Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

With Sakaki's guidance and assistance, Rain focused his efforts on enhancing several key skills that they deemed crucial for achieving his objectives. He didn't give the details, but Sakaki could tell that Rain was about to make another breakthrough.

Under Sakaki's tutelage, Rain made significant strides in mastering lightning-based techniques, refining his control over electrical energy and harnessing its destructive power with greater precision. Through rigorous training and practice, Rain cultivated a deeper understanding of the intricate dynamics of lightning manipulation, unlocking new techniques and strategies to employ in combat.

Similarly, Rain delved into the intricacies of Psychometry, expanding his proficiency in the realm of psychic abilities. Sakaki couldn't help but that much this time, but Rain refined his telepathic skills, enhancing his ability to communicate and perceive thoughts and emotions across vast distances.

In addition to his progress in lightning manipulation and Psychometry, Rain also devoted time and effort to advancing his proficiency in light magic. Through focused training and experimentation, Rain mastered techniques to manipulate and channel its radiant energy for both offensive and defensive purposes.

"Why don't you share your ideas with us?" Elisabetha asked.

"I thought that you said that you didn't care about anything else aside from getting your revenge," Rain said.

"Your plans might help with my revenge," Elisabetha said. "So, do your best to help me with it."

"So self-centered…" Rain furrowed his eyebrows. "Anyway, you guys should focus on your own goals instead of worrying about my ideas. You can bear the burden of the past, and I will bear the burden of this era. That way, we won't let each other down."

In the end, Sakaki and Elisabetha couldn't say anything regarding that since it made sense. Elisabetha truly didn't care about anything else aside from the extermination of the first dragons and their creators… As for Sakaki, he wanted to safeguard the current Earth, but it was clear that he would sacrifice everything else, including his allegiance, for as long as Earth survived, at any cost.

Even if it becomes another piece of the machine gods' control. He wanted to avoid that, but…

"We are ready to move," Sealyn said when Rain approached the tent of the reunions. "While I also agree that we need to act fast, do you think that we are moving a bit too fast? We got a bit stronger in the last battle, but we lost a lot of manpower as well."

"I don't like this analogy that much, and that is why I am working on a certain idea," Rain said. "Still, a blade can only get stronger and shaper by being beaten down many times and cleaned from its impurities that otherwise would weaken it. Our history also shows that the strong thrive and the weak don't survive… trying to negate that might be nice and sweet, but it is the truth."

"I guess you also believe that this can't be helped," Sealyn said. "Despite your own words, try not to do anything that will cause more harm to you while you try to safeguard everyone else. You have a bad habit of doing that. Pretty often, may I add."

"But that is what heroes do, so it can't be helped," Rain shrugged. "Brains are awesome, I wish everyone had one. Since you are my daughter, you definitely can understand this. It's not for brainlets, But, as long as you come from a civilization that's discovered fire and has some frontal lobe development. You'll be okay!"

"I honestly think that I got my good head thanks to my mother. No offense, Dad," Sealyn said.

"None taken. Your words are completely justified," Rain said. "You are in your deserved right to be wrong."

"Ahh… let's go already," Sealyn said after sighing and laughing a bit.

Sealyn's stomach was getting bigger… she should be around three months pregnant by now. Since she was fighting from a distance and she had the spear, the shield, and the armor, she could fight excellently well. However, a single mistake… a single misstep would spell disaster… Rain wanted to avoid that at all costs.

"My plan… I wonder how it will work with her if I complete it before she gives birth," Rain thought. "Perhaps we should take a break for a few months to avoid that kind of difficult scenario."

While Rain was thinking about that, everyone nodded, and then they began to put the plans into action. Several groups began to disappear after being summoned to Iori's pocket dimension. Eventually, only the leaders were left behind, and even they were eventually called before Rain obtained Iori's core.

"All right, let's do this," Rain said.

After taking a deep breath, Rain used Teleport back to the junkyard of the enemy's territory… he raised his guard to see if he would be ambushed, but the place looked fine. It was also the planet where the vessel was left behind, so Rain waited for a bit to see if the machine gods threw some of the destroyed bases in there, but Rain didn't find anything.

The skill Teleportation leveled up.

The skill Spatial Manipulation Mastery leveled up.

The skill Teleportation leveled up.

The skill Spatial Manipulation Mastery leveled up.

…

Rain felt a head-splitting headache, but he only twitched his eyebrows a bit in response to it. After taking a deep breath, he checked the first mana gem and confirmed that around one-third of its mana had been used.

"This could be a problem…" Rain thought. "As expected, I should have asked everyone to share their mana with the gem."

Rain didn't do that since he would benefit the most from it since his skills would level up like crazy… besides, everyone was training their own skills, and they needed to get stronger to survive and make his job easier.

"I will have to manage to drain all the mana from the enemy's base this time," Rain thought. "Otherwise, we won't be able to return to Earth on a single cast of the spell."