In the northern part of Eyland, Raven walked in the rain with a hooded waterproof jacket covering her. She avoided any people she could, especially ones that could check who she was.

The cars roared past her, both on the road and in the sky. She walked along the sidewalk, ignoring the many holograms that advertised the shops and products around her.

After walking for a while, she arrived at a bar with the image of a skimpily clad woman calling men into the bar as a hologram.

Raven walked in and ignored most of it, making her way straight to the bar where barely anyone was staying at this time of the day. She sat at the bar and waited for the bartender to come to her.

Since there wasn’t much going on, a bartender came up to her. "What can I get you?" he asked.

"A single iced lemonade, made by the ugliest man in the room," she said.

The bartender paused for a bit. "Well, if you want ugly, then I know just the right person for you," the bartender said and walked away.

A minute later, a middle-aged man came up to her, his look not in the slightest bit ugly. He looked at Raven for a bit before realized who she was. "Leader, you came out again?" the man asked.

Raven quietly nodded. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Did you need something? Some plasmium, or..." the man asked.

"Ronald," Raven said. "I’m not here for anything this time around. I need you to do something for me."

Ronald paused for a moment, hearing the leader’s voice sound so... desolate for the first time in forever. Ever since he was a child, ever since he met with her along with his father, she always sounded so cheerful, so happy.

And yet, today he could hear nothing of that in her voice anymore.

"Leader, is something wrong?" he asked.

Raven sniffed a little and took a deep breath before speaking. "My brother is dead," she said.

"What?" the middle-aged man shouted loudly in surprise, before smiling at the people that he ended up attracting.

"Leader, let’s go inside and talk," he said and opened the barrier that stopped the regular folks from getting into the bar.

He grabbed a bottle as he left and walked along with Raven to a room away from the bar.

"Alright, tell me what happened. Did you say the Vice leader is dead?" the man asked.

Raven nodded.

"Of old age? Couldn’t he switch his souls to new bodies? What happened?" the man asked.

"He didn’t die of old age," Raven said with a furious tone to her voice. "He was killed by a bastard that sooner or later I will find and kill as well."

The man’s eyes narrowed a bit. "Someone killed the vice leader?" he asked.

"A teenager about 18 years old," Raven said. "No, he’s a damn Nova. A girl snuck in from outside so I had decided to kill everyone on the farm before they find out."

"However, as I was doing so, they went over to where my brother was hiding and killed both his new and old bodies."

The man was a little stunned at the information. "Wait a second leader. It’s all a bit too much. A nova? An intruder? What’s going on?"

Raven took a deep breath and explained everything that had happened in the past 2 days.

She explained everything from Stanley to Sheila, to the massacre of the town, to finally her brother’s death. The man was truly stunned after hearing Raven’s account of what had happened.

"Then... vice leader Wren is truly dead," he said.

Raven nodded.

"And this Nova, how did he get away from your, leader? Didn’t you say he was a budding Nova?" he asked.

"He was," Raven said. "But he managed to slip past me at first thanks to the girl. And afterward, I had those people from the police force come and obstruct us. I killed them all, but by the time I followed them again, it was already nightfall. Damn him, he took a third of all the souls I had gathered over the years."

The man quickly calculated what that meant and couldn’t help but be surprised at the number.

7 thousand.

7 thousand different souls, all from people with various powers going to a single Nova. He could only imagine that the world was about to gain a new nova.

"I came here as quickly as I could after that, hoping they had come here, but it doesn’t look like that at all," she said. "I’m afraid that they might have already reported my existence to the authority, so I can’t even go and search for them."

"I’m worried everyone is looking for me now."

The man nodded and handed over the drink he had brought to Raven.

Raven cut open the bottle top and started chugging on the drink without any hesitation. She placed it back, half-finished, and spoke, "Try and see if you hear anything about a young man out of place. If you do, tell me immediately," she said.

The man nodded. "We have a few people in the police forces. I can contact them and see if anything unusual comes up," he said. "We’ll know if anything happens."

Raven nodded. "Also, with everything happening, it might be time to bring the clan back together," she said.

The man stood up in shock and awe. "Are you serious, leader?" he asked excitedly.

Raven nodded. "I know they are scattered across the world, so take your time gathering them. I will meet them once I’m done with my stuff."

"What will you be doing for now, leader?" the man asked.

"I just absorbed a crap load of souls as well and need to rest so I can absorb it all properly. Given the number, I might require close to 4 months at the very least," she said. "As such, in the coming days, I might have to go into hibernation again."