"Yeah... I'm really sorry for just running off like that," Dan muttered, his voice muffled and thick.
He was currently wrapped in a ridiculous amount of heavy iron chains, severely anchored to a sturdy wooden chair in the center of the room. His left jaw was heavily swollen, a nasty purple hue coloring his skin, and his right eye was bruised nearly shut from the sheer power of Cyra's parting gift.
"Yeah, you better be!" Cyra growled, pacing back and forth in front of him like a caged predator, her bushy brown tail thrashing with leftover adrenaline. "Do you have any actual, conceptual idea how deeply depressed Areia was after you vanished?! My God, I have never seen her look so entirely broken like that! Why on earth would you do something so incredibly stupid?!"
"Yeah... I'm really sorry for just running off like that," Dan repeated blankly, his bruised eye blinking up at her.
"Don't you dare keep repeating that exact same apology like a broken recorder!" Cyra yelled, throwing her hands up in absolute exasperation, her wolf ears pinning back.
"So... Areia isn't actually traveling with you guys right now?" Dan asked slowly, trying his best to articulate through his swollen mouth, a sudden, desperate curiosity cutting through his pain.
"Well, no," Cyra sighed, her shoulders slumping as she stopped her pacing. "She explicitly told us she wanted to visit her old hometown first. We spoke to her via transmission a few days back... she should be arriving here at the castle in a little over two days."
Thranduil, who was leaning against a nearby pillar quietly flipping through the crisp pages of his spellbook, finally looked up. His blue hair fell over his sharp eyes as he fixed Dan with a piercing gaze. "So, Dan... why did you truly leave us? I understand you completely went out of control back then—I mean, we practically forced you to unleash that power, to be entirely fair—but still. Wouldn't it have been infinitely better if we had just stuck together as a team?"
Dan turned his head away, his eyes staring fixedly at the stone floorboards of the training room. The playful defiance drained out of him, replaced by a quiet, heavy solemnity. "I wanted Areia to find her own thing... aside from constantly being my knight," he muttered softly. "I wanted her to discover who she is outside of my shadow."
"Well, that plan was completely dumb!" Cyra growled, crossing her arms tightly over her tunic. "Because all she actually found out how to do in your absence... is how to drink heavily!"
Dan winced, a wave of pure guilt washing over his face.
"Judging entirely by your anxious tone, you don't seem very keen on meeting Areia right now," Thranduil noted smoothly, closing his book with a soft thud. "Why exactly is that?"
"Well..." Dan started, a thoroughly worried, panicked expression violently taking over his bruised features. He squirmed uncomfortably against the tight iron links binding his torso. "Before I left her two years ago... I explicitly told her that I'd have an amazing, worthwhile gift for her the next time we met. But... to be entirely, completely honest with you guys... I haven't managed to get her anything worthwhile yet," he muttered, looking like a kid who forgot his homework.
"WHAT?! YOU LIED?!" Thranduil and Cyra yelled in absolute, horrified unison, their voices echoing off the rafters.
"Well, sort of! I was just completely caught up in my own massive emotions when I said it!" Dan yelled back defensively, straining against the heavy chair. "Look, it's a magnificent thing she isn't here right now! Release me from these chains this instant so I can get the hell out of here and find something before she arrives.
"No!, Thranduil and Cyra spoke in unison," You'll run away again.
"No, I won't!" Dan yelled, furiously straining against the heavy iron links until the wooden chair creaked violently beneath him. "Look, the deal was that when you guys finally found me—or at least, when Areia does—I should have gotten a better grasp of my powers so we could become an official party again! I am not trying to run away from you guys permanently!"
"I honestly find it quite hard to trust a single word out of your mouth," Thranduil shrugged smoothly, leaning his tall frame against the wall and crossing his arms over his travel vest. "It feels like you just urgently want to be somewhere else."
The shadows near the doorway shifted, and Haki stepped back into the room, casually carrying a completely passed-out Antrea over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"Well, that's because he's currently traveling with a female beastkin who possesses a genuinely nasty temper," Haki pointed out with a deadpan expression, her long black tail twitching lazily. "If Dan stays away from her for a single second too long, she loses her mind. She has physically come hunting for him multiple times whenever he's even a minute late."
"Her?! Late?!" Cyra yelled, her furry wolf ears pinning back instantly as her brown tail bristled with absolute, furious disbelief. "Did you seriously form a brand new party with a girl, for fuck's sake?!"
"No! No, it is absolutely not what you guys think!" Dan said quickly, panic cracking his voice as he violently wriggled against the chains. "She is literally the entire reason I'm in this kingdom in the first place! My whole plan is to safely leave her here with her people! Besides... she's just a kid!"
"And so are we!" Cyra yelled back, stepping aggressively into his space.
"No, she's a kid-kid!" Dan continued frantically, sweat rolling down his battered face. "Like, a legitimate child!"
"Contractor?"
A cold, hard voice sliced through the chaotic bickering like a frozen blade.
Everyone in the room froze, turning their heads simultaneously toward the smashed doorway. Standing right in the threshold was Croc. She was carrying a massive, terrifyingly heavy battle-axe carelessly balanced over her shoulder, her short black hair scattered wildly all over her face. Thick white wraps were bound tightly around her chest, leaving her incredibly hard, ripped abs completely bare and glistening in the torchlight. She was monumentally tall—towering over everyone at a staggering 6'4"—and packed with dense, powerful muscle mass. Behind her, a massive, heavy black reptilian tail swung slowly from side to side, giving her a fearsome, dragon-like finish.
"That's her," Haki pointed out helpfully, nodding her head toward the towering giant.
"What exactly is going on here?" Croc growled, her deep voice dropping into a low, dangerously resonant register that made the loose rubble on the floor vibrate. Her clawed fingers played slowly with the hilt of the massive axe resting on her shoulder, her slit-pupil eyes locking onto the chains binding Dan to the chair.
"It's all completely good, Croc," Haki said slowly, her calm voice breaking the sudden, suffocating tension. "Relax. They're just old friends of Dan's."
"Friends?" Croc muttered, her heavy brow furrowing as her slit-pupil eyes darted between the battered Dan and the two strangers.
"You literally said a kid, Dan! Not a mini-giant who looks like she could be older than Haki here!" Cyra yelled in absolute betrayal. She lunged forward, grabbing Dan by the collar of his neck and violently shaking him back and forth in the chair.
"But she is a kid though!" Dan yelled back, his voice wildly distorting and wavering as Cyra rattled his brain. "She's just... naturally robust!"
"Absolutely nothing about her screams 'kid' to me! She looks like a seasoned warrior who has been around for at least a hundred years!" Cyra yelled, her wolf ears pinning back completely.
"And I highly agree with her," Thranduil nodded smoothly, crossing his arms and wisely staying a few feet back from Cyra's warpath.
"Croc is fourteen!" Dan said firmly, his voice snapping with absolute certainty as Cyra finally let go of his neck. "You can literally ask her yourself if you want! Anyway, Croc, it's alright. These are the guys from my old party that I told you about," Dan called out, rubbing his sore throat.
After permanently shedding his magical disguise back in the Demon Realm, Dan had eventually sat down and explained a bit of his true history to the towering girl. Croc had actually taken the information rather gleefully, casually stating that she had always suspected something was deeply amiss with his ridiculously overpowered "normal traveler" act.
"I see," Croc muttered slowly, her massive reptilian tail thumping against the stone floor. "But friends or not... should you really be bound in heavy iron chains?"
Cyra didn't answer right away. Her brown eyes had drifted downward, staring fixedly at the heavy, scaled texture of the giant girl's tail as it swung slowly. "Haki... is she—"
"A reptile beastkin," Haki completed the sentence deadpan, shifting the passed-out Antrea more comfortably on her shoulder.
"What?!" Cyra yelled, her jaw dropping as she took a sharp step back. "I thought their entire lineage was completely wiped out during the ancient tribal wars!"
"Wiped out?" Croc asked, her deep voice dropping an octave as her hand tightened visibly around the hilt of her massive battle-axe. The temperature in the room suddenly turned icy.
"Crap," Dan muttered under his breath.
With a sharp, concentrated flex of his hidden mana, the heavy iron chains unraveling around his torso snapped violently open, folding themselves neatly into a perfect, quiet pile on the wooden seat. He leapt to his feet, ignoring his aching muscles, and quickly walked over to place himself directly between the vanguard and the towering giant.
"What she completely means to say is that your kind is just extremely, uniquely rare these days!" Dan said quickly, flashing a reassuring smile. But with his face all puffed up, purple, and swollen from Cyra's earlier assault, the smile twisted into a grotesque, painful grimace that looked completely unconvincing.
"But—" Cyra began to protest, her fiery temper flaring up, but Haki sharply shot her a stern, meaningful look from beneath her blindfold, silently signaling for the wolf princess to keep her mouth shut before she made the situation a whole lot worse.
"Hello there, it is a true pleasure to meet you. I am Lilly Valay, second princess of the Western Provinces," Lilly spoke softly, dipping into a flawless, elegant bow. Her lustrous golden hair cascaded over her shoulders in thick, pristine braids, catching the light as she stared gracefully at the ground with her calm, golden eyes.
"Well, this is Lilly," Dan muttered, clearing his throat and gesturing toward her with a sheepish shrug. "She's a close friend of mine."
Both Cyra and Thranduil stood completely frozen, utterly stunned by her breathtaking, royal appearance. But before they could even open their mouths to aggressively interrogate Dan about the incredibly pretty girl he had suddenly brought into the room, Lilly's calm demeanor vanished. She tightly grabbed Dan by the wrist and violently dragged him a few paces away into a corner.
"Is that really Cyra?! Like, the Cyra, the legendary Hero?!" Lilly whispered quickly, her soft voice suddenly beaming with a manic, childlike excitement.
"Well, yeah, she is. And believe me... you see that massive sword strapped to her back?" Dan whispered back, leaning his head close to hers.
"Yeah, yeah!" Lilly whimpered attentively, nodding her head so fast her golden braids flew, looking exactly like a student taking life-saving lessons from a master.
"That is one insanely nifty blade," Dan muttered, his voice dropping into a dramatic undertone. "She once completely wiped an entire city off the map with a single, devastating strike from it. And I mean it literally—every single building turned into fine sand in a fraction of a second, as if civilization had never even touched the land."
"That is so incredibly cool!" Lilly yelled, her eyes sparkling.
"Well, it's only cool if it's not your city that's being pulverized," Dan muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "We had to painfully relocate quite a massive number of displaced people to a village Areia saved... Well, come to think of it, I wonder how Stacy is doing over there right now," he mumbled to himself.
"Dan... are you going to properly explain why you are yet again traveling with another girl?!" Cyra growled from directly behind them. The wolf princess was stepping into their space, her dark tail thrashing in irritation. "And she definitely does not look like a kid, nor does she look like a beastkin, so that excuse—"
"No, no!" Dan interrupted frantically, spinning around with his hands raised in defense. "Lilly here is actually older than myself! By at least four years, to be entirely exact!" Dan explained briefly, trying his absolute best to de-escalate the situation before Cyra's fist started flying again.
"So you got an older one and a younger one. You're racking up quite the collection, aren't you?" Cyra grinned, her wolfish ears twitching as she shot him a sharp, teasing look. "By the way, I can hear you perfectly. Don't go whispering about me like I'm some sort of unstable freak."
"Yeah, yeah," Dan shrugged, entirely used to her lack of boundaries. He stepped closer, his expression turning serious. "Cyra, can you look at Lilly? Or, better yet, just touch her? You naturally repel curses, don't you? Lilly here lost all her powers—she was cursed by a high-tier witch of some sort. Can you just bless her, or do whatever it is Heroes do?"
"I'm a Hero, not a saintess," Cyra huffed, rolling her eyes. But she stepped forward anyway, her heavy leather boots clicking on the stone. "Though, I guess if it's a standard curse, it should break the moment I make physical contact with her. I haven't exactly heard of a princess being cursed by a witch before, though. Just what on earth did you do?"
"I'd... rather not say," Lilly muttered, her golden braids shifting as she quickly looked away, staring intently at the floorboards.
Dan caught Thranduil's eye from across the room. "Thranduil, can I get a quick word with you outside?" he asked, already turning on his heel.
The elf didn't say a word. He simply closed his spellbook with a soft, authoritative thud and followed Dan out of the training quarters, closing the heavy wooden door firmly behind them, shutting out the muffled sound of Cyra and Lilly's conversation.
Outside, the corridor was quiet, save for the distant rustle of the ancient forest creeping into the golden citadel. Dan walked a few paces down, finally taking a seat on a weathered, broken barrel. He clasped his hands tightly together, leaning his elbows on his knees. Thranduil stood rigidly beside him, his striking blue hair cascading over his sharp, elfish ears, his icy blue eyes staring down at his former leader.
"For you to call me out alone like this, it must be something exceptionally important," Thranduil grunted, his posture tense.
Dan didn't reply immediately. He kept his gaze fixed entirely on the dirt and loose gravel beneath his boots. The silence stretched between them, heavy and suffocating.
"I'm not going to beat around the bush," Dan said slowly, his voice dropping into a quiet, grave register. "I'm planning on climbing the Devbatuhç."
"Are you fucking mad?!" Thranduil yelled, his voice violently fracturing the quiet corridor. He took a sharp step back, his eyes widening in pure horror. "Only detached souls can go there, Dan! Besides, how on earth did you even come to learn of that accursed place?!"
"The Demon King told me," Dan said softly, not breaking his gaze from the floor.
"I refuse to let you climb that tower," Thranduil growled, his fists clenching at his sides, his breathing turning ragged. "If this is what you brought me out here to discuss, I want absolutely no part in it. It is pure insanity."
"It's important—" Dan began, finally looking up.
"Listen to me, Dan!" Thranduil snarled. He lunged forward, his fast reflexes catching Dan completely off guard. He grabbed Dan violently by the collar of his tunic, lifting him clean off the broken barrel. "If a living, flesh-and-blood being were to even attempt climbing that tower, you'd be trapped within its paradox forever! It is quite literally a suicide mission! Error of nature or not, it is a cosmic rule that simply cannot be crossed! Do you hear me, Dan?!"
Thranduil fiercely shoved him away. Dan stumbled backward a few paces, his boots skidding across the dirt before he regained his balance.
"Honestly... would you have still tried to climb it had we not accidentally crossed paths today?" Thranduil asked, his voice shaking with a mixture of fury and sheer dread.
"But you made it out of there alive, didn't you?" Dan said calmly, his bruised face completely devoid of fear.
An utter look of profound shock flashed across Thranduil's elegant features, a sudden paleness washing over him. It only lasted for a brief, fleeting second before his expression hardened into stone. "I'm sure that's the exact reason your father sealed you away in that statue in the first place," Dan added quietly.
"Listen to me very carefully," Thranduil whispered, stepping so close that his face was mere inches from Dan's, his breath hot against the chill air. "I do not know the exact magical circumstances surrounding my escape from that hellish abyss. But believe me when I say I was trapped there for what felt like an eternity. When I finally came to, I was somehow free. I may have been profoundly lucky, Dan, but I absolutely cannot guarantee the same for you."
"I have to do it," Dan continued stubbornly, completely unbothered by the warning. "There's a soul out there that I must personally guide to the gates of reincarnation. I promised."
"Are you even listening to a single word I am saying?!" Thranduil roared, his composure entirely shattering. "I don't know the soul you're talking about, nor do I care about the tragic circumstances surrounding it! But is it truly worth throwing your entire life away?! Didn't you explicitly say you were going to find your mother? What about the kins of the sphere?! What the hell am I supposed to tell Areia if you never come back?!" Thranduil's voice cracked, his eyes burning. "I am entirely certain you know exactly what she will do if you die, right?!"
"That's exactly why I want you to keep her away from the tower until I return... or don't," Dan said slowly, his voice chillingly steady.
Thranduil let out a bitter, hollow laugh. "Then you should have talked to Cyra, not me. Do you honestly think I have a single ghost of a chance of beating or holding Areia back if she decides to go wild? She'd slaughter me." The elf let out a long, exhausted sigh, aggressively scratching through his blue hair before staring back at Dan. "I am getting worked up for absolutely no reason. To even think about climbing the tower of Devbatuhç, you would need the ancient primordial key. And that is impossible to get."
"I do have the key."
Dan's voice was ice cold, cutting through the atmosphere like a razor.
The air instantly violently warped.
CRACKLE!
Blinding blue sparks exploded from Thranduil's hands without warning. High above them, the afternoon sky violently fractured as a massive, intricate magic circle—the absolute size of the beastkin capital—erupted into existence. The atmosphere buzzed with an intense, suffocating amount of raw mana, turning the air heavy and metallic. The wind began to howl, sweeping through the golden corridors like a mighty, destructive storm, rattling the ancient trees.
The heavy wooden door flew open. Cyra sprinted out into the corridor instantly, her face mixed with worry and confusion.
"Thranduil! What the hell is wrong?!" Cyra shouted over the roaring wind, her wolfish ears pinning back against the gale. "You guys were yelling so loudly I tried not to listen too much, but what is going on?!"
"I should just trap you here in an eternal seal forever,At least then you'll be safe" Thranduil said furiously, his eyes glowing with a terrifying, radiant blue light as the massive magic circle above spun faster, preparing to drop a cataclysmic spell.
Dan didn't flinch. He looked up at the glowing sky, then locked his eyes onto the elf.
"Don't make me permanently shatter the very concept allowing you to use magic," Dan said coldly.
A look of sudden, profound skepticism and hidden fear flashed across Thranduil's face. The threat hung in the air, dense and absolute. Slowly, the roaring wind began to die down, tapering off into a gentle breeze until it stopped entirely. The massive magic circle in the sky violently flickered before vanishing into nothingness, leaving the sky clear once more.
Thranduil stood there for a long moment, his chest heaving. Without another word, he walked forward, aggressively shoving his shoulder into Dan's chest to push him out of his path.
"Kill yourself for all I care," Thranduil said coldly, his voice dripping with bitter detachment as he walked down the corridor. "But I am definitely not helping you."