an early update for you guys. Hope you enjoy.

[[Aioa]]

It was the dead of the night. The twin moons bathed the ground and the treetops in their combined bluish cream glow as a gentle breeze skimmed the tops of the trees, rustling the leaves gently. Two soldiers armed with assault rifles were on the verge of nodding off, leaning against the low wall of the guard post that was elevated 10m above the ground.

Then, as if an alarm clock went off, their digital screens on the wall began beeping and a small red light began flashing in the corner of the guard post. The sentinel posts planted 1km from the forward base had been tripped, indicating that something with considerable innate mana had passed the perimeter.

The 2 guards immediately awoke from their stupor, fiddling with panels and keys on their touchscreens, accessing cameras and satellite imaging to access the intruder. The base was mostly automated, and they only needed to press a button to release the mechanical hounds which were disposable anti-magical beast units that tracked and attacked any intruders marked by the system.

As one guard brought up the infrared imaging on his screen, the other guard was prepping the automated defence system on another console, getting ready to activate the defence mechanisms.

“Wait!” The first guard watching the screens called out. Confused, both guards began scrutinising the infrared camera’s video feed. It was not a magical beast, but 2 humans that were sprinting at top speeds towards the base.

“Must be Sanders and his son.” The first guard postulated as he began running GPS tracking coordinates of Sanders’s Spectre suit to confirm his guess. “Make sure you double check the sentinel posts. They might be running from a magical beast, considering how fast they are sprinting over.”

“Hah! Sanders? Run from a magical beast? Not likely. If he’s being forced to flee, there is probably not enough firepower in this entire base to kill whatever is chasing him. Let’s just pray it’s not a demonised beast.” The second guard scoffed as he brought up the report logs from the sentinel posts.

“Contact the CO (Commanding Officer). Tell him Sanders is back from his little trip.” The first guard instructed as he made confirmation that it was indeed Sanders who broke the perimeter.

As soon as he had finished speaking, Sanders and Seras had already leapt over the gates, the soles of their shoes barely scrapping the barbed wire that lined the top of the gate and base walls. Panting heavily, they took a short break to catch their breath. The father-son pair had been sprinting at full speed without a break for a whole day, hoping to get to safety as fast as possible.

The 2 soldiers immediately looked down at Sanders and saluted in a crisp posture, to which Sanders returned the gesture. Without wasting any time, Sanders quickly headed for the commander’s quarters where he kicked open the door to his friend’s bunk. Captain Haizal was the commanding officer of this forward base, the only Spectre placed in charge of managing the soldiers and also Sanders’s old friend,

As Haizal quickly sprung from his slumber and aimed his sidearm at the intruder, he quickly relaxed after seeing the familiar but frantic face of his old friend. Switching the safety on his pistol back on and setting it under his pillow once more, Haizal glanced lazily at Sanders, an attitude most unbefitting of a proud commander.

“What do you want?” Haizal yawned as he got out of his bed, rubbing his drowsy eyes. He picked up his phone and glanced at it, before opening his eyes wide. “Dude… It’s only 6 am… There’s still another 6 hours till daybreak. Can’t you wait?”

“No!” Sanders voiced back, his tone clearly frantic. Haizal noticed the atmosphere and quickly put on a solemn face, walking to his friend. “Here! Take this and analyse the recorded footage.” Sanders thrust his Spectre helmet to Haizal. “We met the demon queen! And I think we might have found a way to reverse the demonization of the magical beasts. Not only that, we might have found the best time for counter attacking the demonic north.” Sanders explained quickly.

[[Back on Risea, 100th level of the dungeon]]

A single adult woman and 2 young children were standing around in a large square room, staring at the interesting spectacle in front of them. The small marble floated stationary in the air, with two palm-sized spheres of white glimmering powder circling it vertically. Small streams of powder flowed between the orbs through the crystal clear marble, changing direction every time the orbs made half a round.

“It looks soo pretty…” Kina muttered as her eyes sparkled, her white hands stretching out to touch the marble.

*PA!*

Kiefer immediately slapped her outstretched hand, causing her to glare at Kiefer with her brows frowning. Kina was rubbing the back of her pale hands where Kiefer had hit her. “What are you? A magpie!?” Kiefer scolded as he glared back at Kina. Kina merely puffed her cheeks and jerked her head away from Kiefer quickly, her lips pouting.

Kiefer cautiously extended a single mana thread, probing the marble, hoping to see if he could remove it. However, his mana thread was unexpectedly stopped mere centimetres from the artefact, unable to proceed any further. Try as he might, he could not get any closer to the marble or the orbs of sand hovering around it. Isana tried the same thing, extending her cold blue threads as well but to no avail.

“Haah…” Kiefer sighed. “Looks like this is as far as we can go. Might as well resume with our flower hunt. With you 2 here, my quota has now increased to 60 soul flowers. I doubt there is enough in this world right now, so we might have to wait for quite some time to allow the flowers to bloom.”

“60 flowers? Why 60?” Isana asked, turning away from the marble and strolling away with Kiefer in hand.

“Fahlnir said I need to give him 10 to send me back to Aioa, so including you and Kina, there’s also Wanda, Grandu and Drigor. That make 6 titans in total.” Kiefer explained.

“Kina, come, we’re heading back,” Isana called out as she turned her head to look for her daughter. “Kina?” Isana called out. “Kina! NO!” She yelled just as she saw Kina smiling and reaching for the marble.

Very quickly, the crystals that embedded the ceiling all dimmed, their lights all extinguishing except for the single largest one hanging above the marble. The 2 orbs of white powder quickly expanded, encircling Kina and the stone pedestal in a sphere of shimmering lights. The small marble melted, forming a puddle in Kina’s palms before disappearing, seemingly being absorbed by Kina’s skin.

As Kiefer and Isana quickly turned around to dash back to their daughter, a tidal pulse expanded from Kina, trapping them in the same jelly-like space, unable to budge a single inch. Kiefer and Isana could only watch as the glimmering powder assaulted their daughter who had started screaming in anguish. The powder smashed against Kina’s skin, drilling billions upon billions of pores into her flawless skin, only to have the skin heal back quickly.

Still trapped, unable to move or use any skills, Kiefer and Isana watched in agony as their daughter collapsed to the floor on one knee, panting heavily. The pain quickly subsided from Kina as she gradually regained control of her faculties. As soon as Kina stood back up, the pulse dissipated, throwing Kiefer and Isana backwards into the wall, creating craters. Disregarding the impact, both parents instantly teleported next to their child, worried for her well-being.

“Mum… I’m… fine.” Kina barely managed to utter, eking out a gentle smile, which gradually turned sinister and mischievous as she realised what just happened.

“What happened, baby? Do you feel anything wrong?” Isana asked, worried.

“No mum. I’m fine.” Kina repeated. “But watch this,” she said as suddenly, Kiefer disappeared from her side, appearing in the corner of the room doing a one handed hand-stand with his shirt tied over his face like a blindfold. Immediately after, Kina dropped to the ground once more, kneeling and panting as if she had just expended all her energy.

“Huh?” Kiefer could not register what just happened as he tumbled to the floor from his unsteady hand-stand, quickly scrambling to take the blindfold off. Isana also could not understand what happened, tilting her head and staring at her exhausted daughter trying to figure out what just happened.

“What did you do?” Isana asked her daughter as she looked at Kiefer. “And what are you doing all the way over there Kii?”

“Ehehe.. seeecret,” Kina grinned, recovering from her fatigue quickly as she grinned wider than ever. “Anyways, I’m completely fine mum. Let’s go back. I want to see the faces of those people when they see Dad.”

Kiefer and Isana shrugged, quickly teleporting back to the surface with their daughter. The bright midday sun pierced their eyes as they reappeared at the entrance of the dungeon, startling all the adventurers and merchants near them. With a smile, the trio took to the skies where once again they transformed into dragons and flew westwards, where the next closest soul flower resided.

“Ahahaha! DAD! Your dragon form is even smaller than mine!” Kina yelled as they soared through the skies, their massive bodies casting extended shadows over the plains. Very quickly, they arrived above another forest, this time much denser and taller than the previous one. The trees were over 200m tall by Kiefer’s estimates, and it was teeming with life.

Just skimming over, the trio spotted large apes with 4 arms swinging from tree to tree, their massive bodies bending the even more massive trees. There were numerous wyverns and predatory birds circling above the treeline, quickly avoiding the 3 dragons as they flew past. The forest itself seemed to move like it was alive, the landscape undulating as the trees rose and sank with the ground. It was almost as if there was a giant worm tunnelling below the ground, causing the ground and the trees to rise and fall as it tunnelled through.

Smaller birds would swarm out from within the canopy when the trees moved, only to be quickly caught within the jaws of larger birds and wyverns. Even more fascinating, was the carnivorous nature of the forest as Kiefer saw a large vine-like tendril whip up above the canopy and drag the low flying wyvern into the forest, its screams quickly muffled.

“That way,” Isana said as her mana pulse tracked the soul flower’s mana signature. The largest white dragon changed course first, followed by the 2 smaller black dragons.

“Mmarr mvee veere myet (Are we there yet?)” Kina asked, her mouth filled and chewing an unfortunate wyvern. Kiefer stared at Kina, not sure when she actually went and caught the poor animal. They had been together all trip long and there had been no wyverns that had wandered close enough for Kina to catch.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Kina,” Kiefer reminded, watching Kina roll her golden eyes and continue chewing, the wyvern’s blood dripping down onto the green treetops.

“Let’s go,” Isana called out as she began diving downwards, both her and Kiefer reverting back to their human forms and removing their mana signatures so as to enter the forest stealthily. Kina did the same, but she could not control her mana like her parents, so her mana could not be hidden.

The moment they set foot on the ground, a mere 20 metres from the soul flower, vines shot up from the ground aiming to constrict Kina. But before they even made contact with Kina’s body, the vines instantly broke, having been torn from the ground, left wriggling on the ground.

“Bleh! They taste disgusting…” Kina complained as she spit out a section of the wriggling vine from her mouth. She had bitten and torn the vines that attacked her in an instant so fast that even Kiefer who had been watching did not see anything. However, Kiefer noticed that Kina’s mana leakage seemed very much lower, as if she had just cast a spell that drained a significant amount of mana.

“Kina, what did you just do? What spell did you cast?” Kiefer asked suspiciously, ignoring the large mountain behind him rumbling and rising, the ground churning as something dug its way upwards.

“Ehehe. Seecret!” Kina replied, sneering at him as she stuck her tongue out.

“Ok all done Kii.” Isana chimed in from behind as all movement within the forest stopped, the mana signature of the soul flower no longer present. Kiefer took one last look at his daughter suspiciously, before sighing and taking to the skies once more with his family, leaving the pure white crystalline frozen forest far below his feet.