I held my breath, "I am afraid not, my liege."

A few seconds passed before the elf in front of me fully processed what this all meant.

"So..." His voice became shaky, "You're telling me that that this time, it's not just my daughter missing... BUT ALSO MY SON?!"

"Y- Yes, my liege. I truly-" I also began tearing up, "I truly apologise... The prince and princess, along with 9 other classmates, including th- their bodyguard, Keizo, have... disappeared."

His sharp features slowly lost their anger, his lime eyes once burning with a rabid ferocity being overtaken by a pitiful glare, "I apologise for losing my temper. I understand that Keizo was like a second child to you, despite being... human."

"It is perfectly fine, my liege." I responded, trying to remain as calm as possible.

"It truly is a pity. I suppose you'll never see him again."

"M- My liege, you should know that I-..." I took a few seconds to confirm my thoughts, "I am confident in Keizo's capabilities. And I am sure that he'll return with the prince and princess by, at most, next summer's end."

"...Well, then. I suppose I should take your word. I will see my son again, then?"

"Of course, along with the princess, my liege."

"Good."

<Keizo's Perspective  -  Lost Region  -  00:07  -  9th / August / 2081>

I hastily hopped and leaped through some discarded pieces of rubble and broken terrain, trying to navigate my way to the area where it seemed the other 8 of us had gathered, while making sure to never let go of the princess's hand, as if I did, I didn't know whether I'd be able to find them again as easily. When we were finally within hearing distance, the prince called out to them.

"OVER HERE! HEY!"

Luckily, his voice seemed to reach them, as some turned their heads our way. They had to squint, but they managed to just about make us out. They began talking amongst themselves - however, I couldn't quite make it out, as they were being rather quiet. Then one of them responded to our call.

"HEY! QUICK! HURRY UP!"

Hearing this, the princess and I hurried our pace, forcing the prince to quicken in order to keep up.  Finally, we managed to reach them. They were all sprawled out in front of a makeshift campfire, some standing, some sitting. Just as I had predicted, there were 8 of them. I would've applauded them for being able to make something like this in such a short time - however, the high likelihood was that some of them had simply been awake for much longer than the 3 of us had.

We were quickly greeted by a man with rather aggressive features; dirty blonde hair that partially covered one of his eyes, while it slightly stood up at the back, dark brown eyes shaped sharp and jaggedly, with a tan complexion. In some ways his appearance slightly reminded me of the prince.

"I- I can't believe the 3 of you are alive. I mean, I know Aria is strong and all, but 3 days by yourself? Wow."

That comment instantly made me remember who this man was. Evan Parra - a human male with a rather impressive ability reading of Godly-tier at just 17. However, he's much more well known for his massive crush on the princess.

But that wasn't the only thing that stuck out to me. Him saying '3 days all by yourself' also intrigued me. Judging from that, everyone else must've awoken 3 days ago. But if they truly did wake up 3 days ago, then this campfire that I had thought was impressive was now overwhelmingly disappointing.

How was this all they achieved in 3 whole days? Are they truly that incompetent?

"Wait, did you all wake up 3 days ago?" The prince questioned Evan.

A small look of confusion crossed the blonde man's features, "Of course. Didn't all of you?"

"No, we just woke up around half an hour ago." The princess answered, "If you all truly did awake 3 days ago, this campfire is quite underwhelming."

"O- Oh, well... we... were just... uh... waiting for you 3! Yeah, we were waiting for you."

Not even the prince believed that obvious lie, but we all silently agreed that arguing would take too much time and energy. I decided it was my time to fully explain the situation.

"None of us care what you were doing, what needs to happen right now, is that we move. I'm guessing that you think you're safe here, but you're completely wrong. There's an entire horde of possibly thousands of Godly-tier mana-beasts heading here as we speak. They'll be here within the hour."

All 8 of them, even the ones who weren't paying too much attention to the conversation, stared at me horrified. For a second, I had forgotten that for most people here, even 1 Godly-tier mana-beast meant certain death. I knew they were about to erupt into screams, and doing so would only speed up the horde, so I needed to calm them down.

"Don't worry, if you stick by me, most of you won't die. Remember, I'm a 9.0 Doomsday-tier already. A horde of Godly-tier mana-beasts won't be too difficult."

All of them were still alarmed, but they just about managed to swallow their screams. Suddenly, another voice pitched up.

This voice belonged to a girl with rather kind and inviting features; light brown hair mostly tied back in a large ponytail, excluding a few strands, round warm yellow eyes and a tan complexion. Other than the prince and princess, this girl is the only person here you could say I actually knew. Gabi Parra - twin sister of Evan Parra and an even greater genius, being the only one here other than me and the princess with a Doomsday-tier ability.

"So... Keizo, what do we do?"

Her eyes looked up at me from her sitting position, begging for some kind of stability. Judging from her ability tier, she could definitely handle a few Godly-tier mana-beasts, but the fact remained that her exact ability level was only around 8.3, meaning she nearly definitely couldn't handle an entire horde. I sighed for a second, before I cleared my head and began focusing purely on my instincts.

"Alright... well, first I need everyone here to tell me their ability and their ability level. Once I figure that out, I'll come up with something, but I need all the information first."

The truth is that if I tried hard enough, I could definitely take on that entire horde myself, but if everyone was gonna survive this place, we needed to build teamwork, so this was a neccesity either way. 

"I'll start. I'm Keizo Lloyd, my ability level is 9.0, and for a reason I won't disclose, I have multiple abilities. Now you." I pointed my finger towards Evan Parra.

"O- Oh, me? Well, I'm Evan Parra, and- Wait... Did you just say you have multiple abilities?-"

I couldn't believe this fucking idiot. Did he really think we had time for this? His stupidity was so great, I couldn't describe it in words, so I just glared at him for a second.

"Uh- right. I'm Evan Parra, m- my ability level is, um, 7.6, and it's called [Ice Age] - it lets me generate loads and loads of ice, I can generate it in any shape I want, and it's properties change to help in the specific situation I'm in. Like if I was being attacked, I wouldn't generate as much ice, but it'd be a lot more durable. Also, it doesn't take much mana."

"Alright then, [Ice Age], got it. Now you. Go." I pointed to Gabi.

"Okay. I'm Gabi Parra, my ability level is 8.3, and my ability is called [Will of Light] - I generate light that disintegrates enemies and objects on touch, and if I cover my hands in it, it improves my physical capabilites as well. The only downside is that it takes a lot of mana."

"Good. You." I pointed to a dwarf girl with short purple hair, with a single strand sticking up in the middle, thick framed red glasses, sharp edged dark blue eyes and a pale complexion.

"O- Oh, I- I'm Mollie Sherwood, my ability level is... 6.8, my ability is c- called [Voice of Power} - I can, um, I can command some people and mana-beasts, with my, uh, voice. S- So it's mind control. But I can only control, like, uh, weak mana-beasts and it takes a lot of mana."

The second she said her ability level, I knew something was off. One thing that regular people don't seem to realise is that once you reach Doomsday-tier, you begin being able to see and feel the ambient mana around you, not just the mana you collect. As a 9.0 Doomsday-tier, seeing and feeling ambient mana was just a sixth sense at this point. And so, I knew that this girl must be lying, purely due to amount of mana gathering around her. Only someone with at least an 8.0 ability level could attract this much mana.

I didn't know her reason for lying, but right now, that wasn't my main problem. I could sense it. The mana-beasts had sped up. I didn't have time to interview anymore people. I knew this. Luckily, I had interviewed only the strongest of the group. The rest were probably only around Leviathan-tier, judging by their mana.

"Alright... I won't  be asking anymore of you. Everyone should hide. Now. I can't do anything with your abilities yet, so just hide. I'll handle the horde myself."

"Wa- Wait, Keizo, are you sure?" Evan questioned me.

The princess stared at me for a second, before her look of worry completely dissipated, replaced by an amused smile. "Don't worry about him. He's more than capable. There's a reason that back in the palace, the knights call him the 'Blue God'. I have a feeling it's gonna be a fun show, right Kei?"

I cracked a small smile, before I looked into her eyes, "Of course. I'll make sure of it."