Early Evening - Late Summer : Valtivar | Siratha

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"How fascinating... So, the properties of atoms are dictated solely by the number of protons, and their stability is determined by the number of electrons and neutrons, but can be forcefully balanced with mana?" Hera slowly rotated a tiny aluminum marble with her aura as she stared into her unmoving reflection on its surface. "How did you even figure that out?"

"Haha," I let out an awkward chuckle, unsure how to respond. "It's not too hard to figure out with space mana."

"Not too hard, he says..." A smile slowly mixed into her dumbfounded expression as she looked toward Mother and Father.

But they both simply gave slow nods of understanding. "We know how you feel."

Eventually turning back to me, she didn't bother hiding her disbelief. "To be honest, whenever we spoke up on the mountain, I always assumed your knowledge stemmed from 'the times changing' as you mentioned previously.. I simply couldn't let myself believe a single dragon could advance things so much.. to the point that even after a month of constantly being proven otherwise, I still struggle to believe it..."

Unable to say the foundation of my understanding was from Earth, I simply rolled with the praise. "All I did was look for explanations beyond magic. Like if I wave my wing and create a gust of wind, what did I do? Well, 'I created a gust of wind' would be an easy answer, right? But ask how. If wind mana really was what made the wind move, what about if I flap my wings so hard that a layer of ice momentarily forms on the underside of my wings? Creating such a destructive blast of wind would take an equally immense amount of wind mana because energy requires energy."

Father's gaze, focused on me as I spoke, slowly shifted to his wing as he gently moved it around, attempting to answer the questions I posed. "Ah, so the energy being put into the wind is the energy I put into my wings to displace the air.. and the wind is simply the flow from high-pressure to low-pressure?"

I slowly nodded with a smile, seeing he understood.

It had been about a month since I returned with Hera at that point, and while she, of course, joined Mother and Krystallo's science lessons without hesitation, Father had finally started getting interested in them as well.

And to my surprise, he was actually an extremely quick learner, to the point that he made Mother seem slow, learning what took her several months in just a few weeks. "What a fascinating way to look at things..."

But unfortunately, he couldn't hold a candle to Hera. "It truly is..." Slowly sinking into thought, she used purely unattributed mana to put pressure on the aluminum marble, melting and morphing it with ease before splitting it and creating hundreds of tiny needles. "It's a way of thinking that makes me question if I really know as much about mana as I thought..."

Over the last month, after spending essentially all day every day with her, we quickly came to know each other pretty well, but with each passing day, it became more and more apparent how much of a monster she was. -She isn't just a quick learner either... The moment she learns something, she can apply it.-

But at the same time, who was I to even call her a monster...

In just a month, I had massively improved my directional aura control, improved my fine control over my divinity by leaps and bounds, and even deepened my knowledge of mana and its properties far more than I normally would have, thanks to Hera. -It's given me some pretty crazy ideas too.. but I'll need to save that for another time...-

Looking at the room's entrance, I saw Lief bowing just beyond the door and immediately motioned her inside with aura.

*click* Typically, when she entered, she would hold her head high until she got up to me, but her demeanor was a little different that day.

*pat* Quickly walking up to me, she formally kneeled while maintaining a serious expression, something a little unusual. "I kneel before The Lord."

"Lief, is something wrong?"

She hesitated before nodding. "Off the coast near Morva Asari, there was a fleet of ships spotted, all bearing the flag of the Holy Kingdom. I normally would have handled this myself, but one of the dragon scouts said it appears to be a military fleet with many dragons on board and among the crew."

My gaze quickly shifted to Mother and Father, whose expressions were now dominated by displeasure. -A military fleet, huh...- "Do you know where they are headed?"

She quickly shook her head. "We don't know, but we do have a guess." She continued after seeing she had everyone's attention. "Two weeks ago, a group of dragons gave the new apostles several assets, from dungeons, gold, and artifacts to an entire mythril mine in order to gain their favor. However, the mythril mine is just south of where they were seen, and they are hugging the coast as if looking for something in the mountains."

"So the mine is their target?" Father was the first to speak up.

"More than likely. The only other idea I have is they could be looking for the Dungeon of the Colossus near there, however, it isn't visible from the sea, and no one I've spoken with can think of a reason the Holy Kingdom would visit it."

-The Dungeon of the Colossus, huh...- It was a name I had actually come to know fairly well over the years, it being a notoriously massive dungeon housing most of the biggest and strongest monsters in Siratha, to the point that even Mother taught Krystallo and me about it when we were young, saying it was a place to avoid no matter what. -It honestly sounds pretty interesting.-

But Mother seemed to think their focus was elsewhere. "I'm certain it's the mine they're after. We have been keeping an eye on them ever since the events with the academy, and over the last few years, they've acquired hundreds of mines across several continents for simply outlandish sums of money. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if they decided to raid this mine, assuming their attempts to purchase it failed."

-What? Are they preparing for war or something?- Confusion filled my mind instantly. No matter how I twisted it. That many mines were too much, even for war. -It makes me wonder if they found a new use for it...- But that was beside the point. "So, by the sounds of things, we need to wreck the fleet?"

Lief and Mother immediately nodded in unison.

-It sounds like it's fairly close to where the lab is... Maybe I can use this as an excuse to swing by...- "Then I will go." Turning to Father, knowing he had the most experience of anyone here with the Holy Kingdom, I quickly recognized his displeasure. "Do you want to join me?"

He nodded instantly, with a flash of determination in his eyes. "Of course!"

Turning toward Mother and Krystallo, Mother simply shook her head and put her wing over Krystallo to quell her eagerness before turning my gaze to Hera.

But she already had other plans. "You two can handle it. I need to take some time to speak with Zachari and Lief anyway. It's about time I start getting back into the swing of things."

I got a bit disappointed hearing she wasn't coming. -I wanted to see what her strength was like...- But considering she was still healing as well, it wasn't a big deal. "Alright, then. Since there's no time to waste, we might as well get going. Are you alright with that, Father?"

He nodded without a moment of hesitation.

"Then, just like old times?" I quickly held out my paw for him to sit in, the same way he sat when I flew him to Kaelallan, but he simply laughed.

"Hahaha, you say old times like it was a hundred years ago."

"Haha," I quickly let out an awkward chuckle in response, but Lief was the only one to pick up on it. "I assume that means yes?"

Finally changing to his humanoid form with a nod, he walked over and climbed into my paw, and after giving a quick farewell to everyone around, I left the same way I entered through the room's ceiling and the treant's canopy before quickly making my way across the wide clear sky, turned orange and purple by the setting sun.

It was finally time to get back into the swing of things. Even though I did all I could to eliminate the work that needed to be done by Mother and Father to enjoy some time with them, the ticking of time never stopped, and eventually it had to come to an end.

Or at least that was what I thought happened.

After enjoying some idle chatter with Father, reminiscing over the past, we began approaching the mountains, and before long, the towering white sails of ships began to crest the horizon.

"That must be them..." Father spoke with a slightly irritated tone before more and more ships began appearing on the horizon. "To think it was truly an entire fleet..."

Before long, there were almost two hundred ships, some bearing traditional high sails and cannons, while others looked more like barges with large metal structures built on them. "What are those?"

"They're called Moles in the Holy Kingdom. They were first developed only a few years ago." Father spoke with deep distaste. "It's hard to explain what they are in just a few words, but think of it as a massive artifact meant to collapse caves and dungeons."

-A machine that caves in dungeons...- My expression quickly darkened, just like Father's.

Such a purpose-built machine being there narrowed their intentions to two options: collapsing the mythril mine, possibly in an attempt to lower its value, or collapsing The Dungeon of the Colossus.

Neither were good options, but between the two, one had a far more immense impact on Siratha.

And Father knew it too. "If they collapse the dungeon, the dungeon's core will go on a rampage and push the monsters out..." And the result would be a monster wave the likes of which no one could even fathom.

-If Mother wasn't exaggerating when she said that place was dangerous even for Elders, a monster wave from there would be a serious problem...- "It's a good thing we're intercepting them before they reach the dungeon."

"Yes, yes it is..." He spoke with a darkening tone as he squinted his eyes towards the ship. "It looks like there are templars as well. The third Division."

-Templars and dragons, huh...- One of the most elite units of humans combined with dragons sounded like a nasty combo, but somehow, as we got closer, I felt eager and excited.

I felt like a kid ready to test his new toy.

But as we approached, a slightly crazed smile came to Father's face. "Do you mind if I make the first attack?"

-Huh?- It wasn't what I was expecting. "I don't mind, but what is it you want to do?"

"Haha, I just want to test an idea I got from one of your lessons..." He sounded like some mad scientist, twiddling his fingers, overlooking the massive fleet of ships like they were his prey.

Honestly, I wasn't sure how to feel about it. I wasn't sure whether to be nervous or excited.

But at the end of it all, I was curious, so I couldn't say no.

At least that was the case until he pulled out a fairly large, hollow sphere of mythril and began lining the outside with countless runes.

-What is he...- But as I used my aura to see what exactly he was doing, my eyes went wide. "IS THAT CUBANE?!"

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