. This was the first time the Creator ever raised his voice when they talked here. 

"I-I am sorry for losing my composure, Yin. Just trust me for now. When the higher ups know of the System and its specific name, you will be sent somewhere dark where your friends will never be able to reach you." The Creator said. 

"Very well. I will not press the matter on any further. But you should know that I am going to conduct my own investigations, because there is definitely something, some kind of connection or a link between the winged harbingers mankind has been trying to fight for millions of years now and the Thanatos System." Yin responded back. The Creator had no words to retort at the white haired Slayer.

"I will be taking my leave now." Yin said as he placed his fingers on the piano in front of him and played a symphony which his mind automatically knew after merging with the System weeks ago.

As the melodies harmonized together and the notes were struck in a perfect manner, the flowers outside the room from whence they came withered away. The snow fractals themselves were withered as well. 

"Good luck, Yin Sohaya." The Creator said as he bid him farewell. "Come anytime you wish." His black void of a body waved at the white haired Slayer.

Yin was now finally in the real world. He noticed some fruits on the table, but no sign of Zachary and even the Specter. He reached out for an apple, his body was still aching from the battle yesterday, a note dropped out from the basket wherein the fruits were placed in.

"Yin, once you feel like your body is able to move, please meet me in the Grand Castle's courtyard." – Gavin

When Yin Sohaya got there, the Serpent Summoner, the Specter, Zachary, and even the Basilisk Slayer were there waiting for him.

"Are you well now, Yin?" Vale Ashford asked him. "Y-Yeah. I can move now, unlike yesterday after what had happened." Yin replied back.

Artorias Khalil stepped in and approached Yin Sohaya. "How did your skirmish against Adam Rosa go?" Yin noticed that the Basilisk Slayer was tense, aggressive, even.

"I-I could not best him. I am sorry." Yin said while keeping his chin down.

"That much is obvious. But I have a question for you, Yin. Why do the Angels and Seraphims seem to call you a specific name every time your squad comes across them during missions?" The Basilisk Slayer pressed the matter on by slowly approaching Yin even more.

"I do not know. Sir."

Yin replied with a straight face, his red orbs not one to look away from Artorias Khalil himself.. He remained calm and composed even right in front of someone as intimidating as the top one ranked Slayer.