Heinrich looked at Adam with surprise. Honestly, he had been far to flustered and angry at seeing Adam and Evelyn together that he hadn't even thought about talking. With Heinrich's sudden rapt attention, Adam quickly started out: “Heinrich, Evelyn and I are not in any type of romantic relationship! Nor are either of us trying to get into one! Putting aside Evelyn's thoughts on the matter, I have already had a family! I ended up having to leave them after I was trapped in the plane of death, but that doesn't mean I stopped caring for them. I feel very guilty as my wife and daughter died of old age by the time I could safely stay with them... There is no way I could possibly get involved with someone who I just met two days ago!”

Heinrich felt like he was being lectured to and bowed his head in embarrassment. He had truly not payed attention to the situation, further than the fact that Adam and Evelyn were harmoniously chatting together.

On Evelyn's side, she somehow found herself disliking the idea that Adam had a family before. She didn't know why, but it just didn't sit right with her.

After letting his words settle for a moment, Adam chuckled. “Just wondering, what did you think would have happened if you had won? If you thought Evelyn would have finally fallen in love with you after seeing a display of your strength, you would be wrong.”

Heinrich's head sunk lower in shame. He thought Adam was starting to humiliate him, but Adam continued in with a jovial laugh, instead of a derisive one: “Me and my best friend were several years younger than you when we fought over a girl in a similar manner!”

Heinrich suddenly looked up with mild shock to see Adam staring in the distance with a reminiscent look. “In the end, she called us idiots and stormed off after we told her the meaning of the battle. At the time, we were just fighting over who would confess to her first!”

Evelyn felt oddly curious about this matter: “Did either of you win her over in the end?”

Adam gave a hearty laugh: “I don't know whether to say we both got the girl, or the girl got both the guys!” Adam turned to Heinrich: “I won't hold a grudge over this. I hope we can speak as friends the next time we meet.”

Leaving both Evelyn and Heinrich a little confused, Adam walked into the forest on his own. He did not head back to the village. Instead, he was caught reminiscing about the past and aimlessly walked around. Adam thought of many things. One of the things he thought of was to finally find a chance to return home. Adam felt a pang of regret for not returning before. If only to visit the family grave for Helen and Emilia, he had to find the chance to return. Late in the evening, Adam finally returned home.

The next morning, Adam was preparing his breakfast when a mass amount of spirit essence swept across the village like a wave. The ancient voice of the chieftain was transmitted from the spirit essence: “Adam, Evelyn, and Heinrich. Meet me at the plaza in one hour. There is something important you must learn...”

Ever since Evelyn had mentioned this meeting to Adam, he had been interested in what the chieftain was supposed to reveal to them. Close to an hour later, Adam met up with Evelyn and Heinrich at the plaza. This time, there weren't any onlookers. While this was still technically part of their first Dragon-forming, it wasn't something as exciting or worthy to celebrate.

While Adam, Evelyn, and Heinrich waited, there was a bit of an awkward air about them. Not only were they nervous with anticipation from the meeting, the whole fight from the night before still loomed in their minds. Heinrich still felt sore from the fight, but was otherwise fine. He still wasn't sure what to think of Adam, but he wasn't disdainful of Adam anymore.

Before they could wait too long, the chieftain strode out into the plaza. He spoke to the three: “Young ones, it is time that you learn of the relationship between spirits and dragons! Follow me and everything will be explained!”

Without giving them a moment to think about his words, the chieftain immediately flapped his wings and took off towards the mountain. Adam, Evelyn, and Heinrich all quickly Dragon-formed and followed after. The flight to the mountain was short, but allowed Adam to notice something. Where Adam could effortlessly fly by utilizing wind essence, Evelyn and Heinrich had a much harder time at flying. They were only viciously beating their wings without the support of any spirit formation to assist their flight. The chieftain was subtly using a wind formation, though. Adam wondered if the village didn't have many formations designed to assist their flight.

Adam didn't have long to ponder on this before they had reached the mountain. The chieftain quickly led them half way up the mountain before suddenly tucking his wings in and diving strait into a cluster of rocks! Before Adam, Evelyn, and Heinrich could utter a word of shock, the chieftain disappeared into the cluster of rocks without so much as a sound! Adam quickly used his elemental sight to discover that the cluster of rocks were just an illusion! Adam tucked in his wings and also dove down at the rocks. Having also recovered from their initial shock, Evelyn and Heinrich also thought the cluster of rocks were an illusion and quickly followed after Adam.

Adam dove straight past the illusion and into a small tunnel that quickly opened up into a vast cavern! The chieftain was curiously looking up, wondering if he had to tell them that it was an illusion or if they could figure it out on their own. The chieftain was happy to see that they were able to quickly figure it out.

Adam, Evelyn, and Heinrich landed before the chieftain. He was in the middle of the vast cavern that was easily a kilometer across! Evenly spaced out in a circle around the cavern were five stone columns, with an empty space for a sixth. Even from a distance of around five hundred meters, Adam could feel the vast amounts of spirit essence that thrummed through the stones. In a way, they seemed eerily familiar.

The chieftain spoke: “Adam, you should be familiar with these stone columns. They are portal stones! These five go to the life, earth, fire, water, and wind planes. Since our village is allied with the life spirits, we do not possess a death portal stone. This chamber allows easy access for any dragon of this village to go to any of these planes! However, you may only go to the plane in which you're path mostly follows. If Evelyn were to go the the water plane, for example, she could easily be overcome and corrupted by the immense water essence there!”

Portal stones to the spirit planes!? Even seemingly free travel between? Adam couldn't help but ask: “What is the purpose for this?”

The chieftain gave an enthused nod to Adam: “That is a good question. You should know, the spirits have always been at war! Overall, the war is between the pure life spirits that try to bring peace and prosperity and the death spirits that wish to sow chaos and destruction! We dragons have our own roll to play in this war. the earth, fire, water, and wind spirits can be allied with either death or life. The planes of those spirits are divided and at war with even themselves for which side has control over that plane! We dragons are allowed free access to help our side on those planes! Likewise, the detestable southern flock of dragons that follow the death spirits are also helping them to vie for control! Every thousand years or so, a major war will break out in the planes!”

Evelyn chimed in: “Do we have to fight?”

Everyone gave Evelyn a weird look. Fire essence's greatest utility is in its offense. For a fire dragon to shy away from fighting... Evelyn fidgeted with discomfort under their stares: “What, do I have to like fighting?”

The chieftain chuckled. “No, that is fine too. Be warned, though, the war that should have happened at the turn of the era never occurred! The influence of the spirit's fight extends even into our own world. The so called 'Church of Spirits' follows the spirits of life. Through them, the life spirits try to influence man kind as they too play a roll in this fight. I have heard that the spirits are massing for an even larger war that will spill over into this world! It is only in our world that the spirits of life and death can directly clash against one another. Even if you choose not to fight in the planes, the war will eventually come here and you may be forced to fight!”

Adam, Evelyn, and Heinrich all had different thoughts on this matter. Heinrich was ready for a fight and was eager. He may have lost the fight against Adam, but Adam could use lightning. He felt it was unlikely that he would encounter such a thing if he fought in the plane of earth. Evelyn, on the other hand, disliked the idea of all this fighting. She could only hope that the war would not spill over to the world anytime soon.

Adam was different from the other two. He didn't like war, but it wasn't because he disliked fighting. Rather, it was because he knew that there was hardly a 'righteous' and an 'evil' side. Especially with how he had seen death give way to life which eventually decays away back into death to once again give life. Weren't life and death entwined? Why would they fight in the manner that the chieftain had described? Adam felt that there was something wrong or hidden within the war and that is the reason why Adam did not wish it to even visit the world.

After his words had settled with them for a time, the chieftain spoke once more: “This is all that I wished to let you know. None of you are yet ready to tread the planes and fight in the wars. You have been dragons for only a few days, after all! You should journey and experience the world first. Before we leave, I just wish for one thing from you; never tell anyone else about this! Mankind has enough problems plaguing them without worry over the spirit wars. The Church of Spirits will help prepare them without causing them to panic at such a large scale war. It wouldn't do anyone any good to learn of this before they are ready.”

After getting an agreement from Adam, Evelyn, and Heinrich, the chieftain led the way out of the mountain and back to town. Once the chieftain left, the three were left to talk among themselves. Back in their human-form, Heinrich asked: “Adam, you were in the plane of death for a time. Did you know anything about these wars?”

Adam shook his head. “War was mentioned a few times, but they never talked about details. This is the first time it has been described to me.”

Evelyn stood happily off to the side. She wasn't happy about their talk, more about the fact that they were actually talking! As awkward a situation as their fight had given them, they seemed to be moving past the blunders Heinrich had made when he first met Adam.

With all the talk of war and the potential of it spilling over into this world, Adam felt an even greater desire to go see Segen and visit Heider. Adam spoke to the other two: “I think I will only stay here for another couple weeks at most. There is an old friend I haven't seen in years and places I want to visit...”

Evelyn nodded enthusiastically. “Would you mind if I came with you? You know much more about the world outside the village and I think it would be best to travel with you to explore more of the world!”

Heinrich tensed a little at Evelyn's sudden suggestion. Adam noticed this. Adam felt a fond connection with both Evelyn and Heinrich and thought he wouldn't mind traveling with them. Adam said: “That's fine. Did you want to come as well, Heinrich?”

Heinrich started: “Are you fine with me tagging along?”

Adam nodded: “I already told you, I wouldn't hold a grudge over what happened in the past. I was once young and foolish too!”

Evelyn snorted: “You think you're not foolish anymore?”

“Eh... Let's go see Theodore's progress on the outfit he was preparing for me.”

Adam quickly diverted the subject away. He somehow felt certain he would not be able to win in a verbal fight with Evelyn about his apparent foolishness. Evelyn just gave a bright smile and followed after Adam with Heinrich in tow.

Arriving at the tailor shop, Adam went back to Theodore's work station. Theodore was working on Adam's outfit that was placed on a mannequin. In fact, it looked like Theodore was just applying some of the finishing touches!

Hearing someone walk behind him, Theodore turned around. With a smile he said: “Adam! I am mostly finished with the outfit. I just need you to try it on to make sure I got all the measurements right. You never got back to me, but how did you want to go about the formation that allows the outfit to follow your Dragon-form?”

Adam gave an apologetic look: “I actually created a method that allows me to do it with any clothing I am wearing on the fly! The main use of your outfit was going to be that formation, but now...”

Theodore laughed Adam's concern off. “It doesn't matter. You can't just go around town wearing drab clothing like that all the time! Even the top spiritualists in SILU in the outside world would wear spiritually enhanced clothing like this. You have every right to properly dress in style!”

Heinrich peered at Adam's new outfit. It really popped with all the colors. Heinrich's outfit consisted simply of a golden jerkin and brown leather pants. Their colors were richer and more vibrant than normal clothing, but otherwise looked normal. It matched well with his tan skin. Adam's outfit was a world apart from Heinrich's own. Not that Heinrich minded it, he simply thought that Adam's outfit was a little gaudy.

Adam tried the outfit on and his appearance seemed to completely transform. The attire gave him an almost regal feel, compared to the exotic feel one got when he wore regular clothing but still had those golden eyes. The outfit was also very comfortable and Adam did not feel constricted by it.

“It's fantastic! Thank you, Theodore.”

Theodore smiled and nodded: “My pleasure.”

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Adam departed with Evelyn and Heinrich. As they walked along, Evelyn enthusiastically took the lead in planning for their departure from village. She spoke to Adam: “There are a few rules about leaving the village that are good to follow: One is not to talk about the village to outsiders. Another is to not change your form in the presence of outsiders, unless there is an emergency. Generally, you should choose whether you are going to venture around in your Human-form or Dragon-form and stick to that the entire time.”

Evelyn continued speaking of various things and asking what they should prepare for the journey ahead. Finally, Adam was able to escape from her constant questioning in the evening. The next day, though, she was back for more! Adam didn't mind a few questions, but she was truly asking a lot! It seemed that Evelyn's greatest dream had been to travel outside the village.

Finally, the day they had decided to leave came. Evelyn's parents came to see her off and asked Heinrich and Adam to watch after her. After saying their goodbyes, the three dragon-formed and leaped to the skies to go south and out of the barren tundra fields.

A few minutes after they had left the village, Adam brought up Evelyn and Heinrich's poor flying form: “Do you two not have any formations that you can use to help your flight?”

The two only gave Adam a dumbfounded look. Embarrassed, they could only reply that they had not thought of it before! Only, they didn't see how fire or earth essence could be of much help in flying.

Adam spoke to Evelyn: “Actually, you can use fire essence to warm up the air so that it will push you up! You can glide for longer times this way and not have to beat your wings nearly as much!”

In truth, none of the three had spent very much time in their Dragon-form to get fully used to it. For Evelyn, this meant that she would quickly get tired after short sessions of flight due to how much she had to exert herself to fly. Using hot air to help her glide was hardly taxing at all and helped her sustain her flight for a longer span of time. She turned to Adam and gratefully said: “Thank you!”

Heinrich also looked to Adam. “Got any tips for me?”

Adam thought for a moment: “As an earth dragon, and a spirit martial artist at that, you should have greater physical strength than others. This alone should help you fly for longer spans of time.”

“... you're saying you don't know anything that can help me!?”

“Yup. Earth essence is directly opposite of wind essence. I can't think of anything off the top of my mind that you could do to help you fly!”

It took three whole days to fly through the barren tundra. They took many brief breaks for Evelyn and Heinrich to rest. Adam had multiple tricks that he could put together that enabled his flight to be much smoother and easier than the other two, so he never actually got tired from the flight!

As they approached the end of the tundra, the three of them landed. Before they had left, they had already come to an agreement. Adam needed his Human-form in order to properly communicate with Segen and Evelyn wanted to interact with others, so she also wanted to go on their travels in her Human-form. That left Heinrich to continue with his Dragon-form and act as Evelyn's 'tamed' dragon mount. This would let them travel farther and faster than they could on foot. And if he really wanted, he only had to go to a forest somewhere to assume his Human-form and join the other two later.

Adam and Evelyn mounted up on Heinrich's back and he took off under Adam's direction.