The notification caught Grey completely off guard. When he advanced to Phase II before, he had done it thanks to a quest. But this time he got Phase III for doing... nothing?

It seemed that Grey was underestimating himself a bit too much. In order to receive Phase II, he had defeated a Vessel of Chaos and crafted a Vector Class mech.

What was an Old One if not a Vessel of Chaos? And while he hadn’t crafted anything beyond the Vector Class just yet, he had advanced far enough in his understanding of mechs to draw a Command Class blueprint to a 100% SA-index.

The only thing stopping him from making the Command Class mech himself was lack of materials and the lack of personal strength. Functionally, in the eyes of the Prometheus Spirit...

He had already met that threshold.

Why would he not be worthy of Phase III?

The little flame was clearly sentient. It knew that Grey needed help and it took it upon itself to trigger the benefits ahead of time nonetheless, feeling that there was no need to go through the normal channels.

This wasn’t the first time the little flame had acted on its own. Back when it had trapped Grey in a continuous loop, it had been acting without Grey’s input as well.

Normally, Grey would need to first reach the Vector Class before he could receive the Quest and thus Phase III. But, the Prometheus Spirit felt that Grey had done enough.

Grey seemed to feel the intent of the Prometheus Spirit as well. For a moment, he was grateful to the little cute flame. But it didn’t take him long to lock in.

If the flame did this, it wasn’t just because it felt Grey was worthy. This change should also help Grey somehow.

The question was how?

It took Grey only a few seconds to figure it out.

In a flash, the flame suddenly appeared on Grey’s palm.

"I get it..." Grey said, nodding slowly.

He could manifest the Prometheus Spirit into the real world now. It had no real combat strength, and it didn’t even give off any heat. However...

"It can help me lower the bar."

Grey hurriedly pulled out a blue grade Cyber Core. He held it in one hand and held Prometheus in the other. Then he brought them together.

Prometheus flowed into the Cyber Core and then extracted the energy from within it.

When it pulled itself out of the Cyber Core, there was a deeper hue to its red-gold color. It seemed less illusory now and far more real. While it still didn’t give off any heat, Grey realized that if he used the Prometheus Spirit and Cyber Cores at the same time, he would be able to craft with much greater ease.

Not only did Prometheus lower the amount of Cyber Core energy he would need to use to deconstruct raw materials and their Faces, it could also lower the amount of energy he needed to use to combine them into mechs.

Which meant...

’I can do it.’

Grey grinned ear to ear, bringing the little flame up to his face and giving it a big ol’ sloppy kiss.

To outsiders, though, it looked like he was making out with his own hand. Luckily, there was no one recording any of this.

"Let’s fucking do this."

Grey didn’t hesitate anymore. He didn’t think about how the mechs he could make now would be so much more powerful. All he cared about was tweaking the teleportation platform to meet their needs.

And just as he expected...

It was impossibly easy for him.

In not even 10 minutes, the teleportation platform had a new circuit running through it, an adjustment of a former one. It pulsed with life, and the air around it seemed brighter all of a sudden.

Outside the outpost, a ring of gold appeared around the tower and the Fog of Chaos was repelled away several hundred meters.

Grey collapsed to his back and laughed; he laughed so hard he started hacking and wheezing. He slammed a fist to his chest a couple times to clear his throat, then started laughing again.

This was too great. He had actually done it.

"I actually did it."

Grey exhaled a breath and then started to peel himself off of the ground. He needed to go.

He could use the teleportation array to get across the empire instantly now. He could make it to Giyoto, clear Chapter two, then go to the capital city, kill the bitch of an Empress, and clear the Arc.

Then, Thi Lan would be free.

But first, he just had to check on them to make sure they could hold out until then. So long as he could do that...

Grey managed to struggle to his feet, but then the air around him shifted.

"Weird... what the hell is... that...?"

BANG.

Grey’s head slammed into the ground. He was knocked out completely cold.

He took quick, shallow breaths. Slowly, as his body was filled with enough oxygen, his breathing became more even and deep.

Then he started to snore.

His body had hit its limits. The only thing pushing him forward was sheer grit and determination.

But there was only so far grit and determination could take you, and Grey had long surpassed that level a long time ago.

His body, his soul, his heart simply didn’t have any more to give.

Not right now.

Barkeep Ji pursed his lips and then he looked out toward the distance. The others were going to have to hold out on their own for now because Grey wasn’t getting up any time soon in this sort of state.

...

Amunet’s head whipped back toward the outpost when she sensed the pulse. When she saw the gold light, her eyes brightened. He succeeded, he had to have succeeded.

She turned back toward the battle, her breathing labored and heavy. Her eyes looked like she was ready to fight a thousand more battles.

But her body... it stood on just a single leg, the other gone and bleeding from a stump. The only thing holding her up were the strings of darkness extending from her.

She held out her rapier, her eyes blazing.