"And the Tenth through Twelfth Ranks mark the end of the Supernatural-"
"Wait!"
Vanessa's eyes widened. "Isn't the end of the Supernatural the Thirteenth Rank? How did the Tenth through Twelfth become the end?"
"You never have the patience to let me finish!" Victoria glared at her. "Because the Thirteenth Rank is simply impossible to reach!"
Vanessa froze.
"Don't you find it strange? Emperor Trist divided the Ranks into realms of three, but they suddenly stopped at the Thirteenth Rank. There were no Fifteenth or Sixteenth Ranks."
Both nodded in unison. That was true, and it really was rather strange.
An inexplicably abrupt end.
"That's because there are actually only twelve Ranks in the Supernatural. Every Path ends there. The Thirteenth Rank is merely a designation for whatever lies above the Twelfth Rank."
"The so-called Immortals and the so-called Thirteenth Rank essentially mean the same thing: power beyond the Twelfth Rank. In truth, they're all various methods devised after the road ran out."
Victoria pointed at her spider body and gave a bitter smile. "I reached Immortality through stolen Era Power, and so did Theresia. Normally, only those at the Twelfth Rank can touch the power to transform into a Monster."
There was a pointed implication in her words.
"So Dorothea, Simon, and Maeve-"
"Exactly. I've only just realized that their transformation abilities are unusual, too. But-the Communion has plenty of bizarre things about it. Honestly, I barely even felt surprised."
True enough.
Compared to powers like summoning [Worms] or changing the Lunar Phases, merely stealing some Era Power ahead of time seemed quite unremarkable.
"Could the Thirteenth Rank actually mean a Great Being?" Vanessa suddenly asked.
"You mean advancing all the way into a Great Being?" Victoria's expression turned strange, and she shook her head with some amusement. "That's