"Surrender to what is. Let go of what once was. And...have faith in what will be."

*****1

After the girls left to say goodbye to their respective families, I did some research as to how we would actually get to the city. The fastest method was by plane, but Shenzhen's only airport was destroyed in the invasion. The next method would be by high-speed rail...but once again, the stations in Shenzhen were all completely obliterated and dysfunctional as of right now.

Mayor Zhou hadn't recovered enough to just straight up teleport us out of the city yet, and even if he did, that Warp Gate spell wouldn't be able to cover the 1435.4 kilometers between Shenzhen and Shanghai, unfortunately.

That left us with only one solution - getting there through a mixture of different types of transportation. It was a hassle, but the only plan we could use.

First, we would get out of Shenzhen - this was the hardest part, since we would have to do it by foot. Not all of us had Sky Magic, after all. We would head towards the nearest city to Shenzhen - in this case, Huizhou - also one of the places who sent some reinforcements to us. From there, we could then take a flight to Shanghai. Money wouldn't be a problem with the Yu sisters with us. Hell, they probably had a private jet...not that I was going to ask them about that, though.

Today was January 1st - if we left early tomorrow morning, we would reach Huizhou at around nighttime - but that's only if we ran some parts of the way.

"I can carry all of you on my back if needed," Obsidia suddenly said. Since she didn't have any relatives or anything here, she stayed behind here while the other girls went off to say their goodbyes.

"...Wouldn't people see you?" I asked. "Your dragon form is pretty...hard to miss."

"Oh, so my dragon form isn't pretty to you, human?"

"N-No, that's not what I meant. Your dragon form is pretty, but it's also pretty damn conspicuous precisely because of that," I quickly replied.

"...I can make it work," she said. "I can fly at very high altitudes...as long as you humans can handle it."

I fell into thought. "I mean...how high exactly are we talking here?"

"The mesosphere."

The mesosphere...wait, that's above even airplanes! Good thing there's still oxygen and stuff up there...

"I can block the wind and stuff with a simple air barrier, but how can you be sure we won't like...accidentally fall off or something?"

"Hold on tight, human."

"...That's not really reassuring," I replied with a short chuckle.

"Worry not. I will not let you die before you accomplish what you promised me," Obsidia said in return stoically.

"Yeah, but what about the other girls?"

"...Have them hold on to you as hard as they can. Easy solution."

...You're really not factoring in how I feel about all this, huh?

"Whatever...fine. We'll ride on your back. I don't got insurance, though."

"Very well," she replied, before sitting down on the bed with her eyes closed, hands in her lap.

"By the way..." I began.

She opened one eye. "What, human?"

"Have you been trying to hone the Chaos within you lately?"

"...How did you know?"

I shrugged. "Eh...it's hard to explain in words. Basically, I just felt the tether between us grow more 'pure', somehow. It's still not nearly on the level of Mei Gui's, though."

"...I used those monsters as target practice, and found that my magic was even stronger than when I first met you. In other words, the Chaos within me has grown more dominant."

"I mean...that's not exactly a bad thing, is it?"

"I know. I am not complaining...this power is helping me get stronger, and the stronger I get, the more of a chance I have at defeating those bastards back in dragon territory..."

"...This is just a guess, but what if...staying with me for this period of time somehow helped 'purify' the Chaos inside you?" I said thoughtfully. "I mean, your Chaos has never suddenly improved by this much before, right?"

"That is correct...but we still do not have any conclusive evidence."

"Yeah, you're right. Like I said, it was just a guess," I responded with ease. "But if that is indeed the case..."

"...Then this whole Chaos power just got a lot more interesting," Obsidia finished.

*****

- Later That Day -

It was around nighttime on January 1st by the time the girls all came to the meeting place we designated beforehand - the food court in The Coastal Metropolis...which, thankfully, hadn't been destroyed during the invasion. Otherwise, we would have had nothing to eat.

In any case, we were all reunited again, so we picked out a table after ordering our respective foods and we sat down. It was a rounded table in the corner of the food court, much to my liking.

As for the money...right. We don't talk about how Yu An Yan ended up paying for my dinner.

...I'm out of money, okay?! Relax. I spent all the money I got from that Hunters' Guild quest on my little 'date' with Mei Gui. The 'date' was 100% wholesome and platonic though, just for the record.

I-I'll do a bunch of quests once we get to Shanghai, I promise. There's definitely a Hunters' Guild there.

"So...you all done with your farewells?" I asked, eating a scoop of my curry rice.

"Yeah," Feng Mian replied with a sigh. "I'm going to miss them...but I know that staying here wouldn't do anything. And they refuse to come with us as well, so..."

Well, I suppose that's a good thing. If Feng Mian's parents were to come with us, we wouldn't be able to ride on Obsidia.

"Same here," Yu An Yan said.

"Xuan Kai...father...wants to see you," Yu An Xue added, which caused Yu An Yan to turn to her in surprise.

"What?! I never heard about that!"

"Father...only told...me. Hmph," Yu An Xue said smugly, a triumphant look on her face.

"Uh...Yu Ao? Oh man, I can already tell what he wants to 'see' me for."

I guarantee it's something like this:

"Take good care of my daughters! Come back to Shenzhen for your wedding! The city will be rebuilt by then! Give me a bunch of grandkids!"

It's going to be a pain, but...I guess I should probably go see him since he asked me to, especially considering it was unknown when the next time we meet would be.

"Did he say when he wanted me to go see him?" I asked.

"No...not specifically..." Yu An Xue murmured in reply.

"I see..." I muttered. "I'll go after we finish eating, then. Qing Yue, what about you? Is Aunt Qing okay?"

I referred to Qing Xin as 'aunt' since she really was my aunt, but earlier, in front of the other Golden Monarchs, I couldn't call her that since I didn't want to reveal too much about myself. But here, I didn't have to worry about that.

"Mom is fine! In fact, she wanted me to go with you, and had a smile on her face," Qing Yue replied. "Oh, and also, she said she wanted to see you as well."

"Alright..." I replied.

A smile on her face, huh? Yeah...no. What kind of mother would want their own child to leave them for god knows how long? I don't know if Qing Yue really doesn't know about her mother's true emotions, or she's just hiding her pain behind the ignorant facade, but...I'll definitely go talk to her after this dinner as well.

"Oh yeah, by the way, where's Flaria?" I asked.

"She's still...angry, apparently," Feng Mian said with an exasperated sigh. "She says...oh, she doesn't want to see you."

I narrowed my eyes. "...Why are you looking down?"

"H-Huh? Uh, I don't know! Why am I, hm?"

"Flaria...you're sitting on her lap, aren't you?"

"Damn it! This is all your fault, Feng Mian!" I heard Flaria's familiar voice whisper sharply.

"W-What do you mean?! You're the one who couldn't hold yourself back from coming with us to the food court!" Feng Mian whispered back.

"T-That's...!"

"...I can hear you both perfectly fine, just saying," I interrupted stoically.

Both individuals froze, and fell silent.

I sighed. "Flaria...I understand why you're mad at me, but we're setting off for Shanghai tomorrow. Before then...I want to resolve our conflict. If you are still completely unwilling to talk, then fine. But just know...this is your last chance. Otherwise, I'll just ignore you for the rest of my life - until our contract ends. Oh, but I'll still summon you as a shield whenever I need to. And since I'm your master, you can't disobey by the force of the contract."

I dropped in a tiny threat at the end there, just to make her pissed. She still had the mental age of a 7 year old, so she was relatively easy to taunt. She didn't say anything in return for now, but I knew she heard my words.

We finished dinner shortly after, and I made a promise to Yu An Yan to pay her back the price of the dinner when I got the money...which was going to be very soon. For sure.

"Oh yeah, by the way, where are Yu Ao and Aunt Qing?" I asked.

"Father was at the Yu family manor a while ago," Yu An Yan replied.

"Mom was at the Qing family manor," Qing Yue added.

I nodded in acknowledgment, and after that, I headed for the two respective locations.

Now then...what do you want to speak to me about?

I'm naming this one - Zed.