We finally reached the end of the stairs, at long last reaching the dining room where the air was tense to the point that it was difficult to breathe. Krahinn's advice was replaying through my mind. Is it an idea worth considering? Is he right about needing to inspire allies like that? I a not sure how accurate that advice of his is. I had the feeling what Krahinn suggested might have been worth trying; how hard would it be to smile through a battle? I had no idea how challenging the task was, but Krahinn effortlessly smiled while taunting someone like Hoggdin as the two dueled each other. Assuming he actually did, but I am fairly confident I remember him smiling; Krahinn definitely egged Hoggdin on as the two dueled. I did like the idea of infuriating Ryker more because I was not sure what even began our feud. It likely was in the compendium, not that the why was relevant to his vendetta towards me. I think he has lost sight of the start and just has begun focusing on the end. Could I blame him? If he could remember each and every defeat, just how determined to kill me was Ryker? It was unsettling to think he hated me enough to still be willing to try to kill me despite everything. Is it all that different from my struggle to defeat the Void King? Did Ryker start this or did I? I am honestly unsure, I would be a bit curious to figure out the answer eventually.

Why did I not pass on full details of each attempt through my memories? I didn't pass the full knowledge to Luna either, simply the one where I started to send he consciousness back. I passed along notes, helpful information, and some innovative <Magic> I devised, but not a complete recollection. I likely had some reason for that, but what could that be? I imagined the sheer volume of information was the limiting factor of what could be passed between attempts if I were to guess, and that storing it in an isolated time on Ygdazi made logical sense to be able to access it repeatedly once I reached having a contract with a <Totem>. How did Nyx circumvent that restriction? Was it because of how she was copying Ryker? There had to be difficulties, though a Lord likely was way more capable of making information go through time than I was. The fact she imported me like some wild game to be hunted still made my blood boil. I sighed, shaking my head as we reached my family. The tension in the air was palpable as Krahinn and I took our seats at the table with my family members looking at us which made this dark, inky sensation creep up my spine.

"Sorry you all are in this." I grumbled as I greeted them.

"It is not your fault, Nil." Papa assured me almost immediately.

"Do not blame yourself for their actions." Mama added on. The air did not get any less tense inside the dining room.

"Nil, we need to be ready for dealing with Ryker. You may feel bad about reaching this point but now is not the time for pitying yourself; we need to work on getting through this at the moment." Krahinn told me matter-of-factually.

"I know." I grumbled. They were right, just the tension was making me feel awful.

Breakfast was a simple bowl of oats with a few strips of meat which was much plainer than usual. I do not remember what oats are called on Tenebrae; I need to be better about remembering food names on Tenebrae. From my understanding, we didn't want to eat a bunch of heavy food before a drawn-out fight like this, and I was happy that I could at least taste the food right now as I was slowly eating while we all mentally prepared for the incoming battle. I do not know what today is going to entail other than violence. I hoped my <Arcane Eye> would be helpful in alleviating the burden on everyone else. I wonder when Ryker is going to begin his assault, it isn't like he gave us a time to expect him. We assumed it was going to be today in the early morning based off of our available information, but that might have been incorrect. I already finished eating after a few minutes, sitting awkwardly in my chair just waiting for the chaos to begin. This is so aggravating as I just sat here waiting for Umbra to be attacked. Hopefully today ends up being anticlimactic. I knew it wasn't going to be; I just truly wanted that to be reality. I just felt this grave dread clinging to my soul while I sat there, waiting for the awfulness to begin.

"Ro'al grublin, it'll b' fine." Nautilus chimed to break the silence.

"How could you say that?" I checked as I looked awkwardly at the table.

"W' are w're we are. No changin' it now." Nautilus retorted, looking a bit disinterested as she leaned back in her chair.

"You all keep saying that." I muttered. Why am I feeling like this? I just can't shake this feeling.

"It will be okay dear; we are all here to support each other." Mom assured me, gently stroking my hair.

"I just can't shake this bad sensation." I confessed. Why was this so hard for me? This should be so straightforward.

"It takes time to get used to this sort of thing. Do not try to act like you are made of stone." Dad added on. I need to be able to focus on the problem at hand.

"You're right… just… how are you all so calm about this?" I admitted as I was trying not to be upset. My body felt so hollow other than the dread which was not helping.

"We're not, we just are better about dealing with our feelings on the matter. It takes practice and effort to be able to handle situations like these. You are learning by leaping off a cliff, last time you had a similar situation was also a dire strait. We have had time to learn so do not measure yourself against us. Even while you are mentally older than you are physically, you are still inexperienced with this." Uncle Nox assured me. He's right. He's right.

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"Alright." I acquiesced as I downed my next bottle of False Immortal's Serum. I know that I did not sound convincing.

"Work on it Nil, you at least have me backing you up this time." Krahinn instructed me. I feel that is how supportive of an individual he can be, so I should probably just take it.

"I understand." I quipped, nodding along a bit.

"It may be difficult to wait for a battle to come, but we cannot afford to try to pursue him. We also do not believe he is going to be overly patient before beginning his assault." Papa gently lectured me, clearly trying to cheer me up a bit.

"I am assuming we have some form of watch keeping an eye out for whenever Ryker attacks?" I checked as I shifted uncomfortably in my chair.

"We do. We have several ways to make sure we are properly notified once his forces have been sighted." Dad informed me. I imagined there were sentries; it makes sense for there to be sentries.

"Are we sure there isn't someway that Nyx gave them a method to manifest inside the city? Kind of like the portal at Temple?" I inquired. Thankfully, there was no awkward reaction which put me at ease a bit.

"We have more internal methods than external ones because we assumed that is likely how Ryker is going to attack." Mom explained as she continued to stroke my hair. That was a bit assuring.

"Thank you all." I stated, starting to feel a bit better.

"Ain' an is'ue." Nautilus quipped with no hesitation.

"What does the alarm sound like?" I probed, trying to feel like I was being productive.

"You will know when you hear it; we made sure it was distinct." Papa told me. That's comforting, but what if Ryker somehow disrupts the sentry network?

"And before you ask, it would be near impossible for Ryker to sneak up and assassinate all of the sentries in one, singular swoop. I'd like to say impossible, but he does have the assistance of a Lord." Mama interjected as I felt a bit red. Nautilus let out a small snort as she caught herself from laughing.

"I'm not paranoid." I deflected. Was she teasing me or trying to be comforting?

"I was comforting you, not teasing you. That came out a bit more teasing than I intended." Mama confessed while she was clearly fighting the urge to laugh.

"Ya go' me a chuc'le." Nautilus laughed from her chair.

"It was a solid joke." Uncle Nez agreed as he clearly fought how much he wanted to laugh.

"I was not going to ask that." I attempted, but I do not think I controlled my face well enough to pass the lie.

"Maybe not the exact phrasing but the general idea." Uncle Nox taunted as he fought to keep a straight face.

"Why are you all joking about this?" I attempted in vain to move the conversation along.

"It was unintentional, but you need to relax and laugh. Being tense and on edge is not going to be productive; it is fine to be a little paranoid, but you are quite on edge." Papa answered in a jovial tone.

"On the subject of laughing, someone recently advised me to smile and laugh at your opponents no matter how dire your situation is to deny them the satisfaction of letting them know they are getting to you. How good of an idea is that?" I inquired to my family. All of them simultaneously looked at Krahinn.

"It is solid, actionable advice." Krahinn defended himself.

"I think it is good advice." Papa agreed to my surprise.

"Seriously?" I checked, barely containing my surprise. I could feel Krahinn's nine eyes boring into me from the side.

"I am your <Totem>, I do seek to help you. You seem to always assume I am trying to get you to do something awful." Krahinn pointed out like he wasn't one of the grouchiest beings in existence.

"Your general irritability and willingness to torment all those in your presence makes me just want to double check." I defended myself as the wall was suddenly interesting.

"Sure sure." Krahinn shot back in a taunting tone.

"I needed to verify if such behavior was becoming of the future Emperor of Speranza. I have been working on being a better individual on such fronts." I attempted to persuade them all with.

"Luna is not here for you to lie about improving as a demon." Duke Dawnsfield snapped at me jokingly from across the table.

"I am working on getting better!" I replied immediately back at Duke Dawnsfield. Why were they all cracking jokes at a time like this?

"We all believe it." Duke Dawnsfield assured me sarcastically.

"Why are you all joking around at times like this?" I cried at them. This was not a time to crack jokes like these.

"We are trying to relieve the tension and get you to relax a bit." Mom informed me, still gently stroking my hair.

"Why is cracking jokes the preferred method?" I inquired. It doesn't make sense; I wish Luna was here to help me understand it.

"There really is not much else we could do to try and relieve how tense it is in here." Papa shrugged, clearly amused by the last several quips.

"Do not apologize." Dad lectured me before I said sorry again.

"I understand." I told them. Not overly but I can understand better later. Mom likely saw right through my feeble lie.

"Sometimes in tense situations people like to joke despite how dire it may seem because it does relieve how tense we are. It helps cope with the situation, Nil." Mom tried explaining.

"I see." I replied. Mom made a bit of a face at that.

"Humor is how a lot of us in this room deal with being stressed in a healthy and somewhat productive fashion. There are only a few ways we can deal with this situation other than fighting through it, and trying to joke is a way we all enjoy. You unintentionally started a good way for us to try to crack jokes." Mom explained to me.

"That makes sense." I agreed with her.

"We probably shouldn't have aimed them towards you being cautious as that is a valid concern. That was not becoming of us." Uncle Nox apologized to me.

"What about the Luna cracks?" I probed, looking at Duke Dawnsfield.

"I feel you embellishing in front of the future Empress is free game at this point." Krahinn told me with a smirk.

"Do not call her that!" Mom and Duke Dawnsfield snapped immediately.

"I feel we may want to consider events that transpire in the future compendium as accurate representations of what is to come. And I feel some people might be in denial of brutally obvious fact at this point." Papa replied. Mom and Duke Dawnsfield looked infuriated by that statement while I felt extremely crimson. Before that topic of conversation continued, a loud, clear siren alerted.

"And destiny awaits. Let's go slaughter some <Homunculi>." Krahinn chimed with a massive smile stretching from ear to ear. He might just like violence; now is the time to do or die, unfortunately.

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