“Carter, you’re up already; I’m impressed,” Nesha said with the best smile she could muster.

Carter gave a slight nod as he looked at her from the pillow he was hiding under.

“Vanir will be here in just a moment to help change your clothes so we can leave,” Nesha said as she tried not to look at the boy.

“I’m already here, we are running late because of our meeting, and we need to leave. Take care of your people, and I will handle Ca… the young prince.” Vanir said

“Sure…”Nesha looked at Carter before she walked out of the room, “We will meet you at the exit when we finish,”

“Carter, come here,” Vanir said, tapping his foot as he waited for Carter to get out of bed and walk over to him. Carter lifted his arm as his clothes changed to white robes with a gold emblem of a tree emblazed in the center of the chest.

“I’m not going to carry you, so put your arms down,” Vanir said, walking out of the room.

Carter watched as Vanir left the room. His emotionless eyes shimmered as he clicked his tongue before sitting back on the bed, waiting to leave. Moments passed before Vanir returned with a large chest following close behind him.

“Come child, we are leaving,” Vanir said

The pair made their way to the exit of the castle. They walked silently through the halls, and neither bothered to glance around, causing the castle workers to stare at the strange duo.

“Glad to see that both of you made it,” Nesha said to the pair that walked out of the castle's exit, never turning to look at them.

“When will we depart for the Alchemic Race?” Vanir asked as he guided Carter to a carriage

“That isn’t yours… we are still waiting on your carriage to be prepared,” Nesha said

“What do you mean?”

“You are going to use the royal carriage. It was crafted by the Alchemic Race and the Smith Race just like all other royal transportations, so it should suffice for someone of both your standings.”

Just as Nesha said this, a red, gold, and brown carriage that floated just off the ground made its way to the group.

“Is that what you spoke of?”

“Yes, it is my mother’s personal carriage,” Nesha looked at the pair before turning to her carriage, “Mother said that it needed something from the Alchemic Race, so just use it as it makes its way.”

“Of course, but do you not think it's a little…”

“We will one hundred percent be attacked by bandits. It happens every time a royal carriage leaves any capital, but better to hide in plain sight.”

“Well, right,” with a sigh, Vanir and Carter boarded the carriage.

Nesha returned to her party with a sigh, “It was awkward, so don’t ask. If everything is prepared, let us depart as soon as possible.”

Echo laughed so loud the ground shook, “HAHA, no need to worry, we were just waiting on you to tell us to leave…”

“Little Nesha! An adventure!” Char said, running in circles around the group.

“Alright, to the Alchemic Race then,” Nesha screamed to the entourage.

The Genisis Continent is an immense land that no one but the gods knows the size of. Not only is the size large, but the travel between any settlement, whether village or capital, could take years, if not decades, unless they use one of the races descended from the God of Space and Time. The two most prominent of these races are the Shifting Race, a race that excels at moving both time and space and the Void Race, one of the thirteen grand races on Genisis that specialize in the absolute manipulation of space. Although both races are considered powerful, their personalities are quite the opposite. The Shifting Race are lazy and refuse to do much of anything unless their ancestor tells them to do something specifically; then only is that done nothing else. At the same time, the Void Race is scared of everything and spends most time cowering away from other seedlings.

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The utter and dull silence is all the journey has been since setting out from the castle of Falling Leaves. It had been a week since they had left, and there was still another week before the group and guards would reach the Void Race transmission point, but the closer one gets, the more anxious they would be.

“They should show up at any time now,” Echo said, looking at the horizon as Morin started to rise in the sky.

The others nodded with a sigh; only a matter of time until the bandits or some other group would stop them. It was an open secret that bandits and other shady groups stayed close to the transmission points, especially the cowardly Void Race, as they would never fight back. With enough coercion, they would keep silent about the dark groups.

“Do any of you remember how many were here last time?” Sivie asked

“No, Char, just remember being bored from them being too boring,” Char said, laying her head on the beast she was riding.

“Char, don’t do that. Sit on the Appsree like you are supposed to,” Nesha said, sticking her head out of her carriage.

Char, with her head still on the neck of the beast, stuck her tongue out and let it trot in front of the carriage out of Nesha’s sight.

“The wind changed…” Sivie, who sat opposite Nesha in the carriage, spoke as he looked outside the open window.

Echo, who was riding beside that open window, looked in, “Who’s turn is it this time?”

“You since Char handled it last time,” Nesha said

Echo smiled, looking in the direction Sivie was looking in, seeing the tops of heads over the small hill.

“It’s kinda small, only a few hundred this time.” Sivie said as he grabbed the book beside him, “Don’t take too long with this. We have a schedule to keep.”

Echo looked grumpily at the oncoming group and mumbled and complained to himself.

“You lost friend,” a deep voice of the man who met Echo said

“Nope, let’s just get this over with,” Echo said with a yawn.

“So, been here before? You know how it works, right?”

“Yeah, one of us versus one of you, we win, we go free, you win, we pay, right?”

Echo could hear those behind the man murmuring, “They know who I am apparently, might make it easier,” he thought.

“So Rosen Blades, huh, you seem ta be escorting some mighty important people from the looks of it.” A large man came out from the crowd

“Great, another Metal Race,” Echo said with a sigh.

“You made a name for yourself, Shining Grey Beast Echo,” The large man said

“Is that the newest one or what? We all have so many names that I really can’t keep up with them,”

“Bragging ain’t ya well won’t be for long with me, the Golden Devourer Kakai as your opponent,” The large man screamed.

“Kakai,” Echo sighed, “Hey Char can I have Hammy? I don’t want to dirty my gloves.”

“NOOOO! Little Echo can only look at my Little Hammy but no touch her. She is my Little Hammy, no one else's,” Char screamed, using her beast to move as far away from Echo as she could.

“Echo,” hearing his name called by Nesha, Echo clicked his tongue, “Fine!”

“HAHA! Do you need a weapon Little Echo? HAHA!” Kakai laughed

With a sigh, Echo reached into his back pockets, pulling out two simple fingerless leather gloves before placing them onto his hands.

“Observe Carter, each of the Rosen Blades has weapons that were crafted by ancestral smiths from the Smith Race,” Vanir said, looking at the child beside him, “That simple-looking glove is very special and is made from a rare beast, and Echo’s hair along with grey metal that he has created,”

Carter mindlessly looked at Vanir before turning to watch Echo once more.

Echo silently put the gloves on before he looked at Kakai, “So what level are you, two-star or three-star?”

Kakai watched a few bandits bring him his massive stone club: "Don’t fear me, but I am a four-star.”

Echo grunted in acknowledgment as he flexed his hands before moving the rest of his body, “Alright! Ready then?” Echo got into a fighting stance as he watched Kakai place the massive stone club on his shoulders before Kakai smiled and nodded his head.

“Well, this will be fun,” Sivie said with his head in his hand, watching the brutes show off.