Death... and me

'Alright...' Jakar nodded in response. 'However, you'll have to convince me first that your method is feasible.'

'Oh? That?' Rean almost laughed after hearing that. 'I'll just say the same thing your Uncle Fran told me. Whether you believe it or not is your problem. The other option is to stay secluded in this place for the next who knows hundreds of years.'

Jakar had to admit Rean was right. 'Okay, okay. I'll follow your plan, then.'

'At the moment, it doesn't matter if you will or not, though,' Rean answered back. 'I'll only try this third option out when I see my Iridescent Tears.'

Sure enough, Rean wouldn't just try it to find out that Jakar didn't have any of the Iridescent Tears at all. The only reason why he still hadn't escaped yet was because of them.

Jakar couldn't hide his troubled expression. 'Right... there's that too.'

Rean continued to work on his things. 'So you can't get them, huh? Then forget it. I'll try to escape on my own.'

'Wait, wait, wait!' Jakar obviously didn't want to let the chance pass up. 'I'll get the tears. Just give me a month!'

'A month?' Rean didn't expect it to be that fast. 'Alright then. If you can get the two Iridescent Tears within a month, we'll go ahead with the third option. However, if you fail, you'll tell your Uncle Fran that you won't try to escape anymore.'

Jakar didn't mind it. 'Okay. In that case, I'm leaving.'

Yet, Rean didn't stop there. It's just that he stopped conversing in Divine Sense at that moment. "Hey, Jakar. How about you introduce your friend? He's been by your side since you arrived."

Jakar was puzzled why Rean would care about that, but he simply kept up the pretense. "Who else do you think this guy is? He's just my babysitter. I'm glad that spirits like me don't have the same physiological necessities as your humanoid races. Otherwise, he would have probably followed me to the toilet."

The Winged Provis didn't quite like the remark, replying, "Little Jakar, that's not a good way to treat your senior." He then looked at Rean, saying, "I'm Clovale, a somewhat recent elder of the Winged Provis race. Jakar's parents entrusted his safety to me."

"Nice to meet you, Senior Clovale." Rean immediately greeted the spirit. However, the reason he initiated that conversation was so that he could ask something, something that had been bothering him this entire time. "Senior, how come you seem to treat each other with genders? I've seen quite a lot of you doing that. For example, Jakar has both a mother and a father. Senior Fran has a daughter. The problem is that your spirit race doesn't seem to have a gender at all." Indeed, Rean still wanted to know that part, even though it didn't matter to the situation.

"Oh, that?" Clovale wasn't surprised that Rean thought that. "That's because you're seeing us through the eyes of a humanoid race member. On the humanoid side, the genders are properly displayed in each one's bodies. However, the spirit races are very diversified. Our race, for example, does have genders. It's just that our genders are not seen through our bodies. Instead, it's our core's properties that determine that."

Jakar continued from there. "He's right. Naturally, our reproduction works differently as well. Since we do have a kind of female gender, it should be pretty obvious that it's the females that give birth to us."

Clovale then added, "Well, it should look somewhat weird for you, though. Our females don't have wombs like you humans. Instead, the growth of the new Winged Provis happens inside their Spirit Cores. Once the time is right, they will gather Wind Element and form a core out of it. A Winged Provis' body will then grow during the next few months. That's more or less what you guys call a baby's development phase."

Jakar shrugged his shoulders after that. "To be honest, it's the other races' reproductive systems that look weird for us."

"I see..." Rean couldn't blame them for that.

Jakar didn't want to waste time there anymore after explaining it. "Alright, I will leave you to work. I can't bother you forever, after all. Let me know if you need something. I'll do my best to convince Uncle Fran to let you go later."

Rean smiled in response, saying, "You better do. I still want to get my hands on the Azure Stream Crystals." At the same time, Rean sent Jakar a Divine Sense message. 'It should be obvious. In any case, make sure that the Winged Provis who will receive your Golden Feather is also a male of your race. Since there are differences in the souls between genders, a male one will definitely increase your chances.'

Jakar nodded as he walked back to the sanctuary. 'I was going to do that anyway.'

After Jakar and Clovale left, Rean also felt those Divine Senses disappear. 'Seems like he's really gone.'

Roan nodded from within the Dimensional Realm. 'Seems like it. By the way, can you really transfer the Golden Feather to another Winged Provis? If it was just something like a transplant of organs, I'm sure you could do it easily. However, that thing is connected to his Spirit Core. Not only that, you'll have to transfer that link to another spirit.'

'It should be possible,' Rean answered. 'I didn't just work on trading during the past week. Other than that, I've been paying attention to the internal structure of their race very closely. To be more specific, I focused my Divine Sense in the Spirit Cores in their heads. In fact, their internal structure is quite interesting. But at the same time, it's quite simple.'

'Their bodies aren't exactly real bodies. You saw their transparent feathers, right? Their bodies aren't far from that. Their bodies only exist because of their Spirit Cores. It's pretty much like Havek and his Sea Chilling Race, although somewhat more material.'

Roan nodded in response. 'Alright... but what about that Golden Feather of Jakar?'

'That's the funny part,' Rean answered. 'They were wrong about one thing. The Golden Feather is not connected to Jakar's soul. Instead, it's Jakar's soul that spreads out of his Spirit Core and connects to the Golden Feather. All I need to do is to cut this small part out and 'plant' it on someone else's core.'

Roan was surprised to hear that. 'Will it work?'

'Who knows?' Rean answered. 'If things go south, then we'll just have to try our luck with the teleport formation. Hahaha!'