A small group of Cursed Children in human form gathered not far from the cave they kept the demons in. Among this group was Heneis, Galik, and the one who inserted himself was Aurel, wearing a scowl on his face. The torturer informed them of the details about where the princess was going.

“As we thought, he couldn’t teleport straight to the demon lands,” Galik said, leaning his back on the tree with a sigh. “Still, that’s a long way to Eventon.”

Even if they were to fly to the edge of the continent, it would take days. Princess Estelia would be far gone into the ocean by then. Not to mention they had to traverse the vast ocean itself. By that time, the demon and the princess would be halfway to the demon lands, or worse, already there.

They wouldn’t be able to catch up.

“This is all your fault, Heneis. Now it’s impossible to retrieve her,” Aurel bitterly said. Truth be told, he was becoming impatient. Every moment he was growing more concerned about the princess’s wellbeing. However… should he be truly concerned?

“Shut up, Aurel, your presence is not welcome here,” Galik glared at him.

Aurel shook his head and looked away.

“He’s right,” Heneis chimed in. “It will be impossible to retrieve her.”

Galik frowned, taken aback that he would be able to say such a thing, especially in this situation. “... Then what are we going to do? Give up?”

“Of course not. There is still another way to do this.”

“What?”

“We use teleportation ourselves.”

Everyone that gathered was surprised to hear that.

“Heneis, we don’t even have the magic dust, nor have ever set up a single point.”

Setting up a teleportation circle needed two points to be made for it to work. Thus, to do what Heneis suggested, they would need to have at least a magic circle made somewhere at Eventon already. And with that, they would only need to set the second one here. However, they have not made one at all, nor did they ever possess the dust required in the first place.

“There is a way…” Heneis looked around and heaved a long sigh, as if he didn’t want to do it, but had no choice. “Taneva.”

“What?” The Eternal Wanderer suddenly appeared from behind a tree, wearing a wide grin on his face.

The rest of the cursed children were caught off guard by his presence. Since when had he been there?

Heneis faced him. “You must have plenty of teleportation circles all over the continent.”

He frowned. “And you want to use mine?”

“... Yes.”

Taneva lightly scratched his cheek. “Yeaaah, no. The dust is hard enough to find here. You’ll have better luck encountering a dragon. I don’t have an unlimited supply, you know. Quite very few, in fact.” He didn’t want to spend it so casually when it took years just to find even a small source of it. And small typically meant a mere handful.

“But do you have one that goes to Eventon?”

“... I have one close to it. But that’s the only one I have in the region. I won’t just spend it because of something like this.”

Heneis closed his eyes for a moment. “What do you want, Taneva?”

He tilted his head. “You have nothing to give me.”

“... Is there nothing I can give to convince you?”

“Nothing. You have neither the treasure to give me nor the power to remove my curse.”

Heneis let out a sigh. “... I see… But please, this is the only time I will ask for your help, Taneva. Help me retrieve the princess.”

Heneis bowed his head at him, surprising the Cursed Children. Even Taneva was quite disturbed by Heneis’s desperation. However, despite it all, Taneva shook his head.

“There’s not enough benefit for me here.” They were not even friends for him to help these guys. Plus, they were quite hostile towards him. He wouldn’t help them that easily.

But then, there was a shining green light next to Taneva. He covered his eyes from the blinding light and he saw a glimpse of a silhouette appearing. Once that light had vanished, what appeared was a naked and alluring woman. She had beautiful green skin, glowing golden eyes, and extraordinarily long green hair. A soft smile played on her lips.

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“A dryad?” Heneis muttered with wide eyes. It was not common to see one of them.

“You should help them, Taneva,” the dryad said.

Taneva frowned at her. “Which one are you?”

“My name is Irdisia.”

“Oh. Why suddenly help? You didn’t help when the princess was taken.”

The dryad lowered her head with a sad expression.

“We are not made for combat, we are but caretakers. That is why we have someone like you, Wanderer. But that is not the only reason.”

“Hm?”

She looked up. “The Observer has given us advice.”

Taneva raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “He talked to you?”

She nodded. “The princess must reach the fountain of blood, he said.”

The Cursed Children looked at each other and began to quietly mutter. It was the same place Heneis was intending on bringing the princess to.

Irdisia continued. “Therefore, she must be taken. For nature to be restored, the prophecy must be fulfilled. The Princess of Blood must inherit her mother’s divinity to be whole.”

“Nature to be restored?” Taneva was a bit puzzled. “Isn’t nature doing fine?”

The dryad lifted her hair and presented it to Taneva. It was a healthy green, but there were small strands of brown that were mixed with it.

“We are a reflection of nature, and we are having signs of decay. In a few centuries or decades, I fear nature will truly start to die out. By that time, there will be nothing we can do.”

Taneva pursed his lips for a moment as he gave a nod. “I thought the God of Mystic is taking care of that part, has he abandoned the role he took?”

If that were the case, he wouldn’t be surprised if that asshole did.

“Caring nature is not his role. He cannot sustain forever what isn’t his domain.”

“Gods are that important, huh?”

“Even I cannot completely comprehend their roles and the consequences it has to the world if not carried out properly. But, I suppose their importance varies. All I know is that the goddess’s role is important. And her long disappearance has begun to show its effects.”

“And the Observer is killing the gods. How is that gonna help?”

Wouldn’t that just make everything worse for the world? If a god was lost, then the domain he oversaw would be without supervision. Just like how the sky was lost for a moment recently.

She lowered her head. “... I do not know. If the Princess of Blood is required to become a god, then so be it.”

“I see…” He looked away, contemplating. He was not against the idea of going. If it would help nature and the dryad, then there was no problem.

“The Observer also mentioned that it will be in your best interest to help this time.”

“Huh?”

“You want to hurt the God of Mystic, what better way to do it but to fulfill the prophecy and destroy his chosen people?”

Taneva grinned. “Ah. Okay! That’s all what you have to say to convince me!” Now he really had to do it.

“Thank you, Wanderer.” She bowed her head. “Please, bring the princess to the fountain.”

“Sure, should be easy enough.”

And with a flash of green light, the dryad completely vanished. Taneva casually turned towards Heneis with a wider grin.

“Count yourself lucky, Heneis! Guess we’re teleporting.”

Heneis was speechless for a moment, astonished by what had just happened. A dryad just suddenly appeared after all, and all the talk about gods. He was having a hard time to process everything, but the important thing was that Taneva agreed to help.

“Thank you, Taneva.”

“However, the circle was drawn with me in mind, so I can’t bring a large group. I suppose a total of three people can go. So pick a companion if you want.”

Heneis turned toward Galik, but then Aurel stepped in.

“Bring me with you.”

“Absolutely not. I don’t trust you. I’m bringing Galik with me.”

Aurel glared at him as Galik stepped in between them. Being shown hostility, Aurel took a deep breath and begrudgingly stepped back.

“Fine.”

Seeing that they have settled the issue, Taneva nodded. “Alright.”

A black hole appeared beside him, and Taneva stuck his hand inside it.

“Where is it…? Hm, I really have no extra dust left… Guess I’ll be walking back here in the future.” He sighed. “Alright, I guess this is it.”

He pulled out a small pouch with a label written on it.

“Yup.”

He began drawing a magic circle on the ground with the blue glowing dust from inside the pouch. Once it was done, and the circle glowing fine, he threw the empty pouch back into the dark hole.

“You owe me big time with this,” Taneva said. “Step inside.”

“Keep a low profile for now,” Heneis said to the Cursed Children. “Rieger will be in charge while I’m gone.”

“Understood,” answered the Cursed Children.

The three of them stepped inside, and their number was just exactly to the circle’s size.

And then, a moment later, there was a bright flash of blue light, and the three of them disappeared. The next thing the three saw was a dark cave.

Taneva casually moved onward.

“We’re in the nearby forest of Eventon. We’ll need to continue on foot.”

“We need to move fast, Taneva.”

“Right. Guess we’ll move a little quicker then.”

***

Aurel frowned when the three teleported just as the other Cursed Children began to walk away. He looked around and his eyes eventually stopped towards a young woman. It was Kali. She began walking away as well into the forest, a frustrated expression obvious on her face.

Aurel followed her until they were away from the others.

“Kali,” he called her. “About my offer last time.”

Kali paused and turned towards him with a troubled expression.

“Yes… I… I’ve been thinking of what you said.”

“And?”

“I… If we do this, our people will be divided. Others will still support Heneis.”

“So be it. What’s important is that there are those that will side with us.”

“... With Heneis’s failure here, there will also be more willing to turn against him.”

“Yes.”

There have been doubts about Heneis’s leadership, and his failure today was the most critical. Many cannot easily forgive that. This was beneficial to Aurel’s endeavor.

“If the princess is to become a goddess. Perhaps, yes, it is foolish to play her around. If she is angered, we’ll be punished even further.”

“Indeed. Or she’ll abandon us for our second betrayal.”

“Leaving us to our fate of eternal suffering.”

Kali closed her eyes with a pained expression, her hand clinging on her own arms. She was obviously terrified of that thought. Nights of suffering were already unbearable. An eternity would drag her to true insanity.

No one would want that.

“... I will join you, Aurel.”

Aurel widely smiled, grateful. “Thank you, Kali. I’m happy to hear that. My hope for us to return to the goddess’s side has grown ever brighter.” He extended a hand, which Kali shook.

“I thought you would be adamant about joining Heneis to retrieve the princess.”

“I have a role here.”

“You’re not worried about the young goddess?”

“She’ll survive, as what is prophesied. I have faith she will be fine. Therefore, I must do my job here and prepare for her return.”