In the evening at the castle in Nora, Yenish was standing with Kyoki in the courtyard and called Kabu, Hanchia, Raijin, and Rokia to come to the castle which they did individually. The four walk toward the two as they wonder who the boy was. Yenish just smiles as the four just look bewildered.

“I love how you all are wondering who this… interesting specimen is.” Yenish comments. “Take a good look at him.”

The four look at Kyoki very carefully and they realize what Yenish had done. They look at her with surprise.

“Did… Did you—” Kabu struggles.

“Did you use the power of Omakotaku to create a spawn from your own blood?” Rokia asks.

Hanchia chuckles sadistically at what Yenish created, for she knew the creation had some surprises up his sleeve.

“Does he have a name, milady?” Raijin asks.

“His name is Kyoki, dear.” Yenish answers. “Now, I want you all to show him what you can do. Who would like to go first?”

Raijin decides to step up to the challenge.

“Okay, dear Raijin. Show Kyoki what you can do.”

Yenish walks away from Kyoki so he and Raijin can fight. Raijin summons his Warhammer and begins to slowly circle Kyoki who stared at him via peripheral. Raijin then charges at Kyoki with his hammer to strike. Kyoki dodges the hammer by landing on top of it which surprises Raijin, Kabu, Rokia, and Hanchia who felt excitement from what she saw. Kyoki stomps on the hilt making Raijin lose his grip on the hammer and kicks Raijin in the face while he lands back on the ground. Raijin holds his face and glares at Kyoki who smirked at him. As he recovers, Raijin decides not to pick up his Warhammer and uses his fists to fight. As the two glare each other down, Rokia waits for Raijin’s signal.

They begin to fight each other and moments later with Raijin throwing the first punch. Kyoki gains the upper hand by parrying Raijin’s punches and kicking him in his stomach, pushing him back. Raijin immediately looks at Rokia, which was the signal. With Kyoki’s back to her, Rokia shoots a fireball at him, but Kyoki moves out the way with the fireball striking Raijin and incapacitating him. Angered by harming her brother accidentally, Rokia joins into the fray and summons her blade. Rokia starts looking Kyoki in the eyes. Her eyes begin to glow in hopes of mesmerizing him. She sees Kyoki’s eyelids were becoming heavy, making her smile seeing that her mind control was successful.

‘Yes.’ She speaks softly via telepathy. ‘Go on and sleep, Kyoki. Go to sleep and rest.’

Hearing her soft voice in his head, Kyoki falls to his knees. With Rokia feeling confident with her mind control she slowly walked towards him.

Kabu and Hanchia look at each other wondering if that was it for Kyoki, but then Rokia catches their attention when she stops walking toward Kyoki who she was inches away from. Rokia begins to hear an ominous laugh in her head as it grows louder in her head. This laughter she was not familiar with continued making Rokia close her ears in vain as she looks at Kyoki with bewilderment.

‘You really thought that would work on me?’

Rokia realizes she was hearing Kyoki’s voice, she had little time to react when Kyoki quickly turns to her and knocks her blade out of her hand. He then grabs Rokia’s shirt and throws her to the side. Rokia was able to straighten herself out and begin to shoot fireballs at Kyoki, but he dodges and deflects them back at Rokia to where she had to move out of the way. Rokia then decides to fire a concentrated flame at Kyoki, but he deflects it back at her. Rokia shields herself as she flies back into Kabu and Hanchia’s direction. Seeing Rokia defeated, the duo decides to walk on the courtyard to fight Kyoki together. Kabu summons his sword while Hanchia summons her rapier.

Kyoki summons his twin blades while glancing at the two on different sides of him seeing who would strike first. Kabu makes the move to strike, but gets blocked by one of Kyoki’s blades. As Kyoki pushes Kabu away, Hanchia goes to strike him multiple times, but Kyoki blocks and dodges all her attacks with little to no effort. Kabu comes from behind with his sword ready to strike again, but Kyoki blocks him as well. They started to double team Kyoki, but he was quick to block all their attacks and dodge them. Getting irritated by the repetition, Kyoki was able to disarm both of them and push them back with inhumane force and causing them to fly on different sides of the courtyard. Kabu and Hanchia groan in pain and cough due to the wind knocked out of them. Before the two or Kyoki could do anything else, they hear laughter coming from Yenish in an evilly cheerful tone.

“That’s exactly what I expected from my own flesh and blood!” She comments happily.

Yenish then looks at the others as they slowly stand to their feet.

“My dears,” She continues. “We have another wonderful asset to continue our reign and help pluck the pesky weeds that are bothering us.”

All four recovered from their bout with Kyoki and were now standing.

“What else can he do?” Kabu asks.

“Well… I’m not sure yet, but we will see down the line.” Yenish replies with an evil chuckle that escapes her lips.

.   .   .   .   .

Back at the underground sanctuary, dinner was being set on the table. Furia seats herself at the end of the table with Senuo on the left side of her. Xianchi finds Oma near the stairs, and they take their seats in the dining hall. Oma sits on the right side of Furia and Xianchi sits between Senuo and Yurich. Marianna and Noah come downstairs from their rooms to the dining hall to find seats. Kai and Eris come into the sanctuary with Kai going upstairs to his room to change and Eris joining the others in the dining hall, and sitting with Marianna and Noah. Landon shows up through the Oreads portal door with a woman and a young child holding Landon and the woman’s hand. Everyone sees the trio, making Xianchi squeal happily, getting up from her seat, and hugging the woman.

“Vivianna. It’s so good to see you again!” She speaks happily. “Thank Alpha you’re alright!”

Vivianna returns the hug. “It’s definitely great to see all of you after two years.”

Xianchi lets go of Vivianna and goes to hug the little boy. “It’s good to see you, too, little man.”

“Good to see you, Chi.” The little boy replies.

As Xianchi finishes greeting the two, she goes back to her seat while Landon, Vivianna, and their son find a seat. Eris was curious about the woman and boy and inches close to Marianna getting her attention.

“Is that Landon’s girlfriend and her son?” She asks.

“Landon’s wife and their son, Vincent.” Marianna replies. “Their boy is 4 years old if I’m not mistaken.”

“Wait… Landon’s 20. Are you saying…”

“Yeah. They had their son when they both were 16. They also got married around that age, too.”

Eris was surprised about Landon’s story since she was not really into knowing a Safekeeps history like Marianna was.

As Landon and his family were seated, Kai comes downstairs with a different set of clothes and sits at the other end of the table between Landon and Eris. As everyone was at the table and the prayer was said, everyone started filling their plates with food. As everyone starts eating, Furia looks to Vivianna, catching her attention.

“How have you been during the… events of Oreads, Vivianna?” Furia asks.

“Well,” She starts. “I had to keep an eye on the temple from afar, and I had to gather all the remaining soldiers who became my eyes and ears. Not many bandits were at the temple, so it was easy for them to infiltrate. I told them to take the temple when the time was right. When it was time, they went in and that’s when a few of them told me… Kai was in there. They had to use Inochi to cleanse his body. When Kai was back to his senses, they brought him to me, and he told us his plan in giving the temple back. I relied on the soldiers for them to stay away from the temple and trusted Kai’s plan to go into motion. I was also able to tell Kaori about it as well, so he was informed if I needed Pamolan soldiers on standby. We had to converse secretly about what was going on in each other’s lands and banded together ever since.”

“Is Kaori alright?” Yurich asks.

“Yes, I contacted him the other day. He’s fine and he told me Pamola is heavy with bandits there, and the vast majority of the people there have a disdain for Raijin.”

Yurich sighs with relief. “Hm. Pamolan elven may have pride, but are not too blinded by it.”

“We all need to hurry back and restore the hearts.” Senuo states. “Does anyone know whose heart is at risk of fading?”

Xianchi, Yurich, and Oma look at each other and then to Senuo. Senuo’s hand slowly starts to twitch as he feels a wave of uneasiness as it did. He tries to stop the twitching by balling his hand into a fist.

“I guess it’s my land that’s at risk.” He surmises. “We need to liberate Satori. I’m sure of it. I need to think of a plan…”

“If you need several soldiers, Vivi and I can help with that.” Landon suggests.

“That’s a start, but who is willing to go with me to Satori?”

Kai feels adamant on going to Satori, because he knew Kabu was going to be there, so he stands from his seat getting everyone’s attention.

“I’ll go with you.” He speaks. “I have a score to settle with Kabu.”

“Brother, that’s not a good reason for you to go on a revenge streak.” Furia interjects. “Also, you’re supposed to be training Eris, Marianna, and Noah. Along with that, I suggest that you rest and recover after what you’ve experience.”

“Yeah, Kai.” Xianchi agrees. “You’ve dealt with enough pain for the past two years. Just relax here and train them.”

Kai growls quietly in annoyance, but sits back down as he understands what Xianchi and Furia were talking about.

“Well, Kai,” Senuo speaks getting his attention. “There is something I need to ask about Kabu. Anything to help us out. What powers are at his disposal?”

Kai begins to think and made sure he did not leave anything out.

“Kabu is a mixed breed like Yurich, but he doesn’t have Hika.” He explains. “His powers are based on what Yenish gave him and basically he sold his soul for power. He can teleport, summon a number of goblins and his pact-beast, Inu, and he has the power of telekinesis. So, if you want to hit them where it hurts, he can be easily distracted, and that’s where you’ll thin the herd with him.”

Senuo listens to the information which made him know what to plan thoroughly and accordingly.

“Then I’m going to need some time to sort this out.” He speaks and looks at Landon. “You might need to give me tomorrow morning, Landon.”

Landon nods in agreement along with the other safekeeps. With Furia finishing her meal, she stands up feeling satisfied with the conversation.

“Well, I hope everyone had a great dinner.” She comments. “This conversation will resume tomorrow morning…”

Furia starts looking pale and nearly falls over with Oma catching her before she did. Kai also gets up from his seat and quickly walks toward Furia making Oma move Furia away from him as she glares him down.

“Back away from her!” She warns with a growl.

Kai sighs annoyedly. “You have no authority to keep me away from my sister, Warrens.” He replies sternly.

“She is my responsibility!”

“She’s not your daughter!”

These words anger Oma leaving her with tunnel vision and speechless along with the others becoming speechless.

“Oma.” Furia calls in pain. “Just let him take me to my room. You go and get some rest. Okay?”

Oma decides not to object and reluctantly gives Furia to Kai gently. Kai picks Furia up and walks away from Oma to the direction of Furia’s room. Oma glares at Kai as he walks off. Xianchi walks towards Oma with a concerned look.

“You need to stop holding this grudge against Kai, Oma!” She protests. “It’s unnecessary. Her majesty wouldn’t want us to fight amongst ourselves. Remember. He suffered too just like the rest of us. His was different, but he suffered.”

Oma looks at Xianchi for a moment, scoffs, and walks away from her out of the dining hall. Xianchi sighs as she shakes her head due to Oma’s behavior. She then starts taking some plates off the table with Senuo helping her along with Yurich.

Landon and Vivianna get up from their seats with Vincent holding Landon’s hand. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Landon. See you tomorrow.” Xianchi replies.

Eris, Marianna, and Noah wave goodbye as Landon and his family leave to go back to Oreads. The trio did not know what to do since they were done eating.

“You three should go and rest.” Yurich advises. “You all have another training session tomorrow.”

“…Yeah, you’re right.” Noah agrees. “I know I’m getting tired.”

“Yeah. So am I.” Marianna replies.

“Me, too.” Eris adds.

As the three get up from their seats, Eris sees Kai come back from the hallway to Furia’s room, walk past the dining hall to the throne room and up the stairs. Marianna sees how starstruck Eris looked as she stared at Kai going up the stairs, making Marianna nudge Eris’ shoulder jokingly and catching her attention. Eris looks confused as Marianna grins from ear to ear.

“What?” Eris asks.

“You are eyeing Kai so hard.” Marianna replies teasingly.

“W-What do you mean?”

Marianna chuckles as Eris blushes. “You know what I mean. I can see how you look at him.”

“What?! No! come on, Mari! Really?!”

Marianna starts laughing and puts her hand on Eris’ shoulder. “Don’t worry. There’s no need to feel embarrassed. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Marianna walks away from Eris to go upstairs to her room. Noah smiles at Eris and follows Marianna upstairs to his room. Eris knew Marianna was right, because she was feeling something about Kai, but she did not know if she and Kai could ever work because she was chosen by Alpha to become the next queen. These emotions made Eris want to ask questions about what a queen is allowed to do. Could she be with someone? Could she do things that would not taint the mark? Is it possible to switch from tradition? The tradition that comes with the queen’s mark is:

The queen cannot marry.

The queen cannot bear children.

The queen must stay pure.

Eris was not the one for tradition, she was young, and she wanted to make her own way and live her life. She did not know if there were consequences from Alpha itself which made these thoughts slowly gnaw at her.

‘Maybe I’ll go ask Furia on how it is to be queen tomorrow.’ Eris thinks to herself.

She leaves the dining hall passing the throne room and goes upstairs to go to her room for the night.

.   .   .

In a blue themed bedroom, Oma was in her bed looking at a picture of her and an infant girl in her arms. The sight of the picture starts to make her shed tears. She rolls over with her face in a pillow, punches it a couple of times, and quietly sobs until she goes to sleep.