“Hang on, I gotta make a slight detour,” Kiefer said as he glanced down a road. The 3 titans were strolling through the streets of Harentes, ignoring the hustle and bustle of her citizens as the dusk approached. Isana and Kina exchanged looks before nodding and following Kiefer, turning left into an uphill street.

Within 20 minutes, the trio were standing atop a hill, in front of a massive steel grilled gate with a pair of heavily armed guards. As Kina held a staring contest with one of the guards that towered above her, Kiefer stepped up confidently to the other and requested to meet with Viscount Cloude. Another guard on the opposite side of the gate simply nodded and slowly made his way towards the giant mansion before reappearing 5 minutes later.

“I’m sorry but the lord is not seeing anybody right now. Please leave a message and your place of residence and he will summon you at his convenience.” The guard answered, not even looking at the young elf directly.

“I see. If he’s not seeing anyone right now, then that means he is free to see me.” Kiefer smiled as the massive steel gate crumbled and creaked under the compressive force of the silvery ropes that had bound it. All 3 guards were instantly encased in a block of ice as Kiefer and Isana made their way to the mansion leisurely. Kina tapped on the block of ice a few times, smiled and then skipped after her parents.

Standing in front of the door, Isana and Kiefer paused for a while before deciding to circle around the back. Their respective mana pulses had picked up the flower’s signature from the back where they assumed the treasury was located. Naturally they met with very little resistance on their path through the compound, leaving behind a trail of ice sculptures.

All the personnel within the mansion had already been alerted and Viscount Cloude had barricaded himself within the treasury, right next to his flower, surrounded by his elite guards and magicians. Even within the entire city, there were less than 100 level 9 mages, and Viscount Cloude had 10 under his employment.

One has to understand that it was not easy earning the rank of level 7 magus, much less level 9. In a world where mana was ever present and especially dense, mages were a fairly common sight. In fact, there was about 1 mage for every 5 warriors. But even with the abundance of people with magical affinities, rising through the ranks was not an easy task, requiring decades of practice and study to be considered decent. Any simple mage could cast a fireball or a wind tracking spell, but only those level 8 and above were able to conjure and control storms at their beck and call, summoning monstrous beasts to do their bidding and rise to a position akin to gods.

As the reinforced stone and steel wall to the treasury crashed down into a pile of rubble, the warriors rushed forwards to form a human shield in front of their employer while the mages began preparations to cast their most devastating spells.

“You! Who are you!? And what do you want from me?!” Cloude yelled out in terror as he faced the seemingly harmless trio of intruders.

“Mum, where is it?” Kina asked, tilting her head and looking up at her mum who was holding her hand.

Isana scanned her eyes around the room, completely ignoring the guards who had their shields up and swords brandished. Then, her eyes lit up and her lips curled, focusing her attention on the chest that Cloude was hugging tightly.

“There, in the vault,” Isana said, pointing at Cloude.

Cloude’s eyes widened even more in fright, seeing that lady speak in an unknown language to the little girl, pointing at him and smiling. “Wh – what are you guys waiting for!? Kill them!” He screamed, backing up against the wall where he had built the iron vault around the flower. However, none of the guards moved an inch while the 10 mages stared at each other in confusion, realising that their spells were not working.

Without any indication of an attack, Cloude found that he had been moved and the vault door had been ripped from its hinges, the precious treasure within appearing in the little girl’s hands. He watched had the girl handed the flower to the adult lady and the flower instantly disappeared.

“Sorry for bothering you Cloude. Thanks for the present though, we’ll be leaving now. I’d hate to disturb you anymore than I already have.” Kiefer calmly spoke out, before the teleporting his family back into the streets.

“You useless fucks! You can’t even do anything against a woman and 2 children! What am I even paying you for!? Go find out who they are! I want their heads in my lounge by the end of the day!” Cloude bellowed, realising that he had been robbed from right under his nose.

Leaving the screaming Viscount far behind, Kiefer and co reappeared in front of the giant royal hall of the King of Harentes once more. A tall double door blocked their path as Kiefer pondered his next course of action. The King’s flower was no more since he couldn’t sense its mana.

“Kina stay here. I don’t want you messing up negotiations.” Kiefer instructed his daughter.

However, without responding to her father’s instructions, Kina was already strolling inside the throne room, the doors wide open and guards knocked out. “HELLOOOO??? Anyone home???” Kina yelled out as she admired the large throne room with the ravishing banners that adorned the wide pillars.

“This girl…” Kiefer uttered in disbelief. “Isana, just how did you bring her up? She’s been spoilt too much.”

“What? That how my father brought me up. That’s just how all titans grow up. She’ll get bored after a few centuries, settle down, and mature.” Isana rebutted, seeing nothing wrong in her parenting methods.

“Well, if you consider a Titan’s infinite lifespan, sure a few centuries seem short, but still, the kid’s got to have some sort of discipline instilled in her.” Kiefer argued back as they leisurely made their way into the throne room, the King and queen staring at the scene in disbelief.

Completely ignoring the royal couple, Kiefer brought out a lump of orihalcom and immediately started working on it as he made his way towards the throne. By the time he reached in front of the horrified King and Queen, he had completed his little project, holding in his hands a small sparkling red bracelet. On the bracelet were a set of complicated runes carved and engraved to both the inner and outer sides.

“Kina come here for a bit, I have a present for you.” Kiefer called out as he quickly set up his void space to prevent Kina from casting any spells. Unsuspectingly, Kina skipped back over and inspected the red bracelet in Kiefer’s hands before looking at him with curious eyes.

“Here, this will make you stronger.” Kiefer said as he snapped the bracelet on Kina’s left wrist, warping the orihalcom with his mana to form a tight fit. Instantly, the runes lit up and Kina collapsed to the ground, exhausted and trying to catch her breath.

“Kii?” Isana asked in a worried tone. “What did you do to Kina?”

“I’m disciplining her.” Kiefer replied as a matter of factly.

“Grr!! What is this!?!? What did you do to me?!” Kina yelled as she desperately tried to remove the immobile bracelet, tugging on it, them attempting to chew it off. She could not understand the words on the bracelet as they were written in a long forgotten high elf runic character from Aioa.

“You won’t be able to take those off.” Kiefer laughed. “The runes will actively dispel your mana into the surrounding, making you unable to do anything even remotely reliant on mana. Try living as a normal human for once and you’ll learn not to be so reliant on your abilities.”

“Kii! What if she gets in trouble!?” Isana exclaimed, while the King and Queen only stared in shock. The supreme being they feared had so easily suppressed the magical abilities of the heroes they summoned.

“Please. You really think She will get into trouble with you and me around?” Kiefer asked. “And besides, that’s the only way she will learn to listen to instructions. If she gets hurt, even better, it’ll make her remember.”

As he looked at Isana who had a dumbfounded face and Kina who was on the verge of tears, Kiefer turned his attention to the king and Queen who flinched when they met with his gaze.

“It would seem that you no longer had your soul flower, so I’m not even going to bother with you. Although you went back on your promise to give me your soul flower, I guess it kind of cancels out since you gave me the opportunity to be reunited with my wife and to meet my daughter. For now, I’ll leave your kingdom alone if you can give me a list of other kingdoms who have flowers as well.” Kiefer demanded.

“I – I…” The King stuttered. “I don’t know… The thirty-five kingdoms in alliance with Harentes only has a total of 5 flowers and we used them all in summoning the heroes.” He replied, looking at Isana who was inspecting the bracelet and Kina who was still rubbing her wrist. “Th – the demon continent. Yes, you can go to the demon continent and try to find more there. It’s in the east across the sea.”

“I see. Well thank you. Just so you know, I can return here at any time that I wish, so don’t think I don’t know that you are trying to get me to go as far away from your city as possible.” Kiefer warned before he led Isana and a sobbing Kina out the palace.

“Kii…” Isana beckoned. “Can’t you do something about this bracelet? She can’t even transform to her dragon form like this.” She begged, hoping Kiefer would be a little lenient with her baby.

“Isana,” Kiefer replied sternly. “You’ve spoilt her too much. Doing this will only help her grow stronger. Kina stop behaving like a 5 year old. You are already in your teens. Understand that not everything will always go as you want it to. I will remove the restriction bracelet when I think you are ready and mature enough to wield magic again.”

“But daaad..” Kina whined, still unsettled by the lack of abilities.

“No buts young lady.” Kiefer scolded. “When you grow up, you will thank me for doing this.” Kiefer answered back, not giving even an inch.

“Mum…” Kina turned to plead her mother, seeing as Kiefer would not budge. “Can’t you take this off? Don’t you have the same abilities as dad?”

“No she can’t,” Kiefer interjected. “The only way you can take it off is if you melt it. But seeing as you don’t have your mana or regenerative abilities, you’ll either need to chop your hand off in agonising pain or burn your arm in a furnace to melt the orihalcom. This will teach you not to mess around with your time-stopping abilities.” Kiefer paused, looking at Kina who widened her eyes in surprise. “Yes that’s right. I’m not that stupid that I can’t figure out your skill after seeing it a few times. Come, we have work to do.”

Kina settled down after a while, still sobbing silently as she dragged her feet, her hand tightly grasping her mother’s. She had never felt this vulnerable before, afraid to leave her mother’s side. Likewise, Isana did not leave her daughter’s side, glaring at Kiefer’s back intensely, hoping that Kiefer would change his mind. After some time of slow walking to match Kina’s speed, they finally reached the coast, their shoes sinking slightly into the soft white sand.

“Sana, you said you went around the world and kept all the relics that belonged to me to prevent them from falling into the human’s hand. Do you still have the mega carrier that I gave Rashael to control?” Kiefer asked, gazing at Isana who was still visibly angry at him. However, Isana simply replied with a ‘hmph’ and looked away, showing that she was still not happy with what Kiefer did to their daughter.

“Oh come on Sana, not you too. I’m only restricting her powers for her own good. I can remove them anytime I want, and you know I won’t let any danger befall our daughter. Just give me the Megacarrier. I need to set up a network to scanning systems to find more flowers. The faster we get this over, the faster we can all head home. Besides, you know it’s not the end when Titans like us die. We still exist in the netherworld and I’ve already explained that we can always be resurrected.” Kiefer grumbled.

“You.. how can you even speak about our daughter dying!” Isana yelled back in anger, making Kiefer take a step back.

“Haaah..” Kiefer sighed. “Fine then, Kina come here.” Kiefer said as he grabbed her left wrist. The formations on the bracelet immediately started shifting, the ancient letters changing and shifting about. After about a minute, Kiefer let go of Kina’s hand and watched as a faint smile emerge on her face.

“For now, I’ve reduced the restriction on your mana usage. You won’t have enough mana to cast major spells, but at the very least, you will be able to teleport and cast basic spells. How’s that?” Kiefer asked.

Kina smiled slightly as she began teleporting around in glee. Isana’s frown also gradually subsided, looking at her daughter’s grin. Then, she grabbed her daughter’s hand and spoke, “Go on then baby. What do you say when someone helps you?”

“What? Why should I thank him!? He was the one who restricted me in the first place! He should be apologising to me!” She argues, pouting.

“Kina.” Isana replied sternly. “I can always ask him to change it back,” she threatened.

“Fine fine…” Kina grumbled, turning to face Kiefer. “Thank you, dad.” She said unwillingly.

“Now can I have my ship?” Kiefer asked.

“Sure thing Kii,” Isana replied, now beaming as a large smile was plastered on her face, soaring into the sky and out into the ocean. Then, a massive structure appeared out of thin air, splashing into the water as a giant tidal wave expanded outwards from the mega carrier.

“Let’s hope my plan works.” Kiefer uttered as he flew to the carrier out in the sea, holding his daughter’s hand as he dragged her along.

Just because I love you guys, here's a bonus chapter.