I was currently watching over my daughter play around the garden I was in. Sylvia sat right across from me as she was doing the same thing.

Thinking back to the reincarnates, Cecilia's progress was monstrous. Having access to all four elements and their deviants in just a few months after awakening. Her status as legacy seems to give her absolute control over mana and knowledge over it.

Having reached the mid silver stage from light orange in just three years, I expect she'll reach white core soon. But the thing that surprised me the most was something she did recently while I was training her.

~Flashback~

Having trained Cecilia in pure mana manipulation, I had taken a seat while looking over her while she played with mana making different shapes and objects. Her core stage was proving to be troublesome for perfect manipulation, being only at mid silver. In 5 to 6 years, I estimate she'll grow strong enough to rival an elite asura, who would have trained for thousands of years. It was as if mana bent to her will, heeding her every call.

As I was about to call her to end the training for today, I caught her shaking her head as if trying to get rid of something. I approached her to ask what was happening.

"What is the matter Cecilia?"

"While I was working to improve my control over pure mana, I suddenly started seeing these particles floating in the air. They are of four colours." she replied as she looked up to reveal glowing yellow eyes.

She's able to see mana particles? This is an astounding development which I hadn't predicted.

"Don't worry. Looks like your training is bearing fruit. Those are the mana particles of the four elements. You should stop seeing them once you stop imbuing your eyes with mana, which you seem to be doing subconsciously"

Her eyes stopped glowing as she did what I said. She seemed to be happy with the development too. She will be able to predict spells or have a better understanding of mana now.

~Flashback:End~

Nico, on the other hand seemed to be more inclined towards experimentation as he constantly works on artifacts. His inventions have helped the people view us in an even better way as he is known as 'Artificer Sever' who is sponsored by the sovereigns.

His inventions such as cameras, better light artifacts, having improved the rune cards to display the amount on the card itself and much more have helped paint us as good rulers who support talents. He plans to keep his artificer identity a secret, which is for the better.

His improvement, although not as good as Cecilia, was still impressive. Able to grasp the decay mana arts so quickly and efficiently, his soulfire and metal spikes manipulation managed to impress both Viessa and Melzri.

I can see him grow to be one of the strongest retainers but will still be weaker than any given Scythe.

I had a lot of expectations from Grey, as I thought he would stand toe to toe with Cecilia. But based on Seris's reports, it looks like I was wrong. His realmheart was incomplete rendering his draconian physique useless, although it might be completed later, currently I shouldn't have my hopes up. He is stronger than Nico, being one of the only two quadra elementals but with only two deviances.

He seemed to be training her student also. I can see him becoming a scythe, although I doubt he could take on a squad of half-bloods. Alone, maybe he could but a squad would undoubtedly defeat him.

If I remember correctly, today should be the fifth day he's spending in the forests of Sehz-Clar while training Seris's apprentice. I need them to be knowledgeable before they dive into those relictombs.

Before I could think of anything else, a presence caught my attention. It was Cadell.

"My lord. The communication has been established and awaiting your arrival." he informed as he bowed deeply.

Right, today was the day the meeting was set up.

"I'll be back after a while, Sylvia." she gave a nod in response as I left.

Walking through the familiar hallways of the palace, I was thinking of how to approach the current situation.

Reaching the room where the communication artifacts were set up, I let out an audible sigh as I entered.

Sitting on the throne facing the artifact, I was greeted by two lavishly dressed dwarfs on the screen. The ornaments that adorned our horns would pale in comparison to the amount of jewellery that these dwarfs wore. The greed in their eyes practically making me recoil in disgust.

"We greet the High Sovereign. We are the current rulers of the dwarven race. I'm Dawsid Greysunder and this is my wife Glaudera Greysunder." they greeted while bowing deeply.

"Rise. Now, let me get straight to the point. I heard from my messengers that the three races were in talks about a union. What is the status?"

"My lord, the elves declined the union due to unknown reasons. The human king was co-operative but backed down after the refusal."

"Good. That makes things easier. Propose a military alliance with the human royalty. This discussion should strictly stay between the royal families for now until I give further instructions. When the time is right, you shall invade the Elven kingdom, with some of my forces assisting you."

"As you wish my lord." replied Dawsid with a nervous tone.

"The invasion will occur a few years from now. So start preparing discreetly. And another thing. The pure elves aren't to be harmed, nor you or the humans are going to take slaves. If I get news that you are, you shall pay the price with your heads." I ordered while releasing a bit of my King's force.

The Greysunders immediately dropped to the floor in response. Pathetic.

"As you wish my lord."

"Good, now is there anything else?"

"Will we get to keep the treasures we get in Elenoir?"

"A part of it, yes. Anything else?" I replied

"Can you help us with our fertility, my lord?"

"....sure." I replied before signalling Cadell to take over.

The elves were the best to try the aether experiments on, especially the pure ones as they seem to be able to have a plant element which is close to a living thing like aether. Incorporating them into Alacryan society might also prove useful.

Reaching the garden after a long walk, I could see that Sylvie was still running around and playing. The worries I had earlier seemed to subside just looking at her.

She soon spotted me as she started waving her hand as if calling me over. I felt a mild discomfort in my chest remembering what I had done to her when she was still in that egg.

'What am I doing? And why? What is my purpose?'

Never have I been this conflicted.

"Awww...that's not fair Grey! You got another true win. How am I supposed to beat you!?"

"The answer is simple Caera..." she looked at me expectantly "..you can't." I continued with a smirk.

She gave a small pout as she turned away while huffing. I smiled at her antics. Both her and Sylvie have brought so many smiles to my life that I thought wasn't possible.

"Sorry sorry. I was just kidding. You will be able to prevent me from getting a true win soon, and in the future, you'll be able to beat me. For sure. Since you are such a good learner." I tried to console her while patting her head.

It seemed to work as she brightened up with a smile. I wasn't lying to her though. Her ability to grasp everything went beyond the scopes of training. She seems to be smart too.

A light growl brought us out of our moment as I remembered we were in the middle of a forest with many mana beasts around. Having set up a tent, we were so engrossed in playing Sovereign's Quarrel that we forgot to put out the fire that we had put in the makeshift camp, which ended up attracting mana beasts.

Looking over to Caera, she seemed to be level headed unlike the first three days of the camp where she was scared of the mana beasts and having not killed any before, only fueled her hesitation to strike them down. But since yesterday she seemed to understand that when it comes to survival, it is either 'kill' or 'be killed'.

"I'll take this one Grey." she said as she stepped out of the tent while summoning her sword from the dimensional ring. I followed her.

Outside we were greeted by a mana beast that resembled a bear but had silvery fur with glowing red eyes. I could tell the beast was strong.

"Are you sure you don't need help Caera?" I asked, a little worried.

"I'll ask for it if I need it, Grey." she replied. I'm glad she didn't outright deny it as it shows she's not overconfident.

"Good. Now remember, swift and precise."

A small white glow enveloped her whole body and the blade.

The bear charged at her while giving out a guttural roar with its palm raised in the air to slash at Caera. She nimbly avoided the slashes which the bear did while she attacked the joints of the leg in the openings the bear gave.

Her battle sense was truly remarkable. The bear soon collapsed as it couldn't stand upright. As a one last attempt at survival, it brought its paw down on her, coated in mana. Caera just sidestepped as the paw stuck the ground creating cracks showing the amount of power it held.

She then proceeded to swiftly dig the sword through the skull of the bear, taking its life.

"Well done Caera." I said while clapping.

"Thanks Grey. Now I should hang it upside down right? To drain the blood?"

"Yeah. Let me help you with that."

We soon hung the bear with its lower limbs up so the blood drained as we could later skin it and use it as a source of food and clothing. She didn't have to learn all this but in case we lost our dimensional rings in the relictombs, we needed another way to obtain our necessary items.

We went back into the tent after we had done skinning and storing the meat.

"Goodnight Grey. I'm excited for tomorrow" She said as she got into the bedroll.

"Goodnight Caera." I noticed she was shivering as it was especially cold these past two days.

"Caera, you can join me if you're feeling cold. I can keep us warm with fire mana. My bedroll is big too." I asked without thinking.

I could see Caera flinch for a moment before she turned to me with a hint of redness painting her cheeks. Only then did I realise what I had asked her to do.

"N-No I mean-" I was cut off by a snarky comment.

"Grey, while I do admit you're quite handsome, don't think that getting me into your bedroll will be so easy." she said as she hid her face under the blanket just enough for her eyes to peek through looking at me.

(A/n : I had to xD)

"You know I didn't mean it in t-that way. I saw that you were feeling cold, and didn't want my companion catching cold on the 5th day of the camp." I replied nervously.

She chuckled before crawling out of her bedroll and arriving near mine. She slid into the bedroll and we laid inside it with our backs against each other. I let fire mana wrap around us as her shivering came to a stop.

"Thank you Grey..." she whispered softly "for..."

I couldn't hear what she said towards the end but I assumed it was for keeping her warm.

"Don't mention it, this is the least I could do for you" I replied as a smile made its way to my lips.

'For you have given me a childhood I never knew I wanted'

~Next Day~

The day was spent as usual, hunting beasts, gathering cores and teaching her basic survival techniques.

As the evening arrived, we decided to put forth the plan we had in mind. We would absorb all the mana from the cores we had collected, which were around 8 each.

Caera was at light orange and I was at initial silver.

We spent the entire evening absorbing mana from the cores. I broke into the mid silver stage and I could feel my core brimming with energy.

Caera on the other hand had progressed quite a bit. She had risen from light orange to solid yellow with cracks. She should've at least reached light yellow with that much mana but solid yellow with cracks is good enough too.

She was so ecstatic about her progress that she didn't stop smiling for the rest of the day.

We went to sleep the same way we did yesterday with our back against each other and me warming us up with fire mana.

~Final day of the training~

I groggily opened my eyes as the faint rays of sunlight slipped through the entrance of the tent. What was weird was that I was extremely mana depleted, my core almost empty.

How did this happen? Wasn't I using mana rotation? It was just basic fire mana augmentation so why is my core almost empty?

Knowing I won't get answers to these questions now, I tried to get up. Well, I tried to anyway.

I was held in a tight embrace as Caera had wrapped her arms around me from behind as if I was her plushie.

I felt my face heat up as I gently removed her hands off my body and swiftly left the tent without looking back. I've never felt this embarrassed before. I slapped myself for letting the hormones get the better of me.

'I see her as nothing more than a friend.' I reminded myself multiple times as if trying to prove something.

Putting a small artifact on the ground which erupted a transparent mana barrier, I made my way to the nearby stream to wash up while keeping my mana rotation active. This artifact was given by Seris in case I had to leave Caera alone.

Maybe she'll be blamed by the high sovereign if they lose a potential experiment, so she seemed concerned. I again felt that uneasiness.

Splashing cold water on my face to distract myself, I started to make my way back to the camp.

While I was near the camp, I started to hear Caera's voice which soon turned into screams as I got a little closer. Her screams were laced with agony and pain while she called my name in the middle of it.

Panic overtook me as I dashed towards the tent. Opening the curtains that covered the tents entrance, I saw a sight that I hoped never would happen.

Caera was kneeling on the floor, desperately clutching her temples as tears streamed down her face.

"H-Help me Grey. I-It hurts" she pleaded as I felt my chest constrict at the sight of her suffering.

Just behind her temples were...horns. Each horn had two separate points: the main horns swept forward and up, while the smaller fang-shaped pair jutted back behind, framing her head like a dark crown. They made her look like a princess of the vritra.

I could visibly see as they grew bigger every passing moment, the shape remaining the same. Her core was being drained of mana rapidly, which answered why my core was empty. The horns were growing throughout the night siphoning mana from my core, so she didn't feel pain.

I instantly moved to her side as I injected the mana of all four elements into her body as she calmed down, her pain probably subsiding. She then raised her head looking at me with teary ruby eyes that showed gratitude in contrast to the pain that occupied them earlier.

Relief washed over me as I instinctively pulled her into a hug while keeping the mana flow undisturbed. I could feel myself trembling imagining the scenarios that flashed through my mind at her screams.

"It's okay Caera. I'm here. It's okay..It's okay. You're okay. Everything will be fine now" I kept on repeating as if to calm myself. Images of her being chained up in a cell with experimental tools flashed through my mind as my heart raced. My body trembled at the thought of her being in pain. I held her tighter at these thoughts.

She wrapped her arms around me as her body melted into my arms.

"Thank you. Thank you so much Grey. For always being there."she said as she looked up, my eyes meeting her beautiful ruby ones, a slight redness to her cheeks.

We stayed in that position for a while until Caera told that she's fine and I let her go.

She seemed extremely happy.

"Why do you seem happy Caera?'

"Why?! Because I manifested! Now I can improve my magic better! I will even be recognised by the High Sovereign! I can't wait to tell everyone about this now!" she replied excitedly jumping around. But noticing my grim expression, she stopped and looked at me with worry.

"Why do you look worried, Grey?" she asked, concerned. She wasn't told, of course why would she be warned about these things by Seris. What if she had manifested in a public place?

And why did she manifest now of all times? Is it due to the rapid influx of mana? Or is it due to her being in close proximity to a quadra elemental mana rich source? Or was it something else?

"Because..." I went on to explain how the sovereigns treated the ones who awoke their blood. The experiments they did, forcing the vritra blood to strengthen through different methods. Forcefully making the awakened assimilate with pure vritra mana which is like dipping one in lava, cutting them up to observe the healing capabilities and much more, converting them into weapons. It had been hours when I finished explaining seeing how the orange glow permeated through the gaps of the tent.

Caera sat there with a hollow expression, her vision darkening as time passed by.

"Grey, I have a favor to ask." she asked in a hollow voice.

"What is it?"

"Can you please cut off my horns? They disgust me right now." she asked with a slight tremble in her voice.

"WHAT?! No, Caera. We will find a way to hide them so please don't ask me to hurt you. We don't even know what happens once you lose the horns. Please." I pleaded, scared of anything bad happening to her.

"But Grey, w-what am I supposed to do now? What if they take me away. I don't want to lose the life I'm enjoying right now" she replied as tears escaped her dark eyes.

"I won't let them lay a hand on you. I promise you with my life. This time, I'll protect you, whatever it takes." my voice softened as I hugged her. Breaking the hug the next moment.

"Besides, you look like a princess with those horns, you know? They fit you like a tiara made for vritra." I said with a smirk to lighten the mood.

"Ahh" she pouted a little as a blush crept up her cheeks. Looks like it worked.

(Art by : zoha_illust. Follow the artist on Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/zoha_illust/)

"But what about Scythe Seris?! She should be arriving anytime now. It's already evening!" she said, starting to panic again.

As if on cue, I felt Seris's mana signature approaching us steadily.

Memories of when me, Nico and Cecilia were chased down the streets by men trying to kidnap Cecilia surfaced. For some reason, the same thing happening to Caera was seen clearly. I felt anger bubble within me as I stood up and walked towards the direction of the mana signature. Seris is someone who is loyal to Agrona, she'll certainly take her to him to gain appreciation. The only way was to defeat her.