They reached Ceal soon, returning in the same wagon they left. When they entered the city it seemed more lively, lights visible in several houses and some people walked around the paths. Many people seemed to ve talking with each other while some others rushed between buildings, carrying boxes and equipment.
The weather also seemed to have turned much colder than before, the streets and roofs covered in a layer of snow. Snow continued to fall even now, slow enough to not amount to much however. A cold breeze blew from up the mountain, whistling through the streets every few seconds.
The three got out of the wagon a short distance from the Adventurer's Guild, largely because of Kesshō not being able to contain herself on seeing snowfall. The moment she got off the wagon she jumped right onto a pile of snow, rolling around in it. Opal laughed on seeing her while Kurai paid off the wagon driver and sent him his way.
After Kesshō enjoyed herself as much as she wished, which only happened to be a minute before she started shivering, the three started towards the Adventurer's Guild. While Opal did not seem to mind the cold very much anymore, being used to cold weathers, Kesshō, despite her love for colder temperatures, clung to Kurai for warmth, having cooled her body far too much.
"I can't tell if she likes cold temperatures or not." Opal chuckled as she poked at Kesshō's face, pulling away instantly due to Kesshō's ice cold skin.
"She is cold blooded, which is why she isn't supposed to like cold temperatures, they could make her blood freeze inside her blood vessels." Kurai informed, patting Kessho on the head as she clung to him, her hands wrapped around his stomach. "Despite that, for some unknown reason, she really likes cold temperatures, maybe she just likes to use them as an excuse so she could cling to others."
"I still can't tell which is the real her, this adorable little kid who wouldn't even hurt a bug, or the complete monster she is during battles," Opal sighed.
Kurai did not reply, he simply glanced at Kesshō, who seemed to be half asleep. Pushing the gate open as they reached the Adventurer's he lifted her in his arms and sat her down on a table. "You can sleep, I will be right back." He suggested before walking to the reception with Opal.
The receptionist glanced at the two approaching and retrieved a letter from a drawer in her table. Just as the two reached she placed it in front of them. "This arrived for our kingdom today morning, I believe the princess should read it." She informed in a low whisper, not wishing to attract the attention of the eight other people currently in the guild.
Opal opened the letter and pulled out the page of paper from inside of it, a smile creeping onto her face as she read it. She quickly handed it to Kurai, on the verge of jumping around in joy.
Kurai quickly glanced over the page before setting it down on the table and thinking. "You wish to help them?" He inquired.
"They will help us too, so don't you think we should?" Opal pointed out.
"A fair reasoning, but you do realise, they plan to exterminate all four major wolf species. They are not chasing them out, it's an extermination with no survivors," Kurai mumbled, half to himself.
"Yes, but, did you not read this paragraph?" Opal questioned, pointing to the second of the six paragraphs written on the paper.
"No, these letters usually summarise it all in the last one, so I only read that one to save time." Kurai informed as he glanced at the paper.
"It says that a Midnight Wolf has wrecked havoc in three different cities and killed over fifty thousand people, mostly knights but also many civilians," Opal informed. "The few people who survived say the Midnight Wolf looked like a kid, but was a complete monster, they still remember her blue eyes which traumatized them for life."
"Blue eyes?" Kurai inquired, his eyes widening as he realised the identity of the Midnight Wolf.
"Yeah, that was the only important characteristic other than her all black clothes and black hair, and that she used a form Dark Magic." Opal pointed out, scanning through the paper for details.
Can't be, or can it be... Kurai wondered, finding it hard to believe. It doesn't seems like a lie. From how powerful she has become I would not be surprised, and from her hatred for humans. Sapphire, I want to believe you did not... But...
"The worst part is they were unprovoked attacks, it says each time she snuck in to the cities before going on a rampage, using her child-like appearance to take advantage of people's kindness." Opal informed, placing the page of paper on the table. "Don't you think if we let them be they will only kill even more innocent people?"
Kurai took in a deep breath, calming his nerves. "Yes, it's best to eliminate the root cause," He sighed. "Still, Kesshō and I will only be there for one, we won't assist them in dealing with the other ones."
"Send them a reply, tell them we will assist them, after we have done some work on rebuilding our cities." Opal ordered, leaning on the reception.
"It's already done." The receptionist informed with a nervous smile as she picked up the paper.
"What do you mean?" Opal inquired.
"The fortress city of Ceal has been completely rebuilt, people have arrived back to Veial too, only resting here for a short while before moving back to it," The receptionist informed.
"How?" Kurai questioned.
"Nobody knows, it was just mysteriously all repaired as if nothing happened two days ago. I know very well Fi did something, but even I have no idea what she could have done to achieve such an impossible thing," The receptionist explained.
"Where is Fi?" Kurai inquired.
"She should arrive for lunch soon, I think you should wait here for a while." The receptionist informed before returning to her work.
Kurai nodded before returning towards Kesshō, Opal following close behind. Both of them stopped abruptly as they noticed the figure beside Kesshō. A girl, her hair being a mix of white, brown and black, seperated into interweaving strands of hair. On her head were two horns, dark brown with a swirl of black and white, flattened almost as they grew towards the back of her head. She wore a long dress colored similarly to her hair, crystalline designs of white marked in the black and brown dress.
"An earth dragon?" Opal inquired in a low whisper, standing on her toes to reach closer to his ears.
Kurai nodded, finding the girl somewhat familiar. "Be on your guard just in case." He whispered back to Opal as he walked to the girl.
As they got closer the girl stood up and walked around the table, sitting on the other side with a smile. While she looked similar to the earth dragon Kurai encountered before, he could tell they were not the same one, though similar enough for them to be sisters.
"I hope you don't mind me watching over her, you shouldn't leave kids alone like that." She stammered, raising her hands to her side harmlessly.
"I do not mind, but might I ask who you are?" Kurai replied, sitting down beside Kesshō, Opal sitting on his other side.
"Chikyū," She answered.
"That's an odd name," Opal mumbled to herself.
"That's what they call me, I don't really know if I have another name." Chikyū responded with a shrug.
"How old even are you?" Kurai inquired.
"She looks eighteen at most." Opal pointed out, resting her head in her hand.
"Close, if you are asking 'Specific Age', then I am sixteen." Chikyū answered, counting on her fingers as she did.
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"And in human years?" Kurai questioned.
"In human years... Humans age so fast it's sometimes hard to keep track, I remember them starting to appear less than a month ago." Chikyū mumbled half to herself as she counted on her fingers. "Almost five billion I think, a bit younger actually."
Opal's head slammed on the table as her hand slipped from under it, startling Kesshō awake. Kesshō looked around in confusion, half asleep still.
"You can sleep, nothing's going on here that you might enjoy," Kurai informed.
Kesshō nodded before again resting her head on the table, noticing Chikyū just as she did. She tilted her head as she looked at Chikyū, her ears tilting to the side in curiosity. Getting up she walked around to Chikyū, sitting down beside her and resting her head on her. After a few moments she seemed to have fallen asleep again.
"Quite surprising, she doesn't like going close to strangers." Kurai observed, resting his head in his hands.
"She must have mistaken me for someone, I hope I am not causing any trouble." Chikyū replied with a nervous smile, bowing her head slightly, just enough to not disturb Kesshō.
"She is part earth dragon too," Kurai informed. "I have heard earth dragons can sense their kin even if they are in a different world."
Chikyū stared at Kurai with her mouth open, closing it with a sigh after a few moments. "She didn't have enough of my blood for me to claim to be her mother, if she was my daughter she would have the title for Primordial Dragons, but she has the title of Phoenix Princess."
"She also has the title of Vampire Princess, nothing about that?" Kurai inquired.
"Vampirism is closer to a condition than a species, it wouldn't matter low little she has of it as long as she has it," Chikyū pointed out.
Everyone sat for a moment in silence, all of them keeping their thoughts to themselves. "So," Kurai sighed, breaking the silence, "you really are a Primordial Dragon."
"Yes, I never intended to hide that fact, it's somewhat hard to hide it in fact." Chikyū sighed, seemingly reminiscing about some past memories.
"Do you know about what happened with the Fire Primordial?" Kurai questioned.
"Yes, I watched it happen, all three of them broke the law of us Primordial Dragons, I intended to bring the last one to justice myself, but I did not need to," Chikyū sighed.
"Can you tell me everything that happened there?" Kurai requested.
"Having killed the Water Primordial, the Storm Primordial then targeted the Fire Primordial, mostly because he realised he was not strong enough to defeat me yet. The battle lasted two days, near an ocean, where the Storm Primordial nearly lost and escaped. The Fire Primordial hounded him and finished the battle in a forest, blowing a crater in the ground with his feared breath attack, an attack even I would be wary of." Chikyū recounted, glancing to her side every so often as she did.
"What after that?" Kurai questioned.
"There, just as I was about to kill the Fire Primordial, a Midnight Wolf challenged him to a battle. I must say, Midnight Wolves are fearsome, known as one of the founding species. But that one felt different, leagues above any other Midnight Wolf to ever exist. She is far from her peak, but when she does reach it, there would be nearly nothing that could even hope to stand a chance against her." Chikyū reminisced, almost lost in thought. "Her Shadow Manipulation is something I have never seen, powerful enough to slice through the most powerful attack of a Primordial."
"Do you really think it is all that powerful?" Kurai inquired, a smile creeping onto his face.
Chikyū sighed before smiling. "Smart one, but still, I will say being able to negate mana is a feat I have never seen before, and I do not fully understand how it works."
"Negate mana?" Opal inquired, tilting her head in confusion.
"Didn't think you were still awake." Kurai remarked as he turned to her.
"I was just curious because I thought that is the same Midnight Wolf the letter talked about," Opal pointed out.
"Yes, it is." Kurai confirmed as he turned away from her. "Opal, what do you think mana is?"
"It's very small particles which are needed for using magic, right?" Opal mumbled, guessing her answer to be incorrect from the smile on Chikyū's face.
"It's not wrong, not from what everyone knows and thinks," Kurai sighed. "There are many forms of energies that exist, Fire, Water, Air, Dark, Light, Demonic, Draconic, Phoenixal, Chaos, Curse, and many more. Energies like Fire, Water, Air, and Earth are basic elemental energies, they are very common and easy to harness. Then there are the more advanced elemental energies, like Storm, Lightning, Dark, and Light, which are less common and harder to harness.
Along with these, there are energies like Demonic, Phoenixal, Draconic, Vampiric, Psychic, and many more, which are non-elemental energies. These usually require a specific trait to harness, in most cases, a species or bloodline. After all of these, at the very top are two, Chaos and Curse. All the energies I mentioned earlier stem from Chaos energy, the reason why it's regarded as the purest energy."
"What about Curse?" Opal inquired.
"No one can harness Curse energy, it exists as the opposite to all sorts of energies from what is known, just a missing piece to complete a cycle, no one knows of the details," Kurai explained. "Mana as you know it, is indeed very small particles that cannot be seen with the naked eye. These particles, are a crude mixture of all the different energies that exist. While Chaos and Curse are the purest forms of energy, Mana is the most impure. It could be called raw energy, similar to ores, and pure energy needs to be extracted from it like pure metals.
"Those who can use magic, in reality, can extract a certain form of energy from that crude mixture and use it to their will. A person's affinity determines their efficiency in extracting a certain form of energy, the use of catalysts only serves to boost and focus that efficiency."
"Does that mean I have a good affinity for every energy?" Opal inquired, inspecting her hand as she gathered an orb of mana in it, its color constantly and rapidly changing.
"For every elemental energy, basic and advanced, your affinity is truly scary." Chikyū answered, staring at the orb with wide eyes.
"If Chaos and Curse are the purest energies then they must be hard to use right?" Opal wondered.
"No one knows," Kurai answered with a sigh.
"Why not?" Opal questioned.
"No one is capable of harnessing Curse energy as he said," Chikyū reminded, "and no one has a natural affinity for Chaos energy, the only one to ever exist was an all powerful god, who has died already."
"Why not just wait, maybe at some point in your life you will actually get to see someone who can use Chaos energy," Kurai suggested.
"I hope someone like that shows up before I grow old and die," Opal sighed.
"I am sorry to be pessimistic here, but while it seems like pessimistic, it's the most realistic assumption," Chikyū interjected.
"So many big words." Opal mumbled, burying her face in her arms as she crossed them on the table.
"Chaos energy only exists at a very high... Energy level, thing." Chikyū stuttered, attempting to find the right words.
"The what?" Opal questioned, staring at Chikyū.
"It's complicated," Kurai informed. "What determines which types of energies you can harness are two factors, your affinity for those energies, and how much you can compress mana particles."
"Please explain more thoroughly." Chikyū requested as she noticed the confused look on Opal's face.
"Create an orb of mana in your hand," Kurai commanded Opal. She created the orb in her palm as she did before and held her hand out towards Kurai. "Slowly close your hand while keeping the amount of mana in your hand constant."
"But that will make it leak out." Opal mumbled, doing as told regardless. As she slowly closed her hand the orb of mana in her hand became smaller, reducing to half it's size, then after a moment to one-fourth. Opal glanced at it as many bright hues started appearing in the formerly pure white orb of mana.
"That is highly concentrated mana, I will show you what it can do later." Kurai informed as he placed his hand on Opal's, safely dispersing the mana. "Now, as for what you asked before. Instead of the orb of mana, imagine doing this to a single particle of mana. What do you think will happen?"
"It will become brightly colored?" Opal inquired.
"I wish it was that simple." Kurai laughed. "What happened there when you compressed the orb while keeping the amount of mana constant, is that the particles slowly got less and less space for themselves. When that happens, they start to grind up against each other and mix in with other particles, creating denser particles. This makes them very volatile, which increases their efficiency for extracting any type of energy from them."
"So when you do this to a single particle it becomes denser?" Opal inquired.
"No, what did I say before that?" Kurai questioned.
"The particles... Get less space... And mix with each other... Which makes them dense, right?" Opal inquired.
"Yes, exactly," Kurai sighed. "Just like that, when you do this to one single particle, which is made of many different types of particles of different energies, those particles start to merge with each other, making them denser and more volatile. When you just see a normal mana particle, it's just made of the basic types of elemental energies and non-elemental energies. When you compress that particle it gives you advanced elemental energies, along with easier accessibility to extracting non-elemental energy."
"And if you keep compressing that particle you eventually reach Chaos energy?" Opal inquired. "You said all other types of energies stem from Chaos energy, so they all just merge back in a mana particle and turn back into it, right?"
"Exactly. See? You are getting so much better at this already." Kurai congratulated as he patted her on the head. "Now, the only problem here is the difference in getting the advanced energies and Chaos energy. If we just make up a unit for how compressed a mana particle has to be get an energy, and just say you get water energy at five units, then you will get advanced elemental energies at around ten to twenty. More special energies like Time and Space will be a bit over a hundred. As for Chaos, it will be atleast two thousand."
"That... Is a big difference, don't you think?" Opal mumbled, her eyes widening as she attempted to think about it.
"That is the point, it's not possible for nearly anyone to compress a mana particle enough to get Chaos energy, not even with a thousand catalysts. The more you compress a mana particle the harder it becomes to compress it further, making it impossible to get Chaos energy," Kurai informed.
"Then it must be the strongest one too, right?" Opal questioned, leaning forward in deep thought.
"Yes, I am sure it is," Kurai sighed.
"I also think so," Chikyū chimed in.
"How many units do you think I can compress it to?" Opal inquired.
"I would say around sixty, enough to use any sort of basic or advance elemental energy you want and as you want," Kurai replied.
"Nice, what about Kesshō?" Opal inquired.
"From my estimate, around two thousand four hundred." Kurai answered, glancing at Kesshō, still sleeping peacefully.