The long month of improvement finally came to an end.

During training, the one who made the most progress toward developing magic was Amelia. She was now able to use most of her elements freely.

She didn't have the opportunity to master any of her remaining elements, but it was now at a satisfying degree, as she had become capable of using them in coordination with other elements.

Orion, on his side, did not progress much. The bottleneck in his mind did not lift, and he couldn't find the reason behind it.

He mostly improved the time he could stay in 'Overdrive', the newly called release of power Amelia was able to grant him.

Before coming to Ormrdivin, he lasted no more than five minutes. After a month of training only this ability, it now lasted twenty minutes.

The muscles in his legs were torn again and again to adapt to the burning. What he didn't know was, the process he went through was standard.

To be able to use this power freely, the body needed to be reconstructed each time through heavy and painful practice.

Each time, he became slightly faster than the previous training. The bout against Amelia became more and more one-sided with each training.

His speed became overwhelming.

Before, Amelia could follow his speed with her wind magic, but currently, she was unable to follow anymore. He became three times faster than she was used to.

He could technically run at forty kilometers per hour in twenty minutes. Not only that, but he was as fast as a horse now, with a short time required before reaching top speed.

But something was troubling him during training. Why was his other leg, which wasn't part of the ability, able to follow he's other leg's speed?

He became sure something similar happened to his right leg, but the lock was still in place. His right leg was also reshaped to prepare for the next increase in power, while being sealed away.

After checking out all the changes going on, it was now time to leave the dragons, to seek for the hidden factions.

As Monolavir and Orion discussed which faction he should look for first, they mutually agreed the fairies were the better choice. The fact that they already knew the place they lived at helped a lot to decide.

The birch forest, or 'Dead White Forest' as it was called, was their next stop. It was nicknamed as such due to all the trees in this forest being dead, no leaves growing on their branches whatsoever.

It was also quite close to the Talviera Mountain Range. There was more or less a week of walking before reaching it.

Both Orion and Amelia said their goodbyes to the dragons, before they left while being carried in a bubble by Monolavir, similar to how they arrived.

He dropped them at the base of the mountains, giving them the easiest time anyone had going down those treacherous slopes.

"Monolavir, thank you for hiding us until now."

"Do not worry about that. It was a pleasure watching you grow stronger. We'll keep an ear out for any reports about the humans, even though we cannot really interact with them."

"Just focus on finding the fays. I'm sure they will be filled with joy seeing a member of the angels alive."

You could hear a bit of sadness in his voice, as the two were about to leave.

"We will. Though I don't know how, so we'll go there first."

"It's a goodbye for now. We'll probably come back at some point."

Orion and Monolavir nodded to each other.

"Alright, the dragons will be waiting for your return."

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Suddenly, Amelia approached him, and asked with unease.

"Monolavir, is it alright to summon the both of you if we really need help?"

Amelia felt it was unfair to rely on them for emergency.

"Yes, our priority is to protect both of you, so the moment something wrong happens, call us immediately."

With a faint smile, she acknowledged his words.

"I understand. We'll see you at that time then. I'm hoping it never happens."

"Monolavir, it's time we move. See you, Azure Dragon."

The dragon winced.

"My nickname again... you sure do like it."

"I do, it makes you more impressive. It's cool."

With that said, Orion and Amelia left in the direction of the birch forest, while Monolavir flew back to the dragon's territory while snorting.

~

The duo walked for a few hours. The sun was already at its peak, as they only realized that it was around noon.

Out of nowhere, someone's stomach began to scream in agony for food, and that someone was Orion.

"I get it, I know I'm hungry. Stop growling."

He pressed one of his hands on his stomach, trying to stop it from making any more noises.

Amelia laughed while moving to the side of the road, placing her bag in the grass.

With swift hand movements, she created a table with earth magic. She began to bring out ingredients they received from the dragons before departing and dropped them on the table.

As usual, she made a simple meal, vegetable sandwiches. They ate excessive quantities of meat while staying with the dragons, so she was a bit fed up with eating meat.

"Thanks for the meal, Amelia."

"No problem, let's continue walking until the sun sets."

They cleaned the place, packed their things, and got back on the road, not knowing someone already expected them to come across the forest.

~

"I've been waiting for two weeks already, I'm not even sure he's going to come to this forest... but thinking of it, if the dragons were allies of the demons, then the next would be the allies of the angels, right?"

A man with glasses was walking in a circle on the outskirts of the 'Dead White Forest'.

"Well, I do have to go back at one point, but I still want to find him before something happens to him."

Observing the forest, he frowned.

"This forest is not necessarily a good place, even for him. I still don't understand why the dragons, that no one can understand, allied themselves with that man."

"There's no problem with that, obviously, but for some reason, the others are beginning to become as strong as the dragons. It took us nearly two millennia to come to this point, but now it doesn't make much sense."

"Why are we trying to kill them? The dragons attacked us two times in history. The first time was during the past mass-murder of factions, and the second was when Neon's father thought a dragon's blood gave immortality..."

Florian took out a book from his breast pocket, and opened it. He turned the pages, and stopped at one story.

"The world paid a terrible price for that action, and what it gave him was nothing but death. Truly foolish."

"So why are we still hungering for more power? Why are we drinking that ooze of corrupted cores? They are called corrupted for a reason, why are we even drinking that?"

"I don't understand, but the man named Elliott, that every one worships, might be the one at fault for our current situation."

He stopped in his tracks and looked at the sky.

"Is it going to rain? Maybe I should go back for now."

Covered in lightning magic, he formed a sphere of plasma in both of his hands. Then, he crouched, placed the spheres under his shoes, before a pair of lightning wheels formed on each side.

"Time to go back. I'll come again later."

The man looked inside the forest, and turned around toward the south-east, where the city of Albriar was.

A blinding white flash lighted the surrounding, as the man vanished from the area.

~

The forest entered their sight. It was still a tiny speck in the distance, but it was a relief to finally see their goal at last.

"Almost there. Now I'm starting to understand why it's called the 'Dead White Forest'."

Amelia could see the grayish color of the forest from here.

"And you've seen nothing yet. It's worse inside, it seems."

Orion, with his 'Eagle Eye' ability, could see more details about the forest.

"Nothing seems to live inside, not even those mutated creatures."

Nothing escaped his eyesight.

"Good thing we've killed the ones we came across, maybe we would have lured some into the forest."

They encountered a few beasts with gray fur on the way, that died without showing much resistance.

"True. It's also good to obtain some meat, so I won't complain either."

"Yeah, after two days, I started missing it again."

Amelia thought the less meat she would eat the better, but not eating any was worse. She liked eating meat as much as Orion.

While laughing, something caught Orion's attention.

He activated the 'Calm Mind' ability in a rush, seeing a man running, or more specifically, being pushed by streams of lightning strikes at the back of his shoes.

The man moved at a remarkable speed.

For Orion, even with 'Calm Mind' and 'Eagle Eye' activated, he was unable to keep track of the man. As he took another step forward, the man was already at the entrance of the forest.

He stopped using 'Calm Mind', and stopped walking abruptly.

"Amelia, we have a problem."

"What do you-"

A flash of light blinded both of them, showing that someone had arrived at their destination.

"An Apostle arrived before us."

"Impossible! How could they know we were moving toward this forest!?"

Amelia looked in the direction of the forest, and anxiously bit her lower lip.

"I know your surprise, I feel the same. The good thing is, he doesn't seem to have noticed us, and he is alone."

Orion frowned, before quickly deciding the next course of action.

"We'll avoid him for now. We have to get inside without being noticed. If we kill him here, they will all know we're in here."

"Good idea, I'll use my win-"

"No, we'll use 'Overdrive'."

Orion pulled Amelia toward him.