"Eh?! That was a triple-X-ranker?!" Emma exclaimed as Hazel's group ran alongside Soph's.

Ele'hunda nodded his head. "Yes. She was one of the four triple-X-ranked generals of Ythmagobla. In fact, she was the strongest one."

George mumbled, "Won't that instantly boost your adventurer rank by, like, ten ranks or something? I'm so jealous."

Hazel didn't really care about her adventurer rank. She was somewhat skilled with a longsword, but her true ability was with alchemy and holy magic, so she was more concerned about her pharmacist and healing ranks.

"You didn't rank up from killing her?" Scott asked.

Hazel just shook her head. "I'm level ninety-nine now, but I don't have enlightenment, so I'm still F-ranked."

Lipsilk couldn't help but laugh. "Not only are we saved by a bunch of F and E-ranked kids, but the experience from killing a triple-X-ranker was also almost entirely wasted."

Emma wore a confused expression. "Exp doesn't carry over?"

Scott replied, "How do you not know that when you're from this world? Of course it doesn't. Any experience you get at the bottleneck to ranking up returns to Altros."

Alisa shuddered. "Scott is lecturing someone on something and he's actually right... The world is coming to an end."

Eolande frowned. "You kids sure are relaxed considering what's going on."

Being able to read people's thoughts, Hazel could see the sheer amount of contempt that was filling Eolande's mind for the five of them. She could also see the pure love that she held for her older brother, which made her feel conflicted. "When we were travelling from Milindo to The Academy, we found that it was easier to cope by being lighthearted at all times. We're not trying to be disrespectful."

Emma nodded fervently. "Yup, yup! By the way, are you sure that we're heading towards the handsome foxkin?"

Soph felt her face twitching. "You mean that you can't feel the Darkness getting thicker and thicker as we keep going this way? My mana organs are crippled, but even I can feel it."

A concerned look spread across Alisa's face at Soph's words. "I thought so... It was hard to tell, but they really are crippled? We should have stepped in sooner..."

Ele'hunda laughed. "Why? It's fine."

"It's not fine." Alisa could tell that this rugged one-armed elf could crush her like a bug just by looking at him, but she still felt like she needed to emphasise her point. "Missing limbs can be healed. It's not cheap, but it can be done. Mana organs are unfixable, though. Not a single healer in history has been able to figure out how they work, and thus doesn't know how to fix them."

It was Lipsilk's turn to laugh. "Trust us. It'll be fine."

Scott chuckled alongside Lipsilk. "Confidence is good. Hazel, do'ya know why they're not listening to Alisia?"

"My name's Alisa... Ha-ah..." a weak sigh escaped the lips of the girl who looked very similar to Soph, minus their equipment.

"Yes. Darren... Lone, he can heal any wound apparently. He cured this Fairy of the Darkness Dragon's curse and he even healed the world tree itself," Hazel answered.

Both Ele'hunda and Lipsilk looked very shocked. "How do you know that?"

Hazel smiled faintly. "Like Sophie, er, Soph, and... Lone, myself, Alisa and Scott aren't from Altros. We gained special powers when we were summoned here. Only one, however, unlike their ten. Mine lets me read people's true thoughts and it isn't blockable or affected by resistances."

Lipsilk snickered softly. "Well, that makes some sense. There's no way someone as incredible as Lone could have been born on Altros. He was a summoned hero... huh? You too, Soph?"

Soph just stayed silent. Lone had told her many times in the past to keep her and his identities as otherworlders a secret, so she wasn't going to agree to this claim without his consent.

A certain thought entered Eolande's mind. 'Why am I the only one from Earth who didn't get a special power? Maybe because I wasn't summoned, but brought myself here...'

Hazel raised an eyebrow at this. Eolande clicked her tongue for being so stupid. She had almost immediately forgotten that this girl could apparently read people's minds. Thankfully, Hazel didn't seem to have any intentions of revealing most of the information she had been finding out.

"So that yellow rift as well? That was an ability from one of you two?" Ele'hunda asked as he glanced at Scott and Alisa.

Scott nodded. "That was Alisia. She can create a teleportation rift that can send anyone who goes through it roughly a fifty miles or less in one go. Although, she can only use it once per month."

Alisa pouted. "It's Alisa, and every fifteen days, not every month."

Scott scratched his head. "Right. I forgot that you ranked it up recently."

"Interesting," Lipsilk said. "And you, Boy, what's your power?"

Scott laughed. "Using all of my stamina, I can boost another person's skill by ten-fold temporarily. It can be useful, but it's kinda meh. It puts me out of commission really quickly."

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Goerge nodded and frowned. "He's heavy and I don't like carrying him, but he still finds an excuse to use it whenever he has a chance."

Soph had been mostly ignoring the on-going conversation, so she interrupted them by saying, "We're here. Lone is just up ahead. Be careful, it isn't him in his body, so don't act familiar with him or call out to him."

Everyone out of Hazel's group except for Hazel herself looked confused by her words, but seeing how serious she, Eolande and the XXX-rankers were being, they stayed silent and slowed their approach.

The group of nine made their way to the edge of the forest that they were in. Soph pointed to the open field that was maybe a mile ahead of them. "There."

Through the clearing, they could all see what looked like a humungous cloud of purple smoke battling a handsome man with nine purple tails and purple hair. His body was covered in strange and menacing-looking armour. A large bubble of pure Darkness surrounded him and the purple smoke. Everyone present felt an immense amount of pressure just looking at the fighting.

George was hardly maintaining his consciousness. "How on Altros are we meant to help him?! I can barely look at him!"

Emma was faring much better since she was very skilled in magic, so, despite her low rank, she could ward off the effects of the aura somewhat. "He seems more... sexy now..." she whispered.

Soph heard her and growled lightly. Sophie was feeding her some very dangerous food for thought. 'Should we kill her? Lone has enough geese flocking around him as it is. We're his perfect swan, so there's no need to add more useless competition to the fray...' 

Soph could almost agree, but she knew Lone wouldn't like it if they responded to Emma's attraction with violence. 'I think we should ignore her. Lone loves us. He never gave her any attention in Milindo, so there's no reason for him to give her any now.' 

Hazel found herself shivering at her very dangerous and disorderly thoughts. It was like there were two girls in her mind, both contemplating how best to ignore or deal with Emma. One was decisively less violent than the other, but what was clear was that they both deeply loved Lone.

'Why is Big Bro in a relationship with such a crazy person?' Hazel just shook her head and remained quiet.

"Let's stay here. We'll focus on our wounds and recovering our mana. If it looks like he's getting pressured, we'll step in to help Lone," Ele'hunda ordered. He was thankful for the help of these children, but they would do as he commanded right now or face his wrath. He made that very clear with the tone of his voice.

Scott sat on the ground and pulled out some bread from his backpack. "I'm pretty sure you can beat all of us even like that, so sure. We've hardly got a choice," he said with a shrug as he started to munch on his food.

Lipsilk nodded. "Indeed. Any one of us, even Soph with her crippled mana limbs, has more than enough power to destroy you all. Forgive us for being suspicious, but the dragon isn't the only sword being pointed at us."

Hazel smiled. "It's fine. We know that most demis hate humans. We're used to it." She then walked next to Ele'hunda and placed her hands on his shoulder slowly. A few short chants later, a white glow was enveloping his gaping wound.

"You know holy magic?" Ele'hunda asked in shock.

"A little bit. I'm still a beginner," she replied.

"Still, at your age, and considering you're a human... Are you a member of one of their churches?" Ele'hunda asked.

Hazel rocked her head from side to side. "No. The Acadamy teaches all schools of magic freely to its students, but that hasn't stopped the churches to attempt scouting me, particularly The Church of The Primals."

"I'd bet. Holy magic is one of the few top-class and very rare magic types. No wonder you got admitted into The Academy if you have a talent for it," Ele'hunda stated as he rubbed his gradually closing wound in appreciation.

Holy magic was very similar to nature magic in that both of them allowed the host to heal others, however, Holy magic was the far more proficient of the two in that regard. And while nature magic centred around utility and control, holy magic was more focused on restoring and destroying. It was notorious for being the safest and most dangerous school of magic.

"No, I don't know any holy magic combat spells," Hazel answered the questions brewing in Lipsilk and Ele'hunda's minds.

She turned to look at Soph who was biting her nails in worry as she watched Darkness clash with Ythmagobla. "I'm curious. Soph, how did my brother end up with someone like you?"

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Darkness maintained a smile despite the fact that he only had twenty-percent of his total power remaining. Creating the Darkness Domain had been a wise move. Most of Ythmagobla's attacks had been rendered useless thanks to it. Even if Darkness had control of, well, Darkness, Lone's body wasn't entirely immune to the effects of the dragon's attacks, so he still had to be careful.

"Tell me, Little Purp, how much energy do you have left?" Darkness asked as he nimbly dodged a part of the clouds that had formed into a maw and had snapped at him.

"A lot more than you, Father," Yhtmagobla answered vaguely.

Darkness grinned. "Hmm... forty... no, forty-five percent? That's my accurate guess. Don't hold me to it though."

Ythmagobla's lack of a response to that was enough to turn Darkness's grin into a full-on smirk. "Such a predictable child. Why have you not used any skills yet beyond your physical ones? I'm pretty sure I installed some nifty features into you when I was making you. Did I read the manual wrong?"

Ythmagobla found his anger rising as he watched Darkness put a hand to his chin and hold his elbow with his other hand. He wasn't taking him seriously at all despite the fact that he was losing so badly. "You are not worthy. The tree cannot be destroyed with mere brute force. My skills would be wasted on the likes of you."

"if you say so, Little Purp." Darkness waved his hand making several tendrils of purple primal energy coil around a portion of the smoke and crush it.

A loud roar filled the area. Saturn ended up falling onto the ground from the vibrations while the group hiding in the forest's outskirts began bleeding from their ears. All of the purple smoke coalesced into Ythmagobla's form, revealing that there was now a large scar running down from his forehead all the way across his belly.

"A powerful last hurrah, Father. Now leave that mortal's flesh. I know that you are out of primal energy. I will enjoy destroying the body that you seem so attached to," Ythmagobla snarled. He had already sensed the death of Bella, so his bloodthirst for Lone had reached all-new heights since it was no-doubt his people that had led to another of his child's demise.

Darkness laughed softly. "Again, I have to say, I wonder about that."

The purple from Lone's tails, hair and eyes all vanished and was replaced by a lively and spirited green colour. A new aura spread out from the centre of Lone's body and flowed forth like a wave. The Darkness surrounding Ythmagobla quivered in fear.

"You... Radiance... How is this possible?!" Yhtmaoglba was furious. He had assumed Garadia to still be alive, but he was expected her to be a simple foe to defeat once he had collapsed the world tree's barrier. However, he had never expected that instead of being inside of the tiny dragon, Garadia, Radiance was sharing an avatar with Darkness, her opposite. This should not have been possible.

"I will not be the one to defeat you," Radiance claimed in a delicate and womanly voice. She held her hand out and grabbed Saturn's who had quickly flown to her side before she took a battle stance, "However, I will be more than happy to drain as much of your power as I can in return for you killing my one and only child!" she yelled before charging head-first at the lumbering and terrifying Darkness Dragon.