“I apologise, honored Matriarch. This humble Warrior has not been able to find her daughter’s whereabouts.”

Hong Ma flared her aura, causing the sturdy wooden beams supporting the Tang family’s estate to creak. Subject 1 was missing. It had been two days since the initial disappearance, but her complacent mind had been convinced that it must have just been a mistake. It wasn’t too unusual for Subjects to adjust their schedules. Perhaps Tang Seira had simply been out that night, visiting her brother like she was prone to do…

Her brother! Anomaly 134. As expected of an anomaly, he was both close enough to Subject 1 to influence her decisions and independent enough to do so in a negative way. If he had somehow gotten her into a situation where even a Seventh-Purification mystic could be killed… no. She had meticulously crafted this world to provide no threat to her precious Subjects — there were no spirit-beasts in this land that would be able to do that. Yet, somehow, Subject 1 had been taken from right under her nose.

“Elders!” she barked. “Initiate protocol 2-E. Target, Subject 1.”

“Yes, Matriarch!” the Elders shouted in sync.

Normally, they would have better played the characters they portrayed, but this was an emergency. She had not spent centuries carefully breeding these sheep only for another to take them to slaughter.

All throughout the clan, everyone with even the slightest relation to Hong Tang Seira would be taken into relentless questioning by her Elders, providing jade slips that detailed her every move for the past three weeks. Wherever she was, it wouldn’t be long until they found her.

“Excuse this humble Warrior’s disrespect, but has my daughter done something wrong?”

Hong Ma turned to the cowering Tang Leila, considering her next words. She took her time to put together a response that would adequately drive the woman to action, but to everyone else, it looked as if she responded instantly.

“No, Warrior. She has simply gone missing.”

Tang Leila straightened, fire in her eyes.

“I swear, honored Matriarch, if this is the doing of the Huang, I will personally capture every one of the scum, and for every second that they have taken my honorable daughter hostage, I will pay them back with a gallon’s worth of blood.”

Hong Ma internally chuckled. If only it was the work of her puppets! Her Elders stationed to manage the Huang clan hadn’t reported a capture of anyone past the Third Purification, though. This had to be an outside source. And whoever it was, she would find them, and make them pray to the Saints that they had a punishment as simple as Tang Leila’s.

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***

Kiro ducked under a spray of stone shards, trying to shape a crude fireball. Seira was faster, though. Instead of ducking out of the way, she just unleashed her mana. A wave of emerald flame rushed over the incoming attack, disintegrating the portion before it could hit her. The basalt serpent reared back in surprise, and it wasn't the only one. Seira herself seemed astonished at her new combat prowess. Taking advantage of the momentary shock, he conjured flame.

A weak blast flew from his palm, crashing harmlessly into a stony turtle. The beast retaliated, charging into the cave with a surprisingly fast gait. Oh no! He tried to throw himself out of the way, but the turtle instantly collapsed, a huge chunk of its shell having been dissolved.

Seira laughed, jumping over him and into the mob. “Kiro! Stay back!”

He scrambled closer to Aer, trying to shield his head from any incoming attacks.

“Wow! Look at her go!” the Saint said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Seira had ignited a concussive blast around her, knocking her assailants through the air and out of the cave.

“Nice!” Aer grinned. “The good thing is that your channels are still very stable. A tip, though: if you want to make an attack that will damage them, try going for density, not volume.”

He nodded, rushing back into the fray. This time, he focused on condensing his red flames, making them hotter and brighter than any he had made before. The water Aer had given them must have also been infused with mana, because his core felt far fuller than it should have after only a few minutes of passive cultivation. Using that new excess, he forced more fire into his attack. He looked back at Aer for confirmation, ducking under a chameleon that had been kicked so hard it was flying through the air.

“Good!” she shouted. “Try it!”

He ran up to a distracted lizard, slamming his open palm into its head. This time, it connected with a sharp blast, cracking the beast’s rocky scales. Still, it got back up, hissing at him.

“Ah. You’re not experienced enough to condense it to a lethal state. Maybe you would do better with an improvised weapon?”

He nodded. Right. He grabbed a stray stone — a real one, not one of the weaker replicas created by the stony creatures — and drove it into the already damaged area on the lizard. Its claws managed to gouge into his hand, but it didn’t get back up. Alright. He had something that could kill these things. Now he just had to do the actual killing. He glanced over to Seira, only to see her drive a knee into the last remaining beast.

“Ahh…” she sighed. “I was just getting warmed up!”

As if it had heard her complaints, the drake roared in the distance, shooting off towards them with a flap of its wings. Kiro stiffened, panic welling up in his throat. This was the end. Even if Seira could take the drake head-on now, the horde of other monsters had gathered around it, following their leader in a blind charge.

He bowed to Aer, pleading. “Please, honored Saint, spare us of this misery. We —”

She wagged a finger at him, cutting him off. “What did I say about this ‘honored Saint’ stuff? And it’s ok. You don’t need my help.”

He stared at her. “What can we do? We can’t run, and we can only hide for so long before they find us.”

Seira smirked, flaring her aura. “I know what we can do.”

“What?”

“Fight.”