Most of the people on the world tree's crown still gave Lone funny looks when he walked around with a baby on his head, but due to how adorable Kyuubi was, everyone tried to ignore it and simply continue going about their days without making much of a fuss.

There was also the new distraction of Lone's changed tail colours to gather everyone's attention instead of the sleeping infant.

Of course, the streets were noticeably less active in some areas and more so in others due to the news of Ythmagobla's coming attack.

The King seemed to have announced Great Elder Lipsilk's full recovery and he also told the people that they had a great chance against Ythmagobla since Elder Luckful and the Nine-tails, Lone, had worked hard together to heal the world tree completely.

Of course, that last part was a lie. Elestia had only partially recovered with Lone's help. Elder Luckful was only included to keep the peoples' pride at least somewhat intact. As much as they would appreciate and honour Lone for healing the world tree, it naturally felt better to them knowing that it was a combined effort with one of their own.

Lone didn't really care about this. It was certainly helpful to have a high morale with the regular keepers so they could fight off any of Ythmagobla's normal forces, assuming there were going to be any normal forces.

It wasn't long before he had reached his destination. Besides the regular guards, the entrance to Elestia's core dungeon was absolutely empty. This was because there wasn't any need to attack the dungeon anymore. Ythmagobla's curse had been expelled by Elestia herself once Lone had repaired her soul.

After a short greeting to the guards who were beyond puzzled why Lone would come here with a sleeping baby on his head, he immediately allowed Elestia to guide him to her core.

Lone was surprised to see that Elestia, while having the same small body and incredibly long green hair, was now wearing a simply one-piece green dress and she was happily sitting on the floor with her legs crossed.

Her eyes were closed, but as soon as Lone entered the chamber, Elestia opened them and gazed at him curiously. She looked like she wanted to say something, but she couldn't put it into words.

'Soph, I'm gonna summon Garadia for a moment. Can you come to collect her in a short while, please?' Lone asked telepathically.

'Sure,' Sophie readily agreed.

With that out of the way, Lone proceeded to unsummon Garadia, bringing her to the summoning room for her first time in her life before he summoned her straight afterwards.

The baby Dragon looked around in confusion. She was scared. One second, she was happily being petted on Sophie's lap, the next she was in a weird room with a massive white door, copious amounts of blankets and toys, and a strange floating screen, and then she suddenly appeared in a pure white room.

It took Garadia a few moments to get her bearings and discover Lone. Carefully scooping her up into his arms, he looked apologetic. "Sorry. That must have been scary, huh? You don't need to worry. That weird place is the most secure and safest room in existence. I can guarantee it. It's where you'll live with Kyuubi whenever your mommy and I are busy, okay?"

The lazy Kyuubi on Lone's head woke up at the mention of her name and crawled down Lone's body until she was within grabbing distance of Garadia. She placed herself in Lone's arms and snuggled up to the feathered Radiance Dragon.

Garadia slowly nodded her head before she enveloped Kyuubi in her tiny wings lovingly.

Elestia had been watching all of this with an indecipherable look on her face. "Is that who I think it is?"

"The child of Radiance, Garadia the Radiance Dragon? Yes and no," Lone said with a bit of a sigh as he sat down in front of Elestia.

"I'm not sure I follow," Elestia said.

Lone cocked his head while he thought of the best way to explain. "I was hoping you'd have figured everything out by the time I got down here, to be honest."

Elestia shook her head. "I never even knew that Garadia had... been brought back to life until this morning. It would seem that my ability to see my inhabitants past, present and future don't work on not only you, the Tylwyth Teg and the Human, but also on Garadia and that Golden Foxkin in your arms. Kyuubi, was it? She is adorable, by the way. It was only when I looked into the past of the Crimson Foxkin who is usually in your shadow that I found out."

'What? Kyuubi too? Garadia might make sense because her soul has obviously been heavily influenced by Radiance, but Kyuubi? The only link I can think of is the summoning room... Does being my summoned being no longer make them rightful residents of Altros, or is it not as simple as that?' Lone was equal parts fascinated and mortified by the possibilities.

Pushing these thoughts back for a moment, Lone spent the next twenty minutes explaining everything to Elestia. He had come down here specifically to tell her about Radiance and Garadia's 'survival'. If you could call it that.

While Lone had only met the world tree's soul once personally, from Radiance's memories, he could tell exactly how much she worshipped and respected both the Primal Essence and her child.

Lone was fully intent on keeping his merging with Radiance a secret from everyone he conceivably could, but Elestia deserved to know. Besides, from his understanding, Elestia wasn't the loose-lipped type. She hadn't even told him about Radiance's existence despite him informing her of the fact that Darkness resided within his soul, so he felt he could trust her with this information.

"That certainly explains your new fur colour. I have never seen nor heard of a beastkin with entirely changed racial attributes. Only ever partial transformations like your coloured tips from beforehand." Elestia accepted all of Lone's words at face value. Having Garadia right in front of her certainly added a lot of merit to Lone's otherwise unbelievable story.

"Yeah. Honestly, I was shocked by how... one-sided my agreement with Radiance was. She is very kind as far as I can tell," Lone admitted.

Elesita scoffed lightly. "It would be a challenge of a lifetime to find a more compassionate being than Lady Radiance."

"I'm sure." Lone humoured the somewhat childish world tree spirit with a smile on his face.

Elestia's expression soon softened. "Still... it is great to learn that they both survived. I never truly believed that a Primal Essence could die, but by the time I had regained my sense, Radiance's seed had already been firmly sealed by that pitiful Elf. As old and wise as I am, it is not beneath me to take stock in the impossible. You being a prime example of that."

Lone nodded. "A good attitude to have." He then looked down at the peaceful Garadia and Kyuubi before he said, "Would you like to hold her?"

"May I? I understand that Dragons don't warm to strangers easily." Elestia was obviously eager, however, she was all too aware that this was not the Garadia from half a century ago.

"She may be a baby," Lone said as he stroked the feathered Dragon's neck playfully, "but she's just as intelligent as you or I," he informed the world tree spirit with a somewhat lecturing tone.

Even if the girl sat in front of him was millions of years older than himself, he couldn't help but act like a teacher when she acted so innocent and childish. In many ways, Elestia reminded him of Sophie, and he didn't spare any chances to lecture her that he got.

Lone looked down at his lap's occupants and talked to the only one that was still awake. "Well, Garadia? Do you mind if Elestia holds you for a bit? She's a nice person."

Garadia gazed at the world tree spirit with some leeriness. Eventually, she got off of Lone and carefully walked towards the girl. Her instincts as a Dragon were telling her not to trust Elestia too much, but if her father thought it was okay, then she was willing to believe him.

Elestia accepted the cautious creature into her arms and hugged her very gently. The girl's face melted in ecstasy. "I've always wanted to hold her like this ever since I first saw her with Radiance. I was right, she is incredibly soft."

Lone took a mental note at this offhand comment. 'I'm definitely not letting her anywhere near my tails. I have a stinking suspicion that she and Sophie are far more alike than I am currently giving her credit for...'

After spending ten more minutes like that, Lone decided it was time to leave. He told Sophie that she could come and collect their daughters since he was planning to visit the King today.

Sophie didn't act up in front of Elestia and was actually very happy upon seeing her. Lone attributed this to the fact that Elestia was more than shocked and confused when Sophie teleported right into her core with no effort whatsoever.

Apparently, Elestia has ignored it when Lone summoned Garadia because, in her mind, anything that Lone did could be explained away by the fact that he had already made the impossible possible, but Sophie wasn't on that particular list in Elestia's mind until now.

Later on, Sophie explained that she was forced to use her Void Walking to get into the core since it was actually a pocket dimension, which surprised Lone somewhat. He made another mental note, this one was to learn how to detect such things in the future.

With the children no longer in his care, Lone could visit the King without worry. He really didn't want to explain why he had a Radiance Dragon with him nor did he want Kyuubi distracting him with what he had planned for the rest of the day.

"So, let me get this straight, Lone." King Ele'hunda sighed heavily as he held his hand in his face. "You want me to fight you with all that I've got today, which, might I remind you, is the day before Ythmagobla's generals arrive, yes? Did I hear you correctly?"

"Unless you somehow guessed exactly what I wanted without actually listening to my words, then yeah, you heard me correctly," Lone replied sarcastically.

Another lengthy sigh escaped Ele'hunda's lips. "Let's ignore the fact that I'm five ranks higher than you for now. I'm somewhat certain that I can't defeat you easily. My instincts are telling me so. By the way, congratulations on becoming an S-ranker and thank you for healing Lipsilk."

"Thanks and no problem," Lone smiled in response.

"So, as I was saying, let's forget the difference in apparent strength, do you really think it's wise for us to fight right now? I don't doubt your healing skills. No one on the tree does. It would be insulting to the Grand Healing Association. Speaking of which, I did investigate you somewhat, Lone. It would appear that you have yet to join their ranks, but be warned, they are searching for you rather aggressively after what I told them about you." Ele'hunda looked regretful.

Lone cocked his head and held his chin. "Hmm?"

Ele'hunda gathered his thoughts before he continued speaking. "They obviously mean you no harm and simply wish to test your healing skills, but it was my fault that they even discovered you, so you may end up being forced to join them. They do not take kindly to talented healers that aren't a member of their association."

Lone waved his hand dismissively. "It's fine. I was planning to meet with them eventually. Admittedly, not before I had more inconspicuous healing skills in my repertoire, but oh well. It doesn't matter too much."

"That's certainly relieving to hear, Lone," the King said.

"Anyway," Lone got up from his chair and motioned to the door. "Just fight me with all you've got, 'kay? I need to see if I can defeat a normal XXX-ranker without relying on too many of my... abilities."

'Now that I'm S-ranked, I can always kill the generals with Mental Destruction, but that skill has a history of being ignored by certain people, so there's no guarantee that I can wipe them out in one fell swoop,' Lone added in thought.

Ele'hunda closed his eyes before he finally relented. "Fine. But I will hold you responsible for any consequences this may hold. You had best be able to fight off Ythmagobla as you promised, Lone, regardless of any injuries you may suffer today."

Lone just laughed dismissively. "It'll be fine. I have a plan about that overgrown lizard, so don't worry so much."

"I certainly hope so." Ele'hunda felt like after meeting Lone, he had amassed more wrinkles than in a few short months than he had in the past several hundred thousand years.