This old man has put you in so much pain for three months, forgive my foolishness." The Duke started rambling by the end but the beginning startled Zephyr.

"WHAT? I've been in there for three months, I felt like its been about like two weeks!" Zephyr replied in despair.

"How much school have I missed?"

"Maybe time flowed differently there but its been three months out here. Come you need a well deserved rest after that unforgiving trial."

The Duke grabbed Zephyr and they rode on his carriage all the way back home. While sitting in silence, Zephyr heard his grandpa speak.

"Boy, you clearly aren't meant to be in elementary anymore despite being eight, a true prodigy at combat. However, while a single man can cause a small tide, a group can cause the lands to tremble. School is a time to make friends and not one of pure lust for battle. Calm yourself and maybe study your seals but try not to lay your hands on anyone for the time being. I forbid you to! This is the time to relax and refine what you have learned, this is the best time as the real battle academy isn't for a couple years, am I clear!" The Duke roared.

"Yes sir!" Zephyr habitually replied and then complained internally, but he still promised to comply with the lengthy order.

This was mostly due to the seals and the mystery behind them and their glorious passive power. They then made their way duly back home.

"Aww, no welcome back? Zephyr quietly complained in a whiny tone.

"Now now, you've been gone for three months with no clear return time, just walk in and settle down.

As Zephyr made his way to the dinner table the Duke was also confused on why no one was home, not even the old wife or servants. Thus the Duke had to get in the kitchen and make some grub for the two of them.

After a quick round of eating, Zephyr quickly dozed off, which made the Duke lightly sigh. With a loud grunt, he put Zephyr on his back as he made his way to put him in his new room.

Right when he was walking towards the stairs he saw the old madam, Ralph, and Aaly all make their way home with their groceries in hands.

"Your both back? What took so long, traveling the world? He he." The madam chuckled at her own joke.

"Mom! Zephyr's back!" Ralph was really excited as he tugged at his mom who had a gentle smile always on her.

"Yup, now you can play with him again." Aaly jokingly replied. The Duke motioned them to keep quiet as he put Zephyr to bed then made his way back downstairs.

"I've failed you lass." The Duke bowed his head while the three were confused.

"Did something happen?" Aaly was confused as everything looked alright.

"I'm afraid I caused Zephyr to suffer accidentally in a bid to fix his defective summoning."

"WHAT!" The madam was the shocked one and quickly asked for more information.

Thus the Duke explained about how he came to know about the rift in the forest, and how he miscalculated how horrifying they actually were, then the experiences Zephyr had and his powers.

This caused them all to be speechless as from what they knew, rifts weren't so vicious. The Duke was just trying to help Zephyr and while they were having fun and making jokes at Zephyr for slacking off, he was the one sacrificing his life at only the age of eight!

The two ladies had tears in their eyes while Ralph dozed off long ago while holding onto two large books as he was so burnt out.

Just like that a silent night passed and the day approached. Zephyr quickly awoke to find his mom making his favorite snack, it was a chocolate cookie! As since as long as he could remember, Zephyr had a sweet tooth.

After that his mom kissed his forehead and sent him off all the while shedding a tear. Confused but still rushed, Zephyr left his house to get to school for the first time in a while.

After running for a bit Zephyr frowned as he came to a sudden realization, he had been shown the direction to this academy once, and that was around four months ago!

He was terribly lost and even couldn't find his way back home to sulk so he stood there for a bit looking absentmindedly at the pedestrians walking through the bustling crowd.

Suddenly. three thuggish dudes, one scrawny, one bulky and another amiable looking came to his 'aide'.

"Young lad, you look lost, trying to find your parents?" One of them asked nicely.

"Um, I just need the directions to three streaks elementary school, my parents told me not to talk to strangers." While uncomfortable, Zephyr still wanted to ask for directions.

"Three streaks huh, that's close by, I'll lead you, you two can take a break." He waved off the other two and left as if implying to follow him. Believing him to have good intentions, Zephyr let down his guard and followed him.

"What's your name sir?" Zephyr politely inquired.

"Names Bruckus. How'd you get lost kid, you a foreigner? Bruckus asked.

"I just got back from a trip, my memories still fuzzy so I lost my way ahaha." Zephyr blushed.

"Um you sure you know where we're going?" Zephyr asked after all this twists and turns before he noticed the crowds of people that used to bother him to get through, slowly get smaller and smaller as they made there way into alleyways.

"This is a shortcut, trust me, you went in the wrong direction so to make sure you get there on time I had to cut through some roads." Bruckus explained.

"I see..." Zephyr looked on curiously at this part of the capital he'd never seen before. All of a sudden he sensed danger and blocked a projectile coming from behind.

"Heehee, this ones got good reflexes huh Bronco?" A masked man stood on a pillar near the roof of a house as he looked down at them with rows of throwing knives in hand.

"Sure does Bruce. Doesn't matter because I'll make quick work of him. hes sure to sell for a pretty penny. Possession: steeled rhino!" A bulky looking man appeared from the road behind them and transformed into a hulking figure and charged towards Zephyr.

Recalling his grandpa's warning about slowly digesting his experiences he just released Flaare and whistled. Then, he summoned Shelly. A monkey flew out of nowhere and landed by his side. It looked mighty different as compared to when it was half a meter tall and a shiny emerald color.

Its once emerald exterior was now black as night and its pupils were the only semblance to its previous form, emerald.

Shelly still retained its armored look all over its body but it now looked like It grew patches of hair around its upper chest and all over its head.

It looked completely feral and ballistic, looking terrifying to say the least. Zephyr watched as the mountain Lion Flaare blew ferocious flames at the scrawny bandit and as Shelly threw astonishingly fast and heavy blows at the bulky man Bronco.

After three exchanges, Bronco finally felt his disadvantage and tried making space but the monkey somehow knew when to claw the eyes and throat and stick to him, or bounce around and throw haymakers to the back of his head.

This was the most dangerous street fight he'd been in and it was with a monkey no less! Any punch he threw out was essentially ignored if it made contact with its armored part and it was practically armed head to toe so there wasn't much leeway there to maneuver.

While watching them fight Zephyr got an idea, could he employ his seals on others? maybe his pets too? Thus he summoned his seal of rejuvenation on Shelly and was surprised to see it work. He could not duplicate it onto Flaare so he tried the seal of frenzy on him and the results were shocking.

The fire around Flaare tripled in intensity and the white of its eyes grew red and when it roared fire at the man again, the fires intensity was doubled and it reached everywhere, the scrawny man was barely able to safely get out the way but not before burning his arm and leg severely.

His mask was scorched off and it was revealed to be one of the three people who approached Zephyr just a while ago.

Upon seeing that two people moved at the same time, Zephyr and Bruckus. Bruckus swung a heavy fist at the back of Zephyr's head but he quickly evaded.

"So you approached me to.. Beat me up?" Zephyr confusedly asked their motives.

"Don't worry about it kid, just submit and let yourself be captured, don't worry you will be sent somewhere much better than school." Bruckus tried getting his guard down but was shot down.

A black monkey shot forward towards Bruckus with immense speed. One round was enough for the monkey to overpower Bronco and completely knock him out.

"Hmm, a seal adds that much? Interesting." Zephyr looked around at the damage he caused and saw one man screaming for dear life hugging his wounds with fire still burning around and on him, and two others silently in craters.

Bruckus still had consciousness and was only able to last until when Zephyr started grabbing each of their wallets and putting them away and looking around to make sure no one saw him.

"Just who was the thief?" With that he blacked out. Zephyr heard running and from precious experience with both in the rift and real world, it was never good to stay at the scene of the crime.

Thus he and Shelly jumped onto the meter long kitty and it left paws of fire as it flew forward into the sky and thus they made off like bandits. The city guardsmen apprehended the unconscious men to find out what happened and everything was calm and good, except that Zephyr still had no idea where he was going. After another two hours of hurtling forth through the maze like alley way Zephyr heard a girl scream.

Curious he looked and saw a green haired girl in maid clothing being surrounded by two ugly looking goons who were clearly villains. Not wanting to reveal his identity Zephyr summoned his Tyrants Armor and walked forth. Despite being eight, Zephyr had the build of a large boy and walked forward with a strong gait and intimidation.

He looked like an idiot to the two men blankly staring at him amidst their robbery. In their view, a child dressed in sleek black armour was rigidly approaching them in the alleyway, clearly the scene looked off to them.

"Kid, mind your business, we just wanted a piece of her food and her money to pay back some quick debt."

one of them tried shooing away the armored child but with one insanely fast step Zephyr appeared on his face and one stomp sent at least a dozen teeth flying out.

He quickly made a second move and smashed the heel of his foot onto the chest of the downed man to make sure he stayed down and quickly did a roundhouse kick to the other man, sending him to the wall and knocking him out.

"Fair lady have a good day and be safe." Zephyr quickly threw a smokescreen, robbed the two men, than ran away.

"I was saved by a knight? His voice was squeaky though." Vanessa was sort of confused by the series of events but was still grateful to her savior, thus she quickly hopped along while humming a tune and once more become oblivious to her direction.

After another hour, Zephyr finally saw the crowd of people he missed and asked a kind looking granny where his school was at. She grabbed his hand and led him to the plaza near the entrance before waving and leaving.

Zephyr blessed the lady many times in his heart for not taking him to another alley as he made his way into the school.