Rhys arrived in front of a small lake and removed her mask before cupping her hands and gathering water. She splashed the water on her face and looked at her reflection on its surface. Her scars had always been a sort of sore spot for her, the reason had less to do with her appearance and more to do with her abilities. She thought back to the day she discovered them, it was the most painful day of her life, both emotionally and physically.

Rhys reached toward the water until she noticed it slightly rippled. She looked up and the head of a tall black wolf greeted her.

Rhys’ lips parted as she jumped backward and put her mask on. Without hesitation she drew her rapier and channeled lightning through it, striking the Wolf right between its eyes.

“...That’s no way to greet a friend,” The Wolf said as it burst into black mist that obscured its form.

Rhys realized that the black mist was familiar to her and sheathed her rapier. When the mist cleared, it revealed Ira’s bloody form in tattered clothes.

“Did I scare you?” Ira asked as he fell.

Rhys opened her mouth in shock and rushed over to support him.

“Sorry, moving in that form was a bit easier since my regeneration is a bit slow,” Ira said with a laugh. Since Ira literally ripped pieces of his flesh off of his body for hours it was no surprise his regeneration began to slow. It was at the point where a few pastries wouldn’t change much.

Rhys ignored the blood that began to transfer over to her clothes and looked at Ira’s pale and sickly face with an expression that demanded answers.

Ira heard her brows furrow and smiled, “I did it to myself if that’s what you were wondering. As for how or why? That’s a really long story.”

Rhys looked to be angry with Ira for some reason, but she couldn’t express it with anything other than a scowl.

“Could you lead me to Avery? I think I might actually bleed to death if she doesn’t heal me,” Ira said as he ignored her gaze.

Rhys looked at the blood pooling beneath his feet and realized that it was a serious injury so she decided to hold off on her anger for some other time and led Ira to the Fourth Prince’s campsite.

…

Randolph, Clark, Lance, Sarah, and Valerie made their way deeper into a tunnel and finally began to notice something was off.

“You hear that?” Randolph asked.

“No…” Clark was about to shake his head but heard a distinct sound, “Wait, I hear it.”

“I can also hear it,” Lance said as he drew his sword.

It was no mistaking it, there was the sound of someone fighting deeper in the tunnel. Rather than voices, the only thing they could hear was the clashing of metal.

“Come on!” Randolph said as he sprinted into forward, with Clark trailing behind him.

“Hold on, you don’t know what’s down there!” Lance called out, but Randolph was faster than he imagined.

“Let’s go,” Lance said to Sarah and Valerie who readied themselves in response.

Randolph sprinted into a spacious intersection in the caverns, right as he entered a phantom blue chain appeared in front of him and tripped him, causing him to fly forward and crash into the soil.

“Ah!” Randolph shouted as attempted to stand up but several spectral hands emerged from the ground and held him in place. He struggled before he grunted and slowly raised himself. The ghost-like hands eventually snapped and Randolph was freed, he stood up but a bone chain wrapped itself around his neck.

“Don’t move,” A childish voice called out from in front of him. Part of the cave wall faded away and revealed an adolescent girl with fluorescent pale blue hair with black roots. She had three black dots above one another between her eyebrows and pale blue eyes that reminded one of a lich. There was also the full set of ivory armor that looked to be made out of bone covering her body.

Randolph looked at her with a strange expression before he noticed the other two had her side. A handsome young man with dark raven colored hair holding two swords and a girl with brown hair with green eyes next to him holding a spear. Of course, the most eye-catching feature about the girl was her metal arm. It was obvious that the hidden trio was none other than Harper, Aldis, and Amy.

“Is this a trap?” Randolph asked cautiously. He had heard of people being murdered in by fellow mercenaries but didn’t think he would be that unfortunate.

“No, You shouldn’t have run in so fast,” Harper recalled the bone-chain to her side and sized up Randolph. He broke the phantom hands which meant he didn’t have normal strength, but Harper could see he was very inexperienced. She turned toward the tunnel Randolph emerged from when she heard multiple footsteps.

“Who’s with you?” She asked as she ran her hand over her metal baton.

“A few people...Oh, but don’t worry, we aren’t going to start trouble,” Randolph said honestly.

“Randolph…” Clark stumbled in the room as he attempted to catch his breath, “...You can’t just…” He slowly stopped speaking as he and Amy both looked at each other.

“...Clark,” Aldis was the first to speak and his voice was full of anger. If it wasn’t enough he tightened the grip on his swords and took a step forward.

“Aldis...Amy…” Clark had a shameful expression on his face as he looked at them.

Aldis took another step forward, but Amy reached her hand out to stop him, “Aldis,” she said in a voice so low it was almost a whisper.

Lance, Sarah, and Valerie arrived and noticed the tense mood in the room.

“Uh...Harper, right?” Sarah said as she looked at the little girl.

“You’re Ira’s friends,” Harper said with a nod.

“Clark, why did you leave without saying anything?!” Amy shouted.

“...I wanted to...I was just too weak and too scared…” Clark’s expression darkened before lighting up, “...But it’s different now! That Golden Aurora gave me something great, Amy!”

“Coward,” Aldis said harshly as he broke away from Amy and began to move toward Clark.

“Aldis, I’m sorry,” Clark said as he remained where he was.

“No, you don’t. I was raised to hate people like you the most.” Aldis rotated his shoulders.

“Stop, Aldis,” Amy said, but Aldis had already rushed forward and swung.

As his blade arrived in front of Clark, a translucent golden shield appeared in front of him and blocked it. Aldis was momentarily surprised but continued his attack.

“Hey!” Randolph rushed over to help Clark, but Harper arrived in front of him with her staff extended.

“Mind your business,” She said curtly. Although Harper didn’t show it much, she had warmed up to Amy greatly. So it wasn’t surprising she would dislike Clark after growing closer to Amy.

“Clark’s my friend and even though I don’t know what happened between all of you, I won’t let you gang up on him,” Randolph said as he raised his sword.

“Randolph, don’t do it,” Clark said from behind the shield barrier. “Harper is like Ira’s sister...If you hurt her, he’ll definitely kill you.”

Randolph looked shocked, but still held determination in his eyes, “You’re like family to me too.”

“All of you should just calm down,” Lance stepped forward and attempted to diffuse the situation.

Suddenly, Harper leaped backward leaving a blue trail of afterimages, several spikes landed in her previous spot accompanied by rattling.

“Above!” Amy cried out as she watched something fall from the ceiling and into the middle of the cavern.

A four-legged monster with skin that blended in with the cave soil became visible to all. Sharp spikes protruded from its back. Its five eyes were a dull reddish color and they were concentrated toward the center of its forehead. Its total height was around seven or eight feet, it was hard to tell due to the slow pacing of the creature. Its long tail had a cluster of spikes on the end of it that shook and produced a noise similar to what one would hear during a large scale fight.

“The sound was...bait?” Lance said cautiously. He seemed to know something was wrong and his fears came to be realized as three other creatures that looked similar climbed out.

“Iron Lizards,” Valerie said grimly from behind him as they slowly backed toward the group.

“You know what they are, Valerie?” Sarah asked while covering Valerie’s back.

“They’re said to be rare ambush predators that occupy some regions of the Great Forest, but to see four of them at the same time is odd.” Valerie couldn’t help but make a confused expression. Out of everyone in the group, she was the most studious.

“Do you know a way to kill them?” Aldis had already stopped attacking Clark and took up a defensive stance.

“N-Not really,” Valerie responded, “I’ve read that the tail was the most dangerous part in addition to the spikes, they can swing it at the same speed as a whip. As you might’ve seen earlier, they can also release their spikes as projectiles.”

“Annoying,” Harper said as she looked at the four Iron Lizards that approached with a low hiss.

…

Inside of a large carriage, Avery and Rhys were standing over Ira.

Avery looked at Ira’s current appearance, tattered clothes, numerous open wounds that were repairing themselves at an uncharacteristically slow pace, and a pale sickly color that tinted his skin. While tattered clothes and wounds were nothing new, Avery had never seen Ira look as if he was suffering from blood loss.

“How did this happen?” Avery asked, ignoring Rhys who stood to the side with a worried expression.

“The book had a few surprises for me… but I found something good for you so it's not completely bad,” Ira said with a bright smile that didn’t match his current condition.

Rhys narrowed her eyes in confusion when Ira mentioned a book, but no one seemed keen on explaining it to her so she could only try to figure it out for herself.

Avery placed a layer of Phoenix fire on top of Ira, and it seemed to slowly start working. It was lucky that Ira’s flame resistance didn’t apply to the healing properties of the Phoenix.

“What happened exactly?” Avery asked as she carefully healed him.

“I’ll tell you later, preferably after all the bleeding stops,” Ira said as he closed his eyes, “I’m kind of tired too.”

Rhys panicked as she grabbed her notepad and began writing before she held it above Ira’s head, [Isn’t this the most dangerous time to sleep?]

Ira opened his eyes and shook his head, “It’s not like I’ll die with Avery healing me.”

Rhys looked to Avery for confirmation and received it in the form of a nod. She moved away and huffed a sigh of relief.

Avery then focused on healing Ira while being completely perplexed by his wounds. A few areas bones were exposed and his vital organs were either missing or heavily damaged. She thought to herself and decided that if that was the price Ira had to pay for her to grow, she’d rather stay at her current level. It was far too dangerous for Ira to end up in such a state.

Of course, Ira had totally different thoughts. While he wouldn’t go looking for something on the same level as the knowledge of Helion, he wouldn’t be scared of using Black Book that easily. In Ira’s point of view, the only reason he ended up in his current state was his intention was to find the strongest thing he could for Avery.

A while later, Ira was back to normal condition, or at least he wasn’t in any danger of bleeding to death. Just one look at him and anyone could see that he was exhausted.

“That was dangerous, Ira.” Avery berated Ira as she recalled her flames.

“Yeah, but it was worth it,”

“I remained unconvinced,” Avery said unmovingly.

Ira slowly sat up and looked at Rhys, “I’ll get something for you too, don’t worry.”

Rhys shook her head and scribbled on her notepad, [I don’t want it if it makes you end up like that again.]

Ira looked at the notepad and then to Rhys before shrugging, “Too bad you don’t have a choice.”

He clapped his hands once and stood up, “Alright, I’ll be back.”

“Where are you going?” Avery asked.

“To the river, I have to wash all the blood off…” Ira explained before looking at Rhys, “No peeking.”

In response, she grew embarrassed while thinking back to the time he ingested the Dragon’s Blood and his body needed to be cooled.

“I’ll come with you,” Avery said as she followed right behind him.

Ira smiled cheerfully before opening the carriage door and stepping out.

…