Hello my dear readers. I'm sure you will enjoy this chapter thouroughly. It's a present from me, and this chapter revolves around Kiefer. As you all have guessed it, there will be multiple MCs in this fiction, Kiefer being one of them. Hence, Kifer will not hold the limelight all the time. There will be some chapters focusing on Kiefer while others focusing on Seras, Kina or the titans.

You just have to remember that while reading a chapter that is focused on Kiefer, the events are occuring after his death on Aioa and before Kina's birth, during the 1000 years or so on Aioa that i skipped between the previous fiction and this one. They serve as filler chapters that will recount Kiefer's adventures during this timeskip. anyways, enjoy.

[[Netherworld]]

“Well, at least I know I still have my powers.” Kiefer lamented after realising that his abilities were literally useless in the netherworld. While he could still execute most of his skill, there didn’t seem to be a point in having skills at all. The netherworld was a boring place, with no goals, no excitement, and nothing to do other than stand float and talk.

“Yes well, as I’m sure you’ve already noticed, almost nobody spends more than 3 seconds in this realm, being recycled by the green sun quickly after they appear.” Grandu pointed out as he turned his head to look at the billions upon billions of souls that were heading towards the sun.

“Isn’t there any other way to get back to Aioa or even earth without going through the soul recycling process?” Kiefer asked, squinting his eyes to catch a glimpse of the other powerful beings also hanging out in this realm. Then, a sudden thought struck his mind. “Grandu!” he yelled suddenly, “Didn’t you kill me and then revive me on Aioa? How did you do that?”

“Ah.. ha. Haha… that, actually wasn’t me.” Grandu replied awkwardly.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Kiefer asked now, completely confused.

“Umm.. ok here’s the truth.” Grandu paused, fidgeting and scratching his cheek bone. “It was actually the boss of the netherworld that sent you to my world. His name is Fahlnir, but everyone here calls him the Balancer. That’s because he settles disputes and manipulates the different worlds that feed the netherworld, ensuring a balance in life and death in each world.” Grandu explained.

“What… and here I thought it was you who sent me to Aioa. So you lied to me all this while?” Kiefer complained his hopes of returning to Aioa suddenly dashed.

“Well, that part’s not wrong either.” Grandu rebutted, hoping to redeem himself. “Fahlnir was the first sentient being to be created and to die, being the first to arrive in this netherworld. His ability is to control mana and hence, indirectly control lesser souls. He explained that he created the sun in order to reduce the overcrowding issue within this realm, while returning life to whence they came. I had requested for him to specially send you to Aioa since he was already planning to kill you to postpone the advancement of your world.”

“And where is he now?” Kiefer questioned, a sliver of hope gleaming in his heart.

“I’m right here, young one.” A voice suddenly sounded behind Kiefer, causing him to spin his ghostly body around quickly. There, floating in front of him was what he could only describe as a centaur looking lizard. Instead of a horse’s body, he had a dragon’s body, with 4 sturdy limbs adorned with sharp talons. A human abdomen and torso but with a serpentine face was attached to the front of the body while a powerful lizard’s tail was swinging at the back. Inwardly, Kiefer was already delightfully surprised that the creature did not speak with ‘ssss’ attached to each individual word.

“My name is Fahlnir. I honestly did not think that the young powerless human I killed would eventually turn out to be a titan of the new world.” He commented, inspecting Kiefer from head to toe.

Taking it as a compliment, Kiefer smiled politely, before extending his hands to initiate a handshake with the creature. Even though he was confident in his own abilities and powers, Kiefer knew that the creature before him exuded a prideful and majestic aura, not the least bit frightening. And yet, Fahlnir’s presence alone demanded respect and clearly indicated that he was much more powerful than Kiefer.

As Fahlnir extended his human hands to meet Kiefer’s handshake, Kiefer introduced himself. “Hello sir. My name is Kiefer. It would seem that I am deeply indebted to you for giving me a chance to live my new life on Aioa. As Grandu has informed me, it was you who transported me and I was simply wondering if you would be kind enough to enlighten me on how you did so.”

Grandu and Drigor widened their eyes in surprise. They had not thought that the arrogant Kiefer could speak so humbly. Not once had Kiefer been this humble to them, and he had the right not to be, but seeing this was definitely a first.

“Quite the polite young man aren’t you.” Fahlnir chuckled as he withdrew a small pouch from his waist, putting his hands in a retrieving a tiny red bead, no larger than a half a centimetre wide. “This here is a soul bead.” He explained as Kiefer’s eyes locked onto the small shining sphere. “This provides me with enough energy to manipulate a soul appearing within the netherworld and allowing it to materialise in another world.”

Kiefer nodded, not taking his eyes off the bead. Mentally, he was already calculating just how many beads Fahlnir would have within that small pouch. 20? No maybe 30? As he made short of the guesswork, Fahlnir who had paused briefly continued speaking.

“Of course, that only applies to normal lesser souls, not titan souls such as yourself. If not, when Grandu had begged me, I would have sent him back to Aioa instead of you.” Fahlnir explained, crushing the tiny sliver of hope within Kiefer’s heart.

“Is there any way for me to return to Aioa?” Kiefer asked, not willing to give up.

“There is one way, but only your soul would return, without a physical body for you to interact with the rest of the world. What you will become is essentially just a mana signature within Aioa, with a conscious.” Fahlnir explained further, fanning the flames of Kiefer’s curiosity. He paused, watching Kiefer’s intent stare before continuing to speak, his jaws barely moving.

“The only way to return is to cling to a soul when I use the soul bead and return said soul to its world, thereby dragging you with it. The dangers though are that you risk detaching from the soul during the transition phase, and hence be trapped between worlds. When that happens, there is nothing I can do to help you. Naturally, a soul that is returning to its own world would try to filter off anything that is foreign, essentially trying to shake you off. To put things into your perspective, think of the soul as a bull that you are riding as it desperately tries to kick you off its back whilst returning to its world.” Fahlnir gave a very explicit description.

“Okay, and why do I sense that you are not going to offer your services for free?” Kiefer asked cautiously, waiting for the catch in this seemingly wonderful offer.

“Well, as you might have guessed, these soul beads are quite rare. And they can only be found on my original planet, Risea. So, my proposition is as such. If I consume 2 beads, I will have sufficient energy to maintain the portal open as a soul enters the netherworld, allowing you to pass through and possess the body of the recently passed soul. Using the body, you will search my homeworld for the soul flower which blooms only once every 20 years. The soul flower blooms in random places, sometimes in the middle of the volcano, or at the bottom of the sea, other times on the table top next to a very lucky person. Its location is not limited to places where plants can grow.” (Fahlnir)

“And how am I supposed to bring these flowers to you? From what I see, I’m carrying nothing more than the clothes on my back. I can’t even open my Pocket Dimension in this netherworld.” Kiefer asked, already seeing so many problems in this plan. Who knows how long this quest is going to take, and what sort of situation he would be suddenly thrust into as he possesses a random body. Would he even have his powers or will he be limited to the body’s physical abilities?

“Don’t be impatient. Grandu went through this once too, just to save his world. Let me finish explaining.” Fahlnir growled, a little annoyed with Kiefer interrupting him. “The soul flower is very well known in my world, and a very sought after treasure. When carrying one, a person will have the choice to return to their body if they die. Even the beasts on my world knows of it so whenever one blooms, there will usually be a powerful beast guarding it. If you die while carrying the flower and choose not to be resurrected, the flower will slowly condense into a bead by the time you fully transition to the netherworld. So all you need to do is to collect 10 flowers, find some way to store them safely, which shouldn’t be a problem given that you can open a PD like Grandu, and finally commit suicide, or die, to return here with the 10 beads. With that, I can send you back to Aioa on a piggyback ride on one of the lucky, or unlucky souls.”

“Fine. You have a deal.” Kiefer nodded in agreement, relaxing after he heard that he can store the flowers in his PD, which meant that he would still have all if not some of his abilities after going to Risea.

“So, shall we begin?” Fahlnir asked, his yellow lizard eyes gleaming as he tossed 2 beads into his jaws, swallowing quickly. Immediately, Kiefer felt a wave of energy erupt from Fahlnir’s body as wisps of iridescent red mists began rising from the pores of his torso and from between the scales of his draconian body.

Without his consent, Kiefer was shoved by the dragon-centaur hybrid into a green portal just as a soul passed through. While the soul shot straight for the green sun, Kiefer felt a powerful suction as he raced through a dark tube, quickly passing out for an unknown reason.

[[Risea]]

As if he had been asleep, Kiefer suddenly opened his eyes, finally seeing a sight that clearly indicated that he was no longer in the netherworld. It was dark and dingy, and Kiefer could barely make out a dim flickering light in the corner of the stonewalled room. Then as his senses gradually returned, he could hear silent sobbing in one corner and faint screams in the upper floors of the building he was in. A stinging sensation erupted from his back as he looked down and saw that he was sitting up in a pool of blood, feeling the slow trickle down his back.

Extending his hands and inspecting it as if they were the strangest things he’s seen, Kiefer was relieved when he caught a glance of a small wiener while looking down. At least he was still a male. Feeling his scrawny malnourished body, then his face, and finally his pointed ears, Kiefer concluded that this was the body of a small elf boy, possibly only 4 to 5 years of age.

Standing up and walking, Kiefer could sense his mana surging from within as he enhanced his senses, finally having a slight idea of what this boy was and where he was. He had possessed the body of a slave elf boy who probably died from blood loss after excessive beating. His regenerative abilities as a Titan dragon quickly returned as his skin hugged bones and torn back healed, gaining substantial muscle mass and finishing with a nice healthy gleam of a pale creamy skin.

He saw that he was not alone and that there were other children in similar conditions as he. Without Rashael’s ability to heal injuries, Kiefer quickly ignored them and zeroed in on his goals. Find the flowers, return to Aioa, return to his family. This was not his world, and he could care less about the suffering of its residents. However, decimating people who deserved it still gave him a sense of satisfaction, so it’s not like he would completely cut off interactions with this world.

Opening his PD and taking out his mithril/moonstone skinsuit, Kiefer unravelled the threads and rewove a full body suit for his now smaller and slimmer body. He worked silently and within the darkness, no one noticed his actions, not that there were any guards on duty. Taking out his mithril sword, he prepared to leave for his new adventure alone.

“Boy… You don’t have to rush. My world’s time flow is at least 1000 times faster than Aioa’s, so you can take things easy. Just remember though, you are not the only titan on this planet, and the ones remaining are very vicious, destroying civilisations on their whim. So you will realise that my world is not as developed as it should be, given its age.” Fahlnir’s voice echoed in his head as Kiefer easily pried the bars of his cell apart like they were soft noodles.

“Let get started shall we?” Kiefer muttered to himself as he began walking slowly towards the staircase. There were 2 stairs, one leading up and the other down. Seeing as there were no windows on his level, Kiefer assumed that he was in the basement and chose to head upwards first, quickly locking eyes with a burly man who was smoking a cigar. As the man’s expression changed from boredom to surprise and to anger, Kiefer’s golden eyes gleamed, his lips curling into an evil grin.