“Now that we can start talking like civilised people, I’ll start by introducing my side. My name is Kiefer, this is my wife Isana, and my daughter Kina. These are our associates Eril, Rose, and Jielin,” Kiefer started, walking up to the owlman and extending his hand confidently.

“Emperor Wang Shen,” he replied, firmly shaking Kiefer’s hands. “Why don’t we talk inside? It seems uncomfortable standing around in this midday sun to talk things over. I’ll have some refreshments prepared.”

Kiefer nodded, slightly surprised by the 180 degree turn in this owlman’s attitude. It was amazing what the carrot and stick method could achieve. Even the prince remained quiet and mellow despite his hot-headed nature. The group made their way into the royal palace, where there was a large circular table on which several aromatic dishes and drinks were being placed. After a light and quick lunch, the dishes were cleared away promptly before Wang Shen resumed their conversation.

“So you want my soul flower? I know I’m already asking for a lot by asking you to spare my continent, but what are you willing to offer for this treasure?” Wang Shen asked nervously, his tone remaining courteous at all times.

“What DO you want?” Kiefer asked in return.

Without any hesitation at all, Wang Shen replied instantly, “Help.”

“Help? What with?” Isana asked, interrupting. Her interest had been piqued, considering Wang Shen could have asked for almost anything.

“It’s a long story. Our race of birdmen have actually been chased out of our homeland which used to be the demon continent. Due to our curiosity, we found a passage way leading to a completely separate civilisation far more advanced than our own deep underground. This however, brought about our own exile as the demons invaded our homeland and we were forced to flee. Yurza is the only safe haven that the demons were unable to reach.” Wang Shen explained slowly, as he paused to take a sip of tea from his cup.

“We hold the tournaments every few years to choose the best and most capable of our warriors to scout the demon continent, collect information and return so that we can keep track of the demon’s movements and their military might.” He paused once more. Kiefer frowned. He could already see where this request was going and it was going to be tedious to say the least.

“We were hoping you would lend us your strength in our attack to reclaim our homeland,” Wang Shen pleaded.

Hearing this, Kiefer heaved a sigh of relief. He had thought Wang Shen would ask him to negotiate with the demons for their homeland, or even eliminate the demons single-handedly. While it was not impossible for him to do either of those, it would have been far too troublesome, and he could not sit right with so much blood on his hands.

“Seeing as you are able to escape from the demon invasion, I’m assuming the demons are incapable of flight. I just need to know, how high can their attacks reach?” Kiefer asked, fishing out the tablet from his PD.

“They kill anything they can lay their claws on. Considering the largest of them are about 10m tall, and they can jump up to 2 times their body height, I would say 50m is their limit. But our reports from the past several scouts tell us that most of our ranged attacks can barely scratch their hide, much less injure them. Furthermore, their numbers have been increasing steadily the past few decades, almost as if they have been preparing for our attack and preparing to go to war.” Wang Shen sighed.

“That’s fine then,” Kiefer replied nonchalantly, rapidly tapping the screen on his tablet. Isana too was cutting in and occasionally correcting Kiefer. It turns out that a thousand years on Aioa with Earth’s technology has evidently made Isana more tech savvy than Kiefer, putting a frown on his face.

Responding to Kiefer’s input, the supercarrier hummed to life as it dispatched 5 harrier jets from its bay, shocking and frightening the inquisitive sailors who had ventured closer to observe the massive metal structure in the sea. The Jets took off south bound and soon, 5 bursts of loud cracks could be heard over the ocean as they broke the sound barrier.

“I’ll have to see what I can do first. I’m scouting the area out right now, and I can’t give you any promises, but I have a feeling your army will have as much result driving the demons back as a spoon has of scooping the ocean dry,” Kiefer replied after considering the strength of the warriors and mages he’s seen.

The room fell into an awkward silence as Kiefer waited for the harrier jets to arrive at their coordinates. Soon, Kina was eyeing the young prince and smiling smugly as she recalled the events that transpired the night of the auction. Tianmen still seemed largely unhappy that he was tricked by Kina into wasting a large sum of money, and then being robbed from right under his nose. He locked stares with Kina, his head still fuming.

“What? Don’t look at me like that. I asked you nicely but you refused, so it was really your own fault that you lost the merchandise to me,” Kina shrugged. “And you can’t blame anything other than your own stupidity for falling to a price jacking scheme in an auction.”

“You!” Tianmen rebutted, but could only hold his tongue, knowing what Kina had said to be true. “So what did you do to the gravitite ores?” He asked sheepishly after hesitating for a while. He knew it was better to make friends with this lot than enemies. Even his father was giving them so much face even after they destroyed a portion of the palace.

“This,” Kina replied, waving her large blood red sword.

Seeing how his son and their daughter had started a conversation, Wang Shen could feel the tension in the air decrease significantly. However, a deathly aura seemed to emanate momentarily from Kiefer. It was so brief that Wang Shen had thought he had imagined it. He quickly waved for his attendants to bring in some more refreshments as they continued to wait while Kina and Tianmen continued talking.

Not paying too much attention to their conversation, the group was quite stunned when Kina got up and left, following Tianmen into the courtyard with an eager look on her face. Unsure what was happening, everyone followed them, only to find kina facing off against the hired guard from the auction house.

There they were, standing in silence. One towering hawkman standing at almost 2m tall, glaring down against a young girl who had to lift her head just to meet his gaze. Embedded in the ground next to each of them were their respective blades, both similar in size. One was a rusty brown colour, while the other was a blood red sword.

“Don’t pull your punches. Go all out or you will die,” Tianmen warned his guard, who scoffed at the sight of his opponent.

“Kina, go easy on him. It’s just a spar, I don’t want him dying,” Kiefer grinned as he reminded his daughter. “No using Kronos’s skills, limit yourself to 3% of your magical abilities. Feel free to utilise your sword fully though.”

Under any other circumstances, it would have been the other way around, with the large man being told to hold back and the little girl being told to give it her all. And yet, this scene surprised no one aside from the guard who was preparing to duel with Kina. He had seen her fight, and was confident in his own sword skill. He could even block the attack from the unknown metallic entity that night when they were robbed. His pride would not allow him to go all out on an opponent not even half his age.

Taking a few paces back to give some distance between them, Kina turned back around to face her opponent, before yelling out confidently, “Ready whenever you are. Feel free to make the first move!”

The guard snorted, before raising his towering sword and setting the weight adjustments. With a quick chant, he propelled himself forwards in a rapid dash with the help of a wind spell under the soles of his feet. His first attack would probe his opponent’s defences. Swinging his large sword horizontally in a simple slash, he realised he was thrown back from the rebound before he even knew what happened.

Kina yawned loudly, plucking her sword out of the ground. Just at the instance she blocked his slash, the weight of her sword hit the ceiling, sinking into the ground with more than fifty thousand kilograms of mass. The incoming attack literally bounced off her sword, bringing along with it, its wielder. Then she pulled it out as if it was completely weightless, before lunging forwards to chase after her opponent that was blown away.

Swinging the weightless sword upwards, the tip of the blade streaked through the ground, leaving behind a deep crevice as it met the guard’s blade. He had frantically repositioned himself behind his sword, using it like a shield, holding its hilt and anchoring himself against the flat of his blade with his elbow and shoulder. Once again, Kina’s blood sword seemed like it was alive, changing its weight on its own free will. A light sword swung much faster, but just before impact, its weight rose drastically, slamming into the man’s sword with so much impact it sent him shooting up into the sky.

Then, as if the previous heavy attack was an illusion, Kina drew back her sword once more, light as a feather. She had yet to use a single spell at this point, only channelling her mana in and out of her sword with dreadful precision and timing.

“It’s my loss,” the man cried out desperately. He looked at his sword. Bent into an L shape from the impact, his dented sword was now held in his left hand, with his right arm having suffered massive injuries. His shoulder blade had been shattered, along with a few bones in his right arm. The other guards had caught him as he fell through the sky, unable to fly due to his broken arm.

Kina turned to her parent with a wide grin on her face, putting up a “victory” sign with her hands. Isana smiled sweetly while Kiefer nodded, giving her a thumbs-up. Then, he jerked his head in the direction of the injured man, signalling for Kina to tend to him. She looked at the direction her father signalled, then turned back and nodded.

“Stay still,” she warned as she approached the man, her sword still in her hand.

“wa- wait! I already admitted defeat!” he yelled out, frightened of the girl and her blood sword as he scrambled backwards frantically.

“I said stay still!” Kina grumbled as she shackled him with her mana ropes, binding him in place. “, , ” she chanted 3 spells in a row. The first one fixed his broken bones, the second spell removed any internal bleeding and inflammation, the third replenished the body’s energy and nutrients that had been consumed for the rapid healing.

Everyone just stared at the young girl. The rest of the guards as well as the royal family were conflicted within, unsure whether this monster standing before them was a foreboder of Calamity, or the angel of healing. No one had witnessed such elaborate and effective healing spells before. Any healing spells known to them were restricted to the rainbow mages, who even then could only heal the most basic of wounds. Broken bones and internal bleeding were nigh impossible for them. And yet she had done so in 3 simple words.

“Ah! They’ve arrived,” Kiefer called out, interrupting the dead silence. He lifted the tablet to show Wang Shen the view from his harrier jets. 5 separate panels, each showing a different scene. Kiefer tapped on one of them to enlarge, showing what looked like a giant horned lizard munching away at the fruits on top of a tall tree. “Is this one of those demons you speak of?” The lizard was almost 5 tall when on all fours, but right now, it was standing on its 2 hind legs, supported by its tail to reach the treetops.

“No, that’s an immature demon. Once they mature, they can take on a humanoid form like us, but they can just as easily revert back to their native forms. This is one of the more common foot soldier types found in the demon continent.” Wang Shen explained, looking at the screen and wondering how Kiefer managed to get such a clear view of the demon and at such a close distance too. What he did not know though, was that the harrier jet was high up in the sky and this video had been zoomed in.

“Well, looks like we have quite the tedious job then,” Kiefer sighed. “For now, let’s talk flowers. It’s not impossible for me to handle these so called demons.”