Azelis knelt beside him, checking his pulse with the same careful precision she used on everything that mattered to her. "How long until your vitality recovers? You’re nearly at death’s door."
"A day, maybe less, with proper rest," Chuthulos said before John could answer for himself. "Longer if he insists on doing anything heroic before then."
"I make no promises," John said, and Jibril swatted his shoulder hard enough to make him wince.
"Leave it to me. I’ll concoct something. I loved doing that in my free time." Ythera’s voice arrived before her. "Here, use this one first. It’s powerful enough to fully recover a Calamity Monster, so you should fine."
John popped the pill, and instantly, vitality burst out of him in excess.
He jumped to his feet, fully energized. "Wow, this is wonderful. Guess I’ll get back to work now. Thanks, Ythera."
"You’re welcome."
...
The second gear, once it finally emerged from the Forge, came out lean and narrow, a slim black blade with cracks of gold running through its edge.
[Eldritch Gear: Chronoshard Fang]
[First Gear: Fractured Recollection]
[Vitality Cost: 15%, five-minute duration]
[Stat Boost: All stats +100%]
[Skill One: Fractured Memory. Every successful strike is recorded into the blade’s edge, storing up to seven strikes at once.]
[Skill Two: Echo Cascade. Release all stored strikes as one instant blow, or redirect that stored force inward to unravel the wielder’s own wounds taken in the last few seconds.]
Jibril claimed it without hesitation, and the blade hummed against her palm like it recognized the shape of her grip already.
She struck the rebuilt training post seven times in a blur, then let a stray branch clip her shoulder on purpose, testing the second half of Echo Cascade. The stored force surged inward instead of outward, and the shallow cut sealed itself closed in an instant, three seconds of damage simply undone.
"That’s not a party trick," Azelis said slowly. "That’s a second life bought in the middle of a fight."
Second Gear opened a moment later, and the whole Forging Island seemed to hold its breath as the world around Jibril thinned.
[Eldritch Gear: Chronoshard Fang]
[Second Gear: Domain — The Severed Hour]
[Vitality Cost: 35%, ninety-second duration]
[Stat Boost: All stats +150%]
[Effect: A one-kilometer domain forms in which every hostile presence perceives time dragging, while the wielder and consenting allies move unaffected. Any fatal blow taken by an ally inside the domain can be unraveled once, provided at least one strike remains banked in the blade.]
Jibril moved through the resulting stillness like water through cracked stone, three practice strikes landing before anyone else in the domain had finished a single step.
"No Third Gear yet," Chuthulos noted, studying the blade with clinical interest. "Single-gem ignition. Give it time and enough of your own growth, and that might change."
"I can wait," Jibril said, still catching her breath, eyes bright with something that hadn’t been there an hour ago.
...
The third gear settled into shape as a thin, six-segmented ring, drifting free above the platform the instant it finished forming.
[Eldritch Gear: The Sixfold Halo]
[First Gear: Watchful Awakening]
[Vitality Cost: 15%, five-minute duration]
[Stat Boost: All stats +100%]
[Skill One: Watchful Eyes. Two segments remain permanently open, granting heightened perception of danger and deception.]
[Skill Two: Full Bloom. Open all six segments briefly, granting near-total battlefield awareness, sight through illusion and stealth, and short glimpses up to ten seconds into probable near-future outcomes.]
Yuna settled it around her head again, and this time she opened all six eyes at once without warning anyone, the whole island snapping into sharp, layered focus around her.
"Oh," she said, voice gone strange and distant. "Oh, I can see what Terravax is about to do before he does it. That’s deeply unfair to him."
Second Gear followed before John could stop her, curiosity winning out over caution the way it usually did.
[Eldritch Gear: The Sixfold Halo]
[Second Gear: Domain — The All-Seeing Ring]
[Vitality Cost: 35%, ninety-second duration]
[Stat Boost: All stats +150%]
[Effect: A two-kilometer domain forms in which every willing ally shares the wielder’s perception. Illusions and concealment unravel entirely rather than merely being seen through, and hostile intent shows as a faint outline around whoever carries it.]
For ninety seconds, every single one of them saw the world the way Yuna did, sharp and layered and slightly too honest, and when it finally faded she sat down hard on the grass, pressing both palms against her temples.
"Powerful."
They stood together afterward, three gears gleaming on the platform.
Ythera’s six eyes settled on all three gears with quiet, careful weight, the same way she’d studied the crater’s mist for tens of centuries before any of them had walked into it.
"You have built something dangerous," she said. "Not to your enemies alone. It takes your vitality to activate, and that can prove to be fatal."
"Yeah," John said, managing a tired grin despite the ache still sitting behind his ribs. "But worth it."
"I suppose I’ll land you a hand." Ythere blinked gently. "Leave your farms to me. I have enough seeds and this world seems to have enough energy to grow them. I also like the area of your farm island, so I’ll live there and tend to it and craft pills, while also teaching the monsters who are willing to learn how to concoct them as well."
John’s eyes lit up. He could also feel eagerness in Ythera’s voice. The kind of liveliness she didn’t have before.
"That would be absolutely wonderful! It would make using these Eldritch Gears safe." He was thrilled. "Thank you so much! Also, Becky would love your idea. I’m sure she’ll be your best student, haha."
...
Ythera’s true form didn’t so much shrink as fold, coil after coil compressing down through layers of scale and starlight until what stepped onto the second island was a woman built more of memory than flesh, pale skin dusted with faint points of light like a night sky caught just beneath the surface, dark hair shifting slowly the way her coils once had. Six eyes had become two, though they still held that same slow, patient depth.
She walked the rows of custom attribute trees without hurrying, fingers trailing along blood-red leaves and frost-blue bark, reading the soil the way she’d once read centuries.
"This ground already knows how to hold something precious," she said to no one in particular. "It only needs a proper roof."
A section of packed earth near the garden’s edge answered her outstretched hand, root and dark crystal rising together in a slow spiral, weaving into a squat tower lined with hanging herbs and shelves of star-flecked glass. By the time it finished growing, it looked like it had always belonged there.
That was when Becky noticed her.
The beetle scuttled between two rows of pots, mandibles flaring, four chromatic wings snapping open in immediate alarm. "Who dug there? Becky didn’t say anyone could dig there!"
"I didn’t take anything," Ythera said gently, crouching to Becky’s height without being asked. "I only added something. Come see, if you’d like."
Becky approached in short, suspicious hops, big eyes darting between the new tower and the stranger’s calm, star-marked face. She peered through the open doorway at the shelves inside, glass vials and drying racks and a low stone basin already humming faintly with contained energy.
"What is it for?" Becky asked, some of the wariness bleeding out of her voice.
"Pills," Ythera said. "Ones strong enough to bring a Monster back from the very edge of their own vitality. I’ll need help growing what goes into them, and someone who already loves this garden more than I ever could."
Becky’s eyes sparked, the same way they had every single time John handed her something new to plant.
"Becky is very good at growing things," she said, puffing up slightly. "Becky could help. Becky could be your best helper."
"I don’t doubt it for a second," Ythera said, and something in her voice, warm and entirely unpracticed, sounded very close to happiness.