As the title suggests, this will be the end of the Yurza Arc. The next Arc shall be the Demon Continent Arc. enjoy.

As the video kept streaming in, Kiefer began getting a better understanding of the geography of the southern continent. It was not all ruled by the demons. The continent itself seemed to have risen out of the sea like someone had just pulled a chunk of soil up vertically. As far as the harrier jets could scour, Kiefer saw only rocky cliffs along the shore that rose up more than five hundred metre above the sea level. With the exception of one point where it was a stretch of mellow beach, nowhere else along the shores of the southern continent made it seem possible to establish a port.

The one and only access point to the demon continent lied in that port city. The continent itself seemed to extend endlessly beyond the icy white south pole. To explore it, even with the supersonic speeds of the jets, would require a few hours. Seeing as there was no real need to explore that far, Kiefer redirected the jets to scour the city and its proximity.

From an aerial view, the city was by far the largest he’d seen on this planet. A tall thick city wall separated its interior from the dense untamed forest outside. By his estimated, the wall was at least fifty metres tall, and about half as thick. He could only imagine the amount of labour and materials that went into constructing this behemoth that ran from one coast line to another, spanning at least 5000 kilometres, cornering the core of the city against the ocean. From his memories, the only other wall that was just as overbearing was the Great Wall of China.

Without moving in closer, Kiefer had no way of scanning the interior of the walls. Not wanting to expose his jets, Kiefer redirected them on a patrol route around the city. Aside from the occasional sightings through the rare forest clearings not covered by the canopy, Kiefer could not see much of threat other than the first life form he had identified earlier. Looking back at Wang Shen and smiling, Kiefer finally made up his mind.

“Wang Shen. The moment I have within my possession all the soul flowers on this continent, I will set out immediately to begin my investigations. Hopefully I will be able to find some kind of weakness that your troops will be able to take advantage of,” he announced confidently, before turning towards Isana. “Sana, the trip you were looking forward to might not be so far ahead. I’m thinking of exploring the demon continent. I want to see just what is so formidable about these creatures.”

“Right away. I will prepare my soul flower right away. Adviser Lan! Send out messages to the other city lords. Inform them to be prepared to receive our esteemed guests! Our journey home might not be so impossible after all,” Wang Shen ordered hastily as he quickly darted back into the palace. He remerged several minutes later, pulling a large metal chest out.

Using his fingernail, he ran along the maze pattern engraved on the surface of the metal chest, his finger eventually tracing out a runic pattern hidden within the engraved maze. With a loud “Kathunk,” the chest seemed to unlock, after which Wang Shen swung the lid open. Within the chest, were a stack of old parchments, as well as a large chunk of stone, the size of a human head. Wang Shen lifted the stone, and presented it to Kiefer.

“The flower. Its inside this stone. I’m not trying to trick you, it really is inside this,” he said fearfully, afraid Kiefer might think he was trying to con his way out. Naturaly, Kiefer already knew that what he said was true, since it only took a quick mana pulse to identify the flower’s unique mana signature.

“Then I’ll be accepting this. I will make my way to the rest of the cities. Tell them to be prepared,” Kiefer replied promptly, the stone in his hands disappearing into thin air, much to the surprise of the birdmen present.

“I take it you guys will be following us on our journey?” Kiefer turned around to address Eril, Rose and Jielin.

“I can accompany you to the other cities, but I will have to turn down your offer to visit the demon continent. Jielin is far from ready to venture beyond Yurza, and as her master, I’d very much like to stay with her. Besides, though she may not spend a lot of time with them, Jielin still has her family in Natiria City y’know,” Eril replied after a brief hesitation.

“I see, then Kina’s training will just have to wait I guess. Rose? What about you?” Kiefer sighed and asked his alcoholic companion.

“Will you keep providing me with the delicious wine?” He asked, as if unable to make up his mind. In actual fact, he was merely fishing for more payment, knowing Kiefer was inclined to have him keep teaching Kina.

“Of course,” Kiefer smiled wryly. He knew Rose was demanding a raise, but seeing as it did not cost him anything, and there was enough on the super carrier to last even an alcoholic like rose drunk for years, he did not hesitate at all. Reaching into his PD, he quickly acquired another bottle. This time, it was a white wine, and tossed it to Rose who caught it nimble and immediately opened the bottle to take a whiff.

“Well now then, it was good negotiating with you, I will be on my way then,” Kiefer bidded farewell, his hand reaching out and clasping Isana’s before heading back out towards the gates where their carriages were parked.

“Wa- wait!” Wang Shen stammered, realising that Kiefer was about to leave. At his outburst, Kiefer stopped momentarily and turned around, but kept silent. “It will take about 3 years to get our entire combined armed forces to assemble. So you don’t have to hurry. We just need any crucial information that will help turn the tide of the battle.”

“I see. Thank you for telling me that. Looks like we can go about this in a more relaxed fashion. Isn’t this what you wanted Sana?” Kiefer smiled, turning back and heading out.

It was late noon by the time the carriages were prepared and finally ready to take off from Paradise city. Kiefer’s party took up their original carriages once more. Everyone was headed to their north, with the exception of Elder Snow who had chosen to stay behind to discuss further matters with his emperor.

Within a week from their departure, everyone was back at Jielin’s hometown. The trips had been rather smooth sailing, with the city guards from each respective city recognising the carriages in a single glance. Aside from the few bandit ambushes by some seagull tribesmen, the round trip around Yurza was monotonous and unexciting to say the least.

There had been 5 attacks in total, with the trips between the cities guaranteeing at least one bandit attack. After the 3rd attack though, the bandits seemed wary and were acting almost as if they were testing out rumours. Apparently, an envoy of carriages was transporting a human war princess whose blade was soaked in the blood of her victims. At least that’s the rumours that began to spread amongst the birdmen community.

“Well? Do you have any preparations you need to make?” Kiefer asked Rose. The burly hawkman was barely carrying anything. The sack he had slung around his shoulder was barely big enough to at most hold a few sets of clothing. A pouch tied to his waist had some jewels and gems along with some left over currency from when he had roamed the world.

“Nah, I should be fine. So how are we getting there? I’ve only ever seen the demon continent from the air. Are we going to fly there?” Rose asked as he double checked that his pouch was tied securely.

“Well how do you suppose we should do this? Shall we enter the demon continent incognito? Or make a grand entrance?” kiefer asked, surveying the group for their opinion.

“Grand entrance of course! There is about to be a war, it’s best f we make our might known so that we can attract powerful allies and plant fears within our enemies’ hearts,” Rose answered swiftly, looking all proud and majestic. His feathers were fully fluffed up, trying to make himself seem as big as possible.

“Bloody bird brain,” Kiefer muttered. He was never one to attract too much attention. And from what he could see, Kina and Isana shared his thoughts. Kina had been thought by Eril, so naturally she knew the advantages that lied with concealing her strength, not that her giant blood sword was any good at doing that. Isana had travelled with Kiefer long enough to know his style. And besides, he’s her husband, so if anyone was going to side with him, it would be her.

After some consideration, Kiefer came up with a plan. A 2 pronged approach. Since Rose was so eager to make a name for himself, why not let him attract all the attention? It would only make their concealment even more effective. And so, without even warning Rose, The group of 2 humans, 1 elf, 1 hawkman and 1 furry grey fox disappeared from the continent of Yurza, reappearing on board the metallic behemoth that held its place in the middle of the ocean like a mountain.

“Let’s get to work shall we? We have 3 years to do all the investigation we want. Here’s the plan,” Kiefer announced, capturing the attention of the Shocked Rose.