A mixture of anger and hopelessness filled Asher’s heart as he heard the harsh news of Clara’s kidnapping.

His heart thumped with force and his shoulders trembled from the uncontrollable emotions riveting him from being unable to think properly. What should he do? Should he risk everything and battle it out right here, or should he take a relatively peaceful path by going along with Eldan’s ‘game’?

Sevlina helped him with the answer. “We’ll complete his ‘game’ and rescue Clara, Asher.”

Asher’s stiff body loosened a little. “Okay…” With a rising resolve, he called out to Eldan. “Give us the details.”

“Kukuku. Coming right up.”

The brief summary of Eldan’s long drawn speech on the ‘game explanation’ after filtering out the fillers goes like this: The game’s time limit was endless. The players travel to multiple locations scattered across the world to find ‘clues’ that would lead them to the final location where they could rescue Clara.

“So you’re saying we have to travel the whole world while only knowing one location as a starter and get clues from that location to access further more?”

“Exactly. That’s why I emphasized the importance of guessing the contents of the game early on. You failed to answer the important part, so you don’t get precise details.”

Damn this guy.

Asher’s face contorted with rage. “Hey now, don’t look at me like that. I did tell you everything in order to be as transparent as possible, didn’t I? I tried to make it fair.” Eldan shrugged.

Even so, Asher couldn’t help but feel like he was played. This was no simple matter. One of his companions had been kidnapped and the other, unconscious, with his health condition being obscure.

There was only one person who remained calm in such a situation: Sevlina. She analyzed the given information and immediately began making inferences and strategizing.

The first step, she thought, to make the rescue a success, was to calm the madman who was ready to lash out at any given moment.

“Okay, that is all from me. Until next time, fireflies! Bye-bye.”

“Hey! Wai-” Before anyone could move, Eldan disappeared through a portal.

“It’s alright, Asher. We got the information of the first location, which is all we need to find the subsequent ones as well.”

“Guess you’re right…”

“Also, we need some time to recuperate and regroup. We’ll proceed once we’re ready.”

Asher nodded. “We’ll get back to the mansion first to explain the current circumstances to Heina.”

----------------------------------------

Heina stood in the top-most storey’s balcony of the Latix mansion and quietly observed her surroundings. She had come up here due to sounds akin to a blast reverberating throughout the hilltop. It seems like they’re fighting something…

As usual, her intuitions proved to be right as in the next couple of hours, she felt a sudden shift in the atmosphere. That was exactly when Eldan cast out a massive barrier on the hilltop. Of course, she didn’t know who or what the reason was, so she began investigating on her own, forming a team of investigators to identify the type of magic used and measuring the scale of the barrier.

“Miss Heina, this seems to be… similar to Aether..?”

“Aether? Really… Let me take a look.” She stepped closer to the net-like barrier and inspected it. “Hmm… It does seem like it, but to confirm our hypothesis…” She called one of the members of the investigation team. “Bring the confirmatory stones.”

After a few minutes of waiting, she finally had the confirmatory stones in her hands. Each of them held a varied presence about them. She picked each of the stones marked with complex patterns and began pumping magic into them. The stone glowed and a powerful beam of light tinted with the theme of the stone, blast out into the barrier.

The first few stones she used were not the ones she had hypothesized, but… “Just to be sure.”

Then lastly, came the most anticipated stone. This one, unlike the others, had a different pattern and a different glow. Though white in color, it had a black aura and marking of some kind of deity wielding a beautiful yet looming staff. She stood among the clouds and rained terror to evil. This was the Master of Aether, the unknown goddess who helped people of the olden times in dire circumstances and lent her power to those who possessed great minds or ones who withheld a great destiny.

Similar beam, now white with darkness spiralling it, shot out. A small-scale blast to the barrier gave them their answers.

“Miss Heina! It's emitting a golden hue.”

The golden hue. That was their answer.

“But.. it's changing colors… It's become purple!”

The purple hue meant that… “It's related to Aether. Which means, we don't know what element that is but it possesses properties akin to Aether.”

Heina thought for a while. If this was a barrier made of an element they didn't know about, then it might be impossible to clear it.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

So they set the matter aside to discuss future plans.

A few hours later, when the sun had already set and the deep blue moon sprang up above the sky, multiple silhouettes could be seen moving from the forest and in the direction of the mansion.

Heina was notified of the incoming figures, making her come out of the mansion to look for herself.

She spotted the first silhouette with a broad and tall stature. “Asher..?” Following that, a silhouette with a figure of a girl approached. With her carmine hair bouncing atop her slender shoulders, she began moving faster after noticing the person awaiting their arrival. “Heina!!”

“Sevlina!” They both embraced themselves. “I’m glad you’re okay. I heard a few explosions, then this enormous barrier pulled up.”

“Yeah, about that…” Sevlina began explaining their current situation. About how Eldan Wycan showed up floating, and how Clara—one of the humans from another world—had been kidnapped for a ‘little game’ for the leisure of the Demon Patriarch.

“...I see.” Heina took a moment to process the information. Then, she looked around at the continuously grouping Search & Rescue team members. Some were wounded with minor bruises and some suffered temporary hearing loss from the explosion, but other that, they were fine.

But… “What happened to him?” Sevlina looked in the direction Heina pointed at and was perturbed. “Wait, wait, wait. What happened to Andreas?!” Sevlina directed the question at Asher.

“After I ran off to find Andreas on my own, I stumbled upon a cave. There…”

He began to explain how he defeated the Fifth-Echelon monster, Hirowa and rescued Andreas.

After he was done, Heina looked alarmed. “He needs immediate medical attention. His mana had been continuously depleted for an entire day.” She then began calling out to the other guards who waited alongside her, and Andreas’s unconscious body was escorted using a stretcher shortly after.

Inside the medical ward, his body would be exposed to highly mana-rich substances to upset the body’s natural mana flow and get mana restoration to work faster.

“But, it’s amazing to endure that kind of torture for a human with no experience in mana control.” Sevlina’s anxious expression, soon became colored with a touch of pride.

“For now, let’s get back inside and discuss future plans.”

----------------------------------------

In the outside world, news of the appearance of a large scale barrier veiling the Latix Hilltop permeated like water gushing out of an overflowing dam. Adding to this, the appearance of Eldan Wycan sparked numerous controversies.

Especially among the other demon nobility, many condemned the Wycans for trying to initiate a follow-up war after the recent Civil War in the Demon continent. The public began to tolerate less and less of the High-Nobles’ generational tomfoolery.

Inside the Lauer mansion.

Ierda sat in her bed holding a newspaper with headlines that read ‘The Latix Ambushed by Wycans!’, while sipping on some freshly brewed hot coffee. She curiously read through the details while her brother, Calvor, looked irritated.

“You don’t have to get upset at each and every little thing, Calvor,” she said with a gentle smile.

“You don’t get it, sis. Or rather, you wouldn’t get it, since you’re way too empathetic.” He adjusted his chair’s position to look at her. “Even back in the Elva Temple, you hesitated to injure other Heads. Such a thing… it could have put you in a deadly position. And it did, didn’t it? A small fry like—what was his name again? The human from another world. That guy tried to kill you didn’t he? Such hubris! Thinking he could lay a finger on a family matriarch in alone is dumbness, let alone killing one.”

“You’re completely off the mark here, Salvor! It is true that he declared that he’d kill me, but he never swung his blade against me. Instead, he helped me to free the Lauer troops. We should be grateful.”

“There you go again! Babbling on and on about some kid who said he’d kill you! I don’t like this about you. Imagine what’d have happened if something happened to you…”

Although Salvor came off as harsh, he only wanted the best for his dear sister, and Ierda knew that.

She stood up and moved closer to him, placing her palm on his head. “My dear Salvor. You don’t have to worry. I’m the Matriarch of the Lauer family, aren’t I? I’ll be just fine!” she said proudly and reassuringly.

“...Alright,” he said sulkily. “But! The next time, I’ll stay close to you. I went searching for the Throne room at that time only because you ordered me to as a matriarch!”

Ierda laughed playfully. “Sure, sure.”

“By the way, what do you think about the Wycan idiots? What should we do about them? The Latix seem to be in danger.”

“Hmm… I’m not really sure. I did emphasize the gratefulness of the Lauer family as a whole when Andreas fought off Polso Daku, and Andreas is Osiris’ close acquaintance, who served in the Latix personnel in the Civil War, so…”

Calvor completed Ierda’s unfinished words. “We should aid them, is what you’re saying.” He took a look at the newspaper, specifically at the big picture of the barrier enveloping the Latix estate’s most important landmark. “Well.. if they did help us out, then I think we should. The Lauers never forget their gratitude, right?”

“Of course. But the problem is, all our capable men have yet to recover completely. Some have even retired due to this prolonged non-sense of a Civil War. And I can’t leave the Lauer estate because, though relatively small, it does need some supervision to keep running as usual.”

“Well, in that case, I’ll go personally.”

“Wait, you will? I thought things like this didn’t interest you.”

“That is true in normal circumstances, but this time, it’s different. I’d like to meet the man who aided the Lauer family in times of need myself.”

Ierda looked surprised. “Don’t look at me like that, sis!”

“Okay, okay. Have a safe journey. I’ll send some troops to support you.”

Calvor objected. “It’s quite alright. I can manage on my own. I’m only going there to survey the current situation, while also expressing my gratitude of course. I’ll send you mail in case of any need.”

Ierda nodded. “You sound just like father, Calvor, you know that? I’m pleased.”

Calvor looked sad. “...Don’t go around mentioning our parents out of the blue. You do know what happened, right?”

Ierda’s expression became sorrowful when she remembered the tragic death of their parents. One which emerged out of betrayal of the Kamiras and Valicos during a Civil War sometime in the past. But she didn’t want to get too much into it, since it’d stir up old feelings, spoiling her mood. “...I’m sorry.”

“Hey now, you don’t have to say sorry.” He stood up and hugged her head closely. “I’ll be the one to get revenge for them, but that can wait for now.”

“Right. For now, we’ll focus on this.” Ierda pointed at the newspaper.

Calvor only smiled in turn.

It’d take him three days to reach the Latix estate, and it wouldn’t be until three days later that Andreas would wake up from his coma.