There were people gathered outside the Monster Dungeon. There were around sixteen men and all were adults armed with swords and carrying bags. Obviously, they were prepared for some sort of expedition.

“Right, let’s get things in order!” said a familiar male voice.

The owner of the voice was Indra. He addressed the people gathered in front of him with a serious expression on his face. At his commanding voice, silence fell over the group.

“Do you know why we’re here?!” he shouted at them.

They looked at each other before a man, from the group, asked “Do you know why we’re here?”

There was an instant chuckling sound as everyone found the question funny.

“What?!” Indra exclaimed and he glared in the direction the voice came from.

“Well, you’re asking us if we know why we’re here when we already know. So, isn’t it just right to ask you the same thing?” a man said and there was more chuckling.

“Very funny,” Indra said coldly and he looked menacingly at them.

A few seconds later, silence fell once more and Indra sighed with a shake of his head. Then he addressed them once more.

“We’re here to save my son and, his Slave Spirit, Ondine! They get trapped after stepping on the Trip Magic Circle. It’s already been four days since then. Now, I want all of you to put full efforts into saving them!”

“Question!” said a man’s voice as he raised his hand into the air.

Indra gestured at him and the man asked “If they were trapped four days ago, why did it take you that long to get us together?”

“That, ah... well... I had... issues to deal with,” Indra said in a nervous voice. Then he cleared his throat and continued speaking.

“Anyway, we’re here! Now, let’s go in and rescue them as soon as possible! By now, those two will be expecting their rescuers, like us, coming for them. We mustn’t hesitate to go and save them! We have to! Otherwise, a certain someone will... uh... have my head...!”

Indra finished speaking and looked very nervous. Something about the way he said the last sentence made everyone realised what was the ‘issue’ he had to deal with.

The group of people sighed and, together, said “If that’s the case, why don’t you end your speech already and get moving!”

“R-Right,” Indra said quickly.

Everyone did a last check on their belongings to be sure they have everything. A few minutes later, they turned back to the front. Seeing everyone’s attention fixed on him, Indra smiled at them.

“Okay, let’s go!” he said and he turned around.

Together, they walked towards the entrance to the Monster Dungeon, but they never got to go into it. At that very moment, the ground beneath them began to shake. The shaking of the ground startled them and caused some to lose their balance.

“An earthquake?!” someone exclaimed in a worried voice.

“No, this is...!” Indra said as he felt the shake become violent.

Next thing, they heard a loud bang followed by an enormous explosion. They ran to the side of the entrance and, in the distance, they saw it; a cloud of dust rising into the air to form into a mushroom cloud.

Then something large and bright erupted from the mushroom clouds. The large object spread its light and sent a wave of powerful wind everywhere.

Recovering in an instant, Indra turned around and yelled “Take cover!!”

Everyone snapped back to reality because of his yell and quickly moved to hide behind the Monster Dungeon walls. They made it, just in time, as the wave of wind soared past them at an incredible speed. The force of the wind was so strong it nearly uprooted the trees behind.

As the wind slowly calmed down, they walked out from behind the wall. What they saw next totally blew their minds.

In the distance, rising high into the air with its wings outstretched was a bird. A fiery bird, as bright as the sun, had its wings unfurled. Then they heard a loud screeching noise from the distance where the bird was.

For a few seconds, the bird hung in the air and dazzled them with bright light from its fiery body. Then, it slowly faded away until there was not a trace of it left.

“What?!”

“Where did it go?”

“It just... vanished...!”

“I’m going to check!”

“What?! Hey! Wait up!”

One by one, they made their way back to their horses. Then they galloped towards the location where the bird and the explosion originated from. Only Indra was perplexed by their sudden change of mind.

“Hey, where are you going?!” he shouted at them.

“Where do you think? To see the place that bird came from, of-course!” a man called back.

“B-But... What about my son?” Indra demanded.

“If you’re sure he survived for four days, I’m sure he will survive one more day before the rescue,” another man said in a reassuring voice.

Indra widened his eyes and looked at them in disbelief as he said “You’ve got be joking!”

He stood there stock-still as the horses galloped past him. Then he shook his head and sighed before getting on his horse and following them. They rode e survivefor a few minutes before reaching the site. The horses suddenly stopped as they did not want to go any further.

“What’s the matter?” a man asked when they jumped off their horses.

The horses were neighing and moving around restlessly. Something was causing them to act very nervous by being near to the explosion site.

“Let’s just leave them here and move on ahead,” someone said and the other nodded in agreement.

Assigning a few people to look after the horses, the rest of the men made their way through the settling dust. They finally arrived at the spot a few seconds later and were astonished by what they found. They quickly started calling for Indra to come over to them.

“What? What’s the matter?” he asked in an annoyed voice when he came to them.

Wordlessly, they looked at him and then at a spot a few meters away. Indra directed his gaze in the direction they were looking at. His eyes immediately saw a huge gaping hole in the ground some several meters away from him.

“Wow!” he exclaimed in shock, realising he was meters away from there.

He quickly took several steps back to safety while breathing quickly. Then, a man walked over to him and pointed elsewhere with his hand. Indra followed the man’s directing finger and he saw two people lying on the ground.

Indra narrowed his eyes as he walked over to the two bodies. Once he reached them, his eyes widened in shock by seeing who it was; Lakshman and Ondine.

“Lakshman, Ondine!” he shouted and he quickly knelt down.

With the support of others, they checked the two and found that they were safe. Indra started sniffing when they were announced safe.

Then they also noticed the sword held by Lakshman’s loose grip. In an instant, Indra overcame his emotional state and quickly spoke to them.

“We need to take them to the hospital, quickly!” he said in a sharp voice.

With the help of a few of the men, Indra took Lakshman and Ondine to town. There, they were inspected and healed by nurses with Advanced Healing magic ranks. Afterwards, the doctors reassured him and Lakshmi their son and Slave Spirit are safe and well.

It was later he saw the group returning from site of the explosion. Seeing him at the hospital, one of them detached from the group and walked over to speak to him. The others headed over to, what looked like, a bar to get bear into them.

After shaking hands, Indra and the man sat down on chairs to talk.

“Shankar, I’m surprised to see you guys back already,” Indra said to the man. Then he narrowed his eyes and asked “What? You didn’t want to explore that big hole in the ground?”

“Yeah... About that hole...” Shankar said slowly. “It’s gone.”

There was a pause in which Indra looked at him sceptically. Then, seeing his serious expression, Indra raised an eyebrow and said “Huh? What do you mean it’s gone?”

“Well... It was an hour or so after you left with Lakshman and Ondine. We were planning on exploring that hole in the ground when, all of a sudden, it started to close itself up.”

“It did what?!”

“Yeah! It magically closed up. We used earth magic to stop it, but it effortlessly crushed the earth supports and closed everything. It even restored the ground back to its greenery.”

“No way... You’ve got to kidding, Shankar,” Indra said in a disbelieving tone.

Shankar shook his head and said “I’m not, Indra. The hole was completely gone. You can go and see for yourself if you don’t trust my words.”

“Mmm... Well, that’s a mystery then,” Indra said in a puzzled voice.

“It sure is,” Shankar agreed as he nodded his head.

For a few seconds, they sat there in silence. Then Shankar looked towards the entrance of the hospital and asked “So, how are Lakshman and Ondine doing?”

“The doctor says they’re okay.

“I see.”

“Apparently, Ondine was near liquidating, but she is not in immediate danger anymore.”

“Wow! That’s good then.”

“Yeah... I’m glad they’re safe though,” Indra said and his voice shook slightly.

Shankar reached over and patted him on the shoulders and said, while smiling, “Both of them are safe. There’s no need to worry about anything else.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Indra said and smiled.

Shankar continued to smile for a moment, but it faltered slightly as he said “Although... that big bright bird is another mystery.”

“Oh yeah, that big bird that glowed like the sun, right?”

“Yeah! It looked so majestic and... I don’t know how to say it, but... overpowering?”

When Indra laughed, Shankar said “Seriously! I could’ve sworn I thought I saw a Phoenix!”

“Are you referring to the Holy Bird the Phoenix Clan treats as their god?”

“There are lots of phoenixes besides that, but it did look like one, didn’t it? And that big hole, I’m positive it created that hole to help those two. I wonder if it was down there or, perhaps, activated because of them entering or doing something.”

“Who knows,” Indra said with a shrug of his shoulders. “As far as I know, those two are sleeping peacefully right now.”

“Yes, I know. Hey! How about we ask them at a later date? By then they’ll have recovered and might tell us about it. What do you say?” Shankar asked eagerly.

“Well... Maybe, but let’s put that thought aside for now. I’m just thankful to whatever it was that saved them,” Indra said and he smiled.

“You’re right, my bad,” Shankar said apologetically. Then he rose to his feet and said “Well, tell them my regards when they wake up, okay?”

“You got it!” Indra said and he grinned at Shankar as he left.

Indra sighed in relief and leaned back in his chair. His worries about the safety of his son and his son’s Slave Spirit are over. Both Lakshman and Ondine are now with them, sleeping peacefully in a hospital bed. Things might not have worried out the way he planned, but he was fine with the outcome anyway.