The people of Freelands had never seen or heard of someone teleporting. Most didn't even understand it as a concept.
So, when a tall, dark woman of ungodly proportion suddenly appeared in front of them through a hole in space and demanded that they tell her where the only Aether tower of this place was, it was understandable that the civilians would get spooked into running away from her.
"Hey, wait! I'm not going to… hurt you."
By the time Merasi finished her sentences, there was only Ning next to her, and everyone else had run away.
Merasi sighed with a dejected face but then noticed Ning standing next to her.
"You aren't scared?" she asked.
Ning shook his head and pointed behind her. "The tower."
Merasi turned around and finally noticed that the tower had been behind her the whole time.
"So small," she commented when she saw the 3 stories tall tower.
"It doesn't need to be taller than that," Ning said as he walked up to her. "Come on, you must be here for me."
Merasi looked at the back of Ning who was walking towards the tower. "I'm here for you?" she asked questioningly. "You don't look like a middle-aged man."
"Middle-aged man?" Ning stopped to turn around and look at her. After a moment of confusion, he realized that she was talking about Waxil.
"Ah, brother Waxil must be inside," he told her and continued walking.
In just a couple of footsteps, Merasi caught up to him and even threatened to go beyond him. Her strides were just too wide.
"You are not afraid of me?" she asked, and without waiting for an answer said, "You will be if you knew who I was."
Ning gave a wry smile. It wasn't that he wasn't scared of her, after all, she was on a level that was perhaps higher than his original body's Aether rank.
But since she was an ally, he didn't have to be scared of her.
However, now that he heard her questioning that, he wondered if he should be.
"You aren't afraid of me, huh?" she asked. "Then you much be really strong."
Ning was wondering where this line of questioning was going, when she said, "Hey! Do you want to fight me?"
Ning looked stunned. 'What the hell? Why is she suddenly asking me to fight? I'm 3 ranks lower than her,' he thought.
"I'm only an Aether King, I can't fight with you," Ning said politely.
"Haha, don't worry. I'm an Aether King too," Merasi said.
Ning's eyes went wide. 'This lying bitch!' he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Was she a battle fanatic that would go so far as to lie about her strength to fight him?
Waxil walked out, after having likely heard of the commotion outside.
"Terran, what's going—" his eyes widened as the casual expression on his face changed to one of shock and worry. "Lady Merasi, why are you here?" he asked as he bowed towards her.
"Oh, you know me?" Merasi looked surprised
"Of course," Waxil said. "I had the opportunity to see one of your battles with sir Bastille."
"This Waxil welcomes the Supreme lady Merasi to his humble tower," he said.
"Supreme? Like Aether Supreme?" Ning acted shocked at the new information.
"Yes, she is," Waxil said. "Be respectful of her."
Ning bowed a little and said, "I, Terran Forn, am happy to meet Supreme Lady Merasi. Also, I am quite saddened that I nearly fell for her joke about being an Aether King."
Waxil looked towards Merasi, wondering what Ning was talking about. At the same time, Merasi looked a little panicked.
"Yes, yes, that was a joke. Ahem, let's go in. I'm here to check your claim, Waxil. If any of what you have sent is false, I will beat you myself," Merasi said.
Waxil shook to his core. He had seen her fight before and knew that there was no way he could let her attack him.
As soon as they reached inside the tower, Merasi suddenly stopped. Her eyes went wide as she looked around her as if searching for something.
"Lady Merasi?" Waxil asked.
"What's going on here?" she asked. "Why is this place devoid of Aether?"
"Ah, right. That was why we called you here. It's because of the new Aether that Terran here discovered," Waxil said as he pointed towards Ning.
"Because of the Aether?" Merasi looked confused.
"Let me explain in private," Waxil brought Merasi to his office and closed the door.
Then, Ning started explaining the same thing he did to Waxil the other day. Merasi nodded as she listened, absorbing all the information she was given.
"Hm, hm," she made some sounds of understanding.
"So, the Aether liquid absorbs the Aether from other less condensed Aether liquid floating in the air, creating a vacuum of Aether," Ning finished explaining.
"I see, I see," Merasi said. "So it just works, huh?"
"Eh?" Ning looked surprised. "I mean, yes. If you have the mineral, then it just works."
"So, you said you discovered it when trying to find a way to take away people's ability to use Aether, right?" Merasi asked.
"Yes, for especially dangerous people who would usually be kept in prisons. Since most people are given death sentences to ensure they don't retaliate, I wanted to reduce that," Ning said.
"Hmm, and it works?" she asked. "What about people who already have a lot of Aether before being put into prison. Won't they be able to use their Aether?"
"For now, anyone under Aether King will lose the Aether in their body in about 10 minutes. For anyone above that, we will have to use a higher concentration of the mineral," Ning said.
"Hmm," Merasi thought for a second. Waxil looked at her as well, while thinking himself.
"That is not a bad idea, but just the fact that you have made Aether… uh, Aether liquid is probably the greater thing to know here," she said.
"So anyway, what is this mineral called and how can we find it?"
