Vissna looked at the teenage girl that had tumbled to the floor in surprise. She then glanced at the crate labeled meat with a dangerous glint in her eye. “Someone was kind enough to pack me fresh meat?”

Tia’s face paled as she took a step back from the woman. Vissna’s hungry gaze followed her every move.

I sighed and moved to block Vissna’s gaze towards the girl. “Please do not eat the stowaway. Dom and Sebastion will decide what to do with her.”

“I am joking. Humans are too stringy.” Vissna said with a shrug as she broke open a different crate of food. No children spilled out of this one.

“Please… don’t tell my dad.” Tia squeaked.

I shook my head as I approached the terrified girl. “No can do. Dom is a loyal friend of mine. I will not ruin that by hiding you.”

Tia looked down at the floor silently and nodded. She did not resist as I led her out of the room to where Dom was working with the others from Bellator with the help of Sword Saint Sigmund. It had been many years, or even decades, since these retired soldiers had fought anything. While they had once been formidable warriors, years of peace had left them rusty. With Sigmund’s help, hopefully, they would be ready when the fighting started.

When I entered the room with Tia in tow, Dom froze mid-strike during his sparring match and got hit hard across his shoulder by his training partner. Dom did not react to the heavy blow as his face turned bright red.

“What do you think you are doing here?” Dom shouted furiously.

“I… Um…” Tia stuttered as her father raged.

“I told you to stay in Bellator! How did you even get aboard the island?”

“Don’t look at me,” I said with a shrug as Dom’s gaze focused on me, “She was hiding within one of the food crates.”

Dom grabbed Tia by the arm as he continued to shout. “Why are you here?”

Tia stopped staring at the floor as she stared back at her dad. Her timidness was replaced with fiery determination. “I am not letting you leave me behind! I can help, you know I can!”

“War is not a game!” Dom yelled, “Our enemies will not just stand there and let you use your talent. The Demonkin will rip you to shreds!”

“I am prepared for that!” Tia shouted back, “I will not hide away with mom while you run off to die.”

Dom rubbed his temples as he muttered a series of curses under his breath. He gripped Tia by the arm and was about to drag the girl out of the room when another voice interrupted the argument.

“If you drag her back to Bellator, she will just run away,” Sebastion said as he leaned against the door frame. “Better she sees what war is really like from the safety of the floating island rather than the front lines of the battlefield.”

“You do not have any say in this, Sebastion!”

“Perhaps not, but I was the same age she is when I left home. If I had the opportunity to see what war was really like before running head first into it, I might have avoided the grief that followed.”

Dom’s metal gauntlets creaked as his hands formed a fist. “You were trained by one of the Calamities and had a domain of your own when you left home. Tia has none of that. Are you going to take responsibility for her safety when the fighting starts?”

“Yes,” Sebastion replied simply.

Dom’s eyes narrowed as he clanked his gauntlets together. “Prove it.”

Without warning, Dom suddenly threw a punch towards his daughter’s head. Tia did not have time to react before a heavy iron fist was already bearing down on her. Before the fist could strike her, however, a thin beam of light struck the iron gauntlet.

Dom’s fist was stuck to the side, swinging wide of Tia. The clash of the two powers sent shockwaves through the room. The other soldiers from Bellator wrapped Tia with their domain and protected her from the resulting explosion. A bright red spot on the side of Dom’s gauntlet was smoking but otherwise undamaged. The man straightened up as he turned towards Sebastion. The two gauntlets clanked together as Dom moved again. In a blur of movement, the big man dashed towards Sebastion.

Faced with the powerful charge, Sebastion did not bother moving from his position against the doorframe. Three beams of light shot forth from his outstretched hand. Two of the beams struck Dom’s gauntlets while the third struck his chest.

Dom’s domain armor was unable to resist the force of Sebastion’s attacks and he was thrown into the far wall of the room. His arms shook as he struggled push himself up off the floor. His domain condensed to repair the damage of Sebastion’s attack but before he could rise, six more beams of light slammed into his body. Dom coughed in pain as he collapsed to the ground completely.

With a sigh, I moved to intervene before Sebastion took things too far but before I could, Tia ran forwards. She stood between Sebastion and Dom with her hands stretched to either side.

“Stop bullying my dad!” she shouted defiantly.

The light on Sebastion’s hand faded and he looked at Tia with a frown. “You do know that sorry excuse for a father just tried to hit you, right? There was enough force behind that blow to knock you unconscious for several days, or worse.”

“Dad would never hurt me,” Tia replied firmly.

“Fine,” Sebastion said as he lowered his hand, “I have proven my point, anyway.”

Seeing that Sebastion was no longer attacking, she hurried over to her father and knelt by his side. “Dad, are you ok?”

With great difficulty, Dom rolled over on his back. Coughing a few times, he closed his eyes. “That went about as well as I expected. I was hoping I could get one hit in first though.”

“Why did you do that?” Tia asked.

Dom ignored her question as he opened his eyes and turned his head to look at Sebastion. “Why did I have to be cursed with such stubborn children? Fine, you will be in charge of keeping Tia safe. However, there will be rules. She cannot leave this island without you escorting her and I will be sending her back before Envy arrives. That is nonnegotiable.”

“What? I do not want to go with him!” Tia complained, “He hurt you.”

“Then you will go back to Bellator,” Dom growled.

Tia grit her teeth as she walked up to Sebastion. She balled her hands into fists as she looked up at the man. “Are you really my brother?”

“By blood,” Sebastion said with a glance towards Dom, “But we are not family.”

Tia blinked in surprise, “Why?”

“Ask your father,” Sebastion replied simply as he turned to leave the room.

“Wait! That is not an answer!” Tia shouted as she ran after her brother.

With a grin, I walked over to where Dom lay and held out my hand. “Why did you go easy on him? Don’t try and tell me your skills have degraded to this degree.”

Dom smiled as he took my hand and pulled himself up. His previous injured appearance was nowhere to be seen. The only sign that he had been attacked by Sebastion was a few small holes in his shirt.

“Of course not. I am not that old yet. Sebastion was right though, If I sent Tia back to Bellator, she would run away and join the army or some other stupidity. She is just like Sebastion was when he was young. Here is safer than out on her own but my skills are not useful for protecting others. Sebastion is more than powerful enough to look after her but that boy will never listen to anything I tell him to do. This way, he will think protecting Tia is his idea.”

“Are you not worried Sebastion’s hatred of you will rub off on Tia?” I asked curiously.

Dom just shrugged as he glanced out the door where the two figures had disappeared. “Every child must learn of their parents’ failures eventually. I trust Tia to use her own judgment and decide for herself. Plus, a little bit of cynicism will be good for her. She is far too trusting right now.”

I shrugged. “You are her father. The decision is yours to make. I will not interfere.”

Dom chuckled. “Still, I would like it if you looked after them from time to time. I know you might have hard feelings for Sebastion but he is still my son.”

“You should tell him that,” I said.

Dom sighed and shook his head. “He would not listen. He has betrayed everything our family stands for. It is too late to change that.”

I bit my lip as I looked up at Dom. When he was little, Sebastion looked up to his father as his hero. His every word was gospel and yet because of me, the two men now refused to acknowledge each other. It was another reminder of how I had failed. I should never have let Sebastion be the one to kill me. I should have killed myself before that time came. I had been emotional at the time and started a fight with Sebastion because of my own sorrow. I thought letting the man get his revenge would soothe the pain in his heart but all it accomplished is letting the hatred fester. Looking back, I could not understand why I acted in such a heartless fashion. My actions were no different than abandoning my student and forcing him to be my enemy. If I knew then what I knew now, I would have done everything differently. I would have at least tried to talk to him, even if he would not have listened. At the very least, now there might still be some hope left in saving Lucia. First we just needed to reach the capital and save Lucia's body.

After some time discussing the past with Dom, I was coaxed into joining the training of the Bellator soldiers. If they were normal soldiers, I would never have revealed my current weakened state but I was not embarrassed to join veterans from Bellator. These four warriors had seen the process of my rebirth several times. Sparring against them was good practice. I had grown significantly stronger since my clash with the Demons and testing my limits against skilled domains was extremely useful. I was surprised with how well I managed to hold my own, despite having less total power.

I had not had an opportunity to test it in depth until now but the benefits of becoming an Adept were immediately apparent when I started fighting. Even though the process did not give me a raw power boost, the control I was able to display in the heat of battle was incredible. Glyphs formed with a thought and flames bent to my every whim. Even though all of the veterans had had more raw strength than me, none of them were able to withstand the twisting barrage of flames I was now able to create. Only Sigmund and Dom were skilled enough to react to my attacks and bring me down. Despite my loss, however, I was delighted. If I had to fight the Demons again now, I would not be completely helpless and unable to even hurt them as I had before.

As with most things that happened within Dragon’s Nest, the sparring match soon became an event. Dad had woken up from his epiphany and was eager to test his newfound connection with ice and snow. Dom suggested an old Thirteen Division game and turned the sparring matches into a violent all-for-one variant of tag with a significant sum of money as the prize for whoever came out on top. Every single person in Dragon’s Nest was dragged into the game through either bribery or taunting, including Sebastion and Vissna… The resulting clash between the two powerhouses angered Mare enough that she put everyone into time out by turning the floors into liquid putty. Not even Vissna could break free, or at least not in her human form. In the end, Mare declared herself the winner and stole the prize money for herself.

Despite the disappointing outcome, it was an entertaining night that left more than a few people with bruises, burns, and one case of frostbite. Charly stayed incredibly busy trying to heal everyone. His talent in that field had grown by leaps and bounds compared to when he had used the same technique on me. He had truly succeeded in replicating innate talent through the use of glyphs.

Everyone’s progress was put on display throughout the game and I was amazed at how much my family had improved. I only wished we had more time for them to practice. At the rate they were growing, a few more years and they would not have to fear the Demons and would be able to fight them singlehandedly. Unfortunately, time was the one luxury we did not have. With every second that passed, the floating island moved closer to where the Coalition was gathering. Once we arrived, the war would begin.