Chapter 1: Plan

ZEIDEN Xantea Yvera Knight, a baby who fell from the heavens seventeen years ago is already a fully molded warrior and a powerful mage with an astonishing appearance.

She is busy staring at the center of the clear water of the magical lake, Agonia Lake, that is inside the Mountain of Horns, when she suddenly sighed exasperatedly.

The Mountain of Horns is said to be a dangerous place that only the strong ones dared to enter, while only few survived as most of them died.

Zeiden was sent to that mountain to find the last two ingredients of her mother's unfinished potion—those are the gold fruit bearing tree and a silver scaled fish.

She only needed one of each ingredient but the sun is already about to set yet she still didn't see even one of them. She already roamed the area from above using her magic-made wings from her air magic yet she still saw nothing. Zero. Still the same dying place.

The trees that are standing tall looked like a design to make the mountain a lot creepier because they have no leaves—just pure dried roots, trunks and thin branches.

The land is too dry that it created a lot of cracks on the ground.

There is also a small source of water, but there is a problem; it is already as dead as the place—there are even a lot of dead fishes floating. And that dead water source is where she was supposed to find the silver scaled fish!

How can she find something like that now?!

"This is so annoying! How long am I supposed to wait here?" Zeiden shouted, annoyed.

Unfortunately, behind her perfect appearance, the girl is short-tempered. Her blood always easily boils at small things like what is currently happening to her.

She just got there a little earlier at the same moment when the sun decided to come down yet the way she complained made it sound like she came at the mountain early in the morning.

Because of her boredom and annoyance, she created a lot of energy balls and made them pour everywhere to release some steam.

Zeiden sighed. She lost her temper again.

Hundreds of small but strong energy rained to the mountain. Afterwards, the place suddenly had colors and every dying creature earlier are now looking healthy, pretty and magical.

"What the hell did I do again?" she asked herself, still shocked at what happened.

"MOM! Why is that? Something weird happened to me in the Mountain of Horns," Zeiden said to her mother, who is busy mixing ingredients, as she entered their house.

After that weird and terrifying yet also amazing thing that happened earlier, she immediately took everything she needed and ran away like a thief.

The incident was a big mystery to her because even the dying roots of the trees came back to life and grew a lot of gold leaves. Imagine, in just span of minutes, everything became lively again. Like it wasn't lifeless at all when she first stepped her feet there.

Is it because of the power that she released?

Nope. That would be impossible. She is great but not "that" great to cause that wide range miracle.

The woman, who looked young and could be considered as her sister, turned her glance at her.

Her mother and father, Luv Knight and James Knight are both powerful mage that is why it would take time for the both of them to age in appearance. Because of that, the three of them always looked like they were only siblings when they are together.

Zeiden welcomed her mother with a sweet smile.

"Oh! It's good that you're already here. I'm almost done creating my current potion," her mother said.

Then, her smooth forehead creased when she realized something. Afterwards, she lifted the spatula she was using and pointed it towards Zeiden. She placed her left free hand on her waist as she stopped mixing the potion.

"What is that weird thing you're saying earlier?"

"Eh... Earlier, while I was traveling in the Mountain of Horns, I saw nothing useful to be your ingredient there. And aside from that, everything I've seen were all dead. Imagine? Even the water in the Agonia Lake gave up on the place?"

Luv raised an eyebrow because of Zeiden's dramatic reply.

"Then?"

She placed her look on her potion again.

Zeiden sighed, contemplating whether she should tell it to her mother or not. What if she wouldn't believe her unbelievable story, right?

She has the power, alright. But that place would need a mage with tremendous power and mana to fix its barrenness. What happened earlier was just really... Really impossible!

"And what did happen next, Zeiden Xantea Yvera Knight?" her mother asked in a serious way.

She probably read her mind again—reason why she closed it immediately using a barrier.

I'm dead! She called me by my whole name! She thought.

"Mom, I'm just thinking that you might not believe what I'll say," Zeiden said as she sighed.

Her mother brought down the spatula and intently looked at her.

"In our world, there's nothing impossible. So, tell me, what is it?"

Because her mother already used her authoritative tone, she was forced to answer. It is always dangerous to anger the dragon in the house. She better tell it now or else, her plan might get ruined later.

"I got annoyed, mom. Then... I created a lot of energy balls and made them rain to the whole..."

Zeiden's explanation was cut off by her mother as she said, "How many times do I have to tell you that always learn to control your temper? What if you got hurt, huh?"

Her mother's voice didn't even shout—she didn't even sound mad at all, but the aura that she is emitting is beyond scary. It made her knees feel like jellies.

Zeiden stamped her feet on the ground like a child having a tantrum.

"Eh! I lost my patience. And I was so annoyed. Everything felt so slow. Then I did that. Afterwards, boom! Everything was already alive. Only minutes passed and everything went back lively already, mom! As in, just a minute! With the appearance of that place, you'll need a thousand years to fix it if you'd like."

"I know I'm strong but I'm not that strong to fix something so lifeless in a snap," Zeiden insisted.

Luv was like struck by a lightning at that moment. However, instead of showing her worries, she tried to calm herself down and make her expression as natural as possible.

"Maybe that wasn't really you. Or maybe that was just an illusion and someone was there and played with you," she said calmly although her heart is already beating so loudly inside.

Right. Maybe that was the case. Maybe that wasn't really her. With that thought in mind, she left her mother's lair and went to her father's place to practice.

On the other hand, Luv was lost in her own thoughts.

Everything was impossible. Has it been too long already and I didn't know that the place was already dead? How I wish I didn't ask her to run an errand earlier, then I wouldn't be so worried like this. Only blood the same as hers would be able to do that miracle if it really happened.

"DAD!" Zeiden shouted as she suddenly appeared at the back of her father while holding a sharp katana.

Her father quickly dodged and jumped high on the ground as he was busy doing push-ups earlier when she disturbed him.

To fight against his daughter, he generated a small knife on his right hand to match her large blade using invocation magic. Well, he wouldn't be called a battle monster before if he couldn't fight using anything that he created.

"Always focus on the battle, princess. You might lose if you don't."

He wasn't fully focused on the battle and wasn't even using only his left hand which is his dominant hand but he still managed to fight her. He was really great!

She was caught off guard when his knife got suddenly pointed on her neck but she still managed to get out of the danger by kicking his left kneecap and striking his chest using her elbow.

Her father did not shudder nor react, a sign that he was not hurt and he was strong enough to easily get away with it.

Her father was still in daze when she backflipped as she kicked his back that made him drop his body while facing the ground. He even planned to stand up and fight back but she immediately stepped on his back as hardly as she could. Then, she pointed her katana on his nape.

"Always check your back, dad. You lost again," she stated as she smirked before leaving her father astounded.

When his daughter left, James suddenly groaned in pain as he stopped numbing his body after his fight with his child.

"Shit! She seems to be getting better and stronger everyday. If I didn't numb myself earlier, I would embarrass myself to my own daughter," James muttered as he slapped his chest hard.

"Why are you still wondering? You're already old and rusty. Xantea is probably a lot stronger than you. That's my daughter, duh," Luv said while laughing.

She had finished making the potion so she thought of staying in the yard when she saw her husband falling to the floor while facing his defeat again.

"Here! Healing potion."

Luv threw a small bottle to her husband.

The man faced his wife with a pout before drinking the potion she readied.

"Thank you, love," he said with a smile that made Luv smile too.

"WHAT did you say, Zeiden? Isn't this too sudden?" Luv asked with worry.

"Don't you want to be here anymore? We're better at teaching than the teachers there. We were the best mage back then," her father insisted.

Zeiden scratched her head before she said, "'I just wanted to know my origin, dad, mom. I feel incomplete as the thing I knew about my origin is name. I'm not even sure if it is really my name."

They are already done eating their dinner when she came up to tell them her plan that she was accumulating for the past three years already.

"Go to where you're happy, Zeiden. Remember that we are always at your back," her father said with a genuine smile after a few minutes of thinking.

"Really? You're agreeing?" she asked again to make sure but her tone was already full of happiness.

The couple nodded together while pride was evident on their faces.

"Right. When are you planning to go so that I can prepare all the things that you'll need?" her mother asked with concern.

They did not hysterical and accepted it instead because they know that this thing would eventually happen. Just that, they didn't just expect it to be this early. They also knew that their daughter has a big participation in the future of the Land of Chronus—the world that they tried to forget two decades ago. They aren't certain about the details of it yet, but they could already feel it.

"Don't worry about me too much. The two of you are my trainers so it's natural that I'm also strong," Zeiden said assuringly.

"I'll be gone later, mom, dad. Thank you for everything! Let's see each other again in my school!" Zeiden added energetically.

Who knew that it would become their last joyful meeting?