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"A fancy word, my boy, that more or less means I thought about something a lot.... considering everything about whatever I was meditating on." Slayer simply gave Eecheb a definition he could work with. Meditation or not, Slayer was indeed able to beat Sho, Zeno, and Omega down with fairly little difficulty.

Mastema continued to remain quiet. The group would likely move outside soon, but Micha was still nibbling his cake.

"Hey, you~" Sho suddenly blurted out and pointed to Than, "You're being too quiet~ I don't think it's cause you've got nothing to say."

Than looked up and blinked, figuring Sho must've been talking about him. "Ano..... was there something I was supposed to say?"

"Well there's no reason to be quiet. So what about you.... what was the first magic you learned." Sho decided to bring the eldest brother into the conversation. True, most kids eventually aspired to be better than the parent, but first it would only be natural that they first tried to mimic the older brother.

Than thought to himself for a moment. It was a difficult question because, even though he knew several kinds of magic, he couldn't recall when or how he'd learned his first. Eventually he came to a decision. "It was only a little more advanced than what htey've learned now...." Putting down his fork, Than raised his open palm lightly, to face the ceiling of the igloo. A moment later, the radiant light of Than's aura swirled above his palm, until a golden butterfly took form from the light that gathered, fluttering above Than's palm for a moment before setting itself down on his hand.

"Hnn..... I guess I'd forgotten about them myself....." was Than's only response to Nana. It'd been too long since he last used them for him to clearly remember it himself. Over the ten months, he couldn't remember doing anything but learning how to become more powerful and more destructive.

Mastema gazed at Thanatos for a moment, but said nothing. For the moment, the others remained quiet as well.

Than smiled softly at Trilla's enthusiasm and turned toward her. Because they weren't far from eachother, he extended and rested his hand on the table in front of Trilla. She, and the others, would be able to clearly see the butterfly gently moving its wings while remaining in Than's hand.

Mastema watched as the children observed Thanatos's production, and as Nana began conversing with Sho and Slayer, he decided to make it so that they could talk without worrying about Thanatos or the kids overhearing something they didn't need to worry about. "Hm, well it seems we have all finished eating for now. How about we all move outside for some more open space." He would allow the kids and Thanatos to leave first after that.

Sho and Slayer looked at eachother inquisitively, not sure who should answer first. "Hmm, quiet more or less. It's been pretty peaceful here recently ^^" Sho answered first. Slayer answered next, when Thanatos had already gone: "To tell you the truth, both of us have been taking care of the same thing really; Thanatos has come to each of us repeatedly to train him."

Slayer and Sho glanced at eachother, seeming to be deciding whether they'd deduced the same reaction. A simultaneous sigh later, the two stared off in opposite directions, as they responded.

"Keh.... I've never had anyone who learned so fast while still progressing. If he didn't know he needed sleep I doubt he'd have ever stopped," Sho answered first.

"His focus is unparalleled and his ambition insatiable. I'm not sure there's anything we can teach him he wouldn't be able to find just as easily on his own with that kind of drive," Slayer responded, equalling Sho's offput, almost depressed, tone. Both gave the same response, that virtually nothing stood in Than's way, but said it with a gut full of uneasiness.

"I'm feeling there's more to this than you're just worried about his developmental health...." Mastema implied that Sho and Slayer weren't just sad to see Than turn into such a bold, stubborn person.

Outside, oblivious to the gloomy conversation going on inside, Than laughed and smiled as he played with his younger siblings. With so much snow around, it was easy to be carefree and jump around in the snow over and over again. Not a shred of the unbreakable focus Slayer spoke of could be heard or seen. Proto stood at the entrance, watching them play.

Another uneasy silence passed before Slayer once again spoke up. "Quite simply," he began, "the boy's on a power path and more than capable of doing it without any help. He's never afraid to take any step nor does he seem to believe there's anywhere he can't go."

"There's just something not right about the whole thing." Sho sighed, again thinking back to make sure he knew what he was talking about. Although Sho only visited on occasion, there may have been no one who cared more about the family than he did. "He's my nephew; I'm more than glad to train him and watch him grow......... whenever he comes to me, he's willing to overcome any of his shortcomings in any way he can and he goes for that goal with his head held high. The same goes for me - I doubt there's anything I could be more proud of than helping him get there. But---" There was a visible trembling in one of Sho's hands for a moment when he paused. "Everytime he gets up when he falls down...... everytime he looks at me with that I...... I get some unreasonable sense of guilt, shame, and the belief that I'm doing something wrong. Normally, I'd think I was just feeling bad that he had to go through so much to get where he is....... yet, everytime I feel that chill, there's something that always go through my mind..... something that Zeno said to me before leaving...."

While Trilla was caught up in looking at the greenless tree, Than snuck up behind her, plopped down on his knees, and hugged Trilla happily. "Heeeeeey, what're you doing over here by yourself? Why not come have fun with the rest of us?" It was unusual to Than for Trilla to be off by herself while others were having fun.

It was a slight struggle to reword what Zeno had said, but Sho did his best to get the message across. "A Devil.... that's how he put it." Sho sighed and rested his head on a hand. "He says whenever he looked Than in the eye he saw a Devil...... one willing to throw away anything he had to achieve his goals." For a brief moment, Sho closed his eyes, before reopening them in continuing. " I don't know what it was that Zeno thought were Than's goals.....but I can say that regardless of his crass demeanor Zeno was honest to god afraid of Thanatos on some level......."

If Than could tell, it would be almost cute that Trilla was pointing when her brother couldn't see where she was pointing. "Hmm, it's just a tree isn't it? You've seen those before, remember?" He chuckled. "They're around a lot, especially outside."

"That's the way he put it," Sho responded to Nana's questioning. "It was the last thing he said to me before we saw him off. I think it was something that bothered him even while he was leaving. The Devil, the Diablo, the Beast...... Zeno said he saw them all in him. This wasn't Zeno just being insulting; I felt like he was going to ring my neck and shake me until I stopped denying it, if I did. I don't really know what he'd think if he was around for all the training Than has been through." Sho looked up, having hoped Mastema would have already said something by this point.

"I cannot be sure how well Zenogais knew what he was saying," Mastema commented, "but I also have trouble believing he would say such a thing without having seen something to trigger it. It is undeniable that Thanatos has dabbled in extremely dangerous magic in the past, not the least of which are techniques that can attack directly an opponent's most vital abilities....... nor is it possible to deny that he has directly ended the lives of maybe half a dozen people in his past. Still, Thanatos was always able to accomplish his goal despite these unwanted outcomes; he would have no reason to be any different than he was before....."