Temperance traversed over the expansive forest's roof while he carried Kannachi, Merrybel, Crystal, and Skull on his kitsune tails. The squad of girls talked amongst themselves while occasionally trying to get Temperance to join, but he deflected the offer by telling the group he needed to focus on where he was going. Kannachi asked the others how much further they thought the city was. Skull raised her hand while saying she knew the answer.

"You don't need to raise your hand, Naia," Crystal stated.

"Oh...," Skull uttered as she lowered her hand, "Well, it's about um....". Skull quickly checked the terrain far in the distance, ahead of the group, before deciding once she saw the fair-off collection of mountain-high hills with long extremely worn down windy roads.

"About..., well, I don't know the distance, but we'll be there in an hour based on the speed Temtem is going," Skull stated while pointing ahead of the group. The other girls looked into the distance but had a hard time seeing anything Skull was pointing at.

"I can't see anything...," Merrybel complained.

"That's a given since kitsunes are one of the many races with better vision that are specialised in spotting things at a range," Temperance remarked as he tapped one of his kitsune tails before three sets of binoculars stuck out in front of the non-optically gifted girls. Kannachi looked through her binoculars and was easily able to see the worn-down roads and the mountain-high hills they led upon.

"Oh, we're already that close? That means we'll be at Lumios City by mid-day," Kannachi explained. Temperance glanced to his side before he rolled his eyes.

"Heads up!" Temperance proclaimed. The others, aside from Skull, made confused huh noises before Skull grabbed them and lept into the air, causing the other girls to let out shocked eep noises.

Temperance spun around and Roundhouse kicked the dark blue blur behind him. The blur rocketed over the trees before it plummeted into the forest below. Skull landed on top of a tree while Kannachi and her sisters were clinging to Skull's kitsune tails as they sat on them.

"Was that an aether beast? But how? We're outside of that city place!" Skull shouted whilst she looked over at Temperance. Temperance got into a fighting stance as he stood on the tip of a tree while balancing on a single foot.

"Actually, ruined cities are just where loads of aether beasts are, but they can really appear anywhere," Crystal stated, causing Skull to rub her head with a puzzled and embarrassed expression.

The leaves of the trees around where the aether beast fell began to rustle before the aether beast lept onto a tree, revealing the aether beast to have the appearance of a werewolf.

"That one should be around a C-Rank. This won't take long after all," Temperance uttered as he raised his hand to the side and conjured a sword made from a dark azure blue-coloured crystally metal filled with rainbow-coloured stars. Skull widened her eyes at seeing the sword Temperance conjured, and she slightly drooled at the sight of it but quickly wiped her mouth.

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The aether beast howled and lunged at Temperance as Temperance bent his knees before he dashed at the aether beast with equal intensity. The aether beast fired a barrage of shockwave-shaped dark-blue energy projectiles from its mouth at Temperance.

Temperance manoeuvred around the shockwave-shaped aether projectiles and slashed them with his sword in tandem as he evaded the attacks. When they both were within each other's striking range, the aether beast swung a fast right hook, but Temperance swiftly counted the attack with a block.

While the sword and the aether beast's claw were still pushing against each other, Temperance used the force of the collision to pole-vault himself and his sword over the aether beast. Before the aether beast could react, Temperance delivered a devastating sword slash right down the aether beast's spine, followed by a decapitating slice to the aether beast's neck.

The headless body and the severed head continued to travel in an arch before slamming into a tree and plummeting to the obscured ground below. Temperance clicked his neck with his free hand as Skull hopped back onto Temperance's kitsune tails and placed the others back on them as well.

Temperance felt Skull tap his shoulder, causing Temperance to roll his eyes. Temperance flipped his sword around and handed it to Skull, with the four-pointed star-shaped pummel side aimed at her. Skull cheerfully took the sword and thanked Temperance, before Skull immediately started nibbling on the sword.

"Say, Big Bro Temtem," Merrybel asked as she tapped Temperance on the shoulder.

"Yes, Merrybel?".

"Have you thought of a name for your magic sword yet?".

"And why would I need to name it?" Temperance asked. The girls looked at Temperance with disappointed expressions, causing Temperance to roll his eyes dismissively.

"Fine... um Aether Requim or something," Temperance uttered.

"I think the name would be better if you got rid of the um, and the or something," Skull remarked before she resumed nibbling on the aether requiem sword. Temperance rolled his eyes with a fed-up expression before he lept off the tree and continued to parkour over the forest roof.

A few hours later, Temperance sprinted down the worn-down roads of the mountain-tall hills and ran past a bungalow surrounded by a cobblestone wall with a garden which was in pristine condition. Kannachi thought for a second before glancing back at the bungalow.

"You think someone lives there?" Kannachi asked.

"Doubt it that place gave off the frozen-in-time feel," Crystal remarked. Kannachi squinted her eyes and noticed a faint veil of teal and lime qi [qi is an energy with a particle effect] over every surface of the bungalow and its garden.

"Wonder who did that?" Kannachi uttered.

"Sister, look!" Merrybel proclaimed while she shook Kannachi's shoulder. Kannachi swung her head around and saw the walls of Lumios City and the large glass dome of the city's central tower. Kannachi blinked a few times before rubbing her eyes and making sure she was seeing things correctly as Lumios City flickered between its current look and how it looked centuries ago.

"Weird...," Kannachi uttered mentally as Temperance continued to follow the remains of the road as best he could with the occasional stretch of land where no road remained anymore.