"Row Shadow Scar." Davi brought his claymore down and shot a wave of black fire toward Himvel.
"Vil Atomic Shift!" A portal opened up directly in front of Himvel, swallowing up the attack and sending it away.
***
Nearly nine hundred years ago…
"Long ago, there was a being known as the Pilgrim. His true name was Adamaska, the youngest son of Haru, named after the Lord of the Scarlet, the first man, Adam. Adamaska, the pilgrim, the scholar, the wanderer, had a simple goal. At a very young age, he bore witness to an inner world that was held within his mother, and he became obsessed with the concept of creating a being that had the same kind of Core as his mother. Adamaska wanted to create a Heart Core."
Adam closed his book and let out a soft sigh. He shook his head and clicked his tongue.
"Of course, it was doomed to fail from the start." Adam hummed. "You see, when Haru was born, she didn't have a Core. Humans originally lacked the ability to use magic. Once she did learn magic, do you know what Core she had?"
Adam looked up and waited. He tapped his chair and nodded his head.
***
Present day…
Davi felt his body shift, and space twisted around him as he managed to use a mana step. It felt weird. Just like when he took the well from the Underworld back up to Enforcer City, he felt his body be pressed through a space that shouldn't have been able to hold his mass, yet it did.
One second, he went from standing on the other side of the room to appearing in front of Himvel. His claymore tore through the air, his mana swirling around it wildly, and Himvel struggled to deflect it.
The two of them entered a dance of blades, exchanging blows back and forth, and each time they barely parried the other's strikes. As the exchange went on, Himvel started to pick up the pace, moving even quicker, his mana boiling out.
"Row Atomic Spike." The air compressed into a beam of energy, which struck out at Davi, hitting his armor hard enough to crack it. The force of the strike nearly dislocated his shoulder, and Davi hissed in pain.
The spikes kept appearing, and the knight in ebony armor did his best to avoid and block them.
***
Nearly nine hundred years ago…
"Close, but that's wrong. Haru, believe it or not, was born with the weakest Core. A Peasant Core. That's right. The strongest being in the world started off as the weakest. But did you know, while it's true that the mighty hawk will devour the bug, if they're not careful and that hawk finds itself on the ground, it might be the one who is devoured instead. Bit by bit."
Adam let out a soft laugh and pointed forward with his quill.
"Come now, it was merely a metaphor; the choice of the word 'hawk' means nothing, don't look into it. You really are quite the pesky listener. Back to what I was saying before… Where was I? Oh, that's right. Adamaska believed he could create a Heart Core, yet we now know that to be an impossibility after our organization tried to create one ourselves. Creating a Heart Core is actually rather simple yet also quite impossible. Many, many beings, throughout many worlds, have tried to make it to Rome, and some do manage to at least reach the gates. I myself have found the gates of Rome a total of one hundred fifty-one trillion, two hundred ninety-two billion, two hundred ninety-one million, one hundred twenty-one thousand, five hundred and twenty times. But really, who's keeping count? Of those countless times, I've only managed to break the doors a total of eight million, five hundred and eleven thousand, eight hundred and twenty times. Sadly, that is as far as I have ever gotten. Countless beings have managed to get this far, so in the grand scheme of the universe, it really isn't that impressive, is it? After all, it only took a few million years. Such a thing isn't even an eyeblink to those beyond its walls. To date, only Haru has managed to reach the end of Rome, and she was blessed with the Heart Core."
Adam frowned and wrinkled his nose.
"Am I sure that my numbers are right? Of course I am. When you have lived as long as I have-"
Adam sighed and rubbed his head.
***
Present day…
Davi opened his vault up, and a series of shadowy hands spilled out. They began to grasp at the spikes of matter that Himvel launched at him.
"Vil Shadow Scar." Black fire screamed as it formed around his claymore, and with a powerful slash, the wave was sent out.
Himvel ducked under it just in time, but the slash kept going and began to carve along the side of the cave, splitting it apart. The entire cavern would have fallen in on itself and crushed them both if not for the black hands that flew from Davi's vault and did their best to hold up the roof.
"Looks like you're finally seeing things my way." Himvel laughed, giving a mad cackle. "You're trying to kill me?"
"No." Davi shook his head. "You're wrong. I told you, I'm going to save you and everyone else."
"You have a funny way of showing it. If 'saving' means firing waves of black fire out, then I'm a goddamned Saint!"
Davi gave a weak wince and smiled softly. "Yeah, sorry about that. I'm really not used to this power. I've gone several levels up from where I was before."
"I'll say." Himvel charged forward and stabbed out with his rapier, which Davi hastily blocked. "Before you had the white aura, you were easy to toy around with. Once you did activate that aura, you became somewhat strong and now… Well, I have to give it the smallest bit of effort, but you should be able to see that you're totally outclassed, right?"
"Outclassed?" Davi pulled out a second claymore, wielding it toward the elf, and he began to violently strike out at the elf. "Sure, you're stronger than me, but you got to give me some credit. I managed to triple my power, right?"
"And how exactly did you go and do that?"
***
Nearly nine hundred years ago…
"Semantics, semantics. You're so needy. It isn't an issue of power but belief, will, and the plot of the story. But we're off topic. Back to Adamaska. He wrongly believed that he could create a Heart Core. Such a Core, however, can only be gained by the one who finishes the walk through Rome, and only a Saint can do that. Still, Adamaska wanted to try, and so he decided to make a Core that could operate as a Heart Core."
Adam tapped his ear and leaned his head back, listening intently.
"Oh, so now you want to know what he did to do this? Well, I think it is pretty obvious, don't you? Adamaska traveled the lands and learned about the many different Cores. Mainly, four stood out to him, for these four were the strongest and, in some parts, were all made after witnessing Haru's godlike power. The Mask Core, the Qi Line Core, the Circuit Core, and finally, the strongest of them all, the Golden Core."
Adam let out a snort.
"What Core do I have? What a stupid question. I gave those kinds of things up a long time ago. Adamaska believed that he could create something on par with the Heart Core if he found a way to combine all four Core types. In a way, he wasn't wrong for thinking like this. After all, the Ebony Knight was the only being on the planet who put up a fight against Haru, and he, in fact, had all four Cores. I believe that if he managed to finish the walk of Rome, he would have become a being even greater than Haru. A shame he is dead, right?"
Adam's smile grew, and he nodded his head.
"Has a being ever managed to gain all four Cores at once? Now, isn't that a good question? Well, as it just so happens, Adamaska wanted to find out if it was possible to create a being like this. The Ebony Knight was able to do it, but he is more like a cheater since he was born from a powerful union and performed the Rite of Marriage with the great Daughter of the Dragon King. As far as we know, no, it isn't possible for a being to be born with all four Cores. Adamaska was never able to create such a child, no matter what twisted things he did."
***
Present day…
"I created a second Core inside of myself." Davi dodged Himvel's strike and used a mana step to appear behind the man. He stabbed out with one of his swords, but Himvel deflected it and shattered the blade with his rapier. "My main Core is three different sections. Qi Lines, a Circuit Core, and a Mask Core. Because of that, my percentage split was really screwed up, so I figured out how to make a Core of chaotic mana, using some techniques people smarter than me created, to make it all possible."
"People smarter than you?" Himvel sliced into Davi's shoulder and caught the other claymore with his hand. So much mana swirled around his palm that with a single squeeze, he was able to shatter the blade completely. "Give yourself a bit more credit. People have tried to use chaotic mana, and some have managed to succeed, but you seemingly have a knack for it. I guess the elven blood in your veins made you a natural at Enchantment and mana control, huh?"
Davi ducked under one of Himvel's punches and dropped his shattered swords. "Maybe. To be honest, I don't feel that special." He created an orb of white energy and slammed it into the spot Himvel had been standing at since the elf moved. "My friends, my captain, all my guildmates, they're the ones who got me this far. I can only do the things I do because of the people who took the time to show me, speak to me, and help me."
Himvel stomped on the ground as hard as he could and kicked up a wave of dust. "You view helping people as something grand and almighty. Why? Row Atomic Slash."
The dust split apart, and Davi only managed to dodge the slashes thanks to his new sight, which showed the red lines coming through the dust. The blades of atomic energy missed him by a hair, and he created another mana orb and chucked it at Himvel, blowing it up in the elf's face. "Because my father said that I should help people."
"Did he?" Himvel jumped through the explosion and stabbed his blade toward Davi's eye. "Fathers don't always know what's best. Believe me, my dad was a real monster."
"Sorry to hear that." Davi gritted his teeth and barely caught the rapier. It took everything he had to hold it back, and Himvel wasn't even going all out still.
"Row Atomic Blast!"
Himvel staggered as a wave of pure atomic energy smashed into his side and sent him stumbling back. "Who dares-" The elf went silent, and his eyes widened.
The cave had lacked a door, yet a spot had been torn up along the wall where two golems, along with two Licht-Fulk, stood. Olem and Bolem both held their hands out, ready to cast a spell again.
The Queen of the Licht-Fulk gave Himvel a disgusted look. "You've fallen far."
"High…" Mel stared at the robed man in sorrow. "Is that really you?" She could see traces of her brother, but it was just off. As if two beings had merged.
Himvel's face scrunched up, and for the first time, the elf actually looked sorrowful. "Mel… I-"
Davi slammed into Himvel and tackled him to the ground.
***
Nearly nine hundred years ago…
Adam rubbed his chin.
"Since a person cannot be born with all four Cores, you want to know if they can later gain them? The short answer is yes. After all, the Ebony Knight was able to exist, and he had all four. The long answer? Yes, but it's very complicated. See, the main issue you run into is gaining the ability to use the other Cores. You would need to be born with at least three Cores. Qi Lines, a Mask Core, and a Golden Core, then later on, you would need to gain Circuit Cores by somehow tricking the King into placing them in you. There are several flaws with this plan, however. Do you know what they all are?"
Adam cocked his head to the side and let out a disappointed sigh.
"Now that is truly a horrible guess. The two main issues are this. First, the king would never give someone with three Cores a Circuit Core to go along with it. That makes the process simply impossible, which means you'd need two Cores, gain a Circuit Core, and then somehow gain a fourth Core, but that would require the use of Marriage, which is not ideal since the process muddies up the parts unless it's a perfect bond. What's a perfect bond? Well, basically, each type of magic has a sort of yin to its yang, and if you can bond with them, then it can do some truly grand things. The trick is finding out which type is the Yin to your Yang, as they differ from person to person. For example, the Ebony Knight had Shadow Magic, and he was able to perform a perfect marriage with someone who had Blood Magic. That said, not all Shadow Mages will have a Blood Mage as their other half. Most people also don't know this little detail, so the Rite of Marriage tends to get fucked up pretty badly."
Adam adjusted his coat and gave a nod of approval before his smile suddenly faded.
"No, your foreshadowing is bad. Fuck you. Now, the king was one reason a being gaining all four Cores wouldn't work, but there's another elephant in the room. That's the Golden Core. Adamaska discovered very quickly that Cores don't like mixing. It dulls both sides, and you very rarely get an even split. Golden Cores especially don't like to get bonded to others. A Golden Core is bigger than a person's inner realm and spills outside. It works sort of like its own star, creating such massive amounts of mana that even the weakest Golden Core ever recorded had more mana than a captain of any guild. Of course, raw mana isn't everything, and those with split Golden Cores learn this the hard way. That Susie girl you seem to like so much is a good example of this. She was born with a Circuit Core and in the good timeline would have gone on to be an amazing mage and even be the first non-noble to ever reach the status of captain." Adam's smile faded, and he looked bummed. "This isn't the good timeline, though, is it? No… This is the timeline you wanted. A nightmare. Susie inherited the Core. This means she basically gained a Golden Core. The split happened, and this is the best example of why Golden Cores aren't good. Her body had too much mana, and her Golden Core was so large it was devouring her Circuit Core, causing it to go haywire, which in turn broke her body down. I honestly thought she would have died, yet it seems someone taught her how to create the golden orbs, and her Golden Core was able to shrink down just a bit by skimming parts of it off for those orbs. She might not be as strong as she was in the good timeline, but she did regain a lot of her mana."
Adam stared off into the distance, seemingly deep in thought as he processed several things and debated how he got to this moment in his life.
"Sorry, I wasn't listening to your questions. Anyway, a person being born with a Golden Core and other Cores would cause a big disaster within their body since the Golden Core would be split. Also, the only ways to gain a Golden Core are to either be born with it or perform the Rite of Marriage. Should such a being gain all four, their split Golden Core would be unstable, and like a nuclear reactor, it would spill out and flow over the other Cores, who would be split as well and thus unable to defend themselves. Like with Susie, this process would result in a meltdown for the body. Adamaska spent most of his life trying to figure out a way to make it work, and sadly, he died before he could."
Adam reached over and grabbed his book, getting ready to read once more. He glanced back up and looked tired.
"So, how did the Ebony Knight do it?" Adam closed his book, a bit annoyed. "Well, it's true that gaining a split Golden Core is bad, but that's the thing. It's only bad if you gain a split Golden Core. The Ebony Knight was born with a Mask Core and Qi Lines. After becoming a Knight of Haru and fighting Sylas, he also gained a Circuit Core. He was one of the first beings to notice how unstable it was receiving extra Cores and how badly it could affect your mind, so he sought a way to fix that. Eventually, he devoured his lover whole, absorbing her flesh, bones, and blood into himself, and transformed her very soul into his Core Mask. Thus, he gained all that she was, including her Golden Core. The Ebony Knight was very special. He was born of two vastly powerful beings. His mother was a woman named Ceil, truly a very powerful being, one who rivals even my true form. A shame she has been crippled so much. As for his father? Well, that's none other than the one who stayed behind, the Lord of Order. This mixing of blood meant the Ebony Knight was never going to be normal, and so he was able to hold all four Cores."
***
Present day…
Davi wrapped his arms around Himvel and slammed him into the ground. Himvel growled and threw Davi back.
Davi rolled across the ground and wiped some blood away from his busted lips. "You guys showed up just in time."
"We're here to help." Olem nodded. "We got your back, Davi."
Bolem hesitated for a second but also nodded. "Father. Please, stop this. Davi has already found a solution-"
"And I've utterly debunked it." Himvel spat out. He glared at Davi. "He hasn't been able to come up with a solution. How can you save the elves? Tell me!" He charged forward and rammed his rapier through Davi's stomach.
"Davi!" Olem cried out and rushed forward.
Davi gripped Himvel's wrist and slammed his head forward, headbutting the elf. "Why don't I show you instead?" His eyes ignited. "Vil Shadow Vault!"
The hands that had been holding up the ceiling suddenly dropped down. The roof shattered and began to cave in, but the hands quickly wrapped around everyone and dragged them all into the Vault. The place was filled with shadows, so the spell had a ton of range, allowing Davi to shove everyone inside.
The chilling cold hit them all as they all began to fall and crashed down into a stone platform, which was created from his Vil spell. The dueling platform that the birds couldn't cross.
"Where are we?" Himvel looked around in awe and ripped his sword out of Davi. He stared around the darkness, trying to process what he was seeing. "This place? Is it your Inner World? A World of the Paths made manifest? But how? Why? This is who you are. Yourself. Why allow such a thing to be seen in its barest form? What are you?"
Davi didn't listen. He brought up his status window with the system and stared at the numbers for his Cores. He smiled and then, without any warning, created an orb of mana, which he slammed into the stone platform. It shattered, and once again, all of them were sent falling through the void.
"Davi!" Olem yelled out. "What the hell is going on?"
"Just watch!"
Already, the sounds of the birds crying filled the empty air.
***
Nearly nine hundred years ago…
"The Ebony Knight, as well as one other person throughout history, managed to find a way to increase the strength of their Core drastically." Adam continued. "See, Adamaska failed to create the perfect being, but he did leave notes and theories on how it could be done, which he made after studying the Ebony Knight. The Ebony Knight was able to get around the meltdown of a Golden Core by not having a split Golden Core. When he absorbed his lover, he gained all that she was, since it was a perfect fusion. He gained her one hundred percent Golden Core. It was also thanks to his unique power, bloodline, and way of being that he created a way to increase the total percentage value of his other three Cores. In the end, do you know what he had? Nine hundred and ninety-nine in all four Cores. That's right. Nine hundred and ninety-nine for Qi Lines, Mask Core, Circuit Core, and his newly gained Golden Core. His level of power was off the charts."
Adam listened to the question and shook his head.
"No. I doubt any being besides the Ebony Knight will gain the power to push a Core to that extent. Perhaps someone could raise it up to one hundred percent multiple times, though." He smiled softly.
Adam's smile quickly faded.
"So, even after all that, you're not satisfied? You want to know how to make a being like the Ebony Knight? A vessel that would be perfect for him? Fine. This is how I would do it. First, you'd need to create a being with three Cores. A Golden Core, Qi Lines, and a Mask Core. It could take you a while, so have fun trying to do that. Next, you'd need a bloodline, something able to hold a lot of power in, similar to the Ebony Knight's own. Once again, good luck finding such a bloodline. After that, you'd need to have a great understanding of the soul. You'd have to be willing to butcher the soul of this being and tear out their Golden Core. This is because the Core would be split and not stable. Doing this process would cause the Cores that remain to regrow on their own, but it only works if the being is young. You'd need a newborn. If you do it correctly, there's a chance their Cores could grow evenly. The ideal number is a fifty-fifty split between their Mask and Qi Line Cores. Next, this being would have to grow up and eventually join the Arcane Knights and get a Circuit Core. Now comes the tricky part. Their body was built with three Cores in mind, so when they gain the Circuit Core, it will cause a split, so to speak, and reopen that slot where the Golden Core used to be. This might allow them to handle having three Cores easier, but you would then need them to have a way to power up both Cores. If all of this goes well, then all you would have to do is find a way to reintroduce that Golden Core that they lost so long ago."
Adam sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"There's only one way to know if it worked or not. That would be the percentage of their Cores. If you set it up perfectly, and you got lucky, and fate happened to be on your side, then maybe, just maybe, their Cores would all be balanced."
***
Present day…
'Davi Hawker, son of Orion Hawker, son of Titania Midsummer, child of the Abyss. Shadow Core model Mask Core: Synchronicity—One Hundred Percent. Shadow Core model Qi Lines: Synchronicity One Hundred Percent. Shadow Core model Circuit Core: Synchronicity One Hundred Percent.'
Davi let out a sigh of relief as he saw his three Cores. He had actually done it. He got them all to one hundred percent. Shockingly, it hadn't been that hard.
His chaotic core was able to reach one hundred percent, and so by breaking that down, he could pour it into the sections of his cores and boost them. He had done this earlier to get the Qi Lines to sixty. He shouldn't have had enough to get all three to one hundred with one core; however, what he did was simple.
Since the Chaotic Core was no longer held in place due to being devoured, he simply created a second Chaotic Core and then also devoured that one. Basically, he had two Chaotic Cores, meaning two hundred percent of mana existed within him. That was the exact amount he needed to boost all his Cores. By giving fifty to his Mask Core and seventy-five to both his Qi Lines and his Circuit Core, he was able to boost all three Cores to one hundred percent.
In other words, he had a Core that was three hundred percent power. He had effectively become three times stronger.
Still nowhere near the level of strength needed to even be close to a Title Knight, much less a Captain, but that sudden boost in power pushed all his stats over the edge and allowed his mana to flow so freely that he finally felt like he was himself.
He was Davi Hawker.
Normally, this process would have burned his Chaotic Core up way too quickly, but he was able to continuously create a third Chaotic Core due to the pain and strain being forced onto his body from combat. Sadly, this new Core didn't matter much, as it was being devoured and rebuilt to keep the other Cores up, so he couldn't access it as much as he wanted, and it did nothing for his strength other than keep his power level up.
After shattering the stone platform, he, along with everyone else, plummeted all the way down to the bottom of his Vault.
The ground seemed to solidify, and Olem gasped when he saw a mountain of blades that stood in the distance, several miles away from them. At the top of the mountain was a blue orb of mana wrapped in chains and shadowy hands, and stabbed into the top of it was a cold and jagged-looking claymore.
The realm was cold. It was lonely. It was so bitter and sad. Olem glanced at Davi.
"W-Where are we?" Mel looked around in shock.
"This is my solution," Davi explained.
Himvel growled and glared at the raven-haired Knight. "Your solution to what-"
The sound of a bird crying caused them all to look toward the mountain of swords, and Olem realized with mild horror that it was actually a nest. Several monsters began to fly towards them all. Thousands of them, forged out of shadowy bodies with blue fire, but the leader was at the front, and it looked like a massive hawk, made of purple flames.
Bolem lifted his hand, about to fire.
"No," Davi called out. "Don't."
"What? Those are monsters, though?"
"Yeah, but I don't want any of them to die." Davi glanced at the birds. "After all, I think they're only mad at me. I don't blame them all that much. I'd be ticked off too if I were forced to live in this cold place. I always hated this Vault and what it represented. My mother's gift was one I used all the time, but it was out of spite. This ability she made, which was to hold my fate, was used to help people simply because I wanted to get back at her. I let that negativity freeze and cool this place down and made their home, the home of my family, so awful."
All the birds began to fly over Davi, swarming above him, crying down toward him. They ignored everyone else, and slowly they began to land, one after the other.
"They want me to remove the sword. To get rid of the cold that's here. I don't think I can remove that sword, though. But… That doesn't mean I have to sit by and allow them to freeze. We are who we want to be, and I want to be someone who can help them."
By increasing the percentage of his Cores, all of them had grown so much. Both in power and size. That became apparent when his Mask Core appeared. It had always been the biggest, but now it dwarfed the entire Vault, and this was because the Mask Core had been what took over the place of his missing Golden Core.
The Queen of the Licht-Fulk stared up in shock as the sky ignited in a wave of golden fire. It was like a sun, far, far away, yet casting a bright warmth and heat down upon them all. Thousands of golden rivers of light and heat wove together into the shape of a bird with its wings stretched out, and like a real sun, it began to heat everything up and cast light down on them all.
The shadows of the Vault began to get tugged away, dissolving and clearing out. No longer did they stand on a floor of darkness. Instead, Olem felt his feet sink into snow. Chilly snowflakes started to rain from above, and a field of ice stretched out.
That dark vault, the void of infinite nothingness, had been hiding something within the shadows. Something all of them got to see. A snowy village?
There were trees around the mountain of swords, and all of them stood outside of a destroyed village. The buildings were torn down and burned, and almost none were left standing. The sky above was still black, like a night sky, but it was actually able to be looked at thanks to the faraway Mask Core, which shone with a powerful golden light. Its heat warmed everything up to the point that the vault was survivable.
Everything was still cold, but it wasn't the terrible chill it had been moments ago, and with the village now around them, it looked as if this place could have been rebuilt and turned into something great.
Davi's inner world wasn't some cold void of nothingness but rather a piece of land waiting to be rebuilt and turned into something new.
Davi stared around at all the buildings that had once stood tall. "This place was my home. I- I pulled it in here after it was destroyed. I always wanted to fix it up and do something with it, but-" He shook his head and then glanced at the birds.
Olem almost gasped when he saw them. The light above changed them as well. It stripped away the form they had, and gone were their feathers and bird-like heads. They were still shadowy and lacked all features, but they were in the shapes of people. Kids… Very young kids.
They circled around Davi, some tugging at his armor and others wrapping around his legs. They seemed happy.
It only lasted a few seconds, however. After all, they had long since become something else. The shadowy figures morphed back into birds, and they took off, flying back to their nest, seemingly content now that it was warmer.
The biggest of the birds, the leader, the one that was purple, stared back down at Davi, and for a moment its form also flickered and changed. It didn't become a child, though. Instead, it seemed to take the shape of an adult man. One who wore robes. He held no color or feature due to being made out of shadows, but Davi was certain he knew who this person was.
It was for only a second, and then the man switched back into the shape of a large bird once more before it, too, flew away.
"When you're sad, it rains." Davi hummed softly. "I guess here that rain froze and became so cold and left everything in a frigid state. Maybe now it can be a bit brighter. I feel a little better, I guess." He turned to look back at Himvel. "So, what do you think?"
"I think you're nuts." Himvel raised his sword, and with a mana step, he reappeared in front of Davi and rammed it forward. The blade pierced Davi's chest, but he didn't budge or fight it.
"Himvel." Davi stared into the elf's eyes. "Let's bring all your people down here. Why don't we allow the Licht-Fulk to call this place home? I can bring the Underworld, all of it, down here, and as long as this sun exists, this place, which was cold, can be used to house life."
Himvel froze as he heard Davi's final solution.
"We can let them all live here, and I'll create a vow to make it so the king and no one else can ever reach them again." Davi reached out and placed a hand on Himvel's chest and then his other on top of his forehead. Himvel's eyes widened as he realized what Davi was trying. "They can all live here and thrive. We can make a happy ending."
And with that, Davi attempted to perform the Rite of Sealment, aiming for the two souls trapped within the single body.
"High, Himvel, I think it's time you two got a divorce."
***
Nearly nine hundred years ago…
Adam gave a soft smirk. "So, does all that finally answer your questions, Evelyn?"