Ira’s immediate return to the Underground City wasn’t announced but people eventually found out. In fact, it wouldn't be hard to say the entire continent knew of it. With a Blood Red Moon floating during the night, anyone who knew about his abilities would come to realize it.

When Harper felt the influence of the Red Moon she knew that Ira was back and went to see him.

“Ira!” Harper ran into the garden but slowed down when she saw Ira sitting in front of Raveria.

“Hey, Harper,” Ira said with a bright smile. He tapped the ground to signal for her to take a seat.

“You’re back,” Harper laughed as she walked over.

“And you’re...When did you get so big?” Ira looked at Harper to see that she aged at least two or three years.

“It was because of Ravi,” Harper said as she sat down.

Ira looked at Raveria who seemed to be oblivious to what she did. He came to understand that time didn’t operate for her the same it did for everyone else. Her body seemed to treat minutes as seconds as she grew rapidly. It was as if time was advancing for her separately from everyone else.

“Well, I’ll try to get a handle on that.” Ira turned his attention back to Raveria.

“What’re you doing?” Harper asked curiously.

“Training,” Raveria answered with a voice that tried to exude seriousness but it only caused Ira and Harper to laugh.

“Hm!” Raveria narrowed her eyes angrily.

“I’m sorry, Ria. She’s right Harper, we’re training.” Ira held back his laughter as he fixed his posture. “Let’s go again.”

Ira hid his hands behind his back and then nodded to Raveria. She closed her eyes and concentrated before they widened and she spoke.

“Four,” Raveria said confidently.

Ira raised his hand and showed he held four fingers held up. “That’s odd…”

Ira’s presence was naturally distorted due to the influence of the Void. The fact Raveria was able to predict his simple hand movements while an ancient psychic like Gicae could barely find him with receiving an injury meant a lot. It made Ira wonder if it was due to how close he was or the fact that psychic clairvoyance was different than Raveria’s precognition.

“You got it right, so let’s try something else.” Ira hopped to his feet. “You’re fast aren’t you, Raveria?”

“Yup!” Raveria replied enthusiastically.

“You wanna show me?” Ira asked.

Raveria jumped up with a laugh. She didn’t think that her Dad, no matter how strong he was, would be able to catch her.

“As fast as you can, Ria,” Ira encouraged her.

Harper’s eyes flashed with anticipation as she wanted to see if Ira was able to catch Raveria when she couldn’t even get close to her.

“I’m going to do it now,” Raveria said as she took a step forward. Just like always, time slowed to a crawl for her. The surroundings became hazy blotches of dull color but she could make out their general shapes. In her eyes, both Ira and Harper were still as statues. Since Ira told her to move as fast as she could, she did just that.

“Raveria.” A soft whisper entered Raveria’s ears.

Raveria looked around but she couldn’t see anyone, no, there was something. A silhouette that was fading in and out of the background. Who or whatever it was, wore a hooded fur cloak that obscured their appearance. For some reason, Raveria felt that is was familiar and moved closer to the silhouette.

“Do I know you?” Raveria asked.

The figure reached its hand out toward Raveria who responded with hesitation.

“Easy there,” Ira’s voice rang out and anger was laced within. He grabbed the cloaked figure and threw them to the ground before raising his foot and stomping down. The figure rolled out of the way and avoided the deadly attack.

“Dad?!” Raveria looked surprised to see Ira.

As to how Ira got there? He had almost perfected his control over space and with the Void he could alter the laws of reality within the space around him. With that being so, he simply changed the way time affected him. Of course, his understanding of reality warping was still in the beginning stages.

Ira clenched and unclenched his fist, “This is...strange.” A faint black mist gathered around his body but all in all he seemed to be intact.

“Anyway,” Ira turned his attention to the cloaked figure and cracked his knuckles.

“Wait!” Raveria pulled Ira’s hand.

“Not now, Ria.” Ira tried to shake her hand away but she showed no intention of letting go.

“Wait, Dad,” Raveria repeated with a grumpy face. “Who are you?”

The cloak figured looked toward Ira and slowly raised their hands to remove their hood. The face of a young woman was revealed. She had incredibly black hair and soft yellow eyes that looked a lot like…

“Raveria?” Ira furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

The face of the woman was blurred because of her ever-changing features. She looked at the two of them and continued fading in and out of sight. If it was Raveria from some distant future then her continued interaction with the past would continually alter it.

“Me?” Raveria pointed to herself with a perplexed look.

“What are you doing, Ria?” Ira looked at the older version of his daughter and then to the younger one.

“I’m not doing anything,” Raveria replied.

Ira sighed before looking at the changing projection in front of him, “She’s not real.”

He focused his visions and could see that the figure underwent minute changes at a rate of thousands of times a second. Ira thought that the person in front of him was something Raveria created subconsciously through the untrained use of her power.

Raveria was silent as she looked on. She already had the ability to create Temporal Clones of herself but they weren’t pulled from the future. She reached out and touched the projection of herself and it faded into nothing.

“I get it…” Raveria closed her eyes as if she had gained some understanding of her own ability.

“Uh...I’m kind of confused, Ria...Can you tell me what that was?” Ira asked. He couldn’t quite get a grasp on her ability even if he could replicate it in his own way. To start off, he opted for simple training and somehow he ended up in a strange predicament. Then again, he was one to talk when his mind alone was a literal death trap.

“I don’t know either, Dad,” Raveria replied.

“Then why’d you just say...You know what? It doesn’t matter.” Ira knelt down and placed his hands on Raveria’s shoulders. “Just be careful with your abilities, Ria.”

Raveria looked into Ira’s eyes and felt happy for some reason. It was clear Ira cared about her greatly and valued her safety above all else. That was saying something when Ira usually threw himself at danger with reckless abandon, willingly taking on injuries and rarely taking his opponents seriously.

“Yes,” Raveria hugged Ira and he laughed happily.

He lifted her up with one hand and snapped his finger with the other and then everything moved at its normal speed.

Harper blinked a few times and noticed Ira and Raveria standing a few feet away. She showed a brief look of surprise before grumbling angrily and kicking the ground around her.

“That’s not even fair.” Harper kicked a clump of grass and dirt away as she walked forward but due to the time looping properties of the garden it came flying back and hit her in the face.

There was silence as the dirt moved around Harper and went back into its former position. No one said anything at first and then Raveria burst into laughter and Ira quickly did the same.

“It’s not funny!” Harper protested and was about to stomp her foot down but stopped her action midway to avoid another embarrassing scene.

…

A little while later, Ira had decided that he would need more time to think about Raveria’s ability before training her some more. After handing her over to Avery, Ira began to look for Sylun to see how far Charles had gotten. With a quick spatial leap, he arrived in the palace and was instantly met with bowing and revering Dark Elves, Lycanthropes, and Beast People. Most Vampires had been “temporarily” removed from their post.

“Keeper.” Trembling voices overlapped each other and made it seem as if the entire room was speaking in synchronicity.

“Where’s Sylun?” Ira asked the prostrating group. He definitely told them that their actions were unnecessary but he casually brought the Red Moon into the Mortal Realm during the previous night which more than shocked the population of the Underground City.

“We’ll send someone to inform her of your arrival.” A Dark Elf gestured to a Lycanthrope who stood up, bowed toward Ira, and then left the throne room.

No one tried to speak to Ira and he just stood in the middle of the room with dozens of people kneeling around him.

“You can stand up you know,” Ira said.

“We wouldn’t dare.”

“Keeper, it would be presumptuous of us to stand in front of you without expressing our faith adequately.”

“We are all lowly in front of you.”

“Stop.” Ira interrupted the showers of unending appreciation and worship being sent to him. “You already did enough just stand up.”

Ira didn’t want to be worshipped as a God especially with what he knew about them but the Dark Elf Empire seemed set on it. He was able to tolerate it to some extent but if they continued dropping to the ground and laying there for minutes on end he would no doubt become annoyed.

“You have all heard the Keeper’s words and yet you still haven’t risen.” Sylun’s cold voice resounded through the throne and sent chills up the spines of the listeners. From the time Ira was gone, she had made it clear that any actions that gained the disapproval of Ira or the Valkyries would likely result in death.

“Forgive us, Your Majesty.” Everyone stood up at Sylun’s words with expressions of nervousness.

Ira nodded before turning to Sylun. “So, has Charles made any advancements?”

“Ah, yes, Keeper. Charles is quite the alchemist. He’s allowed the Lycanthropes to advance a step further. Then, there are the inscription arrays which have reached a great milestone. Even without high mana and talent, the user would be able to replicate some magical phenomenon. But there is one thing that may excite you more...” Sylun trailed off as an attendant walked into the room with a silver dish.

Ira looked on with slight interest but he didn’t expect her to produce anything groundbreaking. As soon as the cover of the dish was lifted, Ira could see a pile of circular pastries with the image of a tiny wolf’s head on them. He felt his previous assumption was wrong and moved to take one.

Ira took a bite and then smiled with satisfaction before continuing to eat. After consuming the entire pastry he finally spoke, “...Let’s see what Charles is doing after I get more of these.”