Lightning grinds his teeth in frustration. He knew that if he kept pushing himself in his training he would actually kill himself but he didn't care. Finally! Someone he could protect and save! A newborn girl that didn't know anything about Scalvia. “I'm an idiot to think that my speed is higher than it is. I guess my name Lightning is actually getting to my head.”

He pushed himself to his knees from his face down position. Chugging a mana potion, he got up to his full height. “Again. Let's go again.” Concentrating, a ball of electricity slowly formed in his hand. Marethyu's words echo in Lightning's head: Hold on to the power. Keep it from becoming chaotic. You have the potential to become the strongest lightning wielder Scalvia has seen in a millennia. Lightning closed his eyes and willed the ball of energy to change shape into a sword. The first time he ever got it to take shape, it was very crude. Now it was an elaborate, decorative short sword. “I am an elemental crafter; my material, lightning. My art, beautiful. Delicate. Deadly.”

The sword exploded in a very bright flash of light as Lightning lost his concentration. Screaming in pain, he collapsed. Again, for the nine hundred twenty-fifth time in the six days since he woke up, two weeks since they returned to the guildhall. “Damnit!” He lay gasping on the ground, completely spent.

The sound of feet landing next to him, made Lightning turn his head. Groaning, he recognizing the boots. “Why are you here, Lilith?” Lilith smiled down at Lightning, as she kicked him over onto his back. “I was told you might try to kill yourself with your mana blood ability if left unsupervised,” came the soft spoken reply. Hearing Lilith’s voice sent butterflies through Lightning. Lilith had bird wings made of flesh, feathers and fire that were being transformed to look like a cloak made of feathers. Her wings are a deep, dark red in color. The cloak is a matching color.

Lightning knew he was defenseless against Lilith. She knew it too. Lightning made it known how he felt about her; he knew was lucky that she reciprocated his feelings.

“Master Marethyu told me your exact location so I could find you,” she sat down next to him. “Zeke, stop being so hard on yourself. You and Latavia survived. You kept your promise to me, that's all that matters.”

Lilith sat down next to Zeke, and ran her fingers through his hair. Sighing, “I understand your frustration, love. But an offworlder appearing is an uncontrollable factor in our world. That and the missions that others are on. Especially those ones that Master Marethyu and Lady Phoenix take. If it had been just you, you wouldn't have passed out after shadow traveling out of the palace. You did the right thing by saving the girl.” Lilith pushed Zeke back down, her eyes flashing red with embers, a hint of her fire and a warning. “Rest, idiot. You can use my lap as a pillow but you are resting until your health and mana recovers.”

☆☆☆

“I sent Lilith to go check on Zeke, Phe. I knew she was the best choice to make him actually listen to reason,” Marethyu told Phoenix after finding Zeke’s room empty. “If he had actually put himself at death's door, you would have appeared in front of him.”

Sighing, Phoenix rubbed the bridge of her nose, “Thank you, Marethyu. I wish he wasn't so reckless with his pursuit of power.” Phoenix sat on the edge of Marethyu’s desk facing him. “How is the girl, Latavia?”

Marethyu pointed to a mirror on his desk and the surface simmered then revealed the room with Latavia fast asleep still. A large wolf was in the room with their head resting on the bed staring intently at Latavia's sleeping face. “Wait, is that Lychess? Has she taken a liking to Latavia?”

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Marethyu put down the quill and leaned back in his chair, nodding. “Surprised me too, but yes. She may have a fourth essence you can't see yet. Latavia is still…” Marethyu stopped talking as they watched Latavia stir. “Fourteen days, I thought you said seven.” Phoenix sheepishly replied, “I was wrong, don't go rubbing it in now.” Marethyu just laughed at her sullen look.

☆☆☆

Sophie woke up in a room that was barren besides the bed she was lying in. The bed was larger than a California king, and extremely comfortable. The first thing she noticed was the giant gray wolf that was staring at her with… compassion? As she sat up, or tried to, but a splitting headache made her collapse back onto the pillow. She heard a rustling sound like clothes being put on, and when she tried to look for the source of the sound she found a beautiful woman that couldn't have been older than 25 standing before her instead of the wolf that had been sitting next to the bed. The woman had a gray wolf pelt that was fashioned as a very revealing outfit that covered just enough to be considered decent to be seen in public.

“Child, you completely emptied your mana reserves and did damage to your mana frame. Do not rush to get up.” There was an unmistakable growl when the woman said “not”. She smiled, “I am Lychess, the Gray Wolf. Welcome to the Underworld, Sophie.”

The door opens to reveal Marethyu and Phoenix. “Wow, Lychess has taken a liking to Latavia if she's showing her human form to her,” Phoenix was saying as they walked in. “She is right, you did damage your mana frame when you cast that last spell. Do you remember the words or spell you had cast, by chance? And Lychess, you know it's rude to say one's true name without permission.”

Lychess was actually pouting, “Sophie is soooo much cuter than Latavia though!” Marethyu silenced her with a look. “Uh, how did you learn my name?” Sophie asked.

“With the skill called Analyze,” Phoenix said. There was a clear warning as she added, “Do you remember the last spell you had cast or the words you uttered? I need to know now.”

“Uh,” Sophie thought, her brows creased but she was unable to remember anything besides Scarlett running away. “I remember being mad that Scarlett was running away then passing out. Next thing I knew I woke up here with a giant fucking wolf that staring at me that is now absent… Unless…” Sophie looked towards the woman that called herself Lychess, the Gray Wolf. “Are you the wolf?” The question came out in a very small voice. The revelation that Sophie was actually not in a game, not on Earth, and had been casting - actually casting- magic and almost died twice in less than twelve hours finally sunk in.

Lychess sat next to Sophie and gently caressed her cheek, saying very softly and comforting, “I am the wolf. And you are an offworlder that adapted really quickly to the fighting while the adrenaline was running and now that you are safe. You are going into shock, trying to grasp on to the new reality that you are faced with. Marethyu is the only one here that can fully understand what you are going through as he is also an offworlder. Here, here you are among friends and soon to be close enough to a few to consider them family.”

Phoenix sat opposite of Lychess as she took Sophie’s hand, “Sophie, or would you prefer Latavia? Either way, you are welcomed here and protected. Protected by the three strongest people that the public sees on a regular basis. Offworlders are usually hunted to become lab rats; that’s why Marethyu and I started this guild, the Underworld. The Hellhound Queen next to you shortly joined our ranks after she found out we were trying our best to help and protect the ones our world views as outcasts.”

Marethyu was standing at the foot of the bed, he raised an eyebrow and the room grew silent. “Enough, we all know she has questions. Firstly, let’s get Latavia up on her own two feet and get some food in her belly. Sleeping for a fortnight surely makes one hungry; just make sure to not gorge yourself too much, your stomach did shrink while you were not eating.”