Somewhere in the middle of a dense forest filled with trees that reached above tens of meters, several humanoid creatures clad in sky blue armors walked around the place, seemingly in the search of something.
"I found it!" one of the patrolling guards suddenly roared loudly, making several guards stop searching and run toward the guard who just shouted.
"Let me check it." a man in a much grander armor walked through the crowd of guards that made way for him and grabbed the token the guard was holding.
After inspecting it silently with an indifferent gaze, he hummed slightly and turned around, "My Lord, it has indeed been found."
The man extended the token in his hand toward a man clad in white armor, with the obvious sign of handing it over.
The man, whose facial expression was seemingly ice-cold and had several facial features that were scarily identical to Darla's, grabbed the token and glanced at it.
"Where did you find it?" the man then asked his subordinate immediately. He didn't even have to look at the token to know that it was the exact same token he has just given his daughter, Darla, in the past.
"Right over there, my Lord." the man who was seemingly the commander of the group of soldiers present pointed where the token was found.
"Hmm..." Darla's father searched the proximity and fell into deep pondering.
When he gave this token to his daughter, he told her she should only use it if there was an immediate threat or crisis that she was unable to solve alone and her life was in danger.
That is why when he got the signal he left behind everything important and moved the best of his men to where the signal was coming from.
At first, when he found out that it came from one of the Berserker's planets, he felt slightly worried, but that worry quickly turned into anxiety as when he reached the signal, his daughter could be seen nowhere.
This made his heart tighten from a lingering fear, something he experienced an extremely long time ago, exactly when he was still a weakling which resulted in him losing someone precious to him.
As the memories appeared in his mind, something he wished would never come to the surface ever again, the man's face became ice-cold filled with hidden danger, and looked at the soldiers around him that still waited for his order.
Yet, not even before he could have opened his mouth a gate emerged from below the surface before its huge gates exploded wide open and two individuals walked out of it.
"This... A Hidden Shrine? And they came out of it without any injury even though it has such a huge size? Then does this mean..." the commander and the soldiers around looked perplexed and confused at the same time, not understanding what was currently happening.
"Dad! You are here!" Darla who looked nonchalant all this time seemed to turn 180 degrees and without hesitation leaped into his father's embrace.
"My little fairy... Care to explain what happened here?" the father asked with a gentle tone once he sighed deeply, feeling as though a huge boulder had been lifted from his heart.
Letting go of his father, Darla proceeded to tell everything to her father, leaving out no details, let it be small or big.
After close to fifteen minutes of straight-talking, as she started from the very beginning where she met with Khal in Crimson Horn City, Darla remained silent, waiting for her father to talk.
On the other hand, Darla's father, who was silent all this time glanced at Khal and asked, "So you should be the one, huh?"
"My Lord, my name is Khal Nevio. It's my pleasure to meet with you." Khal acted politely as he knew the one before he was a very important figure from the Fairy race and the last thing he wished to make an enemy out of them.
Especially after he was surrounded by hundreds of soldiers that reached the Body Tempering Stage, a completely whole level above his!
"Hmm... Not bad. The name is Roice Sourbelle, Darla's father." Roice nodded with satisfaction and asked, "My daughter told me you were using flames similar to the Nether Race. However, she also told me you hail from the human race, so if you don't mind, I feel slightly curious to see just how can a human use Nether Fire."
Khal stayed silent and even without looking at the tensed expressions of the soldiers around, he understood what the man before him meant.
'So he wants to make sure I was telling the truth and I don't come from the Nether Race, huh? Well, I would do the same, especially after my race was almost wiped out.' Khal thought to himself and nodded.
"Sure. There you go." Khal extended his arm gently and right after he did, crimson flames akin to dancing snakes appeared floating above the middle of his palm.
Every soldier, including the commander, tensed their muscles upon seeing the flames above Khal's hand, their eyes filled with hatred and disdain. Some even raised their weapons, ready to pounce on Khal as though he was a criminal, but luckily they were stopped by Darla's father just in time.
"That's enough, thank you." Roice waved his hand and said, "It seems you are not one of those bastards."
"Huh?" many soldiers around looked bewildered, not understanding what their leader was talking about. They were able to sense an aura inside the flames that only those from Neither Race had, so seeing as their boss halted them made them feel confused.
Understanding their thoughts, Darla's father shook his head and explained loudly, "Although his flame indeed has similarities to the Nether Fire, it's not Nether Fire. As a fact, he is not even a Nether as he doesn't have several physical characteristics a Nether should have."
As the soldiers listened to their leader's explanation, more and more realized he was right and lowered their weapons while gazing at Khal with different looks.
Seeing as his men finally calmed down, or at least didn't feel the urge to kill Khal, Roice shifted his gaze back at Khal and said, "Anyway, I also come to learn you two cleared the trial inside that Hidden Shrine and you split everything, with my daughter getting all the array prints while you keeping the Space Orb, right?"
"That is right." Khal nodded with a calm smile.
"I see, then do you wish to sell the orb to me. I will guarantee you will get a hefty prize in exchange if you do give us the Space Orb in your possession.." Roice asked, his gaze calm and serious.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om