"I… I'm sorry."
Sara redacted her mana sense and looked at Eren with a guilty expression. However, she found out that the latter was looking at her with a smirk on his face. It took her some time to realize that Eren had deliberately let her scan him this way.
"You… You are quite an exhibitionist."
Sara said, looking at Eren with a frown on her face. But one could see a smile mixed in with her frown if they looked closely.
"This is kinda unfair, don't you think? Since you have "seen" me, let me "see" you as well. Each nook and cranny of you. Only then can we be even, right?"
Eren was about to use his mana sense intrusively on Sara. But just then, he noticed the subtle mana ripples around the newly turned Novice ranker and realized that the process was far from finished.
Sara was about to get up on her feet. But she noticed something weird happening inside and around her too. She felt tense as a result.
Sara suddenly found her mana core spinning around its axis, trying to absorb more mana from the surroundings. After reaching the Novice rank, it quickly advanced to the next phase. And still, there was no sign of the process stopping.
Sara also started processing Reva's elemental attainments while her mana core entered the next phase. She also started processing the elemental attainments and weapon comprehension of Reva's past ranker victims.
This was right after the Novice ranked mana core stabilized into its vapor state. One could tell that something unusual was happening with Sara just by this simple fact alone.
Sara was too overwhelmed to speak. Both her mind and body were frozen into inaction as she made rapid progress in her ranking status.
Sara's mana circuits suddenly became overloaded with mana flow. Her mana veins began to swell and her mana points got restless.
Sara's spiritual force also increased when the demonic runes started feeding on Reva Rain's spiritual force. As a result, her soul strengthened along with her body. It allowed Sara to cope with the sudden need to digest foreign experiences, if only barely.
"Sit down this instant and practice your technique to regularize the increased mana flow. Otherwise, your mana circuits would be harmed."
Alephee's voice reached Sara's ears. And she followed it subconsciously. Her mind was divided between processing various ranker experiences and keeping the technique active.
Alephee appeared behind Sara and placed her hand on her back. Another small array circle appeared over Sara's back as Alephee helped her regulate her mana flow. The homunculus did that by controlling Sara's demonic runes. The demonic runes caused Sara's current predicament in the first place. So controlling them was crucial.
The gap between Sara and Reva was simply too much. Still, Alphee believed that she had altered the demonic runes accordingly after considering this matter.
As per Alephee's original plan, Sara could progress rapidly and become an Ace ranker. But this progress was supposed to happen over a few weeks. The homunculus believed there was nothing wrong with her recalibration of demonic runes.
She quickly realized another possibility.
Reva's demonic ritual was based on pain and other negative emotions. As such, the runes themselves could amplify their effects if and when they received higher forms of negative emotions. It could only mean one thing. Reva– who was the main target of the demonic ritual– was going through a rough patch. The Paladin of Pain was mentally traumatized. That too to such an extent that it caused Sara to make mind-boggling progress even with Alephee's countermeasures.
"What… what did you do to her?"
Alephee looked at Eren and asked accusingly. The latter was shocked by her question. He looked at Sara and felt puzzled.
"What? I didn't do anything, Miss Timeless."
Alphee shook her head before rephrasing her question anew.
"Not Sara. What did you do to Reva Rain? This form of response from the demonic ritual tells me that she is not right in the head. It's as if someone has tied her to an operating table and is torturing her as we speak. It reeks of your brand of torture."
Alephee had a concerned look. But she wasn't worried about Reva Rain's condition. Not really. However, Reva's situation directly affected Sara's rank, which worried her.
Sara was a mere mortal a few minutes ago. So things were happening too fast for her to register what she felt at the time. It was as if the world around her had gone quiet and she was living through multiple surreal dreams at the same time.
Sara entered a state of epiphany as she started processing foreign experiences and making them her own. The demonic runes acting on her body enabled her to make the most out of the first epiphany she received. Still, Sara would have been in trouble without Alephee's assistance.
Eren could only look blankly at Alephee in response to her question. He felt accused without a reason.
"I... I don't know what you are talking about. We can learn more about Reva later. But let's focus on helping Sara first."
Alephee sighed before nodding, "Already on it."
Alephee started altering the demonic runes even more so they wouldn't become berserk again. She decided to compromise on the syncing process to assure Sara's safety.
Sara only stopped progressing in her ranking journey when she was at the last stage of the Novice rank, on the cusp of breaking into the E-Rank. Alephee had to seal demonic runes' effects on her body. Alephee paused the entire process because Sara did not have a compatible ranking technique to regulate E-Rank mana inflow.
Sara's mind was also exhausted from processing so much information in one go. Based on her current rank, she increased her spiritual force ceiling. But it had all been exhausted.
As a result, the red-haired girl dozed off when Alephee relieved her of her predicament. She looked exhausted and cute at the same time.
