While trip from Wanda’s northern port took almost 3 months to complete, the return from Grandu was no more than a month. As per Kiefer’s instructions, General Alwin led his ships to a new key location where Kiefer had hoped would be the perfect place to set up a new city.

The city would be focused on trade and security, lying right along the coast at the southern Shearwood-Wanda borders. It shores were relatively safe, protected in a large deep water cove, perfect for anchoring down big transport ships. It lay right in between 2 major cities and was by the shore, only a month’s travel by boat to 3 other major port towns including Grandu. Furthermore, the Border Mountains were just north of the city, making it easy for mining operations to be carried out.

Throughout the past 4 months, King Ryul of Arigan had not been sitting back and doing nothing. He had already mentioned the intention of moving and starting up another country that would expose his people to interaction with many new races around Aioa. They had already begun transporting lumber, stone and metals from Arigan to the cove to get the port town started, with the intention of expanding it slowly into a full-fledged city.

On board The Change, many things seemed different. The original white sails were gone, now replaced by the lightweight silver Arachne silk sails. The silk was stronger than steel, and yet, soft and flexible like real cotton fabric. Even the ropes on the frigate had been changed into Arachne silk ropes. Looking at the silver threads, it reminded General Alwin of Kiefer’s mana threads.

The Arachne were tired from the recent major overhaul, all suffering headaches from the recent large drain in their mana from creating the silk. As they rested in their quarters, the dwarves and high-elves kept the fleet going, some high elves tending to the exhausted Arachne. With the lack of manpower, Alwin decided it was best they slowed down and took it leisurely. The shore was already in sight and there was no real need to rush.

The cove itself was almost 10km across, with cliffs overlooking the each side of the shoreline. The rest of the shore was lined with a white sandy beach for a few metres from the water line, and then it progressed into a lush green meadow atop a small hill. Over the months, the high elves had been constructing a port, awaiting the arrival of the Frigate. There was a stone bridge that extended from the meadows, over the beach and far out into the water. Several docking points were made as the bridge spread out in the water to form multiple jetties.

As general Alwin approached the shoreline, he could see stone watch towers being constructed on both sides of the cove entrance. Bringing his fleet along, they entered the cove and docked in the port. He was finally almost home after a long 4 month trip.

High elves that had been working on the construction of the watch tower had already spotted the 7 ships approaching the cove and had rushed to inform King Ryul. As the Ships dropped anchor, a crowd had already gathered on the edge of the meadow. Everybody was scrutinising the strange red and gold ships that had found their secret port and were worried about how to interact with the crew.

However, their worries were alleviated when they saw their commanding officer General Alwin alight from the ship and step up to the stone jetty. Cheers immediately exploded in the crowd and it rang through the entire port town like a wave. News of Alwin’s return spread so fast it would put epidemic spreads to shame. And within minutes, King Ryul was already walking down the stone bridge to welcome his General back.

Rina was the first of the non-elves to step off the boat onto the jetty. Soon, everybody’s eyes were glued to the horrifying beauty of a half goddess half spider creature that followed behind the elves. She towered over them at twice their height, crawling down the vertical side of the ship and then onto the jetty. Soon, with a wave of her hands, many more of her kind followed, carrying with them glittering silver sacks.

What followed the Arachne were the short dwarves. The contrast in height was so drastic, some dwarves could be seen carrying cargo off the ship and walking below the tall Arachne’s black bodies. General Alwin wasted no time at all, coordinating the transport of the cargo from the ship to the temporary stockpile that they had constructed swiftly on the beach.

The high elves watched as more and more cargo from the 7 ships were unloaded and arranged neatly along the beach, covering a large area. King Ryul smiled as he watched the high elves at work, instructing the elves in the port to go help unload the ships. He was overwhelmed at the success of this mission. Not only did Alwin fulfil his quota, he even brought back extra ships and enough materials to complete the town.

The King’s secretary and advisor recorded all the materials brought in, and quickly did a rough estimate. He then informed the king that with the added manpower from the non-elves, and the surplus of materials, there would be enough to erect temporary lodgings and amenities for all 8000+ high elves in Arigan to move in by the end of the season.

General Alwin approached the King at the far end of the stone bridge, just beyond the meadow. Seeing the king beaming at his own son’s triumphant return, Alwin instructed his first mate, the prince of Arigan to greet his father, as he knelt down in front of his king.

“My king, your loyal subject has returned, and the prince is safe. We have had a rather eventful journey and have formed friendly relationships with a few non-human races. They offer us their skills and services to build up our new country, and in return, we shall provide them with a home and security.” (Alwin)

“That’s very well done General. Please, rise from your feet. Are we not old friends? There’s no need to stand to formalities with me, not after how much you’ve given me and done for me. This is by far your greatest achievement and an even greater contribution to our new country. Tell me though; did you not leave with one ship? How did you have enough funds to purchase 6 more and enough cargo to fill them all?” (Ryul)

“We met with some kind ‘Donors’ who easily surrendered over their fleet to us in exchange for their lives. We would have to thank Lord Kiefer for this. Had it not been for his teachings, we might not have fared so well against the pirate fleet.” (Alwin)

“Kiefer? Lord Kiefer? Hey! How do you know that boy?!” Buffon interjected as he overheard the mention of Kiefer’s name while passing by the General while moving his own cargo on a cart. However, seeing General Alwin kneeling before an extravagantly dressed high elf, he immediately realised the situation he was in and immediately knelt down himself.

“I’m terribly sorry your highness. It’s just I overheard the name of an acquaintance of mine in your previous conversation. Might I ask how you are related to Kiefer?” (Buffon)

“Please stand dwarf. Any friend of Kiefer’s is a friend of the high elves. And you too Alwin, how long are you going to keep kneeling? What is your name Dwarf?” (Ryul)

“His name is Buffon. He is a leader of sorts for the dwarves. He introduced them to me when we met by chance in Grandu. His friends helped quite significantly when we were remodelling the ships. Were it not for the dwarves’ help and skills, we would not have been able to get the Arachne girls off Grandu to come help us build our city.” (Alwin)

“Well done Alwin. Right now we need all the manpower we could get. And Mister Buffon, Lord Kiefer is the husband of elder titan Isana and master of titan Shearwood. He approached us and promised to restore the high elves to their former glory. As you can see, this trip was planned by Kiefer himself. Unfortunately though, he is now away on a personal trip and have yet to inform as to when he is expected to arrive.” (Ryul)

“Wait what? I’m sorry. Could you repeat that? I might have heard wrongly. Kiefer is married to the titan Isana? And he is titan Shearwood’s master? I think we may be thinking of different people here. The Kiefer I knew was a young man with black hair and he uses voiceless incantations and some sort of weird magic. And also, high elves!?! They are supposed to have gone extinct at the hands of the humans centuries ago. How is it that there are so many of you left?” (Buffon)

“Yes that is in fact our lord Kiefer. I believe we are referring to the same person. He is human and he uses a weird magic not even us high elves have seen before. As for the issue with our existence, it was hidden from the world by a powerful barrier that Elder titan Isana had erected to hide us. However, with Lord Kiefer’s help, we are now ready to re-emerge and face the world.” (Ryul)

Buffon was now still trying to recover from the overload of information that King Ryul had just provided. He had not expected Kiefer to become so powerful so quickly. The last news he heard was that Kiefer had died on a highly dangerous mission sent by the Alluviate royal academy. Never in his life would he think that Kiefer would actually be acquainted to multiple titans, and even be responsible for the rise of the high elves.

With the conversation quickly coming to an end and with loads of work still needing to be done, Buffon excused himself and made haste to load his carriage with his small cargo load. As much as he wanted to stay with the high elves and wait for Kiefer, he unfortunately had to make his way to Rashael as quickly as possible. Bidding the elves and his brother dwarves farewell, Buffon hurriedly made his way across the eastern Alluviate plains where he remembered being attacked by a large scale magic spell.

The red and gold fleet had docked at the cove close to sunset, and the men and women in the port town worked through the night, excited by the arrival of their commanding general. By morning, all 7 ships of the frigate were floating peacefully in the water, with their cargo holds completely empty.

The residents of the port town all took the chance after work to rest, while General Alwin remained vigilant, finally walking around the port and having a good look at it in the daylight. Most buildings were made of lumber, only serving as temporary structures until the real materials are brought in from Grandu and processed. It had been decided that the king, along with most of the royal family will be staying in Arigan, hidden by the barrier and safe, while this new city will be run by the first prince, guided by General Alwin.

According to Kiefer, the world he came from had glass buildings that extended several hundred metres into the sky. It seemed impossible, but from the schematics that Kiefer had described, it started to seem plausible. After all, even without this other worldly knowledge, the high elves had developed buildings up to 7 floors high with the help of magic.

As he flipped through the guide book that Kiefer had instructed him to write, the first step would be to crush stones and sand to make something called concrete, which Kiefer described as rock walls with no fixed forms. And to do that, they needed to establish blacksmiths to create steel grinders and crushers, along with something called steel I-beams.

As he walked to the entrance of the port town leading to Arigan, he saw more high elves streaming in, and he thought about the future of his city and his race. Kiefer had refused to use his knowledge to teach them weapons from his world, and instead had been adamant on improving their infrastructure and agriculture. It would seem that the defence of his new city would still be left to him, his soldiers and their advantage in magical knowledge.

[[Elsewhere on the far west coast of the main continent]]

“Heeeyy…. Sanaaa…. Are we there yet???” (Fiora)

“Almost. Why can’t you be quiet like Sher? You’ve been asking me that every 30 minutes for the past 2 days.” (Isana)

Floating through the air, barely a few metres above the sea water was 2 figures. One flaming hot while the other was ice cold. They had been making their way over the sea towards Luna province, to the special magic zone on the island off the coast of Luna. Sher was tucked away in Isana’s hair snoozing and on the verge of hibernating from the cold aura Isana was putting out to counteract Fiora’s heat.

Fiora was floating in the air with flames licking her feet as she had conjured up her phoenix flames on her soles to help her fly. She was still hugging the cold Feni statue that Kiefer had made, at times looking at it with feverish eyes. Everytime Isana saw that, she would shake in her boots because those were the very same eyes that Fiora used to look at her with. Glad that the attention was now on the statue, Isana decided to ignore Fiora, silently glad that the inappropriate advances on her were finally over.

The island was almost as wide as Fiora’s Volcano and Shearwood’s lake. Similar to the volcano and the lake water, due to the presence of a titan, the entire surroundings had been saturated with the titan’s mana. The demi humans had built an academy here that could be accessed through a small port located on the west of the island. Here, humans and demi humans alike could train their magic skills, with an academy set up solely for that purpose.

Of course, the course fees for humans or anyone not native to Luna were exorbitantly high. The academy was after all the major source of income for Luna’s national treasury. The enhanced mana surroundings allowed for mages practicing magic here to recover their mana at a much higher rate, and it was even higher when Luna was up and about at night.

In the middle of the academy that was surrounded by thick forests, was the highest tower. On the highest tower was the resting room for the Avian titan Luna. Luna was one that did not care much about the conflict amongst the lesser beings of Aioa. She had no issues with the demi humans and humans alike using her mana to replenish their own.

“We might as well take our time to get there Fiora. Luna doesn’t come out till night and there is no way you will be able to walk on her island without burning anything. So I’d say we just slowly make our way there and at sunset, we will fly up to her room to meet her.” (Isana)

“Ok fine..” Fiora pouted like a teenage girl. “I’m so bored.”

“Well if you are so bored, why don’t you try learning how to control your own temperature. Its such a hassle to bring you around. I’m only doing this because Kii asked me to. If it were not for him, I would have frozen your whole mountain into a block of ice with you inside it.” (Isana)

“Ehhh.. but that’s boring. Besides, ever since the power upgrade from Wanda, I’ve been able to control my flames so I don’t burn anyone, but then that would be no fun. And I wouldn’t have gotten this Fox girl statue if Kiefer had known that I could control it.” (Fiora)

At that statement, Isana came to a stop and glared at Fiora. Fiora too stopped, wondering why Isana seemed so mad. Sher, sensing the intensity between the 2 titans growing, shot out of Isana’s hair, floating a distance away and observing the fire and ice duo.

“YOU SELFISH BRAT!” Isana roared as she suddenly froze Fiora up to the next, encasing her body in a block of ice that despite Fiora’s heat did not melt. Fiora had not been expecting the attack, so did not put up any sort of real defence beforehand. Isana then stopped right in front Fiora and swung her arms, as a loud smack ran through ocean.

“Listen up you stupid bird. I’ve been tolerant of your little antics up till now but let me remind you that you stand no chance against me.” Isana growled at the shocked Fiora that was just slapped.

“I am trying to avenge my sister here and even my husband is giving it his all, risking his life for my motives. If you EVER, hide any of your abilities from us again, and in doing so endanger my mission, so help me god, I will pluck every little burning feather on your body and encase you in an everlasting ice to showcase for the entire of Aioa to see. Do you understand me?!?!! (Isana)

Fiora gulped, and furiously nodded. She had never seen Isana so mad before. She just looked deeply into Isana’s shining green eyes and started tearing up, taking her all just to hold back the tears.

“Now stop making things difficult for all of us and control your flames! We will get to the island as quickly as possible and set up a small camp there to rest. Dammit girl, if you had just controlled your flames earlier, we could’ve arrived so much earlier and I wouldn’t have to spend so much mana counteracting your fire. Now give me that toy!” Isana bellowed, snatching the Feni statue out of Fiora’s hands as she undid the ice, and threw the statue into her PD, before racing across the ocean surface towards the island on the horizon. Sher and Fiora chase after her, and Sher could barely make out a word that Fiora muttered, while sobbing and sniffing.

Telepathically, Sher reached out to Isana. “Sana sis. Slow down. Isn’t our speed already sufficiently fast? Besides, Fiora is crying right now, she said she’s sorry.”

Responding to her telepathic message, Isana reduced her speed, allowing the 2 titans to catch up, one still visibly crying. Isana could see that Fiora was now controlling her heat as her tears were not evaporating, simply rolling down her cheeks into the sea. Isana just looked and Fiora with eyes that spelt anger, still not having forgiven Fiora. Fiora took one look at Isana’s eyes and shirked away, trying to avoid eye contact. Looking down at the sea, eyes clouded by her own tears, she managed to mutter an apology, barely loud enough for Isana to hear.

After that commotion, there was an awkward silence hanging around the trio for the rest of the day. They could hear spells going off in the distance from the middle of the island as mages from all over the world who were rich enough to attend the academy were practicing their skills. Flying past the lesser beings, the 3 titans arrived at the top of the tower just after nightfall, and floated outside Luna’s window, waiting for her to let them in.

As soon as the pale blue crescent moon rose and showed itself from behind the cream white moon, Luna arose from her slumber. A young girl, who looked no older than Fiora came out to the window and greeted the 3 titans.

“Ah... welcome to my home, big sister Isana and Fiora, and little Sher. Please, come in and sit down.” Luna said calmly and quietly, opening the large windows for the 3 titans to enter her room.

Isana and Fiora were seated on 2 chairs, with Sher hanging on Isana’s head as usual. They were facing the titan of darkness. The young girl had jet black hair that seemed to absorb light from the surroundings, making the whole place look dim. Like the other female titans, she had pale skin, flawless like Isana, and had black fathers growing on her forearms.

Her body features were similar to Fiora’s except the chest which was large enough to almost match Isana’s. Dressed in shroud of smoky darkness, the apparel did not seem to have any fixed form, and yet at times, seemed to line her body and trace an elegant figure of a young voluptuous girl.

As Fiora kept staring at her sister’s chest in jealousy, and looked up in response to Luna’s words.

“Well my dear sisters. What have you travelled such a long distance for and how may I help you?” (Luna)

Sorry folks, I know this is rather late and I now owe you guys an extra chapter. Not gonna make any excuses, I had kind of been lazing around the whole day not doing anything. just didn't get the motivation to get this out. It's rare, but it does happen. one of my off days. Hope you'll forgive me.

But anyways, since we are still on the topic about it, in the future, if I do end up not delivering the chapter for the day, it means I will be releasing 2 on the next day. so regardless of my speed, it will still average out to be about 1 per day on weekdays and 2 per day on weekends.