⟨ 54 years later, Jun's POV ⟩

Cold.

It was very cold, and I was very tired.

My consciousness resurfacing every now and then, only to fall back to sleep.

How long has it been since the incident we lost to Vulthuryol?

I didn't know exactly, as my sense of time was lost.

My body was encapsulated inside something cold and solid. It was only till now that I remembered I had fallen into the lake after my battle with Vulthuryol... My utter defeat.

I could however feel the magika still pulsing through the environment all around me. Above, below, to my left and right, and even pulsing inside of me along with the blood in my veins.

I used this connection I had with the magika to stretch my senses outside my prison but discovered that for several meters up were solid rock and chunks of Aetherium ore.

What had happened? Did the cavern collapsed in on itself from our battle? That was the likely answer to my question so I went with that possibility.

But what happened to...

『Juno!! Juno where are you? Are you okay? Juno?!』

Cracks started to appear in the ice surrounding my body from my agitated state. My body had fully recovered, but because of the coldness I was still very drowsy and had to use the little energy I had recovered to stay focused and awake.

I tried communicating with my sister but there was no response when suddenly another voice spoke to me.

『Father...?』 (Khercia)

『Khercia? Uh, yeah it's me. What happened to Juno, is she okay?』 (Jun)

『I... don't know. She was hurt very badly before our connection cut off...』 (Khercia)

『Damnit!』 (Jun)

Hearing the not-so-good reply from Khercia caused Jun's mental state to decline as he started assuming the worst.

『Father, please calm down...』 (Khercia)

I ignored Khercia for now and started to access the situation I'm in.

First of all, I've just woken up. How long I've been asleep is currently unknown.

Secondly, I'm trapped inside a frozen underground lake that had been buried under at least several tens of meters of rock and Aetherium ore.

And lastly, the whereabouts and safety of Juno are also unknown...

Too many things aren't clear, so what I should be doing right now is to free myself from my prison.

This simple task proved a little difficult due to the magic-infused ice that made it a lot stronger than normal ice. What should have been a 5 minute or less job was thus extended to almost an hour of digging.

Once I broke through the surface of the frozen lake, my claws met with the softer soil, occasionally coming by Aetherium ore which I took the liberty of claiming for myself, replenishing the spent energy from digging and regaining some clarity of mind.

『Father, are you still there?』 (Khercia)

『Yes, I've escaped the frozen lake and I've almost dug my way into an underground cavern.』 (Jun)

『Thats a relief... I wanted to tell you that I had wanted to send more of my children over, but they reported that there was no Rift to your world. And from the passing decades I had figured that you and mother got into a bad situation, am I right?』 (Khercia)

『Yes, you're right, but... how long did you say we were gone?』 (Jun)

『You both were silent for... a few decades』 (Khercia)

『How long exactly?』 (Jun)

『54 years, 2 months, and 73 days.』 (Khercia)

I slowed down in my digging momentarily to process this information, though it wasn't as bad as I had thought it to be, it still was bad nonetheless.

The main problem being the unknown rulers of Skyrim.

Weren't they about to have another war as well as the return of the dragons?

Just from the personal experience I had with Vulthuryol, It's hard to say who would win. I'm sure there wasn't just a handful of dragons, call it an instinct.

『54 years... What's your progress in Chaos?』 (Jun)

『Well, see for yourself』 (Khercia)

There was a bit of anticipation and pride within her words, arousing my curiosity and expectations. Without further waiting, I brought up the Hive feature and was stunned into silence.

Hives

World: Chaos

Stage: 5

Race: Phyllamorphs

Empress: 1

Queens: 4

Praetorians: 1,041

Ravagers: 234,009

Strikers: 5,087

Warriors: 4,095,881

Drones: 10,230,271

Scouts: 1,765,222

『It seems... You've been quite busy since our hibernation』 (Jun)

『Though I've made significant progress, we're still unable to defeat a certain species』 (Khercia)

『Oh?』 (Jun)

『The Chimera Ants. They're evolving and reproducing as fast as we are.』 (Khercia)

Khercia had informed me about the important things she had gone through over the years while I continued digging through the earth.

Suddenly, the wall before me broke apart as an open space revealed itself to me. My senses were overwhelmed by the dense magical energy filling the space, and even more so when said energy rushed towards me to fill in the tunnel I had dug.

What came into my view once I had stabilized myself was an endless blue ocean, the atmosphere also blue in color with mushroom spores floating around in the light fog.

Where I was standing was in the wall of the cavern, and directly below was the water.

『Juno?!』

I couldn't help but exclaim in my mind as I had felt my sisters' faint connection coming from below.

Splash!

The sound of splashing water echoed within the silent cavern, alerting everything within but I didn't care right now as the only thing on my mind was finding Juno.

My connection with her grew stronger and stronger the further I swam down similar to how a snake would.

『Father! Is mother okay? How is she? What's going on father?』 (Khercia)

『She's... she's okay』 (Jun)

『Mother...』 (Khercia)

I destroyed the corals and other shellfish that attached themselves to her body and placed her onto the sand a few meters away.

Juno soon started to slowly wake up, as if feeling the tender care I used to clean her body from the growing algae.

『Mnn...』 (Juno)

『Juno!』 (Jun)

『Mommy!』 (Khercia)

『Jun...? Khercia?』 (Jun)

Juno, who was previously sleeping, started to slowly wake up. And waiting for her to sit up was Jun's figure sitting without motion on the cold seafloor.

『Good morning, Juno-』 (Jun)

『Jun!!!!!!』 (Juno)

The Twins reunited after half a century of sleeping, though it felt like almost an instant for the both of them, it was still better to be together again.

『Jun! -sniff- you're okay~』 (Juno)

『Of course I am, and I'm glad you're alright as well』 (Jun)