Several seconds later, they burst out of the trees. They were suddenly hit by the full force of the sun light. The light was so strong that it dazzled their eyes.

“My eyes!” Ondine exclaimed loudly.

Felix landed and they let go of his shoulder. She immediately raised her hands and covered her eyes. Then she began to rub them.

“Oops!” Felix said apologetically. “I should have warned you to keep your eyes closed.”

“It's too bright!” She complained when she stopped rubbing her eyes and glaring at him. “Please keep in mind to warn us beforehand.”

“Sorry.”

“Uh,” Ondine groaned and she bent over. For some reason her face was slightly green and her face contorted slightly as if to keep something from bursting out of her mouth.

“I don't feel so good,” she muttered.

“Oh yeah... The side effects of moving so fast must have given you a violent motion sickness.”

“Are you feeling sick?” Lakshman asked, looking worried.

“Yes!” She quickly said. Then she swayed slightly as she said “Just... slightly unsteady.”

“O-Okay,” he said, unconvinced at her apparent status.

“More importantly...”

“Hmm?”

“Um... Master, are you... not feeling pain in your eyes or sick after moving so fast?”

“Mmm... No, not really,” he said casually. “Why?”

Ondine remained silent for a moment, staring at him as if she could not believe her eyes. Then she said “Master, I am beginning to question whether you really are a human.”

“Huh?” Lakshman said, taken aback by her statement. Then he asked, with a perplexed expression, “Why do you say that?”

“Well... Everything you've done is something most humans would struggle to do.”

Lakshman was speechless. He did not know how to respond to such a statement. He did begin his training at a very young age. He then rose to the Advanced rank in only five years and could fight nearly on par with his father who is a Water Sword Saint.

His achievements in such a short amount of time were unbelievable. Realising this, even Lakshman was not sure how to explain it away. He had always thought he was gifted, but there must be something else to it.

He turned to face Felix with a worried expression on his face and asked “I-I'm human... right?”

Felix blinked at him in surprise. Then he nodded and said “Yes Lakshman. You are indeed human. However, the term superhuman could apply here.”

“What?!” Lakshman exclaimed as Felix began to laugh. “Felix, it’s not funny!”

“Yes, yes. My bad, sorry,” Felix said apologetically, but he continued to smile. “But, you know, it is your fault for leaving yourself wide open for that.”

“Right,” Ondine agreed as she also smiled towards Lakshman.

Lakshman looked at the two of them wearily. He knew it was a joke, but for some strange reason it annoyed him. Being called ‘superhuman’ just did not feel right for him.

“Anyway, enough jokes,” Felix said, becoming serious. “Let's get down to busin-”

“No way!” Ondine suddenly exclaimed, interrupting Felix in midsentence.

“W-What is it, Ondine?” Lakshman said, startled by her sudden outburst.

Wordlessly she pointed in a direction with her hand. Following in the direction of her pointing hand, his eyes suddenly opened wide in surprise.

“No way!” he muttered.

He could not believe what he saw. Felix followed their gazes and he was startled by what he saw.

“Wait... Isn't that... the entrance to the forest,” He said hesitantly.

They were indeed looking at the entrance to the forest. They were several hundred yards away, but there us no mistaking it. This confused them for a moment when a sudden thought formed in their minds.

“Doesn't this mean...?” Felix began and he suddenly looked worried.

They looked at each before turning quickly around and looked into the distance. They first looked in the direction of the town. There doesn't seem to be anything happening in town. So, they turned to look in the direction of where they lived and were shocked.

Smoke was rising into the air from several places. The smoke was dark black, much like something being burnt. Lakshman remembered this kind of smoke, it was two years ago when the Two-Headed Cerberus reached unbelievable size and nearly destroyed the town.

Looking at the rising smoke, he suddenly felt a bad premonition about it.

“This isn’t good,” Felix said and he turned to face the other two. “You two, grab onto my shoulders once more.”

“I-I don't feel so good,” Ondine said in apprehension.

Felix turned to face her and said sternly “Is this the time to be worrying about something as trivial as motion sickness?”

She hesitated for a moment. Then she sighed and said “No.”

After grabbing his shoulders, he shouted “Phoenix Flash!”

They disappeared once more. A few seconds later, they arrived at Lakshman's home. Lakshman was speechless as he stared at the state of his house.

Part of the house was destroyed and the rubble lay everywhere. It looked like a great explosion occurred that caused that to happen. The stables were destroyed and he feared for the safety of the horses.

“What... happened here?” he said as he stared in shock at the destruction.

Just then, he heard the neighing of the frightened horses coming from the back of the house and he sighed in relief. They slowly walked into the blasted entrance while Felix called out.

“Indra! Lakshmi! Rasha! Anyone?!” he yelled at the top of his voice.

Suddenly, a voice from inside the house shouted “Felix! We’re in here!”

Hearing the voice of Rasha, they rushed into the house. Only a few steps in and they were shocked to find themselves staring as a sad scene. Indra was lying down with his head on Lakshmi’s lap while she, Sumara and Rasha continued to heal him with magic.

“Indra!” Felix exclaimed and he rushed over to them.

He kneeled down and checked Indra’s pulse. He smiled slightly once he discovered there was a pulse. Then he told them to step back and he made hand signs before placing his hands on Indra’s body as he said “Healing Burst!”

“So then,” Felix said, looking at them with narrowed eyes. “Explain what happened here, especially what caused this to Indra.”

“W-Well... this monster suddenly came and started attacking. I think it was called ‘Two-Headed Cerberus’ monster since it had two heads,” Rasha told them. “Then its body started to grow exponentially as it continued to drink the blood of the people. Indra tried to attack it, but he was met with a sudden energy that the monster fired from out of its mouth.”

“Huh?” Felix said incredulously. “It fired an energy attack out of its... mouth?”

“Yes,” Rasha said with a nod of her head. “It fired that energy attack at Indra and he was blasted all the way in here. Then it ran off and we began to heal Indra. He was badly wounded by its attack.”

“I can imagine,” Felix said darkly as he looked back at how badly wounded Indra was. “This is bad. If it’s capable of doing this kind of damage to Indra who is a Water Sword Saint, I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Then these two Serprad demon clansmen appeared and started attacking people.”

“They did what?!”

“They began to attack people, almost killing some of them. Luckily, Sumara fought them off with incredible power.”

Rasha turned to Sumara and looked impressed. Sumara merely nodded her head in recognition.

“What did they do after that?” Felix pressed on and Rasha continued.

“Unable to attack them due to Sumara’s strong Magic Force, they ran in the direction the monster was headed.”

“I see, so they really were after that monster,” Felix said thoughtfully. “But why...?”

“Felix, hurry up and heal Indra so we can go and beat the heck out of them!” Ondine said impatiently.

“Calm down, Ondine!” Felix said, getting annoyed. “We need to think this properly.”

“Y-Yeah...” Lakshman said quickly. “We need a plan of attack.”

“I do have a plan of attack, attack!”

With saying that, she rose to her feet and made to exit the house. She was clearly intending to head towards where the monster and the other two Serprads were headed.

Felix quickly turned to Lakshman and said “Lakshman, quickly order Ondine to stop.”

“Eh?” Lakshman said in surprise. “But-”

“Just do it!”

“O-Okay!”

Lakshman turned face Ondine when she was almost at the entrance. Then he narrowed his eyes and looked serious as he said “Ondine, I command you to stop!”

Instantly, Ondine’s movement froze. She found herself unable to move because of his command. Her face contorted as she struggled to move her frozen body. Then she slowly turned and looked angrily at them.

“Master...!”

“Ondine, come back here and sit down!”

Given another order, Ondine’s body automatically moved towards them. She clearly was trying her hardest to break out of his command, but it was futile. A Slave Spirit Command is absolute and Felix understood that, which is why he made Lakshman do that to her.

Once Ondine sat down, Lakshman quickly apologised “I’m really sorry Ondine, but I don’t think attacking blindly will do us any good, you know.”

“Yes master, but... we can’t leave them alone after this!” Ondine said in understanding, but she still intends to attack them.

“What chance do you have against them?” Felix asked her with narrowed eyes.

“I don’t know, but we’ll find out when we try!” Ondine said firmly.

“Don’t be stupid!” Felix suddenly snapped and startled them. “You and Lakshman are only Advanced rank in with your skills. Yet, that monster was able to do so much damage to Indra and he is a Water Sword Saint and he’s incredibly powerful when he fights seriously. So, tell me... what chance you have against it when it did this to Indra?!”

They became silent. No one had an answer. Like he said, Indra was indeed strong and it can be shown by how he was able to spar on par with Felix. Such power and yet he lay there unconscious with a badly wounded body. They knew they were in serious trouble and Ondine hung her head at the realisation.

Felix snorted and he turned back to healing Indra. Then he came to a decision. Once he was done healing, he will go defeat that monster and deal with the two Serprads.